I May Have Been Wrong About Cindy Sheehan

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpha, Mea Maxima Culpa

Published on August 22, 2005 By kingbee In Politics

NOTICE: i realize myrrander staked out a position on sheehan's protest and then did a near 180° reversal; now i'm finding myself in the same position. i'm sure some of yall are gonna see this as flip-flopping but...hey i gotta be true to myself and while i can't speak for him, i'm sure myrrander does too.

on at least 2 (perhaps more) threads discussing the cindy sheehan protest outside the president's prarie chapel ranch in crawford, texas, i did my best to repudiate claims that ms sheehan was, at best, a blatant publcity seeker who was using her son's death as an excuse to embarrass her president.

at the time i was convinced i correctly perceived her actions as those of someone who was doing all she could to help the president see the errors of his policies.

while working on my next-to-newest article about the stones' concert Link , in which i expressed my surprise about california governor schwarzenegger's willingness to share his vip booth with anyone who tossed $100k into his campaign chest, i suddenly realized ms sheehan could have easily approached her mission in a much more effective manner without any of the drama or antagonism.

i'd totally forgotten the bush pioneers (those who collect $100k for bush-related campaigns) and, especially, the rangers ($200,000). all rangers get invites to the ranch as a reward for their efforts. in fact, a number of them have visited the ranch while cindy was standing out in the sun making a fool of herself.

if she REALLY wanted to talk to the president--and this wasn't just some big hollywood production directed by soros or warren beatty--she could very easily have become a ranger and been driven in a huge air-conditioned suv right in thru the front gate.

for those of you who are bout to start flaming me about how she's just an ordinary soon-to-be-ex-wife who is highly unlikely to have a lotta money lying around (since she don't own any oil extraction equipment nor is she a government contractor or anything like that) please hold your mouse long enuff to face reality.

she has-or soon will have--collected a fairly large sum of money from the government which, i believe, owes her a death benefit as a result of her son being killed in iraq. while i'm not sure exactly of the amount, it will surely be more than sufficient to pay for her ranger badge.

there's a right way and a wrong way to do things. sadly, cindy chose the latter.

Comments (Page 4)

Dr Guy

on Aug 23, 2005

You're far more juvenile in your thinking than I previously suspected.

Yea, but she was polite about it, wasn't she?

Rightwinger

on Aug 23, 2005

As far as fundraising goes, every president (or any high-level politician, for that matter; the money for their campaigns has to come from somewhere, like it or not) who ever sat in the office is guilty of perhaps a little shadiness or less-than-up-front dealings. All I can say for Bush on the issue is that at least he wasn't pimping out Lincoln's bedroom to the highest bidder.

Cindy Sheehan may have started out with an honest complaint and with sincere beliefs as to her argument. However, the Left has grabbed hold of her and, as with everything else they touch, corrupted her and her message, making them just another cause, just another way to bash the president and his Iraq policy. *Yawn*.
They've used her for fundraising (even some right-wing groups are jumping on this bandwagon--grassfire.com is sponsoring a drive to place pro-Bush and pro-war signs in every yard in Crawford....at a cost of fifteen bucks a pop), which is, to me, unconscionable considering her message. Why don't they just dig up her son and stand him up on a stick like a scarecrow and say "Look what he did to this poor soldier! Pay us a hundred dollars for the right to add your name to a petition to end this madness!" They're prostituting her son and his memory, and she's letting it happen. In fact, she's going right along with it.

Also, noone forced her son to put his name on the dotted line....we don't have a draft, and noone came and dragged him out of his home and put a gun in his hand, no matter what Richard Dreyfus has to say about the matter. The guy joined of his own free will, knowing full well that his time may come. He was an adult and he did what he did, and, by doing what she's doing Cindy Sheehan is dishonoring his memory, along with the memory of the others who've died, and the actions of those who lay more on the line in one day over there than she did in her ditch in Crawford.

kingbee

on Aug 23, 2005

It bought Miss Cindy her 15 minutes of fame, why shouldn't it buy a Ranger 15 minutes with the president. My boys were at the Boy Scout Jamboree where he spoke, and that wasn't free either.

It may seem rude to require cash, but both sides do it (unfortunately) and Cindy already got the chance to talk with the President free (a courtesy that not all families are afforded).

What she is doing now is completely political, so IMO she should pay the political dime system that the Democrat and Republican parties have required. I think it is a dirt system.

i realize money buys access. big contributors or heavy-duty fundraisers may not come right out and openly admit what they're doing is inside track investing; they don't have to. cuz we all know what's up.

do you see enough of a difference here that you'd be willing to have whichever weasels run that fund-raising, pioneer- and ranger-awarding machine offer ms sheehan some sorta 'loss of son' discount? or do you feel it's only fair she have to pay outta any money she receives as compensation in the same full amount as any other shady supplicant?

All I can say for Bush on the issue is that at least he wasn't pimping out Lincoln's bedroom to the highest bidder.

especially since he and the lincoln bedroom have enjoyed such a long and intimate relationship. and it's still there.

kingbee

on Aug 23, 2005

And we believe what we believe and it's not on blind faith as you suggest. Next time try to "finish" reading Daiwa's reply, before engauging your mouth.

technically she was engaging her fingers.

drmiler

on Aug 23, 2005

technically she was engaging her fingers.

Technically speaking you are correct. But they were still put into gear "before" her brain was.

kingbee

on Aug 23, 2005

I dont beleive he bashed you anywhere in the quoted response. He merely pointed out where you did not read all of the response and therefore your response was not on point

oh cmon. daiwa's an excellent communicator and hardly needs translation. rightly or wrongly, dabe clearly doesn't agree with his point. i fail to see any need for a third party to use that as an opportunity to opportunity to provoke either of em. especially when that third party has both dabe and me blacklisted.

I have one....do you?

i'll be the first to cop to terminal childishness, but...the only thing missing from this clever riposte is the part about him being rubber and her being glue.

ParaTed2k

on Aug 23, 2005

RIghtwing:

Also, noone forced her son to put his name on the dotted line....we don't have a draft, and noone came and dragged him out of his home and put a gun in his hand, no matter what Richard Dreyfus has to say about the matter. The guy joined of his own free will, knowing full well that his time may come.

Judging by dates, SPC. Casey Sheehan not only reenlisting "knowing full well that his time may come", he reenlisted after his unit received their deployment orders for Iraq. He reupped KNOWING it meant he would be going. He didn't have to go, he could have merely not reenlisted.

Lee1776

on Aug 23, 2005

or do you feel it's only fair she have to pay outta any money she receives as compensation in the same full amount as any other shady supplicant?

She gets no discount, because she had already got the freebee. As for giving up her compensation money???? That's for her to decide, I think she should just ask for an acting fee for all the commercials she is in.

At ten dollars a pop, she will have the money in no time.

kingbee

on Aug 23, 2005

, because she had already got the freebee

if only she'd had two kids in iraq.

(btw, you mentioned some sorta naval investigation of the winter soldier thing. i checked out your link to the fake winter soldier site (the swiftwintersoldiers hahaha) and was just about impaled on the flag that immediately popped up. i'd be very interested in seeing the navy's report. i am trying to find you a working link to a piece that describes jag's overall findings on the war and its recommendations but so far no luck.)

kingbee

on Aug 23, 2005

That's for her to decide, I think she should just ask for an acting fee for all the commercials she is in

maybe something like this:

OPEN WIDE on
CINDY SHEEHAN standing by the side of the road outside the prairie chapel ranch. she's holding a sign that says 'please mr president'

TIGHT shot of her weary, determined face.

FROM CINDY'S POV
we see someone walking towards the ranch gate. he has an electronic hailer in his hand. as he gets closer we can see it's george bush.

PROFILE OF GWB.

bush puts hailer to his mouth

GWB: cindy sheehan! attention. this is me!

dubya looks sideways into camera barely suppressing tommy smother smirk.

SHEEHAN CLOSEUP She's about to burst into tears.

PROFILE BUSH w/HAILER.

GWB: you been out here ruinin my vacation. karl n dick say i shouldn't give in.

CLOSEUP SHEEHAN. she is crying now.

FULL FRONT BUSH PAN TIGHT TO FACE

GWB: (looking very solemn for as many 10ths of a second as he's able) well cindy i have some good news...

PAN TIGHT ON CINDY'S FACE. shes exstatic.

CS: really???!! you mean...

CUT TO GWB, PULL OUT AS HE SAYS...

GWB: i just called geico and saved a buncha money on my car insurance.

bakerstreet

on Aug 23, 2005

AH HAHAHAHAHAAA. OMG, that was waaaay too good. What an SNL skit that would make with Wil Farrel.

kingbee

on Aug 24, 2005

Someone is paying for all those Anti-War TV ads with Cindy crying elephant tears on

what anti-war tv ads? i haven't seen (or, more accurately, heard)any i can recall. aren't they required to list the sponsors or contributors?

I think it is a dirt system

this seems to be a point of unanimous agreement.

kingbee

on Aug 24, 2005

Cindy Sheehan may have started out with an honest complaint and with sincere beliefs as to her argument. However, the Left has grabbed hold of her and, as with everything else they touch, corrupted her and her message, making them just another cause, just another way to bash the president and his Iraq policy

i didn't respond to this right away because i wanted to think on it a bit. from everything i've heard & read, she doesnt have an argument or a message so much as a question. my understanding is she wants to ask the president something to the effect of this: what is the great cause (or, perhaps, is there a great cause) for which my son gave his life?

am i missing something here?

kingbee

on Aug 24, 2005

They've used her for fundraising (even some right-wing groups are jumping on this bandwagon--grassfire.com is sponsoring a drive to place pro-Bush and pro-war signs in every yard in Crawford....at a cost of fifteen bucks a pop), which is, to me, unconscionable considering her message

i'm with ya here. it's no more or less disgusting whether the right or left take advantage of this situation to make money.

so you don't agree she should have to pay to become a ranger?

MythicalMino

on Aug 24, 2005

of course there is a noble cause...and she is excercising that noble cause by protesting Bush and the war and everything else she feels like protesting or doing. She is basically protesting against the Iraqis to have the right to protest....

The noble cause her son died for was to give freedom to an oppressed ppl....if that isn't noble...then what is?

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