5/19/09 - "Senate Dems refuse Obama funds to shut down Gitmo."

[Clio the Leo]

Because I believe we are in need of a refresher course....

Democrats on Capitol Hill Rebel Against President Obama's Guantanamo Bay Plan
5/20/09

The U.S. Senate today voted overwhelmingly to block funding to shut down the detainee center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, dealing another blow to one of President Obama's signature national security issues.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7633754&page=1

Sources: Senate Dems refuse Obama funds to shut down Gitmo
5/19/09

Senate Democrats will pull money to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison from a war funding bill instead of face an onslaught of criticism from Republicans, CNN has learned.

Democratic leaders made the decision Tuesday morning, according to two Senate Democratic leadership sources. It is a blow to President Obama who announced, as one of his first official duties as president, that he would close the base by next January 22.

Republicans have argued it would be reckless to shutter the prison before the Obama administration has decided where to transfer the terrorism suspects who are detained there.

The Senate war supplemental bill, which is scheduled to be voted on this week, included $80 million for the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice to begin the process of shutting down the prison.

Now, that money will be stripped out and replaced with language saying no funds can be used to transfer detainees from Guantanamo, a military installation in Cuba, to the United States and no additional money will be approved until 60 days after the president submits to Congress his plan to close the facility. That language is similar to a provision in the House bill.

Republicans launched a high-profile campaign against closing the base prematurely, just this morning releasing a statement headlined: "Meet your new neighbor, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad?"

"Republicans see this as a wedge issue against Democrats and we're not going to let them do it," explained one of the sources.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/19/guantanamo.detainees/index.html

Now, the concern the evil Dems had was that the President hadn't provided a solution for where the remaining prisoners would go. So, what did President Obama do? He OFFERED TO PUT THEM IN HIS OWN BACKYARD!

Illinois prison likely to house detainees
12/6/09

Despite opposition from congressional Republicans, the Obama administration is signaling that a state prison in rural Thomson, Ill., will probably become the new home for scores of terrorism suspects now housed at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/05/AR2009120502795.html

But still, nothing.

So, what do you do when you cant get help from your own people?

Sen. Graham, White House Talks on Gitmo Worrying Some Republicans
02/25/10

Sen. Lindsey Graham's private conversations with the Obama administration on closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are making some of Graham's fellow Republicans nervous.

Graham (R-S.C.) has been involved in meetings and phone calls with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel over the past several weeks discussing his conditions for supporting a shutdown of the prison, the Hill newspaper reported Thursday. Graham wants assurances that it would not hurt national security, and he favors setting up a new national security court where most of the remaining detainees could be tried.

But Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the senior Republican on the House intelligence committee, said Graham should leave a central issue in any shutdown -- where the prisoners would be moved -- to state and local authorities with jurisdiction over the facilities seen as potential sites. "I think it is crazy to be negotiating with the White House on this," Hoesktra said. Graham, he added, didn't want Gitmo detainees in South Carolina when such a move was considered.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/02/25/sen-graham-white-house-talks-on-gitmo-worrying-some-republican/

So now, when you read THIS BS:
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct2=us%2F0_0_s_3_0_t&ct3=MAA4AEgDUABqAnVz&usg=AFQjCNGOVTyobEjgA79q2xQsXULuB-swVQ&sig2=rsTajtOJ2wahzj0FQJTlUA&cid=8797513007463&ei=pCORS4D6AaKy8gTmpbW0Ag&rt=SEARCH&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlanticwire.com%2Fopinions%2Fview%2Fopinion%2FIs-Obama-Backing-Down-on-Terrorist-Trials-2740

You'll have some context!

[Bitwit1234]

1. I am starting to be ashamed of being called a democrat do you

see where the Obama administration is giving in to the republicans and is going to try the 9/11 plotter in a military court. They took him away from New York and now they are backing down about the trial. They are the biggest damn bunch of wimps we have ever seen. What is wrong with democrats.

[Clio the Leo]

2. KSM has become a bargaining chip...

... used to get support .... from SOMEBODY ... ANYBODY to get Congressional funding to open up the IL prison.

And if your own party wont help you, there's only one other party left.

[rudy23]

3. I'm getting really, really tired of being threatened with the other party.

It's almost like the Palins and the Becks benefit Obama by allowing him to move as far right as possible, and always have a worse alternative to threaten us with.

You can only go to that well so often before people start getting fed up with being threatened. And I'm WAY past being fed up with being threatened.

[Clio the Leo]

4. Again, in THIS instance, the problem is not the GOP but the Dems. NT

[harun]

5. Wow, our whole gov't really sucks.

[flpoljunkie]

6. Our spineless, corrupted Congress at work!

[jenmito]

7. K&R. Thank you! n/t