2008 On Facebook, Everyone’s a Hussein
posted by on June 28 at 12:45 PM
Obama fans are striking back at all the chatter about his middle name by changing their online identities:
The result is a group of unlikely-sounding Husseins: Jewish and Catholic, Hispanic and Asian and Italian-American, from Jaime Hussein Alvarez of Washington, D.C., to Kelly Hussein Crowley of Norman, Okla., to Sarah Beth Hussein Frumkin of Chicago.Jeff Strabone of Brooklyn now signs credit card receipts with his newly assumed middle name, while Dan O’Maley of Washington, D.C., jiggered his e-mail account so his name would appear as “D. Hussein O’Maley.” Alex Enderle made the switch online along with several other Obama volunteers from Columbus, Ohio, and now friends greet him that way in person, too.
The origins of the movement are heartwarming…
Like the residents of Billings, Mont., who reacted to a series of anti-Semitic incidents in 1993 with a townwide display of menorahs in their front windows, these supporters are brandishing the name themselves…Some said they were inspired by movies, including “Spartacus,” the 1960 epic about a Roman slave whose peers protect him by calling out “I am Spartacus!” to Roman soldiers, and “In and Out,” a 1997 comedy about a gay high school teacher whose students protest his firing by proclaiming that they are all gay as well.
…but, um, doesn’t this just run the risk of drawing more attention to a middle name that the Obama campaign itself doesn’t much want to talk about?
Oh the Bold. It burns my eyes.
I'm tired of all this reporting on Obama... it's the cult of personality.
IF he does become our next president I suspect plenty will be dissapointed as he will have to bend in the DC wind and we will in fact have no change what so ever --
Same as it always was....
I don't think there's any risk of drawing more attention to his middle name.
Fuck cynicism.
I don't think it increases the risk of drawing more attention to his middle name. I think it's brilliant. The right wingers are already trying to make his name all scary sounding, implying he is muslim and/or a terrorist just by name association. The repeated Faux News "accidentally" calling him Osama instead of Obama, and so on.
If enough obviously non-muslim people take on the middle-name of Hussein, then it takes away the scary connotations, and points out the absurdity of the implied name association. They effectively disarm it.
With enough repetition and mockery of the idea of judging a candidate by his name, it seems likely that the novelty of Obama's middle name, will wear off and many people will get bored with the non-issue. Perhaps they will then move on and focus on other things, such as issues that actually mean something to them.
Say "YES" to War on Iraq by Dan Savage Oct. 2002
"War may be bad for children and other living things, but there are times when peace is worse for children and other living things, and this is one of those times."
"The War on Iraq will make it clear to our friends and enemies in the Middle East (and elsewhere) that we mean business: Free your people, reform your societies, liberalize, and democratize... or we're going to come over there, remove you from power, free your people, and reform your societies for ourselves."
Washington Post June 27, 2008
"Bomb Kills Marines, Iraqi Tribal Leaders
At Least 40 Die in Two Separate Attacks"
I broke the dam!
From now on it's Gurl Ayatollah Dogg.
RE: .."…but, um, doesn’t this just run the risk of drawing more attention to a middle name that the Obama campaign itself doesn’t much want to talk about?"
Um, isn't that the Point? ie, the Obama campaign won't Have to talk about it... just like the Emperor (& his stick-ass court) don't have to discuss what The Fool babbles about... and, if they do, it has the tinge of absurdity... which disarms the implied stigma of its power to infect the minds of those pre-disposed to prejudice. ^..^
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