Subpoenas, Impeachment, & MORE...

Today was a long day (as usual)...

We started out by heading to the Goverment Oversight committee hearing that was to vote on issuing subpoenas for Bush administration officials including Secretary of State Rice.Waxman was also attempting to subpoena emails for the Republican National Committee. We wore our Pink Police outfits with Constitutions and "subpoenas" peeking out of our pockets. We had been in the same hearing room yesterday where Congressman Waxman asked us to not hold up signs. So, we put our signs on top of our hats... We had the names of Rove, Condi, and other Bush admin officials pinned to our hats with a red line through it as if saying, "No Condi" or "No Rove". Whenever they would mention one of these shady characters, we bowed down our heads so the representatives could see our sign; today, Waxman's staff didn't say a word. The Republicans tried to stall the vote on subpoenas by using various parlimentary tricks. However, the committee ended up voting for the suboenas in bi-partisan fashion, 21-10.

While that hearing dragged on, some of us left to go to another hearing on Armed Services Contracting for Iraqi Security Forces... I changed out of my Pink Police outfit and put on a pink nightgown with "STOP FUNDING WAR" on it. A couple of other CODEPINKers also went to the hearing where Conyers' Judiciary committee was voting to subpoena one of the assistant Attorney Generals who was involved in the controversial firing of 8 Attorney Generals for political reasons in December.

After leaving the hearing, we ran into Representative Ellison in the hallway. He was very gracious, and was generous with his time. He shared with us that he sincerely wanted to end the occupation of Iraq, and was not sure if the path the Democtratic leadership would work. However, he also said he was going to vote for the supplemental because he couldn't see any other way to start getting troops home from Iraq.

At noon we went to join in on the press conference to support Congressman Kucinich's filing of Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Cheney. Speakers at the press conference included Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, David Swanson of Afterdowningstreet.org, Daniel Ellsberg and Cindy Sheehan.

After lunch, we went to a hearing where General Petraeus was to give a report to Congress about the current situation in Iraq. CLICK HERE to read the blog post about what happened when the public was refused entrance.

Finally, we split up so we could try to reach as many Congresspersons as possible on their way to the Capitol before the House vote on the 2007 Iraq War Supplemental Spending Bill. Several CODEPINKers went into the basement of the Rayburn office building to catch representatives on their way to the House chamber; we got to talk to 50 or 60 reps in less than 2 hours. Others were outside the capitol with one of our big "Don't Buy Bush's War" banners and other signs.

Well, that's about it... just another day working hard for peace with CODEPINK DC!

Peace & Freedom,
Midge