Sunday
07Sep2008
McCain Camp Rescues Flags Trashed at Obama DNC Speech
Sunday, September 7, 2008 at 07:21AM
Flagophobia continues in the Obama camp.
The McCain campaign rescued 12,000 American flags from dumpsters and garbage bags left behind as trash at Invesco Field in Denver, Colorado after Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at last week. The flags were used at a McCain/Palin rally in Colorado Springs.
The Obama camp denies the trashing and said the McCain camp stole the flags…. From the dumpsters and trash bags (?). Good one, Obamaites.
By now you’d think the Obama campaign would have learned that the U.S. flag is special and it shouldn’t be treated like a theatrical prop to be thrown away once the play is over.
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Reader Comments (16)
Protect the flag and trash the country. More Bush-McCain B.S. , and obvious pandering to those who only focus on the petty, silly, sideshow distractions.
This kind of silliness is just what we need to get away from in our politics, don't you think?
http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagcode.htm
Flag Code
The laws relating to the flag of the United States of America are found in detail in the United States Code. Title 4, Chapter 1 pertains to the flag; Title 18, Chapter 33, Section 700 regards criminal penalties for flag desecration; Title 36, Chapter 3 pertains to patriotic customs and observances. These laws were supplemented by Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations.
§8. Respect for flag
K. The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.
Storage in trash bags adjacent to a dumpster is NOT dignified by any stretch of the imagination. I recall seeing a phote this last week of the clean up efforts of the arena where the DNC was heald. There were clear trash bags with small flags, soda cups, food rappers and other debris. Were they storing those as well?
This should be expected from a candidate that refused to wear a lapel pin until he took heat for that lack of patriotism.
Petty? Grumpy, I'd like you to say the fisrt line of the Pledge of Alegiance, and then restate your pettiness arguement.
The Obama's trash the flag which is also trashing the country. Obvious pandering?
As a military wife, I am very sensitve to respecting the flag. Before we moved to Korea a couple months ago, I stopped by the Kansas National Guard office because they were flying a tattered and torn flag and told them they needed to retire and replace it.
I stopped in at our kids' Jr. High and told the adminstrators that their flag likewise needed to be retired and replaced. They agreed and did.
Point being, particularly those who serve or are in military families understand that the flag is very precious. Obama has a history of disrespecting the flag. It isn't pandering, petty, silly or a sideshow distraction. It is real.
People who protect the flag and fight for our country understand this. It has nothing to do with theatrics. That's Obama's area of expertise.
You don't throw perfectly good U.S. flags away in the trash. Period. Apparently Obama thinks they're just disposable items.
Leave it to a Catholic to worship idols.
The Pledge is to the republic for which it stands. Once can't have allegiance to a piece of cloth.
In any case, there's another side to this story, as there always is.
"A Democratic National Committee spokeswoman said the flags were snatched — not discarded — from Invesco Field.
"American flags were proudly waved by the 75,000 people who joined Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention," said Karen Finney, a Democratic National Committee spokeswoman. McCain "supporters wrongfully took leftover bundles of our flags from the stadium to play out a cheap political stunt."
"It has nothing to do with theatrics"
Oh, please Amy. You're smarter than that.
I'm sorry you don't grasp the concept of patriotism, grumpy, but that's your problem.
A flag is not a god nor an idol. It is a symbol that represents national unity, freedom, the sacrifices over the centuries of men just like my husband who put the public good above self-interest.
Jesus talked about loving Israel in no uncertain terms. Even he was a patriot. Your snide remarks only appeal to those who don't know any better.
Oh, the flags were wrongfully snatched, not disgarded....from DUMPSTERS. Who put them in the dumpsters, grumpy? It wasn't the McCainites.
How long were those "left over bundles" sitting in the dumpsters?????? After 10 days or so they Obama camp was going to take them out of the plastic wrap and proudly display them again?
Why can't libs just stand by their actions? It's pretty embarrassing when they can't even defend their own beliefs and actions because it's a liability.
When it comes to conventions, etc. flags are used as props, by both parties. To deny that fact is just naïve in the extreme.
The treatment of the actual flag, the cloth, plastic or whatever is often used as a distraction from real issues concerning the republic for which it stands.
Let me state this again, Grumpy:
http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagcode.htm
Flag Code
The laws relating to the flag of the United States of America are found in detail in the United States Code. Title 4, Chapter 1 pertains to the flag; Title 18, Chapter 33, Section 700 regards criminal penalties for flag desecration; Title 36, Chapter 3 pertains to patriotic customs and observances. These laws were supplemented by Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations.
§8. Respect for flag
K. The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.
Let me be MORE SPECIFIC:
"...Title 18, Chapter 33, Section 700 regards criminal penalties for flag desecration;..."
Not only was it undignified and disrespectful, it was against the law. Wouldn't the defense of such behavior be considered as 'Aiding and Abetting' Criminal activity?
-not judging; just saying-
republicans as green.
"When it comes to conventions, etc. flags are used as props, by both parties. To deny that fact is just naïve in the extreme. " That is not the point. It would have been a kind and correct gesture to offer the republicans those recyclable flags for their convention. The world sees the US as wasteful, and this gesture that ‘could have happened’ would be symbolic of green living. Like someone could have said, ok people, after the Dem conv., when you leave the stadium, please put your flags in the recyclable bin. Obama should have suggested that – but he did not. So the republicans took it upon themselves to do it.
Hmmmm, the Democrats feign crocodile tears that they are falsely accused of being unpatriotic. Then they pull this obvious disrespect of American flags. They like waving the flag when they have the country watching them, but can't be bothered with disposing the them properly. Acts like these only confirms our suspicions, their patriotism is only skin deep. Is this the type of change we can expect from the Obama????
Grumpy, the RNC never uses the flag as a prop. Did you listen to the difference in crowds during the conventions? At the DNC they chanted "Obama! Obama!" At the RNC they chanted "USA! USA!"
It was an obvious contrast.
At the end of a convention, Republicans take their flags home and display them in their house. When I went to a Bob Dole rally in 1996 in Colorado Springs when we were stationed at Ft. Carson, our first duty stations, I brought my own flag. Then I took it home.
How the Democrats use the flag is evidenced by how they discard them.
Now the little flag you wave at a pep rally is a sacred piece of plastic? Really? I would have thought that a person that was religious would deny idols.
Practically, why do we care about what someone does with a plastic flag, as long as they don't try to offend someone with it, i.e. pee on it, burn it, or walk on it. In the real world people throw away plastic flags (think about the 1000 flags put up by a local community every 4th of july, think these are recycled?).
Another thing to consider, it was not clear to me that the democrats were saying that the flags were stolen from dumpsters, they seemed to claim that they were unused flags that were stolen. Stealing flags would be worse (if this story were true), also think of the liability of giving people flags that were in dumpsters, would you want to risk someone getting sick and having a case?
Let's apply some logic, once we start naming our false gods, we need to distinguish that from our analytical reasoning.
No, disagree, the flags aren't plastic. Did you see the Democratic convention?
Or throw it in a dumpster.
I think I've addressed the "idol" claim. It's a ridiculous accusation.
And yes I'm a religious practicing Catholic and proud of it! And I have U.S. flags here in South Korea. Maybe living in a foreign country makes me appreciate what we have in the states a little more.
If all you have to defend your view is that the material is of a different composition, it seems you have ceded the rest of the argument. I will take your agreement. I don't care if the flag is plastic or not, the point is that it is massed produced, and not a service flag -- i.e. has never flown over a base, at a government building, or held any ceremonial purpose (like over a coffin).
Clearly you have not addressed the idol point, everyone still thinks you are wrong, we can agree to disagree and you can respect that people find this hypocritical, or you can continue to try to bring us around. Either way it is akward.
Were you to actually want to engage, you still haven't addressed the point about the 4th of july flags. Pretend you are mayor of a town (larger than 9000) and you put out 1000 flags for the fourth of july. What do you do with them between the years. What do you think is the average or median mayor going to do with them? Do you think that 7,000 flags, or 70,000 flags will meet with some superior fate? Economics forces constraints on our various utopias. At some scale the ceremony is sacrificed for practicality.
Please be realistic with your moaning. I sometimes agree with you, but fantasy land is not my current address.
1) The DNC was not directly responsible for cleanup after the convention.
2) What makes you think after 80,000 people have a convention that at least some flags wouldn't ACCIDENTALLY end up on the floor? I'd bet a pretty penny it was the same after the republican convention.
3) No one knows who put the neatly rolled up and stored flags by the loading dock vaguely near a dumpster. (There's also a picture showing the flags were carefully rolled up and stored away in some bags and obviously not intended for garbage.)
4) The flag is a SYMBOL. McCain has disrespected everything the American flag stands for, in his sinister and heinous public "service" (and I use that term very loosely when referring to McCain.)