The real Buckwheat from The Little Rascals: Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas
Posted on 11/18/2007 3:38:49 PM PST by DogByte6RER
State Representative District 51
40 of 40 Precincts 100%
Joe Harrison 4,338 57%
Carla Dartez (I) 3,276 43%
(I) denotes incumbent candidate
(Excerpt) Read more at wwltv.com ...
Dems who live by this sword should also die by this sword.
The real Buckwheat from The Little Rascals: Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas
But, who'll greese Wheezer now?
Billie “Buckwheat” Thomas’s bio from Wikipedia:
Billie Thomas (originally William Thomas, Jr.) (March 12, 1931 – October 10, 1980) was an American child actor best remembered for portraying the character of Buckwheat in the Our Gang (Little Rascals) short films from 1934 until the series’ end in 1944. He was a native of Los Angeles, California.
Although the character he played was often the subject of controversy in later years for containing elements of the “pickaninny” stereotype, Thomas always defended his work in the series, pointing out that Buckwheat and the rest of the black Our Gang kids were treated as equals with the white kids in the series. The 1980s Little Rascals animated series adapted from the Our Gang comedies addressed the problem by changing Buckwheat into a clever inventor who is always building ingenious machines for the gang.
After Our Gang was discontinued in 1944, Thomas played some small parts in other films, but soon left show business altogether. As an adult, he worked as a film lab technician with the Technicolor corporation.
Thomas died of a heart attack on October 10 1980, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 49.
Three years after Thomas’s death, his character was parodied by Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live in a sketch that had Buckwheat as the target of an assassination. His assassin, “John David Stutts” (also played by Murphy), was in turn later assassinated in a scene that parallels Lee Harvey Oswald’s murder by Jack Ruby. It was meant to be a parody on the extensive media coverage of the then recent John Lennon assassination and the attempt on Ronald Reagan’s life. In particular, the exessive amount of attention given to the assassins. The real Buckwheat’s son, William Thomas, Jr., strongly protested Murphy’s sketch. (Murphy’s exaggerated portrayal of Buckwheat had the child actor supposedly retaining his tangled, unkempt hair and inarticulate speech even into adulthood.) Murphy performed other parody skits as well, including a murder attempt by Alfalfa and an advertisement for a record, Buh-Weet Sings, the latter containing the opening line which later became an SNL classic: “Hi, Ah’m Buh-Weet. Amembah me?” (”Hi, I’m Buckwheat. Remember me?”)
In 1990, the ABC newsmagazine 20/20 aired a segment purporting to be an interview with Buckwheat, now a downtrodden minimum wage grocery bagger in Arizona. However, the interview was actually with a man named Bill English, who had made a career of claiming to be the adult Buckwheat. By the next week, 20/20 had learned of their error (George “Spanky” McFarland personally contacted the media following the broadcast), that the true Buckwheat had been dead for 10 years, and admitted their mistake on-air. Fallout from this incident included the resignation of a 20/20 producer, and a negligence lawsuit filed by the son of William Thomas.[1]
In 2007, Louisiana State Representative Carla Dartez, a Democrat, came under fire from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for calling one of her volunteers “Buckwheat.” The local chapter of the NAACP threw their support behind her Republican opponent in the November 17, 2007 run-off election. [1]
Buckwheat has brought to an end a lot of political careers.
lol
I always liked the 1934 episode “Honky Donkey” with the jackass named “Algebra.”
It’s funny how you could tie this episode into Democrat Party politics...although I can’t remember if “Buckwheat” was in that episode or not. Besides, the Dems are always known as rascals (and not in a lovable way either.)
I wonder if the Dems nicknamed their icon Algebra?
As they say in Japan, SAYONARA, BUCKWHEAT!
So, a Republican won the election. That’s certainly a switch.
Is it time to grease Wheezer?
I am stunned. Positively stunned. Is this a glimmer of hope? Is there a crack in the monolithic block?
“Democrats maintain control of the state House - barely”
By Melinda Deslatte
Associated Press
Democrats maintained their hold on the state House of Representatives, with Saturday’s runoff elections giving them the slimmest of majorities: 53 seats in the 105-member chamber.
Republicans will take 50 House seats when new terms begin in January, and independents will hold two seats, according to unofficial results from the secretary of state’s office.
“There were a couple races that were very close. We were hoping to pick up a couple more seats, but that’s the nature of the beast,” said Danny Ford, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party.
The GOP, which last controlled the House in 1878, had hoped to regain the majority. But though it fell short, the party gained seven seats in the House and will hold a dozen more seats in the chamber than it did when the last terms began in 2004.
James Quinn, executive director of the Republican Party of Louisiana, said he wasn’t disappointed with the runoff results. “I think we’ve made great strides over the last four years,” he said.
The Senate also will maintain its Democratic majority, with 24 Democrats and 15 Republicans in the 39-member chamber.
Most incumbents seeking re-election held onto their jobs. At least one House member was ousted, state Rep. Carla Dartez, D-Morgan City, who angered civil rights leaders after she ended a conversation with the mother of the NAACP’s local president by saying, “Talk to you later, Buckwheat.”
Buckwheat, a black child character in the “Little Rascals” comedies of the 1930s and ‘40s, is considered a racist stereotype. Dartez said she regretted the comment, but local NAACP leaders asked voters to cast ballots for Dartez’s opponent, Republican Joe Harrison.
Dartez’s re-election bid already had been troubled because she was given a summons for improper lane usage after hitting a pedestrian with her vehicle. She failed a field sobriety test but passed a later Breathalyzer test. Meanwhile, Dartez’s husband was indicted for allegations that he hired illegal aliens to work for his construction business.
Dartez’s seat once had been considered a safe win for the Democrats, but the incumbent representative lost to Harrison, a Napoleonville Republican.
“We were disappointed. Carla faced an uphill battle for several different issues,” Ford said.
Both sides acknowledge the majority in the House is slim. Democrats don’t have a big enough majority to be considered a mandate, and they fall well short of the two-thirds vote needed to pass many of the biggest ticket items in the House.
With a Republican governor taking office next year and a Democratic-controlled Legislature, both sides will have to work together, said Shreveport pollster Elliott Stonecipher.
Republicans made huge gains this election cycle. Four years ago, the GOP held just one statewide elected position, but when the new terms begin in 2008, Republicans will control five of the seven statewide elected posts - including the governor’s office, which Bobby Jindal won outright in the primary.
“I think Republicans are close enough that they can claim that they made huge gains and get whatever hype they want for the party,” Stonecipher said.
“Look at the cycle as a whole. It has to be considered a success for the Republican Party. On the statewide level and the legislative level, we’ve gained seats,” Quinn said.
Among other notable legislative races:
-Rep. Jalila Jefferson, daughter of indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., lost to Rep. Cheryl Gray in a bid for a New Orleans-based Senate seat left open by term limits. Both women are Democrats.
-The race to fill the Baton Rouge-based Senate seat currently held by Democrat Cleo Fields appeared to be won by term-limited Rep. Yvonne Dorsey, but it was a tight contest. According to the secretary of state’s complete but unofficial returns, lawyer Jason DeCuir lost by fewer than 100 votes. Fields, a longtime Democratic fixture, wasn’t running because a court ruled that he was barred by term limits from seeking another term - a challenge Fields blames on DeCuir. Fields backed Dorsey. Both Dorsey and DeCuir are Democrats.
-Incumbent Sen. Ann Duplessis, the only incumbent senator seeking re-election who was forced into a runoff, held onto her New Orleans-based seat against the former senator she ousted, Jon Johnson. Both Duplessis and Johnson are Democrats.
-The race to fill an open Shreveport-based Senate seat became a fierce battle between two Republicans: former Rep. Buddy Shaw and term-limited Rep. Billy Montgomery. Montgomery, who switched parties late last year, had been accused of changing parties only because he was seeking the Senate seat in the heavily GOP district. Shaw overwhelmingly defeated Montgomery, getting 57 percent of the vote.
-Former House member and former Democrat Raymond “LaLa” LaLonde, R-Carencro, lost his bid for a House seat representing parts of Lafayette, St. Martin and St. Landry parishes. The winner was Bobby Badon, a Democrat who served two terms on the Carencro City Council.
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071118/APN/711180511&template=apart
I think that was Stymie who said, “Algebra! This am no place for you.”
>>I am stunned. Positively stunned. Is this a glimmer of hope? Is there a crack in the monolithic block?<<
Nope. Just more proof that the NAACP can’t take a joke. By the way, I wonder why they haven’t changed the name of their organization to the “National Association of Cranky People”?
You’re right!
I also remember that Our Gang jackass in “Honky Donkey” just going around in circles everytime one of the kids honked the horn.
Just like the Dems...going around in circles aimlessly!
These days it’s MoveOn.org honking the horn and that Democrat donkey does the exact same thing...
Sometimes life imitates art.
“Unce, tice, FEE times a mady” (from Buhwheat sings... :-)
I still don’t understand this. It makes no sense. Was the woman drunk? On drugs? Mentally ill?
I was doing the breakdown for the seats while you posted that article, Dog. Anyway, here’s some seat by seat analysis including my original post from October’s initial election:
OK, folks, here is the breakdown for the LA House. We have genuine shot at control here in the runoffs:
(105 seats total)
45 Democrats
42 Republicans
1 Independent
16 Dem vs. Republican runoffs
1 Independent vs. Democrat runoff
If we take 13 of the 16 runoffs (or as few as 11 if the Indy votes with the GOP and if the other Indy wins), we can win a 1-seat majority. This excludes ANY party switchers to tip the balance.
Going into the election it was 43 GOP / 60 Dem / 1 Ind (1 Vacancy).
*LA HOUSE UPDATED ELECTION RETURNS PING*
Updated totals after yesterday’s runoff:
Of the 16 Dem vs. Republican runoffs, we won 8 to their 8, falling 3 seats short of tying the Dems. Many of the races we lost were heartbreakingly close.
Of the 1 Independent vs. Democrat, the Independent won.
Overall, the Dems lost 7 seats and we gained 7.
*We picked up the Dem open seats in the 7th, 14th, 23rd, 24th (Dem Spkr Joe Salter’s open seat) & 57th.
*We beat the incumbent Dem Carla “Buckwheat” Dartez in the 51st.
*We lost an open Republican seat to the Dems in the 54th by only 119 votes. (We previously lost an open seat in the 95th when 2 Dems got in a runoff, which didn’t count in yesterday’s runoffs).
*The Dems lost an open seat to an Independent in the 55th.
*We lost no Republican incumbents.
The Dems, excluding the Independents, will have only a 1 seat majority in the House.
The breakdown for the January session will be:
53 Democrats
50 Republicans
2 Independents
The Senate runoffs, of which there were just 4 Dem vs. GOP contests. As with the House races, we split the difference. The Dems won 2, we won 2.
*The Dems held their open 7th.
*The Dems picked up the open Republican Craig Romero 22nd seat (we lost by only 51-49% or 568 votes)
*We held our open 25th.
*We picked up the Dem open 32nd district.
**We previously lost the 5th & 30th dists. when 2 Dems made the runoff. (Ex-Dem Congressman Buddy Leach lost a bid to return to the legislature by 52-48%).
The GOP ultimately made only a paltry 1 seat gain going into this election, and the Dems will hold the Senate by a wide enough margin that control isn’t in doubt.
24 Democrats (down from 25)
15 Republicans (up from 14)
I wonder when my state of Arkansas will ever turn to the Repubs. Probably a long time cause alot of the Dems are Conservative.
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