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Time to Stand Up as Congress Stands Down with War Funding Bill
How is it that, after winning the White House and strong Congressional majorities in 2008, Democrats are still playing defense when it comes to national security? How is it that those same politicians who were handed a mandate for change in November are, just a few months later, losing the fight to close the Guantanamo Bay prison? How is it that someone as widely discredited as Dick Cheney is setting the terms of debate on national security?
For years, Congressional Democrats urged patience from their progressive, anti-war base. Without the White House and strong Congressional majorities, they argued, there was only so much that could realistically be done to change our nation's disastrous course.
So in 2008 progressives once again pulled out every stop to organize and mobilize for the elections. Candidates, starting with President Obama, embraced our vision and our issues-from ending torture and shutting down Guantanamo Bay prison, to ending the scandal that, in America, "health care system" has become an oxymoron, to the demand that Americans return to work rebuilding our economy on a foundation of clean air and energy independence.
But while Democrats won big in November, they are losing in May.
Exhibit A: One of the most discredited and least popular political figures in America, former Vice President Dick Cheney, has Democrats on the defensive about closing the Guantanamo Bay prison and ending a disgrace that has blighted our nation's moral standing in the world. Democrats responded by quietly stripping the supplemental appropriations bill of the funds President Obama needed to close Guantanamo while ordering the administration to come up with a plan for handling the detainees.
Republicans seized their advantage and gleefully pounded away on the floor of the House and their various media perches and echo chambers that Democrats were hell bent on shipping international terrorists from Guantanamo Bay right into American neighborhoods. Why, if Democrats have their way, you might very well look out your window next week and see Abu Zubaydah mowing the lawn next door!
Meanwhile, Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern sought to include in the bill a call for the administration to provide Congress with an exit strategy from what many of us fear could become the next American quagmire -- the war in Afghanistan. That modest proposal never got to see the light of day. Congressman McGovern instead had to introduce it yesterday as a free standing bill with 76 original co-sponsors and will fight to have it included in the 2010 Defense Authorization bill.
House Democrats need to hear from us. If the war spending bill passed yesterday is the best they think they can do with control of the White House and strong majorities in both chambers of Congress, we have a lot of work to do.
And there is no time to lose-Congressional action on the 2010 Defense Authorization bill is only weeks away.
The Defense Authorization bill will start making its way through the House Armed Services Committee soon and will likely be on the floor of the House as early as next month. In addition to providing an opportunity for Congress to endorse Congressman McGovern's Afghanistan exit language, it will also be Congress's first crack at President's plan to cut obsolete weapons systems. But even here, Democrats are on the defensive: Despite proposing cuts in the most obscene examples of Pentagon waste, the 2010 Democratic defense budget is still tens of billions of dollars larger than the largest Defense budget ever proposed by President George W. Bush!
And, even this budget is under fire! The weapons lobby is working overtime to cut deals and keep those dollars flowing. Meanwhile, many of the same Members of Congress - including Democrats -- who will attempt to revive this obscene weapons spending are wringing their hands and telling us that clean air and health care for all Americans is simply beyond what Congress can afford.
Is this the change we can believe in?
The news yesterday wasn't all bad, though. Congressman Sam Farr was able to get language included into the war funding bill that endorses the president's time-line to remove all troops from Iraq and requires the Pentagon to provide ongoing reports to Congress on its progress in implementing that time-line. This was necessary to push back against pressure from some in the military, including the U.S. commanding general in Iraq, Ray Odierno, to slow the pace of a U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq in light of the recent uptick in violence. The fact is, there will likely be an uptick in violence whenever the U.S. pulls out of Iraq, particularly if the Maliki government continues to refuse compromise with his Sunni rivals. The issue is not whether Iraq will be peaceful and stable. It won't, at least for the foreseeable future. The issue is whether Iraqis will have sovereignty over their own country.
Yet what happened on the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday should serve as a wake-up call to all progressives. Democrats in Washington can do much better; it's our job to make sure that they do.
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33 Comments so far
Show AllThe Republicans are like those weird, nightmarish looking fish that live in the perpetual darkness miles down in the freezing ocean. Their very being says "don't fuck with me". And the Democrats are guppies with enormous eyes like a deer caught in the headlights.
Q. How many Democrats does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A. There are never enough.
The only way to influence the corrupt and despicable lizard-brains in Congress is to threaten their jobs. They obviously feel no responsibility for their essential role in sinking America into this insane mess. It is they who willingly succumbed to the lies, deceits and political blackmail of the Bush war-mongers and set this Stupid War in motion.
2010: It's time to sweep out the House.
Start with Sgt. Schulz Pelosi (I saw nothing! I heard nothing! Please stop asking me questions!).
What ever made you think that there are two political parties in america?
There is only one and it is the electorate, the rest are personality conflicts.
Samosamo at the local and state level.
Oregoncharles
How to Get Your Way
first of all, Marching around in the streets is futile. Voting for a Democrat is futile. voting for an independent is futile. Elections are a waste of time and are futile. haven't you noticed?
Collective action can be effective. For starts, what would happen if millions burned their health care insurance policy and for six months opted for none?
What if millions turned off their lights for one entire week.
Refused to shop at a corporate store, period.
Stepped up anti-recruitment activities in your public schools.
Wow! "...tripe and BS" I was trying to think of how to describe this article and there it was "tripe and BS". Thanks.
This is a spin on the classic divide and conquer strategy that the elites always use. They used to play up black vs white to keep the poor from coming together. Now they play Democrats vs Republicans or lefties vs right wing loonies. The Evangelical Christians who followed Bush et. al., were just as used as the blacks in Democratic machine politics in the cities, and the antiwar contingencies that voted for Obama.
DaveBronstein may be right. Tom Andrews is a well-known leader of the peace movement. He has been working his butt off trying to get even a slight response from the Dems in Congress for years. All he has gotten for his trouble is rude dress-downs or blow-offs from Pelosi, Obey, Leahy and other nominally liberal, anti-war legislators. First they ignore us, then when they can't do that, they shout us down with a bunch of self-serving crap, like "you're not living in the real world!" and "you don't understand how it works here in Washington!".
We understand all too well. They pose and preen, collect campaign money from war contractors and our neighbors, relatives and class mates get sent off to kill and be killed in imperial wars that never end. That's "how it works".
Of course, if you can blame the Dem "leadership" you really have to blame the rank and file Dem voters too. Every two years they fall for the old oakey-doke about "electability" and vote for whichever mouthpiece the elite have pre-selected for the popularity contest. Having cute kids never hurts.
"Change you can believe in....the same way you CAN believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, if you want to"
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Democrats are republicans with better vocabulary and acting skills. Go Nader or Kucinich.
I've commented on the parallels before, but for those who read history, they will recognize much of this. Hitler had promised the Junkers (the wealthy industrialists and landowners) that he would not tax them, nor restrict them. He got enormous financing and support from them. He told the Wehrmacht that they would be allowed to build the greatest military machine in history. They also threw their support behind him. When Hitler was finally elected, some SS fired the Reichstag building and it was blamed on a Dutch "half-wit" who was a communist. The Enabling Acts were immediately passed, which took away the civil rights and most of the rest of the Constitution of the Weimar Republic. This was to "protect the Reich from communists," and later Jews, etc.
The Reichstag then became a rubber stamp to legalize whatever Hitler decreed. The rest, as they say, is history.
Fast forward. The PNAC, made up largely of our "Junkers" and the same gang that were in the new administration had a plan for world conquest by the United States. One of the things they said they needed was a new "Pearl harbor" to galvanize the people into supporting new wars.
9-11 was our "Reichstag fire." The mis-named PATRIOT ACT was the modern version of Hitler's Enabling Acts, even using some of the same language. Our Congress and Senate became the American Reichstag, excusing or rubber stamping the excesses of the Cheney/Bush government. In the Obamanation, little has changed and our Reichstag continues to support the excesses of the Executive and the MIC, presumably as directed by our "Junkers" who have supported them and seen that they were elected.
Granted, this is greatly simplified, you can't put a thesis in a thousand word blog, but perhaps you get the idea. Do some research, draw your own conclusions.
This once great nation has slid so far down the slippery slope to oblivion that I don't know if we can ever claw our way back up.
Emails don't help.
Letters don't help.
Elections don't help.
The MSM is unapproachable.
Most citizens cannot afford to go to jail as a result of protesting or civil dis-obedience.
Yapping on progressive blogs does nothing.
No one can afford to strike.
Most citizens will not stop buying.
Most citizens will not take their money out of the banks.
Most citizens will not stop using credit cards.
Most citizens will not march on DC.
When I say most, I refer to what is usually considered critical mass...a lousy 5%.
Tell me, what's left?
If the answer is nothing, why are we wasting our time yapping to each other on this site?....comfort?...misery loves company?....the idea that we may reach some eureka moment/answer?
Seriously ...what's left that will make a difference?
If it's past the point of no return, let's enjoy the time we have left with the few freedoms we have left and plant a garden...run naked in the woods....and smell roses and pet dogs and cats.
Any REAL ideas out there? If we did nothing to stop the tide in the past eight years of hell in America and hell around the world and refuse to prosecute criminals for torturing men, women and children, allowing Cheney to run around bragging about it, what the hell are we whining about?
It's up to US and we are sitting still.....
Yeah, I know....NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR THIS........
I'm listening and you're right. We have no leverage. Someone somewhere recently blogged that we're "heading towards a slippery slope that leads to totalitarian tyranny." We're not heading towards there, we're deep into that slide. The only reason people who protest and post on sites and blogs, advocating various corrective courses of action, aren't rounded up and put in re-education camps (to learn to concentrate) is that we are no threat to the Powers That Be. The Dick Cheney attitude, essentially "fuck public opinion, it doesn't matter, let 'em yammer" has proven to be true.
The only thing that gives any hope is that the problems are so many and so vast and so varied, there are so MANY chickens coming home to roost, that the Powers That Be will not be able to contain the chaos much longer. Environmental conditions will continue to worsen at an ever increasing rate, the world economy (built as it is on faith based money) will self-destruct, and all the promises made of better times ahead will be exposed as bogus. PR and spin will be as powerless as We the People are now.
I hope I'm wrong but that's how it seems to me.
Unfortunately, you are likely correct. I see nothing to turn the tide. The flase flag of 9/11 is becoming as lost as the JFK, MLK et al assassinations. We will continue to sit on our collective asses and let it all happen. Our conditioning and de-education through the years has worked as they expected. Oh, they have built these detention camps and put all the necessary laws in place to quell any uprising since they really did not know how we would react. They had to protect their butts from the worse case scenario. Quite simply, we do not know and are too cowardly to use the power of numbers that we have. And so it goes. And so it goes. Maybe we answer to our maker or maybe we answer only to ourselves. ...either way, we will have no response when we meet our maker or meet ourselves and are asked, "What did YOU do?...Silence. Dead silence for the vast majority.
Yes, learned ignorance is one of their weapons. But you are three steps ahead of them. You seem to know something about the Military Industrial Coup of 1963. Don't stop talking about it old man.
angryoldman,
Running around naked in the woods will do us no good. It is up to each and everyone us to develop the higher consciousness that Marx speaks of. Capitalism is collapsing and something will fill that void. The choice is ours: sit on our hands and let the corporate fascists have their way with us or stand up and be counted in a move to develop a socialist society with a modicum of justice. Written and spoken words have true value in this battle. We have become a morally bankrupt and evil society and unless we recognize it as people, we have little hope of moving forward. Speaking and writing is the gateway to this self-realization. If we can not contemplate change first, we will never act upon it. Do not underestimate this power.
Regards,
Lefty
I humbly disagree. The gateway to self realization is quiet contemplation in an attempt to raise oneself above the illusions of the suffering hell in which we choose to dwell. We have been sucked into the false reality of this particular game and have forgotten we invented the game.
Hopefully your quiet contemplation doesn't just involve pondering your belly button. Mine involves considering many ideas and philosophies of men and women I have read and heard over my years existence. I also add in my own unique twist of these ideas. We have been sucked into is a reality invented by elites who have no problem imposing their hell on us. It's an interesting casino game they have invented that they call capitalism. You watch the guy hit the jackpot and you're quite willing to play by those rules. What you fail to realize is that the house ALWAYS wins. A few pay outs don't tell the true story. It's time to dismantle the casino.
Good luck with that.
No luck required. The casino is being dismantled as we type. What springs up in its place? The cooperative farm or the corporate prison?
If this is so...and you have an inside line on some legalities that may be underway...that must include the truth of 9/11...I DO truly wish you GAWD SPEED.
Oh, stop the whining and eat your grog or Master will take it away and you’ll have no food until tomorrow.
You flower smelling freak.
Life is Good; Mediocrity is Individuality; Banality is Creativity; and if you don’t get with the program, Master’s foot will be your arse. Now take off your clothes and go hug a tree already! Nobody is looking honest… … !-)
Seriously, old man, recharge your batteries the best way you know and get back to it. I have little in the way of answers, but I’d like to share a few things I’ve done in recent months to rekindle my basic foundation.
Little while back, I took a three week hiatus from the internet and newsreel, knowing much would be exactly where it was last I looked. I needed to refresh my focus (I find this need comes up more often than before)
Locality is everything to me these days. I pet my dogs and stranger’s dogs and from this simple walk, I begin the basic rewriting of what I think ‘politics’ is supposed to be. I have very little power, if any at all, and accept my position and hold myself to what influence I believe I wield in the immediate location I occupy. I modestly trade what I have with friends and formulate basic mission statements. However modest, I adhere to them with great zeal and share as much as I can give to this small circle but reject giving money or material contributions to organized political groups. Far too often, my personal resources are better utilized at the local level, investing time and money in my surroundings.
Far too often these larger national agents end up allocating their resources parroting dlc-lite candidates like Obama convincing us to follow rather than focus on unifying around them/ourselves (us!) as the form of leadership. If we say there is a coward among us, I believe it is the form of politics we've come to witness, as opposed to any individual bastard on the street.
Now, if I may suggest... GO! Go get naked and get an “inner”-tube (so to speak) and float down the river. we can all catch up later at the local watering hole.
… running with mutts….
Thank you SO much...I feel so comforted and relieved. I shall do exactly what you say, as I realize the power behind your thoughtful suggestions.....
Good points angryoldman. But I have a few points of contention rolled into one...
Yapping on progressive blogs can actually force the Main Stream Media to cover the stories that they'd rather sweep under the rug. I've seen it happen here. So keep it up old man.
oldman, I feel your pain. I have tried so many things; running for office, being active in local politics, blah blah blah, no change, lots of dirty looks.
So we moved to a farm to grow our own food, have our own water, land, even our own gas well.
Got a dog, whose integrity I would put up against any elected representative in Washington.
I'd languish naked in the creek, but last week we saw a snapping turtle about a foot and a half long. Best not to let your doodles dangle.
I don't shop at Wal-mart, or buy products made in china. My bank is so local it's across the street. I use the mute button everytime a commercial comes on TV and I never watch the msm news. I do what I can here at home, but I feel the big wall of We're-Not-Listening that surrounds Washington.
Nonetheless I can't seem to stop running my big mouth, either here in print or on the phone with reprehesible representatives. I'd sooner stop breathing as stop bitching.
I go to a local paper to read the comments and articles to remind myself how ignorant the majority of America is. There you will find people who don't care about health care because they're doing fine, thank you, and it's socialist anyway. If only Obama was one tenth as socialist as they think he is...
The thing that's left that will make a difference is physical revolt. But first the attention of the great unwashed masses must be engaged, and they just don't get it yet.
"Democrats in Washington can do much better; it's our job to make sure that they do."
Okay. Any suggestions HOW we do that? Progressives will line up to vote Democrat no matter what they do. Torture, war, false imprisonment, spying, corporate theft - no matter - they will still vote democrat.
What reason do the democrats have to not ignore their ever faithful and gullible constituents?
Anyone you still thinks you can "push" them with letters, phone calls, or street parades are just lying to themselves.
angryoldman your right on point. nation of fking cowards who only think about them-
selves and their wallets. but if we think this is bad lets look down 2 years this will look
like nirvana
"How is it that, after winning the White House and strong Congressional majorities in 2008, Democrats are still playing defense when it comes to national security?"
There is only 1 party today in 2 flavors. On matters that are of importance to the ruling elite, both parties answer to the same master. Our democracy is an illusion, you can only vote for those who are allowed to run, and thats dictated by campaign financing and who the MSM presents as the front runners, both of which are controlled by the ruling elite.
The 2 party system works in their favor since it keeps the people divided. Politics is more of a religion now and a matter of faith. Those who worship at the Church of Republicanism turn a blind eye to the evils of their Church, while those who worship at the Church of Democratism accept the misdeeds of their Church. It's always the other Church's fault. My Church is better than your church. Your Church is Evil.
For those belonging to neither Church, they have been conditioned to vote for the lesser evil. Those who support 3rd parties and the constitution are now labelled as extremists by Homeland security.
Every 4-8 years we get change and hope, and people ask the same questions when they find out change is not for the better and their hope was misguided. This mindless cycle will continue forever until the herd becomes so docile they will just pull the plug on elections and remove the illusion of a democracy and freedom. And when people wake up, it will be too late. That time is coming sooner than you think.
THE WAY IT WORKS:
the $9.5 trillion already committed to the banking industry is more than the cost of all wars America has ever fought. It was reported to be enough to pay off virtually every mortgage in the nation, which would have stopped all the defaults, foreclosures and subsequent pain cold. Sharon Astyk adds: “It could have paid for free health care for every American, cradle to grave for a century. It was enough to build renewable energy infrastructure that could have softened the crisis, to re-insulate our houses, to provide basic food and health care to the world’s poor. The same trillions we were told we didn’t have when it was needed by those who wanted educations, basic medical care, decent shelter, a home, hope, a decent life, but we had a plenty for the banks and the wealthiest people in the world.
Don't cooperate. Frugality is freedom. The core of the problem is corporate dictators manipulating our buying patterns to keep us dependent and poor. Turn off the ads. They are hurting you and your family. Question EVERY purchase. Does it help the corporate dictators? Don't buy it.
I agree AGG. I try to consider each dollar I spend very carefully these days.
Excellent analysis AGG. But of course if we paid for all those things you mentioned, would Joe the Plumber still get up off the couch and go to his capitalist job every day?
Better to invest in defeating the communists across the pond, and keep Joe on his toes... according to Mr. Chairman.
The Democrats are simply reflecting their constituents, who are no more courageous than their elected officials.
Fellow Dems--we are not a group of tough customers who mysteriously keep electing wimpy leaders. That's not the way it works.
The problem is, we are just as spineless as our representatives.
Quick example: Democrats virtually never defend their own leaders against right-wing attacks. On the contrary, they usually join in on the attacks, like some schoolkid caving in to bullies. You can see this in the comments at CommonDreams, or most other liberal-progressive sites.
Look how many progressives have been joining in on the right-wing attacks against Nancy Pelosi. Who the hell even needs Republicans? It's some sort of Stockholm Syndrome thing. They are cowed by the aggressiveness of the right, so they lie down and let the Repubs sh*t all over them them. Figuratively speaking.
So stop beating up the people you elected and look to yourselves, my friends. We're getting just the representatives we deserve.
Xe Technology: To Purify America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zYqMkgzOJ0
Politicians in the U.S.A. have only one constituent which they must answer to at all times...AIPAC.
"The issue is not whether Iraq will be peaceful and stable. It won't, at least for the foreseeable future. The issue is whether Iraqis will have sovereignty over their own country."
This is not the issue for me. For me the issue is whether Iraqis will be killed in MY name, with MY leaders spending MY tax dollars to shove the agenda of the MIC down everyone's choking gasping throat.