GANNETT EDITOR: OK TO VANDALIZE PROPERTY, THROW BLOOD ON FLAG

Federal Review ^ | Monday, May 09, 2005

[Behind Liberal Lines]

A Gannett News editor has called for the dismissal of criminal charges against four anti-war protesters who vandalized an Army recruiting office near Ithaca, New York and poured blood on the office's American flag.

Writing in his syndicated column, Dave Rossie justified the actions of the self-styled "St. Patrick's Day Four" as necessary to counter "Americans' sheep-like acceptance of this administration's lies and deceptions" over the war in Iraq:

The defendants have said they acted out of conscience in opposition to an unjust and illegal war, and it would be unfair, it says here, to doubt their motives. They certainly had nothing to gain from what they did. Defenders of our misadventure in Iraq bridle at comparisons with Vietnam, but they are becoming impossible to ignore. Civilian protest is but one example. Home front protests against our involvement in Vietnam were far more explosive and widespread, and they helped bring that sorry episode in our history to an end.

Because the defendants acted out of "conscience," Rossie noted, "The federal judge should toss the case after opening arguments."

In addition to writing a column for Gannett, Rossie serves associate editor of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, in Vestal, New York.

Unless he is a hypocrite, it would seem that he invites anyone who, in good conscience, disagrees with what he wrote to go there and trash his office, with no threat of criminal prosecution whatsoever

[BillyCrockett]

"Dave Rossie justified the actions of the self-styled "St. Patrick's Day Four" as necessary to counter "Americans' sheep-like acceptance of this administration's lies and deceptions" over the war in Iraq"

Hehehe... imagine Rossie would have said the same, only worse, about how the US got into WWII with everyone just acting like sheep trying to help the cause. What an idiot.

[jigsaw]

I'll be in Ithaca this weekend for graduation. I'm bringing my riot brick, fur coats, greenhouse gas making machine, "assault" weapons, soap, and a cooler full of red meat.

Don't forget your Birkenstocks!

[etcetera]

So this is a media-issued fatwa?

[RedBeaconNY]

Avoid the Ithaca Commons. Avoid downtown Ithaca. There are going to be stoned and drunk (college age) kids running in between (MOVING) cars, throwing cigarettes and beer bottles at each other, and stirring up trouble in general. The best of luck to you.

And the recruiting center is in Lansing, not Ithaca. I remember that day well.

[Dilbert56]

Rossie is a delusional POS. I caught him lifting charges from an anti-Bush website and printing them as facts in his column. The charge originated with the German SPD (Communist) Party leader and was reported in Der Spiegel online. A hate-Bush website put a translated version of the story out and Rossie used it in his column. I rhetorically asked if Rossie routinely scans German magazines or if he'd gotten it from the anti-Bush site. Later, another writer called him on it. The silence was deafening.

After the 2004 election he said W won because of gay marriage. I attacked back with this (and they did print it but edited out the last line):

David Rossie’s latest column claims the gay marriage issue helped win the President’s reelection. Do the election results support this? There were eleven states with referenda on gay marriage. Only three were swings states, Michigan, Oregon and Ohio. The President lost the first two and took Ohio by only 2%, half his margin in 2000. No votes gained there.

It’s worth noting that across those eleven states, the marriage referenda received on average 12% more votes than the President. There were a lot of people who voted for John Kerry and for keeping marriage limited to its current form.

What about the other states? Both candidates said they opposed gay marriage and favored civil unions. If this issue changed votes, it means people didn’t take Kerry at his word. Perhaps his vote against the Defense of Marriage Act, one of only 14 in the Senate, influenced voters more.

Rossie’s column ends claiming the President dropped the issue once elected. Two days later the President again called for it in his State of the Union Message. Rossie; always wrong, blinded by hate.