I’m not sure which of these two straws are going to break the camel’s back, but…
Over at Kos, they’re highlighting this segment of the NYT article headed “Pressure Builds Over Plan for Troop Increase“:
Mr. Bush’s National Security Adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, said in an interview on “Meet the Press” on NBC that the White House has sufficient money under its control to deploy the troops as planned, and he suggested that once the troops are in place, Congress would be reluctant to cut off funding.
“I think once they get in harm’s way, Congress’s tradition is to support those troops,” Mr. Hadley said.
I’d like to rant about that, but I don’t think I can say it any more concisely than ‘Welshman’ did at Kos:
It is not simply that these young men and women will be deliberately exposed to what has been called the cross fire of a brutal civil war to extract money from Congress. It is not simply that this is being done despite the knowledge that the majority of lawmakers are opposed to it. It is not simply that it disregards the wishes so clearly expressed by the people of the United States. It is that it is done so blatantly, so arrogantly, so imperiously without sense of shame, embarrassment or guilt at it being known that their lives are being used to blackmail Congress.
You’d think that with that in the headlines, there would be nothing else that could compete today. But that would be underestimating the Bush Administration’s ability to enrage me.
Over at the Washington Times we find this snippet:
A last-minute addition to a federal spending bill at the end of the last U.S. Congress now makes civilians eligible for military courts-martial.
With the addition of just five words, the provision sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was signed into law by President Bush, and makes civilian government employees and journalists eligible for prosecution under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Washington Post reported Monday.
That boldface is mine.
If you don’t think that one of the main drivers for this little legislative rider was gainign the ability to threaten and silence reporters in Iraq, you haven’t been awake for the last six years.
And I didn’t even need to post about Stimson.
