Mike blogged on this Monday morning. Yesterday, before work, I decided to go out and see this for myself.
It wasn’t that difficult to find Chad Michael Morrisette’s address. West Hollywood isn’t that far away from me. But a big part of me was disinterested in bothering with a trip just to give attention to a hateful sight.
Am I offended by the “Halloween” display? Yes. Do I think Morrisette’s sight-sore should be taken down? Not really. I’ll leave it up to him and his neighbors to reconcile his poor taste decision to pollute his city block.
From the AP:
Morisette says the effigy would be out of bounds at any other time of year, but it’s within the spirit of Halloween.
He says “it should be seen as art, and as within the month of October. It’s Halloween, it’s time to be scary it’s time to be spooky.”
I call BS. Halloween is just a convenient excuse and cover for him.
In my opinion, he is getting the attention he probably craves. My hope is the media spotlight and coverage of outrage doesn’t inspire other copycats out there who also simply want to shock and offend, and have their 10 minutes of fame. This is the fourth instance of offensive effigies of presidential candidates reported in national media within this past month (One in Oregon of Obama; Obama effigy in New York being chased by a McCain effigy in KKK dress, inspiring one in Ohio).
The effigies might appeal to the DU fringies, but he doesn’t do Senator Obama any favors here. It runs counter to the Democratic presidential candidate’s carefully crafted image of someone who’s risen above the partisan divide, able to unite the country in the spirit of bipartisanship and “a new kind of politics”, setting a new tone in Washington.
I arrived in the neighborhood just before 3pm. There was only very light activity. There was one protester there, Nathan, with a McCain t-shirt and sign. We chatted a bit. The yard of the house is fenced in with brambles and shrubs; but apparently, an NBC Today Show crew was inside the yard, doing a news piece. CBS News was wandering around, and they spoke to me briefly. One lady, walking her dog and who lives in the neighborhood noticed the effigies for the very first time and expressed shock and revulsion (and I do believe she was probably a Democratic voter).
Mainstream Americans, both liberal and conservative, reject this sort of bad taste and expression of hate. Unfortunately for Senator Obama, even though he doesn’t condone it, isn’t associated with it, it’s his baggage to bear. Nothing quite like having knuckleheads supporting your bid for the highest office in the land. Nothing quite like having their idiocy on full display for the whole country to bear witness to.
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
Judging by what I’ve seen of this idiot on television, he’s delighted with all the attention, it’s worked out so well for him. He gets his crass message out for the world to see and can use Halloween for an excuse.
Just don’t understand people like this. Not only do they prove they have hate for another human being, they don’t stop to think of the innocent family members of the objects of their projection.
Hope this image is successfully kept out of Piper Palin’s world, I’m sure big brother, Trak, off fighting for this idiot’s rights, has been made aware of it, possibly seen it. Horrible!
Where is the secret service in all this? Isn’t this a crime since Palin is a nominee? Halloween fun doesn’t get it. At the very least it is the poorest of taste and very hurtful for family and friends. Hatred seems to be rampant on the Obama side but evidently he attracts these kinds of people in droves.
Wordsmith: Were there any private investigators on the scene looking to dig up dirt on the idiot that put this up? Have there been any news stories where private information, possibly from government computers, has been aired?
Has this clown been pilloried?
Or do we have two sets of rules in this country and it’s open season 24/7 on ALL conservatives whether it’s Halloween or not?
how can they say that we on the right are hateful? i would be disgusted if it was any public figure, unless it was a convicted killer. it not only shows ignorance and poor taste it shows lack of judgement which is at the core of all of obama’s supporters. huge lack of judgement. how can they allow him o keep that up there? and where is the secret service? where is the outrage, and a s mike asked, why ids the digging of dirt into this guys child support and all?
I CALLED WEST HOLLYWOOD SHERIFF AT 323 650 4142. THEY SAY THE SECRET SERVICE IS INVESTIGATING AND THEY HAVE HAD LOTS OF CALLS. I SAY WE KEEP CALLING. PROTEST TOO. WHERE’S ALL THE “JOE THE PLUMBER” INVESTIGATIONS ON THIS MORONIC GAY MAN IN WEST HOLLYWOOD? HOW ABOUT AN EFFIGY OF A HANGING LIBERACE? OR ELTON JOHN?
More leftist hate under the claim it’s just humor.
Wonder how much he’ll enjoy the “humor” if somone lobs a molotov cocktail his way. No, I’m not advocating such behavior or saying that I’d like to see it.
Folks, the left is convinced they are about to take over the country and they are showing themselves for what they really are. Evil.
I agree Missy;
Hopefully Palin’s children don’t have to view this ugly underbelly of politics.
And yes, the Secret Service should investigate and drag this idiot in for questioning to determine potential threats to candidates. Maybe following that he wouldn’t be so happy before the media circus. In the Oregan Obama one the police did investigate, but as the cut-out was suspended by monofiliment fishing line, which is mostly transparent, it would be difficult to jump to the conclusion that it might be viewed as a threat to a candidate. What’s more, the individuals doing it were annonymous. But in this case, they know where he lives, injury or death is implied as one candidate has a rope around her neck and another is shown burning, and he admits to doing it.
The guy in the chimney looks like Jimmah Carter to me. So, hang an Obama effigy for Halloween equals hate-thought-crime, hang Palin effigy equals art-statement-free-speech. Wierd times we live in.
I believe that last year there was a halloween noose incident in the south. The press, civil orgs. etc. went through the roof. WHERE ARE THEY NOW?????????????
I read or heard that this is not considered a “hate crime”. Take Palin down, and put Obama up there with a noose around his neck, and I’ll bet you any amount of money it will be the lead story on every major news media. The news anchors and talk shows, MSMBC, CNN, mouths would be crying racism, and that conservatives are all a bunch of rednecks. The Secret Service and Justice Department would be all over it like stink on a stick.
Harvey, I’m with you. If I lived in the neighborhood, I’d climb up and spray the face brown…betcha all hell would break loose in about 5 minutes after daylight!
I hope all of you stick by your comments after seeing this.
http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,5505,00.html
@Richard: If you had bothered to take the time to even read my post, you wouldn’t have hanged yourself:
@Mike’s America: Howdy Mike!
We KNOW that there are two sets of rules. That is a given. What is considered outrageous is ANY criticism of LIB/PROG methods. What is normal for the LIB/PROG types is lynch mob tactics. The Media is blind, deaf, dumb and incredibly biased so the Truth is hard to glean from the Lefty Newsies product. We know what to expect from them. Lies, Half Truths and outright Propaganda from the MSM Ministry of Public Enlightenment that would have made Stalin or Lenin proud.
No mysteries here…We know what to expect when the Bar is Lowered on Objectivity. It is practically on the Ground now!