No welcome mat for antiwar protesters in Crawford:

CRAWFORD, Texas — Larry Mattlage has had enough.
He’s tired of all the commotion at the antiwar camp across the road from his ranch house. He wants all the cars out of his ditch, and the antiwar protesters, the pro-war demonstrators, and the media to leave.
So, he’s closed the iron gate to his small spread outside of town and posted ”Sorry, We’re Closed,” and ”Help Wanted” signs. And yesterday morning, as Cindy Sheehan and a small gathering of other antiwar supporters prepared for a worship service, he stood in his goat pasture and fired a shotgun into the air.
”I’m getting ready for dove season,” he said when reporters pressed him. ”I’m practicing.”
His message, though, was unmistakable as he talked.
”These neighbors out here are upset,” he said. ”I don’t want nobody getting hurt. I just want them to pack the damn tents and go where they came from.”
Within minutes of his shotgun blast, sheriff’s deputies and Secret Service agents, who protect President Bush at his nearby ranch, rushed in. McLennan County Sheriff Larry Lynch said he counseled Mattlage to exercise some restraint.