TAH haunts Kokesh in Las Vegas
The other day I got an email from Chris Hill of Gathering of Eagles;
Jonn,
Adam Kokesh, as part of his campaign is at Freedom Fest out in Vegas and is one of the speakers. By chance Captain Larry Bailey happens to be there too. Kokesh’s bio has all sorts of false or embellished claims, most noticeably that he received an honorable discharge. We’re putting together a flier to distribute there countering his claims. Do you have any of the reports about the weapon Kokesh brought back from Iraq, it’s theft from his vehicle, a copy of his DD-214, or any of the statements he made about the officers which resulted in the general discharge. The event runs for a few more days, but I’d like to get this flier put together today with a banner something like WHO IS ADAM KOKESH REALLY? Thanks for any help you can provide bro. Manchu.
Chris Hill
So I sent him a bunch of links to posts that we’d written over the past few years and apparentlythey printed the pages out and made a handout of them. A few days later, Chris emailed back;
John,
Captain Bailey used the material you provided on Kokesh to rattle him completely this morning at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas. It was being videotaped, but we are unsure by whom. The Fest only lists audio tapes. We’ll be looking. Thanks bro. Mission Accomplished. Manchu
I’ve been looking for the video for a few days now with no luck. The only video I found of Kokesh at Freedom Fest was this one from Russia Today (I think Kokesh is stalking them – he’s in every RT video I’ve seen lately).
Category: Antiwar crowd, Bloggers, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Usual Suspects
Outstanding!! HA!
OFS!!!!
Yes, Chris Hill can be scary, but so can a pissed off Larry Bailey!! Ah-ooh,Ah-ooh, gonna get him…over and over again!!!
Since it is already well known among libertarians (or at least well known to some behind-the-scenes folks who I have personal communication with) that Kokesh had a weapons charge, this report doesn’t really mean a lot without more details about what exactly his alleged false claims were.
You say that his bio listed that he received an Honorable Discharge when what he actually received was a General Discharge Under Honorable Conditions. I fnd it hard to believe that anyone would deliberately and blatantly put out false information about something that is so public and easily verified. Maybe somebody else wrote his bio or maybe he doesn’t know the difference himself. A lot of people don’t and I don’t know as that the types of discharges are all that clear to myself, at least without doing some research on it first. What other false claims did he allegedly make?
On Twitter, this is what he posted on 11 Jul 09:
AdamKokesh: I got protested today! We had a pro-war heckler at Freedom Fest. What’s up with that?
After reading this TAH post, I’m guessing he was referring to Larry Bailey, though don’t know for sure.
I would like more specifics about what alleged false information Kokesh put out about himself and what Bailey confronted him with, but the more interesting question to me is if Bailey was there only because Kokesh was there, or if he also was there for the actual purpose of attending the Freedom Fest.
If he was there only because Kokesh was there, then, IMO, even though Kokesh was wrong if he put out any false or misleading information about himself, he at least accomplished something good by leading folks who are on his tail into the deeper waters of freedom….LOL…
Anyway, I’d really like to see this cleared up.
As far as I was aware, Adam did get an honorable discharge, which was downgraded after discharge to general under honorable conditions for telling the officer off.
“or maybe he doesn’t know the difference himself”. I’d hate to think that he ever carried a weapon for this country if he didn’t know the difference. That was pounded into us in Basic, and my platoon leader was careful to point out the difference between a general and honorable discharge. Kokesh knows, if he doesn’t, he certainly shouldn’t be running for congress.
Well, UpNorth, he probably does know; it’s just that I don’t know because it was, like, 33 years ago that I went through Basic. Besides that, I think I was more attuned to BCD’s and DD’s due to the nature of my, uh, profession, since so many of those who brushed up against my colleagues had those types of discharges..
It’s also true that people remember different things being “pounded” into them in the military. Things that I can remember being pounded into my head in the military do not seem to be things that others, at least today, have much awareness of…perhaps stemming from the era or perhaps just stemming from the way Ipersonally perceived things. I went into the military right after Vietnam (technically still the Vietnam era), so perhaps there was a special emphasis on certain things during that time.
Anyway, regardless of the level of awareness that Kokesh may or may not have concerning the error in question, IMO, this really should not be the criteria for whether or not he is qualified for Congress. Please, folks, can we try to keep things in perspective here? We are dealing with a Congress who routinely passed bills WITHOUT EVEN READING THEM. Do you see my point?
Things in DC are way too far gone the way it is to be focusing on the kind of trivialities that you all seem to be hung up on. Honestly, I really can’t think of a single man or woman in Congress, with the exception of Ron Paul, who Kokesh could possibly do a worse job than as a Congressman.
“IMO, this really should not be the criteria for whether or not he is qualified for Congress. Please, folks, can we try to keep things in perspective here? We are dealing with a Congress who routinely passed bills WITHOUT EVEN READING THEM. Do you see my point?”
Anyone have a linky to the Kokesh booze and Xanax chaser caper?? Smuugling a firearm ain’t too bright of a thing to do either. I’m a Libertarian, have no interest to what anyone does in the privacy of their own home, BUT when somebody blasts bad judgement over the internet and then asks me to vote for them to get a position that requires good judgement, which the Congress you rightly castigated for LACKS, it makes me seriously consider another candidate.
TSO Wrote: Ask and ye shall receive.
Jonn wrote: With screen shot;
Debbie: While I agree with you as far as what type of creatures inhabit the halls Congress; the point is; do we really want to send another one, just like the last one, or, do we want to start cleansing the fungus and taking back our government? We need people that are going to withstand the temptation to shoot up the heroin that is power and control in our government. Even those with the best intentions usually fall victim to that powerful drug after a while. We need to start populating our representatives with enough people that are hardened against such crap that peer pressure alone makes it the exception instead of the rule.
Yeah, I know it’s more wishful thinking than reality, but so is the thought that every beauty queen candidate utters about “world peace”.
We have to start somewhere and why not here and now with this candidate? He’s willing to embellish and hide certain things about his tarnished service in order to get elected; so what does that say about the character of the man?
I can’t really argue with JuniorAG or OldTrooper…especially JuniorAG, he is too cute to argue with, even though he is married… Nonetheless, I would still like to point out a couple of things. For one – and I know I’ve mentioned this before and people are probably getting tired of hearing it, but I just have to say it again. Different people deal with combat stress or personal trauma with varying degrees of success. It’s very common for PTSD to be accompanied by drug and alcohol abuse. It would be ideal if everyone had a totally healthy emotional life and good health habits, something I still have to work on myself sometimes, and I have done better with it at certain times in my life than other times. Currently I’m doing pretty well so I guess it would be easy for me to look at somebody else and say they need to get their shit together and take better care of themselves. However, I have my doubts as to the effectiveness of that. While personal integrity in the private lives of our congressmen and women is important, what is most important of all – to me anyway (speaking as a libertarian) is an absolute adherence to libertarian principles. I care far more about that than whether or not a congressman has some personal flaws that have nothing to do with political decision-making. I’m more interested in ideas and political philosophy than in the private lives of people who are not otherwise part of my personal life. I understand if you don’t want to support Kokesh politically because of his personal flaws and shortcomings, but I ask you to still hang on to what is most vital and not lose sight of it, which is support and defense of right principles of freedom, and, within that framework, at least try to understand why I accept Kokesh, warts and all, even though you may reject him. To the extent that Kokesh, or anyone, supports the principles of liberty, they are a contributing part of the overall defense of freedom. That’s what matters… Read more »