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Is Politics Rearing Its Ugly Head?
by Jeff "Mario" Smith, Guerilla Reporter

 

I am a member of a POW MIA activist organization called Task Force Omega of Kentucky. We work to educate the public about the travesty of the POW MIA abandonment that our government has allowed in all wars by simply not holding the communists accountable for anything. This issue is not a “conspiracy theory”, it is not anti-government propaganda, it is simply the truth, and the proof is out there for anyone who wishes to engage in research outside of the CFR controlled mainstream media in order to facilitate their own discovery.

Many of our members are Veterans, combat and non-combat, and several are not, but all are people who care. Most of us ride motorcycles and therefore are sometimes confused with Rolling Thunder, an organization many of us used to belong to but left in order to continue to work on the POW MIA issue, since RT has morphed into a Veteran’s advocacy organization. Veteran’s advocacy is a good thing, but that is not why we joined Rolling Thunder. Most of us already belong to Veterans advocacy organizations like the VFW, American Legion, AMVETS, and others. We don’t need more Veterans organizations; we need to make the ones we have better. So, in order to remain true to the POW MIA mission, we removed ourselves from Rolling Thunder and for the past few years have been riding our motorcycles and driving our cars and trucks to make noise about this travesty that all Americans need to know about and never forget, lest it keep happening. And with what we know about Commander Michael Scott Speicher in Gulf War I and PFC Matt Maupin in the Iraq War, it is still happening.

Not that Task Force Omega isn’t working for Veterans, for we are, especially the new crop of young men and women we now have coming home from the Middle East. These young people are returning to a land that has been propagandized by a liberal media and a subverted government education system more than any time in history. They are doing a fine job that nobody in the mainstream is talking about. To hear the truth about the many successes, as opposed to the constant assault of the worst of the blood and gore, one has to turn to alternative media like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage, Fox News, and the many places on the internet that support our troops and will print the truth. Praise the Lord for the free flow of information that alternative media outlets have provided.

The MSM is merely playing out of the same playbook Cronkite and company used to lose the Viet Nam War for us, and they are now trying to do the same with Iraqi Freedom. If they get what they desire, the Iraqi people will be abandoned to bloodthirsty tyrants just as the Vietnamese were in 1975. Unfortunately, the MSM and their liberal sheeple care only about themselves and their power, and they have lots of it. Make no mistake about it; the media have too much power to control public opinion, not only by their slant, but also by the ever-powerful act of omission.

Task Force Omega has been attending the funerals of our fallen heroes for some time now through the invitations of the family members. We became more vigilant after some cult from Kansas who falsely call themselves a “church” have been attending funerals for our fallen heroes and protesting with signs saying all sorts of nasty things like “Thank God For IED’s”. This is unfathomable, and we show up where they do to hide them from the view of the families. It is too much to bear to think that these families would have to endure the slandering of their loved one on the day of their funeral, or any other time, for that matter.

After meeting these phreaks, as I call them, on the ground at several funerals, a new group popped up nationally called the Patriot Guard Riders composed of people like us all across the country. PGR is simply a coalition of Americans who care and are mostly members of other organizations like TFO. We were already doing the mission that PGR is dedicated to, so this was a no brainer to join in with PGR and consolidate our efforts. Just the day before yesterday, we stood vigil for the family of SSG Herrera of D Company, 1^st/506^th PIR, “Curahee”, of the 101^st Airborne, at Fort Campbell, KY. It was something we just had to do, and the family asked for our presence. Three motorcycles led the way in front of the hearse with the point man flying a 3 x 5 flag on his bike, and the rest followed behind the hearse with flags a-flying. We cannot do enough for this family; we owe them big. The enemy from Kansas did not show.

After attending the funeral of SFC John David Morton in Stanton, KY, who was killed while serving with the 173^rd AIRBORNE in Afghanistan, and having one of the Kansas protesters assault one of our disabled Vietnam Veterans, I decided enough was enough and contacted Representative Bob Damron and Senator Tom Buford. I asked for a bill that would outlaw these kinds of protests. Bob Damron shoved it off to Mike Weaver who sits on the Military Affairs Committee. Damron’s LRC people discovered an existing law KRS 525.150, which already made this illegal in my estimation, but we pushed to strengthen the law with specific wording concerning funerals, funeral processions, and memorial services, not just for the military, but for everyone. Tom Buford, whose son is a Navy Veteran of Iraqi Freedom, offered a companion bill in the Senate.

These two bills, SB93 and HB333, have sailed through committee and the floors of both houses, but it seems some grandstanding is starting to happen. On the Senate side, David Williams placed an amendment on SB93, which we like by the way, but which served to slow down the process. Both bills have to match to become law, or the House has to pass the Senate version also, or vice-versa. So we asked the House to pass the Senate bill. Well, now it begins to get even fuzzier.

Representative Mike Weaver decided to add an amendment also to HB333. Now keep in mind that Mike Weaver is planning to run for Congress against Republican Representative Ron Lewis. Is Mike Weaver trying to get publicity? The bills could have passed yesterday if it were not for Weaver’s amendment. Now he is in the news, imagine that. Let’s say Weaver’s amendment is a good one and makes the bill better. Could this not have been worked out in the committee Weaver sits on before sending the bill to the floor? Of course it could. Knowing that the committees don’t generate a lot of publicity for their individual members, is politics rearing its ugly head here?

I can’t speak of Mike Weaver’s intentions, but I have seen regretful behavior from this man in the past. Years ago, we Veterans, and people who care, were trying to get the KY Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial to fly the POW MIA Flag 365 days a year. Our Kentucky memorial was the only one in the nation not already doing this. Mike Weaver, a Vietnam Veteran officer himself, was the staunchest opponent of putting that flag up. Most of the Vets I know, who are very strong advocates of putting that flag up, were enlisted men, NCOs, and a lot were grunts. These were the men facing the enemy close up in the jungles and who lost men fighting right next to them. I care what they have to say. Why did Weaver oppose the POW MIA Flag so vehemently? Are not representatives supposed to speak for their constituents and not for their individual desires and prejudices, as in “represent”?

To make a long story short, Danny “Greasy” Belcher felt challenged by the private committee that controls the KY Vietnam Veterans Memorial, of which Weaver is a member. Someone on that committee, it may have been Weaver himself, stating they would follow the then six holiday a year federally mandated schedule for flying the POW MIA flag, said something to the effect of, “It would take an act of Congress to get that flag to fly 365 days a year”. Well, they challenged the wrong man.

Greasy, State Director of Task Force Omega of KY, and one of the original founders of Rolling Thunder but no longer a member of that organization, is dedicated to the POW MIA issue like none other. He organized us nationwide and with the help of Larry Vigil, legislative director for Senator Ben “Nighthorse” Campbell’s office, we had the Federal “POW MIA Memorial Flag Act” passed through Congress. The law states that anytime Old Glory flies at any national memorial, the POW MIA Flag will fly with it. There, take that “act of Congress” Mike Weaver. Now the POW MIA Flag flies every day at the memorial, in Frankfort, KY like we originally asked, and no longer are Veterans of that war upset when they visit the memorial. They are no longer boycotting it because of Weaver’s actions. It took so long, years, because of people like Mike Weaver who opposed the efforts of Veterans everywhere. Why? I think I know, but only Mike Weaver can answer that.

It is time to put politics aside and get KRS 525.150 amended to outlaw the unimaginable protests that have been happening in Kentucky. Let’s pass SB93 through both sides of the legislature and get this done. These cult members from Kansas, when they come to Kentucky, need to be impressed with the fact that they “aren’t in Kansas anymore”. We Kentuckians stand tall with our military, and outside of a couple of cities where liberal people congregate, we are a very red state, referring to the backwards color coding that the MSM applied to states after the election of 2000. Wouldn’t the liberal states, those whose Electoral College votes went to the candidates that support leftist ideology be better colored “red”? The MSM is relentless in their presentation of everything as being upside down from what it really is. But then, those of us who know the end of the story know who the original author of lies and deception is and we are not easily fooled.

UPDATE: Both SB93 and HB333 are stuck in the Judiciary Committees on both sides of the legislature.

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