It is not if we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists will we be? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
You know, I don't care if it's not proper for a Congressional candidate to say: "horseshit." I don't care if it is not a good "tactic" to get kicked out of a Congressional non-impeachment hearing that was just a bunch of horseshit anyway. I don't care if I get accused of being too "extreme" for bucking the (cyst)em by doing everything form camping in a ditch in Crawford, Tx to non-violent civil disobedience to, lately, running for Congress as (oh no!) an independent.
If people can't see how this nation is teetering on the precipice of financial ruin and dragging the rest of this planet down with us as we destroy our ecology, too…and if people don't realize how desperate our situation is, then I must say, that's horseshit!
I am angry. No, I am incensed that hundreds of thousands of people are dead, dying, wounded, displaced from their homes or being imprisoned and tortured by the sadists that reside or work at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with the approval of their accomplices down the road in Congress. I am furious that I buried my oldest son when he was 24 years old for the unrepentant lies and the unpunished crimes of the Bush mob. Are you incensed? If not, maybe you should ask yourself: "Why?" Hypothetically: "Why am I not enraged that my country has killed or hurt so many people for absolutely no noble cause in my name and with my tacit approval?"
I am steamed that the working class has to, once again, pay for the excesses of the capitalist criminals that feeds its rapacious appetite with the flesh and blood of our children and won't rest until it owns every penny in this world and has all the power.
You may say, "But Cindy, it is not polite to be angry or to use such strong language in public." Horseshit! In my opinion, every citizen in this country should rise up in anger and DEMAND that George Bush and Dick Cheney not only be impeached and removed from office, but be tried and convicted for murder and crimes against the peace and humanity!
We should all walk off of our jobs and refuse to work and refuse to be cogs in the wheels of psychotic consumerism until our troops, military contractors and permanent bases are removed from Iraq and Afghanistan. We should, but most of us won't. We won't because it may mean that we would lose something of "value." Material possessions are so transitory, as are our lives. We can leave a lasting impression by our courageous activism and moral sacrifice, or we can leave a pile of rusting metal or rotting wood. I choose the former for myself.
We should come out of our comas of too much TV news and not enough non-biased information to push for alternatives to fossil fuels that are clean and renewable and protest nuclear facilities and off-shore oil drilling like we used to in the olden days when people actually cared enough about not poisoning our world to get off of their couches or (today) out from behind their computer screens to do something constructive instead of complacently shelling out hundreds of dollars a week for gasoline and food.
I get so pissed off when one of my supporters has a tooth ache and can't afford to go see a dentist to fix it or when my sister has had a cough for almost two years and doesn't have the health insurance she needs to get fully well. And when I think that almost 50 million people in this country are non-insured or under-insured, I see red. Why, in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, do some have the "privilege" of being fully insured and healthy, when health care is a basic human right, not a privilege for the elitists? My heart hurts every night when the men who sleep propped up against my campaign office, huddled under their blankets against the San Francisco chill, wish me a "good night" and I can't choke the same words back to them, or do much of anything but give them coffee to keep warm and books to read to help pass the time. My campaign office is being visited on a daily basis by Iraq war vets who can't access the help they need to get physically or mentally healthy---and I am "extreme" because I actually want things to really change and choose to act on this desire and not sit around passively pretending that this horseshit doesn't exist?
Since Casey died, even though every day I am filled with pain and longing, I have tried to be the poster-mom for this pain telling my neighbors and fellow Americans how it feels to be profoundly hurt by the Military Industrial Complex and that it wouldn't be too long before the cancer of BushCo would strike every American home and now that this prediction is awfully coming true, I see more and more apathy and less and less action.
Three years ago today, I first sat in a ditch in Crawford, Texas and three years later, we are in dire straits, my friends, and the prognosis is not good, unless we all make a conscious effort to sacrifice some of today's comfort for the sake of our children and grand-children's futures.
Sixty-three years ago today, the monsters of the US war machine dropped a WMD on hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children and since then, this nation has just descended into a further spiral of war and profiting from war and preparing for war and more profiting from war; which is destroying every aspect of our society and we MUST reclaim our very souls from the Military Industrial Complex before it is too late.
Please don't wait for November, or January or for the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius because every second we allow this demented pattern to continue, is one second too long!
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, who was KIA in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is a co-founder and President of Gold Star Families for Peace and the author of two books: Not One More Mother's Child and Dear President Bush.
Last night I spoke at the WW2 Memorial in Washington, DC, in commemoration of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings. To my shock and amazement, I was actually asked by the Washington Peace Center to speak on the subject of Depleted Uranium - No More Hiroshimas, No More Nagasakis. That speech will soon be published.
I met Dick Gregory last night - he was another of the speakers - and the experience was profoundly moving. Maybe one day I will have the presence of mind to describe what it is like to hold Dick Gregory's hand for 5 minutes straight... I am still in shock, but know I will never be the same again.
I kept looking around for you - and altho' I did not see you there, you were "with us" in spirit.
You are my Hero(ine), Cindy. You kept on going even when the enablers of the War Machine tried to keep you down... and so they will, try to continue to keep you down.
As far as what We, the People, need to do? Last night while looking into the water by the WW2 Memorial, it struck me that humanity is being sacrificed - from Japan to Iraq and Afghanistan to Somalia, all so that a few privileged sociopaths can build their investment portfolios. Yes, you're right - this has been going on since 1945 and has never stopped - that is precisely what I talked about last night in DC.
What will make the Evil Doers stop? When they suspect they can't get away with brutal killing any longer. When will that be? When average Americans put the fear of goddess into them. What do they fear? A huge loss in their bank account and a loss of power.
Yes, I agree. We have to focus on shutting down their incomes. Soldiers must refuse to fight. We must stop buying everything but the bare necessities. We should pull out our monies from investment accounts that go to fund war industries - and that includes GE, Disneyworld, and the like.
The nuclear war continues today. Professor Katsuma Yagasaki of Okinawa, Japan told us that in March 2004 (4 years ago) we had dropped the radiological equivalent of 250,000 Nagasaki bombs on Iraq.
The mere thought that by today, in Afghanistan and Iraq, the equivalent of well over one-half million times of radiation has been dropped on those two nations makes me begin to cry every time I think about it.
Well, hate to tell the US this, but... that stuff does not stay in a neat bundle over Iraq and Afghanistan. No, it is so light as to be aerosol particulates - a toxic and radioactive poison gas that travels thousands of miles in the winds... and we get here in the US in our rain and snow.
This war is not taking place *only* in Asia. We are all getting "nuked" here at home, too.
Anyone who knows what is going on must find a way to do public education around this War Madness and hit those in power where it hurts most - in their wallets.
I agree - to know what is going on and do nothing about it is worth than evil. It is aiding and abetting genocide.
Best wishes,
Cathy Garger
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Cathy Garger (23 articles, 6 quicklinks, 28 diaries, 101 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 11:05:09 AM
Ppl are so apathetic and even unaware. The corporatists have everyone busy as can be, preoccupied, so they haven't the time to revolt and even get informed. The news media is corporatism, totally, and pro those ideas of elitists, money, power, control. They never reveal the news, the real issues.
If I could vote in California, I'd vote for you. Nothing I'd like to see better than Pelosi in the employment line. You go girl. Code Pink!!!
Cussing is good. It shows your feelings about the horrible way this country is ending up. Chickenshit stinks worse than horseshit but either way, we are in deep shit.
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shirley reese (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 316 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 1:06:28 PM
I wish I could vote for you, but I live in Ohio, so all I can do is beat the drum and support you with donations. I have a few friends in San Francisco who did not know you are running. Does that say something about the (lack of) news coverage there? Good luck, Cindy. We need you.
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Richard McGinn (1 articles, 1 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 75 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 1:39:07 PM
Comment from Ratings: Cindy has grown to fit the job of best known anti war American and she has the creds for it. She's the real thing and should be heard.
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Jay Farrington (13 articles, 2 quicklinks, 9 diaries, 155 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 1:42:06 PM
Arrayed against impeachment literally, is the entire Democratic Party establishment as well as the Republicans.
Most rank and file Democratic voters want Impeachment but are being ignored by the Democratic Congress.
In addition, many of the so called progressive organizations are also in lock step with them (ex: MoveOn & UFPJ) and against impeachment. It will take a very hard fight to over come this and some real courage on the part of individual Democratic voters.
In Colorado we have actually been doing negative campaigning against all incumbent Democratic Congressmen who refuse even to discuss impeachment.
We have a Congressman Udall who is running to be a Senator from Colorado. He supposedly has a liberal background but is moving right as fast as he can. He avoids all protesters who want to stop the Iraq War funding and who support impeachment. The difficult aspect is that the Colorado Democratic Party, the Media, and most Colorado Progressive organizations are helping him avoid us.
Even so, the race for the US Senate from Colorado is statistically "too close to call", so we have a real chance to make a difference here. We believe that since the race is "so close" that we actually can stop Udall from winning.
The way we are doing this is by doing "Negative Protesting" at our weekly impeachment events, all of his public events and by constant "commenting" on all newspaper articles about Udall (nationwide).
Up until about two weeks ago, the honking at our weekly events had quadrupled since January. Then we used much "tougher" anti-Udall language on our signs and the honking doubled again. So much so that the Denver Police came and threatened arrest if we continued to use "honk to impeach" signs and also threatened us with citations for "disturbing the peace". A strong indication that we are getting to the Democratic establishment and that the public is with us.
Regarding "commenting", after awhile you become somewhat adept at changing the subject of an article to relate it to Udall and why he shouldn't be a Senator from Colorado. It really stirs people up and gets the discussion going. If you all are interested in how we do that I can share a list of links to articles that we've commented on.
Given that impeachment advocates have worked hard to lobby Congress to hold hearings and have done so for many years with no results, we think it is time for all impeachment advocates to get tough with Incumbent House Democrats.
The House Democrats have ignored us for years. Unless we threaten to un-elect them with negative campaigning they will continue to ignore us.
John H Kennedy, 43 yr Democratic voter, Obama delegate to the Denver County Democratic Convention, organizer of the IMPEACH COLORADO COALITION http://ImpeachCO.com
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John H Kennedy (7 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 104 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 1:53:08 PM
Comment from Ratings: Cindy Sheehan has my full support. I have been writing about her and am going to continue donating what I can through her campaign. She needs boots on the ground volunteers from San Francisco and campaign contributions. If we don't live in SF we can go without Starbucks or eat beans instead of meat some nights and we can send her whatever we can. All of it adds up if enough of us try to help her defeat Pelosi!
Cathy Garger
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Cathy Garger (23 articles, 6 quicklinks, 28 diaries, 101 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 3:01:58 PM
While I like your spunk Cindy -- winning elections is not about single issues or personal anger. Beating Pelosi requires a total campaign from top to bottom, addressing all the issues facing the voters in your district. This kind of talk is what got Pelosi's Democratic challenger (Sarah G.) a mere 15% of the votes in the primary. If you are really interested in beating Pelosi you must focus on the total effort, not the anger which will likely net you only the most extreme 10-20% of voters.
The majority of the public is "not angry" so telling them you are doesn't improve your standing with them. People want rational individuals in Congress, not extremists. Change is possible, but radical change is not really how large societies function. Try it and you will get a rebound effect negating anything you actually accomplish.
You will need an economic policy, an education policy, a health care policy, an environmental policy, a foreign policy, a defense policy, budget and spending policy, a homeland security policy, immigration policy and seniors and social security policy for starters. You are welcome to take extreme views on any of these, but just remember the vast majority of the public (even in San Francisco) are well healed, educated and uninterested in extreme attitudes by politicians. Pelosi has numerous weaknesses, but if you spend your efforts irritating the voters all she will do is sit back and let you self-destruct.
Many of the people on this web site are upset with Pelosi. We would love to see her gone. However, some of us realize beating her is not going to happen by getting upset. It will happen by focusing that anger where it does the most good, conveying to the voting public your concerns and why you feel voters should be concerned as well. Does Washington work for them? How many lost houses? How many are paying higher gas prices? How many vets are ignored and neglected? How many are tired of hearing Pelosi say how she tried to stop the war by passing bills in Congress instead of insisting on accountability in government as her top priority?
There are many ways to get your point across in a more rational tone, a more focused effort rather than stomping on the ground and shouting at the top of your lungs. Quiet, active, thoughtful efforts are generally far more effective than calls for revolution. I think you will find far more supporters and benefactors if you would sit back, use your moral outrage, standards and principles in a more effective way that touches an emotional chord among the masses in your Congressional District.
Those are just my thoughts. It is your campaign and you can do as you wish. I am just an observer who has watched successes and failures of people not unlike yourself who got angry at the system and tried to change it. The success stories were people who understood change comes from within and worked through the system. The failures were people who thought they would lead that revolution of angry voters only to find the mob they attracted was a small vocal minority of the total. Winning still requires a majority of the voters to support you so you do the math.
Washington is lacking in people with high standards, principles, values and ethics. You can sell that to voters, you just can't scream it at them. Washington is dysfunctional because our party system favors political agendas instead of real efforts to find answers to our social problems. You can sell that to voters as well. Pelosi represents much of what is wrong in Washington and that is her most vulnerable spot. Best of luck with your campaign.
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Peter Wedlund (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 164 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 3:26:52 PM
I watched the impeachment hearing and saw you walk out, good for you. It's a crying shame that we must go through this upcoming economic collapse, just to satisfy the goals of the New World Order. This whole plan from way back, was to open the borders, spend America into bankruptcy, elimanate the middleclass, crash the dollar, bring in the North American Union, and bring in the U.N. to establish a One World Corporate facist state.
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ronheri (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 150 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 3:29:34 PM
The corporate investment class(cast) can not control or stop the progression of Time, their Golems are out of control and are presently feeding on themselves. The lust and desire for power and monopoly will pit conglomerate against conglomerate, the corporate wars, and cannot be sustained. In the end-game the towers will literally fall. The good honest people of this world will have to pick up the pieces and make the best of it. It seems to me the best we can do at this point is prepare for the inevitable colapse and keep historical records for he following generations so they can understand what happened, the who, why, and how. Just walk into a WAL-MART and look around, then ask yourself; Is this the Perfected Man, the Capstone of Humanity, summit of modern culture and society, and a justified reason to inslave and murder other beings on this world we all share?
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Keystone (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 173 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 3:37:49 PM
Being as how Apathy and sloth are pretty much the only things keeping the folks in Washington employed, I can only hope the entire mess collapses under the weight of its own stupidity and I am still alive to watch it happen. I'm one of those apathetic and slothful people who mistakenly thought it was enough to vote for positive change rather than take more direct action.
Veteran '66-68
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Roger (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 359 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 4:34:05 PM
When all has been said and done Cindy Sheehan will go down as one of those great heroes with the mettle of one back in the days when the word hadn't been so cheapened by the propagandists and their sham democracy.
What the Judas Democrats did to Cindy is disgraceful and represents what they did to the entire antiwar movement that put their mangy and corrupt asses into Congress back in 2006 and not a DAMN thing has been done to either end the wars or to hold the Bush administration and Wall Street criminals accountable.
It may be too late to do anything meaningful this year but there should be a concerted effort to FLUSH THE TOILET IN 2010!
Just my two cents
EE
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Ed Encho (7 articles, 17 quicklinks, 56 diaries, 391 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 5:33:07 PM
You are without question the poster-mom for the pain and the anguish that each and every mother across this country is experiencing, and who's son and daughter's been thrown into harms way or has been seriously maimed even killed fighting in these illegal and horrific oil wars which this truculent cardboard cowboy and his mendacious cabal have created.
Meanwhile our country is being torn apart right before our very eyes, as a complicit corporate media and a cowering Congress sits back and watches. Not doing a DAM thing!
It is just so sickening and sad to watch as America crumbles.
Keep up the good fight Cindy, right to a seat in the House where you belong. Your message is being heard LOUD and CLEAR.
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Munich (0 articles, 66 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 830 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 6:15:50 PM
Our energy problems can be solved by installing a HS/BS converter under Congress & the White House. Every thing else will be futile until we corral all involved in blowing up the WTC on 9/11/2001 and anthraxing Congress & the Press. THANK YOU CINDY!
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foxii (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 11 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 7:05:27 PM
Our energy problems can be solved by installing a HS/BS converter under Congress & the White House. Every thing else will be futile until we corral all involved in blowing up the WTC on 9/11/2001 and anthraxing Congress & the Press. THANK YOU CINDY!
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foxii (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 11 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 7:06:50 PM
Of course Rob Kall, the owner of this website, believes that third party and independent candidacies are psychotic because they hurt the Democrats, so I guess he supports Pelosi. Or maybe he only means Presidential candidacies.
Anyway, I wrote a little essay that was thinly based on both you and John Conyers, posted it as a diary here on opednews, and I hope you'll read it:
You shouldn't be comparing Cindy Sheehan to John Conyers. Cindy isn't a member of the Council On Foreign Relations which has a globalist agenda like John Conyers is. John Conyers is also a partisan Democrat and a career politician only interested in getting reelected. Cindy Sheehan is an independent with no allegiance to any political party. Cindy Sheehan is a person of principle unlike John Conyers and puts the welfare of the country above her own personal welfare.
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Ty (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 821 comments)
on Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 12:58:11 PM
I wasn't comparing Cindy to Conyers, I was explaining what a fascist bureaucracy is and how even a saint or a martyr can not bring about change by working within a fascist bureaucracy.
Although I wrote the "fable" with Cindy and Conyers in mind, it is not about them, it is about the system. It make you look very foolish when you comment on something without having read it first.
If Cindy is elected, Cindy will have to work within the same system that Conyers is working within. That system is called Congress and it happens to be a totally corrupt fascist bureaucracy that is not accountable to the people and is constructed so as not to allow change from within.
It would help if Cindy knew what she was up against, and it would also help if voters did also. But it probably wouldn't help very much because most people don't have enough imagination to understand that things could be different and are, in fact, different in many parts of the world. In actual democracies, there is not only proportional representation, but people are allowed to hold their representatives accountable. In many countries this is something that is taken for granted -- only in the U.S. is it unimaginable.
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Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments)
on Friday, August 8, 2008 at 5:16:37 AM
I cannot imagine the grief and helplessness that you have gone through since your sons death, expecially for the purpose (big oil) for which he succumbed. My heart goes out to you and to all the mothers, fathers, wifes, children and siblings of all the casualties; US, Coliation and Iraqis of what is termed "War" by the elitist right wing.
I have a strong sense that the purpose for not invoking Impeachment at this time is two fold. One, the political scene and two the timing. However, I do feel strongly that when the election is over you will see things begin to happen on an international scale with the US not getting in the way of proceedings of War Crimes. You may also see Bugloisi go after the clan for murder, I hope, when the perceived vail of the presidency is not in the way.
Please let your heart continue to beat strong and have faith for the warlords will have their day.... And, just watch their every more, they know what is coming down the pipe.... God Bless Skip
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Daryl Houle (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments)
on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 11:49:39 PM
