Posted on 02/01/2006 4:50:29 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan says she intends to sue over her arrest last night just prior to President Bush's State of the Union address, as she displayed a shirt proclaiming the number of dead American soldiers from the ongoing conflict in Iraq.
"I am so upset and sore it is hard to think straight," Sheehan writes in her online diary. "I have some lawyers looking into filing a First Amendment lawsuit against the government for what happened tonight. I will file it. It is time to take our freedoms and our country back. I don't want to live in a country that prohibits any person, whether he/she has paid the ultimate price for that country, from wearing, saying, writing, or telephoning any negative statements about the government. That's why I am going to take my freedoms and liberties back. That's why I am not going to let Bushco take anything else away from me ... or you."
Sheehan was taken into custody shortly after unzipping her jacket, revealing her T-shirt, which had the message, "2245 Dead. How many more?"
She says a Capitol police officer spotted the message, and yelled, "Protester."
"He then ran over to me, hauled me out of my seat and roughly (with my hands behind my back) shoved me up the stairs. I said something like 'I'm going, do you have to be so rough?'"
She continued: "I was never told that I couldn't wear that shirt into the Congress. I was never asked to take it off or zip my jacket back up. If I had been asked to do any of those things, I would have, and written about the suppression of my freedom of speech later. I was immediately, and roughly (I have the bruises and muscle spasms to prove it) hauled off and arrested for 'unlawful conduct.'"
Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq and has since called terrorists "freedom fighters," said while she was not looking to cause any disturbance, she did wear the shirt "to make a statement."
"The press knew I was going to be there and I thought every once in a while they would show me and I would have the shirt on. I did not wear it to be disruptive, or I would have unzipped my jacket during George's speech. If I had any idea what happens to people who wear shirts that make the neocons uncomfortable that I would be arrested ... maybe I would have, but I didn't."
Sheehan got some support from Fox News' legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano.
"Silently wearing a T-shirt is not against the law," he told host John Gibson. "She had every right to wear it."
Sheehan's threat of a lawsuit is already being blasted by some news watchers.
In a letter addressed to Sheehan from Regina Robertson of Lubbock, Texas, Robertson writes: "Voice your opinion in the manner which the First Amendment was intended, not by treating your home country as the enemy. ... I am offended daily by the likes of you Cindy Sheehan, and your publicity stunts that have embarrassed America for too long. I am exercising my First Amendment right here, by sending this out there, hoping you will be intelligent enough to read it. I am voicing my opinion, but I am not denying you Cindy Sheehan, yours. I simply want you and all your liberal friends to respect the freedom you have been given by the blood shed not only by the 2,245 in Iraq, but by thousands and thousands more in the past. And I simply want you to leave my country. (Is that so wrong?)"
In addition to Sheehan, Beverly Young, the wife of U.S. Rep. Bill Young, R- Fla., was also ejected from the House gallery during the State of the Union address for wearing a shirt that read, "Support the Troops – Defending Our Freedom."
Today on the House floor, Rep. Young blasted his wife's arrest.
"Because she had on a shirt that someone didn't like that said support our troops, she was kicked out of this gallery," he said, as he held up the shirt. "Shame, shame."
Apparently she doesn't know that she can't make the rules, but must live by them or be ejected.
"I am so upset and sore it is hard to think straight,"
Didn't take long to confuse her, did it?
I grew up on a dairy farm. Believe me, I know how perfectly STUPID cows can be...
The Capitol Police answer to Congress. In effect, her host's security force was responsible for her removal. Why doesn't she just complain to her Representative?
I cannot believe what a pig this lady is...who goes to the SOTU address in a jumpsuit and t-shirt? The classless piece of trash should have been stopped at the door and redirected to Denny's.
Re#15 Nice play on words. The Grifter's plantation comment was such a goof, got great play and ain't going away. Here's hoping Hillary gets to stray from her script more often...
She is a pathetic nutcase who should not be allowed within 1000 feet of the President. The issue shouldn't be her t-shirt or her mouthing off, it should be that she is mentally unstable and filled with such hatred that she cannot be trusted not to attack someone. Someone with expertise needs to make a public argument that Cindy Sheehan and all her fellow far-left America-hating twits are sure to produce their own wannabe assassins one of these days, just as an "anarchist" decided to assassinate President Wm. McKinley.... and then there are nuts like Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan. Think about it, the loony leftists like Cindy who think Bush is the source of all evil in the world are far more obviously deranged than anyone knew Oswald or Sirhan Sirhan to be in the months before they went off. The heads of these loonie leftists are so filled with mindless rage and fury that it's only a matter of time before one or more of them goes off in a violent rampage. The Secret Service should not allow these lunatics into any room where the President or other senior officials will be.
Promise?
I said something like 'I'm going, do you have to be so rough?'"
I'm betting her recollection is off by about ten dozen profanities.
I have the bruises and muscle spasms to prove it...
"You better put some ice on that."
BTTT...:)
"she has paid the ultimate price for that country"
What?! Cindy's dead?!
Who knew?
She should come to Ohio,we'll treat her like a king.Rodney King.
I think the judge is wrong on this one. First you have to be invited, including the President, to the SOTU. Second, you have to abide by the rules of the Chamber. Those rules include, no protesting, silent or otherwise. It is my understanding that she also had a banner. Will someone clarify that?
I have no doubt that she really intended to start screaming or some other attention getting action once she got into the chamber. Getting herself in the spotlight is what she is all about. So.... let her sue and give her all the camera time she can handle. The more her face is on the screen the more votes swing to the GOP.
Also...the Congresswoman who invited her should be looked at in regard to conspiracy to commit a criminal act. Give her face time right next to the inimitable Cindy.
At least cows are useful. Ms. Sheehan is NOT.
Her insistance on being the center of attention is really getting old.
STOP EMBARRASSING YOURSELF, CINDY!!!
Fair point. I'm not going to think of the ramifications of trying to milk HER...(Pass the bucket, please!)
It sounds like they just need to put a sign on the door that says 'NO T-shirts, shorts or flip-flops'.
If I was the senator I'd be embarrassed that my wife wore her t-shirt to the capitol building, let alone to a televised State of the Union address. Shame, shame.
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