Questions for Bush

Laundry lists of pointed questions (that will never really be asked) have become all the rage now. Have a look at the questions for John Kerry in today's New York Times. Not to be left out of the fun, here are my ten questions for George Bush:

1. Please cite the part of the Constitution and/or international law that gave you the legal authority to "pre-emptively" invade Iraq.

If you believe Article 1, Section 10, clause 3 of the Constitution grants you such power, then please answer, if you will, a couple other questions. The American Heritage dictionary lists the most common definition of "imminent" as "Threatening to occur immediately...". Can you describe what imminent danger our nation was facing from Iraq, and give as accurate estimate as possible as to when this danger was going to be realized?

2. Why did you appoint five-time convicted felon John M. Poindexter?

OK, I will give you some credit for this one, you sort of answered it in the town hall debates. While mainstream media published article upon article pondering who you were referring to when you said you regretted some of the people you appointed, I think it is obvious that Poindexter would be at the top of your list.

I'd still like to hear some rationale as to why you picked him in the first place.

3. Individuals who earn over $200,000 are presumably savvy investors. Why would such a person invest the money from your tax cut into our economy and not into a more lucrative foreign market or business?

4. In two separate rulings this year the PATRIOT Act was found to be in violation of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments. The Supreme Court recently said that a "state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens." Do you still claim that the PATRIOT Act does not infringe upon the rights of United States citizens?

5. Can you point to an instance where you personally took the blame for a mistake of policy? Describe an issue where the "buck" stopped at your desk.

6. A multi-part question:

Why were the men charged with running the most flagrantly illegal and abusive prison systems in our country exported to Iraq to set up the Abu Ghraib prison?

Why was it necessary for the Congress to pass an anti-torture bill yesterday? Why did the Republican-controlled Congress deem it worthy of passage?

The DOJ memo of August 1, 2002 goes to great lengths to argue that you as President have a singular power to authorize torture, and that any attempts to prosecute such authorized acts of torture will be barred as unconstitutional. If you had no knowledge of acts of torture occurring, and the Constitution already granted you this power, why was this memo necessary, why was it authored when it was, and why does it go into such great detail with regard to your power, and immunity from consequence? Do you believe you have a Constitutional right to authorize torture?

7. You say the hundreds of billions of dollars it will take to win the "war on terror" are worth it to keep WMDs out of the hands of the wrong people, and because freedom stops terrorism. Could you talk about these claims in light of the fact that the attacks of 9/11 were successfully executed with the lowest-tech devices imaginable, by people who benefited substantially from taking advantage of the freedoms in our society?

8. Your Clean Skies Act calls for a cap on tons/year of mercury that is more than five times the limit that would have been allowed under the previous Clean Air Act. This is certainly does not present a lethal danger to citizens, or you would not support this act. If one of your daughters were to become pregnant how would you feel if her mercury level could be tested and then increased by a factor of five?

9. Do you consider gloating about executions and beating your chest about making war to be outward signs of someone walking with Christ, or do you regret these episodes?

10. Did John Ashcroft fly on a commercial airliner between July 26th and September 11th, 2001? If not, why not?

Extra Credit. Out of curiousity, I don't know the answer, what is the average distance from our military bases in Afghanistan to its four largest cities? What is the furthest distance from a military base in Afghanistan to an oil or gas pipeline?