You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me
The Tea Party’s page on Facebook is taking issue with an Obama campaign ad.
The comments thread is not what I’d call awesome.
I will offer three rejoinders.
(edited to add)
(/edited)
Original rejoinders after the jump.
One:
Two:
Er… Four:
United State Code, Title 4, Chapter 1:
Any person who, within the District of Columbia, in any manner, for exhibition or display, shall place or cause to be placed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, drawing, or any advertisement of any nature upon any flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America; or shall expose or cause to be exposed to public view any such flag, standard, colors, or ensign upon which shall have been printed, painted, or otherwise placed, or to which shall be attached, appended, affixed, or annexed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, or drawing, or any advertisement of any nature; or who, within the District of Columbia, shall manufacture, sell, expose for sale, or to public view, or give away or have in possession for sale, or to be given away or for use for any purpose, any article or substance being an article of merchandise, or a receptacle for merchandise or article or thing for carrying or transporting merchandise, upon which shall have been printed, painted, attached, or otherwise placed a representation of any such flag, standard, colors, or ensign, to advertise, call attention to, decorate, mark, or distinguish the article or substance on which so placed shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $100 or by imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both, in the discretion of the court. The words “flag, standard, colors, or ensign”, as used herein, shall include any flag, standard, colors, ensign, or any picture or representation of either, or of any part or parts of either, made of any substance or represented on any substance, of any size evidently purporting to be either of said flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America or a picture or a representation of either, upon which shall be shown the colors, the stars and the stripes, in any number of either thereof, or of any part or parts of either, by which the average person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag, colors, standard, or ensign of the United States of America.
What a shame. They’d seemed so level-headed up until now.Report
The flag is creepy. L’État, c’est moi. The other stuff isn’t creepy. Good examples but they don’t meet the mark.Report
“If it creeps Tom out, it’s creepy. Therefore, it is objectively wrong.”Report
One guy’s symbol in the stars space = L’État, c’est moi. Another guy’s face in the stars space does not.
This is why we have Poe’s law.Report
Oh please.
Lately, you really seem to have this “ok for me but not for thee” thing going on, and it sucks.Report
Well, that tears it. Obama’s lost Tom. Call the election for Romney.Report
Creepy.
And I would have given grudging approval of Obama’s foreign policy, but his bungles on that is the last straw. I had reservations about his handling of Libya and Egypt but now it appears the worst is more likely than the best case scenario.
I’d have been part of the shift against him in the latest poll.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/09/poll-approval-of-obama-foreign-policy-drops-135927.html?hp=l6Report
Well, it’s hardly a surprise that a sitting President’s foreign policy rankings go down the month an ambassador dies. It’d be more astonishing if they went *up*.
(this is not an endorsement of the Administration’s approach towards either Libya or Egypt, by the way)Report
“Dies,” PatC?Report
That wasn’t an attempt to whitewash, Tom, does it really come across that way? C’mon, you know me better than that, right?Report
Sorry, Pat. Too much Media Matters-type fronting for Obama today. Not you.
As for the Libya thing, it’s clearly not of concern to our readership although it’s far more important than counterattacking the right to cover for Obama’s creepiness. But the truth will trickle out.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/09/20/cnn-libya-ambassador-feared-he-was-on-hit-list/70000743/1#.UFucvY2PVOwReport
I agree with your second paragraph, that’s for sure.
That was kind of my original point, in the title. “This is what we’re talking about? A freakin’ campaign poster, is your straw that’s breaking your back??”Report
Tom, I’m going to put my serious hat on for a moment, and ask you a question which you need not answer here, but only to yourself.
Do you think that your short, superficial partisan comments about the creepiness of a flag, or photos from the 2008 campaign, or the Facebook de-friending misuse of a survey, or all of your little jabs at Obama that don’t contain any real substance but are merely meant as an expression of which side your on, suggest to anyone that you are concerned about Libya? I don’t mean to imply you aren’t, because let’s be honest, how would I know? I know you’re concerned about natural rights, because you post serious comments about that, and I know you’re concerned about abortion, because you post serious comments about that, but on politics, it’s just drive by partisanship, and I can’t imagine anyone who came by here and read your comments would think you were interested anything more than scoring political points. So I wonder, do you think they would? Might they even wonder whether much of the pro-Obama comments here are in response to your petty partisan fluff?
Like I said, I don’t need to hear your answer. I’m fine with you actually thinking about it for a few seconds.Report
L’Etat, c’est moi.Report
Also, via Pat, this.Report
Flag reverence is creepy.Report
Ugh. It’s a good thing that the law in question is never enforced or taken seriously; it’s clearly a free speech issue. It’s also got the minor irritant of applying specifically to the District of Columbia, rubbing in the fact that my home city is an unwilling ward of a Congress that it’s not even represented in. Nice post, but my day would be better off not knowing any of this. Back to fantasy football!Report
Ceci n’est pas un drapeau américain.
See.Report
See also.Report
For turnip truck types, A short visual history of the creepy Obama Cult. [David Harsanyi]
@ one picture = 1000 words, the state rests.Report
Tom, here’s the thing–it’s not the fact that you find a presidential candidate using bog-standard patriotic imagery to be creepy that irks. That’s misguided, but I’m willing to chalk it up to “Someone is WRONG on the Internet”. But to act like your misguided notion is so obvious that people who don’t share it should be condescended to? That’s basically the opposite of classy and respectful.Report
Now I know why liberals un-friend conservatives on FacebookReport
I prefer to troll them until they unfriend me. Childish, yes, but lots more fun.Report
the hands/for all stuff is a little gross, but…that’s how political campaigns build brands. it’s supposed to be completely ridiculous to outsiders.Report
At last, Obama succeeds at something. 😉
[JasonK’s fave, mine too.]
http://www.boingboing.net/images/x_2008/obama-unicorn-300×450.jpgReport
A picture is worth 1000 words.
Using Tom van Dyke logic, this picture proves that all conservatives are racists.Report
Tom van Dyke logic,
I bet your brain hurt writing that.Report
Reagan
Franklin
Teddy
WashingtonReport
To be fair, the Reagan on the Velociraptor is frickin’ awesome. I think it’s going up on my office door.Report
The Franklin one is cooler, but Reagan is #2.Report
Should be titled “Franklin Acquires Adamantium”Report
“Neither a borrower, nor a lender be, bub!” (shnikt!)Report
I’m partial to the Teddy one. It’s not often acknowledged how he singlehandedly eradicated the growing Sasquatch Menace at a time when so-called liberals were nattering on about the rights of ‘Hirsute-Americans’.Report
I’ll go with Teddy at number two. But Reagan’s got an RPG, an assault rifle, and a frickin’ velociraptor! The awesome quotient is incalculably high.Report
Teddy’s puffing the cigar like it’s NBD. Totally boss. He wins, hands out.Report
So your point is… what exactly? People LIKE Obama? Like, they like him A LOT? Maybe even love him?!?! Perhaps more than they should?
Clearly the man is a monster.Report
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxdt_f0hwUgReport
Now that is some creeptastic shit, right there. Tu quoque accomplished.Report
Good, we’re agreed then, Burt. Creepy. As for the tu quoque game—which I didn’t start here—I do not think it’s possible for people fronting for Obama to ever catch up. Sometimes reality is sophist-proof.Report
This from the dude who commented yesterday, “But it applies to the Kennedy’s!!!!!111!1111!!!!”
It’s almost like you’re a parody of yourself.Report
He’s a Poe Poe man.Report
As for the tu quoque game—which I didn’t start here
Am I wrong to construe that as an implied admission that you were trolling?Report
@ one picture = 1000 words, the state rests.
100%, complete, undiluted, high octane trollery.
{{Wait, maybe I oughta click thru before passing judgment. }}
Hmmm. I’ll stick with the original assessment. Now, if you’da made a joke about it…Report
the state rests.
Écrous au hasard sur l’Internet ne sont pas l’État.Report
Obama Cult vs. Reagan Cult–which is creepier?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/26/blood-for-sale-ronald-reagan-s-pagan-cult.html
I’m pretty sure Republicans would resurrect Reagan and run him again if they could, or at least their idealized version of Reagan, as opposed to the one who raised taxes, pulled the Marines out of Lebanon, and compromised with Democrats.Report
the ppl in both.
Saw two bumper stickers: one a reagan one, one an obama one. same car.Report
And signed arms treaties with a Communist. There’s a reason that the Bush II defense establishment looked like the Ford administration redux: Reagan and Bush 1 were too liberal for him.Report
Your gravatar picture is creepy, which makes me think you are a creep. Or at the very least creepy.Report
That section of the US Code always makes me think of doing flag detail when I was stationed in England. We flew both the American and the UK flags and had to take them both down. The American flag came down slowly and carefully in time with taps, was very carefully unmoored from the flagpole and appropriately folded.
The UK flag? The Brits required nothing more than to just ball it up and stuff it under our arm.Report
Think, also, of the Pledge. It’s NOT to America, but to the Flag. Not surprising, considering its origin.Report
This.Report
Eeeediots.
The “insert” carat is upside-down.Report
I know, I cracked up at that too.Report
I think you mean, “The comments thread is not awesome except the part where my wife trolled it after she found and posted the Lincoln campaign flag below after a 2-second google search which any of the other yahoos could have done had they cared so very much about the bastardization of our flag.”
Also, Dan, Flag Code is voluntary. It’s gauche to do these things to the flag, but it’s not illegal.Report
Conservabuse of the flag is totally patriotic.Report
‘Memba when the Conservatroids were all about a flag burning amendment? Ever since I was a little Boy Scout, we learned burning is the only appropriate method of disposal for a flag. I burned two in the Army. Burned them in a hibachi, after they’d been brought down by the colour guard.
Thing is, most Conservatives weren’t in the military. And obviously, they didn’t earn their Citizenship in the Nation merit badge or they’d know these things. They’re also a bit weak on the First Amendment. But as you say, they’re Toadally Patriotic.Report
Yeah, I remember thinking that way back in the day. Burning is how you’re supposed to dispose of flags. It’s right there in the code.
So obviously burning flags in protest is protected speech — because it’s not the burning that’s upsetting you, it’s why they’re burning it.
Otherwise, you know, our glorious Senators taking Firm Stands against the half-a-dozen times a year someone burns the flag in protest would be throwing the book against boy scouts, soldiers, and ordinary Americans trying to dipose, in the proper and honorable fashion, a flag that is too tattered to fly any longer.Report
Awesome. He didn’t even credit you! Lawsuit.Report
For the record, we stumbled across this simultaneously.Report
So I follow the link and scroll down a bit.
The picture from Monday is of the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, and the write-up is:
So far, it’s got 20,432 “likes.”
A political cartoon on the same day accuses Barack Obama of apologizing for burning the Koran but unapologetically burning the U.S. Constitution. 38,602 “likes.”
More recently, this one: “SHARE if you agree: Don’t Tread on Me!” followed by a photograph of one-dollar bill creatively folded to spell out the slogan. 49,224 “likes.”
And, “Mother of 5 loving sons and grandmother to many. Married to the same man for over 40 years. A Cancer and Multiple Sclerosis survivor and still fighting. Loves God, family and her country. LIKE and SHARE if Ann Romney is a GREAT AMERICAN!” followed by a very attractive picture of Mrs. Romney. 22,802 “likes.”
I think it’s safe to say, based on this obvious and conclusive evidence, that Tea Partiers on Facebook like the candidate’s wife, a centuries-old slogan, and mocking Barack Obama a lot more than they like protecting the sanctity of the flag.
What do they have against the flag for which so many brave veterans gave all?Report
Remember the “DemocRATS” ad?
Yeah.Report
I find the original flag kind of hokey. I find the outrage about it puzzling.
That and everything else I’ve posted this week is just proof that I need to move to France or something.Report
I’m with you on the first two sentences, that’s for sure.Report
You think they’d take you in France? You need to move to Somalia!
(This is a joke. I do not think you should move to Somalia. I think you’d do just fine in Montana.)Report
I look forward to spending more time in Montana, as I approach retirement age (Hah. Retirement age. I kill myself.)
Nice people there.Report
I will catch hell for this, I’m sure, but I could never live in a place that white.
When I was in my early 20s, I dated a woman from Montana who hadn’t seen a black person in person until she was 19.Report
I don’t think I can live there, year ’round. But from June to early October, it’s nice.
The rest of the year I’ll live in New Orleans or something, just to balance out.Report
I have a good friend who was raised in rural Nevada. I think i was the first jewish type person( i’m not jewish, but my mom was) she had ever met. She was in her 40’s.Report
And buy a Recreational Vehicle and raise rabbits?Report
“There is no hell. There is only France.”Report
I couldn’t comment on this until i took 0ff my american flag banana warmer. What flag code doesn’t say is what is it proper to eat before putting these on:
http://compare.ebay.com/like/300777105398?var=lv<yp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar
I mean really…no chili dogz or potato skins please
And what is the proper way to um…salute these flags:
http://www.fantasiawear.com/costumes-us-flag.htmReport
Somewhere, between crazy uncle somebody and crazy nephew otherperson, the debate still rages on whether or not Captain America is a real American, on account of his bastardization-of-the-flag-uniform.Report
I think this Tea Party flag seals the deal.Report
You missed this one: http://i24.ebayimg.com/02/i/000/e3/6b/4494_1.JPGReport
The Stupid! It hurts!
Sigh….Report
This is pretty LOL too amirite guysReport
Too soon, man, too soon.Report
You are sick.Report
Sickness notwithstanding, it’s a hell of a jab. I can see it resulting in the Obama flag quietly being changed for something else entirely.Report
Yah, JB, that one’s making the rounds of the rightosphere. I don’t like it–out of bounds and out of line. But those seem quaint concepts lately.
The synchronicity is eerie, though, and the image is shattering. I was complaining in this very thread that we’re talking trivia when we have a murdered ambassador.
FTR, when Barack Obama beat John McCain, I was like, fine. Not so much this time around. It’s not all trivia and gamesmanship. Sometimes a difference makes a difference.Report
I can’t. It bears an equal resemblance to any version of the American flag. Changing the Obama flag suggests guilt. And the Obama flag isn’t even the official logo of the campaign.Report
Changing the Obama flag suggests guilt
No, not at all. It suggests “we’d like different associations than that one that you can’t unsee when you you see our symbol.”Report
I should have added, the other reason it won’t change is because most people won’t see that photo.Report
Fair enough. We’ll see, I guess.Report
Exactly.Report
This would be funny if it wasn’t so stupid – we have States trying to glorify the Confederate flag over their capitols – the symbol of mass murder of our people used by a traitors group (more than all other wars combined) that makes Bin Laden look like an amateur when it came to murdering our people. We even have so-called Americans who fly this flag of hatred, mass murder and utter evil over their homes and you worry about a web page symbol that has at best only a vague appearance to the American flag? Only in Amerika.Report
The state flag of Georgia is the flag of the Confederacy. I wonder if they’ll ever change it.Report
You’re joking right? Yeah, it looks like the actual Confederate flag (with another thingamajig in the blue field) but nobody knows what that looks like.
When they really wanted to do a fish you to the Yankees and the integrationists, they changed their flag to add the Confederate Ensign (i.e. ‘the General Lee flag’). They changed it back to an older design (they never had an official flag prior to Reconstruction) about ten years ago.
Only Mississippi retains the ‘rebel’ flag now.Report
No, I’m not joking. It’s the Confederate flag. That’s what they used when they designed it.
And yeah, I still think they should change it, even if most people recognize the battle flag as the Confederate flag.Report
Ideally, they wouldn’t have chosen it. Going after it is making the perfect the enemy of the passable.Report
The funny thing is that no one really seems to care. All of the effort to get the Navy Jack emblem off, and any similarities with the S&B are overlooked. I don’t think anyone has the energy for another fight in Georgia. Mississippi remains the important one.Report
(Just so I’m clear, I’m not suggesting the similarity to the S&B is anything but deliberate.)Report
FTR, my call on the Southern Appeal blog for the end of the Rebel battle flag got me fired. Well, let’s say my non-resignation was accepted.
The Obama flag is merely creepy, and the shades are intentionally—or unintentionally—counterfeit of our red, white and blue. Regardless, it’s designed to appeal to something other than
July 4 Celebrations Make Children More Likely To Become Republican: Harvard Study
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/01/july-4-republicans-harvard_n_888659.html
Semiotics. And when a GOPer [say, me] sees the red, white and blue rendered in artsy shades of puke, there’s a visceral reaction. Creepy.Report
Alternative interpretation of that study: rain makes people Democrats.Report
Initially, I thought this had to be an onion.com article.Report
Does anyone remember the 2008 Obama flag?Report
+1 or 10 or more.Report
Aaaaand, gone: http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/obama-campaigns-flag-poster-no-longer-appears-inReport