Bloggers challenge Parry's Twitter posts on Waseca County News

By: Franklin on 1/7/10
Barrythemechanic - could you please tell me of the previous racists we've had leading the party? Was it Lincoln? Reagan? Maybe you mean MLK, Walter Williams, or Thomas Sowell? We're still selecting racists to lead our party? Still? Just what do you mean still? What Mike Parry said and peoples interpretation of it is irrelevant in comparison to "still electing racists to lead our party." One other thing, what's wrong with tea party members? Is it that silly civil activity you don't like or is it people standing up for something? Yeah, I hate that, too. Stupid freedom lovers.

By: TwoPuttTommy on 1/6/10
Dear JGalt:

1 - thanks for reminding me of the fact that no one - NO ONE - has been in a position to more for America's veterans - but done less - than John Kline.

John Kline has an atrocious voting record for taking care of those that served America.

2 - Yes, I have and will continue to say things that some people - republiCon bootlickers, in particular - consider "offensive" but (and this is a BIG "BUT") I'm not running for office. Mike Parry is.

And his pathetic "Mea Nota Culpa" today ("the spending made me do it!") reinforces he's hardly one that can be counted on to represent ALL citizens of the district he hopes to serve.

Because, as Mr. Parry seems to make clear: he has no intention of serving "the district" - he only has intention of serving the republiCon party. Mr. Parry clearly considers himself a GOPer first, and a Minnesotan second.

And if that's the kind of guy the voters in Parry's district want, vote for him.

But don't expect Parry to get a lot of respect elsewhere, for the old-fashioned reason: he hasn't earned it.

By: govtmule on 1/6/10
A couple of thoughts on this:

If you use twitter you know that your tweets are momentary thoughts not statements of position - for example on Jan 4 WCN editor James Anderson retweeted "Forget global climate change, I'd go for some local climate change right about now". Knowing that Jan 4 was a very cold day in Waseca it is easy to understand that James was not fond of the cold - not advocating for climate manipulation.

Tweets are also two way communication but a twitter page only shows your tweets - again to use the Editors tweets we might be puzzled by "Wish I could be more like Justice today...thats probably more than you wanted to know" if you follow the same people the James follows and jump around a little you realize that sometimes pizza disagrees with him and that infants may have a better approach to such things.

So if you look at Mike's tweets within the context they are much more understandable - May 4-5 news breaks about Polanski (pedophile largely supported by left) misses hearing date. Very much in the news as opposed to one editorial in the NY times that the bloggers contend was the reasoning.

I have read the Obama article - not sure that I agree that he comes off as arrogant but the statement (referring to Cheney) "And so it's interesting to me to see the vice president spending so much time trying to vindicate himself and relitigate the last eight years when, as I said, I think, actually, a lot of these arguments were settled even before we took over the White House." is not humble. Was the adjective Black needed - nope, it had no relevance to the comment. If you are going to single out Parry for that you need to endite a good portion of white America for needlessly adding that adjective to their description. I am unable to find the article at this point but I pointed the finger at the Waseca County News/Waseca Police department for a story published this summer where an individuals race was pointed out when it clearly had nothing to do with the story.

Online comments rarely are repeated in the full context or considered in the entirety of their social relevance.

By: JGalt on 1/6/10
Tommy Johnson doesn't like 'offensive comments' from others, but has no problem making his own-

"John Kline, R=Bootlicker, wraps himself in the flag while he stabs America's Veterans, Minnesota's Veterans, and expecially the Disabled American Veterans, in the back.

John Kline believes veterans issues are partisan issues; issues to be used to further the interests of the republiCon party. John Kline should be ashamed, but: John Kline has no shame.

Never have America's veterans been as ill-served as they have by John Kline, R=Bootlicker. John Kline has GOT to go - when Boy Blunder leaves in January '09 and heads back to Crawford, he can take John Kline with him."

By: TheJuniper on 1/6/10
I meant that Parry's defense of his tweet is flawed, because any, if not all, references to race are pretty offensive. So even if he had gotten the "fact" right, it still would have sounded bad in the way Tommy suggested earlier.

By: flounder on 1/6/10
I have no proof but I have the feeling Parry must have given James Anderson a phone call. This story is no longer on the list of WCN Home Site.

By: TheJuniper on 1/6/10
The fact is that Obama's a half-black man. If you want to get technical about it. I suppose you could say "Mulatto."

By: Joe_Bodell on 1/6/10
First, to the WCN staff, thanks for covering this story. My name is Joe Bodell, and I'm a co-owner of MN Progressive Project.

MN Progressive Project is in no way affiliated with the DFL or any political party, candidate, or campaign.

I've posted a follow-up to this story on our site: http://www.mnprogressiveproject.com/diary/4905/tweetgate-parry-responds-by-denying-posting-and-scrubbing -- and don't worry, there's more to come. It's important to note that this was not just a story by MPP, but rather by several progressive bloggers and tweeters, all crowdsourcing this information in real time.

Mr. Parry's charge that this is some kind of DFL-led smear against him is both insulting and false on its merits. Instead of attempting to turn this into some political spat, Mr. Parry should take responsibility for what was published under his name, and remove his name from consideration in the SD26 special election.

By: onevoice on 1/6/10
People will use whatever they can to try to create a response in their favor.

By: TwoPuttTommy on 1/6/10
My name is Tommy Johnson; I'm a blogger at MnProgressiveProject.com. I have been following the story of Mr. Parry's scrubbing posts from his twitter account. I find it ludicrous that Mr. Parry is claiming there's no problem with one of his posts because, as Mr. Parry states: "The fact is that he is a black man."

If Mr. Perry were to remain consistent, will he be referring to other people, perhaps, like: "Mr (fill in the blank) is a money-hungry arrogant jew."

Mr. Perry claims on his webpage that he wants to "hold government accountable."

Before Mr. Parry starts casting stones and demanding that others be held accountable, he should start by holding himself accountable for his offensive comments.

By: onevoice on 1/6/10
flounder, that's an interesting take on the matter,you said, "These posts gives the public a snapshot of who the Real Mike Parry is rather than how he is being portrayed by his campaign." I'll state, you can take anything out of content and use it in a number of ways. Flounder, how did you feel about some of the school board members statements or the way they worded responses during the referendum discussions? And what did you think when they tried to politically correct it or whatever you'd like to call it, or even remove it? People will use whatever they can to create or try to create a response in their favor.