I have been through Turlock. There are a few small towns and regions of California that are not progressive at all. Some of them seem like they were transported directly from here in the Deep South.

I guess that woman is a job creator. Someone else gets to occupy the slot she just volunteered up!!

LOL at the idiot. Now she may become an Obama fan, because she is now on the dole! No, not Bob Dole.

Anyway, I'm glad a small fraction of people forego education. The only other entertainment we got is DWTS!!

John Athondoe and eggor,

Oh, so you guys are saying that when she used the "n" word, it was a term of endearment?

LOL

I'm not black, so I can't say why black people use that word sometimes, but apparently it is not derogatory when they use it themselves. Although, I agree, it would probably be best for African Americans to discontinue its use as well, if they are offended by it.

But, this woman on Facebook obviously meant it as a racial slur. To assume anything else is ignorant.

She still has free speech but there can be consequences to you speaking them. I assume that most people in their lives have said something, that had a consequence they weren't expecting, same difference. That doesn't take into consideration that a business has the right to protect their image, as some people might construe that is how they also think.

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from the consequences of exercising that right.

Schmeckt Lecker

I don't agree one bit with what she said, but this is horrible for free speech in this country. You are allowed to be racist.

How is this "horrible" for free speech? Cold Stone Creamery has freedoms also, they have the freedom to choose who works for them and who represents their company and someone else's First Amendment rights do not trump CSC's freedoms.

The First Amendment does not protect you from the consequences of your free speech, it just gives you the freedom to bring those consequences upon yourself should you so choose.

That doesn't sound like a freedom to me.

Whether they are "people" or not, companies and corporations have freedoms also. They have exercised theirs just like she did hers.

Saying it on the internet is like announcing it to the world. Are people really so ignorant that they believe that they can call the president the N word and talk about assassination without any consequences whatsoever? People get fired for things like wearing a belt that doesn't match their shoes.

independent thinking atheist, free speech is about the GOVERNMENT not ARRESTING YOU for speaking your mind (but calls for assassination are NOT "speaking your mind" and this young woman has probably already been visited by law enforcement). The First Amendment does NOT protect you from repercussions of your speech. You can be fired, divorced, ignored, shunned, made fun of etc. because of your speech. That is NOT a violation of the idea of Free Speech.

Why don't people understand that? You also are not allowed to call for violence, incite a riot, shout "Fire" in a crowded venue etc. This girl will probably be arrested for the wish that Obama be assassinated, but that falls under the call to violence exception, especially when she's referring to the President of the United States or ANY other elected official from town dog catcher on up.

Nothing to do with free speech protected by the Constitution. The First Amendment says the government cannot suppress speech; in this case, her employer decided her comments were not in keeping with company policy so she was fired. End of story.

Your understanding of the freedom of speech is very backwards. No one is saying this woman does not have the right to say whatever she wants. She can. However, the exercise of free speech does not mean you can say whatever you want to say without consequence. Any American can say anything they want to say. It is our right to do so... but we must also be willing to accept the reaction and consequences when we exercise that freedom.

It's like in the movie "The Help" the whites who were completely rasist didn't think so either.

Problem is the Right wing BUBBLE and it's misinformation machine has alot of people duped to vote and protest against their best interests.

People ARE corporations now a days(I don't believe it but the SCOTUS says so) and people have the right to associate with other people pretty much anyway they want. So the person Cold Stone Creamery has the right not to associate with a racist nut bag that calls for the assassination of the president. Like it or not your represent your employer 24X7. If they can tell you not to smoke tobacco, not to smoke pot, lose weight etc etc all while away from work they can tell you not to speak racist rants and assassination.

Freedom of speech only goes so far. Companies are always going to look out for what makes them look bad in the public eye. They have the freedom to fire anyone who makes their company look backward, racist and hate-filled. And, the assassination comment - even idiots know better than to post that disgusting comment. Hope the Secret Service scares her silly!

Actually, the real issue here is not the woman's racist remarks, but the assassination remark.

Bad move. She's on the watch list now.

jwight101, you nailed it. Many companies, the one for which I work for example, have policies regarding what can and can't be said on social networking sites. This woman obviously violated the rules set forth by her employer and lost her job as a result. Cold Stone Creamery has every right to terminate her services in this case. I, for one, hope she has a long, hard search for a new job.

This is not free speech - it is hate speech. Yes, you are allowed to dislike the president and comment on such but free speech isn't name calling, racist or otherwise - shame on your parents for not teaching you better - and making comments about assassination are not protected - speech that incites others to riot etc is not free speech (eg the recent horrible movie about Islam). It makes me nuts to hear people claim their right to free speech and their ignorant assumption that anything that comes out of your mouth is protected. C'mon people - let's work together to improve the country and help our fellow citizens which in turn helps us!

It's a real shame that the minute a bi-racial president is re-elected, some sore losers in the south come out of their racist closets. The wonder is they actually think their hate speech, their stupid childish names they call this president and their disrespect for the choices their fellow Americans make when they vote isn't racism...until you ask them why they so hate this president.

I'd be very careful about this re-election. If this young woman is any mirror of the wrath of that tiny uneducated minority, her hope for assassination isn't far off. How do we as Americans protect the president we voted for when the righties are nothing more than paid mercenaries of the southern rich bois all hot to continue their insatiable greed?

Hitler also figured out that all he had to do to gain ultimate control was brainwash youth and the most uneducated in the masses. This is also why the Civil War wasn't fought by rich plantation owners and instead poor farm boys. Getting others to do their bidding is what the elite rich believe is their entitlement.

I wish the word would disappear as well. You would be surprised how many derogatory words for other groups have disappeared. More than 15 years ago I took my 8th grade students to the Museum of Tolerance in LA. They walked through a tunnel that gave the illusion of people whispering these words behind their backs. It was a powerful teaching tool, but happily my students only knew a few. To them the rest of the words were linguistically dead, and no, I did not tell them what they meant. I wish the word would disappear, but I believe that the young in the black community use if defensively to make it "their" word so it cannot be used against them by others. I had a friend in high school that did the same thing with a negative term for Italians.

ewent

It's a real shame that the minute a bi-racial president is re-elected, some sore losers in the south come out of their racist closets.

Since when did California become "the south"?

@CharlesDJ....

YO Stupid.. That the most ignorant statement besides her I've read today! I can use it cause Im white and black? Your the worst type of racist! You use the white side when it benefits you / black side when it benefits you! My wife is half black, half hispanic... Blacks and Hispanics are more racist toward her than whites.. My son also gets it from both! Still hurts them both when their call the N word or wetback! So dont spew your BS thatss it diff when blacks say it toward each other!!

Freedom of Speech is not absolute; there are some restrictions. But the government didn't restrict her free speech - her employer did. And that is allowed is this civilized nation.

But speaking of assassination of a political figure is definitely not allowed by the state.

I hope she is prosecuted. Really, people. The President was reelected by a large margin. Get over it and join the USA.

@aliveinsd

Although I do not agree with the employees rant, I'll never deny the right to say it.

Cold Stone, you're fired!

Cold Stone has the right to express their opinions every bit as much as she does. They used a pink slip, she used Facebook. How are they any more "wrong" than she was? Do you believe this company has some obligation to provide this woman with a job?

I'm a black woman who abhors the usage of this word, and do not tolerate it amongst my peers, or in my presence. It's bad enough that it is a derogatory slur, meant to shame, the fact that some of those using it are the very ones that it was meant to target is ironic. Unfortunately, there are many in my culture who choose to denigrate themselves by casually using it in everyday conversation. I bear this young lady no ill will. She is young, and up to this point, probably unaware of what she has done to herself and her future in a moment of supposed self justified anger. Her statement, seen by thousands, will be the reason that she has a hard time securing future employment, or be accepted by those she attempts to befiend. As another poster stated, and as the article suggested, her assassination statement(?) now leaves her open for intense scrutinization by federal agencies.Think before you speak...and in these days, before you post.

The first amendment proscribes government pre censorship or retaliation. It says nothing about what private companies are free to do about their employees who violate company policy with their speech.

I once saw a b*tch in the ER with similar sentiments, fat ugly racist pig with a severe myocardial infaction...

The black oncall ER doc and a mostly black ER night crew worked so hard to save her life despite all the spits, tantrums on how she hates n*ggers, at point she hit one of the black nurses with her purse for attempting to help her switch her pillow....she kept demanding for a white Doc....

In the end, she was too sick to be saved...but the effort these folks made, even a hardened KKK grand wizard would have given them an award....

Folks, life is short...dont hate....hate kills, it really does

Although I do not agree with the employees rant, I'll never deny the right to say it.

Too many people confuse the freedom to say what you want...with the belief that there should be no consequences for what you choose to say.

I'll defend her right to speak her mind...but if she chooses to be a hateful, uninformed, ignorant racist then I can exercise my own rights and choose not to do business with any company that would employ her. Conversely...I can support any business that refuses to keep someone who publicly hopes our president gets murdered in office.

good! Maybe she can sit at home and chill... with her hand out hoping President Obama can help her still.

your beloved black rappers use the "N" word proficiently , never endingly , rapidly , overwhelmingly , profusley , so do the large majority of black people "in general" , are they "racists"? ,

I have no use for rap, a music genre whose name, I feel, is missing a leading 'c', and I don't particularly care for the use of the 'N' word in black sub-culture.

But context is important. The 'N' word is often used in black sub culture as synonymous with 'man', or 'fellow black man'. In the context in which this woman used it, it is synonymous with 'second class human'.

The expressed hope that the President might be assassinated, just underlines her racism.

That's the difference, John Athendoe, and I suspect that you are smart enough to realize it. You just choose to ignore it.

I saw a bunch of racist quotes from twitter, it was hard to believe. I am caucasian, one who was tired of hearing about racism, that was until I read those posts. I cannot believe in this day and age that people cannot get past "race". We are all members of the human race and we are all different. It is not much different than men who view women as inferior, or even the slender who view the overweight as lazy slobs. These views are not only ugly they are based on ignorance and fear; plus you who embrace these views are an embarrassment to the intelligence of the human race!

I do not blame Cold Stone for wanting to fire such a twisted. angry person. I would have fired her, because I would never want my companies name associated with someone like this. Yes, I believe in freedom of speech, but with every "right" comes responsibility, this young woman has now learned that lesson.

I remember Natalie Mains...

Evil Tessmacher, has anybody ever pointed out your tendency to repeat yourself.

There is a modicum of truth in your remembrances of the criticism and threats leveled at Natalie Maines and the Dixie Chicks, but it is not multiplied by the number of times you post it; rather the reverse is true.

Enough, please.

@Scalabrini- read my comment

Yes, I believe in freedom of speech, but with every "right" comes responsibility, this young woman has now learned that lesson.

Rightly or wrongly, freedom of speech only refers to legal penalties for speaking your mind [or lack thereof]. Private organizations, commercial or otherwise, have the right to disassociate themselves from [AKA fire] anybody whose public utterances are deeply at variance with their public image.

Presumably this would also cover the KKK firing an administrative assistant for tweeting about his or her respect for black people, or their dislike of white people.

As Donald Trump would say...YOU'RE FIRED!

She can say what ever she want's but in the same rights cold stone creamery has the right to fire her for saying it. Free speech only means you have the right to say something without the government arresting you for it. Freedom of speech has nothing to do with your work place, a private employer can fire you for any behavior they feel is inappropriate or could possibly reflect negatively on their business. If they had known about it and done nothing I would have boycotted their establishment.

I don't agree with what she said, it's in poor taste and clearly ignorant. I also am aware that the 1st Amendment only protects your speech from being infringed upon by the government, not another private entity.

That being said, I think that corporations employing "Big Brother" tactics to control their employees when they are not at work is wrong. The woman was not convicted of any crime. She was not acting in any official capacity. She was not an officer or executive of the company. She was a store manager, low level employee. By the company's own admission "We never saw anything from her at work like those comments." I don't believe that people should be able to get fired for saying something during their off hours. Had she said it in the store, fine. Had she said it while in her uniform during a break, okay. But this is taking it a bit too far. It crosses a line, IMO.

And for the record, I know lots of white people - all Democrats - who use the "N" word all the time. They use it in the same way other people use "white trash" - not referring to ALL black people, only those that are seen as low class thugs. It's not right, I agree, but it's largely cultural depending on where you're from. None of those people would call themselves racist, any more than someone who called someone who was a low class white thug "white trash" would consider themselves racist. The one's I'm thinking of are all from North Jersey and it seems to be very common usage there. I never use it myself and it makes me feel really uncomfortable.

I say HURRAY for Cold Stone. Racism should not be tolerated. Now when I go out for ice cream - I am supporting a company with good values and to heck with the calories!!

@ 1444729

Hahahaha! Being of mixed races makes me the worst kind of racist? Maybe? But more likely, maybe, it gives me the best kind of perspective into racism.

Let me put it to you simply. Most people understand that there should be two words - one defined as racism against a majority owning a super-majority of the wealth and power, and one defined as racism against a minority with very little influence and/or power relative to the majority.

The first type of racism will spoil your appetite. You push your plate away.

The second type of racism pushes your plate away despite your appetite.

The first is a spider web. The second is a reinforced alloy cage. The first will slow you down only if you let it. The second takes every possible contortionist's effort or the mass of a million on march to get through.

I have to laugh at those who are outraged because she was punished for using free speech. You people don't understand that free speech only protects you from being punished by the GOVERNMENT and does not apply your employer. Try going up to you boss and call him a degrading name and see how well you are protected. How long do you think businesses would stay in business if they told their clients what they really think of them.

Now for you people that think just because black people use the word it's alright for white people also. It just doesn't work that way. The word is derogatory to non-white and is not acceptable for use in a society. Only people that mean to insult others use it and by doing so you expose yourself as a bigot. There is just no other way to look at it.

Obama was elected by a majority of the people in this country to represent us for the next four years so whether you like our president or not, the one fact remains that he is our president and deserves the respect that comes with the position. The really sad part is that the biggest problem he has is the deeply rooted hate for men of his race in this country.

Don't feel bad for her Trump will give her a job.

Either that or Ted Nugent will let her manage his mess.

@ JOregon

FOX will find a spot for her. They have for all other a-hole that have spoken out against any Democrat.

Racist talk probably is protected by first amendment. But wishing president's assassination is criminal.

Have you seen a pic of the Denise Helms in question? She appears to be eating most of the profit from her Coldstone franchise in Turlock, CA.

Just another sad and miserable piece of trailer trash from California's Central Valley, which in many ways is little more than an elongated Alabama.

There are hundreds of thousands of comparable racists festering in their hate and fear from Bakersfield on up to Grass Valley.

Denise obviously wanted Romney to win so the wealthy could get the tax breaks they wanted so she could pay more in taxes and they could pay near 0% in taxes. She would have been so happy when Romney got rid of minimum wage, then she could have enjoyed her $2 a day paycheck all the more, but sorry Denise, just because you would have been doing your duty so the wealthy could enjoy more wouldn't have gotten you out of those $300 a month payments on your trailer and the other $200 a month payments on that F150. Somehow you would have had to cough that money up each month even if you are only making $54 a month. But then when the banks reposed everything, you would have again been proud knowing you were doing your part to make the wealthy more wealthy as they sell all of your belongings and put the cash into their own pockets. Hopefully you would have saved a few dollars to purchase a nice refrigerator box to live in and maybe you would have found a good steam vent to park it over in the winter and hopefully it would have been near a busy dumpster because you have to think of a consistent food supply.

Do not confuse freedom with liberty.

Because words easily have the power to influence others, it has consequences, and while its expression may unshackle some, it may also infringe upon the freedoms of others. Like it or not, the truth is that, 'freedom of speech' in the real world, does has culturally-imposed limits to its personal or group expression. And in the constitution, this freedom cannot be infringed upon others, by the government.

Many private sector businesses though, owe something to "the government," since it accepted money and assistance from them in some fashion. Thus, they are legally bound to respect the constitution, pay taxes, and comply to the prevailing bodies of laws that regulates its conduct. And for those that imagine that any person or any business that operates here is, 'free' to do or say whatever they want, think again. No one is above the law.

well, if she violated company policy, then she's hit, if not, she can lawyer up.

Any person just commenting about assignation should be fired, and then looked into by the FBI. Loughtner was of the same deranged mentality when it came to politics as Helms, were most likely influenced by their family and party affiliation. Helms racist comments and wanting the Pres. assassinated followed by the fact that she is not bigoted is so typical of the good ole' white boy, radical Republicans. Racism was noticeably prevalent with so many right wing radical bloggers during this Pres. election, too. You need to get over it, and move on to something far more constructive and positive for a change instead of membership in a "Party of Negativity". At least show respect for the Office of the Pres.!!

america first-489930 = sore loser

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0TYwTjRqb0

Guys, if a word is used (or a comment is made) in a derogatory manner, then it's derogatory. If it's made in a friendly manner, then it's friendly. We can't defend her use of the word when it's followed by ''assassinated''. For the record, I'm not a supporter of President Obama, and I was hoping Mr Romney would have been elected - BUT to call the President a 'N' and to comment on assassination - that's simply indefensible.

Now - simply saying a word isn't racist, but saying it with a malicious intent obviously is. I'm Canadian, and around here, many First Nation / Native Canadian youth will refer to each other as ''N's'' in an affectionate, friendly way to each other - interchangeable with 'bro' or 'pal' or 'chum' or 'cuzin' - and that's obviously not a racist term because it's friendly, joking, inclusive.

HOWEVER, it's also ridiculous that the word can't even be SPOKEN, in any context. It can't be debated, written, spoken, uttered, or even discussed intellectually in any context. That's silly. We went to ''Man with the Iron Fists'' the other day - and the movie contains rap songs laced with the ''N'' word. I think it's pretty strange that we've decided that a character from a 125 yr old Mark Twain book can't say that word, yet Quentin Tarantino can.

She used the "n" word, but says she is not racist?

LOL

Talk about self-denial!

Well technically she isn't racist she isn't trying to bring the race down. A racist was Jesse Helms or Strom Thurmand. Even if she tried she's lose big time. She is though a bigot. A stupid one at that.

The constitutional right to free speech protects you from being arrested or sanctioned by government it doesn't force individuals to hire you, purchase at your place of employment or to stop them from exercising thier right to let you know what they think of you and your opinions. A lawyer wouldn't do her any good.

For all of you who think she can "Lawyer up" and the company is going to have to "Pay up".. So surprise NOT!!! We recently had someone that did something off the clock that was offensive to our customers and this person was fired. Now he was able to collect unemployment, but he got shut down when he tried to sue. They told him that he had NO leg to stand on. What he did was a detriment to the companies business and that he would NEVER win because he had been disciplined for the same thing before while he was on the clock.

The other thing is even though he received unemployment for a while that too was reduced because of the circumstances. Cold Stone may not be able to stop her from getting unemployment, but the sure are within their right to fire her. She was not being private, she posted on a SOCIAL media site which is easily read by anyone that is on her friends list and anyone on their friends list. Do you see how that goes?

The thing that I don't understand and that some of you seem to have glossed over is that she made "veiled" threats about a sitting President. Is she NUTS??? I would love to be a fly on that wall when the Secret Service pay her a visit and they will make no mistake. I did not care for President Bush Jr, but to advocate his death? That is the most viscous, cruel and stupid thing to say or think. Why in God's name would that even cross your mind?

That being said, I think that corporations employing "Big Brother" tactics to control their employees when they are not at work is wrong

Ok I am not going to bother to reread this short story but my reccolection of the content doed not lead me to believe she was not working or for that matter working. that being said think for a minute! How did they know she worked there. Well its simple as she almost had to associate herself and her job with he page on the media she chose to spe her racist comments and he close to a crime idiotic assasination comment. That being said if there is any link she provided to her work then her work has every right to dismiss her if she was told that she should not do that end of story. On the N word. Since most of the people who use the rappers and comedians use of the word as an alibi when some nut uses it as a deragatory comment one would expect they know nothing about black culture. When researching a book a few years ago I found out about it and even today some older black do not use the word or approve of its use by the younger generation. As it turns out after the civil rights movement some people thought a way to use the word to get back at the racists was to dilute it by using a similar word to it to show their distane for the way it was used. The word they use ends in a not e so while it is similar they are far from the smae. Their word mean bro or friend or my guy etc. Arguments on both sides of the equation ensue. However it is not excuse for any white or other nationality or entity to use it in the manner as above which is as old as the old south is.

She uses a racist epitaph to describe the POTUS and wishes for his assassination but she's not racist. Good thing Fox news covered the story, I'm sure she'll get the sympathy she feels she deserves from their viewers.

Any relation to Jesse Helms? You have to wonder.

I don't agree one bit with what she said, but this is horrible for free speech in this country. You are allowed to be racist. You are allowed to hate the President. You are allowed to dissent. And apparently now, you are allowed to be fired for what has nothing to do with work. Use fake names people, else you could be fired if your freedom of speech doesn't happen to comply with company policy. That doesn't sound like a freedom to me.

I think you're confusing the meaning of "freedom of speech". No one forced her take her post down. She wasn't arrested for using the "N" word. Just because she has the freedom to say what she wants, doesn't mean that others don't have the right to not approve of it. Her rights were not violated. She was fired because the company did not want their business represented by a racist individual. That is completely in their right, it does not matter that it was not work related.

I think we can all agree that her post was racist, but, was she acting as a rep of the company? Did she have some kind of a company logo on her FB page? And, was what she said concerning assasination a threat against the president?

If she committed no crime, and was not in anyway representing the company, then she probably shouldn't have been fired.

I don't know if a lawyer would do her any good, I don't really care, she is obviously not real bright posting that nonsense on FB in the first place.

I wonder if all those people who tweeted about assassinations if Romney was were also fired?

america first-489930

No dumpster. I'm just a middle class white man that knows who is trying to make things better for the country. You on the other hand are hopeless and will probably never know why but let me try to help you if I may. You think that anyone that would vote for a black man is a piece of trash that was found in a dumpster so you insult those that would dare to have a different opinion than yours. Therefore I peg you as a sore loser and most likely one of those the Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson was referring to when he made his statement on the Ed Show. In case you don't know who Colonel Wilkerson is, he was a right hand man to General Colon Powell whom you may remember as well as Colonel Wilkerson is a Republican. They as well as I just don't like what has happened to the Republican party. The one I used to love and respect. It has been taken over by a bunch of fruit cakes being controlled by a bunch of rich white men with money that crave power any way they can get it. Well just as money cannot buy your way into Heaven it also does not buy you power when people can vote them down. Today there are two kinds of Republicans. The extremely wealthy greedy white men and the fools that follow. Which are you?

Saying it on the internet is like announcing it to the world. Are people really so ignorant that they believe that they can call the president the N word and talk about assassination without any consequences whatsoever?

Oh my fookin' gawd - and have you really read THESE boards all that much? Apparently NOT, eh????

I mean - don't these idiots know that these boards are monitored by the Feds?

Knock, knock!

To ewent:

I've been reading your posts for a while, and I like the way you think! Your posts are always informative and thought provoking. They always teach.

During the campaign I did a lot of grass roots campaign work on the social networks, and was absolutely amazed at the amount of racism in this country. It was especially bad in Ohio, FLorida Pennsylvania and Colorado. Ohio though was particularly disgusting. Racism is also alive and well on Long Island New York. Hatred of Jews also went right along with it in all these places. As the Supreme Court is currently debating whether to ease the voter's rights act from the 60's all I can say is "DON'T DO IT". Some people may have become adept at hiding their racism, but it is simmering right below the surface. Any step backward will result in a race to the days of the KKK. No Doubt.

P.S. I'm white.

P.S. I hope this follows that woman for a very long time, if not for life, and keeps her from ever getting a decent job. That's what she deserves.

Those of you who agree with the idea of firing somebody for saying something the company doesn't like on his own time should consider that most large companies would regard "voting Democrat" to be such a fireable offense. They fired her for reasons other than her performance at work. And that is wrong.

I agree with the fellow who said that he would not do business with a company that wants to control the private lives of its employees. They weren't expressing an opinion with a pink slip. They were expressing an abuse of power with that pink slip. Unions, and indeed many of the ideals of the Democratic party, originated to fight such abuses.

This woman is a by product of all the racial hate and division spread by Fox News, the Republican Party and every other right wing hate group out there. Every day our society is bombarded by right wing lies and rhetoric by low lives like Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck. It is not surprising that weak minded people like this woman would respond by parroting their message of racist hate.

I agree with Ed McT-2404427 post 2.89 that there is "simmering racism just below the surface". The thing that disturbs me most is how some people can carry so much hate for people they don't even know.

P.S. I'm white too.

get a job Khan , you have to much time on your hands, haha

post us a link to some Fox News racism there BigAl from the cesspool of Las Vegas , thanks , and then put a little effort into turning around the liberal induced coma that your defunct state is in

Companies already ARE firing people for voting Democratic. Murray Energy, a coal company, fired 160 employees the day after the election. A business owner in Las Vegas claimed he had to lay off 22 employees after "warning" them about the consequences of an Obama victory. And that's all perfectly legal.

Businesses fire employees for reason other than work performance all the time. In this case, we're not simply dealing with the private thoughts of one individual; rather, Coldstone was presented with an employee who made herself a liability by using racial slurs and publicly broadcasting a call for the President's assassination on the internet. To keep this employee on the payroll would have been detrimental to the company's interests, and might well have resulted in negative publicity, protests, or even a boycott. Thus the company acted to protect itself, and justifiably terminated the employee. That's not wrong; in fact, it's perfectly logical, and good business besides.

are you people so blind by ideological hate that you cant see right in from of you?!? black people use the 'n' word ALL THE TIME and they do it right on TV! all i hear when i listen to black people speak is 'n' this and 'n' that, 'n' please. so are black people being racist when they say the 'n' word? or is it just the whites?

this lady has every right to speak her opinion WITHOUT repercussions, that is the point of being a free society but i guess its okay for black people to say 'n' on public television and denigrate whites but heaven forbid a white says the 'n' word, break out the soap.

the company had no right to fire someone for something that has no relation to the company or her work. they could of just fired her for no reason and been okay for it but as soon as they said it was because of a online post about a person not affiliated to the company nor was the employee in violation of any contractual agreement, they are in the wrong and rife for a lawsuit. there is no law against being a racist or having perceived racist thoughts or writings, racism is a perception only.

besides obama is is not 'black' hes a mulatto at best. his father is muslim arabic and mother is germanic white, he was raised as a muslim and even went to muslim madrassas in indonesia as a child and thats right from his book.

Are those black people who use the "n word" doing it to be offensive to one another? Are they trying to offend you? And do they typically use it in the context of wanting to see another black person get murdered? I hate to break it to you, but there is no absolute right of free speech, and NO ONE has the right to speak an opinion without repercussions. The point of a free society is that actions have consequences, and the action in question had negative consequences for the company. Coldstone was perfectly within its rights to fire this person; any employer has the right to fire an employee who acts in a manner detrimental to its own interests. In this case, to keep this employee on the payroll could have created tons of negative publicity or even a possible boycott situation. Getting rid of her was not only legal, but good business.

You're correct to say that there are no laws against privately harboring racist thoughts, but when one chooses to broadcast those thoughts on the internet, then they're no longer private. Moreover, there will be no lawsuit here, because no laws were broken. There is no legal right to be employed by Coldstone or any other company, and it is perfectly legal for a company to fire any employee for any reason so long as they're not a member of a legally protected class. And the last time I checked, there was no legal protected status for racist wingnuts who want to kill the president. True, racism may only be in the eye of the beholder, but I think that most reasonable beholders would probably regard a person who refers to the President as a "n***er" and wants to see him murdered as a racist.

As for your own unfounded crapola about Obama being a Muslim, please go peddle that garbage over at Fox Nation, where it might be better appreciated.

Although I do not agree with the employees rant, I'll never deny the right to say it.

The Secret Service has a problem with her rant. Maybe that should give you a clue as to its propriety?

Do we have legislation against hate speech or did I just imagine it?

Politics is kept out of the workplace for good reason. The girl's behavior was gross evidence of her immaturity, and if I were her employer I'd question her judgment and her ability to do her job. I would not want an employee who would drive away my customers with her negative and hateful opinions.

She needs to save her racist ranting for her friends, if she has any.

this lady has every right to speak her opinion WITHOUT repercussions, that is the point of being a free society

Freedom is not a license to say and do whatever we please without repercussions. Your freedom ends where my rights begin. Human beings can live together in harmony only if we accept responsibility and consequences for our behavior.

Your perspective is immature and self destructive.

whats too bad is that our government is so corrupt that the people no longer feel it represents us.id like to see them all transported to mars.there hows that.lets see if they can sell us out from a different planet

Larry-2260635

I just know where Obama came from my friend, do you remember Rev. Jeremiah Wright ? OHHH you probably forgot about that guy and Louis Farrakhan. Obama's buddy's until he went after the white vote.

just as a side note , as far as toy stores go , Kay Bee Toys blows ,not a personal attack just an observation to lighten the mood here

shamsky24Are those black people who use the "n word" doing it to be offensive to one another? Are they trying to offend you? And do they typically use it in the context of wanting to see another black person get murdered? I hate to break it to you, but there is no absolute right of free speech, and NO ONE has the right to speak an opinion without repercussions.

sorry guy but you are way wrong. you have no right to be offended, that is an emotion based on perception. the context of ones words have little relevance in this situation. black people using the 'n' word are hypocrites, there is no other meaning for the word 'n', none. so if you call whites racist for using the 'n' words then you must also apply it to blacks, there are no "special protected groups" under the US constitution. racism is perceived anyhow so how can one racist if the do not believe in what they are saying is wrong, you interpretation of my words does not carry truth.

like a true ideologue you post. i never said obama was muslim but rather he was raised as a muslim, that is from his book. he lived in indonesia as a child and attended madrassas, thats from his book. his father was a muslim arab, thats from his book. why dont you read the mans published writings to get an idea of who he is. i guarantee you that most of the people who voted for him know nothing about him and have never read his books.

nothing this lady said was illegal or a threat, it was a opinion. the ice cream place is just a blind obama supporter who cant ignore others. she said this on her own time and her own dime, there is nothing illegal about what she did and she should not face any repercussion from government or business.

You're correct to say that there are no laws against privately harboring racist thoughts, but when one chooses to broadcast those thoughts on the internet, then they're no longer private.

nothing illegal about making your thoughts public. whats the difference between telling some friends and posting online? nothing, she still said it.

@anti-trust proponent No offense but unless you were full-blood and have lived for the past 500 years, it was never YOUR country. It's OUR country, as in all the AMERICANS that live here. Even then, you'd have to dispute as to which territory you had based on what heritage you are. It was never YOUR country.

As for your own unfounded crapola about Obama being a Muslim, please go peddle that garbage over at Fox Nation, where it might be better appreciated.

For the record, he was Muslim. He could recite Shahada with the best of them (flawless pronunciation according to those who knew him). He now claims to be Christian but he belonged to a church that allowed membership without renouncing your former religion if you were Jewish or Muslim. He since left that Church after his minister's "God Damn America!" garbage went public and Obama threw him under the bus.

And, none of what I have just stated is anything connected with Fox. I have seen the school record that lists Obama's childhood religion as Muslim. That said, the origin of the "Muslim" claim was not conservatives but originated from supporters of Hillary Clinton, along with the "birth country" question. But, the birth question is an interesting one because the claim that Obama was born in Kenya has an earlier origin, going back to 1991.

Even Obama's own book publicists stated in print and online that Obama was born in Kenya. The websites of these publicists stated this all the way until April 2007, even after multiple changes to the website design and biographical content, when in that year the reference to being born in Kenya was removed after Obama announced his initial candidacy. These are facts. I, and others, have screenshots (I took these independently of anyone else) of the publicists websites going back to 1998, including each of the four major changes to layout and content to Obama's biographical information. Breitbart posted a scan of a description of Obama being born in Kenya in a printed biographical piece announcing the publication of one of his books.

You cannot blame people for wanting to address something that was claimed about him for over a decade by his own publicists. If it was an error, it should have been corrected a long time ago. (Even with substantial changes to the biographical data, this Kenyan birth claim was never changed for over a decade until he decided to run for President).

I cannot imagine that Obama wasn't aware of this after all those years, and after his publicists would/should have consulted him for approval and sent him copies of the materials they published and sent out to the public for over a decade. If the claim is not an error, a major investigation, including the use of the Grand Jury, needs to be held to ascertain the truth in full detail and disclosure, and needs to be done before any original records are destroyed to cover any facts in the case up. All records need to be opened up and documents examined by Law Enforcement, both chambers of Congress, and the Supreme Court. If everything is authentic, that should not be a problem for him or for anyone else and the matter would be settled once and for all.

this lady has every right to speak her opinion WITHOUT repercussions, that is the point of being a free society

Freedom is not a license to say and do whatever we please without repercussions. Your freedom ends where my rights begin. Human beings can live together in harmony only if we accept responsibility and consequences for our behavior.

whats right are you talking about? you have no rights that will prevent others from saying anything they want as long as it does no harm to you and harm is not a perception. if by repercussion you mean she loses friends or strangers dislike her then thats right but repercussion does not mean penalizing someone.

Who cares. She worked in an ice cream shop. That should tell you right there she probably dumb as rocks! And she's fat too...She's probably mad at the world b/c she's fat and dumb

John followed by numbers , why do I get ther feeling that your mom is fat? , interesting

I think this dumb little girl is skirting the legalities of hate speech, in that she made comments about hoping the president would be assassinated during his next term. I'm not sure, I'm not a Constitutional law attorney, and I wish one would weigh in here, but she has definitely just made her life much more difficult. She has lost her job, made herself a national target of disdain and you have to wonder who on earth is going to give her another job since she had made herself infamous. She claims to have friends of all ethnicity's and I really wonder what they are saying to her, if they are even speaking to her anymore, about these comments she has made, both on FB and also afterwards when she said she would never kill the president but would have no problem if it happened. The use of that word is something she is going to find out people of all races will have a huge problem with. Her parents must be so proud of what they raised. They ought to be ashamed but no doubt she learned this stuff at home.

sorry guy but you are way wrong. you have no right to be offended

I have no right to be offended? Excuse me, but who appointed you judge and jury over what other people should deem offensive?

the context of ones words have little relevance in this situation. black people using the 'n' word are hypocrites, there is no other meaning for the word 'n', none. so if you call whites racist for using the 'n' words then you must also apply it to blacks,

Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, most rational people understand that the intent of the speaker matters, and that's why people tend to be less offended when black people use the word amongst themselves than when some cretin on the internet uses it to describe the President of the United States, particularly in a context that talks about his murder. I don't use that word myself, and I'd prefer if no one else did either, but I'm perceptive enough to realize when it's being employed as a slur, and I suspect that you are as well. So you can create all the false equivalencies you like, but the bottom line is that Coldstone still has every right to choose not to employ this individual. What's more, if they chose to fire a black person for making a similar post, they'd be within their rights to do that as well. Most employers recognize that people who use racial slurs and threaten the president aren't good for business, regardless of their race.

there are no "special protected groups" under the US constitution.

You obviously know nothing about the labor laws, because there are indeed federally protected classes of employees. It is illegal to fire someone on the basis of race, nationality, age, religion, and in many states, sexual orientation, but unless Ms. Helms can prove that she was a member of such a protected class and was fired because of it, she has no legal cause of action.

racism is perceived anyhow so how can one racist if the do not believe in what they are saying is wrong, you interpretation of my words does not carry truth.

I can't even begin to parse this gobbledygook. Translate this into English, and I'll consider addressing whatever point you're trying to make here.

nothing this lady said was illegal or a threat, it was a opinion. the ice cream place is just a blind obama supporter who cant ignore others. she said this on her own time and her own dime, there is nothing illegal about what she did and she should not face any repercussion from government or business.

I'll leave it for the courts to decide whether the public call for Obama's assassination constitutes an illegal threat, but the racial slur was and is completely legal. However, it's also created a ton of negative publicity, and Coldstone should not be forced to endure the threat of protests, boycotts and loss of sales because of the actions of one idiot employee. The moment that she chose to go public with her foolishness is the same moment that it became the company's concern.

nothing illegal about making your thoughts public. whats the difference between telling some friends and posting online?

Nice try, but I never said it was illegal for her to make her thoughts public -- only that once she did, they ceased to be private thoughts and became a public declaration. And the difference is obvious: the company would have no way of knowing what she privately told her friends, so it would have no impact on their operation. Once she chose to broadcast her hate speech to the world, however, she became a liability for the corporation, and they made a business judgment that the potential costs in terms of revenue losses didn't justify the benefits of keeping her on the payroll. That has nothing to do with being for or against Obama; it's just a simple recognition that employing racist cretins who want to murder the President isn't good for business.

i never said obama was muslim but rather he was raised as a muslim,

I don't care either way. I will not be dragged into a discussion about Barack Obama's childhood, which has absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand. He is not a Muslim. End of story.

I keep seeing people trying to make the argument that black people use the 'n word' to refer to themselves, as if to say it shouldn't therefore make any difference when a white person uses it.

So your argument is that context of a word means nothing? If that is your argument you are wrong. I think there is sociological validity for a black person to use the word to refer to themselves while taking offense to being referred to with that word by someone outside that group.

It doesn't have to do with logic or English semantics, it has to do with customs. It is easy enough to simply not use the word and know you wont offend anyone than to use it and know you will. So, why is this even an excuse?

For the record, he was Muslim.

For the record, I choose not to engage the deranged rantings of birthers and other conspiracy-minded lunatics. If you wish to discuss these long-debunked theories with like-minded individuals, I believe you can still find a handful of true believers over at WorldNetDaily and other fringe wingnut websites.

Enjoy.

Breitbart posted a scan of a description of Obama being born in Kenya in a printed biographical piece announcing the publication of one of his books.

You lose credibility the instant you cite Breitbart as a source.

whats right are you talking about? you have no rights that will prevent others from saying anything they want as long as it does no harm to you and harm is not a perception. if by repercussion you mean she loses friends or strangers dislike her then thats right but repercussion does not mean penalizing someone.

You have a skewed perception of freedom.

If someone publicly advocates the assasination of the President of the United States, you feel no harm has been done? Would you feel that way if someone publicly promoted your assasination, or the murder of one of your family or friends?

What do you think laws are for if not to penalize those who transgress against the common good?

"What do you think laws are for if not to penalize those who transgress against the common good?"

you lose all credibility the instant you mention "laws" with Barry and Holder in office , they will tell you which laws will be enforced and which ones will not , and it won't be the ones that affect their agenda

p.s. , Kay Bee Toys is a crappy toy store , over priced , no inventory , and ignorant employees

geez shamrock can you be any more transparent in your hypocrisy? you say you wont get dragged into the topic but instead you dive right in lol and you think you are valid?

you do not have any understanding of the US constitution or what rights are. our rights are not granted by government, they are divine in nature. you have no right to be offended, none. you can be offended personally but thats where it stops, you have no right to take that personal offense and publicly punish the perceived offender. there are no 'special protected groups' in the US constitution. please show me where laws can be created to cater to a specific group? the constitution does not favor one person over another, it is blind by nature but corrupted by man.

Article the eleventh [Amendment IX] The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Article. XIV.

[Proposed 1866; Ratified Under Duress 1868]

Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

btw it helps to be informed. she never called for his assassination but wouldn't mind if he was, big difference but i guess to you it wouldn't matter, only your opinion matters. people like you just want to control others and will use any means to do it, you cant just ignore things like words because you idolize people in power and wish to be there yourself.

your blind defense of obama proves my point.

kaybeetoys If someone publicly advocates the assasination of the President of the United States, you feel no harm has been done? Would you feel that way if someone publicly promoted your assasination, or the murder of one of your family or friends?

she never called for his assassination and when you make a threat, it is persecuted as intent to harm. thats exactly where i said ones rights stop but i guess its hard for you to understand what you are reading.

@John Athondoe:

It's not worth my time to respond to you.

@Swagganaut:

The post referred to the president using the N word. “Maybe he will get assassinated this term..!!”

If you have any children, I hope you're not teaching them that their constitutional rights allow them to behave this way without expecting any repercussions.

I doubt very much the operative issue here for law enforcement here - or for the boss, for that matter, will be the use of the racial epithet. It will be the death threat.

on behalf of my fellow Californians, we apologize. This woman is not the typical Californian, by a long shot.

Are all the black people in my town racist? They call each other the "n" word all the time!

Riddle me this; Linux- troll or TeaParty?

kaybeetoys

@John Athondoe:

It's not worth my time to respond to you.

@Swagganaut:

The post referred to the president using the N word. “Maybe he will get assassinated this term..!!”

If you have any children, I hope you're not teaching them that their constitutional rights allow them to behave this way without expecting any repercussions.

i hope you dont have kids because it seems like you would just control and indoctrinate them. behavior is not controlled by the constitution nor government. what this lady said might not have been popular but she said nothing wrong, there was no implication just an opinion exposed by a citizen. she is allowed to dissent.

there was no death threat, my god people do you even understand the english language anymore? wishing someone would die and saying you want to do it yourself are two completely different things. even is she wished someone else would do it does not make it a threat, she has to basically say she wants to kill him or she wants to hire someone to kill him for it to be a threat. im sure S.S. will investigate like they do with any thing of this nature but there is no crime here.

Swaggernut, there's nothing remotely hypocritical about my dismissing your off-topic, fact-free assertions about Barack Obama's religious affilation out of hand. Even if your contentions were true, they have absolutely nothing to do with this thread, and are nothing more than a pointless distraction.

you do not have any understanding of the US constitution or what rights are. our rights are not granted by government, they are divine in nature.

You really shouldn't attempt to discuss Constitutional theory, because it's obviously beyond your limitations. We live in a system of laws, and from a legal standpoint, the only rights that exist are those that are defined with the Constitution, which is by no means a "divine" creation. I would also advise you to do a bit of research on the Civil Rights Laws, which did indeed create federally-protected classes against which employers may not discriminate. If you want to launch a challenge to the constitutionality of these laws, that's a subject for a different thread, but for you to assert that they don't exist merely exposes the depths of your own ignorance. It is a violation of federal law for employers to discriminate on the basis of race, age, religion or national origin. Period. Conversely, there are no civil rights protections afforded for political beliefs, ergo Coldstone has done nothing illegal. These are simple matters of law, and I will not debate them with you.

you have no right to be offended, none. you can be offended personally but thats where it stops,

I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. How else could be I offended, if not personally? How would one be offended impersonally?

you have no right to take that personal offense and publicly punish the perceived offender.

She's not being "publicly punished" for being offensive. She's being fired for violation of company guidelines and for actions that were detrimental to their interests. They need no other reason to terminate her.

btw it helps to be informed. she never called for his assassination but wouldn't mind if he was, big difference

That's questionable, at best. It's one thing for her to say she wished him dead, and quite another to speculate about assassination in a public forum. That's borderline seditious, at least.

people like you just want to control others and will use any means to do it

On the contrary, I'm defending the freedom of the corporation to defend its own best interests. You're the one attempting to impose your own morality on Coldstone, not me.

Regarding

your blind defense of obama proves my point.

What blind defense? The only thing I've said at all with regard to Obama is that he's not a Muslim, and I wasn't aware that this was something that required defending in any event.

Cold Stone admitted that her personal opinions were not reflected at her job. IMO she shouldn't have been fired for her opinions then. But then again, now she's learned to keep her opinions to herself. That's more than most of us.

The assassination part is almost enough to be labeled a terrorist now days. Which likely will make it hard for her to get a job now that her name has been put all over the news. Calling someone the N word isn't proper, but I can't really hold that argument since well, quite a few celebrity African Americans or black people or whatever they want to call themselves call themselves that all the time in music and in conversation. It's lost it's harshness due to that very fact.

For the record, he was Muslim.

For the record, I choose not to engage the deranged rantings of birthers and other conspiracy-minded lunatics. If you wish to discuss these long-debunked theories with like-minded individuals, I believe you can still find a handful of true believers over at WorldNetDaily and other fringe wingnut websites.

Enjoy.

I have the screenshots. His book publicists claimed for over a decade that Obama was born in Kenya. That is a fact. Deal with it. The birther movement came because of this claim. The birther movement originated among Democrats for Hillary. Deal with it. No conspiracy theories here. It was on his publicists' websites for over a decade. Deal with it.

By the way, want to see the screenshots? Or would you prefer to hide your head in the sand?

@dcpyle: I have already explained this to you once: I will not, under any circumstances, engage the inane rantings of birthers and other like-minded lunatics. This will be the last time that I address you directly. I suggest that you either find a forum more receptive to your conspiracy theorizing or seek professional help.

Goodbye and good luck.

You lose credibility the instant you cite Breitbart as a source.

I also have original screenshots from web archives of Obama's Publicists' websites. I took them myself. Want to see them? I'd be happy to email them all to you for your consideration. Those publicists' web sites made the claim that Obama was born in Kenya until April 2007. That is a fact. That is the origination point of the Kenyan birth claim. Deal with it. Or, hide your head in the sands. Your choice.

By the way, I am not a member of said movement. I just know where the claim originated. It originated with Obama's publicists in the 1990s. That is all that I am claiming and I have the evidence to back it up.

I have already explained this to you once: I will not, under any circumstances, engage the inane rantings of birthers and other like-minded lunatics.

I never said that I align myself with them or that I even really believe that he was born in Kenya. I only wrote that the claim originated on Obama's publicists' websites. I have the evidence to back up said claim. I promise. Just ask and let me know a way to send it to you and I'll send it. You can pick through it and validate it all that you want. You can ignore it, which is what I think you will do anyway. But, it is a fact. Obama's publicists claimed that he was born in Kenya since the 1990s. That is a fact. Deal with it or ignore it. I rather think you will ignore it rather than see it for yourself. But, hey, I offered. That is all I can do.

I wonder if all those people who tweeted about assassinations if Romney was were also fired?

I'm sure they would have had any actually done that. The problem is few liberals think that way. Most of us don't even own guns much less advocate such a thing. It is typical of those on the right to make @!$%# up and stick to it without a shred of proof. After all most still swear Obama was born in Kenya and is a Muslim. Proof not needed, Limbaugh told them.

When I was 22yo, I couldn't give a rats ass about politics - now at 57yo, I'm striving to get back to that place in my life. When you get older you think that it is important to become politically informed - then once you get there, you realize it wasn't that important after all.

The woman in the article is going to have a miserable life if politics upsets her this much at such a young age - save your self girl, there is nothing to gain by letting this stuff into your life.

This is what history has proved. With over 30 years of tax breaks for the wealthy, what has that gained for the average American who is the one who actually pays for the wealthy to make more money? Okay, first, a cut in corporate health care for employees. The wealthy decided they will no longer pay for health care for their employees and that their employees should not get a raise in pay because of this, they just won't pay for their health care as they promised when they hired them. What else, oh, cuts in pay and cuts in other benefits, those CEO's have to figure some way to get their $50,000 an hour pay checks, don't they? Yes, and reduction in retirement benefits or no retirement benefits for their employees. Let's see, what else, oh yes, these tax breaks got us those millionaires and billionaires sending jobs overseas so they can get cheap labor and make more money. Our government and your tax money actually paid them so they could screw us all over. So yes, lets give them more money and make them pay less in taxes so most of us can pay more because after 30 years it has proved that this thinking really benefits the wealthy and screws the average American!

not very many relevant people care about what this lady said, she gave an opinion and was fired for it. people will forget about it and her life will go on. obama is not anyone's boss and he is not king, he is a servant of the people and thats it same as any other president. i owe no allegiance to obama or any politician so i will say what i want in dissent.

shamsky24

you still dont get what freedom is and why we have the US constitution, you choose to cherry pick my post for your cheap retorts. you have no understanding of the US constitution as i have provided actual content from it while you just regurgitate what government tells you without thought. there is no 'protected classes' according to the US constitution. how bout slavery? was slavery in the constitution? so how did government and the courts allow slavery? i see, they had to just ignore the constitution until the citizens demanded change.

she was fired for making a political statement on her own time and own dime while not in a position of representation of her employer. she was discriminated against based on her political views and nothing else. the ice cream shop was in the wrong, they could of just fired her without giving a reason and been fine. you are not defending the company, you are defending obama. i didnt talk about any morality but thanks for showing that, your telling you who are....oh yeah, a progressive.

you again respond to the obama stuff but yet say you dont want to get involved. do you not see this? you are getting involved by responding to it lol it cant get any funnier. nothing i posted about obama was inaccurate its right from his books, read em someday. this topic is about obama so anything obama would be relevant.

just to be stupid. would this be an issue if it were about any republican?

The dislike for Obama has nothing to do with his race or religion, it's because he's such an abject failure as a leader!

Also, his socialist policies are not what the majority of American's want! This despite what happened in the election..but that's a subject for another discussion!

It's as simple as that folks, now go to bed all you liberal race baiters!

So yes, lets give them more money and make them pay less in taxes so most of us can pay more because after 30 years it has proved that this thinking really benefits the wealthy and screws the average American!

Wait till the Democrats give us much higher gasoline prices. You don't think that will screw the average American? It will screw everybody as the prices of everything go up and we get hit with Great Recession 2.0 at the same time. They have already tried to pass legislation to make that happen. Luckily the Republicans have blocked it every chance they have gotten. Let's hope they can continue or that Democrats will realign their priorities and not add such nasty amendments to jobs legislation to spite Republicans and use as propaganda pieces against them.

After all most still swear Obama was born in Kenya and is a Muslim.

Whatever they think, he was a Muslim and Obama's own publicists themselves stated that Obama was born in Kenya for over a decade. I have seen the evidence with my own eyes. The printed publication and their websites did indeed say that until late April 2007. I have the evidence and screenshots in my possession, as do a number of others independently.

With stuff like that, what do you expect people to do? The Kenyan birth stuff was started by Obama's own publicists in 1991, continuously until late April 2007, which then became fodder for the Hillary Clinton campaign camp, which then was picked up by the general public and the conservatives thereby. But, it is a fact that this whole idea was started by Obama's own book publicists, not by conservatives of any stripe. Those are the facts.

i hope you dont have kids because it seems like you would just control and indoctrinate them.

I've raised my kids to be respectful of other people, regardless of their race, sexual orientation, nationality or religion. Maybe you could say I've 'indoctrinated them' to treat others the way that they would like to be treated. That used to be the way we raised kids in the U.S. Sadly, some no longer believe that we need to teach children to respect themselves or others.

behavior is not controlled by the constitution nor government. what this lady said might not have been popular but she said nothing wrong, there was no implication just an opinion exposed by a citizen. she is allowed to dissent.

This girl needs to learn self control. She needs to learn to temper her words and behavior with respect for others. Should she fail to learn how to behave herself, she will have a hard road in life. I hope being fired from her job and questioned by the Secret Service will teach her a lesson that her parents neglected to teach her.

Consequences are the best teacher.

As my dad liked to say: when he enlisted in the army, the sargeant made it clear that he couldn't force the recruits to do anything they didn't want to do. But he could damn sure make them wish they had.

post it on face book...drill sargeant sucks...breath stinks,his cock flops and he don't love jesus...LOL...

You know when you say Obama must be foreign and his birth certificate must be forged. That is because he does not fit your definition of Black but you can't quite put your finger on what is the difference because you are thrown off by his skin color. He is not his skin color. Actually Obama is not a N*****. He is African and American white. A N***** is a Black American that came through the slave heritage. He does not come from that heritage. He is more white than anybody you know...except for skin color.

Youknow

Pvblivs

Those of you who agree with the idea of firing somebody for saying something the company doesn't like on his own time should consider that most large companies would regard "voting Democrat" to be such a fireable offense. They fired her for reasons other than her performance at work. And that is wrong.

Are you seriously comparing voting democratic to uttering nonsensical racist slurs with calls for an assassination of our president?

She can and should file suit to get her job back along with back pay. While her comments were not nice (and I'm no obama fan), if it was her facebook page, she can say pretty much anything she wants and it's nobody's business. When we fall into an era where speaking against the so called president (regardless of who it is), we will have officially become like any other communist country and can turn in our first amendment rights.

This is nothing more than a case of "Freedom of speech vs. Right to work"... in short, you work for an employer at their convenience. There is no guarantee of continued employment. When or if the employer finds the employees services are no longer required you can be terminated. The same as when you feel the job no longer satisfies your needs, you can quit. (She ... Should have joined the Union!)

She has certain protections if fired without cause, but only under specific defined conditions, being an idiot - unfortunately, is not covered nor is retaliation for reporting a crime, safety violations- but that doesn't seem to fit this situation.

In this case, her continued employment is deleterious to the company, the owner has the right to fire her, self-centered, entitled, bigoted a55. they owe her nothing - except her last check and directions to the exit..

It seems so strange that when these self-righteous people are caught by the same rules they use to heap scorn on someone... like Micheal Vick ... was pilloried - even after he served his sentence. She finds it unfair when "public outrage" causes her to lose her job.

Seems like the same thing to me? At least he has a skill which is in demand. But, to be honest so does she... there are always "Help Wanted" signs in the window for minimum wage jobs. She should be able to get a food service job in hours.

PVBLIUS - what you've just described is RIGHT TO WORK states, where an employer can fire you for any reason at any time, work related or not.

So I dont exactly see how this specific case has set any sort of precedent, you need not worry and feign concern...employers will always have the upper hand against employees.

I dont believe for a nano second that Cold Stone fired her because it was about Obama, but rather because it was just straight up a henious to call him the N word.

You dont think Cold Stone EVER has black patrons?

I wouldnt want someone like her serving my customers if I knew she was fully capable of ripping of an N word when she's upset about something.

this was strictly a business move...and I cant find fault with it.

There hasn't been a bigger racial divide in this country since the Civil War. Each side despises the other (yes, there's massive reverse discrimination as well). The same also holds true of the different political viewpoints. Sadly, we're a nation at war with itself. With a nation so deeply divided... The worst is yet to come. Too bad we can't go with prayer anymore. We need them.

ROFL at people talking about freedom of speech. How was her speech abridged?

Here are a few more words to teach yourselves...AT WILL EMPLOYMENT

You know that thing that provides you with no protections from your employer because unions are a bad thing. At will employment means you can be fired at any time by your employer for any reason. At worst, if there isn't a legitimate reason then the former employee gets unemployment if they were employed for more than 6 month and the employer's unemployment insurance might go up.

Words have consequences, this twit learned it the hard way.

linux lewis is code word for complete moron.

Unless the woman left this remark in the capacity as a worker of this company or linked them in her post or posted while working, this would be a violation of her free speech. While I do not agree with what she stated I am bothered by the fact that people can state vile things about the opposition and all is well, but if the opposition does the same back then they cry foul. Personally I am getting tired of all the people acting like a bunch of tit babies, maybe it would be a good idea to let everyone know that they need to start growing up.

Greg in New York,

Typical yell from union supporters. I owned businesses for years and to correct the lies that the left has been spreading for years you can not go and fire someone for no reason, that is why there is fair employment laws on the books. You can lay off people but then they qualify for unemployment, but to state that one can be fired with no cause is a outright lie.

Unless Stone Cold Creamery has a policy against this happening that she was made aware of in advance, they were in the wrong to fire here for the comment. If they do have a policy against this, then it is a sad day for America. She has a right to express her opinions no matter how foolish or hateful they may be as long as they do not affect her performance at work or are made on company time! If the supreme court could rule in favor of the Nazi Party parading it's hateful message against Jews and blacks in Skokie Il. ( a predominantly Jewish suburb) as free speech, then what this woman tweeted should be protected as well. If Secret Service wants to investigate it to find if it is a credible threat, than so be it, but she does have the right to express her own opinions on her own time.

What an idiotic twit!

And for those who take this as a threat to free speech, you simply don't understand the constitution. Yes, she has the freedom to express her self. No one is trying to take that away from her. That does not mean that things said don't have consequences. The owners of the business has a right not to employ people who put their interests at risk. She gets to be an idiot. That's not illegal. But she has no right to guaranteed employment when she chooses to be so.

"The dislike for Obama has nothing to do with his race or religion, it's because he's such an abject failure as a leader!

Also, his socialist policies are not what the majority of American's want! This despite what happened in the election..but that's a subject for another discussion!

It's as simple as that folks, now go to bed all you liberal race baiters!"

It seems as this is the typical right wing rebuttal when these fools are called out on their BS. Their argument is truly nothing more than a facade for their true feelings about the president, which I hate to say are clearly influenced by his race and what they believe his religion to be.

Ask any one of them to put forth a coherent argument supported by tangible evidence (meaning actual sources...not a reiteration of what you idiots hear on conservative talk radio/TV) and they fail miserably. I just wish I could be a fly on the wall so I could listen to the typical bumpkin conversation when their guard is down and they are comfortable enough to explicitly state how we know they really feel.

But for the time being, I will be temporarily satisfied knowing most of these fools are nothing more than bumpkins with no purpose, no drive, and no ability to engage in independent thought.

Bumpkins will be bumpkins! That is all! LOL

john athendope

you lose all credibility by citing breitenbart, and with your personal attacks.

but typical of right wingnuts to scream all kinds of selective lies and then cry how they are being "silenced" when nobody believes their lies.

Aww, MSNBC-Sally, Why don't you people let us say what's bad. There are plenty of racist comments here. But what more can we expect from a racist, liberal, organization like MSNBC? Remember, to a lib, tolerance is a one way street. Think and act as they say or face their never ending wrath. No room for free speech here - unless it agrees with the agenda.

catlover, linux lewis was a rereg of an already banned poster (white children), which is alone sufficient to get banned. the clown was always posting the same thing about "white people being exterminated" on completely unrelated threads and never anything else.

he would post his "white genocide" drivel on science threads constantly.

Let this be a lesson to everyone, DON"T USE FAKEBOOK !!!!

To all the enlightened, progressive, liberal educated beyond your intelligence politically correct people you should pay attention to the right to have a opinion and the right to speak your opinion regardless of what others think that is what America is about its not about being correct or proper its about being able to voice your opinion, I think she has a lawsuit here and I encourage her to sue the crap out of the company that is punishing her for her opinion even if its in bad taste, its her right to have and to voice her opinion, besides People of color don't play by the rules so why should she. now you have the right to your opinion and if you take that right away from her then you take that right away from yourself as well. so leave $hit alone or go start your own country some where else this one is occupied by free people, of all races, mind and spirit. next thing you know people wont be allowed to usea word because it represents the true meaning of something like the Q word for example. its like the Spanish soccer player that spoke Spanish and got fined 10,000 euros for refering to a black player as black in Spanish where does it end. you people need to get a life and stop worrying about how some people vent, if they don't vent then sooner or latter they will explode. not unlike you who has recently imploded to the point your head and dareair occupy the same location on your body.

this is not a country of selective rights for some people and control for others we should all send the girl $10.00 so she can file against the Pos that thought he has the right to dictate to her what he thinks her rights are limited to. and do damage to her life because he thinks she has no right to a opinion. I say that he is the one that is violating her rights, her only crime was to use poor judgement a minor defect in personality and not worthy of a second thought.

If she's a racist then she's on equal footing with obama.

people won't learn

Hey, MSN, exactly how long are you going to leave this non-story on the News site? I mean, it's been at least a couple of days now, and I realize that calling someone the dreaded "N word" is the worst possible crime a person can commit, but geez, give it a rest.

Thank you, Sally. I'm afraid you're going to be very busy for awhile.

To all the enlightened, progressive, liberal educated beyond your intelligence politically correct people you should pay attention to the right to have a opinion and the right to speak your opinion regardless of what others think that is what America is about its not about being correct or proper its about being able to voice your opinion

would that be as compared to those on the right that never even bothered to get an education in the first place?

“I’m not saying I’d go do that or anything like that, by any means, but if it was to happen I don’t think I’d care one bit.”

The elected U.S. President and Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces.

If you don't care for his assassination, then you don't care if that is carried out by a foreign or native power. No, of course you don't have a legal problem, you just have a moral and social problem to correct in your life (I would say even before you have children of your own).

Sometimes in a free country like ours we have to suffer through the presidency of someone we didn't vote for. That is the price of Democracy. It happened to everyone of us, like when we had to suffer through Busch's presidency- hated and voted against by my whole family. But in spite of our differences, our elected President is OUR President unless we are Aliens or do not consider ourselves AMERICAN.

It's great to be an American and the reason why we should embrace our "liberty and justice" and keep it with respect and empathy for others.

1. Freedom of speech does NOT mean you get to say whatever the hell you want. What she said savors of treason, not to mention being racist. It's an insult to the constitution and this country to say that what this ignorant, hateful person posted is "free speech". It's drivel, at best. Lots of self-important idiots out there seem to think that their facebook status updates and racist newsvine rants should be sanctioned--I wish they could all get the rude awakening that this stupid girl did.

2. The employer has a right to fire her. I'd fire her. Any self respecting employer should fire her. Was she an official "spokesperson" of the company? Doesn't matter. Contrary to moronic opinion, whatever you put on social media is PUBLIC. She might as well have been standing in town square shouting it from a podium. Don't want the consequences of public speech? Don't post on Facebook.

3. Black people saying the "N" word does NOT make it okay. None of the black people I know condone it (nor do they condone the use of "cracker"), and we all wish the word could be forgotten. It's a slur some of them have purposefully taken out of context perhaps to try and negate the racist connotations, but the word is too loaded, even today, for that to happen. Just stop using it, people.

It's all about context. I come into the living room, dancing like a fool - and my Daughter laughs and says "Dad, you're such a retard!". That's 180 degrees different from some kid a school bullying another kid by calling him a 'retard'. Words are just words - it's 'context' that matters.

Clearly - if she calls President Obama an ''N-word'' and then follows up with ''assassination'', then that sounds pretty racist from the context. It's not nearly the same context as two buddies kidding around and using the 'n-word' to affectionately refer to each other.

For the record, I'm NOT a supporter of President Obama's policies, and I think that Mr Romney would have been a better choice for America.

Terry ca, your so full of b.s. its people like you spreading lies like the ones you just spread that feeds the flames of all the hatred in this country.

John A ("A" for you guess what) "I am not saying this broad is right or wrong ,but the lefty self-righteousness about race is tired and played out"

I AM saying YOU are not only wrong but evil. "Broad?" "Broad?" You label a woman you never met a "broad?" No wonder you cannot see the "N*gger" word is racist??? Did your mother teach you common courtesy? What kind of parents did you have?

You are a misogynist racist moron. And I do not use these terms lightly. But I am curious. Do you consider yourself a "Christian?" If Jesus was alive today--he would condemn your speech in no uncertain terms. What would you call Jesus? A socialist, bleeding heart, rag head?

Shame on you! It doesn't matter what blacks call each other. As another poster said, they are simply grabbing the term to use on themselves before you do it first. But that is not the point. 2 wrongs NEVER make a right so this is NO excuse.

What has happened to common courtesy, good manners, rational civilized debate in this great nation?

Now it's ok to personally attack and abuse others? Including (if not especially) our democratically elected president? "A "n*gger" who should be assassinated?" You see NOTHING wrong with this?

There are none so blind as those who WILL NOT SEE. I pity you. But I refuse to condone your evil.

All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” --Sir Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Tbenton: "I owned businesses for years and to correct the lies that the left has been spreading for years you can not go and fire someone for no reason"

WRONG! I live in CA and I have been fired for NO REASON (and, in fact, my boss was quite proud she could do so--even had Human Resources Rep there to confirm). Now if I was a member of a Union, that would NOT be the case. But without a Union you're darn tooting you can be fired for absolutely NO CAUSE whatsoever. Look it up.

tbenton: "Personally I am getting tired of all the people acting like a bunch of tit babies, maybe it would be a good idea to let everyone know that they need to start growing up."

Yes! I agree! And part of being GROWN UP is NOT to abuse anyone verbally. If you have an issue you wish to debate in a civilized fashion--bring it! I welcome such discussions.

But personal insults and verbal abuse is NOT GROWN UP! Get it? You are behaving WORSE than a "tit baby"! Even tit babies don't abuse others verbally!

Take your own advice and GROW UP! Please!

scalibrini, references please...

What ever happened to FREEDOM OF SPEECH?

FREEDOM OF SPEECH means she can't be ARRESTED or JAILED for her comments. Has NOTHING to do with her employer. To have protection against their actions, she'd need a UNION.

i think the ice cream store is wrong and if she pushed it she could get compensation for time missed it was her page and unless she stated my company wishes before her statement then they should be the ones that should lose any type of money being fired over your private issues with the president how low will this country go before its citizens realize we are all cattle to the government not people.

i dont like obama either but hey its my opinion

and i as well wouldn't lose a wink of sleep if something happen to him.

and yes the black man (thinks) he owns something in the word @!$%# well my friend you don't you piss and moan about everything the (white man) has done .

and to all you little children that think you can change the way others think by posting it here get a life and GROW UP your the saddest thing about our so called freedoms since America has opened its door to all we have bent over backwards to become exactly what others are getting away from by coming here. we can no longer thank GOD for anything because it offends well you my friend can walk your cow god around the yard if you don't want to hear us thanking our heavenly father.

the very children we were once upon a time cant do the stuff we use to like say the pledge of allegiance a prayer and hell dodge ball been outlawed because a kid got hurt pfffft kids are kids they learn from the way they play get a life and grow up retards

CBC- Check out the Cali Labor and Emploment law. The Employer has every legal right to fire someone due to postings on a social media site. She is being held accountable for her actions because she a idiot.

Your opinion is yours, and what you just stated was not offensive or illegal. If she would of said it like you just did she wouldn't be catching all this heat. But she said it in a fashion that was racist and threatening to the newly re-elected president. Very stupid on her part.

you are exactly right Sarah... well put. you can say whatever you like just dont expect to work anywhere

@Sarah - Well said. There are a lot of idiots on the Internet who fail to grasp that 'free speech' only means the government may not limit your expression. It doesn't mean your employer can't fire you for being a tool.

Yes. Really. Sorry, poor persecuted white person, you don't get to use the "n" word without scorn and black people do. I know, I know, "Help, help, you're being oppressed" right?

She isn't racist, she just thinks it is okay to spout racist crap! Is there a difference?

Blacks using the "N" word and hating others using it is the same as us members of the gay community who resent being called faggot and all of the other derogatory words that people use against us, but often use the terms ourselves when referring to ourselves and each other. The same goes for any ethnic group. Derogatory terms are often used by that ethnic group in their own conversations (especially comedians), yet totally hate hearing anyone else not of that ethnic group using the term. The tone of usage also determines the degree of derogatory nature.

anti-trust proponent, the problem with your comparison is that the non-black community has totally bought into their bull that anyone who uses the word @!$%# is a racist and they have actually been able to make the use of it a hate crime in some places. That doesn't apply to any other word used in reference to any other minority.

the use of it a hate crime in some places.

Nope, the mere USE of the word is, no where in this country, considered a crime. It can be used as EVIDENCE, speaking to the motivation, of a particular crime. But it isn't a crime by itself.

People find the out hard way that all speech isn't free, in this case it cost her her job. I'm sure all the racists out there don't find her speech offensive, but as a 65 year old white guy living in Hawaii, I find it as offensive as hell. President Obama grew up in Hawaii, he is of mixed race as are about everybody else that is born in Hawaii, and we don't care. In Hawaii many local people use racial slurs when talking about white people (f&%king haole as it were) it means white person, probably with good reason. But still, to use the n-word when referring to our President on FB shows a singular lack of forethought, obviously she is one of the growing number of people that thinks stupidity is a virtue. I wonder if she even voted?

Was she at work when she made that comment? Or was she at home where she has the right to have her opinion? She expressed her opinion on her personal time, and just because she works there, doesn't give them the right to overstep their boundries into peoples personal lives! Thats Communism!!!

BTW, I have seen worse comments made about Presidential Challenger Mr. Mitt Romney here and on Facebook. Like someone should waste this honky, and he is a piece of white trash, and way way worse. But I chalked it up, to a persons personal right to express their opinion. It is sill a FREE country!

Your are way wrong to support a company, that excercises invading peoples personal rights in THIS country. Whats next? Police arresting everyone that do not agree with Liberal Politics, and putting them in concentration camps....

Get a Grip Sarah... Obama is in the public eye, and is subject to many different opinions. Yea, wishing him to be assasinated is bad, but on the other hand there have been similar opinions shared by liberal supporters about conservative politicians in the public eye. Someone said in a previous post, don't throw stones unless you and your liberal associates are ready to have stones thrown at you!

I for one will never enter the door of another Cold Stone Creamery, I will support none communist businesses!

Another thing to consider here is the fact that she was a supervisor. To have someone who acts in a supervisory capacity for a company that uses racial slurs, even in private conversation, opens that company up to liability if a discrimination case comes up. As my sign-on name indicates, I was part of an organization that has zero tolerance for this kind of speech, at least officially. A Petty Officer could get into a lot of trouble over using slurs and I knew a 1st Class PO who was denied recommendation for Chief because he referred to another PO as a "Jew Boy" in a private conversation. (He was overheard by the CO) I also knew of commissioned officers who separated from the service over using slurs.

Rob,

Was she at work when she made that comment? Or was she at home where she has the right to have her opinion? She expressed her opinion on her personal time, and just because she works there, doesn't give them the right to overstep their boundries into peoples personal lives!

No, posting it on Facebook is NOT "at home". It's on the internet, where everyone can read it, on a FB page that also, most likely, lists her employer. If her EMPLOYER could read it, it obviously wasn't in the privacy of her house.

Thats Communism!!!

Nope, wrong again. This is communism...

com·mu·nism

   [kom-yuh-niz-uhm] Show IPA

noun
1.
a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership beingascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.

2.
( often initial capital letter ) a system of social organization inwhich all economic and social activity is controlled by atotalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.

Please show me how this involved the holding of property in common, or what the government's role in it was. The government didn't can her, Coldstone did.

I for one will never enter the door of another Cold Stone Creamery, I will support none communist businesses!

Please tell me you see the inherent contradiction in this sentence. Or that you're being sarcastic. Anything. The fact that you're freaking out about communism and then bitching about a private business firing someone who's violated company policy.

It is sill a FREE country!

And she is still a free person, seeing as she hasn't been jailed, just fired.

Obama is in the public eye, and is subject to many different opinions.

Wow, you got something right. Now, can you quote where anyone is saying she doesn't have a legal right to that opinion?

If this post was you throwing stones back at me, well I must say you throw like a girl.

And I don't know a lot of people who AREN'T racist, but use the "n" word.

I lived in an all-black neighborhood for some time and heard Blacks address each other with the word on a regular basis the whole time I lived there.

Well, considering the whole premise and racist value of it, is tied to one specific race using it to disparage another specific race, if the race specifically targeted by it is using it primarily among themselves, than the racist aspect of it no longer applies.

Black people using it is one of the perks they get from having about 2,000 years of hatred spewed at them.

Sorry. There is no harm done to you when black people direct it at each other. Can you say the same when white people direct it at black people?

I'm so tired of people misusing Communism and Socialism. Quit numbly repeating sound bytes and do a little fact-checking. Hell, try looking them up in a DICTIONARY. Thanks, Sarah, for posting a definition of Communism for those who seem to be allergic to facts.

you know sarah3043284 i think she should b able 2 use the n word when she chooses i think trying 2 incite another person to kill the prez is another thing i work for the koch gangsters they will probably not hire her then again maybe they will u can b fired from a job for nothing..tender roni is saying she wants the prez dead and it will make her happy this biz ness is trying to protect it self use @!$%# when u get ready sugar lots of people feel beyond that type of stuff but not u and me say what u want anytime u get ready and lets c where it gets u remember your thoughts on black people using the word @!$%# is a outside point of view....remember u have the right 2 use n word when u get ready john

depyle I BET U THIS WOMAN WAS NOT FIRED FOR USING THE WORD @!$%# SHE WAS FIRED BECAUSE SHE WAS BAD FOR BIZNESS she should b charged for talking assination if u ran a bizness would u want what she brought to the table.....i think a lot of people are trying to spin this like her freedom of speech is being violated it is not she taked about killing the prez any white person that wants to call a negro @!$%# can if that black person retaliates with violence they will b charged so if anyone white wants to do it u can sucessfully do it WHY IZ THE DAMN BIG QUESTION...JOHN

Sarah, what was the equal rights movement? If they are going to use it derrogatorely toward one another then equal rights should be a consideration.

And the movement toward practicing socialist and communist thinking and ideals, was the context of my previous post. Just to be clear, since you take everything so literal.

And facebook is an personal private internet entity, because it is a social network, and not a public network. Posting on FB, in can in no way be compared to posting publicly, such as this site. FB, is a friend sharing web site, and just because some of her freinds do not agree with her, they shouldn't be able persecute her and disemploy her for her personal opinions. The social network was constructed for that single purpose in mind, to be able to express oneself to friends and neighbors, without pesecution. Thus, they should de-friend her then, than be subjected to her opinions. But what you are teaching this young 22 yr old lady is sh has no personal life, wthout being subject to persecution from others that wish to control her. By having the right to persecute her by taking away her livelyhood.

And the inherent contradiction is most defenitely YOU! You are posting publicly hate toward someone who expressed her views to a social network. And supporting a company that has overstepped its civilrights. Tha would be like me firing you because you are BIG Lesian and share their views and I don't agree with you. What you you do in your personal life is your right, and you should not be subjet to scrutiny by any employer. Again equal rights....

And for Mr. Vet, how in any way does bieng in the military have ANY similarity to coldstone creamery?!! Its okay for gay people to proposition anyone in military service now, since the abolisment of the dont ask dont tell, and not be subject to punishment for personal coices?!! But a private citizen can't express a personal opinion, on her personal private time, and has to face punishment?! An inherint contradiction as someone once said, an associate of yours!

I am definitely under the impression that the democratic party lives life in double standards.

Rob,

If they are going to use it derrogatorely toward one another then equal rights should be a consideration.

Are you talking about using the "n" word? If you are, then you would only have a point if it was ILLEGAL for white people to say it. Can you quote where I've advocated for that? Or am I saying that, derogatory wise, there's a stigma associated with the use and motivation of white people using it (that's valid and has been earned) where there isn't with black people.

And facebook is an personal private internet entity, because it is a social network, and not a public network.

Wrong again. It's a private internet company, that anyone in the world can join and see your @!$%# on. Unlike your house, where unless it's bugged, no one can hear what you say. Public and social are the same thing. How can you be "social" in private?

Posting on FB, in can in no way be compared to posting publicly, such as this site. FB, is a friend sharing web site, and just because some of her freinds do not agree with her, they shouldn't be able persecute her and disemploy her for her personal opinions.

That's the point. And they can tell everyone they know, who can tell everyone they know, that Coldstone employs people who use this word and want the POTUS assasinated, which then looks bad on the company.

And the inherent contradiction is most defenitely YOU!

So you don't think that calling a private business, "communistic" for firing an employee for violating an agreed upon code of conduct is contradictory? You called for a boycott. If we're communists, how does a boycott work? A boycott is dependent on the free market in order to be successful.

supporting a company that has overstepped its civilrights

Please find me the clause in the Civil Rights Act, that protects "political opinion" as a class that can't be discriminated against. Call me when they JAIL her for this.

Tha would be like me firing you because you are BIG Lesian and share their views and I don't agree with you

I'm a big lesbian? That explains my bad track record with men. And no, that wouldn't be the same under ALL circumstances, because in many states, they've added sexual orientation as a protected class.

You might think the First Amendment decides the legal issue here, but it doesn’t. The Constitution protects free speech from government interference. In the private sector, however, courts have made management discretion the rule. Employees who don’t work for the government and aren’t in a union can be fired or punished for almost anything they say, wherever they say it. Business groups say companies need the authority to put the best person in the job and to shuffle as they deem necessary.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2012/07/getting_fired_for_what_you_post_on_facebook.html

Seriously, you're embarrassing yourself.

The assasination part was a serious lack of judgementon on her part. But she should be warned and taught that its not acceptable, being 22 yrs. of age, and not drastically delt with. Is this how you want everyone to be dealt with when one uses youthful judgement? The older more experienced owners of the company are just as guilty if not more guilty of the same act they accuse her: And that is they don't care about her rights and her livelyhood should be stripped from her without due procses.

As for my pesonal veiw, she is a proven valuable worker. And should have no trouble finding an employer that wishes to mentor her young mind. Hence, Coldstone can shovel it on you fat lazy liberals!

Rob,

Is this how you want everyone to be dealt with when one uses youthful judgement?

It seems like the courts want that and they seem to think it's legal. And sure, she should, unless you want to be a COMMUNIST (yes, I'm being snarky)??? Private companies, as long as they remain within the bounds of legality (see link above), may hire/fire who they want.

And that is they don't care about her rights and her livelyhood should be stripped from her without due procses.

Wow. Civics 101, dude. Due process guides criminal prosecution. Again, has she been arrested? And she has a civil right to say what she will, she does NOT have a civil right to work at Coldstone Creamery.

You're STILL embarrassing yourself.

Your bad track record with men is most likely due to your impatience and intollerance toward others.

Your bad track record with men is most likely due to your impatience and intollerance toward others

Possibly. It could also be due to my propensity for throwing hair brushes.

She has access to due process. She has to file an appeal to the State Labor Board or appeal her denial of unemployment benefits or file a civil complaint in court for 10 bucks.

Lots of ways she can spread the word that she is a racist idiot and potential terrorist.

Really? What about black people themselves? BTW - Obama, while incompetant, is not a ni**er since he is half white.

Happy42xxx: Whether 1/2 white or no white no one is the word you use, it's a racist term made up to insult blacks like those made up to insult Chinese, Italians, Poles etc. The fact that you consider people without white blood deserving of the "N" word means you're every bit the racist the woman in this article is.

There are no white people. Unless of course your talking about Albinos. Americans are multicolored and we call each other everything in the book.

Do you work?

In my job there are write ups and warnings, if bad behaviour continues then dismissal is justified. This is what I meant by due proscess... You take everything so literal, by your legal arbitrations of the issue that this article brings up. Should companies have the right to restrict peoples personal lives?!

I understand that conduct of their employee should be in concoordince while at work, and she should not be able to spout out her opinions while at work. But they do not pay her while she is off the clock, so why do they have the right to carry that conduct agreement into her peronal life?! To execute a conduct contract while someone is sharing their views one their unpaid personal time, is a form of controlling and restricting a person of having the freedom to have personal views and rights. Hence. it has signals of communism and socialism.

If she did something illegal?! Okay, then I can see the reasoning of immediate dismissal. But because they don't agree with her personal life choices is restictive of this ladies freedoms and rights.

Your support of this idiotic company to take away someones right and freedoms in their personal life, is appauling and alarming. So try to spin it anway you want, by giving your literal definitions, and missing the issue completly. I know what those definitions are, and my issue with you is: I do not wish nor desire, to be directed down that road toward domination and restrictions of someones pesonal life, unless there was something unlawfully done. I wish that karma would drive a bus into your overbearing backside, but it doesn't mean i want to control how you choose to live your life.

Okay, this company decided to part ways with their employee, and that is their right But it still leads to the issue, should companies have the right to control a persons personal life and beliefs.

I am not trying to get the last word with you, but I am done.

Rob,

I understand that conduct of their employee should be in concoordince while at work, and she should not be able to spout out her opinions while at work.

Yes, and in "at will" employment you can be terminated "at will" at any time, as long as it's not for an illegal reason. Again, see the link above.

Hence. it has signals of communism and socialism.

No, it still doesn't, since EMPLOYERS are not GOVERNMENT ENTITIES.

But because they don't agree with her personal life choices is restictive of this ladies freedoms and rights.

No, it doesn't because she still HAS all her rights and freedoms. And, employment at Coldstone Creamery falls under neither of those.

Your support of this idiotic company to take away someones right and freedoms in their personal life,

No I don't, because she still has her rights and freedoms. Is her right to free speech dependent upon her employment? NO, ergo if she loses her employment she still has her right. Again, Coldstone isn't the government, hence it isn't CAPABLE of restricting her freedoms.

And, as I've mentioned NUMEROUS times, employment at Coldstone is NOT a right.

Really, it's getting hard to watch.

Welcome to the wonderful world of "bronco" obama, the so called uniter of the american people...what a joke and we have 4 more years of this crap to read and listen too...

Yes, because until four years ago we all got along so well. All presidents claim to be the great "Uniter", why wasn't this scorn shown towards all the other POTUS's that failed in that duty?

What's unique about Obama that he should have the magical power to do that? And that he should face the criticism for what independent individuals chose to do or say?

Sorry anyone who thinks facebook is private is just stupid. The supreme court ruled that employers had a right to what you post on it.

She is a hateful bigot, but did she threaten the president? I don't think so.

This isn't about this woman's "personal lifestyle" choices. She's free to hold as many stupid, racist beliefs as she can stuff into her undersized and underused little brain. This is about a company's right not to be represented by a stupid, racist cretin who publicly broadcasts her own desire to see the president assassinated. Contrary to what you seem to think, there is no such thing as an individual right, Constitutional or otherwise, to work at Coldstone Creamery. The individual in question has been deprived of nothing; she remains free to post her hate messages wherever she pleases, only now she does so as a former Coldstone employee. Moreover, the definition of Communism is not "anything that RobGC happens to disagree with." If anything, the right of a corporation to exercise its own discretion to fire an employee for violation of its own policies is the antithesis of communism -- this is the behavior of a rational actor in a free market, protecting its own market share by choosing not to employ a now-notorious racist.

Sarah, in response to your first comment on this thread. My problem is that there were quite a few tweets about those who wanted to assassinate Romney if he had won, but this didn't make the news. Yet this is on the top stories section of the NBC news website. Why?

Don't know, I don't work for MSNBC. But I can say, that it sounds a little bit whiny, like "Well they do it too" when you make that claim. The legality here would have been exactly the same regardless of the candidate. So really, what's your point?

I'm not whining at all. I never condoned her actions either. I'm just asking why this one instance would get more media coverage when the others didn't. I thought I made my point rather clear in the first message. Because it appears she is being singled out for something stupid (again, I'm not condoning her actions), while others in the same boat as her were not. Why do you think a news station would do that?

Wow talk about banging your head against a brick wall. Nothing like willful ignorance. Keep trying you might just break through.

Well i guess i could use facebook as a useful tool also.When im ready to quit soon,i will let my boss know i have been doing his wife for several years now,and thats why his last kid is mine,lol.

P.S. i quit.

If you're trying to get me to admit to some sort of liberal media bias, you won't. What some call "liberal bias" the rest of the world calls facts. Nor is this race baiting. It's a pretty overt and clear use of the ultimate racial slur. That's not baiting, that's "facting".

Maybe it had to do with this actually being about the POTUS and not a candidate? How many of those making comments about Romney were fired for it? This is only one news source, maybe others carried that story? Maybe it has to do with the overt usage of a racial slur in conjunction with the POTUS? How many Romney one's called him a "cracker"?

I don't know, take it up with the editor, but yes you are whining. If you don't think the coverage is fair here, why go to the bother of not only reading the stories, but commenting on them? And then, complaining about the coverage. Go to a different website then.

Whining.

Well, for one thing, threatening the life of the President is a felony, and Romney isn't the President. Had he won the election, it might have been a different story. But were any of those alleged tweeters dumb enough to accompany their threat with a racial slur, posted under their own names and linked to their Facebook pages? If they were, I would be surprised if any of them still had jobs today.

lol I feel like someone here should acknowledge that Sarah-3943284 has singlehandedly dismantled every baseless/idiotic argument concerning this woman's "right to work at Coldstone."

The fact of the matter remains that

(1) she threatened a sitting president, not a presidential candidate; this constitutes a threat to national security. Threatening a sitting governor (while illegal), unfortunately, does not.

(2) this idiot posted her comments on facebook. There are countless stories of idiots posting stuff on facebook because they believe that " only themselves and their friends can see it, and anyone else who sees it is doing something they shouldn't be doing!" or some idiotic belief such as that. I have some news for you all: FACEBOOK, SOCIAL NETWORKS, LINKEDIN, ANYTHING THAT IS ON THE INTERNET IS PUBLIC, because it can be found by ANYONE IN THE WORLD (except maybe China...). Everyone would do well to remember this--don't be one of these idiots that gets caught up in the belief that anything they put up is private and for themselves alone. For reference, I recently found a 4-year old profile picture of me ON GOOGLE, in Google image search...scary stuff.

(3)It is wrong for everyone to use the n word, but the fact of the matter is that black people use it anyway. Too bad, get over it, unless you want to help undo the 300-something years of oppression black people suffered, so that they don't have the right to use that word. The fact of the matter is, everyone DOESN'T have that right. Think of it this way--if everyone from a certain country called each other a formerly derogatory word (let the record state that all black people don't use the word) in an attempt to desensitize themselves towards the hate and pain associated with the word (not saying that this is a logical way to remove the pain associated with the word), does that give you--a person from a different country--the right to use the word towards them? Probably not. also, for all you people who are going to say that I am comparing black and whites to separate countries, and that I'm being racist myself (or some crazy arbitration of what I'm trying to communicate)...I'm merely trying to spell this concept out in as simple of a way as possible, considering that there is a large community of people here who cannot wrap their head around this concept. To all the white people who this upsets, too bad, get over the fact that you cant say the word. You will live, and I promise you, no one is taking your whiteness away from you.

(4)Finally, the company had every right to fire her, and it was completely justified. Why? Because the company has every right to decide who it fires and hires, and it can fire anyone without notice or reason (unless there is no evidence of wrongdoing). In her case, she did something wrong--she threatened the POTUS, and misrepresented the company. End of Story.

I'm done here.

all I know is the SS is going to have their hands full reviewing all these comments.

BigGreen,

Thanks, buddy. I have no doubt that our educational system is suffering after reading some of these.

no more filbert

Sarah, in response to your first comment on this thread. My problem is that there were quite a few tweets about those who wanted to assassinate Romney if he had won, but this didn't make the news. Yet this is on the top stories section of the NBC news website. Why?

I know you addressed Sarah, but I thought I might weigh in. I suspect you don't see this story on any of the major news sites for the simple reason that there is no story.

I hadn't heard about it myself, so I when and did a little Google search. I did indeed find *an* article, it was on examiner.com a website where I myself can submit my news story about my neighbor's experience getting abducted by aliens and not have to worry about my story being edited.

Giving the author the benefit of the doubt, I searched twitter for the numerous users cited. They were inexplicably still there ( though no evidence of the incriminating tweets) and tweeting away even though the secret service would have seen to it that those feeds were stopped right away. ( Yes, the secret service is still guarding Mr. Romney and his family.)

So, there were no threats on Twitter against Mr. Romney, at least none that anyone knows about. You are welcome to find those tweets yourself and respond back with your results. When you find the tweet, you can post a direct link to it by expanding the tweet in the list, then copying the URL under the "Details" link.

having just celebrated veterans day...honor those who fought and died...by giving up your right to free speech so you can keep your job...sounds like somebody needs fired...for not having any balls ...lol...

plain bob

having just celebrated veterans day...honor those who fought and died...by giving up your right to free speech so you can keep your job...sounds like somebody needs fired...for not having any balls ...lol...

She never lost her right to free speech. She can go on Facebook right now and say the same things again and no one will stop her. Free speech doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. The government can't arrest you for calling the president an "n-word" but that doesn't mean other people have to allow you to work for them, or buy their products or services. Freedom of speech also does not mean you can go on an airplane and say you have a bomb. It also doesn't necessarily mean you can tell lies about a person to make them look bad if they don't want you to.

If my employee goes on Facebook (esp. with their place of employment on their profile) and does says the same sort of things as this lady did, if I found out about it, they would be out of a job the following morning. Since my employees work for me at my discretion, I have every right to fire a person if I feel they have made the company look bad.

People should know better then to argue with a super liberal socialist leftist like Sarah she has the ability to twist things to the point that they become meaningless and then she can twist her view to the point it sounds believable at least to her and a few really stupid people, the fact is she makes it all up as she goes, its just more kool aid and back to wearing the blinders, the fact is America is in danger from the liberal onslaught of opinionated people and the way they are twisting the laws of the land and distorting our constitution, and the neglect of the bill of rights, only judges judge, the rest of us need to prove just cause or pay the price. two wrongs do not constitute a right. I'm old fashioned right is right and wrong is wrong blinders and kool aid will never change that, its true you can change night into day but the reality is its still night. the reality is what people are not being shown in these modern times. this liberal thing will be our downfall. be carefulwho you swim with. its not good to be a lemming these days. the last time our nation was as divided as it is today $hit hit the fan it was called the civil war, the Obama rift is taking us down a terriblepath. in the case of this young woman and her remark it would be best to just ignore it. she should not have been fired, reprimanded maybe fired no. in the old days this never would have happened. this never even would have been a issue. I think back on things we said about Ike, LbJ through Carter and this is nothing. just out of curiosity has anyone herd what laws Obama plans to enforce for the next 4 years and which ones he plans on ignoring to pay for all the votes he got. I guess we can just open up that Mexican border we don't need patrols down there just immigration officers. they will be flooding the states for that promised Obama care. especially all the free sex changes.

@Hal be careful and have a damn good attorney because you may need one if you screw up the wrong persons life. Co or no Co remember now even a corporation can be held liable so you are no longer protected. its a Obama thing. Remember you voted on it didn't you?

For all of the rights that our Constitution mentions, not one of them states that there are no limits, no responsibility or repercussions attached. I will defend her right to be stupid and her right to her opinion. But she crossed the line once she posted the word "assassination" in connection to the President.

Dbuck,

Can you point out where I twisted something, lied about anything, made up something or misinterpreted the law? Come on, if you're going to make an accusation, it needs to be more than a simple assertion.

Make your case, or be ready to look like a bitter old man/woman who just can't keep up with the intellectual level of the conversation.

Sarah, your intensity cracks me up.

I imagine you could actually develope some serious followers on here, and be the voice for them in these comment rooms. Although we pretty much disagree on everything, I admire your tenacity on here.

Ask,

Thanks! You should see me trying to open a pickle jar. Talk about single minded intensity. It makes my Newsvine postings look laid back.

When she chose to put it on Facebook, it was no longer private.

You want privacy? Just don't post your every thought and move on a social media site. Not that hard.

Your right, the internet is not private. Thus allowing me to comment on your stupid comment. No different than if you said it in public...

If you want a private life, probably not a good idea to suggest assasination of the US President on your facebook.

It was never intended to be private. She put it on a social network. To stay private in life, don't post your thpughts on FB.

You put out information for others to see or hear, it is not private. The only way it is private is if you keep it to yourself.

If you want private, why would you be on Facebook?

That's why Facebook is "social media". Nothing you post there is secret. I think this company has every right to fire her. She is a manager at one of their stores and at 22, she should know better.

I have never heard of anything positive coming from Facebook. I hear about people getting fires or not getting job offers because of whatis on it all the time. Facebook is not a smart thing to do.

She said she posted it on FB and marked it as private or friends only. Supposedly there are all kinds of restrictions you can put on your posts so only friends, or certain people see them. So if this is true, it was one of her friends that made it public. I think Facebook will be getting some backlash from this as well.

@DDebbbie

She said she posted it on FB and marked it as private or friends only. Supposedly there are all kinds of restrictions you can put on your posts so only friends, or certain people see them. So if this is true, it was one of her friends that made it public.

How many people are actually friends with all of their Facebook "friends"?? Marking it "private" so that it can only be seen by people you vague know or once knew could hardly be considered private in any real sense of the word.

@Slimyone

I hear about people getting fires or not getting job offers because of whatis on it all the time. Facebook is not a smart thing to do.

Actually it seems to me that Facebook is not a smart thing to do if you are not a smart person to begin with.

Maybe she can find a job with "chik a fil" She would fit in nicely.

Remember to report to your assimilation center so that you may be properly indoctrinated into the collective or else you may be fired from your job and possibly have your citizenship revoked, but that's OK you can return as a illegal and receive full benefits and entitlement checks while we send you to school, sex changes are optional,but you will be required to learn Spanish but under no circumstances will you be permitted to pronounce the word referring to dark colour in Spanish or English unless you are a person of that colour, then you can use the word in public but not on the radio, we can't see you on the radio and we don't want you accidentally exterminated. now you have freedom of speech as long as you don't say anything that a liberal does not want to hear, its best that you just don't speak at all because our liberals are able to twist there hearing abilities as well as their speech and don't make eye contact because they are gifted and enlightened they are clairvoyant and know everything eye contact to a conservative can be fatal to the conservative.

Its so funny how people who never serve in the military spout that crap about free speech that someone else died for... So yes there is freedom of speech.. You can say what ever you like and no one can stop you from saying it. Freedom of speech has nothing to do with the consequences that comes from you using your freedom of speech. Once again "freedom of speech has nothing to do with the consequences of using your first amendment".

Hence forth, if you say something in reference to harming the president of the United States of America on a website that's monitored for national security you will have consequences and the company that you represent have the freedom to fire you . Its just that simple....Common sense really. But that seems to be in short supply these days!

Really? Obama did this all by himself?

Ya dont say.....

Yes because, until four years ago we were all holding hands and singing Kumbaya, especially when it came to racial issues.

Yes, it's absolutely the President's fault that the majority of people chose him to lead the country, and that bigoted idiots can't accept it.

'Revenge'? Maybe the Secret Service needs to investigate you too.

Blaming our entire countries problems on ONE person..... the American way!

Sarah - we were all holding hands and singing Kumbaya when it came to racial issues? Or anything? What fairy land are you living in? The facts that racial minorities have less, own less, get paid less, have higher unemployment, are falsely perceived to be more government dependent than whites etc. is not something that just came into being in 2009. Our government has been dysfunctionally divided since Clinton won in 92 and the republicans have still not gotten over it.

Won by popular vote AND electoral college. Hmm, must be some kind of underground movement...

Republican voters must have been the ~47% that don't count for much. How odd that Obama sees his mission as protecting them, too.

If the Republicans would only do a little soul-searching (if they can recall where they put their souls since Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and Bush the Younger hid them somewhere), they might find that white, wealthy males of evangelical Christian upbringing only represent themselves, and not the majority of this great country. They too, were once a minority - and are on their way to becoming one again. If they want to join with the rest of the country, they will be welcomed. If they want to be split from the rest, that's their choice - and the consequences that result are on them. Not Obama.

Obama supporters did not shout for revolution or threaten assassination, or vow to leave their beloved country if their guy didn't win. The divided country you speak of is a creation of racist and violent people like Helms.

of

Anita,

I think you missed the sarcasm in my post.

Ceretainly you mean Palin, Bachmann, Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, and so on. No one with a brain could possibly suggest the division is coming from President Obama, unless, like all conservatwits, the are completely delusional.

No. Grandmothers just threayened to "burn this motherf*cker down" if Romeny was elected.

Sarcasm isn't everyone's strong suit, here's some more. Oh my, I 've never seen any of this divisiveness in my whole life before Obama became President. Where does it come from?

Sure, I still remember how Palin spoke about "the real America" in a speech. She sounded really inclusive.

Sarah, she (Anita) did indeed miss the sarcasm in your earlier post.

This is exactly why we need a sarcasm font! :)

or for slower folks, please start using the " /sarcasm off" line at the end of your posts.

Garbageman,

How about this...

Yes, non-racist people use the "n" word all the time. It's becoming the new "like" or "um".

@Baddog40

'Revenge'? Maybe the Secret Service needs to investigate you too.

Revenge was a reference to Obama's speech where he suggested people should go out and vote for revenge. Obviously Obama is not solely to blame for dividing this nation because we were divided long before anyone had a clue who he was. But in '08 he ran on bringing the nation together; 4 years later can we say we are any closer together or even further apart? Seems to me that telling his constituency to go out and get revenge wasn't much of a step in the right direction.

Naw, he didn't "build that" .............

Sarah - ok - thanks for the clarification - I did miss the sarcasm.

Anita,

LOL, no problem. I'd like to think that means I'm a master of it??? After all, my mom always told me better a smart ass, than a dumb one.

Sarah-3043284

I'd like to think that means I'm a master of it???

Sorry but no. What it means is that, sadly, there are no shortage of people here on NewsVine who make utterly ridiculous statements with total sincerity.

Your mom was right, too bad you choose to be the latter. Freedom of speech means being able to express your thoughts in public without persecution. Would you agree if someone were fired for supporting equal rights or for supporting the President's policy? I don't think so.

Truthfully, you seem two faced, speech you agree with is protected and should result in no negative consequences, while that you disagree with should be punished. Saying that it was a company that punished her and not the government so it is OK is the same as saying that racial discrimination by a company but not the government is OK. I certainly hope you do not advocate this.

I would suggest a visit to a proctogolist to have your head extracted.

jrblue, the right were not the only people talking about assassination. I saw one site (wish I could find the link) that showed twitter posts from both side talking about killing the president if their guy did not win. I love how all of you on here think that their are only idiots on one side or the other. Just do a search of political videos on you-tube and you will see idiots on both sides. We have become a nation of one side or the other that we have lost sight on the big picture. I bet 80% of the people posting on here voted party line. I bet 60% didn't know a single thing about any other candidate on their ballot other then the president election. I bet 75% didn't read one thing about any of the ballot issues they voted on. We have become a nation that uses TV adds to decide who to vote for. That is what is wrong with our country.

As for me I am a left leaning republican. I love smaller government. I am for a women's choice and I could care less is two gay people want to get married. I am completely for the legalization of marijuana to force the cartels out of business. Yes I voted for Romney. I felt he had the best plan to fix the economy. I voted for Bush both times due to the fact that the Democrat candidates were horrible. I voted for Clinton both times. I choose what is best for my country not what I see on TV or what party I am part of.

Backcountry,

Why you gotta burst my bubble.

Milgrams,

Freedom of speech means being able to express your thoughts in public without persecution.

Which she did. Has she been jailed or told she couldn't say that? Or did she violate her privately owned companies policy, which she agreed to abide by when signing her employment contract? What role did the government play here? Or was is Coldstone's decision?

Would you agree if someone were fired for supporting equal rights or for supporting the President's policy?

Do they work in a "right to work" state and sign an employment contract? Either make a case for discrimination via class, laid out in the Civil Rights Act, or suck it up.

Truthfully, you seem two faced, speech you agree with is protected and should result in no negative consequences, while that you disagree with should be punished.

You seem confused. Can you quote where I said she shouldn't be allowed to express her opinion? Or, is this a case of private employment. You do realize people get fired everyday for stupid @!$%# they post on the internet, right???

Saying that it was a company that punished her and not the government so it is OK is the same as saying that racial discrimination by a company but not the government is OK

Except that racial discrimination is against the law via the Civil Rights Act. Race is a protected class. "Opinion" is not.

You might think the First Amendment decides the legal issue here, but it doesn’t. The Constitution protects free speech from government interference. In the private sector, however, courts have made management discretion the rule. Employees who don’t work for the government and aren’t in a union can be fired or punished for almost anything they say, wherever they say it. Business groups say companies need the authority to put the best person in the job and to shuffle as they deem necessary.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2012/07/getting_fired_for_what_you_post_on_facebook.html

I would suggest you visit a proctologist, not to have your head examined, but to check for colon cancer. It's a killer you know.

Jrblue, you really, REALLY, need to get out more.

Read through this first

http://www.theweek.co.uk/us/us-election-2012/49919/if-mitt-romney-wins-its-time-head-canada-%E2%80%93-or-it#

Then this.

http://riggedreality.com/50-crazy-things-that-obama-supporters-are-threatening-to-do-if-romney-wins/

Then this.

http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-supporters-spend-election-day-continuing-calls-for-riots-and-assassination

Now, will you take back that moronic comment you just made?

You liberals are about to get your wish the rich people are leaving. but they are taking their money with them. the new hot spot for the rich is Brazill and its neighbors, they offer tax breaks.

Dbuck,

See ya.

That would be worse than the cure. Imagine Joe as the President.... I couldn't imagine anyone worse, well maybe sarah palin.

Exactly Scooter! I'm no fan of President Obama but the very thought of Joe Biden running our country? Makes me want to sign up to be part of President Obama's personal security! I'll take a bullet to keep Biden from being President. lol

I couldn't imagine anyone worse, well maybe sarah palin.

at least sarah is easy on the eyes.............:)

You cannot imagine anyone worse? Try the entire GOP field over the last two presidential election cycles...

You republicans need to stand up and demand some decent candidates. I long for a day when I can look and the republican presidential candidate and not feel revulsion and terror. Letting 1500 jackasses in Iowa decide who you get to choose from has got to stop. Come on moderate republicans....TAKE YOUR PARTY BACK!

"at least sarah is easy on the eyes.............:)"

Yes, but she hurts the brain. I can hear her screeching, whining voice right now, blah!

Yes, but she hurts the brain. I can hear her screeching, whining voice right now, blah!

so you prefer a baffoon laughing like a true moron? or spouting such words of wisdom as this is a big f---ing deal...might want to sign off and go outside and look around, its not 2008 anymore and she hasn't been in the picture for quite some time...well except to those who for some reason cant get enough ofd her....

Choosing a VP that scares people seems to be the new fad. Remember Cheney? I think a lot of people thought about offing Dubya, but the alternative was so much worse, Dubya was safe.

Yeah, Justin but does anyone believe that Cheney wasn't running the country? Doesn't seem that W. was running anything but his mouth which didn't seem to be connected to anything coherent. That administration was directorless if you believe that elected officials are there to serve the general public. It was probably the most self-serving group in modern history. Why do you think NONE of them were asked to help the Romney campaign?

Sorry folks, I have to agree with Linux Lewis. Since when did the black race become so sensitive to name calling? I also hear them calling each other nIg ger, They sure don't hesitate calling white people Cracker, whitie, or even worse names. Personally I am tired of catering to them. They certainly haven't gained my respect.

When you go shopping they stand in the middle of the aisles and block people from passing then when you finally get in line for the cashier, they are still sending family members to gather up stuff. They are rude and violent .

As far as the young lady being fired for making remarks about Obama, I have heard blacks say a lot worse about President Bush. Hopefully someone that feels the same about the lame brain a-hole will hire her and give her a raise.

Wow, Rangewolf, there were enough stupid racist generalizations in that post for at least a half dozen Klan meetings. And yes, I've heard other people, both black and white, say similar things about George W. Bush. The thing is, most of them weren't stupid enough to post those things publicly under their own name, where millions of people (including their own bosses) could see them.

Now, that's what I call a lame-brained a**hole.

actually yes, the blasted anti-bush propaganda for 8 years plus. they called bush every derogatory name on television and in print, they made up anything they could to make bush look like a evil genius but yet stupid at the same time and they still do it to this day.

you just want to defend obama with all your might, he is a unqualified liar as much the democrats are, throw those republicans in there too.

ps. the KKK was founded by confederates with democrat support and even membership, democrats also were against the civil rights act and passed jim crow laws.

Yawn. Yes, we all know about the history of the Klan, and the racist roots of the old Southern Dixiecrat wing of the Democratic party. But like other Republicans who like to pretend that history ended in 1964, you ignore the past 50 years of the Nixonian "Southern Strategy," the mass defection of racist Dixiecrats to the Republican and independent parties, and the race-baiting strategy that Ronald Reagan helped popularize and has continued to dominate Republican politics. And today's Klan is anything but Democratic in its orientation, unless you're delusional enough to think that there are Klansmen out there supporting Barack Obama.

P.S. It was a liberal Democratic president (Johnson) who engineered the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights law. The conservative Republican who ran against him (Goldwater) opposed it.

no, johnson was pretty much forced to sign it and if you look at the voting record you will see a whole lotta democrats against it, some for it and republicans for it with some against. it was all politics for power anyways, constitution already defined to the government freedom for us but somehow we ended up with slavery and oppression still, go figure. still the dems created jim crow laws, they had KKK members in their ranks and they supported slavery, quite a bad history those dems have and they do not acknowledge any of their faults, instead they blame the 'opposition'.

i like how you spin it to be the republican are now the racists lol the democrat party is still as racist as they have ever been. ill throw you a bone and just say its both parties because i dislike em both. progressives have taken over the two parties anyhow and have fooled alot of people just like you. you only look at the republicans and republicans only look at democrats, you only see the wrong on their side and not your own. you point to their mistakes and misdeeds but ignore your own. you lambast their perceived hate while instigating hate. you are divided just like they want you to be.

Actually, I find both "Democrat" and "Republican" to be fairly arbitrary labels, since the sentiments behind either brand are constantly changing for purposes of political expediency. Had I been alive during the 1870s, I have little doubt that I'd consider myself a Republican, but the party stood for very different things at that time than it does today. The one constant, however, is that Klan was and still is generally aligned with the forces of social and political conservatism; party label is largely immaterial.

As for Johnson, your questionable claim that he was "forced" to sign the Civil Rights Bill matters little to me. The fact is that he campaigned on his support for it, while his conservative Republican challenger opposed it. As for the Dixiecrats who opposed the legislation, one of three things generally happened to them: either (1) they were swept out of office shortly thereafter, (2) they switched party affiliations to Republican or Independent (a la Strom Thurmond and George Wallace), or (3) they eventually modified their views, at least publicly. Your assertion that the Democratic party is "as racist as its ever been" is just that -- an assertion, and one devoid of any factual support. I don't doubt there are racists in both camps, however, and that there are plenty of Democrats who espouse positions that I abhor. And that's just one of many reasons why I consider my own political affiliation to be Progressive, as opposed to Democratic or Republican.

the klan was never aligned with what would be called 'republican conservatism,' while technically by definition they would be conservative (to keep tradition) in the context that they wanted to keep slaves and wanted to dictate power over the citizen but they were confederates who had democrat support and membership.

you call yourself a progressive but they are the ones who are destroying both parties and this country. it was progressives who pitted citizen vs citizen, it was progressives who created the FED and subsequent recessions and depressions, it was progressives who outlawed hemp for industrial use and recreational, it was progressives who outlawed alcohol. progressives are anything but progressive, they want control like any other evil party. i see now why you post the you do, progressives are keen at spin and revising history.

i would not want to label myself as i have no political affiliation, my loyalty goes to this country and what it can do for this world, not what i can get from someone else.

i could really care less if blacks want to refer to each other that way, i know as a white person i would not want black people or any other race to tell me i could not jokingly call my brother redneck honkey as we do sometimes. i think the people on here who are saying it was her asasination remark that really caused the stir. people use the n word on the internet all the time with no problem but when she used the words asasinate and president together thats where she got into trouble. in this day and age you just cant joke about that kind of thing. all the other bs about who can and can not use the n word is not important, i guarantee the use of the n word on the internet will not cease. and its not very often that two people completely agree about anything anymore so who really cares, she was scooping ice cream, i think she will recover. her career as an ice cream scooper may be dead but the world can always use another french frie salter person. haha

You voted, other people voted... you lost (by a bunch!) - get over it!

It ain't rocket surgery...

It seems to me that all the comments being collapsed have something to do with freedom of speech. Another 4 years of tyranny coming up.

I for one wish no harm on Obama, what stands to take his place is even worse, I think Obama planed it that way to stay alive, I don't think any harm will come to him.

Their ice cream is too heavy on the ice for me. Tastes watered down. And obviously, some of their managers are morons.

Well, amirigal, u r probably a fat cow who could stand to lose a weight rather than pack it on at Cold Stone. I've never eaten there, but I'll do my best to make up for the gallon a day habit that u think u can break.

I agree amerigal,i wont go there either.People should be able to say whatever they want,when there not on the clock,or in any kind of contract that is signed,for public behavior(athletes).And people have the right to fire you,corect,But people have the right to sue also for discrimination.Its not a hate crime,because no one got hurt.

Hey david2319136,your job should fire you for calling amerigal a fat cow,same principle,falls under discrimination.

Hey WTF101, did ew make it passed the third grade or argh ew just sew stoopid to no how two spell? Buy the weigh, I am what Romney calls a job creator. I get to fire rascist employees who are brave enough two spew there hatred in public.

David, RUN, DO NOT WALK, to the nearest community college and enroll in basic grammar/spelling 101. Do it tomorrow! Then, add to that a course in remedial humorous expression while you're at it. Not one thing you typed was even slightly amusing, but only uber-annoying. There is no room on this forum for those who fancy themselves hysterically funny comedians, but who are not.

Obama has done his best to take away our freedom of speech and our right to bear arms, thanks to people like you, he may succeed. One thing for sure, he will NEVER get mine.

The lady had the right to say whatever she wants, it is her right. I would sue the company.

Anyone ignorant enough to vote for Obama deserves whatever hard luck they get. I wish them all luck and may it all be BAD.

Unless Barack Obama has somehow engineered a government takeover of Coldstone Creamery, I fail to see how he's done anything to abridge this person's freedom of speech. The laws on the books against threatening the President existed long before Obama took office, and they'll remain there long after he's gone. Yes, this lady has the right to say whatever she wants. And Coldstone has the right not to keep on a now-notorious race-baiter as an employee. That's how the free market works. If you don't like that, you're free to move to North Korea.

As for what Obama has supposedly done to restrict your right to bear arms, please do tell. Just note that there hasn't been one single federal gun control initiative during the whole four years he's been in office, and handguns sales are at an all-time high, so the facts don't appear to be on your side.

so when blacks say the 'n' word, its not racist? when did words becomes specific to a persons race?

Because words in and of themselves are just collections of syllables; they're not inherently racist. People are racist, therefore the intent of the speaker matters. As George Carlin so wisely said, "The word itself isn't the problem. The racist a**hole using the word to hurt other people is the problem."

problem for who? its just a word. why would anyone be offended by a word? i could understand defending someone because someone spoke ill of them but beyond an opinion, there is nothing you can do about words.

as long as one group can say a word, all groups can say that word. that is how equality works and freedom reigns.

Problem for who? its just a word. why would anyone be offended by a word?

So now you're making the case that there's really no such thing as a racial or ethnic slur? I can't really think of an adequate response to that, other than to wonder what planet you're living on.

as long as one group can say a word, all groups can say that word. that is how equality works and freedom reigns.

I'm sorry if you feel that social forces have somehow conspired to deprive you of your "rights" to hurl racial epithets at other people, but in the real world, the context in which words are used still matters.

I don't know what sort of battle you think that you're fighting here, but it seems like a pretty pointless exercise to me. If you feel that you can't go through your day without calling someone a "n**ger," that's your business. But don't profess to be shocked by whatever consequences may ensue.

whats a racial slur? its just a creation by man. so when a black guy says to another black guy "hey whats up my 'n'?" that would not be a racial slur to you? how bout when a white guy says to a black guy "hey whats up my 'n'?" would that be a racial slur to you? whats the difference in the two saying it? your implying that every white person who says 'n' is using is derogatory while the same words spoken by blacks is not. do you not see the double standard here? you cant tell someone to not say a word then let others say that word with impunity. words are not a danger, its intent.

when i was a young ghetto white kid i had lots ghetto black friends who were gang bangers and drug dealers and we all used the 'n' word like it was second nature and thought nothing of it they would call me a 'n' like it was just the word it is.

words only have meaning when we give it to them, otherwise they are just sounds coming out an orifice.

She should be brought up on charges of hate speech and threatening the President. What would be just desserts would be for the White House to offer her a job (as part of her probation) since she is now unemployed. Maybe she could be a housekeeper there. Maybe she should be supervised by Michelle Obama's mother. And she could get the job of cleaning the toilets, making the beds or serving on the kitchen staff since she knows so much about food. Maybe she would learn that hate has no place in this country and that her ignorance should be a source of shame for her and her family. Maybe, just maybe she would grow.... We MUST do something about the rampant racism in this country before it takes yet another ugly violent turn....

Shamsky - apparantly you missed the last Presidential debate where Obama clearly stated he intended to reinstate the "Assault" weapons ban, which affects most semi-auto pistols as well. This is why gun sales are up exponentially since the election.

problem for who? its just a word. why would anyone be offended by a word? i could understand defending someone because someone spoke ill of them but beyond an opinion, there is nothing you can do about words.

as long as one group can say a word, all groups can say that word. that is how equality works and freedom reigns

I'm not undersanding your reasoning? If a word is just a word ... I'll post kiss my ass cock sucker.... Lets see how long those words stay on the forum? If they are still there in 10 minutes, I'll be the first to start the "Ban" wagon.

If they are scrambled or banned before the 10 minutes are up - then obviously they are considered offensive.

Many people on the newsvine use derogatory terms and get away scott free with it. Many are serial defamatory speakers, and still get away with it. (I can think of a couple flaming liberals who are notorious for their copious manure spreading)

We bitch about something someone else said but then turn around and defame the next person who doesn't agree with us.

Oh the irony and hypocrisy.

Hate speech is not protected free speech. It's a crime.

Wrong piglizard. Hate speech is not a crime. As much as I detest the ACLU they did defend the Nazis and Klan their right to speak their views, horrible as they are. There's no right against being offended in America. I find the lazy ghetto-trash freeloaders, looters and moochers of the left offensive, but I deal with it and go on.

Maybe you should, too.

Gosh, Terrence, would that all of us who make up the masses of the mooching "left" were as enlightened as you are! Could you give us a quick seminar in how to deal with it and go on? My heart's desire is that I wish I could reach out and touch you - then, my life would turn around, and I would be one happy saint!

its called ignoring, we all have this option and are free to use it. you have no right to tell me what i can and cant say as long as i cause no harm to you and harm is not a perception.

Sorry, but I have every right to tell you whatever I damned well please. You don't have to listen, of course, but that would mean actually practicing what you preach, and we all know that right-wingers have a little problem in that area.

you do not understand what rights are do you? you cant tell me what to do, you can think you are telling me what to do but you do not possess that right over me so its just words you are saying and i have the option to ignore you, i have no right to tell you to stop telling me what to do, i could speak those words but they have no power over you so you can ignore me as i ignore you.

we could stand in front of each other arguing over what ever and neither of us has any rights over the other to prevent it other than ignoring and walking away.

@Swagganaut. Your postings make me feel like I need a shower to wash off the putrid slime of your ignorance. Blech! People who are not employed can say anything they want. Not so much when you are empoyed by a company and state things in opposition to their policies and image. But the bottom line is you are declaring that you LOVE ignorance and bigoted statements. Wow!! That means so much to the online community. Well thanks for sharing your stupidity with the world!!

ty for showing your true colors, you expose hate for people who do not share the same opinion as whats you are told to have. i have no emotions about you but yet somehow you have acquired some for me as you seem to feel disgusted at my posting. you will never admit yourself as the problem but will continue to blame others and make excuses for woes.

next time you want to disparage others look in a mirror and say it to yourself first.

@Swagganaut, You're the one on here defending someone for disparaging our President and now you don't like it when someone does it to you? Your ignorance is astounding.

do you not understand that as american citizens we have the right to dissent? disparaging a politician is one of our greatest tools against corruption and as american citizens we owe no loyalty nor allegiance to any politician or government entity, they owe it to us. disparaging your fellow citizens to protect a president or to hold your opinion is not dissent and is not productive. we have no control over each other so thats why government is in place to manage our affairs so we dont need to fight each other, doesn't really work though as we have been fighting since conception.

you seem to think a president should be coddled and nurtured right? or respected? he should never be questioned or demanded truth from? he is our leader and king? once any president takes the oath of office he is no longer a common citizen but a leader of a free nation and his life and choices should be an open book for all citizens to read and discuss. respect is earned not elected or expected.

If you had read the article and it's sources you would see a picture of her.

jnkj

Anita, I'm with you--aside from everything else....what kind of animal doesn't care that someone is killed? A man with a wife and two beautiful kids? And if she doesn't think she's a racist....what does she think she is?

If she only lost her job, she got off easy. Federal charges could have been entered against her.

BroEli

Don't worry. I'm sure the Secret Service is investigating her, and charges may still be filed. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on inciting violence or hate speech.

And as for her job search, I'm sure she could find something with Ted Nugent, or some other i'm-not-a-racist-i-just-hate-minorities type. She should call the RNC.

LOL,there is no law on wishing bad on someone,you morrons.If thats the case we all would be in jail.There was no threat.And Ted Nuggent is against free loaders in this country collecting off the taxpayers,which happens to be mostly minority.Get your definition of racist correct Justin B.

Hate speech isn't a crime. Who decides what hate speech is? You? There's no objective way to define it. What you want is thought control. Read "1984" to see where that idea goes.

Double-plus good!!

Ted isn't racist? And he never did drugs either, right? Please.

Patriot Act allows for her to be sent to Gitmo forever without a trial. That is within the new laws. Get used to them. I see they keep getting renewed by whoever is in power. Probally won't happen, but it is an option.

My own belief is that there will be an assassination attempt on Obama, it will take place between spring and fall 2015, and there's an increasing liklihood that it will be successful. I base my conclusion on a number of factors. The numbers of posts like the one this bubblehead posted on Twitter are increasing. The political climate in this country is extremely toxic and will only get more toxic. The Tea Party has successfully hijacked the Republican Party and will ultimately splinter it. You'll have a Republican Party that is overwhelmingly Tea Party and with no shot of attaining majority party status anywhere. The most virulent elements will become more virulent. All of this is going to coincide with Obamacare and the fines for not having coverage. Those fines will be the motivating factor for an assassination attempt. And most important, the opportunities for individuals to train for an assassination attempt will only increase.

I view the bubblehead's post this way: she's speaking for a lot of people who are not bubbleheads. There are a lot of serious and, by every reasonable definition, intelligent people who do not hesitate to speak in such terms when they are in safe, private quarters; you also have plenty of intelligent people who hold such views but are less vocal about them. And you have the belligerent element that will be in someone's face and doesn't care what anyone thinks.

Rodentwarrior: Since you brought up healthcare. When I was able to get insurance coverage through Co. (family man.) They wanted my cost 342.00 dollars a week. How is that affordable healthcare? If I was to get coverage on my own without being a participant of a group plan, what is it going to be 1000.00 a week? I know some people think discount insurance plans exist. You are misinformed. Most of those of brand plans are not accepted, don't cover anything,and have high deductibles. The correct term of new insurance law is catastrophic coverage. The bill has to be very large before anything is paid.

BIGGEST ISSUE: Thie woman's post is just another excellent example of the signs and symptoms of what is happening in this country, that was once great.

You can post all your left leaning,comments, but, as per jusual, NEVER address the issue causing the S/S. To use an analagy; using a bandaid to contol a tear in the artery.

...CAN'T you feel and sense it? WE are on the verge of another civil war.... and it is coming.

Anita--I was in Junior High when JFK was assassinated, so I know where you are coming from! I agree with you, and quite frankly, I would have fired her too. Rodentwarrior--I believe you have legitimate concerns, and I pray for President Obama's safety, even though I did not vote for him--I voted Green Party--and I don't agree with the Green Party on everything either. In some ways I'm liberal, in some ways conservative. We are at a pivotal time in our history. I hope and pray that our country will be able to pull together and ultimately be able to come out of this time in our history a better country.

Patriot Act allows for her to be sent to Gitmo forever without a trial. That is within the new laws. Get used to them. I see they keep getting renewed by whoever is in power. Probally won't happen, but it is an option...

Yup -put her in there with some of them A-rab, good ol' boys... they know how to treat a mouthy female.

The Internet is the best thing that ever happened to hate groups, terrorists, Bi-gots. Now they can sit behind a keyboard all day and all night - feeding off each other and concocting plots, theories and discoveries of alien invasions (terrestrial and extra- terrestrial).

even better- they can have food, clothing, ammo and guns set up for home delivery. to prepare for the coming Armageddon.

Beoweolf: The Congress passed that Draconian law. She is now subject to sexual degradation,waterboarding,electric shock, and mental abuse. That will teach her to "Respect Authority".

Interesting quote. And yeah, it does.

Pretty much sums up the way these fine networks are used. It isn't the equipment or the theory, it's some of the morons using them.

it fits,

my phone is just that a phone, an unfortunate necessity that i buy minutes for. no photos, text, Internet, etc. ( the last time i bought 900 minutes was june 6 th still have 478 left) i get on here due to Boredom, on my my email account for laughs, and even then as a general rule i am off here by around noon, as for the rest i simply don't participate..i refuse to interact totally and vicariously though a piece of plastic. ..... but thats just me.

You seem to be the biggest idiot of all , then. At least by your own description , in reference to the Einstein quote. You are the most out spoken and constant force I have come across in my year or so reading comments and posting here. The only other monicker that comes to mind is JS in SD who is also quite guilty of post hijacking.

cheers

p.s. I don't blame people for overuse of tech crap. Since the invention of the radio people have gone about wasting unnatural amounts of time interacting around and through electrical devices, forgoing important tasks all the way up to welfare of themself and their hygiene.. I'm not saying you do any of that or not because I don't know you. But for context, the entire planet is hooked on this social media crap , it goes back all the way to listening to the news on the old tube radio... Anyway, I'm probably not going to read any response left by anyone subsequent to this one, and certainly won't be responding to any. Just wanted to clarify that I'm not trying to offend anyone ... Just pondering existance

Cameron

had you read the post and noted the time you may have been able to figure out i was gone. but simple solution for you. if you dont wish to view someones post there is an "ignore this person" on their page........ hit it.

... Anyway, I'm probably not going to read any response left by anyone subsequent to this one, and certainly won't be responding to any.

that is of course if you read this..............