Who owns the Gadsden flag? Psychobaggers treading all over it.

[BurtWorm]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100901/cm_yblog_upshot/dont-tread-on-me-flag-starts-disputes-around-the-country

‘Don’t tread on me’ flags start disputes around the country
By Liz Goodwin

Wed Sep 1, 4:02 pm ET

An Arizona man is in trouble with his homeowners' association over flying the Gadsden flag, which features a coiled rattlesnake and the words "Don't Tread on Me."

The flag has been adopted by members of the tea party movement for its association with the American Revolution, but Andy McDonel tells the New York Times that he has hung the flag from his roof simply for its historical significance.

Arizona has a state statute that allows Arizonans to fly "the Stars and Stripes, the state flag, flags representing Indian nations as well as the official flags of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard," the Times reports.

McDonel's homeowners' association is strictly interpreting that law to ban the flying of any other flags, including the Gadsden. The American Civil Liberties Union is defending McDonel, saying the homeowners' group is taking too strict a view of the statute and restricting McDonel's right to free speech.

...


The flag is named after Col. Christopher Gadsden, a Continental Congress delegate from South Carolina. The flag was flown by the Navy in 1775 -- but owes its design to the famous "Join or Die" icon that Benjamin Franklin created in the 1750s to promote unity among American colonists. And that message seems more remote than ever, with contemporary political insurgents, colonial history buffs, state legislatures and civil liberties advocates all battling over the image's contested symbolic meaning.

[blm]

1. WE do - It's the flag of anti-IMPERIALISTS. No wars for empire. NO KING GEORGE.

The TeaBaggers are incapable of understanding the Gadsden because their political strategist handlers have distorted its meaning for some time now.

This has been posted here at DU for years to protest KING GEORGE and his imperialistic crusade invading nations that didn't attack us, and now his royalist GOP following who are masquerading as TeaBaggers.

"...our skin is EVERY color and our faith is EVERY creed..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgWTM4TN_24

The Gadsden Flag

In some old dusty attic
Undisturbed for many years
There lies a tattered banner
That is stained with blood and tears
By men who knew that freedom
Must be fought for by the free
And died to save a ragged flag
That said Don't Tread on Me

Don't Tread on Me
I'm a rattlesnake with
Diamonds down my back
When other men retreat
That's just the time that I attack
Because a dream that's worth defending
Is a dream that's bound to be
A ragged flag that said
Don't Tread on Me

Two hundred years of glory
And the glory's just begun
We may have lost some battles
But these colors never run
We drew the line at Valley Forge
We held at Bunker Hill
The cannon smoke is lifting
I can see that banner still

Don't Tread on me
I'm a mountain lion
And courage is my name
I tamed a wild country
But I'm wild just the same
And from that rocky Boston harbor
To the California Sea
A ragged flag that said
Don't Tread on Me

This nation isn't what we've done
It's what we've got to do
Remember that United States
Can only start with you
We better be recalling
What this country's all about
And rally round that ragged flag
And hear the people shout
Don't Tread on Me
I'm a grizzly bear
That's not afraid to bite
I don't look for trouble
But when trouble comes I fight
Because my daddy taught me freedom
Has no lifetime guarantee
A ragged flag that said
Don't Tread on Me

The winds of change are blowing
And they're sure to shake this land
We stood all we can take
And now it's time to take a stand
Let's tell the men who make the laws
In Washington D.C.
Unfurl again
That ragged flag that said
Don't Tread on Me

Don't Tread on me
I'm an eagle
Who is clawing at the sky
I want that banner waving up
Where eagles dare to fly
And blazing in the sunlight
So that friend and foe can see
A ragged flag that said
Don't Tread on Me

Don't Tread on us
We're Americans
And we were born to lead
Our skin is every color
And our faith is every creed
We are 300 million people
But on one thing we agree
A ragged flag that said
Don't Tread on Me

Michael O'Donoghue
© 1983 Least Loved Music, BMI

DON'T LET THE RW LIE MACHINE DISTORT THE GADSDEN'S TRUE MEANING OF ANTI-IMPERIALISM - the US of the Gadsden Flag would never be a nation that attacked first, but, would strike BACK with precision, not the widespread, sloppy wars of King George Bush.

[eShirl]

2. .

e pluribus unum

[blm]

3. the corporate media is pushing the TeaBagger distortion of flag, as scripted by NWO's RW lie machine

The Teabaggers are doing the front work for the group they claim to fear the most, the NWO of Bushes-Kissinger-Saudi/UAE Royals-Chinese financiers and industrialists, and they are too dumb to realize it.

[bushisanidiot]

4. The tea baggers have no clue what it means, nor do they have ANY CLUE

What the Boston Tea Party was about.

MORONS!!!

[blm]

21. corpmedia doesn't dare challenge the narrative that the fascists scripted for them and the teabags

dumbasses

[blogslut]

5. Nobody owns it

The design is in the public domain. Probably one of the reasons the cheapbaggers chose it.

[blm]

6. somebody DOES own the song, though, that TeaBaggers have been using and DISTORTING on youtube

and I'd like to hear Tweety cover why the LEFT raised the Gadsden CORRECTLY against the imperialist wars of BushInc....but...MSM wouldn't DARE cover that, would they?

[blogslut]

8. I am not familiar with the song

As for Tweety, every once in a while he rises above his congenital idiocy but not very often.

[blm]

10. It's been posted here at DU since the beginning of Iraq war.

It was written in 1983 for the Easy Rider sequel that never made it past pre-production due to conflicts between some principles.

It was written for the script's plot of an apocalyptic America disjointed because of the devastation caused by the corporatization of America.

Let's see, who was president in 1983 and why was the fascist agenda a concern of the script and song's writer?

[blogslut]

12. Okay

I'm sorry I've not heard it. I'm sure that if the composer were notified that the baggers were using it without permission, they could send a Cease & Desist letter. As well, the author could lodge a complaint with YouTube for copyright violation.

[blm]

13. Writer passed away in 1994.

I do know who produced and pressed this recording.

[blogslut]

14. Perhaps

...the song's ownership reverted to, or already belongs to, the film studio that commissioned the composition. That would be a good thing because movie studios have many lawyers and don't have sympathy for unauthorized/unpaid usage of their property.

[blm]

15. No...

this particular recording belongs to the person who produced and paid for the recording and its pressing. The copyright on the song belongs to the deceased's widow.

[blogslut]

16. Well, there you go

Maybe the widow would prefer the song not be used by baggers and will take appropriate action - if notified.

[blm]

17. she knows....it's just taking some time....plus, the corpmedia perpetuates the idea that

everything connected to the flag belongs to the RW nuts who've been distorting it for years.

[blogslut]

18. It is sad

The media, especially television, has always been short on memory yet long on the sensationally simplistic. My father was a newspaper man and as a result, I learned just how much of "the news" is total bullshit.

It's sad and it sucks.

[blm]

19. my spouse worked for KnightRidder/McClatchy...I had to tread carefully online for many years. Now he

no longer works in the biz at all, so I am much freer. Unfortunately the biz has too many fascist sycophants in charge...no journalists.

[blogslut]

20. Well

As much as I respect a righteous reporter, I'm not that thrilled with them either. Don't get me wrong, most newspapers, magazines and teevee news stations have and always will be run by conservatives. Just the same, well...

When my child announced that she wanted to be a journalist, I made her watch two films in a specific order:

1. His Girl Friday

2. All the President's Men

After watching His Girl Friday, she became enraged and proclaimed she no longer wanted to be a journalist. That film was based on Ben Hecht's play/screenplay, The Front Page. Mr. Hecht was a newspaper man and he held no illusions when it came to reporters. In my opinion, there has never been a more realistic portrayal of news people than The Front Page. My father died when she was five and wasn't around to clue her in on the reality of her chosen profession.

Then I had her watch the awesome-reporter-dudes-save-America movie. After she watched it, she decided to go ahead and pursue journalism but she thanked me for making her watch the Rosalind Russel film first.

[SargeUNN]

7. yeah that flag actually has a honorable place

in our history and for these people to make such a mockery of it really is sad and insulting.

[blm]

9. corporate media is pushing the idea that teabags own this flag and are also pushing the distortions

as if they facts. Corpmediawhores are as stupid as the teabaggers in service to the fascist NWO mediaowners who sign their paychecks.

[woo me with science]

11. This story is really about the powers of homeowners' associations

that act much like governmental bodies by imposing restrictions and levying fines, but are not bound by Constitutional constraints that would limit governmental powers (e.g., to restrict freedom of expression, as in this case).

I predict an escalation of clashes between homeowners' associations and private citizens over the next few years, as restrictions tighten and costs to live in a neighborhood escalate.

[surrealAmerican]

22. It will be interesting to see what get decided here.

Just what are the limits of what a homeowners' association can impose? That state law, though, would seem to be an excessive limit on free speech, too.

I'd like to think they'll rule in favor of the flag-flier here. I'm for free expression, even when it's ugly and likely to be mis-interpreted.

[Swamp Rat]

23. Here is a new flag, the 2010 Swamp Rat flag:

[Dappleganger]

24. hahaha, love it!

:hi:

[Swamp Rat]

25. Fly it with pride!

:D :hi:

[Norrin Radd]

27. That's brilliant!

[Swamp Rat]

28. Thank you

Feel free to spread it all over the Internet. :D

[blm]

30. haha...love it, old buddy....

.

[rucky]

26. I wonder how the teabaggers feel about the ACLU supporting his case?

I'm sure the irony is lost on 'em.

[krabigirl]

29. poor Ben Franklin..if he only knew.

[blm]

32. I say that every day, krabi

.

[hfojvt]

31. Didn't the USA buy it from Mexico?