Pelosi's First Priority is to Halt Iraq War

[AtomicKitten]

In the final analysis and in my opinion, ending the war takes precedence over impeachment.

San Francisco Chronicle
entire article at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/10/BAGJGMSTAQ1.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

SAN FRANCISCO
Pelosi's first priority is to halt Iraq war
Speaker taking office Jan. 4 comes home to talk up plans
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, December 10, 2006

Excerpts:

Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told cheering supporters Saturday that Democrats would move the nation in "a new direction ... for all Americans, not just the chosen few,'' and pledged an ambitious agenda on subjects ranging from House ethics to foreign policy.

Speaking in San Francisco the day after adjournment of the Republican-controlled 2005-06 Congress, Pelosi declared -- as she had throughout her party's successful November election campaign -- that "my highest priority, immediately, is to stop the war in Iraq.''

snip

The first House vote of the year, she said, will be on new rules that will transform "the most corrupt and closed Congress in history into the most honest and open.''

snip

She reviewed her plans for the first 100 hours: raising the minimum wage, cutting student loan interest rates in half, requiring Medicare to negotiate lower prices with prescription-drug makers, rolling back tax breaks for oil companies and passing legislation to promote stem cell research.

Also high on her agenda, Pelosi said, are "very aggressive measures to stop global warming'' and a labor-backed "card check'' proposal to require employers to negotiate with any union that signs up a majority of a company's employees.


* disclaimer: Although I subscribe to many papers on-line, I get the paper version of the SF Chronicle on Sunday (for the pink section!) and end up reading it all week. I searched for this article and didn't find it. A million apologies in advance if this is a dupe.

[theoldman]

1. The only way that the house can stop the war is by cutting off

the money. I doubt that they will do this.

[JDPriestly]

5. There is another way. Raise the money for the war by raising

taxes on the rich -- namely by taxing capital gains taxes on investment earnings that exceed the amounts of earnings middle-class investors generally receive. Pay as you fight will make our military and the war profiteers in the military-industrial complex more efficient and more cautious in choosing battles and strategies.

At this time, one wonders whether our soldiers are being sent to the Middle East as mercenaries for other countries.

[The Count]

2. Absolutely. Stopping the killing is paramount. Then election reform, then scaring the

Little Boots off the throne (I doubt full impeachment will be needed to get him to scuttle)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. I think the election was a mandate to

stop the war.

[Tom Joad]

4. I read that article and could find not much about how she planned to end the war...

that may have been the fault of the writer.

I fully agree ending the war should be the first priority.
I think congress should defund the war, and support Rep. James McGovern and others efforts to do so. Pelosi opposes this option...
Pelosi's option to force bush to end the war is....???

[AtomicKitten]

6. the article is an overview of her speech in SF

and does not provide detail on the finer points you question. I am of the inclination to adopt the 'wait and see' approach until she actually takes her seat as Speaker in January.

She is making every effort to appear collegial but, as a San Franciscan, I can say confidently - make no mistake - when she says she intends to do something, she means it.

[Tom Joad]

8. In the meantime, there should be massive pressure on the streets to end the war.

[AtomicKitten]

7. I posted this for a reason.

First and foremost because of the din of naysayers passing judgment on what the Dems are not going to do before they even have a chance to disappoint.

Still information doesn't seem to matter much to some that are more comfortable and perhaps more content with enveloping themselves in negativity and pessimism (and I know from personal experience that tendency comes too easily). I was impressed by Pelosi's strong words on her agenda and know her well enough that she most definitely has a course plotted already.

Unfortunately the politics of personality override participation on threads among those not in certain contender cliques which is perhaps an unavoidable shortcoming and most certainly a disappointing aspect of the participation here at DU, manifested in some of the most insipid rah-rah threads being voted to the Greatest Page.

I hope people at least read this brief on Pelosi's speech here in SF. It flies in the face of the more depressing, pessimistic predictions of what she will and will not do. I hope people at least give her the chance to disappoint before summarily passing judgment on her.