5 years ago today - Camp Casey, Crawford TX

[elehhhhna]

...and we're finally Out of Iraq.

Perhaps the media ignored it because this President didn't jump around in a flightsuit, proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" with a smarmy grin.










Out of Afghanistan Now.

[WolverineDG]

1. I met a bunch of DUers there

including, but not limited to:

Derby :patriot:
Ginbarn :patriot: RIP :cry:
DainBramaged :patriot:
proud2belib :patriot:
yellowdogintexas :patriot:

and a whole slew of others I can remember the faces of but not the screen names :patriot: I think I met you too, but can't remember. :blush:

the original Camp Casey site:



The memorial that got run over:



dg

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I was with muserider and a guy who doesn't post here anymore

Dave. Don't remember his screen name. Neat guy.

Also met and talked to Anderson Cooper and Ed Schultz. Ed interviewed muserider and me on the air.

Great memories. And one of the best things I've ever done in my life. It was truly a life changing experience!

[monmouth]

3. I'm jealous....n/t

[WolverineDG]

4. Was he there with his sister?

Dangerous American? :shrug:

I remember the pic you took of Anderson's pants. :rofl: Didn't meet Ed Schultz there, but I did drive Randi Rhodes around. :) She remembered me a year later in NYC.

It was a very historical event to be caught up in. There were literally people showing up from all over the globe *just* to say they were there. I met people from almost all the states, Italy, the UK, Australia, Germany....I forget now. :crazy:

And don't forget the counter-protesters at their one teeny-tiny tent. :rofl:

dg

[Binka]

6. Distressed American

He was such a cool artist. I still wear his Bush crime Family t-shirt.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. No that wasn't him. But I remember DA here.

I lost that picture of Anderson's pants on my old computer. That was too freakin funny!!

I remember one night at the first site we were standing there having a candle light vigil. There were a ton of TV cameras with those long mics hanging from them, we were all standing there praying - probably about 100 of us. And a big bus pulled up decked out with a flag or something patriotic on the side. The bus unloaded; it was full of people dressed like American flags. They stood there in front of the bus, never crossed the road into the triangle where we were standing, and started screaming "WE DON'T CARE! WE DON'T CARE!" Over and over.

The cameras of course all turned and started filming the screaming flag people. We kept praying. Then the flag people all got back on the bus and the bus went back towards town.

I looked at a couple reporters and they were laughing. It was just so bizarre. We found out from one of the reporters that these were the people that nutty talk radio lady from San Francisco had brought to Camp Casey. (Melanie someone?) Anyway, they came all the way from the west coast, screamed and interrupted a prayer vigil and then left.

I think that was also the night the guy ran over the crosses.

[WolverineDG]

10. I thought that group got lost

on the bendy-twisty highway from New Mexico to Amarillo. I remember the sightings of this counter-protest tour were pitiful. I was there 2 weekends in a row. The first weekend I planned to drive up & back the same day, but wisely checked in to the Holiday Inn Express. The next weekend, I decided to go cheaper, & ended up at the Red Roof Inn (aptly named, it turned out), which was where all the freeper-types were staying. What a bunch of loud-mouth asses they were. They thought I was one of them, so I got maps & all kinds of other "sooper sekret" stuff they were planning. It was pretty pathetic. I thought I had a pic of their infamously misspelled sign, but I can't find it now. :( But it was hi-larious, as was the fact that law enforcement never turned their backs to the counter-protesters, because they knew who really was the security threat.

dg

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Aha! Hubby had that picture!

Anderson Cooper's pants


My friend meeting Cindy. That's Cindy's sister Dede on her right.


Remember the yard on the road to Camp Casey that had this sign? My mother loved this picture. She said this made her want to put a sign in her yard saying
MY DAUGHTER IS A TEACHER AND I THINK PRESIDENT BUSH IS AN IDIOT

[uppityperson]

11. One of the bears. I met Muse and he and BrainShrub

I don't know that I met you though.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Muse came back a second time

We went down for a few days and then came home. I had to go back to start school. Muse and her husband went back and stayed for a week or more. By that time they had moved up the road to Camp Casey II. You may have met Muse then.

[uppityperson]

12. Dupe for (dancing?) bear

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. Yes!

That was his name. Neat guy. We emailed back and forth for awhile. But he left DU shortly after CC.

[QC]

24. Ah, what a very, very different place DU was back then! n/t

[WolverineDG]

30. Very different

I can't imagine it happening again.

But it was nice for folks on the ground to be able to post on DU what was needed & have DUers from all over the country respond. I was able to get a larger vehicle to cart people around in because a DUer from Washington volunteered to monitor rental car sites, check availability, & get directions for those of us driving in from around Texas. Others contributed $ for water, food & other necessities. When it was all over & there was tons of stuff left, it was initially decided that people load it up & take it to homeless shelters & food banks. But when Katrina turned into a real nightmare just a day or so later, it was decided all those supplies & food should go to that region instead.

One DUer even lost track of his/her daughter who stayed behind in Louisiana & was able to find her through DU.

And then of course, all the DUers involved in setting up the Katrina People-Finders websites (Crispini, I'm looking at you :patriot: ). I was able to locate a client's mother through that & let her know that her mom was alive & was not among those residents in the nursing homes who were left behind to die.

dg

[QC]

31. I remember when we all came together here on 9/11.

It was good having a community that day.

I'm afraid that the old DU is gone forever. Oh well, it was great while it lasted, and the memories are worth so much.

[babylonsister]

18. Hey, hey hey!!

:patriot:

And you were a volunteer driver iirc.

:hug:

[WolverineDG]

20. So THAT's where we met

:hug: LOL!! I couldn't remember where I met you!!!!! And yes, I was a volunteer driver.

:patriot: sis!!!!! :loveya:

dg

[damntexdem]

5. Well, it was the second weekend -- the first one with Camp Casey II.

Camp Casey started on August 6 -- about 100 of us marched from the crossroads to as close to the pig farm as we were allowed to go.

By August 13, there were hundreds at Camp Casey I, at the crossroads.

I missed August 20, but Camp Casey II had been set up near the pig farm.

I was there at Camp Casey II with tens of thousands on August 27. As we drove home, we were hit by the first raindrops from the gathering storm of Katrina.

[WolverineDG]

7. Yep, I was just arriving at my hotel when the rain started

and the news kept getting worse through the night. Little did we know then that the real nightmare was still a day or two away when the levees broke & people drowned in their homes.

dg

[uppityperson]

13. Don't know if you've got me on ignore, but I bet we crossed paths there also

Was there right about then along with my kid. Went home, read posts about the little Spell, started getting ready to head south to LA.

[MerryBlooms]

16. And this why I come to DU. Beaut!

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. Kick

[WolverineDG]

19. K& I wish I could R again

only 6 recs? :wtf: DU lit up like a Christmas tree when Camp Casey started!

dg

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. Today they defend military recruiters

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8988400

[QC]

25. I have even seen Sheehan called an "attention whore" here. More than once.

I guess nobody told her that all criticism of the government was supposed to cease at noon Eastern on January 20, 2009.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. That crap started long before Obama was inaugurated

[QC]

29. True. That kind of ugliness started earlier.

but we are not supposed to talk about that.

We are not supposed to notice that the ideological makeup of this place, to say nothing of the level of the discourse, underwent a marked shift in the late 2007/early 2008 time period.

[tavalon]

22. I had the dubious distinction of being the donor of one of the porto potties

and I showed up after to clean up after you guys. We sent all the extra water and food to New Orleans because of Katrina.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. I left a present for you in that porta potty

:)

[tavalon]

34. I won't ever say you never gave me nothing!

LOL

Even funnier because today is my birthday. Normally it's an anonymous affair but Facebook already broke it to the world at midnight so I find it pointless to ignore it (damn, I don't remember giving them permission to out me on my birthday!).

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. Happy Birthday!

[tavalon]

36. It's not an interesting number though

If it were the end of a decade or 42, I would make a splash, but for most of the others I just continue on. I am trying to use the birthday to convince my hubbies to spring for a Melissa Etheridge ticket for tomorrow. Rotten huh? Ignore the birthday unless one can find an angle..........

[tavalon]

37. Thanks!

Oops, not my birthday anymore! Man that happens quick these days.

[sonias]

23. Reporting for recognition duty!

Thank you President Obama!

And thank you Cindy Sheehan and your son Casey who gave his life in this lost cause. May he rest in peace.

:patriot:

[G_j]

28. Mission Accomplished?

The Privatization of Military Occupation by Corporate Paramilitaries

(description by Camila Mejia of Iraq Veterans Against the War)

Mission Accomplished?


Jeremy Scahill: "What is essentially unfolding here is a downsized and rebranded occupation, Obama-style, that is going to necessitate a surge in private forces. The State Department is asking for MRAP vehicles, armored vehicles, for Black Hawk helicopters and for these paramilitary forces. So, yes, you can say that officially combat has ended, but in reality you’re continuing it through the back door by bringing in these paramilitary forces and classifying them as diplomatic security, which was Bush’s game from the very beginning."

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/19/headlines#1

~~~~~~~~
As troops leave, U.S. to double contractors in Iraq

(Reuters) - With the United States drawing down troops in Iraq, the State Department plans to double the number of private security contractors it uses to ensure the safety of the huge civilian development effort, officials said on Thursday.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the plan would bring to some 7,000 the total security contractors employed by the government in Iraq, where since the 2003 U.S. invasion private security firms have often been accused of acting above the law.

Crowley said the U.S. military's plan to cut troop numbers to 50,000 by the end of August -- down from 176,000 at the peak of the deployment -- left a security gap contractors would have to fill.

"We will still have our own security needs to make sure that our diplomats and development experts are well protected," Crowley told a news briefing.



Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-50953120100819

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. You bet

[onestepforward]

33. K&R!

[derby378]

38. TexasThoughtCriminal was down there, too

And I think Ginny and I also ran into babylonsister once. :hi:

[WolverineDG]

39. That's where I met you both!

:hi:

dg