bobbyw24
10-16-2009, 04:40 AM
"RedNeck Rap": Bill Otto, GOP Lawmaker, Criticized For Anti-Obama Song
JOHN HANNA | 10/15/09 09:23 PM |
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TOPEKA, Kan. — A video featuring a Kansas legislator criticizing President Barack Obama's policies while wearing a hat describing opossum as "the other dark meat" was removed Thursday from YouTube, where the lawmaker had posted it last month.
Republican Rep. Bill Otto said he didn't remove the video, titled "RedNeck Rap," and didn't know why it had been taken down. Google Inc., YouTube's owner, could offer no explanation.
Otto said criticism of the video was unfounded. He said the hat's saying, which he repeats at the end of the short video, refers to redneck stereotypes, not Obama.
The White House declined to comment Thursday, but Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, called the video "disturbing." He said it's logical to see the reference as being to the first black president's race.
In the video, Otto pauses after criticizing Obama and his policies, repeats the saying on the cap and adds, "A little greasy, but hey."
"It's a reference to rednecks," Otto said during a telephone interview from his home in LeRoy, a small town about 75 miles south of Topeka. "It's like 'The Beverly Hillbillies,' eating opossum bellies, grits and pigs' feet."
The flap comes less than two months after U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, another Kansas Republican, remarked in a public forum that the GOP was still looking for "a great white hope." She later said she wasn't referring to Obama and didn't know of the phrase's past link to pre-civil-rights era racism.
Attempts by AP to access Otto's video Thursday night resulted in a message stating that it had been "removed by the user." Google spokesman Scott Rubin said if a video is removed for violating YouTube's standards, a message would say so.
Story continues below
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/15/redneck-rap-bill-otto-gop_n_323176.html
JOHN HANNA | 10/15/09 09:23 PM |
What's Your Reaction?
TOPEKA, Kan. — A video featuring a Kansas legislator criticizing President Barack Obama's policies while wearing a hat describing opossum as "the other dark meat" was removed Thursday from YouTube, where the lawmaker had posted it last month.
Republican Rep. Bill Otto said he didn't remove the video, titled "RedNeck Rap," and didn't know why it had been taken down. Google Inc., YouTube's owner, could offer no explanation.
Otto said criticism of the video was unfounded. He said the hat's saying, which he repeats at the end of the short video, refers to redneck stereotypes, not Obama.
The White House declined to comment Thursday, but Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, called the video "disturbing." He said it's logical to see the reference as being to the first black president's race.
In the video, Otto pauses after criticizing Obama and his policies, repeats the saying on the cap and adds, "A little greasy, but hey."
"It's a reference to rednecks," Otto said during a telephone interview from his home in LeRoy, a small town about 75 miles south of Topeka. "It's like 'The Beverly Hillbillies,' eating opossum bellies, grits and pigs' feet."
The flap comes less than two months after U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, another Kansas Republican, remarked in a public forum that the GOP was still looking for "a great white hope." She later said she wasn't referring to Obama and didn't know of the phrase's past link to pre-civil-rights era racism.
Attempts by AP to access Otto's video Thursday night resulted in a message stating that it had been "removed by the user." Google spokesman Scott Rubin said if a video is removed for violating YouTube's standards, a message would say so.
Story continues below
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/15/redneck-rap-bill-otto-gop_n_323176.html