Saturday,September 30,2000
By ANDY SOLTIS

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A six-foot Mr. Potato Head statue, on display in Rhode Island for the past six months as part of a tourist campaign, will be dismantled because of complaints it's racist.
The fiberglass "Tourist Tater" was painted dark brown to appear suntanned and wore a Hawaiian shirt, glasses and a hat.

It had been on display outside Warwick, R.I., city hall since May, but no one had complained until its photo appeared Thursday in a newspaper.

East Providence affirmative-action officer Onna Moniz-John said Tourist Tater looked like antique figurines that portray blacks in a negative way, such as Little Black Sambo.

"If you look at this Potato Head, the only thing missing is a watermelon," Moniz-John said.

But artist Kathy Szarko, who designed Tourist Tater, said she meant no disrespect.

"He's a potato. That's why he's brown," Szarko said.

Yesterday, officials decided Tourist Tater had to go.

"The whole Potato Head campaign is supposed to encourage people to visit. Obviously, we did not intend to offend anyone," Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian said.

Szarko noted that other spud statues in the state's "Birthplace of Fun" tourist campaign are also brown, such as "Edgar Allan Poe-tato," after the famed author who briefly lived in the state.
http://www.nypostonline.com/news/11867.htm

If you believe that the government......

should be really big and take even more of our tax dollars.......

make it impossible for me to get a legal gun but not have any effect on the availability of illegal ones.......

tell parents how to raise their kids.......

then you are a liberal.

If you don't, you're not.

I'm not.

I believe

-Strongly in the death penalty.

-Harsher laws for criminals

-Minimal Government

-That a woman has the right to choose. (with restrictions)

-That this country cannot handle it's freedoms very well.

-That guns are not the problem, but they could be a possible solution, although I feel it's an impratical one.

-That liberals are fucking rediculous.

-That republicans are also fucking rediculous

-That voting 'blind party' is being just that, 'blind'

-That everything to do with politics is a complete joke, and I will probably pencil in my own name come voting time.

throw in lower taxes and you might be a republican

you dont have to believe in every issue in the republican party platform to be a republican

for example
colin powell is republican and he is for abortion (not me) and affirmative action (not me)

pick a few issues you feel strongly about and decide which party most identifies with you

me for example
am turned off completely with the whole christian coalition and their moral value preaching
also i am for the decriminalization of drug use

i am not hung up on the abortion issue either
a lot of people will vote based on this one issue alone
if thats you so be it
your choice

i vote republican because i want
less taxes #1
smaller government
more state power
stronger military

I admire that you are atleast believing in something. I hope that you will vote in accordance with those belifes (whatever side that is).

People who don't vote only make it easier for the shitbags to stay in power.

Anaconda, I try my best as a modereator to allow people to state their views unequivocally. But I will limit the amount of ranting you do in a religious context.
You're basically saying the same thing over and over.

A better place to do that would be a NY city street corner

N.A.A.C.P.