Rove is in Contempt

If any of us behaved like this we'd be hauled off to prison in a New York minute. The only way to reclaim our standing as a nation that promotes the rule of law for EVERYONE is to prosecute crime WHEREVER it occurs. No exceptions, and this little piggy is ready for the oven.
Please sign the petition and pass it on:
Rove Ignores Subpoena, Refuses to Testify

From Robert Greenwald & Brave New Films, here's the petition:
As hard as it may be to believe, the House Judiciary Committee is gearing up to vote on whether to hold Karl Rove in contempt. And your signature on the Send Rove to Jail petition provides much-needed attention and support for upholding the law. The petition received over 108,000 signatures-a mighty message that conveys the patriotic outcry over Rove's failure to comply with a Congressional subpoena.
This afternoon, Brave New Films Editorial Director ZP Heller will head to Washington DC with our partners the People for the American Way, the Campaign for America's Future, and the Campaign for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to deliver the petition to Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA). They will take our message all the way to the HJC, and Rep. Sanchez will ensure our voices are heard when the HJC votes on holding Rove in contempt.
This is the first critical step in punishing Rove under the law, but it is just the beginning. Once we're through the HJC, we'll take our campaign to the full House. Rove's action is an insult to the most fundamental value of our country and our democracy: the rule of law. It's high time he's held accountable.
Yours,
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Team

Why Wouldn't Jesus Appease?

Fair question for Christians to consider, I think.
We know we've been asking you to make a lot of phone calls to Congress lately. Tomorrow, as part of a "Time to Talk with Iran" event, UFPJ will be asking members of Congress to come out of their offices to make a phone call to Iran to talk directly with ordinary Iranian citizens.
But we need you to call too -- while we're on Capitol Hill talking to members of Congress in person, we ask that you flood their offices with phone calls demanding diplomacy.
National Call-In Day for Diplomacy With Iran--
Tuesday, June 10
Call your congressional representative: 1-800-788-9372
Talking points:

• The U.S. must talk to Iran! Ask your rep to co-sponsor H.R. 5056 to appoint an envoy to Iran for the purpose of easing tensions and normalizing relations with Iran.
• The U.S. and Iran share common interests in a stable Iraq, Afghanistan, and Middle East.
• The U.S. pursued negotiations with North Korea and Libya. It's time to talk with Iran.

It is essential that we push back against the Bush administration's push for bombing Iran. Your phone calls are an important part of the pushback. Please call today!
The same people who called for attacking Iraq now are raising the drumbeat for military action against Iran. The Bush administration is labeling Iran as one of the greatest threats to U.S. security, despite the November 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate which concluded that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program.
Bombing Iran would bring disastrous consequences:

• The entire Middle East likely would descend into further violence putting the well-being of innumerable civilians at risk.
• U.S. standing in the world would plummet, and oil prices would soar.
• A U.S. attack would only strengthen hardliners in Iran.

Current U.S. policies are not working. Threats of military attacks and regime change, while refusing to talk with Iran until they stop enriching uranium, are only heightening tensions.
Tell your congressional leaders that you want dialogue not war! 1-800-788-9372The call-in day is sponsored by the Campaign for a New American Policy on Iran

Yours, for peace and justice,

Judith Le Blanc
UFPJ National Organizing Coordinator

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Help us continue to do this critical work: Make a donation to UFPJ today.

UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
PO Box 607; Times Square Station; New York, NY 10108

To subscribe, visit www.unitedforpeace.org/email

GI Bill--Yea! More War Funding--Nay!

Peace Groups Write to Congress
What to do?  Get active!
Dear Representative,
On behalf of the 68% of people in this country who want to
bring our troops safely home in 2008
(1), we thank you for voting against $163 billion more for
Iraq occupation funding on May 15
(2). Unfortunately the Senate did not follow your lead and
you will have to vote again on Iraq occupation funds in June.
This time your vote may include the popular GI education
"bill" and other domestic funds.
We urge you to stand firm in your opposition and vote against
the Senate bill for the following reasons:
1. The GI bill passed with overwhelming majorities in the
House (3) and Senate (4) and would easily pass as a
standalone bill, which we support. You should demonstrate
your honest support for our troops by fighting to pass the
bill without requiring an additional year of war.
That bill could include all the other domestic funds.
2. By far the best way to show your support for our troops
is to bring them safely home as soon as possible.
We consider it morally disgraceful that necessary
expenditures to meet human needs are being tied to
$165 billion to pay for another year of war. Under the
guise of helping veterans, a 'yes' vote on a bill that
includes funding for Iraq guarantees that hundreds of our
soldiers will die, thousands will endure physical and mental
injury and that the carnage in Iraq will continue.
We recognize that defeating the Senate bill would force
Congress to pass a stop-gap bill to fund short-term
operations in Iraq. We support a narrow bill modeled after
the Lee Amendment that fully funds a safe withdrawal of our
troops from Iraq.  This is the position that 68% of people
in the United States support(1).
Sincerely,
Democrats.com
United for Peace and Justice
AfterDowningStreet.org
Code Pink
Gold Star Families for Peace
Progressive Democrats of America
US Labor Against the War
Voters for Peace
(1) 68% of Americans want Bush to bring U.S. troops home
within 6 months, according to a Democrats.com telephone
poll of 628 adults conducted from May 1-4, 2008 by ICR.
http://www.democrats.com/iraq-poll-2
(2) House Roll Call 328
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll328.xml
(3) House Roll Call 330
http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2008&rollnumber=330
(4) Senate Roll Call 137
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110& amp;session=2&vote=00137

Deliver Peace Plan to Congress

Thursday, May 1st is the fifth anniversary of "Mission Accomplished" - the day George Bush stood on an aircraft carrier declaring major combat operations over in Iraq. Five years later, the costs of war keep mounting and there's still no end in sight.
That's why we're organizing an Emergency Responsible Plan Delivery day all over the country on Thursday, May 1st to let our Representatives in on the Responsible Plan to End the War.¹ There are already over 210 deliveries scheduled across the country.
Sign up to attend a delivery near you: http://www.truemajority.org/responsibleplan/
In 1994, the Republicans came up with a Contract with America that they worked to implement as soon as they were sworn in. The contract laid the groundwork for the current disastrous administration. This time around, it will be up to us to make sure that whoever is elected to Congress moves briskly to enact the Responsible Plan and bring our troops home.
We'll also host a special conference call tomorrow night with a few of the military leaders and Congressional candidates behind the Responsible Plan. Sign up to attend an event, and we'll follow up with complete info about the call.
Sign up to attend a delivery to your local Congressional office: http://www.truemajority.org/responsibleplan/
Thanks for all your work to bring our troops home,
Ilya Sheyman, Online Organizer
P.S. If there's no event near you, it's easy to sign up to host one in your neighborhood.
¹ http://www.truemajority.org/IraqPlan
http://act.truemajorityaction.org/t/56/event/distributedEventSearch.jsp?distributed_event_KEY=2

Republican Governor Weighs in on Spending Transparency and REAL ID

Here's good news from the right side of the aisle: the Republican governor of South Carolina has taken steps to help citizens get information about government spending. Following that is his editorial criticizing REAL ID and the lack of debate over it, presenting in straightforward language some of the problems it will cause.
Governor Announces New Web Site To Make Spending Information Available To Citizens
Gov. Mark Sanford today announced the completion of a new state Spending Transparency Web site, aimed at providing citizens with a greater degree of information about how their tax dollars are being used.
The site was created pursuant to a Spending Transparency Executive Order issued last year by the governor, and developed in concert with Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom's office. The goal of the site, which can be found at https://ssl.sc.gov/SpendingTransparency, is to bring more accountability to where tax dollars are being spent. The site - which is freely accessible to the public - contains reports collected by the Comptroller General's Office on all agencies' funds expended and their source.
http://www.llr.state.sc.us/AboutUs/MediaCenter/index.asp?file=news/AnnualExpenditure.htm
REAL ID side effects
By Mark Sanford
April 14, 2008
If I were a betting man, I would wager most people haven't followed the debate on REAL ID. If you indeed missed it, I would ask you take the time to learn about what I consider the most troubling piece of legislation I've seen come from Washington since I have been governor.
REAL ID would surreptitiously require all 50 states to change their driver's licenses to act as de-facto national ID cards. It's outrageous, and not just because it was a backdoor way of doing something proponents in Washington have never been able to pull off in the past. I say "outrageous" because REAL ID was never really debated in Congress; because the cost of its implementation is handed down to states and individuals; and because it is an affront to Americans' privacy concerns.
[...] REAL ID disrupts this delicate balance of power in two ways. First, it turns the Founders' logic on its head by forcing states to act as agents for the federal government in creating a national ID card for federal purposes. Needing a REAL ID to board a plane or enter a federal building would also change the balance of power in something as seemingly insignificant as a visit to a member of Congress.
In short, there are many faults in this bill that could be sorted were there debate in Washington on REAL ID. I hope you'll join me in making your voice heard for truly debating this issue, and for pushing for change that would come with that debate.
Mark Sanford, a Republican, is governor of South Carolina.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080414/COMMENTARY/303687521/1012\
Thank you, Governor Sanford! Maybe you'll consider other progressive issues that will benefit the people of South Carolina, and the rest of us in the USA. You're the anti-Lieberman!

Petition to Stop USA’s WMDs

Working Assets, my long-term, long-distance & mobile carrier is now called Credo, but still stands for the righteous causes. Please read this and sign the petition to stop the madness of nuclear proliferation right here in the USA.
Say No to a New Generation of Nuclear Weapons
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is currently planning a system-wide upgrade of the entire American nuclear weapons complex, returning the U.S. to a Cold-War-level capability of designing and producing new nuclear weapons.
Instead of recreating the capacity to produce new and unnecessary nuclear weapons, the DOE should shift its focus instead to shrinking the still-oversized nuclear weapons manufacturing complex. The DOE should also focus on maintaining the safety and security of our existing weapons arsenal (currently numbering more than 5,000 -- with each weapon more than sufficient to destroy a city) as it is drawn down.
The DOE also appears to be putting the cart before the horse here. The broader question of whether or not our nation needs more nuclear weapons is one for the president and the Department of Defense, not the DOE -- and Congress has already mandated that the next president undertake such an analysis.
If the DOE is allowed to move forward with these plans, it will send exactly the wrong signal to the rest of the world -- that nuclear weapons represent a path to security. [my bold] Fortunately, a mandatory environmental review of the DOE's "Complex Transformation" initiative allows you to submit comments on their ill-advised plan -- but please act soon, as the comment deadline is this coming Thursday, April 10.
For more information, please visit the web sites of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, or Tri-Valley CAREs. http://act.credomobile.com/campaign/stop_the_bombplex?rk=adN%5ffksqepr0E

US, Israel, Syria, Korea and (maybe) Loose Nukes

Is it sloppy journalism that the date of the attack doesn’t appear in the article, or a deliberate attempt to distance our “loose nukes” (Aug, 29) episode with the Sept. 8 event in Syria? The Israelis sure are worried about releasing details, despite some thinking it would “enhance” the Israeli government’s image as powerful and in control of things. But their power comes at our cost. Read on, citizens, courtesy of Haaretz...
Israel, U.S. plan to release details on Syria attack
By Barak Ravid and Amos Harel
Israel and the United States are coordinating the release of details on the air force strike in Syria last September, which foreign reports claim targeted a nuclear installation Syria was constructing with North Korean assistance. American officials may reveal details of the strike later this month during congressional hearings.
Even though the defense establishment in Israel is opposed to any publication of details of the attack, the Prime Minister's Bureau and U.S. President George W. Bush's administration are of the opinion that it is now possible to reveal details because there is little chance of a conflagration as a result of a Syrian decision to avenge the attack.
[...] Intelligence analysts in Israel maintain that any further release of the details on the strike will contribute to the already tense situation between Syria and Israel, which has been exacerbated in part because of Hezbollah's plans to avenge the assassination of the group's terrorist mastermind, Imad Mughniyah.
Any official release of the details of the attack and the nature of the installation may push Syria's Bashar Assad into a corner and put pressure him to respond, say intelligence officials.
[...] The hearings at the House Intelligence Committee may be held in the coming weeks. Congressmen have included in the bill on the intelligence budget that American intelligence agencies will not be given large portions of their budget unless they reveal in full the details of the strike in Syria and the nuclear cooperation between Pyongyang and Damascus.
This has led U.S. and Israeli officials to conclude that American officials will release details of the strike during the hearings.
Talks between the U.S. and North Korea are schedule to resume tomorrow in Singapore. One of the American conditions for lifting the sanctions on Pyongyang is for it to expose its nuclear collaboration with other countries, which North Korea maintains does not exist. According to South Korean media sources, Pyongyang has agreed to provide the U.S. with information on its nuclear cooperation with Syria, on condition that Washington will not make this public. The same sources stated that the U.S. has given North Korea a list of engineers that are suspected of involvement in the construction of the installation that was targeted in Syria. [...]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/971914.html

Impeachment Begins the Path to Justice

We have so much work to do but must not despair. On this 40th anniversary of the death for Dr. Martin Luther King, his courage and commitment must inform every action, every day. Each little step forward has a ripple effect, pushes unknown others to action they might not have attempted. And my mantra for today: act in kindness and with compassion for those who cannot understand.

Conyers Threatens Impeachment if Iran Attacked
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2008-04-03 18:52. By David Swanson
Coming out of today's meeting with John Conyers, these seem to be the significant developments:
He is circulating a letter among his colleageus for signatures, a letter addressed to Bush letting him know that an attack on Iran will result in impeachment hearings. LET'S ASK EVERY MEMBER OF CONGRESS TO SIGN ON! I know it seems bassackwards and we want impeachment before a new war, not after, but this is a way for us to show Conyers the support that will be there any time he moves forward.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

Pelosi To Hold Bush Accountable?!!!

May it be true! (Click on the picture to expand)


Via David Swanson, AfterDowningStreet.org

Stop Blackwater

I want to believe Congress will do the right thing, but reading through this article makes it seem like they're playing good cop/bad cop. One step forward, two steps back, again?

Private soldiers no longer above the law
Ewen MacAskill in Washington, Thursday October 4, 2007, Guardian Unlimited

Although some Republican senators described the wording of the House bill as sloppy, Democratic leaders in the senate said they intend to push forward with a similar bill. They said they wanted the legislation to go to the president as quickly as possible.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2183843,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

We Are The Majority!

Released: September 06, 2007

Zogby Poll: 51% of Americans Want Congress to Probe Bush/Cheney Regarding 9/11 Attacks; Over 30% Seek Immediate Impeachment

67% also fault 9/11 Commission for not investigating anomalous collapse of World Trade Center 7

Ah, "anomalous," like no planes hit it. Duh!
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1354

Declare Peace! Defund the War

Congress has the power and responsibility to end the war!

Defund the War - End the U.S. Occupation of Iraq!

Bring All the Troops Home Now!
Support A Comprehensive Peace Plan for Iraq!

Call Congress Today!

National Call-In Days to STOP FUNDING THE WAR!
EXTENDED THROUGH September 15^th

Find the phone numbers for the Washington, D.C. offices of your members of Congress at: http://www.vote-smart.org

Let us know about your calls and

the response you receive by e-mailing

The Declaration of Peace at: info@declarationofpeace.org

Postcards to Congress -- ACTION!

What would you say to Congress? We Will Not Be Silent presents a new opportunity to speak out. Email the group the kind of message you could put on a post card, and they will read them at the Capital on 9/11 and 9/12.

Email your comments to:

endlesswarmemorial@gmail.com, or arrestbush@gmail.com

for more info, go to:

We Will Not Be Silent @ http://thecriticalvoice.org