REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Into the Red

POSTED BY: GINOBIFFARONI
UPDATED: Thursday, May 14, 2009 17:54
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Thursday, May 14, 2009 5:54 PM

GINOBIFFARONI



http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/05/14/us-war-spending.html#socialco
mments


Despite Democrats' rising anxiety about Afghanistan, the House of Representatives on Thursday easily passed a $96.7 billion US measure filling President Barack Obama's request for war spending and foreign aid efforts there and in Iraq.

Some 51 Democrats broke with Obama, who is sending thousands more troops into Afghanistan, but all but a handful of Republicans stood behind the president to produce a 368-60 tally.

Republicans supported the measure even though majority Democrats added almost $12 billion to Obama's $85 billion request.

Most of that money, about $73 billion, would go to the Defence Department to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the extra 21,000 troops being sent to Afghanistan.

The measure would boost total funding provided by Congress for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars above $900 billion.

Across Capitol Hill, a key Senate committee approved a companion $91.3 billion bill that includes Obama's $1.5 billion emergency request to fight a potential flu pandemic, even as the recent swine flu scare appears to be abating.

On Guantanamo, the Senate measure includes $50 million to begin closing the prison but directs that it can't be used to transfer any of the detainees into the United States.

The House bill, which does not include such money, sets a policy forbidding release of Guantanamo detainees within the United States.

It would allow them to be shipped to the U.S. only to stand trial or to serve their sentences.




Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me
Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me
There's no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can't take the sky from me...




" They don't hate America, they hate Americans " Homer Simpson


Lets party like its 1939

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