We’ve said it before…and say it almost everytime we speak anywhere publicly in fact…but if you need any more proof that the actions of one person can make a difference, allow us to offer just a few more recent examples of the actions taken by just a few of the good BRAD BLOGGERS out there.
We’re sure we could offer loads of similar examples from several score more of you, but these two folks have jumped out of late and we’re happy to add to the noise they’ve already made.
Last week, a frequent BRAD BLOG commenter (whose name we’ll leave out, since we didn’t get express permission to mention it — they can take credit for here in comments if they are so inclined) made a bit of news after sending a letter of complaint to the Tennessee Department of Health complaining about Sen. Bill Frist’s videotaped (and incorrect) “diagnosis” of Terri Schiavo a few months back.
The letter, apparently, has triggered a review of Frist’s actions, according to the return letter received from the Director of Investigations for Health Related Boards.
All we can say is: Well done!
And another BRAD BLOG commenter, Sheila Leavitt, has been bravely making noise for quite a while. She seems to have little fear when it comes to speaking out rather publicly and for that alone (sadly enough) she deserves a round of applause in this chilling day and age.
That’s her on the right as photographed by AFP on the day Conyers was delivering the Downing Street letter to the White House.
Today, Sheila made the news again as she was featured in a great Boston Herald column.
We’re not certain, but it may be her car that caught the attention of the Herald reporter 🙂
In an email exchange we had today, Sheila told us, “My medium is cardboard, just as yours is words in the computer. Each of us only needs to do what we do best, and do it with love and persistence, don’t you think? Eventually, maybe things will get better.”
Yes, we think maybe eventually it will.
Since the Herald site is subscription only, here’s a few more grafs than usual from today’s article on Sheila, some of the thugs she’s faced down in the course of bravely speaking out, and, of course…a must-see EXCLUSIVE BRAD BLOG photograph of…Sheila’s car…
I see her as one of those rare people who puts their convictions on parade, then faces uneasy consequences. Like the beefy, mad, middle-aged guy who followed her around the Esplanade yesterday, before dawn, tearing down her “Impeach Bush”‘ posters as fast as she put them up. Or the trucker she said rear-ended her at a Mass Pike toll booth, sending her head into the steering wheel of her ’88 Toyota Corolla with bumper stickers saying “War is barbaric” and “Support our troops…Draft Jenna & Barbara,” as in Bush.
…
Well, you should’ve seen Sheila Leavitt’s in-your-face Toyota yesterday as this 54-year-old trained physician and mother of four in sundress and flip-flops did her “one-person protest parade” through the Back Bay and South End.
She’d spray-painted the car black like a hearse. On its roof, a cardboard Uncle Sam lay in state atop a black-and-white-painted cardboard coffin. “Fake Elections. Fake President. Real Lies. Real War,” the coffin read. “Got Kids?” read another sign. “I want yours for cannon fodder.” And another, the Lily Tomlin quote: “No matter how cynical I get, I just can’t keep up.”
…
“I like the car,” said Jack Davis, 38, passing by it yesterday. “Why are all these young kids going over there to a war we can’t win?”
…
Leavitt apparently is a once-regular suburbanite who’s been radicalized and can’t just go quietly anymore. She’s thought Bush should be impeached since the war began. “He lied about it.”
…
Now she’s convinced GOP operatives stole the election and that the press has ignored it.
I think she’s wrong, by the way – about the press, and Bush stealing the election and lying. To me, he heard what he wanted to hear, and then botched things big-time. Yet some new polls put me in the minority, Leavitt in the majority, though she’s the first middle-age mother I’ve seen willing to drive around town making a spectacle of her ire.
“I can’t understand why everybody doesn’t, why they’re just sitting on their butts watching fireworks,” she said as four jet fighters zoomed by over head. “My God, real people are being blown up.”
So Sheila Leavitt made yet another sign just for the fireworks set. “July 4, 2005, as we watch from our chairs Bush’s Bombs bursting in air, should we feel patriotic, or merely psychotic?”
And now, as promised…Sheila’s now-infamous car…
Sheila gave us a few more details today, “On either end of the coffin it says ‘Impeach Bush’; on the top of Sam’s hat it says ‘After Downing Street?’. The graph on the Sam-Mobile’s flank is from the Mitofsky report analysis by Josh Mittledorf et al.”
And, if I’m not mistaken, I believe Sheila told us some months ago that The BRAD BLOG was mentioned somewhere on the vehicle as well. Don’t know if it’s still there or not. Or if our mind is even more clouded with delusional grandeur than usual. But either way, we couldn’t be prouder!
Those letters, those emails, those protest signs…they all make a difference!
Keep making noise out there! This democracy is not going to save itself! But, of course, many of you already knew that!
Way to go, Sheila!
Sheila, you’re an inspiration to us all! Go get ’em , girl!
Beautiful!
I’m baaaaaaak!! You people have been busy since I’ve been out of town, I have a lot of catching up to do!
Sheila – YOU GO GIRL!!! What a true patriot! We’re proud of you!
And as for Frist – I’m embarrassed that he’s from Tennessee, and sooo glad he’s finally being investigated for his idiotic posturing and exploitation.
And to the "un-named BradBlog poster" – thanks SO MUCH for the idea and the inspiration. I passed the link for what you wrote along to several people, including health care workers right here in Tennessee (who, btw, were already pissed at the Fristians) and I think you started a movement!! WAY TO GO!!
BTW, Frist still won’t answer any of my emails – gee, wonder why?
😉
HEY!
Y’all got a link on RAWSTORY!!
http://www.rawstory.com/
MAN I love this place!!!
Onward, patriots!!! THANK YOU, Sheila! THANK YOU, Tennessee person! THANK YOU, Brad and all you Bradvillians!
Hi Kes – we’ve missed you!
Great stuff everyone!
Someone suggested a while back (can’t remember who) to jot down messages on the back of paper money. Keeping an ink pen handy is all that is required. It works great! No one takes their hard-earned cash out of circulation because it has anti-bush messages written on it.
Congrats to Sheila and the unnamed Brad Blog reader.
It would be very nice if Margery Eagan, the Herald reporter, can do a follow up article and show us how we all missed the extensive media coverage of John Conyers’ report on the 2004 election and all the fine work that Brad Blog and others have done….because I sure as hell never saw it.
Congratulations to Sheila and the anonymous Brad Blogger too! That’s great!!
Speaking of Brad Bloggers making a difference, this seems like a good place to mention The Whispering Campaign once again … and to thank all the loyal Brad Bloggers who have been visiting and printing and copying and distributing our printer-friendly articles …
We have three brand-new items on the menu today:
If We All Had The Guts by Chris Satullo
Do People Really Still Believe This? by Riverbend
Bush rejects Saddam 9/11 link from BBC News, September, 2003
And if you look around, you may see several other very interesting recent items, including:
THIS IS YOUR WATCH! An open letter to President Bush
A True US Patriot an anonymous contribution
Some ‘Christians’ Give God A Bad Name by Felicity Arbuthnot
Sun Revolves Around Earth; Bush Won Ohio by Bob Fitrakis
Unscrupulous Friends In High Places by Brad Friedman
We’re not asking you to print them all, but we hope you’ll find a few pages you want to print. And from there … every little bit helps … so please drop by and help spread the word. We’re being the media, because somebody has to!
The Whispering Campaign
http://psstpsstpsst.blogspot.com
Visit. Print. Copy. Distribute. Repeat.
Knowledge Is Power! Pass It On!!
Boy that money idea is a fantastic one! I’m going to start marking my meager bills right now: BUSH CHEATED ’04.
And I cannot take sole credit for the Frist thing… honestly, I heard Mike Malloy say, "He should have his medical license revoked," and I thought, "damn right," and write the letter tonight. But also about 80 other people had the same idea and all have heard back from the state of Tennessee with similar letters.
Add Sheila to my list of American heroes!!!
Sheila says she doesn’t understand why others aren’t doing what she is doing. ..
I know If I could, I would be right there by Sheila’s side in an instant!!!
Congratulations to Sheila, the anonymous Brad Blogger and Winter P. for some great idea’s.
Torqued– good idea …I’m getting several premade rubber stamps and red ink …. quick, effective and "easy".
Sheila, I’m really, really, really impressed by your actions, courage and "car". I know your kids enjoy your love of life, creativity, sense of humor and admire your courage. Wowwwww ….. a working mom with 4 kids, all those family duties and you find time to do this?
Did the kids help on the car??
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=4481
The Zarqawi Phenomenon
By Dahr Jamail
A remarkable proportion of the violence taking place in Iraq is regularly credited to the Jordanian Ahmad al-Khalayleh, better known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and his organization Al Qaeda in Iraq. Sometimes it seems no car bomb goes off, no ambush occurs that isn’t claimed in his name or attributed to him by the Bush administration. Bush and his top officials have, in fact, made good use of him, lifting his reputed feats of terrorism to epic, even mythic, proportions (much aided by various mainstream media outlets). Given that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has now been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be based upon administration lies and manipulations, I had begun to wonder if the vaunted Zarqawi even existed.
In Amman, where I was recently based, random interviews with Jordanians only generated more questions and no answers about Zarqawi. As it happens, though, the Jordanian capital is just a short cab ride from Zarqa, the city Zarqawi is said to be from. So I decided to slake my curiosity about him by traveling there and nosing around his old neighborhood.
"Zarqawi, I don’t even know if he exists," said a scruffy taxi driver in Amman and his was a typical comment. "He’s like Bin Laden, we don’t even know if he exists; but if he does, I support that he fights the U.S. occupation of Iraq."
Chatting with a man sipping tea in a small tea stall in downtown Amman, I asked what he thought of Zarqawi. He was convinced that Zarqawi was perfectly real, but the idea that he was responsible for such a wide range of attacks in Iraq had to be "nonsense."
"The Americans are using him for their propaganda," he insisted. "Think about it — with all of their power and intelligence capabilities — they cannot find one man?"
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=4481
Hahah! Brilliant work Sheila!!
Torque #7…have been doing that a while, it feels good like all our steps do! I do find it strange that I have not run across any of them. I think they (banks and pissed bushies) do take them out of circulation via damaged money exchanges. But so what it hits a few hands on the way…keep it up!
PS..Don’t forget your cars, I’m saddened by the lack of cars I see that are true democracy talking points. It cost me an egg every other month, but I love that every time I get in my car I remind the world of a few facts:
My cars bumper stickers currently read:
"Pray for Impeachment"
"How can you be pro-war and pro-life?"
"Asses of evil" (with moron bushit, chenshit, and rumshit faces)
"9-11 (does not equal sign) Iraq"
"Thou shalt not lie…about WMDs
Thou shalt not kill….the innocent
Thou shalt not steal….the election"
"God told me to vote Democrat"
As you can see I’m trying to affect the christian right…how they don’t see there is nothing christian about bush is beyond me. (But in history when has any christian leader been a true christian?) Just keep the words of truth out there, it’s not a sacrifice, the stickers do come off easy for changeout to timely messages. (I never used a bumper sticker till 2000 and you all know why!)
Ah, so JIM CIRCLE is the "Un-named blogger"!
WAY TO GO JIM!!!
And yes, others may have done it also, but you passed it along here and you inspired others. Thank you.
"We the people" are a powerful force – I never felt it this strong before until I became one of the "6 or 7".
And thanks for the reminder WP, we need to make it as easy as possible to keep the Whispering Campaign alive and well.
BTW – WP and BRAD
re: Whispers….
Another way to make a difference is to go after the primary opinion makers—NY Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.
If everyone wrote them on a daily basis letting them know that they have betrayed the American people for printing all the lying spin from Bush and Company and especially not editorializing about their war crimes and corrupt actions that have stolen billions from the American people and have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people:
letters@nytimes.com
letters@washpost.com
nightly@nbc.com
etc.
Tell them what they are—traitors to the American for their lies of omission, commission and half-truths.
And guys, I’m proud to say that Brad Blog bumper stickers are coming soon… get some magnetic bumper sticker material and slap ’em on your wheels right under your "Bush Cheated ’04" sticker (www.redefeatbush.com.)…
They should be posted and available in time for the Blogathon… one says "BE THE MEDIA (somebody’s got to.) and the other says WHO IS CLINT CURTIS? (against an election fraud background.)
Harry, you are right–we have to keep at these folks, BUT all of the major media have policies in place clamping down on any reporting of the truth. We’ve heard stories of reporters in the trenches ripping their hair out because the edicts are handing down from on high: no stories about election fraud, the DSM, and on and on.
What it’s going to take is one brave editor to fall on his sword and run a big headline that shocks the world: BUSH LIED or BUSH STOLE ’04 or whatever–knowing that means the end of his career and death threats to his family. So far, no one has stepped up.
Me, I’ve taken to mailing copies of the Conyers report and the Fitrakis book (as funds permit) directly to editors and columnists along with my letters. The Fitrakis book is particularly impressive due to its size. If each of us just keep scraping away in our own way, we WILL make a difference.
And believe me–once the MSM realizes that the Bush regime is done for, it’s gonna be a free-for-all.
OT ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"
Scary stuff.
Iraq signs military pact with Iran
OT Alert:
Subj: How to make a difference
What’s up with Conyers blog?
– I’ve sent in an e-mail 2 weeks ago [heard nothing]
– Sent an e-mail into the blogwemaster [heard nothing]
Is there another way to get a response?
Or: Should I re-submit with a new name/e-mail?
Any suggestions?
Or should I wait another month? LOL