Do you support airport ethnic profiling of Middle Easterners?

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

you do remember that war has been declared twice already right

What does this mean?

War has been declared for the War of 1812, the Mexican American War, the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II (once each against Japan and Germany). That's six times.

Which two of those are your "twice", or are you thinking of something else?

 

[Kandahar]

and World War II (once each against Japan and Germany). That's six times.

My WWII history is a bit rusty...did we never declare war on Italy?

 

[Trajan Octavian Titus]

What does this mean?

War has been declared for the War of 1812, the Mexican American War, the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II (once each against Japan and Germany). That's six times.

Which two of those are your "twice", or are you thinking of something else?

The joint resolutions of congress on September 14, 2001 and October 16, 2002. As specified by the war powers resolution of 1973 the president is granted the war powers if A) congress declares war, B) the congress in a joint resolution grants the permission to declare war, or, C) there is an attack on the U.S. or a natural disaster.

Both b and c have occorred.

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

My WWII history is a bit rusty...did we never declare war on Italy?

I don't think so...

http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/germwar.html

December 11, 1941

The President's Message

To the Congress of the United States:

On the morning of Dec. 11 the Government of Germany, pursuing its course of world conquest, declared war against the United States. The long-known and the long-expected has thus taken place. The forces endeavoring to enslave the entire world now are moving toward this hemisphere. Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization. Delay invites great danger. Rapid and united effort by all of the peoples of the world who are determined to remain free will insure a world victory of the forces of justice and of righteousness over the forces of savagery and of barbarism. Italy also has declared war against the United States.

I therefore request the Congress to recognize a state of war between the United States and Germany, and between the United States and Italy.

Franklin D. Roosevelt




The War Resolution

Declaring that a state of war exists between the Government of Germany and the government and the people of the United States and making provision to prosecute the same.

Whereas the Government of Germany has formally declared war against the government and the people of the United States of America:

Therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the state of war between the United States and the Government of Germany which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the government to carry on war against the Government of Germany; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States

FDR asked for a declaration against Italy as well as Germany, Congress gave it for Germany only.

Since Italy didn't do anything resembling fighting in WWII, it's not like we were at war with them anyway. I'm going to shut up for now, because I can't remember if the forces the US fought in Sicily and up the Boot were primarily German or Italian. I suspect the former, but it's been a while.

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

The joint resolutions of congress on September 14, 2001 and October 16, 2002. As specified by the war powers resolution of 1973 the president is granted the war powers if A) congress declares war, B) the congress in a joint resolution grants the permission to declare war, or, C) there is an attack on the U.S. or a natural disaster.

Both b and c have occorred.

The President gets to start a war if there's a natural disaster? That's interesting.

Fact of the matter is, since there was no emergency, Congress had a legal obligation to enforce Section 8 of Article I of the US Constitution before troops were moved.

Not only that, since the Constitution has not been amended to implement the "War Powers Act", it does not supersede the Constitution. You do understand that, do you not?

 

[Trajan Octavian Titus]

No it hasn't. The president saying "we're at war with terra and we're gonna smoke the evildoers out of their holes" is NOT a declaration of war. We haven't declared war since 1941.

The war powers have been granted to the president I suggest you read the war powers resolution of 1973 or just read the comment I made to scarecrow the president was granted the war powers on September 14, 2001 and October 22, 2002 by joint resolutions of congress you're simply misinformed as to the nature of the law.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is not every one of those examples considered to be a blemish on our history? Using previous mistakes to justify future mistakes rarely makes for good policy.

No you are wrong these are examples of doing what it takes to win a war against a determined enemy.

That's not true. FISA warrants are very easy to obtain if there is any reasonable suspicion at all. Certainly a terrorist with a phone number on his cell phone is enough reason to allow the wire tap.

You're wrong the courts do not consider the numbers found on cell phones to be justifiable probable cause to allow a warrant.

Perhaps Bush hasn't abused this power, and has only used it on people he honestly believes are al-Qaeda members. I don't know. But the mere fact that the strong POTENTIAL for abuse exists should be enough to kill this idea.

The potential does not exist safeguards were put in place to prevent the NSA from going around willy nilly placing phone taps on anyone they wanted and the wire tapping has to be continously reapproved by the president himself.

That doesn't answer my question. What is the harm with the public knowing about this, if there's nothing morally or legally wrong with it?

The harm is found in the fact that when you release information of a classified nature it jeopardizes national security, AlQaeda now knows the program exists and will assuredly change their tactics accordingly to bipass such intelligence gathering operations, the harm is pretty much self explanatory, consider this when it was leaked that the NSA had the capability to intercept cell phone conversations out of the air O.B.L. quit using cell phones.