[Note: * Begun on March 22]
It’s taken three days of bloviating*, but slowly, almost imperceptably, the chattering classes have almost gotten all the way to the 1973 War Powers Act.
I remember it well, and debated it collegiately for a year, so it seems astonishing to me that here, in 2011, our “experts” and “legislators” have only now, just, managed to make it to 1973. Wikipedia:
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 (50 U.S.C.1541–1548) was a United States Congress joint resolution providing that the President can send U.S. armed forces into action abroad only by authorization of Congress or if the United States is already under attack or serious threat. The War Powers Resolution requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30 day withdrawal period, without an authorization of the use of military force or a declaration of war. The resolution was passed by two-thirds of Congress, overriding a presidential veto.
For those hoary heads like Dick Lugar and Dennis Kucinich who have raised their grizzled heads to party like it’s 1972, let me note that they might want to save those flair jeans (for their kids) and save the lava lamps. There will come amazing games that you can actually play on your TeeVee and even teleophones that can tap into a World-wide Web of computerized … oh wait. That last might be going a bit too far. They need to make it to the Eighties and MTV — back when “Music Television” played actual music — first.
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