Redstate

Let us suppose that it had been Joe Biden (R-TN), who had "joked", "In Tennessee, you cannot go into a Popeye's or a Church's Chicken unless you are black"?

I wonder how many, "Geez, there's a grain of truth in that," or "It was just a bad joke" we'd be seeing right now.

Honestly, this comment was straight out of the mouth of Peter Griffin, who is ridiculously offensive by design.

Kids are Always a pain in the backside.  Whether civilian equivalents or actual military.

To my knowledge, very few people like them at all.

But I did notice what someone else said about the South Asian parents.  Stereotype or no.  And that, I think is what caused their teenagers to be so well-mannered.  I just never saw any sign of it in the little kids...

That's an awfully generous assessment.  You must think Biden is a generally thoughtful person to cut him so much slack.  

What were you saying when Lott said that if Strom Thurmond were elected President when he ran, we would wouldn't face a lot of the problems we face today?  That was nothing more than a senior Senator trying to honor an old man who had served in the Senate for the majority of his life,... and yet, interpreted in a historical manner it was quite offensive, and not just to black people.  The reaction was brutal and swift and it did not come from the left.  It came from the active base that is sick and tired of the liberal canard of racism spat at the Party of Lincoln without merit or reason.  The appearance of racism could not, and would not be tolerated.  Lott did not help himself by going on TV and backpedaling furiously.  

Thurmond ran on a segregationist platform, and everyone knew it just as surely as we know about KKK Byrd.  There is a double standard in our media, and this will just be another piece of evidence.   From my point of view, it's not all bad.  I do indeed hold Republicans to a much higher standard than Democrats, who I have little respect for at all.  Racism is tolerated and sometimes even endorsed on the left, and I am happy that my party does not tolerate it at all.

The much more up-to-date stereotype comment would be something to the effect that you can't build a piece of software anymore without working with an Indian.

And they're pretty da*n sharp too.  

And if you saw "Rome" on HBO, you know some of them (Indira Varma) are da*n hot too!  :-)

clearly the Democrats are trying to undermine the successful, warm diplomatic relations between India and the USA President Bush has worked hard to achieve

between Dean, Biden and Dukakis, ...i'm thinking of a line from Butch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid...

"who are theses guys"?

is NOT a boob, buffoon or whacko.

when faced, for the first time ever, with facing accountability, doing chores, or actually shutting his mouth.

Is he'll film campaign spots featuring both Muslim and Hindu convenience store owners, who will have to go through at least three rehearsals together before they stop making the Evil Eye at each other and holding up rabbit ears with their fingers behind each other's heads.  It'll be a hoot.  Trust me, it's all part of Joe Biden's Master Plan.

Not the smartest quip about that entrepeneurial phenomenon, but I wouldn't read anything malicious into Biden's statement. It should be regarded as an embarassing foot in mouth moment to soon forget about, but who knows what the righteous indignation types will do with it.

For a sense of perspective, how big a deal should this be compared to when Senator McCain referred to Vietnamese as "g**ks" during his Presidential campaign? (No, it wasn't "geeks" that he called them)

Well Vermont may be the whitest state in the Union. While I am not a fan of Al Sharpton, it is funny to read how he worked Dean over for his race record as Governor.

One more note about the MSM, remember when Lott made his comments? Weeks and weeks of coverage. Not long after that Dodd said that Byrd would have been a great president, even during the Civil War. This comment I found to be a bit more inflammatory considering Byrds Klan background but you maybe got one news reference to it the day it happened.

It is frustrating, but luckily there are now outlets like FOX and RedState raising awareness that there may be another side to the story.

Yes, so very true, from my own experience as a South Asian child. We were wild, we were never taught manners, we ran around like crazy. It's funny, because at the same time, South Asian children generally have very strict parents.

Not much to say here.  Joe Biden is about as dumb as a person can come.  Now he proves that he and other Democrat filth and vermin are racists.  Nothing new here.  Just look at John Conyers, Maxine Waters, Cynthia McKinney, William Jefferson, and all the CBC members, all Black racists and America haters.  American Democrat Jews rank all over Black folk to nth degree (Just go into Palm Beach County, Florida and just listen!!!).  The Democrat Party is racist to the core.  Too bad the common folk don't get it!!!  Folks, stop listening to the spin, and start getting real.  This traitor party needs to be totally destroyed at the ballot box!!!

and I'm happy to see that you are consistent, but my reaction was instantaneous, as I was watching it on CSPAN when it happened, and I let out a audible groan when the words passed his lips.  I wrote several letters that day saying that we can't have a leader who is that clumsy, even though I agreed that he did not mean it as a racist remark.

I think you underestimate how many people were put off before the liberal media started to pile on.  Perhaps they did so because they saw that many conservatives were offended by the remarks, and are loath to give the "progressives" ammunition for their baseless and never ending charges of racism.  We should not be ceding the black vote to people whose policies hurt black people and attempt to institutionalize racism.  Republicans should get the majority of the Black vote, because there are so many conservative black people.  The fact that recycled lies keep them wed to the party that wants to keep them in their place is unacceptable.

Lott is nothing more than an appendage to the central challenge, and he had to go because while they can be idiots say stupid things that offend people, we cannot.  We have to be perfect, because the Democrats have created a hill that we must climb to the top of, period.    

He's obviously tapped out.

Some of the brattiest kids belong to military families.  I don't know why...maybe the stresses of military life plus the daily discipline put parents off on the discipline of their children.  You'd think every family was run like the Great Santini but you had polar opposites.  I distinctly remember the son of the Commandant of Cadets (one-star general, later to be a four-star) being quite a special little pr@*k...

claim they are not bias and Fox News is a branch of the Republican Party.

I think Howard Dean was worse when he spoke (in florida I think) as a minority event and said republicans couldn't get this many minorities in a room unless they brought in the cooks and the cleaning people.  

The party of tolerance allows Biden, Dean, Hillary and a former Klansman, sheets Byrd (his N word on tv with chris wallace) to run wild.  The racist past of the the Democratic party is still alive and well with quite a few.  I remember Dean had no minorities in his campaign leadership in '04.

But yeah, the multiculturalist mullahs of the left cannot allow this man to pass.  Ha ha.

two at least three in DC and two in western Maryland that don't fit that stereotype. So yes I'll say it is inaccurate.

As an unabashed lib, I've gotta say two things about this.

1. WOW. Way to go, moron. I agree that this is the result of someone that's spent WAY too much time elbow to elbow with elites. When I read the intro to this, I didn't expect him to say it to the mna's face! I'd love to see the guy's reaction. "I'm not kidding." Perfect. Now the rube can't deny it.
   
2. YIPPIE! I would never vote for Biden anyway. He's part of the problem with the Dem leadership. I hope this does come back to haunt him.

Joe Biden is a Democrat.  He gets an unlimited number of extra lives in the media, no matter how stupid or bigoted or stereotypical or inflammatory (to Muslims, I would say) anything he says is.  It's just that simple.  All Democrats have this official power of protection.  That's why Corzine wasn't thrown to the wolves for shutting down New Jersey.  If a Republican governor had shut down the state, there would have been a lynch mob assembling in Trenton.  Corzine's "one of us" -- "man of the people" blahblah, and so is Biden, and therefore anything he says is either misunderstood or was meant as a joke, or was inaptly phrased, or was taken out of context, or was said in haste and with no malice aforethought, or wasn't really news, or just had no bearing on anything, or wasn't important, or couldn't possibly be construed as offensive, or....

Wasn't that an issue for Kerry/Edwards? ;)

I sure hope this doesn't end a Biden campaign before it ends.  I was really, really looking forward to Joe Biden being added to the line up of jokers in the debates leading up to the primaries.  

I don't get Dean this time, and probably won't get Gore, please don't let them take away more of my comedy.

I don't see it as hurting Biden in the slightest.  I think the people he's talking to will take it as a compliment, actually.  The only problem is that he might have angered the many, many Pakistani 7-11/Circle K/Gas n' Sip owners out there and inflamed some kind of Kashmiri border crisis right there in Delaware, The First State.  Get the flak jackets.

He's lost the filter: "Make love to my wife while my kids are sleeping" --His kid is 25 years old, but Kudos to him for dating Jordana Brewster's younger and hotter sister Isabella Brewster...Google those two...

Biden seems to revel in attention, but he is NOT Presidential

I've seen the software engineers have to put up with the 'bratty' children. Here's the difference (again, from my personal experience..I know this is generalization.  The kids don't usually talk back to their parents and stuff, but a lot of things I've seen emphasized in American homes aren't emphasized here - ex: sitting at the table quietly and eating your food.  In addition, in public places, the "seen and not heard" rule isn't exactly in effect..usually you have the "run around screaming" rule. What I suspect it is is that the kids aren't misbehaving because the parents don't see it as misbehaving. At least, my parents and the other parents in my community never did.  So, you can have strict parents, but crazy kids, because the rules of the house are different.

But his other one was a joke about cops, and the Dems wouldn't be caught dead raising hackles about jokes at the expense of law enforcement.

Extreme Mortman has the full quote.

The actual point of his comment wasn't so bad... but what's with Biden and Dunkin Donuts?

but when I was a teenager, I refused to babysit any of their kids who were under 10.  And I still won't go to a department store in their neighborhoods because of what those kids do to them...

The adults and teenagers, no problem.  the little kids, though...

I mean, my mom and stepdad owned a gas station, and they weren't Indians. They were Bengalis!  I mean, that's just so rude to lump all us South Asians together. Honestly.

<g>

Would that he had been raised by Wolves, of the Leon and MrsNachos variety, eh?  

which is why we're all laughing our heads (and other body parts) off and not exhibiting even a shred of moral outrage. It's just stupid, that's all.

But I really don't think this will hurt his campaign too much, unless he keeps putting his foot in his mouth and saying goofy things.

mental vapor lock

I'd probably say that light tweaking of the foibles of economically successful people who work hard is perfectly acceptable.

If I were in a locked room with people who I knew were sympathetic, I'd probably paraphrase Nixon and say something like "heck with them, they don't vote for us anyway."

Watch the netroots for variations on these two themes.

Biden entered the Senate at age 29.  He's basically a caricature of what would happen to a glib, mildly bright young man if he was surrounded only by Senators for most of his adult life.

While my sarcasm-o-meter is drawing inconclusive readings from your post, I've found the Indians in my neighborhood to be very good parents and have very respectful children who smile and say hello to me in the halls.

I'm thinking that it has less to do with an ethnic/cultural thing.  It's hard for me to imagine the mindset of software engineers putting up with screaming brat children.

I live in silicon valley, and can attest to this.  I've got to say I'm a fan of those guys, too.  Hard working family men.  They make up 98% of my neighbors in my apartment complex, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  Think about it: find me a demographic in America that causes fewer crimes.

Clinton could disarm audiences with self-deprecating humor and fool some people with fake "let me pretend like I'm shedding a tear" nonsense etc. Biden just comes across as a snob who has this fake Cheshire Cat grin that you just want to go slap off his face. His likability factor is about zero if you ask me. Plenty of people could picture themselves sitting down and having a beer with Clinton, but nobody'd want to spend more than 5 seconds with Biden.

. . . just like some Democrats think it's okay to make fun of Americans of Cuban descent because they generally tend to vote Republican.

I've seen in weeks.

There is finally someone that has proven that I don't HAVE to have social skills to do the job!

some of my favorite libs are in your camp.  The less they see of Biden, the happier they are.  You can put Nancy in that sinking boat as well.

either way...how stupid!...a true Homer Simpson moment.

Sometimes, that boy don't remember that he's paid for the camera to be on him 24/7.

Biden knows no shame.  Even death will not keep Biden away from the debates.

MSM will simply place an empty podium on stage and declare that even in death, Biden is there in spirit.

That 'noble gesture' will be praised and lionized in tomorrow's lead story about last night's debate, and the partisan media will "feel good about themselves."

i just had to print that one !

Boxer, Pelosi, Lieberman,  Schumer, Clinton, and I'm sure a few more I'm forgetting here, are all a HUGE part of the problem.

They care more about getting re-elected (or elected to the Prez) than taking a stand for what they believe in, or what their constituates believe in. Biden, and the lot, worry too much about "upsetting" some people to put their proverbial foot down and stand behind their suppoed Democrat beliefs.

Well, though not intentional, I think Sen Biden just took a stand. And I think it'll cost him. At least I hope it does.

You must think Biden is a generally thoughtful person to cut him so much slack.

No, I think Biden is just another airhead, which is true of a lot of Senators from both parties who share Biden's delusional belief in their own exceptional intelligence.

My reaction was to what was said, not who said it. I'm fine with entrepeneurial legal immigrants finding success in whatever business, and don't think jokes about a high proportion of convenience stores being run by South Asian or Middle Eastern immigrants are necessarily malicious. The bit about having to have an Indian accent didn't sound good, but without evidence of actual hostility from Biden, I should presume it was just careless phrasing that came out wrong.

What were you saying when Lott said that if Strom Thurmond were elected President when he ran, we would wouldn't face a lot of the problems we face today?

I thought the hysteria over Lott's joke about Thurmond being elected President was ridiculous. Saying it seriously would have been outrageous, but humorous personal praise for an old man (where the joke's premise is that the idea of Thurmond actually being elected President is itself a joke) doesn't imply any acceptence of the racist political platform half a century ago.

The reaction [to Lott's Thurmond joke] was brutal and swift and it did not come from the left.  It came from the active base that is sick and tired of the liberal canard of racism spat at the Party of Lincoln without merit or reason.

My recollection is that it was the left who first raised a stink about it, and Republicans just decided Lott was a liability not worth the cost of defending. I'll admit to having a somewhat similar cynical feeling at the time, glad to be rid of an institutional accomodationist that made his predecessor, the Senator from Archer Daniels Midland, look like a free market ideologue in comparison. (Then the more I saw of Frist, the better Lott started looking in retrospect.)

I actually think Biden is the Democrat Party's best shot at the White House.

He's a little brash.  He's got a little of that "don't mess with me" attitude about him. He's full of himself, but so was Clinton.  

His only problems are that he talks waaaaay to long in his speeches, so he's not a good soundbite guy, and he's utterly arrogant.  

But those foibles are pretty tame compared with the other yahoos he'd be going against.

I'm not sayin' anything, just sayin'.

From January, 2004:

During an event here for Senate candidate Nancy Farmer, Clinton introduced a quote from Gandhi by saying, "He ran a gas station down in St. Louis."

After laughter from many in the crowd of at least 200 subsided, the former first lady continued, "No, Mahatma Gandhi was a great leader of the 20th century." In a nod to Farmer's underdog status against Republican Sen. Kit Bond, Clinton quoted the Indian independence leader as saying: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

I've checked CNN and MSNBC... nothing? Does anyone doubt for even a second that if Mitt Romney, George Allen or Jon Kyl had said something like this they would have been crucified before the day was over?

that we'd never wish that on y'all

I think that would be a great reality TV show.  Joe Biden lives with a republican family for a couple months.

"Joe, it was your turn to do the dishes tonight!" "Well Tim, I think this just shows the pattern of neglect when it comes to this administration taking their eye off the dishes blah blah blah...."

....the beauty of this is that it's the Dems who gave us our excruciating national sense of political correctness and who regard racial/ethnic slurs or stereotypes as disqualifiers from higher office.  So when Biden slips up like this I think it's called "hoisted by their own pettards."

Going back to an earlier comment, what made Biden so compelling as to be elected to the Senate at 29?

It doesn't even work as a lousy joke... one of those rules of comedy is that there should be an element of truth to the observation for it to have even a chance of being considered funny. I know I've managed to be in both a DD and a 7-11 without an having an Indian accent. I've never heard of anyone else being barred from entry because of the lack of Indian accent, either.

The real disparity, and the thing the media really needs to address, is that when Illustrious Potentates like Joe Biden get ignored when they make stupid statements like this, the standard should also be upheld when they make stupid policy statements in the Congressional Record -- meaning that nobody should take them seriously across the board.

And there you have the biggest Democrat hypocrisy of all!

You can't call a customer service line without...

Btw love "Rome"

Those hair plugs definitely went too deep.

Tom (?) Carper, is Delaware's other Senator, who's actually running for reelection this year. if you didn't know that, much less his name, you certainly can't be blamed.

I'm not saying he's a GOOD candidate, and certainly not presidential.  I'm just saying he's their best shot, of those I know who are likely to run.

I could be wrong though.

Sure, we threw him under the bus, but only because it was politically expedient and we didn't care for his leadership much in the first place. It wasn't instantaneous either... I think that was on about day 78 of the StromBirthdayGate crisis.

Biden's comment is definitley insensitive, but I dare raise the point, isn't it inaccurate?

For every 7/11 I've been to from Pennsylvania to Texas usually has had Indian folk serving in some sort of managment capacity.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But no one is out there condemning the TV cartoon the Simpsons for lampooning 7/11 with Apu the Kwik-e-Mart store manager.  

As for DD...I don't know how accurate it is, I recall a 1980s commerical where the spokesman for Dunkin Donuts was a white man with a mustache named Duncan.

Again....insensitive?  Definitley.  

But the comment is probably one that most Americans would agree with in their first line of thinking ayway.

and there was this pretty Indian girl working there... Well that's all I suppose. The stereotype almost works but it is both insensitive for a political candidate to say, and also diminishes the great achievements of the Indian immigrants in this new age of "gimme" immigrants with outstretched hands.

Most of the Indians I've met have been hard working, intelligent, and with exceedingly good manners. If we should expand anyone's immigration quota it should be India's.

Tank Commanders helmut!!

Perhaps this is part of Howard Dean's plan to appeal to NASCAR dads.  As a Texan, I know that I always go around griping about those dang Indians and their Slurpee machines.  I'm definitely voting for Biden now.

I'm joking, by the way.

But I will say this, (not that anyone here has done this) Biden's comments shouldn't be viewed as racist or malicious.  Surely he was just trying to be "everyman" like he always does.  He missed the mark, but that's par for the course for Biden.  

Does Delaware have another Senator, by the way?

Look at me, daddy!

And so it is.  He can't even be original when putting on his 'stupid'.

I remembered this WSJ letter from last November as being a nice take on Hindus' economic activity in the United States:

Hindus in U.S. Exemplify Capitalism's Basic Virtue

November 10, 2005

Francis Fukuyama's formulation of the fundamental criteria of citizenship in European nations -- "blood, soil and ancient shared memory" -- captures perfectly the fatal flaw at the heart of European multiculturalism, and reveals the hypocrisy of the European contempt for the American experience ("A Year of Living Dangerously," editorial page, Nov. 2). Critically, what is missing from that formulation, and from Prof. Fukuyama's prescription for cure, is the role of capitalism, and the worship of the almighty dollar.

As Hayek and his disciples have pointed out, capitalism is the most democratic and virtuous of social systems: dollars are not black, white or red. And a society that accords social and cultural respect to those who succeed in the economic sphere is, by definition, more inclusive than one based on any other set of criteria.

Let's take a really (one would think) remote cultural group in America: Hindus. Something like 40% of hotel/motel properties in America are owned by Patels and their cousins. And they contribute to American society at every level: philanthropic, cultural and social -- because of the respect they are accorded for their economic success. One generation: from immigrant to university donor and honoree.

But societies that place economic success well below "blood, soil and ancient shared memory" in their pantheon of virtues are fated to spend eternity trying to square the circle: integrating those who do not share in those historical criteria, and never will.

Barry Augenbraun

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Now that I look at Biden's comments, I proclaim, "Eh, so what. Just a light observation that comports with reality."

He didn't say you couldn't go to a DD or 7-11 without SEEING an Indian, he said you could not go unless YOU have a slight Indian accent....  Just a fine point.  My personal experience with Indian, Pakistani, and Bengali store managers is that they are quite happy to take my money and provide me a very pleasant shopping experience  -- even though my accent is thoroughly Texan.

And if you think about it, Biden even looks like Homer Simpson.

Imagine Homer Simpson in the Senate......well we don't have to: We have Joe Biden.

Doh!

ROTF&LMFAO!!!!!!

It really is a fit.

lolololol

I also immediately thought of this hillary comment but, if history repeats itself, this story wont make it anywhere. The very day hillary said it, it WAS on cnn.com, but disappeared by the afternoon. Now you cant even find it in the archives.

And isnt it amazing when you do find it somewhere else (as in your link), it is an apologetic article. Try typing trent lotts name in cnns archive and see if their one (ha ha) article on him was spiked.

but theyre liberals so you should know they dont mean it.

never gets old!!!