Conservative blogger posts Obama photo in chains with fried chicken

[bathroommonkey76]

Source: CBS-WRAL affiliate

A blogger for conservative NC think tank The John Locke Foundation is being asked to explain why she illustrated a story on President Obama's position on North Carolina's proposed marriage amendment with an altered image of Obama in chains and high heels with a bucket of fried chicken.

On Monday, "Meck Deck" blogger Tara Servatius posted a story stating that the president took a public position against the amendment to boost his chances of winning North Carolina in November. Accompanying the story was an image of the president’s face Photoshopped onto an African-American man wearing high heels and chains. Between the man's legs is a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Update: Servatius has since resigned.

The story didn’t come to our attention till Wednesday evening, when liberal-leaning bloggers began tweeting links to it. Within an hour, the photo was removed from the story, though at the time of this post, it was still available on the think tank’s servers.

Read more: http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/blogpost/10889012/

[bathroommonkey76]

1. If you want to view the photo you can go to this site

http://www.towleroad.com/2012/03/nc-group-posts-racist-obama-picture-in-gay-marriage-criticism.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+towleroad%2Ffeed+%28Towleroad+Daily++%23gay+news%29

I didn't feel like posting it b/c it is offensive to me.

[NICO9000]

25. Ugh! I just did and I wish I hadn't

WTF is wrong with these Rethug women? Pure evil!

[sharp_stick]

2. Why are racists so damned stupid?

Do they really think this kind of shit isn't going to get found out? Adding insult to the injury is that nobody associated with this shithole "think tank" thought to say "you know this post may not be the smartest thing we've ever done".

Not a lot of thinking going on in that tank IMO.

[blm]

13. Servatius is an Ayn Rand worshipping womanchild - Paul Ryan in a skirt.

Typical libertarian who fell in love with Ayn Rand when she was in college and has never been able to grow past it.

[freshwest]

32. Too bad she didn't grow a heart somewhere along the way.

[bathroommonkey76]

3. From August 2010: Tara Servatius Linked to Terrorist White Supremacist Group : League of the South

Here is a picture of WBT-1110 hate radio personality Tara Servatius attending a League of the South meeting. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are 29 hate groups in North Carolina. 4 of these are League of the South groups located in Charlotte, Durham, Wilmington and Burlington.

The League of the South is a White Supremacist Organization that advocates the destruction of the United States of America and the US Constitution.

https://freecharlotte.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/tara-servatius-linked-to-white-supremacist-terrorist-group-league-of-the-sout/

[freshwest]

9. Why are these goons working at a think tank named after John Locke? He wasn't regressive.

While some of his writings could be twisted to fit the patrician model that is embraced by Republicans, he was nothing like these people:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract

And that link to this woman's activities with the racist group, where do they get off connecting these people with the Founding Fathers?

Although there was slavery at the time, perpetrated by the most dangerous corporations of that era, plantations, did they learn nothing?

Instead, they want to take us to before the Revolution and the Constitution and any of the amendments. The depravity of this kind of thinking is sickening.

Because in following the story of the picture we see much, much more.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Libertarians think he is their founder; and they attach themselves to "states' rights" movements

and "states' rights" movements are frequently excuses for the slavery of southern states.

What libertarians see in Locke:

The Limits of the Sovereign: By definition, moral sovereignty can only be that which protects the individual liberty; all else is tyranny (immoral power of one over another). Lock had argued that the role of civil government was only to protect the public good and “Civil interests I call life, liberty, health, and indolency of body; and the possession of outward things, such as money, lands, houses, furniture, and the like.”

http://www.class.uidaho.edu/engl_258/Lecture%20Notes/social_contract.htm

(Notice 'possession', rather than the less materialist, and more empathetic, 'pursuit of happiness' of the Declaration of Independence).

And libertarians like smaller units of government, like states, rather than countries. So they throw their lot in with the other states' rights fanatics - the white supremacists, who are still trying to paint the American Civil War as an attack on states, and nothing to do with slavery at all, no sirree - and who also think that states shouldn't have to listen to federal laws like the Civil Rights Acts.

[freshwest]

22. Thanks. IMHO, libertarianism leads to patrician governance:

See if you see the simliarities to the way the GOP wants and is running things. Democrats marvel at the corruption, nepotism, bribery and dirty tricks they use, but they shouldn't. Just because we don't have aristocrats as we once did, doesn't mean it won't end up the same.

I've argued online with libertarians in the past and those who are the most honest espouse most of these views here. Some define democracy as 'mob rule' and are against direct presidential elections, etc.

When I pointed out the similiarites with their push for privatization, ending the public sector, not paying taxes, ending all regulations as being turning the control over to a corporate state that is little different from this below, they yell they aren't in favor of monarchy, but you decide if the effect would be the same:

"Early Roman society was made up mostly of free citizens, but there was a core group of aristocratic families. The distinction between the general free population and the aristocrats gradually became clearly defined into ‘orders' known as the plebeians (the majority) and the patricians (the aristocrats). There doesn't seem to have been any ethnic basis for the division. Instead, the distinctions came about through wealth founded on land. The original patrician families became organised into clans (gentes) of families tied together through marriage and by owning so much land they ended up controlling Roman society.

In Rome's early days, the patricians had total control of all political privilege and all high offices including the priesthood. They achieved this out of a powerful sense of social solidarity. They were absolutely determined to hang on to their power and exclude the rest, the plebs, from sharing in it. As you can imagine, this was an arrangement that the plebs - especially the wealthier and more educated ones - resented. A political struggle between patricians and plebs, called the Conflict of the Orders, ensued.

Essentially, the plebeians fought to end the patricians' monopoly on political power and all the chief offices of state. One of the most significant changes came in 455 BC when the ban on inter- marriage between plebs and patricians was lifted. In practice what happened was that patrician families accepted marriage with wealthy pleb families because one of the key ways to keep power was to marry money. These wealthy plebs really became indistinguishable from the patricians and had little in common with the rest of the plebs.

The word plebs just means everyone else apart from the aristocracy. It started out meaning something like the ‘majority' or ‘all the rest' but came to mean the ‘mob' or ‘common rabble', and included everyone except those wealthy plebs who had gained a foothold in Rome's upper class. You can read about them in the section ‘Ordinary Citizens'. The old patrician families struggled for survival as intermarriage and the growing power of the wealthy plebs eroded them.

By Augustus's reign (27 BC-AD 14) only about 15 patrician families were left, and by Trajan's (AD 98-117) just six. In Constantine I's time (AD 307-337) the title ‘patrician' had come to mean anyone who held high office in the imperial court. Because the patricians controlled Roman society, the rest of the population became totally dependent on them, working as labourers or tenants on their land.

Out of this developed the patron-client relationship:

The patron acted like a father figure to his clients, who were often his freedmen (former slaves): He took a personal interest in their careers, financial concerns, and any legal or business problems.

The client had a duty of loyalty to his patron, which meant helping with money if his patron was in public office or had been fined, for example, or if he was captured in war and held to ransom, and generally offering him support.

Patrons and clients could never appear against one another in a court of law, even as witnesses. Having plenty of clients was a sign of status and especially useful to politically-ambitious nobles."


http://romanhistory.hubpages.com/hub/Roman-Patrician-Families#

[Alcibiades]

45. Locke also just happens to be the author

or one of the authors, of the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, which was adopted, but never ratified, in 1669.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Constitutions_of_Carolina

And that's really all there is to it. Locke's own authorship, as the wikipedia entry attests, is something in doubt. I happen to think the thing really was drafted by committee, with Locke and Shaftsbury acting mainly in an editorial capacity. The prose is not really much like Locke's other writings, though that may be because he was writing in a legal idiom.

Art Pope and the other folks behind the John Locke Foundation simply stuck Locke's name on their group based on this tenuous connection in order to give it some intellectual respectability. It's simply this local connection between North Carolina and Locke, a silly one, especially given that Locke never visited Carolina.

They would like to be a little Heritage Foundation for NC. Really, though, they are simply another venue for the endless repetition of GOP talking points.

Locke has nothing to do with it.

[KansDem]

23. You know, this is what really pisses me off!!!

The Limits of the Sovereign: By definition, moral sovereignty can only be that which protects the individual liberty; all else is tyranny (immoral power of one over another). Lock had argued that the role of civil government was only to protect the public good and “Civil interests I call life, liberty, health, and indolency of body; and the possession of outward things, such as money, lands, houses, furniture, and the like.”

Isn't it spelled "Locke?"

This is a ****ing university site and they can't even proofread their online class lectures? You'd think they'd at least get the ****ing names right!

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. I did notice that, and wondered whether to correct it in the 'paste'

But I decided to keep it as it was, because, as you say, a university shouldn't need covering up.

[golfguru]

52. White supremacy is a joke and exists only in un-informed minds

Take one example...academic achievement in accredited American universities.
Asians beat out American whites handily. Disproportionately more doctorates
are awarded to Asians in proportion to population in US.

Another example, median income by country of origin...again south Asians beat out American whites as a group.

Take sports, African-Americans excel in almost all major sports except ice-hockey.

[bathroommonkey76]

4. You can contact Tara Servatius

via Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TaraServatius

@TaraServatius

Her Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/TaraServatiusOnline


Let her know how you feel about her photoshopped image of President Obama.

[freshwest]

10. More than that, her speaking before racist groups. That should be linked on every post.

[KamaAina]

5. High heels???

The chains and fried chicken are, sadly, becoming par for the course, but high heels? She broke some new ground there.

[yardwork]

24. She intended it to be homophobic. Her column was mocking Obama for opposing a homophobic amendment.

Amendment One will be on the May 8 primary ballots in North Carolina. If passed, we will have a constitutional amendment stating that no relationships other than marriage between one man and one woman have legal validity in the state. Equal marriage for gay people is already illegal in North Carolina. This amendment would wipe out legal protection for children, domestic violence protections, domestic unions, and any other kind of legal rights for all other couples, straight or gay. A spokesperson for President Obama said that the president is opposed to the constitutional amendment. This little right-winger wrote a column mocking the president for this position and illustrated it with this photo. In her semi-apology she states that she intended it to be mocking of his position on equal marriage. She says that the racism was inadvertent. Riiiiight.

[Alcibiades]

37. Don't forget the bucket of chicken!

I did appreciate the way the John Locke Foundation added a bucket of KFC to the picture, because its intent was crystal clear. What it said to me was this: "Hey, I know you might just assume that I'm a homophobe, but that's not fair! I'm not just bigoted against gay people, I'm also a racist!"

[yardwork]

49. Oh yes, it was definitely racist as well. The John Locke Foundation always is. They never disappoint

[bathroommonkey76]

6. This woman has the Obama picture posted in her Facebook photos!!!

I guess she is independently standing by her Photoshop picture.


https://www.facebook.com/TaraServatiusOnline?sk=photos

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=157022574421090&set=o.117438738304573&type=3&theater

[bathroommonkey76]

17. I don't believe this woman will delete the photo,

but just in case she does; I have this screenshot of her Facebook page for future reference.



https://twitpic.com/8zuf3u/full

[bathroommonkey76]

30. I am glad that I took the screenshot.

She has deleted the Obama pic from her photo album on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/TaraServatiusOnline?sk=photos

[Alcibiades]

38. Somebody else shared it

with a rather vulgar comment, which was how I found it, and shared it with my own description.

That post is now gone as though it never happened. Orwellian. How can you document what assholes these people really are when they go through and clean up the evidence?

[bathroommonkey76]

42. Just take screenshots of their posts.

If you are using Windows 7 you can use the snipping tool. Just go to the start menu and type "snipping tool".

Firefox also has several screenshot add-ons that you can choose from.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/tag/screenshot


If you use Chrome:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/screen%20capture?_ac=1

[Alcibiades]

48. Oh, and thanks

I'll do a screenshot next time.

[bathroommonkey76]

43. I have also used those tools with an Iranian story

that was taken down a few months back.

I was one of the only people on the web to capture this original story on Twitter. Iran pulled the story after a few minutes. I had people all over the world asking me to use it in their stories.



https://twitpic.com/7l714y/full

Just remember that there are plenty of d-bags on the web that will censor others opinions. Tara is a good example of an uneducated racist from North Carolina. They have been around since Uncle Jesse's reign!

[Alcibiades]

46. You're right about that

But these people antedate Helms by many years. It is good when some of them do reveal themselves for who and what they are: more irredemably racist than George Wallace.

[bahrbearian]

18. If you put your cursor over Obama's Pic, a reply pops up

good reply, how does that happen on a facebook page?

[bathroommonkey76]

20. I have no clue b/c I rarely use Facebook. lol

[ZombieHorde]

7. In the minds of racists, what is the connection between chicken and black people?

Don't most American meat eaters enjoy chicken? Chicken is one of my favorite meats, and it is fairly healthy.

To me, it's like saying, "Ha ha! Black people wear pants!" The insult makes no sense to me.

What am I missing?

[freshwest]

11. In way, their characterizations about watermelon and fried chicken are a slap at all Southerners.

The South is known for watermelon, fried chicken, potato salad, gravy, all that stuff served at KFC. And a staple of those Sunday church picnics, family reunions and the food given to people to keep them going after funerals. But then, the GOP is the insane clown posse of 2012. What do we expect, anyway.

[ZombieHorde]

12. Lots of black people live in the South, and that food is popular there? That's it?

But then, the GOP is the insane clown posse of 2012.

I guess so. Fucking pathetic. Thanks for the answer.

[freshwest]

16. Even when they mock what some of them call 'talking black' or whatever, they are talking about the

English language as it was spoken many years ago, in the South. When I moved to the northwest, I got my first racist voicemail.

I'm white, but to the wrong number who called me, I must have 'sounded black.' That's what he said, 'Why don't you go back to Africa, or learn to talk white!'

I called my white landlady who was married to a black man, and she listened to it. I was more than a bit shook up at the vehemence. And my naive assumption that racism was mostly a southern problem. She gave me some history so I'd understand.

But with the food things, for some reason the racist think it's different that blacks like the same food as whites do. They like grits, beans, collards, cornbread, sausage and chittlings, too.

It's cognitive dissonance at its worst. They need some face time in front of a mirror.

[bathroommonkey76]

29. Here is Tara's explanation (from her Facebook wall)

"Regrettably, I didn't think about the racial implications of the picture when I posted it. I simply don't think in those terms. Unfortunately some people do.
To me, fried chicken is simply a southern cuisine. So the picture seemed perfect to illustrate Obama's Southern strategy. My goal was to tell the GOP to avoid this issue at all costs."

https://www.facebook.com/TaraServatiusOnline



Now we can all sleep well tonight knowing that she didn't mean to be offensive.

P.S.

She has been deleting responses from a few users.

[freshwest]

31. Glad I don't FB, it's full of lying RW _____. Just like her excuse.

[Alcibiades]

47. Yeah, but that's not it

They threw the chicken in in order to make it a racism/homophobia twofer. They know exactly how wrong it is, but think that makes it "edgy" and "funny."

[freshwest]

50. Speaking of the photo before it was photoshopped:

There is nothing wrong with sitting on the grass and eating fried chicken.

There is nothing wrong with his clothes, whether he's gay is or not.

People that don't recognize that and don't respect him as a human being have a serious perception problem.

They are petty and don't have enough joy in their lives so they seek to drag others who are happy down.

Pathetic.

[Alcibiades]

51. Except he isn't eating chicken

That was photoshopped in, but point well taken.

Not the first time this has happened: this character was fired from a right-wing talk radio job for being too hateful. Now she's fired from a job as a blogger at the John Locke Foundation for the same. That's a pretty twisted person.

[NICO9000]

26. In solidarity with our president, I think I'll go to KFC for lunch today!

Even middle-aged whiteys like me love us some fried chicken. Original though, no extra crispy for me. I usually only go there if I have a coupon, but I'll make an exception for this.

[freshwest]

33. It was always original for me, too, back in the day.

[Alcibiades]

39. I posted my take on that upthread

Here it is again:

I did appreciate the way the John Locke Foundation added a bucket of KFC to the picture, because its intent was crystal clear. What it said to me was this: "Hey, I know you might just assume that I'm a homophobe, but that's not fair! I'm not just bigoted against gay people, I'm also a racist!"

To me, that is the only point of the bucket of KFC.

[Julian Englis]

8. Such racism is disappointing. I expect better from my country. n/t

[Alcibiades]

40. It's not your country

Not all of it: it's North Carolina, and not all North Carolinians, but the John Locke Foundation, a particularly vile group of assholes.

[Iliyah]

14. Hey, the corporate media

and a lot of the American people saw signs, drawings, photos, and heard horrible talk about Pres O being depicted as other than human, not American, and a terrorist on their tv sets and radio. Such rampant racism was allowed against the President of the free world BECAUSE I guess of the 1 Amendment. Instead of going forward into the 21th century we are going backwards to a time that I personally would never want to live in, but it happening all because the RIGHT WING "Christians" want it that way.

[Enrique]

19. "think tank"

[Kalidurga]

21. Conservative Think Tank...

the place where thinking tanks. This is really unfreaking believable. Someone finally had a really creative idea over there and then they used it in such a hidieous manner. It's too bad that Servatius can't use her talents for good.

[life long demo]

27. "If it offended anyone, I'm truely sorry."

I hate it when I see that phrase. She didn't view it as offensive. (They never do.) How do you change people's minds when they can't even recognize racist content. As far as she was concerned there was nothing wrong with it.

[freshwest]

34. Think Rush's defense of Abu Graib. 'Just a fraternity prank.'

[guitar man]

35. Why is she being asked to explain?

"Conservative blogger"...I think that explains everything perfectly.

[rucky]

41. But she says she's not racist. n/t

[IndyJones]

44. Racism, sexism...it's so clear that whenever someone supports any of the -isms, they are always,

in every single situation, just not very intelligent. They can't prove their point with civil words, so they have to toss in hateful images or hateful speech to get their message out. I'm so sick of it.

[maxrandb]

53. I wonder if Kentucky Fried Chicken

knows that their product is being used in this way? This ass-hat has a radio show????

It's time for corporations that advertise on ANY FUCKING NUT-JOB RADIO PROGRAM to pay a price!

[unc70]

54. Original title was "Obama goes gay ..."

The original title of the article with the picture was "Obama goes gay ...", not "pro gay". It was cleaned up several times.

[link:http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=8590863|

[Beaverhausen]

55. OMG the racists commenting on that article make me sick

seriously, what is happening in our country?