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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County Clerk Refuses to Follow Judge’s Order to Issue Marriage License to Lesbian Couple (+video)

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

New Mexico state law takes no definitive stance on gay marriage, and while multiple counties have started issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, one county clerk is refusing to do so even in the face of a judge’s order.

Sharon Shover, who serves in Los Alamos county, this week refused to follow a judge’s order to give a marriage license to two women. Shover, a Republican, is publicly standing up to the order, saying she believes the decision to change the definition of marriage should be made by the state’s Supreme Court or by the legislature, The Albuquerque Journal reported.

Shover’s move comes after First Judicial District Judge Sheri Raphaelson ordered her to issue the permit to the couple, Janet Newton and Maria Thibodeau. If the clerk refused, the justice said she would need to show up in court to argue why such an allowance was denied. Standing firm, Shover is slated to appear Wednesday to make her case.

Albuquerque’s KOB-TV has more:

“Piecemeal litigation in courts across New Mexico is not good governance. County clerks need a comprehensive and clear answer from the state of New Mexico addressing this issue,” Shover said in a statement. “We all need to be issuing the same marriage license and following the same laws.”

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President Obama: America’s Credibility on the Line in Syria (+video)

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

President Barack Obama warned Wednesday that the international community’s credibility — though not his — is at risk if there’s no response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria, though he expects Congress to agree to take military action against Bashar Assad’s regime.

“My credibility is not on the line. The international community’s credibility is on the line,” Obama said at a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden. “And America and Congress’s credibility is on the line.”

Obama’s comments came during a joint appearance with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, ahead of his brief trip to the G20 summit in Russia, where he’s expected to continue pushing for international support for intervention in Syria, even with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who remains allied with Assad.

The president deflected attention from his own role in potential action against Syria as Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel headed into a second day of public and private consultations on Capitol Hill, including an open hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Obama said he is confident that Congress will authorize military involvement — and despite some vocal opposition, there were signs Wednesday that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will pass a Syria resolution.

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Ted Cruz: US is Not ‘Al-Qaeda’s Air Force’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz distilled the current debate over possible military action in Syria to its essential dilemma. While Syrian President Bashar Assad is certainly a ruthless dictator, the forces aligned against him are dominated by jihadis and elements of terrorist organizations. Cruz noted that Americans didn’t enlist in the military to “serve as Al-Qaeda’s Air Force.”

“We certainly don’t have a dog in the fight,” Cruz said, calling it a civil war in Syria. “We should be focused on defending the United States of America. That’s why young men and women sign up to join the military, not to, as you know, serve as Al Qaeda’s air force.”

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Mastermind Behind Benghazi Attack Trained In The U.S. (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

It is has been widely reported in Egyptian media that one of the leaders in the attack against the Benghazi consulate on September 11, 2012 was Mohsen Al-Azazi.

According to Ahmed Moussa, a former high ranking intelligence official with the Egyptian government and several other sources, Al-Azazi’s passport was found in the house of Khairat Al-Shater, the Number Two man in the Muslim Brotherhood hierarchy, now under house arrest in Egypt by the Egyptian military.

But according to an ongoing Egyptian investigation by Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution, Muslim Brotherhood second-in-command Khairat Al-Shater was just tangentially involved in the attack on the Benghazi consulate. The actual mastermind of the attack was a man by the name of Tarek Taha Abu Al-Azm, now in the custody of the Egyptian military.

In what is reminiscent of the attack on the World Trade Center towers and Pentagon on 9/11, where some of the hijackers reportedly received flight training on U.S. military installations, per Egyptian investigators, Al-Azm, the mastermind of the attack on the Benghazi consulate, took military courses at a U.S. Air Force base.

Per Muslim Brotherhood researcher Walid Shoebat, citing multiple Arabic news sources, Al-Azm is a seasoned jet fighter pilot and a former Major in the Egyptian Air Force.

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Rand Paul Says “50/50” Chance House Will Authorize Force in Syria; Senate a “Rubber Stamp”

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syria-assad

A leading skeptic of U.S. intervention in conflicts abroad said Sunday that he believes there is only a “50/50” chance that the GOP-controlled House will vote to authorize the use of U.S military force in the Syria.

“I think it’s at least 50/50 whether the House will vote down involvement in the Syrian war,” Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

“I think the Senate will rubber stamp what [Obama] wants but I think the House will be a much closer vote,” he added. “And there are a lot of questions we have to ask.”

Paul, a staunch defender of civil liberties who has battled against members of his own party over the government’s use of drones and NSA data collection programs, said he believes it’s a “mistake” to get involved in a civil war in Syria that could escalate “out of control.”

But he praised President Barack Obama’s announcement Saturday that he will seek congressional authority for military intervention in the civil war-torn country.

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Kerry says Congress won’t turn its back on the Syrian people

By Mackenzie Weinger.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday said he “can’t contemplate” that Congress would not authorize military action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and therefore “turn its back on” the United States’ allies in the region and “on innocent Syrian people who have been slaughtered by this gas.”

Host Chris Wallace asked Kerry on “Fox News Sunday” what would happen if Congress refused to give its authorization for military action in Syria, and Kerry replied that he does not believe that will happen.

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Men with Rifles Charged in ‘Open Carry’ Demonstration at Starbucks (+video)

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open carry at starbucksAn “open carry” demonstration outside of a local Starbucks was broken up by police after passersby complained about the three men and their rifles.

The demonstrators, who posted a video of the entire encounter to YouTube, claim they were within their legal rights.

According to Texas law, this type of conduct isn’t illegal as long as the weapon is not loaded.

However, San Antonio police Chief William McManus explained that the gun holder can still be charged with disorderly conduct if anyone, at any point, feels threatened.

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Gun Control Rally is Overwhelmed by Pro Gun Supporters Who Take Over Podium (+video)

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StopNRAYou know, we keep hearing about how 90% of the country supports expanded background checks, and a majority support new gun control.

However, whenever it comes to actually taking action, those alleged supporters are nowhere to be found. Often, participants at anti-gun rallies are outnumbered by organizers and the media.

A rally in support of expanded background checks in Ohio late this week was no exception.

Anti-gun speakers and protestors, who numbered only a handful, where quickly overwhelmed by NRA and Buckeye Firearms Association supporters in Columbus.

“As a gun owner, I’m a responsible person and I think it’s responsible to ask to have all gun owners have a background check,” said Blanche Luczyk [event organizer]. “It’s just common sense. Any responsible person who is willing to take the ownership of a gun should be willing to have that background check.”

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Video: Ralph Peters- Most Phenomenally Stupid Misuse Of Our Military I’ve Seen (+video)

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Photo Credit: National Review

Photo Credit: National Review

BILL HEMMER: You are strong in your opposition to this. Why?

RALPH PETERS: Well, because it’s the most phenomenally stupid misuse of our military I’ve ever seen. No one in this administration has been able to explain what tangible vital security interest we have in Syria or in stopping this fighting. This military demonstration — and that’s what it’s going to be — is about Obama shooting off his mouth about red lines and chemical weapons. Now he feels he has to do something. He doesn’t want to do too much, he doesn’t want to do too little. He’s not thinking through the potential consequences, and I see no, no way, Bill, in which a military attack on Syria is worth it for the United States or will end well.

HEMMER: Alright, let’s work through the scenarios then. How do you allow anyone on this planet to use chemical weapons, WMD, and not respond to it, not act?

PETERS: Where’s the rest of the world? Where are the neighbors? The Arab League said it doesn’t want us to attack. They obviously don’t care about poison gas being used on Muslims.

HEMMER: You have the French, and you have the British, and the Arab League did not come out yesterday in support, but there is support among these Arab nations that do it, whether or not it’s written on a sheet of paper or whether or not it’s declared in a mosque or not.

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Rand Paul: Immigration Reform Would Be the Final Thing Boehner Did as Speaker (+video)

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

On Laura Ingraham’s Friday radio show, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said that if Speaker of the House John Boehner passed an immigration reform bill similar to the Gang of Eight’s, it would be “final things he did as speaker.”

Paul offered an update on Congress’ immigration reform efforts: Earlier this summer, the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate passed its version of immigration reform legislation. Despite that, Paul still lobbied for his amendment that would put Congress in charge of making sure the border is secure.

“I’m not hearing much,” Paul said. “It’s gone pretty quiet on it. And I still think they’re still working on something in the House and the conservative members that have come up to me — what I keep saying and what I come back to is my amendment is trust but verify and in my amendment, I say you have to have congressional votes each year for about five years and each time we have to vote to say the border is more secure.”

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