Paul Begala (TPMCafe): Anti-War Imagery and the Iconography of Hate

[Dudley_DUright]

It seems to me the American people never really forgave the Democrats for being right about Vietnam.

The left was right, of course, about Vietnam. Even my CNN colleague Bob Novak, who was extraordinarily hawkish on Vietnam, now admits America should have pulled out years before we did.

<snip>

For me, one of the most incendiary moments of the entire Bush war in Iraq occurred when a right-wing thug ran his pickup truck over hundreds of crosses bearing the names of heroic Americans killed in Iraq. He also took out scores of American flags in the process. Police say the perp is Larry Chad Northern, a Waco real estate agent and gun nut. Mr. Northern is, of course, entitled to the presumption of innocence, despite the fact that the local sheriff's office says Ol' Larry was spotted at 9:30 Monday night changing a tire on his pickup truck. Citing sheriff's office reports, the Waco Tribune-Herald, reported that, "Small white crosses were found stuck in the truck's undercarriage."


<snip>

Such is the hatred of the far right at the dawn of the 21st Century. And my how the optical worm has turned. Today it is the left invoking faith, flag and family, while the right destroys crosses. Today it is the left that honors the war dead, raises up a Gold Star Mother and publicly prays for our troops, while the right viciously attacks a woman who gave her country everything. Today it is the left that patiently and peacefully respects the Office of the Presidency, while the right diminishes the office by claiming it's more important for the President to go bike-riding with a sports hero than comfort the mother of a war hero.

more...

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/8/18/03721/8483

[Lost4words]

1. I like Begala when he remembers his side of the fence!

Glad to hear he has come back around.

[Cha]

4. I know! I didn't know begala

had it in him.

This is amazing writing.

[zbdent]

2. When was the left destroying crosses?

We just fought having them put up in places where the Constitution said there shouldn't . . .

Nobody told them they had to take crosses off their own lawns . . .

[Cha]

3. This is an amazing article..

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that Lance Armstrong actually went biking with bush at the time when a mother who "has given her Country everything" wanted to speak with the Plastic Ponderosa puppet.

What the heck did Sheryl Crow think? I know what I think..BAD TIMING!!

"On Thursday, Dick Cheney, who said he had "other priorities" in the Vietnam era, and so helped himself to five draft deferments, will address the 73rd Convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. I do not think he will express remorse for the callousness with which he explained his cowardice. Nor do I expect him to apologize for the shocking, mocking Republicans who, at their New York Convention a year ago, sported Band-Aids with tiny purple hearts to mock the blood shed by John Kerry and so many other heroes in that misbegotten war.

No, Mr. Cheney, surrounded by body guards who would gladly give their life for him, will no doubt wrap himself in the flag. A flag Larry Chad Northern wrapped around his axle on Prairie Chapel Road."

Only in 21st century Orwellian America!