This is a big deal:

Harry Reid just spoke on the Senate floor, revealing that he'll allow a vote this week on the Feingold-Reid amendment, which would cut off funding for the war by March 31, 2008.

This is a big deal for war opponents -- it's the first vote in the Senate on a measure of this kind. "This is a vote that folks have been clamoring for for some time now," enthuses a staffer who works for a Senator favoring the approach.

The staffer added that while the measure faces an uphill struggle, a vote on it will move the parameters of the debate and force Senators into a straight up-or-down vote on the war -- just as last week's House vote on Dem Rep. James McGovern's proposal to end the war did.

Any and all supporters of ending the Iraq Debacle by the only means possible, by NOT funding it after a date certain, MUST urge a Yes vote for Reid Feingold. This is the framework that can end the war.

An al-Qaida group has claimed the capture of three U.S. soldiers.

Four other American soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed in the pre-dawn attack on their patrol Saturday. The U.S. said 4,000 troops were searching for the three missing soldiers.

In a statement posted on an Islamic Web site, the Islamic State in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack in Mahmoudiya on Saturday and said it held an unspecified number of U.S. soldiers. The group offered no proof to back up its claim.

"Mother's Day was originally designated as a day to inspire people to work for peace. It was conceived after wars at home and abroad by American abolitionist and suffragist Julia Ward Howe."  RediscoverMothersDay.org.

Besides initiating the tradition of Mother's Day, Howe is best known as the author of the words to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". As a pacifist during the Civil War, she witnessed the devastating effects of the conflict through her work with widows and orphans. In 1870 she wrote the "Mother's Day Proclamation," a call to women to oppose war and to convene to promote peace and be the architects of their family's -- and their own -- political futures. She presented it at international peace conferences in London and Paris , where she lamented the atrocities of not only the American Civil War, but also the Franco-Prussian War.

Howe envisioned the first "Mother's Day" as a time for women to gather, grieve and determine a peaceful solution to war.

Howe's 1870 "Mother's Day Proclamation" reads:

Either oil thieves have "siphoned off" 100,000 to 300,000 barrels of oil a day in Iraq for the last four years (perhaps explaining Dick Cheney's recent visit -- was he checking the pilfered oil stash?), or Iraq has been substantially puffing its oil production reports. Neither explanation would be good news for an administration that expects us to embrace its vision of Iraq as a nation where oil profits will bring peace and prosperity to all.

The report by the accountability office is the most comprehensive look yet at faltering American efforts to rebuild Iraq’s oil and electricity sectors.... The report also contains the most comprehensive assessment yet of the billions of dollars the United States and Iraq spent on rebuilding the oil and electricity infrastructure, which is falling further and further behind its performance goals.

The final version of the GAO report is expected to be released next week. Look for it late Friday, after the press has gone to bed.

Iraqi President Talabani says:

Iraq’s Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, said Friday that his country may need U.S. troops for one or two more years. The statement came after lawmakers in Baghdad backed a drawdown in the number of foreign troops in Iraq. . . . “I think that in one or two years we will be able to recruit our forces, to prepare our forces and say goodbye to our friends,” he said.

2 years ago, Talabani said:

Sunday, April 10, 2005 Posted: 6:20 PM EDT (2220 GMT) BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The newly elected president of Iraq said Sunday he expects that U.S. troops will be gone from his country within two years. Jalal Talabani told CNN two years should be enough time for Iraqi forces to rebuild and secure control of the country as well as take over the job currently being performed by some 140,000 U.S. troops.

Benchmarks anyone?

President Bush believes in the War in Iraq but not in the plight facing our own country's farmers.

He's said he will veto the Iraq funding bill passed Thursday night by the House because it's not enough and comes with conditions. He wants more for Iraq. The bill authorizes $42.8 billion over the next two months.

He also says he will veto the $3.5 billion farm aid bill passed by the House today.

How is it that we have a President who wants to spend untold billions helping those in a foreign country but won't help those at home who need assistance, like the farmers and Katrina victims and those without health insurance? Why should we rebuild Iraq before rebuilding New Orleans?

If this is typical of all Republicans, it's time we vote them out for good.

Via Greg Sargent, the House will hold a vote on a proposal by Out of Iraq Caucus member Jim McGovern (D-MA) to set a date certain for withdrawal AND for NOT funding the Iraq Debacle. The bill has some similarities to the Reid-Feingold framework, but, in my view, has too much complicating provisions, such as a prohibition on increasing the number of troops in the interim period. This is of questionable Constitutionality, in my view, and unnecessarily muddies the waters. Better would be a House version of the Reid-Feingold framework, which is a "clean" proposal, so to speak. The focus should be on the date of withdrawal, March 31, 2008 in the Reid-Feingold proposal, not the conduct of the Debacle until the date is reached.

The Moonie Times reports that:

War debate cited as aiding al Qaeda

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday told Congress that al Qaeda will establish a stronghold in Iraq's Anbar province if U.S. troops pull out prematurely and that the group is reacting to the war debate in Washington by stepping up attacks.

. . . [I]t was disclosed that 11 . . . House Republicans had met unannounced with the president and top aides at the White House on Tuesday. Several participants described a blunt discussion in which lawmakers told the president that the war was unsustainable without public support and was having a corrosive effect on Republican political fortunes.

There you have it. Those 11 Congressional Republicans, including GOP House Leader John Boehner, are emboldening the terrorists. Why do they hate America?

I missed this from Tuesday:

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 (of 275) lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.

Okaaay. The US Congress votes for Debacle without end and the Purple Finger chosen Iraqi Parliament says go.

Does it matter to anyone? The Iraqis want us to leave but we refuse. Unbelievable.

John Aravosis reports:

I just heard from an impeccable source that there is serious concern on the Hill that conservative Democrats in the House will vote with the Republicans to strip any and all restrictions from the Iraq supplemental tomorrow, effectively giving Bush all the money he wants with no restrictions and no effort to hold either him or the Iraq government accountable for anything.

Update [2007-5-9 23:42:19 by Big Tent Democrat]: John Boehner attended the meeting but did not talk. The attendees included Boehner, Dent, Kirk, Tom Davis, Ray LaHood, Ann Emerson, Gerlach of PA and Walsh of NY. All in tough districts, some of which barely survived in last year's election. This is a Rove operation. You can smell it.

'You have no credibility on Iraq Mr. President.'

'My district is ready for defeat.'

-GOP Congresspersons in meeting with President Bush Tuesday.

MSNBC reports that 11 GOP Congresspersons met with the President and told him they are not happy with the Iraq Debacle. They say General Petraeus must tell them things are getting better. Presumably in September.

We'll see if this means anything. I do not think it means much of anything personally. These are 11 GOP Congresspersons who are probably facing tough races and want some cover. 11, 20, or even 30 GOP defections won't overcome a veto.

For this to matter, you have to believe Bush will listen to these folks. I do not. I think this is, as Craig Crawford describes it, more rope a dope:

While some Republican lawmakers seem sincere in calling for a quality check in September for President George W. Bush’s war surge, there is a familiar pattern here. Back in December, when Bush announced his new Iraq strategy, his GOP war supporters — and even the White House itself — had pinpointed this summer as the soft deadline for determining whether it is working. But early last month the president announced that the troop boost would not even be completed until June, thus buying a few more months. . . .

This is more of the same imo.

CNN's latest poll misstates the Reid-Feingold proposal:

21. One proposal would NOT provide additional funds for US troops in Iraq and would require the US withdraw all its troops by March 2008. Would you favor or oppose such a bill?

There is no such proposal. CNN is either incompetent, my choice, or deliberately not telling the truth about the Reid-Feingold proposal.

The proper question for the Reid-Feingold proposal would say:

One proposal would provide additional funds for US troops in Iraq up to a date certain, March 31, 2008, and then would require the US withdraw all its troops by March 2008 by NOT providing funding after March 31, 2008. Would you favor or oppose such a bill?

Is CNN incompetent? Or deliberately misstating what the Reid-Feingold proposal is? This is inexcusable from a supposedly reputable news organization. This poll is a sham.