The House of Representatives led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi passed a $124 billion war-funding bill that sets a deadline by September 2008 for U.S combat troops to withdraw from Iraq.
The vote was largely along party lines with Republicans opposing the bill because of the imposed deadline and most Democrats voting yes. The few Democratic holdouts could not accept the idea of further funding the war effort and want the troops to come home now and not later.
There could have been more Democratic
holdouts, but Speaker Pelosi copied the play book of Philippine politics by
distributing goodies to targeted legislators to make them see millions of good
reasons to vote for the bill. She loaded the war-funding bill with an
additional $10 billion pork barrel spending , including $234 million in milk
subsidies, $74 million in peanut subsidies and $25 million in spinach
subsidies.
One exasperated legislator asked- what
have milk, peanuts and spinach subsidies got to do with the war effort? Well,
I like to think that Speaker Pelosi has good intentions for the military. By
subsidizing milk, America will be producing healthy babies with strong calcium
nourished bones who will grow up to be the best that they can be, in the army.
With affordable peanut and spinach, we will be producing future warriors as
strong as Popeye.
When she assumed office as Speaker, she
promised fiscal responsibility as the mantra for the new congress. Now I get
the idea of what she meant. She spends and we take the responsibility.
And what do we make of the deadline to
bring home U.S. combat troops from Iraq. Does anyone remember if America set a
deadline for FDR to win World War II?
In what appears to be a last ditch effort
to help the Iraqi government effectively assume and impose the powers of
government in a fractured country, Pres. G. W. Bush sent additional troops to
try a new tactic to weed out the insurgency. Initial accounts indicate a
reduction in sectarian violence. It’s too early to gauge the success of the “surge”
strategy. But suppose the security situation continues to improve because of
the surge, is it wise to just pull the plug at a time when the troop presence
is finally making a difference? If you are not worried of the consequences of
the U.S. losing the war against extremists in Iraq, then it does not matter.
@9PTCA = ***
There was an article recently
disseminated in the internet purportedly containing excerpts of a complaint for
disbarment against the First Gentleman of the Philippines Miguel Arroyo filed
by a woman who was supposed to be a disgruntled ex-lover whose name was not
Gloria. I was about ready to believe the detailed accounts of the alleged
numerous trysts until I came to read the lines when the woman claimed that she
and the First Gentleman made love in his Makati office almost every day. Come
on, as I look at the picture of Mike
Arroyo, I don’t see how that can be true. He does not look fit to run a 20
meter dash. His middle will prevent him from making contact. Not guilty!
Mike Arroyo is now suing journalists left
and right for libel, real or imagined. He had the gull to challenge an opposing
counsel who was cross-examining him to a fistfight. He reminds me of former
President Cory Aquino who sued Max Soliven and Luis Beltran for writing that
she hid under bed at the height of the coup attempt during her presidency.
There must be something in Malacanang
that makes its occupants thin-skinned. The virus left by Ferdie Marcos might be
making Mike Arroyo sick with truth allergy.
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