Like A Tree.... Standing by the Water....

I woke up this morning to the sound of Cindy Sheehan's voice, as she was being interviwed on Morning Sedition. As usual, she was great. I'm one of many people enthused about her current effort to challenge Bush on the war. It's wonderful to see her getting covered by the news media, and it's funny to find an entire New York Times article speculating about why exactly Sheehan's camp-out in Crawford, Tx is getting so much attention, (as opposed to speculating about the fascination with runaway brides).
Part of that media attention has involved right wing efforts to deflect one of the most successful, powerful anti-war efforts made so far. That's a distracting discussion of when exactly Sheehan became involved in anti-war activism, and what her original opinion of the Prez. was after her first meeting with him in June 2004. Currently, those on the right are using quotes from this story, which of course doesn't tell us everything about what Sheehan said after the meeting, to argue that Cindy Sheehan, who currently describes her meeting with Bush as one in which he lacked compassion, to say that she is a liar. In the right-wing coverage of Sheehan, the important quote that is not included is this one: "We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled," Cindy said. "The president has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached."
You can see a whole history of Sheehan's activism and find links to others if you go to "Casey's Peace Page." I remember her from her speech during the "Freedom and Faith bus tour," and at the Downing Street Memo hearing sponsored by John Conyers.
Here's a blog that's been focusing on her Crawford protest. AmericaBlog is also keeping up with Sheehan, as are many others. Exhibiting either masochism or morbid curiosity, I went looking for the right-wing take on Sheehan and finally found a blog, whose headline was "Cindy are those Crocodile Tears?" and once again was wowed by the projective quality of right wing rhetoric. In their attacks on Sheehan, these right-wing war-supporters, like Will Malven of the tin ear argue that Gold Star Families for Peace are exploiting the deaths of their children for political gain, because they're "Bush haters," something which in the neocon universe is a cause in itself, rather than a result of the odious policies of the Prez. However, as far as I know, the people in gsfp are not running for office....unlike someone we may all recognize, someone who has made his political career by repeating the words "September 11th" over and over again. Oh, but I guess in that "my country right-or-wrong" mentality, taking off the truth-blinders might cause some kind of psychological meltdown.