[Pelosi], too, is frustrated with the ongoing war in Iraq but believes that impeachment would be divisive and distract Congress from improving the lives of working families.

– spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi: Drew Hammill

The above quote from House Speaker, and my opponent, Nancy Pelosi’s spokesperson would be hilarious if it were not so damn tragic. The quote was in an article about my recent visit and speech to students, faculty and the community members at CSU San Marcos. I wonder how long Drew stayed awake to think up this quote, and I wonder if Drew and Speaker Pelosi think that we, the American people, are too stupid to realize that our lives have been “improved.”

After five years of warfare on the people of Iraq; almost eight years of warfare on the American public and about 15 months of the reign of the Democrats in Congress, working class families of America have paid the heaviest price.

The human cannon fodder that BushCo believes is so expendable and that Pelosi funds, come mostly from the working class. Over 4000 American soldiers are dead and not one of them has been named Pelosi, Bush, Cheney, or Hoyer. Not one has been plucked out of the boardrooms of mortgage bankers or war profiteers. When I was on the campus in San Marcos, I met many Iraq vets (the campus is close to Camp Pendleton) and young women whose husbands are currently in Iraq. One young woman, Ashley, told me that her husband had a torn ACL and the military would not let him come home from Iraq. He is 22 and the continued stress will probably leave him permanently disabled and he is doing a job he was not trained for. I wonder how Ashley feels now that Pelosi is considering giving BushCo more money to continue the occupation than he has even asked for to “support the troops.” When in reality, many members of Congress are invested in, or receive tens of thousands of dollars for their re-election campaigns from companies that do quite well during times of war.

Gas is over 4.00 a gallon and the price of food and other essentials are sky rocketing, accordingly. A frightening number of homes are heading into foreclosure and jobs (that doesn’t involve asking “Would you like that super-sized?”) are being lost or sent overseas. I am sure that many Americans can really use their $300-$600 or $1200 dollar “gifts” from Uncle Sam to fill up their tanks or buy groceries while George and Nancy’s friends in the investment banking industry will be able to recoup their losses via our federal tax dollars. Do you feel like your life has improved, yet?

Drew Hammill saying that impeaching the war criminals would be a “distraction” is like George’s spokesperson, Dana Perino saying that George was going to tell the Pope that we have “responsibilities to care for our brothers and sisters in need at home and across the world.” I guess the people of Iraq and Afghanistan are excluded from the “generosity and compassion” of the Bush regime.

At the end of my talk at the University, I was handed a 3 by 5 index card with this question: “We have a two-party system here in American… you may not like it, but that’s the way it is. You should just get used to it.” Firstly, with “opposition” parties like the Democrats led by Bush-buddy, Nancy Pelosi, is it a fact that we do have a “two” party system? Do we, as people of conscious and true compassion need to “get over” things that are inherently and profoundly harmful and wrong?

I would hate to see how badly off we would be if everyone thought as that questioner does? What dangerous and stinkin’ thinkin’! We must allow our political system to degrade even further because it is the system we have?

We had the system of slavery.
We had the system of all white-male/property owning suffrage.
We had the system of child labor.
We had the system of “separate but equal.”

Thank God for people like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr, who all courageously rejected the corrupt systems that they existed under and refused to get “used to” violence and oppression.

We need to boldly face up to Nancy Pelosi and her ilk who don’t want to be “distracted” from impeachment because the legislators are too busy trying to figure out how they can rape their constituents more fully to fatten the already bloated, fat-cats.

I urge you to reject the Republican-Democratic stranglehold the distinct criminal class of Congress has on our democracy and our very lives!

Political expediency is the opposite of democracy where the people are the sovereign and is also responsible for infinite death and destruction.

Hillary Clinton was not only pro-invasion of Iraq she was one of the administration’s biggest neo-con cheerleaders for it. “Saddam: disarm or be disarmed.” (Senate Floor Speech: Oct. 10, 2002 right before she gave George authorization to unilaterally and without a declaration of war from Congress, to invade Iraq). Clinton was not fooled by “super-genius” George Bush about his claims that Saddam had WMD and she also had to know that over a million Iraqis were killed and the country devastated after the inhumane sanctions imposed and carried out by her husband. She has to know, because she counts her years as first lady in her resume’ for president. Iraq was no threat to the US (or to Israel, which was also a big concern of hers). The invasion and occupation of Iraq was to be waged for the benefit of the war machine and she willingly allowed herself to be used as a tool for the evil empire.

In September 2005, I was even more idealistic and starry-eyed about the situation than I am now. I had just completed the Camp Casey experience and I was filled with hope. During Camp Casey, Rob Reiner (actor-producer-director) and his wife, Michelle started to support our efforts and the efforts of my organization, Gold Star Families for Peace (GSFP) as we made commercials featuring Gold Star family members against the war. They raised a lot of money for the commercials and their staff was graciously helping GSFP gain its 501c3 (non-profit) status. After I returned to California from Crawford, I met with Rob and Michelle at their home in Los Angeles. Present at the meeting was Steve Bing, heir to a fortune and huge Clinton supporter. At the meeting, I was told that Hillary was our “best hope” to regain the White House in ‘08, and that I should go along with the program because I didn’t have to worry, Mrs. Clinton would come out against the war when it was “politically expedient” to do so. I was appalled at this because I didn’t believe that “political expediency” was a good progressive indicator between right and wrong or life and death.

After the meeting, I returned to the “Bring Them Home Now” bus tour and one of our stops was Brooklyn where I shared this bit about “Mrs. Clinton” with the large crowd packed into a Brooklyn church. The attendees were also sufficiently appalled, but I got in huge trouble from my “supporter” Steve Bing for saying this. However, Steve decently arranged a meeting between myself and Mrs. Clinton for after the tour arrived in Washington, DC for the enormous ANSWER/UFPJ march on September 23, 2005.

I went to the meeting with Senator Clinton with another Gold Star Mom, Lynn Braddach, whose son, Travis Nall was KIA in Iraq. My sister Dede and Senator Harry Reid were also in attendance. We all poured our hearts out to the Senators and Senator Reid commented: “It seems like we need to do more to end the war,” before he left and after Senator Clinton left the meeting, she promptly walked out and told Sarah Ferguson of the Village Voice: “My bottom line is that I don’t want their sons to die in vain… I don’t believe it’s smart to set a date for withdrawal… I don’t think it’s the right time to withdraw.” I was stunned and shocked by her statement at that time, because that was exactly what George was saying. I began to speak out against her as I saw that she was a “hawk in dove’s clothing” and as dangerous as BushCo. I had to do it even though it cost me the support of the Reiners and Steve Bing. It was not a “monetarily expedient” thing to do, but, in my opinion, the right thing to do.

So now after 2200 more American deaths; tens of thousands of physical, mental and emotional injuries; hundreds of thousands of more Iraqi deaths; millions more Iraqi refugees; and hundreds of billions more dollars, Mrs. Clinton apparently now believes that ending the occupation is the “politically expedient” thing to do. Incalculable grief and suffering have transpired since our meeting with Senator Clinton in September 2005 and we won’t be able to quantify the future untold suffering that will unfold if and when she becomes president and finally decides to do the correct thing (not politically expedient thing) and start to withdraw our troops.

These wars of aggression have traumatized our nation in so many ways and we must do everything in our power to insure that we are represented by people who always do the “humanely expedient” thing over the “politically expedient” thing in every case.

I have, on occasion, seen the best of politics, but have been disheartened and disillusioned to also see the worst in politicians. I am running for political office, but heaven forbid that I will ever become a politician—I am hoping to remain a public servant—in or out of office.

I have the TV on while I am writing and I was assaulted with the images of ex-Proconsul of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer still supporting the mess after all these years and all the damage he did there and Republican presidential nominee, John McCain is in Iraq and he is extolling the virtues of the “surge” and his hundred years’ war. I am as upset with the reporting when not one of our so-called journalists questions the unfounded lie that the “surge is working,” as I am with the lies. I am upset that after 5 years and boundless suffering, the carnage is continuing and the media/military/congressional industrial war complex is still churning along fed by billions of our tax dollars and loans from our new mortgagor: China. A gallon of gas has become more expensive than a gallon of milk and people are losing their homes and jobs at unprecedented rates. Our poor dollar has become the laughingstock of the planet, as has our once feared military. But the news isn’t all gloom and doom, at least Congress is protecting us from the evils of steroid use in baseball! We can sleep at night knowing that Congress is on the job!

As I was writing, I began to hear a chorus of voices singing loudly on the street below. I got up and walked to my front bay window and was treated with the sight of Latino families processing down the sidewalk holding palms and singing a song in Spanish and the refrain was: “Santo, Santo, Santo. ” “Holy, Holy, Holy.” It’s Palm Sunday—oh, my gosh! In the life I lived before Casey was killed, I would have known this already. Palm Sunday is the day in Christian tradition when Jesus of Nazareth triumphantly rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the citizens were singing; “Holy, Holy, Holy” and strewing his path with palm fronds. Five days later, in the same tradition, Jesus of Nazareth was condemned to death by the Roman occupiers of Palestine (with the urging of the Jewish leadership and with the betrayal of Jesus’ follower, Judas Iscariot) and executed in the Roman style of crucifixion.

I live in a Latino area in San Francisco and to watch the families push their babies in baby strollers and old people in wheel chairs was beautiful and uplifting. Our previous parish in Norwalk, Ca was largely Latino and I always loved to participate in their traditions that were more interactive than the Anglo ways. But as I was watching, I was reminded that Casey was killed on Palm Sunday (which was on April 04 that year) four years ago. Tears began to stream down my cheeks as my joy once again turned to sorrow.

Easter that year and every year since has not been happy for us, although Easter falls on different days every year. We have the double whammy of celebrating Easter and mourning Casey’s death day every year in close proximity of each other. We picked out his “permanent resting place” on Good Friday. His body (encased in a cardboard box) came home to the loading dock of United Airlines at SFO on Holy Saturday; his vigil was on Easter Sunday evening and we buried him two days after Easter.

At the time of Casey’s death he was the only practicing Catholic in our family, but he was so faithful. He even went to a rosary service on the Friday before he was killed, confirmed by a First Cavalry Captain who was also Catholic and attended Mass with Casey at Fr. Hood. When we received his personal belongings from Iraq and Ft. Hood, there were about a dozen sets of rosary beads. We could never confirm if he was able to attend Mass on Palm Sunday, but the last time I talked to him when he was in Kuwait (Ku-waiting for death); he was on his way to Mass. He joined the Army to be a Chaplain’s assistant and his plans after the Army were to get married, have a family and be ordained a permanent Deacon in the Catholic Church. He was a very good person who was deceived into joining the military and killed five days in combat that he was assured he would never see.

What a contrast Casey presents to his commander in chief, George Bush. At Casey’s age when he enlisted, George was a cheerleading party-boy and marginal student. During a time when many men his age were drafted to go to another illegal war, George was able to use his daddy’s connections to jump in front of the line to be accepted into the Texas Air National Guard. After transferring to the Alabama Air National Guard, he went AWOL.

Through several failed businesses and a failed attempt at a Congressional bid in Texas, George was rewarded with the governorship of Texas after Karl Rove wove the devious spell that Ann Richards (beloved Governor) was a lesbian. By that time, George was a “born again Christian” and on the Jesus-plan of recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. In his Pontius Pilate-ness, George and his attorney, Al Gonzales, presided over the executions of mentally retarded convicts. With his family ties to big oil, he also presided over the biggest degradation of the environment and welcomed members of the Taliban to the Texas governor’s mansion. Let’s fast-forward to 2001. George had been crowned president of the USA by the Supreme Court in the same kind of coup that has brought other tyrants to power. After the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, George listening to his God, began lying about reasons to invade Iraq.

Santo, Santo, Santo. There is nothing holy about war. There is nothing moral about war and anyone from Osama bin Laden to George Bush who exploit religion to kill, maim, or oppress people are just murderous thugs and deserve to be held accountable for these crimes.

George’s “Holy war” or bin Laden’s “jihad” are simply wars on innocent civilians who are caught up in their ancient paradigms of the poor being slaughtered so the rich can get richer.

However, as the people of Jerusalem who had just been singing Jesus’ praises at the beginning of the week, shouted “Crucify him, crucify him” on Good Friday, we are each one responsible for the bloodshed and cannot absolve ourselves from our part in George’s game of evil empire.

Right before celebrating the Eucharist in the Catholic Church we are given the opportunity to shake our neighbors hands, or hug one another in a “sign of God’s peace.” At the end of Mass, we are told to “go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” In this Holy Week, let us all rededicate our lives to loving and serving each other, God’s people in peace, true peace. Not the blood-lust of the god of George and Osama.

That is the way we can wash the blood off of our own hands.

The worst thing about the performance, besides that anyone would think that almost 8 years of unpunished high crimes and misdemeanors is anywhere near approaching funny, the stellar-in-their-own-minds, Washington “Elite” and some of the press corps were laughing uproariously and gave the traitor wearing a tuxedo and a cowboy hat a standing ovation.

Cameras were banned that night and from what I understand, agreements were made that video would not be shot, but still the song can be heard on YouTube. I get the feeling when these modern day Vampires get together like this, they frequently laugh at the rest of us with their parodies of heartache and devastation and chuckle all the way to the bank when they cash their paychecks drawn on the blood of so many innocent people.

On a par with his other wickedly “hilarious” bit about looking for WMD at the Correspondent’s Dinner in 2004 right before his lies killed my son, Casey, whenever I see George tap-dancing, smirking, snickering, singing, or generally acting very undignified and un-presidential; I just want to scream: “What’s so freaking funny?” I have found many opportunities for laughter and joy over the past four years, but I still lie awake at night mourning my son who wouldn’t be in an early grave if his commander-in-chief was not such an unrepentant murderer.

I am not the only one who has been sent into a lifelong paradigm of grief and longing during the years of BushCo. There are literally millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan whose lives have been torn asunder by Mr. Vaudeville. Thousands of our own citizens in the Gulf States are still displaced from their homes by Katrina and the incompetence of the “Brownie” that George parodies in his song. Many of us have lost our jobs, our homes, our health insurance, our retirement safety net and pine for any semblance of financial security while George just wants to shake the dust of DC off his feet and head back to his pig farm in Crawford and live a life filled with “clearing brush.” I hope he’s been saving his money, because gas has just about tripled since his reign of terror began almost 8 years ago.

The death of the 4000th soldier KIA in Iraq will probably coincide with the fifth anniversary of the invasion this month. 4000 souls who won’t get a “do-over” or be able to slink off into relative peace and quiet like BushCo. Other troops have been turned into occupiers, torturers and puppy-killers and will have to have some deep therapy to be re-integrated into our society and the Washington Press Corps laugh at George’s antics like they are not also responsible for the mayhem he has unleashed on the world.

George and Dick think that they are getting off scott-free from their crimes against humanity probably because they are confident that the reich-wing, reactionary Supreme Court will support their crimes after Congress approves them.

We need to join the world community and communities like Brattleboro. Vt. in relentlessly pressing for war crimes tribunals against George and Dick, et al. For once, American regimes cannot ride contentedly into the sunset after their terms are up to live in comfort while millions of us suffer. It cannot happen this time. BushCo need to be, if not confined behind bars, confined into small prisons of their own making and be terrified to step outside their cloistered existences lest they be swept into real prisons, housed with the real people that they always condemned in their unbridled arrogance.

By my calculations there are 314 more days of the Bush nightmare left; millions of more people to kill or oppress; at least one more country on their list of impending invasions; and countless more crimes against our constitution to commit. Electing a black man with the middle name of Hussein or a woman with Bush-style foreign policy credentials will not be enough to redeem our standing in the world after 8 years of George. They need to go now. It took New York less than 48 hours to get rid of Gov. Eliot Spitzer for crimes far less egregious than BushCo’s. Unless the 110th Congress wants to go down in infamy as fiddling while George burns the world, then they had better get busy.

I was thinking what would be an appropriate gift for BushCo on the fifth anniversary of their greatest crime against humanity and I researched what would be a socially acceptable fifth anniversary gift for them. Wood is the traditional choice, and being a peace activist who is opposed to the death penalty, an electric chair did not even cross my mind (well—it did for just a second.) The modern gift on the fifth anniversary is “silverware.” I would chip in for silver-plated handcuffs that they can stylishly wear to prison.

Anyone else?

After the initial shock of having a cherished part of me violently torn away, the story that the Army told us about Casey’s death did not ring true. When a former-Lieutenant of Casey’s called a few days after his death to express his condolences, Patrick asked him the question that had been on all of our minds: “Casey was a mechanic, what was he doing in combat?” The Lt. replied: “Didn’t you know, Casey volunteered.” That story about Casey “volunteering” never sat right with me. It did not resonate with Casey’s Chaplain heart, his reluctance to go to Iraq in the first place, and his vow before he left that he would not “kill anyone” because he could not. Then to put the icing on the cake baked with lies, when the Lt. and one of Casey’s Sergeants came to his funeral, they told us what a great mechanic Casey was.

This lie was the one that I found so hard to swallow. Casey joined the Army to be a Chaplain’s Assistant and when he reported to boot camp in September of 2000, he was told that specialty was “full” and he would have to be a “cook or a humvee mechanic.” Casey picked the specialty that was the least abhorrent to him, but he didn’t like it. When the Lt. and Sgt. told me that he was a “great mechanic,” I said: “Really, he didn’t even know how to change his own oil.” This was just a small matter, but if the two soldiers would lie about a simple thing like Casey’s job to try and do damage control, then they would lie about how he died, too.

Like I said, Casey had been dead for exactly five weeks on that early Mother’s Day morning in 2004, and I hadn’t dreamed about him yet. In the first dream, I was at an outdoor amphitheater looking at the stage and I heard a booming voice over the loudspeakers say: “Specialist Casey Sheehan.” I looked up, surprised and overjoyed that he was alive. Casey walked out on stage with a can of Diet 7-up in one hand and an M-16 in the other. He was wearing briefs and nothing else. He nonchalantly put his rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger. I collapsed on the ground screaming: “The Army made Casey kill himself.” I awakened from the dream and instantly there was an earthquake in Santa Barbara that shook our hotel room.

Of course, the dream fueled my suspicions that the story the Army told us was not true. Since Casey’s death, we have heard so many stories.

About six months after Casey died, one of his “buddies” came to visit. He said that Casey volunteered for the mission, and he said: “Sheehan you don’t have to go.” Casey said: “Where my Sgt. goes, I go.” Then this Sgt. claimed that Casey died in his arms. A year later, the medic who held Casey’s brains in his head said he was alive when he got to the medic station; the doctor who tried to keep him alive confirmed that story independently from the medic.

I spoke to two un-embedded journalists who told me that Casey’s unit, the First Cavalry, was on a “search and destroy” mission and after Casey was killed in the ambush, they went driving through Sadr City slaughtering anything that moved and strafing apartment buildings in the Shi’a slum that was built for three million people but contained ten million. Martha Raddatz, ABC correspondent, wrote a book that repeated the blatant US military lie that the Mahdi Army was using women and children as “human shields” forcing the US to kill civilians. First of all, “human shields” are not a very good barrier (unless the First Cav was using sling shots and pebbles). Second, insurgencies need popular support and do not benefit from killing innocent civilians, and third, the Iraqi people love their women and children as much as we do.

The “Casey volunteered” story was repeated in Martha Raddatz’s book and she got the info from the soldiers that were in the unarmed and open truck bed that Casey was in when he was killed — regurgitating the official US military lies. Recently this email was sent to my campaign office from a soldier who was near Casey when this event occurred:

I’m very sorry what happened to casey. I knew him I was in his unit and lived across the hall. There has been something I have been wanting to get off my chest though. Why am I hearing he volunteered for the mission. He was a humvee mechanic and he honestly sucked at it. He was a great guy but a horrible mechanic. The truth is that when the 1st sgt who was scared to go out himself asked for volunteers all the nco’s literally ran to the potapottys. Sheehans chief told sheehan to get on the lmtv. Sheehan said ” no, I’m a mechanic” well I remember watching ssg (XXXX) say” get your motherfucken ass on the god damn truck” and he literrally grabbed casey by his collar and dragged him onto the lmtv. Don’t believe me you better ask somebody. That’s also what I told Martha Raddatz but I guess for some reason she didn’t think she should write it that way. Well I’m sorry but if you were told different it was a lie. This is the truth I swear on my son. God Bless and good luck, [NOTE: This email has not been altered by me: CS].

Martha Raddatz confirmed that she was told this, but did not follow up because this soldier was “not on Casey’s truck.” This account of Casey’s last minutes of life upsets me so much, but this account makes more sense to me then the other accounts. The Army had him for almost four years, but I had him for 24 years.

Iraq Vets Against the War is holding a “Winter Soldier” event soon, and they will recount stories of how they participated in war crimes or witnessed war crimes, which is not in dispute because the entire invasion and occupation is a war crime. These young people came home alive and many of them will have to deal with their demons forever as my Vietnam veteran friends still do, but we families of soldiers who were killed will also be haunted by things we know and things we will never know or never know for sure. The stories of military neglect, abuse (sexual, physical, mental, emotional) or lies are almost as many as there are troops: living or dead.

Casey joined the US Army to be a Chaplain’s Assistant, was made a mechanic, then died five days after deployment as a very reluctant infantry soldier who had never been trained in urban guerrilla warfare. Do I want to sue someone for the wrongful death of my son caused by the criminal behavior of his Commander in Chief and for the cowardice and blood-lust exhibited by Casey’s superiors in the First Cavalry? Of course I do, not to bring Casey back (obviously) but to prevent future heartache and frustration. We families cannot sue because of the “Ferris Doctrine” which prohibits soldiers or family members from suing the government if a soldier is harmed or killed while in service… even for “gross negligence.”

If we cannot sue the military or government, I want to propose a “Casey Sheehan Doctrine” that will read something like this:

Whereas, citizens of the United States have basic and profound legal rights protected by this country’s Constitution, irrespective of enacted laws or executive orders, past, present, and future, that violate, weaken, or render nil the very core of those rights, and

Whereas, US citizens serving in the US military, and by virtue of military unilateral enlistment contracts, are by default denied these basic legal rights afforded others of the citizenry, and

Whereas, wars of aggression, imperialist in nature, unprovoked in substance, and profitable by design have been deemed illegal globally, and immoral universally; and that the purveyors of such atrocious events are to be held in contempt of humanity for their crimes of war, and

Whereas, the only justifiable use of force is for protective purposes, for life, liberty, and property, the last of which may be construed to mean one’s country in a broader sense, and

Whereas, any member of the US military has the legal and moral responsibility to refuse any order that is illegal or immoral in nature, especially one that may constitute a crime against humanity, and

Whereas, the US invasion/occupation of the country of Iraq, known as the Iraq War, soon into its sixth year of prosecution, has been shown to have been caused directly on the basis of lies, deceit, manipulation and duplicity on the part of the Executive branch of the government of the United States, and the acquiescence of the US Congress, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED, that all members of the US military war machine–soldiers, marines, airmen and women, and sailors–and those adjunct to them, are called upon to follow their conscience in all matters relating to their military service; and such persons should refuse any orders that might contradict matters of conscience, morality, or law, and further

BE IT RESOLVED, that those in uniform, and families, friends, advocates, and others, of those who serve their country will seek redress for any wrongdoing, abuse, mistreatment, injury, or death upon their person; and this justice should be pursued by any means available, legal and otherwise, up to and including acts of civil disobedience.

Resolved this day of March 5, 2008

“If George Bush is pro-life, then why is Casey dead?” She could not give me an answer and did not see the hypocrisy in someone who is supposed to be “pro-life” sending thousands of our young people to die and kill other innocents in foreign aggressions based on lies and for profit.

I have always been for a women’s reproductive freedom over her own body, even in the years that I was a Roman Catholic. I never appointed myself judge or jury over a woman who had to make a very difficult choice. However, the pro-choice issue is not the only “women’s issue” in our world today…obviously!

A columnist for one of this country’s self-proclaimed “progressive” magazines talked to my campaign manager, Tiffany Burns, the other day about our trip to Egypt to protest against the client dictator of the US, Hosni Mubarak, trying civilians in a military court. Using military tribunals is forbidden under international, regional and national law in Egypt and our government is doing the same thing in Guantanamo. But the columnist kept trying to get Ms. Burns to say that I supported the Muslim Brotherhood’s attempt to take over the government of Egypt to make it an Islamic state that would not recognize women’s rights. Tiffany could not say it because it is not true, and the columnist finally said: “Does Cindy care about women’s issues at all?” When Tiffany said: “Of course, even in Egypt we met with wives and mothers…” The columnist cut her off and said: “I said women, not mothers.”

Hmm…the last time I checked, not all women are mothers, but all mothers are women. Who does Ms. Columnist think gets hurt the most in our nation’s wars for profit? I never felt more acutely a woman than when I fell on the floor screaming for my son when he was killed in Iraq. My son, the flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone. The one that I carried in my woman’s body for nine months; nourished him for 14 months more with the fluid that was manufactured in my woman’s body and tried to protect his body from harm until he was 21 and was entrapped by the US Military Industrial Complex. Would my “issue” of being a woman hurt by violence been more acceptable or palatable to Ms. Columnist if I had chosen to abort Casey rather than give birth to him?

Our illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq has not “liberated” women who were highly educated and worked as doctors and other trained professionals under a tyrannical regime. Now, after almost five years of US occupation, in many instances women are being forced to wear veils or are being forbidden from attending school. Women in Iraq are not only having to deal with daily violence and the primal fear of worrying about children and other loved ones but also they are dealing with daily primitive conditions of water, food and power deprivation. Our aggression in Afghanistan has not improved the condition of women either, and if possible, has made their lives harder. Hundreds of thousands of women (married, single, with children, or not), have been killed, displaced, wounded, raped and oppressed under the Bush regime’s destructive foreign policy agenda. Does Ms. Columnist think that my tireless efforts to end the occupations are “women’s issues?”

According to Nobel Laureate in Economics, Joseph Stiglitz, one of the three trillions that this bloody occupation have cost US taxpayers could rather have paid for: 8 million housing units, or 15 million public school teachers, or healthcare for 530 million children for a year, or scholarships to university for 43 million students. Three trillion could have fixed America’s social security problem for half a century. A peace economy is inherently more just for women, children and families, than a permanent war economy. I believe that whether one is a “woman” or a “woman who also happens to be a mother,” peace and prosperity would benefit us all.

In my efforts to call attention to humanitarian crises all over the world and in my Independent run for Congress, I have tried to deconstruct the labels and pigeonholes that we all put ourselves and others into. After creating our own personal segmentation, it is so easy for us to allow the fascist-elite of government and media to compartmentalize humanity so as to first demonize, then oppress, kill, or impoverish certain segments.

Ms. Columnist self-identifies as a “feminist” and has endorsed Obama over Clinton. Why? Does she think that Obama will be better on “women’s issues” than Clinton? I do not know and I really do not care why she chose to endorse Tweedledee over Tweedledum, but the choice seems a little strange-ish to me. If Ms. Columnist identified herself as a humanist, then I could better comprehend her choice and it would not be controversial.

I self-identify as a “humanist” and I have a fundamental hatred and disgust of oppression and violence wherever it happens or whomever it happens to.

All people who are in the human category deserve the rights to: good paying (union) jobs; a living, not minimum, wage; healthy food; clean water; warm shelter; health insurance; and good and accessible (for all) education. All people have the fundamental human rights to live in environments that are also healthy and free from war and violence or to marry or partner with whomever they choose as consenting adults.

Segmented killing and hatred will only stop when we enlarge our personal, national, and international circles of concern to include all six billion people on this planet: not just the white ones, Christian ones, American ones, female ones, or any ones.

Simply put: every one.

In my humble opinion, it is imperative that we citizens of the US look at anything that our government says, or does, with healthy skepticism. Knowing that the Bush regime did not invent lying and murder for profit, we can never go back to the days when we believed that the USA was always right and if the US kills or oppresses other humans, then it must be okay because “God Is On Our Side.” Especially when we have a “leader” who has a hot line to a God that seems particularly violent and vindictive. The anti-Cuban rhetoric has been prevalent from the establishment since I was born.

So, after being an American for almost 50 years (at that point), I expected to find a Cuba that was beat down and broken under decades of communism and the dictatorship of “Comandante Fidel” who just recently announced that he would be renouncing his role as president. Even though I expected to find a depressed Cuba, I also found it, again, very hypocritical of our government to normalize relations with a very oppressive communist government of China, but would not cut the nation of Cuba (which lies just 90 short miles off of our coast) any kind of economic slack. It may come as no surprise to people, but relations with Cuba have only grown worse during BushCo’s reign of terror.

After a few days in Cuba, talking to people on the street (who are far more educated than the average American due to free university education), I was amazed at how happy and healthy (due to free medical care—which is good, since I had to avail of it myself when I was there) l everyone seems. We visited the medical school which trains doctors from all over the world (including the US) for no tuition with the only requirement being that the new Doctor must work in a poor community for a certain number of years after obtaining a license from the country where he/she wants to practice.

Since the “Special Period” in Cuba of starvation and massive deprivation due to the collapse of Cuba’s major trading partner: the USSR; all agriculture in Cuba has been organic or permaculture and food is fresh and it tastes like food; not plastic.

One of the glaring differences in US/Cuban leadership is that after Katrina, Cuban Doctors and Emergency Medical Technicians organized to go down to New Orleans to help but the USA rejected the offer, even though, our resources were stretched paper thin, economically and strategically, by the twin disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan. However, during Cuba’s “Special Period” all the US did for our brothers and sisters down south was to strengthen the embargo against Cuba by forbidding any subsidiary companies that do business with the US to trade with Cuba. The Cubans managed to eke out subsistence through conservation, rationing and ingenuity to struggle through the Special Period. Cuban women are rightly proud of the methods they used to stretch their family’s rations by, for example, grinding banana peel to add to the food. However, I did hear horror stories of fathers watching their children slowly starve and cry from hunger. Cubans lost an average of 20 pounds each during the decade of the “Special Period” which was roughly the entire 1990’s.

When we arrived in Guantanamo Cuba, we found a small town of family farms, (and large sugar plantations) chickens, horse and buggies and horse drawn wagons. The Internet connection was iffy and we did not have hot water for showers, but I was struck by the difference between the average Cuban life and the average American life. If, like during the Special Period in Cuba, America had 80% of our imports and exports curtailed, what would we do? Would we have to dig up our concrete and plant crops to be harvested sometime after we had already starved? Would we have riots for food and other consumables? What would happen if our oil faucet ran dry? It would be pure chaos, but Cuba survived conditions like these due to their already simple way of life.

If life in Cuba is as awful as some would claim then why do they have a longer life expectancy than we do here in America and why is their infant mortality rate lower? Do we give up “quality” of life for “quantity” of material possessions? I live in a city now where homelessness is rampant and a huge challenge, whereas in Cuba, homelessness is unheard of. Is the “bigger, better, more at any cost” lifestyle of capitalism more humane than communism? Here in America our lifestyle is obtained off the backs of so many around the world, and here at home, that we have to ask ourselves if it is worth it for a few extra square feet of living space or to drive an urban attack vehicle that guzzles precious resources and belches toxic waste.

I hope the trade and travel embargo is lifted from Cuba soon. They do suffer from having to import medical supplies and other goods from China and Europe and we suffer from being deprived of the opportunity to travel to a beautiful country where the people are welcoming and generous with the little that they do have. But with the notice that Fidel is retiring after surviving over 600 assassination attempts by the CIA, even Democratic hopefuls parroted the corporate party line and there is slim chance of a lifting of the embargo. Since the USA has a detention facility on Cuban soil where we torture and hold humans in adverse conditions without the basic human right of due process under the law, how can we condemn Cuba for human rights’ violations?

After the fall of the Soviet Bloc, Cuba is learning to form positive alliances with other countries in South America and I would challenge our leaders to consider doing the same. Using our military to spread corporate colonialism throughout Latin America has led to the growth of populist governments (Venezuela and Bolivia for example), and instead of trying to undermine these governments, we should work with them to prove that we care more about humane democracy and less about supporting oppressive governments.

We need an “open-armed policy” with our neighbors in this hemisphere not an “armed and dangerous” persona. America is certainly perceived as a bully all over the world but in the case of Cuba, it could not be more exemplified.

The US talking tough to Cuba is like a lion roaring at a mouse. Reaching across the channel with fair trade and open arms will go farther towards Cuba becoming more free and democratic than strengthening embargoes that hurt families and only strengthen anti-democracy and anti-American sentiments.

Ironically, I was in Egypt because 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood are being tried in military tribunals. Trying civilians in a military tribunal is against every law one can name (except in the US where we have the Military Commissions Act that contradicts international law and our own Constitution). While I was in Egypt to stand in solidarity with the families of the accused, I heard on the BBC about six men being tried at Guantanamo for the crime against humanity that occurred here on 9-11.

I turned on the TV in my motel room just as a military officer was reading the charges against the six detainees and for a brief moment my heart skipped a beat with joy. I mistakenly believed that the officer was reading charges against BushCo: “killing civilians; destroying civilian property and committing acts of terrorism.” My happiness that someone-anyone in our nation was taking his oath to “protect and defend our Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic” seriously was short-lived, though, as the pictures of the six accused flashed on the screen.

Although the case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, et al and the 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood could not be more different, there are also some similarities. We all know that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is accused of being the “mastermind of 9-11” (hey, wasn’t that Osama bin Laden before it was Saddam Hussein?), however very few Americans know about the case of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Of course, when some people hear the term “Muslim Brotherhood” they are automatically going to be translating that into “terrorist.” These are the same people who get their “news” from Fox and believe that almost 5 million “terrorists” have been killed wounded or displaced in Iraq. These people could not be more wrong about the people of Iraq or the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). According to a scholarly article in Foreign Affairs (March/April 2007), the MB “reject global Jihad while embracing elections and other features of democracy.” The MB is a moderate Islamist group that is the largest and most influential in the world. The MB promotes change through the ballot box, non-violent protest and charity. As a woman, I may not like that the men (always nicely garbed in Western suits) wipe their hands off on their coats after they shake my hand, but they are in no way terrorists and are often targeted by radical Islamist groups that do not agree with the MB’s moderate positions.

It seems that the “crime” that the MB has committed in Egypt is winning too many seats in Parliament (as Independents as the MB is an outlawed organization in Egypt) and in coalition could have been an effective opposition voice to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who has been a puppet of American Imperialists since 1981. I heard many citizens in his country from cab drivers to tour guides derisively (and quietly) refer to Mubarak as “President for Life.” Anyway, in an early morning raid over one year ago, 40 members of the MB were rounded up in tactics that reminded me of stories that my Iraqi friends have recounted: yelling soldiers bursting into their homes in early morning raids wearing riot gear and brandishing terrifying weapons; frightening women and children and hauling off the breadwinner to be swallowed by the depths of a prison in moves calculated to instill terror and suppress dissent.

After four civilian courts exonerated the accused, Mubarak had the prisoners transferred to a military prison and given a kangaroo court trial. The families are expecting a pre-determined guilty verdict that could carry strict sentences. And of course, George Bush, who is a paragon of virtue and respects “human rights and human dignity” (BBC interview, Feb 15th) has harshly condemned Mubarak and has threatened to withhold some American largesse (Egypt is second only to Israel in US aid) due to the gross violations of international law and human rights, right? Well, not exactly. While Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, among others, has condemned the Egyptian government for this travesty, BushCo has been oddly silent.

Of course, although George can say that he has the “moral high ground” (BBC, again), of course the US is one of the international leaders in detaining people without due process and has committed water torture and other inhumane practices in the Middle East and in our own backyard in Guantanamo.

While I was in Guantanamo, Cuba and Cairo, Egypt advocating for human rights, I dared not make any judgment of an individual detainee’s guilt or innocence. Although the MB 40 have been acquitted four times, I cannot presume to judge the “evidence” that I haven’t seen, anyway. And although the confessions of the six that will be on trial for 9-11 were garnered through torture, I of course, cannot judge their guilt or innocence, because I have not seen (nor will see) the evidence against them. This is the inherent problem of military tribunals: they are neither transparent nor fair and there is almost always a foregone verdict. This secrecy is not fair to the victims either who deserve to know the “truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” and rarely receive anything resembling “the truth.”

How do these military tribunals in Egypt and Guantanamo affect us here in the US? Americans always receive fair and equal treatment under the law, right? Wrong! Madam Justice’s fabled scales are heavily weighted to benefit the wealthy or the established ruling class. Ask any person of color or poor citizen here how the American justice system works for them. There is no place for secrecy or suppression of dissent in any free, open or democratic society. In allowing these military tribunals to continue the very cornerstone of human rights is being shattered.

One does not have to be clever or have a particularly vivid imagination to fear an even harsher police state in America where any of us can be rounded up, tortured, and tried for opposing the government. Detention centers are already being built.

Besides, for argument’s sake, even if these military tribunals have absolutely no implication here in America, humans are being profoundly hurt by the policies of our allied governments that are dancing the “Totalitarian Two-step” and as MLK, Jr wrote from the Birmingham Jail:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

She has not only taken impeachment off of the table for her cohorts, George Bush and Dick Cheney, but she has taken ending the illegal, immoral and unconscionable occupation of Iraq off the table, too. Along with an almost daily onslaught of fresh assaults on our liberties, these things are clearly not acceptable.

I am running against Ms. Pelosi to challenge her lack of leadership and her abandonment of the good people of the 8th District. As a “Decline to State,” my “party” affiliation, I cannot get on the ballot in California until August for the November General Election. In a perfect world, a credible Democrat will take her on in the primaries to make her answer to her constituents on certain charges: e.g., if she knew BushCo was torturing human beings as early as 2002, why did she remain silent? Why does she continue to fund the war crimes of the Bush Regime? Why will she not advocate for the decontamination of Bay View/Hunter’s Point and for affordable housing, not just there, but all over San Francisco? Why did she exclude our transgender brothers and sisters from the ENDA legislation? Why does she support “Free” Trade agreements that hurt workers and unions all over the world? These are just a few questions that need to be urgently asked and answered because many of her policies directly contradict the values of San Francisco.

Cindy for Congress is not opposed to the idea of a Democratic challenger to Pelosi in the June primaries. We will still be continuing our challenge as we gather signatures to appear on the ballot and consolidate support for our general election victory in November. The bigger the tent, the more people can fit!

The more voices, the better the Democracy!

If all one did was listen or watch the corporate media, one would think that “Impeachment” was a naughty word. I did appear on some cable shows over the summer (before my activism transformed into a Congressional campaign) and was able to outline the rationale for impeachment, but since then, there has been a virtual black-out on the word, or concept.

On January 1st, about 400 Impeachment Activists hit the Rose Parade with impeachment posters and huge banners. There was some local coverage, but the coverage seemed to surround the issue of “politics is ruining the parade” than the issue of accountability. When we marched at the end of the parade with our large copy of the Preamble of the Constitution and our signs and banners, we were the victims of a lot of violence and rage—name calling up to and including projectiles being thrown at us.

A couple of months of go, I called for America to send handwritten letters to Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, via my campaign office. Today was the day that we delivered them to her office. We took over 8,000 letters and over 3,000 signatures on petitions to her office. We had a coalition of Americans represented in the 11,000 total and we had there present: Greens, Progressive Democrats, Peace and Freedom party members, community leaders and activists, and Independents joining hands and hearts to demand what we all think is one of the overriding issues of our time: holding George Bush and Dick Cheney accountable for their crimes against the peace; crimes against humanity; and crimes against the very fabric of what makes America a nation of laws: our Constitution.

Although we had some activists there with cameras and we will be able to put the event up on YouTube, there was not a single representative from the corporate media there to hear from Green Party Presidential hopeful, Cynthia McKinney who was the first Congress rep to introduce articles of impeachment against George Bush before her term expired in 2006.

Not one person from the media came out to hear Minister Christopher Mohammed (from San Francisco’s Bayview Hunter’s Point community) outline the local connection between Speaker Pelosi and her refusal to do her Constitutional duty to impeach George and Dick: she is complicit in the crimes and foxes don’t police the hen house.

That’s okay if the media didn’t show up: it says more about them, then us and we had dozens of patriotic Americans who did show up to help us deliver thousands of letters and we know those people (and more) were there with us in spirit.

Like Cynthia said: we must never give up! When I am elected to Congress and start serving my term, George and Dick will have 17 days to go and I will introduce Articles of Impeachment every day and will not allow them to go riding off into the sunset to enjoy their retirement when they have ruined the lives of millions of people here and all over the world.

The founders of our Representative Republic thought that the “I” word was so important, they included the word six times in the Constitution and the “G” (God) word or “PP” (political parties) word zero times.

Either we have the rule of law or we don’t.

There is still time to support Congressman Bob Wexler (D-Fl) in his efforts to get H Res 799 (Impeachment Articles against Dick) out of committee and off the table and onto the House Floor where they truly belong.

The hidden stain of female members of the military being abused by fellow soldiers, Marines, or sailors is one that is regularly ignored or glossed over by a corporate media that rejects all bad news stories from war zones and reports Pentagon propaganda like it is fact: until today, that is.

Pregnant, 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach, who has been missing since she was reported missing by her mother on December 19th has been determined to have been murdered by the father of her child (another Marine) who she had reported for rape. The corporate media is all over this tragic story because they should report it and because Maria is a very pretty, white woman.

One would have to search the internet to read about other stories of abuse. It is reported that up to 80% of females have been sexually harassed and 30% have actually been raped. Spc. Suzanne Swift was raped and sexually harassed during her tour of duty in Iraq and was going to be forced to go on a second deployment with her tormentors and, suffering from horrendous PTSD, went AWOL instead—Suzanne was punished by the military, but her attackers went free. How many cases like Pvt. LaVena Johnson’s (died in Afghanistan in 2005) ended in a tragic death that was reported as suicide—but there are indicators that she may have been killed because she reported the name of her attacker at a subsequent Doctor’s appointment.

Then there are the often reported (in alternative news) claims that female troops die of dehydration in their sleep because in 120 degree weather they stop drinking water after 3:00 pm to avoid having to take a trip to the latrine at night: trips that too often ended in being sexually assaulted. According to former National Guard General, Janis Karpinski, the cause of these deaths were covered up with the knowledge and encouragement of General Ricardo Sanchez: who was NOT punished for his part in the stain of Abu Ghraib, but Ms. Karpinski was. Hmmm….

I would venture to say with almost 100% certainty that we American families do not raise our sons to become rapists and murderers. As a matter of fact, I would emphatically state that we try and teach our sons not to do these things. I am also sure that most troops do not go to Iraq expecting to rape a fellow soldier, Marine or sailor. Psychiatrist, Robert Jay Lifton, who has studied war crimes and war criminals, states that war will always provide “atrocity-producing situations.” Our sons (and now daughters) that commit these crimes are rarely sociopaths or disordered individuals—just put in impossible situations by their civilian and military leaders and expected to act honorably when there is absolutely no honor in war.

As bad as the situation is for our soldiers and their families, and as underreported as sexual assault in the military is, we as American consumers of corporate media drivel will never know the full scope of the rapes and murders of the Iraqi people by our military. The few incidences that have hit the corporate media are quickly passed over and replaced by Anna Nicole’s death or Ellen’s dog.

I pray that the sad and horrible death of Maria Lauterbach will have the positive effect of highlighting just one in a long list of stains that have been provided by the “atrocity producing” Bush regime. I wish for her family, and the millions of families who have been devastated by the pigs of war, some kind of peace.

Our world is saturated with the blood-stains of millions of people who have been victimized by war. Death from war is one-hundred percent preventable and must be truly outlawed as any kind of way to solve problems; just, unjust; legal or illegal. The true criminals reside in places with lofty names like White House, palace and legislature. Until these people are punished, tragedies like Maria’s, Suzanne’s, LaVena’s and so many more, will continue.

Hillary’s recent emotion at the tanking of her multi-million dollar; mass pandering campaign reminded me of a scene in Mike Myers’ Wayne’s World where he, as Wayne, throws water on his face and emotes about something while “Academy Awards Clip” flashes on the screen. Hillary Clinton does not do anything that is not coldly, if not icily calculated. However, seeing her ambitions and life’s work of becoming the first female president go down into the primordial-primary ooze may be something for which she might exhibit a little emotion.

She showed no emotion when I met with her along with another Gold Star Mother: Lynn Braddach from Oregon, whose son Travis Nall was also KIA in Iraq. We poured our hearts and souls out to her and she hardly even blinked, let alone shed a tear for our heartbreak that she had been a major neo-connette chearleader for.

That meeting happened in September of 2005, just a few short weeks after we left Camp Casey in Crawford, Tx on August 31, 2005. Anti-war sentiment was high and the apex was a mass march and rally that hundreds of thousands of like-minded (many for the first time) attended in the belly of the evil empire on September 24th. Since then, the motivation and energy of the anti-war movement has ebbed and flowed with each subsequent fresh assault on peace and democracy by BushCo with the help, support and justification of “Democrats” like Hillary Clinton.

After Hillary was booed at a campaign event in New Hampshire over the weekend, I am sure that there was a high-level meeting of her campaign that came up with the strategy of the new and improved and “emotional, but not too emotional” Hillary Clinton. This is the same campaign that thought Hillary could demonstrate that Senator Mike Gravel (who chastised her in a debate about her vote to sanction Iran) was crazy by laughing at him like she was the insane one with a very bizarre and disturbing cackle. This is the same campaign that told Ms. Clinton that she should under no circumstances apologize to the families of the needlessly and tragically fallen for her support of the war that killed them. This is essentially the same campaign that handed the
White House over to Bush again in 2004. Kerry’s campaign was such a resounding “success,” Hillary thought she could run the same careful and calculated one and be victorious…seems to be a disconnect here.

America is tired of panderers and blatant political animals that carefully campaign to as not offend anyone by telling the truth.

The truth is something that has been profoundly lacking in most political discourse for many, many years — BushCo did not invent lying and deceptions, they have just elevated dishonesty to an art — the truth is hard and can be as cold as Hillary in New Hampshire in January, but I believe we all thirst for it and will drink from the cup of the candidate who offers it to us.

The top tier Democratic candidates can not run on their records, so they have to run on an ephemeral and hard to quantify promise of “change.” We need change, but do any of the top tier candidates really offer it, or will it always be more of the same old, same old until we break from the mold of the two-party duopoly that is designed to block democracy, not elevate it.

“People before Politics”
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After recovering from my disgust that a magazine which refuses cigarette and alcohol ads would help the military prey on its young female readers on two valuable pages of advertisements, I noticed that the ad contained the “Seven Core Army Values.” It struck me deeply that the Commander in Chief of the Army, and indeed all the US armed forces, would not be able to pass the “Army Strong Test.” Even though the military keeps upping the age for its recruits, at 61 George is too old. With the pathological way that he exercises, he may be able to pass the physical test, but, unfortunately for George, even though the military has been giving out a record number of “morality waivers,” there is no way that he would be able to adhere or conform to the Army Values (always glorified by capitals).

The first Army Value is “Loyalty:” Bear true faith to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit, and other soldiers. Putting on my thinking cap, I could think of very few of our elected representatives, from President to Congressperson, that can say that they “Bear true faith to the Constitution.” BushCo has defiled the Constitution in its continual quest to undermine our freedoms and democracy here in the US while they wage their constitutionally and internationally illegal occupation of Iraq. Congress has confirmed and legitimized George’s crimes against the Constitution by ratifying and always paying for the occupation, passing the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act and by not impeaching Dick and George for their high crimes and misdemeanors. Since George was a deserter from the Alabama Air National Guard during Vietnam (He was “fighting” them here, so he wouldn’t have to fight them over there), he had already failed the loyalty test to his unit long ago.

The second Army Value is “Duty:” Fulfill your obligations. George Bush had the obligation to protect our nation. His administration failed miserably on 9-11 and during Hurricane Katrina. His Global War OF Terror has misused our resources and has been a phenomenal recruitment tool for al-Qaeda. The only people that he has fulfilled his obligations to are the pigs of war that pull his strings and have profited from George’s profound dereliction of his duty.

The third Army Value is “Respect:” Treat people as they should be treated. Should innocent people be treated with bombings, murderous checkpoints, chemical weapons, rape, starvation, disease, and all of the other horrendous “spoils” of war? Even if Saddam had something to do with 9-11, why have over one million innocent Iraqis (called “collateral damage” by the war pigs) been killed and over four million forced to flee their homes? The third Army Value is a condensation of the Golden Rule, which says: “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.” An insurgency in a tiny country that was decimated from years of deadly sanctions has held off the world’s military “Superpower” but I shudder to think of the day of reckoning when we are again treated the same way we treat other people.

The fourth Army Value is “Selfless Service:” Put the welfare of the nation, the Army, and your subordinates before your own. George has treated his office like a treat dispenser for his ravenous oil buddies and his greedy family who have also profited from his administration. The Bush family does not see pain in tragedy: they see dollar signs. Bush’s grand-pappy, Prescott profited from World War Two (when it was unpatriotic to do so), and George’s little brother Neil has profited from Katrina and the No (Every) Child Left Behind Act. The Bushes do not selflessly serve this nation: they selfishly rape it.

“Honor” is the fifth Army Value: Live up to all the Army Values. Well?

The sixth Army Value is the one that I believe George gets the lowest grade in: “Integrity.” Do what’s right legally, and morally. Not withstanding its illegal and immoral mistakes in the Middle East, BushCo has exhibited an extreme lack of integrity. His office participated in outing CIA Agent Valerie Plame to punish her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, for committing a great sin (Thou shall never be honest) in the eyes of BushCo: telling the truth. George’s 2nd Attorney General, Gonzo, wrote the book on torture. The entire administration, those who have departed, and those who have remained, exploited the tragedy of 9-11 and fed the fears of many people who just wanted their families to be safe at whatever cost to their souls.

The final Army Value is “Personal Courage:” Face fear, danger, or adversity (physically or morally). Since George has failed the first six, there is no possible way that he can pass this test. George is notable for escaping from physical danger (on 9-11, during Vietnam, and grieving parents who disagree with his policies) and is a moral coward. It does not take any “personal courage” to send the sons and daughters of other mothers and fathers off to die to grease the wheels of the war machine with their flesh and blood. It takes no personal courage to order the bombings of civilians. George Bush has exhibited nothing but personal cowardice in his administration. Even though he seeks to conflate his image as a “war president” who can adorn himself with flight jumpsuits, ridiculous codpieces, and helmets, I am convinced that he will go down in history as the worst president, ever. Move over Tricky Dick—you get to go up one notch.

When we received the contents of Casey’s wallet a few weeks after he was killed by the insane policies of his sniveling Commander in Chief, there was a card in it with these same Army Values. Unfortunately, Casey followed the Values all the way to the dark alley in Sadr City, Baghdad, where his short life was ended by a sniper’s bullet. Casey could do no less, while his Commander in Chief defecates all over those same values.

Many Army recruiters do not even follow these values but they misuse and exploit vulnerable young Americans who oftentimes see no alternative than join a military that the Commander in Chief expended a lot of energy to avoid when he was their age. The only difference is that George was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and his family has been busy for generations assuring that the rest of us only get the shaft.

A tragically values-impaired Commander in Chief is quickly leading our nation down a path to disaster and it is a mystery to me why anyone is still following or why he is still firmly ensconced in that position.

Literally millions of people have suffered horribly
for BushCo’s crimes, and that’s just in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Here in our own country (Love it or Leave
it) bulldozers are demolishing low income housing in
the Gulf States that were harmed due to the very
callous incompetence of the Federal Government and to
for immoral profit privatization of everything, even
education. There has always been a war on poor people
in this country, but Hurricane Katrina and its
aftermath only highlighted how deeply racist our
Nation and its policies really still are. The Every
Child Left Behind Act has been designed to transform
our children into a generation of cannon fodder and is
just another example of how everything George touches
turns to rancidi garbage. Our country hovers near the
bottom of the global education barrel and is another
example of how we are allowing BushCo to make an
international laughingstock out of we here in the US.

On August 6th, 2001, exactly 36 days before 9-11,
George was handed an NIE that was actually titled:
“Bin Laden determined to strike in the US.” George
was on yet another vacation in Crawford at the time
and according to Ron Susskind, he told the agent who
handed him the briefing “Okay, you covered your ass,
now.” The date of August 6th is stuck in my mind
forever, because exactly four years later I marched
for the first time down Prairie Chapel road demanding
to meet with George and ask him the question: “What
Noble Cause?” That question is still unanswered and
month upon month only brings more ignobility with no
end in sight.

We all now know that BushCo ignored warnings from the
Clinton Administration about the danger that al-Qaeda
posed and we also know that they ignored intelligence
that Bin Laden was determined to strike. But after we
were attacked on 9-11, we also know that Dick Cheney
and Scooter Libby, in particular, visited the CIA on
numerous times to cherry pick the intelligence that
let to the misguided and disastrous invasion and
occupation of Iraq. Bin Laden is still at large and
two countries have been destroyed for nothing.

Now we have the NIE that says that Iran has no nuclear
weapon program and has not had one since 2003.
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersch claims that
BushCo has known at the highest levels about this
intelligence for over a year, but they have all been
beating their evil drums of war against Iran,
nevertheless.

Was anyone really surprised when George ignored the
latest NIE and in fact has spun it for the nefarious
neocon agenda? The NIE did what it was designed to do;
it estimated that even if Iran were to resume their
uranium enrichment program today, they would have one
bomb by 2010 or 2015. This is plenty of time to
enforce the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and
follow its path of inspections and verifications to
ensure that countries use their nuclear technology for
only peaceful energy purposes. Even though I am
personally opposed to nuclear energy, if Iran, or any
other sovereign country, wants the technology, then
stringent guidelines should be followed. We can also
use this time to disarm all already existing nuclear
weapons: from Isreal to Pakistan, from India to the US
and everywhere in between: such destructive devices
should not be in the hands of any country! It
especially frightens me that someone as fundamentally
irresponsible and dangerous as George Bush has his
finger on the button of our enormous arsenal. If we
should be worried about anyone being the harbinger of
armageddon, it is he.

In no way can we afford another front in George’s
Global War OF Terror. With our federal deficit at
record highs, we can’t afford it monetarily. With our
armed forces past the breaking point, we can’t afford
it militarily. With many internal social systems and
infrastructure systems crumbling, we can’t afford it
as a suffering nation. With babies and other innocents
being killed in our names already, we can’t afford it
in our souls. An invasion of Iran would not be a
“cakewalk” even more profoundly than the invasion of
Iraq was not. We would lose more of our flesh and
blood for the lies of BushCo and to profit the pigs of
war.

It can be very frustrating and infuriating to most
people that the crimes of BushCo go unpunished and
unchecked by Congress, Inc, but it is very personal to
me.

On the day my son, Casey, was killed in Iraq, I fell
on the floor screaming in anguish. That scenario has
been repeated thousands of times here in the US and
hundreds of thousands of times in Iraq and
Afghanistan. So tragic and so unnecessary, but so
unnoticed by many Americans.

There are millions of people who are still alive who
need our support.

To restore the rule of law and order and sanity to
this world, George and Dick must be impeached and
removed from office.

How much more evidence does Congress, Inc need?
Perhaps each and every member needs to be smacked up
one side of the head with a copy of the Constitution
and to follow up, a smack on the other side with a
copy of the Geneva Conventions?

Millions of people marched against the impending invasion all over the world on February 15th, 2003 in one of the most touching and amazing show of solidarity against global aggression ever seen. Since then, the pro-peace/anti-war demonstrations have been mostly disjointed with not so much solidarity.

I left the peace movement in May of this year partially in frustration over this lack of unity. At the time I was in despair over the fact that the movement had been unable to stop anything because of the egos and the infighting. Since then, the usurpation of our liberties and the killing of our children and the Iraqi people has just grown worse. The movement was unable to stop a funding bill or be united in demanding accountability for the war criminals that have been instrumental in destroying three countries, ours included.

Now after nearly 5 years of the illegal occupation of Iraq and over 5 years of the immoral occupation of Afghanistan, we all know, even those who watch the propaganda news networks and are in denial, that this war is not only gone horribly wrong from day one, but is a sham based on deceit.

Not only has our foreign policy suffered profoundly under BushCo and Congress. Inc, but the foreign war expenditures without a commensurate raise in revenue has driven our country deeply into a quagmire of debt. Our trade deficit is the largest it has ever been and 54,000 homes went into foreclosure in October. Gas is hovering around the $4.00 a gallon mark in the vicinity of San Francisco and is only going to go up. The degradation of our environment is becoming catastrophic while closeted, deviate Republican lawmakers are worried about people of the same sex having intimate relations and Democrats are too busy trying to act like Republicans while pretending to be Democrats. It is up to us—We the People.

Our country is rapidly slipping into a corporate-militaristic fascism and the peace/anti-war movement is worried about personalities and who gets a bigger piece of the pie—and I am not sure what kind of pie it is. The only thing I know about this work is that it is very difficult and requires a lot of sacrifice and commitment without resulting in much monetary reward. The rewards of true and lasting peace with an overthrow of the pigs of war who think they are globally in charge is our reward and seeing a better world for all the worlds’ children and grandchildren is what we should be striving for.

This is why I am calling for The Dave Cline/MLK, Jr. Memorial Peace Summit in January (18-20) to bring all of the various groups together so we can strategize and brainstorm more effective ways of challenging war and injustices.

We not only need to come together in a Year Five Committee to come up with effective strategies to mourn the coming Sixth Year of a mistake that should have never happened with the loss of life counted past one-million, but we need to check our egos at the door and bring a healthy longing for the unity that can finally bring the peace that will bring health and prosperity to our country and the world.

I was recently given an award by the Cranbrook Peace Institute and the ceremonies were held in Detroit, the hometown of Rep. John Conyers. I was pretty surprised that he agreed to introduce me at the event considering that the last time I saw him I was being hauled out of his office in DC in handcuffs and I have been very outspoken about the Democrats’ failure to hold BushCo accountable. I must give the Congressman a lot of credit to always show up to events where he knows he is going to be harassed about impeachment and he gave me a nice introduction reading part of my testimony in Congress regarding the Downing Street Minutes that Rep. Conyers conducted in a cramped room in the basement of Congress on June 16, 2005. In the intro he called me the “mother of the modern peace movement.”

John Conyers and I have had a cordial relationship that goes back to that June day when we believed that we were taking profound first steps in peacefully and lawfully overthrowing the Bush crime regime. Rep. Conyers wrote the intro to my first book: Not One More Mother’s Child; I am mentioned in his brilliant analysis of the reasons to impeach BushCo and I was with him at the People’s State of the Union in 2006 just hours before I was arrested at the War Pig State of the Union address for wearing a t-shirt. Whenever I am in DC, I just have to call his office and he always makes time to see me. His commitment to our country is decades long: from being a veteran of the military and Civil Right’s campaigns to serving in Congress for over 40 years. He is on the right track by seeking universal, single payer health care. He has been correct on so many issues that progressives hold dear and that’s why it is so puzzling to me and the so many others in the progressive community why he will not institute impeachment proceedings for the criminals who are only getting worse since Conyers wrote the book on impeachment, not better. It’s not as if BushCo has found a new propensity to follow the law and as a matter of fact, the 110th Congress has made a habit of legitimizing and legalizing the crimes.

A brief recount of the reasons Conyers lists for impeachment in his book is: Deception (lies that led to war), manipulation (of intelligence and the tragic events of 9-11), torture (our new AG is not so sure about torture), retribution (against “enemies” i.e.: Valerie Plame and Bunnatine Greenhouse: Halliburton whistleblower), illegal surveillance (which Congress recently approved) and cover-ups. All of the charges are brilliantly documented and proved by John Conyers’ brilliant staff, which has also inexplicably become anti-impeachment along with most of the rest of the failed and failing 110th Congress.

At the peace events in Detroit, I also had the high honor of holding a dialogue with young peace and social justice activists in the Detroit area. A young Hispanic girl had the floor and she recounted the feeling of hopelessness that she and her peers were feeling about the future. She cried when she said: “We feel like we have no future.” If BushCo are allowed to continue their crimes against peace, humanity, civil rights, basic human rights and the environment, unchecked, then the young lady may be tragically correct in her analysis.

The Democratic leadership has made a mockery of our Constitution by excising “awkward” parts out of it. For example, by invoking “Title X” (Contempt of Congress) which is a harsher punishment against protesters that leads to harsher penalties, such as being banished from Capital Hill for a determined amount of time, they have killed the pesky First Amendment Rights to free speech and peaceable assembly.

By confirming Michael Mukasey for Attorney General and approving the Military Commissions Act, Congress has stripped away our Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. By suspending habeas corpus we are denied our Sixth Amendment rights to fair and speedy trials and to confront our accusers with an attorney present. Congress has also abrogated its Constitutionally mandated role of declaring war to a bloodthirsty Executive Branch and have invalidated Article II; Section 4 which states that a President and Vice-President “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

The Dems were swept back into power off of the backs and energy of the anti-war left and they have betrayed us by surgically removing important parts of the Constitution. Cardinal Mahoney of the Los Angeles Diocese calls such picking and choosing of what to believe or disbelieve in the Church as “Cafeteria Catholicism,” I call disregarding parts the Constitution: “Treason,” and the only way that Congress can redeem itself from infamy is to follow the road map that has been laid out for us centuries ago and declare the phony “War on Terror” over and restore our country to sanity by impeaching the people who have led us down this highway to hell.

We must not let Congress off the hook by allowing them to let BushCo off the hook.

We are collecting handwritten letters to Speaker Pelosi to deliver to her office demanding that Resolution (H Res 799 introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich) to impeach the cruel and callous puppet master, Dick Cheney, be given the attention and resources that are needed to go forward with an indictment in the house and a trial in the Senate on the crimes outlined by the Resolution. We already have a couple thousand and we will deliver them to the Speaker when we reach 10,000. Let’s flood her office with letters as if she is Santa and we want impeachment on our Christmas table.

We need to leave the young people of the world with hope that rule of law will be restored in the US and that future presidents will know that their hands are at least restrained by two co-equal branches when it comes to invading countries contrary to international law, US law, and basic human dignity.

Send your letters demanding the Speaker go forward with HR 799 to:

Cindy for Congress
1260 Mission St.
San Francisco, Ca 94103

For a sample letter go to: www.CindyforCongress.org

“People before Politics”
Support Cindy for Congress!
www.CindyforCongress.org

The second story had to do with a six year old boy nicknamed the “Deer Slayer” because he has killed six deer in the past year; the last one being a 140 pound doe. There was film of his mom showing him how to aim and the proud papa extolling the brilliance of his son. His prowess with the gun is being celebrated and he was being feted as a prodigy. One can only imagine the potential of this talented young man and deer all over his community should tremble at his name.

I profoundly resonated with the pain that the parents are still feeling after years of a legal struggle to see justice for their son’s murder. Even though the mother admitted that the execution of their son’s killer would not bring their son back or bring an end to their suffering, they are eagerly awaiting the death of another mother’s son and are planning a celebration for this Saturday.

Even if there were a humane way to execute convicted killers, the death penalty has not been proven to prevent or even inhibit the high incidences of violent crime in this country. We are the nation with the highest amount of gun violence and also the highest number of executions in any “First World” country. Obviously, executing people does not prevent other murders. Justice is of paramount importance, but so is social justice and one has to wonder, along with family dysfunction or environmental poison, what societal deprivations lead people to commit horrible crimes.

I cannot resonate with a family that exalts in killing other living beings and teaches their little Deer Slayer to use weapons to line their walls with trophies of God’s beautiful creatures. This story reminds me of Little Georgie Bush who enjoyed putting firecrackers in the anuses of frogs and blowing the defenseless creatures up. How hard will it be for the Deer Slayer to take his marksmanship skills and march off to war to slay humans for another bloodthirsty Commander in Chief in about a dozen or so more years?

While the CNN moderator, Heidi Collins, was definitely leaning to the side of executing the convicted child-slayer, I was reminded of the hostility that I have received from her colleagues all over the airwaves for wanting justice for my son’s murder.

Everyday I am bombarded with the voice and pictures of Casey’s murderers. On Veteran’s Day the Coward Cheney, who got 5 deferments from going to Vietnam, desecrated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. That same day Coward George, who went AWOL from the Alabama Air National Guard, told a group in Waco, Tx, that our soldiers are dying for a “Cause that is noble.” From all credible evidence that one does not see on CNN, BushCo lied to our world and millions of people are dead, wounded or displaced and the Cowardly Duo are free to roam and continue their serial crimes.

I have always been against capital punishment. However, I never judged family members for wanting to see justice for their loved ones murders. I was not in their shoes, but I hoped that if a similar thing happened to one of my children, that I would be able to live out my belief that all killing is wrong. There has been the rare, yet sacred, case where a loved one has forgiven his/her child’s killer and has begged courts for life in prison, and not execution. Unfortunately, I was forced into those shoes by the deception and greed of my nation and I can say that I do not wish death for George and Dick, but it doesn’t even look like I will get any kind of justice for my son’s death.

With impeachment “off the table,” I can hardly look forward to mere imprisonment for those responsible for my child’s death.

Decades ago, our nation was responsible for the deaths of millions of American soldiers and Vietnamese and the total destruction and contamination of an entire country, and not one person was held accountable for that disaster: not even the Lieutenant who was responsible for the My Lai Massacre.

Our national identity rests on and has been formed by violence and greed. Congress has a chance to slow down, if not reverse, that cycle but will give George Bush billions more to wage their (the mess belongs to all the branches co-equally) illegal occupation because, instead of protecting life and liberty for all, they viciously protect the life and liberty of their elitist club only.

We are the only ones who can slow down this vicious, bloody cycle by looking at our own paradigms of right and wrong and peace and justice and being non-violent actors and not knee-jerk reactors on this stage called life.

The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: My own country, I cannot be silent.

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yesterday was the day that our nation “celebrates” Veteran’s Day. For most people it is a day to sleep in and catch up on shopping, chores and other errands. For me, and too many others, it is just another especially hard day in an endless litany of hard days since Casey was killed in Sadr City on April 04, 2004.

A few days ago, I flew into the Houston Intergalactic airport for an event with the Houston Peace and Justice Center. As I was descending the escalator, I saw a contingent of about 15 people holding a big sign that said: “Welcome Home Anthony.” The excited people were holding flags and balloons and Anthony’s mom, who was fairly jumping up and down with joy, had a t-shirt on that read: “Proud Army Mom.” Although I was very happy for the family, I sat on the floor by my baggage carousel and wept when Anthony finally rejoined his family to the applause and cheers of everyone waiting for their luggage.

I wept because I will never be able to forget Casey’s final homecoming. My family and a few of our closest friends were picked up at our home on Saturday, April 10th by the funeral home’s limo. We followed the hearse to San Francisco International Airport. Normally a gregarious group, we mostly sat in stunned, shocked silence in the back of the limo.

When we arrived at SFO, we had to wait at the United Airlines loading dock while Casey’s cardboard encased body was loaded from a fork-lift onto a conveyor belt that conveyed his senselessly lifeless body into the back of the hearse while we all sobbed. No honor guard. No glove clad pall-bearers treating his remains with respect, just two visibly shaken United employees. Then we sat on the curb for over a half hour waiting for Casey’s First Cav escort who we never saw again. His job was to certify the remains after “they” got to the funeral home. After that, it was the viewing, the vigil, the funeral mass, the burial, the growing feelings of betrayal and bottomless pain.

Even though I have not been silent about our nation’s biggest export, violence, since Casey was killed and I have been on this quest for peace and justice, I have also had to reconcile myself with my part in Casey’s death. I have to beg his spirit for forgiveness for not being a better mom to him and not taking the responsibility to educate myself about the deviousness and callousness of the Military Industrial Complex which runs roughshod and unchecked all over the planet. My son is dead because of my ignorance and that is a fact that I must deal with everyday and will be dealing with until I rejoin him in the only Mother-Child reunion that George has made possible for us. I was among the zombie-like “patriots” who unconscionably and tragically gave one of my children to the murderous elite in this country to kill and be killed to line their already over-flowing pockets.

I have begged forgiveness from the people of Iraq for not doing more to stop my son from being an occupier of their country and an oppressor of their people. If I cared as much for all the children in the world, I never would have raised a child that would have gotten anywhere near the US military. In the Pledge of Allegiance, we robotically recite the line, “One Nation, under God,” as if the USA were divinely appointed to murder other people (From our own indigenous populations to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan) when we should be saying: “Every Nation is under God.”

Part of my Mea Culpa for not being more aggressive in trying to prevent Casey from going to war is to try and enlighten other mothers and fathers to the awful truth before they have to experience the tragedy my family has had to go through.

While the coward Dick was desecrating the Tomb of the Unknowns and George was babbling to a group of Gold Star Parents that he met with in Waco, Tx, yesterday, hundreds of thousands of loved ones were in mourning because of their actions. Tens of thousands of our loved ones are injured either mentally, emotionally, or physically and millions of Iraqis are dead, displaced or devastated and the Bush Crime Mob continue to walk freely among good people.

Please take the lesson from Veteran’s Day as “Never again.” Never again will we send our children to fight for the criminal ideals of the war pigs and never again will we allow ourselves to be manipulated by false patriotism and exploitive fear of whomever the war pigs say we should fear.

We should “fear” the pigs of war and never follow them down paths of destruction again!

Surprisingly, my friend Sam, received little protest over inviting me, but there was a “Support the Troops” rally in the room next to where I spoke. Some Camp Casey friends accidentally went into that room and only heard the speaker call me names like “scum” and he called the rest of the people at my event “peace fairies.”

I was heartened to find the first three rows of my speech were filled with young people who were smiling and vigorously nodding their heads at everything I said. Most of the audience clapped or laughed in the right places so I was feeling pretty good. However, I was a little sad when there were some snide snickers when I had the unmitigated gall to call Iraqis “human beings.”

During the “Q and A” part, the first question I received amazed me. Now, I was raised Protestant and received an excellent training in the Christian scriptures and I know after being a Catholic for 25 years and a Catholic youth minister for nine of those years, that the average Catholic does not know a great deal about the Bible as most of their religious training is in the tenets of the Catholic faith. Here’s how many Catholics quote scripture: “It’s somewhere in the Bible,” when, in my experience, many times they are actually quoting: “Poor Richard’s Almanac.”

An emphasis on the biblical support for the teachings of the church was never used as long as I taught in the church using the approved teaching materials of the church, but the depth of ignorance of Jesus of Nazareth exhibited in the first question still had the ability to astonish me.

The question printed neatly on a 3 by 5 index card was: “How do you reconcile your progressive ideals with your faith?” I answered the question that Jesus cared about the poor. He admonished us to “feed the hungry” “clothe the naked” “heal the sick” “visit those imprisoned.” Jesus performed a stunning feat of civil disobedience by over-turning the tables of the moneychangers in the temple and was subsequently executed by the Empire of his time. Jesus was the ultimate progressive radical. Jesus’ name is exploited by our materialistic society at Christmas time when he changes from the right-wing Christian warmonger to the “Prince of Peace.”

Jesus welcomed the “least of these” to his table. He didn’t exclude sinners, lepers or prostitutes who were the pariahs of his day. Today, I am convinced that if Jesus returned he would welcome gays and non-white people (even “illegal” immigrants) to commune with him. The only people I ever heard Jesus speak badly about were the “brood of vipers” (Mt 3:7) that were the Sadduccees (Democrats?) and Pharisees (Republicans?) who in the parable, with hypocritical piety, walked right by the man who had been beaten, robbed and left by the side of the road to die without helping him and they turned his “Father’s” house (the Temple) into a “den of thieves.” (Mt. 21:12).

My question for the questioner was: “How do you reconcile your faith with supporting war and killing?”

If Jesus came back today and was a politician, I know, because of my faith in the inherent goodness of the Universe, that he would not be a “politician” but a public servant. Jesus would be in favor of single-payer health care, solar and wind energy, unions, free post-secondary education, Social Security, fair trade, free speech, civil rights, and human rights. Jesus would be against the death penalty, torture, extremist religions that exploit His Name for profit, extremist states that exploit His Name to kill innocent people, and the ultimate crime against humanity: war.

Whether one is a Christian, Jew, Muslim, or like me now: nothing, Jesus of Nazareth and his story is still worth studying and emulating. At the risk of sounding judgemental, I have a feeling that these reactionary Christian extremists are going to be shocked when they go to meet their maker and find out that Jesus wasn’t kidding when he said “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God” (Mt 5:9) The converse of that saying is: “Cursed are the warmakers for they are not the children of God.” There is a very relevant saying of Jesus in the Bible that these self-proclaimed “Christians” should also pay closer attention to:

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:43)

Wise words for everybody to strive to live up to: From presidents to college students and everyone in between.

On November 6th, Dennis Kucinich exercised a Congressional privilege and introduced his bill, H Res 333 on the House floor to impeach Vice-Criminal Richard V. Cheney. Some people question the timing of introducing the resolution on that day. Was it just motivated by the proximity to the Iowa Caucuses? Is Dennis actually concerned with our Constitution and preventing a seeming impending attack on Iran? Either way, a resolution to impeach any, or all, of BushCo has been long overdue and was supported by many of the progressive base which is clamoring for peace and accountability.

As soon as the resolution was introduced, House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer (D-Md) made a motion to “table” or kill the resolution. The vote to do so was supposed to last for fifteen minutes, but lasted for over an hour as the vote, which was at first 3 to 1 to kill the resolution, started tipping the other direction as repugs started to switch their votes from the “yea” to the “nay” column (not because they are finally growing some true patriotism, but because they almost always cynically use political manipulation). From the first, the Democrats overwhelmingly voted to kill the resolution, following their treasonous leadership who are boldly asserting that parts of our Constitution dealing with impeachment; spying on Americans without warrants; and incarcerating Americans without due process or torturing human beings are no longer valid. BushCo and Pelosi/Hoyer’s Congress, Inc have rewritten the Constitution with the blood of almost 4,000 Americans and over one million innocent Iraqis.

After Hoyer’s obedient move to kill the resolution was unsuccessful, he immediately made a motion to send the bill to Congressman John Conyers’ (D-Mi) House Judiciary Committee. That motion passed with most Democrats voting “yea.” So more than likely, Dennis’ motion of today can languish in committee along with the one that he introduced straight to committee seven months ago. Yesterday Rep. Conyers’ defended the Speaker’s traitorous demolishing of the Constitution by saying: “If she (Pelosi) were to let this thing (Justice, maybe?) out of the box, considering the number of legislative issues we have pending…it could create a split that could affect our productivity for the rest of the 110th Congress.” Well, with the 110th Congress’ past “production” of pissing off Turkey and giving George billions of more dollars to continue the deadly (2007 worst year for deaths in Iraq) occupations while legitimizing George’s crimes, affecting their “productivity” might be a good thing.

Deposed House Majority Leader, Tom Delay is a criminal that used his position as Leader as a personal financial windfall for his family and his contributors. Tom Delay was forced to step down as Majority Leader as a slew of scandals rocked his office and the affects are still being felt in other members of Congress. Nancy Pelosi’s selection as Speaker was groundbreaking, and way past time, as the first female Speaker, but she has been, not only a failure but a disaster to democracy. She admitted it herself last week when she said she would give Congress low ratings, too. She acts like she is a helpless player in this national order of things. If only the world wasn’t filled with “Senators and Republicans,” then she would be able to do her job! If the world wasn’t filled with Senators, House Reps, Dems and Repugs, my son would still be alive and I would still be a working Mom in Vacaville, Ca. We often have to work or make do with a set of circumstances that are not ideal, but that should not prevent us from doing our jobs with integrity and courage. It shouldn’t prevent us from being effective, but when it comes to Congress, Inc, it mostly always does.

Even though I am once again disappointed (but not surprised) by the antics of the House of Representatives today, I have never been in favor of impeaching Darth Cheney, only. In fact, Dennis told me a few days before he introduced H Res 333 that he was going to do so. Dennis and others have argued that if we impeach George first, then Dick will be president. Well, who doesn’t believe that Dick hasn’t been president for the last nearly seven years anyway? If Dick is impeached first, then George will appoint a new V.P. that could be just as bad, if not worse, and we all know that Congress will immediately roll over and approve George’s choice (with a few token “grumbles”). I have always been in favor of impeaching them both, simultaneously, but I am not so sure anymore. If George and Dick are impeached, then someone who is as much of a tool of the corporate establishment, Nancy Pelosi would become our president for the final months of an already catastrophic failure.

The entire bunch of co-conspirators with BushCo, that some people call the “Democratic Leadership” need to be removed from their positions of power in the House. Particularly, Nancy and Steny need to make way for some leaders who will represent the progressive base and not abuse our commitment, passion, and organizations any longer.

There are a few things that we can attempt to keep Dennis’ dream (and ours) alive:

Contribute to Dennis’ presidential campaign. Yesterday, Republican candidate, Ron Paul raised over four million in one day: giving his candidacy a profound shot in the arm. Show Dennis some support and love by donating to him. He put himself in front of both sides of the aisle and that takes a certain amount of integrity and courage.

Contact Congressman John Conyers to urge him to now do his duty to investigate the charges in H Res 333 by holding hearings and actually enforcing subpoenas.

Call other members of the House Judiciary Committee.

Call Congressman Jerry Nadler whose sub-committee has been using H Res 333 as seat cushions for seven months.

Support my candidacy and other independent, progressive candidacies. If there is no good candidate in your district, run yourself, or search for one to encourage and support.

No matter how corrupt, calculating, callous and contrary Congress seems, never give up! The establishment would love for us to go away and be silent so it can continue its raping and pillaging of everything that is important to us.

We are awake now, and we must never go to sleep again.