cindy sheehan

From ABC News Australia

Pakistani police on Saturday put opposition politician and former cricket star Imran Khan under house arrest and detained dozens of people protesting against the visit of US President George W Bush.

"I have been placed under house arrest just to appease George Bush. You would think I was Osama bin Laden the way they have treated me," Mr Khan told AFP.

Mr Khan said he was leaving a friend's house after supper at around 1:00 am local time when police served him with a detention order to stop him leading a demonstration later on Saturday in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.

So this is the freedom in the Middle East that Bush is praising? If that is Bush's version of freedom then tyranny sounds a hell of a lot better. Kahn also agrees if you read this quote from the same article:

"Bush obviously agrees with Musharraf's version of democracy, which is to clamp down on anyone who protests against you,"

This is so much like Cindy Sheehan and others who have protested or opposed Bush here. Democracy gives you and depends upon a right to dissent, not a requirement to agree. When you are talking about America, you are talking about a country built upon dissent. If our forefathers did not believe in that then we would still be under the rule of England. Bush is effectively destroying every thing this country has ever stood for. Think about that when you go to the polls this November and cast your ballots for Congress. There isn't much they could do on situations like Mr. Kahn's but if we had a balance of power in Congress now, Bush could be forced to act within the law here and try to restore our image as the beacon of freedom.

This just in from NBC:

WASHINGTON - Charges against antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan, who was
arrested after an incident involving a T-shirt she wore to the State of the
Union address, will be dropped, officials told NBC News Wednesday.

U.S. Capitol Police took Sheehan away in handcuffs and charged her with
unlawful conduct, a misdemeanor, when she showed up to President Bush’s
address Tuesday night wearing a shirt that read, “2245 Dead. How many more?”
— a reference to the number of soldiers killed in Iraq.

But Capitol Police will ask the U.S. attorney's office to drop the
charges, NBC News’ Mike Viqueira reported Wednesday.

Article continues here.

Sue them to hell and back Cindy. They can drop the charges but it won't give
back the embarrassment they caused you last night.

Back in August, when Camp Casey was in full swing outside of Bush's Crawford
Ranch, the right wingers found some information they loved. That information was
about Cindy Sheehan having past tax troubles. She had acquired some liens
against her property over the years for a problem that many Americans face. It
was a great talking point for the right. I even remember O'Reilly and Limbaugh
trying to discredit her because she did not do her patriotic duty of paying her
taxes.

Now lets see what the right will say about Supreme Court Nominee Harriett
Miers.

Washington -- The year Harriet Miers began work as a senior presidential
aide in the White House, the city of Dallas slapped three liens in three
months on a property she controls in a low-income minority Dallas
neighborhood, records show.

The city placed the liens in 2001 to force her to reimburse it for
clearing the vacant lot of tall grass, weeds and debris after Miers failed
to have the work done herself, as required by city law, and after she did
not respond to city notices to maintain the property.

It was not the first time the city had to take action. Records show that
since Miers assumed power of attorney for her ailing mother in 1995, the
city has issued seven other liens on vacant lots that Miers controls in the
same neighborhood around Tipton Park.

All 10 liens, totaling less than $2,000, have been paid, a city spokesman
said.

But the failure of Miers, a former Dallas City Council member, to comply
with city law, and her slow response in reimbursing the city, run counter to
her image as a meticulous, detail-oriented attorney who is always well
prepared.

Full article

here.

Via the

Associated Press

Sheehan Arrested During Anti-War
Protest

 By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press

Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who has used her son's death in Iraq
to spur the anti-war movement, was arrested Monday while protesting outside
the White House.

Sheehan and several dozen other protesters sat down on the sidewalk after
marching along the pedestrian walkway on Pennsylvania Avenue. Police warned
them three times that they were breaking the law by failing to move along,
then began making arrests.

Sheehan, 48, was the first taken into custody. She stood up and was led
to a police vehicle while protesters chanted, "The whole world is watching."

Sheehan's 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in an ambush in Sadr City,
Iraq, last year. She attracted worldwide attention last month with her
26-day vigil outside President Bush's Texas ranch.

Sheehan was among several hundred demonstrators who marched around the
White House on Monday and then stopped in front and began singing and
chanting "Stop the war now!"

The demonstration is part of a broader anti-war effort on Capitol Hill
organized by United for Peace and Justice, an umbrella group.
Representatives from anti-war groups were meeting Monday with members of
Congress to urge them to work to end the war and bring home the troops.

The protest following a massive demonstration Saturday on the National
Mall that drew a crowd of 100,000 or more, the largest such gathering in the
capital since the war began in March 2003.

Via Truthout

White House Attacks the Messenger

By Joseph Wilson / t r u t h o u t

Statement by Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson

The Bush White House and its right wing allies are responding to Cindy
Sheehan and the military families’ vigil in Central Texas in the same way that
they always respond to bad news –by unleashing personal attacks and smears
against her.

This White House never wants an open public discussion, and it certainly
never wants to be told that it is wrong. It always tries to change the message
by attacking the messenger.

They did it with former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill when he wrote a
book that suggested that the White House used 9/11 as an excuse to invade
Iraq.

They did it when Richard Clarke revealed that the White House ignored
warnings about Bin Laden.

They did it in a most despicable way, as everybody now knows, when they
revealed my wife’s identity as a CIA employee because they were unhappy when I
spoke the truth and told the American people that President Bush’s claim was
false concerning Niger’s giving uranium to Iraq, part of the trumped up
rationale for our invasion.

I been meaning to post on this and kept forgetting but now I got an extra
special link to include. This was from Bush's speech to the VFW on Monday (via
the

Canadian Press).

Bush says anti-war protests threaten to
weaken the United States

Canadian Press

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

DONNELLY, Idaho (AP) - President George W. Bush said Tuesday that anti-war
protesters such as Cindy Sheehan, who want U.S. troops brought home
immediately, are "advocating a policy that would weaken the United States."

In remarks to reporters outside an exclusive resort where he is
vacationing, Bush gave no indication that he would change his mind and meet
with Sheehan when he returns to his Texas ranch Wednesday evening.

Sheehan, who lost a son in Iraq and has emerged as a harsh critic of the
war there, has been maintaining a vigil outside Bush's ranch that has
attracted other anti-war protesters.

Bush said that two high-ranking member of his staff have already met with
her.

© The Canadian Press 2005

Now you can get your own Bullshit Protector at
Wiseass.com free. All you
need is a printer!

Via

LA Times

Anti-War Protester Sheehan Leaves
Crawford to Help Mother From Associated Press

2:34 PM PDT, August 18, 2005

CRAWFORD, Texas — The grieving woman who started an anti-war demonstration
near President Bush's ranch nearly two weeks ago said today she was leaving
because her mother had a stroke.

Cindy Sheehan told reporters she had just received the phone call and was
leaving immediately to be with her 74-year-old mother at a Los Angeles
hospital.

"I'll be back as soon as possible if it's possible," she said. After
hugging some of her supporters, Sheehan and her sister, Deedee Miller, got in
a van and left for the Waco airport about 20 miles away.

Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son Casey died in Iraq, said the makeshift
campsite off the road leading to Bush's ranch would continue. The camp has
grown to more than 100 people, including many relatives of soldiers killed in
Iraq.

Sheehan had vowed to remain there until Bush met with her or until his
month-long vacation ended. Her protest inspired candlelight vigils across the
country Wednesday night.

Bush has said he sympathizes with Sheehan. White House spokeswoman Dana
Perino said earlier Thursday that the president said Sheehan had a right to
protest but that he did not plan to change his schedule and meet with her.

Two top Bush administration officials talked to Sheehan the day she started
her camp, and she and other families met with Bush shortly after her son's
death and before she became a vocal opponent of the war.

Freeper of the week has to go to Larry Northern, the 59 year old Texan who
took chained a pipe to the back of his pickup truck and used it to destroy the
white crosses set up at Camp Casey in Crawford. Each one of the crosses
represented a fallen soldier, so this tells you what Mr. Northern must think of
the brave men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice to defend his freedom of
criminal damage. Authorities found pieces of the crosses and of the American
flag under Freeper Northern's truck. Authorities are planning to charge him with
criminal mischief.

A couple weeks back, we had a

story here in the Cincinnati area about the funeral of Pfc. Timothy Hines
Jr. Less than 24 hours after he was laid to rest, someone gathered 20 flags that
were lining his mother-in-law's yard, placed them under a car sitting in the
driveway and torched it all.

A couple of days after that story broke, I noticed some right-wingers posting
to forums saying it was liberals who did this. No one had been arrested and
their were no suspects, but they instantly laid blame to the people who oppose
the war in Iraqr. I went to battle with these accusers considering their was no
suspect in the crime. A few days later, the police made the bust. Turns out the
suspects were two boys, ages 15 and 13, spending a night out doing some random
vandalism. They admitted to it after they learned it was a memorial for a fallen
soldier.