flip-flops: whatever happened to being able to change your mind or elaborate on an idea?

[netmouse]

novapsyche has been keeping me updated on the Cindy Sheehan story, about a woman who is leading a demonstration against Bush and the war. Having lost her son in Iraq, Sheehan wants to meet with Bush and ask him what the "Good cause" is that these soldiers are dying for.

Today's update is How a Drudge Report attempting to discredit Sheehan quickly got picked up by conservative blogs and made it into Fox News.

What really gets to me is that the news people appear to be saying "earlier when her family met with the president, sheehan said things that {taken out of context and made to seem about a topic that they weren't about) made it look like she was comforted by the president's earlier visit. Now she says she's not happy. Obviously she can't claim to not be happy now if she thought at all well of him then."

I understand they think that maybe all this woman is doing is trying to get publicity to ask questions that might lead to getting the rest of our soldiers out of harms way and possibly (heh) impeaching the president. And they seem to think that would be a bad thing.

Remember kids, Bush says questioning your government is bad. Now repeat after me: Baaad.



In the meantime, the republican party is paying the lawyers bills of a man implicated in an investigation of illegal activities designed to prevent a "get out the vote" effort (those often involve things like calling voters and seeing if they need a ride to the polls) by swamping the phone lines of the organization doing it. Seems two people already charged have both stated the man was in the thick of making it happen.

The next election could be very, very scary. We really need to think about how we're going to prepare for it and how we're going to respond to it.

or something.

Comments

Respectful dissents

[chowbok.livejournal.com]

Remember kids, Bush says questioning your government is bad. Now repeat after me: Baaad.

I guess I just don't see this. When did Bush say this? I know you don't mean he literally said it, but what has he specifically done to give this impression. I mean, she's out there, right by his ranch, causing a big embarrassment to his administration, and nothing's really happened to her. Yes, Drudge is a jerk and he's maligned her terribly, but being attacked by some rabid ideologue on a blog is a far cry from government-sanctioned suppression.

[T]he Bush administration sucks in the way it is really coming down hard on dissent and questioning...

I hear things like this a lot, but again, I'd like some specific examples. There's no lack of dissent and questioning; sometimes it seems like it's all I hear. I know in Ann Arbor you can't swing a dead cat without hitting somebody who regularly dissents (and loudly) from the Bush Administration's policies. There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't see anybody coming down on it, hard or otherwise.

Drudge, Malkin, Coulter, et al, are loudmouth ideologues and not to be taken seriously (much like Moore and Chomsky on the other side of the fence). But it is possible to thoughtfully dissent from Sheehan's point of view: see here (http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2005/08/message-to-cindy-sheehan.html) for an Iraqi's response.

Re: Respectful dissents

[(Anonymous)]

Every time Bush travels somewhere they set up special free speech zones far away from where he's going and don't let anyone protest along the media path. They threw people out of his election-year rallies for nonconformative comments or pins - ones that disagreed with a single policy or the war, not ones that said the name of the other guy or anything like that. He has fired all the scientists in his administration who disagree with him volubly. You're not allowed to be in his camp unless you buy his mind-meld, ass over armpit.