Some holiday gifts from Congress

 In Accomplishments, Nuclear Weapons

Congress has packed up and gone home for the year, leaving us with some good and bad news in next year’s budget.  This year has been a trying one for those of us who had high hopes that the new Congress would make significant progress toward ending the war in Iraq. Unable to coalesce around a strategy to hold the Bush administration accountable and failing to live up to recent tough rhetoric, Congress passed an additional $70 billion for the occupation of Iraq by a vote of 70-25 in the Senate and 272-142 in the House. While we are all frustrated at Congress for continuing to send President Bush blank checks to fund the war, we know we have the majority of the American and Iraqi people on our side and will continue our tireless efforts to end the occupation.

This is also a time to celebrate positive developments, and there was much to celebrate in the omnibus spending bill passed earlier this week.  One of the most exciting developments is that the funding for the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead has been completely zeroed out.   Peace Action West and other group have mobilized opposition to this thinly veiled attempt to create new nuclear weapons.  This is the third time that the Bush administration has tried and failed to take the US down the dangerous road of new nuclear weapons development. The bill also includes some positive steps to counteract global proliferation, such as cleaning up loose nuclear material and requiring reports to reevaluate nuclear weapons strategy and create a Comprehensive Nuclear Threat Reduction and Security Plan.

The spending bill also includes some great provisions related to protecting human rights through controlling the spread of conventional weapons.  Peace Action West worked to generate support for limits on cluster munitions, indiscriminate weapons that rain “bomblets” on civilian areas.  The spending bill includes prohibitions on exporting cluster bombs with a 1% or higher failure rate, and requires a written agreement that they won’t be used in civilian areas.  In addition, the bill prohibits military aid to any country identified by the State Department as recruiting or using child soldiers. 

Thank you for all of your help in achieving these successes.  While we have endured frustrating setbacks, our successes are significant, and will ultimately result in a better quality of life for people around the globe.  We will redouble our efforts in this next critical election year to make sure these achievements are not just a flash in the pan, but contributions to a shift in the direction of US foreign policy.

Groundswell will be on vacation until early January.  Happy holidays from all of us here at Peace Action West.

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  • www.democratz.org
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    Get as many people to make these phone calls.
    Call GOP contributor and war contractor General Electric Corporation at
    800 386 1215 or 203 373 2211 and tell the person who answers, to tell the GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt that you want him to get Bush to end the war in Iraq and then Bush resign with Cheney and until that happens you will not buy any GE products and that you will tell your friends about this.
    Call GOP contributor Rite Aid Pharmacies at 1-800-325-3737 and tell the person to get the CEO to get the GOP to enact HR 676 Single payer health care and repeal Medicare Part D and place the drug benefit in Medicare Part B covering 80% of drugs with no extra premiums, no extra deductibles, no means tests, no coverage gaps, and remove the means test for Medicare Part B and until that happens, you won’t buy ANYTHING from Rite Aid.
    Call GOP contributor Wendy’s restaurants at 614 764-3553 and Tell the person in public relations that you want their CEO to get the GOP to help enact a $10/HR MIN. WAGE into law and until this happens you will not go to a Wendy’s Restaurant.
    Kentucky Residents:
    Call General Electric Appliances Corporation in Louisville at
    502-452-4311 and other appliance stores that sell GE products and demand that they get Senator Mitch McConnell to get an end to the Iraq war and for Bush and Cheney to resign and until that happens you will not buy any GE refrigerators, stoves, televisions, dishwashers, ovens, lightbulbs, etc. Get as many Kentucky residents to make these phone calls.
    After you make these calls you can also call Mitch McConnell’s office and tell his office that you have called GE in Lousiville and won’t buy their products until Mitch McConnell gets and end to the war and gets Bush and Cheney to resign.
    General Electric Appliances
    9500 Williamsburg Office Plaza
    Louisville, KY 40222
    USA
    tel: 800-626-2000
    tel: 502-452-4311
    502-452-4313
    After you call these companies please send email to info@dmocrats.org with the subject CALLED or just type in a message into the chat box below that you have called these companies and remain anonymous.

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