On another topic–I know saying this is going to get me DDoSed and sent to hell with the sodomites and Iraq War casualties, but Anonymous and WBC do have some points in common. They both exploit the gaps between the ideal society most of us imagine is possible, and the rules/systems/procedures/traditions we make in an attempt to structure that society. Of course they do it for different reasons and in different ways, but that’s pretty basic to their respective existences. “Nice system! Guess I’ll fuck with it now.”

Sure, maybe the average WBC henchman is just a bored grifter-in-training, and maybe your average Anonymouse leads a secret life as a suburban professional with 2.5 kids and a passion for lawn care. But the organizations themselves definitely both exist in that chaotic noise associated with sufficiently complex systems–the kind that gets louder and harder to eradicate the more you try to “fix” it.

Which is why I’ll score this a win for Anonymous, by the way, even though they’re on defense for once. Never mind getting sued by WBC; even “defeating” them by whatever Anonymousy means wouldn’t work. It’s just part of the landscape.

Perhaps there, like in Anonymous, they have off-shoots within the organization that are doing what they do for entirely different reasons (i.e. hatred and bigotry, rather than profit).

This definitely sounds like something the Phelps would do. Why DDOS their website anyway? It’s funny. There are perfectly legal ways of causing them to eat up more bandwidth costs if you wanna screw with them.

Wonder how many people are gonna show up with “God Hates Fred Phelps” signs at his funeral? :P

Nate Phelps is his son and has a book and does tours. He used to have a long essay on his site – but it looks like it has changed since the last time I was there.

I think this is the same one I read and tells you pretty much all you ever wanted to know about that asshole.
http://www.stoppingthehate.com/News-Article1302_Nate_Phelps_Estranged_Son_Of_Fred_Phelps_Speaks_Out_Publicly.htm

Back in the day I used to argue with one of his racists sons on IRC.

That being said, in 0.15 seconds you could have some google results of your own. Heres the first one that jumped out at me:
http://www.ydr.com/ci_14780513

Also, see Hagrid’s post immediately before yours.

Anonymous trades in lulz, whereas WBC trades in actual money.

There’s nothing you can do to an attention whore/politician except ignore them. That’s truly the best solution.

But if you ignore someone who’s trolling for cash, it’s no different than hoping a scammer or other professional lowlife just “goes away”. They’re pros; they’ll find another victim and you’ll be stuck with them forever whether you pay attention to them or not.

In some senses, Anonymous is kind of outmatched here, at least as long as the “battle” is just a bunch of press releases. (although anyone who was actually paying attention to Anonymous’s MO realized that it wasn’t made by them. The topics are completely different)

The Snyder case that you point out is a case where Snyder sued WBC and won. WBC only sued him to recoup costs once the initial case was overturned, so this link does little to prove the point

Saying that it’s “a well-known fact” does not obviate the need for citations. The idea that the WBC is making their money from lawsuits filed when they manage to entice someone to violence just isn’t borne out by any evidence I’ve seen. I’ve only seen it expressed as opinion and hypothesis.

This writer at the Stanford Review blog did some research and concluded that that the WBC uses lawsuits primarily as a weapon, not as a substantial income source:

http://blog.stanfordreview.org/2010/01/28/countdown-to-westboro-baptist-church-at-stanford-the-law-and-wbc/

And this article from the Wichita Eagle newspaper indicates that at least three of the Phelps family are on the state payroll. So at least some of their income is coming from (state-funded) employment:

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/14189/westboro-baptist-church-three-phelps-children-are-on-states-payroll

The Phelps family is legal-savvy, no doubt. And they are certainly not above filing frivolous lawsuits. I’ve just still yet to see any tangible evidence that indicates that lawsuits form a substantial portion of their income.

(Really, I’m more offended that WBC are scammers and trolls than I would be if they were legitimately crazy fundies. They make everyone look bad.)

I wont go into reasons why, as that could help “false flag” attacks in the future, but this looks like it is either WBC baiting, or some idiot new*** trying to steer the amorphous vapor that is Anonymous.

If you want to destroy the WBC, you need to hit it where it hurts: The pocketbook. Recognize how these Godtards make their money, and remove that revenue stream.

Their beef with Scientology is not that Scientology talks, it’s that the Scientology folks abuse their members and anyone who tries to speak out against them.

http://tinyurl.com/64wtajw

http://anonnews.org/uploads/909803499_Untitled.jpg?do-not-hotlink,-hotlinking-attempts-will-be-blocked,-point-to-the-press-release-instead

The problem with the theory that Phelps is just pretending to be anti-gay is that he’s been doing it so long. It’s always been distasteful to protest at funerals, but back when he started picketing funerals of those who had died of AIDS, the public thought he had bad manners, but did not largely disagree with his assertions that gay people were going to hell and were morally defective.

What’s this about?

The press has little to no motivation to look closer.

A DDoS would NOT originate from the perpetrators, rather innocents that did not know of the software on their system [to do it].

Anonymous defended innocents before – albeit putting the innocents up as shields – which proved that those looking for a fight are happy to take things at face value and blame the first name that comes into their lap: “If he’s really innocent, that’ll be decided in court”