This really is Stupid - Senate passed a bill condemning MoveOn.org
Sorry Guys - you lost me here. You mean the Senate of the United States of the America has nothing better to do with its time than condemn MoveOn.org. Boo Freakin who
To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces.
But it was really about MoveOn.org’s NYT advertisement challenging General Petraeus to get us out of Iraq. Look regardless of how you feel about the group. Seriously - regardless of your political leanings. Doesn’t the U.S. Senate have better things to do with its precious time?
I mean what is next - Condemn the Daily show’s version of General Petraeus’ show? Check out Jon Stewart’s dissection of Petraeus. Heck, check out previous writings on Petraeus.
Let’s not forget that this is the same US Senate that who voted yesterday to sustain a Republican filibuster that is essentially breaking our military by not providing ample rest and refitting between deployments.
The US Senate should be ashamed of itself.
Oh - Clinton and Schumer voted No (Thanks for having a spine)
Presidential contenders Biden and Obama didn’t vote (Thanks for nothing)
If you think this is about Moveon.org you are wrong. Actions speak louder than word- Moveon.org was a first amendment advertisement. The failure in the Senate yesterday really hurt and continues to hurt the troops.
Related posts:
Thanks for nothing? I give Obama credit:
From Obama:
“The focus of the United States Senate should be on ending this war, not on criticizing newspaper advertisements. This amendment was a stunt designed only to score cheap political points while what we should be doing is focusing on the deadly serious challenge we face in Iraq. It’s precisely this kind of political game-playing that makes most Americans cynical about Washington’s ability to solve America’s problems. By not casting a vote, I registered my protest against this empty politics. I registered my views on the ad itself the day it appeared.
All of us respect the service of Gen/ Petraeus and all of our brave men and women in uniform. The way to honor that service is to give them a mission that is responsible, not to vote on amendments like the Cornyn amendment while we continue to pursue the wrong policy in Iraq.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0907/Obama_opts_out.html#comments
Free speech is under attack, it is part of Bush’s “Axis of Evil” and it must be stopped, right? This is ridiculous. Meanwhile, they held a nice public party for Gonzales.
Oh a protest vote. Well - doesn’t work for me. I’m cutting my nose to spite my face? I don’t like politicians so I’m not going to register to vote? It’s the same logic. He is a Senator and should be part of a unified the Democratic Caucus. Unfortunately only 25ish actually stood unified. Obama wasn’t there - he was carving out is own space.
But as you saw the thrust of the post was the stupidity of the Senate so if you want to discuss how we don’t have to train troops but can vote against a newspaper ad - have at it.
In fact that is much more important than any single Senator.
The thing that really gets me is they turned down amendments offered by Democrats in response to this that would have also criticized the attacks against war hero Max Cleland in 2002 and the swift-boat attacks on Kerry.
Shame for every Democrat who voted for this when it was clearly nothing more than partisan posturing by the Republicans.
Shame on the entire Senate for wasting our time as they do nothing of any substance.
I’m surprised Hillary was present to vote since she’s been missing votes on things that are actually important lately.
Like what? Maybe this mattered too?
But then again this post is about a senseless Senate rather than Hillary or per Shelldog - Obama
What a freaking waste of time. I’m glad they took time out of their busy schedule taking bribes from lobbyists to get this done.
My question is why if the Dems are in the majority was this waste of time allowed to happen? When they were in the minority that was their excuse for not getting important issues up for a vote. Are they afraid to lead or do they not really believe in the same democracy we do?
Well said.
This is an utter waste of time. I hope they bring up the Webb Amendment again.
The Senate Leadership let us down.
I feel like I must have been missing something. Didn’t all the polls show that the pubic shared the same sentiment as was portrayed in the Moveon.org ad. I mean the General is an appointee, and he does have his reputation at stake, given the strong claims he made in favor of his approach. Also, didn’t the papers report that the Bush Administration was going to review his testimony and make revisions as “necessary.” Or, was their reporting inaccurate?
My question is why if the Dems are in the majority was this waste of time allowed to happen?
Because a lot of them are spineless.
Truly, this is a disgrace. What a bunch of losers, everyone who voted for it.
This is a free speech issue. The spineless Democrats did not stand up for free speech. Clinton voted dead last. Was she waiting to see how the winds were blowing?
I have been an active Democrat for my entire adult life and a member of MCDC since 1981. I am fed up. Not one more cent for incumbent Democrats! Federal seats, at least!
Please check out this diary on Kos. Mike Stark comes up with an excellent idea - a “not one red cent campaign” http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/20/104634/134
Yep - I guess the Senate leadership didn’t get the memo.
I think the Senate leadership simply was outfoxed on this one. In fact when individual Senators and Politicians (John Kerry comes to mind) started to distance themselves and make a freaking Advertisement the issue as opposed to say the Webb Amendment (the one where we actually rest and refit troops) we lost.
Unfortunately we may have the majority in the Senate - the Republicans appear to control the debate.
Same in the House - Where we have the majority but the Blue Dogs have to be fed.
What the public thinks doesn’t matter anymore, if it ever mattered. The whole city of DC has become a distortion zone where what is said has nothing to do with reality.
God, this pisses me off. We are governed by children.
I feel your pain here. It seems the National Democratic party is running on different agendas. They need to run on ours.
Re Hillary voting last - Who voted second to last? Or third to last? Were they waiting to see how the wind was blowing too? I’d have to know more of the circumstances here.
So this isn’t about Hillary. Fine. What is it about? Isn’t it about the Senate wasting their time on voting on something really ridiculous?
Well, I find it strange that Hillary would make herself available to vote on this yet she’s been missing votes alot lately on things that really do matter.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/c001041/votes/missed/
Sorry Tom your link is a list of every missed vote since she has been a Senator which in my opinion is not “missing a lot of votes lately”. 2004 is well past “lately”. Actually if you bothered to look harder at the same Washington Post database you will find that Hillary who is running for President missed 8% of the votes in the current Congress. On the other hand
Obama missed 24%
Dodd missed 28%
McCain missed 50%
I stopped looking after those candidates. Try again with a different argument.
Actually, Hillary hasn’t missed many votes.
Check out Barack, or much worse, McCain (171 votes missed). McCain has only voted ~50% of the time.
see comment above. Clinton has missed only 8% of the votes this Congress. Obama 24%.
As I said - this isn’t about Hillary or Obama -The Senate failed to support the troops with the Webb Amendment yet found time to condemn a newspaper article. Surely we can both agree that the Senate really missed the boat here
Then again the ones that votes for or choose not to vote this BS amendment - Those voting against it took a stand.
Thanks - I guess we think alike. see my comments above
Wow, I guess so.
[...] I’ve been resisting the temptation to post on this, but after Stlos post yesterday (which I agree with completely), I’m going to jump in by giving some myths and some [...]
The argument is the same. First I never said Hillary missed alot of votes…just commented that she has been missing votes lately and the link I posted also did list the most recent votes missed.
While I find it inexcusible that any of my representatives miss any votes, I would be OK with it if Hillary missed the ridiculous MoveOn vote. My point was that there were far more important votes to be in Washington for…the MoveOn vote was not one of them.
Whatever-
Your point is she shouldn’t miss any votes but missed a bunch of votes and that some votes are more important that others while ignoring the fact that she actually only missed 8% of the total votes in Senate.
Then you go on that this particular vote is not so important.
Are votes important or not?
As I’ve said before this isn’t about Hillary.
This is about our Senate wasting its time. That Hillary (and Schumer) voted against the Senate wasting its time - is just as important at voting for the Webb Amendment.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092107A.shtml
Keith Olberman’s response.
I thought the original post was about how silly this particular Senate bill/vote was.
Is it important to vote on silly things?
Maybe I’m missing your point…
So, it is important to vote on silly things that waste time in the Senate, but it is not important to vote on important things.
I get it.
Cute but wrong.
Yes the original post was about how the Senate in this particular case passed a resolution that in my mind was a waste of time - to which I think we both agree. Trouble is you brought in Hillary’s votes - which frankly when compared to other Senate members wasn’t true. You got called on it and hence our back and forth.
You even said earlier that a Senator should vote all the time. I agree conceptually - it isn’t always possible but if you are part of the Senate, you should vote. You should vote on “waste of time bills” as well as “serious Bills’ to to do otherwise abrogates your responsibilities as a Senator.
So you can’t have it both ways.
Now what this comment storm has turned into is a Hillary discussion not a failure of the Senate to do anything discussion.
I mean how did this even come up for a vote? How were our Senate leaders outmaneuvered? etc etc etc.
Time to Move on here.
Um - you are missing my point while waffling on your own point.
So it is inexcusable but not really? That is where you and I disagree. And I say again - you were wrong to imply negatively about Hillary’s votes. Something another independent commenter also picked up on.
BUT - if it is about picking and choosing what is important. Try this. I see this vote as an anti-free speech resolution while covertly hiding the civilian leadership behind the skirt of a 4 star general. I see this as picking and choosing which troops the Senate supports. Republican troops or front men sure - Democratic troops like Kerry and Cleland Nope.
That sounds important to me.
Senators express their constitutes voice by voting. Voting means taking action. Hillary is my Senator - I’m guessing your as well. As a New Yorker - I’m pleased with her vote. I would have been very disappointed if a vote wasn’t cast especially on this issue.
[...] building on the hypocrisy theme. We’ve posted a few times about the MoveOn ad. Have a look at [...]
Although I’m a bit late to the party, I just wanted to point out that because they haven’t put forth a bill indicating that they condemn kitten rape, I can only conclude they must be for it.
[...] a few days after both STAND UP and support the first amendment re the MoveOn ad - both STAND DOWN when it comes confronting Bush over the seemingly endless saber [...]
[...] This really is Stupid - Senate passed a bill condemning MoveOn.org [...]