Category: Usual Suspects

The IVAW’s Executive Director, Jose Vasquez, has issued a statement in regards to Matthis Chiroux’s flag burning antics last Saturday in Lafayette Park. Apparently it has become a bone of contention among the remaining members of the organization and once again, Vasquez punts the issue rather than make an actual decision. (I know you can’t get to IVAW from that link – they block us. Just copy the link and paste it in your browser).

In his statement, Vasquez admits what I told you yesterday – there has been a grievance filed with the IVAW. It might surprise you that the grievance was filed by Geoffrey “Stolen Valor” Millard, the president of IVAW’s Board of Directors. Regardless, Vasquez seems unable to make a real decision about Chiroux – also a Board member.

The message Matthis chose to convey represents his views and those of some other members in IVAW. It does not, however represent the position of all members nor the official position of the organization. While we endorsed the ANSWER march, there was no official endorsement of the message Matthis conveyed. Nor was official endorsement sought. Matthis represented his personal views which resonate with some but not all members. Our messaging is important and in the future we should all make an effort to reach consensus with those we organize with in an open way about how we represent IVAW.

But here’s the part of Jose’s message that I don’t understand;

I personally have no particular affinity to the flag (especially having Puerto Rican ancestry)….

I have Swedish ancestry and I was born in Florida, so I’m wondering what the Hell Vasquez is trying to say. I know one particular member of IVAW has ancestry in a REAL Central American nation and detests the Matthis incident without equivocating . I’m pretty sure Puerto Ricans are born Americans, too. But, we’re talking about a guy who calls himself an Iraq veteran without setting foot in Iraq. A guy, who last year said he would have served in Afghanistan if the Army had given him a choice, but now leads an organization committed to ending the war in Afghanistan.

Oh, I keep posting the picture of Matthis burning the flag because the ISO members of IVAW tried to keep the photo out of the public domain, because they were a little bit ashamed of it, except among themselves until TAH got a hold of it and put it up for the world to see. Expect to see it often.

Two new blog posts at IVAW, one by Victor Agosto another by Matthis Chiroux, explain why they’re cool to like flag burning and you’re not. First, Victor rolls out a list of terrible things Americans have done – none of them anything done by people we know, but things that happened before we were all born;

The flag represents the U.S. but it does not represent us. The flag represents the state, a tool the ruling class uses to further its interests. This state has killed its indigenous inhabitants and has enslaved its people.

Yeah, that’s not from the International Socialist Organization, is it?

It is a state which serves the interests of insurance companies rather than the interests of people who are ill. It bails out banks but not hard working people who face foreclosure. It facilitates corporate exploitation of workers all over the world. It engages in wars for control and profit.

I am for the people who live within the territorial bounds of the “republic.” I am proud of their struggles for an eight-hour work day, gender equality, racial desegregation, ending child labor, and ending wars. However, we are not better than the rest of the world’s people. We are all one human family.

That could’ve been taken from a speech by Eugene V. Debs, the socialist who ran against Woodrow Wilson in 1920 from prison. All of the same talking points. Now that Agosto is out of prison, he can go anywhere he wants. I urge him to go to a country that doesn’t embarrass him quite so much.

But Matthis takes his fractured rhetoric to comedic heights;

As the burning American flag clutched in my fist above me bathed my fingers in yellow flame, I felt no pain nor shame of conscience. I stared into the eyes of 5,000 people and returned to dust a genocidal fairytale. One force-fed to me since birth and later used to enslave my body. A bed-time story of epic deceptions. A lost dream groped for in the empty darkness.

What a douche. Of course, he tried to write about the flag, but, as always with Matthis, he can’t help but make himself the center of the room.

I long to take the needle off this skipping record and rest it on my broken heart.

Me, too, you drama queen. I hope your broken heart doesn’t take as long to heal as your broken leg, you pansy. I wonder if Jesse MacBeth is writing his stuff these days.

I didn’t put links in because you can’t get to IVAW from here – don’t ask me why, it makes no sense, but they blocked incoming traffic from TAH. But you can get there from Yahoo or Google.

All of the ISO members of IVAW are changing their avatars on Facebook to the picture of Chiroux burning the flag according to people who can see their profiles. Camilo Mejas is one of them.

Word on the street is that one of the board members of IVAW is planning to file a grievance with the rest of the board over this incident. Of course, knowing who that board member is, I don’t believe he has the testicular fortitude to follow through. He’ll probably be bought off by the rest of the board with the promise of a Skittles castle with a moat of Snickers bars.

A little bird called to tell me that Matthis Chiroux was arrested this weekend for making mud stencils in front of the White House. Sure enough, I found a photo of the arrest at Al Jazeera.

Notice the cane on the ground – he’s still playing the sympathy card for his broken leg from A FRICKEN YEAR AGO! I think that’s Elaine Brower, crackpot emeritus, next to him.

Of course, this is the photo that’ll bring the most comment. Former Army Sergeant and recipient of a General Discharge Under Honorable Conditions and six day TDY veteran of Afghanistan Matthis Chiroux burning a US Flag to score some hippie chic strange.

His leg doesn’t seem to be bothering him, does it? The IVAW folks were keeping this close to their vest passing it around on their Facebook accounts, but thanks to some refugees, we have it now.