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
Some crack journalist (maybe somebody like John Stossel) shouldn't find it too difficult to track down who finances these escapades....I'd love to know.
"Try" being the operative word. Give it up and just go home, squeaky.
If you have a web site to post a picture on, do so and then go to 'html sandbox' in FR and it will show you how.
This scum of a human being has a long history, long before her son, a HERO to us all, gave his life protecting the freedom of each and every one of us, and fighting to establish freedom for others a half a world away. This scumbag of a woman has been seen hanging around with the SCUM who support the enemies of freedom, the very people who killed her son. She is the lowest of low, the SCUM on SCUM. She never felt the loss of her son, she used OUR loss, the loss of a believer in the United States of America, A believer in the concept of FREEDOM this nation fights for, and tries to spread to everyone on the planet. This sub human is using OUR loss,- the loss of a patriot- to further the agenda of HER communist ideals, the ideals which strip us all of our freedom, the very thing which made this nation the greatest nation on the planet, a nation still worth fighting for. We have to keep up our fight against the Cindy She-mans who use the blood of our fallen hero's, the free speech they have afforded us, to strip us of our freedoms. She us a disgusting "woman", her outward uglyness is a reflection of the darkness ofher soul.
"This scum of a human being has a long history, long before her son, a HERO to us all, gave his life protecting the freedom of each and every one of us, and fighting to establish freedom for others a half a world away.
This scumbag of a woman has been seen hanging around with the very SCUM who support the enemies of freedom, the very people who killed her son.
She is the lowest of low, the SCUM on SCUM. She never felt the loss of her son, she used OUR loss, the loss of a believer in the United States of America, A believer in the concept of FREEDOM this nation fights for, and tries to spread to everyone on the planet.
This sub human is using OUR loss,- the loss of a patriot- to further the agenda of HER communist ideals, the ideals which strip us all of our freedom, the very thing which made this nation the greatest nation on the planet, a nation still worth fighting for.
We have to keep up our fight against the Cindy She-mans who use the blood of our fallen hero's, the free speech they have afforded us, to strip us of our freedoms. She us a disgusting "woman", her outward uglyness is a reflection of the darkness ofher soul.
These scum use money they raise pretending to be charities and helping victims of natural disaters.
That is how they can afford to travel across the nation in motor homes, smoking dope and partying all the way.
truly, they are the sickest people on the planet.
What's even worse, is that a political party, who want to lead the nation, support these scum.
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