U.S. soldier takes up position to secure the site of a bomb attack in Baghdad's Yarmouk district, May 14, 2008. (Mushtaq Muhammed/Reuters)

President George W. Bush's Iraq war funding request collapsed in the House Thursday as anti-war Democrats and Republicans unhappy about added domestic funding combined to kill — for now — $163 billion (€105 billion) to support U.S. troops overseas.

The unlikely coalition formed when Republicans expected to provide the winning margin for the Iraq and Afghanistan funding instead sat out the vote in protest.

The Republican revolt was a response to Democratic strong-arm tactics in advancing the must-pass measure, as well as their efforts to add money for the unemployed and an expansion of education benefits for soldiers.

The defeat of the Iraq funding measure came on a 149-141 tally. Nearly two-thirds of the House's Democrats voted against continuing to fund the war as 132 Republicans sat out the vote in protest.

House Roll Call on War Funding

While this is a good thing, we haven't heard the end of this.

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US President George W. Bush seen here speaking in Jerusalem, paid a 60th anniversary tribute to Israel as a democracy challenged by "terrorists" on Wednesday just before a rocket attack wounded 14 people in a shopping mall.

(AFP/POOL/Ronen Zvulun)

President George W. Bush stirred up the U.S. presidential campaign Thursday by suggesting that Democratic front-runner Barack Obama’s pledge to talk to Iran’s leader amounted to “the false comfort of appeasement.”

“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Bush said in a speech to the Israeli parliament marking Israel’s 60th anniversary.

Without mentioning Obama by name, he compared “this foolish delusion” to the appeasement of the Nazis ahead of World War Two. 

“As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement,” Bush said.

Obama speaks out on Bush 'appeasement' charge

President Bush has committed political treason

A few years ago, the musical trio, The Dixie Chicks, caught Hell for making a comment about the Traitor-in-Chief, at a concert in London, England.  The flying monkey right said, at the time, that the gals' big sin wasn't that they  had a political opinion, but that they had aired that political opinion, in front of a foreign audience.

As a consequence, crowds of fanatic right-wingers not only boycotted the Chicks' domestic concerts, and tried to get them off of the radio, but they also piled up Dixie Chick CDs, and burned them.

What will the radical right-wingers burn in this situation, where the President, himself, has committed the same exact offense?

The answer, truth-seekers: their last bridge.

Fuck the GOP.

Republicans no longer have a place in American politics.

They stand for nothing, and are capable of accomplishing even less.

Fuck all of them, and their sleazy politics of personal destruction, war, corporatism, and theology.

They are a dead entity - a short blip on the history of the American political landscape, akin to the Whigs, and the 'No-Nothings.'

And they did it all to themselves.

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This handout photo provided by IntelCenter and taken from Al-Qaeda's as-Sahab Media shows Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in an audio statement. Bin Laden slammed Western leaders for taking part in Israel's 60th birthday celebrations and vowed that Muslims would fight and not give up "one inch of Palestine".

(AFP/IntelCenter)

Osama bin Laden said in a new audio recording released Friday that al-Qaida will continue its holy war against Israel and its allies until it liberates Palestine.

The terrorist leader's third statement this year came as President Bush was wrapping up his visit to Israel to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state.

Bin Laden said the fight for the Palestinian cause was the most important factor driving al-Qaida's war with the West and fueled 19 Muslims to carry out the suicide attacks against the U.S. on September 11.

"To Western nations ... this speech is to understand the core reason of the war between our civilization and your civilizations. I mean the Palestinian cause," said bin Laden in the close to 10 minute audiotape.

"The Palestinian cause is the major issue for my (Islamic) nation. It was an important element in fueling me from the beginning and the 19 others with a great motive to fight for those subjected to injustice and the oppressed," added bin Laden.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day...

Free Palestine.

Now.

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A US army sergeant who has served in Germany, Japan, Afghanistan and the Philippines publicly refused on Thursday to return to active duty. Sgt. Matthis Chiroux is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. (AFPTV)

Matthis Chiroux is the kind of young American US military recruiters love.

"I was from a poor, white family from the south, and I did badly in school," the now 24-year-old told AFP.

"I was 'filet mignon' for recruiters. They started phoning me when I was in 10th grade," or around 16 years old, he added.

Chiroux joined the US army straight out of high school nearly six years ago, and worked his way up from private to sergeant.

He served in Afghanistan, Germany, Japan, and the Philippines and was due to be deployed next month in Iraq.

On Thursday, he refused to go, saying he considers Iraq an illegal war.

"I stand before you today with the strength and clarity and resolve to declare to the military, my government and the world that this soldier will not be deploying to Iraq," Chiroux said in the sun-filled rotunda of a congressional building in Washington.

"My decision is based on my desire to no longer continue violating my core values to support an illegal and unconstitutional occupation... I refuse to participate in the Iraq occupation," he said, as a dozen veterans of the five-year-old Iraq war looked on.

Anti-War Vets Testify for Hill Panel

Visit the IVAW's "Winter Soldier" website

God Bless you, and your family, Sergeant Chiroux.

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Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah told President Bush on Friday that he is powerless to bring down rising gas prices, dashing hopes that the oil-rich kingdom would boost supply to meet skyrocketing global demand.

It is the second time this year that Saudi Arabia has rebuffed Bush's appeals for more oil.

Bush stopped in Riyadh for an overnight stay at the monarch's horse farm, the second leg of a three-country Mideast tour.

US will stop sending oil into strategic reserves

President Bush couldn't negotiate his way with a pretzel, how could anyone ever expect him to get anywhere with the Saudis...

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The Senate Thursday night voted to nullify a Federal Communications Commission rule that allows media companies to own a newspaper and a television station in the same market.

The unusual "resolution of disapproval," sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and 26 other senators, was approved by a voice vote. The measures sponsors include both Democratic candidates for president, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois.

Obama issued a statement supporting the vote.

"Today the Senate stood up to Washington special interests by voting to reverse the FCC's disappointing media consolidation rules that I have fought against," he said. "Our nation's media market must reflect the diverse voices of our population, and it is essential that the FCC promotes the public interest and diversity in ownership."

Fuck you, Rupert Murdoch.

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John McCain's campaign asked a prominent Republican consultant, Craig Shirley, to leave his official campaign role Thursday after a Politico inquiry about Shirley's dual role consulting for the campaign and for an independent 527 group opposing the Democratic presidential candidates. The campaign also released a new conflict-of-interest policy barring such arrangements.

Shirley, a conservative public relations veteran, doubled as a consultant to McCain and to Stop Her Now, a 527 group barred from coordinating its activities with presidential campaigns. He is not currently on the McCain campaign’s payroll but will also step down from his role on McCain’s Virginia Leadership Team said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.

"If you're working for a 527 involved in the presidential race, you won't have a named role in our campaign,” said Rogers.

McCain's wife sells blood-stained Sudanese investments

I absolutely love the double-talk coming out of Insane John McCain's campaign: "If you're working for a 527 involved in the presidential race, you won't have a named role in our campaign.”

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An unidentified woman celebrates the state Supreme Court decision on same sex marriages inside the Supreme courthouse in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, May 15, 2008. In a monumental victory for the gay rights movement, the court overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage Thursday in a ruling that would allow same-sex couples in the nation's biggest state to tie the knot.

(AP Photo/ Tony Avelar)

When one of us is in chains, none of us are free.

God Bless America.

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Veto the bill, Mr. Bush - we dare you.

The GOP will lose every frickin' farm state in the union.

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Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) shakes hands with former Democratic challenger John Edwards (R) at a rally with supporters in the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan May 14, 2008.

(Jeff Haynes/Reuters)

John Edwards, whose populism was the anthem of his own presidential bid, endorsed Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday in an effort to transfer his appeal among white, working-class voters to a Democratic front-runner who has struggled to win them over.

Obama's campaign hopes the endorsement, late in the process, will help buttress the aura of inevitability of the Illinois senator's quest for his party's nomination. It also served as a strong counterpoint to the contention by Sen. Hillary Clinton that Obama's weakness among blue-collar workers could cripple his effort in the fall.

"The reason that I am here tonight is because the Democratic voters in America have made their choice, and so have I," Edwards said. "There is one man who knows and understands that this is a time for bold leadership. There is one man that knows how to create the change, the lasting change, that you have to build from the ground up."

Obama gets 4 of Edwards' delegates, plus 4 new superdelegates

Steelworkers' union backs Obama for White House

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