Sit In Underway at Pelosi's Office in DC

By David Swanson

Nancy Pelosi is on her way to Lebanon, but her staff may want to get her on the phone. Or then again, maybe not. There is a sit-in underway in her Capitol Hill office today, Friday, March 30th, with military families and Iraq vets requesting to schedule an appointment to talk to her. They've been asking for four months now for her to agree to meet with gold star and military families, veterans for peace, Iraq vets, and active duty troops. Pelosi proposed a meeting with military mom Tina Richards after a video came out showing Rep. David Obey yelling at her in the hallway, but once the video had made the news in a major way Pelosi apparently decided it was too late to head it off and lost interest in meeting with Richards.

Today Tina Richards is sitting in Pelosi's office, commited to not leaving unless she is arrested. She has never been arrested before. Tina and Lori Perdue just phoned in a report. There are 11 people there at the moment as part of the sit-in. They had 22 earlier, but half left to go recruit more people. They're planning to pack the office by 4 or 5 p.m.They expect it to close around 5 or 6 p.m.

They say that all they're asking for is an appointment for a meeting. Tina's son is a Marine who has struggled to get any sort of health care out of the military. He recently thought he had finally succeeded in that effort, but the military has decided to prosecute him for wearing part of his uniform in a march on the Pentagon, meaning that he faces the loss of medical benefits and possible imprisonment.

Updates to come.