This story has now been de-bunked. It first hit the blogs like a tidal wave, but the only problem is that no one bothered to find out the facts. The girl’s 11-yr-old big brother is the one who tore the sign out of her hands. Frankly, having a 3 year old daughter myself, I would NEVER parade them out in a rally with promotional material for the opponent. That would be like hiding behind my own children, which I find deplorable.
The only problem here is that for this Phil Parlock dude, history just keeps on repeating itself. Four years ago, before little cutie (the last of his 10 kids) was born, a Bush sign got torn out of his hands at a Gore rally. And before that, the same thing happened at a Clinton rally. Three signs ripped up in three different presidential campaigns!
If you do a Google search on “Phil Parlock” you’ll see how widely this probably false story has spread in very little time, with, it appears, Rush Limbaugh about to spread it to his 20 million zombies. You’ll also find his sentimental reaction to the Jessica Lynch sham. [Phil Parlock, who has a daughter and son in the West Virginia National Guard, sat and cried when Lynch was brought from the Iraqi hospital.I could see my daughter in that situation,'' he said. I cried when she was captured, and I cried equally when she was rescued. I could identify with her parents. It was one of the most upbeat things of the war to get her back.]
We seem to be present almost at the birth of an urban legend of Rovean grandeur.
And what if the sign-ripper who made the little girl cry was in fact also the offspring of the same daddy’s fertile loins? What a lesson this father teaches his children! To get GWB another four years to carry out his agenda, conspiracy to deceive American voters is just the right means to that end.
Here is a related article:
Ripped sign spurs national debate
By JIM ROSS - The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON – Barboursville resident Phil Parlock and his children became national celebrities in the world of Internet blogging and conservative talk radio on Friday.
The Associated Press
Sophia Parlock, 3, cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters Thursday at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington.
A Bush-Cheney campaign sign yanked from the hands of 3-year-old Sophia Parlock and ripped into pieces was the focus of all the attention. The incident occurred Thursday evening at Tri-State Airport during Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards? campaign stop.
Republican supporters all over the Internet on Friday were saying Parlock was merely a Republican exercising his First Amendment rights, set upon by Democratic thugs.
Meanwhile, Democratic bloggers questioned whether Parlock staged the event that sent Sophia into tears as a news photographer captured her distress. Some even called him a serial protester and a bad parent for putting his daughter in harm?s way.
Edwards arrived around5:20 p.m. and was met by about 200 supporters. He was at the airport to leave the area following a two-day campaign swing.
In the crowd were Phil Parlock, Sophia, Philip Parlock II, 21, and Alex, 11.
The Parlock family held signs supporting the Republican ticket of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. That was no surprise, as Parlock is a strong Republican. He has never held public office, although has run for the Cabell County Board of Education four times.
Phil Parlock said someone took the Bush-Cheney sign from Sophia’s hands, causing her to cry. Her emotion was caught by Herald-Dispatch photographer Randy Snyder, who was working on a free-lance assignment for The Associated Press. The Washington Times saw the AP photo and called Parlock on Thursday evening to talk about the incident. Before midnight, the photo was on the Internet.
By morning, it was on the Drudge Report.
Friday morning, conservative talk radio shows in Seattle, San Diego and other places had interviewed Parlock. Talk show host Glenn Beck interviewed him on the air twice. Columnist Michelle Malkin called.
“They’re all saying the same thing: This is horrible, deplorable,” Parlock said Friday.
“We didn’t go there to make a scene. We stood there silently. We want to be in the background. We want to change people’s minds.”
But several Democratic-oriented Web sites, such as democraticunderground.com, picked up on the story, too, and bloggers started doing some research into Parlock’s background. They found news articles showing he had claimed to have been assaulted at Democratic events in 2000 and 1996.
They also compared a Parlock family portrait with the photo of Sophia crying and suggested that one of Parlock’s own children was the sign grabber.
“No. No,” Parlock said. “The printers? union thug? How can I get away with that in a small town? That is not my son there.”
The person that many Democrats said was Parlock’s son wore a T-shirt suggesting he is a member of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, AFL-CIO. Friday afternoon, James A. Williams, general president of the union, issued a statement apologizing to the Parlock family.
The incident at the airport “is an affront to everything we, as a union, pride ourselves to represent,” Williams’ statement said.
“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.”
Lois Pauley of Huntington said she saw part of the incident at the airport. Pauley said she was there with her father, sister and son.
“At first he was being quiet and nice,” she said of Parlock’s actions. Parlock was not being rude or obtrusive, Pauley said.
As Edwards neared the spot where Parlock stood, he reached into his pants legs and removed his Bush-Cheney signs, Pauley said.
Some materials, such as large handbags, umbrellas and signs, were banned from the event. The only signs that were allowed by the Kerry-Edwards campaign staff were the signs the campaign itself provided.
“The only thing I saw that happened was I saw people trying to cover up his signs with Edwards signs,” Pauley said. She said she saw Parlock hoist Sophia onto his shoulders so she could hold a Bush-Cheney sign above the crowd.
Pauley said she moved away from Parlock at that point because she feared something bad was about to happen.
Near dusk Friday, Parlock was still taking calls from reporters.
“I am completely overwhelmed. I had no idea. We don?t go for the press. We go for the message,” he said.