Bush Supporters Start Counter-Protest (11PM UPDATED AP Story )

VACAVILLE, Calif. - A caravan proclaiming support for U.S. troops began a tour through California on Monday, stopping in the hometown of Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war mother who gained national prominence during a vigil outside President Bush's Texas ranch.

Conservative activists and military families embarked on the tour they call "You don't speak for me, Cindy!" They planned rallies in several California cities before heading to Crawford, Texas.

About 30 Bush supporters staged a rally outside the offices of the Vacaville Reporter newspaper.

"It's time to lay down the anger. We need to continue to uphold those people over there, to uphold those men and women with their boots on the ground," said Deborah Johns of the Northern California Marine Moms, who helped organize the caravan, which is sponsored by Move America Forward, a Bay Area-based group.

Sheehan began a protest vigil Aug. 6 on the road leading to Bush's ranch, an act that has encouraged anti-war activists to join her and prompted peace vigils throughout the country. Sheehan's 24-year-old son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed last year in Iraq.

A verbal confrontation erupted when the caravan arrived in Sacramento and was met by anti-war protesters chanting "Bring them home."

Sheehan supporter Dan Elliott, 71, confronted caravan members by waving a sign reading "Death is not support" and heckling Johns as she addressed the crowd.

"You are ruining the morale over there," responded Greg Parkinson, a Bush supporter.

Some caravan members called the anti-war protesters communists and said they were "aiding and abetting the enemy." Those comments enraged Sheehan supporter Dee Ann Heath, who said she has two sons serving in Iraq and another preparing to leave.

"I don't support the war, but I support my sons," she said. "I simply want them to come home."

In Vacaville, Toni Colip, 50, said her son, David, went to high school with Casey Sheehan and is now in the Marines, although not in Iraq. She said her son opposes Sheehan's activities and has asked her to support his military service even if he is injured or killed.

The pro-Bush caravan plans to join fellow supporters who have set up their own camp in downtown Crawford as a reaction to the Sheehan-inspired vigil. Bush was in Salt Lake City on Monday, where he spoke to a national veterans group to rally support for the war.

Sheehan vowed to remain in Texas until Bush agreed to meet with her or until his monthlong vacation ended Sept. 3, but she flew to Los Angeles last week after her 74-year-old mother had a stroke. She is expected to return to Texas in a few days.

Several of those in the caravan said they understood Sheehan's anger but disagreed with her protest.

"This is not the way to honor her son," said Lori Judy, 49, of Vacaville, whose son, Tim, served in Iraq.

Regulated Resistance: Pt. 2 - The Gatekeepers of the So-Called Left

Tuesday, May 03, 2005 - 12:48 PM

BY CHARLES SHAW - Last February United for Peace and Justice, the largest representative coalition within the American "anti-war movement", emerged from their second annual Assembly with a 2005 "action plan" that effectively caged the "anti-war" debate exclusively within the Iraq conflict to achieve partisan ends on behalf of the pro-war Democratic Party and their Neoliberal corporate benefactors. Their "action plan" refused to address any of the core issues of US Foreign and Defense policy, which are the root causes of a pervading culture of war and militarism that has taken over the nation in the years since WWII.

******

I've been meaning to post a comment to both this and Part I for several days now, but put it off hoping for a cpl hrs to concentrate on it, since there is so much here.

I've been fwding to everybody I know, as I did with Virginia Rodino's "report back from the Cairo Conference"; to me both are seminal documents clearly indicating the direction "the movement" needs to go.

One aspect that needs to be brought out more clearly is the relationship of UFPJ leaders Cagan and Benjamin to the "liberal zionist" wing of the US Zionist Establishment.

Likewise, the affinity of The Nation to Liberal Zionist circles (and even to the not-so-liberal FLAME organization, whose racist ads the mag was still carrying when I cancelled by sub)should get some attention.

Since it's clear the 911 caper was executed by a large team or network of very skilled, well-connected intelligence agents/agencies, to me it is only common sense to assume that Mossad, plus that org & the IDF's extensive international network of off-the-shelf assets, likely played a major role. (some idea of the capabilities of this network can be gained by reading work by Peter Dale Scott & Jane Hunter).

To me it is impossible to talk about "gatekeepers" and ignore the role of Zionism and Liberal Zionism in US politics, civil society, the labor movement, the Democratic Party, the "respectable" sector of the Civil Rights movement, and the US left/progressive movement(s) in general.

I had been active in "left" activies for a cpl decades: Vietnam war protests, supporting the Bay Area "Black Power" movement, UFWA etc, even protesting the 1982 invasion of Lebanon -- but it wasn't until I started reading the late Rabbi Elmer Berger's AJAZ journal, the work of the late Israel Shahak, Alfred Lilienthal, that I began to have a clue about Zionism.

And it wasn't until I came across Lenni Brenner's "The Iron Wall" about the founding of the Likud movement, his "Zionism in the Age of the Dictators" about Zionist clandestine activities in Europe leading up to, during, and after WWII, incl. the extensive cooperation between Zionist orgs and the Nazis -- that I started to put it together. But it wasn't until I read Lee O'Brien's "American Jewish Organizations and Israel", plus Brenner's "Jews in America Today", that I saw the whole picture.

More stuff has come out, like Chomsky's widely heralded books. But to me, at best it reinforces/elaborates/corroborates the same picture.

If you have based your analysis on Chomsky's writings, IMHO you probably are seriously misinformed about the M-E conflict, and even more about the struggle to create a countervailing power within the US Constitutional framework.

If you haven't at least read Brenner and the one small book so carefully researched and documented by Ms O'Brien, there is no way you can grasp what's going on in the determination of US foreign & military policy today.

There is more, but I have to do my chores before it starts raining again:)

Thanks again to Dr Shaw for his article -- both parts! -- and to him and Janice Mathews and all their accomplices for creating and maintaining this excellent site!!

In Struggle,

Dan Elliott
Sacramento

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