Cindy Sheehan

Contact: Mikael Moore (202) 225-2201

Los Angeles, CA - This weekend, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-35) will travel to Crawford, Texas to lend her support to Ms. Cindy Sheehan who is attempting to meet with President George W. Bush during his month long vacation at his ranch. Ms. Sheehan's son, Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed in Baghdad on April 4, 2004, less than a week after arriving in Iraq. Ms. Sheehan wants to meet with the President to ask him why her son died and to voice her concerns about the war in Iraq.

Congresswoman Waters will bring books, food and other supplies with her to help sustain Ms. Sheehan during her time in Crawford.

Cindy Sheehan holds up a sign as President Bush's motorcade drives by.
Friday, August 12, 2005; Posted: 2:27 p.m. EDT (18:27 GMT)

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush's motorcade, en route to a political fund-raiser near his ranch, passed Friday by the site of Cindy Sheehan's Iraq war protest where more than 100 people had gathered to support her.

Sheehan -- whose son, Casey, was killed five days after he arrived in Iraq last year at age 24 -- held a sign that read: "Why do you make time for donors and not for me?"

It's unclear whether Bush, riding in a black Suburban with tinted windows, looked at the demonstrators as his caravan passed.

The motorcade did not stop.

Law enforcement agencies used their cars to block two intersecting roads, where the demonstrators have camped out this week, and required them to stand behind yellow tape. They were not asked to leave their makeshift campsite.

From:
LINK
(links in the original)

Here's coverage of yesterday's "press conference" (in quotes because a grand total of five questions were involved) by George Bush from Knight-Ridder's Ron Hutcheson:

"By Thursday, President Bush could no longer ignore the grieving, angry mother from Northern California camped outside his ranch.

"'I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan,' Bush told reporters Thursday after more than a week of intense media focus on his uninvited visitor."

The clear implication is that Bush had spontaneously made this remark to reporters, and that he had made some kind of conscious decision to "no longer ignore" Cindy Sheehan. But that's nonsense. In the 859-word cliche-ridden speech delivered by Bush that precedes the questioning, Cindy Sheehan doesn't come up at all. It's only after, in response to a question about troop withdrawals, that Bush says, "I also have heard the voices of those saying, pull out now, and I've thought about their cry, and their sincere desire to reduce the loss of life by pulling our troops out," and, following that, that a reporter follows up by asking, "Just to make clear, you're referring to Mrs. Sheehan here, I think?" And even then, Bush pointedly doesn't answer "yes", but instead replies "I'm referring to any grieving mother or father, no matter what their political views may be." And only then does he finally get around to "no longer ignoring the grieving, angry mother" and express his (phony) sympathy with Sheehan.

By Congressman Dennis Kucinich

The vigil of Cindy Sheehan and those supporting her outside President Bush's ranch in Texas continues.

If you are in Texas or wish to travel there to join Cindy and others in the vigil, contact the Crawford Peace House for advice and directions. If people at the Peace House are overwhelmed and you can't reach them, go anyway (directions are on their Web site) and plan to stop there on your way in.

Supplies needed include food and water, coffee, first aid kits, tarps/canopies, tents, tables, batteries, flashlights, wet wipes, materials to make and hang banners and signs, nails & tools, bug spray, ice and ice chests, ladders, and car lighter adapters for electric appliances.

By Patricia Wilson
Reuters
Friday, August 12, 2005; 1:16 PM

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.

Boston Herald
By Dave Wedge
Friday, August 12, 2005

Pressure continued to mount for President Bush to meet with the distraught mom of a soldier killed in Iraq as both Bay State senators backed the woman and scores of families joined her outside Bush's Texas home, including two from Massachusetts.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday each threw their support behind Cindy Sheehan, who has been camped outside Bush's Crawford, Texas, home since Saturday, vowing not to leave until the president meets with her about the war. Sheehan's 24-year-old Marine son, Casey, was killed five days after he arrived in Iraq.

As a result of a request from CODE PINK, people around the country are hunger-striking for Cindy Sheehan.

I spoke with Diane Wilson a little while ago. She's been hunger striking in Crawford since last Saturday.

She said Cindy's sister has joined in the hunger strike as well.

Support Cindy Sheehan! Troops Out of Iraq Now!

Friday, August 12, 2005 at 5 PM Powell Street BART (Powell and Market Streets), San Francisco

Last week, Gold Star Families for Peace co-founder Cindy Sheehan traveled to Crawford, Texas to pay a visit to George Bush at his vacation ranch. Cindy's son Casey was killed in action in Iraq on April 4th, 2004. Cindy is currently camped on the side of a road a few miles from the ranch and plans to stay until Bush "tells me why my son died in Iraq. I've got the whole month of August off, and so does he." Cindy has been informed that and her companions could be arrested as they would reportedly be considered a "national security threat" due to their encampment a few miles from the ranch.

By David Potorti

As a member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, I¹ve been witnessing Cindy Sheehan¹s Crawford odyssey with a bittersweet mixture of pride, support and sadness. I felt the same way when Megan Bartlett, one of the first EMT workers to arrive at the World Trade Center site, founded Ground Zero For Peace/First Responders Against War; as military parents Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson founded Military Families Speak Out; as the 9/11 widows known as the "Jersey Girls" dragged their government, kicking and screaming, into conducting an independent commission into the 9/11 attacks; and as Michael Hoffman, Kelly Dougherty, Jimmy Massey and others came together to create Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Houston Chronicle Editorial

Nothing is more emblematic of American democracy than the idea of one person standing up for his beliefs and in the process becoming the catalyst for a national debate. In the arena of civil rights, Rosa Parks' refusal to sit in the back of a Montgomery, Ala., bus was such an act. During the Vietnam War, Daniel Ellsberg's decision to give the media the Pentagon Papers detailing the secret history of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia was another.

Now Californian Cindy Sheehan's August vigil on a sweltering roadway near President Bush's Crawford ranch has given a human voice and face to the revulsion of the carnage in Iraq. Sheehan, the mother of a 24-year-old Army specialist killed in Iraq last year, wants a face to face meeting with Bush to ask him what mission was worth her son Casey's life.

Dear Mr. President:

Although you will never get this email, and the contents will never be known to you, Sir, I must tell you how I feel:

Sir, I am an Air Force Vet, peace time service only, but still a TRUE BLUE LOYAL PATRIOT AMERICAN! I am not even Republican, but I support and believe in the Commander in Chief of the United States Military. I support and believe in the war and the efforts in Iraq. I support the US Forces. My husband is a retired Army Vet who served in GW-1.

Sir, Meet with Cindy Sheehan. She gave the ultimate sacrifice for this country, her son.

Mr. President, I am a Mother. I don't know how I could move on and grieve if I lost one of my sons, in this war or the next, or in any way. Children are not supposed to die before their parents.

Dear Friends,

When I first heard that Cindy Sheehan had camped out in front of President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, it reminded me of another woman who sat down in the front of a bus because she was tired and had had enough.

Then I thought, here is yet another painful example in our world today. We are tired of young men and women around the world dying needlessly, without purpose, and leading to escalating violence between nations, in our country, in our communities, in our schools.

Women from around the country are uniting in Texas. It is time to ask ourselves why we are not using the knowledge and methods we already have to resolve conflict in nonviolent ways! We have not yet invested in organizing the wealth of information and resources we currently have and creating the structure to do so. It is time to do this.

By Arianna Huffington
HuffingtonPost.com

During my many years as a writer, I've interviewed hundreds of people. But talking with Cindy Sheehan this morning was unlike any conversation I've ever had. Even though we were talking via cell phone - and had a crummy, staticky connection at that - her authenticity and passion reached through the receiver and both touched my heart and punched me in the gut.

She spoke with a combination of utter determination, unassailable integrity, fearlessness, and the peace of someone who knows that their cause is just. Her commitment was palpable - and infectious. It reminded me an old quote about the great Greek orators: "When Pericles spoke, the people said, 'How well he speaks.' But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, 'Let us march!'"

Friday, August 12th, 2005
Protest on the Range: Cindy Sheehan Calls for Mass Demos at Bush's Crawford Ranch
Democracy Now!
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Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed last year in Iraq, is finally getting major media coverage after months of protesting George Bush’s policies in Iraq. We go live to Crawford, Texas to speak with Cindy Sheehan. [includes rush transcript]

Phil and Linda Waste have three sons and two grandchildren who've all had tours of duty in Iraq

WTOC 11, Savannah, Georgia

Hinesville Couple Joins Crawford Protest

The protest outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, is getting bigger. Dozens of people are joining Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq. He had only been in Iraq for five days.

Sheehan wants the president to pull the troops out of Iraq immediately and tells the president if he's so in favor of the war, why doesn't he send his family to fight?

"What was the noble cause that my son died for?" she asked. "I don't think it's noble. I don't think a war on aggression on a country that was no threat to the United States is noble. I want to know, George Bush, if you think this is such a noble cause, do you encourage your own daughters to go over, take the place of a soldier who wants to come home?"

From: "Debbie Russell"
New Crawford News: NEED OBSERVERS TODAY!

Spread about Cindy in Statesman today:
LINK

Add to yesterday's email about carpooling/caravanning from Austin Sat.
morning that another caravan will leave the SAME LOCATION at 9am for those
who aren't the early birds. :)

I just received a call from Lisa F. that there are rightwingers organizing
to converge to counter - aiming to get there TODAY by 6pm via bus(es).
Between that and the fundraiser/party tonite--which is actualy NOT at the

FLASH POINT: DEMAND TO SEE PRESIDENT DIVIDES HER FAMILY, ANGERS RIGHT, BOLSTERS LEFT
By Ron Hutcheson
Knight Ridder

CRAWFORD, Texas - By Thursday, President Bush could no longer ignore the grieving, angry mother from Northern California camped outside his ranch.

Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville set up her tent beside the road leading to Bush's 1,600-acre spread last week, demanding to talk to the president about her son's death in Iraq. She has endured blistering heat, an earthshaking thunderstorm and an army of fire ants. She has also set off a storm of her own.

With the death toll in Iraq mounting, Sheehan has become a flash point for emotions about the war. Her efforts to shame the president have won praise from the left and condemnation from the right, and they have divided her own family.

Sydney Morning Herald
By Michael Gawenda Herald Correspondent in Washington
August 13, 2005

Cold comfort … Cindy Sheehan is comforted by Bill Mitchell, whose son Mike was also killed in Iraq.
Photo: Reuters

Camped along the side of the road that leads to the Bush ranch near the town of Crawford, Texas, Cindy Sheehan has become the focus of a growing sentiment in the US - that the war in Iraq is unwinnable and that the only way to end the mounting toll of US deaths is to start withdrawing American troops.

Ms Sheehan began her vigil last Saturday when George Bush arrived at the ranch for a five-week stay - billed as a holiday by his opponents, although Mr Bush is doing more than just clearing scrub in the 40 degree Texas heat.

By Maureen Dowd
August 13, 2005

Parents of those who have died in Iraq have total moral authority.

There's an angry mother of a dead soldier camping outside his Crawford ranch, demanding to see a President who prefers his sympathy to be carefully choreographed.

A new CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans now think that going to war was a mistake and that the war has made the United States more vulnerable to terrorism. So fighting them there means it's more likely we'll have to fight them here?

Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged this week that sophisticated bombs were streaming over the border from Iran to Iraq.

Daily Telegraph
By RON HUTCHESON
August 13, 2005

FORT WORTH: George W. Bush could no longer ignore the grieving, angry mother camped outside his Texas ranch yesterday.

Californian Cindy Sheehan set up her tent beside the road leading to Mr Bush's ranch last week, demanding to talk to the President about her son's death in Iraq.

She has endured blistering heat, drenching rains, an earth-shaking thunderstorm and an army of fire ants. But she's also set off a storm of her own.

With the death toll in Iraq mounting, her efforts to shame the President have won praise from the Left, condemnation from the Right and divided her family.

LINK

CBC News

The mother of a U.S. soldier slain in Iraq continued to stand vigil Friday outside U.S. President George W. Bush's ranch in Texas, waiting – with a growing number of anti-war protesters – for a face-to-face meeting to air her grievances.

Cindy Sheehan has been camped out on the road outside Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, since last Saturday.

Her son, Casey, was killed last year in Iraq just five days after arriving for duty there. He was 24 years old.

Sheehan, who's from California, wants the U.S. to pull out of Iraq.

"All we're asking is that he sacrifice an hour out of his five-week vacation to talk to us, before the next mother loses her son in Iraq," she told reporters.

By Thaddeus DeJesus,
Waco Tribune-Herald staff writer
Thursday, August 11, 2005

CRAWFORD – From 5 a.m. to midnight over the last few days, Cindy Sheehan has donned a headset amid the Central Texas prairie to speak to reporters from New York to New Zealand.

“We've got to find a way to stop them from calling,

Published on Friday, August 12, 2005 by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlantan: 'It's too late for my son'

by Anna Varela

When the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, she was "cautiously supportive." And when her son's Army unit joined the fight, she thought it would be like the Gulf War in 1991 -- few casualties, "in and out."

In April 2004, MacCombie's son was killed in Iraq. Suddenly the war became personal.

On Thursday, two years after the invasion of Iraq, MacCombie spoke out at an anti-war demonstration for the first time. It took her more than a year to trust herself to talk about her son without breaking down, a year spent in a state of shock and coping with the bureaucratic details that follow death in a faraway place.

A Crawford Peace House Morning

By Greg Moses
LINK

CAMP CASEY, TX (Aug 11) Thursday is only a few minutes young, but Cindy Sheehan is already running late. Rumors are percolating that police will swoop into Camp Casey at midnight to arrest everyone, and she dare not be late for a date like that. So she says, "I really have to go now," and takes her leave from the soft light and murmur of the Crawford Peace House lawn. Before she goes however she does have time to say that her fever is getting a little better.

Hey y'all, This is what we are doing in Chico, CA. Would be very cool to see little Camp Caseys spring up across the country. In peace and solidarity, Sue

Camp Casey Chico is Erected at (Location) in Solidarity with Cindy Sheehan

Who Stands Vigil in Crawford, Texas

CHICO, CALIFORNIA, August 12, 2005 – The Camp Casey Coalition (CCC) constructed a “sister

Video at link. 60-second ad spot running on Crawford cable TV.

LINK

Video: Mother of fallen soldier asks questions of President Bush
John Byrne

Note: This movie file is currently huge. We're working to get it downto a more manageable size.

The above ad, paid for by Gold Star Families for Peace, will air onCrawford cable channels near Bush's ranch. The total ad buy is currently $15,000. The group plans to air the ad throughout August andwherever Bush visits during his vacation.

By Bob Fertik

Article here.