Its all fun and games till his feelings got hurt.

[Tgace]

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs...-his-job-and-america-loses-its-sense-of-humor

Officials at the Missouri State Fair have banned for life a rodeo clown who entertained spectators during a bull riding contest while wearing a Barack Obama mask. "The rodeo clown won't be allowed to participate or perform at the fair again," the Associated Press reported Monday. "Fair officials say they're also reviewing whether to take any action against the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association, the contractor responsible for Saturday's event."

It's an extreme response but not a surprising one. For those who came in late the unwritten rules are simple: It's okay to wear a Nixon, Reagan or George W. Bush mask. A Barack Obama mask? No so much.

Seriously?

 

[Sukerkin]

Hmm, is this really as clear cut as it seems? If it is, that is a bit worrying. Don't mock the Great Leader? That has shades of a rather different political system :shudders:.

 

[Tgace]

Hmm, is this really as clear cut as it seems? If it is, that is a bit worrying. Don't mock the Great Leader? That has shades of a rather different political system :shudders:.

http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2013/0...aacp-missouri-chapter-president-mary-ratliff/

NAACP Missouri Chapter President Mary Ratliff says the rodeo clown who wore a President Obama mask at the Missouri State Fair last week committed a hate crime.

“I think that a hate crime occurred,” Ratliff tells KXNT’s Live and Local with Kevin Wall. ”I think a hate crime occurs when you use a person’s race to despict [depict] who they are and to make degrading comments, gestures, etc., against them.”

 

[Tgace]

And to add to this craziness Suk...

http://twitchy.com/2013/08/13/prior...cret-service-to-probe-rodeo-clown-thoroughly/

Tuffy Gessling, the clown in question, has been banned from the fair permanently and apologized in a Facebook post, saying he “never meant to offend or hurt anyone’s feelings.” The president of the Missouri Rodeo Cowboys Association has stepped down over the controversy and faces an investigation in his day job as a school superintendent.

Instead of having Stasi or KGB agents "liquidate" vocal "enemies of the state"..we here in America just kill your reputation and livelihood.

 

[billc]

Instead of having Stasi or KGB agents "liquidate" vocal "enemies of the state"..we here in America just kill your reputation and livelihood.

Where do you think those practices started...they start slowly with the penalizing of the critics of the ruler, and then over a period of years they begin to escalate...you know...the next step is the government will use governmental agencies ( say...the I.R.S., the E.P.A....) to go after opposition parties, and will use government spy agencies to monitor the communications of the citizens...uhhhh...wait a minute...

 

[billc]

This article looks at the long history of making fun of Presidents in rodeos...this article linked in the post is from 1994...and the first President Bush doesn't seem to have shed a tear over it...

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/08/america-2013-rodeo-clown-more-politically-mature-than-politicians-and-media/

A little history is in order. The vitriol and mockery unleashed at George W. Bush is well documented, and George H.W. Bush received precisely the same rodeo treatment (even down to the broom up the rear end).

Hell, when G.W.B. was President even secession talk was cool, just ask Lawrence O’Donnell.
From the archives.

from side to side and the bullfighters held back, letting the bull make his moves until the rider dropped off. Licciardello crouched in a heavily padded barrel, a human target should the bull decide to charge. Hawkins waited near the barrel, holding his big inner tube.

A dummy with a George Bush mask stood beside the clown, propped up by a broomstick.

T.J. Hawkins rolled out the big inner tube, and the bull lowered his head, shot forward and launched into the tube, sending it bounding down the center of the arena. The crowd cheered. Then the bull saw the George Bush dummy.

He tore into it, sending the rubber mask flying halfway across the sand as he turned toward the fence, sending cowboys scrambling up the fence rails, hooking one with his horn and tossing him off the fence.

Hmmm...1994...but now making fun of a President is a problem...not to mention when Game of Thrones put President George W. Bush's mask on a spike above the traitors gate...

 

[arnisador]

The announcer asked the crowd whether they wanted to see "Obama run down by a bull." He then repeatedly used Obama's name in a derisive manner at a state-sponsored event. That was the problem. Yes, they should be embarrassed.

 

[oftheherd1]

The announcer asked the crowd whether they wanted to see "Obama run down by a bull." He then repeatedly used Obama's name in a derisive manner at a state-sponsored event. That was the problem. Yes, they should be embarrassed.

I thought I remembered that from the TV news report I saw on this. They also reported the clown being fired. Anything done to the announcer?

 

[granfire]

The announcer asked the crowd whether they wanted to see "Obama run down by a bull." He then repeatedly used Obama's name in a derisive manner at a state-sponsored event. That was the problem. Yes, they should be embarrassed.

The announcer runs his mouth and the clown gets the axe?

I am sure the same people in the according time would have cheered to have Reagan, Nixon and who else run down by a bull, wishing it was the real deal and the bull would gore them....

this hater crime thing has gotten out of hand!
Under that premise, murder for hire should be a misdemeanor, since no malice is involved, just business...

But then again..we expel for poptarts and pretend play...

 

[jks9199]

Have you looked at the actual performance? It's a bit more than simply wearing an Obama mask, and wasn't shown in that clip. More here. They rather crossed the line.

Does it necessarily merit a life time ban? Probably not. But I'd say that some action was appropriate.

 

[Sukerkin]

With things like this going on in the world: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23724269

Maybe those kicking up such a fuss about a political figure being made fun of should get a sense of perspective on these matters? I haven't looked into this in any great detail but do we know where the motivation came from to get the clown fellow fired-for-life i.e. who decided that and on whose authority?

 

[billc]

Actually, I have to think that there should be more people making fun of more politicians of both the major parties. Who are these people anyway...most are corrupt, the rest incompetent, and a tiny, tiny minority are worth anything at alll. So for me...I say make fun of Bush, and obama and all the rest of them. There should be no over the top unless you go to the point of inciting violence against them...that would be the only stopping point...

For goodness sake...these are politicians...not ordinary citizens...they deserve to be made fun of...

 

[arnisador]

The announcer runs his mouth and the clown gets the axe?

The announcer was another clown, I think. I don't know what happened to which of them.

 

[arnisador]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57598222/missouri-fair-bans-rodeo-clown-wearing-obama-mask/

The Missouri State Fair on Monday imposed a lifetime ban on a rodeo clown whose depiction of President Barack Obama getting charged by a bull was widely criticized by Democratic and Republican officials alike.

The rodeo clown won't be allowed to participate or perform at the fair again. Fair officials say they're also reviewing whether to take any action against the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association, the contractor responsible for Saturday's event.


The entertainment during the bull riding contest featured a clown wearing a mask of Obama with an upside down broomstick attached to his backside. Spectators were asked if they wanted to see "Obama run down by a bull." Many in the audience responded enthusiastically.

 

[arnisador]

Maybe those kicking up such a fuss about a political figure being made fun of should get a sense of perspective on these matters?

One clown was banned from one state's fair. He still has another 49 to choose from. That doesn't seem too outlandish to me.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57598222/missouri-fair-bans-rodeo-clown-wearing-obama-mask/

"It's not unheard of for a rodeo clown, depending on how he reads his audience, to play politics a little bit," said Jim Bainbridge, the senior public relations coordinator at the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, based in Colorado Springs, Colo. "But this crossed a line. Clearly, when you're suggesting that the president should be injured, it kind of gets to a level of hostility that is inappropriate."

 

[Sukerkin]

I am sorry to disagree with you when I don't have all the details of the events, Arni, but I really do find it very disturbing if this banning came from some official source. If it's his employer, by their own volition rather than outside pressure, then, oddly enough, I am more okay with that, tho' it is still a bit much in a country that is supposed to pride itself on freedom of pretty much everything.

 

[arnisador]

I am sorry to disagree with you when I don't have all the details of the events, Arni, but I really do find it very disturbing if this banning came from some official source. If it's his employer, by their own volition rather than outside pressure, then, oddly enough, I am more okay with that, tho' it is still a bit much in a country that is supposed to pride itself on freedom of pretty much everything.

I don't think there's a formal or official banning mechanism in place--despite the news headline, all the fair actually seems to have said is "The rodeo clown won't be allowed to participate or perform at the fair again." So, they just declared that they won't let him perform there. Not re-hiring someone whose performance was, according to his own professional org., unacceptable, doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

 

[arnisador]

The announcer was another clown, I think. I don't know what happened to which of them.

Looks like the announcer is now saying that the clown had a live mike on him and did almost all of his own commentary, and that the announcer hadn't been advised in advance taht he'd be wearing a mask.

 

[Sukerkin]

Ah I see :nods:. That's a very different thing then - not re-hiring someone because you don't like the job they did is perfectly understandable for any commercial operation. That most certainly wasn't the impression I was getting from the news snippets and so on. It's hard to know where we would get at the facts without the media but it's a darned menace sometimes with the false 'information' it so often carries.

 

[Transk53]

I have to wonder what the late and extremely great Richard Pryor would made of that. Surely this is not about PC!