| Merc. News | 0 | |
| Big Govt | Obama’s Shock Troops: SEIU and Political Intimidation in St. Louis |
0 |
| NYT | 0 | |
| WSJ | 0 | |
| Sac Bee | Many California jobs ‘saved’ by stimulus funds weren’t in jeopardy |
0 |
Audacity of Truth
Whiner-in-Chief:
"[W]hether the grumbling is about Republicans on Fox or bloggers in pajamas, there's a word for what the president and his aides are doing. That word is "whining." And nothing [...] does more damage to Obama's credibility or authority than the sense that a popular president is becoming the whiner-in-chief."
- John Nichols, Nation Magazine - 10/12/09
About Cindy’s arrest and the law she broke
(scroll down for updates)
The liberal blogs are abuzz this morning, screaming as loud as their keyboards will let them over the fact that – according to them – Cindy Sheehan was arrested last night for merely “dissenting.” First, a recap of the arrest from the AP:
Sheehan, who had been invited to attend the speech by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, a misdemeanor, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. Sheehan was taken in handcuffs to police headquarters a few blocks away and her case was processed as Bush spoke.
Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.
John Cole at Balloon Juice, no fan of Cindy Sheehan but dismayed all the same at the idea of someone being arrested for merely wearing a T-shirt, posted an update written by one of his commenters as to what law Cindy Sheehan broke:
Sorry to disappoint the Bush haters, but any and all kinds of sloganeering or demonstrating is strictly forbidden in the Capitol. A few of my friends and I once tried to have take a group picture (after a rally that had a permit ended) with the building in the background and were shooed away by the Capital Police for violating the rule merely by havign signs in our possession on the steps. As that happened in 1988 (when the other party controlled the Congress), I doubt George W. Bush had anything to do with it.
This is a misdemeanor, according to Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider:
Sheehan, who had been invited to attend the speech by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, a misdemeanor, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. Sheehan was taken in handcuffs to police headquarters a few blocks away and her case was processed as Bush spoke.
No doubt this is exactly what she hoped would happen. Afterall, it brings attention to her ’cause.’ (just like this arrest did).
The hype over this bogus ‘controversy’ is only heightened when you have MSM sites like MSNBC posting the following poll question:
Do you agree with the decision by Capitol Police to remove activist Cindy Sheehan from the gallery at the president’s State of the Union speech because she was wearing a T-shirt with an antiwar slogan?
Shouldn’t that have been more like “do you agree with the law that bans demonstrating in the Capitol building?” I guess it was just too much to ask for MSNBC to do a little research on the issue before posting their poll question. Contact MSNBC if you want to express your thoughts on that poll.
Last night I posted a call for people who were upset with the fact that stunt-happy Cindy Sheehan was invited to the SOTU by House Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-6th District-CA) to contact Rep. Woolsey’s office to let her know how they felt about Ms. Woolsey’s serious lack of good judgement with respect to inviting a rabid anti-war type and obvious symbol of the hate-Bush/anti-war movement to the SOTU. I see Michelle Malkin and Rob Port at Say Anything are not pleased with Rep. Woolsey, either.
I’d like to repeat my call for you to let Rep. Woolsey know how you feel. When members of Congress act irresponsibly, the citizens of this country need to do their part to keep them accountable and Rep. Woolsey is certainly no exception to that rule.
More: Jason at Generation Why? gives some background info on Rep. Woolsey. GOP and College notes differing media reports on Sheehan’s arrest.
Others blogging about this: The Jawa Report, Gateway Pundit, Oblogatory Anecdotes
Update I: Florida Rep.’s Wife Says She Was Ejected From State Of Union:
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, told a newspaper that she was ejected during the State of the Union address for wearing a T-shirt that says, “Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom.”
Beverly Young told the St. Petersburg Times that she was sitting in the front row of the House gallery Tuesday night when she was approached by someone who told her she needed to leave.
She said she reluctantly agreed, but argued with several officers in an outside hallway.
In a telephone interview with the newspaper, Young said she told them her shirt wasn’t a protest but a message of support.
Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said Young wasn’t ejected from the gallery and she left on her own. She couldn’t provide additional details.
(Hat tip: Blog For All – and Cam Edwards shares some thoughts on this as well)
Also, Newslinker in the comments section here points to a National Review Corner post written by Byron York that notes a similar incident that happened during the Clinton administration.
The Capitol police were just doing their jobs last night with both Sheehan and Rep. Young’s wife in enforcing the law against demonstrating in the Capitol. But don’t expect widespread acknowledgement from the usual suspects that the law was enforced on both sides of the aisle last night (as well as in prior admins), which means that Cindy wasn’t targeted just because she was – well – Cindy Sheehan.
Update II: Newsbusters reports on how CNN got a few of their facts wrong in their story on Sheehan’s arrest.
Update III: A commenter at Patterico’s has noted what looks like the law in question regarding demonstrations in the Capitol.
Update IV: Tammy Bruce weighs in. Heh.
Update V 12:46 PM: Via the SF Chronicle, we find both Woolsey and Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont) in support of Cindy and whining about her arrest:
“It stunned me because I didn’t know in America you could be arrested for wearing a T-shirt with a slogan on it,” Woolsey said. “That’s especially so in the Capitol and in the House of Representatives, which is the people’s House.”
Woolsey said she thought the shirt Sheehan was wearing was from Veterans for Peace. Referring to the number of Americans killed in Iraq, the shirt read, “2,245 and how many more?”
Some other members were upset about Sheehan’s arrest. “I’m still trying to find out why the president’s Gestapo had to arrest Cindy Sheehan in the gallery. … It shows he still has a thin skin,” said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Fremont.
Here’s Rep. Stark’s contact info, in case you are interested.
(Hat tip: Rob Port at Say Anything)
Update VI 7:35 PM: The charges against Ms. Sheehan were dropped:
Capitol Police dropped a charge of unlawful conduct against anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on Wednesday and apologized for ejecting her and a congressman’s wife from President Bush’s State of the Union address for wearing T-shirts with war messages.
“The officers made a good faith, but mistaken effort to enforce an old unwritten interpretation of the prohibitions about demonstrating in the Capitol,” Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said in a statement late Wednesday.
“The policy and procedures were too vague,” he added. “The failure to adequately prepare the officers is mine.”
The extraordinary statement came a day after police removed Sheehan and Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, R-Fla., from the visitors gallery Tuesday night. Sheehan was taken away in handcuffs before Bush’s arrival at the Capitol and charged with a misdemeanor, while Young left the gallery and therefore was not arrested, Gainer said.
“Neither guest should have been confronted about the expressive T- shirts,” Gainer’s statement said.
(Thanks to Tom in the comments section for the heads up on this latest update)
Related Toldjah So posts:
- Cindy Sheehan to be in audience during the SOTU
- Run, Cindy, run!
- Cindy tells Spain: “Iraq is worse than Vietnam”
- ‘Supporting the troops’ – Sheehan style
- If You Write It They Will Come … (or not)
- The anti-war monument to Cindy Sheehan
- Sheehan plans to spread anti-war message overseas
- Smiling while being arrested
- Sheehan to hold meetings with Hillary, Kennedy, McCain, etc
- The latest Cindy Sheehan rant: “pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans”
- Pictures of counter-protest in Crawford
- Sheehan has two more “supporters”: Joe Wilson and Rev. Al Sharpton
- A word or two for the Sheehan hangers-on
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Trackbacks
146 Responses to “About Cindy’s arrest and the law she broke”
Comments
Blogads
Disclaimer: The views expressed on this blog do not necessarily reflect those of ST's advertisers, nor do their opinions necessarily reflect ST's. Stats
“fringe dwellers”
Fringe? You think I’m on the fringe?
“Kos meet Michelle Malkin. Sister Toljah meet Atrios.
Two sides of the same coin. ”
I don’t think so.
Fringe? You think I’m on the fringe?
Your obsession with this story and your contempt for cindy Sheehan speak for itself.
I think most of us in the mainstream see Cindy Sheehan as a woman who lost wo son in the war and think that though her grief is understandable, she’s gone a little overboard in her protesting.
The far left have lionized her. The far right have vilified. Two extremes. Two sides of the same coin.
I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em.
Of course, extremists never *think* they’re extremists. Nonetheless.
And when your heroes are Michelle Malkin and Anne Coulter, your extremism speaks (yells, in fact) for itself.
Cheers.
You’re a liar. Earlier, you made a claim that you “had no dog in this race.” Clearly you do, or you wouldn’t have chosen to paint me as an extremist because of my viewpoint (which is actually quite mainstream amongst conservatives and a growing number of liberals) nor would you have posted the link to the apology from the police when I had very clearly in my last update posted a similar link about the police releasing Ms. Sheehan. Also, for you to clarify my blogging about this incident as an “obsession” is laughable considering you made sure to come back here after posting yesterday to update us (not that we needed it, considering I had already updated with the info).
Furthermore, about the only people I’ve seen classify Malkin as an “extremist” are people who can’t stand her aka the left. Even further, where you get that Ann Coulter is my ‘hero’ is beyond me, as I’ve never cited Ann Coulter to back up anything. So you’ve just taken the ad hominem route and not only that, attacked me over something I’ve never done. Yeah, you “don’t have a dog in this race” – and I’m Queen Elizabeth.
Thanks for showing your true colors. Your attack on me was unwarranted but what’s worse was your dishonesty about not having a dog in this race. You clearly do. So you can take your phony claim about “no dog in this race” and – well, you figure out what to do with it. Have a nice life.
Sheese bobq, stop humping that straw man will ya?
Sheehan puts herself out to be vilified first of all. She relishes in the attention and has in the past wanted to be arrested (see big smile on her face on pic when it happened) for the publicity, just as this was a publicity stunt staged by the Democrat Senator who invited her.
I also see everyone concentrating on sheehan herself and berating, but not bringing up the other Republican Senator’s wife that was removed also.
I also know that the same thing happened during teh Cliton administration, so would that be the Cliton Gestapo everyone is blaming Bush for now also? That is sarcasm if you couldn’t tell, since that is what people are calling them is the Bush Gestapo.
I think most of the mainsteam now sees sheehan as a woman no longer grieving the death of her son, but politicing his death, calling those he worked with terrorist, ect ect. A little overboard on her protesting hmm? I would not mind her protesting, but those she has become attached to by the hip and those she meets and has photo-ops with are extremely questionable, and the information she passes as the truth in many things are asinine.
It was a political stunt as usual, this one perpetrated by a democrat (Woolsley) and sheehan again has let herself and her son be used. It is no longer about the death of her son, sometimes I wonder if she even remembers that is supposedly why she is doing this, since it has become more and more about cindy.
It’s amazing how many people on this site hold up the “no protesting in the capitol” law as if it were written on a stone tablet, but have no problem with W ignoring the 1978 FISA law because it’s “old” or “outdated.” Nice selective priorities. If only you held our elected officials to the high law-abiding standards you hold gold-star mothers to.
If there were no such things as lies, the left would be silent.
If there were no such thing as campaign finance laws, republicans would rule forever.
Campaign finance laws has what to do with sheehan? Nothing. So that is best put on another comments section.
But to give you something to think about, go to Political Money Line:
http://www.fecinfo.com/
If campaign finance laws and Vote fraud laws were enforced, would there be any Democrat activists and politicians not serving time?
“If campaign finance laws and Vote fraud laws were enforced, would there be any Democrat activists and politicians not serving time?”
Yes.
Cindy Sheehan did not break the law and was unjustly removed. You Republican followers admit you were wrong and repent for following and enabling a party of criminals. If you read the Bible and truly love God, you’d understand that Cindy Sheehan is moral and doing what Jesus would do and you are all currently enabling evil. Repent and ask God for forgiveness.
How few? Check Bouncing Boxer would be put away as well as Reid. The governor of Washington State would be in jail. Rep Ford from TN would be in jail.
How many ballot box stuffing Chicago area democrats would be out? The answer is zero.
Tom Harkin would run to his home in the Bahamas rather than serve time for falsely claiming to be an Iowa resident.
Need I go on?
Chris, you need to take a breath. It’s obvious you have no idea what’s going on. Nary a clue.
Sheehan is simply an unhinged person who lies. She has lied in the recent past about the President. She speaks vile things about this nation while abroad. She is deserving of nothing but contempt. Christ might have healed this horrid woman, I doubt he would have cited her as some sort of exemplar.
It is you who are enabling evil, Chris.
US Capitol Police Chief Gainer doesn’t seem to agree with you:
“On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said neither woman should have been removed from the chamber. “We made a mistake” he told CNN.”
How about posting a correction?
“How about posting a correction? ”
Repeating:
And? I still believe Clinton was guilty of any number of things in addition to perjury that he got off on (no pun intended) and don’t intend on apologizing for my opinion on that, either.
It’s absolutely hilarious to see the lefto blogosphere calling for ‘apologies’ when they routinely each and everyday declare that the President, DeLay, etc guilty of any number of things when they haven’t even set foot in a courtroom in front of a jury of their peers in order to determine that ‘guilt.’ So forgive me if I’m not rushing to post any ‘apology’ on something I still believe to be true.
U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer needs to grow a pair…
Michele, She posted update 6.
You know, some of the recent posters around here remind me of someone who comes into a party where friends and old acquaintances are enjoying themselves, discussing a variety of things, and then farts loudly and long, looking around expectantly for cooing sounds of approval. And then gets PO’d that the regulars don’t automatically praise them for the odorifousnous and volume of their emissions.
Clinton? I thought for sure this was one thread that couldn’t possibly be linked to Bill Clinton, even by the most obsessed of the Bubba-haters. Is there any topic that conservatives can’t leave Clinton-free? Does he haunt your dreams, or something? Is Bill going to have to take a cue from ST and write a post titled “To Obsessed Conservative Bloggers?”
Severian, leave Benning alone. He’s trying as hard as he can.
Amen, Severian!