A challenge to DUers - we have an Iran crisis -suspend all election threads and concentrate

[peacetalksforall]

on the legality of and ability to get Congress stop the Bombing of Iran.

Make Congress do something or make Congress tell us what to do.

Suspend talk and direct the energy to what happens if elections are ended in this country starting with another catastrophe in this country that kicks off another round of patriotic killing and the death and maiming and undercare of our children.

The urgent situtation is that Congress is the key. Deny every person involved in elections the attention until we are safe.

It's all about getting the priorities straight. Elections follow stability.

We are in a most unstable situation.

The crisis of an event leading to the bombing of Iran is now through October - the air is thick with talk of October - time is our enemy.

(this is my post from another thread - important for our sanity)

[annabanana]

1. suggestion

Put "Iran" in the subject line somewhere

[peacetalksforall]

2. Thanks. You're hired!

[Name removed]

3. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bluebear]

4. I suggest the majority of people feel desperately hopeless.

We know we are in an unstable situation and are looking to a new President as the only hope anymore, just my thinking. This Congress seems unable or unwilling to stop Bush in his plans.

[cali]

6. Unable. n/t

[EFerrari]

20. And that is so dangerous.

:(

[cali]

5. No.

First of all, bush doesn't need Congressional approval to bomb Iran, and they really can't stop him. They SHOULD be yelling more about it.

Second of all Congress has other work to do, no matter how awful and dire this is.

Third of all, you'll never get people to stop discussing the elections.

[mmonk]

7. Under what article?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. Article 2 Section 2

eom

[mmonk]

28. Not without a declaration of war from congress.

Otherwise, a president at anytime could declare himself commander in chief and fire away at anyone he wants.

eom

[soothsayer]

8. since our votes hardly matter, I doubt our discussions on DU matter either

Sorry to say, but I think this 'we the people' stuff went out the windo in the late 40's, if not before.

[peacetalksforall]

10. We pretend that everything is normal and we just let it roll on.

If the Cheney administration were to orchestrate a deflection of attention with or without the assistance of their press, we would be hollaring.

We cause our own deflections.

[cali]

13. I call bullshit.

nobody here is pretending everything is normal.

[Bluebear]

14. Who the hell here thinks anything is normal?

We've been mourning the USA since January 2001.

[peacetalksforall]

16. Normal in that we expect there to be elections - that take place or hold up andd

like we think it is yesterday or before 2000.

Another Pearl Harbor or a total of three of them will do the job.

[cali]

19. look, you want to go around in a constant state

of panic, do so. But don't expect everyone to join you.

[peacetalksforall]

23. Of course I wouldn't. (expect everyone to join me).

[peacetalksforall]

11. I changed "A challenge to DU"... to "A challenge to DUers". I did not

intend to challenge the administrators. I meant us. As in voluntary.

[wuushew]

12. Why is war with Iran more likely tomorrow than anytime in the past two years?

We have been in "Iran crisis mode" ever since Hersh published that article and I am still waiting.

Show me some interesting news items like Admiral Fallon being canned and it might be worthy of discussion.

[bdamomma]

22. Fallon, he is the key operator if these thugs "can" him we are big

trouble.

[AndyTiedye]

15. Congress Already Caved In on Iran

Congress was going to put the brakes on the upcoming Iran war back in May,
but AIPAC ordered them not to. Congress bent over immediately.

[peacetalksforall]

17. So they did not take care of us, but some of them running want us to honor them with

debate about their merits for the Presidency - and work for them, give them money.

[AndyTiedye]

18. I Think Some of the NSA Wiretap Material Gets Channeled to AIPAC too

They caved in all at once, no debate or anything. Like they were all being blackmailed or threatened.
It was just like the FISA cave-in.

[cali]

25. I don't buy it for one second.

For one thing, I can't imagine that AIPAC has dirt on each and every member of Congress.

[EFerrari]

21. And for years now, because the campaigning never stops.

:shrug:

I'm going to write about Iran in the context of impeachment. I don't know what else to do. As long as Big money funds our elections, my $20 probably doesn't matter to the "top tier" any way.

[peacetalksforall]

24. I was off list quite a bit - can you point me to more about the

influence? pressure? directive? from AIPAC?

[AndyTiedye]

29. Usually They Are a Little More Subtle About it Than This

On March 12, the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives voted to take out of the war spending bill a provision that would, with some exceptions, require the president to seek congressional approval before using military force in Iran.

According to Congressman David Obey, the provision was dropped because it was drawing enough opposition to endanger the whole effort for Congress to set a date for ending the Iraq War.

But why were so many Congressmembers ready to oppose an effort to uphold their own Constitutional powers against a runaway President?

On March 8, CQ Today reported that "Hawkish pro-Israel lawmakers are pushing . The influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee also is working to keep the language out, said an aide to a pro- Israel lawmaker."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-arthur-waskow/aipac-iran-presidenti_b_43814.html


Congress Fold Again

AIPAC Intervenes on Iran

By BADRUDDIN KHAN

It has happened again, and in the open. The American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) which heads a network of pro-Israeli lobbies, persuaded Congress to drop a provision which would have required President Bush to ask for Congressional approval prior to attacking Iran.

As reported in the May 16, 2007 issue of The Hill:

"The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), an influential group that advocates strong U.S. ties with Israel, lobbied heavily to remove the Iran provision in the supplemental, arguing that the measure would weaken President Bush's attempts to dissuade Iran from developing nuclear weapons."

This intervention by AIPAC to permit President Bush to act without Congressional debate was widely reported, as was AIPAC's earlier intervention with a supplemental budget bill.

In other words, a Democratic Congress elected to end the Iraq war has willingly given up its right (and responsibility) to engage in public debate prior to a new act of war against Iran, a sovereign nation. By voting to look the other way, Congress has left this war decision to the discretion of an unpopular president, who has already failed once.

Why on earth would the Democrats, empowered to change the administration's current foreign policy regime, ignore popular will? One reason, of course, is AIPAC.

It is now generally seen by all (but noticed by few) that AIPAC interests dominate US strategy in the Mideast. Its influence over our centralized power centers in Washington and elsewhere is widely discussed. This grip on power is exercised ruthlessly, and frequently, and pre-emptively by AIPAC. A good (short) writeup that describes AIPAC's ominous methods is Michael Massing's essay in the New York Review of Books, June 8, 2006. An excellent (longer) writeup is the classic Harvard Kennedy School paper by Profs. Mearscheimer & Walt.…

http://www.counterpunch.org/khan05262007.html


More (MUCH MORE) available if you google "AIPAC Iran"

[blm]

26. A SYRIA and Iran problem - and I noticed the horseracers avoid those threads

like the plague.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1810198

Because what lies ahead has been in the works for some time.

[peacetalksforall]

27. Ms Rice had a State Dept 'success' in getting NK to abandon

their program (facetious) so now NK has parts and supplies to sell? Enter Khan? Enter Cheney and the perpetual war team with their deadline looming project?

I'm not familiar with 'horseracers'. You don't have to elaborate.

[Macchendra]

30. And let the Dems know that you will not vote for them if...

they support this.

[ecstatic]

31. Fool me once shame on... If this war goes through, there is no more Dem. party

Period. No point in discussing anything at that point.

[AuntPatsy]

32. Lets not forget this very real possiblity is in the near horizon, kicking back up