Congresswoman Barbara Lee's One Voice: United for Progressive Change: News

Unity is the mantra for Hillary Clinton's speech

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who in her unsuccessful run for president may have finally eclipsed her husband's star power, has three goals in her speech at the Democratic National Convention tonight: unity, unity and unity.

No moment in her long, brutal and historic primary campaign may be more laden with import than this address from the glitzy Denver podium. The woman who thought she would be - and pleaded that she should be - under those lights as the Democratic nominee must explain to her most ardent supporters why it is OK that she is not.

And she must, by any and all means, avert being blamed for the possibility of Sen. Barack Obama losing an election that many believe should be his in a landslide.

It is not hard to find lingering discontent among Clinton supporters, despite such overtures from Obama's campaign as a symbolic roll call vote Wednesday. The Obama and Clinton campaigns worked out a tentative pact Monday to limit the roll call Clinton had insisted on, possibly stopping with the vote of New York delegates, when Clinton would cast her own vote for Obama.

"This is California!" said Julie Wong, a Clinton delegate who said she was elected to vote for Clinton at the convention because Clinton won, so she is legally bound to do so unless released, as Clinton has promised to do. "She won California, and people are scared to wear Hillary buttons.

"If Barack Obama is my second choice, I think they should be happy with that and not try to beat me down," Wong said.

Taking bull by horns

Clinton made her Denver debut before the New York delegation Monday dressed in one of her trademark yellow pantsuits and took the bull by its horns.

Mocking Republican nominee John McCain's ad declaring that Clinton was "passed over" as Obama's vice presidential pick despite winning 18 million votes, Clinton stood before the crowd, declaring, as if anyone doubted it, "I'm Hillary Clinton."

With a dramatic pause that brought down the house, she said, "And I do not approve this message."

Maisha Everhart, a leading organizer for the Clinton campaign in California and a Bay Area Clinton delegate, said the feelings of alienation and anger between the Clinton and Obama camps are "real - no matter how much you try and deny it."

"A lot of supporters of Hillary are not totally convinced" about Obama's strength as a candidate, Everhart said. As a young African American organizer for Clinton, Everhart said, "My view is that Hillary stood for our community time and time again, and I will stand for her ... I will follow Sen. Clinton's lead."

Also Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flashed with anger after being peppered with press questions about the Clintons.

Pelosi dismissed the Clinton obsession as "yesterday."

"What did I walk into - a time capsule?" Pelosi asked. "Our nomination is decided. To stay wallowing in all of this is not productive. ... We're talking about the nominee for the president of the United States to lead our country into the future. That's what this convention is about."

Pelosi acknowledged a need for complete reconciliation.

"Look, I get sad anytime a woman is not successful," Pelosi said, insisting that the point of Clinton's candidacy is that it has opened doors for women. "So let's not spoil it and let it stand in the way of what we must do in terms of public policy, to give these women and all Americans the opportunity they need."

The problem is polls showing Obama in a dead heat nationally with McCain, and McCain gaining traction in battleground states such as Colorado.

Nearly three months after Clinton conceded the nomination, polls indicate that about a fifth of her supporters still say they will vote for McCain. A fresh USA Today/Gallup poll taken last Thursday through Saturday, which includes Obama's tapping of Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate, shows less than half of Clinton supporters fully backing Obama.

A new survey by Democracy Corps, a Democratic polling firm, found that Obama "has yet to close the deal with many white, working-class voters who normally vote Democratic." And it seems he hasn't closed that deal with die-hard Clintonites. The group 18 Million Voices/Rise Hillary Rise has organized a march in Denver today to "celebrate Sen. Clinton's achievements." The group is planning several marches today nationwide, including one in San Francisco.

Wong recalled other Democrats who fought bitterly for the nomination and lost, including the iconic Sen. Edward Kennedy, who was lionized at the convention Monday night. "They should create unity, not enforce unity," Wong said.

Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York expressed alarm at Obama's struggles in the polls, saying it "boggles the mind," adding that Clinton as much as anyone "knows we have to move on."

"We've got a very short time to get this campaign together," Slaughter said.

New York Obama delegate Debi Rose said she thinks Clinton will help pull the party together, "but I'm not comfortable with all her supporters. I think a good number of them will defect." Asked if Clinton will be blamed if Obama loses, Rose replied, "Absolutely."

Emotional recovery

Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee, Obama's first supporter in the House, recalled her own training as a psychiatric social worker. "I understand this process and what has to happen emotionally with people after they experience loss and anger," Lee said.

"I also know at end of the day everyone has to unify, women especially," Lee said. "I don't believe we can tolerate a John McCain as president, who is going to appoint Supreme Court justices that are going to erode Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to privacy. That's the bottom line for me and a lot of women."

Lee said the campaign will rest on a turnout effort. "I know he's going to win by making sure every vote is cast and every vote is counted," Lee said. "This is going to be a grassroots campaign, like it was in the primaries. We have a lot of work to do. It's not going to be easy."

A Conversation with Rep. Barbara Lee at IAC

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The International AIDS Conference has a history of welcoming world leaders, including presidents and kings, greeting delegates and saluting "them" for their efforts to eradicate HIV. Year after year, one elected official has bypassed the flashing lights and cameras of the opening ceremony and joined the ranks as one of "us," contributing energetically as a presenter, moderator, spokesperson and HIV visionary all week.

Once again, Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) is the sole member of the U.S. Congress to attend the International AIDS Conference. On Tuesday, I caught up with Rep. Lee to learn how her involvement builds progressive momentum globally and in the U.S.

"I saw that there was a void when I when to Congress so I started participating to get a good handle on what strategies and what policies the United States should mount."

Hers is a simple operating plan. Rep. Lee connects the House of Representatives to major themes of the epidemic, building bi-partisan support for critical issues such as comprehensive sex education, family planning and the U.S. travel ban, whose repeal she successfully engineered in the new PEPFAR bill.

"When I was in Toronto, it dawned on me that we should have one of these great conferences in my district in Oakland. Then someone reminded me, ‘you can't do that Barbara, there's a travel ban.' So I went back to Congress, wrote and introduced a resolution that would lift the travel ban. I'm proud to say that in the PEPFAR bill that President Bush signed into law, that travel ban was repealed. Now we need to implement the regulations, which we're working on."

Representative Lee understands the complicated obstacles that thwart effective HIV prevention, though not all of her recommendations are embraced. Support for family planning is absent from the new PEPFAR-a painful irony in the city that gave the global gag rule the name "Mexico City Policy."

"That is something that was left out of PEPFAR and we couldn't negotiate it with the other side. Hopefully when there is another President we can go back to the drawing board and fix that. It's absolutely essential that we have coordination between HIV/AIDS initiatives and family planning. I want to repeal the Global Gag Rule that does not allow organizations to receive federal funding to provide full reproductive health counseling, including abortion counseling. It is a shame and disgrace and does a disservice to women, harming millions of women throughout the world."

Domestically, Rep. Lee is aghast at infection rates in the African-American community including those in her Oakland, California district. She laments Congress's failure to adequately fund the Minority AIDS Initiative and was not surprised at the CDC's revised surveillance figures or the recent Black AIDS Institute report, "Left Behind."

"There's been a severe undercount. The Black AIDS Institute knew this, I knew this, members of Congress knew this. BAI is calling for a domestic PEPFAR and I fully agree with them. They want 1.3 billion to begin. I think we need billions and billions and billions more."

Of course, to be effective, that level of funding will require another sweeping policy change, an end to the abstinence-only-until-marriage programs favored by the administration. Rep. Lee has led the charge against abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and wrote a bill to allow states to devise evidence-based HIV and AIDS education.

"The Responsible Education about Life [REAL] Act, be for REAL, that's my bill, has more than 100 co-sponsors. That bill would in essence allow states to use federal funding to teach comprehensive sex education in public schools, to teach young people how to prevent the transmission of HIV and AIDS and also how to prevent unwanted pregnancies. It's got to happen."

"Hopefully with a new president we'll be able to push that policy forward."

A Thank You to Congresswoman Barbara Lee

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

As I was looking thorough the massive International AIDS Conference booklet, full of sessions taking place at the conference and trying to decide which session I wanted to attend, I saw that Congresswoman Barbara Lee was one of the speakers at the session about travel restrictions on people living with HIV. Barbara Lee is well known for being an activist in the sexual and reproductive rights movement--more specifically an advocate for sexual and reproductive rights of young people in the United States and abroad.

During her speech, Rep. Lee talked about how Congress removed the travel restriction for people with living with HIV; however, the Department of Health and Human Services has yet to lift its restriction. Hopefully, the ban will be lifted completely before the end of President Bush's term. When I posed a question during the session as to what we, young people, should demand of our next president, Congresswoman Lee, without any hesitation, came up with a very comprehensive list of demands that included: the repeal of the global gag rule, integration of family planning services and comprehensive sexual education into PEPFAR, removal of the prostitution pledge, and finding an effective way to address gender violence. She also did not forget the domestic policy reforms that included defunding abstinence-only programs, authorization of the REAL Act, support for clean needle exchange programs, and the creation of a domestic PEPFAR. In other words, she listed everything I, as an advocate for the sexual and reproductive health of young people, have been working towards for almost three years now.

It's comforting to have a policy maker speak out and advocate on behalf of vulnerable youth. After having been disappointed by President Clinton's failure to mention young people in his keynote speech and Ban Ki-moon's failure to make a commitment to youth during his visit to the Youth Pavilion, I was comforted to know that youth are not alone as long as we have policy makers such as Congresswoman Barbara Lee on our side. So, I want to take this opportunity to thank her, once again, for doing such amazing work with policy in Congress and for not being afraid to speak out on issues concerning the sexual and reproductive health of young people.

Barbara Lee: We need a domestic war on AIDS

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, is the only member of Congress attending the 17th Annual International AIDS Conference, now in progress in Mexico City.

Lee coauthored the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) back in 2003, as well as the recent reauthorization which puts $48 billion toward helping millions of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS around the world. She told me this afternoon she wishes progress in fighting the disease here in the United States would be so successful.

New figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the number of cases reported annually in the U.S. is as high as 56,300, far exceeding old estimate of 40,000. And according to a new report from the Black Aids Institute, if Black America were its own country it would rank 16th worldwide in the number of people infected, more than in Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Lesotho or Swaziland.

“It’s time for a domestic PEPFAR,” she told me today, the conference’s hustle and bustle audible behind her voice on her cell phone. “We’re talking about minimally $1.3 billion, and I’m saying we need billions more.”

See more of what Lee said about what we’ve done so far, and what we need to do, after the jump…

Lee noted that Alameda County declared a state of emergency over HIV/AIDS in the black community way back in 1999, the same year that federal funding first kicked in for the Minority AIDS Initiative. But it has been hard at times to get Congress to focus on the crisis; Lee hopes the new CDC numbers, which “confirm everything that we’ve been saying from day one,” will put an end to that.

Although she has been at every International AIDS Conference since her election to the House, she said, “this is the first time now… that there’s been international focus on what’s happening in America, hopefully this is a turning point.”

Massive prevention and education campaigns; abundant treatment as part of a universal health care system; repealing the 20-year-old ban on federal funding for needle-exchange programs; and removing the abstinence-only caveat on federal funding for sex education (as Lee has authored a bill to do) are among the measures Lee urges.

“We can’t keep our heads in the sand,” she said. “We’ve got to move forward and deal with this head-on.”

Now that Congress (as part of the PEPFAR reauthorization) has partially lifted the federal ban on foreign visitors and immigrants who are HIV-positive, Lee said she’s pressuring the International AIDS Society to hold a future conference right here in Oakland, so scientists, medical professionals, activists, NGOs and political leaders from around the world can observe how local government, the faith community and other entities have come together to fight the disease, and so those local groups can hear some input directly from the world’s foremost authorities on the issue.

Kate Krauss, spokeswoman for Physicians for Human Rights’ Health Action AIDS Campaign, told me her organization bestowed an award upon Lee this morning, with doctors from around the world giving the lawmaker a standing ovation.

“There are a lot of fans of Barbara Lee at this conference,” Krauss said. “We gave her an award for her courage and her steadfastness in leading the fight against AIDS.”

Lee and her staff – particularly aide Christos Tsentas – “worked night and day to pass the PEPFAR legislation,” she added. “They deserve a lot of credit.”

Black AIDS Institute CEO Phill Wilson also presented Lee with an award today, honoring her leadership in trying to link the domestic epidemic with the global epidemic. “There have been very few members of Congress who have been able to advocate for the very real need to take a leadership role on the global front, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, while being painfully aware of the devastating effect AIDS is having on the African American community domestically,” he said in a news release.

Policymakers Call for New National AIDS Strategy for the United States

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Centers for Disease Control released a report indicating that the number of new people infected by HIV in the United States is much higher than previously estimated -- 40% HIGHER. Previous figures estimated new infections at 40,000 per year, now the CDC says the number of new cases of HIV infection is closer to 56,000 per year. The CDC says the new data suggests a stable epidemic -- but that the numbers are still unacceptably high, with a steady increase in infection rates among gay and bisexual men. On today's newscast, we hear from California Representative Barbara Lee and Paul Zeitz, who works with the Global AIDS Alliance Fund, about a new national AIDS strategy for the United States.

Click here to listen to the interview

Lee backs bill to ease pot laws

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

20:21 PDT San Francisco -- Two Bay Area congresswomen joined a half-dozen fellow House members Wednesday in proposing to end federal prosecution for marijuana possession.

The proposal, unveiled at a Washington, D.C., news conference, would eliminate federal criminal penalties for adults who possess up to 100 grams of marijuana -- about 3.5 ounces -- or give an ounce of pot to someone else without charge.

While the government shouldn't encourage marijuana use, it should allow people to ''make their own choices as long as they are not impinging on the rights, freedom or property of others,'' said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., lead author of the bill, HR 5843.

This is the first marijuana decriminalization measure introduced in Congress since 1978, said the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The organization said 830,000 Americans were arrested on marijuana charges in 2006, 88 percent of them for personal possession and use.

Co-sponsors of the legislation include Reps. Barbara Lee of Oakland, Zoe Lofgren of San Jose, four other Democrats and one Republican, Ron Paul of Texas. CNN quoted Lee as calling government policy on marijuana ''inhumane'' and ''immoral'' and as saying she has many constituents who are harassed or arrested for using or growing medical marijuana.

California, in a 1996 voter initiative, was the first of 12 states to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Federal law, however, classifies marijuana among the most dangerous drugs, with no legitimate use, and the government has won Supreme Court rulings allowing federal agents to shut down medical marijuana dispensaries and prosecute patients and their suppliers. Both those cases originated in Oakland.

On its Web site, the Drug Enforcement Administration declares: ''Legalization of marijuana, no matter how it begins, will come at the expense of our children and public safety. It will create dependency and treatment issues, and open the door to use of other drugs, impaired health, delinquent behavior, and drugged drivers.''

Lee praises Bush for signing new global AIDS law

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

President Bush was flanked by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and Annette Lantos -- widow of the late House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo -- yesterday as he signed the H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.

''As one of the original co-authors of not only this bill but the original legislation in 2003, it has been a tremendous bipartisan effort to get to this day,'' Lee, a co-author of the bill, said in a statement issued shortly afterward. ''This bill is the latest in a long string of bipartisan initiatives on global HIV/AIDS that have been born out of a willingness to work together and put the United States on the right side of history when it comes to this global pandemic. Despite his failings on so many critical issues, the President deserves recognition for working with Congress to enact this important legislation.''

The new law authorizes a $48 billion increase to the program, which Lee said will make it possible to prevent 12 million new HIV infections globally; provide treatment for at least 3 million individuals with HIV/AIDS; treat 450,000 children; and ensure care for 12 million individuals, including 5 million orphans and vulnerable children in communities affected by HIV/AIDS. Lee said she’ll use her seat on the House Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs to ''ensure we meet the funding commitments and targets we set out in this important new law.''

The law also removes the statutory ban on travel and immigration for people living with HIV/AIDS. ''It’s far past time we got rid of this shameful policy,'' Lee said. ''I’m glad we were able to remove the statutory ban and pass this bill less than three before the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.''

Fighting AIDS pandemic abroad...and at home

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Today President Bush signs bipartisan legislation reauthorizing and expanding the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). It is a landmark achievement that will save millions of people from certain death and prevent millions of new HIV infections in the developing world. Sadly, our commitment to fighting AIDS globally has not extended to the fight against AIDS here at home.

As our government has dramatically scaled up funding for AIDS relief overseas, it has simultaneously cut real spending for domestic HIV prevention and care initiatives.

A new report by the Black AIDS Institute, aptly titled "Left Behind!," provides startling evidence that, while we excel at fighting AIDS overseas, we have not sufficiently addressed the growing epidemic among African Americans within our own borders. The report compares African American HIV rates in Detroit, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., with countries such as South Africa, Haiti and Tanzania, and concludes that Black America is confronting the epidemic without enough support from the federal government.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than half a million African Americans are HIV-positive. African Americans are eight times more likely than white Americans to contract HIV, and they fare more poorly when infected, due to late diagnoses and lack of health services. While treatment has made AIDS a chronic manageable condition for people with quality health care, one study found that HIV-positive blacks are 2.5 more likely to die than HIV-positive whites.

This observation prompted the Black AIDS Institute to ask a thought-provoking question: How would the United States react to this epidemic if Black America were a separate country? The conclusion: If Black America existed outside our borders, it would be a prime candidate for U.S. aid.

Despite the efforts of me and my colleagues, the response to our own AIDS epidemic has been woefully inadequate. Although African American communities and leaders are now mobilized on AIDS, the federal government has not committed the necessary funding and focus to fight AIDS in America, let alone AIDS in Black America. Sadly, the United States would probably deny its own application for AIDS relief; because our response does not even meet the minimum standards we set for other nations. PEPFAR beneficiary countries, for example, must have a national AIDS strategy in place. Three decades into our own epidemic, the United States has no such strategy. Disturbingly, we are also one of just 40 countries worldwide that fails to report our progress in fighting HIV/AIDS to the United Nations. These failures threaten not only the health of our own citizens, but our credibility abroad as well.

It's past time our government stopped turning a blind eye to our national AIDS epidemic. Far greater support is needed for community responses to the epidemic in Black America, especially through the Minority AIDS Initiative, which was created by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters when she chaired the Congressional Black Caucus. We must develop a national AIDS strategy and fund HIV prevention initiatives designed for African Americans.

HIV/AIDS is not just a foreign policy issue. If we wish to show real global leadership on AIDS, then we must keep our commitments abroad and take care of our epidemic here at home.

AIDS in America

AIDS is the No. 1 killer of young African American women and the No. 2 killer of young African American men.

If Black America were a separate country, it would rank:

16th worldwide in the number of people with HIV (ahead of Botswana, Côte d'Ivoire, Lesotho or Swaziland).

On par with many African nations for HIV infection rates (although most sub-Saharan nations have general HIV prevalence rates higher than the 2-3 percent found across Black America).

Source: Black AIDS Institute

Citizens-to-be attend Oakland workshop

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Dozens of East Bay residents filed into a vacant storefront in Oakland's Fruitvale district Saturday to begin the often long and daunting process of becoming U.S. citizens.

Miguel and Andrea Morales of Oakland listened intently to speakers at the Citizenship Opening Ceremony. The couple learned that the government will leave no stone unturned in reviewing their backgrounds as part of the naturalization process, which can take from several months to several years.

The Moraleses arrived in the United States eight years ago from their native Honduras in search of opportunity and better-paying jobs.

U.S. citizenship experts explained that they will be subject to criminal background checks, fingerprinting and photographing, that they must have had their green cards for at least five years before applying, and that they are expected to read, write and speak basic English.

Miguel Morales, 55, said he was feeling upbeat about meeting all the requirements and one day taking the oath of allegiance to the United States.

"This is a necessary step to better jobs and the right to vote," he said as he clutched a folder full of information about the path ahead of him. Morales said he would one day like to work for the City of Oakland.

Representatives from legal aid groups helped Morales and other residents attending Saturday's workshop complete paperwork and provided coaching for interviews with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Fresno residents Jose Luis and Maria Leyva, a construction worker and teacher's aide who became U.S. citizens last month, made the trek to Oakland Saturday to receive a special recognition from Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who co-sponsored Saturday's event with the Unity Council, an Oakland nonprofit that works with the East Bay immigrant community.

The Leyvas, who are originally from Mexico, have lived in the United States for 30 years but only recently decided to apply for citizenship.

Their U.S.-born children are grown. Their daughter attends UC Berkeley and their son is working full time. Most of their family members live in the United States.

The Leyvas said their concerns about not being able to navigate the labyrinth of prerequisites for naturalization held them back from applying for citizenship sooner.

But they studied at home, tutored each other and turned to their daughter for help.

"I'm very happy," said Maria Leyva, 51. "In my country, I never voted. This year, if God allows it to be, will be my first time voting."

The couple said they are also hoping their new citizenship will protect them from raids that have shaken immigrant communities in the Bay Area and nationwide.

Lee applauded the Leyvas' choice to become U.S. citizens.

"Today is a big day," Lee said. "They'll be able to participate fully now in the democratic processes such as voting and being able to engage in the benefits this country provides."

Lee also decried the raids that have swept the nation and said she is working to revise guidelines for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers so that future crackdowns will not target law-abiding residents who are not citizens.

"The ICE raids have been horrific," she said. "My hope is we'll be able to develop some regulations that will protect law-abiding members of our communities while permitting agents to do their job where cause and the law allow them."

Oakland Congresswoman Touts Aids legislation

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCBS) -- A Bay Area congresswoman has helped usher through important legislation to combat HIV-AIDS. The bill creates the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, or PEPFAR. A co-sponsor is congresswoman Barbara Lee of Oakland.

"We've pulled together a bi-partisan coalition and we were able to pass a $48 billion bill to help millions of people living with, and affected by HIV-AIDS," said Lee.

Lee says the reauthorized bill will help millions of people living with HIV-AIDS, prevent 12 million new infections, and train 140,000 health care professionals.

"We were also able to finally lift the travel ban, which has been in place for many, many years, which would not allow individuals living with HIV-AIDS to come into the United States," said Lee.

Congresswoman Lee says she's confident the president will sign the HIV-AIDS relief bill into law.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Promotes Passport

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, introduced legislation today that would make September National Passport Month because she said less than 23 percent of Americans have passports.

The resolution calls on President Bush to urge state and federal entities to observe the month with ceremonies and educate people on the benefits of international travel.

"Traveling abroad promotes understanding and goodwill,'' Lee stated. "When people connect with other people, it opens the doors to increased peace, tolerance and acceptance.''

Congress OKs $48B for global AIDS fight

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Thursday to triple money to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world, giving new life and new punch to a program credited with saving or prolonging millions of lives in Africa alone.

The 303-115 vote sends the global AIDS bill to President Bush for his signature. Bush, who first floated the idea of a campaign against the scourge of AIDS in his 2003 State of the Union speech, supports the five-year, $48 billion plan.

Passage of the bill culminated a rare instance of cooperation between the White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress. It was "born out of a willingness to work together and put the United States on the right side of history when it comes to this global pandemic," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., a leader on the issue.

The current $15 billion act, which expires at the end of September, has helped bring lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs to some 1.7 million people and supported care for nearly 7 million. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, has won plaudits from some of Bush's harshest critics both in Congress and around the world. Both Democrats and Republicans hailed it as one of the most significant accomplishments of the Bush presidency.

The United States, said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, "has given hope to millions infected with the HIV virus, which just a few years ago was tantamount to a death sentence."

According to a study by UNAIDS and the Kaiser Family Foundation, the United States provided one-fifth of AIDS funding from all sources — governments, international aid groups and the private sector — in 2007. About 40 percent of the $4.9 billion disbursed in 2007 from the G-8 countries, Europe and other donor governments came from the United States.

The legislation approves spending of $5 billion for malaria and $4 billion for tuberculosis, the leading cause of death for people with AIDS. It authorizes spending of up to $2 billion next year for the international Global Fund to Fight AIDS. The measure also provides $2 billion, on top of the $48 billion, for American Indian water, health and law enforcement programs.

While some GOP conservatives questioned the sharp spending increase, others said the U.S. aid had important security as well as moral implications and gave a needed boost to America's reputation abroad.

The pandemic, said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, "is leaving a trail of poverty, despondency and death which has destabilized societies and undermined the security of entire regions." The program has enhanced the U.S. image around the world, she said. "Even in the most remote areas of Kenya or Haiti, for example, people know about the PEPFAR program."

PEPFAR has focused on nations in sub-Saharan Africa that have been devastated by AIDS, but it has also provided assistance in the Caribbean and other areas hit by the pandemic now affecting some 33 million worldwide. Even with advances in treating the disease, there are still about 7,000 new HIV infections every day around the world.

The new bill, like the current law, states that 10 percent of funds should be allocated for orphans and vulnerable children. It sets as a goal preventing 12 million new HIV infections, treating more than 2 million with anti-retroviral drugs, supporting care for 12 million people infected with HIV/AIDS and training at least 140,000 new health care workers and paraprofessionals.

It increases attention on women and girls, including stressing the importance of preventing gender-based violence.

Pamela W. Barnes, president and CEO of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, applauded the bill's target of reaching 80 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women with services needed to prevent transmission to their children. "We are still only reaching 34 percent of pregnant, HIV-positive mothers with the medicine they need to keep their babies HIV-free," she said.

The final product took months of compromise: Democrats took out a provision in the existing act requiring that one-third of prevention funds be spent on abstinence education but allowed for reports to Congress if abstinence and fidelity spending falls below certain levels. Conservatives won "conscience clause" assurances that religious groups would not be forced to participate in programs to which they morally object.

Bush, who originally proposed doubling the program to $30 billion, first balked at but later accepted the $50 billion bill that passed the House in April. The Senate diverted $2 billion of the $50 billion to Indian programs and inserted a provision that more than half of funds for AIDS programs go for treatment and care.

The Senate also attached a measure, welcomed by AIDS advocacy groups, that ends a two-decade-old U.S. policy that has made it nearly impossible for HIV-positive people to get visas to this country as immigrants, students or tourists.

The bill is named after former House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairmen Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Tom Lantos, D-Calif., who wrote the 2003 bill. Hyde died last November, and Lantos died in February as he was working on the new bill.

Congressional Briefs: Lee Calls for Pay Equity for Women

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

July 22, 2008, 3 a.m. -- Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) joined Lilly Ledbetter and several members of Congress in calling for immediate action on the ''The Paycheck Fairness Act and the ''Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act.''

For every dollar men earned in 2006, women earned 77 cents. The wage gap is most severe for women of color. Of full-time workers, African American women's median weekly earnings ($429) were only 64 percent of the earnings of white men ($669) in the year 2000. In one year, the average African American woman earns approximately $12,000 less than the average white man does. Over a 35-year career, this adds up to $420,000.

''We have made strides in closing the wage gap between women and men, but as these numbers indicate, we still have a very long way to go,'' said Lee. ''It is absolutely unconscionable and inexcusable that women and especially minority women earn a fraction of what men earn for the same job. We must put an end to this unfair treatment and workplace discrimination and we must redouble our efforts to do it.''

The Supreme Court delivered a blow to the fight against workplace discrimination for women, and all American workers, when it ruled on Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. one year ago that workers are barred from filing pay discrimination claims more than 180 days after an employer first decides to discriminate, even when the discrimination continues.

''Lilly Ledbetter stands for women all over this country and symbolizes our fight for justice in pay and our efforts to end the discrimination which is still far too prevalent in this country. Let's stand up for all the Lilly Ledbetter's out there and all the women who deserve equity and fairness in the workplace by making the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act the law of the land,'' said Lee.

Rep. John Lewis Applauds House Override of President's Medicare Veto

Rep. John Lewis issued the following statement after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to override President Bush's veto of H.R. 6331, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.

''By overriding the President's veto today,'' Lewis said, ''the U.S. House of Representatives took a first step, among others that must follow, to preserve, protect, and improve the Medicare system. As representatives of the people, we have a moral obligation to do what is right, what is fair, and what is just. We must not cut payments to physicians. We must defend access to healthcare for seniors, the disabled, and others beneficiaries of Medicare. While we are spending billions of taxpayer dollars in Iraq for little gain, we could be using those valuable resources to secure the lives of millions of Americans. I applaud the work of my colleagues today who came together in a bi-partisan fashion to take a stand for the people of this nation.

''At issue has been an increase in Medicare reimbursements to physicians. Many doctors have been providing service to Medicare patients while risking their own financial solvency due to recent cuts in government reimbursements. Without this increase, thousands of seniors and disabled Americans would have lost access to medical care. The bill increases payments to doctors by 1.1 percent and stops a mandated 10.6 percent cut in payments. This legislation is fully funded primarily through reductions in overpayments to the Medicare Advantage Indirect Medical Education program and adjustments in the fee-for-service program.

''The bill also includes aspects of two pieces of legislation Rep. Lewis introduced, H.R. 1193, the Kidney Care and Quality Education Act, which addresses issues related to end stage renal disease, and H.R. 552, the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.''

Norton Bill Seeks to Extend the U.S. Parole Commission

As part of her continuing oversight begun last year of District Code felons, ex-offenders and parolees under federal jurisdiction, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) testified at a hearing late last week for her bill to extend the U.S. Parole Commission for three years beyond its current expiration date of November 1, 2008. Currently, the Parole Commission has oversight of more than 9,000 D.C. offenders, and more than 2,000 more federal felons. However, Norton sharply criticized the refusal of the Justice Department to agree to permanent authorization of ''this federal agency with a vital continuing federal mission.'' Besides the inefficient and counterproductive use of congressional time, Norton said the coming deadline had disrupted the work of the commission and put public safety at risk. Next year, she will again seek a permanent reauthorization of the Commission.

Also, at Norton's request, the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security heard testimony from a D.C. resident, Horace Crenshaw, who was re-incarcerated and lost years of ''good time,'' which then added to his years on parole. However, following his second infraction, the Parole Board used a sanction procedure that included drug rehabilitation, allowing him to keep his job. Norton is working on a bill to bring the U.S. Parole Commission's procedures in line with best practices.

Full article text

American dream becomes a nightmare for millions of people

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif) says that with a recession caused by the Iraq War, increasing debt, rising gas and food prices, foreclosures and unemployment, the American dream has become a nightmare.

Click here for the full audio clip

US ban on visitors with HIV could end soon

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON (AP) — A two-decade ban on people with HIV visiting or immigrating to the United States may end soon through a Senate bill aimed at fighting AIDS and other diseases in Africa and other poor areas of the world.

The U.S. is one of a dozen countries — including Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Russia — that ban travel and immigration for HIV-positive people.

Even China, said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., recently changed that policy, deciding it was "time to move beyond an antiquated, knee-jerk reaction" to people with HIV.

"There's no excuse for a law that stigmatizes a particular disease," Kerry said Tuesday at a speech to the Center for Strategic & International Studies HIV/AIDS Task Force. Even people with avian flu or the Ebola virus have an easier time than those with HIV when it come to applying for visas, he said.

Kerry and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., are trying to repeal the ban, first implemented in 1987 and confirmed by Congress in 1993. The two have attached their measure to legislation — which the Senate may pass this week — that would provide $50 billion over the next five years to fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa and other poor areas.

Foreign citizens, students and tourists can apply for a difficult-to-obtain special waiver for short-term visits, but an HIV-positive person has little chance of obtaining permanent residency.

Under current law, HIV is the only medical condition explicitly listed under immigration law. The Kerry-Smith provision would make HIV equivalent to other communicable diseases where medical and public health experts at the Health and Human Services Department — not consular officials at U.S. embassies — determine eligibility for admission.

Those with HIV seeking legal permanent residency would still have to demonstrate they have the resources to live in this country and would not become a "public charge."

The HIV ban was "adopted during a time of widespread fear and ignorance about the HIV virus," said Allison Herwitt, legislative director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian civil rights group.

Among the consequences, experts on HIV and AIDS who are themselves infected have been unable to attend conferences in the U.S. Students and refugees in the country who may be at risk of infection have been reluctant to seek testing or treatment.

"Health care professionals, researchers and other exceptionally talented people have been blocked from the United States," some 160 health and AIDS groups said recently in a letter urging Congress to end the current policy. "Since 1993, the International Conference on AIDS has not been held on U.S. soil due to this policy."

Herwitt said some HIV-positive people seeking visas lie on their applications and then don't bring their medications. "It's not only wrongheaded and discriminatory, but can also cause people to not tell the truth."

Both President George H.W. Bush and President Clinton sought to ease the policy and in 2006 the current President Bush asked the Homeland Security Department to streamline the waiver process. Congress so far has not gone along.

There's still opposition.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., may offer an amendment to eliminate the Kerry-Smith provision from the Senate bill. Sessions cited Congressional Budget Office estimates that the new immigrants coming in under the relaxed policy could cost the government more than $80 million over a 10-year period. "Most people just don't want to talk about that."

Sessions said the Health and Human Services Department already has considerable flexibility to grant entry visas.

The measure would offset the costs of new immigrants by raising the price of applying for a visitor's visa by $1 for three years and then $2 for the next five years.

The House version of the Africa AIDs bill does not have the travel and immigration provision, but advocates said it will be included in the final version of the bill that goes to the president.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., is sponsoring companion legislation in the House.

The Africa AIDS bill is S. 2731.

Barbara Lee leads foreclosure tour in Oakland

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

OAKLAND — Berta Berrayo is trying to hang on to the quaint East Oakland home that represents her American dream.

Sitting on her front porch Saturday, decorated with a U.S. flag and a statue of the Virgin Mary, Berrayo shared with Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and a crowd of others her plight as a working mother and recent foreclosure victim.

"We have to find a solution to the foreclosure crisis,'' said Berrayo, who was a first-time home buyer when she made the purchase four years ago. "The banks don't want to negotiate with us or our community.''

Lee was in her district this weekend to take a bus foreclosure tour around Oakland, which is among the 20 U.S. cities with the most number of houses in foreclosure.

She was joined by City Council members Desley Brooks, Eastmont-Seminary, and Larry Reid, Elmhurst-East Oakland. Their districts have about 400 bank-owned homes and are at the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis.

The tour was organized by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which advocates for low- and moderate-income families. Representatives from the Urban Strategies Council and the Department of Housing and Urban Development also participated in the event. Junious Williams, CEO of the Urban Strategies Council, said the foreclosure crisis is the "tipping point" for neighborhoods that already have a lot of problems.

"The American dream is turning into a nightmare, and unfortunately the federal government hasn't done enough to help,'' Lee said. "The impact extends beyond the personal tragedies of families "...there's massive suffering in our country and our communities.''

California led the nation with 68,666 foreclosure filings in June.

Lee is supporting a package of legislation to help those who have been affected by the subprime mortgage crisis.

"The numbers are shameful, and we need to send a loud message to the White House that the president must sign a bill that will be a long-term fix," she said.

Lee hopes to leverage $5.4 million of federal neighborhood revitalization funding to her district to rehabilitate and resell vacant properties.

This year, about 3,800 subprime loans will reset in Alameda County, according to data collected by ACORN.

On Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed SB1137 into law.

It requires mortgage lenders to talk with homeowners before foreclosing, gives tenants more time to vacate foreclosed properties and requires owners to maintain foreclosed properties to prevent neighborhood blight.

"Some people are living alone on a block of foreclosed homes,'' said Brooks. "There is a diminution in the quality of life, and we need to change that.''

Rep. Lee Tackles Oakland's Foreclosure Crises

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

(San Francisco, CA) Representative Barbara Lee joined others on a tour Saturday of properties facing foreclosure in Oakland. As Sherry Hu reports, she, along with others, are trying to help homeowners in financial distress.

Click here to watch the Sherry Hu report

Dems want Bush to heed Iraq's withdrawal timetable

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Calls by Iraqi leaders for a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country could reopen the Iraq debate in Congress.

Three of the most ardent opponents of the Iraq war, Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), introduced legislation late Wednesday calling on President Bush to heed Iraq’s demands.

The resolution by calls on Bush to "Respect Iraq's sovereignty and redeploy our military if asked to do so by the Government of Iraq."

It would also ask Bush to present redeployment plans to Congress.

The Iraq debate in Congress was largely put to rest for the year in June when Congress passed an Iraq emergency spending bill funding the war several months into the term of the next president.

But on Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki suggested for the first time that a timetable be set for the withdrawal of troops under an agreement being negotiated with the United States.

The three lawmakers also wrote a letter to President Bush, and another to al-Maliki. The letter to al-Maliki says that they "support the sovereign right of the Government of Iraq to insist that any security agreement between the United States and Iraq include a timetable for the complete redeployment of U.S. armed forces and military contractors out of Iraq."

Kucinich pursues Bush's impeachment, again

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, once again put the impeachment of President George W. Bush on the House floor today, and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland again voiced her support:

    "As a co-sponsor of Congressman Kucinich’s previous articles of impeachment, I want to commend his ongoing efforts to hold this President accountable for his abuses.

    The lifeblood of any democracy is the trust the people have in their political leaders and institutions. When leaders abuse that trust, they imperil their country by breaking the ties that bind the people to their government. And nowhere is that trust more essential than when it comes to deciding whether to go to war.

    As President of the United States and Commander in Chief of our nation's military forces, George W. Bush’s record is replete with abusing this trust with the purpose of enabling a war of choice. His actions will have a lasting effect on the heart and soul of our nation and the very fiber of democracy.

    His war of choice has caused incalculable damage to our country, and the damage is exacerbated daily by his continuance in office. His breach of the public trust and misleading the nation into a disastrous war in Iraq warrants his impeachment and removal from office.

    This article of impeachment introduced today provides a compelling exposé of the President’s abuse of the public trust in his fateful and calamitous decision to launch an unnecessary war in Iraq. I strongly support it."

Kucinich last month had introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush; they were sent to the House Judiciary Committee, where they died without hearing or action. Today he introduced just one article, based on "Deceiving Congress with Fabricated Threats of Iraq WMDs to Fraudulently Obtain Support for an Authorization of the Use of Military Force Against Iraq."

House Speaker Nancy "Off the Table" Pelosi, D-San Francisco, somewhat surprisingly told reporters at her weekly briefing this morning that it's "a Judiciary Committee matter. And I believe you will see some attention being paid to it by the Judiciary Committee. Not necessarily taking up the articles of impeachment, because that would have to be voted on the floor, but to have some hearings on the subject."

Foreclosure Notice Legislation Signed Into Law

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

OAKLAND (BCN) ― Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came to Oakland Tuesday to sign a bill authored by state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata that requires lenders to contact homeowners and explore restructuring options before initiating the foreclosure process.

Schwarzenegger and Perata, D-Oakland, said the bill, SB 1137, will provide tenants with double the amount of time now afforded to them to move from a foreclosed property, and will prevent California's neighborhoods from becoming run-down by requiring owners to maintain foreclosed properties.

At a news conference at The Unity Council on Fruitvale Avenue, Schwarzenegger said, "Foreclosures not only devastate families, they hurt neighborhoods and depress our economy and our budget."

He said, "I am proud to announce that we are giving Californians one more tool to help them stay in their homes - without government subsidies."

According to Schwarzenegger's office, the Department of Corporations announced last week that the number of loan modifications in California increased significantly in the months of April and May compared to January.

Schwarzenegger said that means state action to work with lenders is helping Californians find more workable loans and keep their homes.

Perata and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums joined Schwarzenegger at the news conference at the Unity Council, which is a community advocacy, social service delivery and economic development group for Oakland's Fruitvale district.

The Oakland City Council recently passed a resolution urging Schwarzenegger to sign Perata's bill.

In a related development, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, said Tuesday that she will tour Oakland neighborhoods on Saturday to assess the foreclosure crisis and discuss legislative efforts at the federal level to address the problem.

Lee said she will be joined by Oakland City Council members Larry Reid and Desley Brooks, as well as representatives from the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), Urban Strategies and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

What Peace with Iran Could Look Like

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

These conversations are about getting to know one another. You can discuss anything you like—we just ask that you be respectful. Our volunteers are… people like you who want to find out more about someone in another country.

With those words printed on the back of a miniature cardboard, a declaration of peace was made. On June 10, on the west terrace of the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, three white tables manned by interpreters stood ready to connect curious Americans and eager Iranians in sometimes awkward, occasionally halting, decidedly scintillating conversations.

As part of a larger grassroots diplomatic initiative entitled “It’s Time to Talk to Iran,” the discussions were preceded by a press conference whereby politicians and activists advocated “a diplomatic surge for peace and reconciliation.” Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA), her usually calm features tensed with determination, thundered, “It is time to put an end to [an American-Iranian policy marked by threats and fear-mongering]… The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said that ‘we must learn to live together as brothers or we will surely perish together as fools.’ It is time to talk to Iran. All it takes to begin is one ‘Hello.’” Others seconded Rep. Lee’s sentiments, alternately describing diplomatic engagement with Iran as a “mission of mercy” to unfortunate Iranian citizens.

Underlying these passionate statements was the premise that engaging Iran militarily would represent a devastating political, economic, and humanitarian loss for the United States preceded by a “tragic series of lost opportunities.” According to former Georgia representative and current Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr, American “strategic and tactical interests” in the Middle East could not bear the loss of benefits from a better relationship with Iran. However, two questions lingered: what kind of “strategic and tactical” significance did Iran actually have and what could grassroots diplomacy do in an escalating conflict of hard rhetoric?

In reality, Iran’s geographic location and considerable oil resources make it paramount to America’s interests. Nearly 40 percent of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz—a narrow Persian Gulf waterway on Iran’s western coast—on a daily basis. In the event of an American military attack, the Iranian government could easily blockade this strait, interrupting the flow of oil. Oil and natural gas comprise 80 percent of Iranian exports. For the U.S. that suffers from rising oil prices, antagonizing a potential source of much needed relief would be tantamount to curing athlete’s foot by amputating the patient’s feet. Renewed relations with Iran open up the possibility of an increased supply of oil resulting from American-Iranian trade, which could lower prices and replenish the amount of disposable income available to the average American.

Although current sanctions do not include oil, the fact remains that the Iranian government has a persistent fear of enforced regime change at America’s hands. As long as that apprehension exists, a potential Iranian-American oil trade will never materialize. Representative Lee’s bill, the Iran Nuclear Nonproliferation Act (HR 770) attempts to mitigate those fears by blocking the use of funds for regime change. However, this latest round of sanctions does not complement the message that this pending piece of legislation is trying to send.

From a diplomatic perspective, improved American-Iranian relations could also translate into a more stable Iraq and Afghanistan. Prior to the mutual mistrust that the Bush and Ahmadinejad administrations seemed to have settled into, Iran was actually a central player in efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. For example, Iranian-American cooperation predominated in both meetings of the United Nations-sponsored 6+2 Group on Afghanistan in the late 1990s and in the 2002 Bonn meetings to develop the incipient Hamid Karzai government in the wake of the Taliban’s overthrow. On the ground in Afghanistan, Iran even supported ground forces and helped negotiate the Northern Alliance. Unfortunately, these overtures were later repelled by Iran’s inclusion in the “Axis of Evil.”

In Iraq, the supplanting of Saddam Hussein’s authoritarian Sunni regime with a coalition of Shiite parties favorable to Tehran has complicated American efforts to win hearts and minds and made the overall political atmosphere more amenable to Iranian meddling, which has manifested itself in alleged funding of Shiite militia groups bent on guerilla campaigns against American troops. A new spirit of cooperation in Iran and America’s mutual support for the Al-Maliki administration could help reduce the ethnic and sectarian schisms in Iraq by depriving many of these militias of their financial support and ideological rationale for attacking American soldiers.

Technically, sanctions are proving to be diplomatically ineffectual. To counteract strategies to undercut its nuclear program, Tehran has waged a diplomatic offensive aimed at Russia, China, and its neighbors in the Middle East. Iran’s readiness to share its oil exports with diplomatically receptive and energy-hungry nations has generated hesitation on the part of the Chinese and the Russians—two prominent members of the UN Security Council—to engage in sanctions against the Ahmadinejad administration. The December 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluding that Iran ceased its efforts to develop nuclear weapons in 2003 has further exacerbated Russia and China’s reluctance to actively support sanctions.

Iran’s support for Hezbollah has proven its spoiler potential in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Although “the precise extent of coordination between Tehran and Hezbollah” remains uncertain, “circumstantial evidence” exist showing Iran ordered Hezbollah to launch a 2006 incursion into Israeli territory that prompted a protracted military strike. Continued Iranian patronage of Hezbollah ensures a prolonged risk to Israeli welfare. If a military strike was launched against Iran, Tehran could use its considerable influence over Hezbollah to retaliate with a proxy attack on Israel. Given Iran’s newfound respect in the Arab world, American aggression could also prompt terror attacks against U.S. citizens, not to mention whatever conventional force Iran could shore up to respond in kind.

Amidst all these nightmare scenarios, one can only marvel at the audacity of grassroots diplomacy activists. How can such small initiatives like the “Talk to Iran” campaign reverse the tide of mistrust and missed opportunities plaguing American-Iranian relations? According to Carah Ong of the Center for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, the answer lies in humanization of those who have been demonized. “The whole point of these actions,” she says, “is to put a human face on the other [and amplify] the voices of those who say we need diplomacy. If the people [remain] silent, then governments continue what they are doing.” In contrast to the vitriol that has characterized American-Iranian relations since the 1950s, the “Talk to Iran” campaign relies on direct communication as a means of reversing stereotypes created by media exaggeration and political rhetoric. Telephone calls between American and Iranian citizens are arranged as a means of creating friendships and “replacing caricatures with real people.”

Another purpose of cultural diplomatic campaigns like “Talk to Iran” is to complement official and Track Two diplomacy methods used by mid-level and elite sectors of American and Iranian society. In a March 20, 2008 joint article for the New York Review of Books, former UN Ambassador Thomas Pickering, MIT nonproliferation specialist Jim Walsh, and William Luers revealed that a series of secret meetings between “former American diplomats and regional experts and Iranian academics and policy advisers” over five years had produced a proposal to conduct Iran’s nuclear enrichment program within an international consortium. Under this multilateral effort, Iran would choose other nations to participate in the management and operation of its nuclear facilities. No work would be pursued outside the arrangement, nor could Iran produce highly enriched uranium or processed plutonium. Instead, Iran would commit to a light water reactor program that required small levels of enriched uranium, not enough to build a weapon. All parties would contribute financially and share in the revenues.

In the larger scheme of things, cultural diplomacy would help encourage such a policy and official initiatives calling for restraint in American-Iranian policy by inspiring ordinary Americans and Iranians to agitate for better communication and working relations in increasing numbers. As cultural peace evolved into economic peace, a rapprochement in political relations could result. As such, peace with Iran would resemble a large multilevel initiative encompassing all sectors of American and Iranian society beginning with calls for peace from the bottom up.

Unfortunately, that vision remains a pipe dream. Despite a May 13, 2008 proposal from Iran’s Ambassador to the UN endorsing the consortium plan, the European Union, Britain, and the U.S. are “intensifying financial pressure” against Iran by freezing its largest commercial bank’s overseas assets. The inevitable result of this latest pressure move is that Iran will most likely “shift its trade from Europe to Asia.” For a region that is suffering from the perception of fuel shortages, the loss of a potential fuel source may prove to be a significant barrier that will fail to produce the desired effect of compliance, as Iran can “use its windfall oil revenue and pay further costs to import through smaller banks.”

Mandela finally dropped from US terror watch list

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States has removed former South African president Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress from a three-decade old immigration watch list for possible terrorists, the White House said Tuesday.

In time for the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner's 90th birthday on July 18, President George W. Bush signed a bill Tuesday which effectively ended a system in which Mandela had to get special certification from the US secretary of state that he is not a terrorist in order to visit the United States.

Now Mandela and members of the ANC will be able to simply apply for visas to travel to the United States, the State Department said.

"Today the United States finally has removed from its legal code a vestige of that time of collective insults against human dignity," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, one of the bill's supporters.

"The label of 'terrorist' will no longer be affixed to associates of the ANC -- among them one of the world's great heroes, Nelson Mandela. Our country stands with those who struggled to bring the reprehensible system of apartheid to an end," Berman said.

The measure authorizes US officials "to determine that provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act that render aliens inadmissible due to terrorist or criminal activities would not apply with respect to activities undertaken in association with the African National Congress in opposition to apartheid rule in South Africa."

Mandela won the Nobel peace price in 1993, and was president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.

The measure ensures "that there aren't any extra hoops for either a distinguished individual, like former President Mandela, or other members of the African National Congress to get a US visa," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

He explained that the original purpose of the law, introduced during the 1980s while Ronald Reagan was president, was to fight terrorism. "So we're pleased that we could make this correction to what is otherwise a good and important piece of legislation," he said.

In April, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged a Senate committee to remove the restrictions on the ANC party, calling it a "rather embarrassing matter that I still have to waive in my own counterpart, the foreign minister of South Africa, not to mention the great leader Nelson Mandela."

When a similar bill passed the House of Representatives last month, Barbara Lee, a California Democrat who co-sponsored it, said she was "especially pleased we are taking this important step to finally right this inexcusable wrong."

Lee and others said the legislation was anachronistic and wrongfully labeled heroes and freedom fighters as terrorists.

Lee recalled that under the original legislation ANC officials could travel to United Nations headquarters in New York but not to Washington or other parts of the United States.

The United States has "moved closer at last to removing the great shame of dishonoring this great leader by including him on our government's terror watch list," Senator John Kerry said after the bill was passed in Congress Friday.

Barbara Lee helps get Mandela off terrorist list

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Didja know Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress were still on the United States’ list of organizations considered to be terrorists?

But not for long. Congress has sent a bill, H.R. 5690, to President Bush’s desk that would take them off the list. Among the bill’s co-sponsors is Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, whose office says she’s been working hard with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, D-North Hollywood, to get it passed. Inclusion on the list has meant that Mandela and members of the ANC have had to obtain a visa waiver under the Immigration and Nationality Act in order to enter the United States.

“Despite his legacy as a hero of the anti-apartheid movement, Nelson Mandela’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, and his election as President of South Africa in 1994, Nelson Mandela continues to be included on the United States terrorist watch list due to his leadership and participation with the African National Congress,” Lee said on the House floor last night.

Bay Area Congresswoman Angered by New Surveillance Rules

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON (KCBS/AP) _ The House on Friday easily approved a compromise bill setting new electronic surveillance rules that effectively shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits arising from the government's terrorism-era warrantless eavesdropping on phone and computer lines in this country.

The bill, which was passed on a 293-129 vote, does more than just protect the telecoms. The update to the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is an attempt to balance privacy rights with the government's responsibility to protect the country against attack, taking into account changes in telecommunications technologies.

"This bill, though imperfect, protects both," said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and a former member of the House intelligence committee.

President Bush praised the bill Friday. "It will help our intelligence professionals learn enemies' plans for new attacks," he said in a statement before television cameras a few hours before the vote.

The House's passage of the FISA Amendment bill marks the beginning of the end to a monthslong standoff between Democrats and Republicans about the rules for government wiretapping inside the United States. The Senate was expected to pass the bill with a large margin, perhaps as soon as next week, before Congress takes a break during the week of the Fourth of July.

Bay Area Congresswoman Barbara Lee says she’s angered that Democrats voted with Republicans on this bill.

”The Bush Administration is going to get immunity for some illegal activities it’s conducted,” said Lee. “It’s a very dangerous slippery slope that we’re on.”

The government eavesdropped on American phone and computer lines for almost six years after the Sept. 11 attacks without permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the special panel established for that purpose under the 1978 law. Some 40 lawsuits have been filed against the telecommunications companies by groups and individuals who think the Bush administration illegally monitored their phone calls or e-mails.

The White House had threatened to veto any surveillance bill that did not also shield the companies.

The compromise bill directs a federal district court to review certifications from the attorney general saying the telecommunications companies received presidential orders telling them wiretaps were needed to detect or prevent a terrorist attack. If the paperwork were deemed in order, the judge would dismiss the lawsuit.

It would also require the inspectors general of the Justice Department, Pentagon and intelligence agencies to investigate the wiretapping program, with a report due in a year.

Critics of the bill say dismissal is a foregone conclusion.

"These provisions turn the judiciary into the administration's rubber stamp," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. She opposes the bill.

Opponents of immunity believe civil lawsuits are the only way the full extent of the wiretapping program will ever be revealed.

Key senators voiced strong opposition to the compromise, although they're unlikely to have the votes to either defeat or filibuster the bill. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, condemned the immunity deal. He said that nothing in the new bill would prevent the government from once again wiretapping domestic phone and computer lines without court permission.

Specter said the problem is constitutional: The White House may still assert that the president's Article II powers as commander in chief supersede statutes that would limit him actions.

"Only the courts can decide that issue and this proposal dodges it," Specter said.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California disputed that, saying FISA would from now on be the authority for the government to conduct electronic surveillance.

"There is no inherent authority of the president to do whatever he wants. This is a democracy, not a monarchy," she said.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for president, said in a statement that the compromise accepted by the House was an improvement over the bill he had opposed last year.

"Under this compromise legislation, an important tool in the fight against terrorism will continue, but the president's illegal program of warrantless surveillance will be over," Obama said. "It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay."

Some civil liberties and privacy groups are also opposing the bill. They object not only to the immunity provision but to what they consider the weakening of the FISA court's oversight of government eavesdropping. For example, the government can initiate a wiretap without court permission if "important intelligence" would otherwise be lost. It has a week to file the request for approval with the court, and the court has 30 days to act on it. But if the court objects to how the government is carrying out the wiretap, it could be weeks before those methods are changed or stopped.

"What we have here is the opportunity for the government to commit mass untargeted surveillance," said Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.

Opponents also contend the privacy of Americans who communicate with people overseas is not adequately protected. The bill would allow the government to tap the foreigner's calls without court approval, and critics contend that innocent American conversations can be swept up in that.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendment bill also would:

_Require FISA court permission to wiretap Americans who are overseas.

_Prohibit targeting a foreigner to secretly eavesdrop, without court approval, on an American's calls or e-mails.

_Require the government to protect American information or conversations that are collected when in communications with targeted foreigners.

_Allow the FISA court 30 days to review existing but expiring surveillance orders before renewing them.

_Allow eavesdropping in emergencies without court approval, provided the government files required papers within a week.

_Prohibits the president from superseding surveillance rules in the future.

Dems Vent Opposition To Surveillance In Today's FISA Debate

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The House is now voting on changes to the new federal surveillance law.

There were plenty of Democrats speaking out against it during the hour-long debate.

"This bill scares me to death and I urge a no-vote," said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), co-chair of the House's Progressive Caucus.

She compared the bill to the era of former FBI head J. Edgar Hoover. "We already remember how Dr. [Martin Luther] King and his family were the victims of the government's most shameless wiretapping. We must never go down this road again."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), gave the bill a lukewarm endorsement, saying the bill many supported was "not an option."

She said the real decision was between this "compromise" bill and the one the Senate has passed, which offered even broader surveillance powers and more protection for telecom companies. "That is the comparison, the contrast, that we have to make today."

"I'm not asking anybody to vote for this bill. I just wanted you to know why I was," Pelosi told the House. "Difficult decisions for all of us. ... I respect every point that was expressed on this floor today. ... The knowledge, the sincerity, the passion and intelligence of those who supported and who don't support this bill have been very valuable in making this bill better."

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) pointed to a constitutional concern.

"The grant of retro-active immunity is inconsistent with our basic principles. We are breaking with a very proud tradition and intervening in a pending court decision in an effort to reach a preordained legal outcome. This is a bad precedent," he said.

Republicans without exception spoke in favor of the bill, often citing the dangers of terrorism.

"This bill will prove that we have the ability to monitor the conversations of al Qaeda overseas," said Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) "It's not the Mona Lisa, but it's not a bad paint job."

Rep. Dennis Kucinch (D-OH) spoke briefly. "These blanket wiretaps make it impossible to know whose calls are being intercepted by the National Security Agency."

Barbara Lee wins DNC seat

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, was elected yesterday at the California Democratic Party’s executive board meeting to serve as one of the state’s 19 Democratic National Committee members; she’ll start a four-year term (2008-2012) after this August’s DNC convention in Denver.

Lee issued a news release promising to bring her commitment to progressive values and coalition building to the DNC so California Democrats have a voice in the national dialogue.

“I am extremely excited at the opportunity to represent California as a member of the DNC,” she said. “It’s truly an honor to have the support of California’s Democratic E-Board. “As a lifelong progressive grassroots activist, I will work to advance the progressive values and vision of the California party members at the national level. It is time for the DNC to re-orient the Democratic Party in the true tradition of democratic values.”

As a member of Congress, Lee already was a superdelegate to this year’s convention, and was the first California House member to endorse presidential candidate Barack Obama, but this DNC seat ensures she’ll have a role in shaping Democratic Party platforms and policies for years to come. A total of 38 candidates campaigned for California’s 19 delegate seats on the DNC.

Federal Stance 'to Negatively Impact School Children'

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

OAKLAND, Calif. (June 16, 2008) — While the private school bus contractor set is applauding a stand made by the feds to curb unfair competition by transit agencies, Congresswoman Barbara Lee says banning public transit agencies from providing supplemental school transportation service will harm students who would otherwise be forced to find alternative means of transportation to school.

Despite a U.S. District Court ruling earlier this year in Rochester, N.Y., that upheld the local transit agency’s right to perform exclusive school service, albeit with some necessary modifications, the Federal Transit Administration announced this spring plans to enforce tripper service rules elsewhere throughout the nation. But recent media reports throughout the country have cited concern from parents and school systems alike, such as those in the 9th Congressional District served by Lee, a Democrat, regarding how the proposed policy change on what does and does not constitute legal school tripper service will impact students.

Aside from Rochester, transit agencies can accommodate students as long as the service does not conflict with existing transit routes or the ability of the general fare-paying public to take advantage of them, a provision the school bus industry points out is consistent with the original 1973 federal law. Transit agencies may also legally provide modified or additional school service if no private company in the area is able to offer yellow buses, a stumbling block in the Rochester case.

Lee argues that students in largely urban, lower income areas like those of Oakland and neighboring cities will see their ability to get a good education hindered if the transit option is taken away from them, especially when and if school bus service is also unavailable.

“I am concerned with the Federal Transit Administration’s proposed policy regarding school bus service, and its potential to negatively impact school children in my district,” says Lee in a statement, adding she will share her concerns with the FTA via comments on the federal register docket. “Instead of looking for ways to make it more difficult for kids to get to school, the FTA should be expanding transportation options for students.”

The Friendship Offensive

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Peace activists on Capitol Hill hope to stave off war with Iran through cross-cultural contact between ordinary citizens

As George W. Bush focused his final presidential visit to Europe on Iran’s nuclear program, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus joined a group of peace activists on Capitol Hill at an event designed to foster dialogue between everyday Iranians and Americans.

On Tuesday afternoon, the activist groups Enough Fear and Campaign for a New American Policy on Iran set up a phone bank outside the Cannon House office building, inviting activists, reporters, and passersby to speak with people in Iran. Leaders of the two groups seek to build lasting person-to-person ties between Iranians and Americans in the hope of building sentiment against a military confrontation between the two nations.

“The main idea is that if more people in this country have friends in Iran the two countries are less likely to go to war,” explained Nick Jehlen, co-founder of Enough Fear. “It’s as simple as that.” The event, called “Time to Talk to Iran”, was Jehlen’s brainchild.

Jehlen invited every member of Congress to attend this week’s event, but only five, all from the House of Representatives, participated: Lynne Woolsey and Barbara Lee, both California Democrats, joined Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas. All are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which Woolsey and Lee co-chair. Ron Paul, the Republican presidential contender from of Texas, crossed the aisle to appear with the congresswomen.

Barbara Lee has long advocated person-to-person contact as the solution to the current stand-off with Iranian leaders over their nuclear program, which President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice contend is a precursor to weapons development. In January, Lee, who also sits on the foreign affairs committee, introduced the Iran Diplomatic Accountability Act of 2008, which, she told the gathering, “directs the president to appoint a high-level envoy empowered to seek to conduct direct, unconditional, bilateral negotiations with Iran for the purpose of easing tensions and normalizing relations between the United States and Iran.” Her legislation has idled in committee for the last six months with 14 cosponsors. Proposals in both houses of Congress intended to block the administration from using force against Iran have similarly stalled.

The Washington, D.C., event marked the third staging of a “Time To Talk” event. The first took place in Boston in November 2007, and the second in New York in January. “Having congresspeople here [at a ‘Time to Talk’ event] is really an aberration for us,” Jehlen explained. “If we can facilitate dialogue between members of the American and Iranian governments in the future, we’d like to.”

At each staging, a bank of four or five old-fashioned red desk phones takes center stage, though the phones are actually fed through hand-held wireless devices. The set-up is designed to resemble the crisis lines that connected officials in Washington with their Moscow counterparts during tense moments in the Cold War. About 50 people — including students and Code Pink activists — braved wilting heat and humidity to participate in Tuesday’s event. Many relied on interpreters, young volunteers fluent in both English and Farsi, who joined them on the line.

The conversations tended to be brief, and were often beset by technical problems. But they were substantive, too. Friendly chats quickly developed from exchanges of simple pleasantries (How’s the weather? What do you do?) into earnest discussions about the deteriorating political situation between the two countries.

The organizers put me on the line with Morteza Rassul-Shirazi, a 60-year-old engineer in Tehran who agreed to speak on the record with an American reporter. The connection was poor (the line dropped twice), but Shirazi, along with many of his peers, he said, is concerned that U.S.-Iran hostilities could mushroom into a violent conflict. “We should not talk about war at all,” he told me. “Instead, we should try to show Americans that we are peaceful people.”

Rassul-Shirazi and his friends and family in Tehran are understandably nervous. Visiting with European leaders this week, Bush sent mixed signals, focusing his early remarks on rallying European support for sanctions on Iran if it did not agree to stop enriching uranium, leading some to speculated that he was backing off from earlier saber-rattling. Then, before he left the continent, he added, “All options are on the table.”

These latest remarks capped off several weeks of escalating anti-Iran rhetoric from the administration. In a last week’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the White House, Bush said, “It is very important for the world to take the Iranian threat seriously.” Speaking this week in Europe, Secretary Rice accused the Iranian regime of evading international oversight, saying,”I think that no one is of a mind to allow them to stall very much longer.”

A December National Intelligence Estimate found that the Iranian government suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Iran does, however, continue to pursue a uranium enrichment program, which its leaders contend is for use in peaceful projects, such as energy production.

Rep. Lee lashes out against ICE

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

OAKLAND — Pledging to "take them on big-time," Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, sharply criticized the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency Friday and declared she would push for measures to reduce the fear she said agents have caused East Bay immigrant families.

The Oakland Democrat told a packed North Oakland church that she wants to "ensure that ICE is following the rules and that those rules are well-known and publicized — especially when it comes to actions at schools, hospitals, religious centers and other critical community institutions."

Her comments followed a furor in Oakland and Berkeley last month when federal operations to arrest illegal immigrants, which ICE says were routine, caused panic because agents were seen in the vicinity of public schools.

ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said the sightings that caused panic "turned out to be entirely erroneous. It's very unfortunate that some people in positions of authority perpetuated those rumors."

But the circumstances surrounding those and other arrests continued to invite condemnation and confusion from local officials this month.

Noel Gallo, an Oakland school board member, told Lee Friday that he believed ICE agents "purposefully" parked near the Stonehurst Elementary School on May 6. And he argued that it was not in dispute that last year at Melrose Elementary School, ICE agents followed a parent toward the principal's office and later escorted her out of the school.

"I am concerned that these intimidation tactics are, quite frankly, inhumane," Lee said. "Some, I think, could be politically motivated. And they are all, I think, totally unacceptable."

What remains unclear is whether ICE has the sort of rules about sensitive locations that Lee said she wants to make sure are followed.

ICE's predecessor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, had a written policy expressly stating that the service "attempt to avoid apprehension of persons and to tightly control investigative operations on the premises of schools, places of worship, funerals and other religious ceremonies," according to copies of agency memorandums from the 1990s.

But Kice said that past policies were not necessarily transferred to ICE when it formed under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

"We're a new agency," Kice said. "We have a completely new mission. We have established operating procedures."

Declining to speak about internal policies, Kice said that the agency's publicly stated policy "is that we conduct enforcement at appropriate times and appropriate places." She also said the agency tries to avoid interaction with third parties that could jeopardize the safety of agents or their targets.

Kice said that ICE's Northern California fugitive operations division arrested 2,121 illegal immigrants between Oct. 1 and May 31. Of those, 1,471 were considered fugitives, or people who have ignored a prior deportation order. Another 167 were not fugitives but had criminal charges. And the remaining 583 were in the country illegally and were picked up in the course of the operations.

Lee became the latest Bay Area lawmaker to lambaste the 5-year-old immigration agency in recent weeks, although it was not immediately clear how she would go about introducing any changes to current policy.

Last month, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, invited San Rafael educators to testify at a congressional hearing about the impacts that Marin County immigration raids have had on local schools. At the same time, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, has been leading an inquiry into ICE's medical treatment of detainees.

Lee said she has raised her concerns with the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, which this week proposed a draft $4.8 billion budget for ICE in the coming fiscal year, which is $60 million more than what was requested by the Bush administration. Of that, $800 million would be allotted to efforts focused on identifying and deporting dangerous criminals. Legislators also added a clause to the proposal that would force ICE to cancel contracts with private detention facilities that receive poor audits.

Barbara Lee talks to Iranians

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, of which Rep. Barbara Lee is co-chairwoman, and the Campaign for a New American Policy on Iran held a news conference on Capitol Hill today urging dialogue between ordinary Americans and ordinary Iranians as a means of heading off what they say is the Bush Administration’s drumbeat for war with Iran. Lee, D-Oakland, and others used a row of 60’s-era red “hotline” telephones to talk directly to average Iranians in Tehran.

“We have been down this road before and Americans have learned a simple truth from five hard and bitter years in Iraq: No unjust war ever produced a just and lasting peace! It has not worked in Iraq. It will not work in Iran,” she said. One of the important first steps we should take is to have direct, comprehensive, and unconditional bilateral talks with Iran.”

Lee’s H.R. 5056, introduced in January and now backed by 14 cosponsors, would do exactly that.

Progressives Push Obama On Weapons Waste

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Would Barack Obama do anything to cut the Pentagon's $700 billion dollar budget? It's a question that wasn't exactly a hot topic during the primary season, but is now being pursued by key, liberal Obama supporters.

The Hill reports that the Black Leadership Forum and League of United Latin American Citizens wrote a letter to Obama urging him to take on wasteful weapons program like the F-35 joint strike fighter and the ballistic missile defense program. Congress's progressive caucus has also gotten into the act with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Ca.), the caucus co-chair, calling for an Obama presidency to end "Cold-War era weapons systems." Lee wants the money spent on domestic programs like health care.

Between spending on weapons and wars, the Pentagon's budget has nearly doubled under the Bush administration. Some progressive Obama supporters have also been quietly critical of his calls to increase the number of marines by almost 100,000.

Obama hasn't said much in the way of redirecting weapons money for social welfare programs. It will be interesting to see if the push makes its way into the general election campaign.

Left presses Obama to cut defens

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who wrapped his party’s presidential nomination just this week, is already besieged by liberal constituencies demanding that he cut military spending to boost social programs.

Two influential liberal groups have sent the presumptive Democratic nominee a letter pressing him to support cuts to defense programs to pay for universal preschool, relief for Americans facing foreclosure on their homes and expanded benefits for military veterans.

The demands carry weight because the groups, the Black Leadership Forum and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), represent two constituencies that are important to Obama’s political strategy: blacks and Hispanics.

Their calls for defense cuts have drawn the support of leading House liberals, many of whom gave Obama crucial support early in his contest against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

The groups have also called on presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) to support the cuts. There is less pressure on McCain, however, because fellow Republicans have kept quiet on the issue. McCain also expects little support from black voters.

But McCain could feel some discomfort because his campaign views Hispanics as a crucial voting bloc. His support for shifting emphasis from defense to social programs could help him appeal to that group. The calls of liberal groups and lawmakers come at a particularly awkward time for Obama.

Since clinching the party’s nomination on Tuesday, Obama has already tacked to the right on security issues in preparation for the general election. During a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Wednesday, Obama proposed sanctions on Iran that analysts viewed as far tougher than what he suggested before.

Now Obama must balance tough talk on national security with the desires of many Democrats to slim American military power.

Liberal groups and lawmakers have targeted the Department of Defense’s largest acquisition program: the Joint Strike Fighter program, which will provide more than 2,000 aircraft to the Navy, Marines and Air Force.

The Black Leadership Forum and LULAC wrote that cutting the program “would free up $1 trillion in the federal budget.”

“America could fund years of universal healthcare at $120 [billion] a year; we could fund universal preschool with $35 billion.”

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the rapid growth of defense spending compared to domestic spending in recent years is “outrageous.” She wants to slim defense programs and boost education and healthcare funding.

Lee and other House liberals would like to see about $60 billion in defense spending cuts. Specifically, they want to steer money away from what they call “Cold War-era” weapons systems, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Liberals have also called for cuts to the ballistic missile defense program, the F/A-22 Raptor, the V-22 Osprey and the DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class Destroyer.

“This is one of many issues the caucus will be talking about to him,” Lee said of plans to press Obama on defense budget cuts. “I’m definitely going to present this.”

Obama’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

House liberals have talked about cuts to defense programs for years, said Lee. But Republicans controlled Congress for most of the Bush administration and complaints about defense spending have gone largely unheard.

The rise of Obama, who surged to victory with the support of the Democratic Party’s most liberal voters and his criticism of the Iraq war, gives House progressives new hope.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), the other co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has endorsed the Black Leadership Forum’s and LULAC’s calls for defense program cuts.

“Yes, I will support that call,” said Woolsey.

“There are cuts to [weapons] systems that would be more valuable on the domestic front,” she said.

Woolsey said having a strong national defense was important but that the next president of the United States should recognize the difference between what is needed for defense and for acting like a “bully” abroad.

From 2000 to 2008 the budget from the Department of Defense has soared from $290 billion to $481 billion, according to Steven Kosiak, vice president for budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonpartisan group.

This growth does not include supplemental spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Total U.S. military spending in 2008 is expected to approach $700 billion.

Meanwhile, discretionary spending for domestic programs has barely grown, according to the estimate of a prominent left-leaning think tank.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that domestic discretionary spending per American increased only 0.3 percent from 2001 to 2008 when adjusted for inflation. That means that spending on a variety of welfare, education, and healthcare programs funded through the annual appropriations process has remained flat.

By contrast, defense and security spending per American has gone up more than 8 percent between 2001 and 2008.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a Hispanic Democrat from Arizona, said he would support a review of defense programs that he considers outdated. Many House liberals believe some of the Defense Department’s biggest weapons programs are no longer needed at a time when adversaries in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed thousands of Americans with relatively simple weaponry.

“I think we should re-evaluate programs to see if savings can be used for domestic priorities,” said Grijalva.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said he would advise the next president to reassess spending on programs “created to fight an enemy that no longer exists.”

“If I were advising the administration, it would be at the top of my list,” he said.

The Antiwar Plank

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Democrats were clearly seen as running on an antiwar platform in 2006, and they won big, grabbing control of both houses of Congress. The lesson should have been clear: when the party defines itself as antiwar, it wins. But after a year and a half of wrangling between Congressional Democrats and the Bush Administration over Iraq, that definition has blurred. So now, even as Democrats are poised to nominate a candidate who opposed attacking Iraq, key Congressional supporters of the likely nominee, Senator Barack Obama, and his chief challenger, Senator Hillary Clinton, are working together to craft a platform that bluntly positions the Democrats as the party that will bring the troops home and change the policies that sent them to the Middle East. So far, fifty House members, all superdelegates, have signed a letter endorsing the antiwar language.

"On the issues of Iraq and foreign policy, Democrats can't be vague or fuzzy," argue Representatives Barbara Lee, an Obama backer; Jim McGovern, a Clinton backer; and Sam Farr, uncommitted until after the primaries, in an open letter to delegates to the Democratic National Convention. The "Democratic Platform that will be ratified at the Convention in Denver will form our core statement of principles as a party for the next four years, principles that we will unite around in both the general election and beyond," they add. "With only months remaining before we unite as a party in August, it is critical that we take action now to ensure that a clear statement is made in our platform: we will end the war in Iraq; the Republican Party will not."

These influential superdelegates agreed, even while the presidential race divided them, to unite to support platform language that calls for: "an end to the war in Iraq by initiating the safe and secure withdrawal of all US combat forces, leaving no permanent military bases behind; a robust diplomatic surge in the Middle East and beyond that includes negotiations with the Iranian government without preconditions that make sitting down to talk impossible; an end to the use of torture and the closure of our prison at Guantánamo Bay."

Party platforms are often dismissed as meaningless. But presidential candidates and Congressional leaders do not treat them as such, and neither should antiwar activists. In writing the platform the relationship between the candidate and the party base is defined, and the message for the fall campaign is framed. Four years ago, after Democratic convention delegates finalized an agenda for the party's campaign, Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. dismissed it as "a cautious platform." The chair of the party's platform committee, Representative Rosa DeLauro, said simply, "It reflects John Kerry." That was the problem. The platform's "transparent vagaries on Iraq"--to quote antiwar activist Tom Hayden--signaled a tepid approach to the war debate that ceded vital ground to the Republicans. When Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich supporters attempted to add antiwar language to the platform, Kerry's man, former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, rushed in to block them and bragged, "We didn't give up anything." Nor did they gain anything, as the results of that fall's election demonstrated.

The House members who want strong antiwar language in this year's platform aren't trying to push Obama around; roughly half are Obama backers. Rather, they suggest, they are prodding the party to do what is necessary to prevail in November. "The Democratic Party needs this," says Barbara Lee. "It will give the nominee the foundation and the [appeal to the] base to move forward and win."

Will the platform process be flexible enough to accept what these superdelegates are offering? Perhaps. The closeness of this year's nominating contest and the fact that the process will be led by backers of Obama, Clinton and John Edwards guarantees a more diverse platform committee, one that will be disinclined to rubber-stamp cautious language produced by consultants. The Win Without War coalition is mounting a campaign to get superdelegates to back the antiwar planks--and it will deliver petitions supporting it to regional platform hearings this summer and at the convention--while Progressive Democrats of America is working closely with Jim McGovern, who is likely to emerge as an outspoken grassroots supporter of the move. Says McGovern of the Democrats, "We need to demonstrate that we get it, and the platform is the place to do that."

Lee to be a Vice Chair of LGBT Equality Caucus

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, today announced she’ll be one of 20 vice-chairs of Congress’ new, bi-partisan Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equality Caucus.

“I am so proud to be a part of the LGBT Equality Caucus, and I want to thank our great leaders and Co-Chairs, Tammy Baldwin and Barney Frank, for their critical leadership in fighting for equality for all,” Lee said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “As a Californian, I am proud to say that our great state is helping lead the fight for equality. But despite some of the progress being made, this caucus and its members are here today because we understand that much more needs to be done to ensure the human rights for LGBT people at home and abroad.

“We understand that we must and will push our colleagues and our country to put an end to the discriminatory laws that still undermine the equality we seek for LGBT people,” she continued. “We will work to educate and legislate and to ensure the equality that people deserve regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. We believe we can and will make great progress in our efforts because we know that the fight for equality is the fight for justice and that this fight is one we will win.”

Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, also is among this new caucus’ vice chairs. And among the two-and-a-half-dozen members are Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto; Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose; Pete Stark, D-Fremont; Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo; and Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma.

Bush administration threatens defence authorisation bill with veto

Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The United States House of Representatives passed an annual defence authorisation bill on 22 May that prompted the White House to respond with a sweeping veto threat.

The bill authorises USD601.4 billion for US defence spending in Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09), including USD70 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for a 3.9 per cent pay rise for US military personnel.

However, the White House threatened to veto the legislation if it included several types of measures, such as provisions that would limit the Bush administration's latitude in setting future Iraq policy.

"The administration strongly opposes any amendment that would attempt to determine the legal effect or content of diplomatic agreements with Iraq before they are negotiated," the White House said in a 22 May statement of administration policy.

Despite the veto threat, House of Representatives lawmakers included measures designed to prevent the Bush administration from sidelining Congress or the next administration as it attempts to set the future course of US-Iraq diplomatic relations.

The Bush administration is currently in the process of negotiating a long-term security agreement with the Iraqi government. Normally such agreements do not require congressional consent.

However, the Iraqi government has said that any agreement negotiated between the US and Iraq must be approved by the Iraqi parliament, and language included in the House of Representatives legislation would require the US Congress to do the same.

Barbara Lee, a Democratic representative from California, successfully introduced the language, which would require Congress to authorise any status of forces agreement that would obligate the US to defend Iraq. "If prior review and approval is good enough for the Iraqi parliament, it is essential for the Congress," said Lee in a 22 May statement.