This country is not a monarchy ... we don't put photos of the current 'leader' on coins and stamps and documents.

It isn't flag desecration because it is not an 'official' U.S. flag, but for progressive egalitarians like most Democrats, to put the image of any President on a facsimile of the flag like this is against what we stand for -- democracy, the common folk, no man above the law, etc.

It is in poor taste if nothing else.

I don't like the U.S. Flag to be depicted in any way but the way it really is.
I am against signing a flag, making it into a necktie, tee shirt, coat, beach towel, hat or replace part of it to make a message.

That said, I am one of the few who feel this way. It is now normal to see the flag made in to every form of clothing thinkable, and many are "redesigning the flag" so is this one any worst than other? NO!

and frankly I don't have a problem with either one.

I can see why right-wingers would hate it. I wouldn't want to see a picture of the chimp replacing the stars on old glory.

Yeah, it's so lame that I think it's offensive.

There is nothing offensive about that photo. It's tactless, to be sure, but not offensive.

As much as I support Obama, I wouldn't support or promote such an image. I wouldn't find it offensive, either. It's pixels on a screen--if you're so easily offended, you're going to be offended a LOT over the course of your life.

The picture of the POTUS is unflattering, the flag is lumpy and wrinkled, and it doesn't move me.

I was a sticker for flag etiquette in my earnest youth; I've given the fuck up now. When people wear the flag as a thong, or line their jackets up to their stinky armpits with it, it's just...pointless to carp about it. I'm a fogey, out-of-step with the rest of society on this measure, and it's just not worth continuing to rail about it.

I always regarded proper display of the flag as akin to giving up your seat for the elderly lady on the subway, or holding the door for someone encumbered with packages--a polite and respectful thing to do. Unfortunately, that has gone by the wayside because it infringes on the 'right' of 'self-expression' for people who really think it is IMPORTANT to be 'free' to have the flag crammed up their butt like dental floss for their patriotic tonga. Well, whatever...knock yourselves out!

The flag has taken on the role that "bunting" used to have--fabric designed to evoke the flag, but different enough so that one wouldn't be accused of wearing the flag. Now, people can't be bothered to be creative in their red, white and blue designs--they just chop up the flag for their "self-expression" and have at it.

So...put me down for one of those "mehs" or "fehs." People just don't give a shit anymore. It's a new paradigm.

many politicians (and their supporters) surround themselves in various forms of red, white, and blue, often quite evocative of the official american flag. they're all tacky, tasteless, and transparently jingoistic, and bring to mind that "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel" (or is it the first? ) but some degree of the seems to be a basic requirement for any campaign, certainly for the white house.

but offensive? no, because it's NOT the official american flag, merely highly evocative of it.

the pics of shrub desecrating and ACTUAL official american flag, THAT's offensive.

It's amusing to watch a bunch of flag-defacers fall into histrionics over the flag being altered or marked or placed slightly to the west of where it "should be" or something, but that's just me having a bit of schadenfreude, like when I snicker at that poor inbred tiger;

"better you than me, guys!"

Beyond that... it's cloth. Big whup. If there's a day where I can honestly sit back and worry about what someone's doing to a piece of cloth - or better yet, a depiction of that piece of cloth, then I'll consider it a damn good day 'cause everything important would already be settled by then.

Someone else pointed out that we're not a nation that puts our current leader's face on money. Putting the president's -- ANY president's (even a dead one) -- face on the flag in the place of the stars that represent the 50 states sends the wrong message. The president is only a temporary official who is elected by the population of those 50 states. Think of the uproar that would've happened had someone put Dubya's face on the flag like that.

to make President Obama look bad.

Is the source, or ownership, of this thing identified? I bet not.

Many Civil War songs were centered around the flag. For example

"Their flag is but a rag, ours is the true one
Up with the Stars and Stripes
Down with the new one.."

And of course, out national anthem is centered around the flag and how it survived a night of bombardment in the waning days of the War of 1812.

The flag with any president's face is offensive. The flag with a sitting president's face is offensive and scary.

If this were Reagan or Bush instead of Obama the point would make itself.

It feeds into their fiction that Liberals worship Obama and outrages them over the defacing of the flag which they think of as belonging to them and further feeds into the "otherness" of those who disagree with them.

.....as if there would be a civil war with them flying Old Glory on one side and Liberals with this rag on the other.

Keep in mind the same crowd that gets all weepy over the American Flag are the same anti-federal government types that OPENED FIRE on that same flag during the Civil War because it REPRESENTS the federal government that they HATE.

And to think that they deny having mental problems.

Welcome to DU

in a big brother kinda way.

That image kind of disgusts me.

Can you imagine DU, Dems, Libertarians, many (I would hope) Republicans, and the paying-attention-citizenry of this nation had we seen an image of bush in such a manner?

WTF?

be left alone.

this thread. so it's not one used by most obama supporters.