Cindy Sheehan Resigns

Cindy Sheehan, mother of Casey Sheehan who was killed in the Iraqi war in 2004 and who camped outside Bush's Texas ranch until the world noticed her, resigned as the face of the anti-war movement yesterday. Cindy singlehandedly turned the tide against George Bush's war. She is my hero .. what courage it took to start and continue her fight .. Here's her letter to the US Congress ..

Letter to Democratic Congress
By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t | Letter

Tuesday 29 May 2007

May 26, 2007
Dublin, Ireland

Dear Democratic Congress,

Hello, my name is Cindy Sheehan and my son Casey Sheehan was killed on April 04, 2004 in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq. He was killed when the Republicans still were in control of Congress. Naively, I set off on my tireless campaign calling on Congress to rescind George's authority to wage his war of terror while asking him "for what noble cause" did Casey and thousands of other have to die. Now, with Democrats in control of Congress, I have lost my optimistic naiveté and have become cynically pessimistic as I see you all caving into as one Daily Kos poster called: "Mr. 28%"

There is absolutely no sane or defensible reason for you to hand Bloody King George more money to condemn more of our brave, tired, and damaged soldiers and the people of Iraq to more death and carnage. You think giving him more money is politically expedient, but it is a moral abomination and every second the occupation of Iraq endures, you all have more blood on your hands.

Ms. Pelosi, Speaker of the House, said after George signed the new weak as a newborn baby funding authorization bill: "Now, I think the president's policy will begin to unravel." Begin to unravel? How many more of our children will have to be killed and how much more of Iraq will have to be demolished before you all think enough unraveling has occurred? How many more crimes will BushCo be allowed to commit while their poll numbers are crumbling before you all gain the political "courage" to hold them accountable. If Iraq hasn't unraveled in Ms. Pelosi's mind, what will it take? With almost 700,000 Iraqis dead and four million refugees (which the US refuses to admit) how could it get worse? Well, it is getting worse and it can get much worse thanks to your complicity.

Being cynically pessimistic, it seems to me that this new vote to extend the war until the end of September, (and let's face it, on October 1st, you will give him more money after some more theatrics, which you think are fooling the anti-war faction of your party) will feed right into the presidential primary season and you believe that if you just hang on until then, the Democrats will be able to re-take the White House. Didn't you see how "well" that worked for John Kerry in 2004 when he played the politics of careful fence sitting and pandering? The American electorate are getting disgusted with weaklings who blow where the wind takes them while frittering away our precious lifeblood and borrowing money from our new owners, the Chinese.

I knew having a Democratic Congress would make no difference in grassroots action. That's why we went to DC when you all were sworn in to tell you that we wanted the troops back from Iraq and BushCo held accountable while you pushed for ethics reform which is quite a hoot ... don't' you think? We all know that it is affordable for you all to play this game of political mayhem because you have no children in harm's way...let me tell you what it is like:

You watch your reluctant soldier march off to a war that neither you nor he agrees with. Once your soldier leaves the country all you can do is worry. You lie awake at night staring at the moon wondering if today will be the day that you get that dreaded knock on your door. You can't concentrate, you can't eat, and your entire life becomes consumed with apprehension while you are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Then, when your worst fears are realized, you begin a life of constant pain, regret, and longing. Everyday is hard, but then you come up on "special" days ... like upcoming Memorial Day. Memorial Day holds double pain for me because, not only are we supposed to honor our fallen troops, but Casey was born on Memorial Day in 1979. It used to be a day of celebration for us and now it is a day of despair. Our needlessly killed soldiers of this war and the past conflict in Vietnam have all left an unnecessary trail of sorrow and deep holes of absence that will never be filled.

So, Democratic Congress, with the current daily death toll of 3.72 troops per day, you have condemned 473 more to these early graves. 473 more lives wasted for your political greed: Thousands of broken hearts because of your cowardice and avarice. How can you even go to sleep at night or look at yourselves in a mirror? How do you put behind you the screaming mothers on both sides of the conflict? How does the agony you have created escape you? It will never escape me ... I can't run far enough or hide well enough to get away from it.

By the end of September, we will be about 80 troops short of another bloody milestone: 4000, and MoveOn.org will hold nationwide candlelight vigils and you all will be busy passing legislation that will snuff the lights out of thousands more human beings.

Congratulations Congress, you have bought yourself a few more months of an illegal and immoral bloodbath. And you know you mean to continue it indefinitely so "other presidents" can solve the horrid problem BushCo forced our world into.

It used to be George Bush's war. You could have ended it honorably. Now it is yours and you all will descend into calumnious history with BushCo.

The Camp Casey Peace Institute is calling all citizens who are as disgusted as we are with you all to join us in Philadelphia on July 4th to try and figure a way out of this "two" party system that is bought and paid for by the war machine which has a stranglehold on every aspect of our lives. As for myself, I am leaving the Democratic Party. You have completely failed those who put you in power to change the direction our country is heading. We did not elect you to help sink our ship of state but to guide it to safe harbor.

We do not condone our government's violent meddling in sovereign countries and we condemn the continued murderous occupation of Iraq.

We gave you a chance, you betrayed us.

Sincerely,
Cindy Sheehan
Founder and President of
Gold Star Families for Peace.

Founder and Director of The Camp Casey Peace Institute

Eternally grieving mother of Casey Sheehan

Two Towns, One Choice (in News)

OK, I'm naive (make that uninformed) about the wild salmon stock. This article puts forth an economic argument for fish farming. I'm still never going to buy farmed fish. EVER .. There has to be another answer to dwindling fish populations and killing off more of the wild salmon because of the conditions caused by fish farms is clearly not it. Do we know the effects of eating farmed salmon? If they have sea lice (and what else?) and are force fed chemicals .. do you really want to eat that???? REALLY ??

I keep thinking of the words to the Joni Mitchell song, "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot"

Two Towns, One Choice (in News)

Fish Farm Committee Nails It (in Views)

OK, when are we going to get it? Fish farming is bad for the native salmon stocks. One of the issues has always been the threat of sea lice on our native population.

WHY DO WE NEED FARMED FISH??????? This is British Columbia if we are prudent, there is enough wild stock. DO NOT BUY "Atlantic" SALMON. If they can't make a buck, they will stop doing it .. DUH!!!!!! Here on the West Coast, that means farmed fish. If in doubt, ASK. If a store is selling farmed salmon, make your opinion known.

Fish Farm Committee Nails It (in Views)

Darfur

The genocide in the Darfur region of the Sudan continues and the world stands by.

Mia was recently on The View to make her case. I've also included a link to a site that explains the history of the genocide.

The world's dependence on oil is as important an issue as Global Warming. The issue within the Sudan is not about oil, but the Chinese are contributing millions of dollars to the government that is committing these atrocities because it wants access the their oil. There are those who believe the US invaded Iraq to gain control of that oil.

DO YOU REALLY NEED TO DRIVE AN SUV/LARGE TRUCK??????? OK, I'm willing to go even farther .. Do you really need that extra car? Do you really need a car? If you live in a large metropolitan area, a car Co-Op might be the answer. If you're not willing to give up your car, then plan your trips so that you multi-task. Write down your mileage and the purpose of your trip.

Today, I have an appointment to meet with the local Car Co-Op. I'm lucky that there are 3 cars within walking distance of my home. More later.

Business and Pets

Business

I just completed a 10 day Successful Consulting and Contracting Workshop in Vancouver. What a great program! We learned gorilla marketing, where to look for information to start your Marketing Plan, Public Speaking, Project Management, Proposals and Negotiating, What Colour we are and how to play nice with the other colours, Small Business Law, Small Business Accounting and how to apply for a Government Contract.

OK, so we don't know everything about all those subjects, it was 10 days after all. But at least we know where to look for more information. It was an amazing group of people, so now my brain is full and I'm fired up to move forward.

Pets

On the soap box again .. I have two cats, I paid attention to the the pet food poisonings. I was feeding my animals Innova, which was not affected, but still read any articles I could find.

This morning I was reading an article in the Canada FreePress called "No nice guys among robber barons in pet food industry", by Judi McLeod. The contaminated pet food was sold as feed for chickens and hogs and so entered the human food chain. The US FDA assures us melamine is not a threat to humans. Why am I not comforted by this statement?

The wheat gluten was bought by ChemNutra, the Las Vegas pet food supplier from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development, it was imported by Suzhou Textiles Silk Light & Industrial Products then sold to pet food manufacturers. Guess this makes a good case for the 100 Mile Diet.

A lot of pet owners are looking for alternative diets for their pets, but I wonder where we find credible information for claims of "natural" and "raw food" diets?

New Heights for Human Rights

The Ottawa Citizen has published an article on the amazing human rights activist David Kilgour. Finally, this hard working activist is getting the recognition he deserves. See the link to the story.

Meetups

I started a MeetUp group for people 50+ who want to socialize with others their age. I've gotten a good response and met some amazing people.

Who knew? Social networking for Boomers :):) It works!

I don't know if it's harder to find a group to socialize with when you're older. Seems that way, although there are a lot of amazing people who are interested in the same things you are. No boring tea parties (we are going to learn to play bridge though)

This is exciting! What a use for the internet well, besides blogging :):)

The other news is I'm attending a 10 day workshop called Successful Contracting and Consulting - an accelerated program to give you skills to start a business. Learn guerrilla marketing in a day. Really! the workshop leader was amazing and we now have the outline for our marketing plans. Now that's impressive.

TILMA

On April 1st, the BC and Alberta governments' Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) came into effect. It is a far-reaching free-trade pact which was signed without a public consultation or any debate in the legislature. The Council of Canadians is urging citizens to take a closer look at the agreement. Key areas of concern include:TILMA takes away the power of the provincial and local governments to pass any measures (laws, regulations, programs, etc.) that restrict investment, trade, or labour mobility.TILMA will result in the radical de-regulation of the B.C. and Alberta economies. All government measures will be open to challenge - even measures designed to protect the environment and public health are vulnerable to attack from corporate lawsuits with compensation penalties as high as $5-million.The complaints will be judged by an unelected and unaccountable panel of trade lawyers, behind closed doors. The public will not have any input into the panel.To learn more about TILMA and find out about local citizen actions, visit the TILMA link.

Sending Women into Combat

As a feminist, I supported sending women into combat. Dammit, if men can do it, so can we.

That was before the face of war changed. These days it appears it's just as much a public relations battle to win minds as a battle to kill soldiers. Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post, makes a good point for NOT sending women into battle. (see links for the whole article - Mother of All Blunders).

Parker's two compelling arguments are a) the West appears to be weak for sending it's women into combat and b) women are more likely to be used as propaganda tools if they are captured. Read the complete article, it's more than worth your time.

Homeless in Vancouver

Vancouver has a growing homeless problem. Part of it is due to cuts to mental health facilities as long as 10 years ago and partly because the various levels of government have ignored or bungled support for the residents of the downtown east side for at least as long.

With the Olympics coming in 3 years, the SRO (single room occupancy) hotels in the downtown east side were being bought up by speculators and spiffied up. How these people were going to recoup their investment in the few weeks around the Olympics is a mystery to me. I'd be very surprise if a family from Lethbridge is going to vacation in a neighborhood like the downtown east side.

Sam-I-am Sullivan, our mayor has proposed fining the homeless/indigents. City hall has even set up a $300,000 program to collect the fines. This is such a ludicrous idea I don't even know where to start. These people can't even scrape together enough money to provide niceties such as a roof over their head and these geniuses think they can muster up $75 to pay for a municipal fine .. then schlep over to city hall to pay it. I guess they're expected to pay on their cell phones and their platinum MasterCard.

The one bright light here .. is the provincial government bought 10 SRO hotels and a couple of condo developments in the past two months. They accomplished this through a numbered company, so hopefully they were able to acquire these properties at a fair price. This provides shelter for 495 people. These people are already in these hotels/condos, so no new beds have been created, but at least these buildings will be protected as social housing.

Simma's guest column

China's brave fighters for democracy can take hope from the lessons of the past and the current news from Poland to be free again.

They can also know the typical follow will be the fate of the Communists who are doing their killer work in China, in North America and around the world.

The news story here foretells the fate of those engaged in the mass murders of Falun gong in China. It is the tyrants' fate recorded throughout history.

"POLLAND PURGES COMMUNITY COLLABORATORS.Facing up to its Past/New law aims to identify people who served as secret police informats." Dateline is Gdansky (van sun, page C 11, top right Page C11, April 2/07)

The spies and immigrants planted throughout North America have good reason to hide out in Canada and do the dirty work for the Beijing mass murderers...

What is happening in former Communist Poland, they should know will happen to them in the not-too-distant future as the news from China tells as 20 million have left the Communist Party because of their bloody policies.

More people have been slaughtered since theCommunists took power in the 1960's (said to be 90 million) than were slaughterd by Hitler in his holocaust and Stalin in his endless purges.

Today's news from P{oland tells us this:

"Almost two decades have passed since dictatorship gave way to democracy in Poland, but after years of burying memories and avoiding the subject, this country is finally grapling with it sommunist Past. On March 15, a controversial law went into effect requiring an estimated 700,000 civil servants, teachers, and journalists to sign and oath declaring whether they collaborated with the communists secret police before the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Anyone caught lying or who refuses to sign, is fired.

"In January the new archbishop of Warsaw quite after admitting he had been an informer. Since then dozens of priests in this devout Catholic nation, have likewise been ousted as cllaborators shaking the public faith in an institution that was long seen as the only religious refuge for the totalitarian rule."

People who tasted freedom-- and know the slavery and cruelty....and massacre of tyrants--can never return to that life.

The Communists working as spies and infiltrators inside our cities, province and federal government agencies obviously should be screend out. And our own leaders -- bureaucrats and elected pro-China supporters -- should be warned that even in Canada they will be found and rooted from their careers. Unlike the anti-democracy Communists they will at least have trial and punishment under our rule of law.

But history from the beginning of time shows that tyrants and their collaborators, or supporters for greedy goals in the free world, ultimately face their support and involvement in creating and supporting the pain, torture and mass murder in totalitarian nations like Poland and China

Change Everything

The web site changeeverything gives everyone the chance to voice their opinion about changes they'd like to make. It's sponsored by Vancity Savings, a local credit union that supports green causes. Their president Dave Mowatt has been trained by Al Gore to present the Inconvenient Truth slide show.

envirowoman has a substantial following as she tries to remove plastic from her life. I've been inspired by her and now always use re-usable bags at the grocery store.

I'm slowly getting into the habit of walking to the grocery store and the the green grocer, two blocks farther up the street. This green grocer supports local growers in the summer, so I'll get exercise walking the five blocks, keep the air a bit cleaner by not using my car and i can eat locally which in turn keeps the air cleaner by reducing the trip from the producer to me as well as supporting local farmers.

Not a bad result from one small change leading to a larger change.

Falun Gong Rally

On Saturday the 31st of March I joined some friends to celebrate the 30 million people who have resigned from the Chinese Communist party.

The rally was organized by the local Falun Gong society who are being persecuted by the Chinese communists.

My friend Simma spoke at the Rally, as well as a human rights lawyer and the president of the local hospital workers union.