Independent candidate Cindy Sheehan (center) and Campaign Manager Tiffany Burns (left)
head to the San Francisco Department of Elections Friday to formally declare
Sheehan’s intent to challenge Speaker Nancy Pelsoi for the 8th Congressional seat.
Photos by Luke Thomas
By Luke Thomas
April 28, 2008
Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan filed papers Friday at the San Francisco Department of Elections formally declaring her intent to challenge Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the 8th Congressional District seat.
Sheehan, 50, is required to gather 10,198 signatures by August 28 for her name to appear on the November ballot as an independent candidate.
“I think even if you don’t agree with me and you’re not going to vote for me,” Sheehan told Fog City Journal, “it helps democracy to support as many candidates as possible to get on the ballot.”
Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed April 4, 2004 in Iraq, said she made the decision to run for Congress in July after Pelosi refused to take impeachment proceedings against President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney - for war crimes against humanity – off the table.
“My platform includes repealing the Patriot Act, the Military Commission Act, restoring habeas corpus and restoring the rule of law in our country. But my initial impetus for running against Pelosi occurred when she took impeachment off the table,” Sheehan said.
Pelosi, who initially voted against going to war in Iraq, has provided Bush with a blank check in all but one war appropriation since the US invaded Iraq in March 2003.
“No blank check,” for Bush has been Pelosi’s catchphrase while co-signing over $500 billion to continue fighting a war based on lies.
Pelosi maintains her support for war appropriations has nothing to do with supporting the war.
“As long as our troops are in harm’s way, we have to take care of them,” Pelosi told this writer in May 2006. “There’s just no question about it. We cannot leave them abandoned. They didn’t make the policy.”
Meanwhile, 4,052 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, 29,829 have been wounded and/or maimed for life as a result of Pelosi’s tacit support for the “war on terror.”
According to independent Vice-Presidential Candidate Matt Gonzalez who is running on a ticket with Presidential candidate Ralph Nader, all that Pelosi has to do to stop the war is to stop the funding.
“The Democrats have been saying they can’t stop the war because the President will veto,” Gonzalez said during a fundraiser for Sheehan last week. “It’s incredible, the majority and the Speaker could keep an appropriations bill from even being considered in the US Senate – you don’t have to pass anything. All you have to do is stop the war appropriation.”
Gonzalez continued, “You can do it through a majority vote, or, if you’re not competent in that, you can filibuster. And the only way to stop a filibuster is the closure vote, which requires 60 in opposition, which means 41 Senators stops an appropriation bill. You stop the war. They’ve already got 50 plus an independent in their corner,” Gonzalez explained.
Independent vice-presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez
Sheehan Campaign Manager Tiffany Burns said she was confident the campaign will gather the required signatures by the August deadline. She said public events to be headlined by Rage Against the Machine and Gore Vidal will help to draw interest in Sheehan’s campaign.
“We’re going to be out on every street corner in the city between now and the end of August,” Burns said.
Sheehan Campaign Manager Tiffany Burns.
For her part, Pelosi told Larry King last week when asked about Sheehan’s campaign: “I don’t even think about it much. You know, I have a day job.”
Despite Pelosi’s dismissive tone, Sheehan remains confident she can beat Pelosi.
“This is a winnable election,” Sheehan said. “I am going to beat Nancy Pelosi.”
Cindy Sheehan receives consolation for the death of her son, Casey,
from a warm-hearted Republican who said she could not vote for Sheehan
because she believed the war in Iraq was necessary
“to keep the terrorists from blowing up the Golden Gate Bridge.”
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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The Hunger Site
April 28, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I agree totally with Cindy.My daughter just returned from a business seminar and when she shecked in at the air port she set off the alarm because her pants had zippers around the legs and she was taken into a room and patted down like a criminal and they had a lady check her out and she even checked between my daughter’s legs.I have to tell you my daughter is not some younf kid she is in her late 40’s and was so humiliated.I told her that the free country she grew up in is completly gone,our government has turned us all into criminals by treating us like this.I only hope that Cindy can win against the establishment as Nancy Pelosi supports bush and his buddies and has no right to be in her position as she has done nothing she promised to do in the last election.GO Cindy