Politics – Taking over the Congress on a wave of popular revulsion at the twin catastrophes in Iraq and Afghanistan, Democrats could have issued immediate calls for an end to those wars, a return of the troops, and investigations into the criminal causes of those costly fiascos. They could have initiated efforts to halt further funding for war as well...
The Democrats MUST stop the war, impeach the Chimp in Charge as well as Shotgun Dickie if the expect to gain my respect. They have been whining that they don't want to appear venegeful. It may lose them votes in 2008. Well, guess what, Dems: Your job is to uphold the Constitution. First and foremost. And if you don't get that idiot out of the White House, there is no telling what other damage to the Constitution will incur, what additional losing wars he will get us into and how much more respect we will lose globally. We ain't got that much left.
The Shrub is a sick puppy in need of intensive de-programming. His biggest talent is the bald-faced lie. He pays no attention to what anyone else has to say. He denies the truth when it is right in front of his face.
To those who claim it is unpatriotic not to support your president, I say it is unpatriotic to support an imposter in the White House.
Impeachment NOW!! Vigilence Forever!!
What in the heck are you blathering about? Really. Who's been in charge the past 12 years or so?
Get a clue, grow up, and let's see if we can make our country work by working together.
Am I mistaken or hasn't the GOP had a majority in both houses the past six years? As I recall the Dems did have control of the house (?) for a few years under Clinton but the GOP was the majority in the Senate.
If this is the case why are you making comments like "Try telling your democrat snorators and congruffmen to get off their cell phones every once in a while and concentrate on passing good laws instead."? I really am missing something in your logic. You seem to be blaming the "liberals" of doing nothing but sleeping and taking bribes rather than "passing good laws". Is this right?
"Like they say bs, if the shoe fits wear it!" I'm not sure I follow.
Again, my question to you was, you seem to be blaming the "liberals" of doing nothing but sleeping and taking bribes rather than "passing good laws". If this is your assertation please explain it to me. You seem to be saying that the "liberals" (I put this in quotes because I'm not sure if you equate Dem. with liberal or if your net is cast wider) are responsible for doing nothing. If this is your assertation, forgive me but haven't they been a minority in Congress for some time? If they've been the minority how can they be responsible for doing nothing to pass "good laws"?
Really, what is your point? I am trying to understand what you are arguing.
As for what I've done to grow up and make this a country work by working together? I do things like engage in real debate without resorting to calling names and blaming everything on someone else. I've become involved in local politics, campaigning for candidates that I believe will make a difference. I volunteered and served six years in the armed forces of this nation.
Is this enough or do you need more?
You asked what I had done to work with others to make things work and I responded with a few of the things that I have done. So how is that attacking you? You asked the question, I answered.
As for a personal attack on you, I'm sorry if you feel that way. I responded to a post you made. Perhaps I was a bit caustic, I'll grant you that. But since my first post you've been rather rude and vicious toward me haven't you?
I really was trying to engage you in a realist and thoughtful debate on the issues of the article. Rather than talking about points you've made, you claim that I need anger management.
I asked you specific questions about specific comments you made. I ask for clarification on points that you seemed to be making. I asked if what I understood from your posts was correct. I call this debate, you call it hate. Somehow, again, I'm missing your point(s).
I didn't realize you wanted family credentials for what I'd done, but if you want to compare family histories:
I've got an aunt in the Mayflower Society,
I've got a ancestor who wintered with George Washington at Valley Forge,
I've got several ancestors with their names on the PA memorial at Gettysberg,
I've got a grandfather and two uncles that served during WWII,
I've got two uncles that served in Vietnam,
I've got two cousins who are/were in Iraq,
I've had a grandfather who was a minister,
and
I've got more family members than I can count who are/were educators (Really, I lose track somewhere around 17)
Now, this list isn't all inclusive, just what comes to mind right off. I'm not trying to deminish the works/accomplishments of your family and friend either. You just didn't seem to believe that my personal doings were enough I guess.
I hope now that we've gotten our family histories out of the way that we can get back to the questions above.
A letter writing campaign can do wonders. E-mails do a bit, but politicians know that for every one person angry enough to put pen to paper and send a snail mail, there are at least 10,000 who feel the same way but don't bother to write. Just a few thousand letters represents a huge pool of public sentiment. Kind of empowers those of us who are literate enough to write our representatives.
Snail mail does seem like a good idea. All snail mail must now be sent to a center to be irradiated, because of the anthrax attack, it will get there but not in a timely fashion. I remembered hearing Bill Frist talking about this at a news conference. It's almost as if they use this proceedure to isolate themselves from having to hear from the public. Imagine that.
I've tried the snail mail approach many times. My state is pure red so contrary opinion is ignored because there is no consequence for doing so. If I receive a reply at all from my elected Reps/Senators, it's always just a form letter restating their position that I was disagreeing with. It's like talking to a brick wall.
So snail mail might be more effective than email, but probably only in areas where there's enough diversity to make the elected official pay attention.
I'm not. I am rather under the opinion that if we ever see that this government is trying to hijack our freedom, 50,000,000 armed Americans will flood the streets and the Army and National Guard will JOIN them. Rather than just writing it off, I am believing I can make a difference. How much good can one man do when he decides not to believe that?
We are certainly better off having ousted the Republicans from power, although that doesn't say the mandates of the people's choices will reign supreme during this next Democrat - controlled Congress.
Most of us know that many Democrats have their pockets open to the lobbyists too -- that the will of the American people will often take a back seat in the affairs of 'OUR' government.
Nonetheless, WE must not underestimate the will of the people to raise our voices and to stand up against the war, against the abuses of our fundamental freedoms, and against those that obstruct the democratic process.
As never before in American history since the Revolutionary War, we are more becoming a nation united under one basic tentant: the laws of our democracy need to be restored.
Most of the vast majority of Americans share that same sentiment. PEACE!
If you can't go to the demonstration discussed in the article (I wish I could), you can write the Congressmen and Senators. For sure you should write YOUR representatives, but you can write ANY of them.
This site makes it very easy to send emails or special delivery letters to members of Congress. It has a 'form' that can be used, ON the site, to email anyone in D.D. --
https://ssl.capwiz.com/congressorg/home/
When the 110th congress starts up, I plan on writing MY Senators and Congressman, and I also plan to write Pelosi, Reid, Boxer, Conyers, Slaughter, and several others - about several issues as summed up in this article. Hopefully some of you can do the same.
As the old cliche goes, about chicken soup for a cold, -- "It may not help, but it can't hurt!"
Don't forget writing the MSM either. If a dozen people send letters to the editor at a main stream media outlet, chances are VERY good that at least one letter will get published. SO even if they don't choose to publish yours, know that it affected their understanding of public sentiment.
The MSM is in league with who they are owned by. Big business. That's why they have chosen so often to just parrot the ludicrous pronouncements of this President.
If Ann Coulter pukes her prevarications in your mouth, you spew them out as truth. Hows that for tit-for-tat insults if insults is the only level you can reach in a debate?
Lib,
I really wonder about who you'd be rooting against if Kerry had been President and the same thing happened to our country, as they both have the same views and come from the same faction. Would you be crying your eyes out over all the money Kerry and his cronies are making profiteering from the war? Would you be down right insulted that your liberties and freedoms have been now disillusioned in our constitution? Wouldn't you want or demand an explanation of why your president lied to you, and why we continue to get raped at the pumps when big business is making billions? Wouldn't you be just a bit tired of paying money to your government that they put in their pockets, and the pockets of Saudi's elite?
And if you would be asking these things of a Democratic president, I think you must ask yourself why you wouldn't ask such things from a Republican president. This scenario is why people get elected who shouldn't be in office. They vote simply because of affiliation.
Much said in the article about democrats not stopping pmt. for this 'war'. Dang, they haven't even taken power yet! Nothing said about the CON Congress passing emergency funds for this 'war' before their session ended. You can't stop what's already done. Nothing said about Congress not having the 'power' to stop this war. All they can do is pressure bush.
And where did this idea come from that democrats would just pack up the troops and leave Iraq? It came from CONS, with their 'cut n run' BS rhetoric. This isn't a here today and gone tomorrow proposition. Democrats know that. Any thinking person knows that. Bush had one narrow view of fighting this 'war.' It isn't working. He refused to change his simple minded approach. NOW we see dialogue. NOW we see more than a 'few' having access to that dialogue. NOW the American people will be included in that dialogue. NOW we'll see a more total picture of what we face, and from there can decide the best approach to finish this.
Actually, no. If you cut the funding off, the War Department will still try to fight the war, and those who cut the funding off will be widely painted (and possibly rightly so) as abandoning the troops.
But if Congress has the sole Constitutional power to declare war (even if they don't use it), then it can revoke that declaration. Which forces the troops to come home immediately, without reducing the ability to get necessities like armor and food for them.
The Democrats should not be blamed for not being able to immediately fix what Bush has spent years royally f**king up. You can't just snap your fingers and make something like this alright. I'm glad they haven't halted funding or pulled all of our troops out. I don't think anyone wants extremists in Congress, whether from the left or from the right.
Hmmm, and how long have the repubs had a majority in the house and Senate?? It's a miracle we got as much done as we did, like balancing the budget, raising minimum wage and tax cut's for the middle guys. Those were real results for real Americans. Your hair brained neocon managed to TOTALLY SCREW UP 8 years of recovery and advancements in this country, while setting us back ten years to recover from this crap. You are going to be wishing one day all we had on Bush was a BJ...
... so that's your excuse? your teacher?
well, it's better than nothing, I suppose...
Where does all this vitriol and hatred come from? What is it in your past that makes you so bitter and hateful? I shudder to think of the many ways that you must have been personally wronged to have such a low regard for your fellow humans.
I hope in this season of love and charity, of giving and caring you come to find a small amount of personal peace.
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I think it's important to remember that although the Democrats have made appeasing statements vis-a-vis the war, they have not yet actually taken over in the Congress and Senate so it remains to be seen what their true actions on Iraq will be.
yes, absolutely - we must wait and see. But, also, not be too forgiving to the party that voted for war, continues to vote for its funding, voted for the patriot act, voted for the military commissions act, and the like.
It's many of the same faces there - let's hope the new ones change course.
agreed, in spades. I'm glad the GOP lost their asses, but I'm not celebrating yet, and the words I am hearing aren't making me order the fireworks.
Dubya also promised he'd try to work with the other side after Pelosi said she would not pursue impeachment. If Dubya goes ahead with his surge I'd sure like to believe that Pelosi will condemn it and say that such a surge breaks any concessions from the Dems. Also, why just talk about Dubya's failures in war? Include Gitmo/Abu Ghraib, torture defined as only that which kills, Katrina responses, the Port deal, condoning outsourcing without even trying to help keep American jobs, the loss of family income to workers for the past 2 years (3 years for female led families), lack of sufficient funding to first responders, environmental inspections and education, lots of Fs and Ds on the 911 Commision recomendations, the increase in American poverty, lies and violations of the Constitution, quadrupling the debt, backing out of international conventions and protocals (Kyoto, criminal courts, Geneva, Nuclear Non-Prolif)....
They didn't lose their "asses", they gained them - jackasses, the democratic party mascot.
Oh, I judge too soon. And besides, a jackass by definition only describes a "male" donkey, and certainly couldn't be a descriptor for our new Speaker of the House.
So why all the flap about "putting and end" to the war, the earmarks, and the other areas of gross mismanagement? Campaign rhetoric. We're sold a bill of goods on a regular basis, regardless of the party. Washington cadre is what it's ALL about. Getting the boot after four years of mismanagement of life and taxes is no big deal, as there'll ALWAYS be the don't-leav... members to teach them the ropes. Too bad they couldn't hang themselves with those ropes.
Maybe the 2007 March on Washington will become a reality!?!?
Peace.
A lot of pro-war DINOs got elected in the South. The Dean strategy of running folks who could get elected there.
This is splitting the party.
Probably just in time for the 2008 elections.
Nice to see so many Dems here who feel sold out. Great preparation for '08.
Here is a bit I wrote early this month on how the Democrats would split on the war:
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2006/12/soberi
and you said (or linked to, and endorsed) some pretty lame ******: Iraq is an opportunity? for what?
Keep beating the jihadis until they give up.
Yeah. That's what I thought. You're into neocon denial. Try reality; works much better.
it was a referendum on the war, the Gop and Bush. you lost on all counts.
Sure.
Tell me that again when the new Congress is sworn in and takes a vote on Iraq.
Stay tuned.
I am in agreement with your statement on all counts.
too bad we didn't do it nine months before your birth... I would guess your mom did it at eight months; I hear the last month is when the gray matter forms.