This is a reprint of a blog by Jennifer Wants Justice and Peace If you haven't befriended her, do so. You'll be glad you did. And spread the word on this very important information!
" In spite of the Bush Administration's attempts to keep up the appearance that the Iraqi Government welcomes the continued presence of US troops indefinitely, members of the Iraqi Parliament have made numerous attempts to assert the independence of Iraq. ....
Never has this been more obvious than in recent months where Iraqi leaders have made both public and written statements opposing the continued ....US.... presence in their country. ....
Iraqi's themselves have long been opposed the presence of US troops, largely because they are seen as a destabilizing factor. According to a recent BBC/ABC poll, 69% of Iraqis believe that the security situation in ....Baghdad.... will improve or at least stay the same with the withdraw of US troops.....
After the discovery of a secret plan.... to continue the US military presence in ....Iraq.... indefinitely, numerous Iraqi lawmakers have attempted with little success to make their wishes known to American lawmakers and the American public. Although the majority of corporate media sources refuse to give voice to the Iraqi's themselves, the information can be found through alternative sources. For example, "On Tuesday, Democracy Now! spoke to visiting Iraqi lawmakers…in ....New York..... Iraqi parliament member Khalaf Al-Ulayyan criticized the ....US.... proposals" stating,....
"I believe the parliament will not ratify the treaty in its current form, because it harms Iraqi sovereignty. Based on the details that have been leaked to the media, it seems that the deal will make ....Iraq.... not just an occupied country but an actual part of the ....US....."....
.. ..
And, in a recent letter to the American Congress and Senate, Iraqi lawmakers pointed out that any deal signed solely by the Executive branch, would be both "unconstitutional and illegal" under the current rulings and laws of the Iraqi Republic. According to the Iraqi Constitution Article 61 Section Four, the Iraqi government's legislative power retains exclusive rights to ratify international treaties and agreements. ....
.. ..
Representing the majority of the two-hundred and seventy five members of the Iraqi Parliament, the letter goes on to state, ....
.. ..
Likewise, we wish to inform you that the majority of Iraqi representatives strongly reject any military-security, economic, commercial, agricultural, investment, or political agreement with the United States that is not linked to clear mechanism that obligate the occupying military forces to fully withdraw from Iraq, in accordance with a declared timetable and with leaving behind any military bases, soldiers or hired fighters.....
.. ..
The Iraqi Council of Representatives is looking to ratify agreements that end every form of American intervention in ....Iraq....'s internal affairs and restore ....Iraq....'s independence and sovereignty over its land.....
.. ..
According to The Independent, ....in response to the resistance met by Iraqi lawmakers, United States negotiators "are using the existence of $20bn in outstanding court judgments against Iraq in the US, to pressure their Iraqi counterparts into accepting the terms of the military deal…The US is holding hostage some $50bn (£25bn) of Iraq's money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York…" These funds continue to grow as the price of oil climbs, furthering the pressure on Iraqi Lawmakers to accept the deal. This hold on these funds also inhibits the ability of Iraq's rebuilding efforts as these funds, which under the UN mandate, are specifically for the reconstruction of Iraq including "the wheat purchase program, the currency exchange program, the electricity and oil infrastructure programs, equipment for Iraqis security forces, and for Iraqi civil service salaries and ministry budget operations."....
.. ..
As Americans continue to debate the continued military presence in Iraq, what seems to elude them is the absolute hypocrisy of claims made by the Bush Administration both in regards to Iraq's sovereignty and "The War on Terror." in which he claims, "The rise of a free and self-governing Iraq will deny terrorists a base of operation, discredit their narrow ideology, and give momentum to reformers across the region. This will be a decisive blow to terrorism at the heart of its power, and a victory for the security of ....America.... and the civilized world." Considering that Bush's solution to terrorism is the establishment of a "free and self-governing ....Iraq...." one would think this issue would be moot. Iraqi leaders and the Iraqi people have shown with little doubt they wish us to leave. ....
.. ..
It leaves one to wonder, when will we listen?
On a personal note, I am also posting on the Women's International Perspective blog. Please feel free to create and account with them and comment. I think the people of America have a responsibility to get this information out to as many people as we can..." -Jennifer
We Hold These Truths To Be Self Evident...
Current mood: determined
Category: News and Politics
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny,already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
For Washington State Voters- Take Action!
Category: News and Politics
Please sign the petition to Senators Murray and Cantwell, to change their Superdelegate votes to Obama. There are currently more than ten thousand signatures. click here to sign As you know, Washington state voted overwhemlingly in the caucus for Barack Obama.
Yesterday I heard a sound bite on the radio that pissed me off so quickly that I had to pull over. It was Hillary Clinton, who said, "I can bring a lifetime of experience to the office, John McCain can bring a lifetime of experience to the office. What is Barack Obama bringing? A good speech in 2002." This is likely paraphrazed some because I was both furious and driving, but the essential message is the same. Shit on your opponant to get ahead, even if it endorses the other side. WTF!?!
Where does she get the idea that Obama has been sitting in the kitchen drinking cocoa his entire life? And how can she completely ignore the fact that he was a state senator for eight years before becoming a US senator in 2004? What part of that means nothing, and what does that mean about her respect, or lack thereof, of state senators everywhere?
Clinton has a lifetime of experience in practicing law. And her law practice was under scrutiny by the law for questionable practices in a monumental scandal. Well, Obama was President of the Harvard Law Review. He practiced law, too, and not just for corporations!
Clinton rags on her life of public service.We constantly hear about her tireless work for health reform, yet no one mentions that her plans failed miserably in that area, as did the Clinton’s supposed battle for GLBT rights, which ended in the questionable ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ military rule we have now. .And let’s not forget that it was her husband in office, not her. Obama gave of his time and effort in public service too. But all he has to offer, according to her, is a good speech in 2002??
Taken from his official page, the biography section:
~"Barack Obama has dedicated his life to public service as a community organizer, civil rights attorney, and leader in the Illinois state Senate. Obama now continues his fight for working families following his recent election to the United States Senate.
Sworn into office January 4, 2005, Senator Obama serves on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which oversees our nation’s health care, schools, employment, and retirement programs. He is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, which plays a vital role in shaping American policy around the world, including our policy in Iraq. And Senator Obama serves on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, which is focused on providing our brave veterans with the care and services they deserve. In 2005 and 2006, he served on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which safeguards our environment and provides funding for our highways.
During his eight years in the Illinois state Senate, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over $100 million in tax cuts to families across the state. Obama also pushed through an expansion of early childhood education, and after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Senator Obama enlisted the support of law enforcement officials to draft legislation requiring the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.
Obama is especially proud of being a husband and father of two daughters, Malia, 9 and Sasha, 6. Obama and his wife, Michelle, married in 1992 and live on Chicago’s South Side where they attend Trinity United Church of Christ.
Barack Obama was born on August 4th, 1961, in Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham. Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983, and moved to Chicago in 1985 to work for a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment. In 1991, Obama graduated from Harvard Law School where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review."~
My ire is not fueled by my loyalty to Obama. Truth is, I’ll vote for him because my contender has pulled out of the race, and I believe he ultimately has much more integrity than Clinton. And I believe this not only due to her questionable and shady looking past and her current act of keeping records from the public, but because she pulls crap like this! Nothing is more important at this time in our country than to unite the Democrats and get one in office. How the hell are we going to do that when this woman uses her position to divide? And with zero finesse. Remember, if she loses the primaries, she’s going to have to guide her people to fall in with the Obama camp to win the race. How is she going to do that when she says such things? Not to mention the fact that when she attacks his history by saying he has none, no matter what she says, she’s also attacking her own ’public’ service because the similarities are many. She just happens to be older. But he has obviously been propelled by a desire to help the less fortunate, and he’s had results.
Clinton has cried foul so many times for being ’attacked’, yet I’ve heard more attacks coming from both her face and her camp and I’m disgusted by her. Thus, the title. Yeah, tha’s right. I went there.
Thanks to my friend, Blacksunne, I came across this survey to determine which candidate most closely reflects your own views on the issues. This site is excellent! You are given many answers from which to choose on each issue. You are then awarded with a list of all the candidate's stand on each issue, with a percentage of how they match your own. You are even given your most important issues that you've chosen in bold, and the less important in plain. The easiest to read I've seen yet. But don't stop there.... you can go deeper into the site to learn what each candidate has voted/said about each issue. Go ahead and do it. You can't help but learn something. Minnesota Public Radio
Senate Bill 1959-Don’t Get Your Panties In A Bunch
Current mood: discontent
Category: News and Politics
This is a copy of a bulletin that has gone it's rounds today. You'll need to read it from the bottom up. A little critical thought goes a long way.
ME: Please DON'T act now. Jeebuz, what good do you think it will do to tell your senators now what you think, when this bill hasn't even crossed a desk since Aug.2nd.? It's not even scheduled for debate. It is likely to never leave committee, as most bills don't. But here's the thing--your politician isn't going to keep track now of what you think about a bill that isn't even being debated yet. The best you could do is to write to those on the Homeland Security Committee, who are sitting on the bill that so far has shown no action.
This is why it's good to follow the links and find out what's going on. Then bookmark it and keep track of the bill's progress so you can rally the forces when you really do need to. That's what I'm going to do and if/when it becomes an issue, my senators will know what I think. Otherwise, you know what? They may not listen when I need them to.
Just imagine what it does to our cause to have hundreds of calls register in a couple of days--on a bill that nobody's voting on, or even reading about or listening to. Do that enough times and do ya think you'll be noticed EVER?
This is partially what the link said: Introduced Aug 2, 2007 Scheduled for Debate - Voted on in Senate - Voted on in House - Signed by President - This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills go first to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills never make it out of committee. Last Action: Aug 2, 2007: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Show All Related Votes
YOUR GOVT IS TRYING TO PASS A BILL THAT ALLOWS THEM TO DEFINE AMERICAN CITIZENS' DISSENT AS "HOMEGROWN TERRORISM". The first legislation ever to clearly and specifically target American Citizens as the ENEMY. For those who need help understanding... If you express an opinion that does not coincide with the Goverment's, you can be held as a TERRORIST. This kind of legislation will put the final nail in the Republic's coffin, and we will then be a fully FASCIST country.
This is not a joke, folks. We don't have much time to wake up.
Do not let the CFR Nazis win! If this bill passes, WE ARE ALL TERRORIST and can be rounded up without trial. Call your Senators today and demand a "NO" vote on S1959!
S. 1959: Violent Radicalization And Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act Of 2007 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1959
S.1959 ACTION
Text of Bill
A bill to establish the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism, and for other purposes. Senate in session this Friday.
Use the US Capitol Switchboard toll-free numbers to call your two US Senators.
If this bill passes the 1st amendment is dead. Disent is dead. America hangs in the balance. Our last hope is waking enough people to the truth via the internet. Please act now. --> --> --> nice_bully -->
A Reminder, A Request
Current mood: hopeful
Category: Life
Many of my friends will recall that I posted a couple of blogs about Women for Women International.org over the past several months. The org was founded by Zainab Salbi, who escaped a dangerous life in Iraq, and chose to create a way to provide life changing training programs to women survivors of war. This is done through sponsorship: a woman who is able, sponsors a woman in need in another country. In most cases, the sisters are able to exchange letters and build friendships.
My sister is in Iraq and we are unable to write due to security dangers, but I was given some information and I wrote about it HERE.
So when I received this month's newsletter, I wanted to share with you the immense need for more sponsors. Here is what was said in part:
"The women of Iraq face unfathomable challenges each day. They cope with strict curfews and long power outages and live in a constant state of fear. What jobs they did have, they can no longer get to- causing increasing levels of economic hardship.
Although the security situation poses serious obstacles to women in our program, they keep attending classes because their will to learn and improve their lives is unshakable.
We have 1,000 women in Iraq waiting at our doors for the chance to be sponsored- and to change their lives and the lives of their children. Will you consider sponsoring a woman in Iraq today?"
We have many reasons to be thankful, yadda, yadda...but really, this is a way to make things better for one family in Iraq. I hate this war and bitch about it daily. I despise the minds that it sprung from and the hands that rake in the money from it. But most of all, I am hurt to the core by the death and/or destruction of millions of lives. Millions of lives. This is a small thing, but it's something I can do.
Please go visit their Myspace page, or see them on the net at Womenforwomen.org, and consider becoming a sister to a woman who needs you. The cost is modest. The need is everywhere; Kosovo, Congo....the choice is yours.
Currently
listening
:
Imagine
By
John Lennon
Release date: 11 April, 2000
There is nothing more important for you today...
Current mood: worried
Category: Mortified News and Politics
....than going and reading this blog. I'm as serious as I can possibly be. I know that many of you don't want to get involved. I know you like to pass over the political stuff. But we are on the edge of nuclear war, people. And if we wait to see what happens, it easily could/would not be 'someone else' that suffers. Can ya hear me now? Jennifer has written about our US involvement in building up to war with Iran. It's chock full of facts, where they came from, and insights and the clock is ticking. PLEASE GO READ IT! click here! and then do something about it.
The Truth About Ron Paul, With Sources
Current mood: cynical
Category: News and Politics
My friend, Christopher, is one of the most responsible humans I know. He has taken a lot of time to study the Presidential hopefuls, and while Ron Paul was an interest at first, Christopher's very thorough delving into the truths have....well, created this blog of his that I'm pimping. Please go read it HERE
determined
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
disgusted
discontent
hopeful
worried
cynical
