Posted on 11/16/2005 8:01:11 AM PST by badabing98
By Dan Genz Tribune-Herald staff writer
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Cindy Sheehan, the Iraq war critic whose campsite along a Crawford roadside drew opponents and supporters by the hundreds in August, will try to recapture the public's attention and plans to break new local laws she inspired when she returns next week for Thanksgiving.
After President Bush and Sheehan left on Aug. 31, McLennan County Commissioners Court voted to ban parking on 23 miles of roadway near Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch and prevent people from camping, eating, or placing portable bathrooms in ditches along all county roads.
Sheehan, the California mother of 24-year-old Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, who died during his first week in the Iraq war, plans to break at least one of the new laws Nov. 22, shortly after she arrives on the turf that made her famous.
The “civil disobedience” event is just the first of a series of spectacles she's planning as Bush spends the holiday at his ranch, including a small Iraqi meal for Thanksgiving dinner and an anti-war rally the following Sunday.
“(The ordinances are) infringing on our rights to assemble and they're trying to get rid of the free-speech zones,” said Dede Miller, Sheehan's sister, in a telephone interview.
Sheehan began her protest in a roadside ditch and was never arrested during her more than three weeks at the roadside outpost. She was arrested in Washington, D.C., during a protest more than three weeks after she left McLennan County.
The new laws were designed to stop people from living in tents in the dusty ditches and to end the long lines of parked cars, sometimes stretching more than a mile along the twisting paved roads that dart past farms and houses outside of Crawford, a few miles from Bush's ranch.
While a landowner closer to Bush's property offered Sheehan the opportunity to stage her events and de facto campground on his property, some of her supporters continued to camp by the roadside where she began her protest.
McLennan County Sheriff Larry Lynch said he is aware of Sheehan's plans, but he did not want to discuss what could or would happen.
“I'm not going to comment on our strategy,” Lynch said. “We're going to have our forces out there and we'll do whatever is necessary.”
Miller repeated Lynch's phrase in defense of her group's tactics.
“We would rather not be arrested, but we also feel we need to do whatever is necessary to stop this war,” Miller said.
The group also plans to question the constitutionality of the measures in court.
An Austin lawyer, Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, said he plans to file federal suits against both ordinances, arguing they are designed in part to restrict criticism of the president.
“We're definitely challenging both of those,” said Harrington, who defended separate Bush protesters in Crawford in a previous case. “You can do narrow legislating, but you can't do it in such a way that it totally prohibits free-speech ability. Instead of carving out reasonable legislation, they've used the whole meat ax.”
Mike Dixon, a Waco attorney who represents McLennan County, said the August protests represented a safety risk that could not be ignored.
“These orders were not passed with any intent to infringe on anybody's right to protest. These were rules that were passed out of a necessity for the safety of the public and for the convenience of the traveling public,” Dixon said.
“We do not believe we are infringing on anyone's First Amendment rights by requiring that cars not be parked along a narrow county road or by requiring that people not take up residence in county ditches,” he added.
McLennan County Judge Jim Lewis said the new laws will be enforced.
“If someone breaks the law, they're going to do their duty,” Lewis said of the sheriff's office. “That's the nature of the beast.”
dgenz@wacotrib.com
757-5743
I like my turkey on my plate, not on tv, thanks.
what can be done to get the ditch b$tch off the front page? Hope the Crawford and county law enforcement are a little more pro-active this time around and keep the property clean of "trash". Hear she wants to be arrested and jailed in Crawford which will bring more notoriety.
No thanks. I already had my fuitcake.
Hehehehe!
I wonder what the fine is for violating the ordinance? Shouldn't it be at least $10,000? Shouldnt bail be at least $1000? Since most of those anti war protesters seem to have little time to work, I wonder if they can raise that kind of money? If they can then perhaps the IRS should investigate their sources of income.
Just a few thoughts. Need to make this fight fair hehehe.
"Cindy Sheehan......will try to recapture the public's attention"
Earth calling Mediawhore "Your 15 minutes are finally up."
Apparently, this whackjob didn't get the pointed message at her last "news conference" when NO ONE SHOWED UP. The clintonistas have had as much of her as they will allow. She's in danger of a Fort Marcy Park visit if she doesn't back off.
"No thanks. I already had my fuitcake."
And my bowl of mixed nuts.
Well, good. At least one newspaper no longer calls her a grieving mother. Her son is given a passing reference two paragraphs later, and no attempt is made to connect his death and what she's doing now.
No thanks, I'm trying to save room for Pumpkin Pie!
She is having an Iraqi meal for Thanksgiving?
I hope she chokes on it.
When Bush pardons the turkey, don't they take it to a zoo? Surely they don't just let it go where it might hang around....
The bolded part is a flat out lie. Casey Volunteered, Served one tour, Re-upped for a second tour and volunteered for the mission on which he was killed.
Should I be surprised?
It's time for that "Aw geez, not this shit again..." picture...
Actually it was his first week in Iraq.
I have it but dont know how to post it!
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