Congressman questions DOD presence

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - An anti-war Democratic congressman is demanding to know why there were uniformed Defense Department personnel watching House proceedings from a public gallery Thursday, who they were and what they were doing.

"If they were here on official duty, this was an abhorrent misallocation of our military resources at a time of war," Northern California Rep. Pete Stark asserted Friday in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Stark, an 18-term incumbent known for his liberal positions and outbursts of temper, said he observed the contingent of 20 or so officers, apparently Army generals, in the gallery for a couple of hours while the House debated and voted on an Iraq war spending bill.

"At a time when our nation is at war, our troops are overextended, and the administration is literally asking for emergency military spending, what good to the 'war on terror' is having U.S. generals and other top-ranked officers — who were likely accompanied by staff and escorted by their chauffeurs — spending hours sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives?" Stark asked.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080516/ap_on_go_co/congres... ;_

[islandmkl]

1. "...we got our eyes on you, boys...

and we're paying real close attention to what you all are saying..."

[lyonn]

2. It's about time they started paying attention to Congress

So far it seems they have been playing follow the leader and leaving their brain at home. Trouble is it seems they were trying to make a point by being there in uniform?!

[Goodnevil]

3. Maybe they were trying to be covertly

supportive? Also, their funding just got jacked. Not permanently, but I'd be nervous if I were them.

[moggie]

8. Covertly? In uniform? n/t

[Goodnevil]

10. It was just a thought

geez

[Enrique]

13. no one said they were clever

[OregonBlue]

4. Planning the easiest way to shut if down when bozo declares martial law!!

[judasdisney]

11. Planning to crash an F-16 into the Capitol Dome when only Democrats are in the building

[Baby Snooks]

5. The Nazis are coming, the Nazis are coming...

Actually they arrived in 2001 along with the Boy from Brazil and Dr. Mengele. Obviously this is another indication of how intimidated Congress is by this administration and how intent this administration is on keeping Congress intimidated.

We are no longer a nation ruled by law. And there the Empress sits. Smiling while the Emperor plays his fiddle. While Rome burns.

Congress for some reason gave this monster the right to declare martial law on his own authority. Most don't want to think about it. But given this "display" of "military might" within Congress itself, most need to.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. Didn't one of the Roman rulers put armed soldiers in the Senate?

Just to observe the proceedings, or something like that.

[happyslug]

15. Cromwell did the same to intimidate Parliament.

Charles I had also tried the stunt, but failed (Charles did not have the troops to do so, so he headed to Nottingham and started the English Civil War, Cromwell HAD the troops, he won the English Civil War over Charles I who he beheaded). Henry VII and Henry VIII also did this stunt. Do to this policy of using troops to intimidate Parliament, large armies were outlawed by England. Their fielded a large Army afterward, but only doing major wars AND most of that army was overseas.

Napoleon and Hitler did the same. Lenin did the same after his party LOST the election subsequent to the October 1917 revolution. Troops in Parliament had always been used to terrorized legislature.

[maddezmom]

7. UPDATE; Congressman OK with military visit to House

An anti-war Democratic congressman backed off complaints about Defense Department personnel watching a House vote after the Pentagon told him they were students from the Army War College.

~snip~

Stark's office released that letter around noon Friday. About four-and-a-half hours later came a shorter release in which Stark said he'd been informed that the onlookers weren't generals, but a class from the war college in Carlisle, Pa.

"I appreciate the swift response," Stark said in his follow-up statement, without retracting or apologizing for his earlier complaints. "However, if these officers were hoping for a lesson in how Congress ought to work, then perhaps the Iraq supplemental wasn't the best debate for them to witness."

In the course of the somewhat chaotic House action Thursday, the war spending bill fell to defeat after Republicans withheld their votes to punish Democratic tactics _ probably as good as an example as any of how the House operates.


more:http://www.southernledger.com/ap/131664/Congressman_OK_...

[14thColony]

9. My first thought

...was that it was an Army War College or National War College class out on a field trip. They were probably bored and wondering when lunch would be.

[judasdisney]

12. My first thought is that the Pentagon is lying

[14thColony]

14. I tend to doubt it myself

I attended a staff college in DC and we went on a similar trip. If having a score of colonels sitting in the gallery is someone's plan to intimidate Congress, it's time to go buy a copy of Intimidation for Dummies and start over.