Sheehan Departs Crawford, Vows Something

Gold Star mother and leftist flavor-of-the-month Cindy Sheehan has left her ’60s reenactment in Crawford, Texas, hitting the road in an effort get the U.S. out of Iraq, meet (again) with the president, cry in front of more cameras and generally meander her way towards either a future as an obscure answer in a future Trivial Pursuit question or a train wreck before the public eye. In my opinion, had the journalistic treatment of the Sheehan matter been handled in a professional and balanced manner, the latter would have already taken place.

Sheehan, war protesters leave Texas camp

After a 26-day vigil that ignited the anti-war movement, Cindy Sheehan took her protest on the road Wednesday, while a handful of veterans pledged to continue camping off the road leading to President Bush’s ranch until the war in Iraq ends.

Rather than heading home to California, the mother of a 24-year-old soldier who died in Iraq boarded one of three buses heading out on tour to spread her message.

“This is where I’m going to spend every August from now on,” Sheehan said as she smiled and waved through a bus window, after hugging dozens of fellow protesters.

The group plans to stop in 25 states during the next three weeks, then take Sheehan’s “Bring Them Home Now Tour” to the nation’s capital for a Sept. 24 anti-war march.

It should be noted that, among these many stops, Cindy’s presence is expected at a protest of the Navy’s Blue Angels in Maine, a protest with the ridiculous theme “Stop the Worship of the Gods of War!”

to protest the false god idolatry of the Blue Angels Air Show, whose “ooh-&-aah”performances have one purpose: to promote badly-lagging military recruitment to protest the obscene waste of American tax dollars to stage these Blue Angels’ multi-million dollar extravaganzas [bolded text marked in original by underline]

No explanation of performances by the Blue Angels during healthy recruiting periods is given, nor the fact that the Navy is not suffering in enlistment numbers. Apparently, worshiping at the altar of Ares is reason enough to hate an air show.

Also, a poll has been released that shows the American public mildly supports the supposed cause of Cindy Sheehan, a meeting with the president.

Poll: Bush, protester should meet on war

Slightly more than half of the country says President Bush should meet with Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed last year in Iraq, who is leading a protest against the war outside Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found that 52 percent of the public says Bush should talk to Sheehan, who has repeatedly asked for a meeting with the president, while 46 percent said he should not. Fifty-three percent support what she is doing while 42 percent oppose her actions, according to the poll.

[…]

But the survey also suggests Sheehan’s anti-war vigil has done as much to drive up support for the war as ignite opponents.

Given my already stated belief that the mainstream media has generally failed drastically in its coverage of Cindy’s circus, I would like to see a poll with the following questions:

• Should President Bush meet with Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan?
• Are you aware that President Bush has already met with Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan?
• Are you aware that Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan has lied by giving two irreconcilable versions of that meeting?
• Are you aware that Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan apparently lied about the original contents of an email she wrote to ABC News?
• Are you familiar with any statements by Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan regarding Israel?
• Should our foreign policy be decided by a vote of all Gold Star parents, including Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan, a.k.a. Mother Sheehan?
• Does the phrase “Able Danger” ring any bells?

Meanwhile, here’s a column that demonstrates that not all in the journalism field have been chugging the Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan-flavored Kool-Aid and that her fifteen minutes may be about gone. I particularly liked the following:

When Cindy Sheehan knelt to place flowers on her son’s grave, alone with her pain, she was a sympathetic character whose loss would break a million hearts. When Cindy Sheehan knelt to place flowers next to a stage-prop cross erected for Nikons and networks in Crawford, she was an actress studiously performing for an audience that may easily find other places for their sympathies to repose.

Her supporting cast did her no favors by layering cliches onto what already was becoming a tired script, beginning with–fire up your bongs–Joan Baez.

Having Baez show up for a war protest is like having Oprah show up at a Weight Watchers meeting. You get instant bona fides along with your gratification. With Baez, you get to bask in the real thing–a been-there, done-that star straight from the annals of anger. Speaking to a crowd of about 500, Baez said: “It was the final tear for the overflow and you can’t stop running water. Cindy’s was the final tear.”

Whatever that means. I think something sad and poignant. In any case, Baez’s folk singerese seems an improvement over her declamations at a concert last year in Charlottesville, Va., where Baez revealed that she has “multiple personalities,” including a 15-year-old poor black girl named Alice from Turkey Scratch, Ark.

Tick … tick … tick … tick …