At recent rallies, town hall meetings and “tea parties,” a few protesters have shown up with signs comparing Obama to Hitler (i.e. depicting him with a Hitler mustache), or displaying swastikas in the context of implying that Obama and/or his administration are Nazi-like.

One would think that this would not be particularly newsworthy, but Democrats, the White House and their supporters are expressing outrage at this “horrifying” and “menacing” turn of events. (Or faux-outrage, at least.) Pundits, bloggers, media outlets and even top politicians like Nancy Pelosi are claiming that such signs are unprecedented, racist, and even that anyone who brings a swastika to a protest must be self-identifying as a Nazi (instead of accusing their opponents of being Nazis). When anyone tries to point out that the Left continuously compared Bush to Hitler and brought swastikas to rallies for six straight years during the Bush era, Obama supporters mock such claims, demand proof, and then try to ignore any individual examples proffered.

Since I had a front-row seat between 2003 and 2008 at anti-Bush protests in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I saw literally THOUSANDS of Bush/Hitler comparisons and swastikas, I thought perhaps it would be useful to compile here in one place a small sampling of them — to prove beyond any doubt that Hitler and swastikas were referenced incessantly at basically every single protest during the Bush administration. Anyone who claims otherwise is lying, as is anyone who claims that people who bring swastikas to rallies are necessarily self-identifying as Nazis.

I’m not saying I “approve” of the new variant of this trend (comparing Obama to Hitler), nor that it is any more clever or insightful than comparing Bush to Hitler; I only post these images here to highlight the hypocrisy of anyone now expressing outrage that Obama could uniquely suffer such an indignity.

The pictures below were all taken by me at protests between 2003 and 2008 in the San Francisco Bay Area. One can easily find hundreds of similar photos on my site zombietime. And I am just one photographer in one city — there are innumerable similar examples by other citizen journalists in other cities across America.

[Update:] Various other blogs have now also posted their own documentation of Bush-as-Hitler signs:
– Ringo’s Pictures has an extensive roundup of Bush/Hitler/Nazi signs from Los Angeles protests, with even more examples than I have here.
– semiskimmed had already published the excellent Gallery of “Bush = Hitler” Allusions as long ago as 2005, with innumerable examples not mentioned here.
– The Sara in Italy blog posted this montage of anti-Bush signs from the last several years, including many of Bush as the Devil, the Joker, a clown, and of course as Hitler and sporting swastikas.
– The various local Indymedia sites have featured countless photos of swastika/Bush-as-Nazi signs in their coverage of protests over the years — such as this prototypical example at the Los Angeles Indymedia site.
– Back in February, the Michelle Malkin site had a post with several Bush-as-Hitler signs made by his detractors.
– The Pink Flamingo blog has some more examples.
– Vocal Minority has some additional swastika protesters as part of a nice essay about the phoniness of the brouhaha.
– The College Politico has an excellent video entitled “Media Caught in Bold Faced Lie About Obama/Hitler Poster” proving that the Obama-Hitler-Mustache posters were created and displayed by Lyndon LaRouche supporters — who are advocating for single-payer healthcare — i.e. they’re at the opposite end of the argument from the main body of anti-Obama protesters.]

(And to prove that the pictures below are all from anti-Bush protests between 2003 and 2008: Click on each image to see it in context as part of its original report.)

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(The photos below were not taken by me but were sent in by zomblog readers:)

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The following seven pictures were snapped in Los Angeles by blogger Ringo and posted in his own roundup of Bush/Hitler protest imagery at Ringo’s Pictures, where you’ll find dozens of more examples:

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This sign originally appeared on the Los Angeles Indymedia site in 2003.

In 2007, Congressman Keith Ellison himself compared Bush to Hitler — and when a member of the House of Representatives did it…absolute silence from the mainstream media.