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Misguided Mom
By Jennifer King
August 12, 2005
The mainstream media has gone bonkers over Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who lost her son last year in Iraq. According to a recent Sheehan blog, she is to be featured in People, Time, Vanity Fair and Oprah's magazine. The New York Times and it's Left Coast ideological bedmate the Los Angeles Times have run breathless feature articles. Cindy's story even made the AP, ensuring predictable nationwide coverage in local newspapers. The story is irresistible - the heartbroken mother who is determined to meet with President Bush, to find out if her son's sacrifice was worth it. The media, as usual determined to undermine the war, demoralize the troops and stick it to W, lapped it up unquestioningly.
Except - bloggers, talk radio and the newly liberated pajama press have blown the media blinders off once again. Cindy Sheehan and her family already met with President Bush, two months after her son Casey's death in April of 2004. According to David Henson in the Vacaville Reporter, Ms. Sheehan then praised the President for "caring about Iraqis", "being sincere" and "understanding their pain". She said that the Sheehan family had had a "moment of happiness" with Mr. Bush.


Fast forward to Crawford. Once the media was forced to admit that Ms. Sheehan had received a previous meeting with the President, Ms. Sheehan changed her story. Now, the President had been cold, unfriendly and distant. Mr. Bush was unfeeling, refusing to look at pictures of her son or remember her name. When - finally - reluctantly pressed by media as to the differing accounts, Ms. Sheehan stated that she was "in shock" at the time of the first meeting.
It is far more likely that Ms. Sheehan has flip-flopped because she has either been unwittingly co-opted or has willingly aligned herself with some of the more virulent radical leftwing groups protesting the war. Ms. Sheehan posts her blog on both Michael Moore's website and at the website of Code Pink, the lovely leftists who sent $600,000 to the "insurgents" in Iraq and who protest every week outside Walter Reed hospital, in full view of the wounded soldiers recovering there.
Digging further, it has been discovered that Ms. Sheehan participated in a rally for Steve and Virginia Pearcy, the Sacramento couple that came under fire for hanging a U.S. soldier in effigy outside of their home. Ms. Sheehan also spoke at a rally at San Francisco State University, with the group "Students Against War". This rally was to honor Lynne Stewart, the radical lawyer whose most egregious client was Omar Abdul Rahman - the convicted bomber of the first WTC attacks. During this rally, Ms. Sheehan stated, "Lynne is my human Atticus Finch. He did what he knew was right, but wasn't popular. That is what Lynne is doing." Sheehan further stated that, "we (Americans) have been killing people, we are responsible for death and destruction over the past 200 years." Sheehan further denoted George W. Bush as the "biggest terrorist" and ludicrously asserted that the United States was waging a "nuclear war" in Iraq. She further stated that Iraq is suffering under a "U.S. imposed sense of freedom and democracy". Yes, things must have been so much better under Saddam! Also at this rally, flyers entitled, "Should We Help the Iraqi Resistance?" were passed out.
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