Dems abandon war authority provision

[sampsonblk]

Dems abandon war authority provision
By DAVID ESPO and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writers
9 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Top House Democrats retreated Monday from an attempt to limit President Bush's authority for taking military action against Iran as the leadership concentrated on a looming confrontation with the White House over the Iraq war.

Officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) and other members of the leadership had decided to strip from a major military spending bill a requirement for Bush to gain approval from Congress before moving against Iran....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070312/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq

Translation: Dems abandon effort to make Bush obey the Constitution. "We didn't have enough votes."
Jeez. We can't even stop the next war, let alone this one. Am I the only one that's frustrated?

[cyberpj]

1. The Dems that inspired so much hope last November continue to look like pussies.

Sorry. It's just how I feel.

[peacetheonlyway]

2. The Dems are abandoning everything

and we are pissed. we elected them but right now I wish we could
have a new election and flush everyone dems and repukes down the toilet.

they are armtwisting state efforts to call for impeachment investigation (in NM, WA and vermont)
and they THINK they have some master plan

when it is clear they are have nothing.

I'm so so so so so very sick of the dems it makes me want to cry.

[LSparkle]

3. I WANTED to feel for David Obey responding to the activist

but now I'm with her -- WHAT IS WITH THESE LAME DEMS? Are they still in their 12-year coma? Have they FORGOTTEN how to exercise power? OK, so it may not be ABSOLUTE, but they should at least use what they do have!

:argh:

[peacetheonlyway]

10. funny Obey made me seriously question if his was correct

strategy until one simple thing occurred to me.


that woman's son died and Obey didn't do a damn thing and not a single damn thing
about this bill he so ardently proposes will do anything to bring back her dead son.

the democrats have the blood of iraqi citizens and american soldiers on their hands.

no version of history will who democrats as anything other than accomplices of bush's genocide in iraq.

[scarletwoman]

4. Alternate translation: AIPAC will fuck with you if you try to stop an attack on Iran.

This is awful news. I was so glad that the Dems appeared to be standing up against another pre-emptive war. How silly of me to entertain even a moment's fantasy that they would hold to it.

sw

[EVDebs]

5. No one is talking about Ptech which STILL has contracts with US govt

""Ptech is used primarily to develop enterprise blueprints at the highest level of US government and corporate infrastructure. These blueprints hold every important functional, operational, and technical detail of the enterprise. A secondary use of this powerful tool is to build other smart tools in a short period of time. Ptech’s clients in 2001 included the Department of Justice, the Department of Energy, Customs, Air Force, the White House, the FAA, IBM, Sysco, Aetna, and Motorola, to name just a few.""

from Rachel Ehrenfeld's Dollars of Terror article

Ptech (now GoAgile)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptech

WHY won't Dems get this into the media right now ? Are they enabling this wholesale sellout of the US military and the government ???? Screw 'em if they are !

[Jackpine Radical]

6. Dem Congressman gets training in parliamentary procedure...

[sampsonblk]

20. That pretty much sums it up-nt

nt

[Dr Fate]

7. I thought Congress was "allowed" to approve of or disapprove of a war.

Apparently DEMS are going to vote to not be allowed to exercise their own powers of congress:

"I for one agree that we should have no say in this matter- HARUMMPHH!"

I guess this is one of those "lets give them rope to hang-themsleves with" moments- or is it a "keep your powder dry" moment? Hard to tell...

...Could some DLC operative please provide me with another one of those clever, internal talking points to justify this! ;)

Either way, great move, chumps.

[dogman]

8. Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Just as Wes Clark says. While the Dem "candidates" suck up to AIPAC.

[bigtree]

9. it will come up again, just not on this bill

Enough with the bashing. No one abandoned anything.

"This supplemental should be about supporting the troops and providing what they need," said Rep. Dan Boren

[dogman]

11. What will they use for leverage?

AIPAC has more voice than the people. Follow the money, listen to our "candidates".

[bigtree]

12. this initiative should have enough support to stand on its own

or as an amendment to another bill. Maybe it won't originate in the House. Maybe Webb's bill in the Senate will lead and move to the House for consideration and approval.

[dogman]

13. Nothing stands on its own in Washington.

It's all horse trading. The Dems keep ending up with the nags while bushco walks away with the breeding stock. Why do they have to pass the supplemental? Why keep enabling AIPAC and bushco? This isn't why most of us worked to run the GOPers out. Make them take a stand on Iran now. Especially make the Dems take a stand so we know whose side they are on.

[bigtree]

15. no one is enabling anything. AIPAC supporters have as much influence as they have votes

this is a representative democracy in action. your ideas and concerns have to compete against other interests in our political institutions.

The concern here was that the Iraq bill wouldn't survive woth the weight of the Iran matter. It will be debated separate from the Iraq bill - and should be if it threatens the legislation which intends to end the occupation..

[Clarkie1]

14. Un****ing believable.

I guess we have to start petitioning the Congress now.

www.stopiranwar.com

[bigtree]

18. It's good to petition, but it makes little sense to weigh the Iraq bill down

if opposition to the Iran provision threatens passage. They can simply bring it up again, or wait for Webb's Senate version to pass and act on that.

At any rate, they obviously counted the votes for passage of the Iraq bill and decided it threatened to get bogged down by the Iran matter. It WILL come up later.

The outrage should be at the author of this misleading article.

[mtnsnake]

16. Just like I said the other day in my thread that got locked. Dems are chickenshits

[bigtree]

19. so, this article says they abandoned it and you believe them

It was merely taken out of the Iraq bill. This criticism is another example of conveniently ignoring the need to actually get enough votes to pass legislation.

The Iran initiative WILL emerge on its own or as an amendment to some other bill.

[Adelante]

17. Jesus Christ I give up nt