Effers!

[ProSense]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2731944&mesg_id=2731944

[ProSense]

1. Reid chimes in!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2731944&mesg_id=2733538

[Island Blue]

2. Why does your link say

"You can't edit this message because the editing period has expired."?

On edit, maybe it's just me. Your first link also says that but it was working fine for me earlier. Very strange.

On second edit, now there both working fine. :woohoo:

[ProSense]

3. Oops! Fixed! n/t

[Mass]

4. Reid is really disappointing. He is playing politics with subject like

that, that are dealing with life and death. No surprise that people do not see the difference between Democrats and Republicans.

[TayTay]

5. This is very good news.

This means that Sen. Reid is getting some heat from his constituents and from other Senators. The Republican threat to resubmit Sen. Kerry's Iraq withdrawal plan is a bluff. I think if they did resubmit it and had an honest debate, that the Repubs would now see a lot more votes for withdrawal in 12 months.

I do not fault Sen. Reid for this at all. The process of getting out of Iraq will be filled with starts and stops and potholes. This indicates however that the debate continues and that certain people are being associated with the idea that we have to get out of a civil war. That is not bad, that is good. I am very happy to hear this.

That said, Frist will find a way to marginalize the debate. Still, the Repubs can't very well continue to say that the Dems are weaklings who want to 'cut and run.' Not when Repubs returning from the Iraq theater are saying that it is much worse over there than we have been lead to believe.

Sens. Kerry/Feingold/Boxer should all be proud of their work in June. It truly was a great beginning of what will prove to be a long and painful dialogue. They can be credited with not dropping out of the debate and sulking, but in continuing to fight to get some sanity into our policies.

[karynnj]

6. Also, as Warner said - It's timing

There are many features of Kerry's bill that are just good sense for any withdrawal plan. The biggest difference in Kerry's plan and Levin's amendment was that Kerry's was a real genuine plan. Kerry did a nice job outline to Kaliazad at the SFRC that it was not "abandonment" and that it had several provisions for assisting the Iraq government.

[TayTay]

8. Harry Reid is not a dumb guy

I have my differences with him, but if he is offering to revisit IRaq only 4 weeks after a major vote, then something is up. Maybe it's the recent polling on Lieberman in CT and the fact that Holy Joe is vulnerable, maybe it's the implosion in Lebanon and Israel, maybe it's the recognition that at least 30,000 + people (and probably twice that) have died in Baghdad alone in this wa, but something is up.

Reid is not dumb. He knows something. I wonder in what way he will bring this up again. And I wonder if the Repubs will be so damn cocksure of themselves and snippy this time.

[ProSense]

7. This certainly isn't going to help the Repub's case:

Strapped for money, Army extends cutbacks

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
Thursday, July 20th, 2006 02:31 PM (PDT)

Related Information
Defense Department
U.S. Army
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Army, bearing most of the cost for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Thursday its money crunch has gotten so bad it is clamping down on spending for travel, civilian hiring and other expenses not essential to the war mission.

A statement outlining the cutbacks did not say how much money the Army expects to save, but senior officials have said the cost of replacing worn equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan is rising at a quickening pace.

Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, said last week that in 2004 it cost $4 billion to repair or replace war equipment, but now it has reached $12 billion to $13 billion. "And in my view, we will continue to see this escalate," he said, adding that the Army is using up equipment at four times the rate for which it was designed.

Schoomaker traced the problem's origin to entering the Iraq war in 2003 with a $56 billion shortfall in equipment. The Army managed the situation by rotating in fresh units while keeping the same equipment in Iraq. Over time, he said, the equipment has worn out without sufficient investment in replacements.

The Army chief said there is too little money available to keep up with equipment repairs. He said the Army's five major repair depots are operating at only 50 percent of capacity, resulting in a backlog of 1,000 Humvee utility vehicles awaiting attention at the Red River Army Depot in Texas and 500 tanks at a depot in Alabama.

The Army's 2006 budget is $98.2 billion, and the 2007 budget request not yet approved by Congress seeks $111 billion for the Army.

more...

http://www.thenewstribune.com/24hour/iraq/story/3334302p-12278818c.html

[ProSense]

9. These people are dangerous!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1699414&mesg_id=1699414