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  • SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 22 2007 4:00 PM

Question Kerry, Get Tasered, Fuck Bush, Lose Advertising Dollars

Submitted by Rahodeb

Edited by Rahodeb



By now you're probably familiar with the story of the University of Florida student who was tasered during a forum with Sen. John Kerry. In the course of asking Kerry about his membership in Skull and Bones, he was forcibly removed from the microphone and "escorted" to the back of the auditorium, loudly protesting all the while.



As has been noted, neither Kerry nor the majority of the other students participating in the forum did anything to stop this from happening. However, about 2,000 miles away at Colorado State University, students sympathetic to the recently tasered Andrew Meyer published a response, which has left the paper approximately $30,000 poorer in advertising dollars so far.

Colorado State University's student newspaper has lost $30,000 in advertising and had to cut pay and other budgets by 10 percent because of fallout from the use of a four-letter word in an editorial about President Bush, the Coloradoan reported Saturday.

In large type, the editorial included the words "Taser this ... Fuck Bush." The editorial said it had the support of the Collegian's editorial board.

"As local and national media will inevitably jump on this controversy, I strongly urge the university community to try and understand that the intentions of the students on staff, including me, were not to cause harm, but rather to reinforce the importance of free speech at our great institution," Editor-in-Chief J. David McSwane said in a posting on the paper's Web site Friday.

I can understand being up at arms about the Bush administrations "approach" to civil liberties, and I can totally jive with wanting to "make a statement people couldn't ignore," as the paper's Editor-in-Chief says he wanted to do, but "Fuck Bush"? That's not original, intelligent, or creative. How about "Fuck Kerry." That would be more to the point, after all, and your advertisers probably wouldn't have as big a problem with it.

The Collegian, a free publication funded entirely by advertising and published Monday through Friday printed comments, including negative ones on its Web site.

"Like many other comments here, I'm quite ashamed to see the official voice of my alma mater's paper choosing to express itself like this," wrote one commenter under the name Phil Mills. "Regardless of the Editors' opinion of our President, I would have hoped that they could have come up with something more eloquent and reasoned to express that opinion than this... this... bumper sticker."

The fact that Kerry continued to numbly "answer" Meyer's question even as the kid was being tasered and screaming "Help" and "Owwww" in agony is absurd and pathetic. Publishing an editorial response in a college paper that reads "Taser this ... Fuck Bush," is a close second.

Perhaps worst of all are the other students and (presumably) faculty who didn't respond. What would you do in that situation? Stand idly by, or speak up and act out?

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Comments
masterfrederick

masterfrederick

Beaverton, OR
November 2006

SEP 23, 2007 06:53 PM

asbestosman said:
zoom image



Witness the violence inherent in the system!!!

_kungfoo_

_kungfoo_

Los Angeles, CA
April 2005

SEP 23, 2007 07:12 PM

masterfrederick said:

KUNGFOO said:

masterfrederick said:
BAAAAAAAAH!!! BAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

I'm a sheep with nothing to say!!!



Have a nice day, little lamb.



I still have nothing relevant to say on the issue other than recycling the same Bah-Bah-Baah shit I've already said as further proof of my ignorance, so I guess I'll just insult your picture!




Political debate? Please. Your sense of moral outrage has blinded you, little lamb. Rather than see the issue as it is, and look up a few laws or statutes, you instead resort to middle-school insults. Get back in the flock, before the dog bites you in the ass, little lamb.



Maturity isn't your strong point, is it?

Subrosa

Subrosa

San Francisco, CA
July 2004

SEP 23, 2007 07:21 PM

spinysquid said:
'lack of mental facility', wow. kisses to you, too.

i understand what youre saying about kerry's lack of legal authority. however, politicians exercise authority in legally questionable situations all the time. theyre politicians. i do think kerry would have had input into the situation had he chosen to raise his voice a little. he's not just 'a dude with a micriphone', hes the guest of honor, and the reason everyone is in the room. that automatically gives him some authority, whether its legal or not. i quiver and shudder with horror at the notion that i might be 'dumb' in your eyes, subrosa. it keeps me awake at night.



Returning to the points actually in controversy, the fact that politicians exercise authority in legally questionable situations sometimes again couldn't be more irrelevant. We're not talking about passing a constitutionally questionable law here, we're talking about ordering the police to do something while they're in the middle of it. It's not remotely the same thing and to draw the comparison is moronic. Again, he COULD have said something else. But the fact that he didn't means nothing and to assign him with any more responsibility that that is absurd. And dumb.

masterfrederick

masterfrederick

Beaverton, OR
November 2006

SEP 23, 2007 07:22 PM

KUNGFOO said:

masterfrederick said:

KUNGFOO said:

masterfrederick said:
BAAAAAAAAH!!! BAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

I'm a sheep with nothing to say!!!



Have a nice day, little lamb.



I still have nothing relevant to say on the issue other than recycling the same Bah-Bah-Baah shit I've already said as further proof of my ignorance, so I guess I'll just insult your picture!




Political debate? Please. Your sense of moral outrage has blinded you, little lamb. Rather than see the issue as it is, and look up a few laws or statutes, you instead resort to middle-school insults. Get back in the flock, before the dog bites you in the ass, little lamb.



Maturity isn't your strong point, is it?



This from a guy who, rather than continue to actually say anything relevant to the actual topic, resorts to insulting my profile picture. Nice one, little lamb.

_kungfoo_

_kungfoo_

Los Angeles, CA
April 2005

SEP 23, 2007 07:24 PM

whatever

I'd rather have a conservation with Bill O'Reilly than continue this debate with you, for obvious reasons (to everybody except yourself perhaps).

masterfrederick

masterfrederick

Beaverton, OR
November 2006

SEP 23, 2007 07:28 PM

masterfrederick

masterfrederick

Beaverton, OR
November 2006

SEP 23, 2007 07:37 PM

KUNGFOO said:
Nothing relevant. AGAIN.




Necia

Necia

San Francisco, CA
August 2005

SEP 23, 2007 07:41 PM

masterfrederick said:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)



That shit's right about to give me a goddamned seizure.

masterfrederick

masterfrederick

Beaverton, OR
November 2006

SEP 23, 2007 07:50 PM

Necia said:

masterfrederick said:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)



That shit's right about to give me a goddamned seizure.



Hadn't thought of that... I'd go back and spoiler it, but it's past time to edit.

Sorry...

JunkyardAngel

JunkyardAngel

San Gabriel, CA
February 2006

SEP 23, 2007 08:09 PM

masterfrederick said:

asbestosman said:
zoom image



Witness the violence inherent in the system!!!



Well. At least there was no farcical aquatic ceremony.

No. Wait. That would have made it more interesting. . .

JunkyardAngel

JunkyardAngel

San Gabriel, CA
February 2006

SEP 23, 2007 08:11 PM

Necia said:

masterfrederick said:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)



That shit's right about to give me a goddamned seizure.



SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Snicker. Good one. smile

SonOfAPunk

SonOfAPunk

Maple Ridge, BC
January 2006

SEP 23, 2007 10:50 PM

You know what I love?



...neither Kerry nor the majority of the other students participating in the forum did anything to stop this from happening.



Now if I were there, and my buddy was being tazed for simply speaking and not allowing himself to be escorted away while he was asking a valid question...

What the fuck could I do?

Some chicks screamed in the background. Some people made some disturbed moans. But other than that, what more can one do in this situation?

Without getting arrested themselves, I mean...

This whole thing reminds me so much of the concept behind the new Nine Inch Nails album.

The kid did nothing wrong.

As much as you want to break it down, and as much as you want to justify the tazing, the kid 'caused no harm.

Sure, he was a little rowled up, but nothing a quick escort out can't take care of...

Fuck this. I'm listening to Leftover Crack now.

Kill Cops.

grazing_cattle

grazing_cattle

Richmond, MI
August 2007

SEP 24, 2007 03:02 AM

This kid deserved everything he got. He's an idiot. The gaurds there asked him several times to stop and he just kept ranting. He was warned before being tasered and he couldn't even just put his hands behind his back. You can't tell me if they would have backed off this kid wouldn't have bolted away from them and started making more trouble.

DrStinkypants

DrStinkypants

Saint Paul, MN
October 2002

SEP 24, 2007 07:01 AM

Subrosa said:

spinysquid said:
'lack of mental facility', wow. kisses to you, too.

i understand what youre saying about kerry's lack of legal authority. however, politicians exercise authority in legally questionable situations all the time. theyre politicians. i do think kerry would have had input into the situation had he chosen to raise his voice a little. he's not just 'a dude with a micriphone', hes the guest of honor, and the reason everyone is in the room. that automatically gives him some authority, whether its legal or not. i quiver and shudder with horror at the notion that i might be 'dumb' in your eyes, subrosa. it keeps me awake at night.



Returning to the points actually in controversy, the fact that politicians exercise authority in legally questionable situations sometimes again couldn't be more irrelevant. We're not talking about passing a constitutionally questionable law here, we're talking about ordering the police to do something while they're in the middle of it. It's not remotely the same thing and to draw the comparison is moronic. Again, he COULD have said something else. But the fact that he didn't means nothing and to assign him with any more responsibility that that is absurd. And dumb.



It's not about assigning responsibility or legal authority, it's about showing some fucking compassion and backbone, two things Kerry has consistently been accused of lacking. Clearly, his reputation isn't inaccurate. He may not have had any 'legal' authority, but it's not unreasonable in any sense to think that had he at least fucking tried to do something he could have changed the outcome.
And this whole "what could he have done?" line of defense is pretty silly. The only reason we're hypothesizing about what the result of his action could have been is because he didn't do anything, because he's a douche. Even more stupidly, that line of thinking implies that Kerry intentionally didn't step in because he didn't think he could do anything. Which, really, is the kind of defeatism I think people look for in a leader. whatever

sy_old

sy_old

Columbia, MO
March 2007

SEP 24, 2007 07:31 AM

The thing that bothered me, as my friend pointed out, DID they tell him why he was getting arrested? They have to do that, y'know. If I was getting arrested and wasn't being told why, I'd fucking make a hissy fit too. This has nothing to do with how annoying he was or how much of a douche he is...it has to do with civil rights. I'm sick of reading all the comments about how he was annoying and deserved to be tasered...what the fuck? Obviously something is out of sync here.

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