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<small><font face="Arial"><b>In this email:<br>
<br>
1) Encampment to End the War Funding has Started<br>
2) Get on the Buses to Washington DC for the Sept. 29 National March to
Stop the War at Home and Abroad<br>
3) How Congress Could Stop the War - But Won't</b><br>
</font></small>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><small><font face="Arial"><b>1) The
Encampment to End the War Funding </b><br>
<br>
On Saturday, Sept. 22 anti-war activists from around the U.S. started
to converge on Washington DC for the week-long Encampment to Stop the
War Funding in front of Congress. Activists have also setup camp in
front of the federal building in Los Angeles.<br>
For the latest information please visit
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com/">http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com/</a><br>
</font></small>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><small><font face="Arial"><b><br>
2)</b> On Oct. 1
Congress will begin the process of refunding the illegal and criminal
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Sept. 29 we need to send the
Republicans/Democrats and the White House a loud and clear message that
the people of this country want them to immediately stop funding these
wars, ALL U.S. military forces must leave Iraq and Afghanistan NOW, and
that we need money for Jobs, Housing, AIDS, Education and Healthcare. <br>
<br>
<b>MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! - </b></font><font face="Arial"><b><font
size="2"><small><span
style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">RESERVE/PURCHASE
YOUR SEPT. 29 BUS SEAT TODAY</span></small></font></b></font><font
face="Arial" size="2"><small><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">! -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.iacboston.org/092907/S29.html">http://www.iacboston.org/092907/S29.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></small></font><font
face="Arial">
<br>
</font><font face="Arial" size="2"><small><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Tickets are $55 + $5
suggested donation for the Transportation Subsidy Fund. Buses will
depart from the Roxbury Community College parking lot at 10:30pm on
Friday, Sept. 28 and will return to Boston very early on Sunday, Sept.
30 (the T will most likely not be running).<br>
</span></small></font></small>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><small><font face="Arial" size="2"><small><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"></span></small></font><font
face="Arial"><br>
<b>3)</b></font></small><font face="Arial"><small> <b><big> How
Congress could stop the war - but won't</big></b></small></font>
<!---deck--><!---byline-->
<div class="byline"><font face="Arial"><small>By Sara Flounders
<br>
</small></font></div>
<!---page text-->
<!--begin page--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>What if Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
refused to present Congress with a
bill to fund the criminal U.S. occupation of Iraq? The possibility of a
Bush
veto would not be an issue.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>Although billions of dollars are still in
the pipeline, President George W.
Bush and the Pentagon, faced with a new political reality, would be
forced to
begin making plans for withdrawal.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>As speaker of the House, Pelosi has full
control over which pieces of
legislation make it onto the floor for a vote. The Democratic Party
majority in
Congress could just sit on any war-spending bill and there would be no
funds
for the war.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>Last November, when millions of people
voted for Democratic Party politicians
who claimed to be anti-war, this is exactly the kind of legislative
action they
expected them to take.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>It is important to confront the direct
fraud that the Democratic leaders, who
control a majority in both houses of Congress, are putting forth as
they
prepare to fund the war. Ever since the election they have given
endless
excuses about how they lack the votes to do what they promised to do.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>The Democrats claim that, because they do
not have a two-thirds majority, they
are powerless to overrule an expected Bush veto on a war-funding bill
that
would set a deadline for withdrawal. So they must pass a bill that Bush
would
approve.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>But they could simply refuse to present a
bill for ANY war funding.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>They clearly have the constitutional
authority, the legislative power and the
political mandate.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>One of Pelosi’s first acts as speaker of
the House was to declare that
impeachment proceedings against Bush were “off the table.” She
would refuse to allow this burning issue to come to the floor of the
House. Why
not declare instead that war funding is “off the table”?</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>But it will take a massive, determined,
angry and independent movement to force
the Democratic majority in Congress to put impeachment on the
table and take war funding off.
</small></font></p>
<div><!--end paragraph--><font face="Arial"><small><strong>Media
complicity in the war</strong>
</small></font><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>The Democrats, with endless help from the
corporate media, have presented a
hand-wringing theatrical fraud about lacking sufficient votes to take
any
action against the war.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>Every major media outlet has spent
considerable time and space describing how
Democrats need to compromise with Bush and the Republicans. We are told
that in
order to pass any legislation the Democrats must remove binding dates
for
withdrawal and give Bush all the money he is demanding to continue the
war—all in order to win bipartisan support. All these pundits say the
Constitution makes it impossible for Congress to stop the war.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>But the opposite is true.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>The corporate media are totally
interlinked with the oil and military
corporations. Five years ago these media provided endless coverage of
nonexistent Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction.” They continue to
give nonstop coverage about the Pentagon’s concern for peace and
stability in Iraq. Now they argue that there is no choice except to
continue to
spend hundreds of billions more on the war.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>In May the Democrat-controlled Congress
gave Bush even more money for the war
than he had asked for. That funding cycle ends on Oct. 1. Congress is
set to
repeat its collaboration in the war by again voting the funds, while
claiming
it is helpless to do otherwise.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>The Sept. 13 newsletter of Fairness and
Accuracy in Reporting gives examples of
this constant deception practiced by the New York Times, the Washington
Post,
Associated Press, MSNBC and NBC’s Chris Matthews Show.</small></font></p>
</div>
<div><!--end paragraph--><font face="Arial"><small><strong>Sitting on a
bill to kill it</strong>
</small></font><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>Left out of all this coverage are facts
that are well-known to all Washington
politicians, lobbyists, commentators and journalists on how funding for
the war
in Iraq could be stopped at any number of points in either the House or
Senate.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>According to the U.S. Constitution,
spending bills have to originate in the
House of Representatives. Congress has decisive control over funds for
war.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>Not only does the speaker of the House,
now a Democrat, control what
legislation goes to the floor for a vote, but Democrats, as the
majority party,
currently chair all committees in both houses of Congress.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>Spending bills originate in the House
Appropriations Committee. Dave Obey, a
Democrat from Wisconsin who chairs that committee, could simply refuse
to move
funding for the war out of committee. This is the fate of many hundreds
of
bills introduced into Congress each year. Most bills “die in
committee.”</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>The Appropriations Committee has a
subcommittee on defense chaired by John
Murtha, a Democrat from Pennsylvania. Murtha says he wants to bring the
troops
home. He could do this by refusing to bring forward a bill funding the
war.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>After a funding bill is approved in the
House, it moves to the Senate. Sen.
Robert Byrd of Virginia, head of the Senate Appropriations Committee,
has
eloquently opposed the war. He could refuse to move the bill through
his
committee. Harry Reid, Senate Majority leader, could refuse to bring
the bill
to the Senate floor. Any of these measures would kill the
multi-billion-dollar
war-funding bill.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>There would be no need for a 60 percent
majority to stop a Republican
filibuster nor a two-thirds majority to overcome a presidential veto.</small></font></p>
</div>
<font face="Arial"><small><strong>Justifying collaboration</strong></small></font><!--end paragraph-->
<!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>To further justify their collaboration
with Bush on the war, members of
Congress use their supposed concern for U.S. troops as a human shield.
They are
hiding behind soldiers and the threat that U.S. soldiers could wake up
tomorrow
with no food, water or even funds to pull out.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>This is also a fraud. The Pentagon does
not live paycheck to paycheck as
workers do. The budget and supply process is decided months and years
in
advance.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>The Pentagon is using funds allocated for
the Iraq war to plan and prepare a
new war against Iran. Half the U.S. Navy has moved to within striking
range of
Iran. Pentagon planners have targeted more than 10,000 bombing sites.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>So why won’t the congressional Democrats
do what they promised to do? Why
are they totally complicit in the war?</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>Every capitalist politician, Republican or
Democrat, needs tens of millions of
dollars to run for national office. They either have the deep pockets
of a
multi-million-dollar family fortune behind them or they need large
corporate
donations. They need hours of favorable coverage in the corporate media.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>The entire U.S. ruling class has an
enormous stake in the desperate effort to
secure continued domination and control of the largest oil reserves on
the
planet. The super profits that drive the U.S. capitalist economy are
drawn from
a world empire.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>Politicians may wring their hands over the
deaths of U.S. soldiers and the
spiraling costs that are gutting every desperately needed social
program. But
political parties are loyal to the capitalist system.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>Congress and media know the determination
of corporate America is to stay in
Iraq for a generation or more.</small></font></p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p><font face="Arial"><small>As the Oct. 1 deadline for funding the war
nears, a political challenge is
being prepared by the Troops Out Now Coalition. The greatest
contribution of
the Encampment scheduled to take place directly in front of Congress
from Sept.
22 to 29 is to show that independent mass action is needed to really
end the
war. Learning through bitter experience about the role of both
capitalist
parties is an essential part of the struggle to end the war.</small></font></p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
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Troops Out Now Coalition
Boston:
617-522-6626
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:iacboston@iacboston.org">iacboston@iacboston.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.iacboston.org">http://www.iacboston.org</a>
National Office:
212-633-6646
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://troopsoutnow.org">http://troopsoutnow.org</a> </pre>
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