[virtuah]

Remember all the caricatures of GWB as a chimpanzee a few years ago?

Well, it appears that turnabout is simian play:

Orange County GOP Official Sends E-mail Saying Obama's Parents Were Monkeys

Today’s installment of “heinous, unacceptable racism disguised as ‘jokes’” features a Republican official on Orange County, California, President Obama, and monkeys in photoshop. GOP official Marilyn Davenport is coming under fire for sending other Republican officials an email depicting President Obama as a chimpanzee, in the arms of chimpanzee “parents,” claiming, “Now you know why– no birth certificate! [sic].” Davenport is sticking to her guns, blaming the media for making too much of a fuss.

Yes indeed, it's political bananas time once again .. and, of course, with news ticklers every 15 minutes this evening, the media is certainly going ape over a chance to trash the GOP during the late nightly news.

With all the major problems we humans have to deal with during the carnage of the recession, this is what we get from our two political powers: Monkey Wars.

Phlegm at 11:00.

Apparently we've yet to sufficiently evolve left or right to where we can empower a political party to simply do its job for we the people.

[22CreessGah]

So you're saying if you're a racist you're equally inclined to be in the Democratic as well as the Republican Party?

hmmm....

[SallyIsNice5]

I don't see anything racist about the picture. Can someone please explain how this is racist?

[SallyIsNice5]

So you're saying if you're a racist you're equally inclined to be in the Democratic as well as the Republican Party?

hmmm....

"Ghandi? He owns that gas station around the corner"

"Can't go to a Dunkin donuts unless you have an accent"

"You've got the first clean articulate black man"

"Republicans can't get blacks or hispanics unless they invite the kitchen help"

"I'll have those niggers voting democrat for the next 200 years"

"A few years ago this guy would've been getting us coffee"

"I think one man is just as good as another so long as he's not a n*gger or a Chinaman. Uncle Will says that the Lord made a White man from dust, a n*gger from mud, then He threw up what was left and it came down a Chinaman. He does hate Chinese and Japs. So do I. It is race prejudice, I guess. But I am strongly of the opinion Negroes ought to be in Africa, Yellow men in Asia and White men in Europe and America."

"You fucking Jew Bastard."

All of the above quotes were uttered by Dems.

[Anatolii]

I don't see anything racist about the picture. Can someone please explain how this is racist?

Lets start with the assumption that blacks are not human, and are fit only to be slaves. Then we throw in religion and evolution. Since we know that God created humans in his image, and that blacks evolved as apes, from monkeys, it is clear that blacks are monkeys, chimps, apes, whatever. Of course, only those "in the know" understand that, so when one shows a black person as a monkey, it is a coded message for those special - people who understand the natural superiority of whites, in God's image, as opposed to monkeys.

Its a dog whistle, sent as a message not to be heard by most people, which would explain you not understanding the joke as the mean message that it really is.

[virtuah]

It appears there are those both left (chimping GWB) and right (chimping BHO) who think it's just fine to trash their opponent by, in effect, also degrading chimpanzees.

Usually, however, those who do so are doubly disrespectful, disrespecting not only each other, but also another species.

It's easy to mock a defenseless animal, but speciesists do just that, such people usually compelled to do so because of some underlying insecurity, and this simian envy isn't pretty.

Just another example of how we have the wrong party animals in charge of America.

Hopefully one day those running America will be evidenced by the absence of a tail .. prehensile or otherwise.

[SallyIsNice5]

Lets start with the assumption that blacks are not human, and are fit only to be slaves. Then we throw in religion and evolution. Since we know that God created humans in his image, and that blacks evolved as apes, from monkeys, it is clear that blacks are monkeys, chimps, apes, whatever. Of course, only those "in the know" understand that, so when one shows a black person as a monkey, it is a coded message for those special - people who understand the natural superiority of whites, in God's image, as opposed to monkeys.

Its a dog whistle, sent as a message not to be heard by most people, which would explain you not understanding the joke as the mean message that it really is.

If that's how you see it, then so be it. So we can call G.W. Bush a monkey, but not Obama.

[Anatolii]

If that's how you see it, then so be it. So we can call G.W. Bush a monkey, but not Obama.

It is all in the intention, I suppose.

The facts are that we did in fact evolve from monkeys, we are Great Apes, and it can be no surprise that we look like apes - after all, we are apes.

Just for the exercise, look at the picture again that has Obama's face plastered onto a ape family. Then look at the photos of GW and chimps. Then try to tell me that Obama looks like an ape and GW doesn't.

However the problem is with the dog whistle. For some stupid reason it appears that the racists who do this stuff think they are fooling people - that they can innocently claim "it was just a joke" and that people are stupid enough to believe them.

But if you want to try to make the case that that photoshopped picture was humorous, then go for it. Tell us why it is humorous.

[layevymed]

It is all in the intention, I suppose.

The facts are that we did in fact evolve from monkeys, we are Great Apes, and it can be no surprise that we look like apes - after all, we are apes.

Just for the exercise, look at the picture again that has Obama's face plastered onto a ape family. Then look at the photos of GW and chimps. Then try to tell me that Obama looks like an ape and GW doesn't.

However the problem is with the dog whistle. For some stupid reason it appears that the racists who do this stuff think they are fooling people - that they can innocently claim "it was just a joke" and that people are stupid enough to believe them.

But if you want to try to make the case that that photoshopped picture was humorous, then go for it. Tell us why it is humorous.

Context is indeed key IMO, and she's going the only avenue around it she can--bringing up the Bush comparisons that were indeed juvenile and disrespectful but didn't have a 'dog whistle' in it. That she made the Birther wisecrack in her context hurts her claim. She can try to spin her way out but I'm not buying it and it's her own boiled pot she made for herself. Thankfully, she's not anyone in high rank anywhere.

I never approved of the Bush monkey stuff, though, and other forms of dehumanising and unfair characterisations of him, Obama, or other past POTUSes. The lack of respect in recent times for those who hold the Presidency has been appalling IMO. I even pay due respect to a dead POTUS. Nearby where I live is the grave of POTUS James Buchanan. IMO, he's the worst POTUS performance-wise the US ever had, or at least arguably so. Even so, I have visited it a few times and always made respectful note that I'm at the grave of a POTUS.





I think it's important to note that these people were or are Presidents of the nation, and that alone is something that should carry weight (an expelled and convicted serious and/or corrupt criminal might be another issue but that hasn't happened yet).

[Rememavotscam]

So we can call G.W. Bush a monkey, but not Obama.

Pretty much... yes. It doesn't take someone particularly knowledgable about the history of racism in America to know that for more than two centuries the Klan and other racists have used imagery of black people presented as apes and monkeys to make the entire race seem somehow less than human. It's that history that makes it appear racist to this very day. In other words, when GWB was portrayed as a monkey it was commonly perceived as a slam against him alone... not all white people. When any black person, including president Obama, is portrayed as a monkey; it is commonly perceived as a slam against not only the president, but an entire race. Get it now?

[layevymed]

Pretty much... yes. It doesn't take someone particularly knowledgable about the history of racism in America to know that for more than two centuries the Klan and other racists have used imagery of black people presented as apes and monkeys to make the entire race seem somehow less than human. It's that history that makes it appear racist to this very day. In other words, when GWB was portrayed as a monkey it was commonly perceived as a slam against him alone... not all white people. When any black person, including president Obama, is portrayed as a monkey; it is commonly perceived as a slam against not only the president, but an entire race. Get it now?

The Orange County GOP Chairman certainly gets it.

Chimp email energises Obama birth barney
Jane Cowan reported this story on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 12:46:00

. . .

Scott Baugh is the chairman of the Orange County Republican wing.

SCOTT BAUGH: I was shocked and offended and I immediately replied to her and told her that this was dripping with racism. It was sent in poor taste and she should never send an email like that to me again.

. . . The World Today - Chimp email energises Obama birth barney 19/04/2011

The Orange County GOP has had racial black eyes from her before as well as others within the Orange County GOP machine, e.g.,

Orange County, CA GOP Official Sends Email Saying Obama’s Parents Were Monkeys
by Frances Martel | 4:34 pm, April 16th, 2011

. . . Among Davenport’s detractors (including, one would hope, “everyone else”), local news station KCAL caught up with former California Republican chairman Michael Schroder, who correctly posited: “no average person would send this out and feel comfortable with this, that this was just a joke.” Then again, Schroder also notes Davenport doesn’t come into this embarrassment with a clean slate– among the people in Orange County Republican politics she has defended are an official who sent an email with an illustration of the White House covered in watermelons and an official who opposed the installation of grass near beaches on the point that “grass attracts Mexicans.”

. . . Marilyn Davenport - Obama Racist Email - Orange County | Mediaite

Reports are claiming she won't resign, but IMO the local GOP needs to take out the trash there--not just her but all the rest causing these embarrassments--and the GOP national machine itself should assure it gets done if they can't or won't get that done.

[DoctorBeny]

I never, ever said that Bush looked like a chimp....

Now Batboy

(Okeh, yeh... I called him our Simian Executive on several occasions. It's a JOKE, son...I say....that means a remark meant to be humorous rather than true...sorta like an alert air traffic controller or an honest politician )

[newshep]

If that's how you see it, then so be it. So we can call G.W. Bush a monkey, but not Obama.

Sure , it's the liberal double standard. These same liberals are also the "man came from monkeys, there is no God" crowd.

[irrawnWab]

It's much ado about nothing....

People should lighten up.

[toopyimport]

We all know Harry Reid would say Obama is a light skinned non-chimpanzee that speaks without a negro accent.

Biden agreed that Obama is an articulate, bright, clean and a nice-looking non-chimpanzee.

So why would anyone on the left get upset?

[ljq0AYOV]

I have no problem with the photo, itself. As has already been mentioned, if it was okay when it was Bush, it's okay with Obama. Any argument to the contrary is well-footed in hypocrisy.

The issue I have is that it's probably not a well thought out plan when a party official deems it appropriate to send...

[ljq0AYOV]

Pretty much... yes. It doesn't take someone particularly knowledgable about the history of racism in America to know that for more than two centuries the Klan and other racists have used imagery of black people presented as apes and monkeys to make the entire race seem somehow less than human. It's that history that makes it appear racist to this very day. In other words, when GWB was portrayed as a monkey it was commonly perceived as a slam against him alone... not all white people. When any black person, including president Obama, is portrayed as a monkey; it is commonly perceived as a slam against not only the president, but an entire race. Get it now?

I have plenty of black friends who I think no less of, nor do I think they're chimps and not humans, because of this picture...

[D6Ri5u13]

Sure , it's the liberal double standard. These same liberals are also the "man came from monkeys, there is no God" crowd.

Unless it has changed, the theory that is, man actually did not decend from monkeys. Supposedly there was a split, and chimps and man share a common ancestor. Apes evolved on one separate branch, and man on the other.

I recall in my youth how many folks in the South actually believed black folks were sophisticated monkeys, thereby not really human. They also believed black folks came from Cain being banished from Eden to the land of Nod, where he met his mate...a monkey. Really stupid, of course.

So I can understand why some would think this was a racist email. Perhaps she should have been more careful in picking her comparisons? But I agree with the other member here who said it was much to do about nothing. I seriously doubt that the lady responsible actually is a racist. Just poor judgement, IMO.

I am innocent of ever attacking Pres. Bush on anything but his policies. Thought the personal attack from the Left was as stupid as this one here.

[newshep]

Meanwhile the liberal media ignores the hate spewing liberal lefties that have showed up at TEA party rallys spouting obscenities (even aimed at children) and hate in general. That way they can focus on this chimp story..........and on the birth certificate aspect of the joke email, what keeps Obama from producing it? If you were him and had one wouldn't you show it and serve up a huge mug of STFU? That is IF you had one.

And libs, is Bush still a chimp?

[SallyIsNice5]

It is all in the intention, I suppose.

The facts are that we did in fact evolve from monkeys, we are Great Apes, and it can be no surprise that we look like apes - after all, we are apes.

Just for the exercise, look at the picture again that has Obama's face plastered onto a ape family. Then look at the photos of GW and chimps. Then try to tell me that Obama looks like an ape and GW doesn't.

However the problem is with the dog whistle. For some stupid reason it appears that the racists who do this stuff think they are fooling people - that they can innocently claim "it was just a joke" and that people are stupid enough to believe them.

But if you want to try to make the case that that photoshopped picture was humorous, then go for it. Tell us why it is humorous.

What was her intention?

So, if we all evolved from apes, then it is not racist. If not racist, then it is a non-issue.