Funding The Big Mistake

Tomorrow, the House will vote on bleeding the tax-payers for another $109 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan until next spring when presumably, hopefully, god help us, we will have a Democrat in the White House. This is a House run by Democrats who were actually elected to stop the war in Iraq, Democrats who must know that each candidate of their own party has pledged to end this mistake. So why not just fund the war until January 20th, 2008? Do they not believe the leaders of their own party, that the beginning of the end of this atrocity starts in November? I wonder if I even believe the promises of the candidates that I support with my votes, my contributions, and my voice? I remember a time in 2006, when I was Dancing in the End Zone, I felt that with a majority of Democrats in the House and the Senate, that anything was possible. I knew that impeachment was off the table, Nancy Pelosi declared it so, but I certainly felt that the mandate the American people had given the new majority, the mission of ending the war in Iraq, would be taken seriously.

Our nation faces an economic crisis of unknown proportions, and the Democrats we sent to office 2 years ago have had two years to save billions of dollars for our own citizens. How much have they spent on war and defense in these 2 years? 120 billion in May last year. In addition to this drop in the bucket of 120 billion, they gave the DOD 439.3 billion. In 2008, Congress gave 507 billion to the war machine, and tomorrow they are giving them another 109 billion because for some reason, the $507 billion couldn't quite cut it. The Democratic majority approved these numbers. Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton approved these funds. There was another emergency vote in December of 2007, where our Democratic Presidential candidates, Biden, Dodd, Clinton, and Obama failed to show up to vote for another big give away to the Bush Administration for a war that they are saying that they are against. The vote, 90-3, passed the Senate, and we sent our hard earned tax dollars to continue a war that we are saying is a mistake.

I don't get it. If we are against the war in Iraq, if we all agree it was a huge mistake, why is Nancy Pelosi getting ready to hand over another hundred billion to continue it? I wasn't even really thinking about Iraq, listening to all of the outrage over the gas tax holiday, I completely forgot that there was a war going on. But I got this e-mail from the Rabbi Lerner, and since I don't have a Congressman to call, I thought I would just post it here, so that anyone who does have a representative can call tomorrow to stop the party that we all belong to, from enabling the continuation of this great mistake.

Tikkun to heal, repair and transform the world

A note from Rabbi Michael Lerner
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The House of Representatives will vote as soon as tomorrow (Thursday, May 8) on an additional $162.6 billion for the war and occupation in Iraq.Sadly, the bill includes $66 billion for fiscal year 2009. This means the funds for the occupation will keep flowing well into the next administration, allowing the new president to continue the war and occupation with little or no accountability to Congress until next spring. At a time when money is urgently needed in our communities, the new bill would bring the total for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to $859 billion. By including fiscal year 2009 (FY09) funding, the House leadership is effectively taking the war off the congressional agenda for the rest of this year. This might be our last opportunity to stop war funding during this Congress and presidency. Your call is crucial.

Please call and stop the enabling.

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