[Video] Cindy at PDA Grassroots Day (talking about her meeting with Dean)

[Kevin Spidel]

Cindy Sheehan (Sunday at PDA Conference)
http://www.archive.org/download/ToddSmythUDC092505UDC0925050wmv/UDC0925050.wmv

on edit: DU'ers have spoken about her words in contrast with Dean's message meeting with Cindy. This is her take on the meeting. This is rare footage of a room full of 300+ activists talking about the antiwar movement into the 2006 election cycle.

This is just an FYI. People wanted to hear HER speak on this issue.

[Kevin Spidel]

1. this is her talking about her meeting.. and her disappointment with dean.

n/t

[MelissaB]

2. Watching now. Thanks!

:kick:

[hiley]

3. very good

thank you.

[MelissaB]

4. Not many Dems left unroasted for their stance on Iraq.

You guys need to see this.

[Kevin Spidel]

6. here is one Dem w/ video...

Backbone Award to Lynn Woolsey
http://www.archive.org/download/ToddSmythBackboneAward/Backbone092505.wmv


Congresswomen Lynn Woolsey makes a great point that it's the people in her district that give her the backbone to do the right thing. That is what we have to work on. To inform and educate enough people to provide the backbone for our representatives to do the right thing.

[FreedomAngel82]

9. Shouldn't they do the right thing though anyways?

[MelissaB]

10. Thank you for posting all of these videos.

:hi:

[Dancing_Dave]

5. When will Dean wake up???

What kind of doctor is he, anyway?

[madfloridian]

7. Do you support your PDA exec director writing such posts about Dean?

Like "Is Dean Drunk" because he differs with you guys?

[Kevin Spidel]

11. wow

First you said yourself he is a activist of PDA, then you say he is "board member" then you say he is Will's boss, now you’re saying he is my Executive Director.

first, get your facts straight.

second, he is a supporter and was on our advisory board.

third, he writes on his own all the time

forth, his words of him being "drunk" has never appeared on PDA's website.

fifth, I agree that Dean exploited the meeting with cindy to keep his street cred.

sixth, I think Cindy's assessment is correct. As I have spoken directly with Dean and Cindy.

seventh, I think David overstretched with his commentary

eight, I stand with Cindy. Clearly you stand with Dean. On on this case, you stand with him saying that the "War thing" should not belong in the new Dem issue focus, because "we can't win on it."

ninth, i put this up as an FYI, becasue YOU and others have asked to see it.

tenth, I need to get back to work, rather then defend my hero, which to you, is more important then getting the troops home. Fine, please continue to defend Dean on DU. Myself... I need to stop the killing in Iraq.

[madfloridian]

13. Your group does not accept the Democratic Party.

I am defending not just Howard Dean, but the party itself. He is only being used by your group to break down party structure.

You are trying to change it one way, I am trying to change it another. You have every right to try to bring down the party, and I have a right to work on it another way.

You guys have a way of making this about a guy who did stand up to the war.

I disagree with you about his post about Cindy. In fact I disagree with you on a lot of things since that day when so much happened and I was called a liar.

And yes he is on the board of directors. Going after me is not going to solve your problems if someone on your board is posting things like that Dean drunk post, and the one he posted at Kos. It did not go over well with a whole lot of people.

Your group has great possibilities, but you should not be trying to batter like that. I am outspoken and I criticize Democrats....nothing wrong with that when it is done fairly.

I want out of Iraq as much as the next person, but I want out of there with our party intact.

[Kevin Spidel]

17. really? news to me...

read: http://pdamerica.org/about/faq.php

[madfloridian]

20. This page.

Same goals pretty much as DFA and other groups I belong to, but we don't try to go after the chairman of the party when he is on our side. He is, you know. In spite of your group's efforts to do this, he is on the side of the people.

http://pdamerica.org/policy/plan.php

"The answer is NOT leaving the country.
The answer is NOT the Republican Party.
And the answer is NOT the Democratic Party as it is now organized and controlled.
The answer is PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS of AMERICA. Let us tell you why."

Fine, I agree with most of the goals. However I totally disagree with the way you are going about it. I have my say on forums, I try to do it nicely. I would never attack so viciously the people who are trying to change it the best way they can. And Dean is one of those people who are trying.

[madfloridian]

18. I resent your saying I don't want out of Iraq.

Here is the rally we have every Sunday, every week. Rain or shine, small or large.


And here is David's bio. Just to remind you. I found it on the page of your board of directors. He has a right to his view. If he chooses to write columns like "Is Dean Drunk?" then I have a right to very greatly disagree.

"David Swanson is creator of MeetWithCindy.org, co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997. His website is www.davidswanson.org"

He has great credentials. He does not need to use them like that.

[madfloridian]

22. Ok, two things....

Kevin quotes Dean above saying this...I did not hear it in the video,and it does not sound like something he would say...I would like to know where in the video it is....and the context.

"War thing" should not belong in the new Dem issue focus, because "we can't win on it."

Also, Cindy said that Schumer said that he thought the war in Iraq was a fine thing for the American people. Now while I find he says things I don't care for, I am surprised at that.

Does anyone have more context for that?

[Cha]

12. Good point, mad!

What kind of disrespectful question is that? "Is Dean drunk?" sounds like something the repukes would say.

So Kerry gets in the "hall of fame" and Dean is "drunk"?

Bullshit.

And I don't want to start any freakin' wars here with Dean and Kerry..I'm just callin' "Bullshit".

[JI7]

14. Cindy put Kerry in her hall of fame

not pda or whatever this thing is that called Dean drunk.

[madfloridian]

15. But he said he would vote for it all over again.

Hmmm....mmm....

[Cha]

16. Apples and Oranges, eh?

Sorry, I apolozize for thinking they came from the same place.

[Kevin Spidel]

8. Video of Medea Benjamin (friend of PDA) - non-Democrat...

keeping the inside/outside strategy alive within PDA...

Medea Benjamin from Code Pink
http://www.archive.org/download/ToddSmythCodePinkCodePinkwmv/CodePink.wmv

[LWolf]

19. Great video, thanks!

I stand with PDA, with Cindy, and with anyone else of any stripe who will hold officials of any party, elected and appointed, accountable.

[madfloridian]

21. I say just what I said on the other thread:

She went out of her way to mock some of the words they said, especially Dean...she was actually mocking him...and put them down.

I have never agreed on this war, and I think we should leave. I admire what she has done...but on that video she sounded like she was the only one who had a job to do.

I admire her, but I think we have someone as chair who is not able to do anything about the war. If she wants to go after the ones who voted for it, fine.

The way she talked about some of them made me cringe. She had the privilege of meeting with them, and she made fun of them. I criticize, we all should, but mocking them is not wise when they have met with you.

I am going to repost Dean's blog post about Cindy. Kevin, you say you think he was trying to put a spin on it. No, he was not. That is not his style, and it should not be her style. You do not meet with leaders and then publicly make fun of them.

Criticizing and mocking, there is a big difference.

[Peace Patriot]

27. Over a hundred thousand people were slaughtered (according to the

British doctors' report--initial carnage from the bombing and invasion alone). What's wrong with mocking the people who made this possible? I don't get it. Isn't mockery in order? Why be polite?

Kerry and them had their chance to do something about it, but caved to Diebold and ES&S. Now we have only a cold chance in hell to ever elect real representatives of the overwhelming antiwar and progressive majority in this country. Back to square one: retrieving our right to vote.

Dean folded his tent, in my opinion, when he permitted Donna Brazile and that crowd to issue their false report on the 2004 election, never mentioning that Bushite corporations "tabulated" all the votes using SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code. (Dem election officials all over the country signed these "trade secret" agreements with rightwing corporations permitting them to gain SECRET control over vote tabulation--the result of bipartisan corruption in the $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle, in my opinion.)

I liked Dean. I still do. But I think he's had to shut up about the war and the election system, to get anywhere in the upper folds of the Dem Party elite. And if he thinks that price is worth it, then he should be prepared for a bit of mockery. I'm not saying he can't do some good. I'm still a Democrat, lo these forty years, and feel that we must be wary of the kind of splintering of the center-left that occurred in Germany in the 1930s. But that doesn't mean we have to shut up about the War Democrat whom Diebold and ES&S is going to install in 2008. I think we should fight it to the end, but with the intention of massively voting the hard fascists, criminals and traitors out--with so overwhelming a vote that they cannot fiddle it, and then work with the War Democrat's regime (likely to be somewhat progressive on good gov't issues) to get these rightwing corporations out of our election system, and to achieve transparent elections once again.

Mockery, yes. It's healthy. It's well-deserved. Splintering, no--when it comes to the crunch, that is, who is going to be empowered in '06 and '08, Democrats or Republicans. Republicans are not to be trusted, no matter who they put up in any election over the next decade or so. We could even see a Republican sounding antiwar and populist (that would be clever of them), vs. a Democrat who still wants to run a better war in the Middle East, and I'd vote for and support the Democrat. The Republicans have forfeited any right to be taken seriously, or at their word, for a long time to come.

The Democrats have broken their word a number of times (for instance, on "counting every vote" in 2004 (...jeez!); and, under Clinton, on including labor and environmental protections in trade agreements)--but they are not the irredeemable criminals that the Republicans have become.

Which brings me to another problem. Is a one-party Democratic country in any less peril than a one-party Republican country? How are we to have a democracy if there is only one viable political party?

We MUST provide opposition--from within--or the Democratic leadership, while never perhaps going to the lengths of abuse that the Republicans have gone to, will certainly be tempted to abuse their power, and, if their current policies on many issues are going to set the tenor of it, will not be working much in the interests of the majority of the people. They will be doing things like getting a military Draft (which Bush can't do), securing some of the enormous gains of the super-rich, and continuing to favor global corporate predators and crazy, planet-killing and anti-labor "free market" piracy.

The courts will be pulling everything to the right, trying to protect the gains of the super-rich and global corporations. And WE had better be strongly pushing the Democrats to the left, toward representing the real majority in the country, as PDA and others are trying to do now. They will NEED loyal opposition!

[Beam Me Up]

23. .

[madfloridian]

24. Dean's statements about Cindy, and my post about my thoughts.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4947533

I think I was fair in making them. I tried to be.

[DemReadingDU]

25. Recommended

[yurbud]

26. Does anyone have a transcript of Cindy's speech? It's great

the part about Chuck Schumer was a knife through the heart, and something I have posted here a many times.

He said the war was great for America, and Cindy's response was "Anyone who says this is either ill-informed or has a vested interest, and I don't think Schumer is ill-informed."