Yes! its somewhat encouraging..its better than nothing.!  THe 'gang' finally picked on an issue that IS very politically incorrect in the States.....Soldiers!

...pity the same deal wasn't happening in regards to homosexuals dying of Aids...?   (I forget has Fred paid up for any of that...I recall a case)?

I wonder if it changes anything though?.....seems nothing will stop em'...

Church founder Fred Phelps said the church would appeal the decision, adding it would "take about five minutes to reverse that thing." Watch Phelps laugh at the people trying to silence him ?/FONT>

"This will elevate me to something important," Phelps told reporters. "This was an act of futility."

Later, Phelps said the case was about "putting a preacher on trial for what he preaches."

"All it was, was a protestation by the government of the United States against the word of God. They don't want me preaching that God is punishing the country by killing their servicemen." Watch Phelps say freedom of speech is under fire ?/FONT>

The church had made a new sign to carry after the jury's decision, said his daughter, Margie Phelps.

"Our message is 'Thank God for 10.9 [million dollars],' " she said.

"By that mechanism [the award], the entire world will look over and see that America is doomed and that in doomed America there is no such thing as religious liberty."

The judgment would not change the message the group was carrying, said another of Phelps' daughters, church attorney Shirley Phelps-Roper.

"It's going nowhere," she said of the jury's decision. "This is a nothing. God is not going to stop killing your soldiers. He's not going to stop pouring his wrath out on this nation. America is doomed."

Church members were persecuted for their teachings and the court "mocked and scoffed at our religious beliefs," she said.

Phelps-Roper added that protests were planned later this week in Boston and Acton, Massachusetts, and in Norton, Kansas.

The group plans to protest a Veterans Day rally in Washington, she said.

Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church -- which has no connections with any mainstream Baptist organizations -- are longtime anti-gay protesters.

Before launching their protests at the funerals of American troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, they routinely picketed the funerals of gay people and those who died of AIDS.