from my email’s inbox
June 22nd, 2008Please forward:
Senator Patty Murray webform(http://murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm)
Senator Maria Cantwell webform(http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm)
The House approved the largest war-spending bill to date Thursday, bowing to
President Bush’s call for $162 billion in war funding — with no strings
attached — and giving his successor enough money to wage the wars until July
2009.
Cut-The_Funding, it’s Your War Senator - It’s Your Debt!
DO NOT VOTE FOR THIS COMPROMISE IN THE SENATE.
Senators,
The National Dent is at $9.4 Trillion and Rising Daily ( see
http://www.federalbudget.com/ )
This compromise — giving the President 162 billion for war in exchange for two
items which should be funded in their own right (NOT as a final blank check for
Bush’s disastrous war and occupation): (1) a 13-week extension of jobless
benefits for workers who have exhausted theirs, and (2) a new GI bill benefit
allowing veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to attend a state college
tuition-free.
Voting for such a bill, Senators Cantwell and/or Murray, would be another
betrayal by you and other Democrats, who had pledged to end the war.
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, rightly call the House vote for more war “the
biggest blank check ever.”
Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, said the vote was a “profound disappointment
to the millions of Americans who put Democrats into power hoping we could force
a change in Iraq.”
What will YOU say, Senators? You, who were elected after you promised to vote
for peace and an end to the war.
Nancy Pelosi said: “We never sent them a bill that did not have deadlines,
conditions and the rest.” She blamed REPUBLICANS in the Senate and said
“They [Republicans] are complicit with the president to make sure he never
has to get a bill on his desk with a timeline, because the American people want
a timeline,” she said.
However, Senate DEMOCRATS (including you) — are equally or more complicit –
since you SAY you are pledged to end the war.
The only good part of the House bill, so far as I can tell, is that it would
ban the use of military construction funds to build permanent bases in Iraq.
Anti-war groups appropriately delivered “certificates of shame” and
“bloody hands” cut outs to Pelosi and other House leaders before the vote.
This was appropriate because they have betrayed the American people who voted
for them to get us out of this war.
It is NOT all right for any Washington Senator to do as Nancy Pelosi did –
when she gave what was called “a fiery anti-war speech” Thursday night and then
showed how hollow such speeches are by voting to continue to fund Bush’s Iraq
occupation and war without any conditions (except a ban on the use of military
construction funds to build permanent bases in Iraq).
If the Senate goes along with the House bill, the only sure outcome is that the
National Debt will keep growing and the killing and devastating injuries will
continue, with more Iraqi and Afghani citizens and more US soldiers dying and
being severely injured in disastrous wars and occupations supported by the
votes of both Democrats and Republicans who once again voted to give more money
($162 billion) to a war in Iraq that never should have been fought and a war in
Afghanistan which has proved to be equally pointless, destructive and
unwinnable.
…………………………………………………….
As he prayed came the crippled and the beggar and the beaten. Seeing them, he
cried, “Great God, how is it that a loving creator can see such things and yet
do nothing about them?” God said, “I did do something. I made you.”
“There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we
face, just the familiar ones: honest search for understanding, education,
organization, action that raises the cost of state violence for its
perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change — and the kind of
commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment,
despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a
brighter future.” – Noam Chomsky
“One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems
impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the US around through
nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total
inability of violence to change anything for the better” – Daniel Berrigan
It’s past time for You to take responsibity and Cut the Funding, Senator!
Rick Gold
http://EugenePeaceWorks.org