I’m sure someone thinks these are simply hilarious:
ATWATER, Calif. — Violent and racist e-mail jokes alluding to the assassination of President Barack Obama, the killing of Latinos and violence against black people were forwarded by Atwater City Councilman Gary Frago during the last six months, according to more than 200 new e-mails obtained by the Sun-Star from the city of Atwater. […]
One of the most troubling of the new Frago e-mails, forwarded in January, joked that Nokia had designed a new cell phone for “nervous white people” who want to make calls in a series of cities known for their large black populations, such as Oakland and New Orleans. The phone was a gun. […]
Another e-mail forwarded by Frago on Dec. 9, 2008, was in the form of a fictitious letter sent by Sen. John McCain to John Hinckley Jr., a man obsessed with actress Jodie Foster, who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981. The letter said that Hinckley would be released soon and he should know that Obama was sleeping with Foster now. […]
A third e-mail joked about killing illegal immigrants and Obama delegates. The joke is about a man applying for a position with a police department. As a test, the chief tells the applicant: “Take this gun with 13 bullets and go out and shoot six illegal immigrants, six Obama delegates and a rabbit.” The man asks: “why the rabbit?”
“Fantastic attitude,” says the chief. “When can you start?”
What? You aren’t laughing? I bet the Secret Service isn’t either. I guess that’s one thing we share with the people assigned to protect Obama’s life: we don’t have a sense of humor when it comes to jokes about killing people. Which begs the question why so many Republicans, conservatives and other assorted right wing types enjoy them so much? I have never emailed anyone with a joke about killing Bush or Cheney or anyone else for that matter. I’d consider it an immoral act in addition to not being funny in the least. I guess our political opponents are just wired differently than we are when it comes to the funny bone.
I’m slapping my knee right now.
Yeah, the Nokia joke is great:
Get in trouble? You just put to your head and press the SEND key!
Stops the whining, at least.
California is weird.
Perhaps we should start a “Fuck the West” thread. You know, just for the sake of consistency.
It might get some traction at dkos.
E-mail, at least – even by public officials – seems like it’s private (if you’re stupid, anyway). But in Idaho, they’re making such jokes publicly, at GOP fundraisers.
The hilarity is breathtaking.
That’s not a culture I am familiar with.
Lucky you.
Granted, Atwater is in one of the more conservative pockets of the Central Valley, but it is a head-scratcher even for this Californian why the people of Atwater or the State haven’t taken stronger action to force this goon’s resignation.
Never pegged Atwater for a ‘sunset town’ or a racist stonghold (Tracy, CA, on-the-other-hand…)….
As much as I detested Bush, I never wished harm to him, and I always told my kids to tone it down when their mockery of him went a little bit over the part. I guess that to be a Republican means being a depraved sort of person. It’s a spiritual condition, not a political affiliation.
Article from a freshman congressperson playing to her conservative crowd..
http://www.cjonline.com/news/state/2009-08-26/jenkins_remark_raises_eyebrows
Actually, “Great White Hope” is refreshingly honest.
Which reminds me, did anyone else see the Faux News items this morning about desperate Canadians rushing to American Hospitals for life-saving measures. I kid you not. After that, “Great White Hope” is a welcome breath of honesty.
The only desperate Canadians I know are those who get ill in the US while on a visit. Fox is deranged, no doubt about it. Oh, God, why can’t we have the Fairness Doctrine once again!
It’s not just the funny bone that is wired differently. Their hearts are wired differently, their sense of skepticism is wired differently, their sense of fairness is wired differently, etc. In sum, that’s why they are our political opponents. And that explains why they think it’s funny while we don’t. It explains a lot of things, like why Fox News even exists.
But there’s a larger question here: Why do they keep doing it?
Republicans in other areas have resigned for such email problems…two top Republicans in my area (FL) in the past year alone. Yet they continue to do this, and do it at an increasing rate. As my late father would say, “Are they stupid or what?”
Maybe it’s more than a funny bone being mis-wired. By analogy seems like a philanderer whose own neighbor was ruined when by caught philandering, yet keeps on philandering himself. At some level, he knows it’s wrong by public standards because his neighbor suffered the consequences, but he keeps philandering because…why? Any number of psychological reasons, I suppose, and none of them good.
I think the main fault is the lack of something I’m trying to instill in my child–knowledge that there are consequences for decisions and actions.