Cindy Sheehan Arrested by Capitol Police

[angel_of_L.A.]

i have such mixed feelings on Ms. Sheehan.

i admire her chutzpah, i admire her being a pain in the ass of W, i admire how silly and stupid she made him look while camped out last summer, i admire her willingness to take her son's death and transform it into something that she sees as positive and worthwhile, i admire the moral authority she does have as a mother who has lost a child in battle, i admire her basic pretext -- the war is a big fucking mistake and people are dying for bad reasons -- and i admire her willingness to stick her neck out.

however, i wish the woman had more tact, and frankly, a more nuanced understanding of world events and the iraq war. her whole, "i'm a mother, so i'm speaking as a mother" gets old and increasingly transparent when you realize how unsophistocated her political stance is.

she also needs better handlers.

what would have been more effective would have been for her not to be a t-shirt, but for her to sit silently, not clapping, stone-faced, when ever Bush said anything, especially pertaining to Iraq. that would have been a much more trenchant image, and the media would have kept cutting to her, allowing her, through sielnce, to effectively undermine the president's steaming pile of verbal horseshit.

so sad she botched it up. again. and has made herself into a clown, an easy pinata for the right wing -- who obviously have no problems mocking the mother of a dead soldier.

Nicely put. I admire her but someone needs to explain to her how politics and most importantly, how public relations function.

 

[deep]

Do you really think those are her own words. Irvine spoke of her needing better handlers. I'm sure people working with MichaelMoore.com would be happy to help.

Maybe Sean Hannity will donate some space on his server for her blog?

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

WASHINGTON - Charges against antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan, who was arrested after a scuffle over 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.

“We screwed up,” a top Capitol Police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said Sheehan didn't violate any rules or laws.

Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq, was not the only one ejected from the House gallery. The wife of a powerful Republican congressman was also asked to leave, but she was not arrested.

Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Florida — chairman of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee — was removed from the gallery because she was wearing a T-shirt that read, “Support the Troops — Defending Our Freedom.”

The Capitol Police official said officers never should have approached Young.

Criticism from Rep. Young

Holding up the shirt his wife wore, Rep. Young said on the House floor Wednesday morning: “Because she had on a shirt that someone didn’t like that said support our troops, she was kicked out of this gallery.”

“Shame, shame,” he scolded.

Beverly Young was sitting about six rows from first lady Laura Bush and asked to leave. She argued with police in the hallway outside the House chamber.

“They said I was protesting,” she told the St. Petersburg Times. “I said, ‘Read my shirt, it is not a protest.’ They said, ‘We consider that a protest.’ I said, ‘Then you are an idiot.”’

They told her she was being treated the same as Sheehan, who was ejected before the speech. Sheehan had wrote in her blog Wednesday that she intended to file a First Amendment lawsuit.

She did not issue an immediate response to the charges being dropped.

“I don’t want to live in a country that prohibits any person, whether he/she has paid the ultimate price for that country, from wearing, saying, writing, or telephoning any negative statements about the government,” Sheehan wrote in her blog.

Sheehan was invited as a guest of Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif. She later was released on her own recognizance.

Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said police warned Sheehan that such displays were not allowed in the House chamber, but Sheehan did not respond.

Sheehan uncomfortable going to speech
She said she felt uncomfortable about attending the speech.

“I knew George Bush would say things that would hurt me and anger me and I knew that I couldn’t disrupt the address because Lynn had given me the ticket,” Sheehan wrote. “I didn’t want to be disruptive out of respect for her.”

She said she had one arm out of her coat when an officer yelled, “Protester.”

“He then ran over to me, hauled me out of my seat and roughly (with my hands behind my back) shoved me up the stairs,” she wrote in her blog. She was then cuffed and driven to police headquarters a few blocks away.

“I was never told that I couldn’t wear that shirt into the Congress,” Sheehan wrote. “I was never asked to take it off or zip my jacket back up. If I had been asked to do any of those things. ... I would have, and written about the suppression of my freedom of speech later.”


The Associated Press and NBC News contributed to this report.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Hmm..


http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20...qzgWeKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWFzYnA2BHNlYwM3NDI-

Fox News says a new provision slipped into the Patriot Act by Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican, would give the
Secret Service virtually unchecked authority to make felony arrests of demonstrators inside a security perimeter at any "special event of national significance,'' even when the star of the show -- like Bush or Cheney -- isn't present. This would apply at any designated ``National Security Special Events,'' even when the president is dead
{Ronald Reagan's funeral procession] or not there [the Super Bowl.] What as once ranked as misdemeanor trespassing would be elevated to a federal felony.

 

[Irvine511]

Hmm..


http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20...qzgWeKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWFzYnA2BHNlYwM3NDI-

Fox News says a new provision slipped into the Patriot Act by Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican, would give the
Secret Service virtually unchecked authority to make felony arrests of demonstrators inside a security perimeter at any "special event of national significance,'' even when the star of the show -- like Bush or Cheney -- isn't present. This would apply at any designated ``National Security Special Events,'' even when the president is dead
{Ronald Reagan's funeral procession] or not there [the Super Bowl.] What as once ranked as misdemeanor trespassing would be elevated to a federal felony.

what did Antiram compare the SOTU speech to? was it Stalin?

how lovely: now that we've won the Cold War, we're turning into our enemies.

surveillance. intimidation of the media. opposition framed as treason. what once was protest is now a crime.

 

[deep]

a middleage woman gets arrested for wearing a t-shirt


yep, freedom is on the march

and how many

just follow along and say

seems reasonable to me.

 

[enggirl]

Hmm..


http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20...qzgWeKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWFzYnA2BHNlYwM3NDI-

Fox News says a new provision slipped into the Patriot Act by Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican, would give the
Secret Service virtually unchecked authority to make felony arrests of demonstrators inside a security perimeter at any "special event of national significance,'' even when the star of the show -- like Bush or Cheney -- isn't present. This would apply at any designated ``National Security Special Events,'' even when the president is dead
{Ronald Reagan's funeral procession] or not there [the Super Bowl.] What as once ranked as misdemeanor trespassing would be elevated to a federal felony.

Sheesh...
so how is this basically any different than what happens to people who speak out against the gov't in those countries that our "leader" has deemed part of the "axis of evil"? Sure, you can say what you want inside your own home...but you'd better watch yourself in public or Whammo!
Hmmm..."demonstrators" is a pretty broad term. Isn't painting your face and waving a foam finger in the air at the Super Bowl demonstrating for your sport team. Is it only OK if the political person/star of the show is a fan of that team, too? Will flying Gators colors at a Seminole game get you arrested? (yes, sarcasm...but think of it in these terms and you see how ridiculous and far-reaching these rules are getting).

 

[deep]

"Let us never forget the sacrifices of America's military families." (Applause.) -- George W. Bush, State of the Union,

Jan. 31, 2006