By Iesha, February 22 at 4:31 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

BTW, as a person of African ancestry I do not feel “accepted” because of Pres Obama’s election. He was selected by the powers that be to run this country.

  x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x

Oh, this is hogwash. Obama was “selected”, that is elected, by honest hardworking Americans like me, black, white and every other color. We are proud and relieved that we finally have a president who is on our side and that our country is in good hands.

By PatrickHenry, February 21 at 6:06 pm

•  “Al Sharpton and Spike Lee have said derogatory things against other races intentionally and unintentionally as alot of their business is to exploit racism.”

PH,

I know what you’re saying here, even if I might quibble with the ‘business of exploiting racism’ terminology. Still, we know that Al Sharpton at least is a provocative figure, and that Spike Lee does indeed EXPOSE incidents of racism in his work, that many people would otherwise be unaware of. (like what went on in New Orleans and the surrounding area during and after Katrina.) I don’t necessarily think that shedding light on these things is ‘exploiting’ racism. I think it’s exposing it, and we can disagree on whether or not that should or shouldn’t be accomplished, or how either of these guys do it.

That said though, this isn’t the standard political action based on Sharpton’s particular ‘reputation’, and it’s not ABOUT Sharpton or Spike Lee, or whether THEY have said derogatory things about other races, intentionally and/or unintentionally.

Here’s an excerpt from a piece by Dr. Leon on the subject,
•  “ In response to public outrage at the bigoted, insensitive and racially inflammatory cartoon, Col Allen, editor in chief of The New York Post, released the following statement: “The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington’s efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist.”

http://www.truthout.org/022009B

As we see here, Allen is making it about Al Sharpton, “Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself” as blah, blah, blah. Who said anything about Al Sharpton? We’re talking about this treasonous cartoon that his paper published, and we’d be up in arms about it whether anybody even HEARD of Al Sharpton!!

Dr. Leon says it more professionally:

“Col Allen tried to deflect criticism of the cartoon and The New York Post by attacking the credibility of Reverend Sharpton by calling him a “publicity opportunist.” Reverend Sharpton may have an affinity for cameras and microphones, but that in no way invalidates Reverend Sharpton’s point. In his cartoon, Delonas refers to the chimpanzee in the personal “somebody” as opposed to the impersonal “something.” Last I checked, a chimpanzee is an animal, not a person (even if his name was Travis). Why would Delonas change the very nature of the beast if not to parody President Obama?”

As for the parody excuse, Leon does an excellent review of that as well.

Have a look.

http://www.truthout.org/022009B

Mom you won’t get any disagreement from me on any of that. As a global player Murdoch has his dirty paws in everything. I still feel relief that you’ve got him for the foreseeable future and we haven’t. He was recently in Australia giving a series of ‘lectures’. The same old shameless neo con crap about how we’re all too ‘comfortable’ and we need to strip away all evidence of the last 200 years of social progress, not to mention anything resembling a civilized society. Comfortable? Tell that to my bank account. He dyes his hair and puts on a suit and tie and thinks no one knows what he is. Everyone knows what he is, but no one’s got the guts to tell him to his leathery, wrinkled old face. And the bad news? His mother just had her 101st birthday and yes, he takes after mother : not politically - she’s got a lot more sense than her intellectually challenged son.

ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, SteveK9!!!

“By SteveK9, February 21 at 7:22 am #

The reason people are so incensed is that this is not the normal political cartoon.  It has more in common with the cartoons produced by the Nazis demonizing the Jews.  Comparing Obama to a chimp (and yes I believe that is exactly what was intended) has an added nastiness because he is African-American, but what puts this in a different category is the graphic violence.”

I was waiting for someone to mention the Nazis! The NeoCONs and their minions have been heading down that road for years. In desperation, they incited violence toward Obama during the campaign - it did not work because their methods were exposed. In spite of attempting to ban reporters from their, cough-choke-puke, campaign rallies!

Since many of them still want to fight the Civil War, perhaps they are aiming to start a new one! As a white, baby boomer from the Midwest, I have had just about enough of the NeoCON Attack Machine - FUCK YOU Rush - you hypocritical, dirt bag!

Dear AJ1009,

If Obama wasn’t President, they wouldn’t have run the cartoon in the first place.

let me ask, if it was a white president that was in office and helped write the stimulus bill, and the cartoon still read the same, would there be this much controversy over this?

OK its great we have a black president, but does that mean people have to sensor their jokes more because now the african american community now feels “accepted” into society because of him, which is great.  with any acceptence or any politcal office you will always have an opposition.  that is what this cartoon was depicting.

It was not wrong to print the cartoon, but it was wrong to print an apology.  If the african community feels Barak Obama is their president too, they will have to deal with other people speaking out against him, and they cannot take it seriously.  POLITICS IS NOT PERSONAL!!!!!!!

@  diamond, February 21 at 11:39 am #
> Mom, Rupert is not an Aussie. He’s now an American citizen. Please keep him, WE DON’T WANT HIM BACK UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. He’s a fascist.

Given that there is some dispute about who is forced to put up with Murdoch’s presence, could we compromise? And settle on NO COUNTRY and NOBODY being forced to put up with him.

We have the Rory Bremner solution - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcYkn9e3OOw

... Put him on top of very big rocket ... and send him right over.

Or in this case, orbit.

I think that being able to identify anything that rupert murdoch owns and controls and spews puke like that cartoon is a way to put a mark on part of the huge problem with the media. Murdoch needs to be held accountable for allowing his, this or any of his venues to play or display something like the monkeytoon that carries very serious implications to the security of this country. I have had enough of the republicans and the democrats continually playing down the need to investigate, charge and prosecute w & dick and that administration for any of their crimes as being ‘not in the best interests of our country’ as a complicity passing well into the area of treason. But here we have a man, murdoch, who personally has allowed a highly dubious ‘editoral’ cartoon to be printed in his paper that has the potentiality of giving the idea of assassinating our president by some one eager to do it and the backing is just not the same as with w & dick which shows strong evidence of the ‘NO DIFFERENCE’ of dems or repub. The people that wanted another president that was not a republican are up at arms but once again I see the law enforcement, congress, the fbi or the attorney general really doing nothing about what really could be something the would incite to riot which is a crime.
At the least, there is a name and face of one who is directly responsible for allowing this to happen and there should be heavy focus in murdoch’s direction of his ‘empire’ so people can boycott, protest and hopefully bring civil action against him to take his empire away from him. I can only hope.

I thought it was a parody on a real life situation occuring at the same time where a real pet chimp was shot by police after going postal and putting a couple of people in the hospital. 

Howard Cosell got into a mess years ago by describing on the air, a football player reunning like “a litle monkey” and boy did he get slammed for it.

Al Sharpton and Spike Lee have said derogatory things against other races intentionally and unintentionally as alot of their business is to exploit racism.

A nasty racist cartoon, in a nasty tabloid newspaper, that is a venue for the nasty, racist views of the nasty, narrow-minded, racist people who control the nasty, racist Republican Party, and we are what… Surprised? Shocked? OUTRAGED?

Please, we should be chuckling at the naked desperation of these arrogant, stupid scumbags. They’ve managed to turn their Republican and Conservative brands to crap in the wink of an eye, as all of their Southern fried chickens have come home to roost at once. They’re standing with one foot over the edge of a cliff, and the other—if you’ll forgive me—on a banana peel.

Mistah Murdoch, he dead.

Good riddance!

Go for it, Spike! I already boycott the Post, ever since Murdoch bought it.  It’s perfectly legitimate in our democracy to simply refuse to support advertisers in the Post. If they don’t like it, they can either stop buying the ads or tell me “F.U, ITW!” and live or die on everyone else who buys their product.

It’s like to see the NYP driven to bankruptcy, and for Murdoch to be forced to sell it for a song, and then let it be re-built, back into the paper it was before the A-hole destroyed it.

Diamond,
Murdoch may have switched citizenship, but as we all know, what with Swiss Banking and this Global Economy and the Bush era, citizenship does not matter much to these people.  The only loyalty they know is their brand of scotch or shoe leather.  Therefore, the wise must protect the Consitution and the Bill of Rights from being gamed at the expense of the people’s interest.  Cancel Rupert Murdoch’s waiver to own all those news outlets. (and I use the term “news” loosely)  The media is yet another tool for those with facists tendencies, so we must fiercely guard it.

I don’t know if I would call the cartoon racist, but it certainly represents neocon taste and thinking.

Emperical evidence tells us a lot about Neocons: they love guns, hunting and war. They use people, images and ideas to promote their propaganda. They cynically mock and deride their opponents rather than making use of logic and reason to build their own case.

As suggested, these generalizations have a great deal of evidence to back them up, starting with Reagan and reaching great heights under Bush Jr.

Blackspeare: “Blacks market Racism——its a business!”

You’re absolutely correct about that, Sir. But that doesn’t address the issue at hand.  Can’t black people complain about how the world perceives them in the media. You’re speaking about those who happen to ear of the press, but the average Afro-American’s feelings are being ignored here.  No group wants to be define this way and I think it fair that we can ask that our image be respected.

The NY Post knew exactly what it was doing when they printed the cartoon.  In typical FuxNews fashion, the tactic of drawing attention to itself as well as rallying the Idiot-Brigade of

JC, you’re kidding, right?  Bush was compared to a chimp because he was an idiot.  You know good and well the difference between that and the historical reference to the simianized image of black men.  Stop playing this game, JC.  The Bush example was targeted toward an individual, baced on his actions, the later was simply wholesale group smearing with no reference to The President’s performance.

If you hate Spike Lee, and I can agree with that at times, them attack him as you see fit.  But the “get over it” claim is tired.

Like the Jews market the Holocaust, Blacks market Racism——its a business!  People like Sharpton, Jackson, Lee, etc make a living on this stuff and the NY Post played right into their hands. A simple apology will never work, but a rather large donation to the organizations sponsored by the above will suffice.  Nice work if you can get it!

Mom, Rupert is not an Aussie. He’s now an American citizen. Please keep him, WE DON’T WANT HIM BACK UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. He’s a fascist.

Bush LOOKS like a chimp.  Bush thinks like a chimp.  Bush has the morals of a chimp.  If this cartoon wanted to show that the stimulus package was the work of chimps, this was not the cartoon to do it.

Making it purely a Racist controversy is doing US and themselves a Grave disservice.Sharpton & Lee are helping the Right ‘white wash’ this blatant call for an Assassination.
If a Nobody like Michael Savage can send a man into a church gunning down innocent people- anything is capable of setting off this psychologically Lunatic Fringe.
The snake oil dealers of the Religious Right have have been preying on these mentally umbalanced people for decades. Encouraging them to kill themselves and thier kids, because it the ‘End of Days’ and they will be ‘Raptured’.Funny how suicide is not a sin if done in the name of God ah? Logic is not this groups strong point.And the Repugs have gladly used this Dark con to gain Politcal Power repeatedly.
They continually walk the precipice of Fanatazism to invoke & Provoke irrrational fears and unbridlded hatred.
What difference is there between McVeighs paranoia over the Feds and Keyes recent claim that Obama is not a legitmate Citizen and therefore the Troops really have no requirement to follow his orders. That Obama is a ‘Radical Communist that must be stopped’.Funny the Right never mentions the Terrorists or Suicidal/homocidal maniacs like McVeigh, Jim Jones, Appleton, Keresh,Randolf, Kazinski… When discussing loss of American Lives from Extremeists.
Repugs and their media mouthpeices aren’t just playing with fire- they are throwing an excelerant on top, and should be held Respsonsible for it..right into a court of law should events warrant.

Re Nelson Robison, February 21 at 7:40 am

Nelson,

Oh, he said this all right. Check it out. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAdidxmyEKo

SteveK9, you are right in what you said.  I might add that Rupert Murdoch should not be allowed to hide his hand in this and should have the “waiver” cancelled.
When the right of a free press is taken and abused by this Aussie and the American people are subjected to such dangerous fomentation to violence, we have got to speak up and say, “enough!”
When George W. Bush was president, he did not lead this country, but allowed everyone around him to do as he pleased as long as they made hefty campaign contributions.
Now we have elected a leader who must see that the abuses stop, if we voice our concerns.

Tony Wicher, if Alan Keyes, said this very thing, that is treasonous and disloyal.
A person such as Alan Keyes, makes statements like this
because it is the only way that he can “get press!”
He is a member of a bygone era, one in which the Republicans as a party would only have to make pronouncements, and the people would “feign worship,” everything that was said.
We must remember the Grand Orgy Party, was used to having its way in everything that occurred in the US, now that the people have some control, the corporatocracy, is in a tither, they do not know what
to do with themselves. We, the people, must keep pressing the agenda and forcing the administration to
listen to us rather than the Wall Street Thugs, the ones that have created this mess and who now are trying to reap rewards for their dishonesty and degrading policies, that have nothing to do with true
banking and are wholly adept at scamming the American
people out of their money.

The reason people are so incensed is that this is not the normal political cartoon.  It has more in common with the cartoons produced by the Nazis demonizing the Jews.  Comparing Obama to a chimp (and yes I believe that is exactly what was intended) has an added nastiness because he is African-American, but what puts this in a different category is the graphic violence.

Where have I been? I thought everyone boycotts anything the rupert murdoch touches. Guess I was wrong. It does explain or says a whole lot about america that just cannot be put into words or it just doesn’t need words.

tuocha

Re cyrena, February 20 at 10:31 pm

I take it seriously. Even this is perhaps not as bad as what Alan Keyes said, that Obama is a “radical communist” who was not born in the United States and not only does Keyes not recoginize him as the legitimate president but that the army shouldn’t either and should not obey Obama’s commands, because he must be stopped before he destroys America. 

Isn’t this treason? Doesn’t Keyes belong in jail?

@ By Keith Rogers, February 20 at 10:38 pm #
I have never seen Bush depicted as, directly or symbolically, a dead man in any cartoon, skit, comedy routine, movie, etcetera.

EXCELLENT point.

Indeed, Bush has been compared to chimpanzees in the past, and righty so.  However, I have never seen Bush depicted as, directly or symbolically, a dead man in any cartoon, skit, comedy routine, movie, etcetera.  This NYP cartoon linking President Obama to a dead chimp through the caption, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill”, in my humble opinion, crosses the line between decent and grotesque.  However, this coming out of the ultra conservative Rupert Murdock controlled New York Post leaves me less than surprised.

There we go with the ‘lets get over it and move on’ recommendation.

I mean, so it’s a little ‘offensive’? Can’t we just get over it?

Actually, since it is a felony crime to threaten to assassinate a US president, it’s NOT such a ‘small thing’. Treating it as such, (let’s just get over it) trivializes it, and maintains the cycle of ignorance, that feeds the hate, that then normalizes this all to be acceptable in cartoon form, even though we KNOW that the white “chimp” presidents we’ve had, have NEVER been depicted in cartoons or anything else in an assassinated posture.

So NO, we don’t need to ‘get over’ it, let it slide, or move on, even though that would certainly be the easiest way out. We’ve been doing that for too many decades, and we obviously can’t keep IGNORING IT and ‘moving on’, because it means the ignorance and stupidity and the hate are still out there, and still infecting.

We need to ask and answer the question of why a major news outlet believed this was OK or otherwise acceptable to post, because to my knowledge, it’s never been done in respect to any other US President. (even the ones that actually WERE assassinated).

MONKEY BUSINESS

George Bush was caricatured as a monkey.

But a black President cannot be so caricatured because of the history of racist abuse in the country. He thus gets an easier ride. For that slur, at least. Yay. Obama!

HOWEVER

The Re-pugnants are no doubt working night and day to
a) engineer Cheney’s promised (threatened?) US homeland terrorist surprise, and
b) dream up other slurs, a al Clinton.