The breakthrough, officials said, apparently came when the Kurds agreed that their share of 17 percent would be reconsidered for the 2009 budget.
"We are totally satisfied with the laws approved today and we don't have any reservations on the amnesty law because it's a good step on the road of the national reconciliation," said Fouad Masoum, head of the Kurdish bloc in the parliament. "The budget law is very important because every state should have its own budget."
Shiites have long wanted provincial elections because they want power to devolve to the provinces and away from the central government. The law passed Wednesday
had initially stated that voting would begin Oct. 1. But details on that law, as well as the two other measures, were unclear because last-minute changes had been made to the drafts, officials said."
We think our politicians never get anything accomplished but look at Iraq as "The vote came a day after Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the Sunni speaker of parliament, threatened to disband the legislature, contending that it was unable to adopt new laws because of the intense mistrust among the parties.
Othman, the independent Kurdish legislator, said it remains to be seen whether Iraq's divisive political parties can put the new laws into effect. "If the blocs don't get together, implementing them will be difficult."
In big bro 43's September 13, 2007 Address to the Nation on the Way Forward in Iraq he mumbled Herr Karl's word's "Eight months ago, we adopted a new strategy to meet that objective, including a surge in U.S. forces that reached full strength in June. This week, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker testified before Congress about how that strategy is progressing. In their
testimony, these men made clear that our challenge in Iraq is formidable. Yet they concluded that conditions in Iraq are improving, that we are seizing the initiative from the enemy, and that the troop surge is working."
So the surge is working, but "Now the Iraqi government must bring the same determination to achieving reconciliation. This is an enormous undertaking after
more than three decades of tyranny and division. The government has not met its own legislative benchmarks and in my meetings with Iraqi leaders, I have made it clear that they must."
Two out of 18 is failure and big bro 43 said they must do better or what? He didn't say what the consequences would be and now we hear that big bro 43 and the military leader who has betrayed us--Petraeus, are planning to stop the gradual reduction of our US troops in Iraq.
Back in "Tricky Dick's" era we became cognizant of the fact that the president was paranoid. Nixon had an enemies list and US citizens were on it. He started
illegal wiretaps of people who weren't against the US, but were only against the Nixon government.
We enacted the FISA court arrangement as a result of "Tricky Dick's" paranoia.
Now big bro 43 is illegally eavesdropping on the citizens he swore an oath to protect, but the GOP won't challenge him, and the Democrats refuse!
The article "Senate Passes Ban On Waterboarding, Other Techniques" at click here regarding big bro 43's illegal eavesdropping states "The outcome marked a notable victory for Bush, who had threatened to veto any delay and warned yesterday that "terrorists are planning new attacks on our country . . . that will make Sept. 11 pale by comparison."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) signaled last night that debate over the bill is unlikely to end quickly and that Democrats may let the temporary law expire. Although Bush and his aides have said such a move would undermine current surveillance efforts and pose a national security threat, Democrats note that intelligence-gathering orders under the temporary law are good for a year and that routine surveillance powers would remain."
W is just lying. He has no honor, dignity. Nixon knew not to torture enemy combatants, but W doesn't as "The Senate voted yesterday to ban waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics used by the CIA, matching a
previous House vote and putting Congress on a collision course with the White House over a pivotal national security issue.
In a 51 to 45 vote, the Senate approved an intelligence bill that limits the CIA to using 19 less-aggressive interrogation tactics outlined in a U.S. Army Field
Manual. The measure would effectively ban the use of simulated drowning, temperature extremes and other harsh tactics that the CIA used on al-Qaeda prisoners after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
President Bush has vowed to veto the legislation, which the House approved in December, and Congress does not appear to have enough votes to override a veto."
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