Feature

Wall-E for President

by: Frank Rich, The New York Times

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Some conservatives have objected to Wall-E's message of love, loyalty, friendship and concern for the environment. (Photo: Reuters)

    So much for a July Fourth week spent in idyllic celebration of our country's birthday. This year's festivities were marked instead by a debate - childish, not constitutional - over who is and isn't patriotic. The fireworks were sparked by a verbally maladroit retired general, fueled by two increasingly fatuous presidential campaigns, and heated to a boil by a 24/7 news culture that inflates any passing tit for tat into a war of the worlds. »

Military dead coming home.

Cause for Alarm

by: Bob Herbert, The New York Times

    Beaches, barbecues and flags as big as baseball fields. Fireworks as loud as thunder lighting the nighttime sky. Hot fun, as Sly & the Family Stone would say, in the summertime.

    Friday was the 232nd anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Celebrations were ubiquitous. HBO offered a marathon telecast of its John Adams series. Bands of wildly varying quality, from one coast to the other, let loose with "The Star-Spangled Banner," "America the Beautiful" and "The Stars and Stripes Forever." »

Obama family in Butte, Montana.

Obama Celebrates Fourth in Montana

by: Sridhar Pappu, The Washington Independent

    Presidential hopeful revisits patriotism with veterans.

    Butte, Montana - Ralph Maxwell, a former attorney and judge in North Dakota, nearly shook with anger. Wearing his World War II uniform, which he hadn't taken out of the closet since he came home to restart his life in 1945, he'd just been asked to comment on recent articles and reports where people questioned the patriotism of the presumed Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama. »

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