![\"OliverCromwell\"](\"http:\/\/www.dkms.com\/kmci\/alllifeisproblemsolving\/wp-content\/themes\/cutline-3-column-split-11\/images\/CooperOliverCromwell1657.jpg\")
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\u201dBy Definition, if it was authorized by the president it did not violate our obligations under the convention against torture.\u201c Condoleeza Rice, responding to a question about waterboarding, 04\/27\/09.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n \u201dArticle I, Section. 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.\u201d<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n \u201dArticle II, Section. 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. . . . Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation: \u2014 “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n \u201dArticle II, Section. 3. . . . he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed . . . \u201c<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n Whenever I hear the words \u201cBy Definition . . .\u201d followed by some conclusion, I’m immediately suspicious of the conclusion and the person offering the argument. You see, I know that I’m very unlikely to share the definition in question, so, of course, I almost surely won’t think that the conclusion follows from it. But even if it does, I know very well, and I’ll bet that Condi does too, that no one can prove a conclusion from a premise, unless that premise is true in the first place. If it’s not, or if it’s questionable, then a \u201cby definition\u201d argument is just \u201cbegging the question.\u201d And what is the question? I think it’s whether the president has the power to decide what our obligations are under the Geneva Convention, or whether that question was already settled when the United States signed that Treaty, it was approved by the Congress, and it became the Law of the Land.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n I think the answer is that the president clearly doesn’t have that power because he\/she doesn’t have the authority to make or repeal laws. That power is vested in the legislature by the Constitution of the United States, and the president has taken an oath to \u201cpreserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.\u201d The constitution also charges the president to \u201ctake Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.\u201d So, \u201cby definition\u201d the president had an obligation to take Care that the terms of the treaty were enforced. Instead, the president evidently authorized waterboarding, which the United States has recognized as \u201ctorture\u201d in previous prosecutions and convictions of war criminals, and his Secretary of State is telling us \u201dBy Definition, if it was authorized by the president it did not violate our obligations under the convention against torture.\u201c <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n Well, \u201cby definition\u201d there goes the separation of powers, and with it, the Constitution of the United States \u2013 if we let it. Prosecutions anyone?<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201dBy Definition, if it was authorized by the president it did not violate our obligations under the convention against torture.\u201c Condoleeza Rice, responding to a question about waterboarding, 04\/27\/09. \u201dArticle I, Section. 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[693],"tags":[1524,1523,1526,1525,1527,772,1489],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-by-definition","tag-condoleeza-rice","tag-congress-of-the-united-states","tag-constitution-of-the-united-states","tag-presidential-authority","tag-torture","tag-waterboarding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmci.org\/alllifeisproblemsolving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmci.org\/alllifeisproblemsolving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmci.org\/alllifeisproblemsolving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmci.org\/alllifeisproblemsolving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmci.org\/alllifeisproblemsolving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kmci.org\/alllifeisproblemsolving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmci.org\/alllifeisproblemsolving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmci.org\/alllifeisproblemsolving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmci.org\/alllifeisproblemsolving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}