Honduras disarray spurs lobbying

By Kevin Bogardus, TheHill.com, July 28, 2009

Trade associations and companies both inside and outside of Honduras have stepped up their lobbying efforts in Washington as the nation’s political crisis remains unresolved in the wake of President Manuel Zelaya’s ouster.

A review of lobbying disclosure records by The Hill show that U.S. companies have worked to protect their operations in Honduras while more business groups from the Central American nation have turned to Washington lobbyists in order to keep Zelaya out of power.

The continuing focus by pro- and anti-Zelaya forces on Congress and the Obama administration is evidence of the United States’ sway with Honduras as the nation’s largest trading partner.

“We don’t want to see this political situation expand into an economic crisis. We want to see this resolved through peaceful dialogue,” said Stephanie Lester, vice president for international trade at the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA).

RILA and six other trade associations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote to President Obama in a July 9 letter, urging to him maintain “economic stability” in Honduras.

“Predictability and stability are absolutely critical to U.S. companies, especially in these difficult economic times. Key to that predictability is that the United States maintain a secure bilateral and regional economic relationship with Honduras,” said the letter to Obama.

As the de facto government and Zelaya struggle to reach a resolution to the crisis, the U.S. government has suspended some aid with Honduras after the president’s exile June 28.

More than $20 million in aid to Honduras, including military assistance and certain development programs that go to the country’s government, have been suspended, according to a State Department spokeswoman.

In addition, there is an operational hold on $11 million worth of contracts under the Millennium Challenge compact with Honduras — a $215 million, five-year agreement signed in 2005 — that have not been authorized yet.

There have also been threats of harsher action by the U.S. government in the near future though if the crisis is prolonged.

The Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC), which oversees the compact, sent a July 17 letter to the de facto government expressing concern over recent unrest in Honduras and encouraging the authorities to take immediate steps to re-establish democratic order.

Further, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a July 15 Miami Herald op-ed that if progress is not made, more cuts in foreign aid should be made, along with targeted sanctions against individuals involved in the plot to overthrow Zelaya.

In jeopardy is more than $50 million in U.S. foreign aid slated for Honduras in 2009 and $130 million remaining in the compact between the MCC and Honduras. Others have gone further, such as the Organization of American States, which has suspended Honduras’s membership in the group.

A congressional aide who is working on U.S. policy toward Latin America said the administration has not gone further because it wants to provide room for the negotiations being mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to take their natural course.

“If there is a political benefit in going slow, it is that you give a face-saving timeline for the de facto government to exit and let Zelaya come back in. If you hammer them again and again, you don’t allow them that grace,” said the aide. The de facto government “should be under no illusion that time is not on their side and that a waiting game will not succeed.”

Aid to Honduras is “very important because it affects poor people in so many ways. Many poor people, for example, while I was there — USAID inaugurated many projects just for potable water,” said Larry Palmer, a former U.S. ambassador to Honduras. But Palmer also said U.S. trade is just as important as aid to the country.

Honduras is one of the largest recipients of direct foreign investment in Central America, taking in about $517 million in U.S. investment by the end of 2006. U.S. exports to Honduras totaled $5 billion in 2008, and it is the third largest market for U.S. textile mill products.

That explains why business leaders in both Honduras and the United States have taken an interest in U.S. policy toward the de facto government, hiring lobbyists here in Washington to make their views known. Palmer explained American businesses’ interest in the crisis because “any type of sanction that would slow up trade with Honduras could have a detrimental effect on their businesses.”

Honduras, however, is a signatory to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which makes it tough to impose sanctions on the country. U.S. officials could look to see if Honduras violated any provisions of the agreement but the de facto government would likely argue any trade sanctions violate CAFTA.

Other than the letter by the seven trade associations, U.S. companies have also lobbied on the political crisis in Honduras, according to lobbying disclosure reports filed this quarter.

For example, Kimberly-Clark Corp., a health and hygiene company, had a contract lobbyist work Capitol Hill to oppose border restrictions and roadway blockades in Honduras, according to records. The company has a healthcare products facility in the country.

In addition, in-house lobbyists for Seaboard Corp., an agribusiness and transportation firm, lobbied on “agricultural, economic and political issues” regarding a list of countries, including Honduras, last quarter. Seaboard has at least four subsidiaries based in Honduras, according to records filed with the Securities Exchange Commission.

More Honduran business leaders have also hired help in Washington. For example, Asociacion Hondurena de Maquiladores registered two firms to lobby on its behalf — the Cormac Group and Vison Americas.

At Vison Americas, two former State Department officials from the Bush administration, Roger Noriega and Jose Cardenas, are lobbying for the association to “support the efforts of the Honduran private sector to consolidate the democratic transition in their country,” according to lobbying records.

The Honduran Coup and the Clinton Connection

A pro-coup faction in the Obama administration
by Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com, July 27, 2009

If you’re a Honduran general and you’re chafing at the bit to depose the duly elected president – as your predecessors have done repeatedly over the years – you don’t just go for it. That would be impolitic and eminently impractical: after all, the United States is not only your country’s number one trading partner, it is also the chief source of funding that keeps the Honduran military flush with so much cash that it is the fifth largest economic power in the nation. A cutoff of that all-important lifeline, not to mention trade sanctions, could put the squeeze on your finances.

So, before you make your move and call the troops out of the barracks, you let Washington know what you’re up to – you feel them out and get some idea of how they might react. There are plenty of indications that this is indeed what occurred, including talk of "negotiations" between the coup plotters and the State Department that failed to avert the "crisis." So while the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has officially taken the position that the coup is illegitimate and President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya must be restored to office, there are hints that the U.S. is playing both sides of the fence – and even tilting toward the coup leaders. When Zelaya announced that he would cross the border between Honduras and Nicaragua on foot and called on his supporters to gather, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced him as "reckless." Which led Zelaya to ask, in effect, which side is she on?

Good question, and the answer is she’s on Lanny Davis’ side. Davis, you’ll recall, was her chief attack dog during the presidential primary campaign, and now he’s sold his services to the Honduran branch of CEAL, the Central American business alliance, which supports the coup. He has always been very close to Hillary, and he was her priapic husband’s defense counsel during the impeachment hearings. This time he’s taken on a similarly indefensible client and is working his public relations skills prettifying a brazen coup d’etat as a valiant attempt to "preserve" the Honduran constitution and "the rule of law."

Is it really too fantastic to assume he’s been on the phone with his old friend Hillary, lobbying hard for the coup leaders and the interests of his corporate paymasters?

Davis, who will do anything for money – he once signed on as a lobbyist for the government of Kazakhstan, one of the most repressive and corrupt governments in the world – is aided by another Clintonista, as the New York Times reports:

"Last week, Mr. Micheletti brought the adviser from another firm with Clinton ties to the talks in Costa Rica. The adviser, Bennett Ratcliff of San Diego, refused to give details about his role at the talks. ‘Every proposal that Micheletti’s group presented was written or approved by the American,’ said another official close to the talks, referring to Mr. Ratcliff."

The locus of the pro-coup faction in high Democratic Party councils seems to be the powerful Washington law firm of Covington and Burling, which is paid a large retainer by Chiquita, formerly known as United Fruit Company. Current U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is a Covington alumnus. He defended Chiquita against charges of bribery and dealing with a known terrorist entity when it was accused (and convicted) of funding right-wing paramilitaries throughout Central America.

So what we have is this: a powerful group within the Democratic Party, clustered around Hillary Clinton, actively pushing for the legitimization of the Honduran coup on behalf of their corporate clients – Chiquita, which has a long and dishonorable history in the region, and the Honduran association of big businessmen, who have long used the state as their personal instrument.

This corporatist alliance is a logical ally of the Clintonistas, who – along with the neocons – have stepped up to the plate as the coup leaders’ leading apologists in Washington. After all, the corporatist model – in which the state acts on behalf of its big business backers, privileging their interests and subsidizing their projects at taxpayers’ expense – reached new heights of corruption under Bill Clinton.

Big U.S. business interests are threatened by Zelaya’s attempts at social reform and his pursuit of an independent foreign policy that puts Honduras first – not the Honduras business council and the U.S. government. Even Lanny Davis is saying it might not have been such a good idea – but, according to him, we have to let bygones be bygones and "move on." Now where have we heard that line before?

The latest news from Honduras is that the military is beginning to relent and has basically endorsed the "Arias Accord," the compromise worked out by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. The deal involves Zelaya’s restoration, but at a price: he’ll be shorn of a good deal of his presidential powers, in effect reduced to a caretaker-figurehead until new elections are held. Arias wants new elections quickly, but with the country deeply polarized, a presidential campaign could well devolve into open civil war.

The accord, which has Washington’s backing, is just a soft coup. It rewards the generals and their corporate backers and slaps down the populist surge represented by Zelaya, who had challenged the status quo in ways that are not conventionally leftist. Indeed, it is hard to see why Reason magazine, which bangs away at the drug legalization issue with obsessive regularity, hasn’t hailed Zelaya’s call to decriminalize – and why the Cato Institute, which noted this a while back, seems to have forgotten it while denouncing him as an aspiring "dictator."

The public relations crew that is being paid mega-bucks to prettify the Honduran military regime is certainly earning its fee: every single "news" account of the events leading up to the coup avers that the referendum Zelaya wanted to hold would have extended his term as president. This is a flat-out lie. Read the translation of the question that was to be on the ballot, and see for yourself.

This has nothing to do with term limits and everything to do with the unlimited greed of the Honduran oligarchy and its American corporate partners, who, acting in tandem with the U.S. government, have looted Honduras for decades. They feared Zelaya would put an end to their racket, so the U.S.-trained-and-supported army put an end to his presidency. In the end, the coup leaders will get their way, Zelaya’s supporters will have been put in their place, and the alleged threat represented by Hugo Chavez, the left-populist "Bolivarian," will have been turned back.

But not really. By supporting corporatist oligarchs, who have as good a reason to fear a true free market as they do a Chavista revolution, the U.S. does itself no favors – though Lanny Davis and his clients are doing quite well, thank you. The essential issue in Central America is the all-important land question. The oligarchs, who monopolize scarce land based on feudal land grants, profit by and owe their status to a system of state intervention that amounts to a spoils system. They invariably resort to the army – to coercion – when all else fails, and that is precisely what happened in this instance. They have always gotten away with it, due to U.S. complicity, and if the Clinton State Department has anything to say about it, the much-vaunted "change" promised by Obama won’t show its face in Honduras any time soon.

The high-powered hidden support for Honduras' coup

The country's rightful president was ousted by a military leadership that takes many of its cues from Washington insiders.
By Mark Weisbrot, Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2009

Powerful special interests have flexed their muscles and confronted President Obama on the most important legislative priorities of his domestic agenda. But this kind of politics-by-influence-peddling doesn't stop at the water's edge. And in foreign policy, the consequences can be more immediate, violent and deadly.

Meet Lanny Davis, Washington lawyer and lobbyist, former legal counsel to President Clinton and avid campaigner for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid. He has been hired by a coalition of Latin American business interests to represent the dictatorship that ousted elected President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras in a military coup and removed him to Costa Rica on June 28.

Davis is working with Bennett Ratcliff, another lobbyist with a close relationship to Hillary Clinton who is a former senior executive for one of the most influential political and public relations firms in Washington. In the current mediation effort hosted by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, the coup-installed government did not make a move without first consulting Ratcliff, an unnamed source told the New York Times.

Davis and Ratcliff have done an amazing public relations job so far. Americans, relying on media reports, are likely to believe that Zelaya was ousted because he tried to use a referendum to extend his term of office. This is false.

Zelaya's referendum, planned for the day the coup took place, was a nonbinding poll. It only asked voters if they wanted to have an actual referendum on reforming the country's Constitution on the November ballot. Even if Zelaya had gotten everything he was looking for, a new president would have been elected on the same November ballot. So Zelaya would be out of office in January, no matter what steps were taken toward constitutional reform. Further, Zelaya has repeatedly said that if the Constitution were changed, he would not seek another term.

If we add together the high-powered lobbyists from the Clinton camp, Republican members of Congress and conservatives within the State Department, the coup government has a lot of support from Washington.

So it's up to Obama to do the right thing. He can have the U.S. Treasury freeze the coup leaders' personal bank accounts and the assets of the coup leaders and their supporters, and deny them visas to the U.S. He could also impose trade sanctions -- 70% of Honduran exports go to the United States. He would have worldwide support for such steps: Both the Organization of American States and the U.N. General Assembly have voted unanimously to demand the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of Zelaya.

Almost all of the Latin American governments -- which are mostly left of center -- also sympathize with Zelaya because he is a reform president fighting against a corrupt oligarchy. In one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, he raised the minimum wage by 60% and increased teachers' salaries and public pensions, as well as access to education.

What happened in Honduras is a classic Latin American coup in another sense: Gen. Romeo Vasquez, who led it, is an alumnus of the United States' School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). The school is best known for producing Latin American officers who have committed major human rights abuses, including military coups.

The military has shot at peaceful demonstrators, killing one, according to human rights groups, and the coup government has closed TV and radio stations and arrested journalists. Two political activists have been murdered.

During the 1980s, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency trained a military death squad -- the infamous Battalion 316 -- that tortured and murdered hundreds of Honduran political activists. The U.S. Embassy looked the other way, and the State Department doctored its human rights reports to omit these crimes.

Obama has so far been silent about the coup government's violence and censorship. This silence is very unfortunate and difficult to explain. The repression may worsen if -- as expected -- the Arias mediation efforts fail and Zelaya makes good on his vow to return to Honduras.

Obama needs to show that the U.S. will not follow policies of the past by supporting Zelaya's return with action, not just words. Anything less will look like complicity in the eyes of the world, especially given the coup government's friends in high places.

Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. (www.cepr.net).

Honduras' interim (coup) govt sends lobbying team to US

By MARK STEVENSON, AP, The Washington Post, July 21, 2009

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- The soldiers, politicians and businessmen who ousted left-leaning President Manuel Zelaya are taking their battle from Honduras into the U.S. political arena, waging a lobbying campaign to paint themselves as a bulwark against "dictatorship" and "communism."

Appealing to free trade supporters, they hope to nudge the Obama administration away from its threat to impose sanctions on the impoverished country, where export-assembly factories are dominated by U.S. firms and investors.

"I imagine there would be some reaction from them" to trade sanctions, Amilcar Bulnes, head of the Honduran Council of Private Business, said Monday.

The de facto government led by interim President Roberto Micheletti took pains to put together a lobbying effort that is diverse and representative. The team sent to Washington on Monday includes a Christian Democrat labor leader and a university law professor who is in an opposition party.

Zelaya's foes appear to hope President Barack Obama doesn't have the time or energy for this battle when he has weightier problems like his push to reform the U.S. health care system and turn around the economy.

"Honduras is a small, poor country," Bulnes said. "The world would look very bad if it takes out its wrath on this country."

The lobbying team left for the U.S. as Washington was turning up pressure on the Micheletti government by warning that Honduras could face severe economic sanctions if Zelaya is not restored to the presidency.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Micheletti on Sunday to say there would be serious consequences if his government keeps ignoring international calls for Zelaya's return - the key point that led to a stalemate in U.S.-supported negotiations over the weekend mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

Business executives say U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens has called them into meetings to warn that Honduras - heavily dependent on exports to the United States - could face tough sanctions if leaders continue to refuse Arias' compromise proposal for Zelaya to return as head of a coalition government. The U.S. Embassy said it would not comment on the meetings.

The European Union added to the pressure Monday by announcing it was suspending $93.1 million (65.5 million euros) in aid to Honduras. The EU's external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, called the standoff over Zelaya "a crisis which Honduras can ill afford."

No government has recognized the Micheletti administration, and the United Nations and Organization of American States have called for the return of Zelaya, who was arrested and hustled out of the country by the army on June 28.

Micheletti vowed not to back down - and implied that Washington is betraying a staunch ally, one that let its territory be used as a staging area for U.S.-backed Contra rebels battling Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government during the 1980s and more recently sent troops to Iraq.

"We feel abandoned by several friendly countries," Micheletti said in a speech to cheering supporters. "We are going to demonstrate ... that we have the strength to hold out until the last moment."

Referring to Clinton's phone call, Micheletti suggested she send an envoy to Honduras to see that the government is not persecuting Zelaya's supporters, who have staged daily demonstrations demanding his return.

Micheletti vowed to stay in power until a scheduled Nov. 29 presidential vote, which the United States has suggested it may not recognize if it is held under a de facto government.

"We are going to go on with life, we are going to go on with our government, we are going to go on with the next presidential elections on Nov. 29," he said. "They have to respect us."

Business leaders - a key sector of support for Micheletti - also vowed to tough it out, hoping the U.S. government is as wary as they are of Zelaya, who has aligned himself with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Washington's biggest antagonists in the region.

Zelaya angered many people in Honduras by ignoring Congress' and the courts' objections to his effort to hold a referendum on changing the constitution, which many saw as an attempt to impose a Chavez-style socialist government.

"We prefer sanctions to Zelaya's return," said Adolfo Facusse, head of the country's National Association of Industries. He said restoring Zelaya to power would bring the "loss of liberty, dictatorship, communism."

Honduran group seeks help from U.S. to reinstate Zelaya

By Kevin Bogardus, TheHill.com, July 14, 2009

A group of Hondurans who want their ousted president, Manuel Zelaya, reinstated are pressing the U.S. government to suspend trade and foreign aid to the Central American country.

The Hondurans, who oppose the nation’s interim government, were in Washington this week to make the case to the U.S. government that Zelaya’s June 28 ouster was an illegal military coup. They believe business interests inside and outside of Honduras conspired to remove the president due to his populist policies.

"We are very worried because the coup takes back to the past politically, economically, and socially," said Marvin Ponce, a member of the Honduran National Congress. “We are here not just to defend Zelaya but to defend democracy.”

Ponce and other Hondurans spoke with reporters through a translator Tuesday morning at a briefing organized by the Center for Democracy in the Americas, a think tank that tracks U.S. policy toward Latin America.

The lobbying trip by the Hondurans comes as partisan fault lines take shape on Capitol Hill. Democrats have embraced the idea that this was a military coup, while Republicans say Zelaya’s removal was justified after he tried to grab more power than he is constitutionally allowed.

A House Foreign Affairs subcommittee has already taken up the issue at a hearing, and last week a trio of liberal House Democrats — Reps. Bill Delahunt (Mass.), James McGovern (Mass.) and José Serrano (N.Y.) — introduced a resolution deeming the action a coup and calling for the reinstatement of Zelaya.

“To accept the overthrow of a democratically elected government is to wipe away the progress that has been made — progress that has been supported by both Democratic and Republican presidents and congresses,” the lawmakers wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter seeking support for their resolution.

The resolution had 16 co-sponsors as of press time Tuesday — all of them Democrats, including a few committee chairmen: Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) of the Judiciary Committee and Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Their resolution followed one introduced last Thursday by Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), who condemned Zelaya for his desire to change presidential term limits and said that led to his exile. Eleven co-sponsors have signed on, all Republican.

Republicans have rejected calling Zelaya’s removal a coup. Other branches of the government called for the president’s ouster, including its supreme court and its legislature, they note.

A group of Honduran business leaders also say Zelaya’s removal was justified and have hired Washington lobbyists to help make their case to lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

This week, the Hondurans opposing the takeover are scheduled to meet with McGovern but also with Reps. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. They also plan to hold an open briefing for lawmakers on Capitol Hill on the situation in Honduras and have meetings planned with officials from the State Department and World Bank.

Engel, who chaired last week's hearing, is a key voice in the debate over Honduras; his subcommittee has jurisdiction over the region. Engel more forcibly criticized Zelaya last week at the hearing after calling for his reinstatement one day after his June 28 ouster.

The Hondurans who are against Zelaya’s exile plan intend to push lawmakers and administration officials to end trade and foreign aid to Honduras until the political crisis is resolved.

“The power to return the president is here in Washington if they suspend trade,” Ponce said.

The group is also supporting the mediation process arranged by the State Department and under the guidance of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, but under certain conditions.

“All dialogue is positive,” said Juan Almendares, a Honduran environmentalist. “ But we believe the dialogue should be in Honduras … There has to be a recognition that there has been a military coup.”

The advocates for Zelaya said those who oppose the interim government are being censored in the press, arrested and even killed by the authorities. “If this government was a democratic government, they wouldn’t have to use this force,” Almendares said.

The Hondurans in Washington this week have found support among some American academics. In a July 9 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, 78 Latin American scholars said, “Anything less than the urgent restoration of President Manuel Zelaya to office would be an usurpation of the will of the Honduran people.”

But those opposed to Zelaya's ouster will already find a lobbying campaign against the former president here in Washington. Last week, the Honduran branch of CEAL, essentially Latin America’s chamber of commerce, hired Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe to lobby on its behalf, saying it was right to oust Zelaya.

Those lobbyists argue that Zelaya ignored a ruling from Honduras’s supreme court and a vote against him in the legislature. They say Zelaya was acting outside of the country’s constitution by trying to change presidential term limits under a voter referendum, clearing the path for him to become a dictator.

But Almendares, Ponce and others believe the legislature and the supreme court, corrupted by business interests inside and outside the country, were acting unconstitutionally by limiting presidential powers. The coup was complete when the military ignored orders from Zelaya in late June.

“There is no doubt that this is a military coup that happened,” Almendares said. “How can a military coup be legal?”

TODAY: Tell Your Senators to Vote NO on War Funding

Debate on the Senate version of the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations bill began on Tuesday and continues today.

The $91.3 billion Senate bill provides $73 billion for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan.

Voting on the war funding bill is expected later today or on Thursday.

TODAY, please make TWO easy phone calls to
your Senators.

The Congressional switchboard number is 1-800-517-5696. (You must make two calls & ask for each of Senators separately)

Tell them: "I'm calling to tell Senator _______ to vote NO on the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations bill. More war funding is wrong!"

Or take a little more time to write an e-mail message expressing your concerns.

But, please contact both your Senators TODAY.
Thank you!

You can find your Senators contact information by clicking here (http://capwiz.com/fconl/directory/congdir.tt)
… input your zip code or look up your Senators' last names in the directory,
… go to your Senators' websites to find the phone numbers and e-mail forms.

See Talking Points here.

See the Summary of the Senate Supplemental Appropriations bill here.


See the full text of the Senate Supplemental Appropriations bill here.

Stop Execution of Troy Davis! Campaign

TELL THE GEORGIA GOV., LEGISLATURE, PRESIDENT OBAMA, ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDEN, CONGRESS AND THE MEDIA: STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS!

Please join the online campaign to STOP THE EXECUTION! FREE TROY DAVIS NOW! YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW! Click HERE to Fill in Online Form

Tell Gov. Perdue:

STOP THE EXECUTION! FREE TROY DAVIS!

Troy Davis is an African American on death row in Georgia. Davis was convicted in the 1989 killing of a police officer despite what Amnesty International calls "overwhelming doubts about his guilt." No physical forensic evidence was presented at Davis' trial, and 7 of the 9 witnesses have recanted their testimony, with at least two saying they were pressured by police to finger Davis as the killer. Yet on October 14, 2008 the Supreme Court refused to allow a new hearing in his case, and on April 16, 2009 the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to deny his appeal. TAKE ACTION NOW using the form below to let the Georgia governor, legislature, and congressional delegation as well as President Obama, Attorney General Holder, U.N. Secretary-General Ban, Congressional leaders and members of the media know you demand No Execution of Troy Davis!

For more information, go to http://www.gfadp.org/TakingAction/TroyDavis/tabid/68/Default.aspx

Click HERE to Fill in Online Form

Phone Banking Evenings for Collective Bargaining Raleigh and Statewide

Volunteers Needed!

Monday, May 18
Tuesday, May 19
Thursday, May 21

6:00pm-8:30pm (Training at 5:30)

For half a century now, North Carolina General Statute 95-98 has denied our public employees - our teachers, firefighters, sanitation workers, police officers, et al. - the ability to bargain a contract with their employer, essentially outlawing democracy at work.

This Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings, supporters of collective bargaining rights will be calling registered voters who have been identified as likely supporters of workers rights, and who live in certain key state legislative districts. We will be asking these voters to contact their elected official about the repeal of 95-98, and to take other steps in their communities to advance the movement for collective bargaining rights.

Phone banking will occur at the North Carolina Justice Center in Raleigh. If you can't make it to Raleigh, you can participate from anywhere in the state - all you need is a phone (land-line or cell) and a computer with a fast internet connection. Calling will take place from 6:00pm-8:30pm, with a training on how to use the system at 5:30pm.

Everyday public employees deliver for the people of our state. It's time for our elected leaders to value their hard work by repealing NCGS 95-98 and standing up for democracy on the job. This coming week, spend an evening of solidarity with public employees by participating in Phone Banking for Collective Bargaining.

To participate, contact:

Mary Montford (919) 268-0259
Josh Reynolds (919) 801-3949

Sign HOPE's letter to legislators!
Support public employee collective bargaining!
Please ask others to sign before May 26!

Watch collective bargaining press conference highlights at www.nchope.org!

HOPE Coalition Core Members:
American Association of University Professors/NC; American Federation of Teachers/NC; International Union of Police Associations; NC Association of Educators;
NC State AFL-CIO; National Association of Social Workers - NC Chapter;
Professional Firefighters and Paramedics of NC; Service Employees International Union;
State Employees Association of NC, SEIU Local 2008; Teamsters Local 391;
UE Local 150 - NC Public Service Workers Union

Hear Our Public Employees Coalition
P.O. Box 12133, Raleigh, North Carolina 27605
1408 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC 27605
919.491.6936 info@nchope.org
www.nchope.org

Obama, Jesus and War

CODEPINK: Women For Peace, May 15, 2009

Call the Congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121, ask for your Senator, and say--loudly and clearly--that you want him/her to vote against more money for war.

What a shame. Today the House voted 368 to 60 to spend billions more of our tax dollars ($96.7 billion) for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. While we walked the halls of Congress all week urging a "NO" vote, Congressmembers were being lobbied hard by the White House to vote for it. President Barack Obama met with the Progressive Caucus to push the war funding, and each member who showed skepticism received phone calls from the White House.

"Did you know that President Obama is more popular than Jesus Christ?," Cong. Emanuel Cleaver asked us. "I didn't like this bill, but I voted for it. It's hard to stand up to such a popular president."

Fifty-one courageous Democrats (list below), however, did just that. "The pressure was intense," said freshman Cong. Donna Edwards. "But I just returned from Afghanistan and people there kept saying that the solution is not more troops but more development assistance."

Cong. Lynn Woolsey agreed. "This bill has no exit strategy," she told us, "and it allocates over 90% of the money for the military and less than 10% for development. This even contradicts General Petraeus' own counter-insurgency doctrine of 80% non-military and 20% military."

While we were outside Congress with the banner "Stop Funding War," Cong. Sheila Jackson Lee stopped to talk to us." "I must tell you ladies that I voted for the bill this time but I don't feel good about it and I plan to revisit this. I want to thank you for being out here and tell you that you need to keep doing what you're doing, keep the pressure on--in fact, turn it up. That's the only way we'll ever get out of these wars."

Next week the war funding will be voted in the Senate. So please take Congresswoman Lee's advice and turn up the pressure. Call the Congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121, ask for your Senators, and say--loudly and clearly--that you want him/her to vote against more money for war. Say you want a surge in negotiations and development assistance, not troops. For more help see talking points below.

We know--and you know--that war is not the answer. Let's help Obama and Congress move us on a new path.

Yes we can, yes we will--end war.
Allison, Audrey, Blaine, Dana, Desiree, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Janna, Janet, Jean, Jodie, Liz, Lori, Lydia, Medea, Nancy, Pam, Paris, and Rae

PS. If you haven't seen the courageous team of Desiree Fairooz and Medea Benjamin taking on Rumsfeld, don't miss it.

Here are some key talking points:

* At a time of economic crisis and multiplying domestic needs, the 2009 Supplemental is an appalling waste of our money.

* The Supplemental funds the increase of troops to Afghanistan, escalating the war rather than ending it.

* The Supplemental places no restrictions on American bombings in either Afghanistan or Pakistan, despite the disproportionate harm to civilian inhabitants.

*The Supplemental maintains a high level of American troops in Iraq for the duration of FY 2009.

Nay Votes on H R 2346, Supplemental Appropriations, 5/14/09

Baldwin

Capuano

Clarke

Cohen

Conyers

Cooper

Costello

Doggett

Edwards (MD)

Ellison

Farr

Filner

Honda

Inslee

Kagen

Kaptur

Kucinich


Lee (CA)

Lewis (GA)

Lofgren, Zoe

Markey (MA)

Massa

Matsui

McDermott

McGovern

Michaud

Payne

Pingree (ME)

Polis (CO)

Schakowsky

Serrano

Shea-Porter

Speier

Thompson (CA)


Tierney

Towns

Tsongas

Velazquez

Frank (MA)

Grayson

Grijalva

Gutierrez

Miller, George

Napolitano

Neal (MA) Oberstar

Waters

Watson

Weiner

Welch

Woolsey

Shameful Vote in the House Passes War Funding Bill

On Thursday afternoon, an overwhelming majority in the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of the $96.7 billion Supplemental Appropriations bill, despite great constituent pressure to vote against war funding.

The spending measure provides over $84 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and increases U.S. involvement in Pakistan.

A sickening vote!

368 Congress members voted for more war funding, escalating U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and maintaining a high level of U.S. troops in Iraq through Sept. 30, 2009. Only 60 Representatives (including 9 Republicans) voted against more money for military occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Next week, a vote on the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations bill is expected in the full Senate, after the Senate Appropriations Committee today approved a $91.3 billion version of the war-funding bill.

Please tell your Senators to vote "NO" on funding devastating U.S. wars.

Click here to see the House of Representatives roll call vote tally on the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations bill.

C-SPAN coverage of House Debate on War Appropriations ~ May 14, 2009
(1 hour 15 minutes)

Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey speaks against war funding ~ May 14, 2009
(29 minutes)

**********************
Amidst this tragedy in Congress today, an excellent article by David Smith-Ferri was published. Be sure to read "A New Way"

The Declaration Of Peace

Act Now to Defend Free Speech Rights on the National Mall

Your Comments Needed by the end of Friday, May 15

Little is more important for the defense of Free Speech and the First Amendment than the right of the people to gain access to public spaces to assemble for the exercise of dissent. Especially when the space is the National Mall, the site of some of the most meaningful mass assembly protests in U.S. history.

When we alerted you last year to take action to Defend Free Speech Rights on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., more than 16,500 people responded by writing emails and letters telling the government and the National Park Service (NPS) that there should be a moratorium on any plans to restrict access to the mall.

You raised clear collective demands: No new restrictions on free speech or protest on the Mall. No government-designated protest pits or zones.

To place this in perspective: There were 18,000 comments on the proposals for the National Mall. Your responses, focusing on the grave threats posed to mass political assembly in the heart of the Nation's Capital, constituted over 91% of the total comments received.

The National Park Service has responded by releasing its "Preliminary Preferred Alternative" plan for the reorganization of the National Mall.

How does the Park Service respond to these clear demands? Does it pledge no new restrictions on protest or free speech on the Mall? Hardly.

The NPS responded with the double-speak of polished politicians. The NPS revamped the language on its website to dismiss all those who filed comments supporting free speech as suffering from a “misunderstanding.”

The NPS responded by saying that no matter what it does, “First Amendment rights will not change.” Of course, First Amendment rights will not change. Those are inalienable rights. Those are our rights.

The NPS asserts that the First Amendment allows the Park Service to impose restrictions on the time, place and manner of free speech and assembly on the Mall.

Clearly, the misunderstanding is theirs.

The demand was not for constitutional rights in the abstract. The demand was that the NPS not impose any new restrictions on the ability of persons to use and assemble upon the Mall for free speech and dissent.

Now, it’s time again to make your voices heard. Click here to send your comment to the NPS today.

Sweeping aside the earlier groundswell of comments insisting on no new demonstration restrictions, the Park Service has opened up a new comment period that will close tomorrow, Friday May 15, 2009.

The government’s vague new proposal is cause for concern. We need you to act now, to submit your comment to the NPS that you support the simple demand that the NPS must guarantee that its reorganization of the National Mall would not increase in any way, shape or form the “time, place and manner restrictions” for those using the National Mall for First Amendment activities.

We need thousands of people to join together in making clear that the government cannot use the excuse of beautifying the National Mall or protecting the grass to establish a partnership with commercial corporate entities and fundamentally change the use of the National Mall for “We the People.”

Write to the National Park Service. Tell them you want them to implement the 8 Point Plan to Protect Free Speech and Dissent on the National Mall. Click here to send your comment to the NPS today.

Unless we act now, the National Mall will be reorganized for the benefit of commercial interests. The Plan is alarmingly vague and it is clear that the NPS thinks that Free Speech can be tokenized, patted on the head and turned into a harmless decoration by a series of specific management measures that are undisclosed now but can severely restrict access for those engaging in dissent

The PCJF obtained internal documents through a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) demands and a lawsuit. These documents reveal that while the government considers those who have commercial and business interests to be "stakeholders" in the future of the National Mall, those who are advocating for Free Speech rights on the Mall are not invited or consulted.

The groups who have brought hundreds of thousands of people to petition the government for redress of grievances - not invited.

Who was invited by the government into the planning process? The list includes the Tourmobile Corporation, the Board of Trade, the Chamber of Commerce, the Guest Services company, real estate consultants, and the sales and marketing consultant for the Hard Rock Cafe.

To receive the support of the people, any new National Mall Plan must guarantee the following:

The 8 Point Plan to Protect Free Speech on the National Mall

1) No new restrictions on the time, place or manner of use of the National Mall for demonstration activity.

2) No new obstacles to the contiguity of space: no new fencing or walls or other obstacles that would or break up the continuous use of the length of the Mall for large, mass demonstrations.

3) No new restrictions that would reduce the ability to use staging. For example, versions of the Mall plan have included proposed prohibition on banners or staging that would “interfere” with the line of sight to the U.S. Capitol and include paved "protest pits" where protestors will be urged to assemble.

4) No new restrictions on use of sound, including no new volume limitations and no new rules limiting the direction that speakers may point or direct sound.

5) No restrictions on the size of demonstrations.

6) No restrictions on frequency of demonstrations.

7) No restrictions imposing a “maximum” number of demonstrations in a given period of time; no new restrictions imposing an across-the-board maximum number of large events on the Mall that would restrict or limit demonstrations.

8) No “black out” periods. No restrictions on back-to-back or multiple-day events, and no new restrictions imposing a “black out” or “turf rehabilitation” period that would bar/restrict demonstrations from occurring close in time to other large events using the Mall.

Click here to send your comment to the NPS today.

Thank you for taking action to defend free speech rights.

Sincerely,

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard and Carl Messineo
attorneys and co-founders, PCJF

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund - Protecting Public Space for Dissent

We filed a major lawsuit when Mayor Bloomberg shredded that right by denying protestors the right to mass assemble in Central Park’s Great Lawn during the Republican National Convention in 2004. That lawsuit resulted in a historic settlement.

We filed a federal lawsuit when the Bush-Cheney Presidential Inaugural Committee blocked access to the Presidential Inaugural parade route, reserving nearly all of the route to political cronies and donors, and the wealthy elite, leaving the public without almost no place except behind their towering bleachers. We secured a landmark constitutional rights ruling forcing the National Park Service to open the route to the public. Thousands upon thousands of ordinary people were able to attend and stand along the parade route for the historic Obama Inauguration.

For more information on PCJF's free speech work, please visit http://www.justiceonline.org/.

Free Cliff Cornell now!

Write imprisoned Iraq War resister Cliff Cornell directly at: Clifford Cornell, Bldg 1041, PSC Box # 20140, Camp Lejuene NC 28542. Cliff was recently sentenced to 12 months in the brig after being forced to return from Canada. Request that his sentence be reduced.

Courage To Resist

Support Clemency for Troy Davis

Troy Davis faces execution for the murder of Police Officer Mark MacPhail in Georgia, despite a strong claim of innocence. 7 out of 9 witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony, no murder weapon was found and no physical evidence links Davis to the crime. The Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles has voted to deny clemency, yet Governor Perdue can still exercise leadership to ensure that his death sentence is commuted. Please urge him to demonstrate respect for fairness and justice by supporting clemency for Troy Davis.

Latest case update and more about Troy Davis

1. WATCH the video demanding justice for Troy Davis
2. SEND a message to ask Georgia's Governor to support clemency for Troy Davis
3. FORWARD the video to a friend

Urge Members of Congress to Join Congressman Baird's Delegation to Israel and Palestine

by Cindy & Craig Corrie (parents of Rachel Corrie)

In February, Congressman Brian Baird, our representative from the WA - 3rd District, joined Congressman Keith Ellison from Minnesota, for a visit to Gaza and, also, Sderot in Israel. Since then, he has spoken out strongly about all that he witnessed. Congressman Baird has planned and organized a late May Congressional delegation to Israel, the West Bank, and hopefully Gaza (with some focus on Israeli/Palestinian groups working together for peace). In visiting with him this week, we learned that for reasons apparently related to schedule demands, not enough members of Congress have signed on to make the May trip viable. Unless there is a surge in interest, it appears that Congressman Baird will postpone this delegation until later in the year.

We all know how important it is for people to see for themselves what is happening in Israel/Palestine. Please call and/or write to your Congressional members (Representatives and Senators) and urge them to join Congressman Brian Baird's delegation to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza--either in May or later in the year (should it be postponed). Tell your representatives in Congress that it is important to you that they go to the West Bank and Gaza (as well as Israel) to see the situation firsthand. Tell them that the financial investment we are making in this region and the relevance of Israel/Palestine to U.S. interests, require that they see the full picture. Tell them you want them to go.

Please share this message with others who will contact their members of Congress, as well.

Thanks!
Cindy and Craig Corrie

Call your Representative at (202) 224-3121 or (866) 338-1015. To find out who your Representative is go to http://www.house.gov

Call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 or (866) 338-1015. To find out who your Senators are go to http://www.senate.gov

Take Action: Tell Congress--No Arms for Israel

Last week, President Obama sent his FY2010 budget request to Congress and, as expected, included in it $2.775 billion in military aid for Israel, an increase of $225 million from this year's budget.

The budget request now goes to the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs for hearings and "mark-ups".

This request for an increase in military aid to Israel comes despite the fact that Israel consistently misuses U.S. weapons in violation of the Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts.

During the Bush Administration, Israel killed more than 3,000 Palestinian civilians who took no part in hostilities, including more than 1,000 children. During its December-January war on the Gaza Strip alone, Israel killed nearly 1,200 Palestinian non-combatants.

Especially during this acute economic crisis, is this how you want Congress to spend your taxes? If not, then take action below.

TAKE ACTION

1. Send a personalized letter to the Members of Congress on the Appropriations Subcommittee.

Let these Members of Congress know that you oppose the President's FY2010 budget request for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel. To send your letter, please click here.

2. Get your organization to endorse our open letter to the Appropriations Subcommittees.

The US Campaign is organizing an open letter to the Appropriations Subcommittees opposing the President's FY2010 budget request for $2.775 billion I military aid to Israel. To read and endorse the letter (organizational endorsements only please), click here.

Check out the list of national organizations that are joining with us to launch this open letter:

1. American Jews for a Just Peace

2. Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights

3. Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy

4. Council for the National Interest

5. Council on American-Islamic Relations

6. Episcopal Peace Fellowship

7. Fellowship of Reconciliation

8. Friends of Sabeel-North America

9. Grassroots International

10. Interfaith Peace-Builders

11. Middle East Research and Information Project

12. Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation

13. New Internationalism Project, Institute for Policy Studies

14. Progressive Democrats of America

15. US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

16. Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-U.S. Section

To read the full text of the open letter and to have your organization endorse it, please click here.

3. Spread the word about our campaign.

Copy and paste the graphic above and link it here and then place it on your website, blog, social networking site, and email signature.

4. Sign up to organize to challenge military aid to Israel in your community.

Receive an organizing packet in the mail from us with postcards, petitions, flyers, fact sheets, stickers, and an educational DVD-everything you need to educate and organize people in your community to challenge military aid to Israel. Since February 2007, we've sent out more than 1,200 organizing packets to volunteers in more than 600 cities and 48 states (yep, still waiting on Nevada and North Dakota). Check out the amazing Google map of all of our organizers below and sign up to join them today by clicking here.

View Challenge Military Aid to Israel in a map

5. Offset your tax contribution to Israeli military occupation.

Although Tax Day has come and gone, it's not too late for you to make a statement that you don't want your tax dollars going to fund Israel's human rights abuses of Palestinians. According to our research, Israel killed more than 3,000 innocent Palestinians, including more than 1,000 children, during the Bush Administration, often with U.S. weapons.

We're estimating that in FY2010, each individual tax payer will on average be giving $17.75 in military aid to Israel. Offset your tax contribution to Israeli military occupation and human rights abuses by making a tax deductible contribution to us by clicking on the logo below.

Support our work in the North Carolina area by sending donations to:

Action Center For Justice
7100 Mapleridge Dr
Charlotte, NC 28210

(please note Palestine with your donation)

200 Organizations Ask Holder to Appoint a Special Prosecutor for Bush, Cheney, et alia

David Swanson, ProsecuteBushCheney.org, May 12, 2009

Two hundred organizations, including After Downing Street, Democrats.com, the Robert Jackson Steering Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, the Society of American Law Teachers, Human Rights USA, the American Freedom Campaign, and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, have signed a joint statement urging Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor for former top officials of the Bush Administration.

The complete list of organizations can be found at http://specialprosecutor.us

The complete statement reads as follows:

We urge Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a non-partisan independent Special Counsel to immediately commence a prosecutorial investigation into the most serious alleged crimes of former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, the attorneys formerly employed by the Department of Justice whose memos sought to justify torture, and other former top officials of the Bush Administration.

Our laws, and treaties that under Article VI of our Constitution are the supreme law of the land, require the prosecution of crimes that strong evidence suggests these individuals have committed. Both the former president and the former vice president have confessed to authorizing a torture procedure that is illegal under our law and treaty obligations. The former president has confessed to violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

We see no need for these prosecutions to be extraordinarily lengthy or costly, and no need to wait for the recommendations of a panel or “truth” commission when substantial evidence of the crimes is already in the public domain. We believe the most effective investigation can be conducted by a prosecutor, and we believe such an investigation should begin immediately.

Congressional Hearing on Congo & Sudan

Date: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 2:30 PM

The joint subcommittee hearing on gender-based violence will take place at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13 in the Dirksen Senate Building, room 419. U.S. legislators will hear testimony about violence against women (particularly rape) in conflict zones, using Sudan and the DRC as case studies. The range of panelists will include: women from the DRC and Sudan, including Chouchou Namegabe Nabintu (journalist, DRC); experts on the issue of gender violence; and government witnesses including Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State, The Honorable Melanne Verveer.

Following the hearing, there will be a public reception in the Russell Senate Office Building, Hearing Room 332. Speakers will include: Lynn Nottage (winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for her play Ruined and an ESB Institute/Goodman Fellow); Ron Haviv and Marcus Bleasdale (award-winning photojournalists whose work is part of Congo/Women); and Senator Boxer. Actor Quincy Tyler Bernstine will perform a monologue from her role in Lynn Nottage’s Ruined.

Click here to tell Congress to pass The International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA)

Participate in the Break the Silence Speakers Tour and Congo Week II (October 18 - 24, 2009)

email: info@friendsofthecongo.org
phone: 202-584-6512
web: http://www.friendsofthecongo.org

Call-In During National Nurses Week

Join the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care as we celebrate National Nurses Week!

Our allies, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee have been a longtime leader in the fight against corporate medicine to get insurance company bureaucrats out of our health care. Nurses are on the frontline defending our health in the medical system as well as in the movement for meaningful health reform.

On Wednesday, May 13th, 500 Nurses with activists by their side will be rallying from noon - 2pm at Upper Senate Park in Washington DC. Afterwards, the single-payer movement will take to Capitol Hill to lobby their Senators and US Representatives for single-payer national health care.

Join for the rally by getting on the phone for a National Call-In Day to Congress. We saw Senators laugh at peaceful demonstrators at the Senate Finance Committee Hearing last week, as 8 single-payer advocates were removed one-by-one from the Hearing and arrested. We need to make sure these elected officials hear from the movement.

Remember we have HR 676 in the House with 75 cosponsors and S703 in the Senate with no cosponsors.

See our call-in page for further information on contacting your Congress person.

Thanks for all that you do,
Healthcare-NOW! National Staff

PS. Remember, May 30th is the National Day of Action for Single-Payer Healthcare. We're organizing rallies in over 20 cities around the US.

IFCO/PASTORS FOR PEACE ACTION ALERT: FREEDOM TO TRAVEL & TRADE

A LEGISLATIVE ACTION ALERT FROM IFCO/PASTORS FOR PEACE
ASK YOUR REPS TO SUPPORT THE "FREEDOM TO TRAVEL TO CUBA" BILLS AND THE "US/CUBA TRADE NORMALIZATION ACT"

Momentum has been building in support of the "Freedom to Travel to Cuba" bills (HR874 in the House of Representatives and S428 in the Senate; the two bills are identical). There are now 147 co- sponsors in the House and 26 in the Senate; the House bill added 11 new co-sponsors just last Friday. We want to help guarantee this bill's success, and to send a message to the Congress and the Obama administration that they need to keep taking steps toward a new US/Cuba policy.

PLEASE CHECK THE LIST BELOW TO SEE WHETHER YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND YOUR SENATORS HAVE SIGNED ON AS CO-SPONSORS OF THE "FREEDOM TO TRAVEL TO CUBA" BILLS (HR874/S428). If they're on the list, call and thank them! If not, please call them this week: let them know there are dozens of reasons to end restrictions on travel to Cuba ­ and urge them to sign on to these bills!

ALSO: Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), who traveled to Cuba with Rep. Barbara Lee's delegation last month, chairs the Trade Subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. After holding a hearing last week on the topic of opening trade with Cuba, he has introduced a bill, HR2272, which would repeal the Torricelli and Helms-Burton Acts, take Cuba off the list of 'state sponsors of terrorism,' and end trade restrictions. The bill already has 47 co-sponsors (listed below). Please ask your reps to sign on to co-sponsor HR2272 to end restrictions on trade to Cuba.

Congressional switchboard: 202/225-3121. Questions? Comments? Feedback? Email us ifco@igc.org or call us at IFCO: 212/926-5757.

*****
House Bill HR874: sponsored by Rep William Delahunt (D-MA) and co-sponsored by Reps Abercrombie (D-HI), Alexander (R-LA), Baird (D-WA), Baldwin (D-WI), Berry (D-AR), Biggert (R-IL), Bishop, S (D- GA), Bishop, T (D-NY), Blumenauer (D-OR), Boozman (R-AR), Boswell (D-IA), Boucher (D-VA), Brady (D-PA), Brown, H. (R-SC), Capps (D-CA), Capuano (D-MA), Chaffetz (R-UT), Clarke (D-NY), Clay (D- MO), Cleaver (D-MO), Cohen (D-TN), Conyers (D-MI), Cooper (D-TN) Costa (D-CA), Costello (D-IL), Courtney (D-CT), Crowley (D-NY), Cummings (D-MD), Davis, D (D-IL), Davis, L (D-TN), Davis, S (D- CA), DeFazio (D-OR), DeGette (D-CO), DeLauro (D-CT), Doggett (D-TX), Doyle (D-PA), Edwards, D (D-MD), Ehlers (R-MI), Ellison (D-MN), Emerson (R-MO), Eshoo (D-CA), Etheridge (D-NC), Farr (D- CA), Fattah (D-PA), Filner (D-CA), Flake (R-AZ), Frank (D-MA), Fudge (D-OH), Gonzalez (D-TX), Gordon (D-TN), Grijalva (D-AZ), Gutierrez (D-IL), Harman (D-CA), Herseth Sandlin (D-SD), Hinchey (D- NY), Holden (D-PA), Holt (D-NJ), Honda (D-CA), Inslee (D-WA), Israel (D-NY), Jackson (D-IL), Jackson Lee (D-TX), Johnson, EB (D-TX), Johnson, H (D-GA), Johnson, T (R-IL), Kagen (D-WI), Kanjorski (D- PA), Kaptur (D-OH), Kildee (D-MI), Kilpatrick (D-MI), Kilroy (D-OH), Kind (D-WI), Kucinich (D-OH), Larsen (D-WA), Larson (D-CT), Lee (D-CA), Lewis (D-GA), Lofgren (D-CA), Lowey (D-NY), Lummis (R- WY), Lynch (D-MA), Maloney (D-NY), Markey, E (D-MA), Matheson (D-UT), Matsui (D-CA), McCarthy, C (D-NY), McCollum (D-MN), McDermott (D-WA), McGovern (D-MA), Meeks (D-NY), Michaud (D- ME), Miller, G (D-CA), Mollohan (D-WV), Moore, D (D-KS), Moore, G (D-WI), Moran, James (D-VA), Moran, Jerry (R-KS), Murtha (D-PA), Nadler (D-NY), Neal (D-MA), Norton (D-DC), Oberstar (D-MN), Olver (D-MA), Ortiz (D-TX), Pastor (D-AZ), Paul (R-TX), Payne (D-NJ), Peterson (D-MN), Pingree (D- ME), Polis (D-CO), Pomeroy (D-ND), Price, D (D-NC), Rangel (D-NY), Richardson (D-CA), Ross (D-AR), Ruppersberger (D-MD), Rush (D-IL), Ryan, T (D-OH), Sanchez, Linda (D-CA), Sanchez, Loretta (D-CA), Schakowsky (D-IL), Schwartz (D-PA), Scott, D (D-GA), Serrano (D-NY), Slaughter (D-NY), Smith, Adam (D-WA), Snyder (D-AR), Stark (D-CA), Tanner (D-TN), Tauscher (D-CA), Taylor (D-MS), Thompson, B (D-MS), Thompson, M (D-CA), Tierney (D-MA), Towns (D-NY), Van Hollen (D-MD), Velasquez (D-NY), Walz (D-MN), Waters (D-CA), Watson (D-CA), Watt (D-NC), Waxman (D-CA), Weiner (D-NY), Welch (D-VT), Woolsey (D-CA), Yarmuth (D-KY). [147 total: 135 Democrats and 12 Republicans, as of 5/11/09]

Senate Bill S428: sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and co-sponsored by Senators Barasso (R- WY), Baucus (D-MT), Bingaman (D-NM), Boxer (D-CA), Cantwell (D-WA), Conrad (D-ND), Crapo (R- ID), Dodd (D-CT), Durbin (D-IL), Enzi (R-WY), Feingold (D-WI), Feinstein (D-CA), Harkin (D- IA), Johnson (D-SD), Landrieu (D-LA), Leahy (D-VT), Lincoln (D-AR), Lugar (R-IN), McCaskill (D-MO), Pryor (D-AR), Reed (D-RI), Sanders (I-VT), Udall, T (D-NM), Webb (D-VA), Wyden (D-OR). (Withdrawn: Bennett, M (D-CO).) [26 total: 21 Democrats, 1 Independent, and 4 Republicans, as of 5/11/09]

House Bill HR2272: sponsored by Rep Bobby Rush (D-IL) and co-sponsored by Reps Abercrombie (D-HI), Bishop, S (D-GA), Brady (D-PA), Capuano (D-MA), Clarke (D-NY), Clay (D-MO), Cleaver (D-MO), Clyburn (D-SC), Cohen (D-TN), Conyers (D-MI), Costello (D-IL), Cummings (D-MD), Davis, D (D-IL), Delahunt (D-MA), Ellison (D-MN), Farr (D-CA), Fattah (D-PA), Filner (D-CA), Frank (D-MA), Fudge (D-OH), Green, A (D-TX), Hinchey (D-NY), Johnson, EB (D-TX), Johnson, H (D-GA), Kaptur (D-OH), Kildee (D-MI), Kilpatrick (D-MI), Kucinich (D-OH), Lee (D-CA), Lewis (D-GA), Matsui (D-CA), McDermott (D-WA), Meeks (D-NY), Moore, G (D-WI), Neal (D-MA), Payne (D-NJ), Rangel (D-NY), Richardson (D-CA), Schakowsky (D-CA), Scott, D (D-GA), Serrano (D-NY), Stupak (D-MI), Towns (D-NY), Velasquez (D-NY), Waters (D-CA), Watt (D-NC), Woolsey (D-CA) [48 total: 48 Democrats, as of 5/11/09]

IFCO/PASTORS FOR PEACE
418 West 145th Street, 3-FL.
New York NY 10031
tel: 212.926.5757 - fax 212.926.5842 - e-mail ifco@igc.org
www.ifconews.org

Don't Balance Budgets on the Backs of Public Workers!

workerjustice@gmail.com - 1-800-815-4946

Don't Balance Budgets on the Backs of Public Workers!

State Considers 20-Day Furlough

As the banks and big corporations receive trillions in bailout money, governments are balancing budgets on workers' backs.

There is no fat left on services. Any cuts—like Gov. Perdue's 10-hour furloughs (3% pay cut over 2 months) for all state workers—will be cuts to the bone.

There will be deeper cuts after July 1. There is currently a bill that allows for 20-day furloughs for state workers, which would be nearly a 10% pay cut!

If any furloughs or cuts are necessary, then it should happen at the administrative levels only. Any stimulus money should be used for public jobs, not more privatization.

The root of the budget problem is NC's outdated revenue systems. Proposals will increase the already huge tax breaks for corporations.

The only real chance that workers have to stop the disasters we face is to organize, build our union, make our voices heard, and FIGHT BACK!

workerjustice@gmail.com - 1-800-815-4946