Can I borrow your shotgun?

I've had some ranging opinions on Ms. Sheehan's little tiff with our government and its justifications for the Iraq war. While I agree with the concept that the justifications for going to war were wrong, but that doesn't change anything over the last couple years. Like it or not, we're in this and the only way to honor the memory of the dead is to see this to the end (whatever it shall be).

But Ms. Sheehan just crossed the line today. She got to meet with Senator McCain (who I hope will run for President in 2008). She called him a warmonger. McCain has been against the reasons for the war, spoken out against any maltreatment of detainees. But if Ms. Sheehan remembered that he spent years as a Vietnam POW, she would have shut her mouth. Courtsey of the Associated Press:

Sheehan, McCain meet, still at odds on Iraq war
Associated Press
Sept. 27, 2005 04:22 PM

WASHINGTON - A 20-minute meeting Tuesday afternoon left peace activist Cindy Sheehan and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., still at odds over the Iraq war.

"He is a warmonger, and I'm not," said Sheehan, a Californian whose son's death in Iraq prompted her to hold a 26-day vigil outside President Bush's Texas ranch this summer. "I believe this war is not keeping America safer."

"She's entitled to her opinion," said McCain, who also disapproves of Sheehan's anti-war campaign. "We just have fundamental disagreements."

Sheehan's conference with McCain was one of several scheduled this week as part of her campaign to get members of Congress to explain the reasons for the Iraq war.

Since her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed last year in an ambush in Sadr City, Iraq, Sheehan has attracted worldwide attention. Her protest in Texas made her the face of the anti-war movement. Monday, she was arrested during a rally in front of the White House.

Sheehan said she is meeting with elected officials because she wants answers to specific questions, among them, "How many other people's children are you willing to risk for this?" and what are elected officials doing to end the war.

Sheehan also was scheduled to meet with Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl last week, but she was unable to attend.

Tuesday, she thanked McCain for meeting with her, but she came away disappointed in his answers.

"He tried to tell us what George Bush would have said," she said. "I don't believe he believes what he was telling me."

Although he has criticized the handling of the Iraq war, McCain, who was held prisoner during the Vietnam War, has defended the president's call to stop terrorism abroad before it reaches U.S. shores.

McCain said he had agreed to meet with Sheehan because he believed she was coming with a group of Arizona constituents.

But on Tuesday, the only Arizonan in her small group was her congressional liaison, who grew up in Sedona but moved away when he went to college.

"It was a misrepresentation," McCain said afterward. Asked if he would have met with her if he had known she was not with constituents, he said: "I may not have."

He described the meeting in his Senate office as "basically a rehash of my views, which I've articulated many times, and her views, which she has articulated many times."

McCain and Sheehan met once last June, shortly after Casey's funeral.

On Tuesday, Sheehan said she remembers McCain then saying Casey's death was "like his buddies in Vietnam" and that he was afraid their death was "for nothing."

McCain said he doesn't remember saying that. "That's ludicrous, I've never said anything like that," he said. "I not only have not encouraged Ms. Sheehan, I have expressed my strong disagreement with her views on the war."

If I was armed, I'd be seriously tempted to shut Ms. Sheehan up. Since I'm do not own a firearm, can I borrow yours?

The wrong way and the wrong way

If you lost someone special to you in the Iraq or Afghanistan, it seems that you can take the Cindy Sheehan route or the Tillman family route. Sheehan gets international media coverage, the Tillman family refuses media requests. Sheehan gets herself arrested during a public protest in her attempts to convey her message, the Tillman family consults their local senators to launch inquiries and repeatedly asks for information.

A column by E.J. Montini of the Arizona Republic shows that apparently neither version wins:

Handling protests the 'right way' gets Tillmans nowhere
Sept. 27, 2005 12:00 AM

The critics of Cindy Sheehan say that she's not going about her protest the "right way." They say she is hurting troop morale. They say that she is unpatriotic. A traitor, even. They say that she should just shut up.

The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, Sheehan got a lot of media attention in August when she camped out at the entrance to President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Since then she has led demonstrations against the war and the president's policies. On Monday she was arrested at a White House sit-in after she refused police orders to leave. Sheehan is being used, we've been told. She's nuts. She's dishonoring her son. Then again, to those who say that Sheehan might get the government to address her concerns if she only did things the "right way," I would offer two words: Mary Tillman.

Mary is also the mother of a soldier killed in the war on terror. Her son, Pat, the former Arizona Cardinals star, was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004. Since that time, neither Mary nor her former husband, Patrick Sr., nor Pat's wife has come out publicly against the war. Not even after they found out that they had been deceived about his death. It took five weeks before the Army told the Tillmans that Pat was killed by his own comrades during a confused and frighteningly mishandled mission.

That information, which investigators knew almost immediately, was withheld until after a very public funeral service for Tillman was broadcast across the nation.

Several investigations have followed, none of which has satisfied the family or thoroughly answered their questions. They have worked with members of Congress, including Arizona Sen. John McCain, to get the truth about the incidents that led to Tillman's death. They have done so quietly, for the most part. Respectfully. In a manner that any reasonable person would describe as "the right way."

It has gotten them nowhere.

On Sunday, the San Francisco Chronicle published a lengthy article based on its review of nearly 2,000 pages of investigative documents that Mary Tillman has received from the military. Most of which only lead to more questions.

Questions about who knew what and when. Questions about altered testimony. Questions about delays and accountability. Now there is another investigation going on and the family isn't any more confident that the truth will surface.

The Chronicle quoted Pat Sr. as saying, "The administration clearly was using this case for its own political reasons. This cover-up started within minutes of Pat's death, and it started at high levels."

When I last spoke to Mary in late May she told me, "They could have told us up front that they were suspicious that it was a fratricide but they didn't. They wanted to use him for their purposes. It was good for the administration. It was before the elections. It was during the prison scandal. They needed something that looked good, and it was appalling that they would use him like that."

Although they have been approached by media representatives from every print and TV outlet in the country, the Tillmans have kept a relatively low profile. Working through channels. Not participating in public protests.

Their behavior should teach us a thing or two about the way we treat families who question their government's actions. For example, when we start demanding that people conduct themselves the "right way," it's not the mothers of dead soldiers we should be speaking to.

And if you choose the middle ground, you end up worse off because you do not generate enough media attention, and sit waiting for their senator to return their phone call.

Why can neither version of protest be effective is the most troubling question I ask of this situtation. Are we that apathetic, that cynical that we cannot rally behind either version of anti-war protest.

Food for thought over your nice warm dinner tonight....

Right, left, and shades of grey

This is a cool political test to see where you stand on the issues. Mostly because it doesn't say "you're this".

You are a Social Liberal (66% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (36% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

Border crossers for free school?

I heard about this story, and it annoys me on several levels. It involves children living in Mexico cross the border to attend free public school. I think it's only fair that non-residents pay for tuition, if you lived in Arizona, you'd be paying for school tuition. Sneaking across the border to get free school isn't fair to their quality of education (but I think that's the least of their worries).

But then Hispanic parents that live in Arizona compain that they're being singled out to pay tuition when non-hispanics are not. Therefore, it's discriminating against them.

Ummm, first of all 96% of the students in that school district are Hispanic. Therefore, if they can prove that the 4% non-hispanics are crossing the border to attend school, they have a case. Show me such proof, and I'll shut up and never bring it up again. Otherwise, it's not discrimination or an infrigement on their civil rights.

Hopefully this case will quickly be thrown out, and I can go back to enjoying some chai.