Blue Crab Boulevard

For quite a while, the media made much of Cindy Sheehan and her protest against the war in Iraq. After her son, Casey, was killed in the was she became a symbol for the anti-war crowd. The media treated her as a superstar for a while, because it fit their views.

Then she slammed Hillary Clinton. The media recoiled. Now suddenly Sheehan is playing to ever smaller crowds and is reduced to kissing anti-American thugs to get some, any publicity. She even was rude to the person who invited her to the Stat of the Union address and tried, hard, to make a scene.

She went back to Crawford, Texas to relive her glory days. Only not much publicity this time. 

Now it comes down to making nasty claims about someone who tried, before Sheehan became famous, to do the right thing. Sheehan wrote that the funeral director who handled her son's funeral didn't pat the cemetery. The poor guy is just plain hurt by this charge.

In an e-mail sent to The Reporter Sunday, Nadeau expressed hurt and disbelief at Sheehan's comments. He said that the amount of money the military gave the mortuary for Casey's funeral service and cemetery arrangements didn't even come close to covering the costs.

"Several kind citizens made donations," said Nadeau. "I absorbed the rest."

This was not the only way in which he went above and beyond his responsibilities following Casey's death, said Nadeau. He also provided a stretch limousine and a driver at his expense, he said, and invited the family to go to the airport with him so that he could accompany them. None of this was required, said Nadeau.

"Having known the Sheehan family for many years through St. Mary's Catholic Church where Ms. Sheehan had previously been the youth director, it was my desire to provide care and dignity to Casey and the family. I did this in every respect."

Nadeau also refuted Sheehan's statement that the mortuary finally paid the cemetery only after the family threatened to bring the story to the media.

"This never happened," said Nadeau. "I would stop by the family home as I do most families' homes and check with them on necessary needs, etc."

Nadeau said the military provided his mortuary $5,736 in funding to pay for the funeral service and cemetery arrangements. The funding came in May 2004, said Nadeau, and he paid the cemetery as soon as the costs had been totaled and the donations received.

Sheehan stands by her story.

Then, further along in the article, we learn that Sheehan and her husband are divorcing.

How sad this all is. What a horrible tragedy the media and the left have done to everyone involved.

But I'm thinking Jim over at Gateway Pundit isn't an Algore fan.

I'm just sayin'……

I read the article Jim posted on and, frankly, about got sick over the gushy genuflection the WaPo article gives Gore. Every single day, I thank (insert Deity here) that Gore never got elected.

(BTW, Jim, that's my all time favorite Gore picture you're using!)

According to the US Census Bureau, the number of businesses owned by Black Americans has risen by 45% between 1997 and 2002. 45%, folks. That is beyond healthy growth - that's an explosion. This is absolutely fabulous news. More and more Black Americans, when downsized by corporations are deciding to go into business for themselves. This is the American dream. This is what being an American is all about.

So what's astonishing? The fact that not one, single left wing blogger has said one, single word about this according to Memeorandum. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Now, that could be a glitch, I have had links fail to show up there in the past. Still, the silence is positively deafening.

These are your fellow citizens and this is great news. Why are you silent about it?

Any self-identified left leaning bloggers who did blog about this great news before I wrote this post should post a comment with a link, I will gladly admit I misjudged your blog.

Gaius Arbo

Asia News Network is reporting that Japan will stop aid to the Hamas led Palestinian government for the time being. Humanitarian food aid would still be allowed.

Said Staff Sgt. Matthew Lafata, answering a question over the radio. Someone wanted to know if the pile of dirt next to the road looked like old dirt or new dirt. Just another day in Tal Afar for the soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Division. Doing more foot patrols than their predecessors, the soldiers get to know the locals.

Unit commanders say that the foot patrols have several benefits — the first one being that many city streets are too small for armor to fit through. The streets that are large enough have suffered heavy damage from continuous tank traffic, and some intersections bear jagged troughs several feet deep — pivot points for tanks and Bradleys.

Commanders also say that foot patrols are much more familiar with the city’s neighborhoods and residents, and are capable of spotting new and potential troublemakers to a neighborhood, as well as signs of roadside bombs.

Interpreters accompany patrols, allowing soldiers to speak with residents and gather information. In some cases, locals have warned soldiers of bombs lying in their path.

Read the whole thing. Via Stars and Stripes.

An article in the Guardian says that companies ignore bloggers at their peril.

Bloggers and internet pundits are exerting a "disproportionately large influence" on society, according to a report by a technology research company. Its study suggests that although "active" web users make up only a small proportion of Europe's online population, they are increasingly dominating public conversations and creating business trends.

The article quotes Glenn Reynolds.

"That's exactly right," said Glenn Reynolds, author of An Army of Davids, which explores the explosion in web punditry. "Bloggers and blog-readers are 'influentials' - the minority that pays attention to events outside of political and news cycles. They also tend on average to be better off, better educated and, more importantly, employed."

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard suddenly feel important. Now if we could just figure out how to get paid to do this….

Clint Taylor thinks the announcement made by Richard Levin may be very important. Let's hope it's important for the right reasons.

This brief history of art throughout history is simple yet thorough, concise and thought-provoking. We here at Blue Crab Boulevard give it two claws up!

No, no, no, not Cyprus, cypress. But the cypress was in Cyprus. Well, until it burned. Confused yet?

It seems the Green party on the island of Cyprus are up in arms over a centuries-old tradition. Local youths compete to have the largest bonfire, known locally as "lambradjia" (translation: big fire) with which to burn an effigy of Judas Iscariot on Easter (that would be Greek Orthodox Easter, which falls on April 23rd this year). The Greens are charging that someone cut down a pair of 200 year old trees on the estate of the President of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos.

"It is really an issue of educating people. Some might regard it as an easy solution for firewood, seeing a tall tree and saying, 'oh, I'll cut that one down'," said party spokeswoman Ioanna Panayiotou, adding "Its a yearly phenomenon."

Oddly enough, the trees they are cutting down are not the mutant lemon trees that are producing giant lemons. They also seem to be jumping to conclusions that the trees are being felled by frisky youths. Couldn't it be frisky, giant, mutant bunnies?

Blue Crab Boulevard. Your source for news that really matters.

UPDATE: Linking to Blue Star Chronicles open trackback thread. Also James Joyner's trackback thread.

AP reports that Iran's mother of all jackasses president is threatening to "cut the hand off" of any aggressor.

"Today, you are among the world's most powerful armies because you rely on God," Ahmadinejad declared at a parade to commemorate Army Day.

"Iran's enemies know your courage, faith and commitment to Islam and the land of Iran has created a powerful army that can powerfully defend the political borders and the integrity of the Iranian nation and cut off the hand of any aggressor and place the sign of disgrace on their forehead," Ahmadinejad said.

Would some of his neighbors please tell this whack-job guy to please shut up?

*crickets*