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Editorial

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

An Administration Gone Rogue

By Ron Paul
21

Dr. Ron Paul

Have certain parts of the Constitution become irrelevant, as a former Republican leader once told me at a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing? At the time, I was told that demanding a congressional declaration of war before invading Iraq, as Article I Section 8 of the Constitution requires, was unnecessary and anachronistic. Congress and the president then proceeded without a constitutional declaration and the disastrous Iraq invasion was the result.

Last week, Obama administration officials made it clear that even the fig leaf of congressional participation provided by the 2003 "authorization" to use force in Iraq was to be ignored as well. In a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stated clearly and repeatedly that the administration felt it was legally justified to use military force against Syria solely with "international permission." Such "international permission" could come by way of the United Nations, NATO, or some other international body. Secretary Panetta then told Senator Sessions that depending on the situation, the administration would consider informing Congress of its decision and might even seek authorization after the fact.

While Senator Sessions expressed surprise at the casual audacity of Panetta in making this statement, in reality his was just a bluntly stated explanation of what has been, de facto, the case for many years. When President Obama committed the US military to a pre-emptive war against Libya last year, for example, Congress was kept completely out of the process. Likewise, military action in Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and so on proceed without a congressional declaration. In fact, we haven't had a proper, constitutional declaration of war since 1942, yet the US military has been engaged in Korea, Lebanon, Iraq, Bosnia, Liberia, Haiti and Libya with only UN resolutions as the authority. Congress's only role has been authorizing funds, which it always does without question because one must "support the troops."

Of course, we should reserve our harshest criticism for Congress rather than the administration. If the people's branch of government abrogates its constitutional authority to the executive branch, who is to blame? Who is to blame that Congress as a body will not stand up and demand that the president treat the Constitution as more than an anachronistic piece of paper, or merely a set of aspirations and guidelines? The Constitution is the law of the land and for Congress to allow it to be flouted speaks as badly about Congress as it does about a president who seeks to do the flouting.

Just last week the administration announced that it would begin providing material support to the rebels who seek to overthrow the Syrian government. Was Congress involved in this decision to take sides in what may develop into a full-fledged civil war? And what of reports that US Special Forces may already be operating inside Syria? Still, Congress sits silently as its authority is undermined. Does anybody really wonder why approval numbers for Congress are so low?

Many of my colleagues who stood by as then-President Bush used the military as a kind of king's army are now calling for Congress to act against this president for openly admitting that is his intent. I agree it is time for congressional action in response to these attacks on our Constitution, but the solution is simple and constitutional. The solution is simply voting to withhold funds, since Congress has the power of the purse. No money for undeclared wars!




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  Posted by bnavrotski@yahoo.com on 03/15/12 11:31 AM

The biggest probleum is the masses that are unable to think, and are allowed to vote, for all the wrong reasons, Ron Paul is the only sensible and honest canidate, the only one that could put this country back on the right path, get us out of wars, fix our foreign policy, yet the rest of the rebublicans vote to put in a religious canidate, when they should vote in a constitutional canidate, the masses are deluded and unable to critical think!

RON PAUL THE ONLY CANIDATE THAT COULD WIN, HE WOULD PULL FROM PARTIES!

  Posted by bob on 03/15/12 12:30 AM

The US government and the FED domestic & foreign policies are nothing more than violent convulsions of a dying beast (also known as the Zionist banking mafia or the Anglosphere elites as the DB likes to call them). Why am I calling them "a dying beast"? Well, it appears that they have lost control of the situation and their actions are not coherent any more.

The present situation reminds me the 1930s.

  Posted by Ol' Grey Ghost on 03/14/12 01:59 PM

OMG! Sharia law coming to America! Aauuuggghhh!

Talk about a fear-based meme. In order to prevent myself from having to live under an oppressive socio-politico-religious belief system that I do not believe in...

Click to view link

... I must somehow support the perpetuation of the current oppressive socio-politico-religious belief system, that I do not believe in either, to protect me from the other? This is to suggest that in order to prevent shooting myself in the left foot I should shoot myself in the right foot. I have this real thinking-outside-the-box kind of idea, like, maybe I shouldn't pull the trigger in the first place.

Under Sharia law, according to non-Muslims, we will all live in a state of religious slavery where we will not be allowed to enjoy ourselves as we see fit. Under the current system we have had "Prohibition" and we presently have the "War on Drugs" (AKA "The War against Americans who choose to use unapproved intoxicants without government permission"). My apologies, but I'm having a little problem seeing the difference.

"The only thing we have to fear... is what people will do when they are 'Scared Stupid.'"

Click to view link

Click to view link

  Posted by DwightMann on 03/14/12 07:36 AM

Ahhhh. . .
The voice of constitutional reason!
That is why, I am for
RP in 2012

  Posted by AlephNull on 03/14/12 04:54 AM

" traitors in your midst. And they are not Islamic."

Well said !

  Posted by dimitri on 03/13/12 09:56 PM

Between rare earth abundance, the Kony scam and the utter failure of Congress the only other excuse I have today for getting depressed is that Mercury has gone retrograde (until April 4).

  Posted by chrisstrings on 03/13/12 07:49 PM

I don't think it is a coincidence that WWII was our last declared war and we have since taken on an increasingly interventionist foreign policy, which is now reaching a breaking point. Really, our interventionist "track record" is pretty bad... Status quo in Korea, defeat in Vietnam, 241 Marines killed in Lybia, helping to create Al Queda by flaunting our alliance with Saudi Arabia in Iraq 1, and now we have what seems like a never ending venture in Afganistan. Worse this policy has kind of created an "on the cheap approach" A well known former diplomat was on TV last week saying "surgical air strikes can be effective in halting Iran's nuclear program" So basically the US can fight a "clean" war,,,one that is done without troops on the ground, where the horrors are not seen and aside from those sent to fight and their families, entails no contribution from the citizenry... .If you want a war, then bring back the draft, and raise taxes to pay for it... suddenly Congress will stop giving presidents blank checks "authorizing the use of force"

  Posted by hbalfour on 03/13/12 07:15 PM

@ Samson
Your problem is not Islamic over-creep in the future. Your problem is the current massive infestation of US media, government and corporate institutions by those who have dual-loyalty between the USA and Israel. Goys in government will do as they are told, or face massive problems at re-election. Media is absolutely unable (or unwilling in many cases) to discuss the extraordinary influence wielded by pro-Israel Americans and outright Israel-funded political lobby groups. Your problem is that your country is totally compromised by the paranoid and needy neurosis of one tiny, pathalogically motivated State that has grown from some spectacularly nasty beginnings around the time of the Bolshevic revolution to become a cancer in the modern world. Yes, your problems in the United States, especially your degeneration into an internationally despised pariah, are down to the unceasing, sleepless and highly unpleasant agendas of traitors in your midst. And they are not Islamic.

  Posted by samson on 03/13/12 07:11 PM

NITHSDALE: WOW WOW, thanks for the history lesson. The younger generations
certainly need to know it. In my 80's here, and you are right on
the story of the past 100 years. Before 1900, it was the British
Empire, the Rothchilds, the Rhodes, and others with Elite designs
for control of the masses.

  Posted by samson on 03/13/12 06:47 PM

OL GG: Thank you,Concur with all of your factual report except your last paragraph. If our Constitution's power isn't restored and utilized as basis
for the Law of our country, it's very possible that SHARIA LAW will be our
future, as ISLAM continues its insideous labyrinthine invasion of the US.
This HYDRA headed monster is alive & energised in the US thru CAIR & other
clandestine organs.
We cannot bury our heads in the sand, and hope the problems will go away.
Our congressmen are continuing to receive their delegations in private
meetings in their chambers this past week. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!! Throw all
the traitors out & elect new blood.

  Posted by echosounder on 03/13/12 05:59 PM

Ron Paul is correct. It's time for the American people to wake up. It is obvious that the NWO is trying to enslave the entire world. We simple cannot go on this way as it will probably lead to a disastrous nuclear confligration and possibly the end of the world.

All modern day wars are financed with unbacked paper money. We must convert our monetary system to an asset based system and learn to live with the consequences. Then our misguided government officials will not be able to engage in decifit spending to finance wars of aggression, instead they will have to ask the people for thier savings to finance it and of course the people will refuse. That way we will prevent wars of aggression that our country frequently engages in and we will also regain our freedom and the control of our government.

The concept of an asset based monetary systerm must be diseminated to all people.

  Posted by Ol' Grey Ghost on 03/13/12 05:23 PM

The un-Constitutional atrocities committed by the current tyrant in the "Oval Office" are just further proof that the U.S. Constitution is a dead letter, has been for some time, and is totally incapable, in and of itself, of restraining anyone, including those who have sworn solemn oaths to obey and defend it. "It's just a G__ D___ piece of paper!" - G.W. Bush

The beauty is that since it is null and void then the federal government, that which is constituted by the Constitution, is also null and void and without any legitimate power. Therefore, the people no longer need to obey any laws that come from the federal government, the agents of the U.S. governments no longer need to enforce any such laws, and the rank and file of all the U.S. military branches no longer have to obey any orders coming from the federal government, including any contractual obligation to continue serving in the military services.

The most ironic point and the biggest problem is that the majority of the people continue to do, either for reason of tradition or hypnotic programming, that which they are no longer required to do. And it is this power of the mass of the delusional majority that is the greatest danger to those who seek to live free.

Don't waste effort trying to change the law, the Constitution, or the government. It has never worked and it won't ever work. Work to change the people. That's what "they" did to get us where we are today...

  Posted by Frank on 03/13/12 04:15 PM

Ron Paul is as the lone voice "crying in the wilderness" trying to wake up a lost generation. Very few hear his call, but at least some more have heard this time than heard his call in 2008. Nevertheless, the USA is still on course for a total collapse financially, morally & Constitutionally.

I'm disgusted with my fellow Americans who look only for short term gain, government handouts and have little regard for what made America great. They elect big Statist Ds & Rs & whoever promises to give them the most goodies at other people's ("the rich") expense.

  Posted by nithsdale on 03/13/12 03:40 PM

Ron Paul is correct in his thesis but he must know that the so called global apparatus that successive American Presidents have been using to by pass our constitution were all American innovations, bought and paid for by US dollars since WWI. The whole idea that the rest of the world joins us and all becomes another band is just not true! The rest of the world does our bidding and we pay for this support.

The American Crisis now is that the directions we have been leading everyone into are proving to be wrong! There is no way that a small group can organize and run this globe. The more we try, finance concepts to bring it about, the more foolish we become, even to the people who take our payments.

The perfect example has been Europe since WWI... we couldn't guarantee the peace we promised them. Since then it was Asia, in particular China... . the Japanese made us look foolish as they took Asia piece by piece and we sat by wringing our hands, unable to even exert financial supremacy when we were in our own dire depression. We did retaliate, made the big world war II, destroyed the world as it was, then used it to construct our empire, including the global rules we play by now!

What was this new committment that changed American psyche from its founders' stated claims? Pure and simple, it was Socialism, a new thesis floated by disenchanted Europeans who found their best support not in their own countries but in the USA. The PR boys in New York and London laid out the campaign, beginning with American expats in Paris, Brits in New York, all of whom became the rage in planned thought and direction of our people. Have you forgotten the laudatory prose written in favor of Weimar "Republic" which turned out to be nothing but crap. The promotion of every crazy intellectual they could find to turn civil society on its heads! They even set up the campaign to make Hitler the new hero of the downtrodden with elaborate organization everywhere backed by the likes of Lindbergh and Joseph Kennedy. They celebrated Stalin's take over of Russia, his form of communism and made sure that his opponents all met untimely death somewhere in the Americas! But things did not go the way they wanted.

They were astounded when Hitler and Stalin signed a contract to jointly control Europe and suddenly, they all had to go into a new survival mode! That was when Washington DC went into its most chauvinistic role, with the OSS/CIA controlling eveything they could on this planet.

This is where we have been, as a nation, ever since. We have had to dismiaa friends, take enemies to bed, all in an attempt to turn the whole world topsy turvy for the new cogniscenti to rule, someday, they hope.

Who were these new thinkers? They were all young "intellectuals" who broke every law, every rule, dismissed all morality in their drive for their New World. They have been most honest about it. Their dedicated followers all belong to orgs and orders in our universities that make known to the world how they declaim all of society's previous groups and those speaking the loudest come from the likes of Yale's Skull and Bones and Harvard's "Yard" activities and Princeton's "Follies", all designed to publicly cast out what the rest of the world thinks are "norms". They have had a good run with their "joke" on society in general but somehow the world is not ready for their "Animal Farm", their depiction of The American Century!

There is no answer to this American apostasy, not here. The reply must come from those parts of the world fed up with us. We have no defense against what is coming our way. Those that hate us, and they have good reason to, will nibble and then bite and then sever our life lines. You don't think this can happen? Look at Afghanistan, recall Iraq, watch the proceedings in Africa and don't laugh, see what the Greeks, the Spanish, the Portuguese do. France knows what is coming and its President has announced that the new world a la America will no longer be accepted, even in Paris. In the French view, there are illegals, perverse people and even the French have lost tolerance for them! The French will be French not North African or Mid Eastern! And the Germans, Italians, even the Icelanders are shruggiung us off, and the Russians and Chinese will give them the new currency to complete the move,

Get ready for the re-establishment of the Belle Epoche! It was a wonderful time in history and there are still Americans who would like to live it again, protected by our constitution! Start reading about it.

  Posted by victorbarney on 03/13/12 03:10 PM

Dr. Ron Paul, here's the Hebrew Scriptural truth, YOU were our change to avoid what is coming to America on September 16, 2012! I'm talking about the two-witnesses of Revelation, chapter 11. I seriously doubt that many of our more verbally comprehensive female Obama supporters know this or even will believe it, but the two-witnesses of revelation, chapter 11 are coming on September 16, 2012 and over the next 3 1/2 years they totally WILL DESTROY U.S. Yes, it you read Revelation, you can plainly read how the two-witnesses totally destroy America, Israel by the seed of Joseph, including the Jews, but not the Danites, who all die, over a period of 3 1/2 years; then, after 3 1/2 days they stand again, destroy the Anti-Christ Obama forever and lock Satan away for 1,000 years during our Savior's 1,000 year reign. However, then Satan(Lucifer will be unleased again to test u.s., especially our "thinker's," again! Only this time, Satan himself will be burnt-up as a consequence and be no more---FOREVER Watch, if you're Able!!!I like that, because, unlike his brother Cain, he will be first to be resurrected!

  Posted by kenn on 03/13/12 02:03 PM

"An Administration Gone Rogue" RP

Should be titled: "Government Gone Wild"

Since Con gress seems more interested in assassinating, interning and/or silencing their constituents, why would they care about the Empires Army world wide conquest ambitions?

The fact they allow elections is a tell that indicates they have total control over them.

As most Americans have ADS (advanced denial syndrome) it won't much matter...

  Posted by eternal on 03/13/12 12:26 PM

Unfortunately, voting may no longer have the impact that we believe it does, or that it is supposed to:

Click to view link

  Posted by earnst on 03/13/12 10:23 AM

Certainly the selfish cowards in Congress are culpable but it is we the people who have abrogated our responsibilities. The nationalist socialists will impose more and more authority and I don't believe the sheeple will squirm much. Look at the GOP primaries. We don't deserve freedom. I'll leave it at that.

  Posted by Merridth80 on 03/13/12 09:21 AM

I think Congress should gather up all it's intestinal fortitude and Kick out the people who vote with barry soetoro, or whoever he calls himself today,!!!
November can't come soon enough for me, I wish Congress would invoke the Articles of Impeachment, before this Country is sold into Complete Slavery!!! We are almost there maybe November will come & soetoro will decide for us that there doesn't need to be an Election, he'll just usurp the Presidency, as he's done with all our assets!!!

  Posted by dave jr on 03/13/12 09:03 AM

I dunno, maybe they are right. Maybe the Constitution is old and antiquated. Maybe it has no authority, including the 16th ammendment?

Shall we vote on it?

Because then the Federal Government of the United States would have no authority. If the Constitution is just a "god damned piece of paper", then federal government personnel are just god damned thugs.

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