Day: February 20, 2006

Grandmas Who Say “Take Me to Iraq Instead” Turned Over to Police

Trish

How bad is it when the military files a police report on a group of grandmas trying to show support for the troops?

A couple of hours after the women were denied and left the building, Sgt. Casey Luedke, recruiter for the Air Force, called the Sheriff’s Office

My 81-year-old friend Renee was among the six grandmothers, members of a Florida activist group, who staged the world’s most peaceful demonstration on Valentine’s Day. They simply asked military recruiters to take them to fight instead of young people.

“This is not a demonstration against war,” said Peg McIntire, 95. “This is a gesture of love.”

The theme of the day was to “Take Us Instead!” And the idea was for grandmothers, who are heartbroken over the loss of life in Iraq, to enlist and replace young people who are off fighting, said McIntire, who founded Grandparents For Peace in St. Augustine 20 years ago…

“We want the young people to come home to their families,” McIntire told him as she explained her desire to enlist.

[U.S. Air Force Recruiter Sgt. Casey] Luedke calmly explained to the women that there was an age restriction and nothing he could do about it.

One woman made the case that Bush/Cheney fans, who stick a ribbon magnet on the back of the SUV and consider their duty done, miss.

…Nancy Vines, 54, attached a picture of her son, Jason Burns, in uniform to her Grandmothers For Peace T-shirt. He was an airborne ranger in the U.S. Army who fought in The Gulf War. Also, her son-in-law is currently in the Air Force and did a tour of East Pakistan…

“I see a lot of support the troops talk, but I don’t see a lot of support the troops action,” Vines said…

Unlike the Air Force guy, the Navy recruiter seemed to get the spirit the women tried to convey.

Navy Recruiter-In-Charge, Yousef Abdulsalam, greeted the grandmas with a giant smile.

“We appreciate all you guys supporting us,” Abdulsalam said. “I wish everyone was like you ladies.”

So how surprised was our town a few days later to pick up the paper and see that the Air Force is so paranoid, it ordered its recruiter to file a “general offense” report on the ladies?

A couple of hours after the women were denied and left the building, Sgt. Casey Luedke, recruiter for the Air Force, called the Sheriff’s Office and a general offense form was filled out. In the Sheriff’s Office report, it said Luedke explained to his superiors what happened and they requested the report.

These are some strange times we’re living in, kids. When grandmothers get in trouble with the police for trying to keep their grandkids out of harm’s way, we have a problem.

California Trend Watch: Liberal-Leaning Independents

Jon Ponder

Coming at you: California politics is experiencing another slow-mo earthquake that could upend the status quo of both political parties and send aftershocks across the country. The last seismic political trend out of California was the Reagan Revolution which began here in the 1960s. The rise of liberal-leaning independent voters could have a similarly dramatic effect on national politics, but this time it will be the leftwing that undergoes reinvention — and repackaging.

California has 6.7 million Democrats, 5.5 million Republicans and 2.9 million who “decline to state.”

Recent voter registration trends in California show that such large numbers of voters are choosing no party affiliation — especially among younger voters — that over the next two decades, “none” could become the largest party in the state:

California voters are shedding their identification with the two major political parties so rapidly that if current trends continue, independent voters could outnumber Democrats and Republicans in the Golden State by 2025…

[…]

Homeland Security Goes on Porn Patrol

Jon Ponder

Here is a bizarre story about two officers of the Maryland Homeland Security agency raiding a public library where they suspected that visitors were accessing porn sites on library computers:

Two uniformed men strolled into the main room of the Little Falls library in Bethesda one day last week and demanded the attention of all patrons using the computers. Then they made their announcement: The viewing of Internet pornography was forbidden.

The men looked stern and wore baseball caps emblazoned with the words “Homeland Security.” The bizarre scene unfolded Feb. 9, leaving some residents confused and forcing county officials to explain how employees assigned to protect county buildings against terrorists came to see it as their job to police the viewing of pornography.

After the two men made their announcement, one of them challenged an Internet user’s choice of viewing material and asked him to step outside, according to a witness. A librarian intervened, and the two men went into the library’s work area to discuss the matter. A police officer arrived. In the end, no one had to step outside except the uniformed men.

They were officers of the security division of Montgomery County’s Homeland Security Department, an unarmed force that patrols about 300 county buildings — but is not responsible for enforcing obscenity laws.

This is an example of what happens when the government’s security apparatus is overly empowered. These two super cops worked for the state of Maryland, but they share the mentality of the worker bees at the NSA who are under direct orders of President Bush to spy on anyone they choose.

There are always a few bad apples in the basket. Imagine what the bad apples at NSA have been up to — spying on congressional representatives of both parties and their staffs or the president’s political enemies, perhaps. It can’t be said that this couldn’t happen because it already has.

Spying on your enemies was the sport of choice not so very long ago. J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon perfected it to an art. Nixon got caught, however, which led Congress to enact the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in order to keep future presidents out of the personal affairs of innocent Americans.