Report on DC lobby day with Ferguson's staff

i think a bunch (0.00 / 0)

of my friends went with one of our local groups.  Did you see Lautenberg as well? Any good stuff from him?

thanks.

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by: jeremythensaid @ Fri May 26, 2006 at 20:48:13 PM UTC

meeting with Lautenberg aide (0.00 / 0)

Lautenberg is considering a 'range' of perhaps, 6 months to a year for bringing troops home, but has so far been reluctant to sign on to any legislation that has a firm timeline.  I'll try to write more about the Lautenberg meeting in a separate diary, or maybe others who were at the meeting can jump in? 

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by: kwilkinson @ Tue May 30, 2006 at 17:19:53 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks! (0.00 / 0)

Ordinary citizens taking the time and money to go down to Washington and make their views known is a key to the retention of our democracy.

I wish there was a way every adult American could get to DC to lobby at least once every decade. They really do need to hear from us directly. As it stands now the professional lobbyists have us amateurs beat out.

I once spent a full day lobbying on my own in DC (this was at the beginning of the moves to impeach Bill Clinton) and it was a blast! The staffers were pretty courteous and all took my little pamphlet. Back then you could still go into the basement and take the little subway train from building to building; it was fun!

The next day on the news I heard Barney Frank refer to the Republican tactics and demeanor as a form of "Talibanism" which thrilled me no end since that was a term I used in my little broadside.

Thanks Again!

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by: Nick Lento @ Wed May 31, 2006 at 07:31:09 AM UTC

Two updates (0.00 / 0)

The VAW does support HR 505 according to my contact at UFPJ.

CNN reported last week that the weapons test in Nevada has been postponed indefinitely.

Nevada blast put on hold indefinitely

Residents fear 700 tons of explosives could kick up radiation

The planned detonation of 700 tons of conventional explosives in the Nevada desert next month was postponed indefinitely Friday because of fears over the possible spread of radiation. The detonation site for the blast, known as "Divine Strake," is at the Nevada Test Site, which is 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The 1,375-square-mile swath of land in southern Nevada is where the United States tested many of its nuclear weapons before President George H.W. Bush signed a testing moratorium in 1992.

The plan was to detonate 1.4 million pounds of fuel oil and fertilizer -- 280 times the amount used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

The prospect has drawn critics, who say the explosion could kick radiation-laced soil into the air, and conspiracists, who say the blast is a front for testing new nuclear weapons.

There is no indication if or when the blast will take place...

Prediction: Dust cloud two miles high

Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah, a Democrat, has long been a critic of the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency's plans for Divine Strake.

"I was greatly concerned, and expressed as much to the director of DTRA," Matheson said. "I advised him to put all the health and safety data out on the table so that people's fears about being once again exposed to radioactive contamination could be addressed.

"I am very pleased to see that these agencies have acted on my advice."

The planners had hoped to dig a huge pit on a hillside, fill it with the explosives and detonate them to see if the blast would destroy an 1,110-foot tunnel directly beneath the pit.

The Pentagon predicted the explosion could send a cloud of dust two miles high into the atmosphere.

The blast was supposed to be an experiment on how better to attack underground targets like the bunkers used by North Korea and Iran to protect their nuclear facilities.

Earlier this month, the blast was pushed from June 2 to June 23 because Native Americans and other groups sued to stop the blast because of environmental concerns.

The Native Americans also claim they are the true owners of the Nevada Test Site land.

The specter of nuclear-laden dust is a sensitive subject for those living downwind of the test range in Nevada and Utah, where generations of people have dealt with health problems blamed on fallout from above-ground nuclear tests in the 1950s.

The word "strake" used in the experiment's name is a nautical term, referring to planking extending along the length of a ship.

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by: kwilkinson @ Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 21:01:44 PM UTC

oops, I meant hr 515 (0.00 / 0)

The funding for veterans' healthcare.

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by: kwilkinson @ Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 21:03:02 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Holt signed the Iran letter (0.00 / 0)

Holt signed on to the Kucinich letter calling for direct negotiations with Iran (sent on May 25, 2006- now with 80 signers) after our visit (we gave it to his LA who had not seen it!)

  Washington, May 31 -

Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), Ranking Member of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, issued the following statement today on Iran:

“The US must not participate in phony diplomacy and diplomatic head fakes in order to force our nation, and the world, into war with Iran.

“Iran has reached out to the United States seeking negotiations to end the current stand-off peacefully. The United States should enter into direct, high-level, negotiations with Iran to peacefully end this stand off. This is exactly what over 70 Members of Congress stated last week when they signed onto a letter, I authored, to President Bush.

“Setting conditions on such talks appears to be an effort to ensure their failure and will only put this nation on the fast track to another unnecessary war.

“The US and the world community would be well served to listen to the words of the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mohamed El Baradei who stated yesterday that Iran is not an immediate nuclear threat.

“This Administration, once again assisted by a gullible media, seems determined to repeat the very mistakes that led this nation into, and keeps us in, the ill-advised war in Iraq.

“A peaceful solution to the stand-off with Iran must be the top domestic priority of our nation. The US must begin direct negotiations with Iran, at the highest level, and without predetermined conditions set to ensure failure.

“War with Iran can, and must be, avoided.”

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by: zora01 @ Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 23:03:02 PM UTC

Ask and receive (0.00 / 0)

I'm so glad, Zora. Thank you for asking him to.

It's not a particularly snappy signature, but here's what I think we need in the next NJ Democratic State Chair.  

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by: Rosi Efthim @ Sat Jun 03, 2006 at 00:56:14 AM UTC

[ Parent ]