REAGAN REPORTS FOR AMERICA

[dothedd]

VIDEO:
www.reaganreports.com/about/


About

Michael Reagan, the elder son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is spokesman for The Reagan Nation and president and chairman of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Prior to leading the Reagan Legacy Foundation, Reagan hosted “The Michael Reagan Show,” a nationally-syndicated radio show which drew more than 5 million daily listeners.

Reagan has authored several books, including his best-selling autobiography, “On the Outside Looking In,” and “The Common Sense of An Uncommon Man: The Wit, Wisdom, and Eternal Optimism of Ronald Reagan.” His latest book “Twice Adopted” is based on his personal story.

ReaganReports.com is dedicated to bringing the most important news of the day to Americans who still believe, as President Reagan knew, that America remains “the last best hope of man on earth.”


Russia’s 100-Page Report Faults Syrian Rebels for Chemical Weapons Attack

Fri Sep 6, 2013 AT 9:02 AM EDT
Russia says it has compiled a 100-page report detailing what it says is evidence that Syrian rebels, not forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, were behind a deadly sarin gas attack in an Aleppo suburb earlier this year, McClatchy reports. Though the report itself was not released, the statement drew a pointed comparison between what it said was the scientific detail of the report and the far shorter intelligence summaries that the United States, Britain and France have released to justify their assertion that the Syrian government launched chemical weapons against Damascus suburbs on Aug. 21. Reuters reports Secretary of State John Kerry’s public assertions that moderate Syrian opposition groups are growing in influence appear to be at odds with estimates by U.S. and European intelligence sources and nongovernmental experts, who say Islamic extremists remain by far the fiercest and best-organized rebel elements. Meanwhile, Breitbart reports Al Qaeda-linked rebels attacked a Christian village in western Syria for a second day Thursday.

Assad ‘Did Not Order Attack’ : German Intelligence

Mon Sep 9, 2013 AT 9:06 AM EDT
Syrian government forces may have carried out a chemical weapons attack close to Damascus without the personal permission of President Bashar al-Assad, Germany’s Bild am Sonntag paper reported on Sunday, citing German intelligence. Assad, who previously denied he was behind the attack, “suggested that there would be, among people that are aligned with him, some kind of retaliation if a strike was made,” Charlie Rose said on Sunday’s “Face the Nation.” The Telegraph reports, meanwhile, that Syria’s rebels and Assad’s soldiers agree on at least one thing: the military strike America is contemplating will not change anything.

John Kerry Pushes Syrian Attack as ‘Unbelievably Small’

Tue Sep 10, 2013 AT 6:43 AM EDT
Russia and Syria embraced Secretary of State John Kerry’s suggestion Monday that the Syrian government could avert a U.S. attack by placing its chemical weapons under international control, upending the Obama administration’s efforts to sharpen its case for military action, the Washington Post reports. Meanwhile, with just two words, Kerry managed to illustrate the Obama administration’s overall ambivalence toward a Syria strike, the latest shift in arguments from a man whose case for action has been changing almost with the days of the week, Politico reports. Saying that any Syria action would be “unbelievably small,” Kerry bolstered skeptics who believe the administration’s either only looking for a symbolic move against Syrian President Bashar Assad to be able to claim action or for those who believe that President Obama’s about to blunder into a long-term engagement in yet another fractured Arab nation. Sen. John McCain characterized Kerry’s remarks as “unbelievably unhelpful.”


Obama Tells Nation He’s Pursuing Diplomacy With Syria

Wed Sep 11, 2013 AT 6:44 AM EDT'
President Obama told the nation Tuesday he is exploring a Russian diplomatic plan to end a chemical weapons dispute in Syria, but reserves the right to take military action if necessary, USA Today reports. In a nationally-televised address from the White House, the Washington Postreports Obama cautiously welcomed a Russian proposal that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad give up its entire stockpile of chemical weapons, signaling that he would drop his call for a military assault on the regime if Assad complies. But with little guarantee that diplomacy would prevail, Obama argued that the nation must be prepared to strike Assad. Roll Call reports, meanwhile, as developments in Syria moved faster than the Senate’s slow-moving schedule, senators from both parties called for a pause in the chamber’s action on authorizing the use of force against Assad’s regime.

As Obama Pauses Action, Putin Claims Center Stage

Thu Sep 12, 2013 AT 10:45 AM EDT
The New York Times on Wednesday published an op-ed by Vladimir Putin in which the Russian president urged the United States not to launch an attack on Syria. “We must stop using the language of force and return to the path of civilized diplomatic and political settlement,” Putin wrote in encouraging President Barack Obama to pursue the possibility of a diplomatic settlement to the crisis caused by the use of chemical weapons. Referring back before the decades-long Cold War to the time when the United States and Soviet Union were allies in World War II and worked to create the United Nations, Putin argued that a strike would render the U.N. impotent (“No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations”) and lead to additional violence in the Middle East and around the world. Roll Call discusses whether Obama has postponed the military force vote indefinitely, or effectively canceled it altogether.

Republicans Get Ready to Rumble Over Defunding ObamaCare

Fri Sep 13, 2013 AT 6:00 AM EDT
The New York Times reports John Boehner is seeking to draw President Obama into the middle of negotiations to raise the debt ceiling once again. Forty-three House Republicans, however, have endorsed legislation to completely defund ObamaCare, according to The Hill, which points out that House Republican leadership only has a 16 vote margin over Democrats. Politico reports Obama, “with the basic functions of government on the line again” will define “his goal” as to say “no budget cuts,” and “no concessions on ObamaCare or the debt limit.”

[dothedd]

Russia Already Oversees Syria's Chemical Weapons
Friday Sept 13, 2013  10 AM
By Michael Reagan

Did you see the hopeful breaking news about Syria?

"Russia takes control of Syrian chemical weapons."

The story quoted Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, announcing that Syria's chemical weapons, which had been consolidated in one or two locations to allay fears that they might fall into rebel hands, are now being closely guarded by the Russian military advisers that have trained and supplied Syria's military for decades.

That encouraging turn of events must be a direct result of President Obama's Syria speech on Tuesday night, right?

Not exactly.

Unfortunately, that Daily Kos headline was written on Dec. 22, 2012, when the official number of Syrians killed by the Assad regime with bullets and bombs was "only" 46,176.

I remembered having seen that Daily Kos item as I banged my head against the wall again and again during Mr. Obama's schizophrenic presidential address.

I know he's supposed to be a great orator.

But didn't he simultaneously make a moral case for a U.S. military strike to punish Syria for using chemical weapons, and a diplomatic case for delaying the attack in hopes of finding a solution from Russia that would place Syria's chemical arsenal under international control?

Maybe Jon Stewart will decrypt Obama's speech for us later this week.

Meanwhile, I'm beginning to think it's time to file a class-action suit on behalf of the American people against President Obama for causing a case of national whiplash.

One day John Kerry says X. The next day the president says Y. The two simply are not communicating — and the whole country needs a good chiropractor.

It seems the only adult in the Syrian room is Vladimir Putin. The "Bastard of the Balkans" is the only leader who has stood up, taken charge and offered a plan.

But based on what the Russian foreign minister said in that Daily Kos report, Putin's call for Syria's chemical weapons to be placed under international control is kind of strange.

The Russians essentially are promising to do what they are already doing.

They've been overseeing Syria's chemical weapons all along. Where do we think Syria got them? Who do we think supplies Syria with its tanks and jets and poison gas? The former Soviet Union.

So now there's going to be peace breaking out in the Middle East and Putin is a Nobel Peace Prize favorite because Russia is promising to watch the chemical weapons they are already watching?

I don't get that pretzel logic, but I understand why the president was so thrilled to get a lifeline from Putin. It saved him from having to make a decision on Syria and from being humiliated by a "No" vote in Congress.

Unfortunately, in the global hardball league in which Putin plays, a lifeline from Moscow is going to come with a lot of strings and secret caveats.

The main one, no doubt, will be that the U.S. promises to never use military force to blow Russia's pal to smithereens.

Syria is a human and political tragedy. It's also a stark reminder of how far our country's power and prestige has fallen under President Obama.

In the 1980s Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were the leaders of the Free World. Now it's an alumnus of the KGB.

Foreign policy, Mr. President, should be about leadership, not friendship.

Mr. Obama, you think you can talk your way in and out of everything. You talked your way into being president. Now you've talked yourself out of being a leader. The United States — along with the rest of the world — will suffer for it.

[dothedd]

Will Congress Authorize A Strike On Syria?
Posted: 09/04/2013 9:00 am EDT

Members of Congress are deciding whether to approve the use of military force in Syria. HuffPost, using data compiled by ThinkProgress, will continue to keep track of each member's position until votes are taken.

Update: President Obama has asked Congress to postpone a vote on Syria as a diplomatic solution is pursued.
Last update: Friday, Sept. 13, 2013, 10:44 am EDT

CONTINUED: data.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/congress-syria-positions?icid=maing-grid7%7cmaing5%7cdl1%7csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D369422

Could not get the link to copy and paste, but worth the time to peruse it!

[dothedd]

Conservatives Release ObamaCare Replacement; Rove Dissents on Defunding Strategy

House Republican leaders announced they will vote to defund ObamaCare this Friday, the Washington Post reports. Nearly simultaneously, conservatives in the U.S. House released their long-awaited proposal to replace ObamaCare, as reported by The Hill. But not all on the right agree on the strategy. The Weekly Standard reports Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a stalwart conservative, believes the defunding fight and resulting government shutdown could inadvertently "rescue ObamaCare." And Karl Rove shares some terrible polling on the impact of a shutdown in his column in the Wall Street Journal, concluding that the defunding strategy will "strengthen the president while alienating independents." Finally, the New York Times notes that Obama and the Democrats have their own growing problem with in-fighting.