that $87 Billion Crap

[bluedog]

when the right keeps bringing this up................I would suggest at every campaign stop Kerry start out with this..........Explain his VOTE.....and Shout loud and clear that BUsh was Going To VETO this bill.......unless he got his own way.................

[jeff30997]

1. That $87 Billion Crap...

Mmh.Sounds like a title for a Bush biography.

[FloridaPat]

2. They way I remember it, we're spending a billion a week and

the Bushies won't tell us where it's going. Just that it "supports the troops". Bottom line is it all goes to Halliburton, because they're feeding the troops and getting them the trucks, gas, and anything else they need. The salaries are paid by the DOD.

And we still don't know where the money is going. I would think that would make a nice issue.

[liveoaktx]

3. This is a litlte long-winded

I made a video of the 87 billion argument, partly to put all the ducks in a row for myself. (Maybe someday I'll add some music).

Explaining the 87 Billion

[Minimus]

4. well worth the time

can I share this with others?

[liveoaktx]

6. Sure!

I really think that's why that 87 bill is not a sound byte to explain, because it *is* nuanced and a little complex. Should Kerry have done a protest vote? I believe he knew the vote was going to pass anyway, due to the Rep majority and wanted to make sure it was known that he believed the bill was being passed without any type of accountability. In fact, his stance is to be admired rather than mocked.

[FloridaPat]

10. Nicely done. Thank you.

[TexasSissy]

5. Yes, he should explain this more, and definitively. But I must say that

the WAY in which he initially tried to explain it (the clip that * uses in the * ads) was a stupid way to say it.

[Gyre]

7. It was a FU by our candidate, and

it should be the only legitimate thing they have to ding him on. Face it; he's vulnerable on that vote and he's responsible for how he's handled it (not well). If they can't hit him on that, then you'd never allow them to criticize him at all if you had the power. Then you'd be one of them.

Gyre

[PurityOfEssence]

8. It was a bad bill; it was graft for Bush's friends

Voting against a bill isn't the same as voting against everything it intends to do. The bill was set up to funnel massive amounts of money to Halliburton, Bechtel and other Bush cronies without any oversight. This Administration wants to rule by edict, and if they don't get their way, they'll destroy anyone in their path.

If the provisions for body armor--the absence of which is Bush's fault, just like it was his ugliness to cut combat pay--were urgent, the Bush Administration shouldn't have tied urgent life-threatening issues to graft and personal greed. It is simply more important to Bush to make money for his friends than anything else. They held up Homeland Security in '02 so they could crush unions and deprive 170,000 workers of job protection and collective bargaining. They also did that deliberately at a crucial point in the election cycle.

The problem is that the Dems want to "play nice", and the Republicans never do. There's no way to call them on this distortion without pointing out that they'll risk U.S. lives to strong-arm people into make them richer than Croesus.

In short: it was a bad bill, loaded with graft for Bush's friends; if they cared about the troops, they would have voted on simply that, instead of tieing it together with greedy opportunism. It was also to cover their own fuck-up for sending the troops into combat unprepared.

[PurityOfEssence]

9. They hold America hostage unless they can loot the treasury

Here's another approach: they systematically scare us and demand that we give their friends huge amounts of money or they won't keep us safe.

They're holding the troops hostage: unless you bankroll our friends--without ANY oversight--we'll let the troops die.

There's no way to fight this without getting mean, and they know that.

It's more important to steal money for Halliburton than it is to save the troops. It's more important to crush unions than it is to protect the Homeland. Someone needs to say this or they'll continue with their greedfest.