Condemn Expanded US War On Syria and Pakistan

From the International Action Center:

Sign the online petition at: http://www.iacenter.org/syriapakistan

All who want to stop the Bush White House from starting another war should immediately protest the unilateral, unjustifiable and criminal October 26 US assaults on Syrian and Pakistani sovereignty. Don’t let Bush get away with expanded war crimes in the Middle East. Condemn his efforts to hand a wider war to the next administration.

Make your opposition heard NOW! Sign the online petition (text below) and send a strong, clear message to the White House, Congress, the media and the UN.
You can also help by donating now to help circulate anti-war material in an urgent national campaign - donate online at http://iacenter.org/donate.

Online petition text:

To: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Security Council President Wang Guangya, President Bush, Secretary Rice, Secretary Gates, Senators Obama and McCain, and Congressional leaders
cc: members of the media

The criminal acts of war on October 26 against both Syria and Pakistan by U.S. armed forces violates the sovereignty of both countries and must be roundly condemned. The attempt by the Bush administration to justify them by invoking an expanded theory of a right to carry out acts of war on any country's territory without permission or even consultation with the country's government is a complete repudiation of the principle of national sovereignty on which the UN charter is based.

These acts of war are unjustified and illegal, and can lead to wider US wars in the Middle East and South Asia. The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost hundreds of thousands of deaths and over $1 trillion. At the same time, the entire world is in the grip of the largest economic catastrophe since the great depression. It is more urgent than ever that all the US troops be brought home now and money be used for human needs, not newly expanded wars of aggression whether in Syria or Pakistan or Iran.

Sincerely,
(Your signature here)
To sign, edit and send the above statement to the UN, administration officials, congressional leaders and the media, go to http://www.iacenter.org/syriapakistan.

Demand the Debate!

from MoveOn:

Yesterday was one of the stranger days in presidential election history. John McCain actually asked to "suspend" Friday's much anticipated debate with Barack Obama so that he could posture on the financial crisis.

Even the arch-conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board was mystified.

Bottom line: This isn't presidential behavior. It's a desperate, reckless move that actually threatens to make it harder to resolve this crisis. And of course, presidents have to be able to handle lots of important issues at once—they can't panic and take their eyes off of one urgent priority when another one pops up.

Obama wants the debate to go forward. So do millions of other Americans. With 40 days left until the most important election in a generation, we deserve a debate on the issues.

DO SOMETHING! Sign our emergency petition to the Commission on Presidential Debates urging them to hold strong and make sure that the debate go forward on Friday, as planned. We'll make sure they get your comments by the end of the day.


The petition reads: "Now more than ever, the American people deserve a presidential debate. We urge you to make sure the debate goes forward as planned tomorrow night."

What's motivating all this panicky erratic behavior from McCain? It's hard to tell, but here are what some of the experts are saying might be behind it:

A drop in the polls. As Politico writer Ben Smith pointed out, "In terms of the timing of this move: The only thing that's changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling."

Stopping the VP debate. Last night, McCain surrogate Sen. Lindsay Graham suggested that the vice presidential debate between Gov. Palin and Senator Biden be cancelled to accommodate his request to postpone tomorrow's debate. (Now, why would they ever want to postpone or cancel the VP debate?)

Pure reckless decision-making. McCain has a history of reckless decision making. Here's how Time's Joe Klein put it yesterday, "McCain suspends his campaign because of financial crisis? Oh please. Given today's poll numbers—even Fox has him dropping—it seems another Hail Mary (like the feckless selection of Palin) to try make McCain seem a statesman, which is difficult given the puerile tenor of his campaign's message operation." And the Wall Street Journal wrote last week: "In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help."

But whatever the cause is, McCain's wrong. Serious situations like this one are exactly the time when Americans most need a real discussion—a debate.

We've got to make sure that the Debate Commission doesn't bend under Republican pressure. Can you add your signature now?