Captain's Quarters -

Knowingly, or not, Democrats are weakening the Country by all the actions with the sole purpose to "stick it to the President". Because of this other countries see us as unstable and unreliable ally.
I would like to ask all the Democrats, paraphrasing words of one of theirs own:
"Ask not what your President can do for you, ask what your can do for your President".
Because like it or not, your President is your Country.

I get the sinking feeling that Obama doesn't understand his own party.

TomB ... the 'president' has done a bang up job all on his own, that is why there are more "dems" than "repugs" in the champers of congress and running statehouses. The Dem's don't need to stick it to the president, he and his "men and women" are all too capable to accomplish that on their own. No one has stuck it to GWB like GWB has.

Obama on the other hand simply does not understand that you can't make a stand and then admit it was nothing more than symbolic.

Two thoughts:
1) Not only did they make their questionable point, but they squandered a month of negotiating time.
2) With little time remaining, they will get their $24 B of blood money, or more.

Captain, you seem to forget the MSM will portray the Democrats in a fake light, as being concerned with the Troops, and portray the President as being misguided.

Obama is just playing the game, providing a public image of concern for the troops, but the real action doesn't have to match the final Democrat effort.

The biased Media, and Democrat supporters will fabricate any story line to support their biased agenda.

If Obama's Party doesn't support his latest expression, and again offers an irresponsible funding bill, it will only make Sen. Obama sound more responsible.

He will stand out, saying he opposed the effort, but simply wants t o support the US Troops now in harms way.

The Democrat Party offered the most irresponsible Bill, in recent memory, full of bribery, self interest, unethical undermining, and seem to have paid little price for it.

It has nothing to do with the Administration, but mostly it has to do with the manipulation in the MSM.

Meanwhile, all I see is Conservatives placing more angst with Republicans...

Who is unethically trying to force a defeat, surrender on the USA in the essential GWOT?

The Democrat Party and it's supporters...

But some just want to bash Republicans...

They better wake up, before it is too late.

Kaus predicted this just a few days ago:

The Dems get to posture to their base, the Republicans get to call the Dems names to their base, and the troops get funded. Everybody wins.

The sad thing is that such a large portion of the country is so il-liberal that the Democrats have to indulge them with this crap.

Monkei doesn't understand that the Dems were not taking a stand. They were sending a message ... to al Qaeda:

"Don't give up. We are leaving. Hang in there and together we can beat Bush and the neo cons".

"Everybody wins."

Except those with their lives on the line and those they are trying to protect. It was less than a month between the time Kennedy called Iraq a quagmire and his words were being repeated by al Sadr.

This belief that dissent is not emboldening the enemy is fantastic.

The Dems get to posture to their base, the Republicans get to call the Dems names to their base, and the troops get funded. Everybody wins.

Posted by: rkayn

Not everybody.

04/01/07 MNF: 4 U.S. soldiers killed southwest of Baghdad on April 1
Four additional Soldiers were killed when a second improvised explosive device detonated near a separate unit responding to the initial IED strike southwest of the Iraqi capital April 1.
04/01/07 MNF: 2 U.S. soldiers killed southwest of Baghdad on March 31
While conducting a combat security patrol, two MND-B Soldiers died and two others were wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated near their unit southwest of the Iraqi capital March 31.

And one year from now when another 700+ are dead and many more wounded and the situation on the ground no better and another $150,000,000,000 wasted what will you have to say for yourself?

Wonder if Bush is going to refuse to sign the next bill, over the fact that 24billion of non-Defence spending is not part of a of war supplimental that is politics and outright request of bribe to do what they should do in the first place.

muirego provided this amusing nonsense:

"And one year from now when another 700+ are dead and many more wounded and the situation on the ground no better and another $150,000,000,000 wasted what will you have to say for yourself?"

You have several problems with this argument.

First of all, you're assigning an arbitrary "number" when you babble about 700 more dead next year. Why is this particular number "significant"?

Second, all of the people who have died on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan were not forced to go there. They joined the military of their own volition.

And more importantly, many more than 700 people will die in traffic accidents in the US in the next 12 months.

But since such deaths cannot be blamed on McCheneyBusHalliburton (LLC), they don't count.

Del Dolemonte,

The traffic deaths can be blamed on McChaneyBusHalliburton, with about as much logic as goes into blaming the aforementioned for the deaths in Iraq.

After all, all the money we "wasted" in Iraq could have gone to build safer guardrails for our highways, engine governors for our too-fast cars, etc. Not to mention preventing high temperature blowouts by reducing global warming.

The President needs to make it clear that if the Treasury has to stop writing checks for the war effort, then it will stop writing paychecks for members of Congress and their staff.

It's going to be interesting. Obama must feel he can wrap up the Primary and beat Hillary, so he can run as the moderate/centrist instead of the hardcore liberal that he is ... I believe he's been rated as the most liberal Senator in the Senate by a number of organizations.

Of course the Dems are not going to take that lying down. The Dem Party consists of Saudi and Omani oil terror sheik funded Moveon.org, Code Pink, UFPJ, and of course ANSWER. Ever wonder where these marginal organizations get their money? Oil terror sheiks of course.

They have the money, the have the looney manpower, they have the people to burn and poop on the flag (to the applause of the demonstrators and the silent assent of Dems). It's 1968 lunacy all over again (insane Anti-American stuff) driving the Party.

While Hillary has opened up a marginal lead over unknown Obama the Messiah, Obama's unforced error lets other candidates into the hunt. Edwards or even Kucinich can be expected to get in the hunt. Don't forget that McCain-Feingold means 527 orgs like Moveon or ANSWER can act without any check and spend any money they like on whatever candidate they want.

Already Kos (IMHO probably funded by Oil Terror Sheiks) is calling for Obama's head.

Dems sowed the wind they may end up reaping the Whirlwind. Kucinich/Edwards vs. say, Thompson/Lieberman anyone?

Oh and the vote? Dems will likely splinter, with the Blue Dogs for survival having to go with the Reps to fund the troops, while Code Pink /ANSWER make Pelosi overtly try to defund the troops while in combat. Having stirred those guys up they can't simply make them go away.

A great deal of damage has been done by this symbolic effort already.

Every day, ordinary Iraqis put themselves and their families at risk by helping us find the bad guys. How many will be willing to do that with all the retreat noise coming from the US Congress?

More Americans will die because of these ill-considered attempts to usurp executive authority. At least muriego has an excuse for a party.

Via Rantburg:

Senate Democratic leaders stress they will keep pushing for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq even if President Bush vetoes legislations calling for a pullout, Associated Press reported on Sunday. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, and Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said lawmakers might work on a new measure that sets "target dates" for withdrawal.

Biden cited a nonpartisan Congressional Research Service report saying, "I think we'll set a target date for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq."

The report indicates that the Army could maintain its wartime operations well into July 2007 with funds already provided. Biden also stated that "we've got to change the mission to get a political solution. That's what we're saying."

Meanwhile, senator Durbin said, "If you follow this escalation of the war by President Bush, you can understand that there is no end in sight." The Democratic-controlled House and Senate passed measures last month setting conditions for an eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

----

Evita has it sewn up and Obama's under the wheels?????

If President Bush vetoes an Iraq war spending bill as promised, Congress quickly will provide the money without the withdrawal timeline the White House objects to because no lawmaker "wants to play chicken with our troops," Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday.

Um, then what the hell does he think they HAVE they been doing???

Further, I wonder if Obama speaks for the Senate democrats. I'm quite sure that Trashcan Chuckie, the Swimmer, Dick Turban, and the rest of the filth in the Senate haven't given up. VICTORY (over Bush) OR DEATH (for lots of Iraqis)!

Monkei raises an interesting point:

Obama on the other hand simply does not understand that you can't make a stand and then admit it was nothing more than symbolic.

First of all, if the dems DON'T keep pushing for speedy defeat in Iraq, their rabid base is going to be seriously pissed off. If Obey thinks he had trouble in the hallowed halls of the Congress a few weeks ago, he ain't seen nothing yet. Next time the anti-victory crowd shows up at SanFran Nan's mansion, they won't be bearing trays of cheese and wine.

Second of all, Obama's statement seems to me a tacit admission of what many of us have known all along: the anti-victory platform of the democrat party is nothing more than political theatre. If they think that the war is such a disaster, and if they think that we can't win, and if they think that the troops are being wasted in Iraq, then they SHOULD attempt to pull the plug; it's the only decent thing to do. The fact that they MAY stop even trying speaks volumes about what they've really been up to, and just how hollow their position really is.

One last note:

muirgeo wrote (April 1, 2007 09:47 PM):

And one year from now when another 700+ are dead and many more wounded and the situation on the ground no better and another $150,000,000,000 wasted what will you have to say for yourself?

The same thing that my grandparents said after Savo Island, Kasserine, or Tarawa, or that their grandparents said after Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, or Vicksburg, or THEIR grandparents said after Germantown, Brandywine, or Camden, which is what President Roosevelt said on December 8, 1941:

We will win the inevitable triumph, so help us God.

O' course, I know what YOU'LL say if we lose in Iraq, and 3 million Iraqis die in Middle Eastern killing fields like 3 million Cambodians, Laotians and Vietnamese died in Asian killing fields the last time the dems arranged for us to lose a war:

It's All Bush's Fault!(TM)

(only in '75, it was Nixon's fault)

i said all along that bush will sign this pork barrelling piece of sh*t legislation once the date was changed or removed. if bush isn't the apparatchik i think he is, he will still veto the bill and demand that it be stripped of all attachments.

the repubs lost the house and probably the next presidential election because they violated their number one reason for existence----small government and fiscal responsibility. bush and the repubs were an embarrassment. i don't care about the increase in tax receipts etc--they spent like drunken sailors. they lost the election and they deserved to. they built the bridge to nowhere...........

Every day, ordinary Iraqis put themselves and their families at risk by helping us find the bad guys. How many will be willing to do that with all the retreat noise coming from the US Congress?

If, the Iraqis are out there on point now fighting the bad guys, can any one of you right wing wackos tell me why US GIs are doing all the dieing in combat roles? More right wing bable.

What you are calling retreat from the Congress will be called victory and pullout from the GOP in about 10 months.

If, the Iraqis are out there on point now fighting the bad guys, can any one of you right wing wackos tell me why US GIs are doing all the dieing in combat roles? More right wing bable.

the numbers run 20 to 1 or more iraqi dead when you include the police. the canard put out by the left is that we alone are carrying the burden.

The Left has proven clearly and consistently that they do not care one iota for the human beings in Iraq, let alone for the millions of brave Iraqis who voted for the first time in their history.

These people mean nothing, absolutely NOTHING, to the monkeis of the world.

Because the universe has a perverse sense of humor, monkei is known as a "liberal." Go figure.