War is Unsuitable for Children: Another YouTube outrage by Cindy Sheehan

Last week, after being bombarded with pseudo-patriotic images of graveyards, gravestones and flags, I decided to begin posting images of maimed and killed Iraqis, but especially children and transform the mega-pseudo-patriotic Memorial Day to Remembrance of Victims of US Empire Day.

I got a great response to this and my friend and videographer, Clifford Roddy put together a short film called: finaledit, with the images I posted and with images that he took at a national cemetery in Santa Fe, NM where we were together for my Myth America book tour. I have a Cindy Sheehan You Tube page so we posted it there.

The video was just yanked off of You Tube because it “violates the terms of service” but even before it was yanked, it had a warning: “This video is unsuitable for children.”

The pictures of the dead and maimed Iraqi children were gruesome. War is gruesome. War is never pretty but the Iraqi war has been “Sanitized for your protection.” It’s not enough that adult males have been tortured but thousands of women and children have also been imprisoned and cruelly treated.

I think it’s pretty gruesome that the US Military has held up to 6000 juveniles in its torture prisons in the Middle East and there has been rape and torture reported to individuals as young as 10 years old! How can any human being torture another human being, much less a child? These kinds of stories remind me of the most horrendous slasher movies that I can think of, but they are not the pretend product of twisted fantasy, but factual and mind-blowingly real.

Former US Soldier, Steven Green, was recently given life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2007 rape, mutilation and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Mahmoudiya, Iraq. Not only was Green the ringleader in the rape and murder; the squad also killed her family.

Unfortunately, even though Green was a “bad apple,” the situation we find ourselves in is an entire salad of rotten fruit and incidences like this one are not uncommon, but rarely reported.

Once when I was in Amman, Jordan speaking with prominent Iraqis, a Sheikh told me that US soldiers burst into his home, severely beating him and raping his wife, all in the presence of his 14-year-old son. The Sheikh told me that it was his son’s fondest dream to kill US Soldiers. Can you imagine this happening to your family? What if something like this happened in your home? You’re sitting around watching American Idol, or some crap like that, and Iraqis break into your home and terrorize and brutalize your family? I am sure you would all just chalk it up to “freedom and democracy” and be happy to go about your miserable lives comforted by the fact that your country was being occupied and destroyed for your own good.

During the US-UN-Clinton led sanctions against Iraq, the UN estimates that over 500,000 children died from starvation, disease, or violence. 500,000 Iraqi children would be like 5,000,000 US children dying. Former UN Ambassador under Clinton called that sacrifice for US Empire by the children of Iraq “worth it.” Over one million people have died in Iraq since Bush's invasion in 2003 and most of that figure counts women and children.

I have spoken to men who were still in their teens who were sodomized with broom handles in Guantanamo. I have seen the horrific photos of the US’s inhumanity to man and cannot forgive my country for the terror it has unleashed on the world. I can’t stand the fact that our government operates with such craven cowardice and has harmed so many people while Americans revel in blissful ignorance.

Young people who never get a chance to live their lives have their lives snuffed out so corporations can profit and politicians can earn their John Wayne, muy macho credentials and I wish that we could get a movement going that would be as large and as angry about weddings parties being blown up in Iraq-Af-Pak as they are about inequality in marriage rights here in the US. Please don’t email me with hostility because I wrote about marriage equality: I am 100% for marriage equality, but I am also 100% for people living to be able to be married whether they are gay or straight. Lives are in the balance and our inaction is tipping the scale in the wrong direction.

I am sorry (sarcasm) that our video “violated” You Tube’s terms of service, but the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan not only violate my terms of service, but international law.

Video for Remembrance Day for Victims of US Empire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86EmNUICuXM&feature=channel_page

Day of the Dead, May 25, 2009 by Cindy Sheehan

I was on an airplane flying to Orange County from Sacramento to attend the al-Awda Conference; which is a Palestinian Right’s Conference. Al-Awda translates to “The Returning, “ when the Pilot voice filled the cabin to make an announcement that I think went unnoticed by most of my fellow passengers, but I heard it.

As the plane was on the approach to John Wayne airport, the Captain came on the intercom to remind us all to “remember our brave troops who have died for our freedom.” Even in this post 9-11 paranoid paradigm, if I wasn’t belted in for landing, I would have popped out of my seat at 13D and charged up to the cockpit to let the pilot know that my son was killed in Iraq and not one person anywhere in this world is one iota more free because he is dead.

As a matter of fact, the people of Iraq, the foreign country thousands of miles away where my oldest child’s brains, blood, and life seeped into the soil, are not freer, unless one counts being liberated from life, liberty and property being free. If you consider torture and indefinite detention freedom, then the Pilot may have been right, but then again, even if you do consider those crimes freedom, it does not make it so.

Here in America we are definitely not freer because my son died, as a matter of fact, our nation can spy on us and our communications without a warrant or just cause and we can’t even bring a 3.6 ounce bottle of hand cream into an airport or walk through a METAL detector with our shoes on. Even if we do want to exercise our Bill of Rights, we are shoved into pre-designated “free speech” (NewSpeak for; STFU, unless you are well out of the way of what you want to protest and shoved into pens like cattle being led to slaughter) zones and oftentimes brutally treated if you decide you are entitled to “free speech” on every inch of American soil.

If you watch any one of the cable news networks this weekend between doing holiday weekend things, you will be subjected to images of row upon row of white headstones of dead US military lined up in perfect formation in the afterlife as they were in life. Patriotic music will swell and we will be reminded in script font to “Remember our heroes,” or some such BS as that.

Before Casey was killed, a message like that would barely register in my consciousness as I rushed around preparing for Casey’s birthday bar-be-que that became a family tradition since he was born on Memorial Day in 1979. If I had a vision of how Memorial Day and Casey’s birthday would change for my family, I would have fled these violent shores to protect what was mine, not this murderous country’s. Be my guest, look at those headstones with pride or indifference. I look at them, now with horror, regret, pain and a longing for justice.

I can guarantee what you won’t see this holiday weekend are images of the over one million Iraqi dead. Say we assign, in an arbitrary way for purely illustrative purposes, an average height of 5 feet for every person killed in Iraq and then lined those people up from head to toe. That gruesome line would stretch from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon…950 driving miles up Interstate 5. If we count the Iraqis who have been forced to flee, we would have to go back and forth between L.A. and Portland another four times.

There are obscene amounts of people who have been slaughtered for the US Profit Driven Military Empire who do not count here in America on any day. People in Vietnam are still dying from the toxins dumped on their country by the US, not to mention the millions who died during that war. Let the carnage escalate in Afghanistan while we protect our personal images by turning a blind eye to Obama’s war crimes. Are you going to feel a lump of pride in your bosom when the coffins start to be photographed at Dover for this imperial crime of aggression? Will you look at those flag-draped boxes of the lifeless body of some mother's child and think: "Now, I am free." Is it better to be dead when Obama is president?

A tough, but real, aspect of this all to consider is, how many of the soldiers buried in coffins in military cemeteries killed or tortured innocent people as paid goons for Empire? To me, it is deeply and profoundly sad on so many levels. If I have any consolation through all of this, I learned that my son bravely refused to go on the mission that killed him, but he was literally dragged onto the vehicle and was dead minutes later before he was forced to do something that was against his nature and nurture.

Casey will always be my hero but he was a victim of US Imperialism and his death should bring shame, not pride, as it did not bring freedom to anyone. I will, of course, mourn his senseless death on Memorial Day as I do everyday.

However, we do not need another day here in America to glorify war which enables the Military Industrial Complex to commit its crimes under the black cloak of "Patriotism."

From Palestine to Africa to South America, our quest for global economic domination kills, sickens, maims or oppresses people on a daily basis and about 25,000 children per day die of starvation. I am not okay with these facts and I am not proud of my country.

I will spend my reflective time on MD to mourn not only the deaths of so many people all over the world due to war, but mourn the fact that they are the unseen and uncared for victims of US Empire.

Wow...someone noticed that my campaign was pressing Pelosi about torture in 2007

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/19-2

For Cripes' Sake, Make Him Already! by Cindy Sheehan

“You know, Mr. Randolph, I've heard everything you've said tonight, and I couldn't agree with you more. I agree with everything that you've said, including my capacity to be able to right many of these wrongs and to use my power and the bully pulpit. ... But I would ask one thing of you, Mr. Randolph, and that is go out and make me do it.”

FDR to Labor Activist A. Philip Randolph

President Obama and his followers are fond of quoting this little historical vignette. President Obama has told his followers if they want him to do anything then they have to “Make him.”

How is that working out so far?

The biggest rebellion against Obama from his supporters came during the campaign when he made it known that he would vote to authorize the Bush regime to spy on us and immunize telecom companies from releasing our phone records without warrants.

The uprising was immediate and huge. The outcry was without teeth, though. Very few Obama voters threatened him with vote withholding. They wrote to him, blogged on his site threatened to withhold donations, but nothing worked and he eventually did vote for the FISA Modernization Act (FMA) against his supporter’s wishes and against the will of his liberal base. Obama obviously did not care because he knew that these people would vote for him anyway and that Goldman-Sachs, et al, would continue funding his campaign.

Since he has been President his behavior has been consistent with being a tool of the Empire (Military-Industrial-Wall Street- Robber Class-Complex) and not with the will of the people.

The most recent issue has been “health care reform.” I receive the most mail and requests to sign petitions and call Congress or the White House to make sure that single payer health care, or Medicare for all, is on the table. This issue has been called the “litmus test” for the progressives on the Obama regime. Again, how’s that working out for we the people so far? So far, Obama has again fallen in lockstep with corporations and has insured that only health insurance companies, HMOs and big pharma have a voice in health care reform and the “promise” that he extracted from the health insurance companies is just another smokescreen to appease his gullible followers.

He has flip-flopped on important issues like not releasing torture photos and reinstating military commissions after adamantly opposing military commission during the campaign and he also promised to repeal the illegal and inhumane program.

I don’t think Obama voters, in fact I am positive they do not, support torture or military commissions, but the silence from the left is certainly and crashingly deafening as are the accolades about these policies from the right.

On other issues he is doing exactly as he promised, from the agonizingly slow and partial, at best, withdrawal in Iraq to surging, against all reason, troops and violence to what Obama and his War Hawks call Af-Pak.

Flying under the radar because of the “they-said, she-said, he-knew, she-knew, they all knew” torture brouhaha is the fact that Congress passed another 94 BILLION dollar supplemental funding package for Obama’s so called Overseas Contingency Operations and the fact his EPA…which stands for Environmental Protection Agency (what an Orwellian name) has approved 42 new sites for West Virginia mountaintop removal to extract coal. Obama loves to promote the myth of “clean coal” which Robert Kennedy, Jr, calls a “dirty lie.” The Sierra Club is rightfully distressed over this, but the group endorsed “clean coal” nuclear power supporting, Obama, during the election.

What did the Sierra Club expect?

Where is the outcry? Where were the protests demanding that Congress not fund Obama’s occupations? Where are the huge marches protesting the occupations that regularly occurred during the Bush Administration?

Don't forget, Obama wants you to “Make him.”

His voters and supporters tried in vain to make him vote no on the FMA. Apparently the attempt failed because they are only against warrantless wiretapping when Republicans are doing it and refused to go the extra mile to withhold votes from the PINO (Progressive In Name Only).

Single payer advocates tried and it didn’t work.

The ACLU is trying and so far, Obama’s DOJ is blocking their efforts.

Bush left office as the most unpopular President in American history…he wasn’t only loathed by Democrats and profound disgust with Bush helped to usher in this Age of Obama which holds much resemblance to the Age of Bush.

If you are not in an organized and persistent way taking up Obama’s challenge of “Making him” do the right thing, then one of three things may be happening:

1) You think it will be a waste of time because you have seen that the pressure does not work, or

2) You agree with his neo-con and neo-liberal global domination policies, or

3) You are only against violence, suppression, oppression, and economic scandals and impoverishment only when Republicans are in the Oval Office.

Do not let the right accuse the left of hypocrisy. Let’s show everyone that we are consistent with our integrity and progressive, peaceful platform.

“Making him” means having the integrity and courage, that is so lacking in DC, to withhold your support from someone who doesn’t deserve it.

Is Nancy Pelosi a Liar, a Coward, or Just Plain Old, Garden Variety, Stupid? by Cindy Sheehan

The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.
William Colby, long time CIA operative and Director of the CIA under Richard Nixon

In stating that the CIA “mis-led” her in a briefing where the CIA claims that they told Nancy Pelosi about the drowning torture known as “water-boarding,” she is either showing an astonishing amount of naiveté, she is lying, or she is just plain stupid. Also, using this lame excuse conveniently turns the conversation to water-boarding and not other forms of torture; which Pelosi admits she was briefed on in September of 2002. Additionally, even though it is highly probable that the CIA did lie to Pelosi in September of 2002, she admits that the Agency came clean, so to speak in March of 2003…a mere six months later. So she either knew about water-boarding and did nothing about it six and a half years ago, or she knew about water-boarding and did nothing about it six years ago. Six months is an awfully long time when you’re being unlawfully detained and tortured by the US Torture Squad Goons.

After Nancy Pelosi admitted to foolishly allowing herself to be tricked by that “fine and upstanding” organization, her counterpart over on the other side of the aisle, John Boehner (looks like “Boner” but sounds like “Baynor) said that he was pretty sure that the CIA would never “lie to Congress.” The CIA Director, Leon Panetta also claimed shortly thereafter that it is not the “practice” of the CIA to lie to Congress, and he even said it with a straight face!

Oh, no! Never! Perish the thought! The CIA can and does, among so many other horrendous acts: torture people (or train torturers) all over the world, assassinate world leaders who won’t allow themselves to be used as pawns by the Corporatocracy-Robber Class, operate on a major clandestine scale where even its budget is secret, and so on, but heaven forefend the CIA would lie to Congress, or anyone else, for that matter!

However, on the other hand, Nancy Pelosi was no babe in the woods when it came to “intelligence” matters because when she was briefed, she was the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee and in Congress for well over a dozen years at that point. The CIA briefed her in 2002 when I was a band-mom in Vacaville and I knew even back then that the CIA lies. That’s the nature of the CIA. The CIA is an organization that was founded on lies and every step of its bloody, secret police-state history is built on lies. Lies, lies and more lies from the ground up to the rooftop.

Now, Nancy Pelosi, (or her staff), says that she was not allowed to tell the American public what she knew about torture because the information was top-secret and she could have gone to prison if she revealed the briefing and she has since stated that she is unequivocally “against torture.”

Her silence and the silence of many others about the cruel Bush/Cheney practices has led to the deaths of over one million people and the unfathomable wounding of not only thousands who have been tortured but the torturers, too. The harm to our soldiers in the field is incalculable as is the carnage that followed the corrupt policies.

I would rather be in prison than know my actions or bad choices were responsible for so much devastation. One can argue that not acting is not a crime, but merely by taking the action to choose co-conspiratorial silence was in this instance, a terrible and costly choice.

Why did Pelosi decide not to take the courageous and patriotic step of exposing the crimes of the Bush Regime? Was it because she feared going to prison? I don’t think so. Her reasoning for not doing the right thing was that she was “concentrating on getting more Democrats elected.” Those are her exact words and look how well that strategy has worked out for the world. How do you like the peace the Democrats have delivered so far?

I would join the call for Pelosi’s resignation, but that call has mostly been coming from the right, and I have been trying to expose her for what she is for almost two years now: a centrist who cares about party politics far more than she cares about humanity. Pelosi is not a “crazy liberal.” Pelosi is Liberal In Name Only, a LINO. I advocate for life in prison for every/anyone who authorized torture; wrote the torture manuals; formulated the torture police; ordered torture; tortured; or condoned torture by her silence.

George and Nancy should have adjoining cells with a Jack and Jill bathroom so she can adore him 24 hours a day and they can reminisce about the “good old days” when George committed crimes while Nancy covered him using her Speaker’s gavel instead of a Tommy gun.

Politics don’t make “strange bedfellows” they make stupid and weak people do monumentally vile things.

Mis amigos, this is what the media is so adept at covering up and what other LINO’s like to call “political pragmatism” in action.







--

She Won't...

To whom it may concern: I am not running for Congress against Nancy Pelosi in California's 8th District in 2010. I was honored by the overwhelming amount of financial support that we received from all over the nation, but clearly, 650,000.00 is not enough to wage a credible battle against the political establishment that owns, controls, and pre-ordains outcomes by either outright fraud or manipulation. If 650,000.00 wasn't enough (the Republican raised 100 grand more and got about half as many votes as I did), then I don't want to raise or spend the kind of money that it would take to defeat the system. I was also underwhelmed by the lack of support here in the 8th except for a handful of dedicated and tireless, and I mean tireless, volunteers who collected signatures (under the worse circumstances), walked precincts, made phone calls, stuffed envelopes, put their lives on hold, and generally did anything that the campaign needed and 48,000+ votes is not insignificant. I will be forever in debt to these people and I am sorry that I can't name names because I don't want to offend anyone, but you know who you are and I will personally thank you for your commitment to this nation and humanity. Challenging the "two" party system during the campaign was difficult enough, but the aftermath has been a literal nightmare and it appears I will have to retain an attorney and accountant to help me clean up the profound mess I find myself in. I wish I knew to do this from the beginning, but even though I knew how vile the system can be, I was just naive and idealistic enough to believe that honesty, hard work and a platform with integrity and value would prevail. Again, to those who supported my campaign, I can't thank you enough. Mere words are inadequate to express my gratitude. I am sorry if I ever let you down, but it takes all of my energy on a daily basis to operate out of a moral center that is not corrupted by party politics or the baseness of "political pragmatism." To those of you who don't support me, I am not, or never will give up. If I survived burying my oldest son for lies, I can survive any crap you or the Robber Class throws at me. The system seriously underestimates the love and commitment of a mother wronged. I can be followed on Twitter, Facebook, Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox and Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox Blogspot. I can be reached at Cindy@CindySheehansSoapbox.com and I am in the process of switching email alert capability from this server to another and will send out the subscription info as soon as that is completed. I will be on book tour from now until the end of July and may be coming to a city/town near you. You can access the schedule here. Love, peace and hasta la victoria, siempre! Cindy

Peace Mom v. Torture Mama by Cindy Sheehan

On December 9, 2007, in response to an article in the Washington Post (December 7, 2007) my campaign sent out a press release demanding that House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, come clean about what she knew about torture and when she knew it.

Not very many people paid too much attention to the article in the WaPo that day, but even less heeded my campaign’s request, especially the Torture Mama herself: Nancy Pelosi.

Now after almost 18 months, why would people suddenly be concerned with this?

First of all, Dastardly Dick Cheney and his traveling lascivious smirk has been appearing all over cable news openly admitting to being an authorizer of torture. Secondly, Republican Pete Hoekstra of the House requested (through the Freedom of Information Act) the CIA memos that showed prominent Democratic leaders were briefed on what the Robber Class Politicians and conspiratorial media call: Enhanced Interrogation Techniques or what Torquemada called “torture.”

Nancy Pelosi is not only the Torture Mama, but she is the insistent “Impeachment off the Table” Speaker of the House that did everything in her power to insure that George and Dick were not held accountable for their crimes.

Why? Because in true gangster fashion, the Bush Crime Cabal brought the Democrats in on their mess: It’s called Robber Class Protectionism.

From Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue to the rotten halls of Congress, the Robber Class will protect themselves and each other and make sure not one of them pays for his/her crimes. It’s a sweet deal they have going on: Murder and Torture for Profit and the only reason the Robber Class Media is exposing Pelosi’s complicity is because they also need to make sure that no one, especially themselves as paid Pentagon shills, be held accountable for “mistakes” or downright crimes.

Now Obama and his Justice Department are working overtime to protect the previous torturers and with each passing minute become the very things they claimed to be against. They are all monsters.

Why does anyone still buy into the Robber Class Myth of the “two party” system or that one party is any better than the other? It’s one of the biggest hoaxes foisted on a gullible public hungering for integrity in politics when there is very little to be found.

The Torture Mama won’t be held accountable for her complicity in the crimes of the Bush regime, and with Obama at the destructive helm of our rickety ship of state, neither will BushCo. I would say it was “up to us” to hold the crooks politically accountable by voting them out of office, but that is also a pipe dream solely reserved for an electorate with the courage and integrity to vote with courage and integrity not out of fear and “lesser of two evilism” paradigms. Hmm: do I want Mr. Evil, or Mr. Less-Evil? Are there degrees of evil, or just exploitation of our good intentions that have always paved the way for Evil to reign unabated or unopposed?

Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, you support politicians who support torture…at what point does the blame trickle down on the people who insist and persist in supporting and voting for one of the Robber Class Parties?

It’s getting close, my friend!

CFC Was Demanding Pelosi come clean about torture in 12/07

Blast from the Past

We sent this out on December 9, 2007....

No one was paying attention then, but they sure are now after 18 more months of criminal negligence and lies on the part of Nancy Pelosi.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 9, 2007

US Congressional Candidate Cindy Sheehan Calls on Pelosi to Explain Silence on Torture Briefing.

US Congressional Candidate Cindy Sheehan today called upon Nancy Pelosi to respond to a story printed in the December 9 Washington Post which claims that the Speaker of the House was present in a 2002 meeting where four members of Congress were given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and torture program.

According to the CIA, no objections were raised by any member of Congress present in the meeting, even though waterboarding, the interrogation technique profiled in the meeting, is illegal under international and US military law.

Pelosi has declined to comment on the story.

"My son was killed in part because of a battle that resulted from the torture happening at Abu Ghraib," said Sheehan. "If Nancy Pelosi had done the right thing in 2002 and taken a stance against the use of inhumane torture practices Casey might still be alive, so would thousands more and think of those who could have been saved from this horrific abuse."

"How she can claim that she supports the troops when her actions and silence put them directly into harms way?"

Sheehan, who this year declared her candidacy to run for Pelosi's seat, reaffirmed her intentions to unseat the House Speaker.

"This is the smoking gun that makes it obvious why Nancy Pelosi 'took impeachment off the table.' It is more urgent now than ever that she is removed from office & I am even more determined to win her seat in 2008."

Waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique used as a torture method since the Spanish Inquisition, is outlawed under Article 3, Section 1 (a) of the Geneva Convention which prohibits, "Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture." All countries signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture are subject to the prohibition on torture. In 2006, the US Department of Defense released a revised Army Field Manual entitled Human Intelligence Collector Operations prohibiting the use of waterboarding by U.S. military personnel.

"Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress should be using their Constitutional authority to end all use of torture." said Sheehan, "Acquiring information through use of torture on prisoners of war is as inhumane as it is unreliable."

According to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution, "The Congress shall have power to….declare war… and make rules concerning captures on land and water;"

-END-

"People before Politics"

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Where in the Country is Cindy?

(We didn't record a new Soapbox last week, since Andy was so ill. Next week beginning at 2pm Pacific, we will have a new Soapbox, with guest: Russell Baker, author of: Family of Secrets, THE BUSH DYNASTY, THE POWERFUL FORCES THAT PUT IT IN THE WHITE HOUSE, AND WHAT THEIR INFLUENCE MEANS FOR AMERICA)

DON'T FORGET TO EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS OR LISTENER RANTS TO ME AT:

CINDY@CINDYSHEEHANSSOAPBOX.COM

Good Andy News!

Andy will be leaving the hospital today, or tomorrow at the latest.

The Sheehan Family thanks you all for your healing wishes!

On the Road Again!

Cindy and the Soapbox are heading back out on the road with Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution.

May Dates

May 15: Sonoma State University; 7pm

SSU University Gym

May 20: Mt. Shasta, California; 7pm

Stage Door Cafe
414 N Mount Shasta Blvd
Mt Shasta, CA 96067
(530) 926-1050

May 21: Ashland, Oregon: 7:30pm
Bloomsbury Books,
290 E Main St, Ashland, OR 97520
(541) 488-0029

May 22-24: Anaheim, California
Al Awda Palestinian Rights Convention

May 25th: Portland, Oregon: 6:30pm (doors open at 6)
Main Street Chapel at the 1st UUC at 1011 SW 12th Ave Portland, OR 97205

May 26th: Portland (Details TBA)

May 27th: Corvallis, Oregon: 7pmUnitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, 2945 NW Circle Blvd, Corvallis 97330

June 5: Phoenix

June 7-8: Dallas

June 9: Waco, Tx

June 10-11: Austin

June 14-16: Nashville

June: 17-18: St. Petersburg, Fl

June 20-23: Philadelphia and surrounding areas

June 24-26: NYC and surrounding areas

June 27-29: Cape Cod

June 30-July 1: New Hampshire

July 3-5: Socialist Conference in SF, Ca

July 8-9: Cleveland

July 11-12 National Assembly to end the Iraq War: Pittsburgh

July 15-18: Norfolk, Va and surrounding areas

July 25-26 Vashon Island, Washington State

The More Things Change...by Cindy Sheehan

I think many of us know the origins of Mother’s Day were for Peace and a universal declaration that we mothers won’t send out children to die in wars or kill the children of other mothers.

Even though we have always been a genocidal, war-like culture, we have gone so far afield from the original meaning of Mother’s Day it’s ridiculous! Now it’s a day that’s a boon for Hallmark cards and long distance phone carriers. We American mothers are still sending our children off to die in Robber Class wars and kill the children of other mothers.

For my part in being co-dependant with the Robber Class in its wars for imperial profit, I am “celebrating” my sixth Mother’s Day without my oldest child, Casey. No matter what the right-wing spin-doctors like to accuse me of: I do love my son and he loved me.
Just because I think the leaders of his country betrayed him and his good intentions, does not diminish our love. I guess, many people still believe to love ones child who has been wrongfully killed in war, means one has to support that war and the lying American presidents? I didn’t buy it in 2004, and I buy it even less now.

Because of my campaign for Congress, I have been operating in high drama-trauma mode for months now, but everything was put into perspective to me this week when my surviving son, Andy, fell very ill and was put into intensive care. He had an astronomically high fever and his liver and spleen were enlarged and the doctors were operating on the theory that he was ill with hepatitis or lymphoma. All of the previous stress became very minor compared to having an extremely sick child. For the first time since Casey was killed, I had a hard time getting out of bed and putting one foot in front of the other.

I am thrilled beyond belief to report that Andy (who is thankfully not one of the 50 million Americans without health insurance) is much better and has been moved out of intensive care to a regular room and looks like he is moving on the road to full recovery: the liver biopsy showed that there was no cancer or hepatitis and he probably has been suffering all week from a bacterial or viral infection.

Even though I don’t have Casey with me this Mother’s Day, I have my other son, two daughters and a wonderful grandson.
In spite of all of the challenges of my daily life, I am so blessed. I am beyond blessed when I think of all of the mothers in US-war torn countries that have lost far more than I have.

No matter what you personally think of our new president, the Robber Class wars for profit are continuing as bad or even worse than during the last regime and mothers are still losing their children all over the world by and for the empire

Again, the Robber Class wars for profit will never end as long as we in the Robbed Class allow our children to participate.

"Sunshine Patriotism" from Cindy Sheehan

"These are the times that try (wo)men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine (m)patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but (s)he that stands now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

Thomas Paine

May 2, 2009

Dear Friend,

It is so hard for me to ask for help.

My campaign for Congress against Nancy Pelosi may have been a naïve attempt to buck the fraudulent "two" party system and to get someone from SF8 in the House of Representatives that was actually from and for the people, but it was an honest attempt made with the best of intentions and the purest progressive platform from any of the candidates.

We did so many things right and I achieved ballot access against all of the odds, but the system is stacked against challengers or independent/3rd party candidates. If you don't have a trust fund, a political machine behind you or a wealthy husband, getting a place at our nation's political table is nearly impossible.

Since my son died, contrary to what people on the political right, or center have said, I have not done anything to benefit myself. I have not "used Casey's death" to enrich myself. Any money I received in insurance benefits from his death, or any money I earned from book fees or speaking engagements were almost all invested back into the movement for peace and justice, except for my minimal living expenses.

I find myself now in a financial jam along with many of you. During the campaign I went for about 9 months without a paycheck and my speaking agent dumped me because she was afraid of federal retribution. Campaigning is a full-time job, anyway, so a paying job is just not practical. I scrimped and used all of my savings and ran up my visa to the limit to be able to survive until I was able to be paid by the campaign beginning in August after I achieved ballot and oficial candidate status.

However, unbeknownst to me, I was supposed to stop getting a paycheck from the campaign as soon as the election happened (On November, as if the work ends on that day!) but my campaign committee kept paying me, now according to the FEC (Federal Elections Commission), I owe the campaign almost 10,000.00 or will be faced with civil/criminal penalties if I don't pay that money back.

I don't even have an extra 10.00 to give back to the campaign.

My book tour has been great at helping me pay my minimal personal expenses and I am still working really hard for peace and justice (I am writing from Madison, Wi, today). I have been working about 18 hours per day writing, traveling, speaking, doing clerical tasks, and trying to build the communities that we need to strengthen ourselves to be able to survive and thrive through these Robber Class nightmares

For the rest of the summer, I will be visiting about 24 more cities on my Myth America book tour and that tour is paying for itself from generous donations along the way. A seed was planted here in Madison yesterday to have some kind of mass protest in Dallas on August 6 (Hiroshima day and the first day I went to Crawford in 2005) to gather in front of the Bush's new place and try to "citizen's arrest" George Bush.

I cannot pay back the campaign myself, and I can't afford the fines the FEC will levy against me (am already dealing with a 10,000 fine levied against the campaign this week), nor do I want to go to Federal prison (for this), so I am reluctantly and with humility asking for your help. This nightmare has been personal, but the struggle is communal. Ironically, if I am able to pay the campaign back for my salary, which the FEC deems, "Personal use," I will be able to pay the 10,000 fine levied against the campaign.

I have given so much to this country, my son, my health, my money, my relationships, and I don't ask for much back.

Notwithstanding the exclusivity of the 18th Century language of the above quote from Thomas Paine, I am not a "Sunshine Patriot" and I am committed to doing everything in my capacity to fight for and with my fellow humans in this struggle to attain peace, justice, economic equality, environmental sustainability, and security for all, not just the Robber Class.

My personal paypal account is:

Cindy@CindySheehansSoapbox.com

And my home/office address is:

55 Chumasero Dr. Apt 5D

SF, Ca 94132

Thank you,

Love & Peace

Cindy