URGENT ACTION: Call Congress: Vote “No” on More $$ for Iraq Occupation

[helderheid]

Call Congress: Vote “No” on More $$ for Iraq Occupation

It’s the final hour on Capitol Hill. The House Democratic leadership has stubbornly refused to even allow a vote on the Lee Amendment for a responsible, fully-funded, orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops and military contractors from Iraq by the end of 2007.

Instead, the Democratic leadership is today trying to push through its Iraq appropriations bill that calls for funding the ongoing occupation of Iraq, with weak benchmarks, through Sept. 1, 2008 – with loopholes for some troops to stay in Iraq beyond that on training and anti-terrorism missions.

Today, please call 202-224-3121 (the Congressional switchboard) or email your member of Congress to vote “No” on the Iraq supplemental bill that keeps funding the occupation, especially if your representative is in the Congressional Progressive Caucus. If you have connections to CPC members, contact them. (Full CPC list and contact info here.)

A six-hour debate on the bill begins today (Thurs.) at 2pm Eastern.

The Democratic leadership bill lags behind the public. A recent USA Today/Gallup poll found that 58 percent of Americans want U.S. troops out within a year, at the latest. The Iraq bill was aimed at placating conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats, while antiwar progressives in Congress were not even allowed a vote on http://pdamerica.org/articles/campaigns/2007-03-12-19-58-29-campaigns.php">their amendment that reflects majority sentiment in our country. (To appease hawks, Democratic leaders actually deleted a provision from the bill requiring Bush to get Congressional approval before attacking Iran.)

Contact Congress members to remind them: It is antiwar sentiment that brought the Democrats to power in Congress. PDA is proud to be standing with Reps. Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey, Maxine Waters, Raul Grijalva, Diane Watson, Dennis Kucinich and others who are saying “No” to more occupation.

“No” to a diversion of billions of dollars from domestic needs.

“No” to the idea that US military force is the solution in Iraq.

Our friends at AfterDowningStreet.org are keeping track of whether progressives in Congress are falling behind the leadership or standing against more money for warfare.

For years, brave Congress members like Lee, Woolsey, Waters, Grijalva, Watson and Kucinich have stood strong against the Iraq war. They did so when the war was popular. They did so against the wishes of Democratic leaders. Their efforts helped turn the pubic against the war, and helped win last November’s election.

Today, we are standing with them: No More Money for Occupation!


Progressive Democrats of America is a grassroots PAC that works both inside the Democratic Party and outside in movements for peace and justice. Our goal: Extend the victory of Nov. 2006 into a permanent, progressive majority. PDA’s advisory board includes six members of Congress and activist leaders such as Tom Hayden, Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin and Rev. Lennox Yearwood. More info: http://pdamerica.org/.

[helderheid]

1. k

[Robbien]

2. This bill is a Blue Dog wet dream

A never ending license to warmonger surrounded by a huge layer of pork.

[bigtree]

4. oh yeah go ahead and bash our party for finally addressing the needs of Americans

that have been ignored with every stoking of their occupation. It's poetic justice that in this WITHDRAWAL bill there is a focus on supporting and preserving the livelihoods of the returning soldiers by supporting the industry in their districts.

The pork was in the future weapons systems that Bush had in his'emergency' budget request.

Way to echo republican talking points to bash our Democrats.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I think voting 'no' is wrong strategy. The bill has been loaded up with pork, so that

Bush will veto it. Then he will have no funding for the war and the House might be able to get in some method of getting the troops out as the Repubs will have to deal.

[pampango]

6. What pork? Why?

We Democrats are in control of this process, aren't we?

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Yes, and they tacked on something like $21 billion in 'pork'.

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/68410 or http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_5488716

Outside watchdog groups have decried lawmakers' attempts to stuff the war spending bill—which President Bush has threatened to veto because it includes a timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq—with billions of dollars in spending for pet projects.

[bigtree]

9. my take:

Beating Bush's Swords Into Plowshares

March 21, 2007

All of the 'pork' Bush and his republican enablers are complaining about in the Iraq spending bill is actually a down-payment on a long-overdue shift in priorities; from Bush's waging of his military occupation in Iraq and pumping up the bank accounts of the military industry, back to focusing on the needs and concerns of Americans and doing something to reverse the festering neglect by the republicans of our workers and economy here at home.

Included in the funding legislation are initiatives like $2.9 billion for Gulf Coast hurricane recovery, including $1.3 billion for New Orleans levee repairs; $3.7 billion worth of agricultural disaster assistance, including drought relief for U.S. farmers; money for children's health care; $500 million for wildfire suppression; $120 million for shrimp and Atlantic menhaden fishermen; and $15 million for Louisiana rice farmers. WP

In Georgia, for example, the state is slated to receive assistance to build peanut storehouses. Georgia peanut farmers provide almost half of the U.S. peanut crop each year. Georgia has 6,000 farm families growing peanuts and another 37,000 Georgians working on peanut farms, in peanut-related agribusiness services, in shelling plants and in factories that roast peanuts or make candy or peanut butter. Due to a drought last year the peanut production in Georgia and in other producer states is down over 34 percent from last year's level with some farmers talking about 50 to 60-percent yield losses. The peanut industry in Georgia provides over 50,000 American jobs in the state.

Those American jobs are among the priorities which have been repeatedly cast aside as republicans eagerly poured billions into Iraq, most of the money bypassing the troops and appearing in military industry coffers for future weapons systems. In Bush's original 'emergency' request he made room for new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets and C-130 cargo planes for Lockheed; a dozen F/A-18 fighter jets; seven new V-22 Osprey transport aircraft; six copies of a new plane called the Growler; $74 million for "design, development, integration, and testing" of an unmanned spy plane; all of which wouldn't be operable in any battlefield until at least 2010. Boston Globe

It makes sense to begin to repair the damage done by the continued stoking of Bush's Iraq failure by the former republican majority when they held sway over the budget. Taking care of our citizens here at home, as well as caring for the troops at the point of Bush's occupation has been the Democratic argument from the arrival of the administration's first 'emergency' budget request for Iraq.

While Bush and his republican legislators have spared no expense in feathering their Iraq debacle, Democrats have been arguing for investments in Americans' lives and livelihoods here at home. It is serendipity that the funding of our soldiers' return from Iraq will be accompanied by a Democratic effort to support and preserve jobs in their hometowns.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ron_full_070321_beating_bush_s_sword.htm

[helderheid]

5. k

[helderheid]

8. debate happening now

[Breeze54]

10. Thanks helderheid

:kick: & R'd

[helderheid]

11. thank YOU!

[Hamlette]

12. we pull the funding for this war, we own the failure. Tell Congress to give Bush everything he wants

Do NOT make this OUR war/failure. Keep telling Bush he needs to get out. Never say we are giving the surge a chance to work. Just say, this is Bush's war, he has said he won't leave. We will not leave the troops without funding.

I'm so sick of people saying if the dems hadn't defunded Vietnam we could have won. We could NOT have won that war just like we can't win this one.

All 2008 candidates run on the platform we will end this war. And start saying it now.

[helderheid]

13. LEE TESTIFYING NOW!

[helderheid]

14. Woolsey is UP!

[helderheid]

15. LEE UP AGAIN

[helderheid]

16. MAXINE WATERS!

[Breeze54]

17. Kingston- R must be brain dead!

It "might" turn into a civil war. :wtf:


:eyes:

[helderheid]

18. Really makes you wonder where the hell they're getting their news!

[Breeze54]

19. They just make things up...

Remember that old kids sing/song line?

"That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!" :P

idiots...