So what have we here, buried in a story in a very local paper, the Arkansas Leader (covering Lonoke, White and North Pulaski Counties):

People stranded at the convention center in New Orleans wait to be evacuated.

Death toll exaggerated

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Mikel Brooks is part of a two-man team putting a new roof on Yolly Seedtibood’s old Chopsticks restaurant in Jacksonville, but three months ago, the Searcy resident, an Arkansas National Guardsman, was falsely quoted as saying 30 or 40 people were killed at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

A now discredited and fired reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune wrote a sizzling first-person account that included great drama, but apparently not much fact — a story that was picked up and repeated around the world by organizations including CNN.

But Specialist Brooks told The Leader on Monday that he saw only four bodies, and that’s what he told the reporter, and others in the Arkansas Guard’s 39th Infantry Brigade have backed him up.

“Brooks and several other Guardsmen said they had seen between 30 and 40 more bodies in the Convention Center’s freezer,” wrote reporter Brian Thevenot.

Not so, Brooks, a Bald Knob native, said Monday.

Brooks and his fellow Guards-men dropped onto the New Orleans Superdome parking garage Sept. 2 and moved the next day through high waters to help provide security during its evacuation, he recounted Monday evening.

“ We evacuated about 4,000 hurricane victims in school buses,” he said.

“We confiscated weapons, poured out liquor and provided security,” he continued. “When we first got there, it was like something out of a movie. Forty-five story skyscrapers with no windows, wading in water up to our bottoms …”

Members of his unit went to a nearby Walgreens to get medical supplies, including supplies for diabetics dropped in the Super-dome and the convention center.

“People were tired, hungry and scared. It was really chaotic. There was no law. Looting everywhere,” he said.

Brooks said it was hard to believe life could be like that in America. His unit patrolled in humvees, setting up checkpoints, and establishing martial law.

He said he still gets interview requests from national and international media.

Brooks, who has about a year of college at ASU-Beebe, will return to school, where he may seek a career in criminology.

His education has been interrupted by Guard stints in Egypt and Iraq, he said.

So the Times-Picayune reporter was fired? That's news to me.

I wonder why Mr. Thevenot felt it necessary to inflate the numbers and hype the story. Heaven knows, the DNC/MSM weren't doing that. (I kid.)

Regular readers will recall our skeptical treatment of the T-P’s story on the day.

By the way, how come the National Guardsmen could evacuate people in school buses and the city of New Orleans could not?

Speaking as we were of Ann Coulter.

Compare:

And contrast:

Paid Soros hireling (and volunteer lickspittle) David Brock has launched a jihad against the brilliant Ann Coulter.

Brock (aka “who?”) is using his Soros feathered nest at (the ironically self-styled) Media Matters to start a "grassroots" uprising against CNN.

Why? Because CNN has allowed Ann Coulter’s lovely visage and scintillating intellect to grace their screen ten times (count ‘em) in lo these last two years.

The shame of it all. The humanity!

From Ronald Reagan’s favorite magazine, the venerable Human Events:

Tell CNN Not to Ditch Coulter

by Robert B. Bluey
Nov 29, 2005

David Brock’s Media Matters for America today asked it supporters to “Tell CNN to ditch Coulter.” The fundraising and publicity pleads: “It’s time for CNN to stop helping Ann Coulter to spew her false and offensive bile to the American public.”

Coulter, HUMAN EVENTS’ Legal Affairs Correspondent, is a favorite of Brock’s to attack. She appeared on the network last week, apparently prompting the dispatch from Media Matters.

As a public service for conservatives, I’m sharing Media Matters’ email with you. As liberals bombard CNN with anti-Coulter emails, there’s nothing stopping you from writing pro-Coulter letters.

Here’s Media Matters’ letter:

Last Friday, right-wing radical Ann Coulter made her 10th appearance on CNN since the beginning of 2004. On the November 25 edition of "Lou Dobbs Tonight," she "discussed" her recent column, in which she called Democrats "gutless traitors" and explained that Democrats’ behavior shows they "long to see U.S. troops shot, humiliated, and driven from the field of battle." Why does CNN continue to give Coulter a platform to air her outrageous statements?

On other occasions, Coulter has accused the Democratic Party of "support[ing] killing, lying, adultery, thievery, envy," written that the only question about Bill Clinton was "whether to impeach or assassinate," and said that her "only regret" about the Oklahoma City bombing was that Timothy McVeigh "did not go to the New York Times building." Following a column she wrote in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks — in which she wrote that the United States’ response to the terrorists should be to "invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity" — the conservative National Review Online dropped her column. She was also fired by MSNBC for comments she made on the air in 1997.

Coulter also has a long history of spreading false information. She has falsely claimed that a "majority of Hispanics voted in favor of" Proposition 187, a controversial California ballot measure that sought to deny illegal immigrants most government services; in fact, exit polling shows that the vast majority of Hispanics voted against Proposition 187. After Hurricane Katrina, Coulter appeared on Fox News and made several false statements pertaining to the hurricane and the relief efforts taking place in its aftermath.

It’s time for CNN to stop helping Ann Coulter to spew her false and offensive bile to the American public.

Take Action! Click here to contact CNN and let it know that Coulter’s hate and misinformation don’t belong on network news.

Normally I would say that this is just the open-mindedness of the left exposed in all of its glory. How they are open to all points of view, as long as it is their own.

But in this case it’s simply David Brock doing what his sugardaddy Soros told him to do.

I'll be the first to admit I haven't followed the 'Tookie' Williams saga as closely as I should.

But isn't the argument he shouldn't be executed because through his (ghost-written) books he holds so much sway with the children ® ?

That is, the life of this cold-blooded murderer must be spared so that he can steer others away from joining gangs and set them on the path to righteousness?

Well, 'Tookie' didn't seem to do too good of a job of that with his own children, according to NBC-TV Channel 4 :

'Tookie' Williams' Son Allegedly Rapes Girl At Gunpoint

Girl's Mother Says Convicted Killer's Son Wanted To Hurt Her

November 15, 2005

FONTANA, Calif. — Southern California law enforcement officers searched Tuesday for a 36-year-old rape suspect believed to be a son of Crips street gang co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams, who is awaiting execution.

Lafayette Jones, a registered sex offender who may be in the Los Angeles area, allegedly lured a 13-year-old girl into his car in northern Fontana on Saturday, promising to take her shopping at a mall, police said.

"He told her that he had just got paid and that he wanted to buy her some new shoes," the girl's mother, whose identity was concealed due to the nature of the crime, told NBC4. "And he said, I will have you back before your Mom gets home, and it will be a surprise. And she thought it was OK."

Police told NBC4 that Jones allegedly sexually assaulted the girl at gunpoint.

"After he got her into the car, he put a gun to her head and forced the victim to commit certain sexual acts upon him," Fontana police Sgt. William Megenney told the station.

Left at the Ontario Mills mall six hours later, relatives told NBC4 the girl had been beaten up and forced to drink alcohol.

"The reason why he took my daughter is because I didn't love him anymore, and I loved her," the girl's mother told NBC4. "And he was trying to hurt me. And if he ever loved me or cared anything about me, he would turn himself in."

Jones, who police identified as a son of Williams, had lived in Fontana, but the girl's relatives told NBC4 that they had no idea that Jones had a criminal past.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders recently set a Dec. 13 execution date for Williams, who was convicted of killing four people during a 1979 robbery spree.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is in China on a trade mission, has not responded to pleas to commute Williams' sentence.

There's even some kind of video of the event apparently, if you are into that sort of lurid viewing material.

By the way, isn't another one of our hero father's progeny in jail for murdering some other hapless soul? I seem to recall hearing that somewhere. But it seems to get left out of our one party media's encomiums to the great man.

After all, how many people do you know who have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 2001?

I guess they have their priorities.

From the DNC’s Associated Press:

 

Big Easy Launches Free Wireless System

Nov 29 New Orleans — In an attempt to boost its stalled economy, the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans is starting the nation’s first free wireless Internet network owned and run by a major city.

Mayor Ray Nagin made the announcement at a late morning news conference.

Similar projects elsewhere have been stalled by stiff opposition from telephone and cable television companies aimed at discouraging competition from public agencies.

Nagin said the system started operation Tuesday in the central Business District and the French Quarter. It is to be available throughout the city in about a year.

The system uses hardware mounted on street lights to cover the city.

Most of the equipment was donated by three companies: Intel Corp., Tropos Networks and Pronto Networks.

The system will operate at 512 kilobytes per second as long as the city remains under a state of emergency.

That will be slowed once the state of emergency is over — that date has not been determined — to 128 kps in accordance with state law, which restricts government-owned Internet service.

As far as wasted taxpayer money and boondoggles in general go, this is fairly mild. Free WiFi might actually help the local businesses and even attract some geeksresidents back to town.

And at least this is some money that won’t find its way (at least directly) into Mayor Nagin’s Bemuda shorts.

But for some reason the whole thing reminds me of this picture I saw a day or so ago:

Al Jessup of Beckley adjusts one of his 12 satellite dishes Saturday at his home on James Street. All 12 dishes are in working order receiving 5,000-plus radio and television stations and Jessup plans to buy his 13th soon.

Still, the people I feel sorry for are those poor dupeskind souls who gave money to the Veterans For Peacedown there, so those techie mavens of the VFPcould set up internet connections for the Red Cross and Katrina victims, who otherwise would have died miserable lonely deaths.

Now what will the VFPdo with the $500,000 they collected?

(Thanks to 1sttofight for the heads up.)

It's all lies, says Mother Sheehan, according to Editor & Publisher:

Cindy Sheehan Claims Photos Falsely Implied Her Book Signing was a Flop

By E&P Staff

Published: November 29, 2005 12:30 PM ET

NEW YORK – Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan and her book publisher are upset about Associated Press and Reuters photos that allegedly presented a misleading impression of her book signing last weekend in Texas.

Sheehan, whose soldier son was killed in Iraq, gained wide fame last summer in an antiwar protest near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, and then in a march in Washington, D.C. She returned to Crawford last week for a Thanksgiving protest. Her new book, “Not One More Mother's Child,” had just been published, and her publisher organized a book signing in a large tent in Crawford on Saturday.

Photos of the event, carried widely on the Web, and then picked up by conservative blogs, seemed to imply that the book signing was a bust. The photos showed Sheehan looking dejected, sitting at a table, with no one in the tent except for a couple of photographers. The AP caption simply read: “Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan waits for people to show up at her book signing near President Bush's ranch on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2005 in Crawford, Texas.”

The Washington Post, which carried Evan Vucci's AP photo, noted that at a protest the same day Sheehan had addressed a crowd of only about 100. “In the morning,” the Post observed, “Sheehan signed copies of her new book, being published this week, for an even smaller crowd,” although it cited bad weather as a possible factor.

But in a statement today, Sheehan accused “right-wing” sites of “spreading a false story that nobody bought my book at Camp Casey on Saturday. That is not true, I sold all 100 copies and got writer's cramp signing them. Photos were taken of me before the people got in line to have me sign the book. We made $2000 for the [Iraqi-run, America-hating, anti-Semitic, preposterously named] peace house.”

Her publisher, Arnie Kotler at Koa Books, meanwhile released a letter to her supporters, charging that “AP and Reuters posted photos – I can't imagine why – of Cindy sitting at the book table between signings, rather than while someone was at the table. And now the smear websites are circulating an article, with these photos, that Cindy gave a signing and nobody came. It's simply not true…. the benefit books signing in Crawford, Texas on November 26, 2005 was well attended and a huge success.”

AP has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Poor Cindy. This time the mean old media slipped up and made it obvious even to the most feeble minded Kerry voter that she is lying her head off about her crowds.

One of these days Cindy is going to use some of the largess she is piling up to buy herself a camera. Then she will be able to document the multitudes she is always claiming to attract.

Heck, we didn't even allowed to see one book, let alone the hundred Cindy now claims to have sold.

But this is nothing new. Remember the ridiculous numbers our hero mother claimed for the September 24th rally? The throngs for her "Support The Terrorists" bus tour? The hordes who attended her first foray in the ditch?

Each of Mother Sheehan's claims was more preposterous than the last. Al-Cindy puts the Reverend Farrakhan to shame with her creative counting. But the media reports whatever she dreams up as fact, regardless.

Still, despite their best efforts and rubber man contortions, sometimes their cameramen slip up and show us the real story. Which is why this incident was such news. The mask slipped.

But only for an instant. Note the almost immediate return to the normal pro-Cindy spin:

[The Washington Post] cited bad weather as a possible factor.

Look at the other photos from (even later) that same day. There was not a cloud in the sky. People were in shirtsleeves, even t-shirts:

Who are we to believe? The Washington Post or our lying eyes?

In fact, we don't even have to believe our eyes, as our resourceful correspondent Scott has forwarded us a link to the Weather Channel's report for Crawford from that very day. It was sunny, with highs over 70 degrees.

But, alas, the universe is back in order. Our one party media is back to lying for Mother Sheehan again.

Somebody needs to explain to me why Mother Sheehan is getting so much more money for her treasonous agit-prop than a distinguished combat veteran? Eighteen times more, in fact.

Maybe Gordon Soderberg or one Cindy’s other bosom buddies at the other Veterans For Peace will denounce this outrageous injustice.

After all, who knows more about the issue and has a better right to speak on it than a combat veteran? Shouldn’t actually being a combat veteran trump being the mother of one?

Behold the tidings from upstate New York’s Daily Star Online:

11/29/05

SUCO to pay Sheehan $11,000

Tonight’s lecture to be countered by war veteran

By Jake Palmateer

Staff Writer

ONEONTA — The State University College at Oneonta has booked a Fox News Channel military analyst to counter a lecture tonight by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.

Lt. Col. Scott Rutter, who retired from the Army in November 2003 after leading a mechanized infantry battalion into Baghdad, will give a presentation sponsored by the student-run College Union Activities Council at noon Friday in the Hunt Union Square.

CUAC is also sponsoring an appearance by Sheehan at 8 p.m. tonight in the Hunt Union Ballroom.

Both events are part of "Making a Difference Week," said CUAC lecture chairwoman Erin Dromgoole, who helped book both speakers earlier this month.

Sheehan is getting paid $11,000 for the hour-long talk, while Rutter will receive his standard fee of $600 for his presentation, Dromgoole said.

She said the point of having the week was to encourage students to become more aware of current events.

Rutter will deliver a multimedia presentation entitled "A Soldier’s Story," which, according to his website, includes hundreds of photographs from the front lines in Iraq during the 2003 fight for Baghdad. Rutter has been a staunch supporter of the war.

A company commander in the Persian Gulf War and a battalion commander in the 3rd Infantry Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Rutter received a Silver Star for leading 850 men into combat. He returned to Iraq in 2004 to work as an imbedded military analyst for Fox News and continues to appear on the channel as a contributor.

Dromgoole said Sheehan will give a presentation entitled, "One Person Can Make a Difference."

"She is the main speaker," Dromgoole said.

Sheehan gained national attention in August for camping in a ditch outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Sheehan’s son, Casey Sheehan, was killed in Baghdad in April 2004, but after a face-to-face meeting with the president a few months later, she became involved in the anti-war movement.

Dromgoole said Rutter was sought out after CUAC heard a complaint that the student organization would appear to be taking a side on the war issue if it only invited Sheehan to participate.

"It was part of it," Dromgoole said.

She said the CUAC also heard concerns that Sheehan’s appearance may be more than a just a talk.

"Some people assumed it was an anti-war rally and that’s not what it is," Dromgoole said. "Her program is not about the war."

Dromgoole said the lecture is designed to illustrate that an individual can make a difference in society. But she added that the war will be mentioned by Sheehan.

"Obviously, it’s going to come up, that’s who she is," Dromgoole said.

CUAC is funded by a student activity fee of $80.50 a semester, Student Activity Director Bill Harcleroad said.

He said CUAC has $37,500 in the lecture budget for this year.

"(Rutter’s) getting paid whatever he asked for. (Sheehan’s) getting paid whatever she asked for," Harcleroad said.

Sheehan’s lecture will be given in the Hunt Union Ballroom, which has a capacity of 800 people. Rutter will give his presentation in the 75-person capacity Hunt Union Square.

Harcleroad said both events are free for SUCO students and $3 for members of the public.

In addition to hiring the lecturers, CUAC also paid for an advertisement in The Daily Star for the Sheehan speech.

Harcleroad said Rutter was not booked in time to get a similar advertisement for his speech, but he said that Rutter and Sheehan’s lectures are being promoted on campus with the same level of activity.

However, Dromgoole said, the advertisement was done in part to generate off-campus interest in Sheehan’s lecture because of the larger price tag for her appearance.

College spokeswoman Carol Blazina said university police are aware of Sheehan’s high-profile status and will be on guard.

"The college will provide appropriate security," Blazina said.

I’m sure Cindy’s handlers told the university they were getting a deal, since her usual rate is three times this mere pittance.

Mind you, al-Sheehan has led the pack of jackals who are trying to keep military recruiters off school campuses everywhere. But it’s okay — even worth thousands of dollars — to have her preach her America-hating sedition there.

And notice that Lt. Col. Rutter, a highly decorated combat veteran, has to speak in a hall less than one tenth the size Cindy is infesting. And further note that the school has done no advertising for Rutter’s talk, as they have for Mother Sheehan’s.

I guess this institution of higher learning doesn’t want to give this evil man the chance to infect too many minds. He’s just window-dressing, after all.

Several members here have asked for information regarding how to write to men and women in the military, to express their support.

As I mentioned, I have been in email contact with personnel from Centcom, and they have kindly suggested the America Supports You site as a good resource:

Letters and Messages

4 The Troops
A Million Thanks
Give 2 The Troops
Letters From Home
Marine Parents
MotoMail
My Soldier
Operation Dear Abby
Send a Message to Our Soldiers
Soldiers Angels
Support Our Soldiers America, Inc.
The Freedom Fund
Voices from Home Foundation

This great site provides a number of ways you can help support our troops. There are many categories.

I posted the list for Letters And Messages, since that is what people were asking about. But I encourage everyone to visit the America Supports You site and check out all the other options.

Another missive from Angela Brown, Mother Sheehan's love slave press agent at the Associated Press:

Protesters Shutter Crawford Campsite

By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer

Dozens of war protesters packed up their tents and left their campsite near President Bush's ranch after a weeklong demonstration, but they promised to return at Easter if U.S. troops are still in Iraq.

About 200 people participated in the protest, which coincided with Bush's Thanksgiving holiday visit to his ranch and wound up Sunday. It was a continuation of the August demonstration led by activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq last year.

Protesters credit the summer vigil, which they say attracted some 12,000 people over 26 days, with shifting American sentiment about the war. They said they returned during Thanksgiving week to keep pressure on Bush to end the war, even though they knew turnout would be lower during the holidays.

A few Bush supporters gathered again Sunday in the Crawford Coffee Station parking lot, where a store marquee read: "You are home. We support you. Happy Thanksgiving." One Bush supporter had signs — "Score: Cindy, 3. USA, 403" — referring to House Republicans' recent vote on a nonbinding resolution to pull out the troops from Iraq that was rejected 403-3.

In addition to promising a return for Easter, many protesters plan to return to the area for the January court date of 12 activists arrested last week. They challenged the new county bans on roadside parking and camping by setting up tents at Sheehan's original site, in ditches off the main road leading to Bush's ranch.

"We're here for the long haul. As long as this country is at war with Iraq, we'll be here to oppose it," said [vicious anti-Semitic Iraqi] Hadi Jawad, a co-founder of the Crawford Peace House, which opened a month after the war began in March 2003. "I think Crawford has become a point of pilgrimage to a lot of people. This has become hallowed ground."

The landowner who let the anti-war demonstrators use the property the last few weeks of the August vigil has leased it to them through next year. And before last week's demonstration, the group had water and electricity installed.

There sure is a lot of million man math going on in this article. I've never seen anything by way of photos or reportage to suggest there were anything like 200 people attending this shindig.

The most I ever saw was about a dozen, and that is counting the media.

One also wonders who footed the bills? The lease on the property, the huge tent, the props — not to mention putting in water and electricity. It must have cost about $10,000 per actual attendee.

Oh, well, Cindy's book-signing photos were worth it. At least I hope Daddy Anti-Warbucks (aka George Soros) sees it that way.

I guess the only question is, what took him so long. From Reuters:

Clark joins Saddam’s defense team

Sun Nov 27, 2005 9:22 AM ET

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants resumes in a fortified Baghdad courtroom on Monday with former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark joining the team defending Iraq’s overthrown president.

Clark, a controversial figure who was the top U.S. attorney in the late 1960s before becoming an anti-Vietnam war activist and a defender of figures including Slobodan Milosevic, said he hoped to strengthen Saddam’s defense.

"Our plan is to go to court in Baghdad on Monday morning representing the defense counsel as defense support," Clark told Reuters in Amman on Sunday before flying to the Iraqi capital.

"A fair trial in this case is absolutely imperative for historical truth," the 77-year-old said.

"It is absolutely essential that the court is legal in its constitution. A court cannot be a court unless it is absolutely independent of all external pressures and forces."

Clark will be joined by the former justice minister of Qatar, Najeeb al-Nauimi, lending an international aspect to proceedings which have until now been entirely Iraqi-run.

It was not clear if the chief judge of the trial, Rizgar Mohammed Amin, would allow Clark and Nauimi into his courtroom, but a spokeswoman for the defense team said their attendance had already been approved by U.S. advisers to the court.

The trial began on October 19 but is resuming after a 40-day adjournment, granted to give the defense team more time to prepare for a trial involving charges of crimes against humanity.

Most of the break has been taken up with security issues after one defense lawyer was murdered the day after the trial began and another in early November, throwing proceedings into chaos. A third defense lawyer has fled Iraq after death threats.

Saddam and the others are accused of ordering and carrying out the deaths of 148 men from the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, following a failed attempt on Saddam’s life in 1982.

The lawyers still involved in representing the eight defendants have agreed to return to court only after security promises were made, although the details of the protections that are being afforded to them have not been revealed.

Khalil Dulaimi, Saddam’s chief lawyer, told Reuters last week that one of the reasons he had decided to return was because the Iraqi High Tribunal, the U.S.-funded body running the trial, had said it would appoint its own "stand-by" defense attorneys if the regular defense team failed to show up.

PLOT TO KILL JUDGE

Monday is expected to move the trial into a dramatic new phase as witnesses take the stand for the first time. With security at a premium, at least some of the prosecution testimony will be given from behind a protective screen.

Death threats have already been made against some witnesses, residents of Dujail told a Reuters cameraman there on Saturday.

The trial is expected to continue for at least three days, although the judge will also be asked to consider defense motions for another adjournment. One defense lawyer told Reuters that the team would seek a further three-month postponement.

Even if the trial does proceed without delay this week, it is widely expected that it will be adjourned in early December as the country prepares for national elections.

As well as the assassinations of the two defense lawyers, others involved in the trial have been targeted by insurgents.

An Iraqi police chief told Reuters on Sunday that eight men had been detained in the northern city of Kirkuk and had confessed to plotting to kill Raed Jouhi, the chief investigator of the tribunal who built the case against Saddam.

Colonel Anwar Khader Mohammed said the men were seized four days ago. He said they were found with bomb-making equipment, maps, and a letter from Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam’s former top deputy, urging them to track down and kill Jouhi.

Jouhi has already survived one attempt on his life. He and other members of the tribunal, including the five-judge panel and the chief prosecutor, are tightly protected.

Human rights and justice groups say they doubt the ability of the trial to proceed freely and fairly under such precarious security conditions. They will be in court observing the trial on Monday.

At least Ramsey Clark is consistent. Clark has always hated this country with a purple passion. And he has always sided with its enemies.

From an August 3, 1995 interview in the Wall Street Journal with a former North Vietnamese Colonel, Bui Tin:

Q: Was the American antiwar movement important to Hanoi’s victory?

A: It was essential to our strategy. Support of the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9 a.m. to follow the growth of the American antiwar movement. Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda, and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war and that she would struggle along with us.

He was ever thus.

Most of us know by now that Mother Sheehan is singing a very different psalm from what she was saying just a year and a half ago. (For instance, Cindy said in an on camera interview that her son wanted to go fight for the US in Iraq.)

Let’s dust off this old article from her hometown newspaper, the Yacaville Reporter , to get an idea of the extent of Cindy’s amazing transmogrification:

06/24/2004 06:00:00 AM

Bush, Sheehans share moments

By David Henson/Staff Writer

Since learning in April that their son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, had been killed in Iraq, life has been everything but normal for the Sheehan family of Vacaville.

Casey’s parents, Cindy and Patrick, as well as their three children, have attended event after event honoring the soldier both locally and abroad, received countless letters of support and fielded questions from reporters across the country.

"That’s the way our whole lives have been since April 4," Patrick said. "It’s been surreal."

But none of that prepared the family for the message left on their answering machine last week, inviting them to have a face-to-face meeting with President George W. Bush at Fort Lewis near Seattle.

Surreal soon seemed like an understatement, as the Sheehans – one of 17 families who met Thursday with Bush – were whisked in a matter of days to the Army post and given the VIP treatment from the military. But as their meeting with the president approached, the family was faced with a dilemma as to what to say when faced with Casey’s commander-in-chief.

"We haven’t been happy with the way the war has been handled," Cindy said. "The president has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached."

The 10 minutes of face time with the president could have given the family a chance to vent their frustrations or ask Bush some of the difficult questions they have been asking themselves, such as whether Casey’s sacrifice would make the world a safer place.

But in the end, the family decided against such talk, deferring to how they believed Casey would have wanted them to act. In addition, Pat noted that Bush wasn’t stumping for votes or trying to gain a political edge for the upcoming election.

"We have a lot of respect for the office of the president, and I have a new respect for him because he was sincere and he didn’t have to take the time to meet with us," Pat said.

Sincerity was something Cindy had hoped to find in the meeting.

Shortly after Casey died, Bush sent the family a form letter expressing his condolences, and Cindy said she felt it was an impersonal gesture.

"I now know he’s sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis," Cindy said after their meeting. "I know he’s sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he’s a man of faith."

The meeting didn’t last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son’s sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.

While meeting with Bush, as well as Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, was an honor, it was almost a tangent benefit of the trip. The Sheehans said they enjoyed meeting the other families of fallen soldiers, sharing stories, contact information, grief and support.

For some, grief was still visceral and raw, while for others it had melted into the background of their lives, the pain as common as breathing. Cindy said she saw her reflection in the troubled eyes of each.

"It’s hard to lose a son," she said. "But we (all) lost a son in the Iraqi war."

The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.

For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.

For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.

"That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together," Cindy said.

And again, just a year later, what a conveniently different memory:

Mom, Who Lost Son In Iraq, Talks About ‘Disgusting’ White House Private Meeting With Bush
7/5/2005 9:21:00 AM – By Greg Szymanski

In the interim, Sheehan had signed on with the Kerry/DNC bandwagon. Whether literally or only figuratively, we still don’t know.

(Kudos to always watchful, Zilla, for recalling this article.)

I guess we have to file this under "feet of clay." Or maybe media hype.

From Fox News:

Katrina Hero Arrested on Heroin Charges

Saturday, November 26, 2005

NEW ORLEANS — An Algiers man hailed by some as a hero for commandeering a school bus the day after Hurricane Katrina to take 60 stranded residents to safety in Houston has been arrested on drug charges where his bus journey began: the Fischer public housing complex.

Jabar Gibson, 20, who garnered a movie deal and national attention as the renegade bus driver, was booked Friday with possession with intent to distribute heroin after police stopped his rental car for allegedly driving erratically, New Orleans police said.

Gibson and another man, Gary Burnett, were traveling near the public housing complex about 12:30 p.m. when they veered slightly and nearly struck the police cruiser of officers Michael Pierce and Cory McKain, Pierce said.

The officers pursued the men's car. the suspects stopped it and ran toward the apartment complex, tossing what police said were drugs on the ground. They were quickly caught.

Gibson became a national figure when he stole an Orleans Parish School bus to rescue himself and his neighbors the day after Katrina struck. He claimed he had never operated a bus, but he and his passengers arrived safely at the Astrodome in Houston ahead of any other evacuee bus.

Two weeks before the storm, on Aug. 18, authorities said Gibson led police on a highspeed chase that ended with a wreck and left four officers injured. He was charged with possession of stolen property and resisting arrest by flight.

Gibson's police record also includes charges of aggravated assault, crack possession with intent to distribute and possession of a stolen car.

On Friday, he faced charges of reckless driving and driving without a seat belt or a driver's license in addition to the drug charge.

Asked to describe what happened, Gibson shook his head and said nothing.

Despite his criminal past, some have hailed Gibson's actions immediately after Katrina as heroic.

After the hurricane hit, when the levees were breached and New Orleans began to fill with water, Algiers residents began to panic.

Gibson said he and three friends siphoned a plastic jug full of fuel and took a truck to an Algiers school bus barn. He drove one bus to Fischer and collected about 60 people, including a week-old infant and a pregnant mother, and shepherded them to Texas.

Last month, Gibson told a reporter, "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, a lot of times. But that's all behind me now. I feel like the Lord, all the problems I was going through, he just turned it around for me."

Gibson's passenger in the car, Burnett, 20, of Algiers, was booked Friday with possession with intent to distribute heroin and crack cocaine.

So maybe Gibson was just stealing that bus and a bunch of people climbed aboard.

I wonder why we never heard about his police record when he was being hailed as a hero. I also why Gibson is now being called "a man" whereas back in September he was practically described as a child.

Also, I notice Fox spelled his name Jabar instead of Jabbar as most of the media did before. I don't know which is correct. But such are the vicissitudes of fame.

(Where did our friend Gordon get his bus, by the way?)