Welcome

Website counter
website hit counter
website hit counters

Friday, July 2, 2010

Fwd: [bangla-vision] Democrats Forced to Cheat to Fund War



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mohammad <mohammad_b_haq@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 1:42 PM
Subject: [bangla-vision] Democrats Forced to Cheat to Fund War
To: bangla-vision@yahoogroups.com


 

Democrats Forced to Cheat to Fund War
By David Swanson

The Democratic leadership in the House had to resort to an unusual and underhanded tactic to pass war funding Thursday night.

Congress has long tended to pass unrelated measures in combination with war bills, and usually some of these measures, such as funding schools, jobs, veterans care, or disaster relief, provide excuses for some "anti-war" Democrats to vote for the war funding. But including good things with war bills can lead the Republicans to vote No. When they all do that, as they did last June, no more than about 40 Democrats can vote No or the bill fails. Last June, the leadership and the White House were able to threaten and bribe enough Democrats to vote yes on a bill that funded both war and an IMF banker bailout. Only 32 Democrats voted No. On Thursday the House leadership couldn't do that because over 40 Democrats refused to be bought off. In fact, at least 51, and reportedly 80 to 90 had committed to voting No.

In theory, this should have resulted in separating the pig of war funding from the lipstick of domestic spending. Both would then, in theory, have easily passed the House as separate bills, with the domestic spending facing an uncertain fate in the Senate as long as the leadership over there keeps the filibuster rule in place. It would also have forced the Democratic leadership to pass the war funding with more Republican votes than Democratic.

THE SELF-EXECUTING RULE

But that's not what happened. Instead the Democratic Leadership produced something called a self-executing rule. Typically, the House will vote on a rule for how a bill will be voted on, vote on amendments if the rule permits any, and then vote on the bill. In this self-executing rule, the bill was to be considered passed if at least one amendment to it was approved. Otherwise it was to be considered dead. Either way, there would be no vote on the bill. There was, however, a vote on the rule. But here's the catch: it isn't considered polite and appropriate to vote against a rule, and Americans are not expected to notice how anyone votes on a rule. It's not a bill, but a procedural matter -- never mind if the procedure is to pass war funding without another vote.

So, we watched Republicans like Ron Paul speak against the war and the rule, other Republicans speak in support of the war and against the rule, and Democrats speak against the war and in support of the rule that would fund it. We saw Democrats, like Congresswoman Maxine Waters, speak in support of the rule that would fund the war on the grounds that she would then get a chance to vote for an amendment to defund the war. Think about that. Rather than blocking war funding, you support it in order to vote for a doomed amendment which if passed would have to be approved by the Senate and the President too. Not a single Democrat -- even those who would vote against the rule -- spoke against it.

In the end 38 Democrats, including very few progressives, voted No on the rule, which passed 215 to 210. That's suspiciously close, and suggests that the leadership permitted those votes but no more.

ESCALATING WAR, CUTTING SOCIAL SECURITY

According to Congressman John Tierney, we now have 88,000 troops and 110,000 contractors in Afghanistan. The $33.5 billion in war funding is to send 30,000 more troops, plus more contractors, to Afghanistan (some of whom are already there pre-funding). This was the vote to fund the escalation that was debated in the U.S. media a half year ago. That passage of time allowed this vote to come in the context of a debate in which almost no one mentioned the word "escalation", no one at all objected to the President having gone ahead with an unfunded escalation, and -- on the contrary -- various congress members from both parties swore they had to "support the troops" and others, such as Republican Congressmen Buck McKeon and Jerry Lewis, asserted their responsibility to obey "our Commander in Chief" as if the first branch of our government is now a branch of the military.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi slipped a surprising measure into a budget that was passed as part of the rule, a measure requiring that the House vote on any proposals -- whatever they may be -- that are proposed by the president's deficit commission, if those proposals are passed by the Senate. As Jane Hamsher immediately pointed out:

"The commission, co-chaired by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, is packed with members who favor the raising the retirement age to 70, means testing, and private accounts. Many also support investing 20% of the Social Security trust fund in the stock market. It's ironic that yesterday Pelosi sent out press releases criticizing John Boehner for expressing the very same positions on cutting Social Security benefits that Jim Clyburn, Joe Biden, and Steny Hoyer have. She's putting this language into the rule in order to deflect responsibility from herself when it comes to the floor for a vote during a lame duck session, since without her approval that could never happen."

AMENDMENTS: 162 WANT SOME ROLE FOR CONGRESS

Following the lead of Congressman Jim McGovern, many peace organizations declined during the past half year to put their full energies behind demanding No votes on war funding. Instead, many stressed the introduction of anti-war amendments, arguing that we could get more votes that way. Moving three more congress members to vote against the rule would have sent the strongest message possible, but once that failed, there were four amendments to vote on Thursday night, three of them related to the war. The leadership had a way to handle these as well: take them up late at night, past filing deadlines for newspaper stories.

One was an amendment to eliminate military funding from the bill. This failed 25 to 376 with 22 voting "present."

Another was to limit military funding to withdrawal. This failed by acclamation, and Congressman Anthony Weiner, chairing the proceedings, moved on to the next amendment before anyone requested a count of the vote. So we don't even now what the number of Yes votes was here.

The third amendment, McGovern's, was to require the president to present Congress with 1) a new National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan by January 31, 2011 and 2) a plan by April 4, 2011, on "the safe, orderly and expeditious redeployment of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, including a timeframe for the completion of the redeployment." In addition -- and this was a late addition to the amendment strengthening it considerably -- Congress would be required to vote by July 2011 "if it wants to allow the obligation and expenditure of funds for Afghanistan in a manner that is not consistent with the president's announced policy of December 2009 to begin to drawdown troops by July 2011." This amendment failed by a vote of 162 to 260.

The 162 included a handful of Republicans and represented a significant number of congress members willing to at least go on record as somewhat favoring minimal involvement for Congress in one of its chief areas of responsibility: war. I say "somewhat" because we don't know how many of the 162 would still have voted Yes if pressured by the leadership not to.

The non-war-related amendment, to fund teachers and disaster relief, passed 239 to 181 with 1 voting "present." This vote, heavily promoted by teachers' unions -- which tended never to mention the war funding -- guaranteed passage of the war funding, since the rule required that at least one amendment pass.

THE SENATE AND THE PRESIDENT

The Senate is out of session for the anti-imperial imperial holiday of July 4th. It will have to deal with the House bill, which differs from the Senate version.

The President on Thursday threatened to veto the bill because of an item in one of the two non-war-related amendments. Congress is careful to pay for non-war items with cuts elsewhere, while funding wars on a Chinese credit card. In order to pay for funds to save some teachers from layoffs at US schools, the amendment took away a small fraction of a slush fund used by the Secretary of Education to encourage corporatist approaches to education. Let's hope that, if the Senate doesn't strip out the offending provision for him, our president follows through and blocks an escalation of a war.

--

David Swanson is the author of the new book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press.  You can order it and find out when tour will be in your town:

http://davidswanson.org/book

To receive updates from After Downing Street register at 

http://afterdowningstreet.org/user/register

To subscribe to or unsubscribe from other lists go to

http://davidswanson.org/lists





--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/

No comments:

मैं नास्तिक क्यों हूं# Necessity of Atheism#!Genetics Bharat Teertha

হে মোর চিত্ত, Prey for Humanity!

मनुस्मृति नस्ली राजकाज राजनीति में OBC Trump Card और जयभीम कामरेड

Gorkhaland again?আত্মঘাতী বাঙালি আবার বিভাজন বিপর্যয়ের মুখোমুখি!

हिंदुत्व की राजनीति का मुकाबला हिंदुत्व की राजनीति से नहीं किया जा सकता।

In conversation with Palash Biswas

Palash Biswas On Unique Identity No1.mpg

Save the Universities!

RSS might replace Gandhi with Ambedkar on currency notes!

जैसे जर्मनी में सिर्फ हिटलर को बोलने की आजादी थी,आज सिर्फ मंकी बातों की आजादी है।

#BEEFGATEঅন্ধকার বৃত্তান্তঃ হত্যার রাজনীতি

अलविदा पत्रकारिता,अब कोई प्रतिक्रिया नहीं! पलाश विश्वास

ভালোবাসার মুখ,প্রতিবাদের মুখ মন্দাক্রান্তার পাশে আছি,যে মেয়েটি আজও লিখতে পারছেঃ আমাক ধর্ষণ করবে?

Palash Biswas on BAMCEF UNIFICATION!

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS ON NEPALI SENTIMENT, GORKHALAND, KUMAON AND GARHWAL ETC.and BAMCEF UNIFICATION! Published on Mar 19, 2013 The Himalayan Voice Cambridge, Massachusetts United States of America

BAMCEF UNIFICATION CONFERENCE 7

Published on 10 Mar 2013 ALL INDIA BAMCEF UNIFICATION CONFERENCE HELD AT Dr.B. R. AMBEDKAR BHAVAN,DADAR,MUMBAI ON 2ND AND 3RD MARCH 2013. Mr.PALASH BISWAS (JOURNALIST -KOLKATA) DELIVERING HER SPEECH. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLL-n6MrcoM http://youtu.be/oLL-n6MrcoM

Imminent Massive earthquake in the Himalayas

Palash Biswas on Citizenship Amendment Act

Mr. PALASH BISWAS DELIVERING SPEECH AT BAMCEF PROGRAM AT NAGPUR ON 17 & 18 SEPTEMBER 2003 Sub:- CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT 2003 http://youtu.be/zGDfsLzxTXo

Tweet Please

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS BLASTS INDIANS THAT CLAIM BUDDHA WAS BORN IN INDIA

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: INDIAN GOVERNMENT FOOD SECURITY PROGRAM RISKIER

http://youtu.be/NrcmNEjaN8c The government of India has announced food security program ahead of elections in 2014. We discussed the issue with Palash Biswas in Kolkata today. http://youtu.be/NrcmNEjaN8c Ahead of Elections, India's Cabinet Approves Food Security Program ______________________________________________________ By JIM YARDLEY http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/indias-cabinet-passes-food-security-law/

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS TALKS AGAINST CASTEIST HEGEMONY IN SOUTH ASIA

THE HIMALAYAN VOICE: PALASH BISWAS DISCUSSES RAM MANDIR

Published on 10 Apr 2013 Palash Biswas spoke to us from Kolkota and shared his views on Visho Hindu Parashid's programme from tomorrow ( April 11, 2013) to build Ram Mandir in disputed Ayodhya. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77cZuBunAGk

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS LASHES OUT KATHMANDU INT'L 'MULVASI' CONFERENCE

अहिले भर्खर कोलकता भारतमा हामीले पलाश विश्वाससंग काठमाडौँमा आज भै रहेको अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय मूलवासी सम्मेलनको बारेमा कुराकानी गर्यौ । उहाले भन्नु भयो सो सम्मेलन 'नेपालको आदिवासी जनजातिहरुको आन्दोलनलाई कम्जोर बनाउने षडयन्त्र हो।' http://youtu.be/j8GXlmSBbbk

THE HIMALAYAN DISASTER: TRANSNATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT MECHANISM A MUST

We talked with Palash Biswas, an editor for Indian Express in Kolkata today also. He urged that there must a transnational disaster management mechanism to avert such scale disaster in the Himalayas. http://youtu.be/7IzWUpRECJM

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS CRITICAL OF BAMCEF LEADERSHIP

[Palash Biswas, one of the BAMCEF leaders and editors for Indian Express spoke to us from Kolkata today and criticized BAMCEF leadership in New Delhi, which according to him, is messing up with Nepalese indigenous peoples also. He also flayed MP Jay Narayan Prasad Nishad, who recently offered a Puja in his New Delhi home for Narendra Modi's victory in 2014.]

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS CRITICIZES GOVT FOR WORLD`S BIGGEST BLACK OUT

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS CRITICIZES GOVT FOR WORLD`S BIGGEST BLACK OUT

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALSH BISWAS FLAYS SOUTH ASIAN GOVERNM

Palash Biswas, lashed out those 1% people in the government in New Delhi for failure of delivery and creating hosts of problems everywhere in South Asia. http://youtu.be/lD2_V7CB2Is

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS LASHES OUT KATHMANDU INT'L 'MULVASI' CONFERENCE

अहिले भर्खर कोलकता भारतमा हामीले पलाश विश्वाससंग काठमाडौँमा आज भै रहेको अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय मूलवासी सम्मेलनको बारेमा कुराकानी गर्यौ । उहाले भन्नु भयो सो सम्मेलन 'नेपालको आदिवासी जनजातिहरुको आन्दोलनलाई कम्जोर बनाउने षडयन्त्र हो।' http://youtu.be/j8GXlmSBbbk