[Peace-discuss] Obama Potemkin

[C. G. Estabrook]

The current Time magazine has a puff-piece on our junior
senator, with a side-light on what he was doing here: "Obama
is almost religiously in Illinois, and his staff brags about
the 34 town halls [sic] he has held in his home state." 

It also says, "Obama is expanding his horizons with foreign
policy," and the following:

"What’s next for Obama? Continued work on his Katrina
initiatives and nuclear non-proliferation..." [Remember how he
proposed to deal with that matter in Iran?] 

"'If an issue of justice or equality is at stake,' he says, 'I
will speak out.'" 

Right. There was one on his doorstep, literally, yesterday,
but so far I've seen no account of what happened:

=================================================

MEDIA ADVISORY

Cindy Sheehan Meets With Top Democratic and Republican
Representatives: Urges Them to Increase Their Leadership in
Ending the War in Iraq

Thursday's Schedule Includes House Democratic Leader Pelosi,
Sen. Dole, Sen. Obama, and Sen. Durbin

Sheehan and her Supporters Pledge to Hold Both Democratic and
Republican Leaders ‘Feet to the Fire’ to ‘Bring the Troops
Home Now’ From a War That a Record Two-Thirds of Americans
Recently Polled Say President Bush is Mishandling

WHEN: Thursday, September 29th at 5:30 PM

WHERE: NEW LOCATION DUE TO RAIN: Outside office of Sen. Barack
Obama, 713 Hart Senate Office Building.

WHAT: Media availability with Cindy Sheehan to discuss
meetings with top Democratic and Republican representatives,
her week in Washington, including Saturday's 100,000 - 300,000
person march and rally against the war, and her arrest outside
the White House along with 370 others. Sheehan will be flying
back to California after the media availability.

Cindy Sheehan, the grieving military mother whose August vigil
outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas focused the
nation's attention on the human cost of the Iraq war, will be
available for interviews on Thursday, September 29, after
meetings with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Senator Barack Obama (D-ILL.), Senator Richard Durbin
(D-ILL.), and Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), regarding their
leadership in bringing our troops home from Iraq immediately.

Sheehan's son Casey, of Vacaville, CA, was killed in Sadr City
while serving in the Army in April 2004.

“So far this month 43 American troops and many more Iraqi
civilians have been killed in Iraq. Our Representatives and
Senators must take responsibility for this war, and take
action to bring an end to it,” Sheehan said.

''We have gone after Democrats as strongly as Republicans
leaders. We believe a strong—a good Democratic or Republican
leader or candidate has to stand up and say, it‘s a war based
on lies.  We should never have gone there.  We shouldn't be
there.  And let‘s lead our troops out now."

In addition to urging Congress members to bring the troops
home from Iraq, she will also implore them to use U.S. tax
dollars to pay for hurricane relief and reconstruction instead
of war and destruction in Iraq.

"We intend to hold these Democratic or Republican leaders
'feet to the fire' until they lead the way Americans wants
them to. According to recent polls a record two-thirds of
Americans say the war is being mishandled by President Bush
and a majority want to cut spending to the war to pay for
hurricane relief,'' said Sheehan.

A recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll
(http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm), reported that 59%
said they considered the 2003 invasion of Iraq a mistake, 63%
said they wanted to see some or all U.S. troops withdrawn from
that country and 54% told pollsters they favor cutting
spending on the war to pay for disaster relief.

Only 39% said the invasion of Iraq was the right thing to have
done. Support for Bush's management of the war in Iraq has
dropped to 32%, with 67% telling pollsters they disapproved of
how Bush is prosecuting the conflict.

Since Sheehan’s vigil in Crawford ended on Aug. 31, she and
other military families, Iraq war veterans, and peace
activists have taken the vigil to congressional district
offices throughout the country, in an effort to hold members
of Congress and the President accountable for the devastation
in Iraq.

In a letter she wrote to Congress in late August, she said,
“President Bush sent our sons and daughters to war in Iraq.
Congress gave him the authority to do so. That's why we are
now turning to you, the elected officials who have the power
to declare wars -- and end wars.”

So far, Sheehan has visited the offices of Senators John
McCain, Richard Lugar, John Kerry, Hilary Clinton, Dianne
Feinstein, Charles Schumer, and Edward Kennedy, as well as
Congressmen Tom Delay, Mark Kirk, Dennis Hastert, Charles
Rangel, Henry Waxman, Lloyd Doggett, and others.

During the meetings, she asks Congress members the simple
questions she wanted to ask President Bush:  What is the
"noble cause " that brave Americans like Casey Sheehan have
died for? How many more lives are we as a country willing to
sacrifice in Iraq? How many are you personally willing to
sacrifice? What are you specifically doing to bring our sons
and daughters home from this needless war?...