"Disgusting Thuggery"

Seems like every time I drop by Captain’s Quarters before turning in, I find something into which I just have to stick my oar.

According to the Associated Press:

Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father after having her Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, September 16th, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards made a brief stop at the airport as he concluded his two-day bus tour to locations in West Virginia and Ohio.

Now you can knock the dad for putting his little girl in such an obviously confrontational situation, I suppose – I know I wouldn’t have done so – But come on, ripping a sign out of the hands of a toddler and ripping it up right in front of her face while hooting and jeering? These are the people who purport to embody “tolerance” and declare that “dissent is patriotic”?

I wish I could say that these bastards weren’t representative of the Democrat Party. But the plain simple fact of the matter is, they are.

Just imagine what will happen to this country if they win. Little Sophia will be just the beginning.

UPDATE 9/17: Here was an apology for this, issued this morning:

The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades believes in the fundamental right for civil discourse, freedom of speech and activism to support our candidates and issues.

What happened in Huntington, West Virginia yesterday is an affront to everything we, as a union, pride ourselves to represent. We extend our apologies to the Parlock family, especially Sophia, for the distress one of our overzealous members caused them.

I have personally taken steps to address this issue internally, and will take immediate disciplinary action to the full extent allowed under U.S. Department of Labor regulations and the constitution of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.

It is my hope that this incident reminds all of our members that every last citizen in this country has the right to express his or herself freely. Not one single one of us has the right to tell them otherwise.

General President James A. Williams

There are also reports that Mr. Parlock has a history of showing up at opposition rallies and that the guy who tore up his little girl’s Bush-Cheney sign might even be related to him. This would make such an incident a lot more of a head-scratcher, or at least suggest that it was familial as much as it was political.

Doesn’t change the disgusting thuggery of what took place, though, as the hastiness of the aforementioned union’s public apology would seem to illustrate.