Contact these Repuke thugs who Assaulted Joan Jett at an Iowa Dem rally

"One of the Bush supporters shoved Jett and she pushed back in anger."

This story was posted in LBN earlier today by johnfunk.

A group of college republicans decided to storm a Dem rally for one of our candidates, where Jett was performing. I thought that a GD thread might be in order, and hopefully generate an overwhelming "calming" response to these "compassionate" bushists and rovians who feel that storming an event and shoving women is an acceptable means of political discourse.

---------------

From that thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=319905&mesg_id=319905

Two political rallies turned into a brawl Saturday night in Des Moines.

A Democratic rally at Drake's Olmstead Center, urged young Iowans to get out and vote. It was targeted toward high school and college students. A group known for not voting. The rally featured comedian Janene Garafalo and classic rock star Joan Jett, but it got a surprise visit from some unwanted guests.

A group of college republicans at their Midwest caucus leadership conference heard about the rally and stormed in.


-------------

The very short news article:
http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1605772&nav=1LFWKGNJ

-----------

I found the following email addresses at the "Iowa Federation of College republicans" website ( http://www.ifcr.org/mclc.html ). I'm sure a little googling could turn up fax numbers, and more. Drop these sweeties a line, would you.


Jason Cole (quoted in the article: "We went down there.")
Chair
jcole@ifcr.org

Christopher Jones
Executive Director
chris.jones@kirkwoodgop.com

Ruth Huldeen
Registration
ruth@uni.edu

Only if you're a nazi is that acceptable.

recording these events and sending raw copies to the candidates?

As did someone from the Dean campaign

get it to www.takebackthemedia.com

get it out.

get mike malloy and randi rhodes to host it.

get it to buzzflash.com

is there some legal reason you can't?

a crowd to commit to violence for someone crashing the party like that. I admire Jett's and Garafalo's restraint.

Sounded like assault.

I hope they get their asses thrown off campus. Last I heard, colleges are under no obligation to harbor or tolerate hate groups, which the Iowa State (I think it was Iowa State) College Republicans have shown themselves to be.

Folks would just kick their foot in the dirt a little and say "awe shucks they're just some overzelaous young republicans". That's what I was told by our local newspaper when I complained about the little fuckers trespassing on my property and vandalizing candidate placards I had in my yard. "Just some kids having a little fun....why all the anger?"

RC

Spam em real good at let them know that their Hitler Youth act will NOT be tolerated in America!

Pushing women around and all. I guess they feel like big men now!:puke:

Not that I'm surprised-her role model is probably Ann Coulter.

And the paid participants were so richly rewarded since,
I guess we can expect more of this kinda thing.

Amazing...

.. .I think I would have bashed these sorry little Republican fascists back into the dark ages. Sorry, but where I grew up this was a good way to get you ass kicked. And these bastards deserve a good ass kicking.

"I’m going into this battle, and take my union gun
We’ll end this world of slavery before this battle’s won
You’re bound to lose, you fascists bound to lose..."

None of these folks would be pleased with the behavior of these kids. Unlike fraternity hijinks and typical college partying, these students committed crimes: disturbing the peace and assault. Is this what these colleges want to project to prospective students? Colleges also rely on alumni donations and other sources of income, and this could be impacted if behavior likes this becomes public.

It is important that the Presidents of these colleges, the trustees and the deans know about what happened.

-------------------------------------------------
Jason Cole attends Buena Vista University.

Office of the President:
Fred Moore

Contact Information
Office of the President
Ballou Library Building
712.749.2130
fax: 712.749.2050

Donna Schoneboom
Assistant to the President
schoneboom@bvu.edu

Link to Trustees:
http://www.bvu.edu/trustees/trustees.asp

Link to Board Committees:
http://www.bvu.edu/trustees/committees.asp

----------------------------------------------------------

Christopher Jones attends Kirkwood Community College

Office of the President

Dr. Norm Nielsen
President
309 Kirkwood Hall
319-398-5501
norm.nielsen@kirkwood.edu

Board of Trustees
http://www.kirkwood.edu/board/

---------------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Huldeen attends University of Northern Iowa

President Dr. Robert D. Koob
bob.koob@uni.edu
(319) 273-2566


Dr. Aaron Podolefsky
Vice President, Academic Affairs/Provost
aaron.podolefsky@uni.edu
(319) 273-2517

Dr. Renee Romano
Vice President, Educational & Student Services
renee.romano@uni.edu
(319) 273-2517


Academic Affairs Council
http://www.uni.edu/pres/univcomm/acadaff.shtml

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

I would think political violence would be a cause for reprimand if not suspension/expulsion.

I'm sure they have violated their college by-laws.

. . . . . a copy of this thread from DU.

And if anyone can post a link to a video of the, uh, shenanigans. . . . . . . . . .

Thanks RR!

This should be posted to the thread in LBN and GD2004P.

... I hope the get punished harshly if convicted.

I been wondering about this for a long time, what if we do win the presidency, is there going to be a civil war? I don't think these crazy fucks are going to settle for a loss!

You might want to rephrase your comments.

and I might not want to rephrase my comments, thanks just the same.

on edit: it was a woman that was shoved, that's what happened. I think that fact is relevent beacuse it contrasts those doing the shoving with their supposed Christ-like (bush's fave philospher, remember?)morally superior self-proclaimed image, thereby highlighting the hypocrisy of the right. Or something like that. I certainly did not seek to offend with my comments, but if, in reading this story, my comments are what offended you, then you might want to read it again.

These twits do not represent my home state, folks.

And I'm PISSED that my state taxes go to these schools, and probably ended up intheir coffers.

Drop these colleges' president's a line, if you would.

are there any links to reports or video of this?

{this was in the original post too)
http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1605772&nav=1LFWKGNJ

Some posts said video was shot, but, to my knowledge, no links yet.

"Our apologies.

You have reached a page that is currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please use your browser's BACK button to return to the previous page. "

:shrug:

No big surprise here.

I'll post some of it here, like in the first post, but how can I save a screen shot of the whole thing?

Here's the main four paragraphs (only two one-sentence paras missing - short article):

"...

A Democratic rally at Drake's Olmstead Center, urged young Iowans to get out and vote. It was targeted toward high school and college students. A group known for not voting. The rally featured comedian Janene Garafalo and classic rock star Joan Jett, but it got a surprise visit from some unwanted guests.

...

There are seven of us who worked really hard at putting this conference together, said Jason Cole of the college republicans. "so, we met, discussed and majority ruled. We went down there."

What they didn't discuss is what to do if things get out of hand. One of the Bush supporters shoved Jett and she pushed back in anger. Ole said that was the decision of one person, and not at all representative of what the conference was trying to do.

Campus security did show up break things up. The concert did resume as planned. In fact, Jett wrapped up her day with two more performances. One in Fort Dodge, the other in Marshalltown."

---------------

btw, this is also linked on Drudge (or was a few minutes ago) - maybe some bandwidth usage quota going on or something?

-

Dean rally in Des Moines crashed by Rethugs
http://travis-bushman.dailykos.com/story/2004/1/17/23537/3980

DU Discussion:
Young Rethugs Try to Break up Dem Caucus Rally
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1030333#1030346
Warpy (555 posts) Sun Jan-18-04 11:50 AM
Response to Reply #1

13. Here's what to do
the next time this happens, and it wil.

Identify the disrupters. Link arms around each one, and march them toward whatever is appropriate, the exit or the cops. Either evict them or make a citizen's arrest in front of the cops. Get it? Identify, isolate, deactivate, and either eject or humiliate. Don't let right wing violence give US the bad rap.

We discovered this method all too late in the 60s. Take it to heart now, and don't let the RNC convention be remembered for LEFT VIOLENCE, the way the cop violence was in 1968. That led to 8 years of Nixon. Don't repeat this sad history.

This is important. Pass it on.

============================================

Political Rallies End in Brawl
http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1605772&nav=1LFWKGNJ
Two political rallies turned into a brawl Saturday night in Des Moines.

A Democratic rally at Drake's Olmstead Center, urged young Iowans to get out and vote. It was targeted toward high school and college students. A group known for not voting. The rally featured comedian Janene Garafalo and classic rock star Joan Jett, but it got a surprise visit from some unwanted guests.

A group of college republicans at their Midwest caucus leadership conference heard about the rally and stormed in.

"There are seven of us who worked really hard at putting this conference together, said Jason Cole of the college republicans. "so, we met, discussed and majority ruled. We went down there."

What they didn't discuss is what to do if things get out of hand. One of the Bush supporters shoved Jett and she pushed back in anger. Ole said that was the decision of one person, and not at all representative of what the conference was trying to do.

Campus security did show up break things up. The concert did resume as planned. In fact, Jett wrapped up her day with two more performances. One in Fort Dodge, the other in Marshalltown.

==============================================

http://www.needlenose.com/pMachineFree2.2.1/more.php?id=777_0_1_0_M

I got a note suggesting to move the Jett story to the top of the post instead of in chronological order. The content of the post (other than adjusting the time) have not been otherwise changed -- f ]

3:30pm MST. Des Moines, IA.

Drake University student union. Student Dean rally and concert with Joan Jett and Janeane Garofalo. A decent turnout. Crowd quietly milling about. A few minutes into the set, Joan Jett is interrupted by a troupe of young men (with identical short haircuts) and young women -- all dressed in business suits. They wave Bush/Cheney 04 signs. Anti-Dean slogans are yelled. A Flat George replica bandied about. A second group joins in and soon, the chants drown out the music. They are surrounded and shifted away from the hall. One grabs a Dean sign and rips it in half, smiling and posing for cameras. The music returns. The crowd is still jagged from the interaction. Murmurs in the crowd. ... muffling dissent ... censorship ... taste of what's to come... this is why we need our country back... Fox News cameras are there at the concert before the disruptions begin. At a small student gathering. Go figure.
==========================================

http://iowa.deanforamerica.com/node/view/2376

We have footage of the Young Republican invasion of the rally in Des Moines this afternoon! (The other Surprise Stormers, and not the good ones).

My sis just called from IA and said one of ours got video of the event, but didn't see any other media but the local Fox affiliate. Jeni filmed it all and Matt had to hop onstage to keep them from storming the stage as they shouted "4 More Years".

Apparently, one of them pushed Joan Jett who responded: You can push me, but don't touch my guitar. (this guitar kills fascists...)

They then got the video to HQ, where Trippi thanked them. This should be quite useful for the campaign, and I wonder if it will get any news coverage.

I immediately thought of how they trashed the Wellstone memorial event with all their "manufactured outrage", and I expect to be hearing a lot of genuine outrage about these Young Republicans' methods of political activism!
Posted by freestater4dean on Sat, 17/01/2004 - 9:40pm
reply to this comment

When I see the Rethugs storming a democratic ralley , and Fox slanting the news to slam Dean, I am re-enforced every day that I picked the right guy.
At this moment Fox is saying that Dean was arrogent and expected the win in Iowa (that's way they planned to send 3000 folks to work there???) . Yep this is the guy they want out of the race, this is the guy we need to support.
They want the other guys because they want to say when the war is critisized " You voted for it!" Only Dean and Dennis K would be free from that attack.
Posted by Lunch Lady on Sun, 18/01/2004 - 7:26am

Thanks for the email addresses

The real thing? A young DeLay contingent ? - similar to the government-taxpayer employees (one or more who were associated with DeLay) and who pounded on the door of a government office in Dade Co and demanded that the count be stopped.

Or are they DeLay contingent copycats?

Any takers in letting these brown shirts and their universities how disgraceful they are?

Mr. Cole, Mr. Jones and Ms Huldeen -
I've just heard about the incident Saturday night in Des Moines in which you and your college Republican buddies crashed a Democratic gathering and assaulted Joan Jett. As immature and vile as your actions were, it gives me no small measure of gratitude to see you folks expose yourselves for the violent thugs that you are. It is my fervent hope that your actions help to underscore to the rest of the nation the true nature of Republican leadership.

Sincerely,

Bob Roberts resonate here?? I can picture these rethugs as Jack Black's character with their eyes glazed over....

The original story said that TWO political rallies ended in a brawl,
The brawl broke out at Drake university, at a DEMOCRATIC rally.

Also the republican quoted in the story, (brownshirt Cole) said "There are seven of us who worked really hard at putting this conference together, said Jason Cole of the college republicans. "so, we met, discussed and majority ruled. We went down there."

The brownshirt (ie republican) conference that this jackboot is talking about is described here:

http://www.illinoiscrs.org/detail_content.asp?ID=167

Note that a speaker is from YAF

1:30 p.m. – 2:10 p.m. is the speaker
Patrick Coyle, Young America’s Foundation
How to effectively hold a speaking event

Is this YAF the same group that harassed a priest in nebraska:

QUOTE
During the Iranian debacle, I received a letter addressed to "TRAITOR PRIEST" in Omaha. My mail was messed with in a big way, my telephone also. One day I was talking to CBS in New York and because we were talking about some heavy stuff, the phone went dead.

The Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) were having a heyday against me. On the top of the letterhead was a picture of Reagan and a quote from him saying "now I need you more than ever." For what? For the kind of burglary that Nixon had promoted that's what.

A rivalry between two YAF members for chairmanship of the organization ended up in the courts when it was revealed that one of the rivals had broken into my Omaha house and gone through my things looking for evidence that he thought might incriminate me in some way. I guess his vigilante method was his way of trying to be a government citizen-hero. It reflects on the White House thinking of the times and what I felt was continuing CIA tactics.
END QUOTE
Source: Page 48 Prophets Without Honor, by strabala, palecek

The priest who was harassed said young americans for freedom; the jackboot speaking at the jackboot conference in des moines has a slightly different group name. But some googles lead me to places that make me believe they are one in the same. (Scary, scary kids, scary scary web sites.)

The brownshirt conference was sponsored by the Iowa Federation of College Republicans

http://www.ifcr.org/mclc.html

On their board (or whatever) is some kid named Marcus Branstad.

http://www.ifcr.org/execboard/index.html

Terry Branstad (republican) was the governor of iowa for awhile.('tho the current gov is a Democrat--Vilsack (SP?)

I wonder if this Marcus kid is Terry's child, and if this kid took part in a brawl.

ON EDIT:
According to following press release, Marcus is indeed the son of the former gov. Branstad.

http://www.aicpa.org/download/news/2003_0527.pdf

Since Brownshirt Cole is quoted to have said they voted on whether or not to crash the Democratic rally, I wonder how the young Mr. Marcus Branstad voted. I'm sure he was against it, being a fine young republican, raised in a family that cherishes "family values." gag.

Didn't young republicans pull shit like this for Nixon too? Ala Turdblossom Karl Rove?

I am reminded of Nixon's political use of those construction workers who beat up anti-war protestors in the early 70's.....I think I read somewhere that they were paid well for their services.....

.

Mr. Cole;

I happened to hear about the performance you and your co-thinkers put on in Des Moines. You may think that, because such tactics worked in Miami-Dade County in 2000, you are free to terrorize your political opponents at will. You may also think that, because the media gives you and your political party a free pass, you can continue to disrupt and attack similar political events in the future with impunity.

I am writing to tell you that such views are illusory, and failure to recognize that fact may very well lead to similar tactics being practiced against your organization (not by me, or the people I work with, necessarily, but someone will certainly take up the gauntlet you so cavalierly tossed to the ground).

Some of us still believe in democracy and the Constitution, Mr. Cole. We believe in the right of people to peaceably assemble and exercise their right to free speech. You abrogated that right last Saturday evening, in a style and format that is eerily reminiscent of Mussolini's Blackshirts.

Rest assured, Mr. Cole, that the action you and your political cohorts undertook two days ago did not go unnoticed, and will likely not go unanswered. People across the country and around the world know what you did; they have read the news reports, and are now seeing the videotape footage.

As much as your RNC chairman likes to whine and cry about the comparisons of Bush to Hitler, perhaps it is time that someone told you like it is: "If the jackboot fits, wear it."

With regards;
Martin Schreader
Detroit, Michigan

Kudos! :toast:

you rock!

I cc'd him on my email to Christopher Jones. Dr. Nielson's response was Robbie, I have no idea what you are talking about so it is impossible for me to respond. Norm Nielsen

Since the article has been removed from the eyewitness 5 online website, I sent Dr. Nielson the whole article (It has been saved by Buzzflash). I said that as a Kirkwood sponsored GOP group, the Executive Director (Christopher Jones) should not be representing Kirkwood and the GOP in such a disrepectful manner.

much as that would make me ill...I think Republicans should be outraged that these little fascists are shitting all over the constitution.

and in this election I am a solid ABB.

But when I sent out the slew of emails, yes I said to them that it made me ashamed to ever have been associated with the Republican party if it welcomed thugs and bullies such as these.

I wonder if these kids have Martin Luther King day off? Universities don't have classes here in Mass. today.

I especially tuned in to Crossfire because Paul Begala and James Carville were both on. I fully expected one or the other to say SOMETHING about this... not a word!

If somebody has video, they'd better get it somewhere where it counts. I'm just sure Begala or Carville would mention it if there were something to it. Also, why has this thread just about died already? Is there really anything truthful about this? I'm beginnning to wonder. :shrug:

and except for the one asking for clarification, no one has answered us back. I wrote to each of the three repubs who went to the rally and cc'd their deans. Then I wrote separate emails to all the email links of the universities listed in this thread.

So far no answers. None, Nada. If it were false, these guys would be all over us flooding us with email responses. But nothing.

and showed Joan Jett I thought for sure they'd mention the fracas.

are enlightenment-challenged. Here was my message to them:

awolbush.com

After following up my first email by sending the news article to the president this was his response:

"Robbie, Obviously, this is not something we support or condone. I have had discussions with some of our administrators and I assure you we will follow up. Thanks for informing me. Norm Nielsen"

Hope this Christopher Jones and his GOP college group will think twice before deciding to bully other democratic rallies.