Congress in Hiding as King Obama Makes War Around The World

Congress Hides Under Their Desks

• Both liberal Democrats and so-called "small government" Conservative Republicans are hiding under their desks frightened to death that they might actually have to publicly debate and vote on going to war in Iraq. 
• Without a vote of Congress, King Obama has made unconstitutional wars on Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Syria (with the CIA) and now in Iraq.

The US military has launched 138 airstrikes against the Islamic State since the campaign began one month ago, making Iraq one of the hottest theaters in which US forces are engaged against jihadist groups.
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The US military expanded its campaign against the Islamic State today, targeting jihadists who are threatening the Haditha Dam in the western province of Anbar, most of which has been under control of the group since January reports the Long War Journal.

The military announced the airstrikes in a press release on the Department of Defense's website.

The Imperial President

 

"At the request of the Government of Iraq, the US military on Saturday conducted coordinated airstrikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorists in the vicinity of the Haditha Dam in Anbar province," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said. "We conducted these strikes to prevent terrorists from further threatening the security of the dam, which remains under control of Iraqi Security Forces, with support from Sunni tribes."

Four US airstrikes targeted and "destroyed five ISIL Humvees, one ISIL armed vehicle, an ISIL checkpoint, and also damaged an ISIL bunker."

Kirby said that the US would continue to target Islamic State forces near the Haditha Dam.

"We will continue to conduct operations as needed in support of the Iraqi Security Forces and the Sunni tribes, working with those forces securing Haditha Dam," he said.

Iraqi forces and tribes in Haditha have been battling the Islamic State for control of the area for months. More than 2,000 Iraqi troops, backed by tribal forces loyal to the anti-Islamic State Awakening, have been defending the dam, the largest on the Euphrates River. The Awakening was key to US efforts to secure Anbar and other provinces while US forces were in country.

The Islamic State has controlled the city of Fallujah and the smaller Fallujah Dam, which is downstream, since January. Islamic State fighters had opened the floodgates of the dam earlier this year to impede the movement of Iraqi troops.

Read more: Long War Journal

"The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure."

George Washington
(1793)

Polls: Tom Cotton, Mitch McConnell, Mark Udall lead

Dems Are Feeling The Heat

Republicans now lead key Senate races in Arkansas and Kentucky, while Democratic Sen. Mark Udall has a six-point advantage over his GOP opponent in Colorado, according to three new NBC News/Marist polls of likely voters released Sunday morning on Chuck Todd’s inaugural episode of “Meet the Press.”

Arkansas

In Arkansas, the poll shows GOP Rep. Tom Cotton leading Sen. Mark Pryor, 45 percent to 40 percent. Cotton has led in most public polls in recent months — he was up by two points in a CNN/ORC International poll released last week — though Democrats note that Pryor is within the margin of error in many of those surveys.

Republicans’ advantage in Arkansas extends to the gubernatorial race: Republican Asa Hutchinson leads Democrat Mike Ross by 9 points, 48 percent to 39 percent, a wider margin in the race between the two former congressman than other polls have shown.

Kentucky

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has his largest lead in Kentucky over Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in some time by 8 points.

47% for McConnell, 39% for Grimes and 8% for Libertarian David Patterson.

Most other polls have showed a slightly closer race, though McConnell has maintained a stubborn lead since his late May primary victory.  See NBC News poll

Colorado

In Colorado, Udall leads GOP Rep. Cory Gardner, 48 percent to 42 percent, the NBC/Marist poll shows. That’s a wider margin than other public surveys, but Colorado has been a difficult state to poll in recent election cycles.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper has a smaller lead in his reelection bid over former GOP Rep. Bob Beauprez — a 43% - 39% advantage, with a Libertarian candidate earning 5% of the vote.


Read more: Politico.com

Sunday Comics

Week in Review

Earth Down To Last Cubic Meter Of Resources

Horrified Subway Execs Assumed People Were

Buying Footlongs To Share With A Friend

GOP Maintains Solid Hold On Youth That

Already Look Like Old Men

GM Recalls 600,000 Vehicles For Faulty Car-Detonators

3,000 Westerners have joined ISIS - Turkey helps ISIS sell oil

They Are Targeting You

(Business Insider)  -  Increasing attention is being paid to the radicalization of Muslims from the West who are joining the conflict in Iraq and Syria.

U.S. and European security services estimate that more than 1,000 of jihadist militants fighting in Iraq and Syria were drawn to the conflict from Western nations with some estimates putting the number as high as 3,000.

Business Insider compiled the graph below, which illustrates best estimates of where just some of those Western fighters originate.

Business Insider sought to use only official statements and credible reports in compiling the estimates.

The chart shows 700 recruits from France, 400 from the U.K., 320 from Germany, 250 from Belgium, 200 from Australia, 130 from the Netherlands, 100 from Canada, 100 from the U.S., and 51 from Spain.

The figures demonstrate alarming numbers from the U.K. and France in particular. In both countries, the integration of immigrant communities — and Islamic communities in particular— remains a hot-button political issue.

Per capita, Belgium is the biggest source of western ISIS recruits.

Given the chaotic nature of the fighting, people who have left their home countries to join the conflict are hard to track. Further, there are multiple militant groups on the ground in Iraq and Syria that could attract Western fighters. 

 

But from the studies Business Insider analyzed, it appears the majority of those who join the conflict end up fighting for ISIS. Some experts, such as professor Peter Neumann of King's College London, estimate the number could be as high as 80%. 

ISIS has been targeting Western recruits with social-media campaigns, slickly produced videos, and English-language publications.


Read more: Business Insider

Turkey helps ISIS to profit from seized oil

Tiny bit by bit news leaks out about U.S.

"allies" helping ISIS in their war.

Secret video of ISIS smuggled out of Iraq

 

al-Qaeda is too warm and fuzzy for these guys.

Rubio: Obama can go to war without Congress

Retard Alert!

• To think I once liked this guy.  What a shit-head.  Has this dumb ass ever read the Constitution or the Federalist Papers?  Congress alone has the power to declare war.  Period. 
• We do not live in a Monarchy though it appears most members of Congress want a system of an elected dictator so they don't have to vote on any hard issues.

The Hill reports Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says Dear Leader Obama does not need authorization from Congress to launch airstrikes in Syria against the terrorist group that beheaded two American journalists.

Rubio said the president should expand U.S. airstrikes to Syria to "degrade and defeat" the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which he said poses an immediate threat to national security.

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"Just as the U.S. has conducted operations against terrorists elsewhere, there is no legal reason preventing you from targeting ISIL in Syria," Rubio wrote in a letter sent to the president Friday, using an alternate acronym for the group.

 

Rubio's position is at odds with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), another potential GOP presidential candidate.

Paul too has said he supports expanding airstrikes to Syria, but chastised the president for circumventing the Constitution by not debating military action through Congress.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and others have said it is "questionable" whether the president has the authority to target the group in Syria.

Rubio criticized the president for not outlining a strategy to combat ISIS in "clear and unequivocal terms.”

He called for the administration to build an international coalition to increase military pressure against ISIS and boost arms supplied to Kurdish forces in Iraq and moderate rebel forces in Syria.

"In addition to striking ISIL abroad, there must be a renewed and heightened effort to secure the homeland as well," he said.

Read more: The Hill.

National Guard out of money to train, but illegal aliens get free lawyers

Dems say: "Screw Americans"

• There is no money to train soldiers, but Obama finds endless money for housing, education and lawyers for illegal alien law breakers.

Tens of thousands of Army National Guard members from New Hampshire to Hawaii have been idled because of a $101 million gap that has led to drills being postponed and travel being suspended, National Guard spokesman Capt. John Fesler said.

Meanwhile, there are efforts underway in Congress to get funding reallocated so drills can be held later this month and so Guard members will get the pay they were counting on reports the Portland Press Herald.

Decisions to postpone or cancel drills were being made by state Guard leaders. Among states that announced they put off training exercises are Alabama, California, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Montana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Utah. Some, including Alaska, New Jersey, Oregon and Vermont, planned to go ahead as scheduled.

Texas authorities said Guard members already on border missions won’t be affected by the delay.

The Ohio National Guard’s adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Deborah Ashenhurst, announced postponement in a video last week. She said drills were being rescheduled for the end of the month in hopes that funding will be available by then.

“We’re very much aware that this action will be at best an inconvenience for all of you and will have varying degrees of economic impact across the force,” Ashenhurst said. “We’re taking this action as a last resort.”

U.S. - Iran Alliance - Khamenei approves cooperation with US forces battling IS

Radical Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr attends the funeral of fighters loyal to his Brigades of Peace, who were killed when an improvised explosive device exploded near the town of Amerli, in Najaf, south of Baghdad September 3, 2014. REUTERS/ Alaa Al-Marjani

Iran’s supreme leader authorized cooperation with the United States to combat the Islamic State in Iraq.

According to the BBC, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave his approval for Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guards Qods Force to work with the US and other countries battling IS.

Meanwhile,US and Iranian officials met for a second day of negotiations in Switzerland Friday as they work towards hammering out a full nuclear deal ahead of a November deadline...

Given the hostility of the Iranian regime to the US, this indicates to me that Iran is very, very worried about the Islamic State. But this is not a pleasant ally. Click on post title to read an except from an Economist piece on the subject of co-operating with the Shia...

Brigades of Peace
Volunteers of the newly formed "Peace Brigades" participate in a parade in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, June 21, 2014.  (voanews.com)

An except from Unsavoury allies: The growing power of Shia militias in Iraq and Syria poses a tricky problem:

As America embarked on air strikes against IS in Iraq on August 8th, it was at pains to stress that it was not siding with the Shias. Indeed it has been keener to use air strikes to help Kurdish forces in northern Iraq than to aid the Shia-led authorities in Baghdad. And when debating possible strikes against IS’s bastion in Syria, American officials say they are “not on the same page” as Bashar Assad, Syria’s president, who comes from the Alawite sect, often regarded as a Shia offshoot.

That said, the recapture on September 1st of Amerli, an Iraqi town home to Shia Turkmen, shows that America will struggle to avoid co-operating with Shia militiamen. The operation was ostensibly led by the Iraqi army, with whom the Americans say they were co-ordinating their air strikes. But it could not have succeeded without several Shia militias. These display stronger fighting spirit than regular Iraqi forces, and have gained experience fighting not only against Americans in Iraq but also for Mr Assad in Syria.

The myriad Shia fighting groups are linked either to Iran’s powerful clandestine arm, the al-Quds organisation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard; or to the Iraqi Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr; or to factions of the Shia-dominated government. They expanded rapidly after America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 and were believed to run death squads during the sectarian war in 2006-07. Most of these fighters later put down their weapons, but the rise of IS has prompted a surge in new recruits.

At least four Shia militias took part in the battle for Amerli: the Badr Corps, set up in the 1980s by Iran to challenge the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein; Asaib Ahl al-Haq, which is popular among new recruits because of its audacity and cruelty; Kataib Hizbullah (not directly related to Lebanon’s group of the same name), a well-trained outfit linked to Iran; and Saraya al-Salam, a rebranded version of Mr Sadr’s Mahdi army, which was formally disbanded in 2008. Smaller militias of 100-150 men have popped up since June, when Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s highest Shia authority, urged men to volunteer (for the army, not militias) to defend Baghdad after IS took Mosul, Iraq’s second biggest city.

If the West wants to counter IS, it may have no choice but to co-operate, explicitly or implicitly, with such Shia fighters. Many Sunni groups that once helped America repel Sunni jihadists have gone over to IS, while the Kurds may have only a limited ability to advance beyond their heartland.

Iraq’s Shias, Kurds, Christians and even many Sunnis initially welcomed the Shia militias because few trust the regular Iraqi army to defend Baghdad. But the very strength of the Shia militias will make it harder to woo disgruntled Sunnis, even with offers of more political power and jobs in the army. Shia militiamen balk at the idea of giving Sunnis more rights, and exert influence through shadowy connections to religious or political figures rather than through parliament. All this bodes ill for Haidar al-Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister-designate, as he seeks to meet a deadline on September 10th for the creation of a new, more inclusive government—a cornerstone of any American plan.

In Syria the conundrum is even trickier, since the West is at odds with both IS and its ostensible enemy, the regime of Mr Assad. Less extreme Sunni rebels pushed IS out of several towns at the start of the year. But, short of weapons, their campaign has run out of steam.

The Syrian army and its various allies are thus IS’s strongest foes. The thinly-spread Syrian army has been bolstered by several Iraqi Shia militias, often seeking to defend Shia shrines such as Saida Zeinab in Damascus. Many of them pulled back to Iraq this summer. The National Defence Forces, a Syrian paramilitary outfit, was created with Iranian help. Another Iranian protégé, Hizbullah, Lebanon’s Shia militia hardened by wars with Israel, has been prominent in battles near Damascus.

Thanks to Blazing Cat Fur.

Iraq war:

Paramilitary wing, Peace Brigades. strike ISIS terrorists

Peace Brigades
Volunteers of the newly formed "Peace Brigades" raise their weapons and chant slogans against the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant during a parade in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, June 21, 2014.

Volunteers of the newly formed 'Peace Brigades' raise their weapons and chant slogans against the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ...

Obama's Urban War Games - Minneapolis Councilman Demands Answers

War Games in American Cities

A Minneapolis city council member is demanding answers, asking why the council was kept in the dark regarding recent military helicopter training exercises conducted in the skies over downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul a few weeks ago.

The training went on for four nights in both downtowns, scaring and angering more than a few neighbors. The helicopters came without warning, and under cover of darkness.

"There were a lot of black choppers running around the city. It was like an action movie. Nobody knew what was going on," said Marcus Naramore, who lives in downtown Minneapolis reports KSTP News.

Several military helicopters spent hours slicing and dicing their way through the Minneapolis and St. Paul skylines.

The training exercises raised questions from all corners. That now includes the Minneapolis city council.

"I think the one question that came out of it was, 'Why didn't we know?'" said Minneapolis council member Blong Yang, the chair of the public safety committee.

He said he's called every official in his phone book, and no one seems to know much of anything about what happened - or why.

Brazen Military Drills to Tour America

Blackhawks in downtown Minneapolis!

Black Helicopters fly around Minneapolis Federal Reserve

A Clear Message: "Obey Your Masters"
Comrade Obama has Special Forces "training" in cities all over America with the full support and funding of both Big Government parties in a Congress that no longer represents We The People.
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(CBS News Minnesota)  -  A military training exercise has some in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul looking to the skies and asking questions.

It’s a scene that looks straight out of an action movie. This week, a handful of low-flying black helicopters are buzzing just over rooftops and in between buildings.

They’re called Night Stalkers, or more formally, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment out of Fort Campbell Kentucky.
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“I think the scale of domestic military exercises is not a good idea,” said Daniel Feidt, a Minneapolis resident. “It’s a waste of taxpayer money. It’s inappropriate for Special Forces to be operating in American cities.”

'Sharia Police' Patrol in Germany - Another "Multicultural" Moment

German "Sharia Police”

And the importation of Muslims goes on and on

MAINZ, Germany (NBC News) – Small groups of hardline Salafist Muslims have been patrolling the streets of a German city hoping to “influence and recruit young people,” police said.

The groups were seen in the western city of Wuppertal wearing bright orange reflective vests with “Shariah Police” on the back. “This was seen as a violation against Germany’s public assembly law and charges were filed,” police spokesman Andre Schwanicke told NBC News. Officials say they have increased the police presence in the city.

Meanwhile, a YouTube propaganda video from the German Salafist scene was posted online showing a poster with the English headline “Shariah Controlled Zone”, followed by images of Salafists recruiting young people and visiting gambling halls. “The video is a new provocation and part of the Salafist propaganda, which shows that the scene does not acknowledge Germany’s rule of law,” Joerg Rademacher, spokesman for the state’s interior ministry said.

Officials in Northrhein-Westphalia say that the Salafist scene in Germany’s most populated state consists of approximately 1,800 members alone, of which 10 percent are considered to be violent extremists.

“An appearance that intimidates, unsettles and provokes will not be tolerated. There is no legitimation for this “Shariah Police”,” Birgitta Radermacher, police chief of Wuppertal was quoted as saying in a statement.

Creeping Sharia in Germany

Rights of Islam boosted in Germany

GOP gains on Dick Durbin in Illinois Senate race

48% (D) to 41% (R)

• You have to give this seat to the Dems, but Durbin is under 50%.  If the GOP tide flows heavy Durbin might get sucked down.

The No. 2 Senate Democrat, long thought to have an easy ride to a fourth term, could be in for a fight as recent polls show the race narrowing in the final weeks of the 2014 midterms.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic whip, had been consistently leading by double digits over Republican challenger Jim Oberweis for months.

 

But a poll, commissioned by the Chicago Sun-Times, released earlier this week showed the gap narrowing to 7 points reports Fox News.

The latest poll, released Friday morning by Reboot Illinois, shows the long-time Democratic senator with a 10-point lead over Oberweis – that’s still closer than a survey released by the same outfit in late July showing a 15-point divide.

Some pollsters say it’s still too early to call the race competitive.

But with higher poll numbers in sight, Oberweis is trying to build momentum – siphoning off endorsements and touting the movement in the polls.

“We knew this race was getting very tight,” Oberweis told Fox News.

He added: “No one has ever held Dick Durbin accountable for his failed policies in the past. But I intend to do exactly that with the voters of Illinois.”

Oberweis, a successful businessman in the dairy industry, has run several times for Senate, governor and House. He currently is a member of the Illinois state Senate.

Democrats already are on defense in Senate races across the country, as they try to prevent Republicans from bagging the six seats necessary to take control of the chamber. A fight in Illinois, thought to be safe Democratic territory, is the last thing they need.

Donate to Jim Oberweis.