Working Life

I don’t think the Democrats have gone far enough in the legislation to end the war. Having said that, there is no reason for the Democratic leadership to give an inch to the madman in the White House. The public stands behind the Democrats on the issue and, apparently, despite Bush’s attempt to use the […]

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One way to judge that the war has gone on far too long–yes, it should never have started–is how death seems to become routine. Five soldiers were killed on Sunday due to car bombs exploding in Baghdad and areas near the capitol–yet their deaths only merit a short, buried story in The New York Times. […]

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I understand the rationale that people are giving for the vote on the supplemental appropriations bill–that it, for the first time, sets a deadline for withdrawal of the troops. But, I think those people who pushed for an end to the war this year are heroes, as the After Downing Street people show.

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Nancy Pelosi, in a move that is still perplexing to me, is going all out to pass the supplemental appropriations bill that funds the war for a very long time. According to The Hill, she’s playing hard-ball with the anti-war caucus: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is holding the implied threat of lost committee seats over […]

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I am perplexed and aghast that the Democratic leadership is moving ahead to fund Bush’s continued war in Iraq. That is the upshot of the supplemental appropriations bill that is moving to a vote as early as Wednesday. But, a handful of courageous progressives could stop this shameful funding of the war and bring the […]

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In lamenting the devastation of the war, the media typically focuses on the 3,216 American soldiers who have been killed in the war. And, yes, I can’t stand reading the lists of the dead because you just see the lives of 20-year-old kids gone, poof… But, let’s remember that over half a million–500,000 AND UP, […]

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This is sad. So-called anti-war groups like MoveOn.Org and Win Without War are now abandoning the effort to cut off funding for the war–an effort that, in my humble opinion, is the best strategy to end the violence in Iraq and bring the troops home. This was first reported on Politico.com: Top House Democrats, working […]

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Why not call the president’s bluff on his escalation plan and continued funding for the war–using the very principle the Democrats declared would be a rock-solid commitment for all new spending? Pay as you go or, in Beltway lingo, “pay-go.” Personally, I do not support the obsession with the deficit as a short-term emergency. BUT, […]

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Bob Herbert has a good column today in the protest against the escalation and continued occupation of Iraq. The column is behind the Times’ Selection subscription. Here’s a snippet: But the thought that kept returning as I watched the earnestly smiling faces, so many of them no longer young, was the way these protesters had […]

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Yesterday, I wrote about the terrible economic costs of the war. And, lo and behold, yesterday, the progressives in the House announced legislation to end the war. The bill, entitled “The Bring Our Troops Home and Sovereignty of Iraq Restoration Act” would: 1. Withdraw all U.S. troops and military contractors from Iraq within six months […]

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