not a very popular 'tude to have in utah

from the salt lake tribune via raw story

Rocky's call to protest Bush makes vets see red

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson called for "the biggest demonstration
this state has ever seen" to protest President Bush's appearance Monday before a
national veterans convention. "This administration has been
disastrous to the country," Anderson said Friday. "If people could organize and
speak out in an effective manner from the reddest state in the country, that
would garner a lot of attention." In an e-mail Wednesday to
about 10 activist leaders, the maverick mayor of Utah's capital called for a
diverse demonstration to greet Bush when he speaks to the Veterans of Foreign
Wars at the Salt Palace Convention Center. The mayor plans to join the
protesters. "There should be a collaboration of
health-care-provision advocates, seniors, the [gay, lesbian and bisexual and
transsexual] community, anti-Patriot Act advocates and other civil libertarians,
anti-war folks, pro-Social Security advocates, environmental advocates,
anti-nuclear-testing advocates, and anti-nuclear-waste-shipment-and-storage
advocates," the mayor wrote in the e-mail. The mayor's
message drew a howl of outrage from Mike Parkin, senior vice commander of
Veterans of Foreign Wars Atomic Post 4355 in Salt Lake City.
''Excuse my French, but - that son of a bitch!'' he said. "It makes the mayor
look very, very unpatriotic. It makes him look despicable."
Parkin said such demonstrations, particularly against the Iraq war, give comfort
to America's enemies and will be particularly offensive to the 13,000 to 14,000
veterans gathering at the convention. "I voted for the son of
a bitch and I'll never vote for him again," said the Vietnam War veteran.
..........

why is it people accuse others who protest this war (reminiscent of viet nam anyone) of being UNPATRIOTIC? the big boys LIED to us to get into this war. kerry was accused of being all SORTS of things, yet he did MORE THAN ONE tour of duty in viet nam and cheney and bush and the rest o' the good ol' boys seems to come up with deferments left and right. was THAT patriotic? i support my country. yet i have the RIGHT (by constitution and law) to speak my mind. pretty soon will it be illegal for me to actually do so?