Left In Lowell

So many people are focusing on Rep. Obey’s proposal (along with our own Rep. McGovern) for a tax surcharge to pay for the war, and how this poison pill had the best chance of throwing the “support for the troops=support for the president” crowd off. But skymutt points out that this little tidbit in yesterday’s announcement, which was shot down by Pelosi and Reid within hours, is worth nothing compared to the other point of the announcement.

David Obey, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, today announced that he will not report the Iraq War Supplemental out of committee, and basically told the President that the ball is in his court, that he needs to submit a supplemental that meets several criteria, or there will be no supplemental funding bill.
[…]
How many times have you heard some variation of “We don’t have the votes”? Well, today, for the first time, a legislator with the power to back up his words has pledged to take an approach that does not require a floor vote in order to push this war toward an end. Chairman Obey has taken ownership of the issue and said that he will not report an Iraq War supplemental bill out of his committee unless it meets his criteria. Contrast this with other “plans” which have really just been bills that have required majority or supermajority votes for success. Votes that, to date, have not materialized or really even come close.

And Pelosi and Reid have not said a word about this aspect of Obey’s statement. So, there’s hope yet that the wishes of the majority of Americans - that of cutting the funding to this war - will come to pass before Bush is out the door.

A must-read by dKos’s Meteor Blades on why Iraq has never been, and is not now, free.

Veto funding for a popular, bipartisan program for kids to get on health care.

I can’t stress enough how this man is morally bankrupt. Move On is doing rallies to support overriding the veto. Might I suggest looking up 03104 (Manchester, NH) and heading up there to rally? Our delegation is really all set, but Gregg and Sununu need to know that the people are watching.

Update: Governor Spitzer’s suing the administration over their illegal rules regarding the existing SCHIP program. Says Spitzer: “The bureaucratic barriers to coverage the Bush Administration has imposed are not only fundamentally misguided, but also illegal…They conflict with the statute authorizing SCHIP. Moreover, they were issued without the opportunity for public comment, as required by federal law. Accordingly, I have joined Democratic and Republican governors from states across the country to bring a lawsuit challenging these new rules in court.”

Ahem, Governor Patrick, your name doesn’t appear in the release…might be a good one to jump in on.

And Mimi is absolutely correct - this is one more reason to vote for Niki Tsongas, whose opponent Ogonowski is as friggin’ tone-deaf as his President, whom he pretends to run away from (all while supporting the war and concentrating on denying kids health care). Come on. Get out and vote. October 16th. It counts, folks, and we can do something real direct to send a message that Ogonowski’s sort of fear-mongering kid-dissing pro-war rhetoric ain’t welcome in Massachusetts.