DU this poll on 'Fat Tony' Scalia's hand sign...

[edbermac]

From the Howie Carr radio show in Boston, he's also a columnist for the Boston Herald, which ran the photo...about 30%Yes, 70%No right now...

http://www.wrko.com/poll.asp

[eleny]

1. done!

[Syncronaut Seven]

2. In boston, no less

You think they would recognize a mobster when they see one.

Maybe they do. :scared:

[SteppingRazor]

3. done -- 35/65. Keep votin' DU! n/t

[MADem]

4. Right wing crazy, that Howie

That said, the gesture in and of itself is not obscene, just a bit rude. The "vafanculo" that accompanied it WAS, plainly, obscene.

I voted 'obscene' simply because the way the question is worded, they dearly WANT to separate the gesture from the accompanying expletive, and I don't care to let them get away with that!

[wicket]

5. K & R

:kick:

[Oceansaway]

6. Done...n/t

[azmouse]

7. Done

43% yes
57% no

[dufrenne]

8. I voted

not obscene. My test for such things has always been would I defend a democrat if he did the same thing...with the vanfuncolo (sp?) language. If it were a democrat, I would find reasons to say that it's being blown out of proportion and not a being deal. I'd be hypocritical if I didn't use the same standard here, regardless of my feelings for Scalia. It's a test I always use to ensure that I don't get called out for having a double standard.

[Tyler Durden]

19. You are OBVIOUSLY not Italian.

My wife (Purest Calabrese) saw that picture, and choked on her tea.

I haven't seen her blow her cool like that since the election.

She says "If he doesn't think there's anything wrong with what he just did, I suggest he do the same thing to my brother in law Sal. He won't wake up until next week, if at all."

[dufrenne]

23. Yes...

but I'm not Italian - neither are most people (lol). Also, my friend, whose also Calabrese, didn't think twice about it. I'm just saying that if it were a democrat and the rw was jumping down the throat of someone who did the same thing, we would find a hundred reasons to dismiss it and say they're making a big deal out of nothing. To me it seems like an attempt at humor that went nowhere. If he wanted to truly offend, he could have actually flipped the bird. In any case, I just don't see it as such a big deal. It seems like the Herald is making itself the news in this case.

[Tyler Durden]

26. I've got news for you:

The wife says, this makes George's flipping off the camera, and Cheney's "Go Fuck Yourself" look like gradeschool.

Scalia makes a VERY BIG DEAL out of being Italian. In Italy, that gesture can get the SHIT beat out of you.

This is semantics. If you want to excuse a SCOTUS JUSTICE for behaving like an extremely Vulgar Naples Schoolboy, be my guest. By the way, I've got some GERMAN I could lay on YOU that you could just take as a joke. Ugliness and obscenity, even in foreign language, is inexcusable in this man; ESPECIALLY after MASS, for crying out loud.

This is a VERY BIG DEAL.

[dufrenne]

28. Ok...

what difference does it make. I've heard vulgarities on television in other languages that would never be allowed if in English. I've seen people flip the "English" version of the bird on television when the American version wouldn't be allowed. There is a difference. To Italians, it might be a big deal, but to most people it isn't. The point is, we're not in Italy, and regardless of how much I disagree with his opinion, he's definitely smart enough to know the difference between using that gesture in public versus the middle finger. And that's why he did one and not the other. Hell, I've seen that gesture made on the Simpsons...in prime time...by Fat Tony himself. Again, we're not in Italy. You call it vulgar, I call it a joke. "especially after mass" ...well, who gives a crap about mass - that's your business, not mine. Sorry to offend your religious sensibilities.

War is a big deal. This is nothing. And I'll tell you this, if it were an Italian-Democrat, you'd be falling over yourself to make excuses. Again, I'm just trying not to be a hypocrite.

[Tyler Durden]

30. This DEMONSTRATES Scalia's distain for all of us...

...that are not FEDERALISTS, that are not OPUS DEI, that are CRITICS of his. This is from the article on another thread.

Photographer: Herald got it right
By Marie Szaniszlo
Thursday, March 30, 2006 - Updated: 09:39 AM EST

Amid a growing national controversy about the gesture U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made Sunday at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the freelance photographer who captured the moment has come forward with the picture. “It’s inaccurate and deceptive of him to say there was no vulgarity in the moment,” said Peter Smith, the Boston University assistant photojournalism professor who made the shot.

Despite Scalia’s insistence that the Sicilian gesture was not offensive and had been incorrectly characterized by the Herald as obscene, the photographer said the newspaper “got the story right.” Smith said the jurist “immediately knew he’d made a mistake, and said, ‘You’re not going to print that, are you?’ ”

Smith was working as a freelance photographer for the Boston archdiocese’s weekly newspaper at a special Mass for lawyers Sunday when a Herald reporter asked the justice how he responds to critics who might question his impartiality as a judge given his public worship. “The judge paused for a second, then looked directly into my lens and said, ‘To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ” punctuating the comment by flicking his right hand out from under his chin, Smith said.

The Italian phrase means “(expletive) you.” ....

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?arti...

Seem you don't care much when a senior member of the judiciary insinuates that if you don't like the arch-conservative/neocon point of view, you can Stick it up your ass (that's the "culo" part).

I also suggest you haven't been here very long. Scalia gets no slack for his NEOCON bullshit and "fuck you all" attitude here.

[dufrenne]

31. Whether I've been here long or not makes no

difference to my POV. I don't care if he doesn't get slack. If he realized it was a mistake, it seems to me that was because he understood how people could make a big deal out of it. Again, as much as I disagree with his legal opinions, he's smart enough to understand a joke. Do you really think that he would say in English..."f*** you critics"? In Italian...it's more innocent. People have varying senses of humor - some dry, some sharp, some bawdy and some obvious. From what I understand about the man through law school, this story is in keeping with his sense of humor. And I don't think I can make grand statements about his view of the American people or his substantive ideology based on such a joke. When did people become so damned PC!!?? By your logic, I would be within my rights to criticize Clinton for the whole Lewinsky thing. Isn't sex in the oval office and lying about it worse than an expletive? But again, I'm not a hypocrite. I didn't get on Clinton over what I view as his private life (even if done in the public sphere), and I won't get on Scalia over a mere joke, especially when some reporter (as you said "outside mass!) asks someone if his private concerns will affect his public duties. Clinton/Lewinsky anyone?...I seem to remember the same questions...

[0007]

9. yes!

[Betsy Ross]

10. 46% Yes 54% No

[graywarrior]

11. Howie Carr attracts assholes.

Only rednick idiots listen to that piece of shit.

[quaoar]

12. Done 47-53

BTW, It isn't Judge Scalia. It's Justice Scalia.

Do you think Judge Scalia's gesture to a herald reporter was obscene?
Yes 47%
No 53%

[AzDar]

13. Yes..47% n/t

[stop the bleeding]

14. Yes 48% n/t

[rinsd]

15. The "Fat Tony" shit is a little uncalled for....

...surely we can do better than play on the man's ethnicity and a nasty stereotype of that ethnic background.

[Tyler Durden]

21. If he wants to behave like a PISAN in Little Italy...

then I think "Fat Tony" works just fine.

[rinsd]

24. Clueless....

... and not exactly surprising.

[Tyler Durden]

27. Rude...

...and I guess you get to judge, right?

Sheesh.

[Tarheel_Dem]

16. Done......48/52 now........

n/t

[seabeyond]

17. boston as in liberal. is htis a right wing radio station? thanks n/t

[Squeech]

25. Yes

Belongs to the Murdoch empire. They got in trouble for buying it when they already owned the Herald. Senator Kennedy pointed out that it was then against the law for somebody to own both a newspaper and a radio station in the same media market. The very same columnist Howie Carr wrote a rude column just to insult Kennedy, entitled "Was it something I said, fat boy?"

Class act, the Herald.

[Catherine Vincent]

18. Gosh he has a fat hand.

[dufrenne]

20. looks swollen or muscular

like he does a lot of writing...lol...guess it makes sense considering he's a judge...

[Catherine Vincent]

22. or it just looks extra big in the picture

[NoAmericanTaliban]

29. Done - Yes - 47%

[go west young man]

32. Done! Its at 46% yes now. To 54% no.

Might be getting freeped at this point. We need more action from our side!

[skipos]

33. yes 43%

[bleedingheart]

34. he looks like one of those pug dogs....

granted the dogs are cute...and he isn't...

[rinsd]

35. He's a shovel-face.....(nt)