Bending Over for Bush - $165 Billion for More War Collins/Scoop

[autorank]

Link: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0805/S00330.htm

Michael Collins: Bending Over For Bush
Saturday, 24 May 2008, 7:44 pm
Column: Michael Collins

Bending Over For Bush

21 War Loving Senate Democrats
Give Bush $165 Billion for More War

Michael Collins
"Scoop" Independent News
Washington, D.C.

It is now their war. Iraq has been and will be the war of every Senator and Representative who funds the madness.


Democratic Senators voting more
funding for the Bush-Cheney war.
Snip

Why would they do that? Because their president asked them to:

"The United States Congress needs to pass a responsible war funding bill that does not tie the hands of our commanders," Bush said. Reuters May 22, 2008

But wait. Weren't the Democrats swept into control of both houses of Congress in 2006 in order to obey the public will by getting us out of Iraq? Didn't they promise to stand up to the insanity of providing more money for a war that gets us into more trouble simply through its continuation?

We've come to expect this out of the lock-step Republicans who are "made men" in the culture of death. Weren't the Democrats supposed to make a difference?

Link: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0805/S00330.htm

[Ian David]

1. No... they gave President Obama $165 billion that he will hopefully never spend. n/t

[autorank]

2. Buy 'em all first class tickets home.

But you never want to go short on Bush's ability to screw things up ahead of time;)

[Ian David]

3. Webb HAD to vote yes on it. It contained HIS G.I Bill. n/t

[autorank]

10. That bill is necessary

But the notion that to serve vets at home, you need to risk those on duty in Iraq doesn't fly.

Webb knows what he has to do and he's not doing it.

[Ian David]

14. That's a good point to ponder. n/t

[happydreams]

19. I agree. Webb's excuse is too easy.

[lonestarnot]

9. He'll need it for the tickets home!

;)

[Me.]

4. You Are Relentless

:yourock:

[autorank]

7. I relent that remark!

:yourock:

[truedelphi]

5. The bad news is

Another one Hundred Sixty Five Billion for more war.

The good news is - at the rate and according to the tables by which this corrupt administration is funding the war, 165 billion will only re-wallpaper fourteen officers' lounges, re-plumb eight latrines, and paint six troops' mess halls.

Plus buy one plastic turkey for Bush's final Thanksgiving Day in Baghdad.

[autorank]

8. Bush and that Turkey were a message from the Gods of poetic justice

It wasn't lost on the people, with the exception of the deluded wandering the halls of Congress.

Plastic turkeys. What a deal!

:hi:

[DemReadingDU]

6. If it weren't for Webb's GI bill, it probably wouldn't have passed

Yet, it was probably the only way for Webb to get his GI bill to pass.

:eyes:

[autorank]

21. ;)

I was sure I'd replied to this. Probably but to other users.

He could argue, it will be funded anyway so why not use it to get his bill passed.

But that doesn't lessen the frustration of this and the vapid politics of our time.

:hi:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

11. Toadies.

Sending our children to die and pillaging our treasury at the same time. Keep that gravy (aka blood) train flowing. Thanks guys and gals... :mad:

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Biden ????? Joe Biden???

And Webb?

Are You sure of that list????

[autorank]

15. I'd be happy to be wrong but, in this case;), I'm not (I know how you feel)

I gave "liberally" to Webb and what did it get me (not that he owes me anything for the
contribution), NOTHING. He's great on income distribution and a black-white working people's
alliance, but has not turned his words to action. There isn't a FISA bill he didn't like and he
voted for this because his vets bill was in it. OK, find, but why generate benefits here by
generating new beneficiaries with the continuation of the war?

Here's the link (which is at the Scoop article, under the list)

http://tinyurl.com/4mr5vv (this is the Senate web page)

Here's the Scoop article with the link embedded under the chart of Senators.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0805/S00331.htm

:shrug:

They're entirely too cloistered, to distant from the people.

Peter Dale Scott wrote a great book called, The Road to 911. In it, at the start, he talks about
the stupid contingency secret governments that get invoked under certain conditions, describes them
so you see how stupid they are, and then introduces the notion that a lot of the stupidity in our
government is based on self perpetuating bureaucracy - once you get a project going it
feeds on itself. You can see that with the war - the hearings. Why even have any and talk
about how things are going? It sucks, it's horrible, there's only two hearings needed - oversight
on getting the troops out and one on repairing the damage to U.S. all over the world.

[T Monk]

13. k&r

[autorank]

16. Thanks & Welcome to DU!!1

:hi:

[T Monk]

18. thanks autorank

[slipslidingaway]

17. K&R. Many of the bills were passed with help from some

Dems...and there is always an excuse :(



http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080106_a_conversation_with_dennis_kucinich

"...Hedges: Have we evolved into a corporate state?

Kucinich: I Look at it as the political equivalent of genetic engineering. That we've taken the gene of corporate America and shot it into both political parties. So they both now are growing with that essence within. So what does that mean? It means oil runs our politics. Corrupt Wall Street interests run our politics. Insurance companies run our politics. Arms manufacturers run our politics. And the public interest is being strangled. Fulfilling the practical aspirations of people should be our mission...


NAFTA, GAT, the WTO, China Trade, and every other trade agreement that’s passed in Congress has been passed with the help of either the leadership of or with the help of the Democratic Party, knowing that each and every one of those agreements was devoid of protections for workers, knowing that if you don’t have workers’ rights put into a trade agreement then workers here in the United States are going to see their own bargaining position undermined because corporations can move jobs out of the country to places where workers don’t have any rights. They don’t have the right to organize, the right to collective bargaining, the right to strike. So what I see is that the Democratic Party abandoned working people, and paradoxically they’re the ones who hoist the flag of workers every two and four years only to engender excitement, and then to turn around and abandon their constituency. This is now on the level of a practiced ritual. At least a biannual ceremony, or every two years. So you can see how pernicious this becomes when the minimum wage increase was tied to funding the war. That, to me, says it all. Because it is inevitably the sons and daughters of working Americans that are the ones who are led to slaughter. Aspirations for health care...


Kucinich: There has to come a moment of awareness. Something will happen to cause people to become aware of what's happening, of what's happened to the government. This is why impeachment is so important. Impeachment would bring up the whole train of abuses that have caused our government to become less democratic. The lies to take us into wars, the eavesdropping, the wiretapping, the rendition, the torture, I mean it all becomes one piece. If people see the whole thing at once, it then creates a kind of awareness that will create some change. I have no doubt about that at all, none whatsoever. What's happened is that people just see bits and pieces and it is never being tied together. I feel we are losing our democracy to lies that took us into war, lies that caused the destruction of essential civil liberties, lies that are driving us into debt, corruption on Wall Street and a Democratic Party that has lost its will to fight these people..."

[autorank]

20. The varieties of political excuses ...

Someone should write that, sounds like an "Atlantic Monthly" article.

Yep, always some b.s. - sorry, but - gets a bit tedious at times, particularly when they're ruining
the country, as they're prone to do.

Nice cite from D.K.!

[slipslidingaway]

22. Agree that it would make an interesting read and might open a

few eyes.

:shrug:


Here is the '07 "sweetener" that Dennis referenced...

Congress Passes Increase in the Minimum Wage

By STEPHEN LABATON
Published: May 25, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/25/washington/25wage.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

"...By a vote of 348 to 73, the House approved the measure as part of a deal on Iraq spending. Less than two hours later, the wage increase was approved in the Senate, where it was combined with a bill providing more money for the Iraq war. That vote was 80 to 14...

After the bill is signed, the wage increase will become the first item in the “Six for ’06” agenda of the new Congressional Democratic leadership to become law...

The minimum wage was an important sweetener for Democrats in dealing with the larger package, which includes money for the military in Iraq and Afghanistan and which had been delayed by a partisan battle over imposing a timetable to reduce troop levels in Iraq..."


Kucinich Must Get Time From Repubs to Debate Iraq Funding

May 15, 2008 C-SPAN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKSnFvZ95EY

[spanone]

23. the rethugs don't need a majority with the democrats on their side..our party deserves this war