Democracy. Huh. . .

[catscradle]

Well, it's a sad sad day for democracy and the constitution. The House and Senate gave power to the President to go to war. Why? I don't know. I guess it looks good on paper. I thought giving the war powers to the Congress was a good thing in checks and balances - but I guess they just don't want the responsibility anymore.

From the CNN Article: Senate approves Iraq war resolution

The resolution requires Bush to declare to Congress either before or within 48 hours after beginning military action that diplomatic efforts to enforce the U.N. resolutions have failed.

Bush also must certify that action against Iraq would not hinder efforts to pursue the al Qaeda terrorist network that attacked New York and Washington last year. And it requires the administration to report to Congress on the progress of any war with Iraq every 60 days.

The language here seems to give Bush free reign to do whatever the hell he wants.

I'd like to thank Sen Byrd for at least trying to voice opposition. He was furious on the Senate floor and I think he spoke for a lot of us:

"This is the Tonkin Gulf resolution all over again," Byrd said. "Let us stop, look and listen. Let us not give this president or any president unchecked power. Remember the Constitution."

I'd also like to give my thanks to the six Republican congressmen who voted for their conscience and against their party in the House vote. I saw Ron Paul, (R) Texas, on Chris Matthews last night and I was rather impressed with what he had to say regarding this issue and the legality of the resolution. We may have lost, but at least we had a voice.

There are many saying that if the vote was made private many of the people voting for the resolution would have voted against - if it's true than our represetatives are cowards and they need fired. I know the Colorado senators received calls from the people on the issue - 80 against to every one for. And they STILL voted for Bush's resolution. This information was gathered from the secretary of Senator Allard's office.

Not quite a Government of the people, for the people, by the people anymore, is it?

Comments

Re: $!#@&!*

[catscradle.livejournal.com]

I think the term we're looking for here is manufacturing consent. I'm willing to believe that the journalists and news people out there feel they are being fair and accurate - but I think the people that own those newspapers and networks know that they're purposefully manipulating the public opinion.

That stuff that squeaks by - those dessenting views - they get by because on page 17 section C of the paper it doesn't matter. Burried on some obscure link on CNN, it doesn't matter. Most people don't dig that deep - it's insignificant. So they let it in - this way they get to say they're representing all views, when in fact most of the population will never see it.

If you've not seen it yet, I do recomment the video Manufacturing Consent (http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/catalogue/manufacturingconsent/manuconsent.html) on the work of Noam Chomsky - he's got a book by the same title, but the video is rather effective. And of course, Z Mag (http://www.zmag.org) is a great place for info on this.

I'm a little brain dead at the moment - so my ability to explain my position is rather lacking at the moment - but I do believe there is a definate bias in the media in favor of Bush - all the news stories pushing for an independent investigation into 9-11 just vanished or get pushed back to the back of the news? The fact that they all report the UN violations of Palestine and completely ignore the fact that Israel is the greatest violator - hmm, wonder why that is.

I"m a bit of a cynic.

Re: $!#@&!*

[wiebke.livejournal.com]

I think it's time I go look for a great video I saw about the invasion of Panama, which was pretty much the whole thing as the Gulf War. A book closely related to that (actually from the same college course where I saw the film) called Unreliable Sources, all about media bias. It's kinda old, but I bet FAIR (Fairness adn Accuracy in Reporting) is pitching a fit these days.

I can relate to the brain dead cynic thing, BTW.