Posted on 03/15/2003 12:02:03 PM PST by Michael.SF.
I just returned from a town hall meeting with Congressman George Miller (D- Ca. 7th District) and wanted to post some notes on his comments (these are based on subject and not taken in any order, he often jumped back and forth in response to audience questions):
** What do we do?
(In response to a question) I will tell you what you can do: WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN!! Write to the White House write to Dianne Feinstein, she supports this thing.
You don't think it has an effect? If we get 50 letters on something, we think it is a mass movement.
why do you think the President is in the Azores for a meeting tomorrow? It is because of those thousands of protestors in San Francisco today letting him know how they feel. It was also public opinion that forced him to go to the UN
**"Korea is the real Problem"- Preemptive attack is a horrible policy. We cannot live in a world like that.
Tony Blair- Bush is trying to save him right now. I tell you this: Tony Blair is the first victim of 'friendly fire". What does Congress do? A real heroic act, we changed the name to 'Freedom Fries' (very sarcastic and round of laughs followed)
Iraq Inspections - "A robust inspection program will contain Saddam Hussein. We had an effective inspection program, but we inserted some spies and they were thrown out. We have a list of over 300 places to inspect, but we just recently started to give them to the inspectors.
Bush is not helping the inspectors and I don't think he ever wanted to.
If he won't let us inspect those places, then we outta blow them up
Bush - Bush is using the war on Iraq as a cover to destroy everything we have worked hard to implement. Environmental laws, Abortion, taxes, the economy.
Iraq and Democracy 'we are going in to install Democracy, in a place with no history of Democracy. But they do have a history; they have seen this before they saw it with the British in the 20's and again in the 50's. They also saw it in the 14 and 1500's with the crusades. They have a long history and a long memory. But they don't feel that democracy is the best thing for them because they don't know what it is.
We think we can help these people, stop the cutting off of limbs and the opression of women, But they are not asking for our help. So why are we there?< p>
Kurds Betrayed - 'we betrayed the Kurds three times, and they are about to be betrayed again.'
Iraq Nuclear Program - No body has ever suggested that Iraq now has a robust nuclear program. It was fully dismantled in '91.
Regime change - Audience member: "We need a regime change in Washington, not Iraq”.’ Miller (Laughing). You want a change in policy then you need to change the government. They are setting the agenda, not us. Put more of us back in Washington and you will get the change we want.
Vietnam - 'When I went to Washington in 1974, we worked on bills to cut-off the funding. Night after night after night. We finally succeeded and that was when we stopped that war.'
Environment - Bush is dismantling all of the laws on the environment, the laws we worked hard to put in place. But he is not alone: it's the Republicans who want to destroy these laws.
Clinton I am not saying that Clinton did enough, he did not. He did not take saddam Hussein seriously enough and he could have done a lot more. But, when Bush came into office and Clinton and Sandy Berger sat him down and told him that terrorism was the biggest problem they would face, They did not listen. Ashcroft said. No, we need to go after pornography (mild laughter from audience).
Enough phony posturing from the left. It's getting embarrassing.
Sorry...I stopped reading right about there.
Barbra Streisand.
The U.S. was effectively out of Vietnam by 1974. All you did, Miller, was allow North Vietnam to stroll into the south nearly uncontested, because you cut off all military aid to the South.
Oh brother. What a pin head.
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