Empire Building

If you vote in the Texas primary (or during early voting), be sure to come back to your individual precinct voting location (not an early voting location) for your precinct convention.

Precinct conventions start at 7:15 PM, or after the last person in line has voted, and are a great place to educate others about issues you care about, and get resolutions on them approved and sent up to the Senate District (SD) conventions and the state convention, so they'll get noticed by a lot more people.

Go to our resolutions list http://paa-tx.org/resolutions and pick out resolutions of interest to you -- just click on the titles of any of them. Download the pdf versions that are formatted for printing, and bring several copies of each to your precinct convention. If you want to write your own resolution on a topic we did not cover, refer to our Resolution-Writing Guidelines (see link at http://paa-tx.org/resolutions ) for suggestions on how to write a good resolution that is likely to be passed.

Some additional resolutions are also on the Burnt Orange Report web site http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/10038/2010-tdp-resolutions-thread -- please see these too.

If you don't vote in the primary, you are eligible to sign petitions to help get the Green Party on the ballot in Texas this year. For at least one state-wide office (Comptroller), there's no Democrat on the ballot, so this is not even a conflict for any Dem. See http://hcgp.org for details.

Night from Baghdad graphic

To get a copy of this resolution formatted for printing, so you can take it with you to your precinct convention, click on the link in the Attachment box below.

WHEREAS the U.S. government spends billions in tax dollars maintaining military bases in more than 100 countries; and

To get a copy of this resolution formatted for printing, so you can take it with you to your precinct convention, click on the link in the Attachment box below.

WHEREAS, THE UNITED STATES invaded the country of Iraq based on a LIE told to the American people and

This plaque was given to Cindy Sheehan by members of the Progressive Action Alliance, first at Camp Casey (just outside of Crawford, Texas), August 2005, then again in Houston for the Bring Them Home Now Tour, September 1, 2005: http://www.paa-tx.org/node/193

This is a call to action. Please help increase the pressure on our government. Give more people a chance to speak out. Take blank, stamped post cards, clipboards, pens, and officials’ address lists everywhere you go.

House Resolution 413 would repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002: Sponsored by Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA)

Here are 3 main things this bill does:

The "Surge Smurge" sign was displayed to south bound traffic one morning although this direction is much better for evening. The amount of display area is smaller because of the road signs attached to the bridge.

Photo collage by Massoud Nayeri, from Iraq War Summit and March, organized by Congressperson Sheila Jackson-Lee

Sherry Glover read the following piece by Steve Young, with permission, at the Jan. 14, 2007 ceremony for the 3000th casualty memorial in Houston. She said, "I felt that it expressed what I could no longer find words for. I think it was most effective to read it while having the audience look toward those flags."

COMMENTS ON THE 3000TH MEMORIAL TO THE PEOPLE KILLED IN IRAQ
(Memorial Park, Houston, January 17, 2007)

The 3000th Memorial in Houston is very moving and I want to thank the people who created it - Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out and others. The Memorial honors not only the 3000 plus U.S. military and contract personnel who have died in thie Iraq war, but also the thousands of Iraqi citizens who have died. We don't like to talk about the Iraqis who have died, but they are also our brothers and sisters.

Memorial for Casualties of the Iraq War
January 14, 2007

Thousands Dead, Thousands More Picking Up the Pieces

We are all here to honor these fallen U.S. Military Personnel, Iraqi and civilians from all over the world that have died as a result of the Iraq war. You may be wondering why we chose to honor ALL people who have died in this war. There are many reasons that this should be done. It’s important that as human beings we memorialize this great loss of humanity to the world. It is important that as human beings we realize the toll that war takes on this entire world for generations to come. It is important because until human beings acknowledge the total losses, we will continue to spend the lives of valuable human beings trying to conquer one another in a futile bid for everlasting power. It is important because histories of wars are often untold, rewritten, or forgotten, and so the lessons are not learned by future generations.

This article has links to speeches, photos, and the event description for the 3000th casualty memorial, at Memorial Park in Houston, Jan. 14-20, 2007. This event was held to memorialize the terrible loss of life, (US and Iraqi), that we have had so far during the Iraq invasion and occupation.

To get a copy of this resolution formatted for printing, so you can take it with you to your precinct convention, click on the link in the Attachment box below.

WHEREAS members of the U.S. military in Iraq have killed many thousands of Iraq civilians; and

Sent by Rochelle Bracken
Referenced from The Nation

Here is an open letter from the poet Sharon Olds to Laura Bush declining the invitation to read and speak at the National Book Critics Circle Award in Washington, DC.  Forward it  along if  you feel more people should read it.

Sharon Olds is one of most widely read and critically acclaimed poets living in America today. Read to the end of  the letter to experience her restrained, chilling eloquence.