Miscellaneous tax resisters → individual war tax resisters → Eileen Kreutz

The tax resistance pledges at the “Don’t Buy Bush’s War” project keep pouring in:

Already resisting for two years! We must end torture, we must end wars of aggression.
Greg Junell, San Luis Obispo, California
As a disabled combat veteran I know that killing people is not the way to solve problems. If you politicians want war than it should be you politicians out there fighting and dying, not our young people.
Kim Maynard, Eugene, Oregon
Thank you for providing a legal structure to put the People’s values into actions. This will empower the public who at the moment feel powerless in the face of the present government.
Ameeta Nanji, Venice, California
Swords into plowshares. No more money for war.… We the People… it’s time to stand up.
Eileen Kreutz, Industry, Maine
…All your taxes go to destruction and power games! Don’t be a slave!
James Limbach, San Francisco, California
I haven’t filed taxes . It’s scary but I thing it’s a human right to not pay for mass murder and torture and illegal wars based on lies. Sometimes I feel bad about not contributing to the good of the commonwealth but when a good man commits murder this must be addressed. I could not stand being an accomplice to murder. I have paid taxes through all of the dirty wars we have funded for . I can’t do it any more. The Democrats are playing good cop bad cop with us saying in effect we feel your pain but we vote for torture, illegal wire tapping and war.
Scot Macinnis, Longmont, Colorado
Have any of you looked at a map of all our military bases lately?… They’re springing up like mushrooms after a rain and surrounding the oil rich nations like vultures. No matter how Bush and Cheney want to package it, we have no right to their resources. And we have no right pushing our way of life on them! My god, who are the extremists? Even after we realized we went to war on false pretenses, we’re still there and the bush admin. keeps pushing for more war, except against the perpetrator of 911. Why hasn’t this president been impeached?
Susan Peuler, Sandwich, Illinois
We had our chance to actually make a difference over there, but we showed our real intentions by only protecting the oil.
Julio Sandoval, Chicago, Illinois
I support the troops, but not their deaths and the deaths of the innocent.
Becky Van Meter, Houston, Texas
I am sick and tired of the death and destruction the U.S. has inflicted on other nations and its own people (including New Orleans).
Rayeanne King, Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts
We the people…
Khris Beliveau, Latham, New York
I do not give my consent to wage wars of aggression and it is immoral to compel me to pay for the murder of innocents.
Ruth Kastner, Greenbelt, Maryland
Because I am a proud American, I choose to use my Democratic right to voice my opposition to the killing of innocents, the right ot disagree with the government leaders and to do everything I can to create a planet that my children, grandchildren and all human beings can coexist on together peacefully.
Valerie Burkman, Menahga, Minnesota
Bush & Cheney should be impeached now. No more taxes until this war ends.
Linda Fecher, West Carrollton, Ohio
I am no longer willing to support a tax that pays for continued war in Iraq or Iran.
Saren Nelson, Corvalis, Oregon
This is not an easy comfortable choice, but it is one that we must make. Civil disobedience is a powerful measure. It is our charge in a democracy.
Celia Alario, Moab, Utah
The invasion and occupation of Iraq beginning in was a violation of international law and carried out through lies and deciet by the administration of G.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, et al. I will no longer fund this crime against humanity with my taxes.
Joseph Janssen, Scandinavia, Wisconsin
As a military family member, I am disgusted by the lack action by Congress to hold the Bush Administration accountable for the never-ending list of illegal, immoral and unethical actions they have taken that border on terroristic acts against our nation and our Constitution. Enough is enough. We need our leader to put the politics on the shelf and begin putting their sworn oath in action by defending our constitution and our democracy. If they cannot find the backbone to do that much, then no money, no government!
Beatice Kay Jones, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
Cruise missiles or… I don’t know, health care. There’s so many things I’d rather see my tax money go to.
Laban Pheidas, Los Angeles, California
I’m sick of paying taxes that fund War. There is no freedom involved in this war. There is no liberation. This war and all wars past have been all about greed and the rich getting richer.…
Ted Newsome, Los Angeles, California

I’m back! We had a great time in Mexico, and now I’m unpacking and reassuring our cat that we still love him and trying to get caught up on what I missed while we were away.

Here are some of the things I would have been covering at The Picket Line had I not been off-the-grid:

  • The War Resisters League is promoting a blockade of the IRS headquarters in Washington on . “Just as military recruiters supply the bodies for the war, the IRS supplies the funding. Just as some soldiers have the courage to resist the war, we — as tax payers — should have the courage to resist paying the taxes that send soldiers to war. We call on all war opponents to help dramatize our opposition and to disrupt business as usual by joining this nonviolent blockade.”
  • The Observer has a good article about the anti-Pizzo movement in Palermo. Fabio Messina has opened a supermarket that only stocks goods supplied by shops and producers who refuse to pay protection money to the mafia.

    The store is part of an anti-Mafia groundswell that started four years ago when activists plastered Palermo with bill stickers stating: “An entire population that pays the pizzo is a population without dignity.”

    That spawned “Addiopizzo,” an organisation promoting stores and suppliers that publicly vowed to pay no more. Today, 9,000 Palermitans are registered customers and the list contains 241 businesses, 30 of which have their products on Messina’s shelves.

    Punto Pizzofree also stocks produce from farms seized from jailed Mafia bosses including Salvatore “The Beast” Riina.

    The Sicilian Mafia, on the back foot since the arrest in of fugitive godfather Bernardo Provenzano, was hurt again when powerful industrial association Confindustria said it would expel any members paying protection money.

  • Long-time war tax resister Joanna Karl has died. Friends remember that “To a rare degree, Joanna truly did walk her talk. And she did it with a big smile!”
  • A paper by Odd-Helge Fjeldstad and Joseph Semboja — “Why people pay taxes: The case of the development levy in Tanzania” — is now available on-line and provides a few more clues for those of us who like to investigate the factors that promote tax compliance or tax resistance.
  • War tax resisters in Farmington, Maine held a workshop recently. Resisters including Eileen Kreutz, Eileen Liddy, Henry Braun, and Larry Dansinger shared their experiences. “Since Congress continues to fund the war despite all our letter writing, demonstrations, and protests, I am joining others to try to affect the war funding directly by not paying all of my taxes,” Liddy said. “This is more than just symbolism. Legislators need to know that people are ready to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience in order to get them to do the job they are elected to do.”
  • Pente Player, in the comments here at The Picket Line, has done some back-of-the-envelope calculations to see what effect this year’s economic stimulus package will have on those of us who are trying to stay under the federal income tax line.
  • San Francisco area artist Doug Minkler has created another war tax resistance-themed poster featuring a paraphrase of William Reich: “People tend to ascribe the responsibility for war to those who wield power. But the responsibility for wars falls directly upon the citizenry, for they possess all the necessary means to avert war. To place guilt on ordinary people — to hold them solely responsible — means to take them seriously, whereas, to view them as victims means to treat them as small, helpless children.”
  • The essay Tax Resistance: The Moral and Legal Defense from redpill8 has been bouncing around blogland since it was posted late last month. It asserts that you have a legal obligation to stop paying taxes to the U.S. government in order to keep from being considered an accomplice in its criminal behavior.
  • Raleigh Booze at Sword of Peace shares his conscientious objector statement and discusses how tax resistance fits in to a Christian conscientious objection position.
  • SFGate caught my eye with its article on “How to be a foodie without breaking the bank.”