Pawlenty defends blandness with race card joke
The race card? No, Governor, he just means you’re boring.
Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor running for the Republican nomination to unseat Democrat Barack Obama, the country’s first black president, brought up race on Sunday when asked if he was too boring to win.
“The knock on you is .. that you’re too nice, too bland, and Republicans want somebody who can take the fight to Barack Obama,” “Fox News Sunday” interviewer Chris Wallace said.
Wallace mentioned conservative Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly’s comment last week that “Haagen Dazs could put his picture on vanilla.”
“Did Bill O’Reilly use the word ‘vanilla’?” Pawlenty asked.
“He did,” Wallace replied.
“Is he playing the race card on me?” quipped Pawlenty, who is white.
Rrrrrrring, it’s the President calling…
They talked.
President Barack Obama called Shirley Sherrod at about 12:35 p.m. and they spoke for 7 minutes. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says the White House operator unsuccessfully tried to reach her twice last night but was unable to leave a voicemail.
POTUS offered his regrets, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack had been sincere in his apology yesterday, and hoped that she would see “this misfortune” as an opportunity to continue her hard work on behalf of those in need.
In just days, a charge of racism by a conservative led to Sherrod losing her Agriculture Department job and ended in a phone call from the president.
It seems that the more Shirley Sherrod talked this week, the clearer it became how badly the Obama administration handled her sacking as Georgia rural development director at USDA. Sherrod was forced to resign Monday after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a clip online of a speech she gave in March to a Georgia local NAACP meeting. The clip showed her talking about doing little to help a white farmer 20 years ago because of race. It didn’t show her full remarks and the point of her story, in which she described having an epiphany when she realized no one else was helping the farmer, even his white attorney.
That was when she realized the issue wasn’t race, but poverty, and launched herself into the struggle that ultimately helped save his farm, Sherrod told her audience.
Her bosses didn’t heed her appeals to look at the full tape of her remarks. In a series of calls on Monday Sherrod was initially suspended and then sacked. “The first call I received said, ‘We’re putting you on administrative leave.’ The next call was, ‘Shirley, we’re going to have to ask you to resign.’ And then, ‘The White House wants you to resign’,” Sherrod told NBC’s “Today” show. Although the White House denied involvement in the decision, the hasty rush to judgment embarrassed the Obama administration, which found itself pilloried in the editorial pages on Thursday. Sherrod has been working in rural development for years in Georgia. Her husband, Charles, was a leader in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Georgia during the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s and is now a chaplain at a state prison. Even a brief check should have prompted the administration to take a closer look at the facts. “The Obama administration has been shamed by its rush to judgment,” The New York Times said. “Shirley Sherrod was sandbagged by a two-and-a-half-minute clip from a 45-minute speech in which the real message was reconciliation.” The Washington Post said the administration put “panic before principle.”
This is not the first time this has happened. Several members of the Obama administration have lost their jobs or been demoted, and nominees to cabinet positions have either stepped down or withdrawn their nominations after becoming the target of smear campaigns launched by FOX “News” and Andrew Breitbart.
All the coverage of this episode has been about how the Obama administration “put panic before principle” and “rushed to judgement.” What about the fact that a major news channel (THE major news channel, according to them) intentionally and repeatedly runs deceptive content?
It’s official – Obama is the first African-American president
President Barack Obama has done his civic duty and filled out his Census form, and in doing so confirmed that he is, indeed, the first African-American U.S. president.
Obama checked African-American on the form when he filled it out, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. And he did it without giving it a great deal of thought.
“I think he just checked it,” Gibbs told reporters during a briefing in his office at the White House on Friday.
The United States conducts a Census every 10 years, asking every household in the country to fill out a 10-question form. Participants are asked to provide contact information and to check whatever box or boxes they believe best describe their race. There is no box for mixed race. Obama, the son of a white U.S.-born mother and black Kenyan father, could have checked the box for white, the one for ”black, African Am. or negro” or both.
Picture Credit: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about jobs and the economy during a visit to Celgard Inc. in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 2, 2010. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
It’s interesting he’s not the First Indonesian-American, but then people would immediately say, well, his father was African, even though they lived in Indonesia when Obama was born (oops, Hawaii) and his mother was American, so forget about race and go with parents’ place of birth? Is that it? Would that not be either Kenyan-American, or African-AmericanContinent then? It ultimately becomes rather unsubtle bludgeoning by 18th Century mores, I can remember my uncle sniffing up his nose, ‘but he’s Irish!’
Racial overtones at healthcare protest
The protests against healthcare reform took an ugly turn on Saturday. Black congressmen told reporters that demonstrators called them the N-word and one representative said he was spat upon.
“This is not the first time the congressman has been called the N-word and certainly not the worst assault he has endured in his years fighting for equal rights for all Americans,” said a statement from the office of Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver.
“That being said, he is disappointed that in the 21st century our national discourse has devolved to the point of name-calling and spitting.”
The statement said the man suspected of spitting on Cleaver was quickly arrested by police but that the congressman would not press charges.
The confrontations came as Democratic House members were going to the Capitol to hear President Barack Obama rally members to vote for the healthcare overhaul, which Democratic leaders predict will be passed in a House vote on Sunday. A crowd of at least 100 loud, sign-toting protesters gathered around the representatives.
“I heard people saying things today I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to try to get off the back of the bus,” Representative Jim Clyburn was quoted as saying on politico.com. “It was shocking to me.”
Take a hard look at the $7Billion CA Bay Bridge Project that hired thousands of Chinese because they could not find enough US workers and the Chinese could complete the project in less time. Since the US is already EXPORTING large quantities of petroleum products. Will Keystone just provide the ability to EXPORT more?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/22 /keystone-pipeline-boehner_n_1221925.ht ml
Bay Bridge:
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/16/140515737/ california-turns-to-china-for-new-bay-br idge
Exporting:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/05/news/eco nomy/gasoline_export/index.htm
Obama talks race on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Barack Obama, marking his first Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as president of the United States, urged Americans on Monday to remember that the civil rights era is not ancient history.
“Sometimes in celebration of Dr. King’s birthday, we act as if this history was so long ago,” he said at a White House gathering of black senior citizens and their grandchildren.
Not for these people, who brought stories with them about the slain civil rights leader during a brief visit with Obama and his wife, Michelle, in the Roosevelt Room, just steps away from the Oval Office.
One woman, Mabel Harvey, whom Obama described as a “spry” 102-year-old, was whispering into the president’s ear as journalists entered the room.
“Ms. Harvey just now was whispering in my ear as you guys were walking in that, ‘This must be the Lord’s doing, because we’ve come a mighty long way,’” Obama said.
The president often tries not to focus on his race despite the significance of being the nation’s first black president.
Earlier in the day Obama and his family served food and drinks at a soup kitchen in Washington, D.C.
The First Draft: Bill Clinton on race and the healthcare debate
Bill Clinton has tons of respect for Jimmy Carter. But he doesn’t agree that racism is a driving factor behind angry opposition to President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform agenda.
Like Carter, Clinton is a former Democratic governor of a Southern state who has spent years battling entrenched racism against blacks.
“I sympathize with where President Carter’s coming from. If you’re a white southerner and you’ve fought these battles a long time, you’re super-sensitive to any kind of discrimination based on race,” Clinton, a former Arkansas governor, said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Carter, a former Georgia governor, raised the issue of race after U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted “You lie” at Obama during the president’s healthcare speech to Congress this month. Thousands of conservatives also rallied in opposition to the president at demonstrations in Washington.
“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man,” Carter told NBC News.
Obama, the first black U.S. president, later said he believed some opposition had to do with race. But he denied Carter’s charge that racism was a leading factor.
Clinton sounded a similar note.
This is absolutly disgusting. I can’t believe that two former American Presidents have drug themselves so low as to call any opposition to President Obama as a racist. No it is the silent majority being reawakened. A silent majority that threw Carter out of the White house. The same mojority that elected President Clinton, President Reagan, and Resident Bush. No the democrats don’t like it when the silent majority isn’t so silent anymore. These political figures believe that they are untouchable and they always forget that we can choose not to elect them as easily as we chose to elect them. End the dems in twenty-ten.
Letterman to Obama: “How long have you been a black man?”
President Barack Obama has sought to distance himself from Jimmy Carter’s recent comment that some of the anger directed at him over the summer is because he is a black man.
But he couldn’t avoid the issue when he appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman” on Monday. His host put it to him straight, but with a healthy dose of good humor.
“Was Jimmy Carter onto something … was this unease or poor decorum rooted in racism, or is that just something to talk about?” Letterman asked.
“It’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election,” Obama answered.
“Really?” said Letterman. “This is true,” Obama said.
“How long have you been a black man?,” Letterman asked.
– Pause for laughter from the audience –
WHO CARES!
I don’t! And we shouldn’t!
Its a done deal, push race and color to the back burner.
We have more important issues to deal with on the front burner.
Ya Think?
—
Denounce the racist fringe at the teabagging parties and we will move on. And anyway you are why the presidents great plans aren’t moving ahead anyway. That’s hypcoritical of you. Ya think? Not much.
Protests against Obama: race or policy?
Former President Jimmy Carter said out loud what Democrats had been whispering for a while, that the protests against the country’s first black president are tinged with racism.
Carter’s forceful words threw the issue into the forefront of public debate.
“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African American,” Carter said in an interview on NBC.
While others had raised the issue, it wasn’t until Carter’s blunt words that it reached a crescendo as loud as the protests.
Carter mentioned his southern roots in saying ”that racism inclination still exists” in the country and many white people believe African Americans are not qualified to be president.
Critics of Obama have protested at town hall meetings around the country, rallied in Washington, and even yelled out on the floor of the House of Representatives (Congressman Joe Wilson’s “you lie”).
Michael Steele, the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee, issued a statement that said: “President Carter is flat out wrong. This isn’t about race. It is about policy.”
Opposition to Obamacare is about FINES, PENALTIES, ‘CONTRIBUTIONS’, new TAXES. The majority will likely end up losing their TAX-FREE employer-provided med/dent benefits as one of many unintended consequences.
Opposition to Obamaspend is about trillions in new federal DEBT.
Opposition to Obama’s Russian appeasement viz a viz Eastern European missile defense retooling is about the fact that the Russians would twist Iranian arms only if the Iranians posed a threat to THEM.
And opposition to Obama’s ‘war of necessity’ is about the fact that the toppling of the Taliban gov’t back in late 2001 was as good as it gets for us and the Afghans.
Carter says race is issue for some Obama opponents
Some of President Barack Obama’s more demonstrative opponents list any number of reasons why they oppose him and why they’re angry — from the bank bailout, to his plan to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, the direction the country is heading and the ballooning U.S. deficit. But former President Jimmy Carter thinks a lot of the opposition is really about Obama’s race.
“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man,” Carter said in an NBC interview on Tuesday.
Here’s what the Georgia Democrat had to say: “I live in the South, and I’ve seen the South come a long way, and I’ve seen the rest of the country that share the South’s attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African Americans. “And that racism inclination still exists. And I think it’s bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It’s an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply.”
Disputes over race are not unheard of in U.S. presidential politics. Click here for a list of some of them.
Click here for more Reuters Political News. Photo Credit: Reuters/Tami Chappell (Carter at a baseball game in Atlanta in June)
Why are so many people taking the race bait?? I want a government that encourages honesty, hard work, liberty and freedom. Let’s debate who will uphold those values… I haven’t found them yet.
I was born and raised in a Social Democracy… my dad can no longer afford car insurance on his retirement … taxed for everything including church…(my guess – only a matter of time before someone in our government comes up with that bright idea)
For social programs to exist the working class gets to pay an average of 50% income tax… is it working?? Depends who you ask, unemployed get help to make it by, but really can’t get any where, you can’t kick a renter out of an apartment because they won’t pay because they are protected by law. If you come in from out of country on a work visa and you want breast augmentation, you just need a doctor to certify that you have a lack of self esteem – voila – procedure will be paid for courtesy of the government…
Who gets screwed? The Tax payers!!! “Black” money is rampant, because working people feel it is the only way to save.
Where do people think government gets the money for social programs??? Call it what you want – I trust myself more than anyone in government – I want to decide who I’m helping! I’ll work to reach my goals! Hope springs in the heart and soul and not from government!
Rhyming reverend gets last word at Obama inaugural
WASHINGTON – Rev. Joseph Lowery was back on stage with a president, but on Tuesday the civil-rights pioneer used his wry rhymes to welcome the U.S. leader, not skewer him as he did three years ago.
Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr., delivered the benediction at Barack Obama’s inauguration as first black U.S. president.
Lowery prayed for healing from a era of “greed and corruption,” and asked, in verse, for divine help toward a new beginning of racial harmony:
“We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right,” Lowery said to laughter from the vast audience.
In 2006, speaking before then-president George W. Bush and three former presidents at the funeral of King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, Lowery delivered a stern rebuke to Bush’s conduct of the Iraq war and domestic policy.
“We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew, and we know, that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more, but no more for the poor,” he said then.
Critics charged that the remarks were out of place at a funeral. Lowery defended them as relevant to Mrs. King’s life.
My Country
For those who are angry about the Inaugural prayer Rev. Lowery prayed, please forgive him. He’s an old warrior, and it may be quite difficult for him to let go of the hurt from the past. One must understand the struggles of a people from so long ago. I would like to thank; whites, reds, yellows and browns, who have stood by us as African Americans to finally make it to some point in history were we can finally say maybe, just maybe we have almost arrived at the “mountain top”. It’s been a long hard struggle! I don’t want to say only if you’re “black” you understood what he prayed the HURT and the HUMOR. I do believe others who aren’t African American understood as well. I do believe he didn’t mean any harm.
If I may share some of my family’s history to help some understand why some of our elders speak the way they do. My father and mother were married for almost 60 years, raised 10 children in the ghetto and helped 7 of those children through college. My father fought in 3 wars: WWII, Korean, and the beginning of Vietnam. He was always trying to prove himself as an American. While on leave he would go home to visit his mother in Mississippi and some would spit on him in his uniform, shouting at him to take off that uniform you black (n word). Yet he jumped ships when being bombed, watched his buddies killed in war, hide in fox holes fighting the enemy, kicked by some white officers and called the (n word)when he thought he had found a quiet place to kneel and pray on ship(only 17, he said he was scared the first time they were attacked by the Japanese and all had to jump ship)…..and being left to walk alone on a dark rode after a car drives up and pick up all the soldiers, he reaches for the door to get in and the car drive off. He heard the driver say, “ I don’t drive no ( n word) “, so he continued walking alone. He told me that hurt, and that driver didn’t see me as an American! With tears at times he would tell us this is “OUR COUNTRY” treat others with respect and “IT DIDN’T MATTER THE COLOR.”
He never wanted us to deal with what he had gone through. He was always trying to prove himself as an American always! All my life because of my father it’s been God, family and county. My country, my America. When Rev. Lowery gave the prayer, when he said “Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest.”, I thought of my father, who would have loved to see this day. I shared my father’s history not to lay blame or point fingers.. But to say thank you America ( whites, reds, yellows, browns, and yes African Americans) for coming together this day and saying we are ONE COUNTRY, and we can stand together as ONE RACE OF PEOPLE.. As the Apostle John would say, “let us love one another little children.” My father taught all of his children and grandchildren to “LOVE ALL PEOPLE”.. He never past on the hate to us that others pushed at him for years!! He would only cry his pain to my mother the hurt he suffered… She finally let us know this intimate moment between the two of them after his death. In memory of my beloved father (I miss you daddy) he died Veteran’s Day 2005.
The GOP has lost touch with the American people. You guys might as well drop out of the running. No one will beat Obama in 2012. Its as simple as that.