We spend the half hour talking with Cindy Sheehan about her run for Congress against Democrat Nancy Pelosi. Cindy Sheehan the anti-Iraq War activist who co-founded Gold Star Families for Peace along with husband Patrick after their son, Army mechanic Casey A. Sheehan, was killed in action (KIA) in Sadr City (Baghdad) on April 4, 2004. His death came just five days after his arrival in Iraq.
Other members of the Gold Star Families for Peace movement include Dede Miller, Casey Sheehan's aunt, and the parents of other US soldiers killed in the Iraq War including Jane and Jim Bright, who lost son Evan Ashcraft, Bill Mitchell, who lost Michael Mitchell, Celeste Zappala, who lost her son Sherwood Baker, Lila Lipscomb, whose son Michael Pederson was killed.
Gold Star Families for Peace is part of the broader group Military Families Speak Out, consisting of more family members of soldiers currently serving in Iraq or who have served in Iraq. Like Sheehan, members of Military Families Speak Out are calling on members of Congress to bring US forces home immediately. Their web site has many articles about the lives of individual soldiers and the struggles their families go through trying to cope with the war, injuries, and the family and economic crises created when a parent or other loved one ships out to war.
Cindy Sheehan and others visited Pelosi's office numerous times but were unsuccessful in their attempts to get her to bring a case for impeachment against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Nancy Pelosi has been a popular representative, and has won reelection easily though progressive democrats have become disillusioned with her leadership over the Iraq War and other issues. You can learn more about Cindy Sheehan at her web page, http://www.cindysheehanforcongress.com
The White House has just announced another $70 billion dollar aid package to fund US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year Democrats tried unsuccessfully to include a clause that would set a date for withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.
In November 2006 Mark Sandelow, Washington bureau chief of the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed journalist Helen Thomas. When asked if she thought then speaker of the house elect Nancy Pelosi would issue articles of impeachment against the President she said no.
Clip: Helen Thomas speaking about George W. Bush, the Iraq War, and whether or not Nancy Pelosi might lead Democrats in pushing for the impeachment of the President.
