The Values Voter Summit is taking place this weekend, and along with the usual bloviating and bible-beating rhetoric, we have the high-minded Dominionists of Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council sponsoring a booth at the convention selling this item, which it calls "political satire." (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
Values Voter Summit organizers cut off sales of Obama Waffles boxes on Saturday, saying they had not realized the boxes displayed "offensive material." The summit and the exhibit hall where the boxes were sold had been open since Thursday afternoon.
The box was meant as political satire, said Mark Whitlock and Bob DeMoss, two writers from Franklin, Tenn., who created the mix. They sold it for $10 a box from a rented booth at the summit sponsored by the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council.
David Nammo, executive director of the lobbying group FRC Action, said summit organizers were told the boxes were a parody of Obama's policy positions but had not examined them closely.
Fomenting an Aunt Jemima stereotype along with the Obama-as-Muslim smear in one nice package -- what would Jesus do? Some of the luminaries of the right attending and speaking at this conference include:
Comments of some of the readers of this article are below the fold. Most see this for what it is, others, well...
I have always known the the Focus on the Family group was conservative, but I didn't know they were choosing to act as a surrogate for the Ku Klux Klan. There is absolutely NOTHING funny about this.UPDATE (Sat, 10:45 PM). Here's the damage control press release from FRC:posted by sphynx on Sep. 13, 08 at 1:53 PM |
At least the racism is right out there on the table for all to see in the light of day. Values Voters?! KKK values, apparently. Make no mistake about who these people are.
posted by noriewilson on Sep. 13, 08 at 2:01 PM |
Take mercy on these poor bastards and explain what satire is so there won't be any more embarrasing acts like this.
posted by joeeeeee on Sep. 13, 08 at 2:31 PM |
Sadly, the modern-day version of the party of Abraham Lincoln has come full circle to revert to selling racism in a box for $10. Pathetic.
posted by jrolson on Sep. 13, 08 at 2:32 PM |
28 of 38 people liked this comment.
They can't find anything concrete that's wrong with Obama -- no smoking gun, so to speak -- so they resort to this garbage. I would be embarrassed to be a Republican if this is an example of what they're like. Most of them are clueless as to what real life is like.
posted by aanen1 on Sep. 13, 08 at 2:40 PM |
I've always said that if this country is to be attacked by an enemy, it will be by domestic nuts like this, not foreign. Think Timothy McVeigh.
posted by binkiemae on Sep. 13, 08 at 2:40 PM |
I have never understood why debasing another person makes one feel good about yourself? Are you saying your supporters are nothing but moronic racists....or is that just the segment you wish to appeal to? Dems wish Obama would "hit back" But do you want our candidate to roll in this gutter?
posted by W2thdr on Sep. 13, 08 at 2:41 PM |
This is such a...non-story. This is just liberals looking for something to be offended by.
posted by Average_Joe on Sep. 13, 08 at 2:44 PM |
"No story"? Things like this need to be covered. This type of behavior needs to be brought out into the light or it will never stop.
posted by vinnie_333 on Sep. 13, 08 at 2:44 PM |
20 of 28 people liked this comment.
This kind of racist garbage has no place in modern America, let alone in an election. The white trash fringe that find this sort of thing amusing need to slither back under their rocks now.
posted by SteveKroll on Sep. 13, 08 at 2:45 PM |
Why do these people not represent the truth about Obama. Represent him for what he is proven to be: A black racist on Sunday during his church services as Reverend Wright savagely attacked white America. This went on for twenty years. Plus his financial support to violent ex-weathermen members Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn to the tune of three hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer money. How can a black racist and a supporter of violent terrorists of the past become the President of the USA? Wake up people and vote your conscience.
posted by waitex on Sep. 13, 08 at 2:53 PM |
the Muslim tie-in doen't make sense...but what is RACIST about it? Now before you get all riled up with a reply - think first and look at the image. Other than the headwear depicted, it's a caricature, plain and simple. Just like the beady eyed, Dumbo-eared ones we've been seeing of GW the last eight years. Just because he's black, doesn't make him immune to caricature's. And if he isn't muslim (?), than let the ones that created the image wallow in their own stupidity for insinuating that he is. Intolerant, cpunks2?? Take a look in the mirror, my friend.
posted by romperroom on Sep. 13, 08 at 3:00 PM
View this Press Release online at: https://www.frcaction.org/index.cfm?i=PR08I03&f=PR08I03
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 13, 2008
CONTACT: J.P. Duffy, (202) 679-6800
Statement by Family Research Council Action Executive Director David Nammo September 13, 2008
We strongly condemn the tone and content of materials that were exhibited by one of the vendors at this weekend's Values Voter Summit. The materials represent an attempt at parody that crosses the line into coarseness and bias.
The exhibitor contacted our reviewer just days before the Summit by email and described material that sounded like it was devoted to political flip-flops on policy issues. When the content of the materials was brought to the attention of FRC Action senior officials today, they were removed and the exhibit was dismantled by the vendor at our insistence. It is our responsibility to fully vet materials that are offered at any event we cosponsor, but we are deeply dismayed that this vendor violated the spirit, message and tone of our event in such an offensive manner.
The Values Voter Summit represents a coming together of many long-established organizations that work across denominational and ethnic lines to celebrate and promote the family and a culture of life. We reject any communications that divide and distract us and frustrate these principles. Bishop Harry Jackson's High Impact Leadership Coalition, Gary Bauer's American Values, and Alliance Defense Fund join us in rejecting this material.
By cheating, of course. Hopefully you're all familiar by now at how Republicans use the fantasy threat of illegal immigrants voting to purge voter rolls in swing states of naturalized citizens and people who just happen to have Spanish-sounding last names. And how voter registrations from racially mixed neighborhoods are rejected on technicalities. And how voting machines in poor and minority neighborhoods are too few or not working or put in places that are hard to get to. A lot of attention is paid to Diebold machines, but let's face it, Republicans are still cheating through unsexy, old-fashioned voter suppression techniques.
Either Sarah Palin is an outsider hockey mom with a day job just doing what an average woman does or she's a foreign policy and energy savant with a deep understanding and experience of governance and world affairs. But she's not both. Sarah Palin's not an action figure - you don't get the Arctic Blast version with the 18 points of articulation and the oddly contradictory flamethrower, or the Mars Explorer Palin with tiny Martian friend and Rover Capsule playkit.
Chuckie Krauthammer decides that the person who gets to define the Bush Doctrine is him, because he used it once. I once used the word "surge" to refer to how I felt after downing a Red Bull and some chocolate-covered potato chips, which means that the troops in Iraq are, in fact, on the world's biggest snack run.
I've had a weirdly intense week, and so I'm pretty tired. So while I was going to post on more Republican evil shit, I don't have the moral stamina. But I do want to highlight this interesting post Hugo put up on Michael Kimmel's new book Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, which made me want to read the book. There's a lot to chew over, but what I found really interesting is a description of the sort of hostility towards women that's common now in porn, and has made me question if the porn market is really driven by innocent and non-misogynist lust, as is wishfully claimed often. It just seems that misogyny is the selling point of so much of it.
