Accents, politics, and double standards

Have you heard about the latest overwrought tempest in a P.C. teapot on this post-Super Bowl Monday morning?
It’s over Michigan Republican Pete Hoekstra’s “insensitive” Senate campaign ad using an Asian-American actress portraying a Chinese worker gloating over incumbent Dem. Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s big spending habits.
Watch:
Black ministers and Asian activists have decried the commercial.
Both left and right are up in arms:
The portrayal of a young Asian woman speaking broken English in a Super Bowl ad being run by U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra against Michigan incumbent Debbie Stabenow is bringing charges of racial insensitivity.
GOP consultant Nick De Leeuw flat-out scolded the Holland Republican for the ad.
“Stabenow has got to go. But shame on Pete Hoekstra for that appalling new advertisement,” De Leeuw wrote on his Facebook page Sunday morning. “Racism and xenophobia aren’t any way to get things done.”
A media consultant who has advised Democrats also thought it could prove problematic.
“Some Asian-Americans may be offended by the stereotype that is portrayed in the spot,” said Robert Kolt, who teaches advertising part-time at Michigan State University and had previewed a number of
Sunday’s Super Bowl ads. “Pete seems like a nice guy in the ad, but I think he is wasting a lot of money now. … It’s just not Super Bowl-worthy. It’s not cute, it’s not funny and it’s not memorable.”
Is the ad less than tasteful? Yes.
Is it “xenophobic” to point out that China is benefiting ginormously from our fiscal recklessness, indebtedness, and outsourcing of jobs? Certainly not.
Oddly enough (in other words: predictably enough), there was little uproar when Vice President Joe Biden — a serial P.C. offender — mocked an Indian accent in decrying outsourcing of call center jobs just last month:
Back in 2006, Biden joked about Indian accents and Dunkin’ Donuts and gas stations — with a hardly a peep from the Sensitivity Police:
Liberal Democrat Bob Beckel mocked GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal’s State of the Union response address and likened it to a “call center ad in Mumbai:”
The P.C. police, as always, are P.C. only when it’s P.E. — politically expedient.
As for all the lefties decrying the ugly nativism of the “Buy American” message that resonates with Rust Belt voters, I remind you that it’s not just Republicans who have channeled Pat Buchanan for electoral gain:

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“You round-eye alway so stupid. We have owe you nothing. Why you not come back four, five year? Maybe we give you work to do. Wash our clothes. Something. OK?”
LOL. Actually, I think it is a great commercial. The girl was hot, and her statement was correct.
Every time the Left b*tches about Republican non-PC remarks, the long laundry list of their outrageous comments should be pulled out, religiously, for them to explain.
Your uppitiness is overwhelmed by your ignorance…or – your alligator mouth has overwhelmed your hummingbird ass.
Ditto – shine the light. Just the facts ma’am. The truth will be shown for those who want to see it.
Also, the actress’ monolog was not “broken english”. It was simple and understandable.
Are you kidding?
The ad is about spending. Hence the names of the websites mentioned.
Did Rep Hoesktra vote for the Prescription Drug Bill? Yes, the bill that was incompletely funded and required borrowing from China to fund?
Has Rep Hoesktra been neck deep in earmarks over his career?
You are more than welcome to attack me ad hominem, though you would be well served and more deserving of praise if address the facts and what I said.
Rep Hoesktra’s ad is a model of hypocrisy based on his record.
I have issues with the policies Sen Stabenow advances, though that is not what I addressed in my post. I did not say the ad was less than truthful. When MM posts a blog on Sen Stabenow I may comment.
He voted for the Prescription Drug Bill. Yep, incompletely funded and required borrowing from China to pay for it. And, then there are the earmarks.
Any sign yet of a birth certificate. I mean, she’s there and all…
Ahh actually no. Please knock of the self-righteous indignation..It’s lost on us…but my all means cite references and by the way – earmarks do not simply equal big spending…please be aware – I lived in Michigan.
Oh and PS – while your at it, please elaborately expound as only you can do re: its tatsefulness (sp) and not the tatsefulness (sp) of that gutter guy Biden.
Leftist are whining because the ad is effective.
The left’s moral superiority far exceeds that of any Christian dogma and let’s not mention their guilt trips.
Precious few who did not. Kind of hard to buck the status quo when that is how the “game” is played though. Stabenow and others took advantage and played with a lot more gusto, Stevens and Murkowski included.
I am not going to disagree with you.
However, when your ad takes another to task over the things that you have done yourself, that is hypocrisy.
And, ‘more gusto’ is not a defense. Did you, or didn’t you(spend)? It amounts to being . . . a little bit pregnant.
So Ms. Malkin, your answer to the “less than tasteful” (that’s putting it mildly, I must say) ad is, “The Democrats do it too!!!!” Addressing tangent, strawmen arguments, is a lot easier, I guess.
No, no, no. Follow me…it was brought up by Michelle because it was the democrats that took issue with it…you know…like – why do they have such a problem with it when they’ve done it too. Once again, you see things backwards.
Misscheryl, if you look at MM’s blog post, the Right also had a problem with it – “Both left and right are up in arms:”
It is irrelevant who is “up in arms” about it. Address the issue, please.
oh I get it…the dems brought it up and then Michelle commented but the right and the left take issue with it but it’s irrelevant who is “up in arms” just address the issue…
palm to forehead…
What a ridiculous comment. So being in debt to 1% of GDP is no better than being in debt to 150% of GDP. Glad we have public policy geniuses like you to explain these concepts to us.
By the way, it’s quite telling that you have plenty to say about the supposed “hypocrisy” of Hoekstra spending a few pennies on the dollar of what Stabenow likes to spend, but nothing about the rank hypocrisy of the Left in their fake outrage against this ad.
Yes, spending is spending. Have a spine. Do you want to cut spending or not? Do you want to be just a little bit pregnant? Does such thing exist?
You are welcome to psrse debt. I don’t wish to do so. Are you against debt or are’nt you? Be consistent, for cying out loud.
For goodness sake, do you want to cut spending or not?
When MM posts a blog discussing the hypocrisy of the left I may comment. Accept that this blog post is about an endorsed ad by a candidate for the Senate from Minnesota.
Sen Stabenow has her problems and I have issues with them, however a candidate cannot complain about another candidate who has the same problems. Hoekstra is a spending phenonmenon.
http://www.progressmichigan.org/blog/2011/08/who-is-hoekstra-today-pork-barrel-pete.html
I am not of the left, besides who cares what they think?
I care about what Republicans say, their policies and how they present the issues of the day. When a Republican takes a Democrat to task over spenfing, they better have a spotless and consistent record on what they are saying.
Do you agree?
Or maybe, you agree that you can be a litle bit pregnant?
The ad is hypocritical based on Hoekstra’s record.
And there you destroy what little credibility you may have had.
Red Dog
I’m part Asian, and I’m not offended by this ad. I find it to be painfully accurate, not because of race, but at how we are mortgaging our country to foriengers and the fed Your statement about how the Chi-coms view the dumb “round-eyes” is spot on.
(laughs)
The only missing was her falling head over heels for a nice, strong white, black or Hispanic male.
Just imagine how high the pitch from racially-sensitive bubble dwellers would have been.
You’re assuming she thought the ad was distasteful. I didn’t see her say or mean that.
But yes, the double standard is pretty obvious, and where the hell were you after Biden and Beckels comments on Jindal? In front of your TV laughing?
Are you a liberal? Do you accept debt as long as it is only 1% of GDP?
Very simple, do you accept debt? Yes, or no?
Where is your credibility? And, consistentcy?
Go ahead, make my day day, do you accept debt? At 1% or at 150% of GDP? Relativity is not an issue for me. Could be for you.
Debt is debt at 1% or at 150%.
Or, maybe you are just a little bit pregnant. Go ahead, explain that. Are you 1% pregnant, or 150% pregnant?
Liberals can explain and parse that. Be the Liberal you are and do it.
What would you rather have, a head cold or brain cancer? You mean you accept disease? Do you? You’re telling me you can be only “a little bit sick”?
Let’s see the change in attitude when instead of a lone young comely woman riding that bicycle it is instead a horde of young Chinese soldier with bayonet affixed rifles slung across their back.
Just who/how would they prefer to see/hear, some body like Sean Penn? Would that be an effective commercial? I notice that it isn’t the message that is criticized only the messenger. How LIBERAL !!
Let me introduce you to the new Big Red Machine. Hordes of comely women with machine guns and white go-go boots. (40 seconds in.)
Then you should actually read her blog more carefully. I quote: “Is the ad less than tasteful? Yes.”
I noticed the same as you, RedDog.
The Asian-Oriental woman is charming, pleasan, warm, and likeable, as well as attractive, feminine, gentle, and pretty.
What is nont to like about her?
What is so offensive about her “broken english?”
I have frequently been in the company of Chinese people. I hear broken English, and so forth, from them from time to time. The older generations tend to speak with a more broken English and clearly different pronounciation from many other US citizens.
When it comes to pronounciation of English and broken English, blacks and Hispanics do their fair share, as do quite a few Caucasians here in the USA.
Also, like you said, what the woman states in the video clip, her statement is true.
Regarding the pronounciation and grammer in the video clip, I have seen this not only from Chinese people here in the USA, but also among Vietnamese, Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans, Indians, and so forth. I don’t think anything of it. Imagine how US citizens who speak only English would sound to people in Japan, China, Vietnam, India, Korea, the Philipines, and so forth.
What I see in this story and the outrage against it is the ignorance, and rampant, deep racism throughout the core of those who express their outrage. They are so racist, bigoted, malicious, and prejudiced within themselvves, that they’ve got “Racism on the brain.”
They are sick in the head, and deranged, and cannot help themselves but be perpetually outraged and create their own boogie men.
If they truly were concerned with racism they would be confronting the Democrat Party, the Entertainment Industry, and the two most racist ethnic or racial groups in the USA, blacks and Hispanics, who are so racist that they are excessively ethno-racial centric and hate Caucasians and Asians so much that they cannot refrain from perpetually finding something racist in them, and behaving in a racist, prejudicial, bigoted manner toward them, and even create false racist charges against them, virtually 24/7.