The American Standard Bearer

The ACLU, that organization created by Communists for Communists, has crept it’s way into my 11-year-old daughter’s classroom. That’s right, that surly collection of Christophobic lawyers who never miss an opportunity to defend the trashers of the American flag, have a willing accomplice in my daughter’s school in the form of her teacher.

Daughter asked me last night if George Bush was listening to our phone calls. I replied that if he’s listening to my phone calls, then he is almost certainly sound asleep. “No Daddy, really, my teacher says that the President is spying on Americans.” And I replied that the President isn’t spying on anyone.

I explained that the NSA was authorized by the President to monitor phone calls either originating within the U.S. to known terrorists or terrorist facilitators outside the U.S., or vica versa. She then let me know that her teacher told the class about a new poll that finds that 56% of Americans believe the President is spying on us.

Not true, I said. The correct figure is something like 70% of adult Americans think the NSA monitoring of terrorist communications is a good thing. Not one to take Dad’s word at face value, we headed off to the computer to look it up on the internet.

Lo and behold, the “poll” turns out to be more propaganda churned out by the ACLU in their unending quest to see this President impeached. Belden, Russonello & Stewart, is the Washington-based outfit that conducted the pole. In fact, they do quite a bit of work for the ACLU as well as other clients like People for the American Way (virulently anti-Christian) and “Screamin’ Al” Gore.

Harris, in my opinion an infinitely more reputable polling firm, released their poll last week, as conspicuous for it’s abundance of figures as the ACLU poll is for the absence of data. Maybe the ACLU should leave Bush alone and go back to defending flag-burners.

My daughter went to school this morning armed with a copy of the Harris poll, just to show teacher that she’s not going to be a pawn in any ACLU smear-campaign.

Scott LoBaido has a busy summer planned. LoBaido is a New York based artist (visit CreativePatriot.org) who will be spending the summer and in excess of $100,000 of his own money painting American flags on the roofs of houses in all 50 states. And he plans to be finished before September 11th.

LoBaido is a passionate guy who’s latest passion is to honor U.S. soldiers and call attention to the Wounded Warrior Project, two very noble goals.

I don’t want to sound unpatriotic and I sure don’t want to rain on LoBaido’s parade, but I wouldn’t want a giant American flag painted on my roof. And even if I did, it sounds like a bad idea because after a couple of years, between the sun, rain, snow and ice, I’m not sure it would still be recognizable as an American flag.

But hey, that’s just me. My hat’s off to LoBaido and the good people who have volunteered for this worthy cause.

Fidel Castro attended a ceremony involving what the Cubans refer to as a “sea of flags” outside the U.S. diplomatic misson in Havana yesterday. The ceremony, attended mostly by people who had no other choice than to attend, was ostensibly held to commemorate the 1895 beginning of Cuba’s war for independence.

The good news is that it looks like Castro’s health is fading, an observation based on the fact that he declined to speak. The bad news is that the Cubans appear to be completely awash in revisionist history.

To begin with, Cuba’s bid for independence was from Spain, not the United States. And it was the United States that helped them to finally achieve it.

When the battleship the U.S.S. Maine was blown to smithereens in Havana Harbor in 1898, we blamed Spain. It is now believed that the explosion was the result of an accident involving the munitions stored aboard the Maine. But at the time, there was no thought of an investigation. With the help of some New York newspapers, the notion of a war with Spain became very popular with the American people and off went our army, including Teddy Roosevelt, to Cuba to fight the Spaniards.

In well under a year, Spain called for a truce and for the first time ever, Cuba was an independent nation. If America had been interested in subjugating the Cuban people, those would be American flags, not Cuban flags flying in Havana yesterday.

Yesterday marked the 61st anniversary of the raising of the American flag on the tiny Pacific island of Iwo Jima. Just four days into the month-long battle, a handful of U.S. Marines struggled to the summit of Mount Suribachi to plant the flag. The famous photograph snapped by Joe Rosenthal was staged after the actual event using a larger flag, but it endures as probably the most widely known image of WW II.

To many of us, that photo represents what is best about America – selflessness, sacrifice and the triumph of the American spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity. But an increasing number of Americans either forget, don’t know or worst of all, just won’t accept the truth about why we were at war with the Japanese in the first place.

Clint Eastwood is nearly done filming his latest project titled “Flags of Our Fathers” which reportedly chronicles the lives of those few Marines who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima that day. A few did not live long enough to leave the island and others were put into service by the government to help sell War Bonds. But it’s Eastwoods collabaration with the Japanese that may end up skewing history.

While we are great friends with Japan now, we should remember that nearly as many Americans lost their lives when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor as were killed in the World Trade Center attack. Their was nothing noble or righteous about what the Japanese did.

Those Americans who refuse to see the truth about the war view both sides of the conflict as being equally culpable for the carnage that ensued, a position which is plainly ridiculous. Starting with the atrocities the Japanese inflicted on the Chinese, then moving to the totally unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor and the horrifically brutal way that American POW’s were treated at Bataan, the Japanese proved that they were on a tear to expand their empire at any cost.

Clint Eastwood wants the Japanese to know that, contrary to historical record, he will portray their aggression favorably, assuring them that he see’s the battle of Iwo Jima as a “cultural, not a military conflict.”

A few weeks ago I was discussing with my son (he’s the technical genius at Flagstuff.com) the very large numbers of flags that cranks the world over burn to demonstrate hatred. Historically, that hatred is aimed at the U.S. and the flag of choice is the American flag, but that’s not always the case. Most recently, burning the Danish flag, with the occasional Norwegian or U.S. flag thrown in, has been the activity of choice for the die-hard Hate America crowd.

Wondering where all those flags came from, and speculating about the opportunities to be had in the protest flag market, we cooked up an idea to sell flags in a kit for burning. The idea was a joke, of course, but we had some laughs dreaming up the details. We would name the company “Easy-Lite Flags” and the kits would consist of the flag of your choice specially treated with something flammable, a pack of matches, and easy instructions.

Little did we know how prophetic our short conversation that day would be. A socialist student organization in Australia has announced they have flag burning kits for sale. The organization, known as Resistance, is distributing kits that include an Australian flag, a butane lighter, some type of flammable material and a propaganda leaflet for $5 US.

Resistance issued an official statement explaining the rationale behind the kits, “The flag-burning kit displays the sentiment that many young people feel, given the Australian government’s racist refugee policy, its treatment of indigenous people, its use of violence against protesters, its support of US foreign policy and its oppressive military role in the Asia Pacific.”

As for the group’s socialist credentials, I will vouch for them. Only socialists could enter into a capitalist venture (selling something) and loose money.

While hundreds of ordinary Americans stood watching in the morning sunshine Monday, an Oregon National Guard Company raised a huge 30′ by 60′ American flag on a 100′ flagpole. The citizens of Sutherlin, Oregon turned out in force to witness the inaugural flag raising at a memorial adjacent to the I-5 corridor. Two other flags – an Oregon state flag and a POW-MIA flag – were also raised on their own 60′ poles.

A heartwarming scene to be sure, at least for most of us, but hardly what you would characterize as dramatic. But reading about this ceremony made me think of a truly dramatic story that recently played out at the U.S. – Canadian Border. You see, two desperate murder suspects passed by this very spot less than a month ago as they drove up I-5 heading for the Canadian border.

Neither of the suspects, wanted for murder in California and described as extremely dangerous, are U.S. citizens. Ishtiaq Hussain is from Pakistan and Jose Antonio Barajas is from Mexico. The reason they chose to drive towards Canada instead of Mexico has a lot to do with the porosity of our border with Canada and the ease with with undocumented foreigners can move around once in Canada.

The flag-raising ceremony in Sutherlin and the incident that transpired when the two fugitives reached the border provides a stark contrast between the two countries.

The border crossing is manned by both Americans and Canadians, but when news was radioed to the border that the suspect’s car had been spotted less than ten miles south, literally dozens of Canadian border officers deserted their posts out of fear for their personal safety. It was left to the Americans to apprehend the desperados, which they did.

After ramming their car and a subsequent shootout, the men were arrested about a yard from the Canadian border. Canadian officials quickly issued a statement for the benefit of less-civilized Americans explaining that border security is still as tight as ever. Paula Shore of the Canada Border Services Agency said, “We still have highly trained people on the front lines doing their job.”

Well, what about the dozens of “highly trained” officers who ran for the hills? Shore’s answer leaves you wondering if Canada feels any commitment at all to assisting the U.S. with border security, “any worker has the right to refuse to work if they feel they are in imminent danger.” Fortunately for us, the suspects were still on U.S. soil when apprehended.

Considering that all of the known terrorists who have been arrested in the U.S. since 9/11 came here by way of Canada, the same level of attention we are giving to the border with Mexico needs to be focused on our northern border.

The news wires are abuzz with reports of continued violence all across the Muslim world over those troublesome Danish cartoons. In Afghanistan, thousands of protesters at various locations took to the streets with some shouting “Death to Denmark, Death to America!,” while others burned Danish flags and torched likenesses of Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen and President Bush.

In Jakarta, Indonesia, Muslim rioters stormed the U.S. Embassy, pelting the building with rocks and in the Iraqi city of Karbala, an estimated crowd of 10,000 turned out to participate in festivities that included burning Danish and American flags.

So how did the United States become a target of these increasingly violent protests over cartoons drawn by a Danish cartoonist and published primarily in European newspapers? Well, according to the Islam Defenders Front, a particularly twisted group of Indonesian Muslims, The U.S. has orchestrated the entire cartoon fiasco in order to further diminish the waning credibility of Islam in the West.

But Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen indicated plainly what is really happening when he said, “I think it is evident for everyone that this crisis is no longer about the 12 drawings in Jyllands-Posten. It’s about everything else and different agendas in the Muslim world. It’s obvious that extremist circles exploit the situation.”

Muslims have become so indoctrinated with hatred of the West, and particularly America, that public demonstrations replete with violence are not out of the ordinary. In fact, more than a few of the protests take on a sort of carnival atmosphere, as exemplified by the fire-eater pictured here torching a Danish flag to the delight of onlookers.

“The American flag is the most recognized symbol of freedom and democracy in the world.” -U.S. Congresswoman Virginia Foxx

There are 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, yet outside of their home districts, most are unknown on the national stage. Congresswoman Foxx is serving her first term in Congress, but it’s my guess that we’ll be hearing a lot more about her in fairly short order.

The reason for my optimism is that Dr. Foxx has a long and exemplary career in public service, particularly in education, and most recently completed five terms in the North Carolina Senate. But in addition, her public statements, like the one above, are straightforward and speak to what the vast majority of Americans already know in their hearts to be true.

A street full of Muslim thugs chanting unintelligible slogans while putting the torch to an American flag is all about the hatred of freedom. The answer to the question, “What did we do to make them so mad at us?” is “Nothing.”  As Dr. Foxx suggests, they hate the freedom and therefore, hate the symbol of that freedom, the American flag.

Two more statements from Dr. Foxx further illustrate her plain speaking style:

“America does not fight for land, glory or riches.”

“Liberty is not the unique right of Americans or even Westerners, but is mankind’s right.”

Here’s wishing Dr. Foxx success in the U.S. Congress.

“When I see an American flag flying, it’s a joke.” – Robert Altman

Since Alec ‘I never met a woman I didn’t like to beat’ Baldwin is having so much trouble with the ladies, here’s a plan.

Alec – do the popular thing (in Hollywood at least) and take perrenial pothead and erstwhile director Robert Altman by the hand and wing your way to Paris where you can whisper inane statements, catalogueing your hatred for America, to one another forevermore.

As you must know, Alec, Bobby made the very same promise to leave the good old U.S. forever if Bush was elected that you did. And he hates the country that has afforded him the spoiled lifestyle he enjoys just the same as you.

If you should decide to stay, and it appears you have, you should remember that when you open your large mouth and say stupid things, be prepared to back them up. If not, you run the risk of appearing to be an idiot, as you do right now.

P.S. – Please pass this bit of advice along to Altman, and please tell him that calling the American flag a “joke” says nothing about the American flag but it gives us a good reason to laugh at him.

Alec Baldwin, washed up and no longer able to land a decent role in a movie has instead decided to open his mouth once again and let it spill forth on the pages of Arianna Huffington’s liberal support group blog.

Baldwin just can’t seem to let go of the whole Cheney hunting accident thing now that Cheney’s friend, Harry Whittington, has been released in good shape after a six-day hospital stay.

Calling Cheney a terrorist is just stupid. But calling him a liar… well, it makes me wonder whatever happened to your promise to wrap yourself in the French flag and move to Paris if Bush was elected. In fact, you made the same promise prior to Bush senior’s election. Twice you’ve lied to us.

So Alec, be a man and leave already.