Would that I resided in the city of Brotherly Love…

Any time not spent following around my Muse Ms Skye (who until the restraining order could find refuge in the Art Museum) would be spent attending these absolutely absurd gatherings.  To wit:

Philadelphia: In celebration of the American Revolution, Iraq Veterans Against the War will hold a “Patriots’ Town Hall Gathering” on July 2 at 5:30PM on the 3rd Floor of the AFSCME District Council 47 Union Hall, located at 1606 Walnut St.

I love the Patriots, from Ethan Allen to Tom F’n Brady, so this sounds like it would totally be my speed!  But who is speaking?  Belichick?  Larry Izzo?  Randy Moss?  John Paul Jones via ouija board?  The head of John Paul Jones preserved Futurama style in a jar of formaldehyde?

The keynote speakers for this event will be John Braxton, U.S. Labor Against the War Steering Committee Member, and T.J. Buonomo, IVAW Organizer and Former Military Intelligence Officer, U.S. Army.

 On second thought, maybe I’ll drink rat poison and watch re-runs of the Golden Girls.

 So, who is John Braxton?  Someone who did time for dodging the draft apparently:

“I will not accept a deferment from killing in order to let others do it for me,” he told his draft board in Norristown.

“The very public way I went about protesting the war made it very hard for the government to ignore me,” Braxton said in an interview last week. “It had become clear to me after seeing the destruction in Vietnam that the draft system was central to the prosecution of the war. I felt very committed to my course of action.”

Well, isn’t that special.

He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.  The president of his senior class at Swarthmore, Braxton served his time in three prisons — two in central Pennsylvania and one in Petersburg, Va.

Bully!  (Insert Teddy Roosevelt voice here)

Well, what about Buonomo?  Since he’s an “organizer” for Iraq Veterans Against the War, maybe he can regale us with war stories?  Afraid not, unless there was an un-talked about skirmish in Colorado Springs or New York.  Mr. Buonomo went to the Air Force Academy on your dime, then decided that discussing the treachery and perfidy of VP Cheney was the way to pay back the American People.

 I’ve been a big fan of Buonomo’s for a while now.  In particular, his various treatises are a source of unending mirth for me.  Loved (LOVED!!) this one in particular:

 “Communist”, “Hippie”, “Terrorist-sympathizer”, “Haji-lover”, “Anti-American”…these are the terms that have been used to describe me and anyone who dares to question the government and take a stand against its abuses of power.

As I noted at the Sniper, we call you a communist when you espouse forced economic re-allocation. We call you a hippie when you fail to use deodorant, and play an acoustic guitar while cooking s’mores and smoking pot around a campfire. We call you Terrorist-sympathizers when you sympathize with the terrorists. Do I need to go on, or are you in one of your infrequent, cognitively-conscious stages?

Mr. Braxton will speak on the struggle of Iraqi workers to unionize in the face of U.S. and Iraqi government repression. Mr. Buonomo will speak on the legacy of the American Revolution and its relevance to U.S. foreign policy in Iraq.

TSO will be appearing at an Independence ceremony at Murphy’s Irish Pub, discussing the leadership of Leonidas at Thermopylae, and the role that played in the Sam Adams Brewing company’s selection of choicest hops for use in their summer ale, and how this is all an allegory for the plight of our tri-gendered community.

Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War