Feingold, Kucinich Denounce the Democratic Cave
And so the Democrats caved, pathetically, to Bush and to Bush’s war.
“It tells American workers that the only way they will get an increase in wages is to continue to support funding the war which is taking the lives of their sons and daughters,” Kucinich said.
No amount of extenuation can minimize the fact that the Democrats, who were brought to power in Congress to end the war, have just signed on to another $120 billion for that war.
There is not even a timetable for withdrawal, just 18 benchmarks that the President himself can waive.
What an abdication!
What a capitulation!
Even as U.S. soldiers are increasingly bogged down in Baghdad, even as the death toll of our troops zoomed past the 3,400 mark, the Democratic compromisers in Congress could not find enough spinal fluid to stand tall against Bush and the inevitable you-don’t-support-the-troops ads that they fear so much.
Well, they’re going to have to summon the courage to withstand those ads at some point, or they’ll end up voting for an additional hundred billion dollars down the road.
With this vote, they’ll be consigning hundreds of additional soldiers to their deaths.
Largely to blame for this is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who mindlessly trumpeted the bill as some sort of an accomplishment.
“For heaven’s sake, look where we’ve come,” he said. “It’s a lot more than the President ever expected he’d have to agree to.”
Is it really?
Bush essentially got everything he wanted. No timetable. No mandatory benchmarks. And all the money he needs to keep waging the war.
Also to blame is Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, who is an old Clinton triangulator. “I view this as the beginning of the end of the President’s policy,” he somehow managed to mutter.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi showed no leadership on this issue. She even helped broker a deal that she herself can’t abide. “I’m not likely to vote for something that doesn’t have a timetable,” she said. So why did she go along?
At least two Democratic members of Congress distinguished themselves in their opposition to this primitive cave.
Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin said: “I cannot support a bill that contains nothing more than toothless benchmarks and that allows the President to continue what may be the greatest foreign policy blunder in our nation’s history. There has been a lot of tough talk from members of Congress about wanting to end this war, but it looks like the desire for political comfort won out over real action.”
And Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio exposed the hideousness of one of the strategies of the Democratic leadership: to salt the bill with an increase in the minimum wage.
“It tells American workers that the only way they will get an increase in wages is to continue to support funding the war which is taking the lives of their sons and daughters,” Kucinich said. “First, blood for oil. Now, a minimum wage for maximum blood. Aren’t the American people giving enough blood for this war without having to give more to have a wage increase?”
Not a penny more should be spent on this war, except to get our troops out of there.
That’s what the American people want.
And it is the height of cowardice and negligence for the Democrats to give Bush what he wants, instead.
Update:
Barbara Lee Condemns Iraq Bill
On the House floor on May 24, Representative Barbara Lee issued the following statement:
“Mr. Speaker, in 2003 Congress approved a $78 billion dollar supplemental. In 2004 it was $87 billion. In 2005 it was $82 billion. In 2006 it was $72 billion. And now the administration wants almost $100 billion more?
“As of today, 3,429 of our brave troops and countless Iraqis have died in this occupation. The President has dug us into a deep hole in Iraq and it boggles my mind that Congress wants to give him another blank check to buy more shovels.
“This occupation and civil war cannot be won militarily. Mr. Speaker, how many will have to die before this House stops writing blank checks?
“Mr. Speaker, the American people are looking to Congress to end this failed policy and bring our troops home.
“Two months ago, we took the Lee Amendment to the Rules Committee, which would have fully funded the safe and timely withdrawal of U.S forces from Iraq. That is what we should be voting to do today, not to give the President another blank check. I urge my colleagues to vote against this bill.”
Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine.
© 2007 The Progressive
I think these comments pretty much say it all –
http://us.f519.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=4723_5589299_22540_2212_14048_0_30012_48391_2314778932&Idx=0&YY=67449&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&inc=25&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b&box=Inbox
Feingold, Kucinich, Barbara Lee —
very few are actually in Congress to represent “the people” –
We don’t seem to have the full story yet on the capitulation, but without doubt the Democrats are enabling this outlaw president.
Clean words are hard to come by in this case. I wonder if the bill had little yellow smiley faces around it and was it accompanied by a big “We’re Sorry Mr. Bush” card. Thats it; third party for this boy.
I believe that the American people need to re-evaluate our voting strategy. Instead of focusing on the elections in November of 2008 for our representative and senators, we need to focus on the primaries. That is the ONLY way we will get rid of the people that are already there. There are but of few (three of them are mentioned here) that even deserve to go back. This is an extremely important election coming up and the American people have the power to change everything. Only in this election, it will be the primaries, not the main event that counts.
Kucinich-Feingold ‘08!
I think America needs a military coup. Something along the lines of Thailand. But our military should take out every last traitor that is pretending to be a representative of the American people. A military coup would take control of our government away from lobbyists and their corporate and religious masters. After a flushing of the toilet the American people can take back control of their government and end the suicidal notion of empire.
Hoa binh
They might consider you a traitor.
“There is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country where the police were allowed to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country where the government is entitled to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your e-mail communications; if we lived in a country where people could be held indefinitely based … on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, the government would probably discover and arrest more terrorists, or would-be terrorists…. But that wouldn’t be a country in which we would want to live.”
Senator Russ Feingold
“An alternative [U.S. foreign] policy offering real security would require ending the support of oppressive rulers in the Middle East and elsewhere, pursuing a more balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, changing our oil-dependent energy policy, and replacing the drive for overwhelming global military dominance with policies for the peaceful prevention of atrocities and deadly conflict.”
Friends Committee on National Legislation
“In a media universe where you’re likely to find right-wing conservatives on ABC, Fox, or NPR, the facts don’t matter; only the framing. And in the hands of biased pundits posing as objective journalists, the framing is always going to be the same: promilitary, pro-government, and pro-war.”
David Potorti
“The United States is the world’s largest consumer of oil …. Much of the world’s oil lies beneath Iraq and its Gulf neighbors… experts say oil played a significant role in the decision to confront Iraq.”
Council on Foreign Relations
“This is not about oil, and anyone who thinks that is badly misunderstanding the situation.”
Donald Rumsfeld
“The trauma of 9/11 stimulated infinite possibilities for worry - some quite plausible, but most inspired by remote what-if fantasies. A society bingeing on fear makes itself vulnerable to far more profound forms of destruction than terror attacks. The “terrorism war”, like a nostalgic echo of the cold war, is using these popular fears to advance a different agenda - the re-engineering of American life through permanent mobilization.”
William Greider
“A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn’t have an air force.”
William Blum
Yes, I’m angry at the Dem’s sellout to Bush, but clearly the antiwar movement still has some work to do with the public.
According to the Polling Report website (http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm) , a May 25 CBS/New York Times poll asked this question:
“Which of these comes closest to your opinion? Congress should block all funding for the war in Iraq no matter what. Congress should allow funding, but only on the condition that the U.S. sets benchmarks for progress and the Iraqi government are meeting those goals. OR, Congress should allow all funding for the war without any benchmark conditions.”
Block all funding: 13% Allow funding with benchmarks: 69% Allow all funding: 15% Not sure: 3%
What we’ve seen this week is that “Allow funding with benchmarks”, in the hands of this Congress, quickly becomes “allow all funding.”
So what we need to do before September, when the next $100 billion war funding bill comes up, is to move as many people as possible from “funding with benchmarks” to “block all funding.” For the next four months, our work isn’t with Congress, it’s with our friends, co-workers and neighbors, persuading them that the only way we’re going to end this war is if we all unite around “not one more dime.” Bush and Congress did a lot this week to hlep us move people in that direction, but we need to get busy to drive the point home. We can’t stop the war unless we can build a strong majority in support of a total funding cutoff.
Feingold and Kucinich are still too timid to lay it all out there.
http://www.gpln.com/halfheartedattempts.htm
Will some intrepid newsblogger investigate to what extortion the DEMs are being subjected to so betray their Constitution and US constituents?
Vic Anderson: I think you’re onto something.
I apologize to those who read all the articles on commondreams, but I want to reach as many people as I can. This information has me completely freaked out.
A Presidential Directive was signed by President Bush on May 9th giving him unconstrained powers in case of a national emergency. In the case of a national emergency (terrorist attack), I don’t want that psychopath in charge of anything. How can he get away with this? It’s terrifying!!!
worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55825
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
President Bush has signed a directive granting extraordinary powers to the office of the president in the event of a declared national emergency, apparently without congressional approval or oversight.
The “National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive
” was
signed May 9, notes Jerome R. Corsi in a WND column
.
It was issued with the dual designation of NSPD-51, as a National Security Presidential Directive, and HSPD-20, as a Homeland Security Presidential Directive.
The directive establishes under the office of the president a new national continuity coordinator whose job is to make plans for “National Essential Functions” of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments,
as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the president’s directives in the event of a national emergency.
“Catastrophic emergency” is loosely defined as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage,
or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.”
It says the president can assume the power to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over.
The directive says the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, currently Frances Fragos Townsend
, would be designated as the national continuity coordinator.
Corsi says the directive makes no attempt to reconcile the powers created for the national continuity coordinator with the National Emergency Act
,
which requires that such proclamation “shall immediately be transmitted to the Congress and published in the Federal Register.”
A Congressional Research Service study notes the National Emergency Act sets up Congress as a balance empowered to “modify, rescind, or render dormant” such emergency authority if Congress believes the president has acted
inappropriately.
But the new directive appears to supersede the National Emergency Act by creating the new position of national continuity coordinator without any specific act of Congress authorizing the position, Corsi says.
The directive also makes no reference to Congress and its language appears to negate any requirement that the president submit to Congress a determination that a national emergency exists.
It suggests instead that the powers of the directive can be implemented without any congressional approval or oversight.
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke affirmed to Corsi the Homeland Security Department would implement the requirements of the order under
Townsend’s direction.
The White House declined to comment on the directive.
I support Kucinich, as I did last time, since he at least speaks to the issues. And I am glad to see Feingold and Lee (and I’m sure more of the Black Caucus) reject this disgusting Democratic surrender.
But you know what? It means nothing. Come election time, all three will throw their support behind whichever piece of shit receives the nomination.
And you will come to sites like this and see the usual handwringing, bleating and apologetics.
Yes, things change. They get worse.
Why is everyone that should know better by now still calling this crime a war? It was an unprovoked invasion based on lies, it is now an occupation based on lies, and its main purpose is to get the Iraquis to sign over their oil to the Oilygarchy. Period.
Which by the way the Iraquis are seriously balking at giving away their natural treasure, even with several hundred thousands of our guns to their heads, and with civilian losses estimated at over one half million.
I believe it was the second day after her appointment that Pelosi said Impeachment is off the table. So we have a criminal invasion with a no consequences guarantee.
Not really surprising that no one has the courage to close down this ongoing criminal invasion, since most of the Democrats elected to shut it down are basically rolling over and playing dead.
Kucinich and Finegold are telling it like it is, let us hope they can prevail.
Kucinich and Finegold…too radical for the DEMOCRATS…imagine telling it like it is
…no one would believe them…what they say is just too simple for most to understand…
they’d be looking for something sinister in their simple words…they’re too LIBERAL…
in the case of Kucinich he’s a vegetarian too and for a funny looking guy
he’s got a new beautiful wife…hope to hear more from these gents but at the
moment they are just to INVISIBLE to make a difference…and so it goes.
Two who I expected to vote “NO” were Ron Paul and my congressman, Maurice Hinchey. Both opposed the fiasco from day one. Kudos to both.
With a large increase in voters calling themselves Independents, Dennis Kucinich might at least think about running as an Independent after today’s vote. And if some other Representatives are considered so courageous, why haven’t they signed onto Dennis’ HR 333(Cheney impeachment) yet?
I wonder how many people would remain Democrats if the primary system allowed Independents to vote also. I have every intention of setting fire to my Demo Party membership as soon as the primaries are over. I’m done with these clowns. I don’t know if my disgust level can be any greater. Our whole system needs changed. How about totally open elections with some sort of run-off provision. Get rid of the stupid primaries and just let us vote the whoever. We need to stop letting the media anoint the “front runners” for us.
Kucinich and Feingold …. LEAVE THAT PARTY.
The rest of us are. If you stay, your political future is trying to convince the remaining DLC Democrats to support you. If you want any progressive anti-war votes, you gotta leave that disgusting party.
Will someone please explain to me how it is that the US can pass measures that set benchmarks for ANOTHER COUNTRY’S GOVERNMENT?
Will some other country PLEASE step up and pass some sort of legislation/directive that tells our US Congress to pull their heads out of their assess?
Could maybe Portugal or Iceland or Venezuela pass a resolution that says the US Government needs to un-rig its elections, do something about global warming, stop being an imperialist bully, tear up its “Free Slave Agreements”, give its people national healthcare and education, establish a free press, restore its bill of rights, and impeach its criminal administration? I had no idea that governments could pass measures for other soveriegn countries. Maybe we’ve been going about it all wrong…
WTF??
Feingold should say, “Do as I say or I’ll caucus with the Republicans.” He should set specific things that are required from the Democratic senate caucus to prevent this from happening. Why are they unwilling to play hardball?
This demonstrates beyound any doubt whatsoever that the government has abandoned its people.
This from WorkingAssestBlog.com (sorry for the length, but it does add some oomph to the fact that the Democratic Party is in fact, a wolf in sheep’s clothing):
—
In case you believe the malarkey being spewed by the House Rules
Committee about the rule vote yesterday not really being the key vote
to give President Bush a blank check, take a look at the Washington
Post and the Associated Press today. I reported this at the beginning
of the day yesterday and was then publicly criticized by House Rules
Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY). Now, though, it seems at
least some major news organizations have caught on that I was exactly
right. In the process, they are reporting what will be recorded in
history as the final insult of it all: Democrats running to reporters
bragging about their own “brilliance” in deceiving the public.
Here’s the Associated Press on how the vote to approve the
parliamentary procedures - not the sham, predetermined vote on the GOP
amendment - was the real vote to give Bush a blank check:
“In a highly unusual maneuver, House Democratic leaders crafted a
procedure that allowed their rank and file to oppose money for the war,
then step aside so Republicans could advance it.”
Here’s the Washington Post:
“Yesterday’s vote to fund the war through September was a historical
rarity: the passage of a bill opposed by the speaker of the House and a
majority of the speaker’s party. Two years ago to the day, then-Speaker
J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) violated the ‘Hastert rule’ — that only
bills supported by a majority of the majority can come up — by
bringing up legislation to allow federal funding for stem cell
research. The majority of the Republican majority opposed the law. He
voted against it, but he knew it would never become law over President
Bush’s signature…The North American Free Trade Agreement passed in
1993, over the objections of most Democrats, who were then in the
majority. But NAFTA did have the support of then-Speaker Thomas S.
Foley (D-Wash.), as well as the Democratic president, Bill Clinton. In
contrast, the Iraq funding bill was not only opposed by the majority of
House Democrats, it was also ardently opposed by the speaker and even
the lawmaker who drafted it, Appropriations Committee Chairman David R.
Obey (D-Wis.). And it is destined to become law. ‘To have the chairman
and the speaker vote against a bill like this, I’ve never heard of it,’
Hastert said.”
And here’s the worst part of it all - Democrats are now bragging about
it. Not only have they sent out a Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee fundraising email attempting to confuse voters by claiming
with a straight face that they really stood up to President Bush. But
most insulting of all, they are actually running to reporters to pat
themselves on the back for engineering a procedural pirouette designed
to confuse the public. Here’s the Post again:
“But while protesters outside the Capitol condemned what they saw as a
capitulation, Democrats inside were remarkably understanding of their
speaker’s contortions. Party leaders jury-rigged the votes yesterday to
give all Democrats something to brag about…Democrats saw brilliance
in the legerdemain. And with such contortions came more appreciation
for the efforts Pelosi was making to fund the war in a fashion most
palatable to angry Democrats. ‘It was the responsible thing to do, and
she’s a responsible speaker,’ said Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.).”
This is what we’re dealing with folks. A party that runs to the press
to brag about the brilliance of using their majority not to end the
war, but to create a situation that makes it seem as if they oppose the
war, while actually helping Republicans continue it.
—
Some other posters on this thread have called for a third party or even military coup. C’mon folks, third person invectives will no longer work. We MUST do this ourselves! No one else is capable or trustworthy enough to make this huge change we need back to a democratic republic. Jefferson said it…we know what he called for:
“When patience has begotten false estimates of its motives, when wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality.” –Thomas Jefferson to M. deStael, 1807. ME 11:282
“Every generation needs a revolution.”
“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing [a people] to slavery.” –Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774. (*) ME 1:193, Papers 1:125
“When patience has begotten false estimates of its motives, when wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality.” –Thomas Jefferson to M. deStael, 1807. ME 11:282
I wonder who on the dems side is being blackmailed by Bush? A little surveillance goes a long way at keeping scared politicians in their place.
“Feingold and Kucinich are still too timid to lay it all out there.”
I disagree. Feingold has balls and has proven it numerous times. I was totally disappointed when he announced he would not seek the presidency. I’d vote for him in a heartbeat. Whoever does win the nomination would be a fool not to seek him out as vice president.
To “conscience,”
How about having one? You put a link in this thread that leads nowhere,
and is so long that it makes the whole page hard to read.