Road Home, the famously slow to get started mess of a program whose ineptness cost Governor Kathleen Blanco any hope of re-election, now finds yet another pothole in the path of the recovery of the city.

The majority of Americans want the Obama Administration to establish a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, CBS News reports. But if General Petraeus has his way, the State Department will designate part of the Afghan Taliban as a terrorist organization.That would undermine peace moves in Afghanistan, the New York Times reports – peace moves that the Administration told Newsweek that it supports. Petraeus’ move would undermine not only a timetable for withdrawal, but the “serious drawdown” in July 2011 that Vice President Biden told Newsweek we can “bet on” and Speaker Pelosi told the Huffington Post she expects.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has told the Huffington Post she expects a “serious drawdown” of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2011. The House Rules Committee has now approved an amendment for consideration on the war supplemental that will allow Speaker Pelosi to “put her money where her mouth is.”

There is no “emergency” requiring the House to throw another $33 billion into our increasingly bloody and pointless occupation of Afghanistan before we all go off to celebrate the anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from foreign occupation.

At long last, Rep. David Obey has called the question: which is more important to America – saving teachers’ jobs, or pointless killing in Afghanistan? This could be the beginning of the end of the Washington consensus that wars and other military spending exist on their own fiscal planet. But where are the big Democratic constituency groups? It isn’t just a question of missing an opportunity: there is a freight train coming called “deficit reduction,” and if cuts in military spending aren’t on board the train, the train’s cargo will be cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits.

In recent years you’ve expressed your opposition to war spending. I’d like to encourage you to cap off your congressional career by actually refusing to provide the funding for the current escalation in Afghanistan, and by simultaneously introducing a bill to spend $33 billion on green energy jobs, including for former soldiers.

Congressman David Obey, who has represented a Wisconsin district since 1969, has decided to retire.

President Obama’s administration wants $33 billion more for wars on top of a record $708 billion in 2011 for the Department of Defense.

Although President Obama won the last presidential election on the key promise of change and reform, his administration has provided neither. It’s clear he’s just a super salesman for many of the same policies as Bush conducted. On Tuesday, he will sell an escalation of war in Afghanistan to the American people.

I loathe the use of my tax dollars for any violence, but you know what I loathe even more? The use of debt taken out in my name to fund violence.