To Obama and the left -civility is a one way street
By: Ed Farnan | Published Tuesday, November 1, 2011, 7:08 PM | Updated Tuesday, November 1, 2011, 7:08 PM
As we approach Thursdays speech by President Obama to the joint session of Congress, many are wondering if the President will acknowledge the uncivil rhetoric that has been emanating from his allies.
It hasn't been that long since the Presidents erudite speech in Tucson had many swooning over his rhetoric calling for a new civility. But since that time, it seems his "new civility" must pertain to any that oppose his policies.
His allies are free to say anything without repercussion from the White House.The President himself has been an offender of his "civility" mantra, going so far as to castigate and criticize sitting audience members of Congress during the last joint session. Congressmen and women, out of courtesy and protocol, are not able to answer back the insults the president hurls their way. These speeches are one way conversations with the President setting the tone and topic, which to many is more than uncivil and seems very partisan.
The President publicly demanded a joint session on the very night the Republican debates had been scheduled....for months. The Speaker of the House, bridled at the Presidents bullying tactics and said, "you can do it on another night, but not Wednesday".
So Obama gets another captive audience Thursday to unveil what many think will be a re-run of more Keynesian failed economic policies to "stimulate" our failing economy. Or could he surprise us and use this opportunity to set a new tone of civility and spirit of non partisan cooperation. He is the President and he has the Pulpit.
If the President wants to set the tone and disarm his critics, he could execute a brilliant move and do something uncharacteristic for him: Acknowledge that his allies are using harsh, uncivil rhetoric in order to create animosity and division among the populace. Some say it is deliberate, class warfare of divide and conquer. Let the president call for a new era of civility from his high profile allies who wield great power:
President Obama should by name, ask Congresswoman Maxine Waters to apologize for telling American citizens to go to hell. President Obama should by name, ask his Vice President Joe Biden to apologize to American citizens for calling them terrorists and barbarians.President Obama should by name ask his friend, Jimmy Hoffa Jr., who delivered the Presidents warm up speech in Detroit, to apologize to the American people for calling them sons of b*tches and saying we're going to take them out.President Obama should by name ask Congressman Andre Carson to apologize to American citizens when he said Americans want to see blacks hanging from trees and they yearn for the return of Jim Crow laws.So Mr. President take this opportunity to disarm your critics and step up to the plate to become the great uniter many thought you were capable of being when they voted for you.
America looks forward to a new tone of civility coming out of Washington D.C, starting with their President.
For other points of view visit Carroll Standard: www.carrollstandard.com
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.aloistmartin | Oct 20, 2011, 03:58 AM EDT
Barack Obama`s Fall of Man Democracy is as Hopeless as The Sodom and Gomorrah Tea Party
peterson | Sep 25, 2011, 03:33 PM EDT
It appears that America's pompous idiot of a president is on the way out with many members of his party distancing themselves from him. He has done much to help destroy this once great nation.
seanomelbourne | Sep 15, 2011, 08:04 PM EDT
The audience sounded more like a lynch mob.If perry had have been the prefecture in Jerusalem he would have executed Jesus,after all the autorities had sentenced him to death.
Monsoonman | Sep 15, 2011, 12:05 PM EDT
Lad: I heard that applause re: Perry carrying out Texas death penalty. The audience applauded because he carried out the law, not like other states who allow their mass murderers to die of old age on their death rows and thwart the will of the people and the victims of their heinous crimes. My opinion on healthcare for all? Insurance should be eliminated, that will overnight lower healthcare. Health insurance has done nothing but help costs skyrocket because people dont question or care what procedures cost. Healthcare was far better & affordable b4 health insurance
seanomelbourne | Sep 14, 2011, 07:53 PM EDT
Mman are they the same teaparty people who shouted yeah and clapped when Ron Paul was asked if he would let a person die who had no health insurance. Or when Parry(doctor death) was as asked a question on the death penalty and your teaparty mates cheered.They sounded like madam LaFarge sitting there knitting shouting "off with their heads"
eiriamach | Sep 13, 2011, 08:19 PM EDT
Testing, fourth try!
eiriamach | Sep 13, 2011, 08:18 PM EDT
A summary from thestand.org about the Washington State union port shutdown: "a taxpayer-subsidized international conglomerate, which is operating on public property, is suing the public so it can avoid paying the area’s standard wages and undercut its competitors that do. Then, it exacerbated tensions with the local labor community by importing union workers from another jurisdiction to cross the picket lines." Farnan and Monsoonman should be pleased to learn, however, that the ILWU's discourse about the matter has been quite civil. These union workers are not pawns in the pocket of Koch and Co. or the multi-national corporations. They're fighting a battle for American workers, with one in six now living in poverty in the USA.
Monsoonman | Sep 13, 2011, 08:10 PM EDT
Lad, I know hundreds, no thousands of Tea Party people and they are honest decent hardworking people, they don't know or care abt. Koch Bros., they care abt. America. You should start one up in Oz.
seanomelbourne | Sep 13, 2011, 07:28 PM EDT
The tea party are the soldiers of the Koch brothers and there ilk.
Monsoonman | Sep 13, 2011, 06:57 PM EDT
The Tea Party is the American people and is the American worker.
Ratslayer | Sep 13, 2011, 01:23 PM EDT
If Satan has a political party, it's the anti-worker, anti-union, anti-middle class, anti-American Dream Republican Party.
Monsoonman | Sep 12, 2011, 06:12 PM EDT
Lad? What about the hard working union members who work at that facility? Don't they just want to make a living too, or do they have to be in the "right" union in order for you to approve. When is it OK to bring baseball bats and cause major damage to a premises in violation of court orders to not trespass on the property. Get your facts straight
eiriamach | Sep 12, 2011, 10:06 AM EDT
ILWU (Internt'l Longshore & Warehouse Union) Local 21, which has worked the port of Longview for 70 years, protested when an international-corporation grain terminal it had a contract with ignored the contract and hired a rival outside-area group. The corporation (EGT), which has a tax exemption on the $200 million site, paid these scabs below-union-scale wages, devaluing all salaries in the area. It claimed to be saving $1,000,000 a year in wages as profit going to the corporate top at the expense of workers. After ILWU's protest escalated into damage to a fence on July 11, the company hired a Portland-based union (more scabs) to work the port for union wages. ILWU members-- 50, NOT 500-- stood on the RR tracks to block a train delivering grain to the terminal until 50 police officers in riot gear beat them with clubs, pepper-sprayed them, AND ARRESTED 16 for refusing to leave the RR property. Next day, ILWU workers dumped grain at the terminal. At thestand.org is this summary: "a taxpayer-subsidized international conglomerate, which is operating on public property, is suing the public so it can avoid paying the area’s standard wages and undercut its competitors that do. Then, it exacerbated tensions with the local labor community by importing union workers from another jurisdiction to cross the picket lines." Farnan and Monsoonman should be pleased to learn, however, that ILWU's discourse throughout has been quite civil.
seanomelbourne | Sep 11, 2011, 07:52 PM EDT
500 hard working family men been referred to as thugs for trying to protect their way of life,how sad.
DrSheilahere | Sep 10, 2011, 05:50 PM EDT
Anti-Obama writer"Why Obama Won't Be Re-Elected. Don't Waste Money On HIs War Chest" and "Explaining Obama's Brilliance For Those Too Slow to Get It" RT pls. http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/1017868/sheila_dunnells_phd.html
Monsoonman | Sep 10, 2011, 02:40 PM EDT
BTW: Have there been any arrests made of the 500 union thugs who stormed the shipping center in Washington state, kidnapped security guards and caused major damage to the facilities? Didnt those guards civil rights get violated? Where's eric holder? When there's double standards in law enforcement, there is no rule of law.
Monsoonman | Sep 10, 2011, 01:33 PM EDT
Andre Carson is restrained? What world do you people live in when you give credibility to a crackpot like him? The race industry is dying, America voted in a black president, remember? Time to stand on your own merits instead of relying on your victims badges. You are about to see the results of your socialism, because you are running out of other peoples money.
eiriamach | Sep 10, 2011, 08:30 AM EDT
African Americans like Andre Carson in Congress are becoming direct in their speech, and I'm surprised only that they were so patient and restrained for so long. Obama said nothing in his jobs speech about the unemployment rate among African Americans being three times what it is for whites on average! IF he had mentioned that fact, the right would have jumped all over him with jeers of "racist." Yet it is a fact staring us in the face, isn't it? And if we do not deal with it, then when (if ever) we come out of this recession, civil rights in the form of equal opportunity will be set back decades! Children are educationally disadvantaged as long as their families are not at least marginally middle-class. Tea Partiers wanted to repeal federal anti-discrimination laws before they realized that the recession has done the work of setting back ethnic minorities for them. It's a predictable consequence of a bad economy, and we should expect to hear more about it-- in civil or uncivil terms-- whatever it takes to get the message across. The war on union workers is similar: public sector union workers have been laid off and their salaries and benefits cut back, and many non-union workers have applauded. "The fools, the fools!" Gains by unions raised wages and brought benefits for all workers. Unions should have the support, not the resentment, of non-union workers. I have some "civil" words to say about all this, with a few **X@!!* thrown in!
Ratslayer | Sep 10, 2011, 12:40 AM EDT
Oh, poor right-wing wussies, bloody hypocrites. Gee, when are you nutters gonna bring yer assault rifles to the next Obama rally where he proclaims his faith in Communism, Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, and whatever ism you haters and racists lable him with. Hoffa is right: Beware Tea Baggers. A sizable majority of Americans cant stand yer crap. Ye days are numbered.
Monsoonman | Sep 09, 2011, 11:48 PM EDT
Hi Lad...Not trying to nitpick or b mean spirited w/you, but I am a close follower of many of these news sources/political movements and have NEVER heard any of them use the kind of language that I hear/see the left use regularly.
seanomelbourne | Sep 09, 2011, 10:13 PM EDT
Hi mman do you really have to nitpick,how about the unchristian teaparty elected officials or wannabes like palin
Monsoonman | Sep 09, 2011, 07:38 PM EDT
Lad: Show us specifically the equal violent/rude/rhetoric that comes from those on the right of equal political power? Waiting........VP-Congressperson-Head of largest union?...Waiting...
Monsoonman | Sep 09, 2011, 07:18 PM EDT
Lad: You do know while your hero trumka sat in the booth next to michelle during the joint sessions speech by obama, his thugs had taken security personnel hostage in Longview Washington and vandalized the place because the co. was working w/the wrong union. They r violent thugs & I am surprised you wd condone that. Please back up your accusations with facts like the author of this blog has done. He specifically wrote out the violent gutter language and named names. U show the same
seanomelbourne | Sep 09, 2011, 06:40 PM EDT
Ed is very selective in his condemnation of "un-civil speech". Hoffa for example is been demonised by Fox by showing a fraction of Hoffa's speech and leaving the rest of the speech on the cutting room floor. As they did with Rev. Wright and other liberals.Ed shows his hypocrisy by not naming the "uncivil speech" from the right. That would probably be a bridge to far. Why not name Hannity,Coulter,Briebart and Limbuagh to name just a few.Leave the glasshouse Ed you might be injured by broken chards oops! sorry that's Florida.
eiriamach | Sep 09, 2011, 01:05 PM EDT
Yep, Farnan stirred it up and the sludge on the bottom of the pot has risen to the top all bubbly and ready to hiss.
judiron | Sep 09, 2011, 09:53 AM EDT
It's not the whites that are raciest, it's the blacks. Do you really believe he got elected only by the black and hispanic votes. Give me a break.
judiron | Sep 09, 2011, 09:51 AM EDT
He knows full well the congress will not implement his speech proposal, who's he kidding. He, as always, needs to find someone to blame for his stupidity. He doesn't have a clue to what he is doing. Most American's would really like to know who is running our country, because it isn't him.
eiriamach | Sep 09, 2011, 08:42 AM EDT
Huge sweeping generalizations need no rebuttal, Monsoonman. If Farnan wants to be credible, he must quote the alleged racist remarks in context and explain why he thinks they are racist. Of course, that procedure invites those on the left to bring forth far longer lists of remarks from tea Partiers and other right-wing ideologues, and in the end there's no end to the tit-for-tat. Why go there at all is my point.
Monsoonman | Sep 08, 2011, 09:38 PM EDT
WTF is wrong w/ you eirmach? You see racism behind every tree, what is your fixation or is it just because you have no intelligent rebuttal to what is written.
eiriamach | Sep 08, 2011, 03:50 PM EDT
Stir that pot, Farnan, keep stirring lest the racists begin to lose interest in baiting Obama! Keep it simmering just so that the TPs can blame Obama for any hint of racism they can sniff out with their olfactories or invent in their imaginations. By golly, I'm surprised you're not still blaming him for Jeremiah Wright. Fr. Coughlan maybe? They both spent time in Chicago--isn't that enough of a connection?
dinglebay | Sep 08, 2011, 10:56 AM EDT
The current president has put himself in a very difficult situation. After the healthcare vote there is no longer credibility to fall back on. Now his speeches are empty words that even he seems not to believe. The speech should be from the oval office and not to congress. Real bad idea.