Majority of 32 Wisconsin Towns Vote for Iraq Pullout (!!)

[Mr_Spock]

By Kari Kydersen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 5, 2006; Page A07

SHOREWOOD, Wis., April 4 -- Voters in the majority of 32 Wisconsin towns with local referendums on the Iraq war voted Tuesday to bring the troops home.

A call to withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year passed overwhelmingly in the liberal Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood, while in conservative Watertown, where the City Council had opposed having the referendum, it was voted down by 75 percent.

Although the referendums are nonbinding, organizers with the Green Party and other antiwar groups said they hope they send a message to Washington.

"This sort of reminds me of Vietnam," said Nicole Bartelme, 22, a student at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee who voted in Shorewood. "I have some friends in Iraq, and I think we should bring them home. I don't know realistically if this will have any effect, but hopefully someone's listening."

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/04/AR2006040402317.html?nav=rss_world/mideast

[Flabbergasted]

1. Did anyone else find this funny:............

"This sort of reminds me of Vietnam," said Nicole Bartelme, 22......

[Mr_Spock]

2. LOL - I didn't catch the AGE until you emphasized it!

lol - she was born long after the war ended!!

"I read about it" would likely be her response :D

[Flabbergasted]

3. Good One!

[LuckyLib]

4. Meanwhile, many older Americans, folks who should hear echoes

every time the Rummy-Cheney-Bush group talks about Iraq,think it's different. How short their memories, or maybe they never really got it the first time around.

[kclown]

5. Not all of us

April 29 NYC is our next chance to vote with our bodies.

The news of the impact of large street demonstrations has been right before our eyes for the last two weeks.

Each day for the last 4 I have brought 3 fresh copies of the UFPJ call to action to place on bulletin boards at work, to replace those torn down. We are the majority, finally, and we will prevail.

If only (sigh) John Kerry had written his op-ed in Sept. 04. Dennis Kucinich would have been glad to help.

[DemInDistress]

6. what is happening on April 29 in NYC?

I live in the Bronx...Did I miss something? please tell me..thanks..

[Breeze54]

32. HUGE ANTI -WAR - OUT OF IRAQ NOW!! / PRO-PEACE MARCH!!

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/

End the war in Iraq
Bring all our troops home now!

Unite for change -- let's turn our country around!
The times are urgent and we must act.

Too much is too wrong in this country.
We have a foreign policy that is foreign to our core values,
and domestic policies wreaking havoc at home. It's time for a change.

INITIATING ORGANIZATIONS: United for Peace and Justice, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition,
National Organization for Women, Friends of the Earth, U.S. Labor Against the War,
Climate Crisis Coalition, People's Hurricane Relief Fund,
National Youth and Student Peace Coalition, Veterans for Peace

Endorse the mobilization and sign-up for April 29 email updates.
http://www.april29.org/modinput4.php?modin=119
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Major Mobilization Set for April 29th

A war based on lies

Spying, corruption and attacks on civil liberties
Katrina survivors abandoned by government

MARCH FOR PEACE,
JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY

End the war in Iraq -
Bring all our troops home now!

SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2006
NEW YORK CITY

Unite for change - let's turn our country around!

The times are urgent and we must act.

Too much is too wrong in this country.
We have a foreign policy that is foreign to our core values,
and domestic policies wreaking havoc at home.

It's time for a change.

* No more never-ending oil wars!
* Protect our civil liberties & immigrant rights.
End illegal spying, government corruption and the subversion of our democracy.
* Rebuild our communities, starting with the Gulf Coast.
Stop corporate subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy while ignoring our basic needs.
* Act quickly to address the climate crisis and the accelerating destruction of our environment.

Our message to the White House and to Congress is clear: Either stand with us or stand aside!

We are coming together to march, to vote, to speak out and to turn our country around!

Join us in New York City on Saturday, April 29th


April 29 Information

Spread the Word About the April 29 NYC Protest
http://www.april29.org/article.php?id=3222

[DemInDistress]

39. thanks breezse for the heads up...

I will be taking a subway downtown on 4/29.. ^5

I love DU !!

[rodeodance]

13. A college student who knows history?

[rodeodance]

15. Some city councils fought efforts to get on ballot--!

....The referendum passed in La Crosse, near the Minnesota border, where the City Council had been split over the issue. Council President Joe Ledvina said he was surprised by the vote.

"The council felt overwhelmingly that it wasn't our jurisdiction, that we don't want to send a message that we aren't behind our president and the troops," Ledvina said.

In Shorewood, retired government worker Rick Westphal said he opposed the war "like everyone else" but didn't know whether it was appropriate for a local ballot measure.

"Is this really the arena for this?" he asked. "People are just coming here to vote for the school board. I'd rather see this on the national ballot."

[rodeodance]

16. Like Watertown, which had to go to court to get it on the ballot.

.The City Council in Watertown, a town of 23,000 that went strongly for Bush in the past two elections, tried to block the referendum from the ballot but was overruled by a judge after the Watertown Peace and Democracy Coalition filed a lawsuit.

[saigon68]

14. Definitely reminds me of Viet-Nam so much

I call it IRAQ-NAM

[Mr_Spock]

31. Iraq-nam

...thanks to our great leader :mad:

[OneAngryDemocrat]

7. Wisconsin residents vote on whether to keep troops in Iraq

Voters in 32 Wisconsin communities went to the polls Tuesday to decide referendums calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

By late Tuesday night, ballots had been counted in 25 towns and cities. The measures passed in 19 of them, including Madison, and were defeated in six.

Organizers hope the outcome in Wisconsin will encourage people in other states to put similar referendums on November ballots and prompt members of Congress to put pressure on the Bush administration to bring troops home.

"It's not going to stop here," said Rachel Friedman, a member of Wisconsin's Bring Our Troops Home Coalition. "This can be done anywhere."

Most of the anti-war referendums sought an immediate "orderly and rapid withdrawal" of troops. They were sponsored by the Wisconsin Green Party and the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice. Activists in each town gathered signatures to qualify them for the ballot.



http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-04-05-wisconsin-vote_x.htm

[bpilgrim]

8. added to the gallery

http://GlobalFreePress.com

peace

[rodeodance]

21. It is a great big anti war sign isn't it. Good for WISconsin.

[dweller]

9. i wish i could vote today

:kick:

my vote comes in Nov 06

dp

[rodeodance]

19. Hold on, its just around the corner

[Griper]

10. Looks like a winner.

Looks like most of the referenda won. Let's see if it resonates in november...

--
Griper Blade - grumblings from the heartland

[rodeodance]

11. Whow, we made a major newspapers -USAToday and WaPost

People in Evansville, population 4,000, voted for that resolution and against a separate measure expressing support for President Bush's policies in Iraq and recommending that U.S. troops stay "until unquestioned victory is clearly won."

The vote was close on both Evansville referendums. "Evansville is more evenly divided than I thought it was," said Fred Juergens, a retired chemistry professor who organized the anti-war petition drive.

Tony Ryerson, a public works employee who helped get the measure supporting the war on Evansville's ballot, said debate over the dueling referendums was healthy. "We got our voice heard and got people talking," he said.

Madison, the traditionally liberal state capital, was the largest city voting on the proposal to bring troops home. Other towns participating are in Republican-leaning rural areas. Anti-war resolutions have been adopted by more than 50 local governments across the USA and at more than 40 town meetings in Vermont.

[rodeodance]

12. But the WaPost headline is better

which is the IP

[rodeodance]

17. So, is Washington listening-as these voters hope?

from IP>
Although the referendums are nonbinding, organizers with the Green Party and other antiwar groups said they hope they send a message to Washington

[rodeodance]

18. Please nominate this thread (only has one)

[rodeodance]

20. k

[rodeodance]

23. k

[rodeodance]

22. Results of all cities here:

http://www.wnpj.org/files/4-4-results.html

[inchhigh]

36. Worth a Look

These local results paint an even stronger picture. Watertown was the only place that soundly defeated the measure (897 to 2669). In all of the other cities except one (Osceola) the margin was fewer than 13 votes. That means that if a total of just 24 people had switched their votes the measure would have been approved in all but two cities. If just 49 people had switched their votes it would have passed in seven of the eight cities where it failed.

Amazing!

[rodeodance]

24. Great pic of Activist Rachel Friedman on site of Madison, WI paper.

Activist Rachel Friedman reacts after reading results from the Town of Vermont in Dane County for a referendum to bring the troops home from Iraq at a gathering of peace supporters on State Street in Madison, Wis. on Tuesday, April 4, 2006.

(6 images)
...........
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=78956

24 communities want troops brought home now; 8 are opposed

GEORGE HESSELBERG
608-252-6140
[e-mail]

Wisconsin communities Tuesday sent a message through blunt referendums that they want American troops brought home from Iraq immediately.

From the tiny northern village of Exeland to Madison, voters tapped a seldom-used referendum opportunity to consider a version of the question: Should the United States bring the troops home now.

Madison served up the largest yes vote, and Watertown the largest no vote.

The effect of the referendums, which drew national and international media attention but carry no official status, depends on which side is answering the question.......

[rodeodance]

25. 24 communities want troops brought home now; 8 are opposed (Milw Jour)

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=78...

24 communities want troops brought home now; 8 are opposed

GEORGE HESSELBERG
608-252-6140
[e-mail]

Wisconsin communities Tuesday sent a message through blunt referendums that they want American troops brought home from Iraq immediately.

[rodeodance]

26. the opponents think it is all about embarrassing Bush!

....."What counts is seeing a democracy in action," said Parker, "and many of these returns are in communities where Bush won in 2004."

Opponents, such as the "Vote No to Cut and Run" group based in Madison, said a referendum is a poor way to determine policy and that a call to bring the troops home immediately is bad for morale both on the homefront and the battlefront.

Of the early returns, Bill Richardson, a leader of the Vote No group, said, "This is a fraction of a fraction of the public, a very small sample."

The group hosted a more subdued gathering at the Esquire Club, where Richardson sipped a beer and said the referendum victories "don't mean much. . . . It's the agenda of the Green Party wanting to embarrass the president."

[rodeodance]

27. AP Wisc. Communities Vote on Iraq Withdrawal

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060405/ap_on_re_us/iraq_referendums;_ylt=Atq6u6FoVhmNevabSLB3GwCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-
Wisc. Communities Vote on Iraq Withdrawal

By EMILY FREDRIX, Associated Press Writer Tue Apr 4, 11:49 PM ET

MILWAUKEE - Eighteen Wisconsin communities approved referendums Tuesday calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from
Iraq, while six others voted against such measures in early returns from 32 communities weighing in on the war.
ADVERTISEMENT
<0>


People in communities large and small gathered signatures on petitions that put the referendums on the spring election ballot, urging
President Bush to bring home the troops. Though the referendums carry no weight — municipal governments can't dictate the federal government's actions — organizers hoped to send a message.

[rodeodance]

28. 4.3 stars on yahoo, Vote this up please.

In the Columbia County town of Newport, voters rejected a referendum asking whether the United States should hand operational command of Iraq's national security over to the Iraqi government before the end of 2006.

Bush has refused to set a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Fifty-one soldiers from Wisconsin have died in Iraq since the invasion three years ago.

Geralyn Lu, 50, of Madison, voted to withdraw the troops in that city's referendum. "So many lives lost in a futile war. I didn't want them there in the first place," she said.

But Katy Hampton, 53, of Monona, said if the soldiers leave Iraq, the country will descend into chaos. That's why she voted against bringing the soldiers back, she said.

"There's still not a firm government in place," Hampton said. "I don't want it to be a mess. They should follow it through."


RECOMMEND THIS STORY

Your Recommendation:

Average (41 votes)
4.3 stars

[rodeodance]

29. k

[MadJohnShaft]

30. My dad won his school board election last night in WI

go dad

[smoogatz]

37. Good on him.

So did our next door neighbor, here in lovely E.C. Very smart lady.

[Mr_Spock]

38. Woot!

Alright! Is he a Dem? :)

[myrna minx]

33. Way to go Wisconsin.

:bounce: I'm surprised that Stevens Point didn't participate in this.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

34. This is a ground swell of democratic action &

The best way for the opposing councilmen to support * is to go to Iraq themselves.

[Jim__]

35. Great! The American people should go on record as being,

at least belatedly, against this war.

[Mr_Spock]

40. kick

:D