QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Let's adjourn for one hour and go down to the Vietnam Memorial before we commit ourselves and our children to an unknown world in which any president can decide to go to war as long as he or she determines it is in the national interest at that moment... Let us not, in pursuit of oil or power or the blandishments of empire, be the ones to lead the world to failure."
- - Rep. James McDermott (D-WA), Floor of Congress, 10/8/02
RHINO HERE:
On Tuesday, the House began debate on shrub & company's unilateral, preemptive war resolution. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) has offered her "Alternative to War" amendment, up for consideration and vote Thursday, which urges the U.S. to work through UN inspections and other diplomatic means to ensure Iraq is not developing weapons of mass destruction. It doesn't authorize the president to use force against Iraq.
On Wednesday I called the offices of every congressperson from my state telling them that we Americans are not as stupid as the people inside the beltway seem to think we are. That we know this war is not about weapons of mass destruction. If it was, we'd be after Korea and China and Pakistan and India and we would have gone after Stalin who also had a nuke. That we know its about oil, and after all the recent corporate rip offs, that we're not interested in spending billions of taxpayer dollars to support the oil companies' interests. I suggested they remember Nuremberg, where the U.S., along with the other nations involved, swore off initiations of war.
I made my calls in 90 minutes, same time it takes to watch a movie. I urge you to do the same. Now is the crucial time to influence the vote. You can do it by cell phone and avoid long distance charges.
A list of your representatives with phone numbers is at:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials
There's a relatively new organization which was inspired by the war fever brought on after the 9/11 attack. It's called Peaceroots...
http://www.peaceroots.org
...and was instigated by current and past members of the spiritual community in Tennessee known as "The Farm" of which I'm a veteran. They've created a number of unique actions to which you can lend support. One, I believe, has the potential to encourage the many peace loving Americans who know this war is based on lies but who live in situations where its hard to tell if anyone else knows that. It's a campaign to place billboards across the country with messages like:
"Peace Is Patriotic - Call Your Legislator"
"Mourn The Victims - War Is Not The Answer - Stand For Peace"
"For Future Generations, Promote Non-violence to Create a Peaceful World"
Billboard space for non-profits run from just $25 up to $500 per month.
TO SEE THE BILLBOARDS AND TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE CAMPAIGN, GO TO:
http://www.peaceroots.org/billboards/index.htm
SHUT DOWN THE SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS! Peaceroots is also organizing to send as many protesters to Fort Benning next month to participate in an action to shut down the School Of The Americas. You may remember the Rhino's Blog of July 26th this year...
http://radio.weblogs.com/0103207/2002/07/26.html
... highlighting how our government has funded and operated this school which trains military officers in techniques for kidnapping, torture and murder, recruiting their "students" from Latin American countries run by non-democratic (that's an understatement) totalitarian Fascist dictators.
On November 15th through the 17th, thousands will converge at the gates of the Fort Benning military base and engage in nonviolent direct action to say NO to torture, rape and murder in our names.
FOR MORE INFO ON THE "SCHOOL" AND THIS ACTION TO SHUT IT DOWN, GO TO:
http://www.soaw.org
FOR MORE INFO ON PEACEROOTS, LIKE THEIR "MORE THAN WARMTH" PROJECT, GO TO:
http://www.peaceroots.org
8:04:19 AM 
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