This weekend saw something else other than Hurricane Rita going on. It was a weekend that had been planned for a while now. As we all remember Cindy Sheehan, the woman that lost her son in Iraq and wanted to talk to Bush about it while he was on vacation in August, never got the chance, Hurricane katrina spoiled that for her, so she decided that she would use her newfound fame and take the show on the road across America. That she did, getting together a bus full of sympathizers and crossing the country, making Jane Fonda call off her own scheduled bus trip to protest the war because she saw that someone else was already at it and monopolizing the TV cameras and such, and Sheehan set off on the "Bring Them Home Now" tour. She came here to Chicago, went to New York and got hassled by the NY Pigs, had her microphone turned off and such, and the entire culmination of the trip was to take place this past weekend, two days ago in Washington. That was where things would end up, with Sheehan saying that this would be the final protest and that taking it to Washington would mean that Bush would finally have to listen to what she had to say. Bush has been listening to what Sheehan has to say for two months now, and he is sick and tired of it. She has caused him a lot of problems by what she is saying, many people have finally started to look at the war effort in a different light because of her. Why is anyone's guess, but it might be because many can relate to her as an average American, and that makes them more receptive to what she has to say. The fact that she has had virtually unlimited access to the press and media for this time has brought this along greatly, her story makes for good TV and good newspaper stories, so they play It up all the way. Jane Fonda is old hat to them, they have heard her shit thousands of times over the years, as she is essentially a broken record, an old Hollywood hag looking for publicity and attention and using social issues to do that. Since they did not have reality TV in her day, she had to resort to using the press to promote herself endlessly, and people are tired of her shit and ready to let another lady take up that cause of using social issues for self promotion, and that's Cindy Sheehan, a California chick just like Fonda, but a lot younger and more marketable to a younger generation. That fact has not gone unnoticed by the anti war movement either. All these organizations came galloping down to Texas in August to sit with her amid the fire ant mounds and say that they were with her, and it was these organizations that convinced her to go on this tour, they gave her the use of the bus and the amenities and so forth and said that they'd go with her to protest, especially in Washington this past weekend. They saw an opportunity to get their message out big time there and Cindy Sheehan was the vehicle for that.
What they did was to arrange for all their followers all across America to come on out and play at this one, and come out they did. There were busloads of them, and some say that close to 100,000 of them showed up in Washington. Whatever the number, it was a massive get-together, easily the largest anti-war protests in America since Vietnam. They got a lot of TV time, Cindy Sheehan being right there at the forefront, and the message was said loud and clear to Bush, that these people wanted the war over right fucking now and the troops brought home immediamente. It looked to be a powerful message, especially when it was juxtaposed against the return message that was given yesterday across America. Those that support the war and President Bush held their own rallies across the country to try and counter what Cindy Sheehan and the like said the day before. However, they did not do so well in terms of attendance, these rallies were not much larger than any other protests that would be held in the same spots on a Sunday in autumn, there's always someone protesting something so there's usually some kind of small demonstration or another. When the pro war people held their rallies yesterday, the crowds they drew were not much larger than the ones that the Young Communists and the like have. When you compare that to the thousands that turned out in Washington and across America the day before, it looks as if public opinion on the war has shifted Sharply. The protestors outnumbered the supporters like 100 to one, which was the opposite of what it used to be on this issue. However, the appearances were deceiving this weekend. The anti war protestors went and rounded up everyone that they could find, many of whom were essentially professional protestors, whatever the cause, as long as it is a liberal one, there they are, protesting, chanting, and singing away for the TV time after time. They spend nearly every weekend at one protest or another, it is like golf for them, a hobby that gets them around the country and on TV every weekend. They saw a huge shindig brewing in Washington, and they were there, let's not forget that they get everything for free, they do not pay their own way there or for any hotel like a hippie would have to do, they get it all for free, courtesy of the cause, whatever that is. This weekend, it was the war. The other side just does not have a huge number of people that they can just mobilize like that, they don't know many folks that make going to protests and such their life's Work. That means that it was the protestors that were going to capture the attention of the ADD affected media and that they did in fine form as usual. The pros did their jobs, and made it all worth bringing them in and giving them everything. The average America saw all this in TV and thought that the entire country had turned against the war at last, so now he could too. Since Bush used the power of exclusion to paint those that opposed him as traitors, so did the protestors paint a picture that now it is those that support the war that are outcasts, and if you oppose it, you are along with the majority. There are just too many Americans that operate on that principle, that they have to be with the majority no matter what, and the protestors did a fine job this weekend convincing Joe American that they were that majority now. That crates a disaster for Bush that no hurricane ever could, and that's the second of the twin disasters that Bush faces right now, and you can see the strain, you saw it yesterday when that dude was lecturing him and he sat there scowling. Bush has a far larger problem on his hands no, and that's trying to cdonvince America that he is still in the majority.
Since all his sycophants and followers failed him sop badly this weekend, he's just going to have to do it himself. Well, not himself, as we all know he does nothing that way, someone tells him what to do or does it for him. This one is not going to be as easily solved as the hurricane shit is, no speech selling an economic recovery program or a social recovery one will suffice here. Bush knows that America has finally started to come awake and see that he is a liar and a thief and a cheat and that what he has been doing is no good for anyone except him and his friends. That is the only thing that can derail his money express that he set in motion with all this war shit. Since he has a little more than three years left as President, he does not want that party to stop before that. Cindy Sheehan put a chain of events into action that are making that a possibility, and Mr. Businessman is freaking out over that, and letting Bush know all about it too. That puts Bush on the hot seat, a place that he is not at all used to being, and he is unsure of what to do, He hoped that all this hurricane shit would take people's Minds off of all of this, but he forgot that even though Katrina was a monumental disaster, it was confined to the Gulf Coast, and most of America does not live there, so they eventually got over the shock and horror of what went on and moved forward with their own lives. Bush will have to hope for an unbroken series of hurricanes for the next two months before the season ends to take minds completely off the war, and he has little chance of that happening. He can tell Mr. Businessman to warm the climate as much as he can and even that won't bring it about, so these hurricanes were not Bush's salvation by any means. He has to find a way to counter Cindy Sheehan and her message quick. The scary part of that is that Bush does not seem to know any way to do that except for some kind of man-made disaster to occur, something that can be blamed on someone and take the pressure off of him. He worked that masterfully after September 11th, 2001 and rode that baby all the way to a second term, but after four years, that ride is wearing out, and he needs a new one fast. No longer is it enough for him to smear any dissenters with the tag of traitor, too many see through that now, as he has just called too many people that and it has worn real thin. That was why the anti-war people were able to be so successful this weekend and with the entire Cindy Sheehan tour thing, because now people will start to listen to what they say and see that they have a point as well. However, there is one fatal flaw in their logic, and that's the fact that it is impossible to bring the troops home now because if they did, it would create a dangerous vacuum in Iraq and lead to far worse warfare than we have there now, and that someone would chase after the Americans and not stop the fight, and it would all just get far worse that way. There has to be some kind of a resolution reached before the American troops can leave Iraq, no matter what you think of the war. The anti war crowd had no answer for that this weekend, nor do they ever. All that Bush needs to do to redeem himself is to go to the American people and explain that fact in plain English to them. Then he has to tell them that he has some kind of clear plan to bring that resolution about, not that vague shit we have had thus far. If he makes a case like that, the American people will believe him, as that makes sense and he has then trumped the protestors. However, the dude has zero idea of how to do that, mainly because he has no plan for any resolution in Iraq because keeping it all going keeps the money flowing. His way would include some kind of terror attack, and then scaring the American people into following him again. It worked for him once, why not again? As I said before, too many Americans are too easily led about, especially when it comes to fear. That is how Bush got to where he is, and the only way he knows to keep himself there. In terms of being a communicator, he is no Ronnie Reagan, but in terms of being a bully he is. Reagan would be able to communicate his side effectively, but Bush only knows how to scare and bully people. That is why that is the most obvious way that he will deal with this disaster that he faces. The hurricanes did not scare enough people, so he'll do the rest. The only question is what will he and his cohorts cook up to do the job. He won't care that his nation is reeling from twin disasters, all he sees are his own twin disasters, and if everyone else has to pay for him to deal with them, so be it. So twin disasters are not all that America will have to deal with, there will be more of them, all courtesy of Washington and the White House because they create far more disasters than nature ever could, and the ones they crate are far more destructive then anything nature could ever do as well.