Posted on 08/19/2004 8:12:45 AM PDT by Chieftain
After Action report FReep of 'Kerry Krewman' Del Sandusky Gainesville, FL 8/19/04
Jacksonville FReepers OPbuzz and Chieftain traveled 75 miles southwest to Gainesville, Florida last night deep behind enemy lines to attend a 'Veterans for Kerry' rally with Kerry Krewman, Del 'I wear the same tired vest at every appearance' Sandusky.
Gainesville FReeper mattdono provided recon on the venue via Secret FReepmail communication. Dossiers on the Jacksonville FReepers were transmitted between Chieftain and mattdono, who provided photos to Gainesville FReeper Veritas et equitas ad Votum, which helped for easy identification. OPbuzz and Chieftain stealthily entered the venue, a martial arts dojo in the midst of the University of Florida's main drag. Veritas et equitas ad Votum approached Chieftain outside the venue and ambush plans were discussed. I was wearing my "Stop Hanoi John Kerry" t-shirt under my golf shirt. I would expose it when the time was right. We all entered and took a seat in folding chairs. There were approximately 150 folks there most all white average age around 60 something. There were a few college age students and except for 2 young black men wearing 'Veterans United for Kerry' t-shirts and one Asian lady, there wasn't much 'racial diversity'.
Kerry Krewman Del 'I wear the same tired vest at every appearance' Sandusky arrived about 15 minutes late and the Bush bashing began. The MC told a tired joke about liars in heaven and clocks, then introduced the local AARP chapter leader who babbled about how AARP is really not what it once was and had become just a corporate entity. He insinuated the Medicare prescription drug bill was really illegal and that the AARP had sold out it's membership. I keep telling myself... "Keep your shirt on, keep your powder dry, bite your tongue, hold your fire, wait till you see the whites of their eyes..."
Next speaker was from the Sierra Club. He was introduced as 26 Navy veteran, lifelong Sierra club member, and 30 year Republican, who just changed over to the donkeys because of Bush. He lauded the Panamanians for taking care of the canal since Carter gave it back to them. He too bashed Bush non-stop. ""Keep your shirt on, keep your powder dry, bite your tongue, hold your fire, wait till you see the whites of their eyes..."
Next they showed clips from Comedy Central's 'Daily Show' a fake news parody that takes a lot of fun in guess what? Bashing Bush! The MC told the audience that most young people get their news from the late night comedy and that the host, Jon Stewart deserved a cabinet position in the Kerry administration! They showed 20 minutes (2 clips) from the Daily Show, one of them Clinton was the guest and he smeared the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said the same old DNC talking points about how it was the same bunch that smeared McCain in 2000... yada, yada, yada. Non-stop Bush bashing. "Keep your shirt on, keep your powder dry, bite your tongue, hold your fire, wait till you see the whites of their eyes..."
Next was 10 minute video of their hero Hanoi John Kerry briefly in Vietnam, very briefly testifying before the Senate, (they didn't feature him saying anything about war crimes - AMAZING!). They repeatedly said how he was EXPERT on foreign policy. "Keep your shirt on, keep your powder dry, bite your tongue, hold your fire, wait till you see the whites of their eyes..."
Finally Kerry Krewman, Del 'I wear the same tired vest at every appearance' Sandusky took stage. He rambled on and on about how John Kerry was a 'real warrior' and how America needed a warrior as president. They odd thing was, every time he said john Kerry is a WARRIOR' you could hear the gasps in the crowd! They didn't want to hear that. I heard many of them saying in a muted voice, "We don't need a warrior, we want a man of peace!". It was really humorous to see the great disconnect between the rank-in-file Democrats and the official message being spewed by the featured speaker! I chuckled under my breath, but had to keep telling myself, "Keep your shirt on, keep your powder dry, bite your tongue, hold your fire, wait till you see the whites of their eyes...".
The Q & A session began and a gentleman in front of me rose and asked Sandusky and the crowd if they knew who North Vietnamese General Giap was. The crowd was silent. He continued about how Giap has stated publicly that the reason they were able to defeat the Americans was because of John Kerry and the American war protesters. The audience though that was a good thing! The gent continued about how it was no good for America and the audience cheered again! These were sick puppies, I tell ya.
Then I rose and handed the video camera off to OPbuzz. Finally the time had come to break out my powder! I told him "Welcome Home, Del" Then I asked him when he came back from Vietnam the last time. He said 1969. Now, finally, it was time to open up...
BANG!!
I asked him how he felt when his friend John Kerry got in front of TV cameras and told the world that he was a war criminal, and that I was a war criminal, and that 2.5 million of my brothers were war criminals!?
I removed my outer shirt while was talking, revealing my Hanoi John t-shirt. I continued in a VERY LOUD VOICE that Kerry sold us out, that he didn't care whether we were republic or democrat, he just smeared us all as war criminals and he didn't say those things because they were true, he said it to set himself of for his own political future! I haven't heard ONE WORD of apology from John Kerry about his smearing all of us 33 years ago, NOT ONE WORD! He doesn't give a rats ass about veterans, he cares about JOHN KERRY, that's all! What is he going to say about these kids in Iraq now, coming home missing limbs? Is he call them war criminals too? Do you think they want him for a commander-in-chief? Do you think they want a guy to lead them that SOLD OUT his fellow veterans?? He doesn't care about veterans and you are standing up there defending him?
One of the Kerry Kool aiders yelled at me, "Maybe YOU were a war criminal!". I stared at him in disbelief. Then Sandusky asked me if I killed anybody in Vietnam. I didn't answer. I couldn't believe he would say such a thing. He asked again 'Did you kill another human being?". I yelled back, "I served my country, and I am DAMN PROUD of what I did, I was in a WAR!".
There were other folks who asked him some of the questions about their fellow crewmember Gardner who has spoken against Kerry, and he dismissed him as sour grapes. Sandusky said the Swifties were all a bunch of liars and they didn't know anything about the caring John Kerry who put puppy under his flack jacket to protect it! This line is repeated at every appearance by this Kerry Krewmember.
I can tell that they Bush bashing idiots in attendance will never be convinced that Kerry is dirt bag. They sure are convinced that Bush is EVIL. But I would 'guesstimate' that maybe 20% of the folks there were supporting out side quietly. I am sure they spread the word today about everything that transpired.
After it was over the three of us left in my SUV, with the "Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry" and the "Veterans for BUSH" window stickers and my Florida license plate "BUSH WIN". One of them took a photo of the back window and maybe the license plate as were getting in the truck. We went to a local night spot and OPbuzz treated us to a drink. We chatted for about half hour and marveled at what we had observed.
It was quite an eventful evening and I appreciated the opportunity to meet FReeper Veritas et equitas ad Votum and chat with OPbuzz during our 3 hours of driving to and from there. The three of us are truly a 'band of brothers' after last night! There is much more to report but I guess I had better do some work before I get in hot water. I'll let OPbuzz and Veritas et equitas ad Votum fill ya in on the other details!
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Linda - your stuff is awesome - I just checked out the whole site!
I attended a PUBLIC meeting advertized as a 'Veterans United for Kerry' event. I brought my video camera to document it. I did NOT disrupt their meeting. I waited till they got to the Q&A and then I asked my question. After my question I continued taping and did NOT disrupt ANYONE.
They didn't like the fact that someone DARED challenge Hanoi John, but that's free speech.
Knowing how DemocRAT operatives work, I suspect that it was the "volunteer" for the Kerry campaign in Gainesville who planted that flier in GOP headquarters and then pretended to "find" it.
I didn't want to suggest that that might be the case before getting feed back from you. I'm glad you took the opportunity on this Gainesville thread to say that you had nothing to do with it.
A Bush/Cheney volunteer wouldn't necessarily know that he was doing anything wrong even if he (or she) did place SwiftBoat Rally fliers on a table in the Alachua County GOP headquarters, anyhow .... that is .... unless he was an infiltrator from the Kerry Campaign.
Cheiftain is exactly right that we had nothing to do with this. In addition, I would point your to my analysis here for your review.
Isn't it a bit coincidental that one of John Kerry's most enthusiastic veteran supporters was in Gainesville on August 18th, that the flier was fax to someone at the Kerry campaign on August 18th (at 5:56 PM, to be precise), and that the flier made it to someone high enough in the Kerry campaign to alert the mainstream media lackies to push the story on the same day that 1) the Swift Boat Veterans launch another ad and 2) Kerry files a lawsuit with the FEC?
The media reports say that a guy named Bill Shilling was the person that "discovered" the flier at the GOP HQs. I think that it is very possible that Bill Shilling (interesting name?) gave this to Del Sandusky and/or Del got Mr. Shilling in touch with the right people when Mr. Sandusky was in Gainesville 2 days before this story broke.
Well, we have video of the Del Sandusky meeting and it will be reviewed to see if this Bill Shilling character was at that meeting.
Also, it is important to note that there is all kinds of literature at the Alachua County GOP HQ, most of it political, but some of it general (about the community events and stuff like that).
In addition, the Alachua County GOP (at their HQs at 1212 Main Street) has been "hosting" a Hurricane Charley relief effort and has been serving as a community drop off point. So there has been literally hundreds of people in an out of there all this week.
I wouldn't put it passed some overzealous Kerry supporters to plant the flier, then pick it up, fax it to the Kerry camp (or give it to Del Sandusky at the meeting on the 18th), and then they take it national.
Here's another observation of interest that calls this event into question...as you might imagine, I'm a bit of a news junkie and I listen to local talk radio all day on our local channel The Sky 97.3 FM.
The morning talk show host, Bob Rose, had the head of the Alachua County GOP (Travis Horn) on several times this week. Mr. Horn is a very effective leader for the Alachua County GOP and as such is always (and I mean ALWAYS) promoting the events that the GOP is even remotely involved in (not necessarily just political events, but community type events...Hurricane Relief, Walk for America, etc.).
I didn't hear, at any point this week, about this event. The flier was the first that I have heard of the event.
And, as proof from the FREEPING that was done at the Sandusky event, you can easily discern that myself, Veritas et equitas ad Votum, and even newbie FREEPER FlaAvalanche (whose new, but I know has been lurking for at least a year) are very aware of what's going on with Gainesville politics.
I spoke with Veritas this late last night and he also couldn't remember Mr. Horn (the head of the Alachua county GOP), Mr. Rose (the morning show host), nor "Chip and PC" (the afternoon "Drive Time" talk show) mentioning it. Nor could we recall the event being announced as part of the "Community Announcents" that they bookend the local and national news with (you know, "X is at the Fairgrounds", "Y is happening downtown", etc.).
Veritas will be on recon this afternoon at the alledged event. We will see what the attendance and report back.
A Cambodian puppy, no doubt.
Thanks for the Freep and the report!
God Bless you, Sir!!!
Ms.B
Hey, if you have any kind of ping list for politics going in in Gainesville, could you please add me to it? It's my hometown, and this way I can e-mail my family info that can repudiate all the false info that gets splashed around so frequently. It might give my family some confidence that they're not suffering under the torment of liberals all alone. Thanks!
I know how DemocRAT operatives work, so the events surrounding this flier that was supposedly "discovered" out of the blue at the most opportune time, don't appear to me to be coincidental at all.
BTW! Is that the same Bob Rose who used to be on AM radio, here in Orlando a year or so ago?
Ping me when you do, will you please?
Dude, you are ALL OVER this thing! Great work.
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Bump for later
BTTT
Bump to follow this story!!
Awesome Chief.
Thank you Linda, I am truly humbled.
You're welcome! It was a pleasure doing ya!
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