FEINGOLD: "WE HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THE POLICIES OF THIS PRESIDENT"

[kpete]

Sen. Russ Feingold
01.29.2007
Breaking Another Iraq Taboo
.....................


Americans are not looking to Congress to pass symbolic measures, they are looking to us to stop the President's failed Iraq policy. That is why we must finally break this taboo that somehow Congress can't talk about using its power of the purse to end the war in Iraq. The Constitution makes Congress a co-equal branch of government. It's time we start acting like it. We have a moral responsibility, as well as a responsibility to the brave troops whose lives are on the line, to end the war. We can and must force the President to safely redeploy our troops so that we can get back to focusing on those who attacked us on 9/11.

Tomorrow, I will be chairing a full Judiciary Committee hearing entitled "Exercising Congress's Constitutional Power to End a War." This hearing will help remind my colleagues in the Senate and the American public that Congress is not powerless - even when it acts that way. We have the power to stop the policies of a President that continue to hurt our national security. Soon after tomorrow's hearing, I will introduce legislation to do just that.

I want everyone to be clear on exactly what my proposal will do. The first and most important thing to know is that my plan does not cut funding for the troops. Our troops will continue to receive the salaries, equipment, training and protection they need. What I am proposing is ending funds for the continued deployment of U.S. forces in Iraq six months after the enactment of the bill. This will require the President to safely redeploy troops from Iraq by that date. My bill does provide exceptions to allow for specific types of military missions within Iraq past the six-month deadline, such as targeted counter-terrorism efforts, the protection of American personnel and infrastructure, and a limited number of troops needed to help train Iraqi security forces. But these will be limited forces used for specific missions.

.........................

In August 2005, I became the first Senator to propose a timetable for the redeployment of our troops from Iraq. A timetable was considered taboo in Congress then, but it's clearly the position supported by the majority of this country. Now it is time to break another taboo - that Congress can't use its constitutional power to end funding for the war and bring our troops home safely. The catastrophe in Iraq is not the fault of our brave men and women in uniform, but rather the failed policies of this administration. Our troops and our national security should no longer be the ones to suffer for this Administration's terrible mistake.

more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-russ-feingold/breaking-another-iraq-tab_b_39912.html

[David Dunham]

1. But there aren't enough votes in Congress to cut off funding right now.

[ender]

4. Sure there are...

last time I checked, all spending bills originate in the House, which the Dems control.

End of story.

[dogday]

2. Feingold is the man.... K&R for a real Politician.... nt

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. I consider him a real Patriot!!!! eom

[justiceischeap]

3. Well here's his first mistake

The Constitution makes Congress a co-equal branch of government.

Believing that the majority of people really give a rats as about the Constitution... if they did they never would have allowed the Patriot Act to be passed... twice. Guantanamo Bay anyone? Vote fraud. Hello???

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Feingold is standing up and trying to fight the good fight but cutting the money is not going to help. Start talking Impeachment and then we can start getting excited.

[mmonk]

27. So is the Constitution a mistake or are

the views of the fooled a mistake? Remember, to follow fools is to be one. The constitution is not the mistake.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. He should do seminars on "This is What a Senator Who Cares Looks Like"

to the rest of the senate and house.

[EFerrari]

26. No kidding! I wish you all would run HIM. Him I could work like a dog for.

:)

[bobthedrummer]

6. We, the People will make the decisions come what may. Our military has been abused by criminals.

Russ Feingold, my Senator, is speaking for a lot of Wisconsin citizens that will take it to whatever level is necessary to assure this. That's why we've voted for him.

[porphyrian]

7. I'll kick that. - n/t

[leftwingnut]

8. Feingold should just let this go....

believe me I have been against this 'war' and pResident from the beginning. And although I 'agree' with what the Democrats in Congress are saying right now about stopping or slowing down our involvement in Iraq.....I honestly believe that the timing of this is awful!!!

If we just let Shrub do what he wants the next year or so....there is NOBODY to blame except for shrub. Right now it's his responsibility.....why the hell do we want to go into this mess and try and take some of the responsibility when it can be thrown right back in our faces a year and half from now???

I can hear it now, in the near future....."it may have worked...but you Democrats wouldn't let it happen and now things are worse then ever". Right.

Fuck him (shrub) and let him take all the responsibility for this mess!!! All I can see happening here is the Dems are going to shoot themselves in the foot.....I don't like it.

Let it go!!!!

Until we get the White House back.

[Luckyduck]

11. Let's just let more people die because the media might not be nice to Dems

good one
:rofl:

[cui bono]

13. Wow. So you want WWIII I guess.

That's what I thought when they stole the election in 2004. Good, let him deal with this mess rather than the elected Dem president who would just get blamed for it all. But he keeps making it worse and worse and I believe he will start a WWIII if he attacks Iran. So no, this is not the time to give him more rope. He's already had enough to hang himself and if Congress would stop being polite and proper and get down to business like Feingold wants w can stop the idiot and turn this thing around. Impeachment is coming, the investigations need to happen first. This is an immediate problem that needs to be stopped cold now.

[ima_sinnic]

16. doing the right thing is more important than political expediency

--the longer the invasion/occupation drags on, the more people--Iraqi as well as American--will be killed, the more the Iraqi infrastructure will be destroyed, the more the world will hate us, the more terrorists will be bred, the more children will be orphaned.
Who the F&&K CARES what a bunch of tin-pot, cowardly keyboard commandoes think? Truth is that they are just flat-out WRONG about how they "would win the war if the Democrats would get with it" or whatever their latest whiny spin is. And only a fool would be motivated to keep doing the hopeless, lame thing on the basis of a delusional mind-set such as that.
Gee--we don't want to be blamed for messing up a war that was doomed from the start, based on lies and greed and led by incompetents, so let it continue on its pathetic, abominable way indefinitely. Better that than being blamed for "losing"! :sarcasm:
The time to call for defunding was a couple or three years ago.
Russ Feingold is one of my heroes: he opposed this atrocity from the get-go.

[leftwingnut]

17. Soldiers dying is the only thing that would change my mind on this....

Look...I don't want more people (Iraqi's and Americans) dying in this blood for oil colonization!!! But that's it!

I never said let this war go on "indefinitely". I just want Bush to get blamed....for all of it! for any of it!

Now...the Dems want to try and take some responsibility.....bad timing!!!

We'll have another Republican pResident in 2008 if ANY 'defunding' takes place by this congress. IMO.

And hey guys...I'm on your side! I'm just trying to present a different perspective, that's all.

[Laurab]

19. Soldiers WILL be dying

All they're doing over there right now is trying to stay alive, and many are losing that battle. So, we're going to send more to Iraq to try and stay alive, and maybe kill some Iraqi's while they're doing it. There's no doubt soldiers will be dying, so IMO anything we can do, no matter what it looks like politically, we should do.

It shouldn't be a political game when lives are in the balance. It is, but it shouldn't be. I don't believe Russ will get the votes, even with a Dem Congress, but I am so glad he's trying. I wish he could be cloned.

[Stevepol]

20. Look, the Dems will ALWAYS be blamed no matter what happens.

They're still blaming Clinton and they won't stop blaming him.

This is what people do when they arrested for crimes. They blame others and they usually don't stop blaming others no matter how long they're imprisoned for crimes.

The same goes for the Repubs. Just letting them have more rope will make not a shred of difference in their mentality. If some uncomfortable fact threatens their beliefs, they will blame the Dems or somebody else for it.

What about the Imhofe Repubs on the environment? Do you think the facts will have any effect whatever on their belief that the whole environmental movement is a left-wing conspiracy, a fantasy dreamed up by people wanting attention or tax dollars? The whole North American continent could be underwater and they'd still be saying the melting of the ice caps is just part of a natural cycle and everything will be fine. The whole problem is just the liberals and the left-wing press or the secular humanists, etc. etc. etc. etc.

[EFerrari]

28. That's right. We should just OWN it. Yes, this is the party of social responsibility.

Yes, this is the party that serves people, not the other way around.

There will always be the 33%ers who are delusional and need to be pushed around by authoritarians. Most people don't and they are our natural allies.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

18. Leftwingnut....You're sounding like a DLC democrat

This is what the DLC is wants its members to say about Bush's surge...

>>>snip

....a congressional effort to cut funding would be seen in the country as an attempt to seize control of Iraq policy. If there is to be a calamitous, Vietnam-style U.S. defeat in Iraq, Karl Rove would probably like nothing better than to goad Democrats into assuming co-responsibility for it. There's no reason to fall into this trap now. So Democrats should speak their minds, hope for the best in Iraq, and be prepared to hold the president accountable if his latest plan fails.

Will Marshall is president of the Progressive Policy Institute.

<<<end

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=124&subid=307&conte...

How pathetic. The corporate democrats think it's all about politics...

They don’t want to cut the funding--even though it‘s the only way to bring our troops home...let Bush get his way...“hope for the best” and blame the White House for everything. ...Boy, what a plan.

Feingold is a patriot...He deserves the White House.

[bdamomma]

24. what sit back when they are planning to invade and attack Iran

these Senators know what is going on? they need to stop him now.

[LSK]

29. ok, what part of the polls are you not seeing??? n/t

[redqueen]

9. Would everyone please contact your Senator (Dem or Rep)

and back Senator Feingold up on this? And forward this to your friends and family too... and kindly ask them to do the same.

Thanks. :)

[peace13]

10. Go Russ Go!

You are a man of honor and I applaud you! Peace, kim

[stellanoir]

12. Here are two posts I tried to put up on Huff post today

The first was to Deepak who was responding to an article dismissive of magical thinking. The second was to the most honerable Senator Feingold.

How's this for magical thinking. , ,?

Being a spiritualist who is also politically obsessed, I really agree with my dinky state's founder about creating a lively experiment. . .

Experimentations "are any actions or processes undertaken to discover somthing not yet known."

It is not yet provable though many in the spiritual community feel as though the current energies available to humanity are truly unprecedented in all our global recorded histories. It certainly feels as such.

I was once told a very long time ago that there would be a second flood. It would be a flood of ideas.

Pssssssst. . .I'd reckon we're about 5/6th of the way through it.

Here's a possible navigational tool that anyone can use to clear the plethora of foggy distortions:

Consider trying this out for a mantra. . .

"I co create with spirit that all those leaders who don't hold the greater good for ALL in their hearts as their absolute top priority, be exposed and stripped of all their power-pronto."

Rinse and repeat.

tra la la

Or as my son mockingly jokes. . ."So-o-o. . .this amazing energy previously unavailable to humanity, walks into a bar. . .the bartender says. . ."WOH". . .everybody gets enlightened."

Consider thinking outside your restrictive exclusively linear boxes people. This could start to be GREAT fun for a change. I promise because the highest authority of a not so little bird told me.

*************************************************************************************
Congressman,

Thank you for all your intrepid and honorable efforts.

Since the definition of a Constitutional crisis is a situation wherein there is a breakdown or gross imbalance between the three branches of government, and since the executive branch's job is to defend the Constitution and we, the people from all enemies, both foreign and domestic, and they've blatantly done anything but endanger us by repeating their falsehoods, and distortions. . .

The bottom line is. . .

The * "misadministration" created a Constitutional crisis when they failed to adhere to the legislative branch's stipulation in the IWR (10/02) that they MUST acquire UN approval before using force in Iraq. Yoo Hoo. . .they did not.

By ignoring the will of the legislature and rushing to war based on bogus intelligence (aka sheer stupidity,) they've blatantly violated the balance of power set forth by our beloved founders in the Constitution.

These bozo's have trashed our economy, our global reputation, killed and tortured innumerable innocents, and thereby put we, the people at enormous "Risk." Foreign policy is simply far more complex than a board game. Duh.

Having no respect, enlightenment, conscience, consciousness, humanity, or appreciation for other cultural orientations whatsoever and behaving like total greedy bullies, * (Pinky) and "hogwash" Cheney (the Brain) should be encouraged to resign from their ill gotten and unearned positions of power, post haste.

Their heinous game of global domination is not only not working, it is historically doomed to failure, totally tiresome, ideologically and spiritually utterly vacuous, and so-o-o nauseatingly antiquated.

Think multiple resignations can't happen? Think again.

Consider trying this out for a mantra. . .

"I co create with spirit that all those leaders who don't hold the greater good for ALL as their absolute top priority, be exposed and stripped of all their power-pronto."

Rinse and repeat.

We, the people, are sick tired of living in a country that has morphed into being of the corporations, for the corporations, and by the corporations, benifiting ONLY the presumed "who's who of the chosen few,"

Let's fix it with our hearts AND minds or at least try.

The overwhelming majority of the people think the surge of forces in Iraq is nothing more than a "vendetta on failure" and that "victory" is an illusive impossibility.

By ignoring both the legislative branch and the people for 6 long years, let's incessantly demand their resgnations NOW.

Happy "Moonday"

Have a nice day.

I just sent them to Senator Feingold's office directly because my 'puter and the Huff post's server don't appear to get along very well. Nevermind. LOL

[ima_sinnic]

14. I am now contributing to Feingold's Progressive Patriots Fund

--last year I made a small contribution, which made me a member, and recently received a request to renew my membership. I had put it aside in order to check to see what other orgs I might rather contribute to, but he is walking the walk so I will renew. I am going to enclose a note saying I am renewing BECAUSE of actions such as this. Defunding the war is critical, right up there with impeachment/indictment/imprisonment, and I have been screaming to Congresspeople to "just say no" to the little a-hole's war budgets for the past several years.
http://www.progressivepatriotsfund.com/Home.html

an article on the significance of Feingold's hearing:
JUles Witcover: Finally threatening power of the purse

[sandnsea]

15. Nicaragua is the correct comparison

That was defunded, which Reagan ignored, and led to Iran/Contra. Yes Congress does have the power to change the policy and should consider it carefully.

[redqueen]

22. Wonder how that's going... n/t

[Mrspeeker]

23. well..

the problem is that they are the legislative branch which has no real way to enforce anything, the executive branch is the one with the power to enforce laws though either the Doj or the military. Our government is out of control, there are no checks and balances. The executive branch has far to much power its very scary.

But I still have to say go for it FEINGOLD!!!and cheer him on!!!!!

[bdamomma]

25. can the military not follow his orders??? we need a mutiny!!

[faithnotgreed]

30. kick for one of the few taking action

[SalviaBlue]

31. Done