A Conservative congress. Progress on legislation?

Speaker Boehner & Majority Leader McConnell

The 114th Congress has already begun, just yesterday Congressman John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, was reelected as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Speaker Boehner needed 205 votes to win the speakership and won with 216 votes. For the past years Speaker Boehner has had to hold a possible revolt from the more Conservative elements of the GOP, namely the Tea Party. This year only twenty-four conservative Republican representatives went against the party line and voted not to elect Congressman Boehner as Speaker of the House.

Luckily for Speaker Boehner, the Republican Party, and the rest of the country Tea Party influence has been waning the past few years. The Republican National Committee during the 2014 midterm election cycle heavily vetted its congressional candidates and poured massive amounts of money into congressional primary campaigns to squash Tea Party backed upstarts whom threaten to taint the Republican Party with insensitive, ridiculous rhetoric and policy.

With that said I fear that this division within the Republican caucus right at the beginning of the 114th Congress may be, as it has been in past years, a preview of things to come. The Republican mainstream has had to take a decidedly right turn as ultra conservatives have routinely attacked any GOP members (including the congressional Republican leadership) whom sought compromise with the Democrats and to a greater extent President Barack Obama’s agenda.

Although the fire of the Tea Party may be dying down, grassroots conservative groups are still a forced to be reckoned with for the GOP. Speaker Boehner, along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, may reject compromise in order to whip up conservative support for Republican’s in 2016 and retain the loyalty of rank and file members.

Speaker Boehner

With the Republican’s controlling the House and the Senate by good majorities the burden of legislating now fall upon the shoulders of Republican representatives. There still exists ultra conservatives in both the House and the Senate whom will force party leaders such as Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader McConnell to reject common sense legislation proposed by Democrats in order to whip up their conservative base. Though the threat of a loss to Democrats in the 2016 Presidential elections looms I fear that again the 114th Congress will be a do nothing Congress and that the Republican Party will remain the obstructionist party.

Hacking Away at our Freedoms

Cyber warfare will usher in the next stage of conflict between nations. Cyber warfare is when one nation, through digital means, digitally attacks another nation. The attacks can target infrastructure, steal information, disrupt relations with international allies and are generally hard to pinpoint and punish. While seemingly less dangerous as other forms of conflict Cyber warfare and its co cyber terrorism cant threatened the national security of the United States and the American way of life.

Of course, why bring this up now? In the past few days Sony Entertainment was digitally attacked by unknown entity, this entity is assumed to be the rogue nation that is North Korea.

The theory is simple a plausible, Sony was scheduled to release the film the Interview starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, on December 25th. The films plot is that Franco and Rogan will conduct and interview Kim Jong-Un and attempt to kill him.

Image that appeared on Sony Entertainment’s computers after the hack

Not surprisingly North Korea, whom considers their national leader Kim Jong-Un a powerful savior, had a bit of a problem with the Interview. And so Sony was digitally attacked, disrupting the multinational companies for days and releasing confidential emails. The attacks and the emails sent the political and digital world into a tailspin.

While the US can respond and will respond, international laws regarding cyber warfare are difficult to enforce, and so little substantive harm will come to North Korea or at least to its leaders. To make matters worse, Sony along with several national movie theater chains decided, in light of the cyber attack, not to show the movie.

Political and entertainment scions President Barack Obama and George Clooney denounced the decisions believing its sets a dangerous precedent for censorship in the US by the decree of another nation.

I must agree, with President Obama and Clooney. Freedom of Speech, which film fall under, must be rigorously defended. Due to the actions of an outside nation, entertainment companies should not grovel to meet that nation’s demands.

The US must remain a place of free intellectual and cultural expression, a place were films like the Interview, that mock political leaders, can be shown and celebrated, if it does not, our very of life, our freedom to express ourselves, would slowly but surely unravel.

Hagel Chucked Out

It seems President Obama is losing key members of his administration left and right. The latest loss from Obama’s Administration comes from Chuck Hagel, a former Republican Senator and the Secretary of Defense.

It was announced yesterday that within a few weeks Secretary Hagel will be stepping down as Secretary of Defense, one of the most powerful posts in the United States. While he has officially resigned he will still remain the acting Secretary of Defense until a replacement is found

While officially the White House sends Secretary Hagel out the door with praise there are “rumors” from administration insiders that Hagel is seen as a lackluster Secretary of Defense whom has done little to make good on President Obama’s agenda.

I for one find the announcement quite surprising. While Hagel is not particularly effective I did not find Hagel particularly ineffective. The question is, Was Hagel really looked down upon by administration insiders or did he just wish to leave what he may see as a sinking ship?

I hope that President Obama chooses a Secretary of Defense that can lead this nations vast military bureaucracy and just as importantly be confirmed by the United States Senate. We are transitioning to a new era of conflict and thus need someone in charge of the Pentagon whom can lead the US military through multiple crisis.