13 October 2010 By Keith Johnson We all enjoy good satire
from time to time—even when the ribbing is done at our
expense. God knows I've dished out my fair share.
Very rarely do we find extreme examples, where
satirists cross the line into territory that is beyond
bad taste. However, this weekend, I found an article
on the self-described ‘D.C. gossip' website,
Wonkette,
that did just that. A featured
article
entitled, "BREAKING TEABAGGER NEWS: Govmint Stoled
Newborn Baby" makes a mockery out of the
suffering of a young couple, whose child was recently
abducted by child services in the state of New
Hampshire. The author, who goes by
the name of Jack Stuef, immediately treads beyond the
parameters of artistic license and begins engaging in
a variety of cruel defamations. "Just when Teabagger
parents thought they could have as many poor welfare
children as they wanted, the big scary government
child services came in and decided it could
TAKE AWAY THEIR CHILDREN
just because they are members of a Teabagger group
that wants to protect the
Constitution
(with guns)." If you are not familiar
with the case he is referring to, perhaps a little
background information is in order. Last Thursday, John
Irish and Stephanie Janvrin welcomed their newborn
daughter into the world at the Concord Hospital in
New Hampshire.
Shortly after Stephanie gave birth, the hospital staff
told the parents that the infant needed to be checked
by a pediatrician. This was an apparent rouse to get
the child away from the couple. Irish saw a variety
of uniformed officers, detectives and social workers
escorting the head nurse down the hall. Sensing that
something was wrong, Irish tried to intervene. He was
then forcibly held against his will, frisked, and told
by police that they were taking the baby. Shortly
thereafter, both parents were told to leave the
hospital and demanded they not return. According to court
paperwork, the state alleges that the infant was in
"imminent danger" of her parents due to
"a lengthy history of domestic violence." Both
Janvrin and Irish deny the allegations. In an affidavit
supporting its actions, the Department of Child and
Youth Services also makes mention of the father's
affiliation with Oath Keepers, which it describes as
"a militia," and his purchase of "several
different types of weapons including a rifle, handgun
and Taser." The information in that
last paragraph is apparently what sparked Jack Stuef's
interest. He isn't concerned about the plight of
American families who have fallen victim to
Child
Protective Services—and had it not been
for the couple's politics—he would have likely
dismissed the case as irrelevant. But these
particular people were poor, white, owned guns and
regard the
United States Constitution as the law of
the land. They fit the exact profile of the kind of
people Jack obviously hates. It makes no difference
to him that they are going through one of the most
traumatic experiences a parent could ever go through.
In his mind, these people are TEABAGGERS, and should
be given no quarter. This line of thinking is
inhumane, vicious and paints an ugly picture of the
moral collapse of our society. You don't go to a
military funeral to stage a protest carrying signs
that read "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God For
Dead
Soldiers," and you don't poke fun at
grieving mothers who have just lost their children, no
matter how much you may disagree with their
politics. At no time in a woman's
life is she more emotionally fragile than directly
after having given birth. This is what makes this
particular case so horrific: that the local
authorities would choose this time to separate a woman
from her child, when the bonding is most critical. No
advance warning was given. They simply took the child
and told the parents to leave. Upon hearing this, I
literally broke down in tears, as I have countless
times before after hearing of similar incidents. In
these circumstances, a decent and compassionate being
turns off their bias and prejudice and feels nothing
but empathy for the human suffering. I personally
cannot even comprehend how anyone could find humor
from such tragedy. Perhaps it requires having
children of your own and living more than a few
decades to fully appreciate what I'm talking about. In my attempt to try and
understand what makes someone like Stuef tick, I went
to his
bio.
There, I found his photograph. If that really is him,
it confirms a lot of what I expected to find: a young
white kid who looks like he needs a little more
sunshine than the kind he gets off his computer
screen. He has an unruly mop of hair and soft pudgy
cheeks that look like they've been cultivated off a
steady diet of Dr. Pepper and Cheetos. Am I being
exceptionally cruel? But I've said enough
about Jack (or whatever his real name is). His poor
excuse for satire is what I've come here to discuss.
His article goes on to describe ‘Oath Keepers' as
"a militia group with a weird constitution fetish." Oath Keepers is not a
militia, but rather (according
to its own website) a
"non-partisan association of currently serving
military, veterans, peace officers, and firefighters
who will fulfill the oath we swore to support and
defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign
and domestic, so help us God." But even if it were a
militia, listing Irish's association with Oath Keepers
in an affidavit in support of taking his child is an
egregious violation of the Constitution.
Additionally, none of Irish's weapons purchases seemed
to have been made illegally. If they had been, or if
Irish had a felony conviction that precluded him from
firearms ownership, it would seem likely that he would
have already been in custody. Again, listing Irish's
legal firearms ownership in the context of an
affidavit to take his child would also qualify as a
gross violation of our Constitution. Stuef also identifies
the couple's child as a "Teabagger spawn,"
mocks the Mother's
Facebook
profile, suggests that the Father has a "history
of violence and firearms charges" and that both
parents were "terrible parents with a long history
of neglect." In reality, there
appears to one only one firearms charge that may have
come as a result of a traffic stop—and a subsequent
search of the vehicle—that discovered a firearm that
belonged to Stephanie. She is said to have a
concealed carry permit, but did not have it in her
possession. Because it was John's vehicle, he was the
one charged. It is unclear if that case has been
fully resolved. But often times, people who are
unable to afford adequate representation will often
feel compelled to plea out to a charge in order to
avoid a lengthy trial. Also, it appears that
the neglect accusations may have stemmed from charges
made by Stephanie's ex-husband, and that the petition
for removal of
parental rights
have nothing to do with John and his newborn
daughter. Bitter, former spouses often come up with
exaggerated, and often false, accusations during
custody disputes. But none of this speculation really
matters. Whatever the truth turns out be should be
resolved in a court of law. The simple fact that
both Janvrin and Irish are running around free is
enough to suggest that a solid case has yet been
established that would support criminal prosecution.
In the United States of America, we are presumed
innocent until we are proven otherwise before a jury
of our peers. Child Protective Service courts are
extra-judiciary, administrative bodies that do not
extend the right of due process afforded to us (at the
State level) under the
14th amendment
of the United States Constitution. Without due
process, the government is forbidden from depriving
any American of life liberty or property. Most police officers and
social workers are not even aware of this fact. That
is the problem that arises when a society allows their
government to ‘train' their personnel rather than
‘educate' them. Dogs can be trained, but it takes an
intellect to discern right from wrong. That is why
most
civilian law enforcement
agency hires have an intelligence quotient in the
range of 80-90. This is considered a little below
"average intelligence" by most standards, and
identifies people who rarely seek explanations beyond
those they learn in a classroom setting. Anyone
smarter than that is likely to explore the given
material in great detail and apply logic and reason
before making critical decisions. The government
can't have that. They need obedient servants that
will take orders and fit in to their uniform standards
of compliance. I'm sure most of you are
familiar with the first few Stars Wars episodes? The
Empire didn't clone their storm troopers simply in the
interests of saving a few bucks. But don't think I'm
basing my analysis on a work of fiction. During the
course of my former career, I've literally screened
thousands of potential job applicants. It always
disturbed me that intelligent people were turned away
in just as great a number as the ones who fell way
below the acceptable limit. Meanwhile, I would watch
the select few being told that they were the "best of
the best" and "the ones that made the cut," instilling
a false sense of superiority that often led to a
tragic end. What happened to
Stephanie Janvrin and John Irish is a classic example
of public servants who overstep their bounds, and
whose textbook allegiance to unlawful bureaucracies
brings untold heartache and tragedy to yet another
American family. If the police had reasonable cause
to believe that Irish had committed a crime, they
should have arrested him and left the child with the
Mother. If both parents were held on
reasonable suspicion of a crime, the
police should have immediately surrendered the child
over to the care of Stephanie's family. There will be a
hearing
in the case on Thursday in Rochester
Family Court, and while the ‘presumed
guilty' couple sweats out the long days heading up to
their court date, the court of public opinion has
already found them guilty as charged. We've seen both the left
and right jump to conclusions about the assumed guilt
or innocence of people they despise. In 2008, Right
wing Neo-conservative bloggers and posters were in a
delirious frenzy of euphoria when a 9/11-truth
advocate by the name of Gary Talis was arrested on
charges of assaulting a wheel chair bound girl, with
cerebral palsy, at a
Laura Bush event. Although he adamantly
denied the charges and had several eyewitnesses to
corroborate his story, many took the liberty to defame
him and put his life in serious jeopardy. The New York Post ran an
article
entitled, "Bush Basher Smashes Disabled Teen:
Cops," that made Talis out to be an insane
lunatic who shouted obscenities and then began
punching the disabled girl. More faux-conservatives
like
Sean Hannity,
Michelle Malkin,
Fox News and
several 9/11 debunking sites joined in the smear.
Bloggers and comment boards were full of slanderous
content, many making threats of violence directed at
Talis.
The ensuing trial found
Talis "not guilty" after a
conscientious Secret Service agent provided key
testimony that thoroughly discredited the charges.
According to eyewitnesses, it was actually the girl's
father who assaulted Talis by punching and ramming his
daughter's wheelchair into him. Now the left has their
own ‘claim to defame' with this latest smear
campaign. If you haven't read Jack Steuf's article, I
would highly recommend that you do so. But don't stop
there. Read on to the comments section, where you'll
find even more disgusting discourse to turn your
stomach. Take a look at some of these comments: Kittylittr:
Have the Teatards officially declared war against
the US yet?
Because I'm really looking forward to collecting
medals for killing bunches of them with my liberal gun
and liberating their sister-wife-daughters from the
compounds. Tommmcatt:
If they take away the baby who will keep an eye on
the meth lab timer? If that stuff boils over it burns
holes in the double-wide. FlownOver:
Well,
cool! TeaBaggerdom is now officially a defense to
child abuse! JMPEsq:
Let's see; the parents are apparently not married,
the mother at least already has three kids when she's
too young to have one, it's unclear if the older kids
have the same father or not, oh and they apparently
abused and neglected the kids. Yep, this is what the
teabaggers tell us is a normal all-American family. Rambone:
Well, the good new is that they'll probably have a
couple more replacement babies on the
conception-conveyor belt before I manage to hit the
"submit" button on this comment. Just for good measure, I
added a comment of my own: Revoltoftheplebs:
Look at the NEW LEFT--a bunch of giggling ninnies
full of frightened men and bitter women. Oh, what a
departure from the antiwar, anti-fascist movement of
the 60's and 70's. Now it's time to use your 'indoor
voice' and rat out your neighbors if they might have a
scary flag waving on their front porch. They'd rather get
their giggling points from Jon Stewart and attend a
"Rally to Restore Sanity" to mock the teabaggers.
Ridicule is so much more fun than taking to the
streets and voicing their outrage at bankers
foreclosing on people's homes while their executives
reep million dollar bonuses. Snickering at stupid
costumes teabaggers wear is so much more constructive
than demanding an end to these unnecessary wars. I suggest you visit
Wonkette and leave a comment of your own, or perhaps
drop Jack Stuef a line and tell him how you really
feel:
Jack@Wonkette.com
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