Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Senator Kennedy from Cindy Sheehan

Senator Kennedy

Cindy Sheehan

“My vote against this misbegotten war (Iraq) is the best vote I have cast in the United States Senate since I was elected in 1962.”

Senator Ted Kennedy

I would like to extend my sincere condolences to the Kennedy family and the people of Massachusetts on the death of Senator Edward Kennedy.

I was invited to visit with the Senator in September of 2005 right after my first foray into presidential vacation adventures. I walked into an office on Capitol Hill that was a mini American History Museum. The Senator displayed his own art, memorabilia from the Kennedy family and even framed child’s artwork from his children and various nieces and nephews.

Gathered around a large marble fireplace (unlit in the September Washington DC heat) and surrounded by his Portuguese Water dogs, we talked about loss and war and peace.

We commiserated on my tragic loss of Casey and the losses that his mother Rose had to endure in her life. No matter what one thinks of the Kennedy family, they have been hit hard with tragedy.

The Senator and I talked about the wrongness, even criminality of the US foreign policy in the Middle East and I find it serendipitous that I am on Martha’s Vineyard the day he died.

In the next few days, we will be working on an International People’s Declaration of Peace (IPDoP) here in Massachusetts where I have always felt overwhelming support for a message of peace and justice.

In the spirit of peace and to honor Ted Kennedy’s legacy, Camp Casey Martha’s Vineyard will go forward and hopefully at the end of the week, we will have a wonderful first draft of the IPDoP that we can present to the globe: a people’s grassroots movement to counteract the violence of governments all over the world.

We will be leaving Martha’s Vineyard and taking this Declaration all over the world to advocate that, finally, we the people of this planet refuse to be used as pawns of failed and violent policies.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Activities on Martha's Vineyard this Week...protesting the wars and creating Peace!

---FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE---

MARTHA'S VINEYARD---CINDY SHEEHAN, Peace Activist, Gold Star Mother, Organizer of 'Camp Casey' memorials and a nominee for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, will be arriving on Martha's Vineyard on Tuesday August 25, to confront President Obama on his engagement in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. She will issue a challenge to Obama on his escalation of troop presence in the Middle East and his continuation of war policies around the globe.

Her schedule of public events is as follows:

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 11am, Press Conference at Oak Bluffs Elementary School.

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 8pm, Peace Vigil, Ocean Park Bandstand, Oak Bluffs.

Thursday, Aug. 27, Friday, Aug. 28 and Saturday, Aug. 29: Boat trips with Cindy for peace movement leaders, press and public. These 'shipboard peace summit' meetings will leave Vineyard Haven twice daily on the 105 foot sloop 'SS Camp Casey' in the afternoons. Call for details. No charge, so reserve ahead. 207-604-8988 or email: lauriegdobson@yahoo.com.

Saturday Aug. 29, 9 to 5 Peace Vigil Ocean Park, Oak Bluffs
and Walkabout around the Island

Saturday, Aug. 29, 8pm Cindy Sheehan speaking event "Peace Now, Again", Katharine Cornell Theater, 54 Spring St., Vineyard Haven.

Cindy is scheduling press and media interviews throughout the week. Call Laurie Dobson at 207-604-8988 or email: lauriegdobson@yahoo.com or Bruce Marshall at 802-767-6079.

In addition to these planned events, there will be impromptu gatherings during the week. A memorial site will be present on the island with an outdoor area designated as 'Camp Casey', a living tribute to her son Casey Sheehan, who died in the Iraq War, as well as honoring others who were war casualties.

The SS Camp Casey will welcome all those who wish to come to meet Cindy.She will be also available on the Vineyard for gatherings of visitors, which will be open to the public, the press, and anyone desiring to connect with those for whom the costs of war are a daily reality in their lives.

For information on the events, please contact Chris Fried at (508)-693-7741 and for information about Cindy, please contact Laurie Dobson at (207)-604-8988 or email: lauriegdobson@yahoo.com.

No Vacations for Body Bags!

http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/2009/08/we-have-moral-high-ground-by-cindy.html
Cindy Sheehan on Dylan Ratigan, MSNBC, 21viii09

Donate to help make the illusion of Peace and Hope a reality.

Here's how to donate for the peace actions on Martha's Vineyard this week.

Click this link.

or

Donate at www.PayPal.com and put in Cindy@CindySheehansSoapbox.com

or

Mail a Check or Money order to:

Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox, LLC (make check out to Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox, LLC)
55 Chumasero Dr STE 5D
San Francisco, Ca 94132




International People's Declaration of Peace by Cindy Sheehan

One thing that the Obama presidency has put into even sharper focus for me, is that most of the leaders of the world do not want peace.

People can try and fool themselves that unlike Bush (Or Clinton, or Bush, or Reagan, or Carter, or Ford, or Nixon.....etc), Obama truly wants peace. The reality of facts on the ground dispute this. We are deceiving ourselves if we think otherwise. Obama is fully on the trajectory of the Empire. There is no denying this.

If anyone has read my book: Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution, they would know that I do not place the blame for imperial violence on any president: it is the system. Governments of most every country are in on this. What can we the people do to counteract our governments that don't have our best interests in mind?

During this week, as the international community, through its media, is focused on Martha's Vineyard, a contingent of strident peace lovers will gather to demonstrate to the international community that we are "all in" for peace. We are devoting our lives and committing our resources to the very simple, yet earth gathering, (the other side of "earth shattering") idea that problems (real, imagined or exploitative) can be solved without killing innocent people.

To this end, during the week, we will be hammering out the first draft of an International People's Declaration of Peace. The people of the world must unite for peace in an unprecedented and historic move.

We need input and feedback.

Some of our early ideas:

* We will not send our children to kill other people's children.

* We will not fund our disparate country's penchants for violence with our tax dollars.

* We will recognize the intrinsic value of each human. We will proclaim that no
person is better than any other person irrespective of: race, religion, gender, gender
preference, age, or national origin.

* We will remove ourselves as far as ideologically possible from our governments when war is proposed, or promulgated.

* We will demonstrate or protest war, violence or economic oppression no matter
who, or what governs our nations.

The S.S. Camp Casey Movement is inviting interested individuals on our regular boat trips around the island this week to discuss and help us develop the first draft of the International People's Declaration of Peace.


We will be uploading regular videos on our youtube channel: Peace of the Action during the protests.





Thursday, August 20, 2009

"Enough Already" by Cindy Sheehan

“Enough Already”
Cindy Sheehan

“And you look at somebody like that (note: me) and you think here's somebody who's just trying to find some meaning in her son's death. And you have to be sympathetic to her. Anybody who has given a son to this country has made an enormous sacrifice, and you have to be sympathetic. But enough already.”
ABC Nightly News Anchor, Charles Gibson August 18, 2009

“Enough already?” Hmmm…I don’t know Charlie Gibson and I don’t pay any attention to his career, but I seem to agree with him on this one: “Enough already.”

Enough with the killing, torturing, wounding and profiting off of the backs of our troops and off of the lives of the people of Iraq-Af-Pak: as our brothers and sisters in Latin America say: “Basta!”

Somehow, I don’t think that this is what Charlie Gibson meant, though. I am sure that he just wants me to go away like most of the rest of the anti-war movement has done under the Obama presidency.

One of the things I hear quite often from people from all over the political spectrum is: “Why don’t you just go away, you’ve had your 15 minutes of fame.”

Yes, that’s exactly what I thought as soon as I heard that my son was killed in the US’s illegal and immoral war in Iraq: “this is a perfect opportunity to get my 15 minutes of fame.” Actually, after I slowly recovered from the shock and horror, the pain always remains, I thought that I had to do everything I can to end this nightmare so other mothers/families wouldn’t have to go through what I was going through and what I am going through.

I certainly am not the anchor of a major network news show, but last time I checked, people are still dying at a heartrending clip in Iraq-Af-Pak.

If my goal was “15 minutes of fame,” I could have gone quietly away a long time ago. I started because I wanted the wars to end, and I will figure I can go away when the wars end…but when is that going to be? In my lifetime, probably not.

I am cutting my writing-staycation short to head to Martha’s Vineyard because I think the new titular head of the empire needs to know that his policies are devastating people as much as the same policies did when Bush was president.

I would rather be able to go away and spend the rest of my life worshipping my grandchildren, writing, reading, resting, and doing humanitarian work where I am needed.

I wish the wars would go away, but they aren’t going away if we the people don’t get more militantly insistent.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

We Have the Moral High Ground by Cindy Sheehan

"Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love...” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1958

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal…” Dr. King, 1967

I remember back in the good ol’ days of 2005 and 2006 when being against the wars was not only politically correct, but it was very popular. I remember receiving dozens of awards, uncountable accolades and even was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Those were the halcyon days of the anti-war movement before the Democrats took over the government (off of the backs of the anti-war movement) and it became anathema to be against the wars and I became unpopular on all sides. I guess at that point, I could have gone with the flow and pretended to support the violence so I could remain popular, but I think I have to fiercely hold on to my core values whether I am “liked” or not.

Killing is wrong no matter if it is state-sanction murder or otherwise. Period. Not too much more to say on that subject, except what I quote above from Dr. King.

However, while the so-called left is obsessed over supporting a very crappy Democratic health care plan, people in far away countries are being deprived of their health and very lives by the Obama Regime’s continuation of Bush’s ruinous foreign policy.

I was never dismayed when the so-called right attacked me and called me names for protesting Bush. However, something inside me gets a little sick when I hear people who claim to be peace activists supporting the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, a policy that is not like Bush’s in the fact that it’s much worse.

I have been called a “racist” from the so-called left. In these people’s opinion, I was totally justified in protesting Bush, but I am a racist for protesting the same policies under Obama. When I opposed Bush’s policies, I was called traitor, anti-American, anti-Semitic, and other names I cannot print. Name-calling is a great way to shut down critical thinking and discussion. And, not to mention, I think the murder of innocent life in the Iraq-Af-Pak regions is racist and morally corrupt.

There are many people in this country who oppose Obama because they’re racist, but I am not one of them. I oppose Obama’s policies because they are wrong…again, period!

One cannot obfuscate when innocent lives are being destroyed, here and abroad. We cannot allow “political reality” to get in the way of morality. Human sacrifice is not worth the political reality. Violence, killing, war and more war are NEVER the solution to any problem. Period.

If Obama has violent shadow forces around him pulling him in the direction of violence, which begets more violence and more resistance; then we, especially people in the peace or anti-war movements need to gather and organize to pull him in the direction towards peaceful conflict resolution and solutions that aren’t based on exploiting people’s fears, anxieties or ignorance.

I am going to Martha’s Vineyard because we have the moral high ground. The war supporters aren’t going to protest Obama’s wars. They are strangely silent over his foreign policy, unless they are praising it.

I am going to Martha’s Vineyard because someone has to speak for the babies of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan that do not deserve the horrible fate that has been handed to them by the US Military Industrial Complex. The voiceless need a voice, and even if I am called every name in the book by all sides, I will speak up for them.

I am going to Martha’s Vineyard because so many people have been blinded to the fact that the system has momentum that rolls on and over and around no matter who is the titular head of the system.

Let's just pretend that elections are fair in this country and my candidate, Cynthia McKinney, won for president. If she wasn’t able to rein in the systemic violence, then I would be going wherever she vacationed to protest her policies, too. I guess at that point, I would not only be called “racist,” but I would be called a “self-hating female.”

In a recent conversation someone was trying to convince me that I should not be so stridently opposed to Obama’s policies and I responded that today 75 people were killed and 300 people were wounded in a bomb blast in Iraq and 26 mostly women and children were killed in a wedding party in Afghanistan this week and she said: “Oh, that wouldn’t be acceptable if it happened here.”

And that ‘s the problem: it’s not acceptable if it happens anywhere, to anybody, no matter who is President of the USA.

Not only is the death toll mounting for innocent civilians but also is once again climbing for our troops.

While the “festivities” are occurring on Martha’s Vineyard next week, there are families all over the world who will never again be able to fully feel festive. Ahhhh…. everyone should just stand down, relax and sip an Obamarita on the beach…Hope reigns once again in The Empire.

And, yes, we are going to Martha’s Vineyard to get attention. We vehemently want to call attention to all of the points I have made above.

Even though there is a small anti-war, peace movement in this country, there still is one and this movement has the moral high ground and punditry, personal attacks, glitzy marketing, or “political realities won’t drown us out.

Members of Dr. King's own caucus tried to convince him not to publicly speak out against the Vietnam war, and that's when he delivered his brilliant Beyond Vietnam speech at the Riverside Church in NYC exactly one year before he was assassinated. That speech was in response to the critics. Dr. King took the moral high ground when he said: "There comes a time when silence is betrayal."

That time has now come, once again. By our silence we are betraying humanity.

Love the President or hate him, or anywhere in between, but we must speak out loudly and without any timidity against the institutional violence of the US Empire.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The President Exhibits Crazy Speech Patterns by Cindy Sheehan

The President Exhibits Crazy Speech Patterns

Cindy Sheehan

As I listened to clips of Obama's speech to the VFW on August 17th, 2009, I was wondering if his speechwriters were on vacation and they just recycled an old Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice speech.

While the so-called left is focused on the health care debacle and is allowing the so-called right to define the debate when it should be: Medicare for all, and all for Medicare; Obama and his neocon foreign policy team are preparing for a decades long, bloody foray in Af-Pak.

As Yael T. Abouhalkah, an editorial writer for the Kansas City Star, put it:

President Barack Obama did his best imitation of former President George Bush Monday at the VFW national convention in Phoenix.

Obama sounded downright hawkish -- and, yes, presidential -- when he addressed the issue of terrorism in front of the veteran-laden crowd…Dick Cheney could not have said it better.

This is one of the reasons I am leading protests next week on Martha's Vineyard where President Obama will be vacationing. The anti-war movement cannot allow itself to be co-opted by the Democratic Party any longer.

We cannot allow the War Party and other elites to define the terms of the War Debate.

Obama actually had this to say in his speech in front of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW):

We must never forget. This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people.

He also made a lot of other crazy Bushian statements, but this one has to take the cake and lead the charge for peace!

One thing that we must NEVER forget is that the Taliban, and especially the people of Afghanistan (26 members of a WEDDING party, not WAR party, but WEDDING party were bombed and killed yesterday) DID NOT attack us on 9/11. Even if Osama did plan the attacks from someplace in Afghanistan (not likely) this war of choice is not about defending America. Remember: profit is not a consequence of war, it is the reason for war. And how can we as a nation allow the War Party to sacrifice innocent babies for the illusion of safety? Afghanistan is just as much a war of choice as Iraq is, and Obama is choosing to continue it by exploiting the lies.


What is fundamental to the defense of our people is a sane foreign policy, not more war crimes brought to the world by the War Criminals in DC. What is fundamental to our health and prosperity is to bring the troops home from Iraq-Af-Pak and reduce the Pentagon budget so we can afford such basic human rights as health care, housing and education.

Besides Afghans and Pakistanis being killed and displaced at a Bushian clip, these days, our troops are increasingly being killed and wounded so the War Profiteers can squeeze more bucks out of violence. More of our families will be harmed while most of the anti-war movement stands down for Obama.

This is unconscionable.

I don't care if you love Obama, or hate him, or something in between (he has the lowest approval ratings of any President after 7 months in office), we must loathe his wars and his crazy hate speech directed at our brothers and sisters in war torn regions.

Please join us on Martha's Vineyard from August 26th-30th to demonstrate to the world that there are still some people here in America who want peace no matter who's inhabits the Oval Office.

For more information please email, or call:

Laurie Dobson
lauriegdobson@yahoo.com
(207) 604-8988

or
Bruce Marshall
brmas@yahoo.com
(802) 767-6079

Or donate to help with the expenses:

Go to: www.CindySheehansSoapbox.com

And click the DONATE link.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Cindy Sheehan heads to Martha's Vineyard to Confront Obama on the War

August 16, 2009

For immediate release:

Next week, Cindy Sheehan will join other like-minded peace activists to have a presence near the expensive resort on Martha's Vineyard where President Obama will be vacationing the week of August 23-30.

From her home in California, Ms. Sheehan released this statement:

"There are several things that we wish to accomplish with this protest on Martha's Vineyard.
First of all, no good social or economic change will come about with the continuation or escalation of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We simply can't afford to continue this tragically expensive foreign policy.

Secondly, we as a movement need to continue calling for an immediate end to the occupations even when there is a Democrat in the Oval Office. There is still no Noble Cause no matter how we examine the policies.

Thirdly, the body bags aren't taking a vacation and as the US led violence surges in Afghanistan and Pakistan, so are the needless deaths on every side.

And, finally, if the right-wing can force the government to drop any kind of public option or government supported health care, then we need to exert the same kind of pressure to force a speedy end to the occupations."

Cindy Sheehan will arrive on the Vineyard on Tuesday, August 25th.

For more information, or to request an interview with Cindy Sheehan please contact:

Laurie Dobson
lauriegdobson@yahoo.com
(207) 604-8988

or
Bruce Marshall
brmas@yahoo.com
(802) 767-6079

To donate to help with logistical support, or to help Cindy and other Gold Star Families (families who have lost loved ones in war) get to Martha's Vineyard please go to:

Or go to

www.Paypal.com and put in the email: Cindy@CindySheehansSoapbox.com

or

Mail a check to:
Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox, LLC

55 Chumasero Dr STE 5D

San Francisco, Ca 94132

Families who oppose the wars and have lost a loved one during the Obama Regime are especially encouraged to attend.


Please forward this far and wide!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Warnography by Cindy Sheehan


“We’ll know it when we see it.”
Richard Holbrooke, Special US Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan on defining victory in Af-Pak

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced . . . [b]ut I know it when I see it . . .”
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart defining pornography in 1964

Well, there you go…Richard Holbrooke has defined the US’s demented mission in Af-Pak as an indefinite proposition and when I say “define” I am joking, because what kind of definition is “we’ll know it when we see it?”

Oh yeah, I know what kind of definition that is; it’s a Bush era definition, which is totally appropriate because it seems like in so many ways that we are still in the Bush/Cheney era…or error.

In a related article, Bush/Obama Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, spells success in Af-Pak even more ephemerally than Holbrooke when he said: "Mysteries were those where there were too many variables to predict. And I think that how long U.S. forces will be in Afghanistan is in that area." I know I had to read that last sentence a few times before it even began to make sense to me.

Does this inspire confidence in anyone that A) high ranking officials in the Obama Administration are either profoundly stupid, or deliberately obfuscating on the length of the “mission;" and that B) as in Iraq, the US is never leaving that beleaguered region unless our ass get deservedly handed to us like the USSR’s was.

What is a “mystery” to me is where the anti-war movement is.

There has been no significant removal of troops from Iraq and there has been a very significant increase of troops to Af-Pak, with the unfortunate commensurate increase in casualties on all sides, yet there is very little movement in the “movement.”

McCain would be doing the exact same thing that Obama is doing in Iraq-Af-Pak: the EXACT same thing. There is no difference between what Obama is doing and what McCain would be doing, except Obama has a (D) behind his name.

The profound difference to us here in the grassroots would be that if McCain were president, faux-gressives would still be up in arms about the wars and, even though our protests wouldn’t change McCain’s mind, at least we could retain our moral high-ground, that has been sold out to the Democrats for absolutely nothing in return.

War always has been and always will be the most obscene slasher-porn ever invented by deeply sick minds and perpetuated in the 21st century by even sicker minds that kill indiscriminately for power and profit.

I know evil when I see it.

War is evil and the US Empire that is the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today,” (MLK, Jr.) is the greatest evil no matter who is at the helm of the ship of state.

Monday, August 10, 2009

House un-American Activities Committee by Cindy Sheehan


The House Un-American Activities Committee Chaired by Pelosi and Hoyer
Cindy Sheehan

The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC or HCUA, 1938–1975) was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security". When the House abolished the committee in 1975,[2] its functions were transferred to the House Judiciary Committee.
Wikipedia entry.

Historically, HUAC spent a lot of precious time, energy and resources defining and investigating those that the committee found were “un-American.”

It, apart from Senator Joseph McCarthy, investigated Bolsheviks and communists and many other "subversive" organizations and people. There is nothing in the Constitution, as far as I know, that prevents one from being a Communist, but people’s lives were ruined because of this committee, and the committee even went as far as shaping the movie industry, and of course frightened many people into un-American silence.

Today, an op-ed that was “co-written” by Nancy Pelosi (House Speaker) and Steny Hoyer (House Majority Leader), which was more than likely written by an overworked staffer, called anyone who is protesting at the Healthcare Town Hall meetings: “un-American.” The person who advised this, should be summarily fired…with all due haste.

I don’t agree with a single word that is coming out of the right-winger’s mouths. Obama is not a socialist and the Democrats are not socialists, they’re fascists, and even though I think the Healthcare reforms are a bad idea for other reasons, I support the right of my fellow Americans to speak as loudly as they want and put forth their message any way they can.

Even though I know that most of the Town Hall disrupters do not or did not support my right to do so---I have been escorted out of many hearings or meetings---but I support any American’s right to expression, as long as it doesn’t involve hate speech. Hanging a Congressperson in effigy is not hate speech---it’s protected free speech---just like when Bush was hanged in effigy many times by the other side.

I know how difficult it is to get your voice and your opinion heard as a mere citizen in Congress if you don’t come to the table with millions of lobbying dollars. I have been kicked out of meetings and arrested by as many Democrats as I have Republicans.

Always putting corporate interests over human interests (like Pelosi and Hoyer do) is traitorous; but writing an op-ed to discourage and condemn protest from two of our leading “protectors of the Constitution,” (yeah, right), is downright unconscionable.

“Un-American” behavior should be defined as killing people or torturing them in far away lands, or giving trillions of dollars to bankster bastards for destroying the economy, or forcing the USA PATRIOT ACT down the throats of Americans without even reading the freaking legislation. How about traitorously allowing the confessed criminals of the Bush administration go free without accountability? That sounds downright "un-American" to me when this country's prisons are bulging with petty criminals---why let the big fish swim off?

There are so many things that our mis-leaders do that should fly in the face of morality and decency…yet fly under the radar screen, or are just blips that are soon forgotten. Volumes could be, and should be filled with government treachery.

Nancy, go home and attend to your posh Robber Class receptions with weekends at your vineyard, and Steny, go do what ever you do. We don’t need you slimy criminals defining what it means to be “un-American,” you both reek of the stench of blood and corruption.

Leave Americans alone for being American---you are the ones that are un-American.

Like Truman (who dropped two atomic bombs on Japan) said of HUAC when he was out of office: "the most un-American thing in the country today."

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Peace, Finally: Reflections on the Fourth Anniversary of Camp Casey by Cindy Sheehan

So much has happened in the last four years since about seven dozen of us marched down Prairie Chapel Road on August 05, 2005, in Crawford, Tx to confront the now disgraced President George W. Bush!

Our little protest of a few people grew to tens of thousands of people all over the world who resonated with my simple question: “What Noble Cause?” What was a little spark on a hot and dusty small road in Texas turned into a blazing inferno of peace and justice that I never even imagined would happen. From Camp Casey to Peace has been a long road, but after much toil, we have finally arrived.

During that summer in August of 2005 of sweltering in constant 100+ degree-days (and nights), our country also experienced the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and with our protest on the literal doorstep of the Idiot Emperor, George Bush, his regime was killed by his inept handling of both situations.

The part that Camp Casey had in bringing the Bush Regime down is particularly satisfying to me, since Camp Casey was named after my son, Casey Sheehan, aged 24 who was killed in Iraq on April 04, 2004. I believed even before Casey was killed that the war was wrong and I tried unsuccessfully to talk Casey out of going, even telling him, only half in jest that I would run over his legs with the car before he left. Since Casey was killed, I worked overtime to expose George Bush for the liar he was/is and in the Summer of ’05, many people caught on.

As a matter of fact, we caught on so well, that the Democrats were swept to victory in 2006 and despite my skepticism at first, they really started to “clean house” in DC and the end for Dick and George was hastened when under Democratic leadership, the very first war funding bill that George Bush tried to get passed was rejected by a narrow vote, but miraculously, the Democrats stuck together and Bush’s two wars of his choice for profit began to unravel and with it the Presidency of George Bush.

Buoyed by the success of the battle for control of the Nation’s purse strings, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, intrepid Democrat from Michigan, incredibly followed through with his promise to hold George Bush and Dick Cheney accountable, and began impeachment proceedings.

The Chairman, who is the hero of about 75% of everyone here in America, and 99% of world citizens, was supported by such organizations as World Can’t Wait, Drive out the Bush Regime; ImpeachBush.org and After Downing Street, of course I joined all of these organizations in working for accountability.

Once the hearings got rolling, it was the revelation of one despicable crime after the other, that began to really put the hubris and greed of the ruling class in sharp focus for everyone that didn't have a stone for a brain. The rest is history! The ruling class began to turn on BushCo and in one of the finest moments in our Republic’s relatively short history, Bush and Cheney were forced to resign in disgrace in an unprecedented double-dutch treat for the world! We all remember that day…if you weren’t drunk on champagne, that is, like me!

House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi ably stepped up to her Constitutionally mandated roll as 2nd in line to the President and bravely never pardoned George and Dick! Wasn’t that a fine day when we all watched George, Dick and many other members of BushCo reporting to duty at Ft. Leavenworth to serve their imprisonments for life for high crimes and misdemeanors and treason? What a glorious time to be alive!

(Note: Click here to contribute to the Pelosi/Conyers' Monument in DC Fund)

Now that BushCo have been held accountable, our current president is fearful of the power of the people, and rightfully so, because a sleeping giant was awakened, first on Prairie Chapel Road and now throughout this great nation of ours.

Even though, by default, Nancy Pelosi became our first female President, she never wanted the job and gladly handed it over to Barack Obama on January 20, 2009 and then she went back to San Francisco to be a grandmother and community servant.

No one was happier than I when Barack Obama did not turn out to be yet another puppet of the Military Industrial Complex and in his first 100 days, our collective heads spun as he, signed executive orders to: immediately close Guantanamo, Bagram (in Afghanistan) and all other torture prisons; repeal the USA PATRIOT ACT (which we progressives feared that he supported because he voted to extend it as a Senator); repeal the FISA Modernization Act and, in fact, repealed FISA, since we have a Bill of Rights, anyway; repeal the Military Commissions’ Act and restored Habeas Corpus! What less did we expect when he appointed mavericks and wise elders (male and female) to his Cabinet and not war mongers and Wall Street mavens as all prior administrations were wont to do?

President Obama’s bold leadership put the final nail in the coffin of the occupations and during the 2nd hundred days, now, our troops are returning home to, not hero’s welcomes, but sober welcomes befitting the terrible way they were used.

The money being saved on the Death and Destruction of Empire is not only being put to good use, but is healing our economy as untold countless billions (if not trillions) are staying here in America to support good jobs, health care, education, and renewable and sustainable forms of energy.

Just think where this nation would be if instead of taking profound action on August 6th, 2005, I had stayed in my safe home for fear of failure or worse?

Then I woke up and realized that none of these things happened and we are still in the Imperial Dog House, but now its roof is leaking and the steps are sagging.

I see signs of this country coming out of the “Hope”-nosis of Obama as positive change is not even in the forecast but the reawakening is not happening fast enough and we really need everyone to walk towards the light of truth and peace if we ever want to see any of my dreams become reality!

Stay tuned to Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox for exciting ways we can also hold Obama and the Robber Class accountable as we did Bush coming up in the fall!

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