Veto in the Mist

The much talked about Iraq spending bill, which was recently approved by Congress, is now on its way to the White House where it will be greeted by the Veto stamp of President Bush. Mr. Bush rarely exercises his veto power the last time being in September of 2006 when he shot down the embryonic stem-cell bill.

The bill in question allocates 124 billion dollars to war spending however, the killer caveat which is the basis of Mr. Bush's veto is the October 1st pull-out date.

Nancy Pelosi: Get Back to Work!

Members of the Republican Party in both the House and the Senate are formally requesting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-NY) "get back to work" after her controversial diplomatic excursion to the Middle East. The interesting thing about this request, aside from its overall hilarity in the grand scheme of things, is the use of the phase "Global War on Terror" which the Democrats have been phasing out. However, regardless of semantics, you have to realize the partisan nature of this development. Republicans want the American People to remember that while Nancy Pelosi was out playing Secretary of State, she was ignoring her post where a critical bill to fund the troops sat idle.

For more developing coverage, visit the fine folks at the Drudge Report.

Dear Speaker Pelosi:

We are writing to urge you to call the House back into session immediately so that Congress can finish its work on the emergency legislation to fund the Global War on Terrorism. This funding request has been pending since February 5, but your leadership team chose to leave town for more than two weeks rather than completing this bill. As a result, our troops have been put at risk.

We are especially troubled by the House's failure to appoint conferees. The Senate appointed conferees on March 29, moments after passing its bill, but the House never did so despite passing the bill a week earlier. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the Senate that he hoped the House-Senate conference would begin on March 30. That hoped-for progress has been thwarted by your failure to act.

It should go without saying that our military leaders are in the best position to know the needs of our troops, and they have left no doubt that this funding is needed urgently. General Peter Schoomaker, United States Army Chief of Staff, has written that, "without approval of the supplemental funds in April, we will be forced to take increasingly draconian measures which will impact Army readiness and impose hardships on our Soldiers and their families." Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has also emphasized the dangers of delay: "This kind of disruption to key programs will have a genuinely adverse effect on the readiness of the Army and the quality of life for soldiers and their families."

Our troops need this funding, and they need it soon. The Senate is in session and ready to work. We respectfully request that you cancel the remainder of your break, call the House back into session, appoint conferees promptly, and work in good faith to pass a clean supplemental funding bill that the President can sign as soon as possible. Every day we don't fund our troops is a day their ability to fight this war is weakened.

Credit for this story goes to the Drudge Report.

State of the Union Cliff Notes

I took these during the SOTU, and I will share them with you.

State of the Union 2007
in order as they are addressed

-Madame Speaker-
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
-remarks on speaker
-congrats to dem majority
-7.2 million new jobs
-3 economic reforms
-balance budget
-without raising taxes
-deficit cut in half
-get rid of deficit in five years
-restrain federal spending
-no applause from Hillary
-earmarks
-cspan joke
-crackdown
-entitlements
-social security
-education
- no child left behind
-raise standards
-promote achievement
-funding for struggling students
-math and science
-reauthorization
-Healthcare
-reform 4,500 per family of 4
-tax code reform to allow affordability of healthcare
-federal support of state insurance
-affordable choices grants
-expand health savings accounts
-medical liability reform
-Secure border
-double border patrol size
-temporary worker program
-employment immigration reform
-call for debate
-Oil
-America's dependency
-Clean coal, nuclear, solar
-hybrid, biodiseal
-ethanol
-reduce gasoline usage in the US 20% in next 10 years
-mandatory fuel standard
-modernize fuel economy standards for cars
-Doubling strategic oil reserves
-Courts
-fair hearing
-prompt voting
-Homeland Security
-call for debate
-take the fight to the enemy
-all standing
-prevented plots
-lists stopped terror plots
-sunni extremists
-preach with threats
-promise paradise for murder
-quotes warning from terror leader
-shia extremists
-Iran
-hezbollah
-threat to democracy, gain weapons
-dangers have not ended
-lawful and proper tool...to protect american people
-desire for liberty in middle east
-syria
-afghai elections
-iraqi (3) elections
-12 million citizens vote
-2006 hezbollah
-undermine lebanon's government
-al qaeda- blew up mosque
-sectarian violence
-can't leave iraq behind
-victory in iraq
-New Iraq Strategy
-iraqi government must stop sectarian violence
-20,000 soldiers to baghdad, clear and hold
-advisers
-an-bar province
-aid local forces 4,000 troops
-prevent iraq from being taken by al-qaeda
-iraq support with troops and confront radicals
-take back capital
-commitment to people of iraq
-strategy best chance for success
-if we pull out, (basically chaos)
-iraq cannot fall to terrorists
-War on Terror
-did not vote for failure (iraq)
-support our troops
-war on terror will continue on
-bipartisan council on war on terror
-authorize increase size of marine corp
-volunteer civilian reserve core
-diplomatic strategy
-multinational force
-mideast allies
-sanctions on iran
-democratic palestinian state
-diplomacy on korean peninsula
-asian allies
-cuba
-darfur
-Misc.(includes special mentions)
-fight aids in africa
-poverty/hunger
-emergency plan for aids relief
-50,000 increase to 800,000 with aids medicine
-combat malaria in africa
-millennium challenge account
-trade and debt relief
-special guest, from africa, in NBA
-julie clark-baby einstein company
-american enterprise
-child help
-children have the right to live in a world that is safe
-wesley autrey
-subway hero
-tommy rieman
-used body as shield to protect gunner
-kept fighting
-State of the Union is strong

Point of Order

Hill Matters

Republicans are rushing to get their agenda moving before the Democrats officially take Congress.

WASHINGTON - The last days of Republican congressional rule are shaping up to be symbolic and brief, with GOP leaders hawking an abortion restriction with no chance of becoming law, loading up tax breaks with unrelated matters and dumping an unfinished budget on Democrats.