I'm really surprised Phelps hasn't teamed up with Chief Ward Churchill of the Cigar-store tribe to spew vile invective at grieving families. The Phelps-Churchill tour, coming to a military cemetery near you!
I sharply disagree with the posters who say he should be shut up. On the contrary, it is his free excercise of speech that has demonstrated for anyone with the eyes to see and the ears to hear that he is a contemptable fool with no credibility whatsoever. He should be ahsamed. Sadly, shame seems to have gone out of fashion.
The fallen soldiers Phelps has condemned to hell are in good company, for the Rev. Phelps has informed us that Pope John Paul II is safely in Satan's arms - to be joined someday by Benedict XVI.
On second thought, I'm going to slightly modify my stand on Phelps' first amendment rights. I don't think his right to demonstrate (which he has) gives him the right to violate the graveside service of a grieving military family. He should be allowed to demonstrate - on the other side of the cemetery, outside the gates on the sidewalk and out of sight and earshot of the family.
The soldiers being buried gave their lives for this nation - and the families are certainly due their privacy in this period of profound sorrow without being interrupted by a bunch of hooligans and idiots. That's a reasonable restriction of Phelps' free speech.