Rev. Fred Phelps: Jackass

Phelps and his group of religious morons are getting more offensive by the day. The protests at soldier's funerals just irritates me beyond belief.

Fortunately, it appears that counter-demonstrations are shutting down these classless jackass.'

The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps' children, grandchildren and in-laws.

About 10 church members protested near Smyrna United Methodist Church and nearly 20 stood outside the National Guard Armory in Ashland City. Members have demonstrated at soldier funerals across the nation, including the Aug. 11 service for Sgt. James Dustin "Dusty" Carroll in McKenzie.

"The best venue is the funeral of an IED- (improvised explosive device) killed son or daughter," Phelps said, adding "The righteous will rejoice when he seeth the vengeance."

Hundreds of Smyrna and Ashland City residents and families of other soldiers turned out at both sites to counter the message the Westboro Baptist members brought.

So many counterdemonstrators were gathered in Ashland City that police, Cheatham County sheriff's deputies and state troopers were brought in to control traffic and protect the protesters.

The church members held protesting permits, and counterprotesters in Smyrna turned their backs to Westboro Baptist members until time expired on the protest permits.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been any large scale violence against these imbeciles. If there was any group that deserved an over the top thrashing it would be the Westboro Baptists.

I'm not condoning violence in this case. Oh, wait, yes I am.

UPDATE:

I was reading the comments to the above article when I ran across one stating that Phelps and his group are associated with the democratic party and has campaigned for Clinton/Gore. I found this a bit odd, since the sounds that they make are definitely from the fever-swamp right. So I took a look at Wikipedia and found this.

During the 1992 presidential election, Fred Phelps and Fred Phelps Jr. led the members of Westboro in campaigning around the state of Kansas for Bill Clinton and Al Gore; Fred Phelps Sr. would later state in fliers that he did so with the belief that Gore would fall under WBC's political influence should he and Clinton win the election.

Though it did continue as where I expected.

In the ensuing four years, Phelps (and consequently Westboro) turned against Gore for his and Clinton's decided pro-and-neutral stances on homosexuality. Gore nevertheless invited Fred Phelps, Marge, Fred Jr., and Betty back for the 1997 inauguration; they responded by bringing the entirety of Westboro to the White House and picketing on the front lawn during the ball, (report on Phelps' ball picket) with signs proclaiming that Gore, Clinton, and both mens' families were going to hell not necessarily for their stances on homosexuality, but because they had "betrayed" Westboro.

In 1998, Westboro picketed the funeral of Gore's father, screaming vulgarities at Gore and telling him "your dad's in Hell."

But he still is a democrat. A really "screw-ball jackass peice of crap" form of democrat.

Rev. Phelps has run in numerous Democratic primary elections for governor of the state of Kansas in 1992, 1994, and the last time in 1998, when he came in last with 15,000 votes out of a total of over 103,000 votes cast, or 15%.

15% is more than what I would have expected though.