I'm so mad I could spit.

Both the House and Senate had an amendment on the "emergency supplemental" spending bill that stated none of the money could be spent to build permanent bases in Iraq. But as usual, since the bills aren't identical they go to conference to reconcile difference. The conference committee stripped that amendment out this week! The amendment had passed on a voice vote in BOTH the House and Senate with no opposition, but once it's in committe they just remove it.

I figure the reason it made it this far so easily was because no one wanted to say "we want a permanent presence in Iraq" out loud, and they figured they could just strip it out and no one would know since the media doesn't cover things like IMPORTANT NEWS anymore.

From the SF Chronicle:

When Lee gets her turn during the debate, she is sure to raise the issue of blocking the U.S. military from establishing permanent bases in Iraq. She introduced an amendment to the latest emergency war spending bill prohibiting the use of funds to build such bases. The House accepted it, and the Senate included the same wording in its version.

However, the provision was dropped by House and Senate conferees reconciling the two versions of the bill.

More from David Swanson at Afterdowningstreet.com.