Phelps & Co. Terrorise Des Moines

This past Saturday Fred Phelps and his marauding band of lunatics descended upon Des Moines to protest the awarding of a scholarship in the name of Matthew Shepard to a senior from Lincoln High School.

Sunday they took their evil placards to five area churches. Among the signs were these vengeful messages and their counterparts...

Motorists passing the churches saw signs that read "God hates fags," "Thank God for Sept. 11," and "AIDS is the Cure" from Phelps followers, and signs reading "Love" and "God doesn't judge" from gay activists.

In the Des Moines Register there was a picture of someone holding that sign so popular with these sick people when Matthew Shepard was so brutally murdered that had his picture and the words . In Hell...but the current sign is updated with the number of days that have passed since the tragedy.

Jonathan Phelps, an attorney for Freddie's Westboro church, shouted to two church women;

"You two ugly old women are responsible for this boy's death," he yelled at Beale and another woman, referring to Shepard. "You're going to spend 10 million years in hell for killing that boy."

Four arrests were made on Saturday when gay activists pelted Phelps' followers with pies. The article states another arrest occurred Sunday but the why is unclear other than someone was harrassed.

Is this not more egregious than anything reported about anti-war demonstrators who continue to be cordoned off into 'free speech' zones, fired at with rubber bullets, denied the right to protest?

And what about these remarks that 9/11 was a blessing? Where are the right winged pundits and their patriotism meters?

What's Next?

Phelps' group will turn out Friday for the meeting of the First Friday Breakfast Club In Des Moines, when Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew, will be on hand to present the Matthew Shepard scholarship.