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POPSWebb Splits With Obama Over Drilling Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D) of Illinois and Sen. Charles Schumer (D) of New York dismissed any concerns about Webb’s stance, saying they did not notice his proposal Wednesday. Durbin, however, pointedly rejected Webb’s argument that states should have the right to make drilling decisions. The legislation “offers a preliminary step toward exploration and development of one of our domestic energy sources,” Webb said. “In order to address our nation’s energy crisis, all options need to be on the table.” One of Virginia’s most prominent environmental groups also opposes Webb’s idea, saying there is no plausible environmental distinction between gas and oil drilling and that any environmental damage would spread far beyond Virginia’s coast. “This puts the camel’s nose under the tent,” said Glen Besa, director of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club.
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POPSNew GI Bill Close to Final Approval The package also includes a monthly living stipend, an annual book allowance, and money for tutorial assistance, along with many other features. At this point it gets complicated, however, in terms of how they're going to actually implement this thing. But for all of you affected by this, Maze explains: Benefits increases take effect as soon as the war funding bill is signed into law by President Bush, which will happen in the next few weeks. But veterans now in school will not get the higher amounts right away because lawmakers are giving the Veterans Affairs Department until Aug. 1, 2009, to calculate and pay amounts that will vary by state and by school. Retroactive payments will have to be made. Also, anyone who had not previously enrolled in the GI Bill will have to wait until Aug. 1, 2009, to collect any payments.
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POPSWhy Jim Webb Probably Won't be Obama's VP It's not this one issue per se, but Webb's habit of being his own man. I don't agree with Webb here, but I still admire his willingness to do what he believes is right -- regardless of the political pressure put on him not to. Given that Webb's greatest strength is this rock-solid integrity, he's more the leader type than a follower. That may be a good trait to have in a cabinet member, but not as a running mate. You really need someone you can rely on to be on the same page.
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POPS"Vetters" Search For Obama Veep Jones, a Vietnam vet born in Kansas City, MO (swing state alert!), was a career military officer rising to one of the highest posts possible. Being the least known potential veep, it shouldn't be surprising that the vetters have to spend more time on him in their various conversations on the Hill. But the fact that he's being, um, added to the very long short list, is an interesting development. Besides Jones, the other names on the list bandied about with congressional Dems include (and not in any order): Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards, Evan Bayh, Kathleen Sebelius, Ted Strickland, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Jim Webb, Bill Nelson, Jack Reed, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Tom Daschle, and Sam Nunn. You'll notice a few names NOT on this list (that's not my exclusion -- hint hint). Besides Jones, I'm told the two other names that invited extended discussion were Biden and Strickland. Take this chatter for what it is -- chatter.
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POPSObama on Vets Bill: 'I don't understand why John McCain would side with George Bush' Writes The Altantic's Matthew Yglesias : It's worth noting that not only did John McCain oppose Jim Webb's bill expanding educational benefits for veterans, but he has a long track record of fairly stingy behavior on veterans' issues. As Hilzoy puts it "McCain has supported basic appropriations for vets. However, when there are two competing proposals, he generally chooses the cheaper one, and often, when only one proposal to increase benefits is available, he opposes it."
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POPS McCain And The G.I. Bill As this helpful Boston Globe piece explains, the original bill was curtailed during the relative peace of the 1980s, capping benefits at just under $10,000 per year. The new bill, which Webb introduced with Chuck Hagel and Frank Lautenberg and which John Warner has cosponsored, would raise the cap on the benefit to match the cost of the most expensive public university or college in any given state.
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POPS The Top Most Influential US Liberals: 1-20 jim webb,george soros,arianna huffington,donna brazile,richard holbrooke,elizabeth edwards,joan blades and wes boyd (founders of moveon.org) round off the top twenty influential liberals in the U.S.
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POPSWe’re Killing Our Troops Webb-Hagel Fails. And We’ve Failed Our Troops. Again. Senators who voted against this amendment voted against our men and women in uniform — plain and simple. They voted against giving our men and women the care and help they so desperately need when they come home from war. They voted against fair deployment practices — you serve for fifteen months, you get to stay home for fifteen months. Read More
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POPSIt's called Free Speech, it is not "selective free speech"! This tit for tat game playing on what is our constitutional rights is ludicrous and never should have been started in the first place! While what has been said is reprehensible, they are giving Limbaugh more credibility than he is deserving, he means nothing, he is just one of many of the minions whose purpose in life is to divide and perpetuate hate, BUT IT IS HIS RIGHT! It is for us to decide to listen, they can babble all they want, the sheep will follow the noise, the wise will make their own!
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POPSThe Soldier's Burden This is incredibly sad to me. Having family in the military (does anyone not?), and seeing what they face, it is sad. They lose their lives, their health and their families. How can we not question what is right and why? Anyone that doesn't needs to volunteer to do what they do, staying away from family in a hostile environment with very little pay. I'd not want to do it and respect the hell outta those that do. Again, I shake my head in wonderment for politics.
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POPSOnly 1% fight for this country This opinion piece says it all, says it well, and leaves but only one conclusion given the American people will reject THE DRAFT, allow Congress and this President to continue expoliting, using, abusing, the few select souls either foolish enough of willing to be the jest of abuse, then ONLY our troops can end IRAQINAM. http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070921/cm_usatoday/thesoldiersburden;_ylt=Aod.RvtTyy84cyTTz6Wj2ZhkM3wV Anyone wondering why the debate over the Iraq war is so frustrating and likely to remain so need only look at the choice the U.S. Senate faced this week. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., proposed an amendment that, on its face, no reasonable American could object to. Webb wanted to guarantee troops at least the same amount of time at home as they've spent on deployments. A year in Iraq, a year at home, and so on.
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POPSA WARNING TO THE DEMOCRAT PARTY CORTMEISTER262 is an exemplar of how we democrats feel about our representatives in congress... Like he, we are all sick and tired of the politics this party seems to be playing. This is our lives and our constitution the Lilly-livered politicians are messing around with. As cortmeister262 so angrily states... We need to stop voting them in, if they keep on the same track as republicans... We should all collectively shout... WE WILL NOT VOTE FOR YOU AGAIN! OUR VOTE WILL GO TO THOSE WORTHY OF IT... THE BRAVE ONES WHO ARE UNAFRAID TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE CRIMINALS OCCUPYING THE HIGHEST OFFICE. THOSE WHO EXPRESS THE TRUTH LIKE, DENNIS KUCINICH OR RON PAUL. MAYBE THEN THE DESCENT POLITICIANS WILL HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN AN ELECTION AND THE TWO PARTIES CAN STOP LAUGHING AND START LISTENING TO THEIR AND OUR WORDS OF WISDOM.
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POPSHomeland Insecurity..! I watched the Saturday night Massacre of the 4th Amendment live on C-span is was a dark day for America and 41 Demo-rats betrayed America and the Constitution right along with The Republican Taliban..!
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POPSRepublicans Refuse to give troops a decent break.
I think I got this headline right. US Senator Jim Webb is one of the few in Congress who was actually in a war. Using the National Guard to fight in a foreign war in the first place is a rip off; now coldly denying them a decent time to re-connect to their homes and ready for the next in an endless series of deployments, is a cold-hearted action by Congress towards it's own people and shows that it is these warmongering Republicans who -- based on this one vote alone -- can be seen as Not Supporting Our Troops. (Who actually, BTW, besides these Republicans todays, is NOT keen on supporting our troops!? Just more propaganda bullshit). And now it seems, again, that we have even lost majority rule!? What this things about needing 60-votes to get something passed. As we see by the vote here, if we went back to majority rule this amendment would be passed. How come 60 votes weren't required when the Republicans controlled Congress. This whole situations sucks. I bet Senator W
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