One of the latest stories to bubble its way through the wingnutosphere has been debunked - but the Far Right intelligentsia continues to stand by the story, even though it's been discredited.
According to wingnuts, someone vandalized the Vietnam Memorial. And because it was a war memorial that was vandalized, say the wingnuts, the vandalism had to have been carried out by antiwar types. But all of this turned out to be a Big Lie. We knew it was a lie (because stuff like this always is), but now it's been proven that it's a lie.
The National Park Service says there was no vandalism, and the spittle crowd is just blowing smoke. What conservatives claimed was vandalism was actually just a small streak left by the cleaning fluid used to clean the monument. A park ranger had accidentally spilled cleanser on the wall, and the stain could not be removed right away.
But hey, that doesn't stop Freak Rethuglic from trying to get the most out of it. A Free Republic member named Mary Beth Caherty - who uses the screen name tgslTakoma - is using the nonexistent vandalism as an excuse to try to pick fights with antiwar and other progressive activists.
Apparently they've pulled this same stunt before. Seems that back in March, the right-wing blogosphere - with help from Fox News - spread a phony rumor that peace activists were going to vandalize the monument. It wasn't vandalized, but the wingnutosphere exploited the situation to bring out some 2,000 followers to crash an antiwar rally. The crashers physically assaulted the antiwar activists and destroyed their belongings.
The first 4 letters in Caherty's screen name - tgslTakoma - stand for her slogan: "Think globally, shoot locally." This is ironic because one of Caherty's fellow members of the Washington, D.C., chapter of Freak Republic, Tyler Froatz, was arrested earlier this year for stockpiling illegal weapons, plotting a terrorist attack against an immigrants' rights rally, and assaulting a participant in that rally. Froatz may face prison time. Froatz is so dangerous that the judge in his case denied him bail because "the community has reason to fear" him.
The Free Republic brain trust (led by some nobody from suburban Cincinnati) continues to insist that antiwar activists defaced the Vietnam Memorial - even after the National Park Service has proven that this isn't so. The dinosaur media isn't much better: While news outlets reported the initial finding of the damage, they've neglected to follow up with the discovery that it was just a cleaning accident.
In summary, the right-wing noise machine has once again manufactured a story, had it picked up by right-wing scumbag rags like the Washington Times, only for it to be completely debunked - and spread further even after being discredited. They do this because this is about all they have. They don't have facts on their side, so they resort to bullshit.
(Source: http://onepeoplesproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1240&Itemid=2;
http://polizeros.com/category/tyler-froatz)
Monday, September 17, 2007
War memorial vandalism story debunked
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Uh, No.
ReplyDeleteWashington Post:
Park Police Say Memorial Was Vandalized
Thanks for the news Bizzy but the National Park Service has already determined it was an accident with a cleanser...NOT vandalism.
ReplyDeleteThe WaPo conveniently ignored that little finding.
The belief that it was vandalized is the belief of ONE detective (with the Park Police), not the NPS (which has the responsibility of cleaning it)!! So please read the entire article before you spout off.
Personally if I saw someone desecrating it, I would turn them in, pronto!
Geez, somebody had to reach the initial conclusion, which was clearly then reviewed and agreed with.
ReplyDeleteWhat about WaPo's first sentence, first paragraph, "the U.S. Park Police said" (which among other things, has responsibility for the cleaning you noted) don't you understand?
Er, "BizzyBlog"????
ReplyDeleteJust settle down, light up a toker, and listen:
The Park Police are not the people responsible for cleaning the Vietnam War Memorial. The maintenance staff is responsible for it. The police are not.
It was just one detective who said it was vandalism (who may have his/her own agenda), and the Police ran with the conclusion.
I saw the pics on the OPP site, and if I had seen the same type of damage, I would have thought it was cleanser and not vandalism. (I am no expert though.)
I for one am sure it was a cleaning accident that can be cleaned up...and I am sure it has happened before in the 20+ year history of the memorial. Accidents do happen, and the crews are human and do make mistakes.