Friday, May 27, 2011

War! War! War! More War! But All But One Republican Vote To Defeat Measure To Increase Combat Pay

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There were so many amendments that I could hardly keep up-- most being Republican members asking for military pork for their districts-- but in the end, the House passed warmonger Buck McKeon's H.R. 1540 by a predictably, albeit shamefully, wide margin 322-96. A slim majority of Democrats joined all but six Republicans in favor of endless aggressive war, with all that that means towards undermining a democracy. The antiwar Republicans were all extreme right-wingers-- Ron Paul (TX), Justin Amash (MI), John Campbell (CA), Jason Chaffetz (UT), John Duncan (TN) and Tom McClintock (CA), although moderate Republican Walter Jones (NC) joined the Democrats' perfunctory effort to head this off with a Motion to Reconsider providing our troops with a $100 per month increase in combat pay. Every Democrat + Jones voted for it and every Republican voted against the pay increase. It failed 185-233.


Most progressive Democrats voted NO, although-- despite her early morning rah-rah tweet, Pelosi joined the Republicans and other war-mongers in voting YES. First, though, she-- and most Democrats +26 Republicans-- voted for Jim McGovern's amendment to wind down the occupation of Afghanistan.

The 8 worst Democratic warmongers, the ones who opposed ending the occupation, were the usual excruciatingly bad suspects:

Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA)
John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA)
Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)
Joe Donnelly (DSCC Senate recruit & Blue Dog-IN)
Larry Kissell (NC)
Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR)
Dutch Ruppersberger (MD)

So, another wasteful $690 billion pork-laden military budget that the even the Pentagon says is too much and that President Obama has threatened to veto. These people have no shame. They should all be defeated. Some of the provisions include:

• Indefinitely expanding presidential power to conduct military action in the so-called "war on terror" while leaving ambiguous who the enemy is (aka the Authorization of Use of Military Force or AUMF)

• Blocking the repeal of DADT and other provisions for gay servicemembers (despite statements for Adm. Mullen and others in support of DADT)

• Re-instating the F-35 2nd engine (for which DoD has issued a stop-order calling it "a waste of taxpayer money")

• Restricting implementation on New START / U.S. nuclear policy (WH veto threat points out this raises questions of constitutional authority)

I don't understand why Democrats voted for it. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) co-sponsored a bipartisan amendment-- along with Justin Amash (R-MI), John Conyers (D-MI), Walter Jones (R-NC), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Ron Paul (R-TX)-- that would have deleted Section 1034, the part of the bill which expands the scope, and blurs the definition, of the war on terror. “How will anyone be able to declare success when the objective itself is so amorphous?” he asked in the debate Wednesday night. “How will we know when we have won the war? ... The President must not have the total discretion to take this country to war with anybody, at anytime, under any circumstances under his sole discretion.” It lost 187-234, 21 Republicans voting with the Democrats and 20 Blue Dog types voting with the Republicans. Watch:

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2 Comments:

At 6:07 AM, Blogger jcwinnie said...

But, but, but a benefit of high unemployment is lower wages.

 
At 9:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I seem to have poems that neatly fit with many of your headlines and posts.

"Wars Wars Wars of the State"

http://lapiltz.blogspot.com/2011/05/wars-wars-wars-of-state-wars-wars-wars.html

Wars wars wars of the state
Wars of the state
Wars of the state
War is heretofore for the state
The state of the war of forever

There's war in the air
There's war in the sea
There's war in the minds
Of you and of me
There's war of all kinds
Oh say can't you see
That the state of war was meant to be

Wars wars wars of the state
Wars of the state
Wars of the state
War is holy grail for the state
And grist for the mill of bias and hate
But God calls and you must never say never
To the sacred wars of the state of forever

The answer to every question is war
It's the reason you're rich or that you're poor
It settles and helps you keep the score
And works its way deeply into your core
You become addicted and beg for more
Yes you know what your trigger finger's for
Then you cry for mercy and hit the floor
But to question the reason for war is a bore

There’s war in the street
There’s war at the gate
There's war if you're early
And war if you're late
If you love wars
Then the wars are just great
Great for the mongers
Who think they're so clever
Great for the state of war that's forever

Do you know what there was
Before there was war
Do you know that peace
Waits right at your door
You thought you knew
What your trigger finger's for
But it's to point at the people
Who start the wars
These whores of war
Who perpetuate gore
And profit from death
Pestilence and sores
The gore and the sores
And the wars of the state
The state of war
They believe is great
The state of war
Need not be forever
These wars of the state
To them I say never
To you I say
We need to endeavor
To make the peace
The state of forever

Larry Piltz
1984 (with ongoing revision)

 

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