War Powers

Congratulations to Maryland conservative Republican Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett for joining like-minded members of Congress of both parties in suing President Obama for illegally involving our country in yet a third war in Libya ("Bartlett, others sue over Libya," June 16). This makes Rep. Bartlett the sole member of Maryland's congressional delegation to actually do something to bring this war to an end. Rep. Bartlett's lawsuit does nothing, however, to end two other constitutionally illegal wars - in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I fail to understand how the Obama administration can legitimately recognize a Libyan rebel group as the official government of that nation ("US recognizes Libya's rebels" July 16). Aren't there some important constitutional and Congressional procedures that are being omitted? I have opposed to the American intervention in Libya since the get-go. Our bombings, drone attacks and undercover mischief lack congressional mandate, and under the War Powers Act, the war is illegal. I have no idea who the Libya rebels are, and as yet no clear-cut leadership has emerged.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett and I would agree on very few political issues. But he is correct to sue over the war in Libya ("Bartlett, others sue over Libya," June 16). While I have great empathy for the people of Libya who have lived for decades under a tyrant's rule, I have to question the U.S. government's role in Libya. There is a claim that this is a humanitarian intervention. However, President Obama is ignoring the use of diplomacy. And tyrants are spilling blood in Syria, Bahrain and Yemen, yet the Obama administration, as far as I know, is not doing humanitarian intervention in these countries.

Modern presidents control war powers So Gregory Kane has just discovered Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which says only Congress can declare war ("Protesters pick wrong target for their anger," Oct. 3). He may also be interested in knowing that, since the last time war was declared by Congress in 1941, presidents have always found ways of circumventing Congress and setting their own war agendas. After President Lyndon Johnson used the Gulf of Tonkin incident (which many historians now say never occurred)

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is exerting an unprecedented, but perhaps legally defensible, use of executive power in authorizing domestic spying without a court-approved warrant, several national security analysts said yesterday. Yet, given recent trends in which the White House has been forced, politically, to soften its hard line on fighting terrorism, some national security lawyers predicted that Bush might ultimately find it necessary to pare back that authority. "It's not out of the question," said Suzanne Spaulding, a former assistant counsel at the CIA who has worked as a national security adviser for both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

WASHINGTON -- Twenty-six members of the House moved yesterday to escalate their challenge to the airstrikes against Yugoslavia, asking a federal judge to declare promptly that the U.S. military may no longer take part in NATO's bombing campaign without Congress' approval.The lawmakers, who had begun the constitutional lawsuit in April, sought to increase pressure on the Clinton administration by asking U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman to hold a hearing in the first week of June and to rule on the challenge without a full-scale trial.

WASHINGTON -- Bob Dole took up his role as Senate majority leader yesterday with a two-pronged attack on the Clinton administration's foreign policy, introducing legislation to lift the arms embargo in Bosnia and to give Congress more control over the scope and financing of United Nations peacekeeping operations.The move represented the first foreign policy confrontation between the new Republican majority in Congress and the administration. And it underscored the intention of the Republican-dominated Congress in general -- and Mr. Dole in particular -- to put the administration on the defensive and try to wrest control of at least part of the foreign policy agenda.

IF THERE is an American corollary to Georges Clemenceau's maxim that "war is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military," it is that it cannot be left to either the president or the Congress on its own.Thus far, the administration has declined to promise it will not order an attack on Iraq without consulting Congress. Its reticence stems from justifiable fear that such discussions would become public and warn the Iraqis. Some congressional committees, in fact, do have a record of breaking confidences.

Issues before Congress last week $7.25 Minimum Wage Senators failed, 52-46, to reach 60 votes needed to advance a bid by Democrats to raise the minimum hourly wage from $5.15 to $7.25 over 26 months. Congress last raised the base wage in 1997. A yes vote backed a 41% minimum-wage hike. GOP Wage Plan Senators defeated, 45-53, a GOP bid to raise the hourly minimum wage to $6.25 over 18 months while reducing the number of companies required to pay it under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. A yes vote backed the GOP minimum-wage plan.

On weekday mornings, I'll post the most controversial, shocking and (of course) ridiculous stories for your reading pleasure. That way, when you walk into work, you'll be the master of witty conversation. Articles  • The end of anatomy jokes, for now : Weiner resigns. ( ABC )  • At least he won't have to file for unemployment:  Larry Flynt offers Weiner a job and a raise. ( Huffington Post )  • The all-knowing, all-seeing Donald weighs in:  Trump diagnoses Weiner as 'suicidal.' ( Mediaite )