UN backs Iran deal, infuriating lawmakers from both parties
The Obama administration was forced to play defense on Monday after lawmakers in both parties criticized its decision to let the United Nations — not Congress — have the first say on the Iran nuclear deal.
Republicans pounced on the decision following the U.N. Security Council’s 15-0 vote, arguing the White House was giving short shrift to congressional assent in a rush to build international support for the agreement.
The White House appeared to hope that the U.N. vote would build pressure on Congress to back the deal, but the strategy risked backfiring, with some Democrats scolding the administration for the decision.Rep. Eliot Engel (N.Y.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, joined panel Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) in a statement saying they were “disappointed” that the U.N. Security Council voted “before Congress was able to fully review and act on this agreement.”
“Regardless of this morning’s outcome, Congress will continue to play its role,” they added.
Administration officials fought back, countering that lawmakers still have two months to make up their minds.
“No ability of the Congress has been impinged on,” Secretary of State John Kerry insisted on Monday.
Kerry claimed that the administration was between a rock and a hard place. Either the White House risked getting flak at home, he said, or Iran and the other negotiating nations would balk at the idea of holding their landmark international agreement hostage to one country’s legislature.
“Frankly, some of these other countries were quite resistant to the idea, as sovereign nations, that they were subject to the United States Congress,” Kerry said.
“When you’re negotiating with six other countries, it does require, obviously, a measure of sensitivity and multilateral cooperation that has to take into account other nations’ desires.”
Most of the criticism on Monday came from Republicans eager to criticize the administration’s handling of the Iranian issue.
Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, called the U.N. action “an affront to the American people” and accused the White House of “jamming this deal through” without proper congressional scrutiny.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is running for the White House, used the phrase “capitulation Monday,” pointing to both the Iran vote and Cuba’s opening of a U.S. Embassy in Washington.
“This is a bad start for a bad deal,” said Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Monday morning’s U.N. vote came just hours after the State Department formally sent the Iran deal to Congress to be reviewed.
“Enabling such a consequential vote just 24 hours after submitting the agreement documents to Congress undermines our national security and violates the spirit of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act,” Boehner said, referring to the law giving Congress 60 days to review and decide whether or not to condemn the deal.
Congress can vote to block the deal in September, but Republicans would have to win over at least 13 Democrats in the Senate — and dozens in the House — to override a presidential veto.
The administration has sought to win support from the public and Democrats in Congress for the deal, while Republicans are busily working to turn people away from the deal — and make any votes for Democrats difficult.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) — who last week sent a letter along with the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Ben Cardin (Md.), asking President Obama to postpone the U.N. vote — also criticized Monday’s action.
“It is inappropriate to commit the United States to meet certain international obligations without even knowing if Congress and the American people approve or disapprove of the Iran agreement,” he said. “During the review period, members on both sides of the aisle will evaluate the agreement carefully, press the administration for answers and then vote their conscience.”
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.), the second-ranking House Democrat, also has said that the United Nations vote should have been delayed.
Over the next eight days, top administration officials will make multiple visits to Capitol Hill to reassure lawmakers.
On Wednesday, Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and an unnamed “senior intelligence official” will give separate classified briefings for all members of the House and Senate.
Kerry, Lew and Moniz will testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the following day, and then Kerry and Moniz will meet with House Democrats that afternoon.
The three secretaries will return to the House Foreign Affairs Committee next Tuesday.
“That’s an indication that the administration continues to be serious about the responsibility we have to make sure members of Congress have the information they need to consider this agreement over the course of the next 60 days,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.
It was evident that the White House would try to use Monday’s Security Council endorsement to rally members of Congress — especially Democrats — to its side.
In brief remarks from the Oval Office, Obama said that the vote “will send a clear message that the overwhelming number of countries who not only participated in the deal ... but who have observed what’s happened, recognize that this is by far our strongest approach to ensuring that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.
“My working assumption is that Congress will pay attention to the broad-based consensus,” he added.
The Obama administration also appears eager to claim that a 90-day grace period between the U.N. Security Council vote on Monday and the time sanctions against Iran can begin to be lifted leaves more than enough time for Congress to act.
That 90-day window “is specifically to allow Congress ample time to conduct their review of the agreement,” Earnest said.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/248589-un-backs-iran-deal-infuriating-lawmakers
Massad Ayoob’s 10 Commandments Of Concealed Carry
If You Choose To Carry, Always Carry As Much As PossibleHollywood actors get to see the script beforehand, and nothing is fired at them but blanks. You don’t have either luxury. Criminals attack people in times and places where they don’t think the victims will be prepared for them. It’s what they do. The only way to be prepared to ward off such predators is to always be prepared: i.e., to be routinely armed and constantly ready to respond to deadly threats against you and those who count on you for protection. It’s not about convenience; it’s about life and death.
COMMANDMENT II:
Don’t Carry A Gun If You Aren’t Prepared To Use It
The gun is not a magic talisman that wards off evil. It is a special-purpose emergency rescue tool: no more, no less. History shows us that—for police and for armed citizens alike—the mere drawing of the gun ends the great majority of criminal threats, with the offender either surrendering or running away. However, you must always remember that criminals constitute an armed subculture themselves, living in an underworld awash with stolen, illegal weapons. They don’t fear the gun; they fear the resolutely armed man or woman pointing that gun at them. And, being predators, they are expert judges of what is prey and what is a creature more dangerous to them than what they had thought a moment ago was their prey. Thus, the great irony: the person who is prepared to kill if they must to stop a murderous transgression by a human predator is the person who is least likely to have to do so.
COMMANDMENT III:
Don’t Let The Gun Make You Reckless
Lightweight pseudo-psychologists will tell you that “the trigger will pull the finger,” and your possession of your gun will make you want to kill someone. Rubbish. The gun is no more an evil talisman that turns kindly Dr. Jekyll into evil Mr. Hyde than it is a good talisman that drives off evil. Those of us who have spent decades immersed in the twin cultures of American law enforcement and the responsibly armed citizenry know that the truth is exactly the opposite. A good person doesn’t see their weapon as a supercharger or excuse for aggression, but as brakes that control that natural human emotion. The law itself holds the armed individual to “a higher standard of care,” requiring that they do all that is possible to avoid using deadly force until it becomes clearly necessary. Prepare and act accordingly.
COMMANDMENT IV:
Carry Legally
If you live someplace where there is no provision to carry a gun to protect yourself and your loved ones, don’t let pusillanimous politicians turn you into a convicted felon. Move! It’s a quality of life issue. Rhetorical theory that sounds like “I interpret the law this way, because I believe the law should be this way”—which ignores laws that aren’t that way—can sacrifice your freedom, your status as a gun-owning free American and your ability to provide for your family. If you live where a CCW permit is available, get the damn permit. If you don’t, move to someplace that does. Yes, it is that simple. And if you are traveling, check sources such as handgunlaw.us to make sure that you are legal to carry in the given jurisdiction. Don’t let the legal system make you a felon for living up to your responsibilities to protect yourself and those who count on you. If you carry, make sure you carry legally.
COMMANDMENT V:
Know What You’re Doing
Gunfights are won by those who shoot fastest and straightest, and are usually measured in seconds. Legal aftermaths last for years, and emotional after-maths, for lifetimes. Get educated in depth in the management of all three stages of encounter beforehand.
COMMANDMENT VI:
Concealed Means Concealed
If your local license requires concealed carry, keep the gun truly concealed. The revealing of a concealed handgun is seen in many quarters as a threat, which can result in charges of criminal threatening, brandishing and more. A malevolent person who wants to falsely accuse you of threatening them with a gun will have their wrongful accusation bolstered if the police find you with a gun where they said it was. Yes, that happens. Some jurisdictions allow “open carry.” I support the right to open carry, in the proper time and place, but I have found over the decades that there are relatively few ideal times or places where the practice won’t unnecessarily and predictably frighten someone the carrier had no reason to scare.
COMMANDMENT VII:
Maximize Your Firearms Familiarity
If you ever need that gun, it will happen so quickly and terribly that you’ll have to be swift and sure. If you don’t, you’ll still be handling a deadly weapon in the presence of people you love. Making gun manipulation second nature—safety as well as draw-fire-hit—is thus doubly important.
COMMANDMENT VIII:
Understand The Fine Points
Don’t just read the headlines or editorials, read the fine print. Actually study the laws of your jurisdiction. What’s legal in one place won’t be legal in another. Cities may have prohibitions that states don’t. Remember the principle, “ignorance of the law is no excuse.”
COMMANDMENT IX:
Carry An Adequate Firearm
A motor scooter is a motor vehicle, but it’s a poor excuse for a family car. A .22 or a .25 is a firearm, but it’s a poor excuse for defense. Carry a gun loaded with ammunition that has a track record of quickly stopping lethal assaults. Hint: if your chosen caliber is not used by police or military personnel, it’s probably not powerful enough for its intended purpose.
COMMANDMENT X:
Use Common Sense
Common sense—encompassing ethics and logic and law alike—must be your constant guide and companion when you decide to carry a gun. Not idealism, not rhetoric. When you carry a gun, you literally carry the power of life and death. It is a power that belongs only in the hands of responsible people who care about consequences, and who are respectful of life and limb and human safety—that of others as well as their own.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/14/massad-ayoobs-10-commandments-of-concealed-carry/#ixzz3gWP7o2Wy
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