"John Kerry gets caught mocking the famous Iowa Jima flag raising"

[dumpster_baby]

from http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/35212

"John Kerry gets caught mocking the famous Iowa Jima flag raising photograph on the cover of his book. Someone decides to put the entire book online. This is probably very bad news for Kerry."

I don't have time right now to check this out thoroughly, but I thought you guys might be interested...

[mac56]

1. "Iowa Jima"?!

BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!

Reminds me why I don't go to Metafilter anymore.

[Wickerman]

6. That's just South of Des Moines, I think

:eyes:

Morans

[Connie_Corleone]

11. LOL!!!

:crazy:

[hatrack]

34. Yes, and when the desperate Iowans ran out of ammunition . . .

they pelted the invading Marines with corn!

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

35. From the Halls of Monty...

or something like that.

[CornField]

38. We go there each fall

for the annual greased pig catching and bratwurst eating contest.

[Wickerman]

2. There is a poll and some great pics on that sorry page

DU the poll (bottom left) - a tad late, but might as well piss them off a bit:

http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry/index.php?topic=NewSoldier

[SoCalDem]

3. Sorry...I don't see it..

[JohnKleeb]

14. neither do I and I as Ive said Kerry respects those guys

[wurzel]

22. You mean Kerry cannot be seen carrying the flag?

That is all it looks like to me.

[JohnKleeb]

25. No I mean, its not mocking it

[wurzel]

30. Sorry. I was being sarcastic.

[JohnKleeb]

31. s'all good

I just have the greatest respect for those 6 guys being a relative, is ok, I dont detect sarcasm well, republicans gotta be pretty dumb if they think Kerry doesnt care about vets.

[THUNDER HANDS]

4. is that from when he stormed the beaches of Iowa during the primary?

:D

[iconoclastic cat]

5. Oh, what-freakin'-ever.

Not worth your time. If this becomes an issue, the U.S. electorate is officially a confederacy of dunces.

[Norquist Nemesis]

7. Considering John Kerry wouldn't have designed the cover

I don't think he has anything to worry about. Who knows? Maybe the original was given to John Kerry and he said "No way!" Until the supposed cover design is proved to be an original versus a photoshop (which is what it looks like to me) it's more BS.

Then again, expect to see it on Drudge. ...developing

[DenverDem]

8. Big deal.

Satire. I find it pretty humorous.

If this is all they've got, Fuck 'em.

[Norquist Nemesis]

9. Uh oh! ALERT! Check out the speakers bureau on the page!!!

http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry/staticpages/index.php?page=Speakers
<snip>
Mr. Bailey is currently a free-lance consultant and writer on military affairs who has been published numerous times in the national press. He is also heading up the Kerry Lied Rally, an effort to put thousands of people in front of the U.S. Capitol on September 12, 2004 for an event intended to "tell the truth about Vietnam veterans, and to counter the lies John Kerry told about them."

(Looks like all of the Swiftvest for Bush are on there)

[Norquist Nemesis]

12. Kick to click on this heads up! n/t

[GiovanniC]

27. Good Luck Getting America's Attention on a Sunday

n/t

[Toots]

10. It is a good thing those Marines from Iwa Jima never ran against

a Republican. Republicans smear Vets.

[JohnKleeb]

13. Well Toots half of those fellas died there

Including my distant relative Michael Strank. One of them died only 10 years after due to alcoholism. Only one of them really lived a normal life and that was Jack Bradley, Rene Gagnon had problems, I believe he had problems with his wife and stuff. Now back to the subject at hand, Kerry I know for a fact has the greatest respect for the flagraisers, in fact Flags of Our Fathers is his favorite book. I don't see it either and Iowa Jima lol, thats funny.

[Toots]

17. Ira Hayes died a broken man drunk in the gutter

Doesn't mean they were any less the man. Republicans would have you believe so if their politics were different.

[JohnKleeb]

19. of course not

What happened to poor Ira was a shame. I believe a country singer, I forget who wrote a song about him. Of course the GOP would do this, been doing to this since at least the times of George McGovern, its sick, that they are questioning Kerry's record.

[Enraged_Ape]

32. "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" by Johnny Cash (lyrics by Peter LaFarge)

Gather round me, people, there's a story I would tell,
About a brave young Indian you should remember well;
From the land of the Pima Indians, a proud and noble band,
Who farmed the Phoenix Valley in Arizona land.
Down their ditches for a thousand years the waters grew Ira's people's crops,
Till the white man stole their water rights and their sparklin' water stopped.
Now Ira's folks grew hungry, and their farms grew crops of weeds.
When war came, Ira volunteered and forgot the white man's greed.
CHORUS: Call him drunken Ira Hayes --
He won't answer anymore,
Not the whiskey-drinkin' Indian,
Not the Marine who went to war.

Well, they battled up Iwo Jima hill -- two hundred and fifty men,
But only twenty-seven lived -- to walk back down again;
When the fight was over -- and Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high was the Indian -- Ira Hayes.

Ira Hayes returned a hero -- celebrated through the land,
He was wined and speeched and honored -- everybody shook his hand;
But he was just a Pima Indian -- no water, no home, no chance;
At home nobody cared what Ira done -- and when do the Indians dance?

Then Ira started drinkin' hard -- jail was often his home;
They let him raise the flag and lower it -- as you would throw a dog a bone;
He died drunk early one morning -- alone in the land he'd fought to save;
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch -- was the grave for Ira Hayes.

CODA: Yea, call him drunken Ira Hayes,
But his land is just as dry,
And the ghost is lying thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died.

[JohnKleeb]

33. Thats right it was Johnny Cash

My dad knew who Hayes was through that song, I am related to Strank through my mom so my dad only knew about Hayes and didnt really know about my mom's relative. I believe the version he heard though was sang by Townes Van Zandt.

[skygazer]

15. That's a hell of a stretch

To see the Iwo Jima flag raising in that picture. But I suppose that's far worse than taking us to war on false pretenses, being responsible for the deaths of over 900 American soldiers and countless Iraqi civilians, presiding over a shitty economy, etc.

[TwoHandedLayup]

16. The site with the book is run by the same guy

who runs swiftvets. So there you go.

[GoBlue]

18. Kinda like this?

[porkrind]

36. The irony here is that both are staged...

both the 9/11 firefighter flag photo and the Iwo Jima flag photo were contrived to make a good moving photo. The Iwo Jima flag raising acutally happened, but was later repeated and posed with a larger flag to make a good war photo.

Kind of like arrainging flowers. These are contrived photos for propaganda.

[rocktivity]

20. IOWA Jima?

Well, that explains why he mocked it!

But seriously, folks, they seem to be standing in front of the flag, not trying to raise it simultaneously.

:headbang:
rocknation

[JHB]

21. Is it worse news than Bush's wearing a ribbon he didn't earn?

I don't think so.

(see http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x675299 )

[gatorboy]

23. Some people say that the Iwo Jima photo is staged.

So he has a staged pic of a staged pic for the cover :eyes:

[JohnKleeb]

26. Actually it wasn't staged

It wasnt the original picture either though. Its a great story really.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

29. Not really "staged". It was the raising of a second, larger, flag.

In any case the "mocking" accusation is the purest of B.S.

[leesa]

24. You mean the photo op including the guy who ended up killing

himself after the war because he couldn't get work and had mental health problems from PTSD?

[JohnKleeb]

28. Ira Hayes didn't kill himself

He became an alcoholic, it was a real tough time for him but as far as I know his exact cause of death is uncertain, his brother believes he may have been murdered.

[Southern Patriot]

37. Maybe I'm just being obtuse. I don't see it as "mocking"

the flag raising on Iwo Jima (however it's spelled).

The flag is upside down (symbolizing distress) and bunch of guys are holding it but it's not stylized enough to be a deliberate mocking of the Iwo Jima flag raising.

[mumon]

40. these guys are stretching it to the max

It's about time these jerk-nazis were put in their place.


wherever that might be.

Maybe Colin Powell's bowels.

[swag]

39. The Me-Fi thread is hilarious

That front-page poster is getting a serious smackdown.