First Bush Veto Override a Victory for ... Oh Wait
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On Thur the Senate joined the House in an overwhelming majority to override the Bush veto of the The Water Resources Development Act authorizing projects "to rebuild the Gulf Coast after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, restore the Everglades and Great Lakes fisheries and build flood-control projects nationwide."
On a day when the Senate saw fit to kowtow once again to the President and the Republican minority, I would really like to cushion my profound disappointment by lauding them for this defeat over Bush's feigning fiscal responsibility over a $23 billion bill aimed at protecting millions of Americans from another Katrina while at the same time begging for $200 billion a year to keep his war of choice afloat. As Jack Cafferty was quick to point out, this from a President that has forced our country further into debt in just his first 5 years than all 42 administrations preceding him combined. The national debt has now surpassed $9 trillion (12 zeros). However, I would be remiss in not pointing out why Sens Russ Feingold and Claire McCaskill were the only two Dems to vote against it.
The sad reality is that this bill-now-law lacked sorely needed reforms to prioritize projects and since it "only authorizes projects and does not appropriate funds" ... "and with a limited annual construction budget of around $2 billion" it seems that most of these projects will never actually see the first dime spent on them, and the ones that do will not necessarily be the most needed.
DiFi...no votes for you!
Well, that figures..... JD
Your Doing A Good Job Brownie
New Army chopper overheats
AP - 25 minutes ago
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Army is spending $2.6 billion on hundreds of European-designed helicopters for homeland security and disaster relief that turn out to have a crucial flaw: They aren't safe to fly on hot days, according to an internal report obtained by The Associated Press.
It's a start..... I guess
The Bush Cabal. An American Kleptocracy
L.A. Confidential @ 3:
They will be very useful if we are ever attacked by the belligerent nation of Antarctica.
Oh, wait...
UnEasyOne @ 6:
klep·toc·ra·cies
A government characterized by rampant greed and corruption.
there should be more of them, im sure you agree!
Is MoveOn.org doing anything about their thread to run real Democrats, real progressives against some of these DINOs? I haven't seen anything further, and time is running out.
naschkatze @ 9:
threat, dammit!
tyree @ 8:
Yeah, but preferably on a bill that isn't a feel-good bait and switch like this one. The fact that it authorizes $23 billion in funds for sorely needed projects is great, but since they're only appropriating $2 billion a year to actually pay for it it's a fraud. Both parties act like they did something great, and then they hope no one notices when nothing ever gets done.
Business as usual. :(
Didn't Bush promise to rebuild the gulf coast for the Katrina victim? Then why would he be vetoing the original bill?
Oh! thats right he found his own water supply in Paraguay! Poor people can drink tainted water and live in tainted trailers.
All I know is that the Everglades is going to be restored, so I'm not dissin' it.
Greed is OK.
As long as my greed, and your greed, and the wants of all of us balance against the 0.0001% of the stuffed suit rich brats.
The problem is that what once was equal pork for the constituents of all of the states (us) has become pork ONLY for stateless, soulless lobbying groups. The ones that already have the money.
The problem is the American people aren't greedy enough. It wasn't THAT long ago that upon learning of the hedgefund manager profits, the people in this country that have lost all of their good jobs to pick up as many shifts at Burger King and Taco Bell as possible would have strung them up.
That's clearly not literally the solution here... but I do have to wonder about the passivity.
Traitor in the Midst
Feinstein Now Backs Immunity For Telecoms Involved In Warrantless Spying.
The GOP is doing Al-Queda's job for them. They are bringing down America as an inside job.
paranoia @ 12:
Yea, Bush also promised to be a uniter not a divider and not to be a nation builder. Another in a long list of Bush lies.
kaT @ 13:
Don't hold your breath. At the $2 billion a year they are actually going to spend on the program, it will take 11 years before they get around to breaking ground on the last of these $23 billion worth of projects. If ever.
L.A. Confidential @ 15:
She's not up for re-election until 2012 so she's busy courting all the big money contributors she can because she knows no one will remember what she did 5-6 years back when voters get a chance to hold her accountable. I don't know if it's possible, but I wish Californians would hold a recall referrendum on their backstabbing Senator like they did their governor.
He'll expect an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records now.
"I'm just telling you what the Whitehouse says." - Wolf Blitzer
Yeah, that about sums it up. Nice freudian slip there, Wolf. Luckily there are a few people like Cafferty who actually think.
Leno refuses to cross picket line. NBC threatens layoffs.
They "lose" but they win. The Dems look like the big "Tax and Spend" evildoers again and Bush looks like a defender of the budget.
When are they going to throw out Pelosi and Reid.
Maroons.
I knew it when I heard it on NPR yesterday,so I didn't even bother looking up the details.
Our government is so friggin' junior high...I mean middle school.
Wost president evah!
L.A. Confidential @ 15:
Two words:
Tar
Feathers
justabill @ 19:
We will this time. The net is a great information retrieval system.
L.A. Confidential @ 15:
Loopy! Maybe she has mental meltdown disease. Like Reagan did.
The news here in Tucson tonight regarded several important projects - ranging from expanding water treatment plants and repairing damaged water courses to butressing the local community in an ongoing fight with FEMA.
Work is starting. They report 27 million is available for these projects.
I suppose this is the shit that prompted the disgusting Senator Mary Launders (or whatever ), to vote for Bushes Attorney General along with her equally nasty disgusting friend Senator Feinstine. You know they like to so call make deals and in the deals the democrats always get screwed just like this time.
These people are just getting all over my last nerves. I had no idea they were this misinformed and stupid.
Prior to this administration they have never really been called to task such as now and we are really discovering their inadequacies and it is frightening. We are at the mercy of this people, that are pulling the lever for us.
We are going to have to work really hard at getting some of this trash out of our system but I would much rather work with cleaning up the democratic house then the republicans
I continue to say that we have very little choice, except where we already have good responsible people already to take these seats, but to go with the lessor of evils in the democrats verses the clearly incompetent and corrupt republicans.
We can do this folks. We just have to hold our noses and pull the leavers, knowing there are going to be better times down the road.
anon @ 29:
Then they are reporting wrong. There was 27 million "authorized," by this bill, not "appropriated" so it sounds good and it fools the media and the voters alike, but unless they actually up the funding of the program in the budget from the existing $2 billion hardly any of it will actually ever get done. This bill-now-law says it's ok for the work to begin, but it doesn't pay for it, and the local news all over the country is mis-reporting about it.
It's a feel good
<billlaw that doesn't have the power to do what it claims to.And some of us here in the Great Lakes are fearing that this bill will be a backdoor route for diverting the water we're pretty much floating on to the south. I don't know if its true, but Vern Ehlers (R-Grand Rapids) is already talking about calling in the Michigan militia...maybe Vern should use his militia connections to get something done about the man-child president and his gang, eh?
I am not promoting the violent overthrow of the government...i'm suggesting that Vern Ehlers should promote it; he, unlike me, apparently knows the right people already. Oh wait, he's a member of the Republican party, he already has overthrown the government...
justabill @ 31:
It's exactly like the 700 mile border fence they "authorized" but they never "appropriated" the funds for in the budget, so only a little bit has ever been done. They got the ok to build it, but not the money. Congress gets to act like they did something, but really, they didn't.
Too much money is getting pissed away in Iraq to actually pay for all the things they are "authorizing" here at home.
For those of you who continue to cling to the fantasy that the Democratic Party is somehow your friend and good for America, Mike Davis' article on what you can expect from these ass-hats is well worth reading:
http://www.newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=2651
I have no idea why anyone is surprised when Feinstein and Schumer dutifully represent the interests of their real consituents - global multinationals, defense contractors and AIPAC.
Supporters of the Democratic party perfectly display the New Testament's definition of "faith": "The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen."
StCyrlyMe @ 30:
It would make you seem a little bit more impressive if you actually knew the name of the Louisiana Democratic Senator. Name's Landrieu which is a far cry from Launders. Oh, and Louisiana got the shaft again from Los Federales? Fuck, that sucks.
Let's compare 2000 to 2007 (from CNN):
Clinton announces record payment on national debt
By John King/CNN
May 1, 2000Web posted at: 5:13 p.m. EDT (2113 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Bill Clinton said Monday that the United States would pay off $216 billion in debt this year, bringing to $355 billion the amount of the nation's debt paid down in the three years since the government balanced the budget and began running surpluses.
In a written statement, Clinton said the $216 billion payment represented the largest debt paydown in American history, and he said that the federal government's long-term debt is now $2.4 trillion lower than projected to be when he first took office.
However, the U.S. government still has a long way to go before it pays down the entire national debt, which now stands at $5.7 trillion.
"We should take advantage of this historic opportunity to use the benefits of debt reduction to extend the life of Social Security and Medicare and pay off the entire national debt by 2013 for the first time since Andrew Jackson was president," Clinton said.
Clinton has asked Congress to dedicate the interest savings from paying down the national debt to the Social Security Trust Fund, which will add 54 years to its life, according to White House estimates.
Clinton also used the announcement to take issue with Republican tax cut plans, noting that "the debt quadrupled in the twelve years before I came into office," a reference to his Republican predecessors, Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
jackpine savage @ 32:
Why NOT? ;)
You'll have to fight with Canada if there is any planned diversion of water from the Great Lakes: we share them 50-50. Although, I have no doubt, the American 50% is much bigger, if you follow my thinking. And before anyone derides "fighting with Canada," don't even get started, or I'll murdelize you!!! We stopped a plan like this back in the late 70's: a canal project to the parched SW States.
f these people for not overriding the SCHIP veto
The Water Resources Development Act... What a story
Another little story which people do not hear about is resource privatization, which seems to be happening world wide. The general consensus is that the governments become so indebted to the IMF and world banks that the resources of their countries are seized by them but are called privatization. What seems to happen is that the governments, through one law or another gain control of local resources, land, water, roads, lumber, you name it. But then privatize them to big business, which you guessed it are owned by the you know who's of the world.
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_04_29_03.html
http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/waterIMF.html
http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2001/01september/sep01corp2.html
http://www.waternunc.com/gb/CorpWatchIndia02_2002.htm
http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/
The stories listed above are just a few well documented (supposedly) cases of countries and people losing control of their water.
If you think about it, its scary as hell when you combine the fact that the worlds food supply is also in the control of international companies.
Mom and pop farms are mostly gone,,, and our food is grown by big business,,, and the companies which grow our food are controlled , as all companies and even most people and countries are by bankers.
I do not want to be an alarmist. But our country
is reportedly 10 trillion dollars in debt, some even say 40 trillion and more, and our government has also been talking privatization here in the last few years and I worry about who will control OUR water and FOOD.
I do not trust Bush. I do not trust our so called representatives who keep selling us down the road with lies.
I think if anyone looks at what is going on in other countries and then look at our own they may get VERY concerned about this water act because this is not the only type of acts which are going on with our resources.
I invite all to really look into the centralization of this countries resources by varies laws by the federal government. Water, roads, woodlands, wetlands, designed private property foreclosures, manipulations of the financial markets which all to the benefit of the IMF and world banks.
This country is in big trouble, and so is the world.
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=22034
http://www.mindfully.org/WTO/Concentration-Corporate-Power.htm
Someone, Please show me I am wrong.
But as a friend of mine said,,, It has to happen.
Jim beam will love the free water.
9/11 changed everything.
You guys are insufficiently cynical. Bush made a deal with the Republicans that they support him on some other unpalatable goal (probably help in defeating SCHIP). In return, the Republicans get to vote on a relatively obscure bill in sufficiently large numbers to override the President's veto. That way, Bush gets what he wants on some other bill and Republicans can say that they're independent of Bush.
katie @ 41:
I think you got a bullseye.
However pointless this bill is in terms of actually getting the money where it needs to go, this is a positive victory politically speaking. Too bad ongressional approval rating is so low that not even an end to the war tomorrow morning could hep.
I disagree our infostructure is in bad shape its about time they said up yours George, its funny that when the money does not go to his buddies its pork, the trillions of gollars spent to inrich his buddies was not pork, this guy is a crook royal
In other words, we still have a rubber stamp Congress, this last stamp was just a little smudged. How cute. "Here's the help you all desperately need".......PSYCHE!........jeeeesh, look at those poor people, they always fall for the teaser. Poor slobs, I bet most of them thought having a Democratic controlled Senate & House was gonna work in their interests. ROTFLOLOLOL!
How mythical "The democratic senate majority" If they all voted together they couldn't overturn a veto of going to pizza hut for lunch
Voters in 08 either give the demos a real majority or quit your fucking bitching about how they don't do anything That goes double for Connecticut
This veto override did nothing but provide political cover for a few embattled Republicans, who now, after years of enabling Crazy King George, can use this vote to distance themselves from the Bush administration.
www.curlydog.com/blog
Wow, Senator Feingold is missing the entire point of overriding Bush's veto. He even wanted to oppose the override, on the grounds that the bill doesn't fund these projects.
If it did nothing, then why did Bush veto it? Fiscal responsibility?
I don't suppose it occured to the Senator that the actual funding of these authorizations is another carrot moment still to come?
The override is what is was important. It doesn't matter if the bill has no meaning at all in real terms, so long as Bush has a reason to veto, and we can overcome that veto with Republican support that diverges from the demands of their leadership.
The same goes for the SCHIP confusion, with people saying that it didn't pass. Boy did it! SCHIP is splitting the R leadership from something like fifty members of their caucus -- for the first time in five or six years.
so basically these assholes are just posturing so it looks like they are simultaneously distancing themselves from Bush (veto overide) and fixing his fuck up in the Gulf. In reality it is an empty bill that they never have to pay for.
We need to invest in creating and leading an alternative energy industry.
Kate @ 42 "That way, Bush gets what he wants on some other bill and Republicans can say that they're independent of Bush."
Any time they vote against the President and the leadership is a win. That 54 NAY votes contains their leadership. Giving them baby steps away from that leadership is not a bad political act.
But count on leftists to turn every advantage into a disadvantage to serve their own biases and paranoias.
ciu @ 49 "In reality it is an empty bill that they never have to pay for."
This is not an uncommon event in Congress. You authorize, and then funding is in a separate bill. BFD.
Paul in LA @ 51:
yes, I think you are right...
It's the symbolism that counts; now that the dam is broken Rebublicans can gather what's left of their dignity and courage and THINK OVERRIDE!
So I guess we should be increasingly be on the lookout for such bogus bills from self-serving Dems and Repigs - seeking to create an illusion that they are actually good for something - as the election cycle heats up.
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Trittydi @ 55:
I DON'T like the idea that now they are looking out for each other in mutual self-interest.
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