A few days ago the libertarian website, Reason.com published an interview with Michigan Republican Justin Amash asserting that Ryan was an even worse Speaker than Boehner (of whom he was no fan). "I would," Amash said, "rather have the guy swearing at me and letting me have a vote than not considering me at all... Under [Ryan's] speakership, we've had the fewest open amendments of any speakership. We've had zero... Everything has to be pre-approved by the Speaker... Under Boehner, you could walk up... and offer an amendment as long as it was germane to the bill, you got to vote on it. And this was true on basically all appropriations bills. Now, we don't even do appropriations bills. They come up with some omnibus bill and spring it on us at the last second and they say, 'This is the bill.'"On Friday, before Trumpanzee commenced his illegal bombing of Syria-- basically to get peoples' minds off his Putin-Gate problems-- Amash, along with Barbara Lee (D-CA), Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and 84 other members of the House, sent Trump a letter demanding that he not take offensive military action against Syria without congressional approval, which is what is clearly written into the Constitution. Even an illiterate imbecile like Trump can understand its simplicity and cklarity. Here's page one of Amash's remindeTrump ignored the letter. Is that impeachable? Absolutely. In a tweet Saturday morning Massie asked 5 questions of his congressional (Republican) colleagues:
• Can Señor Trumpanzee strike China/Russia/Britain under same authority?• Can the buffoon in the Oval Office bomb Assad’s living quarters?• Is there a limit to the size of the weapon? (MOAB? Nuke?)• Can the monkey desperate to divert the public's attention from his scandals send troops?• Did Obama have the same authority in Libya?
Aside from Amash and Massie, other GOP signatories were Paul Gosar (AZ), Walter Jones (NC), Ted Yoho (FL), Raúl Labrador (ID), David Schweikert (AZ), Mia Love (UT), Mark Sanford (SC), Morgan Griffith (VA), Tom McClintock (CA), Andy Biggs (KY), Jason Lewis (MN), Mo Brooks (AL) and Rod Blum (IA). Among the Democrats are Ted Lieu (CA), Ro Khanna (CA), Jamie Raskin (MD), Jan Schakowsky (IL), Mark Pocan (WI), Mike Capuano (MA), Beto O'Rouke (TX), James McGovern (MA), Judy Chu (CA), Earl Blumenauer (OR) and John Lewis (GA).Dan Canon's primary is May 8; that's really soon. we need him in Congress. The incumbent in IN-09 refused to sign onto Amash's letter. Dan would have. "This Congress," he told us, "is failing in its constitutional duty to provide the appropriate checks on a President's ability to rain bombs on whatever country he wants, whenever he wants. This state of affairs should be terrifying to anyone paying attention, especially given the complexity and volatility of the situation in Syria. More than a dozen Republicans took the unusually brave step of demanding they be allowed to perform a critical oversight function. Unfortunately, the representative from IN-09 continues to put party over country by giving Trump everything he wants. It's time for a change here, and anywhere a representative who won't stand up to unchecked use of American armed forces.No doubt Alan Grayson would have also signed onto the letter-- or, more likely, written it-- had he been back in Congress. Hopefully, January next year. Of course, none of the Orlando congressmembers-- 3 conservative New Dems-- signed on. No surprise. Grayson told me today that "This is the tip of the tip of the top of the iceberg. Wikipedia says that the U.S. military has 6,350 troops in Syria. Who authorized that? Which weighs heavier, 100 missiles fired during 70 minutes or 6,350 troops in Syria for almost four years? For that matter, why did four U.S. combat troops die in Niger, a place that Donald Trump doesn’t even know is a country? (He probably thinks that it’s a chic French restaurant in Soho.) You have to have access to classified information even to know in which countries we are dropping bombs. The system is completely broken, and it was broken long before 9 pm Friday night."
