One example of how long we've been dealing with this underhanded crap as Dems find their voice while Bush lies to the public again!
House Democrats distinguished themselves this week when they stood up to the White House’s latest military funding steamroller: approving only $50 billion of the additional $196 billion the president requested for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also set conditions on the funding, including demands that troops start coming home from Iraq within 30 days and that the withdrawal be completed by mid-December 2008.
Senate Democrats quickly brought the House plan to the floor. But, ever the spoilers, Republicans blocked it, as they have other attempts to rein in Mr. Bush’s war-without-end in Iraq. Predictably, the White House — which always prefers fear-mongering to serious debate — accused Democrats of undermining the troops. Even Defense Secretary Robert Gates got into the act, threatening to direct the Army and Marine Corps to begin developing plans to lay off employees and terminate contracts next year unless Congress approves new funding within days.
Lawmakers, regardless of party, and the American people will always stand behind the brave men and women in the armed forces. Congress has already approved some $800 billion in funding since Sept. 11, 2001, for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that hardly measures the full cost in blood and treasure. More than 800 troops have been killed in Iraq in 2007 alone, making it the deadliest year yet for the American military there. Read the whole story
I heard threats of base closings and cut backs and it reminded me of the last time the chief idiot played this game. Supposedly it was not Political but you know damn well it was and it will be this time too to teach a lesson to those that voted against him. Look at the chief idiots response then look at what he did 2 years ago!
I had the ill fortune of being in the car this morning when the chief idiots address came on this morning chastising the Democrats for making him be responsible and I hope this time they stick to their guns. Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a Democratic bill that sought to link $50 billion in additional war funding to the goal of withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq by the end of next year. And Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bill that would have allocated $70 billion to the war without conditions.
They went on vacation instead. I heard Bush threatening tax increases on the middle class because of Democrats. Since when does he care about the middle class he has purposely been destroying since he got in office. I am so sick of this idiots games just so he can get his way on continue his wars. As I was driving I decided to look at the last time he pulled his crap on the military to get his way. It was sickening to see just one example of the chief babies tactics of I am going to hold my breath until you give me what I want! look at what Iraq war veteran John Bruhns said. It is right on
Anyway, It's sickening, remember this? 10/28/05 Update! A Little more time for the Apolitical Political Bush Base Closings
With the proposed base closings due to be a reality in mid November I thought it was time to just remind us all how crooked these closings were and still are. In light of what is happening right now with the Rove's investigation and implication of Cheney you know the President was involved and as in this situation nothing period gets done without his knowledge or okay and he knows the truth none of us ever will. Right from the get go we discussed the proposed Military base closings. In one of our discussions we talked about the fact that telling the public they had nothing at all to do with Politics was totally false and erroneous.
With the proposed base closings due to be a reality in mid November I thought it was time to just remind us all how crooked these closings were and still are. In light of what is happening right now with the Rove's investigation and implication of Cheney you know the President was involved and as in this situation nothing period gets done without his knowledge or okay and he knows the truth none of us ever will. Right from the get go we discussed the proposed Military base closings. In one of our discussions we talked about the fact that telling the public they had nothing at all to do with Politics was totally false and erroneous.
Bush as we all know , does nothing at all unless it is part of his political game. So once again this master of deception was saying what we wanted to hear and playing his Political game. The facts right off the bat told us again the opposite of what he was saying. We all know this is standard fare for him. The States that came out in favor of him in the 2nd election did well with the proposed Base closings. The bases that came out against him took the biggest hits during the proposed closings. It didn't matter if the bases were exemplary or vital to our military mission. California took a big hit because republican Governor Arnold could not deliver the State for the President. Massachusetts took a hit for the same reason.
Otis in Massachusetts is where the fighters that responded on 9/11 came from. It is one of the best reserve bases in the Nation. He wanted to put all our B1's in one place in his brother's State. That makes good sense. The Bible Belt States did well under the proposed closings. He said as far as he is concerned he thinks the proposals should be final. Political, naw! One and one still equals two as far as I know.
There are many inequities in these proposals. Many we will never know unless some disgruntled individual comes forth with the truth. Regardless of what Mr. say one thing and do another says. He keeps tight reign over what happens in his misadministration. That is precisely why it is so screwed up. Even though he would have us believe he has ne control over most of what happens in Washington and the Pentagon in particular, you know nothing can be further from the truth.
As we all know he is a master political game player. It is his behind the back club to be used against anyone he perceives as having done him wrong. He does a lousy job of disguising this fact. In addition to all his inequities in his administration and in these proposals we can now add this one. Now we are hearing that the money supposedly saved from these closings was false. It was purposely contrived in order to inflate the supposed savings. Why should we be surprised to find the 9 member panel doing the investigation has found the savings inflated by 30 billion?
How much did it cost us this time to find out we were lied to again? I know, just another little oversight. This is standard fare for this administration as we all know. As in all the other instances he will get away with this one too. Someone else's fault not mine, just another victim of circumstances. The poor picked on guy. He suffers from the Rodney Dangerfield Syndrome. He gets no respect. You have to wonder how deep the rot will go in this case too when the truth is eventually to some degree known and what if any the real savings after all was said and done really were.Read more
This has been going on from the getgo How much more of this idiots childish lies can we take?
James Joiner
Gardner Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com
This has been going on from the getgo How much more of this idiots childish lies can we take?
James Joiner
Gardner Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com
8 comments:
fine question indeed. i guess we will have to put up with this from whomever is in office- until we loosen the corporate grip on this country and globally. to do that- we have to use less and recycle more. we have the power of the purse- and until further notice- the power of the vote. if we don't use them- we lose all the way around. we can't count on the corporate shills we elected to get the job done. we have to elect folks who aren't shills. we have to push to change the system to enable people like you and me to be able to run. as long as we are cut out by finances, we are not truly represented.
Gee Betmo
I'm honored! @ days in a row. Things are going to be extremely hectis for me for a while as I try to deal with 2 in a nursing homr etc. so bear with me.
You are right! Finances keep the most qualified out and only allow the corrupt in.
I just saw a comment from Larry on Lydia's site and that was a smart move by Reid to hang around so Bush wouldn't pull something underhanded while they were out. They may be learning but I don't think they can stop the chief worm.
I don't know if any will do what they should, and if Guiliani ever gets his hands on our lives, he will make Bush look like a choirboy.
Michael Massing has written a very important story about at very important truth: the main reason that the American people are so deeply uninformed about the reality of the war of aggression being waged in their names in Iraq is that they do not want to know.
Massing shows that the rigorous self-censorship practiced by the American people and the media is actually worse than the machinations of Big Brother in Orwell's 1984; at least in that fictional world, the draconian repression of reality was imposed by force at the hands of an all-powerful state – but today we are doing it to ourselves. Not that the Bush Regime isn't giving Big Brotherism the old college try, but as Massing points out, there are too many venues and formats of information dissemination for the state to control it all, especially in the United States, where many vestiges of freedom remain. Yet one of the most disheartening aspects of American society today is how very little use the people make of those freedoms they still have.
Indeed, Massing's observations on Americans' self-censorship – the surrender of the awareness of reality in exchange for self-regarding fantasy – have implications far beyond war reportage. In our time, we are witnessing a society voluntarily surrendering its liberties, its rights – its gumption – to a harsh and malevolent authority. We are witnessing a society surrendering its pride and its moral core to torturers and thieves, liars and killers. And it is a willing surrender, as if vast swathes of the American people are relieved that they can finally lay down the burdens and responsibilities of freedom.
What can you say about a society whose leaders – including the leaders of the so-called opposition – are about to approve the appointment of an enabler of tyranny and an apologist for torture as the chief law enforcement officer of the nation? (And this is only the latest of a series of such outrages, going back years.) You can only say: This is a country that has lost its soul, lost its nerve and – literally – lost its mind. It's like watching a loved one being destroyed by a brain-eating disease.
But the Iraq War is where this surrender of moral consciousness reverberates most sharply, and most murderously. Massing's story draws heavily on the published accounts of soldiers in the field – those who know the reality in all its depths, and who have been maddened by their fellow Americans' refusal to grasp it. Massing writes:
How can such a critical feature of the U.S. occupation remain so hidden from view? Because most Americans don't want to know about it. The books by Iraqi vets are filled with expressions of disbelief and rage at the lack of interest ordinary Americans show for what they've had to endure on the battlefield. In "Operation Homecoming," one returning Marine, who takes to drinking heavily in an effort to cope with the crushing guilt and revulsion he feels over how many people he's seen killed, fumes about how "you can't talk to them [ordinary Americans] about the horror of a dead child's lifeless mutilated body staring back at you from the void, knowing you took part in that end." Writing of her return home, Kayla Williams notes that the things most people seemed interested in were "beyond my comprehension. Who cared about Jennifer Lopez? How was it that I was watching CNN one morning and there was a story about freaking ducklings being fished out of a damn sewer drain -- while the story of soldiers getting killed in Iraq got relegated to this little banner across the bottom of the screen?" In "Generation Kill," by the journalist Evan Wright, a Marine corporal confides his anguish and anger over all the killings he has seen: "I think it's bullshit how these fucking civilians are dying! They're worse off than the guys that are shooting at us. They don't even have a chance. Do you think people at home are going to see this -- all these women and children we're killing? Fuck no. Back home they're glorifying this motherfucker, I guarantee you."
Yes. Back home they're glorifying the war, or else, at most, tut-tutting over how "incompetently" it has been managed -- or, as Hillary Clinton likes to do, berating the Iraqis for not taking advantage of the wonderful opportunity we've given them by invading their country, killing their families, destroying their society, robbing them blind and empowering violent sectarians to rule over them. This is the full range of acceptable, "serious" discourse on Iraq: it's either a noble crusade marching steadily toward victory or a noble if mismanaged crusade on behalf of a bunch of ingrates who don't deserve our benevolence.
Only a nation that has willed itself and dulled itself into a state of extreme torpor could stomach the hideously depraved and infantile level of America's political debate today – a mindless howl that will reach an unbearable crescendo in the coming months as the sinister carnival of the presidential race kicks into high gear. And then the reality of the abomination in Iraq will recede even further out of sight, out of mind.
***
Mad cow nation being run by a band of Madmen.
Larry
The never ending Bush lies and disinformation campaign is relentless as they pursue their new order Forever wars. The MSM is in their pockets for sure. People do not seem to realize the tremendous danger they are in as they are purposely confused.
I am sick of seeing these wars glorified and sadly this is just the beginning and it is now beyond control.
Larry
I might have gotten it from you but Giulliani is the choice of whoever is behind this new order mess to take over from Bish. I fear another stolen election one way or the other and if that looks like it will not happen then I fear another Musharraf. Bush or whoever will not allow that gross power in Dem hands. I think Gore and others know it!
You may like this Jim:
This Version of the United States
Maybe I was always unreasonably idealistic. My uncles served in World War Two and the Korean War and as a boy -- being from a blue-collar union town -- almost everyone I knew who was old enough to serve in Vietnam, served. One of the reasons that I joined the Marine Corps straight out of high school was because I felt a sincere duty to serve my country or to, as John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." So, as my uncles and boyhood mentors before me had, when it was my turn to serve my country, I served my country.
If I had to do it all over again today, I wouldn't serve in THIS version of the United States military. When I served, flawed as the nation's foreign policy was even then, the United States stood for something and, as a people, we believed in certain non-negotiable principles. The United States used to stand for human rights and fought to protect those tortured by truly evil regimes. The United States used to stand for justice and fought to protect every person's "inalienable right" to a fair trial and the United States most especially defended the cornerstone of any just system, habeas corpus. Having seen the horror of Hitler's Nazi secret prisons, the United States had ALWAYS demanded an accounting for every prisoner's whereabouts and vehemently fought against the Soviet Union's use of black sites. Torture, secret prisons and disregarding habeas corpus were, we ALL knew, the domain of dictators and tyrants ... and we, the United States, stood foursquare against any regime that practiced such evil.
Today, sadly, the United States' government practices and endorses the policies of dictators and tyrants. And, let's be honest here, it isn't only Mister Bush. Both Democratic and Republican-led Congress's have supported and/or refused to end the administration's most vile programs. From spying on innocent U.S. citizens to the operation of secret prisons; from eradicating habeas corpus to imprisoning citizen and non-citizen without trial; from maintaining Guantanamo Bay to extraordinary rendition; from Abu Ghraib to the invasion of Iraq no one has been held to account and nobody has demonstrated the courage necessary to end the injustice and to defend the principles once held so dear by the people of the United States.
The United States of America used to stand for something. Imperfect and flawed as the United States has always been, its principles -- that for which it once so proudly stood -- were worth fighting for and, if necessary, dying. But THAT United States isn't THIS United States. THIS torture-practicing, secret prison-operating, habeas corpus-denying and Constitution-destroying United States isn't worth the spit required to wet my lips. I wouldn't fight for this government anymore than I would fight for Saudi Arabia's Royal Family, Musharraf's Pakistan, Putin's precious Russia, the Mullahs' Iran, Kim Jong-Il's North Korea or, let's get down to brass tacks, Stalin's Soviet Union or Hitler's Germany.
Maybe George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Trent Lott, John Boehnner, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Steny Hoyer, Mitch McConnell and Hillary Clinton have stopped believing in the principles that the United States once stood for and defended, but I haven't and I bet most Americans haven't either. Let Mister Bush et al., their rank-and-file supporters and their children fight for THIS new unprincipled United States because I most certainly will not!
Larry
I can agree with that,
politicians if they do have the right thing in mind have lost their way. They think what is right is what is right for them and the Constitution should be interpretted to fit their needs.
I served for the same reason. One of my lifer sons believes all Bush's lies and thinks I am mad. The other knows all the crap and agrees with us but keeps out of it in large part as he likes what he does and has a job to do, He figures the idiot will be gone soon. As do you many of us or not so sure of that.
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