Video- Personal Stories Of Troop Support: "The Way We Get By"

Hopefully this will make up for the Tiger Woods bimba video. Sniff.

No matter your political leanings, patriotic spirit level, or thoughts on troop deployment, this is a very inspiring personal story about a remarkable group of people in Maine who make personal sacrifices to support soldiers. Filmmaker Aron Gaudet’s mom is one of the subjects of the film. It’s one of the best docs I’ve seen all year — if you missed its PBS airing on Veterans Day, it’s available free online until Dec. 12 here. Trust me, you’ll be moved.

House Democratic Fundraising Committee To Attack Patriotism Of GOP Members

By GottaLaff

Those Rushpublic tur'rists!

[T]he Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) plans to run ads on the July 4 holiday criticizing several vulnerable Republican members for their votes against the supplemental last week. [...] Glenn [...] Thrush provides the script:

Around here, we recognize Independence Day with parades … and picnics … maybe a few fireworks. But July Fourth is about more than that.

It’s about remembering those who fought for our freedoms. And those still fighting today. Congressman Lee Terry used to understand that.

When George Bush asked, Congressman Terry voted to fully fund our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, last year he said, quote, “We must give our military every resource it needs.”

Seems like Congressman Terry is playing politics now … Last month Congressman Terry voted AGAINST funding for those same troops. It’s true: vote No. 348 – you can look it up.

Versions of the ads are reportedly going to be run against seven Republican members: Reps. Ken Calvert (R-CA), Charlie Dent (R-PA), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Dan Lungren (R-CA), Mike McCaul (R-TX), Lee Terry (R-NE) and Joe Wilson (R-SC). The DCCC insists that it is simply pointing out that “[w]hen George Bush was president, Republicans were quick to criticize anyone who voted against the supplemental bills that fund the troops as against the troops. But now that Republicans are trying to score political points, they have flip flopped on troop funding.”

This, however, is not really the case. [...]

Steve Benen writes, “As a substantive, policy matter, lawmakers can have completely legitimate reasons for voting against military spending measures, and opposition to these expenditures does not make one an unpatriotic terrorist sympathizer.”

On multiple occasions, ThinkProgress has criticized Republicans and conservatives for questioning the patriotism of those who were critical of the Bush administration’s policies — it’s not any more acceptable when Democrats question Republicans’ patriotism in a similar fashion.

Unless, of course, they do unpatriotic things like throw Tea Tantrums at which they compare their president to a Nazi, link the Census Bureau to Japanese internment camps, and/or undermine their president during a time of crisis.

1600 Pennsylvania Ave - Shuster and Ari Fleischer on Limbaugh, and what 'patriotic' really means...

The thing that kept on going thru my mind with this segment was to wonder who is paying Ari's keep these days. He seemed too on "message" to be just having a chat. Via FDL.

Added- Barb connects the dots.

VIDEO: Gramm-pa McCain Gaffe + Western PA "Most" Patriotic, God-Loving Part Of The Country

By GottaLaff

So much jammed into one measly video clip:

Via Ambinder: I couldn't agree with them more, er, I couldn't disagree with you, um, I couldn't agree with you more, uhhhhhh......

Referring to Rep. Jack Murtha's remarks on the region's alleged racism, McCain said: "I think you may have noticed that Sen. Obama's supporters are saying some pretty nasty things about Western Pennsylvania lately."

McCain: "And you know, I couldn't agree with them more."

"I couldn't disagree with you."

"I couldn't agree with you more than the fact that Western Pennsylvania is the most patriotic, most God-loving, most patriotic part of America... this is a great part of the country."

Forget about McCain blowing the line...

MOST patriotic?

MOST God-loving?

MOST disastrous candidate ever? MOST vile campaign ever?

Gramm-pa McCain: ‘You Don’t Announce That You’re Going To Attack Another Country’

By GottaLaff

We've all been talking about yesterday's clip from the Katie Couric interview with IWRC* Palin. We concentrated on IWRC, but look what we missed:

Last night, Palin defended her remarks. McCain dismissed the Palin matter as “gotcha journalism,” before concluding, “Governor Palin and I both agree, you don’t announce that you’re going to attack another country.”

In the days and weeks following the 9/11 attacks, McCain said multiple times to national audiences that he believed the U.S. would soon attack Iraq and several other countries:

October 2001, on CNN:

PAULA ZAHN: And as you know, Senator, the U.S. and Great Britain notified the U.N. Security Council yesterday that they reserve the right to strike against other countries in this campaign. What countries are we looking at?

MCCAIN: Well, I think very obviously Iraq is the first country, but there are others — Syria, Iran, the Sudan, who have continued to harbor terrorist organizations and actually assist them.

October 2001, on the Late Show with David Letterman:

LETTERMAN: How are things going in Afghanistan now?

MCCAIN: I think we’re doing fine …. I think we’ll do fine. The second phase — if I could just make one, very quickly — the second phase is Iraq.

January 2002, on the deck of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt:

MCCAIN: Next up, Baghdad!

More recently, in response to a hypothetical question about authorizing a military strike on Iran during a Republican primary debate, McCain said, “I believe that this is a possibility that is maybe closer to reality than we are discussing tonight.”

Not only has Gramm-pa failed to wear a flag pin in recent interviews, but now he's betrayed his own words as well as his country.

I simply can't bring myself to vote for somebody who's so unpatriotic. I suppose now I'll have to go with Obama. Snark.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

The Big Republican Invesco Anti-Patriotic Flag-Disposal LIE

By GottaLaff

That little flag story that the increasingly desperate Republicans are spreading around? Not so much:

But according to a senior official involved in organizing the Democratic convention, the McCain camp is simply lying about the flags.

"All of the flags at Invesco were picked up and put in bags and into storage, along with the unused flags and campaign signs. The flags were going to be donated, and the signs were going to be sent out to be used elsewhere," the official said, speaking anonymously since he was not authorized to talk to the press.

So I guess that makes the Republican liars gullible and stupid, huh?

Fox News' Carl Cameron and Bonney Kapp reported that they had "been told" that "a vendor at Invesco Field found the flags, which were going to be thrown out, and turned them over to the McCain campaign."

The Democratic convention official says that's not true.

"It's pretty reprehensible on their part," he said. "Someone made an assumption, took the flags, and essentially lied about what was going to happen to them. I mean, c'mon, we were never ever going to throw out flags."

I forgot despicable. Gullible, stupid, despicable liars.

Emails to three McCain spokespersons inquiring where the flags were found and how the McCain campaign obtained them were not returned.

Why would they be? Then they might have to actually admit they were gullible, stupid, despicable liars.

UPDATE: DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney issues a statement: "American flags were proudly waved by the 75,000 people who joined Barack Obama at the Democratic Convention. John McCain should applaud that, but instead his supporters wrongfully took leftover bundles of our flags from the stadium to play a cheap political stunt calling into question our patriotism. On the same day he agrees to join Barack Obama at Ground Zero on September 11, John McCain attacks the patriotism of Obama supporters who so proudly waved the American flag at our historic event in Denver just days ago."

UPDATE II: Another statement from the Democratic National Convention Committee: "Stories circulating about flags at the Democratic National Convention are false. We distributed more than 125,000 American made flags at the Convention - the flags removed from Invesco field were intended for other events and taken without permission. It's disappointing that someone would take American flags without authorization and then falsely describe how they were being used. We have the utmost respect for the American flag, and it's sad to see them being used for a cheap political stunt."

Several four-letter words are coming to mind. Please feel free to guess what they are in Comments.

Republican desperation: The patriotism card

By GottaLaff

If this is all they've got, then they don't have much:

John McCain’s campaign prepared to accuse Democrats on Saturday of leaving behind 12,000 miniature American flags after Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech last Thursday in Denver.

Is that worse than leaving behind your own country? I guess they think so:

Boy Scouts have arrived with 84 trash bags full of bundles of flags at the site of a McCain rally scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. local time in Colorado Springs.

The campaign says the flags were recovered from Invesco Field after the Democrats concluded their convention there, and they are going to be used as part of the warm-up ceremonies before McCain takes the stage for the rally.

FOX News has been told a vendor at Invesco Field found the flags, which were going to be thrown out, and turned them over to the McCain campaign.

Veterans in Colorado Springs are expected to distribute the flags to the audience at the rally.

By the way, Sarah Louise SledDog is now speaking. She has done nothing but repeat her convention speech. At the moment, it's all about Iraq and how the surge has worked. Enough. I turned the sound off, her voice was already beginning to grate on me.

Fake Soldiers Used In RNC Video

By GottaLaff


Yes, that bastion of honesty, the RNC, faked it. Anything to portray themselves as patriotic. Anything:

It was a video that was supposed to elicit soaring patriotism and real emotions about the Pledge of Allegiance. But to do that, it used fake soldiers and a staged military funeral instead of the real thing.

On Tuesday night, 15-year-old Victoria Blackstone, a sophomore at the St. Agnes School in St. Paul, led the crowd at the Xcel Energy Center in the Pledge of Allegiance. The audience heard her 434-word essay, “Pledging myself to the Flag of the United States of America,” an essay she’d entered in the “Wave the Stars & Stripes” essay contest and won. The RNC turned that essay into a three and a half minute video, a visually stirring montage rolling over Victoria’s words about sharing the Pledge with Americans who have stood at important moments in history.

I get all misty-eyed just thinking about it. No, no, not the video; my eyes are tearing up with laughter.

There’s the Continental Congress…A real WWII vet…Photos of workers at Ground Zero. A close-up of a folded flag presented to a grieving widow at a military funeral… profiles of soldiers swelling with pride in slo-motion.

But CBS News found that the footage of the ‘funeral’ and soldiers is what is called ‘stock’ footage. The soldiers were actors and the funeral scene was from a one-day film shoot, produced in June. No real soldiers were used during production.

Come on, since when have Republicans ever been phony?

Both Getty and the production company, Mr. Big Films, confirmed that the footage was shot on spec and sold to the Republican National Committee.

One of the actors, Perry Denton of Chicago, Ill. also confirmed that he was hired on a day-rate as an actor for the shoot and told CBS News he was surprised to learn the footage was shown at the convention.

He was surprised? I'm not surprised. Are you surprised?

Poll-itics: Framing patriotism

By GottaLaff

See post below, then add this to buttress my point:

Americans Seek a New Patriotism

A new Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll finds that more Americans rate Sen. John McCain as patriotic (74%) than Sen. Barack Obama, (56%).

However, when Obama "frames his idea of patriotism in terms that call on America to live up to its ideals and promise, respondents prefer his patriotism-centered argument over McCain's more traditional patriotic framing by 11 points.

Re-brand McCain, re-frame the message, Obama wins.

Obama: "I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign..."

By GottaLaff

Liveblogging.

...and I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine.

...We can agree that no party ... has a monopoly on patriotism. ... Patriotism starts as a gut instinct... "

"We can do anything we set our minds to do: That's my idea of America." ...

... I remember my mother reading me the first lines of the Declaration of Independence [quotes them]... This Declaration applies to every American... protects us from injustices... That's my idea of America."

America is the greatest country on earth... that instinct survived... because of its freedom and vitality that outweighed its imperfections... The belief that it could be made better, the Revolution was waged for the sake of that belief... We could be free to say whatever we want, worship as we please, pursue dreams and help fellow citizens to pursue theirs..."

MSNBC just cut to McCain.

Patriotism is more than just loyalty to a map... it's loyalty to ideals... the application of these ideals... It separates us from [other countries that don't practice the freedoms we have]. Those that don't practice these ideals... do not truly understand America.

Patriotism can never be defined as loyalty to a leader, a government, a policy. Mark Twain: Patriotism is supporting your country all of the time, and your gov't. when it deserves it."

We may hope our gov't. stands up for what's right... but when our laws are out of alignment with those ideals, then the consent of ordinary Americans my be the truest expression of patriotism.

Recognizing a wrong is an act of patriotism [Abu Ghraib]. ... Beyond loyalty of our ideals, and consent, patriotism is the willingness to sacrifice on behalf of a larger cause. For those who fought ... for this nation... those like McCain who have endured physical torment... no further proof is necessary. We must profess our profound gratitude for the service or our men and women in uniform. Period. Full stop.

For those of us not in uniform, the call to service remains imperative.... Because of the wars, this call never came... The wealthiest saw their tax obligations decline... never happened in war time... In spite of this absence of Washington leadership, young people have taken up our cause... by teaching, caring for others in hospitals... We should expand AmeriCorp... college assistance program... Government can do its part.

True patriotism cannot be legislated, must reside in the hearts of our people... It is our responsibility to instill that history in our children, both at home and at school.... It is up to us to teach them. We have always been able to come together to become more prosperous... more just. It's good to give back to one's community, to serve in the military, to participate in democracy, to make our voices heard...

Patriotism involves defending the country, but also working to make America a better place for future generations. [Discusses debt, consequences of inaction, failure to educate, invest in scientific research...] The commitment must extend past our own time here on earth. ... The government is of and by and for the people. ...

Trust in the better angels of our nation, as Lincoln did. He set the standard for patriotism. Truman said: "When FDR died, I felt there must be a million men more qualified than I... but through all of it... I've been well aware that I did not work alone... that you were working with me... " In the end, it may this quality that best describes patriotism. Not just love of the country in the abstract, but faith in the American people.

The achievements all result from the efforts of the American people... the liberty to pursue our own dreams. Not the equality of results... the equality to seek. There is nothing we cannot do... We are part of a larger story. ... That's what patriotism means to me.

Sen. Barack Obama kicks off "patriotism week"

By Paddy


No comment.

Sen. Barack Obama kicks off "patriotism week" today with a "major speech" in Independence, MO.

The Chicago Tribune explains: "To some ears, his name sounds foreign. His father was not an American citizen. Many of his relatives live overseas. And a portion of his own childhood was spent abroad. Every presidential candidate tries to demonstrate patriotism, sometimes in ostentatious ways, from headlining 4th of July parades to leading crowds in the Pledge of Allegiance. But Barack Obama's complex biography seems to heighten the burden..."

"The message will be that love of country is not defined only by such traditional measures as serving in the military or tracing one's ancestors to the Mayflower. Patriotism, he and his supporters will say, can be reflected in living the American dream."

It Is Now Safe to Vote for Obama: He Wore a Flag Pin

By GottaLaff

How could anyone think Barack Obama was qualified to run for president... until now? He has finally revealed his patriotism by ::drum roll:: attaching a brooch to his lapel, one that was most likely made in China. But that little metal symbol has convinced me that, at last, he can be commander in chief. It must also mean he's no longer a Muslim, because the two are linked. Aren't we all relieved?

Wearing a flag lapel pin, Sen. Barack Obama emphasized his patriotism and support for a strong and humane military Monday, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton implored West Virginians to sustain her hopes of somehow denying him the Democratic presidential nomination. [...] He used his visit to Charleston to combat critics' claims that he is not particularly patriotic or ready to be commander in chief, in part because he never served in the military, usually does not wear a flag pin, and opposed the Iraq war from the start.

Wait just a durn second there. He was opposed to the war... from the start? Why, that shows -- What's the word again? Oh yeah -- good judgment. And isn't that the last thing we want from a world leader?

Obama broke from his usual practice by wearing the flag pin and reading his speech instead of talking without notes. He told several thousand people at the Charleston Civic Center that patriotism means more than saluting flags and holding parades. He criticized Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain for opposing a Democratic bill to expand education benefits for veterans.

"At a time when we're facing the largest homecoming since the Second World War," Obama said of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, "the true test of our patriotism is whether we will serve our returning heroes as well as they've served us."

Barack, Barack, Barack, veterans aren't important. What is important is how well you bowl. You still have so much to learn.

After the speech, Obama stopped at Schultzie's Billiards hall, where he showed greater skill at pool than he had at bowling last month in Pennsylvania. [...] Obama told reporters he will have to consistently fight rumors that he doesn't say the Pledge of Allegiance, among other falsehoods widely spread on the Internet. "This is something that's been systematically fed into the bloodstream," he said. He said he had no idea who is doing it.

I'm still a little wary. I have a hunch he doesn't say the Pledge of Allegiance to his flag pin.