"It is not merely unseemly, but positively obscene...

[WilliamPitt]

... for people like Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee, and the unspeakable Princess Dumbass of the Northwoods to use surviving World War II veterans to advance a political agenda that would make the lives of those veterans immeasurably worse. It is obscene for them to use old, brave men as camouflage for bigotry and nonsense. It is obscene for them to borrow courage that never would find in themselves and to gussy it up in Confederate flags and trot it out as an audience for crackpots like Larry Klayman. It is obscene for them to claim for themselves the dead of Normandy, and the Bulge, and Okinawa, and Saipan. It is obscene for them to try to purify their own vandalism in worthier blood than flows in their veins."

- Charlie Pierce

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/republicans-using-wwii-vets-for-political-agenda-101413

[pinboy3niner]

1. K&R!

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. ...and to co-opt what was to be a nonpartisan event is despicable...

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Million-Vet-March-on-the-Memorials/539097822833735

snip-

"The political agenda put forth by a local organizer in Washington DC yesterday was not in alignment with our message. We feel disheartened that some would seek to hijack the narrative..."

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

7. Investigate that page a little farther and you'll see that the "non-partisan" claim

does not stand up to scrutiny.

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. It does. They have explained (and explained well) about the local organizer's break

with the whole.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

11. That page looks a lot different today than it did last night.

It's less prominent now, but if you read the comments, you'll still see a lot of anti-Obama, anti-liberal, anti-Dem, anti Federal Government comments from the supporters and attendees of these events.

Technically, you are correct that the organizers claim this as a non-partisan thing. And it's possible they believe that. But, by not protesting directly to those responsible for the shutdown, a political statement is made.

In so many ways it's a hypocritical protest.

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. They cannot be held responsible for who posts on their page.

I've been keeping an eye on the page since yesterday. Their main post has been front and center throughout. That said, there's a lot of "false patriots" with facebook pages unrelated to the event posting there.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

14. I've read that people posting messages from the left perspective are

getting blocked from the site. I wonder if any of the Obama-hate posters are getting blocked. Somehow I doubt it.

[Frustratedlady]

3. Beautiful!

When I saw those old men in their wheelchairs, my heart wept. I know those guys...I've grown up with those guys and they had to have been fed a line of BS or given some dollars to make a mockery out of the memorial.

If the Tea Party does anything well, it's using people. How long will it take before those people understand they've been had?

[TwilightGardener]

4. Truly awesome.

[Sunlei]

5. what Rs did is disrespectful toward our Veterans.

Then republicans push the photo ops on their fox media. Send out mass press releases & make it look like republicans lead some crazy civil war protest with thousands of our Vets. Republicans are nothing but selfish F,ing users!

[Warpy]

6. That goober waving his confederate flag at the White House

should have had it taken away from him. Of all the obscenities by the teabaggers yesterday, that was the worst. I hope the kids were watching TV instead of seeing that.

At least the "YOU'RE AN IDIOT!" came through loud and clear while bible Spice was trying to link up her pea brain with her mouth.

[Ikonoklast]

10. No, he should have it permanently attached.

I'll let others figure out how to exactly accomplish that task.

[kentuck]

9. Chutzpah.

They shut down the government and then blame it on someone else in front of veterans memorials. Did they think everyone there believed them?

[Cha]

13. My feeling exactly. nm

[LukeFL]

15. Bravo!

[steve2470]

16. It is obscene, my dear father who was in WW2 would have been enraged at this nt

[LuvNewcastle]

17. Just more wrapping themselves in the flag. That's what Republicans do;

they've been doing since at least the time of Joe McCarthy. They always imply that the GOP is the patriotic party and the Democrats are communist or terrorist sympathizers. We're always on the side of the enemy, whoever that might be at the moment, never mind the fact that they'll gleefully cut money for programs for the vets or anything that helps soldiers. The sad thing is that so many current and retired military people buy the GOP's bullshit.

[Douglas Carpenter]

18. I know this is completely off the point and off the subject - but it is so rare to see the place I

live (Saipan) get mentioned in anything - that alone gets my attention,

[LuvNewcastle]

19. I just had to look up Saipan. I'd heard of it, but didn't know where it was.

How did you end up there? What day and time is it there?

[Douglas Carpenter]

20. it is 8:08pm - the 15the of October.

AS you may know it is part of the U.S. Commonwealth territory of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and everyone born here is a U.S. Citizen. It has a legal status just slightly below Guam or Puerto Rico. I happen to be a Respiratory Therapist and I learned about the possibility of a job at the one hospital in the CNMI. And it came through.

It is actually an amazing place - stunningly beautiful, quiet and rural and very multicultural. Besides the native indigenous Chamarros and Carolinians - there is a significant population of Chinese, Filipinos, Russians, Koreans, Japanese and other Pacific Islanders. It's a really neat place. I feel like it is a cross between Asia/Pacific Island and the U.S. -

[LuvNewcastle]

21. Thanks for the reply. It sounds and looks wonderful.

I wouldn't mind living somewhere like that. I don't like the Caribbean much. I already live on the gulf coast, and it's similar in a lot of ways; we just have a little bit of cold weather in the winter and they don't really have any. I love Pacific climates, though. I'll bet it's nice to live off somewhere like that. It's easier to put a lot of our bullshit in states out of your mind, and you don't have to worry about family dropping in on you.

[Douglas Carpenter]

22. everywhere has its own problems - here the biggest one is that the economy is weak

although tourism is actually booming - not from the U.S. mainland but mostly from China, Korea, Japan and Siberia (Russia). But typically jobs don't pay as well as they do in the U.S. mainland. Housing cost are low - but some consumer goods can be pretty high and the selection is somewhat limited. Also fuel and energy cost tend to be a bit high. An island of only 50,000 people somewhat off the beaten path means shipping cost tend to push prices up a bit. But its redeeming factor is that it is a very low tension and low stress place to live and work - yet utterly multicultural. Quiet and rural and multicultural usually don't go together. But this place is an exception.

[LuvNewcastle]

23. Thanks for all the info. I love learning about other places.

I can't afford to travel, so I read about different places and talk to others who have been around to other parts of the world. Take care of yourself over there.

[WilliamPitt]

24. The reason Charlie Pierce mentioned Saipan

is because it was the scene of one of the most horrific incidents of WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saipan#World_War_II

Just FYI.

[MineralMan]

25. An enthusiastic K&R.

As the son of an 89 year old WWII pilot, I thank you and Charlie Pierce for calling out these Teabagger morons.

[adirondacker]

26. Cowards with a capital C. nt

[Enthusiast]

27. Kicked and Recommended! nt

[Uncle Joe]

28. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, WilliamPitt.