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Subscribe to RSSU.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra has been accused of racism for a campaign ad against Michigan's incumbent senator, Debbie Stabenow. The ad features a young Asian woman riding a bicycle through a rice paddy – speaking broken English – and mocking Stabenow. Politico's Maggie Haberman reports.
Michigan Republican Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra's campaign came under scrutiny Monday for a controversial Super Bowl ad targeting Democratic opponent Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
Hoekstra's campaign aired an ad on Sunday depicting an Asian woman speaking in broken English, facetiously thanking Stabenow for encouraging federal spending.
Hold Debbie Stabenow accountable for her reckless spending.
"Thank you Michigan Sen. Debbie Spend-it-now. Debbie spends so much American money -- you borrow more and more from us. Your economy get very weak; ours get very good. We take your jobs," the woman says in the ad.
The backdrop is meant to evoke China. In a statement announcing the ad, Hoekstra decried "our reliance on foreign countries like China," a top buyer of American debt.
Hoekstra, a former Republican congressman who unsuccessfully pursued his party's gubernatorial nomination in 2010, appears at the end of the ad to tout his own fiscal hawkishness. The ad additionally directs viewers to a website featuring a variety of generic Asian imagery in connection to Stabenow.
The website includes Chinese script -- "Xianzai Daibi Hua" -- that roughly translates into "Now Debbie Spend."
RELATED: Chinese shrug at Super Bowl ad
Hoekstra's campaign paid $75,000 to air the ad in markets throughout Michigan during the Super Bowl, according to an Associated Press report on Sunday. It is his first ad in the Senate race.
The Michigan chapter of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote said in a statement that the ad "plays on harmful stereotypes of Asians speaking broken English and has stereotypical Chinese music playing in the background."
An Asian woman is speaking in Pete Hoekstra's campaign ad that aired on Super Bowl Sunday, facetiously thanking Stabenow for encouraging federal spending.
"It is very disturbing that Mr. Hoekstra’s campaign chose to use harmful and negative stereotypes that intrinsically encourage anti-Asian sentiment," the group said Sunday.
The ad faced additional criticism from both Democrats and Republicans alike.
"Pete Hoekstra had a wardrobe malfunction this Super Bowl weekend and it was not pretty," said Shripal Shah, a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman.
Republican consultant Mike Murphy, meanwhile, wrote on Twitter: "Pete Hoekstra Superbowl TV ad in MI Senate race really, really dumb. I mean really."
A primary challenger's of Hoekstra also called the ad "disappointing," accusing Hoekstra's record of undermining the message of the ad.
"The team is describing it as satire, but there’s absolutely no way this doesn’t just fan the flames and come off as racist," wrote Jazz Shaw on the prominent conservative blog Hot Air.
Comments on the YouTube page for the ad have been disabled in the meanwhile. Spokespeople for Hoekstra didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
NBC's John Bailey contributed.
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People have been trying to tell you that the GOP is racist. Need anymore proof???
Nope. This problem started in the 50's with Desegregation deniers, moved into the late 60's with the Voter's Rights Law deniers, and now employing the dogma of the Libertarians and Evangelicals/Fundamentalists. When combined they spew vile poisons across the Nation, turning brother against brother, family against family.
Someone dropped the ball by putting a poorly screened campaign ad in the Super Bowl
Pete Hoekstra? ---- He's another fine example of what is "Wrong With Government"
Would you all like to see what a correct ad would look like against Hoekstra in response would be?
While on the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Hoekstra leaked more classified information to the media that directly impacted our troops than WikiLeaks Julian Assange ever did
Hoekstra has that kind of money to buy a super bowl ad?
"Follow The Money"
As a FORMER Republican, I am beginning to think the entire party has lost its collective mind.
It is not their mind that they have lost. It is their very SOUL.
Wow! I didn't know they HAD a mind.
The Republican Party is starting to sound like a blackhole where nothing escapes if you get too close.
shenlea,
As a fellow former republican, I whole heartedly agree.
shenlee, that is what the true conservative Barry Goldwater probly thought when he said in the late 70s that the GOP "was being taken over by a bunch of kooks!" The man was psychic!
Truly Tea-bagger GeorgeWallaceRockwell is a typical RACIST. Read his post.
George Lincoln Rockwell was the founder of the American Nazi Party.
deapp and gg; And, Frank Marshall Davis, the head of the US Communist party, was Obama's mentor.
Don't be ridiculous.
too funny, right after i saw this ad with my husband we both looked at eachother and said, wow, that was really frickin racist!
Thanks Pete for making us Michiganders look like jerks.
Strange as it may sound, this is what the Libertarian-Republican Party has become. A Party of Racists, Bigots, Religious Intolerance, and you name it. Totally UN-AMERICAN activities. To make it worse, the Voters lap it up as if it was the Gospel being preached. Much like the German people did in the 30's when they let Hitler take total reign over their Country and their lives.
The mindless adulation, crying and comparing Obama to the messiah is more comparable to the feeling of the German people for Hitler! The brainwashed masses of left wingers who scream about racism like puppets on a string! Brainwashed by the public schools, state run colleges, television, and the internet! The bit about the un-american activities that was Joe McCarthy in the 1950s and his hunt for communists! Now it's the leftists looking under their beds for racists and hiding under their covers from the KKK! The boogie man the feared racist! The mindless masses of the left mesmerized by Obama who doesn't really have a plan but his voice and personality override their commonsense! Liberals suffer from LOCS disease! What is LOCS disease? LACK OF COMMON SENSE! Many of the left are "educated" but lack common sense and are in reality educated idiots! White guilt is the most pathetic affliction and it has no cure! Is it religious intolerance because Christians don't support homosexual perversions and same sex marriage? No sane person would do that and only the mindless and depraved would!
The only ones who I have seen refer to President Obama as a "messiah", are republicans.
No, not at all. People need to stop this "going over the cliff" antics with calling everything and anything "racist". This is racist, that is racist.. enough. anything can be perceived as racist if you want it to and twist it around enough.. absurd.
You are missing something -- common sense.
No, Look in your own back yard.. guardian? guardian of what? you should have guarded your own sense, you seemed to have lost it.
Your common sense is not in his back yard either. Keep looking!
Sally, Really? So because you may support his comments you attack me? really? what, Are we 12? Thats the problem with the Internet, everyone thinks they can be socially incorrigible, probably brought up that way.. rude kids, rude parents.. a by product of poor parenting I suppose. Pity, seems those educated in the last 20 years years show the ineffectiveness of our educational institutions. Is it any wonder our country is falling apart? Unsolicited rudeness from a child who wouldn't have the intestinal fortitude to confront a grape in person but can easily spew hatred and disrespect to total strangers. . and we scratch our heads.. from idiots come the inbred.
Huh???
Gimmie a break!! The whole world knows Obama has been bowing to pressure from China. The news media clowns want to make everything racial. Just trying to hype a story. They are disgusting!
Now that's a laugh. Republicans have spent the last 8 years insuring that China was there bank for two unpaid for wars. Both Bush Presidents are Chinese Mascots! The Republican party is in bed with China!
I should say Bush's 8 Years and his father's 4 years.
But nothing in between, Athiest? Trade with China began with Nixon, and nobody on either side has looked back since then.
That's Great...nice to see the gloves come off early. BTW - is there any untruth to this?
Why does it have to be racist. It might be a dumb move for a political ad, but I don't consider it racist. Why are things only considered racist when the people responsible for the action are white. I see people everyday that speak in broken English. Do the critics believe they do not exist? That would be naive. The ad was obviously suppose to be humorous as well as trying to make Debbie.. the candidate, look like a big spender. Being over-sensitive because of your race does not always make the other guy a racist, although I think we all could say that we've had racist thoughts in our lifetime, even if we don't consider ourselves to be racist.
I love it! Shove it up your politically correct tail. HAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!
We need the good old days back. seperate entry's for all. the red entry's in bargening would have the majority. meaning obama would only get in the back door.
Hoekstra, oh my!!! I thought you were a Gopee, the kind that is a "Bible packing go to church to hear the 'word' of compasion to help our fellow man conservative". Tisk, tisk!! Wait a minute conservatives, I hear another gopee song coming on...........'God Bless America' land of the what??? Geeeze
dkl you need a facelift. only on the butt.
The advertisement is racist because it uses a negative racial stereotype to scare ignorant/bigoted viewers. Yes, China does hold a portion of our national debt and yes, we are and will increasingly be in competition with them...but capitalism thrives with competition and free trade.
PS: We no longer have "free trade".. That went out with all the Pacts which mean we buy way more than we sell to foreign countries. And, PS, there are those Countries that we MUST buy from whether we sell anything to them in return. That is written into the World Trade Pacts fostered by those within the "One World Government" Theology. Google "Trade Pacts" if in doubt.
Racist? Not. Prejudicial, stereotypical, and just plain stupid are all good descriptors, but "racist" misses the mark badly. Racism is believing that one group of people is inferior to another due to perceived characteristics particular to their race. Or at least that's how I've always considered it. If someone was accused of being a racist, it meant, in short, that they hated other races and thought them inferior to their own. Is that the message in this ad? I don't see that going on here at all. I can certainly see nationalism at play. But racism? People play loose and fast with that term and have diluted its meaning so much that they have robbed it of much of the strength and power it once carried.
Now another BS ad is on the air trying to separate Obama from Ronald Reagan
Obama is the Ronald Reagan conservatives can't find among their own, & conservatives have been opposing Obama's Reagan Policies
Brought to you by the Koch Brothers & "Americans for Prosperity"
This is the typical tactic that the right wingers use to instill fear into the hearts of their ignorant followers. THEY are out there, and their only aim is to destroy us! They did it with Japan many years ago and now it's China's turn, whether it's true or not is of total irrelevance to them, the thing is to keep the fear mongering alive in the minds of the zombies of the right.
But then, fellow teabagger Michelle Bachmann loves China and sees it as a role model for America to emulate, as she told us during the November 12, 2011, Republican debate:
"If you look at China, they don’t have food stamps. If you look at China, they’re in a very different situation. They save for their own retirement security…They don’t have the modern welfare state and China’s growing. And so what I would do is look at the programs that LBJ gave us with the Great Society and they’d be gone."
What China does have is a State where the workers are De-factor slaves doing the bidding of their Communist Masters.
Apparently the same system the Republicans would like to impose on America..
I for one am not surprised by the prejudice used in Hoekstra's commercial. Everyone avoids admitting one very obvious issue that began the day Obama took office, the fact that he is a black man. The Republican party has never hidden the fact that they have prejudices against anyone who isn't a white christian I can't even imagine the level of ire when Obama won. The Republican party evolved from the aristocrats who dominated commerce at a time when big business ruled the country. Go ahead, try and get a black, oriental, american indian, middle easterner and even women in to a primarily Republican private country club. Lots of luck. Republicans have never put the mass of people in the country in even the top three important issues on their agenda. In 1960 much was made, by the right, of John Kennedy's candincy because he was Cathholic. Now the fact that his family was one of the countries wealthiest, members of whatever club they desired and pillars of the society elite in America. But even though Catholics were the original christians! In fact, the derivation of all other christian groups are off shoots of Catholisiam. But Republicans consider themselves aristocrats who believe in big business, not all business, only big business and the wealthy. All the past Republican presidents have thrown pieces of what the masses need and then complaining about the size of government to provide the same. They believe in the power of the states to rule themselves, which is the exact opposite of what this country was based on, the unification of the colonies and the future united of future colonies or states. And Republican presidents have tampered with the US Supreme Court, removing it from the third and most explicit branch of government created to rule separate from the rest of government and only in interruption of the Constitution. Deciding who would be the next president as in the Bush v Gore issue which should not have even been heard by the court, or the interruption of freedom of speech includes the nameless, unchecked campaign funding was legitimate by virtue of freedome of speech. Are they nuts. It isn't even close to aligned to any part of the Constitution. And the Republicans have turned Congress in to a sport team like mentality where individual thought, if contrary to the parties desires is set aside and forced to vote enmasse, in a block, so little or nothing gets done. And recently and historically Republicans have always been the party who have taken right to the edge of spending, including those costs for individual living, social security, unemployment, education, medicare, etc. They don't care, in fact those in congress in both parties have nonchalant attitudes about what the masses need to live because they make excellent salaries, have ghe best free benfits and are taken care of in that style for life. I get social security, this year was the first time in a number of years we got a very minimal raise. Congress have given themselves every year for a long time now. The numerous changes that are absolutely essential right now must start with the government leaders.
And the ridiculous Republican homily about class warfare is stupid on one reason alone. How can you have class warefare when there is a few hundred thousand of one class and 350,000,000 of the other class !
Catholics were not the first Christians! The first Christians were converted Jews and a long way from Rome and the Pope!
Early Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John.[1]
The first Christians were all Jews or Jewish proselytes, either by birth or conversion, referred to by historians as the Jewish Christians. Paul of Tarsus, after his conversion, claimed the title of "Apostle to the Gentiles". Paul's influence on Christian thinking is said to be more significant than any other New Testament author.[2] By the end of the 1st century, Christianity began to be recognized internally and externally as a separate religion from Rabbinic Judaism which itself was refined and developed further in the centuries after the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple.
The tenth amendment gives the state's rights not reserved for the Federal government!
In The Federalist Papers, ratification proponent Alexander Hamilton explained the limitations this clause placed on the proposed federal government, describing that acts of the federal government were binding on the states and the people therein only if the act was in pursuance of constitutionally granted powers, and juxtaposing acts which exceeded those bounds as "void and of no force":
But it will not follow from this doctrine that acts of the large society which are not pursuant to its constitutional powers, but which are invasions of the residuary authorities of the smaller societies, will become the supreme law of the land. These will be merely acts of usurpation, and will deserve to be treated as such.
10th Amendment Resolutions
In 2009-2010 thirty eight states have introduced resolutions to reaffirm the principles of sovereignty under the Constitution and the 10th Amendment; Nine states have passed the resolutions. These non-binding resolutions, often called “state sovereignty resolutions” do not carry the force of law. Instead, they are intended to be a statement to demand that the federal government halt its practices of assuming powers and imposing mandates upon the states for purposes not enumerated by the Constitution.
don't use my entry
Finally, a candidate with some balls to call it like it is
come on this is MI !!! home of AMERICAN AUTO and the U.P. not toyota or honda
If you can speak fluent English then you don't need a hand out, so rule #1
learn the language or get the F@#K OUT of our country. These liberal tree huggin politicians need to get their head out of their ass and stop spending our hard earned $$$ on non literate illegal leaches. That would put an end to the financial woes that every State in the Union if facing.
Racist ad attracts racist people as followers.
Michigan's Auto Industry Hoekstra wanted to KILL with the right wing economic model of "LET THEM FAIL"
Jim! Exactly. Didn't ALL Republicans want to kill GM and all American MFG's who need a loan? Yeah, it's was Republicans calling for the end of GM and not calling for the end of any other mfg's such those 1911A1 mentions. Ironic isn't it?
1911A1: TYPICAL Libertarian/Republican response.
Only a matter of time before Republicans start blaming Democrats for this ad. Three, Two, One.....
Racism! Same tactics Hitler used and it worked! Same tactics used in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Any country that wants to brainwash the population, and that cost the lives's of men and women of United States military, and American citizens, to stop the dangerous spread of hate that cost the lives on 9/11, Military base's here in America, Britain, Spain. all over the world.
So Yell, stomp, scream, Blame Obama, But DO NOT look at my record or who pay for my campaign ads hate spewing forth from your ads. The agenda of Taking control of Women's Reproductive organs, imposing their individual religious views on everyAmerican citizen. Allowing corporation to dictate who and what bill elected (hired) Representatives federal or state introduce or vote up or down must end now.
This is America! Land of the free! We Will not bow our heads and knell at the feet of the Corporations and the politicians they control. We Will not allow your venomous ads to poison our family or our values.We will expose yout records so every person may see the truth.
This is a very dangerous road that the Republican candidates or any candidate's record or hate ad against any american, are traveling. You are calling an end to freedoms of the American citizen's. Time for a change? YES! Time to end the Hate cycle,Time to stop the end of freedom cycle. If any one running for any office cannot stand on their record or receives campaign funding from an unknown source! incites hate. DO NOT VOTE FOR THEM!
Use the Right wing attack against the Susan Komen Foundation as an excellent guide as what happens when we stand together.
America, land of the free and Home of the brave.
As one that has studied both National and Foreign History for decades, there is a definite streak of Nazism and other tenets running through the Republican Party. That can be attributed to the late 50's and mid 60's when so many of the Southern Democratic Party (not to be confused with the Democratic Party) bolted to the Republican Party along with those from the KKK, Neo-Facist, Neo-Nazi, and White Supremacists factions, and rounded out with the Evangelical/Fundamentalists Sects. Now the Republican Party is host to Libertarians with they own game card.
By the way, Investigate what each has brought to the new Libertarian/Republican Party. What you will find will either disgust or sate and may change your personal views.
Guardian, you obviously need to study your current events and history a little longer. The party that started the KKK? Democrats, after Democrats were defeated while trying to keep slavery alive. Democrats in Congress were also in the KKK (many of them in the early 1900s). Woodrow Wilson, that racist lion of the Democrat Party? Yeah, he was a big fan of "Birth of a Nation", the movie about the Klan coming back and taking over America. The creators of Jim Crowe laws?? YEP, DEMOCRATS. The party that ACTIVELY FOUGHT AGAINST the REPUBLICAN 1964 Civil Rights Act? YEP, DEMOCRATS, and Al Gore Sr led the filibuster!! Robert Byrd, who the Democrats ELECTED FOR DECADES?? Yep, was in the KKK.
As for Nazism, wow buddy, how clueless are you? Go walk through ANY OWS park, ya know, the base of your party, and you will see all kinds of people blaming the Jews and anti-Semitic signs...not to mention Hussein telling the Jews they should move back to pre-1967 borders. Yikes. Liberals are hard-core Nazis. Just ask your own uber-liberal Helen Thomas how she feels about Jews, and you will get the normal feeling of Liberals when it comes to Jews. Ya know, Jews should move back to Poland and Germany and Jews are the cause of the worlds' problems. Looks like you need to read a little more history and study up on your current events instead of spewing a bunch of lies when your mouth opens...and acting like you actually know what you are talking about. The intentional dissemination of false info is the liberals' best tactic, and you fit the bill quite nicely. Kudos.
They can't get beyond racist, redneck, and bigot!
For Virginia in AZ.
Okay Karla Marx jr. you win the Che Guevara gold star of the week and get to wear the beret! People to the power!
I'm rolling my eyes here when I read about "out-of-control spending Democrats". When you factor in the cost of the Iraq and Afganistan wars where Cheney's "old company" had free and uncompeted reign on rebuilding Iraq to the tune of billions and that doesn't even include the actual cost of the war that Bush started, I have to wonder what "sheep" are going to follow the current herd of Republican candidates to the Polls. The truth of the matter is Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike are responsible for run away spending. As tax payers we do not get what we pay for. What we do get is cost overruns (defense), financial scandal (Fanny Mae, etc) bail outs (Motor City), tax payer money going to pay out CEO bonuses (AIG), failed Government funded energy programs (California solar) and retirement for non-productive elected offcials (Senate/Congress) who's only concern is the special interest that buys and pays for the laws they pass and their re-election.
Yet not one republican candidate will tell you how they will correct anything or how much they will spend doing it ----- They want their followers to believe that they've got a magic wand & fairy dust
Now their leaders are promoting even more "Socialism" ---- Gingrich wants to build a "Trampoline" & Romney wants to "Patch the Holes"
People wonder what happened to accountability? ----- Look no further than your own republicans
By the way dude,,,, "Bailing out Motor City" saved American Families around 3.5 million jobs
Republicans like Hoekstra with their "LET THEM FAIL" economic policies would have sent us straight into a depression