Pelosi keeps her cool
Monday we attended the “Unconventional Women” event featuring the theme “On the Campaign Trail.” Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was the key speaker at the event.
The event started off with a few words from Ilana Goldman, the head of the Women’s Campaign Forum foundation. She conveyed the message that more women should and can run for office; they even came up with a catchy slogan called “Women Can Do It.”
Following her speech Pelosi entered the stage; however, not even 10 seconds into it protestors aligned in front of the stage with a banner reading “STOP THE WAR.” The banner to follow read “STOP THE TORTURE.” While these angry female protestors moved in front of the stage, they were yelling at Pelosi as if it was within her power to stop the War in Iraq.
The protestors were kindly escorted out of the building by police, and Pelosi was finally allowed to speak to her audience, or so we thought. However, every few minutes another protestor would shout something out at Pelosi. Some of the shouts included, “Stop our sons from dying in Iraq” also as Pelosi mentioned the power that we as women have another protestor shouted at her to use her power to stop the war.
Being the respectful leader Pelosi is, she kept cool throughout the entire demonstration and simply replied, “If you want the war to stop, then vote for Barack Obama.” This showed extreme character on behalf of our Speaker, and I believe many members of the audience respected her for her professional manner of handling such rude and obscene behavior.
I believe that every citizen has the right to protest, if they believe something unjust is occurring. However, in this case I believe the protest was completely irrelevant. First and foremost, Pelosi voted against going to war with Iraq. Secondly, she is not the president; therefore she does not have the power herself to pull the troops out of Iraq. Lastly, she has endorsed Barack Obama who intends to pull the troops out of Iraq and end this war, which has now lasted two years longer than World War II.
Are you kidding me? Pelosi has continued to vote to fund the war since its inception. She is the speaker of the house, and the first thing this woman did, who’s famous quote to other women is “know thy power”, was take impeachment off the table. She is complicit in the criminal activities of this administration and to suggest she can’t stop the war is FALSE. She most certainly has the power to push for ending the war and to get enough members in the senate and congress to push for this and she’s DONE NOTHING. And Barack Obama isn’t ending the war. He’s removing troops only to turn around and send 10,000 more into Afghanistan. He’s also calling for sanctions and blockades (calling it diplomacy) against Iran. This is a sovereign nation with a democratically elected leader who is a signatory on the non proliferation treaty and has every right to enrich uranium for peaceful means, but as many in congress are ignoring the 16 weapons agencies that have firmly stated “there is NO evidence Iran is pursuing a weapons program”, so he chooses to do this as well. He has clearly departed from the rhetoric for which he won the nomination and is now falling right in step with business as usual. The motto of the ruling elites is we have the power to rule the world by force so you better do what we tell you or we’ll blast back to the dark ages. The ruling class of this country has no use for democracies, least of all its own, but rather puppets who will do what we tell them.
You are profoundly wrong in telling your readers confronting Pelosi is useless. Confronting any politician is NEVER useless. Holding their damn feet to the fire is how to affect change so you may want to rethink your position
I appreciate your feedback, and I completely encourage discussion. First and foremost, the Bush Administration supplied not only Congress with false information but also mislead the entire public with false information before entering Iraq. Then Bush used his power to not release certain intelligence as well. Whether you believe that or not, that’s up to you. So once you find Weapons of Mass Destruction, I’ll concede the point to you that it was worth invading Iraq. Secondly, about Pelosi continuing voting to fund the war, there are circumstances which morally obligate her too. Even if she would have voted against it, the President has the resources to keep the troops there for months. Therefore, she thought she would do what was best at that specific point in time, and she was still under the impression of false information, but she set certain guidelines that came with the approval of funding. Next, to impeach the President at a time of national security is political suicide, our nation has already been in a state of paranoia since 9/11 then you want Congress and the President to go to war. Sometimes it’s best to go along with something for the sake of the greater good of the nation. Nancy Pelosi has the power to set the agenda and to help persuade members of both houses to vote to end the war. However, there obviously has not been enough support to end it because of Republicans and because as soon as that bill hits the President’s table it’s what VETOED! She’s no Newt Gingrich, remember that. Lastly, protests should be peaceful, or that’s at least what I believe. However, she is an elected official and deserves respect no matter who you are and whether you like her or not. But she was not at this event to defend the Democratic Party or her voting record, she was there to encourage females to vote and run for office. These protestors were rude and were unorganized in their efforts, and what did they get accomplished, NOTHING. So, for your feedback I’ll give you three links to go look at, and if you’d like we can continue this debate.
Links:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8422.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/15/AR2007021500876.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/19/AR2008041901696_pf.html
Finally, Obama’s stance is the following: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/iraq/
and this is what’s best because the Bush Administration has managed to mess things up so greatly in the Middle East that this has to be done progressively, if we pull out immediately we leave those poor people with no hope. Iran well, Enriched Uranium equals Nuclear. Nuclear equals what to you?