Cindy Sheehan: I have decided not to run

February 9, 2006
By Cindy Sheehan

Remarks as prepared for delivery.
First of all, I would like to thank everyone for coming today, and send out to my daughter, Carly, a big Happy Birthday. She is 25 today. She is now older than Casey was when he was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004.

I would also like to thank everyone from all over the world who has sent me emails of support and encouragement to consider a challenge to Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat. I literally got hundreds of emails. I am overwhelmed with gratitude and love.

During the Vietnam War, Senator George McGovern stated the following on the Senate floor in September of 1970:

"Every senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This chamber reeks of blood ... It does not take any courage at all for a congressman, or a senator, or a president to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Vietnam, because it is not our blood that is being shed. But we are responsible for those young men and their lives and their hopes."

The lack of courage of America's present Senate is partially responsible for my son's death and the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. Dianne Feinstein is one of the senators who expediently gave her Constitutional obligation to George Bush to invade an innocent country. Dianne Feinstein continues to vote to give George Bush more money to fund what she calls a "mistake." George Bush has been proven to be irresponsible with our young people's lives and with our tax dollars, but the senator keeps giving him more money and more power to prolong the murder and mayhem in Iraq.
I am standing here today to say "enough." It is not enough to "criticize" the President's policies while you are handing him more money to fund his policies. It is like giving an addict more money to purchase drugs when you would like him or her to quit.

Continued:
http://mparent7777.livejournal.com/6257358.html

Today's newswire:
http://mparent7777.livejournal.com/2006/02/09/