http://www.buzzflash.com/mailbag/06/04/mai06097.html-snip-
Subject: Racism or Thugism? Bob Barr's assaults on guards didn't get nonstop media coverage
Bob Barr's multiple racist assaults and batteries on security guards didn't set off the same nonstop coverage as Cynthia McKinney ...
Barr and McKinney: Mixing It Up With Security Personnel Is OK -- If You're A Republican (phoenixwoman.blogspot)
The Cynthia McKinney did-she-or-didn't-she story is the headline du jour today.
But I remember not so long ago when a sitting and respected REPUBLICAN Congressman, a media darling, the man who led the battle to impeach Bill Clinton, was accused of similar if not worse things to security guards on two separate occasions (and there were three credible witnesses to his behavior) -- and the stories weren't pushed by our media anywhere near the way this one's being pushed.
But before I continue, try and guess who it is I'm talking about. (Hint: He's from the same state as McKinney.) I'll bet that unless you live in the Atlanta area and/or have been hanging out on political sites such as Salon's Table Talk for at least five years, you likely won't have heard about either story before seeing this post.
Give up? Here it is:
The Republican in question? Why, none other than BOB BARR, the guy who made it politically feasible to impeach Bill Clinton:
ATLANTA - Three security guards have filed complaints accusing U.S. Rep. Bob Barr of cursing and yelling racial slurs after he was denied entry to a private parking lot at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport.
Reports obtained by WSB-TV show that three guards for Barton Protective Services complained to supervisors, saying Barr yelled at them when they told him he would have to walk from a shuttle to his car because the van was not allowed into the lot.
<...>
Guard Ramona Phenix, who is black, wrote in her report that Barr cursed at her and used racial slurs when she told him the van could not enter the lot. He said he had several bags and did not want to carry them to the car.
Supervisor Alicia S. Gordon, who is also black, wrote a three-page report with guard Frank Lovett. She said Barr became more angry when they decided to let the van into the lot, but not until the driver filled out a form. While the driver was working on the form, Barr became angry again.
"This time he yelled, 'When are you going to open the gate you stupid black idiot,'" Gordon wrote.
Or as the magazine In These Times tells it:
After a few minutes of waiting for the driver to complete the form, according to a complaint filed by security supervisor Alicia Gordon, Barr jumped out of the van again and shouted, "When are you going to open the damn gate, you stupid black idiot?"
When a guard tried to explain that the form had to be filled out, Barr continued, "Look you idiot little n***er, just open the motherf***ing gate."
Oh, and this isn't the only -- or even the first -- time that Bob Barr had a run-in with security guards. In 1998 he actually slapped a female airport security guard:
In the annals of congressional arrogance, Barr is a repeat offender. In 1998, The New York Times reported an incident in which Barr slapped a female security guard at the airport, after which his wife summarized her view of airport security: "They were all from other countries, and they were talking about me in their language...I thought, 'Hey, this is my country.'"
Kinda tells you something, doesn't it?
My challenge to you, the reader, is as follows:
Contact the media outlet of your choice and ask them if they gave Bob Barr's shenanigans the same wall-to-wall coverage they are giving McKinney's.
If we all did this, that would kill this story deader than anything else we could do. And we could all go on to other things.
A BuzzFlash Reader
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it's so much fun being a black woman
you meet the nicest people
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