The Occupation Project, in its 4th week, continues applying pressure on elected representatives.
We expect that the House Appropriations Committee will vote on the supplemental spending bill on March 7th. Call Representative David Obey, Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, to voice your opposition to any additional funding for this war. Please spread the word! Rep. David Obey: 202-225-3365
We expect the full House vote to happen by March 14th. It is essential that all of our representatives hear our opposition to further funding of the war in and occupation of Iraq. Please visit
https://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ for full contact information for your representative, or call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
THE OCCUPATION PROJECT: WEEK 4 A recent visit to the Wausau, WI office of Representative David Obey, Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, resulted in the arrest of 3 constituents who refused to leave when Obey did not reverse his position on war funding. Seven were arrested at the Des Moines, IA office of Sen. Grassley while 11 others were being arrested at Grassley's other office in Cedar Rapids. In St. Louis, after sitting down and discussing de-funding the war with Representative Russ Carnahan (D-MO) last week, members of Veterans For Peace and Military Famlies Speak Out members returned to Carnahan's office and 2 members refused to leave before they secured Carnahan's public commitment to oppose any new funding. Carnahan did not publicly commit so 2 members were arrested on charges of trespassing. Four Occupation Project participants were arrested in Sen. Barbara Mikulski's office in Washington, D.C.. Three were arrested in the lobby of the building housing Ohio Sen. George Voinovich's office. Three others were arrested at the office of Rep. Virgil Goode in Charlottesville, VA.
There are now over 30 local Occupation Project campaigns happening across the country:
https://vcnv.org/occupation-project/campaign-descriptions
Join the efforts:
https://vcnv.org/occupation-project-signup
OCCUPATION PROJECT RESOURCES AND ARTICLES
OCCUPATION PROJECT RADIO
The Occupation Project Radio has 2 new interviews conducted by Scott Burgwin; Kathy Kelly talks about the national efforts of the project and Joy First of Madison Wisconsin talks about ongoing efforts in Wisconsin. There are over a dozen audio files with interviews and updates from local campaigns. Listen:
https://vcnv.org/occupation-project-radio
TALKING POINTS ON THE MURTHA SUPPLEMENTAL BILL
By Jeff Leys
February 27, 2007
[Editorial Note: Shortly after the following was written, reports broke in the media that Democratic party leadership in the House is backing away from Murtha's proposals on supplemental spending. In its place is the proposal that the full $93 billion will be approved by the House. This proposal would require that the President issue a waiver and notify Congress of any units deployed to Iraq which do not meet certain standards. Rather than acting to end the Iraq war, it would seem that the Democratic party leadership is playing political games with the lives of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi citizens.]
Democrats who have staked out an "antiwar" position, whether consistently over the years or more recently, are beginning to join with Congressman John Murtha in placing limited conditions upon the supplemental spending request submitted by President Bush to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the so-called global war on terror. Even Representatives who have consistently voted against prior supplemental spending requests for the war and who have consistently co-sponsored legislation aimed at ending the war or placed restrictions on the waging of the war are showing indications that they will support a Murtha formulated version of the supplemental spending bill. The danger is therefore very real that fewer votes will be cast against the supplemental spending bill than were cast against prior supplemental spending bills.
Read the complete talking points:
https://vcnv.org/talking-points-on-the-murtha-supplemental-bill
MY SMALL ACT OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
by Michael T. McPhearson, Executive Director of Veterans For Peace. Michael sat-in at Carnahan's St. Louis office which resulted in his being arrested.
https://vcnv.org/my-small-act-of-civil-disobedience
OCCUPATION PROJECT NATION-WIDE ARRESTS: UPDATED MARCH 1 - TOTAL SO FAR: 122
https://vcnv.org/occupation-project-nation-wide-arrests
MAIN PROJECT PAGE:
https://vcnv.org/project/the-occupation-project
FULL LIST OF PROJECT RESOURCES:
https://vcnv.org/occupation-project/resources
