Bob's Links and Rants

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Monday, October 20, 2003

Ted Kennedy's Senate Speech
last week on the $87 billion question:
The trumped up reasons for going to war have collapsed. All the Administration's rationalizations as we prepared to go to war now stand revealed as "double-talk." The American people were told Saddam Hussein was building nuclear weapons. He was not. We were told he had stockpiles of other weapons of mass destruction. He did not. We were told he was involved in 9/11. He was not. We were told Iraq was attracting terrorists from Al Qaeda. It was not. We were told our soldiers would be viewed as liberators. They are not. We were told Iraq could pay for its own reconstruction. It cannot. We were told the war would make America safer. It has not.

Before the war, week after week after week after week, we were told lie after lie after lie after lie.


It's just outrageous that only eleven other senators voted with him to deny the money to Bush, which in a very real sense is why he went to war. Steal from the poor to give to the rich--Ayn Rand would be proud.

By the way, unless you live in Massachusetts or outside of the US, you have at least one US senator who deserves a very nasty phone call today. Call the Capitol switchboard, 800-839-5276, and ask for the office(s) of your senator(s). Tell the staffer that you are outraged that Senator Sellout voted to spend $87 billion to continue a brutal and illegal occupation. Give your representative in the House a call as well. If your senator or Congressperson voted against the appropriation, call them and thank them for trying. You can check on the House vote here. In the Senate, the twelve voting no were Boxer, Byrd, Edwards, Graham (FL), Harkin, Hollings, Jeffords, Kennedy, Kerry, Lautenberg, Leahy and Sarbanes. Alexander of Tennessee didn't vote. All others voted yes.

[Update] My bad. In addition to Massachusetts (Kennedy and Kerry), Vermont also had two senators vote against the funding: Leahy and Jeffords. Bob's Links and Rants regrets the error.