The House of Representatives passed a bill this week condemning the persecution of labor rights activists in Iran. Below is the meat of the bill (full text here):
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress--
(1) condemns the Iranian regime for the arrest and imprisonment of Iranian union leaders Mahmoud Salehi and Mansour Osanloo and demands their immediate release;
(2) expresses its solidarity with the workers of Iran and stands with them, and with all Iranians, in their efforts to bring political freedom and individual liberty to Iran; and
(3) calls on the Iranian regime to respect the right of Iranian workers to form independent associations and unions, as required by its membership in the ILO.
The bill passed by an overwhelming 418-1 majority, and if you've been following politics, you can probably guess who cast the lone dissenting vote. Yes, Ron Paul was the only Representative to vote against today's bill condemning Iran. Dennis Kucinich sat this one out. The bill now goes to the Senate, where we will find out whether Hillary and Obama will follow Paul's example or continue to play it safe.
This follows last week's resolution passed by the Senate condemning Iran and calling for the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard to be officially labeled as foreign a terrorist group (potentially granting authorization for an attack).
A lot of taxpayer dollars are being wasted these days on resolutions that are nonbinding and have no clear purpose other than to antagonize Iran. Why? It's not that I don't support labor rights activists. But let's be honest, this bill has absolutely nothing to do with labor rights. No one in Congress legitimately believes that passing a nonbinding resolution will have any positive effect whatsoever within Iran.
Someone wants you to hear about Iran, particularly anything negative, everyday. Between 2001 and 2003, Saddam Hussein morphed from a forgotten relic of the past to a perceived legitimate threat, simply because the administration beat the drums of war loudly and frequently until the public fell in step.
The same is happening now with Iran. And again, Congressional Democrats don't have the guts to stand up and stop the momentum from building.
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Comments (3)
It takes a true patriot to stand up against all of your peers as a sole voice. Ron Paul may not be winning popularity contests, but that is part of his appeal. When a visionary such as him stands out in front of the pack, others soon follow. Thanks for casting light on this travesty.
Posted by Steven | October 4, 2007 8:21 PM
To be honest, I don't agree with a lot of Paul's actual policies and would at this point vote for the Democratic nominee over him in a general election (that will change the moment one of them votes to authorize an attack on Iran, however).
But he's by far the best Republican candidate and I wish him luck winning the nomination. Whether or not you agree with his policies, you've got to admire his willingness to go against the grain and stand up for what he believes in.
Posted by Elyas | October 4, 2007 10:57 PM
It's my perception that most of the legislation being written in Congress has not been written by our elected legislators, but by lawyers associated with special interest groups. The task performed by our legislators is then to 'vote' according to the interests of whomever has lined their pockets.
Their time is then mostly spent on lining up more money to be used for their re-election campaigns.
Isn't it way past time to publically fund the electorial proccess?
Then perhaps they will become truly 'our' legislators!
Posted by James | October 7, 2007 11:10 AM