Snark: When I heard coverage about the President’s phone call with the officer….he concluded with the outlook that they talked about “he” and Gates and Ob. would have a beer at the WH.

I hoped he would get a grammar correction. Clinton was always messing that up.

Well, I don’t think Obama made lemonade out of lemons this afternoon, but he did about as well as could be expected, given the circumstances [ some of which were of his own making].

Unfortunately, nothing stops the media from ginning up any controversy they can possibly create manage report.

AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Swopa and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

The difference between Clinton and Obama is that Obama will take the “tar babies” planted in the middle of the road by the corporate media and embrace them, talk to ‘em, cuddle ‘em, straighten ‘em up and then gently place ‘em right back up the racist motherfuckers’ ass. But this shit has just started, get used to it over the next few weeks because there won’t be a kitchen sink left in the whole country that hasn’t been tossed out into the road.

And as for “teaching moments”, everything is a teaching moment in American politics today because every problem we are faced with from the streets, to the board rooms to the sands of Iraq and Afgahnistan have the same source: corporate fascism. If healthcare reform gets done, then the beast will lose control of the playin’ field and the game will truly be on.

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THERE IS NO PLACE TO HIDE!!

Obama handles this type of ginned-up controversy and deliberate distraction from the issues at hand quite well. He responds to the sensation-seeking media and the over-excited with his Adult. When emotional buttons are pushed and prejudices emerge, he doesn’t let it build and fester. He disposes of it. Americans have been wanting to have an adult in the room for a long time. Whether we agree with all of his positions and decisions or not, he is at least a mature leader.
The whacko stuff, like gleefully mocking the Surgeon General’s weight, and birth certificates, may not be as amenable to this approach. The attacks are playground tactics and/or psychopathology, easily recognized as such, and perhaps it’s sometimes best to just ignore them unless they really gain traction.

The modern GOP is based on fears of middle-class whites that some of their tax money might be going to help “those people” — ask the ghosts of Richard Nixon or Lee Atwater if you don’t believe me. Do you think the “welfare mother driving a Cadillac” of Ronald Reagan’s fantasies was white? I don’t either.

Wrassling Obama with race fear is part of the GOP’s health care reform strategy: they will continue to remind their shrinking but crazily vocal base — and the Silent Majority — that Obama is an angry black man who nominates wise Latina judges who deny jobs to deserving white ethnic firefighters and who says that white ethnic policemen “acted stupidly” when simply responding to a break-and-enter call. Next thing you know, Obama will be providing health care to all “those people” despite their diabetes and heart disease brought on by their own bad eating/exercise habits.

(Lazy & shiftless is what they used to be called.)

So when there’s a race-based distraction from the health care reform debate (and there will be more, trust me!) remember that it is not a distraction at all — these race-fear-stoking discussions are a core part of the race-based argument against universal health care (for the darker-hued) paid for by white people.

As are the birther controversies, suddenly making their way onto the respectable parts of the cable-gasbag spectrum.

What do you think that controversy about Obama looking at that lighter-hued young woman’s butt was all about at the G8, anyway? Fear, fear, fear.

I know that Obama did the right thing in saying what he did but why is it that the Dems always have to be the ones to say “I’m sorry” or “I was wrong” or I shouldn’t have said that?” The Rs never apologize for anything – of course, except for screwing around on their wives. They say awful things and get away with it. I almost wish Obama had just said “that was my opinion and I said it.”

Right on, bro.

And yes, the trash about the Surgeon General being a fat black lady, that too.

Anything to divide and separate, based on race, will work for the enemies of progress.

It’s not working because the racists are convinced that it’s President Obama and Professor Gates who are the real racists & race baiters. They are insane!

Because the Democrats for the most part are better people.

Well at least they didn’t ask Gates for his birth certificate.

they talked about “he” and Gates and Ob. would have a beer

What’s wrong with that grammar? He will have a beer, along with Gates and Crowley. It’s what my grammar teachers taught. (Drop the extra words, and if it still makes sense, you’re doing it correctly.)

Good move all around. Though can I just say?:

“President” –> “have a beer” –> W.

Bit unfortunate, that.

Yes, that’s true. But sometimes don’t you just want a Dem to tell the Rs to STFU! I do. We used to have some Dems who could do that but we have become so polite and bi-partisan that we have almost ground to a halt.

Suggestion:

If you are approached by a police officer, be friendly, respectful, and obedient. Otherwise, you may become subject to disorderly conduct.

Very true about providing health care for “those people.” Wish I’d carried the point that far.

I didn’t quote well; his statement was to invite him to have a beer with he and Gates (a preposition problem). I thought I had recalled it more precisely. Thanks

Fuck the White House press corps.

To go one step further, a more partisan, in-your-face president that whereas the GOP always caricatures Dems as overly sensitive and politically correct, it’s always their side that is whining about being offended by people’s words. Some rugged individualists, eh?

Not even with your piece, bro!

FunnyWheelieDiva

Very common to see complete confusion between the right to freedom (which is real) and the right not to be disagreed with (which is a committable-level delusion) in conservative authoritarian types.

While the whole affair has aspects too tiresome for me to go into, it is good to see the Prez make that point about relatively small-scale, celebrity-driven issues (and Gates is definitely a celeb among precisely the chattering classes) being used to deflect from the urgent stuff like health care.* That’s a point to be emphasized whenever one of these beachball issues threatens to takeover the discourse.

——-
*Or other big, tough, and exigent issues like Afghanistan or rule-of-law policy either, right?

I suspect that this is one place they do read, just to see what we’re thinking and saying.
(That doesn’t mean they’ll actually pay attention to it, though.)

Thanks Swopa.

Imho,Obama offended the police UNION in general,more than Crowley in particular.

Who could reasonably be offended by “…the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home…”?

Thank you for this post, Swopa. It is all of a piece.

Oh, no, I thought that was QUITE intentional on Obama’s part. “Is this a guy you wanna have a beer with? Is it, Copper?”

Of course the Right views health care as a race issue, which is why Lynn not-so-Sweet brought up Gates at the conclusion of a health care presser. But we don’t have to accept their definition of the issue or let them choose the battle that we fight now. They would be delighted to have us argue with race-baiters all Summer instead of addressing public option, single payer, Medicare, etc. I don’t think the country wants to go there. It’s best to react as Obama did. He comes off looking reasonable and interested in getting people affordable health care, which I hope he is, and the media look juvenile and the Right nasty, which they are.

And when the officer chides you for wearing a “too short skirt” and that it might attract rapists, just agree with him.

We left the 19th century 119 years ago, friend.

So true. It frustrates me, too. But see Swopa’s line – it’s up to the one who’s the “Adult” to take the first step.

Sigh.

Dayam. I wonder if Eric Dyson reads fdl, and bmaz’s posts? He’s on Countdown right now using a couple of expressions used in the posts:

as an example of a flipped situation: what if Henry Kissinger had been arrested in his own home?
“we’ve heard of Driving While Black, now do we have “Being Housed While Black?”

Hmmmm.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the prominent commentators are getting RSS feeds to review what’s being said around the web.
That being said, he could certainly have invented the phrases independently. Like so many have pointed out, as a black man, he’s had to think about the subject plenty over his lifetime.

PJ, I’m sorry, those “extra words” are what makes that construction wrong.
Yes, “He and Crowley and Gates will have a beer.”
He, Crowley, and Gates are subjects of the sentence. Names don’t change in English depending on usage, but pronouns do.

Important word in that sentence: “about”. With about you use “him, her, them, or us.” Not he, she, they, we.
The president does tend to make that ever-more-common mistake, not using the “him, her, them” forms when the object of the pronoun (or of the verb) is plural, as “he and I went to the store,” but “Mom told him and me to go the store.”

I think it comes from having it drummed into us not us not to say “Me and him went to the store,” and we don’t recognize that the constructions are different.
There, grammar lecture done. Hope I was clear – it is one of my pet peeves.

This MIGHT be of import re: Gates ‘ initial reaction.
Namely a history of these incidents in Cambridge.

Media ignoring previous claims of Harvard police racism-Raw Story

Thanks for a more detailed explanation….I thought the mistake was clear, but as you write, for me, also, it’s a big pet peeve. Once tuned in, one can hardly ignore the error. Good for you. Thanks.

@36
The Raw Story | Investigative News and PoliticsThe Raw Story is a culling news, arts and business reporting from around the world.
http://www.rawstory.com/ – Cached – Similar

Yeah, as you say, “once tuned in…”

On the other hand popular usage of mistakes can grind people down—I learned the right way from my parents (who were relentless in correcting my grammar as I grew up), but in their later years, they began making the mistake themselves, just from hearing it all around them.

We grew up with that “correcting” as well. Then my older sister (RIP) became an English Professor, and she edited/reviewed some professional writing for me. Let me tell you…being corrected by an adult older sister will get one’s attention and stick…like a remedial education. Thanks for the reminder;))

As a recovering copyeditor, I’m proud of myself for not even being tempted to wade into this grammar controversy.

Some might call it a teachable moment, a few might even call it Providence. If President Obama, Prof. Gates and Sgt. Crowley find some common ground, some good might even come out of all this. If not, I just hope things do not get worse.

OK, I’m a white guy, as most of you know. A year ago last May my eldest son unwisely conspired with his brethren to have a beer party. I say unwisely, because he and I had discussed how vulnerable our house was to a raid by law enforcement. (Highly visible, lots of routes for officers to access, etc.) Well, he and his brethren thought all bases were covered. So, about 11:30, not a few minutes after I discovered kids climbing the electric tower and made them get down, law enforcement arrived. Now, I will say that I have a written set of rules for parties at my house, including a no alcohol policy and I regularly patrol.

So, law enforcement is everywhere, wanting kids to blow in the straw, and that’s fine because I am thoroughly pissed they did have alcohol.

And my ten year-old son comes up to me and says to me, “Dad, I have got to take a shit.” And I tell him to go into the house and do so, when a sheriff’s deputy tells me that it is inappropriate for my son to use that language. I am nonplussed, and I asked him what he means. And he repeats to me, that what my son said was inappropriate. And I told him that he was being inappropriate; he asked me what I meant, and I repeated that I thought he was being inappropriate. At that point, he forcefully told me I was being inappropriate, and ordered me to “stand back.” Which I did.

It was clearly an abuse of power.

Think about this for a moment; an officer is dressing me down because my ten year-old said he had to take a shit, and the officer thought that was inappropriate language?

I was fortunate enough to have a recourse. I promptly called 911 and left a message for the sheriff, with whom, due to my wife’s murder, I had a good working relationship. And presumably Sheriff Murphy intervened. We have never talked about it.

Hate to think what might have happened if I was black.

DM

Resisting temptation? Well, probably a good idea….but very curious ;)