Florida repug candidate's pro-racial profiling campaign ad

[buttmunch]

Republican Dan Fanelli, who's running to depose a Democrat in Florida's 8th district, has created a new ad comparing an old white man to a hulking brown person. Which one looks more like a terrorist? It's a no-brainer!

Mr. Fanelli, who looks something like a zombie Bill Irwin, claims that the ad wasn't meant to say that darker skinned people are more likely to be evil, just that people from certain countries in the Middle East require a little more suspicion. "You can be light and from those countries," he said. So then why is the ad about what people look like? This is confusing! Oh well, the important thing is that he totally wouldn't mind being profiled himself, if they were profiling middle-aged white guys. Which they're not, ever. A 'Good-Looking' Florida Congressional Candidate's Pro-Racial Profiling Ad - Racial Profiling - Gawker

Here's a longer version of the story:

In the spot, which ran over the weekend on a Fox affiliate in central Florida, Fanelli stands between a middle-aged white man and a younger, swarthy fellow. "Does this look like a terrorist?" he asks, gesturing towards the white man. Then, pointing to the darker dude, he adds: "Or this?"

"It's time to stop this political correctness in the invasion of our privacy," Fanelli says, an apparent call for racial profiling in the searching of those deemed to be potential terrorists.

In an interview, I asked Fanelli if the message of the spot was that darker people are more likely to be terrorists.
He said it wasn't, claiming that the ad's point was that people from countries like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Syria "require a higher level of security."

"You can be light and from those countries," he said, adding that the actor who played the terrorist in the commercial agreed with him.

Fanelli, who said he had piloted a flight bound for Washington on Sept. 11, when the city was attacked, added that Middle Easterners should want profiling for their own safety.

"If the people that were doing this kind of thing looked like me, even though I'm not the guy doing the terrorist thing I would want to be examined more closely," he said, vowing that he harbored no animosity towards Islam and that in Congress he would represent all religions.

Fanelli is one of a half-dozen Republicans running to take on Grayson. So it's unclear if he'll ever ascend to Congress. But this ad deserves to be entered as an exhibit in the larger argument over the Arizona law, terrorism, and racial profiling.

And, drum roll please, here is the ad:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgdALsV6AmI&feature=player_embedded[/YOUTUBE]

Nice.

[nancydrew]

Omg. What is scary is that people think just like that.

And I thought the Tim James "we speak english" ad here in Alabama was bad. One morning I had the news on while getting dressed and heard "This is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it" and was like WHAT THE FUCK DID HE JUST SAY?!?

[Kittylady]

In the spot, which ran over the weekend on a Fox affiliate in central Florida, Fanelli stands between a middle-aged white man and a younger, swarthy fellow. "Does this look like a terrorist?" he asks, gesturing towards the white man. Then, pointing to the darker dude, he adds: "Or this?


Ok, so it was young, middle eastern looking guys who blew up kids in Warrington (I was supposed to be going there the day the bomb went off but was delayed and didn't go). Was it young middle eastern guys who blew up Manchester? No, it was average white guys. What about Timothy McVeigh? Oh, wait, he was white too...

You cannot judge someone to be a potential terrorist by the colour of their skin. People of all ages and races can become radicalised by whatever lunatic cause they choose to throw their lot in with.

This moron needs to pull his head out of his anus.

[kingcap72]

In an interview, I asked Fanelli if the message of the spot was that darker people are more likely to be terrorists.
He said it wasn't, claiming that the ad's point was that people from countries like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Syria "require a higher level of security."

I guess the fact that we've had terrorist actions/attempted terrorist actions in the last year or so by Arabs, whites and blacks means that Arabs are the likely terrorists by process of elimination. More attempts to justify racial prejudice, just like the Arizona bill.

[Grimmlok]

Too bad the guy who saved the day in Times Square was a muslim immigrant

[latinaforever]

what about jihad jane?that woman was as white as the guy he features in his ad.

[visitor42]

Too bad the guy who saved the day in Times Square was a muslim immigrant

Good point, but the tea bagging crowd wouldn't care.

Timothy McVeigh and the guy who flew his plane into the IRS building also were lily white.

[sputnik]

the video's been taken down - i guess the pussy can't own up to his fucked up views now that they're being ridiculed all over the internet. coward.
i'm waiting for someone else to put it on youtube again but so far no luck.

[Just Kill Me]

Too bad the guy who saved the day in Times Square was a muslim immigrant

I was listening to an interview with him this morning, he's from Senegal. Muslim Vendor Gets No Credit in Helping to Foil Times Square Bomb Plot

[BITTER]

what about jihad jane?that woman was as white as the guy he features in his ad.

Several alleged/potential terrorists found in Europe have been white as well.

This moron's argument holds water...like a sieve.

[Kittylady]

Several alleged/potential terrorists found in Europe have been white as well.

This moron's argument holds water...like a sieve.

I'm sure that the idiots who gobble up Fanelli's shit probably think that its only a sieve because those pesky muslims poked holes in it.

[Sundance]

Too bad the guy who saved the day in Times Square was a muslim immigrant

I think this is exactly why the local radio station was raving about this guy NOT being a hero. This ignorant fuck kept going on & on about how this is what the guy should have done & how it doesn't make him a hero. Bet if he had been some white dude or christian guy he would have gone on about the lord putting him there. Or maybe how great it was that somebody cared enough to get involved.

These days people don't wear their hatred & bigotry on their sleeves. They have it tattooed on their foreheads. And they seem to be pretty damn proud of it.