Congress Votes to Bring Ukraine to Heel-381-2... Massie and Jones Vote NO

CaseyJones

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http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archive.../congress-votes-to-bring-ukraine-to-heel.aspx

Not to be outdone by the hyper-interventionist State Department of John Kerry, Victoria Nuland, and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly yesterday to jump head first into the Ukraine crisis.

By an overwhelming vote of 381-2 the House went on record demanding that the democratically-elected government of Ukraine bow to the demands of protestors in the streets and accede to "the...European aspirations of the people of Ukraine, and their right to choose their own future free of intimidation and fear."

In other words, sign the association agreement with the EU or else.

The only two Members who held up the principle of non-interventionism by voting "no" were Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Walter Jones, Jr. (R-NC). Mr. Jones is an advisor to the Ron Paul Institute.

The vote was par for the course for the House, which can imagine no crisis too small or insignificant to US interests to insert itself, armed with little or no real information but nevertheless certain of the solution governments thousands of miles away should pursue.
 
Here is what the bill does: http://www.gop.gov/bill/113/2/hres447

The “Resolved” clause of H.Res. 447 establishes that the U.S. House of Representatives: 1) greatly values the relationship that the United States has established with Ukraine since its independence in 1991; 2) supports the democratic and European aspirations of the people of Ukraine and their right to choose their own future free of intimidation and fear; 3) calls on the U.S. and the EU to work together to support a peaceful resolution to the current crisis; 4) urges the Government of Ukraine, Ukrainian opposition parties, and protestors to exercise restraint and avoid confrontation; 5) condemns all violence and calls on the Government to bring to justice those responsible for violence; 6) welcomes the repeal by the Ukrainian parliament of some of the anti-democratic measures adopted in mid-January, and urges President Yanukovych to engage in substantive talks with opposition leaders; 7) urges the U.S. and EU to continue to make clear to Ukrainian leaders that those who engage in violence against peaceful protestors will be held accountable; 8) supports the measures taken by the State Department to revoke the visas of Ukrainians linked to current violence; and 9) urges all parties to engage in constructive, sustained dialogue in order to find a peaceful solution to Ukraine’s current political and economic crisis.

I see nothing wrong with it and can see why Amash and Jimmy Duncan would vote for it.
 
Does anyone have an explanation from Justin?

I voted yes on the motion to suspend the rules and pass ‪#‎HRes447‬, which expresses the support of the House for the democratic aspirations of the people of Ukraine and encourages involved parties to seek a peaceful resolution to the crisis there. The United States should not insert itself into the conflict in Ukraine, but I'm comfortable with this nonbinding resolution expressing disapproval of the use of violence. The resolution passed 381-2.

https://www.facebook.com/repjustinamash/posts/670915222947887
 
Justin Amash said:
The United States should not insert itself into the conflict in Ukraine, but I'm comfortable with this nonbinding resolution expressing disapproval of the use of violence.

I guess I can't bitch about that. I certainly won't complain about Massie voting against it.
If I were in there, I would just vote "present" on all of these pointless "nonbinding resolutions," no matter what they said ...
 
I swear I did a search on his main Facebook timeline and did not see that post yesterday. I'm not a Facebook user. Is there a public vs. friends-only setting for each post?

He posted it today around 2:10 pm ET. He changed his posting settings beginning this year to set the time of the posts as the time the vote occurred. For this vote, the date and time of February 10 at 7:10 is the time the vote occurred, not when he made the post on Facebook. This makes most of his vote explanations show up near the bottom of his main page since there is a lag between the vote and his explanation.
 
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Because #1 - it's none of our business and #2 - what the heck does this legislation really do?

Sounds like it's nothing more than a warning that the US will intervene.

Good for Massie and Jones!

If you knew your neighbor beat his wife would you express disapproval or ignore it?

As for the legislation, it doesn't really do anything.
 
If you knew your neighbor beat his wife would you express disapproval or ignore it?

As for the legislation, it doesn't really do anything.

Legislation like this harms our relations with other countries. Ukraine is no threat to the United States or its allies.
 
I'd vote against it but I understand Amash's point. I just don't view governments the same way I view individuals at all, hence my disagreement with TaftFan's point.
 
If you knew your neighbor beat his wife would you express disapproval or ignore it?

If I knew my neighbor was beating his wife would I stick a letter on his door warning him to stop beating her and learn to communicate with his wife... or else?
 
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