Monday, July 14, 2008
Magazine cover ’satirizes’ Barack Obama criticism
The New Yorker magazine claims that the cover of it’s July 21 issue is meant to be satirical. They claim that artist Barry Blitt is satirizing the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama’s campaign.
Really? Did anyone ever claim that Michelle Obama walks around wearing camouflage clothing with a AK-47 strapped to her back? I must have missed that one. When did anyone ever claim that they use the American Flag for firewood? Did anyone ever say anything about a framed portrait of Usama bin Ladin?
This cover makes it seem that any criticism, even valid criticism, pertaining to Barack Obama is unwarranted. There’s a difference between satirizing misinformation and just making stuff up. I fully believe there is more then enough to criticize Barack Obama about without having to resort to making stuff up about him.
The story that resonates the most with me is the one about him attending a church for twenty years lead by a hateful whack job of a pastor that believed the United States government created the AIDS virus. A man who when speaking about President Bill Clinton, actually humped the pulpit.
This story, unlike all the made up ones, is actually true.
Don’t take cartoons (this one or any other) too literally. This picture is making fun of people who think, for what ever misguided reason, that Obama has terrorist ties. In what language does that translate as discouragement from any and all criticism? How is any of the goofy stuff that appears in this illustration anywhere even CLOSE to “valid criticism?”
Who exactly is saying that Obama has ties to terrorists?
IF THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE IS TRUE A FAIR MINDED
I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THIS satirizing
MAYBE THERE WILL PUT MCCAIN ON THE FRONT COVER WITH A
PACE MAKER BE 73 YEAR OLD
“Who exactly is saying that Obama has ties to terrorists?”
It’s your lucky day, because I just happen to have a list:
Flapjack Haggerty
Freitag Hertzencrantz
“Hot Lips” Jim Jackson
Pauline L. Chipmunk DDS
Cherri Chestwell
Billy Ray Buckwheat Bojangles Robinson
Hunk Tunkerton
Phillip “Monkeytail” Monkerberg
Sophia Knucklebutter
Truck Tronsgard
Diplodocus von Schwartzenhooven
“Dirty Face” Dan Baddington
Susan K. Fuckduggler
Endless Marcellus Spinach-Chin Hardwick
Square-Jaw Sam Burlington
Professor Chim Rimbles
“Laser” Ray Lazarus
Crisper Chrispopolus
Clandy Muldridge
Brock Hazard (The Million-Mile Man)
Elizabeth Gunderfleckt
Lerooooooooy Jenkins!!!!
So in other words, NOBODY has said that Obama has ties to terrorists. Thought so.
Now that I think about it, that’s not entirely true. He is friends with non-repentant terrorist Bill Ayers.
Did you have to make up over a dozen names to say that?
NOBODY? Get serious. You didn’t see all that “terrorist fist jab” nonsense? It’s even depicted on the cover illustration in question, for chrissakes.
Schooly: Believe me, I’m not creative enough to make up “Endless Marcellus Spinach-Chin Hardwick.” That’s a real guy.
So the woman on Fox News that referred to the fist bump shared between Barack and Michelle as some kind of terrorist greeting is who you were talking about? Why not just name her then instead of a long list of silly sounding names? Not that I even know what her name is. I thought she was fired. I think she qualifies as a “nobody”.
Other then Obama’s friendship with Bill Ayers, I don’t know of anyone saying that he has ties to terrorists.
This magazine cover just seems like a big straw man. I read that it was meant to be satirical and comment on the “ludicrous rumors” that have been circulating about Obama. Except I know of no rumor that he and his wife burn the flag or that they display a portrait of Osama bin Laden over their fireplace. Same goes for the AK-47 strapped to Michelle’s back. On the other hand, I have seen Barack wear outfits very similar to the one shown on the magazine cover. Once when he was younger and in Kenya visiting family and then another one much more recently when he was visiting somewhere as a U.S. Senator. Wearing goofy looking attire is just something politicians do when they are visiting faraway lands.
I just don’t get what the New Yorker was trying to say with this cover. When they ran a cover a month after Katrina showing members of the Bush administration sitting around a conference table while water poured in around their necks, were they trying to satirically comment on the Bush administration for their ineptitude during Katrina or where they instead satirically commenting on people like me who blamed the Bush administration for being inept?
I’d like to believe they were commenting on Bush and his crew, but now I’m not sure.
For one woman on Fox News to say something, it takes a handful or writers, editors and supervisors to allow it to be said. It’s NEVER “just one person.”
The world is a big place. I’m confident you could fill a large room with people who are dumb enough to actually believe that Obama is some kind of sleeper cell agent, and I’m not just saying that to be contrary. Never underestimate the stupidity of human beings.
And, again, I think you’re taking every aspect of this political cartoon far too literally. There is no rumor circulating about a portrait of Osama Bin Laden in Obama’s living room, but you can appreciate the meaning of the illustration without getting tripped up by the technicalities. Right?
The meaning of the illustration? I don’t think there is one. I think that’s one of the reasons the New Yorker is being condemned so much about this cover. It’s hard to understand how this could be considered a satirical comment on ludicrous rumors when most of it deals with stuff that nobody is spreading rumors about.