Updated

The "Swiftboating" of Cindy Sheehan, that is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo".

This story is no longer about Ms. Sheehan. It's now about the far-left media trying to legitimatize her in the face of some damning evidence. Sympathetic newspaper columnists are putting forth that Cindy is being smeared by people like me. They call it the "Swiftboating" of Cindy Sheehan. Catchy, but totally misleading.

All we did was tell the truth about Ms. Sheehan's radical politics and radical pals. That's it! We didn't impugn her character or criticize her Iraq war dissent.

If that's smearing, well, here's more. In a rally, supporting lawyer Lynne Stewart (search), convicted of aiding terrorists, Ms. Sheehan said this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CINDY SHEEHAN: America has been killing people, like my sister over here said, since we first stepped on this continent. And we have been responsible for death and destruction.

It's OK for Israel to occupy Palestine, but it's — Yeah, and it's OK for Iraq to occupy -- I mean, for the United States to occupy Iraq, but it's not OK for Syria to be in Lebanon. They're a bunch of f---ing hypocrites. And we need to... We just need to rise up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

I guess that's more "Swiftboating." Unbelievable.

Now, our mission is to tell you the truth. That's what the No Spin Zone's all about. We told you the straight story of Ms. Sheehan. She is a radical leftist. So now you can decide the validity of her protests.

By the way, we'll give you the results of our poll on Cindy Sheehan shortly. Which brings me to former assistant attorney general and 9/11 Commissioner Jamie Gorelick (search). She says we're not telling you the truth about her involvement in building a symbolic wall between U.S. intelligence agencies and those investigating criminal activity.

As you may know, former army intelligence officer Anthony Shaffer says his unit, called Able Danger, identified 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta as a threat, but were prevented from passing on the information to the FBI:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. COL. ANTHONY SHAFFER, MEMBER OF ABLE DANGER: To go back in history, back to 2000, yes, we tried in the summer, fall timeframe, one, the special operations command lawyer said you can't look at this, they're here legally, pretend they don't exist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Now Ms. Gorelick says it wasn't her fault, that she was simply enforcing the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (search).

But U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White (search) disagreed with Gorelick's aggressive posture on the act and wrote to Janet Reno in 1995. "It's hard to be totally comfortable with instructions to the FBI prohibiting contact with the United States attorney's offices when such prohibitions are not legally required."

Bottom line: mass confusion among the agencies that are supposed to protect us, confusion aided in part by Jamie Gorelick in my opinion. But I could be wrong.

By the way, The Patriot Act (search) knocked down that symbolic wall.

And that's "The Memo."

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

I almost went up to Boston to see the Rolling Stones (search) yesterday. I appreciate their longevity and their old songs, but paying hundreds of bucks to hear Jagger on geopolitics discouraged me, so I didn't go.

Also, I missed the Anger Management tour, and now Eminem's in rehab. So I went to see the Beach Boys instead. The Wilson brothers are gone, but led singer Mike Love and Bruce Johnson carry on. They were great. Excellent summer show. Nothing ridiculous about it. Mick and Eminem should check it out.