Cindy Sheehan

[theknife]

the Prez is back on a five week vacation at the ranch in Crawford Texas for his 50th vacation of his presidency, making him the most leisurely, well-rested president in history. while he attracts many protesters along his travels, he's got one outside the gates of the ranch that just won't go away:

Soldier's mom digs in near Bush ranch
CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- A mother whose son was killed in Iraq says she is prepared to continue her protest outside President Bush's ranch through August until she is granted an opportunity to speak with him. Cindy Sheehan's 24-year-old son -- Army Spc. Casey Sheehan of Vacaville, California -- was killed in Baghdad's Sadr City on April 4, 2004.

Mrs. Sheehan is an angry and distraught mother but she's got some legitimate and relatively straightforward questions for the President and she says not leaving until she speaks to him. the Bushies, sensing the unfolding PR disaster, trot out some fairly high-level aides to talk to her:

Joe Hagin, White House deputy chief of staff, and Stephen Hadley, national security adviser, met with Sheehan for about 45 minutes Saturday, according to White House spokesman Trent Duffy.

Sheehan said that the two men "were very respectful."

"They told me the party line of why we are in Iraq," she said. "I told them that I don't believe that they believed that."

i'll bet they don't believe that either. but apparently the Prez and Mrs. Sheehan have had at least one choice exchange on a previous occasion:

she and her family met with him in June 2004 at Fort Lewis. Mr. Bush, she said, acted as if he were at a party and behaved disrespectfully toward her by referring to her as "Mom" throughout the meeting.

By Ms. Sheehan's account, Mr. Bush said to her that he could not imagine losing a loved one like an aunt or uncle or cousin. Ms. Sheehan said she broke in and told Mr. Bush that Casey was her son, and that she thought he could imagine what it would be like since he has two daughters and that he should think about what it would be like sending them off to war.

"I said, 'Trust me, you don't want to go there'," Ms. Sheehan said, recounting her exchange with the president. "He said, 'You're right, I don't.' I said, 'Well, thanks for putting me there.' "

ouch. no wonder Bush is ducking her.

but he may not be able to do so for long, as her story snowballs. and as it does, watch the GOP smear machine begin to target her, questioning her patriotism, her motherhood, her son's service etc. right out of the Rove playbook. but you might think that our bring-em-on, smoke-em-out, tough-talking commander-In-Chief could handle a one-on-one with a 48 year-old California housewife and answer a very basic question:

"I want to ask the president, why did he kill my son?" Sheehan told reporters. "He said my son died in a noble cause, and I want to ask him what that noble cause is."

[multi]

throw her in a jail until the pres finishes his vacation...

[Mazer]

"Why did you kill my son?" is a loaded, politically charged question to begin with, which is why the president doesn't want to answer it. And by all accounts, the president isn't a suspect in her son's death, he wasn't in Iraq at the time it occured and the perpetrator was most likely an arab. We all know she just wants to talk to the president so she can argue with him in front of a bunch of reporters, so can you blame him for sending out his aides with whom she has no personal grudge?

Sheehan, 48, didn't get to see Bush, but did talk about 45 minutes with national security adviser Steve Hadley and deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin, who went out to hear her concerns.

Appreciative of their attention, yet undaunted, Sheehan said she planned to continue her roadside vigil, except for a few breaks, until she gets to talk to Bush. Her son, Casey, 24, was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, on April 4, 2004. He was an Army specialist, a Humvee mechanic.

"They (the advisers) said we are in Iraq because they believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, that the world's a better place with Saddam gone and that we're making the world a safer place with what we're doing over there," Sheehan said in a telephone interview after the meeting.

"They were very respectful. They were nice men. I told them Iraq was not a threat to the United States and that now people are dead for nothing. I told them I wouldn't leave until I talked to George Bush."

Link

The media is going to take this woman's grief and turn it into a crusade against the president, which will do nothing but prolong Ms. Sheehan's mourning period. The media's obsession with turning tragedy into entertainment sickens me to no end.

[albed]

I think you've got that backwards somewhat Mazer. She's using the media for her own purpose just like Terri Schiavo's parents did recently. Without media attention and support she'd be just another lying loonie whose slander would get her sued if it was directed against a private citizen. You can bet she's contacted them with information as to when and where she'll be performing.

Of course the media is quite happy hyping her performance into a national sideshow.

[JackSpratts]

Originally Posted by Mazer

"Why did you kill my son?" is a loaded, politically charged question to begin with, which is why the president doesn't want to answer it.

The media's obsession with turning tragedy into entertainment sickens me to no end.

hmmm. so you know what bush is thinking.

the entire affair of war is loaded and politically charged and bush has spared no effort putting his loaded and politically charged points across at every opportunity. either in person or by proxy, with the full acquiescence of the media. how did americans gather basic information, or misinformation about iraq? how was it that you heard about wmds and 45 minute nuclear windows? about uranium purchases and missions accomplished? unless bush came to your home and told you personally - and he didn’t tell me - you heard his spin from the press. he told them and they passed it along, relatively verbatim with little in the way of modifiers. “here’s what the president said today.” it’s part of their job. did that sicken you too, or are you sickened only when distraught moms get attention grieving unbearable losses that this president – who ordered this war - will never experience, let alone comprehend? if so such rigid one-sidedness borders on the pathological.

- js.

[daddydirt]

Cindy Sheehan in 2004

"I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis," Cindy said after their meeting. "I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith."

Cindy Sheehan in 2005

she and her family met with him in June 2004 at Fort Lewis. Mr. Bush, she said, acted as if he were at a party and behaved disrespectfully toward her by referring to her as "Mom" throughout the meeting.

By Ms. Sheehan's account, Mr. Bush said to her that he could not imagine losing a loved one like an aunt or uncle or cousin. Ms. Sheehan said she broke in and told Mr. Bush that Casey was her son, and that she thought he could imagine what it would be like since he has two daughters and that he should think about what it would be like sending them off to war.

"I said, 'Trust me, you don't want to go there'," Ms. Sheehan said, recounting her exchange with the president. "He said, 'You're right, I don't.' I said, 'Well, thanks for putting me there.' "

someone needs to ask Cindy to explain her different takes on the meeting with Bush, or would that be "smearing" her?

[albed]

You left out the best part dd.

For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.

"That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together," Cindy said.

Originally Posted by daddydirt

someone needs to ask Cindy to explain her different takes on the meeting with Bush, or would that be "smearing" her?

It won't be the liberal mass media.

[floydian slip]

I cant begin to imagine losing a son, much less having one. I suppose shes a bit crazy because of it. Cut her some slack, shes probably an emotional wreck.

[malvachat]

Poor women,grief is awful thing.
I don't know about using the press.
The press love this sort of thing anyway.
Her lad was a volunteer wasn't he.
You don't join up without knowing the risk.

Why doesn't George have her in for tea and Sympathy
They could have pretzels and he can explain how he nearly died once.
That could evoke the mother in Cindy and everything would be fine again.

[Mazer]

Originally Posted by JackSpratts

“here’s what the president said today.” it’s part of their job. did that sicken you too, or are you sickened only when distraught moms get attention grieving unbearable losses that this president – who ordered this war - will never experience, let alone comprehend? if so such rigid one-sidedness borders on the pathological.

Most of their job is turning "Here's what the president said today" into a form of entertainment. Being informative is one of their primary concerns, I'm certain, but each news agency faces stiff competetion. They over hype most everything to keep their audience watching, and unfortunatly that leaves enough air time for only half the story. Everything is fair game, from the nameless dead in the war to the personal tragedy of a mother. I think I've mentioned before that I don't watch cable news channels anymore, and lately I've stopped watching the local news as well. The news has lost all credibility with me. Whereas once the free press was responsible for holding public figures accountable, now all they do is try to make them look as bad as possible in every circumstance. This poor lady is their weapon against the president, whether she likes it or not, and they won't release her until they've trashed the his reputation. And like any gun, she'll walk away from this experience empty, feeling dirty and used.

[theknife]

it's not that complicated, fellas...and it doesn't even need to be that political.

the Prez could take all the wind out of this story today by stopping by her little encampment outside the ranch on his way to wherever, simply sitting down with this woman privately, and letting her vent for 10 minutes. end of story.

but i don't think he has the heart...this is the same president who is never ever allowed to be in any kind of unscripted situation, with members of the public, where all the questions and answers aren't carefully orchestrated. this president is only capable of discussing his actions in front of carefully screened audiences, each of whom has signed a loyalty oath, who are guaranteed not to ask any uncomfortable questions. citizens with the wrong t-shirts or or bumper stickers are dragged away from his events by force, even arrested.

this president loathes accountability, neither he or his handlers will ever put him in a situation where he might have to personally account for his decisions to someone who didn't drink the kool-aid. he just doesn't have the balls.

it's not about what kind of president Bush is - it's about what kind of man he is.

[albed]

Boy you really have a thing about male genitalia lately.


Hope that back operation didn't have any adverse effects.





If Bush gives into this little scam there'd soon be scores of lying liberals squatting outside his ranch with their media lackeys.

[Mazer]

Maybe the best thing would be for him to invite her into his ranch for a private meeting. She gets what she want's and the media gets squat.

[theknife]

Duh.

It's amazing that the White House does not have the elementary shrewdness to have Mr. Bush simply walk down the driveway and hear the woman out, or invite her in for a cup of tea. But W., who has spent nearly 20 percent of his presidency at his ranch, is burrowed into his five-week vacation and two-hour daily workouts. He may be in great shape, but Iraq sure isn't.

It's hard to think of another president who lived in such meta-insulation. His rigidly controlled environment allows no chance encounters with anyone who disagrees. He never has to defend himself to anyone, and that is cognitively injurious. He's a populist who never meets people - an ordinary guy who clears brush, and brush is the only thing he talks to. Mr. Bush hails Texas as a place where he can return to his roots.

[Mazer]

Gimme a break.

Selectively humane, Mr. Bush justified his Iraq war by stressing the 9/11 losses. He emphasized the humanity of the Iraqis who desire freedom when his W.M.D. rationale vaporized.

But his humanitarianism will remain inhumane as long as he fails to understand that the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute.

So, the parent's of dead soldiers are the only people whose opinions matter? Should we put them in charge of military operations in Iraq just 'cause they're grieving? Here's a better idea, leave the important decisions to the people who know what's really going on over there.

[theknife]

like every other Bush critic who has come forward, cindy sheehan gets slammed, slimed, and trashed by the GOP sleaze machine. but none of this obscures the truth: she's right - her son died for a lie, like every other iraq casualty. so, regardless of whatever you think her motives are, make no mistake: she has the moral high ground.

[albed]

Originally Posted by theknife

like every other Bush critic who has come forward, cindy sheehan gets slammed, slimed, and trashed by the GOP sleaze machine.

Got a link?

[theknife]

anatomy of the Sheehan sleaze attack, courtesy of Media Matters For America. the chronology is fascinating, documenting the synchronization of the right-wing websites (Drudge et al), rightie media wingnuts (O'Reilly, Malkin, Limbaugh), and conservative media (Fox). the GOP sleaze machine, in action:

Cindy Sheehan "changed her story on Bush"? Tracking a lie through the conservative media

Cindy Sheehan, mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, has drawn significant media attention for staging an anti-war protest outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where she is demanding to meet with the president. On August 8, Internet gossip Matt Drudge posted an item on his website, the Drudge Report, in which he falsely claimed that Sheehan "dramatically changed her account" of a meeting she had with Bush in June 2004; Drudge attempted to back up his false assertion by reproducing Sheehan quotes from a 2004 newspaper article without providing their context. After the story appeared on the Drudge Report, it gained momentum among conservative weblogs and eventually reached Fox News, where it was presented as hard news and in commentaries. Media Matters for America will examine how one false story on an Internet gossip site ended up the focus of prime-time cable news coverage.

Drudge's August 8 item claiming that Sheehan had changed her story used quotes from a June 24, 2004, article in The Reporter of Vacaville, California, where Sheehan lives. The Reporter article described a meeting that Sheehan and 16 other families of soldiers killed in Iraq had with Bush in Fort Lewis, Washington, earlier that month. Sheehan's son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq in April 2004.

Drudge quoted Sheehan seemingly speaking glowingly of Bush: "'I now know [Bush is] sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,' Cindy said after their meeting. 'I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith,' " and, "For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again. 'That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together,' Cindy said." Drudge contrasted these quotes to Sheehan's statements on the August 7 edition of CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, in which she said, of the 2004 meeting with Bush: "We wanted to use the time for him to know that he killed an indispensable part of our family and humanity."

Drudge, however, took Sheehan's quotes from The Reporter out of context in falsely claiming a shift in her position. The June 24, 2004, Reporter article also quoted Sheehan expressing her misgivings about Bush and the Iraq war:

"We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled," Cindy said. "The president has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached."

The 10 minutes of face time with the president could have given the family a chance to vent their frustrations or ask Bush some of the difficult questions they have been asking themselves, such as whether Casey's sacrifice would make the world a safer place.

But in the end, the family decided against such talk, deferring to how they believed Casey would have wanted them to act. In addition, Pat noted that Bush wasn't stumping for votes or trying to gain a political edge for the upcoming election.

Moreover, Sheehan was not referring to her meeting with Bush as "the gift the president gave us." She was actually referring to the trip to Seattle, as Reporter staff writer Tom Hall noted in an August 9 article responding to Drudge: "Sheehan also said the trip to Seattle helped connect her family to others that had lost a son or daughter in Iraq. Sheehan said sharing their story with those families was rewarding, as was the time she got to spend with her own family. 'That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together,' she said in the story. Drudge included that quote in his Monday morning report, but didn't explain that it referred to sharing time with her family, not the president."

Reporter editor Diane Barney also responded to Drudge in an August 9 column, in which she said that Sheehan's positions on Bush and the war have not changed since June 2004. "We don't think there has been a dramatic turnaround. Clearly, Cindy Sheehan's outrage was festering even then," Barney wrote. "In ensuing months, she has grown more focused, more determined, more aggressive. ... We invite readers to revisit the story -- in context -- on our Web site and decide for themselves." An August 8 Editor & Publisher article quoted Barney further clarifying the paper's position: "It's important that readers see the full context of the story, instead of just selected portions. We stand by the story as an accurate reflection of the Sheehan's take on the meeting at the time it was published."

Throughout the day on August 8, Drudge's false story needed little time to spread to conservative weblogs:

Drudge posted the Sheehan item on August 8 at 10:11 am ET.
Right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin posted the item on her weblog one hour later, at 11:22 am ET.
At 12:40 pm ET, the Drudge story appeared on C-Log, the weblog of the conservative news and commentary website Townhall.com.
At 2:33 pm ET, MooreWatch.com posted the story.
At 3:23 pm ET, William Quick of DailyPundit.com posted the story.
Fox News then picked up Drudge's distortion of Sheehan's quote. On the "Political Grapevine" segment of the August 8 edition of Special Report with Brit Hume, guest anchor and Fox News chief Washington correspondent Jim Angle highlighted Sheehan's supposed contradiction:

ANGLE: Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq last year, who's now camped outside President Bush's Crawford ranch demanding to see him, said yesterday on CNN that a private meeting with President Bush last year was offensive, insisting, quote, "He acted like it was a party. He came in very jovial, like we should be happy with that. Our son died for the president's misguided policies."

But just after that 2004 meeting, she gave a very different account, telling her local paper, the Vacaville Reporter, quote, "I now know the president is sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith." She added that President Bush, quote, "gave us the gift of happiness of being together."

By August 9, various journalists and progressive bloggers revealed Drudge's distortion. On Salon.com, journalist Eric Boehlert noted on August 9: "Put in full context, Drudge's claim of a flip-flop is easily dismissed." RawStory.com, a progressive news website, noted that Drudge "grossly took Sheehan out of context."

Nevertheless, Drudge's distortion again popped up on Fox News -- this time on the August 9 edition of The O'Reilly Factor. Host Bill O'Reilly made Sheehan's nonexistent contradictions the focus of his "Talking Points Memo" segment:

O'REILLY: The fascinating saga of Cindy Sheehan. That is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo." Mrs. Sheehan is protesting in Crawford, Texas, trying to convince Americans the Iraq war is wrong and the president should be impeached. She is doing so because her son Casey, an Army specialist, was killed last year in Iraq. No one has the right to intrude on Mrs. Sheehan's grief. That's number one. She's entitled to her opinion on a situation that has deeply affected her. And she's angry at the White House.

[...]

Well, here's something very strange. Two months after her son died, Cindy and her husband Patrick did meet with President Bush, as she said. After that meeting, Cindy was quoted by a California newspaper as saying, "I now know [President Bush] is sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss." So Mrs. Sheehan has apparently changed her mind about the president.

[...]

In an editorial today in The New York Times, it says, "Mr. Bush obviously failed to comfort Ms. Sheehan when he met with her and her family. More important, he has not helped the nation give fallen soldiers like Casey Sheehan the honor they deserve." Well, let's go back to the California article. Cindy Sheehan was quoted as saying, "That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together." It sounds like comfort to me. What say you, New York Times?

O'Reilly then introduced his guest to comment on Sheehan -- Michelle Malkin, who proclaimed that Sheehan's "story hasn't checked out," to which O'Reilly readily agreed:

MALKIN: I mean, the New York Times editorial board is all too eager to prop her up as some sort of martyr and to buy her line when, clearly, her story hasn't checked out.

O'REILLY: Yes, her story hasn't [sic] changed.

MALKIN: And so I think -- and I think that angle you're emphasizing is absolutely right here, which is the mainstream media just lapping this up and perpetuating myths and inaccuracies when they know it's not the truth.

O'REILLY: Yup. They don't identify -- in the New York Times editorial today, it was obvious they did not say her story has been inconsistent. And they did not pinpoint that she is in bed with the radical left.

On the August 10 edition of his syndicated radio program, The Radio Factor, O'Reilly continued to assert that Sheehan had contradicted herself, stating, "In her first meeting with the president, she was happy with him, and we read you the article that the Vacaville paper -- where she's from in California -- printed."

— S.S.M.

[JackSpratts]

conservatives are determined explorers. when you think they've hit bottom, they surprise you and go even farther down.

- js.

[albed]

Can't you think for yourself knife? Instead of bloated quotes of what other people are saying just compare the statements in the full articles daddydirt posted. No crap about it being out of context then and it's pretty obvious.


If you can think for yourself that is.

Originally Posted by daddydirt

someone needs to ask Cindy to explain her different takes on the meeting with Bush, or would that be "smearing" her?

Damn, the guy is psychic.