Congresscritter sleaziness, as expected

In my last post, I laid out where I stand on this whole bombing-Libya-isn't-hostility line that the current administration is passing off. I can understand that some opinions might differ on that issue, wrong as I think they are. However, it should be a pretty straightforward decision, one way or the other... either the President is doing the right thing, and should have every means at his disposal to do it, or he's doing the wrong thing and should be reined in. The House of Representatives was given the opportunity to say where they stood with a pair of bills: pass one, what the President's doing is A-OK; pass the other, and he's in the wrong. Somehow, they managed to pass neither bill (link).

In order for neither bill to pass, there had to be a significant number of representatives that voted against both bills. On the face of the argument, I don't see how anybody, much less a significant number of anybodies, could say they have no opinion on this issue with a straight face, given the facts. Whether they chose this path on party-solidarity grounds, or with an eye towards re-election, these representatives have simply failed in their duty to their country on this issue.

Oh well, like I said in my last post, I wasn't really holding my breath that Congress would do the right thing as a whole, although I didn't expect something as blatant as this... rather, finding some way to distract attention and let the question die away from the spotlight seems to be the norm. I guess it's up to the Judiciary to do something... maybe... sometime...

Back on the government beat... bombings aren't hostilities?!?

Ever since the US started bombing Libya in defense of civilians (depending greatly on your definition of 'civilian'), and somebody brought up the Vietnam-era War Powers Act, which limits the President's ability to conduct hostilities without Congressional consent, I've been waiting to hear how the executive branch could possibly justify their seemingly blatant violation of said act. Now, under duress, they're releasing their rationale to Congress (link). Basically, it boils down to "it's not hostilities if the other guy can't fight back".

There are all sorts of reasons I could possibly stomach as the basis for a fight over the War Powers Act... top of the list, of course, being a challenge to its constitutionality, but nobody seems to want to go there. This excuse, on the other hand... it doesn't even pass a basic sniff test. It's the equivalent of a high-schooler hitting elementary school kids, then arguing that he shouldn't be suspended for fighting because they couldn't fight back.

For the meanings-of-words-challenged, let's cover "hostility" in a nation-state frame of reference. If you are using military force within the borders of another country without their government's consent, you are acting in a hostile manner to that country. I know, that may be inconvenient, what with all the fun we've had with unmanned drones and precision-guided munitions, but inconvenient doesn't equal wrong. Heck, I might even give you a pass on something like Pakistan, if the government there is giving the OK "under the table" while publicly denouncing your actions to save face with their people... but that's nowhere near Libya's situation, is it?

Well, maybe Congress will call bullshit on this pitiful excuse as a whole... I can only hope, but I'm not exactly holding my breath. At the very least, a few Congresscritters are filing suit (link)... maybe the Judiciary will decide to get involved and (hopefully) do the right thing.

OK, enough about Sony for a while

So, in theory, they finally got the store on PSN up and running today... haven't checked, since the free games promised aren't quite available yet. Best of all, they only missed their self-pronounced deadlines twice to do it. I'm sure I could beat this dead horse for a while, but, honestly, it's just sad... and sadder still, since this whole mess started, multiple Sony divisions have been hackerly-messed-with as well. Much as I don't care for Sony, I can't point and laugh at every little issue of theirs that crops up... barring some big, new, unexpected news (and at this point, another Sony property hacked doesn't count as unexpected), I'm swearing off Sony rants for now. I guess I'll have to come up with something semi-relevant to blog about, if I want to keep adding to this one... :)