A News Summary : Another Stopgap under Obama; Iraq; Syria; Comey and Congress on Hillary's Emails; Trump Takes on Yellen

There's a lot going on this week. ~~~~~~ The US Defense Department and other federal agencies can breathe easier because Congress has passed a stopgap spending bill that President Obama has agreed to sign, averting government shutdown. A shutdown in an election year was never likely, but funding for the government would have run out this weekend without the stopgap measure. The key issue holding up passage was funding for the Flint, Michigan, drinking water crisis, which was settled after Democrat Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid agreed to the proposal offered in the bill. Congress has been consistently blamed by the White House and media for the budget crises that have become annual affairs under President Obama, especially after the GOP took control of both the House and Senate, and Harry Reid became Obama's blocking card to get as much bad publicity for Republicans as possible before forcing stopgaps that often do not reflect the desires of the GOP majority and their constituents. When voters go to the polls on November 8, they should remember that a 60-seat GOP Senate majority would stop these destabilizing stopgap measures that contain unpopular funding for such things as Planned Parenthood. ~~~~~~ In a first under President Obama, Congress overrode the President's 9/11 bill. The first Obama veto override means that 9/11 victims' families will be able to sue Saudi Arabia. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the CIA director on Wednesday joined the President, the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee and the Defense Secretary to warn about the bill's potential consequences for US troops, diplomats, intelligence officers and others abroad. But lawmakers were unpersuaded. The Senate voted 97-1 in favor of the override, with only Minority Leader Harry Reid voting to sustain the President's veto. Later, the House also easily cleared the two-thirds hurdle, voting 348-77 to override. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia said of the override : "We can no longer allow those who injure and kill Americans to hide behind legal loopholes denying justice to the victims of terror." The White House immediately attacked Congress. After the vote, Senators quickly began talking about changes to the legislation. A bipartisan group of Senators indicated Wednesday that they remain concerned about potential retaliation against Americans. Senator Lindsey Graham said lawmakers need to make sure they didn't open "Pandora's box" and reassure Saudi Arabia that Congress isn't "finding them guilty of 9/11." Graham, who supported the veto override, estimates that 20 Senators now support modifying the bill, something he thinks could happen as soon as the end-of-year lame-duck session. The goal of an amendment would be to more carefully define the circumstances in which legal actions would be permitted against foreign governments, which are generally immune from legal actions in US courts under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. But, even with amendments coming, Saudi Arabia and other countries have been put on notice that aiding, condoning or looking the other way as terrorists in their territory plan and carry out attacks on US citizens will have consequences. ~~~~~~ In the non-war that President Obama is waging in Iraq, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday that it is deploying 615 additional US troops to help retake Mosul from ISIS qnd to assist in Syria. This brings the official number authorized to over 5,000. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said : "In anticipation of the Mosul fight...President Obama has authorized approximately 600 additional US troops to further enable Iraqi forces." The current number of US troops officially authorized for Iraq is 4,647. The new addition would bring that number to 5,262. There are at least hundreds more deployed temporarily that aren't part of that official count. President Obama must wonder why he didn't just leave 10,000 US troops in Iraq in 2011, instead of pulling them all out simply to satisfy his naive political goal of ending US involvement in Iraq. That would have greatly reduced the ability of ISIS to grow and expand into 30 countries. It would also have supported Iraq political stability and avoided the sunni tribes' withdrawal from the governing coalition that opened the door to Iran's ascendancy in Iraq, facilitating its destructive role in Syria. ~~~~~~ The spokesman for the US-led anti-ISIS coalition in Iraq and Syria, Air Force Colonel John Dorrian, has announced that the shell fired at an Iraqi air base last week where US troops were operating did not contain mustard agent. Last week, Pentagon officials said ISIS fired a rocket approximately one foot long at Qayyarah air base in northern Iraq. After it landed within the base, US troops tested it and received a positive initial reading for mustard agent. A second reading was negative, but the Pentagon indicated last week that mustard agent evidence could have deteriorated because of sun exposure or the passage of time. Fragments of the rocket were then sent to a lab for further testing, while last Thursday, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee the military assessed a tar-like substance on the rocket to be a sulfur mustard blister agent, but according to Dunford : “It wasn't particularly effective, but it was a concerning development." But on Friday, Dorrian told reporters that the first test done at the lab was inconclusive and that another, more advanced test needed to be done. It was the final testing that determined there was no mustard agent. Nevertheless, the Pentagon has expressed concern about ISIS’ desire to develop chemical weapons. At the Senate hearing last week, Dunford said US forces have carried out about 30 strikes against “emerging chemical capability,” citing a recent coalition destruction of a pharmaceutical plant ISIS was using. Dunford added : “We also are tracking a number of targets...” It is too bad that the Obama administration had lied so often about its actions that even the Joint Chiefs come under suspicion when they make what should be rather routine announcements. Was there a mustard gas agent on the rocket? Who knows. ~~~~~~ The United States has treatened to cut off talks with Russia over Syria if bombing in Aleppo does not stop and access to humanitarian aid is not made available, the State Department said Wednesday. Secretary of State John Kerry issued the ultimatum in a phone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, department spokesman John Kirby said : "He [Kerry] informed the foreign minister that the United States is making preparations to suspend US-Russia bilateral engagement on Syria -- including on the establishment of the Joint Implementation Center -- unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo and restore the cessation of hostilities." Aleppo has been pounded by bombing missions after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with Russia's backing, ended the latest ceasefire and launched a new offensive last week against rebel-held parts of Aleppo, reportedly carrying out the worst bombing of the civil war. Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, longtime critics of the administration's foreign policy who have been particularly critical of Kerry's latest efforts, mocked Kerry's threat, saying : "We can only imagine that having heard the news, Vladimir Putin has called off his bear hunt and is rushing back to the Kremlin to call off Russian airstrikes on hospitals, schools and humanitarian aid convoys around Aleppo." The tragedy that is Syria can only be blamed on President Obama's refusal to engage in any meaningful way to end the civil war that has so far killed more than 300,000 civilians and made refugees of at least 10 million Syrians. Obama can also be charged with creating the refugee flow that has destabilized Europe and threatens to bring down the European Union. General Petraeus told Charlie Rose earlier this week that it is still not too late to create a refugee safe zone, setup a no-fly zone and ground al-Assad's air force. But, it is stunning to consider what a difference enforcing one redline would have made. ~~~~~~ And, speaking of possible lying -- FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday refused to tell the House Judiciary Committee whether the FBI will comply with a congressional request to investigate Hillary Clinton for perjury. Chairman Bob Goodlatte asked during a hearing on FBI oversight : “You cannot tell us whether you are indeed investigating?” Comey said he would not comment on a pending referral. So, Goodlatte asked : "When do you expect you will be able to tell us?” Comey's answer? “I don’t know." In July, Goodlatte and Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz issued a criminal referral to US District Attorney Channing Phillips, asking him to investigate whether Clinton lied to Congress during her 11-hour testimony before the Select Committee on Benghazi. Shortly before, the FBI had released an unprecedented amount of information that it had collected during the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private server while Secretary of State. Critics said was the information contained evidence that she should have been prosecuted. Asked during the course of a July Oversight hearing whether the FBI had investigated “her statements under oath on this topic,” Comey said no, saying that he would need a referral from Congress to conduct such an investigation. Godlatte and Chaffetz then wrote a formal request, noting : “The evidence collected by the FBI during its investigation of Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal email system appears to directly contradict several aspects of her sworn testimony." While the FBI is not required to open an investigation because of a referral from Congress, the issue here is whether Clinton’s under-oath testimony that “there was nothing marked classified on my emails, either sent or received” was a deliberate lie because of Comey's July testimony that Clinton did, in fact, exchange emails through her private server that included information marked classified. In order to commit perjury, which is a felony, a person must be proved to have lied willfully. Officials have characterized those markings -- a small “C” at the top of classified paragraphs -- as atypical. Clinton told investigators that she did not know what a small C in that context meant, an explanation Comey has backed up in subsequent testimonies. Comey said in July : “I think it’s possible -- possible -- that she didn’t understand what a 'C' meant when she saw it in the body of an email like that.” Standard government practice is to mark emails containing sensitive information at the top of the message or in the subject line. It must be noted that statutes require those receiving or sending classified information to protect it whether it is marked or not. The perjury investigation would only attempt to decide if Clinton lied to Congress about not having in her possession documents actually marked classified when FBI Director Comey said it had found classified documents in her possession. And the beat goes on -- with the FBI, the Department of Justice and the White House protecting Hillary Clinton from every effort by Congress to get to the truth about her emails -- and the bottom-line truth of determining if the FBI and DOJ have been corrupted by the Obama administration. ~~~~~~ At the same Wednesday hearing, FBI Director Comey also testified that former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills and another top aide had "some" classified material on laptops they turned over to the FBI in its probe of Clinton’s private server use as Secretary of State, and desipte this, the aides received immunity. Comey revealed this while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, where Republicans had many questions about a newly revealed set of immunity deals in the Clinton case. Comey claimed the findings did not constitute a crime but declined to directly answer the question whether having classified material on a laptop or other private electronic device was against federal regulations. "You’d have to know the circumstances,” Comey told committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte. Newt Gingrich told the Mike Gallagher Show on Wednesday : "You're seeing the first clear, visible corruption at the FBI. And Comey is the agent, and it's sad. It's going to destroy his career." Gingrich was referring to Comey's Wednesday testimony before Congress that his agency found no evidence an IT technician was ordered by Clinton or any of her aides to delete emails from her private server. Comey has previously said the FBI found no evidence to support an indictment of Hillary Clinton. Gingrich said Comey's stance shows what a Clinton presidency would look like : "It will be the most corrupt administration in American history, which I find frightening," he said. "Having a commander-in-chief that's that corrupt could dramatically weaken the fabric of American society." So, there we have it. If Obama is not adept at controlling what happens to people in Iraq and Syria, he is a past master at controlling what happens to people who do work for him in Washington. Benghazi coverup? Harassment of conservatives? Gun sales to Mexican drug cartels? Deliberate breaches of US security through personal servers and emails? No problem. Just call the IRS, DOJ and FBI. ~~~~~~ And, there is one indication that Donald Trump got under the skin of President Obama and Janet Yellen, the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve during Monday night's debate. Trump charged that the Federal Reserve is a political tool of the Obama administration and the charge is gaining support in Congress. Janet Yellen had to directly deny Trump’s accusations on Wednesday when she testified to the House Financial Services Committee. Republicans have long criticized the Fed’s policies following the 2008 financial crisis, with some calling for congressional oversight authority and others wanting to abolish the Federal Reserve altogether. This week, Representative Scott Garrett, a House Financial Services Committee subcommittee chairman, directly charged that Yellen’s Fed has a “cozy relationship” with the Obama administration and Democrats. He echoed Trump’s claims that the Fed is deliberately keeping rates low to benefit Obama in his final months in office, saying : “Whether you like it or not, the public increasingly believes that the Fed’s independence is nothing more than a myth.” Garrett argued that Yellen gave a speech on income inequality in 2014 because it was a major campaign theme for Democrats, and he blasted Fed Governor Lael Brainard for contributing to Hillary Clinton’s campaign while at the Fed. Garrett added that Brainard’s name has been mentioned as a possible Treasury Secretary under Clinton and asked if any of it posed a conflict of interest for the Federal Reserve. Yellen said Brainard’s actions were within the Fed’s conflict of interest rules but that she'd need to consult with lawyers about the rules for an official potentially taking a job in a future administration. The heated exchange came two days after Trump told 80 million Americans that he believed the Federal Reserve was effectively hurting the economy to boost Obama’s popularity. Trump charged : “We are in a big, fat, ugly bubble....The day Obama goes off, and he leaves, and goes out to the golf course...when they raise interest rates, you're going to see some very bad things happen, because the Fed is not doing their job. The Fed is being more political than Secretary Clinton.” The uncontrolled Federal Reserve, which has no congressional or other oversight, has added about $5 trillion to the US national debt during Obama's presidency. It is time that some control mechanism be provided to rein in the Federal Reserve's unfettered power over the US monetary system and economy. ~~~~~~ Finally, there is a question related ot Hillary and Bill's tax returns. Documents released on Thursday show that the Clintons' tax deductions seem to match up with payments they made to IT aide Bryan Pagliano for work he performed on Hillary Clinton's private email server. According to The Daily Caller, the deductions the Clintons made on their tax returns in 2009-2013 -- the years Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State -- are slightly higher than what Pagliano was paid, indicating that the deductions could have been taken to offset the expenses. The problem, reports The Daily Caller, is that Hillary Clinton kept the email server -- which was located in the basement of the family's home in Chappaqua, N.Y. -- a secret and treated it as a personal device. The IRS does not allow citizens to deduct personal expenses on their tax returns. The home-based server was used for three email domains -- wjcoffice.com, presidentclinton.com, and clintonemail.com. Hillary used the latter when she was Secretary of State after refusing to use government email. So, who should be explaining their tax returns -- Donald or Hillary??? ~~~~~~ Dear readers, what is most noticeable this week is the renewed energy on the GOP side of the aisle. When Trump became the winner of the Party's nomination, many Republicans were worried that the GOP was going down in flames with him. It is now clear, even to the most NeverTrump elites, that Trump has a serious chance of being elected. This good news -- in polls and continued crowds rallying around Trump's every word -- has heartened the Washington GOP crowd, who now see their re-election chances as much brighter, with prospects for a Republican White House and Congress looking achievable. The GOP enthusiasm remains to be harnessed by Trump for the work desperately needed to back and fill and restabilize America after the disastrous eight years of Barack Obama.