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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! July 24, 2005 Many FuneralsBy GreyhawkGoodrich's father is also a Marine, having served in the Pacific during WWII. Looks like the Lt Governor made the wrong choice when scanning the obituaries for campaign stops. Poor Catherine! She may have been (like so many others) taken in by Michael Moore, one of the first to attempt to use funerals of Iraq war vets for his own gain: The family of U.S. Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone was shocked to learn that video footage of the major's Arlington National Cemetery burial was included by Michael Moore in his movie "Fahrenheit 9/11."But Moore's myth - the portrayal of the fallen in the War on Terror as victims - lives on. It's disappointing but not surprising that the Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania - along with so many others - believes it. Let's play a game. The source of information for this game is the Southern Poverty Law Center. The game is called Who Am I? Who am I? As a lawyer in the 1970's I won a handful of civil-rights related lawsuits, though but my legal career ended in 1979 when I was permanently disbarred for filing suit against a court reporter for being late delivering a document. My State's Supreme Court said I had "little regard for the ethics of [my] profession." (I once sued Sears for $50-million when their local store was several days late delivering a television set.) In 1986 and 1987 I received three awards for my civil rights cases, including one bestowed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1988 I supported Al Gore's presidential campaign, hosting his visit to my hometown. In 1990 I ran for governor of Kansas in the Democratic primaries, but lost with 11,634 votes, 6.7% of the total. In 1991 I began the "Great Gage Park Decency Drive," an attempt to purge a park in my hometown of the homosexuals that were using it as a meeting place. In 1992 I ran for the U.S. Senate, and gained 30.8% of the ballots cast in the Democratic primary, perhaps due in part to my anti-homosexual efforts. During the campaign I referred to my opponent as a "bull dike".  Who am I? I'm Fred Phelps, and since those days I've become notorious for my "God Hates Fags" campaign. I'm often mistakenly referred to as a right-wing conservative Christian, but the reality is I hate Jerry Falwell too. And more recently I too have started protesting the funerals of those military members killed in the war on terror..
In January of 1993, Fred Phelps, his wife Marge, Fred Phelps Jr., and Betty Phelps-Schurle were invited to (and attended) the inaugural ball in Washington D.C.. While Mike Moore got an exalted place at their 2004 convention, it's good to see that the majority of his fellow Democrats now apparently consider Phelps persona non grata for his anti-gay activities. You gotta draw the line somewhere, after all. 
What do these three have in common?As a side note, no one on the Left should be surprised when others don't think it's funny that their first attack on Supreme Court nominee John Roberts involves questioning his sexual orientation. Yes, you're only joking, heh. Chuckle. We get it. That whole "gay" thing is no big deal to the Left. When they have the funeral for the Democratic Party, I don't think I'll go. Update: Blackfive has contact info for Governor Ed Rendell (D. Pa.) The Governor, however, has been seen in Mudville before, when he refused to extend the absentee ballot deadline for troops serving overseas in the war on terror prior to last year's Presidential election. Update 2: The Governor responds quickly. Posted by Greyhawk / July 24, 2005 2:01 PM | Permalink 9 TrackBacksSeems as though Pennsylvania’s Lt. Gov. decided to show up at the funeral of Staff Sergeant Joe Goodrich, who was killed in Iraq on July 10th. Trouble is she didn’t go to just express her condolences, but also to express her anti-war view... Read More The Democratic Party will be laid to rest sometime in the near future. Greyhawk does not think he will be attending the funeral. I'll be busy doing something else celebrating.... Read More I’m sorry, I don’t use the word scum often, so if I am using it now, you know it is not being used lightly. There are no words: FAIRFIELD - American flags, lining the lawn of the mother- and father-in-law of fallen U.S. Army Pfc. Timothy... Read More The disgraceful conduct of Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, who crashed a Marine's funeral and poisoned the somber event with her anti-war lecturing, continues to rock Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which broke the story over the weekend, up... Read More Check out this story about Lt. Gove Knoll attending the funeral of a fallen marine and inappropriately using this as a platform (uninvited) to speak out against the war. Michelle Malkin has more on the original story here. It looks like Governor Ren... Read More I'm going to talk to her. I think she should send a letter to the family, clarifying (her intentions). Read More Michelle Malkin has been all over this story, and I just saw she has been in contact with the Governor's office: I just got off the phone with Sal Sirabella, Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll's chief of staff. They are in the midst of drafting a letter of Read More That is worse than Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll showing up uninvited at the funeral of a Marine who was killed in Iraq and handing out her business card to members of the slain Marine's family and then saying "our government" is agains... Read More How contemptible: The family of a Marine who was killed in Iraq is furious with Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll for showing up uninvited at his funeral this week, handing out her business card and then saying "our government" is against the war. Read More 24 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
'I want you to know our government is against this war'
Our? Whose? Certainly not the one Lincoln referred to as 'of the people, by the people'. Do they understand 'consent of the governed'? Do they view themselves as the 'legitimate government in exile' since Novemeber 2004 or 2000?
It's appearent they believe their own propaganda. The first step to recovery is to admit you have a serious problem.
Phelps is a class act. He showed up yesterday in Omaha at medic Tricia Jameson's funeral. She was recently killed by an IED in Iraq. Utterly shameful.
I dunno about not going to the funeral of the Democrat Party. Maybe we should all go and pass out business cards and tell the mourners that we were always against what they were doing.
I wasn't always against the Democrats - but really can't say exactly when they left me behind.
What do these three have in common? They're Democrats who demean the members of the American military.
Wait - as Dick Durbin demonstrated, that's redundant.
They're Democrats. That says it all.
These democrats are giving ambulance chasers a bad name! The morons have become hearse-chasers. Eventually they'll catch the hearse, look inside, and see themselves.
Great post, Greyhawk. Last Nov. I voted for Democrats for a couple of county offices. But next time it will be straight ticket Republican (and I used to be a Democrat). I want to punish the Democrat party for holding these twisted individuals in such prominence.
And how does a politician with the complete lack of social skills that the Lt Gov demonstrated even get elected?
Frankly, it surprises me that Fred Phelps is still alive. Don't get me wrong: I think it'd be terrible if someone did kill him, not least because it'd make him a martyr to his loony disciples. But considering the hate he spews, and the emotional states of some of the people at whom he spews it .. . well, I'm just a little surprised that no one has snapped.
Not Fair! Phelp's antics should in no way reflect on the hard working, dedicated, and wholly honest members of the Democratic Party, for whom I'm proud to be a trailblazing flagbearer!
I wish I could write to the family of Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich. I feel so awful about them having such a leach show up during their time of grief.
I want them to know I know Joseph didn't die in vain!
Nice try guys. But why not try honesty instead?
Phelps yustabe a democrat. Big deal. Lots of people yustabe democrats. Some left the party on their own volition. Some, like Phelps, are shunned because of who they have become.
The honest thing to do is to recognize Phelp's real identity now. And if you want to smear and castigate a group, because Phelps is part of them, then recognize that the group that deserves smearing and castigating is fundamentalist Christians.
Where are the outraged posters declaring "I wont set foot in another church until the christian movement unambiguously denouces this psycho."
Observer: the Christian movement *has* unambiguously denounced Phelps. For example, I did so in my Sunday School class just a few weeks ago. So why do you want to smear and castigate fundamentalist Christians?
Observer,
Christians do denounce this psycho. He is an abomination, whether he is from the right or left.
Who was the last democrat that denounced anti-military bigots who blame the soldiers for the policy?
*cricket chirping*
Fellow Pennsylvanians, please let our state "leaders", Ed and Catherine, know what we think about "our government's" oppostion to the war in Iraq. Democrats like Baker Knoll, unfortunely, ensure more casualties in Iraq and Afganistan.
Observer:
I am an evangelical Christian, and I hereby wholeheartedly denounce Phelps and his tactics.
There. Feel better?
Our Jewish Community Center ina a city of 150,000 is headed by a transgendered person who supports the war.
Can I pile on too?
"And if you want to smear and castigate a group, because Phelps is part of them, then recognize that the group that deserves smearing and castigating is fundamentalist Christians.
Posted by Observer at July 24, 2005 05:04 PM
From the story: ..."I'm often mistakenly referred to as a right-wing conservative Christian, but the reality is I hate Jerry Falwell too."
Are you sure observer is your real name? The post above went to great detail to explain that Democats have disowned Phelps too.
Regarding the comments on Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, the story is more likely a smear campaign (also known as some Republican is lying again) started by Republicans.
A funeral is not an appropriate time to discuss the failings of the Repubican Political leadership with respect to the war in Iraq, and if Knoll did, then shame on her. I'd also wonder about her political sensibilities in that case.
There are plenty of reasons and opportunities to discuss Republican incompetence in both the prosecutio of the war in Iraq, and its selection as the next step in the war on terror.
Of course, the sole source for that article about Knoll is a rightwing Republican activist.
But, such facts must be ignored.
Anyone who's interested in who Phelps is, read this:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/michael_haggerty/expose3.htm
I'd advise you to read it anyway, it's one of the most horrifying and facinating documents I've ever read. An amazing portrait of the true banality and idiocy of raw evil.
I'm ashamed of my once great country. It's gotten to the point where someone can't take a dump in the pews during a soldier's funeral without becoming victim of a smear campaign. Time to move to Canada!
"I'm ashamed of my once great country. It's gotten to the point where someone can't take a dump in the pews during a soldier's funeral without becoming victim of a smear campaign. Time to move to Canada!"
It seems a lot of people who said they're moving to Canada if Bush wins the election again. Guess what they're still here!!
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS DOC. I'll even help you move to Canada!
I read these comments, republican vs. democrat and wonder. I have considered myself an independent for many years. I voted for Ford, Reagan, and Bush Sr. among many other republicans. I could not think of voting for Bush Jr. From time to time, when the issues warranted, I voted for a Democrat for an office. But, one thing has changed my voting. As I rose through the corporate ranks to senior management, it was very evident that one of the hidden platforms for those running on the Republican ticket is to safeguard the holders of wealth in this country. This is why the independent business owners can no longer fight the "big box" companies. There are many more considerations in an election which some here don't seem to realize. If you are going to vote a straight ticket, DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Make sure you know why you are voting for one party. Learn the difference between the left vs. right and conservative vs. liberal. The terms are not synonymous!! Because someone voted for one democrat or one republican does not put them in some general class. One party is in no position to point fingers at a member of the other party. Those running for an office have their own agenda. You need to sort out the worst of two evils, and that is a sad state for this country.
We could use a third party. Independent said it, and it needs to be heard. This country is so torn these days. It's either conservative or liberal, democratic or republican. I used to simply neglect all the republican/conservatives, but it's important to understand and learn from every point of view. Don't use information to bash the other guy, use it to help your guy if you could. You must have noticed by now that every campaign ad on tv or in the newspaper says something bad about their opponent instead of some productively sound of their own karma. We have to mend the tears in this country's fabric, lest is succomb to revolution in this form or that. (like it already isn't...)
Independent & Mick J nailed it. People who call themselves Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal, effectively excuse themselves from any critical thinking. I admit, it is much easier to not have to think about issues for yourself, to let Rush Limbaugh or Michael Moore tell you where you stand on everything. But any truly objective observer is going to figure out that the middle-ground, moderate politicans who evaluate each issue independently rather than blindly follow an ideology, are the best leaders.
John McCain is a great Senator. George W. Bush is a horrible president. To an idealogue, those statements seem contrary. To an independent thinker, the truth in both is obvious.
In fact, I find it helpful to spend time at both liberal & conservative sites/blogs just to see the perspective each side has, although most are so rabidly partisan it can be difficult to glean a whole lot of useful information.