Welcome to Chicago

The NAACP is calling for retribution. Isn't that self identification that works so well with government but not so good in the real world? I never thought they were referring to O 'till they jumped on it. I have seen a few policies that should have been written by monkeys with typewriters. At least then there would be a reason they said what they said.

So does this mean that it is ok to criticize again? Is free speech on?
There is a store in a nearby town that had quite a few of the anti-Bush bumper stickers and whatnot, and they have not been on the shelf since the inauguration of the new president. That makes sense. There are still some of the pro-Obama election style slogan things available. Will this euphoria fade?
I am sure that there could be some equivalent slogans for Obama. Kate already had "Obama dozed, people froze." (I think I got that right)
So if it was ok to call the last president "Bushitler," can we call the new one "Obamussolini?" It might be risky putting it in a truck window.

Ed Anger, for one, is outraged!

http://is.gd/krVJ

This cartoon apparently makes those on the right "racists" for printing it, even though it is the left who keeps drawing attention to the perceived parallel between apes and blacks...

I agree. It never occurred to me that they were referring to Obama.

After all, it is we Conservatives who are usually referred to as 'knuckle-draggers'.

And, it wasn't Obama who wrote the bill; it was Pelosi and Reid.

I thought that the idea was that a pre-homo sapiens, i.e., one without any advanced intelligence, wrote the bill.

But, the Obama crowd is setting up a situation where any criticism of Obama is akin to racism. He used that in the campaign - remember his talk about his grandmother's fear of 'big black men'?
And Obama has only one focus - winning the next election. So, he and his team are very clear in defining any criticism as unacceptable.

Criticism is 'bipartisan'. If you are a Republican your criticism is defined as invalid because it stems from 'partisanship'. Heh - the Democrats/Obama team refuse to accept any dissent.

Or, criticism is 'racist'.
Or...they'll come up with lots of other reasons. They'll move into it being 'unAmerican' soon.

I'm still trying to figure out the racism here, Obama didn't write the budget because the budget is not about him.

Especially since it was Congress and the Senate who wrote the bill.

The Sharpton industry is in decline - and it's looking for its bailout.

I was always disgusted at Glenn Beck for having Sharpton on.

I think AS is a quasi-criminal

Sorry, I meant the shakedown industry is reprehensible, that last sentence was posted by accident.

My first thought was,"my God, they're calling Nancy Pelosi a monkey!"

Blatant sexism at it's worst! America needs Human Rights Commissions!

Paging Jack Layton!

The monkey has big ears and Obama has big ears and we all know how sensitive the big zero is about his big ears.

Remember folks, "dissent is the highest form of patriotism" but that was before America gave in to fascism.

In another time we would be calling it blasphemy, and dealing with it as such.

I was thinking of the middle class and the achievers in American society shuddering to keep moving under the weight of the cost of the stimulus package. I had an image in my head of one of the episodes in the life of Black Beauty by Anna Sewall where the horse has to haul weights which are really too much and gradually breaks down. But I guess if you bring up Black Beauty you might be accused of racism or something.

I would have preferred a baboon in the cartoon!

Any monkey could have written the stimulus package, but I would have serious doubts whether any baboon could have written the stimulus package.

This is almost like the Mo'toons redux.

Of course if you want to stay with the apes moniker then go bananas with that.

Of course you'll need one of those swingin jungle tunes like "I wanna be like you" from Jungle Book.

Swingdance in Jungle Book

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9cWkUhZ8n4

Cheers or better yet Prosit!

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group "True North"

Oh goody, another tempest over a damn cartoon. The only word that comes to mind is pathetic.

The Rick Santelli piece is the one that will get some traction.

Why should hard working people, who paid their bills on time, have to subsidize real estate flippers, jerk off mortgage brokers and poor people who should not have been in the housing market in the first place?

We are on our way to a similar situation here in Candada, except it will be pensions. Certain politicians are promising to cover the pension liabilities of any bankrupt company or municipality.

Why should I have to pay for the pension of an assembly line worker who spent half his breaks smoking dope(my step brother) or for some garbage man who spends his afternoons doing renovations(my competitors).

As Santelli says, give the break(or benefit)to everyone, or nobody.

Anything else is just not fair !

VOTE REFORM !
GO ARMY !

Joe has it right...Congress wrote the Bill...after Obama indicated earlier that he would but then said it didnt matter where it started.

If the cartoon had said we need to find someone new to SIGN the bill then that would have been a direct reference to the Pres and then the debate would have some legitimacy.

Of course, one wonders why Holder said people were cowards to have an upfront racial discussion when this is the reaction to something that is even a stretch to connect.

It is actually a little concerning.

OOOOOOOOOOOOPS.....CANADA !

Gimmee a break. It was a dumb cartoon that goes way over the line. And pretending not to see how it could easily be interpreted is disingenuous at best. Any reasonably intelligent person in the US is aware of the significance of the chimpanzee as to do with race. Linking it to politics gives it another meaning, regardless of who actually "wrote" the stimulus bill.

It's not a stretch to guess what many people would be likely to infer from the cartoon. This feigned innocence is ridiculous. This cartoon intentionally crosses a dangerous line, and tries to justify it by pretending it could mean something else.

Tell me, what is the point of the cartoon, if it isn't about shooting a prominent black politician (Obama) who has a strong link to the stimulus bill? Where is there any other connection between the story of the chimpanzee shot by Police in Chicago, and the stimulus bill? It doesn't make sense, except to make the obvious connection.

The cartoonist, and the editor, are either phenomenally stupid, or very wrong to have published it.

kingston lad - pensions are a very scary topic hopefully for another day

I, like many others, have seen my defined contribution pension plan decrease significantly.

Those who have defined benefit plans probably would note that investments held for them have decreased as well

When it comes time to pay out - are those of us who don't have "government pension plans" going to have to bail out those who do? With our ever dwindling resources?

This is one of my biggest financial fears right now - ie that the government will take what little will be left over for me, to top up defined benefit pension plans.

Will this make Dalton McChimpy okay now with being refered to as a chimp brain by the dastardly right?....eein' as Obie has been classified as one also . Gotta love the NAACP!!

Jimbo: Monkeys ... typewriters ... get it?

But then, I do recall you screaming in protest when Chimp-Bush was the in thing ... it was admirable to see you standing up for Bush.

It is only the race industry that equates chimp to black or whatever they see fit. Recall the Clinton staffer who called some children playing dangerously in a tree ... something along the lines of "you kids are like a bunch of monkies up there". She was forced out of the campaign. That is fascism.

Is Chimp then ... or Monkey ... or Ape ... the new "N" word?

I'd like to know who stuck that giant pickle up the Left's ass ... it's time for surgery.

"And pretending not to see how it could easily be interpreted is disingenuous at best. Any reasonably intelligent person in the US is aware of the significance of the chimpanzee as to do with race."

There goes the left again, drawing parallels that exist principally in their own minds. When are you guys going to get it that bigotry and racism in the 21st century are largely your constructs, not the right's? The right moved way past racism years ago. How is that you're still stuck in it?

Jimbo..Overly sevsitive dude. It's not like the monkey is wearing the O symbols or a t-shirt with O on it. Your sensitivity is commendable but full of things that are just not there. Monkeys with typewriters have been around a long time. If you are saying we have seen enough historical facts of O as a chimpanzee then a comparison is made. For example, no birth records,no educational records,no citizenship papers repeated abandonment like a monkey then I agree with you but without those things it's a friggin monkey to me.

Jimbo, I disagree strongly with you. Does that mean that all of those cartoons depicting Bush as chimp were racist? Where was the outcry then?

The chimpanzee angle was newsworthy at the time of the cartoon. The stimulus plan was also newsworthy.

Humourists often link two disparate events, and try to tie them together to generate irony or surprise.

The end.

Well I took it as 'pre-human, pre-intelligence' given the belief by some, that we evolved from monkeys and apes...something the fascists Muslims claim we're all from, or is that just the Jews? (can't keep up with their glowing liberal endorsed "ok to hate" list)...that's exactly how I saw it, not the current media messiah WHO is also half white.

Re:Posted by: Erik Larsen at February 22, 2009 1:31 PM
""[JIMBO] And pretending not to see how it could easily be interpreted is disingenuous at best. Any reasonably intelligent person in the US is aware of the significance of the chimpanzee as to do with race."

There goes the left again, drawing parallels that exist principally in their own minds. When are you guys going to get it that bigotry and racism in the 21st century are largely your constructs, not the right's? The right moved way past racism years ago. How is that you're still stuck in it?"

I'm not "on the left". Being a conservative doesn't include defending the indefensible. Regardless of what the cartoonist was intending, he/she had to understand how easily it would be misinterpreted. I'm a white conservative from Canada, and I immediately subconsciously made the Obama connection.

I don't believe I'm being overly sensitive - the news proves many (!!!) people predictably made the same connection. This is a case of the cartoonist and editor being incredibly insensitive, or incredibly stupid.

You think US conservatives have moved past racism? Have you ever been in the South? You couldn't be more mistaken - racism is alive and thriving. And it's not just whites, Southerners, or Americans who are racist.

jimbo - I don't accept your points. And I'm 'reasonably intelligent'.

After all, Bush has been called a 'chimpanzee' for almost his entire 8 years. Was that about race? Or was it a metaphor for an 'unintelligent behaviour'? Did you or anyone else call these remarks racist?

Could you explain how the cartoon cartoon "intentionally crosses a dangerous line, and tries to justify it by pretending it could mean something else". First, please explain how you know it 'intentionally' crosses a dangerous line - and I presume you mean a reference to racism. And second, how does it 'pretend' to mean something else?

As I said, when I saw it, I immediately interpreted it as meaning that the stimulus package was utterly irrational and could have been 'written' by a non-human primate.

I further linked it to the recent shooting of that 'pet' chimpanzee. What's the link? Police shot a chimpanzee that was ignorantly being kept as if it were a pet or a homo sapiens. AND, inserting the words 'stimulus package' gave us a vivid image of the irrational nature of that package. Written by irrational beings.

Now, making such a criticism is entirely justified; that simulus package is 'dumb' and has little to do with functional economic stimulation.

For some people to add yet a third metaphor, that of Obama 'being black' is quite a stretch. Again, Bush was constantly, endlessly referred to as a 'chimp' brain during his tenure. Not a whisper that it was racist; it was most certainly a metaphor for 'dumb'.

So, Jimbo, try again.

By the way, I'm glad to see so many others who didn't jump to what I saw as the obvious conclusion. I appreciate the polite responses.

Jimbo, as you mentioned, I didn't have the same reaction as you when I saw the cartoon.

However, what this did illustrate to me, is that:

1. There are still many sensitivities surrounding race, obviously
2. We have been primed to be very conscious of these
3. Some things generate different reactions with different people
4. Certain special interest groups jump on these issues to try to regain relevance in the public eye, or to extract hush money to go away

Dr. Vakhin* saw it coming in August, 2008.

>>> "They will dig their heads deeper in the sand and blame Obama’s detractors of racism."

"The blacks are unlikely to give up their support of their man. Cultic mentality is pernicious and unrelenting. They will dig their heads deeper in the sand and blame Obama’s detractors of racism. This will cause a backlash among the whites."

"Barack Obama is a narcissist."

*http://jacksnewswatch.com/2009/02/19/jack-hello-earth/

More:

"Barack Obama - Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic?
Sam Vaknin Ph.D.
August 11, 2008
Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist. Scroll down for a detailed treatment."
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/71124

I admire Obama for not throwing race around everywhere. His attorney general's comment a little while ago was a bit out of place - I would never expect anything like that from O.

I think Obama is a excellent politician, but just in the wrong job too soon in his political development, and at a very bad time economically.

Re: Posted by: ET at February 22, 2009 1:51 PM

"Could you explain how the cartoon cartoon "intentionally crosses a dangerous line, and tries to justify it by pretending it could mean something else". First, please explain how you know it 'intentionally' crosses a dangerous line - and I presume you mean a reference to racism. And second, how does it 'pretend' to mean something else?"

I know you're both intelligent and reasonable, but I didn't think you were in the US. There the "signifying monkey" is far more common than here, where many may not even be aware of it. Certainly a US journalist/cartoonist would know it.

Maybe it's because I've spent so much time in the company of Black Americans (blues musicians). I can't believe anyone who's spent time in the racially charged atmosphere of the US could not have known how this would have been (mis)interpreted. That's what I'm referring to when I say it's intentionally crossing the line. Only an idiot wouldn't have known how this would be understood by many people. I'm willing to grant that the cartoonist might be an idiot. That it refers to monkeys and typewriters is more of a leap than the racism connection in much of the US.

The fact it's become such a controversy proves how easily it could be interpreted a racist. If they sincerely were unaware of how it might be misconstrued, a simple apology acknowledging that would be a good move.

For anyone who suggests racism does not play a role in the US, I'd suggest that racism (mis-titled reverse racism - racism is racism) is what lead many people to support Obama. It goes both ways.

Jimbo: Do you not see, that the race industry, located squarely on the left side of the aisle, is deciding what is "sensitive material" and what is not. It's a clear case of fascism, where some unseen czar decides what can be said, and what can't all for the purpose of crushing opposition.

In this case, just about anything said, written, sung, or performed to denigrate those on the right side of the aisle is considered just fine ... but the same standards are not applied to the left side of the aisle (on which sits the race industry and grievance industry).

The whole purpose of posting this cartoon was to draw attention to the abuse of power and double standard practiced by the race industry and the left. If you'd follow the links to all the articles and examples, you'd have seen that. This post is about far more than a monkey cartoon; it's about blatant double standards fomented on the left.

Does the right side of the aisle practice double standards? Of course. But there is likely nobody can hold a candle to the grievance and race industry.

Erik: Obama has used the race card from day one. His campaign team and national machine do it all the time. Do you think he'd be stupid enough to do it himself ... no ... but the "machine" does it for him. That's how politics works. Race is just one weapon used ruthlessly by The Big O's team to distrupt criticism. Any attack on the O that gives even the most minute hint of race gets used to fend off the attack.

It's typical dirty Chicago thugs at work.

The chimp cartoon "scandal" has the usual race hucksters pimping it, this is business as usual. Sleazy parasites making something out of nothing, for money. The scandal is that anyone in the USA gives a moment's thought to these scumbags.

Much more chilling are the comments by the White House spokesman regarding Rick Santelli. Cjunk's linked video left out the part about "derivatives traders" being "people we would like to punish" from those comments. Also what Barry O had to say about Rush Limbaugh. One could make a case that this is the beginning of The One's regime setting up talk radio and stock traders to be the new whipping boys, the new enemies of the state.

I have said for years that we and the Americans are just one good advertising campaign away from a totalitarian state. That Obama election campaign was a propaganda tour de force, it managed to get elected a guy nobody knows anything about, not even what he plans to do.

So far, his plans appear to be eliminate capitalism and shut up his opponents. Double plus ungood.

Paul - maybe I should have been more explicit but I try to keep it brief - I don't think he exploited the issue, but neither do I think that he tried to stop others in his camp, who would in both open and subtle ways, use anything and everything to win.

Though his behaviour, he essentially frustrated McCain, who could not then say a word about the issue as he was backed into a corner on the topic

Again, I am not explaining my thoughts properly, sorry.

Erik: I understand. I just get frustrated when people defend Obama as an individual ... because he's not an individual, anymore than Bush was. They were both part of a massive machine which operates in the background. The Chicago machine, which Obama came up through, is the most ruthless and corrupt in the nation. It's job is to do all the dirty work while making the star player appear above it all.

Amazingly, Obama's admin team is getting dirty though, from The O attacking Rush, and Hannity, to the attacks on CNBC journalists. Phantom hits it dead on.

As an after thought, did we see this kind of direct attack on journalists and citizens by the Bush team? Just asking.

Re: Posted by: Paul at February 22, 2009 2:15 PM

"But there is likely nobody can hold a candle to the grievance and race industry."

On that we can agree. I don't think handing them ammo is the right way to discredit them.

On your suggestion, I did follow the link (which I hadn't noticed), and was pleased to see this "The newspaper acknowledged that the cartoon published on Wednesday had drawn controversy because African Americans and others saw it as a depiction of Obama."

That was the right move.

The ridiculous and insulting cartoons, signs, and comments by so many on the left do not in any way justify similar actions on the right, even if they are unintentional. If anything, failing to call out similar actions on the right (like referring to the left as "leftards", etc) makes us look like hypocrites.

Paul - I have been thinking that this is an election campaign that never ends. Attacking Rush was stupid.

I believe O will be extraordinarily opaque - and journos will just nod and go along. Where are the investigative reporters going to dig up dirt on him from his Chicago days?

I would feel a ton better if there were reporters who did investigations, and found nothing, and proclaimed him clean. But I don't know if that's happened yet, or if in the fullness of time it will ever happen.

Jimbo, I agree, I don't like the term "leftard", unless Kathy Shaidle is using it. She can say anything, that is her MO, and good on her.

I'm all for recruiting people to "the right" - even though it's a tough, unrewarding and unlikely task - but once terms like that get used, game over, people walk away.

"You think US conservatives have moved past racism? Have you ever been in the South? You couldn't be more mistaken - racism is alive and thriving. And it's not just whites, Southerners, or Americans who are racist."

I wondered when this would finally surface. You do know that the racist southerners were, in the main, Southern Democrats, right?

Jimbo has obviously NOT been to the south since, oh, perhaps 1956.

The only racism that exists ANYWHERE in the U.S. in the year 2009 is the racism of soft expectations.

PERIOD.

Jimbo, the monkey metaphor depicts YOU and your limited abilities of thought.

Please, provide us with some more proof of my assertion. I`m sure you will be happy to oblige.

jimbo - but your explanation doesn't cover the constant references made in the US and by Americans to Bush as a 'chimpanzee'!

You claim that a reference to a chimpanzee is 'racist' but were the references to Bush as a chimpanzee a racist reference or a reference to his 'being dumb'?

Does Obama use the race-card as an election strategy? Most certainly he does; he relies not merely on blacks to vote for him but on whites to vote for him to show they are not racist. And Obama reminds them of this; remember his reference to his grandmother being afraid of 'big black men'. Obama and in particular his massive electoral team know exactly what they are doing and race is an important component of their strategies.

A key aspect of Obama's rule is that he rejects dissent. That's important and will become more and more obvious. He's rejected dissent in the House saying that such is 'partisan'. He's rejected dissent in the MSM, lambasting Hannity and Limbaugh for being against him. And his team will further this rejection of dissent by linking it to racism.

The only racism that exists ANYWHERE in the U.S. in the year 2009 is the racism of soft expectations.

Amen, Brother.

The obamessiah's entire campaign victory was based on the successful triad of race, white guilt and media manipulation. How else could somebody with such thin gruel for a CV ever hope to win the presidential election? Even the disaster jimmy carter had executive experience as a governor; obama has never so much as run a lemonade stand in his life. For a guy who spent time in state and national senate, he never authored one piece of legislation, but had time for banging off (2) autobiographies.

Limbaugh is right: obama is too big to fail. The media will carry his water until the bitter end, but America is slowly coming around to the realization they've been had, and elected the farthest left socialist to ever sit in the white house. He's had more scandals in the first 6 weeks of office than the entire bush 8-year stint.

The original question of "will obama be worse than carter?" was answered in the first six weeks of his presidency. Now comes the real question: in orders of magnitude, how much worse will he be than carter?

mhb23re
at gmail d0t calm

The sad and desperate supporters of the failed CO2bama administration are desperately trying to deflect criticism of incompetence, stupididy and corruption by labelling it "racism".

Never before in the history of the US has evidence of incompetence, stupididy and corruption come to the fore so rapidly.

Unfortunately, because the president is quasi negro, any attempt to highlight the destructive policies of this socialist government is labelled as racist and not as legitimate political comment.

Hey,

I live in Chicago. Get the hell out. You are not welcome.

Bitch.

The one "we were waiting for" keeps scaring me. For us all, I hope these fears are unfounded.

You know, the response of the White House to detractors of Obama is just like Wornout Krapseller's responses on behalf of the Liberals and their leader, who is now a guy named Iggy-poo or something like that.

Liberal Fascists who are part of the race/"Human Rights" industry... they're all the same everywhere.

And I noticed that the Wornout Kateater is a backer of both Ignatieff and Obama... and that Ignatieff is a big fan of The One and is trying to make us think that he's "like that" with The One... well, then, they'll have to accept the stench of Obamanian/Chicago-Mob-style Liberal Fascism/race-card-playing gobbleddygook and can expect to have their own detractors raise the spectre of "Chicago-Mob-style crap" against Iggy and his party...

I notice that Obama's choices for top minions like Rahm Emanuel and so on are as corrupt as the Librano Mob. No wonder the Libranos go weak in the knees everytime Obama picks his nose or farts... And no wonder the bullying and intimidation by Obamites and Libranos are so parralel. And the Libranos have the nerve to complain that Harper "bullies" them (which is ok, because politics is a bloodsport, and politicians sometimes draw each others' "blood", and the Libranos know they've drawn a LOT of "blood" from the other side), while the Libranos bully ordinary citizens and the media, just as do Obama's Chicago hitmen?

Further, I think, like Obama, Ignatieff is a narcississt. Oh, and then there's the delusions of grandeur and intolerance of dissent...

Hmm... you know, Hitler believed that he was "The One" and "The Only" and that only he himself could ever solve Germany's problems, and that anyone who dissed him had to be silenced however necessary, because what would be done would be by his and his way only, and he'd never let anyone change his mind. Sound familiar???

Saddam was like that, too. Kim Il Jung, too. Castro, too.

When a leader refuses to compromise, as he believes he's godlike or something and is always right, and will go to draconian extents to silence inconvenient dissent, well, you need, then, be worried.

That said, I noticed that conservative leaders tend to compromise more than do "progressive" liberal leftist ones and that they verbally bash their opponents much less. Leftist ones just dig in like pitbulls and defame and rip into those who propose different courses of action.

Remember, those who worshipped Hitler, ie. the German People, suffered the catastrophe they enabled him to bring upon Germany. Will the same happen to the worshippers of Obama, when he brings a catastrophe of some kind upon America?

Alan Keyes explains his view that Obama is going to destroy America (video at the link):

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=89612

"He is going to destroy this country, and we are either going to stop him or the United States of America is going to cease to exist."

Will the Chicago Mob call Alan Keys a "racist"? Or what?

Jimbo has obviously NOT been to the south since, oh, perhaps 1956.

The only racism that exists ANYWHERE in the U.S. in the year 2009 is the racism of soft expectations.

PERIOD. Posted by: Doug at February 22, 2009 3:09 PM

Ridiculous. Yes, I've been in the "South" (California and Arizona, not Alabama), but I didn't have to go there to know racism exists from all sides. I won't waste my time debating anyone who doesn't believe this. PERIOD. EXCLAMATION POINT!

ET, I obviously don't compare these cartoons with the reference to Bush as a chimp, because this has nothing to do with what anyone said about Bush, or anyone else. That's why I don't address it. You're changing the channel. You're usually reasonable, but I don't think you're being reasonable here. I respect your intelligence. Please do me the same courtesy.

Bush has nothing whatsoever to do with these cartoons, and any reference to Bush/chimp in no way excuses or explains them. It doesn't have anything to do with "The Monkees" band either. It's not a left/right issue, though some on both sides seem to want to make it one. It's an issue of insensitivity, and inconsideration by people who should have known better.

I'll only say it one more time - many people were offended. I'm not making that up. I don't know how anyone could argue that, unless they just want to argue.

It was predictable many would find it offensive. It's not about whether or not YOU or I are likely to find them cartoons offensive. Black Americans may have a different perspective.

The Post recognized that, admitted hey made an error in judgement, and apologized. That's enough for me. This isn't the worst thing that ever happened vis-a-vis race.

Defending these cartoons while complaining about "the racism industry" is like fighting fire with gasoline.

And re:Posted by: mhb at February 22, 2009 4:43 PM ""The only racism that exists ANYWHERE in the U.S. in the year 2009 is the racism of soft expectations."

Amen, Brother.

The obamessiah's entire campaign victory was based on the successful triad of race, white guilt and media manipulation."

There's no racism, but the campaign was based on race? You can't have it both ways, buddy.