Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Tempest In A Coffee Cup

Wingnuts have their tails all puffed up about President Obama saluting his Marine One soldiers while holding a coffee cup.

Obama coffee salute 09-24-14Oh, the horror!

So they must have been in even more freak mode when this happened:

Bush salutebushbarney 09-24-14[crickets]

We now return you to your regularly scheduled fauxrage.

5 barks and woofs on “Tempest In A Coffee Cup

    • I trust your knowledge of protocol as a former serviceman, but I agree with those who say he shouldn’t be doing it at all.

      Per Garry Wills:

      We are reminded … of the expanded commander in chief status every time a modern president gets off the White House helicopter and returns the salute of marines.

      That is an innovation that was begun by Ronald Reagan. Dwight Eisenhower, a real general, knew that the salute is for the uniform, and as president he was not wearing one. An exchange of salutes was out of order.

      So Reagan just made up a bit of faux-military protocol, and now it simply has to be done, especially by a Democratic president, and woe betide the president if it’s not done to the exacting standards of right-wing bloggers.

  1. I was also going to point out that this is a pretty recent innovation. I’d actually rather go back to the old practice, even if it’s just one baby step away from the militarization of our politics. There’s a good reason why the military is under civilian control.

  2. I’d like to eliminate “under God” that was an addition to the pledge of allegiance, too. It doesn’t belong in a secular society of which I’m an atheistic member.

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