The Daily Banter has the article 47 Republicans May Have Just Broken the Law By Writing An Outrageous Letter To Iran.  I particularly like the opening paragraph of the article.

Just when you thought congressional Republicans couldn’t look any more like a troupe of treacherous clowns hellbent on circus-ifying anything President Obama tries to do, they pull another bag of tricks from the trunk of their tiny car.

The Daily Banter has a related article Why the White House Won’t Pursue GOP Senators’ Iran Letter As Logan Act Violation.

However, such an uphill fight would not be worth the gamble, politically, and under the current set of facts, the White House is getting the best of both words.

I agree that the Whitehouse might see it this way, but I completely disagree that this attitude is correct.

As I said in my previous post 47 Senators Charged With Violating Logan Act,

I would like to see Obama have FBI agents record interviews with each one of these Senators to verify that they approved adding their names to the letter.  If they did approve, then they can be charged.  If they say they didn’t approve, but it can be proved that they did, then they can also be charged with lying to the FBI.  It would be fun to see if Mitch McConnell can maintain his position of majority leader in the Senate if 47 of his Senators are taken away to jail.

There comes point when the President has to say enough is enough.  He follows a dangerous path if he fails to act against these Senators.

Please sign the Whitehouse petition mentioned in my previous post Senator Tom Cotton’s letter to Iran is a direct violation of the Logan Act and should be prosecuted.  The least we can do to try to regain some control over our government is to sign a petition.  It is even easier than dragging yourself to the polls to vote.

Your might have heard of this right that you have:

the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In this age of the internet, you don’t even have to physically assemble.

The United States Insititute of Peace has the article Part II: Iran Responds to GOP Letter.

Foreign Minister Zarif added that “I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the United States, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfil the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.”

Thanks to Nancy Weinberg for posting this on Facebook.

The Iran Primer Blog has all the pieces to this series nicely arranged on their web site. In case this presentation gets altered, I will give you links to the various pieces that exist as of the writing of my post.

Part I: GOP Letter on Iran

Part II: Iran Responds to GOP Letter

Part III: White House and Democrats Respond to GOP Letter

Vice President Joe Biden

Around the world, America’s influence depends on its ability to honor its commitments. Some of these are made in international agreements approved by Congress. However, as the authors of this letter must know, the vast majority of our international commitments take effect without Congressional approval. And that will be the case should the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, and Germany reach an understanding with Iran.

Well, at least the America public is getting lessons in our government. Perhaps some Senators might learn a lesson or two. Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif seems to be much more knowledgeable about our Constitution and International Law than our Republicans. Is America embarrassed at all about the nincompoops we elect?

If you liked my previous post 47 Senators Charged With Violating Logan Act, then here is something you can do about it.

Sign the petition, Senator Tom Cotton’s letter to Iran is a direct violation of the Logan Act and should be prosecuted, on the Whitehouse web site. (as of 1:48PM, the link has been fixed so that you can sign the petition).

Senator Tom Cotton and 46 others have written an Open Letter to the Iranian Government as an attempt to influence and interfere with our President’s current negotiations.

This is a violation of the Logan Act, a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. It was passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony, punishable under federal law with imprisonment of up to three years.

The Republicans’ flaunting of the law is getting bolder and bolder.  If we fail to prosecute, the escalation will just continue.  When you see the smoking gun, why wait for the mushroom cloud?

The President has taken the oath of office in which he promised to protect and defend the Constitution.  It is his duty to look into prosecution as a way of defending the Constitution and protecting it from being violated by people who want to ignore the separation of powers.

Reuters is full of interesting news this morning.  They have the article Florida bans use of ‘climate change’ by state agency: report.

Former employees of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) detailed the unwritten policy in interviews to the non-profit news agency, which reported the ban on Sunday in an article published by the Miami Herald and other state media.

“We were told not to use the terms ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming’ or ‘sustainability,’” attorney Christopher Byrd, who worked with the DEP’s Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee from 2008 to 2013, told the Florida investigative reporting outlet.

According to Wikipedia, an aide to Karl Rove issued this now well known explanation.

“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

The War in Iraq and other events in the Middle East and elsewhere proved the aide to be wrong.  At least in human affairs, what the aide said has some sense of plausibility.  However, Florida seems to have taken this thought to new levels of implausibility. Do they really think that the laws of physics are changed by what politicians allow people to say?  Could anybody be that stupid?

Reuters has the story Republicans warn Iran against nuclear deal with Obama.

(Reuters) – Republican senators warned Iran on Monday that any nuclear deal made with U.S. President Barack Obama could last only as long as he remains in office, in an unusual intervention into U.S. foreign policy-making.

The letter, signed by 47 U.S. senators, says Congress plays a role in ratifying international agreements and points out that Obama will leave office in January 2017, while many in Congress will remain in Washington long after that.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about The Logan Act.

The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 30 January 1799, currently codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953) is a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. It was passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony, punishable under federal law with imprisonment of up to three years.

The Act was intended to prohibit United States citizens without authority from interfering in relations between the United States and foreign governments.

I hereby charge these Senators with violating this act.  If Obama won’t take action, then I guess it is left up to me to make the charge.  Other violations have been more surreptitious than this blatant act.  One example would be Ronald Reagan’s interference to prevent the Iranian hostages from being released during Jimmy Carter’s term in office.  Since Reagan took office as President before the hostages were released and this egregious interference was discovered, there was little chance that he would be prosecuted.  When Speaker Boner colluded with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu  for Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of Congress without even informing President Obama, perhaps there could have been some wiggle room that would have allowed Boner to escape conviction under the Logan Act.

It seems like this latest incident is an escalation of tactics by the Republicans.  This blatant violation of the Logan Act is a direct challenge to President Obama. I don’t know how much plainer the Republicans can make this. If Obama doesn’t put a stop to this, what will they do next?

I would like to see Obama have FBI agents record interviews with each one of these Senators to verify that they approved adding their names to the letter.  If they did approve, then they can be charged.  If they say they didn’t approve, but it can be proved that they did, then they can also be charged with lying to the FBI.  It would be fun to see if Mitch McConnell can maintain his position of majority leader in the Senate if 47 of his Senators are taken away to jail.

March 10, 2015

On his Facebook page, Bruce Taub posted the article Lawfare › The Error in the Senators’ Letter to the Leaders of Iran:

But as the Senate’s own web page makes clear: “The Senate does not ratify treaties. Instead, the Senate takes up a resolution of ratification, by which the Senate formally gives its advice and consent, empowering the president to proceed with ratification”

Perhaps this is just a technicality, but it shows that besides being treasonous, the Republicans are stupid. quelle surprise!

March 10, 2015

If you want to take action, sign the Whitehouse petition as described in my subsequent post Senator Tom Cotton’s letter to Iran is a direct violation of the Logan Act and should be prosecuted.

If You Only News has the article Fox News In A Panic: Google Researches Ranking Websites By Accuracy Of Facts (VIDEO).

Imagine an Internet search engine that shows you top results not based on how many links to it there are, not how many hits it has, but how accurate its facts are. A search engine like that would certainly not benefit organizations like Foxnews.com or dozens of others who refuse to post the truth.

Now imagine that search engine is Google, the choice of nearly 70 percent of all searches in America.

Unfortunately for Fox “News,” Google just may be developing that very system.

The last link in the above excerpt takes you to The Daily Mail article Google to rank search results based on accuracy of web pages.

The video in the original article credited to Media Matters is from the article Merchant Of Doubt Marc Morano Deeply Concerned Google Won’t Promote His Website’s Climate Denial.

It is somewhat amusing how the three articles focus on three different aspects of the story.  It is also quite amusing how little self-awareness that Faux Noise has. The video clip is pure comedy.  Jon Stewart of the Daily show could just play the clip without any commentary.

It may be difficult to determine what the absolute truth is, but it would be a truly sad commentary if there no objective way to judge the truth of anything at all.  Admittedly there are many examples of things we thought for sure were true that later we find were not true.  However, it would be utterly disturbing to find that the case for everything we have ever thought was true.

One of the three headlines shown above is about what is truly news.  I wonder if the readers of this blog post can even agree on which one that is.

The Los Angeles Times has the story Don’t believe the light: Supernova in ‘Einstein Cross’ is a cosmic trick.

An international team has discovered four separate images of the same distant supernova arranged in the shape of a cross — and this unusual trick of the light could help scientists test the structure of the cosmos. They reported their find in Friday’s edition of the journal Science.

Every time I read a story that demonstrates some non-intuitive phenomenon of physics, I think of all those people who are arguing for biblical interpretations of the universe, let alone classical physical interpretations.  They seem to have no idea how many generations of physics that they are behind in what they think they understand.

Ready For Warren has a Facebook post highlighting the Occupy Democrats‘ article House Democrat Introduces Bill to End All Government Shutdowns — Forever.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) has a solution, and he is currently seeking co-sponsors for a bill that would “shut down the shutdowns.” Grayson’s bill would “automatically extend existing appropriations levels for another fiscal year whenever Congress fails to fund agencies before their money expires,” according to the Washington Post.

The Washington Post article is Tired of shutdown battles? This bill would end them for good.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) said this week that he is seeking co-sponsors for a “Shut Down the Shutdowns Act” that would automatically extend existing appropriations levels for another fiscal year whenever Congress fails to fund agencies before their money expires.

Some people complain about what can’t be done, while others file legislation that tries to get those things done. Less complaining, and more doing might actually change something. Occupy Democrats only asked us to spread the word.

Naked Capitalism has the article Look Who is Selling the TransPacific Partnership by Yves Smith.  Her email introduction to this article said:

Some Serious Economists have signed a letter supporting the TransPacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The missive says a lot about the discipline, and not in a good way.

The article is a call to action to counter this letter with calls to your Congress people.

By the way “serious economists” is meant, in this case, as a pejorative.  These are economists that the Lame Stream Media treats as knowledgeable, but in fact are just paid shills for the oligarchy.

I read through the list of signatories to come up with the following classification:

Not surprising
Alan Greenspan
Charles L. Schultz
Martin Feldstein
R. Glenn Hubbard
N. Gregory Mankiw
Ben S. Bernanke
Austan D. Goolsbee

Astonishing
Christina D. Romer

I’ll let you read the letter to see what organizations these people claim to be from.

The Washington Post has the article Netanyahu enters never-never land by Fareed Zakaria. Zakaria brings up some history as a way to judge whether or not even tougher sanctions would work to get Iran to capitulate.  Here is some of what he said.

We have some history that can inform us on the more likely course. Between 2003 and 2005, under another practical president, Mohammad Khatami, Iran negotiated with three European Union powers a possible deal to place its nuclear program under constraints and inspections. The chief nuclear negotiator at the time was Hassan Rouhani, now Iran’s president.

Iran proposed to cap its centrifuges at very low levels, keep enrichment levels well below those that could be used for weapons and convert its existing enriched uranium into fuel rods (which could not be put to military use). Peter Jenkins, the British representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the Inter Press Service , “All of us were impressed by the proposal.” But the talks collapsed because the Bush administration, acting through the British government, vetoed it. It was certain, Jenkins explained, that if the West could “scare” the Iranians, “they would give in.”

What was the result? Did Iran return to the table and capitulate? No, the country withstood the sanctions and, unimpeded by any inspections, massively expanded its nuclear infrastructure. Iran went from 164 centrifuges to 19,000, accumulated more than 17,000 pounds of enriched uranium gas and ramped up construction of a heavy water reactor at Arak that could be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

Now, I don’t think of Fareed Zakaria as an infallible interpreter of the Middle East, but his repetition of history matches what I remember of that history.  Most people seem to think the history shows Iran to be intractable and irrational.  However, I read about what the Bush administration was up to at the time it was happening.  Clearly, the Bush administration made nice on the surface, but made sure to slap Iran with the backs of their hands in private to make sure no agreement ever could be reached.  If I could read about it in the news at the time, it always mystified me how so many other people could pretend that this wasn’t happening.  When people couldn’t get it right at the time, there would be no hope that they would remember it correctly years later.