What The...?

The Missouri State Fair has banned a rodeo bullfighter (they don't much care to be called "clowns") for life because he wore a mask that looked like President Obama and participated in a fairly tasteless and borderline racist skit that mocked the president.

You can read about the skit at the link and at some other stories, although there seem to be some variations in the way it's told. From what I can tell, it doesn't sound very funny and even though I think President Obama has been a lousy chief executive, I would probably have thought it disrespectful had I seen it. But if unfunny, tasteless mockery of a sitting president is a banning offense, then NBC should have had a hole in its schedule at 10:30 PM Central time on Saturday nights from January 2001 to January 2009 and Michael Moore would have disappeared from public view after Fahrenheit 9/11. Which is probably something anyone who paid to see Sicko would have appreciated.

But back to the Missouri State Fair, who have banned a rodeo bullfighter from jumping in front of a ton of angry hamburger ever again within its borders. I'm not an alarmist who sees a crumbling Constitution just because everyone waxes indignant when their own oxen are gored. But sweet heavenly day, what the hell is being substituted for thought at the Missouri State Fair? They have not only banned the guy, they're going to review their contract with the entire association of which he is a part! Some folks have said the Missouri governor should skip a traditional breakfast he sponsors at the fair because of this.

How looney is this mess? It's made Texas Republican Steve Stockman -- a man who made noises about impeaching the president should he enact firearms regulation through executive order and who seems to want to keep an open mind about the president's citizenship status (look that last one up yourself; all the links I found were on sites I don't want to connect with) -- sound reasonable when he invited the banned bullfighter to perform in his district:

“Liberals want to bronco bust dissent. But Texans value speech, even if it’s speech they don’t agree with. From Molly Ivins to Louie Gohmert and every opinion between, Texans value free and open political speech. I’m sure any rodeo in Texas would be proud to have performers.”

Stockman referred to a rodeo bullfight skit using a President George H. W. Bush mask in 1994 as not drawing anything like this response, and again, he's right, meaning he may have wasted his entire ration of stopped clock moments in one news story.

I know Missouri stayed with the Union during the Civil War, but I was wondering if we could get a review of that call. Or since it's not legal for one state to secede from the rest, maybe we could figure out a way for the other 49 to secede from Missouri.