Senate Republicans Block Pro-Troop Legislation

Associated Press:

The Senate blocked legislation Wednesday that would have regulated the amount of time troops spent in combat, a blow for Democrats struggling to challenge President Bush's Iraq policies.

The 56-44 vote was four votes short of reaching the 60 needed to cut off debate. It was the second time in as many months that the bill, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., was sidetracked. In July, a similar measure fell four votes short of advancing.

Read the whole story: Associated Press

Comments

[win2kpro]

All the troops, their families and friends should be provided a list of all the Senators who voted against giving the troops more time at home.

To get results, the records of these kinds of votes need to be publicized as much as possible. I just wrote a letter to the editor of our local newspaper condeming my two asshole senators, both of whom voted against this bill.

One is up for re-election next year, and I intend to be at every public meeting in my area and continuously remind everyone how he voted. I really want to shove his vote down his throat at every opportunity.

He's just a chickenshit chickenhawk that never served a day in the military and wants to sit in his plush chair in his air conditioned office in Washington, never thinking about our guys suffering for months on end in 120-degree heat while being under fire.

Screw all these chickenhawks!

[scooperss]

I really believe that the country would be a lot better off if we got rid of all the incumbents and just started over.
Maybe we would get some people who hadn't already been bought. People who would listen and care about America and Americans.

[repubesnivel]

Oh my ass...This shows how the republics support the troops.

They are flag pin wearers, flag wavers, gun swallowers and chickenshit war mongers.

THE TROOPS WILL KNOW WHO THE HELL SUPPORTS THEM, and it isn't the republic party. Sons of bitches every last one of them, and I hope they rot in hell.

[wndrin]

The Republicans have officially become the party of Dr. No.

No to supporting the troops.
No to doing what is in the best interests of our nation.
No to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
No to common sense and fair play.

And just like the Evil Dr. No in Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, the Republicans will ultimately (hopefully) be vanquished by what is good and right. Hopefully in 2008.

[Gary47]

Way to support the troops, you PHONY repubs.

I guess george gets to continue killing people until time runs out on his disgraceful administration.

[Podewumun]

IMPEACHIMP­EACHIMPEAC­HIMPEACHIM­PEACHIMPEA­CHIMPEACHI­MPEACHIMPE­ACHIMPEACH­IMPEACHIMP­EACHIMPEAC­HIMPEACH..­..........­..........­.....

[AnotherunhappyDemocrat]

All right righties, please explain to me why the GOP hates the troops. Simple as that. These are all Republican Senators placing loyalty to your leader over the lives of our troops. So again, why do you people hate our troops?

[LorettaSingbiel]

"We have a new strategy. We have success on the ground," said McCain. Pulling out troops would spark "chaos and genocide in the region, and we will be back," he said.

"We will be back, if we pull out troops", said McCain.

We won't have to go BACK. They'll follow us HOME, and fight us HERE...REM­EMBER McCain?

McCain: "I don't recall!"

(Way to "SUPPORT" the troops, REPUBLICANS!)

Time to EVICT & CONVICT the WARLORDS in The White House!!!

Stay safe, healthy and happy,
Love, Loretta

[DatelessNerd]

You'll notice that Senate Republicans aren't the least bit afraid to use procedural maneuvers that allow them to kill a bill with only 41 votes.

Why haven't Senate Democrats done this for the past seven years?

Why are Senate Democrats telling the world they "don't have the votes" to hold up the Iraq War appropriation?

[dexxjones]

they must think we are really stupid.

ENOUGH already. they need to change the rules back to what they were. if it was always as it is now there would be no civil rights legislation and women would not have the vote.

the democrats need to put things right so that actual legislation can be fucking made. period end of story.

this is beginning to look like the democrat version of politics infecting everything, meaning, they are using this artificial super-majority need to get more seats.

it might be ok if we had time but we DONT.

[researcher]

The surge is working
The surge is working
Leave the generals alone
They are Honorable Americans
You liberals don’t get it
We can have control of the second largest oil reserve in the world
Maybe even we can make Iraq the 51st state
That can benefit our country for 40 years
Yes there will be a civil war over there
But only a few Americans are dying
Check the stats just as many soldiers die during peacetime
Besides those Iraqis are not even Christian
Now Americans go back and watch OJ on TV
Leave the war to the generals they know best
Signed
Evangel neo con and proud American.
Lets have peace with honor.

(You have just witnessed the mind of a evangel neo con.)

[nevergiveup]

I am ashamed to be an American today because while Rethugs give lip service to "supporting the troops," they do nothing to make soldiers' jobs, lives, and homecoming (without healthcare), any better.

I am sick to death of anyone who calls himself/herself a Republican and then says they support the troops. Bull crap!

You folks in the red states--WAKE THE FUCK UP AND DO SOMETHING!

[Podewumun]

I am a red-stater, I'm sorry to say, and frankly, we're all just plumb tuckered out....
We need all the help down here we can get, i.e., let the only man capable of making a dent in the impenetrable 'blue wall' of the Old-Line (read: BULLSHIT) Democratic structure down here, EEEEEEEOOO­OWWWWWW!!!­!, Howard Dean.

Write Dean an O-F snail mail letter. I have.
If you send $$ to the DNC, enclose a hand-written note along with it. Done that, too.
Whatever our regional 'quirks', youze guys are going to have to start helping us out here.
There were any number of posts this weekend calling us inbred idiots, married at 12 and every other damned thing...do they think that helps US at all? And by US, I mean ALL OF US, you & me.
I gotta tell ya, I sit at this keyboard twelve hours a day and try to make SOMEBODY laugh, hoping against hope that just ONE person will take the time to read some of the serious comments I'm capable of making before the pill kicks in...just kidding.
Look, when His Petulancy decider-ed to take this country to war, that's exactly what I did.

I WENT TO WAR, TOO. So did you.
It is up to US to end it.

Nobody else seems to want to...

[Podewumun]

Edit to read: Howard Dean know there are STILL Dems in the south.

thx told you i was worn out

[Nonamnesiac]

Just keep sending it back, preferably as part of funding legislation in which funding goes to troop protection (armored vehicles) and the rest to withdrawal. Let the Republicans keep voting down funds to protect the troops. As long as it is clear that's all that's coming, the Republicans will cave in, as otherwise they are the ones failing to fund the troops. And if Bush vetos, just keep sending nearly identical Bills to the one he vetos back to him. If he tries to fight the war risking the lives of troops whose funding has been cut, except for withdrawal, he is intentionally putting the troops at risk as their commander-in-chief and should be impeached and removed, along with Cheney, for knowingly risking the lives and limbs of the troops by violating the law and keeping them there even though it is no longer funded by Congress. Also all funding for contractors and for bases and the new Embassy should be stripped from any funding bill.

[DrenchedOtter]

Exactly.

[LorettaSingbiel]

"if Bush vetos, just keep sending nearly identical Bills to the one he vetos back to him. If he tries to fight the war risking the lives of troops whose funding has been cut, except for withdrawal, he is intentionally putting the troops at risk"

He's already VETOED, and spun it as DEMOCRATS risking the lives of troops, BECAUSE he didn't get his way! Whether Bush THROWS TANTRUMS or TRIUMPHS, what's TRAGICALLY OBVIOUS NOW, is that TROOPS WILL DIE!!!

So, DEMOCRATS, if at first you don't succeed, TRY, TRY AGAIN...AN­D AGAIN...AN­D AGAIN...Wh­at have you got to lose...but MORE LIVES!!!

Force BABY BUSH to THROW his TANTRUMS, and THREATEN the TROOPS...A­GAIN...AND AGAIN...AN­D AGAIN!!! ... TILL November 2008!!!

And THEN the TROOPS can TRIUMPH at home!
(And THEN they can fight the "TERRORISTS" at home!?)

Stay safe, healthy and happy,
Love, Loretta

[DatelessNerd]

Correct answer, Loretta!

It's time for Congressional Democrats to stop pretending that a Bush veto means they're required to give him a blank check.

41 Senators can prevent the appropriation from coming to a vote. Then you have a stalemate, and NO FUNDING until 60 Senators are satisfied with the final bill.

[freedomis]

Whichof the repubs that voted with the dems are up for reelection this time?The dems have played this game too.If it is safe to vote with the other party they do it.It is getting to the point that you cant trust any of them.This and the military commissions act says it all for me.These beltway folks dont care about the Constitution or the troops.Wit­hout the Constitution what is this country?It is a fascist state by any definition­.Tony

[Ladyrantsalot]

Take another look at that list. Every single Democrat voted for that bill, and no Democrat voted no (Lieberman is officially an "Independent Democrat").

[Podewumun]

Oh, to hell with it...I'LL SAY IT if nobody else will....

LIEBERMAN.­...you are a gurly-man, panty-waist!

[bluesnot]

Just looking at that list makes me want to donate money to the DNC.

[DatelessNerd]

You couldn't be more wrong.

That list should make you ask "Why have Senate Democrats given blank checks and rubberstamps to George Bush for the past seven years, when it only takes 41 votes to stop him?"

The DNC has been taking a dive, because they want you to contribute "to build a veto-proof majority" in Congress.

Don't give them a freakin' dime until they start using the power they already have!

[repubesnivel]

The low rating of congress includes the republics too, idiot breath. I'm giving more than a dime to get rid of these republic bastards once and for all.

Eat it, creep.

[PigLipstick]

I quite honestly think you are giving the Democrat leadership in Congress way more credit than they deserve. It's all about the same group of Democrat political advisors that destroyed Kerry's campaign by pushing Republican Lite as a winning philosophy. Kerry started picking up support, too late in the 04 campaign, when he started talking like a true Progressive with original ideas. Republican Lite was, and continues to be, a tactic for losers with no vision !

[Ladyrantsalot]

Look at the list. All the Dems voted for Webb's bill. It takes 60 votes to get a bill to the floor for a vote. There are only 51 Dems in teh Senate (if you include the so-called "Independent Democrat," who caucuses with the Dems but supports the neocon theory of neoimperialism). Put the blame where it belongs.

[DatelessNerd]

Senate Democrats have had enough votes all along to put a stop to any Bush initiative by withholding funding.

So where were the Democratic filibusters when they were in the minority?

And why are Senate Democrats pretending they "don't have the votes" now?

It takes 41 votes to prevent legislation, including appropriations, from coming to a vote.

41 votes, that's all. If the Democratic party can't get 41 of 50 senators to stand up to the worst president in history, they're worthless.

[leftLibertarian]

The DNC 'leadership' is pathetic. They need some tough leaders. Leaders with the BALLS to impeach bush and cheney.
That is the ONLY way to end this illegal war.

[getoffmedz]

leftLibertarian - you speak the false spew of the RNC noise machine. Blame the Democrats for the GOP obstructionist murders of our troops.

Rot.

[Macready]

you are so right leftLibertarian . . . the 44 senators who voted against the Webb amendment are really sick demented cowards!

[Ladyrantsalot]

The odds of getting killed in Iraq increase with every extended tour there. It is totally unfair that the same people have to go there over and over again to prop up the conservative theory of neoimperialism and the Bu$h Doctrine of Inadequate Force. The Republican party is a moral disgrace. We simply need to get 60 Democrats in the Senate. As long as there are 41 Republicans in the Sentate (or 40 Rubes and the neocon from NeoConnecticut), the Dems will not be able to get their bills onto the floor for a vote on anything relating to Iraq. The Republicans will always put party unity over virtually anything else. They will not let a small majority accomplish anything. They must be driven out of office.

[LorettaSingbiel]

"The Republicans will always put party unity over virtually anything else."

General BETRAYUS is GUILTY of that, ALSO!

MUSLIMS are MURDERED & MAIMED, while Petreaus HESITATES to be HONEST... hemming & hawing & hedging questions, mumbling something about IRAQ being "Al-Queda Central"..­.IF that's TRUE, he's got HIMSELF & his BUSH BUDDIES to BLAME!!!

AMERICA brought "Al-Qaeda" to IRAQ ("We fight them THERE, so they don't fight & follow us HERE"?). WE have DESTROYED their lifestyles, livelihoods, LIVES. Is it any wonder WHY they WOULDN'T WELCOME our "LIBERATION", and WON'T WELCOME our "OCCUPATION"!?

We have WORN OUT our "WELCOME"!!! But, by ALL MEANS, BETRAYUS..­.STAY-THE-­COURSE OF THE SLAUGHTER OF OUR TROOPS...B­USH'S "RETURN ON SUCCESS"!!!

Stay safe, healthy and happy,
Love, Loretta

[bluesnot]

Where are the trolls? Don't want to show their glee gotten at the expense of the troops?

[Podewumun]

Like I said before, (Neo)CON SPIK! JEW! US!!ly absent, aren't they?

Must be Roller Derby Night.

[PigLipstick]

They are holding a one-legged ass kicking contest in the stalls at the Minneapolis Airport !