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New Word Needed
I am out of words to describe people who do things like this:
From Japhet Els and Emily Sharpe at Crawford Update:
"About an hour ago, we got a phone call from our friends up at Camp Casey saying that the line of gravemarkers along the road (Arlington West) had been run over. People there said that as they were talking to a few members of the press, a pick-up truck came down the road and stopped at the fork by the edge of the tents. The driver then jumped out and attached a pipe to the undercarriage with a chain and began to "swerve into the line of crosses," said Tammara Rosenleaf from Montana. "Then we heard the pipe being dragged over the gravemarkers and the pick-up's wheels crushing them."
Out of the 800 crosses, 500 were knocked down and 100 are irreperable. However, the driver was arrested by the local authorities. This is a prime example of how the Crawford sheriff's department has helped to protect us and our freedom of speech over the past week and a half. A big thank you to them!
Regardless of who did this, the fact is that respect for this country's dead is not a partisan issue. Putting up memorials of our country's fallen is not a "liberal" act. It is an American act. Even a group of counter-protestors from Dallas last week draped flags and flowers over many of the gravemarkers, and many were moved to tears at the sight of the long line of dead soldiers. It's too bad that someone else who disagrees with Cindy felt they needed to wipe out the memory of our fallen in such an obscene manner."
Seriously, I am out of words. And what is sadder still, here we are, so many years into our evolution as sentient beings, and we are in need of yet more words to describe man's inhumanity towards man.
Christianauts
Cindy Sheehan is causing the true "values" of Bush's Amurika to be revealed.
Home, Home of Deranged,
Where the fear and the chickenhawk play,
Where seldom is heard, an encouraging word,
And the skies, they are cloudy all day.
Enough is Enough!!!
I am going to Crawford on Wednesday night for the Vigil.
I am going to try to make as many crosses as I can to replace those mecrilessly and thoughtlessly knocked down by a FOOL.
If anyone...and I MEAN ANYONE, would like to send Cindy a personal letter, email me and I will print it and HAND-DELIVER it to her.
Enough is enough...and if I can get in touch with Lance Armstrong or his people, I am going to respectfully ask that if he is going to ride bikes with W on Saturday that he, at the very least, stop and say hello to Cindy and the other volunteers on his way in to see the Resident.
Indy_for_america@hotmail.com
Ignorance is no excuse for the law...neither should it be an excuse for stupidity, hatred and bigotry.
They should bring that idiot up on "Hate Crime" charges...because that is what it was.
Got Ignorance?
That is indeed a no brainer...
On the other hand...
We should give moron boy a medal for proving to Bush supporting Americans the kind of fools they have been in league with all along.
Bravo to the Fool on the Hill...and for once it is not George W. Bush.
Astounding.
Posted by: Indy at August 16, 2005 12:08 PM
Bravo, Indy! ;)
BTW, here's the story about one of the fools...
Larry Northern, 46, of nearby Waco, Texas, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief in connection with the incident, Crawford Police Chief Donnie Tidmore said.
http://tinyurl.com/b3cwo
I feel sorry for the families whose children's spirits were symbolized on those crosses and stars. To me, it seems as if they were murdered all over again.
Can anyone really be surprised at this vandalism? After about 14 years of hatred poured into the mass consciousness of America by the likes of Rush Limbaugh (Hate Radio) and Annie Coulter (Hate Publishing) against liberals, Democrats, minorities, Europeans, Gays etc..etc.. it is no wonder at all that this kind of thing occurred in Crawford. Just look at the hatred heaped on Michael Moore. Glenn Beck, another angry white male Hate Radio talker, said on his radio program that he would like to choke Moore to death. With this kind of hysterical, wild rhetoric coming from the rightwing as standard fare, perhaps it is fortunate, and I shudder to think this way, that something worse has not happened.
We have had two incidents now - one with the shotgun and now this.
Just an FYI for any Texans (and wanna-be's) hanging around here...
I've been watching the Texas kos yahoo group for extra info on Cindy and saw this notice. I contacted the poster and their words were.. "the more the merrier". Here's the post which had a bunch of embedded links which I have included.
So check this site out:
To: texas_kos@yahoogroups.com
From: TX 21
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 14:50:45 -0500
Subject: [texas_kos] Announcing TX21 Blog
There were some great lessons for Texas in the special election in Ohio-2. One of the ones I found most intriguing was the impact of local blogs (like this one, for example) on the dissemination of information.
So, Ima steal the idea from Oh02 Blog http://blog.oh02.com/
for TX 21 http://tx21.blogspot.com/ .
I hope it will be useful, and if you have any suggestions, I welcome them.
Time for Lamar Smith ( http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=1120 )
to find another line of work ( http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000583 ) .
He's been Tom Delay's ( http://dailydelay.blogspot.com/ )
rumboy ( http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/003374.html ) long enough.
Boadicea
Indy,
You made my day.
Tell Cindy we are awaiting her in DC. And we have cookies.
Tell her the DCP stnads with her.
OT... Check out this article...and it's from the heartland...the Daily Nonpariel, Soutwest Iowa's Leading Daily Newspaper.
Natural gas prices may see 58 percent leap this winter
If you're experiencing sticker shock at the gas pump this summer, just wait for your winter heating bill.
A 58 percent increase in natural gas prices is projected during the November through February winter season, according to a spokesman for MidAmerican Energy. Aquila wasn't projecting prices that far in advance, but spokesman Matt O'Reilly said August costs are about about 12 percent above last year.
Natural gas for the November through February period was trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange last week at $10.34 per mmbtu - the measurement unit used to purchase natural gas - compared to $6.53 last year, according to Matt Reinders, a spokesman for MidAmerican Energy. That's a 58 percent increase.
At the same time, September natural gas was trading at $9.59 per mmbtu, compared to $5.54 at the same time last year, Reinders said. That's a 73 percent increase for the shorter period.
http://www.zwire.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=2703&dept_id=555106&newsid=15042369
A great quote courtesy of another texas kos poster:
"This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."
-- Frederick Douglass
From Amy Branham (a Gold Star Mother for Peace member) to the Texas Kos group:
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:35:31 -0500
Subject: Re: [texas_kos] Man runs over Crosses & Shoots himself in Butt
Very timely email! I just got off the phone with Kathleen Hernandez who does the Arlington West crosses and brought the crosses, etc. to Crawford. She said that the crosses that were run over are being built and replaced at the Peace House and will be brought to Camp Casey as soon as they're done. Also, the flags that were run over yesterday were replaced by the counter protesters who were there at the time. They were pretty unhappy about that event. Kathleen says that the memorial has been bringing people from both sides together in a way that nothing else can.
In the meantime, Kathleen says to donate money to the Crawford Peace House and earmark it for the crosses/memorial being built. They will be keeping it out there indifinitely -- even if it has to be moved to another location. that's wonderful news! The number for the Crawford Peace House is 2540-486-0099. Also, they need help building the crosses, etc. for the memorial, so anyone who can and has the time is more than welcome to go on out and help with that sacred task. They are planning on making sure there are 1,850 crosses/crescents (the Muslim symbol I believe) for the memorial.
That's all I know right now. Kathleen said to let everyone know how much your help, love and support is appreciated.
Peace & Solidarity,
Amy
Posted by Casey Morris at August 16, 2005 10:43 AM
Seriously, we're all out of words about these incidents. That's the absolute pits for people who are normally wordsmiths....
I feel like a cartoon character with my jaw hanging, and a word bubble with the thought "Wha-a-a..?!?!?" hanging over my head. I suppose I should get used to it through Jan. 2009, but this world has made me feel like part of a Dali surrealist painting since "election" day 2000. One would think I'd almost be used to it by now, but I'm not, and I don't think I will ever get used to it.
Indy, safe journey to you to and from Camp Casey, and please give Cindy Sheehan and the other parents who have lost loved ones in Iraq a big hug from me. When people I've loved died, it was the hugs that meant the most to me, not the words (which I do not remember from the initial stages of grief - I just remember the hugs). I don't know what it's like to lose someone in a war based on lies, however, so I don't know any words that would ease their grief anyway. Maybe if this world ever quits feeling like I'm in a weird surrealist Dali painting my wordsmith ability will return. My heart goes out to them all, and in my thoughts I'm hugging them.....
I'll send the same message in a separate email.
This is a good sign, isn't it - at least I'm hoping??? One media outlet is not supporting the Pentagon's propaganda march. More on the link, but I've included the paragraph of people who are supporting the march (Subway is on the list, and they can be boycotted and lost profits. I'm not a C & W fan, so I'm not sure who Clint Black is, but his music can be boycotted, too. Etc...)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050816/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/sept__11_newspaper
Washington Post Backs Out of 9/11 Event
The Washington Post is withdrawing its offer of free advertising for an organized event by the Defense Department to memorialize the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the newspaper announced.
The Post backed out of the agreement after critics said the event, scheduled to take place four years after the attacks that hit New York and Washington and resulted in the crash of a commercial airliner over western Pennsylvania, would have a pro-war slant and that support of the event by the newspaper would compromise the Post's journalistic integrity.
"The Post has a code of conduct that says employees should avoid a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest," said Rick Ehrmann, a Local representative for the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. "In this case The Post was sponsoring the Pentagon's Freedom Walk, which ties the attack on Sept. 11 to the Iraq war, and of course, The Post's reporters have proven ... that there is no connection between the two, that that link is false."
Ehrmann said, "The Post has made a very good decision in withdrawing from this event."
The paper said that it instead will make a donation directly to the Pentagon Memorial Fund, which is raising money to build a two-acre contemplation park in honor of the 184 people who died when a plane crashed into the Pentagon in 2001. The decision was reported by the Post in Tuesday's Style section.
"It is unfortunate that The Washington Post has made this decision not to support the Freedom Walk, but we welcome their donation to the Pentagon Memorial Fund," said a Defense Department statement. "Everyone in American will pay tribute and commemorate this important day in different ways."
Critics of media support for the event also pointed to the free concert by Clint Black that is to take place at the end of the march route. Black's Web site, http://www.clintblack.com/songlyrics.html, features lyrics to his song entitled "I Raq and I Roll," including "Our troops take out the garbage/ for the good old U.S.A."
"If this is the person they're going to have representing American freedom, I'd say it's a political event," said Eric Hilton of the pop duo Thievery Corporation, who is part of a coalition that's organizing an anti-war protest concert on the Mall for later in September. Hilton said his concert will be political and he does not expect media sponsorship.
Other organizations scheduled to sponsor the Sept. 11 event included Stars and Stripes newspaper, Pentagon Federal Credit Union, Subway, Lockheed Martin, WTOP Radio Network, ABC/WJLA-TV Channel 7 and News Channel 8 and the Washington Convention & Tourism Corporation, according to the Freedom Walk Web site.
(More on link)
Fresh Allegations of Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Emerge
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081605Z.shtml
{{{ I wonder if these are in connection with American atrocities, or if they are separate?!? }}}
Words fail me.....
Democrats Look to Duck Fight over Judge Roberts
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081605I.shtml
Democrats have decided that unless there is an unexpected development in the weeks ahead, they will not launch a major fight to block the Supreme Court nomination of John G. Roberts Jr., according to legislators, Senate aides and party strategists.
Plame Prosecutor Inclined to Enforce Perjury Laws
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081605Y.shtml
{{{ One can only hope... this new person who is supposed to "oversee" Fitzgerald is a wild card, IMHO. Nothing may come of this Grand Jury investigation in the long run, even if we all know the witnesses have been lying and their lies can be tracked. This administration is too corrupt, the cancer of corruption has tentacles and has spread to all branches of government and certainly comes with all the people connected to Bu$hCo.... Loyalty to one person and his administration comes with the price tag of death of one's honesty, integrity, and betrayal of this country by those people who are, at best, traitors to this nation. We desperately need all the secrets and the crimes revealed for everyone to see....}}}
Bu$h is the coward in Crawford, for refusing to meet with the Gold Star families there.
The pickup trucker who plowed over the crosses:
the cretin in Crawford.
just heard that the Ed Schultz radio show will be broadcast live tomorrow & Thurs., from Camp Casey, Crawford.
Possibly the best thing written yet, and brought me to tears:
Casey Sheehan was born May 29, 1979, the first born child of Cindy and Pat Sheehan. It was a long labor. Fifty-one days after Casey was born, our first child, Wade was born, also after a long labor. They started school the same year, played the same games, watched the same television shows, loved the same country. On April 4, 1996, three weeks after going to Washington as a winner in a national contest about what America meant to him, Wade died in an automobile accident. On April 4, 2004, eight years later to the day, Casey, who loved his country enough to wear its uniform, died in Iraq. Cindy and Pat's hearts broke, as had ours.
We teach our children right from wrong. We teach them compassion and honor. We teach them the dignity of each life. And then, sometimes, the lessons we taught are turned on their heads. Cindy Sheehan is asking a very simple thing of her government, and she and her family, and most particularly Casey, have paid a very dear price for the right to ask this.
Cindy wants Casey's death to have meant as much as his life - lived fully - might have meant. I know this, as does every mother who has ever stood where we stand. And the President says he knows enough, doesn't need to hear from Casey's mother, doesn't need to assure her that Casey's is not one small death in a long and seemingly never-ending drip of deaths, that there is a plan here that will bring our sons and daughters home. He doesn't need to hear from her, he says. He claims he understands how some people feel about the deaths in Iraq.
The President is wrong.
Whether you agree or disagree with every part, or any part, of what Cindy wants to say, you know it is better that the President hear different opinions, particularly from those with such a deep and personal interest in the decisions of our government. Today, another voice would be helpful.
Cindy Sheehan can be that voice. She has earned the right to be that voice.
Please join me in supporting Cindy's right to be heard.
http://ga3.org/campaign/speakout/wgbsgb84a55k73t?
I grew up in a military family. My father and my grandfather were career Navy pilots. I saw what it meant to live a life every single day when the possibility of an honorable death is always there, at the dinner table, on the playground, at the base school. Will someone's father not come home tonight? And I didn't just feel the possibility, I saw the real thing, and, believe me, it stays with you, it changes you.
I also saw, then and more recently as I campaigned across this country and spent time with courageous military mothers and wives, how little attention is paid to the needs and the voices of military families. It has to change. The sacrifices that our military men and women make assure us that we have the strongest military in the world, but the sacrifices that their families make are too often ignored. The President's cavalier dismissal of Cindy Sheehan is emblematic of a greater problem. This is a mother who raised her son to love his country enough to serve.
This is a mother who lived the impossible life of a mother of a soldier serving in Iraq, unable to sleep when he sleeps, unable to sleep when he is on duty, unable to watch the television, unable to stop watching the television.
And when the worst does happen, when the world comes crashing down and she puts the boy she bore, the boy she taught, the boy she loved in the ground, what does that government say to her? It says we'll do the talking; we don't need to hear from you. If we are decent and compassionate, if we know the lessons we taught our children, or if, selfishly, all we want is the long line of the brave to protect us in the future, we should listen to the mothers now.
Listen to Cindy.
Join me so Cindy knows we believe she has earned the right to be heard.
http://ga3.org/campaign/speakout/wgbsgb84a55k73t?
Elizabeth Edwards
ok, this might not be a huge headline.
But the hypocrisy here makes me gag.
5-deferment Cheney...
After the way Bu$hCheneyRove ridiculed JK as a multiple purple heart recipient, at last summer's Repub National Covention with those repugnant purple bandaids.
I know there are bigger things to focus on. But this still galls me:
Cheney to speak at Springfield convention
Vice president will address recipients of the Purple Heart.
By James Goodwin
News-Leader
Vice President Dick Cheney will visit Springfield on Thursday to address the 73rd national convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
The 12:45 p.m. speech is open only to members and guests of the organization, which serves veterans injured in combat.
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050816/NEWS06/508160371/1095
Rumsfield announces first ever Freedom Walk at National Mall with Clint Black in support of the war.
Maybe we should ask Lance Armstrong to appear in a counter rally.
What a ridulous abuse of authority by our Secretary of Defense. Young men and women are losing their lives going on 2,000 and Rumsfield/Bush/Cheney want to throw a big country western party.
from Eric Boehlert at HuffPo:
Free Fallin'
It's telling that when this story first broke, GOP pundits at least had the decency to preface their smears with obligatory nods to Sheehan's sacrifice. No more. It's war.
I don't think we've seen the right wing this collectively unhinged since the Florida recount, when the mere thought of four more years of Democratic rule drove even mild mannered pundits like George Will off the cliff. Back then it was Will who spotted Al Gore's "serial mendacity," "corrupting hunger for power," and a selfish attempt to create "post-election chaos" and "delegitimize the election."
Just like those nervous November days in Florida, before anyone knew the Supreme Court would step in and order the state to stop counting votes, partisan Republicans no doubt sense things slipping away today. When it comes to Bush's second term, the White House has entered Tom Petty territory—it's Free Fallin'. Think 1,854 U.S. casualties, $3.00 gas prices, grand jury testimony, Terry Schiavo, Social Security reform, 43 percent job approval rating.
And now think Cindy Sheehan.
My hunch is that like the Florida recount, the right wing's fury actually stems from its unspoken anger at Bush. In 2000, they were privately furious that the Bush camp botched the handling of his drunk driving arrest, which came out on the eve of the final vote. And they were ticked off Karl Rove spent the last days of the campaign parading Bush around in places like California and New Jersey where Gore won in a walk.
This summer, Bush supporters must be stunned at how the White House has completely mishandled the Sheehan phenomena. Which PR fiasco has been more head-shaking, speeding right past the military mom in a dusty, heavily-guarded motorcade on the way to a deep-pocket Republican fund raiser, or Bush's Sunday comment that it was important he get on with his life? (And who didn't notice that Bush's official weekend itinerary included a trip to a Little League baseball game, a bike ride and a nap?)
Back in 2000 when things looked dire, the Bushies were bailed out by Rehnquist, Scalia and company. But there's nobody to save them this time. It's a daunting realization and you can hear the GOP fear in the attacks on Sheehan.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/eric-boehlert/free-fallin_5721.html
The words fail me as well, but Indy's come very close to how I feel. My outrage is not fit to be printed on a public blog. I wonder if I have been living in an asylum for the criminally insane for the last four years?
Does anybody know if the neocon media and Bu$hco Propaganda machine has mentioned this and if they have, have they expressed any outrage?
How can I contact Lance Armstrong? I want him to know that his riding a bicycle with George Bush is an offense to my standards of decent human behavior.
This is a terrific diary / post on dkos by a current military type. I highly recommend a read of his thoughtful essay.
The military is Republican? Sorta.
by jabbausaf
Tue Aug 16th, 2005 at 09:12:22 PDT
A significant number of people I've met in the military who say they are Republican have no idea of politics or the positions of the various parties, but they believe what they're told about the Democrats not liking the military and the Republicans liking the military. Most of the people I've known who actually really think about politics, a distinct minority in the military just like in the civilian world, tend to be liberals or independents. A significant number more don't see any difference between the political parties.
~snip~
So, across the board, educate, educate, educate. Military members as a whole have a lot of misconceptions about politics, not surprising considering how our attentions tend to be focused on other things, and it is through reasonable and rational informing that we will correct the misconceptions.
~snip~
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/16/121222/020
If you observe how he approached his interaction, it was a one-on-one where he built on his prior interaction and knowledge much like TSP does.
This diary also has a poll. He adds in the comments section:
The poll in this diary
I plan to keep this on hand and pull it out every time some conservative wingnut troll comes onto Kos and tries to tell me or someone else that all the liberals here hate the military and think we're all babykillers.
~snip~
Please read and vote!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/16/121222/020
Results as of 4:55 pm edt:
Do you support the troops?
Yes (providing they aren't engaging in criminal acts, of course) 533 votes - 90 %
No (all their acts are criminal, the babykillers!) 15 votes - 2 %
Sorta (eh, little a both) 40 votes - 6 %
588 Total Votes
Karen:
The letter from Elizabeth Edwards has given me chills. You gotta love that woman. Well, both women! These two, and all the support, give me hope that people may begin to relate more to peace than war in our country. Thanks for posting that!
oncall:
I was as suspicious of Armstrong as you until I heard him on a local tv interview going on and on how much he was against the war and how much he appreciated 'his friend'(his words) John Kerry riding in the follow car at the tour de France. I don't think Lance is the enemy, he's just trying to play both sides. Maybe he will surprise us and confront Bush on their little bicycle ride.
AP news report: Tue Aug 16, 1:03 PM ET
$7.5M Awarded to Study Electronic Voting
Armed with a $7.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, Johns Hopkins University is leading a new effort to improve the reliability of electronic voting machines.
The project's goal is to design the most foolproof, transparent voting system possible, officials said Monday.
"I don't think with today's technology we can have a voting system that is fully electronic that can be trusted," said Avi Rubin, a computer science professor. He will head a new Hopkins center called ACCURATE, short for A Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Auditable and Transparent Elections.
Rubin told The (Baltimore) Sun he hopes the center will provide information in time for the 2008 presidential contest, but that its research will take longer.
Rubin has been an outspoken critic of computerized voting. In 2003, he co-authored a report that found voting machines from Diebold Elections Systems were vulnerable to hackers, multiple votes and vote-switching.
The Hopkins grant is part of the National Science Foundation's 2005 Cyber Trust program, a $36 million initiative to support cybersecurity research and explore ways to increase the dependability of computers.
Hopkins is leading the effort, but the money will also support research at Stanford University; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Iowa; Rice University; and SRI International, the nonprofit research group in Menlo Park, Calif.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=1&u=/ap/20050816/ap_on_re_us/electronic_voting_2
Well, the cross desecraters may have just brought a lot more of those gold star families over to the light side.
Repugnant as it is (they're living up to their name;), it may be a blessing in disguise. Perhpas the last straw for some.
Posted by: Ira at August 16, 2005 05:01 PM
I don't expect Lance to talk to Georgie about anything other than bikes and biking. But I do know there's an official calling/movement to get Lance to stop by Camp Casey. To me, that will have more impact.
And from what I've read about last weekend's bike ride with Georgie, no one is allowed to pass him up. I'd love to see Lance leave him in the dust...
Posted by: NonnyO at August 16, 2005 03:02 PM
Why does Fitzgerald need an overseer?
I don't like it.
And from what I've read about last weekend's bike ride with Georgie, no one is allowed to pass him up. I'd love to see Lance leave him in the dust...
Posted by: madame defarge at August 16, 2005 05:47 P
I'd love to see America pass him up.
How can I contact Lance Armstrong? I want him to know that his riding a bicycle with George Bush is an offense to my standards of decent human behavior.
Posted by: oncall at August 16, 2005 04:45 PM
Sounds like Lance had a "personal" invitation from the Bush Camp to come ride his bike with George. Sounds like Cheney or Rove. Yep, ever the politicians, aren't they? I'll bet that frosted 'em when Kerry rode in the lead car behind Lance.
Those people aren't above playing politics in a time like this, in a scene like this.
I don't think Lance should allow himself to be used like this. I think we need to email Lance.
If the President is too busy "getting on with his life" (what a dumb fluffin' thing to say, given the circumstances), and too busy playing "Home on Deranged", then he's too busy fishing and napping to be riding bikes with Lance for a photo-op. Nice way to try to make yourself look like a winner, riding with a winner. Hope he falls off his bike again during the photo-op.