Kennedy Offers A Slam Dunk To End The War
Senator Kennedy announced legislation today mandating that unless the president's Iraq plans are approved by Congress, lawmakers can cut off spending for the war and halt any new troop deployments to Iraq. Of course this is perfect from the sense that it gives congressional Democrats a safety buffer for de-funding the entire occupation and, in the short term, gives Congress further ammunition for stopping the president's unpopular escalation idea -- oops.
Sorry. I meant, the president's unpopular "surge." Surgulation. Ah, crap on that. It's an escalation for shits and giggles... and oil. Moving on.
Freezing the president's supplemental Iraq spending is an obvious administration trap set for the Democrats. But how else, under the Constitution, can Congress accomplish the goal of fulfilling its midterm mandate? Making further troop deployments impossible and illegal seems to be the only way, followed by, in turn, a total forced withdrawal due to spending cuts.
Enter Senator Kennedy's bill which accomplishes both, while placing the onus of funding the occupation on the sweat-stained shoulders of the president -- legally binding him to supply a real plan for ending our presence in Iraq. If the plan isn't good enough, then the law says no more brigades and no more money. In other words, if the commander-in-chief can't manage to squeeze a viable plan from his tiny noggin (he can't) and instead offers up the same vague crap on a stick (he will), then he's screwed himself, and the Democrats can force him to end the war without directly freezing expenditures.
Most excellent. But there appears to be at least two catches.
One catch is obvious: whipping up enough the votes required to override the president's absolutely definite veto of the Kennedy law. This is the Bush White House after all. The Big Executive. The Big Dick. I don't need to remind you that the White House, however unpopular, is run by a regime who at every turn has sucked dry both its constitutional and wholly-fabricated-out-of-thin-fucking-air executive powers. And it doesn't help that Congress (minus Kennedy and others) approved the president's Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Iraq bill back in 2002.
Which leads me to another of Senator Kennedy's points in his introduction of his legislation today. The president's congressional authorization has essentially expired. In fact, if you read the bill, it's been expired for some time now.
Here's the meat: Continued
Sorry. I meant, the president's unpopular "surge." Surgulation. Ah, crap on that. It's an escalation for shits and giggles... and oil. Moving on.
Freezing the president's supplemental Iraq spending is an obvious administration trap set for the Democrats. But how else, under the Constitution, can Congress accomplish the goal of fulfilling its midterm mandate? Making further troop deployments impossible and illegal seems to be the only way, followed by, in turn, a total forced withdrawal due to spending cuts.
Enter Senator Kennedy's bill which accomplishes both, while placing the onus of funding the occupation on the sweat-stained shoulders of the president -- legally binding him to supply a real plan for ending our presence in Iraq. If the plan isn't good enough, then the law says no more brigades and no more money. In other words, if the commander-in-chief can't manage to squeeze a viable plan from his tiny noggin (he can't) and instead offers up the same vague crap on a stick (he will), then he's screwed himself, and the Democrats can force him to end the war without directly freezing expenditures.
Most excellent. But there appears to be at least two catches.
One catch is obvious: whipping up enough the votes required to override the president's absolutely definite veto of the Kennedy law. This is the Bush White House after all. The Big Executive. The Big Dick. I don't need to remind you that the White House, however unpopular, is run by a regime who at every turn has sucked dry both its constitutional and wholly-fabricated-out-of-thin-fucking-air executive powers. And it doesn't help that Congress (minus Kennedy and others) approved the president's Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Iraq bill back in 2002.
Which leads me to another of Senator Kennedy's points in his introduction of his legislation today. The president's congressional authorization has essentially expired. In fact, if you read the bill, it's been expired for some time now.
Here's the meat: Continued
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 2:45 PM
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