With or without concrete evidence, there is no real justification for more killing.

Hey tomcalwriter1 Obama was the lesser of the two evils we had to choose from. Imagine if we had Romney in right now, the forces would already be invading...I still hold out hope that this hard line by President Obama is just his way of forcing the resolution to be done diplomatically. I think he is playing chess with Congress, Syria and Russia as he has put the future in their hands while keeping all options open. We will know his true colors if Congress votes no to a military strike and he still strikes Syria. I agree that the public is starting to get it, but when I hear that 29% of the people in Louisiana blame Obama for the handling of the relief efforts after Katrina, I wonder about this country's future. Cross our fingers and hope everyone!!

Dropping bombs may not work, but obviously a credible threat to send in missiles will. We wouldn't be here were it not for President Obama's willingness to face the wrath of both the unstable Obama haters and the knee jerk progressives. Sad to say, Thom's just not getting it because he is forgetting everything we know about Barack Obama the person. I cringed at some of his really insulting remarks. NO ONE is saying it's ok to kill people with conventional weapons, but what the President has clearly demonstrated is that chemical weapons, like biological and nuclear weapons, are classed as WMDs and banned for good reason. They are anti-civilian instruments used to terrorize, demoralize, depress, suppress, and run off the civilians, leaving the field open to destroy any opposition. For Obama it's not about "wanting" war, it's about the actual USE of WMDs. He's been at this for his whole public career, duh! And the minute he expressed his firm intent to stop it in Syria, notice that it DID stop.

I also found it absolutely cringeworthy for Thom to rant that the President hasn't seen people die. Every President is exposed to the horrors of all kinds going on around the world every day. For some of them it is meaningless, but for this President it hits home. He has been steeped in empathy has seen all the kinds of suffering and death. The difference here is this is ONE kind of suffering, at this moment in time he is in a position to DO something about. If you can't solve all the world's problems at least do what you can do about those you possibly CAN solve. Even if you have to appear to the home crowd like the bad guy for awhile.

We owe him thanks, but shy of that, should have some understanding and respect for what he is and what he's trying to do. I strongly support a congressional resolution to back up his threat in the event that diplomacy with the Syrians fails. It's the only way to make sure that diplomacy will succeed.

Sandlewould ~ Thanks for that heads up about Noam Chomsky. Very informative. A must see for everyone. Here is a direct link for the interview:

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/11/chomsky_instead_of_illegal_threat_to?autostart=true

Thom should play excerpts of this interview in his program.

I read the Civic Report from the Manhattan Institute titled "Better Pay, Fairer Teacher Compenstion." The author had a hard time explaining to Tom how the alternative approach would work. It's based on which formula is used. From my understanding, the amount of "money" is the same, but a greater portion is shifted to professionals who may leave teaching after 20 years rather than staying for a career of 30+ years. I show the formulas below. Most of the data in the report referenced large school systems, not small districts where teachers are part of the community, stay for a lifetime, and get a modest pension.

You FAIL to see the GENOCIDE that Assad can pursue using these chemical weapons.

(Assuming the recent proposal is a sham with no cease fire or U.N. verification allowed)

1429 were killed in a few hours, many within minutes by just several shells.

You and Larry O'Donnell focus on the grim details of death by various weapons.

This is about NUMBERS - 1 or 2,000 pounds of Sarin or VX dispersed over a town will kill every living thing in the town without a shot fired. The consensus is that he has 1,000 TONS of the stuff.

The 'progressive' liberals angrily attacking supposed mass casualties of a missile strike I would like to think are simply Ignorant and not actually working to preserving Assad's right to murder his own people enmass. President Obama via the series of delays has virtually assured a good number of completely deserted targets to hit, if that actually ever happens.

Palindromedary,

The minute Bush's ear received the whisper and I saw the look on his face, I knew in my gut it was an inside job, I just couldn't fathom at the time, why...nor could I have dreamed of such a complex and far reaching web of Evil. I think it's '9/11, Quest for Truth' that details a journalist's time line of the knowledge of the use of planes, as well as following the money. So many unanswered questions, and many that have been answered and scilenced by MSM. The US as a baby nation, (only 235 years old) is like a child...too naive to believe that Empire can, and would not hesitate to do whatever it takes to control & corrupt politicians in order to remain in power and make $$$

Nothing will change, however, if Americans continue to believe that 9/11 was not an inside job...a false flag..carried out by powerful Neocon insiders who have since made cowards of everyone who continues to buy the official government conspiracy theory. And the subsequent lies that took away many of our freedoms and liberties.That mass murdered many civilians that didn't deserve to die.

Those scenes of dead bodies in the Syria chemical attack... jerking bodies... horrible scenes to be sure... were not really censored like scenes of carnage that the US military did in Iraq and Afghanista and Pakistan and Yemen. You didn't see those scenes because the US major media propagandists didn't want you to see them. It would have shown these mass murdering war criminals for what they really are...mass murdering war criminals!

Until we hold these traitor war mongers, especially the ones that planned and engineered 9/11, accountable and put away for good we all will continue to be victims of the ruling elite. Nothing will change except more wars and a tightening of the noose around the necks of the majority of American citizens.

What "surprises" are in store for us...what new false flags will they think of next to further our obeisance to the Neocon furor's rapacious greed of wealth and power? I think we just saw one last month in Syria and we don't yet know what will be the real outcome of that...disarm Syria of their chemical weapons, making it easier for a US invasion, perhaps...like in Iraq? Making it easier for Al Qaida to overthrow the Assad regime, perhaps? What about all the chemical weapons that Saudi Arabia has been supplying the rebels..Al Qaida? Will the US block that? How are they going to find all the stockpiles that either side really has?

The experts say that Sarin gas is not so hard to make! All they need is a little knowledge in chemistry, access to a few chemicals that are readily available over the internet, perhaps, some rudimentary, makeshift lab equipment...like an exhaust hood and safety equipment to keep from killing oneself in the process of making it.

Unfortunately, there are probably more than a few crazies, right here in the US, that could do such a thing. Right after 911, there was the anthrax mailings. There was the Boston Marathon bombings. And there were other acts of violence like the many mass shootings by "lone nuts?". Many, or all of which, are highly suspect in a level of complicity by someone higher up the chain who had the motive, the means, and the opportunity to do a Manchurian Candidate MKULTRA operation on some poor dupe(s). What are they putting in YOUR medications? If they can remotely hijack planes and cars they can sure mess with what is in your medications. What is in MY medications, you may ask (or maybe not)...if I said I don't take medications anymore...some may say..."maybe you should be taking medications". ;-0 I've never had to take psychotropic meds anyway...

Thom,

If you haven't yet listened to Amy Goodman today, you must. Noam Chomsky hits it out of the park re. Syria and the US's history of aggression. Listening to him convinced me all the more, that if the Democrats are not in bed with the plutocrats along with the Republicans, they at the very least have knives in their backs. Changing either party from within would be like joining the Mafia with the hopes of cleaning it up. Peaceful, non-violent revolution, ready and waiting with solutions when the system collapses is our only hope. Tag, We're all it! Thanks for the WW-I lesson yesterday, fascinating.

Karl Smiley/Magstar19 ~ I too share your concerns. This crisis is not over by any means. Now comes the very tricky process of identification and disposal of the chemical weapons. Meanwhile, no one was identified or indicted in the initial chemical attack. All the same nefarious players including members of Assad's own army are still running around free with perhaps even a more desperate agenda than before. You have the indigenous Syrians who resent being under secular rule. You have the Al Qaeda terrorists from abroad who want to kill as many as they can to undermine Assad. And most important of all you have the mercenaries who are hired guns from a myriad of special interest groups in the region from Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and even The United States of America.

Meanwhile, all our war ships and destroyers are sitting there on high alert with their counterparts from the USSR and China. Soon there will be diplomats from the USA, USSR, China and the United Nations being escorted around by Assad's army to their weapons depots. All it would really take is three mercenaries with machine guns and a rocket launcher to create that "Archduke Ferdinand" moment. As we all know, the "special interest" groups in the region have far greater resources to clog up the slow moving and unarmed cogs of peace. Just dress up your mercenaries to look like soldiers in Assads army and have them blow themselves up. There are many willing such suicide bomber patsy's amongst the ranks of Al Qaeda to do that job. Then the attack is back on schedule--so is the potential for WWIII

MMmmNACHOS ~ I must agree. We already have more than enough ridiculous laws on the books to ensure we will never be as free as we think we are. You are right in saying we need more investment in our society than wars or new laws. Publicly funded mental institutions for instance will solve the problem of shooting children much faster than any gun control laws ever will. The black market does not care if their clients have mental disorders or not. They only care about their ability to pay for the goods. As you've stated if we invest simply in single payer health care for all, publicly funded mental institutions will follow.

2950-10K ~ I share your concern about the abundance of assault rifles in the street. No good is ever going to come of that. However, I think that if we attack that problem at the source we will achieve better results. There is no reason that gun manufacturers should be allowed to manufacture more assault rifles then are needed by the military or special police units. It is this surplus that ultimately finds it's way into private and criminal hands. Gun collectors and responsible citizens who--for whatever reason--want to own and collect such things should be allowed to do so after a thorough background check, licensing, and showing proof of insurance. I believe that stricter regulation on gun manufacturing, not gun sales, is the way to go to reduce the number of guns--especially assault rifles and machine guns--on the street. We already have way too many guns in the world and not enough food. We need to encourage gun buyback programs that destroy the weapons and not resell them. There is no reason that we should allow enough guns to be produced that there is a gun for every man, woman, and child in the world. That is what will happen unless we attack this problem at the root of the source. Remember the law of supply and demand. The more guns there are the easier and cheaper they will be to obtain. That is the problem in my humble opinion.