Because I am feeling nostalgic today, a Sheehan post:
Well, the cat got out of the bag early as they so often will do. I was going to announce on July 10th (my 50th birthday) before our Journey for Humanity that I would run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) if she didn’t put impeachment back on the table before our tour reached DC on July 23rd. Impeachment was never hers to take off the table as it is a Constitutional remedy for BushCo, not an optional smorgasbord choice. However, the story was leaked to the AP and we couldn’t keep the big announcement under wrap
The feedback I have been receiving since then has been about three to one positive and supportive. Some people have offered to quit their jobs to move to California’s 8th to help my possible campaign. People are lining up to donate and help and I am again very grateful and touched beyond belief by the generosity and energy of my fellow Americans.
I truly understand the not so supportive people, though, because I have been in their shoes. Here in the USA most of us put our faith in a two-party system that has failed peace and justice consistently and repeatedly. The Republicans do not have a monopoly on the culture of corruption (although BushCo have elevated it to policy status) and the way we do politics in this country needs a serious shake up when all we the people are getting is a shake down. I was frightened out of ever voting for a third party, or independent candidate, but voting out of fear is one of the things that bestowed the Bush Crime Mob upon us and may give us the Republican in actuality, if not in name, Hillary Clinton.
Y’all created this monster, giving her the ABSOLUTE MORAL AUTHORITY to say whatever she wanted, regardless how ridiculous it was, so have fun with her. Now she is IN UR BASE AND KILLING UR D00Dz! Good luck.
I honestly was hoping the poor woman would just go home and try to put back together her life, but maybe this sort of outburst helps to keep her from thinking about her losses. On the upside, maybe she will finally pressure the majority party into demonstrating a little spine.
ThymeZone
Asinine spoof is not really your best look, John.
That’s what you have commenters for.
I might be the strongest Sheehan defender on the board. I don’t know of anyone granting her — or anyone — absolute moral authority for anything. My posts mostly suggested that you were an ass for making gratuitous fun of her, a criticism which I am happy to reprise today, because it’s still true.
Tax Analyst
So then I guess it’s not true that you are going to serve as her Campaign Chairman…j/k, and I DO remember your sincere wish that CS go home and try to attend to her very real wounds from losing her son.
I doubt Pelosi is in much danger of losing her seat, but even a 10 or 15% vote for Sheehan would amount to a big finger in her eye.
demimondian
Phooey, TZ. She’s a self-pitying narcissist. She may once have actually had a selfless basis for her behavior, but it’s long since degenerated into self-serving posturing.
I believe in puncturing *that* as often as possible. Present company excluded, of course.
ThymeZone
Well good for you. I believe you’re an ass.
Cindy Sheehan had the guts to stand up to Bushwar when few other people did.
Between you and her, I’d pick her any time.
ThymeZone
Oh yes, democracy is very cruel. Why we picked it over kings, is beyond me.
Pb
She started quite the firestorm over on Daily Kos–she may have inadvertently broken some of the (written or unwritten) FAQ rules over there that some hold so dear, poking ever more sacred cows as she goes. Will Daily Kos ban Cindy Sheehan? Film at 11!
The Kid
deminondian
I am no big Cindy Sheehan fan, but until the day when you lose a child for our country, you have no right to open your half wit yap and criticize her as a “self-pitying narcissist.”
Andrew
I believe that Cindy went a bit loopy after Cole spurned her for another helping of Hola Fruta.
Fledermaus
Look, John. None of us really care what she says at this point. She made a good point with camping out at Crawford. But she’s not going to be running for dogcatcher, let alone congress. Top dems are not going to go give exclusive interviews like Cheney does with Rush Limabugh. It’s the Ward Churchill syndrome where some nobody says somthing stupid and all of a sudden the shrieking harpies on the right start shrieking that this nobody is the real the Ubermaster of the Democratic Party, against all reason and common sense.
John you just have to deal with the fact that stupid people say stupid things all the time. Basing your political leaning on the fact that stupid nobodys are saying stupid things is part of how we got into this mess in the first place.
jh
I’m sorry John, but isn’t Sheehan doing what citizens are supposed to do when faced with a situation they find untenable?
Organize others to a popular cause and failing to get our elected representatives to pay attention, run for office themselves?
All this talk of us kwazy libruls granting her “absolute moral authority” (presumably with a hash pipe *ahem* I mean scepter) and her petty narcissism (name anyone in public office right now who isn’t a petty narcissist) makes you look…..toolish.
Cripes.
Dreggas
Oh boy…what did she do? I know I got flamed hard for calling Hugo Chavez for what he was, a dictator. But here’s a sacred cow herself going after sacred cows?
Tax Analyst
Well, I didn’t say whether I thought that a good thing or a bad thing. And I’m not sure, really. Do the Democrats need a push? I’d say “Yes” to that. Would Cindy Sheehan do a good job in the House? Who knows? I have some doubts about that, but I’m not in the 8th district.
Oh, the “Kings” thing…I may be mistaken, but it has seemed to me for many years that an awful lot of Americans secretly (or not so secretly) seem to crave a Monarchy, although maybe watching Busho the clown parade around and fuck things up for 6 1/2 years may have disabused some of the notion.
Me? I find it appalling.
Tax Analyst
The hamburger patties are flyin’
jenniebee
Are you fucking kidding me with that shit? The Constitution gave her the right to say whatever she wants regardless of how ridiculous it is. Some of the things she says are pretty stupid, but thank God I belong to a political coalition that believes that no “on message” demagoguery or Holy Aura of Unquestionability or any other such “don’t doubt the preznit 9-11” horseshit is necessary to be given a hearing: the First Amendment is moral authority enow.
Get a clue, John: the only thing that keeps most liberals from lambasting the Democratic party and everybody in it non-stop is that we’re too busy being aghast at what Republicans are up to.
Jake
Strange, I feel the same way about people who voted for Bush43.
Of course some people might point out that it is silly to compare an individual citizen who protests something and says ridiculous things to an elected official who couldn’t tell the truth if you used X-Treeme Nterogation measures on him and says ridiclous things like “We gone invade Eye-Rack ya’ll!” But what do I know?
She’ll have to work hard to catch up with the President.
chopper
as much as she makes an interesting, if polarizing, public figure with something important to say buried deep within the whirling fury of political discourse spinning around her, i really don’t envision her being an effective elected representative.
that sounds blatantly un-american to me. what you’re supposed to do is bitch about things on your blog. leaving the basement is a big no-no.
tBone
I’ve had a bag of popcorn on reserve all day in anticipation of this thread.
Carry on.
Pb
Dreggas,
She announced that she’s running against a Democrat as an Independent on Daily Kos. And then she talked some trash about the Democratic party:
demimondian
Forgive me, Kid, but democracy is all about calling a spade a spade. Sheehan is a self-indulgent, posturing, demagogue. Don’t like me saying that? Cool — don’t try to shut me up by threatening me or out moralizing me, prove your point.
ThymeZone
Blessed are the Stupid, for they shall inherit Bushworld.
My money is on the non-stupid. Like the tortoise, we just keep plodding along ….. and win.
Blondie
John,
First, what The Kid says. Second, in the immortal words of Tonto, “what do you mean ‘we’ white man?” I have the deepest sympathy for Cindy Sheehan, and wouldn’t at all be surprised if losing one’s child could cause someone to throw a nutty and never recover, but that having been said, please name me one mainstream liberal who has designated her as a party standard bearer. You can’t because it hasn’t happened. So, does it offend us (and by ‘us’ I mean those of us with a functioning sense of humanity) when a grieving mother is openly mocked and derided? Yes. Does that also mean all liberals think that she walks on water? The answer is a resounding: NO. Quite frankly these kinds of antics make me cringe, because all she is doing is making herself a target for every right wing nutjob with a microphone or a website.
ThymeZone
Ass. Nobody cares that you say it. They just care that you’re wrong.
The argument has been made numerous times here in the last two years. I think all minds are made up. I’m quite content to let it rest where it is. Sheehan is a hero, and you are a failed commenter on an obscure blog.
Questions?
jrg
OMG Thank you! Finally someone with courage to criticize this ghastly woman, and others like her! I’ve been saying for years: “why do those MADD ex-mothers just STFU about drunk driving”? If I want to drive shitfaced, it’s my right as an American.
No uppity housewife has any business getting in my face. So you lost a child due to an idiotic war or a drunk driver? BFD. Get back in the kitchen, and make me some pie.
demimondian
You’re absolutely right — it’s terrible when a grieving mother is openly mocked and derided.
The reason that I do after Ms. Sheehan is that I believe that — and I believe that her behavior is grossly disrespectful to the thousands of grieving mothers that the Iraq war has already left behind. I used to believe that Ms. Sheehan is among their number, and I no longer do.
Jake
Fixed.
scav
And remaining silent in the face of an unjust war that has killed you own and is killing other children is somehow respectful of Motherhood? Please.
ThymeZone
That’s not just backasswards wrong, it’s bizarre.
It’s what a wag called, the other day in reference to a Bush speech, “inversion.” Turning a thing upside down, saying the exact opposite of the truth.
The truth is that standing out there in the sun and yelling “Stop this war” is by far the most respectful thing she could possibly do. You’re the kind of guy who would drive by and go, “Tsk tsk, how unseemly!”
Yes, it’s unseemly alright. I wish I had the nerve to be that unseemly. A little more unseemly behavior might have kept us out of this fucking train wreck in the first place.
scav
Shut up, hide the corpses, hide the coffins, don’t visit funerals, hide the grieving mothers and children and fathers and families and Just all Shut Up and be Respective and Seemly and “Heal” yourself in the way we deem appropriate. OK, got the message. ppppfft.
Psycheout
Ha ha lefties! When John Cole is right, he’s right. I think Mark Noonan also sums it up pretty well: Kook Left Attacked By Kookier Left!
carpeicthus
I’m just amused that someone high-profile is going to run to the left of Pelosi, making Nancy, by standard media rules, a moderate.
Dreggas
PB,
Just read what she posted, yeah she’s a fucking nutjob alright. Sorry, flame away but with what she posted she just removed all doubt that it’s no longer about grief for her son but about her and her organization. She’s gone completely off into Nader territory. Not that I had much respect for her after her little meating with Hugo Chavez to begin with but…well…not much else to say the Kossacks seem to be hammering her in spades.
scav
So? Being a nutjob hasn’t slowed down any high-profile R candidates in the current crop. Or Third Party candidates throughout the millenia I remember.
Cain
I fail to see why Cindy would make a good legislator. She’s a one issue candidate. She should stick to peace activism because I’m not sure if she knows the ins and outs of dealing with domestic affairs.
It is a useless threat to get Pelosi to put articles of impeachment on the table. Articles that won’t fly because we don’t have the votes to do it. It’ll make great theater but it’s not going to fly considering Senate republicans are as culpable as the president is on the whole sordid 8 year mess.
cain
Pb
Dreggas,
I think she’s always been a bit nutty (and who isn’t), but:
I don’t necessarily buy that, and I doubt you can substantiate your claim either, so why even say it?
Davebo
Err.. Perfessor Cole. Do you really think this is a wise tactic?
You know, considering that monster you helped create, cheered for, and called anyone who disagreed a traitor?
Did Goldstien slap his cock against your face until you relented and gave him your word press login info?
Fed up!
Sheehan is kind of like Tom DeLay in a way. Both will do and say stupid things too keep them from sliding into oblivion and irrelevancy.
Tsulagi
ANOTHER link to a Cindy diary on DKos? Sweet Jesus, make it stop.
You just knew when she said she was going to take her ball and go home because not enough people worshipped appreciated her on Memorial Day that wasn’t going to happen. So it seems Cindy has now been coaxed out of her fifteen minutes of retirement by her adoring acolytes to restore balance to the universe…
Okay, Pelosi, you got two weeks to get it done. If not, the Independent Party of Cindy will be on your ass like unwiped shit on a hippie. The Cindyator will take you down and your seat too.
I skimmed some of the rabid Cindyfan comments in this diary and one posted yesterday on DKos by an Iraq vet. Some of them are truly amazing. They’re the left’s 28%ers. Hopefully that percentage is way less.
But at least the Dems can say they didn’t elect this twit as president. She and the other Decider bringing order to the universe share the same narcissistic megalomaniac personality traits. Will say, though, that’s she’s not as stupid or incompetent as the Republican standard bearer. Hail Cindy!
sglover
I’m lukewarm to Sheehan, but she’s absolutely right — no way in hell should impeachment be “off the table”. Claiming that it is is the worst kind of Democratic finger-in-the-wind pussyfooting. More than that, it’s yet another profound abdications of Constitutional responsibilities. I swear to God, I think a substantial fraction of Congressional Dems are perfectly content to let the Bush regime inflict still *more* disasters on us, simply so that they’ll have an easy target to run against in ’08.
Fledermaus
That’s because these days your average GOP supporter is batshit insane.
Zifnab
She’s kinda sorta got a point. I mean, if you want to be fair then yes, Democrats aren’t Saints. It would just be nice if she didn’t try to point out America’s faults while giving Mr. Chavez a hug or extolling the virtues of Castro’s Cuba.
In the end, though, the Republicans have proven that having crazy wackos on your side isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Because – for reasons that boggle my mind – people empathize with crazy wackos. People listen to them. When Bill Kristol gets up beside Paul Wolfowitz and starts talking about how those evil Muslims are going to butcher us in our sleep while the Democrats praise them of it, we need a little old lady from Texas to start screaming about how George Bush is having satan’s love fetus. Because people will listen to her. And believe her. And, although it makes me cry inside, its good to see those crazy people pushing back against the other crazy people until, heaven help us, we meet somewhere in the middle just to get away from all the crazy people.
ThymeZone
Mmm, no, from what I see, in the nuttiness contest between Cindy and DKos, I would say that DKos is winning. A mean spirited and intolerant mob mentality exists there, as it does here at times. The “left” is quite capable of acting like … and being … a bunch of dogmatic shitheads whenever it’s convenient or when doing otherwise would require any actual work.
I came to political blogs via the DKos doorway and sang its praises for a long time. I am now at the point where I think the whole concept is at a crossroads. Nothing collapses as fast as overwrought populism, populism without principle or good leadership. Without those things, populism is just mob behavior.
If there is such a thing as true populism, Sheehan embodies it AFAIC. As I have said on this subject from my first post on the subject a couple years ago, citizenship does not require charisma, attractiveness, an articulate voice, political adriotness, congeniality, or even being right. It really starts with just standing up. That’s it, that’s the entry fee. Just the act of standing up.
She stood up. That’s it, end of story. She passed the test.
There are too many people on the Tubes, and right here, who think it is clever to say how stupid other people look or talk. Sooner or later, being human, everyone says or does something stupid. That’s when the mob will bray, “See? I told you he was stupid!”
Yeah, I don’t have a lot of respect for that. How many potential citizens sit on their hands because they might be afraid of looking stupid? Who knows? But it’s easy to count the braying jackasses who will hurry over to say how stupid someone looks when they do get up the nerve to stand up. You don’t have to look far, here, or at DKos, to find them. They aren’t all Republicans.
Dreggas
Pb,
Sorry but given her ranting against the democratic party and how if Pelosi doesn’t due what Sheehan wants because Sheehan says to do it then she’s going to run against her as some sort of threat and to write the diary as she did basically pulling a Nader I don’t see how it can be about anything but her. I feel bad she lost her son, I feel bad for the other 3800 (i believe it’s up there now) families who lost their sons and daughters. However there’s not a single mention of her son in her speech, no it’s more of an attack on anyone and everyone who’s a democrat.
So no I don’t think it’s about her son anymore, after all had it been about her son she wouldn’t have wrote a woe is me letter and “left the movement” only to return not too long later declaring a run for office and excoriating, of all things, income taxes (something the righties must love).
semper fubar
Y’all created this monster, giving her the ABSOLUTE MORAL AUTHORITY to say whatever she wanted, regardless how ridiculous it was, so have fun with her. Now she is IN UR BASE AND KILLING UR D00Dz! Good luck.
Funny, from a guy whose party includes Goerge Bush (leader) Cheney (Vice leader) DeLay, Abramoff, Tancredo, Imhofe, Stevens, Gonzales, Rice, Falwell, Dobson, Limbaugh, Coulter, Wolfowitz, Perle, Libby, Santorum… christ, it would take me all day to list all the ignoramuses, asswipes and criminals who are the leading lights of YOUR political party.
ThymeZone
Had to read it twice to make sure I didn’t misunderstand it.
That might be the most anti-democratic (small d) thing I ever read here, and that, compadre, is really saying something.
The idea that a person with no particular political future is off the track for threatening to run for office!
Wow. This is truly a day for the archives here.
King George III is surely laughing his ass off somewhere.
semper fubar
So no I don’t think it’s about her son anymore
Why does it have to be about her son? Maybe she’s just real pissed off at what she sees going on around her. A lot of us are, y’know.
Pb
Dreggas,
I see no reason to believe that her motivations or goals have changed–she still wants to stop the war, she’s still fighting against the President who won’t stop the war, and she’s still challenging the establishment to do it. However, now the Democrats are in the majority, and perhaps more than anyone else, Nancy Pelosi does have the power to push for impeachment, to push for de-funding or de-authorizing the war, etc. So is it any real surprise that Cindy Sheehan is targeting her now as well?
And yes, it must be her brief mention of income taxes that tipped you off to how she’s forgotten about her dead son–bully for you for that sharp observation.
melonhead
John, John, John,
Just when I thought there was hope for you!
Dreggas
Nope Like I said she can run all she wants, I just happen to call bullshit on nearly everything she wrote about her reasons, Dem’s started all the wars in the 20th century? We should get rid of the income tax? Give me a fucking break.
Sure she can run for office, like I said anyone who wants to can, but from her little spiel she ain’t running because of what happened to her son she’s swallowed the entire “America is the big bad guy no matter what party is running the show” pill. The dems aren’t saints but they sure as hell aren’t batting what the republicans are when it comes to fucking up the world.
sglover
Put another way, if the criterion for political action is, “How does this affect ME, directly?”, we’d all better hand in our voter registration cards right now. Whatever one thinks of Sheehan, it’s idiotic to blast her because her comments have moved beyond the topic of her personal loss.
Fledermaus
Yep, Nader was handing those out by the handful in 2000. I hope most of us have learned that particular lesson.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
If Cindy were a true moonbat patriot, she wouldn’t run against Pelosi. She’d just attempt to murder her.
It is the BDS way, after all.
scav
Y’all is damn straight, Y’all being all us’uns, those We The People of that there struggling Constitution we’ve been toting ’round lo these many years. Or does this deal not apply to nutcases, whack-jobs, moonbats, freepers, inappropriate grievers, those with differing opinions about the best tactics to achieve goals and other riff-raff? I really don’t know, I haven’t read the fine print recently and with all those signing statements recently……
capelza
Damn it is such a pain to read KOS for me anymore, I have to switch browers and such crap…though I haven’t missed it much. I can read the front page easliy and that’s all I want anyway. The drama in the diaries is too much for me.
Wow…I am so torn in some ways. She was right to stand up to Bush on the war, when it wasn’t popular. And she does indeed have the right to run for office.
But, that said, one of the comment said something about the “Crazy Lady Party” and I do agree. Rambling in grief is one thing, rambling as your political maifesto is a whole other thang.
tBone
Sure you want to go down that road, EEEL? Because I think I see Timothy McVeigh waving at you. Idiot.
Pb
Wooo, EEEL jumps the shark yet again. Nice job there making shit up that isn’t in the story at all, porkchop.
Perry Como
Or how about some good ol’ sectarian violence in Texas. Onward Christian Soldiers…
Sirkowski
She’s right about the failures of the two party system.
Zifnab
No kidding. If I see one more “I don’t mean to be alarmist but… !!!!!!!”, I’m going to black out the right side of my monitor.
She totally has the right to run for office. Just like Ralph Nader. She totally has the right to be the “spoiler candidate” and screw over her closest ideologies, just like Rose Perot. I totally have the right to not vote for her wacky ass. I mean, its good she stood up to Bush and for that reason she’ll always have a place on the stage of the anti-war movement. And its good she wants the war to end, and is fighting to make it happen. But you can’t run around blaming Nancy Pelosi for dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima. And you can’t give Hugo Chavez a huge, while calling George Bush a bully and a butcher. Because then you’re just being ignorant. Conservative-style ignorant.
demimondian
‘cuz nothing says “God is Love” like bombing a funeral
John Cole
A huge what?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Dreggas
Let’s not forget when she runs and if she wins Bush’ll be out of office so she’ll be running on the issue of impeachment (which i still hope happens) which won’t only be off the table at that point but in the trash can to boot. That is unless bush declares himself emperor at which point elections don’t really matter and people start a revolt.
Dreggas
BWAHAHAHAAHAHA
ok that is just too damn funny. A radical christian group that believes in free thought? 3 levels of involvement being bible study, fighting and destructive acts?
The first rule of church club: Don’t talk about church club.
chopper
from perry’s link…
damn stupid people, trying to better themselves…
Brian
“and the way we do politics in this country needs a serious shake up when all we the people are getting is a shake down. I was frightened out of ever voting for a third party, or independent candidate, but voting out of fear is one of the things that bestowed the Bush Crime Mob upon us and may give us the Republican in actuality, if not in name, Hillary Clinton.”
Sounds pretty sane to me. Does she have a chance? Nah. But that’s not a positive aspect of our current system-it’s proof of how broken it is.
As for Chavez-sure he’s a nutty dictator. But, you know what, the people “we’ve” been working with for generations, the traditional landowning elites and corrupt elitist parties, basically screwed the country. So…why are we surprised Chavez has what support he does? No…I don’t like him. But, he’s better than a lot of “our” tinpot tyrants and kleptocrats.
ThymeZone
Mission accomplished.
capelza
Dreggas, I am so stealing this!
HyperIon
yes, DKOS fell off my daily Must Read List several months ago. i still visit occasionally but see little there that is not discussed elsewhere.
and wrt mob rule, these days i find myself constantly ruminating on the french revolution. the french people WERE aggrieved; but the final outcome was not intended. somewhere their revolution ran off the road. what do WE intend? and how will OUR intentions get warped? the ever-increasing (and justifiable) mistrust of the current government can lead to acts that undermine trust even further. i doubt the ending will be as coherent as in V for Vendetta.
Perry Como
Imagine the rending of garments had this been some brown folks. The bed wetters would have to change their sheets hourly. ZOMG THE ISLAMONAZIHARKONNENFASCISTS ARE COMING TO GET US!!!11eleven
ThymeZone
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity…
I just made that up.
(Parens mine)
Dreggas
Very very true.
Steve
I’m pretty much with TZ on the issue of Cindy Sheehan. It doesn’t matter much whether I agree or disagree with her on anything; I relate to her as a parent.
The whole “absolute moral authority” has never been anything but a right-wing smokescreen. No one has ever said that you can’t disagree with Cindy Sheehan on the merits of continuing the war, or with the 9/11 widows on the merits of homeland security measures. But what the Ann Coulter types can’t accept is that there are, indeed, certain sympathetic people who you can’t just target with nasty ad hominems. Of course, they whine all day about this “absolute moral authority” concept, but there’s no evidence that they actually let it stand in their way for a moment.
This might be my favorite post in the thread – only I, demimondian, have the right to make ad hominem attacks on someone! When you do the exact same thing to me that I do to Cindy Sheehan, you’re trying to shut me up, and that’s just so wrong.
This is another great post, reminiscent of Darrell’s random links to Some Guy With A Sign Somewhere. Here’s the thing, though – a random person waving a gun and ranting about the government is statistically far more likely to be a far-right type. Just letting you know.
Again I am with TZ. Although to be fair, while there is a mob mentality at dkos on certain issues, the diary system ensures that the occasional “contrarian” diary will make it to the recommended list, allowing the silent minority to slip from its chains and complain about the echo chamber for a fleeting moment.
Just let the woman do what she wants to do. She’s earned the right not to care what John Cole or anyone else thinks about her life choices. I remember in the last British election, there was some guy, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq, who decided to stand for election against Tony Blair in his home district. And the guy lost by a landslide, of course, but he got to stand up there on a stage with Tony Blair and look him straight in the eye as the vote totals were announced. There’s nothing wrong with this sort of thing. It keeps our democracy human.
Dreggas
well we still don’t know if they were white black or worse…mexican looking.
tBone
Surely it would be ISLAMONAZIFREMENFASCISTS, no? The Harkonnens probably belong to the same country club as the Bushes & Cheneys.
Psycheout
I agree. Run, Sheeman, run! Keep democracy human!
mrmobi
Well said, Steve. I pretty much agree with what you and TZ have said here.
John, none of this catastrofuck would have happened if you and many like you hadn’t had your heads stuck so far up your asses in 2000 and 2004. Your post and its’ title make we want to take a shower. It boggles the mind, you guys voted for this unqualified, pathetic, alcoholic loser, not once, but twice. Nice dig at the Dems here, though, clearly you must feel that the rubberstamp members of your own Party of Torture have no responsibility in changing our policy on Iraq, right? Damn those spineless Dems, if it wasn’t for them, we’d have already won!
And you feel qualified to give advice to Cindy Sheehan? Jeebus.
sydney stotter
I’d bet my bottom dollar that the Christianists pull out guns and start shooting first.
Perry Como
Yeah, I forgot about the time the Baron invoked Executive Privilege after he shot some dude in the face with atomics.
Bombadil
Hey, John — we “created” Cindy Sheehan, but you created the Bush Administration.
Who’s the bigger loser?
Rome Again
I agree with TZ, who would you rather be aligned with John, someone speaking out against this crap or someone huddling scared in a corner?
ConservativelyLiberal
Being a parent, I can understand another parent losing it with a death of their child. When your child is born, and you hold them for the first time, it hits you that you now have someone else that you really have to care about for the rest of your life. No superficiality, it is not just so many words. You look at that child and one day it hits you, they can die. Before you do. Someone or something can kill your child, and there is nothing you can do about it. It is completely out of your hands. It is a feeling of helplessness and dread that I would not wish on anyone. Yet we have to acknowledge and live with it.
Today I heard about the body of the latest young woman to be killed by some nutcase, and it just tears into your heart. Our daughter is getting her first job, and she is looking to move out and get a place with her best friend this fall. I hear about this latest murder of a young woman, and it just sucks. Indescribably sucks. Yet us parents have to let go and let our children fly on their own. It is a mix of strong emotions, both good and bad.
I do not want to say that I can understand what the death of a child is like, I have only worried as any parent would. I can excuse what Cindy has done as it is easy to understand that she views Bush as being personally responsible for the death of her child. With this in mind, I can relate to her anger. The president is her target, the one that she wants to hurt. She feels betrayed, and that her son was only so much cannon fodder that the president used in a war of choice, not necessity.
But with her saying that she wants to take on Pelosi if something does not meet with her approval, I have to draw the line there. Cindy did some pretty stupid things in her attempts at taking down Bush, things that really hurt her and made her look stupid. Yet I can understand that grief can make fools of us all. As they say, you have to walk a mile in anothers shoes before you can render honest judgment on them.
If anything, Cindy needs to back off and evaluate her actions to date. Clean up and get organized. Right now, IMO she is just thrashing around and being very ineffective at it. I could not take her seriously as a candidate, and I bet a lot of others will have the same problem. She would get some of what I would call the sympathy vote, but it would not carry her to a win. Especially against Pelosi, who is a pro at what she does.
I think that Cindy is ‘tarnished goods’, but that does not mean that she is irreparably damaged. Some people, mostly on the right, would argue against my position. But the majority of the public clearly admires a person who can get their life and priorities in order, acknowledge past mistakes and move on without giving up. We love the underdog in America.
I read some of the mean things that people have to say about her, and I can’t help but think that these people have no children. And if they do, it has not hit home that their child can die in the blink of an eye and there is nothing that they can do about it. I like to think that there is a special place in hell for these people, and I hope I am right.
tBone
It was just a peppering, moonbat. The Duke didn’t signal properly and the Baron naturally thought he was a sandworm. Happens all the time.
mrmobi
Sandworms, I hate em!
solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short
“Absolute Moral Authority” is from a Maureen Dowd column, hence its time-release vapidity.
Someone mighta pointed that out already–I got halfway through the thread but I just can’t take it. She pisses me off by not being savvy and everyone else pisses me off by beating up on her for it.
It’s be nice if someone we could all get behind 100% would step up and publically engage in the civil disobedience necessary to keep our country honest, but HEY GUESS WHAT.
ConservativelyLiberal
Yes, but Alia got her revenge with the Gom Jabbar…
This while her brother, Muad’Dib was out joyriding sandworms and not using his turn signal…
Dulcie
Good Lord – we’re being attacked by a bunch of Dune nerds!
The Other Steve
You guys apparently didn’t read the Sheehan diary closely.
She’s lost it. She’s suffering from depression, loss, stress, whatever and needs professional counseling.
Not a bunch of people attacking or defending her.
The Other Steve
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
ConservativelyLiberal
I did read it, and several others that she has written at Kos, and I agree with you. I am sorry if my post about her was not clear. There is no doubt that she is having problems dealing with the death of her son, and I believe that she should seek help. Dealing with death is not something that you are born with. Some people can deal with it, others can not. I think that she believes that she is doing the right thing and trying to honor the memory of her son to the best of her ability.
In some respects, I wonder how much of the off-base stuff she has done because someone who purports to be her friend(s) and confidant(s) and how much is things that she came up with herself.
I think that she is being poorly advised by some who have their own agenda/axe to grind. She needs to pull out of the tailspin and get some professional help.
Regarding being a Dune nerd…
Beware, we are a quiet but powerful majority out there. Don’t piss us off or we will take your water…
ConservativelyLiberal
Fixed… I really need to proofread before posting. Damn slacker in me…
Zifnab
A hug! A hug! My spelling sucks!
Bob In Pacifica
It’s not uncommon practice if you’re in a district that’s owned by one party to use the primary to vote for someone more in your spectral direction in order to move the incumbent over towards where you are. Some people will make noise about Sheehan in order to get Pelosi to get more active in impeaching Dubya et al. I don’t think most people who’d vote for Sheehan actually want her in Congress, they’ll just use her to nudge Pelosi farther to the left.
Of course, there’s the problem that Sheehan doesn’t live in Pelosi’s district. There’s already a San Francisco supervisor in hot water for sleeping in a nice little town down the Peninsula.
Face
I have honestly never ever laughed so hard at anything on the ‘Net until this. I think Colbert needs to pick and use “consensual fighting” as often as possible. May just be the funniest phrase I’ve ever seen. Especially how it comes just after “bible study”.
Good Lord dem Texans are Teh Funny.
Chuck Butcher
Hmmm, I’m pretty damn left, I read this thing and occasionally comment, but I think Chavez is headed down Tyranny Lane and I don’t remember bestowing anything on Cindy Sheehan, but I sure do like elections and people running in them and sometimes shaking up the ordinary course of events, just by making a racket. Maybe that comes of having run or maybe being that way caused me to run. Raising hell and having the nerve to do it when it wasn’t “socially acceptable” is the only way Sheehan speaks for me, doesn’t hurt my feelings she continues to do so.
I’ll just be damned if I can figure out why this ticks people off, I raised hell that GeoII would try Afghanistan on the cheap, before Georgie sent troops to Iraq, I ran in the Democratic Primary in a very red Congressional District bigger than most states as a different Democrat (lost pretty good too) and it seems what I’ve done is try to make a difference – if that’s bad on my part it is on hers, I think I was right. So now I write a small time Blog and work hard in the Democratic Party of Oregon and also try to make a living. Somebody want to try to one up me around here?
ConservativelyLiberal
Hmmm, I live in a section of Red Oregon, and I have to admire your cojones in running in a red area. I have a guy across the street that flies the Confederate flag on a pole, and it is higher than ol’ glory. Not a single complaint from the residents of the area though. I told our daughter to avoid the guy. He already cornered her once about how blacks are ruining the country. She just laughed at him. The other neighbors like him though.
Naah, I won’t even try to one up you…lol! You could not pay me to run for office where I live. Corruption in our local government (and sheriff and police departments) is rampant, and the wingnuts here just love it that way. We just do our best to avoid them. So far, so good…
Aaron
My congresswoman is Carolyn Mcarthty. She is the mother and wife of two of the victims of the LIRR shooting many years ago.
She ran on a gun control platform.
As a dem she’s been a bit of a disapointment. She’s one of these faux ‘centrist’ dems. voted for the bankruptcy bill and the estate tax repeal.
ass.
rachel
Cindy Sheehan is out of her mindbecause her son’s life was wasted in a useless, pointless war;therefore, nobody who at least pretends to respect that lossshould make snide comments about what a lunatic Cindy Shehan isif they have any decency at all.
Sri Ramkrishna
Hard to believe any part of Oregon is red. (I’m in Oregon too) Must be off in eastern oregon. I never could imagine why someone in oregon would fly the confederate flag. It’s not like they are southerners or anything.
ConservativelyLiberal
Nope, not eastern Oregon. Try coastal Oregon, southern corner, about 6 miles above the border (Brookings-Harbor). The guy with the flag is a transplant from the south (read DEEP south). He is nice enough when he is not spewing his racist garbage, but that alone is enough for me to avoid him.
Believe me, our town is red. Really red, with tiny spots of blue here are there. That is because most of the population are retired transplants who hate the dems as they feel that they are after their retirement $$$.
Nothing like cheap old pricks.
HelenaMontana
Myself, I think Cindy Sheehan’s gone a bit over the top, but John’s mean-spiritedness with regard to her really dismays me–smacks of that knee-jerk GOP nastiness. Know what I mean, jellybean?
chopper
a huge hug for hugo!
HeavyJ
Jesus, reveling in patronizing Cindy Sheehan. Again. Whose son died in the wonderful war you, John Cole, helped happen. Fun stuff.
And then lecturing liberals about “moral authority.”
And then turning around to hope that she gives the Democrats “spine.”
Now that’s the John Cole I love to hate.
John Cole
Let’s clear some things up here.
I have never, and I repeat never, said that Cindy Sheehan has no right to say what she wants to say. Never.
I have never said that she has no right to run.
I have ALWAYS had a great deal of sympathy for the woman, and the vast majority of my posts have taunted, attacked, or maligned her alleged supporters, who have, in my mind, let this poor, distraught woman make a total ass out of herself at every junction.
When I have poked fun at Cindy Sheehan, I was mainly poking fun at the people in the comments who provided knee-jerk support for anything she has done or is doing at the time. Point out that it is fucking insane to bury your uterus in Crawford, and five idiots will post in the comments that “At least CINDY SPOKE OUT while you ENABLED this war.”
Those are the real idiots I intent to rile up. Cindy Sheehan- I feel the same way about her that I did when this first started- she is a distraught woman who has every right to speak her mind, but who was being used by unscrupulous people to advance their own agenda. I really wish she would just go home, get her life in order, and spend the rest of her days having some fun and enjoying life.
Pb
Thank you for your concern, Dr. Frist.
If only Cindy Sheehan hadn’t started that war?
Hey, she could just sit back on the couch, watch some TV, and then maybe the war would just go away!
ThymeZone
In this particular case, the “idiots” were right, and you looked bad. Obviously we’ll never agree on that point.
Your problem is, you can’t seprate the theater and the appearance of things from the core thing itself. Cindy did speak out. That is the end of the story, not the beginning. Only in a world where self-referential media and snark factories flourish does the loony appearance of Cindy overshadow the fact that she stood up. I take my meaning from the latter, and you seem to take it from the former. I don’t care how loony she looks. I only care what she is trying to do. The fact that she isn’t very good at it doesn’t change my opinion of the matter.
Supporters of Bush can say, well, there was a little war protest, but look at this GOOFY WOMAN who led it! Haw haw haw!
Were you leading the cheers for the protest, or the guffaws over her ineptitude?
Richard Bottoms
>If only Cindy Sheehan hadn’t started that war?
Yes, what were we thinking when we voted for her. Twice. Oh wait. That was John’s track record with the current Commander in Chief.
Cindy Sheehan is what she always was, someone in pain. She was useful as a prod to Bush in the beginning, and she certainly is a good fundraising emblem for the right.
As far as the effect of her running on Pelosi, most Democrats know it will be nil, and only have its importance inflated by the Sean Hannity’s of the world, or those obsessed with her.
And Michael Moore is fat.
HelenaMontana
John Cole Says:
“Y’all created this monster, giving her the ABSOLUTE MORAL AUTHORITY to say whatever she wanted, regardless how ridiculous it was, so have fun with her. Now she is IN UR BASE AND KILLING UR D00Dz! Good luck.”
“When I have poked fun at Cindy Sheehan, I was mainly poking fun at the people in the comments who provided knee-jerk support for anything she has done or is doing at the time. Point out that it is fucking insane to bury your uterus in Crawford, and five idiots will post in the comments that ‘At least CINDY SPOKE OUT while you ENABLED this war.'”
Mm-hmm, right. You called her a monster, you stated the nebulous “Y’All” gave her ABSOLUTE MORAL AUTHORITY to say whatever she wanted (Note: the Constitution did that, not the Y’Alls). I still say that’s knee-jerk mean-spirited nastiness, and that attitude is exactly why I stopped voting for Republicans after Bush I. And you DID vote for Cheney’s stooge twice, Mr. Cole.
Usually I enjoy your blog except when you carry on like this. Nasty self-righteousness is not pretty.
Rome Again
QQ Sympathy? is THAT what you call it?
I thought you just had a lot of fun BASHING her.
Bombadil
Which, sadly for you, is true. Sucks being so wrong about all that, doesn’t it? You can rail against this Administration all you want (and I hope you continue to), but you’re responsible for them.
ConservativelyLiberal
Nah, John is not responsible for this horror show that is supposed to pass for the executive. But he was one of their enablers, and he supported them before he didn’t. ;)
Other than that, you are pretty much spot on with the rest of your post Bombadil. I look at it this way:
Has Curious George and/or the Man in the Yellow Hat (Darth Cheney) lost a loved one in Iraq? Has Cindy?
Has Curious George and/or the Man in the Yellow Hat enriched their corporate contributors with this war in Iraq? Has Cindy?
Nutty or not, I trust Cindy more than I trust Curious George or the Man in the Yellow Hat…
Nuff said…
Langx
Impeachment was never hers to take off the table as it is a Constitutional remedy for BushCo, not an optional smorgasbord choice. Cindy S
I have no opinion of Shehan But I see nothing wrong with this statement. She 100% correct.
I think someone has gotten a little to high on there blog horse to realize this is what Democracy is all about.
One person being able to make a difference.
I’m sure Pelosi has read the diary. If it wakes her up it worked.