I have a (serious, technical) question about these flags that Mitt is standing in front of.

[TrollBuster9090]

Last edited Wed Sep 12, 2012, 03:03 PM - Edit history (1)

Can somebody answer it?

A) I thought that there was some custom/tradition that only official U.S. Govt. office holders (ie-Presidents, Judges etc.) could display a flag with a gold fringe. (Also known as an "Admiralty Flag.&quot I don't recall Obama ever standing in front of a gold fringed flag before he was elected, but I could be wrong. (Update: Obama DID, but he was a serving U.S. Senator at the time, so it might not have been inappropriate. A candidate who currently holds no public office might be a different story, but I don't know.)

B) Don't the 'Patriots' (aka-constitutional crackpots) seriously object to the use of the 'Admiralty Flag' with the gold fringe, and insist that everyone should use the "Constitutional Flag" which doesn't have the gold fringe?

Not that it's a huge issue, but anything that might drive a wedge between Mitt and his own party's 'fringe' is interesting to me.

[Control-Z]

1. This is interesting.

Will come back to see if anyone knows.

[Brickbat]

2. It's simply a ceremonial adornment.

It has no symbolism.

[Brother Buzz]

3. Basil Marceaux would remove all gold fringed flags in his state

[Aristus]

5. Yeah, because that's the issue Tennesseeans find most pressing right now...

The word 'fringe' occurred to me, too...

[TrollBuster9090]

9. Wow, with views like that I can't believe he LOST to Bill Haslam!

The Tea Party crowd must have been off someplace protesting the Kenyan Userper?

[onenote]

4. The only rules about gold fringed flags

relate to its use by the military. However, there are no rules etc. regarding its use in other situations; it is not considered inappropriate in a standing flag display (but would be considered inappropriate to be flown outside with fringe).

Some crackpots do object to the use of the fringed flag. Some even attacked President Obama when, as a candidate, he appeared before a fringed flag. It was a stupid attack for them to make and it would be stupid attack for us to make against romney.

[TrollBuster9090]

8. That might be a false equivalence

given that Obama was a serving U.S. Senator at the time. So, it wouldn't be inappropriate for him to display an Admiralty flag. I'm pretty sure every U.S. Senator has one in his/her office.

A former governor who doesn't currently hold office might be another matter.

[onenote]

11. I think that's a stretch

There are no rules prescribing or proscribing the use of a gold fringed flag outside the military context. No rules regarding its use by a sitting Senator or by a former governor or by a high school choir. So the only "equivalence" is that they are all the same and that its no more or less appropriate for a senator, a former governor, or a cheerleader to appear in front or or alongside a fringed flag. (For what its worth, the flag that stood in the auditorium of my high school was a gold fringed flag).

[TrollBuster9090]

12. True, but a cheerleader is not expected to be sensitive to diplomatic protocols and customs.

A Presidential candidate is.

[onenote]

13. Can you cite to anything that suggests that it is or is not appropriate for a senator

to appear in front of a gold fringed flag? These diplomatic protocols and customs to which you refer simply don't exist except for the few crackpots that try to make a big deal out of virtually any use of the gold fringed flag outside the military context. It wasn't wrong for then-candidate Obama to appear in front of a gold fringed flag, not because he was a Senator, but because it simply isn't wrong, period.

[TrollBuster9090]

15. I was just saying that your pointing to examples of 'lots of people doing it' is not a proof that

it isn't inappropriate. I didn't say I had proof one way or the other.

[lastlib]

6. Do you think Mittens would stand with a flag - or anything else -

that wasn't decked out in gold?

[TrollBuster9090]

7. Well, personally I think it would be more apt for him to stand in front of THIS flag.

[MADem]

19. +1,000,000! Game/Set/Match! nt

[TrollBuster9090]

21. Or maybe this one, with or without the fringe. I don't care. It's a flag for the modern GOP heart.

[mrmpa]

10. This is what I learned..............

THE UNITED STATES MILITARY FLAG WITH THE GOLD FRINGE



FLAG Martial Law; "Pursuant to 4 U.S.C. chapter 1, §§1, 2, & 3; Executive Order 10834, August 21, 1959; 24 F.R.6865; a military flag is a flag that resembles the regular flag of the United States, except that it has a YELLOW FRINGE border on three sides. The president of the United States designates this deviation from the regular flag, by executive order, and in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief.

FLAG Martial Law;The Placing of a fringe on the national flag, the dimensions of the flag and the arrangement of the stars in the union are matters of detail not controlled by statute, but are within the discretion of the President as commander in Chief of the Army and Navy." 34 Ops. Atty. Gen. 83.

President, Dwight David Eisenhower, by Executive Order No.10834, signed on August 21, 1959 and printed in the Federal Register at 24 F.R. 6865, pursuant to law, stated that: "A military flag is a flag that resembles the regular flag of the United States, except that it has a Yellow Fringe border on three sides."

FLAG Martial law; "The use of such a fringe is prescribed in current Army Regulation no. 260-10." 34 Ops. Atty. . Gen. 483, 485.

FLAG Martial law; "Ancient custom sanctions the use of the fringe on regimental colors and standards, but there seems to be no good reason or precedent for its use on other flags." The Adjutant General of the Army, March 28, 1924, (1925); 34 Ops. Atty. Gen. 483, 485.

[MADem]

17. Is there a military recruiting office near his Jacksonville fundraising office?

He probably busted in and snatched the flags of the Army, Navy, USAF and USMC recruiters...!

Nothing would surprise me.

Nothing.

[HopeHoops]

14. You are correct on point A, and point B doesn't matter because they just hate Obama.

[spanone]

16. he's pretending he's president...they are props

[TrollBuster9090]

20. Yes, I know. That was the whole point. Also the blue curtain, hastily draped across a storefront

window, and the podium. Also, presidential challengers often make some kind of a faux-Presidential Seal to put on the podium that resembles the official Seal.

The subliminal props of a Presidential press conference were all bang on, but the sweaty, stuttering, smirking, petty little man was not. If anybody wants to see a preview of what a Romney Presidency would look like...that was it!

[NightWatcher]

18. it's just what they had laying around the Jacksonville R$ office

I was following the local news and they said R$'s peeps took down all the campaign signs and threw out the dozens there to see him at a campaign event tuned presser.