Speaker Pelosi today announced:
House Democrats said Thursday they would send President Bush $50 billion for combat operations on the condition that he begin withdrawing troops from Iraq. The proposal, similar to one Bush vetoed earlier this year, would identify a goal of ending combat entirely by December 2008. It would require that troops spend as much time at home as they do in combat, as well as effectively ban harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding.
In a private caucus meeting, Pelosi told rank-and-file Democrats that the bill was their best shot at challenging Bush on the war. And if Bush rejected it, she said, she did not intend on sending him another war spending bill for the rest of the year.
“This is not a blank check for the president,” she said later at a Capitol Hill news conference. “This is providing funding for the troops limited to a particular purpose, for a short time frame.
As always, we know Bush will veto.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Bush would veto any bill that sets an “artificial timeline” for troop withdrawals.
As always, I applaud the Speaker’s STATED stance today.
As always, the important point here is that the House Dems MUST stick to their guns and tell the President – of he vetoes then he is abandoning the troops in the field. I repeat, the President of the United States will be ABANDONING AMERICAN TROOPS IN THE FIELD!
President Bush is proposing to stab the troops in the back by vetoing funding for them.
A disgraceful man. The worst President in history.
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the dems don’t know how to frame the debate, and they don’t have confidence in their ability to defend their just actions. and neither should be hard to do. let’s hope this time’s different.
go speaker pelosi!
So that’s like what, 53 days?
Back in 2003, when we were invading Iraq, bush said our troops would be home by Xmas, then, after his “mission accomplished” photo-op (and the following escalation of violence), said “Our troops will be there until their job is done and not one day more.” Now we know what he meant…Three generations of Americans will be sent to Iraq before this is over, unless we get a president who is willing to accept reality and bring the troops home…all of them.
timetables are artificial and solely for political consumption. Of course he abandoned the troops years ago, and so does Nancy. The present players are so compromised that they are useless. Roll out the next lot, and wipe the smile off Michaels face.
not as bad as a Democratic controlled Congress that, had it chosen ethics over politics, could have stopped the worst president ever
the democrats are worse than bush… we know about bush and are prepared, through the course of history, for such men.
what i wasn’t prepared for was the betrayal of the democrats… reminds me in a way of brave heart
they’re all rotten as far as i’m concerned
and what’s with the apologist stance armando… are you kidding me? it’s more status quo
things won’t get better until we stop behaving in an old evolutionary way
house dems sticking to their guns? give me a big break
It needed to be said louder.
The money isn’t for the troops, never was, never will be. The troops are game pieces in Bush’s Global Game of ‘Risk’. The biggest part of the money goes elsewhere.
yet they still vote his way in fear of alienating the funders.
Why don’t the Democrats propose funding with timetables AND congressional pork that the GOP could use in justifying their anti-war vote? It seemed to work in the first ever Bush veto-override.
Maybe it isn’t legislatively possible, I don’t know.
…
1) Impeach Cheney:
Impeachment is NOT a meaningless exercise.
And this may be our last, best chance:
http://www.dailykos….
Though the Senate’s conviction of Cheney won’t happen (assuming Articles of Impeachment could be voted out of the House–after all, we’re not talking about a blowjob here), impeachment is necessary to lay out for history the official Congressional documentation of the myriad war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against the Constitution committed by the Bush Administration.
2) Reinstitute the draft:
Americans will rise up in outrage against Bush’s wars once the draft is reinstated, ASAP.
Unfortunately, there’s plenty of time to get that through Congress, as it looks like we’ll be in Iraq (and perhaps Iran) for many years to come.
The sooner the draft is reinstated, the sooner “reality” (and not a TV show this time) will sink in for all Americans.
Lapel flag pins and magnetic “Support the Troops” ribbons on autos just won’t cut it then. Because, with a draft, we’ll all have skin in this “game.” The war will end very soon thereafter.
Then there will be no more empty “debates.”
Congressman Charlie Rangle has been banging this drum throughout the war.
As a Korean War veteren who saw many of his comrades killed before his own eyes, he knows wherefrom he speaks.
And he is right.
I have two sons, one 24 and one 18, and I would never serve them up as cannon fodder for Bush’s wars.
If there were a draft, they and their parents would have some hard choices to make–maybe even Canada, which was one of my plans almost 40 years ago–until I got a mid-range lottery number while I was in college.
Pelosi needs to shut up. Everytime they pretend to stand up, they race to cave in and make complete fools of themselves. They aren’t afraid of being accused of leaving the troops in Iraq for political gain in 08, but they can’t take them home because they are afraid of being accused of not supporting them. The volumes of pure bs out of their mouths is incredible. They are worse than Republicans.