Saturday, August 20, 2005

The whole Sheehan mess

I hereby offer to subscribe to the first non-nutjob news source that runs similar-looking pictures of the Terri Schiavo Pilgrimage and the Cindy Sheehan pilgrimage next to each other because that would be funny. I wonder if anybody was at both.

I really don't like this woman. Yes, asking Bush to pray with her is giving him his own medicine. It's also treating religion as a cheap political tool. And it's tacky.

I can't say that she's a nutjob anti-Zionist. I can say that she keeps sounding like one

Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the army to protect America, not Israel.

and that has won her some pretty strange friends.

(Yes, I know she claims she didn't write the letter that way and some scary anti-zionist made changes to it before sending it on to nightline. Would be a more convincing argument if she hadn't sent other copies of the original version to other people. Slate looks into it here. )

I guess part of the issue is that as much as one would like Cindy Sheehan to be a symbol, she's a person.

But as effectively as she is using religion, emotion and all those other things liberals are supposed to be bad at, I'm still kind of grossed out by her.

CC

9 comments:

Jesus Reyes said...

The whole PNAC – Neo Con agenda is well documented and is not a nut job conspiracy. No one denies this agenda including them. Their ties to the Likud party are well documented nor is that denied by them. They had a great deal to do with the development of the right wing smear machine and this in and of itself is a study worth pursuing. A good place to start is Wikopedia. And remember, anti-semitism is a word that actually means something and is not an epitaph to hurl at someone who doesn’t agree with a particular political agenda. To cheapen that particular concept is not a good thing to do.

Chalicechick said...

I didn't call her anti-semetic. I called her anti-zionist. If you're going to talk down to people, you should learn to read more carefully.

She now denying that she said it at all, though according the Slate's research she's lying.

And I never even said she was wrong, I said she was tacky.

CC

PeaceBang said...

I think Sheehan is interesting for another reason: her grief is so public.

I think a lot of people are deeply uncomfortable in the presence of such a raw, grieving person. We just don't see a lot of that.

Chalicechick said...

I know I'm uncomfortable.

I mean, I really don't think that her position as mother of a dead kid gives her the moral authority she seems to think it does. But do I want to tell her that?

Not me.

CC

John445 said...

I believe anyone who can galvanize the anti-war movement and highlight Bush's callousness is worthwhile. Picking Cindy to death by a thousand cuts plays to the administration tactics. The Emperor has no clothes and Cindy helps many, many more to see.

Thanks,

John

Chalicechick said...

Ummm... No. The ends do not justify the means.

Using religion as a political tool sucks. Even when people who agree with me do it. She showed not the slightest interest in anything religious until she realized that if she invited him to pray with her she would have him by the balls.

As you observe, it's working. He looks bad.

But it's still wrong.

CC

Anonymous said...

Why is it wrong?

Anonymous said...

have you read the article Philocrites links?

http://freeandresponsible.blogspot.com/2005/08/walter-brueggemann-meet-cindy-sheehan.html

Chalicechick said...

Yes, I've read it.

Previous prophets I have known have had some wisdom, but have ultimately proved to be unpredicatable.
CC