++The Senate is still trying to muck up the Iran nuclear deal but it hasn't even debated the Authorization of Military Force on the Senate floor yet. Tim Kaine,Virginia's Senator,asks whether the Senate really believes it can declare war or not. The test will be whether the Senate gets to it after the Iran bill or not. Kaine argues you can tailor the bill for the war against ISIS if you want but no one seems to know what they are doing or if they want to do anything at all.
++Meanwhile the Federal Appeals Court ruled that NSA Big Data surveillance is illegal. But Mitch McConnell is asking to renew the Patriot Act without any NSA reforms.
Showing posts with label AUMF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AUMF. Show all posts
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Tehran Tom Says Bombing--No Problem
++Tom Cotton says that bombing Iran would only take a few days. Nothing bad could possibly happen.
++But he cites Bill Clinton's 1998 Bombing Campaign on Iraq's WMD facilities as the success story. Now we already had the Gulf War, which destroyed Iraq's nuclear program, and now we have Bill Clinton destroying WMD facilities. So that means Saddam Hussein restarted his WMD program and get it running in 5 years while his country was under sanctions. Does Tom Cotton want to go there?
++The Iraq War is going to surface again soon. Judy Miller has a book out about how she started the Iraq War and Valerie Plame put her down for this claim as all as leaking Plame's identity as a CIA agent. Now I have received ringing defenses within the last two days of Scooter Libby. Just gratuitous emails laying out in detail a defense of Scooter Libby's perjury.
++It's best if the reader ignores the stories about whether W and Cheney lied or not. The Iraq War happened, cost trillions to the US,thousands of American lives were lost, over 30,000 Americans wounded,hundreds of thousand Iraqis displaced. And we can see Iraq today and the jury is pretty much in.
++Meanwhile the Iranian hardliners, according to the New York Times,are backing the nuclear deal. Only a handful of protestors showed up outside of the Majlis. Hard-line Ayatollahs have retracted their statements criticizing the deal.
++David Horovitz, the founder of the Times of Israel,has an op-ed claiming the deal is a charade because President Obama didn't sign the deal. I'm not so sure Obama will even sign the physical copy of the real deal in June.
++The current flap in Israel concerns statements from President Obama that near the end of the deal Iran will have a small breakout time to create A bomb. The State Department tried to pull the statement back.
++I get a sense form the last two days of Israeli press that there is alot of disinformation going on. Iran is going to start the high speed centrifuges before the deal is completed in June. I have no idea whether true, false or meaningful if true.
++In conservative circles, the savior for their cause is Chuck Schumer who backs Corker's bill. Backed it substantively,backs it to be voted on, actually backs it. Who knows?
++President Obama has begun his full-court media press. He had all the major political writers from the magazines and webs into the White House for interviews.
++Basically,the Obama Administration is looking at having Congress vote on their sanctions after the deal. But it is finally clear by President Obama's statement on Scott Walker's repudiation of the deal that he believes this is one of countless international agreements that President's enter into. The White House is now making it clear that this is not a treaty.
++Senator Murphy from Connecticut is raising another issue. How is it possible that the Senate is so hot and bothered about a nuclear agreement but don't care whether President Obama is waging war all over the Middle East.
++His point is that Senators seem all concerned that peace may break out but could care less about war. For all the yapping about the Iran deal, there is no discussion going on about the Authorization to Use Military Force, while we provide soldiers and arms to fight ISIS.
++But he cites Bill Clinton's 1998 Bombing Campaign on Iraq's WMD facilities as the success story. Now we already had the Gulf War, which destroyed Iraq's nuclear program, and now we have Bill Clinton destroying WMD facilities. So that means Saddam Hussein restarted his WMD program and get it running in 5 years while his country was under sanctions. Does Tom Cotton want to go there?
++The Iraq War is going to surface again soon. Judy Miller has a book out about how she started the Iraq War and Valerie Plame put her down for this claim as all as leaking Plame's identity as a CIA agent. Now I have received ringing defenses within the last two days of Scooter Libby. Just gratuitous emails laying out in detail a defense of Scooter Libby's perjury.
++It's best if the reader ignores the stories about whether W and Cheney lied or not. The Iraq War happened, cost trillions to the US,thousands of American lives were lost, over 30,000 Americans wounded,hundreds of thousand Iraqis displaced. And we can see Iraq today and the jury is pretty much in.
++Meanwhile the Iranian hardliners, according to the New York Times,are backing the nuclear deal. Only a handful of protestors showed up outside of the Majlis. Hard-line Ayatollahs have retracted their statements criticizing the deal.
++David Horovitz, the founder of the Times of Israel,has an op-ed claiming the deal is a charade because President Obama didn't sign the deal. I'm not so sure Obama will even sign the physical copy of the real deal in June.
++The current flap in Israel concerns statements from President Obama that near the end of the deal Iran will have a small breakout time to create A bomb. The State Department tried to pull the statement back.
++I get a sense form the last two days of Israeli press that there is alot of disinformation going on. Iran is going to start the high speed centrifuges before the deal is completed in June. I have no idea whether true, false or meaningful if true.
++In conservative circles, the savior for their cause is Chuck Schumer who backs Corker's bill. Backed it substantively,backs it to be voted on, actually backs it. Who knows?
++President Obama has begun his full-court media press. He had all the major political writers from the magazines and webs into the White House for interviews.
++Basically,the Obama Administration is looking at having Congress vote on their sanctions after the deal. But it is finally clear by President Obama's statement on Scott Walker's repudiation of the deal that he believes this is one of countless international agreements that President's enter into. The White House is now making it clear that this is not a treaty.
++Senator Murphy from Connecticut is raising another issue. How is it possible that the Senate is so hot and bothered about a nuclear agreement but don't care whether President Obama is waging war all over the Middle East.
++His point is that Senators seem all concerned that peace may break out but could care less about war. For all the yapping about the Iran deal, there is no discussion going on about the Authorization to Use Military Force, while we provide soldiers and arms to fight ISIS.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Letter Continues to Backfire
++Yesterday produced more political cartoons than I've seen on any political issue in a long time.
++This morning's New York Times editorial rips Republican idiocy and singles out John McCain for going for this stunt.
++Just pick the newspaper of your choice for the attack closest to you. I pick the Newark Star-Ledger which went after Tom Cotton as a poster boy for neo-conservatives. Another reader choose Utah where the press eviscerated Senators Hatch and Lee and included Lee Fang's not that Cotton attended an off-the -record, private meeting of the National defense Industrial Association.
++The Ayatollah Khamenei came out saying the letter was a sign of America disintegrating.
++The other top story from the Guardian to the Times of Israel is that ,yes, it does look like Bibi may lose. Likud leadership is warning their members this may happen. And it's not simply scaring your followers to get out the vote. Josh Marshall notices this in this morning's Talking Points.
++Did you see Rand Paul at the Kerry hearing? Rand said that the letter should have been addressed to President Obama. Paul went on about the President not having the authorization to use military force against ISIS.
++Rachel Maddow raised this issue in the summer. But our congress critters went on vacation and said they would get around to it. Now that the Obama Administration has submitted one,Senator Corker is arguing that the Democrats oppose the wording the Administration submitted. Fine then Congress should work out their own. But that's not the tactic the Republicans are using.
++So John Kerry says then no AUMF is better than one without support. I disagree. President Obama tried to get Congress to approve airstrikes against Syria and they balked. It's time Congress actually do its duty rather than write letters to foreign leaders .
++This morning's New York Times editorial rips Republican idiocy and singles out John McCain for going for this stunt.
++Just pick the newspaper of your choice for the attack closest to you. I pick the Newark Star-Ledger which went after Tom Cotton as a poster boy for neo-conservatives. Another reader choose Utah where the press eviscerated Senators Hatch and Lee and included Lee Fang's not that Cotton attended an off-the -record, private meeting of the National defense Industrial Association.
++The Ayatollah Khamenei came out saying the letter was a sign of America disintegrating.
++The other top story from the Guardian to the Times of Israel is that ,yes, it does look like Bibi may lose. Likud leadership is warning their members this may happen. And it's not simply scaring your followers to get out the vote. Josh Marshall notices this in this morning's Talking Points.
++Did you see Rand Paul at the Kerry hearing? Rand said that the letter should have been addressed to President Obama. Paul went on about the President not having the authorization to use military force against ISIS.
++Rachel Maddow raised this issue in the summer. But our congress critters went on vacation and said they would get around to it. Now that the Obama Administration has submitted one,Senator Corker is arguing that the Democrats oppose the wording the Administration submitted. Fine then Congress should work out their own. But that's not the tactic the Republicans are using.
++So John Kerry says then no AUMF is better than one without support. I disagree. President Obama tried to get Congress to approve airstrikes against Syria and they balked. It's time Congress actually do its duty rather than write letters to foreign leaders .
Monday, February 23, 2015
Rumblings about Iran
++Al Jazeera is about to release thousands of cables from Mossad obtained by Edward Snowden that reveal Israeli's spy agency true assessment of the Iranian nuclear program. The story "Spy Cables" is set to be released this week.
++After only one day of meeting with John Kerry, Iran's chief negotiator threatens to leave for tehran is the West keep pressing him.
++Bibi says that the West should stop talking to Iran since they haven't come clean on their past programs.
++Russia has offered Iran a new deal on anti-missile defense programs.
++Ayatollah Khomeini says that if attacked by Israel Iran will destroy Tel Aviv.
++Joe Lieberman asks everyone to listen to Bibi's speech.
++Fred Hiatt in the Post says that since President Obama has a credibility problem in Foreign Policy--i.e. the Middle East--he should not press for an Iranian deal because it will antagonize Congress.
++Congress is confused about the Authorization for Military force because Senate Republicans want it open-ended with the possibility of large numbers of combat forces. House Republicans doubt the President and mistrust him so they are reluctant to give him anything. Democratic House members want it to be severely limited. Whether it gets done is a matter of speculation.
++The Daily Beast has a piece about how the United States created ISIS in the detention camps in Iraq. ISIS used the camps as recruitment sites for their re-emergence.
++After only one day of meeting with John Kerry, Iran's chief negotiator threatens to leave for tehran is the West keep pressing him.
++Bibi says that the West should stop talking to Iran since they haven't come clean on their past programs.
++Russia has offered Iran a new deal on anti-missile defense programs.
++Ayatollah Khomeini says that if attacked by Israel Iran will destroy Tel Aviv.
++Joe Lieberman asks everyone to listen to Bibi's speech.
++Fred Hiatt in the Post says that since President Obama has a credibility problem in Foreign Policy--i.e. the Middle East--he should not press for an Iranian deal because it will antagonize Congress.
++Congress is confused about the Authorization for Military force because Senate Republicans want it open-ended with the possibility of large numbers of combat forces. House Republicans doubt the President and mistrust him so they are reluctant to give him anything. Democratic House members want it to be severely limited. Whether it gets done is a matter of speculation.
++The Daily Beast has a piece about how the United States created ISIS in the detention camps in Iraq. ISIS used the camps as recruitment sites for their re-emergence.
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