This is my first diary but I have been reading and commenting here for while. Sorry that my first diary is to take presumed supporters of Obama to task but I think it is important to speak out against hate regardless of the source. BTW: I searched and couldn't find other diaries on this; if I have missed any, I will delete this.
Below is a slightly updated version of what I posted on my own blog.
Attention LeftWing Misogynist Idiot! Stop "helping" Obama like this. Yes, I am talking to you, Chad Michael Morisette of West Hollywood, CA. You’ll have to Google it folks as I’m too outraged to include a link. Linky now as I'm a little more cool headed. CBS coverage
Free speech rights are all well and good. And I am glad we live in a country that enshrines such in our Constitution. But I am going to exercise my 1st Amendment right to call your a frakin’ idiot for your little "display" of... whatever the hell you were trying to say.
You do not help our cause by your ugly and violent displays against McCain/Palin. This kind of thing is both disgusting and antithetical to the liberal beliefs we hold dear. I don’t care for either Palin or McCain but displays that celebrate violence against any person, regardless of how strongly we disagree with their politics, are appalling and wrong, regardless of who is doing it.
I also take exception to you saying it is somehow less shocking and horrible to hang a woman in effigy. Yes, lynching and the terror it engendered in the African-American community is still a gaping wound and terrible blight on our country’s history. But the US has not exactly been kind to women, of any color. (Do I need to recite the history of the violence perpetrated on women over the centuries here?) Any portrayal of an act of violence against a woman, any woman, is not just sexist but out-right misogyny.
I might also add that burning or hanging people in effigy may not exactly be the image the gay-friendly community you live in wants to present. Many of your neighbors have expressed dismay at your exhibition. I don’t know whether you are gay yourself, but if you are, you should care about how this reflects on the rest of the GLBT community.
Actually, even if you AREN’T gay you should care how this reflects on your community at large. On the state of California. On liberals. On men. And on the candidate I presume you support!
Sweet unicorns on a pogostick! (Mayken trying not to take anyone’s god(s)’ name in vain.) With "friends" like these, who the hell needs enemies?
Also my hero, Keith Olbermann, named Morisette his Worst Person in the World for today:
http://www.youtube.com/...
(Sorry couldn't make the embedding work. If anyone wants to give me tips on how I'd appreciate it.) He gets to Morisette around 1:17. Thanks Keith for expressing better than I could how terrible this "art" is.
I have faith that the rest of the DKos community will to condemn this hate as vehemently as they have the threats of violence and hate speech of the racists supporting McCain/Palin.
Update This is getting quite a bit of press which is heartening in some ways. Though I'm depressed as all get out that the MSM didn't pick up this racist gem: "ghost" effigy The Secret Service investigated and the local police did ask him to take it down, but the noose and the "ghost" are still there. The message is still pretty clear. He even admits it's a racist statement. So where is the full-court press outrage from the MSM? ::sigh::
2nd Update After a loud public outcry, visits from the Secret Service, the LASD, protests from his neighbors and a long talk with the mayor of West Hollywood, Morisette finally took down the Palin effigy. Supposedly he’s removing the McCain part of the display as well.
Also taken down today was the lynched effigy of Obama that right-wing idiot Lisa Castaneda of Redondo Beach put up as part of her Halloween "display." She claims it was "only" a political statement. No, scum-bag wing-nut, putting up your McCain/Palin lawn sign is a political speech. Hanging a man, especially a black man, in effigy is hate speech. Once again, 1st Amendment protections and all, but I also have the right to point out what a racist asshat you are.
I just don’t get it. It’s one thing to disagree with a candidate, even to dislike him or her. It’s another thing entirely to portray acts of violence against that person. Man, politics brings out the worst in some people.
Good thing that is the minority though.