Comments on: A Quick Remedial Course In Racist Iconography, Part Two

By: Clean. Up. Your. Side. | Comments from Left Field

Clean. Up. Your. Side. | Comments from Left Field — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:59:25 +0000

[...] gun nuts like Poplawski going out and killing cops; Glenn Beck discussing armed revolution; a cartoon in the NY Post showing a monkey who is responsible for the stimulus bill being shot to death; G. Gordon Liddy [...]

By: Is there anyone on the planet who’s a bigger friggen idiot than Glenn Beck? « Talk Radio is Stupid

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:43:52 +0000

[...] and if everybody is wondering why I possibly overreact to cartoons which show police shooting dead a monkey who wrote the stimulus…, look no further than Republican icons who go on mainstream Republican television and talk about [...]

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:40:09 +0000

When I first saw it, my first reaction was it was inappropriate. But after thinking a bit about it, the key part was the word “write”. Not “endorse” or “promote”. Obama clearly did not write the bill. Congress clearly did.

Editorial cartoons sometimes use an unrelated hot topic in the news to help make a larger point. The downside is that not everyone will get the reference, and the cartoon itself will have a shorter shelf life (people won’t remember the reference six months from now). The chimp attack story was big on cable news at this time and apparently in the New York media.

So, to me, for anyone to not acknowledge the likely connection that was being attempted here, gives me the impression that they aren’t being totally intellectually honest about it.

That being said, someone at the Post should have had the sense to consider unintended interpretations that could be made. This was Obama’s first big-time bill, and he had been pushing it hard publically.

So, in the end, I think a better (and funnier) representation of the stimulus author should have been used.

But an intentionally inflammatory racist cartoon that also encouraged the assassination of a President? Step away from the hyperbole machine.

By: Is there anyone on the planet who’s a bigger friggen idiot than Glenn Beck? | Comments from Left Field

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:12:01 +0000

By: Dynamic

Dynamic — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:35:35 +0000

Greg – I think you’ll find that we all agree that there is no place for calls to assassinate the President, be he Bush or Obama.

Impeachment? Sure. Nothing could have been more deserved for good old G.W., although I’m going to have to settle for the impeachment of his utterly discredited and failed ideas that history is even now piling on us in great, heaping, economically destructive servings. But assassination? This is the United States of America.

Besides, I believe in gun control. Tough to kill people without guns, no matter what the NRA might tell you.

As for the shoe – I think anyone who can’t tell the difference between a journalist throwing a shoe at the man directly responsible for the death of tens of thousands of his countrymen, and advocating the direct assassination of our own leader, then it’s not worth my trying to explain, because they aren’t going to get it.

By: Dynamic

Dynamic — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:31:15 +0000

To be honest, I rather think it actually DOES satirize the shooting of an enraged chimp. I don’t think they were aiming to put the image of the president getting shot into public discourse (I freely admit I could be wrong, I’m an eternal optimist when it comes to human intentions).

That doesn’t alter the fact that it was a pretty poorly aimed attempt – I’d never heard of the enraged chimp story and without that background I couldn’t come up with a single alternate explanation for what was going on in the cartoon, other than the President getting shot.

I think if they’re willing to go ahead and say “hey, we were trying to say this, obviously fumbled painfully badly, we’re very sorry” then it’s worth forgiving and moving on. There are more important battles to be fought.

By: tas

tas — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:34:52 +0000

There’s a huge difference between chucking a shoe at somebody for completely and totally fucked up your country and saying that a president should be shot simply because of a piece of legislation.

If somebody wishes to argue this then, quite frankly, I don’t wish to argue with them. I have better things to do then waste my time.

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:37:46 +0000

“Barack Obama is the President of the United States. Some people like him, others seem to hate him — but it’s time to show the man a little fucking respect for the office he holds.”
I absolutely agree with you. Though I didn’t vote for him, the man is our president, and he deserves respect. This being said, I was curious to know what you thought of President Bush getting a shoe thrown at him? That’s just a tad disrespectful to our highest office, no? Also, i’m interested to know your thoughts on the film “Death of a President.” I’m not sure if you remember, but it was the mockumentary which depicts the assassination of Bush. Thanks in advance.

By: tas

tas — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:01:44 +0000

Sorry DD, I tend to pay attention to actual news stories that matter, not the shit that gets played up in tabloids and cable “news”.

By: dualdiagnosis

dualdiagnosis — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:19:25 +0000

“Update: NY Post claims the cartoon satarizes(sp) the recent shooting of an enraged chimp in Connecticut.”

LOL, where have you been? Did you really have no awareness of the raging chimp in CT before you wrote this?

By: Jules Crittenden » Chimp Shots

Jules Crittenden » Chimp Shots — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:42:25 +0000

[...] Left Field promises a quick course in racist iconography, but fails as usual to know it is talking about. Here’s a quick lesson in politics. Congress is not Barack Obama. Separate matter, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are both bloated, overweight rampaging white chimps. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. As noted above, the left clearly moved the chimp thing out of the racial arena and into the mainstream of political mockery. [...]