Last Call For The Rise Of The Emotarians

The unholy alliance between the "Obama has failed us completely!" left and the "Obama is a fascist tyrant!" right has now solidified into a such a looming defeat for the President's Syria resolution that it's to the point where John Boehner may simply refuse to bring it up for a vote.  Greg Sargent:

How real are the prospects for a genuine alliance against action in Syria between progressive anti-war Democrats and isolationist Tea Party libertarians?

Dem Rep. Alan Grayson, a leader of the anti-war wing of the House Democratic caucus, tells TPM’s Dylan Scott he is organizing across the aisle to create such an alliance by gearing up an “ad hoc whip organization.” This sort of right-left alliance is often discussed but rarely materializes. But this time there could be something to it.

Here’s a way to look at it. I compared the current whip count of Members of Congress who are firm or leaning No votes on Syria right now, with the Members who voted Yes on the recent amendment to end bulk NSA surveillance that corralled a surprising amount of bipartisan support. The vote on that amendment — which was sponsored by GOP Rep. Justin Amash and Dem Rep. John Conyers — was perhaps the clearest demonstration of such a developing alliance we’ve seen.

Nobody should be shocked by this.  The Alan Grayson wing of the Democrats has wanted to put this President "in his place" since 2009, and now they have their best chance ever to do so.  Ironic that the same people who accuse Obama of being as awful as a Republican are more than happy to work with the Tea Party for their own ends, both united over their sheer hatred for the man.

These are the same Democrats who will wonder why the country has become such an ungovernable  pit of chaos, with Republicans running rampant at the state and Congressional levels, why no good legislation can pass the House, and why the Tea Party will suddenly turn on them as soon as it's convenient.

But when these Democrats have even less power in the House in 2014, it'll be all Obama's fault.

Alan Grayson Goes Full Tinfoil On Syria

I've had problems with Alan Grayson in the past, but this is pretty much deep into Kucinich/Nader  territory and makes me think maybe not all the Obama-hating lunatics in the House have R's after their names.

Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., who is aggressively lobbying against a military strike on Syria, says the Obama administration has manipulated intelligence to push its case for U.S. involvement in the country's two-year civil war.

Grayson made the accusation in an interview published Wednesday by The Atlantic and offered more detail in a Thursday discussion with U.S. News. He says members of Congress are being given intelligence briefings without any evidence to support administration claims that Syrian leader Bashar Assad ordered the use of chemical weapons.

Grayson said he cannot discuss the classified briefings, but noted details in the administration's public, non-classified report are being contested.

Really?   President Obama has pulled a Cheney?  We've cooking intel now?  Seriously?  Not only is the guy openly backing Putin's play that the rebels are murdering their own citizens to draw the US into war but that now the Obama administration is going along with it, knowingly?

What's your proof, Alan?

He points to an article published by The Daily Caller that alleges the communications actually showed Syrian officers were surprised by the alleged chemical weapon attack. The communications, according to unnamed sources paraphrased in article, were intercepted by Israeli intelligence and "doctored so that it leads a reader to just the opposite conclusion."

"What they say in The Daily Caller is that [intercepted communications] would lead one to the opposite conclusion," Grayson said. "I don't know if it's right or wrong, [but] there's a very simple way to find out, that's for the administration to show me and other members of Congress" translated transcripts of the intercepts, he said.

The Daily Caller?  Tucker Carlson's version of Drudge Report?  Have a seat, Grayson, and shut it.  If I wasn't convinced you were an Obama-hating jackass before, I'm sold now.  That's not proof, that's a Breitbart article.

So sad to see such a potentially good liberal voice in Congress fall to the wingnut side, too.  You have a spine, Alan...but not much in the brains department, if you're being fooled by this.

Game Of Chicken

Colorado Republicans:  keeping "passive-aggressive minority outreach" to an art form.

Two weeks ago, the last meeting of a Colorado task force on economic opportunity and poverty exploded into allegations of racism when Sen. Vicki Marble, a Republican, attempted to explain high poverty rates among African Americans by talking about chicken.

Those comments drew a strong rebuke from Rep. Rhonda Fields, an African American lawmaker, and all but the most extreme Colorado Republicans distanced themselves from Marble, R-Fort Collins.

So on Wednesday, when the task force met for the first time since the Aug. 21 hearing, a box of Popeye’s fried chicken placed conspicuously on Rep. Lori Saine’s desk inside the senate committee room drew the attention of several lawmakers and observers in the room.

One witness heard Saine, who represents District 63 in Weld and Morgan counties, telling Marble that she brought the chicken in ‘silent protest’ of the uproar caused by Marble’s comments last month.

Le sigh, le groan.  Fried chicken in protest, huh.  That's classy.  Keep up the minority outreach!

StupidiNews!

• Ocean researchers say that the underwater Tamu Massif volcano west of Japan is not only the largest volcano on Earth, but ranks among the top in the entire solar system.
• The Dutch state is liable for the deaths of 3 Bosnian Muslims expelled from a UN compound in 1995, the Bosnian Supreme Court ruled this week.
• New Census data on immigration and the US shows one in five married households in the US has at least one foreign-born spouse.
• Norway is poised to deliver a major victory to conservative politicians in next Monday's elections as the ruling Labor Party's appeals for increased welfare allowances are falling short.
• Michigan lawmakers want to limit the state's automatic license plate readers to delete data within 48 hours.