I don’t know what I can say about this photograph of Congressional candidate who is still an IVAW member, Adam Kokesh, so I’ll let my readers provide the commentary;
The Santa Fe Reporter has already decided who they want to represent them, I guess;
Category: Usual Suspects
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IVAW in Stars and Stripes
For some reason, the Stars and Stripes thinks the opinion of 70 people who call themselves “Iraq Veterans Against the War” (in my opinion, they should change the name to “Random People Off the Street Who Want You to Think They Are Iraq Veterans Against the War“) is important enough to report to our troops overseas;
At its annual convention in College Park, Md., earlier this month, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War vigorously debated what the group’s stance should be on Afghanistan, according to some participants. Opposition to the war quietly became official policy earlier this year following an online membership poll. The vote was said to be close, though no details were publicly released.
“A decision has been made in terms of our position, which is we are against it,” said Jose Vasquez, executive director of IVAW and co-founder of the New York City chapter.
Jose Vasquez, the new Executive Director of RPOSWWYTTAIVAW, decided after 13 years of service as a medic that he was a conscientious objector right before he was supposed to deploy to Iraq (yet claimed he would have gone to Afghanistan).
As is the case with Iraq, the existing IVAW resolution advocates “the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all occupying forces in Afghanistan and reparations for the Afghan people, and support (for) all troops and veterans working toward those ends.”
The third plank is the least important, of course. You can bet the debate over whether to include Afghanistan as something they oppose included a big discussion over how much money they could make. But who is surprised that a “majority” of members of the RPOSWWYTTAIVAW would vote for this? After all, a “majority” voted to protect Carl Webb’s right to preach sabotaging and killing US forces in theater. A “majority” voted to make Matthis Chiroux, self-admitted rapist who calls himself an Afghanistan veteran, a member of their leadership.
And this so-called “majority” was 70 members of a supposedly 1700-member organization. And did the International Socialist Organization members of RPOSWWYTTAIVAW stack attendance at College Park in their favor? They paid for Carl Webb to attend – how many others’ travel did they pay? And how many of those who got free travel were members aligned with the ISO?
How do I know Carl Webb got a free trip to College Park? He told me.
That was right before his profile disappeared from Facebook.
Not all of the members of RPOSWWYTTAIVAW approve of their new stance against the war in Afghanistan;
One of the members who supports the war in Afghanistan is Army Sgt. Selena Coppa, an active-duty military intelligence specialist based at Wiesbaden, Germany.
“The organization is kind of split on that,” Coppa said.
At times, she added, the issue of whether to oppose the war in Afghanistan “ran the risk of tearing us apart. IVAW is like a family. You don’t want members leaving.”
Well, it looks like you can’t stop that, Selena. I’m hearing rumors that an entire chapter resigned this weekend and some actual veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan from some other important chapters resigned as well. I hope you’re loving your new ISO overlords.
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James Branum; lawyer to malcontents
You’ve probably been wondering who is defending these “resisters” who are being prosecuted by the military during their court cases. For Victor Agosto, Travis Bishop, Robin Long, Cliff Cornell, and pot smoking deserter Ryan Jackson, it’s been James M. Branum, who calls himself the GI Rights Lawyer. He’s also a co-chair of the Military Law Task Force branch of the communist National Lawyer’s Guild.
So who is James Branum? In his own words;
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Think Congress isn’t listening?
Sheila Jackson Lee told the Houston Chronicle on Monday that she’s not avoiding her constitutents’ concerns;
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee assured a sometimes raucous crowd at a town hall forum Tuesday that she is listening to their concerns about health care reform legislation. At the same time, the Houston Democrat denied she had attempted to dodge opponents by giving short notice and not widely publicizing her town hall meeting after other Democrats in Congress confronted angry crowds at similar gatherings with constituents across the country.
And to prove it, here she is yesterday seriously listening to the folks that vote for her;
Even though I see the denizens of DC use that little ploy everyday to avoid confrontations over their ill behavior, I’m pretty sure that Representative Lee has more respect than that for the folks she serves. I’m sure it was an important call. Probably her hair dresser telling her that her new hair will be ready for pick up at four.
Ace of Spades and Gateway Pundit point to Patterico who discovered an astroturfing “doctor” who supported the healthcare plan – but it turns out the “doctor” is nothing but a grad student of Lee’s husband and an Obama donor. But there are no plants at these events, are there?
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Carl Webb wins another one
One of the resolutions that were up for a vote this last weekend at the IVAW convention was a resolution to declare that IVAW was a peaceful organization that didn’t advocate killing and sabotage of US forces deployed overseas. It read like this;
Resolution proposing that IVAW only use, supports or endorses, non-violent and peaceful actions
Whereas there is no official statement regarding Iraq Veterans Against the War’s stand on methodology for achieving our goals; namely, ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ensuring all returning veterans have adequate health care, and repairing the damage done in Iraq and Afghanistan by the occupations;
Whereas calls for violence and sabotage are both illegal and immoral, and will only serve to do great damage to Iraq Veterans Against the War’s efforts to end the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan;
Whereas any endorsement, passive or active, of violence would lead to IVAW being banned from active duty bases, Reserve centers and National Guard armories; being declared an extremist organization and thereby making it illegal for a member of the military to become a member of IVAW;
Whereas, the Board of Directors has stated that it is the position of IVAW that only non-violent, peaceful methods are to be used to accomplish our goals;
Therefore be it hereby resolved that Iraq Veterans Against the War only uses, supports or endorses, non-violent and peaceful actions in seeking to accomplish its goals of ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; providing proper medical care to all returning veterans and repairing the damage done by the occupations.
Additionally be it resolved that any member found promoting violence in pursuit of the goals of this organization, will be subject to immediate discipline, including the termination of his or her membership, in accordance with the procedures outlined in the policies governing termination of memberships.”
It was written specifically to deal with the Carl Webb question. For those of you who may not know, Carl Webb advocates for sabotage and the killing of US troops among IVAW members who are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Mostly, he’s a 43-year-old pervert who preys on youngsters, bums their money, bums rides and generally sucks canal water. Several members of IVAW left the organization specifically because of Webb’s behavior – and the refusal of IVAW to remove him from their ranks.
Anyway, the resolution needed 40 votes to pass and it only got 39 votes – so Carl Webb is free to promote his vile and despicable advocacy for the injury and death of US troops. The majority of IVAW is content to have Webb among them – they’re content to support his violent strain of the movement. Did I mention that Webb isn’t even qualified to be in the IVAW?
Here’s Webb’s Google profile;
Sweet. Marxist revolutionary fixin’ your kids’ food at college. He’s claimed that he’s been enrolled in Austin Community College for about four years now. Tough-ass two year school, huh?
This one I thought was strange;
Why would a self-professed Marxist belong to a group called”Democracy for America”?
But, oh, well, there you have it – the Iraq Veterans Against the War once again put the “Against the War” part ahead of the “Iraq Veterans” part. Which would follow because not very many of them are Iraq Veterans anymore, either.