Senate to debate a bill with teeth - NOW we're talkin'!

this is precisely the goddam dialogue that ought to be taking place and should have taken place a very long time ago... it's about friggin' time our folks in congress started talkin' about what they REALLY ought to be talkin' about rather than quibbling over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin...

The Senate has voted 89-9 to debate a resolution proposed by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to withdraw most troops in 30 days.

Sixty votes were needed to defeat a filibuster.

AP reports that "despite the vote, most Republicans opposed the Democratic bill and it was expected to eventually fall short of the 60 votes it will need to pass. Even so, the debate would give Democrats a chance to put Republicans on record as opposing a timetable on the war at a time when most American voters oppose."

i don't give a flying goddam WHO OPPOSES or WHO SUPPORTS... start TALKIN', for real, up-front, out in public... let those who still support the illegal war in iraq show their true colors, and defend, if they can, why we went there, why we've stayed there, and why we should continue to throw away our last shreds of national honor over bush's lies...

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What Pelosi SHOULD have said (but didn't)

cenk uygur at huffpo...

Here's what Pelosi should have said in response to Cheney's comments:

You know what validates al-Qaida's strategy? Going into Iraq when that country had nothing to do with 9/11 and leaving Osama bin Laden alone. I don't care to hear what the vice president thinks of al-Qaida strategy until this White House captures Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri - the men who ordered the attacks against this country on 9/11 and so far have suffered no consequences.

Instead of running his mouth, the vice president should be busy devising a strategy to capture the leaders of al-Qaida. Their strategies are validated every day they are free and openly taunting our government. Does this administration ever plan to capture the people who committed this heinous act upon our people? Or are they too busy attacking their political opponents instead?

Right now, the president and the vice president are threatening Iran - yet another country that did not attack us on 9/11. Do they care about al-Qaida at all? Escalating the war in Iraq and threatening a new war against Shiite Iran would do absolutely nothing to thwart al-Qaida. It would only make them stronger.

Maybe I need to draw the vice president a map because apparently he has no idea where bin Laden is, or doesn't care. Yoo hoo, he's over there - in Pakistan. Are you going to go get him or sit there and make political attacks all day?

Here's my final message to the vice president: Shut your mouth and do your job!

Could you imagine if Pelosi actually said that? How great would that be? You know what the repercussions would be? Absolutely nothing, except that people would love her for it.

this goes right along with the paul abrams huffpo piece i cited last night... it's way past time to stop being circumspect and start calling these traitors out for what they really are...

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Start really fighting back, goddamit...!

the kind of response i'm sick of hearing...

Democrats are not going to deserve to win the White House until they develop, in their own guts, the convictions that they try to convey in their policy statements. Think of this situation: the Dems are begging the only person in the history of the Air National Guard to relinquish his pilot's license voluntarily, who checked the "No" Box when asked if he would serve overseas and who decided on his own which military regulations he would follow, to muzzle a man who, when called to defend his country, asserted he had "other priorities", from attacking their patriotism! It is hard to know which is more pathetic, the Cheney attack or the Democrats' response.

the kind of response i'd LIKE to hear...

Instead of reinforcing Cheney's scurrilous remarks by begging their dismissal, Democrats should have attacked his policy in Iraq that emboldens al-Qaeda: weakened our military, recruited more terrorists than we kill (source: Memo from the Greatest Defense Secretary in US--or world, or interplanetary?---History), strengthened Iranian influence in the region, refused to send 600 Army Rangers to kill Osama bin Laden when we had him surrounded in Tora Bora, and allowed al-Qaeda to re-establish itself in the Afghan-Pakistani border region. Every time we add troops in Iraq, we diminish the effort against the real enemy.

because, if the dems don't start standing up for our country, i am beginning to despair of where we'll be come 20 january 2009...

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Cheney: don't even THINK about withdrawal

binding legislation and revocation of the aumf should have been pursued from day one, or at least in the first 100 hours, of the new congressional session...

Key lawmakers, backed by party leaders, are drafting legislation that would effectively revoke the broad authority granted to the president in the days Saddam Hussein was in power, and leave U.S. troops with a limited mission as they prepare to withdraw.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., intends to present the proposal to fellow Democrats next week, and he is expected to try to add the measure to anti-terrorism legislation scheduled to be debated later this month. Officials who described the strategy spoke only on condition of anonymity, noting that rank-and-file senators had not yet been briefed on the details.

if the dems really want to practice "bipartisanship," they would do well to reach out to every congressional r, and make a very strong case why a revocation measure should be passed... and by "reach out," i don't mean a hand on the shoulder... i'm talking about long, arduous, closed-door sessions where the dems show just how badly iraq has damaged, is damaging, and will continue to damage this country for years to come, even if it's stopped immediately... the crippling cost, the horrendous loss of life, the creation of a failed state, the sacrifices of thousands of families and friends, the social and political polarization, the destruction of the u.s. reputation in the international community, the wrecked lives of physically and mentally disabled vets, the war profiteering, and the lies that took us to war in the first place, all need to be laid on the table... timidity and inaction against the possibility that they will be accused of aiding and abetting terrorism and not supporting the troops should also be labeled for the bullshit it really is...

because, as we learned yesterday, the prediction of 10 more years in iraq (see previous post) plus the continuing pronouncements of darth (see below) and others, make it clear that, unless the brakes are forcibly put on this administration, iraq will remain a colony in the empire...

Dick Cheney on Friday warned that the United States and ally Australia "simply cannot indulge" thoughts of an early withdrawal from Iraq as it would spawn a new wave of global terror.

Cheney, launching a two-day visit to key US ally Australia, praised Prime Minister John Howard's staunch support of the US-led war and its fight against terror, saying the only option for survival was to fight back ferociously.

As Britain announced a decrease in its troop numbers in Iraq and countries such as Denmark prepare to pull out of the coalition, he linked victory in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with stemming a global tide of terrorism.

"The notion that free countries can turn our backs on what happens in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, or any other possible safe haven for terrorists is an option we simply cannot indulge," Cheney said in a speech in Sydney.

so, don't you dare even THINK about withdrawal... cheney is friggin' unbelievable, but, like the energizer bunny, he keeps on goin'... he's gotta go... they ALL gotta go...

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The Lone Ranger, Tonto, and the Senate Iraq resolution - a headline sampler

nyt...

Senate Rejects Renewed Effort to Debate Iraq

wapo...

Iraq Vote In Senate Blocked By GOP

juan cole...

Senate Comes Close to Condemning Iraq Escalation

iht...

Senate Democrats fall 4 votes short in bid to force Iraq debate

all fairly reasonable, right...? but, true to form, here's the ap...

GOP foils Dems' bid to repudiate Bush

actually, i'm not entirely sure why i have such a negative reaction to the ap headline, but i do... for some reason, it strikes a very discordant tone for me, conjuring up images of a turn-of-the-century melodrama where the villain ties the heroine to the railroad track because she can't pay her rent, and the white knight, dudley do-right, rides in to save the day... so, here's the evil, mustachioed villain (the dastardly dems) trying to tie the embattled lone ranger (george bush) to the railroad track (the iraq resolution), when tonto (the faithful repubs) appears in the nick of time to save the lone ranger's whitebread hide... is it just me, or am i having a sunday morning hallucinatory flashback...?

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Aw, c'mon, WaPo, who's kidding who...?

before going any further, go back and read my post from earlier today... once you've done that, feel free to proceed...

After enjoying great deference in the conduct of national security for his first six years in office, President Bush now faces an assertive opposition Congress that has left him on the defensive. The nonbinding resolution passed by the House yesterday on a largely party-line vote seems certain to be the first of a series of actions that will challenge Bush for the remainder of his presidency.

At stake is not just Bush's decision to send an additional 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq, the plan specifically renounced by the resolution. By extension, the 246 to 182 vote passed judgment on Bush's overall stewardship of the war in Iraq and, more broadly, on his leadership in the world. At a time when the president is confronting Iran over its nuclear enrichment program, the House vote demonstrates that he has far less latitude to take aggressive action than he might have had in the past.

"This is an important moment," said Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser and is now a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "And it's an important moment not only about what's in the past, or even in the present, but also what might be happening in the future."

The resolution, he said, "tells the president that the country's increasingly tired of the war and the country's reaction to his provoking a new war would be even worse."

i'll accept the assertion that congress will be "challenging" bush for the rest of his term, but i ain't buyin' that "he has far less latitude to take aggressive action than he might have had in the past..." to date, absolutely NOTHING supports that statement... supreme court decisions, polls, national elections, congressional actions, media attention, rebukes from allies, a disaster in iraq, a botched "war" on terrorism, gaping holes in national security, and a foreign policy in shambles, have not deterred this administration one iota, and none of them will, unless and until bush and his criminals are turned out of office... so very few people grasp the fact that we are dealing with extremely dark forces here, so dark, in fact, that any attempt we make to apply traditional frameworks of reason and good sense, are bound to fail... i do agree, however, with zbig... it IS an important moment...

Both sides recognized that the House vote, along with a Senate vote scheduled for today, represents the opening salvo in a more protracted struggle. "To me, this is kind of a baby step. It doesn't have teeth," said David J. Rothkopf, author of "Running the World," a book on the making of modern foreign policy. "The real question is going to be whether the Democratic leadership goes further and challenges funding, because that's where Congress historically has been able to show its influence."

if it is indeed a "baby step," the "real" question is whether bush's hold on his office can be challenged, because removing him is the ONLY way the bleeding can be stopped...

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George continues to piss on the Constitution

you simply can't tell me this wasn't intentional...

On the same day that the House of Representatives expressed its disapproval of President Bush's US troop increase in Iraq, the Pentagon announced it is accelerating the deployment of a division headquarters there by about three months, which would add another 1,000 troops to the "surge."

The 3rd Infantry Division headquarters based in Fort Stewart, Ga., will deploy next month instead of June, a Pentagon statement said.

with the exception of the occasional general or employee within an executive branch department or agency who chooses not to follow the mandated talking points, you can safely assume that any move anywhere in the executive branch is scripted, timed, and carefully choreographed... the white house knew the resolution would pass, and in fact, publicly granted "amnesty" to those r's who chose to vote in its favor, a meaningless gesture for an administration that's made it perfectly clear it will do as it damn well pleases regardless... the accelerated deployment announcement, coinciding with the house resolution vote, is hardly a coincidence... it's a coldly calculated move, clearly designed to show that the bush administration will accept no constraints on its power... it is also a chilling demonstration that the separate but equal division of powers as spelled out in the constitution, is, de facto, no longer functioning...

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Iraq resolution PASSES in Congress 246-182

SUPER...!

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With 5 minutes to go, Iraq resolution passing 142-137

yay...!

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Nancy's taking the high ground...! Hurray...!

she must be totally confident of the pending vote tally...

In remarks to be delivered later today, Rep. Nancy Pelosi will say that the non-binding resolution disapproving of the escalation in Iraq now being debated in the House of Representatives signals bringing the troops home.

House Concurrent Resolution 63, which expresses support for America's military and disapproves of the president's stated plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq, is expected to pass by a wide margin today. A significant number of Republicans are likely to vote for the non-binding measure.

In prepared remarks received by RAW STORY, the Democratic Speaker of the House says that "The passage of this legislation will signal a change in direction in Iraq that will end the fighting and bring our troops home."

she's jumping out in FRONT of the train, not something the dems have done much of, if at all, over the past six years... she's also exercising that most elusive and rarely seen talent called LEADERSHIP... if she and her team have done their work and gotten the requisite ducks in a row, including doing republican arm-twisting, AND she feels confident enough of the upcoming vote outcome, then saying what that vote portends, namely that we will see troops coming home from iraq, is inspired leadership... and, if she's wrong, she will take a fall like none have ever seen... either way, i salute her, and, for those who follow this blog, my salutes are as rarely seen as leadership in government...

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The Iraq debate and lawn care

mitch mcconnell, hypocrite extraordinaire...

"We could have had a civilized, well-structured debate," McConnell lamented, "but that appears to be not possible at the moment."

you also "could have had" a v-8...



what mcconnell wants is NOT a "civilized, well-structured debate..." what he wants is what he got after the first go-round...

McConnell responded by mounting a Republican filibuster Democrats couldn't overcome. And the Senate was prevented from proceeding with its planned week of debate on the Iraq war.

That Republicans won this encounter should have been clear to everyone. A poisonous debate on Iraq, attracting massive press coverage that was bound to be unfavorable to Bush and his war plans, was averted.

precisely... what he wanted was to avoid "a poisonous debate on iraq," the biggest foreign policy disaster in u.s., and possibly world, history... so, what's a poor senate majority leader to do...?

After four years of fighting in Iraq, and two weeks of trying to force senators to debate the conflict, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday wheeled out the ultimate weapon. He ordered his colleagues to work on Saturday. To the average American, this would be an inconvenience. To a senator, a Saturday vote is a hardship reserved for national crises such as impeachment or Terri Schiavo. Votes have been held on Saturday only five times in the past 10 years.

and the vaunted filibuster tool, so reviled by the r's when the dems threatened to use it to derail bush's extreme right supreme court nominees, has been neutralized...

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.): "We're calling their bluff. We're staying here. Now vote yes or no."

cue the whining...

Sam Brownback (R-Kan.)...

"I don't think that is a fair or appropriate process for this body to follow," he said. Particularly because he had plans to attend the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Florida on Saturday.

Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell (Ky.)...

[H]e was asked how his colleagues felt about surrendering their Saturday. "You'll have to ask all of them," he said tightly.

Hillary Clinton (D-NY)...

The candidate's "Conversation with Granite Staters," which was to have been held at 2:30 Saturday in the Dover High School cafeteria, had been scrapped.

and the idiocy...

Ric Keller (R-Fla.)...

"Imagine your next-door neighbor refuses to mow his lawn and the weeds are all the way up to his waist. You decide you are going to mow his lawn for him every single week. The neighbor never says thank you, he hates you, and sometimes he takes out a gun and shoots at you. Under these circumstances, do you keep mowing his lawn forever?"

< rolls eyes >

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"You can’t make a mistake in supporting this resolution"

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) on the Iraq resolution...

This great country and this great constitution has given you the right, right in your hand, to determine who lives and who dies. You can’t make a mistake in supporting this resolution. It’s not going to hurt our beloved warriors. It is going to help our country. It is going to help them and it is going make us proud one day to be able to say when asked, what did you do when this was going on in the world and your Congress was asked, and you would be able to say, there was a resolution — it may not have been a profile in courage — but I supported it and I’m proud that I did.

it needs to stop... now... bush and his criminals need to leave... now...

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