-----------It's Time to;

Petition the Bozos

Don't Bogart that pen my friend - Pass it over to me

Congress should support an independent commission to investigate the Bush administration's distortion of evidence of Iraq WMD programs.

The President took the nation to war based on his assertion that Iraq posed an imminent threat to our country. Now central pieces of that evidence have turned out to be false, but many Members of Congress are refusing to seriously investigate.

Three weeks ago, MoveOn launched a petition asking Congress to create an independent commission to investigate whether the Bush Administration manipulated and distorted evidence to take the country to war in Iraq. Now Congress is literally taking up our call: Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has written a bill that would create just such a commission, and it's already co-sponsored by a wide array of moderate Democrats -- including many who voted for the war. This commission can really happen -- and the truth about the Bush Administration's manipulation of evidence can really come out -- but we'll need your help.

Your Representative, Congressman Sherman has already co-sponsored the bill creating an independent commission. But we still need your help: please sign the petition below to let all of Congress know that we'll be watching and holding them accountable. We believe that: Congress should support an independent commission to investigate the Bush administration's distortion of evidence of Iraq WMD programs.

Sign Petition

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Stop the Bush Administration from Exempting the Defense Department from our Environmental Laws

Contributed by NRDC

The Bush administration continues to roll back critical public health and environmental protections with a request to exempt the Department of Defense from longstanding wildlife laws. Under current law, environmental rules may be waived for government agencies for national security reasons. But now the administration wants a continuous, across-the-board exemption for the Department of Defense from some of our most important environmental laws.

Under the administration's proposal, the Defense Department would no longer be subject to rules that protect endangered species and their habitat and preserve our oceans and open space. If the administration prevails, key provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act would cease to apply to many DoD activities, regardless of whether or not national security is at stake. These activities include some that could be particularly harmful to whales, dolphins and other marine mammals, such as the 2000 Naval sonar exercise in the Bahamas that caused three species of rare whales to strand and die on the beaches.

Sweeping exemptions from key environmental and public health laws are not necessary to ensure America’s military readiness, especially when the DoD is already one of the nation’s biggest toxic polluters. EPA Administrator Whitman even testified to Congress that she knew of "no military training mission in the United States that is being held up because of environmental regulations."

In mid-May, the House and Senate passed the administration's proposal as part of the Defense Authorization bill. The bill now heads to a conference committee, where differences between the House and Senate versions of the exemptions will be reconciled.

This Petition is no longer active. The contents are left up for informational purposes.

Investigate Partisan Abuse of Homeland Security Agency

Contributed by Working Assets

During an Orange anti-terrorism alert, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay caused the federal Department of Homeland Security to become involved in an attempt to change congressional districts in Texas.

In a case that is almost too outlandish to believe, Mr. DeLay was outraged that his effort to overturn a court-ordered fair redistricting plan was being stalled in the Texas House of Representatives by the intentional absence of many Democrats. Mr. DeLay, a former bug exterminator, appears to have misled the Department of Homeland Security into assisting in an effort to find the missing legislators.

The redistricting plan eventually failed, and now everyone involved is trying to cover their tracks. Bizarrely, the Texas Department of Public Safety was ordered to destroy all records relating to the matter even as newspapers and elected officials are beginning to call for an investigation.

When scarce anti-terrorism resources are used for explicitly partisan purposes, and law enforcement records are quickly destroyed, it is time for an outside investigation. If wrongdoing is found, those responsible should be held accountable for this mess.

This Petition is no longer active. The contents are left up for informational purposes.

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