Just off the phone with Rep. Jackson Lee - The tide is turning!

[Kevin Spidel]

She just told us of a new Congressional Caucus that has been formed within the past 48 hours.

Rangel (D - NY), Waters (D - CA), are co-chairs of a "Get out of Iraq Caucus"

Also in this morning Pelosi to push the ammendment on Iraq tomorrow.
See here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3863105

Reps Jones, Kucinich, Paul, Abercrombie put forward Bi-Partisan Legislation tomorrow: http://jones.house.gov/html/release.cfm?id=313

On top of that, in the Senate, Fiengold is introducing a Senate Resolution much like Woolsey's House Res: http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/05/06/Iraq_resolution.pdf

This.. with the news that Pelosi (House Leadership) is supporting the Downing Street Minutes hearings tomorrow!

The tide is turning folks! It is turning!

[Junkdrawer]

1. Rangel & Rangel ??? n/t

[Kevin Spidel]

2. fixed on edit

sorry... bad cut and paste. swamped and in a hurry.

[Junkdrawer]

6. No problem & thanks for the post.

:thumbsup:

[Tsiyu]

45. another kick

:kick:

[ktowntennesseedem]

54. Hey, nothing wrong w/Rangel & Rangel!

We can simply have him cloned at the same time we have Conyers cloned, and we should be in good shape in no time!

:evilgrin:

[H2O Man]

3. That's great!

It is positive news.

[paineinthearse]

4. New DU record - 4 greatest votes with only 1 reply!

[MelissaB]

8. and I just "piled on"

Thanks for the excellent news, Kevin!

[understandinglife]

5. "Get out of Iraq Caucus" -- most excellent!

Peace.



http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4173.htm


www.missionnotaccomplished.us - Please, everyone, don't stop at 500,000 signatures; don't stop at 10,000,000 signatures; don't stop until Bush and the neoconsters are indicted and prosecuted for their heinous crimes against humanity and our Constitution.

[NYPagan]

7. Ahhh, reminds me of when we forced their hand in VietNam!

IT is good to flex a bit of our muscle.

[EVDebs]

13. We ? The money power (Mammon) is realizing that

what was supposed to cost $30 billion, according to Wolfowitz's crowd, and what got Larry Lindsey fired for saying $100 billion, is now over $300 billion. We won't discuss lives lost and mangled.

No, the money boys ALWAYS dismiss the people, shove a pretext for war upon the Congress, and sit back and count the money.

Just like with Vietnam we realize that when the costs get too high and can't be ignored anymore, the representatives of the money power start to act. Not before, only after.

[NYPagan]

15. Agreed! And...

It is high time we pulled out. If Iraq can't take care of itself by now, no amount of moeny we throw at it can help, and what about the poor, right here, in my very neighborhood?


If we are expected to swim on our own, why can't the Iaraqies?

[Horse with no Name]

44. I believe we should leave

and I believe we should pay billions in reparations to the Iraqi's so that they can rebuild their country.
This isn't a matter of swimming on their own--especially since we drained all the water out of the pool and replaced it with infected piss.
We destroyed their infrastructure from the bombings. We murdered their people. We stole their government assets.
We owe them and we owe them big.
You need to realize that the same policies that are destroying your life also destroyed their lives.
We are both victims of this administration--please don't assume they had anything to do with the reasons people are poor in this country.
If you weren't aware--according to the last statistics, the rich are immensely richer and there are new millionaires.
Then you need to ask yourself...am "I" better off than I was under Clinton?
There is your answer.

[hippiechick]

32. Bingo !

George's owners bought into it in the beginning ("Psst, Hey buddy... wanna make a quick profit? I got this war I'm thinking of having ...") and now they've gotten close to their margin of zero return, and are seeing that the domestic economy is starting to suffer, which will tank their bottom line for next year(s)and ... "Gee, isn't it time we get out of Iraq?"

It's all about who controls the dollas.

[seemslikeadream]

9. "Get out of Iraq Caucus"

:applause:

[AuntiBush]

10. Glad to hear Pelosi Supports DSM! Tide Needs Turning.

[Just Me]

11. Let's reach out to our constituents,....they need the encouragement,...

,...to get them revitalized and ready to go!!! All good people have taken quite a beating in face of tyranny. Fortunately, hope NEVER dies,...it just rests.

LET'S GO!!!!

[FreedomAngel82]

12. This is so great!

I feel like bursting! :bounce:

[Clark2008]

19. Hey! Who's that great governor in your avatar?

:hi:

[Coexist]

14. Waaaaaaaahhh!

I nearly fell out of my chair!
Ho boy!

[Tigress DEM]

16. Awesome!

[Rainscents]

17. Awesome!!! Thank you for posting this!!!

:bounce: Tie is turning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Junkdrawer]

18. Yeah, Call me a crazy optimist, but I sense that dialectic pendulum...

slowing to a stop, and maybe, just maybe, starting to swing in the other direction.

[ROH]

21. Like this?

[nicknameless]

28. Great pic! n/t

[Just Me]

46. That pic makes me feel warm and free all over.

Whew!!! Sent chills right through me!!!

[Roland99]

34. Can I get an amen?!

[Pacifist Patriot]

38. Amen!

[wryter2000]

40. The pendulum

Oh, gawd. Ever since Raygun, I've been praying that I'd live long enough to see the pendulum swing back. Damn Bush for killing so many innocent people :mad:, but I'll take the pendulum swing, anyway.

[Conker]

42. I'm hoping it swings in the other direction, too.

[shanti]

51. i'm glad someone is an optimist

but i think that if the tide starts turning our direction, * will try to stop it somehow. red alert, anyone? :-(

[marylanddem]

20. To everything there is a season

Turn turn turn...

YAY!!!!!!!

[Lowell]

22. Great, pull the troops out

and then let the prosecutions begin. They don't want to be in country when the Saddam trial begins. How can they justify toppling a sovereign nation on trumped up evidence?

[Sparkle]

23. Rep. Rangel? Doesn't he want a draft?

[Kevin Spidel]

25. the draft legislation was a strategy...

...to get folks on the hill to talk about the realities of war. Republicans didn't want to talk about the draft, so he put it out there only to get discussion, and then he campaigned against the draft.

[Just Me]

49. I love Rangel,...

,...but when he pushed discussion of draft out there, I just about broke into tears. Of course, I take the draft very personally because it would impact me personally. It's bad enough I may lose my favorite sibling to this fucking fraudulently-inspired death trap. I can't handle the thought of my only son being pulled into it. I won't let that happen, period!!!

I still love Rangel, though. He's a fine human being and certainly a voice on behalf of "the people".

[NoSheep]

24. Yahoooooo!

:bounce:

[flordehinojos]

26. rangel and waters are two heavenly creatures who are not afraid of

poppy bush's hell fire, nor the hell fire of any of his sons, i mean, goons.

[MADem]

27. Good timing as the jog towards 06 begins

What was it Friedman said in that NYT Op Ed about Iraq?? Double the number of US boots on the ground? http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/15/opinion/15friedman.html?oref=login

Only way that could happen is with a draft--they aren't even sustaining the forces at this rate, that scraping we hear is the bottom of the All Volunteer barrel.

And anyone who votes for a draft can kiss their seat goodbye. And if we DO go a draft, this war is gonna cost a fortune. The rich will eventually have to kick in, because the middle/working classes will revolt.

Yep, reality is starting to hit even the dumbest folks in the face--better late than never, I guess.

[rucky]

29. Will any of them be joining Conyers in his hearing/rally?

this is great, but i'd like to see some unified, grassroots ACTION. Conyers is supplying us with this, and i hope these folks will back him.

[Independent_Liberal]

30. Nice to see the tide is turning!

I'm glad a couple Republicans (Jones and Paul) signed on to do this. That is very good.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

31. excellent

/me crosses fingers

[The Backlash Cometh]

33. kick-a-boom boom boom! nt

[converted_democrat]

35. This is great people!!!! N\T

[katinmn]

36. Woo-hoo! Thanks for putting the bills in one thread.

They are coming fast now!

:) :applause: :woohoo:

[thereismore]

37. Indeed, we have turned the corner. nt

[Pacifist Patriot]

39. LOL! Good one.

[wryter2000]

41. Next time you talk to Congresswoman Jackson Lee

Please tell her we love her and tell her to stay off small planes. :evilgrin:

[CitySky]

43. And THAT will get an Amen from me!

here in Houston. My house would be in her district if DeLay hadn't redrawn the lines.

YOU GO!!! :woohoo:

[gordianot]

47. Right on time. You can count on Representative Jackson Lee.

There are still Democrats out there.
:toast:

[Sparkly]

48. Excellent!!

That's a great group of people! :thumbsup:

[blm]

50. The media will be hard-pressed to keep treating Kucinich as a nonentity.

I think he really knows how to appeal to what reason certain GOP politicians have left in them, as long as the media isn't around to screw up his efforts.

[MsUSA]

55. I always thought his proposal of a Department of Peace

was such a fantastic idea.

[Nothing Without Hope]

52. YES!!! And I think there's more media willingness to show the corruption

Look what is in the NYT today as the top-billed, subject-line article in the emailed "Today's Headlines." The wording of the article makes it very clear that the writer and the career lawyers of the Justice Dept believe that politically motivated, conflict-of-interest cronyism with the tobacco company by a close associate of Bush, a political appointee in the Justice Department, is responsible for a huge and unwarranted ($130 billion to only $10 billion) cut in requested damages:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/16/politics/16tobacco.html?th&emc=th

Lawyers Fought U.S. Move to Curb Tobacco Penalty

By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: June 16, 2005
WASHINGTON, June 15 - Senior Justice Department officials overrode the objections of career lawyers running the government's tobacco racketeering trial and ordered them to reduce the penalties sought at the close of the nine-month trial by $120 billion, internal documents and interviews show.

(snip)

"We do not want politics to be perceived as the underlying motivation, and that is certainly a risk if we make adjustments in our remedies presentation that are not based on evidence," the two top lawyers for the trial team, Sharon Y. Eubanks and Stephen D. Brody, wrote in a memorandum on May 30 to Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum that was reviewed by The New York Times.

(snip)

At the close of a major trial that dozens of Justice Department lawyers spent more than five years preparing, the department stunned a federal courtroom last week by reducing the penalties sought against the industry, from $130 billion to $10 billion, over accusations of fraud and racketeering.

(snip)

The newly disclosed documents make clear that the decision was made after weeks of tumult in the department and accusations from lawyers on the tobacco team that Mr. McCallum and other political appointees had effectively undermined their case. Mr. McCallum, No. 3 at the department, is a close friend of President Bush from their days as Skull & Bones members at Yale, and he was also a partner at an Atlanta law firm, Alston & Bird, that has done legal work for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, part of Reynolds American, a defendant in the case.

(snip)

Needless to say, the tobacco industry is a massive political contributor to the Republican Party - $2.7 million to Republicans last year (vs $938,000 to Democrats). The article does NOT dismiss the objections of Democratic congresspeople as partisan politics, but makes it clear that career lawyers familiar with the case agree with them that this is a despicable action. The cited internal memo shows that the repeated statements that this was a legitimate move based on the law and not politically motivated are lies.

The wording is stronger than we would have seen even 6 months ago, I believe. And note the emphasis on the close association of the prime instigator of this gift to the tobacco industry to Bush - a close personal friend and Yale Cross & Bones pal!

Bush administration corruption is no longer a forbidden topic. And once THAT door is opened, the backlog of stupefyingly brazen scandals is going to start tumbling out. I predict more whistle-blowers will be stepping forward soon.

[Algorem]

53. Four lawmakers push resolution for pulling troops out of Iraq

http://www.woio.com/Global/story.asp?S=3482977&nav=0rd1b6sT

WASHINGTON - A small bipartisan group in the House, including a Republican who voted for war, is urging President Bush to start bringing home U.S. troops from Iraq by Oct. 1, 2006.


Two Republicans and two Democrats in the House were introducing a resolution Thursday calling for withdrawal. One sponsor is Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Cleveland who repeatedly has said the war in Iraq was wrong.

It is the first such resolution put forth by lawmakers from both parties, although an overwhelming number of Democrats and six House Republicans voted in 2002 against sending troops to Iraq.

The Bush administration has insisted that a timetable for withdrawal can't be considered until Iraq's security forces are strong enough to protect their country from insurgents...

[gordianot]

56. The new "Forever War".

Joe Halderman wrote this SF novel in response to the war in Vietnam.

As you state "The Bush administration has insisted that a timetable for withdrawal can't be considered until Iraq's security forces are strong enough to protect their country from insurgents...". Iraq qualifies as a "Forever War" and the Bush administration painted the target.

[JoMama49]

57. Did we know there would be this many congressmen/women

showing up at these Hearings? I totally believe the tide is turning too - more and more folks are jumping on othis bandwagon. Thank God sanity has risen to the surface once again!
JoMama.

[donheld]

58. Long live Rep. Lee!

she's one of my favorites. I'm quite thankful for Reps like Ms Lee. It's hard to fathom her district right next to Delay's. I shudder. :scared: :scared: :scared:

[redqueen]

59. I can't wait to see the bi-partisan legislation tomorrow.

Ron Paul is really respected here in TX... this should be an interesting summer indeed.