Congress is making it difficult to raise debt limit because they’re racists
Oh no, she di'int...Oh yes, she did; she's playing the Race Card™ :
"I do not understand what I think is the maligning and maliciousness [toward] this president,” said Jackson Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. “Why is he different? And in my community, that is the question that we raise. In the minority community that is question that is being raised. Why is this president being treated so disrespectfully? Why has the debt limit been raised 60 times? Why did the leader of the Senate continually talk about his job is to bring the president down to make sure he is unelected?”
"I am particularly sensitive to the fact that only this president — only this one, only this one — has received the kind of attacks and disagreement and inability to work, only this one," said Jackson Lee from the House floor.
Really Ms. Jackson-Lee? What planet were you living on between 2001 and 2008?
Why is Obama different? Let me try to answer in terms a progressive would understand. To begin I'd ask her to recall the heady days following the 2008 election, when President-elect Obama promised the American people he'd enact real entitlement reform. In fact, as our old pal Karl reminds us, at the 2009 "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" Obama said:
Contrary to the prevailing wisdom in Washington these past few years, we cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences to the next budget, the next administration or the next generation.
We are paying the price for these deficits right now. In 2008 alone, we paid $250 billion in interest on our debt: One in every 10 taxpayer dollars. That is more than three times what we spend on education that year; more than seven times what we spent on V.A. health care.
So if we confront this crisis without also confronting the deficits that helped cause it, we risk sinking into another crisis down the road. As our interest payments rise, our obligations come due, confidence in our economy erodes and our children and our grandchildren are unable to pursue their dreams because their saddled with our debts.
That’s why today, I’m pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office. Now, this will not be easy. It will require us to make difficult decisions and face challenges we’ve long neglected. But I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay, and that means taken responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control.
So get that? Obama promised to be a red-ink-eradicating, Deficit Hawk!; It was just one of the many hats our BRILLIANT!, POLYMATH! PRESIDENT with SUPERIOR TEMPERMENT! pledged to wear so that we could all be the ones we were waiting for. I mean, really, that wasn't the only time he was morally offended by the notion of raising the debt ceiling. So you see Ms. Jackson-Lee, it's fundamentally because of the HYPOCRISY !
But no, the Congresswoman would have us believe that there has never been seditious speech in the manner of McConnell's comment about his job being to make sure Mr. Obama was not re-elected; NEVER! Because truthful, open, talk about political intent is much, much worse than the Democrat's, and Obama himself as he postured for his upcoming Presidential run, attempts to undermine our troops in the field during the surge in Iraq by continually proclaiming before any MBM outlet that had a camera running that "THE WAR IS LOST!" and "THE SURGE HAS FAILED!"; even though, in reality, "The Surge" had barely gotten underway. Sure Sheila, it's far worse to hope your political opponent, and his agenda, is defeated than for national level politicians to make reckless assertions that bolster the very enemies our warriors were engaging in the field by signaling that one US political party was willing to engineer losing a war in order to win an election.
Sure, they're only doing it because Obama's a black man...In fact they made the decision to do so, and hatched their eeeeeevolllll plan at a KKK meeting 2 weeks ago...Including the black Republicans...At that same Klan meeting...
It doesn't have a thing to do with our national debt within 10 points of current GDP? Or the voters overwhelmingly desiring a significant reduction of spending, as reflected in both polls and last November's elections. Nope, nothing to do with reality, Ms. Lee, but everything to do with the "reality based" narrative folks like you choose to read into any political opposition you face...
Krauthammer was right when he said that the Race Card™ is the last refuge of a liberal scoundrel...
[Cross posted at The Conservative Commune]
A picture truly is worth a thousand words, and maybe several trillion dollars
Because in addition to ridiculing the preposterous comparison made by Dingy Harry of opponents of Obamacare to proponents of slavery, this cartoon speaks volumes about the imperious Democrats in control of all three branches of our government and the statist direction they seek to take us in. Especially so, in light of the attempted slight of hand that would call expansion of the nearly bankrupt programs of medicare and medicaid, as a proxy for a bridge to a single payer government healthcare system, a "compromise" solution, while at the same time quietly assuring your own that it is indeed a "public option". And even moreso when you consider the chilling talk about the "command and control economy" spoken of by the haughty EPA director after announcing the institution of regulations that are effectively a back-door to cap-n-trade, with all of the taxes and none of the trade; a sterling example of the executive branch gone wild, governing by fiat, arrogantly bypassing Congressional authority and oversight in flagrante delicto.
I can't say it any more succinctly than Cap'n Ed:
Our founders wrote the Constitution to limit the power of Congress to avoid precisely this kind of outcome. When elected officials tell their serfs subjects constituents that Congress has the power to write any kind of laws they want, it exemplifies the founders’ most basic fear of centralized, federal governments. They knew that serfdom could come through the ballot box, and they’re about to be proven prescient.
I'll remind all that the debate is raging on, but that the Democrats are hoping that waning public attention during the holiday season will allow them to sneak this abomination of personal liberty, as well as the certain destruction of the best on-demand health care system in the world, through "under the radar". So call, write, and/or e-mail your Representative and Senator on a near daily basis reminding them of your desire that they vote "No!" on this legislation; perhaps reminding them that of they do so against your wishes that you will not only vote against them in the next election, but will work tirelessly for their opponents. Don't give up now, continue with Operation Waterloo.
(H/T Cap'n Ed and Darleen at PW)
Related [from Dan]: Federal salaries explode
A Rush to judgement on hearsay alone?
The participation of radio entertainer Rush Limbaugh in a partnership interested in buying a stake in the NFL St. Louis Rams has caused a media firestorm this past week. As part of that, Rush has been called out for his past statements, characterized by some as racist. Of course there is his past criticism of Eagles QB Donovan McNabb as an overrated media darling who the media wished to succeed based on race, an opinion that I happen to disagree with, a characterization which got him summarily fired from his ESPN prime-time commentary gig. But what should concern even the most disinterested parties are the oft repeated, but as yet still unsourced, alleged Limbaugh quotes involving James Earl Ray, the institution of slavery, and today’s newest talking points involving his membership at an exclusive Florida country club.
These fabricated quotes were introduced into the zeitgeist by talking heads, of course, at MSNBC and CNN, putting Rush in the unenviable position of having to prove a negative. And sensing an opening, professional race-hustler Al Sharpton, armed with extorted corporate cash from his National Action Network, quickly joined the battle. Now, following Dave Checketts’ letter removing Limbaugh as a member of the proposed ownership group, the Reverend Al is declaring Victory! over his long-time nemesis. But were the racialist assertions of a grievance pimp, and the ensuing posturing pandering palaver of other owners as well as the NFL commissioner himself, the prime force in this action?
Or, could it have something to do with billionaire George Soros reported involvement or desire to be involved in the Rams ownership group. It is unclear whether the shadowy Soros has been involved all along, or has recently expressed interest. But, while much more low key than Rush, Soros is no less controversial or polarizing a figure. So while many of the usual suspects on the “proggy side of the street†may be celebrating the put down of their long time foe, their resort to both an essentially ideological disqualification as well as the nuclear option of invoking racism may well mean that their Patron, Mr. Soros, may have to be scotched as well lest the obvious double standard soil the entire brand.
The bottom line on all of this is that if the league is going to rely on alleged statements to disqualify a person from owning an NFL franchise, they ought to at least make sure that those egregious remarks were actually made! And they need to use independent investigators, because as with the Breitbart/Acorn sting, this episode has gone a step further in exposing the inherent bias of the legacy media as well as their willingness to propagate naked hearsay in order to advance the desired narrative. As Toby Harnden put it:
The irony is, of course, that the people reporting this as fact are the same types who are always denouncing bloggers and the internet as forces of evil intent on destroying proper journalism – proper journalism being the kind that involves checking facts. In the case of Rush Limbaugh, however, it seems to be enough that the intention (i.e. to show the talk radio host is a racist) is considered pure.
[emphasis-ed.]
Especially vile is CNN’s Sanchez’s repeating of the unfounded rumor after receiving a free ride from the press for his own sin of running over a pedestrian while driving drunk, and then leaving the scene of the accident. But all that aside, it’s OK to dislike Rush the entertainer for the things he actually says, after all, I'm sure he provides so much material on his daily 3 hour show that there’s no need for his ideological opponents, bent on once more making the political-personal, to make anything up; in their zeal to attach to him the most toxic, and lately the most recklessly applied, label there is in America…
UPDATE: The long walkback has begun. HuffPo removed the phony quotations after only 3 years and 3 months; I'm glad their editors were so thorough. And that twit Sanchez has twittered, "our bad", as a backhanded apology for the whole affair. It doesn't matter anyway, their work is done; Limbaugh's chance at part ownership of an NFL franchise has been thwarted...
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Keepin’ it real in Obama’s post-racial AmeriKKKa.
I guess Brother-man in Mississippi never got the memo:
An African-American man from Mississippi admits posing as a white supremacist to send a death threat across state lines by Facebook.
...
Hart admitted creating a name and using a white supremacists' photo to pose as a white man who planned to kill blacks because Barack Obama had been elected president.
Maybe he's just a method actor preparing for an upcoming part...NOT! Or, maybe this is just another facet of the national conversation on race that the Popinjay-in-Chief palavers on about whenever he needs to rally the race-baiting troops; Eugene Robinson, Al Sharpton, and Jesse the J to the rescue!
(H/T Enoch in the comments)
We knew the card game, and now recognize the dealer.
It seems like ever since Chris “Tingle†Matthews declared, “My job is to make the Obama Presidency a success!â€, the legacy media has been doing it’s best to ensure that result. But, in a rare moment of candor and, you know, actual reporting, they seem to have pinpointed the real source of all the race card dealing and opponent vilification of late:
Â
The White House officials are eager to avoid the perception that the president is directly engaging critics who appear to speak only for a vocal minority, and part of their strategy involves pushing material to liberal and progressive media outlets to steer the coverage in their direction, senior advisers said.
When critics lashed out at President Obama for scheduling a speech to public school students this month, accusing him of wanting to indoctrinate children to his politics, his advisers quickly scrubbed his planned comments for potentially problematic wording. They then reached out to progressive Web sites such as the Huffington Post, liberal bloggers and Democratic pundits to make their case to a friendly audience.
Â
[emphasis-ed.]
Behold, a trifecta of admissions casually tossed out as if they were common knowledge; and confirming suspicions held by this writer and others. First, an admission that the Obama administration is directing the tone and content of the coverage to achieve the narrative they desire. And, it seems that the CRAZEE H8TING WINGNUTZ were not far off the mark in voicing concern over the President’s address to the nations schoolchildren; otherwise why would the speech text need “scrubbingâ€. Finally, they are pushing out the talking points through a network of nutroot bloggers, Democratic pundits, and friendly legacy media outlets; utilizing their go-between channels of “jouno-listâ€, CAP’s “Progressive Mediaâ€, MoveOn.org, “Common Purposeâ€, and of course, the daily conference call featuring Rahm Emmanuel, George Stephanopoulos, Paul Begala, and James Carville.
As I noted yesterday, the distributed talking points are faithfully parroted in many publications such as, McClatchy and the NY Times; the latter providing the double service of not only pushing the desired meme, as MoDo did here while breathlessly bemoaning today’s lack of civility, but also declaring faithfully the intent of the President and all his men to steer clear of the growing “race debateâ€. I guess this is not part of the “conversation on race†that Obama wanted to have, in which case they shouldn’t have brought it up !
But this strategy is not working out the way it was intended, or as it usually has. While the usual suspects profess their usual OUTRAGE!, some writers are starting to openly mock the strategy as well as the melodramatic crying and gnashing of teeth. And this seems to only make the liberals even more angry, as Peter Wehner notes:
It’s fascinating to watch how furious liberals have become despite Obama’s being president and Democrats’ controlling the Senate and the House by wide margins. This period should be—they expected it to be—years of milk and honey for them. But events and reality have intervened. They see the Anointed One, Barack Obama—their “sort of Godâ€â€”failing. He is not only a mere mortal but also a deeply flawed one.
…
Many liberals simply cannot process this new data, this horrible turn of events. What we are seeing is the equivalent of a computer crash. As a result, they are returning to what has become for some liberals an emotional and psychological norm: anger and fury, overheated and reckless charges, bitterness and pettiness. It is embodied in people like Frank Rich and Keith Olbermann and Joe Klein, but some version of this affliction extends to many others.
Maybe it is simply misdirected anger, but the always astute Victor David Hanson sees it as more like a frustration:
A better explanation than right-wing racism for the Left's exasperation is that in the Bush wilderness years, the Left assumed permanent political marginalization, adopted an ends-justify-the-means strategy of street rhetoric against Bush, then found themselves unexpectedly as the establishment, and now are appalled that anyone might emulate their own past emotional outbursts.
[emphasis-ed.]
That same old hypocrisy of, “What’s good for me, is not for theeâ€; as always, some animals at the farm are more equal than others. As I’ve said before, this canard is wearing thin. People are starting to notice that criticism of the President’s agenda results in one being branded a racist, and reject it. This definitely won’t help Michelle’s children…
So to the President and his administration I say, what’ll it be? A straight up debate; a clean game?  Or will you keep dealing those race cards from the bottom of the deck?
UPDATE: The inimitable Ric Locke weighs in on the careless use of the race card.
Adding fuel to the Outrage! or beginning the race card’s swan song?
For some time now I’ve been noting the gratuitous use of the race card by the Presidents supporters against any who might dare to oppose his legislative agenda. That practice, as well as the whole comic opera that is identity politics in America may have reached a crescendo yesterday, with the same pronouncement by Jimmy Carter; a former President who has rehabilitated his personal reputation with the American people over the years, but not necessarily his reputation for political acumen, or leadership skills. Carter, who essentially called Congressman Wilson out as a racist, southerner-to-southerner, went on say that racism plays an important role in the opposition Mr. Obama has faced.
"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 told NBC News. "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 shares the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans."
"That racism inclination still exists, and I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of 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."
Indeed, following Wilson’s admittedly boorish behavior during the Presidents address, for which he quickly apologized-an apology accepted by Mr. Obama, Speaker Pelosi wished to steer the house debate back toward health care; but some house members would have none of it. Of course, we all know that Wilson was censured in the well of the House chamber, and deservedly so; but it was not unprecedented and perhaps if Bush critics had been held to a similar standard the Wilson censure wouldn’t seem so hypocritical.
The problem is that the public, especially the independent voters, is becoming increasingly skeptical to these breathless charges, as this latest Rasmussen poll indicates. And well they should be, regardless of what the punditry or the political elite maintain; unless of course this is the national conversation on race that Mr. Obama thought we should be having. If this exchange with Eric Dyson on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe†is any indication, then the over-arching meta-narrative may indeed be in trouble. If you can’t spare, or stomach, the entire 9 minutes then may I suggest that the real meat is around the three minute mark where Maria Bartiromo refutes Dyson’s risible assertion that no one ever called a President a monkey using one of her own colleagues, Erin Burnett, as an example. Then, fast forward to 7:45 and listen to the last two minutes; here Maria scores a direct hit as she ask Dr. Dyson if the 20-odd percent of folks who have come to disapprove of Obama since February have suddenly become racists!
James Boswell, in his book, “The Life of Samuel Johnsonâ€, states that Johnson was referring to false patriotism when he made his often quoted statement; “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel!†  The Krauthammer twist on that same theme is, “The Racism accusation is the last refuge of a liberal scoundrelâ€. And the more people realize the gratuitous way it’s applied in our country, the closer we will come to realizing Dr. King’s dream of a colorblind society. Let’s all hope that this is the signal of the coming swan song for the race card and identity politics in America.
UPDATE: Well, maybe I spoke too soon. According to ACE, Maxine Waters wants the legacy media to intimidate investigate the ordinary citizens RAAAAACIST Teabaggers! who aren't down with Obama's agenda. She wants the MSM to "vet" them, like they "vetted" Joe the Plumber, but, you know, not Obama or Van Jones...
UPDATE II: Jules Crittenden and Legal Insurrection have more on why the left should quit taking refuge behind the race card.
UPDATE III: Darleen Quick at Protein Wisdom weighs in with some more examples of the intensity of the identity politics card game going on right now.
UPDATE IV: The always insightful Ric Locke weighs in on the dynamics of how we got to this point in general.
UPDATE V: You know that the card playing is getting out of hand when independants like Ann Althouse are voicing their displeasure with the racialist demagoguery being employed by Obama's political allies.
The Legacy media’s “intellectual incuriosity”; part deux.
You would think that after the fallout stemming from the lack of reportage on the Van Jones story, as well as the revelation of falling public trust in their accuracy and objectivity in a recent Pew poll, that the legacy media would be on top of the most recent scandals involving ACORN; especially since they were dropped from participating in the census and the Senate overwhelming voted to cut off their access to public funds. But that is not the case.
As usual, all we hear “crickets†and deafening silence…
Don Surber points out that the NY Times has one of the largest reporting staffs in the US, but amazingly does not have anyone available to cover the growing ACORN scandal, an organization who counts among their alumnus the current President of the United States, and instead are going with wire stories. And, in an almost absurd statement, ABC’s Charles Gibson proffered that he didn’t even know about it!
Instead, major media outlets seem to have become obsessed with reporting, and “outingâ€, the hate-mongering racists that are behind the dissent to Mr. Obama’s legislative agenda. Speaking about this past weekend’s protest in Washington DC, Howard Kurtz strains to reach for a racist motivation, an exercise which ACE thoroughly destroys. Conversely, I doubt that Mr. Kurtz or any of his colleagues will see anything wrong with Congressman Johnson’s (D-Ga.) assertion that unless Joe Wilson is censured, and his underlying “ideas†rebuked, then folks will once again don white hoods and go riding through the countryside. Is the Congressman’s assertion asinine and hyperbolic? In a word, yes. Will he be taken to task by the legacy media for inflammatory remarks that demonstrate a racialist outlook? Somehow, I don’t think so. Heck, Keith Olbermann will probably crown him as the best person in the world! It’s just the usual pathetic media double standard, as Mark Salter observes at RCP.
This is a subject that I’ve written a few posts on, and unfortunately will likely have the opportunity to do so in the future. But the Democrats and their media allies should reconsider the bias in their reportage. Not only to slow the decline of the legacy media outlets, but to ensure that those charge others of racism, perhaps the most toxic pejorative in America today, does not go the way of the boy that cried wolf in the fable.
Exit Question:Â Is Allah Pundit right when he pronounces the much heralded post-racial Presidency dead and buried?
UPDATE (SHOCKAH!): Boston.com  breaks meta-narrative ranks reporting on how Obama's Kenyan relatives live in ABJECT! poverty. You'd think he would do them a solid and let them hold a little somethin'...
Considering that Obama often admonishes us on how, "WE are our brothers keeper", and on, "Spreading the wealth around", you'd think that the legacy media would be all over it; as they often say about conservatives, "Because of the Hypocrisy!". I wonder when MSNBC will tackle this one..?
At POWIP, we report, you decide…
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