Personal account of one of the people arrested in Crawford today

[IndianaGreen]

Hi All,

I had the honor of getting busted with some of the greatest patriots in America. The local Sheriff's office was very professional and polite and the experience was invigorating and uplifting.

As usual, the women ran the show. Col. Ann Wright and others insured that we were respectful of the police that arrested us and in return, we were afforded respect and kindness by the local authorities.

When we were released, there were people dancing to music, (on top of Vans), in the ditch of the jail. We were met with hugs and kisses of the 100 or so outside the jail. The entire process took about 3.5 hours.

Our defense will attempt to protect our First Amendment Rights as well as sending a message to Boy George that we will dog him every step of the way until he orders an orderly withdrawal of our troops in Iraq, to include those that are stationed in bases that are protecting the oil reserves in Iraq on behalf of the multinational oil companies.

A heads up...We will be here Christmas and New Years and every other time he comes to the so called Western White House to continue the pressure on W. to bring our troops home now.

Col. Wright has been nominated for President and will probably be the Crawford Chapter of Veterans For Peace which is up and running. Our Executive Director is Linda Foley.

Donations to the Crawford Veterans For Peace can be mailed to P. O. Box 252, Crawford, Texas, 76638-9998. Those funds will be used in a speaking tour throughout the USA and Canada to build the movement to BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW.

May ya'll have a Happy Thanks Giving.

Your Brother in Peace and Justice,

Carl.

Ps. I found this on a business card in the only Crawford Restaurant; GOD bless our President and GOD bless TEXAS This is BUSH COUNTRY! We are Texans first and Americans second. We don't take it kindly when some "out-of-state bitch" comes here calling our friend and neighbor, George W. Bush, all sorts of names and blocking our roadways. We honor our veterans, both living and dead. We believe in defending Texas even from other Americans that come here disrespecting us or our values. If George does talk to Cindy, I'm hope he'll modify her behavior, Texas style.

This is a word for word comment from that card which I will bring back to Indianapolis if anyone is interested. Not all people in Crawford are in this mind set. We have a number of supporters here and many of the people coming to Crawford to protest have Texas license plates.

[TomInTib]

1. Keep them lamps trimmed and burnin'

Thanks, Carl

Never give up
Never give in

[ktowntennesseedem]

2. Thanks for the post, and for all you are doing

in the name of peace and justice and democracy. Can't join you in person, but I am most definitely with you in spirit.

Keep up the fight!!!

:applause: :woohoo: :yourock:

[babylonsister]

3. Thank you, Carl, and thanks to everyone there! K&R! nt

[bahrbearian]

4. I Salute you.

[AuntiBush]

5. I Commend you, Carl, for your Courage & Patriotism!

You're an inspiration to us all.

:patriot:

[PDJane]

6. Kudos to you........

And to Col. Wright, who is on my list of people I would love to meet, having listened to video taped speeches and testimony. This is another one of the upright people who balance out, at least in part, the Shrub and his bunch of criminals.

Way to go, and I may you succeed.

[Melissa G]

7. Thanks Carl! Will try to join you on X-mas or New Years! n/t

NGU!:patriot:

[Straight Shooter]

8. About that business card and its sentiments ...

... apparently some people can't tell the difference between a real ranch and a hog farm with lipstick on it.

[No Exit]

13. I'd like to know the name of that restaurant so I can send them a reply

to their filthy, cowardly, little card.

[IndianaGreen]

14. It is the only restaurant in Crawford

it should not be hard to find...

[Straight Shooter]

15. Is that the one with a stand-up photo of george h.w. and bar *gag* bush?

Nasty attitude all the way around, eh?

[0007]

16. Google it!

[IndianaGreen]

22. Coffee Station, restaurant and convenience store

6659 N Lone Star Pkwy
Crawford, TX

[IndyOp]

42. Should we send them something?

Maybe a copy of the Bible? Or just relevant quotes from that Jesus Hippie-Freak about turning the other cheek?

:)

[No Exit]

44. I want to send them a letter. I am not planning anything

obscene or illegal. I just want to tell them what I think of their card.

[IndyOp]

45. I wanted to send them something meaningful -

Nothing obscene or illegal - my avatar would not approve of obscene or illegal. Sometimes it just helps people behave better if they know that they are acting 'in public' not private; if they know that 'most' people want to see them be respectful of others with different opinions. If they think the only people paying attention are Texans of similar minds then they feel supported in behaving the way they are behaving. I understand that they are experiencing pressure from 'without' which is almost certain to cause resentment - still, the high road is for them to demonstrate respect.

:hi:

[No Exit]

48. That sums it up nicely.

I don't think they understand the black eye they are giving their state. You can bet those people, after distributing that card, will then turn around and call themselves "Christians" without batting an eye.

[LeighAnn]

27. Think of the $$$ Crawford businesses rake in

They'll be crying in their beer when Bush is out of office and out of Crawford, as the "Crawford Ranch" was nothing but a photo-op, anyway. Camp Casey et al have brought zillions of dollars to the "local economy". They'll not be ringing up the cash registers for too much longer, and they'll miss the good old days and the greenbacks of the people that many of them treated like alien space invaders.

[No Exit]

43. Yeah, really!

These Crawford freaks of nature are IDENTICAL to the southerners who told the "outsiders" (people that came to help in the civil rights movement) to leave or else.

Remember Viola Liuzzo and others?

Yet the Chimperor of course made the necessary bow to Rosa Parks and hailed her as a great American, yada yada yada. All the while, treating Cindy Sheehan as though she were trash.

I don't understand anyone who can't grasp the simplicity of Cindy Sheehan's crusade. If my son had been killed in this fraudulent war, I would probably want to follow around the man who killed him, till doomsday. And I wouldn't be as nice as Cindy Sheehan is about it.

And you're right--the "ranch" is one big photo op. I call it Junior's estate, because I think that's a more accurate description. That little Kennebunkport pussy wouldn't know how to "ranch" if his life depended on it.

[cajones_II]

9. Key phrase in there

"We are Texans first and Americans second"
They are taught this from the moment they can walk in that state, and are quick to point it out to any "foreigners" which is what they call the rest of us from the United States.

[Peggy Day]

10. Wasn't * born in the new england area? nt

[IndianaGreen]

11. Yep, Bush is a Connecticut Yankee and a faux Texan

just like he is a faux rancher.

[tavalon]

53. All hat, no cattle

as we say here in Texas.

[NicRic]

63. copy of birth certificate ?

On everyones birth certificate it states the name of the state in which the infant was born .It would be cool to have a copy of bushes to show texans where their favorite Texan is really from ,alo a school register showing that he even attended school in another state. Guess what good old boys ,George is not one of you ,picture of him in his cheerleader costume ,would help prove that point also ! His whole Good old boy ,born again Christain ,high morals etc.etc. is nothing except a phony made up personality ,being put on the American public with the help of a lazy, and corrupt news media that takes the bait hook line and sinker !

[fudge stripe cookays]

18. Nice generalization.

I'm 39, and have lived in Texas for 35 years. I consider myself an American first, and Texan only because I live here. It's nothing special to me.

Not everyone in this state has this bullshit attitude. I don't point out anything to foreigners, and thank anyone who tells me I'm not like a "typical Texan."

By the way....they're "CO-jones", AMIGO. And yours are artificial.

fsc

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. Yes, the common misspelling "cajones" means

"boxes" or "drawers." :-)

[Hekate]

37. Kinda like "Arbusto" means "Shrub"

:rofl:

Hekate

[tavalon]

54. Alas, I've made that mistake before

even though I've lived a majority of my life in South and Central Texas.

[ClintonTyree]

39. If you're going to nit-pick, it's "cookies", not "cookays"......

just messin' with ya! ;)

[fudge stripe cookays]

59. Ha ha, very funny.

But not here, it isn't...

www.oddtodd.com

fsc ;-)

[FVZA_Colonel]

31. Personally, I find that phrase a bit frightening

If they truly feel that way, and are not saying it in a fit of passion, and other people across the country feel this way, I fear for the future of our republic.

[alarimer]

34. A lot of people I know here have that attitude

I think it should be the other way around. Since I moved here, it has really bothered me.

From the Austin Lounge lizards "Stupid Texas Song"

"By god we're so darn proud to be from Texas
Even of our pride we're proud and we're proud of that pride too.
Our pride about our home state is the proudest pride indeed.
We're proud to be Americans until we can secede."

[tavalon]

55. And, while I currently live here

as soon as I leave for Seattle, they are welcome to secede as long as Austin doesn't have to.

[tavalon]

52. Somewhat true and yet

that's a broad brush there, Pardner. There are many of us who don't feel that way. Heck, I loved it when the tourist board called Texas, A Whole Other Country. That's the way I've always thought of it, of course I usually add, "A third world country with too many redneck assholes." Until Bush took our laboratory for bad government (bow to Molly Ivins) national, I found this state's politics way amusing.

It does bug me that many of my fellow Texans view Bush's Presidency as a win for the "home team", a sentiment I cannot abide.

[howmad1]

70. Texass always has been and always will be

a friggin bananna republic. Any DU defenders of Texass, my advice: MOVE!:grr:

[No Exit]

12. Memo to the Crawford Restaurant:

GOD curse your dirty, hell-sent puppet figurehead, George W. Bush. GOD curse him inside and out, through and through. GOD curse every atom of every cell that composes this walking menace to the world. To borrow the lingo of your preachers: May GOD smite him and annihilate him and leave no trace of him. We are AMERICANS and we don't give a HOT DAMN if your filthy state is handed over to Mexico or otherwise cut loose. The U.S. would be a far better place without it. We don't take it kindly when you 10 or so bitches decide to contravene the Bill of Rights and deny us Americans our right to speak the truth about your drunken emperor WHEN and WHERE we please.
We outnumber you by many millions. We will block your pathetic roadways if we please.

WE BELIEVE IN DEFENDING AMERICANS FROM TEXANS WHO COME TO OUR WHITE HOUSE, "DISRESPECTING" US AND OUR VALUES.

You may think that George can "modify Cindy's behavior", but you are too stupid and evil to notice that Cindy has been modifying George's behavior for a long time now. Cindy holds the whip hand, and you'd better learn to live with it. Now go run and hide--as is the "Texas style".

(Apologies to Texas DUers. Obviously I don't include you all in my condemnation of the "bad Texas"--the part of Texas that brought forth DeLay. I do not forget that there is also an Austin, and a Molly Ivins.)

[fudge stripe cookays]

19. Thanks for the clarification, No Exit.

Unlike your compadre above.

fsc

[No Exit]

46. LOL

You're welcome! We all have parts of our states that we would rather not claim. In the case of those of us who live in "red" states, that's a LARGE part.

I wonder if those 10 people at that Crawford restaurant (it sounds like a convenience store) know how ridiculous they look, defending poor Goliath from David.

[fudge stripe cookays]

60. I'd love to leave THEM a card in their

restaurant telling them how they make the rest of our state look like assholes.

Then draw a moustache on Barb when they're lot looking.

fsc

[No Exit]

65. Barb could probably grow one on her own...

even when she was 20...

Meanwhile, I just read the Vanity Fair article "High Noon In Crawford". It turns out that even in little Crawford, there are plenty of people who see this petty tyrant for what he is.

http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/articles/051024roco01

If you haven't read it, I hope you will. It's excellent!

[tavalon]

56. Thank you

You expressed important things without making us who are the good Texans feel lumped it. Kudos on a great rant.

[Aviation Pro]

17. We are Texans first

Then secede (we'll take back all the federal dollars and troops at places like Ft. Hood, Ft. Bliss and Langley AFB). We'll also cut off any pipeline or energy source that you use to sell the rest of the country your filthy petro products. Then when you're good and destitute we'll invade your "country" and torture every oil executive that we can get our hands on and bomb your citizenry back to the stone age.

Americans second my ass.

[Maestro]

25. Just remember that a very vocal minority actually think that way.

They're idiots and not representatives of most Texans.

On another note, good going Carl. You have my utmost respect for showing the George Boy who is watching him.

[alarimer]

35. That attitude sucks

it really does. It is the reason I want to get the hell out of this stupid fucking state. I hate Texans with that attitude; there is NOTHING for Texans to be so fucking proud of. They have some of the lowest literacy rates in the nation. They almost always rank near the bottom in various educational statistics. Lousy health care system, millions of kids uninsured. And hardly anyone gives a shit either. The only Texas city worth living in is Austin. Texas is thankful there is a Mississippi bringing up the rear; otherwise it would be last in everything.

[tavalon]

57. Second on the Austin recommendation

but even it is getting too spread out and the suburbs are starting to let their conservative crap ooze in to contaminate.

[No Exit]

47. Yeah, how come O'Lielly isn't on this?

How come he's not all outraged about people who would say they are "Texans first, Americans second"?

That part about the oil executives, I must admit that that warmed my heart when I read it!

[WearyOne]

20. thanks for that account..good luck and well done

[jarnocan]

21. thank you!

I hope I can joing you all, some day!
They can keep arresting good people, but at the same time more news is coming out about the many crimes of the Bush regime.

The conspiracy of silence needs to end. I think some progress is being made, but so much has happend that most people don't even have a clue about.

[jarnocan]

23. bit in the AP about Ann Wright and others.

"On Wednesday, 12 protesters were arrested after setting up camp at Sheehan's original makeshift site....
They were charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing a highway passageway, misdemeanors each carrying a maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine....
"Since it was instituted because of what we did for 26 days in August, it's appropriate that we're the ones challenging this ordinance," said one of those arrested, Ann Wright, who resigned her post as a senior diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia in 2003 in protest of the war with Iraq." http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4995
I think she is awesome too, I got to see/hear her in NY at the www.Worldcantwait.net protest.

[Catherine Vincent]

26. Oh please!

"We don't take it kindly when some "out-of-state bitch" comes here calling our friend and neighbor, George W. Bush, all sorts of names and blocking our roadways. We honor our veterans, both living and dead."

They honor dead veterans by calling the mother of one of them a bitch? How republican!

[ClintonTyree]

40. And mowing down Arlington West..........

the crosses Cindy et al. put in the ground to honor our fallen heroes were run over by one of those "texas first, country second" morans in a pick up truck. They got the asshole but I bet he received some down home, "Texas Justice", good old boy sentence; a five dollar fine and four hours of community service at the local red-neck honky-tonk, sweeping the broken beer bottles and body parts up at the end of the night.
Those people give the entire State a black eye. I know there's a lot of good people in Texas, but I'd never set foot in that state because of the negative images those "proud, Texas patriots" :eyes: summon up. I know there's stupid people everywhere, but Texas got more than it's share when they were handing them out.

[Dunvegan]

28. Much appreciated, IndianaGreen...

...much of the country, and indeed the world, in thinking of you all in Crawford this Thanksgiving...and giving thanks for your activism.

I just went here to contribute...support the people on the front lines of supporting our troops who are on the front lines...support the Veterans for Peace.

https://www.donate.net/donationSelector/basket.asp?dept_id=590



...I also crused by the Crawford Peace House...

Seems like they can use an electric range, Windows XP Professional, and the Adobe design programs. I have a copy of Photoshop I can spare, if they want it.

Seems like a lot of trolls over at the Peace House...senseless, really.

http://crawfordpeace.nfshost.com/node/352

Personally, on this Thanksgiving Day, I am thankful for all the efforts of the Veterans for Peace and the Crawford Peace house...and support the vigils and actions of this patriotic band of heroes that speak honest truth to corrupt power.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

[dwightspencer]

29. Thank you, Carl

Thank you for your citizenship, Carl, as what you are doing is what makes this country America. I am grateful that we have the opportunity, the obligation, to speak out against injustice and hold all our leaders to a high standard. Without actions such as yours, anyone who might be rumored to have thoughts contrary to the stream of the ruling power could risk being spirited away faster than you could say, "Jose Padilla."

Thank all of you here at Democratic Underground for being such a strong center of support and providing an outlet for those of us isolated within Texas by swolen communities of rapture rightists. The restaurant in Crawford is a cross-section of the prevailing mentality that is part of the dominant culture in Texas. The sad fact is that Michael Scanlon had it right when he allowed the playbook to be read in the public record and said

The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees. Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them.

We have to seriously think about why his associate, Tom DeLay was smiling for his mugshot. We have to remember this is the state where T. Cullin Davis was allowed to get away with conspiracy to kill his wife with photographic evidence. We have to understand that things have been very wrong in Texas and those who are part of the good old boys network have been manipulating its flaws since reconstruction. Without people out front like you, Carl, like John Murtha, like all of those who have stuck their necks out to speak up--- we would all be lost.

A hearty thank you,

Dwight

[fleabert]

30. thank you.for the arrest and protest, and for the text of the card, btw...

tell them this

GEORGE BUSH IS NOT A TEXAN! HE WAS BORN IN FUCKING CONNECTICUT!

Any Texan worth their salt knows that you can move to Texas and live there from two days of age till death, but you still ain't a true Texan unless you were born there. It's stupid, but that is the way it is. Fuck George Bush and the horse he's afraid of.



I have to add, I was also raised with the belief that I am a Texan first, and an American second. That makes it all the more depressing that Texas has slipped so far from what it was and could still be. there are still plenty of yellow dogs there for me to keep hope alive while I am a TexasExPat.

[benny05]

32. Likewise

But we have to consider ourselves Americans first now because W and his ilk are running our country too much like Texas and assuming most folks agree with Texas policy wonkers. If Texas policy makers were like Molly Ivins believes, I'd salute them, but Molly is right and they don't get what she says. She should find a candidate she likes beyond Ann R (whom I love too, but she's retired) and get behind that person so that the rest of us can too.

[fleabert]

33. it felt really good to vote for Ann Richards, the first vote I ever cast

after turning 18, I wish she would unretire.

I still have the response to the question 'where are you from' answered as 'Texas', I don't think that will ever change. (this is if an American or otherwise asks, here and abroad, btw) But I see your point. I am a Texan who loves Texas, but hates Texas politics and hates what Texas has become in the eyes of the rest of the world because of that asshole. I say that too after saying I am from Texas. :-) Just like I want to change the stigma now attached to words like 'liberal' and 'feminist', I want to change what it means to be a Texan. I wear them all proudly.

[arewenotdemo]

71. I remember the "King of the Hill" episode where

Hank learned that he was born in New York, and was therefore NOT a real Texan.

Hard knocks, indeed.

[ClayZ]

36. Thank you all!

[Hekate]

38. I'm giving thanks for you, Cindy, and all the Crawford bunch

God(dess) bless you all, and keep you safe, for the courage you show and the work that you do.

Hekate

[Kolesar]

41. Thanks, IndianaGreen--Ghandi and Dr. King's work is not over yet--eom

[graywarrior]

49. We honor you.

[cassiepriam]

50. WOMEN RAN THE SHOW..... I love that part! Go Girls!

[emald]

51. Is that card from the restaurant real?

If it is real then texas has some BIG problems. Maybe we should modify *'s behavior, texas style. What a fucking wimmpy little state. Threats? Against the 65% of the country which knows how screwed up * is?
BTW, thanks and hugs for all those who could participate in this event, and the future events. *'S EVIL LIES ARE DESTROYING AMERICA, you texan pos who wrote that card. Come on up to Alaska and we'll modify your behavior; we'll freeze your ass in a snow berm.
PS out of state bitch? Stupid texans mixing up dogs and humans again, which has to be a problem when it comes to sex. It would however explain the card.

[SeattleVet]

76. Is there any chance that you can get Alaska to split into 2 states?

Even if it only serves to make Texas the THIRD largest state?

[Toots]

58. It is a little too intelligently written to be from Bush*

It is a close call though... Texans first and Americans down the line a ways....after Republican.

[ThatsMyBarack]

61. Is it me, or....

....are the wrong people getting arrested in all this??

Anyway, Carl, thanks for sharing! I'm so jealous. I wish I could go (I'm too poor).

:patriot: :hippie:

[lonestarnot]

62. Tejas is just full of 'em... as demonstrated by this business card.

Gooooo Cindy!

[sinkingfeeling]

64. Thanks Carl. Someone needs to post the latest Chimp polls on

every telephone/light pole in that little podunk town, Crawford.

Another suggestion: Since these folks asked GOD to bless * and Texas, why don't they all volunteer to fight Chimpy's war. New law: all Texans between the ages of 18 and 42 will go to Iraq and anybody American, first and not from Texas can come home NOW!

[Old Vet]

67. If they feel that strongly about "*" policies Iam sure................

They would be in the front of any recruiters doors daily. Funny, I still remember the thread a while back about how many veterans were using DU. I was proud to be one of so many vets, Mike Moore said it right in 911. WHY do so many with the least, Give so much to the ones with the MOST????

[DirtyDawg]

66. To the good folks of Crawford...

...Have you ever heard of 'cognitive dissonance'? Well when you finally get over it - and it won't be long now - your embarrassment will be deep-seated and will, hopefully, last the remainder of your lives. You've been at the core of the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on this, once great, country. Your community has been the location of the backdrop for the setting for the palace of 'the boy king'. The guy they decided had the name to become President, they just needed some sort of Texas setting to help make the facade complete - of course they had to clean up any factual record of his sorry-ass past. So they picked up this ex-hog farm and called it a ranch...just be sure he doesn't have to be around any horses - he's scared shitless of them and they know it.

Well, if the 'ranch' can be the backdrop/setting for this sham of a Presidency, then it also has to be the backdrop/setting of the reality of the massive failure of that Presidency - this war...it comes with the territory. And as for you Crawfordites, or Crawfordians, Crawfishers...whatever you call yourselves...you too are going to be held accountable, along the rest of Texas and the rest of the Republican/Conservative/Right wing/Evangelical-Fundamentalists that have been responsible for pushing these bastards off on the rest of us.

One day there will be a reckoning...there will be a price to pay...maybe we'll start with that damn 'restaurant'...but until then we'll all have to pay the price for your stupidity.

[IndianaGreen]

68. Funny you mention cognitive dissonance

The Discovery Military Channel has been showing today the documentary Off to War, about the Arkansas National Guard being sent to Iraq. One of the guardsman is saying that whatever happens to Iraqis is justified because they attacked the US on 9/11. A minority point of view even among the guardsmen, but a view that is held by millions of Americans.

BTW, this is quite a good documentary, it shows people and events as they are, without propaganda one way or the other.

[arewenotdemo]

72. Kudos to you, IndianaGreen. As for the Guardsman in the documentary

sooner or later he and others like him will learn...perhaps from a fellow Guardsman if his family back home is too afraid to forward the "news"...that Saddam and Iraq didn't attack New York and Washington, D.C.

I just wonder how those guys over there are dealing with the truth, when they do hear or read it...

[IndianaGreen]

73. I just saw the episode when they find Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11

The guardsman are clearly beyond themselves reading the findings of the 9/11 Commission on Stars and Stripes. The one that said the thing about 9/11 is clearly stunned and beyond words. His buddy is asking why are they in Iraq.

Off to War is playing all day on the Discovery Military Channel. Tonight they are showing the last episodes of the Arkansas National Guard 18-month deployment to Iraq which ended early this year.

Watching this remarkable documentary that only reports on the experiences of a handful of guardsmen and their families back home, I am convinced that the war is a waste and that we must bring these men and women home where they belong.

[baal]

69. INSPIRATIONAL

Keep it up. Maybe that Texan ChimpBush will finally understand that we're in the 21st century and that the old, tired concepts of our 18th century constitution are in need of an overhaul ... a new constitution that recognizes that homo sapiens is a species that has decimated our planet and that we are, first and formost, citizens of the world first. Peace will never come until we realize that the U.S. Does not have te moral authority to rule the world. Why is it only liberals that understand that outmoded concepts like “nation” and religious “right and wrong” must give way to modern thought? Why do conserveatives believe we have to kill millions of poor Muslims to bring them out of the 7th century while their own concepts of morality are stuck in 1776?

Its time we all understood what Cindy has always understood, the old concept of America has already fallen by the wayside throughout the world and that we have no greater moral authority to enforce our 18th century morality than the islamists have to enforce their 7th century concepts. In fact, most Muslims are morally superior to most westerners because they seek only to live simple, non-aqusitive lives. GO-CINDY-GO!!!!!

[Voltaire99]

74. Let's hear it for Carl.

One of the good ones. :-)

Well done.

[sepia_steel]

75. I'm hope he'll modify her behavior, Texas style.

By this, do they mean putting drugs in the BBQ sauce?

[Faryn Balyncd]

77. Thanks

Carl, for your actions and report.