(Editor’s Note: Please see editor’s note below the fold.)
Seriously, who wrote the stimulus bill?
Was it Obama? Pelosi? Members of Congress? Harry Reid? Lobbyists?
Who wrote the stimulus bill that was signed Tuesday?
Answer that question, and then click here:
(Editor’s Note: Late last night, Larry Johnson opined on the cartoon brouhaha in “More Sanctimonious Leftist Bullshit.” Little did we know that American Girl In Italy had also done her own RIFF on it. This is great! Read it too!)
This cartoon appeared in the New York Post. Al Sharpton is up in arms calling it racist. What say you?
Mr. Sharpton, who has been a subject in cartoons in The Post, said in a statement on his Web site:
The cartoon in today’s New York Post is troubling at best, given the racist attacks throughout history that have made African-Americans synonymous with monkeys. One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual inference to this form of racism when, in the cartoon, the police say after shooting a chimpanzee, “now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.”
Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder whether the Post cartoonist was inferring that a monkey wrote it?
Yes, he is inferring a monkey wrote the bill. But, Obama didn’t write the bill. Pelosi did, with the help of members of Congress, and lobbyists. (He was mocking politicians in DC that wrote the bill, much like people called Bush a monkey for eight years!)
Al Sharpton is the one saying Obama is the monkey, not the cartoonist. I would never have put two and two together and assumed the monkey was supposed to be Obama. Obama didn’t write the stimulus bill.
“Gov. David A. Paterson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and others expressed concern on Wednesday morning over an editorial cartoon in The New York Post that showed a police officer telling his colleague who just shot a chimpanzee, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”
Critics said the cartoon, drawn by Sean Delonas, implicitly compared President Obama with the primate and evoked a history of racist imagery of blacks. The chimpanzee was an apparent reference to the 200-pound pet chimpanzee that was shot dead by a police officer in Stamford, Conn., on Monday evening, after it mauled a friend of his owner.”
“What does shooting a chimpanzee have to do with a stimulus bill?” Mr. Sharpton said. “This raises all the racial stereotypes we are trying to get away from this in this country.” He added: “I’m not speaking on behalf of the president or the chimpanzee. I‘m speaking on behalf of the offended African-American community.”
Has Sharpton just been sitting on the edge of his seat, waiting for a reason to be relevant again? Had Obama written the bill, ok. It would totally be offensive! (even more offensive than comparing Bush to a monkey) But Obama didn’t write it.
In a statement, Col Allan, editor in chief of The Post, denied Mr. Sharpton’s assertion that the cartoon was “racially charged.” Mr. Allan said:
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.
City Councilman Leroy G. Comrie Jr., a Queens Democrat, called for a boycott of the newspaper. “To run such a violent, racist cartoon is an insult to all New Yorkers,” he said in a statement. “This was an unfortunate incident in which a human being was seriously injured- not an opportunity to sling dangerous rhetoric. It is my belief that The New York Post owes an immediate apology to this city for demonstrating such terrible judgment and insensitivity.”
Now, I will agree that the monkey attack was a horrible incident, and perhaps it is much too soon to be making light of the situation. But, I think calling it racist is off the mark. I can’t imagine they would have been that blatantly stupid. The cartoon was calling Congress a bunch of monkeys. Just like people have done for as long as I can remember.
And like I said, Obama didn’t write the bill. Dumb cartoon? Sure. Racist? If Obama had written the bill, yes. But he didn’t.
What do you say?
Update: Since writing this post, on Wednesday morning, Al Sharpton has organized a protest to shut down the Post. I guess hundreds of people were there. I’m sorry, but to me, THEY are the ones comparing Obama to, and calling him an ape. Sharpton is the one who made this all about Obama and racism.
They want to shut down the New York Post, and throw hundreds of people out of work, because they don’t understand who rote the $800 Billion stimulus bill?
I think Obama needs to step forward and say that this was not about him. He needs to tell them that he did not write the bill. The cartoonist was mocking Congress for authoring what some are calling the greatest generational theft in history. And last time I checked, we can still mock our elected officials.
If Obama had written the bill, I would agree, it was horrible. I don’t like the cartoon anyway, because it is violent, and the poor lady is still in intensive care.
But I think Sharpton is totally wrong on this one.
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