CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush is not the only show in this sleepy town any more.
A few months ago, a Dallas peace activist bought a house near the Bush's ranch so that hundreds of demonstrators trekking into Crawford have a place to gather and voice their dissent of the Iraq war and other issues. They speak words that some residents here could do without hearing.
"We wanted to have a place to speak our truth from," said John Wolf, who paid the down payment on the $54,000 house with proceeds from the sale of $1 buttons at peace rallies. "The idea is to provide a voice for those truly affected by the administration's policies."
Blue yard signs saying "War is not the answer" greet visitors as they walked up to the one-story house with cream-colored siding. A dog snoozed at the front door. Kay Lucas, wearing a button that said "Dissent is Patriotic," stood on the porch wiping sweat from her brow.
Inside, where an air conditioner struggled to keep the house cool, Lucas explained why she regularly drives from her home 25 miles away to help care for what everyone here calls the Crawford Peace House.
"People thought it would be nice to have a place in Crawford that embodied the consciousness of peace, rather than the consciousness of war," said Lucas, a 60-year-old women with a gray ponytail.
"The rest of the world thinks very lowly of our country because we are arrogant, exploitative and thoughtless in the destruction that we do to another country when we go after whatever it is that we want from them."
As Lucas spoke, the top U.S. official in Iraq was briefing reporters in Baghdad. On behalf of Bush, who is running the nation this month from his ranch a half-dozen miles away, L. Paul Bremer said: "We can't duck this fight. It's against us; it's a fight against the West."
Wolf, 49, who builds theater stage sets and lives on a farm outside Dallas, said The Dallas Peace Center and Friends of Peace in Waco help sponsor the house. It is situated near the railroad tracks on Fifth Street, barely a stone's throw from the gas station where the president picked up a cup of coffee last week.
Wolf said he's on a first-name basis with the local police chief, and he and others help keep out-of-town protesters from getting unruly.
He hasn't won over all of Crawford's 700 residents, though.
Lucas said some voice their support and like the way the house's yard has been tended. But on Sunday morning, as she sat on the porch swing, a couple drove by and the man made a rude gesture at her.
Other residents like Raydean Damon are more diplomatic.
Crawford is the kind of community that "sits back and watches for a while," said Damon, owner of The Red Bull gift shop.
"It's an accepting community that pulls together in troubled times," she said. "Most of us are objective enough to know that we all have our freedoms to think and worship as we please. As long as they're not disruptive and disorderly, we don't have a problem with it."
People have come into town to demonstrate on an array of subjects: abortion, the dispute over Taiwan, the Patriot Act and environmental and veterans issues.
On Saturday, Candace Robison, a 27-year-old mother of two from Krum, Texas, was in town for a rally sponsored by Military Families Speaking Out, an anti-war group that wants the troops returned home from Iraq.
"For me, the peace house offers acceptance and a place to be where other people think like I do," Robison said. "We're in Texas, where everybody still loves George Bush. Texas is heavily Republican, but I can say that this discontent with what's going on is continuing to grow, especially among the military families."
A Newsweek poll released over the weekend found public confidence in Bush's handling of the war slipping.
The poll said 54 percent approved of his handling of the Iraqi situation, down from 58 percent in late July. Seven of 10 Americans were concerned about the cost of the war -- roughly $1 billion a week -- will increase the budget deficit and hurt the economy.
