Dean Esmay rewrites an AP article about the hate addicted ministry of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church to be more accurate
Anti-war democrat protests at GI funerals
SMYRNA, Tenn. - Democrats and anti-war activists who claim that God is punishing American soldiers for defending this country brought their anti-America message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq.
The Democrats were met with scorn from local residents. They chased the activists' cars down a highway, waving flags and screaming "God bless America."..
Anti-war activist Fred Phelps, a registered Democrat who was invited to (and who attended) the Clinton/Gore inaugural party in 1993, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God. Phelps' cult has been condemned by mainstream and fundamentalist Christians, and is made up mostly of Phelps' children, grandchildren and in-laws.
These anti-war democrats carried signs and shouted things such as "God hates America", "Thank God for 9/11" and "God hates you."
About 10 Democrats protested near Smyrna United Methodist Church and nearly 20 stood outside the National Guard Armory in Ashland City. Members have demonstrated at other soldier funerals across the nation.
The AP tried to spin the story in such a way as to make the reader assume that a) Fred Phelps is typical of a conservative christian Republican, and b) that he is representative of Christians in general as opposed to a aberration.
Phelps and his group have taken to protesting around the funerals of servicemen and women who were killed in action in Iraq. Sick huh?
But what's worse is that it appears that he is not doing this merely out of a sense of (twisted) conviction. No, as Blackfive points out, he also does it for money: he's discovered a new way to fund terrorism.
And in fact his scam has been noticed by the military which has issued a warning which reads in part
THERE IS NO INFORMATION TO INDICATE THAT THIS GROUP PLANS ANY FORM OF VIOLENT ACTIVITY AND THEY ARE NOT KNOWN TO INITIATE PHYSICAL CONTACT. HOWEVER, THIS GROUP DOES EMPLOY PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE TECHNIQUES INTENDED TO PROVOKE A HOSTILE RESPONSE OR OFFENSIVE REACTION FROM OTHERS. THEY WILL EMPLOY WRITTEN AND VERBAL INFLAMMATORY LANGUAGE AGAINST THE DECEASED PERSON, THEIR FAMILY, AND MILITARY PERSONNEL TO ELICIT DESIRED RESPONSES. THIS GROUP WILL THEN FILE A CIVIL ACTION IN AN EFFORT TO REACH A SETTLEMENT IN ORDER TO FUND FUTURE ACTIVITIES.
The desired response, of course, is to punch the son of a bitch in the mouth and beat him to a bloody pulp at which point the group promptly sues.
Do you suppose the Democratic Party puts up with him because people assume he and his group are Conservatives?
When the Cindy Sheehan group camped down in Crawford is willing to join ranks with the neo-Nazi Stormfront organization, you have an encampment that binds Communists and Nazis in a common cause against the President and his policies.
Add Phelps and his group to the mix and you have to conclude that Bush must be doing something right.
