Posted by James O'Rourke on October 3, 2009
October 2, 2009
By David Swanson
opednews.com
On Thursday, 22 Democratic congress members introduced a bill to deny funding to any escalation of war in Afghanistan, and 60 Democratic senators voted that Congress should not even speak to a general about that war until after the president has decided whether to escalate it. These two actions come out of very different understandings of war powers.
The particular worldview of the 22 House members, which could also be called “The United States Constitution”, holds that the Congress alone has the power and the responsibility to determine whether wars are begun or ended, escalated or scaled back, and to raise and fund and oversee any military force necessary for fighting a war, while the president’s role as the executor of the will of Congress is to serve as the civilian commander of the military during a time that Congress has designated and in wars that Congress has authorized.
This view is sometimes accompanied by the belief that elected representatives should represent the views of their constituents, even including their current views at any given moment, not just at the time of the most recent election. Given that the majority of Americans, and certainly the majority of the residents of many Democratic congressional districts, oppose the war in Afghanistan, Congress — in this “Constitutional” view — has the responsibility to block the funding of any escalation and possibly of the continuation of the war at its current level, as well as the duty to determine how the war is being conducted and to make that information known.
In this same theory of government, then, Democratic Congressman Steny Hoyer (whatever his motivations) was technically right when he recently proposed that General Stanley McChrystal be brought in to testify. And so was Republican Senator John McCain. McChrystal ought to be brought in at his earliest convenience, and subpoenaed if he declines. And such a subpoena ought to be enforced by the Capitol Police, not the Justice Department. And if McChrystal’s testimony proves unsatisfactory, President Barack Obama should be brought in to testify. And if no testimony persuades the public of a need to continue or escalate a war, then — in addition to the need to end illegal, aggressive, foreign wars even if popular — such a war should be defunded. And any misspending of unappropriated funds to continue a war must be treated as an impeachable offense. At least that’s one theory. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: Congress; Congress; Democratic; McChrystal; Military; Military; Power; War | Leave a Comment »
Posted by James O'Rourke on October 3, 2009
opednews.com
By Dwayne Hunn
For OpEdNews: Dwayne Hunn – Writer
Time Magazine (9-21-09) again interviews the Obamas on one of their favorite subjects, “Volunteerism,” while headlining how we must become accustomed to high unemployment and underemployment.
America’s decline — shrunken middle class, concentrated wealth, dismantled economy” are the result of our recent paltry investment in volunteerism.
The Greatest Generation became so because they were called into the bravest volunteerism. The bloody lessons learned in defeating a corporate Fascist state taught them to keep nations from becoming so economically desperate that they turn to scaring, screaming rhetoric, parochial thought, and crazies to rebuild.
Presidents who tasted the Greatest Generation’s World War initiated policies to create a saner future. FDR (32) lent more than a few helping hands with troops, tanks, and bombers. Truman (33) marshaled dollars and builders through the Marshall Plan. Eisenhower (34) warned us against falling under the sway of the military industrial estate. George H. Bush (41) taught the importance of building international support, gathering overwhelming force, and executing an exit plan.
George W. Bush (43) remained uninterested in such lessons. Instead of inspiring and involving nation and world, unaware George, “Either you’re with us or against us” pushed the world to “Just go shopping (on credit).”
In 1961 John Kennedy (35) knit the Greatest Generation’s lessons together by birthing the Peace Corps. He envisioned quickly growing it to a million, so it could then ”become significant.” When they murdered JFK, his brilliant vision of inaugurating millions to, “Struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself,” died too.
Imagine today’s world, had 20 million Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) completed two years of service rather than barely over 160,000. Imagine how smart our public policies would be, had that many Americans added PC experiences to those of the Greatest Generation. Imagine today’s Pakistan (few PCVs since 1967) and Afghanistan (none since 1979), had 21,000 PCVs served there rather than 2,169. Imagine how few terrorists there’d be, had 20, 10, or 5 million legendary Americans added barn building to the Marshall Plan.
As “Rethinking Afghanistan” becomes today’s punditry, hopefully sound thinking will lead us to do what works – involving large numbers of regular Americans in working on and solving seemingly intractable political problems. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in World Affairs | Leave a Comment »
Posted by James O'Rourke on October 3, 2009
Posted by Kos , Daily Kos at 4:34 PM on October 1, 2009.
Will it be a robust public option, or some piece of crap? Time will tell, but at least we have a fighting chance with Democrats monopolizing the process.
Republicans have been whining recently about being shut out of the drafting of health care reform legislation.
President Obama has cut off communication with Republican leaders, going more than four months without hosting the bipartisan congressional leadership at the White House to discuss his health care proposal, the No. 2 Republican in the House said Wednesday.
Maybe that has something to with the fact that Republicans have made clear that as many concessions as Obama was willing to make, Republicans didn’t have a single one of their own. Not one. There was nothing Democrats could do to get GOP support. They simply wouldn’t vote for anything remotely infringing on the insurance companies’ ability to screw patients over.
Satisfying every Republican demand short of scrapping the entire project, said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), would still not capture GOP support.
“Senator Kyl and some of the others have talked about some of the things that are happening in committee,” McConnell told reporters, referring to Senate Finance Committee Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona.
“But the core point is this: At the end of the day, if the government plan is either in the bill or out of the bill, whether they will be able to argue successfully or not whether tax funds are gonna be provided for abortion, whether or not they will be able to argue at the end that dollars for health care for illegals is in or out, what we do know is what the core of the bill is going to look like. We know that for sure,” he said.
So they’re not willing to make concessions, they’re not willing to vote for anything, make up outrageous lies about killing grandmothers, and then they whine about being cut out of the process? The only frustration has been Democrats’ insistence on making something work. Cantor may not be getting any phone calls from the White House, but Olympia Snowe is now co-president, and don’t get me started on Max Baucus.
But it looks as Republicans are pretty much finished. Democratic patience has run out.
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said today Republicans will not be at the table when the Senate merges the health-care bills from two committees before sending one to the floor.
Harkin, a Democrat and chairman of one of the committees, also said any bill that passes Congress will include a government-run insurance option for Americans to buy.
“We will have a bill on the president’s desk before Christmas, a health-reform bill. It will have a lot of good stuff in it. It will have a lot of prevention and wellness programs in there that I’ve been fighting for,” Harkin told reporters in a morning conference call. “And it will have a public option.”
“The question of if it doesn’t isn’t even an option,” he added [...]
Asked whether Republicans would be at the table when Harkin’s committee’s bill is merged with legislation pending in the Senate Finance Committee, Harkin said no.
“No, this will be a proposal by the Democrats to bring a bill on the floor. And that’s what I have said before, that the people of this country — I keep saying — the people of this country pretty overwhelmingly elected Barack Obama last fall and to make changes,” he said. “The people of this country overwhelmingly elected Democrats to the House and Senate.”
Definitely progress. Will it be a robust public option, or some piece of crap? Time will tell, but at least we have a fighting chance with Democrats monopolizing the process. The time for GOP shenanigans is over (including Olympia Snowe’s games). This will be a Democratic bill, so scrap all idiotic compromises trying to bring GOP support along, and draft the best possible bill. Then twist some arms to get the 60 Democrats to vote for cloture, even if a bunch defect on the final vote. This is the reason Obama and Reid told us we had to tolerate Lieberman. Time to deliver.
Kos is the blogmaster of Daily Kos
Posted in *Healthcare Issues, Politics | Tagged: gop, health reform, republicans | 1 Comment »
