While many were blithely discussing Afghanistan and the economy, one Tennessee mayor launched a brave assault in defense of Christmas:
According to The Commercial Appeal, Arlington Mayor Russell Wiseman posted the statements on his Facebook page and said the president is Muslim. Obama is Christian.
“We sit the kids down to watch ‘The Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ and our muslim president is there, what a load…..try to convince me that wasn’t done on purpose,” he wrote, according to the paper.
His Facebook page can only be accessed by people he has approved as friends. Arlington is a city of about 7,600 residents about 25 miles northeast of Memphis.
In the extensive posting, he also attacked the president’s supporters, saying “…you obama people need to move to a muslim country…oh wait, that’s America….pitiful.”
I didn’t know the wingers liked Peanuts so much. I thought some of the characters were rumored to be teh ghey.
Butch
My brain hurts.
ChrisS
“I don’t worry about the fundamentalists that make up the GOP base, after all, they’ll never have any real power.”
-glibertarian ex-girlfriend.
ChrisS
@ChrisS:
There shouldn’t be a strike-out there.
morzer
Mayor, not major in the first sentence. Unless you mean “major a**hole*, in which case, I agree.
Karen S.
Yes, pre-empting A Charlie Brown Christmas is all part of that treacherous Muslin’s diabolical plan to … do something.
Hee-hee. I do love to point and laugh at the Know-Nothings’ outrage sometimes.
Xanthippas
If it can be regarded as a “traditional” aspect of the celebration of Christmas, then right-wingers will hang themselves all over it. Never mind that Charlie Brown takes aim at the consumerism that right-wingers also believe is an American tradition; all that matters is that people have been watching it for a long time, and somebody quotes the Bible.
The Kenosha Kid
Tennessee major? Or Tennessee mayor?
Shawn in ShowMe
Don’t hassle me with your sighs, Chuck.
Sad_Dem
Lucy is clearly into the whole sub/dom thing. She’s Linus’s ‘lil biat-ch and Charlie’s dom. The red-headed girl is a tease–maybe a stripper-to-be? Peppermint Patty? Anyone not able to figure her out?
MNPundit
Major/Mayor
Is this some sort of dig at anti-immigrant republicans?
comrade scott's agenda of rage
We can’t let the wingnuts steal old school Peanuts from us. Okay, they can have anything after, oh, 1978 but I draw the line at anything before that.
I really wish all these people would move to various Southern states and secede. We can throw in Utah as a bonus.
SpotWeld
Um… no, Braney Frank has a quote on talking to tables that applies here.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Sad_Dem:
PP was a lesbian long before she knew it. That whole infatuation thing with Charlie Brown was simply a cover.
bago
How rude of a war to interrupt his cartoon.
Sad_Dem
Oops, I meant Schroeder, not Linus. The piano player.
New Yorker
Don’t tell the wingnuts that Charles Schultz was, at very least, a skeptic of religion, if not a full-blown atheist. It will make them cry harder than when they found out that Pat Tillman was an atheist.
Shawn in ShowMe
Why can’t they be content with the old school comics that actually represents their Real ‘Murican values, like Lil’ Abner and Snuffy Smith?
New Yorker
Wingnuts don’t want those heretic Mormons as part of their Christian nation. Besides, Utah is, IMHO, the most breathtakingly beautiful state in the union*. I’d like to keep it. We’ll just treat it like my family does my wingnut uncle: occasionally good for laughs, occasionally annoying, but still part of the family.
*I’ve never been to Alaska, so I can’t judge that state’s beauty vs. Utah’s.
bemused
Wiseman spent more time ranting idiotically on facebook than it would have taken to run out & buy the dvd or order the damn thing online. Unless, of course the same conspiracists planned to stop him from buying the sacred dvd.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Good point plus the skiing rocks.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
The mayor is a lot the guy I ran into at Safeway who saw the video of the recent inauguration and declared “The whole world is nothing but niggers now.” Right there in the store in earshot of twenty people.
I believe in live and let live, but I just don’t want these people living in the same country with me. That’s fair, isn’t it?
Charity
No, you’re thinking of Hermie the dentist from Rudolph. With that fabulous hair? Way ghey.
Senyordave
Isn’t it time for Bill O’Reilly’s annual war on Christmas. That’s where he finds two towns out of the 100,000 in the US that have some sort of bizarre restrictions about displays, and says look, the secularists have taken over.
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
@Sad_Dem:
The character of Schroeder was modelled after classical pianist Van Cliburn. Schroeder was added to the strip not long after Cliburn won the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow in 1958.
AFAIK, Cliburn has never officially come “out” however he was sued for “palimony” by his long-time boyfriend in 1998.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@AngusTheGodOfMeat:
I’d like to see that chicken shit asshole say that in oh, East St Louis. And whenever whoever beat him into death, I for one wouldn’t have seen a thing, ifyouknowwhatImean, nudgenudgewinkwink.
r€nato
I know this guy sounds ridiculous, but believe me, these idiots who only get their news from Fox News Channel and Rush and Hannity and only talk to fellow wackjobs like themselves… they really believe this stuff.
I’m serious. I’ve heard this stuff from otherwise intelligent, capable people who seriously believe in this cartoonish view of the world around them.
kommrade reproductive vigor
His last name proves you can’t always trust the label.
Cole Moore Odell
If only there were some technology that would allow this man and his family to watch a program whenever they wanted to, rather than when the network broadcast it.
Steerpike
Obama should fight back and slap a libel suit on anyone who publishes the “Obama is a Muslim” lie, and a slander suit when it is spoken. Defamation of character is actionable when the disinformation is a deliberate statement of fact, as opposed to an opinion. To say “Obama is an idiot” is protected; to say “Obama is a Muslim” is not, especially from an elected official. Let the ranters defend their delusions in a court of law.
Punchy
No shit. PigPen is CLEARLY a DFH, with an emphasis on “dirty”. Chuck Brown had a dog who thought he was flying a plane, which means clearly pyschodelic drug usage was happening. And Schroder tickled the ivories; as a musician, clearly a hard-core liberal.
cmorenc
I’m completely fed up with these wilfully ignorant hate-filled assholes who feel all self-righteously Christian, but whom if Jesus returned today, would make the subject of one of his more scathing “teaching moments”. I don’t expect everyone to agree with Obama, and can respect folks who sharply disagree with Obama on most political subjects, but the mayor’s comments are like someone who speaks scornfully about “trailer trash” while seated on the landing steps of the rusty double-wide in which he’s lived for many years.
Cat Lady
John Hiatt > Fred Hiatt.
r€nato
@Steerpike:
Yes, let’s make First Amendment martyrs of them all.
I like it when the crazies show their nuttiness; that way everyone can see them for what they are.
Zifnab
@“Fair and Balanced” Dave:
Oh, he was Palin around all right. With terrorists!
Persia
Let’s be careful to note that being a Muslim is a fine thing and it’s the ‘filthy lying’ part of ‘filthy lying Mooslim’ that is the slander.
Nice thread title, DougJ.
Zam
@Steerpike: Yea but that’s kinda like saying there is something wrong with Muslims. I say let them bring this shit up everyday, then in 2012 so did he institute Sharia? Not that any of them have the slightest clue as to what Sharia is.
r€nato
I haven’t seen this one in a long time, until someone reminded me of it this morning. This has to be the funniest 65 seconds I’ve seen in a long time:
Kirk Cameron and Bananas
Corner Stone
Tamron Hall. Good God.
That is all.
licensed to kill time
You know, I can’t believe how dumb these people are about the Internet. So his Facebook page can only be accessed by his “friends” and he seems to feel it’s ok to write this drivel and expects no one else will see it. How dickdopeydumb can you get?
Them ni-, erm poor people! screwed everything up.
r€nato
@licensed to kill time:
I tell ya, this nation started going to hell in a handbasket as soon as we got rid of that ‘slaves count as 3/5 of a person’ business.
funluvn
Good thing Obama didn’t fuck with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer , or that Elf dentist would have been administering painful root canal without first bowing east and praying to the Abominable ….
morzer
Classic response on DailyKos from BarbinMD:
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
@Steerpike: Hell No to a Lawsuit.
The entire reason Obama et. al. keeps avoiding discussing this crap is that it plays right into their hands. The people who kick-started this crap love media attention, and a lawsuit from The President would be like fuckin’ manna from heaven for them. It would “prove” their charges have merit, and they’d get dragged onto every damned talk show in America to spout this BS, over and again.
It’s a loss-leader in every way; even the best judgment possible won’t remove the stench of this crap in people’s minds, and won’t change any of the originator’s minds, either.
And if you doubt further, just look at the Orly Taitz situation, and how she risks her law license and fines to push this crap.
r€nato
Obama broke up the Beatles by fixing up Yoko with John. Bastard.
GambitRF
Now he just has to preempt It’s a Wonderful Life and one of the 73 airing of A Christmas Story and the terrorists will have won.
Sad_Dem
@ “Fair and Balanced” Dave:
That would explain why Lucy just couldn’t get him interested in her.
Shawn in ShowMe
You also have one girl calling another girl sir, a black kid that could hang with Linus intellectually and a bird named after the biggest DFH concert of all time.
r€nato
In fact, Obama was so determined to fuck up Wiseman’s viewing of the Peanuts cartoon, that he deliberately timed his speech for the scheduled airtime on his local TV station. You just know those elitists on the East and West coasts got to see the Peanuts show at its scheduled time.
What a crafty negro Obama is.
ellaesther
Now, sir. I must protest!
To sully John Hiatt’s good name by making any association whatsoever between his very wonderful “Memphis in the Meantime” and this particular cretin is really just a step too far.
You leftist bloggers may do whatsoever you might like with the Good Lady Palin, but leave John Hiatt out of it!
ellaesther
Also, and not incidentally:
What the fuck is this fuckery?! Holy fuck.
Honestly, that’s all I got.
Donald G
However, ABC has foiled the plans of the evil Muslin Obama by … get this, folks… rescheduling “A Charlie Brown Christmas” for a week later (as they announced after Obama’s speech when they went back to normal programming). All the good Christian boys and girls of Tennessee will get to see Linus quote from the book of Luke and again experience a world where the only black person of note is Franklin, who rarely, if ever, says anything.
That is of course, assuming that people like Mayor Wiseman can decipher their electronic program guides.
Church Lady
Please don’t associate Arlington with Memphis. Yes, it’s a ‘burb, but it’s small enough and far enough out in the boonies that it shouldn’t count. Can’t you think of another name for the post? Given our demographic, it really is casting aspersions on an innocent party.
Martin
How to yell ‘nigger’ in a crowded Facebook. Well done, mayor.
Andy K
There’s gotta be some psychological explanation as to why Linus- the character who quotes Luke- carries around that security blanket.
Beauzeaux
“A Charlie Brown Christmas” has been airing at least twice every Christmas season for the past several years, and has been scheduled to air twice this year. But I don’t suppose that info will get in the way of the mayor’s tantrum.
Donald G
@r€nato:
Actually, Obama’s speech in the Mountain Time Zone was finished in time to go back to ABC’s regularly scheduled prime-time line-up, so they could’ve shown Charlie Brown as scheduled in the Mountain Time Zone and on the West Coast, but they plugged in an episode of one of their other programs instead and ran an ad announcing that Charlie Brown would air the following week.
Really, Wiseman’s shooting blanks on this.
Lex
Oh, no, Russ, we would never try to convince you of anything. We know better than that.
… tiptoes off, stage left …
r€nato
@Donald G:
this merely serves to prove my point.
Donald G
@Donald G:
Oh, the “crafty negro” bit belongs in the quote from renato, not me. Block-quote fail, as usual. Sorry.
licensed to kill time
@Church Lady:
How about:
Tennessee Jive by Johnny Horton?
Tennessee Houn’ Dog Yodel by Marvin Rainwater?
Tennessee Stud by Eddy Arnold?
maybe
Tennessee Wig-Walk by Bonnie Lou?
Too much?
Donald G
@r€nato: Yeah, as nontroversies go, the Peanuts scheduling thing is pretty weak sauce.
Leelee for Obama
@Andy K: Obviously, the blanket is magical protection form anything that might resemble reality, at least in Rev. Wiseman’s opinion.
I so wish that the Second Coming was actually likely and imminent. I could set up a booth and sell tickets to my fellow DFHs and others with sense, to watch the Elect get brain farts,when Jesus showed up and dissed the crap out of them.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Steerpike: There’s nothing wrong with being a Muslim.
In addition, a public figure has a hard time suing for slander/libel. Not to mention the whole President upholding the Constitution thing.
Besides, he’s way too subtle. Ornaments on the White House Christmas tree that look like a fReichtard’s idea of a Muslim symbol is more his style.
arguingwithsignposts
@Beauzeaux:
Not to mention it’s available on DVD for, what, $5?
Church Lady
Went to the CA website to read the report and then made the mistake of skimming the comments….More embarrassing then the report itself. I need to move.
Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@AngusTheGodOfMeat: Whereas, if he’d been yelling “faggot”, you’d be wondering what the big deal was, amirite?
BenTheTipsyBear
I need to correct something –
It’s not “is teh gay”, it’s “has teh gay”. ‘Cuz it’s like a choice thing that you can make go away by hitting your same-sex induced boner with a bible.
Or something.
Beauzeaux
@arguingwithsignposts:
It’s also available at YouTube. Heck, it can be downloaded for free if you know your way around usenet newsgroups.
Mike in NC
I’ll see your Tennessee major and raise you a Kentucky colonel. Your move.
SiubhanDuinne
I’m so glad you posted this, DougJ. I actually opened Balloon Juice just now to share this Memphian ridiculosity with everyone, but you beat me to it and I’m glad.
gbear
Well! Here comes Charlie Brown!
Good ol’ Charlie Brown…yes sir!
Good ol’ Charlie Brown…
How I hate him!
(very first Peanuts strip, Oct. 1950)
Makewi
Clearly the world needs to hear what this mayor has to say. It’s crucial that someone get to the bottom of this.
A hippie.
Morbo
@r€nato: An acquaintance of mine recently referred to Michelle Malkin as part of the “non-insane” media.
DaddyJ
@New Yorker: Charles Schultz a religious skeptic? Where’d you hear that? As I recall, Linus was always quoting scripture, and not just in the t.v. special. Linus frequently acts as the wisest, gentlest, most even-handed character in the strip. The nation would be better off if that brand of Christianity was the standard, instead of the hollowed-out mask for venomous bigotry that the wingers have made of it.
arguingwithsignposts
@r€nato:
I’m in agreement with most of your point, but I question the use of “otherwise intelligent, capable” in that sentence.
DougJ
Please don’t associate Arlington with Memphis. Yes, it’s a ‘burb, but it’s small enough and far enough out in the boonies that it shouldn’t count. Can’t you think of another name for the post? Given our demographic, it really is casting aspersions on an innocent party.
Sorry about that! If I’d know the area better, I would have gone with a different title.
Mnemosyne
Since Obama’s speech also bumped the premiere of the new Disney Christmas special, “Prep and Landing,” clearly the Peanuts were only collateral damage and Obama was really aiming for the mouse.
(Also rescheduled for Dec. 8th. Please watch so I can continue to receive a paycheck.)
Elie
Honestly — ya gotta just laugh sometimes…
Xecky Gilchrist
@arguingwithsignposts: Not to mention it’s available on DVD for, what, $5?
Zackly. And buying the disc is definitely the free-market solution.
Except then you don’t get those super-duper-free-markety commercials the conservative tykes love so.
Memphisj
Didn’t read all of the comments so don’t know if this was mentioned, but this guy is also a VP for commercial banking at an independent bank in another large, wealthy suburb of Memphis. Ugh.
Paris
What conservative doesn’t enjoy the moment Lucy pulls the football away and C.B. lands on his ass?
arguingwithsignposts
@Xecky Gilchrist:
FWIW, I have all the Charlie Brown specials on DVD. Or, more precisely, my ex-wife has them.
Kids eat that stuff up, and will watch over and over if you let them. I can’t see a downside to the CB specials for semi-mindless entertainment during the holidays.
New Yorker
I’m honestly having a hard time finding the quotes from Schultz that make it clear he had developed into a skeptic later in his life, as opposed to an earlier time when he was still a Christian (when cartoons like the Christmas special were made).
Take that for what it’s worth. Schultz was no Richard Dawkins, but I don’t think he’s the kind of person that this idiot Wiseman would consider a Christian, which was the point I was originally trying to make.
Corner Stone
@arguingwithsignposts:
Khaaaannnnn!!
licensed to kill time
@New Yorker:
Linky here
It’s about 3/4 of the way down on the page.
Corner Stone
@r€nato:
I thought Jesper Parnevik introduced them?
sukabi
Or, instead of being a racist jerk, he could have gone down to the local video rental store and rented the stupid movie for his kids…. but that takes all the fun out of being a racist jerk.
Col. Klink
Obama the muslim took time out to disrupt a Christmas special to announce he’s sending thousands more troops to crush hardcore Muslim jihadits . This is AWESOME wingnut logic!
AngusTheGodOfMeat
@Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion:
Not sure what your piece of shit post is supposed to mean, but, my Safeway, and my domicile, is right in the middle of large gay enclave here in Phoenix. For you Phonecians, think Willow District. The town’s main Gay Denny’s is right down the street, gay bars abound, and the neighborhoods are heavily gay.
If our redneck friend had blurted out a gay bash, he’d probably have been set upon and torn limb from limb. With plenty of cheering from the sidelines.
Woodrowfan
not unexpectedly, he’s wrong about that too.
Mnemosyne
@sukabi:
You’re forgetting that he’s also a stingy racist jerk. He got cheated if he wasn’t able to watch Charlie Brown on free TV, but if anyone even vaguely left-ish had made the same complaint, he would have immediately started sneering about dirty hippies wanting to live off his tax dollars. Because that’s how they roll.
Michael
Anyone wishing to contact The Honorable Mayor directly can do so at the following (taken from the city’s web site):
Arlington Town Hall
5854 Airline Road
P.O. Box 507
Arlington, TN 38002
Phone: (901) 867-2620
I’m a little bit tempted to send him the DVD from Amazon. It’s only $13.99 plus shipping.
Silver Owl
That man makes the case for why monkeys are more intelligent than today’s conservative.
Little Dreamer
@ChrisS:
Whew! I thought you were indicating you took her back.
Comrade Mary
@Corner Stone: What about Tamron Hall?
Splitting Image
@licensed to kill time:
I’d go with “Rocky Top Tennessee” by Roy Clark and the Muppets.
Our good friend the mayor has enough rocks in his head to justify that one.
Little Dreamer
@Woodrowfan:
I think he was remembering the Magna Carta. ;)
gbear
@Michael:
Chances are he’d need it in VHS format.
Royce
@DaddyJ: “The nation would be better off if that brand of Christianity was the standard, instead of the hollowed-out mask for venomous bigotry that the wingers have made of it.”
Agreed.
Phoebe
At the same time this fool was saying it, Colbert was saying it. No lie. What the hell.
Phoebe
Colbert’s version:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/257727/december-02-2009/deployment-figures
Ian
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
That would be terrible for our sane minded brethren in these states.
Jennie
Listening to the Bruins @ Montreal on XM while in the car last night. During the 2nd intermission, there was a bit of Canadian news / weather / marketing / whathaveyou when they did a piece on PeanutsGate. It was a breath of cool northern air to hear this called out as, and I quote: “stupid”. At least twice. No wishy-washy media-mumble speak, just stupid.
Despite the spanking the Bruins were taking it was the best thing I’d heard in a LONG time.
mandarama
Can I tender a formal apology for Tennessee? This is the 3rd or 4th time lately my chosen home state has popped up as wingnut news. All I can say in my own defense is that it seemed like such an improvement over MS.
mandarama
Plus, we DO have John Hiatt. And Emmylou, and lots of other cool people.