So I open my Facebook page to find that some of my "friends" have posted a poll asking if I agree with President Obama's decision to blow off the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery so he can go on vacation.
So I Google it to find out what the hell is going on, because surely Obama is not that stupid.
And, naturally, it is yet another outrageous steaming pile of shit from Glenn Beck. This asshole has no shame at all.
BECK: The president has decided not to honor our troops on Memorial Day and go to -- can you find out the last president that decided to take a vacation and then go to a Paul McCartney -- come back for a Paul McCartney concert, but not for the laying of a wreath on Memorial Day? Maybe this has happened before. I don't recall it.
But it's even worse than that.
For one thing, Obama is not blowing off Memorial Day.
President Barack Obama and his family will travel to Chicago, where they will spend the weekend. On Monday, the President will participate in a Memorial Day ceremony at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Illinois.
Also on Monday, the Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden will host a breakfast for Gold Star Families at the White House. Afterwards, the Vice President and Dr. Biden will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.
Is there something unpatriotic about a national cemetery in Illinois? Are there French troops buried there or something?
But here's the truly outrageous part:
President Reagan did not lay a wreath at Arlington in 1983 so he could attend a summit meeting. George H.W. Bush skipped the Arlington ceremony in 1992 and played golf in Kennebunkport.
Confronted with the actual facts, the right claims it was OK for Reagan and Bush to skip Arlington but it's not OK for Obama. Here's Erick Erickson's Twitter post from yesterday:
Diff b/w Reagan and Bush not going to Tomb and Obama? No one questioned their support for soldiers and belief in American Exceptionalism.
The truly sad part is that Beck and his co-conspirators will just come back with yet another lie today and yesterday's lie will become part of right-wing folklore.
Because a lie travels halfway around the world before the truth has time to put on its pants.