Plans Laid to Stop-Loss Congress

[davidswanson]

The peace movement is planning 10 days of resistance in March 2008. New additions to the plans include an effort to "stop-loss" Congress. Here's a schedule from http://resistinmarch.org


MARCH 10 to 12, 2008 (Monday to Wednesday) in Washington, D.C.: Stop-Loss Congress
This March, while tens of thousands of Americans in Washington, D.C., and all over the United States will be participating in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience to protest the ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and involuntarily deployed U.S. soldiers and innocent civilian victims will begin another year of occupation, torture, and murder, U.S. congress members will be on vacation (from the 15th to 30th, technically a "district work period"), ignoring the killing and suffering they have enabled, supported, and financed.

To intensify the irony, Congress has condoned a widespread stop-loss policy in the military which requires soldiers to involuntarily extend their tours and prolong the killing. It is time to Stop-Loss Congress!

On Monday March 10, and Tuesday March 11, we will deliver "official" stop-loss notices to all members of Congress in their Capitol Hill offices. These will notify them that all of their LEAVES, VACATIONS and HOME VISITS HAVE BEEN CANCELLED until further notice. Just as they require that active-duty personnel endure involuntary extensions of their tours of duty, we, the people for whom they work, are notifying them that they, too, will have their tours of duty INVOLUNTARILY EXTENDED until every foreign soldier and mercenary is out of Iraq, and home. When all the troops and contractors get home, then Congress can go home, and no sooner.

On Wednesday March 12, we will take nonviolent action on Capitol Hill, to ensure that, while thousands of Iraqis, Afghanis, and foreign invaders die and are injured for life, the members of Congress and their staffs do not go home but remain to DO THEIR DUTY, and immediately end the funding of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. No members of Congress goes home until THE TROOPS COME HOME.

To participate in planning these events, to learn meeting times and places, to help distribute flyers and organize travel, training, and other preparation, join this listserve.

Participating Organizations: Hip Hop Caucus, AfterDowningStreet.org, Backbone Campaign, Camp Casey Peace Institute, CODEPINK Women For Peace, Common Ground Collective New Orleans, Democrats.com, Global Network, Gold Star Families for Peace, Progressive Democrats of America, Our Spring Break, The Critical Voice, Artists Against The War, Cities for Peace, ConsumersForPeace.org, Grandmothers Against the War, Kennebunks Peace Department, New Orleans Voices for Peace, Daughters of Vietnam Veterans, Why Not News, DC Chapter of IVAW,


MARCH 13-16, 2008 (Thursday-Sunday) in Washington, D.C.: Winter Soldier
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW)'s Winter Soldier Testimony

Everywhere:
Local Events Supporting Winter Soldier and other Anti-Occupation local events
Local events supporting Winter Soldier.
March 15 in Santa Barbara, CA
March 15 in London, England

MARCH 17 and 18, 2008 (Monday and Tuesday) in Washington, D.C.: Training, Lobbying, Restoring the Constitution
Training in Nonviolence in preparation for March 19, Training in lobbying, Lobbying and on the 18th: Take Back the Constitution Day lobbying 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and evening event at 8 p.m.
Join us for a spirited day in the Halls of Power in Washington, D.C., from Congress to the Justice Department to the Parties' Headquarters to the White House, and an evening event with Constitutional scholars and writers. This is a call for impeachment, an end to the occupation, an end to torture.


Participating Organizations: AfterDowningStreet.org, Grassroots America, DC Chapter of IVAW, CODEPINK Women For Peace, Our Spring Break, Democrats.com, Backbone Campaign, Progressive Democrats of America, The Critical Voice, Artists Against The War, Cities for Peace, ConsumersForPeace.org, Replace Pelosi (petition to be delivered), Grandmothers Against the War, Kennebunks Peace Department, Delaware Valley Veterans for America, New Orleans Voices for Peace, Daughters of Vietnam Veterans, Why Not News,


MARCH 19, 2008 (Wednesday) Everywhere and in Washington, D.C.: Nonviolent Resistance
Nonviolent Civil Resistance and/or Disobedience in All 435 Congressional Districts and in the Nation's Capital on the Fifth Anniversary of the Occupation of Iraq
Locations in each congressional district, to be determined locally, can include congressional offices (Congress Members and Senators will be in their districts on this day), federal buildings, military recruiters, weapons makers, war profiteers, or corporate media outlets. In Washington, with Congress out of town, the focus will be on war profiteers in the military industrial disaster-capitalism complex. Where possible, events will include a place for people not willing to risk arrest. Evening town hall forums can also include a larger audience.
Local Events.
Washington D.C. Events.
Participating Organizations: AfterDowningStreet.org, Backbone Campaign, Camp Casey Peace Institute, CODEPINK Women For Peace, Common Ground Collective New Orleans, Democracy Rising, Democrats.com, Global Network, Gold Star Families for Peace, Grassroots America, Hip Hop Caucus, Progressive Democrats of America, United for Peace and Justice, Voters for Peace, World Can’t Wait – Drive Out The Bush Regime!, DC Chapter of IVAW, Activist Responce Team (A.R.T), Washington Peace Center, Our Spring Break, The Critical Voice, Artists Against The War, Cities for Peace, ConsumersForPeace.org, Grandmothers Against the War, Kennebunks Peace Department, Delaware Valley Veterans for America, New Orleans Voices for Peace, Daughters of Vietnam Veterans, Why Not News,

[tomreedtoon]

1. And how are you going to "enforce" this Congress Stop-Loss?

Are you going to picket them when they go home? Find their vacation retreats and harangue them? Write really nasty letters to the "free" weekly newspapers in your town?

I await the humorous and ineffective results of this fatuous "non-violent" protest.

[davidswanson]

2. you've got a couple of months

to wait

why not use the time to learn to read better?

[tomreedtoon]

10. Wait for what? For Bush to start another war?

The point is that in a political season, you need to hit these traitorous bastards while the press is hungry for reports. You seem to be under the delusion that writing letters to a newspaper owned by Republicans is going to help. We are past that now. It's time to skip all the hand-wringing and start wringing something else.

Life is not a Civics class, davidswanson. They don't even teach civics in high school any more. Life is war. We are soldiers, stand or die.

[bvar22]

3. Enforcement is Simple:

If they try to leave, we taze them into submission and then transport them to a hidden facility
where keep them in dog kennels and waterboard them daily. Every evening, they will be required to build naked pyramids until they see the error of their ways.

[davidswanson]

4. not exactly

an approach i can endorse

[bvar22]

6. And THAT was my non-violent moderate approach.

You should hear what I REALLY want to do to these bastards.
:)

[tomreedtoon]

8. Except Democrats don't have the courage.

They wouldn't take any "impolite" - i.e. effective - steps to stop Republicans. And that's why whichever one we pick this year will lose.

[OzarkDem]

13. make them show what they plan to do or face rejection at the polls

Its a great idea to call them on the carpet now and not let them weasel out of a commitment until after Election Day.

[bvar22]

14. I agree!

That is one reason why they can't afford to have Kucinich in the debates.
The Status Quo Dems look soooooo bad.

[orleans]

5. don't be such a kill-joy. i thought it was poignant. and yes, what a good

idea: "picket them when they go home...Find their vacation retreats and harangue them"

[davidswanson]

7. yes

that sounds good

[tomreedtoon]

9. Exactly. Make a media mess out of their private lives.

That's about the only non-violent thing they can do. And if they can tolerate Republicans taunting Chelsea Clinton and not do anything to stop them...well, why not do something to the children of these DINO's as well? Put up Facebook pages about how ugly they are, dump pig blood on them at a prom, pepper their formal dinners with drive-by paintball shooting, something effective like that?

Since letter-writing and posting to the local shoppers' newsletters doesn't seem to do anything, get physical. Make their private lives a living hell. Because they've made our non-private lives hell.

[orleans]

11. (i don't know about that pig's blood business, or paint ball--but

making their private lives hell with reminders to the neighbors about what the fuck "our representatives" are doing and how they are "representing" us isn't a bad idea.)

[tomreedtoon]

15. You never saw "Carrie," did you?

I don't mean that Theodore Dreiser idiot novel thing, either. I mean the Sissie Spacek movie based on the Stephen King novel. Maybe this will jog your memory...

.html?path=gallery&path_key=0074285

If you can't do it to a Republican or a DINO, do it to their kids! Maybe Mom or Dad will finally get the message.

[orleans]

16. uh....yes, i saw carrie.

[OzarkDem]

12. First Amendment to the Constitution

provides the right of citizens to petition their government for repair or redress of problems or injustice without fear of punishment.

Every citizen not only has this right, but should understand and fully exercise it. They certainly shouldn't be discouraged from exercising it.

Grassroots organizations work because they have the ability to mobilize supporters who can hold their elected officials accountable. The best thing these groups can do it make their representatives take a public stand on the war and show what they're willing to do and let voters decide for themselves.

Given this is an election year, its more important than ever to make those candidates running for office take a public stand and show us what they can do.

Obama and Clinton should be put on the spot and encouraged to demonstrate their commitment to end the war in a substantive way. Stop Loss is a great tool to hold them accountable.