This is great. Glenn Beck is a clown who realized that more people listen when you act like a jackass than when you act as a voice of reason, so he has gone further and further off the deep end over the years, until he finally reached a point when he said that Obama “hates white people and white culture.” Of course, Kanye West said similar things about George Bush (though Bush doesn’t hate black people. He hates poor people.) and was pretty much blasted by all circles. I hope that even Bob T. can agree on this one: Glenn Beck isn’t a conservative. He’s just a moron.
Saying that GWB “hates poor people” strikes me as exhibiting the same high level of intelligence as saying that Obama hates white people and white culture. And before we give our post-racial president a clean bill of health in the area of racial issues, I might point out here that Obama is on record as making such intelligent post-racial references as “a typical white person.” In the Gate incident, he showed the same prejudicial and stereotypical thinking as Gates himself, first saying that he didn't have the facts but then jumping right into the fray on the side of the black guy and denouncing the cop. Sort of like picking your side in a street brawl based on the race of the combatants. (Not exactly a high point in race relations in America, Mr. President. If you don't know the facts, why not wait until you do before mouthing off.) I do not recall any references from GWB to “a typical black person” or even to “a typical poor person.” Nor do I recall him ever announcing that he didn't know the facts of a controversy, but then jumping into one on the basis of race, or on the basis of the income levels of the participants. But then Bush didn't seem to rely on stupid prejudices and stereotypes like Obama seems to find it necessary to do. During his campaign, Obama talked and talked about being our first post-racial president, but he is anything but. If you take the trouble to read any of his writings, you will find that he has been obsessed with race all his life, and that he continues to be obsessed with race.
That comment was a bit of a joke, but we can run with this if you wish. Obama apologized for the way he spoke after a minor fracas broke out in Cambridge which resulted in zero deaths. GWB never apologized for his pathetically inept and shockingly callous performance in the wake of Katrina. In fact, I can't remember GWB ever apologizing for a single mistake he made in office.
I had to google Glenn Beck, because I recognized the name from somewhere but couldn't remember where. I then realized I've seen his book “Common Sense” in bookstores. Despite what a certain person– a person incidentally who has no credibility left at all because he repeatedly lies about previous statements that he has made– who posts on this site likes to claim, I'm not a big consumer of right-wing talk shows. I wouldn't have recognized this guy Beck if he came to the door selling his book, And I think I agreed with you that accusing Obama of hating white people/culture is kind of stupid.
I just get tired of all the stupid and really cheap shots about Bush. On what information do you base an assertion that “Bush hates poor people”? Where is your proof for this statement? I'm sorry, Johnny, but it's an inane comment. It reflects your subjective attitude and has nothing to do with objective reality. Neither you nor Professor Gates read minds, so you have no way of knowing what Bush or some Cambridge policeman think about blacks, poor people, or any other group for that matter. You disagreed with Bush's domestic and tax policies. It does not follow from that disagreement that Bush hates poor people.
I'm sorry but I don't want to argue about Hurricane fucking Katrina. I'll just say that you are misusing the words “pathological” and “callous.” So Bush did not respond quickly enough after Katrina. That was certainly a failure but it wasn't “pathological” and it wasn't “callous” and it wasn't a reflection of some underlying hatred of black people and poor people. Such an interpretation is just plain unintelligent. You people are trying way too hard with this Bush hatred thing.
And you might also have noticed that the Democratic Governor and Democratic Mayor involved in the Katrina fiasco failed dismally also. In fact, as the local authorities responsible for the immediate response to the disaster, there failures were worse than any failure at the federal level. But we never hear a word about their total incompetence. A mayor who left the city's buses unused to be flooded, and had no disaster plan in place. Ditto for the governor who fell to pieces and couldn't even make the necessary decisions to call for federal relief.
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How could I misuse “Pathological” when I didn't use it all? I don't hate George Bush. I don't think he is a terrible guy (I do hate Dick Cheney and think he's a terrible human, but that's a different argument for a different day). In fact, I think he's a pretty decent guy, and I don't think he's necessarily a racist, though kicking off his campaign at Bob Johnson and his allowing Rove's attacks on McCain in South Carolina are a hell of a lot more worrisome than a flippant remark that Obama later apologized for. I would be awfully surprised if Obama hated white culture, considering he's half white himself.
As for Katrina, there was plenty of blame to go around, but I'm not sure what you're talking about. We heard plenty about the unused buses. And I think most people who followed the Katrina disaster agree that Nagin is a moron. But le'ts face facts: The buck stops with the President, and he failed miserably.
I apologize. I misread “pathetically” as “pathologically.”
And Obama didn't actually apologize. He didn't apologize to Crawley at any rate. He made one of those half-assed “regretable remarks” non-apologies that politicians go in for when they're sorry about the response they've received rather than what they actually said.
Obama's fixation on racial issues and continual playing of the “race card” during his career go well beyond a mere “flippant remark.”
And I don't agree that Cheney is a terrible human being. I believe he's a very talented and articulate one. I noticed that Obama quickly broke off the argument with Cheney in the media earlier this year because Cheney was countering all his false charges against the Bush administration and basically kicking his ass. And the polls about the matter were reflecting that.
Obama shouldn't have apologized at all. A cop does something stupid, and he says it was stupid – what is wrong with that?
If the cop had done something stupid, then there would have been nothing wrong with saying so. But as we all learned, the cop was responding to a call about a possible burglary. Gates is the one who made the mistake. He totally lost it and began making all sorts of charges that the cop was a racist and was racially profiling him. Then Obama ratified his mistaken assumptions on the basis of equally mistaken assumptions. The only “teachable moment” in the incident is that one should not jump to unwarranted conclusions about a person's motivation without any basis in fact. Oh, and also that it's a probably a bad idea to raise hell out on the street and follow a cop around mouthing off to him. And that white liberals tend to be full of shit. And that important connected people, whether white or black or anything else, can often use their political connections to get out of trouble and get the charges against them dropped. I suspect that if you or I or Johnny Goodtimes had mouthed off and behaved like Gates did, that the charges would not have been dropped. It's great to be a politically connected black man who has a lot of experience playing the race card. Opens all kinds of doors, whether prison doors or academic doors or whatever.
Have a nice day.
Maybe the bullshit charges would not have been dropped, but that doesn't make them any less bullshit in the first place. The cop arrested a man who had committed no crime – that is stupid. And it would be just as bad if he did it to a white man; I don't know if the cop was racist or just an asshole. But what he did was stupid, and there's nothing wrong with calling it so.
Mouthing off to a cop is not a crime, as much as some authoritarian cops seem to think it is.
I will agree that arresting Gates may have been an overreaction. But neither you nor I were there, and the cops that were there, including a black and a Hispanic, supported the arrest. And I seriously doubt that a white cop in front of a racially mixed group of cops as well as a large number of spectators, who not incidentally were apparently drawn to the scene by Gates' carrying on, would make an arrest without cause. Most encounters with the police regardless of the races of the participants tend to have happier endings if you don't follow them around berating them. Disturbing the peace may be a somewhat nebulous charge and a judgement call, but raising hell and drawing a crowd of people would seem to fit the bill.
I'm sorry but I think that Gates is the one who blew it here. He immediately started ranting and raving about racism and racial profiling without any basis for these charges other than his own subjective feelings. There is nothing in Crawly's past to suggest racism. Far from it. Cambridge is not exactly Selma, AL in the mid 60's.
Hi Bob- Why did you write 5 paragraphs over two posts defending GWB based on a throw away comment that was made half jokingly in a post about Glenn Beck-a man we can all agree is a clown. I think you're in love with Bush 43! You fantasize about wrestling with him, riding horses and deep, open mouth kisses. Now it makes sense.
Anybody who has been paying attention to the liberal Democratic as well as media swooning over that cool and totally awesome black stud of a president of ours with the chiselled pecs and the ability to send tingles up white liberal guys' legs knows from what segments of our society the homoerotic love of male politicans is coming and who it's directed at. Don't go projecting your gay fantasies at me, dude. I'm not the one with the drool hanging out of his mouth when the Great Obama speaks.
That's not 'drool' hanging out of your mouth.
Took me a while to figure out what you meant, because, well, I guess I'm just not into the things you're into. Very funny and clever though. Thanks for the thought.
My stepfather is the most conservative person I know (he doesn't like Bush because Bush is not conversative enough). He thinks Glenn Beck is a HUGE moron. My stepdad also has a career in conservative talk radio in some smaller markets.
There was a change in Beck's tone when he switched to Fox. My problem with him is that he uses hyperbole and leading questions as fact, such as “Why don't the American people GET that we are heading down a path of socialism?” Not sure if he's ever asked that verbatim but its the type of statement he makes.