The setting was a hot, dusty, red-dirt Texas bar-ditch - the memorial commemorating the American service members killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan consisted of plain, simple white crosses, about a foot and a half tall. Some of the crosses had family photographs attacked to them, some were decorated with small American flags, some had hand-written names and goodbye notes on cards and small slips of paper, a few of the crosses were decorated with donated flowers sent via FTD by caring, sympathetic people from all over the world, and some of the crosses were draped with the service member's dog tags.  This was located just a stone's throw down the road from the Decider-in-Chief's "ranch" in Crawford, Texas.

 

 At one [very surreal] point, this make-shift memorial was actually ran down by an angry, pick-up truck driving, right-wing, pro-war, Christian-conservative Bush-Cult Republican !

 We drove down to Crawford - along with THOUSANDS of others  - to meet with Cindy Sheehan, right after she began her impromptu protest vigil.  Having met with her face-to-face, I can honestly tell you that I sensed absolutely NOTHING even remotely disingenuous, manipulative or exploitive about this woman. She's a genuinely friendly, kind, open and honest person. She is precisely what she appears to be; a very compassionate and very decent human being - she's an American, a patriot and a mother - she's suffering thru an unimaginable loss, wearing her feelings, her heart and her 'agenda' on her sleeve.

 

 Hannity, O'Reilly, Limbaugh nor Ann Coulter DARE to stand next to her, because the side-by-side comparison would be far too revealing, the stark contrast between those hate-filled, GOP-paid propagandist millionaires and Cindy Sheehan would be disturbingly, visually and metaphorically way too similar to packs of vultures, jackals and snakes - salivating over - and feeding upon - the sadness of a grief-stricken Gold Star Mother.