Illegal Diplomacy

WSJ ^ | April 6, 2007 | ROBERT F. TURNER

[Brilliant]

...Nancy Pelosi may well have committed a felony in traveling to Damascus this week, against the wishes of the president, to communicate on foreign-policy issues with Syrian President Bashar Assad...

The "Logan Act" makes it a felony and provides for a prison sentence of up to three years for any American, "without authority of the United States," to communicate with a foreign government in an effort to influence that government's behavior on any "disputes or controversies with the United States."...

President John Adams requested the statute after a Pennsylvania pacifist ...traveled to France in 1798 to assure the French government that the American people favored peace... Rep. Roger Griswold...explained that the object was... "to punish a crime which goes to the destruction of the executive power..."

Rep. Isaac Parker of Massachusetts explained, "the people of the United States have given to the executive department the power to negotiate with foreign governments, and to carry on all foreign relations, and that it is therefore an usurpation of that power for an individual to undertake to correspond with any foreign power on any dispute..."

Griswold and Parker were Federalists who believed in strong executive power. But consider this statement by Albert Gallatin, the future Secretary of the Treasury under ...Jefferson, who was wary of centralized government: "it would be extremely improper for a member of this House to enter into any correspondence with the French Republic..." Indeed, the offense is greater when the usurpation of the president's constitutional authority is done by a member of the legislature -- all the more so by a Speaker of the House -- because it violates not just statutory law but constitutes a usurpation of the powers of a separate branch and a breach of the oath of office Ms. Pelosi took to support the Constitution...

[John Galt's cousin]

bump

[Salem]

Had this one come through my email from two different sources, which means a LOT of people are reading it.

I don't know if people realize it, but we are dealing with revolutionaries and not elected officials as we have come to know them. If Pelosi walks away from this, it will further degrade the rule of law in America, and I predict the next elections will make the Florida recount fiasco look like a cakewalk if the Republican party does not win by a wide margin.

Like I have said, and others as well, this is what happens when Conservatives sit out elections to "punish" the GOP hierarchy, instead of agitating from within with patience and persistence.

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AMERICA AT WAR
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Translated Pre-War IRAQ Documents  by jveritas
Mohammed, The Mad Poet Quoted....  by PsyOp
"PLAES DO NOT TOCH THE WAR"  by AnnaZ
One FReeper On The Line  by SNOWFLAKE
The Clash of Ideologies - A Review

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"...That the totalitarian force pitted against freedom wears a religious makes this civil war among mankind all the more difficult to engage. Loving freedom as we do, it seems reprehensible to deliberate against a religion. But this is no ordinary religion as it demands absolute obedience of all to their religion at the cost of freedom itself." [FReeper Backtothestreets]

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[gonzo]

"...I don't know if people realize it, but we are dealing with revolutionaries and not elected officials as we have come to know them. If Pelosi walks away from this, it will further degrade the rule of law in America, and I predict the next elections will make the Florida recount fiasco look like a cakewalk if the Republican party does not win by a wide margin..."

Very interesting take on the situation. It's gonna take some time this time, before I decide which side, or go to the third side.

If the left are truly 'revolutionaries', and attempt a 'coup' by illegal means, then I'll be on the right. The middle sucks! ............. FRegards