by James Glaser
October 8, 2002

Other than a very few voices, most of Congress has said to the nation that they can no longer be trusted to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war and to call forth the militia " to execute the laws of the Union, Suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions." Nowhere in the Constitution is it written that the President can call forth the Militia.

However in the resolution that George Bush has sent to the Congress it states that the President " has authority under the Constitution to take action in order to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States, as Congress recognized in the joint resolution on Authorization for Military Force following the September 11 terrorist attack."

Senator Robert Byrd, one of the only men in the Senate to take on President Bush and his drive for unfettered power says " What a cynical twisting of words! The reality is that Congress, exercising the authority granted under the Constitution. Granted the President specific and limited authority to use force against the perpetrators of the September 11 attack. Nowhere was there an implied recognition of inherent authority under the Constitution to "Deter and Prevent" future acts of terrorism"

This is a power grab by President Bush pure and simple. What hurts you and me and all future Americans is the fact that most of the men and women that serve in Congress do not have the courage to tell the President that he is wrong. These men and women are so worried about how they will look, they are willing to subvert the Constitution that they each swore to defend, so that they have a better chance to keep their jobs.

Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to William H. Herdon and reported by Senator Byrd in his reply to the President, wrote "Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose--- and you allow him to make war at pleasure. You may say to him, I see no probability of the British invading us but he will say to you, be silent; I see it, if you don't."

George Bush only wants total control of our government much like an Emperor!

James Madison wrote these words in 1793 "In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department. Besides the objection to such a mixture to heterogeneous powers, the trust and the temptation would be too great for any one man."

Our founding fathers thought about this very thing and came to realize that the powers that king had, was not the power they wanted for our President. They knew that no one man could control himself with that much power and George Bush is now proving them right. The only problem that we have today is that most of those that serve in the Legislature do not have the moral fiber needed to stand up for the very principals that made our country great. The very principals that they swore to defend and protect.