1,792 votes cast, Jill Stein received 1,223 of them, or 68%. Roseanne Barr, who had just entered the race in the last week, picked up 526 votes, or 29%. There were 35 votes for Kent Mesplay, and 8 votes for Harley Mikkelson

GPW reports that Roseanne Barr is very active on Twitter, and had tweeted a challenge to Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to have both herself and Jill Stein on their programs.

They also report that Jill Stein is actively fundraising, has hired at least 3 staff onto the campaign, and has campaigned so far in California, Colorado, Delaware, DC, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Wisconsin, and other additional states as well.

Jill Stein issued a short statement saying “It is great to have Roseanne Barr on the Green Party team. Let’s bring down the house!” Barr has similarly already made positive statements regarding Stein’s candidacy.

An email from the Stein campaign says that

Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate, begins a three day tour of Indiana and Ohio today with a visit to the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, accompanied by Cleveland City Councilman and Green Party elected official Brian Cummins and County Executive candidate David Ellison.

Saturday at 11:30am, Dr. Stein addresses the Green Party of Ohio Presidential Nominating Convention in Columbus.

This Sunday, as part of Indianapolis’ Occupy the Super Bowl protests, she rallies with supporters at the state capitol against anti-labor legislation such as “Right to Work for Less.”

The full itinerary of public events is viewable here: http://www.jillstein.org/events

Dr. Stein is especially interested in the Evergreen Cooperatives for providing one successful model, among many, for how economic democracy can provide employment and prosperity for stressed communities. In her recent People’s State of the Union address, Dr. Stein called for a Green New Deal providing for full employment and an immediate transition to a sustainable, more democratic economy. The Evergreen Cooperatives “are pioneering innovative models of job creation, wealth building, and sustainability,” and are, “employee-owned, for-profit companies are based locally and hire locally.”

On Occupy Super Bowl Sunday, at noon, Dr. Stein will rally with supporters and other labor movement advocates at the Indiana statehouse in Indianapolis. Dr. Stein is not only strongly opposed to so-called Right-to-Work legislation (RTW), her Green New Deal includes a “program of immediate creation of 25 million, publicly useful, sustainable, well-paying jobs,” according to a prepared statement. Stein will be joined at the rally by lifelong labor organizer Anthony Prince, and student activist Erika Wolf, both newly hired members of the Jill Stein for President campaign staff.

The Green Party has put out a press release welcoming Stein and Barr to the presidential race:

The Green Party of the United States welcomes two candidates into the race for the 2012 Green presidential nomination, Jill Stein and Roseanne Barr. Ms. Barr and Dr. Stein submitted paperwork to meet the Green Party’s requirements as of the evening of the Feb. 1 deadline.

“We are thrilled to have two strong women running for President as Greens,” said Darryl Moch, national co-chair of the Green Party. “We look forward to a race based on Green ideas and values, and to showing the Democrats and Republicans how to run without the corrupting influence of fat corporate campaign checks and corporate-funded attack ads.”

“Anyone hopeful about the Occupy Wall Street’s challenge to the status quo or disappointed by the Obama Administration’s broken promises of change now has a pair of candidates to watch. Anyone bored or irritated with the Mitt Versus Newt Show by now will be relieved by the breath of fresh air — maybe a Green gale force of righteousness — that’s about to come,” said Tamar Yager, also a national co-chair of the Green Party.

For more information about the candidates, visit the following sites:

Jill Stein: http://www.jillstein.org

Roseanne Barr: http://www.roseanneforpresident.com

2012 Press Information for Green Candidates http://www.gp.org/candidates/index.php

The nominee will be chosen at the Green Party’s national convention, July 12-15, in Baltimore, Maryland (http://www.gpconvention2012.com)

State Green Parties in California, Arizona, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and possibly Ohio are participating in primary elections. Other state Green Parties will choose the nominee they support and apportion delegates during statewide Green conventions. The Green Party currently has ballot access in 17 states. Greens expect to have the presidential nominee and other candidates on the ballot in at least 46 states and the District of Columbia on Election Day 2012.

Past Green Party convention sites and nominees:

2000: Denver, Colorado; Ralph Nader

2004: Milwaukee, Wisconsin; David Cobb

2008: Chicago, Illinois; Cynthia McKinney

“We consider it important to have strong women candidates at a time when women’s reproductive rights are under assult, from the Obama Administration’s decision on the morning-after pill to the Komen Foundation’s withdrawal of funding for breast cancer screening from Planned Parenthood. We’re proud that our presidential nominee in 2008 was a woman,” said Carl Romanelli, Pennsylvania Green and member of the Green Party’s International Committee.

132 Greens hold public office in the United States, including five mayors. The largest city with a Green mayor is Richmond, California, with Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. The Green Party and its candidates accept no money from corporate PACs.

Many Green candidates are promoting the “Green New Deal” in their campaigns (http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2010/08/11/62-green-candidates-endorse-green-new-deal). Greens have been active participants in the Occupy Movement; both Ms. Barr and Dr. Stein have appeared and spoken publicly at Occupy rallies.

Ballot Access News reports that the Associated Press has this story about Roseanne Barr’s announcement that she is seeking the Green Party presidential nomination; here is a Los Angeles Times story about Barr’s candidacy.

Kent Mesplay was featured in the Bloomington Alternative (H/T Green Party Watch).

This article at Green Party Watch has biographical information about four candidates (Stein, Barr, Mesplay and Mikkelson).

Green Party Watch also reports that Cindy Sheehan wrote

In the last election, I supported the Green Party candidate, Cynthia McKinney and her running mate, Rosa Clemente. Unfortunately, the Party is not entirely functional (which party is?), even if many of us do support its 10 Key Principles.
I have also been impressed by the other woman seeking the nomination, Jill Stein–she is bright, articulate, well-informed, truly progressive and dedicated to public service–but if push came to shove, I would support Roseanne.

Barr was a supporter of Sheehan in her race for Congress.

From the Socialist Party Socialism 2010 Conference: Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan speaking about the co-option of the early 21st century US peace movement by the Democratic Party.

Sheehan ran for Congress as an independent in 2008 against Nancy Pelosi (In a seven-way race, Sheehan came in second with 46,118 votes (16.14%) to Pelosi’s 71.56%), and later switched her registration to the Peace and Freedom Party, which is the only ballot-qualified socialist party in California. She agreed to run as the Socialist Party USA’s vice-presidential nominee for the 2012 elections, but the party’s national convention voted on October 15th, 2011, to block her candidacy, because she isn’t a member of the party.

H/T Punk Patriot.

Dear Friend,
Three years ago, this very month, I traveled to Egypt to be in solidarity with over 50 political prisoners that dictator, Hosni Mubarak, had imprisoned for no other reason, except that they were becoming a political threat to his autocratic rule. When I was there in Cairo, I felt the most oppressive rage-soaked hopelessness at the US/Israel/Egypt cabal that not only oppressed them, but their Palestinian brothers and sisters, as well.

The simmering rage was palpable and I was not surprised that this courageous stand for freedom took place, I am just surprised that it took so long.

Eighteen days ago, this peaceful quest for freedom began and, as always, the only violence came from the counter-revolution in the form of Mubarak paid thugs that killed hundreds of peaceful protesters, but the blood of the martyrs has been vindicated today.

This past Wednesday, I went to a Bay Area high school to speak to its Peace in the Middle East Club and there was a student there from Egypt who smirked and shook his head the entire time I was having a dialogue with the other students about what was happening in Egypt. He finally blurted out: “Mubarak is not that bad, 70 million people in Egypt love him, only 10 million people want him gone.” My response was that this was not the information I was getting, but if what he was saying was true, then he and Mubarak had nothing to worry about. Apparently, the student was wrong, because today Mubarak is gone.

Yesterday was a demoralizing day. Today, we congratulate our comrades in Egypt and rejoice with them in this great victory, but this is not the end of anything, this is just the beginning of their struggle for a government by and for the people.

The protesters want a technocratic committee that works to form a new constitution that guarantees a form of government that is truly representative and responsive to the needs of the people of Egypt, not the regimes in the US and Israel. This is also a call for the US, Israel and the war profiteers to keep their bloody paws of Egyptian reconstruction and honor the will of the people of Egypt.

Today, I feel like, just for now, the veil has been lifted off of the disease of US Imperialism and that true hope, not Madison Avenue infected hope, has descended on the world.

Today, I am crying tears of joy and victory instead of tears of sorrow and anger.

Thank you, my friends in Egypt–our deepest congratulations from Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox and the people in the US that know the truth.

With love, peace, deepest respect and complete solidarity,

Cindy Sheehan
Peace Mom

POWER TO THE PEOPLE, CLAP, CLAP! POWER TO THE PEOPLE, CLAP, CLAP! POWER TO THE PEOPLE, CLAP, CLAP! POWER TO THE PEOPLE, RIGHT ON!

Our brothers and sisters in Egypt have shown us what to do–the time for symbolic protest ended years ago here in the US–may the Egyptian’s victory inspire us to do the same here:

End to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan–troops home now!

War crimes and treason trials for the Bush Regime!

Saturday rallies aren’t cutting it.

Signing petitions mean nothing.

Symbolic protests do nothing to solve real problems.

All power to the people!

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

 Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.

 Taken from the White House Website – A message from President Obama to his staff.

From the outset of Barack Obama’s political career, up until his presidential election victory, a large part of his political platform was the concept of transparency in government. As a legal scholar of Constitutional Law, having taught the subject at the prestigious University of Chicago Law School, his promotion of political decision making transparency, at the time, seemed to be more substance than rhetoric.

The political chattering classes were championing his credentials; many talking heads on the ‘liberal left’ were predicting the closure of Guantanamo, amendments to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 removing the suspension of habeas corpus, thorough Congressional investigations into warrantless wiretapping etc etc. The ‘wish list’ was endless, the previous president had spent the majority of his time in office eroding our Constitutional rights and civil liberties at home and tarnishing our image abroad – all sandwiched between his primary pursuit in office: family holidays at Kennebunkport.

Obama was going to be different, he planned to send Mr Lobbyist out of Washington, government was going to be clean, efficient and focused on the public good. He knew exactly the dirty secrets of government, an Obama ’08 document entitled Restoring Trust and improving Transparency states “Oil and gas executives met with Vice President Cheney to write our energy laws, with the goal of increasing their profits and saddling the public with their environmental and public health costs; Cheney went to the Supreme Court to keep the names of these lobbyists secret.” The gig was up for backdoor deals and the time of what Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig calls ‘institutionalised corruption’, was over. A new sheriff was coming to town.

Healthcare: A New Hope

So in January 2009, the nation turned to ‘the great hope’, Barack Obama, a man so familiar with the US Constitution one could imagine him being able to recite it backwards. As it turns out, it seems he interprets it backwards as well.

The first major event on the political calendar was healthcare reform, Democrats (and the tens of millions without healthcare insurance) were hoping to succeed where the Clintons had previously failed. Progressives were optimistically exuding large swathes of hope, dreaming of a public option. The Beltway political landscape was about to undergo a facelift, with the healthcare insurance lobby – one of the biggest ‘cartels’ in town – about to receive a swift boot to the unmentionables, better yet we were all going to see it live on national TV – Obama promised at least eight times that a debate on the healthcare issue would be televised.

We got screwed. We did get a televised debate, several Democrats went up against several Republicans spewing their respective talking points – no doubt written by political consultants and not by people in medical/public health field – an event watched by the 8 or 9 people constantly tuned into C-Span and the three others streaming it from the White House website. Don’t worry if you missed the healthcare discussion, your in the company of the elected officials who allegedly took part in it.

The real debate took place behind the closed doors of the Oval Office, with a strict guest list including insurance executives and none other than the lobbyists who were supposedly being ushered out of town and back to Dodge.

Worst still, healthcare reform had miraculously overnight transformed into healthcare insurance reform, somehow the healthcare insurance industry had snagged the deal of the century, Obama had agreed to a policy that included a provision that every American had to buy healthcare insurance!

Talk of a public option, had been locked in a box, left in Dennis Kucinich’s office on Capitol Hill – with the keys somewhere at the bottom of the Potomac – placed there to taunt him for the rest of his political life. I don’t remember having the opportunity to tune into my local affiliate of the “I’m liberal, really I am” channel to watch that discussion, were those meetings available for view in your market?

Shining a light on the dark side

Okay, so Obama dropped the ball on healthcare, lobbyists are extremely well entrenched in Washington DC, maybe he was softening them up for the knockout punch some time down the line… or not. So turning once again to Obama’s transparency platform, from the aforementioned campaign document – a rich source of political perfidy: “It is no coincidence that the disastrous policies of the Bush-Cheney years have been accompanied by unprecedented secrecy…“

In ‘his’ literary masterpiece Decision Points, George Bush, no doubt through the auspices of a ghostwriter, transparently admits, (enthusiastically to the point of being overzealous) that he ordered the use of waterboarding, an act that clearly falls under the traditional definition of torture. We, the US, openly admits to torturing individuals, what little moral capital the US once held, has disintegrated faster than that of Tiger Woods.

Many of us knew years ago that waterboarding (along with other inhumane practises) was being used on (mostly) illegally detained individuals in prisons that remain open and active under the Obama regime. Is the Obama regime prosecuting or even investigating these crimes that have been openly admitted to by the instigators like Berkeley Law professor John Yoo and the torturers? Heck no! Obama has famously said that we need to “look forward, not backward.”

Next time I get pulled over for speeding, I hope the police officer has the moral vision of our president and accepts my pleas of ‘I won’t do that again, I promise’. I mean if it works for mass torture, surely… humour aside, the entire corruption of the interpretation of Constitutional Law in regards to Gitmo/’terror’ detainees has not only led to a substantial reduction in the civil rights of most Americans; but also made it legally impossible to lawfully prosecute those who were genuinely out to cause harm. The case is building against teachers of Constitutional Law, it seems such a career is the best preparation for a life of subverting the Constitution.

Robot Santa

Not only is Obama against rescinding the scope of presidential executive orders – extended via the various post 9/11 security Act amendments collectively referred to as the Patriot Act – he has added a few extras, one being what I like to refer to as his “Presidential Execution Program” (PEP), PEP talks in the Oval Office have a distinctly different outcome, to pep talks in the locker room.

Obama has bestowed upon himself, the decision of which ‘suspected’ “evil doer” (we might as well use Bush rhetoric, since we are still very much beholden to his policies) gets to live or die. Very much reminiscent of the demented Robot Santa from Futurama, Obama maintains a list of ‘naughty’ individuals whose fate will undoubtedly involve a drone, some hellfires and ironically, little hope…

According to attorney, Maria LaHood, of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, who represents the father of the only person we know for sure that is on the list, Anwar al Awlaki, the list is not only secretive, but a Federal Court recently barred any discussion of releasing even the standards for what puts one on Obama’s hit list. Who knows, Anwar al Awlaki may be guilty of some treasonable offense, but where in the name of our legal system does a mere president of the USA get to decide without due process in a court of law who must die?

I can’t even begin to fathom the lack of moral outrage in this country against the PEP – no matter where any of us are on the political spectrum, such an affront to morality and legal procedure should be met with the most extreme rejection and hostility. Yet, I doubt if a majority of Americans even know that such a program exists.

Corporate welfare, public despair

Another flagrant violation of transparency began last April when the biggest environmental disaster in US history occurred in the Gulf of Mexico after an oil rig leased by BP blew up due to lax maintenance and weak governmental regulations favouring oil companies. A recent report from a study done on this catastrophe boldly states that the Obama administration engaged in a concerted cover up to underestimate the amount of oil released and the impact it had on the environment, humans and animal life.

The lingering affects of the oil mixed in with the dispersant, Corexit, are combining to give the residents of that region horrible health complications. Also, according to the above-mentioned report, the oil was only dispersed, not disappeared, and could be in the fragile ecosystem for decades before it fully goes away! The cover up of a disaster of this magnitude should be fodder for prosecution and removal from office of everyone involved – but while Ken Feinberg’s Law firm pockets $850,000 per MONTH to administer the $20 bn BP victims’ fund, the people suffer economically and physically with very limited accountability, if any.

On his first day in office, Obama did restore the Freedom of Information Act, but, according to the Los Angeles Times, 14 months after the beginning of this era of “transparency,” the Obama regime had denied more FOIA requests than that of Bush! Of course, the recent War on Transparency waged by the Obama administration has to be the current persecution of the WikiLeaks organization and one of its founders, Julian Assange. Even vice president of the USA, Joe Biden recently said that the disclosures provided no “substantive damage,” even though there was some embarrassment to the ‘Empire’.

If, as Biden says, the WikiLeaks disclosures don’t do substantive damage to the Empire (if they did, there’s always the thousands of nukes we have to back us up), then why the persecution of Assange and the threat of severely limiting everyone’s free and unfettered access to the internet? In the same week the latest document dump happened, the US government closed down 70 websites, just to show us that it could, and now the United Nations is discussing a global governmental committee to regulate the world-wide-web!

The hidden truth

Transparency should, but doesn’t begin at the top of the power pyramid. The increasing surveillance and persecution of peace and social justice activists coupled with the escalating use of full body scanners in US airports tells me that the only ‘transparency’ Obama wanted was for our clothes and our lives, not his administration.

What is the moral of the series of articles on Barack Obama? Do I believe that Obama is “evil incarnate?” No, but I believe the system that he is at the same time an advocate for, and tool of, is becoming increasingly evil, misguided and out of control with its wars abroad and oppressions at home.

Whether Obama came into Office with a naive agenda of liberating the US Public from the hold of the Lobbying Industry, or if he played the Left like Yo-Yo Ma plays the Cello, doesn’t really matter. What matters is we are essentially experiencing the third term of G W Bush minus a few wins on the domestic front for the centre left – albeit wins by the two branches of Government Obama doesn’t reside in. The status quo has had us gripped for over a decade now, it’s time for a change.

 
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Specialist Casey A. Sheehan, who was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004. Since then, she has been an activist for peace and human rights. She has published five books, has her own Internet radio show, Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox. Cindy lives in Oakland, CA, and loves to spend time with her three grand-babies. You can learn more about Cindy at Peace of the Action.

It is hard to separate this issue from the activities of the military. War might be a “racket”, but it is also the most devastating act one can be involved in, whether you are the aggressor or a victimised civilian, no one can shake off the psychological scars of war. No one.

Its effects on the individual as well as collective human psyche are terminal. Championing equal rights is an issue of morality, war is immoral, and the US military is heading further and further down the path of immorality.

Even with the advent of WikiLeaks, transparency and accountability of US military activity has been sucked into a black hole of silence. Drone attacks, illegal cross-border interventions, extra-judicial assassinations all occur in the name of national interest. It is not in the interest of equal rights activists to support an institution that is intent on ignoring every protocol of human decency.

Face it, gays are now and have been in the military since before Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War.

The only difference being one can now admit their orientation without fear of official recrimination - a major boon for the equal rights movement! The capacity for increased carnage should not be celebrated as a victory!

I cannot help but think about those that are on the receiving end of US military aggression. So a minor change has occurred at the input juncture of the war machine, but the output remains the same: we dismantle systems of indigenous governance, support disingenuous often criminal overlords, commit endless acts of brutality, and worst of all leave entire nations rudderless, spiraling downwards into the same abyss that engulfs the US military’s lack of accountability.

I wonder what the response towards don’t ask, don’t will be overseas? I wonder if mothers across the Swat Valley in Northern Pakistan are cheering the repeal of the act (most likely not), gathering in the streets to celebrate a victory in the global pursuit of human equality, only to be forced to take cover as yet another hellfire-laden drone appears on the horizon. Hell hath no fury, as a drone operated from somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Don’t equal human rights extend to those that the Empire has mislabeled as the “enemy”? Or do we now have to ignore the fact that innocent people are being slaughtered by the thousands?

Though he wouldn’t rule out another presidential campaign himself, Nader, 76, said he hoped a new face would take up the progressive cause.

“I’m not foreclosing the possibility … There are just other things to do,” he said in an interview. “And it’s time for someone else to continue. I’ve done it so many times. When I go around the country, I’m telling people they need to find somebody.”

Nader has run, in some form with some party, in the last five presidential elections: write-in bid as a Democrat in ’92, Green in ’96 and ’00, Independent in ’04 and ’08. The strongest performance of these was 2000, when he pulled 2.72% of the vote. Since then, a combination of progressive fury from potential vote-splitting with Democrats and the problem of  actual vote-splitting with the Green Party has limited his impact upon presidential campaigns.

Does the potential replacement for Nader exist? Most rumblings on the blogosphere would say no. If you are looking for an extremely viable candidate of the left, it doesn’t look like a Senator Feingold or Senator Sanders is willing to take the plunge. Former Senator Mike Gravel has publicly stated he may run, but his showing in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary was anemic.
Then there is the Green Party. An article at Green Party Watch has a nice summary of potential candidates for 2012, but the list isn’t very pretty. There are potential candidates like Van Jones and Cindy Sheehan who could be recruited to run on star power, but they are reminiscent of Henry Wallace’s 1948 Progressive Party run – well-known, but with significant negative baggage that could impede their viability.

Then there are former candidates. Winona LaDuke still has a bit of name recognition left, but I have seen little political will from her for a run in 2012 (she did endorse a Green for Minnesota State Auditor in 2010). Matt Gonzalez remains active in politics, but he was unable to translate name recognition in San Francisco into a strong showing on the Nader ticket in 2008 in that area and seems disenchanted with the Green Party. Then there is former Representative Cynthia McKinney, whose 2008 run floundered to 6th with 0.12% of the vote.

Finally, there is the potential for a strong Independent bid. Such a campaign would not necessarily be a progressive phenomenon, but on certain issues it could probably challenge President Obama from that angle. However, only two names stick out in this regard.

First is Jesse Ventura. He publicly declared in 2008 at Ron Paul’s Rally For the Republic that he was interested in such a bid. However, he has not returned to active campaigning in years, declining to run for Senate in 2008 despite strong poll numbers. He also may have a hard time consolidating some on the left; Ventura varies between a more progressive and libertarian line in interviews. In addition, he may want to focus on his TV show Conspiracy Theory, which has been relatively successful despite a few bumps.

The second possibility is Michael Bloomberg. The Independent mayor of New York City has been tossed around as a name to run for President since 2008. His ability to self-fund is infamous, only overshadowed by that of gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. He has high name recognition for one not affiliated with the two major parties. He would likely have the support of Jesse Ventura (although Ventura oddly encouraged Bloomberg to also support his ambitions). He is at 11% in the latest polls, but he sports high negatives. Ralph Nader recently wr0te 21 reasons why Bloomberg should run while claiming it is not necessarily an endorsement. Still, that may not translate to liberal support for the man with strong ties to Wall Street.

Nader himself has a few options. It doesn’t seem like he plans to drop completely out of the limelight anytime soon, but he could return to his roots in public advocacy. He could also keep politicking in the third party world. In 2010 there was significant encouragement for him to run against Chris Dodd in Connecticut, which it seems he entertained. There has also been a bit of buzz about a 2012 run against Joe Lieberman f0r Senate. If Lieberman does run as an Independent again, Nader could leverage his national profile to turn the contest into an interesting 4-way battle.
All things considered, the left does not yet have its new Nader. But politics can be unpredictable; it only takes one story for the next big thing, or Nader, to emerge.

Despite this third party activism, Gonzalez is jumping way across partisan lines with his latest endorsement. Fog City Journal posted an open letter from Gonzalez to Nancy Pelosi. While the entire piece is worth a read, here is an excerpt:

I believe your refusal to debate [Republican] John Dennis should be openly met with the same disdain you have for public debates. I intend to vote for John Dennis and I will encourage everyone I know to do the same. No candidate who refuses to debate his or her opponent deserves the support of anyone, particularly after a history of failed leadership, such as the one you have exhibited. To do otherwise, is to sanction your refusal and encourage similar behavior by other elected representatives.

To be sure, I do not agree with all of John Dennis’ views, nor he with mine.  But on the most pressing issues facing our country today, I believe we have more points of agreement (then you or I) and I respect his willingness to publicly defend those views.

The endorsement was not entirely unexpected, as Gonzalez also attended an anti-war rally with Dennis last month.

Other progressive activists have shown similar stances towards the Republican. Cindy Sheehan, a recent Peace & Freedom Party convert who posted a double-digit showing against Pelosi as an Independent in 2008, recently stated that, “He is a good person who is truly antiwar and truly wants to make the world a better place.”

Dennis is also endorsed by Republican Representative Ron Paul, the LP’s presidential candidate in 1988.

Many people here today just woke up (whether abruptly or gradually) to the fact that the US Empire is a criminal construct capable of murdering, oppressing, impoverishing, and enslaving its own citizenry for the sake of power and profit.

Just because we awoke that day, doesn’t mean that the Bush regime was the first to perpetrate these crimes.

Speaking of awakenings, on the morning of 9/11/2001, right before I awakened from my sleep on the West Coast—I had a dream. I dreamt that I was putting a large, delicate crystal vase on the back of my toilet and it slipped out of my hands and crashed into the bowl and broke into a million pieces, some of them getting into my eyes and imbedding them into my face—my thought in my dream was: “Great, now I have to go to the ER and wait to have these splinters removed from my eyes.” The very next scene in my dream, a fire fighter was escorting me out of my office and we were both covered in soot and grime. When I awoke from this nightmare, my daughter told me of the real life horror that was unfolding at the World Trade Center.

My dream was precognitive about what was in the planning to ruin my life and this world for the neocon agenda. My life has been profoundly changed since 9/11 with the loss of my son and with personal and public struggles to make meaning of these losses and sense out of what is so senseless.

However, as tragic and awful as 9/11 was and still is, we can’t ignore the fact that this nation was never “noble” and the founders were just men, slaveholding men, that excluded women from participating in civil society—they were not gods to be idolized or paragons of virtue to want to “return to.” Our Constitution may as well have been written in the blood of our native population and nailed to every slave-whipping post in the South.

The model of a representative republic was probably not the worst model for a fledgling government, but we the people have never been represented and the plutocracy has always ruled this country. We the people have only gained mild concessions from the plutocracy and only out of decades of struggle and sacrifice.

Slaves should never have been kidnapped from their homes and brought here to suffer for the profit of the Southern Aristocracy.

Women should not have been imprisoned and beaten because they claimed the right to vote with men.

Black people should never have had to be lynched, or had dogs and fire hoses set on them so they could have equal rights with whites.

Children should never have been chained to machines and made to be virtual slaves for Northern industrialists.

Many people had to give their lives to claim rights inherent for all humanity at birth—not just rich, white, Christian Americans. And that’s just not right.

Some of you who recognize that the rulers of the US didn’t just wake up on 9/11/2001 and have an “origins of evil” moment, want to say that 1963 (assassination of Kennedy) or 1913 (creation of the Federal Reserve) were the turning points to steer this nation down the wrong path—I just want to call “bullshit” and say that those events were evil, but Andrew Jackson fought bankers and if this nation didn’t become an Empire in 1492, it did in 1823 when the Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed making the US a written in stone, dyed in the wool, no holds barred, hemispheric Empire.

We stole Mexico because of a false-flag op.

We stole Cuba and the Philippines because of a false-flag op and we said we were “liberating” the peoples from colonial Spanish oppression, to put in place an even harsher rule.

Hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens were murdered by firebombing, or nuclear bombing during WWII; millions of Vietnamese were murdered and we want to “get back to our roots?” Well, I say our roots are diseased and we need to create something new from the ashes of this Evil Empire.

This 9/11, all I can say is, they will keep coming as long as we fail to recognize that 9/11/2001 was not an isolated event and that for centuries the US has murdered people and stolen their lands and maybe, just maybe, nine years ago, the chickens did come home to roost—with the help and encouragement of the foxes.

I submit that nothing structurally changed about US Imperialism on that day, except the crimes and police state oppression of the Empire became more overt—and we the people have mostly stood down for this, because of fear.

Three thousand people were murdered on 9/11 by either the Empire or in response to the crimes of the Empire, but probably it was a combination of both. And the only thing some people find shocking is that they were Americans this time.

The Socialist Party USA had an excellent National Organizing Conference (NOC) this year in Madison, Wisconsin. The three-day event featured music, speakers and workshops that offered practical skills to enhance our activism. A little more than 50 people turned up for the event from all over the country. The relatively new South Central Wisconsin local hosted the event and these comrades performed marvelously.

Saturday’s plenary was noteworthy. Radical historian Paul Buhle gave the first speech in which he emphasized the need for radical political movements to take counterculture seriously. He lamented the early worker’s movements cleaving off of the radical bohemian elements in favor of a more workerist approach. Similarly, he tracked the development of the Beat culture as an important part of the general radicalization of the 60s.

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan was the next speaker. The many comrades who donated funds to pay for her plane ticket and housing made Cindy’s speech possible. She discussed the “so-called” anti-war movement and spoke out strongly against the way in which the movement was funneled into the Obama campaign and killed. Cindy spoke passionately about re-imagining the anti-war movement as an anti-capitalist movement that understood the links between economic exploitation and war. She declared herself a revolutionary socialist from the podium. In addition, she announced her intention to run for president in order to challenge the war candidates in 2012. Quite an exciting development for us!

Finally, Dan LaBotz, fresh off his Socialist Party campaigning in Ohio gave a fiery speech about the disappeared. Dan mentioned our disappearing jobs, our disappearing social movements and our disappearing independence from the Democrat party. Instead of capitulation or depression, he shouted “Nunca mas!” (Never again!) while offering inspirational stories about his time on the campaign trail in Ohio. In particular, Dan mentioned a noteworthy conversation with a Pakistani woman who thanked him for speaking out against the US war being carried out against people in her country.

Here are some pictures from the event:

Cindy Sheehan speaks during the plenary:

Madison’s own Raging Grannies:

Greg at the Registration Table:

Group Photo!

In a workshop…

Dinner time on Saturday night!

OAKLAND, CA – August 31, 2010 – Tomorrow, August 31st, in a fake ceremony in Baghdad, the U.S. will once again declare a false end to the war in Iraq.

Cindy Sheehan’s Statement on the “End of Combat Operations in Iraq:

First of all-this was never a war, this always has been an illegal invasion and occupation of a sovereign country and it was obviously for the monetary benefit of a few and millions of people, including my family, have suffered because of it.

The first MAJOR HOAX was that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had WMD and a connection to al Qaeda and if the US didn’t invade immediately Iraq would send “mushroom clouds, or “drones with bio-weapons to the US East Coast–the second MAJOR HOAX was that we ended the war on May 1, 2003 when then US president, George Bush, declared an “end” to “combat operations;” the third MAJOR HOAX is that the US ended a horrible dictatorship, only to be replaced with a puppet US regime that almost makes execution a national sport.

Now, with a country in ruins and the US leaving many major construction projects unfinished-we are again perpetrating a MAJOR HOAX, not just on the people of Iraq, but the people of the US.

With 50,000 troops (the 3rd Armored Cavalry is deploying from Ft. Hood, Tx to Iraq as we speak), 18,000 mercenary killers and 82,000 support contractors (staffing an Imperial Embassy the size of 80 football fields), the illegal and immoral US occupation of Iraq is far from over.

As Ret. Lt. General James Dubik said recently: “It is in our (US) interest to have an Iraq that is friendly to the US.” What he means is an Iraq that is friendly to US war profiteers.

I want to say this in the most simple and direct way that I can: “If you believe that the war in Iraq is over, and not merely carnage rebranded, then you are deluding yourself and I hope you wake up to the fact that for generations human beings have been used as pawns for the political elite-and, don’t forget, that this is an election year.”

I urge all of you to put on your critical-thinking caps and reject this propaganda and reaffirm your commitment to peace above political party.

And by way of Socialist Webzine:

Déjà vu all over again
by Cindy Sheehan -

September 27, 2017, Wasilla, AK.

Speaking from the Far-Western White House, President Sarah Palin today declared that combat operations “are over” in Iraq.

“I want to thank the American troops and their families for the heroic roll they have played in freeing Iraq from a violent dictator and in protecting American interests in the Middle East,” President Palin continued. “The troops that are not redeployed in Af-Pak, Korea or Yemen or Columbia, and remain in Iraq will now and forever be known as ‘Enablers’ and Operation New Dawn will now be known as Operation High Noon,” the jubilant President, mother of eight, and grandmother of 12, finished.

“The Palin administration feels confident that this will be one of the final times that ‘end to combat operations’ in Iraq will be declared, and this will be a robust withdrawal” a release from the White House press office stated.

Is the above scenario far-fetched? I don’t think so—I have spent all week thinking that the rhetoric around the “end” to the combat mission in Iraq has to be satire from The Onion. I feel that nothing could be so bizarre.

Barack Obama called Iraq the “dumb war” in 2003—as is: “I am not against all wars, I am just against dumb wars,” and from that tiny, lukewarm, and essentially hostile statement, he was called “anti-war.” Indeed, when I found out that Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 2009—I accused the Swede (I was in Sweden at the time), who gave me the odd news, of lying, or reading another satire from The Onion.

My son, Casey and at least 4000 more troops have been killed in Iraq since George Bush’s famous Captain Codpiece moment when he flew onto the deck of the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier near San Diego and declared an “end to major combat” in Iraq. At that point, my son’s division, the First Cavalry’s, imminent deployment to Iraq was canceled (but later rescheduled). I remember the day that happened on May 1st, 2003 Casey called me from Ft. Hood and we I discussed the fact that the war was over.

Now, in a stultifying display of déjà vu, the Obama administration is declaring another end to combat in Iraq seven years, three months, and 18 days after BushCo’s declaration. Not only is this an astounding display of re-framework, many people are going to believe it. I just saw a commentator on MSNBC(GE) telling everyone that President Barack Obama ended the war in Iraq ahead of schedule.

Dozens of Iraqis were killed this past week and I think that they didn’t get the memo about the war being over, either. People are still going to die—soldiers will still be killed because the Iraqis have always seen them as oppressors and occupiers, not saviors.

If the troops aren’t combat troops any more, then let’s take away their guns, tanks, drones, airplanes, helicopters, humvees, bases, body armor, etc and have them live in apartments in Baghdad—and speaking of that, why don’t we de-fortify the Green Zone (that was also just rebranded to “International Zone) if everything is so hunky-dory. Also, the 3rd Armored Cav that is leaving for Iraq from Ft. Hood soon should refuse to go since the war is over!

The 4th Stryker Brigade from Ft. Lewis, Washington returned home a few days ago and they yelled: “We won,” as they left the country. The US has won nothing in Iraq and what we have done to the Iraqi people (and are going to do to them) should be our infinite national shame.

Even when/if the US troop count ever truly equals zero in Iraq—the so-called war will never end for millions of people. Iraq is a hot zone of depleted uranium contamination as Vietnam is still a hot zone for Agent Orange. Empire is the curse that never stops defiling.

Even though this past week has been Bizzarro World, I know what I am going to do. I am going to pretend like the wars are still relevant and the people who are in danger have precious lives that are worth saving.

I only believed the “Mission Accomplished” BS on May 1, 2003 because I so desperately needed to.

Not this time.

Not ever again.

We’ll leave Iraq when the last drop of oil and the last nickle is squeezed out of that most unfortunate of countries with some of the richest natural resources–not a second sooner.

Peace and Freedom Party State Chair Arrested

“Someone needed to stand with the disability rights community and I did,” said C. T. Weber, Peace and Freedom Party State Chair and nominee for Lieutenant Governor. Weber was arrested at a rally on Disability Rights Day at the state capitol on Wednesday, August 18. The disability community was protesting the crippling cuts to social services in the state budget.

Twenty-two demonstrators, eight of them in wheel chairs, were arrested after they sat down and blocked traffic. However, the police vans had no ramps to take those in wheel chairs away. C.T. Weber received a head wound when a channel 3 TV camera hit him. All but one of those arrested were issued citations and released.

This is not the first time that Weber has been arrested for civil disobedience. Recently he was arrested in Congress member Doris Matsui’s district office for protesting her votes for funding the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cindy Sheehan Joins Peace and Freedom

On July 31 Cindy Sheehan changed her voter registration to the Peace and Freedom Party. She is the mother Spc. Casey Sheehan who was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004. She is the national director of Peace of the Action, the author of five books and host of her own radio show, Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox.

Cindy Sheehan holds up her new voter registration form. With her in the photo is San Francisco County Central Committee member Nancy Keiler.

Cindy Sheehan is the most recognizable anti-war activist in the US today. Since her son Casey’s death in Iraq in 2004, she has thrown herself into anti-war organizing. One high point of her protests came in 2005 as she set up a Camp Casey across from the vacation ranch of then President George W. Bush to demand an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Following the election of Barack Obama the anti-war movement has gone into a tailspin, unable to mount serious national marches, stem the tide of military recruits or hold Obama to his deadlines. On the eve of a major Anti-war Conference in Albany, NY, Cindy Sheehan shares her thoughts on the future of the movement, the Democratic Party and the need for principled opposition to the war.

Billy Wharton – I understand that you were acquitted of the charges against you from the March 20th demonstration. Your attorney Mark Goldstone called it a win for free speech. Tell us more about the case.

Keep reading….

During the campaign, many colleagues and friends of mine, assured me that Obama was just saying this hostile crap to “get elected” and once he was elected that he would “do the right thing.” Well, first of all, why support such a pandering Jackwagon, and secondly, how has that ever worked? Three days after Obama swore to uphold and defend the Constitution, he drone-bombed a “target” in Pakistan killing 3 dozen civilians—and since that day he has elevated the art of drone bombings to new heights, while the so-called antiwar movement looks on in silent complacency and while Democratic operatives disguised as antiwar groups are hoping against hope that Obama comes out strong with a new antiwar marketing campaign to assure his “re-election.” Even though not one progressive issue has been propagated during his term, these war supporters are looking forward to another four years of the dance of death. Right foot kill—left foot torture—spin around for environmental devastation—allemande left for health care fascism—and shimmy right for bankster bailouts. Wasn’t eight years of this crap during the Bush stain enough for y’all?

Many antiwar groups and people who claim they are for peace lose their minds during election season thinking that the razor-thin difference between the Democrat and Republican is enough to go ape-shit crazy in working for the Democrat. Just take the last two Democratic candidates, for example. Kerry and Obama both supported more war. An “antiwar” movement de-legitimizes itself when it works hard for a candidate who does not promise total and rapid withdrawal of troops from wherever they happen to be at the time AND does not promise to end war as an imperial tool of corporate conquest.

The majority of the so-called antiwar movement, in fact, voted for a candidate that PROMISED to contract one war only to be able to profoundly EXPAND another. Obama all along said that he is not against all war, just “dumb wars.” If there existed an antiwar movement that had integrity—it would have said that “all wars are dumb,” and we withhold our support for just another dyed-in-the-wool warmonger.

Recently, I received an email from Veterans for Peace (VFP) Chapter 136 in Central Florida asking me for an endorsement of its resolution to impeach Barack Obama.

First of all, I would like to commend the Central Florida chapter for its integrity and vision for peace that this resolution exhibits. In my own experience, it’s not even popular to criticize the Dalai Bama, let alone call for his removal from office. Kudos!

Secondly, even though Chapter 136 uses the EXACT SAME references and charges that National VFP used for its resolution to impeach Bush and Cheney, I have little hope that National VFP will pass a similar resolution at its national convention. It’s unfortunate that standards are rarely applied equally across the board. I “hope” I am wrong.

In 2005, National VFP called for impeaching the Bush criminals even before it was en vogue to be against the regime. I remember being severely and thoroughly attacked by the left, right and in between for riding to Crawford in a bus driven by VFP members that had “IMPEACH BUSH” written across the sides in huge letters. On November 5^th, 2004, I was myself in the avant-garde of calling for Bush’s impeachment just a day after his “re-election” to a second term.

In 2007, I announced my electoral challenge to Speaker of the House, Nancy “Impeachment off the Table” Pelosi because I felt so strongly in this Constitutional remedy to a criminal executive. Did I believe I would win? Just about as much as I believe that Nancy will impeach someone from her own party if she wouldn’t impeach a scoundrel like Bush.

But like VFP’s resolution says:

“We want to emphasize that our chapter’s call for the Impeachment of President Obama for war crimes is not based on whether or not Impeachment is likely to occur, but rather our call for Impeachment is based on what we as Veterans For Peace feel is our duty in the case where war crimes are being committed under the command and authority of any United States President.”

This is the text of the resolution:

IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT BARACK H. OBAMA FOR WAR CRIMES

Whereas Barack H. Obama is Commander In Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces and the head of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government; and,

Whereas the illegal U.S. invasion, bombing and occupation of Iraq initiated by the Bush administration continues under the Obama administration; and,

Whereas the U.S. government is currently engaged in illegal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and Obama has pledged to increase the number of military personnel and the amount of tax dollars spent on the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and,

Whereas the U.S. military has used and continues to use depleted uranium munitions, cluster bombs and white phosphorous in densely populated areas in violation of U.S. and international laws and treaties prohibiting the indiscriminate killing of civilians; and,

Whereas the Geneva Conventions specifically prohibit the use of especially injurious weapons and materials that cause unnecessary harm by remaining active and deadly after a battle and over large areas of land; and,

Whereas a large number of babies born in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from illness and deformity like Down’s syndrome, weak hearts, severe disfigurement and brain damage that doctors believe are caused by the U.S. military’s massive and widespread use of toxic and radioactive materials; and,

Whereas millions upon millions of Iraqi, Afghani and Pakistani civilians have been killed, maimed, poisoned and displaced from their homes as a direct result of the U.S.’s ongoing, illegal acts of war; and,

Whereas illegal, immoral and counterproductive detainee torture and brutalization at the hands of the U.S. military’s Immediate Reaction Force continue at Guantanamo under the Obama administration; and,

Whereas Obama is an accessory after the fact for obstructing justice by not initiating an investigation into numerous and blatant U.S. war crimes committed by the Bush administration for which it is manifestly accountable under the rule of law; and,

Whereas Veterans For Peace supported the impeachment of Bush/Cheney for the same war crimes that are now being committed by Obama in violation of the U.S. Constitution, U.S. federal laws, the United Nations Charter, the Hague Convention, the Geneva Conventions, The United Nations Convention Against Torture and the Nuremberg Tribunal Charter; and,

Whereas Veterans For Peace is committed to its stated mission to restrain our government from intervening, overtly or covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations, to seek justice for veterans and victims of war, to increase public awareness of the costs of war, and to abolish war as an instrument of national policy; and, therefore be it

Resolved that Veterans For Peace calls on the U.S. House of Representatives to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against Barack H. Obama for failure to uphold his sworn oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America from all enemies foreign and domestic, and for his commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, obstruction of justice and the violation of numerous national and international laws, treaties and conventions.

Note: This resolution to call for the Impeachment of President Barack H. Obama for War Crimes was debated, voted on, and approved by the members of the Central Florida chapter of Veterans For Peace on 7 July 2009.

I endorsed this call, as did my organization, Peace of the Action.

If you would like to individually endorse, or as a group:

Endorsed by:

___________________________________________________________

On this ______ day of ____________________, 2010

Please return mail or fax to:
Central Florida Veterans For Peace
P.O. Box 9012
Daytona Beach, FL 32120-9012

Phone/Fax: (386) 788-2918

see

Tony Blair: A Bright Shining Lie (Part 2) by Felicity Arbuthnot

Triangulation or Strangulation? Does Obama + Clintonistas = Bush III? by Robert S. Becker

President Obama’s Most Inexplicable Failure by Melvin A. Goodman

Government Persecutors Read my Blog! by Cindy Sheehan

Meet the new boss the same as the old boss

The Casey Sheehan “End to War” Bill by Cindy Sheehan at Dandelion Salad, H/T On The Wilder Side:

My son, Casey, joined the military in 2000, shortly before his 21^st birthday, to help pay for college. He had already completed everything he could take at the local JC and was eager to move on—but he had a fulltime job, and even though we (his dad and I) helped out as much as we could, Casey also had three younger siblings and our family was firmly ensconced in the working-class.

Well, 16 months after he enlisted was September 11, 2001—and no matter what really happened that day—I had a horrible sense of foreboding that it would lead to my son’s early death—and no matter how much I prayed, or cajoled him not to go, or worried—my worst fears were realized and Casey was killed just hours after arriving in Iraq on April 04, 2004.

There is no forced military conscription in the US today, but many will tell you that since forced conscription ended in 1973, there has been a “poverty draft.” The poverty draft has only become more successful as the economy is tanking and our young people are finding less and less opportunity for work, or, as in Casey’s case, to be able to afford college.

I have been finding it extremely difficult to find recruitment stats—I went to the DoD (Department of Defense) website and, although, the site claims the stats are published every month around the 10^th, there are no such stats available for June or July. I did see many “The DoD identifies Army (Marine) Casualties—five just for today.

I found a story that was published in the Boston Globe from March of 2009 that states beginning in October of 2008, the military was exceeding their recruitment goals each month, mainly due to two factors: the economy and confidence in Obama’s lies about Iraq.

So the beat goes on just like it always has: Poor people dying in rich men’s wars—but now instead of being drafted, our kids are willingly joining to kill or be killed for a paycheck.

I am not going to elaborate on the mountains of evidence that the longest war (The Global War OF Terror) in US history is about profit, opening new markets for the globalists, controlling precious natural resources, etc—we have been over and over this. It was no coincidence that recently it was discovered that Afghanistan is chock-full of precious minerals—or that the only countries that are seriously threatened by the US War Machine are likewise endowed: Iran, Venezuela. Certain people and corporations are making a crap-load of money—as is the custom.

I am going to propose a piece of legislation that I would love to see introduced by a courageous member of Congress—not that I really believe it would happen, but this is my dream bill that I call: The Casey Sheehan “End to War” Bill:

Immediately upon the president signing this bill into law, forced military conscription will begin.

The bill will have NO EXEMPTIONS to those who are eligible to the draft and the age limit is 18 to no upper limit. This bill seeks to draft those eligible from both genders and all gender and sexual preferences.

There will be very limited health exemptions as most people can perform a skill that is valuable to the military. As University is now open to all ages and attended by old and young alike, there will be no education exemptions. The draftees can resume or attend college when their stint in the armed forces is up. There will be no GI education benefits extended to the draftees, as they will be members of the wealthy of the US.

Citizens will be drafted in this order in the event of a Constitutionally declared war, or un-constitutionally started war, or any of these euphemisms (but not limited to) for war: police action, entanglement, theater, hostilities, occupation, special operations, interventions, cluster-fu@k, pacifications, war on drugs, peace-keeping, fighting for “freedom and democracy,” etc:

The President and his/her Cabinet and their age appropriate dependents, including spouses. No exemptions as outlined above.

Senators and Congress Members and their age appropriate dependents, including spouses. No exemptions as outlined above.

CEO’s of the Federal Reserve and Banks and their age appropriate dependents, including spouses. No exemptions as outlined above.

CEO’s of any company (including the media) that profit directly or indirectly from war and their age appropriate dependents, including spouses. No exemptions as outlined above.

Anyone who by word or deed supports the entry into war, or any of the euphemisms associated with war, and their age appropriate dependents. This includes media pundits, male or female and their age appropriate dependents, including spouses. No exemptions as outlined above.

Any citizen of the United States of America who does not fall into one of the above categories is categorically ineligible for this forced conscription draft.

This bill will also provide college tuition grants to anyone who does not fall into one of the above categories and who wishes to go to college—without having to join the military.

You may wonder who will “run” the country during time of war, but I can guarantee you if this bill miraculously was signed into law, war would immediately cease to exist. In a legitimate case of self-defense, every citizen of this country who is age-appropriate should enlist—but when was the last time this nation was in a war that wasn’t about protecting its citizens, but protecting or stealing wealth?

Anyone know a legislator who will introduce the Casey Sheehan “End to War” Bill? Seriously, if a president feels so strongly about his wars of choice, then he and his closest allies and families should be fighting them. Also, if Congress feels strongly enough to fund these wars, then they and their closest allies and friends should also fight them.

No more of OUR blood for THEIR profit. Even in the “off” chance that this bill does not get signed into Federal law, we should do everything we can as parents, educators, community leaders and peace advocates to keep our young people from dying for the people who are mandatory draftees under The Casey Sheehan “End to War” Bill.

see

Impeach Obama? by Cindy Sheehan

Howard Zinn’s “Three Holy Wars”

A People’s History of American Empire by Howard Zinn

Officially FUBAR!

“If Americans pulled back and started paying attention to this war, it would become even less popular,” a senior adviser to head of NATO ops in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal (via Rolling Stone)

FUBAR: Military slang for: Fu#ked Up Beyond All/Any Repair/Recognition. FUBAR also has a close military acronym: SNAFU: Situation Normal All Fu#ked Up.

FUBAR and SNAFU can be traced back to WWII-you know that war. That’s the war (the last constitutionally declared by Congress) that, along with the US Civil War, is the war that is held up as the shining example of the goodness, nay GREATNESS of the United States of America. The war where we freed the entire planet of fascism, Nazi-ism, imperialism and made the world safe for FREEDOM (and freedom’s Siamese Twin: DEMOCRACY)!

So, if the people who were actually in the trenches were recognizing the war, even the GREAT ONE was FUBAR-then we have only gone rapidly downhill from there. Even Marine Major General Smedley Butler (War is a Racket) pointed out that the “War to end all Wars” (WWI) just led to WWII and after he passed away in 1940: Korea, Vietnam, the Balkans, the First Gulf War and now our stains in the Middle East. As a matter of fact, since WWII, we have NEVER been at peace.

The SNAFU over the Rolling Stone article where Stanley is openly and disrespectfully critical of Obama, Biden, Ambassador Eikenberry and others is indicative of a few things to me:
First of all, there is a little known aspect of this developing story: McChrystal was given final approval over the version of the story that appeared in the Rolling Stone-a person that achieves the elevated status in the elite world of McChrystal’s rarely rises to the top without knowing the rules and without knowing how to play the game. And trust me, this is a “game.” Does anyone believe that this story was a surprise to anyone in the Obama regime, or to McChrystal? No, obviously it wasn’t-so why now?

Secondly-with a cataclysm off of our very shores that is further proof that our Military-Corporate Complex is not equipped to handle catastrophes-this SNAFU proves that the Military-Corporate Complex is not even equipped to handle wars. The Empire is crumbling, and it’s crumbling even faster than I would imagine than I predicted-so I have to celebrate the news that just demonstrates how FUBAR things are in Afghanistan. Of course, the stats of civilian deaths (yeah, right-we are protecting civilians) and NATO and US troop deaths are there. There can be no disputing facts. No matter how much one wants to think that Obama is “better than Bush” or is “better than McCain” really has to look no farther than these hard-core facts.

All of this posturing and speechifying is nothing but a distraction from the fact that our economy is FUBAR, the Gulf of Mexico is FUBAR, the wars are FUBAR and Wikileaks is set to come out soon with another video of a bombing incident that killed over 100 civilians in Afghanistan and was covered up. When Obama appointed McChrystal to this job, he knew that he had already covered up the murder of Spc. Pat Tillman.

Also, on the heels of the Marjah Offensive (“bleeding ulcer” according to McChrystal), the Kandahar offensive is approaching and with June already being a deadly month, things will only get worse.

Thirdly, of course McChrystal is offering himself up as the sacrificial lamb of the FUBAR Empire. Already, I am getting Democrats emailing me and telling me that it is “wonderful” that McChrystal is resigning because he “made Obama send more troops to Afghanistan.” Again-are you serious? Obama made gave top billing to the fact that he was going to send more troops to Afghanistan, as a campaign promise. When the “leak” came out that McChrystal wanted more troops near the end of 2009, all that did was give Obama the political space to do what he promised to do all along. “See, I didn’t really want to send more troops to a mission that was FUBAR from the beginning, but my top-ranking General in the field made me!” Wah!

“As the Iraq war winds down, Obama said, he wants to see troops redirected to Afghanistan. He said the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda was a war ‘we have to win’ and repeated his call for two more combat brigades in Afghanistan to counteract “deteriorating” conditions.” (LA Times July 16, 2008).

The problem is-and has been for decades-the Military-Corporate Complex. However, if we want valid change, we also have to look deeper.

Five months shy of two years ago, many of you went to the polls and voted for Obama because you were from mildly disappointed to wildly angry at the Bush administration. I get that emotion-I do. But even I realized that Bush was not THE problem, but only A problem. The real problem is the system that keeps killing our children and the children of other nations and cultures. It has been doing it from the beginning of our time and it will be doing it until our end if we don’t recognize that an Empire exists to feed on others to enrich, empower and give itself health. We cannot be a healthy society when we live in an Empire-no matter who sits on the throne.

The wars are FUBAR-the Empire is FUBAR. Even in the beginning it was a system for the elite. Now, we are not only the down trodden, but the trodden on. Trampled on, but not defeated yet.

Peace of the Action is calling YOU to come to Washington DC to confront the bleeding ulcers in the Gulf and in the Middle East and Asia. We also have to confront and come to terms with the fact that we are an Empire and it will be good in the long-term if it crumbles-and we are already feeling the gross-effects of the collapse in our homes and communities-conditions in the economy and ecology will undoubtedly get far worse before they get better, but if we deal with these issues as a caring community-not as a class at war with itself-we can, and shall overcome.

Peace of the Action is also calling on all troops of good conscience to refuse to participate in these international war crimes against humanity-please don’t allow yourself to be used as a token in this elitist game of destruction and death for profit! It’s far better to pay consequences for being a conscientious objector, than to be dead at a very young age-or to kill innocent people.

If you can’t make it to DC-please donate to keep us going!

Breaking news: As I was writing this, Obama announced that he accepted McChrystal’s resignation and that General David Petraeus would be taking over. Swell-another insider of the Military-Corporate Complex.  Of course, in Obama’s speech, he never even hinted that the mission was FUBAR-or that it will be re-evaluated-the Empire rolls on, just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. There is nothing “salvageable” about this disaster.

For this Mother’s Day, I am not going to write about Juliet Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day proclamation and how Mother’s Day is a “Day for Peace.”

By now, most of us are well aware of Ward’s proclamation (if not, click here) that we Mother’s should not send our sons (sic) to kill the sons of other mothers. We have strayed so far away from the original meaning of Mother’s Day, that we might as well call it “Hallmark Hooray Day,” and just let it be what it is. What I am going to write about, however, is the treatise of a military man that I think is profoundly and unfortunately still relevant.

Seventy-seven years ago, Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, Marine Corps, gave a speech entitled, War is a Racket. What made this speech so credible, if not surprising, is the fact that Smedley Butler was the highest decorated Marine of all time. Marines all over still learn about him, but they aren’t taught that he came from Quaker roots and began to castigate the U.S. and its wars of aggression.

General Butler is not too well known outside of military/peace circles. Indeed, even though I was a U.S. History major at University and most of what we learned about was war, I don’t think I had ever heard of him until about a year after Casey’s death.

I received an email from a person who had read one of my articles and he sent me a link to the treatise, War is a Racket. By the time I first read Butler’s work, I didn’t need any more convincing that Casey died for no reason but profit, but after I read it, I began to understand that the concept of “good war,” was a bogus one. Indeed, Butler says this in the first chapter:

For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

It seems like every generation, more or less, in the U.S. we have a significant war. My generations’ “War on Terror” was Vietnam. Smedley Butler wrote War is a Racket between the “good wars” WWI and WWII.

What also makes this treatise so incredible is that in 77 years, nothing much has changed. If you just change some of the names to the current crop of culprits, it is eerily identical to today.

The rich always benefit during war and the poor always pay-always, no exception.

So as I spend my seventh Mother’s Day without my oldest son on this planet, I want to close with words from Smedley:

Yes, the soldier pays the greater part of the bill. His family pays too. They pay it in the same heart-break that he does. As he suffers, they suffer. At nights, as he lay in the trenches and watched shrapnel burst about him, they lay home in their beds and tossed sleeplessly – his father, his mother, his wife, his sisters, his brothers, his sons, and his daughters.

Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox wishes all mothers a very nice day and one wish Cindy has for all mothers is that we never allow our children to join the military to fight, perhaps die and even kill other children for the profit of the few.

The American people elected Obama and the Democrats who promised to challenge Corporate America’s control over our country. Yet hundreds of thousands of hard-working Americans continue to be laid off and evicted from their homes while the bankers who created the economic crisis have continued using the $14 trillion in tax-payer bailouts and guarantees to lavish themselves with huge bonuses and salaries. And Republican and Democratic politicians have completely failed to take meaningful action to end global warming, discrimination, or the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The Northwest Socialism Conference will be a rare opportunity to discuss and debate real solutions to these problems. Don’t miss this chance to get involved, meet, and talk with activists who are organizing a grassroots movement to create a better world.

The conference even includes a debate between socialist and tea partiers.

A funny thing happened while we have been working away at the documentary of our trip to Venezuela to interview President Hugo Chavez and to bring the truth about him and the Bolivarian Revolution to light–We were so inspired by what we witnessed and our research for the project–that we want our movie to arouse a similar Peaceful grassroots Revolution here to the US.

This is not so far from the original intent of Todos Somos Americanos, (working title), but the project has grown into a love affair with true, vibrant, and relevant change.

If you have already pre-ordered your copy of Todos Somos Americanos–no worries–you will still get your movie as soon as it is finished, just with a different title.

The trailer is below (it has a brief appearance of Cynthia McKinney, the 2008 Green Party candidate for president):

Leading Voices for Independent Politics Unite on April 26 for Landmark Event at University of Wisconsin at Madison

CHICAGO, Ill., April 20, 2010 – Next week, a distinguished group of panelists from across the American political spectrum will gather to discuss electoral reform, the peace movement, and the growing dissatisfaction with both Republicans and Democrats. Panelists include Theresa Amato, Angela Keaton, Ben Manski, Sean Scallon, Cindy Sheehan, and Christina Tobin. The event will be moderated by Steve Burns, Program Director of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice. The event will be held on Monday, April 26 at 7:00 p.m in the Memorial Union at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

America’s two-party system dominates elections to the point where they act as one party. Both major parties support the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while opposition to war and foreign intervention unite people across the political spectrum. The panel will examine how those opposed to war and military intervention can hear from and vote for candidates who share their views in the face of America’s restrictive ballot access laws.

Beginning with a fictional “Mimosa Party” to unite antiwar voters, the panelists will address the dangers of the Top Two Primary initiative on the ballot in California on June 8, 2010 and other ballot access restrictions imposed by the states. Without choices on the ballot in the general election, anti-war candidates will continue to be at a severe disadvantage when challenging pro-war incumbents.

As part of this event, the Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative will hold a book signing for Theresa Amato and Cindy Sheehan at 2:00 p.m earlier in the day on Monday.

About the Panelists

Cindy Sheehan is an American anti-war activist whose son, Specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed on April 4, 2004 while serving in the Iraq War. In August 2005, she attracted national and international media attention for her extended anti-war protest at a makeshift camp outside President George W. Bush’s Texas ranch, a stand which drew both passionate support and angry criticism. She is a vocal critic of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, saying: “I don’t think much has changed since the Bush administration.”

Christina Tobin has devoted her life to protecting the rights of all people to vote and run for office. As Ralph Nader’s national ballot access coordinator in 2008, she has a deep knowledge of not only election laws, but also alternative approaches nationwide. She has helped gather over 500,000 signatures to ensure voters had a choice when they went to cast their vote. She has secured ballot lines for numerous independent candidates and alternative political parties including the Constitution, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Republican and Socialist Equality parties. Tobin is founder and chair of The Free and Equal Elections Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit, public policy and advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the rights of the politically marginalized and disenfranchised, particularly third party and independent voters and candidates. She also serves as the CEO of Free & Equal, Inc., a ballot access consulting and petitioning firm. Tobin is the Libertarian candidate for California secretary of state.

Theresa Amato served as national campaign manager and in-house counsel for Ralph Nader in his 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns. She is the author of Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny. In her new book, she provides a witty, thoughtful critique of the American electoral system. A graduate of Harvard University and NYU School of Law, she is the founder of the Citizen Advocacy Center. Amato lives in Oak Park, Illinois and is a mother and practicing lawyer.

Angela Keaton is the development director for Antiwar.com the Web’s leading source of antiwar news, views, and activities and the producer of the Scott Horton Show for Antiwar Radio. She also serves the national secretary of Outright Libertarians (GBTLQ caucus) and the chairwoman of the board of directors for the Ladies of Liberty Alliance (LOLA.) From 1999 to 2005, Keaton hosted “The Liberated Space,” the libertarian talk and news show on the controversial KOOP 91.7 FM, Austin. She holds a J.D. and M.A. from the University of Florida.

Ben Manski is an attorney and pro-democracy advocate. He serves as executive director of the Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution, a think-tank and organizing center he founded in 2004. Manski is also a principal attorney at Manski Law & Communications, LLC and an associate fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies. Politically engaged since his early childhood in Israel and Wisconsin, Manski has worked for a variety of causes, notably serving as co-chair of the Green Party of the United States, national director of the Campus Greens USA, and as midwest director for the Nader 2000 campaign. In 2001-2002, he was active on the steering committee that formed the major U.S. peace organization, United for Peace and Justice.

Sean Scallon is an author, journalist, blogger, and elected official in Pepin, Wisconsin. He is the author of Beating the Powers that Be: Independent Political Movements and Parties of the Upper Midwest and Their Relevance for Third Parties of Today. His work has appeared in The American Conservative and Chronicles, and he blogs for The American Conservative and Conservative Heritage Times. Scallon recently published the article Taking Cindy Sheehan to a Tea Party.

About the Moderator

Steve Burns, is the Program Director of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, a statewide coalition of more than 160 organizations. WNPJ facilitates activities, cooperation and communication among Wisconsin organizations and individuals working toward the creation of a sustainable world, free from violence and injustice.

On the 7th tragic commemoration of the uneccessary invasion of Iraq, Cindy will be on Democracy, Now! on Friday, March 19th to talk about it and Camp OUT NOW with Amy Goodman.

Please listen/watch!