Thursday, April 09, 2009
Satirical Criticism and the Republican response...
Florida Congressman Bill Posey, has complained to The Orlando Sentinel about criticism he's received over a recent bill he's sponsored. The bill which would mandate all Presidential candidate's submit a copy of their birth certificate's before running to prove their eligibility.
Now forget the fact that this has NEVER been an issue of any significance in any previous campaign. And also forget that the only candidate who was actually born in a foreign country in the last election, was John McCain(in the Panama canal zone). But no, right wing mouth breathers have been all atwitter with the idea that Barack Obama was secretly born in Kenya and then somehow smuggled in to the U.S., as a Muslim Manchurian candidate. Even the plain display of his birth certificate from the state of Hawaii could not quell the rabid speculation. So you'll have to forgive us on the left if this bill seems like merely a way to keep a right wing non issue in the news for longer than it's 15 minutes. And as such we have been criticizing Bill Posey for sponsoring this bill. This criticism led the Congressman to make this response:
An alligator? That seems like kind of a ridiculous assertion (though perhaps no more ridiculous than attempting to score political points on a long discredited rumor), I wonder who could have made it?
Oh, that's right, it was Stephen Colbert. Apparently satire is lost on Republicans(unless they really believe that bears present the biggest threat to democracy, or in the sincerity on Colbert's Doom Chamber.)
Now forget the fact that this has NEVER been an issue of any significance in any previous campaign. And also forget that the only candidate who was actually born in a foreign country in the last election, was John McCain(in the Panama canal zone). But no, right wing mouth breathers have been all atwitter with the idea that Barack Obama was secretly born in Kenya and then somehow smuggled in to the U.S., as a Muslim Manchurian candidate. Even the plain display of his birth certificate from the state of Hawaii could not quell the rabid speculation. So you'll have to forgive us on the left if this bill seems like merely a way to keep a right wing non issue in the news for longer than it's 15 minutes. And as such we have been criticizing Bill Posey for sponsoring this bill. This criticism led the Congressman to make this response:
"I expected there would be some civil debate about it, but it wasn't civil," Posey said. "Just a bunch of name-calling and personal denigration ... There is no reason to say that I'm the illegitimate grandson of an alligator."
An alligator? That seems like kind of a ridiculous assertion (though perhaps no more ridiculous than attempting to score political points on a long discredited rumor), I wonder who could have made it?
Oh, that's right, it was Stephen Colbert. Apparently satire is lost on Republicans(unless they really believe that bears present the biggest threat to democracy, or in the sincerity on Colbert's Doom Chamber.)
