Jonathan Capehart:
Ugly rebel yell in front of the White House
If you want to curdle the blood of an African American and send a message of menace without resorting to burning a cross on the lawn or marching around in white sheets all one need do is wave the Confederate flag. So imagine my revulsion at the sight of one outside the front gates of the White House.
Michael Ashmore of Hooks, Tex., was among the many who converged on Washington for the “Million Vet March on the Memorials” to protest the government shutdown.
[…]
The protest and some of the barricades placed at the World War II Memorial then moved to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. And it was there that Ashmore waved his Confederate flag. A symbol of Southern resistance and white supremacy unfurled in front of the home of the first black president of the United States.
[…]
For those of you who would push back by saying we’re overreacting, that the Confederate flag is nothing more than a symbol of regional pride, save it. That flag you revere so much is no better than a Swastika, a threatening symbol of hate that has no place in American political discourse.
I am not a southerner. I’ve lived in California all my life except for when I was in the army. They sent me to Alabama for training but I didn’t see much of that place beyond Ft. McClellan. My redneck roots run to the Midwest, not the South. Near as I can tell none of my ancestors even fought in the Civil War.
But our nation fought a bitter and bloody conflict over slavery 150 years ago. The side that defended slavery flew the “Stars and Bars”, also know as St. Andrew’s Cross. They lost.
Another group is closely associated with that flag. They were racists who fought a guerrilla war for another 100 years after the Civil War ended. They wore white hoods and burned crosses and lynched black men. They were domestic terrorists.
I personally do not find the Confederate flag offensive, but I’m not easily offended. I think it’s stupid. But millions of other Americans are offended by it, and for good reason. To them it’s a symbol of hate and oppression.
Yes, you have a constitutional right to wave a Confederate flag. Or a Nazi flag. You can even burn an American flag, as long as you don’t violate any local fire ordinances. You can also stand up in public and spew any idiocy or hate-filled ideology that floats through your head.
But having the right to do something doesn’t make it right.
It’s time to retire the Confederate flag. It’s way past time. The Civil War is over. Jim Crow is dead. This is the United States of America. Our flag is the Stars and Stripes.
Honk, honk!
In Germany after WWII they outlawed the Nazi party and made it a crime to display the swastika.
They’re kind of taking the forget history, pretend it never happened approach. Not necessarily the best way to go.
Still, nobody talked to this kid? But WaPo photographs him with only an i.d. and writes about him? What brought him to DC? Are you a tea party racist? You know, fun stuff you ask people at rallies.
I was born in New York, but grew up south of the Mason Dixon line, the Confederate flag has always been a symbol of rebellion to me, not hate, maybe more a cultural part of the south. I’m more repulsed by burning the U.S. Flag, so if we begin outlawing, we should begin there.
I make a distinction between “everyone who ever displays it is a racist” (not necessarily true) and “it’s commonly perceived as a hateful symbol, so you are a dumbass” (True.)
I’m not in favor of outlawing any free speech. Not even nasty speech.
Echoing Klown’s background, but spent quality time in the south years ago and recognize there are beau coup southerners who are NOT racists, but respect that flag for other reasons.
Concur it’s display yesterday outside the WH was stupid x ten. I’d like to know more about the idiot carrying it before I rant in support of some type of ban. Besides, southerners as a class seem to be well adapted at disciplining their peers, so giving them a little time to “network” with the simpleton might bring about the desired result.
That’s horrible.
“close knit community” can be good or can be REALLY, REALLY BAD.
Rape times a whole bunch by evil mid-westerners that should’ve known better.
HONK! No, not everyone who slaps it on their truck is in real life a racist. But if you do, you have ZERO fecking right to whine that you are perceived as one. NONE.
I don’t care if you and your little group of friends think “it doesn’t mean that”, or that you are foolishly trying to “reclaim” some lost meaning, or just view it as a symbol for general rebellion. It ain’t gonna wash. It got used the other way by the Jim Crow Democrats for far too long.
It’s the KKK history, far more than the Civil War history, that makes it a stupid thing to do, dumbasses.
People say “Heritage, not hate,” ignoring the fact that there’s a good bit of hate in the heritage they’re celebrating. The Confederate battle flag is not necessarily a marker for racist thought, but it’s got a long history of being appropriated by racists.
Yep. It’s like people wearing what amounts to a gangbanger thug uniform, then complaining when they get mistaken for a thug.
Maybe they aren’t. Maybe they are perfectly nice people. DON’T WEAR THE UNIFORM, DUMBASS.
Not exactly the same thing, but a fair analogy.
Here is a peekyou on Michael
http://www.peekyou.com/username=killacowboy
From Daily Caller:
It’s the same old “It needs to be reclaimed” shit. Dumb and futile, however technically true what he’s saying may be.
That’s what they don’t get. I’m not arguing that every person who has ever used it is a stone cold racist, and that’s why they flew it. Okay, you’re right, all weren’t. SO???? AND???? Labels and symbols change over time. What Democrats did in the south under that flag during segregation forever sullied it. Sorry, that’s a fact.
And BTW, it’s the same visceral rejection I have of the communist flag. I could give a shit that you say “it doesn’t mean” you’re for Gulags and iron boots and the slaughter of tens of millions. That’s what it fucking flew over. You are an asshole if you display it.
But from what I hear there was one Confederate flag at the Veterans protest so why did the media only focus on it and then imply everyone there was racist and had no valid political points. Because the medias primary goal was distortion not fact finding. This guy likes attention so why not interview him? I want to know who is the guy who carries a confederate flag to a veterans protest against excluding Americans from war memorials while accommodating illegal aliens rallies.
Why would they possibly want to look at more than one bid? This is the public’s welfare they’re administering, so all normal “business” (spit, spit) practices are irrelevant when they say so. Because they are so much smarter than the peasants.
A contractor friend of ours who deals with DC a lot says no way those “closed signs” at the National Parks and monuments were ready in one day. Bidding on contracts takes months, even for supplying sharpies and copy paper. Then they appeared magically out west too, and that’s 3-4 days shipping from DC.
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
But who are they polling? Do they ever leave the east coast? I was driving a car load of guys 25-28 to a party last Friday night (they had had a few beers)and they started raving about Obama care and how they were getting screwed and how they don’t mind paying their way but don’t want to pay for everyone else.
I was sitting around watching a movie with a bunch of girls college girls 20- 25 and they were mad about the $25. minimum wage proposal. Why should they bust their buts in Differential Equations when some lazy unskilled person can make $15 an hour which is less than they are making in their professionally oriented internships. It is mid October and not one of them has a real job offer with benefits yet.
Real people are not slurping up the Democrat talking points and extreme social engineering proposals like they were a bunch of MSNBC reporters.
Sorry about the above typos. But the odd thing is how funny it is that the guys I was driving would complain about the cost of their health care. One of them has had hip surgery due to a ski accident. One has had his foot and ankle rebuilt due to a fall while climbing the outside of a building to talk to a girl. Three of them have had multiple MRIs due to head injuries from fighting, skiing, or stunt bike riding, and all of them have had multiple broken bones. These are the guys who think they are healthy but really cost the health care system a lot of money because of their male risk taking behaviors.
Depends on who you poll. Everyone or likely voters. Big difference. If you poll “the public”, this is what you get. It’s mostly what the media feeds them. If you poll likely voters, it’s more even. Whatever, they’re all idiots. But if Dems think they’re “winning” this, they’re even bigger idiots than I thought.
Look at the level of disapproval of GOP Congress from conservatives in that poll. It’s 60%. It looks like a huge chunk of their high disapproval number is from those pissed they are not fighting even harder.
I think you are right on that. I am sick of do nothing “Republicans” and the DC Uniparty of corruption and sellouts.
A libertarian would probably see a Confederate flag outside the White House and think about the expanse of the First Amendment.
My exposure to the Confederate flag is mostly limited to the hood of a ’69 Charger named the General Lee. I think Klown has it mostly right when he refers to the guy who waved the biggest flag he could find as an asshole. That was entirely on the person wielding it.
I will draw a line, however, at being ruled by symbolism. Think about the Confederate flag as south shaming like making assumptions about women’s clothing as slut shaming. I’m sure plenty of women who wear skimpy outfits just want to get laid, but that’s not a good assumption to make based on clothing.
We all have prejudices. We also have brains. Both need to work with each other.
It was on the roof.
touche
When I was a kid back in Iowa, it was called, “The Rebel Flag”, with a tone of respect and admiration as though it might be carried by Princess Leia’s troops.
Palin:
This is Forbes saying this
True and the young people are waking up. Turns out many of them were naive not stupid.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/10/peter-kinder-and-fellow-patriots-storm-big-springs-national-park-in-missouri-photos/
vets storm the barrycades in big springs national park in Missouri
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/10/14/syrian-clerics-issue-fatwa-allowing-people-to-eat-dogs-barack-obama-reported-to-be-ecstatic/
backtrack is thrilled. syrian clerics issue fatwa allowing people to eat dogs and cats
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/much-wrong-obamacare-sites-aetna-165710297.html
so much wrong with obamacare sites
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/10/is_obama_creating_a_martial-law-ready_military.html
is backtrack creating a martial law ready military?
this article scares the hell out of me because it is really happening today
http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2013/10/school-assignment-surveys-parents-political-views.html#more
7th grade school assignment surveys parents political views
Read the article. It’s damning.
So it is set up as a hard sell scam? The FBI investigates stuff like this all the time because it is considered a form of fraud.
http://www.americanthinker.com…
some more awesome pictures from Vets rally in DC
Question: Since SCOTUS ruled that the mandate penalty was a tax, how is the penalty not then thrown out?
Taxes CANNOT originate in the Senate. Taxes cannot be “deemed and passed.” They have to be voted on in the House.
Why did the SCOTUS ruling not kick the whole thing back to be voted on properly? There may be a reason that I’m not seeing, but if so, what is it?
Because Roberts didn’t want his car to blow up.
And his high school hi-jinks to be made public.
Or they paid him off.
What days & 49ers said, but also because of how it went down. It was a bill that originated in the House, they just dumped every last bit of language and added what they wanted. It is not the first time they’d done it either. They did the same thing with TARP, and with a bunch of stuff in the decade before TARP. It’s their cute way of circumventing the Constitution.
The bill was almost entirely shady. The House and the Senate each passed a bill. The Democrats in the House gave in to Obama and passed the Senate bill because they didn’t have enough votes to pass another bill after Scott Brown.
Of course, the Senate bill never would have passed if Arlen Specter hadn’t switched sides for a better deal. He lost his Democratic primary, his challenger lost to a Republican and Specter died. I still think he ended up better than an American on Obamacare.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/10/cory_bookers_imaginary_newark_residence.html
cory booker may not live in NJ as he runs for NJ senate seat
Of course there was no trash. It wasn’t Zuccotti park after an OWS rally.
dandy this one is for you. way beyond my understanding
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/13/your-d-link-wireless-router-may-have-a-backdoor/
d-link wireless router may have a backdoor
Looks real, but I haven’t verified. Everyone should compare those model numbers to what they have. Hopefully there will be firmware updates to fix that. Wonder if it was done on purpose by the company itself. Worth an investigation I’d say.
Have two working as slaves off main router and am not concerned. Meh. Routine practice. Any attempt to access from ‘outside’ must first make it through main firewall.
You have two slaves???
😯
On topic, ya gotta admit. 😀
My router terminates at the aluminum siding. You’d need to be on my property to get a signal.
You promised you wouldn’t tell!
My only comment to this story about a naked Raider fan is that grief takes many forms.
I’m gonna take a wild guess and say alcohol was involved.
🙂
http://townhall.com/columnists/austinhill/2013/10/14/doctors-fired-administrators-hired-americas-naivety-leads-to-bad-medicine-n1723008?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
what is wrong with this picture due to obamacare, fire doctors , hire administrators?
http://freebeacon.com/fox-e-verify-considered-nonessential-during-shutdown/
you will be glad to know the E-Verify considered nonessential during shutdown
And park rangers threw dying war veterans out of a park because they didn’t have enough money.
http://patdollard.com/2013/10/california-officials-raid-offices-of-obamas-million-dollar-muslim-donor-kareem-ahmed/
interesting raid on backtrack’s major donor offices
Really horrible, awful, disgusting, human being. Seriously, if he thinks he’s helping some cause, he couldn’t be more incorrect.
You mean Obama?
Him too.
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/10/14/heartache-moochs-garden-overrun-with-weeds-and-wildlife-white-house-forbids-gardeners-from-harvesting-crops-pulling-weeds-during-shutdown/
this is just heartbreaking, I am sure many tears will be shed over this
no gardeners for mooch’s whitehouse garden due to shutdown
I thought she did her own gardening. /snark
She doesn’t go near that place unless she takes a photographer with her. Or to a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, ghetto or church.
Or Target.
So, what, she’s down to 17 assistants now? Laura Bush had 3.
Wait a minute . . . isn’t it kinda late in the season to be harvesting anything?? My garden was picked clean over a month ago.
My honey picked 32 ripe “Cherry” tomatoes and 4 obviously mislabeled “Early Girls” this morning from our two bushes that I griped about taking so long to bear. Gotta love Monterey Bay weather.
Look, I agree with your point, but let’s also acknowledge that the left-based mainstream media has run with this story of one guy in a deliberate attempt to obscure the forest with a lone tree. It’s less than a fig leaf. It’s more race-baiting bullshit; another effort to race-block any honest, legitimate criticism of Obama. Yeah, the guy was stupid, but the hoopla is even stupider, and less honest, quite frankly.
If he’s not a plant then he screwed his cause by being stupid.
Here’s the thing: I don’t thnk he even had a cause. Like I said, no indication on his FB page that he’s political in any way. If he’s real, he’s a simple non-political ass, not a rogue conservative.
THIS. The MSM sure as hell doesn’t want to talk about the vet with NO LEGS carrying a Barrycade from the WW2 memorial to the WH do they?
(And if anyone says if it hadn’t been for the asshole with the Stars & Bars the MSM *would* have covered the vet with no legs, I’ve got a bridge to sell you).
My non-political hubby has started heckling the tv anytime da newz starts mentioning the shutdown or debt ceiling etc.
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/10/14/obama-republicans-recognizing-their-position-is-not-smart-is-some-progress/
backtrack never knows when to keep his mouth shut does he.?
negotiations are going on to work out problems and the fool has to throw insults
I have ancestors who fought on both sides in the Civil War, and some family members who live in the north and some in the south today. The Confederate flag is a symbol of a huge cultural divide between the north and the south that still exists today more than anything else. Every region of this country has symbols that are cultural icons. Only the south and Texas use a flag, but we all have them. If we demand that everyone give up expressing cultural and regional pride in ways that other people assign false motives to, then we are asking everyone to give up their sense of regional identity because everything offends someone. I am personally offended by the number of monuments that are phallic symbols. As a feminist I demand we tear down the Washington monument because it’s a symbol of oppression for women. \
If some guy in Texas wants to waive the Stars and Bars in his home town that’s one thing. Waving it at a protest in Washington DC is another.
I will concede that some people view that flag as a symbol of Southern pride. But other people see it very differently.
And I think covering your body with tattoos is icky, and I’m not alone. But others see it as art. Just because I might be judgmental about people who get tattoos shouldn’t stop others from expressing themselves that way. The South has come along way in the nearly 150 years since the end of the Civil War. It’s time to stop beating them up over it.
Apples and oranges.
This is how Democrats protest!!
I love the phallic symbol monuments but to each her own.
You missed the \ at the end.
http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/slideshow/world-war-2-memorial-protest-governor-sarah-palin-senator-ted-cruz-senator-mike-lee/
slideshow of greta at the WW2 Vets rally
Both a and b
The upside of Obamacare is that it’s gonna force Obama to finally build a border fence to keep us all in.
high five!
On the Megan Kelly show tonight there was an interview with a documentary filmmaker Dennis Michael Lynch who was at the WW2 rally from beginning to end. when the video becomes available it is a must see. this man got it, he understood the reasoning behind the rally. It was beautiful
http://www.examiner.com/article/filmmaker-dennis-michael-lynch-releases-trailer-for-we-ride-to-dc
dennis michael lynch releases trailer for we ride to DC about the bikers ride
http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/10/14/exclusive-video-vet-protesters-remove-barricades-dc-memorials
here is the video of the interview
Thanks for the link.
Fucking Dodgers.
Women can buy land now, too can’t they?? I think sooo! LOL.
I’ve got my beady eye on Paul Ryan. I’m worried he’ll turn RINO like Rubio
We are arming AQ affiliates in Syria.
Police are sent out to stop WW2 vets from *viewing* open air monuments on the National Mall in DC the same week illegal aliens are welcomed with open arms to have a rally there.
Sure the guy with the Stars & Bars was an asshole, but sticks & stones and really — in the grand scheme of things of what else is going down in this country — I don’t give a shit about one lone asshole.
Honk!
^This^ x 2
I have never been so afraid for my country in my life
I’m calling VISA to tell them to raise my limit so I can pay them.
With laughable math and logic skills like that universities need to be doing some serious tuition refunding to a whole bunch of vile progs,
Speaking of “symbols”
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/government-shutdown-white-house-garden-98278.html#ixzz2hkh4JwoG
Squirrels and weeds take over White House garden
Michelle Obama’s celebrated White House garden is overrun with weeds and wildlife — yet another victim of the shutdown, according to a popular blogger on all things food-related at the White House.
“The vegetables filling the 1,500 square-foot plot are now rotting away on the vines and in the boxed beds, thanks to the mandate for ‘minimal maintenance’ placed on the skeletal crew of National Park Service gardeners who remain on duty at 1600 Penn.,” reports Eddie Gehman Kohan, the creator of Obama Foodorama, a website that chronicles the administration’s food initiatives.
This lack of maintenance has had a “dramatic impact” on the kitchen garden, which is usually meticulously cared for, Gehman Kohan says. Mushrooms and weeds are popping up. The tomatoes and basil are out of control. The sweet potatoes have been relinquished to “worm food.”
A White House source told Obama Foodorama that under the shutdown gardeners are not allowed to harvest any of the crops. They are only allowed to water the garden and remove trash — restrictions that preclude raking, weeding, or clearing out dead leaves.
Wildlife are “having a field day,” Gehman Kohan reports. The squirrels, in particular, seem to have gotten the memo that no one is tending to the garden. “The squirrels are always a problem in the garden, eating the berry crop in the summer months. But they’re now kids in a candy store, gorging themselves.”
The First Lady’s office was unavailable for comment — both voicemail boxes are full, and the media email account has an auto reply indicating that staff are not available to respond due to “greatly reduced staffing.”
According to Obama Foodorama, White House Supervisory Horticulturalist Jim Adams remains on the job, but he is not permitted to go beyond the minimal maintenance restrictions. Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses, who is furloughed, usually holds weekly garden weeding sessions, but those have also been canceled during the appropriations hiatus.
Someone was paid to write this?
That right there is the problem with the federal govt in a nutshell. There are rigid assigned tasks, and no volunteerism is allowed. Staff who might actually want to go pick a tomato are actually forbidden from doing so.
This is the bullshit that happened with unions writ large. This is the insanity of regimented official collectivism. We are all cogs in the Grand Machine, and must do our assigned tasks, and ONLY our assigned tasks. When the piece of paper says that is not my task, I am required to grind to a creaky robotic halt, like a good little drone.
The article is unintentionally hilarious, but you know what it also is?
Fucking terrifying. These people may make an anarchist of me yet.
Is there anything stopping michelle from getting out there?
No photographers available.
I thought you already were an anarchist?
Or was that an anachronism?
I changed my twitter handle to AnarchoGranny for awhile, as an eff you to the accusers.
And this is why the GOP sucks at playing hardball with Dems. No, idiot, you do not START a negotiation with what you think will be “reasonable”. Gawd, these people have no fucking common sense. Or street smarts. At all.
Those of you who were “well-churched” may chuckle at this one. I did.
If it hits 68 degrees in our house, my teen acts like she’s been set adrift on a glacial floe to slowly freeze to death, lost and alone.
But we don’t have any drama, mind you.
Aaaaah. Remember this
“The issue with the Constitution is not that people don’t read the text and think they’re following it. The issue with the Constitution is that the text is confusing because it was written more than a hundred years ago.”
100 year ago. And this man has some credence?
http://therightscoop.com/ezra-klein-constitution-too-hard-to-understand/
Two of my kids are older than him. All three of my kids are smarter.
I watch a show called Elementary (a modern day Sherlock Holmes in NYC) and they just did an episode about a leaker (a la Snowden) and they called the character Ezra Kleinman. He was a real loser. Great episode. I wonder if EK saw it.
Honk
You know, if they wanted to change the Redskins’ name to something more accurate, they could always call it the Washington ChiComs. Because the Washington We-Owe-Our-Asses-And-Our-Great-Grandchildren’s-Asses-To-China is a bit long.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/obama-shutdown-of-catholic-mass-sparks-reaction/
curtailing religious freedom
this is going to be an interesting law suit. may go to the supreme court
WorldNetDaily (WND) isn’t as bad as Alex Jones’ InfoWars but it still isn’t a reliable source. It’s Joseph Farah’s tinfoil hat conspiracy outfit.
WND has a mix of true stuff and batshit stuff. Usually if it’s true, you can find other links reporting it also.
The National Enquirer scooped everyone on John Edwards (twice) but I still don’t consider them a reliable source.
But InfoWars is the only site I have blocked links from. They’re cray.
I’m telling you, the pro-abortion crowd is unhinged. I am gobsmacked at some of the stuff I see them say. This “no limits ever, even over 20 weeks is a non-human, children can get abortions without parents, performed by lower-level practitioners, you have to pay for it, and monsters like Gosnell get shoved under the rug” bullshit is NOT fucking prochoice. It’s insanity, and it’s wrong.
This is beyond “making a painful and difficult early decision that ought not be criminalized.” They are pushing for full-on infanticide and denigration of any consideration for the infant at all, EVER, in any way.
If that’s where they want to draw the battle lines, then fine. Fuck you. If that’s what “pro-choice” is going to mean in the modern world, then call me pro-life. I didn’t sign on for a culture of throwaway babies being cheered and celebrated. You want to make it that, go ahead, progs. I’ll be on the other side.
That was always Margaret Sanger’s goal, according to her writings. It was anything goes to keep babies “who shouldn’t be born” to be carried full term. One guess as to the ethnicity she (and PP) targeted.
That was back when racism was considered scientific. Before the Nazis gave racism and eugenics a bad name.
The old progressives use to talk about the “White Man’s Burden” and academics wrote treatises advocating that stuff.