Congressional Republicans conducting their own foreign policy

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Sen. Tom Cotton, a very ambitious man:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...-but-a-fiasco/

Tom Cotton, the PERFECT Kockenstein/tea baggin CONFEDERATE Repug politician

Thanks, Arkansas!

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AR-Sen: Bill Maher, "Tom Cotton's (R) an asshole"

Maher also had choice words for Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR), calling him “an asshole” for his statement that while “five jihadists have reached their targets” during President Barack Obama’s administration, none did so during Bush’s two terms — after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I love the way they count terrorism with Bush after 9-11,” Maher said. “‘Except for that one horrible thing.’”

Robert Traynham, dean of the school of continuing studies at Georgetown University, quickly agreed with Maher, calling Cotton’s attack ridiculous.

“What he’s insinuating is that President Obama’s soft on terror, as opposed to President Bush,” Traynham said of Cotton. “This doesn’t even pass the smell test. I mean, every president, obviously, wakes up every single day, looks at the threat assessment, says ‘What can I do to protect all of us?’”But Cotton’s statements were especially troubling, Avlon said, seeing as how he is a Harvard Law School graduate, a military veteran and Rhodes Scholar.

“Hyper-partisanship makes you stupid,” he told Maher. “You start playing to the cheap seats.” - Raw Story, 4/26/13

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/27/1205180/-AR-Sen-Bill-Maher-Tom-Cotton-s-R-an-asshole

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Everything You Need to Know About Tom Cotton, the Man Behind the GOP's Insane Letter to Iran

Cotton, a Harvard-educated lawyer, got his US Cons ution wrong (an “embarrassing” error, wrote one Harvard law professor and former George W. Bush administration lawyer) and failed to even mention that his threat to withdraw from an agreement would be a violation of international law—something Iran’s foreign minister, in an epic bit of trolling, brought to his attention.

His army service was no doubt a noble pursuit, but it was during this time that Cotton’s particular brand of politics began to shine through a little bit. From Iraq, Cotton published an open letter—apparently he’s a fan of the format—in the right-wing blog Power Line calling for two journalists and the then–executive editor of The New York Times to be jailed and prosecuted for publishing an investigative piece about how the United States tracks terrorist finances. (Jim Lobe pointed out yesterday that those who would defend Cotton’s latest open letter to the Iranians on free-speech grounds may want to check this episode out first.)

The Power Line item made a big splash, and, according to The Atlantic, he struck up a correspondence with neocon don Bill Kristol.

The Atlantic characterized his domestic record in the House as “conservative absolutism,” as he voted, for instance, against emergency disaster relief.

Cotton introduced an amendment that would “automatically” punish family members of sanctions violators. “There would be no investigation,” Cotton explained during the mark-up. “It’d be very hard to demonstrate and investigate to conclusive proof.”

Cotton wanted to punish innocent people; he called it “corruption of blood,” and extended the category to include “parents, children, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, grandparents, great grandparents, grandkids, great grandkids.”

Cotton said that the United States should allow the sale to Israel of the bombers and advanced bombs it would need to make an attack on Iran more feasible.

In February, at the CPAC summit, hereportedly called for not just regime change in Tehran, but "replacement with a pro-Western regime." The New Republic’s David Ramsey remarked that, on almost any foreign policy issue, “Cotton can be found at the hawkish outer edge of the debate.”

the Intercept’s Lee Fang reported today that Cotton will appear tomorrow at an event hosted by a defense industry lobbying association—an audience sure to be receptive to his über-hawkishness, a boon to their bottom lines


http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-pol...ter1033146&t=6

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One of The Most Important Journalists in USA chimes in, actually destroys, as usual:



http://www.nationalmemo.com/late-nig...-%202015-03-11

[Winehole23]

Seven Republican senators did not sign the letter, including Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The others were: Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Dan Coates of Indiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/03/1...#storylink=cpy

[DarrinS]

One of The Most Important Journalists in USA chimes in, actually destroys, as usual:

lol

[Nbadan]

Neocon meteor Sen. Cotton is funded by Abrams, Adelson and Kristol and loves war a little too much

The liberal Zionist group J Street says that Cotton was scripted by neoconservative Bill Kristol. Street is reveling in the letter because it is sure to drag the neoconservative rightwing Israel lobby down politically, marginalize the greater-Israel lobby in the far right wing of the Republican Party. Just as the Netanyahu speech has hurt Netanyahu and the Likud wing of the lobby, the Cotton letter is turning out to be an own-goal, scored by the neoconservatives.

The neoconservatives reached out and groomed Tom Cotton when they saw him coming down the pike. The Harvard College and Harvard Law grad spent just one term in the Congress before challenging and defeating Mark Pryor last fall. And he got tons of money then from the Israel lobby.

Neoconservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin embraced Cotton back in 2012. She was worried then that with Joe Lieberman leaving the Senate, we were losing national security hawks.

Hawks are nervous that, with the retirement of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and the demands of a fiscal crisis, fewer lawmakers will be interested in and devoted to national security.

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/03/milita...delson-kristol

Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel gave Tom Cotton nearly $1 million in his race for the Senate just five months ago, Eli Clifton reported. “Cotton received $960,250 in supportive campaign advertising in the last month". Cotton also got $165,000 from Elliott ManagementPaul Singer’s hedge fund. Singer is the billionaire who is trying to stop Obama’s Iran talks (Clifton’s reporting again).

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Cotton Collapse: Iran Letter Author Gets Cons ution And Geography Wrong In Same Interview

Sen. Tom Cotton wasn’t satisfied with mangling the Cons ution on CBS’s Face The Nation. Cotton revealed how little he knows by also not appearing to be aware that Tehran is the capital of Iran.

Sen. Cotton (R-AR) first claimed that Cons ution states that the Senate has to vote on any agreement with Iran in order for it to last, “It’s — well, as a simple fact that our Cons ution that, if Congress doesn’t approve that deal, then it may not last.”

The Cons ution says nothing of the sort.

Via Article II Sec. 2,

“He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.”

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/03/...iticus+USA+%29

TC, the perfect Repug politician, blinded by ideology, guided by ignorance, just like all y'all Repug voters.

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Vast majority of Americans favor Obama administration's diplomatic talks with Iran


A CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday showed that 68 percent of Americans favor the Obama administration's diplomatic efforts to keep Iran from achieving nuclear capabilities. Here's the breakdown:

Direct diplomatic negotiations with Iran are broadly popular, 68% favor them, while 29% oppose them. That support cuts across party lines, with 77% of Democrats, 65% of Republicans and 64% of independents in favor of diplomacy between the U.S. and Iran in an attempt to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, a plurality of Americans disapproved of the effort by 47 Republican senators to scuttle the talks by sending a letter to the leaders of Iran: 49 percent said it went too far, 39 percent thought it was appropriate, and 12 percent had no opinion.

Opinions on the letter were divided along partisan lines, with 67% of Democrats saying it went too far while 52% of Republicans called it appropriate. Among independents, 47% thought it went too far, 42% that it was appropriate.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/0...28Daily+Kos%29

Repugs ALWAYS wrong

Repugs ALWAYS against The American People

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Tom Cotton Dedicates First Senate Speech To Hitler

“The world is growing ever more dangerous, and our defense spending is wholly inadequate to confront the danger. To be exact, during the last four or five years, the world has grown gravely darker. We have steadily disarmed, partly with a sincere desire to give a lead to other countries and partly due to the severe financial pressure of the time. But a change must now be made. We must not continue longer on a course in which we alone are growing weaker while every other nation is growing stronger.”

I wish I could take credit for those eloquent but ominous words, but I cannot. Winston Churchill sounded that warning in 1933 as Adolf Hitler had taken power in Germany.

Tragically, Great Britain and the West didn’t heed this warning, when they might have strangled that monster in his crib. Rather they let the locusts continue to eat away at the common defense.

Read more at http://wonkette.com/579921/tom-cotto...d3BVqgeDStV.99

FUD

LIES

SLANDER

WAR MONGERING

Thanks, Repug voters!

yes, Muslims, etc gonna destroy America, esp the ones TERRORIZED, RADICALIZED by Repugs invading, destroying the Middle East.

[Winehole23]

actually boutons, the GOP had a lot of help in that area, and damn little resistance when it counted.

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actually boutons, the GOP had a lot of help in that area, and damn little resistance when it counted.

bull , the Repugs LIED about EVERYTHING to get into Iraq for oil, exploited the fear post-9/11.

[Winehole23]

too bad the Dems were too spineless to stand up to them and even joined in the fear-fapping. they voted for the AUMF, they get partial credit.

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too bad the Dems were too spineless to stand up to them and even joined in the fear-fapping. they voted for the AUMF, they get partial credit.

yep, Dems don't stand up to, don't out-crazy the ing crazy Repugs. About the only redeeming quality of Dems is that they aren't Repugs.

But, you're wrong again, if the Repugs hadn't bullied, lied their way into Iraq, the Dems wouldn't have done it. So the Repugs are miles ahead in Who Raped The Middle East.

[Winehole23]

But, you're wrong again, if the Repugs hadn't bullied, lied their way into Iraq, the Dems wouldn't have done it.

you don't know that. counterfactuals can't be proved or disproved.

[Winehole23]

your mania for blaming everything on Republicans makes you look very very silly. why don't you give it a rest and try thinking before you speak?

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your mania for blaming everything on Republicans makes you look very very silly. why don't you give it a rest and try thinking before you speak?

bull . What is ed up in America and the world America has touched that ISN'T the fault of the Repugs, VRWC, conservatives?

And whatever you say the Dems have ed up, wil be minuscule compared to the Repugs ups.

Americans have polled 4 months in a row, IIRC,the Congress is America's biggest problem. What the "even handed" poll didn't say that GRIDLOCK, govt shutdowns, no progress is primarily, increasingly the fault of the Repugs, who have shown NO INTEREST in actually governing or solving real problems.

perfect example: BOTH parties want the Child Trafficking Act done, but Repugs have, per usual, poisoned it, held it and a new Obama US AG hostage, to their pandering to Bible humpers with more anti-abortion crap.

[Winehole23]

perfect example: BOTH parties want the Child Trafficking Act done, but Repugs have, per usual, poisoned it, held it hostage and a new US AG, to their pandering to Bible humpers with more anti-abortion crap.

Credit where credit is due: GOP added the poison pill, Dems are holding it up, i.e., filibustering.

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Credit where credit is due: GOP added the poison pill, Dems are holding it up, i.e., filibustering.

bull , Dems are filibusting the "secret" abortion amendment, NOT the entire bill which the Repugs are willing to kill.

[Winehole23]

functionally equivalent to holding up the bill. formally, the Dems are holding it up, not the other way around.

[Winehole23]

poison pill to the GOP for sure, but from the standpoint of process, Dems erected the roadblock.

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poison pill to the GOP for sure, but from the standpoint of process, Dems erected the roadblock.

you're wrong, as usual.

The Repugs KNEW the Dems would filibuster the abortion amendment, so they really don't care if the Trafficking Act dies.

I read where the Dems asked if this was the same Act as last time and the Repugs LIED "yes", lying by not saying they added the abortion poison pill amendment. But the Dems caught it.

As we see, the Repugs sucker their fetus-loving base by obsessing on anti-abortion tactics ALL THE TIME, but after the kids are born, child trafficking is OK, cutting $100Bs from SNAP, CHIP, school lunches, etc, says clearly that they and their "Christians" are pro-life exclusively before birth.

[TeyshaBlue]

I read where the Dems asked if this was the same Act as last time


The Dems asked?

. Its too hard to read!

simpleton