Barbara Lee

“It is our constitutional duty as members of Congress to place a check on the executive branch in matters of war and peace.”

Raqqa-- a day in the lifeThe battle for Raqqa has begun. It's a medium-sized city (population before Daesh took over exactly 4 years ago was around a quarter million people, including many refugees who had fled Assad's brutality in Aleppo and Homs) that ISIS declared it's "capital" in 2014.

Barbara Lee says no wars without congressional approval; Fred Upton disagreesLast week the House passed the 2017 Defense Appropriations bill. As part of the debate, Barbara Lee (D-CA) offered an amendment that would prohibit the use of funds for the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, a blanket excuse any president-- Clinton or Trump-- could use to attack anyone, anywhere without seeking constitutionally-mandated congressional approval.

How do you know if a congressional candidate is more or less likely to support war and aggression? Well, generally speaking Republicans, and conservatives in general, are more likely to be willing to rush to war as an immediate option. Democrats often claim they stand for peace, but the claim is often hollow.

By Sam Husseini | December 16, 2015 The establishment so wants everyone else to unfriend Trump supporters on Facebook. There’s even an app to block them. That’ll teach them! Yes, Trump plays a bully boy and is appealing to populist (good), nativist, xenophobic, racist sentiments (bad). Those things need to be meaningfully addressed and engaged […]

Yesterday, on the 80th anniversary of the enactment of the Social Security Act-- which had been vilified as "socialism" by conservatives-- we took a look at the NY-24 congressional campaign of Social Security Works co-founder Eric Kingson. Kingston, of course, is only one of many progressive Democrats who are militant about preserving and expanding Social Security.

Thursday, Congressman Ted Lieu posed an interesting question on Twitter: "What happens if the Patriot Act expires?" He wasn't trying to panic anyone; he was trying to reassure everyone: "Americans start getting our Fourth Amendment rights back."  Utah Tea Party radical Mike Lee is leading the fight in the Senate to reform that horribly flawed legislation so hated by Americans of all political flavors.

The wealthy have never allowed the idea of democracy-- stuff like majority rule-- stand in the way of their greed and power. There were times when politicians have been brave enough to stand up to them-- but not since FDR, at least not on a presidential level.

Democratic leaders for domestic spying and for more Iraq warLast night, the House continued debating 2015 appropriations for the Department of Defense (H.R. 4870). Voting on amendments went just past 11PM and while they were going on, I at was at a lecture-- an amazing lecture-- by Glenn Greenwald.

Democratic House leadership has basically joined Republican House leadership in back Obama's plans for "limited" military involvement in Iraq's religious civil war-- which started on October 10, 680, not 1680, 680 at the Battle of Karbala, when the Sunnis and the Shia began exterminating each other. Obama can't possible think he's going to heal that breach-- even if silly-dillies like Lindsey Graham, Kelly Ayotte and John McCain do.