Peace Action Calendar Update

HIGHLIGHTS
Feb 2: First Saturday Peace Vigil, Arden & Heritage
Feb 5: Anna Baltzar Eyewitness Palestine

MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Feb 10: Stephen Kinzer: The Folly of Attacking Iran
Feb 13: Joel Kovel: Creating Democracy in Israel/Palestine

TAKE ACTION
In his latest “signing statement” on 1-25-08, Bush is claiming the right to violate four sections of H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, which he had just signed into law (details below).
Demand that impeachment proceedings be started by calling:
- Speaker Nancy Pelosi (DC: 202- 225-4965; San Francisco: 415-556-4862);
- House Judiciary Committee, 202-225-3951; and
- Doris Matsui, Mike Thompson, or your representative 202-224-3121).

FEBRUARY, 2008 SACRAMENTO PEACE & JUSTICE EVENTS
(For updates and more events, go to http://www.sacpeace.org.)

Saturday, Feb 2, 11:30a - 1:30p, 1st Saturday End the Occupations Vigil, Arden & Heritage, Sac 916-448-7157

Tuesday, Feb 5, 4 - 6pm, End the Occupation, Troops Home Now! Weekly vigil, 16th/J Sts., Sac. sacpeace [at] dcn.org, 916-448-7157

Tuesday, Feb 5, 7pm, Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories & Photos. Report by Anna Baltzar, a volunteer with the Intn'l Women’s Peace Service and author of Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories. Wellman Rm 2, UC Davis campus. m.o.ahmad [at] gmail.com

Wednesday, Feb 6, 4 - 6pm, Anti-War vigil 15th & L, Sac, 916-446-5261.

Wednesday, Feb 6, 7pm, Film: Zeitgeist. Powerful myths control our lives, this film explores 3 realms...religion, 9/11, and our centralized monetary system. Blanchard Room, Davis Library, 315 E. 14th St, Davis. Info: 530-757-1633

Saturday, Feb 9, 11am - 1pm, Ongoing foreign policy & nuclear weapons seminar, Hart Center, 915 27th St., Sac. 916-482-4627.

Sunday, Feb 10, 1pm, The Folly of Attacking Iran: Talk by Stephen Kinzer, former New York Times correspondent and author of All the Shah's Men, Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq, and (co-author) Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala. SEIU-UHW Hall, 1911 F St, Sac. FMI: 916-448-7157; sacpeace [at] dcn.org

Sunday, Feb 10, 12:30pm, My Passion for Haiti, presentation by UCD grad student Tiffany Gilmore who visited Haiti last summer with a human rights delegation. UU Davis, 27074 Patwin Ln, Davis. 530-753-2581; office [at] uusofdavis.org

Monday, Feb 11, 4:30 - 6pm, 9/11 Truth Action Demonstration and call for a new investigation. 11th & L St. Info: sac911truth [at] gmail.com

Monday, Feb 11, 7pm, Elk Grove Peace & Justice Forum presents Rev. Larry George on the Plight of the Palestinians. United Methodist Church, 8986 Elk Grove Blvd, Elk Grove. Info: 916-689-6943

Monday, Feb 11, 7pm, Davis Peace Coalition meeting, Blanchard Rm, Library, 315 E 14th, Davis, 530-747-0185

Tuesday, Feb 12, 4 - 6pm, Call for Peace Vigil, 16th & J, Sac 916-448-7157

Wednesday, Feb 13, 4 - 6pm, Anti-War vigil 15th & L, Sac, 916-446-5261.

Wednesday, Feb 13, 7pm, Peace for Earth Walkers, see Feb 15th for details). Sacramento Friends Community Church, 4001 E St., Sac, 916-451-7614

Wednesday, Feb 13, 7pm, A Real Road to Peace: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine, talk by Joel Kovel. SEIU-UHW Hall, 1911 F St, Sacramento. Professor of Social Studies at Bard College, Kovel is the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, spent 24 years working as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate, and has written ten books on racism, nuclear proliferation, the environment and other issues. FMI: 916-448-7157; sacpeace [at] dcn.org

Friday, Feb 15, 7pm, Peace for Earth Walkers, Ruah Swennerfelt and Louis Cox, on their walk from Vancouver, B.C. to San Diego, CA., will share their thoughts on the need to make radical changes in lifestyles integrating peace, justice and earthcare. Sacramento Friends meeting, 890 57th St., Sac, FMI: 916-451-7614

Saturday, Feb 16, 11:30a - 1:30p, 3rd Saturday Vigil, End the War & Bring the U.S. Troops & Bases Home, Fulton & Marconi, Sac 916-448-7157

Monday, Feb 18, 12 - 1pm, Death Penalty Vigil, North Steps, State Capitol (11th & L Sts.) Info: Georgia Lyga, 916-455-1796 or lygageorgiann [at] yahoo.com

Monday, Feb 18, 6 - 8pm, Sacramento 9/11 Truth: Questioning the War on Terror, monthly meeting. Denny’s meeting room - 3rd/J Sts, Sac, afreedmind [at] yahoo.com; 916-372-8433

Tuesday, Feb 19, 4 - 6pm, Bring all the troops and bases home vigil, 16th & J, Sac 916-448-7157; sacpeace [at] dcn.org

Tuesday, Feb 19, 6:30pm, Palestine Taskforce meeting, 909 12th St., Sacramento, 916-448-7157, sacpeace [at] dcn.org

Tuesday, Feb 19, 6:30pm, Operation Enduring Reality (counter recruitment) meeting. 909 12th St, Sac 916-448-7157; sacpeace [at] dcn.org

Wednesday, Feb 20, 11am, Gillian Sorensen, a veteran official of the United Nations, speaks on the relationship of the US to the UN, Einstein Residence Center, 1935 Wright St., Sac (at Wyda Way). Free. Optional buffet lunch ($10) follows at 12:40pm. Reservations 916-966-7002 by Monday, Feb. 18. Info: UN Association 916-482-1354

Wednesday, Feb 20, 4 - 6pm, Anti-War vigil 15th & L, Sac, 916-446-5261.

Wednesday, Feb 20, 7:15pm, CAAC Goes to the Movies: Breaking Ranks, about four U.S. soldiers seeking sanctuary in Canada as part of their resistance to the war in Iraq. 1640 9th Ave, Sac, FMI:446-3304

Wednesday, Feb 20, 7pm, The Elections, The War & The Economy: A Discussion with Richard Becker, who is an author, speaker and co-founder of the ANSWER Coalition. 909 12th St. Sacramento. 916-448-7157; sacpeace [at] dcn.org.

Thursday, Feb 21, 7 - 9pm, Professor Phil Gasper of Notre Dame de Namur University, author of The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History's Most Important Political Document. Sierra 2 Ctr, Garden Room, 2791 24th St. Free. INFO: Ellen, 916-369-5510; info [at] marxistschool.org

Saturday, Feb 23, 11am - 1pm, Ongoing foreign policy & nuclear weapons seminar, Hart Center, 915 27th St., Sac. 916-482-4627.

Tuesday, Feb 26, 4 - 6pm, Call for Peace Vigil, 16th & J, Sac 916-448-7157

Tuesday, Feb 26, 7pm, 4th Tuesday Films: What a Way to Go, Life at the End of Empire, explores the challenges of dwindling fossil fuel reserves, critically degraded ecosystems, a changing climate, an exploding global population, teetering global economies, an unstable political climate, and what is it doing to the rest of the life on this planet. 909 12th St. Sac. 916-448-7157; sacpeace [at] dcn.org

Wednesday, Feb 27, 4 - 6pm, Anti-War vigil 15th & L, Sac, 916-446-5261.
TAKE ACTION, continued: Bush’s latest signing statement
(excerpted from United for Peace & Justice press release 1-31-08)

On Monday, Jan. 25, 2008, President Bush released a signing statement claiming the right to violate four sections of H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, which he had just signed into law. These four sections: 841, 846, 1079, and 1222, Bush announced, would be "construed" in a manner "consistent with the constitutional authority of the President."

Among the measures Bush's latest signing statement declares the right to violate are: the establishment of a commission to investigate U.S. contractor fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, the expansion of whistleblower protections, a requirement that U.S. intelligence agencies respond to congressional requests for documents, a ban on funding permanent bases in Iraq, and a ban on funding any actions that exercise U.S. control over Iraq's oil money.

Over the past seven years, the same language used by Bush on Monday, usually attributed to Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff David Addington, has been the precursor to numerous violations of law by his administration, including sections of law banning the use of torture and banning the use of funds to construct permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. The president has signed laws blocking funding for the construction of permanent bases in Iraq six times, but never stopped the construction.

In January 2007, the House Judiciary Committee held hearings on Bush's use of signing statements at which Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Elwood claimed that the president is free to violate any laws until the Supreme Court rules otherwise. Following this hearing, the Government Accountability Office studied a small sample of Bush's signing statements and found that in a significant percentage of cases his administration was, in fact, violating the sections of law he had claimed the right to "interpret."

The U.S. Constitution requires that the president "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Article I, Section 7, says that:

"every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a law."

"The rule of law established by the Constitution has been undermind in an almost unnoticed revolution," said Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator of United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). "The Constitution allows the president to veto bills or sign and enforce them, not to rewrite them or to disobey them. The same document that gives the Congress the power to make every law, gives it the sole power to raise and spend money, and the sole power to declare war. The people's representatives in Congress are losing all of these powers through their failure to act on the remedy provided for precisely this situation: impeachment."

According to the U.S. State Department, 65% of Iraqis favor a withdrawal of U.S. troops. In fact, neither the Iraqi people nor the people of this country have ever supported a permanent U.S. presence in Iraq, and the U.S. Congress has never approved one.

"The sooner all the troops and military contractors are home," said Cagan, "the sooner rebuilding can begin for the Iraqi nation and for our democracy."

Contact your local media, call Congress (202-224-3121) and the House Judiciary Committee at 202-225-3951 to request that impeachment hearings begin immediately.