Hey! I want names dammit! Names!
Its newsworthiness was obvious as it contained contemperaneous quotes from Sheehan that were the exact opposite of what she says now about that meeting.
The press release statement issued yesterday by Sheehan does not address her disparate versions of the meeting, just her perspective on it.
Cindy Sheehan's Website has now scrubbed the original article from her site.
She said she was "still in shock" over her son's death to explain why she told a different story in the Vacaville Reporter.
She sounds like Al Gore. At the 1996 Democrat convention he claimed that he turned against the tobacco industry when his sister died of lung cancer in 1984. When it was pointed out that he gave a fiery pro-tobacco speech at a tobacco growers' meeting in 1988, he explained that he was still in shock over his sisters' death at the time.
Thanks once again to y'all for exposing the light on the cockroaches.
Hey! I want names dammit! Names!
I know that people can call into a radio talk show, and claim to be anyone they want to be. With that caveat, this is interesting. I heard this on the radio about 40 minutes ago, and thought I would try to write it up while it was still fresh in my mind. If there are any errors below, it is due to my poor memory!!
Someone who says she is a distant relative of Sheehan just called in to a Conservative Talk Radio morning show here in the SF Bay Area (about 8:50am, Tuesday morning). She said that her name was Jenine (spelling??), that she is also from Vacaville (which is in the Bay Area), and that she has known Sheehan since they were in High School. She was on the Armstrong and Getty Show on KNEW.
They only had her on for a few minutes, and avoided delving too deeply into personal family matters. Basicly, Genine said that Sheehan "does not have a conservative bone in her body", and was against Bush even before her son was killed. Genine said that Sheehan "has NEVER given Bush a chance".
The radio hosts asked Jenine why Sheehan had been generally positive in her original views as expressed in the media a year ago (about her meeting with Bush), but is now saying the complete opposite. Genine honestly admitted that she did not know the reason for Sheehan's change of story, but she said that the way Sheehan is acting today is the "real" Sheehan.
Jenine further stated that Sheehan's son was very much in favor of what the USA is doing in Iraq, and that this was one of the reasons he re-enlisted.
The Armstrong and Getty asked her a little bit about family relations. Jenine was reluctant to go into too much detail, but she did say that she thought that another reason that Sheehan's son may have re-enlisted was to get away from his mother. She said the Sheehan is "very controlling".
Armstrong and Getty also asked her if Sheehan has a husband. Jenine hesitated and finally said something like "yes, sort of". She would not give further details, except to say that the death of their son has created "strain" between the two of them. Armstrong and Getty seemed to feel that they should not push her to reveal more family details than she was comfortable with, and so they let her off the phone after that.
This is my memory of the short phone conversation they had with Sheehan's distant relative. Take it for what it is worth, but if true and accurate, it fills in some interesting details about who Sheehan is, and what is motivating her.
In my opinion, this brief converstion, and Sheehan's recent behavior in the media, paint her as an extreme left-winger with a "Type A" personality, who is very "cause oriented". She seems to be using her son's death as a platform to espouse her own anti-American socialist worldview, and get attention for herself and her views in the process. Her fellow travellers in the news media seem to have no compunctions about using her as a tool to help spread their own similar views.
What a pity to turn the death of a real American into a "hate America" tool for such unpatriotic and un-American zealots.
When the terrorists read about people like this, it motivates them to kill more of our troops because that is how you can the best propaganda. More soldiers will die because of this woman's actions.
