[Peace-discuss] Champaign-Urbana Votes to Withdraw from Iraq and Impeach Bush-Cheney

[Ricky Baldwin]

Time to gloat - publicly.  We need letters to the
editor, WILL commentaries, letters to Tim Johnson
(many people who voted for him also CLEARLY voted to
bring the troops home - we need to push him on this)!

Anti-war referenda won all over the country last
night, usually by wide margins.  And as Bob points
out, impeachment won in Champaign-Urbana, too,
overall.

>From select wire reports:

All 10 Wisconsin cities including Milwaukee that voted
on referendums asking whether the United States should
pull troops from Iraq approved them.  With 97 percent
of Milwaukee precincts reporting, there were 108,154
votes to bring home the troops, or 72 percent,
compared to 42,627 voting no, or 28 percent.

Cook County voters want troops withdrawn from Iraq,
assault weapons banned and the minimum wage boosted
from $6.50 an hour to $7.50.   The three countywide
non-binding referendum questions Tuesday were all
leading by at least 8-to-1 margins in the city with
three quarters of votes in. Suburban margins were only
slightly lower.

About half of Michigan voters said in exit polls that
the war was very or extremely important to their
Senate vote, and a majority disapproved of the war in
Iraq and favored withdrawing at least some troops.
Stabenow received most anti-war votes.

The Washington Post is reporting: Democrats worried
for months about the last-minute political bombshells
Karl Rove might drop, but the October surprise of 2006
may have come from Iraq.  October was the U.S.
military's deadliest month in Iraq in nearly two
years, and as Democrats cruised to victory in the
House last night, early returns and exit polls
suggested that the unpopularity of the war -- along
with the president who started it -- was a major
factor. The election was much more than a referendum
on the war, but bad news from Baghdad gave Democrats a
powerful argument for change, and a metaphor for a
"rubber-stamp Congress" that wants to "stay the
course" in America as well as Iraq.  Last night,
preliminary exit polls suggested that 57 percent of
the electorate disapproved of the war, about the same
amount that disapproved of President Bush's job
performance. Only 34 percent believed the war has
improved America's security, down from 46 percent in
2004. The more importance a voter attached to the war,
the more likely he or she was to vote Democratic, and
the antiwar vote was almost exclusively Democratic.


--- Robert Naiman  <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com> wrote:

> [please forward where appropriate]
> 
> Champaign-Urbana Votes to Withdraw from Iraq and
> Impeach Bush-Cheney
> 
> Final results from the Champaign County Clerk's
> office, 100% of
> precincts reporting:
> 
> Withdraw US Troops from Iraq ("orderly and rapid"):
> 
> 		       Yes	No
> Champaign	9888	7104
> 		       58%	42%
> 
> Urbana		   5729	   3029	
> 		       65%	35%
> 
> Champaign-Urbana
> 		     Yes	No
> 		   15618	10134			
> 		     61%	39%			
> 
> Impeach Bush/Cheney for War, Torture, Illegal
> Surveillance:
> 
> 		       Yes	No
> Champaign	7877	9140		
> 		       46%	54%		
> 
> Urbana		   5171	  3614	
> 		      59%	41%	
> 
> Champaign-Urbana
> 		    13049	12755		
> 		   50.6%	49.4%		
> 
> Governor should resist deployment of Illinois
> National Guard to Iraq:
> 
> 		     Yes	No
> Urbana:	        4812	3154
> 		     60%	40%
> 
> In many Republican precincts in Champaign - as
> judged by the vote in
> the Secretary of State's race - the majority voted
> in favor of
> withdrawal from Iraq. In 32 of Champaign's 38
> precincts and in 22 of
> Urbana's 23 precincts a majority voted in favor of
> withdrawal.
> 
> As we were tallying the votes at the County
> building, Republican Rep.
> Tim Johnson gave a press conference on his victory
> in the
> Congressional election. He acknowledged that the US
> position in Iraq
> was a "quagmire" and that Americans would not
> tolerate the status quo
> for another two years.
> 
> In the spring the Urbana City Council passed a
> resolution in favor of
> withdrawal. At the time, peace activists claimed
> that the council was
> reflecting majority sentiment in Urbana.
> This completes the argument.
> 
> Thanks to everyone who worked to give people in
> Champaign-Urbana the
> opportunity to vote on these questions and who
> worked to publicize
> these initiatives.
> 
> -Robert Naiman
> _______________________________________________
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> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
> 




 
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