President Obama’s speech to the kids is now available, and it just makes the right-wingers look absolutely absurd. In a sane world, this would be the tipping point for our members of the media, and they would simply stop taking these folks seriously.
My personal favorite wingnut excuse for the crazy was offered up by the increasingly amusing Malkin:
It’s not the speech, it’s the subtext.
It’s the radical activism of the White House Teaching Fellows who designed the education guides tied to Obama’s speech.
Yeah. It’s the subtext, alright. You can’t make this shit up. Lupica had it right when he called these guys mouth-breathers.
*** Update ***
BTW- Who do you all think will be the first wingnut to find a hidden coded message in the text of the speech? The odds on favorite for that kind of lunacy would be Glenn Beck, but then again the one lunatic who pushed the “Republican car dealers is being punished!” nonsense would be a good bet, too, as would that clown who freaked out over dijon mustard. There is just so much quality amateur wingnuttery going on these days that there really is no safe bet anymore.
Now that I think about it, these guys freaked out for two days over the condiment he put on his hamburger. We should have realized a speech to schoolkids would give them the vapors.
Quaker in a Basement
Haw!
After all these years, Blazing Saddles is still the most accessible and quotable treatise on race ever written.
demkat620
I read the speech and all I can say is how in the hell did this radical commie get elected president? Stay in school? Do your work?
I mean, godamn, America! WTF?
Svensker
The subtext is: “ZOMG, the country elected a black Democrat and we don’t like iiiiiiiittttttttttt! Wwaaaaaaahhhhhhh!”
JenJen
“Increasingly amusing” is a most excellent way to characterize Malkin’s work.
dmsilev
I read the speech, and now I have an irresistible urge to go collectivize some farms and build some tractors for the greater glory of The State.
Is this just me?
-dms
cleek
i love watching the rugged, self-sufficient, anti-intellectual, individualists of the right worry about “the subtext”.
demkat620
@dmsilev: No comrade, you are not alone.
Oops! Did I say that out loud?
Jacquelyn
Is this sort of inspiration, this challenging yet cheering for the youth of our nation, this truly positive message…is this what I should fear? Is this the sort of grown-up I wouldn’t want around my kids? I’m so confused.
SpotWeld
Great, now I have to add “subtext” to the list of words right-wingers use without actually knowing what they mean.
The Grand Panjandrum
That speech could have been written for Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton. I can’t wait to here from elected Republican officials. That is the tell. Will they reject and denounce the wingers? Probably shouldn’t hold my breath, eh?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
But he told the kids to “wash their hands a lot”. This is clearly a slap at the Bible (where the washing of feet, not hands, is emphasized) and a subtle Quranic reference. Only a crypto-Muslim would place such emphasis on hand washing.
aimai
this is why Steve Benen’s offer to ditch the word “Czar” is so dumb. Because then it won’t be the word “Czar” but the “subtext” which is that the government, you know, was hired to govern. These people are fucking nuts and the only thing they are really saying at this point (thank you Harry Cheddar at alicublog):
“… Adolph Commie McBlackamoor wants to chat up our school age daughters!”
That big black box of horror remains the same whatever you call it.
aimai
valdivia
@The Grand Panjandrum: not unless you want to die, for lack of oxygen?
dmsilev
Obama should give a speech where he says “I want every American to know that it’s a bad idea to jump off of highway overpasses”. The wingnut population would drop by 50% within the week.
-dms
demkat620
I will say Hinderaker will be the first. The kerning will be a dead give away.
Molly
This latest stupidity was the thing that finally got through to some of my more conservative friends. They get what I’ve been saying, finally.
demkat620
@dmsilev: Or dry your hair in the bathtub.
JenJen
Re: John’s update… not sure who the first wingnut to find hidden code in the speech will be, but I think I know their complaint: why did all of Obama’s student examples have such ethnic names?
Only thing left to do is wonder how they’re going to word it so that Malkin can scream “They’re calling us raaaaaaaacists” the moment we object.
Angela
@Molly – I hope the same is true for some of my conservative friends also. I find your comment heartening.
Comrade Luke
The wingnut talking points for this one are easy:
We made him rewrite his speech!
dmsilev
Has anyone played the speech backwards yet? Sure to be a hidden message there. Or once it’s actually given, go through the video and look for single-frame subliminal messages (“Kill whitey”) flashed on the screen?
-dms
Max
So, which fauxrage is the silliest?
1. School speech
2. Dijon Mustard
3. Michelle’s sleeveless dress
It’s really hard to choose.
At some point, the GOP is going to address actual issues, right? The mid-terms and 2012 are going to be ugly.
Regular Reader
Today in tragicomedy, from the comments of the linked Malkin post:
“why not send your kids to hear a speech on water safety given by a drug dealer, followed by a bicycle safety talk from a child molester?”
JackieBinAZ
The mind reels trying to backtrack to when that was really true.
cleek
here’s the speech Reagan gave to students. it was all about upholding the tradition of Freedom (choir of angels sings Gmaj) which was bequeathed to us by the Founding Fathers (choir of angels sings Amaj) in our as we defeat the evil Communists (choir of angels sings Dmaj).
here’s what he had to say about studying:
that’s it.
The Saff
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new.”
Great advice for anyone, not just kids. Great speech and very inspiring. I look forward to hearing him give it real time.
West of the Cascades
OMG!! If you record the speech and play part of the fourth-to-last paragraph backwards, it’s clear that it’s just street speak dissing America! It proves that the president (lower case “p”) hates America!!
“America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s” really means “It’s tough got things when quit who people about isn’t America!!!” He used “quit” and “isn’t America” in the same sentence!!
licensed to kill time
Ok, I just read the speech, and I believe that I just found the sub-text.
“This is no picnic for me either, buster……students…wage a revolution!”
I swear, it’s in the speech!
Shell
Easy. They won’t bitch about the actual speech, but the imaginary one he was never gonna give.
smiley
@Regular Reader:
Wow. Just wow.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@JackieBinAZ:
That would be the 1972 presidential election. Richard Nixon, a man whom most of the working members of the press had actively despised or laughed at, and whose political obituary they had written multiple times, pulled off one of the great landslide victories in US electoral history. That was the point at which our political press collectively decided that every liberal though in their heads was not just wrong but dead wrong, that they had no idea at all what “average Americans” were thinking, and that they would do penance for the rest of their lives by concern trolling for the right on every occasion.
JenJen
@licensed to kill time: Bwaaaaaaah!
Glenn Beck is SO running with this tomorrow.
wlrube
Well in all fairness, asking kids to pay attention in science class would expose them to devilution, and asking them to pay attention in history class would expose them to the Enlightenment. Not to mention that asking kids to succeed in high school and go to college would turn them into elitist ivory-tower eggheads. So it’s clear that Obama is an evil atheistic community-organizing communist intent on undermining good old-fashioned American values.
licensed to kill time
@JenJen:
Sadly, I may have given him a clue. Drat!
DougJ
The odds on favorite for that kind of lunacy would be Glenn Beck, but then again the one lunatic who pushed the “Republican car dealers is being punished!” nonsense would be a good bet, too, as would that clown who freaked out over dijon mustard.
I think it will be a blogger because Beck has to wait to go on the air to do it.
Tony J
As it’s a lot later on this side of the Atlantic, I’ll just repost the thing I said over at The American Conservative, where the Obamahate is truly strong.
Max
OT – but for all the foodies, Food TV has a “Chopped” marathon going on. I really like this show.
Do we have a Top Chef live blog crew on BJ.com?
Davis X. Machina
Easy. They won’t bitch about the actual speech, but the imaginary one he was never gonna give.
More accurately, the one their hissy-fit kept him from giving, the one he wanted to give.
The oratorical equivalent of the ‘Whitey Tape’, if you will.
slag
I’m wondering when we’ll learn that Bill Ayers, ACORN, Reverend Wright, and Van Jones all got together to write Obama’s speech.
Demo Woman
My guess is that talk radio, MSM and Beck will move on to his Health Care Reform speech before congress. They will pretend that the last two weeks never happened.
r€nato
I understand that later this week, Obama is going to
greetindoctrinatesubliminally brainwash the team from Chula Vista which won the Little League World Series.smiley
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/09/07/obama-school-speech-text-what-glenn-beck-may-not-like/
gnomedad
Ed Morrisey gave it a shot (links to comment in previous thread).
r€nato
@Regular Reader:
I guess because all the GOP politicians will still be on holiday, they’ll have to wait til the week after this one to get those speeches…
Comrade Luke
It kills me that Malkin sees subtext in this speech, but the fact that a bunch of white people are pulling their kids from school so they won’t be lectured by a black man has no relevance whatsoever.
Svensker
@Shell:
Easy. They won’t bitch about the actual speech, but the imaginary one he was never gonna give.
Welp, I just had a wingnut tell me that the speech was re-written a bazillion times to take out the stuff that Obama really wanted to say. I wish I was kidding.
wlrube
@cleek:
He also got away with plugging the line-item veto and supply-side economics, and dissing gun control. But of course Saint Ronald would never try to indoctrinate our children! How dare anybody make such a suggestion! Only Barack Hussein Osama would ever do such a thing.
Comrade Luke
@Svensker:
I called it!
BDeevDad
One wingnut told me she didn’t want a teenage drug using foreigner to speak to her kids. But the kicker that dropped my jaw was that she pre-screens Sesame Street.
Svensker
@Comrade Luke:
I called it!
Right on the money, honey.
General Winfield Stuck
You littards won’t be amuzed when Obamioleon, let’s looose his ReDGaY Teletooobies of Wer.
General Winfield Stuck
Malikn sees subtext in the sunshine.
mcc
Who do you all think will be the first wingnut to find a hidden coded message in the text of the speech?
Hm, can you still get those “bible code” programs that find hidden messages by skipping letters in a text?
R-Jud
@BDeevDad:
I seem to remember seeing archive footage of a vintage winger solemnly declaring that Sesame Street was a communist plot to make children hate school by making them think learning was supposed to be fun.
FlipYrWhig
Ooh, ooh! The subtext of this part… Sarah Palin!
licensed to kill time
@FlipYrWhig:
Ah, yes. That’ll drive the Palinistas up the wall. Good catch.
Leelee for Obama
@BDeevDad: One despairs! Wouldn’t want her future Hitler Youth Corps members thinking that the neighbors mattered or nuthin’.
God, sometimes, I wish I didn’t care this much.
r€nato
I’m going to record the speech and then play it backwards. I am certain there is some backward-masked subliminal soc*ialist indoctrination to be found in there.
srv
If socialism is such a bad thing, why are Republicans such fans of the greatest socialist institution in public schools?
http://thetruthburns.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/heil-america.jpg
At least conservatives should support bringing back the original form.
Martin
The 666th letter of the speech is ‘W’.
Clearly he’s telling children that Bush (and therefore all republicans) are the devil.
Montysano
@Comrade Luke:
Or the fact that wingnuts are pulling their children out of school in order to avoid a speech about….. staying in school.
kay
There are certain political low-points that resonate for whatever reason, and this is one of them, for me.
So mean-spirited and cynical, towards something that was so clearly well-intentioned and really couldn’t do harm, but might do some good. I just feel strongly that both the press and the GOP should have let this one go by. That they couldn’t pass up this particular cheap shot will be hard for me to forget. They had a chance to show they were adults, but the opening proved too tempting.
I am just profoundly disappointed, as odd as that sounds.
asdf
“it just makes the right-wingers look absolutely absurd”
Absurd? You haven’t been reading Free Republic.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2333988/posts
We are way beyond something you might call absurd.
I grew up in East Texas. I know these people intimately. We are not talking absurd here. We are talking violence.
Don’t believe me? Well, that’s your prerogative. How much truth do you want to know?
Racist Southerners have been simmering for years since integration. Those beige babies have been a little much for the average low IQ Rush fan. Trust me. It’s so.
When will they boil over? When they are told to.
Don’t believe me. Nobody believed me when I took my money out of the stock market. I told them. Nobody listened. (Not bad for a hick from East Texas, was it?)
Watch carefully those who incite the right. Take everything they say to heart. There will be no revolution but there will be violence. Want to bet? I’ve got $1,000 that says so.
Stay calm. We have been here for a long time and we will be here after this madness.
srv
oops, forgot:
If s0c1alism is such a bad thing, why are Republicans such fans of its’ institutions in public schools?
http://thetruthburns.files.wor…..merica.jpg
At least conservatives should support bringing back the original form.
r€nato
@Martin: facts are stubborn things, aren’t they.
Demo Woman
OT 17 year old from GA is on to the Ladies’ qtr. finals at the Us Open.
r€nato
@Montysano:
as said up-thread… Obama should make a speech encouraging people not to jump off bridges.
srv
grrr.
http://thetruthburns.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/heil-america.jpg
Demo Woman
@Montysano:
Family Values
robert
I wonder why Special Ed didn’t include the number of times the word “you” occurs in the speech?
Maybe because it would show how stupid the point is that he’s trying to make?
valdivia
@Max: I am in for Tp Chef. Is chopped good, never seen it, I am watching a Criminal Minds marathon on A&E
Tsulagi
Exactly what I was thinking while reading down through the post. Of course the fact that those without an overflowing drool cup can’t find the code will conclusively prove it’s there.
For the marginally saner tards I’m guessing they’ll take a fallback position. Claim due to their patriotic vigilance Obama was forced to change the speech he wanted to deliver full of commie indoctrination while hypnotizing the children with ACORN lasers from his eyes. That way they can pat each other on the back and slap on another flag lapel pin.
Or more likely they’ll simply act like their temper tantrum never happened on this and instead be outraged and crying they’re victims over something else. Maybe Obama told the WH kitchen he only likes his coffee black. You can never be too outraged or victimized.
Brachiator
@Demo Woman:
You got it. Conservative media has settled on a “slime and run” tactic which criticizes everything that Obama says or does and is content to leave some residue of fear and resentment in the public even as the worst fears about an Obama statement inevitably fails to pay off.
On a morning talk radio show, a moderate Obama hater “admitted” that he didn’t know whether the Obama school kids speech would be brainwashing or would be nothing. But he proceeded from the perspective that Obama’s speech might be worrisome. Later he teased an upcoming story about the wife of the Japanese prime minister, who may have claimed to have seen a UFO, by promising that her beliefs were even “more controversial” than Michelle Obama’s. Of course, he never mentioned anything that Michelle Obama has said or done which could even remotely be construed as being controversial.
The GOP and their enablers in the media realize that they cannot beat any Obama proposal on the merits, nor can they ever find much substantive fault in any Obama speech.
So all they have left is to attack Obama appointees like Van Jones, and to try to continue to capitalize on wingnut fear of Obama, to try to shape this ignorant anxiety into a general discontent with the president.
freelancer
@gnomedad:
@JK:
Jesus, Captain Ed fails at life, language, and the use of words. Using “I” is self-promotion? How much more marketing does the POTUS need?! I think he’s going to be in some textbooks someday.
As far as the speech itself?
Yeah, Shameless self-promotion.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Svensker: Welp, I just had a wingnut tell me that the speech was re-written a bazillion times to take out the stuff that Obama really wanted to say. I wish I was kidding.
This is brilliant.
A) Wingnuttia accuses Democrats of something entirely imaginary
B) Thing is proven without doubt to have been imaginary and not at all true
C) Seeing this, Wingnuttia declares victory. “We changed it before it happened!!”
It’s like something from “The End of Eternity” by Asimov. The Wingnuts now claim victories in the upwhen stream as a result of their downwhen manipulations.
Martin
And cut the wingnuts some slack here.
After 9/11, when I, like all liberals, wanted the terrorists to win, Bush was going to give his big address to the nation and in that speech we all knew he was going to talk about a Muslim final solution and how he was going to torture all the Muslims until they said that baby Jesus was a way cuter baby than baby Mohamad, but I blogged about it and because of that they changed the speech at the last minute into something affirming and sentence inducing.
We all can recognize when we are being all-powerful and clearly this is one of those moments for the wingnuts.
JK
Most whacked response I’ve seen to Obama’s upcoming speech to students comes from the New Boston Tea Party:
Dr. Barack Goebbels Obama, Chief Reichmaster Tuesday September 8, 2009
The INDOCTRINATION of our Youth by the President of the United States is the first act in propagandizing our Children. Next Tuesday Obama plans on addressing our kids in an online speech. This cannot be good. PARENTS, Boycott the schools on Tuesday. Do not let your kid partake in a brainwashing session. Dana Loesch, spokeswoman for the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, has started a campaign to ask schools to provide an alternative to the speech for parents who do not wish their children to experience a presidential address in school. Loesch has urged parents to contact schools directly to find out if the “partisan presentation” will air in their child’s classroom.
http://thenewbostonteaparty.com/2009/09/03/dr-barack-goebbels-obama-chief-reichmaster-tuesday-september-8-2009.aspx
Polish the Guillotines
I read his speech, and all I have to say about is Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.
Leelee for Obama
@Bill E Pilgrim: And yet, we are accused of magical thinking. Go figure.
JenJen
@DougJ:
He doesn’t have to wait to go on the air. Hello, Twitter!
This one is fun:
burnspbesq
I heart Lupica.
tigrismus
@gnomedad: Cap’ Ed says: “I’ve run the speech through a word frequency counter and found the following results”
Good heavens, the very first word Ed says is ‘I’! What a shameless self-promoter he is!
kay
It’s exactly what I thought it would be, including the obligatory nod to his misspent-youth-rebellious-period.
That this is “controversial” is embarrassing, for the country as a whole, and the GOP and the press, particularly.
MikeJ
Where’s the bit about the sourdoughs and cheechakos?
JK
@tigrismus:
Winner
slag
@MikeJ: It’s in Asia. Where no sourdough or cheechako has gone before.
MikeJ
The WMD were moved to Syria.
kay
The Washington Post has “political agenda not mentioned in pre-released text”.
Shameful. Not only did the press get played, yet again, they are not going to own up to it, even with the text in front of them.
This is surreal.
Max
@valdivia: Chopped is very good. Ted Allen, the host is horrible. The premise is: three rounds – aps, entree, desert, and each round has surprise ingredients the cooks must use and cook in 30 minutes. 4 Chef’s begin, 1 Chef eliminated each round. Winner gets $10k. Like a Top Chef Quickfire challenge.
Hopefully, @ John Cole will put up a Top Chef open thread on Weds.
valdivia
@kay:
huh? what the hell are they talking about?
valdivia
@Max:
oh I think I caught a bit of it once and thought it was good. will check it out.
JWW
John,
Don’t you think that what was to be spoken has since changed. Most people thought that the out of line pre-education request was cause for concern, not the speech. Why wouldn’t they believe the speech would follow the same course material.
I’m sure the NEW speech will be all happy. It also would put a happy feeling towards the next speech and the same mistakes at his level will not be made again.
Pander where you may, they will have bought you with political trickery.
Lets us see what the original speech contained, not the rewrite.
MikeJ
Also from WaPo: “Obama to tell youths “education will decide nothing less than the future of this country.”
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
JK
Another wingnut pissing on the released text of Obama’s speech
Jammie Wearing Fool: “Let’s get pre-K kids asking about AIDS and homelessness… How about letting kids be kids and stop politicizing every aspect of our lives?”
http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2009/09/dear-leaders-speech-to-children.html
General Winfield Stuck
We laugh at all this, and say how can it not make reasonable folks get turned off by all the cheap seat wingnuttery. But the Right Wing lizard brain can smell a tiny drop of blood, and when it’s AA blood, the Hyena’s throw any caution to the wind, and take their political flesh at will.
There is a lot of citing of conventional wisdom that Obama has done this or that wrong, and it’s either about his handling of policy initiatives, or dissatisfaction with the policies themselves. I say bunk. Nothing Obama has proposed was not offered up daily in the campaign, NOTHING. And all polls say a public health plan as a choice is always at least 70 percent approval.
We all know what is going on, and this articles briefly touches on it.
From Rangel
And this was the tiny blunder (that wasn’t a blunder) that cracked open the gates that let the Hyenas in.
We would like to think of ourselves as sophisticated as a country and did display an act of post partisanship by electing a black man as presnit. But old fears die hard and take a very long time to vanquish completely, and the lizard cortex of the GOP thinkbox is expert at spotting them and targeting those fears with smart bombs of dumb rhetoric and vile memes.
In the end, even folks with functioning brains will believe about anything if they want to.
licensed to kill time
@kay:
When I read that part, it occurred to me that we might hear “he’s setting a bad example for the children!!”
Really, it’s not hard on the one hand to predict what crazy scheiss they might come up with, but on the other hand I’m gobsmacked almost every day by the newest totally out of left field meme I hear. It’s so divorced from reality and I do TRY to live in the real world most of the time.
I guess I need BizarroWorld specs, or one of those translator things they used to have on Star Trek to understand the aliens.
IndyLib
Will wonders never cease.
Newt Twitters the sanity –
“Just read President Obamas speech to students.white House posted it. it is a good speech and will be good for students to hear”
“Remember that Presidents Reagan and Bush also talked to students nationwide. As long as it is non political and pro education it is good”
h/t TPM gpointsmemo.com/2009/09/gingrich-praises-obamas-school-speech-will-be-good-for-students-to-hear.php?ref=fpblg
IndyLib
Link failure
gpointsmemo.com/2009/09/gingrich-praises-obamas-school-speech-will-be-good-for-students-to-hear.php?ref=fpblg
sorry, can’t do external links without the cheats
Leelee for Obama
@burnspbesq: Lupica and Pete Hamill were the only reasons to read the Daily News back when I lived in NY.
@MikeJ: God, remember that? I just stared at the TV and said, “No one’s gonna fall for this, right? Right?” Sadly, no. Benefit of the , OK. Blind stupidity, no thanks.
IndyLib
Yeesh, link fail
One more try.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/gingrich-praises-obamas-school-speech-will-be-good-for-students-to-hear.php?ref=fpblg
vacuumslayer
“You know…morons.”
vacuumslayer
Hubby and I were wondering if, after the speech, we’d see a bunch of six-year-olds carrying pro-healthcare signs at rallies.
JK
“Chris Stigall, a talk show host in Kansas City stated that ‘I wouldn’t let my next-door neighbor talk to my kid alone; I’m sure as h*@# not letting Barack Obama talk to him alone.'”
http://www.examiner.com/x-2032-Portland-Parenting-Examiner~y2009m9d5-Is-Obamas-curriculum-breaking-the-rules
Midnight Marauder
@JWW:
Don’t you think that what was to be spoken has since changed.
No. SATSQ.
Leelee for Obama
@Leelee for Obama: benefit of the doubt, OK!
AhabTRuler
@vacuumslayer: “You know…morons.“
Leelee for Obama
@vacuumslayer: Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please!!!!!
The would be totally teh awesome!
Midnight Marauder
@JWW:
Lets us see what the original speech contained, not the rewrite
What, is that the new winger rallying crying? Is that taking the place of “LETS SEE THE LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE” and “I DON’T WANT NO CERTIFICATE OF LIVE BIRTH”?
vacuumslayer
@dmsilev: Well, I sure wish he’d include that in his speech then.
General Winfield Stuck
@Midnight Marauder:
Just for background. JWW is an insane person and has been for a long time on this blog.
Silver Owl
To today’s conservatives being ignorant and messed up mentally and emotionally stunted is the best they can accomplish.
What they fail to realize is that being failures by choice is not what anyone with an ounce of common sense would choose.
General Winfield Stuck
@vacuumslayer:
Malkin would launch herself into low orbit and send megatons spittle raining down on Spaceship Earth.
vacuumslayer
@Leelee for Obama: Wouldn’t bother me! But hubby and I were laughing that the notion that these nutters would actually get a firm grasp on his policy positions. Can’t see a bunch of elementary kids going “Yes, yes…single payer…that’s the way to go.”
vacuumslayer
Sorry meant to say “laughing at the notion that these nutter s would think that children would actually get a firm grasp on Obama’s policy positions.”
vacuumslayer
@General Winfield Stuck: Or maybe she’d just pull a “Scanners” on us. We can hope, no?
kay
@licensed to kill time:
I’m gobsmacked by this: national media were given a choice. Give the President the benefit of the doubt on an unreleased speech, or give the head of the Florida GOP the benefit of the doubt.
Media chose the Florida GOP. They framed this as “the President has to prove his intentions are good, now that the Florida GOP have accused him of bad faith”. That was a deliberate choice.
Why, for goodness sakes? That doesn’t even make sense.
I think this is unprecedented, and we deserve an honest answer about why media did that.
I’d like to know why, exactly, the American media does not treat this President with the same presumption of good faith with which they customarily treat every President. I think they should answer that question, because this “disprove every random accusation” is unique, in my memory. The Florida GOP had SQUAT. NADA. Yet, every media outlet gave them the presumption of truth-telling.
vacuumslayer
@Max: I like Ted. I always found him charming on Queer Eye. But I agree I really like the show and I’m OBSESSED with Top Chef. I’d love a Top Chef thread!
Heck I’d love just a food and foodies thread. I’m pretty sure he’s had ’em before, but I may not have been here yet or missed them.
Midnight Marauder
@General Winfield Stuck:
Yeah, that makes sense. I guess I hadn’t seen him around here in a while. Looks like I can add him to my “Roll Eyes, Scroll Down” list, right between BOB and Makewi.
Phoebe
My kid is homeschooled and we don’t have a tv. I wonder if she could watch it on the internet. Or take the seat of some pulled-out kid for the day.
licensed to kill time
@kay:
Well, they always go with controversy. “If it bleeds, it leads” – and the GOP/wingnuts are chumming the waters with blood.
General Winfield Stuck
@vacuumslayer:
I’m rapidly getting to the point where I think Obama says the hell with being cautious and tell Malkin and the rest of wingnuttia, which seems now to be the entire GOP, to go fuck themselves and twice on Sunday. Unless it starts raining magic Unicorns with saddles of gold for every American, no matter what Obama does right and how well it turns out, he is headed for a single term. Fear is the mind killer, and this country is ass deep in it.
JWW
John,
I think a president should reach out and speak to the children of this nation, it’s an absolute necessity. They should convey the importance of education and responsibilty.
They should also do this with the nation in mind, not a political or personal agenda.
We are a young nation, we have consistantly learned from our mistakes, we don’t need to create new ones. Lets continue to make it better for all who live here.
Michael
This was the speech I wanted to see him do:
” ‘Sup y’all. Sa’alam. Back in the 70s when I was still a kid but thinking about Kenya, my place of birth, I wanted to change the world to fit my core beliefs in the truth of Islam, a radical left wing Christ, Black Supremacy, Marxism, Darwinism, Atheism and doing everything I could to coddle monied elites on Wall Street. Now that I’m your President, hopefully for life, like my good friends Fidel and Hugo, I’ve got some things to tell you that you have to do to fulfill my orders to make my vision a reality, so I brought me a list.
Now ‘scuse me while I whip this out.
There’s going to be some powerful changes, some I can’t tell you about right now, but you’re gonna have to trust me. So by the power duly invested in me by Allah, ACORN, George Soros, the UAW, radical secularists and corrupt Wall Street Elites, I hereby proclaim the following, and your narrow little asses best get out there and make it happen by protesting and tearing shit up:
1. All white Christian churches are closed. I’m going to sop up unemployment by converting them to gay orgy bars, mosques and Gaia worship centers. The previous employees are going to work at the newly formed Gay Marriage Registration Bureau, which is going to have plenty of clerical work to go around.
2. All white men are going to be forced to marry another man. White gay men get to have on forced gay marriage, black ones get as many as they want – no exceptions.
3. White women won’t be forced to marry women. They will, however, be forced into concubinage with nongay black men.
4. We’re taking down every sign with the name of a Confederate on it. Street signs, buildings, headstones, monuments will all be named after Malcolm X. We’re also changing the name of Washington DC to Marion Berry Town.
5. We’re designating two weeks out of every month for minority looting of white suburbs, exurbs and farms, encouraging squatting as well.
6. The death panels? We’re going to televise those on pay per view, and force saintly old white grannies to beg armed black nationalist panel members for their very existence.
7. Illegal aliens will be given government grants to aid them to procreate.
8. The tax rate is going up to 200% on the top tier, bitches.
9. Free narcotics are going to be provided in the inner cities.
10. The new flag is going to be green, yellow and black, on a set of African inspired geometric designs.
11. We’re pulling the military out of everyplace on earth save here, and will use them to disarm the population. Afterward, aside from my own praetorian guards, the only weapons they’ll be allowed will be clubs and cattle prods for crowd control. That’ll save some money.
12. I’m turning over regulation of the economy and environment to 18 people from San Francisco nominated by Nancy Pelosi in honor of their deep commitments to social justice, sustainability, deep ecology, womyns’ rights and world peace.
Word up, y’all, peace out. Now go do your shit.
Body
Full Text from President for Life Obama, Above Top Secret:
MikeJ
@Michael: I would vote for that platform 47 times.
Max
@vacuumslayer: I love a good food show. The Next Iron Chef starts soon. Should be good.
Nothing beats Top Chef. I like the chubby guy with the beard from Atlanta in this season’s crop.
licensed to kill time
@Michael:
Ok, I’m dyin’ here – I started laughing uncontrollably at the “‘scuse me while I whip this out” and haven’t stopped. Thanks for the laughs! Well played, sir, well played.
Lesley
Speaking in whole, coherent, grammatically correct sentences offends the right wing. Where’s the guy who put food ON their famblys and said “childrens do learn.” They want him back.
r€nato
I feel very badly for all the school administration personnel who’ve had to field deranged, angry phone calls from parents whipped up into a frenzy of fauxrage over this.
In fact I heard a story about this the other night, about a friend of a friend who works at a local school and was deluged with really nasty, angry phone calls about this. She said half of the calls consisted simply of screaming, vicious, profanity-laced tirades which ended with the caller hanging up.
vacuumslayer
@General Winfield Stuck: Fear, ignorance, willful ignorance and stupidity.
And I agree with you. He can do no right. So he might as well “do wrong.”
vacuumslayer
@Max: He’s a stand-out, as is the nose-to-the-grindstone tough blond chick. I see both of them going far in the show.
valdivia
@Max:
yep he is my favorite too, for now. The high powered woman who cooks mostly fish is sort of annoying but talented.
I will say though that last season was a big disappointment to me. Stephan should have won.
re the speech–sad to know that this is the state of the country where the media rather report on bs than the content of stuff.
Napoleon
@r€nato:
Well since Obama’s speech is the same day the remastered Beatles’ catalog is being released I am going to guess when you play Obama’s speech backwards you are going to hear “Paul is a dead man. Miss him. Miss him. MISS HIM!”.
noncarborundum
@Phoebe:
It’s going to be streamed live at http://www.whitehouse.gov. See here for info.
@vacuumslayer:
You had it right the first time, too. “The notion that these nutters would actually get a firm grasp on his policy positions” is laughable.
noncarborundum
Great. Moderation for two links, when one of the links was automatically generated from a URL I intentionally left unlinked so as to avoid moderation (and, on top of that, it’s a link to the !@*#& White House). Pfui.
JWW
Michael,
Post 123,
You need to seek help. First of all you can’t speak, you surely can’t write, your mind is that of its own and listening is out of the question.
The putrid, biased and elongated BS you just posted is of a foreign nature. It is not at all what is driving this train.
Your try to sell sod to a nomad in the Sahara.
Max
@valdivia: I agree, last season was not good. That hootie hoo girl got on my nerves.
I liked the Chicago (Season 4) cast.
Mike G
Shorter Malkin:
Who will stop the Dijonist Kenyan Negro reign of terror?
cleek
@gnomedad:
Special Ed wrote:
just for reference, here is Reagan on:
i: 17
i’m: 3
i’ve: 3
i’d: 1
i’ll: 1
school: 1
education: 0
responsibility: 0
country: 7
nation: 4
parents: 0
teacher/teachers : 0
25 “i” v 12 for the rest.
Reagan fails the “self-promotion” test
for reference, Obama:
i: 41
i’m: 8
i’ve: 5
i’d: 2
school: 18
education: 10
responsibility: 8
country: 7
nation: 3
parents: 6
teacher/teachers : 9
56 vs 61
this was using the word counter Ed linked to.
Ed fails basic math, too.
fuck you, Ed.
burnspbesq
@Michael:
The problem is that there are tens of millions of idiots in this country who think that really is the agenda.
Still, that was pretty stinkin’ funny. Thanks for that.
General Winfield Stuck
@Michael:
Wolverines!
JK
@cleek:
Ed was using the wingnut version of math
licensed to kill time
Ok, ‘scuse me while I whip out this new text formatting toolbar (this is a test)
@Michael:
The problem is that there are tens of millions of idiots in this country who think that really is the agenda.
Still, that was pretty stinkin’ funny. Thanks for that.
this is also a test
licensed to kill time
JK
Another Word Counter
Pundette joins Ed Morrisey in tackling the number of times Obama refers to himself in his speech
“Grand total of I, I’d, I’m, I’ve, and me: 60 by my count”
http://www.punditandpundette.com/2009/09/obamas-i-message-to-students.html
licensed to kill time
Wow! It works! Funny thing, now I can see how it works, so probably don’t need it.
But anyone who needs a text formatting toolbar for Firefox try this: text formatting toolbar
And thanks, I found out about it here on BJ!
JWW
Midnight Marauder and Private Winfield Stuck,
“If first you don’t succeed, try , try again.”
The insane sell their books, poems, paintings at a 1000% higher than their contemoraries! What logic do you have to offer?
You both read with a foolish mind, I don’t think I made any remarks that could be contended with. Back to the top,”If first you don’t succeed, try , try again.”
And try as you may, the people of this nation, as self centered as they are, are not yet that stupid.
Max
Article from where I can assume is @John Cole’s neck of the woods…
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/washington/6606389.html
Seems “real America” gets its more than paid pundits do.
kay
@JWW:
I think conservatives and the media should examine why they accuse this President of bad faith and evil intent on an almost daily basis. I’m not a youngster. This is new.
Wanna explain where it’s coming from?
In just the past three months, this President has been accused of wanting to kill old people and wanting to harm school kids. The accusations were baseless, and the media knew they were baseless almost immediately. Yet, they promoted this slander as ‘controversy”.
There is no controversy. Sarah Palin has and had a political agenda, so accused the President of wanting to kill old people and her baby. The Florida GOP had nothing, yet accused the President of wanting to harm school children. Both Palin and the Florida GOP were given the benefit of the doubt by mainstream media, while the President was told to disprove the accusation.
Want to explain to me why this President doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt or the respect traditionally afforded to the holder of that office?
Something is going on here, and it’s new. I’d like an explanation. Why does this President have to disprove every lunatic accusation?
licensed to kill time
ooops – spoke too soon. linky no worky. try this:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4763
gah, i suck at this,
SiubhanDuinne
This is very weird. I’ve put up two and possibly three comments on this and recent threads. All of them were at least 90 minutes ago, so any moderation issues should have been sorted by now. Yet none of them has shown up, nor have I had any indication that I’m in mod. But search though I might, I cannot find them. Not that any of my insights were so earth-shaking or policy-changing, but I feel all invisible. And that makes me pout.
Of course, this comment may not make it either, in which case I’m whistling in the wind here. . . . .
Max
@kay:
Because he’s black…
Comrade Kevin
Lupica:
Heh.
licensed to kill time
@Max:
Yeah, this. The lack of respect shown to him is an outgrowth of this. I forget who said this, but it’s like they woke up and Willie Horton was President.
valdivia
@licensed to kill time:
thanks I installed it.
Martin
No, we aren’t.
We have the oldest working constitution in the world. We last redefined ourselves 233 years ago. Greece’s constitution is 34 years old. We are, in fact, the most practiced at doing this under our own rules.
Jesus, you guys are bunch of pussies. For all this nation has been through, you guys seem to think we can’t survive a black guy talking on teevee to a bunch of kids and dijon on hamburgers. How the fuck did we manage WWII with your genes in the pool?
licensed to kill time
@valdivia:
you are welcome!
licensed to kill time
obviously, I am still working this out…
JWW
Private Winfield Stuck,
As to post 139
You wouldn’t know!!! Having no honor makes it easy to live in a world of fantasy.
You still joke while men die, so you can make a joke freely. I would surely be your proud mom and dad.
Why don’t you address yourself as Kommrade or Commrade?
kay
@Max:
I accept it from conservatives. There is nothing they won’t say or do.
I think members of the media owe us an explanation.
I’d like to know why President’s Reagan, Bush I and Bush II were given the benefit of the doubt by the media when addressing schoolchildren and this President was not.
He has now been accused of deliberately setting out to harm old people and children, and the media response has been to insist he disprove those accusations, although the accusations were factually baseless from the get-go. He’s the sitting President of the United States. This is outrageous. At what point do media look at their own behavior in this?
Leelee for Obama
@Martin: I think perhaps there has been a dilution of the gene pool since WW2. Not sure what might have caused this. Perhaps the Party that says it’s the bestest on National Defense has diluted it courage gene line somehow, because they sure as shit are scared of anything that they don’t agree with.
I have said this to people for years: If your kids believe in what you teach them and respect who they learn from, no one can change their minds about what’s right or wrong. If you have so little faith in your beliefs that exposing the kids to different ideas will make them think differently, then, that’s exactly what will happen.
Hell, even the Amish have rumpspringa.
valdivia
@licensed to kill time:
lol. no prob I will play with it later but it is good to know about it and have it handy.
JD Rhoades
Prediction: the paragraph that will freak them out is this one:
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free.
CURE AIDS! How dare he! The cure for AIDS is to stop having teh buttsecks!
NEW ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES! How dare he! DRILL BABY DRILL! Make the nation more fair!
SOCIALISMSOCIALISMBLAAAAAAAAGH!
Etc.
Mark my words.
Corner Stone
I am concerned.
valdivia
@kay:
I agree part of it is that we have to make noise about this because the otehr side has been better at complaining than we have. So until we get our ass in gear and complain about how they treat the sitting president nothing will happen. And we have to hit where it hurts, their wallets.
Corner Stone
@Martin:
But…he’s black.
Midnight Marauder
@JWW:
What logic do you have to offer?
I would suggest posing this question first to yourself before extending it to others.
You both read with a foolish mind, I don’t think I made any remarks that could be contended with.
Because they are absolute gibberish lacking anything resembling the basic form of logic or reason.
Corner Stone
@valdivia:
I’m sure this will say more about me than about your comment, but when I first read this I swear it said, “where it hurts, their waffles.”
May have been watching too much Heroes on Netflix…
JK
@kay:
The vast majority of the Washington Press Corps are nail biters, bedwetters, and thumbsuckers. They tremble in fear at the thought of being labeled LIBERAL. This is why they bend over backwards to accomodate and give legitimacy to every idiotic accusation launched by the wingnuts.
Max
Sadly, never. See “War, Iraq”
The media is a joke. Honestly, I learn more from this blog and Twitter. I’ve even stopped watching Keith and only watch Rachel once in a while. I actually find Tweety more interesting, I fast forward thru a lot of his stuff, but when he’s on his game, its really good.
There is no “news” in the news anymore. It’s all opinion and talking points. Even the A/P is GOP-centric.
Comrade Kevin
@Martin:
For all this nation has been through? This country has been through a hell of a lot less than, say, just about anywhere you can throw a dart at on a map of Europe, Asia or Africa.
Max
@Max:
P.S. (damn I miss the edit function)
I think September 11th changed everything. The news scroll/crawl at the bottom of the page started with 9/11 and I really think the crawl was the beginning of the end.
JK
@Max:
Why have you stopped watching Olbermann, almost stopped watching Maddow but still watch Matthews?
I think Olbermann and Maddow sometimes inject too much humor into their shows, but I still find them worthwhile when they decide to be serious.
kay
@valdivia:
I don’t know, valdivia.
I feel as if the head of the South Dakota GOP could appear on television tomorrow and announce that Obama intended to euthanize our puppies and kittens and the mainstream media would fan out to insist Robert Gibbs address the growing puppies and kittens controversy.
This runs pretty deep. I don’t know that an email campaign is going to touch the weird and scary place that this stuff is coming from. For some reason, any ridiculous accusation lobbed at this particular President is afforded all kinds of credibility, from people who should know better. You think they’re anxious to look at why that might be? I don’t.
licensed to kill time
@Max:
Is that when it started? I find that so distracting…..also, I think that’s when all the waving flags became ubiquitous.
burnspbesq
The problem is that there are tens of millions of idiots in this country who think that really is the agenda.
JWW is apparently one of them.
Max
@JK: They have been a little hysterical for me as of late. Maddow does have some good interviews, see her Tom Ridge of last week, but outside of that, her and Keith tend to be kind of schticky and almost a parody of themselves.
If I see a good segment recommended on Twitter, I will check them out, but I’d appreciate a little less snark and a little more information.
Max
@licensed to kill time: Yep.
See linky.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_ticker
Max
@licensed to kill time:
Yep.
Linky… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_ticker
valdivia
@Corner Stone: I have to catch up with last season’s heroes. I am still too upset that they canceled Life so have been staying away from NBC.
Hart Williams
Wingnuttia: the President of the United States is unfit to speak to America’s schoolchildren. Why?
Because he’ll turn them all into “Communists,” and “Socialists.”
Don’t these geezers know that the last time “socialist” was used was during the first FDR term in 1933? And that most Americans don’t remember the Red Scare of the 1950s … and 1960s … and 1970s … etc. that kept the Republicans in power through fear and paranoia?
But time wounds all heels, and now their “J’accuse!”s are almost as effective as accusing Obama of belonging secretly to the Manichean heresy — although they’ve just about actually, literally DONE that. OMG! He’s a Waldensian! Shh. Don’t tell them.
If we could just cut off all shipments of Geritol®, we’d have them on their knees by Columbus day.
MikeJ
If news is entertaining, it must suck. I really wish Olberman and Maddow would stop doing shows that people actually want to watch and instead show only pictures of dead puppies.
General Winfield Stuck
And I was thinking, of all the nutter memes this summer, which one has been repeated most on the boob toob/ Yes, mostly ridiculed, but also defended using other terms. but always repeated and repeated some more.
No other phrase stands out more to me as this watchword for the right’s recent offensive on our collective sanity.
Coined by a quitter governor and failed VP candidate who brags she can see Russia from her front porch making her good to go as CiC. And as her revenge, against all the libtard meanies and commie press agents she twitters one day a term that now lives in infamy.
Death Panels
Our Sarah Serendipity and Wassila Wingnut.
The United States of Idiocracy
JK
@Max:
I agree with your main point, but I continue to watch Keith and Rachel for their serious segments.
Like you, I’m getting increasingly annoyed at their continued use of satire and parody. Olbermann and Maddow are both intelligent people and I wish they had enough confidence in the loyalty of their viewers that they would stop using satire and parody as a crutch to maintain their ratings. They should leave the satire and parody to Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Maher.
General Winfield Stuck
Link for quote
kay
@Max:
The New York Times has it as “a speech that drew fire before it was delivered”.
It was a speech that drew fire before it was written or released. I mean, these are factual points. This is not conjecture.
The “story” here, if there is one, is that the media accepted the premise that the President deliberately set out to harm school children, and insisted he disprove that premise, based on an accusation by a purely political operative who HAD NOT READ THE SPEECH.
That’s incredible, on its face, and its media, not the GOP.
cj
I’m think that someone (maybe Glenn Beck) will try and take credit for having President Obama change his speech. They will say the speech that was just release was not the original speech and that after the uproar they(Obama administration) changed it.
So someone will try to take credit for having President Obama taking out the “radical stuff”.
I’m not saying his speech was radical in the first place, but some lunatic will proclaim that it was.
valdivia
@kay:
well one has to complaint to make it knwon, until now no one seems to complain they just get upset Obama is not schooling
the media. The Village is afraid of the Reps but not of us so we have to change that.
Comrade Luke
@IndyLib:
Nothing mysterious here. Newt is giving credit to Obama as an opportunity to a) mention Reagan and b) state that Reagan’s speech was apolitical.
It’s all part of the plan.
JWW
Kay,
It was never about President Obama speaking to the children. I stated this earlier. The issue was, information of course criteria put out by the Dept of Education prior to the speech.
If I can put the in laymen’s terms, there was an objective in the pre-speech and that objective was not directed at the nation. It was directed to an individual.
The people of this free nation as with the people of any free nation, may look to succeed as an individual but need the nation to succeed.
As to I may or may not hate him, her, he, she! I know better, I would hope that him, her, he, she is better than those before them.
Most of this crowd thinks I am a hater, but they are not my friends, aquaintences, neighbors or relatives. Therefore I must be a hater because I disagree with them.
arguingwithsignposts
I just called my ex after reading the text of the speech and asked her to make *sure* that both of our school-age children listened to the president’s speech.
This is a wonderful message for kids to hear, and I’ll be damned if some wingnut keeps my kids from hearing from the elected head of our nation.
JoyceH
CNN just had Jim Greer on – he’s the Florida GOP Chair and resident lunatic who was the mouthpiece for this phony controversy from the start. He said he had no problem with ‘this speech’, but just KNOWS that the ‘original speech’ that the voices in his head told him about was a very bad speech aimed at indoctrinating our children.
And the talking head didn’t ask him why it was appropriate for HIM to go to classes and tell students that all Democrats are welfare slobs, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel – I just sent CNN an e-mail blast for their shoddy journalism.
Chad N Freude
@smiley:
The subtext revealed!
@Montysano: Not only subtext, but irony, too. Also.@
MikeJ: WMD = Words of Mass inDoctrination.
JK
@MikeJ:
As they’ve demonstrated on numerous occassions, Olbermann and Maddow are quite capable of doing informative and serious segments and asking intelligent, thoughtful, and important questions of their guests.
It’s sad and cynical on their parts or more likely on the part of the suits at MSNBC, that they believe viewers can’t handle a totally straight, serious news program but have to be enticed to tune in with the promise of schtick.
arguingwithsignposts
@JK:
I’m going to have to disagree with you here, JK. KO started with satire and parody at ESPN. Maddow did satire and parody when she was on the radio, and when she did guest hosting on KO. It’s not an “increase,” it’s part of who they are.
The only thing I would suggest is that they find better satire/parody writers – they can’t all be working for the stewart/colbert/maher troika. And get that damned Anna Marie Cox off the screen.
arguingwithsignposts
@JoyceH:
I just wish these “journalists” knew what “disproving a negative” meant.
Max
For those who missed it… here is the best part of President Obama’s speech, where he went off script and got the crowd “Fired Up and Ready to Go”.
If you are feeling like the country “had a good run”, these 7 minutes will make you feel like that run is not over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLnoctztjh0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Ftpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com%2F%3Fid%3D3371192%26ref%3Dfpblg&feature=player_embedded#t=14
Shell
<blockquote cite=””ow available, and it just makes the right-wingers look absolutely absurd. In a sane world
That;s just the thing: they don’t live in a sane world. They inhabit a vicious circle. To try to make themselves seem not completely absurd, they have to create greater and greater ‘controvercies’ and whip themselves up to even greater heights. To relax their fevered efforts for just one minute might reveal just how insane their actions have been.
Comrade Luke
The “‘scuse me while I whip this out” comment deserves to be in some kind of commenting Hall of Fame.
I’d love for him to go down to Mississippi, walk up and say “‘Scuse me while I whip this out”, and then take the speech from his crotch.
The entire South would explode.
arguingwithsignposts
@Martin:
Youngish nation in the larger sense, not just among constitutional nations. Besides, there is the Magna Carta which is still in use.
Shell
“Why does this President have to disprove every lunatic accusation?
Because he’s black…”
And he’s a Democrat. Ooh, make that , like in Freeper Land, ‘DemonRat.”
So classy.
Svensker
@JWW:
Lets us see what the original speech contained, not the rewrite.
You are spoofing, aren’t you?
General Winfield Stuck
@Shell:
Well put. But everything has it’s fail safe point of diminishing returns, though I am coming to question this theory. How far does the rabbit hole of crazy go, and what is there beyond that? Is the ultimate truth of Peak Wingnut just Rush Limbaugh rolling the dice of fate? These are the serious questions that must be solved in American. An esteemed panel of Clowns must be drawn for answers.
Corner Stone
@valdivia: I can’t watch episodes as they come out so I usually wait a season or 2 then Netflix them and watch them commercial free one after another if I like them. Just wish The Wire was instant streaming.
Anyway, Heroes is ok but got a little tedious and preachy with all the characters trying to discover their humanity along with their super-human powers. I understand the plot device but it seemed like *alot* of exposition and angst done over and over again. Sylar you’re a bad guy – freakin deal with it! I’ve seen through Season 3, not sure I care to see Season 4.
Plus, with a couple different timelines that have changed it makes it a little bit much. I like shows I can escape into for a bit, but not have to keep an eagle eye out for tiny little pointers that may or may not mean something later. I like good writing but I’m not watching a Sherlock Holmes series.
It’s why I never bothered with Lost. Don’t have time for that.
Corner Stone
@Comrade Luke: You mean “Hemisphere”, right?
IndyLib
Can anyone tell me how I do an external link using the above mentioned text formatting tool for Firefox? When I use the link button I lose the ability to cut and paste, so I can’t figure out how I’m supposed to put in a link address that is a bazillion characters long.
General Winfield Stuck
first copy link url to clipboard, then highlight text you want link embedded with then click the 7th item from the left of the firefox toolbar. It is the round one. Then paste the url into the box that comes up after clicking the round thingy on toolbar and click OK.
arguingwithsignposts
@IndyLib: I’ve never had that problem. copied and pasted numerous links into the toolbar. Maybe you should reinstall firefox. That’s weird.
Leelee for Obama
IndyLib
@General Winfield Stuck:
Thanks, I’ll try to decipher the half of that I find understandable lol.
I know which button it is, but I have no clue what clipboard is. I am on a MAC, if that makes any difference.
freelancer
@Max:
Thank you for that.
Part of the text of the school speech reminded me of a talk that Adam Savage gave at TAM in July about failure. If you have an hour to spare, it is something to behold.
arguingwithsignposts
@IndyLib:
I’m on a mac too. What he means by “clipboard” is just using the Edit>copy command, which automatically puts the text into memory, called the “clipboard” as a simplified explanation.
General Winfield Stuck
I know which button it is, but I have no clue what clipboard is.
What arguing said. It took me a while to grasp what clipboard meant so I should have just said copy the url.
Ptirebiter
My socialist decoder ring made short work of Obama’s admonition that: “It’s hard to be successful.”
A Crucibles Slut’s Def Hostess
JWW
Kay,
Post 149
Read the “revived” Hemlock Society handout that was just Reintorduced to the VA. This was banned by the previous administration and is now back in place by order of the new administration.
I have never heard of President Obama wanting to hurt school kids. Maybe you should be more specific.
I have never mentioned Sarah Palin, nor will I in any disscusion of the current administration.
As to your last paragraph. Why does every(not just this) president have to disprove lunatic accusation? Because every president has his supporters and non-supporters. President Obama is no different than any other. He has just seemed to be as if not more controversial in specific areas.
President Obama has had a picnic as compared to some other presidents or other elected officials. If he does what is right for this nation, all of this will be chatter on the moon someday.
IndyLib
@arguingwithsignposts:
OK, I do that. It’s just that when the little link box pops up my edit functions disappear. The top bar of my screen just says Firefox – no file, edit, view, etc. So obviously with no edit button I can’t paste the address into the link box.
Maybe you’re right and it’s a problem with firefox. I’ve only been using it for a few days since I switched from Safari. I haven’t had any other problems with it. However I don’t do anything very exotic with it.
JK
@Shell: @General Winfield Stuck:
To see the depth of craziness among the wingunts, check their reaction to the the resignation of Van Jones. Powerline blog and many other conservative blogs are more angry at the MSM for under reporting the story than they are happy that Jones actually resigned.
Mayur
@JWW: you sound like the label on a bottle of Dr.Bronner’s.
Yeesh.
General Winfield Stuck
@JK:
I can’t. My limit of wingnuttery is reached for now. It is at a point where nothing can be done to rebut it, only mocking with extreme prejudice is called for, if that. It is a force of un-nature that will either bear some destructive fruit on this country, or fizzle and crash into the realm of silly. We can only watch and wait for the final outcome.
arguingwithsignposts
@IndyLib:
Here’s a link to Obama’s AFLCIO Speech.
I found the problem. You have to use the keyboard commands to do the paste. It’s Command+V.
The easiest thing to do is use Command+C to copy the URL and Command+V to paste it. That should do the trick. The URL input screen does make the top menu disappear. Never noticed it since I was always using Command+V to paste.
Leelee for Obama
@JK: Because it’s all about the Wurlitzer, and now their nickel done played out.
IndyLib
@arguingwithsignposts:
Thank you, thank you. I will try that. I appreciate the time you’ve taken to teach me a remedial lesson on using my Mac.
arguingwithsignposts
@IndyLib:
What can I say, I’m just a DFH commie socia li st that way. :)
JWW
I must be Insane,
To The Feeble Minded,
I don’t attend Tea Parties, I don’t rally for the Righteous, I’m not a Klan member. What is it that leads you to think I am insane.
I am all for the environment, nature and it’s inhabitants. I think that pollution is more of a priority than global warming, I know that teen pregnancy is out of this world, I know that there are jobs available if you want one, I know our married soldiers at war also face as deep a battle of the heart at home, I know that our country is losing ground with our allies, I know the UN does nothing but undermine this country.
Why is it that we can’t regain our international status?
Because we care for our home, not our neighbors, we care about movies not reality, we care about today because nothing happened yesterday.
kay
@JWW:
Now he wants to kill injured soldiers. He’ll rebut. The President of the United States will now rebut the unfounded accusation that he wants to kill injured soldiers, to save the VA money.
Can you not hear yourself?
Can you not see what’s wrong with this?
It started with the birth certificate, and it just never ends.
What is wrong with lobbing unfounded accusations and insisting your opponent rebut? Is there anything about that set-up that bothers you? If not, why not?
Just put it in the context of what you know, as far as your personal reputation. Is this tactic okay, now? What about when it is applied to you, personally? Still okay?
You’re smearing this person. That’s what you’re doing.
kay
@JWW:
This is classic character assassination. “it’s not what he actually SAID, it’s what he was MIGHT have said or WANTED to say”. You recognize that Barack Obama can never defend on what he might have said, right? Do you see the unfairness there?
This should make you recoil, just on self-preservation grounds. This could happen to you. This WILL happen to you if it’s accepted.
It’s not, you know, accepted. You really can’t make a credible claim on lack of character based on what you IMAGINED might happen, or what you imagined was a secret or ulterior motive. That’s not the standard measure. Thank goodness, but it WILL BE if this is allowed to continue.
Sloth
These people desperately need a new hobby.
And they need a quick refresher course on the rule of holes. Badly.
Mnemosyne
@arguingwithsignposts:
Well, sort of. Germany and Italy are both younger nations than we are since both of them were loosely affiliated collections of independent states that happened to share a language until 1871 and 1861, respectively. Most Eastern European states weren’t formed until the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed after WW I. England, France and Spain probably have the best claim for being the oldest nations in Europe.
Mnemosyne
Other than the fact that you can’t write a coherent sentence and think that the VA is handing out copies of Final Exit?
Sloth
We’re the most powerful nation on earth by any number of metrics, we have one of the the best educational systems in the world, the single best colleges, we’ve been around for a couple of hundred years and have been the acknowledged leader of the world for, what, 50 years?
We don’t get to claim that we’re a “young” nation any more. We sure as shit should not be making the claim that we’re “immature” (all evidence to the contrary aside.)
JWW
Martin,
Post 156
Yes we are a young nation(the basic idiot would know that). Boarders and names have changed in Europe, Asia and Africa. But those nations have existed for years beyond America’s comprehension.
The people still exist, the culture still exists, the border lines may have changed, but the loser never gets a choice.
Are you looking forward to when North America is in the same situation.
Kirk Spencer
@JWW:
No. No, it wasn’t written by the Hemlock Society. No, it was not banned by the previous administration. No, it was not put back by order of the new administration. Let’s take these in reverse order.
“Your life, your choices” was reinstated as the VA’s manual in 2006. That, in case you don’t recall, was the previous administration. In many ways that answers both statements about the administration, but let’s deal with the ‘banning” lie second.
In 2002 Jim Towery advocated to have the guide replaced with another book. At the time, Mr. Towery had been appointed head of the government’s Faith-based Initiatives program. This is relevant because he failed to note he, as primary author of the book he was requesting, received a great deal of money from the change. The government did not ban the book, it merely changed which it recommended and printed (with copyright payment to the author) for VA use.
Finally, the hemlock society has no assistance or profit from the book. If you’re being hyperbolic, you’re still wrong. Some quotes taken out of context could read as recommending choosing death. On the other hand similar quotes can be done from Towery’s book. Quoting out of context is a sadly common method of lying practiced by many Republicans, and my only hope in your integrity is that you’re merely repeating what’s said and haven’t read and chose to do the lying on your own initiative.
A simple rule for cutting through information overload. If what you can check is a lie, assume what you cannot check is a lie as well. Your entire line of resistance is based on mysterious things that cannot be checked but “are really there”. Those, though of the same pattern as the video tape of Michelle Obama’s speech for which we’re all still waiting, cannot be proven or disproven. We can, however, check some things as I just did.
In other words, at this point if you want me to give you credence, put up evidence.
leo
Listen to NPR doing yeoman work for the crazy rightwing on this topic:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112622675
At no point, is there any context. You’re left thinking Obama was the first president ever to address our nation’s kids.
Even worse, the two people NPR interviewed who are against this, Barbara Cargill & Neal McCluskey, are hardcore right-wingers. Just do a Google search on them!
The San Antonio Express-News reports Cargill as asking a candidate for the local school committee on Social Studies: “Would you consider yourself a conservative when it comes to patriotism, the constitution, the heritage of our forefathers, etc?”
Not quite sure what fits this Cargill’s definition of ‘patriotism’ but why would anyone bring on such a loon to discuss the topic?
Disgraceful.
Woodrowfan
remember the old smear tactic..
Candidate: “Let’s put out a rumor that my opponent has sex with pigs!”
Staffer: “Sir, no one will believe he’s a pig f***er!”
Candidate: “That’s not the point. The point is to make him DENY it!”
The point is not to ignore the smear, but sometimes it’s best not to deny it as if it were a serious accusation, but to deny it by making fun of how stupid it is!
Shell
This is classic character assassination. “it’s not what he actually SAID, it’s what he was MIGHT have said or WANTED to say”.
The RW likes to defend it’s carpet bombing of the Obama Admin. as nothing different. “You lefties did the exact same thing during Dubya’s terms.”
Only difference is, and I don’t know if I heard it here or another blog, but they summed it up perfectly.
“The Left criticized Bush for the things he actually did. The Right criticizes Obama for the things they imagine he’s doing.”
JWW
Kay,
I am a retired soldier, as is my father and as was my grandfather and if needed I can go back to 1750 with names in my fathers name that served the current USA.
President Clinton started the campaign with the VA, it was removed by President Bush and reinstated by President Obama.
Don’t give me your thoughts(without facts) about what the current plan is for the VA or for TriCare. You don’t give a rats ass about it because you know nothing about it and it does not affect you.
Send you plea for stupidity directly to John.
bh
for the record here’s how lupica finished his column:
that’s the rule: insanity on one side is both sides’ fault.
Leelee for Obama
@bh: Yeah, that was the flat note in an otherwise excellent take=down. False equivalency will be the death knell for traditional media.
What is JWW writing about
JWW:
How did the current administration retroactively perform an act done in 2006; General Shinseki is a retired soldier as well and he strongly disagrees with your “facts”.
JWW
Woodrowfan,
I can not attest to what your mother did with your farm animals. But it surely seems to have had an effect on you current thoughts.
I haven’t yet seen this in the Enquirer, but when it is published I will have to believe it.
JWW
John,
I said I would not get mean with your audience, for that I do say I am sorry. I will refrain from such outbursts in the future.
When your audience can open their minds to oppostion and not frag me because I think different, it will be much easier. I as they throw stones from afar, it is so easy to do so.
dmhlt
Hells bells – Faux News has already started decoding the hidden Socialist message:
Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event
Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009
The President: Hell
o everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from allacross America,kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.isI know that for many of you, today
the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, orstartingmiddle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imaginethere are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in,some of you are probably wishingit were still summer, andyoucould’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.lived in IndonesiaI know that feeling. When I was young, my family
for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school.JWW
To all,
Can you tell me, what is it that makes me the bad guy?
In all I like to be fed upon, but I don’t type so well as to keep up with you all.
Is it just for fun? Then why is it when I get serious and poke a very small hole in your boat, you sink?
Most of you have a mouth like Julia Roberts or Steven Tyler but it seems even air has a hard time passing your lips.
Spend more time reading everything, not the same book over and over!
Leelee for Obama
John
I am unfamiliar with JWW-does he have aphasia? I feel like I’m trying to read clouds.
General Winfield Stuck
@Leelee for Obama:
Don’t bother, he’s been banned several times in the past for general whack a doodleness. He seems sober today, so the crazy is only on about 5 or 6. When the likker and pills kick in….well you don;t wanna know about that.
JWW
General Winfield Stuck,
If your mother wasn’t on the liquer and on the pill we wouldn’t miss you. She just happened to be only on the liquer that morning when the milkman arrived or was it the paperboy. I don’t recall, but if I had my say you write like the mortician.
Chad N Freude
@JWW
I don’t want to participate in this debate, argument, snowball fight, whatever it is, but @Kirk Spencer makes a number of assertions that do not support some of your assertions. If you have facts that show Kirk Spencer’s assertions to be wrong, it’s incumbent on you to show where his statements are incorrect. (That’s show, not claim without support.)
This is not about your patriotism, your political opinions. or your lineage. It is about what’s true and what’s not.
Chad N Freude
The “strong” tag used to be italics, now it’s bold. Or has my memory been destroyed along with the part of my brain that can’t fathom the claims and arguments of the people who think the President of the US talking to school children is mind control?
JWW
By the way,
How dare you offend the President of The united States, nobody said he had to have control. We just figured it would all work out!
I could care less who he is, President Clinton was not my idea of a good leader, yet he was not too be used or overpowered by useless minions. President Obama is a toy in his own playhouse. He hasn’t the ability to chose those that will help him, his choices are for those who take away his constitutional power.
He is not a fool, yet every step he takes in his hiring practice moves him back. The blood of this country would support him, if he would only learn to take its temperature.
Yeah, those who hate him because he is black amount to likely less than 1%, those who don’t support because he is a democrat may reach 30%, most of the people just don’t know, WWWWW. He has not and his minions have answered this question over and over. Why doesn’t President Obama take the lead and lead by example, with his voice, with his path?
slag
@leo: NPR’s been doing a lot of that lately, and I’m so sick of that Weekly Standard dude being on the air I could kick something. I used to volunteer for my local NPR affiliate’s pledge drives and donate money. No more.
(I’m not going to count the # of “I”s in that statement because I am a shameless self-promoter.)
—-
Also, why waste words on the trolls? They’re on the side of crazy.
Chad N Freude
@JWW: Where did you get the percentages?
I certainly agree that Obama’s leadership skills have not been very visible.
JWW
Chad N Freude,
If, then! Why is it that whatever I say is wrong with a capital W? Do we have such a vast idea system that we can not make amends on any given grounds?
Or is it that we feel good about ourselves defending what we personally want to happen, that being with no regards to others.
When decisions are made in your own home, they should only effect your own home and those closest to it. When decision are made for America they should only effect America and those closest to it.
America and those closest to happen to encompass billions of people, not a few dozen.
Some idiot above posted of our great superpower, as for military strength we currently are, as to the people we have fallen off. One is no good without the other in our current society.
JWW
Did Everyone Go To Bed,
Well my best friend just returned from Afghanistan this weekend. I am a happy man, you wouldn’t know his name, he didn’t die!
He is yet one of those you will never know, and have no reason to fight over.
But when soldiers under his command died,it was a brand new blog. I am so proud of you all!
Jeez, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. No joke, he is an awsome Infantry O6. I trained him myself.
Calouste
@Martin:
Because (in Europe at least) the Soviets did all the yardage and the Americans just caught the touch down pass.
Michael D.
Ed – 1
Morrissey – 1
and – 1
the – 1
nutters – 1
at – 1
Hot – 1
Air – 1
are – 1
fucking – 1
retards – 1