If this... is True, it is sickening.

You know what is sickening? Globe-trotting anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has collected her son's $250,000 military life insurance policy, collected endless gifts and perks from her far-left liberal friends and bought herself a brand-new VW Beetle convertabile, yet Sheehan hasn't taken the time to put up the funds needed to get Casey, her son, a head stone for his grave

Only 12% Feel That Terrorism Will Stop If We Pull Out Of Iraq

That headline heralds the latest bit of drivel to spill from the keyboard of Rob, "Say Anything," Port, (I think he takes his name way too literally.)

The post goes on to excerpt a bunch of polls that:

a.) Document the obvious... (I don't think anyone on the Left believes leaving Iraq will end Terrorism. HELLO, 9/11 happened BEFORE Iraq, and had NOTHING to do with Iraq.)

b.) That only about 39% of Americans believe we should immediately pull out of Iraq. (Ahem... Americans are inherently decent people, we FUBARED Iraq, we can't leave it FUBARED.)

c.) That 3% more Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Cindy Sheehan, than have a favorable one. (Is Cindy running for office and someone forgot to tell me?)

Now, I have read the post about six times now, and other than a LAME attempt to convince the already convinced (Wizbang Readers), that Americans somehow support the war and hate Cindy Sheehan, I frankly don't get it...

With nearly 60% of Americans seeing Iraq as a mistake, and 56% of Americans expressing disapproval of the President's job performance, it does not come as a surprise that Bush is doing the rah rah routine over Iraq.

Likewise it is no surprise that the Conservaphere continues to try and spin positives out of what obviously has become a disaster. The war has become a boat anchor around the President's neck, and it is only getting worse. Rather than face reality and admit that the policy is a failure, the Right Wingers are so upset that they are attacking each other... And these are people who are always talking about "hate."

It has become obvious over the last week that Cindy is having an impact. The Spin, and spin of the spin continues on the Right, trying to discredit her. Roughnecks show up in Crawford in an attempt to intimidate her, and yet her message only grows more compelling as day after day, the "Last Throes," in Iraq seem to grow longer.

Time to do a reality check guys. Cindy is not going away. Iraq is not going to suddenly get better, and the truth about what led to the war is finding resonance with more and more Americans. Time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Reality: This country is being run by Wackos! Thanks to my reader who left that link in a comment to one of my posts.

I am not real big on conspiracy theories, and my BS meter is about as fine tuned as they come. But the stuff in the above report, and this one, are enough to scare the bejeezus out of me.

We have some very interesting people running our country right now, and I have suspected for some time that Bush isn't really the one doing the running... What they are doing is not exactly new. I have pointed out in recent posts that the resentment for US foreign policy and meddling is high in some parts of Latin America, and with just cause. What is going on right now is nothing but a return to and re-emphasis on American Imperialism. What is different is that these guys are arrogant about it, while in the past we always went about it on the QT.

Islamic terrorist have walked into the cave of a sleeping bear, woke him up and pissed him off, and given him an excuse to slap the living shit out of them, while at the same time taking their honey and anyone else's honey that they covet. In the interim, these people have made living in our country infinitely more dangerous. Everyone wants to take down the bear. In the process they have also made it a more uncomfortable place for every American who steps off the shores of the U.S.. Those who have come to and will come to hate America will not distinguish between it's leaders and it's citizens, when it comes to exacting revenge.

It has been said before but merits saying again. After 9/11, America had the sympathy and support of most of the world. That we sought justice in Afghanistan was seen as an indisputable right. On that day and for sometime afterward, Almost everyone was an American. But the people behind the Neocon Agenda sought to capitalize on that tragedy to push their agenda. The war in Iraq was a turning point for us as a state and an empire. It was the moment when we went from benevolent to BULLY, and it persists...

That these plans existed previous to 9/11 are not up for debate. Some on the conservative side would argue on the relative merits or degrees of "wrong," in these plans. Most of us, at least those among us NOT drinking the Kool Aid would argue that whatever the merits, we were lied to, and that in and of itself makes them suspicious.

Cindy back in Crawford...

She had this to say:

"So this is the boy who they say I'm dishonoring by what I do and I know when I get up with Casey, like he went there first before me. When I get up, he's gonna say, "Good job Mom.” (applause) He's not going to say, he's not going to say, "Why'd you make me spin in my grave," you know. And I can just hear him saying "George Bush you are really an idiot. You didn't know what you were doing when you killed me. You didn't know what you were getting into." And I'm sure Casey's up there with Ken and all the others and they're just going, Wow, did these guys have moms? They didn't know that this was going to happen when they killed us?"

And I hear some of the brave Bushistas booed her when she returned...

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- The California woman at the center of anti-war protests outside President Bush's ranch returned to Texas to cheers -- and a few boos -- Wednesday after nearly a week away to tend her ailing mother.

About 40 supporters, and a couple of Bush supporters, greeted Sheehan's return to the camp, outside Bush's property. The protest site, made up of two campsites, is named after her 24-year-old son, an Army mechanic killed in Baghdad last year.

To all those folks out there who seem to think they know better how her son would feel, than the woman who raised him... I just have to scratch my head...

Rogue has more.

Got to love those folks booing her huh? I wonder how many of them have served or sent their own kids to serve. We know Bush and Cheney havent.

Make sure that you check out Paula Zhan Now's transcripts when they become available. I wonder how much tax payer money went into finding the Pruitt family? High Drama folks. Got a problem with a War mom? Find one who agrees with your position and highlight her families sacrafice during a nationaly televised speech. Gotta give it to these people. On the day when Cindy Sheehan returned to Crawford, Bush is ready with his own War Mom. Brilliant... Sick... But Brilliant!

That the insurgency is in its "last throes."

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgents launched a sophisticated and well-coordinated strike against police checkpoints in Baghdad on Wednesday that left five dead and at least 31 wounded, police said.

Thirty to 40 insurgents in civilian cars fired two rocket-propelled grenades targeting police patrols at a checkpoint, striking vehicles. Initially, police mistakenly thought a car bomb had been detonated.

Using RPGs, hand-held grenades, AK-47s and machine guns stashed in their vehicles, the insurgents attacked police at other checkpoints.

Among those killed were two police officers. Seven police were wounded.

Via CNN

In the meantime, Bush continues to make speeches to Military Audiences, while refusing to meet with Cindy Sheehan.

It's classic Rove tactics. Things going to hell, go make a couple of Rah Rah, "We are facing an evil enemy, yada yada, Global War on Terrorism, yada yada," speeches before a friendly audience...

Show some courage Mr. President, meet for once with people who don't agree with you. Hear their point of view, THANK THEM, for being real Americans, and for honoring the American Tradition of dissent.

This is hilarious, if for nothing else, the hypocrisy. The post references a post from NRO, where a Right Wing Blogger does a little "spying," at Camp Casey. He takes pictures, more or less makes fun of those supporting Cindy Sheehan, and does the usual Right Wing Slam of anything Liberal. Now cut back to the Polipundit post, for these words dripping with hypocrisy:

Berry says the protesters have been mostly respectful of her and other Bush supporters. But all that changed recently. "One of them came up to me and started taking pictures. It kind of made me uncomfortable, but that's their right. But the next day a group of them came up to me and said those pictures had been posted on the Internet and the protesters were making fun of my picture. It kind of shocked me. I almost wanted to throw up."

My sentiments exactly. Throw up or take a shower.

I wonder if Lorie threw up or took a shower, after reading the NRO post? I mean it was pretty much the exact same behavior that caused her to want to throw up on the part of the Sheehan supporters... Right?

Then there was this little nugget, also from the NRO Post:

"Two members from the administration stopped by while I was there and offered to bring food and drinks to those in attendance."

I wonder if the same offer was extended to Camp Casey, I mean they are Americans too right? Exercising their constitutional right to protest?

Sometimes the Hypocrisy of these people makes ME want to throw up!

Is a disgusting waste of air and space... That is all...

From Frank Rich's NY Times Column:

Hat Tip Dan Gillmor.

CINDY SHEEHAN couldn't have picked a more apt date to begin the vigil that ambushed a president: Aug. 6 was the fourth anniversary of that fateful 2001 Crawford vacation day when George W. Bush responded to an intelligence briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" by going fishing. On this Aug. 6 the president was no less determined to shrug off bad news. Though 14 marine reservists had been killed days earlier by a roadside bomb in Haditha, his national radio address that morning made no mention of Iraq. Once again Mr. Bush was in his bubble, ensuring that he wouldn't see Ms. Sheehan coming. So it goes with a president who hasn't foreseen any of the setbacks in the war he fabricated against an enemy who did not attack inside the United States in 2001.

When these setbacks happen in Iraq itself, the administration punts. But when they happen at home, there's a game plan. Once Ms. Sheehan could no longer be ignored, the Swift Boating began. Character assassination is the Karl Rove tactic of choice, eagerly mimicked by his media surrogates, whenever the White House is confronted by a critic who challenges it on matters of war. The Swift Boating is especially vicious if the critic has more battle scars than a president who connived to serve stateside and a vice president who had "other priorities" during Vietnam.

The most prominent smear victims have been Bush political opponents with heroic Vietnam resumes: John McCain, Max Cleland, John Kerry. But the list of past targets stretches from the former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke to Specialist Thomas Wilson, the grunt who publicly challenged Donald Rumsfeld about inadequately armored vehicles last December. The assault on the whistle-blower Joseph Wilson - the diplomat described by the first President Bush as "courageous" and "a true American hero" for confronting Saddam to save American hostages in 1991 - was so toxic it may yet send its perpetrators to jail.

True to form, the attack on Cindy Sheehan surfaced early on Fox News, where she was immediately labeled a "crackpot" by Fred Barnes. The right-wing blogosphere quickly spread tales of her divorce, her angry Republican in-laws, her supposed political flip-flops, her incendiary sloganeering and her association with known ticket-stub-carrying attendees of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Rush Limbaugh went so far as to declare that Ms. Sheehan's "story is nothing more than forged documents, there's nothing about it that's real."

But this time the Swift Boating failed, utterly, and that failure is yet another revealing historical marker in this summer's collapse of political support for the Iraq war.

As usual Rich pulls no punches...

Read it all. It demonstrates an all to clear pattern of abuse on the part of this Administration, abuse of power, abuse of the truth, abuse of the trust of the American Public. It also demonstrates further the sense of invulnerability that this administration feels. And rightfully so. They have successfully used the same tactic again and again and again...

But as Rich says:

When the Bush mob attacks critics like Ms. Sheehan, its highest priority is to change the subject. If we talk about Richard Clarke's character, then we stop talking about the administration's pre-9/11 inattentiveness to terrorism. If Thomas Wilson is trashed as an insubordinate plant of the "liberal media," we forget the Pentagon's abysmal failure to give our troops adequate armor (a failure that persists today, eight months after he spoke up). If we focus on Joseph Wilson's wife, we lose the big picture of how the administration twisted intelligence to gin up the threat of Saddam's nonexistent W.M.D.'s.

The hope this time was that we'd change the subject to Cindy Sheehan's "wacko" rhetoric and the opportunistic left-wing groups that have attached themselves to her like barnacles. That way we would forget about her dead son. But if much of the 24/7 media has taken the bait, much of the public has not.

this time the vast majority of the American Public is NOT buying it. The very principle of repeating something often enough until it becomes truth, has backfired. The American Public has been hearing about Administration lies and manipulation for years now, and the idea is finaly starting to sink in...

The majority of Americans feel compassion for Cindy Sheehan. While her protractors are vocal, the majority see her as a Mother grieving over the loss of a son, who is entitled to her moment with the President. His fundraising, vacationing and grandstanding with Lance Armstrong have come across as callous and heartless, at the very moment when he needs to be explaining some things not only to Sheehan, but to the whole nation. Bush ran the first time as a Straight Talk candidate. Those of us who watched the campaign from the Left, never bought this in the first place, but a lot of people did. His failure to provide Americans with a straight answer on the debacle in Iraq has eroded American confidence in him, and his administration. It does not help his case when his Generals are saying one thing, His SecDef another and Vice President something entirely different altogether.

Recent poll numbers more than anything, demonstrate a lack of confidence on the part of the American Public in ANYTHING having to do with Iraq, and rightfully so...

The attacks on Sheehan have only made the matter worse. I predict that Bush will eventually meet with Sheehan, calls to do so from within his own party have made this a nearly forgone conclusion. The delays at this point are more than likely based on Karl Rove trying to determine the best way to spin a lose/lose situation for Bush.

Jack has wrote a dynamite piece on the whole Cindy Sheehan phenomenon, and frankly it is just too complex to excerpt, so I invite all of you to go check it out.

That is the sound of all those who have been denying the lies this war is based on, being beat over the head with a "truth stick!"

From Shakespear's Sister comes the latest:

Link (not blockquoted due to length):

State Department experts warned CENTCOM before Iraq war about lack of plans forpost-war Iraq security

Planning for post-Saddam regime change began as early as October 2001

Washington, D.C., August 17, 2005:

Newly declassified State Department documents show that government experts warned the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in early 2003 about "serious planning gaps for post-conflict public security and humanitarian assistance," well before Operation Iraqi Freedom began.

In a February 7, 2003, memo to Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, three senior Department officials noted CENTCOM's "focus on its primary military objectives and its reluctance to take on 'policing' roles," but warned that "a failure to address short-term public security and humanitarian assistance concerns could result in serious human rights abuses which would undermine an otherwise successful military campaign, and our reputation internationally." The memo adds "We have raised these issues with top CENTCOM officials."

By contrast, a December 2003 report to Congress, also released by the State Department, offers a relatively rosy picture of the security situation, saying U.S. forces are "increasingly successful in preventing planned hostile attacks; and in capturing former regime loyalists, would-be terrorists and planners; and seizing weapons caches." The document acknowledges that "Challenges remain."

Since then, 1,393 U.S. military fatalities have been recorded in Iraq, including two on the day the report went to Congress.

The new documents, released this month to the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act, also provide more evidence on when the Bush administration began planning for regime change in Iraq -- as early as October 2001.

Meanwhile, in Iraq.....

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi police arrested four people in connection with a string of car bombings Wednesday morning that killed at least 43 people and wounded 88 in central Baghdad, the Transportation Ministry said.

The blasts came as transitional governmental officials worked to complete a new constitution, which lawmakers hope will help produce stability in the volatile country.

The attacks began about 7:45 a.m. (11:45 p.m. ET), when a car bomb exploded outside of the al-Nahda bus terminal, police said. A second car bomb exploded about 10 minutes later.

Casualties were rushed to the al-Kindi Hospital, where a third explosion was reported a short time later.

Video from the scene showed the smoldering wreckage of a vehicle near two buses, but black smoke obscured much of the view. Iraqi police said 22 vehicles were damaged.

The "last throes," continue...

While some conservative bloggers blow sunshine up our ass... which is in and of itself amazing, considering that their own heads are up their asses. You see to them, it's all about Cindy Sheehan, the outrage of it all. Too bad they dont feel the same outrage about the bullshit that lead to Cindy being in Texas huh?

Wait NO, it was Clinton's fault!!! Everything was Clinton's fault. 9/11 was Clinton's fault... Let's just ignore the fact that it happened on Bush's watch, and that evidence has now been presented that 9/11 could have been stopped.

Read Frank Rich's column from the NY Times. It's a classic. Somehow the man manages to cover all the bases on the war in Iraq, including Cindy Sheehan's protest movement.

My favorite excerpt:

Nothing that happens on the ground in Iraq can turn around the fate of this war in America: not a shotgun constitution rushed to meet an arbitrary deadline, not another Iraqi election, not higher terrorist body counts, not another battle for Falluja (where insurgents may again regroup, The Los Angeles Times reported last week). A citizenry that was asked to accept tax cuts, not sacrifice, at the war's inception is hardly in the mood to start sacrificing now. There will be neither the volunteers nor the money required to field the wholesale additional American troops that might bolster the security situation in Iraq.

WHAT lies ahead now in Iraq instead is not victory, which Mr. Bush has never clearly defined anyway, but an exit (or triage) strategy that may echo Johnson's March 1968 plan for retreat from Vietnam: some kind of negotiations (in this case, with Sunni elements of the insurgency), followed by more inflated claims about the readiness of the local troops-in-training, whom we'll then throw to the wolves. Such an outcome may lead to even greater disaster, but this administration long ago squandered the credibility needed to make the difficult case that more human and financial resources might prevent Iraq from continuing its descent into civil war and its devolution into jihad central.

Thus the president's claim on Thursday that "no decision has been made yet" about withdrawing troops from Iraq can be taken exactly as seriously as the vice president's preceding fantasy that the insurgency is in its "last throes." The country has already made the decision for Mr. Bush. We're outta there. Now comes the hard task of identifying the leaders who can pick up the pieces of the fiasco that has made us more vulnerable, not less, to the terrorists who struck us four years ago next month.

I was not aware that one of Bush's "loyalist, Senator George Allen of Virginia, instructed the president to meet with Cindy Sheehan, the mother camping out in Crawford, as "a matter of courtesy and decency." Or, to translate his Washingtonese, as a matter of politics. Only someone as adrift from reality as Mr. Bush would need to be told that a vacationing president can't win a standoff with a grief-stricken parent commandeering TV cameras and the blogosphere 24/7."

It will be interesting to see if he takes this advice. Cindy pulled a brilliant strategic move today by inviting Bush to, "Pray with her," on Friday. For this President, who claims a lock on spirituality, that one may be even more difficult to pass up. I still have serious reservations about the Sheehan Strategy at the moment, but I have to admit I am impressed with some of the moves..

Two good rebuttals to my post on Cindy Sheehan. Like I said yesterday, I have said all I intend to say on the issue, and see nothing productive in restating my points. But I do want to answer a couple of "personal things from Dru:

David, you are totally contradicting yourself. First you call for Cindy Sheehan to pull up stakes now that she's made her point, and in the next paragraph you say that we have a short attention span and we don't stick with one thing long enough before moving on to the next.

I see no contradiction in my comments at all. What I said was it is time to take this to the next level. Cindy is now the defacto leader of a progressive movement. Bush is NOT going to meet with her. If that movement is to move forward it needs to focus on the issue, not on the protest.

Dru went on to say:

"Look, I also see sexism in what you are saying. I feel it in your comment about Rosa Parks "quietly going about her work." While that may have been well and good in Parks' time, it doesn't work now."

and

"And, by the way, why can't someone else do some other form of protest WHILE Cindy Sheehan is standing down in Texas? Do we really have to do one thing at a time? I'm still waiting for your brilliant political strategy that is going to end this." While you are typing, people ARE "moving on with action."

and

"I don't want you or anyone else out there who has an internalized, unexamined (gender) bias or agenda fucking it up."

To this I respond. I have about as much respect for a feminist who sees everyone who disagrees with them as sexist, as I do for an Afro American who sees everyone who disagrees with them as racist. I respect your support for Cindy. We probably agree on more than you think, but as long as the debate continues to be about labeling people because you don't agree with them, we will never find that common ground. Your tactic is no better than the people we are fighting against. As for my "brilliant solution," I don't have one. What I do have is my belief that division within progressive ranks over gender issues, immigration, you name the issue and there is probably division, is what has relegated us to also ran status. My parents knew Rosa Parks, and in the 70's I stood arm and arm with feminist in San Francisco and Los Angeles demanding equality for women. Despite being spiritualy against abortion, I support the right of choice for women. If you want to continue to label me, feel free, but KNOW me first.

I will not be drawn into an extended debate about Cindy Sheehan. I have said all I had to say in my first post. Agree or Dissagree and that is fine, but please don't psychoanalyze me, not unless you have a couch for me to lay on and a degree hanging on your wall qualifying you for such analysis.

I am going to fasten on the old Body Armor here, and give you my thoughts on Cindy Sheehan.

Why Body Armor? Well because I suspect that I am going to get unloaded on from my fellow Progressives. You see, while I support the concept of pressuring the President to deal with the tragedy that is Iraq, I believe Cindy's Protest has passed the point of being a legitimate voice for that challenge, and has simply become a media attraction, with all the ego that goes with it. The symbolism associated with her request to meet with Bush was appreciated. But lets face it, it was symbolism... As much as I disagree with Bush, as much as I think the war in Iraq is a sham perpetrated on the American People at great cost, as much as I believe Ms. Sheehan's grief is legitimate.... It was not realistic from the jump street to think that the President would meet with her. He would have been setting a precedent that though idealistic, is not realistic.

I have come to the conclusion that Progressives have hurt their own cause more than helped it by the form of our dissent. Rather than taking an aggressive political and legal course to address our grievances, we create circus side shows that as much alienate those who we would seek to sway, as convince anyone of the justness of our cause.

Bush's weak poll numbers and declining support among the American People, represents an opportunity we have not had in 5 years, an opportunity to present an alternative. It is my belief that we are missing the boat on that opportunity by supporting "well meaning publicity stunts," rather than presenting a strong, positive, counter position.

Ms.Sheehan deserved her moment in the Spotlight. We should be grateful that her actions helped create a national debate on Iraq and the sacrifices of our young men and women, but it is time to move on. Cindy's new found celebrity provides her credentials to be a spokesperson for the issue of Iraq, and to continue to promote discussion and debate. Time to end the spectacle and get on to the business of that debate.

UPDATE: Okay, I knew I was going to piss some people off with this post, but Dru, please don't question my support of women or imply that my position is sexist. I would feel exactly the same if Cindy was a Father. I tried to post this on your blog, but got a server error:

Dru,this has nothing to do with Putting women in their place. I supported Cindy's Protest from the beginning. But I don't believe it is accomplishing much of anything right now. It is time to take practical steps, not symbolic protest. Thanks for the link.

Now I am not going to go on infinitum clarifying my position, I wont do it for the Right, and I won't do if for my Sisters and Brothers on the Left either. I will simply state for the record, that I believe Cindy's protest has served it's purpose. It has elevated awareness of the debate over Iraq. It has exposed lies on the part of the administration, and it has personalized the conflict in a way that raw casualty numbers could not. For that alone, Cindy is a hero in my eyes. But... And it is a big But, it is time to move on with action. It is clear that Bush is NOT going to meet with her. What purpose is served by continuing what HAS become a sideshow?

The problem with us on the Left is we have a limited attention span. First there was Florida, soon forgotten, Ohio, mostly forgotten, Downing Street, Karl Rove, etc. etc. etc. Instead of coordinating our efforts and winning battles, we fight skirmishes and move on, barely making a dent in the Administration Armor. In the feeding Frenzy over Cindy's case, Karl Rove has been pushed off the front page, Downing Street is at a Dead End, and when the media grows tired of this story, they will move on. We need leadership, plans, coordinated actions and a sustained, clear message if we are going to take our country back. Cindy has the opportunity to play a leadership role in that, but in my opinion the message is being lost in the show.