Clown's Obama stunt at Missouri State Fair draws rebuke

The Bobster

The Bobster

Senior News Editor since 2004
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/11/4404230/clowns-obama-stunt-at-missouri.html

Clown’s Obama stunt at Missouri State Fair draws rebuke
August 11
By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

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A tempest over the incident erupted after the website Show Me Progress reported a Facebook account of it.

The Facebook writer said he had taken a Taiwanese student to the rodeo Saturday night in Sedalia. During the bull riding segment a rodeo clown appeared wearing an Obama mask.

“The announcer wanted to know if anyone would like to see Obama run down by a bull,” the posting said. “The crowd went wild. He asked it again and again, louder each time, whipping the audience into a lather.”

Another clown then apparently joined the performance.

“One of the clowns ran up and started bobbling the lips on the mask and the people went crazy,” the posting said. “Finally a bull came close enough to him that he had to move so he jumped up and ran away to the delight of the onlookers hooting and hollering from the stands.”

The account quickly migrated to the liberal website Daily Kos. :rolleyes:
 
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http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/11/4404230/clowns-obama-stunt-at-missouri.html

Clown banned from Missouri State Fair amid libtard outrage over Obama act
August 12
By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

Fallout continued Monday over the performance of a rodeo clown who donned a mask resembling President Barack Obama during Saturday’s bull-riding competition at the Missouri State Fair.

The Missouri State Fair imposed a lifetime ban :mad: on the rodeo clown whose depiction of Obama getting charged by a bull was widely criticized by Democratic and Republican officials alike.

The rodeo clown won't be allowed to participate or perform at the fair again. Fair officials say they're also reviewing whether to take any action against the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association, the contractor responsible for Saturday's event.

A tempest over the incident erupted after the Show Me Progress website reported a Facebook account of it.

“The announcer wanted to know if anyone would like to see Obama run down by a bull,” the posting said. “The crowd went wild. He asked it again and again, louder each time, whipping the audience into a lather.”

Another clown then apparently joined the performance.

“One of the clowns ran up and started bobbling the lips on the mask and the people went crazy,” the posting said. “Finally a bull came close enough to him that he had to move so he jumped up and ran away to the delight of the onlookers hooting and hollering from the stands.”

Mark Ficken is the rodeo association president and was the rodeo announcer. His attorney, Albert S. Watkins, said Monday that the clown was acting unscripted. He said it was the clown, wearing a microphone, who made comments riling up the crowd, according to the Associated Press.

Watkins says Ficken’s only comment during the routine was, “Watch out for that bull, Obama!”

The account quickly migrated to the liberal Daily Kos :rolleyes: website.

After hearing from reporters Sunday afternoon, fair organizers released a statement, which did not contest the details reported on social media.

“The performance by one of the rodeo clowns at Saturday’s event was inappropriate and disrespectful, and does not reflect the opinions or standards of the Missouri State Fair,” the statement read. “We strive to be a family friendly event and regret that Saturday’s rodeo badly missed that mark.”

Condemnation came from both sides of the aisle.

In a statement, Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill called it shameful and unacceptable. :rolleyes: She noted that the fair receives taxpayer dollars and is supposed to be a place to celebrate the state.

“But the young Missourians who witnessed this stunt learned exactly the wrong lesson about political discourse — that somehow it’s ever acceptable to, in a public event, disrespect, taunt and joke about harming the president of our great nation,” McCaskill said in the statement.

Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s press secretary, Scott Holste, said in a statement, “The governor agrees that the performance was disrespectful and offensive, and does not reflect the values of Missourians or the State Fair.”

Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder weighed in in a series of Twitter posts. Kinder said he loved the fair and planned to attend but said the clown’s performance reflected poorly on the state.

“I condemn the actions disrespectful to (the president of the United States) the other night. We are better than this.”

The event organizer, the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association, apologized on its website, calling the act “inappropriate.”

“We are taking measures by training and educating our contract acts to prevent anything like this from ever happening again,” the statement said.
 
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/12/4405882/rodeo-clowns-obama-act-brings.html

Rodeo clown’s act brings out the worst in the Web
August 12

By 11 a.m. Monday, nearly 6,000 people thought it crucial that they post online comments about the antics of a stupid clown act Saturday night at the Missouri State Fair. The news article on KansasCity.com about the rodeo clown in a Barack Obama mask had drawn more than 142,600 views by that hour, an astounding amount of attention. The posts got so full of ugly slurs that The Star had to disable the comments section.

CNN took to running a crawl on the Missouri clown along the bottom of the screen, as if it were LIVE/BREAKING/EXCLUSIVE news.
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http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/08...ri-calls-obama-clown-mask-stunt-a-hate-crime/

Head of Missouri NAACP Calls Obama Clown Mask A Hate Crime
August 15, 2013 8:57 PM

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (KMOX) – The President of the Missouri Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) says a rodeo clown act depicting President Barack Obama at the Missouri State Fair Saturday night was a hate crime.:cool:

“I think that a hate crime occurred,” Ratliff told KXNT Radio in Las Vegas Thursday. ”I think a hate crime occurs when you use a person’s race to depict who they are and to make degrading comments, gestures, et cetera, against them.”

Ratliff says it’s an outrage that taxpayer dollars were used to disrespect the president.

“We are taxpayers in the state of Missouri,” Ratliff said, “and when taxpayer money is utilized to discredit and be disrespectful to our president, whether he be black, white, Hispanic, Latina… it is an outrage.”

Ratliff says that is why her organization is asking the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation. She has also asked the Secret Service to investigate the incident in Sedalia.

“With all of the hateful and mean things that are happening and happened in Missouri here at the rodeo, we believe that the Justice Department should look into the discriminatory practices against our sitting African-American president,” Ratliff added. “In this country, discrimination is still illegal.”

The Missouri State Fair on Monday barred the rodeo clown, Tuffy Gessling, from performing at the fair. Mark Ficken, the announcer at the event, resigned this week from his position atop the Missouri Cowboy Rodeo Association, a position he held for only two days.

The incident Saturday night drew national attention and almost unanimous bipartisan condemnation from Missouri’s politicians and congressional delegation. While few have gone as far as Ratliff in denouncing the show, many in the state’s African-American community have viewed it through a racial lens.

U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, said he was “amazed that in 2013 such hatred, intolerance and disrespect towards the President of the United States could take place at the Missouri State Fair.”

“Our fair is supposed to showcase the best of Missouri, instead, it showed an ugly face of intolerance and ignorance to the world,” he added.

Missouri Rep. Steve Webb, D-Florissant, said he was “incensed” and referred to the incident’s racial undertones in a statement Monday.

“Sometimes apologies just won’t do. While I do not believe this represents all of rural Missouri, the racial undertones of a taunted rodeo clown dressed as our nation’s first black president is what the nation woke up to this morning,” Webb said.

State Rep. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, called the event “racist and degrading.” Rep. Gail McCann Beatty, D-Kansas City, added, “I am angered and disgusted by the blatant racism that was displayed at the Missouri State Fair.”

Meanwhile, a “Support Tuffy Gessling” Facebook page created Monday had over 65,000 “likes” by Wednesday night.
 
NAACP ripped for demanding federal probe of rodeo clown dressed as Obama by Joshua Rhett Miller
Vid at link

Calls by the Missouri chapter of the NAACP for a federal investigation into a rodeo clown who donned a President Obama mask at the state fair last week are misguided and hypocritical, a Texas Republican congressman told FoxNews.com on Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, who has invited the clown who wore the mask to perform in Texas, said the request for probes into the incident by the Justice Department and Secret Service are “silly” and should be ignored. :clap:

“A rodeo clown is really a nominal thing and it hurt no one,” Stockman told FoxNews.com. “They didn’t speak out when George Bush was being portrayed as a murderer. To become relevant again, they need to become more of an honest broker and not have contrived anger.” :clap:

Stockman said the NAACP would better serve its constituents by focusing on ways to decrease unemployment among the black community. He also noted that the national civil rights group was silent after a July incident on a Florida bus where three black teens beat a fellow white student. Though Gulfport Police Chief Robert Vincent told Fox News the attack did not appear to be racially motivated, former Florida Rep. Allen West, who is black, chided Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, noting they condemned Florida's laws in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting yet remained mum on the bus attack. That is just the tip of the iceberg, knowha'm'say'n.

“It’s really patently false that they’re angry at this, but not angry at other issues,” Stockman continued. “There has to be some consistency.” For crying out loud, give them a break, they're niggers.

Stockman said he thinks it’s unlikely federal officials will investigate the matter.

“We can’t get the Justice Department to look at Benghazi, so it would be ironic that the Justice Department would investigate a clown,” he said. “They should focus on their member’s needs rather than theatrics.” Hey, we gots a HNIC, anything can happen.

Still, the rodeo clown has been widely condemned for his off-color act.

On Wednesday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the rodeo clown incident was “not one of the finer moments” for The Show-Me State.

“I haven’t heard about the president’s reaction or if he had one,” Earnest told reporters. “I can tell you as a native Missourian, it was certainly not one of the finer moments for our state and not the way I like to see our state depicted in the news.” You people suck.

Stockman said widespread reports of Saturday’s bull riding event at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia was an example of what he calls “pop news,” distractions from serious issues facing the country.

The performer, meanwhile, has been permanently banned from future state fair events and subsequent performers must undergo sensitivity training. :mad:

Messages seeking comment from Justice Department and NAACP officials were not immediately returned Thursday.

Jehmu Greene, a Fox News contributor and Democratic strategist, said she agreed with Stockman’s take that the call for a federal probe was unwarranted. It’s far from the first time a sitting commander-in-chief has been mocked, she said.

“Absolutely it is misguided,” she said during an appearance on Fox News. “TheNAACP has jumped the shark on this one.” Give 'em a break, they're NIGGERS!
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http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/23264785/rodeo-clown-who-wore-obama-mask-speaks-out

Rodeo Clown Who Wore Obama Mask Speaks Out
Posted: Aug 27, 2013 9:30 AM EDT
Updated: Aug 27, 2013 9:36 AM EDT

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The rodeo clown who wore a President Barack Obama mask at the Missouri State Fair is apologizing for his antics.

He shocked the country by asking a crowd if they wanted to see the president run down by a bull. But now, this rodeo clown is coming forward to explain why he did it.

Tuffy Gessling says he's received numerous death threats since the news spread of him wearing the Obama mask earlier this month at the state fair.

But according to Gessling, this act is nothing new! He says he's been doing this for generations, not just with Obama in office.

"I didn't think anything more of it than what we've done 15 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, when we've done it with Bush, and Clinton and Ronald Reagan," Gessling said. (Then a butt-hurt libtard saw the act and whined to the media.)

Despite his apologies, the Missouri State Fair has permanently banned him from future events.

Gessling added that he did not mean any disrespect and, if he were ever given a chance to meet Obama, he would be honored to shake his hand. :mad:
 
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