U.S. CITIZENS AND NGOs JOIN WORLD LEADERS IN CALL FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA TO RETRACT EXECUTIVE ORDER AGAINST VENEZUELA

FOR IMMEDIATE                            

RELEASE                                       

April 2, 2015                                     

Cindy Sheehan

CindySheehansSoapbox@gmail.com                                                         

Eva Golinger

EvaGolinger@gmail.com

Chuck Kaufman

202-540-8336; chuck@AFGJ.org
Michael Bass

510-654-5355; michaelbass84@gmail.com

Stansfield Smith

773-340-6720; stansfieldsmith@yahoo.com

U.S. CITIZENS AND NGOs JOIN WORLD LEADERS IN CALL FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA TO RETRACT EXECUTIVE ORDER AGAINST VENEZUELA

New York, April 2, 2015 – In an Open Letter addressed to President Barack Obama, over 119 U.S. academics, activists and NGOs called on their head of state to rescind his Executive Order declaring Venezuela “an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. national security”. On March 9, 2015, President Obama invoked his executive powers to decree a national emergency based on the alleged “threat” represented by Venezuela. The Executive Order also imposed sanctions on Venezuelan officials with potentially far-reaching consequences.

U.S. citizens and NGOs are joined by leaders from over 138 countries and prestigious multilateral organizations worldwide in their demand for President Obama to rescind his measures against Venezuela. Latin American and Caribbean nations have unanimously rejected President Obama’s Executive Order against Venezuela and have firmly called for its reversal. A powerful statement issued March 26, 2015 from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) which represents all 33 countries in the region, expressed “its rejection of the Executive Order issued by the Government of the United States of America on March 9, 2015,” considering “that this Executive Order should be reversed.”

The United Nations G77+China group, which represents 134 countries, also issued a firm statement opposing President Obama’s Executive Order against Venezuela. “The Group of 77+China deplores these measures and reiterates its firm commitment to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela...The G77+China calls on the Government of the United States to evaluate and put into practice alternatives of dialogue with the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, under principles of respect for sovereignty and self-determination. As such, we urge that the Executive Order be abolished.”

In addition, regional organizations -- such as the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) representing 12 South American states, the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) representing 11 Latin American and Caribbean nations, and the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) -- issued powerful condemnations of President Obama’s measures against Venezuela. One hundred  British parliamentarians have also repudiated the Executive Order and called on the U.S. government to rescind its actions against Venezuela.

More than 6 million people have signed a petition in Venezuela and online calling on President Obama to retract his Executive Order of March 9, 2015 and to cease interference in Venezuelan affairs. Even prominent members of the Venezuelan opposition have rejected Obama’s designation of Venezuela as a threat to U.S. national security.

In a letter to the U.S. president by Venezuela’s Lara State Governor Henry Falcon, known for his anti-government position, he writes, “Let me express to you clearly that Venezuela can't be considered a threat to any other nation on the planet.   We have serious internal problems but we will solve them between Venezuelans.”

This overwhelming international support for Venezuela comes just days before Latin American leaders will meet with President Obama at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City on April 9-10. While originally the summit was staged to be a historical event where Cuba would reunite with the organization after its forced exclusion by the U.S. over 50 years ago, now the forum will be overshadowed by Obama’s latest move against Venezuela.

Heads of state from the region have made clear that they will not stand for U.S. government aggression against one of their neighbors. Bolivian President Evo Morales warned, “These undemocratic actions of President Barack Obama threaten the peace and security of all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.” Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa scoffed, “It must be a bad joke, which reminds us of the darkest hours of our region, when we received invasions and dictatorships imposed by the U.S....Will they understand Latin America has changed?”

Despite being the aggrieved party, President Maduro has repeatedly expressed his desire for “respectful dialogue on equal terms” with the Obama administration and has requested Ecuador, as chair of CELAC, play a key role in mediating these efforts. The upcoming Summit of the Americas may just provide the type of environment that could enable such a dialogue.

In this letter to President Obama, U.S. citizens and NGOs encourage their head of state to improve regional relations and show “our Latin America neighbors that the U.S. can relate to them in peace and with respect for their sovereignty.”

###

Open Letter to President Obama

We, the undersigned individuals and organizations, met your December 17, 2014 joint announcement with President Raul Castro of steps to normalize relations with Cuba with cautious optimism. For decades the US has been isolated in its policy on Cuba, both from the rest of the hemisphere and the rest of the world. For the 23rd year in a row, the UN General Assembly voted last October (188-2) to condemn the US embargo of Cuba.

The UN called on the US to refrain from promulgating and applying laws and regulations which violate the sovereignty of other States, the legitimate interests of entities or persons under their jurisdiction, and the freedom of trade and navigation.

We were pleased that the US was finally taking steps to come into compliance with international law. 

Yet our optimism turned to renewed concern the following day, December 18, when you signed a sanctions bill against Venezuela which appears to perpetuate the same failed policy toward Venezuela that you had just rejected toward Cuba. You hardened that policy on March 9 when you issued an executive order declaring a national emergency with respect to the “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.” This action also verified that the US is stepping up its support for regime change in Caracas.

What is US hemispheric policy given this belligerent stance toward Venezuelan democracy? That is the question being asked by the world media and particularly by the sovereign States and multinational institutions of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), which represents every country in South America, said your executive order constitutes a "threat of interference" against Venezuela's sovereignty and calls on you to revoke the order. While politics in Venezuela is polarized and economic disruption caused primarily by the falling price of oil have caused long lines and falling poll numbers for President Nicolas Maduro, we see nothing that could conceivably be described as an “extraordinary threat” to the US or even to Venezuela’s closest neighbors. We note that Colombia, the US’s closest ally in South America and even the Venezuelan opposition have rejected US sanctions.

Compared to Mexico and Honduras where state violence is endemic and the rule of law tenuous at best, Venezuela is not at all outside the norm among nations. Venezuela is not at war with any nation, does not have military bases outside its borders, and is helping to mediate an end to the war in Colombia; it is a champion of peace in the region. To call it a national security threat to the US diminishes the credibility of your administration in the eyes of the world.

To those who know the dynamics in democratic Venezuela, this US policy stance is dangerous and provocative. To set the record straight, the Venezuelan government is democratically elected. Presidents Chavez and Maduro were both elected in what former President Jimmy

Carter declared to be the best election process in the world. (The Carter Center monitors and reports on elections worldwide.) Your executive declaration, however, is likely to be taken as a green light to the most hard line and anti-democratic forces in the country to continue to commit anti-government violence.

We call on you, President Obama, to rescind your executive order naming Venezuela a US national security threat. We call on you to stop interfering through funding and reckless public statements in Venezuela’s own democratic processes. And most of all, we encourage you to show to our Latin American neighbors that the US can relate to them in peace and with respect for their sovereignty.

Sincerely,
Noam Chomsky, MIT
Eva Golinger, Human Rights attorney, author
Miguel Tinker-Salas, Professor, History Dept., Pomona College*
Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General, International human rights attorney
Chuck Kaufman, National Coordinator, Alliance for Global Justice
James Early, Board Member, Institute for Policy Studies
Bill Fletcher, Jr., writer/activist/media host
Dr Frank Goldsmith, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, World Federation of Trade Unions 
Cindy Sheehan, Peace and social justice activist and radio host/producer
Bill Preston, President, AFGE National VA Council District 14*, President, AFGE Local 17*
Alfred L. Marder, President, US Peace Council
Beverly Bell, Coordinator, Other Worlds
Andrew Hochhalter, Director, Quixote Center
Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace Action*
Alexis Stoumbelis, Executive Director, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
Azadeh N. Shahshahani, President, National Lawyers Guild
Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report*
Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, President-Elect, National Lawyers Guild
Grahame Russell, Director, Rights Action [US & Canada]
Medea Benjamin, CoFounder, CODEPINK for Peace
Dan Kovalik, Labor and Human Rights lawyer
Steven Kramer, Exec. Vice President, 1199SEIU-UHWE*
Hendrik Voss, SOA Watch National Organizer
David Rovics, Singer/Songwriter, American Federation of Muscians Local 1000
Kevin Zeese, attorney and activist, co-director of Popular Resistance*
Margaret Flowers, physician and activist, co-director of Popular Resistance*
Gloria LaRiva, Coordinator, National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
Brian Becker, director, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
John (Jack) Laun, President, Colombia Support Network
Joe Lombardo, co-coordinator, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)

Marilyn Levin, co-coordinator, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
Roger Harris, President, Task Force on the Americas (Marin Co, CA)
Cherrene Horazuk, President, AFSCME Local 3800
Chris Townsend, Director of Field Mobilization, Amalgamated Transit Union*
Banbose Shango, A-APRP-GC*
John Womack Jr., Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin Am History and Economics, emeritus, Harvard U Peter Phillips Ph.D., Professor Sociology, Sonoma State U; Pres. Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored Audrey Bomse, co-chair of the NLG Palestine Subcommittee
Marc Becker, Professor, Truman State University
Jackie Cabasso and Terry Rockefeller, National Co-conveners, United for Peace and Justice
Palmer Legare, Coordinator, Guatemala Solidarity Project
Dale Sorensen, Director, Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas (CA)
Dr. Henry S. Lowendorf, CoChair, Greater New Haven Peace Council
Cindy Forster, Chair, History Department and Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Scripps College Adrienne Pine, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, American University
Barry Ladendorf, President,. Veterans for Peace
Jack Gilroy, Friends of Franz Jagerstatter
Frederick B. Mills, Ph.D., Department of History and Government, Bowie State University
Linda J. Craft, Professor, North Park University, Chicago
Gilbert Joseph, Professor History & International Studies, Yale
Victoria Cervantes, co-chair, La Voz de los de Abajo, Chicago
Harry E. Vanden, Ph.D., Professor Latin American Studies, University of South Florida
Gunnar Gundersen, Exec. V.P., Tokyo International University of America, Salem, OR
Xiomara García Gundersen, Oregon Bolivarian Circle, Professor of Mathematics, Salem, OR
Jack Gilroy, SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience
Adrianne Aron, Ph.D., Berkeley, CA
Paki Wieland, SOA Watch November Coordinating Team
Barbara Larcom, Coordinator, Casa Baltimore/Limay
Judy Somberg, attorney, Co-chair NLG Task Force on the Americas
Lo Ross, Director, Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, Santa Cruz, CA
Cheryl LaBash, Co-Chair, National Network on Cuba
Chris Inserra, SOA Watch Stage and Program Team
Nico Udu-gama, SOA Watch Bilingual Space Collective
Suyapa G. Portillo Villeda, Asst. Professor, Chicana/o-Latina/o Transnational Studies, Pitzer College
Liisa L. North, Professor (ret.) and writer
Susan Scott, Co-Chair, NLG Task Force on the Americas
Irene Rodriguez, Coordinator, School of the Americas Watch-Boulder
Maria Luisa Rosal, SOA Watch Field Organizer
Isabel Garcia, Chair, Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, Tucson, AZ
Jenne Ristau, SOA Watch Legislative Organizer
Francisco Herrera, Caminante Cultural, SOA Watch Stage and Program Team

Gary Prevost, Professor of Political Science, College of St Benedict/St. John's University Dominick Tuminaro, Professor, Brooklyn College Graduate Center for Worker Education Sister Kathleen Desautels, SP, SOA Watch Peacemakers
Arnold Matlin, M.D., Founding Member, Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace, Geneseo, NY. Stephen Bartlett, Director of Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville (SAL), Louisville, KY
Tanya Kerssen, Research Coordinator, Food First
Mary Ann Tenuto, Coordinator, Chiapas Support Committee
Milton Fisk, Retired, Philosophy, Indiana University, Bloomington IN
Arturo J. Viscarra, SOA Watch Advocacy Coordinator
Susan Letendre, Director, Witness for Peace New England
David Horvath, CoChair, Kentucky Interfaith Taskforce on Latin America
Héctor Perla Jr., Asst. Prof., Latin American & Latino Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz Judy Liteky, Co-Founder, School of the Americas Watch, San Francisco, CA
Robert Nixon, Co-Founder, School of the Americas Watch, Oakland, CA Dana Frank, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Cruz T.M. Scruggs, Professor Emeritus, Univ. of Iowa
Mary Lou Finn, for Neighbors for Peace, Evanston, IL
Brian Peterson, Ascension Lutheran Church (ELCA) , Austin, TX
José E. López, Executive Director, Puerto Rican Cultural Center
Ana Lopez, NYC Coordinator to Free Oscar Lopez Rivera
Alejandro L. Molina, Coordinating Committee, National Boricua Human Rights Network Judy Robbins, Let Cuba Live of Maine
James Wandera Ouma, Executive Director, LGBT Voice, Tanzania
Sharat G. Lin, Former president, San José Peace and Justice Center
Dr. Ramona Fernandez, PhD, Associate Professor, Michigan State University
Kim Scipes, Associate Professor of Sociology, Purdue University North Central, Westville, IN Ray Pagliaro , co-president, New Haven /León Sister City Project
Charles Callman, Coordinating Committee, Portland Central America Solidarity Committee Stansfield Smith, Coordinator, Chicago ALBA Solidarity Committee
Dr. Ed Brown, Chair, Leicester Masaya Link Group
Ann Tiffany, former SOAW prisoner of conscience
Hector Aristizabal, ImaginAction
Michael Wisniewski, L.A. Catholic Worker
Elizabeth Deligio, SOA Watch Council
Mike Tork, Veterans for Peace
Ed Kinane, former SOA prisoner of conscience, founder of the SOA Abolitionists
Charlie Hardy, 2014 Wyoming Democratic US Senate candidate
Jeanie Keltner, host Soapbox TV talk show, The Undernews radio talk show, KVMRFM Claudia Chaufan, Associate Professor, University of California San Francisco

Dwight Lawton, SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience

Margaret Knapke, SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience, Dayton Ohio

Daniele Kohn, Director, Action Resource Fund, New York
William Camacarro, Coordinator, Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle, WBAI radio host
Crystal Zevon, Independent Writer and Filmmaker, Searching for Occupy
Roger Keeran, Professor Emiritus, Empire State College (SUNY)
Katherine Hoyt, National Coordinator, Nicaragua Network
Steve Watrous, Chair, Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition
Gary L. Cozette, Program Director, Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN)
* For identification purposes only

Shut it all Down #A14 (SOAPBOX PODCAST 3/29)

CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX

MARCH 29, 2015

GUEST: CARL DIX

SUBJECT: STOP POLICE MURDERS and

Shut Down of #A14

CLICK FOR MORE INFO

Cindy Sheehan at #SpringRising

Slaughterhouses and Battlefields: WORLD VEGAN SUMMIT (SOAPBOX PODCAST 3/15)

Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

March 15, 2015
"As long as there are slaughterhouses there will be battlefields."
 Leo Tolstoy

GUEST: Bob Linden

Host of Go Vegan Radio

 CLICK FOR WEBSITE

TOPIC: World Vegan Summit and Expo

CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE INFO

 

Int'l Women's Day with Gayle McLaughlin (SOAPBOX PODCAST 3/8)

Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

March 8, 2015

GUEST: Gayle McLaughlin

TOPIC: Woman Power

GAYLE (from Wiki):

Gayle McLaughlin (born 1952 in Chicago, Illinois) is a California politician. She is a member of the Green Party and, since 2006, the mayor of Richmond, California. McLaughlin was elected on November 7, 2006 by a 242-vote^[1] margin over incumbent mayor Irma A. Anderson.^[2] Richmond is, as of 2009, the largest city in the country with a Green Party mayor.^[3] In 2014, she was elected to a city council seat after being termed out of the mayor's office.
McLaughlin is a social activist who has participated in the peace, social justice, civil rights, and environmental movements. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology, with graduate study in psychology and education.
She was first elected to the City Council in 2004, winning one of five open seats, with 11,191 votes or 10% in 2004.^[4] She has lived in Richmond since 2001.^[5]

The Obama Files is Available (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE)

The Obama Files:
Chronicles of an Award-Winning War Criminal

CLICK IMAGE FOR ORDERING INFO

VACAVILLE, CA: Today, Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox announces the publishing of Cindy Sheehan's eighth book: The Obama Files: Chronicles of an Award-Winning War Criminal.

The book (which one early reviewer calls: "One of the most hardcore antiwar books ever written") is a collection of essays of criticism from the far left of six-years of the disastrous Obama regime which had many people (excluding Sheehan) "hoping" for a new era of peace and justice. After over six-years of "the First Black President™" Sheehan is hoping that this book will finally convince people that when it comes to war and the police state, Obama has been far more dangerous than even was George W. Bush.

The Obama Files is also a chronicle of the abdication of the "left" in its historical prerogative to hold war criminals accountable in the court of public opinion.

From her home in Vacaville, CA Cindy Sheehan had this to say, "I hope The Obama Files will be an important historical document of this important time in world history, but I also hope it inspires some to look beyond the latest cause célebré or bourgeois political party and find hope in ourselves and our communities."

Contributors to The Obama Files include Larry Pinkney, author, activist and member of The Black Panther Party who wrote the foreword and noted political artist Anthony Freda who designed the book cover.

For more information, to order a review copy (MEDIA only), or schedule an interview with Cindy Sheehan, please email Dede Miller at Dede4Peace@gmail.com.

 

 

Waging Peace with David Hartsough (SOAPBOX PODCAST 3/1/15)

Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

March 1, 2015

GUEST: DAVID HARTSOUGH

TOPIC: WAGING PEACE

CLICK FOR BOOK INFO

World Beyond War

"David Hartsough knows how to get in the way. He has used his body to block Navy ships headed for Vietnam and trains loaded with munitions on their way to El Salvador and Nicaragua. He has crossed borders to meet “the enemy” in East Berlin, Castro’s Cuba, and present-day Iran. He has marched with mothers confronting a violent regime in Guatemala and stood with refugees threatened by death squads in the Philippines. Hartsough’s stories inspire, educate, and encourage readers to find ways to work for a more just and peaceful world. Inspired by the examples of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Hartsough has spent his life experimenting with the power of active nonviolence. Engaging stories on every page provide a peace activist’s eyewitness account of many of the major historical events of the past 60 years, including the Civil Rights and anti–Vietnam War movements in the United States as well as the little-known but equally significant nonviolent efforts in the Soviet Union, Kosovo, Palestine, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. Waging Peace is a testament to the difference one person can make; however, it is more than one man’s memoir: it shows how this struggle is waged all over the world by ordinary people committed to ending the spiral of violence and war."

Spring Rising with Debra Sweet (SOAPBOX PODCAST 2/22/15)

CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

GUEST: DEBRA SWEET

TOPIC: SPRING RISING

  www.SpringRising.org

Please join Cindy and our long-time friend and life-long activist Debra Sweet as they chat about the expanding war state and

this Spring's response: Spring Rising.

Debra Sweet is national co-ordinator of

World Can't Wait

Women Under Fire: (SOAPBOX PODCAST 2/15)

Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

 February 15, 2015

GUEST: Sarah Blum

TOPIC: Military Sexual Trauma

ABOUT SARAH:

Sarah L. Blum, ARNP is a decorated nurse Vietnam veteran who earned the Army Commendation Medal serving as an operating room nurse at the 12th Evacuation Hospital Cu Chi, Vietnam during the height of the fighting in 1967. Because Cu Chi sat on the edge of the Hobo Woods, where all the fighting took place in 1967, her hospital handled mass casualties regularly and their operating room became the largest user of fresh blood in all of Vietnam Back in the United States, Sarah received her brother soldiers of Vietnam with their wounds and amputations, cared for them directly and saw how their physical wounds did not heal when their heads and hearts were deeply affected. She was awarded the Certificate of Achievement for exemplary service as head nurse of the orthopedic ward at Madigan Army Hospital in 1968, where she was also the assistant director of nursing on evening and night shift in 1970.

 

CLICK FOR MORE INFO

Of Noodges and Nukes by Cindy Sheehan

Of Noodges and Nukes

Cindy Sheehan

Noodge: (Urban dictionary):

This is my mother’s word, it means to be nosey, pushy and a general pain in the ass. It sometimes means having an attitude the size of Montana on your shoulders and projecting that all over the place. Generally this is not a nice thing but can be used in a nice context.

Nuke: To attack with a nuclear weapon, or to otherwise bring about widespread and utter destruction.

I’d like to thank the universal goodness that former comedian cum death monger Roseanne Barr does not (I hope) have access to nuclear weapons.

I say “former” comedian because in the last few years Barr has taken a decidedly unfunny turn and outlook on life.

After Barr accused Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein of being a “Zionist” in the 2012 Green Party primaries (which Stein won and Barr lost) and after running for president on the ticket of the stridently antiwar Peace and Freedom Party, Barr has used her Twitter account to become a mega-Zionist. I stopped following her after she urged Israel to nuke Iran. As a human being, nothing to me is more monstrous.

Recently, the person who used her acting skills to convince me and the Peace and Freedom Party that she was also about peace tweeted this to her almost 300k followers on Twitter:

This tweet was apparently in response to the vote to divest from Israeli investments of UC Davis. The tweet is shocking in its callousness. I understand the tweet was left up for about 10 hours before some cooler head prevailed and it was removed, but as we can see, nothing online ever really gets deleted.

As universally shocking as this tweet is and how revealing it is of the character of the person who did tweet it, I live about 20 miles from UC Davis. As most people over the age of 10 know, nuclear devastation is not confined to a very small geographic area. Personally, it is very painful that Barr would love to see my family, including my five grandchildren who also live this close to Davis, die a very torturous death because we are not “Jews.”

On the other hand, what if she tweeted this: “I hope all Gentiles leave UC Davis and then it gets nuked.” How long do you think it would be before she was in Gitmo being treated as a terrorist? As much as I deplore her actual tweet, I would deplore one that wanted to incinerate Jews just as strongly.

As a member of the Peace and Freedom Party (I want to iterate that I am NOT speaking in that capacity and only speaking for myself) I would like to reaffirm OUR position against war and the use of nuclear weapons.

The Peace and Freedom Party was born out of the struggle against the Vietnam War and the government’s violent repression of those protests. The Party has long been committed to its name: Peace and Freedom. Until the Green Party got ballot access here in California, we were the only party that offered legitimate opposition to the two parties that will (and have) used nuclear weapons.

I have also received several messages about my relationship to my former running mate: even though I saw the writing on the wall while I was running against her and wrote this:

No Longer on Campaign, Formal Announcement

The few weeks that I was her running mate were devastating for me. I had known Roseanne for years before that star-crossed collaboration and I considered her a friend.

Roseanne was flawed, of course, as are we all. But I saw a person who I truly believed was committed to the same principles that I was, but Twitter is not Barr’s friend and she started to tweet some things that were 180 degrees from the platform of the party and my own personal platform, such as: “If people go on welfare, birth control should be mandatory.”

Side note: I also disagreed that our entire campaign should be by tweet, especially ones that were so contrary to what we, as a party, stand for.

Then some people have defended her most recent foray into outrageousness by saying exactly that, “She is famous for saying outrageous things.” Well, so am I, but I only consider what I say outrageous in the context of Imperial Capitalism like, “war of aggression is always wrong.”

Common sense dictates that there is a profound difference between what someone says in the heat of passion (and obviously Roseanne is passionate in her hatred of non-Jews) and what one takes the time to type out (probably via iPhone) in a carefully crafted tweet. I cannot think of any clearer expression of hatred that is more evil than wishing a large part of Northern California be destroyed or radiated all for one principled vote.

P.T. Barnum once said, “Publicity is not measured in content, but inches,” and Roseanne’s public persona has now completely turned into a circus: the kind that abuses animals and is filled with horrific clowns (oops, that’s all circuses).

The moral of this story is if a party has “Peace” in its name and platform, let’s more carefully vet our next POTUS pick to make sure that he/she would not use his/her power to push the button of a deadly weapon of mass destruction.

PRE-ORDER; THE OBAMA FILES: CHRONICLES OF AN AWARD WINNING WAR CRIMINAL!

THE OBAMA FILES: CHRONICLES OF AN AWARD WINNING WAR CRIMINAL 

 by Cindy Sheehan

The Obama Files is Cindy Sheehan's latest book. The book is a six-year long chronicle of the hypocrisy of the US Empire and the abdication of the "left" in calling out the war crimes of "the first black US president."

Cindy's work shows clear-thinking and understanding of the truth behind the Empire of lies, but this is not a book about "gloating:"  meant to awaken people to these truths that should be "self-evident" by now! 

The Obama Files is now in its final stages of production and if you pre-order a copy today, you will get one of the first ones hot off the presses, signed by the author.

SPECIAL PREVIEW OF THE FOREWORD BY THE FABULOUS BROTHER LARRY PINKNEY:

Foreword to The Obama Files: Chronicles of an Award Winning War Criminal

by Larry Pinkney

Though often hidden or distorted, human history is replete with examples of courage and sacrifice by a relatively few political dissenters sounding the alarm and speaking truth to power. These dissenters are scorned and ridiculed by those who control the corporate mass media and its concomitant systemic machine of perpetual war, death, and destruction. Yet, US society in particular, and Mother Earth as a whole, are in dire need of these principled dissenters whose stories represent the very best of struggling humanity. This is the essence of Cindy Sheehan and why her actions and writings over many years are of such invaluable and enduring significance. She has repeatedly actualized the words of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., when he said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter...”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST

More praise for Cindy and the Obama Files:

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“Cindy’s voice—righteous, outraged, and uncompromising, rises from these pages like a messenger from the future compelled by a deep knowledge of our past transgressions to sound an alarm. One can heed her warning and follow her call or remain silent, and in doing so, remain violent.” – Dennis Trainor, Jr. | writer, filmmaker, activist

“The Clash once sang about that opportunistic breed of rebel that inevitably ‘joins the church.’ Cindy Sheehan, however, has never and will never tow the company line. As The Obama Files passionately articulates, the work of a true dissident requires one to avoid easy compromises and comfortable alliances. This book—and all of Cindy’s work—is a testament to the long term vision of collective liberation.” – Mickey Z. | author of Occupy this Book

“Cindy Sheehan’s many books document her transformation from a woman whose
‘entire world was my family and this suburban intellectually challenged sinkhole’ to an
international activist with humanity and the whole planet in her thoughts and big heart.
In The Obama Files she excoriates the world of presidential assassination
programs; pre-emptive indefinite detention; spreading government surveillance, police
brutalizing and killing people of color in the Obama years. Even as I share much of her
critique and experience in calling out crimes of the Democrats, I am choked up at Cindy’s
deep outrage. She continues to call us to resist the crimes done in our name, and
to join in creating a world where people will be free. – Debra Sweet | National Coordinator of World Can’t Wait

“As far as I’m concerned, Obama has continued and expanded on all of Bush’s worst policies. I never supported him. Like Cindy, I knew better. After my years of activism, I learned that the system does NOT work for the people. I have been very fortunate to work alongside Cindy throughout most of Obama’s presidency. Because of that, I’ve read most of her articles, and listened to most of her podcasts. The corporate media would lead you to believe that Cindy went away after Obama came into office. If you want to see how wrong they were, and how consistent Cindy has been, read this book. If you want to see how much of a war criminal Obama has been, read this book.” – Jon Gold | 9/11 Truth Activist and author 

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FOREWORD to The Obama Files by Brother Larry Pinkney

Foreword

by Larry Pinkney

Though often hidden or distorted, human history is replete with examples of courage and sacrifice by a relatively few political dissenters sounding the alarm and speaking truth to power. These dissenters are scorned and ridiculed by those who control the corporate mass media and its concomitant systemic machine of perpetual war, death, and destruction. Yet, US society in particular, and Mother Earth as a whole, are in dire need of these principled dissenters whose stories represent the very best of struggling humanity. This is the essence of Cindy Sheehan and why her actions and writings over many years are of such invaluable and enduring significance. She has repeatedly actualized the words of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., when he said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

After suffering the terrible loss of her son Casey, in the US war on Iraq, in 2004, Cindy Sheehan demonstrated an unshakable commitment to raise awareness nationally and internationally about 1) the underlying and unacceptable causes of war; 2) who the real purveyors of war actually are; and 3) the inextricable connection of—militarism and war—to poverty, corporate hegemony, the obliteration of human rights, ‘racism,’ and the de facto state sponsored ‘terrorism’ against humanity carried out as an integral part of the national and global surveillance police-state.

In the stalwart tradition of Rosa Luxemburg, Lucy Parsons, Fannie Lou Hamer, and so many other courageous women and men of all colors, Cindy Sheehan has taken her message directly to everyday ordinary people. In plain language she urges people to critically think, and to link the issues together in order to bring about an end to the insane militarism, corporate greed, and environmental ravaging of our Mother Earth.

Well before the conclusion of the eight years of G.W. Bush’s disastrous rule of perpetual war and unspeakable horrors abroad and at home, the tiny US corporate/military power elite was preparing and grooming a successor who would continue and substantively exacerbate the same Bush policies, while insidiously and effectively masquerading as someone who would bring about genuine change on behalf of the suffering masses in the US and globally. This successor and articulate political conjurer was Barack Obama—Mr. ‘hope and change,’ whose second largest 2008 Obama campaign contributor was none other than Wall Street’s notorious corporate blood-sucking Goldman Sachs. Thus, in 2008, the handwriting was in fact already on the wall, but with the complicity of the US corporate-stream mass media and numerous so-called ‘progressives,’ etc., the majority of everyday struggling people were thoroughly and cynically bamboozled to their own detriment. Indeed, on the third day of his first term as US President, Barack Obama mercilessly droned the sovereign nation of Pakistan, murdering children, women, and men non-combatants. Subsequently, Obama has gone on to massively increase the use of deadly US drone attacks upon many other sovereign nations in Africa, Asia, and the so-called ‘Middle East.’ It is estimated that at least 90 percent of the victims murdered and/or maimed by US killer drone attacks are non-combatant children, women, and men. Thus, Obama spawns more rage and hatred as a result of these ongoing killer drone attacks, and with it, the concomitant spiral of terror and perpetual war.    

Prior to 2009, when Barack Obama was officially installed as the nominally ‘black’ designated standard bearer for the US system of global Empire at home and abroad, there were precious few who had the principled courage to sound the alarm. Fortunately for us all, Cindy Sheehan and a relative handful of other dissenters, refused to be complicit with, or silenced by, the nauseating and deafening chorus in those days by the supporters of corporate brand Obama’s euphoria of madness on the US Democrat/Republican plantation of the damned.

Not satisfied with his war crimes abroad, the wily corporate-controlled Drone Man Barack Obama, in service to the corporate/military elite, has bestowed upon himself his very own ‘kill list’—empowering him to target and have killed at will, individuals of any nationality (including US citizens) in the US, or anywhere else in the world, whom he, as judge, jury, and executioner, decides must die. This is Barack Obama’s so-called ‘hope and change.’ Whatever happened to international law and the US Constitution?

Barack Obama’s repeated annual signing of the so-called National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes an outrageous unconstitutional provision authorizing the indefinite detention of any person or persons in the US without the due process of  a legal defense attorney, a jury of one’s peers, or even an open trial is—onerous and utterly unacceptable—and is yet another indication of Obama’s hypocritical and arrogant disdain for the US Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant On Civil and Political Rights.

Cindy Sheehan has long made the connection between US militarism abroad and political repression, including the militarization of the police, at home. Thanks to her courage and diligence, an increasing number of people are becoming aware of just how relevant and extremely important making these connections are to our very survival as human beings on this precious planet of Mother Earth.

It is with a sense of urgency that this book containing the writings of Cindy Sheehan—particularly as they pertain to Barack Obama and the current US political system—need to be read and re-read with a view towards making a critical analysis of the recent past, in order to bring about a seismic political change in the US and avert an even larger pending political, economic, and social future disaster in the year 2015 and beyond.

May you be inspired to creative action by the clarity and cutting-edge honesty of Cindy Sheehan’s writings in this book!

Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, and more recently on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones Show, and RT (formerly known as Russia Today). He is currently founder and curator of the Black Activist Writers Guild (BAWG) BlackActivistwg.org (Click here: Black Activist Writers Guild). Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, San Francisco BayView newspaper, Black Commentator, Intrepid Report, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), 107 Cowgate (Ireland and Scotland), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). He is in the archives of Dr. Huey P. Newton (Stanford University, CA), cofounder of the Black Panther Party. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click struggle-and-win.net Bill Mandel on Larry Pinkney to read excerpts from the book.)

Osama bin Forgotten and the Criminal Saudis (SOAPBOX PODCAST 2/8/15)

CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX

FEBRUARY 8, 2015

GUEST:  JON GOLD

We Were Lied to about 9/11

TOPIC: SAUDI CONNECTION TO 9/11

On 28 Redacted Pages:

We Were Lied to About 9/11- Episode 20- Brian McGlinchey

 

Who You Gonna Call? MYTHBUSTERS! (SOAPBOX PODCAST 2/1/15)

Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

February 1, 2015

TOPIC: MYTH BUSTING

GUEST: JUSTIN COLELLA 

Justin Colella is an American entrepreneur, philosopher, social activist, producer, and philanthropist.  He started his first company at the age of 19 and has been self-employed ever since.  He is currently President at Commission Enterprises, Inc. and other sales and marketing corporations that engage in guerrilla marketing for Fortune 50 and Fortune 500 clients.  Mr. Colella is also Founder and Chairman of the 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Human Rights Organization, Hustle For Humanity.  He is a Licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, a Doctorate level Clinical Hypnotherapist, and an elected member of the American Psychological Association (APA).  He currently resides in Southern California and is a competitive athlete in Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts and CrossFit.  Justin Colella is currently working on a documentary film project set to be released in 2015 that promises to challenge the existing global political, psychological, and economic paradigm.

CLICK IMAGE FOR HUSTLE FOR HUMANITY 

Why DC? Spring Rising: An Antiwar Intervention in DC by Cindy Sheehan

 Why, DC?
Spring Rising

Cindy Sheehan

I have long advocated for the seat of the central government of the USA be relocated to the geographic center of the contiguous land mass. Along with the many problems associated with the capital city built on a swamp, depending on where one lives, it can be expensive and inconvenient as hell to get to!

The geographic concerns and the seeming minimal interest in ending the wars combine to make trips to DC (or NYC, or Chicago, or Los Angeles) difficult for most. I rode my bike from California to DC in 2013, but not many people are full-time peace activists and can’t afford the time it takes (three months for me) or the time off of work.

So what do we do? Most of us who are still in this “antiwar” milieu have realized that the president of the US is really just a figurehead for Empire and that Congress is there to rubberstamp what the War Machine wants with very little show of opposition; so Why DC?

DC is the marbleized logo of power. I am not sure where decisions are really made, but I know the Imperial Pronouncements emanate from DC and I also know that large gatherings of courageous and determined humans have changed history in a positive way.

Spring Rising: An Antiwar Intervention in DC is our call to gather there from March 18-21 for four days of action designed to once and for all end the wars. Realistically, will this happen? We know it won’t happen if we all cocoon in our comfort zones.

We think it’s urgent for the planet to gather with us for these days (schedule), but if it’s not possible for you to meet us in DC, please organize local solidarity actions and we will be happy to help you connect with others in your area, if possible.

One person emailed to tell me that when we call for gathering in DC, it’s just our way of getting others to pay our ways there.

That’s a valid concern, but the organizations that are pulling this together are grassroots and not all of us think that “WashedUp, DeCeit” is an ideal place to spend a week. DC is really one of the last places I want to go to, but I have been there countless of times to protest and I can’t think of much site seeing that I have done. It’s a place that whitely shines with war memorial after war memorial but has an underlying feeling of black cancer. However, it’s also the place where a massive response needs to be mounted against the massive police state that is apparent there. We can’t wait for the “elected” War Criminals to grow a conscience—because historically few have had one. We can’t wait for others—we must be the ones.

Please email Dede Miller if you would like help organizing a local solidarity action, or get on your own network and figure out how to rideshare to join us.