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Labels: American workplace, blue-collar workers, empowerment, Russ Feingold, Wisconsin
Submit To Propeller
posted by profmarcus at
2/18/2011
“One of the Greatest Intrusions, Potentially, on the Rights of Americans Protected Under the 4th Amendment”–Sen. Feingold Blasts Telecom Spy Bill
SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD: Well, this is a great blow to the rights of the American people. And much of the publicity has been about a very important aspect: giving these telephone companies immunity that cooperated with the President’s illegal program. We think that should be decided based on current law, not some kind of a retroactive immunity. But that’s essentially what this bill does.But you know what? Even worse are the provisions of the bill that will make it very easy for the government to essentially suck up the communications, all communications of Americans that go overseas, whether it’s an email or a text message or a phone call to a daughter, junior year abroad, or a child who’s in Iraq or a reporter or a business associate. This is one of the greatest intrusions, potentially, on the rights of Americans protected under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution in the history of our country.
And unfortunately, it’s going to go through with the help of some Democrats. So this is a very, very sad day for our Constitution and for our rights, and it’s not justified by the terrorism issue, because we do not have any problem at all with going after anybody that we have reasonable suspicions about. It has to do with sucking all this information into a huge database in a way that is very intrusive on the privacy of all Americans.
[...]
The President takes the position that under Article II of the Constitution he can ignore the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We believe that that’s absolutely wrong. I have pointed out that I think it is not only against the law, but I think it’s a pretty plain impeachable offense that the President created this program, and yet this immunity provision may have the effect not only of giving immunity to the telephone companies, but it may also allow the administration to block legal accountability for this crime, which I believe it is.
[...]
AMY GOODMAN: Senator Feingold, explain exactly what you think is an impeachable offense.
SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD: Well, you know, this is one of the things that’s been debated over the centuries, but I believe that when—it has to do with the rule of law and the very structure of our system of government, in other words, not just the issue that many have been concerned about, misleading the country into war, the Iraq war. That was a terrible thing, and, you know, some say that’s an impeachable offense. But to me, when the law is clear, when it’s absolutely clear that there is a clear statute and the President creates his own idea of a law and says he doesn’t have to follow the duly elected laws of the land, to me, that’s right at the core of what the founders of this country meant when they talked about high crimes and misdemeanors.
[...]
AMY GOODMAN: Senator Feingold, will you filibuster this bill?
SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD: We are going to resist this bill. We are going to make sure that the procedural votes are gone through. In other words, a filibuster is requiring sixty votes to proceed to the bill, sixty votes to get cloture on the legislation. We will also—Senator Dodd and I and others will be taking some time to talk about this on the floor. We’re not just going to let it be rubberstamped.
AMY GOODMAN: Would you filibuster, though?
SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD: That’s what I just described.
Labels: 4th Amendment, Chris Dodd, Congress, filibuster, FISA, Impeachment, Russ Feingold, Telecom Immunity, US Senate, warrantless domestic wiretapping
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
6/24/2008
Labels: domestic surveillance, Russ Feingold, warrantless domestic wiretapping
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
1/30/2008
This veto threat is one of the President's most brazen acts ever, so nakedly exposing the fun and games he routinely plays with National Security Threats. After sending Mike McConnell out last August to warn that we will all die without the PAA, Bush now says that he would rather let it expire than give Congress another 30 days. He just comes right out and announces, then, that he will leave us all vulnerable to a Terrorist Attack unless he not only gets everything he wants from Congress -- all his new warrantless eavesdropping powers made permanent plus full immunity for his lawbreaking telecom partners -- but also gets it exactly when he wants it (i.e., now -- not 30 days from now).
If the Democrats had even the slightest strategic sense and/or courage -- just the slightest amount -- this is a political confrontation they would be uncontrollably eager to have. Just imagine if they sustain the filibuster today and instead pass a 30-day extension of the PAA, and then Bush vetoes it, knowingly choosing to leave the intelligence community without the ability to Listen In When Osama Is Calling. It would be the height of political stupidity for Democrats to be afraid of that outcome.
* * * * *
That's what is at stake today as Senate Democrats try to sustain a filibuster against the Republicans' efforts to force a final vote on the truly pernicious Senate Intelligence Committee bill. Are there any limits at all on the willingness of Congressional Democrats to be bullied and humiliated by Republicans, even by the most transparently disingenuous tactics such as these?
[...]
The veto threat from the President is so unbelievably corrupt and manipulative that if our national press had even the smallest amount of critical faculties and understanding of the issues, that veto threat would be a major story. After all, how can the President possibly threaten the country that he will veto a law that he himself has claimed for months is indispensable for Protecting Us All?
[...]
Any rational person has long ago given up the hope that Congressional Democrats will stand for any actual political convictions, but the most basic sense of personal pride and human dignity -- which one thought was an intrinsic part of human nature -- would preclude their capitulation today. If they don't stand up to the White House and Senate Republicans under these circumstances, one might as well accept that they never will do so.
Labels: Chris Dodd, FISA, George Bush, Glenn Greenwald, Mike McConnell, Protect America Act, retroactive immunity, Russ Feingold, Senate Intelligence Committee, warrantless domestic wiretapping
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
1/28/2008
Hal Turner is one serious extremist. He may also be on the FBI payroll.
On Jan. 1, unidentified hackers electronically confronted Turner in the forum of his website for “The Hal Turner Show.” After a heated exchange, they told Turner that they had successfully hacked into his server and found correspondence with an FBI agent who is apparently Turner’s handler. Then they posted an alleged July 7 E-mail to the agent in which Turner hands over a message from someone who sent in a death threat against Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.). “Once again,” Turner writes to his handler, “my fierce rhetoric has served to flush out a possible crazy.” In what is allegedly a portion of another E-mail, Turner discusses the money he is paid.
On Thursday, as the E-mail exchange was heatedly discussed on a major neo-Nazi website, Turner suddenly announced he was quitting political work. “I hereby separate from the ‘pro-White’ movement,” he said, adding that he was ending his radio show immediately. “I will no longer involve myself in any aspect of it.”
The FBI declined comment. “Longstanding FBI policy prohibits disclosing who may or may not provide information,” Agent Richard Kolko of the agency’s press unit said. Reached in New Jersey, Turner also declined all comment.
We have to use our critical capacities and understand the system in which we live. The system is controlled by powerful forces that act through corporations, government, intelligence agencies, police forces and the courts, the education system, and on and on. Why would they leave alone alternative news sources, sources that could potentially work to unite normal people against the pathocrats?
They would never leave such channels free. On the contrary, they would spend large sums of money to control them to ensure that the only news that people receive keeps them within the bounds that are permissible in the pathocracy. Opposition must be controlled. People need to have the appearance of free speech and of a certain choice in where they get their information. That is just part of the capitalist marketplace that promotes the illusion that it is your choice in what you consume that makes you free. News and information are no different. But that means that even news and information that appears to be oppositional must really be held within certain acceptable boundaries.
That is why critical thought and analysis are so important. Nothing can be accepted at face value. Just because someone claims that they are in opposition doesn't mean that he or she really is. If they are not exposed, they become Pied Pipers leading their followers deeper and deeper into the swamp. Anger at current policies and injustices can be used and then spent to fuel pointless and even dangerous responses that accomplish nothing positive and that in fact simply make the situation worse and feed into the long-term plans of the pathocrats.
Labels: David Neiwert, disinformation, FBI, Hal Turner, Orcinus, Russ Feingold, Signs of the Times, Southern Poverty Law Center
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
1/15/2008
As you know, last Sunday I proposed censure resolutions aimed at holding the President, Vice President and administration officials responsible for misconduct relating to the war in Iraq and for their repeated assaults on the rule of law. I am pleased to announce that Congressman Maurice Hinchey has joined me in this effort. Thanks to the input of thousands of Progressive Patriots like you, we plan to formally introduce these censure resolutions later this week. But I still need your feedback. So if you haven’t already, please let me know your thoughts on this vitally important issue. I will be sure to keep you posted as we move forward.
Dear Senator Feingold,
I believe that the United States is in the midst of the most serious constitutional crisis in its history. The steps taken by the Bush administration to accrue unfettered executive power have our country poised on the brink of becoming an authoritarian state, and I do not feel that I exaggerate in the least. On the contrary, I am probably understating the reality.
Every single day that the current occupants of the White House remain in power is another day for them to advance their radical agenda of invalidating the separation of powers. The United States is already effectively being governed from one branch of government, the executive branch, which has become so politicized and infiltrated with administration loyalists as to be nearly unrecognizable.
Even over and above Iraq (which, heaven only knows, is a daily tragedy of staggering proportions), there is no greater priority than stopping the Bush administration, a feat that, it should be obvious by now, can ONLY be accomplished by their removal from office. And even THAT, Senator, will be insufficient unless and until the levers of unrestrained executive power have been not only rolled back but officially REPUDIATED, PRIOR to the next president taking office on 20 January 2009.
Of course, Senator Feingold, I support your censure resolutions and your call for an independent prosecutor. However, what I am desperately HOPING you will do is to stand up and, with all the force and dignity of your office and your outstanding Senatorial career, speak out on this grave crisis, name it for what it is, and rally those of us who are so desperate for leadership from our elected officials to the cause of saving our constitutionally-based, democratic republic. I can tell you, Senator, there are many thousands of us who would be at your side in a heartbeat were you to issue such a call.
I realize that impeachment proceedings must be initiated in the House Judiciary Committee. I am not at all sure, unfortunately, that we have the luxury of enough time to let that process run its course. What I envision, unrealistic or not, is a mass convergence of citizens on Washington calling for the President, the Vice President, and all members of the Cabinet to resign. Yes, Senator, I do believe we are at that point.
Please take my thoughts as they were intended - a very serious cry for help as I watch our country being dismembered at the hands of those who have forsaken their sworn duty to protect and defend the United States Constitution.
Best regards,
Labels: censure, Congress, constitutional crisis, Dick Cheney, George Bush, House Judiciary Committee, Impeachment, Presidential resignation, Russ Feingold, special prosecutor, U.S. Constitution, US Senate
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/30/2007
1) Bush has used the government spying apparatus to dig up dirt on all or most of the Democrats and is blackmailing them into submission. 2) Elements of Bushco have threatened the lives of anyone who gets out of line (remember the anthrax attacks on Daschle and Leahy?).
My third theory is that Democrats hunger for the powers Bush has stolen for the Presidency, and so don’t want to rein him in.
I believe that all three of these theories are true to some extent but whatever the final explanation is the fact remains that we the people are out of luck. No one is thinking about us.
Brothers and sisters, it’s time to impeach the President and his criminal minions. It is the only way to restore democracy, it is the only way to redeem our nation, and it is the only way to reclaim our country.
Don't let the politicians stall for time! Don't let them run out the clock! WE are the one's who are getting screwed!
Do your part! Stand up for America!
dudgeon
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
: a fit or state of indignation -- often used in the phrase in high dudgeon
Labels: anthrax, censure, Congress, Democrats, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Impeachment, one pissed off liberal, Patrick Leahy, Russ Feingold, Tom Daschle
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/22/2007
Labels: Bush Administration, Impeachment, Paul Craig Roberts, Russ Feingold, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/16/2007
Impeach Bush And Cheney Now
By Paul Craig Roberts
Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran.
Bush has put in place all the necessary measures for dictatorship in the form of "executive orders" that are triggered whenever Bush declares a national emergency. Recent statements by Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff, former Republican senator Rick Santorum and others suggest that Americans might expect a series of staged, or false flag, "terrorist" events in the near future.
Many attentive people believe that the reason the Bush administration will not bow to expert advice and public opinion and begin withdrawing US troops from Iraq is that the administration intends to rescue its unpopular position with false flag operations that can be used to expand the war to Iran.
Too much is going wrong for the Bush administration: the failure of its Middle East wars, Republican senators jumping ship, Turkish troops massed on northern Iraq's border poised for an invasion to deal with Kurds, and a majority of Americans favoring the impeachment of Cheney and a near-majority favoring Bush's impeachment. The Bush administration desperately needs dramatic events to scare the American people and the Congress back in line with the militarist- police state that Bush and Cheney have fostered.
William Norman Grigg recently wrote that the GOP is "praying for a terrorist strike" to save the party from electoral wipeout in 2008. Chertoff, Cheney, the neocon nazis, and Mossad would have no qualms about saving the bacon for the Republicans, who have enabled Bush to start two unjustified wars, with Iran waiting in the wings to be attacked in a third war.
The Bush administration has tried unsuccessfully to resurrect the terrorist fear factor by infiltrating some blowhard groups and encouraging them to talk about staging "terrorist" events. The talk, encouraged by federal agents, resulted in "terrorist" arrests hyped by the media, but even the captive media was unable to scare people with such transparent sting operations.
If the Bush administration wants to continue its wars in the Middle East and to entrench the "unitary executive" at home, it will have to conduct some false flag operations that will both frighten and anger the American people and make them accept Bush's declaration of "national emergency" and the return of the draft. Alternatively, the administration could simply allow any real terrorist plot to proceed without hindrance.
A series of staged or permitted attacks would be spun by the captive media as a vindication of the neoconservatives' Islamophobic policy, the intention of which is to destroy all Middle Eastern governments that are not American puppet states. Success would give the US control over oil, but the main purpose is to eliminate any resistance to Israel's complete absorption of Palestine into Greater Israel.
Think about it. If another 9/11-type "security failure" were not in the works, why would Homeland Security czar Chertoff go to the trouble of convincing the Chicago Tribune that Americans have become complacent about terrorist threats and that he has "a gut feeling" that America will soon be hit hard?[Homeland Security chief warns of 'increased risk’ Chertoff bases 'gut feeling' on history, Al Qaeda statements By E.A. Torriero ,July 11, 2007]
Why would Republican warmonger Rick Santorum say on the Hugh Hewitt radio show that "between now and November, a lot of things are going to happen, and I believe that by this time next year, the American public's (sic) going to have a very different view of this war."
Throughout its existence the US government has staged incidents that the government then used in behalf of purposes that it could not otherwise have pursued. According to a number of writers, false flag operations have been routinely used by the Israeli state. During the Czarist era in Russia, the secret police would set off bombs in order to arrest those the secret police regarded as troublesome. Hitler was a dramatic orchestrator of false flag operations. False flag operations are a commonplace tool of governments.
Ask yourself: Would a government that has lied us into two wars and is working to lie us into an attack on Iran shrink from staging "terrorist" attacks in order to remove opposition to its agenda?
Only a diehard minority believes in the honesty and integrity of the Bush-Cheney administration and in the truthfulness of the corporate media.
Hitler, who never achieved majority support in a German election, used the Reichstag fire to fan hysteria and push through the Enabling Act, which made him dictator. Determined tyrants never require majority support in order to overthrow constitutional orders.
The American constitutional system is near to being overthrown. Are coming "terrorist" events of which Chertoff warns and Santorum promises the means for overthrowing our constitutional democracy?
I certainly do believe in holding this Administration accountable and upholding the Constitution and the rule of law. That’s why last year I called for the President to be censured for his authorization of the illegal wiretapping program. I thought that was the appropriate course because it would have put the Senate on record in condemning the President’s wrongdoing. I still think that the censure resolution played an important role in focusing the public and the media’s attention on the issue. And I am working to make sure that Congress finally exercises its oversight responsibility by holding hearings and demanding information about the wiretapping program, the U.S. attorney firings and other abuses of power.
Many of you also wrote that if I recognize that the President and Vice President may have committed impeachable offenses, than it is our responsibility to impeach. As I pointed out, it is the role of the House to impeach, and it is the role of the Senate to try impeachments. But the Constitution left it up to the judgment of members of Congress whether or not moving forward with impeachment is best for the country.
Labels: Bush Administration, Daily Kos, George Bush, House of Representatives, Impeachment, Paul Craig Roberts, Russ Feingold, US Senate
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
7/16/2007
Dear Friend,
The latest version of the Iraq Supplemental Appropriations Bill is scheduled to come to a vote
this week and I will not support it. It is a toothless measure that gives a blank check to the President and does nothing to end our involvement in Iraq.
We've made great strides in recent weeks and months in our combined effort to end one of the biggest mistakes in the history of our country and redeploy our brave men and women out of Iraq. That said, the President and some members of Congress, from both sides of the aisle, still haven't acknowledged the message the American people sent last November.
Last week the Feingold-Reid bill that would use Congress's 'power of the purse' to end the war in Iraq was voted on in the Senate. The procedural vote was another step forward in our effort. It put the majority of Senate Democrats on record calling for a firm end date for this misguided war, and I'm already looking for the next opportunity to push this important legislation forward. I'm continuing to fight every step of the way and today I'm asking you once again to help spread the message that the time for the war in Iraq to end is now.
Today, the Progressive Patriots Fund is launching a new online effort to promote awareness of my legislation and encourage individual initiative in reversing the reckless leadership President Bush has demonstrated through his Iraq policy.
[...]Together, we can harness the power of the online community and force Congress to use its constitutional power to end this disastrous war.
Thank you for all of your support and for standing with me time and time again.
Sincerely,
Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund
Labels: Bush Administration, Congress, Democrats, Feingold-Reid, George Bush, Iraq, Iraq war funding proposal, Russ Feingold, US Senate
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
5/24/2007
This is no time to back down. This fight to end the war isn’t something that we can just put off or kick down the road. As mcjoan pointed out, it doesn’t make any sense to wait until this "mythical September" when Republicans will suddenly decide that we need to get out of Iraq. Why should this wait until September? First Americans had to put up with a Republican Congress that did nothing, and now we are faced with a Democratic Congress that is giving the President exactly what he wants – continuing his failed policy and leaving our troops stuck in the middle of a civil war. Some strategy. We can’t back down when the stakes are so high. I know you’ll keep ratcheting up the pressure, and that’s exactly what we need right now. Now is the time to be pulling out all the stops to end the war.
Labels: Bush Administration, Congress, Daily Kos, Democrats, George Bush, Iraq, Iraq civil war, Iraq war funding proposal, Iraq withdrawal, Republicans, Russ Feingold
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
5/22/2007
A letter?
Wow, I guess that they’ve really taken off the gloves now.
Russ Feingold (D-WI), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), and Richard Durbin (D-IL) sent Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a letter regarding former Deputy Attorney General James Comey’s testimony yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.You testified last year before both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Judiciary Committee about this incident. On February 6, 2006, at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, you were asked whether Mr. Comey and others at the Justice Department had raised concerns about the NSA wiretapping program. You stated in response that the disagreement that occurred was not related to the wiretapping program confirmed by the President in December 2005, which was the topic of the hearing. …
We ask for your prompt response to the following question: In light of Mr. Comey’s testimony yesterday, do you stand by your 2006 Senate and House testimony, or do you wish to revise it?
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, George Bush, House Judiciary Committee, James Comey, NSA, Russ Feingold, Senate Judiciary Committee, Ted Kennedy, warrantless domestic wiretapping
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
5/16/2007
Congress has reached a fork in the road on the war in Iraq and they urgently need your help to choose the right path.
One direction leads straight to more war with no end in sight. It's a road paved with symbolic deauthorization bills and so-called temporary extensions that give Bush all the money he needs without ever actually bringing a single troop home.
But in the other direction lies real action—using Congress' funding power right now to pass another binding plan to force George Bush to actually end this war.
Only massive, direct public pressure will get Congress to choose the right path. Congress took the right first step by passing their last funding bill. But following Bush's veto the resolve in Washington has started to fade. If we want to end this war, we've got to speak up now.
A Republican Senator is trying to derail my campaign finance disclosure bill, and I need your help to figure out who it is.
[...]
If you are represented by a Republican senator, please contact them and ask if they're holding up my Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act. You can get contact info for your senators here. If you live in a state with two Democratic senators, consider forwarding this email to your friends in states that aren't so lucky.
There is nothing “conservative” or “tough on terrorism” in selectively stripping people of their rights. Suspending habeas corpus is an extreme notion on the radical fringes of democratic philosophy. As four retired military chief prosecutors — from the Navy, the Marines and the Army — pointed out to Congress, holding prisoners without access to courts merely feeds Al Qaeda’s propaganda machine, increases the risk to the American military and sets a precedent by which other governments could justify detaining American civilians without charges or appeal.
[...]
The Democratic majority has a long list of wrongs to right from six years of Mr. Bush’s leadership. We are sympathetic to their concerns about finding a way to revive habeas corpus that won’t die in committee or be subject to a presidential veto of a larger bill. But lawmakers sometimes have to stand on principle and trust the voters to understand.
This is one of those times.
Labels: campaign finance disclosure, Congress, Democrats, George Bush, Habeas Corpus, Iraq, Iraq withdrawal, John Edwards, Military Commissions Act, Republicans, Russ Feingold
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
5/09/2007
“With brave Americans fighting and dying for a failed policy in Iraq, members of Congress shouldn’t delay action to end this misguided war for weeks or even months just for the sake of political comfort. That is why, when the Senate takes up the Iraq supplemental, I plan to offer the Feingold-Reid bill as an amendment to force the President to safely redeploy our troops by March 31, 2008 at which point funding for the war would be cut off.”
In addition to Reid's commitment to support the bill, the co-sponsors already on board as listed at Feingold's website include Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), John Kerry (D-MA), Pat Leahy (D-VT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
The legislation includes a few caveats sure to be ignored by the wingnuts when they begin to attack it, so we'll point them out here. Namely, that Feingold's bill will not cut off funding for the purpose of:
* "conduct[ing] targeted operations...against members of al Qaeda and other international terrorist organizations";
* "security for United States infrastructure and personnel"; or
* "to train and equip Iraqi security services"
Labels: Barbara Boxer, Bernie Sanders, Chris Dodd, Harry Reid, Iraq war funding proposal, John Kerry, Patrick Leahy, Russ Feingold, Sheldon Whitehouse, Ted Kennedy, Tom Harkin, US Senate
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
5/08/2007
[T]he President has let [Iraq] proceed on automatic pilot, making no corrections in the face of accumulating evidence that his strategy is failing and cannot be rescued.
"Thus, he lets the United States fly further and further into trouble, squandering its influence, money, and blood, facilitating the gains of our enemies. The Congress is the only mechanism we have to fill this vacuum in command judgment.
"To put this in a simple army metaphor, the Commander-in-Chief seems to have gone AWOL, that is 'absent without leave.' He neither acts nor talks as though he is in charge. Rather, he engages in tit-for-tat games.
"Some in Congress on both sides of the aisle have responded with their own tits-for-tats. These kinds of games, however, are no longer helpful, much less amusing. They merely reflect the absence of effective leadership in a crisis. And we are in a crisis.
"Most Americans suspect that something is fundamentally wrong with the President's management of the conflict in Iraq. And they are right.
"The challenge we face today is not how to win in Iraq; it is how to recover from a strategic mistake: invading Iraq in the first place. The war could never have served American interests.
"look, george... it's over... iraq's over... your presidency is over... you've got a choice... you can either gracefully resign along with dick cheney, or we're going to bust our humps to remove you via impeachment... the country and the world can't put up with any more, george... we've had it..."
Labels: Chuck Hagel, Congress, Democrats, Dick Cheney, Harry Reid, Impeachment, Iraq, James Baker, John Murtha, Larry Wilkerson, Lee Iacocca, Nancy Pelosi, Richard Clarke, Russ Feingold, William E. Odom
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/28/2007
"I think his speech yesterday was unfortunate, that his comments were uninformed and misleading. Senator Reid's taken many positions on Iraq. He has threatened that if the president vetoes the current pending supplemental legislation, that he will send up Senator Russ Feingold's bill to defund Iraq operations altogether. Yet only last November, Senator Reid said there would be no cut-off of funds for the military in Iraq. So in less than six months time, Senator Reid has gone from pledging full funding for the military, then full funding but with conditions, and then a cut-off of funding. Three positions in five months on the most important foreign policy question facing the nation and our troops."
Not long after the vice president spoke, Senator Reid responded, calling Cheney the "president's attack dog."
Labels: Dick Cheney, Harry Reid, House of Representatives, Iraq, Iraq war funding proposal, Russ Feingold
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/24/2007
Leaving is losing. That's the Bush doctrine. You either embrace what the Democrats are offering, or you embrace Bush's "leaving is losing" plan. The Magical Pundit Pony Plan, which will never happen, is only about gazing at yourself in the mirror so you can marvel at how much smarter you are than all the politicians, instead of bothering to make the choice between the actual options.
4 years later I am so sick of every "what we really need to do in Iraq" column which gets published. None Of That Is Going To Happen. We either stay there under George Bush, or we start to get the fuck out. You don't get to micromanage the war.
If the President vetoes the emergency supplemental bill, it will only show more Americans and more members of Congress how detached his administration is from the reality of the situation in Iraq – and from the reality here at home, too. We will not be deterred by a veto or by the self-deluding rhetoric coming from die-hard supporters of the President’s misguided Iraq policy. We already have strong support for this latest effort from Senators Leahy, Boxer, Kerry, and Dodd. We will only work harder to act on the ever-growing consensus that ending our military involvement in Iraq is the right thing to do for our troops, our national security, and our ongoing fight against the global terrorist networks that threaten the safety of all Americans.
Labels: 2008 Election, Atrios, Barbara Boxer, Bush Administration, Chris Dodd, Congress, Democrats, George Bush, Iraq, Iraq war funding proposal, Iraq withdrawal, John Kerry, Patrick Leahy, Russ Feingold
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/05/2007
Labels: Harry Reid, Iraq, Iraq withdrawal, Russ Feingold, US Senate
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/02/2007
I am extremely gratified that Senate Majority Leader Reid understands this and instead has announced a robust plan for response to a Presidential veto.
U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced today that they are introducing legislation that will effectively end the current military mission in Iraq and begin the redeployment of U.S. forces. . . . The bill ends funding for the war, with three narrow exceptions, effective March 31, 2008.
Labels: Harry Reid, Iraq, Iraq war funding proposal, Iraq withdrawal, Russ Feingold, US Senate
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/02/2007
Take the lesson: murder hundreds of thousands of people for no reason at all, completely destroy a virtually defenseless country, and do everything possible to begin what could turn into a nuclear Armageddon that would murder millions -- and the worst that will be said about you is that you are an incompetent and stupid bumbler. That we are well on our way to becoming one of the most monstrous nations in history is the thought that cannot bear serious contemplation by our governing class, or by those bloggers who serve as its ignorant and/or corrupt apologists. But threaten the prerogatives of the privileged ruling elites themselves, and hellfire shall devour your soul. Never mind the suffering and death of "ordinary" people: trampling on the inalienable "rights" of those who already possess immense power is the unforgivable sin. Priorities, indeed. The final destruction of the American republic may be almost upon us, and the Republicans and Democrats and their respective blogger-enablers fight like disease-infested rats over the rotting, bloated, already stinking flesh of the doomed, permanently corrupted corporatist state.
The open secret about the Iraq occupation is that the Democrats could end it in a matter of months if they chose to, as Feingold, Kucinich and one or two others have made absolutely clear. Instead, and please let us state the critical fact accurately, the Democrats have chosen to fund the continuation of the Iraq occupation for the indefinite future. The Democratic apologists can spew and spit and slander their critics as much as they wish, but the further fact is that the Iraq abomination is now theirs as much as it is the Republicans'. In a particularly vile, fact- and logic-obliterating turn, one that in my view reveals an intellectual and moral corruption that is as irreversible as it is despicable, certain alleged "progressives" inform us that principled opponents of the criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq are the ones prolonging this catastrophe -- while those who provide the money required for its continuance are actually those who are ending it. When the truth reveals you to be a contemptible, unprincipled coward, lies become your friends.
Labels: Democrats, Dennis Kucinich, Iraq, Iraq war funding proposal, lies, Progressives, Republicans, Russ Feingold
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
3/28/2007
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