The Democrats fund the war because they want to keep it Bush and the Republican’s war. The minute they cut off the fund’s, they will get blamed for losing a war that is already lost. The moral thing would be to cut off the funding, The political thing is to fund it in the name of supporting the troops and keep it Bushes war. We have no leadership or balls in this country. The Country is run by idiots [BUSH] and patsy Democrats.We are financially destroying our nation leaving war debt to future generations while the Politicans war playing politics with American lives and treasure

“House Democratic leaders moved swiftly Tuesday to thwart a tax proposal that would pay for the Iraq war, seeking to avoid the label of “tax and spend liberals” as they head into a spending fight with President Bush.”

Don’t the Dems want to end the war? How long would this war have lasted if we, instead of our grandchildren, were paying for it? A $1 per gallon on gasoline plus a progressive 5-10% surtax on incomes over $50,000.
could have made a huge difference. At least many of us would have done some sacrificing instead of just the troops and their families.

homer   http://www.altara.blogspot.com

The Democrats are not opposed to the war.  They are opposed to the manner in which the war has been prosecuted.  The argument within elite circles is not over right and wrong, or even over cost and benefit.  It is over competence and technique in achieving an objective which is shared by party leaders and their business/financial masters——military and political control of middle eastern oil.  The challenge to Emanuel and other Democratic leaders is to co-opt the public’s anti-war sentiment while remaining true to that shared objective—-thus, they sponsor legislation which is certain to fail or draw a veto (preserving the appearance of anti-war fervor) while avoiding the only legislative step certain to end the war (refusal to appropriate funds).  The expectation (or hope)is that circumstances on the ground will stabilize and/or the public will ultimately tire and lose interest, so that the shared objective can be pursued without unnecessary distraction.

The war is a test of the elites’ efforts to permanently marginalize the public.  The only question is whether the public will comply.

I read through all the comments and it wasn’t until I got to the last one that the writing on the wall made any sense:

“Impeach Bush and try him for WAR crimes.

BRING OUR MEN AND WOMEN HOME!!!!!!!  NOW, God Damn it!!!!!  NOW!!!!!”

Thankyou Don Stivers. I don’t understand how it could be more plainly stated.

Oh sure,
american companies are doing well. Yes building wealth for them, but not for
anyone else because they have slave labor factories in china, india and other anti-labour countries. So please, don’t pretend that WE are doing well. Most of the jobs created in THIS country are slavbe labour and service type work. And please we all know what happens when “average” folk invest in stock. THEY GET SCREWED…ENRON! WORLDCOM….and several others I recall. That woman is a mouth piece for the industry. Has any middle class person with a desire to create a business tried to buy materials? The price has tripled. making it imposssible for these people to build a business and to be independence from big corporation. We are slowly being a slave labour market.

So many democrats who are voting to continue funding, whether because they are afraid of “not supporting the troops, or not, I believe is also the corporate OIL “strategic interests” of Democrats as well, in staying because they fear the U.S. not being able to compete in the oil market and the purchase of oil, Dollar versus Euro and OPEC, motivating Democrats, such as Hillary “corporate” Clinton and the Blue Dogs, to stay in Iraq, as they stated during the last debate, UNTIL AT LEAST 2013, IF NOT LONGER—to protect the U.S. embassy which was being built from day one of the invasion in 2003 as a permanent military facility (to control the OIL for U.S. and UK oil companies, along with several other military bases throughout the regions of Iraq.  They plan of Democrats is to withdraw? YEAH RIGHT!! The other issue is the country is so completely destroyed it will take 20 years to put it back together for any of the millions of refugees to be able to return.  How’s that for bringing democracy to the Iraqi people?????

They are paying for it because they are a castrated party. Despite their majority they have no power in Washington. Here is a second question, why are you a Laundromat? The washing machines launder clothes and you launder peoples’ minds. One more piece of evidence that this is a covert dictatorship.

I was very disappointed, both with Rahm Emanuel’s response to why the Democrats won’t defund the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the terrible, superficial account of “global economics” by reporter, Maria Bartiromo. First off, Rahm’s reasoning for continuing the funding of the war by giving the U.S. army the equipment it needs to fight in Iraq was atrocious. Rahm is representative of the democratic party leadership which refuses to defund the U.S. occupation for fear of being looked at as “unpatriotic” and being branded traders by the republican party. It’s galling to see a democratic party bend over so overtly to republican politics, in addition to being manipulated and influenced by the Israeli lobby which would love it if the U.S. stayed in Iraq indefinitely. This is so achingly painful to watch. We must be living in the nadir of this country’s so-called democracy. The will of the people is squelched by the leadership of one man and the rest of congress follows suit. As for Maria, she came across terribly. She doesn’t even bother to elaborate on China’s role in the United States economy and why it’s growth is dependent on its consumption of U.S. dollars. As soon as China grows big enough, it might not need U.S. dollars and watch the American economy take a nosedive from which it never recovers.

I am so proud of Rahm Emmanuel fially he has become a politician echoing the same shit they all do.Support the troops by keeping them where they are being shot and blown up.I am just guessing but if they were brought home because they cut off the funding they probably would not need those new armored vehicles in their hometowns.Bush is callously trying to push this mess onto the next President and the democrats are trying to callously trying to extend this war into the 2008 elections so they can gain power.The Democrats keep saying this is Pres Bush’s war.As long as our kids are over there fighting and dying it is our war and it is incumbent on all of us to stop our war as soon as possible.

I’m Don Stivers!

There is no such thing as victory to gained from our unilateral, ILLEGAL, unprovoked invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation which was never a clear and present danger to our citizens and interests. The Bush-Cheney Junta is populated with a rabid pack of lying fiends who need to be impeached and brought to justice before their term ends in 2008. And, our troops need to taken out of Iraq IMMEDIATELY.

Now, we voted in these gutless Democratic cowards, hoping they realized our demand for change enough to at least make plans for implementing effective diplomatic measures where military efforts have miserably failed in accomplishing this undefined mission for battling terrorism. All we got was more useless Pelosi-Reid pandering to these lunatics by the likes of Emmanuel, who does not want to make any Republican remotely uncomfortable. We need to unload all these mofos, to populate the Congress and the Senate with representives who REPRESENT US!

That was pretty disingenious when she said “we have an unemployment rate of about 4.5%, 4.5% of the country unemployed, which is virtually full employment” ....I mean WOW. For one thing, talk about pay, and averages, for another…by now we ALL know that unemployment figures are fudged right? That for one it doesn’t include people that had been unemployed til their benefits ran out. Now they are just jobless.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, like Speaker Nancy “impeachment if off the table” Pelosi, is the face of the DLC and a huge part of the problem.

Emanuel is such a liar that it’s stunning.

Just the other debate (was it Democratic debate no. 8 or 9?), Hillary said she hoped to have the troops out of Iraq by the end of her first term.

Aw, that would be 2012. 2012 is not the new date for troop withdrawal.

Al Gore, if you’re reading this, please, please save us from these fools and morons and enter the 2008 race for president!

Okay people, I think we just have to face facts here… The once glorious United States of America, which we all hold dear in our hearts, has quite sadly - jumped the shark like Fonzie.  Aaaaay!

I think it’s time for us to scrap this series and start from scratch and throw out the old tired plot devices that were built in from the beginning.  Maybe we can get something a little more Heinlinesq and less Kafkaesq this time around.