Posted on 11/09/2009 2:03:01 PM PST by Former Military Chick
In the midst of his yearend push to pass sweeping health reform legislation, the last thing President Obama needs is another dustup with the tea party set. Is it possible that he referred to them as “teabag” people in discussions with House Democrats?
Update: a Democratic Representative’s office responds — see end of post.
Mr. Obama, during his private pep talk to Democrats, recognized Mr. Owens election and then posed a question to the other lawmakers. According to Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who supports the health care bill, the president asked, “Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit” Democratic voters “and it will encourage the extremists.” (emphasis added)
The quote should be taken with a few large grains of salt before one draws any conclusions about President Obama: it is, after all, “according to Representative Earl Blumenauer,” and could be a paraphrase rather than a direct quote.
Still, the quote’s emergence is a sign of the powerful information-sifting capabilities of the social web: even though the offending word “teabag” appeared two thirds of the way into a wonky post on a fairly obscure NYT blog, it’s already starting to bubble up on social aggregator sites like Digg and Reddit. This, in turn, highlights the dark side of these sites, which sometimes tend towards sensationalism and a herd mentality: a Digg headline falsely claims that “Obama uses the word ‘teabagger’ to describe the opposition.”
It’s a question worth asking whether the New York Times deliberately buried the lede on this one, out of genteelness or whatever other motivation. By now, anyone who has been seriously following the tea party movement should know that a lot of people out there are greatly offended by the phrases “teabag” and “teabagger,” given their sexual connotations (cf. Urban Dictionary).
Yes, Obama’s healthcare pitch to lawmakers is important to the public debate, but in today’s political climate, the possibility that Obama used the word “teabag” in conversation with Democratic lawmakers is a story of its own, not a noted-in-the-third-paragraph-with-no-followup story. At the same time, it’s possible that an older fellow like Earl Blumenauer could naively use the phrase ‘teabag’ without realizing its explosive connotations — which is why the question of who said what and who paraphrased what is so crucial.
Update: Representative Blumenauer’s communications director tells Mediaite that Blumenauer was paraphrasing. “Congressman Blumenauer was simply summarizing in his own words the President’s remarks following the caucus meeting,” she said in an email.
Update: Representative Blumenauer’s communications director tells Mediaite that Blumenauer was paraphrasing. “Congressman Blumenauer was simply summarizing in his own words the President’s remarks following the caucus meeting,” she said in an email.
Not anti-governemnt.... just anti-big government and anti-Barry’s government
No, ANTI-MARXIST/COMMUNIST
No matter how Obama presents himself or what he says; he doesn’t have any class and never will.
I’m inclined to believe that virtually everyone who uses the term “teabagging”, to refer to the activities of others, has personal experience with it.
I have to admit I did not know there was another term for this word within this discussion, I make tea and I have said it dunking my teabag, I hadn’t a clue there was a negative term associated with it, gosh call me out of touch, and not that I needed to learn a new term but I have to admit I had not known this until reading it today.
YOU LIE
The upside of this is we are loud enough that President Obama hears us. The downside is Obama is showing his crass, Chicago style, manners.
You should be proud of your ignorance in this case. Most of us had never heard it, until the left started using it to disparage good people.
Don't feel lonely. There were many of us that didn't have a clue.
It turns out you have to be pretty darn filthy to know about the bad interpretation of that.
But given who is making this a big deal I guess we knew that already.
Speak loudly and now do so with your senator's and do it at their local offices, do it so the local media covers it and do it at the steps of congress. The more media coverage it receives on the local level the more worried those in the Senate, blue dogs, and perhaps a few other’s should than worry about their own job security.
Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Paris, France. It is very cool to be a French intel guy. A spectacular meal at a Parisian bistro with $90 entrées and a $200 bottle of Bordeaux? No problem. I’d known this fellow since he got me out of a jam in Sudan years ago. His James Bond days are over, but still, riding a desk for the DGSE – Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (General Directorate for External Security), France’s military intel agency – in Paris has its decided benefits.
One of them is not being infected with Obamamania. “My agency considers him a joke,” he confides. “Every day there is some fresh lunacy that we cannot believe. Mr. Bush would often make us angry. But at this man we just laugh.”
“In truth, it also makes us sad,” he continued. “French resentment towards America is strong, so being able to laugh at your country feels good. But it is such a sad and strange thing to see America – America The Great! – do something so crazy as to elect this ridiculous man.”
“There are many people in America who think he isn’t a legitimate president as he wasn’t born in the US and isn’t a natural citizen. What do you think?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never had reason to make an inquiry.”
“There are a lot of people convinced he is a traitor who hates America and is actively determined to destroy it. Any opinion on that?”
He didn’t shrug at this. After a long slow sip of wine, he mused, “I would not go that far. Many of his actions, however, are very puzzling because they are so counter-productive regarding America’s best interests. There seems to be a consistent pattern in that direction.”
“What does Sarkozy think of him?”
“Nothing but contempt.”
After a pause he asked, “And Langley?”
“Well, if you thought the war they waged against Bush was intense, it was nothing compared to how they’re going to screw Obama. He has tried to gut them with the ‘torture memo’ release and slashing their budgets. The morale is depressed, sullen, and enraged. You know what a left-wing outfit Langley is. They thought he was their boy and they feel betrayed. All kinds of damaging stuff on him will be appearing via their media friends.”
He nodded. “And in Tel Aviv City?”
He was referring to the huge underground city complex of Langley’s underneath the US Embassy in the Israeli capital. “That’s an interesting question. You know how vast and deep the relationship is there. Langley is making every effort to overcome the total and massive distrust their Israeli colleagues have for Obama, whom they know is selling them down the Jordan River. So far though this effort is in words. The Israelis are waiting to see what Langley does.”
He said nothing. I smiled. “You guys wouldn’t be Langley’s cutout for thwarting BO regarding Israel, would you? I’d never suspect that…”
He continued to say nothing, gave me only a slight smile in return, and poured me another glass of wine. “The Bordeaux is good, yes?” I nodded.
“You know, the French media worships this man the same as yours in the US. All of this ‘100 days’ talk, it is impossibly stupid. Most anyone in the French elite, the business leaders, Sarko’s people, they all know this. They all think this is some crazy joke of the Americans. But it is a very, very dangerous joke. For 100 days your president has been a laughingstock among the tout le monde of Paris. No one may be laughing 100 days or 10 months from now.”
He leaned forward. “The world can go – how do you say – sideways with this man very quickly. No one he has working for him knows what they are doing – possibly excepting Mrs. Clinton – and he certainly does not. All of us in our little community are worried – us, our friends in Berlin, London, Tel Aviv, and Langley too as you say. It is not like the barbarians at the gates. It is every barbarian horde in the world being told there are no gates. The Somalis, Chavez, Iran, Putin, Beijing, the ‘Norks” as you call them, the list is long and it is growing. We are not sure what to do.”
It took me a moment to respond. “The best thing that has happened now is Obama making Langley his enemy. They will be cooperating with you more, be more a part of your worried community. Working together, you can undermine his efforts more effectively, block and maybe even repair the damage.”
It was my turn to lean forward. “Then again, all together you could be more pro-active. The man is a mystery. Nobody can make public his actual birth certificate, or even the particular hospital he was born in, or his college grades, or how he got into Harvard, or how he made editor of the Harvard Law Review and never wrote a single article for it. It goes on and on. He really is a Zero. I think all of you guys should find all of this out and make it known.”
I added, “The quicker the better, before the laughing stops and the real dangers begin.”
“What is that phrase you use?” he asked. “Something to consider?”
I laughed. “Yes, there is much to consider – and much that you can do. I mean, really, if the Soviet Union could be dismantled, so can this presidency.”
It was a beautiful April afternoon in Paris. He walked me back to my hotel. It could be that the times we live in may get even more interesting.
We’re working on it. We extremists have another Tea Party meeting tonight.
Just got this old boy started.
Me, and a lot of others are more than mad . Like a mean old dog lots of us are gonna bite and not let go.
For those who might be interested in this discussion.
I truly hope this little twerp does’nt require formal schooling about “anti-government”protests really can be like!!!
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