Recently Congress voted to let families of 9/11 victims sue the Saudi Arabia government in U.S. courts. Obama vetoed the bill but Congress over rode the veto with almost overwhelming bipartisan support. Within one day after the override, Congressional leaders expressed remorse about the bill saying some of it was poorly written so that it exposed American soldiers to charges in foreign courts. I find this shocking. They wrote the law and Obama had told them it was a bad law and then they voted again to override his veto and then immediately they saw the fault in the law? Is Obama the only intelligent person in our federal government?
Under sovereign immunity people cannot sue foreign governments. While this law seems to protect bad guys, it actually helps the U.S. the most. The U.S. government and military operates all over the world. So without sovereign immunity the U.S. will be more likely than any other nation to be charged with crimes by foreign citizens. For example, any time we make a mistake and hit civilians with a drone strike, people theoretically can sue the U.S. if there was no sovereign immunity. In the case of 9/11 even if families are allowed to sue the Saudi government, it is unlikely they can win. The 9/11 Commission had said the the Saudi government had no direct role in the attack. So the Saudis would use that in their defense and the families would have to come up with their own evidence. So while everyone has sympathy for the families, this is an obvious political move on the part of the politicians.
It would have been easy for Obama to sign a bill that has such overwhelming support from both sides of Congress. But it would also be wrong. Obviously Obama is not up for reelection so he can do what he think is right. But it is amazing to me that so many politicians can cave to the pressure on this. But even more amazing, people like Mitch O'Connell said afterward that Obama is partly to blame because he did not bring the leaders of Congress to discuss this before the override. I am just thankful the blame Obama game will end soon. I am not thankful, however, that whoever takes over for him will be as intelligent as the members of the present Congress.
Sunday, October 02, 2016
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I was really surprised that the legislation passed with hardly any opposition. It was almost like a dare to Obama to veto it, which he did. Then it was like congress decided to show that it had more control by over riding the veto.
ReplyDeleteOn the surface, it shows compassion to the families and I wonder how many will now take advantage of it. I highly doubt any of them will collect. To me, it's almost a like a money grab. Especially if there was no direct role.
But apparently some people are out for blood and didn't care about any ramifications despite warnings ahead of the vote. You are right though that it could open a can of worms especially we have always figured that the U.S. has killed civilians indirectly and sometimes accidentally in the name of war or national security.
Speaking of Mitch O'Connell, I've been in favor of term limits. Guys like him and other senior members of congress have been there too long and hold too much power. This includes Harry Reid.
-LBOAYM
I agree with Donald Trump that everyone is only obligated to pay what he is legally owed. Of course he did complain about Obama paying only 20% income tax. Of course 20% is more than 0%. And how do we know that Trump is paying what he legally owed without his full tax return being made public? If he shows his tax returns and all the deductions are legal and he is not obligated to pay any tax, then good for him. But I doubt that it is all legitimate, otherwise he would be glad to show how smart he is getting away with paying no taxes.
ReplyDeleteHe also said that since he can use the system to his advantage, he would be the guy who can fix it. So that is more reason to show where in his tax return that he beat the system. And then he can show us what law should be passed to make the system more fair to the middle class. Since he is a real estate guy, I am sure he depreciated all his rental buildings. Of course most of the buildings actually appreciate in value so the depreciation is just a paper loss. So if we see that he use this law to his advantage, I would think then he should call for abolition of this law. Of course, then all his rich supporters who own real estate would stop contributing to his campaign! So Donald, show us exactly how you would change the system!
I'm surprised you didn't comment on the VP debate. I wasn't too surprised to see Kaine go on the attack and be the pitbull that he's been. It's an interesting tactic by the Clinton campaign to have him be so aggressive. To be honest, it turned me off a little bit. Especially the constant interruptions. As with Clinton, I thought he was too prepared and he sounded like he was reading from a script. Even Pence noticed it as he mentioned something to that effect later on.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, it's an interesting strategy and I wonder if it'll work. I did think his most effective thing was asking Pence to defend Trump. I was a little shocked that Pence did not have any good comments after being asked many times to defend Trump.
Pence did a good job of having an even keel, though there were a couple of times where Kaine got under his skin and you could tell Pence finally had enough. Even calling Kaine "Tim", which is where I think he lost a little of his control. You can see why Pence has been in office so long, he's pretty polished and I can see why his politics is popular in Indiana. Though he did screw up and called the school they were at Norwood instead of Longwood. Easy mistake I suppose, though I'm surprised that Kaine didn't correct him.
So I see that the guy from Wikileaks supposedly has some major news about Clinton that he's going to release. He had to go to Germany to feel safe instead of announcing in England, I think. I wonder if what he comes out with is that big.
I am still in shock that the Clinton campaign hasn't tried to tie in the hacking of her campaign servers to Russia and that Trump had stated he wanted Russia to try to find her emails. Seems like an opportunity they aren't taking advantage of.
-LBOAYM
I think both Kaine and Pence did a good job. Kaine did what a vp candidate usually do, be the attack dog. In this case he had a big target to attack. Pence actually looked more presidential than Kaine and of course more than Trump. But he did not really defend Trump in many of the attacks. Either the campaign decided that it was too hard to defend or they don't want to appear that Kaine got under his skin like Clinton did to Trump. But I think that maybe he figures that Trump is going to lose and if he defends Trump it would come back to haunt him in 2020. Pence has to figure that if Clinton wins and things get worse, Pence would be in great position to challenge in 4 years.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if any great leaks are coming. But maybe the Clintons are holding back on Russia hacking so that they can use that to counterattack if any unfavorable leaks come out.
Will the Cubs or Indians win it all?
I think if you go back to the beginning of the season, I probably picked Boston and the Dodgers to go the World Series. So of course I will be rooting for the Dodgers to win it all. I don't like that the Giants made it because they will give whoever they play fits.
DeleteI found this article online and thought it was interesting. Of course take with a grain of salt as I don't know the source.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/5/1578132/-Ouch-Libertarian-Gary-Johnson-s-VP-thinks-Hillary-might-be-most-qualified-to-be-POTUS?detail=facebook
-LBOAYM
Given Weld's comments and Johnson's gaffes, I think in all cases the vp candidates would make better presidents than those at the top of the tickets!
ReplyDeleteI think the Cubs are going to win it all. I had not followed them all season but looking at their rotation with Arrieta pitching game 3 and Lackey pitching game 4, I don't see anyone better than them in a 7 game series. Of course, the Giants are known to come up from the wild card spots to win it all. And they play the Cubs in a 5 game series. Still, the Giants bullpen have been terrible so I don't see them winning the series. Hope the Cubs break the curse. (Then I don't have to listen to poor Cubs fans whine anymore).