August 31, 2013

What Will U.S. Military Force Against Syria Accomplish?

Today President Obama announced he decided the United States will use military force against Syria for its chemical weapon use. The President said he would seek the approval of congress, but noted that he has the executive power to authorize this action without congressional approval. That is something in stark contrast to his previous stance as Senator. In 2007, while on the presidential campaign trail, Obama said, “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” I know we are supposed to believe presidents are privy to more information than us mere mortals, but this seems like a huge compromise of ethics, not to mention constitutionally questionable.

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August 22, 2013

Republicans Want To Impeach President Obama, And They Don’t Need A Reason

Increasingly conservative constituents are asking Republican elected officials, “Why can’t we impeach President Obama?” And in many cases, these Republicans (Senator Ted Cruz, Representative Blake Farenthold) answer by saying it’s a good question, and that they would love to impeach Obama, but the problem is the Democratically controlled Senate. Republicans lack any solid reasoning for impeachment (surprise), but that’s not what stands in their way. What stands between Republicans and an impeachment attempt is a tiny sliver of acumen remaining in the United States Congress.

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April 28, 2013

VIDEO: White House Correspondents’ Dinner: ‘House of Cards’ Spoof

I’m a big fan of Netflix’s House of Cards, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you should. The entire first season is excellent, but you could watch just for Kevin Spacey’s performance alone. In a sign of just how successful this online series is, last night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner opened with a “House of Cards” spoof titled “House of Nerds.”

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April 26, 2013

Poll: Majority Of Pennsylvania Voters Are ‘Angry’ Or ‘Dissatisfied’ Over Background Check Vote

A Quinnipiac University poll finds a large majority of Pennsylvania voters supported the Manchin-Toomey background check bill that was “defeated” in the Senate last week. Sixty-nine percent of PA voters said they “strongly support” expanded background checks. The background check bill did not make it to the artificial 60-vote threshold needed to pass. In the Senate, barring political nonsense, it only requires a simply majority to pass a bill. But those days are long gone. The failure of expanded background checks to pass the Senate has 34 percent of PA voters “angry,” and 36 percent “dissatisfied.”

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April 20, 2013

John Oliver Exposes Australia’s Gun Control ‘Failure’

In 1996 Australia suffered it’s worst mass shooting event with 35 innocent people killed. Newly elected conservative Prime Minister John Howard faced a choice, he could enact strong gun control laws that might also penalize law-abiding gun owners, or do nothing. He chose the former, and with 17 years of data, the evidence is pretty clear. In the 18 years preceding the 1996 massacre, Australia saw 13 mass shootings. There have been none since tough new gun control measures passed.

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February 24, 2013

Sequestration: Blame President Obama? – Only Congress Can End It

There’s plenty of talk about who is to blame for the sequestration, the automatic spending cuts set to kick in on Friday. Obama blames congress. Prominent Republican members of congress, like Speaker John Boehner, blame the president. Bob Woodward wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post putting the blame squarely on White House. “My extensive reporting for my book ‘The Price of Politics‘ shows that the automatic spending cuts were initiated by the White House,” said Woodward. It was the “brainchild of [Jack] Lew and White House congressional relations chief Rob Nabors — probably the foremost experts on budget issues in the senior ranks of the federal government.”

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