From PeaceAction Montgomery.
What is the Iraq war costing you? What can local government do? What is the Montgomery County Peace Resolution?
These questions will be discussed at a Town Hall Meeting on Sept. 22 entitled "Can Montgomery County Help End the War?"
County Executive Isiah Leggett will moderate, and speakers will include Columbia University economist Dr. Brendan O'Flaherty and Institute for Policy Studies Fellow Karen Dolan.
Cosponsors of the forum include County Council members Valerie Ervin, Nancy Floreen, George Leventhal, Duchy Trachtenberg, and Marc Elrich.
In addition to the huge loss of life and the enormous toll of injuries, the Iraq war is one of the costliest in our nation's history in economic terms. These costs are being felt at the local level, and they need to be understood for what they are.
Everyone is invited to this Town Hall Meeting, which will be held Monday, Sept. 22, 7-9 p.m., Germantown campus of Montgomery College, Globe Hall, 20200 Observation Dr., Germantown.
This event is sponsored by PeaceAction Montgomery, Montgomery College Peace and Justice Studies Community, Pax Christi Montgomery, Progressive Maryland, Montgomery County Government Employees Organization, DC Region Veterans for Peace, Social Justice Committee of UUCR, Progressive Neighbors of Montgomery County, Network of Spiritual progressives of MD, RRUUC Peace Action Task Force, Episcopal Peace Fellowship (MD/DC), and Maryland United for Peace and Justice.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Montgomery County Council Members to Co-Sponsor Town Hall Meeting on Iraq
Monday, October 22, 2007
Bush's Allies Disappearing
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has already retired and been replaced by Gordon Brown who has been removing British troops from Iraq steadily but quietly in a calculated effort to withdraw with minimum impact on the much vaunted special relationship between the UK and the US.
Yesterday, Poles turned out the incumbent government in favor of a party which wants to withdraw troops from Iraq and work more closely with the EU. Incidentally, this move also ends Poland's interesting experiment in having identical twins hold the offices of President and Prime Minister simultaneously. The editorial in the Economist, hardly known for its far-left politics, may jar some on the right here:
Primitive politics, xenophobia, and high-handed attitudes to the niceties of democracy and the rule of law, have been shown to be electoral liabilities, not a surefire route to success.Australia is expected to join the club next month. According to the Economist (subscription required for this one), Prime Minister John Howard's Liberals lag about 12-points behind Labour.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Van Hollen on Petraeus
“The testimony by General David Petreaus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker today offered no new information from what the Bush Administration has put forward in recent weeks. The whole purpose of the so-called ‘surge’ was to create political space to enable the Iraqi government to undertake political reconciliation. The GAO report on Iraq released last week underscored that this not happened, with Iraq only meeting one of eight legislative benchmarks. And in the assessment of our intelligence community, as enunciated in the declassified NIE of August 2007, the Iraqi government will become more precarious over the next six to twelve months. Our brave American service men and women are sacrificing daily for a policy that has no end in sight. A policy of ‘more of the same’ is no strategic vision, strains our military to the breaking point, and enables Iraqi leaders to dither endlessly instead of reaching a political consensus over the future of their country.”
Friday, August 17, 2007
In Case You Missed Jon Stewart
The future Veep explaining his views on occupying Iraq . . . in 1994.
Friday, April 06, 2007
MD Senate Kills War Resolution
Sens. Rich Madaleno (D-Montgomery) and Paul Pinsky (D-Prince George's) sponsored a resolution on the deployment of 1300 members of the Maryland National Guard to Iraq. Here is the key part of the resolution:
WHEREAS, Approximately 1,300 members of the Maryland National Guard have been called to serve in Iraq; andAt this late date in the session, new resolutions require support from two-thirds of the Senate to be considered. The measure attracted support from only 20 of the 47 senators, though six of the eight Montgomery senators cast a vote in favor. In addition to Sen. Madaleno, the sponsor, Sens. Forehand, (D-17), Frosh (D-16), Garagiola (D-15), Lennett, and Raskin (D-20) supported consideration of the resolution. Sens. Kramer (D-14) and Hogan (D-39) voted against.
WHEREAS, There are only an estimated 7,000 members of the Maryland National Guard and many have recently served in repeated deployments; and
WHEREAS, To date, more than 3,200 of the U.S. military have died in the war in Iraq; and
WHEREAS, The Inspector General of the Department of Defense has found that the Pentagon has not been able to properly equip the soldiers it already has with many lacking adequate weapons, ammunition, armor, and other supplies to “effectively complete their missions;” and
WHEREAS, Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are consideringlegislative proposals relating to military operations in Iraq that include demands for the withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq by 2008; now, therefore be it
RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MARYLAND, That the Governor and the Maryland Congressional delegation are urged to voice their opposition to the most recent mobilization order potentially affecting members of the Maryland National Guard and call for a rescission of the order unless it can be shown that (1) the members will be fully equipped with sufficiently protective body armor and armored vehicles and other necessary weapons and equipment; (2) the members will be fully and adequately trained for combat in Iraq; and (3) there is an official redeployment strategy for all Untied States military personnel from Iraq
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Van Hollen Town Meeting
Kevin Gillogly kindly sent me this report on Cong. Van Hollen's town meeting:
Monday February 26, 2007: Congressman Chris Van Hollen had a Town Meeting in the Kennedy HS cafeteria. It was an overflow crowd of 300+. Not the same type of crowd as was at the Leggett Town Meeting at Northwood a few weeks ago or even the O'Malley event at Einstein last month.Another local activist, who I think prefers to remain anonymous, also attended the meeting and sent along this:
This was issue-based advocacy and few--if any--civic federation activists. My first clue was walking in the parking lot outside of Kennedy. Several cars had bumper stickers that were anti-war and calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. There were home-made signs stating anti-war positions plastered on seemingly every wall of the cafeteria.
Former US Senate candidate, Kevin Zeese, was there and it seemed as though most of the vocal folks there were anti-war folks that he helped draw to the event. It had a Green Party/Populist Party feel--in part-- to it. There was a film crew that at first seemed to be from Chris' office. It was not. It was "an independent media" group that seemed to be tied to the antiwar activists.
The Police Chief was there standing quietly in the back. No other elected officials. Perennial candidate Deborah Vollmer was there. So was Alec Stone, a former District 19 Candidate for Delegate.
Questions were on immigration (why don't those folks learn our language type), personal grievances and personal advocacy -- Childhood Arthritis, Haitian Democracy, etc. There was one guy who was anti-North American Union of US, Canada and Mexico (as if anyone in the crowd would in favor of it). He was later seen handing out the New American, a John Birch Society publication.
The most dramatic event was a group of Military Families who are against the war. They are called Military Families Speak Out. Five members of the organization stood up when they made their plea to bring the troops home. The speaker was a mother whose son was killed in Iraq. Chris had attended his funeral.
The last questioner finally brought up the passing of Chris' mom last week. Chris' 84 year old father--Chris Sr.--sat in the front row for the duration of the Town Hall Meeting.
Still of the fifteen or so questions around half were on the war and ways to bring them home. Some pointed out that Chris had supported funding for the war and were against that. Chris' position has been to follow the bipartisan Baker-Hamilton Commission Report.
There was a GOP partisan who asked some question that was pro-Bush; a close look at her notebook revealed a Gov. Ehrlich color brochure. She was neither strident nor overbearing just pointing out a difference in opinion. The anti-war crowd neither hooted nor hollered at her, as was the case at the O'Malley event when someone outside of the norm spoke.
At the beginning of the meeting, the congressman informed the audience that his mother had passed away before starting his opening remarks. We could see that it wasn't easy for him to be there, but he said his mother would have wanted him to go ahead with the meeting. The audience was sympathetic, but did ask plenty of questions - mostly about Iraq. Many people wanted him to cut funding for the war, but he said a funding cut would not get past a filibuster or veto. Still, Van Hollen emphasized his vote against the war and said he would do whatever he could to get us out.Regardless of the content of the meeting, Van Hollen deserves a ton of credit for seeing us under such difficult personal circumstances.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Religious War in Chevy Chase
The battle over whether Rollingwood should become Chevy Chase's newest municipality is apparently a fierce one:
Residents in the Chevy Chase neighborhood of Rollingwood matched wits at a hearing on proposed incorporation Monday night, during an impassioned two-hour public debate.Some think it is time for Montgomery County to withdraw from this battle and cede Rollingwood to the District of Columbia--pointing out that the contentious territory already adjoins Chevy Chase, DC. However, County Executive Ike Leggett attacked such talk as giving comfort to the enemies of Montgomery County and promised to provide good government from Rockville or help the plucky subdivisions set up their own autonomous regime after a plebiscite on the matter. Linda Lamone and Jimmy Carter have agreed to monitor the Rollingwood's first democratic election since the outbreak of the conflict.
More than 40 speakers, evenly matched in support and opposition, rose to address a packed auditorium at the French International School on Woodbine Street. The audience included roughly 250 neighbors who are heading toward a possible referendum vote on incorporation.
‘‘Since this came up, I found out that some of my neighbors who I thought were Shi’ites are really Sunnis,” joked Ted Rockwell of Woolsey Drive.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Van Hollen on Congressional War Debate
E.J. Dionne ends his Tuesday column with a quote from Rep. Van Hollen on how Democrats should approach the Iraq War debate:
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has an additional idea: Opponents of the war need to force full consideration of the original Baker-Hamilton proposals that, he said, promised to put American policy "on a trajectory to have our combat troops out of Iraq this time next year" and reflected "the center of gravity in Congress." Whatever its flaws, the Iraq Study Group report could still serve as a focal point for sharply reducing America's military role in Iraq before the 2008 election.
"The refusal of the administration to try to work with others to resolve this in a responsible manner has created a very polarized atmosphere," Van Hollen said. "They've refused to listen to anyone else."
That should be the central theme of the president's critics because it's true -- and because it offers the best rallying cry for those seeking to change a disastrous policy.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Voting on the Surge
Unsurprisingly, the Washington Post reports that all six Maryland House Democrats voted for the non-binding resolution condemning President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq. Eastern Shore Rep. Wayne Gilchrist was one of the seventeen Republicans who defied the party whip and voted with the Democrats on this one. Only two Democrats (Gene Taylor of Mississippi and Jim Marshall of Georgia) voted with the Republicans.
