Free Republic

LOS ALAMITOS - Some say the decision by the city's mayor to step down after the widely publicized uproar over an e-mail he sent depicting a watermelon patch in front of the White House shows he is taking the impact of his action seriously. Others say the resignation was the only option for someone who offended so many. "It was a flagrant disregard for basic civility and a demonstrated lack of knowledge about how painful the issue of race has been for our nation," said Fred Smoller, associate professor of Political Science at Chapman University.

America’s Finest News Source has some explaining to do. The Onion , the usually biting comic weekly, just can’t bring itself to mock President Barack Obama. The One has been in office for more than a month now, and the last four Onion issues have tip-toed around anything remotely tough on the Commander-in-Chief. It’s hardly a shock, since most comics in toto seem to have a hands off approach to the new president. But The Onion?

Cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz was in front of a classroom full of black and Latino kids, drawing presidents. He sketched Bush, then Clinton. Next came his favorite, the man he voted for: Obama."Hey, those lips are big," Alcaraz heard a black girl say from the back of the room. Alcaraz was disturbed. "I try to bend over backwards not to make him look like a cartoon stereotype," and certainly not a racial stereotype, he said. Editorial cartoonists are bending over backwards a lot these days, as they try to satirize the nation's first black president. And when they don't, the result...

Video at the link. Check out the latest Saturday Night Live skit: It seems as if comedians are still unable to find anything funny about President Obama, as apparently Obama's flaws are not yet clear. The main jokes feature Obama ripping Americans and President Bush. And, of course, Joe Biden. But seriously, what isn't funny about Joe Biden. Except the fact that he is somehow Vice President of the United States...

Being right on the merits doesn't make Saltsman any less of an idiot Two days ago, we suggested that a potential GOP leader is severely tone-deaf, hitting Chip Saltsman for his foolish decision to include the "magic negro" song on the CD his people sent out.We were not saying Saltsman was a racist, or commneting on the merits of the song. We were saying he should have seen this firestorm coming.Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association, just sent out an email defending Saltsman on the merits. Included therein is the following: If it were not so hypocritical,...

When a Santa hat was placed on a spire at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, the joke was lost on authorities who had it removed because it was a risk to health and safety. A team of 10 firefighters using two fire engines and a support vehicle with a hydraulic platform spent an hour lowering the seasonal headgear, which had been fastened to a 60ft spire about the college entrance known for centuries as the Gate of Humility. The culprit remains a mystery, but it is thought to be a student playing a practical joke following an end-of-term night out....

The George Bush presidency has been rich pickings for those in one line of work - comedy. But with Barack Obama's election win steeped in historical significance, is America's new leader beyond comic reproach? When I wrote for Spitting Image and a new politician came on the scene, the news crews would always turn up to see the puppet being made and maybe interview us about how we were going to portray him. "Er, well, this John Major bloke seems like he's really boring, so we might have him sitting next to Edwina Currie and maybe, totally failing to respond...

Why White Comics Don't Get Barack By Salamishah Tillet | TheRoot.com If SNL and others want to make Obama funny, they'll have to tap into more than just stereotypes. Sen. Obama, give the haters something to laugh at." —Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher Nov. 7, 2008--A black president. Now that's funny! So why are so many political satirists crying about how unamusing the Obama presidency will be? The standard reasoning is that, unlike Bush, McCain, Palin, the Clintons or even Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama is "too perfect" and does not provide material for good jokes. But the inability...

With the rest of the political universe buzzing about a controversial new book on Sen. Barack Obama, one person is staying quiet: Sen. John McCain. McCain and his advisers have said nothing about "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," an innuendo-filled, mistake-riddled biography written by Jerome R. Corsi that will debut at the top of the New York Times bestseller list this weekend. Asked about the book Friday, McCain replied: "Gotta keep your sense of humor." A McCain aide later said he had misheard the question and thought it was about a television ad. The Obama...

Obama camp responds: 'sad...juvenile antics' Barack Obama's campaign responded sharply to a new McCain webad depicting Obama as a parody of a biblical prophet. "It’s downright sad that on a day when we learned that 51,000 Americans lost their jobs, a candidate for the presidency is spending all of his time and the powerful platform he has on these sorts of juvenile antics," said spokesman Hari Sevugan. "Senator McCain can keep telling everyone how ‘proud’ he is of these political stunts which even his Republican friends and advisors have called ‘childish’, but Barack Obama will continue talking about his plan...

Andy says Obama is "no Jack Kennedy" HOW OBAMA BOTCHED THE "NEW YORKER COVER" ISSUE ANDY MARTIN Executive Editor ContrarianCommentary.com 'Factually Correct, Not Politically Correct' AMERICA'S #1 POLITICAL BLOG ON THE 2008 CAMPAIGN How Obama fumbled the New Yorker cover story "Senator Obama, I knew Jack Kennedy, and you're no Jack Kennedy" (NEW YORK)(July 17, 2008) One of the great lines in American political history is Senator Lloyd's Bentsen's 1988 retort to Senator Dan Quayle, "Senator, I knew Jack Kennedy, and you're no Jack Kenney." Senator Barack Obama daydreams that he's the "new Kennedy." In your dreams. The remnants of...

Oh, for a good riposte. Barack Obama's levity-free reaction to the now-famous New Yorker cartoon leaves one reluctantly wondering: Is he humor-challenged? Perchance, does he take himself too seriously for a nation of wits and wags? So soaring has been Obama's rhetoric and so dazzling his smile that we've missed the possibility that the Illinois senator is less the lanky rock star and more the purse-lipped church lady, clucking his tongue in disapproval of the chuckling masses.

Site pulls slogan after controversy Committeeman linked Obama to O.J. Simpson By David Maccar; Editor A Pemberton GOP committeeman came under heavy scrutiny last week after it was discovered he posted a slogan linking presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama to O.J. Simpson on what was called "The Official Website of the Pemberton Township Republicans."The slogan, "Obama Loves America like O.J. Loved Nicole," referring to retired NFL star and his late ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, was denounced by many as racist. Simpson was tried and acquitted for the murder of Brown and her boyfriend Ronald Goldman in 1994, but was...

Oh, for a good riposte. Barack Obama’s levity-free reaction to the now-famous New Yorker cartoon leaves one reluctantly wondering: Is he humor-challenged? Perchance, does he take himself too seriously for a nation of wits and wags? So soaring has been Obama’s rhetoric and so dazzling his smile that we’ve missed the possibility that the Illinois senator is less the lanky rock star and more the purse-lipped church lady, clucking his tongue in disapproval of the chuckling masses. His campaign’s angry reaction to the magazine cover shows a stunning lack of political dexterity. It wasn’t always so. In earlier days, Obama...

Oh, for a good riposte. Barack Obama's levity-free reaction to the now-famous New Yorker cartoon leaves one reluctantly wondering: Is he humor-challenged? Perchance, does he take himself too seriously for a nation of wits and wags? So soaring has been Obama's rhetoric and so dazzling his smile that we've missed the possibility that the Illinois senator is less the lanky rock star and more the purse-lipped church lady, clucking his tongue in disapproval of the chuckling masses. His campaign's angry reaction to the magazine cover shows a stunning lack of political dexterity. It wasn't always so. In earlier days, Obama...

When I interviewed Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for Rolling Stone a couple years ago, I wondered what Barack Obama would mean for them. “It seems like a President Obama would be harder to make fun of than these guys,” I said. “Are you kidding me?” Stewart scoffed. Then he and Colbert both said at the same time: “His dad was a goat-herder!” When I noted that Obama, in his memoir, had revealed that he had done some pot, booze and “maybe a little blow,” the two comedians began riffing about the dapper senator’s familiarity with drug slang. Colbert: Wow,...

If you think that Muslims burning the Danish Mohammed Cartoons don't have a sense of humor, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Just wait til the Political Correct Commissars catch you laughing at Barack Obama. It's like the old rabid feminists: That's Not Funny! Mr. Obama is very easily offended, like Don Quixote, the Man of La Mancha, who is constantly looking for the smallest slights to his egg-shell fragile ego. Obama told Maureen Dowd early in the primaries that he is hypersensitive to any remarks about his ears. Obama is offended if you criticize his tough-as-nails lawyer wife -- although...

A New York Times article reveals that late night comics are having a hard time making jokes about Sen. Barack Obama. From the article: What’s so funny about Barack Obama? Apparently not very much, at least not yet. On Monday, The New Yorker magazine tried dipping its toe into broad satire involving Senator Obama with a cover image depicting the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and his wife, Michelle, as fist-bumping, flag-burning, bin Laden-loving terrorists in the Oval Office. The response from both Democrats and Republicans was explosive. Comedy has been no easier for the phalanx of late-night television hosts who...

The sophisticates at The New Yorker have come up with a cover that is sure to get the magazine a lot of attention. Negative attention. From their friends. An illustration by Barry Blitt depicts Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his wife Michelle in the Oval Office, revealing their "true" selves: Michelle is in full revolutionary garb, an enormous afro making her look like a millennial Angela Davis, holding an automatic weapon and wearing military pants. In the cartoon Michelle is giving dap, or fist-bumping, with her husband who is wearing a turban and is dressed in garb perhaps more appropriate...

U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who once sang in jest about bombing Iran, on Tuesday reacted to a report of rising U.S. cigarette exports to the country by saying it may be "a way of killing 'em." McCain, known for acerbic comments and for sometimes firing verbally from the hip, was responding to a report that U.S. exports to Iran rose tenfold during President George W. Bush's term in office despite hostility between the two states. A rise in cigarette sales was a big part of that, according to an Associated Press analysis of seven years of U.S. trade...