Here's the video of Mike Stark, a liberal blogger, asking a simple question of Sen. "Macaca" George Allen. You see the rather graphic overreaction from Sen. Allen's handlers. You can see for yourself just how this comes across and see why Mr. Stark is filing a lawsuit.
This is the MSNBC story
Full Version: Manhandled by Sen. Allen's Handlers
I'm confused...was he actually trying to ask something or was he just trying to make a scene?This is the DailyKos we're talking about here...
QUOTE(Illini_fan @ Nov 2 2006, 06:28 AM) 
I'm confused...was he actually trying to ask something or was he just trying to make a scene?This is the DailyKos we're talking about here...
What don't you grasp about the MSNBC story? He was asking the Senator a question. That is everyone's constitutional right. After he asked it he was brutally dragged out and tackled. THE GUY IS A MARINE VETERAN AND A LAW STUDENT! No one should be treated this way for asking a scumbag like George Macaca Allen a basic question. Why was he arrested in the early 1970s? Did he spit on his wife? Why are his divorce records sealed? What else is this racist, misogynistic Cro Magnon hiding in his closets? Don't Virginia voters, including veterans who are law students and residents of the state, have a right AT LEAST TO ASK without being assaulted and battered?
QUOTE(fantomas @ Nov 2 2006, 12:51 AM)
What don't you grasp about the MSNBC story? He was asking the Senator a question. That is everyone's constitutional right. After he asked it he was brutally dragged out and tackled. THE GUY IS A MARINE VETERAN AND A LAW STUDENT! No one should be treated this way for asking a scumbag like George Macaca Allen a basic question. Why was he arrested in the early 1970s? Did he spit on his wife? Why are his divorce records sealed? What else is this racist, misogynistic Cro Magnon hiding in his closets? Don't Virginia voters, including veterans who are law students and residents of the state, have a right AT LEAST TO ASK without being assaulted and battered?
It's not nice to make fun of the disabled (or the illiterate).
Edit: Now that I read the MSNBC article, he was only trying to provoke Allen. Was the reaction justified? Probably not. But let's not pretend he walked up to Allen with innocent intentions.
Exactly Illini. He almost seemed like he was doing a Stuttering John routine. It may be our constitutional right to ask questions, he was asking Allen if he spit on his wife. Regardless, the staffers were way out of line, but it's not like they tackled Helen Thomas or David Gregory.
Illini, sorry if that came off as too strong. That wasn't my intention. I just didn't see any reason for the Allen thugs to tackle this guy. My anger was directed at Allen, who I hope loses. He is a terrible person, and I said this years ago when I lived in Virginia and he was first running for office. It was clear to me then, and I hope it's become increasingly clear to Virginia voters over this campaign. My anger was at him, not you. 
Thank you for the clarification, FT. Glad to see that your anger is directed in the right direction-- at Sen. "Macaca" Allen. Sen. Allen was being asked a simple question and all he had to do was decline to answer, not send in the goon squad after this guy, who made next to no effort to resist or fight back.
By what I understand from an update on local TV news this morning, Mr. Stark is pressing charges for the manner with which Sen. Allen's goons came after him. Good riddance to bad politicians and their goons!
By what I understand from an update on local TV news this morning, Mr. Stark is pressing charges for the manner with which Sen. Allen's goons came after him. Good riddance to bad politicians and their goons!
QUOTE
Exactly Illini. He almost seemed like he was doing a Stuttering John routine. It may be our constitutional right to ask questions, he was asking Allen if he spit on his wife. Regardless, the staffers were way out of line, but it's not like they tackled Helen Thomas or David Gregory.
No, but there are legitimate issues about both Sen Allen's arrest and divorce records. The divorce records have apparently been sealed, although there would be no legal reason to do so under VA law, and the arrest records seem to have disappeared. Since these records go directly to allegations about Allen's behavior (particularly his alleged racist past), they are totally legitimate.
Well certainly it is wrong that these records seemed to have disappeared. But this was 30 years ago. If some conservative blogger was harrasssing Ted Kennedy about Chappaquiddick, I bet the outrage would be aimed the the other direction.
I guess my point is if we are going to start going back 30-40 years with every person running for office we're never going to get anywhere. Too many of these guys have skeletons in their storage units. Is the coverup of Allen's divorce any more egregious than the coverup of Kennedy's car accident?
I guess my point is if we are going to start going back 30-40 years with every person running for office we're never going to get anywhere. Too many of these guys have skeletons in their storage units. Is the coverup of Allen's divorce any more egregious than the coverup of Kennedy's car accident?
QUOTE(George Twins fan @ Nov 2 2006, 06:01 PM)
Well certainly it is wrong that these records seemed to have disappeared. But this was 30 years ago. If some conservative blogger was harrasssing Ted Kennedy about Chappaquiddick, I bet the outrage would be aimed the the other direction.
I guess my point is if we are going to start going back 30-40 years with every person running for office we're never going to get anywhere. Too many of these guys have skeletons in their storage units. Is the coverup of Allen's divorce any more egregious than the coverup of Kennedy's car accident?
Uh, I'm not sure where you've been, but aren't the anti-Kennedy folks always citing or invoking Kennedy's car crash and Mary Jo Kopechne's death? Isn't he still being raked over the coals? Seriously. In Massachusetts I think most people have recognized that he was involved in a terrible, tragic accident and are willing to judge him based on his subsequent actions, but there are even Republicans on here who cited Kennedy's car crash at various points when people were criticizing the actions of Republicans. Also, if you're in public life, you should be expected to have your entire life scrutinized, especially if there are troubling patterns. George Macaca Allen has been known to be engage in racist behavior, to utter racial epithets, to lie in public, to spit at the feet of women, and so on, so if someone has genuine questions about his relationship with his former wife, or an arrest record (which could have been for actions like this, or like his putting a severed deer head in a Black family's mailbox, or for smashing his brother upside his head, or for holding his poor sister over a waterfall, etc.), then really it's legitimate.
That's fine so long as you are equally okay with those who continue to criticize and harrass Kennedy or any other Democrat with a questionable past. The fact is that most of these past indiscretions would seem to be irrelevant to a majority of voters. How else to explain that Allen and Kennedy and even Marion Barry and a host of other politicians got reelected many times after their troubles?
As for the "Um, I'm not sure where you've been" crack, I don't get why you have to always be so condescending when we are merely engaging in conversation. Just a few posts above another poster called you on it and now just a few hours later you do it again. Please try making your point without trying to insult the rest of us.
I'm well aware that the Kennedy stuff is still brought up. My point simply was those that want Allen's long ago past brought up 30 years later had better be okay with Kennedy's stuff being brought up. I'm as liberal a Democrat as you'll find and I still don't buy Kennedy's tale just like I don't buy Allen's. Somehow I have the feeling that many here so outraged by the way Allen's handlers treated the blogger might be okay (or at least not so outraged as to start a thread about it) if some Kennedy staffers tackled a Kennedy heckler. Kind of like how so many liberals were so outraged by the Foley scandal but were willing to give Stubbs a pass or vice versa. That's hypocritical.
For the record, I think it was wrong for them to have tackled the guy. But it sure looked to me like the guy was trying to cause a ruckus.
As for the "Um, I'm not sure where you've been" crack, I don't get why you have to always be so condescending when we are merely engaging in conversation. Just a few posts above another poster called you on it and now just a few hours later you do it again. Please try making your point without trying to insult the rest of us.
I'm well aware that the Kennedy stuff is still brought up. My point simply was those that want Allen's long ago past brought up 30 years later had better be okay with Kennedy's stuff being brought up. I'm as liberal a Democrat as you'll find and I still don't buy Kennedy's tale just like I don't buy Allen's. Somehow I have the feeling that many here so outraged by the way Allen's handlers treated the blogger might be okay (or at least not so outraged as to start a thread about it) if some Kennedy staffers tackled a Kennedy heckler. Kind of like how so many liberals were so outraged by the Foley scandal but were willing to give Stubbs a pass or vice versa. That's hypocritical.
For the record, I think it was wrong for them to have tackled the guy. But it sure looked to me like the guy was trying to cause a ruckus.
I'm not being condescending, so I'm sorry you took it that way. But since Kennedy has been called "Senator Womanslaughter" on here, and is regularly attacked for Chappaquiddick on right-wing boards, I thought it necessary to make the point that it's quite common.
Look, people can broach the Kennedy issues as much as they want. They do, and really, Senator Kennedy has gone one to do the work he needs to do. As far as I know, no one has broached ANY of George Allen's foibles, which I find really astonishing given how readily available so many of them were. As a Virginia voter back in the 1990s, I surely would have wanted to know what this man was arrested for. Maybe it was for something small, a misdemeanor or whatever. But I do know that while I already had a very bad feeling about the man, I certainly would NEVER have voted for him if I'd known he'd stuffed a severed doe's head in someone's mailbox, or that he was a raving racist, etc.
Also, we all have the right to ask questions of our public officials. They serve US, not the other way around. The voters of Virginia and of this country pay George Allen's salary. It seems quite reasonable to me that if someone is asking a question and becomes disruptive, he be escorted out. No one tackled a conservative nutcase who was heckling Ned Lamont. No one has brutally attacked a nutcase who was heckling Hillary Clinton. And so on. When it comes to the President of the United States, then the Secret Service can do their job. But George Macaca Allen is not an aristocrat, he's a public servant, and if someone is asking him a question, then he should either answer it or not, and if that person becomes disruptive, he or she can be politely escorted out. If we start down the road of this kind of thuggery, that was captured on tape, we'll soon be in far more dangerous territory.
Look, people can broach the Kennedy issues as much as they want. They do, and really, Senator Kennedy has gone one to do the work he needs to do. As far as I know, no one has broached ANY of George Allen's foibles, which I find really astonishing given how readily available so many of them were. As a Virginia voter back in the 1990s, I surely would have wanted to know what this man was arrested for. Maybe it was for something small, a misdemeanor or whatever. But I do know that while I already had a very bad feeling about the man, I certainly would NEVER have voted for him if I'd known he'd stuffed a severed doe's head in someone's mailbox, or that he was a raving racist, etc.
Also, we all have the right to ask questions of our public officials. They serve US, not the other way around. The voters of Virginia and of this country pay George Allen's salary. It seems quite reasonable to me that if someone is asking a question and becomes disruptive, he be escorted out. No one tackled a conservative nutcase who was heckling Ned Lamont. No one has brutally attacked a nutcase who was heckling Hillary Clinton. And so on. When it comes to the President of the United States, then the Secret Service can do their job. But George Macaca Allen is not an aristocrat, he's a public servant, and if someone is asking him a question, then he should either answer it or not, and if that person becomes disruptive, he or she can be politely escorted out. If we start down the road of this kind of thuggery, that was captured on tape, we'll soon be in far more dangerous territory.
Let's see here... Rush Limbaugh verbally attacks Michael J. Fox, yet no one physically assaulted Limbaugh for his attack. Somehow I think Sen. Allen's thugs felt it was acceptable to harass someone who they thought was trying to "go personal". That was their excuse on the videotape.
Whether he was baiting or not, I hope he hits a payday when he sues the crap out of those thugs. This is straight out of 1930's Nazi Germany. Like it or not Rethuglicans, the law is still on our side, at least until "W" decides to rape the US Constitution again.
Macaca named most politically incorrect word.
QUOTE
The word "macaca," used by outgoing Republican Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record) of Virginia to describe a Democratic activist of Indian descent who was trailing his campaign, was named the most politically incorrect word of the year on Friday by Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that studies word usage.
"The word might have changed the political balance of the U.S. Senate, since Allen's utterance (an offensive slang term for Indians from the Sub-continent) surely impacted his election bid," said the group's head, Paul JJ Payack.
* * *
In second place on this year's list was "Global Warming Denier," for someone who believes that climate change has moved from scientific theory to dogma.
"There are now proposals that 'global warming deniers' be treated the same as 'Holocaust deniers: professional ostracism, belittlement, ridicule and, even, jail," Payack said.
In third was "Herstory" substituting for "History." Payack said there are nearly 900,000 Google citations for "Herstory," all based on a mistaken assumption that "history" is a sexist word.
"When Herodotus wrote the first history, the word meant simply an 'inquiry,'" he said.
"The word might have changed the political balance of the U.S. Senate, since Allen's utterance (an offensive slang term for Indians from the Sub-continent) surely impacted his election bid," said the group's head, Paul JJ Payack.
* * *
In second place on this year's list was "Global Warming Denier," for someone who believes that climate change has moved from scientific theory to dogma.
"There are now proposals that 'global warming deniers' be treated the same as 'Holocaust deniers: professional ostracism, belittlement, ridicule and, even, jail," Payack said.
In third was "Herstory" substituting for "History." Payack said there are nearly 900,000 Google citations for "Herstory," all based on a mistaken assumption that "history" is a sexist word.
"When Herodotus wrote the first history, the word meant simply an 'inquiry,'" he said.
I always thought his name sounded like a bodily function. How fitting!
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