There are some really stand-up men and women in the Democratic Party. Howard Dean is one. He hasn't been corrupted by the allure of Inside-the-Beltway power-madness that seemingly drives politicians from both parties mad. I admire people like John Conyers, Barbara Boxer, Maxine Waters, Bernie Sanders... lots of others, in fact. But, honestly, I didn't expect real leadership to get us out of Bush's war in Iraq from inside the Beltway. I'm not surprised by the "Cindy Sheehan phenomena." Cindy's presence in front of Bush's compound in desolate godforsaken Crawford, Texas is starting to galvanize the country. (Soon she may even get onto CNN instead of the make-believe "celebrities" they create to waste time and help the corporate establishment keep peoples' minds off real problems.)
Today if the cowardly Bush didn't keep his eyes shut in the backseat of his limousine, he got a motorcade view, his first, of Cindy and more than 100 supporters camped outside his made-for-TV-ranch as he was chauffeured to a political fund-raiser next door. He didn't stop. Cindy and the other patriots were forced by police to stand behind yellow tape. This time they didn't shove her in a ditch or force them to leave their makeshift campsite; too many reporters around. Cindy's handmade sign read: "Why do you make time for donors and not for me?"
Riding behind tinted windows, it is unclear if Bush averted his eyes or looked at the demonstrators as his caravan passed. Matt C's report that he threw a beer can out the window has not been substantiated. Bush arrived at his neighbor's ranch for a barbecue just before noon, where he was expected to raise millions of dollars in bribe money for the Republican National Committee, which is
spending a fortune trying to defend convicted New Hampshire GOP vote tamperer Jim Tobin, the man at the heart of the illegal election day phone-jamming conspiracy which delivered NH's electoral votes to Bush and the state's Senate seat to John Sununu. The 200 plus wealthy right-wingers at the 478 acre ranch paid a minimum of $25,000 a head to hear Bush; many are "rangers," or "pioneers," corrupt bribers who give Bush $100,000 or more (in return for favorable legislation and other government favors. One prominent Bush "Pioneer," Thomas Noe of Ohio, is facing 30 years in prison for turning the Ohio Workmen's Compensation Fund into a honeypot for GOP politicians-- including Bush, of course-- and into a personal piggy-bank.
Rather than bring our troops back from Iraq, which Cindy and the majority of people in this country want, Bush said on Thursday that he is considering sending even more troops there before the Iraqi elections in December. Over 60% of grassroots (meaning REAL, as opposed to Beltway) Americans, oppose Bush's Iraq policies, although he is supported by most Republican politicians and by careerist Democrats like Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman, who have lost touch with the voters and whose abandonment of Democratic values should be remembered at election time. Bush wants to send at least another 10,000 Americans to Iraq before the end of the year. Only 38% of Americans agree with Bush's policies in Iraq (and that includes buckets of slime like Biden and Lieberman).
Cindy began her vigil last weekend, declaring she would stay for the entire month that Bush plans to vacation in Texas or until he agrees to meet with her so she can ask him what the
"noble cause" is that he keeps yammering about-- and for which her 24 year old son Casey died. Everyday more and more peace advocates and activists join her, including at least three other parents who have lost children in the war. The Bush Smear Machine is working on overdrive to attack and discredit Cindy, the way the attack and smear every patriot who disagrees with them.
"The president says he feels compassion for me, but the best way to show that compassion is by meeting with me and the other mothers and families who are here," Sheehan said. "All we're asking is that he sacrifice an hour out of his five-week vacation to talk to us, before the next mother loses her son in Iraq."
0 Comments