500lbguerilla
05-05-2007, 06:36 PM
A Fair and Balanced Look at the Democrats and War Funding
Lies and the Lying Liars That Tell Them
By PHAM BINH
Yesterday President Bush vetoed the bill Congress sent to him to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq because it included deadlines for the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq, calling it "a prescription for chaos and confusion." Apparently, the authority to create chaos and confusion in Iraq belongs to Bush and Bush alone.
Now the Democrats face a stark choice: to fund, or not to fund the war? That is the question.
And we already have the answer. House Democratic Majority leader Steny Hoyer has said in response to the veto "We are going to fund the troops, we are not going to leave our troops in harm's way without the resources that they need." In all likelihood, Democrats in Congress will pass a bill funding the bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan that requires Bush to certify that the Iraqi government is meeting "benchmarks" to warrant the continuation of the war as well as political support for and financial aid to the Iraqi government. How anyone can spin this as a "course correction" in Iraq is beyond me - Bus has been touting "progress" in Iraq ever since his "Mission Accomplished" speech on May 1, 2003. How the U.S. is losing despite uninterrupted progress in Iraq also remains to be explained.
Anti-war sentiment propelled the Democrats into power last November. Since then they have done zero, zip, zilch, nada to end the war. To cover their asses, Democrats have come up with pathetic excuses as to why they haven't lifted a finger to stop Bush. Basically their argument is: "we can't cut off funding for the war because that would mean depriving the troops of equipment, food, water, and weapons they need to defend themselves. President Bush, the Commander-in-Chief, can veto our bills and there aren't enough Republicans to help us override that veto." The not-so-subtle-subtext is: vote for us in '08. Only when a Democrat is in the White House will we have the power to end the war.
That's a lie. They have the power to stop the slaughter right now. It only takes one Senator to filibuster and kill the war funding bill in the Senate. All it would take is one well-timed, long, boring, verbose speech by a Senator to save the lives of literally thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Senators John Kerry and Joe Biden love to give those kinds of speeches to mostly-empty Senate seats and C-SPAN cameras, so why don't they do it when it counts? Hillary Clinton promises she'll end the war in Iraq if she's elected, but why wait until January of 2009? What about liberal wet-dream Barack Obama? He wants voters to believe that he's different, that he's an outsider to the dirty and corrupt business of Washington politics, why not prove it? Senator Reid says "this war is lost" - so why doesn't he move to end it?
more...
http://www.counterpunch.org/binh05032007.html
It'd be nice if the American people actually grew some balls and brought out huge numbers for ANY of the third parties in the US.
Lies and the Lying Liars That Tell Them
By PHAM BINH
Yesterday President Bush vetoed the bill Congress sent to him to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq because it included deadlines for the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq, calling it "a prescription for chaos and confusion." Apparently, the authority to create chaos and confusion in Iraq belongs to Bush and Bush alone.
Now the Democrats face a stark choice: to fund, or not to fund the war? That is the question.
And we already have the answer. House Democratic Majority leader Steny Hoyer has said in response to the veto "We are going to fund the troops, we are not going to leave our troops in harm's way without the resources that they need." In all likelihood, Democrats in Congress will pass a bill funding the bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan that requires Bush to certify that the Iraqi government is meeting "benchmarks" to warrant the continuation of the war as well as political support for and financial aid to the Iraqi government. How anyone can spin this as a "course correction" in Iraq is beyond me - Bus has been touting "progress" in Iraq ever since his "Mission Accomplished" speech on May 1, 2003. How the U.S. is losing despite uninterrupted progress in Iraq also remains to be explained.
Anti-war sentiment propelled the Democrats into power last November. Since then they have done zero, zip, zilch, nada to end the war. To cover their asses, Democrats have come up with pathetic excuses as to why they haven't lifted a finger to stop Bush. Basically their argument is: "we can't cut off funding for the war because that would mean depriving the troops of equipment, food, water, and weapons they need to defend themselves. President Bush, the Commander-in-Chief, can veto our bills and there aren't enough Republicans to help us override that veto." The not-so-subtle-subtext is: vote for us in '08. Only when a Democrat is in the White House will we have the power to end the war.
That's a lie. They have the power to stop the slaughter right now. It only takes one Senator to filibuster and kill the war funding bill in the Senate. All it would take is one well-timed, long, boring, verbose speech by a Senator to save the lives of literally thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Senators John Kerry and Joe Biden love to give those kinds of speeches to mostly-empty Senate seats and C-SPAN cameras, so why don't they do it when it counts? Hillary Clinton promises she'll end the war in Iraq if she's elected, but why wait until January of 2009? What about liberal wet-dream Barack Obama? He wants voters to believe that he's different, that he's an outsider to the dirty and corrupt business of Washington politics, why not prove it? Senator Reid says "this war is lost" - so why doesn't he move to end it?
more...
http://www.counterpunch.org/binh05032007.html
It'd be nice if the American people actually grew some balls and brought out huge numbers for ANY of the third parties in the US.