She was speaking to Cindy Sheehan which is the only reason we were listening to The Randi Rhodes Show (Sandler was filling in for Rhodes).
We listened before Cindy came on (click here for that lead up and Cindy's appearance) with an uneasy feeling. Nicole is one of the many who should introduce herself into the microphone as, "Just another whore for Barack."
Cindy Sheehan illustration by Betty's kids.
We wanted to say something nice. We tried really hard but then the whore brought up that the draft should be brought back. That, she maintained, would change everything and bring back opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's when she then went on to make that appalling statement we started the piece with: "Not enough of us are being impacted directly like you were with your son."
Cindy's son, Casey Sheehan, was killed serving in Iraq (April 4, 2004). Cindy Sheehan is, of course, Peace Mom. She's put her whole life on hold in order to make sure that no mother has to go through what she did. (See Ann's "Thoughts on Cindy Sheehan, courage and other things.")
Red water in the bathroom sink
Fever and the scum brown bowl
Blue steel still begging
But it's indistinct
Someone's hi-fi drumming Jelly Roll
Concrete concentration camp
Bashing in veins for peace
Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire
Fall into Lady Release
-- "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire," music and lyrics by Joni Mitchell, from her For The Roses.
So with Cindy's history, we think that's especially appalling for Nicole to have said to Cindy. But setting aside who she was talking to, zoom in on what she said: Not enough us are being impacted directly like some are as a result of US service members dying.
Not enough of us are losing family members to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Does that not appall you?
It should.
And what's amazing is that "Just another whore for Barack" Nicole Sandler wants to bring back the draft because she wants more people to die in these wars. Now she can whine that she's been misinterpreted but her words were clear: Not enough of us are suffering deaths in the family.
"Just another whore for Barack" can propose killing thousands if not millions (of Americans -- she had no concern for Iraqis or Afghanistan and her 'concern' expressed on air were finanical costs of the wars) but she can't call out Barack.
That's how pathetic things have become.
Standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona
And I'm quite sure I'm in the wrong song
2 girls 65 got a piece tied up in the
Back seat
"Honey we're recovering Christians"
-- "In The Springtime Of His Voodoo," written by Tori Amos, first appears on her Boys For Pele.
We started this writing edition with a number of pitches. A number of different topics we'd hoped to cover. And not one of them was something like this. But the phone started ringing and people started making suggestions to us (the Cindy radio interview was suggested by a producer for ABC News). One of the things we did last week was work on children's charities and that made our own perspectives different. But, as Al Paciono says in Godfather III, "Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in."
Being able to focus on real issues last week (children's medical needs) allowed us to skip the never ending Obama Drama forever coming out of the White House. We were able to ignore his gaffes, his crimes, his spin, his enablers and his justifiers. We were able to focus on real issues with out hearing them distorted by Barry O's army of whores.
And, yes, another world is possible.
But no one's there yet. So we're back in the sewer with Barack.
And as we grappled with that and the various friends phoning to suggest topics, Ty presented us with an e-mail on, symmetry, Cindy Sheehan.
A very angry supporter of Cindy Sheehan felt she had lost all support. The e-mail (a) took us to task for not being in DC, (b) took us to task for not promoting her events in DC and noted that (c) David Swanson hadn't promoted her events at all and is just as bad as we are.
We're all dreamers
We're all whores
Discarded stars
Like worn out cars
Litter the streets of this town
-- "This Town," written by Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin, first appears on the Go-Gos' Beauty & the Beat
We'll grab the last one first. We're asses, we're bitches, and every other term you wish to apply to the irritant that refuses to be silent and just go-along-to-get-along. Our purpose online is to be the voice saying what others refuse to or what others attempt to pretty up. Which is why we're nothing like David Swanson.
David Swanson thinks Barack belongs in prison but fails to say so publicly. David Swanson passed around Rebecca's e-mails -- apparently for sport -- and when confronted with that fact by Rebecca, he attempted to lie and insist she was "crazy." No, she wasn't crazy. One of his forwards came back to Rebecca. We're nothing like David Swanson. We don't try to offer false cheer and hope and trick you into believing us.
And we certainly didn't see our role in 2008 as clearing out the Democratic Party's nominee field for Barack Obama. We certainly didn't whore and pretend Sarah Sewer and the other counter-insurgency gurus (those inlcude Samantha Power) weren't Barack's inner circle.
We don't follow David Swanson. So we typed in After Downing Street and learned he'd changed his site to War Is A Crime. We then went through, page by page, last week.
No, he didn't promote Cindy's events. Not at all.
Did this site?
Last week, "Truest statment of the week II" was Cindy Sheehan (her "Where Have all the Peaceniks Gone? by Cindy Sheehan" ) and noted "Cindy Sheehan and Peace Action have already kicked off "Sizzlin Summer: Independence from oil, Free Palestine, Anti-drone & Counter Recruitment Protests, July 4th through July 17th" in DC. For a breakdown of the activities, click here." Last week (this site only publishes on Sundays) was the fiction edition and, as Jim made clear in his "A note to our readers," it wasn't an easy writing week.
In addition, we're responsible for The Common Ills. Videos of Cindy's actions in DC were noted in "Did the Justice Dept cut the wrong deal?," the attempts to silence her were covered in "A bomb threat outside the White House should be news" her schedule for last week was included in "Iraqi women and women in Iraq" and her column was quoted and DC actions noted in "Violence, like Operation Happy Talk, never ends." Is that enough? If you ask us, it's not. But it's all that was managed. And sometimes that's all you can do. (It's also true that Peace of the Action announced a cancellation due to the heat and it wasn't clear to those of us not in DC whether that was going to be one cancellation or more. As a result, the events themselves were not promoted after that cancellation due to the lack of clarity. During the interview Saturday, Cindy made clear that events continued next week.)
As for DC, we have lives we put on hold to go all over the country speaking out against the illegal war. We're tired of it but we continue to do it. And, when possible, we spend more time in the DC area by attending Congressional hearings and speaking in that area with the excuse that we have to be at whatever hearing. But we've been doing this forever and a day and we've agreed to six more months (taking us through this year) but we're not going to think beyond that.
In the river I know I will find the key
And your voice will rise like spray
In the moment of knowing
The tide will wash away my doubts
'Cause you're already home
Making it nice for when I come
Like the way I find my bed turned down
Coming in from a late night out
Please keep reminding me
Of what in my soul I know is true
Come in my boat, there is a seat beside me
And two or three stars we can gaze into
-- "Like A River," written by Carly Simon, first appears on her Letters Never Sent.
July is an important month for us personally due to a number of family events and, each July, at this time, we are home for these two weeks. We're not on the road. We're focusing on our charity work and on our families. This isn't scheduled in June, this is a standing schedule. (And on schedules, Dona does our schedule and schedules events months ahead. If it weren't for Dona and her scheduling, we'd never know where we were headed next so thank you, Dona.) And having given a minimum of 46 weeks each year to speaking out against the wars all over the country, no, we're not going to feel guilty that we're not in DC this week. For one of us (Ava), that's been basically the last four years, for the other (C.I.) that's been since the month before the Iraq War started (Feb. 2003) and we're tired. Doing our board work last week felt so productive, felt so wonderful and provided us with a grounding we rarely feel. Most weeks, we're stumbling around trying to play catch up.
she said, 'what?'
he said, 'you.'
she said, 'what are you talking about?'
he said 'you.'
right birds can fly so high
or they can s**t on your head
they can almost fly into your eye and make you feel so scared,
but when you look at them and you see that there beautiful
that's how i feel about you.
right birds can fly so high
or they can s**t on your head
they can almost fly into your eye and make you feel so scared,
but when you look at them and you see that there beautiful
that's how i feel about you.
yeah that's how i feel about you.
she said, 'thanks'
'i like you too'
he said, 'cool'
-- "Birds," written by Kate Nash, from her Made of Bricks.
So that's our reply to the e-mail and we're not offended by it. We hope the woman writing e-mailed many people about these events. Particularly because Cindy's efforts have gotten so little attention so some people (maybe even David Swanson) may honestly not be aware of them.
Cindy Sheehan: [. . .] but this is the first time in literally years that I've been on Randi's show.
Nicole Sander: Well.
Cindy Sheehan: So I'm glad. I want to say hi to all the people who are listening that got used to hearing me on the show. But I think that we have to realize that it doesn't really matter if we're Democrats or Republicans or our leadership is Democratic or Republican, there's a really corrupt, ingrained system that we have to struggle against. And if we all -- in every two to four years -- break in opposite camps and, you know, even within the left there's so many different layers of what it means to be on the left If we don't start working together and figuring out ways that we can, you know, be very effective against the system, you know, not to have this-this left and right, but right and wrong. And to coalesce around that as Americans and as members of humanity then it doesn't matter who's president, we're not really going to get the change that we need.
We will give Sandler credit for having Cindy on and we'll even note that, as a guest host, she has to stick to the rules of the program and might have been more vocal on her own program. (She plans to have Cindy on her own program this week. We believe Monday.)
But it's really something -- and it's really sad -- that someone would go so far as to suggest bringing back the draft in the hopes of ending the wars but still couldn't call out Barack Obama who is the one continuing the wars. It's really something and it's really sad.
The draft did not stop wars. That's something that everyone wants to pin their hopes on because then they can stay home and do nothing (other than cheer Charlie Rangel on with his plan -- we love Charlie but he's wrong on this issue). As Cindy pointed out, the draft didn't end the Korean War. And as we've pointed out before, these claims that fear of being drafted accounted for the peace activists during Vietnam overlooks the fact that women were a huge number of the activists and women were not subject to the draft.
It's also nonsense because 'everyone' -- even if "everyone" is used just to define men -- was not drafted or at risk of being drafted.
And who are these men? Who are these men? Let’s talk for a minute about these masters of war, these same men that are sending our sons and our daughters, our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers to fight an undeclared and unconstitutional and unwinnable war for them. Let’s talk about their service records. Karl Rove did not serve. Paul Wolfowitz did not serve. Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Elliott Abrams, Newt Gingrich did not serve. Jeb Bush did not serve. The list goes on and on. And we know George W. did not really serve.
-- Jessica Lange, DC peace rally, September 2005 (link has video, audio and text, Democracy Now!)
The return of a draft isn't the answer. Criticizing the wars while acting as if George W. Bush is still guiding and continuing them isn't the answer. Making excuses for a War Hawk isn't the answer.
Cindy knows the answer, Cindy's showing the answer. The only way the wars end is when those responsible for continuing them are held accountable.
It's really amazing how hard so many work to avoid that very simple answer.
One small voice
Speaking out in honesty
Silenced, but not for long
One small voice
Speaking with the values we were taught as children
Tell the truth
You can change the world
But you better be strong.
-- "One Small Voice," written by Carole King from her Speeding Time.
See, the solution isn't just a Carole King song, it's a lesson that was instilled in long of us long, long ago in the form of the children's story "The Emperor Has No Clothes On." No one wants to state the obvious, everyone looks the other way. It takes a brave child to state what everyone should have already been pointing out.
Cindy Sheehan's doing the brave thing. It's a real shame so many are so scared of calling out Barack. It's a real shame that so many Democrats have proven to be as craven as so many Republicans were during Bush's era. Because wrong is wrong. Wrong doesn't change and become "right" because a different person does it. "Bad" doesn't transform into "good" just because a new leader oversees it.
These are fixed points on the scale of humanity -- illegal detention, murder, occupations -- and these are wrong. They are wrong no matter who does them. They are wrong no matter how many justifications are served up or how many turn off the porch lights and pretend they're already asleep. These actions are always wrong.
And everyone knows it.
Cindy just happens to be the person brave enough to say it.
Love is a Rush of Wild Wind;
The Scent of a Summer Rose
A whistle blowing on a distant track
and when it goes, it goes
I know that tale I've heard it told
How bruises reach down to the soul
A love once warm, turns icy cold
And I know that
Love is a Rush of Wild Wind;
The Scent of a Summer Rose
A whistle blowing on a distant track
and when it goes, it goes
-- "And So It Goes," written by Barry Miles, Maya Angelou and Roberta Flack, first appears on Flack's Oasis.
And, from Peace of the Action, here's this week's DC schedule:
COUNTER-RECRUITMENT:
DOWNLOAD EVENT FLYER
For this week, we will be targeting recruiting centers and defense contractors and lobbyists—and we will do some special “lobbying” of our own on Capitol Hill. (The POTA DC Trial has been inserted into this week because of the recent scheduling by the court.)
July 12th (Monday):
– Peace of the Action DC Trial
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet
July 13th (Tuesday):
– Peace of the Action DC Trial
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet
or (trial may be one day or two. so we have two options this day.)
– meet in Lafayette Park at 9am
– group to move together to Military Recruiting Station (TBA) and protest until 3pm
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet
July 14th (Wednesday):
– meet in Lafayette Park (North Side of White House) at 9am
– group to move together to Military Recruiting Station (TBA) and protest until 3pm
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet
July 15th (Thursday):
– meet in Lafayette Park (North Side of White House) at 9am
– group to move together to War Profiteer (TBA) and protest until 3pm
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet
July 16th (Friday):
– meet in Lafayette Park (North Side of White House) at 9am
– group to flyer, bullhorn in LaFayette Park and in front of the White House
– evening to post protest pics, videos and articles to Internet
WEEKEND:
July 17th (Saturday):
– POTA Retreat (location TBA 2pm to 5pm)
This will be an intense think tank session on the future of Peace of the Action and the future of anti-war protests in the U.S. With small numbers, where should our limited resources be focused? We have to dream up an entire movement based on very low numbers and very limited funds—bring your creative solutions and a positive attitude that a better world is possible!
– POTA Dinner/Rally (possible picnic Lafayette Park)