http://slate.msn.com/id/2124266/Bloggers discuss the mother of a slain GI who is protesting outside of President Bush's ranch; other hot topics are the skirmish between Google and CNET, and an artist's plan to "restore" the Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan.
Mom vs. Bush: Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq last year, has been holding a vigil outside the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch since Aug 6. She is demanding a personal meeting with President Bush so that she can ask him what "noble cause" her son died for. Pointing out that Sheehan did meet with Bush shortly after her son died, heavyweight headliner Matt Drudge has dredged up an excerpt from an article from the Vacaville, Calif., Reporter about Sheehan from June 2004. In it, Sheehan says, "I now know
sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis," and "I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss." On her blog Meet With Cindy, Sheehan responds that new information about the beginning of the war has helped strengthen her position: " few things have happened since June of 2004: The 9/11 commission report; the Senate Intelligence report; the Duelfer WMD report; and most damaging and criminal: the Downing Street Memos." Additionally, The Raw Story, "an alternative news nexus," has posted the entire Reporter article, which indicates that Sheehan already had some grave doubts about the war.
Conservatives don't buy it. Catholic The Anchoress suggests that Sheehan's pain has led her to become a mouthpiece for liberals: "I pray that the press can find it in themselves to take this evidence that this woman is simply parroting a script and refuse to aid in her exploitation." Right Equals Might's retired Marine Kurt G., whose son is serving in Iraq, accuses Sheehan of "spitting on the memory of her own son." He insists that Bush didn't kill her son—"Islamofascist terrorists" did.
But liberals commend Sheehan's bravery. Pandagon's Amanda Marcotte asks, "How dare Cindy Sheehan think that just because she loved the boy that she gave birth to and raised that she is anything more than a vessel providing cannon fodder for His Excellency the Shrub to use to generate profits for Halliburton?" Democratic stalwart Daily Kos has been following the story with enthusiasm: "Lots of parents who lost sons and daughters in Iraq now question the war, and I don't think they would like to see one of their own treated like this by the President."
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