Forum on the Iraq War November 12

Upper Bucks for Democracy hosted a forum on the Iraq War on November 12, 2005, at the BuxMont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Street Road and Route 611 in Warrington. The speakers were from the group U.S. Tour of Duty.

RAY McGOVERN served as a captain in the U.S. Army from 1962 to 1964 before working as a CIA analyst for 27 years. From 1981 to 1985 he conducted daily briefings for Ronald Reagan's vice president, George Bush, the father of our current president. Ray now works for Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Savior in Washington, DC. He is also a member of the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Ray is featured in two ground-breaking documentaries: Robert Greenwald's Uncovered and John Pilger's Break the Silence. He is a frequent guest on many radio programs, and his opinion columns are published widely in various mainstream and alternative media outlets.

NADIA McCAFFREY is known as the Gold Star mom who defied President Bush by allowing reporters to view the flag-draped coffin of her son Patrick, who was killed in Iraq. After Patrick's death, Nadia traveled to the Middle East with filmmaker Mark Manning, who made Journey to Peace, a 30-minute documentary about the trip. They sought answers to what causes wars and met with Iraqi mothers. Nadia explains her purpose: "I wanted to look them in the eye and share their pain."

JEFF NORMAN is the Executive Director of U.S. Tour of Duty (www.ustourofduty.org/), a nonprofit project that supports the anti-war advocacy of Iraq veterans, military families, policy analysts, and performers by organizing public forums, developing communication strategies, and producing video content.

Meeting on Thursday, November 3

Bucks County District Attorney candidate Terry Houck, http://www.terryhouck.com/, will join us to talk about his campaign, as will Andy Warren, http://www.warrenforcongress.com/, candidate for the nomination to run against Mike Fitzpatrick to represent the 8th District in Congress. JoAnne Longo, candidate for Prothonotary, will speak about her experiences as a volunteer in the wake of Katrina.

Mike Doyle will speak on the DLC wars—a brief history and review of current positions of the Democratic Leadership Council.

"Not only are the Dean campaign activists out of step with most Democrats, but they seem intent on purging the party of Democrats who disagree with them."
—Al From (CEO of DLC) in Blueprint Magazine, May 31, 2005

Who belongs to the DLC? And how does their election thinking look vs. that of progressives?

Eric Loeb, Executive Director of GoodWorks-PAC.org, will also speak. In 2004, Republican and Democratic candidates spent$1.7 billion on commercials. GoodWorks-PAC.org works with Democratic Congressional campaigns to get most of that money and effort back into our communities where it belongs. The organization foresees a day when all candidates will demonstrate their leadership skills, show us what issues they care about, and display their approach to problems by devoting much of their campaign time and money to community service projects. GoodWorks-PAC.org identifies and supports Democratic Congressional candidates who will participate in "GoodWorks" projects. JoAnne Longo was set on course for Katrina humanitarian relief in Jackson, MS, and New Orleans, St. Bernard's Parish, with Eric as her initial organizer and leader.