Month: August 2005

After yesterday’s A’s game, I’d like to see this twit’s bank account.

Here’s how Cindy Sheehan described her meeting with President Bush:

“I now know he’s sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,” Cindy said after their meeting. “I know he’s sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he’s a man of faith.”

The meeting didn’t last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son’s sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.

While meeting with Bush, as well as Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, was an honor, it was almost a tangent benefit of the trip. The Sheehans said they enjoyed meeting the other families of fallen soldiers, sharing stories, contact information, grief and support.

For some, grief was still visceral and raw, while for others it had melted into the background of their lives, the pain as common as breathing. Cindy said she saw her reflection in the troubled eyes of each.

“It’s hard to lose a son,” she said. “But we (all) lost a son in the Iraqi war.”

The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.

For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.

For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.

“That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together,” Cindy said.

And then she met Michael Moore and everything changed.

h/t Christopher Hitchens, a great friend of India.

It would probably be a good idea for Cindy Sheehan and her handlers to re-read the Iraq War Resolution because it answers her questions:

IRAQ WAR RESOLUTION

107th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. J. RES. 114
October 10, 2002

JOINT RESOLUTION
To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq.

Whereas in 1990 in response to Iraq’s war of aggression against and illegal occupation of Kuwait, the United States forged a coalition of nations to liberate Kuwait and its people in order to defend the national security of the United States and enforce United Nations Security Council resolutions relating to Iraq;

Whereas after the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, Iraq entered into a United Nations sponsored cease-fire agreement pursuant to which Iraq unequivocally agreed, among other things, to eliminate its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs and the means to deliver and develop them, and to end its support for international terrorism;

Whereas the efforts of international weapons inspectors, United States intelligence agencies, and Iraqi defectors led to the discovery that Iraq had large stockpiles of chemical weapons and a large scale biological weapons program, and that Iraq had an advanced nuclear weapons development program that was much closer to producing a nuclear weapon than intelligence reporting had previously indicated;

Whereas Iraq, in direct and flagrant violation of the cease-fire, attempted to thwart the efforts of weapons inspectors to identify and destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction stockpiles and development capabilities, which finally resulted in the withdrawal of inspectors from Iraq on October 31, 1998;

Continue reading “Iraq War Resolution”

Amanda Marcotte, the pro-fascist neo-feminist who writes the Pandagon blog epitomizes the new straw-person that Cindy Sheehan enablers are throwing up, namely that Sheehan’s critics seek to deprive her of right to dissent:

The cynicism behind the political attacks on the behalf of Dear Leader (to swipe Digby’s phrase) are something to behold. Are all people in mourning forbidden to use that anger and sadness to fuel a cause they believe in? Or is it only if it’s politically inconvienent to His Royal Highness? I’m guessing the latter because, for instance, a quick search of John Cole’s site did not result in his angry rampages against Mothers Against Drunk Driving or people who fight for better treatment for victims of violence after it happens to themselves or people who volunteer time or money to cancer foundations after losing loved ones.

The right to dissent is one of the things that distinguishes America from Saddam’s Iraq, of course, and I don’t know of anyone who seeks to deprive Cindy Sheehan of it. Sure, there are plenty of us who think it’s sad that the poor woman has been used and manipulated by some of the most cynical people in America, but shutting her up isn’t on anyone’s agenda. Ignoring her until she’s regained her balance is certainly appropriate, or reminding her that she would not have been able to stage such a spectacle in Saddam’s Iraq, the country she seems to admire so much, but she’s exercising her rights as a free American and should certainly be allowed to continue, as long as she’s not violent or disruptive.

The fact that the anti-liberation crowd is trotting out such bankrupt arguments is an indication of how weak their moral position is.

Speaking of moral bankruptcy, is anything more obscene than arguing that we should have refrained from toppling Saddam because of an Iraqi right to “self-determination?”

I saw that argument today at Alas a Blog, and I have to say it makes my blood boil; self-determination, like all rights, belongs to people, not of countries, so arguing that Saddam’s government made Iraqis self-determined is positively perverted.

Here are Cindy Sheehan’s own words about the Iraq War and stuff:

Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel. Am I stupid? No, I know full-well that my son, my family, this nation, and this world were betrayed by a George Bush who was influenced by the neo-con PNAC agenda after 9/11. We were told that we were attacked on 9/11 because the terrorists hate our freedoms and democracy…not for the real reason, becuase the Arab-Muslims who attacked us hate our middle-eastern foreign policy. That hasn’t changed since America invaded and occupied Iraq…in fact it has gotten worse.

This notion of terrorism as a foreign policy critique is one of the amazing all-time leaps of logic. But there it is, let no one claim we aren’t fair and balanced at Mossback’s place.

h/t Protein Wisdom.

Mohammed at Iraq the Model has written the best response to Cindy Sheehan’s ghoulish demonstation that I’ve seen yet. I only hope that Michael Moore and Sheehan’s other exploiters will let her see it. Here’s the last part:

You are free to go and leave us alone but what am I going to tell your million sisters in Iraq? Should I ask them to leave Iraq too? Should I leave too? And what about the eight millions who walked through bombs to practice their freedom and vote? Should they leave this land too?
Is it a cursed land that no one should live in? Why is it that we were chosen to live in all this pain, why me, why my people, why you?

But I am not leaving this land because the bad guys are not going to leave us or you to live in peace. They are the same ones who flew the planes to kill your people in New York.

I ask you in the name of God or whatever you believe in; do not waste your son’s blood.
We here have decided to avenge humanity, you and all the women who lost their loved ones.
Take a look at our enemy Cindy, look closely at the hooded man holding the sword and if you think he’s right then I will back off and support your call.

We live in pain and grief everyday, every hour, every minute; all the horrors of the powers of darkness have been directed at us and I don’t know exactly when am I going to feel safe again, maybe in a year, maybe two or even ten; I frankly don’t know but I don’t want to lose hope and faith.

We are in need for every hand that can offer some help. Please pray for us, I know that God listens to mothers’ prayers and I call all the women on earth to pray with you for peace in this world.

Your son sacrificed his life for a very noble cause…No, he sacrificed himself for the most precious value in this existence; that is freedom.

His blood didn’t go in vain; your son and our brethren are drawing a great example of selflessness.

God bless his free soul and God bless the souls of his comrades who are fighting evil.

God bless the souls of Iraqis who suffered and died for the sake of freedom.

God bless all the freedom lovers on earth.

I think these words echo what Casey Sheehan would tell his mother if he could still speak.

The hilarious Huffy-Puffy blog is weirdly obsessed with media-whore Cindy Sheehan today. Greg Gutfeld explains it all:

So while the Huff-posters pretend to feel sympathy for the mother, who no doubt deserves it, it’s an act. They are using her, and that makes them stink of tripe. And not the good kind you can use to make haggis.

Learn about the “Chief Brody Slap” by reading the whole thing.

For the record, Bush has already met with Sheehan, months ago, but she’s been working up a big head of steam since then.

Balloon Juice has some goodies on the motivation for Intelligent Design.

I think it’s interesting to place Christian fundamentalist anxiety about diminishing influence side-by-side with Salman Rushdie’s call for an Islamic reformation.

Followers of religions based on ancient holy books need to get with the program and realize that “Origin of Species” was just as much divinely inspired as the books of the Hebrews, Christians, and Muslims, if not more so.

Jamie Gorelick: enabler of the 9/11 attacks.