Where Left Is Right / The Old Site

You have already, no doubt, heard the saga of Cindy Sheehan. She's the woman whose son (Army Spc. Casey Sheehan) was killed in Iraq in April 2004, and she is now camped outside The Weasel's Texas White House in hopes of catching a word or two with him. (To be fair, it's only been the Texas White House some 50 times since he first took office, for -- so far -- no more than 20% of his two terms. The math says, um... [calculator whirring]... this works out to about 73 days of vacation per year. But it's certainly justifiable -- being The Weasel is hard work, no doubt.)

Anyway, this AP story catches us up on some of the latest. My favorite portion:

Kristinn Taylor, co-leader of the Washington, D.C., chapter of FreeRepublic.com, said Sheehan's protest is misguided and is hurting troop morale.

"She has a political agenda that goes way beyond her son's death in combat," said Taylor, whose conservative group has held pro-troop rallies since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and counter-protests of anti-war demonstrations.

Get that? Sheehan's grief for her dead son is surpassed by her political motivations. I've said here any number of times that I don't believe conservatives -- even self-identified Freepers -- to be universally mean-spirited. Sometimes it's difficult not to think the worst, though.

In other developments:

• DKos diarist patrioticliberal reports on what began as an anti-Cindy-Sheehan protest organized by one "Jack Hammer," who is not a professional wrestler but a morning DJ broadcast on a Waco Fox Radio program and numerous other Clear Channel outlets). It has since transmuted supposedly into merely a pro-Weasel rally, supposedly no longer to be held in Crawford, and supposedly no longer on Saturday as originally planned. Lots of links on the DKos page to organizations and individuals (including Joe Trippi) helping Sheehan out.
• Media Matters reports the truth behind the winger echo-chamber complaints that Sheehan "changed her story" after her first meeting with The Weasel in 2004. Bottom line: The complaints originate from bottom-feeder Drudge's account of the 2004 meeting -- an account which selectively quotes from a newspaper report... perhaps (let's be charitable) not with the intention of making Sheehan look like a hypocrite, but with that effect. Media Matters provides the complete context, should you be inclined to linger over evidence of The Drudgeman's latest droppings.
• A Christian Science Monitor editorial compares Sheehan's protest with that of Akbar Ganji, the Iranian journalist who was jailed in June (in Iran, not here) on a charge of "being 'un-Islamic' because he demands democratic reform in Iran" -- and then went on a weeks-long hunger strike.
• The Huffington Post's Thomas de Zengotita recounts the story of Bill O'Reilly's mistake last night: Interviewing Dolores Kesterson, another woman whose son was killed in Iraq and afterwards met with The Weasel. (NewsHounds has an even more complete story about it, and there's video available from Crooks and Liars.) Kesterson embarrassed the bejeezus out of Falafel Bill.

I just love stories like this -- and in particular, I like the way the momentum all seems in our direction for a change.

Update (2005-08-12, 2:15pm): Go read Gary Hart's column at the Huff Post. Share it with your elected representatives. I'd love to hear their glib responses.