Unholy Alliances
The morning of October 10th found me happily surfing the internet looking for information on the truckers planned ride to Washington D.C. I went to their website, RidefortheConstitution.org. In a knee-jerk reaction, I clicked on "Chat" at the top of the page. It asked me to register. Trusting these were all fed up, levelheaded Americans like myself, I willingly filled out personal information and joined the chat room.
Eventually I realized there was a radio show going on. I began listening to a man named Pete Santilli saying how the media had taken his remarks about shooting Hillary Clinton in the vagina "out of context." What was I listening to? I turned my speakers down so my family could not hear. I don't remember how many times he repeated "shoot Hillary Clinton in the vagina," -- but it was enough times that I started to feel rather queasy. He repeated (what I would later discover was) his entire original rant about Clinton. I really didn't see how "I want to shoot her right in the vagina and I don't want her to die right away" could be "taken out of context."
I frantically started to search "Pete Santilli" on the internet. Soon I realized I had unwittingly registered for membership on something called the Guerrilla Media Network. I also found Mr. Santilli had drawn the attention of the Secret Service for his vicious remarks about not only Clinton, but similar remarks he made concerning Barack Obama.
I was sickened as I remembered the horrific case of Carol Ryan, a 42-year-old woman found naked, beaten beyond recognition, left for dead and mistaken for road kill on side of the road. An explosive device had detonated inside her vagina. Police estimated she had lain there clinging to life for three hours before being found. She died during surgery. It was one of the most gruesome murders ever seen in Onondaga County in Upstate New York.
My next thought was 'Why is Ride for the Constitution' linked to this radio show on their main website?' Turns out Mr. Santilli was named as a media spokesman for the event. Worse yet, they had been promoting him weeks before the event declaring "Be sure to tune in to the Pete Santilli Show each and every day..."
Far from distancing himself from the indefensible remarks he'd made about Hillary Clinton, he was openly discussing them again as late as last Thursday.
Santilli is, at best, a conspiracy theorist of the craziest kind. He makes Alex Jones, a fellow conspiracy theorist with whom he butts heads, seem almost sane. (Drudge is increasingly linking to Jones' website giving him some measure of credibility.) Santilli believes the Twin Towers were brought down by something called "directed free energy," a theory originated by author Judy Wood in her book, Where Did the Towers Go? What is even wackier is the huge amount of internal fighting among 9/11 "Truthers" as to which conspiracy theory is correct. Were the buildings purposely blown up by our own government or were they turned to dust by directed free energy? Apparently the fact they were brought down by Islamic Jihadists is no longer an option.
It was not my intention, when I joined in the national excitementover the truckers riding to D.C., to jump on board the Pete Santilli Crazy Train. I resent the fact that Ride for the Constitution sucked normal, patriotic, Godfearing Americans -- fed up with the Obama administration -- into the dark side of a radio network spewing violence and misogyny.
A man named "General" Ernest Lee spoke about the Ride for the Constitution event with Fox News Megyn Kelly. He seemed like a rational guy with motives I agreed with. I have not, however, watched all of his YouTube videos. While I was hesitant to embrace another person I'd only recently been made aware of, I did however regain my enthusiasm for the event after listening to Mr. Lee.
Then there are the Vietnam veterans arrested at the NYC Vietnam Memorial.The picture of them sitting in a police van went viral. Many Twitter users tweeting #T2SDA (Truckers to Shut Down America) were attaching the picture to their tweets Thursday night saying, "Hold on, we're coming to get you buddies!"
Arrested after staying past the 10:00 p.m. curfew, most assumed these men were victims of Obama's government shutdown. No one noticed that the gathering was held, in part, to protest the 12th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan or that they had done the same thing last year. Worse yet, they didn't watch the video showing one of these supposed victims yelling, "It's important that you know that your government committed immense atrocities during the Vietnam War. We did it every day." In short, they were parroting John Kerry's 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that was largely responsible for many of our Vietnam vets getting spat upon when they returned home from that hellish fight.
Ride for the Constitution no doubt consists of many different factions, and many good-hearted Americans fed up with President Obama's constant assault on our liberties and demoralization of our private citizens, military and veterans. After having been tricked into subscribing to the Pete Santilli Show however, I warn everyone to carefully check the people and motives behind any movement that evokes such intense emotion.