No!
I can’t believe that anyone is so out of touch as to say this: Obama: World wants to see U.S. lead. This is a CNN article on a Wolf Blitzer appearance.
The world wants the US to come back into the fold of nations and cooperate with other people. They have had over 7 years of the “US leading”, and they don’t want any more. Someone needs to sit him down with copies of the world press reporting on the US and explain that it will be a very long time before any nation or international organization trusts the US not to screw things up.
Our economy and military are broken. The dollar is in the toilet. We have a debt that would shame a third world country. We can’t “lead the parade”, we can’t even afford “uniforms for the band”.
We don’t have any credibility left in the world, and the US, as a country, is hated in a very large segment of the planet. Lead‽ The US will be lucky if we are still allowed to follow for a very long time.
29 comments
America had a good reputation in Western Europe before this administration stole power. There’s every possibility to restore it if we manage to restore democratic government (yes, in Florida too).
*shrug* I told you so (with apologies!)
Dem’s are just Rethugs in sheeples clothing.
Michael, it is going to take a very long time to repair what has been done. Congress became Democratic in 2006 and nothing changed, so the rest of the world is not going to be convinced by a change in the White House.
All of the people who seem to run for President in the US are almost willfully ignorant of the rest of the world. None of those still in the race seems to appreciate what America’s standing in the world is actually like. It will take decades of “good conduct” to rebuild the standing we had in 2000.
Obama is so full of himself. He needs to get off his high horse and stop listening
to those voices in his head. He hears the world calling to him to lead them,
when the rest of us hear the world saying, get the hell out and mind your own
business. Doesn’t he have enough problems in his own country , to be wanting
to CHANGE and LEAD other countries?
What I want to know is when in his political career did he decide he was black
and not malato anymore? Last time i heard he had a white mother and a white
grandmother who raised him. Why does he only mention his grandmother when
it’s convenient to throw her under the bus to justify his Rev Wright. Yesterday,
on Wolf Blizter he used his mother on mother’s day message(only time i’ve ever heard him mention her). Perhaps , when he stopped calling himself Barry and
changed it back to Barak is when he thought it more beneficial for his political
career and getting the black vote is when he decided to only embrace the
black part of his heritage. The man has no scruples , he reminds me of a
snake oil salesman.. Say and do anything for the sale.
I used to be a Florida Democrat. Not any more.
Barack Obama and Howard Dean have used their power to deny rather than defend the rights of Americans to participate in our election process. He can try to silence us and throw away our vote, but Barack Obama’s oppression of the American people won’t be tolerated. The one thing we can count on as Americans is the right to vote. Obama can’t take that away from us – America will not tolerate his oppression!
Hillary – Independent ’08
I think it should be mandatory that before someone becomes President of the United States he should at least know what position the leader of one of your
closests allies hold. Not once but twice he called Steven Harper the President
of Canada. When it is said once you can say it’s a slip of the tongue. But, do it
twice and it’s just plain ignorance. Where are all these brightest and most
intelligent people who are suppose to be his advisors ? Your not even President
yet and you’ve already offended your closest ally . For your information
Mr. Obama Canada has a Prime Minister.. I suggest you stay off the programme
“Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader”.
I’m sorry but Obama is right in that America used to be somewhat the knight in shing armor. We promoted democracy and fought against tyranny. In the last eight years we made ourselves look like an oil hungry war mongerer. We need to be the good guys again.
Kathie, as a vestige of US history you are dropped in a pigeon hole when it comes to race. The ability to indicate “multicultural” on forms that ask for race is very recent. It is an artifact of slavery that if you are not “pure white” you are identified as “colored”. US society says Barack Obama is black, no matter what he, himself, may think. It is one of the many problems in our society. He had to deal with it when he left Hawaii and moved to the mainland US. Hawaii has its own problems with race, but they are different that what is encountered on the mainland.
That said, he’s a politician, and that’s all. He has been making political choices to win elections, not establishing some new path to greatness.
Hillary 08, he’s a politician and does want he needs to do to win. That has been his consistent history, so I doubt he will change. There will be a write-in block on the ballot.
Kate, at least they didn’t ask him about Michaëlle Jean, that would have really thrown him. I don’t expect him to know these things, but his staff should brief him. There’s a very old and honored dodge among politicians to call people the “leader” of their country, rather than risk getting the title wrong, but Prime Minister is the money bet for most of the world and the rule in the English speaking world where the US is single exception.
Bryan from Illinois, I first voted for LBJ, and Jimmy Carter was the only US President in the ensuing 40+ years who promoted democracy and opposed dictators. The current mess is a reaction to measures taken by earlier US governments to “oppose Communism” by supporting every tinpot dictator in the world who claimed to be against the “Reds”. Americans are the only group on the planet who don’t seem to understand that fact of life.
The US needs to sit down, shut up, and take care of some of its own problems, before attempting to tell other people what to do.
No need to insult Bryan..
My question was… Why is it that Barak Obama only embrases his black heritage
to the American people and not his white heritage. I believe the reason to be
so as to win over the black votes.
You don’t expect him to know what the title is of the leaders of the countries
which are the United States closest allies? I think these countries expect him
to know this.
Look where it got you putting a misinformed, inexperienced person in office
for 7 years.
If the U.S. is the exception to the English speaking world that has a President,
then it makes even more of a ridiculous thing not to know that Canada has
a Prime Minister. Afterall, he knew how to get in touch with the Canadian
Embassy and wink , wink nod nod about not meaning what he said about
NAFTA.
He has been carried around on a velvet chair through this whole election
process, if he thinks the rest of the world will treat him with velvet gloves
then he is in for a rude awakening.
I wonder how much Hamas has donated to his campaign since he is their
man that they want elected.
Sorry Bryan but I had to read what you wrote twice because I couldn’t believe
what you wrote.
Didn’t this man go to a ‘prep school’ and to an ‘ivy league’ collge on scholarships?
And you don’t expect him to know things like who the leader of a country is
who is one of your closest allies, he has to rely on advisors to tell him . Good
Lord man we are talking about Canada , not some hole in the wall on the other
side of the world, who we only hear about when their is a tragedy.
Perhaps, if you all expected more from your elective officials the world would
not have lost it’s respect for you .
Bryan
You misunderstood what I said .
I was not talking about how blacks in America look at Obama being black
and only calling him black.
What I said was that he is “selling” himself as black and down playing
the fact that he is of both black and white races in order to win as many
black votes as he can .
Didn’t Rev. Wright get him attending his church so as to get him
known in the black communities to become elected as a Senator?
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with him embrassing his black
heritage , I am saying this has been his strategy to only embrass it
publicly to aid his career.
I dunno why you’d be surprised, Bryan. The Blitzer interview isn’t likely to take any different tack than Obama (or one of his staffers) took in Foreign Affairs last summer, when he called for an increase in U.S. military spending, maintaining troop levels at current levels or raising them slightly, and wouldn’t rule out unilateral military action. Clearly he’s trying to block the wingnuts’ ability to run to his right–by going there first himself.
I must say, in defense of Obama, however, that the carping from foreigners would sound a lot less hollow if they were a little better informed about life inside the U.S. I agree that Obama should know that Mr. Harper is the prime minister of Canada. But who, outside of historians of slavery, has used the term “mulatto” in the last half-century?
Canadian’s are very well informed about the history of U.S. slavery.
Where do you think “The Underground Railway” ran to ?
Malato is the correct term for anyone who has both black and white
heritage in their blood. Of which I have a granddaughter which that term
also applies. We do not look at it as a derogetory term in Canada. It’s
simply a term to desecribe that a person is of both races.
Your statements would also sound alot less hollow if you were aware
of Canadian history.
I see we have a language problem. “Mulatto” is considered a derogatory term in US English, as are most other terms for people of mixed race, They were terms used in the Jim Crow racist laws and have suffered by the association.
Mildred Loving died May 2nd. She was one of the plaintiffs in Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), the US Supreme Court decision that overturned the anti-miscegenation laws in the US. Two points: (1) people of different races have only been able to be legally married in all states of the US since that decision which makes any child of such union illegitimate prior to that decision; and (2) while Mildred herself identified as a Native American, she was always described as an African American.
I would note that I can’t remember ever voting for a Republican, and I certainly didn’t vote for the Shrubbery.
I don’t expect much from any politician, and am rarely disappointed. Should every US citizen understand the government structure of Canada? Absolutely, and it was once required in New York State schools, but these days few Americans can give you the name of their own Congresscritter and Senators.
I don’t know, but I believe, that Obama joined Rev. Wright’s congregation because it was the correct thing to do for Chicago politics. I believe that he has made a series of correct political moves that have allowed him to be in the position he is in today. I don’t believe that he has the experience or temperament to be a successful President, nor that he can defeat John McCain. If you review the states that he has won, they are reliable Republican states. He seems unable to win in swing states or big states, so I can’t see him winning in November. His attitude about Florida and Michigan has moved those states to the Republican side.
At least one of the reasons I won’t be voting for the Presidential candidate of either major party this November is that all those that are left are too militaristic to be tolerated. The military has been broken by the Hedgemony, and I have no desire to see more troops die for the delusions of elected leaders. All three have sworn fidelity to the Israeli Likud, and I don’t want Americans to die so corrupt Israeli politicians can hand out Palestinian water resources to their family and friends.
Kathie, I’m not sure what you felt was insulting, but that was not my intent. I assure you that when I intend to be insulting, as a former member of the military and law enforcement, there is no doubt about my intent.
Kate, Obama went to Columbia and Harvard law. The Shrubbery went to a prep school, Yale and Harvard business. I’m beginning to suspect that there is something in Harvard grad schools that erodes the mind over time. Obama will probably act like Bush in twenty years. 😈 [that’s for sarcasm]
So… Is this a bad time for me to point out that in another thread I said that the US corruption of the English language was a bad thing (to paraphase)? 😀
Thanks for making my point (or at least, one of the points).
Disclosure: I was a coauthor on a paper for my Government in the 90’s investigation the causes and reasons for the US corruption of English. We learned some very interesting things. Apparently, someone in Howards Gov thought that some friends in the CIA and elsewhere might find it an interesting read. I am certain that the Chaney/Rove/Rumsfeld trinity had something to say about it, for several reasons. none of which I choose to enter into on a public forum.
I will say that anyone who thinks that the corruption of the language was an accident, or caused by the pressures of society, are wrong (for the most part). 🙂
There is a vast difference between causality and excuses.
Oh, I (and others) also spent over a year living in the USA, partly to research the paper which took some years to produce.
Cheers! 🙂
Step down off of that high horse, Kate. The town where I live was a stop on the Underground Railroad. The college where I got my bachelor’s degree was founded by abolitionists and is now home to an interdisciplinary center for the study of the Underground Railroad. And I’m a Ph.D. student in history–including that of Canada. And I’m still not aware of anyone still using the word “mulatto.” By the by, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “mulatto” is how it is properly spelt; your spelling hasn’t been seen since the 17th century. The OED also notes that it is “Now chiefly considered offensive.”
Bryan { 05.09.08 at 2:15 pm } Kathie, as a vestige of US history you are dropped in a pigeon hole when it comes to race.
That is what I found insulting..but anyway no matter.
Maybe, it is an insulting term in the U.S. but in Canada it isn’t.
You have to be more tolerant and realize that words and their meanings differ
in different countries. In Canada it is not a disrespectful term it only means
to be of mixed race.
Apparently, one can insult one without intent , even you , though you brag that
when you wish to insult there is no doubt. Insulting someone isn’t a gift one should boast about. one should only boast when they can converse without
having to insult.
Like I said if the term I used offended anyone, I’m sorry it wasn’t my intent .
Michael:
Compared to you I’m only riding a Shetland Pony.
My spelling isn’t incorrect , it is the original spelling, if
I read you correctly.
Of course, Kryten, you do understand that the US considers Australian English to be be a different language altogether, not really a true form of the base language 😉
Truth be told, the reports by the CIA tend to be total jibberish as the analysts work not to take a stand on anything. It was much easier in the military where you say what you meant as long as you labeled it personal analysis.
LOL BRyan. Ahhh… But you are confusing Ocker with English. We speak both here. 😉 We teach Queens English in Schools, and Ocker in the schoolyard. 😀 Ocker changes with the seasons, though the root language tends to remain the same. BTW, the definition of Ocker originally was ‘an unsophisticated person’. Now it means Aussie slang. 🙂 Having attended hundreds of meetings professionally, I can say that only proper English is used unless an occasional Ockerism is used for humor or to illustrate a point. Howard tried hard to change the English taught in Schools to align us with the USA. He got nowhere. 🙂 We have been *aligned* with the USA more than enough, thank you! 😉 Australia is multicultural, and takes great pride in being such. We embrace our rich heritage, especially now that the criminal Howard is gone!
The US is different. There, the meaning of the English language itself is being corrupted almost daily. Perhaps people should be asking why?
Of course, none of this is that simple. If it were, it wouldn’t have taken my team years to put together a paper on the state and direction of the US language. I won’t go into why the paper was commissioned in the first place… let’s just say that certain Politicians and Military types here were curious about what they saw as a trend. It’s always easier to see the forest from outside. 😉
I can send you an email with some (possibly redacted) excerpts if you’d like.
One thing to watch for in US English is there is no such beast, there are regional dialects. If I speak in my local drawl, few outside of this area would be able to understand me. One of the good things about being a military brat is traveling about and picking the local dialects.
The media tends to be a Midwestern version of American English, but the entire thing breaks down when you introduce vocational jargon. Everyone understands “media English”, but no one outside of the Midwest and the media speaks it.
It isn’t just the pronunciation, it is the vocabulary and the actual meaning of some words that alter depending on location, including words that have opposing meanings, i.e. the same word may mean something positive in one area and extremely negative in another.
The military and law enforcement are some of the worst offenders when it comes to euphemisms, but the corporate world can be as bad. You can tell after a while what large corporations an individual has worked for simply by their speech.
While there is a great deal of churn in American English, there are also deep pockets of stasis. There are places in the Appalachian region that still use Elizabeth pronunciation. If you wonder what Shakespeare really sounded like, there are people in North Carolina who still speak that way because they have remained relatively isolated.
So Ocker can be said to be Aussies what Cockney is to the English.
Basically slang.
Of course. 🙂 But we were not looking at regional dialects and local colloquialisms. 🙂 Every Nation on Earth has that. We were researching the root, or main, language itself, and more importantly, what we saw as obvious and obviously controlled change in the meaning of words and phrases. This change has been accelerated under Bushmoron, which is probably a good thing as it should make it obvious even to those within the forest! 😉
I spent time researching in many US States, and I have commented to many that the USA seems less like a *Country* than a collection of small Nations, or tribes. 🙂 And of course, it is a Republic of States, each with a fierce pride in each States own heritage and *independence*. And it does also extend (as I saw) to small sub-groups (even to small Towns) within each state. Part of the conclusions in the paper were that the USA is a fractured Nation. We spent time traveling through several States, and even managed to peak the curiosity of an Amish community and they allowed us to live and work with them for a time. And I must say, it was one of the very few places in all of the USA where I really felt at peace and comfortable. I loved parts of Arizona, Massachusetts, San Francisco (CA) and especially Santa Cruz (CA). I also felt very uncomfortable in New York (city), Washington (DC), LA and most of Texas (and in fact, the only place we really had any trouble,which we did not initiate, was in Austin, Texas). Oh, I also didn’t like Salt Lake City. We saw the Mormons as penultimate hypocrites. And they actually can’t stand outsiders more than the Amish (unless you choose to become a Mormon, which you are under pressure to do!) They will strenuously deny it, which makes my point. 🙂
Look up the work of people such as Dr. Alvin Donovan III, Abraham Maslow and many in the field of Advertising and Marketing.
Cheers. 🙂
I don’t get involved in the “framing” issues, which is what you’re addressing, the coordinated campaign by Republicans to alter the meaning of words for political ends, best exemplified by their “success” in making “liberal” a curse, and their campaign to change the name from Democratic Party to Democrat Party.
I tend to ignore that crap because I spent so many years reading and listening to Soviet agitprop, that I filter it out.
I don’t doubt it comes as a shock to outsiders to encounter the concentrated effort to alter meanings, but a little spine on behalf of Democratic politicians and the media would eliminate the problem. “Newspeak” is alive and well among Republican consultants.
I understand that Bryan. 🙂 Until I was selected for that project, I also filtered out all the *agitprop* as do most who work in Intel and allied fields. It just becomes white noise. Sadly though, we are few and far between. The general population (in any Nation) can’t for the most part, there are always exceptions of course. And I’m not denying it happens here either BTW. 🙂 What we saw and investigated there was really what some saw as a concerted effort by some group to *control* the general population in various ways. Mostly, to control the way of thinking and other areas. It was very complex and subtle usually. Bushmoron changed that, and I do think that in the long run, that will prove to be a good thing for Americans. 🙂 To become people once again rather than the sheeple they are becoming. As Psychiatrists, Psycologists, Psychoanalysts, Hypnotherapists, Linguists and Politicians know, there are many ways to control a mind. The best way takes subtlety and can take generations to achieve. Neither of which Bush/Chaney/Rove have! 🙂
When I went to Calabria (Italy) many years ago, I was at first treated with suspicion, as an *outsider*. They are a fiercely tenacious people who hold on to their traditions with an iron fist and brook NO outside interference. 🙂 It was only when they learned that my paternal Grandmother was Calabrian and a famous singer there to boot during WW2, that I was allowed (indeed, I had no choice or say in it) to become a *returned son of Calabria*! That would seem to imply that Calabria is a town or city. 🙂 It’s really a region of many small town and communities on the Mediterranean coast. and each within Calabria is independent and have their own regional language and squabbles, until an outsider tries to interfear! Then the meet the entire Calabrian People as one! It was so strange for me. Because although I knew the birthplace of my Grandmother, she toured all over Calabria and sang and lived all over, so that many towns claim her as their own! And it can get dangerous. LOL I saw parallels to that in the USA and UK (Essex for example, though on a much smaller scale.)
No. What we discovered in the USA was a concerted, planned effort to control the way American’s thought and perhaps more importantly, what they feel. We saw and documented certain *triggers*. For example, to trigger an intense patriotic response with a certain message. Many Americans don’t believe it can be done, or has been done. Who would? But I see now that people (thanks to the arrogance and ignorance of Chaney/Rove/Rumsfeld primarily) are beginning to question their responses since 2000. 🙂 It will take time.
The current actions of the MSM (and other groups) to control the outcome of the Presidential election is no accident or knee-jerk reaction.
*sigh* Well… we’ll see what happens. I believe however, that forewarned is forearmed. 😉
Sorry Kathie, I missed your comment! 🙁
You are essentially correct. 😀
Cheers!
The whole War on Terror™ is a concerted effort at mind control, and the level of pure propaganda that has been directed at the population of the US is on a level with the Soviet Union. The entire run up to the Iraq War was a Psyops agitprop campaign with the collusion of the corporate media.
The only to way to stop this crap is break up the media conglomerates which amounts to 6 corporations controlling almost everything on television, and well as in the cinemas. It is an absurd level of consolidation that prevents dissent.
The same sort of thing is going on with radio stations and newspapers. Truth be told there was more diversity in the Soviet Union, simply because of the failures on there internal lines of communication necessary to spread the Party’s message.
Trying to run everything from Moscow, when there is minimal communication in the eastern Soviet Union more than 50 kilometers from the TransSiberian rail bed, leads to a lot of unexpected autonomy. It makes for interesting reading when you factor in some of the rather odd beliefs of Russians.
I guarantee that Obama will never be able to shake being “a Muslim” and ” a crazed black nationalist Christian cultist” in the minds of the same people. The capacity for self-delusion has never been lacking among Americans.
Despite tens of millions in tax dollars spent on investigating the Clintons and finding nothing, all of the old stories will resurface. Being found innocent is no protection, and as a “public person” it is almost impossible for her to win a libel suit in US courts.
You have it Bryan (as I knew you would). It is difficult to have a discussion on a complex topic via Blog! LOL Particularly by people a World apart (and not just geographically). I truly do believe that this is a good turning point for Americans (as a people). I (and my team) saw much to admire and respect and like there in the People. It wasn’t until we returned and spent a year analysing all the data we collected and researching many areas that the pattern emerged. As for why it was done… well, let’s simply say that Australia believes in “Watch your enemy closely, and your friends even closer!” (The original quote was “Always keep your friends close, but your enemies keep closer.”) Not that the USA hasn’t, and doesn’t, do the same! LOL It’s the paranoid way of the World today sadly. BTW, I have heard that quotation attributed to Machiavelli, Otto von Bismark and Al Capone! But I believe the first time (in print at least) was Sun Tzu in The Art of War.
Knowing you have a problem is half the battle to fix it. 🙂 I have said it before (and people laugh when I do), that one day, American’s will thank G. W. Bush for being the moron he is! LOL 😉 You know what *they* say… No pain, no gain! 😀
So, you know what the problem is… what will you do about it? (or, do you feel as I do most days lately… “I’m too old for this sh*t!”) 😉
Cheers! 🙂
Heh… It’s funny sometimes, the timing of events… coincidences if you like. 🙂 This just appeared on C&L:
Countdown’s Worst Persons In The World: Don’t Bother Me With Facts Edition
This was the relevant (and highly curious) part:
And yes, I am still absolutely PMSL over Lynn Spears writing a book on motherhood! And they say irony is dead! LOL Now I expect Bushmoron to write a book on how to be a successful business tycoon! LOL Hmmm… I suppose it could be a “Don’t do what I did” kinda book. 😀
Ohhhh…. I think I need to lie down now. Too much hilarity at one time is exhausting!