Criminalizing T-shirt wearing followup . . .

This is an addendum to the previous post about the Sheehan arrest and attempted squelching of her free speech rights and my response to comments on a USA Today weblog:

I saw several subsequent comments on that same weblog from supposed military personnel criticizing Cindy Sheehan, making malicious accusations against her and basically telling her to shut the fuck up.

One of the comments was supposedly from a group of military personnel who call themselves "GI's against Sheehan." After reading their post, I was first reminded of some of the ass-backward, brain-dead fuckups that I had the displeasure of serving with during my own military service in the Air Force. I could see that nearly 25 years later the military was still inducting some real losers into it's ranks. The second thing I noticed was the writer's lack of mentioning anything about their/his own combat experiences - which made me a tad suspicious. And lastly, the same writer(s) leveled some really nasty personal accusations about Sheehan that the right-wing media scumbags have been floating around amongst their stepford-like worshippers since she burst upon the national scene.

Therefore, being a military vet myself and an amateur government civics buff, I decided to respond to these small-minded military "patriots."

Following is my response in it's entirety and here's the link to the USA Today weblog: [CLICK HERE]


In response to "GI's against Sheehan":

First off -- I don't know if you truly are GI's or not. Anonymous blogging tends to bring many a charlatan out from under their rock.

However, let's assume for the sake of this discourse that you are indeed GI's.

When you joined the military you swore an oath as follows: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice."

I myself being a proud military veteran remember this oath quite well.

Can any of you "GI's" please explain to me where in that oath does it say a soldier must swear blind ideological or political allegiance to the President of the United States? Obey orders? -- certainly. Abide by military regulations and the UCMJ? Absolutely.

Have any of you ever read the Constitution? Read about the history of it's birth and evolvement into the document it is today? I honestly doubt it.

Shouldn't you be defending Cindy Sheehan's as well as anyone else's right (pro or anti-war) to speak their mind and to "peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances?" You do recognize that phrase don't you? It only happens to be one of the first citizen freedoms the founders of our country saw fit to Amend the Constitution for (Bill of Rights). And lest it be forgotten, you did swear an oath to "defend the Constitution of the United States against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic.

Have you ever stopped to think about what exactly it is that might constitute a "domestic enemy" of the Constitution? Hmmm. A very important question is it not? What or who is it that might be considered a "domestic enemy" of our cherished Constitution. Let's ponder that for a moment.

Do you think it could refer to government officials or politicians who misuse their political power to actively stifle dissenting voices of the citizenry? To propagandize the press?

Do you think it could refer to those political leaders (who are supposed to be accountable to WE THE PEOPLE) who misuse the intelligence and legal apparatus of the federal government to secretly spy on it's citizenry unlawfully bypassing Congressional or Judicial oversight?

Do you think it might refer to those same political figures who would misuse that unbridled power to facilitate the establishment of a state-sponsored religion?

Do you think it might refer to those in political power who would misuse the legislative process to allow mega-corporations and campaign contributing cronies to dictate and write laws favorable to their bottom line and not accountable to anyone, much less the American people?

Do you think it might refer to those who misuse the levers of executive power to abrogate and trash international treaties and laws and in the process alienating long-standing allies and effectively making America a weaker nation abroad?

And last, but certainly not least:

Do you think it could refer to those who misuse the levers of executive power to pre-emptively wage war against a sovereign nation which has not attacked or threatened us and which has resulted in the horrific deaths of 2245+ brave American soldiers and tens of thousands of innocent civilians??

If you have any sense of decency and honesty about you, you must know the answers to each of those questions is and should be a resounding YES!!

Lastly, you made some very vicious ad-hominem attacks against Cindy Sheehan. You claimed that:

1. She's a known communist.

2. She criticized and downplayed the victims of Hurricane Katrina

3. She is an anti-Semite

It's telling that you didn't provide a single source for any of these gutter-level accusations. As a matter of fact, they are amazingly similar to attacks leveled by other serial liars, right-wing losers and America haters like Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Dennis Prager, Bill O'Reilly (anyone at FOX News for that matter), etc.... --- unfortunately that slimeball list is much too long to cover in this exchange.

Based on that brief analysis therefore -- at this point the natural skeptic in me takes over and begins to think that perhaps you are not "GI's" at all. That you are nothing but a phony, right-wing, Bush boot-licking toady who's only agenda is smearing an honest decent American simply because you don't like the fact that she has the moral courage to speak out truthfully and openly about the corrupt and lying government that is responsible for (albeit refuses to acknowledge it) her son's and many other American's sons and daugthers deaths.

Finally -- my initial inclination was to pity you. But I quickly disposed of that worthless feeling, so therefore I don't. I actually despise you. It's freedom haters like you who are destroying America within along with our glorious Democracy. And if you truly are "GI's", God help us. Because your heart is not faithful to the oath you swore allegiance to. No. Your allegiance, and dare I say worship, is with lying politicians and their anti-democracy ideologies. The United States Constitution means absolutely nothing to you.

America's military deserves better human beings and better citizens than you in it's ranks.

----krazee

Bush Monarchy criminalizes T-shirt wearing . . .

War protestor and mother of dead soldier, Cindy Sheehan, was arrested yesterday in the U.S. Capitol gallery prior to Preznit Chimpy McSphincter's SOTU address. The heinous crime? Daring to wear a T-shirt with the printed slogan "2245 Dead. How many more?" on it.

Now, it's a known fact that Cindy Sheehan has an effect on the right-wing, war-mongering Rethuglicans like a saguaro cactus being forcefully shoved up their faux-patriot asses. Nothing gets them more foaming at the mouth vicious than a distraught and angry mother publicly demanding her government (in this case the Bush cabal) to explain why her child died in a war based on lies and deceit.

USA Today ran a short article (fairly innocuous) about the arrest of Sheehan, and in the comments section for that article, the bat-shit insane Bush boot-lickers came out in full force calling Sheehan everthing from an "Al Qaeda mom," "Baghdad Cindy," and a "stupid woman". Thankfully, it appears, these yellow-bellied, fascist Republican turds are a minority as the Sheehan and just plain free speech supporter's comments quickly overwhelmed their putrid vitriol.

Anyhow, I took a moment and added my own comment. It's printed here in it's entirety:

To all the Cindy Sheehan haters who smugly and aristocratically sniff about the "appropriate" time and place for a citizen to exercise their constitutionally protected right to free speech -- you're ignorance of the birth and growth of American Democracy is simply astounding.

In 1773, when 3 separate companies of 50 men each, masquerading as Mohawk Indians, boarded 3 of Britain's King George's ships anchored in Boston Harbor, broke open the tea chests therein, and summarily heaved them overboard into the water -- was that the "appropriate" time for them to dissent against the British repression?? Perhaps they should've taken into consideration the sensitivities of poor King George and waited until a time more convenient for the Redcoats and the royalty they slavishly served??

America's own, modern-day royalty, King George the 43rd, is a similar hollow figure of a man and leader (if he can even be called either). All of his public appearances are highly scripted and staged events, complete with carefully screened and advisor approved worshippers who ask scripted fluffball questions and robotically applaud on cue every time their dear leader mouths empty phrases and even emptier promises. All in all it's a bizarre Orwellian exercise methodically designed to not upset the boy King and his royal court of kingly minions.

Contrarily, outside of these phony "public" events, anyone who wishes to exercise the "right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances" is usually herded into a small chain link cage far enough away from the "public" venue so that once again, the Boy King is not subjected to any viewpoints other than those that sing his glorious and kingly praise.

Cindy Sheehan is a citizen of this country. She had every right to be in that gallery last night. She had, and still has, every right to "peaceably assemble and petition the Bush adminstration for a redress of grievances." And she has the right to do so at any public venue, anywhere!

And by God if that isn't agreeable to you Sheehan haters/Bush supporters, I seriously suggest that just maybe it is all of you who are the modern-day Redcoats and oppressors of Democracy and freedom!!

I strongly urge you all to re-familiarize yourselves with the history of Democracy in this country. You just might learn a thing or two.

Long live The Constitution and Bill of Rights!!!


----krazee