Honoring the Fallen

Graves branded with Rove’s war marketing terms

Here’s how Gallup (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Time-Warner) decided to honor the nation’s war dead:

Frank Newport/Gallup: Veterans Give Romney Big Lead Over Obama  —  Veterans responsible for Romney’s advantage among men overall  —  PRINCETON, NJ — U.S. veterans, about 13% of the adult population and consisting mostly of older men, support Mitt Romney over Barack Obama for president by 58% to 34% …

Seriously: THIS had to be planned in advance, so that polling would be “relevant,” and, of course, meaningless May polls (as any political analyst worth their salt) manage to produce an entire cycle of meaningless “news” and bloviation.

Aside from the “dog bites man” nature of this headline (the military has been heavily Republican since the 70s), frankly, the “veteran” population represents a small and increasingly isolated portion of the populace. There is no NEWS reason for this story. There is only a NEWS MANIPULATION reason for it. And, since this is a day honoring DEAD military, polling living military for Memorial Day is nothing less than journalistic necrophilia in self-service of Gallup’s image. Not exactly a real credibility firer-upper.

Are our dead war dead just another excuse for Gallup to hype itself? Really? That’s not offensive in a nation where soldiers were hounded into near oblivion just a few years ago, for daring to suggest that not all acts of war were noble and simon-pure? That’s not offensive to a nation where today features a blog swarm attacking Chris Hayes’ microscopic ratings weekend show on MSNBC … because he suggested that not every soldier who died is a “hero”?

The blogosmear™ attacks

I guess peoples gots their priorities. Honoring the fallen is secondary to attacking anyone who is perceived as NOT honoring them. (Because the Memorialized gave their lives for a “freedom” which is not ceded by the living to those who don’t speak properly of the dead. WHERE are those selfsame people on the Gallup thing, then? Hmmm.)

Really? Memorial Day, after nine years of a war that just ended and coming up on eleven years of a war that refuses to end, OUGHT to be something more than an excuse for drunken boating, barbequeing and sales. It began as “Decoration Day” and was the holiday of the Grand Army of the Republic, those boys in blue who saved this Union. (See: “WH Commission on Remembrance Forgets Civil War on Memorial Day” from 2010, which, note, had nothing whatsoever to do with the White House.)

a grateful Nation, etcetera: Meade statue in D.C.

Congress grabbed the GAR’s holiday, eventually, to remember ALL fallen soldiers, and then it was decided to turn it into a Three-Day Weekend, so the people could boat more drunk and buy more crap.

And Gallup decided to do “special” polling for Memorial day that’s as phony as any other sale that has nothing to do with a solemn remembrance that we really ought to remember with some degree of solemnity.

But no: all wars, all sacrifice are just Red White and Blue toilet paper with which corporate media can wipe its pustulent and pimpled ass.

The original version of a “Union man.”

If Gallup can dry-hump the corpses of dead American soldiers to boost their “media presence” I guess that’s what we ought to expect in a country whose favorite pastimes are “Dancing with the Stars” and “American Idle.” [sic]  Commerce Über Alles, even when it’s those who didn’t die for oil and resources.

Has anyone noticed that, ever since we changed the name of the “War Department” to the euphemistic “Department of Defense” right after World War II, we’ve NEVER declared another war? (I didn’t say we hadn’t been IN them. I just said we have never DECLARED another war, since.)

Something to ponder, if you get tired of the orgy of war movies that’s been running all weekend. Not quite as cynical as Gallup’s little stunt — pissing on the graves of the dead — but not all that non-nauseating, nonetheless. Clint Eastwood and John Wayne win all our wars. That’s what we remember on Memorial Day.

Whoops. Wrong holiday. “National Pig Day” is another day

Which is ACTUALLY on Wednesday, and many Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War will celebrate it, then. Which is fine, since the sons of the treasonous vermin who murdered over half a million in defense of slavery, the single costliest war America has ever fought, have their OWN Memorial Daze, and congress’ usurpation has affected them not in the least. 150 years later, it’s hard to tell who actually WON that war: you don’t DARE make a movie suggesting that the South was wrong, that Rebels weren’t all noble fops with feathers in their caps — think of Rock Hudson in The Undefeated — or decent guys fighting against Yankee perfidy — think The Outlaw Josey Wales — because we’ve got to all forgive and forget the secessionist bastards.

Robert E. Lee Ewell from To Kill A Mockingbird, 
the seeming final victor of the Civil War … 

And who’s got time to remember the original Memorial Day objects when you can slam and smear Chris Hayes for making the slightest misstatement that can be a source for the “superiority” of the slander of morons, the “purity” of hate of fellow Americans and using Memorial Day to desecrete the corpses of the dead to promote the increasingly suspect and useless Gallup poll?

After all, this solemn occasion oughtn’t get in the way of our Festival of Derision and ongoing Holiday of Self-Hatred.

There is one consolation in all of this, however.

Those who gave their lives to preserve this government “of the people, by the people and for the people,” don’t have to hear any of this selfish, self-centered, indulgent and impious feces-flinging.

They’re soundproofed by the silence of the grave.

Courage.

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