Independent Congressional candidate Cindy Sheehan has secured her place on the ballot to challenge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in California’s 8th House district. A message sent to supporters minutes ago details the scope of the effort:
There has been an overwhelming and unprecedented show of support among San Francisco voters for the Sheehan campaign’s progressive agenda. Over the past few months, hundreds of volunteers and supports rallied around getting their voices heard in November’s election. After collecting roughly 20,000 signatures, with at least 10,198 qualifying, the Sheehan campaign has proven its viability with flying colors.
The campaign’s success comes just three days after announcing a gap of 2,116 signatures yet to be overcome. According to a blog post published on Ballot Access News last May, Sheehan is the first independent House candidate to qualify for the California ballot since 1996. She has the endorsement of the local Peace and Freedom Party and Green Party.
Sheehan’s platform is a perfect example of why you shouldn’t try to discuss politics without having at least a basic grasp of economics. Unless you don’t mind sounding like a fool.
Do we also need government house insurance, as well as government car insurance? If we had those the private, more efficient, and voluntary businesses would disappear, just like we have now with police, firefighters, military and roads.
Ah…OK. So you personally don’t need firefighters, but I may some day. Guess I can live with that.
I actually think that the conspirators are oxygen, fuel and heat, but I could be wrong.
I’m saying I have no need for fire fighters. YMMV.
Or, alternatively, I could argue that fire is part of a neocon/LPHQ conspiracy.
G.E.
I must be reading that wrong. Are you suggesting that homes or other buildings don’t catch on fire? Personally, I live in a town with a largely volunteer fire fighting force, but I am very glad that our Chief is full time staff paid for with my tax dollars.
Just because you have not had a fire doesn’t mean they don’t happen. Perhaps you mean that fires don’t happen without human intervention.
Ever heard of lightning?
Even wiring deteriorates with time, even when properly installed, and occasionally that causes fires.
And, while I’ll send my donations to a Green with a shot at winning or growing the Green Party, I am pleased to see that Sheehan will be on the ballot, and frankly, I hope the voters of SF toss her out on her butt.
But I doubt that will happen. Any polling been done yet?
Yes…
So THIS is why Pelosi finally allowed impeachment proceedings out of committee.
Go Cindy!
LRBT – No, history has shown no such thing. Besides: My house has never caught on fire. No one I know has ever had their house catch on fire. And yet I’ve known dozens of fire men. Why do we even really need them?
GE: You act as if the USPS is the only bureaucratic model for a socialized medical system in the US.
There are other models…the IRS, ICE, your local school system…the list goes on.
PEACE
Steve
Strictly speaking, socialism can exist within a libertarian framework. One must simply purchase land, set up a socialist rule system, and invite all who want to participate to live there. There is nothing wrong with voluntary socialism. Personally, I highly doubt it could work (see Mises, Hayek, et al.), but there would be nothing wrong with trying.
Of course, the socialists themselves never see that as an acceptable solution, unfortunately.
I understand the libertarian struggle and you should be free to have your own privatized system but I for one would like a democratic socialist system and they would never work together. How sad that it can’t work both ways.
G.E it’s laughable that you believe a privatized fire protection works better. History has proven that otherwise has it not?
“I’d gladly have my income “stolen†in order to create a system that I actually believe in.”
If the taxation is voluntary, then it’s not theft.
“I agree to some extent that people should be able to opt out of the tax system if they so choose as long as they don’t use any public service at all. No Police, Firemen, or roads maintained by tax payer dollars.”
The problem is that the State has a monopoly on many services. It’s hard to avoid using the USPS when they have a monopoly on letter mail. While private security and personal firearms can largely replace the police, the State has a monopoly on fire service, which would be hard to go without. Roads, of course, are the wost of all. While private roads are not illegal, the state-subsidized roads would not only eliminate all profit, they already take up much of the available land.
Believe me, were it possible to avoid using government services, I would.
“Are you a parasite by driving on roads maintained by tax payer dollars? I would say no but according to your logic you would be.”
In a sense, I am. However, this unfortunate condition is brought about by government coercion, not my own choice; an unwilling parasite. I suppose an appropriate analogy might be the difference between one who joins the army and one who is drafted into it. The former bears more guilt for the evils done by the army than the latter.
I AM a boisterous white male, but that was a spell check error… I meant to say bourgeois white male.
Oh no. I can’t use the police? Heaven forbid. I’ve never used the police… I’ve only been harassed by them. Just last night I was pulled over by some ignorant thug for the Sheehan/Bush State. And I’m a boisterous white male, too… And even I don’t get any “service” from these dastardly thugs — but then again, at least I’m not getting shot by them like others.
The firemen? These “heroes”? You mean the socialist parasites who are too cowardly to join the regime’s killing machine? I would much prefer to pay for private fire-prevention service, which has always been more efficient.
Laine – Then fine. GIVE your income to the cause and let ME keep mine.
I drive on socialist roads because the government has appropriated and monopolized the road industry, leaving me with no alternative. Imagine your beloved Empire nationalized the air: Would I have to hold my breath in order to avoid hypocrisy?
I’d gladly have my income “stolen” in order to create a system that I actually believe in. I agree to some extent that people should be able to opt out of the tax system if they so choose as long as they don’t use any public service at all. No Police, Firemen, or roads maintained by tax payer dollars. Are you a parasite by driving on roads maintained by tax payer dollars? I would say no but according to your logic you would be.
Sheehan seems kinda like Brian Moore and all the other socialists — quite correct on Iraq/Iran, horribly wrong on damn near everything else.
I certainly wouldn’t vote for Moore simply because of his antiwar stance, nor should anyone cast a similar vote for Sheehan. As bad as Pelosi is, Sheehan is worse.
“Well I want freedom from having to be hit by cars while on a bicycle. I want the freedom to be able to get where I want without taking an automobile. Quit hijacking the word freedom for your own disturbed concept of what America should be.“
The irony here. You want the freedom to steal money from your fellow Americans to secure your ability to use mass transit — i.e., you want the “freedom” to be a parasite. On the other hand, I merely want the freedom to be left alone, to not have my income robbed to subsidize your method of transportation. Yet, I’m the one who is apparently distorting the word “freedom”.
Your concept of freedom is disastrous, unworkable, and self-contradictory. If I want the “freedom” to own a computer, have I right to demand taxpayer dollars to pay for it? If I want “freedom of speech” does that entitle me to a subsidized printing press?
Indeed, following your definition of freedom to its conclusion, everyone has the right to everything, meaning in truth that no one has the right to anything. The human race dies out. Not exactly my idea of a free society.
In truth, the “freedom to use mass transit” means only you have the freedom to pay to use privately funded mass transportation, if it exists. And, should there be an actual consumer demand for it, you can be assured it would exist.
“What about the freedom to not have to worry about healthcare?”
Ugh. Now we’re extending “freedom” to mean freedom from worry? Ridiculous. On what basis do you say that worrying about healthcare violates freedom? What limits this to healthcare? I worry about lots of things. I worry about my grades, my social skills, and the cost of gasoline. Does that mean I have the right to state-funded tutoring? To state-funded classes to improve my social skills? To subsidized gasoline? Hell no.
Indeed, worry is a fundamental human emotion, and is one of the prime motivations we take to improve our situation. I don’t want to worry about my employment, which is why I’m in college. I don’t want to worry about my dental health, which is why I brush my teeth. And so on.
There is no right to be free from worry in general. There is no right to be free from worrying about healthcare. Hell, if healthcare is socialized that would be a cause for worry.
The left likes to make up all sorts of “rights” and “freedoms”, but as long as these “rights” rely on stealing money, coercion, and government violence, they are quite hypocritical. There will never be a utopia where all people have a “freedom from want”, but much damage could, as has, been done following the largely emotional impulse in seeking it.
Deran is completely wrong. The crisis has been caused by government intervention into the free market. This is an objective fact, and anyone who refuses to believe it is either (a) an idiot, (b) has a religious attachment to socialism, or (c) both. Just think of the arrogance of Deran to think that he and his government know better than individuals — they know that homeownership is “good” and thus it should be subsidized. Sure, there won’t be any negative effects from this… The ignorance is staggering.
Laine – The government has no business owning roads. I don’t have a “right” to drive a big truck, particularly one that pollutes your property. But nor does the government have the “right” to steal land from people and build “mass transit” systems with more stolen money. What if I don’t want to pay? What if I don’t want to conform? Sheehan will take up the role of GWB and make me.
Ross – That platform is evil. There are no other words for it.
You people are insane. You want MORE government for George W. Bush and the Clintons, etc. to control?
You people are living in a fantasy.
I will vote for any anti-imperialist candidate over an imperialist one. Sheehan’s socialism is so complete, so vile and repugnant, that I would not want my vote counted in her favor.
I don’t consider myself very knowledgeable in the area of economics (though I’m starting to dig deeper into it) but capitalists don’t steal from people, whether it is land or goods.
Those are things that government does.
What has been privatized and deregulated?
I’m saying that just because she disagrees with your points of view doesn’t mean that she’s evil, GE.
Not the USPS! GE, sometimes you need to get a grip and look at the reality of things. What’s worse – millions of people at risk of death due to a flawed healthcare system or you not having the “freedom” to choose your insurance? What about the freedom to not have to worry about healthcare?
She’s for a Mass Transit system? What a hippy! LOL Love how in the U.S that ‘freedom’ is equated with being able to drive a big truck.
Well I want freedom from having to be hit by cars while on a bicycle. I want the freedom to be able to get where I want without taking an automobile. Quit hijacking the word freedom for your own disturbed concept of what America should be.
I know, she has the best program ever, right?
A new WPA?!! Returning the mortgage system to a federal agency! Again, I say woohoo!
Oh, and, indeed, the current crisis cycle in Neo-Liberal capitalism has been caused by “deregulation” and “privatization”. It’s the rapacious capitalists that brought this on.
Consequently; again I say woohoo! I’m with Green in BK; a few dollars Sheehan’s way.
Let’s review the highlights:
Worst of all: She supports the U.S. Postal Service. I’m not joking. How committed of a socialist do you have to be, how completely belligerent to freedom do you have to be to support the USPS? A lot of people can be fooled into thinking universal healthcare or other social programs are good ideas, but we can see the USPS in action.
Normally, I will look past a candidate’s faults if they are anti-war. But a vote for Sheehan is just as much a vote for all of the above as it is against this particular war. On balance, I think the status quo is better.
Adams was a tyrant who jailed dissidents. You’re going to defend him?
How is this not socialist?
Cindy Sheehan is not only worse than Nancy Pelosi, she’s worse than Dick Cheney. She is a bloodthirsty communist savage who wants to replace the War in Iraq with a War on Freedom in America.
So she’s a socialist without saying it outright, GE. Shocked that someone doesn’t agree with you?
You know, I read something interesting this summer, a book called “Founding Brothers.” In it, is talks about a correspondance between Jefferson and Adams in which they talk about the birth of the word “ideology”, which came about as they were speaking and partially because of Jefferson. Adams thought that an ideology, any ideology, was an excuse to be extremist at all times and request a utopia instead of learning about each individual issue and working for the best thing you could get. Jefferson, however, was a utopian, and did exactly what Adams feared.
Woohoo! This is very cool.
Thank you…..
DRL – She’s a massive socialist, so right up your alley.
Great news! I think I’ll drop a few bucks in her bucket.
http://www.cindyforcongress.org/
Go Cindy – take Pelosi down!
Hurray G. E.
This is all the info I need! Hurray for Peace Mom!
At least the draft didn’t make the cut.
Holy crap.
I think Sheehan’s platform might be the worst I’ve ever seen.
http://www.cindyforcongress.org/article.php?list=type&type=13
But honestly I don’t know about the “flying colors†statement; seems to me they got on the ballot by the skim of their teeth.
Yup.
Regardless, can you send donations even if you don’t live in the same district or even state as a candidate?
Yup.
But honestly I don’t know about the “flying colors” statement; seems to me they got on the ballot by the skim of their teeth. Regardless, can you send donations even if you don’t live in the same district or even state as a candidate?
This is excellent news!
I thought for sure after announcing the gap and the need for two thousand more signatures that Sheehan was done. It’s good to see that she has made the ballot after all.