The cold wind-swept city of Superior, Wisconsin, perches on the icy shores of Lake Superior. It’s a place where giant ships use to load iron ore bound for midwest steel mills, although nowadays ship cargoes are more likely to be grain.
And these days, a chill wind is blowing through city hall after the city’s rightwing mayor called President Obama a “Muslim” and announced he has “no respect” for his administration. Mayor Bruce Hagen posted remarks disparaging the president and first lady on Facebook next to a picture of Michelle Obama. Read story here.
Then, after five city council members called on him to either apologize or resign, he barked that he’s merely exercising his First Amendment rights. “Do we still have freedom of speech in this country?”
Why yes, mayor, we do. If you want to call President Obama a Muslim, then by golly it’s your constitutional right to be a jackass. Whether the citizens of Superior are willing to let you use the mayor’s office for that purpose is a different issue, which I won’t address here, because what they do about it is up to them.
Oh, and by the way, I have a constitutional right to post your picture on the internet and call you a jackass.
Photo: Mayor Bruce Hagen, jackass