The Claims Don't Fit The Facts: What The Brits Know That Obama Assumes Americans Don't Know

It is breathaking to listen to Barack Obama, as OS did yesterday, in the parking lot of the grocery in his old pick-em-up truck. He didn't mean to, but as he was doing his Honey-Do errand after golf, here came the speech. OS just could not garner the moral courage to just dismiss it, and go buy milk and juice.

He kept listening for one word or phrase, which Himself (as President of The United States) never bothered to utter: The Constitution, or Constitutional Authority, or Congressional Approval Under The Law, or...well, you get the drift.

That's becuz, as the person who placed his hand upon the Bible and swore to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of The United States', he has no-zero-nil-nada-nichts authority under the Constitution (that he swore on the Bible to 'preserve, protect and defend, against all enemies, foreign and domestic'). It is of no consequence to him. He himself is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, as he has demonstrated again and again and again--from the illegal bailouts of car companies, to the unconstitutional health care 'reform' (so ruled by a Federal court, whose ruling he ignores and refuses to appeal), to the shutdown of the oil industry along the Gulf Coast (again, ignoring a Federal court order). On and on it goes, the slow creep of rule by diktat.

Only this time, ya'll, he has led the United States into war, against someone who is not an imminent threat to our shores or interests, without a shred of legal authority.

Tom McClintock's letter to the President states the problem clearly, and remains unanswered.

From the other side of the pond, and much more within reach of any mayhem Gadhafi may wish to create, the Brits know better. Little wonder they are so cynical about their American cousins.

Just a sample:

OBAMA: "Our most effective alliance, Nato, has taken command of the enforcement of the arms embargo and no-fly zone. ... In that effort, the United States will play a supporting role."

THE FACTS: The US is, and always has been, the pre-eminent player in Nato. The United States supplies 22 per cent of NATO'S budget, almost as much as the next largest contributors – Britain and France – combined. A Canadian three-star general was selected to be in charge of all Nato operations in Libya. His boss, the commander of NATO'S Allied Joint Force Command Naples, is an American admiral, and the admiral's boss is the supreme allied Commander Europe, a post always held by an American.

They know, and they know that he knows he is deliberately obscuring the truth of the situation, confident that he can fool enough of his own electorate, focused as they are on survival in The New Normal, and otherwise preoccupied with American Idol, The Final Four and the NFL labor lockout.

If he gets away with it, this will be the first of many more. How long does the laundry list of places to invade run? On what pretext? By what legal right? It is a slippery slope, a bloody and ghastly slippery slope.

Yes, Gadhafi's a blood-soaked tyrant, and needs to be killed, ASAP. Let's do that, without killing off our rule of law in the process, and killing millions more as an unintended consequence.

The McClintock Letter To Obama: The War On Libya Is Unconstitutional And Illegal

Tom McClintock, Republican, 4th District of California has thrown down the gauntlet in a letter to TheWinnerOfThe2010NobelPeacePrize, The One (Oprah? Anything to say?), The Only, The President, who decided to send America to war against Libya, and has declared war on the US Constitution.

The complete text:

Dear Mr. President:
I have read your letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate dated March 21, 2011 concerning your order that United States Armed Forces attack the nation of Libya. You cite the authority of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 and your "constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive."
The Constitution clearly and unmistakably vests Congress with the sole prerogative "to declare war." Your letter fails to explain how a resolution of the United Nations Security Council is necessary to commit this nation to war but that an act of Congress is not.

The United Nations Participation Act expressly withholds authorization for the President to commit United States Armed Forces to combat in pursuit of United Nations directives without specific Congressional approval. The War Powers Resolution states that the President's power to engage United States Armed Forces in hostilities "shall not be inferred . . .from any treaty heretofore or hereafter ratified unless such treaty is implemented by legislation specifically authorizing the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities..."

The War Powers Resolution unambiguously defines three circumstances under which the President as Commander in Chief may order United States Armed Forces into hostile action: "(1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces." Your letter cites none of these conditions.
Nor can the power to order an act of war be inferred from the President's authority as "Commander in Chief and Chief Executive."

The Constitution's Framers were explicit on this point. In Federalist 69, Alexander Hamilton draws a sharp distinction between the President's authority as Commander in Chief as "nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces" and the authority of the British king "which extends to the declaring of war and to the raising and regulating of fleets and armies ~ all which, by the Constitution under consideration, would appertain to the legislature."

With all due respect, I can only conclude that your order to United States Armed Forces to attack the nation of Libya on March 19, 2011 is in direct violation of the War Powers Resolution and constitutes a usurpation of Constitutional powers clearly and solely vested in the United States Congress and is accordingly unlawful and unconstitutional.

Sincerely,

Tom McClintock

Member of Congress



This is succinct, unemotional, clear, respectful, and essentially irrefutable.

The White House, having begun an illegal war, are thrashing about now, attempting to disengage, hoping that Europe will come to his rescue before Congress reconvenes.

Even if they do (and they won't), McClintock's letter remains to be answered. It is the basis of an impeachment resolution.

OS hopes his readers will distribute the letter to all their family and friends. The link above takes you directly to the letter, posted on the Congressman's official site.