ABOVE: a painting from the exhibit “A Creative Merger: Lawyers and Artists.” It depicts lady liberty chained to the walls of a cell, with the infamous silhouette of an Abu Ghraib prisoner in the lower right corner. And it closely involves the Attorney General of California! Outrage!

As a staunch member of the “shameless liberal media,” intent on the “bashing of America” and all she stands for—you’re shocked, shocked!, right?—we must point out this particularly laughable and cripplingly lame effort to counter one exhibit of bad seditious art with a whole truckload of bad patriotic art. Move America Forward, a radical right pentagon-poking fan-club, is outraged at a display of “anti-American” art that was displayed as part of “A Creative Merger: Lawyers and Artists,” at the Calif. DOJ which included things like a painting of a map of the U.S. filled in with the American flag being flushed down a toilet, and which was indirectly supported by the Attorney General of California. Pretty trenchant social commentary, huh?

Well, MAF is mobilized, according to the Sacramento Union: they’ve made an open call for submissions of wholesome, patriotic, military-industrial-complex-appreciating artworks. The whole project really reeks of its own low standards here, we couldn’t really top it: [Quoted from MAF] “No artistic ability required - just put your heart & soul into showing how proud and grateful you are to be an American and to be defended by such an exemplary collection of young men and women serving in our U.S. military.” Then—”here’s the best part!” they burble—they’re going to show off the art at the AG’s office and then mail it all to Iraq…”along with shipments of coffee & cookies!” Huzzah! Get scribblin’, folks! America’s brave soldiers need coffee and cookies way more than a competent president or a coherent foreign policy!

LINK: The Sacramento Union > Patriotic Art Show to Rival Lockyer’s