I'm almost stunned speechless when I'm forced to sit back and watch Republican Senators place a higher priority on their own re-election campaigns than the lives and well being of the troops they publicly claim to care so deeply about. There are currently 49 Republican US Senators (including disgraced Idaho men's room homosexual soliciting family values bastion, Larry Craig and disgraced Louisiana prostitute soliciting family values bastion part II, David Vitter.)
Of these 49 pillars of their respective communities, only six (6) of them, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Susan Collins of Maine, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Gordon Smith of Oregon voted for the bill that required the troops getting more rest before returning overseas. The bill was therefore killed because it failed to receive the necessary 60 votes to withstand the inevitable filibuster from the hypocritical Republicans. Of the six Republicans who voted Yea, four of them (Snowe, Collins, Sununu and Coleman) are coincidently expected to face difficult re-election fights when their seats expire in 2008.
Republicans will seemingly go anyplace, anytime to worship the troops as long as television cameras and microphones are pointed in their direction. This bill would have mandated rest periods for troops equal to the length of time they spent on combat tours. Republicans celebrated the defeat of the bill, which they said would have amounted to a legislated surrender of the Iraq war, a week after Bush declared his troop surge strategy was having success. But it appears when push comes to shove, Republicans are far more interested in promoting political partisanship then in protecting the troops. Many political pundits believe Republicans who rejected this bill are merely trying to whip up support amongst their right wing base for upcoming primary challenges early next year. Once they secure their primary victory, they will then and only then publicly announce their undying commitment to our beleaguered troops.
In yet another attempt to obliterate the principles of the US Constitution, Republicans also banded together to prevent legislation that would have restored habeas corpus rights to military detainees and given them “the right to protest their detention in federal court.” But the roll call fell four votes short of the 60 needed to cut off debate. Once again Olympia Snowe, John Sununu, Gordon Smith and Chuck Hagel joined Democrats in protecting this basic but important provision of constitutional rights, along with Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Richard Luger of Indiana. The hypocrites in the Republican Party want to promote democracy and decency in Iraq, but apparently not in the United States.
You have to hand it to the Republican Party. They love to wrap themselves in the flag and praise our brave fighting men and women along with proclaiming themselves the Protectors of Democracy. They talk and talk and then talk some more. However, when it comes time to actually backing up their words with actions, they fall miserable short. I honestly believe these Republicans would forgo an expensive dinner with cash carrying K Street lobbyists for a photo-op with a returning Iraq War veteran. They would flash the widest smile and repeat the mantra of thanking them for everything they do for their country. That's all they do, they talk. Their level of genuine concern ends when the last photo is snapped. They cowardly send these mentally and physically exhausted soldiers back to Iraq without as much as an admonition of not letting the door hit them in the ass as they return for their third or fourth extended tour of duty.
The Republicans remain far behind the front lines of Iraq whilst praising the very soldiers they so callously use and then ignore. Then they talk about freedom, while simultaneously denying freedom via habeas protections to people who haven't been convicted of anything. If you don't know, HABEAS CORPUS is very well explained in the highlighted passage. It's the foundation on which our judicial system is formed. There's a reason why President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday. Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March. A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July. In other words, three out of every ten Americans think positively of Bush, and one out of ten Americans think positively of Congress.
Ask yourself how you would feel if you were risking your life on your fourth tour of duty in Iraq without any reasonable respite. Think how you might feel if you were literally tossed in a prison cell for years without any legal representation or a shred of actual evidence that you're guilty of anything. When, and hopefully not IF you vote next November, ask yourself how you would feel if you were in Iraq or in a prison cell and nobody could tell you why. Then, think of the smiling Republicans that were using your situation to improve their situation. I would return their smile and do the one thing for them they wouldn't do for me. Give them some much needed time off. Trust me, they'll at least know why........
Republicans will seemingly go anyplace, anytime to worship the troops as long as television cameras and microphones are pointed in their direction. This bill would have mandated rest periods for troops equal to the length of time they spent on combat tours. Republicans celebrated the defeat of the bill, which they said would have amounted to a legislated surrender of the Iraq war, a week after Bush declared his troop surge strategy was having success. But it appears when push comes to shove, Republicans are far more interested in promoting political partisanship then in protecting the troops. Many political pundits believe Republicans who rejected this bill are merely trying to whip up support amongst their right wing base for upcoming primary challenges early next year. Once they secure their primary victory, they will then and only then publicly announce their undying commitment to our beleaguered troops.
In yet another attempt to obliterate the principles of the US Constitution, Republicans also banded together to prevent legislation that would have restored habeas corpus rights to military detainees and given them “the right to protest their detention in federal court.” But the roll call fell four votes short of the 60 needed to cut off debate. Once again Olympia Snowe, John Sununu, Gordon Smith and Chuck Hagel joined Democrats in protecting this basic but important provision of constitutional rights, along with Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Richard Luger of Indiana. The hypocrites in the Republican Party want to promote democracy and decency in Iraq, but apparently not in the United States.
You have to hand it to the Republican Party. They love to wrap themselves in the flag and praise our brave fighting men and women along with proclaiming themselves the Protectors of Democracy. They talk and talk and then talk some more. However, when it comes time to actually backing up their words with actions, they fall miserable short. I honestly believe these Republicans would forgo an expensive dinner with cash carrying K Street lobbyists for a photo-op with a returning Iraq War veteran. They would flash the widest smile and repeat the mantra of thanking them for everything they do for their country. That's all they do, they talk. Their level of genuine concern ends when the last photo is snapped. They cowardly send these mentally and physically exhausted soldiers back to Iraq without as much as an admonition of not letting the door hit them in the ass as they return for their third or fourth extended tour of duty.
The Republicans remain far behind the front lines of Iraq whilst praising the very soldiers they so callously use and then ignore. Then they talk about freedom, while simultaneously denying freedom via habeas protections to people who haven't been convicted of anything. If you don't know, HABEAS CORPUS is very well explained in the highlighted passage. It's the foundation on which our judicial system is formed. There's a reason why President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday. Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March. A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July. In other words, three out of every ten Americans think positively of Bush, and one out of ten Americans think positively of Congress.
Ask yourself how you would feel if you were risking your life on your fourth tour of duty in Iraq without any reasonable respite. Think how you might feel if you were literally tossed in a prison cell for years without any legal representation or a shred of actual evidence that you're guilty of anything. When, and hopefully not IF you vote next November, ask yourself how you would feel if you were in Iraq or in a prison cell and nobody could tell you why. Then, think of the smiling Republicans that were using your situation to improve their situation. I would return their smile and do the one thing for them they wouldn't do for me. Give them some much needed time off. Trust me, they'll at least know why........
<
No comments:
Post a Comment