FCNL Update

Friends Committee on National Legislation A Quaker Lobby in the Public Interest E-News: 43 Percent of Tax Dollars Go to War, Torture by U.S., and More February 12, 2008 Military Spending: 43 Percent of Your Tax Dollars Go to War Quote of the Week: Yes, We Tortured, Says the U.S. Government In the News: Zanesville, Ohio -- Peace is an option From the Quakers' Colonel: George Bush's Gettysburg Address Creating a Path to Peace in Kenya Cluster Bomb Ban: Watch Dan Rather Reports Tonight From the Hill: Senators Pledge Passage of Indian Health Care War is Not the Answer Photo of the Week: Sacramento, CA Read this newsletter on our web site: http://action.fcnl.org/r/5936/45601/ Military Spending: 43 Percent of Your Tax Dollars Go to War Many of us are starting to prepare our 2007 taxes, but how many of us know what our tax dollars are actually paying for? FCNL calculates that 43 cents of every dollar you'll pay in taxes go to pay for current and past military activities. Quote of the Week: Yes, We Tortured, Says the U.S. Government "We do not torture," asserted President Bush on November 7, 2005. Last week CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledged that administration has used a water torture first developed during the Spanish Inquisition: "Waterboarding has been used on only three detainees. We used it against these three high-value detainees because of the circumstances of the time." Help stop torture by asking all candidates for public office what they will do to prevent it. In the News: Zanesville, Ohio -- Peace is an option Beth Blagg's letter to the editor asks why the candidates running for election this year aren't talking more about funding diplomatic initiatives to prevent war. The campaign season provides an opportunity to ask questions, to listen, and to engage the public in a dialogue about policy issues. Write your own letter and make peace an election year issue. From the Quakers' Colonel: George Bush's Gettysburg Address " Two score and 17 months ago, I brought forth in the Persian Gulf a new conflict misconceived in secret and dedicated to the proposition that all oil belongs to Halliburton." Thus begins retired Col. Dan Smith's rewrite of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address a la the current administration. See the rest of the speech. Creating a Path to Peace in Kenya "It is imperative that we unravel the underlying causes of the violence and not paper over them as Kenyan leaders have in the past," wrote Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai in an article published by the Washington Post. As President Bush prepares to travel to Africa, stay up to date on Quakers in Kenya. Cluster Bomb Ban: Watch Dan Rather Reports Tonight Long after a ceasefire in the 2006 Israeli-Lebanese conflict, thousands of unexploded cluster munitions still cover the battlefields and are wounding ordinary people. Human Rights Watch went with Dan Rather to Lebanon and Israel to investigate the damage cluster bombs are causing. Watch the segment on Dan Rather Reports tonight at 8:00 pm Eastern on HDNET . From the Hill: Senators Pledge Passage of Indian Health Care Last Thursday, the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) joined a bipartisan group of senators in urging passage of legislation to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (S. 1200). Find out who spoke out in favor of passage. War is Not the Answer Photo of the Week: Sacramento, CA Sacramento, CA Friends Meeting, 2/10/08 Photo by Billie Hamilton Order your own War is Not Answer sign and put yourself on the map.