Debra sends this reply by way of Facebook;
Category: Usual Suspects
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More flag burning reaction
IVAW's Matthis Chiroux, Robyn Murray and MFSO's Elaine Brower burn the US flag "This is not my country!" -
Matthis: Ya know who I remind me of?
Matthis Chiroux of the IVAW burns an American flag in Lafayette Park, DC We’ve heard from several of the IVAW members on what they think of Matthis and his flag burning antics over the last few weeks but this is the height of conceit. Matthis Chiroux tells us “I’m not like Martin Luther King, Junior, but ya know who is like Martin Luther King? Me!
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Branum takes another life
James Branum, the guy who calls himself the GI Rights lawyer, has destroyed another life – this time it’s a young soldier by the name of Eric Jasinski.
A Fort Hood soldier who failed to deploy with his unit to Iraq in December 2007 will spend at least 27 days in the Bell County jail.
Spc. Eric Jasinski pled guilty Wednesday to a charge of desertion at his court martial on Fort Hood, said his attorney James Branum.
Branum said mitigating circumstances that included a diagnosis of post traumatic stress syndrome after a tour to Iraq in 2006 made Jasinski decide he would not deploy.
“He was seeing a psychiatrist for his condition and prescribed Zoloft for depression and Trazadone to get to sleep, and they handed him his gun and told him to go back to Iraq,” Branum said.
The sentence is 30 days in jail, 27 days for good behavior, Branum said. He also was reduced in rank to private first class and had pay and benefits docked for two-thirds of one month.
Branum spent the last several months sticking his finger in the Army’s collective eye along with his buddies at Courage to Resist and the socialists at Under the Hood Cafe until the court martial.
Branum’s unbelievably consistent track record of getting jail time for ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of his clients remains unblemished. Now that he has the support of the Under the Hood Cafe, he’ll be putting a lot more in jail unless someone starts helping these Victims Of Branum and get them away from his self-serving legal advice and blind obedience to his anti-war agenda.
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Mark Potok targets American Legion…again
Potok was on Keith Olbermann’s failing TV show and in defending the Homeland Security Department’s report on right wing terrorist groups Potok calls the American Legion “a right wing group”. It comes at about 3:15 in this video;
Potok goes on to equate the Hutarees with the Tea Party movement. He calls them “nutty groups” but I think the only nutty group are associated with SPLC if they truly think that the American Legion is a “right wing” group. I guess when you’re to Left of Mao, everyone is Right Wing.
Thanks to TSO for the video. Just for TSO;
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Solidarity with Matthis
IVAW's Matthis Chiroux, Robyn Murray and MFSO's Elaine Brower burn the US flag "This is not my country!" Surprise! Another IVAW member who didn’t deploy to the War Against Terror supports Matthis’ flag-burning exploits on the public pages of IVAW. This one is Carl Davison who enlisted not once but twice – in the Marines and the Army. I’ll republish his rant, but don’t expect anything too coherent;
Some have said that burning a flag is an aggressive act of war, I agree, By supporting resistance to these wars and the conduct of the US government we are fighting a form of social war on them, not a war with arms, we are putting ourselves in an adversarial position to them and true we do not all agree one each others chosen methods of bringing change but are we going to require every member to police themselves and tame her or his passion just because some it might be seen as bad, there are plenty of active duty soldiers and veterans who are supportive of burning the flag and there are those very against it, We can only speak for ourselves when we are out in public.
I went to jail for refusing to deploy to Iraq after more than 7 years in the military because I finally realized that to separate thought and verbal support from acts, what you actually do is essentially hypocrisy…if you feel something is right, do it, dont talk about supporting the action (Im not talking about supporting ones right to do it Im talking about supporting the act) and to say that one of us can represent all of us is ridiculous. As long as someone’s actions are for ending these wars and dont cause death are serious injury. I support those actions. But that is just me not everyone in this organization, Its not just Matthis, here are more vets out there who support the act of burning the flag, and have burnt flags before (I have myself). If a member is getting threats like Matthis (I dont know about Robyn or Elaine) we should have their back, because there were just expressing their views as free human beings. Personally I think flags are symbols of divisions and pain and yes, “flag burning is cool”, Break that which breaks you! In solidarity with Matthis!
I don’t know anyone who has threatened Matthis, but the “flag burning is cool” line is lifted directly from one of my posts on the subject. Disagreeing with Matthis isn’t “threatening” him, you drama queen. You can manufacture any excuse you want to support Chiroux, but don’t use me as your impetus, needledick.
The only threats I’ve seen against Matthis is IF he decides to enter Texas and none of those threats were made on this blog. It’s funny how most of the people who support Matthis’ theater never fired a shot in the war. I’m just sayin’.
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Agosto retracts flag-burning statement
IVAW's Matthis Chiroux, Robyn Murray and MFSO's Elaine Brower burn the US flag "This is not my country!" The other day, I wrote about Victor Agosto’s statement supporting Matthis Chiroux’s flag burning drama at the ANSWER protest in DC last weekend. That statement has disappeared from the IVAW websit and today, he half-heartedly rethinks his support;
The flag represents a primary instrument of class oppression, but I’m prepared to concede that burning it may not be in the best interests of building a broad-based movement. I condemn all threats against the flag burners, and I support their right to express their anger at a government that has failed them. I will not publicly burn a flag.
Class oppression, huh? Which class is being oppressed? The idiot class? Apparently, there are dissenting voices at work inside IVAW. Another opinion piece by Valerie Fletcher chastises IVAW leadership for their wishy-washy stance on the issue;
Executive Director Jose Vasquez’s remark that “This action was viewed by some as putting our ability to reach service members and veterans in grave jeopardy…” is a huge understatement. If IVAW accepts this behavior or condones it, the organizations tent will have become so small I believe it will be in danger of creating its own state of irrelevance.
Obviously, the International Socialist Movement-affiliated IVAW members vastly underestimated the reaction from the more moderate membership who have no political agenda beyond ending the war.
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IVAW Kokesh still in the race for NM’s 3CD
Yes, Adam Kokesh, member of IVAW is back on the Republican primary ballot after his loss to Tom Mullins in the pre-primary recently for New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District. Kokesh and Mullins faced off the other night in a debate in Clovis, NM according to the local press.
Mullins introduced himself as a petroleum engineer and small businessman from Farmington who has just recently decided to pursue politics.
Kokesh is a Marine veteran from Santa Fe and served in Iraq with the 3rd Civilian Affairs Unit in Fallujah. His Web site says he is a Tea Party leader who has dedicated his political life to individual rights and constitutional government.
Kokesh is callong himself the “Tea Party candidate” in the Republican race – I didn’t know that Tea Party candidates were people who’ve never had jobs outside of a brief military career (cut short by malfeasance) and years in college.
After Michelle Malkin called out Kokesh on her blog, he went on Russia Today to defend himself. He said that Malkin blamed him for the threats against her from Jon DeWald.
Kokesh said that he voted to have DeWald suspended while he was on the board of the IVAW. What he neglected to mention was that he encouraged DeWald in his sociopathic behavior and DeWald’s suspension lasted only a few months through the Winter Soldier hearings. DeWald’s permanent removal only resulted after he robbed the coffers entrusted to him as a chapter president in IVAW.
In an interview with Cassy Fiano, Tom Mullins said it all;
I disagree with Adam’s positions regarding our military. I support Guantanamo Bay being open. We are not occupiers. Adam’s activities offend the many veterans, including my father, that I have met. We are not the world’s policeman. We have a volunteer military. Our military men and women deserve support from our elected officials and all members of the American public. I don’t understand how Adam’s actions are “Constitutional”. Adam is nothing more than an Internet Celebrity and a War Protester. I don’t believe New Mexicans agree with his views or his methods to share or voice them.
Of course, Kokesh fails to mention his anti-war roots, or his connections to the flag-burning IVAW when he’s talking to Republicans. I wonder why. Maybe he should bring his replacement internet celebrity, Matthis Chiroux, on the campaign trail to burn flags and shout out how that’s what he thinks of America.
Then Kokesh can explain to his prospective constituents why he maintains membership and ties to IVAW.
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The hyperbole of flag burning
Yes, there is a lot of drama over Matthis’ flag burning adventure last weekend. A good number of IVAW members oppose the utterly pointless demonstration by Matthis, Robyn Murray and Elaine Brower. You can hear Elaine Brower, whose Marine Corps son has completed at least three tours of the War Against Terror, screech “That’s what we think of this country!” while Matthis stomps on the burning flag in this video;
And yet, I’ll bet she’s still in the US this morning.
The third person in the video, Robyn Murray starred in one of our posts a couple of years back when she was captured in a video interview. Her only real complaint about her time in Iraq was the fact that she was 19.
One of the Austin, TX IVAW crowd, Bobby Whittenburg wrote a bit about the flag burning yesterday at his blog Veter(A)narchy using hyperbole as a weapon;
Matthis has received threats of violence, rape, and death. Such threats truly show the character of people loyal to the American flag and the American government.
Actually it does show character – I scoured your comments and couldn’t find not one threat of violence, rape or death in the several responses to the posts. I can’t imagine anyone threatening to rape Matthis in the first place and a threat is just childish any-damn-way without the opportunity to act on the threat. I think they’re disappointed that no one threatened them, so they make shit up to ratchet up the drama.
Personally, if I were a member of IVAW, I’d take a long look at myself in regards to the message that IVAW is trying to convey. It took them a year of waffling on Carl Webb before they finally tossed his punk ass to the curb. Geof Millard, the president of the board of directors wears unearned awards on his uniform. Jose Vasquez, the Executive Director of IRAQ VETERANS Against the War has never set foot outside of the US in uniform. Now Vasquez thinks his Puerto Rican heritage excuses his lack of an”affinity” for the US flag – irrespective of his years of service as an NCO in the US Army – and all of thospay checks he got. Vasquez replaced Alex Bacon, who went AWOL from the Coast Guard while stationed in Hawaii patrolling fisheries (no shit, really).
And then there’s Matthis who claimed for the longest time that he was an Afghanistan veteran when the only two places he’s ever been stationed is Japan and Germany. He claims he has PTSD from interviewing real combat veterans. He apologized to Malalai Joya for occupying the corner booth at Baskin Robbins on Bagram Air Base for six days.
There are countless examples of reasons to leave the dorks at IVAW behind. I’m thinking all of these doofuses are making money from their antics, why else would they work so hard at being caricatures of anti-war assholes? Folks like Bobby Whittenberg – an honest to goodness Purple Heart wearing hero – are being manipulated by the accolades he gets from cowards like Doug Zachary and Matthis Chiroux. And it’s a cryin’-ass shame that he doesn’t see it.
