Is It Scoundrel Time Yet?

I received notice this morning from Chris Hill, Director of Operations for Gathering of Eagles that the Victory in Iraq Rally scheduled for 13 June in D.C. had been cancelled:

By Chris Hill 05/15/2009

It is with a heavy heart and more than a little anger that I must tell
you all that the VI Rally scheduled for 13 June in D.C. has been
cancelled. Our sponsors pulled out a couple weeks ago and though we
tried mightily to get others we have come up dry. It appears that the
money guys on our side of the argument are running scared from the
current political climate. The Park Service is going to pull our
permits for lack of resources; simply put, no portalets or EMT services means no rally. I apologize for any inconvenience this causes, but there's is simply nothing we can do.

We had commitments from Capt. Phillips of the Somali pirates event,
Marcus Luttrell USN SEAL (Lone Survivor), former Congressman Duncan
Hunter, Pat Dollard, various Blue and Gold Star family members, three
separate musical acts, a potential video up link to Iraq, the 9/11
chopper, dragsters painted to represent the different services and an
after party at the Hard Rock Cafe. Unfortunately, the hard work
expended to put this together, by a number of people will now be for
naught. Please don't let this discourage your efforts. It is all the
more important that we redouble our efforts concerning our heroes in
the desert. I hope you all understand how difficult it is for me to
send this message. Thank you for all your efforts.

Having made plans to cover it live onsite on The Dame Truth and with my partner and cohost drkate on Constitutional Radio, I was more than a little distressed to learn of this turn of events. Once again, it seems our Military is getting shorted on everything but combat time. I put a call in to Chris to learn more, and to confirm a guest spot on Monday's Dame and we got to talking about the kind of political climate in which any and every entity and individual must calculate their actions and retract offers of good works out of fear from government repercussion.

To begin with, let me make this crystal clear: these backers contacted Gathering of Eagles to offer financial assistance toward producing the June 13 rally. It was their intention to support our troops via the rally until they became aware that doing so could bode ill for them in the current political climate. Of course, my immediate response was, "Who Are These People?!" [ I wanted to organize a boycott of whatever corporate interests they represented]. However, it appears that they were private individuals, at least for the moment. Here is where it gets dicey: how DOES one go about seeking to right a wrong without making the situation worse? I have not yet been able to satisfactorily answer that question in this case but suffice to say, it niggles at me and I will NOT let it go until I have done all that I can to get to the bottom of it and shed the light of truth upon it.

So. These backers approached Gathering of Eagles. The Chairman flew down to meet with them and they asked him what he needed. Chris laid out the program for them and was effectively given a carte blanche until a short time ago, when they informed him that the funding would be withdrawn. Aside from that terse message, they had no more communication with GOE, refusing to answer emails and phone calls. And so, I'm wondering just WHAT they're afraid of. I mean, aside from the fact that

1) Yesterday the Administration said they' d seek to minimize benefits to corporate CEOs regardles of whether they received TARP benefits or not; and

2) I hear the word from Justice is that there's been some niggling in administration over nationalizing oil industry...

So, there we have it...for the moment. Oilmen are feeling antsy about being targeted by the Administration to the extent that they would pull funding for a rally for the troops. And this administration has the temerity to pose as a Constitutional entity??
bwssnino;)