Slog - Comments on "That Boy's Finger Does Not Need to Be on The Button"

Comment by jean genie

jean genie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:38:11 -0800

aaaaaahhhhhhhhh... I think my brain just exploded....

Comment by anonymus

anonymus — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:39:52 -0800

Do you think it's just partisan horseplay or is there a recognizable point to the representative from the derby state?

Comment by Lionel Hutz

Lionel Hutz — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:40:37 -0800

Unlike Bush's finger... which we all have complete confidence in.

Comment by Dougsf

Dougsf — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:43:57 -0800

For some reason when I picture McCain in this same doomsday scenario, Beavis and Butthead's principle, Mr. McVicker, always comes to mind.

"Boy"? Holy fuck.

Comment by max solomon

max solomon — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:46:44 -0800

he's referring to BHO's relative youth. see, we youngsters in our mid-40s are total hotheads - china doesn't free tibet & we go OFF.

ahh, kentucky. how i do not miss thee...

Comment by Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:49:08 -0800

Correct me if I am wrong but in the south "Boy" is a polite way of saying Ni&&er, No?

Comment by Bud Dickman

Bud Dickman — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:55:51 -0800

I cant give Obama a free pass after each slip up and then tear apart a guy I disagree with for a different slip up, big deal, i don't think he meant anything by it, even though it looks bad

Comment by NapoleonXIV

NapoleonXIV — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:57:12 -0800

Are you certain his name isn't Jeff Davis?

Comment by COMTE

COMTE — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:57:26 -0800

Well, it's a little-known fact that, since the late 1980's the U.S. military has been secretly relocating the nation's intercontinental ballistic missiles by hiding them up the asses of southern-state members of Congress. So technically, Rep. Davis' concern over having an African American in control of our nuclear arsenal is quite genuine.

Comment by apres_moi

apres_moi — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:58:39 -0800

@6, you're right about that. I'm from SC. Anytime someone addresses a grown black man as a "boy" instead of a "sir", expect them to be racist.

Comment by superyeadon

superyeadon — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:59:41 -0800

that guy is a jackass ... but he's got no weight in the matter. what sucks is that it will probably help geoff davis next time he runs for re-election in kentucky.

Comment by Cale

Cale — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:02:26 -0800

What a fucking dinosaur.

Comment by superyeadon

superyeadon — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:03:46 -0800

@9 ... hahahahahahahahaha.

Comment by kebabs

kebabs — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:10:25 -0800

Aside from the "boy" thing, he's still stuck in the last century. "Button"? Does he still think our enemies are the Rooskies?

Comment by JC

JC — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:10:38 -0800

How do people not realize that comparing half of America to Hitler is, you know, "un-American?" How can these people feel patriotic after making statements like these?

God damn, I hate this Superbowl mentality in politics.

Comment by kinaidos

kinaidos — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:25:40 -0800

McCain IS more believable when it comes to pushing *the button*. Imgaine both McCain and Obama saying "I have become Death, destroyer of worlds." McCain looks like death. He sort of sounds like death (in a death-rattly nutty-alzgeheimert sort of way - al qaida. Obama somwhat resembles a Posada woodcarving, so he's not a total write-off when it comes to believably becoming death, but McCain just has it down.

Comment by Mike of Renton

Mike of Renton — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:26:28 -0800

He's already apologized.

Comment by Cedric Ross

Cedric Ross — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:29:18 -0800

Partisan Racism at it's best. I'm sure he thought about those words carefully too!

Comment by Cedric Ross

Cedric Ross — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:30:10 -0800

Partisan Racism at it's best. I'm sure he thought about those words carefully too!

Comment by Peter F

Peter F — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:36:40 -0800

Spoiler: this will essentially be the subtext, if not the overt theme of McCain's campaign.

Comment by ugh

ugh — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:47:10 -0800

I'm sick of public figures of all types saying something after they've already drafted the apology. The goal is usually the same -- get the idea out there, let the papers report on it, get the publicity, then later quietly release an apology or correction that doesn't get nearly the playtime the false/arrogant/offending statement did. It's way overused, and the lack of accountability is depressing.

Comment by Non

Non — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:51:17 -0800

Geoff Davis is older than Obama by a few years, and in modern society the younger subject may be referred to as boy.

If Obama becomes president I'm going to get so sick of it being an upheaval every time some person makes a slight. Even if racially calculated....it is going to come up SO MUCH. ugh.

Comment by STJA

STJA — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:55:02 -0800

This is still so fucking painful. How can politicians still be such fucking idiots?

Fuck that apology.

Comment by kmonkey

kmonkey — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:55:53 -0800

Did anyone else read the last sentance in the article? He not only made a ravist comment regarding Obama, he managed to get a sexist dig in at Hillary:
"I hear she hasn't been this worried since a new Hooters opened"

OMG!

Comment by John

John — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:56:15 -0800

@22

That is false, boy. Now what'ya you think you're doing on them damn internets and not picking my cotton?

Comment by kmonkey

kmonkey — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:56:21 -0800

Did anyone else read the last sentence in the article? He not only made a racist comment regarding Obama, he managed to get a sexist dig in at Hillary:
"I hear she hasn't been this worried since a new Hooters opened"

OMG!

Comment by Hillbillary McClinton

Hillbillary McClinton — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:02:55 -0800

Geoff Davis is harmless drunk, he probably doesn't even remember saying it. Cut the guy some slack.

Comment by Fnarf

Fnarf — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:11:26 -0800

Oh, that boy
Won't be happy
Til he sees you cry-y-y-y.

Comment by Geoff Davis

Geoff Davis — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:25:19 -0800

Y'all betta know I'm deeply disconsolated at calling that jigaboo a Boy.

Din't mean no offense.

Nuff said.

Comment by kk

kk — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:49:42 -0800

Right-wing Congressman uses racially demeaning slur! And in other news, DOG BITES MAN!

Comment by White trash will always tell

White trash will always tell — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:56:06 -0800

That cracker's puss does not need to be in front of a microphone.

Comment by Shawn Fassett

Shawn Fassett — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:16:33 -0800

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "ni**er," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

- MLK, Jr
April 16, 1963
Letter From A Birmingham Jail

Comment by fluteprof

fluteprof — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:25:00 -0800

Well, does it?

Comment by apres_moi

apres_moi — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:49:27 -0800

@32. Thank you so much for posting that.

Comment by Tis summer, the people are gay

Tis summer, the people are gay — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:46:34 -0800

..not that I know this politician, his intentions, his background, and such...

...but, I once lived in KY, for many years.

Where I lived, the phrase 'boy' or 'this boy' would be used much the same way that your stereotype Soprano characters might use the term 'guy' or 'dis guy'.

Get a load of dis 'guy'...
..in KY, might be said as 'Take a look a dat boy'

It's a tad insulting to the subject, but not necessarily racist.

Comment by clausti

clausti — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:20:19 -0800

No, it IS racist. Slave men, and later freed blacks, were addressed as "boy" or "uncle." But not Sir or Man. Obama is in his 40s for christ sake. He's married with two kids. How old is John Edwards again? google tells me is is 54 to Obama's 46. Now tell me, do they call Edwards "boy"? would they have said it 5 years ago when he was in his 40s? I assert that they would most certainly not have.

Comment by Tis summer, the people are gay

Tis summer, the people are gay — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:38:52 -0800

Well, I'm just saying, where I lived, yes, men would refer to other men as 'that boy' regardless of age or race. Much as somone might say 'that dumbass' or 'that yokel'. Yeah, it's insulting, but not necessarily racist. At least that's the way it was used where I lived.

Of course, if you referred to someone as 'boy', to their face, as in 'Hey boy, come here", then, yeah, it would have a different meaning - generally taken to be a racial insult (even if the subject were not black).

I bet my experience and understanding here isn't helpful to anyone, is it? Damnit. I'll shut up about it.