News-Record.com

"And, if anyone was dangerous in Greensboro last night, it was the demonstrators themselves."

I think that comment is well-represented by today's story of 5 or 6 Bush-protestors that were arrested for attacking a police officer. It seems that two of them, among other things, were charged with carrying a concealed weapon. If they were intent on peaceful protest, why were they carrying concealed weapons and attacking a police officer?

I also noted that the News-Record had an AP report on reactions around the country on Bush's speech. all most without exception, everyone they interviewed was critical of Bush's speech. Is this another example of the "mainstream media" coloring the news once again? I am almost sure that there were some people in this country that had a favorable impression of the speech. It's two bad that the AP couldn't find any of them. I guess they were too well concealed for a reporter to find.

And, if anyone was dangerous in Greensboro last night, it was the demonstrators themselves.* Doug

The demonstrators were upset when a plainclothes undercover office started taking pictures of the demonstrators* paraphasing report

Doug! It appears that the first stages of a control police state does not bother you here in Greensboro and the Galley of the United States Congress.

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GSFP co-founder Cindy Sheehan was arrested last night at the state of the union address. She was invited to attend by Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey. . She was escorted into the chambers by a representative of Congresswoman Barbara Lees office. Cindy had no intention of disrupting the speech. Partly out of respect for Lynn Woolsey . It was released by someone from the capital that Cindy unfurled a banner and was disruptive.

The truth is Cindy was wearing a t-shirt the VFP had made to commemorate the grime milestone of the death of the 2000th soldier in Iraq. The shirt says 2245 dead how many more. Cindy had been wearing this shirt all day and wore it to the SOTU. I was told by a congressional staffer that as far as they were aware there was no dress code guidelines for the guests who sit in the gallery. Cindy was in the gallery.

She was seated at 8:30 pm. It was hot in the building so Cindy unzipped her sweater to remove it. Before she even had it off a capital police officer began shouting “protestor” and hustled her out of the chambers. They were very rough and rude with her. She was given a citation for demonstrating inside the capital building…..after being detained for 3 ½ hours.

This has got to stop. How many of your civil liberties are you willing to give up?

No one with a dissenting viewpoint is allowed anywhere near where King George speaks.

Ordinances have been put in place in the county around King Georges ranch that effectively hinder protestors from exorcizing their right to free speech and to petition our government officials.

You can’t wear a message t-shirt inside the capital which in effect is another infringement on our 1st amendment guarantee to freedom of speech .

King Georges henchmen are spying on American citizens under the guise of battling terrorism.

Show your support for Cindy and daily wear the number of Service members killed in Iraq on your shirts or blouses. Even you just jot it on masking tape and stick it to your top. We need to show the administration and those Americans with their heads in the sand this horrific number.

UNTIL WE RISE UP AND SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH THIS WILL ONLY GET WORSE

In Peace,

Dede

Doug,

Who finances World Can't Wait? That would be interesting to know. A review of their website reveals some pretty wide-eyed anti-Bush fanatics. Is this another Move On.org financed group?

Also, why hasn't News-Record reported on Cindy Sheehan's ouster from the House yesterday? WCW saysit was because she was wearing a protestor's shirt. What is the real story?

Here's a comprehensive list of supporters of WCW. This is truly an impressive list of left-wing bomb throwers. I can't find one that's missing, and there are some interesting supporters (Jane Fonda, Ward Churchill, Cornel West, Cindy Sheehan, Martin Sheen, Jessiva Lange, Ed Asner, and too many other kooks to mention).

ACT UP, New York City
Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoner, journalist
Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid, mosque of Islamic Brotherhood; Justice Committee, Majlis Ash-Shura, NY
Pam Africa, Move Organization and International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
After Downing Street Coalition
Vicente "Panama" Alba, Organizer, Laborers Union Local 108, New York
"Alberto Lovera" Bolivian Circle, New York
Aimee Allison, army conscientious objector (Gulf War
90)/counter-Recruiter
Tom Ammiano, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Aris Anagnos, Los Angeles
Anti-Flag
Carlos Arango, director of Casa Aztlan*
Edward Asner
Asociacion Tepeyac de New York
Axis of Justice
Rosa Ayala, Justice for Janitors*
William Ayers, professor and author
Russell Banks, writer
Father Luis Barrios, Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas, New York
Rev. Willie Barrow, Women Connecting*
Ed Begley Jr.
Harry Belafonte
Dave Berenson, Cleveland, OH, U.S. Green Party
Michael Berg, anti-war activist
Jessica Blank, writer, actor
Blase Bonpane, author
Bob Bossie, SCJ, 8th Day Center for Justice*
Father Roy Bourgeois, MM
St. Clair Bourne, film maker
Elombe Brath, Patrice Lumumba Coalition, NYC
Jane Bright, Co-founder, Goldstar Families for Peace
Carol Brightman, author, "Total Insecurity: The Myth of American Omnipotence"
Dennis Brutus
Gabriel Byrne, Actor
Campus Anti-War Network(CAN)
Tim Carpenter, Director, Progressive Democrats of America
Center for Constitutional Rights
Chicago ADAPT
Ward Churchill
Citizens For Legitimate Government
Kate Clinton, humorist
Clothing of American Mind
David Cobb, 2004 Green Party Presidential Candidate
Code Pink: Women for Peace
Steve Colman, poet
John Conyers, US Representative
Carlos Cornier, percussionist, Funkadesi, Old Town School of Folk
Music
Barry Crimmins, writer/
correspondent, Air America Radio
Culture Clash
Charles W. Dahm (Father Chuck), Pastor, St. Pius V, Chicago
Chris Daly, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Julie Delpy, Actress
DC Anti-War Network
Democrats.com
Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party
Leonard "Len" Dominguez, Candidate for Cook County Commissioner
Dominican Women's Development Center, New York
Tom Duane, NY State Senator
Michael Eric Dyson, author, "Is Bill Cosby Right?"
Steve Earle, musician
Niles Eldredge, curator of the Darwin Show at the Museum of Natural History, NYC
Edwin Ellis, President of Veterans for Peace, LA*
Eve Ensler
Michelle Esrick, actress, poet, filmmaker
Donelle Estey, artist, Artists Against the War
Christian Ettinger, exec. prod. of film "The Weather Underground"
Jodie Evans, Code Pink
Nina Felshin, curator, writer
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Rev. John Fife
Jane Fonda
Prof. Barbara Forrest, Southeastern Louisana University (testifed in Dover against intelligent design)
Michael Franti, musician
Aaron Freeman, comdian
Samina Faheem Fundas, American Muslim Voice*
reg e. gaines, poet, playwright
Martin Garbus, NYC
Deborah Glick, NY State Assemblywoman
Ted Glick, Climate Crisis Coalition
Global Justice and Peace Ministries, Riverside Church,
New York
Frances Goldin, literary agent
Sam Greenlee, poet
André Gregory, theater director
Andy Griggs, US Labor Against the War, Exec. Board of United Teachers of LA*
Jose Guerrero, artist and muralist, Chicago
Lawrence Guyot, former SNCC member and former Chairman of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Paul Haggis, Director/Writer of Crash, screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby
Haitian Coalition for Justice
Suheir Hammad, poet
Sam Hamill, Poets Against War
Kathleen Hanna, Le Tigre
David Harris, founder of The Resistance*, writer
Jon Hendricks, jazz singer/lyricist
Jon Hendricks, artist
Hermandad Mexicana
Warren M. Hern, MD, MPH, PhD, Director, Boulder Abortion Clinic
Hip Hop Caucus
Dorothy Hoobler, PEN
Marie Howe, poet and writer
Impeach Bush Coalition
Mesha Monge Irizarry, Idriss StelleyFoundation
Islamic Association of America
Abdeen Jabara, past president, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee*
Ron Jacobs, writer
Dahr Jamail, independent journalist
Alan Jones, Dean of Faculty at Pitzer College*
Bill T. Jones, dancer
Sarah Jones, poet and actor
Rickie Lee Jones, musician
Esther Kaplan, author of With God On Their Side
Janis Karpinski, Brig. General (retired)
Casey Kasem
M. Ali Khan, American Muslim Council
C. Clark Kissinger
Frances Kissling, President, Catholics for a Free Choice*
Yuri Kochiyama
Ron Kovic, author, Vietnam Veteran
Jonathan Kozol
Joyce Kozloff, artist
Jim Lafferty, Executive Director of the National Lawyer's Guild of Los Angeles
Ray Laforest, organizer, DC 1707, AFSCME*; member, Pacifica National Board*
Beth Lamont
Jessica Lange
Lewis Lapham, former editor, Harper's Magazine
Martha Lavey, Chicago
Mark Leno, California Assemblyman
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine
James Levin, co-director of Cleveland Festival of Arts & Technology (Ingenuity)
Simon Levy, director, "What I Heard About Iraq" at Fountain St. Theatre
Toby Devan Lewis
Bruce Lincoln, professor, History of Religions, University of Chicago
Margarita Lopez, New York City Council Member
Haki R. Madhubuti, chairman, publisher, Third World Press
Devorah major, poet & novelist
Make the Road by Walking, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY
Mike Malloy, syndicated radio talk show host
Lucinda Marshall, Founder Feminist Peace Network*
Bill Martin, philosopher
Father Matthius, Pastor, St. Pius V, Chicago
Malachy McCourt, actor & author
Allen Michann, owner, Grand Lake Theater, Oakland, CA
Ellen McLaughlin, actress and playwright
Camilo Mejia, conscientious objector
Dave Meserve, Arcata California city council member
Carol Migden, CA State Senator
Carly Miller, Clothing of the American Mind
Mark Crispin Miller, author, "Fooled Again"
Alderman Joe Moore, Chicago's City Council
Millions More Movement, Pittsburg /Antioch CA organizing committee
Bill Mitchell, co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace*
Leon Mobley, musician
Tom Morello, Audioslave
Tracie Morris, poet
Andrew Muñana, Images Salón, East Los Angeles
Cecil Murray, Retired Minister First AME Church, Los Angeles
Craig Murray, former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan
National Lawyers Guild
Armando Navarro, chair and professor, Ethnic Studies, UC Riverside
The Network in Solidarity with the People of the Philippines
Bill Nevins, teacher, Albuquerque
Northwestern College Feminists
Not in Our Name
Mike and Julie Nussbaum
Efia Nwangaza, director, African American Institute for Policy Studies, Greenville, SC
Brian O'Leary, PhD., author, former astronaut
Bertell Ollman, prof. Dept. of Politics, NYU
R. Tomás Olmos, President, Mexican American Bar Foundation, Los Angeles County*, Dean Emeritus, People's College of Law*
Barbara Olshansky, Center for Constitutional Rights
Outernational
Major Owens, 11th Congressional District, D-NY
Ozomatli
Jose Padilla*, executive director, California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA)
Grace Paley, writer
Patrick Henry Democratic Club
Harvey Pekar, American Splendor
Sean Penn
Rosalind Petchesky, prof., Hunter College & Grad. Center, CUNY
Peter Phillips PhD, Project Censored, Sociology Dept Sonoma State University
Jeremy Pikser, screenwriter, Bulworth
Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize winning playwright
Frances Fox Piven
Sterling Plumpp, poet
Kevin Powell, writer
Progressive Democrats of America
Francine Prose, novelist
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party - New York Branch
Queers for Economic Justice
Jerry Quickley, poet and playwright
Malik Rahim, New Orleans Community Organizer
Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights*
Reach Hip Hop Coalition
Raghava Reddy, stem cell biologist, biomedical scientist, film maker
Maggie Renzi, filmmaker
Eric Resnick, Gay People's Chronicle* reporter, peace activist, one time candidate for US Congress
Allan Rich, screenwriter/actor
Boots Riley, The Coup
Walter Riley, lawyer
Joshua Rosenbloom, Composer/ Director of Bush is Bad
Mark Ruffalo, actor
Bobby Rush, US Representative, Chicago
Douglas Rushkoff, author
Kalamu ya Salaam, Listen to the People
JD Samson, Le Tigre
Sonia Sanchez
Rev. Henry Sanders, Fountain of Life Missionary Baptist Church, Watts, CA
San Francisco Bayview Newspaper
Sapphire, poet, writer
Susan Sarandon
John Sayles, filmmaker
Rinku Sen, Colorlines*
Richard Serra, artist
Rev. Al Sharpton
Lou Shaw, writer, creator of Quincy MD
Cindy Sheehan
Martin Sheen
Stanley Sheinbaum, economist, LA
Nancy Spero, artist
Dona Spring, Berkeley Council member
Gloria Steinem
Malcolm Suber, People's Hurricane Relief Fund*
Serj Tankian System of a Down
Sunsara Taylor, Revolution newspaper
Studs Terkel
Marianne Torres, Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane*
Dwight Trible, jazz vocalist
George Tuttle & Ben Cushman, grapegrowers
Gore Vidal, writer
Kurt Vonnegut
Alice Walker
Maxine Waters, US Representative
Wavy Gravy
Leonard Weinglass, lawyer
Rev. Dave Weissbard, senior minister, The Unitarian Universalist Church, Rockford, IL
Cornel West, Princeton University
Rev. Phil Wheaton, Episcopal Co-pastor, Community of Christ, Washington DC
Joan Wile, Director, Grandmothers Against the War
Saul Williams, poet
Standish E. Willis, National Conference of Black Lawyers
Krzysztof Wodiczko, artist
Ann Wright, former US diplomat, resigned in protest of Iraq war
Daphne Wysham, Institute for Policy Studies
Leland Y. Yee, Speaker pro Tem, California State Assembly
Juanita Young, courageous resister, leader in October 22nd Coalition*
Dr. Quentin Young, Health and Medicine Policy Research Group*
Dave Zeiger, filmmaker, "Sir, No, Sir!"
Zephyr, graffiti artist, writer
Robert Zevin, Robert Brooke Zevin Associates, Inc.
Howard Zinn, historian, "A Peoples' History of the United States"
David Zirin, author, "What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States"

Organizations such as Moveon.org, militant groups like World Can't Wait, Get Out of Iraq Now's Cindy Sheehan, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate minority leader Harry Reid, Gasbag Teddy, the Dean Scream, and of course, poor loser John Kerry are the favorite spokespersons for the Republican party's recruiting drive.

Connie Mack, Jr.,

What is your justification for the protestors to attack a policeman because he is tkaing their picture? How does that relate kto a control police state? And, what about two of them carrying concealed weapons? Did they plan to use them on anyone that dissented with them? They sounded pretty dangerous to me, and a review of the website adds to my concern about this group. They are scary. Peaceful protest is honored in this country, but I am starting to see the kernels of violent protest starting to emerge in this country similar to what happened in the 60's and 70's. Is the WCW people simply the 2006 version of groups like the Weather Men?

Stormy, thanks for the revealing research.

About Sheehan's arrest, the Washington Post reports:

"Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, opened her jacket to reveal a T-shirt that, according to a supporter, gave the number of U.S. war dead and asked, 'How many more?'

"She was also vocal, said U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer, and after she ignored instructions to close her jacket and quiet down, she was led out and arrested. Demonstrating in the House gallery is prohibited."

A Matt Drudge "flashback" today notes that a man was removed from the Senate gallery for wearing an anti-Clinton T-shirt during the former president's impeachment trial:

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashts.htm

It seems the Capitol police are intolerant of political demonstrations of any kind inside the building.

I agree with Stormy. The policemen were probably just taking their picture because they were attractive people and the light was just right for maximum aesthetic value or maybe the policeman is taking night classes in photography at UNCG. We can't jump to conclusions here.

PhotographyBuff,

And, taking someone's picture is cause to attack a law enforcement officer? Do you support that violent behavior by individuals that are carrying concealed weapons? Wonderful.

Connie Mack, Jr.,

What is your justification for the protestors to attack a policeman because he is tkaing their picture? How does that relate kto a control police state? And, what about two of them carrying concealed weapons? * Hack off anti-2nd amendment storm trooper
" Storm Trooper! The last time I check, the State of North Carolina allows for the carrying concealed weapons with permit. Surely as a conservative repub defender of the 2 nd amendment , you would not go against your own constitutional principles and be a flaming communist liberal to deprive a American citzen that constitutional right! Right? wink! wink! or is it possible that you are really a gun grapper nazi in drag?

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Headlines -- CHAOS IN HOUSE GALLEY! DOG GETS TO SIT NEXT TO LAURA BUSH! REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN WIFE TOSS OUT OF GALLEY FOR WEARING SUPPORT TROOPS T SHIRT. DOES NOT GET ARRESTED LIKE CINDY OR BEAT UP!
---------------------------------------------------
Police Remove Sheehan From Bush Speech

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Cindy Sheehan, mother of a fallen soldier in
Iraq, wasn't the only one ejected from the House gallery during the State of the Union address for wearing a T-shirt with a war-related slogan that violated the rules. The wife of a powerful Republican congressman was also asked to leave.
ADVERTISEMENT

Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young (news, bio, voting record) 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."

"Because she had on a shirt that someone didn't like that said support our troops, she was kicked out of this gallery," Young said on the House floor Wednesday morning, holding up the gray shirt.

"Shame, shame," he scolded.

Mrs. 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, a protester ejected before the speech Tuesday night for wearing a T-shirt with an antiwar slogan. Sheehan wrote in her blog Wednesday that she intends to file a First Amendment lawsuit.

"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.

Capitol Police took Sheehan, invited as a guest of Rep. Lynn Woolsey (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., away in handcuffs and charged her with unlawful conduct, a misdemeanor. She later was released on her own recognizance.

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

Woolsey gave Sheehan her only ticket earlier in the day — Gallery 5, seat 7, row A — while Sheehan was attending an "alternative state of the union" news conference by CODEPINK, a group pushing for an end to the Iraq war.

In her blog, Sheehan wrote that her T-shirt said, "2245 Dead. How many more?" — a reference to the number of soldiers killed in Iraq.

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, "Protestor."

"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. 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."

Sheehan was arrested in September with about 300 other anti-war activists in front of the White House after a weekend of protests against the war in Iraq. In August, she spent 26 days camped near Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he was spending a working vacation.

___

First lady Laura Bush's guests at her husband's annual address to Congress certainly were diverse. One, in fact, wasn't even human.

Rex, a 5-year-old German shepherd, fit in with the other Iraq war veterans who were guests of Republicans and Democrats.

Rex sniffed out bombs in Iraq. He's been the subject of congressional legislation. He's famous, and Wednesday night he became one of Mrs. Bush's guests at the State of the Union speech.

How Rex landed such a coveted seat — actually a spot in the aisle labeled "Rex" on the official seating chart — is quite a tale.

His owner, Air Force Tech Sgt. Jamie Dana, awoke in a military hospital last summer badly injured by a bomb in Iraq and crying for her bomb-sniffing dog. Someone told her Rex was dead.

Later, Dana found out that wasn't true. But it would take an act of Congress before she could take him home to Pennsylvania.

The Air Force said it had spent $18,000 training Rex and that, by statute, he needed to finish the remaining five years of his useful life before he could be adopted. Dana's congressman, Rep. John Peterson (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., helped abolish that policy in an end-of-year defense bill, the White House said.

No less interesting were the other guests of Republicans and Democrats, ranging from parents of fallen soldiers to the mayor of Washington to survivors and rescue personnel from Hurricane Katrina.

Also in Mrs. Bush's box were the family of Marine Staff Sgt. Dan Clay, 27, who was killed Dec. 1 in Fallujah.

Democrats offered a gallery seat to Benny Rousselle, president of Plaqemines Parish, La., which was heavily damaged by Katrina.

___

Conspicuously absent from the table of powerful House Republican leaders was Rep.
Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who sat there for a decade as the schedule-setting majority leader. He was forced to step down from the post last year after being indicted on campaign finance charges in Texas.

Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at the table instead were the candidates to succeed him: acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt of Missouri, Ohio Rep. John Boehner (news, bio, voting record) and Arizona Rep. John Shadegg (news, bio, voting record). House Republicans choose a new majority leader Thursday.

Spokesman Kevin Madden said DeLay was sitting near a podium from which members debate opponents.

Is the WCW people simply the 2006 version of groups like the Weather Men AND Mr Connie Mack I am putting you on my black list of funded supporters of the communist left. * paraphasing Storm Trooper

Great! However! As a registor republician until last night Congressional Chaos in the House Galley! Don't expect me to be senting any funds to the NRC soon, because of my communist resume in the Republician party! See what you started Doug!

---------------------------------------------------

CINDY SIDE OF HER STORY AS SHE IS GOING TO SUE THE PANTS OFF STORM TROOPER BUDDY IN THE HOUSE GALLEY
--------------------------------------------------

Cindy Sheehan: What Really Happened

Dear Friends,

As most of you have probably heard, I was arrested before the State of the Union Address tonight.

I am speechless with fury at what happened and with grief over what we have lost in our country.

There have been lies from the police and distortions by the press. (Shocker) So this is what really happened:

This afternoon at the People's State of the Union Address in DC where I was joined by Congresspersons Lynn Woolsey and John Conyers, Ann Wright, Malik Rahim and John Cavanagh. Lynn brought me a ticket to the State of the Union Address. At that time, I was wearing the shirt that said: 2,245 Dead. How many more?

After the PSOTU press conference, I was having second thoughts about going to the SOTU at the Capitol. I didn't feel comfortable going. 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 and I didn't want to be disruptive out of respect for her. I, in fact, had given the ticket to John Bruhns who is in Iraq Veterans Against the War. However, Lynn's office had already called the media and everyone knew I was going to be there so I sucked it up and went.

I got the ticket back from John, and I met one of Congresswoman Barbara Lee's staffers in the Longworth Congressional Office building and we went to the Capitol via the underground tunnel. I went through security once, then had to use the rest room and went through security again.

My ticket was in the 5th gallery, front row, fourth seat in. The person who in a few minutes was to arrest me, helped me to my seat.

I had just sat down and I was warm from climbing 3 flights of stairs back up from the bathroom so I unzipped my jacket. I turned to the right to take my left arm out, when the same officer saw my shirt and 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. I said something like, "I'm going, do you have to be so rough?" By the way, his name is Mike Weight.

The officer ran with me to the elevators yelling at everyone to move out of the way. When we got to the elevators, he cuffed me and took me outside to await a squad car. On the way out, someone behind me said, "That's Cindy Sheehan." At which point the officer who arrested me said, "Take these steps slowly." I said, "You didn't care about being careful when you were dragging me up the other steps." He said, "That's because you were protesting." Wow, I get hauled out of the People's House because I was, "Protesting."

I was never told that I couldn't wear that shirt into the Congress. 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. I was immediately, and roughly (I have the bruises and muscle spasms to prove it) hauled off and arrested for "unlawful conduct."

After I had my personal items inventoried and my fingers printed, a nice Sgt. came in and looked at my shirt and said, "2,245, huh? I just got back from there."

I told him that my son died there. That's when the enormity of my loss hit me. I have lost my son. I have lost my First Amendment rights. I have lost the country that I love. Where did America go? I started crying in pain.

What did Casey die for? What did the 2,244 other brave young Americans die for? What are tens of thousands of them over there in harm's way for still? For this? I can't even wear a shirt that has the number of troops on it that George Bush and his arrogant and ignorant policies are responsible for killing.

I wore the shirt to make a statement. The press knew I was going to be there and I thought every once in awhile they would show me and I would have the shirt on. I did not wear it to be disruptive, or I would have unzipped my jacket during George's speech. If I had any idea what happens to people who wear shirts that make the neocons uncomfortable...that I would be arrested...maybe I would have, but I didn't.

There have already been many wild stories out there.

I have some lawyers looking into filing a First Amendment lawsuit against the government for what happened tonight. I will file it. It is time to take our freedoms and our country back.

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. That's why I am going to take my freedoms and liberties back. That's why I am not going to let Bushco take anything else away from me...or you.

I am so appreciative of the couple of hundred protesters who came to the jail while I was locked up to show their support....we have so much potential for good...there is so much good in so many people.

Four hours and 2 jails after I was arrested, I was let out. Again, I am so upset and sore it is hard to think straight.

Keep up the struggle...I promise you I will too.

Love and peace soon,

--Cindy Sheehan

Now to really screw up your neo-con 21 st century thinking Storm Trooper and your quest for world democracy! Read this and get up to speed why you and your repub thugs are losing the battle with the American people in 2006. So how does it feel to be a tool of the fascist neo-con right control freaks in the 21 st century?

February 1, 2006
Why We Fight
Go see the movie
by Justin Raimondo

The theme of Eugene Jarecki's thoughtful yet hard-hitting documentary, Why We Fight, is inspired by President Dwight Eisenhower's famous farewell speech, in which he warns against the rising danger of militarism as an economic system and a mindset:

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

We segue from old black-and-white footage of Ike inveighing against militarism to the present-day embodiment of precisely what he warned us against: Sen. John McCain burbling that the U.S. government "is the greatest force for good" and therefore "we must spread democracy and freedom throughout the world." One of the great benefits of this film is how badly McCain, who is getting ready to run for president, comes off in it: his hypocrisy in embracing Eisenhower's thesis, while bloviating about the need to intervene everywhere, exposes him for the massive fraud he is.

The scene shifts to John F. Kennedy declaring that we will "pay any price, bear any burden," and on to LBJ, Ronald Reagan, the Great Pantsdropper ("America is making a difference" by invading Kosovo), and our present Boy Emperor ("our cause is just"), all glorying in America's role as the imperial hegemon with a heart of gold, the global lawgiver and policeman all rolled into one – with neoconservative smarty-pants Bill Kristol averring that "we fight because it's necessary and it's right."

It isn't all talking pundit-heads, however: On Sept. 11, 2001, Wilton Sekzer was on an elevated subway train coming into downtown New York when the car made an abrupt turn around the bend and the passengers were suddenly confronted with the sight of the World Trade Center on fire. Sekzer, a retired NYPD officer, clearly remembers his first thoughts as if they were etched in fire on the inside of his brain, and he details his mental narrative here – and throughout the film – as a kind of personal link to the catalytic event that started the Iraq ball rolling. As that ball begins to careen out of control, there is a sadness in Sekzer's eyes, a pathos to his story, as he tells it, a look of bewilderment on his face – and a growing anger. He describes his anger at the sight of the burning building, and his hope – processed as certain knowledge – that his son, who worked in the Towers, had somehow gotten out of there.

Alas, that certainty soon crumbled, and Sekzer was swept up in his anger to demand vengeance – visited on the head of the nearest target: it didn't matter. Only revenge mattered.

Why We Fight utilizes an impressive array of analysts – I would say "talking heads," but the phrase doesn't do them justice – in order to make its case that a misguided war in Iraq was made possible by a systemic disorder of American democracy. Most striking is Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback and The Sorrows of Empire, two of the most comprehensive recent studies of militarism and interventionism, whose analysis – framed in a historical context and informed by a healthy skepticism of ostensibly idealistic motives – trips off his lips with impressive facility.

9/11, says Johnson, "provided a group of people deeply committed to the expansion of the American Empire the opportunity to implement plans they had been laying since 1992." This was, in short, a "grand plan" for nothing less than global hegemony:

"We are the New Rome. That's their strategy: on 9/11, they began to implement it."

Kristol, who, along with Perle, here represents the neocons, would politely demur, protesting that what he wants is "benevolent world hegemony," as he called it in a famous essay. Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz is shown making the case for war with Iraq, while Perle chimes in with a bold declaration that American foreign policy after 9/11 rightly shifted in "a radical direction." He clearly believes that isn't a bad development. Well, yes, says Kristol, but it would have happened even without 9/11 – and that really is a doubtful proposition. George W. Bush was elected to office promising a "humbler" foreign policy, and it is hard to imagine how he would have made the leap from humility to hubris quite so easily, if at all.

It was "a huge leap," as former Pentagon analyst and retired Air Force Col. Karen Kwiatkowski says in this film about the administration's post-9/11 focus on Iraq: "A manufactured leap, in order to implement a very calculated and pre-developed foreign policy."

This quantum leap – either backward or forward, according to your ideological predilections – into a new doctrine of preemption, which claims the "right" to attack any nation, anywhere, at any time, and for any reason. It is enthusiastically endorsed by McCain, Kristol, and Perle, and symbolically celebrated – or, rather, dramatized – by a duo of Air Force pilots who personally participated in the first bombing strike of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and breathlessly relate how great it was and how privileged they felt to be participants in this historic event, "the liberation of a people," as one of them solemnly intones. We are then jerked abruptly back to reality by the sardonic Professor Johnson, who reminds us that the Bush Doctrine is not really new: it is, instead, "an extreme statement of what has been in the works for a long time" – really, he says, since World War II.

One of the best features of this narrative is that it gives the viewer a sense of historical perspective without indulging in boring lectures, and does it, furthermore, in a visually dramatic manner. Joseph Cirincione, a foreign policy analyst at the Carnegie Endowment, takes us back to the Eisenhower era, when, he says, the American Empire had come to maturity and the military-industrial complex began to dominate our political culture and our foreign policy. Gore Vidal contributes his perspective on this time – when he was a young man – by pointing out that Eisenhower opposed the decision to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even though 99.9 percent of the military fighting in the Pacific at the time were for it because they thought half a million of them would have to die unless Japan was forced to surrender in this way. What they didn't know, says Vidal, is that Japan had been trying desperately to surrender, but we – i.e., the malevolent pygmy Harry Truman – wouldn't let them. We did it to "show off," says Vidal, but "Eisenhower hated the bombs."

We weren't just "showing off" for the sake of beating our chest, but to show the Soviet Union we meant business. The Cold War era meant that the militarization of American society occasioned by World War II was to be made permanent: there would be no real demobilization. American forces, as the war ended, were everywhere: the idea of "benevolent global hegemony" was in the air, waiting to be formalized into a policy paper or a State of the Union address.

The question "What are we fighting for?" is asked throughout this film, and the answer, by the end, is all too horrifically apparent, but on the way there we are treated to an entire panoply of American opinion. A trip to Karen Kwiatkowski's home town, way out in the boonies somewhere – red-state territory for sure – turns up a surprising variety of answers, ranging from "Freedom!" to "Hell if I know." Why We Fight, as Karen points out, is the title of a famous series of World War II propaganda films directed by Frank Capra that sought to mobilize the country, and there was a consensus back then that the war was not only necessary but also just. Not today, however, and Jarecki's film weaves together a tapestry of voices, ranging from shrill neocons like Perle to author Gwynne Dyer, who avers that we're fighting to make the point that "the U.S. is the country that must be obeyed." "The question is," says Sen. McCain, "where is the line between being a force for good, and imperialism?" I suppose it is useless to point out to the senator that virtually all imperialists see themselves as a force for "good."

Why We Fight is not a film in the Michael Moore mode of in-your-face propaganda, but is all the more effective in that it lets all these voices speak for themselves. Juxtaposed next to Professor Johnson's thoughtful analyses, Bill Kristol comes off as rather facile, and the snickering Perle, one of those historical actors who seems typecast in his role, comes across as frankly villainous.

Jarecki takes another step back and we are suddenly looking at this whole process of fighting overseas crusades from an historical perspective: a Cold War propaganda film informs us that our homes could be destroyed – "Right now. Right now!" – and that the only answer is "strength," while a muscular arm helpfully demonstrates this simple principle. We are back to Eisenhower's 1950s as his present-day descendants – John S. D. Eisenhower and Susan Eisenhower – explain how the flow of cash into "defense" industries lays the groundwork for the military-industrial complex. We get a few more lines from Eisenhower's farewell address, as we segue into shots of an air show where militarism and entertainment meet and merge. Then a few statistics: the U.S. spends more on the military than all other categories, and, furthermore, spends more than the combined total of the top 10 other military budgets in the world. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is shown saying that the numbers have reached a level where they are almost meaningless, and one tends to agree, albeit for different reasons.

At this point, Sen. McCain pops up again, insisting that Eisenhower was right: "His prediction came true."

Well, uh, yes – thanks, in no small part, to warmongers like Mad Dog McCain.

As one of the most belligerent of the neocons' allies in Congress, McCain has never opposed U.S. military intervention anywhere in the world for as long as he's held public office. Here is a man for whom "boots on the ground" is the answer to practically every foreign problem confronting the U.S. From Kosovo to Iraq to wherever the next stop is in the neocons' mad war dance, McCain can be counted on to beat the drums for war, which is why his 2000 presidential campaign had the full backing of Kristol and the more radical neocons. And now he has the utter gall to solemnly proclaim himself an Eisenhower Republican and an avowed enemy of the military-industrial complex.

A key sub-theme of Why We Fight is the business of militarism, and this is dramatized in a series of interviews, shots of military trade shows, and a visit to Raytheon. We're given the public relations spiel by a Raytheon spokeswoman, but reality breaks in when an ordinary worker says: "I'd really rather be helping Santa make toys."

Speaking of Santa Claus, this is precisely the role the U.S. government plays in relation to military contractors. These guys are the active element that keeps the military-industrial complex (MIC) running like a well-oiled treadmill; and, since Eisenhower's day, the MIC has become an enormous edifice, one that relentlessly and quite profitably perpetuates itself almost like an living organism. The trick in the militarism business, we are told by a Defense Department analyst, is to over-promise the benefits and lowball the costs of any new defense system – and then spread around the campaign money to as many congressional districts as possible. Chalmers Johnson notes that the B-2 bomber has parts made in so many different congressional districts, if you discontinued it you would have even the most liberal members screaming bloody murder. An economic-political force is built up by the MIC that makes the momentum of militarism practically unstoppable.

The rush for contracts, the interaction of government and industry, the "revolving door" – Sen. McCain decries all this as "corruption," yet fails to point out that it is part and parcel of the policy of aggression for which he is one of the primary spokesmen. There is much focus on Halliburton and Brown and Root, two of the main pillars that hold up the infrastructure of Empire. Perle says targeting Halliburton is "outrageous." Why, he says, it is ridiculous to believe that the vice president would pick up the phone and use his office to influence the choice of military contractors. Chalmers Johnson retorts that everyone knows who the vice president is and knows of his relation to Halliburton. It is here pointed out that the entire idea of "contracting out" support services and other functions of the military to private contractors came up during Cheney's tenure as Secretary of Defense. "We elected a government contractor as vice president," says one analyst. McCain agrees that "it looks bad." "Overcharging is bad." He is then told that Cheney is on the phone, and, like a chipmunk staring into the headlights, lamely excuses himself from the interview. This is bound to get a horse laugh out of the audience, as well as contribute to the vice president's growing reputation as the most despised public servant since Rasputin.

Kwiatkowski – a libertarian advocate of small government – makes the point that, when it comes to making the decision to go to war in Iraq, we commoners employ a different cost-benefit analysis than, say, a member of Congress. A decision to go to war may cost an ordinary mother or father their son or daughter, while a vote against war may cost a politician plenty of bigtime campaign contributions and office perks. Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity follows this up with an astute observation: the financial and political elites have become essentially the same thing. While Karen comes from the libertarian "Right," and Lewis comes, from all indications, from the "Left," their analysis of how this works converges rather neatly. A government elite is using the U.S. military to empower and enrich itself at everyone else's expense – and it isn't pretty, as the Iraq war is showing us every day.

The film deals with the military in two separate narrative threads: one involving two Air Force "Top Gun" types, who fit the Hollywood-ish image of a glamorous militarism – smiling optimists, handsome, and very presentable – and who nonetheless protest that "we're normal people just like everyone else." On the other end of the spectrum, we have some clueless dork, a low-level recruit from, it looks like, New York City and environs, a cipher with no direction, no ambitions, a blank slate waiting to be written on. His mommy died, and now he needs a new parental figure: he finds it in the military. "You fixed up my life real good," he tells the recruiter.

The film begins to focus on Iraq when it comes to the subject of lying in wartime: we are shown old footage of LBJ lying through his gritted teeth about the so-called Gulf of Tonkin incident. Sekzer says: "You never thought anyone would lie. The bugle calls, you answer." Then he found out about the lie behind the Gulf of Tonkin. It wasn't necessary to lie, he says. But of course it was – otherwise, Congress and/or the American people wouldn't have bought into that war. That's why they bother to lie – as they have in every war for the last 50 years, as Lewis points out. Periodic orgies of military intervention, Lewis says, are "a ritual that we have been seeing for decades." It's basically "economic colonialism." We just "go in and have free trade and free markets. What's really going on is we want our companies to get rich in your countries."

Just as the invasion of Iraq never had anything to do with "democracy," so, too, "free trade" – and free markets – are just the ideological window-dressing for a policy of imperialistic mercantilism, in which the military forces of the most powerful nation on earth have essentially become tools of certain corporate and political interests.

Another key point made in this film is the essential role played by the pro-war thinktanks, such as the Project for a New American Century, founded by Kristol. Kwiatkowski tells the story of how the Office of Special Plans brought in people from a "very narrow range of think tanks" to think up talking points justifying the rush to war. "Things were strange from the very beginning." Yes, and the lies were thick and fast in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, a process Kwiatkowski has done much to shine the spotlight on. Kristol downplays this factor – protesting that we shouldn't "overemphasize" the role played by PNAC in lying us into war. Dwyer makes the point that, while Eisenhower named three components of the MIC – Congress, the defense industry, and the military itself – a fourth one has lately come to be important, and perhaps even decisive: the pro-war thinktanks, the nonprofit repositories of the War Party's ample largess.

I didn't intend to do a blow-by-blow analysis of this incisive and very well-made documentary, and I won't go into any more detail – I don't want to ruin it for you. I just want to add one thing, however, and that is an answer to Perle, who, at one point in the movie, snarks:

"One of the sillier ideas is that American policy has been hijacked and once they're out of there we can go back to the way it was before. It's not going to happen because we've changed – as a people."

If I were Perle, I wouldn't count my chickens before they hatch. What is increasingly clear to many Americans is (1) our foreign policy has been hijacked, and (2) that the hijackers are on their way out of power, and, perhaps, on their way to a jail cell (at least in Scooter Libby's case). What's more, this film – and the popular anti-interventionist sentiment it will inform and reinforce – is part of a nationwide reaction against militarism that is just beginning to gather momentum. If we take this country back from the gang that lied us into war – and is even now scheming to gin up more wars – then Why We Fight will have played what may turn out to be a catalytic part by making the victory of Eisenhowerism over neoconservatism possible.

(Why We Fight will be in theaters Feb. 20.)

Shouldn't there be a limit on the size of one's post? Have "size of post" records been broken today?

Jon, please don't suggest that records are kept.

NO RECORDS ARE KEPT!

Connie, please be reasonable in the length of your postings. Thank you.

Connie, please be reasonable in the length of your postings. Thank you.* Doug

I ageed! Maybe you should use the standard 250 word software program here. This would cut down the flame battles and make folks write their own stuff, instead of one trying to get a up with his favorite hire net gunslinger.

The arrests in Greensboro last night speak volumes about the hypocrisy of the liberal "peace" demonstrators who carry concealed deadly weapons and attack police officers.
If you appear in public even *I* can take your picture. It is not illegal, sneaky, totalitarian, or even unsavory that pictures are taken of people who appear in public for the express purpose of making news and having their picture taken. Did these "peace" protesters attack news cameramen? Would they? Doubtful.
Bottom line, if you don't want people to see what you do, don't do it in public.
Cindy Sheehan was invited to Congress as a "guest"; it is NOT a public building where one can act as one desires. By accepting the invitation, Sheehan implicitly consents to follow the rules of the hosting entity. She decided to disobey those rules and was subsequently dealt with in accordance with policy, as are any other scofflaws. Plain and simple.

Connie,

If the armed protestors had permits, why were they charged with carrying them. but, can you really get a state permit to carry a police baton?

You know, if you are Connie Mack, Jr., your father was born in 1862, so you must be well over 100 years old. No wonder you can't think straight most days. How was it living in Philly at the turn of the century? Did you go to many games at Shibe Park with your dad, or can you remember back that far?

Gotta agree with Jaycee. Maybe the pots and pan brigade was trying to act out some rap/hiphop song and hurt the pig ( cop ).

Trooper: Connie Mack Jr. is no where near 100. He is probably some UNCG commie student with a bad case of acne and a head full of mush. His email on type key comes back to a website for Rachel Lea Hunter a left wing Democrat candidate running for NC Supreme Court. ( Doug :Is this a violation of the TOS ? ) Connie Mack the 8th you are a pathetic loser!

Connie uses his real name, and is married to Rachel Lea Hunter.

Connie uses his real name, and is married to Rachel Lea Hunter.* Doug

Thanks Doug! We sure don't want one of the greatest baseball founders and creator of the game in the 20 st century smear by a bunch of trival anti-baseball losers. As you predicted, it is nasty already.

As to charges of the alledged troublemakers. I can't find any charge for illegal firearms procession by the police. Correct me if I am wrong?

Connie,

If the armed protestors had permits, why were they charged with carrying them. but, can you really get a state permit to carry a police baton?

You know, if you are Connie Mack, Jr., your father was born in 1862, so you must be well over 100 years old. No wonder you can't think straight most days. How was it living in Philly at the turn of the century? Did you go to many games at Shibe Park with your dad, or can you remember back that far?

Posted by: Storm Trooper

---------------------------------------------------
Gotta agree with Jaycee. Maybe the pots and pan brigade was trying to act out some rap/hiphop song and hurt the pig ( cop ).

Trooper: Connie Mack Jr. is no where near 100. He is probably some UNCG commie student with a bad case of acne and a head full of mush. His email on type key comes back to a website for Rachel Lea Hunter a left wing Democrat candidate running for NC Supreme Court. ( Doug :Is this a violation of the TOS ? ) Connie Mack the 8th you are a pathetic loser! * uneducated fool who does not know term between a Consitutionalist and a communist

" I plead guilty to knowing Rachel Lea Hunter, but what took you so long to fiqure out why I left that website for you to stumble over your laser brain dead focus attention span?"

Doug,

Thank you for the information on Connie Mack, Jr. that answers a whole slew of questions about Mr. Mack. He seems to be keeping the socialistic radacalism all in the family. Wow, I bet they are a fun pair to spend an evening with. I'll be connie and Rachel were down there at the demonstration, and I am disappointed to not have seen their names listed on the WCW website as supporters.

P.S. No one ever said anything about a firearms charge. It was reported that they were carrying concealed weapons. You can harm someone with a police baton or knife as well as a firearm. That story has had the final chapter written as yet, either.

the march was peaceful, a bunch of parents, their children, and college and highschool students. we were singing, dancing, smiling, and chanting. i can assure you that we were not threatening in any way.
the police acted violently and oppressively and there was ABSOLUTELY no need! this was not an "ugly" protest by any means.
AND it seems that people are picking "sides" based on the issues the group world cant wait itself discusses, not on what happened.
people should be worried at the moment, our local police force is spying on people (why do they need to videotape our license plates when we were simply using our right to peacefully assemble, freedom of speech and freedom of expression), violently oppression people, and then charging victoms with "assault on an officer" when the officer struck first, and also neglected to tell them he was an officer when directly asked (which to my understanding is against the law for the officer in question to have done).
we can discuss this in relation to the world cant wait very easily, but those who are simply saying that "oh the police are obviously right" on the basis that they dislike the world cant wait's politics should look more at the actions of the officers, not why we were there.

If a police office struck first, that was wrong.

If.

I'd wonder why a police officer would do that.

Videotaping and photographing cars, people or anything else in a public place is just as legal as holding a demonstration.

There's no law requiring a plainclothes police officer to identify himself when asked. Can you imagine an undercover cop trying to catch a drug dealer:

"You aren't a cop, are you?"

"Darn! You're on to me. I'm required by law to answer truthfully. Yes, I am an undercover vice officer. Please don't tell your friends."

and in regards to the weapons, the baton was because he rides his bike in downtown greensboro at night and he needed a way to protect himself, and you mean to tell me that people dont carry pocket knifes? its not like it was a machette. it was a pocket knife..millions of people carry pocket knifes, AND they did not threaten or attempt to use them.

im really concerned, i always thought that i lived in a safe and accepting community, and i was outraged by what i witnessed that night. the mood of the march was basically a neo hippy vibe of "peace and non violence".

about the being in the street, the officers didnt tell us to get back on the side walk. they blocked traffic and escorted us! and now they are trying to turn around and get us in trouble for it. had they told us to get back on the sidewalk, we would have.

I am a parent and grandparent and was at the WCW SOTU rebuttal Monday last. There were quite a number of families and older adults attending the event. The evening began with music then speeches and while some of us watched the SOTU address, others joined in the march, that was lead by a drum corp and was escorted by uniformed police officers, without incident.It was on their return to the meeting hall that unknown persons were observed videotaping cars. The unknown persons were approached-not attacked-with inquiries of who they were and what they were doing and they took offence to the queries and a scuffle ensued. One of the "concealed" weapons is an accessory that bicyclists use to protect themselves from dogs charging them when they are out riding bicycles- and yes, the arrested person is a bicyclist. And in defence of Cindy Sheehan, wearing a printed t-shirt is not against the law or the dress code of the Capital.Having read the above dispatches, I am appalled that discourse has degrading into name-calling; it serves no purpose except to expose a faulty offence/defence by the user, who has no other rationale to utilise. Although, some appear not to like it, we are all protected by the First Amendment and just because one takes a position contrary to the government, whether it was the persons attending the WCW rebuttal in Greensboro or are the endorsers of the national WCW is no reason to denigrate their personal reputations. I do not think any of us would agree that repression is a desirable road to take. So, if we disagree, let us do so on the actual facts and issues and not with personal attacks,innuendo , gossip and lies.

amen to that. the distortion of the truth that i am seeing through the local media and of course in the accounts by officers is incredible! not to mention the fact that the news and record reporter who attending and wrote the first article was not present at the time of the incident, so he didnt mention it, and then in the follow up written, a reporter who to my knowledge wasnt even at the event AT ALL gave a factually incorrect acount