Ladies Logic

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Whose Hate Speech?

An anonymous commenter to my last post chided me for "ignoring" the blatant racism "in" the McCain campaign. My remark (and challenge) was to provide examples, which to his/her credit, he/she did. I will address those "examples" one at a time and counter it with similar images directed toward Sarah Palin and John McCain from supporters of the Obama campaign. I start with the standard disclaimer that these pictures are not condoned by the McCain or Obama campaigns or anyone (for that matter) with more than half an ounce of human decency in their bodies. There are the hateful works of some very sick people and they all need to be condemned harshly.

Anon starts with the standard picture of a noose next to a picture of Senator Obama. Yet Anon totally ignores pictures like this:

or this:


Anon then links another post (from the same blog) about a guy at a Palin rally carrying around a Curious George doll talking about "little Hussein" - counter that with this photoshop of a picture of Joe Biden and Sarah Palin at their debate where the "artist" photoshopped the question "Mrs. palin - what is the difference between your mouth and your vagina? Only SOME of the things that come out of your vagina are retarded." Real classy eh anon?

Lastly Anon links to another photoshop of a black shoe shine boy (Barack Obama) shining the shoes of a white woman (Sarah Palin). Perhaps Anon would like to take a peak at this t-shirt (WARNING - NSFW and rated NC-17) that is being sold on the internet. Or these t-shirts that were worn by Obama supporters in Philly last week.

I have to admit, I was certain (when I first saw the comment) that Anon would bring up the "example" that people at a Palin rally said "Kill Him" when Governor Palin mentioned Senator Obama. Perhaps Anon already knew that this never happened! Of course Anon, ignores that at the same Philadelphia rally that produced the vile t-shirts above, Obama supporters were heard (by the media no less) saying "Let's stone her old-school!"

In addition, Anon completely ignores the "Abort Palin" bumper stickers and T-shirts that are for sale by Obama supporters, or the multiple photoshops of McCain and Palin that are sexually graphic and then some.

Now I fully understand that neither campaign can control what their supporters do. That is not the point of this post. The point of the post is that if the Obama supporters are going to hold McCain and his campaign "responsible" for the despicable things that some over-zealous supporters say and do well they had best get their own house in order FIRST.

Whether it is Madonna or Sandra Bernhardt or anonymous bloggers and commenters at the Daily Kos, the hatred toward the woman in the race (Sarah Palin) has been more than palpable. Then again this is something that the Hillary Clinton campaign knows oh to well - right PUMAs?

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11 Comments:

  • Your argument in principle is fine; but flawed in execution.

    For starters, the getty pic is from a photoshoot in progress. As a staunch gun toater and outdoorsman, images of Palin and guns and dead moose (which she brags about shooting) are hardly out of bounds.

    And from the angle this is shot at, you can say the guy hold the rifle is mimicking shooting Palin. there no depth perception in this shot. Find the final finished shot before you cite this as an example.

    the pic of her getting punched in the face is indefensible.

    As for the Hilary bias--alot of people don't like Hilary because of her as individual, not her gender. And while the nutcracking jokes and some 80 year old woman calling her a bitch on the campaign trail are wrong, Hilary refusing to drop out of the race in May when she'd clearly lost because as she put it "hey RFK got assassinated in June" is outright despicable.

    HRC was no angel or innocent victim in the primaries and neither has Palin been this go 'round.

    Fact is, it's quite possible for people to dislike a candidate because of their behavior and their rhetoric and not their gender.

    By Blogger HustleKnocker, at 3:58 PM  

  • Also, the "kill him" allegations are true. there's video of it running on most networks. unless the video is doctored, people have yelled "kill him" at mccain rallies as recent as 2 weeks ago. whether the threats are legit or not or even obama supporters fronting as mccain supporters, fact is people have yelled "kill him/get him" at mccain rallies.

    sorry to disappoint you.

    By Blogger HustleKnocker, at 4:03 PM  

  • During last night's debate, Senator McCain whined about all the criticism of his campaign. He whined about Congressman John Lewis. He even whined about the T-shirts. Then he repeated a bunch of months-old, already-debunked smears against Senator Obama.

    What McCain hasn't grasped yet is that those lies are hurting him in the polls. Character assassination has become the main theme of his campaign. It's not working for him-- people used to think of McCain as an honorable man but now they don't.

    By Blogger rmwarnick, at 5:20 PM  

  • Hustle....You are correct that first picture could probably be taken more than one way, but what about the "Abort Palin" bumper stickers, the "Palin is a C**T" t-shirts or the other one I linked to? Is there any excusing those?

    if the claims of the "kill him" comment are true then why has the Secret Service said that it never happened? Read the linked story and then get back to me....

    Look - I am no fan of Senator Clinton. However, the way that she was treated by the Obama surrogates was shameful. Just because she was "no angel" does not excuse the misogynistic tactics that were used against her any more that it would excuse someone using racial slurs against Senator Obama!

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 6:44 PM  

  • rmw - kinda like you guys have been whining about the McCain's campaigns "racist" attacks??????

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 7:16 PM  

  • I really don't want to mix in with this argument, but, I do want to explain one thing.

    The "Palin is a C*NT" t-shirts are a tasteless reference to May 2008 when John "Family Values" McCain called Cindy McCain a c*nt in front of a live microphone on stage at a town hall.

    It's pretty easy to find if you type "McCain is a c*nt" into a Google search.

    I'm not defending the t-shirt, I just wanted you to know that it's more about McCain and how he relates to women, then it is about Sarah Palin being the living embodiment of a campaign gimmick.

    xoxoxo

    JM Bell

    By Blogger JM Bell, at 8:49 PM  

  • So you are OK with all of this JM Bell?

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 9:33 PM  

  • You want hatred of women demonstrated by an actual candidate, not misguided supporters? How about mocking the notion of women's health by holding up your fingers and pretending that women's "health" is just so much a silly, hysterical, meaningless, irrelevant notion? How about voting to deny the right to enforce equal pay laws to women because the lawyer who helps her might get compensated for her work?

    THAT is hating women by a candidate.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:04 AM  

  • Not at all ok with it. I hate the word. I just didn't want you to ignore the "why" of the t-shirt by focusing your hatred for Democrats because of the "what" of the t-shirt.

    As for Palin? If I were a woman, I'd be pretty upset every time she opened her ignorant, secessionist yap.

    By Blogger JM Bell, at 12:41 AM  

  • OK JM - that's a start. But saying that "you did it because Johnny did it" is almost as bad as the SLC GOP saying that they started doing push polls because the Dems did it first. DON'T YOU AGREE?

    We are supposed to be adults here and the "well he hit me first" didn't work in first grade - what makes you think it would work now?

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 9:17 AM  

  • Oh and another thing...

    "As for Palin? If I were a woman, I'd be pretty upset every time she opened her ignorant, secessionist yap."

    So women in politics should just keep their "ignorant" yaps shut? That kinda goes directly against your previous paragraph doesn't it?

    As for the secessionist thing - that was debunked long ago by the state of Alaska AND the Alaskan Independence Party. Both have proven that Governor Palin was never,ever, EVER on their membership rolls, but if you want to go ahead and keep spouting lies.....

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 9:20 AM  

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