Posted on 01/13/2011 5:26:33 AM PST by Red Badger
TUCSON, AZ -- Some conservatives are upset over t-shirts bearing the logo "Together We Thrive: Tucson & America" that were handed out to attendees at tonight's memorial service in the McKale Center on the campus of the University Of Arizona here.
The shirts, which bear the same logo that adorns other items from the event -- including press passes, signage and volunteer t-shirts -- were placed on many of the seats in the lower sections of the arena when tonight's capacity crowd walked in.
The University Of Arizona did not immediately respond to requests for more information on the shirts, which are drawing fire in the conservative twitter- and blogosphere tonight. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. A person familiar with the event confirmed the university put the event together, and was responsible for t-shirts, tickets, fliers, etc.
"I'm having a physical reaction to the T-shirts," Amanda Carpenter, a speech writer for Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) tweeted tonight. "I'm tearing up. This feels wrong."
(The tweet has since been deleted.)
Other conservatives on Twitter shared in the sentiment. Some have already speculated the shirts were paid for with taxpayer dollars.
Michelle Malkin had earlier raised a rukus about the event's logo on her blog.
"Isn't the churning of the instant messaging machine a bit, well, unseemly?" she wrote. "Can't the Democrat political stage managers give it a break just once?"
Right-wing media star Tammy Bruce had some of the harshest attacks on the event and the crowd here in Tucson. She likened the event to the 2002 funeral for Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN), which conservatives at the time claimed was unfairly turned into a political rally by Wellstone's supporters.
"Massacre Rally Theatre is a complete abomination. Absolutely obscene," Bruce tweeted Wednesday. "Clinton should be happy, no longer will 'Wellstone' be the benchmark."
Additional reporting by Ryan J. Reilly.
This post has been updated since it was first published.
Would they have had this rally if Giffords were a Republican?
He did? It seemed more like he was speaking to both sides and, thanks to the DBM we know which is the nasty side. /s
Interesting and very revealing contrast.
The dems are using the death of these people as an excuse to Party. The excessive drama is insulting. They didn’t know any of the people who died, why were they even attending a memorial?
That happened to my first wife and me as well, followed by a miscarriage, then our first living child who subsequently required 7 heart surgeries. I thank God for His grace and mercy that carried us throught it all.
Yes, only they would have added a triumph parade and a marching band.............
Too bad they weren’t holding hands and singing “We Shall Overcome” in that picture. Obama’s first 2012 campaign event would have been a grand slam.
Nothing in government takes less than a week to plan and events like this require a lot of coordination.
Wait for the event, execute the response.
Let's back up a second... I said "Fascist" up above. Too strong a word? I don't think so. "Together we thrive". Fascism is predicated on the notion that even though individual twigs may break, a strong bundle stays strong. Together with the pageantry and platitudes, you have an event that Mussolini would have been proud to have been a part of.
Just my two cents...
that's better
gong gong gong
pc alert
the guilty party there comes from the “people who can’t be blamed”
Bingo. Campaign event—nothing more, nothing less. I can see these idiots in the Oval Office discussing how to take advantage of the AZ tragedy. Then someone comes up with the T-shirt idea. How apt of these Marxist frauds—and shallow and cheap.
Yeah...just check out the upcoming wedding at Westminister Cathederal in UK ...
Royal purple T-shirts with a pic of the new coin in gold.
It was a remarkably tacky thing to do and the raucous cheering was mind boggling but democrats do live in a different world than the rest of us.
“Grandma is going to heaven and all I got was this lousy T- Shirt”.
Maybe it will catch on.
Yeah...many a true word spoken in jest....
You are going to get one right after your non-voluntary "Death Panel" phone conversation with some DMV bureaucrat.
I, too, would like this nation and us to be the people our children want us to be, to fulfill their expectations. But I don't think our children have $14 trillion + in debt that they will have to pay as an expectation, anymore than they understand what that fact means for their futures, as well as our own.
0bambi's BORG
Dr. Rhee is focused on his Patient, NOT ZERO and his synchophants.
Praises from everywhere on the speech.
Hardly anyone picked up on the new logo/t-shirts except us far right wackos.
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