Calls to Congress 499 to 1 Against Syria War

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Marine Not Fight for War In SyriaAmericans are slamming at least 22 members of Congress with thousands of phone calls and emails, urging lawmakers not to approve a military strike on Syria – by a margin of as much as 499 to 1.

A national debate is raging on Twitter. Tweets and statements from members of Congress – both Democrat and Republican – show tremendously strong opposition to President Obama’s call for an air strike on Syria:

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., tweeted, “Calls and emails from my constituents is 100 to 1 AGAINST getting involved in Syria. The American people are speaking.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said 99 percent of the calls his office oppose an attack.

Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., tweeted, “Syria constituent calls 489-2 against.”

Rep. Shelley Capito, R-W.V., said of “about 1,000 calls to my office, maybe 5 are for.”

Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., tweeted, “FYI: Received 75 calls/emails from constituents today so far on Syria. All 75 opposed to military action.”

Rep. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said, “I’m told the phone calls are 9 out of 10 against a strike in Syria, from my constituents in Kentucky.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., tweeted, “My office has been inundated with constituent phone calls and emails about Syria. Virtually unanimous opposition to military intervention.”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, tweeted, “So far about 500 emails regarding Syria. 499 say NO and 1 say YES go to war” and “Hundreds of calls to our Provo and Washington, D.C., office. So far not a single call in favor of bombing Syria.”

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., tweeted, “The phones in my office are ringing off the hook and mail is flowing in. Almost all of the people are opposed to intervention in Syria.”

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said “a very high percentage” of the constituents contacting his office have been against U.S. involvement in Syria. He estimated that 90 percent of more than 1,000 calls and emails from Americans have been urging him not to support intervention.

Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., tweeted, “I’ve been hearing a lot from members of our armed forces. The message I consistently hear: Please vote no on military action against Syria.”

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Jack Nicholson on Abortion: ‘I’m Positively Against It’ — ‘I Never Would Have Gotten to Live’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Hollywood legend Jack Nicholson, 76, who is retiring from movies it was reported today, is, unlike many liberals in Tinseltown, a staunch pro-lifer who said in a 1984 interview about abortion, “I’m positively against it. I don’t have the right to any other view.”

He added that it was the moral character of his mother and grandmother that ensured he himself had not been aborted.

The Academy Award-winning Nicholson was born on Apr. 22, 1937 to a woman named June Frances Nicholson, who was 17 years old at the time and a showgirl dancer. Jack was raised by his maternal grandparents, John Nicholson and Ethel May, believing they were his real parents and that June Frances was his sister. Jack Nicholson did not find out until 1974, after his mother had died of cancer, that June Frances was his real mother.

In the 1984 Rolling Stone interview, Jack Nicholson described his mother and the life she had lived and also talked about abortion. He said, “I’m very contra my constituency in terms of abortion because I’m positively against it. I don’t have the right to any other view.”

“My only emotion is gratitude, literally, for my life,” said Nicholson. “[If June and Ethel had been] of less character, I never would have gotten to live. These women gave me the gift of life.”

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Democratic Leadership More Pro-War than GOP Leadership

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Democratic leadership in the Senate and House are more in favor of military action in Syria than Republican leadership in either chamber.

Four out of eight members of Democratic leadership have stated they would support involvement, while the other four remain undecided but seem to lean toward an attack.

Meanwhile, just two out of 10 members of Republican leadership support a resolution to attack Syria. Two more are currently against but may be swayed. Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., is firmly against military action and the rest are either skeptical or undecided.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.: For intervention. “I believe the use of military force against Syria is both justified and necessary,” Reid said in a press release.

Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.: For intervention. “If we can do something to discourage Assad and others like him from using chemical weapons without engaging in a war and without making a long-term military commitment of the United States, I’m open to that debate,” Durbin said in a press release.

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CRS: DOD Estimates ‘Over 75,000 Troops’ Needed to Secure Syria’s Chem Weapons

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in a report released on August 20 that the Pentagon has estimated it would take “over 75,000 troops” to secure Syria’s chemical weapons.

Meanwhile, the draft text of the resolution authorizing President Barack Obama to use force in Syria that is being taken up by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today prohibits the president from putting ground troops in Syria “for the purpose of combat operations”–but appears to leave open the possiblity that the president could put troops in Syria to secure chemical weapons.

“The authority granted in section 2 does not authorize the use of the United States Armed Forces on the ground in Syria for the purpose of combat operations,” says the text of the draft resolution.

However, Section 2 of the resolution gives the president the authority to use the Armed Forces in Syria “as he determines necessary and appropriate” for a limited set of purposes, including “to protect our allies and partners against the use of” weapons of mass destruction.

The CRS report saying that the Pentagon had estimated it would take “over 75,000 troops” to secure Syria’s chemical weapons was issued just one day before an August 21 chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs. According to an assessment released by the U.S. government, that attack killed 1,429 people. Ten days after the attack–and eleven days after the CRS released its report–President Obama announced his intention to use military force to penalize the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Asad for perpetrating the attack.

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Jon Stewart Returns to Blast Obama Administration, Congress on Syria

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Photo Credit: Comedy Central screen shot

Photo Credit: Comedy Central screen shot

Jon Stewart returned to Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” Tuesday night after spending the summer directing a film in Jordan, and the host wasted no time in going after the Obama administration and Congress members on Syria.

Correspondent John Oliver filled in for Mr. Stewart for eight of the 12-week break, and he gave the returning host an on-air rundown of the summer’s news.

“Wow! America taking military action against a Middle East regime? It’s like I never left,” the host said, before leading into a segment called “Uncle Jonny Stew’s Good Time Syria Jamboree,” featuring presidents who delivered various threats against Middle Eastern countries.

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Senate-Crafted Syria Resolution Riddled with Loopholes for Obama (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Senators on Wednesday tried to write a tight resolution authorizing President Obama to strike Syria under very specific circumstances, but analysts and lawmakers said the language still has plenty of holes the White House could use to expand military action well beyond what Congress appears to intend.

“Wiggle room? Plenty of that,” said Louis Fisher, scholar in residence at the Constitution Project and former long-time expert for the Congressional Research Service on separation of powers issues.

Writing the actual language to empower and constrain Mr. Obama is proving to be a difficult task, with the key authors being pulled in various directions.

Some of the drafters’ colleagues want to give the president broad latitude for ongoing strikes that not only target Syrian President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons, but also aids the rebels seeking to overthrow him. Other lawmakers, though, want the most limited of action — a strike designed only to make sure the Assad regime can’t deploy its chemical weapons again.

The resolution drafted by Sens. Robert Menendez and Bob Corker, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, grants Mr. Obama power “to use the armed forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in a limited and tailored manner against legitimate military targets in Syria” — but only in relation to that nation’s weapons of mass destruction.

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Big Labor Boss Admits ObamaCare Causing Businesses to Cut Hours (+video)

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Photo Credit: United Liberty

Photo Credit: United Liberty

Fresh off admitting that ObamaCare “still needs to be tweaked,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka took note of the damage being done to workers as businesses have been forced to cut hours due to ObamaCare during a recent interview with David Shuster of al-Jazeera America:

This employer mandate requires businesses with 50 or more full-time employees to offer health insurance benefits or face a punitive tax. Because ObamaCare defines a full-time employee as someone who works 30 or more hours a week, many employers have been scaling back hours or hiring only part-time workers.

Interestingly, Trumka complained when the Obama Administration delayed the employer mandate. “In the health reform debate, we fought to ensure that employers have a responsibility to provide affordable, comprehensive health benefits to their workers and their families,” he said in July.

“The employer responsibility provision included in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), while not as strong as we asked for, was designed to give large employers an incentive to offer or continue offering affordable, comprehensive health care coverage to some of their employees,” he added. “The Administration’s announcement that it is delaying employer responsibility assessments until 2015 is troubling because it removes that incentive for next year. In light of this decision, we believe it is even more urgent for Congress and the Administration to reaffirm their commitment to employer responsibility.”

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Congressional Vote on Syria Could Prove Short-Term Domestic Boon for Obama

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Photo Credit: PBS Screenshot

Photo Credit: PBS Screenshot

U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to seek authorization from Congress for a strike on Syria may be part of a more comprehensive short-term strategy meant to alleviate the pressure facing him at home, including tackling the budget ceiling issue on the domestic front, experts say.

Approaching a contentious budget battle this month, any time set aside for debate in Congress will now be eaten up by the pressing issue of launching a military operation in Syria, in response to the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian military, analysts told Reuters.

The vote in Congress on Syria has increased the likelihood that U.S. lawmakers will agree to a short-term government funding measure, as they wouldn’t otherwise be able to pass legislation in time to avoid a federal shutdown by October 1st, the start of the new fiscal year.

But the long-term questions still remain, though they may be answered in the coming days as the outline of a potential military operation in Syria becomes clearer.

“How are they going to pay for this operation? Are they going to use a war supplement or pay for it out of existing funds? Too much is unknown,” Boris Zilberman, deputy director of Congressional relations at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told The Algemeiner. “If they need a war supplement to fund it, then does it make a [budget] deal more likely? Probably. But I think there are more questions than answers right now.”

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Photo Credit: Syrianpresidency Instagram

Photo Credit: Syrianpresidency Instagram

Report: Assad Moves Weapons Underground as U.S. Strike Looms

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has begun to move his arsenal of advanced weapons underground in preparation for a possible strike on the country by the United States, Israel’s Channel 1o reported on Wednesday.

Since learning of U.S. President Obama’s desire to attack Syria, Assad ‘s forces have begun to move the weapons, including possibly chemical warheads, into underground bunkers. The process was accelerated when Damascus realized that the U.S. strike would not be a surprise and in fact would be delayed by a Congressional vote, Channel 10 said.

The underground facilities are similar to those built by Iran near the city of Qom in order to protect its nuclear facilities against attacks…

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Calif. County Votes for Secession from State

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Photo Credit: Chris Stewart

Photo Credit: Chris Stewart

Supervisors in a far Northern California county where residents are fed up with what they see as a lack of representation at the state capitol and overregulation have voted in favor of separating from the state.

The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Tuesday for a declaration of secession, the Record Searchlight of Redding reported (https://bit.ly/1cFTqUG ). The vote appears mostly symbolic since secession would require approval from the state Legislature and the U.S. Congress, but supporters say it would restore local control over decision making. They want other rural counties in Northern California and Southern Oregon to join them in the creation of a new state called the State of Jefferson.

“Many proposed laws are unconstitutional and deny us our God-given rights,” Gabe Garrison of Happy Camp said at the meeting. “We need our own state so we can make laws that fit our way of life.”

Garrison was among more than 100 people who attended the meeting, and most were in support of the declaration, according to the Record Searchlight.

The declaration does not launch any type of formal process toward secession, but only reflects the county’s support, said Tom Odom, the county’s administrative officer.

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Where’s the Anti-War Left?

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Photo Credit: JTF Guantanamo

Photo Credit: JTF Guantanamo

Barack Obama ran for president as the last of the red-hot pacifists, so it might have sounded preposterous to predict that after a few security briefings at the White House, President Obama would follow in the same policy footsteps of horrid warmonger George Bush, with his anti-terrorist wars and strategies.

So where is the anti-war movement now?

“What anti-war movement?” former Congressman Dennis Kucinich asked when called for comment last week. Medea Benjamin of the radical group Code Pink agreed: “The antiwar movement is a shadow of its former self under the Bush years.” Cindy Sheehan quipped, “The ‘anti-war left’ was used by the Democratic Party. I like to call it the ‘anti-Republican War’ movement.”

The “Wonkblog” of The Washington Post ran an article (online only, not in the newspaper) headlined, “How Obama demobilized the antiwar movement.” As much as our “objective” media lamely tried to portray the peaceniks mobilizing in the streets against Team Bush as nonpartisan and non-ideological, the truth is the movement collapsed as soon as the Democrats tasted power.

Sociologists Michael Heaney and Fabio Rojas surveyed the leftist protesters for a 2011 paper and found that after Obama won, “attendance at anti-war rallies declined precipitously and financial resources available to the movement dissipated … the antiwar movement demobilized as Democrats, who had been motivated to participate by anti-Republican sentiments, withdrew from antiwar protests when the Democratic Party achieved electoral success, if not policy success.”

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