Ending
the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is really the only way to save the US from
bankruptcy. It is ridiculous for anyone to think that we can fight two
wars AND cut taxes. How do we fund anything (ie) military, education, social
security, etc. with no money coming in? Since the passage of NAFTA and
the WTO back in the 90's, protectionist tariffs have been officially
removed. Tariffs accounted for 60% of the US's revenue with less than 40%
from taxes. Now there are no more tariffs so that means we lost 60% of
our revenue and then we continue to cut taxes. It's laughable. Two wars,
no income. The same bankruptcy that happened to the former Soviet Union
when they occupied Afghanistan. It happened to France when it supported
us in the Revolutionary war against England. Now, the same fate that
will befall us.
Especially now. July 27th, 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill already passed by the Senate that funds a $33 billion, 30,000-troop escalation in Afghanistan. The vote was 308 to 114. WARNIKS WON, but guess what, some good news! What could that be? While we had no more than 35 congress members who would vote against war funding a year ago, or perhaps 55 when it was an easy vote with no pressure, we've now got 114. That's serious progress. That's a far more dramatic increase than we've seen in the number of congress members willing to vote for a non-binding unspecified timetable for a withdrawal. That number rose from 138 last year to 162 on July 1st (although the legislation was somewhat stronger this year). In other words, willingness to express mild interest in ending the war has reached a plateau. Willingness to take serious action to end the war is rapidly catching up. Of course, both have to top 218 before we win. The really good news is that we finally have an essential ingredient in any recipe for legislative change: a record of which legislators are with us, and which against us. Almost any effective campaign to pass, or -- as in this case -- defeat, legislation requires at least three stages. First you run a trial to identify who stands where. Then you reward and punish at the polling booth in the next election. Then you try again and possibly succeed. Until now, we've been unable to reach step one. The "leadership" in Congress has packaged war bills in unrelated measures, or -- as was done four weeks ago -- passed bills without holding a vote at all. Now we finally know, unambiguously, who stands where. The question is whether we're willing to act on it.
Additional good news is that over 40 percent of the Democrats voted No. This compares with 7 percent of Republicans. While the Republicans are in the minority in the House, more Republicans than Democrats voted for this bill. The war now belongs first to the Democratic leadership, second to the Republican caucus, and only third to the Democratic caucus. Last year we were unable to identify where Republicans stood, because they all voted No in response to an unrelated measure packaged into the bill.
Here are the names of who voted yes, who voted no, and who did not vote. You want to RE-ELECT the good guys, the anti war guys, cuz they're PRO PROSPERITY! Vote for the rivals of the villains on this list!
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll474.xml
While not voting is often a dodge, I'm assuming it's an accident or
a
typo in the case of Congressman Alan Grayson who lobbied for No votes.
[I've been informed he had personal business and put into the record
that he would have voted No.]
The bad news is that the 308 congress members who defied public opinion
and voted for war funding are not afraid of us. The Republicans think
their supporters are happy to put their grandchildren into debt to
China
as long as it funds wars, even if it makes us all less safe and wrecks
our economy. And they're right. The Democrats think their supporters
are
outraged and offended by such behavior but will meekly turn around
and
vote for them anyway, out of fear that a Republican would be worse.
And
they're right.
We need a new approach that not only seeks to keep anti-war
representatives in power, and to replace Republicans with anti-war
Democrats, and to replace pro-war Democrats in primaries with anti-war
Democrats, and to replace pro-war Republicans in primaries with anti-war
Republicans, but also to defeat pro-war incumbents even if their
opponent is pro-war too and even if it means replacing a Democrat with
a
Republican. I don't see any other way of making these people listen
to
us in the coming months and years. And you can't get much worse than
anyone who keeps funding wars.
Congress members are coming home for August. It is time to punish and
reward, spank and thank, and vote out and reelect in November. It is
also time to push the strongest opponents of war in the House to begin
forming an effective vehicle for victory. The new Out of Afghanistan
Caucus, or the
Progressive Caucus, or the group of progressives who signed an anti-war
letter on Tuesday, or some other collection of leading anti-war voices
in Congress needs to establish a caucus with strict requirements for
membership, including a commitment to oppose all legislation that funds
non-defensive wars. Such a caucus should raise funds and supply election
funding to its members, allowing them some independence from the
pressure of the pro-war party "leadership." We have 114 names to start
with. Resources are available at http://defundwar.org
As the peace movement begins working with labor and civil rights groups
this fall, we need to make sure everyone understands which congress
members are funneling all the money we need into wars and which ones
are
not. Maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to build the sort of unified
coalition that will be required this coming winter if we are to pass
cuts to the military budget and prevent cuts to Social Security.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/54280
Congress Appoves $60 Billion U.S. War Funds Amid Afghan
Policy
Complaints - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WarOnError/message/1862
Latest WikiLeaks-Release /Serving THE GLOBAL DOMINANCE GROUP?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WarOnError/message/1864
THE GLOBAL DOMINANCE GROUP AND 9/11 - audio
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/20380
===
Hang The WarMongers!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waronerror/
War = Tyranny
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WarOnError/message/1292
The Hidden Cost of War
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WarOnError/message/1665
Presidential Address on Afghanistan Policy - video
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WarOnError/message/1344
We are Losing our Nation to Lies about the Necessity of War
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WarOnError/message/1778
US Imperialism & Globalization || Michael Parenti / Victor Hansen
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WarOnError/message/1608
THE GLOBAL DOMINANCE GROUP AND 9/11 - audio
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/20380
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