Monday, July 16, 2007

Anti War Protest in Twin Falls

{For those of you NOT in the Magic Valley,
please pass this on to your friends who are...
\check to see if you have a local event in your area or host your own...
or blog about it!}

Please consider joining us in an anti-war event:
WHEN: Tuesday, July 17 5-6 PM
WHERE: 202 Falls Avenue, Twin Falls (Senator Crapo's office--the nearest cross street is Monroe. There is parking in the CSI parking lot across the street.)
WHY: On Monday or Tuesday, the Levin-Reid amendment to begin troop pull-out from Iraq will be presented in the US Senate. Republican Senators intend to filibuster the bill. We will hold a counter (citizens') filibuster on Falls Ave. We will be reading real letters from US troops for our filibuster. It would be just great to have more than a puny turnout. We need to get word to our senators and to Magic Valley citizens (and other Idahoans) that we give them permission NOT to be the last two supporters of the Bush war.PLEASE try to help, even if protests are not your favorite thing to do.

The war is four and a half years old, no end is in sight, we've lost over 3600 troops, and the cost is more than one billion dollars per week.

Think of the horrible misery in Iraq.

If you think that participating in this event is "inconvenient"... think of the sacrifice being made by our loyal and brave troops and their families as they obey the call to serve our country. I'm sure they all have things they would like to be doing tomorrow night as well, but instead our administration sent them to Iraq...

Bring some friends, bring water, and shade for your head, and a sign if possible. Pass this on via e-mail and pick up the phone and call your friends. If we don't protect our troops, who will?

This is a Move-on event. (Sign up to encourage others!)

Citizen Counter Filibuster
to US Senate Republican sponsored filibuster
of Iraq war pullout bill
Address: 202 Falls Ave. (Map)
Location: Twin Falls, ID 83301
Host: Jeff Ruprecht, 733-9639
It's pretty outrageous: Senate Republicans are planning to block key votes to stop the war this week because they know they'll lose.

You read that right: with the Democratic majority plus three key Republicans ready to vote for an exit strategy for Iraq, the Senate has enough votes to pass legislation that would force President Bush to bring most troops home by April. But the Republicans are trying to stop that vote.

We have a plan to fight back. Tomorrow night, as Republicans try to block the vote, we're holding citizens' counter-filibusters to remind Republicans and the media that this isn't about partisan games—it's about peoples' lives.

At the events, we'll gather in towns and cities across the country with candles and signs to read first-hand accounts from Iraq vets and their families about the true cost of the war. This is a key moment.

The timing couldn't be better. We're at a cross-roads in Congress—the Republican stonewall is starting to cave (see below for some examples).
This fight comes at a critical time.

Republicans are abandoning President Bush on Iraq. For the last two weeks Republican support for the war has crumbled in Congress.1 Prominent Senate Republicans like Senators Lugar (IN), Voinovich (OH) and Domenici (NM) have called for a change in course while others, like Senators Snowe (ME), Hagel (NE) and Smith (OR) have co-sponsored Democratic legislation to bring our troops home.

The White House is panicked. Last week, ABC News ran a report with the headline "'Crack in the Dike': White House in 'Panic Mode' Over GOP Revolt on Iraq."2 The report indicates that the White House is looking for ways to "appease Democrats and keep wobbly Republicans onboard."

Editorial boards across the country are pushing for exit from Iraq. Just last week the New York Times—a bellwether newspaper with an influential editorial board—officially endorsed withdrawal from Iraq. The New York Times now joins papers like the Portland Press Herald—which helped swing key Maine Senator, Olympia Snowe to support exit plans, the Los Angeles Times and others in saying it is now time to leave Iraq.3

The Iraqi Prime Minister says U.S. troops can leave. Polls of Iraqi public opinion have shown that Iraqis want American troops to go home.4 And on Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told the press that his government is capable of taking care of Iraq and American troops can leave "any time they want."5

All these recent developments around the war have contributed to the Republican collapse on Iraq. This filibuster is a desperate attempt to stall progress on ending the war.

On Tuesday night we're going to show the Republicans in the Senate that blocking the will of the people from even being voted on won't work. If they keep siding with the president over the voters, they're going to feel a real backlash at home.

If you aren't near Twin Falls, click below to host your own counter filibuster on Tuesday night.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2783&id=10825-6442015-C4xAjm&t=3

The ground is shifting in the fight to end the war and we're closer than we've ever been to turning key Republicans in Congress against the war. Tuesday's events could help push them over the top. We need your voice with us to do it.

Sources:
1. "Reid Reaches Out to GOP Defectors to Vote for Change in Iraq," ABC News, July 11, 2007.http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3359845&page=1

2. 'Crack in the Dike': White House in 'Panic Mode' Over GOP Revolt on Iraq, ABC News, July 9, 2007http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3359764&page=1
3. "The Road Home," The New York Times, July 7, 2007http://www.blogger.com/
"Bring Them Home," The Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2007http://www.blogger.com/
"Blunders Leave Troops With No Hopes of Success," Portland Press Herald, April 29, 2007http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2784&id=10825-6442015-C4xAjm&t=4
4. "Democracy's support sinks," USA Today, March 19, 2007http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2785&id=10825-6442015-C4xAjm&t=5
5. "Al-Maliki dismisses doubts about Iraq government," Associated Press, July 15, 2007.http://www.blogger.com/

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yesterday about 25 people including myself protested in front of the Bellingham Herald (Washington)newspaper office on State St. to end the GOP filibuster of an up or down vote in the Senate to stop the Iraq war. Although we were right in front of the Herald building between 5 and 6pm, our little protest wasn't reported in that august "newspaper." Instead they ran a syndicated wire services report about the GOP filibuster from Washington. I guess even if the local news is right in front of our local newspaper's door, they won't bother to report it. They did report about catching a local rapist. Now that's news we need to know. One lady stopped to ask me why we were protesting in front of the Herald's office, and I explained that the media were complicit in allowing this war to go forward and continue, not showing pictures of dead soldiers or dead Iraqis. Yes, the "Fourth Establishment" of America, the press, has failed miserably to inform the electorate about this nation's worst foreign policy mistake, the immoral, illegal Bush/Cheney war in Iraq.

In Michael Moore's movie, Sicko, there is a segment where people in France are asked why they have universal health care, day care, generous vacations, affordable college education, even maternity leaves with government paid laundry service. The people living in France interviewed, many of them former U.S. citizens, said that in France the government is AFRAID of the people, because the people will protest. But in our sleepy town of over 70,000, with over 10,000 college students at a public university, there were no college students protesting. And of course, the existential question of, "if a tree falls in forest and no one is there to see it, did it really fall?" was answered by our grey lady media establishment newspaper, The Herald, by not reporting any protests, even the one in front of it's downtown building. A functioning democracy is dependent on an informed electorate, but if the media doesn't report the news, then our democracy is a lost cause. John

Anonymous said...

WRONG NOT RIGHT

I have no wish to thwart the game,
My only quarry those who claim
It was a moral right
To enter in: we saw, we came,
Not ready for the fight.

Illusions led the tactics as
Plunging ahead in the morass
Reasoned opinion scuttled
In hopes that it should come to pass
To triumph they be shuttled.

Logistics, tactics may combine
To bring a win, the which is fine,
Yet even if it win,
Still my opinion must decline
Rightness of going in.