Gagtastic quote of the day

Ugh:

In a letter to Obama dated Wednesday, Massachusetts Rep. Richard Neal strongly urges the president not to drink Budweiser, now owned by a Belgian company. Nor should the White House consider serving Miller or Coors, Neal writes, both owned by a United Kingdom conglomerate.

Instead, the White House should serve the three men — all with ties to Massachusetts — the local favorite, not only because of its popularity in the region but also because it remains the largest American-owned and brewed beer, Neal says.

But Sam Adams founder and brewer Jim Koch told NPR if it was up to him he would make a special beer just for the event.

“I’d make a blend of ingredients from all over the world. Which is certainly what’s represented there with the three participants,” he said. “I would blend those ingredients together artfully and harmoniously, because that’s really what we all hope for.”

Shall we all clasp hands and sing Kumbaya now?

In related news, another Cambridge a Boston police officer is in hot water over racial remarks he made in email about Henry Gates in the aftermath of the controversy surrounding his arrest:

An officer in the Boston Police Department was suspended yesterday for allegedly writing a racially charged e-mail about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to colleagues at the National Guard, a law enforcement official said. Mayor Thomas M. Menino compared the officer to a cancer and said he is “gone, g-o-n-e” from the force.

The law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Officer Justin Barrett referred to the black scholar as a ” jungle monkey” in the letter, written in reaction to media coverage of Gates’s arrest July 16.

Barrett, a 36-year-old who has been on the job for two years, was stripped of his gun and badge yesterday and faces a termination hearing in the next week, said police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll. He has no previous disciplinary record, she said.

“Yesterday afternoon, Commissioner Davis was made aware that Officer Barrett was the author of correspondence which included racially charged language,” she said. “At that time, Commissioner Davis immediately stripped Officer Barrett of his gun and badge, and at this time we will be moving forward with the hearing process.”

Here is the actual email in question (via Memeo). Make sure to read it in full. It is disgusting. Barrett has also been suspended from the National Guard.

Of course, this will be used to paint the Cambridge Boston-area police with a broad brush – especially in light of Crowley’s arrest of Gates, and will also be used to imply/suggest that if Barrett is a racist than surely Crowley must be, too.

Sigh.

The so-called “beer summit” is set for tonight at 6pm. I can hardly wait to hear what happens (not).