Listen To Cold Shot Tonight

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 Cold Shot will air at 9:00 Eastern Time Tonight on the Eye On Hate Radio Network.

Tonights Topics

*Are You One of the Good People?

*Trying Times & Scapegoating

*Headlines In Hate – Focus On Dangers

*Fred Phelps Court Decision, Ron Paul’s Internet Presence, & Hal Turner Is a Con Man

*The Confederate Flag – Popularity In Pennsylvania – Is It a Hate Symbol.

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Fred Phelps Abused His Children?

This probably won’t shock too many people. 

TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Local
Phelps’ son speaks out

(Mike Silvestri/Examiner)
Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, tell reporters outside U.S. District Court in Baltimore that they will continue protesting dead troops’ funerals despite the $10.9 million judgment against the church. Kelsey Volkmann and Mike Silvestri, The Examiner
2007-11-02 07:00:00.0
Current rank: # 79 of 4,360

BALTIMORE –
The Rev. Fred Phelps brainwashed his family and will keep trying to brainwash America with his anti-gay pickets at military funerals, his estranged son said.

A federal jury’s nearly $11 million judgment against Westboro Baptist Church won’t stop members from spreading their message of hate, said Nate Phelps.

“I think my old man has enough experience under the law, and he’s going to fight this,” said Phelps, who left his family and their church nearly 30 years ago.

Nate Phelps, 48, describes a violent childhood, in which he alleges his father beat him and his 12 siblings.

Nate Phelps, now living in British Columbia, Canada, has exchanged e-mails with Albert Snyder, the father of the fallen Marine who successfully sued the fundamentalist fringe group for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

“I’ve seen a couple demonstrations of just how profoundly their protests affect people, and when you get into the emotions of picketing funerals, it’s pretty intense,” Snyder said.

Westboro members picketed the Westminster funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, Albert’s son, in March 2006, with signs reading “Thank God for dead soldiers.”

Others hurt by the Topeka, Kan., church hold out hope that the multimillion-dollar penalties will cripple the church.

Clergy welcomed the news of the lawsuit’s success.

“That kind of thing is an embarrassment to most Baptists,” said Robert Myers, pastor of Arundel Baptist Church in Gambrills.

And in Topeka, many saw the judgment as a victory.

Fred Phelps gives the entire town a bad name, said the Rev. Dan Davidson, pastor of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Topeka, where Westboro has picketed every weekend service for at least 15 years.

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com

JUDGMENT DAY FOR THE WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH

JUDGMENT DAY FOR WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH

“Absolutely, don’t you understand this was an act in futility?” replied Shirlery-Phelps Roper, daughter of the Founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, when asked if the group intended to continue picketing the funerals of dead soldiers.

Protesting funerals has become the Church’s way of garnering media attention in their fight against homosexuality. Blaming the deaths of our soldiers on the U.S. military’s policy of “don’t ask – don’t tell,” which allows gays in the military, they take to the funeral procession route and carry signs reading, “Thank God For Dead Soldiers,” and “God Hates You,” among others.

On October 31, a jury awarded the father of a fallen soldier almost $11 million. According to preliminary reports, the assets of the church, including property, homes, cars, bank accounts, etc. don’t even equal one million dollars.

Fred Phelps, founder of the Church indicated that the judgment will be appealed and told reporters, “…it will take about five minutes to get that thing reversed.”

While many are applauding the jury and the court, others are speculating on what this means as far as First Amendment Rights are concerned. Given the leniency that the courts have historically displayed on Freedom of Speech issues and the current climate regarding racial extremes which have been recently exhibited, it will be interesting to see how the scenario unfolds.

Should this matter be appealed, and the decision upheld, it would certainly set a precedent for others who have been threatened and intimidated by racists and bigots to utilize the judicial system for redress.

Could the victims, let’s say, of Hal Turner, racist radio talk show host, sue Mr. Turner for publishing their home addresses and calling for others to assassinate them, bring a similar suit against Mr. Turner?

Would municipalities have a cause of action against hate groups who threaten to bankrupt them unless their demands are met?

The picketing of funerals is beyond the pale. The messages displayed to grieving families and friends by this group of bigoted and hateful individuals cause great anguish to those already suffering. Fred Phelps and his cult are reprehensible beyond belief. All of this makes it very difficult to maintain one’s equilibrium and objectivity. Additionally, an appellate decision, one way or the other, will have far-reaching implications for the future.

NEWSFLASH – WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH – “SUSPICIOUS DEVICE”

According to Channel 27 News in Topeka…

Police Investigate “Suspicious Devices” at Westboro Baptist Church

HERE

Topeka Police are currently investigating two suspicious devices at Westboro Baptist Church, 3701 SW 12th. The devices were found outside the building shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday by a police officer who was investigating a report of vandalism. The Topeka Police Bomb Unit is on scene to examine the devices. As a precaution, 12th Street at Orleans has been closed as well as other surrounding streets. Motorists are encouraged to avoid the area while the investigation continues.

At this time, the Police Department is unaware of any threats associated with the devices. If anyone has any information about this incident or noted suspicious activity in the area, please call detectives at 368-9400.

Westboro Baptist Church – Instructions to the Jury

When the jury handed down their verdict and findings against the Reverend Fred Phelps, his daughters, and the Westboro Baptist Church, some applauded, some cried, some smiled and others sounded the alarm.

Eleven million dollars is a lot of dough by anyone’s calculations – and it far exceeds any assests that are held by Phelps and his progeny. The amount, however, isn’t what is troubling certain individuals. It’s the concern about the loss of civil liberties, namely free speech.

Throughout cyber-space the sirens are going off one after the other as some believe that this judgment has set a very dangerous precedent that will be felt by all – especially activists. Admittedly, these concerns are not exactly unfounded.

For the last couple of years, Phelps has taken his crew into city after city where they proceed to disrupt the funerals of fallen soldiers. Picketing with signs reading, “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “God Hates You,” while singing “God Hates America,” grieving families have been unable to bury their dead with peace and dignity. All of this has prompted some cities to pass ordinances which stipulate the parameters within which such demonstrations can be held.

Last year, Albert Snyder, Corporal Matthew A. Snyder’s father, sued the Westboro Baptist Church in United States District Court claiming invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Earlier today a jury agreed with Mr. Snyder.

At issue here, however, are the instructions issued to the jury by presiding Judge Richard D. Bennet in which he told the nine members that there are limits on free speech protection, listing categories that include vulgar, offensive and shocking statements, and he instructed jurors to decide “whether the defendant’s actions would be highly offensive to a reasonable person, whether they were extreme and outrageous, and whether these actions were so offensive and shocking as to not be entitled to First Amendment protection,” according to The A.P.

Consequently, it is left for interpretation as to what is “vulgar, offensive, shocking, extreme, and outrageous.” Just as Mr. Snyder will probably never realize the eleven million awarded to him, it is also likely that this will become hotly contested and appealed.

While I may quietly love the idea that this vermin got his “comeupance,” I also recognize the concerns of others. The questions still remain, however, “when is enough really enough?” What is really “over-the-top?” Or should it just be a free-for-all? Should a line be drawn and if so, where?

$2.9 Million Awarded

While this may not stop them, it sure will slow their butts down. Sometimes there is justice to be had.

Phelps Clan Ordered To Pay $2.9M In Anti-Gay Military Suit
by The Associated Press

Posted: October 31, 2007 – 5:00 pm ET
Article Found At Gay.com

(Baltimore, Maryland) A federal jury on Wednesday awarded the father of a fallen Marine $2.9 million in compensatory damages after finding an anti-gay Kansas church and three of its leaders liable for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress for picketing the Marine’s funeral in 2006.

The jury was to begin deliberating the size of punitive damages after receiving further instructions, although U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett noted the size of the compensatory award “far exceeds the net worth of the defendants,” according to financial statements filed with the court.

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified monetary damages after members staged a demonstration at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

Church members routinely picket funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “God hates fags.”

A number of states have passed laws regarding funeral protests, and Congress has passed a law prohibiting such protests at federal cemeteries, but the Maryland lawsuit is believed to be the first filed by the family of a fallen serviceman.

Snyder’s suit named the church, its founder the Rev. Fred Phelps and his two daughters Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebecca Phelps-Davis, 46. The jury began deliberating Tuesday after two days of testimony.

The York, Pa. man claimed the protests intruded upon what should have been a private ceremony and sullied his memory of the event.

The church members testified they are following their religious beliefs by spreading the message that the deaths of soldiers are due to the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.

Their attorneys argued in closing statements Tuesday that the burial was a public event and that even abhorrent points of view are protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and religion.

The judge said the church’s financial statements, sealed earlier, could be released to the plaintiffs.

Earlier, church members staged a demonstration outside the federal courthouse, which is located on a busy thoroughfare a few blocks west of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, while passing motorists honked and shouted insults.

Church founder Fred Phelps held a sign reading “God is your enemy,” while his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper stood on an American flag while carrying a sign that read “God hates fag enablers.” Members of the group sang “God Hates America,”‘ to the tune of “God Bless America.”

Snyder sobbed when he heard the verdict while members of the church greeted the news with tightlipped smiles.

COLD SHOT TONIGHT

DOWNLOAD ARCHIVE OF OCTOBER 29TH SHOW HERE

At 9:00 Eastern time, Cold Shot will be on the air. Just go to EYE ON HATE and click on the Winamp Button.

TONIGHT’S TOPICS

*The Westboro Baptist Church and Reverend Phelps in Court

*The further break-up of the National Socialist Movement and Jeff Schoep’s desperate attempts to save what’s left.

*The Ouster of Taylor Bowles and a hysterical look at his campaign “platform.”

Conservative Family Groups Going Postal in CA…

 For months this battle has been raging. Conservative “family groups” have protested this legislation and finally lost the battle. Arguing everything from free speech issues to alternative lifestyle indoctrination, these groups vehemently opposed this bill and claimed this would end the idea of “Mom & Dad” and “mentally molest” children as young as five years old.

 Find this article at: http://www.crosswalk.com/news/11556773/

Governor Blasted for Signing ‘Sexual Indoctrination’ Bills

Susan Jones

(CNSNews.com) – A conservative group says private schools and home schooling will be the only sanctuary for California parents when two “school sexual indoctrination” laws take effect on Jan. 1.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — without comment — signed four bills backed by the homosexual community over the weekend, two of them dealing with public schools. (Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed similar bills last year when he was running for re-election, conservative groups noted.)

“Arnold Schwarzenegger has delivered young children into the hands of those who will introduce them to alternative sexual lifestyles,” said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), which helped lead the statewide charge against these bills.

“This means children as young as five years old will be mentally molested in school classrooms. Shame on Schwarzenegger and the Democrat politicians for ensuring that every California school becomes a homosexual-bisexual-transsexual indoctrination center.”

Current California law legally protects California public school students from harassment as a result of skin color, ethnicity or sexual orientation. The California Student Civil Rights Act (SB 777) updates specific anti-discrimination provisions that are scattered throughout the state’s Education Code.

Supporters said the new law is supposed to eliminate “confusion” about the state’s responsibility to ensure that all school programs, textbooks, instructional materials and activities are free from unlawful discrimination.

But according to the Campaign for California Families, for a school district to prove that there is no “discriminatory bias” in their textbooks, classroom instruction, and school activities, the district would have to positively portray various sexual lifestyles in all school instruction and activities.

Otherwise, under SB 777, schools will be subject to intimidation and lawsuits by the California Department of Education, CCF said in an analysis of the bill.

Furthermore, SB 777 would require curriculum and activities in every public school, public college, and public university to portray transsexual and bisexual “parents” as the norm, CCF said.

Free speech concerns

While SB 777 would indoctrinate via school textbooks and activities, AB 394 requires schools to publicize antidiscrimination and harassment policies in all schools and offices.

In other words, it will indoctrinate children and parents through publications, postings on walls, curricula on school Web sites, and in handouts to take home, CCF said.

CCF said that sexual lifestyles such as transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality would be positively portrayed to students as young as kindergarten.

“Also disturbing is how AB 394 fails to define ‘harassment,'” CCF said in a bill analysis.

“Could a parent who says marriage is only for a man and a woman in the presence of a lesbian teacher be found guilty of ‘harassment?’ Could a student saying that babies are either boys or girls be labeled ‘harassment’ by a transgender teacher?

“Poor drafting means this bill would likely infringe upon free speech in unintended ways,” CCF said.

CCF says existing laws in the Education and Penal codes already prevent discrimination and harassment in the schools, making the two signed by Schwarzenegger unnecessary.

“Fathers and mothers who love their children must sacrifice to protect them from public schools, which — as required by law — will sexually indoctrinate them beginning in kindergarten,” said CCF Randy Thomasson in a message criticizing the governor’s bill-signing.

Schwarzenegger also signed a bill allowing domestic partners and married couples equal opportunity to change their surnames upon marriage or domestic partnership registration. Specifically, the bill would require that marriage license forms contain spaces for either party to indicate a change in his or her last name to his or her spouse’s last name.

Conservatives complained that the AB 102 publicly creates the appearance of “same-sex marriage” by encouraging same-sex couples to publicly present themselves as “Mr. and Mr. Jones” or “Mrs. and Mrs. Smith.” It dishonors the distinction of marriage between a man and a woman, CCF said.

A fourth bill signed by Schwarzenegger, AB 14, prohibits discrimination in state-funded programs and activities. According to CCF, that could adversely affect churches that operate state-funded social service programs.

“It’s the height of intolerance to punish individuals, organizations, businesses, and churches that have moral standards on sexual conduct and sexual lifestyles,” said Thomasson, in response to the signing of AB 14. “This is another insensitive law that violates people’s moral boundaries.”

“Arnold Schwarzenegger demonstrates the negative consequences of electing a liberal Republican to office,” Thomasson concluded. “Schwarzenegger fooled many California conservatives into voting for him. Yet now he’s flip-flopped and stabbed them in the back.”

COLD SHOT TONIGHT!

ARCHIVED SHOW HERE

  TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT! Cold Shot will air at 9:00 Eastern Time on Eye On Hate Radio Network

Topics:

Headlines of Hate

Another Jena in the Making?

A Message to Those Who are Thinking About Leaving the Hate Movement

Should We Can Columbus?

Update on Kevin Alfred Strom

TO THE SHOW – JUST CLICK ON THE WINAMP!

From National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC)

From: The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC)
Contacts: Vanessa Edwards Foster; Houston, Texas
Chair, Ethan St. Pierre, Haverhill, MA
Contact Email: ntacmedia@aol.com
Contact Phone: 832-483-9901
978-518-1835
Website: http://www.ntac.org
 
NTAC, Transgenders and Allies To Picket Over ENDA Betrayal
 
The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition is issuing a call to join ourmembers, members of other organizations and numerous individuals in

protesting the lavish October 6th annual HRC National Dinner in

Washington, DC.  Representative Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, will

be featured as keynote speaker at the event. 

Last week, after a hastily called “whip count” (where the majority party

whip polls members of committees or Congress to gauge whether

legislation has sufficient votes), Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) stripped

Gender Identity from the original bill.  This action was allegedly based on

the results of as yet unsubstantiated claims of not having enough support

for trans-inclusion.

Recently, Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights

(NCLR) authored and circulated a letter signed by more than 150 different

state and national organizations and submitted to House Speaker Nancy

Pelosi petitioning for a return to one inclusive bill for the Employment Non

Discrimination Act (ENDA), HR 2015 in its inclusive form. 

From this effort has come a new ad-hoc campaign: United ENDA, the new

collective of over 150 organizations (www.unitedenda.org) that have

agreed to the principles of explicitly inclusive legislation submitted to

Congress.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which claims to be the largest U.S.

LGBT civil rights organization, has not signed onto an endorsement of

the statement signed by the members of United ENDA, opposing the split

of the proposed bill into separate legislation – one for sexual orientation

and one for gender identity. 

“We are very disappointed and angry that any civil rights organization

claiming to advocate for our rights can turn their backs on us when the

going gets tough,” said Ethan St.Pierre, Board Chair of NTAC.  “It

amounts to a betrayal, since HRC earlier promised to support only an

inclusive ENDA.”

At the Southern Comfort Conference (SCC) in mid-September, HRC Exec.

Director, Joe Solmonese made a promise as keynote speaker that HRC

would not only support an inclusive ENDA bill, but would also oppose

any attempt at submitting a non-inclusive bill.  While at SCC, HRC culled

many new memberships and donations from the transgender community. 

“After removing gender identity from a bill that would have protected

millions of transgender Americans from discrimination in employment, the

message being sent to the entire Congress and to corporate America is

that it is acceptable to discriminate against transgender, intersexed, and

other gender variant Americans,” NTAC Chair, St. Pierre added.

As a result of HRC’s rescission of their promise three weeks earlier, the

only transgender ever seated on their Board of Directors, Donna Rose,

resigned October 2, 2007 in disappointment.  Additional resignations from

the transgender community are continuing to come in, including Robbi

Cohn resigning from HRC’s steering committee for the Carolinas. 

In Rose’s resignation, she stated, “The relationship between HRC and the

transgender community is one scarred by betrayal, distrust, and anger. I

have become a focal point for much of that frustration,” she noted, adding

she “accepted that responsibility with the hope that I could help to

change [HRC].”

 “I call on other like-minded board members, steering committee leaders,

donors, corporate sponsors, and volunteers to think long and hard about

whether this organization still stands for your values and to take decisive

action.”

All those who stand in solidarity with the transgender community,

including HRC Board members wishing to make a statement, are

welcome to join us on Saturday, October 6th at 4:30 p.m. before the Major

Donors Reception.  The picketing will continue throughout the General

Reception and Banquet.

“We want to ensure people note that this is a non-violent protest, and that we should avoid working to our detriment by being profane or verbally

attacking,” said NTAC Media Director, Vanessa Edwards Foster.  “Icy

glares and stone cold silence work well. 

“Bring out your unequal signs and let HRC and Barney Frank know that

we’re quite aware of what they think of us.”

The event will take place at the Washington Convention Center, 801

Mount Vernon Place, NW (near 9th St & Mass Ave) Washington DC.  For

those coming in from outside of the city, this is on the Green Line at the

Mount Vernon Square / UCC stop.