I need to stop listening to the news

I've done a fairly decent job of weaning myself from the news. Moving to the tundra and away from cable television helped. We can watch MS-NBC and a few others via the Internet but usually don't bother. End result? We're not subject to endless blathering by experts who tend to be consistently wrong about everything. Nonetheless, every so often some piece of dumbness will slide through despite my best efforts to ignore it.

The latest example: David Brooks (why does anyone ever bother asking his opinion about anything?) and some other pundits opined on NPR's "All Things Considered" that President Obama consulting with Congress was a Bad Thing, a Major Tactical Error. Why? Because if Congress doesn't rubber stamp Obama's desire to drop a few bombs on Syria, it will have "weakened" the presidency. Would someone please explain to me why this would be a Bad Thing? We've had 30+ years of people bitching about an imperial presidency, about the tendency of Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and now Obama to get the U.S. enmeshed in various dubious foreign adventures. How can weakening the President's ability to decide to play Global Policeman possibly be a bad thing? It strikes me as a pretty damn desirable outcome. I think it would be really cool if Congress developed sufficient spine to tell Obama "No" and to do so firmly and loudly. I don't think they will -- they like playing global cop just as much as whoever happens to be in the White House does -- but a girl can dream.