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Home Front: WoT

Lawfare: Bay Area plaintiffs allege reps’ votes for Israel aid caused them emotional distress

2024-12-24

[IsraelTimes] Lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court claims Reps. Thompson and Huffman’s support for legislation led to ‘uncontrollable weeping, inability to sleep and distractions from work’

A group of Northern Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, residents has filed a class-action lawsuit against their congressional representatives, Democrats
...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman, accusing them of causing harm to local communities and to Paleostinians in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
by voting to send billions in US military aid to Israel.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the Socialist paradise of San Francisco

...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964...
federal court, claims the politicians caused "moral and emotional/psychic injury" to taxpayers by voting for aid that, the plaintiffs allege, contributes to genocide in Gaza. Both Israel and the Biden administration reject that Israel is committing genocide in its war against Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
in Gaza.

The lawsuit is the latest example of how debates over Israel and Gaza have moved to the courts since the outbreak of the war following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack. Several months ago, federal courts dismissed a lawsuit by pro-Paleostinian groups, also filed in the Bay Area, accusing the Biden administration of complicity in a genocide. A federal appeals court panel confirmed a ruling by a lower court that the judiciary cannot intervene to change the government’s foreign policy.

Survivors of the Oct. 7 attack and Jewish groups have filed a series of suits over the attack against pro-Paleostinian nonprofits, the United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
’ Paleostinian aid agency UNRWA and foreign governments allied with Hamas. In addition, Jewish students have filed suit against multiple universities accusing them of not taking sufficient measures against antisemitism on campus.

The Bay Area case seeks to bar Thompson and Huffman from approving future military aid to Israel and demands damages for the emotional distress caused by war, including "uncontrollable weeping, inability to sleep, distractions from work, despair for the future of their children and humanity."

Oh no! Anyway…

At a presser outside the courthouse where the lawsuit was filed, Linda Helland, a Mendocino County resident and plaintiff, said the representatives’ votes make her and other constituents "complicit" in the violence. Another plaintiff, Paleostinian American Tarik Kanaana of Sonoma County, said Thompson’s actions amounted to aiding in "the killing of my own people."

Twenty one plaintiffs are named in the lawsuit but organizers are aiming to add as many as 1,000 participants if the court allows the lawsuit to proceed. A lawyer for the plaintiffs said the lawsuit, with its focus on the rights of taxpayers, was designed differently than the one that was tossed out.

"We’re not asking the court to tell Congress to make policy," attorney Dean Royer told the Chronicle. "We’re asking the court to say taxpayer dollars cannot be used to fund genocide."

The positions of Thompson and Huffman reflect those of many Democratic politicians who back Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas, but have called for minimizing civilian casualties. In April, they voted in favor of a $26.4 billion military aid package for Israel. Thompson and Huffman have also expressed support for a ceasefire and long-term solutions, including a two-state framework that would see a Paleostinian state established alongside Israel.

"Congressman Thompson understands that it has been the civilian population that has paid the cost of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel and he remains gravely concerned about the scale of civilian loss in this war," read a statement from the congressman’s office to local media. "That’s why he has advocated and continues to advocate for the Biden Administration to work with the State Department and our allies to help secure a negotiated bilateral ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, and the establishment of a two-state solution to ensure peace and self-determination for the Paleostinian and Israeli people."

Link

-Land of the Free

Message to Manchin

2021-03-21

[Breitbart via Lucianne] Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and conservative activists will hold a rally at the West Virginia state capitol Saturday against the "Corrupt Politicians Act."

The Council for National Policy Act will host a rally at the Charleston, West Virginia state capitol at 1:00 P.M. Eastern.

The rally will feature conservative leaders to rally against H.R. 1/S.1, the For the People Act, which the leaders refer to as the “Corrupt Politicians Act.” The legislation already passed the House. The rally will feature:

Sen. Ted Cruz;

Eric Berger, co-founder of FreeRoots;

Jake Hoffman, president and CEO of Rally Forge;

Ken Blackwell, board member of CNP Action and former Ohio secretary of state;

Kelly Shackelford, chairman of CNP Action, and president and CEO of First Liberty Institute;

Mike Thompson, senior vice president of CRC Advisors.

The rally precedes a hearing on the bill held by the Senate Rules Committee on March 24.

The legislation would:

Federalize control over congressional elections;

Declare that standard state and local maintenance of elections systems, such as purging ineligible voters from voter rolls, limiting vote-by-mail, requiring voter ID, and establishing rules against felons voting, would erode the right to vote;

Restrict lawsuits against the rules in H.R. 1 to the federal court system, which is, coincidentally, favorable to Democrats;

Establish online and automatic voter registration;

Protect illegal immigrants from prosecution if they vote;

Establish same-day voter registration;

Mandate early voting;

Establish nationwide vote-by-mail without a voter ID; and

Allow ballots to be counted ten days after Election Day.

Link

-Land of the Free

House Democrats Gear Up to Introduce Their First Gun Control Bill of The New Congress

2019-01-05

[Townhall] Democrats have wasted little time shaking up Washington, D.C. since they were sworn into office on Thursday. In fact, Democratic leadership in the House is planning to make a big splash on Tuesday, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Mike Thompson introduce legislation requiring universal background checks for firearm purchase. The duo decided to do it on Tuesday, Jan. 8th because it's the eight anniversary of former Rep. Gabby Gifford’s shooting, which took place Jan. 8, 2011. And, to continue with the "eight" theme, the bill is also called House Resolution 8, POLITICO reported.

Giffords has worked with the pair to bring about this piece of legislation.

"Since the shooting at Sandy Hook, the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force has been fighting for a chance to pass legislation that will help save lives," Thompson told POLITICO. "Finally, with our new majority that ran on helping to prevent gun violence, we will introduce a bipartisan, universal background checks bill. We will hold hearings, we will have a vote, and this legislation will finally pass the House."

Link

Home Front: Politix

Democrats Plan to Pursue Most Aggressive Gun-Control Legislation in Decades

2018-11-10

[WSJ] WASHINGTON‐Democrats say they will pass the most aggressive gun-control legislation in decades when they become the House majority in January, plans they renewed this week in the aftermath of a mass killing in a California bar.

Their efforts will be spurred by an incoming class of pro-gun-control lawmakers who scored big in Tuesday’s midterm elections, although any measure would likely meet stiff resistance in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Democrats ousted at least 15 House Republicans with "A" National Rifle Association ratings, while the candidates elected to replace them all scored an "F" NRA rating.

"This new majority is not going to be afraid of our shadow," said Mike Thompson, a California Democrat who is chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. "We know that we’ve been elected to do a job, and we’re going to do it."

Mr. Thompson, who represents a district in the Napa Valley north of San Francisco, said he plans to introduce legislation mandating universal background checks in the opening weeks of the new Congress.

The gun-control movement’s evolution was evident this week following news that a dozen people had been killed Thursday at a country music bar in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

"What we do is say, how do we make certain that we protect the Second Amendment and protect our citizens?" Ms. Blackburn replied, referencing the U.S. Constitution plank that grants the right to bear arms.

About 61% of voters participating in the 2018 midterm elections said America’s gun laws should be stricter, according to AP VoteCast, a pre-election and Election Day survey of about 90,000 people who said they voted or intended to vote. About 13% of Democrats and 8% of all voters said gun control was the most important issue affecting their vote.

The 2018 elections marked the first time gun-control advocates outspent the NRA.

The gun-rights advocacy group spent about $20 million in the 2018 election cycle‐much of it on advertising backing the confirmation of Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said.

Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun-control organization backed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and a group founded by former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded in a 2011 shooting, spent a combined $37 million in 2018.

Ms. Baker said she is optimistic NRA-backed candidates will prevail in governor’s races in Florida and Georgia that have yet to be called. The NRA also invested in GOP Senate candidates who ousted Democratic incumbents in Indiana, Missouri and North Dakota. NRA-backed Senate candidates lost in Montana and West Virginia.

"The biggest Second Amendment implication of the election is that the pro-Second Amendment majority in the U.S. Senate will continue to confirm pro-Second Amendment judges to the lower courts all the way to the Supreme Court," Ms. Baker said.

At the state level, voters in Washington state approved a ballot referendum expanding the state’s requirement for background checks on gun purchases. In Florida, Democrat Nikki Fried leads the race for agriculture commissioner, whose office regulates the state’s concealed weapon permits.

The highest-profile gun-control advocate on the ballot Tuesday was Democrat Lucy McBath, who defeated GOP Rep. Karen Handel in a suburban Atlanta House contest. Ms. McBath, a former Delta Air Lines flight attendant, became a gun-control advocate after her teenage son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed in 2012 by a man who said the boy was playing music too loud. The assailant was later convicted of murder.

Ms. McBath, who became a spokeswoman for Everytown and a 2016 campaign surrogate for Hillary Clinton, relayed her story on the campaign trail and in her early television advertisements. But in the closing weeks before Election Day, Ms. McBath focused on health care and economic issues.

Everytown’s closing TV ad backing Ms. McBath didn’t mention gun control, focusing instead on health care. "Voters absolutely understood where Lucy stood on the issue of gun safety," said Everytown President John Feinblatt. "There was no question in voters’ minds about Lucy’s story."

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Economy

Still Government Motors

2010-05-01

GM CEO Ed Whitacre announced in a Wall Street Journal column Wednesday that his company has paid back its government bailout loan "in full, with interest, years ahead of schedule." He is even running TV ads on all major networks to that effect--a needless expense given that a credulous media is only too happy to parrot his claims for free. Detroit Free Press' Mike Thompson, for example, advises bailout proponents to start "warming up their vocal chords" to jeer their opponents with chants of "I told you so."

But before belting out their victory aria, GM-boosters ought to hear the whole story--not just the fairytale version about Government Motors' grand comeback that Mr. Whitacre is feeding them.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Rep. Matsui steers clear of town-hall circuit in Sacramento

2009-08-29

While many members of Congress have spent their summer recess getting yelled at by constituents at unruly town-hall meetings, Rep. Doris Matsui has opted for a quieter approach.

The Sacramento Democrat has not hosted a single town hall meeting this month and has no plans to do so before Congress returns to work in September to tackle a $1 trillion health care bill. She's sponsoring only one event next week, where constituents can call her on the telephone to ask questions.

Matsui's absence on the town hall circuit stands in contrast to how most other members from the Sacramento region are handling Washington's most volatile issue of the year.

On Wednesday night, Republican Rep. Dan Lungren was in Rancho Cordova, hosting his third town hall meeting. Last week, an overflow crowd packed a meeting at Citrus Heights, prompting Lungren to use a police microphone to address a crowd gathered in a parking lot.

Next week, Republican Rep. Tom McClintock is planning four face-to-face meetings with constituents. And Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson has had five town hall meetings during the recess, with another planned in Eureka next week.

Matsui said her telephone meeting will allow her to reach out to more constituents without having to turn anyone away due to space constraints.

"I'm not taking away anything from some of the town halls that have been going on," Matsui said Wednesday. "But it seemed to me that not everybody got heard and sometimes the loudest people in the room overwhelmed some of the thoughtful ones who really wanted to ask a question. So I felt this is the best way to proceed."

Link

Home Front: Politix

Bailout bill includes tax break for NASCAR racetracks

2008-10-03

Somebody asked about this yesterday. And, believe it or not, it appears to be true...
WASHINGTON -- A tax break for NASCAR racetracks and other motor-sports facilities is among the "sweeteners" tucked inside a 450-page financial-services bailout bill to make the package more palatable to lawmakers.

Ummm, some of them were in the bill to which the bailout was attached. The 'wooden arrow' issue, for example. Let's be careful as to what was where and when.

The Senate-passed bill includes an array of so-called "tax extenders." One extends for two years a tax policy that had been allowed to expire in December that lets motor-sports facilities be treated the same as amusement parks and other entertainment complexes for tax purposes. That allowed them to write off their capital investments over a seven-year period. The motor sports industry feared that without a specific legal clarification, motor-sports facilities would be required to depreciate their capital over 15 years or longer because of a recent Internal Revenue Service inquiry into the matter. That would make repaved tracks and new concession stands more expensive in the short term.

It isn't a new tax break, rather the way tax law historically has been interpreted, said Lauri Wilks, the vice president of communications for Speedway Motorsports, which owns the NASCAR tracks in Fort Worth, Texas; Sonoma, Calif.; Concord, N.C.; and elsewhere. "It gives us incentive to go ahead and invest in our facilities," she said.

Wilks said she couldn't put a price tag on the measure because track owners would pay the same amount, just over a longer period. "Whether you pay all up front or depreciate them over time, the cash outlay is the same," she said.
And the culprits?
A bill to extend the tax treatment had been introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and co-sponsored by a number of North Carolina members including Reps. Robin Hayes, a Republican, and Melvin Watt, a Democrat. Thompson and Hayes voted against the original bank bailout bill Monday, which didn't include the tax extenders added by the Senate and passed Wednesday. Neither has said how he will vote when the House takes up the new bill.

In the Senate, the motor-sports provision was sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Some watchdog groups oppose loading up the bill with unrelated items. "Unfortunately, it took a legitimately historic piece of legislation that lawmakers on principle could vote for or against it, and they just loaded it up with business as usual, a huge tax package not related at all to the bailout, and crammed it over to the House," said Steve Ellis, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group. "And it's going to be interesting to see whether this turns any votes or not."

Link

Home Front: Politix

Saddam paid for Congresscritter visit in run up to war

2008-03-27

"Can I buy them? Yes I can!!"

Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a Michigan nonprofit group, of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary. At the time, the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California.

How, now how did I know that McDermott and Bonior were on the list? And where was Cindy McKinney?

None was charged and Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said investigators "have no information whatsoever" any of them knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam. "Obviously we didn't know it at the time," McDermott spokesman Michael DeCesare said Wednesday. "The trip was to see the plight of the Iraqi children. That's the only reason we went."

Never met a thug he didn't like, however ...

During the trip, the lawmakers expressed skepticism about the Bush administration's claims that Saddam was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.

"War is not the answer," Bonior, who is no longer in Congress, said at a news conference while on the trip. "There is a way to resolve this."

"War is not the answer," Bonior, who is no longer in Congress, said at a news conference while on the trip. "There is a way to resolve this."

So it was all about the children ...

Though weapons of mass destruction ultimately were never found, the lawmakers drew criticism for their trip at the time. Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles, the second-ranking Senate Republican at the time, said the Democrats "sound somewhat like spokespersons for the Iraqi government."

Al-Hanooti was arrested Tuesday night while returning to the U.S. from the Middle East, where he was looking for a job, his attorney, James Thomas, said. Al-Hanooti pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, illegally purchasing Iraqi oil and lying to authorities. He was being held on $100,000 bail. Thomas said Al-Hanooti would "vigorously defend" himself against the charges but he could not discuss the specifics of the case since he had seen none of the evidence.

"I can say no more!"

Al-Hanooti worked on and off from 1999 to 2006 as a public relations coordinator for Life for Relief and Development, a Michigan group formed after the first Gulf War to fund ~~ammunition~~ humanitarian work in Iraq. FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents raided the charity's headquarters in 2006 but charged nobody and allowed the agency to continue operating.

Prosecutors said Al-Hanooti was responsible for monitoring Congress for the Iraqi Intelligence Service. From 1999 to 2002, he allegedly provided Saddam's government with a list of U.S. lawmakers he believed favored lifting economic sanctions against Iraq. In exchange for coordinating the congressional trip, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil, prosecutors said. DeCesare said McDermott was invited to go to Iraq by a Seattle church group and was unaware of any other funding for the trip.

And he didn't ask, either. Rather uncurious fellow about some things ...

Link

Home Front: Politix

VP Accused of Slaughtering Fish To Save People

2007-06-28

West Coast Democrats called for a hearing Wednesday into the role Vice President Dick Cheney may have played in the 2002 die-off of about 70,000 salmon near the California-Oregon border.

An article in The Washington Post on Wednesday said Cheney played a crucial role in developing a 10-year water plan for the Klamath River that courts later called arbitrary and in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Democrats charged that Cheney's action resulted in the largest adult salmon kill in the history of the West.

"The ramifications of that salmon kill are still being felt today as returns to the Klamath River are so low that commercial, sport and tribal fishing seasons have been curtailed for the past three years," Democrats said in a letter calling for the hearing.

Commercial fishing in California and Oregon was cut by more than 90 percent last year the largest commercial-fishing closure in the history of the country resulting in more than $60 million in damage to coastal economies, the letter said.

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., whose district includes the area where the fish died, said Democrats want to have a hearing in the House Natural Resources Committee.

"We know that science was manipulated and the law was violated," Thompson said. "Did in fact the vice president of the United States put pressure on midlevel bureaucrats to alter the science and circumvent the law in order to gain political votes for his re-election or the election of other people in Oregon?"

Thompson's office drafted the letter, which was signed by 36 House Democrats in California and Oregon, including all four Democratic House members in Oregon and all Democrats but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in California. Thompson said he did not ask Pelosi to sign the letter.

Megan McGinn, a spokeswoman for the vice president's office, said late Wednesday she had not seen the letter and could not comment.

The salmon die-off and water usage in the drought-plagued Klamath Basin have long been a source of political controversy. In 2004, the Interior Department's inspector general found no basis for a claim by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry that White House political advisers interfered in developing water policy in the Klamath.

The inspector general said President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was not involved in a 2002 decision to divert water from the Klamath River in Oregon to irrigate farms. While Rove mentioned the Klamath in passing during a briefing with senior Interior officials, "we found nothing to tie Karl Rove's comments ... to the Klamath decision-making process," Inspector General Earl Devaney said.

Three months after Rove's meeting in early 2002, administration officials increased the water supply to more than 200,000 acres of farmland in California and Oregon a decision bitterly opposed by environmentalists and commercial fishermen.

In September 2002, tens of thousands of chinook salmon died in the Klamath River in Northern California. The California Department of Fish and Game laid much of the blame on low water flows controlled by the federal government, saying it created conditions that allowed a fatal gill-rot disease to spread through the fish.

A report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said low river flows played a role but said other factors, including a large return of fish, also contributed to the fish kill, the worst in decades.

Link

Home Front

McDermott and Bonior try to defend the indefensible...

2002-10-02

Two Democratic congressmen, brushing off criticisms they were aiding the enemy, said Wednesday their mission to Iraq succeeded in impressing on Iraqis that war was likely if they did not agree to unfettered inspections of weapons stockpiles. Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington and David Bonior of Michigan, both Vietnam War-era veterans, also said at a news conference that they felt obligated to inform Americans of the risks they faced by going to war with Iraq.
I'm a Vietnam-era veteran, too. Even got my little yellow-green-red ribbon. I say they're jerks...
McDermott said he was stunned by "the extent to which the Iraqi people are ready to fight house-to-house." He asked whether the United States should "be taking on this country all by itself when the Arab world is now seething with recruits for Osama bin Laden."
Sure. They'll be seething with recruits for Osama bin Laden regardless of what we do, so why not?
The two lawmakers, and Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., returned Tuesday night from their visit to Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. In news conferences while in Iraq they urged the Iraqis not to interfere with the inspection process and the Bush administration to give those inspections a chance to work before taking military action.
How about the part where they called Bush a liar?
Republican leaders strongly criticized the visit, with Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, saying they "both sound somewhat like spokespersons for the Iraqi government."
The word "somewhat" turns that into an understatement, doesn't it?
House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said McDermott was "totally out of touch with the most fundamental tenet of congressional responsibilities" and that he and other liberals had "just basically regressed to their childhood days of Vietnam War protests." McDermott said he was not a pacifist but had "a responsibility as a patriot, as someone who loves his country, to speak up for what I believe." War, added Bonior, "destroys lives in such a profound way."
Yes, it's bad for Children™ and other living things. So're bloody-handed dictators. Y'know what else destroys lives in a really profound way? Mealy-mouthed congressmen who go tromping off to enemy nations to have their pictures taken and badmouth their country...
McDermott stressed that "I don't trust Saddam Hussein under any circumstances ~~except when I'm sitting at his feet~~," but said President Bush had confused the issue by shifting the issue from disarmament, which could be accomplished diplomatically, to regime change, which would require war.
And war would require a congressional authorization, and that would require a vote, and a vote would be recorded as part of the public record. And if a congressman represents a district that doesn't believe in war an' stuff, and has a deep and abiding admiration for dictators, we couldn't possibly have that. Best to avoid the whole thing...

Link

Fifth Column

U.S. Congressmen Slam Barbaric Sanctions Against Iraq

2002-09-29

Three anti-war U.S. congressmen on a rare visit to Iraq on Sunday, September 29, criticized the 12-year U.N. sanctions regime as âbarbaricâ, saying that open weapons inspections must resume to ensure it is lifted.
They weren't lifted when weapons inspections were in force because the inspectors were hindered at every turn...
Democrat representative David Bonior of Michigan spoke of âthe horrific and barbaric suffering ... particularly children are undergoing,â after visiting a hospital, a pediatric clinic and two desalination plants in this southern Iraqi port city. He stressed along with colleagues Jim McDermott of Washington state and Mike Thompson of California âthe absolute necessity to end the sanctionsâ through âfair, open, unrestricted [weapons] inspectionsâ by the United Nations.
Yep. Any time now.
âIf we go to war again we will simply double or triple the problems we have created in 1991,â from the Gulf War, said McDermott.âThe theory was that if we put pressure on the Iraqi people somehow they would throw out [President] Saddam Hussein, all that has done is punish the Iraqi people. It did not work and I think that it is not right what we are doing and that it must stop.â
Well, okay then. And pray tell just what should we do? If we can't attack him and throw him out, and we can't use sanctions because of The Children™, what other options are open, other than "pretty please with honey on top"?
Representative Bonior is a long-time opponent of the sanctions devastating the Iraqi people. He has during his tenure held numerous press conferences criticizing the brutality aimed against Iraqi civilians. He also co-sponsored a letter to former president Bill Clinton asking that the sanctions be lifted.
He also lost his bid for governor — heh heh! — and he ran for governor because it looked like he was gonna lose his House seat. Seems he has a lot of support.
McDermott also noted claims that the use of depleted uranium weapons during the Gulf War had increased âmalformations and leukemia in children, and we wanted to see for ourselves what that was about.â
How many malformed and leukaemic children did they visit?
They had heard in Baghdad from Health Minister Omid Medhat Mubarak that the embargo had caused the deaths of more than 1.7 million Iraqis since it was imposed in 1990.

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