Westboro Baptists (sic), the cretins who go to the funerals of our dead troops and protest American not killing gays or something akin to that perhaps serve a purpose. They are a group who are universally hated and despised by both the right, left and middle. They are right up there with 9-11 in that they are a great unifier.
Bullying is a serious problem in the United States. It has always been around on playgrounds, at schools, and in the neighborhood. However, with the widespread use of the Internet, bullying has become more pervasive and yes, virulent. Verbal taunts and physical threats became a way of life for one young immigrant girl.
15-year-old Phoebe Prince was the victim of extreme bullying from her peers. Phoebe, who recently moved South Hadley, MA from Ireland, was bullied by classmates until she hanged herself in January. The bullying was described as relentless and happened in the halls, at school, in the library, in class, via cell phone messages and on the Internet. Nine teenagers have been indicted for the death of this young girl.
According to the New York Times:
The prosecutor brought charges Monday against nine teenagers, saying their taunting and physical threats were beyond the pale and led the freshman, Phoebe Prince, to hang herself from a stairwell in January.
The charges were an unusually sharp legal response to the problem of adolescent bullying, which is increasingly conducted in cyberspace as well as in the schoolyard and has drawn growing concern from parents, educators and lawmakers
Of course the tormentors bear the main responsibility for the girl’s death. But are others culpable? How about the parents of those kids? How about the school? How about her friends? Was anyone aware that this was going on? Didn’t some teacher notice that a child was being tortured? How do parents help their children when they are being bullied? This tragedy seems so avoidable.
Rep. Perriello from the Charlottesville area voted for the Health Care Reform bill. Today officials and the FBI are looking in to how the propane gas line at his brother’s house got cut. Political opponents had posted his brother’s address on a website, thinking the address was the congressman’s. According to msnbc.com:
From NBC’s Pete Williams
Virginia officials, aided by the FBI, are looking into how a residential propane feeder line was cut at the home of the brother of a Virginia congressman.Investigators have reached no conclusions about how or why it happened. But the line was cut after the home’s address was posted on a blog and a Facebook page, both maintained by members of a local Tea Party group who thought it was the home of Rep. Tom Perriello, a Virginia Democrat who voted in favor of the health-care bill.
One said, “This is Rep. Thomas Stuart Price Perriello’s home address,” and added, “I ain’t holding back anymore!!” The other urged readers to “drop by” the home and “express their thanks” for the vote.
The cut in the gas line, which runs from a propane tank to a gas grill on a screened-in porch, was discovered Tuesday, the day after the address was posted. When they realized that it was incorrect, the operators of the blog and Faceboook page took the address off.
The chairman of the Lynchburg, VA, Tea Party, Mark Lloyd, told NBC News, “I learned what happened after the fact. We made an official statement on our Web site,” saying that that his group “did not request, sanction, or endorse” posting the address, which appeared on a different Web site.
Tea Party member Nigel Coleman, who wrote one of the Internet posts, told the Charlottesville Daily Progress that he was shocked when he heard about the incident.
Rep. Steny Hoyer reports that threats have been made to around ten Congressmen and women who voted yes to HCR legislation. Shepherd Smith reports that he is waiting for an update from Capitol Police.
Please note that the material for this post comes from both MSNBC and from Fox News. Unfortunately incendiary rhetoric meant to gather the troops sometimes sends some of them off the deep end. All of us, regardless of party affiliation or ideology must be mindful of our audience and what we say. Civil debate becomes increasingly more important. Shepherd Smith gave one of his fierce admonitions about settling political unhappiness and discontent at the ballot box. I feel certain there will be footage of his remarks. I will post them. One bad apple can give many black eyes.
It goes without saying that any remarks like that would be removed from this blog. However, no one here would post like that either. The blogosphere does have the responsibility to maintain civil discussion.
Democratic offices vandalized
By JUDY L. THOMASAuthorities in Wichita and some other cities across the country are investigating vandalism against Democratic offices, apparently in response to health care reform.
And on Monday, a former Alabama militia leader took credit for instigating the actions.
Mike Vanderboegh of Pinson, Ala., former leader of the Alabama Constitutional Militia, put out a call on Friday for modern “Sons of Liberty” to break the windows of Democratic Party offices nationwide in opposition to health care reform. Since then, vandals have struck several offices, including the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita.
“There’s glass everywhere,” said Lyndsay Stauble, executive director of the Sedgwick County Democratic Party. “A brick took out the whole floor-to-ceiling window and put a gouge in my desk.”
Stauble said the brick, hurled through the window between Friday night and Saturday morning, had “some anti-Obama rhetoric” written on it.
From Yahoo News:
COVINGTON, La. – A Louisiana man accused of helping his father hide the body of a Ku Klux Klan recruit pleaded guilty Thursday to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to three years in prison, according to a prosecutor’s spokesman.
Prosecutors believe Shane Foster, 21, also helped his father clean the camp site in rural St. Tammany Parish in southeastern Louisiana where Cynthia Lynch, 43, was shot to death in November 2008, district attorney’s office spokesman Rick Wood said.
Foster’s father, Raymond Foster, 45, is set for trial April 5 on a second-degree murder charge.
What on earth? What year is this? Cynthia Lynch, 43, was shot to death in November of 2008. Her crime? She was trying to leave an initiation ritual and head for home. She had hooked up with the Louisiana KKK group run by Raymond Foster via the Internet. She was described as a troubled woman who was trying to fit in somewhere. That probably fits the description of many people who are attracked to the KKK. Just a group of misfits.
All too often groups like this are blown off. Do-gooders try to tell us that the KKK is irrelevant nowadays and that any concerns about this organizaton are simply an over-reaction. This killing doesn’t sound like an over-reaction to me.
Do these sentences sound a little on the lean side? If you shoot someone to death, why is that second degree murder? Another female, Danielle Jones, pleaded guilty to being an accessory. She spent a year in jail. Is Louisiana soft on crime or is it just soft on KKK krime? How much a part of the south is the KKK in 2010?
Just in case anyone forgets who the Klan hates, here is a pretty good reminder. 🙄
Creative Loafing Atlanta presents: The Georgia Knight Riders and Knights of the Ku Klux Klan rallied for a crowd of more than 500 on Feb. 20 in the town of Nahunta, Ga.
These good ole boys are all pleased with themselves.
Having a big mouth just doesn’t pay sometimes. Powell stupidly shot off his mouth in a letter to Commonwealth Attorney Paul Ebert and confessed to raping and brutally killing Stacie Reed, thinking that he couldn’t be tried twice. It didn’t work out so well for him. He got a stay of execution at the last minute back in July and his case headed for the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will not stop his execution. The wheels of justice sometimes grind very slowly.
Hot off the press from Manassas News and Messenger:
The United States Supreme Court will not stop the execution of a man charged with killing a 16-year-old girl at her Yorkshire home in 1999.
Paul Warner Powell was set to be executed for the murder of Stacie Reed in July but the Supreme Court postponed the execution, saying they needed more time to decide if they would review the case.
The Supreme Court decided this week not to intervene.
A new execution date has not yet been set.
Powell was convicted of capital murder for killing and attempting to rape Stacie at the family’s Yorkshire home on Jan. 29, 1999. He was also convicted of raping and attempting to kill Kristie, who survived.
Powell said he killed Stacie because she was dating a black man. He is a self avowed white supremacist.
Now Powell only has 2 things to ponder: Old Sparky or the Big Drip in the Sky. I hope he choses to ride the lightning bolt out of here. It should be painful to be both evil and stupid. The links below include an interview with News and Messenger reporter Uriah Kiser when he thought the Powell execution was a go. The News and Messenger has an excellent timeline.
Links
Background from News and Messenger (U. Kiser)
UPDATE FROM MANASSAS NEWS AND MESSENGER
ARRRGGHHHH! Rush Limbaugh again puts his feet in his mouth. Now is is trying to stir up something between Obama and Jewish Americans on his radio show.
Most of us don’t assume all bankers are Jewish. Shame on Rush, again. Most people after all the years of warped opinion, don’t expect much better out of Rush. However, he has recenty been a topic of conversation here. He stutters and stammers as he tried to make logic out of illogic. What’s next? That Obama hates buzz saws? It makes about as much sense. Mr. Limbaugh will go to any lengths to bash any Democrat, especially if that Democrat is a President.
Nothing will bring Luis Ramirez back to his family, but the wheels of justice have finally begun to turn in the correct direction. I was truly shocked to hear of charges levied against the very people who are suppose to uphold the law. As reported by CNN:
Washington (CNN) — Five people, including three police officers, have been indicted on charges related to the beating death of a Latino man in rural Pennsylvania in July 2008, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Two indictments charge the five with federal hate crimes, obstruction of justice and conspiracy in what authorities are calling a racially motivated attack.
How low can they go? Westboro Baptist ‘Church’ tries for a new low as they now are demonstrating outside Sidwell Friends, the Obama children’s school. Westboro Baptist is run by Fred Phelps and family and is well know for attending the funerals of our fallen military troops while screaming vitriol and hate at the family and friends.
Their website refers to the Obama children as ‘Satanic Spawn of a murderious bastard.’ This church is also protesting outside the White House, the World War II Memorial, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission field office. They recently have demonstrated outside of Jewish Temples and other Washington area schools. Tomorrow they plan to target Sasha’s school in Bethesda.
In a related topic, Perry Jefferies posts the following:
Protesting Military Funerals: This Is Not Free Speech
Staff Sergeant Mike Wenrick, who has been blogging from Iraq has started a letter writing campaign to help deter the emotional damage inflicted by these trecherous people. He wants national legislation that keeps Westboro Baptist and other demonstrators 500 feet away and also keeps the from the scene and hour before and an hour afterwards. Works for me.
Until I found out about Westboro Baptist Church, I never quite understood the expression ‘lower than a snakes’s belly.’ Now I do.
[Editor’s Note: Apologies for the consistent use of the wrong church name. In each case it should have read WestBORO Baptist Church.]
Henry Gasparian must have reached his boiling point. He got into a shoving match with LaRouche supporters who had the infamous idiot pictures of President Obama sporting a Hitler mustache.
Mr. Gasparian, an Armenian, has family who were killed or maimed by Hitler. He doesn’t feel someone so evil should be used for political gain, so he attempted to take the papers. People need to think about other’s feelings when hurling around careless rhetoric.
According to the Seattle Times:
As a child in Armenia, Henry Gasparian witnessed firsthand the horrors of Nazi Germany. Two uncles were killed, his father wounded and a brother starved to death during the German invasion and occupation of the Soviet Union. So when Gasparian, 70, of Edmonds, saw a poster of President Obama with a Hitler mustache near the entrance to the Edmonds Farmers Market on Sept. 5, he admits that his reaction was “personal and emotional.””>Seattle Times:
As a child in Armenia, Henry Gasparian witnessed firsthand the horrors of Nazi Germany. Two uncles were killed, his father wounded and a brother starved to death during the German invasion and occupation of the Soviet Union. So when Gasparian, 70, of Edmonds, saw a poster of President Obama with a Hitler mustache near the entrance to the Edmonds Farmers Market on Sept. 5, he admits that his reaction was “personal and emotional.”
He tried to grab the fliers being passed out by supporters of Lyndon LaRouche, a perennial presidential candidate who has likened Obama’s health-care proposals to the Nazi extermination of Jews and other “undesirables.”
Two young LaRouche supporters told police that Gasparian repeatedly pushed them and grabbed one of their arms. Gasparian said it was they who first pushed him.
Now Gasparian is charged with two counts of fourth-degree assault in Edmonds Municipal Court for what he describes as an attempt by “an old man to say you cannot insult the president with this outrageous campaign.”
Words of Compassion is a document of supportive statements on immigration compiled by Unity in the Community. http://www.unityitc.org/documents/Compassion.pdf If you are a person of faith, search for your denomination and see what the leaders of your faith have to say about this issue.
The subject of domestic terrorism and who is or is not a terrorist continues on Anti-bvbl. We will probably never all agree in total on this issue. However, more is coming out from the FBI on this subject because of the rash in incidents in the past month. Most of the killers have been lone wolves with only peripheral contacts with organized hate groups.
It is significant to note, however, that hate groups are on the rise. The SPLC credits those opposing Hispanic immigration, those opposing a black president and bad economic times with the increase in number of these types of groups. Other organizations who track domestic terrorism and hate groups raging from DHS to PRA chime in on this issue in article from the AJC:
When investigating a terrorist network, FBI agents can often access e-mails, phone records and documents to build a case. In some cases, they can develop informants to penetrate the group and provide intelligence.
But a killer acting alone rarely tells anyone what he’s planning, let alone when or how. That makes it hard for authorities to determine who is prepared to commit a criminal act in furtherance of a perceived cause.
Trying to counter that threat, the FBI has created what it calls “tripwires.” These are programs that seek tips from businesses whenever someone buys significant amounts of materials that can be used to make explosives, or large amounts of weapons or ammunition.
Such precautions seem to have worked in the case of a man who cleaned out his savings account in Utah and told the bank teller he was on a mission to kill President Barack Obama. The man, who relatives said suffers from mental illness, triggered a criminal investigation and he was eventually arrested.
In Washington, the white supremacist von Brunn apparently skirted such tripwires by using a vintage rifle from the early 20th century. With that single, small-caliber gun, a museum security guard was killed before other guards opened fire and disabled von Brunn.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks white supremacists, says the number of hate groups in the United States has risen 54 percent since 2000, fueled by opposition to Hispanic immigration and, more recently, by the election of the nation’s first black president and the economic downturn.
“Today the vast majority of domestic terrorist attacks are in fact lone wolf or so-called leaderless resistance attacks,” said the center’s Mark Potok. “There are very few ways to prevent them … short of assigning a police officer to every person in America.”
The number of angry white men in America is getting larger, said Chip Berlet, senior analyst with Political Research Associates in Somerville, Mass., a think tank that studies right-wing extremists.
In particular, the heterosexual, white, Christian men in America feel they’ve been pushed out of the way, Berlet said. Attacking the Holocaust Museum is a no-brainer, he said, because white supremacists blame Jews for the advancement of black people.
“The idea that blacks are put in positions of power by crafty Jews is central to their conspiracy theory,” Berlet said.
Other experts contend the white supremacist climate has not changed much over the years.
Charlie Allen, the former top intelligence officer at the Department of Homeland Security, said such hatred has been embedded in small parts of American communities. Under Allen’s leadership, the department created an analysis branch that looked at extremist groups across the country.
A department assessment of domestic extremism found about 2,400 white supremacist Web sites; 72 blogs; 30 mailing lists; 213 user groups and clubs; and 25 online racist video games.
The agency says white supremacist organizations rarely publicly call for attacks.
Initial Report:
A security guard has been shot at the Holocaust Museum by a gunman. Information is still coming in that at least 2 people have been shot, one is law enforcement.
That area of DC has been sealed off. Rumors are circulating that the gunman is in custody.
Is there any end to hate crimes? A doctor, a soldier, who else will be mowed down because some people feel they have the right to take matters into their own hands.
More information as the story unfolds…
Update: According to DC police, 2 people have been transported to Georgetown Hospital in serious condition.
Update 2: The alleged shooter has been identified as James Von Brunn. He is an anti-Semite and has been convicted of crimes related to his white supremist beliefs. There some confusion about his age at this point. If he is who police believe him to be, he is a WWII veteran and is quite elderly.
The gunman is in critical condition. The security guard is in grave condition.
This act seems to be terrorism and a hate crime at this point.
A group of seven congregations from Topeka, Kansas came to town and set up outside of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda to protest the supposed life style of poet Walt Whitman, for whom the school was named.
Amidst police officers on foot and on horseback, these activists scream hate speech through bullhorns at anyone who will listen, using terms like fag, queer, and worse. They profess to know what God thinks and who He likes and dislikes.
Students, parents, and alumni like up along the campus in counter-protest, chanting for the intruders to go home and to chant their school name.
***Warning! Video contains offensive language and hate speech***
This is the same group from Westboro Baptist Church [warning: website contains hate speech and explicit language] in Topeka that make a practice of attending military funerals to scream out about gays in the military.
The students are a captive audience. They don’t choose where they attend school yet they are subjected to this diatribe from out-of-towners who should have nothing to say about the school name.
All of a sudden I am not so sure I am in favor of free speech if this is what it represents. I need to be careful what I wish for. This Westboro group sure brings out the down side of free speech and supposed ‘Christianity.’
Full story in the Washington Post Metro section.
A man who has been convicted of making threatening calls to immigration rights group CASA has apologized to the group and has blamed misinformation he received at a Republican meeting as one of the reasons why he made the phone calls.
According the the DC Examiner,
Flanked by several members of CASA, his father, who is in a wheelchair, and some Hispanic would-be workers, Wesley James Queen II made his apology in a basement room of CASA’s worker’s center in Langley Park.
Queen pleaded guilty to making threatening phone calls and entered into a plea agreement earlier this month. He is set to be sentenced in July.
He said a number of factors led him to making the calls in May 2008.
“The combination of personal stresses, misinformation that was received during a Republican meeting that I attended, and myself not taking my bipolar medication were all parts of what led up to the threatening phone calls,” Queen said, reading from a statement.
Maryland Republican Party Executive Director Justin Ready said he didn’t know Queen and had “no idea” what meeting he was talking about.
“The Republican Party does not condone or encourage violence of any kind toward groups or individuals,” he said.
Queen refused to answer any questions after his statement, referring reporters to his lawyer, who could not be reached immediately for comment.
CASA spokesman Mario Quiroz, who received one of Queen’s threatening phone calls, said he spoke in support of Queen during his plea hearing and plans on speaking again during sentencing.
“What we have been saying is that … we believe that he’s really aware of the damage that he made and all the troubles that he brought,” Quiroz said, adding that he doesn’t believe Queen is trying to make amends with the group to receive a lighter sentence.
“In my heart, I believe he’s truly sincere,” Quiroz said.
CASA officials, who promoted Wednesday’s news conference with a news release saying Queen had been “motivated by attending a meeting where elected officials disparaged CASA and the immigrant community,” had few details about the meeting, who attended or what was said.
CASA officials and supporters said the purpose of Wednesday’s news conference wasn’t to disparage the Republican Party, but rather to showcase the reconciliation between Queen and CASA and to draw attention to the consequences of the “hate language” directed at the immigrant community used by some politicians and some members of the media
While a firm believer in people taking personal responsibility for their own behavior, one has to always be mindful that words can set off unacceptable behaviors amongst those who are not stabile. Perhaps this is what Mrs. Napolitano meant when she spoke about extremists last week.
DISCLAIMER: It is important to note that Anti-bvbl is NOT implying that the Republican Party is culpable for this man’s behavior. The objectives for examining this story are to discuss how words can set off unintended consequences. Additionally, there has been much rancor over the DHS warnings about left and right extremist groups. This story does lend some credence to the department’s warning.
