And Steve Massey, principal of the high school and his staff would have been tarred and feathered in the public square for treason. Why?
Last Tuesday, March 25th, the Vets For Freedom National Heroes Tour was scheduled to stop at the school and speak to a social studies class on politics and the war in Iraq. This event was worked out between Massey and Forest Lake alum Pete Hegseth, an Iraq veteran who heads the Heroes group. The group decided, however, to contact the press and make an "event" out of the visit, complete with rally outside before class. Soon it was learned that Michelle Bachmann, last seen ejaculating on President Bush during his walk in to the State of the Union speech in 2007, was going to attend and speak. Hmm....
Sniff Sniff. What's that I smell? Ah yes, not an educational event at all really. Sounds to me like a propaganda tour to me. A propaganda tour selling a bill half truths and outright lies. You know the kind of horse shit I am talking about....something like this...
"We are in Iraq to protect our freedom and safeguard the world from tyranny."
Does anyone out there actually believe this anymore or are they that fucking clueless?
It would've been one thing if Hegseth had come to the school and had a low key classroom discussion. But no. Oh no. That's not how it works with these people. It has to be a big show because they have a point to make and if you don't agree with it...well....guess what happens?
Since relocating the event to the American Legion, mainly due to security concerns over protest groups also wanting a chance to speak, Massey has received 1200 emails and about 250 phone calling him a coward, a Communist, and a spineless America hater.
Remember this photo?
After the comments that Massey, his staff, and several students have received, you are all going to have to excuse me while I tell the putz brigade, who lately have been amusing me with their Jonah Goldberg loving assess, that if you want to find a group of people most likely to be fascists, TAKE A LOOK IN THE FUCKING MIRROR, DOUCHE BAGS. The Michelle Malkins of the world need to realize that when they behave like this, they are acting in the EXACT SAME WAY THE SS DID!!!!
They call people like me "unpatriotic" when all I really want is for our troops to be sent in harm's way when they are actually protecting us (Afghanistan) as opposed to fighting for the interests of very select group of people on the world in two very specific industries (Iraq).
I have to say that in many ways I am soooo tired of this idiocy. Can't we be done with these people now? My patience is at an end and when they behave in this fashion, I really have to say that there is no hope in building any bridges. The last eight years of Bush Co have basically given them a license to tap into their jingoistic, inner moron and make up whatever bullshit they want about they world and then have the audacity to play the victim when someone like me calls them on their complete ignorance.
President Obama (aka an intelligent adult) can't come soon enough....
19 comments:
"and then have the audacity to play the victim when someone like me calls them on their complete ignorance."
This would describe the conservatives who post here quite aptly.
My one point of disagreement with you , Mark, is that I think you let people like this get you way too riled up. They are quite insignificant in the grand scheme of things and, fairly soon, will have no relevance at all.
Mark,
The Republican Party is not all like these people. It's true that these idiots have been running the show for the last eight years but things will change if McCain wins. He is not like that. There are many of us out there who want to take back the proud tradition of what it really means to be a conservative as opposed to the Frank Burns-like weenies that supposedly speak for us now.
ps. hey, when are you moving to iowa? :)
Steve Massey is a good friend of mine and his main concern was not politics but security. His main duty, as the administrator of the school, is far the safety of his students. He told me that the place was going to turn into a circus and he was worried that someone would get hurt, a point that I think was completely lost on the loud mouths of the radio the last week.
You are, in fact, a fucking traitor. Those men are heroes and should have been allowed to do whatever they wanted at the school.
Fuck You!
It's each and every school's responsibility to decide what is in the best interests of its students not yours Kim and not the President's. Thank God you don't run a school and thank God he'll stop running the country.
President Bush may be 'The Decider' when it comes to sending people to war for no reason, for which no amount of blood -- Iraqi or American -- will be enough, just so he doesn't have to admit his mistakes when the next five years will do that for him.
Steve Massey is the 'Decider' at this school and he makes the call because i guarantee that 90% + of parents don't want their kids heads being filled with crap about how joining the fight in iraq will be the best decision they ever made, i'll believe that when more than .05% of politicians sends their son or daughter to die in a foreign land without the very best of reasons. jt.
Kim, Mark is not a traitor. He's just another example of a long line of idiots retards on the left.
Well considering I was there maybe I’ll comment. I served in the National Guard and my wife is a teacher in that school district. I read your writings on this very carefully Markadelphia. You’re telling us that you have specific insight into the real reason why the event was cancelled as well as the decision making process of the school administrators? For you to to tell people that only through acceptable behavior can one’s words be deemed worthy of being spoken at a high school is just amazing. Here you are setting the condition of where a certain form of speech should be held and deciding where speech in favor of the war is to be held – who is behaving like facists here? My wife and I don’t expect much from school administrators anymore because we’ve seen enough of their cautious bureaucrat nonsense first hand to know that they are far more interested in staying the payroll than they are in actually providing safety to students. I notice now that school officials are cowering in the cor, er, not commenting.
Institutions of learning are places where thoughts are expressed, debated and sometimes confronted. Suppression of an idea is the hallmark of the individual whose position is too weak to support through civil discourse; such is the individual who will burn a book, shout down a speaker or threaten those who sponsor an event such as this one.
Yes I saw Mrs. Bachmann there along with rep. John Kline. Gold Star Mother Merilee Carlson (son Michael Carlson was killed in Iraq in January 2005) was there along with Colonel Joe Repya (veteran of Vietnam and the two Iraq wars) and Sergeant David Thul of the Minnesota National Guard unit that served 16 months in Iraq. The Vets for Freedom also praises congressional Democrats such as Brian Baird (D, WA) and Jim Marshall (D, GA) who came out to hear the group speak as well. The assertion that it is a partisan organization is a partisan lie Markadelphia. Peter Hegseth set up, with permission from the principal, an event to give the media access to the soldiers, not a full blown press conference. May I ask if any of you here were as disappointed in the Wellstone (a man I voted for) Funeral Memorial Service/political event/pep-rally at the U of MN?
I’m against the Iraq war and have been for some time and I’m still extremely disappointed in the principal here. From discussions with my friends over the past week, the consensus, to us anyway, is that the event was canceled due to the assorted riots that usually happen when anti-war groups bring hundreds of people to demonstrate. I don't care much for the likes of Michelle Malkin but I don't think she is the one supressing anything here Markadelphia - the principal is. Anonymous, did you go to the event because that is not what the speakers are saying.
taxpayer
Taxpayer,
Steve was not trying to suppress anything. As you say, he was concerned about the riots that happen at events like this, from both sides, and so he canceled the event. It is my understanding that it was Hegseth's group that called the press conference and started inviting right wing media. Why don't you ask Steve yourself or have your wife ask him what his thinking was at the time?
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Neither Markadelphia or anonymous were at the event and yet they are on this blog telling people what was said at this event. As far as making things a circus, according to founder Pete Hegseth they didn’t plan a press conference, but a low-key media availability at their bus before the event with students. Principal Massey wasn’t caught off guard by this according to Hegseth – Massey approved it in advance. I think the direct quote was "We were hoping a few local reporters – like from the Forest Lake Times – would show up and talk to some of the guys at the bus before the event started".
Markadelphia, you really need to show more respect to veterans out there who simply talk about the realities on the ground. Whether the Iraq war is right or wrong is not really the issue here, the main issue is that your writings are inaccurate. This group is the brainchild of Iraq and Afghanistan war combat vets David Bellavia, Knox Nunnally, Mark Seavey, Joe Dan Worley, and Wade Zirkle – people who are veterans of the United States Army and Marine Corps who have fought for their country and have been awarded the Bronze Star, the Silver Star, and the Navy Cross. Sgt. Bellavia, who has a book called House to House, has been nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor. He killed a succession of al Qaeda terrorists in a house in Fallujah and by the time he finished off the last and most fearsome opponent, he had no weapons on him. Is Sgt. Bellavia the person who is acting out of complete ignorance here Markadelphia as you said in your last sentence? That is what he spoke about at the event and you're telling people that he is selling half truths and outright lies. Only Markadelphia, who wasn't even at the event, can decide when a veteran is telling the truth and when a veteran is lying. oh, and vheights, riots from both sides? oh please, there is only 1 side who riots at events like this and veterans have too much respect to deface property, etc.
Well, markadelphia may not have been at the event but he is spot on right as to what happened. Steve Massey is a friend of mine and you can rest assured that there was nothing "low key" about the press conference and event that the group had planned. They also had a very definite agenda, one that Steve was willing to give a platform to under certain conditions but they abused those conditions.
Were you a part of the event, rld? Are you a part of the staff at Forest Lake? Do you know this veteran's group very well?It seems to me that your criticisms of markadelphia could play to yourself as well if none of the above are true.
Only side who starts riots like this? Take a look at how many civilian deaths in Iraq since the war began and then come and talk to me again about who has a problem with violence.
vheights it looks like he was talking about political protest riots, not civilian casualty deaths in Iraq. What's the point in asking Steve Massey anything? Markadelphia didn't. Then we see Markadelphia using terms like "liars, "fucking clueless", "Idiocy", "inner moron" etc when describing these veterans. Don't try to play this off by saying you were talking about the people who were sending emails to the principal when you typed up the words Half Truths, Outright Lies, horse shit, and fucking clueless before you even mentioned the people who emailed Mr. Massey in your original posting Markadelphia. I wasn't there because I don't live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. I guess I shouldn't listen to veterans talk about their experiences on the ground. I'll just check in with Markadelphia to find out which soldiers coming back from Iraq are fucking clueless idiots and which soldiers are not fucking clueless idiots.
SW, your anger at Mark doesn't make any sense and I don't see his comments as being directed at the troops, at least not in the complete way that you do. It is directed at the propaganda machine that lies continually about the war in Iraq. This group may be a part of that machine but no one is denigrating their service, least of all Mark.
This is exactly the kind of faux outrage that Mark has talked about in the past. It is part of the lie. Deal with it.
"machine"
Pronunciation: \mə-shēn\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle French, from Latin machina, from Greek mēchanē (Doric dialect machana), from mēchos means, expedient.
: The device introduced to embody various fears, paranoias, and rationalizations explaining events over which the observer has no control and little understanding.
See propoganda machine and war machine.
Often used interchangeably with military industrial complex, big business, and oil companies.
"then have the audacity to play the victim when someone like me calls them on their complete ignorance."
Is it just me or has this phrase been played out exactly as markadelphia predicted it would based on some of the comments above....?
Very astute.
Can a non-political event at a school, university, etc exist in today’s world? With the polarization of our society today, it simply can no longer be, because every event is carefully examined under the microscope of its political persuasion. The well has been poisoned and students must learn from carefully screened, antiseptic texts. You’ll argue it was poisoned by the right, I’ll argue the contrary. I’ll win.
a. Gov’t recruiters in careers class? Not on your life!
b. ROTC on campus. Heaven forbid!
c. Hang whomever is the current President’s picture on the wall? Only if you hang them all.
d. Have a congressman speak to a civics class? Only if it’s a congressman that agrees with your myopic point of view.
e. Weather class? It’s Gore’s way or the highway.
f. Creationism as a 1-time, 1 sentence disclaimer at the beginning of evolution class? Who are you kidding?
Any group that leans right, is pro-military or merely has a flag or, gasp!, a cross on their website is deemed too radical for our freethinking education system and should be expunged or, if they must be tolerated, must have a counter point scheduled. Having Al Franken speak or forcing kids to watch Al Gore’s fantasia is clearly apolitical enough for our youngsters, though.
Am I being a victim by pointing out your lunacy? Can I help it if you wear it on your sleeve?
i dont think either side's 'fascist' or 'unpatriotic' (in inverted commas because this means different things to different people) -- AS LONG AS -- the other has the right to express themselves freely (like all the above cool comments) without restricting another person's freedom.
Invasion and war / chaos are the biggest restrictions of freedom (to clean water, electricity, freedom of movement, safety and security 24/7, employment opportunities, access to cheap gas in a country where it used to cost less than a dollar a tank, talkign about iraq -- not to mention much lower us prices, and access to your country.) The point of plugging the iraq war or one's experiences of 'killing al qaeda terrorists in fallujah' before teens (for every labeled 'al-q t' in iraq, there are probably ten to twenty civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time, see 'Haditha') is a valid expressin of freedom AS LONG AS parents approve (were they even asked?) and adults (teachers / marines or army personnel with different opinions, i've met so many without looking) can be at hand to put things in bigger picture context, if students ask questions.
anyway, maybe that can come in classroom debates later. Yes definitely, students should hear all sides, including the pro war and the heroic (personally not counting killing in fallujah after besieging the city as an example of heroism, saving lives: americans in the frontline or iraqi civilians anywhere, would be my idea of much closer) but only if there's some sort of balance and pro-active adult supervision.
in the exact same way that no one should be allowed to denigrate religion, or the troops, or any subject sacred or close to another's heart, in a free and unrestricted way on campus, because that would be equally wrong.
i guess there should have been better lead-up planning and agreed compromise at the mentioned event. jt.
as long as parents approve ??? If the democratic leadership had their way all kids in grade school or high school would be allowed to get an abortion without their parents knowing about it. That is a reality in the US so good job in saving the children from the troops.
as has been pointed out here before by others, Jeff you are a typical liberal who posts here - unable to type up much more than a 1 line insult. Good job brainiac.
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