In a 32 page
report to Congress [pdf] President Obama concludes:
...the current U.S. military operations in Libya are consistent
with the War Powers Resolution and do not under that law require
further congressional authorization, because U.S. military
operations are distinct from the kind of “hostilities”
contemplated by the Resolution’s 60 day termination provision.
Now, the
New York Times reports that this legal opinion was reached by rejecting the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department. It is instructive to
compare President Obama's actions with those of his predecessor, George W. Bush.
[more inside]
posted by ennui.bz
on Jun 20, 2011 -
240 comments
With George W. Bush's presidency coming to a close David Letterman on last night's
The Late Show bid farewell to his recurring segment "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches" with a video
montage [4:00] of clips. Another
compilation of clips [4:49].
posted by ericb
on Jan 17, 2009 -
39 comments
Craig ("Who?") Ferguson at the White House Correspondents Dinner:
Part 1,
Part 2, and
Part 3. (it's a Three-Link YouTube Post!) Not as pointed as Colbert but lots of funny and acouple moments of OMG. SOME JOKE SPOILERS WITHIN...
[more inside]
posted by wendell
on Apr 27, 2008 -
33 comments
A coworker hipped me to
this, and I found it quite astonishing that I'd heard nothing about it.
It's a great irony that, while the United States has probably never been less popular among Canadians than in the era of George W Bush, plans to integrate Canada more deeply into the US have been proceeding at a brisk clip.
The threat of Canada being absorbed into the US has traditionally provoked strong reactions here, as the pitched electoral battles over the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the 1980s and '90s attest.
But the issue seems to have largely disappeared in recent years, leaving the impression that the push for deeper integration has stopped or that Canadians no longer care about it. Neither is true.
It seems that a
goodly number of politically
active groups are aware, however, and are
organizing protests. How effective will those protests be when they won't be able to get within
several kilometers of the site?
Has anyone got any thoughts about this?
How will they fit 52 stars on the Star-Spangled Banner?
Should I don my tinfoil hat?
Is the protest even relevant, given that most of the news reports I can find are calling it a
fait accompli?
posted by I, Credulous
on Jul 23, 2007 -
91 comments
"As he has before, Bush told the story about how his first presidential decision was to pick a rug for the Oval Office..." In a speech before Ohio High Schoolers and business leaders in a
Republican district outside of Dayton,
the
President made some interesting commentary on marriage, chicken-plucking,
polling, his own legacy, comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam, and of course,
the
rug. Apparently,
he
loves the rug like Ronald Reagan loved Jelly Beans,
talking about
it
all
the time, even on the whitehouse.gov's
video
tour. Shortly after a President takes office, they
make
their own imprint on the character of the Oval Office by redecorating, a
task usually taken by the First Lady. The rug, designed by Laura Bush is
sunshine
yellow,
as the President stated
he
wanted the room to convey a sense of optimism, "because you can't make
decisions unless you're optimistic that the decisions you make will lead to a
better tomorrow." Hopefully the rug doesn't become a bookended anecdote to
another
Presidential
"rising"
sun.
posted by rzklkng
on Apr 24, 2007 -
58 comments
Singer-songwriter
Margo Guryan takes the 16 words from George W. Bush's 2003 State Of The Union address and set them to music. Comes with great video, directed by James Reitano (
iFilm,
youtube). [more inside]
posted by Ira.metafilter
on Feb 9, 2007 -
8 comments
Carl Cannon on
why Presidents lie, including a lengthy discussion of George W. Bush.
Even giving him the benefit of the doubt on honesty, why doesn't the nation's first-ever M.B.A. president demonstrate a better command of the facts?
posted by russilwvong
on Jan 26, 2007 -
44 comments
Bush Goes to Indonesia. Black Magic ensues. Ki Gendeng Pamungkas, stating that he didn't "hate Americans, but [he doesn't] like Bush," added that he "believed the ritual would succeed as, 'the devil is with me today.'" Well then, mission accomplished.
While his intent was to place the Secret Service agents in a trance, causing the entourage to think they were under attack, it appears the curse was far more effective. The tally so far? While
landing in Vietnam, the brakes and tires malfunctioned on Air Force One.. One
Bush twin had her purse snatched and a Secret Service Agent was beaten in Argentina (on the largely unreported 43rd Anniversary of JFK's assasination, no less). One
White House aide assaulted in Hawaii.
One motorcycle cop from Bush's Hawaiian motorcade killed, and another badly injured in a traffic accident.
posted by rzklkng
on Nov 27, 2006 -
50 comments
Taste's great! Less filling! So did "several former judges who served on the panel also voiced skepticism at a Senate hearing about the president's constitutional authority to order wiretapping on Americans without a court order" or did "FISA judges say Bush within law"? Just in case you doubted that different newspapers present news stories (even those with
official audio coverage available!) differently...
posted by twsf
on Mar 29, 2006 -
15 comments
Bush authorized domestic spying before 9/11. What had long been understood to be protocol in the event that the NSA spied on average Americans was that the agency would black out the identities of those individuals or immediately destroy the information.
But according to people who worked at the NSA as encryption specialists during this time, that's not what happened. On orders from Defense Department officials and President Bush, the agency kept a running list of the names of Americans in its system and made it readily available to a number of senior officials in the Bush administration, these sources said, which in essence meant the NSA was conducting a covert domestic surveillance operation in violation of the law.
posted by rxrfrx
on Jan 13, 2006 -
118 comments
Bush could bypass new torture ban [From the here-we-go-again department. ]
When President Bush last week signed the bill outlawing the torture of detainees, he quietly reserved the right to bypass the law under his powers as commander in chief.
posted by Postroad
on Jan 4, 2006 -
87 comments
Bush Threatens U.N. Over Clinton Climate Speech Bush-administration officials privately threatened organizers of the U.N. Climate Change Conference, telling them that any chance there might’ve been for the United States to sign on to the Kyoto global-warming protocol would be scuttled if they allowed Bill Clinton to speak at the gathering today in Montreal,
posted by Postroad
on Dec 9, 2005 -
115 comments
Bush and Blair slated by Pinter George W Bush and Tony Blair must be held to account for feeding the public "a vast tapestry of lies" about the Iraq war, writer Harold Pinter said.
[Postroad: but then, what do artists know about politics?]
posted by Postroad
on Dec 7, 2005 -
41 comments
Homecoming - anti-war movie from National Amusements featuring the ungrateful dead. This will possibly invoke some controversy.
posted by ab'd al'Hazred
on Dec 2, 2005 -
21 comments
"Brownie's doing a hell of a job"... Part 2? Who is: The "well-connected, ideological, ambitious Republican with zero public health management or medical expertise whose previous job was as a corporate lawyer for Amtrak" who is in charge of the United States' planning for a possible influenza pandemic? A man who recently told a Congressional committee "We're learning as we go"?
Meet Stewart Simonson.
posted by docgonzo
on Nov 11, 2005 -
20 comments
