Lieberman on Pork Barrel/Surrender Bill

Republicans epitomize the term *ChickenHawk* read it and weep right wingers.

Democrats
* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.
* David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72.
* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan.
1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Hearts.
* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
* Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam.(Double Amputee)
* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
* Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.
* Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons.
* Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars, and Soldier's Medal.
* Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and Legion of Merit.
* Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart.
* Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V.
* Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
* Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57
* Chuck Robb: Vietnam
* Howell Heflin: Silver Star
* George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII.
* Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments.
Entered draft but received #311.
* Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy.
* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953
* John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and Air Medal with 18 Clusters.
* Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII.
Saved by Raoul Wallenberg.

Republicans
* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.
* Karl Rove: did not serve.
* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. "Bad knee." The man who attacked Cleland's patriotism. (Can you belive it? Attacking a double Amputee who actually served, while he didn't)
* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
* Vin Weber: did not serve.
* Richard Perle: did not serve.
* Douglas Feith: did not serve.
* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
* Richard Shelby: did not serve.
* Jon! Kyl: did not serve.
* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
* Christopher Cox: did not serve.
* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
* Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor.
* George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard; got assigned to Alabama so he could campaign for family friend running for U.S. Senate; failed to show up for required medical exam, disappeared from duty.
* Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non-combat role making movies.
* B-1 Bob Dornan: Consciously enlisted after fighting was over in Korea.
* Phil Gramm: did not serve.
* John McCain: Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
* Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.
* John M. McHugh: did not serve.
* JC Watts: did not serve.
* Jack Kemp: did not serve. "Knee problem," although continued in NFL for 8 years.
* Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.
* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
* George Pataki: did not serve.
* Spencer Abraham: did not serve.
* John Engler: did not serve.
* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.

Pundits & Preachers
* Sean Hannity: did not serve.
* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4-F with a 'pilonidal cyst.')
* Bill O'Reilly: did not serve.
* Michael Savage: did not serve.
* George Will: did not serve.
* Chris Matthews: did not serve.
* Paul Gigot: did not serve.
* Bill Bennett: did not serve.
* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
* John Wayne: did not serve.
* Bill Kristol: did not serve.
* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
* Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
* Ralph Reed: did not serve.
* Michael Medved: did not serve.

THANK YOU BUFFALO FOR PROVING MY POINT, NOW TAKE THAT PATRIOTISM YOU HAVE AND UNLEASH IT ON YOUR PARTY MEMBERS WHO FAILED TO SEVER THEIR COUNTRY WHEN IT NEEDED THEM MOST.

 

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Ganymede

So you don't contribute to the death toll? really? do you back abortion on demand? By your inaction have innocent people died? when you say not to interfere with the radical Islamic terrorist do you contribute to another innocent life being lost? Have you went to the point were, what you consider the evil acts of America are being done, and put your body in front of the evil American War Machine in a effort to stop the horrible Killing? Have You put your body in front of the terrorist that are Killing innocent Moslems and Christians, and any other religion, to stop the killing? or do you sit at home, keeping your cowardly ass from taking part in the world, instead of going out and try to change the wrongs that you claim are happening? Yes SAHBAM, never put your self were you might bleed for your beliefs, a true Humanitarian, I Can Respect Ghandi, I Can Respect Rachel Corie, They went out a fought and bled and died for their Ideals, what have you done, and SAHBAM, that tells me just what the total worth of your ideas are.

 

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Ganymede

You have no point, these people don't condemn our military, LIKE YOU DO !they don't condemn our country, LIKE YOU DO ! They fully support or troops in the field, they don't support play politics with the lives of our troops, by screwing with the funding of the troops in combat for political gain, LIKE YOU DO !
The Democrats now are (and you support) what they are doing, which is now costing the lives of those same troops, due to lack of being able to supply protective body armor, and armor for the HUMV's, So How does it feel to pull the trigger and kill? That is what you are doing, do you realize that, you have blood on your hands, the same as you accuse others of doing, you support the killing. So tell me Bloody Hand how does it feel? to know that you support and have contributed to the deaths of others?

 

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Duh, it was Bush who failed to provide armor. Nothing the Democrats are doing will leave troops in the field without ammunition. The Army plans in advance for their missions you know.

 

i love it.
all you clowns having a mass orgasm

let me ask you a question.
what could bush do to insure a victory for the US in iraq?

and.
what was being discussed when this photo was taken?

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pinochle.

 

Granted that remembering what happened six months ago, much less last year, is far too much to ask of a conservative American; still the amnesia of such a statement is bizarre.

Desperate ?

"You go to war with the army you have" was the Republican response to observations of underfunding and under equipping. The Murtha proposal was suppoerted by Dems, opposed by Reps, not the other way around.

 

iceaura

??????????????????????logic?????????????????????????????????????????

The fact is that you do go to war with the Army you have, it has always happened that way, and the short coming are fixed along the way, the Republicans funded the equipment, and the up grades, and the body armor, along the way, show me were they didn't, but now the Democrats have for political purpose presented a Funding bill that they new was going to draw a veto, they put a time table to make what they hope will be political points, at the expense of the troops lives, there is no funding for the troops as of today, the Military Appropriations Bill wasn't passed, so there is no money for supplies for the troops, Ammunition, Body Armor, Medical Supplies, Weapons, Food, Clothing, and even for the health care of the dependents of the troops, right now the military is going through massive shifts of operating priorities, to try and keep the troops in the field supplied, but no thanks to the Democrats, the money has run out, and soon everything else will to, so don't tell me how the Democrats care for the Troops, I have been there, I have went into combat with a 100 rds in the guns and no more after that runs dry, I have flown Medi Vac, and had to wait for the grunts on the ground to move to a secure area because we didn't have the ammo to make a hot landing and pull the wounded out and to Hospital, yes Deja Vue, all over, Vietnam, screw the troops, politics comes first last and always with the democrats.

 

The first three years of the Iraq occupation, is one place they didn't.

Still haven't, actually.

The body armor and tinfoil Humvees and various other under-equippings were scandals from the very beginning. The Republicans did little or nothing about them until forced, and not much then.

Again: the Murtha proposition was opposed by Republicans, not supported.

None of the funding for the Iraq war, none of the stuff you describe, is Democratic doing. The Democrats have not had control of Congress long enough for any budget changes to have hit the the ground. All your complaints should be directed at the people responsible: Republicans, all of them.

All W had to do was include the war funding in his budget, and the Dems couldn't even threaten to cut funds - for the first time - now.

 

iceaura

.
Please provide proof that the Republicans didn't provide the nessary armor as soon as it was possiable to do so, and that the troops don't have the armor nessary today.

Yes we know were you speak from on the subject, and again proof?

The Humv was never intended to be a combat vehicle, it was to have replaced the Jeep, and the 5/4 ton vehicles, it was a soft skinned designee from the start, if you can prove other wise please do so, but when they started to use it as a patrol combat vehicle, it was discovered, no shit that it didn't have any armor, so for a while the troops had to improvise? until the armor could be developed, manufactured, dispersed to and applied to the Humves, so we went to war with what we had, and worked like hell to improve what we had to work with, And now the democrats with their games are taking all of that progress and turning back the clock to a time when shortages existed in the protection level of the troops.

The Democrats have controal of the House and the Senate as of Friday, January 5, 2007, the Democrats have controal of all the Chairmanships, and Commitees in Congress, they wrote the Bill, They are the ones who passed it and they are the ones who sent it up to the President with a time table that they knew would draw a veto, Mr. Murtha’s is the chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, he is a Democrat, and he wrote the bill, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sheparded it throught the Senate in support of Murtha, in the Senate it was a roll call vote along party lines Democrats for.

So don't tell me that they aren't responsable for the Bill as it was sent to the President, and that what they are doing isn't going to affect the troops, and risk their lives, I talk every week with a solder who has, or is going to deploy in Iraq, I have a lot of friends who are soldiers, it is a habit that I have to thank any Soldier, that I see in Uniform, or that I can Identify by the hair cut, for their service, and they all detest the democrats, and people like you who are using them as a political football for personel politics, at the danger of their lives, the democrats are doing more to change the voting preferences of the Americans people than anything that we conservative could have done, and it isn't just the troops that are feeling that way, it is their families, and friends, yes for ever trooper, their are at least 8 other people in his life that are watching the Demorats play politics with the lives of their loved ones.

War Critic Faces Test on Iraq Spending Bill - New York Times
Mr. Murtha’s power comes not just from his role as chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, in charge of the huge spending bill for the war that ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/washington/25murtha.html?ex=
1330059600&en=c0267289170b7c5b&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Senate Sends War Timetable To Bush's Desk - washingtonpost.com
The Senate approved a $124 billion Iraq war spending bill yesterday that ... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid arrive for a ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/26/AR2007042602469.html

 

Nearly half of the $94 billion in emergency funding President Bush says Congress needs to immediately make available to continue to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would actually be used to finance non-urgent items related to the so-called "longer war on terror." The revelation once again casts further doubt on the president's assertion that the Army will run out of funding this month for US troops fighting in those regions, according to a report issued by the nonpartisan research arm of Congress.

...According to a copy of the supplemental bill, $695 million in emergency funding would be used to send an additional aircraft carrier and Marine Expeditionary Force to the Persian Gulf, which many critics interpret as sending a hostile message to Iran. Furthermore, the Bush administration intends to use $10 million of the supplemental to help the State Department finance the US-established Alhurra Television (the free one) into 22 Middle Eastern countries. The channel, which broadcasts a wide variety of programs in Arabic from a studio in Springfield, Virginia, is seen as a propaganda tool whose messages are controlled by the Bush administration, according to a report in the Columbia Journalism Review.

... Finally, the Defense Department has also included a request for $500 million to expand its inventory of spare and repair parts, a "reflection of DOD's decision to expand the scope of costs permitted in supplemental requests to include costs of the 'longer war on terror' and not just emergency war costs."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042307A.shtml

 

spidergoat

 

Yeah?

 

Buffalo Roam

 

Your claims were about how shortages had already affected the troops - my point was that all the shortages so far are Republican doing. No Democratic budget has affected anyone in Iraq, yet.

There was an armored version of the Humvee, and retrofit armor for the tinfoil ones, available before the invasion. They were too expensive, for Rumsfeld's war. Requests for retrofit armor started coming in from the field by the fall of '03. As of the fall of '05, the sole source retrofit armor factory (in Ohio, state of many sole source Republican contractors) was not even at full capacity, let alone doing something radical like subcontract to larger capacity suppliers. Meanwhile about 80% of the Humvees used by the Marines in Iraq remained short of requested retrofit armor (most had some, but not the full coverage), and the army was in little better shape.

Quite a few US soldiers were killed and wounded in poorly armored humvees, during the two years it took to get the Republicans to begin to take an interest in that problem. But soldiers' deaths and maimings have never been of much interest to many current Republicans.

Interestingly, the Chairman of the Board of that company is an uncle of the current President. http://www.engineeredsupport.com/directors.htm

The problem was old news by '05, and production armored vehicles were involved as well as retrofit: http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/12/09/soldiers_headed_to_iraq_grill_rumsfeld/

Physics, is it?

http://jacksonville.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2004/12/20/story7.html

Even at the increased production, they were only running one shift. Not exactly emergency response behavior, from this sole source Ohio Republican supplier.
http://peoplegetready.blogspot.com/2005/06/its-time-to-wish-for-army-without.html for a typical lefty rant on the subject, in 2005 - two years into the war.
http://www.iraqnow.blogspot.com/2003_12_01_archive.html for a righty rant, same problem, already old news in January '04.

btw: Again, all the Republicans would have had to do, to fund the war for this whole year without Democratic interference, is put the funding in the regular budget. Why didn't they?

 

[The spending bill] would spend on veterans' health care $1.8 billion that Bush had not asked for and boosts funding for troop training and equipment.

On the local front, the agreement keeps Walter Reed Army Medical Center open for now, overruling the federal commission that had planned to shutter the Washington-based facility. The bill provides $20 million for repairs at Reed, keeping it open while upgrades are made to its successors.

 

spidergoat

And Half of it is! The Democrats played politics with the Bill, adding a Time Table, and Loading it with ear marks(PORK) $10 Billion worth, so in the end none of it is available to the Troops.

Anything else is a non-emergence, but it support the troops, it takes care of the medical needs at the Hospitals for the injured troops, it takes care of the families of the troops that are in theater, it pays for the equipment and supplies that are destroyed in combat, and that means the Body armor and Up Grade Kits for the Humvee's, it pays for the food that is consumed because the Military is bigger because of the numbers of ANG personnel now on active duty, and that is all of the 1000nds of thing that are needed to run a Army, and it is all vital to the long mission.

As for the long term moneys, It isn't available either, remember it is part of the bill, and with out the bill being able to pass, it isn't there.
But the Democrats want to play games with the lives of our Troops, and the welfare of their families, it is the Democrats, who are the one who made sure that there would be confrontation over funding Troops in Combat, and in the end leave them in the lurch.

 

Who's playing the game, when the Iraq War isn't even in the actual budget of the United States? Why must Bush fund this war with supplementals? I guess it's POLITICS, so he can claim our debt is low and justify tax cuts for the rich.

The lives of our troops aren't threatened by the actions of the Democrats. Bush cannot use them as pawns, they will serve to fit the policy, whatever it is. Don't even start on their families, with this administration lying at every turn about how they die (Pat Tillman). What soldier's funeral has he ever gone to? What sacrifices does he ask of the American people (nothing, keep shopping)?