Tuesday, July 24, 2007

More Congressional idiocies, polls & misc

Just when you think you've seen an elected body behave as badly as possible, a new dawn hits. Now the omnipotent Congress intends to introduce a House bill by Barbara Lee (ho hum...) that will forbid the US from establishing permanent bases in Iraq.

Now that's bright. Why would a rational mind believe that Congress in 2007 is capable of determining the need for base locations in the future? And oh, BTW... foreign policy and command of troops is, and should remain, under control of the CIC.

But, it's all just part of their "hate Bush/isolate Bush/gain power in the WH again" strategy.

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UPDATE - JULY 26th, 2007

The bill overwhelmingly passed the House 399-24. Boehner (R-OH) voted for it, but had a few choice words on the absurdity of it all.

"Instead of wasting time with meaningless stunts and undermining our troops overseas through harmful rhetoric, members of Congress should be united and focused on preventing al Qaeda from establishing permanent bases in Iraq and using them to stage terrorist attacks against the United States and our allies," Boehner said.

"`No permanent bases' is already the policy of the United States, and there is no such thing as a `permanent' U.S. military base in foreign countries," Boehner added. "All U.S. military bases abroad are subject to cooperative agreements with the respective host countries. The agreements can be altered or eliminated at any time."


Yet another do-nothing, BS waste of time...
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Bad part is, there appears to be considerable signs of success with the dreaded "surge". Tho the common citizen is hard pressed to hear many details about the operations as the MSM has managed to ignore most of it. I guess if it's not a leak that favors the terrorist bad guys, or hints of a potential GOP scandal, it just ain't worthy of reporting. Instead substitutes for surge "news" is merely the constant negative Dem quotes which the press delights in parroting daily.

Oh, and more good news/bad news for the anti-war types. It appears Pew Research Center will be releasing their latest int'l Muslim poll results. In a "polls are God, man!" world, this oughta shake 'em up too. It appears that the undying love and respect for Bin Ladin and other radical Islamic warefare tactics of jihad are falling out of favor by considerable percentage points worldwide. And it also appears that this decline in support for jihadi violence just might have some relation to the improving conditions of some of the nations' economies.

A wide ranging survey of international attitudes in 47 countries by the Pew Research Center also reported that in many of the countries where support for suicide attacks has declined, there has also has been decreasing support for al-Qaida leader Osama bin-Laden.

The 95-page survey found that surging economic growth in many developing countries has encouraged people in these countries to express satisfaction with their personal lives, family income and national conditions, said Andrew Kohut, the center's director.


Oh my... democracy and capitalism as a deterrent to radical Islam? Now where have I heard that before...

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