On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted No and blocked Speaker Nancy Pelosi's latest proposal to throw another $165 billion into the occupation of Iraq. This happened in large part because ordinary citizens pressured their representatives to vote No. In the final count 149 Democrats voted No, 132 Republicans voted Present (neither Yes nor No), 12 members did not vote, and only 141 voted Yes. Here's the roll call:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll328.xm...

While the Republicans had less of an impact than the Democrats, the corporate media is quickly giving the Republicans credit for blocking the vote. This is nonsense. This vote was blocked by 149 Democrats finally - FINALLY - doing the right thing. We should thank them immediately. We should thank each other for having moved them. We should contact the media and praise them. We should have flowers delivered to their offices on Friday.

Now, the possibility remains that we're being played for fools, and that many of those who voted No intend to make a lot of noise about it and then turn around and try to quietly vote Yes on a different version cooked up by Pelosi or on a version that comes back from the Senate for final approval. But that's all the more reason to make a big giant humungous stink about how amazing it is and how grateful we are that 149 of our representatives FINALLY saw fit to represent us. If we can make this thing stick, we can end the killing and give birth to an opposition Party in one stroke.

In other news, the two separate amendments that went along with the war money did pass. One of them includes money for useful things like veterans care. It may fail in the Senate or in conference or cause a veto. The other restricts the war money to particular illegal activities while prohibiting its use for others. That one looks even more ridiculous than it originally did, because it's now restricting money that wasn't passed. These two amendments were passed by the Democrats, by the way. The Republicans are a minority and were decisive in none of the three votes.