I haven't seen Bill O'Reilly so flummoxed since Al Franken took him
down at that LA book fair last year, though this was much subtler. He
had to grin and swallow it all because he was interviewing the mother
of a dead soldier.
Cindy Sheehan decided not to appear on The Factor tonight so Bill
O'Reilly predictably attacked her again. This time, he painted Sheehan
as a victim of "far left elements" who are exploiting her for their own
purposes. O'Reilly announced with a sneer that Cindy claimed that she
would not appear on his show because he had lied about her last night.
Acting as if that was a ridiculous notion, O'Reilly began another
smear of Cindy Sheehan. However, his plans were ruined by Dolores
Kesterson, another grieving Mother and brave patriot.8/10/05
Using his all knowing and tolerant tone, O'Reilly claimed that he
supports Cindy Sheehan's right to express dissent. Then he bashed
Maureen Dowd for glorifying Sheehan in her column today. The Baltimore
Sun also got a knock for praising Sheehan, prompting Bill to dismiss it
as an anti Bush paper.
Bill was especially ticked that Cindy Sheehan was "using" the Michael Moore website acting as if that was a shocking and subversive thing to do. Prompting him to ask his viewers, "If you were Mr. Bush, would you meet with Cindy Sheehan."
Then O'Reilly introduced Dolores Kesterton who did not bend or back
down throughout the interview. Her son Eric died in Iraq and had been
an unwavering supporter of the administration. Kesterson claimed that
she had been against going into Iraq because she believed we should
have finished the job in Afghanistan. Although O'Reilly tried to
intimidate her into saying that Eric had died for a noble cause,
Dolores would not give an inch.
Kesterson went on to describe the meeting she had with Bush after
her son's death. She requested time alone with him and was granted
three minutes in a tiny cubicle. According to Kesterson, Bush marched
in and "was in my face" "I'm George Bush, President of the United States and I understand that you have something to say to me in private."
Kesterson was not impressed with the meeting claiming that Bush did not seem to care.
At this point O'Reilly decided to use the lecture/soliloquy
technique. Using his fatherly tone he told Dolores that he
respected her opinion but didn't want to see her used like Cindy
Sheehan.
"I think Cindy Sheehan is being used by far left elements who object to our way of life. Everyone knows. Hillary Clinton knows"
Kesterson firmly objected to the notion of being used and O'Reilly
started to get steamed attacking Michael Moore and the Fenton Group who
writes Cindy's press releases. Fenton Communications is a very well
established PR firm and O'Reilly's attack on them was nonsense.
Then he peppered her with a string of bizarre questions.
"Do you believe that we're a bad country and evil country?"
"Do you have Michael Moore's view of the U.S.?"
"If you had to choose, would you go with President Bush or Michael Moore?"
Dolores Kesterson without a moments hestitation gave her answer. " Michael Moore has not killed thousands."
Cindy Sheehan has no army save for a motley crew of old hippies, she has no guns and is surrounded by
unfriendlies in enemy territory and the distinction between what is
private and county property, when she is and is not a national security
threat changes as effortlessly as David Bowman in 2010. If you live near Crawford, Texas, go there. If you can spare money, send it to the Crawford Peace house at:
Cindy Sheehan
c/o Crawford Peace House
9142 5th Street
Crawford, TX 76638-3037
Do what you can to help Cindy Sheehan because this is about to get large. Use death to burn out war, not to stoke it.
Those
grieving families and wounded vets I keep mentioning? What do you think
will happen when they finally connect all the blood spatters and
realize they’ve been taken for a ride? Political ideologies are one
thing but violating personal trust is another and more dangerous. True
there are many blood spatters to connect but there isn’t much space
between them:
No Kevlar vests after almost 2 and a half years,
no armor plating, loss of medical benefits, non payment of National
Guardsmen, the threat of stop loss without re-enlistment bonuses vs
re-enlistment, plummeting recruitment numbers, rising rate of
desertions, three tours of duty and counting, and now Cindy Sheehan is
being treated like a door-to-door salesman selling typhus. The more
historically-educated people may recall that President Lincoln, Bush’s
justification for everything Republican, used to personally entertain
relatives of Civil War soldiers at the White House who would show up unannounced.
America has a president, not a king. But just like royalty, the
nation's commander in chief can keep his distance from the common man
or woman. We've been fighting in this country, since the Revolutionary War, to have
a form of government that is the opposite of an aristocracy. We've been
only partially successful at the best of times. These aren't the best
of times, needless to say. We have one huge goddamned king-sized battle
going on right now over whether we are going to be ruled or governed.
At the heart of the matter, the war is somewhat beside the point
here. The point is this: America is a democracy and the president holds
that office at our pleasure, not his own. He by god should be required
to come out from behind that damned wall and talk to this mother, whose
son has been killed at his command, in a war he started.
Of course, we all know he won't do it. The Bushes don't like to be
breathed on by honest to god Americans. That's entirely too democratic
for people of such privilege. And entirely too much "hard work" for
Chickenshit George, the President who doesn't ever have to explain
anything.
Cindy Sheehan decided not to appear on The Factor tonight so Bill
O'Reilly predictably attacked her again. This time, he painted Sheehan
as a victim of "far left elements" who are exploiting her for their own
purposes. O'Reilly announced with a sneer that Cindy claimed that she
would not appear on his show because he had lied about her last night.
Cindy Sheehan has no army save for a motley crew of old hippies, she has no guns and is surrounded by
unfriendlies in enemy territory and the distinction between what is
private and county property, when she is and is not a national security
threat changes as effortlessly as David Bowman in 2010. If you live near Crawford, Texas, go there. If you can spare money, send it to the Crawford Peace house at: 
