Hello, welcome to another episode of Best of Left Podcast.

Today we have clips from the liberal oasis radio show, Rachel Maddow, Mike Maloy, Randy

Rhodes and the Young Turks.

Today is the day that I've been arguing was the perfect opportunity for the Democrats

to start ending the war.

Today is the day that the Bush administration formally asked for another huge pile of money

to throw on the bonfire that is the war in Iraq.

I urge the Congress to approve the complete global war on terror requests as quickly as possible

and without excessive and counterproductive restrictions.

Without excessive and counterproductive restrictions, Defense Secretary Bob Gates, before the

Senate appropriations committee, today asking for another $42 billion to be added to what

they have already asked for to fund the war in Iraq.

The reason he's talking about counterproductive and unnecessary restrictions is because what

we've learned so far from the Democrats in the Senate is that their big plan for trying

to end the war is to maybe put some conditions on that funding.

The last time the Congress put this Democratic-led Congress put conditions on the funding about

the war, the president vetoed the bill containing both the funding and those restrictions and

then Congress just sent him the funding without the restrictions.

So why we would start down that path again is beyond me.

In 2003, the year that we invaded Iraq, Congress appropriated $81 billion for the war.

$81 billion in the first year.

The next year went up to $94 billion, year after that $108 billion, year after that $122 billion.

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