No, IMO, they aren't listening.........they aren't united as they should be, they are acting weak, cowardly, indecisive; they will roll over on the issue of escalation/funding for Iraq and show their soft underbelly, so it can be gutted by the BA -again.
In short, alot like Dems did before they controlled Congress.
Most of the hopes I had after the 2006 election have evaporated.
But, by god, my reps are going to know my thoughts and I am asking them why they continue to ignore the will of the American people.

Craig Crawford’s Trail Mix: How Lieberman Could Shut Down the Senate
Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman — the longtime Democrat who became a Democratic-aligned Independent after his stormy 2006 re-election campaign — says it is a “remote possibility” that he would switch allegiances to the Republicans.

But even a distant chance of a Lieberman switch is enough to make Democrats worry about a threat to their Senate control.

Thanks to the Senate’s murky rules, Lieberman would not be able to instantly hand over the steering wheel to the GOP. He could, however, bring Senate business to a screaming halt.

Unlike 2001 — when then-Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont renounced the Republican Party and effectively broke a 50-50 tie in favor of the Democrats — the so-called organizing resolution that currently governs the Senate contains no provision for switching control if the party in power loses its majority.

That means Republicans would have to threaten filibusters and other obstacles to force passage of a new resolution allowing for such a switchover.

So while Lieberman cannot directly play kingmaker, that is quite a monkey wrench he is holding.

Joe is really enjoying his power right now. He has us all in his clenched hand while he grins from ear to ear.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross." ~ Sinclair Lewis

In a time of deception telling the truth is a revolutionary act. ~ George Orwell

The Democrats in Congress (and when campaigning for office) hire advisors and listen to them. The Democrats apparently cannot discern that a large number of those advisors are part of the DLC philosophy (read Fifth Column placed in stealth by Republicans or their mentors behind the scenes).

When Kerry "won" the primaries (won't get into ballot fraud here), he went from a poor candidate to a horrendously bad, tongue-tied fool, all because of his advisors. I do understand that with party and PAC funding the candidates are forced to accept certain advisors.

It seems that the same type of advisors are reining in the Democrats in Congress regarding any forceful actions they might take to end the war in Iraq or prevent the new one in Iran.

These advisors generally cause good Democrats to lose their campaigns for lack of taking a strong stand for the people's interest on issues, like jobs, wages and health care, and cause the backbone of party in Congress to turn to jelly.

Can no one rid us of these DLC wolves in sheep's clothing???

I just put $20 in regular unleaded gas at $3.03 a gallon and Iam in turmoil as to how Iam goping to afford to commute to my job which is 60 miles from home ,I drive a car with a six cylinder engin and it gets OK gas milage ,however this situation is going to force me to look for a job closer to home ! Thanks Mr Bush our oil man from Texas President ! Hre has done everything possible to eliminate the middle class in this country and I feel he wiull finally be sucessful at one thing in his tenor ion office ,the death of those who work hard to barely get by ! Dam you Mr.Bush, just remember since you love the Bble so much that in it there is a statement in that book that it would be easier to thread a camel thru the eye of a needle then for a rich man to get into Heaven ! I guess we know where you and chenney are going !

Stopping funding is NOT the way to end this war! If you attempt to do this you will only help Bush/Cheney in their follies. Impeaching Bush and Cheney stands to do much more than just stop the war. It will stop the war, preferably in an organized and controlled manner, set the crazed religious and Republican radical right back enough to allow the real Republicans to retake their party, hopefully unite the Democratic party enough to find a real candidate for 2008(not Gore, Clinton, or the other strange persons you tend to nominate), and get all politicians attention to start restoring this country back to being of the people, by the people, and for the people. As an Independent I see the Democrats(elected ones) not wanting to impeach Bush/Cheney because these two are the best thing they have going towards electing a Democrat in 2008. Half the Republicans do not want to because they are the crazed religious conservative right(think Fascists) and the other half are too afraid of the first half because they are running for 2008. The American people(remember them?) want Bush/Cheney gone! The entire world wants Bush/Cheney gone! If you finally get the guts to finally do it please take out Cheney first so Bush can replace him with a decent human being(like the late Gerald Ford) before removing Bush. If you take out both at once then it will look like you are trying to get a Democrat into office(Ms Pelosi) and that will hurt your chances of removal and divide this country even more. Above all remember you are supposed to represent the people, ALL the people! We voted you in and eventually we will vote you out!

The elections will come because before a Democrastinator who wants to be President allows this group to destroy the Elections, killing their chances to take the Hill back, they will Impeach. The funny thing is, will they see it needs to be done NOW!

Before their armies hold ours hostage, and demand the return with more appropriation funds, to fund their ammo quota in their own army.

We have a plan, Murtha's, which the Republican's are calling a "slow bleed," but it is our best chance to do the right thing--force the administration to do it right, or get out. Let's change the mantra from "slow bleed" to "DO IT RIGHT OR GET OUT!"

Will Kester, author of "SHIFTING SANDS: A Clash of Cultures".

We can clean all their clocks in 2008. Just keep watching who it is we need out and print it for future use in the campaign.

Wuestions must be asked and answered correctly or else. If a message of dialogue for peace is not there, they must go.

If a way out is not present in their speeches, they must go.

If they don't admit to their wrong votes, they must go.

We cannot have another 19th century of unchanged wrongs that we have learned about in history.

We can't continue to ingnore the problems we face in this country that must be changed for the better.

If they don't have what it takes then fire them like they do us on a job.

Simply stopping the funding of the Iraq war will allow Bush/Cheney to harp how the Democrats do not support our military. To do this effectively the funding bill needs to require a complete accounting disclosure of where the ask for funds are going plus disclosure of where past funds have gone. In addition investigations into "slush" funds and misused funds should be started immediately. The alligations that funds are being covertly funneled to AlQueada/terrorists to fight Iran must be checked out also. Any activity of the CIA must be verified to Congresses satisfaction and the publics. The Bush/Cheney administration needs to be held accountable for every last dime going to the Iraq debacle. If this is done properly the reasons for impeachment will probably double and even the right wing Republicans will have no choice but to comply.

Please go to the Library of Congress Website under Thomas. http://capwiz.com/fconl/webreturn/? Read this VERY important piece of legislation that has somehow been shoved to the background by posturing and stupid political rhetoric. Read it all if you have time. Thanks.

Their pockets! If the rich who don't even party in our world, want to conquor the oil in the middle East, make them pay for it with their own blood. They don't give a flying fig about us or our children. It's the bottom line in their world with very fine print for us.

They cannot be allowed to turn our turn of the century into a war of the nations.

How dare they start this crap in the innocence of our neww century!

Kick em' out now!

Got to the Library of Congress -Thomas ---- Google it.
This should be viable.
Too involved to summerize- sorry.

Didn't the "Pay as you go" item pass the House? Then, to fund the war, there must be a provision to pay for the war, so raise the taxes on the upper incomes, and give them some incentive to get out. When the war costs are paid off, the tax goes away, unless we have another war. That should promote peace in our time.

Will Kester, author of "Shifting Sands; A Clash of Cultures."

Im sick of EVERYTHING Bush does. Be it sending troops to iraq or immigration.

The United States of America has been subjected to rule of corrupt, tyrannical, Bushite politicians who have violated letter and intent of rule of law at every turn. That rule of law is based on principles adopted from law established in the Magna Carta that limited power of the King in England in June 1215 and as was adopted into our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Therefore:
We American Citizens hold these truths to be self-evident, all citizens are created equal, they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among citizens, deriving their just powers from consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the American Citizens to alter or abolish it, and institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing it’s powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness…when a long train of abuses and usurpation, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these American Citizens and such is not the necessity which constrains them to alter their government. History of present democratic and republican political parties and political leaders is one of repeated injuries and usurpation, all having in direct object establishment of absolute tyranny over these Americans Citizens.
Following facts define in part that tyranny in time of war where American lives are placed at risk:
They have: Refused to assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary of the public good, and failed to provide for even our most basic of securities,
Deceived and lied to us on important matters of state and refuse to correct egregious errors once discovered, denying all responsibility for the same and denying errors even exist,
Failed to provide basic constitutional property protections by permitting property to be taken, without due process, for residential development through eminent domain condemnation when there is no public good,
Provided governance by wealthy lobbyists who have interests different from ours, pork barrel legislation and ear marks that wasted taxpayer revenues for political expediency and self enrichment, promoted their conflicted interests taking large amounts of money from lobbyists to pass legislation injurious to American Citizens, and misspent government funds for expenditures that provide no benefit to American citizens,
Forbidden legislatures to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance,
Obstructed administration of justice, by refusing assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers and failure to enforce existing legislation, Erected multitudes of new offices and sent swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance,
Denied our veterans promised medical and family benefits, and let millions of catastrophic disease (children and American citizen) victims of cancer (560,000), heart (900,000), septicemia (200,000), diabetes (30,000), flu (10,000), and many other deadly diseases die annually without research funding while providing over $30 Billion in funding for a minor disease AIDS (10,000 American Deaths Caused By Self-Destructive Behavior) for political expediency of social causes most American Citizens do not support that are injurious to the moral fiber of our families causing mass destruction of family units, despair and destruction of American poor, particularly our Native American and African American Citizens’ families,
Polluted: our educational system with indoctrination political rhetoric that conflicts with basic constitutional freedoms and widely held American values regarding social relationships, and governance; causing great declines in school attendance, graduations, discipline, educational effectiveness, and education in American Citizenship while promoting crime, social disruption and anarchy.
Combined with others: to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our constitution; (World Trade Organization WTO, International Monetary Fund IMF, Mexico, and others’ rule) and unacknowledged by our laws, giving their assent to their acts of pretended legislation for:
Developing foreign language interpreter benefits requirements (Clinton Executive Order 13166) for recipients of federal revenues to place onerous financial burdens on us and destroy our common English language that serves to bond us as a sovereign nation, and developing school curriculums that promote insurrection and rebellion against the United States and its institutions with divisive social engineering rhetoric while ignoring basic skills needed to survive in a competitive work environment.
Conspiring and colluding with foreign powers to alter our form of governance by Mexican illegal alien invasion of our borders, Creating at American Citizen expense, immoral “baby farms” to procreate foreign citizens and overpopulate our country with cheap labor, Providing fake legislation for border security guards without appropriate funding, Permitting Mexican Army and drug lord invasion without providing military support or declaring war, even after they have fired on United States sworn officers hundreds of times, permitting over 500,000 criminal illegal felons entry into America to rape, murder, steal and otherwise destroy our security, and providing benefits to foreign agents paid for by American citizens but not available to us.
International non-reciprocal trade agreements and trade imbalances that force our businesses to close and create: onerous debt that destroys economic stability, massive exportation of our jobs and livelihood, and massive illegal immigration of invading foreigners who take our jobs, benefits, homes, and every other asset we work for, exploited workforces and undermined American small and medium sized businesses, redistributed American assets to foreign ownership,
Stripping us of entitlement programs we bought: social security, Medicare, Medicaid and related programs we have paid for with word, faith and security of the United States government behind our contributions only to find our elected officials have given our money to foreign agents, and then tell us the government doesn’t have enough money for American Citizens while confiscating our property without due process to give proceeds of those sales of our assets to invading foreign agents in the country illegally,
Imposing taxes on us without our consent, or representation, to provide benefits to invading foreign agents,
Destruction of our environment and infrastructure: schools, roads, jails, police protection and all governmental functions that create social order, leaving us with inadequate healthy and wholesome water, air or land or a place to live causing many to die.
Taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws and altering fundamentally forms of our governments, exciting domestic insurrection amongst us, and presenting divisive wedge issues to control us and has endeavored to bring on terrorists of the world, merciless murderers of children, whose known rule of warfare is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these egregious oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury and charges of vigilantism, racism, laziness, and other lies promoting welfare of foreign corporations and invading agents and exciting hatred and dissension amongst American Citizens to enhance control over us and destroy our constitutional freedoms.
We therefore: betrayed American Citizens of the United States of America do in the name and by the authority of the good people of these United States declare that these United States are under attack and shall be liberated from despotic corrupt governance we now suffer from. We shall liberate it by the vote, one neighborhood and one city at a time. There will be no amnesty, quarter, compromise or surrender to those who violate American rule of law and national sovereignty regardless of nation of origin.
We will take those measures necessary to assure security of our borders and compliance with rule of law to assure continuation of this form of government that provides the greatest level of individual freedom for the most diverse group of people of any government known. Corrupt greedy elitist politicians and corporate lobbyists will not destroy nor alter this unique experiment in human relations and governance based on rule of law where everyone is treated equally with unalienable rights endowed by their creator.
We insist on immediate funding for enforcement of existing immigration legislation and confiscation of property of all those illegally hiring, aiding, abetting, and or assisting immigration law violations.
We declare this voter revolution to begin now with the goal of liberating these United States from tyranny, corrupt governance and its rogue government officials that symbolizes all that is wrong with government in these United States of America.
We will not allow our borders to be violated, nor will we be subjected to the tyrannical rule of international corporate elite. We declare and state this declaration of independence to be immediate and in effect at the moment of acceptance by those American Citizens who shall forward this document to their elected officials.

They are even breaking the promises to protect our soldiers.JThey are robbing the veteran funds now with his inexperienced cronies, with tight pockets on Americans and free funds for the Iraqi and Saudi Arabian countries.

His priorities are way out of sinc. Impeach Now!

On March 17th the biggest Blue Tsunami is coming to Washington DC to let the Congress, Pentagon and White House know, the American People have spoken and they aren't following orders to change this course in Iraq and the Middle East with diplomacy and bring our Troops Home Now! If you feel like you say you do about this corruption going on in Government, be there and let your voices be heard loud and clear. BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW AND END THE CORRUPTION IN THE WHITE HOUSE. Call 804-512-2063 for the locations of the places we will leave from to protest this CRAP ON THE HILL.

Go to MoveOn.org for details and take our country back.

Kick em' Out Now!

mommapanther

I've taken the hint and personalized my mailing singling out five Senators, and have construed this as a chance to also campaign for a "Peace Tax" in lieu of the present War Taxes. Here's my letter (feel free to use this as a template for your own letters):

Dear Senators Feingold, Kennedy, Kerry, Obama and Cardin,

Every day you dither waiting to end this misbegotten war in Iraq you create more debt for the next generation of workers. You need to force the Bush Administration either to be more forthright with its imperialist warmongering, and oblige the corporations that it benefits to pay for their own foreign adventuring, or to force their hand and stop this war. To accomplish the latter, I suggest that you re-direct all taxes paid by the poor into a peace envelope, tacked on as an amendment to the obscene $93 billion War Supplemental that is about to come before you. As the Republicans will never want to stop funding war and defense spending, since their associates receive lucrative contracts for M-I-C corporations, adding this as an amendment to the Supplemental would guarantee that Republicans defeat the bill - or Bush vetoes it. Should you decide to pursue in all seriousness some piece of legislation in support of such a Peace Tax Envelope - while making a very relevant point about the poor and/or middle classes being normally forced to pay taxes for a war in Iraq that none of the poor or middle class wants - you would have plenty of material to discuss during a filibuster of the next war funding bill. Were such legislation in favor of a Peace Envelope for the Taxes of the Poor actually enacted, you will have succeeded in effectively putting the kibosh on future belligerent administrations engaging in wars of aggression or pre-emptive strikes, which only serve to benefit the fortunate fifth making money off of these wars through government contracts. Take away the trough feeding these war-profiteering corporations and pro-war politicians and you've re-claimed America for Americans.

Alternatively, House Democrats could raise taxes on the rich to pay for the war, starting with an amendment to the $93 billion Supplemental in early March. Since Republicans will likely never vote to tax the rich, adding this as an amendment to the Supplemental would guarantee Republicans defeat the bill - or Bush vetoes it. I urge you to add a War Tax on the Rich to the Supplemental, with specific instructions that the monies of the fortunate fifth be used to kill foreign insurgents and/or hapless civilians in occupied countries, so that the blood spilled illegally and unjustly by American soldiers in Iraq is on their hands, rather than attributable to the average American.