Wednesday Open Thread 9.4.13
Jonathan Chait takes a look at the Syria Congressional Authorization situation from an aspect that I had not considered:
Imagine that Congress votes not to authorize Obama’s plan. Then further imagine that Bashar al-Assad, emboldened, carries out another chemical attack. The media coverage would be far more intense. And members of Congress who voted no will have to answer for the carnage that will appear on television screens across the world. If the first vote lost by a relatively narrow margin, Obama would probably then call for a second vote and stand a good chance of winning.
The prospect of that happening may itself deter Assad. And when Republicans complain that Obama’s gambit of asking for a congressional vote is a way of shifting responsibility onto Congress, they are, in a sense, correct. Obama will own the consequences of action with or without Congress’s approval. But if it disapproves, Congress will own the consequences of inaction. And those might ultimately prove higher than it is willing to bear.
Interesting. If you think Assad cannot be stupid enough to use them again, you ignore the fact that he was stupid enough to use them the first time.
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Peace in our time? The Klan and the NAACP have a meeting. Next up, Israelis and Palestinians. Cats and Dogs.
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Dana Milbank: “As [Sen. James] Inhofe’s conversion on the road to Damascus indicates, Republicans don’t like what Obama is doing in Syria — whatever it is.”
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A Wyoming Republican U.S. Senate candidate has announced that if she were in the Senate today, she would not vote to attack Syria. The reason why? President Obama “has failed to develop a plan for intervention with defined goals.” The candidate’s name is Liz Cheney. My head just exploded. Peak Irony achieved.
JESUS CHRIST !!! this debate is so stupid.
Jonathan Chait, basically, lays out the DC-bubble-double-reverse-psychology play whereby the teabag congress votes for something because they secretly think Obama wants them to vote against it.
What about… If we kill 1,000 Syrians (some of them innocent bystanders), will we be saving 2,000 from nerve gas?
We can’t answer that question because nobody is asking it.
Are you, dear liberal, ready for your blood to boil?
DD wrote:
If it comes down to a choice between using chemical weapons and losing in the civil war, he’ll use chemical weapons. By using chemical weapons again, he might get attacked by the West, but if he thinks he’s going to lose otherwise, what difference would it make?
From the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer:
More at the link, including the effects of sarin gas and how it works.
Yeah, it’s a terrible way to die, but death occurs in minutes. If you are shot in the head, death might be almost instantaneous, but if you are shot in the guts, it could take you hours of pain to die. A bomb blast might kill you straight away, but you could also linger for hours, crushed under rubble, or be burned to death. There’s no particular reason to think that death by sarin gas is somehow more horrible than the deaths suffered by 100,000 other Syrians in this civil war.
It will help clarify things to put a fiscal note on this adventure and attach a war tax. Does Obama think he will get a third war in recent memory for free? Remember those damned “supplemental appropriations” Republicans kept daring Dems to vote against? Once this thing starts we will be nation-building and “losing” pallets of cash all over again.
Just to change it up a bit—jason 330–I am ready to report back to you now on Frontier Airlines out of ILG OK?
Six flights later, 2 kids unloaded at western schools, and one drive thru family reunion–
Negative:
1) Being a small airport–only one security lane, so yes, all 172 people are single file only thru security checks.
2) As you walk out on the tarmac to board your flight, one might hear “there’s no way we’re getting all these people on that plane….”, as stated by random Frontier runway/maintenance worker standing nearby.
Positive:
1) You walk into a cooled, mist producing cabin right away from the heat and humidity outside.
2) More seat room for the buttocks—seriously–cause I know I didn’t lose any weight. Leg room the same as other airlines though.
3) They make you place your carry-on in a size specifier (or whatever you want to call it). I LOVED that! Can’t stand when people try to bring their 3 packaged Lladros all boxed up for the overhead.
4) They address you by name during beverage service–that was different.
5) No parking fee at airport. I hate putting that here, because DL is so widely read, our county and state legislature will see to that lil’ perk will be closed.
6) Drive up–drop-off service–no hassle if pops comes in w/ the suitcases, leaving the car at the curb, and the engine off!!!! And no Philly’s Finest layin’ on the horn, as you are folding a wheelchair, or helping Auntie Marion into the backseat.
7) All seats w/ WIFI/TV service (fee)
8) Being it is only one flight in the security line you are waiting in, I guess they won’t leave without you.
9) Excellent all-round experience–can’t wait to book again–won’t hesitate to do so–wish they’d fly to ATL, or one of mine would transfer to Pepperdine or Cal Poly to get that darn Santa Barbara site!
Did you need anything else jason?
I’m going to go the face value shallow route on this just because sometimes that’s all you can do when you don’t know who to believe.
Why would a westernized doctor who studied ophthalmology in London, and has a wife who looks like she could be a kindergarden teacher at Tower Hill School, gas rebels who he is defeating anyway?
“Would any state use chemical or any other weapons of mass destruction in a place where its own forces are concentrated? That would go against elementary logic,” Assad told Izvestia, a pro-Kremlin newspaper.
Sometimes when more credible media outlets have nothing, you have to look at the tabloids.
http://www.infowars.com/rebels-admit-responsibility-for-chemical-weapons-attack/
Then again you have this.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/world/middleeast/french-release-intelligence-tying-assad-government-to-chemical-weapons.html?pagewanted=all
As a displaced Texan now in Wilmington, I can vouch that Alex Jones is an Austin based, right wing, conspiracy theorist total nut bag with a late night radio show aimed at lonely people in bad need of some excitement.