President Obama needs Congress to act

First of all: There isn’t an assault on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, liberty or freedom. The man was elected, by a majority of Americans — twice — to be the president of the United States. So, can we just stop with the constant, never-ending melodrama? He’s been president five and a half years — get over it!

We know you’re hurt and in such emotional anguish, but don’t you think your constant, never-ending barrage of hysteria and outrage is just a little childish? At least adolescent?

We know you didn’t get the president you wanted — you jump up and down, stomp your feet, crazily wave your arms while shouting, “impeach! Impeach! Impeach!” You make threatening YouTube videos, promising … what? You have your Gadsden Flag and all your guns … what? Oh, that’s right, the House GOP has sued the president … where’s a “Laughing My Ass Off” emoticon when you need one?

Let’s be honest: you don’t have the guts to carry out whatever it is you are threatening in your hysterically dramatic and childish videos and equally childish blogs, columns and other internet banter we are constantly battered with every time we click on our Facebook news feeds. So why don’t you stop already?

He was legally elected president twice. It’s been five and a half years since Barack Hussein Obama was first sworn into office as president. It’s time to stop with the temper tantrums and put on your big boy/girl pants and start acting like grownups.

Especially the Republicans who were elected to represent their constituents in Government. Stop with the useless votes against the Affordable Care Act. Stop with the endless filibusters in the U.S. Senate. How many hundreds of filibusters has it been since President Obama took office?

The country needs a functioning Congress right now. You blew it with adding jobs to the economy. You’ve pushed and pushed and pushed to put more people deeper into poverty at a time when millions lost their jobs due to thievery by Wall Street bankers. Bankers you voted to reward with a 750 billion dollar bail out in September 2008. Seriously after that you’re going to call that middle-aged woman working at McDonalds lazy and a “taker” because she can’t get a decent job that pays a living wage and provides benefits? You’re going to rail at her because her income is so low she doesn’t qualify to pay income tax? She’s not paying her fair share? Even though she pays the payroll taxes for Social Security, Medicare and unemployment she isn’t using, not to mention sales tax, the one tax that hits the poor harder than any other economic demographic. That middle-aged woman behind the counter at McDonalds is a lazy moocher?

It’s at least ironic to hear you call poor people lazy moochers, including the poor who work two or more jobs just to have a semblance of an income while getting paid minimum wage, after you voted for TARP during the previous presidential administration; you remember: Republican George W. Bush.

You Republicans were elected to be legislators in the U.S. Congress, start doing your jobs.

And that small group of petulant children on the right making all this melodramatic noise — it’s time to start acting like grown up mature adults now.

This nonsense of calling the president names, of accusing him of being a coward, of hating America, of shaming America, of trying to bring America down a peg or two … really? As low as the previous president took this nation — a president you Obama-haters voted for — you really think any president could sink the U.S. lower than that?

Here are some little facts for you Obama-haters to mull over: the stock market is now twice the volume it was when President Bush left office. American corporations are now more profitable than at any other time in our history — and they still want to change their business addresses to avoid paying taxes. Instead of losing close to a million jobs a month, as was the case when President Bush left office, we are adding hundreds of thousands of new jobs every month.

Despite all the facts to the contrary, there is still this crazy idea that President Obama is bad for American business.

Then there’s immigration: our southern border with Mexico has never been this secure. More immigrants are leaving the U.S. than coming in. Illegal border crossings are down 80 percent since the years 2000. We have doubled the number of agents guarding the border since Barack Obama took office. And regardless of the melodramatic fantasy that Fox News is trying to pass off as fact: children from Central America are not a threat to America.

Come on, put on your big boy (or girl) pants and accept reality. People on the left had to suck it up when the Supreme Court chose George W. Bush to be president in 2000 and then in 2004 when Bush won his first presidential election.

We had to suck it up when Bush started his war in Iraq, A war that was sold to the U.S. electorate with lies; a war that was unfunded and left out of the U.S. budget the entire time President Bush was in office; continuously funded by appropriations bills to avoid the scrutiny of the budget process — one of two wars that caused the massive debt the country now faces, after having a surplus.

Bush’s war in Iraq was an act that has so destabilized the Middle East we are now facing the threat of the Islamic State, or as they call themselves now: IS.

Yes, we are still blaming President Bush because he and his cronies are responsible for the mess we are in — including the rise of ISIL — the mess that was left for Bush’s successor to deal with; we are still blaming President Bush because that is who is to blame.

The absurd melodrama on the right accusing the president of being feckless, anti-Christian and pro-Muslim; of being anti-Israel, and the funniest, most absurd accusation of all: anti-freedom — this childishness needs to stop.

Congress needs to do its job, specifically, have a debate and then vote on whether to send our troops into war once again. Stop accusing the president of not doing his job. President Obama is Constitutionally prohibited from declaring war. By law the president can only send troops into battle for 60 days. He isn’t going to commit to another foreign intervention under those terms.

If Congressional Republicans want the president to act, they have to step up and do their jobs — have the debate and authorize the president to declare war against the Islamic State. Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution puts the responsibility for declaring war squarely on the doorstep of Congress.

In 2013 Congressional Republicans demurred when the president asked Congress to act and provide Constitutional authority to invade another country, Syria, to counter the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the growing terrorist threat — while at the same time doing their little petulance dance demanding the president take action. That’s not just a little hypocritical? Ironic maybe? Last year Congressional Republicans voted “nay” when they were asked to support sending troops back to the Middle East — and now they are screaming at the president for not doing anything. Don’t you think that sounds just a little … ummm … ironic?

Now the right is doing its little petulance dance because the president said there isn’t a military strategy for going after the Islamic State. How can there be a strategy without a declaration of war? I guarantee if Congress does its job and gives the authorization to declare war, like they did with President Bush in 2002 so he could start his illegal war, there will be a strategy to deal with IS.

It was almost comical watching Elizabeth Hasselbeck on Fox News asking why the president hasn’t declared war and then Steve Doocy stating the president and the Pentagon are afraid of that three letter word: “W-A-R.” News flash for Hasselbeck and Doocy: neither the president nor the Pentagon has the Constitutional authority to declare war. Really, if you’re going to be political commentators you should at least have a ninth grader’s knowledge of the U.S. Constitution.

• This is funny: Mitt Romney, the twice-failed presidential candidate, blames the rise of ISIS on President Bush and that if he had been elected president, “…there’s a good chance you would not see an ISIS today.”
• Oh really? Based on what set of facts? As I recall Romney’s plan was to arm and assist the Syrian rebels — ISIS — in hopes of toppling the Assad regime, which is now the only wall keeping IS from total domination of that area.
• Ah Mitt … go back to your house in La Jolla and finish building your garage with the car elevator. Leave policy to the grown ups.

Okay all of you on the right. It’s time to end your temper tantrums. Five and a half years is long enough. Stop with the childishness. Encourage your legislators to get something done, just once, before the mid-term elections; just this one thing: debate the prospect of going to war in the Middle East once again. Have the debate so we can hear the pros and cons of engaging in war in a far away land.

Try and leave the melodrama out of it. We understand two American journalists have been beheaded and those thugs in IS have threatened to kill more American hostages. We understand that which is why it is imperative for Congress to do its job. If you want the president to do something in the Middle East, then tell your elected representatives to do their jobs and authorize the president to go to war, because that is what it will take to defeat ISIS, i.e. the Islamic State.

• 

  I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that the right will still refer to news organizations as the “lamestream media” and accuse reporters of being a bunch of leftwing propagandists. Despite their current sympathy for the two reporters and their families. It didn’t take the right more than a few minutes to politicize the murders of James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

• Don’t you think that’s just a little … hmmm … ironic?

Back to the reality of “doing something” to the Islamic State. There isn’t a single military or national security expert anywhere who says airstrikes alone will defeat IS. We will have to send troops into battle once again, for more than 60 days, to get it done.

To get that done Congress must authorize a declaration of war. It’s their Constitutional duty.