Views » September 25, 2007
Let’s Pry Open Those Cold, Dead Hands
To defeat the gun lobby, gun-control activists need to get out of late-night local cable and embrace the Internet
BY Laura S. Washington
Posted on 06/23/2014 10:36:28 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
‘R-E-S-P-E-C-T,” the song goes.
It is easy enough to spell, but for some vocal critics of President Barack Obama, it seems exceedingly hard to do.
As the president moves toward the land of the lame ducks, his political enemies are calling for blood. That’s no shocker at this stage of a presidency. In this case, the cuts go deeper.
For some, it is not enough to disagree. Some high-status public figures seem determined to demean, denigrate and ridicule the president of the United States.
On June 12 the Speaker of the U.S. House stepped to a podium and insulted Obama for his handling of the ongoing crisis in Iraq.
“It’s not like we haven’t seen over the last five or six months these terrorists moving in, taking control of western Iraq,” U.S. Rep. John Boehner said at a press conference. He added, in his trademark, obdurate tone: “And what’s the president doing? Taking a nap!”
Last week, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk pronounced that Obama has fallen short in his dealings with Iran, reported CBS2 Chicago. “I’m very worried that the president doesn’t appear to be up to this job, of protecting the United States,” he said.
The disrespect comes in words, tone and attitude. He’s “taking a nap.” He’s “not up to this job.” They refer to the president as though he were a wayward child.
It’s nothing new. Obama supporters, especially African-Americans, have fumed over the insults for years. Oprah Winfrey recently suggested it has something to do with his race. “There’s no question about that,” she said.
Last week, former Vice President Dick Cheney leveled a blistering attack on the president’s foreign policy in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many,” Cheney wrote. Obama cares more about his golf game than the raging conflict in Iraq, Cheney asserted.
(I could give you a few thousand words on Cheney’s track record of mistakes, but that would be digressing).
Some critics refuse to address the president by his title, instead sneering lowly pronouns, like “he” and “him.” On the talk shows, via the blogosphere, even on the floor of Congress, they ridicule him in personal, demeaning ways.
In 2009, President Obama was speaking on immigration reform before a joint session of Congress. “You lie!” U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted from his seat.
Others, from Donald Trump to Newt Gingrich, have insisted that the president is some kind of alien, a “foreigner,” demanding he produce his birth certificate to “prove” he is an American.
I know how it is. In today’s hyper-partisan USA, Launching tirades at political enemies provides cheap, red meat for the base.
Still, we are talking about the president of the United States, a man who, while imperfect, is very much a grown-up, possesses high intelligence and has many talents. In two national elections, American voters definitively entrusted that man with the job.
That man represents the presidency, the most powerful office in the world. Politicians who publicly disrespect the man who holds that office derogate their own profession.
The disrespect and insults give license to the world’s despots to, in turn, disrespect him, his position, and us.
>> Is this her?
Yep. She be a SOUL SISTA! Who’da thunkit?
Color is thicker than reality OR common sense.
Views » September 25, 2007
Let’s Pry Open Those Cold, Dead Hands
To defeat the gun lobby, gun-control activists need to get out of late-night local cable and embrace the Internet
BY Laura S. Washington
As such, that's why the late Ronald Reagan described it best with a well-known Russian proverb: doveryai, no proveryai (trust, but verify). And unfortunately, we've pretty much verified that President Obama is not doing the things that could make our country better.
I'm sure she expressed similar high-minded thoughts during the years 2000-2008.
Repsecting spelling.
Laura S. Washington brings more than two decades of experience as a nonprofit professional and multimedia journalist who specializes in African-American affairs, local and national politics, race and racism, and social justice.
In 1985, Washington was appointed deputy press secretary to Mayor Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor. She also served as a producer for the investigative unit at CBS-2/Chicago and as a correspondent for Chicago Tonight on WTTW-TV.
Newsweek named Washington one of the nation’s “100 people to watch” in the 21st century.
Twitter handle:
@MediaDervish
Consistency isn’t most leftists’ forte.
She’s dangerous! Watch her!
This has got to be a reprint from The Onion.
here is her email address:
LauraSWashington@aol.com
>> There are exceptions. I admire them for being so.
Yes, there are. Janice Rogers Brown comes to mind, as does Clarence Thomas. And there are many more.
Still, the exceptions prove the rule. The vast majority (99%?) of blacks carry water for Barky because of his color. They utterly refuse to open their eyes and see what he really is and what he really has done to America.
And that, my FRiend... is RACIST behavior.
GUILTY!
“Still, we are talking about the president of the United States, a man who, while imperfect, is very much a grown-up,”
This sycophant can’t seem to remove its lips from Obama’s behind.
I wonder what this same person said about George Bush??
Not true. I called for it.
FLASHBACK
(no link)
Roundtable: Annan’s Farewell, an Impeachment Call
National Public Radio - Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Show: News & Notes
FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
This is NEWS & NOTES. I’m Farai Chideya.
On today’s Roundtable, a speech by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is tough on the U.S., and outgoing Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney wants Bush impeached.
Joining us today from our New York bureau is Michael Meyers, executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition. Laura Washington , Chicago Sun - Times columnist is at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. And at member station WRNI in Providence, Rhode Island, Glenn Loury, professor of the social sciences and professor of economics at Brown University.
EXCERPT
Ms. WASHINGTON: You know, Farai, we started out this conversation talking about Cynthia McKinney and Congress, and I think that’s a point that we don’t want to let go. And there was just a new CBS poll out that showed that Bush had the lowest popularity rate in terms of his handling of the war in Iraq - he’s heading in the history of the worst, it’s 21 percent. But there was a USA Today poll that came out today that gave – has citizen - American citizens giving Congress, congressional leaders a 14-percent mark. In other words, only 14 percent of those surveyed thought that congressional – our congressional leaders were leading us with ethics and high standards.
So we are sort of in - the Congress is in the same boat as Bush , but this is also an opportunity for them to step up. Bush is a lame-duck now. There’s not much more he can do. You’re right, he’s pretty much an abject failure . It’s now between our congressional leaders to try to get us out of this mess.
CHIDEYA: All right, well, I’m sure we’ll have some folks writing in to get on that. I’ll be sure to give you the information to send to our letters department.
Ms. WASHINGTON: Just don’t give them my e-mail address.
The thing that shows you how contemptuous Obama is of anybody who is not black and not Muslim is that these Latin American states are appealing for this to stop. The wife of the president of Honduras has offered to repatriate all Hondurans at her own expense.
Latin America has development problems because their inherited structure was very bureaucratic. The “officialdom” approach enabled Spain to standardize and to maintain good government, within the levels of communication of the times, although of course, as in the US, it led them to ignore local complaints or be very manipulated by local interests. For example, the reason Mexico never developed a wine industry, even though the demand was huge and they had the perfect climate, was because Spanish wine makers and their Mexican dealers wanted to keep the market.
Also, from a pragmatic point of view, the Spanish didn’t wipe out the Indian population as English Americans did, but converted them to Christianity and made them part of the citizenry, even though it was obviously going to take a long time to integrate them into a modern society. And they have been trying ever since.
Lat Am countries could have achieved this, but what destroyed that project was the rise of the left in the 1960s - supported by US intellectuals and even traveling hippies who went down to “support the revolution.” Then the left-wing emphasis of the Church after Vatican II took hold in a lot of places, such as Chiapas, and announced that European influences, such as learning to read and write in a modern European language (Spanish or English), were evil and the indigenous ignorance was all.
But the one thing that has made it worse is the US, which always supports any leftist dictator and economy-killing movement that comes down the pike. Remember how Obama tried to crush Honduras because they didn’t let the leftist take over their country?
This is true particularly for Mexico, where the saying is, “Poor Mexico, so far from God - and so close to the United States.” “Far from God” refers to the Spanish expression “dejado de la mano de Dios,” which means “forgotten to the world.” In other words, abandoned and forgotten by Europe and its former supporters, but next door to a country that wants to do nothing but exploit it.
Unfortunately, their response takes the form of routine anti-Americanism, mostly motivated by the radical left...which has the most to gain from rejecting good economic and social connections with the US, because this enables the union graft (the teachers’ unions control half of Mexico) and the crony capitalism to continue unchallenged.
Of all the things Obama has done, this encouragement of child migration is about the most cruel and cynical. He should definitely stand trial for this, and I (and probably half of Latin America) would probably be there every day.
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