Look For the Union Label!

The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades has a great program, called The Patch Foundation:

The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades established the PATCH (Painters and Allied Trades for Children's Hope) Foundation to improve the lives of children in need and to ensure that their futures are bright and productive.

IUPAT, as an international coalition of working men and women, understands that our children are not only our most precious resource, but also the key to a prosperous future. We recognize the important role we can play in bringing the best into our children's lives.

And just how is IUPAT getting out their message of the importance of children? By making them cry:

Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va.

On the left of the picture, with what appears to part of the child's plastic sign, is a jeering IUPAT member.

Remember, for your sign of quality political thuggery, be sure to look for the union label.

Update: There is an interview with the father in the Washington Times:

"We stood there quietly while Senator Edwards went through the receiving line," he said. Then, as the North Carolina Democrat prepared to leave, Mr. Parlock said, "I took out a few Bush-Cheney signs, gave one to Alex, and Sophia and I held up one jointly."

Immediately, he said, the family was set upon by supporters of Mr. Edwards and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry — "mostly the painters union guys" — who "started stealing my signs." Soon, "old women and college students joined in the fracas," said Mr. Parlock, describing himself as "strictly a volunteer, grass-roots supporter" of the president. Mr. Parlock ran unsuccessfully for his local school board this year.

Mr. Parlok has a son and another daughter in the National Guard, with a third child to be sworn into the National Guard tommorrow. In other words, the three older siblings are willing to sacrifice themselves to protect the freedom of speech of the thugs who attacked their three-year old sister.

Ironic does not begin to describe this. Morally repulsive is more like it.

Another Update:

This is a bit disturbing also. The logo for the PATCH foundation run by the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades is a lion with children on his sholder:

Update: The President of the IUPAT issues an apology:

The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades believes in the fundamental right for civil discourse, freedom of speech and activism to support our candidates and issues.

What happened in Huntington, West Virginia yesterday is an affront to everything we, as a union, pride ourselves to represent. We extend our apologies to the Parlock family, especially Sophia, for the distress one of our overzealous members caused them.

I have personally taken steps to address this issue internally, and will take immediate disciplinary action to the fullest extent allowed under U.S. Department of Labor regulations and the constitution of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.

It is my hope that this incident reminds all of our members that every last citizen in this country has the right to express his or herself freely. Not one single one of us has the right to tell them otherwise.

General President James A. Williams
The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades

Good for him!

Comments

[The Viking]

Do you dimwads stay up all night thinkin' bout stuff ya kin write t' make y'all seem less dumb? Parlok is a Republican operative for the WVa Bush/Cheney 04 campaign. He arranged to for his poor, suffering, little girl to have her sign torn from her trmbling fingers on her way to Bible study.

Parlok's a coward, his son's are cowards, and they work for a coward. It's what southerners have been best at since they were turned ashore by Oglethorpe's prison ships centuries ago.

When this filthy little southern coward Bush and his toady sons of the south are turned out back in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, this time we'll pick up where Sherman left off and burn the ignorant southern slugs to the lousy red-clay ground they hide on.

So the savages are at the gates, huh? Get ready, crackers, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

The Viking

[Blind Pig]

Are you going to come and make my kids cry or something?

Very scary.