Cindy Sheehan and Supporters to Campaign at California State Democratic Convention in Los Angeles: March 8, 2014

For Immediate Release                                          March 8, 2014

Attention Day Book/ Assignment Desk

Contact: Dede Miller-562-500-9079 or dede@cindy2014.org

Press Availability 9am

Cindy Sheehan and Team at the Democratic State Convention

When: Saturday May 8, 9am-12pm

Where: Los Angeles Convention Center

1201 S. Figueroa St, L.A. 90015

Join Cindy Sheehan, Peace & Freedom Party's Candidate for Governor at the L.A. Convention Center this Saturday morning.  

Cindy Sheehan's EPIC campaign to:

*End Poverty In California*
*End the Prison Industrial Complex *
*Environmental Protection in California*
*Educate People in California *

All are a real alternative to neo-Republican Jerry Brown's ongoing policies of enriching the banks and the 1%, fracking, filling the prisons, while California's schools continue to fail.

Unashamed, Unabashed, Unrepentant Admiration of Hugo Chavez (28 July, 1954 to 5 March, 2013) by Cindy Sheehan

Revolution, A Love Story

By Cindy Sheehan

INTRODUCTION

(Written March 2011 before President Chavéz was diagnosed with Cancer)

Five years ago, shortly after my first trip to Texas to confront the person who I felt murdered my son Casey, George Bush, I was invited to Caracas, Venezuela to attend the World Social Forum. 

Amazingly, at the time, I really had no idea that the World Social Forum was about socialism, and I really didn’t know much more about President Hugo Chavéz then he was a very vocal opponent of my opponents: George Bush, and the U.S. Empire. That trip to Caracas was a whirlwind of speeches, meetings, and rallies. 

At one point, I was pulled out of a meeting to go to the presidential palace, Miraflores, to meet with President Chavéz. Along with a few colleagues, he gave us a tour of some of the places where the US - CIA backed coup attempt occurred in April of 2002 — a living “ The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” with our guide being the “star” of the show. Chavéz not only survived that coup attempt, because of his people, but also has thrived as the socialist/anti - imperialist president of Venezuela for over ten years, now. 

That year in Caracas, I stumbled through my meetings and obligations, just knowing enough to survive that trip. However, after I did go down to Venezuela for that WSF and meet with President Chavez (Che Guevara’s daughter, Elena, helped treat me for a migraine), I was “greeted” with deep - seeded hostility when I returned back to Il Imperio (The Empire), even from people whom I would consider on “the left.” 

“Cindy, the enemy of your enemy is not your friend.” “Hugo Chavéz may hate George Bush like you do, but he is an oppressive, anti - American, Communist dictator.” “Blah, blah, blah!” 

I was even hauled in before Arianna Huffington and soundly scolded for my “indiscretion.” (A working definition of irony: I have stuck to my “ peace at all costs ” platform all these years and am nearly broke, yet Arianna is a political chameleon who just sold her soul — oops I mean website — to AOL for hundreds of millions of dollars?) 

In the early years of my activism, I did a lot of things that I wasn’t ready for — and meeting this “anti - American Communist, dictator” was one of them. Because of the criticism from what passes as the left in this country, I started to do a little more research in to Venezuelan politics, Hugo Chavéz, and the Bolivarian Revolution. 

Simon Bolívar, the liberator of Latin America and his vision has been part of the inspiration for the revolution of Chavéz. What I found after my studies greatly relieved me! I felt justified in defending Chavéz and in my support of him and his policies. 

Once when I was invited to be on MSNBC’s Hardball, the guest hostess Norah O’Donnell made some blatantly untrue comments about President Chavez, so I had to correct her and she asked me: “Would you rather have Hugo Chavéz as your president, than George Bush?” What else could I say but, “Yes. ” It’s not everyday one is faced with such a clear - cut choice, but I sure set off a shit - storm of Anti - Sheehan attacks after that rare bit (for TV, but not me) of honesty. 

Since the beginning of 2006 and my trip to Caracas, I have traveled the world and met people from presidents on down to beggars on the streets that can usually “thank” The Empire for the foundation of their poverty; I have run an unsuccessful campaign for Congress against a card - carrying member of the oppressor - class here in the US, Nancy Pelosi; I have been arrested many times and harassed because of my beliefs and activities; I have published five books; been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and have been gifted with three grandchildren (note: four now),— and all of these experiences have combined, along with the death of my son in 2004, to bring me to the conclusion that the system we live under in the US — whether one wants to call it Capitalism, Crony Capitalism, Corporatism, Imperialism, Oligarchy, ( or whatever name for this cyst - em that makes you happy) — is a profoundly diseased and crumbling system. 

For decades, Venezuela suffered under the US corporations, CIA, and “leaders” who were dependent on and supporters of the rape and pillage of their country by the US (kind of like Hosni Mubarak). The people were strangled by this system and rose up against it many times, and failed, but the soil was being prepared for one to step in and show the people of Venezuela a new way — an alternative to the stranglehold US capitalistic imperialism had on his country. 

So, in 2010, after I became what I like to call an “organic Marxist,” writing my own wo(man)ifesto in 2009, called: Myth America: 20 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution, I wanted to go back to Venezuela to chat with Chavéz about something more important than “Senor Peligro,” (Mr. Danger), George Bush. I wanted to witness a socialist revolution in process. I wanted to be able to come back to the US with evidence of a better way. To do that, I also felt it was urgent to dispel the “myths” about President Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution, too. 

I received permission to interview the President and I raised the money to travel there with two camera operators — and our “mission” was to interview the president, and talk to people in the “barrios” of Venezuela to see how this revolution was affecting them — screw the oligarchy and opposition that still remain there — their sob-stories of stolen lost wealth to the socialist way are told over and over and over and over and over again in Venezuelan media and our media, too. 

I have no sympathy for the robbers who became a little less wealthy sitting behind their walls in their mansions feeling sorry for themselves. I wish that would happen here in the US — wouldn’t it be a shame if Mr. Rockefeller had to have a few of his oil wells and properties expropriated to pay for healthcare, environmental clean - up, jobs, and education for we the people here in the US? No, it wouldn’t be a shame — the wealth that such people like Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Rothschild, Gates, Soros, Koch, Winfrey, or T. Boone Pickens, have accumulated is obscene and belongs to everyone, not just them. 

I asked one formerly illiterate and disadvantaged person in the barrio of San Agustin what she thought about the amendment to the Bolivarian Republic’s new Constitution (more about the Constitution later) that allows Chavéz to run for president without term limits. She said: “I hope he is president for life, we would die for him and the revolution.” In fact, many people did die in 2002 during the coup attempt defending and supporting Chavez. 

Chavéz loves the people of Venezuela — he owes them his life. But what, if anything, do we owe to such a person and his country that are being unfairly and unjustly demonized at every opportunity by our own country? We owe Chavéz a balanced look at what he’s done, why he’s done it, and what he is still attempting to do with all the obstacles placed in his way from El Imperio and to the less (maybe) sinister problems of global climate change.  

This book is my inadequate attempt at showing appreciation to my supporters and to President Chavéz for helping me see that there is a better way to do things than we do them here in the US. 

Revolution cannot be achieved or accomplished by one person, no matter how dedicated he/she is. Is they way of Chavéz perfect? I don’t think so, (and I will examine the challenges, too) but that’s the beauty of revolution — it’s a continuing process that takes everybody working together to achieve as close to perfection as mere humans can. 

The Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela is not an uprising like we see happening in the Arab world and closer to home in Madison, Wisconsin. No, it is a plan and Chavéz told me during our interview in Montevideo because of all the “obstacles” and “challenges,” they have really only accomplished about 10% of what the Revolution has set out to do . (Does that sound like an autocrat? If he were one, at least 90% would be accomplished). 

The Representative Republic that was formed by the plutocracy in the US has only led us to increasing fascistic oppressions and a growing income disparity that is the largest in so - called developing nations.

Chavéz is successfully leading a “Great Experiment” in Venezuela at a time when the “Great American Experiment,” in the US described by Alexis de Tocqueville in the 19th Century is failing. 

Capitalism, US style, is trying so hard to save itself for the wealthy and power mad, that it attacks small countries and leaders like President Hugo Chavéz because the plutocracy still calls the shots and is terrified of, “ the threat of a good example.” 

I want to disclose up front that I love this subject. It is not a non - biased look, but I can promise you it will be an honest look and one that you won’t find in very many other places. I will present statistics and facts, tinted with enthusiasm and inspiration that can’t be woven around a web of Imperial lies. 

I guarantee you that there is a better way — there is a path we can follow to peace and freedom. 

It won’t be easy, but it’ll be worth every step we MUST take. 

Vamos, mis amigos. 

(Let’s go, my friends!) 

March 5, 2014
Update

One of the last times I spoke with Hugo Chavéz in 2010, he greeted me warmly and said, "Welcome home, Cindy. Our country is your country; your son is our son." 

I was called back to Caracas 15-months after that visit and I missed seeing Chavéz because I was told that he had a "pulled groin muscle." Within the next several weeks we learned that he was diagnosed with the cancer that would kill him a little less than two years later.

His dedication to fighting the cancer matched his unrelenting dedication to the people of Venezuela. Chavéz had been young and vibrant: he was not ready to go. I can imagine his agony over leaving three children, his grandson, and his beloved Venezuela. One year ago today, the world lost a great human, father, leader. I was at a grocery store when I received a text from my sister telling me he had passed: I put my head on the cold door in the frozen food section and openly wept. I wondered if people were thinking I was crying because my favorite frozen pizza was not in stock. I didn't care. I replaced the items I had in my hand basket and quickly left and cried all the way on my walk home.

I wept for my friend Chavéz and myself; for the people of Venezuela, and the world.

What President Chavéz and his Bolivarian Revolution were able to do in Venezuela inspired many oppressed Latin American and Caribbean nations to work together to begin to break the chains that bound them to The Empire that has long been crushing them under its neo-liberal/violent boot heel.

Now, of course the US is ramping up its campaign against the transparently and democratically elected government and Revolution in Venezuela, but I have confidence in the people that they will not go back to the way it used to be. The greatest accomplishment of Chavéz was to empower the people and once empowered, never, ever again enslaved.

The Bolivarian Revolution and the leadership of Hugo Chavéz is one of my inspirations for my run for Governor of California. If Venezuela was able to dramatically close the income gap, educate people, improve their access to nutritional food, and empower them, imagine what we could do here in California. 

US Presidents come and go with nauseating, "electoral" regularity, but in my opinion, history will look back on Hugo Rafael Chavéz Frias as one of the most significant figures in the early 21st Century.

CLICK IMAGE FOR ORDERING INFO

More Injustice American Style (SOAPBOX PODCAST 3/2)

CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX

MARCH 2, 2014

GUEST: BILL QUIGLEY

 TOPIC: CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND THE CASE OF

SR. MEGAN RICE, ET. AL.

(From Wikipedia) On July 28, 2012, Rice, at 82 years old, and two fellow activists (Michael R. Walli, 63 years old, and Gregory I. Boertje-Obed, 57 years old) broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, spray-painted antiwar slogans, and splashed fake blood on the outside of the heavily guarded Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. 

The three are members of the organization "Transform Now Plowshares", a part of the Plowshares Movement, which references the Book of Isaiah's call to "hammer their swords into plowshares", i.e., convert weapons into peaceful tools. Justifying their infiltration of the Oak Ridge facility, the trio cited both Biblical verses calling for world peace and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as justifications. The New York Times reported that nuclear experts called this action "the biggest security breach in the history of the nation's atomic complex." Rice, Walli, and Boertje-Obed were charged with misdemeanor trespass and "destruction and depredation" of government property (a felony) and may face up to a $100,000 fine and up to a year in prison. However they were charged with damaging a defense facility under the sabotage act, a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, and charged with causing more than $1,000 damage to government property, up to 10 years in prison.

On May 9, 2013, the three were convicted. In her testimony Sister Megan said "I regret I didn't do this 70 years ago." Her sentencing was originally scheduled for January 28, 2014, but was postponed to February 18, 2014 due to a snow storm. On February 18, 2014, Rice was sentenced to 35 months in prison, and Walli and Boertje-Obed were each sentenced to 62 months.

CLICK BELOW PLAYER TO LISTEN TO SHOW

 

Michael, Sr. Megan, and Gregory

Bill Quigley

Bill Quigley is a law professor and Director of the Stuart H. Smith Law Clinic and Center for Social Justice  and the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University New Orleans. Bill has been an active public interest lawyer since 1977. Bill has served as counsel with a wide range of public interest organizations on issues including human rights, Katrina social justice issues, public housing, voting rights, death penalty, living wage, civil liberties, educational reform, constitutional rights and civil disobedience. Bill served as the Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights for two years and has litigated numerous cases with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., the Advancement Project, and with the ACLU of Louisiana, for which he served as General Counsel for 15 years.

CLICK IMAGE TO ORDER

War is Costly (Peace Plan for California) by Cindy Sheehan

As someone who is intimately and very painfully acquainted with the personal cost of war, I believe that the carnage and destruction of war is what we need to focus on. We should never give up our struggles for peace and end of Empire as long as one person is being threatened or in harm's way of the US military juggernaut.

However, according to the National Priorities Project, since 2001, the total cost of the US's war OF terror has been over 1.5 trillion dollars and,

Every hour, taxpayers in United States are paying
$11.26 million for Total Cost of Wars Since 2001. 

Of course, in a 2010 article in the Washington Post, economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes compute the "true" cost of just the horror the US perpetrated on Iraq at over "3 trillion." 

Not only is the loss of my own treasure, my first born, needlessly relevant in my life, as a candidate for Governor of California, the hemorrhaging of this state's resources to the war OF terror is also needless and significant. 

According to the apparently conservative, but verifiable, statistics of the National Priorities Project:

Every hour, taxpayers in California are paying
$1.45 million for Total Cost of Wars Since 2001. 

Besides the flesh and blood we have had stolen from us, California has ponied up almost 200 billions of dollars that could obviously be used for more positive and life-affirming projects here in our own state.

The National Priorities Project has a tool for re-allocating this tribute we Californians pay to the Empire for its wars OF terror and this is what I envisioned and the State still had billions of dollars left over:

The US Department of War is scaling back its traditional activities, yet expanding black ops and use of drone technology. What we need federally and locally are leaders that know what struggle is and are able to be free of the Military Industrial Complex. 

Californians can say "Hell, no" to war and "Hell, yes" to a state that puts the needs of people over the greed of Empire.

Imagine a state as big and powerful and California saying "Hell, no" to Empire?

We will no longer cede any of our tax dollars or our children to the imperial meat-grinder. This is a good plan for our state, our nation, and the world!

www.Cindy2014.org
 

The Truth About More Imperial Meddling (Soapbox Podcast 2/23/2014)

The Truth About More Imperial Meddling

Soapbox Podcast

February 23, 2014

GUESTS:

 MICKEY-Z

TOPIC: OCCUPY THIS BOOK and Dedicated Activism

GLORIA LA RIVA:

TOPIC: What the corporate media won't tell you about

Venezuela

Venezuelan right-wing gangs’ violence potential prelude to coup attempt

by Gloria La Riva 

Venezuela Beyond the Protests: The Revolution is Here to Stay

 by Eva Golinger

 CLICK IMAGE TO HEAR SHOW

For immediate release: Cindy Sheehan for Cal Gov, 2014 Will Achieve Ballot Access for June Primary!

February 16, 2014

Vacaville, Ca.  

For immediate release:

Cindy Sheehan for California Governor, 2014, is thrilled to announce that despite the attack from the political establishment in California against alternative political parties and voices, the Sheehan campaign has a combination of enough signatures and donations to qualify for the June primary ballot.

In 2010, Cindy Sheehan and the Peace and Freedom Party fought against the passage of Proposition 14 which was designed to destroy 3^rd parties and block political challenges from those with no party affiliation. Before the “Top Two Open Primary” all a campaign needed would be 150 signatures from his/her party and meet Constitutional requirements to run for an office here in California.

Now, each prospective candidate for state office needs 10,000 valid signatures and/or pays a filing (based on the starting pay of each office) fee. In the case of the Office of Governor, each signature is worth about 35 cents, or $3500 total for ballot access.

“This attack on Democracy has seriously hampered our ability to field candidates who are in opposition to the two parties of greed, war, and the wealthy; but we will never give up or go away. We will continue to fight Prop 14 and work to expand the choices of Californians, not contract them.”

Sheehan continues, “I want to also take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to those who have volunteered many hours to collect signatures and who have thus far donated money to our campaign. The people who donate are not the wealthy; they are our brothers and sisters who also struggle and for whom this campaign to End Poverty In California would most benefit.”

Cindy Sheehan for California Governor, 2014, will now shift to full campaign mode and Ms. Sheehan looks forward to continuing meeting as many Californians as possible in the period before the June Primary. 

Keep turning in those signatures, though! The more we have the less we are forced to pay.

FOR MORE INFO, TO SCHEDULE ENGAGEMENTS FOR CINDY SHEEHAN, OR FOR AN INTERVIEW WITH MS. SHEEHAN, PLEASE CONTACT DEDE MILLER AT: DEDE@CINDY2014.org, OR PHONE:

916-905-5167

A New DaY

New DaY for California (Campaign Song and Video for Cindy Sheehan for Cal Gov, 2014)

Slaughterhouses and Battlefields (SOAPBOX PODCAST 2/16/14)

CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX

FEBRUARY 16, 2013

TOPIC: VEGANISM

GUEST: BOB LINDEN OF 

GO VEGAN RADIO 

For this weekend of Valentine romantic love,

we thought we would present a love story to

all living things.

Join Cindy as she chats with vegan, animal rights' activist

and radio talk show host: Bob Linden

Please listen with an open-mind and open-heart.

click image to hear show

 (AFTER 2PM ON 2/16)

CINDY SHEEHAN FOR CAL GOV SAYS: "Stop Bullying And Racism In Education At The CTC -Equal Justice For al"l

Stop Bullying And Racism In Education At The CTC -Equal Justice For all

Stop Privatization, Charters and the Corruption In Public Education

California education workers and students are under attack from bullies through charters and privatization.

The California Commission On Teacher Credentials is run by Governor Brown who appoints the commission members. On January 24, 2014 teachers, parents and public education advocates went to the Committee of Creditials to testify about the physical abuse of an African American special education student at the San Francisco  Martin Luther King Middle school in February 2012 by the principal Natalie Eberhard.

Ms. Eberhard sat on a student, injured a member of the UESF and also her assistant principal Anthony Braxton had falsified a report on this incident.

After the incident took place instead of the District Superintendent Richard Carranza taking action he denied the abuse had taken place and the District Attorney Gascon refused to properly investigate and prosecute. Complaints were filed by material witnesses about this abuse and under California law those who make complaints are supposed to be informed about the hearing and given the opportunity to testify.

Instead the Commission and it's assistant lawyer Michael Barth refused to allow the material witnesses to testify in the closed hearing and only allowed public comment after he and the commission were challenged. This flagrant violation of the education code and California law for due process by the Commission and it's staff has been known by Governor Brown for years.

At present there is a lawsuit by the former Commission lawyer Kathy Carroll who was bullied, retaliated against and fired for exposing the violation of the law by the Commission. She presently has a suit against these systemic violations by the Commission and this lawsuit is being defended by Attorney General Kamala Harris.

Governor Brown must be held personally accountable for this ongoing retaliation and bullying both at the Martin Luther King School in San Francisco and the bullying of the CTC staff and whistleblowers. The CTC must have representation of African Americans on this commission but they have refused to follow the law an appoint an African American representative to this commission.

He has also appointed people to California governmental positions that have personal financial conflicts of interest in charters and privatization of education and who are intent on bullying and harassing California public teachers and the public education system.

The chairwomen of the Commission Linda Darling-Hammond who is a supporter of President Obama's "Race to the Top" and "No Child Left Behind" has pushed the CTC for these attacks on teachers and further supports for the "common core" and charters in our public school system.

I call for full prosecution of those in the California Commission on Teacher Credentials and that Governor Brown should be charged with obstruction of justice for continuing to cover-up the criminal and civil violations by the CTC which he is responsible for.

For video on this hearing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvbRz9KK3F4

For more information on these issues:
http://www.dailycensored.com/ca-state-whistleblowers-lawsuit-exposes-web-of-corruption-and-deceit-at-the-commission-on-teacher-credentialing-ctc/
http://www.upwa.info/documents/Carroll-v.-CTC.pdf