Then, passage of a war declaration by Congress would clear up all the legal and constitutional questions surrounding the current "police action" in Iraq; and finally, the prospect of actually declaring war would force both Congress and our society as a whole to think hard, avoid politically expedient vagueness, and finally figure out precisely who the actual enemy is.
Indeed, rarely do members of Congress even ask whether they have the authority, under the Constitution, to undertake proposals before them; they seem to think they may do whatever they imagine is politically expedient.
If they come to think that they are being subjected to arbitrary whims and expedients, their co-operation is likely to be grudging.
Thomas Jefferson wrote of George Washington in 1793 that "the president thought it expedient to remind our fellow citizens that we were in a state of peace".
However, because the success of treatment has so far been measured mostly using questionnaires, we also thought it expedient to introduce validated questionnaires like WOMAC and SF-12, and also assess balance, mobility, and general function of the lower legs.
I'm sure some of those nice students you visited in the hinterland have aptitudes for physics or biology or astronomy or rocket science, but they're never going to explore those avenues in which they could have become productive citizens because you and Barack think it's politically expedient to give your stamps of authenticity to ancient mythologies.
I think that it is expedient to produce that narrative, because it divides us and feeds the misconception that black and brown folk are more homophobic than white folk, but there are so many examples of black men loving black men, as Joseph Beam would say, whose mutual love and respect is revolutionary.
I am confident that history will show that this vote in Congress was a turning point, that it occurred because a handful of elected officials thought it was more expedient to put the interests of the gun lobby ahead of the people they have been elected to represent, that they thought they could just continue to get away with it.
For example, the Organic Act authorized the President to appoint as many justices of the peace as he "shall from time to time think expedient".
The Conference of Presidents thought it far more sensible, intelligent and politically expedient to do this on 29 May in Brussels.
