WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2007
Congress Set To Override Bush Water Veto
President Rejects Bipartisan Bill Authorizing Hurricane Repair, Everglades Restoration
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President George W. Bush marked the fifth veto of his presidency when he rejected a bipartisan water projects bill, but he now faces his first congressional override — the $23 billion Water Resources Development Act has huge support from Republicans as well as Democrats. (Getty Images/Jim Watson)
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Interactive Bush Presidency The president's agenda, plus facts, figures, major events and key personalities.
The $23 billion Water Resources Development Act was passed in the House by a vote of 381-40, and in the Senate by 81-12 - much more than the two-thirds of each house necessary to override a presidential veto for the bill to become law.
With such broad support making a congressional override almost a certainty, it would mark the first veto defeat for Mr. Bush.
The last time such legislation was authorized was the year 2000; its reauthorization is now five years overdue.
"Every day brings new evidence that President Bush is out of touch with the American people and their priorities," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "More than two years after failing to respond to the devastation and destruction of Hurricane Katrina, he is refusing to fund important projects guided by the Army Corps of Engineers that are essential to protecting the people of the Gulf Coast region."
"When we override this irresponsible veto, perhaps the President will finally recognize that Congress is an equal branch of government and reconsider his many other reckless veto threats," Reid said.
Mr. Bush objected to the $9 billion in projects added during negotiations between the House and Senate. He hoped that his action, even though it is sure not to hold, would cast him as a friend to conservatives who demand a tighter rein on federal spending.
But Mr. Bush never vetoed spending bills when the Republicans controlled Congress, despite similar budgetary increases then. Attempting to demonstrate fiscal toughness now, in the seventh year of his presidency, carried the risk being criticized for doing too little, too late, or as waging a transparently partisan attack against the Democrats who now run Capitol Hill.
It was the first time Mr. Bush went into a veto knowing it was a futile effort. After criticizing Democrats almost daily for wasting time by passing legislation they knew he would not accept, this turns the tables somewhat on him, vetoing a bill he knows will likely become law anyway.
The White House said President Bush vetoed the water projects bill because "it is fiscally irresponsible," according to press secretary Dana Perino. CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer said Perino responded that the measure "is filled with hundreds of projects that lack any sense of merit."
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Perino says the president supports a bill that "prioritizes spending on projects with the greatest economic and environmental return to the nation.When we override this irresponsible veto, perhaps the President will finally recognize that Congress is an equal branch of government.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.The bill only authorizes the projects; the actual funding must be approved separately.
Congressional reaction was categorically angry. Democrats described the president's veto as "ill-advised," "reckless" and "irresponsible."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said Mr. Bush's veto "breaks his commitment to the people of Louisiana to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina; breaks his commitment to America's communities to make them economically strong and protect them from flooding; breaks his commitment to make America's infrastructure a priority; and breaks his commitment to restore our environment, including the Everglades."
"We cannot let this ill-conceived veto stand," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., noting that the bill's $2 billion for restoring the Everglades was long-overdue.
Yet one approving voice in Congress comes from an unusual source: Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis. "The President's veto of the WRDA bill is a welcome opportunity for Congress to modify the flawed, bloated bill," he said. "Instead of trying to override the veto, Congress should take this opportunity to fix the bill. We must make sure that Americans' tax dollars are spent on the most important priorities, not just on members' pet projects."
If Mr. Bush is overridden, the measure would give a green light to projects in virtually every state.
The authorizations include:
control projects across the country.
The Congressional Budget office says the bill includes projects that, if fully funded, would cost $11.2 billion over the next four years and $12 billion in the decade after that. The bill also calls
for increased oversight of the Corps, requiring an outside review of water construction projects.
Previous Bush vetoes include two of bills allowing expanded federal research using embryonic stem cells, and a spending bill that would have required troop withdrawals from Iraq.
Last month, Mr. Bush vetoed a major expansion of a children's health insurance program, also over objections from some Republicans. But he has far more partisan unity on that issue than on the water projects bill.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- Guess I''m having some positive effect here. I''m watching Ron Paul''s Web site. In just one day (today), he has already raised over $3,000,000 in grass roots donations. It looks like they''re going to beat Romney''s one-day (Republican) record of 3.1 million dollars. Ron certainly isn''t getting any money from the military industrial complex (verify this online if you like), like all the other sold-out NWO ****** on the left and the right who pretend to be his equal. He''s getting support from millions of REAL people who share in his Hope For America:
(1) No more meddling in other country''s political affairs
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(3) No more pseudo-wars like the "War on Drugs"
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(6) No more abortion
(7) No more U.N. participation
(8) No more federal Laws which are not authorized by The Constitution
(9) No more all-powerful federal government
They don''t call him "Dr. No" for no reason. The Doctor is in! Join us in this 21st Century political revolution at ronpaul2008.com - Reply to this comment
- Guess I''m having some positive effect here. I''m watching Ron Paul''s Web site. In just one day (today) he has already raised over $2,500,000 in grass roots donations. It looks like they''re going to beat Romney''s one-day (Republican) record of 3.1 million dollars. Ron certainly isn''t getting any money from the military industrial complex (verify this online if you like), like all the other sold-out NWO ****** on the left and the right who pretend to be his equal. He''s getting support from millions of REAL people who share in his Hope For America:
(1) No more meddling in other country''s political affairs
(2) No more military actions overseas
(3) No more pseudo-wars like the "War on Drugs"
(4) No more IRS and unconstitutional income taxes
(5) No more Federal Reserve (the group of private banks which owns our government)
(6) No more abortion
(7) No more U.N. participation
(8) No more federal Laws which are not authorized by The Constitution
(9) No more all-powerful federal government
They don''t call him "Dr. No" for no reason. Join us in this 21st Century political revolution at ronpaul2008.com - Reply to this comment
- My fellow Americans just don''t seem to care that our nation, along with The Constitution upon which it was founded, is being flushed-down the NWO toilet by our nations'' bought and paid for politicians and media. While the Oligarchs warn and insite fear in the sheeple about the prospect of terrorism, they at the same time leave our border wide open, and fund and conduct illegal wars overseas that do nothing but encite the terrorism which their Orwellian Laws like the Patriot Act and the John Warner Defense Authorization Act pretend to protect us from. Wake up America! It''s not about protecting you from terrorism, or saving the planet from Global Warming, or any of that other fear-mongering garbage the sold-out, mainstream media feeds you 24/7. It''s about feeding the bankers and the military industrial complex, and facilitating the global elite''s ability to ratchet-down control over the American people, placing us into a total control grid where they can surveille, track and control everywhere we go and everything we do. It''s the groundwork for totalitarianism. It''s the New World Order plan of Bush, Clinton, Edwards, McCain, Giuliani, et.al., being executed quite beautifully. You''re a frog in a pot. In order to cook a frog, you don''t throw him into a pot of boiling water. If you do, he''ll resist and jump-out. What you do instead is, you turn the heat-up REAL SLOW, and by the time the water is boiling he won''t be able to jump out anymore, because it''s too late--he''s already doomed.
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- Sadly, even though Clinton voted for the war in Iraq, and a host of Laws aimed at removing your liberties, so many Democrats are blinded by her cult of personality that I predict they will overwhelmingly vote to put her crime family back into office. While I''ve made some progress in educating Liberals as to the phony staged consensus of the left-right paradigm, the fact remains that a majority of Democrats still see the White House as some kind of political Super Bowl, where the success of their "team" is the be all and end all - to the expense of America as a whole. The Punch and Judy show theatre that was the "troop surge" debate in the Senate characterizes Hillary''s role in hoodwinking Americans perfectly. The debate is framed as not whether the U.S. should get out of the Middle-East altogether, but the relative minutia of whether to feed thousands of more troops into the meat grinder or not. Clinton''s Campaign Manager recently compared Hillary to Margaret Thatcher, which translates as more war, more dead Americans, and a further desecration of the tattered shreds of what''s left of our Constitution. Clinton is the ultimate global elitist and represents the Democrats supposed base, the poor and downtrodden, about as much as Lindsay Lohan represents grace and dignity. I''m sure she informed the likes of David Rockefeller and Queen Beatrix as to her presidential aspirations during her last visit to attend the Bilderberg Group conference, which brings me to my next prediction.
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- I predict that in the near future Earth will be dominated by a powerful, one world government. Once free nations are slaves to the will of a tiny, global elite. The dawn of a new dark age is upon mankind. Countries are a thing of the past. Every form of independence is under attack, with the family, even the individual itself, nearing extinction. Close to 80% of the earth''s population has been eliminated. The remnants of a once free humanity are forced to live within highly controlled, compact, prison-like cities. Travel is highly restricted. Superhighways connect the mega-cities and are designed to keep the population from entering into unauthorized zones. No human activity is private. Artificially intelligent super computers chronicle and catagorize a person''s every action. A prison planet run by a ruthless gang of control freaks, whose power can never be challenged, will dominate. This is the vision of Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and their fellow members of The Bilderberg Group. Their goal: a program of total dehumanization, where the science of tyranny is Law. A worldwide control grid, designed to ensure the overlords'' monopoly of power forever. Our species will be condemed to this nightmare future unless the masses are awakened to their New World Order master plan, and mobilized to defeat it. Erected secretly, the Georgia Guide Stones are a testament to their totalitarian plan for a world religion; global Laws; a global court; and a global army to enforce those Laws.
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- Since its first meeting over 50 years ago, the Bilderberg Group, a secretive gathering of global power brokers, which includes Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, et.al., has inspired layer upon layer of ridicule. In recent times, the deeds laid at the group''s doorstep have included the creation of the European Union, the invasion of Iraq as well as the group''s current efforts to create a North American Union, which will erase U.S. borders and national sovereignty. All to service its most cherished goal: the creation of a world government. After it was reported that a well-received speech by Senator John Edwards at their meeting in Stresa, Italy, was one reason for his selection as John Kerry''s vice-presidential running mate in 2000, people began to ask, "Is the Bilderberg Group now molding the worldwide political scene?" Over 120 of the world''s most powerful monarchs, politicians and business leaders attend the annual, invitation-only gatherings to discuss global issues and to formulate their own policy objectives. The hotels involved are closed-off to other guests, and to reporters. Guards are placed around the perimeter. Attendees promise to keep quiet about what they hear and say. "They do not have to sign anything, but they understand that they do not talk," said Maja Banck-Polderman, the organization''s Secretary. Tony Gosling, a British reporter who has followed the group says, "I think that a forum where so many rich and powerful people meet should be open to public scrutiny."
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- In addition to authorizing another $532.8 billion for the Pentagon, including a $70-billion "supplemental provision" which covers the cost of the ongoing, mad military maneuvers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places, the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, signed by the President in a private White House ceremony, further collapses the historic divide between the police and the military: a tell-tale sign of a rapidly consolidating police state in America, all accomplished amidst ongoing U.S. imperial pretensions of global domination, sold to an "emergency managed" and seemingly willfully gullible public as a "global war on terrorism." Make no mistake about it: the de-facto repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act is an ominous assault on American democratic tradition and jurisprudence. The 1878 Act, which reads, "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the Laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both." It is the only U.S. criminal statute that outlaws military operations directed against the American people under the cover of "Law enforcement." As such, it has been the best protection we''ve had against the power-hungry intentions of an unscrupulous and reckless President who may be intent on using force to enforce his or her own will.
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Ex-NBA ref Tim Donaghy 
