Cindy Lee Miller Sheehan was born on July 10, 1957. She will become the next President of the United States. And why not? Who has given more for this nation? Who has had the courage to speak openly, unscripted, with infinite passion? The time has come for all decent Americans to simply forget about partisan allegiances. Principles and courage are all that will save us now; all else is sheer vanity.

Let's forget about our latest crop of sell-outs and elect someone with heart and courage and determination. In 2008, I am going to vote for Cindy Sheehan for president. If you are a real US Citizen, you will do likewise!

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Today, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan announced that she will run for Congress as an Independent against Nancy Pelosi in 2008 unless, by July 23, she puts impeachment back on the table. And while I think a lot of able-minded people on the netroots will have enough sense to oppose this distracting bit of grandstanding, I want to affirm just that here and now - a Cindy Sheehan independent run for Congress against the Democratic Speaker of the House is BAD for our party, our country, and our political system.

The American two-party system certainly has its advantages and disadvantages. As a die-hard Democrat, I must admit that there are times when even I become frustrated with our party and some of the things it does. And there are times in which, as a Democrat, I can make an impact on the shaping of the direction of our party. For example, I am from Connecticut. Last August, I cast my vote in the Democratic primary for Ned Lamont because I believe he was better suited to represent our party in the Senate as opposed to Joe Lieberman. Next year, on February 5th, I will cast my vote for one of the Democratic presidential candidates and thus let my voice be heard about the future of the party. Breaking from the party, as Cindy Sheehan would do should she in fact run against Pelosi next year, is not the right way of changing your party for the better to suit it to your desires - it is abandoning it and making it worse.

Like it or not, this is a two-party system of government. It is hard to imagine the rise of a third party in the near future and therefore those of us who care about politics and issues must work within either of those two parties in order to make a reasonable impact on the national debate. For those of us on the left, working with and in the Democratic Party helps drive it to where we want to see it. If we try and try to do that and the party still does not give way, we must keep on trying. Failure is not an option - for us or the party.

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The progressive political world is wailing and gnashing its teeth over the failure of Congressional Democrats to stand up to President Bush on the war supplemental. Most spectacularly, Cindy Sheehan has "resigned her commission" as the "face of the anti-war movement," to rest and spend more time with her family.

Godspeed, Cindy. You have been a shining example of true patriotism and love of country, what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "civil courage." Instead of suffering quietly, you took your grief and marched right into the fire. Victor Frankl would be green with envy. Good-bye "for now," as our friend the President of Venezuela famously said.

But before everybody else packs their bags and heads for the hills, consider this.

Guess who voted no on the war supplemental?

Ellen Tauscher.

Why is that significant?

Because Ellen Tauscher is a Congressional Democrat who was targeted by activists for failing to vote Democratic in Congress.

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5:30

I'm not sure why the Boston protest was scheduled a week after the anniversary of the declaration of war, but here is a sampling of some of the events from the Stop The War Rally that happened yesterday afternoon here in Boston.  Unfortunately, I didn't make it there in time to tape Howard Zinn speaking, and for the sake of brevity I did not include video of some of the other local speakers (also my arms were getting tired and the video was too shaky).  As you'll see in the video, Cindy Sheehan expressed a lot of anger about the supplemental bill that was passed on Friday.  Obviously it's a really tough situation; if anything, we just have to take it as a reminder of how much work is ahead in bringing the Iraq war to an end.

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Among The Mahablog's insults of Cindy Sheehan in this post (that she is: a "whiner", "extremely stupid", "panderer") and comments (that she is: a "lunatic", "nuts" and "malicious", "egotistical"), Maha deems this Sheehan speech as demagogic. Anyone else agree?

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