Is Congress Going To Force Obama To Stop Bombing Libya?

Good thing we didn't elect any of these warmongers president

I was hardly out of the country for a day when one of the local congressmen from around here, Brad Sherman (D-CA)-- who, because of redistricting, is going to be in an ugly primary battle with corrupt hawk Howard Berman-- offers an amendment to a military appropriations bill... and, unexpectedly, gets it passed by a vote of 248 to 163.

Sherman's amendment, which states that "none of the funds made available by this act may be used in contravention of the War Powers Act," is exactly the same as the one that failed 2 weeks ago-- rescued by a weaker, toothless, amendment offered by Boehner. Obama has 2 days to respond to that one. This one passed as part of the overall appropriations bill, H.R. 2055, yesterday.

When Berman's amendment was voted on Monday 138 Republicans and 110 Democrats voted for it; only 93 Republicans and 70 Democrats voted against it. Both the Republican Leader, Cantor, and the Democratic Leader, Pelosi, voted against it. Anti-war leaders on both sides of the aisle-- Kucinich (D-OH), Grijalva (D-AZ), Edwards (D-MD), Lewis (D-GA), Jones (R-NC), and Johnson (IL) voted for it. Most of the Blue Dogs voted for Obama's position-- NO-- for a change.

The amendment doesn't seem likely to pass the Senate... but you never know. Meanwhile, Qaddafi sent a thank you letter to Boehner for his help in undermining the U.S. position. During World War II Republicans conspired with Hitler against FDR and, in fact, the German's virtually underwrote most of the GOP election campaign against Roosevelt in 1940. Now we'll have to see if Qaddafi starts sending the Republicans money for their support. It may not even be illegal now that the Supreme Court has opened up campaign financing. Last year China underwrote much of the Republican campaign to retake the House and win several Senate seats, particularly for pro-China extremists Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Pat Toomey (R-PA).