"But as long as you have hackable voting machines, the results will be questionable."

This the cop-out expression of the progressive side of American society that has lost the legacy of voting feet and results that were not questionable . Check out the voting feet of Elizabeth Eckford , The Little Rock Nine and of course Rosa Parks among hundreds of voting feet in Civil Rights Chronicle , The African-American Struggle for Freedom . You canèt hack feet unless you use a machete ( bad joke ).

As far as questionable results , I think Arkansas schools and Alabama buses are still integrated.

Historically , so far , the Civil Rights Movement will be remembered as progressive Americaès finest hour . The current progressive movement will be remembered as whining and whimpering with typing fingers instead of walking feet over rigged voting-machines

This article is RIGHT ON. Thanks, Cindy Sheehan. You're wiser than most.

funny thing about cindy quoting john quincy adams,that is the third party ticket ms. cindy should be running on.john quincy adams,'anti-masonic party'i wish someone would assure me that cindy sheehan still exists and whether she ever existed.was she real and is now locked away in a closet and her double running around ?was she ever real,the grieving heartbroken mother or was she an actress ?if she is real and has always been for real,is she still alive because she serves the masters in their purpose ?am i doubtful,skeptical and questioning of authority ? yes.so many illusions,so little time.i really thought i witnessed planes flying into the twin towers,further investigation,done today,now leads me to believe it was smoke and mirrors.there are rumors that satillites will be employed,sometime in the not-distant future,to beam holographic images in the sky...may all eyes,beware !cindy,are you a holograph ?

Another example where a person must be "told what to do", is when they are engaged in an activity that seems to be minor and harmless, but whose contribution, along with many others excercising their right to do the same thing, results in serious damage to the society. And the damage is not evident to one individual, or even the group - it requires the trusted findings of a small group of specialists in a distant place studying the problem.

Another situaton may be the inverse, where a small group of people are going to be affected by an endeavor with demonstrated benefits to the society as a whole.

Of course, this primarily comes up in environmental issues, notably global warming, but I's sure ther are examples in the social and economic spheres.

So, the issue isn't being "told what to do" but to assure the whole telling-what-to-do process proceeds as fairly as possible. And, as far as the issue of "regulatory takings" compensation should only be provided to the affected person to the extent that their injury exceeds the sum injuries to the society as a whole if the affected person is allowed to continue to do what they are doing absent the regulation.

The world is a complicated place.

I saw investigative reporter Robert Perry on Democracy Now! yesterday. Despite Amy's labored and somewhat off target questions, Mr. Perry managed to make the point more than once that we will be unable to rescue an American democracy until we correct the historical record of what happened from about the Carter Administration until the present.

When President Carter says that he was the last honestly elected President, he is referring to the fact that William Casey, Reagan's 1980 campaign manager, and his associates, negotiated a deal with the Iranians, who were holding American diplomatic staff hostage, to not release the hostages until after Reagan was inaugurated. It's called the "October Surprise" and you can read about it in a book of the same name by Gary Sick, who served on the Carter National Security Council.

http://www.amazon.com/October-Surprise-Gary-Sick/dp/0812920872/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199395377&sr=8-2

So only two elections after Watergate the Republicans were up to their dirty tricks again.

We all know they stole the 2000 election, and those of us who paid attention know they stole the 2004 election.

I am not sure why Carter thinks that the 1992 and 1996 elections, won by Bill Clinton, were not fair.

I tried to edit the above, but it won't work for some reason. William Colby was C.I.A. Reagan's campaign manager and later C.I.A. guy's name was Bill Casey.

the october surprise was orchestrated from dissenters within carter's own cabinet.electronically,it would not have been possible to master the fine art of election rigging until some time around the 1970's.it is often repeated,that a microchip the size of a pin point can turn the tide of an influx.american democracy will be hard to rescue,if criminals are not impeached,their lies will stand in the annals of our history.democracy cannot be rescued without the immediate re-installing of the separation of church and state and the guarantee of the continued enforcement of our ammendment rights.

skeezyks,john q. adams,was the founder of a third political and legitimate party,the 'anti-masonic party' because there was a famous murder,the murderer was a freemason and the judge was a freemason and refused to prosecute the murder(he went free)john q. adams,said the same thing john f. kennedy repeated 'secret oaths and secret societies have no place in an open and free society'.several months ago,a blogger here at cd reported having heard jimmy carter on the news and carter stated that he was the last truly elected president(the last time the voters votes were really counted)

I don't see it as "being told what to do." Freedom is necessity.

Many thousands of workers in this country are going to have the choice, fight back or die. This is an objective fact brought about by the law of maximum profit, and the law of competition. Today, the electronic revolution is sweeping the world. Thousands of workers are being permanently replaced by robotics. This technological revolution can not be stopped, it can only be understood and used to benefit all of humankind, not just the few.

We need to be represented as a class, the working class. We are part of "the people" but we sell our labor so as to stay alive. This separates us from those that buy our labor and live as a result of others doing the work. We are not all in this together, and we need to be represented by our own media, our own constitution and our own political party.

We can't reform capitalism, or the democratic party because the economics and the political serves the ruling class.

Cindy Sheehan has laid out a plan to make the election process more democratic and I admire and salute her.

But as long as you have hackable voting machines, the results will be questionable.

Cindy,
Best of luck in defeating Pelosi. Our Congress badly needs better leadership.

NEWS ALERT!

I just opened an email from INDEPENDENPRIMARY.COM.

According to them, ABC News is "excluding" most of the Presidential candidates from the January 5th (Saturday) Democratic debate.

Also, FOX News is "excluding" Ron Paul from the January 6th (Sunday) Republican debate.

Both news stations have "changed" their criteria to eliminate whomever they wish! These stations are using "the people's" airwaves. It is NOT in the "public interest" to eliminate any candidates from these debates!

You can go to this website and let ABC and FOX that you upset about this decision and will file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Elections Commission if they limit participation.

IndependentPrimary.Com

OH, God, Cindy, please don't get shot!

the world is actually a fairly simple place.

it's an organism, a kind of individual, that has to be treated respectfully and fairly in all of its particular parts. Just as any of us would prefer to be treated unless we prefer to be abused.

in the effort to deal justly with this organism, some will live and some will die, that's life.

"The telling what to do" should be examined in the anthropological differentiations of power, role, and authority. Power is authority backed up with threat of physical violence. So when pompous assholes get in charge there's always the risk that power reduces easily to being self-serving: telling others what to do with the full ability to imprison, evict, torture, conscript, etc. regardless of the merits of those orders. Befehl sind Befehl.

We may have the ability to tell them what to do with their power, and where they can stick it. But no power to back it up.

Sorry Cindy but none of this will happen until America brings democracy to America but abolishing the Iowa caucus first.

fair enough , your friend saw what they saw, i do not disbelieve them ,but i am reminded that i once saw david copperfield make a jet airplane and the empire state building disappear , too. i believed , the central theme and goal , was impeachment , and had it happened at that auspicious and opportune time , the chances were good , the war would have come to an end. i felt that ms. sheehan did not remain focused , her eyes upon the 'prize' the one single reasonable thing(the one thing most people agreed on,bill clinton made it look easy.) the ultimate goal of the simple thing that might have succeeded in turning this war around or off..=impeachment.she made it all about her and her candidacy and her granduer illusion that she was going to save us,all=not without us she can't,she could not do it without the 'us' behind her. she took her eye off the ball , she allowed the bull, she'd once had by the horn - to go....she let the opportune moment , when she had a wave of peoplepower firmly intrenched behind her , fly by . it was not supposed to echo-only her name, back to all of us , it was supposed to proclaim , impeachment !"

I agree with geoff, the whole soup living on the surface of the earth is an organism that survives off of the sun shining on it's surface.

The things that happen to us here; are the only window we have into who we are and what the universe is about.

I don't want to live on Mars!

IMPEACH and hang all in public as per Thomas Jefferson's words

this is the best option

especially Hilary Mena AK drug dealing bitch
Barry Seal, never forgotten, ask Dennis Hopper['grasshopper']

Viva El Frente/Verde-Rojo
coming soon, Movemiento La Raza
stupid 'sheeples' you better wake up,
no justice,.
lawyers,judges,politicians are all in bed w/ one another, Term Limits,

best to let Engineers run the world
problem solvers, not spin doctors

Well, I can't camp out at Crawford, Texas or walk to DC with an "Impeach Bush/Cheney" sign, but I plan to be part of National Sick-Out Day, 24/7. If you agree with Cindy that the situation(s) make you sick, try one day of passive resistance.
Attention all students, retirees, workers and slackers. Mark this date on your calendar: July 24, 2008. Because it is 24/7, National Sick-Out Day. Sick of the news? Sick of the lack of real news? Sick of the politicians? Sick of the killers? Sick of the economy? You must be sick enough to stay home on one day: National Sick-Out Day, 24/7.
Take your sick day on Thursday 24/7. That is,Thursday, July 24th, 2008. Because 24/7 = July 24, 2008, National Sick-Out Day. Most of the primaries will have passed. Bush will still be an idiot, outsmarting all t2he brains in Congress, outraging all the blogs, and killing more Americans and more Muslims. Your phones will be monitored. Your protests will be unseen outside the ring of police. Local media will omit your message. National media will ignore your existence. There will be no hint of impeachment. Gas prices will be killing you. You will be losing your house. You will be sick of it all. Why not just call in sick, or if retired or unemployed, practice your moral sick-out. Don't drive on 24/7. Don't shop on 24/7. Unplug the TV. Meditate. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or an e-mail to your favorite blogs. Don't use your phone.
Have a quiet day. Screwed by health costs and insurance? Be sure not to make any medical appointments on 24/7. Make no appointments of any kind. Park the car. Don't fly planes, take trains or board boats or busses. Stay away from school. Don't go to the beach or the movies. No flags, banners, posters or demonstrations. Just stay the hell home and do your part. You are sick of it all and want the whole country to know. July 24, 2008. National Sick-Out. Pass it on. If you wait for the media to approve the story content, hell will be frozen over. Cabbage Head
January 3, 2008

Right on Cindy! The people's referendum is the way. If you haven't yet, check out Senator Mike Gravel's National Initiative for Democracy at:
http://nationalinitiative.us/
It is the way to a people's referendum on elections and everything else!

It cost a lot to run a congressional campaign. Send Cindy a check. I did. You can do so here:

http://www.cindyforcongress.org/

Best way to make a statement would be if the woman who unabashedly sat in on torture discussions with BushCo and who has said impeachment is off the table, herself gets tabled in 2008. That just might wake up the Dems.

Cindy: Such reforms are like painting a car that has a blown engine. Representative government can never be sufficiently democratic, only direct democracy will suffice.

It's time for "us" who are not the status-quo loving collective "we" to secede from America, following the example of the Lakota. All the promises of the Bill of Rights (which claim to be inalienable) have been broken.. when the contract is no longer valid then the entire thing is null and void.

I'd like to see/be a citizen of a nation of sovereign people with NO leaders.. that'd be the best of all. A clean slate/state with no bureaucracy.

"delivering democracy" code word for " delivering death" the weapons of mass destruction have been found=they are in the white house,labled "george bush" and "dick cheney" (until recently the cheney weapon of mass destruction could be found in the white house.it has moved to a not-so-secret location in dubai) and has not and is never coming back,unless the cheney-weapon of mass destruction,decides it needs to 'deliver democracy to the united states.

"THERE'S ROOM AT THE TOP,THEY ARE TELLING YOU,STILL.BUT FIRST YOU MUST LEARN TO SMILE AS YOU KILL, IF YOU WANT TO LIVE LIKE,THE FOLKS ON THE HILL" quote john lennon,working class hero.

Everyone has the inalienable right to think for themselves. There are certain situations where being told what to do is acceptable. However, when being "told what to do" becomes acceptable and the norm, out of lassitude, or ambivalence, or greed, or any number of ill conceived attributes, that authority which encourages us not to think for ourselves, by numbing us down, by misinformation, by outright falsehoods, becomes faulty, unscrupulous and suspect.

It defnitely time to quit calling ourselves a great nation,because we aren't! Not morally,economically,or in any other discernable way are we great. Were becoming a third world country by all accounts. Were a nation of misinfomed, dumbed down TV watching, selfish disenfranchised consumers. More concerned with the Super Bowl then about where this country is going. If things don't change were headed for some really troubling times. As if things aren't bad already. Its becoming a choice for some of us whether to stay and fight like Cindy or to say the hell with it and leave this country behind. And I truly wish voting was the lever to change this country but I'm losing faith in that.

The only time, in my own estimation, when a person deserves to be told what to do, is when his/her actions impinge upon another's liberties.

I see that word "populist" snuck in there -- we like it!

America needs a new political territory staked out, which does not polarize ordinary Americans, has no use for left/right baggage and the programmed reactions they evoke, and takes an unequivocal stance in favor of the ENTIRE Bill of Rights. This is just the initial work -- where it all begins (not ends). We need genuine statesmen and women: no more hacks, millionaires and mobsters.

Such people do exist. But most aren't interested in running for office since they'd be eaten alive by the current culture in D.C. and the MSM, possibly may need to fear for their personal safety, etc. Centralizations of money and power, whether corporate or government, disenfranchise people -- they have no ability to effect real change, and so apathy reigns. We need a series of broad cultural changes.

>>and with the tears of such women as John Q's wife Abigail, a budding feminist, who pleaded with JQ to "remember the ladies"<<

Cindy,

You've written such an inspiring article that I hate to be the standup professor of history. However there is an inaccuracy in your piece. Abigail Adams was John Quincy Adams mother. Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams.

Oh, and not to compare John Quincy Adams to Bush but like Bush he became President of the United States like his father John Adams and presided over a troubled administration not unlike Bush's but for the right reasons. He instituted tariffs to fund things like infrastructure improvements to the vast system of canals that were the interstate highway systems of the day and to education. He also defended the rights of the Cherokees against the encroachment of "settlers" who wanted the Cherokees land. Given the view of many Americans towards indigenous peoples it is no surprise that John Quincy Adams lost to Andrew Jackson in 1828 setting the stage for the "Trail of Tears" that was to follow.

The issue in that statement, dudley, is that not all of us consider ourselves included in that "We." How many of us exist outside of that "We," is certainly up to debate. Gore Vidal mentioned on "therealnews.org" the other day that everywhere he went, people were fed up.

So, we have a problem with even the very notion of actually "how many of us" there actually are. Until the misinformation is eliminated, where a president for example who is not elected by the people becomes the president, we will not be informed enough to make an accurate determination.

when a person deserves to be told what to do.

there are many instances, Paul, I don't mean to disagree with the one you cite, but, when you have a large group that needs to accomplish a "good end" - reefing in a sail, ie - in an efficient manner and that manner is more or less determined to be for the good, then certainly the organizational principles of being "told what to do" might be a good thing.

So, Paul, you'd be best breaking it down into particular examples rather than universal ones.

geoff29: I've studied many societies, both human and non-human. Ants come to mind here. They apparently lack leaders, and yet cooperate seamlessly in their colonies. What binds them together, evolutionarily speaking, is self-interest well-tuned and aligned to group-interest. Indeed, that self/group dualism doesn't exist in any ordinary sense. Anyone approaching this study is better off leaving that framework at the doorstep and starting out with "hive intelligence" instead.

In your example, the people would reef in a sail because they want a share of the day's catch. But ants are chemically/biologically activated to certain roles (sisters, males, queen). So in the human case, there must be additional options. Not merely participating as a worker in order to obtain a share, but the option to strike out on his/her own, build their own boat, etc.

In the human case, exploitation kicks in when people are (a) denied a commons from which they may freely extract resources (b) permanently displaced as workers.

This is not a genetic/chemical thing in the human case -- the whole system is maintained by latent threats of violence to keep people in check.

Actually, Abagail Adams was the wife of John Adams, second President. As such, she was the mother of John Q. Adams.

Cindy! Lots of us miss you at Daily Kos! Check out the poll on this diary. 56% love you, Cindy, compared to a meager 39% who put party loyalty ahead of ethics.

Until people recognize and accept that their survival depends on the health and sustainability of the whole society, no system of organization will survive in the long run. Unlike Paul's ants, humans have free will. They individually choose to support the sustained survival of the colony or they don't.

I don't want to be preprogrammed like an ant, but I sure would like to see my community, and all of the other communities on earth, be able to sustainably lead their lives in cooperation. It really is the only long term answer. This whole "every man for himself" and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps is nonsense. I am not my brother's keeper, but I sure need his cooperation and help to survive.

Oh, and the notion of restoring the commons is fundamental in cooperative societies. No individual or group should ever be able to own or degrade the common assets that are required for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Things like clean air, pottable water, and living soils to grow food, to name a few.

get a group of individuals together in a garden with no idea of how to go about planting various edible foods, and it's more likely than not that they will starve unless someone has the goodness of heart to let them know what needs to be done.

Part of the problem of the authoritarian discourse, is its patent superficial illogic. Until we, being honest well meaning folk for the most part, learn how to reason out our own justifiable individual perspectives, our efforts will be repeatedly uprooted by that illogic before it has the opportunity to bear fruit.

On the other hand, there is a logic behind what is being done based on a preservative of "ideals" that exist for a certain "minority" of the population, that has probably failed to keep the rot from invading it's kitchens.

Thanks Cindy for all you say and do. Good luck with your race against Nancy Pelosi. Your in my prayers

Cindy, enjoy this year in review:

http://action.credomobile.com/comics/index.xml

dear gail, thanks for info.i am not surprised.ron paul results not even mentioned on news. this whole thing with cindy is some kind of enigma,nonsensical divorce from reality and all of the obvious bells and whistles going off around us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Franklin_espionage_scandal

Cindy, do you know I'm running for president? My name will part of the list on the Arizona state ballot. My platform is building a network of arcologies (ecological cities) based on human rights.

Check it out: http://projectwhitehouse.wordpress.com/

http://doctress.wordpress.com/

I'm hoping someday you will recognize me and we can work together on saving America.

Doctress Neutopia, aka Libby Hubbard

www.lovolution.net

msmutt,interesting but i always try to take my WICKEDPEDIA (WICCAPEDIA) with a tanker of salt.

dear radio_tec
duh...what a dumb mistake...
i should apologize to every history professor i ever had!
love
cindy

doppleganger ?

NO, it was Cindy. For ABC NEWS not allowing Gavel or Kucinich call Cathy Levine, ABC News Media Spokesperson for the NH Debate,
917-806-3273
Couln't locate link,use <ahttp://www.contact@independentvoice.orghere

Sorry, normal HTML stuff did not work, www.contact@independentvoice.org
sorry

If we persist in a folly of following a misguiding, misinforming entity, if we persist in being "good romans" we should find ourselves in certain respects like nayoibi, picking apart minutiae, blundering around in a darkness, being divisive, creating problems which serve only to further isolate and separate us, rather than bring us together, though we may have individual disagreements or differing opinions, for a common goal.

A common goal which is that world affairs and world leaders have to change, be willing to adapt, immediately, they and their system no longer works. It's not the other way around. They have to change, as many of us have had to in advance of them, rather than hide their heads, and preserve a status quo which has died as all those which preceded it have done, and all those which may follow may very well do.

No system has been a permanent solution. Had the solution to life of the indigenous populations been permanent, it would not have been beaten down for so many years by occupying forces. If some form of indigenousness returns in the future, as some of us argue that it must, it will have acquired new attributes that contribute to its future welfare.

The revolution means arguing for our perspective, the preservation of not just various individuals, but for the good of the species as a whole. Or die.

geoff29, my sentiments,exactly.stop following misguiding entities .stop following,period.i am not blundering in darkness ,eyes wide open.when cindy stopped calling for impeachment.and instead she made the decision to run with them and maybe get around to impeachment........later...sometime...maybe..i stopped believing in her.she's not revolutionary,anymore..she is status quo and business as usual.she now encourages her sheep to be 'good little romans' and get out and vote,the 'master' wants your votes.cindy could be using her power and her supporters to further,impeachment.cindy has taken impeachment off of the table.

we do have the power to change as a matter of fact. Not just in the electoral process, but in changing ourselves. I believe I've heard Siouxrose and Doom n Gloom(sp?), exemplifying two substantial voices of this principle on this site, amongst many others here of course, argue that just one person making a positive change forces that change on the rest of the universe, on the rest of humanity, even if it happens at the pace of a drop of water melting off a glacier eventually eroding the land and making a river to the sea.

Keeping ourselves locked into the ice, unwilling to adapt new ways of being or thinking just because someone else doesn't and we fear how it might seem if we do, because there's an established manner of being dressed in suits and ties, or togas and tunics, locks ourselves in the ice until the gathering heat forces us on our way.

non-participation with "no good" has proved to be an effective method throughout the ages, even if its results are not the immediate gratification that our media has taught us to expect. No military, no might that ever has been or ever will be will conquer that unless it is hell bent on self destruction.