Presidential Vetoes - They Affect You

Reports are out on AP and other sources that the house has passed a bill supporting troops with $124.2 billion supplemental funds, but attached is a timetable to bring the troops out of Iraq. "Democrats said the bill was on track to arrive on the president's desk on Tuesday, the anniversary of Bush's announcement aboard the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln that major combat operations in Iraq had ended." (AP)

The President has promised a veto to this bill, and it seems likely that he will stand by that action. What are at stake are enormous issues of the war in Iraq, how you respond to those issues is what this country, the U.S., stands for- your ability to interact in the representatives conduct, including the President. "The huge bill would fund the war, among other things, but demand troop withdrawals begin on Oct. 1 or sooner if the Iraqi government does not meet certain benchmarks. The bill sets a nonbinding goal of completing the troop pullout by April 1, 2008, allowing for forces conducting certain noncombat missions, such as attacking terrorist networks or training Iraqi forces, to remain." (AP)

The two-thirds majority required to override a Presidential veto by all evidence doesn't exist - the vote on this bill in the house was 218 to 208, so the Democratic leaders are trying to see past what is going to happen when the bill is vetoed. "Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said Democrats were still considering their next step. He said after Bush's veto, one option would be funding the war through September as Bush wants but setting benchmarks that the Iraqi government must meet." (AP)

What you have to decide is who you are going to believe, the General involved as leader in Iraq, General Petraeus has claimed that the strategy of sending more troops in has worked but in a mixed fashion. General Petraeus has testified to this, but the sense of the Democratic leadership is that his statements, while accurate from his side of the issue, aren't the total picture, and that sending in more troops isn't going to yield the results that are being claimed. ""The sacrifices borne by our troops and their families demand more than the blank checks the president is asking for, for a war without end," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said." (AP)

Where do you stand and what are you willing to write and call your Representative with? You represent the last great hope of liberty in the world, you are the voter, the person who they represent, if they don't hear from you, and then the process will not have the all-important truth of the system in it. Call, e-mail, get involved with these people, don't let them just make decisions without you being in the consideration, these are our friends, our relatives our loved ones over there; they deserve to have us express our heartfelt desires about this war. Who you back isn't the issue that you act is.