Bush-Cheney '04

Feel free to post it anywhere/everywhere, as long as you copy it down to your own server first.

..the bush/cheney reich

...I think the war for oil has gone too far, but that is just my opinion!

There is a dead American soldier in that coffin. S/he shouldn't be made an object of amusement. It's just as immoral to use them for our purposes as it is for Shrubbie to use the flag-draped casket at the WTC site for his. Please don't encourage people to disseminate this picture.

It is telling exactly how it is. I didn't see Sapph saying anything that implied this was amusing!

This is Fox-level stuff.

This work demonstrates that there are bounds to which we should not go to restore our democracy. IMHO, this inflamatory image makes that URL (and by association) the DU site look like freeperville.

Reminds me of goatse. You wish you could unsee it.

What is tasteless and disrespectful is that thing in the oval office sending these men and women off to do his bidding for oil. What the image implies is the damn TURTH! You want Bush* and Cheney in 2004, then you are gonna be hearing about a lot more dead U.S. soldiers!

They can't speak for themselves. How should anyone presume to speak for them?
I agree that sending young women and men to fight in a war based on lies is immoral but that still doesn't justify expressing our dissent with it by using their deaths to make a political statement.

where-oh-where, did anyone say this photo was for amusement purposes????

This is Memorial Day weekend and finally the Nation is paying tribute to those that fought and died during WWII. None that have lived during that time ever thought that this could happen again. None that survived and lost loved ones in that war ever thought that we would lose children yet unborn in future wars. They that have died and those that have been maimed for life, both mentally and physically and the families that have been left behind will never forget.

George W. Bush, has claimed himself to be "The War President," well this photo is the result of "WAR," and he has placed his name on it.
I do no find this photo amusing, only sad, that someone who loves him/her dearly is waiting for their return home.

Don't do cute things like putting a "Bush/Cheney" sticker on it. I speak as someone who was in a war, was badly wounded in that war, and who lost a friend the day I was wounded. This picture had an instant, very emotional impact for me, and not a good one. Can you imagine how offensive it could seem to many others like me, and the families of those dead? Turning a picture of a casket containing a dead soldier into a poster like this trivializes his/her sacrifice.

the sticker, imo, cheapens the effect (power) of the picture - and is offensive - and thus more likely only to play to a segment of the choir, rather than to get those in the audience to stop and think (which I would assume is the point).

A caption beneath, perhaps, stating something like "a REAL cost of war" (which is associated with bush cheney - and thus is implied) would be much more effective, and much more respectful.

I cannot put into words how it is so wrong to manipulate this pic for a political statement, even when I agree with the original poster's intent.

I'm a peacetime vet and it really hits me hard to see the caskets and faces of those fallen. Cannot imagine what it's like for combat vets.

Thanks for your service.

It is disturbing, as it should be.

By placing a Bush-Cheney sticker on a casket, I only made an abstract concept literal.

No American who protests this illegal "war" should feel offended; if you are, you've missed the point, entirely.

No, our dead troops cannot speak for themselves -- the Bush* administration takes care of that for them. The Bush* administration is using our dead troops to advance a political agenda. Now do you get it?

And, frankly, this is no more shocking, disturbing, or offensive than much of mopaul's best work (not, mind you, that I could ever reach the pinnacle of mopaul's brilliance).

This, for example, comes to mind (URL contains spaces for anyone easily offended -- everyone else, copy, remove the spaces, and paste it):

http : // www . bartcop.com//gallery-mo.jpg

...which I think is disturbing, and brilliant.

I just wish it had been made without altering a very solemn picture. I also reserve the right to be offended if I see fit, and yes, I do protest this war, very, very much. And yes, I am aware that the Bush administration and their ilk are using the dead to advance a political agenda and I find that despicable. Again I have to ask, does that make it right for us to do it?

What's "right"? Honestly, I'm not being a bit sarcastic. It's a rhetorical question, yes, but in the end, what is "right" in our current situation?

There have been few instances -- or perhaps, until this point, none -- in which I have believed that the ends justify the means. But, despite our attempts to put this lunacy into some historical perspective, we are all at a loss to make sense of it, or find a way to stop it. There are parallels to Vietnam, and parallels to Nazi Germany -- and they serve their purpose, but only in a limited context. In reality, this Pinky-and-the-Brain insanity has no true parallel.

I'm not making excuses. I mean to say only that extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures. We're dealing with half-a-populace that is positively comatose, as if the nation's water supply had been spiked with something that turns otherwise rational human beings into the walking brain-dead.

Tell me, if you know, what in God's name will wake them up? There is no time for niceties anymore. We are nearly down to the wire. And it's been proven, repeatedly and in no uncertain terms, that making nice with the warmongers does as much good as undressing for a rapist; you're still going to get raped, and no amount of accommodation on your part is going to inspire your assailant to give you a break for your thoughtfulness.

It wasn't lost on me that many DUers might find the image disturbing, or even sacreligous -- but I'm not preaching to the choir. I've done that; it's pointless. Sure, I could have sent the picture around to a few friends I knew would call it "brilliant" and take no offense whatsoever -- but what good would that do?

And I still believe that such a stark, graphic image does do good. In a very small way, it expresses the frustrations of many of us on the Left -- and in a very big way, it's a hard slap upside the head of those who -- as RW lurkers on DU, or other Bush* supporters who stumble across this photo accidentally -- still don't see that they, personally, are responsible for the deaths of more 800 young men and women who really and truly thought they were fulfilling a calling to serve their nation -- and who ended up neither our protectors nor defenders. They just ended up dead.

I'm angry, DemoVet. I can't possibly share the same flavor of anger that you must harbor -- you've got the battle scars, literally, that I never will.

My anger comes from knowing that the blood of every one of those dead soldiers is as indelibly stained on my hands as it is on Bush's. Why? Because I spent the bulk of my adult life as blissfully complacent and lazy as every one of my fellow countrymen currently basking in the comfort of denial.

I have two choices with all the days I have left under this regime: I can stand on principle -- in which case I will have nothing left but principle four years from now -- or I can take the gloves off too.

I can't apologize for the photo. I can, and will, however, express my regret for the pain you feel. I understand that explaining my intentions doesn't change anything, as we are all eligible for a one-way ticket to hell based on our intentions.

But I can try to make you understand: This is not a commentary on or indictment of any soldier. I make such graphics because my soul is sick with grief over every faceless American who comes home in a box. It is my fault, too. And if there is anything (within legal limits) I can do to wake just one stupid, Bush-loving idiot out of his or her coma, then, goddamnit, I'll do it.

So, be offended if you must, DemoVet. But even if you don't agree with my methods, try to understand, and accept, my reasons -- not the least of which is my determination to stop even one more of those flag-wrapped caskets from being used, in whatever way I can.

I am not a sought-after public speaker. I have no influence on decision-makers. Writing and graphics are all I know how to do. Apparently, I sometimes do them too well.

Just hope, with me, that the image has even half as much as impact on the people who need to see it, as it did on you.

P.S. I'm waiting to hear when my young cousin will be deployed. This is a young man I babysat when he was a toddler. I don't know how I will cope if he dies or is maimed in this misguided "war." But if he were to die, I would do the same thing, to the same sort of photo. In fact, I would feel more inspired than ever to do it. Maybe that doesn't make any sense. Maybe it does. I'll just let that thought lie there, and hope it does.

this will drive people away rather than convince them, as a former Marine I see a fallen brother or sister being dis-respected.