WILL OBAMA DEFY CONGRESS ON GITMO PRISONERS?

Byron York / Townhall Columnist

 

President Obama has long advocated closing the U.S. terrorist prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He likely would have done it long ago, had Congress not stopped him.

Now, however, Obama is not in the mood to abide by anything Congress says. And he is again talking about closing Guantanamo.

The result could be an ugly and protracted fight between the president and lawmakers of both parties. But it's also possible Obama will avoid a conflict and simply use his executive authority to release a prisoner here, a prisoner there, until Guantanamo is very nearly empty -- all done without any meaningful debate.

Meanwhile, as he has done with immigration, the environment and Cuba, Obama will essentially dare Congress to do anything about it. It's all part of the new executive-action presidency.

Back in 2010, when the House and Senate were still controlled by Democrats, huge bipartisan majorities opposed Obama's plan to close Guantanamo and transfer its inmates to the United States. A defense spending bill passed unanimously by the Senate in December 2010 barred the president from spending any funds to transfer inmates to the United States or to close the prison.

Here Comes the Obama Veto Pen

Kevin Glass / Townhall Tipsheet

 

President Obama has pledged to the GOP that he won't hesitate to be obstructionist when Republicans pass legislation to affect positive change in the country. 

 

As the Associated Press reported, President Obama made those remarks in an NPR interview:

Since taking office in 2009, Obama has only vetoed legislation twice, both in fairly minor circumstances. But with Republicans set to take full control of Congress next year, Obama is losing his last bulwark against a barrage of bills he doesn't like: the Senate.

"I haven't used the veto pen very often since I've been in office," Obama said in an NPR interview airing Monday. "Now, I suspect, there are going to be some times where I've got to pull that pen out."

He added: "I'm going to defend gains that we've made in health care. I'm going to defend gains that we've made on environment and clean air and clean water."

Emphasis added. And in that first paragraph is the key of what establishment journalists miss when they talk about "Republican obstructionism." Harry Reid has acted as President Obama's proxy in the Senate to kill bills that even both Republicans and Democrats have agreed on that would have made it uncomfortable for Obama and made it look unseemly for him to use his veto pen. Mitch McConnell promised that he won't protect his members in the Senate from taking uncomfortable votes, and that also means that President Obama will be placed in more of those uncomfortable situations.

California Mosque Christmas Day Attack Turns Out Not as Police, Media, ‘Islamophobia’ Grievance Industry Expect, it was a Muslim

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

More faked hate. And still no media mea culpa.

As I pointed out yet again last week when the latest FBI released the latest hate crime stats, claims about “Islamophobia” are false. Most religiously motivated hate crimes were anti-Jewish, and Muslims suffered fewer total incidents than many groups and fewer per capita than gays or Jews.

The myth of islamophobia is an industry, the big lie, to silence critics of jihad and Islam. And every time another mosque is “attacked,” media heads explode with cries of racism (Islam  is not a race) and hate. They never report the follow-up story — the kicker — that the perp is Muslim. More often than not, the attacker is Muslim — so as to give proof to the...

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US Special Ops commander on Islamic State: “We do not understand the movement, and until we do, we are not going to defeat it”

By Robert Spencer  / Jihad Watch

 

What Major General Nagata says is absolutely correct: the U.S. government and military does not understand the Islamic State, and as long as that continues, the U.S. will never defeat the Islamic State. But why don’t they understand the Islamic State? Because the Obama Administration has forbidden investigation of Islamic doctrine in connection with terrorism. The Obama Administration wants to pretend that jihad terror has nothing to do with Islam. As long as it persists in this delusion, the U.S. will never understand — or defeat — the Islamic State.

“In Battle to Defang ISIS, U.S. Targets Its Psychology,” by Eric Schmitt, New York Times, December 28, 2014 (thanks to Bill):

WASHINGTON — Maj. Gen. Michael K. Nagata, commander of American Special Operations forces in the Middle East, sought help this summer in solving an urgent problem for the American military: What makes the Islamic State so dangerous?

Trying to decipher this complex enemy — a hybrid terrorist organization and a conventional army — is such a conundrum that General Nagata assembled an unofficial brain trust outside the traditional realms of expertise within the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies, in search of fresh ideas and inspiration. Business professors, for example, are examining the Islamic State’s marketing and branding strategies.

“We do not understand the movement, and until we do, we are not going to defeat it,” he said, according to the confidential minutes of a conference call he held with the experts.

“We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea.”

Oklahoma City beheader's mosque imam claims he has a "certificate of 'Apostolic Succession'"

Germany: Muslims storm church on Christmas Eve, shout "shit Christians"

 

Krauthammer: GOP Congress Should Tell Obama to 'Bring It On'

By: Greg Richter / NEWSMAX

The newly elected Republican Congress should use its power to differentiate itself from President Barack Obama, conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer told Fox News Channel on Monday.

Obama told National Public Radio recently that he's pretty likely to bring out his veto pen during his last two years in office as Republicans send him bills he doesn't like.

"I think the Republicans ought to say bring it on, Mr. President," Krauthammer told "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren." 

The party can best position itself for the 2016 presidential election by showing that it controls the House and Senate now that Democrat Sen. Harry Reid will no longer be acting as "blocking guard" for Obama, Krauthamer said. Reid's refusal to take up controversial legislation kept Obama from having to use his veto pen until now, he said.

With Republican Mitch McConnell running the Senate, the GOP will be able to enact its agenda, Krauthammer said, "And they should be willing to pass whatever they can and to dare the president to go ahead and to veto."

He suggested first passing legislation they know Obama will sign, such as trade negotiating authority, which both Obama and Republicans favor.

"But then they should begin to work on stuff and challenge the president," Krauthammer said, pointing specifically to the Keystone XL pipeline, tax reform and repealing the medical device tax and the employer and individual mandates of Obamacare.

"Let the president show where the party stands, and let the country know that with a new president —  a Republican president — this stuff, which is very popular, will be able to get through," he said.