Posted on 10/12/2001 7:24:39 PM PDT by ovrtaxt
There is no need for this, and to the extent that legislation would require government cooperation with the legalized pirates, it's flat out stupid.
You seem convinced that the constitution is stupid. Why?
My point was only that Mr. Bush has not and indeed could not, Constitutionally, make such a grant.
If we agree that what might be called "privateering" is to be encouraged, I should think that Iran, Nigeria, and Venezuela might become RATHER more tractable.
I'll bet $20.00 against a cold beer you take my point here. (w!).
Hmm? Tick, tick, tick...
I don't get what you're saying here. You do realize that Letters of Marque are in fact the constitutional remedy for terrorism right? Technically the President can't grant them unless they were first authorized by congress so you're correct there but he most certainly can after. And I hope he does.
Clinton would have loved this. My goodness. Mercenaries? And he gets to pick which ones? Obviously, I would trust Bush with mercenaries. But Clinton liked mercenaries too much as it was. If he could have had his own private army not bound by military code, it's a frightening thought.
I noticed you had indicated an interest in seeing Ron Paul in the US Senate! If you have not done so yet, please be sure to sign the petition at the link above.
Sidenote to any of the freeper naysayers lurking out there who always purport their agreement with Ron Paul, yet constantly denounce him as "unelectable" and dismiss him for not having an Hispanic surname like, oh, let's say, Henry Bonilla:
Newsflash: Bonilla announced he WILL NOT seek the nomination for senate. Neither will Rep. Joe Barton. Nor will David Dewhurst
That leaves only John Cornyn, our sometimes conservative but often spineless-when-under-pressure Attorney General, who is seeking the nomination and is currently unopposed. To give you an idea of Cornyn's illustrious performance under pressure in D.C., look no further than what he did during redistricting:
A week before the LRB vote on redistricting, Cornyn paid a little visit to a bunch of Bill Lann Lee bureaucrats in the US DOJ Civil Rights Division. After hearing their rhetoric, the "conservative" Cornyn amazingly came into sudden agreement with the bureaucrats on redistricting, and incredibly adopted the frivolous argument that White male Democrat state senator John Whitmire of Houston was a "protected minority" and therefore his district was off limits from any major changes! Cornyn responded by scrapping the existing conservative redistricting maps they had at the time, and replaced them with watered down versions that protected Whitmire and other white democrat "minorities." All it took was one brief trip to the civil rights division's bureaucrat office and the Attorney General of Texas had an entirely new, more liberal, opinion of how his own state's redistricting should turn out according to those who think they know Texas and every other state in the country better than anybody else including those who live there - the washington bureaucrats. If that's what you want for your senator, by all means vote for Cornyn.
But if you truly do believe what you purport to stand for so often on FR, support Ron Paul and sign the petition.
I beg to differ..MERC's are resposible for many overthrough's. As a former MARINE; I can't say the thoought does not tantalize me. I'm just wondering how I could talk the wife into letting me go....
I didn't say the Constitution is stupid. I said the legislation is stupid. Can you understand the difference?
I'm not convinced that it would cause foreign governments to tremble. Besides violating international treaties, I think our private Rambos would complicate the job for our military and intelligence personnel who are pursuing the bad guys with far more tools at their disposal.
The legislation is based onconstitutional remedies. Why then is the legislation stupid?
No international treaties would be violated. Unless you have a specific treaty and can cite it, there are none that would be violated.
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