Cindy Sheehan

Associated Press
By DEB RIECHMANN
Last updated: Thursday, Aug 11, 2005 - 11:05:21 am PDT
CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush said Thursday he understands and respects the views of anti-war advocates like a California mother camped outside his Texas ranch to mourn her soldier son fallen in Iraq, but said it would be a mistake to bring U.S. troops home now.

"I understand the anguish that some feel about the death that takes place," Bush said.

"I also have heard the voices of those saying: Pull out now," he said. "And I've thought about their cry and their sincere desire to reduce the loss of life by pulling our troops out. I just strongly disagree."

By Robert Shetterly

When Cindy was in Maine a few weeks ago, she stayed with my wife & myself so that I could paint a portrait of her for my series Amercans Who Tell The Truth. I've just finished the portrait & attached it. I thought you might want to send it out for people to see her face & read her words.

You can see many of the portraits at
www.americanswhotellthetruth.org

They are now traveling all over the country as a show & the first fifty have been published as book this summer from Dutton.

Thanks for you terrific work around the Downing Street Memo.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

All Things Considered 9:00 AM EST NPR
Wednesday, August 10, 2005

DANIEL SCHORR:

Highway bill, energy bill, Central American Trade Agreement, economic upturn. President Bush should be enjoying a state of euphoria on his Texas ranch. But other signs, mainly about Iraq, are disturbing.

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr.

SCHORR: As happened with the Vietnam War, the indications of dissatisfaction at first came gradually. The opinion polls showing the president's handling of the war are slipping. A veteran returning from Iraq runs for a vacant House seat in Ohio as a Democrat, denouncing the president as a chicken hawk, and he comes within an ace of winning in a heavily Republican district.

http://drivedemocracy.org/sheehan/

Go Here.

By David Swanson

Cindy Sheehan is the most searched for term on www.technorati.com/

Measured by Alexa.com, www.meetwithcindy.org yesterday was ranked 16,800 and was reaching over 100 per million users. This created a graph shooting almost straight up, because the site was created Sunday night. In fact, the site has been reduced to one page to try to handle the traffic surge, and we've been unable for the past 24 hours to update it with a page with better info, because of the load on the servers. The update, when we manage it, will include a link to Cindy Sheehan information on www.afterdowningstreet.org, which will then be hit hard.

Vigil near Bush's ranch has drawn far more publicity than usual — and her share of critics
By BENNETT ROTH
Houston Chronicle

CRAWFORD - Cindy Sheehan has developed laryngitis from giving so many news media interviews. She has been forced to flee lightning, rainstorms and waterlogged ditches.

Nevertheless, the California woman whose son was killed in Iraq, and who is camping out near President Bush's ranch to protest the president's Iraq policy, is not complaining.

"This is beyond anybody's imagination," Sheehan said Wednesday of her sudden fame.

Sheehan has attracted national and international publicity — she also has developed a share of prominent critics — since arriving here Saturday and demanding to meet with the president to discuss the war that she believes is unjustified.

CBS

(CBS 5) A Bay Area woman's peace vigil outside of President Bush's ranch is gaining momentum.

Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville says she will stay outside the Crawford, Texas ranch until President Bush meets with her. Now a growing number of people -- including two women from Southern California -- have come to camp out alongside Sheehan in support of her cause.

Sheehan says realistically, she does not expect President Bush to talk with her. But she says she is getting her message across.

"Sixty-one, 62 percent of the American people believe that Iraq was a mistake, and they believe that the troops should be coming home," said Sheehan. "This is giving them something to do, something to focus on, and a way to get their voices heard."

August 11, 2005
By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY

CRAWFORD, Texas — When Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrive at President Bush's isolated ranch Thursday, they'll face an unwelcome greeting: scores of peace protesters who have joined a vigil by the mother of a soldier who died in Iraq.

Local authorities and activists also are gearing up for a possible confrontation Friday. The group's protest site sits beside a two-lane country road between Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch and the Broken Spoke Ranch, where his top campaign fundraisers are invited to a barbecue with the president.

By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer

The mother of a fallen U.S. soldier who started a quiet roadside peace vigil near President Bush's ranch last weekend is drawing supporters from across the nation.

Dozens of people have joined her, and others have sent flowers and food. One activist called her "the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement."

Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, Calif., says she was surprised at the response.

"Before my son was killed, I used to think that one person could not make a difference," she said Wednesday under a tent where she has slept since Saturday. "But one person that is surrounded and supported by millions of people can be heard."

The Washington Post
By Brian Faler
Thursday, August 11, 2005; Page A08

Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who has been camped outside President Bush's ranch near Crawford, Tex., took her antiwar protest to the Internet yesterday, joining a conference call with bloggers around the country, along with a stray congresswoman.

Sheehan, who has been demanding an audience with the president, told the bloggers that she has felt intimidated by the Secret Service, has been awakened in the middle of the night by thunderstorms and has a sore throat. But, Sheehan said, she has no plans to end her vigil until Bush meets with her to discuss the war, he goes back to the White House or she is arrested.

August 11, 2005
Los Angeles Times
Margaret Carlson

I DIDN'T THINK Cindy Sheehan, the mother waiting on that dusty Texas road for a chance to ask President Bush why her son died in Iraq, was having much effect.

Then I saw her being "Swift-boated" like John Kerry, whose medals and Purple Hearts were all a mistake.

Sheehan, word went out, is a flip-flopper. She'd once accepted the condolences of the president and there was an article in her local paper, which quickly found its way to reporters, to prove it. In it, Sheehan was quoted as saying that Bush wanted "freedom for the Iraqis," felt "some pain for our loss" and that he was "a man of faith." All true, and not at all at odds with what she's saying now, which is that the war is not a "noble" cause, as Bush would have it, and that no one else's child should die in it.

Posted on Thu, Aug. 11, 2005
Philadelphia Daily News

HOW THE RIGHT ATTACKS EVEN THE GRIEVING

AS PRESIDENT BUSH vacations in his Crawford, Texas, ranch, sitting just outside is the American Public.

In this case the American Public is Cindy Sheehan, a 48-year-old mother who lost her son Casey in the war in Iraq. Casey, a soldier and mechanic in the Army, was one of eight soldiers killed in a firefight in Baghdad last year.

Cindy Sheehan sits in a beach chair outside the Crawford ranch, hoping and waiting for a meeting with President Bush. She wants to ask him one question: Why did she lose her son to a war that is becoming more senseless every day.

The Springfield News-Leader (Missouri)
August 11, 2005

I am the mother of an active-duty Marine who will shortly be deployed to Iraq. I'm packing my bags to head down to Crawford, Texas, to join Cindy Sheehan, a Gold Star mother who lost her son in Iraq. She is sitting outside our president's home, waiting to meet with him so he can explain to her what the "noble cause" is that her son died for.
I have a few simple questions I would like to ask him myself.

Our troops are for the defense of this country. There are no WMDs. Why are we still in Iraq?

Has he read the Downing Street memo yet? I have. I would like to know why, if they knew there were no WMDs there, they didn't bother to inform the American people of that at the time.

By Edwin Chen and Dana Calvo, LA Times Staff Writers

CRAWFORD, Texas — For more than a year, a modest bungalow known as "Peace House," located a few miles from President Bush's ranch, has served as a headquarters for antiwar activists. It is lonely work, with little more than a skeleton crew on hand much of the time.

But then Cindy Sheehan hit town.

The 48-year-old mother of Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, who was killed in an ambush in Baghdad last year, is consumed by the kind of grief that turns into a furious determination to do something — in her case, to confront the president and force him to explain why her son died.

My name is Malcolm Chaddock and I am a member of Veterans For Peace, Chapter
72 in Portland, OR (www.vfpchapter72.org ).
Thank you for supporting Cindy Sheehan and through her the antiwar movement.
I have another way that PDA members can help support Cindy, if they cannot
go to Crawford. As Veterans For Peace, National is doing, please urge your
membership to attend/create rallies in front of the Federal Buildings in
their home cities in solidarity with Cindy's courageous stand in Crawford.

Attached you will find copies of both our press release and the one issued

Bush to dead soldier's mom: "How do you know his life would have been good?"

By Jeff Norman
August 11, 2005

Cindy Sheehan is not the only Gold Star mom who felt disrespected after a visit with George W. Bush. Dolores Kesterson, whose son Erik was killed in Iraq in November of 2003, was among several military families who last year were invited to meet with Bush as a group. Each family was allotted ten minutes with the president, but because she is divorced from her husband, Dolores asked to speak with Bush one-on-one.

Dolores reports exclusively for U.S. Tour of Duty that she waited alone in a small partitioned area, wondering if her request would be granted, before a Bush aide suddenly announced, "The president will now see you." As the commander in chief strode briskly toward her, it seemed to Dolores that he was trying to intimidate her. "He came marching in and got right in my face...eyeball to eyeball, and said, 'I'm George Bush, the president of the United States, and I understand you have something to say to me in private.'"

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Dailykos
by CindySheehan [Subscribe]
Wed Aug 10th, 2005 at 22:37:45 PDT

Today started at 4am when the rain started blowing into my tent and my head and my feet started getting soaked and the thunder and lightening came over my tent. I was really frightened for my life, so I abandoned ship and went into Crawford.

CindySheehan's diary :: ::
By the time we made our way through the floods and got into Crawford, I had a fever, sore throat, and bad headache. So I was made to rest and not have any interviews until noon.

We had a little bit of trouble with locals today. We are beginning to feel a little unwelcome here. One lady almost ran over a film crew that was filming a commercial today. She screamed at us that the neighbors are really mad at ...so we moved down the road to our closest neighbor who is very sweet. Her husband is a medic who just got home from Iraq.

Dailykos
by patrioticliberal
Wed Aug 10th, 2005 at 07:47:39 PDT
Thanks to your efforts, Update [2005-8-10 20:42:48 by patrioticliberal]:

Latest Email from Evan Armstrong via DUer

EvanArmstrong@clearchannel.com wrote - Please be advised that due to lack of local interest, the pro-troop rally tentatively scheduled by KWTX-AM, KLFX-FM for this coming Saturday will not be taking place. Please tune into KWTX-AM, KLFX-FM on Monday for comprehensive news coverage and commentary on developments related to the Iraq war protest organized by Mrs. Cindy Sheehan, scheduled to be held in Crawford this Saturday.

11:30 p.m. CT, Wednesday, August 10
By David Swanson

I just spoke by phone from DC with Cindy Sheehan and Ann Wright in Crawford, Texas. Cindy has been doing interviews non-stop for the past few days. Ann and Diane Wilson and others have been doing most of the speaking with the police.

Cindy had hoped to spend the night tonight in the Crawford Peace House, but is heading out to the ditch along the road instead. "If anybody's going to be arrested, I need to be out there," she said.

Ann could not confirm any specific threat of arrest, but she said that she took the rumors seriously. The rumors are that the Sheriff's men will come arrest everyone after midnight.

From 11 News KHOU Staff Reports

More protesters from the Houston-area are headed to President Bush's Crawford ranch.

They loaded their cars and left from the Heights area Wednesday afternoon.

They're upset by the mounting casualties in Iraq and are opposed to the Bush administration's handling of the war.

More importantly, they say they want to support a woman who lost her son in Iraq.

That woman, Cindy Sheehan, started the protest. She says she won't leave until President Bush meets with her.

Sheehan calls the protest area "Camp Casey" after her 24-year-old son.

By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Wednesday 10 August 2005

No mother who lost her son to this Iraq war should be made to stand in a ditch, and yet that is exactly where Cindy Sheehan stands today, by the side of the road in Crawford, Texas. She has been standing there since she heard about the 20 Marines who were killed in Iraq last week, since she heard George W. Bush describe from his vacation home the noble cause for which those Marines died.

Cindy's son, Casey, died in Iraq for that cause more than a year ago. She heard those words from Mr. Bush and went to Crawford. She wanted to talk to the president. The folks in the ranch sent out a couple of lackeys to speak with her. "They were very respectful," Sheehan said later to CNN. "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. I want to ask the president, 'Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?' Last week, he said my son died for a 'noble cause' and I want to ask him what that noble cause is."

Left I On The News

Doing their best to demonstrate how "supporting the troops" isn't inconsistent with attacking the mother of a dead soldier who dares to speak out against the war in Iraq, the right, led by Matt Drudge and joined by many others, has been all over Cindy Sheehan for supposedly "changing her story on George Bush." Media Matters sets the matter straight. The truth is that Cindy Sheehan has been a frequent speaker at antiwar events across the country since her son Casey was killed in Iraq.

But so what if she hadn't? Polls show rather clearly that millions of Americans have changed their minds on the wisdom of the invasion of Iraq; surely Cindy Sheehan, or anyone else, has the right to be one of them. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," and the key word in that sentence is "foolish". There's nothing wrong with consistency of course; this blog maintains (I hope!) a consistent anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist position. But where consistency becomes "foolish" is when your previous position is contradicted by new evidence. Clear and convincing evidence that not only weren't there WMD in Iraq, but also that there never was any serious evidence that there were WMD in Iraq (cf the "Downing Street Memos", for example) is now in the hands of all Americans, and more than 2000 Americans and tens of thousands of others are dead, and tens or hundreds of thousands of people are seriously wounded, thanks to the invasion of Iraq. Surely any intelligent person has the right, and in fact the obligation, to weigh that new evidence and reconsider their position, even if they had been a gung-ho supporter of the war. Only in George Bush's America, with an intellectual lightweight (ok, a complete moron) named George Bush in charge, is clinging to a position in the face of contradictory evidence, whether it be the value of remaining in Iraq or the existence of global warming or dozens of other things, considered a virtue, something to be admired.

By Norman Solomon

Mid-August 2005 may be remembered as a moment in U.S. history when the president could no longer get away with the media trick of solemnly patting death on its head.
Unreality is a hallmark of media coverage for war. Yet -- most of all -- war is about death and suffering. War makers thrive on abstractions. Their media successes depend on evasion.

President Bush has tried to keep the loved ones of America's war dead at middle distance, bathed in soft fuzzy light: close enough to exploit for media purposes, distant enough to insulate the commander in chief's persona from the intrusion of wartime mourning in America.

GOOD MORNING AMERICA (07:00 AM ET) - ABC
Tuesday, August 9, 2005

ROBIN ROBERTS

(Off Camera) The mother of another Marine killed in Iraq is on a desperate mission this morning. Cindy Sheehan is demanding to speak to the president about her son, so she's camped outside Mr. Bush's ranch in Texas. ABC's John Yang joins us from there in Crawford, Texas this morning.

JOHN YANG, ABC NEWS

(Off Camera) Good morning, Robin. Cindy Sheehan has already been visited at her campsite here by two of the president's top aides, but she says that's not good enough.

CINDY SHEEHAN, SON DIED IN IRAQ

FOX ON THE RECORD WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN 10:48 PM EST
Tuesday, August 9, 2005

VAN SUSTEREN: Tonight, the mother of a fallen soldier is protesting the war in Iraq right in the president's front yard. Cindy Sheehan's son Casey was killed in Iraq last year. Now Cindy has camped out at President Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch and says she won't leave until the president speaks with her.

Cindy Sheehan joins us live on the phone. Cindy, first of all, I'm terribly sorry about your son. There obviously aren't words to express to you.

CINDY SHEEHAN, PROTESTING SON'S DEATH IN IRAQ (by telephone): Thank you so much, Greta.

The Early Show 7:00 AM EST CBS
Monday, August 8, 2005

JULIE CHEN, co-host:

President Bush may be on vacation in Crawford, Texas, but one mom wants to make sure he doesn't forget there is a war going in Iraq. CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller reports.

MARK KNOLLER reporting:

Just a few miles down Prairie Chapel Road from the Bush ranch, there's a makeshift campsite. It's occupied by a few anti-war protestors led by the grieving mother of a US soldier killed last year in Iraq, and she is demanding to speak with the president.

Ms. CINDY SHEEHAN (Gold Star Families for Peace): I'd ask him what noble cause did my son die for. And if he started saying freedom and democracy. I'd stop him. I'd say, `No, that's not why Congress gave you the power to invade Iraq.'