Conservatives slam Obama over flag-less lapel
By Steve Benen Thursday Oct 04, 2007 12:02pm
Yesterday, in response to a question from a reporter suspicious of why he wasn’t wearing an American flag pin on his lapel, Barack Obama explained his belief that for some, the pins became a substitute for “true patriotism.” The senator said he would instead “try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”
I didn’t expect leading conservative voices to understand, but I didn't expect this kind of stupidity, either.
(Nicole) MSNBC: (N)o story screams "Drudge creation" more than this silly Flag pin lapel "controversy" involving Obama. And yet, watch how much air time the silly traditional media will give this and ignore the Bush Administration's brazen violations of international law and humanity.
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you know, maybe the dems should stop their campaigning for a few months while they TRY AND F***ING FIX SOME OF THIS CRAP.
Look !!!! Someone is eating their babies !!!!
Over there !!! See that there are pigs flying on the sky !!!
I've had a flag-less lapel many times.
Didn't change me a bit.
Is that a pledge pin on your uniform!!!
This was entirely expected.
It's another diversion.
WHY didn't you expect that kind of stupidity? Haven't you been reading your own writings for EIGHT YEARS?
Site Monitor: We assume you're being rhetorical, since the site has only been around for three years.
on a side note, i've always found people wearing little american flags offensive.
Hmmmmmm. What does this remind me of??? The Taliban's insistence that dress should be a certain way.
I remember a time when wearing an American flag was thought to be tasteless and degrading to the flag.
What was that quote about a scoundrel wrapping himself in a flag, calling himself a "patriot"? They are mere loyalists.
Let us not forget that riot is the last part of the word patriot.
Obama really should pick his battles more carefully! He should have known how the "YELLOW RIBBON MAGNETS MADE IN CHINA" crowd would react to this! The Republicans love to have something petty and childish to whine about! I guess he figured Rush Limbaugh was getting too much attention and wanted some limelight! This miscalculation makes re-think my support of Obama...not this idiocy over a pin, but the fact that this wasn't worth taking away attention from Limbaugh and Larry Craig!
Who was the reporter? Was it a WH plant like Guckert?
Pathetic that the MSM gets so worked up over questions like this, and yet they lambaste the "blogosphere" for pretending to do "real" reporting! I prefer this to "real" any day!
Edwards hair, Hillary's laugh, Obama flag pin. Is this the best they have to go after the dems? Ya gotta love it those simple minds the republicans have to play to.
Bush would have to put a detainee's eye out with a lapel pin to get this kind of scrutiny. And even then much of the coverage would be positive.
Flag Pin is like a Swastika these days.
Like I posted yesterday.
An American Flagon the lapel of a sports-coat immediately pigeon-hole's one as a hard-right ideologue or a "Ditto-head". Similarly, an American flag bumper sticker identifies one as a Bush-supporter as surely as a "yellow ribbon" car-magnet. In other words, the flag has lost its original meaning and no longer includes the values of all the people. It is entirely the province of Christian fundamentalists, neocons, super-nationalists, and war-mongers.
It has morphed into the mottled image of its corporate owners; a ruddy, savage emblem of marching armies, windowless jail cells, and sneering, well-groomed men in blue suits.
The flag has fallen from its once lofty perch and merged with the sludge of corporate profiteering, calculated sadism and pre-emptive war.
Is it me, or does this smack of the Nazi Party pin?
Y'know it's a disgrace about the pres vetoing the S-CHIP bill, why does he hate American children so much?
Y'know it's a disgrace about the pres misleading the country about Iraq.
Y'know it's a disgrace... oooh look Obama doesn't have a flag pin..
Are you kidding me? Seriously!
Oh, yeah... vote Edwards!
They should all wear Banana pins to honor the republic we've become!
G. K. Chesterton described a true patriot as someone who hated their country enough to think that it ought to be changed while loving it enough to consider it worth changing.
So wearing a flag pin on the lapel makes someone a patriot even if that so called patriot trashes the Constitution. It's all about the flag pin. Now I get it.
Now that Obama is "flagless", he no longer qualifies as a candidate, at least to conservative cowards.
Glad to see reich-wingers are so concerned about such real and pressing issues.
For a song detailing my sentiments on this issue, here are the awesome duo Prince Myshkins with CREEPY LITTLE FLAGS.
My duty is done.
This should be welcomed by Obama. Now he can challenge the Republicans on the shallowness of their arguments and speak about what is really important.
i've been flipping through the various "news" channels lately, just to see what everybody's lead story is. this morning, the Today Show had Marion Jones, as did MSNBC. CNN lead with the torture story, and Fox had "lapelgate"...
"This should be welcomed by Obama. "
-and expected.
To whet your appetite and encourage you to visit the Prince Mytshkins site, just a stanza from CREEPY LITTLE FLAGS:
patriarchal pundits appear and proseletyze
explaining, with a straight face, how the flag can symbolize
all those sacred freedoms which we shouldn’t exercise
and thus they pull, in place of wool, the flag over our eyes
They just keep grasping at straws. Let them. This is ridiculous at face-value and I think it's great that it's getting coverage. The more these goons show their true colors the easier it will be for Democrats to take the White House and solidify their majority in the House and Senate.
It's petty and stupid. Sure, 29% of Americans *are* that patty and stupid, but the rest of us are smart enough to see through this bullshit.
'08 can't get here fast enough.
"Phony Patriots" insist on wearing lapel pins.
The lapel pin worked well for Hitler too...
http://www.11th-hour.info/images/hitler.jpg
Better the GOP should worry about their "Emperor With No Clothes."
Obama just got the non-conformist vote. ;)
My flag is still hanging upside down off my balcony. Thank god the msm isn't aware of it. We are still a nation in distress. Obama did well by not wearing a flag on his lapel.
I love it when those who would 'lead' us, are caught red-handed casting multiple votes. After you recall about how you and me may have to show a photo ID to vote, check out this hilarious video of Texas lawmakers caught casting votes for other members of the legislature.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/39986/
L.A. Confidential @ 14:
You know, I was just going to start spreading the rumor that Obama doesn't have a Yellow Ribbon magnet on his SUV!! How can we trust such a person to do the right thing??
How many flag pins does it take to cover a coffin returning from the illegal Iraq war? If the msm is so concerned about flags then maybe they should start showing the coffins returning from this Iraq-nam draped with flags.
WTF is wrong with our "free" press? What kind of public service is it to tell me who is wearing pins and who isn't? BTW, I'm wearing PJs and fuzzy slippers right now. I'm absolutely pinless. Oh except for the safety pin holding my intimates together where the elastic is worn out.
Aren't you glad I told you that? Did I enrich your life just now and inform your citizenry?
Thank god for the political blogs who do the heavy lifting for democracy!
Patriotism isn't defined by what you wear, it's by how you act. And by the way the unhinged conservatives are acting, it's apparent they don't have a clue what patriotism is.
Peter Gibbons: You know the Nazi's had piece's of flare that they made the Jews wear.
Grandma Jefferson @ 28:
Ah, man...you played the Hitler card.
But, with these guys it's like their asking for it.
Just occurred to me that these pins are being used, by Republicans, like the self-centered frat boys they are.
More CREEPY LITTLE FLAGS:
after months of service, the flag’s displaying flaws
a fragile social fabric in strips of fraying gauze
a bumper sticker’s fading, a newsprint pinup sags
you can’t ignore the metaphor in creepy little flags
There is no question that Senator Obama deserves universal condemnation for his refusal to make that ultimate sacrifice that Sean Hannity and his brethren have made: to wear that lapel pin even when it clashed with their ties. Shame! Shame!
Go Obama, a flag doesn't make you more patriotic.
The measure of a person's patriotism are his deeds and actions, not whether he wears a cheap pin on a lapel or puts a bumpersticker on his car bumper (anybody with ten cents can do that - it's really meaningless). These Republican critics of Obama are so typical in focusing on what doesn't matter and away from what does. The Republicans love to divert and distract when they can't win an argument on the merits.
And your Flag Decal won't get you into Heaven anymore,
It's already overcrowded with your dirty little war...
John Prine
I connected to the Carpetbagger link. Read the article and the comments.(which mostly slammed the article). The one thing I read that really, really pissed me off was this line:
What’s Obama Hussein’s new campaign slogan, “America Sucks!” ?
I heard the alligator that bit off that one guys arm off had a flag pin on so why did they shoot it ? So a 'pin' now determines whether you are patriotic ?
This is so ridiculous it's beyond words. really...wtf happened to our country when a 'pin' becomes a front page story.
As a military vet who saluted the flag for 4 years while on active duty, there is nothing more despicable and degrading to that symbol than to wear it as an article of clothing or as decoration on your clothing.
Coffins draped with flags @ 33:
How about a "coffin pin"?
Dr. Matt @ 36:
Milton: I'm gonna... burn the building down.
Hannity wears pins to ward off some voodo terrorist attack. Typical repugnacan do something meaningless that doesn't really cost you anything and call it the ultimate statement of patriotisim. Brought to you by the party with the yellow ribbon bumper stickers.
Dr. Matt @ 45:
Yes, I remember learning that in (of all things) Girl Scouts. I always heard it was disrespectful to use it for decorative purposes. I've seen so many faded, torn flags since 9-11, and flags used as fashion statements. It's a disgrace.
Spanish Downing Street Memos, boosh continuing the practice of torture with memos supporting same. And the MSM is talking about flag pins presumably made in China.
I hope all the repub candidates wearing them get lead poisoning.
As someone on another site mentioned, neither FDR, Eisenhower or Carter worn "flag pins"
during their terms as Prez. but then again, had we had such a "liberal" media back then,
I'm sure they too would have been subject to critisism. I have a place for Hannity to
stick a pin...first in both eyes, then up his butt and I am available to do the insersion.
The same "people" that "think" it is patriotic to wear a flag pin are the same "people" that have yellow magnet ribbons on their cars as some sort of proof of their "support" for the troops.
Next it will be, you are not Christian if you are without a cross.
Doggiebobo @ 51:
I might help with the Oedipus-gouging-of-the-eyes thing, but nothing could persuade me to go near Hannity's nethers. You're on your own there, kid.
"These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for."
- Franklin Roosevelt
JM @ 42:
I was just thinking about the words to this song when I read your post. Yeah...
And these pins are made.... where??? China??? More support for the Chinese economy. Got to keep the Chinese economy going after all it's China that holds most of our debt and if Americans stop buying Chinese products, it would bankrupt WalMart and Sam's grandchildren will lose some of their spending cash. Now that would be unpatriotic. So show your patriotism by purchasing those Chinese made pins, preferably from WalMart.
(_(_) @ 53:
..and if you are a Jew, wear a star.
Oops. Another Nazi reference. Damn, I try not to do that.
Beautiful flag pin! Sorry about your country....
Dr. Matt @ 52:
My only bumper sticker. You might want one, too.
http://www.pressforprogress.com/00i2013s.html
pinkobait @ 46:
With Iraq-nam printed across the top.
I don't have a flag pin or yellow magnets or bumper stickers. When or how long will it be before I get incarcerated?
This story is definetly a "drudge" creation. Out of the 3 national network news shows last night, only NBC covered the secret memo's authorizing torture. ABC covered the flag pin story in it's first minutes of it's news show. They noted that Edwards, Hillary, and McCain don't wear flag pins either. While Guiliani always has a flag pin on. While the reaction of the right-wingers is typical, I don't think most americans will be fooled by it. Obama is absolutely right, you know a patriot by the way they act. Not because they wear a flag pin. The time of phony patriotic symbols is over.
ckerst @ 48:
... the yellow ribbon bumper stickers made in China.
Hey Larry.....where's your flag????
Oh.....there it is.
Well if you are "supposed" to wear it..what does it really mean? Like a support the troops ribbon or a flag on the back of your SUV..what do they really mean? Not much.
Hey Larry…..where’s your flag????
Oh…..there it is.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/larrycraigmug1.html
Sluggirl @ 59:
I like this one better:
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2006/10/endless-war.html
So wearing that little flag makes people like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the rest of the NeoCon-Nazi PNAAC group Patriots?
They do that because ... why ... I'm a patriot as are many Americans speaking out against the Bush ?Military Industrial Complex, and I don't were one, I served in two wars, but that tiny button would make me a Patriot.
What a bunch of chicken-shit buffoons.
flag pins are made in Chinese sweatshops by children. The cons endorse the stasi like trashing of the 4th amendment but soak their sheets with urine if someone doesn't wear a pin
Ron @ 61:
Blackwater is probably en route to you right now....do not resist.
So he should wear a piece of shit pin made in CHINA?!?!?!?
Arghhhhh!
A completely predictable response from the conservative wingnut brigade.
I'm sure Obama knew his statement would draw the response, and it's up to sensible people to point out that folks like Hannity aren't disputing his statement, they're pissing and moaning about How Dare He Not Wear THE FLAG, and then jumping off to the isle of conclusions for a new round of Obama/Osama nonsense.
So the rest of us who do not wear a flag pin aren't and can't be patriots?
Guiliani can wear all the flag pins he wants. As matter of fact, he can cover his body in flag pins. It still won't change the fact that he is trash. His closet is filled with so many skeletons that he can't even close the closet door.
And flag pins didn't stop Bush from ignoring the Constitution and flag pins didn't prevent a terrorist attack on this nations soil during the Bush/Cheney cabal's watch.
Dr. Matt @ 67:
Yeah, pretty much says it all. If I put that on my car here in San Diego, I'd probably end up with a broken window for my efforts. Damned conservative mecca!
And the other top story is.............. Britney Spears and her custody battle.
Dr. Matt @ 70:
If I declare that I'm a masochist, will they still torture me?
pissed off patricia @ 73:
POP: Such an accurate and astute observation. This is EXACTLY what the MSM should
report to counteract the BS they initially report. Sooooo sad that "our" MSM is void
of any responsible journalist.
Sluggirl @ 25:
Thanks! Lots of good stuff there.
My six year old wouldn't even fall for this, My mate tried to get him a bike with flag decals on it and he said "I don't want it, it's a Republican bike and I ain't no Republican !!!".
When she came home with another bike I said "what happened to the other one you were trying to get", she said "let him tell you"
I almost died laughing.
Do we get that the actual goal is to maintain the status quo no matter what?
That is the real 'mission accomplished' here.
Hey the entire house is coming down around us but it's ok because the TV is still on.
But don't you dare call them fascists.
The US flag has lost much of its cachet since bush entered the WH. If Obama deigns not to wear it on his lapel, it is his right. Those treasonous "patriots" such as limbaugh, bush, cheney, etc., etc., etc. only use the flag to serve their own needs. The flag is symbolic of the entire country, not just the privileged few who are wealthy repukes.
Even ordinary US citizens often try to pass themselves off as Canadians while traveling - say they get better service, and feel safer overall if people don't know they come from a land whose leadership supports preemptive war, illegal occupation of countries, and torture.
(_(_) @ 53:
Funny you should mention that.
After 9/11 I got on the high horse and put a flag decal on my windshield. Six weeks later while auditing an intro to the New Testament course at Point Loma Nazarene University I scraped it off. Idolatry don't you know.
Jesus said, "As I have loved you so you must love each other, that is how people will know you are my disciples, by the way you love each other." Little crosses or even big crosses don't indicate anything. It is in fact how you live your life.
Lapel pin flags are no more indicative of a patriot that a cross around the neck indicates a Christian.
There is only one word for these people: *drum roll..........................* "Pinheads".
a fucking pin, eh?
that question was a setup!
obie was a fool for answering the question at all!
But they don't mind what Rush says-excuse me-they DEFEND what Rush says, LIE about what he syas-when he trashes wounded anti-war vets.
No wonder America, MY COUNTRY, has turned into such a shithole.
And fabulous comment, Mike Mid City. Thank you.
Hmmmmm. Didn't the Nazis in Germany some years ago also wear symbols to show that they were uber-patriots?
A flag in your lapel does not make you a good American, though maybe bush, cheney and all the rest don't go much deeper than the symbolic.
Ron @ 77:
to those sadists, you're the perfect match!
Rob @ 15:
I was working with some guys from Italy and Germany recently that came to the US to set up some equipment. They wondered why there were so many American flags in the cubical neighborhood. I told them they were given out on 9/11 and a lot of people had just let them up. I told them I hadden not seen a lot of flags in Italy or German when I had been there doing FAT's ofn the equipment and they said except for like during the world cup games people didn't tend to put them up because it reminded them of the nationalism during WW2.
It doesn't suprise me one bit........... A quote of the non military service Rick Santorum:"And yet we have brave men and women who are willing to step forward because they know what's at stake. They're willing to sacrifice their lives for this great country. What I'm asking all of you tonight is not to put on a uniform. Put on a bumper sticker. Is it that much to ask? Is it that much to ask to step up and serve your country?"
They are attacking Obama because they know he has a point. Too many people think that simply waving the flag makes them a patriot. That too many politicians wrap themselves up in symbolistic patriotism.
We saw this in the republican debate when Ron Paul had the facts on his side but Gulliani got the applause by saying how dare you point out the truth.
Game-show host Pat Sajak has finally jettisoned his little lapel flag, but the jut-jawed and juvenile Jay Leno continues to wear his. Turn on CBS' pre-game NFL show, and all the ex-jocks are dutifully wearing theirs, too. At least the FOX football crew (surprisingly) don't sport these in-your-face, blatantly nationalistic, "I'm a super-patriot and you're not" symbols. The biggest fakes and hypocrites and jingoistic assholes wear the flag. Remember that adage about patriotism being the last refuge of a scoundrel ...
Good point, Barack.
Obama should just let FDR say it..."These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike."
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Acceptance Speech for the Renomination for the Presidency, Philadelphia, Pa.
June 27th, 1936
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=15314
Was Larry Craig wearing a flag pin on his lapel when he did his wide stance?
Was Vitter wearing a flag pin on his diapers?
Still funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmsOIjzQ1V8
I am really disgusted by all this "patriotism" people hide behind to get what they want. Not only do they wear flag pins, and flag suits, and use flag designs and flag colors on EVERYTHING on their site and in campaigns, but they hide behind "patriotic" names such as the "PATRIOT act" and the "save AMERICA act" and the "gathering of EAGLES". With how much they wear these names and colors, it's ruined what reverence I had for the flag, and for our bird, the eagle, and for the word patriotism.
And they wonder why I don't burst into tears when I see our flag anymore.
It shows you how venal and shallow these rabid conservatives are with their Borg like rigidity and absolute adherence to their bankrupt, Mc Carthyite philosophy. Let 8 million children go without healthcare but you didn't wear a flag on your lapel---you Communist!