March 11, 2007

Report on the Congressional Occupation Project

For those of you who have been following the Democrats proposals regarding the 93 BILLION dollar war supplementat, you might rightly be getting the feeling that we've been had.

Basically, this is my understanding of it all. A month ago, many of our Democrat representatives made some very grandiose, grandstanding comments about how they will work to end the war in Iraq. They called the Administration on their lies, they vowed to work to bring the troops home, they swore they would stop the bloodshed. They did, in fact, pass a nonbinding resolution to stop the increase in troops to Iraq. They promised that if that resolution did not get the attention of the President, they had other means to fall back on. They told us they would use the "power of the purse" and Mr. Oberstar told us that the "buck stops here with Congress".

Now comes the request for 93 BILLION. Rep. Jack Murtha proposes a bill which will approve the 93 BILLION but will come with strings which should strangle the presidents ability to keep the war going. That proposal is tossed to the circular file (the garbage, where it rightly belongs), and Nancy Pelosi creates a new amendment that will approve the supplemental but will have a timeline attached to it. That timeline for troop pullout begins in 2008. A whole year plus before troops begin to leave Iraq. It will also attach conditions for improved domestic spending.

In the wings, a small block of representatives calling themselves the progressive Democrats create an amendment which will approve the supplemental but will only allow the money to be spent on getting the troops out of Iraq and will have an even more immediate timeline. This proposal has a bit more merit but is so far out of the mainstream Democrat ballpark that it will not get enough votes to get out of the restroom.

So essentially, the proposal that many Democrats are uniting behind is that we write our president who has led this country into a war built on lies, who has publicly stated that he is the one who makes the decisions in this country (sounds a bit like a dictator to me), who is guilty of war crimes, who is impeachable... A CHECK FOR 93 BILLION DOLLARS OF OUR MONEY AND DO NOTHING MORE THAN COME UP WITH A NONBINDING RESOLUTION WHICH WILL NOT STOP HIM FROM TAKING THE 30,OOO MORE LIVES THAT HE WANTS TO CONTINUE THIS BLOODBATH. There is something terribly wrong with this picture.

This Tuesday, March 13, the constituents of the 8th District of MN will be back in Mr. Oberstar's office to ask where he stands on this decision. We will remind him once again of the words he spoke in last months debate. We will remind him once again that his constituents do not want another DIME spent on this illegal and immoral war. I will be asking to speak to him directly by phone; not to his aid in Duluth nor his aid in DC, but to him personally to get a direct and clear answer as to where he stands. Does the buck stop here or not? The vote goes to the House next week. It's not too late to convince him to do the right thing.
Please join us at his Duluth office, rm 231, Federal Building, from 10 AM to 2 PM. Please send emails either directly to me which will be faxed to DC or directly to him through his website. Last week we brought in 37 emails. We have about 70 total from the previous weeks. I know others have sent theirs directly to him. Some folks have called his office in DC. Please keep them coming. Please join us on Tuesday.
Peace,
Michele Naar-Obed
District 8 coordinator

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