Showing posts with label tom cotton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tom cotton. Show all posts

Thursday, September 10, 2015

GOP Fails to Stop Obama's Iran Deal

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Previous Related Posts:
Clueless Tom Cotton Says Tehran Was Captured by... Iran
Obama Signs Historic Iran Deal - GOP Throws Tantrum
U.S. and Allies Reach Nuclear Deal with Iran
#47Traitors Hashtag Trends Worldwide
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Let's enjoy all the tears of impotent rage over "Lame Duck" Obama's huge world victory in getting the Iran Deal to move forward with help from the Dems, who blocked last minute maneuvers, and in spite of the Religious Nuts, Bibi Netanyahu, and Prophets of Doom like Glenn Beck. Call a Waaaahmbulance!

From USAToday
Senators voted 58-42 to bring to the floor a resolution disapproving the deal. That was two votes short of the 60 votes Republican leaders needed to advance the bill.

The Democrats' action spares Obama from having to veto any legislation and leaves the Iran agreement intact, though Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he may bring the bill back for another vote next week.

Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., predicted that the outcome would not change if McConnell tries again.

"You can call (a vote) ten more times and you’ll get the same result," Durbin said.

Under legislation passed by Congress in May, the deal will take effect unless both the House and Senate vote for a resolution of disapproval by Sept. 17.

President Obama said he was heartened by the vote.

"The Senate took an historic step forward and voted to enable the United States to work with our international partners to enable the implementation of the comprehensive, long-term deal that will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," Obama said in a statement. "This vote is a victory for diplomacy, for American national security, and for the safety and security of the world."





































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Monday, March 16, 2015

Clueless Tom Cotton: Iran Captured Tehran From ... Iran

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Previous Related Posts:
GOP Infamy - #47Traitors Twitter Hashtag Trending
Traitors in U.S. Senate Write Letter to Iran
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Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), the supposed author of the now-infamous Iran Letter signed by the #47Traitors in the #GOP led Senate, went on a Sunday talk show and displayed an utter lack of knowledge about the history of Iran and the Persian Empire. Did you know that Iran already controls Tehran, their own capitol? OMG - how did this happen? And Iran is also in control of everything from Beirut to Baghdad - everything! Well, not really . . .

From Think Progress
But when asked by Face the Nation’s Bob Schieffer what better outcome Cotton expects if a White House-led deal falls through, Cotton seemed to make a key geographic mistake . . .

Bob Schieffer (Face the Nation): What do you want to happen here? What is your alternative here? Let’s say that the deal falls through, then what?

Sen. Tom Cotton: Well as Prime Minister Netanyahu said, the alternative to a bad deal is a better deal. The Iranians frequently bluff to walk away from the table. if they bluff this week, call their bluff. The Congress stands ready to impose much more severe sanctions. Moreover we have to stand up to Iran’s attempts to drive for regional dominance.
They already control Tehran increasingly they control Damascus and Beirut and Baghdad and now Sana’a as well. They do all that without a nuclear weapon. imagine what they would do with a nuclear weapon.

Schieffer went on to ask Cotton whether he had any regrets at all about the letter. So he didn’t clarify with Cotton what he meant by his comment that Iran has “control” of its own capital.























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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

GOP Infamy ~ #47Traitors Twitter Hashtag Trending Worldwide - Updated


Previous Related Posts:
Traitors in U.S. Senate Write Letter to Iran

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The Hashtag #47Traitors Trending Worldwide and in the USA Tuesday night, March 10, 2015. There is also a petition to charge the GOP Senators who signed the letter to Iran with treason posted on WhiteHouse.gov that has garnered over 123,000 signatures. I signed it yesterday when there were only about 6,555. Over 100,000 signatures in 24 hours!

Update: From President Obama:



Update: As of noon on 3-11-2015, #47Traitors is still trending!





























If these Senators really think they can dodge this mess or play "Blame Obama" with it, they really are delusional. Some are already blaming Netanyahu for rabble rousing and pointing at Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) as a scapegoat for writing the letter.

Far-right wingnuts have come out of the woodwork to support Tom Cotton and the rest, while Tom Cotton tries to 'splain what they were doing.
























The bottom line is that the GOP has gone too far this time, and history will remember!

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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

#47Traitors in U.S. Senate Write a Letter to Iran, Break the Logan Act

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The Logan Act states the following:

"Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both."

However, 47 U.S. Senators, including Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, and ex-Presidential candidate John McCain, decided to ignore that law and write a letter to the leader of Iran, threatening that any treaty made with President Obama wouldn't be ratified by them. So they have broken the Logan Act and shamed the United States once again on a global scale.

I'm proud to say that neither Senator from Tennessee signed this letter. Good for Corker and Alexander showing they can stand up to the mob!

Via Politico
In a highly unusual move, a group of 47 Republicans in the upper chamber has written to Iran’s top leaders to let them know that any nuclear deal they reach with the United States would be “nothing more than an executive agreement.”
Freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) organized the letter, which features signatures from top Republican Senate leadership and potential presidential candidates such as Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
The following Republican senators did not sign the bill: Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Dan Coats of Indiana, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Susan Collins of Maine, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
. . . The letter, first reported by Bloomberg View columnist Josh Rogin, is meant to turn up the heat on President Barack Obama to give Congress some power over the nuclear negotiations.
“It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system. Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution—the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices—which you should seriously consider as negotiations progress,” the senators wrote. “Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement.”









It's bad enough that Congress allowed Netanyahu to make his case just last week, but this goes beyond taking advice from a foreign leader. This is tampering with the Constitutional duties of the President of the U.S., who is the only one who can make treaties with foreign leaders.

In a case of classic Group Think behavior, the group of 47 followed the lead of the Junior Senator from Arkansas, Tom Cotton, a yahoo if there ever was one. They have followed him out on a limb and right over a cliff on this one. If Pres. Obama and the Democrats had the will and the nerve, they would throw the book at all of them and slap them in prison on treason or sedition charges. But unfortunately, that's not how Washington works, so this will probably just be another embarassment to our country that we don't do anything about, like school shootings and Tea Party led shutdowns.

Senator Harry Reid, Democratic Minority Leader in the Senate spoke out:

From The Hill
“Republicans are undermining our commander in chief while empowering the ayatollahs,” he said from the Senate floor. “We should always have robust debate about foreign policy, but it's unprecedented for one political party to directly intervene in an international negotiation with the sole goal of embarrassing the president of the United States.”






And Iran's government responded to the letter, schooling the Senate on how this works:

From Washington Post
“It has come to our attention while observing” the negotiations, the letter says, “that you may not fully understand our constitutional system.” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif got an undergraduate and master’s degree from San Francisco University in international relations and another master’s from the University of Denver, so it’s possible he knows. (The president, however, went to college in Scotland.)
Zarif dismissed the letter — and lectured the authors — Monday as “propaganda.”
. . . “We believe that the letter has no legal value and is propaganda,” Zarif said, quoted in Iranian media. “The senators must know that under international law, Congress cannot change the content of the agreement,” he said, and “any congressional action to prevent the implementation of any agreement will violate [Washington's] international commitments.”
He then said: “The world is not just in America.”

Vice President Joe Biden was much more blunt about the letter:
Via Huff Post
In thirty-six years in the United States Senate, I cannot recall another instance in which Senators wrote directly to advise another country -- much less a longtime foreign adversary -- that the President does not have the constitutional authority to reach a meaningful understanding with them. This letter sends a highly misleading signal to friend and foe alike that that our Commander-in-Chief cannot deliver on America’s commitments -- a message that is as false as it is dangerous," Biden said in a statement released by the White House.
"The decision to undercut our President and circumvent our constitutional system offends me as a matter of principle. As a matter of policy, the letter and its authors have also offered no viable alternative to the diplomatic resolution with Iran that their letter seeks to undermine."













































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Monday, March 3, 2014

Armchair Chickenhawks Say Obama is "Weak and Trembling" on Russia - Updated With "Feckless"

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Previous Related Posts:
Optics Delusion: Russia Invades Ukraine and Twitter Erupts Over Obama Wearing Jeans
Palin Plays the Angry White Victim Card for M.L. King Day
New GOP Scandal: #Umbrellagate
John McCain Plays Iphone Poker During Syria Hearing
Tea Party Tantrum as Obama Shakes Hands with Castro

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Every time there is a world crisis, hysterical members of the GOP begin to war-splain that Obama is weak, I tell you, WEAK! And nowhere near scary enough to put the fear of God into tough-guys like Putin. So weak, ineffectual, non-cowboy Obama better get his act together and Declare War Now!!! Because #BENGHAZIIIIIIII!!!

Of course, people say these things knowing they will never, ever be Leader of the Free World or Commander-in-Chief of the United States Military. Chickenhawks sound brave from the comfort of their armchairs.

The worst is Squeaky Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, the ultimate Chickenhawk Neocon:

Well, number one, stop going on television and trying to threaten thugs and dictators. It is not your strong suit. Every time the president goes on national television and threatens Putin or anyone like Putin, everybody's eyes roll, including mine.
We have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression.
President Obama needs to do something. How about this, suspend Russian membership in the G-8 and the G-20 at least for a year starting right now. And for every day they stay in Crimea, add to the suspension. Do something.
~ Lindsey Graham to Candy Crowley on CNN

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Then there is Graham's friend, John McCain, R-Arizona, who loves war because it gives him a reason to be head of a new committee on, well . . . war. See how that works? You'd think a guy who was tortured in Vietnam for YEARS wouldn't be anxious for the military to rush in where angels fear to tread, but he just needs to be on Meet the Press every week - don't you people understand?

Every moment that the United States and our allies fail to respond sends the signal to President Putin that he can be even more ambitious and aggressive in his military intervention in Ukraine. There is a range of serious options at our disposal at this time without the use of military force. I call on President Obama to rally our European and NATO allies to make clear what costs Russia will face for its aggression and to impose those consequences without further delay.
~ Senator John McCain's Website

Update ~ More McCain on "Feckless Obama":

This is a blatant act on the part of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, and one that must be unacceptable to the world community," he told AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby. "It cannot stand."
"Why do we care?" McCain asked. "Because this is the ultimate result of a feckless foreign policy where nobody believes in America's strength any more."
~ John McCain via CBS News







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Following the Chickenhawk Twins is, of course, the Queen Bee of all Neocons, Sarah Palin. She believes she now has the gift of prophecy for once suggesting that Putin would "rear his head" in Russia and invade Ukraine. Does anyone really think she came up with that idea on her own? Wherever the talking point came from, Palin couldn't be more delighted at the thought of war with Russia. Patriots and all that.*eyeroll* "Told-Ya-So"

Yes, I could see this one from Alaska. I'm usually not one to Told-Ya-So, but I did, despite my accurate prediction being derided as “an extremely far-fetched scenario” by the “high-brow” Foreign Policy magazine. Here’s what this “stupid” “insipid woman” predicted back in 2008: "After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia's Putin to invade Ukraine next."
~ Sarah Palin's Facebook

And actually, the person questioning Palin's theory didn't rule out an invasion, just the idea that it would turn into all-out war. He believed it would be easy for Putin to invade Ukraine, and so far, that has been the case. Does it matter that Obama has now been in office for six years and Putin just made a move AFTER the Sochi Olympics?

Blake Hounshell on Foreign Policy Mag about Palin's Invasion Theory:
As we've said before, this is an extremely far-fetched scenario. And given how Russia has been able to unsettle Ukraine's pro-Western government without firing a shot, I don't see why violence would be necessary to bring Kiev to heel. Watch the upcoming parliamentary elections in December to see if Moscow gets the pliable new government it wants.

And she wasn't finished!

Look, the perception of Obama, of him and his potency across the world is one of such weakness. People are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil. They look at our president as one who wears mom jeans and equivocates and bloviates.
~ Sarah Palin on Fox News









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And Obama will start WWIII!!! OMG!

The disarming of America over the past five years limits our options in Ukraine today. I just returned from Georgia in January, and they fear Russia will further invade their territory next. Throughout this administration, I have also warned that if the United States does not maintain a ready and capable military, we would surrender our global influence and leave a vacuum that will be filled by Russia. I warned this day was coming, and it is here.
~ Senator Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma

The world does not expect the United States just ‘to stand with the international community,’ as the president said,” They expect the United States to lead. Weak statements, history has proven, only invite aggression.
~ Former Senator Jim DeMint, now head of the conservative Heritage Foundation




Emboldened by President Obama's trembling inaction, Vladimir Putin has invaded the Crimea region of Ukraine. Senior U.S. officials have reportedly called Russia's actions in Crimea an ‘uncontested arrival,’ not an invasion; the same was said about the Anschluss. The hours ahead will decide whether this invasion of Crimea is repelled or expanded to the whole of Ukraine, and whether the West finally confronts Putin or again blinks in disgrace.
At a minimum, President Obama should revoke travel visas and freeze assets of senior Russian officials and Putin cronies, freeze assets of Ukrainian oligarchs who assist the Russian invasion, stop transfers of assets out of Ukraine, support the Ukrainian transitional government and military as it defends Ukraine's territorial integrity, recall our ambassador to Russia, reschedule the upcoming G-8 meeting from Russia to Western Europe or the U.S., and suspend Russia from the G-8. Putin must be punished for his outlaw actions and the Russian people and elites must recognize they will pay a price for them.
~ Representative Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas

Ex-NY Mayor Rudy GIULIANI: Putin decides what he wants to do and he does it in half a day, right? He decided he had to go to their parliament. He went to their parliament. He got permission in 15 minutes.
Neil CAVUTO: Well, that was kind of like perfunctory.
GIULIANI: But he makes a decision and he executes it, quickly. Then everybody reacts. That's what you call a leader. President Obama, he's got to think about it. He's got to go over it again. He's got to talk to more people about it.
~ Fox News/Neil Cavuto - Via Esquire: Rudy Giuliani's Mancrush On Putin

Obama’s whole theory on international relations was: If i’m nice to Iran, if I offer them all kinds of goodies, if I’m nice to the North Koreans, if I’m nice to any adversaries anywhere… He wanted to show the Russians that he was willing to bury the hatchet on all the past and then he wanted cooperation in other areas,” Krauthammer said.
Putin looks at this guy and says I’m dealing with an adolescent, this is a community organizer, he doesn’t understand how the world works. What Putin did, a KGB agent and a thug, he pockets all the things Obama offers him for nothing, he walks away and then he struts the world stage knowing he has an adversary in the White House who will do nothing. And he has done nothing.
~ Fox News Pundit, Charles Krauthammer























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