President Bush said today he accepts the idea of including benchmarks for progress in Iraq as part of an emergency war spending bill, but he rejected what he called a “piecemeal” funding approach now under consideration in the House and vowed to veto it if it reaches his desk.

In a news conference at the Pentagon after receiving a briefing from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Bush leveled sharp criticism at congressional Democrats, accusing them of seeking political gain from the war-funding bill, and he warned them not to “hamstring” U.S. commanders in the field or include “pork” projects in the supplemental appropriations bill. Yet he also expressed a desire to find “common ground” with Congress.

Democrats said in response that they would maintain pressure on Bush to change course in Iraq and extract U.S. troops from the middle of what they called a sectarian civil war there.

[The Associated Press reports: "The Democratic-controlled House defeated legislation Thursday to require the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq within nine months, then pivoted to a fresh challenge of President Bush's handling of the unpopular war. The vote on the nine-month withdrawal measure was 255-171."]

Congress needs to fund the bill so our troops can have the best equipment available, and even hot meals. With no funding contractors will stop working and that includes the contractors who provide our troops with hot meals instead of MREs.

Fund it or do your constitutional duty, Congress, and actually pass a bill that defunds the war so you can shoulder that responsibility.

Story.

Source of this shortened version.

JUAREZ, Mexico — The man shot in the buttocks by two U.S. Border Patrol agents now in prison for the shooting and the coverup is breaking his silence, saying he is well aware that ‘everybody hates me there (in America).’

Osvaldo Aldrete Davila was shot in February 2005 by Border Patrol Agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos as he tried to drive further into the United States with a van full of 700 pounds of marijuana. He was given immunity from prosecution in March 2005 for his cooperation in that investigation and subsequent trial, which culminated last year.

Ramos and Compean are now serving 11 and 12-year prison sentences.

In an interview with The El Paso Times, Aldrete Davila said while it was wrong for the agents to shoot him, he thinks the prison sentences are too excessive.

Aldrete Davila also said he only agreed to help smuggle the drugs in a moment of “desperation” because he needed the cash to get his commercial driver’s license. He said he was promised $1,000 to walk across the Rio Grande on Feb. 17, 2005, and get into a gray Ford Econoline van waiting for him with the keys in the ignition.

“I didn’t know exactly what was in the van. I didn’t look. But, you know, I knew it was bad,” he told The El Paso Times.

Aldrete Davila is suing the U.S. government for $5 million — money he says is needed to rebuild his urethra, which was shattered by the bullet. He lives with a rubber tube sticking out of his belly button that connects his bladder to a plastic bag.

“I know it was wrong what I did, but I’m paying for it with my health,” he told the newspaper. “People don’t know how it is for me to go to the bathroom, how painful it is.”

You can read the rest of this sob story here.

We have already had a long, tedious Presidential campaign thrust upon us. Issues abound (I suppose), positions change with the weather and candidates speech and appearance are altered to fit their surroundings.

It seems the candidates on both sides of the aisle have now presented us with proof they are capable of taking a firm stance on one issue. This will influence many voters I am sure.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE REALITY TV PROGRAM?

DEMOCRATS:

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden: “Don’t have one.”

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: “American Idol.”

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd: ” ‘American Idol,’ which I say often reminds me of running for president sometimes.”

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards: College basketball.

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich: C-SPAN coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives. No time for other TV.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama: “Other than the U.S. Senate on C-SPAN? I don’t watch them too often.”

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: “Fox News.”

REPUBLICANS:

Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback: “None this season; too busy. Last season it was ‘The Amazing Race.’ ”

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani: Baseball.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: “Nashville Star,” USA Network’s country music competition.

California Rep. Duncan Hunter: Watches Versus, previously called the Outdoor Life Network.

Arizona Sen. John McCain: Arizona Diamondbacks baseball.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: “American Idol.”

Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo: “None.”

I really, no I mean really needed to have this information before I cast my vote in November 2008, although I will always be left to wonder what Fred Thompson would have chosen.

But wait there is more!

Up next: Favorite fitness activity

Oh please, I just have to know now..and perhaps next you could ask their favorite food or color or make of car..the voters will be waiting.

I’ll let the op-ed speak for itself:

Stop me if you’ve read this column before.
In 1999, I wrote a dreamy tribute to then presidential candidate Bill Bradley and commented: “I don’t believe that I will ever live in a country that elects Bill Bradley president. I’d like to live in that country, though.”

In 2002, 27 months before Howard Dean’s presidential campaign imploded, I wrote: “Howard Dean is the story we tell ourselves every four years; the Paul Tsongas story, the Bruce Babbitt story, the John Anderson story. It is a very diverting fable, this notion of the brilliant, worthy, and committed outsider who has a decent chance of becoming our next president.”

No stranger to self-plagiarism, I added: “I wouldn’t mind living in a country where Howard Dean was president, but somehow I don’t think that I will.”

Meet Barack Obama, the BradleyDeanBabbittTsongas of the 2008 election cycle.

[...]

Let me repeat: I wouldn’t mind living in a country where Barack Obama is president. Brains; candor; charisma; ambition hitched to a work ethic; I admire those qualities. But frankly, the people who’ve ponied up $4,600 for Obama in this election cycle might as well have piled the money on the kitchen table and set fire to it. Or donated it to the Audubon Society, which has a lot better chance of being in business a year from now than Obama’s presidential campaign.

If you listen closely, the silent dog whistle is already blowing for the Obama candidacy, and the tune it is playing is taps.

Earlier this year, The New Yorker asked the three leading Democratic presidential candidates how they might manage the Iraq war . As opposed to Hillary Clinton, who, according to the magazine, “speaks with confidence and directness” on the subject, Barack “has not yet articulated an overarching national security world view.” That’s OK; he’s only a first-term senator, not far removed from local Illinois politics.

Go read the rest.

Sue pointed me to this from Red State.

I have watched it twice and have gone through the gamut of positive and hopeful emotions except at the end.

May God bless this couple with many more healthy children.

I guess I always knew in the back of my mind it would happen. Right-leaning sites love to call those on the left the cut and run crowd.

Now the right has its own cut and run people. Oh, they describe themselves as moderates, but no one will pay attention to that. All they see and will see is a group of Republicans met with the president on Tuesday and told him they can’t support him much longer because the polls don’t look good. And, by golly, getting re-elected is priority number one in Washington.

House Republican moderates, in a remarkably blunt White House meeting, warned President Bush this week that his pursuit of the war in Iraq is risking the future of the Republican Party and that he cannot count on GOP support for many more months.

…
But the meeting between 11 House Republicans, Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, White House political adviser Karl Rove and presidential press secretary Tony Snow was perhaps the clearest sign yet that patience in the party is running out.
…
“It was a very remarkable, candid conversation,” Davis said. “People are always saying President Bush is in a bubble. Well, this was our chance, and we took it.”

Even with pressure mounting, Congress and the White House are making little progress as they try to find a bipartisan option to fund the war through the summer. Senate leaders met with White House officials yesterday and produced no agreement, as Gates warned lawmakers that the debate is beginning to delay Pentagon operations.

The one area of agreement seemed to be that U.S. officials want the Iraqi government to better contain violence there. Vice President Cheney made an unannounced trip to Baghdad yesterday to meet with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials. He urged them to help end fighting between rival Sunni and Shiite factions, to make progress on revising their constitution, and to better manage their oil revenue.

Cheney also expressed concern about the Iraqi parliament considering a two-month summer vacation.

Mr. President, I’m no bigwig or even a littlewig in politics, but I have some advice to you: Stay true to yourself as long as you can and force Congress to defund the war so when the crying and bellyaching start you can say with a clear conscience you tried to complete the job, but the Congress tied your hands.

It will make the anti-war crowd orgasmic and I’m beginning to think those in your own party will feel the same way. (more…)