14 Nov 09
2 edits
From the 'Trial in NY' thread:
Originally posted by utherpendragon
the u.s. did not bungle anything [in the GWOT] nor does [the U.S.'s stature] need to be restored,rehabed or repaired.You would not know that though from listening to the current administration and the apology tours.
I've seen much disgruntled talk about these "Apology Tours" made by Obama on far right blogs and places like www.freerepublic.com...
But can anyone actually cut and paste any of these "apologies" from the transcriptions of any of President Obama's speeches in 2009?
14 Nov 09
Originally posted by FMFHere's an extract from an op ed by David Michael Green, entitled "Paranoia for Breakfast" from a few weeks back. Utherpendragon's unsubstantiated reference to these so called "apology tours" on the other thread reminded me of this.
can anyone actually cut and paste any of [the alleged] "apologies" from the transcriptions of any of President Obama's speeches in 2009?
Green is talking about what he calls the "regressives" that he has been in regular online contact with for some time. His language is colourful and irreverent - he has his own angry audience to serve, presumably - for me it detracts a little from what he is saying - but he raises an intriguing point, nevertheless. And it rings bells in terms of some right wing posters on this forum. Green talks of being 'floored' by some of the "regressives'" or "dittoheads'" behaviour...
It’s [their] capacity to simply make things up out of whole cloth, and then just have it become ‘truth’. Period.
Here’s an example. As usual, the dittoheads on the right (and how could any self-respecting person not see that term as a monstrous insult from Master Rush?) regularly trot out, in 5.1 Surround Sound chorus, the latest tropes assigned them by their marionette string-pullers. For quite some time now, those have included the silly one about how President Obama (who’s not really president, of course, since he was secretly born in Kenya) runs around the world apologizing for America.
Let’s leave aside for now the inferred premise that America has never done anything wrong (for example – just choosing a period at random here – over the previous eight years), and therefore why on earth would we have anything for which to apologize? I stay reasonably up to speed with the news. I watched the president travel the world. I remember some refreshingly quasi-honest rhetoric from him every once in a while, stuff that was hardly news to anyone outside the American Insular-o-Sphere. But no apologies.
So I asked. “Could you folks who continually say that the president is apologizing for America all over the world, could you please just quote me a couple of examples? It’s not that I doubt your veracity or anything [who could imagine regressives being dishonest?], it’s just that this claim of yours is not fitting so well with my understanding of the facts.”
Oh man, you should have seen what gyrations that little toe-dipping into empirical reality produced. One person said I should “do my own research”, even after I explained to her that I had indeed looked, to no avail, even though I always thought that one making an assertion bore the burden of proof, and even though one would assume it would be easy to present myriad examples, given the plethora of apologies supposedly tossed off by the president, like so many sets of Air Force One souvenir cufflinks.
Mostly there followed an obstinate silence, or personal attacks on anyone, like me, who would dare ask for examples. But my very favorite response was the proof finally generated by one of the regressives in the group. That President Obama apologized continually to the world for America was proven by the fact that – wait for it, now: “He traveled to Europe”.
You probably think I’m kidding you, but this was dead serious, and nothing I could say was capable of pointing out the absurdity of the assertion, not even mentioning that Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush (and every other modern president) “went to Europe”.
To be sure, making fun of dittoheads is like shooting elderly fish in a barrel filled to the brim with Quaalude-laced molasses and left in the fridge for a couple of days. But something profoundly unprofound is going on here, and I keep encountering it everywhere I go in Regressive World. These folks start and end any discussion with their paranoid ideas, and cannot be dislodged from them by mere evidence or logic, if they can be dislodged at all.
The rest of the article is here http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/24 if you have a liking for his florid tetchy style.
But he does lay down a challenge:
"Could you folks who continually say that the president is apologizing for America all over the world, could you please just quote me a couple of examples?"
Not quotes from angry bloggers, or Fox News, or journalists like Michelle Malkin.
Quotes from Presdident Obama?
14 Nov 09
Originally posted by FMF
From the 'Trial in NY' thread:
Originally posted by utherpendragon
[b]the u.s. did not bungle anything [in the GWOT] nor does [the U.S.'s stature] need to be restored,rehabed or repaired.You would not know that though from listening to the current administration and the apology tours.
I've seen much disgruntled talk about these " ...[text shortened]... these "apologies" from the transcriptions of any of President Obama's speeches in 2009?[/b]Are you refering to this?
&feature=related
14 Nov 09
Originally posted by utherpendragonAh yes.
yes I can but the video of our leader is so very inspiring.
>> They simply make things up - and then it becomes ‘truth’
>> They demand: “do your own research”
>> Then... obstinate silence
>> And of course... personal attacks
>> “He traveled to Europe”. It's proof enough!!
>> These folks start and end any discussion with their paranoid ideas, and cannot be dislodged from them by mere evidence or logic, if they can be dislodged at all. >> think whodey, utherpendragon, joe beyeser, schazzpaccio...
And now we have:
"watch the darn [YouTube] video and stop crying!"
QED.
Every speech by every U.S. president since Eisenhower is available on the net - cut and pastable...
And yet, these "Obama's Apology Tours" people... they stumble, they prevaricate...
14 Nov 09
1 edit
It's Obama apparently addressing the EU in Strasbourg, France:
"In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges there have been times when America showed arrogance, became dismissive, even derisive"
14 Nov 09
Originally posted by AThousandYoungIs this merely candour or 'an apology'?
It's Obama apparently addressing the EU in Strasbourg, France:
"In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges there have been times when America showed arrogance, became dismissive, even derisive"