Filibuster to end the war now
CounterPunch
by John Walsh
02/08/07
We hear over and over again that it ‘takes 60 votes to get something serious done in the Senate.’ That is a lot of malarkey. It takes only one senator to begin a filibuster against any bill. And then it takes only 41 votes to uphold that filibuster and prevent any proposed law from coming to the floor. Thus, the present authorization for defense funding in the coming fiscal year can be stopped cold if it contains funds for the war on Iraq. And this can be done by just one courageous Senator, backed by 40 colleagues. … The Republicans have shown in their very first weeks in opposition that they have the ovaries to do what the Democrats will not. Today (February, 5) they raised 49 votes in the Senate to prevent a relatively harmless non-binding resolution against Bush’s so-called ’surge.’ … What are the odds that even a handful of Senators will begin a filibuster against the war? Pretty minimal, I fear, given the power of AIPAC and other pro-war forces within the Democratic Party. But the Senators should be pressured intensely, no holds barred, to do so anyway...
http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh02082007.html
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Walsh
by John Walsh
02/08/07
We hear over and over again that it ‘takes 60 votes to get something serious done in the Senate.’ That is a lot of malarkey. It takes only one senator to begin a filibuster against any bill. And then it takes only 41 votes to uphold that filibuster and prevent any proposed law from coming to the floor. Thus, the present authorization for defense funding in the coming fiscal year can be stopped cold if it contains funds for the war on Iraq. And this can be done by just one courageous Senator, backed by 40 colleagues. … The Republicans have shown in their very first weeks in opposition that they have the ovaries to do what the Democrats will not. Today (February, 5) they raised 49 votes in the Senate to prevent a relatively harmless non-binding resolution against Bush’s so-called ’surge.’ … What are the odds that even a handful of Senators will begin a filibuster against the war? Pretty minimal, I fear, given the power of AIPAC and other pro-war forces within the Democratic Party. But the Senators should be pressured intensely, no holds barred, to do so anyway...
http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh02082007.html
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Walsh
rudkla - 9. Feb, 15:15
