The new Obama video is ‘devastating’, but not to Obama
In case you missed it, last night we observed a test of the right-wing emergency bombshell system. It was only a test. If this had been an actual right-wing emergency bombshell ….
But it wasn’t.
In the early evening hours yesterday, Sean Hannity, Matt Drudge and Tucker Carlson started promoting what they claimed to be a “devastating” and previously unknown video of Barack Obama that would completely remake the 2012 presidential race. It would be a bombshell, a game-changer, an “October surprise” that would prove Obama to be an anti-white racist, just as they knew all along. It would do to the incumbent what the “47 percent” tape had done to Mitt Romney, if not worse.
And just to build the suspense, the world was told that for maximum impact, the bombshell tape would be released by Hannity and Carlson simultaneously at 9 p.m., Hannity on his Fox News program and Carlson at his Daily Caller site. Over the next few hours, giddy conservatives practiced their victory dance and whipped each other into an anticipatory frenzy over the video that would finally bring down their hated bête noire.
Nine o’clock came, the tape was released and … ppfffffffffft. Nothing. As in, literally nothing.
I don’t know Hannity personally. Never met the man. So I would have a hard time saying with certainty that he’s a racist fool. But after the way he behaved last night, I have no problem saying that he plays a racist fool on television. The same is true of Drudge and Carlson. In their “big reveal” on Fox, Hannity and Carlson tried vainly to pretend the tape was something it clearly is not, and they made themselves and their followers appear ridiculous in the process.
Here’s the reality:
The tape in question came from a 2007 speech by Obama at Hampton University, a historically black college in Virginia. The five-year-old speech had been reported on extensively at the time it was delivered by, among many others, Brit Hume of Fox News and by Carlson himself, on his ill-fated MSNBC show. As Dylan Byers reports at Politico, “The speech was also covered by CNN, NBC News, ABC News, The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Sun-Times, among others.”
In fact, the speech was so well known that Politico had cited a portion of it as No. 3 on its list of the top 10 gaffes of the 2008 political campaign.
In the speech, Obama dared to suggest that race — along with the Bush administration’s “colorblind incompetence” — had played a role in the excruciatingly slow response to New Orleans’ plight in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He was right; it did. Even if you disagree with that assessment, making such a suggestion is certainly not evidence that Obama hates white people, as Hannity and others now try to claim.
Obama also spoke kindly of his minister at the time, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, thanking him for bringing him to Christ. (The speech occurred before the falling-out between the two men.) He talked about the necessity of addressing poverty in the black community, including the need to “help with basic skills — how to show up to work on time, wear the right clothes, and act appropriately in an office. We have to help them get there.”
None of that is new. None of that is scandalous. Yet last night, Hannity and Carlson did their best to pretend otherwise. They even tried to gin up outrage that in a speech to a black audience, Obama adopted a more “black” way of speaking, which they claim to find deeply disturbing.
Seriously? I no doubt speak slightly differently with my Yankee cousins in Massachusetts than I do with my southern cousins in North Carolina. I speak differently in my professional capacity than when I’m having a beer at the bar or playing golf. We all do it to a degree, subconsciously, as a way of establishing common ground with our audience. At this point, if it is truly a scandal to you that black Americans speak differently when talking “among themselves,” I urge you to get out more often and participate in the 21st century.
In other words, this was not a bombshell, and it is devastating only in the sense that it exposes just how cynically and effectively the right-wing media manipulates its core audience, particularly on matters involving race. As U.S. Rep. Allen West of all people put it afterward, “What’s the ‘So what’ of this video? I don’t think it’s going to really go anywhere.”
Elsewhere, other segments of the right-wing media strained to find ways not to dismiss the video as the nonsense it truly is. On Fox News, transcript available here Greta Van Susteren and Newt Gingrich basically acknowledged that the tape is much ado about nothing, yet somehow pretended to be offended at how the media have covered it. Erick Erickson at Redstate took much the same tack, arguing that the video “is damning not of Barack Obama….The video is damning of the media.”
It is an odd argument. You concede that the video is of little consequence, then blame the media for not hyping it to the skies in the name of balance? Even the folks at Fox News understand the lunacy of that claim. If you read its muted account of the video, it is clearly attempting to put as much distance as possible between itself and this “controversy.”
The biggest tell of all, however, comes from the Romney campaign. It is sorely in need of a bombshell and a game-changer, and as it showed in its overly eager response to the tragedy in Libya, it is ready to pounce on any perceived opportunity. But in this case, it has refused to comment on the tape except to note — no doubt accurately — that it had nothing to do with its over-hyped release.
“What is the news?” Romney communications director Gail Gitcho asked in an email to Buzzfeed. “I don’t know.”
Something tells me that Romney will not be using footage of the Obama speech in his campaign ads. In fact, Romney adviser Kevin Madden made it pretty clear this morning that they want nothing to do with it. When asked whether the video was relevant, he said that “Voters … need to look at that video and make up their minds on that individually. I think what’s more important to this debate right now are the president’s policies are the president’s record over these four years. That is going to be the most important topic on stage tonight.”
The Republican National Committee also declined to comment.
On the other hand, the response among many on the left has been to mock conservatives for being suckered in by the hype from Hannity, Drudge and Carlson, and at one level I get that. But I find this whole thing troubling. It bothers me that a significant number of Americans have allowed their hopes and fears to be manipulated by people such as Hannity, who see them as nothing more than marks to be fleeced. They are being played, and it is not a fun thing to watch.
Trapped within the right-wing echo chamber, they have not only lost touch with their fellow Americans, they have lost a sense of perspective as well. When something like this comes along, they respond to it as instructed and then are dumbfounded to find that the American mainstream sees it entirely differently. They cannot understand how something that makes such a big noise within the echo chamber has almost no resonance outside it, so they explain it away as media bias.
It is not media bias. Why do you think the Romney camp is keeping this whole mess at arm’s length? It’s because they understand that “scandals” ginned up for consumption within the right-wing mediasphere simply do not play well among Americans in general. They are professionals, and they recognize the disconnect that exists between reality as depicted within that echo chamber and the reality as experienced by the rest of the country. If they allow those two worlds to collide, they will lose and they know it.
That disconnect is dangerous. It is dangerous for those on the right who find themselves increasingly alienated and estranged from their fellow Americans, and it is dangerous for the rest of the country as well. It is particularly dangerous for the conservative movement, which has an essential role to play in our nation’s future. But it cannot fulfill that function trapped in a separate world of its own creation.
– Jay Bookman
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731 comments Add your comment
Keep Up the Good Fight! (and only seeing conned poutrage)
October 3rd, 2012
1:46 pm
Doctors are giving abortions to men who are not pregnant! The report will reveal about 32,000 men have this painful procedure done each year.
Its okay….they had to face the monitors but they could close their eyes. No foul, no harm.
Jerome Horwitz
October 3rd, 2012
1:46 pm
Kam – Larry is probably the only one who will make sense.
Good day for the Blues and Man U yesterday. Wonder if USinUK is fired up for the Spurs match tomorrow?
GT
October 3rd, 2012
1:48 pm
Katrina showed the keystone cop reality of Homeland Security and the lack of organizational skills of the not ready for prime time administration. The fact that black people were involved and the party is mostly a white crowd never played into this picture. I am sure if the town had been mostly Anglo Saxons there would still had been this over hyped Homeland Security that cost trillions, there to handle any emergency, boondoggling for votes, giving away money and there would have still been bodies floating on main street America. Hell we all know that.
They BOTH suck
October 3rd, 2012
1:48 pm
TC
FYI: posting an opinion piece about an issue that you agree with doesn’t in itself make that issue factual
It could be, put facts are facts and opinions are opinions
So what were you saying about the “opinion-fact” dichotomy?
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
1:50 pm
“Police in Iran clash with currency protesters:
Police have reportedly fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators as they protested against the collapse of rial.” al jazeera.
Another success for our President.
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
1:51 pm
“They have the authority to do so, but only with the Constitution. Not only do *you* have no such authority, even if you did, it certainly wouldn’t extend to my words and thoughts.”
They do not have the authority to assert their interpretations as “factual” but only as binding. It is patently obvious their interpretation cannot, logically, be “factual” when they issue two contradictory opinions – such as with segregation. My interpretation of your posts are NOT *binding* upon anyone (even me). Again, who doesn’t know that?
“You see those “I think” particles in there? Also clear indications of OPINION, not accusation.”
Again, go downtown and tell the first young black man you see that you “think” he is a “n****r” and see how well that hairsplitting serves you. You were painting Romney with a black brush and, AFAIK, the courts in the US don’t make a fine distinction between opinion and fact when slander is being considered. If a statement can be proven to be true or false then it may be considered in a slander charge.
St Simons
October 3rd, 2012
1:52 pm
“Neither do any lib ilks here.
They only see perfection.”
oh, ye of the single dementian (sp?), do not mistake my support of
Obama as endorsement. I am very disappointed in him and
am only supporting him because Bernie Sanders & Che Guevara
aren’t running (this year).
Beauford T Walldrip
October 3rd, 2012
1:52 pm
Let’s have a discussion about Obama and Reverend Wright. Then we can squarely deal with Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. A religion that has actively pursued denying rights to homosexuals, women and black Americans. It’s also a religion that condemns all others by stating that they’re ultimately led by the devil.
Please Sean Hannity, lets have a discussion on the religions of our candidates. Keep digging that hole.
They BOTH suck
October 3rd, 2012
1:52 pm
meltdown in process…………….
candle blogger…………. will be back for another meltdown, no doubt
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
1:53 pm
There is a new Senate report saying w’s “reform” of intell departments failed.
Imagine that.
All that tax money wasted.
Billybob
October 3rd, 2012
1:54 pm
thanks jam,
you used a poll to decide whether or not obama said what he said…..that was easy, but didn’t change his ACTUAL WORDS…..nothing contrived, just using his ACTUAL WORDS that your poll tried to distort……….easy
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
1:54 pm
“The candle blogger is upset because he has been called out. Go back and look at your own links you posted. They were opinions that your brainwashed self wants so bad to believe as fact.”
I ask you again: do you EVER have anything substantive to say, lightweight?
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
1:55 pm
crier,
Racist much?
Jack
October 3rd, 2012
1:55 pm
Try to imagine how Obama talked when he talked to Rev Wright. Rev Wright didn’t like white people and he hated America when Obama attended his church for twenty years. So I wonder what they talked about and I wonder why Rev Wright’s message was important then and isn’t now.
They BOTH suck
October 3rd, 2012
1:55 pm
TC
Don’t cry so much. You need to ask yourself that same question?
Really you do
Sailor
October 3rd, 2012
1:55 pm
Jay Bookman: Your Opinion piece is an intentionally dishonest lie.
First, while the 2007 Obama address was the subject of several contemporary reports, no report covered the contentious remarks reported by Tucker Carlson/Hannity/Drudge, etc. In fact, there was a contemporaneously released “official” transcript of Obama’s remarks. But, again, that transcript was intentionally “scrubbed” of these remarks. Your “reporting” (pardon the expression) is a continuation, by a dishonest “meme”, hewing the party line, that this is old news, etc. It is a continuing coverup of the real Obama.
Second, Obama is a liar somewhere regarding his professed Christianity. He is on the record, years ago, claiming that he was raised by his mother as a “Christian”. Yet in this clip, he claims that Rev. Wright (actually a former Muslim, converted to a Black Power “Christian race baiter” and hater) led Obama to Christ. Major lie somewhere….
Jay, your column is a fraud. Obama reveals himself in this speech as a crude race baiter and hustler; a racialist divider; a deeply convinced “hater”; a master manipulator; a false witness and dangerous for the country.
Keep Up the Good Fight! (and only seeing conned poutrage)
October 3rd, 2012
1:55 pm
candle blogger — perhaps they should watch QVC and become one of them flameless LED candles. All the emotional outpouring and rants of a real candle but much no fuss reset.
GT
October 3rd, 2012
1:56 pm
What people fail to understand is you can make a very good living being a bigot, it is like a badge some people wear and is rewarded, and lots of very rich people are bigots, by just being bigots. Now if you are black or minority, the rewards are just not there. It is like the right thinking gay is a choice. Why would anyone in this country choose to be a minority?
Obama was our first black president. The very person who everybody says gets everything free and easy, is probably the one who had the hardest path, or why was he the first one ever? The slaves have been freed for over 100 years.
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
1:56 pm
Joseph, go get some Grecian Formula 44.
Your Klan roots are showing!
Black Conservative
October 3rd, 2012
1:56 pm
My wife worked with Hannity’s wife back in Huntsville, AL and I had a beer with him at a place called Cheers in Huntsville. His grand plan, which his followers have fell for hook line and sinker is to become a millionaire by convincing the less informed, less educated whites in the south that the world was against them. Hannity exploits poor whites for their $$ by feeding their worse fears. Yesterday was no different! Ratings baby! By the way, the real Sean is nothing like his TV personality….boy you all are fools
They BOTH suck
October 3rd, 2012
1:57 pm
keep
They could but it is great to see them in their current form
Meltdown, cool off and harden again……… back for another meltdown………
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
1:57 pm
sailor,
Are you okay?
Your head just exploded.
What a mess.
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
1:58 pm
“Well thanks for calling me out. I read almost everyday on this hate filled blog how Republicans are raciest”
Jinkies, Shaggy! I think the Republicans are the Raciest!
–Velma from Scooby-Doo
Black Conservative
October 3rd, 2012
1:58 pm
Nice points GT
stands for decibels
October 3rd, 2012
1:58 pm
Rev Wright didn’t like white people and he hated America
not intended to be a factual statement
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
October 3rd, 2012
1:58 pm
Jerome
Indeed it was a good day, but JT is still a wanker.
USinUK was only a Spurs fan on account of Peter Crouch, but something he did in his personal life made the rose fall off the bloom for her and now he’s at Stoke. And I think she’s always been more of a rugby fan than futbol.
Kimmer
October 3rd, 2012
1:59 pm
You know Bookman I could have predicted your reaction to this before I ever read it. Obama all good, conservatives all bad. I got that a long time ago. I also get that had this been the other way around and a conservative said some of these things you would have already written twelve columns about it.
Say what you want but this video confirms several things.
#1. Barack Obama’s “falling out” with Rev Wright is a political sham. He performed the Obama’s wedding. Obama was in his church for 20 YEARS! He knew exactly what kind of man he was and what his beliefs were and still expressed great admiration of him and the media gave him a complete pass. They reported on this video alright but curiously none of the controversial stuff.
#2. Obama was CLEARLY racebaiting in this speech. Again the media failed to mention this in their ‘coverage’ of this speech.
#3. It proves your staggering hippocracy. Imagine if you will Mitt Romney in the same situation. You are going to sit there and tell me that you would report this as pfffft… nothing? If Romney’s attended a church for 20 years pastored by what amounts to a white supremacist you would be all over him much less if he, in a speech recognized him as a ‘great leader’. Imagine if Romney accused the federal government of being prejudiced toward whites? I know you wouldn’t say a thing would you Jay?
You alone are why I will never spend another dime to buy the AJC.
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
1:59 pm
cnn reports job market is improving.
Housing is rebounding.
Bad news for you cons but great news for our country.
They BOTH suck
October 3rd, 2012
2:00 pm
TC
Don’t kick the dog or punch the wall
It will be ok
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
2:01 pm
Enter your comments here
Billybob
October 3rd, 2012
2:01 pm
nice job sailor….getalife’s head just exploded with info he never heard before
gt,
rich = racist…..nice job…..
Joseph
October 3rd, 2012
2:02 pm
JamVet:
Perhaps you should have eaten more fish growing up. They say it makes you smart….
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
2:02 pm
Ooops President Obama 50%
robme 44% Gallup.
mitt’s last stand in seven hours.
They BOTH suck
October 3rd, 2012
2:03 pm
“Perhaps you should have eaten more fish growing up. They say it makes you smart….”
Joseph: So what is your excuse? You allergic?
Aquagirl
October 3rd, 2012
2:03 pm
there was a contemporaneously released “official” transcript of Obama’s remarks. But, again, that transcript was intentionally “scrubbed” of these remarks. Your “reporting” (pardon the expression) is a continuation, by a dishonest “meme”
Nothing says paranoid lunacy better than random quotation marks.
Joseph
October 3rd, 2012
2:04 pm
stands for decibels:
Listen to Wrights statements as well as Oblama… You libs are truly hopeless… Does a stop sign actually say stop on it????
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
2:04 pm
Billybob, you didn’t even make sense in that last post. Seriously.
There is a word that is completely foreign to you cherry picking neocons – CONTEXT.
Here is the quote, in it’s entirety:
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
So put that in your silly little outrage pipe and smoke it.
Krystal'sBalls
October 3rd, 2012
2:04 pm
@Sailor
Besides your frothy-mouthed rant, delusion and lies spewed above…
“Jay, your column is a fraud”
You are free to leave whenever you are ready. You won’t be missed.
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
2:05 pm
bilbob,
I am feeling pretty good about the reelection of President Obama.
How about you?
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
2:05 pm
“I understand they’ve read a few law books here and there.”
Yeah…and look how that acquired “wisdom” led them into ruling in 1896 that segregation was Constitutional (an “opinion” that likely caused immeasurable harm to black Americans for nearly 60 years) but just the opposite in 1954. Good, point there, superheroine. I can’t say your brain is water-logged.
“This really sums up conservative thinking: an opinion blatted from their butts is equal to anyone else’s.”
Well, not even close to being equal to those exhaled from fins!
“Whatever pops into their head is more valid, and they’ll do you the favor of correcting your errors regardless of their knowledge, experience, or effort to construct a logical thought.”
Blub, blub….blub, blub.
“They lecture Climatologists on the climate, Lawyers on law, women on reproduction, and Jews on whether they’re Jewish.”
Speaking of which, you got zero credit on the last three quizzes. Don’t you want more than a GED?
tireofit
October 3rd, 2012
2:06 pm
The “main stream media” must make Romney look good in order to keep the race going and to generate advertising revenue. It’s all about the dollar.
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
2:06 pm
joey,
I did listen.
So?
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
2:06 pm
“Nothing says paranoid lunacy better than random quotation marks.”
Or an awkward snark from a poster running around in leotards.
The Truth, Please
October 3rd, 2012
2:07 pm
Bookman is a good writer, but seems to be congenitally unable to think independently, even when the truth smacks him in the face. Here are some of the truths and other considerations that Bookman either failed to consider or chose to conceal from his column:
1. The prior news reports of the speech, including one from Tucker Carlson, were based upon a supposed written transcript of the speech handed out by the Obama team. But the written transcript was only a pre-scripted version of what Obama was supposed to say. It did not include the “off-script” comments that Hannity and others commented on last night. Moreover, the 40-minute tape that Carlson uncovered had never been made public before. Only an abridged snippet had been previously available, with the most controversial (and untrue) comments excluded.
2. Obama (and Bookman, to his shame) repeat the lie that “racism” ( a word that has lost all meaning,thanks to its promiscuous mis-use by Democrats, liberal media and “mainstream” black spokesmen) was at the root of FEMA’s admittedly unsatisfactory response to Katrina. Katrina was a disaster of unparalleled proportions in terms of its effect on New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast. It affected whites as well as blacks. There was no amount of advance preparation that would have avoided all of the delays and mistakes that accompanied the relief effort. The poor decisions of the black Democratic mayor of New Orleans and the Democratic governor of Louisiana also played a significant role in the problems that occurred. It is the height of absurdity and irresponsibility to perpetuate the lie that the response of the federal government was racially and politically motivated. Unfortunately, cries of “racism” have become the convenient but tired refuge of those whose position does not withstand reasoned scrutiny.
3. Obama’s speech falsely accused the federal government (i.e., Bush) of insisting upon compliance with federal regulations in connection with the grant of federal disaster assistance to New Orleans and Louisiana (for racist reasons, of course) that were waived when New York sought federal dollars in the wake of 9/11 and Florida sought federal assistance in the wake of Hurricane Andrew. In fact, the federal government plowed unprecedented amounts of dollars and other assistance into New Orleans and Louisiana. To state or imply otherwise is a flat out lie.
4. Obama’s highly affected tone, accent and delivery at the 2007 speech were rightly ridiculed by the commentators last night as being unauthentic and pandering. But in all fairness, Obama’s affectations were not quite as laughable as those of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden when they have tried to “sound black” in front of predominantly black audiences. If I had been a black member of any of those audiences, I would have been insulted by the craven posturing of those speakers, and by the obvious lack of respect they had for my intelligence and level of sophistication.
5. Bookman’s expression of concern that the right wing has been “trapped in a separate world of its own creation” is also a laughable proposition. Sure, there are nuts at every point on the political spectrum, but the so-called “conservative movement” and Tea Party activists are some of the few segments of our society that still have a grip on reality. I do not recall reading that many Democrats or MSM types (of which Bookman is decidedly a part) have called for taking the hard but necessary steps to bring us back from the fantasy world of a 16 trillion dollar public debt (and growing), continued “entitlement” spending at a rate that is utterly unsustainable, failing to take any meaningful steps to control our borders and discourage illegal immigration, allowing our defense capabilities to erode, lying about the sources of attacks on our embassies abroad (until the lies could no longer be maintained), suing states that attempt to assure honest elections through voter identification requirements, allowing radical environmentalists to hold our bountiful supply of energy resources and our entire economy hostage to their pipe dream of “green energy” (think Solyndra, Fisker, Chevy Volt and other disasters), reliance upon strangling and freedom-sapping regulation as the knee-jerk response to every perceived societal ill, and being the captive of Big Labor to the detriment of the rights of other citizens and the country as a whole (think Boeing, the auto bailout and public employee union “benefits” that are literally bankrupting our cities and states). Those who believe our country can continue to survive by maintaining its current downward spiral under Obama and “progressive” ideologues are the ones who are truly living in a fantasy world.
Neither Bookman’s column nor the sophomoric responses to it serves any purpose other than to further degrade the tone and substance of public discourse in our country. (And yes, many on the right are guilty of the same thing.)
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
2:08 pm
“My wife worked with Hannity’s wife back in Huntsville, AL and I had a beer with him at a place called Cheers in Huntsville.”
Were you there too??? Wow…it’s a small world.
Peace
October 3rd, 2012
2:08 pm
Stevie Ray..Clowns to the left and Jokers to the right:
“What would our country look like if all the minorities agreed racism ceased from existence?”
Probably a balanced budget and no national debt.
DownInAlbany
October 3rd, 2012
2:08 pm
1.The video includes footage the media never broadcast or reported on.
2.The video is selectively edited.
3. Obama grew up in Hawaii and Chicago. Where did the southern accent come from.
4. In order to stoke racial tension, Obama lied to the audience.
5. Obama is prone to spreading dishonest and false conspiracy theories.
6. At 19:20 in the video we can see that Obama does not know the Lord’s Prayer.
7. Obama continues his us vs them rhetoric
8. He acknowledges Rev Wright has his “friend and pastor.” Of course, O threw him under the bus after his election (along with Oprah, but, that’s a story for another day)
9. We know that it’s news when the media denies it.
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
2:09 pm
Towncrier — “They do not have the authority to assert their interpretations as “factual” but only as binding. It is patently obvious their interpretation cannot, logically, be “factual” when they issue two contradictory opinions – such as with segregation. My interpretation of your posts are NOT *binding* upon anyone (even me). Again, who doesn’t know that?”
You and Doom, apparently. Otherwise, why are you saying what you said above, yet continuing to argue about what I meant?
“Again, go downtown and tell the first young black man you see that you “think” he is a “n****r” and see how well that hairsplitting serves you.”
Whether a third party takes offense or not is absolutely irrelevant to the question of what I meant. I don’t care if your guinea pig is some black guy downtown (why is your black exemplar never found in Cobb County?) or the SCOTUS — none of them get you inside my head.
“You were painting Romney with a black brush”
I’m entitled to my opinion and entitled to express it. And eff you if you don’t like it.
“and, AFAIK, the courts in the US don’t make a fine distinction between opinion and fact when slander is being considered.”
You think you’ve got a defamation case? Bring it, cowboy. (laughing)
Now, nobody tell Towncrier that I once taught First Amendment Law. It’ll be our special surprise for him.
“If a statement can be proven to be true or false then it may be considered in a slander charge.”
You’re operating on old data; the word you’re looking for is ‘defamation.’ In any event, expressions of opinion are categorically not considered defamatory by courts. Further, the standard of proof for defaming public figures — such as Romney — is MUCH higher; he’d have to prove actual and knowing malice on my part. I doubt he would, since you haven’t been able to.
Finally, since truth is an absolute defense against defamation charges, I would eagerly look forward to the discovery phase of any legal proceeding — because my counsel would get to have a look at those tax returns.
Marty Huggins'
October 3rd, 2012
2:09 pm
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
2:04 pm
So if people who are successful at building a business, and they didn’t do it because they worked harder than others, or because they had a smarter idea,
How did they become successful while others did not?
Or in your opinion is the president not saying that those wih successful businesses did not become successful because they were smarter or worked harder than others?
Joseph
October 3rd, 2012
2:09 pm
I can imagine a lib sitting at his or her keyboard this morning with a look of doom and gloom on their face. Foam on their keyboard and panties in a wad with their heads about to explode. Just wondering how in the world are they going to spin this week. Libya cover-up, Biden middle class is buried gaffe, more Fast & Furious reporting, now Oblama white hating video… and now to top it off Oblama will probably look like a deer in headlights in tonight’s debate. Prediction. Even thought the polls have been obviously skewed Romney will have a 5-8 point lead by the middle of next week….
Keep Up the Good Fight! (and only seeing conned poutrage)
October 3rd, 2012
2:10 pm
Speaking of which, you got zero credit on the last three quizzes. Don’t you want more than a GED?
Or an awkward snark from a poster running around in leotards.
tick, tick, tick….
(Oh wait, Romney is on the tick issue I understand….. what a brave brave man to take a stand to fight to tund this non-issue.
)
GT
October 3rd, 2012
2:10 pm
Kimmer you predicted Jay?
Kimmer you are working on five year old material and you call Jay predictable? Five year old headlines, why stop there? Maybe you can rig the stock exchange up and buy stock on five year old news, pretty damn predictable stuff. Plus you have five years to react to it. About right for you or do you need another year to get your mind around it?
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
2:10 pm
tireofit, damn straight.
They have their weakest candidate in eighty years, an ideology that is in complete free fall, a fiscal and foreign policy legacy that is disgraceful and in the entire world, only the North Koreans agree with them that anthropogenic climate change is a hoax.
If you were a neocon, you’d be highly p*ssed too!
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
October 3rd, 2012
2:10 pm
Joseph
October 3rd, 2012
2:04 pm
stands for decibels:
Listen to Wrights statements as well as Oblama… You libs are truly hopeless… Does a stop sign actually say stop on it????
.
.
.
.
Joesph…YOU Listen to Reverend Wright…and report back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5HYQ4SjfZE
“What momma taught me”
That’s the link to Part 1 of a 6 part video…
My favorite part is at the end of part 4 and the beginning of Part 5.
.
.
.
Always best to confront ones own fears directly.
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
2:11 pm
This one really hurt the con’s feelings.
Too funny.
DownInAlbany
October 3rd, 2012
2:12 pm
If Bush/Romney/Ryan (insert any Republican of your choosing) blatantly pandered to a black audience in this manner, would you defend them? Cue the crickets…
Southern Pride
October 3rd, 2012
2:12 pm
Well, see there, Jay, Black Conservative (Oct. 3, 1:56 p.m.) just proved that Hannity isn’t a racist. Freedom of association being what it is, Hannity had a beer with Black Conservative–unless it was just a token beer.
Doggone/GA
October 3rd, 2012
2:12 pm
” Rev Wright didn’t like white people ”
Sure, he just HATED all the white people who were members of his church while he was the preacher there. Yep, he HATED them all.
Jay
October 3rd, 2012
2:13 pm
smc, if you’re going to come on my blog and accuse me of journalistic incompetence, you better bring a lot more firepower than you brought this time.
The federal government did NOT approve waivers of the Stafford Act for New Orleans. If you don’t believe me, then perhaps you will believe Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/02/video-surfaces-obama-in-2007-suggesting-racism-slowed-aid-to-post-katrina-new/#ixzz28GEgEWF3 :
“But at the time of Obama’s speech, there were still concerns about federal response to the disaster under the Stafford Act, which governs relief efforts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was unwilling to waive the law’s 10 percent local match provision for aid, like it did after the Sept. 11 attacks and other hurricanes.
“One reason cited for FEMA’s reluctance to waive the 10 percent match in New Orleans is concern about corruption,” the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies said in a 2008 report on the relief efforts.
That report also noted that then-Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco was pushing in early 2007 for a federal law eliminating the 10 percent match. The House passed the bill, but it stalled in the Senate and President Bush had threatened to veto it.
Keep Up the Good Fight! (and only seeing conned poutrage)
October 3rd, 2012
2:14 pm
I can imagine a lib sitting at his or her keyboard this morning with a look of doom and gloom on their face.
I think John Lennon considered this line but then decided it really did not fit into the song.
I like to imagine much better things…. but that is just me.
Aquagirl
October 3rd, 2012
2:14 pm
not even close to being equal to those exhaled from fins!
Exhaled through fins?
I knew cons suck at human anatomy so I shouldn’t be surprised you think an aquatic lifeform breathes through fins.
Maybe that’s part of the Loch Ness Monster lesson plan in con science.
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
2:14 pm
Doggone, and all of the white US Marines he served with!
Ask Joseph.
Krystal'sBalls
October 3rd, 2012
2:15 pm
So what you are saying @Black Conservative is that Sean Hannity is a SOCIOPATH, right? It has to be the case. I contend that it speaks a LOT of a person’s character who would do such a thing, especially given the history of this country and the extreme volatile climate it can create.
Civil wars are born of racial/ethnic/political strife. Hannity is a DIRT BAG. Period. Can you even be certain that golly gee chummy time was even genuine?
Ray Tardinski
October 3rd, 2012
2:15 pm
Hmm. Devastating enough to get massive response from the left wing to convince us it means nothing. Up here at Firestone CC in Akron with (golfing with my fellow 1 percenters and laughing at the libs back home reading this blog) we are watching the local media keep showing this over an over again – damage is being done, deny it if you will flea bags.
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
2:15 pm
“Finally, since truth is an absolute defense against defamation charges, I would eagerly look forward to the discovery phase of any legal proceeding — because my counsel would get to have a look at those tax returns.”
LOL!!! Too bad you failed to comprehend that I explicitly said (in jest) quite a few posts back that no one was going to bring a slander charge against you. I would have assumed you knew that, but apparently not…What did LZ say? Ramble on…
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
October 3rd, 2012
2:16 pm
“Rev Wright didn’t like white people ”
This picture seems to say that’s piffle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jeremiah_Wright_as_a_Marine_Medic_Tending_to_Pres_Lyndon_Johnson.jpg
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
2:16 pm
The gop focused on getting our President and hung their collapse around our President’s neck.
They do nothing but lies and call him a failure.
Yet, they will still lose but Americans have seen the real cons and they don’t like them.
You cons showed your true colors and they are nor red , white and blue.
Unpatriotic and unAmerican.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 3rd, 2012
2:17 pm
bad news for teh Cons:
Auto sales surge in September
http://www.freep.com/article/20121003/BUSINESS01/310030028/Auto-sales-surge-in-September?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
2:18 pm
If you got to the Creation Museum in Kentucky you will see a display of Adam and Even riding on the Loch Ness Monster. Along with Pebbles and Bam Bam…
Doggone/GA
October 3rd, 2012
2:18 pm
“Doggone, and all of the white US Marines he served with!”
Yeah, them too!
dawggirl95
October 3rd, 2012
2:19 pm
I’m shocked! Shocked I say! That you would see nothing wrong with the video. Nothing wrong with saying the complete opposite to a friendly crowd than you did when campaigning. Publicly disavowing everything your “reverend” said while privately being counseled and comforted by him. There could be a video of Obama beating an old woman while stealing from a child and you’d shout “nothing to see here, folks, nothing to see.” The Emperor has no clothes and has been naked for a long time, but you and others like you refuse to see what is in front of you.
Aquagirl
October 3rd, 2012
2:21 pm
There could be a video of Obama beating an old woman while stealing from a child and you’d shout “nothing to see here, folks, nothing to see.”
That is absolutely untrue. I’d be touting his multitasking abilities.
Marty Huggins'
October 3rd, 2012
2:21 pm
Jay
October 3rd, 2012
2:13 pm
““One reason cited for FEMA’s reluctance to waive the 10 percent match in New Orleans is concern about corruption,” the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies said in a 2008 report on the relief efforts.”
————–
Were there suspicions of corruption in the other states like New York and Florida as the examples cited? I don’t know was hoping you may.
If there was not suspicions of that type does it not poke a whole in the argument of they didnt care about New Orleans?
I wonder why during the speech Obama didn’t mention the concerns of corruption?
Think it may have played better or worse for the us against them rhetoric?
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
2:22 pm
Granny, LBJ was not white.
Sure he looks that way in the pictures, but like the moon landings, It was all doctored up ala Photoshop. He was really a black anarchist commie who got Those People their Sybil Rights!
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
2:22 pm
“I knew cons suck at human anatomy so I shouldn’t be surprised you think an aquatic lifeform breathes through fins.”
LOL. I guess I was thinking of your elegant use of the term “butts” when I was typing (rather than gills). BTW, how exactly does one “suck” at human anatomy? Certainly not like a dead fetus, right?
Drudge
October 3rd, 2012
2:22 pm
Damn Jay, you could really defend anything. Don’t you ever tire of defending an obvious imposter? A Charlatan who plays you all like a fiddle? I’ve been familiar with Obama for 20 years dating back to my days in Chicago – he was a scumbag then and he is a scumbag now. He would always do and say whatever he needed to in order to get his votes. The overt racism doesn’t scare or even surprise me, it is the obvious two-faced nature of the man in plain view. Go ahead, spin this into whatever you want…
GT
October 3rd, 2012
2:22 pm
What else happened five years ago I missed the news, been living in a cave, but I do know racism is to longer a factor in our society…
What was the weather five years ago? Do I need a coat?
stands for decibels
October 3rd, 2012
2:23 pm
Sure, he just HATED all the white people who were members of his church while he was the preacher there. Yep, he HATED them all.
…and he HATED most all the folks in the predominantly white United Church of Christ, which of course was Trinity’s denomination.
And we best not even talk about “liberation theology,” since that sounds scary.
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
2:23 pm
Towncrier — “LOL!!! Too bad you failed to comprehend that I explicitly said (in jest) quite a few posts back that no one was going to bring a slander charge against you.”
Punkin, you’ve been nothing more than a series of hoots and clicks to me all day. (laughing)
“I would have assumed you knew that, but apparently not…What did LZ say? Ramble on…”
Said the master of the art.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 3rd, 2012
2:24 pm
There could be a video of Obama beating an old woman while stealing from a child and you’d shout “nothing to see here, folks, nothing to see.
And he would still win….
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
2:24 pm
Towncrier — “LOL. I guess I was thinking of your elegant use of the term “butts” when I was typing (rather than gills).”
Too bad you failed to comprehend that fins are not respiratory organs.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
October 3rd, 2012
2:25 pm
I’ve been familiar with Obama for 20 years dating back to my days in Chicago…
I’ve been “familiar” with Morgan Fairchild for 20 years dating back to my days in Hollywood.
Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Joseph
October 3rd, 2012
2:26 pm
Granny Godzilla – Union Thugette
I have a much better video….
http://youtu.be/406rbJ73CZ8
Drudge
October 3rd, 2012
2:26 pm
Aquagirl – now that was funny.
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
2:27 pm
drudgey,
Melt down.
Joseph
October 3rd, 2012
2:27 pm
Doggone/GA:
I’m sure he loved taking their money…. Just as Oblama does now….
That Black Guy
October 3rd, 2012
2:28 pm
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
10:45 am
S. Ray — “That’s not remotely what I’m suggesting. My point is that I can’t conceive what we would look like if racism didn’t exist. It certainly exists (and on more levels than I can possibly understand) but too often suggested without merit.”
Who gets to determine when accusations of racism are meritorious or not?
_________________________________________________________
Not sure about SR, but I get tired of the “so called” pundits and talking heads make anything said about Obama racist.
“skinny” = racist
Chicago = racist
“angry” = racist
Heck, I’m as Black as they come, but I was called racist because I dared to show a lack of total and complete support of Obama’s policies.
Aquagirl
October 3rd, 2012
2:28 pm
BTW, how exactly does one “suck” at human anatomy?
You think a uterus contains anti-rape chaff.
And please, don’t use any more quotation marks. We’re running low after Sailor’s 1:55.
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
2:29 pm
“Punkin, you’ve been nothing more than a series of hoots and clicks to me all day. (laughing)”
The feelings are mutual, Subtillis
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
October 3rd, 2012
2:29 pm
What else happened five years ago I missed the news
Apple to release revolutionary smart phone.
The Spice Girls announced their reunion.
Radiohead is changing the music industry forever
Conservatives touting Mitt Romney and his private health insurance plan.
Huckabee looking like a strong sleeper candidate.
Jay
October 3rd, 2012
2:30 pm
” If Romney’s attended a church for 20 years pastored by what amounts to a white supremacist you would be all over him much less if he, in a speech recognized him as a ‘great leader’
Kimmer, may I remind you that Romney is a member of the Mormon Church? May I remind you that until 1978, it was Mormon doctrine that black people — supposedly bearing the “Curse of Cain” — were inferior and were not eligible for full church membership? May I remind you that Romney and his family nonetheless remained stalwart, prominent members of that church? Do you understand that the first Mormon leader on record as demanding that discriminatory policy was Parley Pratt, Romney’s direct ancestor?
I don’t bring that up easily and have never referenced it before because I don’t believe it is relevant and I don’t believe it tells us much if anything about Romney. But if I was interested in taking cheap shots at him, as you clearly are with Obama, I would have done so by now.
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
October 3rd, 2012
2:31 pm
Joseph
Nope.
I just want you to understand that if you base your judgement of a man
based on a 40 second loop….every judgement you make can, should and will be questioned.
You were afraid to hear the sermon weren’t you?
Really deeply terrified.
deegee
October 3rd, 2012
2:32 pm
I watched a documentary on TV last night about the Dark Ages of Western Europe. Somehow the Europeans survived centuries of war and starvation beginning with the fall of Rome. They survived the Visigoths, Emperor Justinian, bubonic plague, the Moors, the Catholics, the Vikings, the Knights, etc. Anyway, it all seemed to fall apart when the Roman emperors garnered all the wealth and shared little with their subjects. If you listen to Romney/Ryan that was a pretty good model.
Butch Cassidy (I)
October 3rd, 2012
2:33 pm
Take it easy on the Right Wingers today. I’m sure it can’t be easy seeing that Obama has 332 electoral votes to Romneys 191. Especially after the release of the ground breaking, earth shattering revelations from 5 years ago.
Peadawg
October 3rd, 2012
2:34 pm
Granny Godzilla – Union Thugette
October 3rd, 2012
2:31 pm
Someone who says ‘g-d America’ like that is not a good person in my book. I don’t really give a s*t what else they do or say. You say ‘g-d America’, you can rot in hell for all I care.
Jay
October 3rd, 2012
2:34 pm
Marty, the stories of post-9/11 and post-Andrew corruption involving federal aid are legend, as in very numerous and well-documented.
That Black Guy
October 3rd, 2012
2:35 pm
You were obviously intelligent enough to get a degree. What blows my mind is that you aren’t smart enough to SEE what is happening with America since this Bozo took charge. And you won’t. Your blindness is incurable unfortunately.”
Maybe you should invite Jay to come along to your next Klan meeting, maybe that’ll open his eyes…
___________________________________
This is a perfect example of what I am talking about.
Please point out what in the 1st paragraph warrented calling the poster a klan member?
Anything?
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
2:35 pm
“Heck, I’m as Black as they come, but I was called racist because I dared to show a lack of total and complete support of Obama’s policies.”
You…need…to…be…assimilated. Conform to the liberal worldview or be considered forever a “non-black” Uncle Tom. You know, social psychology is interesting – especially group behavior. I remember an experiment performed in a factory in the 1920s where they secretly planted very productive workers who were exceeding the norms of daily production by a long shot. Once the other workers found out, they would do things like hit the plants on their arms to slow them down. They wanted them to conform. It is no different with liberals or conservatives.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
October 3rd, 2012
2:35 pm
You think a uterus contains anti-rape chaff.
Hilarious, though.
Doggone/GA
October 3rd, 2012
2:36 pm
” I don’t really give a s*t what else they do or say. You say ‘g-d America’, you can rot in hell for all I care”
So you think…regardless of how awful something is that is done by America…we should only ask to be blessed? Sorry, that doesn’t wash in MY book. Somethings deserve to be damned.