ACCEPTABLE
UNACCEPTABLE
Really now? Is this any worse than anything you saw on TV during the Bush Administration? Saturday Night Live perhaps? Pretty much any comedian on late night... and we don't even want to talk about what is and was on cable, do we?
"The activities at the Missouri State Fair targeting and inciting violence against our President are serious and warrant a full review by both the Secret Service and the Justice Department," says NAACP State President Mary Ratliff, who lives in Columbia. ~ Ozarks First
Because burning President Bush in effigy didn't quite reach that extreme, did it? I know I can't think of anything better to spend the taxpayer's money on, can you?
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. 1994, Douglas Campbell, Philadelphia Inquirer
There's a long history of threatening presidential representations. Hanging in effigy was a common form of political protest in the 18th and 19th centuries. Presidents Washington, Adams, and Jefferson were all hanged in effigy; and before the civil war, "Hang Abe Lincoln on a Sour Apple Tree" was a commonly sung parody of "John Brown's Body." George W. Bush was routinely hanged and burned in effigy in the United States, including during the famous "Pants on Fire Tour" led by Ben and Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen, who hit the road with a 12-foot tall effigy of Bush. Slate
While the Missouri State Fair rodeo clown act was undoubtedly in poor taste, what isn't these days? It is well within the purview of the State Fair Commission to decide what to do with both its employees and its contractors. But really folks...
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