Last year, when
President Obama drew a '
red line' in the sand regarding the use of
chemical weapons in Syria, I was
.
I remember thinking at the time that he probably wasn't .
In any case, now that Obama's so-called 'line' has been crossed—by , no doubt—I believe that a to respond with military force would be catastrophic—both geopolitically and electorally.
As Kenny Rogers so eloquently sang in The Gambler, "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away and know when to run"; and the crisis in Syria is like the pre-war situation in Iraq.
, you go to war with the Congress you have, not the Congress you might want or wish to have at a later time—and the only thing the Republican-controlled House seems capable of doing is .
Morning lineup:
Meet the Press: White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough; Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX); Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA); and Rep. Pete King (R-NY); Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM); Roundtable: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Former Senior Adviser to President Obama David Axelrod, Former Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) and Chuck Todd (NBC News).
Face the Nation: White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough; Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI); Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI); Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD); Roundtable: Bob Woodward (Washington Post), Bill Kristol (Weekly Standard), David Sanger (New York Times), David Ignatius (Washington Post) and Danielle Pletka (AEI).
This Week: White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough; Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX); Former Deputy Chief of Mission in Libya Gregory Hicks; Roundtable: Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile, Dan Senor (Foreign Policy Initiative), Katrina vanden Heuvel (The Nation), Greta Van Susteren (Fox News), Former FBI Agent Ali Soufan, Brian Ross (ABC News) and Pierre Thomas (ABC News).
Fox News Sunday: White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough; Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY); Roundtable: Brit Hume (Fox News), Howard Kurtz (Fox News), Republican Strategist Karl Rove and Juan Williams (Fox News).
State of the Union: White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough; Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN); Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA); Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA); Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE); Democratic Strategist Stephanie Cutter; Former "Green Czar" Van Jones; Republican Strategist Ana Navarro; David Frum (Daily Beast).
Evening lineup:
60 Minutes will feature: a report on technological advances, especially robotics, that are revolutionizing the workplace, but not necessarily creating jobs (preview); an in-depth look at the National September 11 Memorial Museum currently under construction at Ground Zero (preview); and, a report on Michael Jackson's lucrative legacy (preview).
On Comedy Central...
Jon Stewart returned from his months-long working vacation and found that little has changed.
The Daily Show
Monday: Author/Journalist Sheri Fink
Tuesday: Author/Journalist Bill Dedman
Wednesday: Actors/Comedians Bob Odenkirk & David Cross
Thursday: Actor/Comedian Billy Crystal
And Stephen Colbert weighed in on NYC's kitten crisis and the upcoming Mayoral election.
The Colbert Report
Monday: Former Pro Tennis Player Billie Jean King
Tuesday: Producer Shane Salerno
Wednesday: Singer/Songwriter Sheryl Crow
Thursday: Author Philip Mudd
Elsewhere...
Siskiyou County, CA moved one step closer to seceding from the rest of California.
The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Tuesday to support the county's split from the state of California.
It's the first in a long series of steps to form the proposed state of Jefferson, which proponents of the effort say would bring representation to rural North State counties that currently are beholden to the whims of representatives of the more heavily populated Southern California and free them from burdensome state regulations. [...]
More than 100 people packed the supervisors' chambers Tuesday for the discussion on whether the county should issue a declaration that it wants to secede from the state. Nearly all those in attendance appeared to be for the move and about a dozen spoke in support of it.
"Many proposed laws are unconstitutional and deny us our God-given rights," said Gabe Garrison of Happy Camp. "We need our own state so we can make laws that fit our way of life."
Meanwhile, in the great state of Wyoming...
Liz Cheney invoked Godwin's Law in an effort to put herself on a pedestal.
Liz Cheney compared herself to "Winston Churchill standing up to [Adolf] Hitler" on Tuesday night when declaring her opposition to American airstrikes in Syria — the latest in a series of Liz-Cheney-thinking-rather-highly-of-Liz-Cheney moments. She was speaking to about 150 Tea Party members when she rejected President Obama's call to strike Syria, calling his national security policy "amateurish."
It seems Obama is Hitler in this scenario. We might note that more often, Obama has been compared to another British politician, Neville Chamberlain, who appeased Hitler.
However, you might not want to trust these reports, as they come from a newspaper that Cheney thinks deserves to die. She railed against the Jackson Hole News & Guide during her talk: "We have media outlets in the valley that are not fair and balanced."
And, in the great state of Colorado...
Racism was back on the menu.
In a show of solidarity with a colleague who was rebuked last month for bringing up fried chicken during a discussion about the poverty rate among African-Americans, a Colorado lawmaker brought a box of chicken to the state capitol in Denver on Wednesday. [...]
[W]ith the task force meeting for the first time since the flap, state Rep. Lori Saine (R) staged what she called a "silent protest" against the uproar generated by Marble's remarks by placing a box of Popeye's fried chicken on her desk.
When television station KDVR sought Saine for comment as she made her way through the capitol building, the Republican lawmaker dimissively laughed at the reporter's question.
"I’m having chicken for dinner," she said initially. "Would you like a presser at my house?"
Can't we all just get along?
- Trix