# Its all fun and games till his feelings got hurt.



## Tgace (Aug 16, 2013)

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs...-his-job-and-america-loses-its-sense-of-humor



> Officials at the Missouri State Fair have banned for life a rodeo clown who entertained spectators during a bull riding contest while wearing a Barack Obama mask. "The rodeo clown won't be allowed to participate or perform at the fair again," the Associated Press reported Monday. "Fair officials say they're also reviewing whether to take any action against the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association, the contractor responsible for Saturday's event."





> It's an extreme response but not a surprising one. For those who came in late the unwritten rules are simple: It's okay to wear a Nixon, Reagan or George W. Bush mask. A Barack Obama mask? No so much.



Seriously?


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## Sukerkin (Aug 16, 2013)

Hmm, is this really as clear cut as it seems?  If it is, that is a bit worrying.  Don't mock the Great Leader?  That has shades of a rather different political system :shudders:.


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## Tgace (Aug 16, 2013)

Sukerkin said:


> Hmm, is this really as clear cut as it seems?  If it is, that is a bit worrying.  Don't mock the Great Leader?  That has shades of a rather different political system :shudders:.




http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2013/0...aacp-missouri-chapter-president-mary-ratliff/



> NAACP Missouri Chapter President Mary Ratliff says the rodeo clown who wore a President Obama mask at the Missouri State Fair last week committed a hate crime.
> 
> &#8220;I think that a hate crime occurred,&#8221; Ratliff tells KXNT&#8217;s Live and Local with Kevin Wall.  &#8221;I think a hate crime occurs when you use a person&#8217;s race to despict [depict] who they are and to make degrading comments, gestures, etc., against them.&#8221;


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## Tgace (Aug 16, 2013)

And to add to this craziness Suk...

http://twitchy.com/2013/08/13/prior...cret-service-to-probe-rodeo-clown-thoroughly/



> Tuffy Gessling, the clown in question, has been banned from the fair permanently and apologized in a Facebook post, saying he &#8220;never meant to offend or hurt anyone&#8217;s feelings.&#8221; The president of the Missouri Rodeo Cowboys Association has stepped down over the controversy and *faces an investigation in his day job as a school superintendent.*



Instead of having Stasi or KGB agents "liquidate" vocal "enemies of the state"..we here in America just kill your reputation and livelihood.


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## billc (Aug 16, 2013)

> Instead of having Stasi or KGB agents "liquidate" vocal "enemies of the  state"..we here in America just kill your reputation and livelihood.



Where do you think those practices started...they start  slowly with the penalizing of the critics of the ruler,  and then over a period of years they begin to escalate...you know...the next step is the government will use governmental agencies ( say...the I.R.S., the E.P.A....) to go after opposition parties, and will use government spy agencies to monitor the communications of the citizens...uhhhh...wait a minute...


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## billc (Aug 16, 2013)

This article looks at the long history of making fun of Presidents in rodeos...this article linked in the post is from 1994...and the first President Bush doesn't seem to have shed a tear over it...

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/08/america-2013-rodeo-clown-more-politically-mature-than-politicians-and-media/




> A little history is in order. The vitriol and mockery unleashed at  George W. Bush is well documented, and George H.W. Bush received  precisely the same rodeo treatment (even down to the broom up the rear end).
> 
> Hell, when G.W.B. was President even secession talk was cool, just ask Lawrence O&#8217;Donnell.
> From the archives.





> from side to side and the bullfighters held back, letting the bull make  his moves until the rider dropped off. Licciardello crouched in a  heavily padded barrel, a human target should the bull decide to charge.  Hawkins waited near the barrel, holding his big inner tube.
> 
> 
> 
> ...





> 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.



Hmmm...1994...but now making fun of a President is a problem...not to mention when Game of Thrones put President George W. Bush's mask on a spike above the traitors gate...


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## arnisador (Aug 16, 2013)

The announcer asked the crowd whether they wanted to see "Obama run down by a bull." He then repeatedly used Obama's name in a derisive manner at a state-sponsored event. That was the problem. Yes, they should be embarrassed.


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## oftheherd1 (Aug 16, 2013)

arnisador said:


> The announcer asked the crowd whether they wanted to see "Obama run down by a bull." He then repeatedly used Obama's name in a derisive manner at a state-sponsored event. That was the problem. Yes, they should be embarrassed.



I thought I remembered that from the TV news report I saw on this.  They also reported the clown being fired.  Anything done to the announcer?


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## granfire (Aug 16, 2013)

arnisador said:


> The announcer asked the crowd whether they wanted to see "Obama run down by a bull." He then repeatedly used Obama's name in a derisive manner at a state-sponsored event. That was the problem. Yes, they should be embarrassed.




The announcer runs his mouth and the clown gets the axe?

I am sure the same people in the according time would have cheered to have Reagan, Nixon and who else run down by a bull, wishing it was the real deal and the bull would gore them....

this hater crime thing has gotten out of hand!
Under that premise, murder for hire should be a misdemeanor, since no malice is involved, just business...

But then again..we expel for poptarts and pretend play...


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## jks9199 (Aug 16, 2013)

Have you looked at the actual performance?  It's a bit more than simply wearing an Obama mask, and wasn't shown in that clip.    More here.  They rather crossed the line.  

Does it necessarily merit a life time ban?  Probably not.  But I'd say that some action was appropriate.


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## Sukerkin (Aug 16, 2013)

With things like this going on in the world: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23724269

Maybe those kicking up such a fuss about a political figure being made fun of should get a sense of perspective on these matters?  I haven't looked into this in any great detail but do we know where the motivation came from to get the clown fellow fired-for-life i.e. who decided that and on whose authority?


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## billc (Aug 16, 2013)

Actually, I have to think that there should be more people making fun of more politicians of both the major parties.  Who are these people anyway...most are corrupt, the rest incompetent, and a tiny, tiny minority are worth anything at alll.  So for me...I say make fun of Bush, and obama and all the rest of them.  There should be no over the top unless you go to the point of inciting violence against them...that would be the only stopping point...

For goodness sake...these are politicians...not ordinary citizens...they deserve to be made fun of...


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## arnisador (Aug 16, 2013)

granfire said:


> The announcer runs his mouth and the clown gets the axe?



The announcer was another clown, I think. I don't know what happened to which of them.


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## arnisador (Aug 16, 2013)

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57598222/missouri-fair-bans-rodeo-clown-wearing-obama-mask/



> The Missouri State Fair on Monday imposed a lifetime ban on a rodeo  clown whose depiction of President Barack Obama getting charged by a  bull was widely criticized by Democratic and Republican officials alike.
> 
> The  rodeo clown won't be allowed to participate or perform at the fair  again. Fair officials say they're also reviewing whether to take any  action against the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association, the contractor  responsible for Saturday's event.
> 
> ...


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## arnisador (Aug 16, 2013)

Sukerkin said:


> Maybe those kicking up such a fuss about a political figure being made fun of should get a sense of perspective on these matters?



One clown was banned from one state's fair. He still has another 49 to choose from. That doesn't seem too outlandish to me.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57598222/missouri-fair-bans-rodeo-clown-wearing-obama-mask/



> "It's not unheard of for a rodeo clown, depending on how he reads his  audience, to play politics a little bit," said Jim Bainbridge, the  senior public relations coordinator at the Professional Rodeo Cowboys  Association, based in Colorado Springs, Colo. "But this crossed a line.  Clearly, when you're suggesting that the president should be injured, it  kind of gets to a level of hostility that is inappropriate."


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## Sukerkin (Aug 16, 2013)

I am sorry to disagree with you when I don't have all the details of the events, Arni, but I really do find it very disturbing if this banning came from some official source.  If it's his employer, by their own volition rather than outside pressure, then, oddly enough, I am more okay with that, tho' it is still a bit much in a country that is supposed to pride itself on freedom of pretty much everything.


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## arnisador (Aug 16, 2013)

Sukerkin said:


> I am sorry to disagree with you when I don't have all the details of the events, Arni, but I really do find it very disturbing if this banning came from some official source.  If it's his employer, by their own volition rather than outside pressure, then, oddly enough, I am more okay with that, tho' it is still a bit much in a country that is supposed to pride itself on freedom of pretty much everything.



I don't think there's a formal or official banning mechanism in place--despite the news headline, all the fair actually seems to have said is "The rodeo clown won't be allowed to participate or perform at the fair again." So, they just declared that they won't let him perform there. Not re-hiring someone whose performance was, according to his own professional org., unacceptable, doesn't seem unreasonable to me.


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## arnisador (Aug 16, 2013)

arnisador said:


> The announcer was another clown, I think. I don't know what happened to which of them.



Looks like the announcer is now saying that the clown had a live mike on him and did almost all of his own commentary, and that the announcer hadn't been advised in advance taht he'd be wearing a mask.


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## Sukerkin (Aug 16, 2013)

Ah I see :nods:.  That's a very different thing then - not re-hiring someone because you don't like the job they did is perfectly understandable for any commercial operation.  That most certainly wasn't the impression I was getting from the news snippets and so on.  It's hard to know where we would get at the facts without the media but it's a darned menace sometimes with the false 'information' it so often carries.


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## Transk53 (Aug 16, 2013)

I have to wonder what the late and extremely great Richard Pryor would made of that. Surely this is not about PC!


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## ballen0351 (Aug 16, 2013)

http://www.examiner.com/article/bus...gate-with-news-of-obama-and-bush-rodeo-clowns

People need to lighten up.


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## Big Don (Aug 16, 2013)

arnisador said:


> The announcer asked the crowd whether they wanted to see "Obama run down by a bull." He then repeatedly used Obama's name in a derisive manner at a state-sponsored event. That was the problem. Yes, they should be embarrassed.






From Rush Limbaugh's show today:


> The Missouri chapter of the NAACP wants the Secret Service and the  Justice Department to investigate the incident. (back in studio) I spoke  with the Secret Service about this, and a spokesman there told me  they're aware of the incident but they've determined that this behavior  does not rise to the level of a threat.  The Justice Department has  declined to comment at this time.
> **************
> RUSH:  They had to call the Secret Service! They had to call the  Secret Service to find out that this act does not rise to the level of a  threat?  The NAACP is calling this a hate crime.  It's a clown!   Anyway, another little clarification.  I haven't spent much time  defending the act of the clown.  What gets me is this insane, irrational  overreaction to it.  Now that, my friends, has been my focus.
> Because, to me, the way the left in this country is behaving is no different than
> ...


END EXCERPT
Nice to see your outrage is so selective:
















MAN THE F UP! Obama CHOSE to be a politician. Politicians get MOCKED, this is NOTHING NEW.


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## Sukerkin (Aug 16, 2013)

Big Don said:


> MAN THE F UP! Obama CHOSE to be a politician. Politicians get MOCKED, this is NOTHING NEW.



Quite so - indeed it is something to be treasured and appreciated as a sign that the concept of a free society is not dead just yet.

[video=youtube_share;DPzzgE34YQY]http://youtu.be/DPzzgE34YQY[/video]


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## arnisador (Aug 16, 2013)

Big Don said:


> MAN THE F UP! Obama CHOSE to be a politician. Politicians get MOCKED, this is NOTHING NEW.



But this mockery was supported by the state of Missouri at one of their official events. I don't recall the NY state govt. putting on an anti-Bush skit, for example.


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## jks9199 (Aug 16, 2013)

Y'know...  I don't think Obama himself has publicly expressed an opinion about this at all... (Which kind of surprises me.  Maybe he's starting to learn about not opening his mouth...)

I don't go to enough rodeos to know what the usual range is, and one explanation made the broomstick more acceptable to me (that the clown was supposed to be a dummy, then suddenly run off... a little along the air show staple of the groundskeeper or the like getting into a plane and taking off by "accident")... but, in this case, the Missouri County Fair said that it wasn't funny, and that particular clown is no longer welcome.  He's got plenty of other places to go.  It's well within the business prerogative to make that decision.  Nobody's made any criminal charges, and there's no indication anyone is going to be silly enough to do so.  

It was a joke.  It wasn't found to be funny, and was found to be in poor taste.  It's the Fair's call if they want him back or not.  Personally, as I believe I indicated above, I don't think that was really necessary -- but it was their call.  I'd kind of think something more like a bit of an *** chewing, maybe some discipline from the professional clown association.   Nothing needed to go beyond the people actually and directly involved.


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## Big Don (Aug 16, 2013)

arnisador said:


> But this mockery was supported by the state of Missouri at one of their official events. I don't recall the NY state govt. putting on an anti-Bush skit, for example.



Did the governor, or some appointed hack write the clown's bit?


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## ballen0351 (Aug 16, 2013)

jks9199 said:


> It was a joke.  It wasn't found to be funny, and was found to be in poor taste.  It's the Fair's call if they want him back or not.  .



According to the article everyone cheered so it sounds like  he was doing a good  job playing to his audience.  Ive never been to a Rodeo but I would assume a Rodeo in that area is less favorable to Obama then proObama so he was playing the odds.


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## ballen0351 (Aug 16, 2013)

arnisador said:


> But this mockery was supported by the state of Missouri at one of their official events. I don't recall the NY state govt. putting on an anti-Bush skit, for example.



is the Missouri state fair a state Govt event?   The Maryland state fair I believe is privatly owned and run by corp. sponsors


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## Tgace (Aug 16, 2013)

ballen0351 said:


> is the Missouri state fair a state Govt event?   The Maryland state fair I believe is privatly owned and run by corp. sponsors



But....but...it has the word STATE in it.....

In this case though I think the State may actually sponsor the event.

What I find at issue here is the selective outrage...the NAACP calling for the Secret Service and DOJ to investigate. The president of the rodeo association facing an investigation into his full time job for the actions of a rodeo clown? Seriously?

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2


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## arnisador (Aug 16, 2013)

ballen0351 said:


> is the Missouri state fair a state Govt event?   The Maryland state fair I believe is privatly owned and run by corp. sponsors



What I saw said that it got around 10% of its budget from the state and the rest from admissions. It sounds like it's a state event to me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_State_Fair#History


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## arnisador (Aug 16, 2013)

Tgace said:


> What I find at issue here is the selective outrage...the NAACP calling for the Secret Service and DOJ to investigate. The president of the rodeo association facing an investigation into his full time job for the actions of a rodeo clown? Seriously?



I agree it's disproportionate to the offense. The media keeps hyping it because it's a good story.


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## DennisBreene (Aug 16, 2013)

Sadly, this smacks of the "other side of the looking glass" as it relates to race. It is safe to be in poor taste with a white president and racist if the president is black. The reaction to the incident demonstrates that racism is still active in the public arena, but it is the racism of overcompensation and not hate crimes. We still have a way to go in this country.


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## granfire (Aug 17, 2013)

Tgace said:


> But....but...it has the word STATE in it.....
> 
> In this case though I think the State may actually sponsor the event.
> 
> ...




The usual pot stirrers making bank...


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## grumpywolfman (Aug 17, 2013)

Tgace said:


> And to add to this craziness Suk...
> 
> http://twitchy.com/2013/08/13/prior...cret-service-to-probe-rodeo-clown-thoroughly/
> 
> ...



YES, but you forgot to add _"or provoke you into a desired response."_


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