MY TRIP TO DC..HITCHHIKING FOR PEACE

Until we are willing to do more than be keyboard commandos, until we are willing to do more than just write emails and perhaps pick up the phone and dial our representatives…until we are willing to get outside our comfort zone and put our very selves on the line for what we believe in…nothing will change.

Which of these reasonable moderates is going home to their districts and taking the heat at public forums?

Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL03) did a forum on Iraq at an exceedingly Right Wing American Legion post.

His next public forum is at 10 AM on a weekday for senior citizens.

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL10) uses all sorts of tricks to avoid answering constituent questions on Iraq.

So the establishment can fuck-off as far as I’m concerned. If the politicians are avoiding taking the heat on Iraq the elites should shut their pie-holes about anti-war activists coloring outside the lines.

jayt @ 215

What?!

Harry Reid is an idiot.

How can he be removed as The Majority Tool?

Nice disaster you’re running there, Harry.

There are some rules of the Senate that are considered “permanent rules” and are not adjusted each session of Congress. The “filibuster” falls under one of those rules.

All the rules of the Senate continue from one Congress to the next. But there was no filibuster of the Webb amendment today. It was a straight unanimous consent agreement, arranged so that the Senate could avoid the unpleasantness of even the mini-filibusters the modern practice requires.

Rather than wait the requisite amount of time to file a motion for cloture, then wait for the motion to mature, and then lose it, the parties agreed instead to simply say that passage would require the same amount of votes as cloture, which saves everyone time and energy, and helps the Republicans say they didn’t filibuster anything, and helps the Democrats lose shit faster.

Clean-up in aisle 220!

nah, let him hang around. The “argument” is so ludicrous that it adds a bit of humor.

Kick a*ss, sir!

total BS. the arguments were:

1. iraq does not pose a threat to us
2. let the inspectors do their job
3. an invasion of iraq will be a disaster for us and for iraqis, causing much unnecesary death, destruction and suffering
4. and even if the war hawks were right about chemical weapons – there is no risk to the USA unless we invade.

jeez. i was there… most every protest in nyc and dc in 2002 and 2003. organized buses, local protests and teach ins.

don’t know who told you that, but you are misinformed.

pow wow @ 213

Actually, Peterr, the Unanimous Consent Agreement (as described @ 56) is what required the 60 votes, not a filibuster. This was not a cloture vote to end debate, it was an actual up or down vote on the Webb amendment itself, which failed to pass (because the UC required it to have 60 votes rather than a simple majority without any actual filibuster by the Republicans).

What?!

Harry Reid is an idiot.

How can he be removed as The Majority Tool?

Nice disaster you’re running there, Harry.

There are some rules of the Senate that are considered “permanent rules” and are not adjusted each session of Congress. The “filibuster” falls under one of those rules.

Firepup Patriots:

The votes were called and in the process the enemies of democracy have been exposed… no matter what the outcome of the ‘08 elections, Harry Reid is toast and there will be new sheriffs in the Senate in ‘09. Take it to the bank!! These votes today will NOT save Sunnunu or Collins but they will hang the war around the Bushites necks.

KEEP THE FAITH AND DON’T LET ‘EM OFF THE GROUND!!

This only strengthens the progressives in the Senate, now if we ken get ‘em ta cooperate on isolating Mrs. Clinton and MBNA Biden we’re in business!!

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION…LOTSA FIGHT LEFT IN US!!

I’m going to disagree with you here. Time constraints are not the issue here. They just took a month off, after all. The Senate can function pretty damn quick when they want to. And I’m not sure what, if anything, is more important than the war that needs Congress’s attention. The problem here is a simple lack of backbone.

To a single mom who slipped while waiting tables and suffered injury, staring at an empty refrigerator and two hungry kids, Iraq may not be forefront in her mind.

To me and many others here, congress should clear their desks and do nothing more than stop this war.

My point was it is our job to expose these Republicans who obstruct merely for the purpose of denying any apparent success for Democrats, without regard for what is in America’s best interest, even if their actions are diametrically opposite of America’s best interest.

The plan is to hurt Democrats, even if it destroys America. We chafe at the notion Democrats do not do the same. Shame on us. We are the government, and if the media and our elected officials fail to point out the zeal with which Republicans march in lock step to destroy our country, our laws, our military and our morality in the world community, we must shoulder this burden ourselves and expose these realities with purchased advertisements.

We cannot sit back and whine about the failures of our chattering classes and weak-kneed Steny Hoyers that hold us in contempt. We must MoveOn.