Buy American!

[Pat Garaffa]

John Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6 am.

While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN  HONG KONG).

He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA ), designer jeans (MADE IN  SINGAPORE ) and tennis shoes (MADE IN  KOREA).

After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN MEXICO) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN CHINA) to see how much he could spend today.

After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN ) to the radio (MADE IN CHINA)
he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) filled it with gas (from Saudi Arabia)
and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.

At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his computer (MADE IN MALAYSIA), John decided to relax for a while.

He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL), poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his television (MADE IN INDONESIA). And then he wondered why he can't find a good paying job in AMERICA.

And now he is hoping that he can get help from his new president who may or may not have been …….

(MADE IN KENYA??)

[Kathy_Baratta]

Pat,

We stopped "buying" people a long time ago. Hadn't you heard?

Oh, and where again is it your antecedents were "made?"  

Me. I'm part Mohawk Indian. Does that make this more my country than yours?

I'm surprised at you Pat. I thought that kind of childishness was beneath you.

KB

P.S. Riddle me this, Batman. If your Italian father came from Italy and made your American mother pregnant and your mother gave birth to you, would you be Italian or American. You like to call call yourselves Italian-Americans so why can't there be Kenyan-Americans. Wait. We already have that except they call themselves African-Americans. Can you please cite the difference for me?

[Kathy_Baratta]

The more I think about it, the more peevish I become.

The fact is that what you posted is not a topic FOR DISCUSSION but rather a thinly-veiled racist rant that I just know came to you in one of those "e-mails" the redneck idiots like to circulate on the Internet just hoping for some fool to pick up the trash and keep passing it around.

Not on my Board, please.

You have a trash board to post this kind of claptrap on. I ask that from now on when you feel you must play in the mud you do it "there" where it will be appreciated rather than here where it won't.

I was this close to deleting it but I hate censorship as much as bigotry. Maybe you'll do the right thing yourself   but for now, I'm going to move it to the joke Board where it sort of belongs anyway seeing as you can't possibly expect to be taken seriously.

KB

[Keith_Raposa]

LOL well i'm here and I appreciate it.  Nothing strikes a nerve like the truth.  Thanks Pat, I thought it was funny.  But yes it does belong in the joke section.

[Pat Garaffa]

Jeez - what crawled up your ass and died?  

Again!  

And while you were freaking out about the silly post, a dozen people saw the simple (and sad) irony, cut and pasted it and sent it to their friends.  

For the record, my father and mother were both born here.  And the last I checked, I was an American with Irish and Italian ancestry.  This I can prove but the debate on Obama's true birthplace still rages on.   Hence - the need for question marks after his name.   (The email didn't have question marks and I added them to keep you happy.  I guess that didn't work.)

Where do you see racism in the post?  It was a joke and the Obama reference was irony?  I'm sure the same email floats around California and it ends in Schwarzenegger.  
 
Does it make me racist to say we should stop buying Chinese products?  Or Mexican frying pans?  Or anything else for that matter if it's done in an effort to save Amercian jobs?  Of course not.  

You only have a problem because the joke ended with a reference to Obama and his questionable birthplace.  And if I used Arnold 's name followed with an (R) it would have been ok - right?  Don't debate it - just nod yes.    

  

[Pat Garaffa]

And why was this post moved to the joke section?  Do you think there is humor in there? 

Our country is in a shambles and we are losing more jobs everyday as a result of these imports.  That post (whether it includes Obama or not) reads more like an obituary - not a joke.   

[Kathy_Baratta]

Jeez - what crawled up your ass and died?  

  
You only have a problem because the joke ended with a reference to Obama and his questionable birthplace.  

Seeing as his birth certificate remains on file in Hawaii means his birthday is only "questionable" to those of questionable intelligence. Also, I was only actually referring to the 'racism" evinced by the author of the email but yes, now that you brought it up, I suppose it does speak to the inherent racism of anyone that would want to spread it around.

That's my opinion.

And of course it got moved to the joke section. Keith thought it funny even if I didn't. Jokes are jokes - even bad ones.

KB

P.S. As to what crawled up my ass - it's having to acknowledge that the "dumbing down" of America that so worried Edwin Newman appears to be complete. It's the demeaning of an individual doing the best anyone can expect by someone who inherited two unwinnable wars and an economy that's now being acknowledged as the worst since the "great depression." A lesser man would have already folded under the pressure of just trying to stave off the Beck fascistic fanaticism that is swirling through the national consciousness and into the halls of Congress. Yet Obama soldiers on with intelligence and dignity only to be mocked by half-wits and hucksters who use fear and hate-mongering to spread their "message" which is undeniably a dissembling diatribe motivated by race.

[Pat Garaffa]

"Seeing as his birth certificate remains on file in Hawaii means his birthday is only "questionable" to those of questionable intelligence."

Why does a difference of opinion always cause you to resort to personal attacks?        

"Yet Obama soldiers on with intelligence and dignity only to be mocked by half-wits and hucksters who use fear and hate-mongering to spread their "message" which is undeniably a dissembling diatribe motivated by race. "

Correction - motivated by concern.  Clinton ruined a dress - Obama is ruining a nation.  We're on the brink of failure and it's nearly all due to the debt, the deficit and rampant spending that continues in spite of these concerns.  The “bridge to nowhere” was going to cost an astonishing 340 million but it seems like a bargain compared to what we are seeing today.      

I understand that he inherited a mess and I won't deny that at all.  But he is just fueling the fire with all the debt and added spending.  Even his own people (in an obvious and callous attempt to gather votes) are throwing each other under the bus and are challenging these policies.  George Bush was bad but this guy is much worse.  Meanwhile, the policies continue to push jobs offshore and that was the reason for the original post.  

This started as a concern about "buying American" and keeping the jobs at home.  It was a simple message with a twist of irony yet you found it to be more of a racist joke.   And now you’ve attempted to play the race card and you are trying to turn this into a partisan debate fueled by your incorrect and incessant accusations of racism.  That couldn't be further from the truth.  

Why can’t anyone ever question a policy or decision without race somehow playing a part of it?  And the fact that you continue to play this race card (whenever we challenge an Obama decision, or immigration, etc) is probably more racist than any comment that has ever been made here.  It’s not about race – it’s about right vs wrong.    

Here is my take on all this racist crap that continues to be peddled by the liberal left:  

It’s not racist at all but you want to believe it is.  And you are trying your best to believe it even though you rarely find anything to support this theory.  And as long as you continue to subscribe to this theory, and you pull out your handy “debate ending race card”, then you are relieved of the real debate or having to admit that the IQ levels in Washington are barely at room temperature.  

So play the race card all you want.  I know the truth.  It’s not a race issue at all and it’s an issue of survival.  And right now none of these guys have a clue on how to fix this mess and that includes that empty suit in the White House (or his predecessor), his cabinet, the House, the Senate and his 41 Czars too.                

[Kathy_Baratta]

Well, Pat,

You'll just have to run for office . You seem to have all the answers!

But lose the poor, poor. pitiful me act. It's growing old. You regurgitated an email (that has been circulated ad infinitum) like you'd found another Dead Sea Scroll.

I'll debate "policy" all day long (And again find there are more areas we agree than disagree) but don't try and pretend that that's what you were doing with that post.

As you fancy yourself to be quite the jokesmith, it was another offering from the Pat Garaffa Comedy Show starring Pat Garaffa.

Hey. Some 'er funny and some ain't. Don't blame me for your material.  

KB

[Pat Garaffa]

"But lose the poor, poor. pitiful me act. It's growing old."

Huh ?? 

"I'll debate "policy" all day long (And again find there are more areas we agree than disagree) but don't try and pretend that that's what you were doing with that post."

I'm sorry - you are wrong.  But I agree that the email has been modified and circulated for a long time. I never claimed it as original. 

And I also agree that it was circulated pre-Obama too.  And if so, where was the racism then?  It wasn't there then and it isn't there now.  Only a racist would see racism where it doesn't exist. 

Same thing here - Bill O'Reilly had the head of the NAACP on last night.  He challenged him over and over to produce just 1 simple example of racism within the Tea Party.  And since they (and many others) have been making these accusations for a long time, this should have been a cake-walk.  He avoided the challenge over and over but eventually caved in and said he was aware of one incident where someone wore an offensive t-shirt at a tea party rally.  Meanwhile, Jeremiah Wrong continues to berate white people and accuse the evil white government of fabricating the H1N1 virus in an effort to eradicate people of color - all while wearing his robes and standing at the pulpit.  And the NAACP had him at a key-note speaker at a recent event AFTER he made those repeated statements.   

We are held to an impossible standard of filtering slogans on millions of T-shirts.  And when one slips through – the entire group becomes racist??  Is this any different than an entire country being labeled “anti-Muslim” over the attempted burning of a Quran by one  pastor? 

The Tea Party is racist over one members T-shirt but the NAACP organization embraces the lunacy of an outspoken and highly bigoted pastor and everything is just Jake? 

I think not. 

Again, only a racist sees racism where it doesn’t exist.  While one group is void of it and   regularly targeted – another group embraces it yet claims to be sterile.   You are doing the same thing by finding racism where it doesn’t exist.  If I disagree with Barack Obama it is because of decisions or policy, not color.   

The crux of the story is how John Smith created his own problems.  The final name and blame-game has probably changed every time they changed the mailbox at the White House. 
.