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Sheehan, a true patriot

Posted By: pk on 2005-08-09
In Reply to: How many times? - RightofLeft

I have followed this courageous woman who sacrified her son for this war and I have nothing but praise and respect for her. She is a true American.

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That's true - and Barack Obama is a true Patriot too.
Again we can agree to disagree. How John McCain has voted goes against everything I want as a President, but there are an equal number of people to me who feel opposite. That's the way it goes.

Your last comment brought to mind how true that is. Being a true patriot is not harmful in a candidate. John McCain is a patriot. So is Barack Obama.

He was a true patriot! I'll bet you are
proud of him.

Sheehan
She also is involved with the AfterDowningStreet.org site. Last week Representative Conyers held a meeting with Joe Wilson whose wife was outed as a CIA operative by someone in the WH, Ray McGovern, an ex-CIA analyst, Cindy Sheehan and Mr. Bonifaz, attorney, concerning the Downing Street Memos. It was on C-Span twice last week.

Cindy Sheehan
Did you see where Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in 2004 in Iraq, is camping out in front of Bush's ranch and she has gotten interviews with CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN. She states she wants to talk to Bush but he send two of his aides outside to tell her he won't meet with her. Why not, I wonder. He is our president, we elected him to office, he is our servant. I think he owes her a meeting. She gave the ultimate sacrifice, her son. He can't sacrifice a half hour to one hour of his FIVE WEEK vacation? Vacation, what is that? Do you think Clinton or Bush, Sr or even Reagan would have met with her. I think each of them would have.

Support for Sheehan
Please call (214) 764.6668 and leave your message for Cindy Sheehan.
We'll deliver them to Cindy in Crawford and give them to Cindy on CD
later. We will also broadcast your message on RadioLeft.com, so don't
say anything that you don't want to hear on the radio!

Also, sign the petition of support for Cindy. We helped get her on
Good Morning America but we want to help her get on more TV shows.
Sign here:
CindySheehan.com - http://www.CindySheehan.com

Sheehan/Schiavo sm
Well looks like the month-long "working vacation" is really getting screwed up. When a democrat has a dead son she is being motivated by the extreme left. Remember the Schiavo fiasco? People trying to get in to give a brain-dead woman water - which would have in fact KILLED her? I suppose they were not extremely right motivated

;duh, let me think, Bubba in Florida, conservatives watching, let's call an emergency session of congress and intervene in a family matter - WTG George, that really went over well.

Can you say Cindy Sheehan?
It just doesn't add up. Pat didn't have to go, so why would he have gone for a illegal war? I think Mrs. Tilman is another grieving mother expressing her grief in a not-so-honoring way to her son. I've not walked that road of grief, so I'll save my judgements of Mrs. Tilman beyond that...

Cindy Sheehan
Nominate her for pest of the year. She's making a mockery out of what her son believed in. She's a sorry excuse for a mother.

More on Cindy Sheehan...
Again...as with most protestors...it is not about the cause, it is about the protestor. This woman should be ashamed of herself.

Back then (forever ago, it seems), you could turn on any of the major networks � CBS (Cindy Broadcasting System), NBC (National Broadcast of Cindy), ABC (All �Bout Cindy), or even 24-hour coverage on CNN (Cindy News Network) � to hear her sad tale of woe about how she was fighting a one-woman battle against the imperial presidency in honor of her fallen son � deliberately killed by the neo-conservative cabal of Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and Halliburton while he was serving in Iraq � by courageously confronting the forces of evil by camping out on the front lawn of the President Bush�s Crawford, Texas ranch.

What heroism. What bravery.

One prop used by Cindy Sheehan at �Camp Casey� (named in honor of her fallen son, Casey Sheehan) was a fake cemetery filled with 2,000 crosses representing all of those American military service members killed in the line of duty up to that time in the Global War on Terrorism. One of those crosses bore the name of Casey Sheehan, who was killed in action on April 4, 2004. There�s even video of her tending to his fake grave surrounded by representatives of the mainstream media. (It should be noted that at least one Gold Star family didn�t appreciate their son�s death being part of Sheehan�s �Camp Casey� media circus. Gary Qualls of Temple, Texas drove to the location and removed the prop wooden cross bearing his son�s name from Sheehan�s faux cemetery, saying, �I don�t believe in some of the things happening here. I find it disrespectful.�)

But at Casey Sheehan�s real grave in Vacaville-Elmira Cemetery in Vacaville, California, the Peace Mom couldn�t bother with having a headstone or even a wooden cross to mark his passing. Until recently, that is, when critics began to take notice of Casey Sheehan�s lonely unmarked grave.

Heaven knows she should have been aware of this grave oversight. In the January 2006 issue of Vanity Fair, Cindy Sheehan was featured in a macabre two-page pictoral spread of her posing on Casey�s grave. In a pathetic twist of irony, she was being honored by the magazine for the �Best Stand of 2005�.

From the Vanity Fair spread, it seems that her son�s real grave was as much of a prop as his fake grave. It wasn�t until Cindy Sheehan began receiving severe criticisms about the absence of any marker at Casey�s grave that the �Peace Mom� began to respond.

The first indication that she was starting to feel the heat from critics noting her traveling cemetary while her son�s grave went unmarked was seen in a blog entry she posted dated April 11th at Truthout.org (the left-wing website that on May 13th announced that Karl Rove was about to be indicted not long before the special prosecutor announced that he wasn�t subject to prosecution), where she offers a rambling explanation for why her son � dead for more than two years � had no tombstone. Of course, it is four paragraphs before she gets around to answering the question about the absence of a tombstone at Casey�s grave:

We had a Casualty Officer who abandoned us when our mortuary refused to pay the cemetery and told us that the government sent the money to the mortuary, so now it is your problem. You may have to sue the mortuary. Our government discards and dishonors its own.

So you see, it was George Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove who were to blame for Casey Sheehan�s unadorned grave. But she later gives a more reasonable explanation � her mental instability:

For the first year after Casey was killed, I didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to place a TOMBstone on my son's grave. I didn't want one more marble proof that my son was dead. I couldn't even call where he was buried a cemetery, I had to call it Casey's Park. I placed fresh flowers in the cup every week and journaled there almost on a daily basis, and often laid on it and fell asleep and dreamed of my needlessly killed son. Have any of these people who claim that I am pissing on my son's grave even visited him?

In attacking her critics, she misses the very point she raises herself � if any of us had wanted to visit her son�s grave, how would we be able to find it without some kind of marker?

A quick examination of her explanation for this grave oversight raises glaring contradictions with known facts. Her first excuse is to blame the government. Let�s weigh her story with what we know to be true.

Had the Sheehan family chosen to have Casey buried in a National Cemetery (and his combat-related death would have made him eligible for a spot in Arlington National Cemetery), virtually all expenses would have been covered by the military. They didn�t choose that option. Instead, they had him buried in a private cemetery in his hometown � a perfectly legitimate option. In that instance (a private internment), the Department of Defense reimburses actual burial expenses up to $7,700. In addition to that, the actual expense of transporting his remains back to California would also be reimbursed by the government.

However, it wasn�t just the government in on this conspiracy, according to Sheehan; it was also the mortuary's fault for failing to pay the cemetery. It was only a few days after Sheehan publicly accused that owner of the mortuary that handled Casey funeral that he came forward to correct her story, as recorded in the Vacaville Reporter:

Steve Nadeau, the mortuary's owner, said Monday that not only did he properly pay the cemetery, but that he subsidized the process with his own money�

In an e-mail sent to The Reporter Sunday, Nadeau expressed hurt and disbelief at Sheehan's comments. He said that the amount of money the military gave the mortuary for Casey's funeral service and cemetery arrangements didn't even come close to covering the costs.

Several kind citizens made donations, said Nadeau. I absorbed the rest.

This was not the only way in which he went above and beyond his responsibilities following Casey's death, said Nadeau. He also provided a stretch limousine and a driver at his expense, he said, and invited the family to go to the airport with him so that he could accompany them. None of this was required, said Nadeau.

Having known the Sheehan family for many years through St. Mary's Catholic Church where Ms. Sheehan had previously been the youth director, it was my desire to provide care and dignity to Casey and the family. I did this in every respect.

Nadeau also refuted Sheehan's statement that the mortuary finally paid the cemetery only after the family threatened to bring the story to the media.

This never happened, said Nadeau. I would stop by the family home as I do most families' homes and check with them on necessary needs, etc.

Nadeau said the military provided his mortuary $5,736 in funding to pay for the funeral service and cemetery arrangements. The funding came in May 2004, said Nadeau, and he paid the cemetery as soon as the costs had been totaled and the donations received.

Now this testimony is very damning for Cindy Sheehan. According to the funeral director, the government came through with funding within a month of Casey�s death, and the cemetery was paid immediately. Anyone who has ever had to deal with getting money from the federal government knows this is lightning speed.

Admittedly, the funeral director�s story is not above questioning. Since Casey�s remains would have been embalmed, dressed and laid out at the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs at Dover Air Force Base even before they were sent to California, and the Defense Department would have covered transportation costs for his remains to be returned to his family, one wonders exactly what the $5,736 was actually paying for? Then again, the �death care� industry is known for its extraordinary product and service markups.

But what about Casey�s tombstone? This is where Cindy Sheehan�s excuses start to fall apart entirely.

In fact, the Department of Veterans Affairs provides virtually all veterans free headstones and grave markers at no cost to the family. From personal experience, I know that it only takes 2-3 months once the VA Form 40-1330 is submitted for these to be delivered directly to the cemetery. In most cases, private cemeteries will lay a base and install the veteran�s headstone or marker at no charge.

Perhaps �Peace Mom� was too busy with her anti-war activism to bother filling out the one page form?

Finally in May, Casey Sheehan�s grave finally received its headstone. In another article by the Vacaville Reporter (May 27th), Cindy Sheehan was quoted as saying that she had to pay for it out of her own pocket.

Sheehan said she had paid for the tombstone herself and was part of a family effort to put it up, even though its installation saddened her.

It is important for the rest of Casey's family to have one, she wrote Friday. I guess the pain of seeing it etched in marble that he is dead is another pain I will have to deal with.

�The headstone was very expensive, Sheehan wrote. She said that the government should have paid for it because of its responsibility for his death. But Sheehan said money is not the main issue.

Surely we should feel some pity for poor Cindy Sheehan for having to fork out the money for her son�s tombstone, even though he died in combat in service to his country? Well, again, this is where Sheehan�s story doesn�t fit the facts.

What she apparently forgot to tell the world in her bitter defense of her son�s unmarked grave was that the funeral reimbursement from the Defense Department wasn�t the only money she received from the government for Casey�s death. At least one former military official noted last month before Casey�s tombstone was installed that Sheehan was the beneficiary of a $250,000 Servicemembers� Group Life Insurance (SGLI) policy. And legal documents filed in the divorce case of Patrick and Cindy Sheehan show that there was another Prudential Life Insurance policy (no. 43520001432577) paid at the time of his decease.

What has not been discussed (and Sheehan would be likely never to admit to) is that in addition to having actual funeral expenses reimbursed by the Defense Department and the SGLI and Prudential life insurance policies, Sheehan also received a $100,000 death gratuity from the government to cover miscellaneous expenses not covered by the DoD reimbursement. The $100,000 death gratuity is paid to all deaths in the line of duty retroactive to October 7, 2001, the beginning of post-9/11 military operations in Afghanistan.

While the description of Casey�s headstone described by the Vacaville Reporter sounds as if it is a fitting marker for a fallen hero killed in the defense of his country and that also reflects his personal interests, clearly the cost of it isn�t near the $100,000 Cindy Sheehan received from taxpayers to cover such expenses.

Now people might be led to think that the Feds get a big chunk of that money back in taxes. Cindy Sheehan even said last August at a Veterans for Peace rally that she was going to refuse to pay her 2004 taxes:

Another thing that I'm doing is - - my son was killed in 2004, so I'm not paying my taxes for 2004. If I get a letter from the IRS, I'm gonna say, you know what, this war is illegal; this is why this war is illegal. This war is immoral; this is why this war is immoral. You killed my son for this. I don't owe you anything. And if I live to be a million, I won't owe you a penny.

And I want them to come after me, because unlike what you've been doing with the war resistance, I want to put this frickin' war on trial. And I want to say, You give me my son, and I'll pay your taxes.

What she forgot to mention in her tirade is that the $350,000 paid to her by the government ($250,000 SGLI insurance policy and the $100,000 death gratuity) is entirely tax free.

But if Cindy Sheehan is correct that she had to pay for the monument out of her own pocket (even though she admitted to the Vacaville Reporter that her estranged husband, Patrick, handles all matters relating to Casey�s grave site, a fact confirmed by Steve Nadeau, the funeral director that handled Casey�s arrangements), the question has to be asked:

What happened to the hundreds of thousands of tax free dollars that Cindy Sheehan received from the U.S. Government for her son�s death?

One has only had to follow Sheehan�s anti-war activism over the past year to reasonably conclude that the money paid to Cindy Sheehan has been going to finance her globetrotting activist lifestyle. Yes, while Casey Sheehan�s grave went unmarked, his mother was spending the money given to her to pay for his funeral expenses having tea parties with Third-World tinpot dictators, like her BFF, Comrade Hugo Chavez.

From all accounts, Casey Sheehan was the kind of guy that you would enjoy knowing. His commitment to his country and the Global War on Terror that it is prosecuting was seen in the heroic actions that led to his death in Sadr City and in his voluntary reenlistment in 2004 knowing he would probably be sent back to Iraq. His death, like the deaths of all members of the military who die in service to their country, was tragic and a loss to all Americans.

But perhaps even more tragic is how Casey Sheehan�s mother has taken to politically trafficking in her son�s death advancing a cause that many close to him have said he would never have agreed with. His mother�s lack of concern about caring for and appropriately honoring her son�s remains while using her son�s unmarked grave as a photo prop for Vanity Fair and also erecting fake grave markers at her media events should tell us all we need to know about Cindy Sheehan.

With no thanks apparently due to her, Casey Sheehan�s grave has the marker he deserves.

I'm sure you defend Cindy Sheehan just the same, don't you?
Not a bet I'd take.

Sheehan Feeling the Glare of the Spotlight

Some Are Focusing Anger on Protester

By Michael A. Fletcher

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 17, 2005; Page A03

CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 16 -- Cindy Sheehan rode into town 10 days ago, a forlorn mother with a question for her president: Why did my son die in Iraq?

But now the same wave of publicity and political anger that she rode to become a nationally known symbol of the antiwar movement threatens to crash down on Sheehan herself.

Cindy Sheehan hugs a supporter at her protest site in Crawford, Tex. Conservatives have criticized her, and she says some sympathetic groups have agendas she does not share. (By Jason Reed -- Reuters)

Conservative commentators and Web sites are taking aim at Sheehan with the same ferocity she has aimed at President Bush. In part, they are using her own words against her -- reciting such controversial comments as her vow to refuse to pay taxes to a government waging an "illegal" war and her desire to see Bush impeached.

The backlash is becoming a new object lesson in how saturation media coverage and the instinct for personal attack are shaping political debate. Some independent commentators said the pushback on the right has succeeded at scuffing the public sympathy and deference she had earned as the mother of a fallen soldier, and has shown how virtually any subject relating to the Iraq war and Bush's presidency is viewed through a partisan lens.

"Cindy Sheehan has emboldened the progressives who oppose the war and caused the conservative diehards who are behind the war to go into a defensive mode," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, a trade publication for talk radio. "Cindy Sheehan is going to be a target, and they'll probably go through her past to find what they can to discredit her."

Since her son, Casey, 24, was killed in Iraq last year, Sheehan, of Vacaville, Calif., has traveled the country trying to drum up opposition to the war in Iraq. She has participated in peace conferences, demonstrations and a mock congressional hearing about the "Downing Street memo" -- notes of a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers that said the Bush administration had decided to go to war and molded intelligence findings to support that decision.

In that time, Sheehan, 48, a soft-spoken woman who says she was radicalized by her son's death, has engaged in her fair share of inflammatory rhetoric.

"It's obvious Cindy Sheehan has become a political player, whose primary concern is embarrassing the president," Fox Television personality Bill O'Reilly wrote Tuesday in an online column. "She is no longer just a protester."

Bush, Sheehan said, lied to the American people about the war and should be impeached. She is refusing to pay taxes in hopes that the Internal Revenue Service will come after her to collect. "I'm not supporting a government that wages an illegal, immoral war," she said. "I want them to come after me, so I can put the war on trial."

Still, she said some of the statements attributed to her are distortions. Contrary to a letter attributed to her that is circulating widely on the Internet, she asserts that she has never said that the United States is waging the war in Iraq to protect Israel.

"I have said a lot of strong things, and I'll stand by everything I said," Sheehan said, adding that she thought the document had been altered. "But I didn't say that."

The scrutiny that has accompanied Sheehan's quick rise to prominence has extended to her family. Several in-laws have publicly criticized her protest -- announcing their displeasure in a release to the Drudge Report. News that Sheehan's husband, Patrick, has filed for divorce has been trumpeted by some bloggers as evidence of her extreme views.

Sheehan acknowledges that some of her views are becoming a distraction. Also, she said, some groups that have aided her protest have agendas -- including conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and some vaguely anti-Semitic theories about the cause of the war -- that she says she does not share.

Consequently, she has asked that her campsite near Bush's ranch be restricted only to organizations of military families, or those who have lost loved ones in the war.

"Attention got focused on the messenger and not the message," Sheehan said. "My thing is ending the war in Iraq. But there are a lot of people who want to attach their horse to my wagon, because of the exposure I'm getting."

The increased scrutiny of Sheehan is coming as some residents here are growing irritated with the stream of antiwar protesters drawn to her vigil.

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Sheehan announced plans to move the camp from the drainage ditches next to the winding road about two miles from Bush's 1,600-acre spread to a field on a ranch offered by one of Bush's neighbors. The new camp would be about a mile from the president's ranch. All that would be left behind at the original site would be three tents and hundreds of white wooden crosses bearing the names of troops killed in Iraq.

The move followed complaints by about 60 of Bush's neighbors, who petitioned McLennan County officials to expand a no-parking zone around the camp, in an effort to avert the traffic tie-ups that have become commonplace as the protest has grown. Also, Monday night a truck dragging chains and a pipe demolished some crosses; the driver, Larry Northern, 46, of Waco, Tex., was charged with criminal mischief.

Sheehan has promised to remain encamped throughout Bush's five-week stay here and to return whenever the president does. She also announced plans for a series of nearly 1,000 candlelight vigils Wednesday night across the country. Liberal advocacy groups MoveOn.org Political Action and Democracy for America are organizing the protests.

"All of this other BS just clouds my message," Sheehan said. "My message is that of a brokenhearted mom sitting down in front of George Bush's ranch, wanting to know why my son died."

The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan

Op-Ed Columnist

The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan

By FRANK RICH

Published: August 21, 2005

CINDY SHEEHAN couldn't have picked a more apt date to begin the vigil that ambushed a president: Aug. 6 was the fourth anniversary of that fateful 2001 Crawford vacation day when George W. Bush responded to an intelligence briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" by going fishing. On this Aug. 6 the president was no less determined to shrug off bad news. Though 14 marine reservists had been killed days earlier by a roadside bomb in Haditha, his national radio address that morning made no mention of Iraq. Once again Mr. Bush was in his bubble, ensuring that he wouldn't see Ms. Sheehan coming. So it goes with a president who hasn't foreseen any of the setbacks in the war he fabricated against an enemy who did not attack inside the United States in 2001.

When these setbacks happen in Iraq itself, the administration punts. But when they happen at home, there's a game plan. Once Ms. Sheehan could no longer be ignored, the Swift Boating began. Character assassination is the Karl Rove tactic of choice, eagerly mimicked by his media surrogates, whenever the White House is confronted by a critic who challenges it on matters of war. The Swift Boating is especially vicious if the critic has more battle scars than a president who connived to serve stateside and a vice president who had "other priorities" during Vietnam.

The most prominent smear victims have been Bush political opponents with heroic Vietnam r�sum�s: John McCain, Max Cleland, John Kerry. But the list of past targets stretches from the former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke to Specialist Thomas Wilson, the grunt who publicly challenged Donald Rumsfeld about inadequately armored vehicles last December. The assault on the whistle-blower Joseph Wilson - the diplomat described by the first President Bush as "courageous" and "a true American hero" for confronting Saddam to save American hostages in 1991 - was so toxic it may yet send its perpetrators to jail.

True to form, the attack on Cindy Sheehan surfaced early on Fox News, where she was immediately labeled a "crackpot" by Fred Barnes. The right-wing blogosphere quickly spread tales of her divorce, her angry Republican in-laws, her supposed political flip-flops, her incendiary sloganeering and her association with known ticket-stub-carrying attendees of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Rush Limbaugh went so far as to declare that Ms. Sheehan's "story is nothing more than forged documents - there's nothing about it that's real."

But this time the Swift Boating failed, utterly, and that failure is yet another revealing historical marker in this summer's collapse of political support for the Iraq war.

When the Bush mob attacks critics like Ms. Sheehan, its highest priority is to change the subject. If we talk about Richard Clarke's character, then we stop talking about the administration's pre-9/11 inattentiveness to terrorism. If Thomas Wilson is trashed as an insubordinate plant of the "liberal media," we forget the Pentagon's abysmal failure to give our troops adequate armor (a failure that persists today, eight months after he spoke up). If we focus on Joseph Wilson's wife, we lose the big picture of how the administration twisted intelligence to gin up the threat of Saddam's nonexistent W.M.D.'s.

The hope this time was that we'd change the subject to Cindy Sheehan's "wacko" rhetoric and the opportunistic left-wing groups that have attached themselves to her like barnacles. That way we would forget about her dead son. But if much of the 24/7 media has taken the bait, much of the public has not.

The backdrops against which Ms. Sheehan stands - both that of Mr. Bush's what-me-worry vacation and that of Iraq itself - are perfectly synergistic with her message of unequal sacrifice and fruitless carnage. Her point would endure even if the messenger were shot by a gun-waving Crawford hothead or she never returned to Texas from her ailing mother's bedside or the president folded the media circus by actually meeting with her.

The failure of the smear campaign against Cindy Sheehan is yet another historical marker in the collapse of support for the Iraq war.

Capitol Police say they *screwed up* when arresting Sheehan

Sure they did. Some lowly rogue Capitol cop decided on his own to arrest Cindy Sheehan.

Just like the lowly rogue soldiers in Iraq who have been arrested and convicted and punished because one of them had the bright idea that they should torture prisoners. None of these people could possibly have gotten orders from the Oval Office, right? Of course not. Bush hates torture, right? LOL!

Sometimes the lies are so transparent and ridiculous, all I can do is laugh.

MSNBC.com

NBC: Charges against Sheehan to be dropped
Antiwar mom removed from State of the Union for wearing protest shirt

NBC News and news services

Updated: 5:42 p.m. ET Feb. 1, 2006

WASHINGTON - Charges against antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan, who was arrested after an incident involving a T-shirt she wore to the State of the Union address, will be dropped, officials told NBC News Wednesday.

U.S. Capitol Police took Sheehan away in handcuffs and charged her with unlawful conduct, a misdemeanor, when she showed up to President Bush�s address Tuesday night wearing a shirt that read, �2245 Dead. How many more?� � a reference to the number of soldiers killed in Iraq.

But Capitol Police will ask the U.S. attorney's office to drop the charges, NBC News� Mike Viqueira reported Wednesday.

�We screwed up,� a top Capitol Police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said Sheehan didn't violate any rules or laws.

Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq, was not the only one ejected from the House gallery. The wife of a powerful Republican congressman was also asked to leave, but she was not arrested.

Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Florida � chairman of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee � was removed from the gallery because she was wearing a T-shirt that read, �Support the Troops � Defending Our Freedom.�

The Capitol Police official said officers never should have approached Young.

Criticism from Rep. Young
Holding up the shirt his wife wore, Rep. Young said on the House floor Wednesday morning: �Because she had on a shirt that someone didn�t like that said support our troops, she was kicked out of this gallery.�

�Shame, shame,� he scolded.

Beverly Young was sitting about six rows from first lady Laura Bush and was asked to leave. She argued with police in the hallway outside the House chamber.

�They said I was protesting,� she told the St. Petersburg Times. �I said, �Read my shirt, it is not a protest.� They said, �We consider that a protest.� I said, �Then you are an idiot.��

They told her she was being treated the same as Sheehan, who was ejected before the speech. Sheehan wrote in her blog Wednesday that she intended to file a First Amendment lawsuit.

She did not issue an immediate response to the charges being dropped.

�I don�t want to live in a country that prohibits any person, whether he/she has paid the ultimate price for that country, from wearing, saying, writing, or telephoning any negative statements about the government,� Sheehan wrote in her blog.

Sheehan was invited as a guest of Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif. She later was released on her own recognizance.

Told she could not wear shirt?
Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said police warned Sheehan that such displays were not allowed in the House chamber, but Sheehan did not respond, she said.

Sheehan, however, told a different story in her blog.

�I was never told that I couldn�t wear that shirt into the Congress,� Sheehan wrote. �I was never asked to take it off or zip my jacket back up. If I had been asked to do any of those things, ... I would have, and written about the suppression of my freedom of speech later.�

She said she felt uncomfortable about attending the speech.

�I knew George Bush would say things that would hurt me and anger me and I knew that I couldn�t disrupt the address because Lynn had given me the ticket,� Sheehan wrote. �I didn�t want to be disruptive out of respect for her.�

She said she had one arm out of her coat when an officer yelled, �Protester.�

�He then ran over to me, hauled me out of my seat and roughly (with my hands behind my back) shoved me up the stairs,� she wrote in her blog. She was then cuffed and driven to police headquarters a few blocks away.

Sheehan was arrested in September with about 300 other anti-war activists in front of the White House after a weekend of protests against the war in Iraq. In August, she spent 26 days camped near Bush�s ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he was spending a working vacation.

The Associated Press and NBC News contributed to this report.

� 2006 MSNBC.com

URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11120353/

Add to that the Patriot Act..
They could not get the Patriot Act passed before 9/11. Read this Act. It is downright scary and at the very end it states "or other purposes." What "other purposes?"

yes. Patriot. nm
nm

Don't want a patriot, need someone

who is highly intelligent, who takes time to think through his/her decisions, not a shoot off the hip kind of guy.

what does this have to do with the patriot act?
nm

Now here's a patriot...Not..(sm)

Rush Limbaugh: *I Hope Obama Fails." Somebody's gotta say it.*

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_011609/content/01125113.guest.html

Angry Mothers and Trembling Grizzlies: The Sheehan Effect

by Dr. Teresa Whitehurst

"Sheehan has been involved in protests against Bush since last year. She founded Gold Star Families for Peace...She said she decided to seek another audience with Bush when she heard his comments about the war last week, after a spike in American deaths. The fallen men and women "died in a noble cause," Bush said Wednesday. "Their families can know that we will honor their loved ones' sacrifice by completing the mission."

"Sheehan said she wants to tell Bush not to use her son's death as a reason to continue the war, and to ask "why (Bush's twin daughters) Jenna and Barbara and the other children of the architects of this disastrous war are not in harm's way, if the cause is so noble." ArmyTimes.com, August 8, 2005

For some, Cindy Sheehan's lonely journey through the shock and sorrow of her son Casey's death in Iraq is of no interest. What, they ask, is the big deal? One soldier killed, one mother grieving � so what? Mothers have no business meddling in the manly business of war, or expressing inconvenient, disloyal, unpatriotic feelings like grief or anger. Get over it, critics command, and think about "the mission" instead, a mission that "we should see through" so that other people can't make fun of us for "cutting and running."

Instead of focusing on one poor misguided woman, or on how many more Americans and innocent Iraqi families will be killed in this war, we're told to think about how great it will be when other people admire us for killing every terrorist and future terrorist in the whole wide world. Instead of thinking about the new fundamentalist Islamic "democracy" that Bush's war has ushered in for the poor girls and women of Iraq, think about "the good news" way, way down the road when they get used to wearing the burqa and live happily ever after. In short, Americans should focus on "the big picture."

But for mothers � even those who've tried valiantly to believe the president when he exclaims that the war on Iraq is a "noble cause" � there IS no big picture. For mothers of slain soldiers, there are only little pictures: their lost child smiling at 10 months in his high chair; riding his first bike without training wheels; opening Christmas presents (Hot Wheels, Transformers, or GI Joe); and making silly faces for the camera.

The little picture encompasses all those times when parents stay up all night with their sick children, or protect them from bullies, or wipe away their tears after a friend's rejection. It's not just the happy times that mothers remember, it's the multitude of little moments, little pictures in a parent's mind, of time and love invested in one's offspring. When this enormous investment is squandered by reckless military adventures that zip kids into body bags, parents are owed great compensation. And they are owed the truth.

Do George and Laura Bush ever imagine how it would feel if all they had left of their beloved child was, as Cindy Sheehan has, a few snapshots and an abyss of sorrow in their hearts? Must they suppress their natural compassion in order to convince themselves of their own administration's spin � that it's "worth it" when American kids die far away from home for reasons that have consistently turned out to be false?

Do the Bushes feel the earth tremble beneath their feet at the mere thought that thousands of parents of slain soldiers are beginning to ask questions, to see the folly for which their children died�to find their voice?

Cindy remembers the little picture, which is why George has been hiding from her. She is his worst nightmare, for she is not just Cindy Sheehan, mother of Casey. She is Every Mother. And, no matter how uncomfortable it gets, she's not going to dishonor her son by saying, "Well okay, if you say so, I guess this war was worth my boy's life."

Support Our Wars or Else

What does it really mean to "honor" a soldier's death�and life? To say that he or she willingly died "to end terrorism" (impossible), or "make Iraq a democracy" (ditto)? Unless they were suicidal when they enlisted (I know one boy who was), dying in Iraq is not the soldier's "sacrifice" because by definition, a sacrifice is something that we choose and willingly make. Most young people never imagined when they enlisted � often for reasons their recruiters understood but their parents didn't, such as finding a sense of belonging, or escaping bad neighborhoods or dead-end jobs, or finding a way to afford college some day � that they'd be dead within a matter of months.

To swallow ridiculous, ever-changing reasons for the futile war that has killed over 1800 idealistic youths with their whole lives ahead of them is to take the easy, socially acceptable way out. Pro-war pundits and politicians constantly threaten parents with social disapproval and even hatred if they dare to question those reasons � and it's worked for a long time. Parents have felt pressured to mouth the hawks' lines, lest their love for their child be called into question.

What a devilishly mean but perfect system for subduing the parents of fallen soldiers! Politicians and talk show hosts threaten: "Support our troops (the war), or we'll accuse you of dishonoring your dead child." The last thing that worried or grieving parents can bear is the suggestion that they're "dishonoring" the memory of the one they love. And so they have acquiesced. They have submitted. Archie Bunker would be pleased: Like Edith, they've learned to stifle themselves.

Until now.

Protective Fury: The Tipping Point

One day, back when Americans lived in peace and we'd never even heard of the Bush dynasty or the plotting neocons whose reckless ambitions it would serve, I was watching a nature show about grizzly bears in their natural habitat. I will never forget one particularly electrifying scene that comes to mind whenever I hear about Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside Mr. Bush's gated compound.

A large male grizzly came upon two adorable little grizzly cubs, who looked up at him with wonder and naivete; clearly, they didn't realize the danger they were in. To my great surprise, however, the male grizzly stood bolt upright as though startled, then starting running away from those harmless little cubs. Why on earth did he do that, I wondered. The narrator explained that the male knew instinctively that there's nothing more dangerous than a mother grizzly who senses that her cubs may be harmed.

As the huge male ran off into the woods, the narrator continued: "While the male grizzly is larger and could probably kill the female, he knows that in the process, her protective fury would leave him seriously, if not mortally, wounded. Mother grizzly bears will fight to the death for their young, ripping the flesh of any animal, no matter how large, that threatens their cubs. Coming upon the youngsters frightened the adult male so badly that he ran and hid because the mother, unseen but without a doubt somewhere near by, could at any moment sniff his presence and roar into action."

Human males can also sense danger, and know very well the hazards of facing protective mothers � particularly when other mothers are watching, too. This explains why the mainstream media has worked so hard to make antiwar parents of fallen soldiers look pitiful, and why George Bush is hiding inside his compound, hoping that Ms. Sheehan will lose interest and go away.

But what the president doesn't understand is this: She's not going to lose interest, and furthermore it isn't just Cindy Sheehan anymore. Parents of servicemen and women all over the country are beginning to see the little picture again. This is the tipping point, a showdown fueled by motherly devotion that will embolden other families to start questioning the integrity and fitness of this administration and this president: It's what I call the Sheehan Effect.

And that's the worst news ever for a man who can only see the "the mission," the big picture, and how noble it will look under "Bush, George W." in the history books.

Cindy Sheehan not allowed to watch SOU address, was arrested.
Curiously, CNN reported that Cindy had UNFURLED A BANNER INSIDE THE CHAMBER WHICH IS AGAINST THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS RULES.

Half an hour later we learn that no such thing happened. Cindy simply wore a T-shirt with an antiwar message on it and was promptly hauled off to jail.

In Bushworld, you can not only be arrested and hauled off to jail for wearing a controversial T-shirt, but the major media will also make up ridiculous lies about you and broadcast them world-wide. That's some performance for a liberal press. But oh ho ho, we were all being so paranoid four years ago to claim that the press was a willing servant of deliberate Rovian disinformation spinmeisters. Once again, we are right on the mark and the Repubs? - blind and wrong and misdirected as usual - let us count the many things about which the progressive thinking people of this nation have been absolutely correct, and the Bush supporters oh so regrettably wrong. Wow, it would take pages and pages!

Can't tell them anything though - they can't admit it when they are wrong. The way things are going, they're going to deny us right into the communist USSR of 1965 - the state our teachers used to scare us about in 1965 - and we would think, oh, how awful to live in a place where the government controls all the media, where protestors are thrown in jail, where you have to be worried about speaking above a whisper if you criticize the government, because your own neighbor will turn you in! Oh those poor people, having their mail opened and never being able to see any real news, only what the govt. wants them to see!

But of course that was back in the days when dissent was patriotic, when Americans didn't spy on each other, when the govt. could not throw you in jail without a trial, when even Presidents had to resign if they wiretapped you without a warrant. You know, the OLD America, when nobody was above the law and citizens were shocked when the lies and deceit and self-serving greed of elected officials was exposed, instead of sniggering and giggling behind their hands about how bold their guys are, and ain't it grand they're still in charge.

Gee, I really miss it - was good while it lasted, and something to tell the grandkids about.

Maybe we should put that patriot act to good use....(sm)

like on the nuts at Fox News who are doing nothing but inciting violence.

http://leesearles.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/rightwingnuttery-glenn-beck-and-the-rise-of-fox-news-militia-media-edition/

Michael Moore a patriot? sm
in WHAT alternate universe? Investigate? He wouldn't know a true investigation if it bit him on his very large butt. During the last election when he called Americans in general and Democrats in particular stupid...well I guess he loves the country but holds the people in contempt...particularly liberals as that is what he said...a patriot? Well the founding fathers would spin in their graves on that one. LOL...omg. Michael Moore a patriot. LOL.

I didn't vote for or against the Patriot Act and neither did you....
Congress did. Obama voted to reauthorize it as well.

The Patriot Act has nothing whatsoever to do with communism. What would make you say that?

Patriot Act/health care
You mean HC, of course. She was not different than any other congress and senate members. Patriot Act parts 1 and 2 were passed BEFORE the Iraq War WMD Bush lies, people die justification based on faulty intelligence was revealed. It makes me crazy that it is still there and I truly hope to see it revised or scrapped sometime in the next 4 years.

I am asking you, seriously...do you know when you started feeling vulnerable to govt control? I feel that too, but I am sure for different reasons than you...and I really am interested to know what make you feel that way.

Obama's plan is not a socialist plan like the ones you are referring to. He is not taking free enterprise out of health care. He is proposing to open up the existing plan that now covers Congress, the senate and federal employees. I have looked at that plan. It offers a number of choices in terms of deductible amounts, types of coverage (HMO, PPO, etc), premium amounts and the like. Pre-existing conditions are covered under some of those plans, if not all of them. He is aiming his pre-existing changes toward private insurance companies as part of his health plan.

It works like any other group plan. If you broaden the base of employees (in this case, citizens added to the plan by CHOICE, not force), the premiums come down. The care remains the same. You are free to choose the plan that best suits your needs or elect to keep your existing insurance. For Obama, it is a question of giving people access to affordable health care. He is not suggesting to transfer tax dollars to create the kind of plan you are describing that you consider to be subpar.

What is TriCare? I have to leave for a little while, but when I get back I will try to retrieve the link I used to inspect the existing federal plan and if I find it, I will post it later this afternoon. BTW, I know I come on strong and use sarcasm to a fault when I feel I am dealing with a poster who I think (sometimes mistakenly) is either ill informed or showing disrespect...not when having healthy debates over differences in opinion, beliefs or ideology. Those debates end up being the most informative of all and are a lot more satisfying than just preaching to the choir.

Do you recall the pre-Patriot Act world?
when diverse viewpoints were at our fingertips and not dictated by Mega-Media outlets riding around in the pockets of political status quo? Not only has this dummed down American audiences nationwide, but it has been a direct assault on the democratic process.

Patriot Act provisions:
1. Law enforcement agencies authorized (and sometimes forced) to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial and other records without a warrant. This has been exercised against their own citizens, the most recent instance being voyeuristic easedropping on intimate conversations between American troops serving in Iraw and their spouses...right to privacy in 1st, 4th and 5th admendments notwithstanding.
2. Eased restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the United States. This has allowed them to expand their definition of terrorisim to include individuals and groups exercising their 1st amendment right to redress the government via political dissent.
3. Expanded the Secretary of the Treasury's authority to regulate financial transactions, particularly those involving foreign individuals and entities. An example of this would be freezing funds of a first generation natural born citizens sending money to their family members who still live overseas.
4. Enhances the discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and deporting SUSPECTED (not proven) of terrorism-related acts. This has not worked out well for many perfectly innocent citizens and permanent residents whose only crime is to have a Moslem name.
5. The act also expands the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism, thus enlarging the number of activities to which the USA Patriot Act�s expanded law enforcement powers can be applied.

Abuse of the Patriot Act has been rife and is the stuff of legend, as is the controversy that surrounds it. The erosion of civil right stemming from this one piece of legislation is breath-taking, but the mindset that created it....even more so. I will be voting for a candidate that shows at least some sort of awareness of civil rights. Those are the freedoms I worry about.

Huckabee forgot about the Patriot Act...
Ummm audacious? More control? I'm getting whiplash from looking behind in order to look ahead.

I guess our definitions of a Patriot differs

and I guess that's okay, but the truth will come out in the wash, eventually. All the media filters in the world will not keep the truth coming from coming out eventually, and we may all be surprised at what the truth actually is which may be drastically different than either one of our points of view.

Bush to criminalize his protesters under Patriot Act

By Patriot Daily
News Clearinghouse

1-13-6

George Bush wants to create the new criminal of disruptor who can be jailed for the crime of disruptive behavior. A little-noticed provision in the latest version of the Patriot Act will empower Secret Service to charge protesters with a new crime of disrupting major events including political conventions and the Olympics.

The Secret Service would also be empowered to charge persons with breaching security and to charge for entering a restricted area which is where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting. In short, be sure to stay in those wired, fenced containments or free speech zones.

Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse's diary:

Who is the disruptor? Bush Team history tells us the disruptor is an American citizen with the audacity to attend Bush events wearing a T-shirt that criticizes Bush; or a member of civil rights, environmental, anti-war or counter-recruiting groups who protest Bush policies; or a person who invades Bush's bubble by criticizing his policies. A disruptor is also a person who interferes in someone else's activity, such as interrupting Bush when he is speaking at a press conference or during an interview.

What are the parameters of the crime of disruptive behavior? The dictionary defines disruptive as characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination. The American Medical Association defines disruptive behavior as a style of interaction with people that interferes with patient care, and can include behavior such as foul language; rude, loud or offensive comments; and intimidation of patients and family members.

What are the rules of engagement for disruptors? Some Bush Team history of their treatment of disruptors provide some clues on how this administration will treat disruptors in the future.

(1) People perceived as disruptors may be preemptively ejected from events before engaging in any disruptive conduct.

In the beginning of this war against disruptors, Americans were ejected from taxpayer funded events where Bush was speaking. At first the events were campaign rallies during the election, and then the disruptor ejectment policy was expanded to include Bush's post election campaign-style events on public policy issues on his agenda, such as informing the public on medicare reform and the like. If people drove to the event in a car with a bumper sticker that criticized Bush's policies or wore T-shirts with similar criticism, they were disruptors who could be ejected from the taxpayer event even before they engaged in any disruptive behavior. White House press secretary McClellan defended such ejectments as a proper preemptive strike against persons who may disrupt an event: If we think people are coming to the event to disrupt it, obviously, they're going to be asked to leave.

(2) Bush Team may check its vast array of databanks to cull out those persons who it deems having disruptor potential and then blacklist those persons from events.

The White House even has a list of persons it deems could be disruptive to an eventand then blacklists those persons from attending taxpayer funded events where Bush speaks. Sounds like Bush not only has the power to unilaterally designate people as enemy combatants in the global war on terror, but to unilaterally designate Americans as disruptive in the domestic war against free speech.

(3) The use of surveillance, monitoring and legal actions against disruptors.

Bush's war against disruptors was then elevated to surveillance, monitoring, and legal actions against disruptor organizations. The FBI conducts political surveillance and obtains intelligence filed in its database on Bush administration critics , such as civil rights groups (e.g., ACLU), antiwar protest groups (e.g., United for Peace and Justice) and environmental groups (e.g., Greenpeace).

This surveillance of American citizens exercising their constitutional rights has been done under the pretext of counterterrorism activities surrounding protests of the Iraq war and the Republican National Convention. The FBI maintains it does not have the intent to monitor political activities and that its surveillance and intelligence gathering is intended to prevent disruptive and criminal activity at demonstrations, not to quell free speech.

Surveillance of potential disruptors then graduated to legal actions as a preemptive strike against potential disruptive behavior at public events. In addition to monitoring and surveillance of legal groups and legal activities, the FBI issued subpoenas for members to appear before grand juries based on the FBI's intent to prevent disruptive convention protests. The Justice Dept. opened a criminal investigation and subpoenaed records of Internet messages posted by Bush`s critics. And, the Justice Dept. even indicted Greenpeace for a protest that was so lame the federal judge threw out the case.

So now the Patriot Act, which was argued before enactment as a measure to fight foreign terrorists, is being amended to make clear that it also applies to American citizens who have the audacity to disrupt President Bush wherever his bubble may travel. If this provision is enacted into law, then Bush will have a law upon which to expand the type of people who constitute disruptors and the type of activities that constitute disruptive activities. And, then throw them all in jail.

Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse

Obama voted to extend the Patriot Act...
just so you know. After he said he would work to repeal it. There's some honesty for ya. Frankly, I don't think throwing your pastor and mentor of 20 years under the bus for your political career is particularly moral either. But that is just me.

This should make **patriot** Cheney happy.

The Patriot Act is up but some want to keep it, including Schumer. Don't blame Bush for that. nm

Please give examples of people violated by the Patriot Act
like rr said, Nancy Pelosi said she knows of no one who has been abused by the Patriot Act.

We lost our freedom with the last admin. - wire tapping, Patriot Act, etc....nm
x

Everything you said is true and can be

easily seen by just reading the board.

At least it can be seen by most of us.

But it IS true.
I saw a feature on it. They had videotapes of the recruiters coaching the kids on how to pass a urine drug screen. It is absolutely true.

I don't think that is true at all. sm
I think a lot of people are pretty sick of Cindy and her histrionics. I don't see it as political at all. A lot of people aren't going to sit by this time for another Vietnam where the antiwar crowd totally influenced the way the war was run.

Not true. sm
They are pro troops and pro Israel. You are definitely not reading that board right. Is it the guns that offend you? Or the war with Islamic radicals who all want us dead? I mean, what EXACTLY offends you the most?

LOL!!! Oh how true! nm

Not true
Re-upped? He joined the military because all his friends did. Read Cindy's description of how he got hoodwinked into going. Re-upped? No.

LOL. I like that...so true...nm
When in doubt, blame Clinton.

the true me
Happy and peaceful but when I deal with rabid conservatives attacking me..I attack back..Happy and peaceful in my life and in my beliefs, you bet, totally..I can sleep well at night cause I know my ideology/politics help people, I help people..I am an extremely happy peaceful accepting person..However, when I get attacked, I can give as good as I get..I do have to say, the net does not show the true person, so I dont see the true you and you dont see the true me..I have met people who I have only known in the net and when we met, we became friends..So I would take with a grain of salt the impression you get of people over the net..we are much more..

So true sm
That clip would be hilarious if it were not so true. It is frightening how true it is.

It's true. SM
I remember Nan talking about it. It was way way back when some of us used to put our e-mails on line here.

This is SO true.nm
nm

True that is.
Lesson good.

Even if that was true (and I don't believe it is), so what?

The one thing the radical right wing HATES is the fact that we have freedom of religion in this country. We are all free (so far, anyway) to believe in whatever religion we choose. It might be Christianity, or it might be something else. Why does it even concern YOU how many Democrats are Christian? It's simply none of your business, yet you want to jump to conclusions that may or may not be true and judge an entire group of people based upon religious beliefs, some of which might be different from yours.

This is my main problem with the radical Christian right. They don't seem to believe that other religions are just as good as theirs. They believe theirs is the best, and anyone who doesn't share their specific religious beliefs are judged to be inferior people. You want to force your narrow views on everyone, and surely you must know that just isn't going to happen in America.

However, if Americans don't wake up soon and if you manage to wreck America and turn it into a theocracy, I can and WILL move to Canada in a heartbeat to escape your religious bigotry. By the way, wasn't that the reason this country was formed to begin with -- to end religious persecution?

I can only wonder why YOU haven't been nominated for Supreme Court justice, since you seem to have the only qualification required by Bush.

Oh, that's right. You're obviously not one of his close personal *friends* who worships him like a god and licks his boots.

Why should she? It's true!

NOT TRUE!

MT was responding to a CHALLENGE to people to put their *money where their mouth is* and if they think this war is so *noble,* then why don't they either enlist or sign up for civilian services over there.

MT said she WILL. NO PROBLEM. SHE WILL.

No spin. They are her words. She didn't say *might* or *would* or *maybe.* She said she WILL.

You're the one who's doing the spinning.

I know it's not true.

Completely false and irresponsible.

Yes, well, that may be true.

And this board is intolerant and extremely violently angry.

Now this isn't true.
I am disappointed in you, PK. We had a pretty good conversation on here at one time. I actually thought there was some communication and I have enjoyed posting here. I never sidetracked anything or anyone. I was on topic. However, many of the questions I have asked her in response to allegations have never ever been answered. Why is that?