Hotel owner tells Hispanic workers to change names.

TAOS, N.M. – Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel.

The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence (he thought they'd be talking about him), and ordered some to Anglicize their names.

No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark.

Whitten's management style had worked for him as he's turned around other distressed hotels he bought in recent years across the country.

The 63-year-old Texan, however, wasn't prepared for what followed.

Sit on your hands while reading the article, least you bruise yourself facepalming: believe it or not, it gets even worse.

Bonus: The article is also badly written. It's just the cherry on the fail pile.

In the illustrious tradition of racism ala Rep. Joe Wilson, a couple of county chairmen in South Carolina are the kings of non-sequitur remarks:

The chairmen wrote the article in The Times and Democrat of Orangeburg, S.C., on Sunday in defense of Senator Jim DeMint’s opposition to Congressional earmarks, comparing his fiscal watchfulness to that of Jews.

“There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves,” the opinion article stated. “By not using earmarks to fund projects for South Carolina and instead using actual bills, DeMint is watching our nation’s pennies and trying to preserve our country’s wealth and our economy’s viability to give all an opportunity to succeed.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/us/21carolina.html

The original article* is here:

http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2009/10/18/opinion/doc4ad90f14cb86e810566587.txt

WARNING: DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS IF YOU VALUE YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE. They start out with sane people and quickly devolve. They are some of the more vile, hateful spewing of the dregs of humanity I've seen in a while. Bonus racism, race fail bingo, anti-Obama crap, internalized racism, sexism -- you name it, it's there, in less than 15 comments.

A sane one:

" At least they should get their stereotypes right - a Google search shows that this actually isn't "a saying" about Jews. The only thing worse than perpetuating a stereotype is inventing your own stereotype! "

I agree with one commenter: Stephen Colbert appears to be the only sane South Carolinian in the media these days.

Did Hitler Want War?

Comes the response: The war guarantee was not about Danzig, or even about Poland. It was about the moral and strategic imperative “to stop Hitler” after he showed, by tearing up the Munich pact and Czechoslovakia with it, that he was out to conquer the world. And this Nazi beast could not be allowed to do that.

If true, a fair point. Americans, after all, were prepared to use atom bombs to keep the Red Army from the Channel. But where is the evidence that Adolf Hitler, whose victims as of March 1939 were a fraction of Gen. Pinochet’s, or Fidel Castro’s, was out to conquer the world?

....

Because Hitler wanted to end the war in 1940, almost two years before the trains began to roll to the camps.

Hitler had never wanted war with Poland, but an alliance with Poland such as he had with Francisco Franco’s Spain, Mussolini’s Italy, Miklos Horthy’s Hungary and Father Jozef Tiso’s Slovakia.

Chewed up and spat out at I Read Pat Buchanan’s Column On Hitler And My Eyes Are Bleeding

This is the kind of appalling historical piece that leaves me thinking that I’ve fallen through into a bizarro world, and wondering what on the earth Buchanan thought the point was? To rehabilitate Hitler? To excoriate those uncooperative Poles?

He’s not even particularly good at it.

All I can think of is is this: If Hitler isn't the bad evil man that history has made him out to be, does this mean all the comparisons of Obama to Hitler mean Obama = Good?

Operation Rescue's newest form of protest raises eyebrows.

( Article in case of link problems. )

ETA: Courtesy of somnambulicious, have more of Terry's Traveling Show of WTF, at their town hall gig.

( ...Wow. Seriously? )

WTF IS THIS?


Dubya had people locked up for wearing the wrong fucking T-shirts.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/16/tennessee.email/index.html

Sherri Goforth, admin to Sen. Diane Black, R-Tennessee, sent out, on office time and from her office computer, a "joke" email containing an image called "Historic Keepsake Photo." It has portraits of all the American Presidents up to Bush II--and culminates in two cartoonish white eyes on a black background for Obama.

You'll be glad to know, I'm sure, that one of those on her email list, a GOP aide, was outraged and contacted the office about it, and probably the press. Black distanced herself, but didn't fire the aide, saying she had a stellar record and that a strongly-worded note of reprimand was placed in her file.

But, of course, the really fun part is this, which Nashville Is Talking webmaster Christian Grantham revealed:

(When I asked her if she understood the controversial nature of the photo, Goforth would only say she felt very bad about accidentally sending it to the wrong list. When I gave her a second chance to address the controversial nature of the email, she again repeated that she only felt bad about sending it to the wrong list of people.

“I went on the wrong email and I inadvertently hit the wrong button,” Goforth told NIT. “I’m very sick about it, and it’s one of those things I can’t change or take back.”

http://www.nashvilleistalking.com/2009/06/sen-diane-blacks-r-gallatin-legislative-aid-circulates-racist-email/

Yes, because obviously, the mistake was in sending the image to the "wrong list." She meant to send it to her "racist rednecks" list. I'm sure she's very sorry she got caught.

This may come as a shock to some of you, but G. Gordon Liddy is, in fact, an asshat. Today's asshaberdashery: declaring that Obama's pick for the new Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor, is unfit for the court because she might be menstruating during judicial conferences, which would make her decisions suspect.

I only wish I were kidding.

Well, golly gee whillakers, Mr. Liddy! I never thought about it like that before, but now that you mention it, I guess we womenfolk ought to just let you menfolk make all the decisions for us, since you're obviously all so sane and reasonable.

Unsurprisingly, Jezebel is not impressed. I, personally, would like to hear what Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg have to say.

I was torn between posting this in otf_wank and unfunnybusiness, but the unrepentant bigotry beat out the WTFLOL.

Anyway. Mulefucker runs for Georgia governor. When you're a reporter, you occasionally have to ask uncomfortable questions of someone. In this case, I landed an interview with the Georgia Creator's Rights Party candidate for governor, Neal Horsley, who is running on the secessionist platform. During the course of my research, I stumbled upon the fact that Horsley had screwed a mule.

Yes, his real name is Horsley, he is a secessionist, and he thinks that both abortion and gays are evil.

Shakespeare's Sister has more.

I can't even begin to find the funny in this.



For those that can't hear these stunning remarks, Virginia Foxx (R-NC) remarked -

"I also would like to point out that there was a bill -- the hate crimes bill that's called the Matthew Shepard bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay. This -- the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills."

According to Representative Steve Cohen, Matthew Shepard's mother was in the gallery at the time of Virginia Foxx's remarks.

In conclusion, FUCK YOU, Virginia Foxx, FUCK YOU.

ETA: Now with moar tasteless backpedaling!

Most Some days, I just love my state.

Texas lawmaker suggests Asians adopt easier names.

WE HAS NEW PRESIDENT NAO!