National Geographic

(Via - Truth Wins Out)

Over the weekend comedian Lisa Lampanelli vowed to donate $1000 to the Gay Men's Health Crisis for every Westboro protester that show up at her Topeka, Kansas show.

On Friday a West Virginia jury refused to convict a man for spitting tobacco juice on Westboro Baptist Church leader Shirley Phelps-Roper. Westboro was in West Virginia last year to "celebrate" the deaths of miners killed in a cave-in.

An officer assigned to patrol the event witnessed Spade spitting and arrested him. The officer testified he saw Spade spit on the woman's chest. Spade told jurors he spit on her sign which she was holding above her shoulders. Charleston Police Sgt. Nick Null testified as he was leading Spade away, the victim Shirley Phelps-Roper said, "I'm glad you pigs finally did something." Phelps-Roper is the daughter of the church's controversial pastor Fred Phelps. The jury ruled in the case that Spade committed no crime when he spit on the woman, under the highly charged circumstances. The jury returned its not-guilty verdict in less than an hour.

(Tipped by JMG reader NYC Girl)

If you can bear it (or even care) Westboro is tweeting out the link to the below video in which they mock the NOH8 campaign. (Twitter is all they have these days as all of Westboro's sites remain hacked.) Lots of NSFW language from God's Most Holy Family.

Clip description:

Following up on his 2007 documentary, The Most Hated Family in America, Louis Theroux returns to Topeka, Kansas, for a week-long visit with the Westboro Baptist Church. He again joins the Phelps family on their controversial pickets where they try to antagonise communities with offensive slogans and anti-gay placards. But four years on from Louis's last visit, there are signs of disarray in the Phelps clan. A series of defections of family members has shaken up the church.

This is Part 1 of four parts.

Infosec Island notes that Westboro Baptist Church's dozens of websites remain offline more than one month after the initial attack by the famed hacker Jester.

The sustained DoS attacks which began on February 21st represent a duration record for the hacktivist who is best known for his regular attacks on militant Jihadi websites as well as for an attack on the WikiLeaks website in late November of 2010 that forced the organization to shuffle Internet hosting providers. The Jester uses a DoS tool he calls XerXeS to perform an application level attack which can be performed by a single low-spec machine with relatively few packets, whereas traditional TCP-based DoS attacks require multiple machines. The XerXeS tool has been employed to disable multiple WBC websites in a relentless campaign to hamper the church's continued use of the Internet to broadcast hate speech.

The hackers group Anonymous, which is apparently not involved, says that Westboro's initial claim of a pending attack by them was a publicity hoax.

(Tipped by JMG reader Jay)

Last night Joy Behar spoke to Fred Phelps' estranged son about Westboro and Elizabeth Taylor.

Perhaps to thwart the Westboro Baptist Church, who yesterday vowed to picket her funeral, Elizabeth Taylor will be buried today at the famed Forest Lawn Memorial Park, the final resting place of many Hollywood stars. I just checked the Twitter feed of Margie Phelps, who doesn't yet seem to be aware of the speedy service. Story developing...

UPDATE: E! Online reports that the private service took place under tight security and without "unwelcome interruptions," although Westboro may get another shot during an upcoming "more expansive" memorial service. Taylor was interred in Forest Lawn's Great Mausoleum near Michael Jackson. Tomorrow night Broadway's marquees will go dark for one minute at 8PM in Taylor's honor.

JMG reader Thomas writes to observe that the websites of Westboro Baptist Church still appear to be offline more than three weeks after the live hacking done by Anonymous during a joint interview with Shirley Phelps.

Bereaved father Albert Snyder, who lost his Supreme Court battle with Westboro Baptist Church earlier this week, says that somebody is inevitably going to open fire on the Phelps family.

"Something is going to happen," Albert Snyder told CNN Thursday. "Somebody is going to get hurt." "You have too many soldiers and Marines coming back with post-traumatic stress syndrome, and they (the Westboro protesters) are going to go to the wrong funeral and the guns are going to go off." "And when it does," Snyder said. "I just hope it doesn't hit the mother that's burying her child or the little girl that's burying her father or mother. It's inevitable." Albert Snyder again slammed the high court justices for not having "the common sense that God gave a goat." "I just can't believe that there was no common sense used in this decision," Snyder said.

Snyder must now pay $116K in court costs to the Phelps.

"The fringe cult calling itself Westboro Baptist (a small congregation consisting of close, and possibly incestuous, relatives of Fred Phelps, who calls himself a pastor) first became famous by protesting gay rights events with revolting signs suggesting that God hates gay people. (They used another offensive terms as well). These ugly signs proved irresistible to reporters from the New York Times etc., who like to pretend this sentiment captures religious conservatives' views generally. [snip]

"Only Justice Sam Alito had the common sense to recognize that somewhere in our great Constitution, there has to be a way to let people bury their dead, without becoming the objects of other people's monomaniacal desire to disrupt their grieving for publicity purposes." - Maggie Gallagher, whose supporters never use offensive terms or signs like Westboro.

"This [Westboro] ruling is important for many reasons. First and foremost, it preserves the primacy of free speech in America, which benefits us all. But from a parochial pro-LGBT narrative, it’s equally important to note that it proves the lie to the multiple instances when anti-gay activists falsely claimed that advances in LGBT equality and protections — whether they come in the form of marriage equality or hate crimes protections — will result in the infringement of religious and speech rights. They never have and, if this ruling is any indication, it reaffirms the fact that they never will. So the next time someone claims that marriage equality will result in pastors being prosecuted for hate speech, make a note of it: Snyder v Phelps." - Jim Burroway, writing for Box Turtle Bulletin.

The Supreme Court today ruled 8-1 to overturn a $5M judgment against Westboro Baptist Church, saying that the First Amendment protects their right to picket the funerals of military members. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: "Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and– as it did here– inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker."

Westboro's sites are down again at the moment, but the above is a screen shot captured earlier and sent to me by a purported member of 4chan. Embiggen the image or hit the above link to read the message claiming to be from Anonymous.

UPDATE: On today's David Pakman Show, a purported member of Anonymous and Westboro's Shirley Phelps-Roper butt heads over the hacking. Anonymous denies the initial hacking threat, but then performs a live hack of the Westboro site during the below interview.

Yesterday a letter purporting to be from Anonymous hackers claimed that the original threat against Westboro was a hoax and not from them. However God Hates Fags has been down all day today. In the clip below, radio host David Pakman talks to Westboro's Shirley Phelps.