A reader named Melissa Rutledge participated in last weekends Move America Forward rally at The Shrine of the Perpetual Lady of Mourning, otherwise known as Camp Casey. Here are some of her observations, you can leave comments for her below. Pics from the rally are below:

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We decided to drive from Austin to Crawford to participate in the Move America Forward tour. It was about a 2 hour drive.

We arrived at about 1:00pm just as the rally was beginning. The MAF tour started with a Christian prayer, which in these days of political correctness was more than just a little refreshing!

A number of speakers including several state senators and reps spoke to the crowd. Darryl Ancarlo was a crowd-pleaser and was rather potent in his comments. Ted Nugent's wife was there and spoke briefly about raising money for an awning at Brooks Army Medical Center for the wounded and recovering to be outdoors and sit under (particularly for the burned soldiers who cannot be in direct sunlight), to enable them to go outside.

One speaker was a father of a soldier in sniper training in Iraq. He said he spoke to his son on the phone, who told him that Sheehan's comments were actually goading on the insurgents and told his father to send this message: "Cindy Sheehan, Shut up! You are getting us killed!"

The crowd went wild!

About halfway through, a group of Sheehan supporters snuck in and hoisted some large signs in the middle of the crowd. A few minutes of palpable tension rose as the crowd -en-masse- roughed them up a little and literally ran them out of the rally, took their signs which were torn up them up then tossed them on the ground like the trash they were. The Sheehan people were mobbed by the press- which is all they really wanted. We listened to them talk and they bragged about going around the country and doing this at other rallies.

Most of the men involved with the group were from Minnesota! Long drive!
Welcome to Texas boys - now get out!

Obviously they are "professional" protesters.

The rally broke up as some of the Gold Star family members demanded that their children's names be removed from Sheehan's crosses from her demonstration! The McClennan County Sheriff's Department escorted the families to retrieve them.

There were probably between 2000 and 3000 pro- Bush supporters who descended on this little one-stoplight town.

The county sheriff's department was on hand as well as most of the local police from several surrounding towns. The Crawford town square was packed with pro- Bush / troop supporters. Lots of memorials and memorabilia stands.

We then drove out of the town to where the Cindy Sheehan camp is set up near the Bush ranch. Based on the media coverage, we believed that this would be a huge camp but when we got there, we saw only between 60 and 75 pro-Sheehan people camped.

It was a filthy crowd of sour-faced, long-haired, bitter-looking people. There was a sense of darkness over this crowd that is hard to describe. Their camp is just set up on a typical back-country Texas rural road. They have their tents set up along a fence line next to a corn field. It literally looked like an old hippy camp!

The most amazing thing about the Sheehan crowd, there was not a single American flag on display.

The pro-Bush people were on the North side of the street the Sheehan zoo on the South. Hmmm. North and South again!

Our side was rowdy and alive with signs, flags and loud pro-American yelling and taunting. Lot's of Texans on our side!

I made the mistake when we first arrived of trying to walk across the road to get some pictures of their group. When I tried to return to our side a sheriff's deputy told me that anyone who stepped into the road or crossed from one camp to the other was subject to immediate arrest!

If I had done anything other than very quickly apologize, feign ignorance and grovel a bit I would have been introduced to the Crawford jail!

All in all, it was an interesting experience. We thought Al Sharpton was going to be there Saturday, but his schedule was changed - Darn!
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Captain Ed also has a reader's account here. And the message is “All things bad are America’s fault”. Click for larger images. Rude commentary is my own, not Melissa's.

A rainbow umbrella? And people don't like stereotypes because of why?

Pic of Camp Casey from across the street. Notice the sign propogating the lie that Cindy simply wants to meet President Bush, something he has already done. Do you think a majority of veterans support leaving Iraq now?

Officer, quick, you've got to isolate those hippies before they form a drum circle. Once they form a drum circle they'll attract college-know-it-all hippies. Soon after that they'll hold a music festival. Pretty soon there will be a solid wall of hippies as far as the eyes can see.

Good lord, it has already begun. When will the authorities ever learn? You can't get rid of a hippie infestation by ignoring it.

Ah, some sanity.

I like that sign on the right. Terrorist do love quitters. If you look at the rise of Osama bin Laden, and listen to his own words, the reason he believes he can win this protracted jihad is that Allah defeated the Americans in Somalia.

And a little child shall lead them. The sacrifice of Cindy Sheehan's son will only have meaning if we win in Iraq. There is something worse than losing a son: losing a son in vain. If we lose all will have been in vanity.

Yes, that's Ted Nugent's wife. She's a dish.

It's pretty sad that it had to come to this.

Ah, feel the love. God Bless you troops for killing terrorists!

For every veteran against the war, there are two for it. Vietnam veterans especially know the pain and humiliation of having traitors at home not supporting their mission. That pain was amplified by an American public not willing to finish the fight and thus ad meaning to the sacrifice of fallen comrades.

Posted by: Rusty at 07:04 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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