Syrian Delirium

++First,congratulations to my son, Ian and David Shapiro for the release of their album, which was streamed on the hip Chicago radio station. 

++Anyone who has sampled this blog over the years knows I love Johnny Lang. Now he's in his thirties and will have a new album out this month.

++Bob Dylan's Self Portrait Bootleg album is out and since I have subsidized his career since my high school years I bought it. I thought it was terrible then but as I've grown senile I liked the two-CD set.

++This week saw the eruption of the so-called debate on the limited airstrikes against Syria's military. Those opposed resemble a bizarre carnival of unlikely bedfellows. The Koch Brothers,the Tea Party Patriots,Andrew Sullivan, Madonna, Ray McGovern, formerly of the CIA,the remnants of the American Left,Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Grayson have weighed in against. Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Tan Man Boehner, Nancy Pelosi have weighed in for. The Republican Jewish Committee, Romney-backer Shelson Adelson, Bill Kristol,the National Review,Michael Gerson,Bob Kagan and have weighed in for. What is clear is that a strong current of isolationism has taken hold of American politics. Tim Egan has a column in the New York Times about how Bush's legacy clouds the current discussion.

++Andrew Sullivan, formerly a cheerleader of the Iraq venture who repented,wants President Obama to escape the clutches of the humanitarian interventionism of the likes of Samantha Powers and return to his more "realism" tendencies. The problem with this is that in the age of social media and globalism,a strictly realist foreign policy is impossible to sustain in a democracy.

++Rep. Greyson is whipping the anti-war Democrats in the house. Tan Man Boehner is not going to whip Republicans. As of today, the "no's" would win. But we may be heading to the strange situation of the Senate approving and the House disapproving. I have no idea what that would mean.

++President Obama will address the nation on the eve of September 11,what I term now the "high holy day of conservatives" which includes Benghazi. The American public opinion is hugely against military intervention as they were for Kossovo. Obama
 is keenly aware of this. At the G-20, Obama referred to the unpopularity of intervening in Rwanda, which is a tip off to the influence humanitarian interventionists have on him.

++While AIPAC sat on the sidelines for the Iraq War,they have revved up their lobbying machine for intervention. 

++While grudgingly supporting the Syrian intervention, the National Review criticized President Obama for not unilaterally striking, citing Alexander Hamilton, a code word for the unitary theory of the executive,advocated by the Right and created by Dick Cheney under the Nixon Administration. 

++Whatever one's qualms about President Obama's stance, give him credit for his turn to Congress. If he had not gone to the Hill, the House would impeach him sure as rain. In fact, they may impeach him anyway since that was the Right's agenda since 2008. What President Obama will do in a split decision is anyone's guess. The White House initially said it would not strike if Congress disapproved.

++With all the wailing about Obama as a weak leader by the GOP and the Left raising the specter of Iraq, could we at least judge the issue on Obama's own interventions and not W's. The equation of Obama with W doesn't help the argument. I thought we were told Chuck Hagel was for Hezbollah and John Brennan was a recent convert to Islam.

++Since there is a large number of bloggers who are saying Obama fabricated the evidence of the use of chemical weapons by Assad,we are asked to dismiss the findings of France, England, Germany,Israel and the Arab League as well as the statements by the former Iranian President Rastanjani. Be my guest. 

++The big laugh riot has been the re-emergence of Donald Rumsfeld to not only criticize Obama as commander-in-chief but to suggest we shouldn't strike Syria because it did not pose an "imminent threat" to the United States--say, like Saddam Hussein's Iraq. There you had a country without any involvement with 9-11,no chemical weapons, no Al Qaeda,and no nukes. But we upended America's history of doctrine to wage a war of choice. Since we had a world sympathetic to us after 9-11,conning the international community was relatively easy.

++The week has seen an extraordinary flood into the U.S. of Russian disinformation. The primary audience from my e-mail traffic has been the Right. After all Putin is for whites, against blacks,now a capitalist,anti-gay, pro-gun. I think the Teaparty should change its name to the Samivar Party Patriots. Since the Koch Brothers' original fortune was made in Stalin's Russia,it's natural they should return to the post-Communist Russia.

++Most bizarre this week has been the articles appearing about Eric Snowden and the suggestions that instead of being a whistleblower, he may have more relations with Russia than previously thought. He fled Hawaii to take refuge in the Russian consulate in Hong Kong and then on to Moscow. All this on the pretext that he could not live in a country where privacy wasn't protected. Even Vladimir Putin has said Russia had contact before Snowden landed and lamented he will have a hard life in Russia.

++Below the radar of America going batshit crazy over Syria was the news that the House GOP will vote next week on a continuing resolution to fund the government until December. Eric Cantor says they will raise the debt ceiling before time on several conditions like defunding Obamacare, which, of course, would raise the debt. 

++The pro-Assad Teaparty is revving up their Obamacare campaign by asking young people to burn their Obamacare cards, which don't exist but who's complaining. The anti-Obamacare e-mails I get equal those against the Syrian intervention. The House has flooded Obamacare Navigators with vast questionnaires asking information impossible to obtain. The target for their campaign is to obstruct Obamacare in those states with the most uninsured, which naturally are governed by Republicans.

++The anti-Obamcare campaign has had the unintended benefit of educating the public about the program. Sneaky Sibelius has also gotten anti-Obamacare states like Oklahoma and Indiana to sign on to modest Medicaid expansions so that they will be  in shape for the eventual extension of the program. Kaiser Health has completed their study of 16 states, which show insurance premiums in Obamacare states will drop more than the CBO expected. But, in Texas and Florida rates will soar.

++The summer didn't produce the uproar against immigration reform and Republican "so-called" leaders still back it. But the House GOP has nothing cooking--not even their piecemeal approach. Now they are complaining that with Syria they can't get around to it. So people are claiming once again it is dead--sort of.

++Tan Man Boehner has announced he will retire in 2014, which is probably a reason that the House will have 239 days vacation this year. He needs some time off.

++While people were obsessed by Syria, the G-20 did agree to new policies of taxing multinational corporations and reducing CO2 emissions. Canada's Harper has promised President Obama more agreement on climate change if he approves the Keystone pipeline. 

++The U.S. and China reached on carbon emissions and pollution which will be formalized next month.

++We have a spate of articles here in Washington about the fate of Obama's credibility should he lose the vote on Syria. I go back to my original statement that the only domestic thing Obama will achieve in the second term is immigration reform. None of his plans for the infrastructure or job creation will pass the Congress even if he conquered Syria. What you saw was accomplished the first two years of the first term before the Samivar Party came into Congress. 

++I was disappointed with Paul Krugman this week. Krugman wrote that the recovery has been disappointing because the stimulus was big enough. As it was, in inflated dollars it was more than the New Deal and any more was virtually impossible to pass.

++The jobs report showed anemic job growth and unemployment going down to 7.3%. Naturally, Republican columnists said Obama couldn't blame anyone anymore for the dismal economic record. The good news is that Tan Man Boehner is going to have more votes this coming week to repeal the "job-killing" Obamacare.

++Last advice to President Obama today:
    **Raise the debt ceiling by executive order
    **Don't appoint Larry Summers to the FED