Mandate, My Ass

It's also another step in the corporate media's efforts to drag Sheehan off-message. She's not there because she's sad that her son died in a war. She's there because she knows that her son and the country were lied to about the reasons why we started this war. She's there because BushCo betrayed the country and the military. I hope the spokespeople for Camp Casey keep that fact in front of them when they respond to this development.
 

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 

What they should have called them is a Pro-War Camp ... the right would hate to have that stuck to them ... may that is the way we should start to refer to the Radical Right ... as the Pro-War party ...
 

You should've seen the original version before the liberal editors wrecked it:

A truly patriotic camp with an awe-inspiring "God Bless Our President!" banner sprung up downtown Saturday, faithfully countering the anti-war demonstration started by a deranged, flip-flopping fallen soldier's mother whose patriotic husband wisely divorced her because of her anti-American views...
 

If you read Mr Qualls' comments, it's clear that he's swallowed the 'Iraq = 9/11' line. He's entitled to his grief; but not his own facts.
 

This is off topic ... but this morning I set here and cried ...Once again from Stories in America this interview gave me chills ... it could have been me or any one of my buddies talking about the Vietnam war just after we had returned ... and we did this on a god damn lie ... this man went to war with courage and dedication ... believing that his country was putting him in harms way to save it from a manic with WMD that could attack his and our country ... and look what was done to him in our name .... go read this posting ...
Iraq & the Oklahoma Panhandle

http://storiesinamerica.blogspot...- panhandle.html
http://storiesinamerica.blogspot.com/
 

Truly scary stuff, TAG. I think I really need to add Stories in America to my blogroll, the links on my LJ, and my .sig, just so I aim as many people towards it as possible.
 

By the way I truly love Dr. Demento
 

First time I've visited. Nice Blog.

Your title "Mandate, My Ass" reminds me of the 1971 animated movie short "Crunch Bird" and the punchline "Crunch Bird, my ass".

By coincidence there is a Michigan cinnection to Crunch Bird through West Bloomfield.

As for the two camps in Texas, I figured right after seeing the Michael Moore movie that if you lost a loved one in Iraq, you would polarize one way or the other justifying the loss or feeling betrayed.
 

1. Where are the Democratic Party leaders? Why are they running away from Cindy Sheehan? Is she a liability? Are they reading too much into the polls?

2. I wonder how many of these Democrats will beg for money, time, support from Cindy's supporters during the 08 nomination.

3. It appears that the "smartest man in the Senate" (my ass) - Sen. Sissy biden - who is the highest ranking Democrat in the foreign relations committee knows less than Cindy does about foreign affairs and war. And this man wants to be President?

4. And what's wrong with Al Gore?


"Al Gore Calls Cindy Sheehan To Tone Down Her Drive"
A
 

Apparently there are two versions of this article; an earlier version at CNN refers to it as a "pro-Bush camp," at least here. This is dated Saturday 10:42 PM...
 

Let's pretend that it's the late 1990s and it's Bosnia or Kosova we're talking about. Would this paper be dissing Cindy Sheehan as unpatriotic if her son had died fighting Clinton's wars? Of course not!

Oh, and let's see if we can exercise our "reading between the lines" skills here:

Army Planning for Four More Years in Iraq

English Translation: Army Praying for a Democrat to Enter the Oval Office in 2009.
 

This was posted on Democratic Underground. At the suggestion of the original poster I wrote to AP. The gist of it was that patriotism is not shorthand for pro-war, pro-Bush or pro-administration. To use that word to describe this new encampment is to, by a very clear implication, label Camp Casey as unpatriotic and that is not a news report. That's an editorial. Or it's just very sloppy.

My first visit here, via Atrios. Blogrolled at first sight.
 

Anonymous:

A number of Democratic leaders have visited Cindy at her camp. You're not being told about them for the same reasons the press isn't telling you about the number of Casey's old military buddies who have been visiting her camp.
 

This probably only applies to me and my perceptions, but after what the Republicans and the media pundits have done to the word "patriotic", when I read the story I saw: A fascist camp with a "God Bless Dear Leader!"...I suspect that's not what the journalist was trying to convey.
 

OK, I did some Google news searching, and it looks as if CNN was the only outlet to lead with "pro-Bush camp" instead of "patriotic camp."
 

idiot nation.

speaking of which, i just watched allen and hagel.

i'll reserve judgement on hagel, but really, you should have to be smarter than allen to be a senator. who now says cindy is just a political cause celebe. and of course we have to fight them over there so we don't have fight them here. IDIOT!
 

The word they're looking for is jingoistic not patriotic.
 

I respect the sacrifice his son made and I feel sorry for the grief he must feel, but this statement by Gary Qualls:

"If I have to sacrifice my whole family for the sake of our country and world, other countries that want freedom, I'll do that," said the soldier's father.

is just asinine.
 

#4 - "What's wrong with Al Gore?"

He's a dem...the other head on the corporate-driven one party beast.

Any true progressive voice was crushed long ago
 

Y'all, there ain't nothin' wrong with Al Gore...but there is something wrong with people who miss blatant satire. Especially when it's labeled "satire."
 

If all those folks are so pro-war why don't the get their ass to a recruiting station? What a bunch of ignorant ass hats.
 

I'm inclined to agree that, whether actively or by mere stupidity and incompetence, the media is generally complicit in pushing the administration's line on the war, I have to disagree here with the specific criticism you've made of this article. The use of the word "patriotic" in the first sentence of the piece is perhaps sloppy inasmuch as it's a bit prejudicial, but it may not be inaccurate and it certainly doesn't imply that Cindy Sheehan's Camp Casey is unpatriotic. I think you're reading too much into this.
 

At 10:25am PDT, the AP story being run by the NYTimes says:

"CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- A patriotic camp with a ''God Bless Our President!'' banner sprung up downtown Saturday, countering the anti-war demonstration started by a fallen soldier's mother two weeks ago near President Bush's ranch."

It does not identify the AP author, given as "ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer"
in the Yahoo article linked by this blog (showing the "patriotic camp" verbiage).

What's worst of all to me is that this Ms. Brown probably thinks it's an innocent, merely ill-advised use of the word "patriotic." How pathetic (presuming I'm right; worse yet, if I'm wrong).
 

Y'all, there ain't nothin' wrong with Al Gore...but there is something wrong with people who miss blatant satire. Especially when it's labeled "satire."

Not just satire, but really bad right-wing satire that says stuff like "Al Gore's electric car is slower than the slowest camels in Iraq."

Dial down the infighting, people.
 

Stumax, I respectfully disagree. I think it's blatant. It's "a patriotic camp... countering the anti-war demonstration started by a fallen soldier's mother two weeks ago near President Bush's ranch".

That specifically says the one camp is "patriotic", with the strong implication that the other is not. It doesn't say "pro-Bush" (except for the one CNN report Frank found, above); it doesn't say "patriotic, in this writer's opinion". It presents as a fact that the camp opposing Cindy Sheehan's camp is patriotic; ergo, Sheehan's is not.

I don't think I'm reading a thing into it.
 

Anonymous wrote: "Any true progressive voice was crushed long ago."

You mean like Dennis Kucinich?

I remember him getting the loudest and most sustained applause in the New Hampshire debates during the run of Democratic Primaries in 2004.

He chastised Ted Koppel for focusing on endorsements and polling numbers instead of the issues that face the nation. He really took it to talking head Kopout and embarassed him seriously.

The written transcript doesn't disclose it, but it's an objective fact that nobody disputes that the live audience booed and hissed Koppel.

And the floodgates began rattling with the suggestion that they might open and the American people's legitimate rage against the Commercial Media might then come a pourin' down.

That's why ABC News punished him, and why "competing" news organizations were silent the next morning on the big story of the previous night.

Here's a key excerpt:

KOPPEL: Congressman Kucinich, I remember you when you were the boy mayor of Cleveland. You've been at this for a very long time.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on what endorsements like this mean or don't mean.

When you hear some of your colleagues here -- you know, I get a little bit of a sense of sour grapes here, that if anyone else on this stage had gotten Al Gore's endorsement, he would have been happy to have it. What do you think?

KUCINICH: Well, I can't say I was really counting on it.

(LAUGHTER)

But let me say, Ted, let me say -- let me say that some of the best talent in American politics is on this stage right now.

(APPLAUSE)

And with all due respect to you, Ted Koppel, who I've admired over the years greatly...

KOPPEL: There's a zinger coming now, isn't there?

KUCINICH: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

To begin this kind of a forum with a question about an endorsement, no matter by who, I think actually trivializes the issues that are before us.

(APPLAUSE)

For example, at this moment there are 130,000 troops in Iraq. I mean, I would like to hear you ask during this event what's the plan for getting out. This war is not over. I have a plan, which is on my Web site at kucinich.us, to get the United States out of Iraq.

I want to talk about that tonight, and I hope we have a substantive discussion tonight and that we're not going to spend the night talking about endorsements.

(APPLAUSE)

Koppel then cuts Kucinich off and goes to Howard Dean with a question... about the same endorsement.

Later in the debate, Koppel tries to play kingmaker, and Kucinich embarrasses him (and ABC) again:

KOPPEL: This is a question to Ambassador Braun, Reverend Sharpton, Congressman Kucinich. You don't have any money, or at least not much. Reverend Sharpton has almost none. You don't have very much, Ambassador Braun.

KUCINICH: We've raised $4.5 million. I mean, that's not nothing.

(LAUGHTER)

KOPPEL: You've got about $750,000 in the bank right now, and that's close to nothing when you're coming up against this kind of opposition. But let me finish the question.

The question is, will there come a point when polls, money and then ultimately the actual votes that will take place here in places like New Hampshire, the caucuses in Iowa, will there come a point when we can expect one or more of the three of you to drop out? Or are you in this as sort of a vanity candidacy?

Reverend Sharpton, you go first...

Then Koppel goes to Kucinich to answer Koppel's ridiculous question:

KOPPEL: When do you pull out?

KUCINICH: After I -- when I take the oath of office, when you're there to cover it...

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

... and I can tell you, Ted, you know, we started at the beginning of this evening, talking about an endorsement. Well, I want the American people to see where the media takes politics in this country.

To start with endorsements...

(APPLAUSE)

We start talking about endorsements, now we're talking about polls, and then we're talking about money. Well, you know, when you do that, you don't have to talk about what's important to the American people.

Ted, I'm the only one up here that actually...

(APPLAUSE)

... I'm the only up here on the stage that actually voted against the PATRIOT Act and voted against the war -- the only one on this stage.

I'm also...

(APPLAUSE)

... I'm also one of the few candidates up here who's talking about taking our health-care system from this for-profit system to a not-for-profit, single-payer universal health care for all.

(APPLAUSE)

I'm also the only one who has talked about getting out of NAFTA and the WTO and going back to bilateral trade...

(APPLAUSE)

... conditioned on workers' rights, human rights and the environment.

Now...

KOPPEL: Congressman?

KUCINICH: ... I may be inconvenient for some of those in the media, but, you know, I'm sorry about that.

(APPLAUSE)
credit goes to Dissident Voice for this excerpt.

The place erupted in wild applause. The next day, ABC News pulled their embedded reporter from the Kucinich campaign.

The Liberal Media!

Yeah, Right!
 

"They have been slandering this woman for wanting the President to give her a straight answer as to the cause her son died for."

Liar.

They have been criticizing her for her political statements regarding the war, the government and the nature of the USA.
 

Can you guess who this is?

Sociopath:

Noun

A person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme anti-social attitudes and behaivor, and a lack on conscience.

I'll give you a hint: His intials are GWB.
 

"They have been slandering this woman for wanting the President to give her a straight answer as to the cause her son died for."

Liar.

They have been criticizing her for her political statements regarding the war, the government and the nature of the USA.
# posted by Anonymous : 2:49 PM

Those statements are directly related to her inability to get a straight answer about the cause her son died for. The "criticisms" include calling her deranged, a tool of the Left, and a bunch of other intensely personal insults.

I've given up asking for smarter trolls; there are none.
 

If the United States pulls its troops out of Iraq too soon, a bloody civil war will errupt in that country. The world will once again witness yet another religiously motivated genocide.

The majority of Iraqis are working towards building a free and democratic Iraq. I've been to Baghdad. The positive changes taking place in that city are not reflected in the daily news reports. I've actually walked on street patrols with the new Iraqi Army. I've manned a checkpoint with the new Iraqi Police. These people are risking their lives for an idea planted by our own country's founders! How long did we fight the British for our freedom?

While I understand Ms. Sheehan's loss, her son volunteered to join the Army. He wasn't drafted. If she didn't want to put her son in harms way, then she should have given her son other options (i.e. like helping him pay for college). I have a son and I'm paying every cent of his college education.

And finally, yes, the war was about O-I-L. If feeds, houses, employs and moves our modern world.
OIL is the world's most important natural resource!!! Iraq is sitting on the 2nd largest OIL reserve in the world.

Until Americans, Europeans and Asians are willing to change their consumption driven lifestyles and cultures, the reality of having troops in the Middle East will remain a part of today's
headlines.

The next time you need to go to the supermarket...try walking or riding a bike! Hey, here's another idea...tell your local leaders you want your community to enact a mandatory, curbside recycling program. Instead of throwing out those empty plastic bottles of water...they could be reused over again and again.
 

BTW, Gary Qualls was the guy who spent an hour with Condy Sheehan last week, had a few beers with her, hugged her and said "I love you" to her.

--Hesiod
 

Peter,

I'm a female in the USAF who returned from Iraq in October 2004, and I'm somewhat confused by the sheer number of errors in your post.

1) Casey Sheehan was in the Marines, not the Army. Surely your compadres at the Iraqi check point taught you the important difference.

2) Your notion of 'he volunteered, so whatever happened to him is his fault' is not only completely at odds with the spirit of the armed forces, but bizarrely paralogical. It's like saying "Hey, your son chose to drive a car, so you have no business complaining about the drunk driver who sheared him in two with his SUV."

Ms. Sheehan's problem isn't with her son's service to his country. It's that she cannot see how his death benefitted America, and wants the President, who clearly *does* know, to explain it to her. Can you not imagine how crippling it must be to feel that your son died for nothing?

3) If the war is solely about O-I-L, as you so callously assert, then why not attack Saudi Arabia, which has the LARGEST supply of oil (no seconds here), as well as a twenty year history of actually supporting Bin Laden, including 85% of the 9-11 hijackers and the birthplace of Wahabbism and Bin Laden himself. How does that fit with your logic?

Furthermore, if your notion of consumption being a justified reason for war, then it seems to me that those who drive the most wasteful of SUVs ought to be automatically drafted and committed to four-year-hitches, while the drivers of Minis would serve, appropriately, around five minutes. Earn your O-I-L.

Oh, and I do ride my bike to the store. I even bring canvas bags so I don't have to waste plastic on disposable store bags. They also don't tear when you're carrying a gallon of milk up the stairs.

4) I suppose your notion of Americans and Europeans needing to downsize their consumption would be more credible if your Congress hadn't just appropriated billions in tax breaks to the oil companies, and a grand total of $28 million in alternative energy research.
 

The linked story is changed. There is no longer any mention of "patriotic." But the new Lede Focuses on Joan Baez coming to Camp Casey.

Now it changes to the "anti-american left" meme. They are really trying to paint this as a continuation of the Vietnam era protests of Burning flags and burning bras that scared middle america so much.

This is NOT the vietnam anti-war movement. NOBODY should try to make it into that: The Media, the Right OR the Left (your comments are not helpful Ms. Baez). If celebrities want to support Ms. Sheehan, send a check, a letter, or make a phone call: Media interviews about your greatest hits are not helpful to today's cause. You are feeding your own ego.
 

Thanks for the heads-up, trystero. I changed the link so that it goes to the original page in Google Cache.
 

Tom, the Google cached version will be short term too, as it gets replaced by the Joan Baez version (since it's the same url).

You might find a more stable version by going through the links at this Google news search:

http://tinyurl.com/ancn6 .