And people wonder why the NRA’s political swagger isn’t what it used to be.
This ad is just clumsy, offensive, and stupid. So yeah, just like the NRA.
The ad is very reminiscent of the ad the conservative Free Enterprise Fund ran against Bob Menendez in 2006. That didn’t work.
McDonnell doesn’t need that ad- the Washington Post just endorsed his opponent and Obama just threw his opponent under the bus.
Game-set-match.
Look over there!
First of all, they’re using the wrong stereotype. Hello? It’s Bloom-BERG. “Scary Sterotype Dude” should be wearing one of those black hats with the curly sideburns.
More to the point, since the WaPo is already running “Why Deeds Lost” stories, McDonnell’s got this one in the bag. I’d rather the NRA spend it’s money where it might make a difference, like in New Jersey.
So NY Americans are bad and VA Americans are good? Gotcha.
How is the ad offensive exactly?
Well we know all italians are mob goombahs, right? AMIRITE?
Oh stop it. You sound like one of those Italian “pride” organizations that wanted ‘The Sopranos’ taken off the air because it was “offensive.”
Signed,
Italian and not offended
Yeah, there’s no difference between a television show and an ad for an elected official. They should be held to the same standard.
So much the worse that McDonnell doesn’t need the ad. Instead of being a desperation ploy, it makes no sense even to produce it. Except, natch, to continue stoking that tribalist bent the GOP needs so badly.
It doesn’t make me want to vote for McDonnell, but it does make we want some spaghetti and meatballs. Or maybe I’m just hungry.
Site looks good, O-Dub. I’ll even give you a pass on not having a tiny dancing Michael Steele in the upper-right…
Greg Craig, meet the bottom of the Obama bus.
Jay – “Oh stop it. You sound like one of those Italian “pride” organizations that wanted ‘The Sopranos’ taken off the air because it was “offensive.”
Signed,
Italian and not offended”
I agree Jay but only because Italian Americans are an ascendant ethnic group. Stereotypes are more injurious to ethnic groups when their place in the dominant culture is less certain and not yet established. These Italian thug stereotypes would have been more harmful at the turn of the last century when boat loads of Italian were landing on the American shores. I’m Italian Canadian and I remember just thirty years ago being picked on and ethnically slurred because of it, by white guys with red hair and freckles, living in the suburbs of the big Canadian multi ethnic city of Toronto. My father told me similar stories from earlier days. My Grandfather told even worse stories from living in NYC very early in the previous century. And then there were the internments during WW2! in bother countries. But then came the cultural coups “The Godfather” and “Saturday Night Fever” and nobody picked on me after that LOL. I think historical context is everything in these matters. Just a thought.
You know what I find offensive? Why is every burgler in Brink’s, ADT, or any other alarm system commercial a whitey with a black ski mask? That’s offensive to whitey, and skiers! I think I might call the Rev. Jesse Sharpton, or Rev. Al Jackson to organize a boycott!
BTW, this was the best!!! For those insulated libs that don’t like to scream RACISM at their own… (If Fox News did this, Ollie would be SCREAMING RACISM!! They think we all look alike!! RACISTS!! Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CKHFn8mULE
Jay, are you really comparing this shitty little commercial to the Sopranos? You really have no idea how one could be offensive and the other not?
It’s a bad ad, above all else, showing just how tone-deaf the GOP has become. They still think it’s 1983 and racist dog-whistles can win them elections.
Do as I say, not as I do.
Oh stop it. You sound like one of those Italian “pride” organizations that wanted ‘The Sopranos’ taken off the air because it was “offensive.”
Signed,
Italian and not offended
Uh, Jay, your hypocrisy is showing.
I’m being hypocritical? Hilarious. First of all, the ad here just happens to use a “mafia” kind of guy in the commercial in some way to make a point. The commercial isn’t very effective despite being right on point. The Mayor of NYC should not be dictating to the state of Virginia on their gun laws.
Secondly, as I said in those old comments, I wasn’t offended by what Oliver wrote, but was just pointing out his engaging of stereotypes with is Six Degrees of Separation act he used to tie Rudy to a “mafia guy.” If anybody is the hypocrite, it’s Oliver who has his panties all in a twist over this NRA ad, but had no problem doing the same thing just a couple of years ago. So thanks Zython. You just exposed the host of this blog as the hypocrite. Good work.
Zython’s reach into the past to paint Jay with the charge of hypocrisy doesn’t hold much water. It is rather amusing to see Ollie’s clumsy effort to tar Rudy. Does anyone here recall how Rudy made his bones as a young man?
Zython’s reach into the past to paint Jay with the charge of hypocrisy doesn’t hold much water.
Translation: IOKIYAR
Zython,
So I read the thread you linked to and it doesn’t really give you any ammunition, but the funniest thing is how RG is portrayed as sympathetic or more towards the mafia. Given his history it makes the accuser look incredibly ignorant.
So I read the thread you linked to and it doesn’t really give you any ammunition
The hell are you talking about. There, Jay played the race card against Oliver for criticizing Gulliani. But when the NRA uses Italian stereotypes, he gives them a pass. That’s the textbook definition of hypocrisy.
but the funniest thing is how RG is portrayed as sympathetic or more towards the mafia.
You say that as if those accuastions were unfounded.
I dunno. This stereotype is so worn out it’s hard to get all that worked up over. I know some Italians that like to joke about their ‘connections.’ All I see is a lame attempt at humor, another in a long line.
Parthenon, while I partly agree with you, I think there is more to it than that. You’re right, lame attempt at humor, and I’m not getting worked up about it, but it is, in my opinion, offensive.
Why? It isn’t so much that people might still believe these worn-out stereotypes. It’s more that they are used to create division and an enemy of sorts. Good folks of Virginia vs the crooked, fancy-dressing New Yorkers.
Oh, and by the way, the ’some x say y so y isn’t offensive to x’ is total, utter, bullshit. I can’t stress that enough.
It’s more that they are used to create division and an enemy of sorts. Good folks of Virginia vs the crooked, fancy-dressing New Yorkers.
That’s a fair point. They are sort of beating the elitism horse. If he’s fancy-schamncy he must be crooked.
Oh, and by the way, the ’some x say y so y isn’t offensive to x’ is total, utter, bullshit. I can’t stress that enough.
Certainly. But you have to go with what you know. This is nothing like a white man saying n****r with the excuse ‘well black guys say it to each other.’ The Italian mobster is a totally acceptable social target for mediocre comedy (often starring Robert Deniro). But maybe it shouldn’t be?
If instead of an Italian mobster there was a Muslim terrorist in full regalia after 911, for example, then I think it would be a a completely different discussion.
Zython,
The east coast is notoriously corrupt, one needs to look no further that Obama and Chicago for obvious examples but you seem to have no idea of what got Rudy to the place he is now. Are you really so ignorant of the recent past?
Ha! AO doesn’t know that Chicago isn’t on the east coast. Priceless!
Mikie,
From here on the left coast everything east of the Mississippi is the east coast, dumb ass.
That’s funny, AO. People in Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois will be surprised to learn they are effete East Coast Liberals.
Actually the topic is political corruption “back east” and the east coast. In the west, the east coast encompasses more than just the seaboard states. Not accurate perhaps but not really much different from common perceptions of “the south”.
but you seem to have no idea of what got Rudy to the place he is now.
Of course, AO fails to demonstrate how this is actually relevant to Jay’s hypocrisy. But of course, having failed the Turing test a long time ago, probably won’t elaborate.
Zython,
I gave you a chance to get out of the corner you painted yourself into but you appear unaware or unwilling to acknowledge Rudy’s historical relationship with the mafia. You picked a fairly unlikely candidate as an apologist for the Mob. Back in the early 80’s long before he was a national presence, he was Reagan’s point man on fighting organized crime. As assistant secretary of justice he set up the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force to target entire mafia families not just the dirty street soldiers. Unprecedented at the time, he combined the forces of the FBI, DEA, Customs, Immigration, and state and city police. Tell the Bonnano family that Rudy’s got their back. LOL
Ok, how does that make Jay any less of a hypocrite?
Zython,
He didn’t appear offended in the original post that you linked. Jay called Ollie out on his everyone’s a racist bullshit by pointing out that he was engaging in the same thing with his stereotyped example.
What I was referring to in particular was how foolish Ollie’s allegations were considering RG’s original claim to fame under Reagan. Which you echoed and added to. It was sort of like watching the two of you pile on Lincoln for owning slaves, not much awareness of who you were talking about, just mindless slamming of someone who holds different political values.
This just shows why THE NRA SUCKS