Wow. Wow wow wow. I actually think this is a pretty good result, seeing as the the whole SOTU kabuki theater has long since lost all of its actual meaning. I mean, it's not like anyone, Bush supporters or opponents, was going to be surprised by anything that was said or done.

If Sheehan had disrupted the ceremony, as seems likely, it would have made THEM look decorous and US look like shouting morons. Cindy's a bit of a moron as it is

But this way Bush looks like a bully and a coward, which is exactly what we want him to look like. Behind the mask, as it were.

I think a much more telling example of "everything that's wrong with this country" is Bush saying "we must free ourselves from dependence on foreign oil" when he has blocked and stonewalled every glimmer of a hint of any idea that might help do that. He's right. How's it gonna happen, George? ANWR was going to supply about 5% of the answer. Where's the other 95% coming from, George? Improved CAFE standards? I don't think so, you won't allow those. WHERE, George?

Golly, would it be illegal for me to describe a dream in which G.W.B. is a hamster placed in an apparatus comprising two shoeboxes joined together by a cardboard paper towel tube lined lengthwise by razor blades, wherin the compartment G.W.B. inhabits is empty, and the other compartment contains food, and the cardboard tube is actually a forced perspective cone that becomes progressively more narrow on the food end? Would I be arrested if I were to suggest that the only improvement upon this scenario would be to encrust the sides of the razor blades in salt?

Very nice. Don't like the opposition? Have them arrested. Don't like the 4th Amendment to the Constitution (against warrantless searches & seizures)? Ignore it. We have become communist China. Or Burma.

Bush = Stalin

This is the most punk rock thing I can think of since...well, since punk rock.

it's funny, because having her arrested might have actually caused more spectacle than just letting her be. . .i hope so at least.

And all she did was wear a shirt with a number on it.

What's next???
Book burning??

Sad... Mrs.Sheehan has lost a son in the Iraq war. She's has a right to know if her son died in vain. Clinton almost got impeached for getting his dick sucked in the white house but, Bush lie's to send millions of American's to war and dont even have the balls enough to stand up and face one soldiers mom.

What a f***'in Pu**y!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a sick, sad, world.

What ever happend to the love?

So now you can be arrested just for having a different view than Der Fuhr. How long before the "Happy" camps start popping up and everyone who doesn't agree with the administration will get all expenses paid passes to them.

I saw a new story of Fux News the other day. I found a quote from President Bush in that story which pretty much sums up this administration. He was talking about his spying program. The quote was "We will not listen inside this country."

Well...T-shirts with slogans were expressly forbidden - across the board - she refused to cover the slogan - so she was removed. I know you guys like to see the boogeyman everywhere you look but this is kind of cut and dried

What about lapel pins with slogans? I saw a lot of those.

So, Dan: Why do you hate America? ;}

Bush did NOT have her arrested. She got herself arrested, intentionally.

You can't have folks doing things provocative or confrontrational in the House galley, and that includes wearing clothing with something confrontational. You couldn't have a dignified State of the Union for ANY president EVER without these rules. All you can do is sit politely and clap or not clap. This is a venue to behave like adults and exercise the proper decorum.

There are plenty of other venues for protesting, but not inside House chambers. Think about it.

If she had not done this, and the camera pool got a shot of her, and then later she told her reactions to the speech to the press, she would have gone along way to showing the world that she has some integrity.

- Miss Prism
(aka Bruce)

I think it's stupid to invite someone you know disagrees with your politics. Of course she would have worn a t-shirt with a slogan. The individuals who invited her had to have known this. She is protesting him and his political views. How could she not pass up this moment by wearing a t-shirt. THINK Bush, THINK. Oh wait, he has other morons thinking for him. Stupid is as stupid does! what a fucker.

In fairness, Sheehan was invited by a Democratic legislator to attend.

But on the other hand, how many people would have even noticed Sheehan's shirt had she not been arrested for it?

None. None at all.

Dan, Bush didn't "have her arrested," as Miss Prism has already explained. Jeez, everything to you people is caused by Bushitler, who's too busy to give two shits about the antics of a self-obsessed showboater like Sheehan. Perhaps if she spent .000001% of her efforts on getting her son a headstone, I'd buy that she's doing this for him.

Between Dan's post and Claudia's comment, the uninitiated would think that Bush invited Sheehan and then summarily had her arrested for showing up. What a bastard!

Napoleon, that shirt would have stood out in the gallery like a hooker at high Mass.

Metaphorically speaking of course and no offense to hookers.

Nonetheless, if she hadn't been arrested last night, she'd be old news.

Realizing of course, that yes, she lost her son in Iraq and its a tragedy, but after some of her statements (and appearances with Hugo Chavez), she's really mixed her message and diluted its power. Her fifteen minutes are nearly up.

I wish I could say the same for George.

Isn't the Bush family fortune built largely on oil? Now he claims we are addicted to oil and he is going to set out to do something about it? This is like Pablo Escobar claiming he's out to fight coke addiction. Love or hate Sheehan, at least she's doing something. The democrats' response was pathetic.

Yeah, Longball, I agree. It does seem like a strange priority to have all of a sudden. But, then, didn't he announce a major hydrogen car initiative like 3 years ago? Haven't heard anything about it since...

Wasn't impressed with Tim Kaine either. His Spock-like eyebrow cocking was distracting, and he kept pushing his slogan "there's a better way" into the sentence before it. It came out sounding like "We have a healthcare crisistheresabetterway." Everyone describes him as a rising star. I don't see it, I guess.

The real issue for me is the fact that she was arrested rather than asked to leave.

The shirt was provocative. That is by design. Of course she would do something. But it is her right as an American to challenge politicians. In fact it is her obligation to question and challenge as a citizen.

The response is meant to send a warning. Do not challenge the administration unless you want harassment, your phone tapped and the label "terrorist".

How many more examples of abuse of power do we need before Americans realize their rights and responsibilities are at stake.

"I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death your right to say it" - Who said this?

Obviously no one in the administration.

It pains me to see Cindy Sheehan make a cartoon of herself. It would have been compelling to see her sitting there, in contrast to the human props the white house routinely invites to the gallery, boldly dissenting with grace and dignity. Anyone remember Rosa Parks? Tee shirts are for jackasses like Tim Eyman.

Of course, they would have just found another reason to arrest her.

Here's a link to the Rep. Lynn Woolsey's website, where you can find here repsonse to Sheehan's arrest. She is the congressperson who invited Cindy Sheehan. http://woolsey.house.gov/

SO this slog is long over, but just in case:
I totally agree with Sheehan getting arrested. Wearing a fawking t-shirt to the State of the Union address?!? That's the real crime here...

The hydrogen car initiative is just a smokescreen, just like everything else that comes out of the Cheney administration on the subject of oil consumption. Hydrogen cars are stupid; it takes more energy to make the hydrogen than is in the oil you save. Ditto all Bush's other gee-whiz techno solutions. They are DESIGNED to suck off research dollars and fool the public while the oil orgy continues undisturbed.

Bush could do ONE THING that would take no fancy technology and no complicated studies, but would have an immediate and massive impact: require higher-mileage cars. ONE MPG PER VEHICLE is all it would take to wean us off of Saudi oil, for starters.

If half of the SUVs were traded in for compact cars, it would make a huge dent in our energy deficit, our trade deficit, our NATIONAL SECURITY problem, and the rate of global warming. This could be accomplished by hammering the SUVs with a MASSIVE USE TAX.

We'd be safer, too, since cars are much safer than SUVs -- yes, SUVs survive crashes better than (some) small cars, but they SUCK in the much more important area of AVOIDING crashes.

But that's politically not where Bush is at. Surprise, surprise. But that's what he said! Sadly, he doesn't mean it once again.

And the immediate scripted response from the oil industry, "taking Bush to task for his reckless attack on oil", is a straw man, put up deliberately to help position the Republicans on the enviro spectrum. They know they're going to take a beating on it in November, so what they're doing now is creating an artificial divide in their own party so they can have a "moderate" position to point to.

Watch the conservative bloggers pick up this idea and run. They have their playbooks.

How cynical. Bush is in opposition to Big Oil -- yeah, right, sure.