It's a busy day at work, so we'll post a few quick hits and be on our way. The Strib reports on yesterday's Iraq War vote in House: Begin troop pullout by Oct. 1 and Minnesota Democrats for, Republicans against pullout plan. From the former article:
The House Wednesday night brushed aside weeks of angry White House rhetoric and veto threats to narrowly approve a $124 billion war spending bill that requires troop withdrawal from Iraq to begin by Oct. 1 with a goal of ending U.S. combat operations there by next March.
The Senate is expected to follow the House's 218-208 vote with final passage today, completing work on the rarest of bills: legislation to try to end a major war as fighting still rages. Democrats hope to send the measure to the White House on Monday, almost exactly four years after Bush declared an end to major combat. . . .
The West Central Tribune reports on the vote in Minnesota lawmakers divided on Iraq troop withdrawal. Walz quoted in the Forum chain's article
The bill would hold both Bush and Iraqi leaders accountable and prevent the war from turning into an “open-ended commitment of American troops caught in the middle of a civil war,” said Rep. Tim Walz, a Democrat from southern Minnesota’s 1st District.
“The Bush administration has failed both to take care of our veterans and to hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it previously set,” Walz said Wednesday in a statement. “So today, Congress will ask the president to uphold his end of the bargain.”
The Washington Post reports Iraqi Divisions Stall Political Aims:
Officials see little or no progress in achieving three key benchmarks set by the Bush administration.
An Armenian news source notes Walz's presence at a ceremony remembering the Armenian Genocide in the early 20th century.
Netroots: Minnesota's progressive bloggers respond to the New York Times article
Walz Right at Home in Times -- and Mankato (MNCR), NYTimes to Walz: You’re Awesome (MnPublius), Washington Walz In The New York Times (Mn GOP Watch), New York Times on Tim Walz the Educator (Vox Verax), politics { Walz (Cube Zoo), and Authenticity, links, and subpoenas (Norwegianity). The Wege adds:
And speaking of Bluestem, my understanding is they were strongly considered for a City Pages' blog award, but were just too far outside the metro area to win. Not to detract from Spotty, who puts a lot of work into his mixed doggy bag of a blog, but as a reminder that there are no shortage of quality lefty blogs around, even if we don't all have the Mr. Roboto audiences the wingnuts give to Powerblinders and the other big readership Minnesota rightwing blogs.
We'd have gone with the dalmatian, too, but what do hick bovine bloggers know? (We'll buy the Wege ale, even if he did vote for Nader in 2000. Nobody's perfect).
MNspeak notes the NYT article in Walz: Better Debates in High School than Congress.
Cube Zoo publishes a note about civil liberties from the representative in response/politics { Tim Walz responds to my email.
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