Cindy Sheehan - IRS withdraws summons

[outsider]

Some good news from Cindy - the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has withdrawn summons on Cindy Sheehan for withholding tax on the grounds of not being willing to fund America's wars of aggression; they gave no reason:

http://www.benchmarkemail.com/c/v?e=277659&c=1BD0F&l=54F3802&email=hkD 5xbPiZY07s3t5lf49q70v%2BJ%2BpfEDoeeWRGMtRs94%3D&relid=4C4A98BD

[outsider]

Latest newsletter from our feisty Cindy Sheehan:

Spring Rising:
An Antiwar Intervention in DC:
http://cindysheehanssoapbox.bmetrack.com/c/v?e=70C148&c=1BD0F&l=54F380 2&email=hkD5xbPiZY07s3t5lf49q70v%2BJ%2BpfEDoeeWRGMtRs94%3D&relid=48332 CA0

WRAP-UP (PART ONE) by Cindy

My analysis of the situation that we find ourselves in is that much activism in the US (whether it is around war, the environment, social injustice, or economic injustice) is so easily manipulated by propaganda and partisan political pandering.

The impetus for Spring Rising was the continued wars for US Imperial domination and the fact that the 2016 elections are coming up and soon our lives will be consumed by that fact. As if we should care that Ted Cruz threw his proverbial hat in the ring when every single Dem/Rep candidate will be nothing but

corporate shills and warmongers under this Capitalist system. I.e.; Hillary just appointed a Monsanto executive to her 2016 campaign committee. It’s all a game where the 1% always win and the 99% always lose.

So, we called for four days of activism in WashedUp, DeCeit to oppose ALL US military intervention (even that perpetrated by a Democratic Peace Prize Laureate). The events were better that I hoped for in terms of energy and excellence, but attendance wasn’t anywhere it needed to be considering the conditions under which we gathered.

Wednesday, March 18

On Wednesday, we had about 60 people come from all over the country (California, Washington State, North Dakota, Oregon, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, Mass, Pennsylvania, etc) for our Spring Rising Meet and Greet at the Congregational church of longtime peace and social justice advocate Rev. Graylan Hagler.

It was a social event that was topped off by a great concert by David Rovics

Thursday, March 19th
Lobby Day with Code Pink

War Criminal Bus Tour

“You can’t throw a stone in Washington, DC without hitting a war criminal.” ~~~Cindy Sheehan

On the Thursday, Spring Rising, led by your perky tour guide Cindy Sheehan, organized a bus tour in WashedUp, DeCeit touring major perpetrators of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.

Our first stop was gathering at the Capitol building where a cop would not let us stand and hold our banner so people could see us. Of course, in the seat of The Greatest Democracy of All Time™ one cannot freely express themselves in a “peacable” manner because our rights stop “South of 3rd” according to the Capitol’s finest.

The first stop after we loaded up the Peace Bus was Mordor—or, the Pentagon as it is more commonly known. Access to protesting at the Pentagon is severely restricted to a “Free Speech Zone” so we decided to go to the 9/11 Memorial and followed more tour buses onto the property, but, interestingly enough, our bus was the only one surrounded by cop cars and forced to pull over. Our lead organizer Malachy Kilbride of DC said, “this is not normal.” My response was, “It is for me whenever I am here.”

We walked from where we were allowed to park the bus to the memorial which is about a 10 minute walk. Our group was harassed multiple times on the way and we didn’t see other groups being similarly harassed. However, our group was probably the only one that contained a father of one of the victims of 9/11: Bob McIlvane, whose son Bobby was killed in the towers. We were probably also the first group there to protest the response to 9/11 by the US.

Bob McIlvane, Cindy Sheehan and Cindy Heil at Mordor

Bob gave a very moving talk about how his life and his family’s lives have been affected by what he calls the “murder” of his son. That’s what I call my son’s death in Iraq: “Murder,” Pure and simple. Not only were Bobby’s and Casey’s deaths murders, they were premeditated murders and the people who killed them (and millions others) have never been investigated, or prosecuted.



After leaving Mordor, our next stop was the Department of Energy, which as our main speaker there, Paul Mango, shared with us that the DOE is not so much in charge of managing a clean, sustainable, and sane energy policy for the US, but with managing the nation’s nuclear power and nuclear bomb program. The department’s budget is a also a way to make our
crazy-high “defense” budget look not so high. The nuclear weapon budget is not included in Mordor’s budget but the last time I checked nuclear bombs are THE weapon of mass destruction.

Our next stop on our war criminal tour was to the FBI and DOiJ (Department of Injustice). We had two speakers there to talk about Black Lives Matter and social justice: Eugene Puryear and Sue Udry. While we were there, an interesting thing happened. Right after our group exited the bus and gathered near the front of the J. Edgar Hoover Building (it seems the bigger the crook you were in life, the bigger the statue/building/airport named after you will be), the security made our bus drive off.

So we waited for about 10 minutes listening to the great speakers, and our bus didn’t return. We felt like he would just circle (square?) the block and come back and get us. He didn’t come back and a friend rode his bike around looking for him and no bus. All of our stuff, including the phone number for the bus driver, was on the bus!

After about an hour and backs and forths with the person who was our contact at the bus company and the bus company, we discovered that the driver had gone all the way to our next stop which was blocks away and not walking distance and the temperature was dropping as our time was getting short.

So, the bus came back to fetch us at the FBI/DOiJ and we had to cut several stops off the tour and headed to AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee) where Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK spoke and where there was a spirited demo. AIPAC represented the stop where foreign governments have VAST influence on our Military Empire.

After AIPAC, the bus dropped us off at the White House where we had another spirited (if small) demo where we also got to have some exchanges with young people who were there with school trips. The White House has housed literally a rogue’s gallery of scoundrels and policy is not a “mistake” or based on political party, but planned and executed with murderous efficiency.

As organizers, we have been trying to figure out what the heck happened to our bus? We got a call a couple of weeks before our tour from the DC Metro police wanting to “co-ordinate” our tour with them. We refused knowing our schedule was posted at the website.

We have a feeling that starting at the 9/11 Memorial in Mordor was the huge red flag that got us on their radar. No one, but no one, is supposed to have any feelings or thoughts about 9/11/01 beyond the official hype and religious fervor of that day. Before our tour had been cut short, we had also planned to visit the Victims of Communism Memorial (to mourn the victims of Capitalism) and the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial to mourn the victims of law enforcement officers.



Not your “normal” tour but knowing what we know about foreign policy and the police state here at home, how can we pretend that everything is hunky-freaking-dory.


Part II (Coming Soon) will be about our Teach-ins and the Rally for Spring Rising.

More photos and video can be found at:
SpringRising.org

Stay Tuned and Mark Your Calendars for
Spring Rising (Fall Edition)
September 20-26, 2015
Seat of Empire
Be there!

Washington (CNN)Hundreds of protesters on Saturday marked the 12-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq War by rallying in front of the White House and then marching to the Capitol, rejecting an "endless war."

The group carried mock coffins, dropping them off in front of the White House and near lawmaker offices at the Russell Senate Office Building near the Capitol. Along the way, they also dropped coffins in front of various defense contractor offices.

The "Spring Rising" event was organized by the Answer Coalition, which characterized the rally as "an antiwar intervention."

Speakers at the rally expressed concern about U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, its drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, and its "provocation" in Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe. The assembled warned against war with Iran.
Read More...

FSTV Exclusive Interview with Cindy Sheehan

In this interview anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan sits down to speak with Free Speech TV about the illegality of the war in Iraq and the passing of her son who was killed during enemy action during the Iraq War. This interview was conducted as a series of interviews we did to promote the broadcast of the film The Prosecution of an Ameircan President. In the film, author Vincent Bugliosi presents a meticulously researched legal case that proves George W. Bush took our nation to war in Iraq under false pretenses and is therefore, under the law, guilty of murder for the deaths of 4,500 young American soldiers who fought and died there.