Mike Stark asks Sen. Allen to his face if he's a racist! F'ing rockstar.

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Fri Aug-25-06 03:47 PM
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Mike Stark asks Sen. Allen to his face if he's a racist! F'ing rockstar.

This is beautiful:

Mike Stark makes Senator Allen's acquaintance (Updated - first press report)

by Mike Stark
Fri Aug 25, 2006 at 01:01:07 PM PDT
And so it begins...

link:www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149190197411|First press report here]

Well, I've started law school, but I haven't hung up the cleats completely.

the following is cross-posted from callingAllWingnuts.com.

Senator Allen, are you a racist?

Well, that's almost what I asked him today.

The Jim Webb campaign has video of this, but I'm afraid they won't release it. Us riff-raff in the general public are just too mean, I guess... Never mind - hopefully I'll have audio. With my student loans, I bought a new Mac and an IPod... I recorded the audio with the IPod in my pocket. If the sounds of pocket rubbing against microphone aren't too overbearing, I should be able to post audio of this exchange later on today...

Anyway, what happened, right?

Well, I'm in C'ville, law school has started and I'm gonna live here for three more years. That makes Senator Allen my Senator. From his website, I found that he was doing a "listening tour" and that he was going to be in my neck of the woods - in Staunton, VA, 40 miles outside of C'ville. I decided to take the day off from classes (I only missed two) and go visit the Senator.

The first event was a Chamber of Commerce luncheon. I paid my $20 and took my seat. I counted 75 white people and not a single minority. Not even an Asian. lol...

The Senator gave his speech - during which he looked at a guy with a giant television camera and said "Who are you?" - making the entire room break up in hearty laughter... because, you know, making jokes to a roomful of white people about racist comments you made last week is the surest sign of contrition...

So he talked. At the end, he took three questions. I wasn't one of the questioners...

Instead, I hung about till the room had almost emptied. People were having their picture taken with the Senator when I went up to an underdressed guy with a camera and asked if he was documenting the event for the Allen campaign. He said no, that he was with the Webb campaign... I told him to put his still camera away and get out his video camera.

At about this time, the picture taking was breaking up as the Senator explained that he had something to do. I walked up to him and said, "If you don't mind Senator, I'll walk with you. You know, you gave a great speech, but given the events in the news, some people back at the law school, I'm sure would like to know the answers to some different questions. Have you ever used the word `nigger'?"

Allen: "Oh, c'mon... sheesh..."

Campaign staff: "Who are you - I need to ask you to leave..."

Me: "it's a simple question that deserves an answer - and it's easy to answer"

Allen: "no... no..."

Me: "Well, can you explain why you kept a confederate flag and a noose in your office?"

Campaign staff: "who are you with - you've got to go - is this an interview?"

Me: (to campaign staff) "Are you hotel management? Then you can't ask me to leave and I won't. These are easy questions."

Allen: "Listen - just let me do this here, and then I'll answer you're question about the flag and the noose."

Me: "ok" and I stand aside.

Campaign staff fetches Hotel manager, hotel manager asks me to leave, I leave. Capaign staff follows me to my car, takes license plate number.

I go to the next scheduled event - a meet and greet in downtown Staunton. There, a reporter catches up with me. Asks me about myself and my questions. I answer everything truthfully.

We find out Allen cancels the rest of his public events for that day.

If the audio is decent, I'll post it tonight.

BTW - the best part of this whole story was quite serendipitous... The thing Allen had to do was speak to the local media. Everything ended up happening right in front of them. These people that probably never knew Allen kept a Confederate Flag and a noose in his office... well, now they know. It'll be interesting to see if it makes the papers in the morning.

Here's the first news item on this:

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149190197411">Allen asked about racial language

By BOB STUART
bstuart@newsvirginian.com Aug 25, 2006

STAUNTON - A man who identified himself as a law student confronted U.S. Sen. George Allen here today, demanding to know if the potential presidential candidate had ever used the n-word.

Mike Stark, in his early to mid-20s, also asked Allen, R-Va., why he had a Confederate flag and a noose in his office. The News Virginian confirmed that Stark is a first-year law student at the University of Virginia.

An Allen aide asked Stark to leave, while a staff person at the Holiday Inn in Staunton also told him to leave the premises.

The man paid $20 to attend a luncheon hosted by the Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce. The man stood with reporters waiting to interview Allen, then fired him questions.

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