The right wing propaganda site Politico was so eager to try to do a smear job on President Barack Obama and his visit to Milwaukee today that they failed to look before they leaped and ended up landing into a pile of foolishness with both feet:
Yup, the mistook the Wisconsin state flag as being the flag of Wisconsin Local 1848.
Once they realized how stupid they looked, they deleted the post (which appears to be a common thing for Republicans).
Here’s the original story from Politico:
It’s very clear what side President Obama is on here in Wisconsin. Behind the stage where he will speak today are two flags: an American one, as usual, and right alongside it — and a flag for the local union, Wisconsin 1848.
The president has been mum in recent months on the battle raging in the Badger State between unions and Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who is facing a recall election largely pushed by labor after he pushed through laws effectively taking away collective bargaining rights in the state.
Here at Master Lock, Obama is speaking about domestic manufaturing and highlighting what he calls “in-sourcing,” bringing jobs back from overseas. The padlock manufacturer brought roughly 100 jobs back from China to this factory –union jobs, the White House has noted Walker had been expected to join the president but canceled this morning because his office said he has the flu.
This reminds me of the Ohio flag controversy, so let’s go back to 2008 and reminisce. Here’s Steve Benen, quoting John Cole on that:
The problem is, Ohio’s flag features a prominent, large “O.” Obama’s right-wing detractors didn’t know this, and assumed that the Obama campaign had created its own flag to stand alongside the American flag. Conservative activists and talk-show hosts had a bit of a freak-out. Here’s a hilarious example.
On the October 15 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bob Grant said:“[W]hat is that flag that Obama’s been standing in front of that looks like an American flag, but instead of having the field of 50 stars representing the 50 states, there’s a circle?” He then said: “Is the circle the ‘O’ for Obama? Is that what it is?” Grant later said: “[D]id you notice Obama is not content with just having several American flags, plain old American flags with the 50 states represented by 50 stars? He has the ‘O’ flag. And that’s what that ‘O’ is. That’s what that ‘O’ is.”
John Cole also noted a Townhall commenter who was outraged that Obama would “change” the American flag: “I don’t want to hear any looney left comments that they are only decoration. They ARE a modification of the American flag.”
What is it with rightwingers, Obama, and flags?
Kirbster
For wingers, flags are fetish objects. It’s kind of creepy.
Irving
They’re so eager to believe that Obama’s the person they imagine he is that they’re willing to seize on evidence that looks like it might possibly support their notions without questioning it.
kerFuFFler
The wholesale deletion of posts rather than merely making corrections (and acknowledging that a correction has been made) is the mark of a disreputable site. All the scrubbing and deleting on conservative sites seems pretty indicative of their attitude to truth and transparency.
Danny
Here’s something wingnuts find funny: The POTUS as a ghetto pimp who wants to kill Baby Jesus. (From RedState)
Teddy's Person
A common rightwing strategy: say any damn thing you want and when it’s pointed out that your incorrect you accuse the “liberal media of picking on you” and by extention the “average bible-thumping, gun-toting, flag-waving American.”
kd bart
You got to always keep them angry and frothing. If they’re not angry and frothing, they might realize you’re playing them for rubes.
JPL
@Danny: nice comment btw.
Kay
@kerFuFFler:
I assumed it was a hoax, but it really doesn’t seem to be.
The author writes “44”, which is supposed to be some kind of authoritative account of the “the Obama Presidency”.
Goodness gracious. They’re quick to pull the trigger there on Politico.
ericblair
If you don’t know why the goopers are obsessed about something, assume projection. Look for a bunch of wingnut statehouses to start trying to change state flags.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kirbster:
Do you know who else considered flags fetish objects?
The Germans call the 30’s the time of “flag madness”, you know.
c u n d gulag
An the Murkin flag has TOO many stars, nowadays!
We need to take off the ones on the left, the upper right, and a few in the middle!
Those are them Coastal Elite states! And some traiterous Heartland ones.
Ah Hell – them Liberal state’s is ALL traiterous!
And take off any blue!
Jus’ leave the RED and WHITE!
Now, THAT’S what the Murkin flag should look like!
Schlemizel
Better still the wingnuts will pretend Politico is a member of the liberal media and this is just further proof of their inability to tell the truth.
Schlemizel
@Kay:
Whats missing is “88” a favorite number amongst many a wingnut.
Brian
What is it? It is a poor reflection of our education system in this country. Critical thinking skills and common sense are obviously lost when one registers as a republican.
kay
@Schlemizel:
That’s what the comments say: “Politico isn’t liberal! They took Herman Cain out!”
Even if I were a conservative, and supported Herman Cain, I’d have to say Herman Cain took Herman Cain out.
It’s like saying the Enquirer “took John Edwards out”.
amk
Pearce
Eyes on the more important stuff than falling for all the faux rethug poutrages about obama, folks. Flags ? Really ?
Comrade Javamanphil
@Irving: This. Also, too, liberals planted the story to make conservatives look bad.
shortstop
Unbelievably stupid on so many levels–including not having the faintest ideas what unions call themselves or are set up. Do they think there’s one giant “Wisconsin union” that consists of IBEW, CWA, Teamsters, SEIU, UAW, firefighters, police, etc.?
Brian R.
@JPL:
Not as funny as the cartoonist’s response. What a loon.
shortstop
Ugh. No mobile editing.
Davis X. Machina
@Kirbster: I’ll be happy when instead of saying the Pledge every day, the boss comes on the PA and leads the students in a recitation of the 14th Amendment….
DanielX
Actually, you could just stop with “What is it with rightwingers and Obama?”
They think he’s the devil, embodied in the guise of a socialist, Islamofascist, commie*, Kenyan interloper who is going to take away their guns, ruin the economy on purpose and force their children to have teh gay sex. In school. Oh, did I mention he’s black? The only things he could do they wouldn’t find fault with would be to resign and commit suicide.
*Note: the distinction between “socialist” and “commie” is a little too nuanced for a lot of these folks, who do use both words descriptively about the same person in the same sentence. And yes, they do still use the word “commie” in 2012.
kay
@amk:
Well, we disagree on “important stuff”.
I think the Wisconsin story is important, and since kideni is there I generally listen.
Brian R.
@Davis X. Machina:
That’s the one that says corporations are people, but gays aren’t, right?
SiubhanDuinne
@amk:
They’re not mutually exclusive.
rikryah
Simply put, they don’t have anything on him, so they make shyt up.
Davis X. Machina
@Brian R.: That would be the headnote to County of Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394
kay
@amk:
It’s a long slog for the recallers. I hope they’re laughing at this. I don’t think they can do all grim, all the time. I can’t, anyway.
Donut
@kay:
What happens in Wisconsin right now does not stay in Wisconsin.
Villago Delenda Est
@c u n d gulag:
You left out the obligatory PS: I am not a nut
kay
@Donut:
Unions matter more in these states because they have a union tradition and a bigger union membership. That they are also midwestern states that Republicans were targeting, and, to a certain extent, counting on in 2012 makes the whole thing very layered and complicated to me. It’s been fascinating to watch.
They took all these states in 2010, (OH, WI, PA, MI) and some (Walker, Kasich) went hard Right.
My hope is that was a HUGE strategic mistake for Koch and Co. I think it was. I think they absolutely blew it in Ohio. That’s hopeful to me, because I think we fall into believing that they are infallible and unstoppable. But they screw up!
Linda Featheringill
Tee-hee.
The flag thing is funny.
Question:
Are members of the staff at Politico so computer illiterate that they can’t look stuff up on Google? Or Wikipedia? Or probably any other search engine?
Or is it that drinking the RNC stuff kills brain cells?
Comrade Javamanphil
@Linda Featheringill:
You can’t win the morning if you have to do crazy things like “research.”
Linda Featheringill
@shortstop: #18
I noticed that, too.
Maybe Politico is run by secret Wobblies and therefore favor “one big union.” :-)
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@Villago Delenda Est: I’d never heard that before– I don’t doubt it, but do you have any links or anything at all that indicates that Germans do (or did) refer to that time as the time of flag madness?
(as another godwinization, i’ve long been concerned at the way this country has begun fetishizing all things military…)
kay
@Donut:
Walker didn’t go, because Walker would have been booed at that plant. Kasich was booed when he showed up to take credit for an auto plant expansion.
I think it’s important that these conservatives governors can’t show up at events in their own states .
Walker was the conquering hero at CPAC, but that’s not Wisconsin, and they don’t vote for him at CPAC. .
Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water
@amk: Lighten up, Francis. Kay can write about what ever she wants. It speaks to a bigger point anyway. Besides showing how stupid Politico is, it also clearly demonstrates their bias.
I wonder what PolitiFact had to say about it
Boots Day
If the emails I get from my dad are any indication, I can tell you that for conservatives, the likelihood that something is true is directly proportional to how bad it makes Democrats look. The converse is also true: Anything that makes Democrats look good must necessarily be false, although in some cases, they haven’t figured out why just yet.
I am not exaggerating in the slightest.
c u n d gulag
@Villago Delenda Est:
Ok, I’m knot a gnut.
Waldo
@rikryah: True dat. The whole contraception kerfuffle — a losing issue even among GOP women — is just the latest sign of their increasing desperation.
Anya
@amk: You can always create a blog and write about all that important stuff.
dww44
@Irving: Exactly.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko:
I’ve been searching (in vain, and in two languages) for the reference that informed me of this, but this article from Der Spiegel gives you a taste of what flag waving has been like in Germany recently, and how things are changing there as a new generation emerges without some of the old attitudes that were created by overexposure to flags.
Steve
Bahahahaha!
cintibud
a litte OT, but a good one from my alma mater:
DAYTON — The University of Dayton is sticking to its employee health insurance plan that covers contraceptive care, coverage that has become a hot-button issue as conservative politicians and Catholic bishops decry a federal health care edict they say infringes upon religious freedom.
Svensker
@Boots Day:
Is you dad my brother? Just call me auntie.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@Villago Delenda Est:
Spasiba, tovarisch.
Napoleon
@cintibud:
For those that do not know it Dayton is a Catholic university.
amk
@Anya: And you can always skip unimportant posts, if you’re up to it.
Yutsano
Related.
dww44
@amk: @kay: Kay, I really do appreciate your thoughtful and informed posts and comments. You exemplify the very best of us progressives and Democrats.
shortstop
Yutsano: hilarious.
amk: are you ever not cranky and petty?
Anya
@Anya: Fucking self awareness, how does it work?
shortstop
kay: for sure Walker would have been booed, but what I can’t figure out is why he agreed to do it to begin with. Did they just suddenly realize he’s not a union hero? I wonder if wingers think his canceling on Obama was some kind of clever slam of the president instead of a humiliating admission of cowardice. They so often seem to think that way.
HRA
@dww44:
I agree. Good job as always, Kay.
giltay
I just figure wingnuts have a hard time recognizing flags unless they’re red with a blue saltire.
cintibud
Oops – I just saw my link didn’t post. Here it is again http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/ud-to-keep-birth-control-coverage-for-employees-1329319.html
Liberty60
@Kirbster:
This. The flag, like the Bible and the Constitution, exists only as an abstract object of veneration and idol worship.
They don’t actually know or care much about any of those three, other than they must be worshipped in the prescribed manner and with unfailing fealty.
Ronzoni Rigatoni
Спасибо товарищий
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@Villago Delenda Est: I remember that episode– in fact, I remember being happy for the Germans (I really like Germany and would spend a lot of time there if I could) being able to express pride in their football side with their national flag.
amk
@shortstop: GFY.
MTiffany
Tag this story as #bullshitico.
Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water
@shortstop: @amk: apparently not
Comrade Javamanphil
@Ronzoni Rigatoni: Пожалуйста
Scuffletuffle
@shortstop: Hmmmm, guess not.
jlow
Is amk a 12 dimensional troll?
Tone In DC
The making shit up goes back to the Clinton Administration, early in 1993 as I recall. Just blatant lies and bluster. Hasn’t stopped since.
As an aside… Poppy Bush actually tried to be honest with the denizens of this town (there was actually a need to raise taxes). And his own party couldn’t turn on him fast enough.
maya
@MTiffany:
Or, Politiho
Brachiator
Without reading anything more than the first sentences, I guessed that the 1848 referred to the date that Wisconsin became a state.
These people are professionally stupid. Extra boxes of dumb.
kideni
@kay: Oh wow. Thank you. It’s nice to be heard.
This particular story has also been mocked on righty blogs, so it’s something we can all agree on: Politico sucks.
It’s interesting to contemplate Walker’s convenient but brief stomach bug, which allowed him to have a nice photo-op (where he looks like a reasonable, bipartisan in greeting Obama and exchanging pleasantries), but didn’t allow him to be in a building for an hour where he’d’ve been greeted by protesters (yes, they were there in force). It also hasn’t stopped him from today reporting to his corporate masters, the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, for their annual lunch.
bloodstar
Don’t worry, Politifact rated the blog post as ‘Mostly True.’
David Koch
BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA
The executive editor of Politico, Jim Vandehei, is a Wisconsin native and he didn’t recognize the state flag.
BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA
Tom Betz
Not only fetish objects; for Christianists, who now make up the base of the Republican Party, the American Flag is actually a stand-in for the Christian cross. That’s how far their confabulation has gone, how much they confuse State with Religion.
5x5
@shortstop:
From what I’ve gathered, it goes beyond that. They believe that there is one contract that covers all union members.
There was no negotiation — just a union thug holding a knife at a puppy’s throat.
dfs
Just Google “admiralty flag.”
Briefly, there is a long-standing belief among a fairly broad spectrum of wingnuts (extending, roughly, from Ron Paul supporters all the way to full-on domestic terrorists) that the presence of a gold fringe on a U.S. flag displayed at a federal agency (for instance, a courtroom) means that said agency is secretly under the control of the Reptilian Illuminati One World Government and working to advance their diabolical agenda (for instance, by sentencing this sort of wingnut to jail after they refuse to pay their income tax).
While the other explanations offered (projection, secular idolatry) are clearly true, I also suspect that someone is blowing on a dog whistle…