Cindy Sheehan: We Must Move Beyond Politics as Usual

It is certainly good to have a peace candidate, Cindy Sheehan, officially running against the pro-war millionaire mouthpiece of the oil companies, Nancy Pelosi, for Congress to represent most of San Francisco (not including the Sunset and a small piece of the southern section of San Francisco). Her announcement was printed on the website of Michael Moore (director of the must see movie for single payer healthcare, Sicko) at
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=896
and she also makes the announcement on KPFA, 94.1 FM, 5 p.m. program called Flashpoints, July 24, 2007 at:
http://www.flashpoints.net/
Now that we have a peace candidate, there are some issues Cindy Sheehan has to address.
1. While it may be legal to have a Sacramento area address and campaign for a federal office representing in San Francisco, it is not wise in terms of democratic principles and most likely not feasible in terms of campaigning. The sooner she rents a San Francisco apartment or shares an apartment with someone in Pelosi's district, the better.
2. It is probably a lot easier to run as a Green Party member than as an independent. It is not clear what the rules are for independents but it probably requires a lot of signatures to appear on the November 2008 ballot. The San Francisco Green Party has over 12,000 registered voters and won 13,653 votes for Congress, running against Pelosi in November 2006, as well as 19,052 votes for US Senate, running against Senator Feinstein, those votes coming from all of San Francisco. For California's voter registration for various parties by county, see the California Secretary of State's website at http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ror_2102007.htm
3. The San Francisco Democratic Party is an election fraud machine, with its current mayor, Gavin Newsom, a nephew of Nancy Pelosi, sitting in office with the same election fraud that the Democratic Party committed in 1999 to re-select Willie Brown and on June 3, 1997 to promote the 49er stadium swindle. The Cindy Sheehan campaign has to be prepared to stop this election fraud. This election fraud is sponsored and/or perpetrated by the Chamber of Commerce, the Democratic Central Committee, the Republican Cental Committee, the Housing Authority, Walden House, Cecil Williams and his Glide Church, Amos Brown and his Third Baptist Church, SLUG, TURF, A. Philip Randolph Institute, Nation of Islam and others more fully described at:
http://www.brasscheck.com/stadium
4. Of course, the election fraud is only used if the race is close. Let us remember that Nancy Pelosi, like most Democratic candidates, regularly receives 80% of the vote. In November 2006, Nancy Pelosi received 148,435 votes, 80.27% of the vote, which will be a formidable record to overcome, requiring a serious preceint based campaign, wallking and phone-calling all voters in the 8th Congressional District contantly until and on election day in November 2008. See http://www.sfgov.org/site/election_index.asp?id=47578
5. Impeachment is certainly a serious issue, supported by 58.53% of San Francisco voters who voted for Prop J on the November 2006 ballot, or 126,023 votes. A total of 253,719 people voted in November 2006 in San Francisco so a lot of people did not bother to vote on this simple policy recommendation. It is clear there are lots of ther issues Cindy Sheehan must address, the most important of which is affordable rental housing for the workingclass of San Francisco, those who sell their labor for less than $76,000 a year, and especially for those who make less than $50,000 a year. For more on housing, see the San Francisco Tenant's Union website at http://www.sftu.org
6. As Dennis Bernstein stated on Flashpoints, the Israel issue must be addressed by any serious peace candidate. Israel is a US military base that exists to protect US oil profits in the Middle East. The murder of Palestinians and the theft of Palestinian land by the US puppet government in Israel is paid for with US tax dollars to the tune of $6 billion a year, all money best spent on social needs right here at home. The same is true of the entire war budget. Every Democratic and Republican party representative at all levels is by definition pro-Israel, which makes them all pro-war.
7. Another important issue in San Francisco is opposition to the death penalty and to prisons, and instead strongly supporting rehabilitation of all in prison so they may work at decent paying jobs as soon as possible. This is both a class and race issue as the death penalty in particular and prisons in general are weapons against the workingclass, and in particular the non-white workingclass, mostly African American and Latino. San Francisco is a majority minority population and the issues of racism must be constantly addressed, including strongly supporting affirmative action programs.
8. It is wonderful to hear that Cindy Sheehan questions the government's lies regarding the 9/11 Inside Job. Her honesty is refreshing.

Nancy Pelosi has yet to co-sponsor HR676 for single payer healthcare. The list of co-sponsors may be found at:
http://www.healthcare-now.org/hr676.html#cosponsors
and
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR00676:@@@P
So.:Item 9: Support HR 676 for single payer healthcare. This is a major issue that Pelosi is clearly avoiding because the Democrats, like the Republicans, are bought and paid for by the insurance companies. For one list of these lickspittles and the insurance company payoffs, see
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/sickos-for-sale/candidates/
which are also listed below:
Hillary Clinton $848,872
Mitt Romney $830,285
Barack Obama $566,638
John McCain $409,751
Rudy Giuliani $401,422
John Edwards $212,200
Bill Richardson $185,000
Christopher Dodd $84,900
Joseph Biden $57,775
Sam Brownback $38,050
Mike Huckabee $18,050
Ron Paul $11,000
Tommy Thompson $9,100
Jim Gilmore $7,500
Dennis Kucinich $7,050
Tom Tancredo $5,050
Duncan Hunter $4,250
Mike Gravel $500
Only Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party refuse to accept any corporate conributions and are both supporters of single payer healthcare.

http://www.forward.com/articles/2144/

Anti-war Double Talk

Cindy Sheehan may say that she does not blame the death of her son on Israel, but you are judged by the friends you keep (“Anti-war Activist Addresses Congregation,” October 14). She is a close associate of Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst and frequent supporter of Gold Star Families for Peace whose agenda is to blame the war in Iraq on three things: oil, Israel and logistics. She supports him and travels with him, and should therefore be judged by the company she keeps with him.
Sheehan is disingenuous and is speaking out of both sides of her mouth.

Allyson Rowen Taylor
Associate Director
American Jewish Congress, Western Region
Santa Monica, Calif.

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Cindy Sheehan didn't have the courage to stand behind what she had so accurately written:
http://www.slate.com/id/2124788/sidebar/2124791/

The above piece was linked in the following commentary for the UK Guardian:

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/niall_stanage/2007/07/the_epic_narcissism_of_cindy_s.html

http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2005/08/cindy-sheehan-mother-of-spc-casey.html

Here is a blog entry which just came out by the co-writer of the book about Cindy as it conveyed how disingenuous Cindy was on MSNBC's 'Hardball' broadcast recently:

http://www.moveamericaforward.org/index.php/DailyFile/sheehan_gathering_of_eagles_patriots_are_nazis/

Here is a tinyURL for the above one:

http://tinyurl.com/35wjq5

Rush Limbaugh now has that story mentioning Cindy Sheehan's 'War for Israel' 'Nightline' email in it:

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_071907/content/01125110.guest.html

Here is a tiny URL for the above one:

http://tinyurl.com/yw67ue

http://thomhartmann.org/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2051097651/m/5511034862


http://nomorewarforisrael.blogspot.com

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Cindy Sheehan/'Nightline' email situation mentioned in UK Guardian piece
A friend sent me a link from the Guardian newspaper in the UK which included the Christopher Hitchens' (http://www.slate.com) piece (by his researcher) about the 'Nightline' email situation with Cindy Sheehan..

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/niall_stanage/2007/07/the_epic_narcissism_of_cindy_s.html

Here is a tinyurl for the above one:

http://tinyurl.com/2umfyk

Additional at following URL as well:

http://www.rightwingnews.com/mt331/2007/07/the_trashing_of_cindy_sheehan.php

Here is the tinyurl for the above one:

http://tinyurl.com/2wx7c5

Some of us have waited decades, all our lives, for the headline we now see in the capitalist press, so in case you missed this historic moment, here it is from our local daily rag, referring to the housing bust:
"LIVING THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE--FORECLOSURES ON THE RISE"
This is page A-1 of the Sunday SF Chronicle, 7/29/07.
See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/29/FORECLOSURE.TMP&tsp=1
It refers to foreclosures as a depression phenomena. The Great Depression has finally returned, and we know that means THIS IS A LABOR ERA, a time for fundamental change. Of course, if one does not make enough to itemize deductions on their income tax return, that is to say about $120,000 a year, one cannot afford a house as a house is just a tax shelter. Some people had to learn that fact the hard way. The incomes these people had do not qualify to support more than 1 person, much less a family and a house; they should never have been given a loan. This is the criminality of capitalism.

We then turn to the letters section of the same issue of our daily rag and find some wake up calls for Nancy Pelosi. See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/29/EDGGDR5N2D1.DTL
For example, a Matt Sacrconi states:
"I live in Nancy Pelosi's 8th congressional district, and have supported her candidacy in the past. But if Cindy Sheehan runs for Pelosi's seat, she will get my vote."

"I am deeply disappointed in a system that refuses to stand up against the warmongering tactics of this administration -- and its related illegal and immoral activities. "

"Yes, as the House speaker points out, there are other important issues at hand besides the Iraq war, and there always will be. But President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney rushed us all into an unnecessary war in Iraq, and at a tremendous cost to our country and to the world. If that isn't grounds for impeachment, nothing is. I suggest that holding our leaders accountable for warmongering is at least as important to our society than the other issues than Pelosi finds so pressing. "

Clearly, the lie of the American Dream is in reality an American Nightmare for many more people as the US economy sinks to the bottom of the sea. Whether it be the high rents, the lack of rental housing, the declining property values, the inability to afford any home, the low wages, the expensive college education, the mass murder so-called healthcare system, the lack of a comprehensive, affordable public transportation system, the inadequate retirement funds from Social Security, the lack of decent, affordable child care for all children under age 10, there is only an American Nightmare for all of those who are not millionaires like Nancy Pelosi.

The campaign to unseat Nancy Pelosi is as much fueled by the declining American economy as it is her reactionary record. Comes September 1, 2008, we should have those precinct lists and packets ready for every single precinct in Pelosi's district. Every single voter must be reached for this historic, milestone effort. The lives we save will be our own.

It never ceases to amaze me how some Israel supporters are supporting the racist policies of Israel and are still claiming to be part of the colorblind mainstream. They are not mainstream. So get over it. I really don't care if Cindy Sheehan made an off color comment about Israel. The only thing disturbing about this whole thing is that Sheehan is so vehemently denying that it happened. If Cindy Sheehan comes out saying that she is going to protect Israel, to continue to send aid to Israel, I may not support her, because that would mean that too much of her association with her CIA buddies had rubbed off on her. Everybody in Israel needs to get off their butts and get a job, unlike those religious Zionist fundamentalists in Israel, who are supported by the state, and who haven't worked a day in their lives or passed a single test for reading and writing when they were in school. The US taxpayer shouldn't support that kind of crap.

I'm all in favor of the Peace and Freedom Party's platform of having a minimum basic income. But that assumes that the recipients of the income are going to contribute to society in some productive way or are at least capable of contributing. It is probable that neither of those conditions occurs in the case of the Israeli state supported Zionist fundamentalists.