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For Immediate Release
May, 17 2010, 10:37am EDT
Contact:
Mike Hersh, PDA Communications Director,mike@pdamerica.org,Alan Minksy, PDA Executive Director:,alan@pdamerica.org
Protests Nationwide Oppose $33 Billion to Escalate Afghan War
Liberal Groups Invite Tea Parties to Join Them
WASHINGTON
In 109 congressional districts all
over the country, people will be protesting on Wednesday at their local
congress members' offices, urging them to commit to voting against $33.5
billion for escalating the war in Afghanistan, and to do so even if
lots of other items are included in the bill. Currently an additional
$30 billion is included to cover foreign aid, compensation for
discrimination claims, and disaster relief.
Organizations
participating include Progressive Democrats of America (PDA),
WarIsACrime.org, Democrats.com, the California Nurses
Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, Healthcare Now, US
Labor Against the War, Labor for Single-payer, United for Peace and
Justice, the Backbone Campaign, and CodePINK. They have been holding
Brown Bag Vigils on the third Wednesday of the month since January.
Invited to
participate are tea party activists and anyone else who objects to
unjustifiable government spending.
Brownbaggers
are asking members of the House to publicly commit to voting No on any
bills that fund wars, and to publicly urge their colleagues and the
House leadership to make the same commitment. This position necessarily
includes opposition to the proposed $33 billion supplemental expected
in the coming days to fund an escalation of the war in Afghanistan.
Congress
members' commitments are tracked at https://defundwar.org
National
director of PDA Tim Carpenter said "There is no solution in Afghanistan
that does not include the United States leaving. We can leave before
expending more blood and
treasure and before generating more anger and hostility, or after. A
handful of congress members are speaking out and urging their colleagues
to vote No, regardless of what lipstick is applied to this pig of a
bill. That's the kind of leadership this country needs. There is far
too much silence in Washington and around the country. These vigils aim
to break that silence. Anyone who does not speak out now cannot
credibly claim to oppose reckless or harmful government spending."
Complete
information on past and upcoming Brown Bag Vigils is available online: https://tinyurl.com/brownbagvigil
including videos: https://youtube.com/pdamerica
and photos: https://flickr.com/photos/pdamerica
Progressive Democrats of America was founded in 2004 to transform the Democratic Party and U.S. politics by working inside and outside of the party by working to elect empowered progressives and by building the progressive movement in solidarity with with peace, justice, civil rights, environmental, and other reform efforts. For more information about PDA, please see PDAmerica.org.
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US President Donald Trump's threat over the weekend to bomb Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not fully reopened by Monday night sparked horror around the world and inside Iran, a nation of roughly 90 million people.
"As far as I can tell, everyone is extremely worried," a 35-year-old Tehran resident, identified as Ruhollah, told The New York Times via text message late Sunday as the US president's arbitrary deadline approached. "We are sitting and waiting to see what will happen to us in 48 hours. Everyone will suffer: We will lose power, the Arabs will lose power and water."
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Daryl Kimball, the ACA's director, added that "bombing a functioning nuclear power reactor is blatantly illegal."
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Democrats in Congress sounded the alarm over President Donald Trump pledging to commit more war crimes in Iran after he traded threats to energy infrastructure with the Iranian government, with the Republican declaring Saturday that he would take out the country's power plants unless it reopened the Strait of Hormuz to all traffic.
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