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Coalition Requesting Investigation of Downing Street Memo
[Editor's Note: I am posting this piece this Sunday morning for two reasons. First, I think it will be a part of the national conversation this week, and second, on this pre-Memorial Day, we won't forget the reason that thousands of parents will be spending this weekend visiting the graves of their children. Some things are beyond despicable, and it's time to move the nation's attention to accountability for the War in Iraq and all that has flowed from it. Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Karen.]
Some major groups who were involved with the post-election voting issues have come together to request that Congressman John Conyers open an investigation into the Downing Street memo. the new coalition has a website: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/index.php as well.
From John Conyers:
"Dubbed the “Downing Street Memo,” but actually comprising the minutes of a meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair and other top British government officials, the memo casts serious doubt on many of the contentions of the Bush Administration in the lead up to the Iraq war. With over 1,600 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen killed in Iraq, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and over $200 billion in taxpayer funds going to this war effort, we cannot afford to stand by any longer.
Along with 88 of my colleagues, I wrote to the President requesting answers about this grave matter. Thus far, our search for the truth has been stonewalled and I need your help. I believe the American people deserve answers about this matter and should demand directly that the President tell the truth about the memo. To that end, I am asking you to sign on to a letter to the President requesting he answer the questions posed to him by 89 Members of Congress.
I will personally insure that this letter is delivered to the White House."
You can add your signature to this letter here.
The DCP is here to help all of us get organized around the issues we are concerned about--primarily voting reform and media reform, but not only those. We happen to believe those concerns are paramount, but there is much to be concerned about.
But, the DCP is here to help us all learn how to be effective change agents and participatory citizens. It is the actions we take, and the learning we share, that adds value to the online activism world.
So, when you participate (if you participate) please come here to share what you have learned from the action.
In this way, the cells of democracy multiply and grow and build systemic changes.
Let us memorialize, but let us work hard to make a difference.
Karen
I can get that memo out to a bunch of groups and I'm starting now. Thanks! This should have made huge waves here by now but rocked the boat much moreso in the UK. This is one reason I obsessively follow foreign news. There are time lags and filters that get in the way of proactivity, otherwise.
Hi fellow bloggers! Doc talked me into posting these LTE's from our local newspaper, The Manhattan Mercury (This paper is a voice of reason in a sea of red...) I will post these LTE's one at a time, so as not to flood the blog ;) Sunflower
5/21/2005 11:13:04 PM
Filibuster fight is ultimate power grab by Senate's Republicans
To the Editor:
Republicans are going for the ultimate power grab by trying to silence the voice of Democrats in the United States Senate. They want to change the rules and eliminate the filibuster, which has protected the voice of the minority for more than 200 years. This is the same voice which was protected years ago when Democrats had majority.
As the old saying goes, "what goes around, comes around." One day, the Democrats will have majority again and then the new policy will protect them. Whatever an individual's political affiliation may be, the "nuclear option" will eventually hurt them.
This abuse of power would eliminate debate and dissent in Congress, giving President Bush and presidents of the future a blank check to push the most radical agenda and extreme judges. It would put our most fundamental values at risk by eliminating the checks and balances that keep our democracy strong.
I urge our senators to stand up and protect our democracy by opposing the short-sighted GOP power grab.
Julie G.
More voices from the "Red Zone"...
5/21/2005 11:13:04 PM
Republicans want to silence Democrats' right to speak on judges
To the Editor:
The recent debate over changing the Senate rules to prevent discussion and hearing of objective criticisms of judicial appointees is an example of how things are generally going in Washington. If the rules are not to be followed, change the rules and take away your elected official's right to speak and act in your best interest.
In 200 years we have not had such drastic action proposed as banning a lawmaker's right to speak. There surely must be valid reasons for the debate over judicial appointments. Other lawmakers have an obligation to listen and objectively evaluate these criticisms rather than circumvent an elected official's right to speak and act on your behalf.
Write your congressman and demand that his rights to represent your best interests be preserved in Congress and pay attention to his/her colleague's open criticism of judicial appointees rather than behind closed doors as many have done in the past.
Respect among Congressional colleagues might go a long way toward resolving the initiative to take away everyone's rights to be heard.
James S.
For Verdad :)
It took me 20 minutes to email a bunch of groups with the info about the Downing Street memo - if even a significant proportion continue it on, it'll be 20 minutes well spent .. for democracy.
The background to the memo is very interesting and is in the back archives of the Guardian, for one place. The Observer (weekend edition of the Guardian, which breaks alot of stories wide open) ran a piece a few weeks ago by a military officer who said that Blair and his Attorney General should be tried for war crimes if any soldiers were. Reason? Sending lawyers to the United States to meet with Ashcroft, lawyers of Powell, lawyers of Rice and more - to figure out how to go to war without needing a 2nd UN resolution. I don't think the top brass in the military were even involved. They are taking responsibility for people's lives! When the wool is pulled over their eyes, they're rightfully pissed (as we all should be).
I have seen very little of this story in the United States and that has disgusted me. It had some impact in the UK elections, as Blair did ok but his party was wounded.
If tv news would cover this stuff, I would watch.
Good to see letters of reason from the red zone.
Another Important Coalition:
Diverse group seeks to aid uninsured
Meets in secret to develop plan
May 29, 2005
A politically eclectic group has been meeting in secret for months in an effort to craft a proposal that will expand healthcare coverage to as many uninsured people as possible, The New York Times reported on its website yesterday.
The issue has cooled in Washington since the collapse of President Clinton's proposal for universal healthcare coverage in 1994, but the problem is increasingly urgent among people who provide healthcare coverage and those who pay for it, the paper said.
The Census Bureau said 45 million Americans had no health insurance in 2003, up by more than 5 million from 2000.
The group's 24 participants include executives from AARP; the AFL-CIO; the American Hospital Association; the American Medical Association; America's Health Insurance Plans, the trade association for health insurers; the National Conference of State Legislatures; the National Governors Association; Pfizer; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association; and the US Chamber of Commerce. The liberal Families USA and the conservative Heritage Foundation also are participating, the Times said.
The report said the participants hope to avoid political pressure by meeting in secret. While no agreement has been reached, plans that have been discussed include tax incentives for the purchase of insurance, changing Medicaid to cover more low-income adults, the creation of purchasing pools at the state level, and increasing federal spending.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/05/29/diverse_group_seeks_to_aid_uninsured/
not my president:
I would only hope and pray there are many secret coalitions meeting across the country to restore sanity to our policies.
The one you mention does my heart good!
This is one of the trials to which one of the generals thought that charges against Tony Blair and his Attorney General ought to also be brought - for their collaboration with their analogues in the United States, such as Bush and Ashcroft.
British Troops Face War Crimes Trial
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052905Y.shtml
The Downing Street Memo, topic of this post, is what helped pull the wool over the eyes of Parliament and the same thing was happening with our Senate.
Meanwhile, evidence of US war crimes exists for the public only on the website of the ACLU, not in our newsrooms:
Further Abuse
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/28/AR2005052800971.html
It's not about a magazine and flushing of a holy book - it's much more.
Thank you, Polly Sigh, for your words of encouragement on the previous thread! Some days one feels so discouraged reading truth and knowing it will never make the evening news.
The Downing Street Memo I read when it came out... and wondered why it wasn't splashed in headlines in newspapers, magazines, and all over every evening news broadcast on MSM, along with special news broadcasts featuring the memo, along with the atrocities being committed in Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere - and not just 10 seconds devoted to it on late-night "news" few see unless they are up in the middle of the night; I'm talking prime time TV 'news' is what "should" have been done. Morally, ethically, this administration should have been impeached the moment Bu$hCo mentioned attacking Iraq (altho we really know that was planned before they were given the office in 2000, with or without 9/11). The unjustified, illegal, immoral, and unethical attack on Iraq is a war crime, and we all know it (the whole world knows it!), not to mention the torture and other atrocities committed that were approved at the highest levels in the administration. We knew, years ago (long before we started blogging on the JK site) that the Iraq war was being launched on lies and only for oil. It never did have one flippin' thing to do with WMD, or anything else, for that matter.
I know; I know. I'm preaching to the choir here! Like the rest of you, I want Bu$hCo to answer for their crimes, the daily lies, since being given the office in 2000. The list of reasons grows daily, and at the very least, almost all are impeachable offenses, not just dirty politics!!!
notmypresident:
Curious abouth this secret group strategizing to insure parts of the 45 million uninsurred. Is this some kind of corporate /union coalition to fund through corporations, or through the federal budget? Because sadly if this group is waiting for Congress to act they will need to wait an additional 18 months b/c this Congress could care less about the 45 million uninsured. They are too busy protecting the rights of petre dishes to deal with real American healthcare concerns. Any further info about this group?
"The report said the participants hope to avoid political pressure by meeting in secret. While no agreement has been reached, plans that have been discussed include tax incentives for the purchase of insurance, changing Medicaid to cover more low-income adults, the creation of purchasing pools at the state level, and increasing federal spending."
I presume those plans would require a caring Congress and a new President that wouldn't veto any constructive healthcare initiatives? Am I wrong about that?
"The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the umbrella group for the most conservative branch of Judaism, sided with Christian conservatives on the Terri Schiavo case, public displays of the Ten Commandments, opposition to assisted suicide and same-sex marriage, and more federal support for religious charities.
But after the House passed a bill Tuesday endorsing federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, the Orthodox group applauded. The "potential to save and heal human lives is an integral part of valuing human life," it said. "Moreover, the traditional Jewish perspective does not accord an embryo outside of the womb the full status of humanhood and its attendant protections."
That puts the Jews at odds with Bush -- who said the bill "would take us across a critical ethical line by creating new incentives for the ongoing destruction of emerging human life" -- and with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), who condemned "the moral catastrophe of means-justifying-the-ends morality." It also conflicted with the Family Research Council, a Christian group that called the bill "unconscionable" and "morally abhorrent."
It was a reminder, as the Jewish group's public policy director, Nathan Diament, wrote in the Forward last year, that "Orthodox Jews are not merely evangelicals who read the Bible right to left."
National Review, a conservative publication that fiercely defends Bush, took an unusual tack; it published an article on its Web site explaining "why Judaism is wrong on stem cells." The article, by Eric Cohen of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, describes the position of the Orthodox rabbis as "morally unconvincing," "irresponsible," "seemingly disingenuous" and "misguided."
"Jews," Cohen writes, "seem to have forgotten even the minimal liberal wisdom of tolerance -- the wisdom of not trampling on the moral opinions of their fellow citizens, like pro-life Christians, who believe embryo destruction is not only evil but the gravest evil."
Trampling on their moral opinions? Look who is doing the trampling.Sounds like Bush looks to pit even his orthodox Jewish supporters in conflict with the James Dobson wing of the RNC. And believe me these orthodox Jewish followers do not represent mainstream Judaism.
RAF Bombing Raids Goaded Saddam into War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052905X.shtml
VERY relevant to the topic of this thread, which is never going to go away, because Pandora's box has been opened by people who don't know what they're doing.
Ira
This is the first I had heard about this group.
The closest to politician action I'd heard was from the mouth of John Kerry himself, who proposed to fund healthcare for all children in this country by not cutting taxes for those who make over $300,000/year.
This (new coalition) appeared in the NY Times website & in this WaPo blurb this morning.
Strange bedfellows. It is odd.