SourceWatch:Identify supporters of the Responsible Plan

In March 2008, a group of Congressional candidates - working with national security experts and retired generals - drafted and released the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq. Centered around a seven-point strategy of non-military options, the plan was crafted from pieces of legislation already debated in Congress. When it was announced, eleven Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives announced their endorsement, and more than 30 have since signed on as supporters.

The following is a list of known plan endorsers, followed by suggestions on how to indicate their support on each candidate's Congresspedia profile page. Please add any additional information that you find (specifying your sources) to the article on that person.

How-to
Instructions are below, but if you need help, don't hesitate to email Congresspedia staff editors [mailto:ckenny@congresspedia.org Conor Kenny] or [mailto:amaestas@sunlightfoundation.com Avelino Maestas] for assistance. If this is your first time editing here, you'll need to briefly register here, and learn more about adding information to the site here, here and here.

Add endorsement to candidates' profile pages
Step 1:
 * Open the profile for one of the candidates that has endorsed the plan from the list below (you might want to open the link in a new window so you can keep this instruction page open).

Step 2:
 * Look for the "Positions, record and controversies" section and see if they have a section on "Iraq War" or something similar. If so, click the "[edit]" link next to that section title or, if they don't already have one, click the "[edit]" link by the "Positions, record and controversies" heading.
 * If they don't have an "Iraq War" section already, add one by clicking the "[edit]" link and entering the line "===Iraq War===" right under the "==Positions, record and controversies==".

Step 3:
 * Enter information about their support for the Responsible Plan into the editing window. There's no "right" way to do this - see the citizen-created section on candidate Mary Pallant's page for an example, or you can just copy and paste this block in:

 CANDIDATE NAME has endorsed the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, which follows many prescriptions of the Iraq Study Group. The plan's objectives include removing all U.S. troops from Iraq and renouncing control over Iraq's oil and the establishment of permanent military bases in the country. To remove U.S. troops from Iraq To end the war, the plan calls for:
 * U.S. troops to be completely withdrawn from Iraq, beginning immediately;
 * The use of diplomacy to engage Iraq's neighbors;
 * Humanitarian assistance for the Iraq refugee crisis; and
 * The creation of a framework for the prosecution of war criminals.

The plan also aims to prevent the "future Iraqs" by:
 * Including war funding in the regular budget (instead of including it as an "emergency appropriation" every year);
 * Removing fraud and abuse in the U.S. contracting process;
 * Increasing transparency and accountability in the executive branch by eliminating presidential signing statements, restoring habeas corpus and ending warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens;
 * Increasing America's standing in the world by renouncing torture and rendition;
 * Reducing the use of private militias and rebuilding the U.S. military;
 * Funding veteran education (through a new GI bill) and healthcare;
 * "Restor[ing] public trust in the media" by rolling back media consolidation;
 * Decreasing dependence on foreign oil by funding a massive renewable energy "Apollo Project";


 * This should generate a block of text that looks like this:

CANDIDATE NAME has endorsed the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, which follows many prescriptions of the Iraq Study Group. The plan's objectives include removing all U.S. troops from Iraq and renouncing control over Iraq's oil and the establishment of permanent military bases in the country.

To remove U.S. troops from Iraq To end the war, the plan calls for: The plan also aims to prevent the "future Iraqs" by:
 * U.S. troops to be completely withdrawn from Iraq, beginning immediately;
 * the use of diplomacy to engage Iraq's neighbors;
 * humanitarian assistance for the Iraq refugee crisis; and
 * the creation of a framework for the prosecution of war criminals.
 * Including war funding in the regular budget (instead of including it as an "emergency appropriation" every year);
 * Removing fraud and abuse in the U.S. contracting process;
 * Increasing transparency and accountability in the executive branch by eliminating presidential signing statements, restoring habeas corpus and ending warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens;
 * Increasing America's standing in the world by renouncing torture and rendition;
 * Reducing the use of private militias and rebuilding the U.S. military;
 * Funding veteran education (through a new GI bill) and healthcare;
 * "Restor[ing] public trust in the media" by rolling back media consolidation;
 * Decreasing dependence on foreign oil by funding a massive renewable energy "Apollo Project";

Step 4
 * After saving your text, scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click the last "[edit]" link on the bottom. Enter this text (it doesn't matter where):  This will enter the candidate into the category of people endorsing the plan, so the entire list can be easily viewed here.

Step 5
 * On this page, scroll down and remove the candidate from the list below so other citizen editors can know which ones are left to be done.

That's it!
 * There's still plenty of information to be entered about candidates for Congress. You can find your state's candidates by selecting it from the map at the Wiki the Vote portal. Also, the article on the Responsible Plan itself could use some fleshing out, if you feel like working on it.

Candidates left to enter

 * 1) Darcy Burner - candidate for U.S. House, Washington
 * 2) Donna Edwards - candidate for U.S. House, Maryland
 * 3) Eric Massa - candidate for U.S. House, New York
 * 4) Chellie Pingree - candidate for U.S. House, Maine
 * 5) Tom Perriello - candidate for U.S. House, Virginia
 * 6) Jared Polis - candidate for U.S. House, Colorado
 * 7) George Fearing - candidate for U.S. House, Washington
 * 8) Lawrence Byrnes - candidate for U.S. House, Florida
 * 9) Steve Harrison - candidate for U.S. House, New York
 * 10) Sam Bennett - candidate for U.S. House, Pennsylvania
 * 11) Harry Taylor - candidate for U.S. House, North Carolina
 * 12) Alan Grayson - candidate for U.S. House, Florida
 * 13) Dennis Shulman - candidate for U.S. House, New Jersey
 * 14) Larry Grant - candidate for U.S. House, Idaho
 * 15) Leslie Byrne - candidate for U.S. House, Virginia
 * 16) Jim Hunt - candidate for U.S. House, Montana
 * 17) William O'Neill - candidate for U.S. House, Ohio
 * 18) Jill Derby - candidate for U.S. House, Nevada
 * 19) Alice Kryzan - candidate for U.S. House, New York
 * 20) Ed Fallon - candidate for U.S. House, Iowa
 * 21) Mike Waltner - candidate for U.S. House, Pennsylvania
 * 22) Joe Garcia - candidate for U.S. House, Florida
 * 23) Steve Marks - candidate for U.S. House, Oregon
 * 24) Debbie Cook - candidate for U.S. House, California
 * 25) Don Wiviott - candidate for U.S. House, New Mexico
 * 26) Darius Shahinfar - candidate for U.S. House, New York
 * 27) Faye Armitage - candidate for U.S. House, Florida
 * 28) Tom Wyka - candidate for U.S. House, New Jersey
 * 29) Cheryl Sabel - candidate for U.S. House, Alabama
 * 30) Timothy Cunha - candidate for U.S. House, Florida
 * 31) Ron Shepston - candidate for U.S. House, California
 * 32) Barry Welsh - candidate for U.S. House, Indiana
 * 33) Gretchen Clearwater - candidate for U.S. House, Indiana
 * 34) Roger Waun - candidate for U.S. House, Texas
 * 35) Ellen Greenberg - candidate for U.S. House, New Jersey
 * 36) Clint Curtis - candidate for U.S. House, Florida
 * 37) Jane Mitakides - candidate for U.S. House, Ohio
 * 38) Jennifer Dougherty - candidate for U.S. House, Maryland
 * 39) Gilda Reed - candidate for U.S. House, Louisiana
 * 40) Kyle Foust - candidate for U.S. House, Pennsylvania
 * 41) Mike Turner - candidate for U.S. House, Virginia
 * 42) Cheryl Ede - candidate for U.S. House, California
 * 43) Richard Carter - candidate for U.S. House, Nebraska
 * 44) Samm Simpson - candidate for U.S. House, Florida
 * 45) Bill Hedrick - candidate for U.S. House, California
 * 46) Steve Blythe - candidate for U.S. House, Florida
 * 47) Mike Carroll - candidate for U.S. House, Ohio
 * 48) Howard Shanker - candidate for U.S. House, Arizona
 * 49) Mary Pallant - candidate for U.S. House, California
 * 50) James 'Clyde' Malloy - candidate for U.S. House, Florida
 * 51) Steve Young - candidate for U.S. House, California
 * 52) Tony Barr - candidate for U.S. House, Pennsylvania
 * 53) Phillip Steck - candidate for U.S. House, New York
 * 54) Doug Tudor - candidate for U.S. House, Florida
 * 55) Jeff Merkley - candidate for U.S. Senate, Oregon
 * 56) Greg Fischer - candidate for U.S. Senate, Kentucky
 * 57) Bob Tuke - candidate for U.S. Senate, Tennessee

Related SourceWatch resources

 * Responsible Plan