OpEdNews Op Eds 6/19/2011 at 1:08 AM EDT H1'ed 6/19/11
Obama's John Yoo Moment-- Cherry Picking Lawyers to Break a Major Law
By Rob Kall (Page 1 of 1 pages) 11 comments
Bush and Cheney searched around until they found an attorney who would vet torture.
Now we have the news that Obama did the same thing to start an illegal war in Libya. He rejected the legal advice of the DOJ's office of legal counsel and Pentagon attorneys and cherry picked lawyers who would tell him what he wanted to hear. Pentagon General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson and acting head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel Caroline D. Krass advised Obama against invading Libya without congressional permission.
Instead, president Obama, following in the footsteps of Bush and Cheney, when they depended upon the legal counsel of John Yoo, went to White House counsel Robert Bauer and State Department legal adviser Harold H. Koh, the NY Times reported.
Now, there is a bi-partisan effort in the house to confront Obama's alleged violation of the War Powers act.
Obama continues to walk in the footsteps of Bush. It was bad for Bush to justify torture by finding an integrity-challenged attorney to cover his ass. Now, we have Obama starting a war with the help of lawyers who say it's okay. Obama again embraces and extends a precedent set by Bush. What's worse, torture or starting a war without the authorization of the "people's" congress.
Yoo testifiying before congress
Ironically, John Yoo criticized Republicans, who have traditionally opposed the war powers act and supported allowing Presidents to take the nation to war, Politico reported. Yoo said, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed,
By accusing President Barack Obama of violating the War Powers Resolution, House Republicans are abandoning their party's longstanding position that the Constitution allows the executive to use force abroad, subject to Congress's control over funding. Sadly, they've fallen victim to the siren song of short-term political gain ..
The thin veils are dropping away. The smoke is clearing. The chimera of democracy is eroding.
There is a bi-partisan effort to challenge Obama. Too bad the Republicans aren't impeaching him for his violation of the war powers act. lawyers can't just say it's okay and that makes it okay. I say impeach Obama. Force a primary or get him off the ballot altogether. My choice for the Democratic candidate-- Elizabeth Warren.
Rob Kall Social Media Pages:
Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect, connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.
Check out his platform at RobKall.com
He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity
He's given talks and workshops to Fortune 500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful people on his Bottom Up Radio Show, and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and opinion sites, OpEdNews.com
more detailed bio:
Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet (more...)
Related Topic(s): Balance Of Powers; Executive Power Expansion; John Yoo; Libya; President Barack Obama POTUS; War Powers; War Powers Act, Add Tags
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