Mother's Protest at Bush's Doorstep Raises the Stakes

[Generic Other]

Mother's Protest at Bush's Doorstep Raises the Stakes
By Edwin Chen and Dana Calvo
The Los Angeles Times
Thursday 11 August 2005

Crawford, Texas - For more than a year, a modest bungalow known as "Peace House," located a few miles from President Bush's ranch, has served as a headquarters for antiwar activists. It is lonely work, with little more than a skeleton crew on hand much of the time.

But then Cindy Sheehan hit town.

The 48-year-old mother of Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, who was killed in an ambush in Baghdad last year, is consumed by the kind of grief that turns into a furious determination to do something - in her case, to confront the president and force him to explain why her son died.

Now, in the space of just a few days, what started out as a seemingly quixotic personal mission has become something of a phenomenon - with media swarming around Sheehan, leading liberal and antiwar activists parachuting in to try to make her their long-sought voice, and political experts in both parties working to assess what role she may have in galvanizing the public's gathering unhappiness with the increasing American casualties in Iraq.

Antiwar leaders hope that putting the spotlight on Sheehan will motivate Americans who oppose the war, creating a political force strong enough to compel the Bush administration to change course.

MoveOn.org and other liberal groups have rushed to provide support, offering media expertise and attempting to assemble a corps of others who have lost relatives in Iraq or have family members serving there.

Liberal voices have swung into action on the Internet as well. On Wednesday, Democratic media consultant Joe Trippi organized a conference call with Sheehan for bloggers, aiming to garner more publicity. By Wednesday afternoon, "Cindy Sheehan" was the top-ranked search term on Technorati.com, the search engine for blog postings.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081105I.shtml

[Journeyman]

1. Notice how disgust with the war is reduced to. . .

"gathering unhappiness with the increasing American casualties." It's as if the lies and deceptions, the manufactured evidence and the bogus rationales play no part in the gathering storm -- even though the core opposition has always detested it, and Cindy Sheehan herself has claimed it as the major impetus behind her protest and the driving force for her resolve.

[Generic Other]

2. We are used to plain speaking

They have to qualify and load up every noun with as many negative adjectives as possible.

But the news is getting out! Good, bad or indifferent.

[cliss]

3. Here's hoping...

The hopes and fears of an entire generation are riding on her. If you analyze it, Bush has met his match. He can hide in his ranch, but she's promised to follow him to Washington if he won't speak to her.

The big difference here, is Cindy has accepted that she might go to jail. Bush the worm doesn't have that kind of determination.