Dobbs expresses “outrage” and “contempt” over video

Dobbs: "[W]ords will not express my contempt" for “outrage” of video in which flag mural is “splattered with health care graffiti.” On the October 28 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Dobbs cited a Politico.com article that reported, “One of the 20 finalists in health care video contest run by Barack Obama's campaign arm features a mural of an America flag splattered with health care graffiti until it's covered completely by black paint.” Dobbs stated, “You know what we ought to do? We ought to put that up on the website. If we can get a hold of that, I mean, people should see this kind of outrage. This is -- I have no -- words will not express my contempt.” [United Stations Radio Networks' The Lou Dobbs Show, 10/28/09]

Beck, Bush also defaced U.S. flags

Beck wipes stars from U.S. flag onto his studio floor, replaces them with logos of corporations, organizations. On his July 30 Fox News show, Glenn Beck stated that the stars on the U.S. flag “used to represent the states” but they now represent the Service Employees International Union, Wal-Mart, General Electric, General Motors, CitiBank, and ACORN, which he said were “the new people that we're really representing in America.” After stating that “I think we should replace all of the stars” on the U.S. flag, Beck wiped the stars from the flag onto the floor of his studio and replaced them with the logos of the six organizations he mentioned. He then stated: “We should stop calling it a flag. We should just start calling it the logo of our nation.” [Glenn Beck, 7/30/09]

Beck wipes stars from U.S. flag to protest their inattention to “state rights.” On his Fox News show, after removing four stars from a U.S. flag -- including a star he said represented Delaware “because Joe Biden pisses me off” -- Beck wiped all the stars from the flag, with many of them falling onto his studio floor. He replaced only the star representing Alaska and said he also would do so for Tennessee, suggesting that only those two states were “serious about state rights and that pesky little thing called the Constitution.” [Glenn Beck, 7/23/09]

Bush signed flag at a 2003 rally in Michigan. According to an August 26, 2003, “White House Notebook” column by Dana Milbank in The Washington Post (retrieved from the Nexis database), Bush “went on a brief foray into the criminal underworld last month in Livonia, Mich., where he ran afoul of U.S. Code Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8 (g): 'The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.' The transgression occurred when President Bush, on a July 24 visit to Beaver Aerospace & Defense Inc., accepted a request to sign a well-wisher's U.S. flag.”

An August 4, 2003, Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial opined of the event (from Nexis):

Conservative radio talk shows are bemoaning the fact that some Americans take exception to Old Glory being used as an autograph pad.

For an administration that embraces the idea of a constitutional amendment prohibiting the desecration of the flag, perhaps signing one with an indelible Sharpie wasn't a terrific idea.

Just imagine the uproar from the chattering classes had President Clinton been captured on Kodachrome doing the same thing.

A photo from the event:

WND “Superstore” offers self-described “Tea Stained” flag. WorldNetDaily's “Superstore” website offers for sale what it describes as a "Tea Stained (Heritage) Mahogany 50-Star Flag Kit." The site displays a U.S. flag with "[w]hite areas of antiqued cotton" that “appear darker.”