Thanks Cindy,
I am glad that I can donate with a check instead of credit card to Bethena.
We need to keep some of our old ways.
Love, Jim

Thank you Cindy, you are a true blessing.

I agree the only amusement I ever gleaned from Nascar was watching the numbskulls crash into a wall.

We need everyone at this site to do their best to inform people of Cindy's candidacy. Although I'm no big spender I will surely be contributing whatever money I can to her campaign.

There being no British address to which I could send a cheque, I sent a small donation by card.

If the average Briton or American could see in his or her face what Bethena is enduring, through no fault of her own, then they'd NEVER want to pick up a rifle, or go to war - ever again.

This, Bush, Blair, and Brown, is what war looks like. And this is what war does to people.

Thanks, Cindy.

Please post more info about your run against Pelosi.

War is not as neat as Bush and his ilk think it is.

NASCAR SUCKS!

GAS!

Sheesh!

Now she's got something against NASCAR?

[Probably burned more oil goin' to them peace rallies than NASCAR has all year]

Cindy,

We need you. Come and spark the creation of a people's movement for change and lead it to a better tomorrow. We are ready to join and fight.

Cindy for Pesident!

Now that we know the truth behind NSCAR, dog fighting does not seem to be such a bad entertainment option. At least no humans have to be sacrificed to put up the entertainment. Exonerate Michael Vick.

we will be back in the states on the 22nd.

we are working on a campaign to target our congress reps when they return from their undeserved vacations in september.

we need hearings for emergency help for the refugees.

we need to dispute the petraeus report: nothing is "hunky dory" in iraq and we need to redouble our energy to end the war.

we need to target every member of the hjc to struggle for impeachment---even though congress has legalized another of bushco's crimes.

we need to start working with the international community to help the refugees...but also to start talking about war crimes against bushco.

in answer to one of the comments: we have volunteers in sf looking for office space for us and i will be back in the city on sept 2nd to speak at the summer of love event there.

and i really doubt that i have burned more oil going to peace marches, but i do think that i can personally workharder to conserve as can all americans.

love from amman
cindy

Cindy,
As a European I feel honored to read and write in the same place as you do.

It might sound silly, but I am asking you for one thing: please be careful. I think that you are really able to affect the course of your country. The elites in power will not like that; and history has some sad examples telling us what happens if people dare to stay up.

Cindy Sheenan is talking about people who seem to be not sensitive to the situation. Well, I left my physician job of more than 20 years, a successfull practice, the city where I lived for more than 30 years, my family, to came to New York , trying to wake up people to the situation. Unfortunately if you do not have the right contact it seems almost impossible to brake the barrier of indifference. In my case even ,in spite of been defitenely prepared culturally and politically, in spite of being a public speaker ,the only duty I could achive was of distributing flyers. At Cindy Sheenan meeting in New York, I could count no more than 300-400 people. There were more people to the next door meeting with a reverend all dress in white who was certanly somebody who could not be of interest to educated people. I am still ready to spend the rest of my life to wake up people, but I think the most important people to fight for justice and honesty are the college student. I think we should talk to them more than to any other part of the population.I hope that someone will direct me how to do something to help before our society will totally collapse.

Interesting.

A part of this forum has gone from the horrible plight of victims of errant mortar fire directly to NASCAR bashing!

It appears that people hate NASCAR as much as they hate the "collateral damage" left behind by this monstrous illegal war.

I mean, seriously, I abhor NASCAR as much as the next intellectual, but the story here is about the victims of war. I sometimes joke that NASCAR, 'professional' wrestling and country music comprise the, "Unholy Triad", of 'blue-collar' America. (We aren't allowed to call them PWT anymore.)

Keep in mind that these people are now largely Republican voting pseudo-Christians.

Maybe at some other time someone could try a stab at an article covering, "The Victims of NASCAR"?

Sheesh, only in America....

Could not log in with my usual username because I forgot my password and had to set up a new account. Something very strange is happening with my yahoo email account because Common Dreams could not email me my password. In fact, my computer mysteriously shut down completely as I scrolled through this commentary a few minutes ago. Is anyone else beginning to have "technical" problems with their online activism?

I have been a supporter of Cindy Sheehan since day one in Crawford, but my problem with listening to her is the level of hyperbole and sarcasm in her language, both written and verbal. Is there really anything meaningful to be gained from name-calling and gross exaggeration? I believe the pen is truly mightier than the sword, but only if the two are not confused. Cindy - you go, girl, but if you need a ghost-writer, I'm available.

Cindy, I'm sure you don't need my continued expressions of admiration and support to keep on keepin' on, but I'll send them along anyway.

Have you noticed that you've become the Eliza Doolittle of the so-called "left"? There are no end of Professor Henry Higginses dying to tame, train, re-make, and re-mold you into a more useful tool for progressive causes.

I mean, hey-- you're determined to become a politician, and yet you're refusing to color inside the lines and honor the well-established conventions of modern Amerikan candidacy! Surely you must understand that corporatized, commodified, pasteurized, and homogenized pandering for political office is best left to experienced professionals. Where are your handlers, your script-writers, your stage-managers, your coaches?

I mean, what paid Hidden Persuader would let you get away with taking a gratuitous shot at NASCAR in the middle of a fact-finding trip to the ME? Dontcha SEE, Cindy, you're just not Staying on Message! And you'll pay for it in the Polls and Opinion Surveys! And then your fat-cat backers will pull back and leave you high and dry, without funds to pay for media. You'll never catch those elusive "swing voters" THAT way! [shakes head sadly]

See, this is just the kind of thing that makes Joan Walsh and Scott Ritter and Katha Pollitt just CRINGE! What's that you just said? They can kiss WHAT? No, no! Try repeating this slowly:

"The RAIN in SPAIN stays mainly on the PLAIN."

Again... ;)

Not to be too disingenuous here but what folks on this web site don't know about NASCAR could fill a grain silo.

I'll admit that the NASCAR fans who show up to the big events in the South and pay $120 per ticket most likely fit into the mold that Ms. Sheehan has cast for them and the governing body certainly has strong Republican ties but the grassroots of the sport where the legends get their start diverge from this stereotype to a point.

NASCAR has its roots in local racing on small tracks in small towns that most "enlightened" people have never heard of. My track of choice was in Rougemont, NC about an hour north of Durham.

Here folks would assemble on warm Saturday nights to watch a form of racing that the big shows can't give them: cheap tickets, coolers welcomed and no damn traffic.

Saturday night racing is ingrained in the culture of the hard working spectators many of whom have probably just worked a brutal six day week and just want to get away from it all for a night.

As Mike Shropshire humorously put it, to the grassroots fans, a night of racing represents: "emancipation from pissant micromanagers, HMO rip-off professionals, PalmPilots, child-support collection pests, and mothers-in-laws who lurk in the shadows like Hannibal Lecter."

And, even though you could bring in your own beer, I cannot recall an occasion where I witnessed someone who had over-indulged, unlike my experiences with, say, NHL or NFL crowds where alcohol abuse is as rampant as the violence the people show up to watch.

And respect for individuals at these local racing events is just as common as the relative sobriety of the crowd. In fact in Rougemont the guy who ran the lemonade stand proudly wore a Che Guevara T-shirt, ripe with socialist imagery, to every race he attended. Never did I see this man disrespected at any event that season.

The most poignant moment of how non-partisan this crowd actually was occurred on a night just after JFK Jr, his wife and sister-in-law died in a plane crash. The minister delivering the invocation asked, and I'm paraphrasing here, for us to hold a place in our heart for the tragedy that had befallen the Kennedy family, a family which had already given up so many of its members for the good of our country.

Not even a murmur of discontent whispered through the crowd. I was amazed – we had all collectively chosen to show our respect for perhaps the greatest icon of national liberalism.

In any case, automotive sports have a rich tradition in our society than runs just as deep as populist peace movements, and, to steal from a line from Woody Allen: NASCAR does not have to mean anything, it's just very beautiful to watch.

Ms. Sheehan did not write about NASCAR, she was telling us what was important to those in power...not the end of an illegal occupation but the growth of political power in this country.

Who really cares about NASCAR? Or, is it more important that the destruction of the lives of millions of people?

NASCAR is a passing reference in the context of panem et circenses, the ancient story of We the People sitting around with our thumbs up our asses indulging in diversions and amusements. There's a staggeringly long list of popular recreations from which to choose, and NASCAR will do as well as any other.

I facetiously referred to it as a "gratuitous shot" upthread, because it's just the sort of thing that would be seized upon by a Tweety Matthews or maybe even Bill O'Reilly and turned into the tabloid slander: Sheehan disses NASCAR! Sad that this sort of gambit-- taking an item out of context and treating it as a "buried lede"-- is so reflexively ingrained in the corporate media's lizard brain.

Lately I have been frequently, almost incessantly, muttering Estragon's dour observation: "People are bloody ignorant apes!"

The really sad thing is that if americans were allowed to see what has happened and is actually happening to the Iraqis close up and personal they would be horrified. Most people are very suggestible and the government knows this. The same goes for the plight of the Palestinians.

I wish to God we had a free press not this corporate MSM that trys to pretend their reporting the news!! If they would show the real tragedy of this war you could bet the American people.....would...probably prefer to watch NASCAR
Sigh...

"My campaign for Congress' slogan "People Before Politics" is the exact opposite of what John Conyers told me and my staff in a meeting prior to the July 23rd sit-in: "It is more important to me (Conyers) to put a Democrat back in the White House in '08 than to end the war!""
I found this reference far more telling then any NASCAR comment.

With that attitude the Democrats Don't Deserve the White House!!!

How about an Al Gore/Bobby Kennedy Green Party ticket?

Take away your sentimentality JeffDII and you have the truth of sports and more specifically NASCAR in America.

George Carlin put it best "A bunch of rednecks driving in a circle."

And regardless of what kind of emotional attachments you have to sports the fact is the power-brokers allow sports to be a dominant part of our so called culture becuase they turn YOU into a passive spectator. Even if this is only accomplished on Sundays it's still served it's purpose of cutting into your ever shrinking leisure time. For what? to watch grown men get paid millions of dollars to play a kid's game.

You like (insert sport here)? Fine. Get off your ass and go participate in it. Don't watch other people engage in living. It's sad and it's counterproductive.

I apologize for the pontificating but sports in this country piss me off! It used to be a recreation. Now it's about vegetation...on a couch that is. It's time for the Twilight of the Idols...

Cindy's point was that the average American doesn't give a damn what's happening in Iraq in our name or even to our own troops!