Jane Fonda Joins George Galloway
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Bad Decisions, The War On TerrorismWhenever you align yourself with George Galloway, expect to lose some credibility. Apparently, she’s joining him on a nationwide tour to criticize the Administration for spending money on the war instead of preparing for disaster at home.
From the partisan Washington Times comes more:
Mr. Galloway, a passionate supporter of anti-Western causes in the Arab world, has been sneered at in Parliament as the “member for Baghdad” because of his regular trips there before the U.S.-led invasion.He also has been accused of receiving allocations to buy and sell 20 million barrels of Iraqi oil, a charge he has strongly denied.
Miss Fonda was persuaded to join Mr. Galloway’s eight-city traveling show later this month by a friend, Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues.” Mrs. Ensler had been impressed by Mr. Galloway’s pugnacious performance in May in front of a Senate committee investigating the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, the London Sunday Times reported.
At the hearing, Mr. Galloway, just re-elected after a fiercely fought campaign exploiting Muslim anti-war sentiment, described the accusations against him as “the mother of all smoke screens” and said they were aimed at diverting attention from America’s role in the war and its aftermath.
However, perhaps Galloway has a VERY good reason to complain this time. If the story about British families being passed over for evacuation in favor of Americans is true, it demands some serious scrutiny.
Perhaps the biggest blow to America’s image came in a report in the London Observer that New Orleans police refused to evacuate British families from hotels before the hurricane struck, telling them that priority was being given to Americans.The newspaper quoted Gerrard Scott, 35, speaking from the Ramada Hotel in New Orleans, where he has been stranded without assistance with his wife and 7-year-old son since Katrina struck.
“Those that didn’t fit their criteria were told to help themselves,” he told a relative by telephone. “The police said they were evacuating Americans and took away the majority.”
Simply put, we can’t put nationalism above humanity, especially when children are involved…
UPDATE
Jane won’t do the tour and is limiting her appearances with Galloway.
From Fox News:
Jane Fonda told me yesterday she’s scrapped plans for anti-war bus trip next March. As well, Fonda will be making only two appearances this month on another rally with controversial British politician George Galloway, not the eight that were widely misreported in the press yesterday.Why the change of plans? Certainly, Fonda is still very much against the war in Iraq and in favor of helping our troops there. But she said that she didn’t want to distract people from Cindy Sheehan’s bus trip, already under way and gathering support.
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September 7th, 2005 at 12:18 am
What an exercise in moral equivalance. So, George Galloway’s behavior in re: to the oil for food scandal and arab apologist (including his calling for more suicide bomber to save Iraq) is excused because of one story in a London tabloid regarding a third hand story. I really expected better from this site.
September 7th, 2005 at 12:31 am
I am in no way a Galloway fan, but if he makes a valid point I’ll defend it regardless of his other assertions.
No excuses here. A good point is a good point, and no matter who makes it, the honus is on the person who would disprove it.
In any event, I still think Fonda discredits herself by aligning with Galloway. I’ve said as much and I’ll say it again when, and if, the opportunity presents itself.
September 7th, 2005 at 12:40 am
The interesting part will be watching him blame it on Bush and the Jewish Neocons. Sit back, give him time; he’ll find a way.
September 7th, 2005 at 9:09 am
And what exactly is Galloway’s point? That one family had a bad experience with the rescuers in a disaster that spanned 90,000 square miles. I am sorry that this family was not evacuated but a whole lot of other people weren’t either. For every story like this (which I will point out again was told to a report who was told by a family member who talked on the phone to the people involved), there will be untold stories of families and individuals that were saved and/or rescued and some of them might be British. Will Galloway point to those stories or will those stories not fit into his world view.
September 7th, 2005 at 9:56 am
Rebecca, we are specifically talking about passing somebody over because of their nationality. If that happened, it’s wrong. I agree there will be thousands of stories. This is but one.
And honestly, it’s not up to Galloway to point to other stories. It’s up to you. It’s up to me. If he wants to highlight a problem that a British citizen had, that’s a unique right he has as a British citizen. That’s why I highlighted it. I understand you don’t agree with the fact it WAS highlighted, but that’s just how this story shook out.
And to Callimachus’ point, I too unfortunately expect Galloway to find some way to blame Bush for this. It will be interesting indeed.
September 7th, 2005 at 10:26 am
Justin, actually we are specifically talking about using one anecdotal story being used by a political hack to stir anti-american feelings. I still don’t understand your point. If these people were passed by because of their nationality that is wrong but using it to paint the Americans as unfeeling cretins is also wrong. If it only take one story for you to find complete fault with disaster efforts, I am afraid that a million stories to the contrary wouldn’t make a dent in that belief.
And you are right it is up to us to find highlight some of the true stories of this disaster, lord knows, you can’t get it from our media.
September 7th, 2005 at 10:48 am
Too bad for GG the family wasn’t black too. He would have been dancing a jig. By now nothing he says can be trusted, period. His touch fouls everything. There is probably no proof he could bring that would convince me this is anything but a politically useful lie. When a liar tells the truth people would be stupid to believe him.
September 7th, 2005 at 2:18 pm
A British Muslim family herded into the Superdome with everyone else who had no way out of the city would be right up GG’s alley, actually.
The whole “screw the British” attitude is somewhat difficult to reconclie with facts we’ve seen so far. Obviously a lot of Americans — including those with children — got left behind. I wonder what the “criteria” were. Was the Ramada hotel staff evacuating people, or the police?
And I’ve read “Whenever you align yourself with George Galloway, expect to lose some credibility,” but I’m still trying to figure out whose credibility suffers more in this tratorious tag team. Galloway at least has political savvy and rhetorical skills going for him.
September 7th, 2005 at 3:28 pm
Rebecca,
I’m not going to defend Galloway, but I still think the ONE point he made is valid.
Also, this isn’t a blog for dummies. We have some pretty talented thinkers around here and I expect them to use their best judgement and separate the message from the messenger. Some people think he lied, fine. Others won’t, and I felt it important to highlight that IF this did happen, it should come under greater scrutiny. I stick by that assertion.
September 8th, 2005 at 1:32 pm
Speaking as a Brit, I have to apologize for GG. He is a disgrace to the British establishment. If he has words to say about the British government, or any other government for that matter, he should say so in the House (Parliament) – NOT in any nation other than his own. He seems to have a love affair with long-distance travel and getting in front of cameras and on print, which I sincerely hope the British people soon realize and vote him out of office for.
As for British families and/or tourists in New Orleans, perhaps they should have heeded the warnings from state and city officials which I am quite sure were on the TV? Could they not see a bloody big storm headed towards them? To say afterwards, ‘well the americans should have saved us,’ is ludicrous at best given the scale of the problem.
February 26th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
A TRAITOR IS ABOUT TO BE HONORED
KEEP THIS MOVING ACROSS AMERICA
This is for all the kids born in the 70’s who do
not remember, and didn’t have to bear the
burden that our fathers, mothers and older
brothers and sisters had to bear.
Jane Fonda is being honored as one of the
“100 Women of the Century.”
BY BARBRA WALTERS
Unfortunately, many have forgotten and still
countless others have never known how Ms.
Fonda betrayed not only the idea of our country,
but specific men who served and sacrificed
during Vietnam.
The first part of this is from an F-4E pilot
The pilot’s name is Jerry Driscoll, a River Rat.
In 1968, the former Commandant of the USAF
Survival School was a POW in Ho Lo Prison
the “Hanoi Hilton.”
Dragged from a stinking cesspit of a cell,
cleaned, fed, and dressed in clean PJ’s, he was
ordered to describe for a visiting American
“Peace Activist” the “lenient and humane
treatment” he’d received.
He spat at Ms. Fonda, was clubbed, and was
dragged away.
During the subsequent beating, he fell forward
on to the camp Commandant’s feet, which
sent that officer berserk.
In 1978, the Air Force Colonel still suffered from
double vision (which permanently ended his
flying career) from the Commandant’s frenzied
application of a wooden baton.
From 1963-65, Col. Larry Carrigan was in the
47FW/DO (F-4E’s). He spent 6 years in the
“Hanoi Hilton”,,, the first three of which his
family only knew he was “missing in action”.
His wife lived on faith that he was still alive.
His group, too, got the cleaned-up, fed and
clothed routine in preparation for a
“peace delegation” visit.
They, however, had time and devised a plan to
get word to the world that they were alive
and still survived. Each man secreted a tiny
piece of paper, with his Social Security Number
on it, in the palm of his hand.
When paraded before Ms. Fonda and a
cameraman, she walked the line, shaking each
man’s hand and asking little encouraging
snippets like: “Aren’t you sorry you bombed
babies?” and “Are you grateful for the humane
treatment from your benevolent captors?”
Believing this HAD to be an act, they each
palmed her their sliver of paper.
She took them all without missing a beat. At the
end of the line and once the camera stopped
rolling, to the shocked disbelief of the POWs,
she turned to the officer in charge and handed
him all the little pieces of paper.
Three men died from the subsequent beatings.
Colonel Carrigan was almost number four
but he survived, which is the only reason we
know of her actions that day.
I was a civilian economic development advisor
in Vietnam, and was captured by the North
Vietnamese communists in South Vietnam in
1968, and held prisoner for over 5 years.
I spent 27 months in solitary confinement; one
year in a cage in Cambodia; and one year
in a “black box” in Hanoi.
My North Vietnamese captors deliberately
poisoned and murdered a female missionary, a
nurse in a leprosarium in Ban me Thuot, South
Vietnam, whom I buried in the jungle near the
Cambodian border.
At one time, I weighed only about 90 lbs.
(My normal weight is 170 lbs.)
We were Jane Fonda’s “war criminals.”
When Jane Fonda was in Hanoi, I was asked by
the camp communist political officer if I would
be willing to meet with her.
I said yes, for I wanted to tell her about the real
treatment we POWs received… and how
different it was from the treatment purported by
the North Vietnamese, and parroted by her as
“humane and lenient.”
Because of this, I spent three days on a rocky
floor on my knees, with my arms outstretched
with a large steel weights placed on my hands,
and beaten with a bamboo cane.
I had the opportunity to meet with Jane Fonda
soon after I was released. I asked her
if she would be willing to debate me on TV.
She never did answer me.
These first-hand experiences do not exemplify
someone who should be honored as part
of “100 Years of Great Women.”
Lest we forget…” 100 Years of Great Women”
should never include a traitor whose hands are
covered with the blood of so many patriots.
There are few things I have strong visceral
reactions to, but Hanoi Jane’s participation in
blatant treason, is one of them.
Please take the time to forward to as many
people as you possibly can.
It will eventually end up on her computer and
she needs to know that we will never forget.
RONALD D. SAMPSON, CMSgt, USAF
716 Maintenance Squadron, Chief of
Maintenance
DSN: 875-6431
COMM: 883-6343
PLEASE HELP BY SENDING THIS TO
EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK. IF
ENOUGH PEOPLE SEE THIS MAYBE HER
STATUS WILL CHANGE