(AP) Peace activist Cindy Sheehan and three other women were convicted of trespassing Monday for trying to delivery an anti-Iraq war petition to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and refusing to leave.
A Manhattan Criminal Court judge sentenced them immediately to conditional discharge, which means they could face some form of penalty if they are arrested in the next six months, and ordered them to pay $95 in court surcharges.
I know you guys miss John.
BTW, when you look at the national polling it is almost scary how rapidly we are becoming a nation of Cindy Sheehans. Surprising majorities think that we aren’t winning the Iraq war, that we can’t win and we might as well bug out while the bugging is good. Does that make Cindy Sheehan ultimately more credible than everybody who dismissed her as crazy, extremist, etc? Or is this more of a stopped clock thing. Discuss.
srv
Not a stopped clock. Cindy didn’t behave as a proper gold star mother should – there wasn’t really anything obvious in it for her when she started her crusade, regardless of the motivations the Darrells of wingnutland would tender.
Never before have so many been so wrong, about so much, so consistently. Cindy is stick in their eye, the salt on their wound. Any honorable person who disagreed with her would have shaken their heads and kept their mouths shut. But the vile, disgusting crap that came from the John Coles of the Right showed the world just exactly what they were made of.
carpeicthus
Not really a stopped clock, but it’s not a sign of deep understanding of policy. Her position on Iraq makes her more credible on that issue. Her position on many other things makes her much less credible than other people who also saw through the smoke and mirrors.
Pb
Normally, I’d just tell Cindy to appeal–we could use a few good First Amendment lawsuits these days. However:
Assuming that Mr. Grenell has the facts straight here, then maybe the best thing they could do would be to just pay the $95 and shut up about it.
jake
Credible? How about realistic? And let’s take a closer look at the fine citizens calling her names: Well, well. They also called vets like Murtha names and accussed an entire political party of being anti-American, soldier hating terrorists enablers until the GOP burrowed beneath rock bottom and accused Major Duckworth (who lost both of her legs in Iraq) of cutting and running. Not just crazy and extremist but incredibly fucking tasteless. The people backing our little jaunt in Iraq are no more credible or realistic than the guy on the corner who shouts at the giant radioactive squirrels.
So to answer your question: Hell yeah, she’s more credible. Always has been, always will be.
ThymeZone
Exactly right.
She was, as I said a year and a half ago, a hero then, and is now.
Despite the adolescent nonsense on the subject by John Cole and many others, it is not necessary to be photogenic, or well spoken, or street smart, or an expert on public communication, to be a hero. It is only necessary to stand up, which is what she did.
The people who bashed her … and that includes the ones who did it here … were bullies and assholes and owe her and us an apology. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it though.
Zifnab
Cindy’s clock is running fine. I think it’s the rest of America that needed a pair of new batteries. That we’ve finally come around to seeing the disaster in Iraq as a the mess it truly has become is comforting in the same way that watching a heroine addict admitting he has a problem is comforting.
And I question whether we would even be here, at this stage of intellectual honesty, if women like Cindy hadn’t had the courage to stand up and take flak for calling a quagmire a quagmire.
She might not be a Roads Scholar, but she’s proven herself to have the big brass ones necessary to at least attempt to do what is right.
mrmobi
Right you are, Zif. I could have done without the Hugo Chavez thing, but she doesn’t have a media team that I know of. She’s just out there trying to get this administration to change course.
It is because of people like her that the public is more comfortable choosing to acknowledge failure in Iraq, instead of blindly following Chimpy McFlightsuit down the road to ruin. Good on her.
dlw
Maybe not “everybody”, but more credible than the lying sacks of @#$% that introduced the new verb “to swiftboat”? More credible than the morons that cling to the belief that the US can bring peace to Iraq by dropping in MORE troops? More credible than Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hanity, and Bill O’Reily?
Yeah. She’s more credible than them. So’s my dog.
Steve
That’s hilarious. Better protestors, please.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
No, Sheehan’s still a deluded nut. You don’t get to pick and choose which quotes to remember when trying to establish her credibility.
What was she right about, again? America being lackeys for the evil Jews? Afghanistan being a puppet so Bush could get Iraq’s oil (try and wrap your brain around that bit of brilliance — then look at a map)? Her flip-flop account of her meeting with Bush? Shilling for Chavez? “Iraqi sham elections?” “Bush killed my son”?” “We are waging a nuclear war in Iraq right now”? Was she right about her living 1000 years? Deranged rubbish.
If Sheehan had said “I think we should have invaded Iraq and I don’t think Iraq can support a better form of government, so we should bring our soldiers home,” then you might have a case for her standing. But she clearly went insane along the line. As it is, the only people who think she’s credible are those as bonkers with BDS as she is.
Pb
Yes, Straw Cindy Sheehan is a witch, burn her! Come on, man, try at least picking on an actual person for once. Sheesh.
ThymeZone
About the war being wrong for America, and about Bush being a liar and a damned fool.
She could have been a raving lunatic, wouldn’t matter, she was right about those things, and a hero for standing up and saying so when she did.
In any situation in which you appear to be on the side of George W. Bush, I wouldn’t be lecturing anybody about credibility.
Personally, I’ve never had a son killed in a useless war and had the President call me “mom” because he was too lazy to make sure he remembered my name. Or have him make a big joke out of looking for WMDs, the supposed reason for the war, under his sofa cushions. Maybe that would drive me insane, too. Maybe that kind of crap would drive a whole country insane.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
I love how you ignore the other half-dozen or so whackjob statements and whine “strawman” at one of them (with no explanation) — and then accuse me of not picking on an actual person.
I’ll bet you don’t win a lot of arguments, do you?
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
I don’t think any of those things has been established as fact at this point — although #3 is close — so we’re back to credibility. Being a total nut pretty much eliminates her cred. I’d put her in the “stopped clock” category with Whoopi Goldberg and Babs if it turns out she’s right on anything.
BIRDZILLA
They should at least do some community service and know she is doing something useful for a change