And it's 1, 2, 3 what are we protesting for? Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, next stop is Camp Sheehan

Just in case you thought that Camp Casey was full of people who were there on "their own dime" to support her cause, think again. Camp Casey is big business and is being funded. Not only is it being funded, it’s being managed. That’s right managed. By PR experts.

Oh, my goodness! Is it possible that Mother Cindy is really following a schedule of well planned out, in advance, photo ops? Well, umm…yeah.

The whole thing just might be a well orchestrated show. That's right. And all of this time you thought that the hippie "flower power" movement of the 60's was really all about peace, love and joy.

A San Francisco television station, ABC7, is looking into the funding background for Mother Cindy’s moonbat crusade in Crawford, Texas.

Here are some of the highlights of their investigation:

The camp at Crawford is full of Cindy Sheehan supporters, people from all walks of life, but off to the side are a small group of professionals skilled in politics and public relations who are marketing Cindy Sheehan's message.

Cindy Sheehan kneels before a cross with her son's name on it, touches his picture, wipes her tears. It's an outpouring of emotion that is part of a scheduled news event organized daily for the television, radio and print reporters who crowd in to capture a mother's grief.

Cindy Sheehan: "I'm never going to see him again, I'm never going to hold him again, I'm never going to hear his voice again."

Sheehan's message hasn't changed since she got here, but the support staff interested in getting that message out to the world has grown considerably.

Organizers are set up in a house trailer. Their meetings closed to reporters.

Leading the group is Fenton Communications employee, Michele Mulkey, based in San Francisco. Fenton specializes in public relations for liberal non-profits.

Their bills are being paid for by True Majority, a non-profit set up by Ben Cohen -- of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream fame.

Ben Cohen, True Majority: "People are willing to listen to her and we want to do as much as we can to make her voice heard."

Cohen's group has teamed up with Berkeley based MoveOn.org, an anti-Bush group co-founded by Joan Blades.

Earlier this month, MoveOn helped organize anti-war vigils in support of Cindy Sheehan.

Current Democratic National Party Chair Howard Dean's organization Democracy for America is also involved, as is the more radical anti-war group Code Pink organized by San Francisco's Medea Benjamin.

Money donated through these groups and others is helping to pay for Gold Star families whose children have been killed in Iraq to attend anti-Bush protests.

This week Simi Valley California Gold Star wife Melanie House flew to Idaho for a protest and then flew to Crawford.

ABC7's Mark Matthews: "Can you tell us if you're getting help in airfare to come down here?"

Melanie House: "What difference does that make?"

There is real reluctance to talk about who's paying, and the P.R. machine that's promoting Cindy Sheehan, but not everyone here is completely comfortable with it.

Gold Star mother Karen Meredith came here from Mountain View. Her son Ken Ballard died last year.

Karen Meredith, Gold Star mother: "Sometimes things don't feel quite right to me. They don't feel wrong, but maybe that's how they do it in the marketing business."

ABC7's Mark Matthews: "You feel you're part of a marketing business?"

Karen Meredith: "Possibly. Yeah I think so."

So much for the "this is pure patriotic dissent" b.s. As the old saying goes: "money talks, bull shit walks" and there obviously is no exception there at Camp Casey. How else can you explain the free Joan Baez concerts, the amount of hippies hanging out there, and the catering?

Me, I smell a rat.