Free Republic

WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – The Senate has taken the lead from the House in attempting to devise a plan to reopen the government and avoid a potential default in the coming week. Speaking with Bob Schieffer on Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he is “cautiously hopeful” that the Senate can pick up where House negotiations have become deadlocked, and hopefully avoid the continued government shutdown through bipartisan Senate discussion. “I’m cautiously hopeful, optimistic that we can come to an agreement and open up the government and avoid default based on the bipartisan meetings that are going on,” Schumer said...

ObamaCare is at the center of a rapidly escalating fight that threatens to shut the government down this fall. [WATCH VIDEO]Senate Republicans, including two members of the leadership, are coalescing around a proposal to block any government funding resolution that includes money for the implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.But such a move is a nonstarter for President Obama and congressional Democrats. Republicans have tried this maneuver in Obama’s first term, only to back off later to the chagrin of Tea Party leaders.This time, GOP lawmakers are emboldened by problems plaguing the administration’s ObamaCare implementation. But that zeal...

The Republican party is currently in the middle of a civil war of sorts, between moderate Republicans leery of tactics like defunding Obamacare and tea party conservatives sticking to their guns, crystallized by Louie Gohmert saying at the Values Voters Summit that John McCain “supported al-Qaeda.” Gohmert took a swipe at his Senate colleague, who has been highly critical of Republicans pushing for Obamacare defunding, even suggesting2 they should be held “accountable” for lying to the GOP. That didn’t sit too well with Gohmert.

While many people will attack GOP leaders in the Senate for not understanding what Sen. Ted Cruz is doing, don’t count me as one of them. You see GOP leadership has been handicapped for quite some time now. Mark Twain, who witnessed the impeachment debacle of Andrew Johnson in the House of Representatives in 1868, pegged it: “[I] was reporter in a legislature two sessions and the same in Congress one session,” Twain wrote, “and thus learned to know personally three sample bodies of the smallest minds and the selfishest souls and the cowardliest hearts that God makes.” You...

Had the Los Angeles Dodgers known the amount of controversy they would create by jumping into the Chase Field pool after winning the National League West division, they probably wouldn’t have done it. After being asked not to celebrate on the field by the Diamondbacks, members of the Dodgers ran out to the right field pool and jumped in – a celebration that irked many, including United States Senator and Arizona Diamondbacks fan John McCain, who called the Dodgers ‘spoiled brats’ – among a handful of other choice names. That didn’t sit well with Dodgers eccentric set-up man and former...

A young Christian girl beheaded in Syria. The sign of extremism and fanatics, the long beards, is present in each and everyone of these subhuman Muslims who killed this small child, in their jihad to Allah – inspired by the Quran. This is Obama, Britain, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey funded and supported handiwork. Don’t put your support behind any of these people, whether for military action in Syria, asylum, immigration, another hate preaching mosque. This is what is moving into your town, your country, your society, your neighborhood: video... This video is written with false propaganda claiming...

Despite it being overwhelmingly clear that the American people want nothing to do with the civil war in Syria, the Pentagon has proposed entering the war. Under the proposal U.S. involvement will escalate from providing weapons to rebels via the CIA to direct support and training of rebel forces by the U.S. military. ...

Michael Savage dissects John McCain's Pravda commentary 1) I believe you should live according to the dictates of your conscience, not your government. I believe you deserve the opportunity to improve your lives in an economy that is built to last and benefits the many, not just the powerful few. 2) You should be governed by a rule of law that is clear, consistently and impartially enforced and just. - That is why he supports not enforcing the immigration Laws as they stand 3) President Putin and his associates do not believe in these values. They don’t respect your dignity...

Senator John McCain raked in a staggering $176,300.00 to win the gold in the defense contract lobby dollars Olympics, the most of any other senator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee according to a print outlet in Great Britain. (1) Is this mind blowing amount reverberating in his brain as he tells Congress and the American people, “It would be catastrophic if Congress doesn’t go along” with Barack’s Syria “policy?” Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) who is up for re election next year won the silver with a $127,350 purse, and VA Democrat Tim Kaine pulled in $101,025 to wear the...

Sen. John McCain brushed aside an impromptu remark on Friday that led some observers to question whether the Arizona Republican plans to seek re-election in 2016. “To clarify: I've long said I'll wait a few years before thinking about whether to seek re-election in 2016,” he tweeted on Friday. “Focused on our present challenges.” McCain, who was the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, was conducting an interview with The Wrap website when he reportedly made an off-the-cuff remark to a couple of Obama supporters, according to the publication. “At this point two supporters of President Obama cut in to thank McCain...

US Senator John McCain plans to write a column for a Russian newspaper Pravda in response to President Vladimir Putin’s opinion piece on Syria in The New York Times that outraged some members of the American Congress. The announcement was made on Friday by Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the senior Republican senator known to be one of the fiercest Kremlin critics. This comes shortly after the US daily published Putin’s op-ed, in which he criticized Washington for the tendency to rely “solely on brute force” in their foreign policy. “It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in...

MOSCOW, September 15 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian state TV host has invited US Senator John McCain to take part in his show and discuss his stance on Syria. Popular Russian TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov said Sunday that the Republican senator known for his critical views on Russia’s leadership can appear in his show to respond to President Vladimir Putin’s recent article in the New York Times on Syria. “On our behalf, the broadcaster and myself invite Senator McCain, who wanted to respond to Putin’s letter … to the Sunday Night program,” Solovyov said on Sunday. McCain said earlier that...

Two Republican senators who are among President Barack Obama's sharpest foreign policy critics on Saturday blasted a Syrian chemical weapons agreement as "an act of provocative weakness" by America that will embolden enemies such as Iran as it continues its push for a nuclear weapon. The House Democratic leader said the deal, under which Syria will be expected to put its stockpile of chemical weapons under international control before they ultimately are destroyed, represented "significant progress" in efforts by the U.S. to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction. "What concerns us most is that our friends and enemies...

U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) today released the following statement on the U.S.-Russian agreement on Syria: “What concerns us most is that our friends and enemies will take the same lessons from this agreement – they see it as an act of provocative weakness on America's part. We cannot imagine a worse signal to send to Iran as it continues its push for a nuclear weapon. “Without a U.N. Security Council Resolution under Chapter 7 authority, which threatens the use of force for non-compliance by the Assad regime, this framework agreement is meaningless. Assad will use...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said Wednesday he considers his views on foreign policy to be “somewhere in between” the poles of libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and hawkish GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.). “I agree with Rand Paul that we should not intervene militarily in Syria, because it’s not in defense of our U.S. national security interests,” said Cruz during a question-and-answer session following a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. But, Cruz added, he also agrees “with John McCain that if Iran is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons that we...

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) says President Obama should bomb Syria before Congress says otherwise and that he should ignore any talk of impeachment for doing so. "They're not going to impeach the president," said McCain. "They're not that crazy." According to HotAir, McCain said the president has to decide what is in "our vital national interest." He said if the "Russian initiative" fails, Obama should make his case to the American people once more and then bomb away. In this way, he can carry out a strike before Congress has a chance to tell him not to do so: If...

Sen. John McCain has warned that President Barack Obama could face impeachment if he put “boots on the ground” in Syria. "No one wants American boots on the ground," the Arizona Republican told Phoenix CBS affiliate KFYI-TV on Thursday. "Nor will there be American boots on the ground because there would be an impeachment of the president if they did that. "The fact is [Syrian President] Bashar Assad has massacred 100,000 people," McCain added. "The conflict is spreading … The Russians are all in, the Iranians are all in — and it’s an unfair fight."

The Legislative District 26 Republican Party in Arizona has passed a formal rebuke of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for abdicating GOP principles in helping Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) secure votes to approve several of President Barack Obama’s controversial nominees. “Senator John McCain unilaterally negotiated with the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to secure Republican votes necessary to pass a number of controversial Presidential nominees,” the resolution, which passed the official GOP body in the state by a 24-13 vote with four abstentions on Tuesday evening, reads. The resolution notes that President Obama nominated “Gina McCarthy for head...

Elizabeth O’Bagy is listed as a Political Director for the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF) in the group’s Washington, D.C. office. SETF lobbies Congress on behalf of the Syrian rebels. During a Senate hearing this week, Senator John McCain, perhaps the most vocal supporter of the Syrian rebels in Congress, pointed to an op-ed by the twenty-six year-old O’Bagy that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on August 30th. He then asked Secretary of State John Kerry, who agrees with him, if O’Bagy’s assertions were correct... *snip* Georgetown University is under the very strong influence of Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin...

Sen. John McCain wanted to spend the night with rebels linked to kidnappers during his visit to Syria in May, according to a pundit who has been advocating an American strike against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Elizabeth O’Bagy, Syria team leader at the Institute for the Study of War, told The Daily Caller the Arizona Republican was so taken with his Sunni guerrilla hosts that he had to be “forced” by his security detail to leave. In an exclusive interview with TheDC, O’Bagy described the trip she arranged for the senator through the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF). “The rebels had...

The deputy to General Salim Idriss — the Free Syrian Army commander Senator McCain would have us back — has announced that the mujahideen rebels’ supreme council will disband unless the West drops its demands to steer clear of violent jihadists and refrain from attempting to take over the Assad regime’s chemical weapons stocks. The Foreign Policy report is excerpted by Weasel Zippers, including this:

Five days after WND first broke the news that the strategy by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Secretary of State John F. Kerry to cast members of the Free Syria Army as “moderates” among the Syrian rebel forces was the brain-child of a Wall Street Journal researcher, the analyst has been fired from a Washington think-tank for lying about her qualifications. As WND reported, Elizabeth O’Bagy, 26, had claimed she was pursuing a Ph.D. in Arab studies and political science at Georgetown University and working on a dissertation on woman’s militancy. In his Sept. 3 testimony before the Senate Foreign...

The Syria researcher, who wrote the oft cited OpEd piece by Elizabeth O'Bagy, on the Syrian Conflict was fired for lying about having a PHD. from Georgetown University. She also failed to reveal one small little detail. She works for the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a nonprofit group who advocates for Al Qaeda and other opposing forces in Syria. And let us not forget the best part. Who pays for this propaganda? You do. The main problem is that she has caught the ear of many of our leaders. She has been cited by John McCain, John Kerry, and others....

Elizabeth O'Bagy, whose WSJ column was relied on by John Kerry and John McCain to justify Obama's proposed Syria intervention was fired from her job for falsely claiming to hold a Ph.D. degree. Was she even enrolled as a Ph.D. candidate somewhere? It is unclear. A web page for Georgetown's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies indicates that "Elizabeth (Bailey) O'Bagy" graduated with an Master of Arts in Arab Studies. She is fifth from the bottom of the list at http://ccas.georgetown.edu/story/1242708341083.html. Was she even a doctoral candidate? Dunno.

A little taste of what might have been during a McCain presidency. The senior Republican acknowledged the decision would be a difficult one, but he said he did not think members of his own party would try to remove President Obama from office if he acted in the vital national interest.“They’re not going to impeach the president. They’re not that crazy,” he told reporters after the event… “I think that, one, that the president of the United States should go back, if this fails, this Russian initiative, and convince the American people again,” McCain said. “Then I think the president...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) argued Wednesday that President Obama should consider bombing Syria without congressional approval, because the credibility of the White House is now on the line. McCain said that if Obama acts before any vote in Congress, he could argue that he has acted in conformity with past administrations, including President Reagan’s invasion of Grenada in the 1980s. “He notified everybody the next morning,” McCain noted at a Wall Street Journal breakfast roundtable. The senior Republican acknowledged the decision would be a difficult one, but he said he did not think members of his own party would try...

Are Saudi Arabia and Qatar trying to get Obama to bomb Syria back to the Middle Ages so they can run that big gas pipeline through Syria? Is that the real back story here, an attempt by the inscrutable Arabs to pimp America’s military to do their work even as such actions would destroy Assad and support Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood? A “Vanity” posting on Free Republic, dated Sept 6, urges Americans to call Congress and say: “I know about the gas pipeline Saudi Arabia and Qatar want to run through Syria and Assad won’t let them!” The...

Putin wants US to take use of force off the table - unacceptable. "Putin: No US strikes for #Syria deal" http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/putin-us-strikes-syria-deal-96559.html?hp=f3 Vladimir Putin: No U.S. strikes for Syria deal - Tal Kopan Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that for the proposed Russian agreement that Syria turn over its chemical weapons to work, the United States must take military action off the table....

On Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) suggested that Fox News host Brian Kilmeade was Islamaphobic because he said that Syrian opposition groups shouting “Allahu Akhbar! Allahu Akhbar!” as rockets hit government offices demonstrated Islamist influence among the opposition. “I have a problem helping those people screaming that after a hit,” Kilmeade said. McCain responded: “Would you have a problem with an American or Christians saying ‘thank God? Thank God?’” He added, “That’s what they’re saying. Come on! Of course they’re Muslims, but they’re moderates and I guarantee you they are moderates.” McCain provided no evidence to suggest that Syrian opposition...

John McCain’s handlers should do a better job of screening participants in his town hall events: Kudos ma’am. McLame’s nervous laughter at the end acknowledges that he won’t sit down for a week.

Fox confirms Vice President Joe Biden will have dinner Sunday night with a group of GOP Senators who could be swayed on Syria. The topic of conversation is expected to be what the President needs to say in his Tuesday address.

What are we going to do with John McCain who is helping Obama “save-face” by supporting his phony war on Syria? It is clear Americans do not want to get involved. Like Sarah Palin says, “Mr. President, please give America justification before you spend blood and treasure to intervene.” Sarah Palin and John McCain don’t have much in common, except being on the same ticket in 2008. They don’t agree on much politically, especially Syria. The Governor does what the Senator is supposed to do, but that is as far as it goes. John McCain’s transgressions seem to be getting...

Christopher Greene at AMTV hammers McCain.

John McCain was rightly heckled by many constituents last week in Phoenix, AZ over the blowhard senator's misguided call for bloody war in Syria as reported by Jason Howerton for The Blaze. The warmongering windbag should just resign. The old fool has done more damage to the national security of the United States than perhaps any other ignorant politician with his repeated support for military intervention and other American meddling in the Middle East. Exactly what has the United States gotten for all of its spent lives and treasure in that God forsaken region of the world? Indeed, if the...

Senator weighs pushing for unpopular missile strike as his re-election opponents wait in the wings. As one of the leading advocates for bipartisan immigration reform, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had already firmly affixed himself to one cause deeply unpopular with conservatives heading into a re-election year. [POLL: Most Americans Oppose Military Strike in Syria] Now as a war-weary Congress weighs a military strike in Syria, he finds himself championing another policy that risks antagonizing the base. ... Next to Sen. John McCain, there's no more forceful and visible advocate for a muscular response... Nonetheless, as he seeks a third term...

A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal ran a high profile article from one Elizabeth O’Bagy arguing that the majority of the Syrian rebels were actually moderates. Senator McCain mentioned Elizabeth O’Bagy’s op-ed during the Senate hearings, when he wasn’t playing poker, and tweeted it. That should come as no surprise, considering that O’Bagy is credited with arranging McCain’s infamous photo op with the Syrian rebel leadership. The Wall Street Journal lists O’Bagy’s role as the Institute for the Study of War. It leaves out the fact that she is the political director for the Syrian Emergency Task Force...

Cockroaches and Colonoscopies are rated higher than Congress in the minds of average citizens according to a recent poll. (1) The 113th Congress is regarded little better than the 112th because “82% of Americans already disapprove.” (2) What’s worse, evidence is surfacing that our elected leaders actually spend about a three hour block of time on our needs, visits or concerns. “Only 3-4 hours a day for the actual work of being a member of Congress” is an insult to Americans! This data is from a power point presentation given to freshman Democrats...

When John McCain held a townhall meeting in Prescott during his recent visit to Arizona the senator had planned to talk about immigration as well as other subjects of interest including Obamacare. Instead all he got was an earful as the attendees were almost entirely against intervention of any kind in Syria.

Indeed, both Kerry and McCain do understand what going to war means: They are Vietnam veterans, with Purple Hearts, Silver Stars and other medals, and the crucible of combat has shaped their respective legislative careers. But anyone watching the hearing or the interactions between the two men and their president as they press for the intervention couldn't help but marvel at how they got there. John McCain, the secretary of state said, is someone who understands "what going to war means." Kerry and McCain are President Obama's top surrogates advocating for a U.S. strike on the Syrian regime of Bashar...

<p>On Friday, a man attending a town hall hosted by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in Prescott confronted the senator and told him he should be arrested and charged with treason for supporting al Qaeda in Syria.</p> <p>"We the people want you to be representative of the people and for this great nation, but for far too long now on the rest of Congress, including the executive branch of government, along with the judicial and legislative have turned your back on the American people and their core values and principles. I can say with great confidence and speak on behalf of all Americans that your actions against this country are treasonous. All of you -- against the will of the American people -- have aided and abetted the enemy," said the town hall attendee.</p>

A number of Sen. John McCain’s constituents are not happy with the Arizona Republican’s support of President Barack Obama’s plan to take military action against Syria. Voters made that much perfectly clear when they confronted him at a town hall in Phoenix on Thursday. “We didn’t send you to make war for us. We sent you to stop the war,” one man said to applause, CNN reports. Another man told McCain Congress is ignoring its duty to represent voters.

You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x_vusWz33c

John McCain Exposed By Vietnam Vets And Pow’s .

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the top Pentagon officer repeatedly warned against the costs and potential entanglements of military involvement in Syria. Now he's testifying on behalf of the White House. The nation's top military officer warned repeatedly in recent months that getting US military involved with Syria is a dangerous proposition... Did he change his mind or is he just doing the White House's bidding? In the past, he has made it clear that US military intervention could tip the balance of power in favor of Islamist rebels who don't necessarily have the interests of the United States at heart...

Andrew McCarthy told Mark Levin that ‘Allahu Ackbar’ doesn’t even mean ‘Thank God’ at all. Rather it’s a war cry that means ‘god is greater’ and Muslims believe that when they go into battle they will win because their ‘god’ is greater, thus they keep chanting it. And it comes from Muhammad who first used it when he waged war against Khaybar where he brutally eradicated the Jews from Arabia. So yeah McCarthy said McCain did more for non-intervention into Syria with that idiotic remark than the actual non-interventionists.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Monday, according to Bloomberg News, that “the U.S. must follow up with more assistance to Assad’s opponents to shift the balance of power in the conflict … dismissing concerns that some rebels have militant ties. ‘Those who say we don’t know who the opposition are, they are either not telling the truth and they know the truth or they are badly mistaken.’” This is rich coming from a man who posed with known jihad kidnappers in Syria. Back in May, McCain went to Syria to meet with the opposition. While there, he posed for a...

Amid contradictory reports Israel, U.S. carry out joint missile test in the Mediterranean. Russia had detected the launch of two ballistic 'objects' toward the sea, Russian media reported earlier; U.S. Navy earlier denied having any involvement in the launch Israel and the U.S. carried out a missile test in the Mediterranean sea on Tuesday, Israel's Defense Ministry said in a statement, amid rising tensions in the region over the crisis in Syria. The confirmation came after morning reports indicated that Russia had detected two ballistic "objects" launched toward the eastern Mediterranean from the central part of the same and a...

Video at link

GOP CONGRESSMAN: Military Members Keep Telling Me To Vote No On Syria And who should be most aware of the reality of "nation building chicanery" on the ground? These military vets deserve to be heard. Obama has made no rational case that our national interests require us to strike a country that has not attacked us. Warmonger John McCain's beating the drum for an assault that, of course, won't cost us a thing in terms of American lives. Does he really believe what he says? “I know Americans are war-weary… but I believe that we can prevail without American lives in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaHSfy32LPI