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David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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September 10, 2007 6:55 AM
The Innocent Bystander Fable Goes Into Overdrive
The Washington Post is the latest Establishment media organ to push what I have called the Innocent Bystander Fable (memorialized in this YouTube video) - the myth that Democrats have no power to stop the war, despite controlling both houses of Congress. The Post writes, "Democrats began their fight against what came to be called the surge with public opinion on their side, but with virtually no real weapons to force Bush to change."
For reference, here is Article 1, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution:
"No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law."
Translated into vernacular, that's the part of the Constitution that says the Congress - and only the Congress - has the power of the purse. If congressional leaders decided to NOT use that power of the purse, this war would be over.
And let's be clear on one more thing. You know how we're hearing all this talk of "we don't have 60 votes, much less 67 votes" to pass a bill to end the war? The Post regurgitates it, claiming that "because of a Senate rule requiring 60 votes to shut off debate and 67 votes to overturn a veto, Reid faced an almost impossible challenge" to end the war.
Just stop for a moment and flip the argument around. The argument inherently admits that all you need is 40 votes to stop a blank check from passing the U.S. Senate (and this says nothing of the simple fact that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could simply refuse to bring another blank check war spending bill to the floor of their respective houses of Congress).
So while you may or may not agree that Congress should use its power of the purse to end the war, there is no debate that Congress does, in fact, have the power of the purse to end the war - and thus Democrats who control Congress do have a very "real weapon to force Bush to change."
Now, I understand why Democratic politicians in Washington are pushing the Innocent Bystander Fable. Facing polls that show the vast majority of Americans want an end to this war, they need to come up with an excuse as to why they refuse to end the war - and so their excuse is the Innocent Bystander Fable's claim that they just don't have the power.
But now the Innocent Bystander Fable is being taken up by the Beltway media as an assumed fact. It is being woven into the political narrative as something as concretely true as water being wet. Reporters have, in other words, become totally complicit with scheming politicians who want to pretend that the U.S. Constitution quite literally does not exist.
Such irresponsible behavior by the press rivals its complicity in pushing the nation to war by refusing to ask questions about pre-war intelligence. Only this time, it's arguably worse. Whereas beforehand, reporters could at least sound vaguely credible by arguing that they were "fooled" and didn't have access to the raw intelligence, this time, it's impossible to pretend they don't know what the U.S. Constitution is or didn't have access to a copy of it (it's right here if you are looking).
And the result is basically the same: Casualties mount and American national security is weakened all because the folks in Washington refuse to ask our political leaders the most basic questions about the most basic facts.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
I have a couple of questions about this assertion that Pelosi or Reid can shut off funding as stated. I don't understand what the flip 40 votes has to do with it. What about Lieberman? How does his vote or flip to GOP play? What pressure can be brought to force the Democrat hand? Is it that simple to not bring the vote to the floor?
Rabbi Michael Lerner who just had a meeting with anti-war leaders attributes this cowardice to the fact that anti-war Democrats have no grand strategy for Iraq and the ME in general, basically they can't give a valid alternative to the Bush clusterfuck.
Here's the link:
http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/article.php?
story=20070907191110516&mode=print
This is why the GOP is able to beat down the Democrats so easily. They really don't have intellectual ammunition to offer a competing and realistic strategy for the Middle-east and central asia.
Another problem as pointed out in the meeting are the BlueDogs who are not supporting withdraw from Iraq. Add Bluedogs plus the GOP and the Democrats are in the minority on Iraq. But a lot of their intransigence stems from Pelosi's rotten leadership and lack of a spine. What were Democrats thinking by promoting a frail, crooked, country club grandma as their leader I'll never know.
It is obvious that we should end the Iraq occupation and that we need to impeach Bush and Cheney and have an authentic investigation of 9/11. The majority of mass media fools the majority of people into complicity with the horrible corruption that is going on at the highest levels of our government. Propaganda is in full swing in the US, today!
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Stand for something or fall for anything.
http://www.ExcaliburBooks.com/RedAlert/
It is obvious that we should end the Iraq occupation and that we need to impeach Bush and Cheney and have an authentic investigation of 9/11. The majority of mass media fools the majority of people into complicity with the horrible corruption that is going on at the highest levels of our government. Propaganda is in full swing in the US, today!
--
Stand for something or fall for anything.
http://www.ExcaliburBooks.com/RedAlert/
This Administration and their Republican henchmen is nothing more than a Mafia plundering the U.S. Treasury that as been it's only consistent purpose and their only agenda besides trying to destroy Social Security as well..
Now Edwards wants Republicans in his cabinet..
So we know he can't be trusted any longer either..
I'm Voting for Kucinich, win lose or draw and then not voting at all if I have to vote for Hillary..
Why bother the Bilderbergers have already decided everything..
The invasion of Iraq began a motion picture with no happy ending... no good outcome. Ending our military cork on Iraq brings on the aftermath. The Dems do not want to be in the position of forcing out the cork, which would give Bush the opportunity to blame them for the aftermath. Can't you hear it now? "The Democrats lost Iraq"... lost the Middle East... lost the oil. Bush lost it when he began it. Let him lose the aftermath also.
Just CNN's Wolfie do a smear job on the anti-Iraq movement and shill for Patraeus, fucking revolting.
The thing is he normally brings in reporter Michael Ware to give a counter argument to the GOP asshats and he didn't do it this time. Instead he brought in some in-house stooge to back up Patreaus.
democraticcritique, that pathetic trick will not work. The GOP will attack the Democrats whether they sit or play hardball. Sitting by and hoping the opposition will destroy itself is nothing but a DEFEATIST strategy. On the other hand, playing hardball would actually prove that yes, an opposition actually exists. I'd suggest playing hardball and taking your chances as it would actually be a win-win. With fellows like you, it's no wonder neither of the two parties can ever regain a shred of trust and deserve to be SMASHED to DEATH by 3RD PARTIES !
P.S.: As some have pointed out earlier, the Democrats had better learn and apply this saying "USE IT OR LOSE IT" and so far they've shown that they're hell bent on the latter part of the phrase !
Scott Ritter, on Book Span, convincingly stated that it is the lack of strategy -- he recommends saving the Constitution as a focus there for -- that is to blame for ineffectual antiwar efforts.
He would have that strategy encompass only 3 or so operations, such as public financing of elections, auditable paper balloting, and reversing the legislative branch's abdication of their war and fiscal powers.
Tactics would support the operations.
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