{"id":1809,"date":"2010-05-31T09:05:16","date_gmt":"2010-05-31T14:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=1809"},"modified":"2010-05-31T09:05:16","modified_gmt":"2010-05-31T14:05:16","slug":"memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/31\/memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Day: Scourge the Lying Politicians&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This Memorial Day, the media is doing its usual sacralizing of war.  Instead, this should be a day for the ritualized scourging of politicians.  During the last 60 years, their lies have resulted in the unnecessary deaths of almost a hundred thousand American soldiers and millions of foreigners.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, people still get teary-eyed when politicians take the stage today to talk about their devotion to the troops. <\/p>\n<p>Rather than parades, it would be better to celebrate this holiday like the British used to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day &#8211; by <a href=\"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/24\/politicians-and-memorial-day-the-guy-fawkes-solution\/\"><strong>burning politicians in effigy<\/strong><\/a>, or a reasonable facsimile. <\/p>\n<p>Boston antiwar activist John Walsh has an excellent piece <a href=\"http:\/\/original.antiwar.com\/john-v-walsh\/2010\/05\/30\/servile-journalism-for-memorial-day\/\"><strong>here<\/strong> <\/a>on the media&#8217;s complicity on turning Memorial Day into pro-government hokum. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Memorial Day, the media is doing its usual sacralizing of war. Instead, this should be a day for the ritualized scourging of politicians. During the last 60 years, their lies have resulted in the unnecessary deaths of almost a hundred thousand American soldiers and millions of foreigners. And yet, people still get teary-eyed when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[659,22,662],"class_list":{"0":"post-1809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"tag-attention-deficit-democracy","8":"tag-lying"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Memorial Day: Scourge the Lying Politicians... - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/31\/memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Memorial Day: Scourge the Lying Politicians... - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This Memorial Day, the media is doing its usual sacralizing of war. Instead, this should be a day for the ritualized scourging of politicians. During the last 60 years, their lies have resulted in the unnecessary deaths of almost a hundred thousand American soldiers and millions of foreigners. And yet, people still get teary-eyed when [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/31\/memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-31T14:05:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/31\\\/memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/31\\\/memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"Memorial Day: Scourge the Lying Politicians&#8230;\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-31T14:05:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/31\\\/memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":125,\"commentCount\":3,\"keywords\":[\"Attention Deficit Democracy\",\"Attention Deficit Democracy\",\"Lying\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/31\\\/memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/31\\\/memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/31\\\/memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians\\\/\",\"name\":\"Memorial Day: Scourge the Lying Politicians... - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-31T14:05:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/31\\\/memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/31\\\/memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/31\\\/memorial-day-scourge-the-lying-politicians\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Memorial Day: Scourge the Lying Politicians&#8230;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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