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Indybay Feature

President Bush: Talk to Cindy Sheehan.

by Mike Ferner (repost and link)
Bush needs to tell Cindy Sheehan Why Her Son Died In Iraq.
What One Mom has to Say to Bush
By MIKE FERNER

“That lying bastard, George Bush, is taking a five-week vacation in time of war,” Cindy Sheehan told 200 cheering members of Veterans For Peace at their annual convention in Dallas last Friday evening. She then announced she would go to Bush’s vacation home in nearby Crawford, Texas and camp out until he “tells me why my son died in Iraq. I’ve got the whole month of August off, and so does he.”

Sheehan left the VFP meeting on Saturday morning and is now in Crawford with a couple dozen veterans and local peace activists, waiting for Bush to talk with her. She said in Dallas that if he sends anyone else to see her, as happened when national security adviser Steve Hadley and deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin did later that day, she would demand that “You get that maniac out here to talk with me in person.”

She told the audience of veterans from World War Two to today’s war in Iraq, that the two main things she plans to tell the man she holds responsible for son Casey’s death are “Quit saying that U.S. troops died for a noble cause in Iraq, unless you say, ‘well, except for Casey Sheehan.’ Don’t you dare spill any more blood in Casey’s name. You do not have permission to use my son’s name.”

“And the other thing I want him to tell me is ‘just what was the noble cause Casey died for?’ Was it freedom and democracy? Bullshit! He died for oil. He died to make your friends richer. He died to expand American imperialism in the Middle East. We’re not freer here, thanks to your PATRIOT Act. Iraq is not free. You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you’ll stop the terrorism,” she exclaimed.

“There, I used the ‘I’ word – imperialism,” the 48 year-old mother quipped. “And now I’m going to use another ‘I’ word – impeachment – because we cannot have these people pardoned. They need to be tried on war crimes and go to jail.”

As the veterans in Dallas rose to their feet, Sheehan said defiantly, “My son was killed in 2004. I am not paying my taxes for 2004. You killed my son, George Bush, and I don’t owe you a penny...you give my son back and I’ll pay my taxes. Come after me (for back taxes) and we’ll put this war on trial.”

The co-founder of Gold Star Mothers for Peace objected to hearing that her son was among the soldiers lost in Iraq. “He’s not lost,” she said tearfully. “He’s dead. He became an angel while I was sleeping.”

She railed against the notion expressed by officials in the Bush administration that bringing the troops home now would dishonor the sacrifice of those who have died. “By sending honorable people to die, they so dishonor themselves. They say we must complete our mission…but why would I want one more mother to go through what I have, just because my son is dead?”

The Vacaville, California resident said she first heard of Veterans For Peace in early May last year, during a CNN report about an exhibit of white crosses arranged in rows in the Santa Barbara beach. The exhibit was organized by VFP Chapter 54 to memorialize each U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. Her son had died the month before. “I decided there was only one place I wanted to be on Mother’s Day that year, and it was Santa Barbara,” she told the VFP members in Dallas.

Retired Special Forces Sgt. and VFP member, Stan Goff, today initiated a “Talk to Cindy” campaign to get Bush to meet with Sheehan. Contact information for the White House is: (202) 456-1111 or comments [at] whitehouse.gov
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by weloveyou
For the latest on fierce mother warrior Cindy, go to this new website. Also, GO TO CRAWFORD! There's talk she'll be arrested Thursday, as Condi and Rummy will be arriving. They're right, she IS a security risk — to their future security as imperialist monsters!!
Also: if you can't go, financial support can be given. Go to http://www.crawfordpeacehouse.org; a Paypal account will be set up soon. And at the meetwithcindy site, you can order t-shirts, buttons, or download posters!

CINDY vs. W: He turned tail and ran away to Albuquerque yesterday!
by jj
Check her story. In the past, she has praised Bush. Now she bashes him. She's nothing more than another agenda driven self proclaimed activist.
by jj/Steve/Dave/Coward-punk
Comes just to post hit and run comments, can't truely engage in meaningful dialogue or debate--guaranteed to run when the facts start flying and he runs out of regurgitated right-wing-nut snippets...LOL!
by Cindy Sheehan to Be Arrested Thursday
Cindy Sheehan to Be Arrested Thursday

Cindy Sheehan phoned me from Texas a few minutes ago to say that she's
been informed that beginning Thursday, she and her companions will be
considered a threat to national security and will be arrested.
Coincidentally, Thursday is the day that Rice and Rumsfeld visit the
ranch, and Friday is a fundraiser event for the haves and the have
mores. Cindy said that she and others plan to be arrested.
http://www.meetwithcindy.org
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/8/124941/6758
by Big Daddy
Like it or not, no matter what side of the issue anyone is on, when the person in question like sheehan says one thing, does another, and as if the previous event didn't exist, it doesn't help ones cause, and only comes back to bite her in the ass.
Whether or not it is palatable to anyone, the 2face accusation passed scrutiny, and such things are the main reason few give her the time of day, and renders any further argument in the matter moot.
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash4.htm
by J. Coash (faerieceilidh [at] hotmail.com)
Good for her! I went to school with Casey, he was the sweetest guy you could hope to meet, a talented theatre actor, a truly respectful young man who always treated girls with respect and deference. His death was a great loss to the next generation, he would've made an excelent husband/father {I'm a lesbian so I can tell you that w/out bias}, I think that since she chose not to make her anti-war views known when she got 2min of Bush's time after Casey died, does not mean that she forever afterwards has to bite her tongue. Let him explain to her that the war is not about the Carlyle Group making billions, or lining Halliburton's pockets, cuz from where I sit that seems to be the whole reason.
by anti-imperialist
"and renders any further argument in the matter moot."

What we're dealing with here...
by The Reporter/Vacaville
This article explains the appearance of a contradiction by Ms Sheehan:

Last summer Cindy Sheehan got a face-to-face meeting with President Bush, complete with kisses and condolences.
Today, the Vacaville resident is camped outside the president's Texas ranch - in the glare of the national media spotlight - demanding another face-to-face meeting, and ultimately his impeachment.

Sheehan's son, Casey, an Army specialist, was killed in an ambush a week after his arrival in Iraq in April 2004. In June, the Sheehan family spent 10 minutes at Fort Lewis, Wash., with the president, who met with 16 other families who had lost loved ones in the war.

Cindy Sheehan since has become a focal point in the partisan battle over the Iraq war, drawing the praise of many anti-war Democrats and the ire of Republicans who back Bush's decision.

Her role in that battle exploded Monday morning, when Matt Drudge - the infamous commentator behind the popular Drudge Report, a right-leaning online news site - accused Sheehan of changing her tune to serve political purposes.

Drudge's story, headlined "Protesting Soldier Mom Changed Story on Bush," was posted in the highest slot on the Web site that receives more than 5 million visits per day. It drew quotes from a Sheehan interview published June 24, 2004, in The Reporter, suddenly dragging the newspaper into the fray.

That story, by staff writer David Henson, was an account of Sheehan's visit with the president in Seattle.

In Henson's story, Sheehan admitted she and her husband, Patrick, debated before the meeting whether to ask pointed questions about the war and whether to vent their frustration over their son's sacrifice. Ultimately, the couple chose not to publicly criticize Bush in the meeting or shortly after.

In Henson's story, Cindy Sheehan explained carefully, "I now know he's 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."

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.

Drudge also included more recent quotes from Sheehan highly critical of Bush and the 2004 meeting, including her comments made Sunday to CNN.

"Every time we tried to talk about Casey and how much we missed him, he would change the subject," Sheehan told correspondent Wolf Blitzer of the cable news network. "And he acted like it was a party."

Drudge's report fueled opinions Monday on both sides of the political spectrum.

Posters on the highly visited liberal Web log Daily Kos said Drudge's report was misleading, while right-wing bloggers, including the popular Michelle Malkin, echoed Drudge's sentiments that Sheehan was contradicting herself, perhaps for political reasons.

Sheehan, in a press release distributed Monday by the Institute for Public Accuracy, explained she was "still in shock" during her 2004 meeting with the president.

"We had decided not to criticize the president then because during that meeting he assured us 'this is not political.' And I believed him," Sheehan wrote. "Then, during the Republican National Convention, he exploited those meetings to justify what he was doing. It's now clear to me that what I had feared is true: Bush lied us into war, and Casey, more than 1,800 other Americans and thousands and thousands of Iraqis are dead because of what he did."

Several attempts to reach Sheehan by phone Monday were unsuccessful.

The Reporter republished Henson's 2004 story on http://www.thereporter.com Monday. It drew hundreds of visits within the first hour.

"It's important that readers see the full context of the story, instead of just selected portions," said Editor Diane Barney. "We stand by the story as an accurate reflection of the Sheehans' take on the meeting at the time it was published."

Tom Hall can be reached at vacaville [at] thereporter.com.
by The Reporter/Vacaville
This article explains the appearance of a contradiction by Ms Sheehan:

In a media storm: Protest draws national attention

Last summer Cindy Sheehan got a face-to-face meeting with President Bush, complete with kisses and condolences.
Today, the Vacaville resident is camped outside the president's Texas ranch - in the glare of the national media spotlight - demanding another face-to-face meeting, and ultimately his impeachment.

Sheehan's son, Casey, an Army specialist, was killed in an ambush a week after his arrival in Iraq in April 2004. In June, the Sheehan family spent 10 minutes at Fort Lewis, Wash., with the president, who met with 16 other families who had lost loved ones in the war.

Cindy Sheehan since has become a focal point in the partisan battle over the Iraq war, drawing the praise of many anti-war Democrats and the ire of Republicans who back Bush's decision.

Her role in that battle exploded Monday morning, when Matt Drudge - the infamous commentator behind the popular Drudge Report, a right-leaning online news site - accused Sheehan of changing her tune to serve political purposes.

Drudge's story, headlined "Protesting Soldier Mom Changed Story on Bush," was posted in the highest slot on the Web site that receives more than 5 million visits per day. It drew quotes from a Sheehan interview published June 24, 2004, in The Reporter, suddenly dragging the newspaper into the fray.

That story, by staff writer David Henson, was an account of Sheehan's visit with the president in Seattle.

In Henson's story, Sheehan admitted she and her husband, Patrick, debated before the meeting whether to ask pointed questions about the war and whether to vent their frustration over their son's sacrifice. Ultimately, the couple chose not to publicly criticize Bush in the meeting or shortly after.

In Henson's story, Cindy Sheehan explained carefully, "I now know he's 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."

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.

Drudge also included more recent quotes from Sheehan highly critical of Bush and the 2004 meeting, including her comments made Sunday to CNN.

"Every time we tried to talk about Casey and how much we missed him, he would change the subject," Sheehan told correspondent Wolf Blitzer of the cable news network. "And he acted like it was a party."

Drudge's report fueled opinions Monday on both sides of the political spectrum.

Posters on the highly visited liberal Web log Daily Kos said Drudge's report was misleading, while right-wing bloggers, including the popular Michelle Malkin, echoed Drudge's sentiments that Sheehan was contradicting herself, perhaps for political reasons.

Sheehan, in a press release distributed Monday by the Institute for Public Accuracy, explained she was "still in shock" during her 2004 meeting with the president.

"We had decided not to criticize the president then because during that meeting he assured us 'this is not political.' And I believed him," Sheehan wrote. "Then, during the Republican National Convention, he exploited those meetings to justify what he was doing. It's now clear to me that what I had feared is true: Bush lied us into war, and Casey, more than 1,800 other Americans and thousands and thousands of Iraqis are dead because of what he did."

Several attempts to reach Sheehan by phone Monday were unsuccessful.

The Reporter republished Henson's 2004 story on http://www.thereporter.com Monday. It drew hundreds of visits within the first hour.

"It's important that readers see the full context of the story, instead of just selected portions," said Editor Diane Barney. "We stand by the story as an accurate reflection of the Sheehans' take on the meeting at the time it was published."

Tom Hall can be reached at vacaville [at] thereporter.com.
by Big Daddy
Regardless of ones viewpoints, right, left, up, down, the main point is that people will see this contradiction, and scrutinize it themselves. It doesn't matter who brought it to their attention, be it drudge, msnbc, or pravda for that matter. They will simply ask "is it true or is it not?".
So far, like him or hate him, drudge is merely the messenger, and todays follow up makes Cindys case in the eyes of the public to be even more dubious, as detraction appears to have come from her own family...ouch. It does appear authenticated so far, so we will have to see if it stands.
(And for the ones who've asked "why drudge?". Simple, no matter what your leanings, the smart ones always read the opposing viewpoints, to see what the other side is saying/thinking. Read Sun Tzu and you will know the methodology too...aka, "know thine enemy...").
http://drudgereport.com/flashcs.htm
by more like "Big Mommy"
The 'fudge report' has posted incorrect info w/ out adequate source checking---but whether she changed her mind or not, doesn't blur her message
hell, even the brainwashed bush-bots still ove their 'flip-flopper-in-chief'---see:
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=118263
for examples
by deanosor (deanosor [at] comcast.net)
At one point in history, about 35 years ago, i, a 17 year old high school kid supported the Vietnam War. The next year, i went to college, read a little, talked to people and attended my first anti-war demonstration. I became quickly anti-war. About a year later, i was a full-fledged anarchist.

People change. Cindy Sheehan has changed. I believe she's learned a lot and grown. That's a matter of opinion.But it's a fact she has changed.

Why harp on these changes? Why make a big deal about them, as if they are embarassing? I'll tell you why. Because millions of people at this very moment are thinking. They're thinking about the war, about the meaning of the war, and about what to do about it. That's a good thing.

Some of them like Sheehan are becoming anti-war. Cindy Sheehan is becoming a symbol of that. And symbols like that must be knocked down, or maybe others will agree with her. That is why Matt Drudge and FOX (supposed) News and the rest of the reactionary media bring up CS's supposed contradiction. Thy're not contradictions at all, they're changes in political thought of a real live human being in a very real and dangerous world.

And then they say she's "political". Of course she's political. So's W. when he says that they died fighting terrorism. And so's Matt Drudge and the rest of the gang when they insult Cindy and the rest of us when they say she/we can't change our political mind.
I just have to say this:

The right-wing trash in this country really has the nerve. Dredge----he dredges up any kind of garbage he wants and then twists it around, leaves out things, selectively uses others to serve his own right-wing trash agenda----is typical of the right-wing scum of the earth garbage in this country and their supporters.

They have reams and reams they could write about the LIES and HYPOCRISY of these barbaric international war criminals of the illegitimate Bush regime. Do they write about that? Hell no. All that is just fine with them. These Dredge people and their supporters think they are above reproach and can do no wrong. Instead, they pick and choose statements from Cindy Sheehan to give the appearance that she's a hypocrite. I look forward to the day----it certainly won't be in my lifetime---- when the scum of the earth, uninformed, insipid, brain dead right-wingers who visit this website are screaming about this barbarian in the White House and Karl Rove's despicable PNAC neocon policies and their hypocrisy. Their hypocrisy and LIES have killed thousands but I don't hear you saying a peep about that, Mr Dredge or supporters. No, you would just rather be a 'national enquirer' type of site and scream about some appearance of a woman whose son Bush killed in Iraq based on lies being two-faced (Ms Sheehan). She's not two-faced at all. The explanation makes sense to me. Unfortunately, Ms Sheehan bought into this Bush's lies from the beginning. I didn't. This Bush has been lying long before the day he stole the White House in 2000. I don't believe a word that any of these scum of the earth people say. How can you, with all the lies they've told the world?



by Big Daddy
Take it however you wish. I am simply showing what you are up against, from the perspective of being on the outside looking in.
One can say whatever defiant comment they so choose, but that won't change a thing. Simply calling it (whatever type) propaganda without substantive corroboration won't fly, no matter how good the position may be.
The public does their own scrutiny nomatter who calls it whatever they choose. All they wish to know is "Is it accurate or is it not?". If it is accurate then the public will view it as such, consider the sheehan case a conflict-of-interest, and dismiss out of hand the comments to the contrary, nomatter how well-meaning or noble that contrarian view may be.
The sad part from that point of view is that the public will tune the contrarians out even more so in purportionate response to the degree of the contrarians. In other words, once something, anything, is generally dismissed as dubious (remember, no matter how righteous it IS), the more that is hell-raised about it, the more the hell raisers will be ignored by the public and dismissed out of hand.
That's simply how the public is. It doesn't matter if you or I like it, it just is the way they operate.

The key here was all in the delivery. Even if you're as right as the day is long, if your delivery is a disaster, so will the position be, no matter how well-founded. The delivery bombed.
The best way to approach it is to review what works, what doesn't, and don't make that same mistake twice.

This isn't meant to diss you or anyone else. Just learn how to play the game...in this case, how to play the media, and the public, to get your message across effectively. To continue with anything else like the sour grapes comments doesn't help said cause at all, as the issue has accelerated into pointlessness already.
Best to regroup to fight another day. There will be others.
Good Luck.
by Bigg momma is off base
"Best to regroup" LOL! what a dumbass. First, Many, including congress and media have picked up on her message, and don't care that there were any alledged inconsistencies as the main issue overshadows--Bush is a walking sack of human garbage who really doesn't give a shit (as evidenced by the funerals he avoids for PR reasons) the only way the punk might come out and talk to her is through political pressure, but I highly doubt, Big daddy Rove wouldn't advise that--it'll look like 'appeasement'
by Big Daddy
Well, there's only one way to see what I tried to warn you about. We shall see how it pans out, THEN let's come back and see what tune is played.
Like i said...Good Luck. :-I

Big Daddy wrote this nonsense:

>>>The public does their own scrutiny nomatter who calls it whatever they choose. All they wish to know is "Is it accurate or is it not?". <<<

Where the hell have you been? The public engages in scrutiny? To hell they do. "The public" is a bunch of damn sheep. Much of The Public believe anything the state media (a.k.a. corporate media) tell them, just as much of "the public" believed hook, line and sinker the lies told by the Bush regime to launch this barbarism on Iraq. Remember that? Duh. There was no scrutiny from much of "the public." Much of the public in this country is a bunch of gullible sheep and they deserve exactly what they get.

Unfortunately, it takes the death of loved ones to wake some sheep up out of their damn coma and that is what is going on here where more and more the public is opposing this war in Iraq based on lies.

Unfortunately, I suspect this Cindy Sheehan thing will just die on the vine fairly soon because NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING has stuck to these scum of the earth people thus far. And the pro-Bush corporate whores of the corporate media make sure that nothing sticks as they refuse to cover most of the real news happening around the world.

I also have a message for Big Momma: You keep telling it like it is, Big Momma. I'm right there with you. Nice to see you.

by Downing Street Memo
Camp Casey<-------2.57 miles of coffins----->Bush's
Crawford Living Room
by Rüdiger Lorenz / Germany
I admire this woman.
She puts a very good question to Bush.
the man always is on holiday!

However, no courage has with her to speak him.
Looser!!!

Rüdiger Lorenz from Germany
by karl roenfanz ( rosey ) (k_rosey48 [at] hotmail.com)
as usual the politicians kids won't go to the war that their daddies create. they don't want to be exposed to death, radioactive dust, chemicals that would keep them from having healthy babbies! the leaders of the war gave the "rebels" at least 280 tons of explosive materials that we know about. how many of our boys will wind-up dying just so bush ( king george III ) can have his war? the english translation for iraq is viet-nam. as a vet i protest 10-10-21.
by Joel
Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, what's the difference? Really? You get your panties in a twist over the current one in the office, but who's to say the next one will be any kind of a change?
I'm saddened her son died, along with all the other soldiers. I truly mean that, I doubt that sentiment is shared by other contributors here that seem to spend a lot of their time in an orgqasmic haze speaking of the"resisitance".
say your wildest dream comes true and Bush gets impeached, then what? Iraq will still be a shithole sucking the life out of the US military while islamofascists kill other moslems.
by João Batista de Andrade (jbnit [at] ig.com.br)
Go at victory, Super Mother.
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