Karl's Weird News

Japanese politician launches attack on ‘River Kwai’ Britons :

A politician tipped as a future Japanese prime minister has said the British are not very likeable, but admitted the way British prisoners marched in The Bridge on the River Kwai demonstrated their best qualities.

Ichiro Ozawa, the former secretary-general of Japan’s ruling Democratic Party, also said he values US democracy but dismissed the American people as “simple-minded”.

The 68-year-old veteran politician, who resigned as the second most important official in the ruling party in June after coming under fire for campaign finance scandals, reportedly said: “I don’t like British people,” before praising British democracy and their discipline, citing the 1957 Second World War II film, The Bridge on the River Kwai, in which British prisoners of war march in orderly ranks.

The film, based on the novel The Bridge over the River Kwai starred Sir Alec Guinness, William Holden and Jack Hawkins. Guinness won an Oscar for his portrayal of Colonel Nicholson, who convinces the other British prisoners of war to build a bridge for the Burma-Siam railway as a means of boosting British morale but which eventually turns into a monument to himself.

The film won six other Academy Awards including Best Picture.

Veterans of the Second World War who fought against Japan said Mr Ozawa’s comments about Britain were insensitive but they would “not get into a sweat about it”.

School sorry for Hitler costume:

A Perth Catholic school has apologised to parents who were offended by a Year 4 student pretending to be Adolf Hitler being awarded first place in his class at a school dress-up day.

The inner-city school sent out a letter of apology on Wednesday after parents complained about the boy’s character portrayal at a book-week assembly.

The principal said a handful of parents had approached or emailed him after the event to say the costume, which included a swastika, should not have been allowed in the school.

Children had been asked to dress up as a famous character. “He (Hitler) was a fairly famous person,” he said. Two children from each class were judged as having the best costumes.

The principal was one of a group of teachers who decided who would win. He said claims that other children had been chanting “Hitler” while the student was on stage were untrue.

“It was a form of voting,” he said. “I would strongly deny that the children were chanting ‘Hitler’, I take strong umbrage to that.”

Other characters’ names were also called out as part of the voting process.

“Some people got upset because kids called out Hitler,” he said. The principal said he did not see anything “sinister” in the student’s choice of character.

“To me it’s a mountain out of a molehill,” he said.

Anger as ex-finance minister warns Muslims ‘making Germany stupid’

A LEADING German Social Democrat has written a book with an apocalyptic vision of his country sliding into poverty, stupidity and Muslim domination.

Thilo Sarrazin, 65, a former Berlin finance minister and current Bundesbank board member, is already under investigation by a public prosecutor for allegedly inciting racial hatred by blaming immigrants for making Germany “dumber” and calling Muslim children “underclass citizens.”

Now his book, Germany is destroying itself: How we are gambling with our country, threatens the strained social fabric of the “multi-culti” Fatherland once more at a time of rising racial tensions and the radicalisation of Islamic youth.

“I don’t want the country of my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to become, in large part, Muslim, that over wide areas Turkish and Arabic are spoken, where the women wear headscarves and the daily rhythms of life are dictated by the call of the Muezzin,” he writes.

Bundesbank’s Thilo Sarrazin: ‘Immigrants making Germany dumber’

Immigrants are making Germany ‘dumber’, according to a board member of the country’s central bank.

 Thilo Sarrazin claimed the ‘limited education’ of immigrants – coupled with their high birth rate – meant Germans ‘are becoming dumber in a simple way’.

He said: ‘There’s a difference in the reproduction of population groups with varying intelligence.’

It is not the first time the 65-year-old member of the Bundesbank has caused controversy since he joined last year.

In October he described Muslim children as ‘underclass’ citizens.

‘I don’t have to accept someone who lives off a state they reject, doesn’t properly take care of the education of his children-and keeps producing more little girls in headscarves,’ Mr Sarrazin said.

‘That goes for 70 percent of the Turkish and 90 percent of the Arabic population of Berlin.’

He added that they were not fit for much other than ‘fruit and vegetable selling’.

Head of far-right Hungarian party Jobbik vows to wipe out ‘Gypsy crime’

The leader of a far-right party that won 16.7 per cent of votes in the Hungarian elections has pledged to “eradicate Gypsy crime”.

Gabor Vona, the head of Jobbik, also pledged “very distinct and very spectacular politics”.

He said that he would wear the uniform of the Magyar Garda (Hungarian Guard), Jobbik’s banned uniformed wing, at the opening of Parliament.

After a series of court cases the Garda has been declared illegal and police have arrested its members at public gatherings.

Viktor Orban, the leader of the centre-right Fidesz — and almost certain to be the country’s next Prime Minister — said in response that Hungary was a country of law and order, and that any breaches of the law would be firmly dealt with.

Erykah Badu Window Seat Video: Is Her Stripping Illegal or Just in Poor Taste?

Heads turned during the filming of singer Erykah Badu’s latest music video, “Window Seat”

The video was shot in and around Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.

In it, Dallas native Badu walks down Elm Street while stripping her clothes off one piece at a time – until she’s fully nude.

Elm Street is the place where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Badu walks between several people on the street, and a few can be seen staring at her as she strolls and strips.

You can watch the video on her site.

It’s slightly NSFW, although parts of her body have been blurred out.

Badu is completely nude as she approaches the spot on Elm where Kennedy was shot (which is marked with an “X” on the pavement).

The sound of a gunshot can be heard and Badu collapses as if she has been shot.

“All Black People” Asked to Leave S. Jersey Wal-Mart:

Wal-Mart officials are looking at security tapes after an announcement was made for “all black people” to leave a store in South Jersey.

A man used the public-address system at the Route 42 store in Washington Township Sunday night and calmly announced: “Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now.”

Patricia Covington and Shelia Ellington were inside the store when it happened and told the Courier Post that customers and store employees looked stuneed when they heard it.

“In 2010, I want to know why such statements are being made because it flies in the face of what we teach them [our kids] at home, and that’s tolerance for people,” said Ellington.

Ellington and other customers let store management and police know they were upset. They asked the store to use the same announcement system to apologize to customers that night, which it did.

3 L.A. teachers suspended over Black History Month celebration of Simpson, Rodman, RuPaul

Three teachers at a South Los Angeles elementary school have been suspended for allegedly encouraging students to celebrate O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul for Black History Month, officials said Wednesday.

Children at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School were carrying pictures of the men at a parade Friday on the school playground, said Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry.

She said Supt. Ramon C. Cortines learned about the incident Tuesday and had the teachers, who are white, pulled from their classrooms pending an investigation.

The suspension is without pay for the first three days.

“The superintendent believes there are better choices,” she said.

New UCSD racial incident sparks rage, confrontation

Minority students at the University of California San Diego declared a racial state of emergency yesterday, presenting administrators with a list of 32 demands — many of which the school accepted on the spot.

Students, already upset by an off-campus party Monday that mocked Black History Month, reacted with tears, outrage and a march across campus after a second racially charged episode.

In the latest incident, members of an irreverent student organization aired a live segment on closed-circuit television Thursday night supporting the party.

Campus officials have been unable to locate a tape of the broadcast. According to the Black Student Union, hosts of the show called critics of the party ungrateful and used a derogatory term for African-Americans.
…
In years past, Koala TV has been temporarily unplugged at least once for airing pornographic material. The Koala publication has poked fun at Muslims, Latinos and Asians for years, and has been repeatedly criticized by the administration. The editor of the publication, Kris Gregorian, declined to comment unless offered beer.

McItaly burger controversial in home country

Italy’s agriculture minister defended his sponsorship of McDonald’s new all-Italian burger Monday amid criticism that he is selling out to a multinational corporation and sacrificing Italy’s culinary reputation in the process.

Minister Luca Zaia has argued that McDonald’s new McItaly burger — using all Italian beef, Asiago cheese and artichoke spread — will pump €3.5 million ($4.8 million) more a month into the pockets of Italian farmers grappling with tough economic times.

But for a country that gave birth to the Slow Food movement a quarter-century ago and prides itself on its varied, delicious and healthy cuisine, Zaia’s enthusiastic support of McDonald’s has been hard to swallow.

It didn’t help that Zaia and McDonald’s executives launched the new burger last month at McDonald’s flagship restaurant in Rome’s historic center near the Spanish Steps, the chain’s first Italian outpost.

The opening of those Golden Arches in 1986 famously inspired a relatively unknown Turin foodie, Carlo Petrini, to launch what became Slow Food — the international movement that embraces local, organic food and home cooking over fast food and the industrialized food chain.

Benito Mussolini speeches become Apple iTunes hit

A collection of speeches by Benito Mussolini has become an unlikely and controversial hit on the internet.

The speeches, the last of which was delivered in 1938 when Italy introduced laws which discriminated against Jews, are the second-most downloaded application on the Italian version of Apple’s iTunes website.

The popularity of the application, called iMussolini, caused outrage among some Italians in the week that the country commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day – the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet forces.

The website was inundated with comments condemning the continuing fascination with Mussolini and a member of the Italian Communist Party called the application “disgraceful”.

It contains 100 of Il Duce’s speeches and can be bought for 79 euro cents, or 68 pence. It was downloaded more than a video game based on the blockbuster science fiction film Avatar.

S.C. politician blasted for welfare remarks:

When things looked their darkest for Gov. Mark Sandford — when he was in danger of being impeached for running off to Argentina to see his mistress — his best insurance policy may well have been South Carolina’s lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer.

Lawmakers knew if they removed Sanford, they would end up with Bauer, a fiercely ambitious Republican with a reputation for reckless and immature behavior.

Now Bauer has folks shaking their heads again, after he likened government assistance to the poor to feeding stray animals.

At a town hall meeting Thursday, Bauer, who is running for governor in his own right now that Sanford is term-limited, said: “My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed! You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that.”

Moscow mayor calls gay pride march ‘Satanic’:

The mayor of Moscow, known for his overtly homophobic statements, said Monday that he would never allow a gay pride parade in the city, calling it “Satanic” and saying marchers should be punished.

“A gay parade… cannot be called anything but a Satanic act,” Yury Luzhkov told an education conference, quoted by Interfax news agency.

“We haven’t permitted such a parade and we won’t permit it in the future.” Luzhkov called for gay marchers to be punished.

“It’s high time that we stop propagating nonsense discussions about human rights, and bring to bear on them the full force and justice of the law,” he said.

Gay rights campaigner Nikolai Alexeyev reaffirmed that plans for this year’s gay pride parade will go ahead despite the ban.

“We don’t plan to make any changes. We still plan to hold a gay parade on May 29,” Alexeyev told AFP.

Russian Ice Skaters Cause Outrage With Aborigine Costume

Two of Russia’s champion ice skaters have caused outrage after dressing as Aborigines for a competition.

The couple, who are favored to win gold at next month’s winter Olympics, wear skin-toned suits with red loin cloths, white body paint and eucalyptus leaves.

But experts in Australia say Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin’s movements and body decorations bear no resemblance to that of the Aborigines’ 60,000 year old culture.

“They have got the whole thing wrong,” said Stephen Page, artistic director of the respected indigenous group, the Bangarra Dance Company.

Page said the two and half minute routine’s didgeridoo music sounded more like it came from India or Africa.

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid was impressed by ‘light-skinned’ Obama’s lack of ‘Negro dialect’

Oh, Harry, Harry. Have you lost another submarine?

Harry Reid, the Democrat Senate Majority Leader and the national government’s highest-ranking Mormon, has admitted now remarking apparently with some amazement on the nation’s highest-ranking black Democrat as being notably “light-skinned” and having “no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.”

The stunning quotation, which occurred during the 2008 presidential campaign, was noted/acquired by Mark Halperin of Time and John Heilemann of New York magazine. But for some reason not reported at the time or subsequently.

Instead, it was saved for their upcoming book, “Game Change.” Let’s see how their news magazine bosses are with that decision in coming days.

Although the radioactive quotation was apparently not included in the book’s promotional materials, it appeared on the Atlantic online on an obscure winter Saturday and was picked up in a Washington Post story.

BBC slammed for debating Ugandan bill to kill gays

Politicians are criticizing the BBC for inviting debate on whether homosexuals should face execution in Uganda.

The broadcaster launched an on-line debate over a proposed Ugandan law that would punish some homosexual acts by life imprisonment or death.

BBC’s “Africa Have Your Say” Web site asked for people’s views on whether Uganda has gone too far and whether there should be any laws against gays.

But several British politicians said Wednesday that the BBC should not treat the execution of gays as a legitimate topic for discussion.

A Google Employee responds to Google Images Michelle Obama search, no official word from Google

It has been 2 days since I began my countdown to how long it would take Google to FIX their image search result for Michelle Obama.

 Just in case you’ve never done a search I’ll save you the time. This is what you will find…
 
[Please click here to see what's up - karl]

How disturbing is that? What’s even more disturbing is that one of the world’s most powerful search engines, Google, has not officially responded nor have they taken the image down.

A Google employee by the name of Jimmy Deheeger, title unknown, responded to the search result in the Google web search Help Forum…

“I agree that this image is clearly offensive and in very poor taste. Appropriate action will be taken after a speedy review. Thanks for the prompt, detailed reports that brought this issue to my attention!”

MSBNC’s Brewer introduces Jackson as Sharpton:

MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer has apologized for mixing up civil rights activists Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

She made the slip-up Wednesday while introducing Jackson during a segment on homelessness.

After the introduction, Jackson stared at the camera from a studio in Burbank, Calif., and said, “I’m Rev. Jesse Jackson.”

Brewer explained that her script read that she was to introduce “the Rev. Al Sharpton.”

Anger at US mixed marriage ‘ban’:

A white US justice of the peace has been criticised for refusing to issue marriage licences to mixed-race couples. Keith Bardwell, of Tangipahoa Parish in Louisiana, denied racism but said mixed-race children were not readily accepted by their parents’ communities.

A couple he refused to marry are considering filing a complaint about him to the US Justice Department. Mr Bardwell said he had often conducted the weddings of his black friends.

Mr Bardwell, who has worked in the role for 34 years, said that in his experience most interracial marriages did not last very long and estimated that he had refused applications to four couples in the past two-and-a-half years.

 He said he had “piles and piles of black friends” but just did not believe in “mixing the races”.

Australian TV show Hey Hey It’s Saturday in racism row over ‘blackface’ skit :

An Australian variety show has become embroiled in an international racism controversy after airing a skit featuring men dressed as the Jackson 5 – with their faces painted black.

The “Jackson Jive” parody, which aired on a reunion episode of the variety show Hey Hey It’s Saturday last night, was deemed offensive by the guest judge, the US singer Harry Connick Jr, who complained on air, saying: “If I knew that was going to be part of the show I definitely wouldn’t have done it.

“On behalf of my country I know it was done humorously, but we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons that when we see something like that we take it really to heart.”

The show’s host, Darryl Somers, apologised on air to Connick Jr, who lives in New Orleans, for causing offence.

Bundesbank official under police investigation after blasting Turks for ‘conquering Germany’

Dr Thilo Sarrazin, a member of the executive board and head of the bank’s risk control operations, told Europe’s culture magazine Lettre International that Turks with low IQs and poor child-rearing practices were “conquering Germany” by breeding two or three times as fast.

“A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose number has grown through bad policies, have no productive function other than as fruit and vegetable vendors,” he said.

“Forty per cent of all births occur in the underclasses. Our educated population is becoming stupider from generation to generation. What’s more, they cultivate an aggressive and atavistic mentality. It’s a scandal that Turkish boys won’t listen to female teachers because that is what their culture tells them”, he said.

“I’d rather have East European Jews with an IQ that is 15pc higher than the German population,” he said

Racy “Scouting Report” Rates Yale’s Freshmen Co-eds

Someone has ranked 53 incoming Yale freshmen women based on how many beers it would take for guys to find them attractive and sent out an e-mail with what’s called the “The Preseason Scouting Report.”

The e-mail sender was anonymous, but whoever it is, is causing some outrage on the ivy-league campus less than a week into the school year.

The rating system uses words like “sobriety, ” five beers,” or “10 beers,” and women say the feel victimized and university officials are trying to track who sent the e-mail.

Parents upset about ethnic classification in school handbook

Parents are complaining that some paperwork handed out to public school students is in bad form. Students need to select their ethnic background from a list for statistical purposes, and some changes to the wording in the choices are raising eyebrows.

Barbara Holgate is one of the angry parents complaining. “This is a Broward County School book of code and conducts. I have a problem with the ethnic background information that they’re requesting,” she said.

“When it comes to, especially for the black Americans, they’re calling them Haitians or Negroes. I do have a problem with that.”

Victoria Berg wonders why there are so many new words and subcategories. “Why are they singling out Haitians? Why don’t they have the Bahamians? Why don’t they have Cubans? Why don’t they have Martiniqueans? There are so many different Islands ethnicities. They’ve literally just singled out Haitians and Negro, and Negro, to the black community, is not a nice word.”

Microsoft Edits Black Man Out of Photo, Apologizes

Software giant Microsoft Corp. is apologizing for altering a photo on its Web site to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture.

A photo on the Seattle-based company’s U.S. Web site shows two men, one Asian and one black, and a white woman seated at a conference room table.

But on the Web site of Microsoft’s Polish business unit, the black man’s head has been replaced with that of a white man. The color of his hand remains unchanged.

The photo editing sparked criticism online. Some bloggers said Poland’s ethnic homogeneity may have played a role in changing the photo.

Obama “Joker” Poster Causing a Stir in L.A.

A poster showing President Barack Obama as Heath Ledger’s “Joker” character from “The Dark Knight” is creating a stir on the streets of Los Angeles where the image began appearing over the weekend.

The Obama-Joker poster shows President Obama with white face paint, dark eye shadow and smudged red lipstick and also has the word “socialism” printed in bold, dark letters under the image of his face.

It’s unclear who created the image and who is posting it across the city. No one has taken credit so far.

Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson is calling the depiction, politically mean spirited and dangerous.

German zoo renames monkey, admits “Obama” insensitive

A German zoo changed the name of one of its monkeys Friday from! ‘Obama’ to ‘Okeke’ after a black group warned the original name implied a racial slur.

The newborn mandrill was named Obama this March, in honour, zookeepers said, of US President Barack Obama.

 A Dresden Zoo spokesman said the new name took effect Friday and confirmed a report in an English-language website, The Local. Obama visited Dresden last month.

Tahir Della of the Initiative for Black Germans (ISD) was quoted saying, ‘Black people continue to be confronted by associations with the animal kingdom and primitivity.’

Pool Boots Kids Who Might “Change the Complexion”

More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason. Pool Boots Kids Who Might “Change the Complexion”

“I heard this lady, she was like, ‘Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?’ She’s like, ‘I’m scared they might do something to my child,’” said camper Dymire Baylor. The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club.

The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers’ first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.

“When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool,” Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email.

“The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately.”

New York Congressman Blasts Jackson as ‘Pervert, Low-Life’

A New York congressman says in a YouTube video that Michael Jackson was a “pervert.”

Rep. Peter King said society is “glorifying” a “low-life” while ignoring the efforts of teachers, police officers, firefighters, veterans and volunteers.

Jackson was acquitted of molesting a boy.

In the video, the congressman says the “day in and day out” coverage of Jackson’s death is “too politically correct.” He conceded that Jackson “may have been a good singer” and “did some dancing.”

Formula One Racing Chief Praises Hitler, Saddam Hussein

Bernie Ecclestone, the man who controls Formula One auto racing, said Friday that he preferred totalitarian regimes to democracies and praised Adolf Hitler for his ability to “get things done.”

In an outspoken interview with The Times of London, the 78-year-old British billionaire chastised contemporary politicians for their weaknesses and extolled the virtues of strong leadership. Ecclestone said: “In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done.

“In the end he got lost, so he wasn’t a very good dictator because either he had all these things and knew what was going on and insisted, or he just went along with it … so either way he wasn’t a dictator.”

He also criticized democracy, claiming that “it hasn’t done a lot of good for many countries — including this one [Britain].”

‘Run Hadji Run’ fireworks pulled off shelves:

Fireworks called Run Hadji Run were pulled off the shelves of a Wisconsin store after Minnesota Muslims complained that they were racist.

Fireworks called Run Hadji Run were pulled off the shelves of a Wisconsin store after Minnesota Muslims complained that they were racist. The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) said that both the name and the packaging are demeaning.

One side of the package has a drawing of Uncle Sam yanking the long beard of a man in traditional Muslim attire, while the other shows a Stealth bomber flying over a group of Arabs riding camels. In addition, “Hadji” is an honorific for those who have completed the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Texting Trolley Driver Is Transgendered Male

The Boston-area transit authority trolley driver who allegedly slammed into another train while text-messaging his girlfriend Friday was hired as a minority because of his transgendered “female-to-male” status and had three speeding tickets on his driving record in recent years, ABC News has learned.

Aiden Quinn, 24, was born Georgia Quinn and boasts on an Internet networking site that he was one of the first transgender hires by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The trolley driver lists his sexual orientation as “FTM” and was hired as a minority using his transgender status, two sources told ABC News.

“[Quinn] was initially hired as a minority and used her transgender status,” an MBTA source said today.

Indian business students snap up copies of Mein Kampf

Sales of Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler’s autobiography and apologia for his anti-semitism, are soaring in India where business students regard the dictator as a management guru.

 PA Booksellers told The Daily Telegraph that while it is regarded in most countries as a ‘Nazi Bible’, in India it is considered a management guide in the mould of Spencer Johnson’s “Who Moved My Cheese”.

 Sales of the book over the last six months topped 10,000 in New Delhi alone, according to leading stores, who said it appeared to be becoming more popular with every year.

Several said the surge in sales was due to demand from students who see it as a self-improvement and management strategy guide for aspiring business leaders, and who were happy to cite it as an inspiration.

“Students are increasingly coming in asking for it and we’re happy to sell it to them,” said Sohin Lakhani, owner of Mumbai-based Embassy books who reprints Mein Kampf every quarter and shrugs off any moral issues in publishing the book.

Google Accidentally Offends Japanese Sensibilities 

When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn’t expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another Web site, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn’t caused any problems.

But Google failed to judge how its offering would be received, as it has often done in Japan. The company is now facing inquiries from the Justice Ministry and angry accusations of prejudice because its maps detailed the locations of former low-caste communities.

The maps date back to the country’s feudal era, when shoguns ruled and a strict caste system was in place. At the bottom of the hierarchy were a class called the “burakumin,” ethnically identical to other Japanese but forced to live in isolation because they did jobs associated with death, such as working with leather, butchering animals and digging graves.

Castes have long since been abolished, and the old buraku villages have largely faded away or been swallowed by Japan’s sprawling metropolises. Today, rights groups say the descendants of burakumin make up about 3 million of the country’s 127 million people. But they still face prejudice, based almost entirely on where they live or their ancestors lived. Moving is little help, because employers or parents of potential spouses can hire agencies to check for buraku ancestry through Japan’s elaborate family records, which can span back over a hundred years.

Mexico slams Burger King for ‘whopper’ of insult:

- Mexico is protesting what it says is a whopper of an insult. An advertisement for Burger King’s chili-flavored “Texican” burger that has run in Europe shows a small wrestler dressed in a cape resembling a Mexican flag. The wrestler teams up with a lanky American cowboy twice his height to illustrate the cross-border blend of flavors.

“The taste of Texas with a little spicy Mexican,” a narrator’s voice says. The much-taller cowboy boosts the wrestler up to reach high shelves and clean tall windows, while the Mexican helps the cowboy open a jar.

Mexico’s ambassador to Spain said Monday he has written a letter to Burger King’s offices in that nation objecting to the ad and asking that it be removed. Jorge Zermeno told Radio Formula that the ads “improperly use the stereotyped image of a Mexican.”

Asian-Americans Blast Texas Congressman’s Call for ‘Easier to Deal With’ Names

Asian-Americans say they are outraged that a Texas lawmaker suggested in a hearing that Asian-American voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with” at the polls.

Texas Rep. Betty Brown, a Republican, made the comments on Tuesday as Ramey Ko, an associate member of the Organization of Chinese Americans, testified before the Texas House Elections Committee on voter identification legislation.

Ko testified that people of Asian descent frequently have difficulties voting due to differences in their legal transliterated names and the English name shown on their driver’s licenses.

Brown asked Ko: “Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?”

Facebook ‘Jews’ Group Suddenly Praises Hitler

Some unsuspecting Facebook users may have fallen prey to a shocking prank.

 A group on the social-networking site calling itself “I Heart Jews” garnered more than 2,000 members — until the group’s name was suddenly changed to “Hitler: Great Modern Man of History,” New York’s WNYW-TV reports.

 ”It’s disgusting. It’s despicable,” said Facebook user Wendy Erdheim, who had been part of the group. “Like, who would ever do that?”

 Other members of the group were similarly shocked.

 ”Is this a joke?” posted one. “Because if it is not I am absolutely appalled.”

 Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said the name change was no accident.

 ”One would have to say that it’s premeditated and that the intent was there from the beginning,” says Weitzman.

E.U. hustles to control damage after outburst

The European Union’s crisis of leadership during this severe economic downturn was thrown into sharp relief on Wednesday, as the prime minister of the country that holds the rotating presidency lambasted President Barack Obama’s emergency stimulus package as “a way to hell” that will “undermine the stability of the global financial market.”

The blunt comments of the Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, coming just a week before a crucial meeting of the Group of 20 that is supposed to show leaders coming together to cope with the crisis, were greeted with embarrassment by many Europeans, who believe that the Czechs do not represent the consensus in the European Union in any case.

What made the situation even more absurd was that Mr. Topolanek lost his parliamentary majority in the Czech Republic on Tuesday, with his new lame-duck status further weakening Prague’s European presidency. Adding to the awkwardness, Mr. Topolanek will host Mr. Obama in Prague a few days after the G-20 meeting, at a United States-European Union summit.

So the old question of who speaks for Europe and when, especially in a crisis, has again become more acute, especially with persistent internal strains between more prosperous West European countries, which use the euro, and newer members in Central and Eastern Europe, which do not.

Mayor sent e-mail with watermelons at White House 

The mayor of Los Alamitos is coming under fire for an e-mail he sent out that depicts the White House lawn planted with watermelons, under the title “No Easter egg hunt this year.”

 Local businesswoman and city volunteer Keyanus Price, who is black, said Tuesday she received the e-mail from Mayor Dean Grose’s personal account on Sunday and wants a public apology.

“I have had plenty of my share of chicken and watermelon and all those kinds of jokes,” Price told The Associated Press. “I honestly don’t even understand where he was coming from, sending this to me. As a black person receiving something like this from the city-freakin’-mayor—come on.”

Spokesman.com | Racist e-mails target Obama

Alaska officials are investigating racist jokes about President-elect Barack Obama that have been circulating on state government e-mail accounts.

 One of the five e-mails obtained by the Associated Press asks what was the outcome of the Democrat’s victory after all the time and money spent, and concludes: “Another black family living in government housing!”

 State officials were unaware of the e-mails until asked about them by the AP.

Three of the racist messages were confirmed by the state’s information technology division after an electronic search of the government’s e-mail system, Administration Commissioner Annette Kreitzer said Wednesday.

It’s embarrassing to the state,” she said.

 Little ‘Adolf Hitler’ Denied Birthday Cake at New Jersey Grocery Store

The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, denied a birthday cake with the child’s full name on it by one New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance.

Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah, are upset not only with the decision made by the nearby ShopRite, but also with an outpouring of angry Internet postings in response to a local newspaper article about the cake.

Heath Campbell, who is 35, said in an interview Tuesday that people should look forward, not back, and accept change.

“They need to accept a name. A name’s a name. The kid isn’t going to grow up and do what [Hitler] did,” he said.

Black Students Bound, Humiliated in Classroom Slavery Lesson 

A white teacher attempted to enliven a seventh grade discussion of slavery by binding the hands and feet of two black girls, prompting a complaint from one girl’s mother and the local chapter of the NAACP. After the mother complained to the school, the superintendent said he was having “conversations with our staff on how to deliver effective lessons.” “If a student was upset, then it was a bad idea,” said Superintendent Brian Monahan of the North Rockland School District in New York City’s northern suburbs.

Jewish group mulls charges over neo-Nazi Obama slurs:

A prominent Jewish group said Monday it was reviewing legal options against a German neo-Nazi party for “racist” remarks calling Barack Obama’s election a “declaration of war” on non-white America.

The Berlin chapter of the American Jewish Committee (AFC) condemned statements made by Juergen Gansel, a deputy in the Saxony state legislature for the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany, against Obama’s election as the first African-American US president.

In a statement from his office entitled “Africa conquers the White House,” Gansel said multicultural America sought the destruction of “pure” national cultures and that Obama aimed to destroy the United States’ “white identity.”

“A non-white America is a declaration of war on all people who believe an organically grown social order based on language and culture, history and heritage to be the essence of humanity,” he said.

“Barack Obama hides this declaration of war behind his pushy sunshine smile.”

Gansel said Obama’s triumph was the product of “the American alliance of Jews and Negroes” and warned the president-elect enjoyed too much popularity in Germany.

“Many people in the ‘diverse’ republic Germany have been swept up in Obama fever which resembles an African tropical disease,” he said.

Italian leader: Obama ‘handsome and even tanned’:

Italy’s famously impolitic Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi described U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday as “young, handsome and even tanned.”

 Berlusconi appeared to be joking about America’s first black president at a news conference following talks with Russia’s president.

The Italian leader, who has a history of controversial remarks, was asked by a reporter about the prospect for U.S.-Russian relations, which have plummeted to Cold War-levels in recent months.

Berlusconi responded by saying that the relative youth of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, 43, and Obama, 47, should make it easier for Moscow and Washington to work together.

Then he said, smiling: “I told the president that (Obama) has everything needed in order to reach deals with him: he’s young, handsome and even tanned.”

Japan air force chief faces sack:

The head of the Japanese air force is to be sacked after saying the country was not an aggressor in World War II, Japan’s defence minister said.

Yasukazu Hamada said Gen Toshio Tamogami’s views, written in an essay, ran counter to the government’s position on the war.

“Therefore it is inappropriate for him to remain in this position and I will swiftly dismiss him,” he said.

The general’s views are likely to anger many of Japan’s neighbours.

China, North and South Korea and other Asian nations still have traumatic memories of Japan’s aggression and colonial rule.

 Mo. students face punishment for `Hit a Jew Day’:

At least four students from a suburban St. Louis middle school face punishment for allegedly hitting Jewish classmates during what they called “Hit a Jew Day.” The incident happened last week at Parkway West Middle School in Chesterfield. District officials said Thursday they believe that fewer than 10 children of the district’s 35 Jewish students were struck. District spokesman Paul Tandy said that in most cases, the students were hit on the back of their shoulders but one student was slapped in the face. It began with an unofficial “Spirit Week” among sixth-graders that started harmlessly enough with a “Hug a Friend Day.” Then there was “High Five Day.” Soon, though, the days moved from friendly to silly. Next there was “Hit a Tall Person Day” and, finally, “Hit a Jew Day.”

Man Finds Racial Slur Printed On Receipt

A Kansas City man found a racial slur printed on his receipt after returning a pair of shoes he bought over the weekend.

KMBC’s Marcus Moore reported that Keith Slater, 22, bought a pair of shoes from a store called Journeys. Slater later returned them after finding a cheaper pair at another store. Slater did get his money back, but it was what was printed on the receipt that he and his family found disturbing.

“That makes me upset. I don’t want to look at that (receipt,) that makes me so upset. Why would you say that?” said a woman who was shown the receipt.

“Have they been fired? I mean, this is absolutely crazy,” said a man who saw the store ticket.

The receipt, which shows “Cust: Dumb” and then the n-word, is what Slater received after returning a pair of shoes to Journeys at Oak Park Mall.

Marianna teacher ‘told students what ‘CHANGE’ stood for’

The Jackson County School Board has taken action against a teacher who apparently made racial commentary on presidential candidate Barack Obama.

According to parents and students in Greg Howard?s seventh-grade social studies class, Howard on Friday, Sept. 26 asked the class a question regarding Obama?s call for change, and proceeded to write out what the letters C-H-A-N-G-E stood for.

 ?She told me that he wrote on the board ?Can You Help A (expletive) Get Elected, and then laughed about it,? said Shelia Christian, a mother of one of Howard?s students.

Jackson County Superintendent Danny Sims said that description of this incident was ?pretty accurate.?

Sims said Howard apparently repeated the action in more than one class, having made the comment in ?a couple of periods.?

Beijing Olympics: Second Spanish team photographed making ’slit-eyed’ gesture

A second group of Spanish Olympic athletes has been photographed making “slit-eyed” gestures, threatening to overshadow the Beijing Games with a row over racial stereotyping.

The latest photo to emerge shows Spanish women tennis players pulling the pose, apparently in anticipation of their Federation Cup match against China in April.

Pictures of the Spanish men’s and women’s basketball teams making the gesture, a crude impersonation of Chinese people, were published in adverts in Spanish newspapers earlier this week.

Africa is giving nothing to anyone — apart from AIDS

No. It will not do. Even as we see African states refusing to take action to restore something resembling civilisation in Zimbabwe, the begging bowl for Ethiopia is being passed around to us, yet again. It is nearly 25 years since Ethiopia’s (and Bob Geldof’s) famous Feed The World campaign, and in that time Ethiopia’s population has grown from 33.5 million to 78 million today.

So why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic demographic growth in that country? Where is the logic? There is none. To be sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn’t count.

One is my conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of another wide-eyed child, yet again, gazing, yet again, at the camera, which yet again, captures the tragedy of . . .

Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there. The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes him.

Monkey advert ‘resembling’ Obama is pulled in Japan

A Japanese mobile phone firm said today it had pulled a TV advert depicting a monkey as a political candidate amid accusations that it was a racist reference to Barack Obama, who is seeking to become the first black US president.

The ad, for eMobile, shows a monkey in a suit addressing an election rally, surrounded by supporters carrying placards carrying the word “Change”.

The apparent intention is to persuade subscribers to other mobile phone carriers to transfer to eMobile.

But the combination of the monkey, and the resemblance of his message to the theme of Obama’s campaign, “Change we can believe in”, prompted bloggers to accuse the company of making a racist slur against the Democratic hopeful.

Cairns ’should end Commons bid’

A Labour MP wants a Conservative politician to end his plans to stand in the next general election after a row over a comment about Italians.

Caerphilly MP Wayne David said it was the “sensible and logical thing” for Alun Cairns to step down as candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan seat.

Mr Cairns quit his assembly education spokesman post and apologised for his “inappropriate” comments.

He likened Italians to “greasy wops” in a radio discussion on Euro 2008.

Utah company causes nationwide uproar over ‘Sock Obama’

A toy being sold over the internet by a Utah couple is causing an uproar from supporters of democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. It’s a sock monkey wearing a suit with a lapel pin for Obama.

Supporters of Obama have been filling online forums and blogs with angry words over what they see as the degrading depiction of a black man as a monkey.

Such portrayals are a throw back to the days of “Jim Crow” laws in southern states. The depictions were designed to make one man appear inferior, less than human, for no other reason than the color of his skin. From different blogs, one writer puts it simply: “The ‘Sock Obama’ is disgusting.” Others say its makers are racists.

Black Group Offended by Delivery of T-Shirt

The president of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation is disturbed by an offensive t-shirt the group received in the mail Wednesday, the day after Barack Obama claimed his party’s presidential nomination. The shirt has a cartoon image of Curious George, the beloved children’s character, with a paper bag over his head holding a sign that says “A Truth We Can Believe in ‘08!!!” written underneath.

CBCF President Elsie Scott says she believes the timing of the package was no coincidence. “We received it as a reaction to Obama winning the nomination,” she tells the Sleuth.

The t-shirt was made by a company called Spring River Tees, which also on its Web site sells “Obama in ‘08″ t-shirts that depict Curious George. The “truth-we-can-believe-in” t-shirt that the CBCF received is also sold on the web site, titled “Hussein,” which is Obama’s middle name.

Jones High yearbook category: Most Likely to End Up on ‘Cops’

The mother of a former Jones High School student whose picture appeared above the yearbook category “Most Likely to End Up on Cops” is ticked off that the school allowed the label to make it to print.

“My reaction was, I couldn’t believe they would allow such a topic to appear in a yearbook,” said Carolyn Green, whose son, Marquise Laroach, appeared in the photo. His name, spelled ‘Marquis’ in the yearbook, appeared alongside that of another senior, who was identified as “Jasmine Franklen.”

“Jones High is a predominantly black school trying to improve its image,” Green said. “How does this achieve that? It defeats the purpose.”

A little rock hits a noisy target

Throw a rock into a congregation of collies, retrievers, poodles, spaniels and assorted other aristocrats and you can be sure the dog yelping in unexpected pain is the one you hit.

President Bush, marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, reminded the Knesset yesterday that the appeasement of evil is the route to catastrophe.

“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” he said. “We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is — which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

Cobb bar protested as racist for Obama T-shirts

Marietta tavern owner Mike Norman says the T-shirts he’s peddling, featuring cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana, with “Obama in ‘08″ scrolled underneath, are “cute.” But to a coalition of critics, the shirts are an insulting exploitation of racial stereotypes from generations past.

“It’s time to put an end to this,” said Rich Pellegrino, a Mableton resident and director of the Cobb-Cherokee Immigrant Alliance. It was among the organizations planning to gather outside Mulligan’s Bar and Grill Tuesday afternoon to protest the “racist and highly offensive” shirts.

“There’s no place for these views, not in this day and age,” he said.

Just down the street from Marietta’s famous Big Chicken, Mulligan’s has carved a provocative niche in an increasingly multicultural area, thanks to its owner’s ultra-conservative political views. If you live in Marietta, it’s impossible not to know what’s on Norman’s mind, as he posts his views on signs in front of Mulligan’s.

Among his recent musings: “I wish Hillary had married OJ,” “No habla espanol — and never will” and the standard “I.N.S. Agents eat free.”

Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern on YouTube Clip: Homosexuality Bigger Threat Than Terrorism

A YouTube audio clip of a state lawmaker’s screed against homosexuality, which she called a bigger threat than terrorism, has outraged gay activists and brought death threats rolling in.

“The homosexual agenda is destroying this nation, OK, it’s just a fact,” Rep. Sally Kern said recently to a gathering of fellow Republicans outside the Capitol.

“Studies show no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted, you know, more than a few decades. So it’s the death knell in this country.

“I honestly think it’s the biggest threat that our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat,” she said.