Cindy's Crawford
I grieve for Cindy Sheehan's loss. Her son died in Iraq and now she is mourning in front of the entire world, minus one man, our president.
I am curious at the current resurgence of anti-war activity - from Elvis Costello, to Green Day, to Cindy Sheehan. The death toll in Iraq continues to rise, as do oil prices. Are these the cause of renewed protests? Discuss.
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August 17, 2005 |
Mari Margil
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Comments
Posted by: Jeff Alworth | Aug 17, 2005 12:29:01 PM
Cindy Sheehan represents the shift in American opinion in the war. Although the righties try to link her to "far left" folks like Michael Moore, the reality is that her voice is actually that great middle--the ones who until six months ago supported the war. I've been watching the paper, and the people writing in in support of Cindy hail from Oregon City, Scappoose, Lake O.
The Bushies have handled it very poorly indeed. Instead of recognizing what Sheehan represents, they listened to the echo chamber tell them to eviscerate her. But unlike Moore, she's a heartland American--the people Bush depends on to swing elections. Targeting her means targeting his most important (and most neglected) constituency--that group who voted for Bush because he seemed so average and likeable.
The horrible thing for the left has been that the right wing attack machine never goes away. After 9/11, it exploited the tragedy to target Dems--Dems who wholeheartedly supported Bush's misguided policies--as traitors. It was inconceivable. Well, now the attack machine has exposed a vulnerability to righties: it can't be shut off, even when it's attacking its own.
Posted by: Betty | Aug 17, 2005 1:52:48 PM
YoYo... you should be careful about the path down which your logic is taking you. Just because the terrorists attacked us because they don't like our Mid-East policy, doesn't mean they're right.
Posted by: Jesse O | Aug 17, 2005 1:59:54 PM
I loved the Daily Show's commentary: Sheehan-Moore-Bowling for Columbine-Mexico-Same-language-as-Cuba-Fidel Castro-assassination attempt on JFK-Movie which starred Kevin Bacon!
Posted by: Sid Leader | Aug 17, 2005 2:38:49 PM
This INSANE war is finally hitting Americans where it hurts -- the pocketbook -- at the gas station.
So, how many Soldiers-Per-Gallon does that Humvee get?
It'd be funny, if it wasn't so so sad.
Posted by: Tenskwatawa | Aug 17, 2005 7:17:31 PM
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Put All The Republican Ideologues On Trial spells P.A.T.R.I.O.T.
Police better have planning and practice exercises going, and judges and courts better review case law with regard to arrest and prosecution for inciting civil unrest and conspiring to civil disorder, and disturbing the public peace -- charges against Republican public speech in like manner as charges apply against Nazi public speech. There's a line between free speech and inciting insurrection and Republicans cross it like Nazis and KKK do sometimes.
State Rep. Jeff Krupf, substituting for dispatched Liars Larson on the public airwaves today, (Paul Allen's KXL fascist radio), said today Pakistani Khan has helped Osama build a bomb, it's a done deal, and that bomb has been smuggled across the U.S.- Mexico border and is now in this country, it's a done deal. And in recognition of this, the federal government should move immediately to seal the border with U.S. military forces.
Jeff Krupf is an inane liar and liable to be charged with conspiring to civil disorder and inciting insurrection. Especially considering he is in public service as an elected officeholder and Republican spokesman, liable in his acts of dishonor to censure and impeachment, and that only his elected title gets him on Liars radio broadcasting for which he is unqualified and incompetent. Krupf provoked and panicked the public with false statements of a nonexistent bomb for three hours before he mousey-voiced cited the widely discredited false website World Net Daily as his source.
Media Matters dot org provides this contact information for World N. Daily:
PO Box 1087
Grants Pass, OR 97528
(541) 474-1776
FAX: (541) 474-1770
Inasmuch as conspiracy aggravations might obtain in incitement and insurrection indictments of Krupf-KXL and/or W.N. Daily, only in Oregon could -- and should -- they both be prosecuted under state law.
I expect it catches some Oregonians unawares to learn the seriousness of considered review of legal actions against a political party and its public 'rally' broadcast statements. (Fretful if some are Oregonians in police and justice jobs.) I don't think 'seriousness' exaggerates -- "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And .. moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." - Barry Goldwater, 1964. Laws draw lines. Some persons step on the law and cross the line. In political speech the line is between open-door content such as a website -- where persons gather it voluntarily, and bash-down-the-door content such as public airwaves broadcasting -- where persons are mass programmed. Some 'free expressions' cross an invisible but recognizable line.
Today the Governor of Ohio faced 4 counts of ethics misdemeanors because he appeared voluntarily. If he hadn't, it is a question whether there was anyone who knew to, or would, arrest him; and if that answer is Not Anyone, then that is a case of police and justice fault, no matter how belittled the media makes the charges out to be -- the fact is, the Gov. was due in court to face sentence and that is betrayal and illegitimate conduct in elected office.
His loudest critics ought to be the 49 other Governors, decrying his disrepute on their association. Even as the 'good German' Secretaries of State ought, in serious action, to censure Ohio's ... but they haven't. (Latest evidence shows Ohio's Sec.of State received $40 million HAVA funds and withheld $30 million "not spent on preparations for the 2004 presidential election, as required by law." Investigation has not found where the $30 million is -- some evidence indicates some money went to Republican campaignings. HAVA has not brought charges. HAVA compliance has elements of ensnarement over state elections integrity -- it might be a group not to get entangled with, suggesting Governor Kulongoski could well veto the HAVA-implementation measure now on his desk as crafted by this Session's Republican leadership, and rejectingly publicize the Ohio indignity on federal voting rights and election laws while he marks such a veto. Districts in California rejected the HAVA money and strings.) 'Good' Germans or Americans can wind up having 'bad' things being done in their name through a procedure of down-ratcheting creeps.
Why are not Cindy Sheehan's Congressman and two Senators standing alongside for her reckoning of the president? They must and may.
Whether it is unconsidered ceding of state authorities in a series of federal 'nationalizing' measures that favor select states and impart dissolution to most others, or (whether) it is lying officeholders passing the subtlety of fly-by radio rumors into actions of their public privilege, formal or congenial the effect is the same incapacity of individual articulation. Lies from honored positions are not dishonored, and the 'good' people conform in 'bad' behaviors because the distinction between hopes and habits gets blurred.
It is not by understanding the principle but rather by exercising the practice that one (state or person) can find in common clues the gross motive. And a little practice never hurt anyone. Other newshounds might even enjoy sharing my two favorites today.
She was commenting on Cindy Sheehan. She wasn't the only one interested. The guy sitting in the booth with his girlfriend tried including himself in the conversation. "Cindy Sheehan is an operative," he said, "she's works for Michael Moore and the entire liberal left." The older lady was indifferent, kept her back to him. The waiter rolled his eyes.
...
The guy from Utah had a lot more to say about Cindy Sheehan, a veritable expert for anyone willing to listen. "You all should be prepared for truth about that lady," he said, "We are at War and Cindy Sheehan is getting in the face of our President." I couldn't resist, Have you heard some breaking Cindy Sheehan news? I asked Utah. "She's on the front page of Michael Moore's website," he told me confidently, "they have secret motives." They? I asked, Secret motives? He said she was not even a real person, an actor, and they are pulling her strings, telling her what to say, where to go. "How do you think she got Bush's home address in Crawford?" he said it with intensity.
...
"I was a soldier," she told them. "Four tours in Viet Nam. I was a field Hospital Nurse. I saw action. I saw horror. I wouldn't wish it on anyone; not even you." All eyes were on her. "You call yourselves Christians," she said, "You are selfish, nothing but corruption-enablers. You are a coward, young man, and worst of all, bad for America. Cindy Sheehan's joy is diminished simply because you are in a state of denial. So get this straight, Bush lied and Cindy Sheehan's son died."
The lady put her purse under her arm and then turned ...
... and this. (Transient link.)
Limbaugh Loses It, Says Iraq Mom Made Story Up...
Limbaugh said that Sheehan's "story is nothing more than forged documents."
Sheehan's "story" is, in fact, that her son died while fighting in Iraq. A Humvee mechanic, Spc. Casey Sheehan was one of seven U.S. soldiers killed in Baghdad's Sadr City on April 4, 2004, by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire.
From the August 15 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
...
LIMBAUGH: I mean, Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real, including the mainstream media's glomming onto it. It's not real. It's nothing more than an attempt. It's the latest effort made by the coordinated left.
(HuffingtonPost) posted August 16, 2005 10:09 PM
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Posted by: Tenskwatawa | Aug 17, 2005 7:24:33 PM
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P.S. NEW ABUSE PHOTOS COULD SPARK RIOTS, US GENERAL WARNS
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Posted by: Grant E. Remington | Aug 17, 2005 10:15:36 PM
I am curious at the current resurgence of anti-war activity
If I might respond as a pissed off veteran, it's because you people have been asleep and Cindy sounded reville.
Before the invasion there were 50,000 people in the streets of Oregon. On the first aniversary there were 10,000. On the second, 1,500. Where the Fu*k have you been while 1,800 plus service men and women and tens of thousand Iraqi have beenkilled by George W. Bush's insane actions. Gazing at your navels?
I know Cindy. I've broken bread with her and held while she composed herself trying to read her daughter's poem "A nation rocked to sleep" on steps of the Capital in Salem.
I've attended funerals of the fallen and I had to leave and catch my breath while they played the childhood videos of the soldiers while "You are the wind beneath my wings" played. I can't go to another one, I don't know how the Governor does it. I know the cost of war because I've seen it up close and personal. And it is obscene. I deal with other vets who are relapsing into PTSD. I give classes at schools on the costs of war. And I do this along side other Veterans for Peace members who do the same.
So don't talk to me about a "current resurgence of anti-war activity". Its been there all along, you just turned a blind eye and let the war continue. And BlueOregon hasn't had a post on the war for who knows how long. It is the MOST important issue facing us and it is time you looked this monster in the eye and spit in it. Its what I and my fellow Veterans for Peace have been doing since before the invasion.
Or have you been cowed into fear by the powers that be?
Posted by: mushroom cloud | Aug 17, 2005 11:07:34 PM
here tens
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45313
Posted by: activist kaza | Aug 18, 2005 9:01:39 AM
Right on, Grant. I know you didn't support me last yr. against Rep. Hooley (even tho I made Iraq a central theme, and was the only candidate to march in March against the war)...but I respected your decision. For those that care about veterans (or women's) issues, Ms. Hooley has been a major advocate.
The exception, of course, is the supreme veteran's issue of bringing the troops home. My question: can you and other die-hard Hooley supporters get an audience with her and get her to sign on to the bi-partisan House resolution to demand withdrawal of the troops from Iraq in 2006?
Posted by: LT | Aug 18, 2005 12:21:57 PM
Sign a petition or you don't support "the supreme veterans issue"? Veterans have no right to decide individually what they believe?
How is that different than a debate I once got into with a college student: that a young man who worked in Wayne Morse's office wasn't sufficiently against the war unless he also attended protest rallies? All those who oppose the war must agree on a specific proposal or they don't really oppose the war?
Ohio is as much of a catalyst as a woman named Cindy. Not only the deaths of the reservists but also Hackett winning 4 rural counties--there goes the argument that only Republicans have the values of rural Americans.
No one forced Bush to go to battle on the day he did listening to only the advisors he did and rejecting the advice of others who said it would cost more (Lindsay) and would need more troops (Shinseki).
And all those who said it would be no cakewalk and there needed to be more post-war planning than there was turned out to be correct.
Bush needs to be candid about how things have gotten like this in Iraq, esp. if the Iraqis don't get a constitution written in the next few weeks.
Even if Cindy S. had never spoken up, these statements would be true. Even if there were not MoveOn.org and Michael Moore, these statements would be true.
To say otherwise is evidence there are no really solid defenses to criticism, so attack is being used. Trying to connect these activists to Cindy as if she would have been a Bush supporter otherwise risks looking worried that spin is failing.
As I recall, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was in August, 1964. Only Morse and Gruenig voted against it. That was the year LBJ was elected in his own right.
Say what you will, I see the following parallels:
1) a strong minded president from Texas got lots of American troops involved in an overseas war which some people questioned from the beginning of those deployments.
2) it turned out there was internal Administration debate, but anyone who questioned the war effort publicly was criticized for ruining American resolve or some such rot.
3) those of us whose friends became casualties were told that grieving our friends openly hurt the war effort. That had an unintended consequence: didn't make us supporters of the war, but active opponents of whoever told us we had no right to a point of view they disagreed with, then or decades later.
4) as the years went by, evidence emerged of all sort of mistakes that were made by presidential advisors seen (at least at the time ) as "the best and the brightest" of their party.
5) The president's domestic agenda (for that matter any of his domestic accomplishments) were overshadowed by the war.
6) a generation of young people (on either side) saw their political beliefs formed at least in part by the overseas war.
7) people who are smart respect all who served in combat and their right to express an opinion. Agree or disagree, combat vets from any war have the same right to agree or disagree that, say, John Kerry and John McCain have to agree or disagree. To say otherwise is to hamper intelligent debate, which I hope all here agree is a good thing.
David Keene (now of American Conservative Union) said once in an interview that his politics were formed in college at least in part because "anti-war" demonstrations on his campus turned violent.
There were anti-war people who thought all violence (as in bombing ROTC buildings) should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. And if that prevented one of the bombers from later becoming a lawyer or other occupation not allowed to employ those with a criminal record, tough luck.
My politics were partly formed by a high school friend becoming a Vietnam amputee. And by my involvement in veterans issues--in working on legislation for better treatment of Vietnam vets, we soon discovered there were those in both parties (from Lane Evans in Congress to Vic Atiyeh in Oregon) who could be counted on for serious support.
And there were politicians in both parties who couldn't be bothered--the sort who would now have yellow ribbons on lapel or car magnet but have other priorities than caring for combat vets.
Each family should have the right to decide if their family member "died in a noble cause". To say otherwise is to return us to the days of England in WWI.
Amazon.com has both the print version of a story from that time and the video which was part of Masterpiece Theater in the early 1980s and is advertised from A & E. It had many fans, and some of us read the book after seeing the show.
Vera Brittain: Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925 (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Vera Brittain
To end on a lighter note, the main difference I see between the Iraq situation and Vietnam is that no great satire about Iraq has yet surfaced--probably too soon.
In 1968 there was a lovely little booklet stapled down the center which appeared in our college bookstore. Titled "The Begatting of the President" it put satire in the form of biblical writing. Two examples:
"And LBJ said unto Adam and Eve, "Of every fruit of the Great Society save one may ye eat. But of the fruit of dissent ye shall not eat, for on that day ye shall surely doubt. "
".....and there was a great battle. And its name was Tet, and it was offensive."
There is a larger bottom line to all of this--something we knew back then and should remember now. The Vietnam War did not end because groups like SDS (anti-war or radical fringe, dep. on your point of view) were fighting groups like YAF (conservative campus group ). It didn't even end simply because of the efforts of groups like Vietnam Vets Against the War.
It ended when politicians were slowly convinced by ordinary folks first that the draft was unfair (leading to the lottery system) and then that we needed to get out of a civil war in a country we didn't understand. There are those who will say the nastiness of the 2004 election shows the polarization never really ended.
Vietnam vet and Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) was just mentioned on the radio saying what reservist and S. Carolina Sen. L. Graham has been saying, about the situation with the troops in Iraq being "harder and harder to justify". Can anyone seriously believe that Republican Senators are members of Moveon.org or supporters of Michael Moore?
It wasn't polls or consultants or groups which caused this change--it was strongly held beliefs and genuine emotion. It was candidates who stood up and said what they believed. It was young people who decided their own actions mattered and took individual action.
There is a reason the US Constitution begins "We the people...".
Mike Deaver was right about perception. And to the extent that ordinary Americans going about their everyday lives think the grieving mother has a right to speak out, no amount of spin will change that. To the extent they think she is not responsible for Bush Administration mistakes and has a right to say they made mistakes, no amount of bashing her will change that.
And no, she doesn't speak for everyone. Maybe it is time to discard the idea that groups speak for all their members rather than the concept of individual thought and speech. Anyone who disagrees with her has the right to say so.
But those who have been saying "support the troops= never question Bush policies" have got to realize that he barely won re-election and has never spoken for the half of the country who didn't vote for him.
Posted by: Grant E. Remington | Aug 18, 2005 4:00:14 PM
Right on, Grant. I know you didn't support me last yr. against Rep. Hooley
-activist kaza
I'm not in your district so I couldn't vote you. As the president of VFP 72 which is a 501(c)3, I have to keep partisan politics to myself by and large.
As far as petitions go, my stovetop has every pot boiling over already and with school season coming up, we are ramping up our peace education programs too!
"the supreme veterans issue" for this veteran is getting a murderer out of the White House. Bringing the troops home is neck and neck.
So much war to stop, so little time.
War is obsolete, wage peace.
Posted by: Tenskwatawa | Aug 18, 2005 11:15:35 PM
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Casey Sheehan Candles brigades are like a thousand points of light, staring in from the night, at the Evil Office window.
Mass protests and vigils standing out truly saying Bush's 'Illegal War' betrayed America, is a topic on a lot of websites and seems to be troll pesticide. Where are they all hiding from this topic?
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Posted by: yoyo | Aug 17, 2005 11:45:12 AM
I think Sheehan's quotes are cause for the US public to do some introspection.
Sheehan says, "We were told that we were attacked on 9/11 because the terrorists hate our freedoms and democracy ... not for the real reason, because the Arab Muslims who attacked us hate our Middle-Eastern foreign policy."
The New York Post reports that she said terrorism would end if Israel would "get out of Palestine."