Apparently, a man got through with a small sign:
“Bill Moyer, 73, wears a ‘Bullshit Protector’ flap over his ear while President George W. Bush addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac).” From Bush speech in Donnelly, Idaho today.
This a probably a one-time deal. Security may be checking if people are wearing cardboard signs over their ears at the next Bush speech.
From the AP:
ARLINGTON, Va. - Unlike earlier wars, nearly all Arlington National Cemetery gravestones for troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan are inscribed with the slogan-like operation names the Pentagon selected to promote public support for the conflicts.
Families of fallen soldiers and Marines are being told they have the option to have the government-furnished headstones engraved with “Operation Enduring Freedom” or “ Operation Iraqi Freedom” at no extra charge, whether they are buried in Arlington or elsewhere. A mock-up shown to many families includes the operation names.
The vast majority of military gravestones from other eras are inscribed with just the basic, required information : name, rank, military branch, date of death and, if applicable, the war and foreign country in which the person served.
Families are supposed to have final approval over what goes on the tombstones. That hasn’t always happened.
Nadia and Robert McCaffrey, whose son Patrick was killed in Iraq in June 2004, said “Operation Iraqi Freedom” ended up on his government-supplied headstone in Oceanside, Calif., without family approval.
“I was a little taken aback,” Robert McCaffrey said, describing his reaction when he first saw the operation name on Patrick’s tombstone. “They certainly didn’t ask my wife; they didn’t ask me.” He said Patrick’s widow told him she had not been asked either.
“In one way, I feel it’s taking advantage to a small degree,” McCaffrey said. “Patrick did not want to be there, that is a definite fact.”
The owner of the company that has been making gravestones for Arlington and other national cemeteries for nearly two decades is uncomfortable, too.
“It just seems a little brazen that that’s put on stones,” said Jeff Martell, owner of Granite Industries of Vermont. “It seems like it might be connected to politics.”
…The Pentagon in the late 1980s began selecting operation names with themes that would help generate public support for conflicts.
Gregory C. Sieminski, an Army officer writing in a 1995 Army War College publication, said the Pentagon decision to call the 1989 invasion of Panama “Operation Just Cause” initiated a trend of naming operations “with an eye toward shaping domestic and international perceptions about the activities they describe.”
The families should be able to choose whatever they want for the gravestones. The Pentagon shouldn’t encourage particular slogans about the war.
Pat Robertson appears on the Christian tv show, “The 700 Club.” David Brock is president of Media Matters for America, a media watchdog group.
From a Media Matters press release:
Media Matters for America President and CEO David Brock today called on Pat Robertson to retract and repudiate his vitriolic comments against the President of Venezuela.
Media Matters for America first drew attention to Pat Robertson, host of Christian Broadcasting Network’s The 700 Club and founder of the Christian Coalition of America, calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
“Pat Robertson’s call for the assassination of a foreign leader is an irresponsible use of the public airwaves, as well as a call for the Bush administration to violate the executive order banning assassination,” said Brock. “Responsible news outlets should think twice before providing him a platform from which to peddle his inappropriate and inaccurate claims.”
From the Aug. 22 broadcast of The 700 Club:
ROBERTSON: There was a popular coup that overthrew him (Chavez). And what did the United States State Department do about it? Virtually nothing. And as a result, within about 48 hours that coup was broken; Chavez was back in power, but we had a chance to move in. He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he’s going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent.
With regard to Pat Roberston accusing Chavez of encouraging “Muslim extremism,” I don’t even know where he got that from.
Robertson continued (as quoted in the Media Matters press release):
You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don’t think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger…
How about not killing one person, not killing many people either? As in, “Thou shalt not kill.”