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.