AmeriCAN-DO Attitude

In my last update post on the so-called peace activists’ attack of the OIF veteran and his wife and teenage son, Paula asked the following in the comments:

“…what have we become as a nation? What is wrong with people??????”

I do not have a good answer to this, but I do know why we have become what we have as a nation: because those who commit these acts against their fellow Americans are not forced to deal with the consequences of their actions. Thus, we embolden these assholes to go even further.

First they protested. Then they called them ‘babykillers’. Then they spit on them. And Americans did not bat an eye. We, as a society, considered this acceptable behavior for American citizens to have towards its military members.

So now these people are emboldened to go even further. Now, they are attacking not only military members, but their wives and children as well. And, once again, our society is considering this acceptable behavior.

CJ at A Soldier’s Perspective has posted an update from Gathering of Eagles-NY: [Update] Swartout Update

You want to know why the “peace” movement is emboldened to attack America’s military members and their families? Because our society deems it acceptable and because we do not punish them for their actions. In a better time in this nation, this kind of behavior was considered treason and punished with either prison time or death. Now, it is praised. Now, it is encouraged. Now, it is deemed ‘free speech’ and ‘dissent’ and… “harrassment”.

Update - 3 May 08:

EDINBORO – A peace group that meets in Edinboro will receive training in nonviolent conflict resolution — a result of two members being charged for their parts in an April 22 brawl.

Two members of the group — Alyssa Stelmack, 21, and her sister, Andria Stelmack, 23, both of Erie — were charged with harassment after they fought with a Townville couple that crossed the street to challenge their anti-war rhetoric.

The Townville couple — Jason Swartout, 33, and his wife, Carrie Swartout, 30 — also were charged with harassment, a summary offense. They have not responded to requests for comment.

Interestingly, no one was charged with assault. It’s good to know that in Pennsylvania I can walk up to someone I don’t agree with, commence to beating and kicking them, and only be charged with “harrassment”. As you can see in BOTH videos above, the first blows were dealt by the “peace thugs” and they should be charged with assault accordingly. Hopefully, these people will learn something from their conflict resolution classes.

Naturally, the article makes it look as if the peaceniks were simply victims in all this and that it all started with Jason Swartout intimidating a man in a wheelchair. One could easily question that if not for the overwhelming evidence above.

“They were wrong,” said Richard McVay, a Penn Action activist who met with the sisters after the fight. “They were wrong to react violently to a violent provocation. But I can see how it could happen.”

There was nothing violent about a 14-year old filming the displays the “peace thugs” obviously wanted people to see. However, THEY turned it into a violent confrontation. It doesn’t surprise me that Richard McVay, socialist moron, would be quoted that way.

This is absolutely despicable. There are no words to describe my anger.

Also, you notice the tone of the article, as CJ mentions. There was no “violent provocation” done by the military veteran and his family. The sole action of the family was the son crossing the street to capture the “anti-war” protest on video. They consider *that* to be “violent provocation”.

Not to mention that these assholes were supposed to be protesting for “peace”, yet when a teenage boy video tapes them, to them, that justifies violence. Not Saddam killing and oppressing his own people. Not Islamic terrorists mass murdering people around the world. That does not stir up the ire of the “peace” movement. No, a teenage boy video taping them, *that* is what justifies violence in their demented world.

I can’t even find the words to express my anger and disgust with this situation and with the “peace” movement in general.

Also, here is a comment left at A Soldier’s Perspective that angers me even more:

From what I saw on O’Reilly, it looks like the DA in Edinboro is anti-military and wants to hang the pro-troop people. He strongly suggested that Carrie [wife of OIF veteran Jason Swartout] get a good attorney.

I did not see the O’Reilly segment on this, since I don’t watch any mass media news, but, if this is true, this is even more angering. There is absolutely NO equivalence between what the “peace” thugs did and what this military member and his family did. None whatsoever. Video taping a protest is not a “violent provocation”. Yet, what did the law enforcement do in this case? Charged both groups with the same offense. It is now considered “harassment” to beat the shit out of people. It is also considered “harrassment” to video tape a protest and defend oneself from assholes who beat on your family.

It is because of this that the “peace” movement is no longer about peace, but about fascism and suppressing and attacking anyone who opposes them. And this is why I have nothing but contempt for the so-called peace movement. I despise the whole lot of them. Go join the Peace Corps and protest in Communist and oppressed countries and then you will earn my respect and I will honor you. Until then, FUCK YOU all.

[For my previous posts on this issue, see *HERE*, *HERE* and *HERE*.]

DanNY at Gathering of Eagles-NY has an update on the attack on the OIF Veteran and his family, which includes the videos he promised.

You can access his video *HERE* and the “peace” thugs’ video *HERE*.

[ ... ] Most importantly, for those who have claimed the veteran’s wife took the first physical action. Your claims are proved to be unfounded. The video clearly shows the woman in green advancing from screen right and touching the veteran’s wife before the wife pushes her away.

It shows that every physical action was initiated by the ‘peace’ thugs. Every action that escalated the conflict was theirs. They were out of control and unrestrained in their actions. Every action taken by the veteran and his family was in self defense or in seeking to stop the violence. No one sober can view these videos in any other fashion.

The wheelchair man bumping his chair into the leg of the veteran.
The lady in white grabbing the veteran’s sign and throwing it into the street.
The lady in white then standing on the sign in an attempt to prevent the veteran from recovering it.
The veteran’s wife interjecting herself between the veteran and the lady in white to defuse the situation.
The lady in green charging over with her red sign and pushing the veteran’s wife with her right hand.
The veteran’s wife pushing the lady in green away from her.
The lady in green and the lady in white attacking the veteran’s wife.
The veteran grabbing the lady in green to restrain her from attacking his wife.
The man in yellow and man in blue shirts pushing the veteran to the ground while he is restraining the lady in green. (Partially obscured by signs).
The lady in white kicking the veteran’s wife in the head.
The veteran’s son rushing over to pull the lady in white away from his mother.
The lady in white kicks the veteran twive while he is restrained.
The lady in green attacking the veteran’s son.
The lady in white attacking the veteran’s son.
This video should be required viewing by anyone wanting to know what happens when ‘peace’ thugs are given free rein to vent their ‘peaceful’ feelings.

Dan Maloney, NY State Coordinator, Gathering of Eagles

Also, DanNY passes along the new discovery that these “peace” thugs will now have free legal representation. Wonderful.

“By the way, we were put on notice on Sat. while we were standing out in Meadville that word is that the recruiters and people standing in support of the troops in the area are ”fair game because the attackers will be given free representation for any altercations that may occur…” , more than likely Sandy Kelson (VFP) will be representing them. We have always known to watch our back, but this is the 1st time we were told that the “peace thugs” would have free representation. Nice, huh?!!!”

The American Left and the mass media like to use the issue of waivers granted by the military as a club with which to beat down the war effort. They do this by saying that the military is having such trouble recruiting members to fight in the war (supposedly, by their logic, because the vast majority of Americans are against the war and the military), that they have to lower their standards.

Well, GRIM at Blackfive and Armed Liberal at Winds of Change give the details about the military waivers that the mass media and the dishonest demagoguing hacks on the Left and in the media fail to give when they speak on the issue: On Waivers

The vast majority of the conduct waivers are misdemeanors and a litany of three-or-more traffic offenses. And with that, there are some felony arrests and a few felony convictions. Together they total to about a half of one percent of the intake.

In the past year, the Army increased its numbers, almost doubled them. But they are so small that it equates just for scale to fewer than one per congressional district, insofar as felons that were waivered in.

The kind of person that we’re talking about is someone who doesn’t appear to be morally corrupt. Rather it was perhaps a prank gone terribly wrong, a grotesque error in judgment.

But in every case, if their community has joined behind them and said, this is really a good kid, and offered their support, then the recruiter might, if we’ve got a strong candidate in terms of their other attributes, send it up for a waiver.

A two-star will look at it. And let me say a general officer. I’m not sure if it’s always two-star. But a general officer or flag officer will look at it, look at what they read about this person, what their parents, teachers, coaches have to say, and then make a judgment.

[Cross-posted with more discussion HERE]

For those questioning the validity of the “peace” protestor assault on the soldier and his family (which I posted about HERE) (1), feel free to actually go to the Gathering of Eagles-NY website and read the posted AAR (After Action Report) (2) filed and posted by the military member whose family was assaulted. They are working on getting their video posted and possibly filing charges against the people who assaulted them. They will be posting updates, so feel free to check back often there, instead of just ignorantly speculating on whether things are “fishy” or not.

Also, as a few have mentioned already, this is SOP for the “peace” crowd (3), and has been since 2003. These are not just simply a few ‘radicals’ that make the rest of the so-called “peace” movement look badly. This *is* the “peace” movement. They are not for peace, they are simply anti-’American involvement in stopping evil around the world’. If the “peace” movement was truly for peace, they would be taking their asses to the countries where evil exists and protesting the terrorists, dictators and oppressive regimes that start these wars. But they don’t. Therefore, they are worthless. Not to mention, the leaders of these movements - Medea Benjamin and the Communists of CODE PINK, International A.N.S.W.E.R., World Can’t Wait, etc - are anti-America and pro-terrorists and pro-dictators. In fact, the CODE PINKo Commies held a fund-raiser and then sent the $600,000 they raised to the terrorists in Fallujah, Iraq back in 2004 or 2005. Google it.

No peace protester in history has ever done anything to stop evil. None. Period. The true peacemakers are those of the United States military. But you’ll never hear that acknowledged from anyone in the “peace” movement.

UPDATE: Deebow at Blackfive has posted on this and he is majorly Ticked Off: Can I Beat the Hippies Now? (4)

[ ... ] I have arrested a few people in my career, and let me clear up for anyone wondering that anyone who puts a boot to someone lying on the ground or punches a minor in the face is going to be dealing with me and shortly after that, they will be on their way to jail in the back of my patrol car.

You have to go the link, if you haven’t already and read the first person account of what happened.

I am getting so tired of having to be angry about things like this. I know that our own civil disobedience counter protests is having an effect, otherwise they would not react this way. There should be no reason that the police are not taking sides; because that is their job.

But no CNN, no MSNBC, or the alphabet networks speaking to this. Just crickets….

Obama talks about chickens coming home to roost…

There is going to come a time in this country, that is probably not long from now, that these “peace” activists are going to get what is coming to them for the despicable ways that they are treating veterans and their families.

I am getting tired of these Peace Fascists, Libtard College Professors and Protester Thugs believing that their free speech is “more equal” than the free speech of my comrades in arms, who have shed blood, lost friends, lost limbs, saved children who are not their own and sanctified the ground of Iraq with their blood, and the blood of their friends to ensure that these oxygen thieving, mouth breathing, Luddite, uninformed, hateful, wastes of skin can take time away from sipping their lattes and eating their organic fat-free muffins so they can skip class and go down and throw verbal excrement and physically assault better men and women than they could ever hope to be….

“It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.”

I will try to just keep saying that to myself…..

CJ of the military blog A Soldier’s Perspective (5) also has a very good post up about this, both on his MySpace blog and his ASP military blog: When Peace is Violence (6)

Retired Colonel Harry Riley, one of the founders of Eagles Up, sent a letter to the Edinboro Borough Manager, Taras (TJ) Jemetz, about this incident and was sent the following response:

From: “T.Jemetz”
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 12:03 PM
Subject: RE: Iraq War Veteran and Family Assaulted!

Sir,

Thank you for your inquiry.

The matter is under investigation. The DA is being consulted regarding possible charges against the people involved.

Taras (TJ) Jemetz
Borough Manager

We shall see. I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ve included his address if you’d also like to address this issue as an freedom-loving American.

The police returned their camera today and they are preparing their video report of the event. Please help send this to as many media folks as you know. Pass it along and share it on your blogs. If you’d like to contact Carrie or Jason about this incident, let me know offline. Once I get the video, I’ll post for all to see!

I’ve got an update to this on my military blog, A Soldier’s Perspective. You won’t believe your eyes!!

[Cross-posted at my MySpace blog HERE.]

John Hinderaker at Power Line has a good post up about Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. For those of you who have not been doing your research about Barack Obama’s background and circle of friends, they are two left-wing radicals from the Weather Underground domestic terrorist organization who both have a deep hatred of the United States of America.

For those of you keeping track, these are just two more in a long list of friends within Barack Obama’s circle of advisors, friends, acquintances and fellow politicians:

* Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Jr. (long time close friend and spiritual advisor, preacher of America-hating and the racist, Islam-sympathizing, Black-supremacist Black Liberation Theology)
* Michelle Obama (wife)
* Raila Odinga (Islamic Sharia Law supporting cousin and politician in Kenya)
* Louis Farrakhan (Radical, racist Islamic Supremacist of the Nation of Islam honored by Barack Obama’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ)
* Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn (America-hating radicals and members of the domestic terror organization, Weather Underground)

I could also add to this list some of Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisors who are anti-Semitic and sympathizers of Muslim countries and radical dictatorships. Not to mention that Barack Obama has supporters in Texas who worship the former murderer Che Guevera.

But just posting the names and saying who they are and what they represent sometimes is just not enough for people. This is why people such as John Hinderaker are getting out the details on his blog that the mass media is not reporting: The Friends of Barack Obama, Part 1

When Illinois State Senator Alice Palmer decided to retire in 1995, she hand-picked local left-winger Barack Obama as her successor. In order to introduce Obama to influential liberals in the district, she held a function at the home of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. This was, really, the beginning of Obama’s political career, and it linked him forever with Ayers and Dohrn, with whom, as his campaign has acknowledged, he continues to have a friendly relationship.

Ayers and Dohrn were famous radicals, and fugitives from the law, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Dohrn, actually, was the more famous of the two; she was the head, as I recall, of Students for a Democratic Society or one of its factions. Dohrn was crazy. She is the only public figure, to my knowledge, to approve publicly and enthusiastically of the Charles Manson murders.

Ayers was a would-be murderer of soldiers and policemen, but he wasn’t a very good terrorist. He had the ill fortune to be the subject of a profile in the New York Times on September 11, 2001, in which he said that he didn’t regret his attempted murders and only wished that he had planted more bombs.

In last week’s Pennsylvania debate, Barack Obama was finally asked about his friendship with, and the political support he has accepted from, Ayers and Dohrn. Obama replied that Ayers had done reprehensible things forty years ago, when Obama was eight years old, and scoffed at the idea that Ayers’s ancient history could be relevant. That was disingenuous, of course, given Ayers’s 2001 regrets.

It turns out that we don’t have to go back as far as 2001 to find that Obama’s friends are as unrepentant as ever. Just last year, Ayers and Dohrn attended a reunion–no kidding–of what must have been the tiny remnant of SDS members who still haven’t figured out that they were wrong about everything. Listen to what Bill Ayers, who hosted Barack Obama’s first fundraiser, has to say about the United States. Not when Obama was eight years old, but in 2007 [ ... ]

At the same event, Obama’s friend and supporter Bernadine Dohrn described the United States as “the monster.” Obama was 47 years old at the time [ ... ]

Barack Obama has declined to repudiate or distance himself from his neighbors, supporters and friends, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. There is a certain consistency of perspective among Obama’s friends and mentors, which can be summed up in Jeremiah Wright’s memorable phrase: “God damn America.” [ ... ]

Be sure to go to Power Line to listen to the audio Mr. Hinderaker has provided of these America-hating, scumbag friends of Obama.

Also, as many all over the anti-idiotarian and military blogs have noted numerous times, if this were John McCain being long-time friends with a terrorist who used to blow up abortion clinics and kill abortion doctors and was not repentent at all, it would immediately end John McCain’s political career (and rightfully so). The utter hypocrisy and sick double-standard is ridiculous with the Left and the Democratic Party as a whole.