October 8, 2011

Margie Phelps encounters the police... and Meade.



Another video by Meade — edited by me — showing today's protest by the Westboro Baptist Church folk. Watch for Phelps to tell Meade to "get up out of my grille." And wait for the fellow protester who attempts to lighten things up with a suggestion of song. Interestingly, it's the same song we've heard a hundred times from the anti-Scott Walker protesters downtown. The lyrics are differently tweaked.

If the phrase "up out of my grille" sounds out of place but also oddly familiar, perhaps you remember the oral argument in the Supreme Court case involving the Westboro folks:
At page 40 [of the transcript], Margie Phelps, arguing in favor of the right to express outrageous opinions in the vicinity of a funeral, is quoted as saying:
I think approaching an individual up close and in their grille to berate them gets you out of the zone of protection, and we would never do that.
(Boldface added.) Then, at pages 47-48, she's quoted saying:
Your body of law about captive audience... where they, by the way, specifically said at footnote this isn't about content. You've got to be up -- again, I will uses [sic] the colloquial term -- up in your grill. The term I think the Court used was confrontational.
And page 49:
I do think that you could have a public event where there was not an element of vulnerability in the people going in. You might even let them up in their grill.
(At the linked post, I discuss the spelling issue: Is it "grille" or "grill"? It's grille.)

66 comments:

Dustin said...

Trash.

They do it for money, btw. They very much want you to know they are hypocrites.

I suspect they even used an iPhone to condemn Steve Jobs specifically for extra troll zing.

Interfere with their civil rights and they get attorney's fees, and of course, they are their own law firm.

Sadly, Fred used to do this for the NAACP and was a fund raiser for Al Gore, then seen as a conservative democrat (not that he had any idea about these folks, I imagine).

This is the legal profession. Taken a bit farther, but not really atypical.

The difference between this and a patent troll letting a stupid patent be violated for a long time, or a class action lawyer's 'clients' get a 50 cent coupon? Degree, not type.

traditionalguy said...

Grille is a French grill.

Casse-toi mon grille!

Palladian said...

Calandre, the name of the great Paco Rabanne perfume, means (automobile) "grille".

Palladian said...

"To get all up in [ones] grill is to be extremely annoying, especially through nagging or by covering an opponent closely while playing a sport."

The Phelps family admits that it's all a game they're playing.

Rose said...

:) I see why you love Meade. We need more like him.

Chip S. said...

@tradguy--You sure you don't mean gueule?

Grille in French refers to window bars, hence the association with the front ends of automobiles.

Anga2010 said...

Those ppl are all rather detestable.
Though I appreciate that you guys are documenting these things that happen in your city, I somehow wish that I hadn't seen it just now, even though I prolly knew what I was going to see.
My own fault really.
Keep up the good work.

Robert Cook said...

Grill (or grille) is a slang term for teeth...one can interpret the phrase "get up out of my grille" as meaning, "get out of my face," or "get away from me."

The use of this phrase by Ms. Phelps is rather surprising, as it seems rather...urban inner city.

traditionalguy said...

Chip S...I was goofing on the thread, because you have to laugh or cry when watching the Madison Vortex attract more half insane people like moths to a bug zapper.

Moose said...

So, I'm curious. Actually. Not trolling for a reaction.

If the Phelps family is doing this for the money, doing it as a scam, doing it for whatever reason - what differentiates them from someone like Colbert? Not talking quality or offensiveness - plenty of people find Colbert reprehensible.

What is the Phelps family really doing wrong here other than outraging peoples sensibilities?

sakredkow said...
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Chip S. said...

What is the Phelps family really doing wrong here other than outraging peoples sensibilities?

It's a reasonable question. But why is an explanation required as to why people are outraged by people who are outrageously vile?

I haven't seen any suggestions that they be arrested or beaten, or even that they don't have the right to do what they do. Mostly I've seen suggestions to ignore them.

So, exactly like Colbert, in that regard. But I don't think he claims to be speaking for God.

I'm Full of Soup said...

"You will be sued".

That phrase reminds me of a night long ago. We were partying in NYC and driving around when we got broadsided by another car. I think we went thru a red light.

Well, we piled out and the driver of the other car started giving us crap so one of us, The Beast of The East, starting choking him right there in the street. And the guy's wife runs up and says "I will sue you". She did not try to intervene with the choking. She just said "I will sue you". It was too funny.

Someone should really choke this old Maggie the Hag.

sakredkow said...
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1775OGG said...

Meade: Good man that you are!

However, have you been checked over for rabies or fleas since you were put in close proximity to that strange Phelps person?

Cheers and peace be unto theee!

wv: Trout could be like a fish out of water or a WBC person in the land of the living.

Chip Ahoy said...

That's a good one. She backs up her fat ass on Meade presenting the back of her head with her ball cap wear'n dry-ass no-conditioner-have'n hair, then says, 'Get outta mah grille."

A fat woman did that to me once on a sofa. Except, I didn't take her place.

These two videos you've made have shown me more of what these people are like than anything I've seen.

Bill said...

I haven't really followed the exploits of the WBC much except by way of the people who mock and denounce them (thanks for that, by the way).

I've heard that there's a credible case to be made that they really are in this just for the money but I haven't heard a lot of details. Have they actually sued people? I mean a lot? Successfully? Enough to make it profitable for them to travel around to all these events?

edutcher said...

The courts have made it clear they have the right to be as obnoxious as they want, so Mrs Phelps doesn't have to explain "the right to express outrageous opinions in the vicinity of a funeral", unfortunately. Once they let the Nazis march through Skokie, things like this - and much worse - were bound to happen.

Can't say I think Meade covered himself with glory on this one. If Marge Phelps backs into him, especially since the corner is nobody's real estate, that doesn't seem too provocative to me, although I'd tend to agree with OldGrouchy that a good delousing might be in order afterwards.

Palladian said...

"To get all up in [ones] grill is to be extremely annoying, especially through nagging or by covering an opponent closely while playing a sport."

The Phelps family admits that it's all a game they're playing.


They do?

The use of, "Get outta mah grille", may be colloquial, but it's a long way from a confession of hypocrisy.

The Alinskyoids use the same kind of tactics, and they're deadly serious.

Jason (the commenter) said...

Meade needs to be fatter if he wants to take up real estate.

William said...

Their demonstrations seem more designed to antagonize than to propagandize. I suppose attention, even hostile attention, confirms their opinion of themselves as important players..... The left wing demonstrations seemed more designed to aggrandize the participants than persuade onlookers. They don't seem to feed off hostility the way the Westboro people do, however.....To the best of my memory, Selma was the last protest that convinced otherwise neutral onlookers of the rightness of their cause. I include the Tea Party and anti-Vietnam protestors in that observation.

edutcher said...

One other point:

Don't any of these nut protestors - of any stripe - use a different playbook? As Ann notes, there doing the same stuff the "This is what democracy looks like" crowd did.

Palladian said...

Margie Phelps announced via a message sent from her iPhone that their little "church" would be picketing the funeral of Steve Jobs.

garage mahal said...

Nice try edutcher, your continued false equivalencies between the Westboro subhuman mutants and supporters of this church and their congregation is as pathetic as it is predictable.

edutcher said...

Hey, garage, I was just riffing off Miss Ann, "Interestingly, it's the same song we've heard a hundred times from the anti-Scott Walker protesters downtown".

garage mahal said...

Only in your tiny mind are they the same.

Once written, twice... said...
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Once written, twice... said...

First why has Ann and Meade sunk to covering these freaks? I don't think they get the joke.

Second, it is great how the young counter-protesters realize it is a joke and are getting their pictures taken with these religious goofballs so they can post them on Facebook.

Finally, can those who support equal rights have dreamed up a better face for the anti equal rights for gay crowd? THANK YOU MARGIE PHELPS!

Titus said...

I bet her cooch smells really really bad.

ElPresidenteCastro said...

An ass-kicking society is a polite society.

Chip Ahoy said...

The other thing that I find interesting is the uniquely WBC method of displaying four uniformly sized placards. They should patent that. Two cardboard signs in each hand grasping top corner of one, bottom corner of another, alternate corners pinned to the body, the other two corners free and splayed as a butterfly, a glaring obnoxious hate-filled butterfly.

It doesn't matter which sign to pick randomly from the dozens of signs stacked upright in the van.

I admire that protest innovation. It's the sort of thing that comes with practice. Have the signs the same size, good for transportation and storage and for making WBC hate butterflies when the wind allows.

They've got their graphics down too.

* Brief statements.

* Glaring obnoxious colors schemes match statements.

*Same size placards for transportation, storage, WBC butterflies if wind allows, otherwise, it's hold up one placard and the rest stay in the van. We're meant to notice the standard cards recycled.

Even my British acquaintances mock WBC, the new KKK, by replicating the original fluorescent hell-rainbow background and replacing the fag message with something incongruently tender, or God and cigarettes, or something similar.

Once written, twice... said...
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Once written, twice... said...

Wouldn't it be cool to find out that the Phelps were real life mobys on David Geffen's payroll? LOL

A. Shmendrik said...

Just goes to show that there is always something interesting going on in Madison. Nutcases of every variant, everywhere in that town, even imports, always on display.

Thanks, and a tip of the Hatlo Hat to MeadeTV.

Automatic_Wing said...

Wouldn't it be cool to find out that the Phelps were real life mobys on David Geffen's payroll? LOL

Yeah, the idea that these people could be agents provacateur trying to increase sympathy for the gay rights movement is pretty amusing and sort of makes sense in a twisted way.

Kind of like the conspiracy that Althouse was musing about earlier, no?

Ralph L said...

Wouldn't it be cool to find out that the Phelps were real life mobys
I've long thought they were, despite the protests at funerals for our Glorious Dead. How many people over 30 say "fag", much less write it, for public consumption?

garage mahal said...

I've long thought they were, despite the protests at funerals for our Glorious Dead.

Trust me, they are as authentically weird and evil as you could possibly have ever imagined when you're standing five behind them. You can't fake enthusiastically singing the words they were they were singing if there wasn't something seriously wrong going on. And there is definitely something wrong going on.

Carol_Herman said...

I hate giving these people the time of day. The should be ignored.

Their worst day is when they are ignored.

sorepaw said...
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sorepaw said...
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Toshstu said...

Dinner with the Phelps clan would be really interesting, for a minute or two. I wonder what they eat?

They must have some rigid dietary rules, most fanatics do. No apple pie, no ketchup (ketchup is so gay) no ice cones or slurpees, no corny dog, nothing that requires to you to open your mouth.

Fred4Pres said...

Okay, their grill...? Whatev.

m stone said...

Just goes to show that there is always something interesting going on in Madison.

...And in DC today at the Air and Space Museum where a drone is on display:
Ann Wilcox, a lawyer working with Stop the Machine, said a 19-year-old woman from Madison, Wis., was arrested by police.

Protesting is a cottage industry.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

OT: The one person arrested today when the anarcho-communo-marxo-socialisticals rushed the Air and Space Museum was a nineteen-year-old woman from Madison WI.

kjbe said...

Their worst day is when they are ignored.

Couldn't agree more

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Ack! m stone beat me to it!

Tyrone Slothrop said...

By one minute!

Anonymous said...

Dinner with the Phelps clan would be really interesting, for a minute or two. I wonder what they eat?

They must have some rigid dietary rules, most fanatics do.


God hates shrimp.

Leviticus 11:9-12.

Penny said...

Hopefully someone has a brush?

Penny said...

Meade?

Part of the solution?... or...Maggie Phelps' best friend?

Penny said...

Power down, my friend.

Penny said...

Step away!

This will not end well...

Unless this goes EVEN deeper.

Penny said...

Meade is thinkin' bout taking a...

1. Time out
2. A shiny dime
3. A spelling class

Don M said...

Seems like the Westboro Baptists are to Freedom of Speech/Assembly as Righthaven is to Copyright.

The Dude said...

garage mahal wrote...

...

"Trust me, they are as authentically weird and evil as you could possibly have ever imagined when you're standing five behind them. You can't fake enthusiastically singing the words they were they were singing if there wasn't something seriously wrong going on. And there is definitely something wrong going on."

Yeah, but they are students in Madison, so what are you going to do?

Penny said...

"Westboro"?

They try our last bit of coagulation.

Penny said...

Seems like we are bleeding?

AlanKH said...

Fag O'Lantern? It's too early for Halloween decorations! And the stores have Christmas stuff already!! Nooooooo!!!

willem said...

I'm glsd Meade is safe. Jeezus. Miss Margie's all heated up carrying that bendover sign while she's backin' into Meade's grill and all.

Yikes. What Titus said.

willem said...
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willem said...

If Miss Margie ever finds out who Larry Sinclair is, Valerie Jarrett will have them all wearing waterboards in Croatia.

Gary Rosen said...

"They do it for money, btw."

Of course. What the hell else do they do for a living? I'm convinced the best way to get rid of these lice without trampling on the 1st Amendment is by investigating their financial and/or tax dealings. They've got to be doing something fishy somewhere.

TMink said...

"What is the Phelps family really doing wrong here other than outraging peoples sensibilities?"

From my perspective, they are horrid blasphemers and are bound for hell for sinning against the name and love of Christ. My savior died for sinners, a group which includes me, fags, straights, and even the detestable Phelps gang.

However, by preaching hatred in the name of Christ, they condemn themselves to the very place the speak of.

Sadly ironic really.

Trey

Moneyrunner said...

Moose asks a good question. The biggest difference between the Phelps family and Bill Maher or Jon Stewart is that the Phelps family has not been offered a TV gig. They are all out to shock people rather than persuade. The Phelps’ are reputed to do it for the money that comes from lawsuits (I would like to see the documentation for that) and Maher and Stewart do it to sell advertising.

Since we are constantly warned that Christians are just slavering to set up a theocracy, dragging you out of bed to attend church service on Sunday morning – and evening – forcing you to fast and pay in between, and forcing women to hand-wash dishes while giving birth to virtual litters in the kitchen, could the Phelps family be supported by this shadowy – but huge - group of Christian gay bashing fascists? Maher and Stewart have their demographic figured out also: it looks just like Madison.

orbicularioculi said...

I'm surprised that these creeps are still alive. Why hasn't someone simply made them "disappear".

Sal said...

So you moved into her vacated space. How mature of you. Kind of similar to the statue cleanising. I'm sure you think it's alturistic, but it comes off as self-serving.

Freeman Hunt said...

"Someone should really choke this old Maggie the Hag."

That's what she wants. That's part of the business model. The other is to get municipalities to deny permits.