Friday, October 13th, 2006...5:24 am
Silly Allegations About Pederson
Anyone remember Sister Souljah? Didn’t think any of you would. She was one of the hangers-on for Public Enemy back in the early 1990’s. After one of her many controversial statements, someone told her that some of her statements made people nervous. She responded “Souljah is not here to make white men comfortable.”
In much the same way, I realize that Espresso Pundit is not here to make me happy. Yes, I just compared Greg Patterson to Sister Souljah. Who ever thought that would happen? But that is just the sort of thing that makes this blog entertaining.
But, Patterson has said some things over the last few days that I find particularly infuriating.
One was a letter that he reprinted from one of his readers. It contained the following allegation:
Pederson has the nerve to compare an expert on terrorism and national security to Osama bin Laden and then he runs off to raise money for Hamas on the weekend we commemorate the worst terrorist attack in our country’s history.
Okay, when the heck did Jim Pederson “raise money for Hamas”? How is this not libelous? I know some ridiculous things get put in the comments on here, but they can be quickly responded to. Patterson got this e-mail, and chose to post it with little or no opportunity for someone to refute it. It may be silly and irrelevant to knock Pederson for his son or his wealth, but at least they have some basis, however tenuous, in fact. In essence, this e-mail accuses Pederson of treason. Is this the sort of thing we’ll be treated to over the next couple of weeks? Nice.
A less inflamatory e-mail went up over the last day or so, but once again, with an allegation that is none the less, shall we say, poorly documented:
Have you seen the latest Jim Pederson ad with what appears to be active duty military personnel criticizing John Kyle [sic] and President Bush’s handling of the war? It is not legal for active duty military personnel to be overtly involved in political campaigns, particularly when it involves criticizing their Commander-in-Chief . . . Which begs the question, are they active duty military personnel? Probably not, but this new misleading ad of the week has set a new standard. It leads the viewer to think that these men are active duty because they are shown in uniform with their name and rank.
Here is the ad in question. Two contradictory allegations are made here: that military personel are campaigning in uniform, or that Pederson is being deceptive by showing them at all.
Notice that one sailor, Andrew Vera, is featured wearing dog tags but not a uniform, and soldier Tomás Chavez is wearing something similar to a uniform, but it has no insignia on it. These men are not in uniform.
Their rank is given because they served. My father can still go by Master Sergeant if he chooses, even though he’s been retired for 20 years. They can use that rank for life because they earned that right. The fact is, these guys served in theater and saw the results of the administration’s mismanagement of the war. That is all that Pederson is showing by giving their rank.
At least the tempest-in-a-teapot crusade against the 9-11 memorial was actually based some facts.
One has to wonder if the writer’s objection has more to do with the views expressed in the ad.
8 Comments
October 13th, 2006 at 7:53 am
Oh, that’s so sad that little Jimmy is getting picked on.
How does the saying go, if you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen. Anyway Jim can give as well as he gets. Pederson’s abortion ad is a total fabrication.
October 13th, 2006 at 8:11 am
Yo! Bum rush the show! I remember Sista Souljah. She has the intro on ‘By the time I get to Arizona.’
Pederson is right, Kyl is a nutcase who hates America, freedom, and women.
October 13th, 2006 at 9:12 am
Pederson is a nutcase who hates unborn babies.
October 13th, 2006 at 9:41 am
Yeah, the title of Ted’s post is ‘Silly Allegations About Pederson.’ So, phx kid, I see you are happy to make one.
And at least the Hamas allegation was something new, that I hadn’t heard before. But your silly allegation is the same stupid line I’ve been hearing for years, and it stays just as stupid every time I hear it.
I would also ask you this. I presume you are anti-abortion. So then, do you support sex education in schools, birth control and family planning, which have since the early 1990’s been quietly responsible for a 25% decline in the number of abortions, even while conservatives were running around passing quixotic laws that wasted the states’ money in court cases that tried to ban or restrict it?
October 13th, 2006 at 10:02 am
I do not support sex ed in the public schools because it is not part of the core function of a school and has more to do with social engineering. Maybe in high school there could be an elective class in human sexuality. But if you want to keep driving evangelicals and Catholics to set up a completely separate and private system of schools please keep forcing your sex ed programs on families who do not want it.
Birth control is legal and readily available, just visit the personal care section of most stores in the area and you too can purchase some condoms over the counter.
Not quite sure exactly what family planning entails.
October 13th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Well the pundit will not allow any sort of discussion on his blog as occurs here with Phx_Kid throwing out the right winger views.
Maybe he is scared?
Neither Kyl nor Pederson are nutcases, Pederson is more in line with Arizona though.
October 13th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Since we’re completely off the original topic of this post, may I just say that I’d like to beat the holy hell out of every nutcase who is turning this page mess into a homosexual witch hunt?
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1013congress-kolbe13-ON.html
Thank you. I return you to your regularly scheduled abortion debate.
October 13th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Silly, RRR, tricks are for kids. And CAIR is for Hamas.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=24915
“…as CAIR has been linked to convicted terrorists, terrorist acts and terrorist groups overseas. CAIR was incorporated in June of 1994 by three leaders of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a Hamas front co-founded by the number two leader in Hamas today, Mousa Abu Marzook. Two of CAIR’s former representatives are currently serving jail time for conducting terrorist activities with groups connected to Hamas and Al-Qaeda. And CAIR is currently the defendant in a lawsuit for the murder of an FBI Agent who was killed during the 9/11 attacks.”
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