Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Senator and VP nominee John Edwards, has written a letter of support to Cindy Sheehan. It's beautifully written and quite moving, please read the whole thing.

[Via Crooks and Liars]

Maureen Dowd reminisces about covering former President Bush's vacation in Kennebunkport just after he sent troops to the Persian Gulf:

How could President Bush be cavorting around on a long vacation with American troops struggling with a spiraling crisis in Iraq? Wasn't he worried that his vacation activities might send a frivolous signal at a time when he had put so many young Americans in harm's way? "I'm determined that life goes on," Mr. Bush said stubbornly.

That wasn't the son, believe it or not. It was the father - 15 years ago. I was in Kennebunkport then to cover the first President Bush's frenetic attempts to relax while reporters were pressing him about how he could be taking a month to play around when he had started sending American troops to the Persian Gulf only three days before.

Green Day, Barbra Stresand and the Rolling Stones...all with new videos and songs highlighting the War in Iraq.

Veteran songstress Streisand and spiky-haired punk trio Green Day have surprisingly synchronized videos that tug at the heartstrings by showing troops in harm's way with lyrics about the lovers left behind on the home front. The Stones, meanwhile, veer into perhaps the band's most specifically political song ever.

...Politics is something the Stones typically haven't done at all. "Street Fighting Man," "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Undercover of the Night" had varying degrees of social or political imagery, but nothing like the new "Sweet Neo Con," a song from their upcoming album "A Bigger Bang," also due in September. The lyrics are pointed clearly at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., with its references to Halliburton and gasoline patriots. Among the lines: "It's liberty for all / Democracy's our style / Unless you are against us / Then it's prison without trial."

Keep 'em coming.

Update: You can listen to Sweet Neocon here, from Bartcop.

Lance Cpl. Edward Schroeder II is one of the 16 Marines from Ohio killed two weeks ago in Iraq. His funeral was yesterday. Today, his parents were interviewed and had some comments for President Bush.

The day after burying their son, parents of a fallen Marine urged President Bush to either send more reinforcements to Iraq or withdraw U.S. troops altogether. ''We feel you either have to fight this war right or get out,'' Rosemary Palmer, mother of Lance Cpl. Edward Schroeder II, said Tuesday.

...The soldier's father said his son and other Marines were being misused as a stabilizing force in Iraq.''Our comments are not just those of grieving parents,'' Paul Schroeder said in front of the couple's home. ''They are based on anger, Mr. President, not grief. Anger is an honest emotion when someone's family has been violated.''

The fallen marine's parents laud Cindy Sheehan, calling her the "Rosa Parks" of the new anti-war movement. They also asked Americans to speak out against the war.

''We want to point out that 30 people have died since our son. Are people listening?'' Palmer asked.

Through a generous offer from a distant relative of the man who fired his shotgun into the air the other day, Camp Casey will be moving to a ranch closer to Bush's, probably in the morning.

“A neighbor of President Bush’s has offered us his land,” the source said. “It’s got plenty of acreage for us, it’s private land, we would have legal permission to be on it, it’s much closer to the ranch — in fact it’s across the street from his (Bush’s) church.” “We have taken him up on his offer,” the source added.

....According to the source, the land offered to Sheehan is owned by Fred Mattlage, who is a distant cousin of Larry Mattlage, a man who fired a shotgun over the weekend in frustration over the commotion caused by the vigil. ‘I support what you all are doing’
The source said Fred Mattlage made the offer saying “I’m a veteran, I support what you all are doing and I want to offer you my land.”

[Hat tip Democratic Daily.]

by TChris

Anti-war protestors supporting Cindy Sheehan erected white crosses bearing the names of fallen soldiers at her Crawford campsite. An anti-Sheehan protestor drove his pickup truck through the crosses. So much for free speech in Crawford.

At about the time a prayer service was to begin at Sheehan's camp yesterday, a sheep farmer fired a shotgun into the air. He told the police he was preparing for a hunting season that begins Sept. 1.

Kenneth Jones of the Crawford city police said firing a gun in the countryside is commonplace, and it shouldn't surprise or frighten anyone. Hunting season's coming up and guns are part of the culture in Texas, Jones said.

"This is still redneck country," he said.

No kidding.

[Update: (TL): Crooks and Liars has the video to the Today Show segment on the destruction of the crosses.]

Adopting a less confrontational strategy, Cindy Sheehan has invited President Bush to a prayer vigil for the troops on Friday. His schedule reportedly is clear. Crooks and Liars has the video.

Crooks and Liars has the video of Howard Dean on Face the Nation today.

The question is, what is a reasonable way to get out? And that's - we have no answers from the President on that at all. He keeps - his Administration appears divided. Some of the generals have said we can withdraw some of the troops, perhaps as many as 30,000 after the elections. We have others saying, we're not going to leave. These people do not know what they are doing. They didn't know what they were doing when we got in, they had no plan then, they have no plan now.

[Via Atrios.]

Last week we reported that Saddam's daughter had fired all his lawyers. Today, the Iraq tribunal trying Saddam says the lawyers are not fired. Only Saddam can fire or hire lawyers, not his family.

With more than 1,800 young American lives lost, does Bush think an Emily Litella "Never Mind" moment will do anything but enrage us and sour the troops?

The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.

The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say. What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. "

Can you spell f-a-i-l-u-r-e?

So says Frank Rich in a must-read column in the Sunday New York Times. He even credits the blogosphere:

Only someone as adrift from reality as Mr. Bush would need to be told that a vacationing president can't win a standoff with a grief-stricken parent commandeering TV cameras and the blogosphere 24/7.

Also in the Times, this grim op-ed by a returning soldier.

Yesterday's Cindy Sheehan open thread is full. Time for another, I'll start with this letter to the editor of the Cape Cod Times [hat tip Terry Kindlon]:

Cindy Sheehan is the Rosa Parks of military mothers - one determined voice from one extraordinary, ordinary person. I was fortunate to serve on a panel of speakers with Cindy on July 28 when she appeared at Cape Cod Community College. (I represented Military Families Speak Out). I am the mother of a U.S. Marine who is being deployed to Iraq within a few weeks. He is coming to visit me to say goodbye and enjoy one more Red Sox game this weekend. On Tuesday I am getting on a plane and going to sit with Cindy outside the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas.

I hope all military mothers around the country are paying attention to Cindy's vigil. As mothers, we might be the ones who can finally get the country's attention and stop this ridiculous excuse for a ''noble cause.''

If it's so noble, why aren't any of the 17 Bush grandchildren in the military?

Mimi Evans,West Barnstable