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Bush Threatens Congress with 100K Christmas Furloughs
The White House ups the ante in its Iraq War funding fight with Congress by notifying 100,000 civilian employees of a possible furlough just in time for Christmas.
Upping the ante in the Iraq funding stalemate with Congress, the White House announced furloughs for 100,000 civilians employees just in time for Christmas. From the Swamp;
Merry Christmas from Washington: With Congress balking at continued war funding, the White House says the Defense Department will issue furlough notices to about 100,000 civilian workers at military bases in mid-December.
The threat of notices is the White House’s way of reminding Congress that it must authorize continued funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The House has voted to tie $50 billion in continued funding to a timeline for troop withdrawals, but that measure has been shelved in the Senate. The White House is calling on Congress to approve a spending bill before year’s end. If funding isn’t provided, the Defense Department says, the stall will have a “profoundly’’ burdensome impact on its operations.
“Before you furlough anyone, you have to provide notice,’’ White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said this morning. “If Congress provides the full funding, then the Department of Defense will not have to take the step’’ of furlough notices. They will have to be issued in mid-December, she said.
Perino also acknowledges that this was a warning shot across the bow of Congress – “that’s exactly what that was.’’
“It is not us who is making any civilians suffer,’’ she said. “We are calling on Congress.’’
This blatant attempt to use Christmas furloughs as leverage in the funding feud with Congress is despicable. Hopefully some second-opinion accounting will reveal how cruel this move truly is, after all, according to the Chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Committee John Murtha (emphasis mine in this article concerning Gen. Mieg from the Pentagon's counter-IED organization);
Meigs also said that the standoff between the Congress and President Bush over the White House's request for war funding is going to cripple his organization's ability to pay for new counter-IED projects, if it continues into next year.
But Democrats say this isn't necessarily true. Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the House Defense appropriations subcommittee, said Congress included $120 million for the task force in the military's 2008 annual budget and the military can borrow against the rest of the $471 billion that was approved. So far, the Pentagon has not asked to tranfer any money, he said.
UPDATE: How will Dems respond? From the AP;
And Reps. David Obey and John Murtha said they won't bite. Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Murtha, D-Pa., head of the panel's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said they won't support more money for the war this year unless President Bush accepts a timetable for troop withdrawals.
Last week, the House passed a $50 billion bill that would keep operations afloat for several more months, but sets a goal of bringing most troops home by December 2008. After Bush threatened to veto the measure, Senate Republicans blocked it.
"If the president wants that $50 billion released, all he has to do is to call the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, and ask him to stop blocking it," Obey told reporters.
Obey and Murtha convened the rare recess-week news conference to counter Pentagon reports that the military will have to take drastic steps next month if it doesn't get the money soon.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday signed a memo ordering the Army to begin planning for a series of expected cutbacks, including the layoffs of as many as 100,000 civilian employees and another 100,000 civilian contractors, starting as early as January.
Obey and Murtha said they calculate the military has enough money to continue operations through March by eating into its $471 billion annual budget.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the military has only limited transfer authority.
"Those who think we have some sort of flexibility here are simply misinformed," Whitman told reporters on Tuesday. "We've entered into a very serious period here."
Murtha said the Pentagon was issuing "irresponsible" propaganda.
Howard lit the torch and we're NOT going to let it go out....
Reposting this - missed the new thread.
Fred – time to buy lots of canned goods and survival equipment. : ) If we know they’ve been lying to us before, just WAIT until we find out what Bush has really done to our economy.
Sitka – No, not in the ‘Powell didn’t know anything’ club. Too many rumors at the time that he was not happy with what was going on. VERY unhappy that he didn’t go public with what he really knew. Of course, Colin is now heavily invested in the Carlyle Group, so what can you say…..
Don’t you just love our media? They smirk and moan about how the Democrats aren’t doing enough – then when we've finally got Bush pushed into a corner, we get “it’s just all political” (CNN) Great of old Dobsy man to come down on the Democrats as ‘not working together – creating problems’ ….”the American people should be fed up with ALL of them”. Just tooooooooooooo much for Mr. ‘Independent’ to admit - it’s the Republicans.......
Here are two headlines that should make you wonder: Obama on Past Substance Abuse: 'Man, I Wasted a Lot of Time'... Rudy defends Obama’s Discussion of Previous Drug Use Drudgereport.com Oil Rises Above $99...
Thank goodness for Obama that Bush lowered the bar on substance abuse and addiction all the way to the ground.
Florida is at it again. A school board majority comes out in favor of creationism as opposed to evolution.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1655
There are a lot of letters to the editors calling evolution a form of indoctrination.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1654
Good interview of Howard Dean in Denver last week. The Fox anchor was very polite and courteous. Quite a long interview.
http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4978332&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.2.1
A school board majority comes out in favor of creationism as opposed to evolution.
Fool me once. Hopefully they'll find out what the creationuts in Kansas did -- that they are a minority and when the public figures out what they're up to they'll toss them out.
floridagal - sometimes I think there's not so much difference in the 'theory of evolution' and creationism. I mean - FIRST he made the earth, and..planets..and divided the water and land..and then set in fish and then crawling things and then.....us. If the bible was a story book lesson for FIVE years olds... written down eons later by the shaking hand of man....
Well there you go. You send in 30,000 men, 300 die - ALL to give these guys time to come to agreements AND
Baghdad, Nov 19, (VOI) – The Iraqi parliament decided to adjourn its heated debate on the contentious accountability and justice law, formerly known as the debaathification law, and invited the finance minister to its Sunday session for discussion on the 2008 budget. antiwar.com
sometimes I think there's not so much difference in the 'theory of evolution' and creationism.
But then, you also think Scott McClellan is a "GOOD person."
The DLC doesn't represent any Democratic Party voters. Its masters include American and United Airlines, Aetna and New York Life Insurance, Microsoft, DuPont, the agribusiness and pharmaceutical industries, Citigroup and, until recently, Enron, among many others. The DLC is an organization conceived in the boardroom and dedicated to the proposition that moneyed interests trump all others. About two hundred corporations comprise its Board of Advisors (fee: $5,000), and nearly 100 pay the cost to be the boss on the DLC's Policy Roundtable ($10,000 each). For $25,000, around 30 corporate executives pretend to be Democrats as members of the DLC Executive Council. Enron sat there, along with Philip Morris, Texaco, Chevron, and Dupont.....
The DLC's mission is to erase the last vestiges of social democracy from the Democratic Party, so that the corporate consensus will never again be challenged in the United States. Acting as a Republican Trojan Horse in the bowels of the Democratic machinery, the DLC claims the "real" party lives somewhere off to the right, where George Bush dwells, and that minorities, unionists, environmentalists, feminists, men and women of peace - virtually every branch of the party except corporatists - must be purged or muzzled.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/71...
Thousands flee Pakistan fighting
Thousands of people have fled fighting between government troops and pro-Taleban militants in Pakistan's northern Swat district.
----
It sure doesn't look good in Occupied Territories-East. I don't believe the U.S. can continue to support the dictator there and hope for progress in the fight against an extremely resilient guerrilla force. To me, it looks like the dictator has used his secret police to suppress his opposition while the Taleban is growing in strength and number....taking over vast tracks of territory.
LZ Xray --- Awhile ago, Musharraf was trying to make 'deals' with the Taleban. I mean, they live in his country and could cause him a lot of trouble. It just could be that the 'pressure' from Bush and his group, pushed him to deal more harshly with them (and a few U.S. bombings that killed civilians) and thus..... we now have a WAR in Pakistan, too.
Iraq: The Iraqi Parliament ADJOURNS - Two more U.S. killed in helicopter crash. Several bombings in the country.
Pakistan: Thirty-five persons including 16 Taliban and seven soldiers were killed in fresh clashes; thousands of people fled the troubled areas in Swat
Afghanistan: A suicide bombing targeting an Afghan provincial governor,killed his son and six bodyguards. Also, three police officers killed in another suicide bombing…antiwar.com
Russia: Vladimir Putin: "we will continue rising the combat readiness of its strategic nuclear forces to be able to strike a fast and adequate blow on any aggressor.....“Russia can not stay indifferent to NATO’s obvious “muscle-flexing” near the borders of the Russian Federation,” the president said. http://english.pravda.ru/russia/kremlin/20-11-2007/101245-putin-0
Sitka: Wow - That from The BlackCommentator.com These are very angry people…and very paranoid. So much so, that they don’t give out their names.
“The DLC's mission is to erase the last vestiges of social democracy from the Democratic Party, so that the corporate consensus will never again be challenged in the United States. Acting as a Republican Trojan Horse in the bowels of the Democratic machinery”
...in the 'bowels' of.... holy samolies Sitka - be careful around these people.“Every African American associated with the DLC should be considered suspect”.
EVERYone's a suspect...
“State Senator Obama says he “didn’t object to the DLC's inclusion of my (his) name on their list.” That is precisely the problem, from which all suspicions reasonably flow. blackcommentatory.com
I DO question their word 'reasonably'...Scott McClellan: "The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. "There was one problem. It was not true.
"I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself."
GOOD guy…..or somebody would have already paid him off.
GOOD guy…..or somebody would have already paid him off.
By your logic, so was Al Capone's bookeeper -- for protecting his own ass.
And he is getting paid off -- for writing a tell-all.
So McClellan claims he didn’t know he was lying as he defended his boss during the leak case, when night after night he’d plop himself in front of the Press Corps and deliver his monotone fish stories one after another, as exasperated reporters and just plain folks would open their eyes wider and wider as these fantastic tales unfolded.
Another loyal Bushie swimming away from the sinking barge, swimming toward absolution, perhaps, in Tiny Attention Span America, where all is forgiven or forgotten with the passage of time.
Well, Scott, request denied. Same goes for all of these criminals associated with this administration: Armitage, Greenspan, Tenet, and any other sycophant sleazy enough to throw in with this crowd, then shoot for Absolution By Book Deal. Your service to Bush has done phenomenal damage to this country, damage that will take generations to correct. For this you will never be forgiven or cheered....
Well, except by you, Sam. The next time you carry on about how GOOD DCDems are, we'll just have to remind you who else you think is GOOD -- Bush's mouthpiece.
These are very angry people…
With good reason.
and very paranoid.
According to the DLC sycophant (who also thinks Bush's former hired liar is a "GOOD guy.")
Good morning, everybody
I have to tell you that I was really affected by my attendance at the disability forum because I came away realizing that we are all disabled in one way or another. A young mother, for example, with two toddlers' hands to hold is disarmed. Think about it the next time you have to hold on to a railing to climb or go downstairs. What if there is no railing? Would a ramp make it easier?
Anyway, I've got to write up something with the title "Disabilities R Us"
Like their motto: "Equality, Opportunity, Access." You can't have equality without opportunity and there's no opportunity, if you're denied access to wherever the action is. Gated communities are all about denying access, aren't they? Ordinary people on their own two feet are not able to go in. Think about going door to door to distribute literature for a prospective public official. No can do. The people who sequester themselves behind locked gates don't want to know about candidates promoted by the grass roots.
The icing on the cake, so to speak, was Biden's addition of "Dignity."
So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks
Funny that. I thought it peculiar that Bush Two referred to the klied lights when he was asked in the ABC interview what it was that Hillary was used to when it came to the Presidency. He said "the klieg lights, but you know that to" to whatever his name is. So, the interview at Camp David was damage control. They must have arranged it in the last moment, because I don't remember a promo for it on the evening news the day before.
The spouse insisted an watching. He always watches the ABC evening news, although he said the other day that NBC has better introductory music. So, maybe we'll be changing. I hardly paid attention but it was so annoying I said why don't you turn it off. He said he wanted to see his president. The spouse kept commenting on Bush Two jiggling his foot or sitting pigeon toed.
Edwards has turned on the DLC and joined our side or I for sure would not be backing him. eh? sitka
Monica post your questions Thursday morning so I can ask Dodd if I get him to blog. The problem. I'm still on daylight savings time in the calving pen routine so a belly full of turkey and a football game and a soft easy chair I'll probably nod off at nap time..
Like their motto: "Equality, Opportunity, Access." You can't have equality without opportunity and there's no opportunity, if you're denied access to wherever the action is.
The icing on the cake, so to speak, was Biden's addition of "Dignity."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I like Joe Biden's basic human instincts, He has what it takes to be a good President. for who? is the question, corporations, the war machine, and the disabled?
Cover Up
posted by Matt Browner-Hamlin, Campaign Blogger on November 20, 2007 -
8:04pm
Chris Dodd today released the following statement in response to the
claims of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan that he
"unknowingly passed along false information" to the American public and
that "the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in
[his] doing so," including the Vice-President and the President:
"Today's revelations by Mr. McClellan are very disturbing and raise
several important questions that need to be answered. If in fact the
President of the United of States knowingly instructed his chief spokesman
to mislead the American people, there can be no more fundamental betrayal
of the public trust.
"During his confirmation process, Attorney General Mukasey said he would
act independently. Accordingly, today, I call on the Attorney General to
live up to his word and launch an immediate investigation to determine the
facts of this case, the extent of any cover up and determine what the
President knew and when he knew it."
_________________________________________________________________________
P.S. I wondered what prompted that interview on ABC last night and thought
it strange that Bush would mention "klieg lights" in the context of what
Hillary Clinton has experience in. His mind had obviously latched on to
McClellan's statement:
Scott McClellan: "The most powerful leader in the world had called upon
me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the
failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the
White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights
for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the
senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. "There
was one problem. It was not true."
M/H
Monica
those subliminal slips are always telling, I'll bet you are right about the kleig lights
I can't stand to watch the smirk but caught the bit they recast on the overnight news
Bush laughed outloud when Charlie asked about Obama as President, that alone is just about enough to vote for Obama
Chris Dodd has stiffened his backbone in standing up to Bush, I hope it spreads.
4.
Sitka
Tue, 11/20/07
10:30 pm
Thank goodness for Obama that Bush lowered the bar on substance abuse and addiction all the way to the ground.
===
Just want to mention that our leader, Howard Dean, also quit drinking after he felt he had wasted some time on it.
I believe there's a difference between 'youthful indiscretion' and full blown alcoholisim -- people in AA speak of having stunted their emotional growth -- in other words, if they drank from age 20 to 40 and quit at 40, then they were emotionally 20 years old. That is why I don't really see a similarity between youthful drinking/pot smoking and grownup alcoholisim.
Mischievously OT for this hour of the morning, you can now listen to some Met Opera clips for free on Rhapsody -- it even works on Safari.
http://www.rhapsody.com/metropolitanoper...
Off to watch a little Wash Journal, then meet a guy in the woods about a well pump and feed the cat, then go to Palatka to buy a turkey part and 2 pies, then hope to see you folks this afternoon.
bbl
Was there an Entity before Being?
the condition of using oxidation to create energy is a marvelous thing, however the heck we bipeds made the surface of this beautiful planet(crawled out on the beach)
I'm not sure God isn't a Tree and we just come along for the ride of the plant kingdoms respiration
I do know we couldn't get along without them.
the scriptual faiths all start with a Garden, I think you could teach evolution starting with Genesis (just couldn't be a public school)
My big problem with Bush/Cheney is that he's somebody's creature and that somebody is sure to be creating another. McClellan sticking in the knife probably means that the somebody is in the Texas axis. It's my guess that Clinton and Richardson are the six of one half dozen of the other. Maybe they threw in Obama as lagniape or a "hush-puppy" When we find out where his money is coming from we'll have a better idea. What raises my suspicion is that there have been some really bonehead decisions--like not showing up for the disability forum. Obama was the only Democrat who didn't have a presence. Even McCain spoke on an electronic feed and Giuliani was on the agenda as having been invited. Edwards was represented by Bonior because of a conflict. What made it even stranger was that the forum was scheduled to co-incide with the first day candidates could register for the NH primary.
The organizers were very proud of the accommodations they had made for people with disabilities and touted the set-ups for the press. There was, of course, a signer. And Ted Kennedy, Jr. hosted the whole thing.
I haven't paid real close attention, but it looks like some of the Gebhardt crew have moved over to Obama. Gebhardt was never meant to win; his job was to take on/out Dean. Of course, he may not have known that.
My guess would be that the game is to have Hillary the Dem nominee and then have Huckabee take her out. While there's a lot of paranoia on the web about the Rockefellers, Win in Arkansas and Jay in West Virginia don't strike me as elimosinary folk, especially since the mountain tops of WVa are being lopped off as we speak.
That the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hasn't come forward with info now that Jay is Chair is also suspicious. That letter he wrote about having to keep secrets looks like a CYA.
Not that I have anything against China, but this is interesting:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kassy Kelley
June 19, 1998
(202) 224-6101
kassy_kelley@rockefeller.senate.gov
"I am extremely honored to have been asked by the President to represent our country in China," said Rockefeller. "I have always had a great interest in Asia, and I've worked over the years to turn that interest into opportunities for my state. Now, I have a chance to be part of a diplomatic mission that will benefit not only our country, but also West Virginia. Building a strong, stable and open relationship with China is critical for a more peaceful world, and it's essential for West Virginia as part of the emerging global economy of the 21st Century."
The President and the Delegation depart Andrews Air Force Base at noon on Wednesday, June 24th and arrive Thursday evening (EST) in Xi'an, China, where they stay until Friday night when they travel to Beijing. The group will be in Beijing through Monday, June 29th and then depart for Shanghai. They will spend Thursday July 2nd in Guilin and take off that evening for their last stop in Hong Kong. The travels wrap up on Friday, July 3rd, and the group is expected back in Washington on the Fourth of July.
In January, for the first time in 25 years, Rockefeller visited China and began laying the groundwork for business relations between West Virginia and China. On that trip, Rockefeller helped Don Gallion, President and CEO of FCX Systems, Inc. in Morgantown, land a contract with a major Chinese airline. Rockefeller believes that a relationship between West Virginia and China will open new export markets for many West Virginia entrepreneurs.
"My trip in January was very preliminary, but very successful," said Rockefeller. "I will build on that foundation while I'm in China with the President. While much of the trip will be scheduled with the Delegation's official business, I plan to take full advantage of any free time to build relationships and seek further opportunities for our state's businesses. Opening China's doors for West Virginia exports opens the doors of 1.2 billion consumers in one of the world's fastest growing economies."
Every year Rockefeller visits Asia, establishing relationships with government officials and business leaders and seeking economic development opportunities for West Virginia. The Senator has led two "Project Harvest" trade missions to Japan and Taiwan, and fifteen reverse trade missions, bringing business executives from Asia to West Virginia.
Rockefeller, a Member of the U.S. Senate Finance Subcommittee on International Trade, has a long history with Asia. In college, Rockefeller majored in Far Eastern Languages and History at Harvard and traveled to Japan, where he concentrated on Japanese for three years at International Christian University in Tokyo. When he returned from Japan, Rockefeller studied the Chinese language at Yale.Note the inconsistency between his trip being very preliminary and his going to Asia every year.
Oh, and Hillary, whose big interest is children did not show up at her Committee's hearing on lead in children's toys coming from China.
What's important is that whichever one wins can be "worked" with. Kerry's brother's commercial interests in Asia might have been a good indicator, too.
I have to make a visit to my favorite amish back porch pie shop too today Annilow.
hand picked berry preserves from the woodlands of God's Country for filling
We were trying to get Iowa grown products for sale at our Welcome Center we keep open for the State at our Conservation Board Park and one of the lasting perks I got out of being board chair was making the contact with the nearby amish bake goods for sale store to see if they wanted to stock preserves.
I found the marriage of the two (preserves and pie crust) to be my ticket to sybaritic fulfillment.
my quiz to you for today, "Is it the crust or the filling that makes the pie?"
Jay Rockefeller is in a tough spot. He knows too much for his own good.
hand picked berry preserves from the woodlands of God's Country
>
Wisconsin. God's Country...that's Wisconsin.
~`~
"Is it the crust or the filling that makes the pie?"
>
Trick question: the pie maker makes the pie.
Asia is a big place, (there are a myiad of legitimate interests) but it is a little scary to think a Rockefeller might have to kow tow to a Chinese banker.
Bush One set up the missle guidance system sale that Clinton let go through to let the red Army use up its out of date missles to launch our communications satellites without losing any. could have let the French do it in Guyana, but we treat the French as enemies most of the time as we suck up to the Chinese
who carries our paper?
You win paine.
God's Country ... anyplace in America they let kids out of school to go deer hunting and nobody locks their doors
A Five Year deal.
good for you paine
I'll be collecting Social Security before that one runs out and you can kick in on my check lol
hope there is enough in there for that
bbl
It's a good contract for "the company" and I hope they use it to expand (not crush unionism in the US).
~you can kick in on my check
> How 'bout we take the cap off of the Soc Sec tax (with a donut hole)
- Julie Murray says life is good. Yet gasoline prices are crimping her grocery budget, she can't afford a larger house, and she says President Bush is not focused enough on people's problems at home.
"My husband and I are happy," said Murray, 46, a homemaker from Montpelier, Miss. "We just wish we could buy more into the American dream."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071121/ap_on_el_pr/ap_yahoo_poll_voters_mood
~`~
- Hillary Rodham Clinton ridiculed Democratic rival Barack Obama on Tuesday for his contention that living abroad as a child helped give him a better understanding of the foreign policy challenges facing the U.S.
>
About time someone jumped on that! Stupid answer by Sen Obama. I'll give 'im that living abroad is enlightening, but ...!
37.
I disagree with you I don't think it was stupid at all. I think your life experiences have a great deal how we turn out as adults. And what is stupid about someone having some of those life experiences in other countries? I believe it gives that person a better perspective of the whole world.
Just one example is our present President, he is very narrow minded about the world. Thinks everyone has to be like us.
I think JFK lived in England for a time as a child, plus he traveled with his parents, he was able to see and understand other cultures.
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