Yesterday, the California State Assembly approved a proposal to allow voters to express their opinion on the “immediate, complete, safe and orderly withdrawal of United States forces” from Iraq. The bill goes back to the State Senate, which had approved a slightly different version of the bill in June.
The bill will go to the desk of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who will decide whether to allow Californians to express their opinion on Iraq. If he signs the bill, or lets it go into effect without his signature, the measure will appear on the February ballot along with the Presidential primary.
Schwarzenegger has tried to avoid taking a firm stance on the issue, saying he supports the troops and the war on terror but also backs a “timetable for withdrawal.” A spokesman for the governor, Aaron McLear, said Schwarzenegger had not taken a position on the bill.
Please contact the Governor’s office and urge him to allow voters to express their position on this important measure.
PS: More good news — while the Assembly was debating whether to pull out of Iraq, the Senate approved a resolution urging the president to stop sending National Guard troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Actually, there are some important historical precedents for State opposition to DC’s wars. During the highly unpopular War of 1812, several New England States threatened secession, and Vermont and Massachusetts refused to send their militias to fight a war they considered an immoral and illegal campaign to forcibly annex Canada.
Bush has vowed that he will not end his glorious little war of “liberation†in Iraq, which will leave it to his successor (Hillary and Obama?) to clean up after him. But Hillary, as a leftist Democrat and woman, will have unbearable pressure on her to prove her toughness, which may well put her in the position of Lyndon Johnson, who had to expand the war in Vietnam to prove his “anti-communist†credentials. That may in turn force anti-war States to resume control of their own militias, or prohibiting military operations being launched from their territories. This should be interesting.
If the states act up have Bush pull a Lincoln and show them who is boss, the old fashioned way. Bush claims that he gets his order straight from God and Lincoln is a God, so Bush can say that he is following God’s example if any states decide to act stately and go against the will of the Pantheon.
I just called Swarzenegger’s office (sadly, I’m a CA resident unter der Gropinator) — they’re not listening to us and I would guess will never listen to us. The twit who answered the phone said that war was a federal matter.
When I pointed out that given that California had the world’s fifth largest economy and thus a clear stance by Schwarzenegger would send a very powerful anti-war message to the Bush administration, the twerp yet again said that it was a federal matter.
When I pointed out that daily, we here in SoCal are being warned to expect a major earthquake on the San Andreas — an earthquake that is expected to devastate the entire Los Angeles metropolitan area as well as affect San Diego, Las Vegas and even Phoenix, and yet our National Guard and that of the surrounding states are in Iraq, Schwarzenegger’s rep. said yet again that it was a federal matter. But this time he added that the President controls the deployment of the National Guard and there’s nothing that governors can do about it.
So what millions of us can expect here in CA, because the faults under San Francisco are expected to go off too within the next 15 years, is a slow death trapped underneath rubble, or an even slower one by starvation or thirst when help fails to arrive within months.
All because Der Ahnuld doesn’t have the balls to stand up to George W. — What’s-His-Last-Name-Again?
Here’s the number for Schwarzenegger’s main office in Sacramento:
916 445 2841
Oddly enough, he has an office in D.C. — my hackles are raised by that — am I alone?
Now the people are acting as Generals in a War on Terror? Amazing how far this ANTI WAR NUT movement has gotten. What next which one of you ANTI WAR NUTS will sign the Surrender Treaty with AL QAEDA and what will those terms be? Wake up America, the terrorist love the ANTI WAR movement, they love the support you give them! Congratulations traitors!
Right. If we don’t stay the course in a war justified by lies and fail to continue our occupation of a country that never threatened us, Bin Laden will enslave us all. American women will be forced to wear burkhas. Next, we’d lose our traditional freedoms, and an Islamomeanie central government could jail citizens without charges, and start spying on us without warrants.
Oh, wait …
How wonderful of Californians to give the people a chance to vote on whether to continue occupying Iraq or not. We the people should be allowed to referendum always before a war in another land is started by U.S. Government. If I am not wrong, as of yet, no war was ever initiated by the people, only by the governments, so asserts Eugene Debs, my fellow Hoosier.
Mary, I’ve got one better than that. How about the next time our “leaders” get the hots to send someone off to die overseas we make them settle it through a knife fight. These erstwhile moral mavens can slice and gut each other silly if it truly means that much to them. That way it becomes truly personal and all the empty rhetoric in the world either manifests itself as reality or shuttles them off to hell where they belong.
Excellent