Since when have red lines mattered to this president? These certainly didn't. #tcot #benghazi #syria #uniteblue #p2 pic.twitter.com/R2ftGTMbEt

— Stig is posting his L's again (@HesNotTheStig) September 6, 2013

No longer willing to be a codependent enabler to stupid leadership decisions espoused on my behalf, and despite the structure around the pretext that failing to support them makes me unpatriotic, I’m furious with our President on this Syrian fiasco.
This is not a zero sum game, and I do not accept the presentation as such.   I also hold a principle that history holds value.
A failure to support President Obama’s personal opinion is not equivalent to supporting Assad or Iran.   The missing context is the application of freedom principles and history.  It is not unpatriotic to support freedom – It WAS unpatriotic of President Obama to draw a “red line” in our national sand without seeking permission of forethought. (more…)

The vote from the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to put Obama’s Syrian resolution before the full Senate is essentially meaningless.    The subsequent vote amid the full Senate to support such a resolution is more politically valuable, but not terribly much.
The vote that counts, to authorize President Obama to use our military and attack Syria, will only come from the House of Representatives – The ‘People’s House’.

With that in mind a couple of recent tracking polls, ABC and Think Progress, are in alignment: (more…)

Leading Are Hard…..

*Check out the look on Chuck Hagle’s face in the picture above* – (Politico) House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to fellow House Democrats appealing for their support for military action in Syria in response to alleged chemical weapons use.
“At this critical juncture, it is essential that we make all Americans — the men and women we represent — fully aware of what the intelligence clearly and unequivocally demonstrates: that the Assad regime was responsible for chemical weapons attacks against innocent Syrians, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children,” Pelosi wrote to Democrats. […] (more…)

Via Shadi Hamid, is the Director of Research at the Brookings Institute’s Doha Center:

Newspaper also claims that son of MB leader threatened Obama w- release of "papers" revealing his MB membership: https://t.co/x4lV2JdS91

— Shadi Hamid (@shadihamid) September 1, 2013

If you missed it, "liberal" Egyptian newspaper has front page headline claiming Obama as full-on member of Muslim Brotherhood international.

— Shadi Hamid (@shadihamid) September 1, 2013

In related news – the Eyptian interim government is reconsidering going back to the ban on the Muslim Brotherhood due to their entrenched terrorism.    It should not be forgotten the Brotherhood killed former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat which was the final straw the last time they were an allowed political entity.

I think it is prudent to go back to June 2011 and remind everyone that President Obama took us to war in Libya without congress.   He even stayed in the conflict after his own Office Of Legal Counsel advised him he was violating constitutional law:

(June 2011 – New York Times)  President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war in Libya without Congressional authorization, according to officials familiar with internal administration deliberations.  (link)

(Via Politico)  Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday said if the Assad regime in Syria “were to be foolish enough to attack yet again and to do something in the meantime,” President Barack Obama “knows he has the power” to attack unilaterally and would likely “move very, very rapidly” — but “he feels we are stronger” moving with congressional authorization. (more…)

Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with President Obama, and his decision to attack Syria as punishment for chemical weapon use, it is prudent, and we are personally requesting, for all of us, regardless of disposition, to pause and pray for the safety of our nation’s soldiers who will be tasked to carry out the command.

Like many, perhaps most, I do not support the approach – Nor do I think it is in our nations best interests. However, regardless of my disposition I am certain that our military will execute their objectives with unparalleled professionalism and respect for duty.

We should not be quiet; yet we should not bitch and moan without purpose.

We should fight like hell to have OUR voices heard by our representatives; and we should demand those who we have elected to hold the Executive Branch to account…..

…. and then, in the final analysis, if our voice is overruled – regardless of our frustration or angst, we should present ourselves on bended knee and pray for those who ultimately are charged with carrying out the decisions of our national leadership.

It is from the diligence of our brave military we are able to rail, protest, and demand voice.

All About Politics – All About Optics – All The Time

Every single move our President takes is determined by political winds…..
Wow.  Just wow.   The speech by President Obama this afternoon was just staggeringly unreal.   Bizzarro World Type pretzel contortions.    The speech was short, but in a surprising twist Obama announced he will seek congressional authority on attacking Syria even though he believes he has the authority to go ahead with strike. (this really is must watch stuff – even if you find yourself challenged to stick with it through the absurd nature of what you are bearing witness to)

Following the speech Charles Krauthammer accurately captured several optical realities.
(more…)

In 1986 Libyan diplomats, acting at the specific instruction of Libyan leader Qaddafi, sent a bomb expert, Yasser Chraidi, from Tripoli to East Berlin.   Chraidi was a member of The Libyan People’s Bureau (LPB).   Driving a Volkswagen Golf bearing East German diplomatic license plates, Chraidi then left East Berlin and traveled through Checkpoint Charlie into West Berlin.
He constructed and hid his device in an apartment belonging to a Palestinian student.   On April 5th 1986 the bomb was delivered to an apartment beloging to Ali Chaana.   His wife, Verena Chaana, and her sister Andrea, took the bomb to Friedenau, a district in West Berlin, where they walked in to “La Belle”, a popular Black hip-hop style nightclub.    It was shortly after 1:00am and the place was packed. (more…)