Mary Beth Buchanan Desecrates the American Flag

Take a look.

In today's P-G there's a story about how U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan's travel plans were held up because one or the other of her dogs "ate [her] passport."

That, of course, is not the point of this posting. Although the intentional mutilation of a passport is "punishable by fine and/or imprisonment under the provisions of 18 USC 1543" that's completely beside the point as, to use Vice President Cheney's words, "no one has been able to confirm" that she is, in fact, altering her passport for any nefarious use.

See how easy that was? But again, not the point.

Take a look at the picture accompanying the story. Now take a look at her dogs. Now take a close look at what she's using as collars for her dogs.

They're American Flags. The Stars and Stripes. Old Glory.

The USCode chapter titled Respect for the Flag states:

No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.

Section (d) states:

The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker’s desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general. [emphasis added]

Never be used as wearing apparel. Certainly not for dogs.

Section (e) states:

The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way.

I am guessing it's probably pretty easy for an American Flag to be "torn, soiled, or damaged" if it's tied around the neck of a dog.

That's right the person George W. Bush appointed on September 5, 2001 to be the US Attorney for the Western Pennsylvania is disrespecting The American Flag by using it as a dog collar. What does she think will happen to those flags when she takes her dogs out for a walk? How about for a run? And if the dogs begin to scratch themselves, won't they be damaging The flag?

Why is a US Attorney allowed to show such blatant disrespect for the Flag? When can we expect Congressional hearings to begin?

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