Lifting the veil on anti-war groups (organized by COMMUNISTS!)

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 1/13/03 | Joe Garafoli

[MikalM]

San Francisco -- The four co-sponsors of Sunday's anti-war rally in San Francisco are wildly different umbrella groups united for the day by their opposition to war in Iraq -- and their desire to attract the broadest trail of supporters.

[MikalM]

If the protests were organized by, say, the Ku Klux Klan or the American Nazi Party, would you adopt the same flippant, dismissive attitude?

[expatpat]

Remember, Sadam's political party is The Baath Socialist Party.

We're seeing socialists supporting socialists. That's all it is. Move on, nothing else to see.

[amused]

Keep hammering at ANSWER. It's one thing for the other coalitions to organize a protest(though their politics are a bit shady too) but ANSWER should be shown the light of day as much as possible.

I won't call all protesters anti-american. That is silly and counterproductive. Some people just want peace and are entitled to that view. But ANSWER is another story. They should be hammered every step of the way for what they are; communists hiding behind a front group.

[sauropod]

Why call it ANSWER? Its the Worker's World Party

FRY MUMIA!

'Pod

[sauropod]

If you lie down w/ dogs, you wake up w/ fleas...

Sorry, i do not agree. Its one thing to oppose the war, its another thing to march w/ hardcore Marxists, anarchists, eco-fascists, etc..

[hellinahandcart]

"Nobody took them seriously until the collapse of Communism, when the Soviet Union stopped paying for many communist groups in the West," said Stephen Schwartz, a former Chronicle reporter and conservative author. "They're all that's left."

Bwahahahahaaaa! That's funny.

Each carries a large political umbrella. Not in Our Name counts American Atheists among its endorsers. Its founders include Refuse and Resist, which has been at the forefront of recent protests against increased government tracking of immigrants.

Whoa, Gitlin left the Revolutionary Communist Party off the founders' list; wonder why?

[amused]

Sorry, i do not agree. Its one thing to oppose the war, its another thing to march w/ hardcore Marxists, anarchists, eco-fascists, etc..

Provided one is aware of them in the first place. That is why we need to continue to hammer who the organizers are. We know who they are but America doesn't.

Now people who say "So what?" or "They're good organizers" after being told about ANSWER certainly are fair game.

[hellinahandcart]

Provided one is aware of them in the first place. That is why we need to continue to hammer who the organizers are. We know who they are but America doesn't. Now people who say "So what?" or "They're good organizers" after being told about ANSWER certainly are fair game.

They're fair game right now as far as I'm concerned.

The people marching with them cannot have failed to discern the true reason for the assembly, from the moment the first speakers open their mouths. They stay only because they are ALSO far left fellow travelers of one variety or other.

Or terminally stupid. Most people think the Green Party is about "caring for the environment", in spite of the huge amount of publicly available information to the contrary (most of it put out directly by the Green Party). If these stupid people still support and aid and vote for my enemies, they are my enemies too. Stupid is no excuse.

[Revolting cat!]

The end effect is, as I've been long saying, that the Right wins the arguments and the Left wins the country!
Look, the SF Chronicle, at then end of this "expose", prints a map and helpful directions how to get to the demonstrations.

[El Gato]

the increasing militarization of our society, vastly expanded expenditures on the military

Oh you mean as compared to 1962 when military outlays where 9.2% of GDP out a total federal outlays of 18.8 % of GDP? In 2003 total federal outlays are slated to be about 19.1% of GDP but the military portion is only 3.3% of GDP. Meanwhile, in the same period "entitlements" have gone from 6.1 to 11.5 % of GDP, the only year entitlements were higher was 1983 at 11.9% of GDP. Oh and that vast expansion of military expenditures is from 3.0% of GDP in 1999, 2000 and 2001, the very lowest %tage since well before WW-II.

Also in 1962 a signifgent fraction of Congresscritters has served in the military, many of them in WW-II. Today many fewere have done so.

[amused]

The people marching with them cannot have failed to discern the true reason for the assembly, from the moment the first speakers open their mouths. They stay only because they are ALSO far left fellow travelers of one variety or other.

If one can actually hear the speakers, as these things have been rather large. I want mainstream marchers to know who they are supporting by participating. Alot of them just don't. Which is why I continue writing letters to my local papers and telling anyone about ANSWER when the marchers come up in conversation.

Or terminally stupid. Most people think the Green Party is about "caring for the environment", in spite of the huge amount of publicly available information to the contrary (most of it put out directly by the Green Party). If these stupid people still support and aid and vote for my enemies, they are my enemies too. Stupid is no excuse.

I would agree except for the stupid part. This is ignorance and laziness. Taking anyone's word at face value is foolish at best, dangerous at worst. But I will continue to do my best to educate those who don't know. A reasoned polite explanation of what is going on has a real impact on how people react to the marches & organizations.

OT: A girl I just spoke with recently was dumbfounded that Sanger was big proponent of eugenics. Changed her mind about a couple of things. A self-proclaimed socialist and utopist(quite intelligent actually) started to rethink his position after a pleasant conversation. I will talk with anyone about anything and gently nudge them towards change. I have done this with Bush haters(and I am not GWB's biggest fan) and even a white supremecist(sad story actually as his own friends beat him nearly to death after they found out he was gay). You do this by knowing the facts and presently them coherently without malice, which freepers certainly can & do. This is not a chastizing or even suggestion. I am merely expalining how I feel about this and how I do it.

[sauropod]

I met some of them at the last counter-protest we did in DC.

I have very little but contempt for people like that.

Traitors in the Streets!@@

[TLBSHOW]

bump

[sauropod]

I find it difficult to believe that most people do not know whom they are marching with.

There are plenty of signs with the raised fist symbol and the "International Socialists of America" emblazoned across them.

Also, there are plenty of green hatted National Lawyers' Guild people around. If this is a "peace" protest, why do they need lawyers?

[TLBSHOW]

Average Protestors: Total Kook Wackos

On Monday, I rolled audio from that big anti-American protest in DC. “Anti-American protest? I didn’t hear about that” Maybe that’s because the press wrongly identified the protestors as “anti-war.” That's a misnomer, since no one wants war. No, these people are anti-American, anti-capitalism, anti-freedom and pro-dictatorship. They're retreads, or young people acting out an era – the 60s – that they missed.

I told you in Hour One on Monday that you could find signs and issues at this protest from the pro-choice crowd or the animal rights crowd. Sure enough, by Hour Two I had a Washington Post story in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers documenting signs on Roe v. Wade, legalizing pot, etc. Yet the mainstream press looks at these protests as nostalgia, and doesn't bring us an accurate picture of who attended the Bash America 2003 Festival.

Doing the job the mainstream press used to do at this rally: Dan Flynn of National Review. You can hear me read quotes from this great piece, where he recounts mingling with the protestors, in the audio link below. You had the usual comparisons of Bush to Hitler, and more creative pap like one man's insistence that Bush let 9/11 happen so he could “build a worldwide planetary death machine” in space. Some handed out pamphlets on the “right” of North Korea to have nukes. A phrase the mindless frequently mouthed compared 9/11 to breaking a fingernail. Read this article and listen to the audio. You need to know the truth, and laugh at these relics. They're more irrelevant today than ever.


Rush Limbaugh

[amused]

I find it difficult to believe that most people do not know whom they are marching with.

I don't mean most marchers I mean mainstream marchers.

There are plenty of signs with the raised fist symbol and the "International Socialists of America" emblazoned across them.

These guys aren't automatically identified as the enemy because to call a communist a communist is McCarthyism in this screwed up country. I would agree the majority of activist & marchers know damn well who they are marching with. These people are easily brushed aside by mainstream America as fringe commies. It's the regular people who march, the people the TV chooses to show. If we continue to get the word out about who ANSWER is, less mainstream folks come and the media is deprived of its propaganda. They have to show the nutjobs or abandon coverage entirely.

[sauropod]

The mainstream media covers this up.

The biggest advantage to doing a counter-protest is talking to the media to get our message out.

The media (by and large) are lazy. We should not let them get away with this. 'Pod