FEINGOLD INTRODUCES BILL TODAY TO END U.S. MILITARY INVOLVEMENT IN IRAQ

[flpoljunkie]

FEINGOLD INTRODUCES BILL TO END U.S. MILITARY INVOLVEMENT IN IRAQ

Senate Majority Leader Reid Cosponsors Legislation Forcing President to Safely Redeploy Troops by March 31, 2008

April 10, 2007

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold introduced legislation today to effectively end U.S. military involvement in Iraq. The bill, supported by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, requires the President to begin safely redeploying U.S. troops from Iraq 120 days from enactment, as required by the emergency supplemental spending bill passed by the Senate. The bill ends funding for the war, with three narrow exceptions, effective March 31, 2008. In addition to Reid, the bill is cosponsored by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), John Kerry (D-MA), Pat Leahy (D-VT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). If the President vetoes the emergency supplemental spending bill, Reid has said he will work to ensure Feingold’s bill gets a vote in the Senate before Memorial Day.

“The President says he will veto legislation already passed by the Senate that both funds the troops and responds to Americans’ demands for an end to the Iraq war,” Feingold said. “Since the President refuses to change his failed Iraq policy, that responsibility falls on Congress. By setting a date after which funding for the President’s failed Iraq policy will end, we can give the President the time and funding he needs to safely redeploy our troops so we can refocus on the global terrorist networks that threaten the lives of Americans.”

The language of the legislation reads:

(a) Transition of Mission - The President shall promptly transition the mission of United States forces in Iraq to the limited purposes set forth in subsection (d).

(b) Commencement of Safe, Phased Redeployment from Iraq - The President shall commence the safe, phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq that are not essential to the purposes set forth in subsection (d). Such redeployment shall begin not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.

(c) Prohibition on Use of Funds - No funds appropriated or otherwise made available under any provision of law may be obligated or expended to continue the deployment in Iraq of members of the United States Armed Forces after March 31, 2008.

(d) Exception for Limited Purposes - The prohibition under subsection (c) shall not apply to the obligation or expenditure of funds for the limited purposes as follows:

(1) To conduct targeted operations, limited in duration and scope, against members of al Qaeda and other international terrorist organizations.

(2) To provide security for United States infrastructure and personnel.

(3) To train and equip Iraqi security services.

[ClassWarrior]

1. Thanks Senator Feingold!

I'm so proud.

NGU.

[acmavm]

2. Chimpy, Cheney, and the rest of the imperialists will surely be

having a bad day...

from Dictionary.com
<snip>

im·pe·ri·al·ism /ɪmˈpɪəriəˌlɪzəm/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies.

[AndyA]

4. Thank you Russ and co-sponsors.

It's about time.

Push Bush and his cronies into the corner. Get their backs up against the wall. They will show their true colors.

Bush doesn't want to support the troops, or protect Americans from terrorism. The fact that our troops still don't have everything they need to protect themselves, and that our ports are wide open is proof of that.

Stop funding Bush's corporate cronies. Bring the troops home and investigate why we went to war in the first place. It wasn't to fight terrorism, and it wasn't because of 9/11.

[blm]

3. Thank you Russ - You and your co-sponsors stand tough - Many of us stand with you all.

.

[pat_k]

5. As John Yoo pointed out yesterday, impeachment is the ONLY way to do it.

Even Yoo's fascist fantasies can't get around the bottom line.¹

Bush and Cheney are proven outlaws. Anything less than impeachment is impotent finger-wagging with men who are not deterred by the law, the Constitution, the overwhelming will of the people, or getting caught red-handed.

Although Senators are not empowered to impeach. If Feingold actually wanted to do something effective, he would introduce a Senate resolution calling on the House commence immediate impeachment hearings for the open, willful, and intolerable violations the inviolate dictates of our Constitution and U.S. Code that Bush and Cheney have committed. The Senate resolution could recommend that the House ensure a speed process by focusing on one of the violations for which Bush and Cheney make the Unconstitutional and Un-American claim that the Office of the President has "inherent" unitary authoritarian power to violate U.S. Code at will to "protect us." For example.

• violating Title 18 section 2441 (War Crimes)
  
  • declaring Guantanamo a "Geneva-free" zone²
  • the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program
  • abusing signing statements to nullify McCain's anti-torture amendment


• violating Title 18, Section 844 paragraph e. (Bomb Threat)
  
  • "mushroom clouds in 45 min"


• violating of Title 50, Section 1805(Issuance of order)
  
  • spying under color of law w/o warrant

==================================

1. Los Angeles Times
   Do They Dare to Say "Impeach"?
   By John Yoo
   April 6, 2007
   Posted on AEI
   
   . . .If you want to remove the President's command, you have to remove the President. There is only one way for Congress to do it--impeachment. . .


2. February 7, 2002, the Office of the President published http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/02/20020207-13.html">Fact Sheet: Status of Detainees at Guantanamo, in which they declared "The President has determined that the Geneva Convention applies to the Taliban detainees, but not to the al-Qaida detainees."

[jazzjunkysue]

6. Now THAT's what I'm tlking about! Put 'em all on record, even if it flops.

Keep sending those reality-based (instead of faith based) bills around and remind everyone how the government is supposed to work.

It's time to cut and run, people.

[pat_k]

9. If they didn't have a way to ACTUALLY extract us. . .

. . .such impotent gestures would at least be "something" (although forcing the opposition to "go on the record" for things they are already on the record for isn't much).

But the fact is that Members of Congress DO have a way -- take up the fight to impeach Bush and Cheney. (For Members of the House that means introducing articles of impeachment; for Senators that means http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3207969&mesg_id=3208584">introducing a resolution calling on the House to do so).

To do anything less does nothing but prove their impotence and unwillingness to fight for the nation and our troops with everything they've got.

The nation knows they have a "lethal" weapon in their Congressional arsenal and will ultimately judge their refusal to use that weapon. Particularly as more and more Americans see the truth -- that Bush and Cheney turned the USA into a War Criminal nation that spies on its own citizens and the Democratic leadership refused to even try to stop it. (And http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2753090">the 58% who want Bush's reign over NOW are beginning to get the horror of what Bush has done, and is continuing to do, to our country.)

That judgment is likely to be devastating to the Democratic Party.

Refusing to impeach is just an inexplicable and immoral surrender to fascists, it is a political lunacy. It is NEVER good politics to be complicit in crimes -- particularly crimes that are subject to the penalty of death.

[unkachuck]

7. thank you Senator Feingold and Cosponsors....n/t

[flpoljunkie]

8. Feingold's bill: S. 1077 A Bill to Safely Redeploy Troops From Iraq

http://thomas.loc.gov/ (Type S.1077 in search box, select bill number)

S.1077

Title: A bill to safely redeploy United States troops from Iraq.

Sponsor: Sen Feingold, Russell D. (introduced 4/10/2007) Cosponsors (9)

Latest Major Action: 4/10/2007 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

COSPONSORS(9), ALPHABETICAL : (Sort: by date)

Sen Boxer, Barbara - 4/10/2007
Sen Dodd, Christopher J. - 4/10/2007
Sen Harkin, Tom - 4/10/2007
Sen Kennedy, Edward M. - 4/10/2007
Sen Kerry, John F. - 4/10/2007
Sen Leahy, Patrick J. - 4/10/2007
Sen Reid, Harry - 4/10/2007
Sen Sanders, Bernard - 4/10/2007
Sen Whitehouse, Sheldon - 4/10/2007

( Question now is will Senators Biden, Clinton, and Obama add their names as co-sponsors to Feingold's bill?)