TAMPA, August 30, 2013 – Today, the British Parliament is debating the U.K.’s response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government against rebels and civilians.
This prompted Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to tweet a picture juxtaposing the ongoing debate in Parliament with the empty U.S. Congress building.
Cruz and others have expressed the opinion that President Obama cannot take military action against Syria without consulting Congress first.
They’re wrong. Congress doesn’t have the power to start a war with Syria, either, under present circumstances.
TAMPA,
August 28, 2013 — “And now we’re back where we started. Here we go
round again. Day after day I get up and I say I better do it again.”
Last week, Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., introduced an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill. It required the NSA and other government agencies merely to obey the Patriot Act, not the Fourth Amendment. That the data to be collected are "relevant to an ongoing national security investigation" doesn’t mean that there is probable cause that the person whose records are collected has committed a crime.
