Call Earl Blumenauer. Ask why he can't support a cease-fire in Israel/Lebanon.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/5223444.stm

abstract: US President George Bush has apologised to Tony Blair over the use of Prestwick Airport to refuel planes carrying bombs to Israel

are you having trouble reading? earl's statement talks about a cease fire:

"We must work for a cease fire with a change in the dynamics on the ground, so that we do not sow the seeds of future rounds of attacks, retaliations, death, and destruction. We should seek not only an
end to the current war, but to use this crisis as an opportunity to prevent future wars along
the Israeli-Lebanese border."

I called Congressman Blumenauer's office to learn more about this, because I have always really liked him and I thought this must be some sort of misunderstanding. I talked with a nice woman who read a statement from him, but I had to go to his website to read the whole thing again because I could not believe my ears.  http://blumenauer.house.gov/israellebanonstatement.doc

Holy shit. Is he actually blaming the people of Lebanon for this? Un-fucking-believable. I will NEVER vote for him again, even though I really liked him before. Shit. Unless he changes his position and supports H 450, I will never support him again. I can't believe this.

By the way, his office says he has been getting a lot of calls about this this morning. Please, if you have not called yet, read the statement and call him now, and tell him what you think. Please. Someone MUST stand up and say that this is wrong.

End all US aid to Israel. Stop supporting a lying arrogant expansionist regime intent on killing it's neighbors.

Nice strawman but no one claimed Blumenauer didn't mention a cease fire but that he doesn't support an *immediate cease fire* as stated in H450. I'm calling you guys right after I post this, and if you act like the little politico weasels I believe you are I'm going to call you on it.

Here's another quote from the statement, this one extremely disconcerting from a man who has made a career out of being progressive: "While the blame for the conflict falls squarely on Hezbollah's shoulders, Israel must take stronger steps to minimize the harm..."

Did you see the pictures of the little dead baby yesterday, Earl? That was a Lebanese baby. Bombed by Israel, using remote-control airplanes MADE IN AMERICA. The blame is YOURS. And ISRAEL's. Good God. How can a man whom I always believed was decent SAY something like this??? He will take a stronger stand, or he will be voted off the island. I will NEVER never ever ever ever vote for this man, or support him in any way ever again if this is all he can do.

This debate is framed around "Israel's right to exist" when it should be framed around the right of human beings, of little babies, for God's sake, to exist in SPITE of Israel's insistence that they do not deserve that right. The nationalist trumpets of Israel do not mean more to me than the little dead babies of Lebanon, and if they do to Earl, then he is REALLY FUCKED UP.

Given that many sources report that the captured Israeli soldiers were operating inside Lebanon at the time of their capture and given that Israel has already been caught in a number of lies recently regarding their operations their credibility is certainly lacking. It is dangerous to take any government at its word. Blumenauer would have been wise to not cast blame, because if the facts come out against his claim, it's going to be quite damaging to him.

 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/07/343650.shtml#231089
 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/08/343765.shtml

I'm not sure I support H450 due to the international peacekeeping force provision. I do support and immediate cease-fire and an end to hostilities. However, several people have discussed whether any country is going to be willing to send troops into Lebanon, and whether that could be used as a pretext to draw more countries into a world war. For more read this article in full (and the accompanying comments):

 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/08/343721.shtml

"Why any sane U.S. ally or puppet leader would want to stick their hands down the garbage disposal when Sheikh Nasrallah and the IDF both have their hands poised over the switch is beyond me -- particularly when Hizbullah and the Syrians have made it clear they will regard any international force (other than the current UN sacrificial lambs) as a hostile occupation army."

"My guess is that in the end, if Uncle Sam really wants some "peacekeepers" to help Uncle Ehud out of his jam, he's going to have to provide them himself, which essentially would mean making Israel's war our war -- literally."

Or in the Robert Fisk article posted to a comment beneath it:

"So when this latest foreign army arrives, count the days, or hours, to the first attack upon it. Then we'll hear all over again that we are fighting evil, that "they"--Hizbollah or Palestinian guerrillas, or anyone else planning to destroy "our" army--hate our values; and then, of course, we'll be told that this is all part of the "War on Terror"--the nonsense which Israel has been peddling. And then perhaps we'll remember what George Bush senior said after Hizbollah's allies suicide-bombed the Marines in 1982, that American policy would not be swayed by a bunch of "insidious terrorist cowards"."

"And we all know what happened then. Or have we forgotten?"

Thanks for all the calls to Earl.
Keep calling and demand a meeting with the Portland Peace Rally speakers.
Keep calling until he decides on H450


Earl, Bush, Israel talk about a cease fire, but talk is cheap. They make the conditions so impossible that a cease fire would be impossible in the next 30 days. Kucinich, The President of Lebanon and most humans want a cease fire and support H450. Earl on the other hand, speaks of peace but will not say how he stands on H450!


If you listen to the PBS news hour Real Audo link in my footnotes you can hear the difference.
Fast Forward to 1min 30 seconds.
 http://tinyurl.com/rhkpk (real Audio )


More footnotes:
=========================

The media are not reporting the truth when they say Hezbollah started this by the capture of 3 and killing other military staff from Israel. This was not "started" by any one side. It did not start on July 12th. Read about the attacks that provoked Hezbollah in the weeks prior to July 12th.

Article "Down the memory hole"
 http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2928

Abstract: "the portrayal of Israel as the innocent victim in the Gaza conflict is hard to square with the death toll in (12) the months leading up to the current crisis; 144 Palestinians in Gaza were killed .... During the same period, no Israelis were killed as a result of violence from Gaza.

-- June 13, 2006. Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a van in another attempted extrajudicial assassination. The successive barrages killed nine innocent Palestinians.

---June 9, 2006, when Israel shelled a beach in Beit Lahiya killing eight civilians and injuring 32.

---June 24, Israel made an incursion of its own, capturing two Palestinians that it said were members of Hamas (something Hamas denied—L.A. Times, 6/25/06). This incident received far less coverage in U.S. media than the subsequent seizure of the Israeli soldier; the few papers that covered it mostly dismissed it in a one-paragraph brief. It's likely that most Gazans don't share U.S. news outlets' apparent sense that captured Israelis are far more interesting or important than captured Palestinians.

Israel attacked a HOSPITAL today in Lebanon. Two days ago, they killed 37 babies and their mothers. Last week, they killed UN peacekeepers. Last month, they killed a picnicing family on the beach in Palestine. They have bulldozed innocent peoples' houses into the ground, shot children, murdered peace activists, bombed villages, and lied through their teeth about it all. As far as I'm concerned Israel has forfeit any "right to exist" as surely as any murdering psychopath. Remember when Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma federal building? Remember the photograph of the baby being carried through the rubble that galvanized the nation against this sort of senseless violence? Everyone called for McVeigh's blood, and now he has been put to death. I'm not saying I'm necessarily in favor of the death penalty, but that's the decision this nation made. How can heartless, reactionary pro-Israel drones now carry on about some chimerical "right to exist" where Israel, another terrorist psychopath, is concerned? Now, when we have seen the same awful photograph of pain, a man carrying a dead baby through rubble, blown up by terrorists, and those terrorists are ISRAEL. How?

Israel is a rogue, terrorist nation. Enough with the platitudes and jargon. Their day is long past. We can no longer trade on the coin of past holocausts and ignore this one. We can no longer repeat meaningless and ironic slogans like "never again" and "right to exist" under these circumstances. Enough. If congress will not stop them, then we will stop congress.

The point of my article is to get democrats to tell us where they stand. This is not an easy job. We all know where republicans stand. The Democrats are a party of staying in power and treading water. This has been a problem in the past and will continue until there is ranked choice voting in enough major cities. Earl is just doing his job of being a good sheep in the democratic party.


Keep calling Earl's office (503)231-2300 and and ask 2 things:
==============================================
1) Will he meet with the speakers at the Portland Peace Rally on Sunday July 30th?
2) What is his position on H450


The most dangerous person to peace and stability is the one who thinks anything (including violence) is justified because their position is the "right" one.

I quote the anonymous person who just posted here:
........... As far as I'm concerned xxxxx has forfeit any "right to exist" ..as any
............murdering psychopath... .........the baby being carried
..........through the rubble ... senseless violence? Everyone called for .... blood,
..........and now put to death.
These are the same words as the current leaders in Hezbollah, USA, Israel, Iran, not to forget... Hitler , Tim McVeigh etc....


more footnotes:
============================

 http://www.deathpenalty.org


 link to www.oregonlive.com
Mazen Malik and Hala Gores are a few of those who have agreed to meet with Earl if he grants a meeting.

Dems on Iraq: Still Vague, Out of Touch
 http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0802-32.htm

"the only reason Democrats are moving to the center is because... Democrats don't believe in anything, but that they are moving to the center solely for the purpose of winning elections."
 http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/01/DDGO4JLVM81.DTL

--------------------

"One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law. "
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. "
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ask Earl why he is silent.............................

It's august 3rd... Do you mean there is another rally in August and that was a typo? Because otherwise, it would be pretty hard for him to meet with anyone...in the past.

You're right, though, I could not believe my eyes when I read his facile and idiotic statement. All those mindless cliches in such a short blurb. All that thoughtlessly given permission to just keep killing babies. How can he live with himself?

As for being afraid to do the right thing because it would be "political suicide"? I have a few thoughts. First, why are you even in Politics, if not to do the right thing? Maybe that's something people in politics should think about. What's the fucking point if you won't stand up and do what you think is right? I would prefer to be in there for a short time and make a big difference than make a lazy and useless career out of it by making way too many compromises. My second thought, though, is that I'm not so sure Earl even wants to do the right thing in this case. I think he just swallowed all the Israeli propaganda over the years and hasn't given the issue an original thought. I think he just didn't even bother to really look at the facts, but just jumped up and assumed that "Israel's right to exist" was at stake, and was obviously so much more important even than little dead babies, and that poor little Israel should be supported, and etc. All that crap that just spills out when you don't clean the cobwebs out of your own head. Yuck. I think Earl really fucked up here. Whether it's politically better for him or not remains to be seen (there is a LOT of anger out here, and we are unlikely to continue to tolerate such nonsense), but it's a given that his soul is not any better off for this. How awful that he could look past real, dead, little babies and see only parroted platitudes.

-Not anymore.
Called your office, and the nice young man said that you were "struggling" with this issue. Struggle no more. Shit or get off the pot. Either you are a zionist apologist, or you are a human being. Human beings do not tolerate the killing of innocents, for ANY bogus reason. If all of the "facts" that we are being fed by the media were true, if HALF of them were true, it still would not negate the fact that your Israelli buds are killing and maiming the innocent, in a half assed attempt to get at their defenders. Genocide is what is happening, and you are assisting, with your complacent attitude. It is never acceptable. Never.
Did your daddy not ask you, "If so and so jumps off a cliff, does that mean that you should?" Mine did, and my answer was the same as yours should be. Two wrongs do not make it right. If the Russians were also killing Jews by the thousands, did that make it o.k. for Hitler to do so? Wake up Earl! We need you to be a human being again.

'You go a bit crazy when you see little body after little body coming up out of the ground'
Huge numbers of children are being killed, injured or displaced in south Lebanon. Why are so many suffering in this conflict? Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reports
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
Wednesday August 2, 2006
Guardian
Three days ago, next to the gutted and destroyed house in Qana, seven bodies lay covered with bedsheets, a blanket and a prayer mat. One small arm stretched out from under the sheets; thin, the arm of a little girl, a piece of cloth like a bracelet wrapped around the wrist. As bodies were loaded on the stretcher, I saw another dead girl; she was dressed in a black shirt with a coloured scarf wrapped loosely around her head. Her face was swollen.
In some ways I was relieved. The rumour we had heard in the hotel in Tyre was that at least 40 people, half of them children, had been in the house in Qana when it was bombed by Israeli planes, and here I was an hour later, with Red Cross workers and others running up and down, and all I could see was the bodies of two girls and five adults.
It's weird, the things that make you feel better in the south of Lebanon, but seven dead instead of 40 gave me a sense of relief.
But even as I stood there registering that emotion, hellish scenes were unfolding. Four medics carried a little boy by on an orange stretcher: he was perhaps 12 years old, dressed in black shorts and a white T-shirt with a coloured motorcycle on it. His arms were stretched behind his head, but apart from the bruises on his face and the swollen lips, he looked OK. For half a second I told myself, as I tell myself every time I see death, that he was just sleeping, and that he would be fine. But he was dead.
Then came two more boys in the arms of the rescuers. One of them, the younger, around eight years old, had his arms close to his chest, his nose and mouth covered with blood. The elder, around 10, had dirt and debris in his mouth. Their slight bodies were put on a blanket, the head of the younger boy left resting on the shoulder of the elder, then four men carried the blanket off, stopping twice to rest as they took them away. The bodies of the boys were piled with other corpses in the back of an ambulance.
Two more small dead boys followed them. The medics were running out of stretchers, so they piled the corpses of the boys on one orange stretcher. One of the kids was slightly chubby; he was wearing a red T-shirt and shorts. His head rested on the lap of the younger, who was about six years old; both had the same exploding lips, covered with blood and dirt. It was obvious to everyone that these boys were not sleeping.
Then another child was pulled from under the rubble, and another followed, and then another. You go a little crazy when you see little body after little body coming up out of the ground. I looked around me and all I could see in the house was the detritus of their short lives - big plastic bags filled with clothes, milk cans, plastic toys and a baby carriage.
By three in the afternoon, when the corpse of a one-year-old boy was pulled from the rubble, he looked more like a mud statue than a child. The medics held him high above their heads, clear of the rubble. The faces of the rescue workers said everything that needed to be said.

IF YOU CAN STAND IT THERE IS MORE:
www.guardian.co.uk

I've seen many peacekeeping missions in my fairly long life. Never have I seen one work. My recollection is that they end up shooting people.

I called Willie at Blumenauer's office and requested that Earl introduce a bill to stop all US arms shipments to both Israel and Lebanon, and recommend all other countries stop arms shipments.

I told him I thought H450 is weak, and that a bill stopping arms shipments would make a real difference, and put an end to the fighting since there would be no more arms. Willie said that was an excellent idea, and he would tell Earl in half an hour (4:00 p.m. August 4).

flowerbells

Here is the statement:


From: "Pomeroy, Julia" <Julia.Pomeroy (at))) mail.house.gov>
To: "' jrowe@igc.org'" < jrowe@igc.org>
Subject: Follow up to your calls to our office
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 13:55:52 -0400

Mr. Rowe-

Thank you for all of your recent communications with Congressman Blumenauer's office. By now you have communicated with almost half of our staff and between those communications and your postings on public web sites, Earl is keenly aware of your position on the crisis between Israel and Hezbolloh. I also appreciate knowing information about your planned protest on Monday. (now canceled)

As part of the "Emergency Week of Action" sponsored by the End the Occupation we are going to be meeting with constituents on both sides of this issue to listen to their opinions and discuss how we move forward. We have begun the process of contacting people to meet with Earl, and have decided because you have already communicated your position; we will not be inviting you to this meeting.

To respond to your recent question on whether Earl supports HR 450, the answer is no, not at this time. As his statement reads:

"Hezbollah must be disarmed, either by the Lebanese government or by a multinational force, and the Lebanese government should receive the help it needs to extend its control across all of Lebanon and rebuild for the benefit of its people. A cease fire without a change in the dynamics on the ground will only sow the seeds of future rounds of attacks, retaliations, death, and destruction"

Thank you for your passion.

Julia Pomeroy
Chief of Staff
Congressman Earl Blumenauer

So basically, Joe, they just told you they're NOT asking for an immediate cease fire (the position he has held all along, which started all this), and they're not inviting you to speak with them because they already know you want a cease fire. On top of it, they seem to be implying that you're some kind of pest. Yet you say the Monday protest is canceled? Why??

I, for one, am very happy to have learned Earl's disgusting position on this issue because I had always been a supporter in the past. I thank you, Joe, for making this clear to me because I now know that Earl is yet another apologist for the genocidal policies of Israel, and he can get a big "No Thank YOU" from me during the next election.

I had not even thought to call his office before reading your post, because I never imagined in a million years that Earl Blumenauer would support the genocide that is killing innocent little children all over Gaza and Lebanon. Shame on you, Earl. If his staff is aware that you posted this article here, then surely they will read my comment as well.

Earl, I did not call your office, but Joe speaks for me, too. Shame on you. Censure Israel and reign those bastards in, or your support among progressives is OVER. Remember where you are, and who your base is. You've spoken out in favor of gun control, for goodness sake. You think the war mongers are going to vote for you? Think again. It was us, Earl. WE were your constituents.

It's supposed to be about global warming. I wonder if he's gonna have a town hall meeting about the Zionist proxy war and the aiding of criminal war crimes. Are war and global warming related - does peak oil exist?

What: Town Hall Meeting with Congressman Earl Blumenauer
When: Tuesday, August 8, 5:30 to 7:00 pm
Where: in the auditorium at the PCC Cascades campus, 705 N.
Killingsworth, Portland

i'm sure folks can figure out how military aggression in the middle east is fueled by oil-military industrial complex and present compelling arguments in favor of peace for lebanon...

if you want Earl's eyes and ears - there you go.

he led the fight against a bill to sanction the palestinians for electing hamas. check out this article by john nichols:  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-05260620535.htm. earl also has a 92% rating from peace action.

why are we focusing on him? where's wyden's statement? smith's? wu's? blumenauer has taken a much strong stand for peace for lebanon than any other portland congresscritter.

In answer to John.

Why not focus on Senator Smith or Wyden from Oregon: They are senators. H 450 is in the house.

Wu ( Oregon) said he supports H450. Thus no focus on Wu.

Earl has made himself a target because he is guilty of a greater crime than someone who is pro war. Earl is anti-war in his words, but different in actions. Earl is pro war in his actions, or lack of actions, otherwise known as apathy, which he labels a slow, thoughtful, process. He is pro war in his lack of strength. He is pro war in the delay of his actions and timing them to be political tools.