John Conyers is getting the screws put to him by the White House and by Democratic leadership to abandon his long standing principled refusal to vote for any war funding that doesn’t include plans to bring the troops home safely. Robert says "thank you" in a video from Brave New Films to Conyers over at [...]

In 2007, Ed Pastor signed the pledge in 2007 not to vote for any war funding that does not include troop withdrawal provisions. But now that he’s part of leadership, I guess that’s all out the window.

Washington DC office: (202) 225-4065, Arizona office: (602) 256-0551

Grijalva signed a 2007 pledge not to vote for any war funding that does not include timeslines for withdrawal.  This one doesn’t, and Grijalva rightly voted against it the first time — and Grijalva rightly voted against it the first time — and has said he would do so again. Nothing has changed in the interim.  So why is he suddenly “torn?”

As Dennis Kucinich said:

“From what I can see, [members who so far have refused to bow to pressure from the administration and Pelosi] are concerned about going home and having to explain why they voted for the war when their constituents are opposed to it…”

Call Grijalva’s office in DC at (202) 225-2435, and in Arizona at (520) 622-6788 or (928) 343-7933 and ask him what’s up.

On Friday, John Murtha was saying "we’ll pass it."  By Sunday, he wasn’t saying that any more.  "Nancy’s working on it" was all he’d say. By our whip count, we only need five more votes — but since I don’t know how Jim Cooper expects to vote for this and have a political future I’m [...]

It’s going to be a very close vote.”

On Friday,  Murtha told Ryan Grim “We’ll pass it, but it’ll be a close vote.”

Backpeddling?

You can still take action on the weekend by writing letters to your local papers.

From Robert Greenwald’s new film Rethink Afghanistan.

Comment over at YouTube:

I wish Lois Capps would stop funding these wars! 

Capps signed the 2007 pledge not to vote for any war funding that didn’t bring the troops home.  Didn’t stop her.

What’s the word I’m searching for….?

J-Ro on 34 votes:

This move just goes to show how much power a small, dedicated group of people can have, and how toxic the war in Afghanistan (as well as bailouts for European banks) is becoming.

I think that’s worth noting again. Afghanistan is playing a big role here. More and more people are questioning the rational for escalation, and more and more Members of Congress are listening. And they’re right to do it. It’s expensive, it lacks a strategy, and it lacks and endgame. In this economic climate, we shouldn’t be spending so much blood and treasure on a war without a way out.

The netroots is moving this debate, and the war funding supplemental just might get defeated. Keep up the pressure with calls and letters to the editor, so we can get those last five votes.

There’s a special place in hell for think tanks that set themselves up to suck up donations from rich donors for the sole purpose of wrapping imperialist policy in progressive rhetoric.

May Heather Hurlburt and her “It could be the last of its kind” guesswork spend a great deal of time there.