Sen. Biden extracted an amazing revelation -- one that the entire DC analstocracy seems to have missed.
Thanks to liveoaktx, here's
the video of Biden's question. At 09:45 we have:
Let's say we didn't want the President to invade Iran. The administration argues that we could pass a resolution saying "Do Not Invade Iran. You Have No Authority to Invade Iran", and the President could -- the next day -- invade Iran.
...So it is a really kind of important whether or not you think the President does not need the authorit of the United States Congress to wage a war when there is NOT an imminent threat against the United States. And that's my question.
Alito said he couldn't offer an opinion -- he'd figure it out if the question came before the court.
An outrageous response.
Alito is telling us he doesn't know whether or not the USA is a dictatorship. For him, "dictatorship or constitutional democracy" is just another of those pesky open questions.
Think about it. Consider the situation:
The American people, through their representatives in Congress, express their will in a binding resolution such as the following:
"The United States of America is resolved not to attack County X, and the President shall not be authorized to order an attack of any kind on country X, until either, (1) this resolution expires 6 months from today, or (2) Congress passes an overriding resolution."
The phony "complex debate" (manufactured by fascist propagandists) can be blown apart with a simple question:
In a true America, if a resolution such as the above is in effect, can the President ignore the will of the people and unilaterally order bombs to be dropped on Country X?
Americans don't need to know constitutional law to know the answer to this is "Absolutely NOT!"
The notion that the 1973 war powers act/resolutions (which was passed by Congress and can be revoked or radically altered by them) empowers the President to ignore subsequent acts/resolutions of Congress is insane, but you don't even need to have ever heard of the war powers act to know that absolute power like that is never freely given to a leader; it is only taken by force.
As I said in the post that opened this thread:
Alito is emblematic of unlimited executive power. The fight against Alito is our Normandy in the campaign to drive out the Bush regime and the ever-expanding dictatorial powers they claim.
If they do not stand and fight, it won't just be another blow to their self-esteem and further proof of the "weak Democrat" image, if they don't fight against the fascists, they become complicit with them.