Posted on 10/12/2005 9:38:08 AM PDT by areafiftyone
CHELSEA, Okla. -- An effort by members of a Kansas church to protest at the funeral of an Oklahoma soldier Tuesday was drowned out by the roar of motorcycles.
About 70 members of the American Legion Riders group from Oklahoma and Kansas revved their engines as five protesters from Westboro Baptist Church held inflammatory signs. The protesters say American soldiers are being killed because of homosexuality in the United States.
The protest took place as family members of Army Staff Sgt. John Doles gathered just down the street at a church for Doles' funeral. Doles, 29, of Chelsea, was killed Sept. 30 in an ambush in Afghanistan.
American Legion Riders' member Cregg Hanson said Doles' family asked the group to rev their motorcycle engines when the Kansas church group arrived.
The riders also formed a barrier and waved American flags to block the view of the protest.
About 40 police officers were also on hand and Chelsea residents joined the motorcycle riders in waving American flags.
Video is on the Website!
They're not left or right. They're just seriously effed-up vermin.
Bookmarking video
Phelps has been suspect for a long time. He's pretty obviously an agent provocateur.
I'm saying that when someone goes far-right enough, they step over into the whackjob Leftist end of the continuum effortlessly. Phelps and his ilk are so reactionary right, they've turned radical left.
I think that Islam needs to slap its' extremists down, and the Baptists need to do the same thing to this bunch of snake worshippers.
What an embarrassment.
Excellent video
Hate to say it, but Phelps isn't a leftist. Read his site. He's a horrible man and an embarresement to real conseravties everywhwere.
"
There's a group in Seattle that does a local public access TV show that I first thought was way Left because of their incessant criticisms of Bush and the Iraq war, but then I found out that they can just as well described as far Right anti-New World Order religious fundamentalists. They are conspiracy theorists par excellence, and do seem to occupy that place where far Left and far Right coincide."
Very true. Once you get far enough into nutjub land you end up in the same place on a lot of issues. I've heard some nutbar far right radio about 9/11 that sounds a lot like what leftist nuts think. I heard one program on how the jews, the atheists, the muslims, and the arms companies use Bush as a puppet and that our own CIA, on the orders of a group of global elites, did the attack. It wasn't coming from the left.
More information on the admirable SSGT Doles:
Army Staff Sgt. John G. Doles 29, of Claremore
Doles died in Shah Wali, Afghanistan, during patrol operations when his unit was attacked by enemy forces using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment, Vicenza, Italy. Died on September 30, 2005.
Afghan ambush claims Chelsea soldier
By Carrie Coppernoll
The Oklahoman
A Chelsea paratrooper patrolling southern Afghanistan was killed in an ambush Friday night by rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire.
Fallen Oklahomans
Staff Sgt. John Glen Doles died in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar Province. He was 29.
Doles had spent nearly a year in Afghanistan, said his father, Gene Doles. He was set to move to Italy in February and then back to the United States in July.
“They didn’t have a lot of detail,” he said, “just that his unit had been ambushed in Afghanistan. Some kind of fight went on and my son was killed by rifle fire. That’s all I know at the moment.”
Funeral arrangements are pending. John Doles’ wife and children are expected to arrive in Oklahoma on Friday.
Doles was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade. He and his family - a wife, 12-year-old-son and 9-year-old daughter - were based in Vicenza, Italy.
Before serving in Afghanistan, John Doles completed a tour in Iraq, his father said.
John Doles’ unit would parachute to their destination, his father said.
“Once they’re there,” he said, “they set up their camps and start doing whatever missions are required of them, whether it’s looking for (Osama) bin Laden or helping rebuild schools.”
Gene Doles said his son spent his days patrolling, scouting and doing humanitarian work.
His mother sent care packages with food and toys. Doles and his buddies would give the toys to Afghan children.
Skyler Doles said his mother planned to continue sending care packages to his brother’s friends.
After serving a full tour in Iraq and beginning his work in Afghanistan, John Doles said his second tour was tougher, his brother said.
“He believed that his job over there wasn’t done yet,” Skyler Doles said. “He said he’d rather die over there, fighting for freedom.”
John Doles was quick to make friends, his brother said.
“Everyone enjoyed being around him.”
John Doles played football at Chelsea, in Rogers County northeast of Claremore, and married soon after his 1994 graduation.
Tom Bible, his football coach, said he had last talked to John Doles about a year ago.
John Doles was a hard worker who always had a big smile on his face, the coach said.
Chelsea police Sgt. Adam Hull went to high school with Doles.
“He was a good guy, real easy to get along with,” Hull said.
Nicky Harris, who works in the Chelsea superintendent’s office, has known the Doles family for years. After Harris was widowed, she would ask John to help her with her car.
“John was the only one I ever let change my oil,” she said, laughing.
News of John Doles’ death spread quickly through town, Harris said. Soldiers from nearby small towns, such as Pryor and Claremore, have died. But Chelsea hadn’t lost anyone in the war on terrorism.
“I guess we were just holding our breath and that it would all end, and we would all get home safe,” she said.
John Doles was a cowboy and a daredevil, his brother said. To him, jumping out of airplanes was “more fun than an actual job.”
One winter, Skyler Doles talked his little brother into sliding off the roof of an empty house in their neighborhood. The plan was to grab a tree branch on the way down. John grabbed the branch, but he was too heavy. The branch snapped and John plunged into the snow. After others saw John survive bravely, others slid off the roof.
“We wore some holes in our pants doing that,” Skyler Doles said.
The family has a long military tradition. Three of the four Doles children enlisted; one tried but was medically ineligible because of a hearing problem.
Gene Doles was an Air Force crew chief during the Vietnam War.
John Doles told his father he had signed up to become an Airborne Ranger after he enlisted.
“I said, ‘Son, you’re crazy,’” Gene Doles said with a short laugh. “‘You know that’s going to put you in harm’s way.’ He said ‘yes,’ And I said, ‘Well, the only thing I can tell you is keep your head down.’”
Gene Doles said he encouraged all his children to serve the nation somehow.
“I feel all youth of the nation owes the country some of their time, whether it’s the Peace Corps, the Coast Guard, any of the branches of service. We all owe something because we are Americans.”
I'm really surprised that someone hasn't beaten the living crap out of Fred Phelps by now. He truly is a deranged bottom-feeding parasite, and I wouldn't feel one damn bit sorry for him if it did happen.
Wish I could find my speakers, but I didn't need sound for this one. How sad is it, when one of our brave soldiers dies, and a handful of moonbats picket his funeral for their own agenda?
Since nothing can be done regarding Phelps and his whelps, I hope bikers show up at any future funerals, and gun their engines in their general direction.
Too bad the volunteer fire dept isnt available to 'drown'
out the sound of Phelps and his ilk....
Phelps is no Christian...more anti Christ like
imo
No, just rabid anti-gayists. Just because they call themselves "Baptists" doesn't mean anybody else has to. This little band of sickos has never shown the slightest interest in anything but hating gays and hating everybody who they think doesn't hate gays as much as they do. If they've been baptized, it obviously didn't take.
Don't insult radical leftists. Fred Phelps is a radical Fred-Phelpsist. He's no more welcome in radical leftist circles than he was at this soldier's funeral. Even radical leftists have the decency not to spew their venom at funerals.
It's Fred Phelps -- if you want to see his picture, look up "@$$HOLE" in the dictionary.
Either that, or they're just plain nuts.
Part of his MO is to provoke people into smacking him one, and then filing a nuisance lawsuit.
Indeed, I'd be very surprised if Phelps isn't a closet gay. I can't see how else he could be so totally obsessed with this one issue.
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