John McCain Speech Interrupted By Anti-War Protesters
By Logan Murphy Friday Jun 27, 2008 4:45pm
MSNBC was covering John McCain's speech in front of a Latino conference this morning when he was interrupted by two anti-war protesters. (at about the 1:10 mark) MSNBC's Alex Witt, while speaking off the cuff during a live event, mischaracterized the women as "hecklers."
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Protester: "Your silence is consent to war crimes!"
McCain has been met with protest before in this campaign and it won't be last time he hears strong opposition from the American people on his war. He likes to talk about the freedoms our troops provide us, but on the Straight Talk Express, free speech is limited to those who agree with him and President Bush. Also note how McCain states that he didn't learn to love the United States until he went to Viet Nam.
Repubs can expect to sign loyalty oath/waiver forms at the door in order to attend Grandpa's speeches from here on out.
Al Giordano said Krusty used it to his advantage. In fact is riffing off it was the hilght of his speech.
Obama isn't going to end the war either, wake up people. He wants to go into Iran too. Why would you vote for any candidate with AIPAC ties and the support of the Bliderberg globalist Clintons? It isn't rocket science, it just takes the courage to deal with the truth.
Just when you think the gullible, ignorant, masses blindly and mindlessly support the criminals, along come some real Americans.
They deserve this, give it to them.
I'd call anyone interrupting a comic delivering a joke during his/her act a 'heckler.' Where'd she go wrong, Logan?
:D :P :D
Well done that woman, but that audience seems rather baby boomer looking,
why is it that the conservative boomers hate peoples liberties and justice for all.
They sacrifice other peoples children for their fix of cheap oil and MIC dividends.
Yep, you've got to sign a loyalty oath to madness and drop a hit of Haldol at the next McCain event. Good for these two, war crimes indeed. Hey #3, it sounds like you need a hit too.
i give them credit for speaking up..........it takes a lot of courage in todays world of tasers/police state....this is mcPanderier.........pandering to the u.s. troop strategy illegal immigrants to fight the war..nothing i know that.......corporations know what they're doing......personally i want immigration controlled........corporations don't and we pay for it with increase taxation for services and price increases/fees to pay for people not paying. this is the work force they want because they're not empowered.....so they're are inexpensive.
At least McC*nt wasnt smirking or smiling behind his hand as that photo from the other day showed during a protest.
I wonder what low percentages of peoples finds 4400+ 1000+ 1,000,000+ amusing like McNasty, Chimpy and Cheney, very low I bet.
McCain needs a lot more of that and often. I wonder if the people clapping for McCain realize that he, if elected President will be the one ordering that the draft notices go into their mailboxes? Nah, I doubt it. McCain supporters never think that far ahead.
What's the deal with PROTESTORS being called HECKLERS in the news...is this Evening at the Improv....MY GOD SOMEONE GET ME OFF THIS PLANET
Who is that lady? I'd like to send some flowers. Ella tiene juevos. I know it means eggs, but local slang is balls.
It's sad when a room full of people applaud a traitor and throw out a hero.
Why was the audience clapping? Because somebody was silenced?
I hope these anti-war-crime patriots continue to disrupt this old fart each and every time he attempts to speak.
HIS voice--the voice of neo-cons--needs to be silenced.
Hecklers? I thought they were PROTESTERS. Good ole MSM! Alex Witt should be checking out dog food at a Quicky Mart!
Lollimom - I too hope anti-war-crime protestors continue to disrupt McCain's public speaking.
But I disagree entirely that his voice and the voices of neo-cons need to be silenced. I don't agree with silencing anyone. Let them speak - it is their right under the American Constitution and I, for one, still have a modicum of respect for that 'goddamned piece of paper'. Let them continue to speak, and expose their ugliness for all to see. Let the protestors continue to point out when the Emperor has no morals. But silence no one.
Fascism is the act of silencing those we do not agree with, by any means. I don't want to become my own worst enemy.
Most of the time, protesters heckle, which is why they are often called "hecklers."
On the I-wanna-be-Media-Matters-when-I-grow-up manufactured-issue scale, I'd give this one a 2.
The Carpenter @ 11:
because the Repugs are stand up comedians in the vein of the sad excuse plagarist Carlos Mencias.
Instead of an aggrieved rival comedian standing up and demanding Menicas "give me back my stolen jokes"
its more of a case of hecklers (sane voters) standing up and saying 'give us back our stolen country'
Frank Dufek @ 3:
Fuck Bircherism. Talking about the Bilderbergs comes straight out of the minds of people like Tim Lahaye and Phyllis Schafly. You wanna act like the kooks on the Right, be my guest. Don't expect somebody that recognizes that stuff from having read it as a kid not to recognize it.
Bircherism can be a RW version of the political clap, keep it out of the Left.
One version of "The Elders of Zion are running the Illuminati through the Rothschilds who run the Trilateral Commission who run the UN which runs the US" is plenty, thank you.
Lollimom @ 14:
nonny mouse @ 16:
I agree with Nonny Mouse. Let's keep the Tsarist-Kaiser mindset out of American politics, particularly from the good guys.
Those aren't hecklers
Now these
These are hecklers
http://johngushue.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/statler_and_waldorf.jpg
They don't care for old farts like mccain.
I've read some of the comments on this thread and would say
The anti-war protesters are like trolls on a political site.
The audience came to hear john mccain, and not all necessarily agree with him.
If they wanted to hear anti-war speeches they could attend them.
However, the MSM ignores such organized speeches
And protesters are shuttled to "Free Speech" zones, so they're easier to ignore.
Which leaves protesters little other options.
Another problem is I can see so many sides to things
I fall down alot.
ysbaddaden @ 22:
Thing is, that sometimes, drastic measures are necessary. It seems that this war's going to last forever, and it occasionally takes a good swift kick in the balls to the media to let an alternative voice in. They had a right to do what they did.
Here's a typical john mccain voter
http://content8.flixster.com/question/42/77/93/4277934_std.jpg
Not only is McCain a war criminal, he's a war criminal without any possible excuse. He may be the worst hypocrite ever to run for the presidency.
ysbaddaden @ 24:
His biggest voting bloc is likely anti-Barry.
23 General_Rennenkampf
Sounds like we're in agreement then.
Maybe we should do it like in the 19th century
The anti-war people would serve ice cold lemonade to attract a crowd
The pro-war people would start serving beer
The anti-war people would start serving fried chicken
The pro-war people would start serving whiskey
The anti-war people would start serving weed
Ad
Infinitum
ysbaddaden @ 27:
Nah, in the 19th Century, if people were angry at somebody, they shot at them. It could be a leader as powerful as a Russian Tsar or a US President, and they were shot at. Sucked to be an autocrat in the 19th Century.
All things considered, I like it better with 21st Century verbal slinging instead of bullets.
blah, blah, blah, God....blah, blah, blah,...America....blah,blah, blah.....flag.....blah, blah, blah.....
nonny mouse @ 16:
Agreed. If one person is silenced, all will be silenced eventually. By the way Nonny, I just purchased a copy of your book. I was looking at the reviews of it on Amazon and starting reading the little bits they showed of it there. I couldn't stop reading it. I didn't think it would be a book that I would be interested in, but it turned out that it is. I can't wait to read it.
Ruthless People @ 29:
You've just reminded me of something. Most of these macho dittoheads would be lucky to create a state with the effiency of the Tsars...from whom Stalin escaped 5 or so times. The stupid, it breeds. How do they think God will help them establish some sort of eternal state? Autocracy, Orthodoxy, Nationality didn't exactly stop the Russian Empire from collapsing. Presidency, Jesus, American won't exactly stop their would-be Tsardom from falling, either.
some guy on the stage said "I apologize Senator".
The senator should apologize for the hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths his party's war has caused in a country that never attacked us and for the 4000 plus US service members who have lost their lives in a war for big oil.
Frank Dufek @ 3:
You may be right. If Hillary Clinton gets the VP slot then we will know that Obama lacks the spine to stand up to the Great Globalists Conspiracy.
Ruthless People @ 32:
Afghanistan didn't attack us, either. Al Qaeda did. It's a stateless organization. Make that two countries that didn't attack us, and up the number of deaths, and I'd agree with you.
I like Pie @ 33:
Again, fuck Bircherism, leave it to the jackals on the Right. There is no "conspiracy" and stating there is one leaves you in agreement with Tim Lahaye and Phyllis Schafly. Thank you, we are logical people here.
Ruthless People @ 32:
How do you apologize for something like that?
Sorry about killing your kid... we're cool now right?
Joe O. @ 30 -
Cool. You just made my day, thanks. Tell all your friends, too. ;)
Unabashed blog whoring: for those who don't know, the book is 'Redemption' by Lee Jackson, available at an Amazon.com on a computer near you.
She wasn't so much a heckler, she was a truther! This is what happens to such unpopular incumbant parties, whether it be the dems' with Vietnam or the repub-Bushies' with Iraq...McSame certainly does not deserve to win POTUS at all, so it's going to be interesting when the Ron Paul supporters demonstrate at the GOP Nat'l Convention in August.
Other than that, since when is spreading the truth about an incumbant party no longer free speech? What would be appropriate channels and screening?
Not only is McSame's campaign going bad by agreeing with W, but he also doesn't deserve to be the next POTUS considering the corruptions on Charlie Black regarding terrorism and Norquist calling Obama a "tanned Kerry".
If McCain DOES become president, which he most likely won't, he would certainly be not much or no better than Bush or Nixon.
How many times has this happened so far during McCain's speeches? As compared to Obama's? What message might we take from that ratio?
I think it's interesting that, of the English the protester in this video spoke that I could understand, the most cogent was an indictment of the audience: "Your silence is consent to war-crimes."
nonny mouse @ 16:
Oh, they've spoken, all right. And over 4000 American soldiers have been slaughtered, and well over 100,000 Iraqis have been slaughtered over the neo-con lies coming out of their mouths. Let me direct you to Vincent Bugliosi's book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder", and tell me how you feel about this free speech thing after reading it.
War crimes have been committed by the neo-cons and their words, and you seriously don't think any of them should be silenced? They're lucky they won't get hanged once the justice system catches up with them.
Too bad the latino politicians in the audience don't realize that THEY ARE NOT IN THE CLUB. they should ALL have shouted him down.
Double-talking, bullshit loving grampa. Good for both of those women!!!!
Reasonstein @ 38:
People that are old and not with it are right there on the top of the Grimm Reaper's list. He totally has that 6 months to a year look about him. I worry more about his VP. We could end up with some random no-name governor as President. Knowing the GOP he will turn out to be some religous screwball that thinks God has chosen him to start the rapture.
ysbaddaden @ 22:
I see many sides to things, too. Yet, "wrong" is "wrong", and I love war protestors that demonstrate they aren't afraid to break from the corwd and say they are against the war. Crowds don't react as individuals, they act as a group. Breaking from the crowd speaks volumes.
Just where do people have a real opportunity to petition their government these days? The supreme court doesn't allow, the executive branch refuses to answer questions, the media is silent until some heroine comes forward in this kind of setting and says something. McCain and his maverick brand are the hecklers, we are the solution.
McShame was interupted not by a heckler, but a PATRIOT.
God bless that woman.
Lollimom @ 40 -
The number of American soldiers and Iraqis killed as a result of neo-Con greed and deceit, I agree, is appalling. And I'm sure Vincent Bugliosi’s 'The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder' would only serve to reinforce my conviction that the so-called leaders of my country have committed war crimes.
But it would not affect how I feel about free speech, particularly when it comes to silencing those I would not agree with. I understand and even sympathise with your anger toward people who have committed terrible crimes, in our names. However, I cannot allow my anger - justifiable or not - to abrogate those principles and ideals I believe in as an American, and as written in the Constitution, that should not only cover all American citizens, but the civil liberties we should uphold as the natural rights of all human beings.
Even loathsome, evil, lying bastards currently infesting our government.
Otherwise, we'll become just a pale imitation of them.
Get out of my town hall you damn kids!
Yeah, and some of the commenters over on CNN's coverage are quick to label them as Anti-American. One even went so far as to calling for the Alien and Sedition Acts to be reimposed because "we are at war".
I'm not a fan of this usually (mostly because it just throws red meat to the neocons), but there comes a time when people don't have any other choice but to scream and yell. This is one of those times.
nonny mouse @ 47:
I agree, everyone has the right to free speech. The problem is, and has been, some get to exercise theirs more freely than others. Look at "free speech zones", and the MSM, and the arrests of war protestors. The pendulum has swung too far in one direction. By the laws of physics, let's hope it swings back. That usually happens, in America, in a 40-year cycle. It's time has come. In the meantime, anything to disrupt (not silence) the neo-con message is allowed, and fair, in my books.
Basically he said, "And thanks to all you patriotic brown people for fighting the war for us old, demented white people. We will never forget."
I don't know what would have been more fitting - to protest, or to puke.
Rather amazing article:
‘Hanoi Hilton’ jailer says he’d vote for McCain
ummm...if they are hispanic americans, how do they have less rights than other americans?
are there illegals serving in the military?
how is that possible, and isnt that a serious security breach?
I so admire people who can take a stand in a hostile audience and speak their minds to the powers that be. I absolutely adore the crazy ladies in pink costumes who attend congressional hearings and let their views be seen or heard. If we were all more vocal, there might be more accountability of our elected officials.
Or, as I read recently, a quote by Sir Winston Churchill, on how Americans end up doing the right thing, after trying everything else first.
Juliana @ 48:
Yeah....and keep 'em off of my lawn!
nonny mouse @ 47:
You need to stop confusing the silencing of humans (by death) with the silencing of their their lies, their philosophies--in a word, their VOICES. The voice of the neo-cons is deadly. Their lies directly resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Bush, the leader, LIED us into an occupation of a sovereign country.
To disregard the glaring reality of how words directly killed so many people, and to confuse that with the spirit of free speech, is incredible, naive.
Say what you will about "free speech," but the scenario I described is exactly what got Charles Manson tossed into prison for the rest of his life: his words alone did it. Free speech without restraint is as deadly as capitalism without regulation.
Nobody gets a free pass on speech: words do kill.
I'm sure it's all been already said.
I will only say, that I'm so glad it all happened live! If were taped we wouldn't have been able to see it and the new caster would've just said 'heckler'.
McCain did not support the new GI bill.
McCain votes against VA funding.
Nuff said
You know I saw this on television today and I almost felt sorry for him.
But then I remembered over 4000 dead since the war in Iraq began and the feeling passed.
Two?
After 6 years and 4500 dead?
For a lie?
America, the most pathetic country on planet earth.
Americans, the most pathetic citizenry of any country.
MN USA @ 54:
I haven't seen the Pink Ladies anymore at those hearings. Either they have been silenced or have simply given up.
Its really too bad that anti-war voices have been so marginalized and shut out of the "debate" that they are reduced to being characterized as "hecklers" (by a complicit corporate media trained to do so)who must be removed from the room as quickly as possible so as not to upset anyone.After all,it's just so uncomfortable and embarrassing for people!Sure people's children are being incinerated in Iraq and Afghanistan in a mist of gristle and blood,with intestines hanging from trees,arms and legs raining down from the sky,skulls rolling in the gutters,but that shouldn't mean that people be forcibly reminded of it in a public setting...
Watch the video again... they were clapping because he told the audience that he was CONCLUDING his boring speech !!
I know why people protest like this, and sometimes it makes a difference but you have to be careful how you do it. Why? Because they end up being portrayed as inconsiderate heckling liberal nuts by the media (liberal media my ass), and much of the viewing nation sees it that way. Most of America just see a bunch of Berzerkely tree huggers and write off attempts like this as nut jobs who slipped past security. Having lived in the east bay for a decade I can appreciate what these people are trying to do, having been raised in the mid-west I know what kind of deaf ears their message falls on.
MountainMan23 @ 52:
So ..
If the way the US (mis)treats "enemy combatants" isn't "torture" ..
Was the Vietnamese (mis)treatment of McCain "torture"?
These were two latinas who had the cajones to stand up and protest mccain's "nice" words written for this audience by speechwriters who were directed to appeal to the Latino soul that has loved this country and died for this country and given its children to die for this country since its inception. Where were the males. The Latino has always been the "Tom" of the minorities here in the US. Always they are there with hat in hand looking for a kind word or admission to the main house from the patron. They pick our crops, clean our hotels and raise our kids, and when it comes time to consider them for citizenship, they are the scum of the earth. Why should they not wait in line just like "my grandfather" did. The answer to the illegal immigration question, is not to have the best minds of all countries involved sit down and come up with an answer that is equitable to all parties, rather, their answer is minute men guarding the border and build a bigger and stronger wall. Oh yes, employ the illegal mexican labor to build that wall because they can build it better and stonger and cheaper and if we're in luck the migra will show up just in time so we won't have to pay them. Viva these chewnited states.
To # 62, The pink Ladies are still present. I saw them on the hearings Thursday.
kerplunk @ 61:
Lollimom @ 40:
Guess the Afghans are nothing to you, eh? After all, to judge by most people, we're only in one war and that post by the C&L staff on Afghanistan got ignored worse than a girl with the clap at a pornstar convention.
That was one of the best interruptions by a war protester I have seen lately. That lady had giant balls, and she spoke in both languages! She was loud and clear, fucked with the minds of the audience, pissed off John McCain, and was loud enough to be understood by the television viewers!
That gets a gold medal for outstanding protest.
MSNBC made good timing for when that demonstrator demonstrated against McCain by casting it live. Is that coincidence, or what?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAmNC6CjQ2o
Reasonstein @ 71:
PaPaBear O'Reilly will be on his like a fly on shit ..
dam LibRul MSNBC !!
Any person who even remotely had a voice in creating the situation in Iraq deserves to have their speeches interrupted, their livelihoods taken away, and their assets impounded. That might not sound like a liberal thing to say, but conservatives advocate murder for a heck of a lot less.
The ISSUE today was how were Obama and McSame received by the Latino audience. Which one got the best response from the audience. Everyone and their dog is against the war - two loud-mouths - stating the obvious - and you morons go into heat over it. Insane!
The ISSUE today was can we keep winning the Latino vote - not how best to put down McWar. NONE of you are asking who won the talk, grow up - it's the Repubs that obsess over trivia. The headline should be about the way the crowd received their speeches not the way the professional hecklers (and YES - they were Hecklers!!!) hijacked the REAL significance of this meeting. Yes - we can mention the courageous, god and counrty loving patriots that screamed out their lungs against infamy - BUT that isn't the friggin story. Quit acting like fu*king right wing blogs by obscuring the REAL signifance of the meeting!
I feel better now, think I'll have a Corona and call it a day.
Several times in the comments on this story and others, people are using the number 4000 for the count of our dead soldiers. A quick check on www.icasualties.org will show we passed that number a long time ago. the current number is 4113. Even if you round to the nearest hundred it would be 4100. If you use the most current number it will have more impact in your comments.
ralph @ 12:
I believe she is the same lady who got up in Condi's face
with her hands painted red for blood. Her name is Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz
here
I think "heckler" is a fair word to use, at least considering my dictionary's definition of the word: "someone who tries to embarrass you with gibes and questions and objections."
I think she was 'trying' (unsuccessfully) to 'embarrass' Mr. McCain with an 'objection'.
Lollimom @ 57 -
Oh my. Sorry for the delay in responding - I've been having server problems all day. However, this I think will be the last time I do respond to you; I don't think we have much middle ground upon which to meet.
I don't 'confuse' the silencing of human beings by death with the silencing of their voices, that is sheer intentional misdirection. Nor do I deny that lies by this administration have led to the deaths of many innocent people, but frankly I resent the resulting implication that I'm 'confused' and 'naive' regarding the spirit of free speech.
Charles Manson wasn't convicted of 'talking' about killing people. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. If we convicted people solely on uttered words, then anyone could be convicted and imprisoned for muttering 'I want to kill that damned kid' when a ten-year-old neighbour puts a baseball through a plate glass window. And if YOU can't see the difference between the two, it's not me who is 'confused' or 'naive'.
Actually, I don't think you're confused or naive, either. Just very angry. And dead wrong. And it's my Constitutional right to voice that opinion, just as it is yours to call me confused and naive. Neither of us may like the other for it, but I will defend your right to insult me.
I would definitely want to see those people who lied us into a war convicted and imprisoned. It was a crime. But who is going to decide on just 'regulation' you wish to define as a 'restraint' to free speech?
You?
Would you then decide that I, who believe in the Constitutional right of every American to voice their opinion, no matter how bugf*ck and stupid it might be, should be 'regulated' into silence, for the 'greater good' of society? As defined by... you?
Who becomes the fascist then?
Note the double standard.
When a woman in Amerika exercises her constitutional right to dissent, she is escorted out.
When a man in Amerika exercises his dissent, he's tasered.
Thomas Stone@80
___________________________
Oh! So you want females tasered also?
Matt C @ 78:
I agree. She is a "heckler." I agree with what she said, but she is still a heckler.
didn’t learn to love the United States until he went to Viet Nam
mccain has some confusion between love and hate. Or at least he didn't learn to attack the United States as if he hated it until he came back from Vietnam.
Charles @ 74:
Absolutely.
I'm not sure that most conservatives per se would agree with what you mean to say though. I normally will make an effort to differentiate 'conservatives' from Republicans and Neocons. It's like calling all Jews 'Israelis'.
They hanged our former ally Saddam Hussein for ordering the deaths of 29 Shiites, yet George WMD Bush, that Dick Cheney, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, Republicans, Democrats, The Military, and gasp The Troops will never be "brought to justice" for lying to start a genocidal war of conquest. The USA is headed over the fucking cliff. A Nation of cowards...
What exactly is it that anyone would find appealing about McCain as a presidential candidate? He's clueless on the economy by his own admittance, is barley aware of the internet, has no grasp of the Mideast, believes in a 100 years Iraq war, is a pathetic speaker, is about as inspirational as a sponge, calls his wife a *unt in public, thought it was really funny to call Chelsea Clinton (then a child) ugly at a press dinner. The guy has a flash temper, thinks Bush is a good guy and gets his direction from guys like Charlie Black - former lobbyist for Occidental Petroleum. McCain, McSame - more Bush. My God - will we ever wake up?