I actually think all these right wing nuts area good thing. They will get people angry and show them how ridiculous the right is in their stone age beliefs.

The first the left needs to do is GROW UP!!!!!

"Another had his picture taken and was told that it will be featured in the first issue of the new conservative campus newspaper The Mendota Beacon, coming out today."

Oh my, having his picture taken by a newspaper! Heaven forbid!

re: previous comment: Witchhunt outing of socialists... we've never had that problem in Wisconsin before, have we?

Dols, I agree with the sentiment of your column, but sometimes, I wonder how a phrase like, "More than a hundred of us surrounded them, shouted them down and ran them out of town after just 37 minutes of their bigotry," or "When the Klan last tried to march in Madison a few years ago, activists rightly refused to "allow them their right to free speech," is going to go over with conservatives.
See, I'm a straight up ACLU free speech or die kind of guy. I agree that counter protesting is the right idea...but you don't "rightly" refuse anyone's right to speak. Except for dangerous stuff like "fire" etc. But the point is these kind of phrases are red meat for the right.
Your heart is in the right place, and you did the right thing when you counter protested, but it is never a good idea to crow about refusing anyone's right to speak. That's how you find yourself in a "free speech pen" outside the RNC instead of on the streets, because the same logic you use to deny the KKK is used against you when you want to be heard by the right.
I also haven't heard about this Mendota Beacon yet, and I look forward to seeing it (and how assuredly it will go on about how Madison is 50 square miles surrounded by reality, blah, blah, blah). I also think that it's fair game for them to film your friends when you are doing your activism. When you participate in activism, you better be prepared to accept the fact that it will draw attention. I'm not saying you're not, and it can be disturbing when someone sticks a camera in your face...but hey, it's free speech, isn't it?

-=Rob Deters=-

Free speech for me but not for thee. Nice sentiment. Just like the right expresses towards Ward Churchill.

And your lack of context with regard to the Protest Warrior sign is pretty galling. Really, it's basically a lie. Here's a link for anyone who cares:
http://www.protestwarrior.com/new_signs.php?thumb=12

The context is that it's in favor of school choice/vouchers, as a way of getting underprivileged and minority students into better/more integrated schools. The sign is sarcastic, and specifically accuses the left of racism.

Whether or not you agree with the sentiment, Mr. Dols obviously did not represent it fairly. Which makes me wonder what else he's being disingenuous about.

"and a black friend of mine was assaulted for organizing against the dress codes at Brothers and Johnny O's."

I think it's pretty safe to say that right and left thought that guy was an idiot. Nothing to do with race, white, black, yellow, blue, whatever that was the the dumbest thing I had heard in years.

HAHA!! Protest Warrior is great - not only does their grammar and spelling suck, so does their history!
My personal favorite: Except for communism, fascism, slavery and Nazism, War Has Never Solved Anything! (The word order might be slightly different).
This one cracks me up every time I see it. Let's see: Spanish Civil War: institutes a fascist dictatorship; Chilean coup: institutes rightist/ fascist dictatorship. War ended communism? Psst, somebody tell China. War ended slavery? Yup, no slavery anywhere, least of all in the US. War ended fascism? Uh, yeah: Mussolini, Franco, the numerous puppet leaders of Central America. And of course Nazism: yeah, white supremacists are still running around, too.

It's not for holding neo-conservative ideas that I think PW has the collective IQ of of a 20-year-old Twinkie; it's because they're too busy claiming victimhood to actually research their claims.

When was the left ever organized againat the right?

Protestwarrior.com and the Mendota Beacon are not racist, so give up. We hate the Nazis as much, if not more than you do. And don't forget that NAZI means National SOCIALIST!

I'm glad there are other fact-checkers out there who are keeping propagandists like this from getting away with their bile.

you lefties really need to stop drinking the kool-aid.. protest warriors are racist? all it takes is 30 seconds of googling to see that's not true.. but I suppose the cocooned readers in Madison aren't likely to actually call you on your remarks.. which is why the rest of Wisconsin ignores you

"(One of their signs reads "Black Children Belong in Black Schools" and countless others heap Islamophobia upon ignorance in a feat of stupefying idiocy)."

My my, we /do/ like the misleading rhetoric, don't we? The sign in question is in favor of school vouchers, not racial segregation. You left off half the caption. The sign is meant to mock the Democrats' stance against school vouchers, which plays a large part in ensuring that inner city black children cannot go to school outside of the inner city. It is meant to satire the left's position on the matter. Here is the sign in question. http://protestwarrior.com/nimages/signs/large/pw_sign_45.gif

Before you accuse Protest Warrior of being a racist and/or fascist organization, I advise you to look into our upcoming Operation Nazi Shutdown, which I am the primary organizer for, designed to counter the National Socialist Movement racists at their national rally in Yorktown, Virginia. If we were fascists, we would be on the other side of the fence with the Nazis, not protesting them. There have also been operations against the Ku Klux Klan and other racist organizations undertaken by local chapters of Protest Warrior in addition to our more widely known activities against Communism. I find it difficult to believe that you could know this and then write this article in good faith. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and presume that you were simply ignorant of our activities, rather than committing malicious libel. With that in mind, I expect a printed retraction of your statements concerning Protest Warrior.

Note that I am keeping a copy of this comment both in text form and as a screenshot so that in case of it's deletion I can prove that it contains no offensive language, no personal attacks, and that it is entirely relevant to the article. I would therefore advise that it be left in place. I wouldn't feel the need to ask were it not for the habit of some comment editors to remove valid counter-arguments to their articles, but sadly this is all too common. Thank you.

Woodrow Major

Protest Warrior, Murray State University

Rogue 9, Protest Warrior forums

Having posted that, I must also note that I composed that post over a week ago and, upon finding the comment system of this site nonfunctional, e-mailed it to the author of the article. I am disappointed to find that he has chosen to ignore me. I therefore extend the period I had planned before going to the editor to demand a retraction to two days from this posting.

Woodrow Major

Protest Warrior, Murray State University

Rogue 9, Protest Warrior forums

I think yo uare making a big mistake by assuming that the Ayran Nations and Stormfront guys have anything to do with campus conservatives. I am about as conservative as they come and I hate those guys as much as I hate Communists. Unforatunately, the Left considers the Communists and other nasty radicals to be part of their "side", which becomes clear whenever one of them comes under attack. Look at Ward Churchill for example. He's getting all kinds of protection and support because he is indeed part of the Left on campus. You'll never see the local Republicans or conservative papers do anything but condemn those folks you insist are on "our side".

I think yo uare right though about things changing. The Left used to have a monopoly, but that's definitely slipping. Before long it will be gone. I say good riddance.

--Brian

You mentioned a Protest Warrior sign that read "Black Children Belong in Black Schools", where did you see or hear about that? Or did you just make it up? No Protest Warrior I have ever run into would allow that kind of racist comment for a moment. They are consistent anti-racists.

--Brian

Brian, you're not helping much. Jingoism and chest thumping from the far right does about as much for me as lies from the far left.

Woodrow Major

Protest Warrior, Murray State University

Rogue 9, Protest Warrior forums

"HAHA!! Protest Warrior is great - not only does their grammar and spelling suck, so does their history!"

Yes, we love you too.

"My personal favorite: Except for communism, fascism, slavery and Nazism, War Has Never Solved Anything! (The word order might be slightly different).
This one cracks me up every time I see it. Let's see: Spanish Civil War: institutes a fascist dictatorship;"

World War 2, ended three fascist dictatorships.

"Chilean coup: institutes rightist/ fascist dictatorship."

See above. And fascism is a trait of the left; Hitler himself stated that Nazism was socialist and in fact the more proper name of Nazism is National Socialism.

"War ended communism? Psst, somebody tell China."

Somebody also tell the Soviet Union... Oh wait, can't do that anymore.

"War ended slavery? Yup, no slavery anywhere, least of all in the US."

See U.S. Civil War.

"War ended fascism? Uh, yeah: Mussolini"
Yeah, actually it did end him.

"Franco, the numerous puppet leaders of Central America."
You know why they're still there? No wars fought to remove them. Dumbass.

"And of course Nazism: yeah, white supremacists are still running around, too."

They're not in charge of any countries anymore though, are they?

"It's not for holding neo-conservative ideas that I think PW has the collective IQ of of a 20-year-old Twinkie; it's because they're too busy claiming victimhood to actually research their claims."

Pot? Meet Kettle. Yes, I know the kettle's black. You have no room to talk.

Woodrow Major

Protest Warrior, Murray State University

Rogue 9, Protest Warrior forums