Today, Thurday Aug. 18 I have many things on my mind ...

Therefore this post will be a free assocation of thoughts, in no particular order. Just as our world is a less orderly place, so are my thoughts. So many problems in our country, and no solutions, it's frustrating.

First, this letter by Elizabeth Edwards:

"Cindy wants Casey's death to have meant as much as his life -- lived fully -- might have meant. I know this, as does every mother who has ever stood where we stand. And the President says he knows enough, doesn't need to hear from Casey's mother, doesn't need to assure her that Casey's is not one small death in a long and seemingly never-ending drip of deaths, that there is a plan here that will bring our sons and daughters home. He doesn't need to hear from her, he says. He claims he understands how some people feel about the deaths in Iraq.

The President is wrong." complete letter

The right wing bashes Cindy Sheehan:

"Pro-Bush media hit squads are busily spreading the notions that Sheehan is a dupe of radicals, naïve and/or nutty. But the most promising avenue of attack is likely to be the one sketched out by Fox News Channel eminence Bill O’Reilly on Aug. 9, 2005, when he declared that Cindy Sheehan bears some responsibility for “other American families who have lost sons and daughters in Iraq who feel that this kind of behavior borders on treasonous.”
During a typical outburst in early 2003 before the Iraq invasion, Rush Limbaugh told his radio audience: “I want to say something about these anti-war demonstrators. No, let’s not mince words, let’s call them what they are—anti-American demonstrators.” Weeks later, former Congressman Joe Scarborough, a Republican rising through the ranks of national TV hosts, said on MSNBC: “These leftist stooges for anti-American causes are always given a free pass. Isn’t it time to make them stand up and be counted for their views, which could hurt American troop morale?”

Such poisonous sludge is now pouring out of some mass media—and we should expect plenty more in response to a growing anti-war movement."
" more

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart on Bush vs. Cindy. (You gotta love Jon Stewart!)
In a segment titled -- what else? -- "Texas Scold'em," Stewart covers Cindy Sheehan's vigil in his own peculiar way (video here).

Out at "Dude Ranch One," the president steps onto the set of Bonanza to concede that Sheehan does, of course, have the right to say what she believes, as long, Stewart says, as long as that position's a mile away from the BBQ pit!"

And to Bush's statement that he must "go on with my life," Stewart, nearly losing his comic cool, responds: "yes, I've gotta be strong, it's time for me to put this woman's dead son behind me and just move on."


George Bush, "getting on with his life."