Rep. Sean Duffy Stumped!!! House could bypass Obama, and declare war on ISIS, but won't.

I hope Rep. Sean Duffy voters caught a glimpse of their congressman getting caught in a lie.

That's a big problem for Duffy, who doesn't seem quick enough to bullshit his way out of trouble.

CNN's Chris Cuomo highlighted another fabrication in an interview with Duffy, over Obama's supposed presidential overreach and king like power. Like taking on ISIS:

CNN host Chris Cuomo made the interesting comment that if Duffy and his colleagues are so frustrated with Obama’s handling of ISIS, they (the Congress) can declare war on the terrorist organization themselves. Cuomo called Duffy on his bluff after the congressman said that he was confident that taking out ISIS would be a quick and dirty operation if only Obama would put it into place.

Cuomo: “I don’t know what you’re asking for that isn’t done right now. The generals do say they can take out ISIS, but we know what they’re asking for: They’re asking for boots on the ground. You’re part of a Congress that won’t even have a vote on the authorization for use of military force against ISIS.”

Duffy tried to stutter his way out ... Cuomo replied, “If it matters so much, why not take control of it with the power that’s yours?” 

Watch Duffy squirm. Cuomo's simple question should be asked of every smarty pants Republican. Remember, Paul Ryan's mission is to subvert and limit the power of the executive branch by ceding more power to congress. Wouldn't taking on ISIS be the best way to accomplish that? But Republicans don't want to get their fingerprints on something that they know won't succeed:

Sean Duffy has no clothes...again:

Ryan uses poll numbers to make Obama's Growing Economy look like we're on the Wrong Path.

Republicans have been relentless trashing the U.S. economy, trying in every way to delegitimize Obama. If you believed the GOP presidential front runners, the country was on the verge of collapse.

This was all by design:

Secret meetings led by House GOP whip Eric Cantor (in December 2008) and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (in early January 2009) in which they laid out their daring (though cynical and political) no-honeymoon strategy of all-out resistance to a popular President-elect during an economic emergency. “If he was for it,” former Ohio Senator George Voinovich explained, “we had to be against it.”

Republicans have made it their business to obstruct everything he does. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it best in 2012: “Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term.”

This PolitiFact finding makes it seem like the country is headed in the wrong direction too, based on the GOP's campaign of deception to the American public for the last 7 years:

How could the public feel otherwise, hearing lie after lie on conservative talk media and countless fact free Republican presidential debates. Heck, they even said in public how they planned to delegitimize Obama. Except for "cut to lobbyist," the cliche ridden list of fear based fiction below has been successfully sold to the public, according to the poll Ryan is referencing:

Reality looks completely different. PolitiFact had a responsibility of making note of was how wrong public perception is, and that Ryan's use of the poll number obscures the truth. Many of the numbers have gotten better since I screen captured these. 

Even with all the obstruction, does this look like American is on the wrong path?

  

47 Republican Senators get everything wrong in letter to Iran.

Sen. Tom Cotton's Letter to Iran: It'll be some time before Republicans can outdo what they did to Obama's efforts to prevent another war and to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear threat. Imagine "President" Scott Walker at the helm:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker also did not say that he’d sign the letter, but said, “Unless the White House is prepared to submit the Iran deal it negotiates for congressional approval, the next president should not be bound (by) it.”

What, "word salad" Walker didn't commit again? Who cares, opposition won't be a problem under a one party system.

Traitors? Reading the Logan Act, Republican do look like traitors, yet legal experts and historians don't agree. Here's the Act;

§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments: 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.

Surprisingly, our own Rep. James Sensenbrenner tried to rewrite the act in 2006, focusing instead on false statements, which Sen. Tom Cotton's release contained: 

Sec. 923. False statements influencing foreign government — Whoever, in relation to any dispute or controversy between a foreign government and the United States, knowingly makes any untrue statement, either orally or in writing, under oath ... to the injury of the United States, or with a view or intent to influence any measure of or action by the United States or any department or agency thereof, to the injury of the United States, shall be imprisoned not more than ten years.

Here's how the media pundits presented it. starting with the Logan Act and dissecting presidential/congressional power:



Right Wing Callers Wrong Again: WPR's morning guest, Ohio State Professor Richard K. Herrmann, answered questions from some very conservative callers:



This Politicususa story summed it up well:

Although their goal was interfering with “measures of the United States,” the Iranians are smart and took the open letter for exactly what it was; pathetic propaganda and a gross display of Republican ignorance of the Constitution and international law. It is what one expects from a bunch of petulant punks who are too stupid to understand they embarrassed themselves by lacking even an eighth-grader’s understanding of the document the swore to uphold.

Of course, the always frightened panicky guy from Wisconsin Dumb Ron Johnson, knew more than anyone else:

"I agreed to sign Senator Cotton’s open letter because I believe it describes reality — it tells the truth," Johnson wrote … that the president is mistaken for "acknowledging Iran’s right to enrich uranium.  As a result, the negotiation was lost before it even began."

One final word:

Anthony Cordesman, a senior national security analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the letter was “an appalling mess.” “One thing about sending international letters, they better be serious, they better be well-drafted, they better have a convincing intellectual content, and they better not seem just a hollow political gesture for partisan purposes,” Cordesman said. “This letter can’t meet any of those four tests.”

I just came across this loony tunes interview Sen. Tom Cotton, by ABC's Jonathan Carl. Keep this one thing in mind;  Executive foreign agreements do not involve congress. It's the UN P-5 +1-China, Russia, Germany, Brits, France that make these agreements, they are not treaties, with requires Senate approval: