This is classic wingnuttia. The Tea-partiers are complaining bitterly that Democrats are making unfounded accusations of racism.
"These people could be anybody. I wouldn't put it past the Democrats to plant somebody there," Mr. Robertson said. "They're trying to label the tea party, but I've never seen any racial slurs."
The post has a terrific punchline. It's a picture of Mr Robertson.
I suppose his quote could have been honest. After all, he was standing behind the sign.
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*facepalm, headdesk*
He misspelled the racial slur.
Cognitive dissonance to the max. 'Tis, maybe since it's misspelled that means it isn't racist:)
There's a difference between spelling it with an 'a' at the end than with an 'er'. This absolutely clueless teacher explains:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XURRzofbMc0&feature=related
I'm not sure if the 'ar' spelling is racist or not (sarcasm).
Lucky he wasn't campaigning about education then. That would have been irony double-whammy.
I wonder if he thought misspelling the slur would make it non-racist?
Can someone translate for me? I'm not sure what he's protestings and I have no idea what that sign is even supposed to mean.
LTaylor, I think it's trying to say that congress are slave-holders (with the tax payers being the slaves), which means tax payers are um, niggars? Either that or the last bit, the slur, was a reference to the U.S. President. I'm not sure. These folks aren't the best communicators.
He misspelled the racial slur.
Welcome to Teabonics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pargon/sets/72157623594187379/
Thanks Caine. Probably would have made more sense to me if I'd realised that the first word there was Congress.
Feynmaniac #4,
Aaron McGruder, in turn, parodied that clip in The Boondocks animated series. (Note: clip uses the word Robertson was attempting to spell.)
Holy broken <a> tags, Batman! (The whole entry is a link. Was that intentional?)
"a" tag not closed
Here's Bill Maher trying to make sense of some of the signs.
He and the "Get A Brain, Morans" guy should start hanging out.
Here's Bill Maher trying to make sense of some of the signs.
Has anyone here met Will?
The best part is, the folks on FARK.com found out a few weeks ago that he had this image on his own website. After the "racism" controversy broke out, he Photoshopped the image to remove the racism.
Badly. The new text was obviously made with a "paintbrush" tool, not even typed in using the text tool.
MAJeff #16,
Not yet. I'm still God Will hunting.
I'm not sure that sign alone makes the Teabaggers racist, although it is rather insensitive.
I suspect that the Teabaggers wouldn't be half so obstreperous if your President wasn't black, though. That makes them racist.
The tea-baggers are mostly venting undirected anger at a mixed bag of issues that they don't understand, and without any clear policy about what to do about any of it. Perfect rubes for a talented populist.
I'm pretty sure he is trying to say that congress has enslaved the taxpayer. It's not just a stretch, it's an insult to people who had to endure real slavery.
We have autonomy, and own our own bodies (although most tea party spokespeople want badly to take that away from some of us, ironically) and we get paid wages for work. Taxation is so different from slavery that it is pathetic to compare the two.
But yes, I consider it a slur whether or not he intended it as such.
Thanks though man, I needed a laugh. Nothing like a little schadenfreude.
That "teabonics" Flickr page reminds me of Morons With Signs.
http://lookatthisfuckingteabagger.com/
Enough said, I think.
I'm so glad teabaggers keep us so infromed.
They keep us up-to-date on issues like this. And here. And here.
And especially here.
Remember, folks: The Tea Partiers are Republicans. Their candidates are required to uphold the Republican Party's platform: http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/02/08/the-tea-party-just-another-rnc-a…
I'm pretty sure he is trying to say that congress has enslaved the taxpayer. It's not just a stretch, it's an insult to people who had to endure real slavery.
White property owners, right? That's the most oppressed group in history, doncha know.
These people are freaking scary. It's like our country is being taken over by a despair.com poster, perhaps "none of us is as stupid as all of us."
Remember, folks: The Tea Partiers are Republicans. Their candidates are required to uphold the Republican Party's platform: http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/02/08/the-tea-party-just-another-rnc-a…
Exactly.
The teabaggers are the detritus of the Southern Strategy.
Did a couple of tests on the image with my copy of Photoshop CS2. If it was poor editing, the white region would most likely be one uniform color, and thus a Magic Wand tool set to 0 tolerance would select it all. The same is possibly true of the black text being done by paintbrush (though to be fair, a 'fuzzy' brush wouldn't be that precise.)
The result: I can't select more than a pixel at a time.
If they used a cloning brush to cover the region, I doubt they'd leave a nice perspective-appropriate rectangle, especially since they'd have to reselect points multiple times to avoid cloning letters. If they used a polygonal lasso to contain the cloning, they'd need to feather the selection to avoid having an even sharper line.
Unless the editor thought to add some very faint but dense 'noise' to the region, my tentative conclusion is that it's likely real, and the word in question is on a separate sheet of paper pasted on top, possibly for easy removal if unfavorable media showed up.
If it is edited, it wasn't as simple as some people seem to suspect.
Can you believe comedians were worried that without Bush in the White House they'd have to give up on political humour. What an endless fount of comedic material the tea baggers have provided.
Oh, but it was photoshopped. Only, it was Robertson who photoshopped it to get rid of the racism:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/tea-party-founder-infamous-for-holding-n…
@29
Thanks for the analysis BronzeDog - I'm still a bit sceptical though until others can verify your conclusion. Mostly I'm sceptical because it it falls under the category "too good to be true".
Bwhahahhaha.....
Glad to be of service, barcsb.
Anyone else with Adobe Photoshop (or similar programs): Go ahead and try out what I did, and maybe a few other tricks.
Mediaite came up with a similar conclusion.
OMG MAJeff (#9) that Flickr collection is fucking hilarious. I had to stop watching to mop my screen off.
When I look at the signs, all I see is "HERP DERP DERP DURRRR"
Many thanks for the hilarious Teabonics link, MAJeff! I had to refute the insidiously racist lie about Obama's "missing" birth certificate again today, so I needed a good laugh at these Merican morans.
"When I look at the signs, all I see is "HERP DERP DERP DURRRR""
Which is another way of saying you don't have anything to say
But lets face it: The N-word is mispelled.
-------------------
By the way, the Tea PartyTM is largely a monochromatic, corporate-sponsored movement.
I'm sure he was confuscatin' that sine because it's inappropriated.
#39
Ok, and? These are blog comments. Everyone isn't going to have something ZOMG INSIGHTFUL O GAWD. Get over yourself.
And why is the guy ragging on Congress? Isn't Congress where the representatives of the various states get together? That's what the word means! In Congress Assembled....
I mean, aren't these yo-yos for states rights?
Congress *is* the states.
Snarl at the president as the head of the federal government, or something, but leave the congress of states out of states-rights raving.
#23:
Goddammit! That was going to be the name of my porn site!
These pictures remind me of something Kurt Vonnegut said during the Bush administration: "Real terror is waking up one morning to find out that your high school class is running the country."
Fortunately, they do not run the country anymore. It's nice that you can see them running around waving signs, though. Great entertainment.
Goddamnit! The goggles do nothing!
No, really. How much stupid do we have to take?
He never saw any of the racial slurs on the sign he was holding?
Oh
My
God...
HE NEVER LEARNED HOW TO READ!!!
The poor bastard...
I agree that it isn't faked. If you look at the hi-res version here, you'll see the N-word is on a separate piece of paper - and if that separate piece of paper is fake, then it was rendered in 3D with soft shadows.
It does look like an "emergency media bailout" device - although it wasn't used...
However, in the small version of the picture, there's just enough visual information to cue the feeling that there's something different about that last word - and there is, obviously.
Losers who suspect they are losers, but haven't quite cottoned on to why?
Checked out the photos MAJeff linked to at #9.
I am relieved the Fox News keeps one of those sign carrier infromed. Because they sure as shit are not keeping him informed.
As for that sign in Crestwood, Illinois. I live just a few miles from there. Mayor Robert Stranczek has been in office since 2007. And his father, Chester Stranczek was mayor from 1969 through 2007. They are notorious for running Crestwood as their little fiefdom. Those kind of reactionary signs have been commonplace there for decades.
And guess what! That Stranczeks are corrupt as hell. For the last two decades, the village of Crestwood has knowingly supplied it's residents with tainted water. Cancer rates are elevated there.
If I wasn't already convinced it was a pointless exercise anyway, I'd be concerned that these people are allowed to vote.
Maybe he meant "niggard".
The Tea Partygoers are a desperate case. They should switch to alcohol, as they have nothing to lose.
From 'Look at this fucking teabagger' I was particularly amused by the 'Liberials are stealing my liberty'.
It must be hurtful to know that a few 'dumb Africans' from a country so poor it pretends to have a merchant navy in order to get its GNP into positive numbers are stealing her liberty.
I bet she doesn't even know where Liberia is...
Just keep repeating ...It's April the first, it's April the first...
Oh, who am i kidding...
*facepalm, headdesk*'s along with Redhead.
I bet she doesn't even know THAT Liberia exists! I bet she's never heard of it.
Hey guys - you've got it all wrong: this chap is accusing Congress of not spending enough money. (I presume his black marker dried up before he could write the final "d", though, isn't that a bitch)
oh geez, Obama's in my town today and I'm sure these morons will be out in full force. I wish I had the time and energy to make a "what federal benefits are you on?" sign, or maybe just a teabagger word salad sign: "stop mandatory socialist obamacare hitlers from aborting the constitution, homo!"
Perhaps there should be a group that hands out dictionaries instead of bibles?
I think Robertson was accusing himself of being a Democratic plant.
If you look at the hi-rez version linked above, look at the bozo's hat. It has a Bible, and the words "Man of Faith". The guy has a bizarre sign with an illogical premise, a racist word, a misspelled word, a bailout/lying flap that he didn't deploy soon enough, and a hat that explains everything.
He is a Christian man of faith.
Order of reactions:
1. HOLYFUCKINGSHIT!!!
2. Wait...what??? What the fuck is that sign?
3. (after reading @#8) How the hell did he figure that out??!?? Who is this idiot (not #8, the guy with the sign)
4. (after reading the link form @#31)HOLYFUCKINGSHIT!! Seriously? The founder?
5. I have to stop reading this blog at work. The other idiot teabaggers are eventually going to provoke me into a verbal fight and I am going to get fired.
Wait, wait. Are you talking about me or the teabaggers?
*prepares for fisticuffs*
The problem is, these loons will be a force (farce?) to be reckoned with in the next election. About the sign controversy- they will claim the second sign is real and accuse 'the libral media' of concocting the first. 'Headdesk' [formica top splinters].
Please don't link that site again. It's distributing Trojans and just tried to hack my computer.
Uh... we can have a scrap if you'd like, but I really was referring to the teabaggers from the site?
We cool?
Dale Robertson has in the past defended his use of that particular sign, as this post over at Crooks and Liars makes clear.
That guy (Robertson) is in serious need of a psychiatrist. First he paints a sign with a racist slur, then he defends the slur on radio and then he goes on record as saying that he never heard or saw any racist slurs and when people point out his own racial slur he says the sign he himself defended was a fake? That's beyond stupid that's Daily Show quality!
Folks, the text of that sign is just a metaphor, and that means it's not really racist, right?
</snark>
I am convinced that these folks still don't understand how the internet works. You can't just make shit up anymore!
Is that like fisting with handcuffs on?
Eew. I can't believe I wrote that. Where's the delete k
"That "teabonics" Flickr page reminds me of Morons With Signs.
Hey! It IS Morons With Sign!
And that Robertson clown has simply got to find a new tailor.
No, no, no, PZ. Don't you see, the sign explains everything!
Dale's an illiterate racist.
Why do they always think they're DEMOCRAT plants?
The Tea Party is more of a threat to the Republicans than the Democrats. Insert a few racists and kooks and you ensure that it will never be able to stand on its own as a viable party (and there is only room for two). The people they're drawing aren't ones who would have voted for Democrats. It's in the interest of the Republicans to ensure that the teabaggers are kept from going astray, and pissing in the pool would be one way to do that.