The Daily Jot: THIS JUST IN! IT TAKES A LOT TO GET HIM OFF!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

THIS JUST IN! IT TAKES A LOT TO GET HIM OFF!

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE

WITH GREASY-HAIRED DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ AT HIS SIDE, CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O SIGNED A LAW TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM PREDATORS.

FINGERING HERSELF IN THE OVAL OFFICE, DEBBIE PANTED AND PANTED UNTIL FALLING TO HER KNEES WHILE BARRY O FLASHED HIS IDIOT GRIN.

NOW CHILDREN WILL BE PROTECTED FROM PREDATORS.

NOT ALL PREDATORS, MIND YOU.

THEY WON'T BE PROTECTED FROM PREDATOR DRONES. IN PAKISTAN ALONE, 200 CHILDREN HAVE BEEN KILLED BY THE U.S. DRONES.

BUT BARRY O IS A LITTLE SCAMP WHO GREW UP FLIRTING WITH HIS STEP-FATHER, SENT TO HAWAII AFTER THAT AND NEVER LEARNED TO BE A MAN. SO KILLING CHILDREN IS WHAT IT TAKES FOR BARRY O TO GET AN ERECTION.

WHO CAN BEGRUDGE HIM THAT?

FROM THE TCI WIRE:

We'll start in the US. We've got good Congress/bad Congress. In one corner, a member who stays focused on the work and actually accomplishes a great deal. In the other corner, a drama queen who thinks everything in the world happens only to her.

Let's reward good work by noting Senator Patty Murray, Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee whose office issued the following today:

FOR PLANNING PURPOSES

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

CONTACT: Murray Press Office

(202) 224-2834

Tomorrow: Murray to Attempt to Pass Bill Allowing Catastrophically Wounded Veterans to Start Families

Murray bill will end ban on in vitro fertilization at VA; provide needed assistance to veterans with major reproductive injuries who are now paying out-of-pocket for expensive fertility procedures

(Washington, D.C.) -- Tomorrow, Thursday, December 13th, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs' Committee, will head to the Senate floor to call for unanimous consent on her Women Veterans and Other Health Care Improvement Act of 2012, which builds upon previous law to improve VA services for women veterans and veterans with families and ends the ban on in vitro fertilization (IVF) services at VA to help severely wounded veterans start families. Senator Murray will share the story of Tracy Keil, the spouse of a severely wounded OIF veteran, and her family's experience with VA's fertility services.

Pentagon data shows that since 2003 nearly 2,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered pelvic fractures and genitourinary injuries that could affect their abilities to reproduce. In particular, the reliance on foot patrols in Afghanistan and the use of improvised explosive devices has left service members far more susceptible to these injuries. Veterans who have severe reproductive and urinary tract injuries and spinal cord injuries (SCI) often need highly specialized treatments and procedures like IVF to conceive. However, under regulations, IVF is expressly excluded from fertility services that are provided by the VA to veterans or their spouses. This is a significant barrier for veterans with SCI and genital and urinary tract injuries and as a result they have to seek care outside of the VA. The Department of Defense currently provides access to IVF services and coverage for IVF and other fertility treatments at no charge to severely combat wounded servicemembers. Senator Murray's bill would provide veterans with the same access. Read more about Senator Murray's bill HERE.

WHO: U.S. Senator Patty Murray

WHAT: Senator Murray will give a speech in support of the Women Veterans and

Other Health Care Improvement Act of 2012, will seek unanimous consent

on the bill

WHEN: TOMORROW: Thursday, December 13th 2012

Approximately 10:15 AM ET/ 7:15 AM PT (this may change depending on floor

schedule)

WHERE: Senate Floor

WATCH: Speech will air live on C-SPAN2

###

That was the good. Now for the bad, my own House Rep, Nancy Pelosi. Today's nonsense involved Iraq so we can't just ignore her. Sabrina Siddiqui (Huffington Post) reports on Nancy's latest bottle of sour whine. Pelosi uncorked the crazy to try and give Speaker of the House John Boehner advice. From the article:

"The emotion in the [2006] election was about ending the war in Iraq … and people thought that when the people had spoken, that something would happen to that effect," Pelosi said. She went on to explain how Congress passed a bill that continued to fund military operations in Iraq but included a timetable for withdrawal, a measure that was vetoed by President George W. Bush.

"I as speaker had to make a decision as a Democratic speaker in a new Democratic majority -- [that was] very enthusiastic about ending the war in Iraq -- to bring a bill to the floor that funded the troops," Pelosi recalled. She added that a bifurcated strategy was enacted to split the legislation into two pieces -- domestic spending and war appropriations. An overwhelming majority of 348 members voted for the domestic piece of the bill, while the $100 billion in funding for wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan passed 280 to 142, with 140 Democrats -- including Pelosi herself -- voting against it.

People thought the war would end because people were promised it would by . . . Nancy Pelosi. She wants you to know today that the problem was they passed a bill but Bully Boy Bush vetoed it.

Really because I do recall her little presentation to the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board and staff. I do recall who Nance blamed them. It wasn't Bush. It was Harry Reid. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. As we noted in the May 29, 2008 Iraq snapshot:

"The House has always voted to have the redeployment of the troops out. . . . From the House we have always fought but the senate [let's voice trail off into silence]" I'm not really sure the best way for the Speaker of the House to conduct themselves is to declare war on the Senate semi-privately. Maybe a war between the two houses of Congress is what it will take to end the illegal war? If so, Pelosi needs to take her comments to a very public forum which, apparently, this meeting was not since it was not reported on. She further [insisted] of the Democratically controlled Senate, "they are guarding the president's desk."

In 2008, she was blaming the Senate -- Democratically controlled.

She's always got someone else to blame.

Anyone could have ended the war spending at any point by standing up and filibustering. But Nancy made clear there would be hell to pay. And that petty and vindictive streak is why she refused to restore Cynthia McKinney's senority. It's why she threatened all sorts of punishments against John Conyers (including losing his position as Chair of the Judiciary Committee) if he went forward with attempts at impeachment.

Nancy Pelosi was a lousy Speaker of the House. In every way. We noted at one point that she couldn't even handle a press conference on Iraq (Rahm had to save her ass and the conference -- see the April 3, 2008 snapshot if you need to refresh or catch up). She made up excuses, she blamed the Senate, she blamed this, she blamed that.

At the end of the day, she is the one who told America that if the Democrats got one house -- just control of one house of Congress -- the war would come to an end. That's the promise she made. Voters gave Democrats control of both houses of Congress in the November 2006 mid-term elections. She can lie all she wants but she didn't keep her promise. She bullied members of Congress who actually tried to end the war. And the vote Huffington Post is referring to? Nancy pissed off two Democrats (against the war) with her strong arm tactics. She made sure it would pass. And she made sure she'd be able to vote against it without tanking it. She's a con artist. That's all she is. She said, "Give me this and I will give you that." She didn't keep her promise. That's on her. That's not on Harry Reid, that's not on John Conyers, that's not on Cynthia McKinney or Maxine Waters or Lynn Woolsey. That's on Nancy Pelosi. Part of leadership is taking accountability for your failures.

She still can't do that and is quoted saying, "I had to do it as speaker -- do you know what it was like for me to bring a bill to the floor to fund the war in Iraq, a war predicated on a misrepresentation to the American people? So it's tough, but you have to do it. Is the point that you don't want to put your members on the spot? Figure it out -- we did. Figure it out."

She's bragging about the 'tough' thing she had to do. She's bragging about breaking her promise and continuing an illegal war. She's bragging about continuing to fund an illegal war. That last brag? That could actually bring you up on charges in a War Crimes court.

It was so hard, Nancy I-Me-I,-as-Speaker- Pelosi wants us all to know, so hard for her. I think it was harder, for example, for Lt Ehren Watada to stand up to the US government and refuse to fight in an illegal war. Poor Nancy's always mistaken a chipped nail for personal tragedy. Spare us the drama.

Nancy's not the only one serving up Congressional Crazy. We've noted how, since 2009, Senator Jack Reed's been rather inconsisten on Iraq in Senate hearings (repeatedly). Kori Schake (Foreign Policy) covers his latest: Insisting that an Afghanistan drawdown won't be at all like the Iraqi drawdown because that was Bully Boy Bush. Schake offers this fact check:

An arbitrary end to "combat" operations in Iraq in August 2010, confining U.S. forces to a support role nowhere required in U.S.-Iraqi agreements made in the Bush Administration and curtailing the effectiveness of our contribution.

Not confronting Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as he used the courts and security forces against domestic political rivals.

Having expressed no interest in the importance of Parliament for the 18-month stalemate after the shamefully manipulated outcome of Iraq's elections, insisting that any agreement on future presence of U.S. military forces must be approved by that Parliament, leading to the breakdown of negotiations on any long-term stationing.

A ridiculously extravagant and unexecutable plan for civilian presence after our military withdrawal that conveyed the lack of seriousness in our involvement.

Not investing any political capital in coalescing neighboring states into support of a government emerging from international isolation.

And, having achieved "an end to the war in Iraq," President Obama seems not to care whether that war continues, only that we not be participants in it.

On the last one, Kori Schaker is like most of America, missing the news of an agreement signed Thursday, the Memorandum of Understanding For Defense Cooperation Between the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Iraq and the Department of Defense of the United States of America. (If you missed the Memo, see Monday's "Iraq snapshot" and Tuesday's "Iraq snapshot.")