Has anyone else gotten the email showing a group of

[napi21]

hispanic kids at Montebello High School in Calif. taking the American flag down from their HS flag poll, turning it upside down & putting the Mexico flag above it before they raised both flags? I just received this email from a Pubbie friend in Fl. The email says "This stunt may be the nail in the coffin of any guest-worker/amnesty plan on the table in Washington ."

This smelled like a false smear campaign to me but I checked snopes & it's TRUE! Why do tey do stuff like this? It's fueling the anti hispanic crowd BIG TIme! I know they're only HS kids, but theyshould realize this only works against their own interests!

http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/mexicoflag.asp

[DJ13]

1. I saw a photo of a May Day protest with more than one flag upside down

Dont know where it was, might have been there.

[EFerrari]

2. Didn't this happen years ago during the big immigration protests?

2006 or so?

[Codeine]

3. That happened like four years ago.

They like to drag that picture out now and then for agitprop purposes.

that said, yeah I wish they wouldn't pull shit like this either, but kids suck at nuance. Always have.

[fishwax]

4. that was, like, four years ago

[Berserker]

12. Thank god for firefox extenisions

I got get of those fucking lips.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. That was in MARCH of 2006.......as the Snopes article says...eventually

and for a change snopes is not being very honest...They gave it a green TRUE, without any explanation...since the implication that this was some sort of recent happening, it should have been stated right up top that the story was 4 years old..

[fishwax]

11. that assumes that the snopes article was written recently, though

the emails that they have collected as sources are dated from 2006 and 2007 ...

[dems_rightnow]

18. That's Snopes standard presentation...

!. Summary sentence of claim.
2. True or false note.
3. The picture/story whatever that's circulated.
4. Their comments.

Right at the start of their comments, they noted it was a 2006 story.

[RB TexLa]

6. So what if they did? I will do nothing to an amnesty bill.

[napi21]

7. I think it will. If the anti amnesty dopes are circulating this email,

you can bet your A that they'll be calling their congress criter demanding they vote NO!

[pinboy3niner]

8. An upside down flag is an int'l. symbol of distress

It's often used by protesters from one end of the political spectrum to the other.

This image being re-circulated now is meaningless. I don't believe it will have any significant effect.

Ed. to add: With elections approaching, I wonder how many flag-burning bills we'll see introduced in Congress this time around . . .

[ZombieHorde]

9. Flags have absolutely no intrinsic meaning or value.

The people complaining about this are weird.

[Hissyspit]

30. I get so tired of Flag Worship. It's sad and absurd.

Supposedly there is a "Christian Flag." I'm not quite sure where in the Gospels it tells about Jesus of Nazareth commissioning a flag design. :eyes:

[gratuitous]

10. Sounds like the kids grasp the meaning of the First Amendment

Can't say the whiners bringing this up again four years later quite have a handle on that right to freedom of speech.

[Chulanowa]

13. I hate to tell you, but that logic has been seen before

Back in the 50's and 60's, blacks were told that they have better sit sown and hush up and act sweet while us white folks deliberate and appender and veto and reintroduce all this stuff that will be good for blacks, because if those blacks started getting rambunctious, it would scare people and they wouldn't get what they wanted!

The anti-hispanic (Or anti-Arab, or anti-black, or anti-whoever) crowd is going to have fuel anyway. if you think hispanics (or whoever) should act like perfect angels with fresh-polished halos in order for them to get their amnesty, then what you're saying is on par with anything the antis are saying as well. It carries the assumption that group X has tp prove to whites (or straights, or christians, or men, whoever) that they are well-behaved enough to get their fucking rights.

[ZombieHorde]

14. Good post. nt

[napi21]

16. I never said anyone should sit down & shut up! I do think that flying a foreign flag above

the American flag & flying the American flag upside down is something that shouldn't be done! You may not be disturbed by that, but the majority of people are, including me. They ave every right to demonstrate, march, and speak or yeall out almost anything, but this flag thing goes too far.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

17. Now that you realize that it's a four year old photo, does that change your opinion at all?

[napi21]

22. No, because it's STILL on video tape somewhere.

I WANT some method that enables undocumented workers living here in the US and have not committed crimes to get Green Card & ultimately become citizens, but the excessive and unacceptable act those students did is STILL working against everything we try to do to help them!

I LOVE what video taping had accoplished for honest Dems in recent years & the ability to prove the constant lies the Pubs keep throwin, but that same technology bites us in the A when it's our side that does something stupid!

[Chulanowa]

19. Know what else shouldn't be done?

Passing a law that makes brown people illegal.

I have a feeling hoisting a distress flag hurts a LOT fewer people than the laws being supported by the folks you're worried about offending.

[napi21]

24. I'm NOT worried about offending them, I'm worried about riling them up to achieve even more

opposition to what we're trying to accomplish!

I LOVE IT when I can go to snopes and reply to the email with proof that they're spreading lies AGAIN, but I HATE IT when their garbage ends up being true!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

25. How can anyone be responsible for what some kid did at a demonstration 4 years ago?

What the hell is your point?

How can you worry about stuff you can't control?

[napi21]

31. Your response was just plain silly. None of us can control

anything but what we do ourselves! I can't control the oil companies, but I still worry about what that giant oil catastrophy will do the the Gulf area. My point was one demonstrator can aappoear to be speaking for an entire group of people in the eyes of the people who don't want Mexicans in the US! Yes it happened four years ago, but the email being circulated doesn't say anything about that. It's yet another thing the opposition willus picking up on NOW and circulating that email to enrage their group & stuff like that works!

As I said, I always reply to the emails when they are lies with a snopes link. It apparently has worked because the only anti Obama, Dems, liberals, etx ones I get now say "Thins is true, here's a link to snopes." Ether they are only sending me the ones that turn up true, or they're not sending any without checking there first. I can only hope I stopped some of the lies.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

32. You do realize that most of the ones that say "it's true I checkd Snopes" are still false, right?

Meaning if you look it up on snopes the posting often directly contradicts what is said in the email?

That these people have wised up a LITTLE bit and are now using snopes as a kind of "shield" to prevent you checking, but you should still check anyway? At snopes and other sources?

[napi21]

34. I did. I checked snoes before I even realized that they

had included the snopes line.

[Morning Dew]

35. Get off my lawn.

Hell, I flew my flag upside down for at least two years of the * administration - that is, whenever it flew.

[classysassy]

15. What really offends me

The Klan and their dixie and nazi flags.

[Chulanowa]

21. The "Confederate Flag" cracks me up

So many people seem to think it's an authentic flag. However, what you see all over the place in the south is actually an inauthentic, postwar flag; it has the shape and design of the Confederate navy Jack, but the colors of the Battle Flag of the Army of North Virginia.

What you see being flown all over the south (and elsewhere) is actually an invention of the Klan, designed as a "composite" battle flag.

You'd think that all these yutzes who are "proud of their heritage" might actually use the actual flag of the Confederacy, instead of a postwar invention cooked up by the second-biggest stain on the South's record.

[Obamanaut]

29. Which flag of the confederacy would you choose? There were

three approved flags at various times

[Dogtown]

33. The last flag flown over the Confederacy, of course:

The shameful white rag of surrender and cowardice.

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. local rightwing radio loves incidents like this..gives them excuse to bash immigrants

[ZombieHorde]

26. Do they really need an excuse? Won't they just make stuff up anyway? nt

[cynatnite]

23. Freedom of expression is what you should support. n/t

[TexasObserver]

27. Yes, the same rightwingers are OK flying the traitorous flag of the Confederacy.

And often do display their devotion to America's most famous traitors - the Confederacy.


It's worth noting that the event involving the flag was four years ago, when Bush was president. The right wingers like to complain about things that happened years ago, as if they recently happened. And contrary to the lies in the emails, this WAS covered widely in media. That's where these numb skulls heard about the story and got the photo.

[Obamanaut]

28. I've gotten it from time to time for years. Montebello link added

ETA link to Montebello HS site press release

http://www.montebello.k12.ca.us/musd_flag_incident_press_release.html