:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 2.16.2007 ::
:: "The House Debate: A Sampling" ::
From The New York Times
Since Tuesday, the House has been debating a nonbinding resolution that would express disapproval of President Bush’s plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq.
It declares the House to be resolved that ‘’Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq'’ and that ‘’Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.'’
A vote is expected later today.
Here’s a sampling, compiled by Jack Begg of The Times, of what House members have had to say from the floor:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California:
“Friday’s vote will signal whether the House has heard the American people: no more blank checks for President Bush on Iraq. Our taxpayer dollars must go to protect our troops, to keep our promises to our veterans, and to provide for the safety of the American people. In light of the facts, President Bush’s escalation proposal will not make America safer, will not make our military stronger, and will not make the region more stable; and it will not have my support.”
Representative John Boehner, minority leader, Republican of Ohio:
“What we are dealing with here today isn’t even a resolution to debate the war itself. It is a nonbinding resolution attacking a single strategy in the prosecution of a much larger war. “Nonbinding’’ means nonleadership. It is not accountable, and I don’t think it is the right message for our troops.”
Representative Ike Skelton, Democrat of Missouri:
“The series of irretrievable mistakes is a serious list: the skewed intelligence we received from the Defense Department Office of Special Plans; the postwar phase of conflict that did not have sufficient planning; not enough troops, as pointed out by General Eric Shinseki, the former Army Chief of Staff; allowing the uncontrolled looting and the breakdown of law early on after the occupation began; the dismissal of the Iraqi Army, rather than giving them a paycheck and a shovel or having them do security work that is important to the stability of that country; the deBathification, that put so many thousands of Iraqis out of business, out of work, including thousands of school teachers. The administration has consistently refused to adjust its overall strategy. I take no pleasure in this, but it is a moment of ‘I told you so.’”
Read more here.
posted by me
:: 11:30:00 AM [+] ::
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