Posted on 08/12/2005 12:43:42 PM PDT by mdittmar
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush got his first look at an anti-war vigil near his ranch on Friday as his motorcade took him by the protest site lined with small white crosses representing fallen American soldiers in Iraq.
When Bush's black sport utility vehicle carried him past the site to a Republican fund-raiser, the protest leader, Cindy Sheehan, whose son was one of the nearly 1,850 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, held up a sign that said: "Why do you make time for donors and not for me?"
Other signs said: "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam" and "Bring Them Home Now." Some protesters held up white crosses as well.
The protest vigil began last Saturday and is being led by Sheehan, who has been demanding a meeting with Bush to discuss her opposition to the Iraq war.
Two rows of police officers faced the estimated 50 roadside protesters as Bush's 15-vehicle motorcade cruised by without slowing down.
He was headed to Stan and Kathy Hickey's Broken Spoke Ranch for a barbecue and ribs lunch to raise more than $2 million for the Republican National Committee. The 230 people attending were among the party's biggest donors.
Hundreds of small white crosses had been erected along the side of Prairie Chapel Road, each hand-painted with the name of a fallen soldier.
Sheehan's son, Casey, was killed in combat in Iraq in April 2004 and she met with Bush in June 2004, but she wants another meeting. The White House has refused.
With Americans increasingly questioning the U.S. involvement in Iraq, Bush tried to address Sheehan's concerns on Thursday.
"Listen, I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan," Bush told reporters. "She feels strongly about her position. And she has every right in the world to say what she believes. This is America."
He said he has thought "long and hard" about her demand to "get out of Iraq now" and strongly disagreed, saying a premature withdrawal would betray the Iraqis just as they are being trained to defend themselves and allow for a U.S. pullout.
Sheehan's group, Gold Star Families for Peace, released a protest ad that the organization said would run on cable television channels near Bush's ranch during August.
"Mr. President, I want to tell you face to face how much this hurts. I love my country, but how many more of our loved ones need to die in this senseless war? How many more soldiers have to die before we say enough?" she said in the ad.
The total ad buy was put at $15,000.
All this hullabaloo over only 50 protesters?
Reauters is a sorry and hurting bunch. This story is a perfect example why.
As opposed to the thousands who always showed up to FReep the `toon? </sarcasm>
On CNN now
They did not have an important tool that we are fortunate to have today. Free Republic :-)
For that reason the Heart of Texas FR chapter is sponsoring a rally in Crawford. Noon Saturday. 4th and Chisom (in the park near there at least), they have a permit.
Any word on how many FReepers are going to show up?
All this hoo-ha over 50 protesters?
How many FReepers usually showed up to protest the `toon while he was in office?
Why hasn't the ACLU tried to make them take down the crosses /sarc/
Here's a nice little bit of class warfare.
***...Decker and Strause say they expect to stay the full five weeks that Bush is on vacation. They both said they expect to suffer financially. Strause and her fiance recently bought a house and "our credit card bills are chock-full right now."
"It'll be a crunch," she said. "I'm not a trust-fund baby or anything like that." ...***
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050810-9999-1m10protest.html
As opposed to the thousands who always showed up to FReep the `toon?
Straw man anyone?
I have never heard of a FreeRepublic event that claimed "thousands".
YUP, and now the photographic evidence has found:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1462239/posts
Are Cindy's pants on fire?
No, she is undoubtably glad she lives in a country where she can bad mouth the men and women who assure her the right to blame the President fo her sons death.
I just wonder if she realizes what would happen to her if she tried a similar protest in an Islamic nation against the mullahs who sent Muslim boys to murder Iraqi civilions and her son?
fo=for. Proofread twice, post once.
Cindy Sheehan has run smack dab into common liberal cognitive dissonance. To many liberals, conservatives don't just disagree with them, they are evil. So when a liberal has someone they love turn who is conservative, as her patriotic hero son was, she has a problem with her worldview: either her son is evil or he was mightily deluded. To preserve her own worldview, she has to believe her son was deluded. Too bad. It keeps her from honoring the real person her son was during his life. And it keeps her from working through her grief by honoring his life. Sad all around.
Problem is, with it being so small, she could deny it all day. I understand the full size photo's are no longer available.
50
5-0!
What a NON-story!
Sheesh! 50 frickin nuts and Reuters does a story of several paragraphs?
Do these people have no shame? Must they always use the fallen to advance their cause? The fact that they do this should tell us all that their ideas have no merit on their own.
Nor did they ever get 0.001% of the media attention mzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeehan is getting.
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