9.08.2009

Credit where it's due

I'm behind in my posting today. I took Friday off, so catching up on the various blogs and news sources and such has led to a bit of a back-log. Oh, and also the working.

Anyhow, I recently lamented the complete and utter crack-pottery coming from various segments of the Far Right regarding President Obama's speech to America's children. I am still wondering what goes on in the minds of people who think that there is something wrong with the President of the United States addressing our nation's school children, or who fear "indoctrination." It would be laughable, were it not also so sad and disturbing.

So, in the spirit of conviviality and common decency, I will laud a certain (frequently a bit on the frothy side himself) former Speaker of the House who actually managed to inject some sanity into the conversation. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Newt Gingrich.
"President Reagan did it, President H.W. Bush did it," Gingrich said on NBC's "Today" show. "If he could give a speech tomorrow night in the tone of his speech today to the students, this country would be much better off ... It's a good speech, I recommend it to everybody if you have any doubts."
Holy crap! Look! A well-known conservative said something nice about the President, and the sky did not fall. It's been so bloody rare, I'd forgotten it was even possible.

9 comments:

  1. Laura Bush also had some very kind words for Obama and his speech.

    I'm hoping some people realize how utterly ridiculous they sounded.

    Barbara

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey, I admit it, the Repubs should do exactly what the Dems did when Bush the Elder gave his speech to schoolchildren. Right?

    And that would be, order the GAO to determine if any laws were broken or funds misappropriated, denounce the speech as a partisan effort, and hold hearings where WH officials are called to testify.

    There is something about geese and sauce here, I'm sure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Do let's see some sources on that, Gadfly.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your command is my wish.

    The St. Pete Times Politifact

    The Washington Examiner

    It would be really nice if you could re-enable the 'paste' command for comments. Typing in these long URLs is error prone.

    ReplyDelete
  5. No question a few Democrats used Bush's speech against him for partisan reasons, but the criticism, that Bush was just doing a pr stunt to help his ratings, is not all that off base. It is a far cry from right wing lunacy about indoctrination, or outright lies from knuckledraggers like gj who put up a quote the Obama wanted students to "write a letter on how you can serve the President" when there was no such quote, instead it was "write a letter on how you can help the President" and when confronted by his base lie the moron said it was a paraphrase, when he doesn't even know the meaning of paraphrase: a restatement of a text or passage giving the meaning in another form, as for clearness; rewording. I am waiting for your apology for being wrong. Oh wait, jackasses never admit mistakes. If our commands are your wish gj, go away and start your own blog.

    If Republicans said Obama was just doing a pr stunt to gin up his ratings, I would have had no problem with that. That is just politics.

    charo

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  6. And gj, of course copy and paste works, I copy and pasted the definition of paraphrase from dictionary.com. It is too funny you can't even handle something this elemental. To show you have stupid you are here is that link that I copied and pasted.

    charo

    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/03/arne-duncan/barack-obama-not-first-president-address-school-ch/

    ReplyDelete
  7. oh, see, I made a mistake, I forgot to break that down as it doesn't fit. Too funny. Anyway copy and paste does work, you just have to watch out for page breaks.

    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/03/arne-duncan/
    barack-obama-not-first-president-address-school-ch/

    charo

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  8. Anyway gj, here is the address for how to define paraphrase:

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/paraphrase

    Now, you see I admitted a mistake so now you must admit that you maliciously lied in your quote and made a mistake in your definition of paraphrase.

    charo

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  9. Gadfly, It took me a while but I did search the OMB site and found they were asked to investigate. HOWEVER, they did not investigate but issued a ruling on Poppy's speech to schoolchildren. The Washington Examiner? Such a forthright publication.

    ReplyDelete