Nugent Rocks Perry Ball with Confederate Flag Shirt

[crt360]

 Jan. 18, 2007, 1:34PM
Perry's talk of unity hits a sour note, some say

By LISA SANDBERG
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN  At his inauguration, after being sworn into office by the first black chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court  a man he appointed  Gov. Rick Perry spoke wistfully of a tolerant Texas, where "no one is invalidated because of their heritage, but valued because of their humanity."

If you ask critics, the spirit of unity didn't last through the governor's $75-a-ticket inaugural ball, held later Tuesday night at the Austin Convention Center.

Rocking the house as the night's final act was singer Ted Nugent, a friend of Perry's known as the "Motor City Madman." Nugent appeared onstage wearing a cut-off T-shirt emblazoned with the sure-to-draw-headlines Confederate flag and shouting some unflattering remarks about non-English speakers, according to people who were in attendance. His props were machine guns.

Spokesman defends event
Perry's spokesman, Robert Black, downplayed the incident.

"Ted Nugent is a good friend of the governor's. He asked him if he would play at the inaugural. He didn't put any stipulation of what he would play," Black said. He added that "Most people had a really good time and enjoyed the show."

However, some within Perry's party said the appearance was unbefitting a governor who may have national ambitions. "I think it was a horrible choice," GOP strategist Royal Masset said. "I hope nobody approved it."

The black-tie ball was just hours after an inauguration notable for its conciliatory tone. Perry was sworn into office by Wallace Jefferson, who descended from slaves to become the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court.

In his speech, Perry extolled the virtues of bipartisanship, compassion for the poor and racial and class unity. The rhetoric was so moderate for a Republican governor from Texas that some news stories speculated Perry must have vice-presidential ambitions.

News of Nugent's appearance drew barbs from Democrats and civil-rights leaders.

"Whenever someone sports the Confederate battle flag, many Texans will be offended, and rightly so, because of what it symbolizes  the enslavement of African-Americans and more recently the symbol of hate groups and terrorists," Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, wrote in an e-mail. "The politics of the Confederacy and the Old South are out of step with mainstream America."

State Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said the choice of entertainers reflected poorly on the Republican Party, and Perry in particular.

"This is clearly not the behavior of someone who's ready for the national stage. It's a sign of the times for the Republican Party. It's a divisive party. Perry knows his views and to feature him front and center, that alone says a lot."

Shocking people is nothing new for Nugent, and he's done it before in Texas. In 2, he was banned from performing in The Woodlands after he let loose an expletive-filled tirade about illegal immigrants.

A hunting and gun-rights advocate, Nugent could not comment on his appearance at the inaugural; he was hunting, a spokeswoman said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4478848.html



After seeing Perry's "we all gotta get along" speech, I thought this was pretty damn funny - not very smart, but funny.

[Perd Hapley]

"Whenever someone sports the Confederate battle flag, many Texans will be offended, and rightly so, because of what it symbolizes  the enslavement of African-Americans and more recently the symbol of hate groups and terrorists," Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, wrote in an e-mail.

Which terrorists are "sporting" that flag?

[El Tejon]

Those terrorists were called the Confederate States of America and the Klu Klux Klan, who dress as the ghosts of Confederate Soliders. 

[HankB]

. . . the appearance was unbefitting a governor who may have national ambitions.

Perry was re-elected with just over 1/3 of the total ballots cast - not a good showing for someone with "national ambitions." (He's unpopular with the Left for obvious reasons, but many people dislike him for his support of toll roads even when the state has a budget surplus, as well as support for giving in-state tuition breaks at U of Texas for illegal aliens . . . not to mention his inability to get a good, sound method of financing schools statewide.)

[mustanger98]

Who all here studied political science in college? I did. One of the first things the professor told us is that if you're going to have a sovereign nation and a country, you have to have secure borders and a particular primary language. That way everybody identifies as a legal and/or born citizen of a particular country. Ted Nugent says a lot of things a lot of folks agree with, but he says 'em in the most blunt and/or potentially disagreeable way.

Now that the KKK has been brought into this discussion, here's a photo from a Klan rally...



Do ya'll see a Confederate flag anywhere in this photo? I don't. I do however see a US Star&Stripes over to the right side. If you want to discuss flags and other symbols used by racists and bigots...

Some of my people fought for the Confederacy and I'm offended by the ignorance shown by the NAACP, the KKK, some GOP members, and some members of this board.

[Bogie]

IMHO, the kluckers are a terrorist organization. And if the skins were any more organized (that would doubtless require at least a little more intelligence than the average skin possesses...), I'd lump them in.
 
The confederate flag is a symbol, to over 90% of the population, of hatred and bigotry. Sure, you can say that it's about independence... If you're all het up over that, fly the snake.
 
Bogies hateses the kluckers...

[Perd Hapley]

Which terrorists are "sporting" that flag?

Oh, he said "more recently."  I was thinking currently.  I don't know if the Klan do much terrorism these days.  Do they?

[Perd Hapley]

Texas Democrats to ban the letter X...

http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=5650.0

[Art Eatman]

It's been some 70 or 80 years since the Klan has had any real influence outside of small areas in the South.  During the Civil Rights stuff of the 1960s, Klan Klaverns had as many FBI agents posing as members as they had actual members.

Nowadays?  Other than a few kooks and loonies, they can't attract flies, much less a crowd.  Well, okay, some jeerers.

Some years back, a bunch of Kluckers tried to have a protest gathering at the captiol in Austin.  Molly Ivins drove by the gathering, with Steve Fromholz as her passenger.  Steve mooned the group.  Sans names, the mooning was duly reported in the Austin paper.

Later, somebody asked one of the Sixth Street cops about it; did they know who did it?  "Naw, nobody really knows.  And, we couldn't make an arrest, anyway, because nobody knows how to spell Fromholz."

The media has done a good job, these last four decades, of changing the Confederate flag away from being a symbol of protest against an all-powerful state into something else.  They're good at that.  Kim du Toit has some pretty good commentary about the media in today's rant...

Art   

[Brad Johnson]

The media has done a good job, these last four decades, of changing the Confederate flag away from being a symbol of protest against an all-powerful state into something else.  They're good at that.  Kim du Toit has some pretty good commentary about the media in today's rant...

Well said, Art.  Well said.

Brad

[Iain]

That was El T's usual (light-hearted? I think so) provocative remark whenever the Confederacy is mentioned.

[Perd Hapley]

Yessir.  That thur's one prickly yankee. 

[CAnnoneer]

It is hard for many to stomach the possibility the yankee victory might ultimately have been a defeat for state independence and personal freedom. Hehehe. History is replete with ironies...

[wmenorr67]

The biggest thing is that most people have been taught and believe the main reason for the Civil War was about slavery.  But slavery was just a small portion of the reasons for the Civil War.  There are just too many people who want to use it as a crutch to validate and justify their own agendas.

[Dannyboy]

The biggest thing is that most people have been taught and believe the main reason for the Civil War was about slavery.  But slavery was just a small portion of the reasons for the Civil War.

El Tejon makes a damn good case arguing otherwise.

[Sergeant Bob]

Is it possible to mention the Confederate Battle flag without igniting the Civil War all over again?

[CAnnoneer]

Is it possible to mention the Confederate Battle flag without igniting the Civil War all over again?

Brilliant idea! Now that the slaves are free, the yankees and liberals must surrender! Or they will have to admit something else was there as well... Huuuurray Dixie, yeehaaw!

[Strings]

Umm, if we're gonna raise Hell about someone sporting the Stars and Bars because Kluckers fly it, can we also start raising Hell about people wearing crosses (I always thought the burning cross was the most visible symbol of the Klan)?

 

[Bogie]

It's a PR thing. And a matter of public perception. I cringe every time I see a confederate flag next to an NRA sticker, because the perception of the _vast_ majority (who votes too...) is that the confederate flag is a symbol of racism, much like the swastika is a symbol of genocide, and that if it is associated with the NRA, then those gun nuts must really be racist, and something really oughta be done about them...
 

[El Tejon]

mustang, I am at a loss of words.  The Klan is intertwined with the Confederacy from its birth.  They dress as Confederate ghosts, they were founded to fight the Civil Rights Act of '66 and the Freedmen's Bureau, they were founded by a Confederate general, they proudly parade many versions of the CSA flag.  Here they are in Maryland:  http://www.indexstock.com/store/Chubby.asp?ImageNumber=423144.

wmenorr67, that's because to the South the Civil War was about slavery.  Go to the Southern museums they have the petitions proudly displayed on their walls.  In Texas the outstanding state museum in Austin proudly displays why Texas fought the war--to keep their slaves.  Look at the Southern Constitution, it's all about slavery.  Look who left the Union first--the largest slaveholders.  Look where most pro-Union Southern troops were formed--the bumpy (hilly, hard to use slaves in the hills), non-Slave holding parts of TN, NC, VA, AL, etc.

Art, but the "symbol against an all powerful government", the CSA battle and naval flags (incorporated into state flags), was used as a middle finger against the implementation of civil rights for Blacks, not to protest the Great Society welfare giveaways.  Heck, the South benefitted immensely from federal freebies from FDR on.

If Ted "Guardianship" Nugent wants to put on the stars and bars and say silly things, then by all means he has that right.  However, it is also one's right to point out how foolishly he is making his point.

[Art Eatman]

"Heck, the South benefitted immensely from federal freebies from FDR on."

Er, uh, yeah, but there's that little period from Sherman's war-crimes march to the sea until 1933.  Right at 70 years of not much benefit and a helluva lot of carpet-bagging.  And the "Reconstruction" period was a raving bitch.

I'm not saying that Nugent was wise in his choice of display; Media Perception Is All in this Wussie New World in which we live.  What I'm saying is that the flag isn't seen as pro-slavery by the vast majority of those who do display it or respect it.

Art

[Glock Glockler]

Tejon,

Why did the South leave the Union to protect slavery if slavery was perfectly legal in the Union (it was)?

If the war was about slavery all along then why did people in the north riot when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation?

I also find it amazing that such a small minority of the poulation who were slave owners could convince everyone else to throw themselves at bayonets so that they could sit on their porches on their Gone with the Wind plantations and drink lemonade.  I need to get me some of that propaganda, I'll convince all the socialists in the USA to move to Haiti to start a worker's paradise, they'll get no opposition from me in the slightest and they'll have carte blanche to turn it into an economic powerhouse.  I'll then visit in 20 years to see how they're doing:)

As far as the 'recent unpleasantness' goes, there were many different reasons for the war and many different groups that had their own agendas, war is seldom as simple as slavery v. non-slavery.  

THAT being said, Nugent is an idiot who is only out for his own glorification even if it comes at the expense of whatever cause he claims to support, heck, those antics were probably the only way that he would have gotten his name in the paper.  Everyone with 1/10th of a brain knows that if you're not a Democrat and you have a "Confederate" flag showing that you make youself a target for bashing.  Nugent belongs in a trailer park, hopefully people will realize that and stop inviting him to political functions.   

[Perd Hapley]

Why did the South leave the Union to protect slavery if slavery was perfectly legal in the Union (it was)?

I'm not saying this is the whole reason for the war, but many in the South were convinced of a Yankee conspiracy to subjugate the South to extremist Yankee notions, abolishing slavery being one of those.  This was only confirmed by the ascendancy of an explicitly anti-slavery party.  That is, the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln. 

As far as the 'recent unpleasantness' goes, there were many different reasons for the war and many different groups that had their own agendas, war is seldom as simple as slavery v. non-slavery. 

Well said. 

[MechAg94]

If you want to display, wear the Bonnie Blue flag.  No one will know what it is. 

[richyoung]

It's a PR thing. And a matter of public perception. I cringe every time I see a confederate flag next to an NRA sticker, because the perception of the _vast_ majority (who votes too...) is that the confederate flag is a symbol of racism, much like the swastika is a symbol of genocide, and that if it is associated with the NRA, then those gun nuts must really be racist, and something really oughta be done about them...
 

Who cares about the ignorant?  The NRA 2was started by Yankee vets, who were appalled at the general level of marksmanship displayed by the Northern recruits, vis-a-vis the Rebs...