Please, please

please see this thread and first post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2354560

highly adamant strains.

Everyone gets the RW talking points and the lazy media talking points in their heads from time to time. (I just chalk it up to being human. We are all vulnerable to the memes that are going around. Sigh!)

Sen. Kerry did not vote to go to war in 2002. He voted for steps to be taken that, had they been done might have averted war. He also voted to uphold the right of the US to defend itself, if that was needed and shown by actual facts. That got distorted.

OK, the IWR issue is always being brought up by people who want to blame the Democrats who voted for the IWR for giving Bush a blank check and also to pit Democrats against each other. Byrd made the "blank check" statement back in 2002. Well, here is a recent statement Byrd made regarding another resolution:




Here is the resolution he was referring to:





This is how Congress voted:




By the logic the detractors attach to the IWR, and based on the content of Byrd's statement, a vote for the above resolution gave Bush authorization and made it easier for him to:

spy on Americans, create covert prisons for secret prisoners, authorize the torture of prisoners to extract information from them, authorize running black-hole secret prisons in foreign countries to get around U.S. law.

Clearly, Byrd's statement smacks down that logic. Each of these resolutions granted Bush powers with specific restrictions. Bush has established a pattern of defying Congress and breaking the law.

Bush is not a King. He has to obey the rule of law. He does not have the right to unilaterally suspend the civil liberties of Americans. No act passed by Congress can give him this authority, unless it is an amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

God bless Sen. Byrd. Now, if only there are a few Republicans of conscience and patriotism who will stand up to this bully and demand accountability.

If the 2006 elections come around without as much, the current Republican members of Congress (not under indictment) will have forfeited the right to call themselves patriots.

at the bottom of the discussion. Even with the disagreements, it was such a helpful discussion for me--a lot of things in it were facts I didn't know. So thanks for taking the time on it.

I just posted an article in GD-P about the war on terror, it's an interesting read: debunking the myth of Bush's competency in that area (his whole approach to it) and its impact on the election. Again, Kerry was right.