It’s time for Congress to wake up and smell the coffee. Don’t buy Bush’s war, again!

[CODEPINK]

President Bush has submitted another request to Congress for more money to continue the war in Iraq. CODEPINK is in Washington DC to creatively counter that money request -- to encourage, empower and inspire Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the newly elected Congress to vote against the Defense Appropriations Bill (emergency supplemental). LINK: http://appropriations.house.gov/emergency_supp.shtml

We began our creative counter by walking through the halls of Congress delivering “Wake Up! Don’t Buy Bush’s War” cups of coffee, stopping at various congressional offices and ending with Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi, giving her the message, “Your San Francisco constituents would like you to wake up and stop buying Bush’s war.” Pelosi represents the most anti-war, progressive district in the United States; her constituents would like her to discontinue voting yes on every appropriations bill that passes her desk.

Pelosi and the newly elected Democrats seem to be in a rock and a hard place with emotions on edge. Just the other day, in the halls of Congress, military mom Tina Richards confronted Chair of the Appropriations Committee Congressperson David Obey about the Defense Appropriations Bill. Obey berated Tina and colleagues, which was all captured and placed on YouTube
LINK: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/19392
Tina’s son served in Iraq, now he suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and has attempted to commit suicide. She continues to walk through the halls of Congress questioning, speaking, and telling her son’s story. With Tina’s passion, strength, courage, and tenacity, one would think, that would be enough to inspire Congress to vote against the defense bill, but Pelosi and the newly elected Congress continue to remain in a highly emotional fog of war.

CODEPINK and Tina Richards aren’t the only movement people walking through the halls of Congress. The Occupation Project LINK: http://vcnv.org/ <http://vcnv.org/> creative participants are taking over congressional offices -- ten to fifteen participants along with a swarm of TV cameras quickly piled into the small phone-booth size office of Congressperson Chris Van Hollen, and covered his office walls with photocopied images and stories of US troops who died in the Iraq war, they read out the names of the Iraq war dead while striking a small gold gong, and called for an end to the war. They insist that Van Hollen do his part to bring the troops home and vote no on the defense bill.

While the Occupation Project, CODEPINK, Tina Richards and others continue to walk the halls of Congress or occupy Congressional offices, thousands will converge onto Washington DC for the 4th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, and we can only hope that our presence in and outside the Hill will wake up Pelosi and the newly elected Congress, and inspire them to stop buying Bush’s war.
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Learn more about CODEPINK's current campaign, "Don't Buy Bush's War", can be found at www.dontbuybushswar.org or you can visit our website at www.codepinkalert.org

[PhilipShore]

1. Welcome to DU: CODEPINK

[MADem]

2. I think Tina Richards and her crew need to spend time going after the

people who are war supporters, not guys like Obey who are trying to end the madness.

They aren't helping, they're acting like ignorant asses.

YMMV.