Barack's latest offense. This community includes disabled and challenged members. This community does not tolerate attacks on the disabled and challenged. We have never done so and we will not do so. We do not link to Arianna Huffington's Aging Socialite's Cat Litter Box due to her allowing attacks on children with disabilities. (Yes, she allowed it with Sarah Palin's youngest child but we stopped linking to that crap-fest a year before that when she allowed a TV non-star to scribble his psychotic insults attacking special-needs children. When that was posted, we were done with Crazy Ass Arianna.) What Barack did was offensive. Already apologists are emerging for him including Kimberly Wilder and Susan of Random Notes. Susan wants you to know that Barry apologized. No, he didn't. Susan links to an AP story about Tim Shriver appearing on Good Morning America. Yeah, Barry may or may not have apologized to the Kennedy clan. He did not apologize to the American people and guess damn what: It's not about the Kennedys, the whole damn world doesn't spin on them. But it is hilarious that Shriver expects to be listened to about insults to the mentally challenged (he rightly condemned Tropic Thunder) but wants to rush to excuse a president of the United States insulting the entire disabled/challenged/handicapped community in America. Shriver looks like a hypocrite when you juxtapose his rush to cover for Barry versus his holding a film accountable. The insult was to the disabled and challenged. That was who was insulted. Now when Hillary offered examples of races that went past May (Democratic Party primaries) idiots and crazies (including Marjorie Cohn who we will not link to ever again unless she apologizes PUBLICLY) demanded Hillary's head on a stick. She didn't just apologize to the Kennedy's if her remarks were offensive (her remarks weren't offensive and RFK Jr. made that clear with a public statement), she apologized on TV. Barack insulted the handicapped, disabled and the challenged. The insult wasn't to a ceremony for the Special Olympics. Are the disabled American citizens? Are they part of this country? You damn well better believe they are and you damn well better stop making your disgusting excuses for a president of the United States going on air and insulting Americans. It is offensive. It is disgraceful. Whether he sucked up to Tim Shriver or not (we don't know, Barack hasn't spoken) doesn't make a damn bit of difference. Oh, poor little Shrivers, they might be insulted! That's not the issue. That was never the issue. The issue was the insult to the American people. Are the disabled/challenged/handicapped part of the United States or not? If you believe they are, then what happened last night was disgusting. He's not the Frat Boy president. He's not the South Park president. He is supposed to be the president of the United States. He's abused his office several times already. He's called out a private citizen by name (Rush Limbaugh) which is beneath the office of the president. (No, I don't care for Rush Limbaugh. That's not the issue. We're talking about the office.) Now he's gone on TV and insulted a segment of the American people and there has been no apology. Who gives a f**k if the Shriver-Kennedys are happy? That's not the issue. The issue is who got insulted. American citizens were insulted. They were used for a cheap laugh by the president of the United States. It is not a minor issue. I didn't see the exchange last night. I saw it this morning as I was doing the morning entris and juggling the phones. We covered it quickly with this: He is insulting the disabled and challenged and the White House can't walk back that. It is the sort of remark one expects from Bully Boy Bush but there's no difference between George W. and Barack. Want to walk it back? How about an apology to everyone Barry insulted and their families? How about he takes his ass down to Philadelphia and gives one of those meaningless, pretty word speeches? Or does he not realize that as offensive as his little 'joke' was, it's all the more offensive when so many Americans are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with disabilities? And Ava and I were going to revisit it on Sunday. (As we've done before. Click here for one example when we called out stereotypes of autistic children being offered as facts.) But I didn't realize that online there would be excuses offered for Barack. There is NO EXCUSE for what he did. Shirley called to pass on that this was becoming the number one topic in e-mails this morning from community members. So I'm dictating this quickly but to be very clear: (1) What Barack did was unacceptable. (2) There has been no apology for the insult. The Special Olympics is not an American citizen. It has no personhood. The ones insulted were the challenged/disabled/ handicapped. That is whom the president of the United States should have apologized to. Thus far, there has been no apology to them. (3) Tim Shriver is an able-bodied person. The idea that not only is Barack going to get away without apologizing, but that able-bodied people are going to waive him through is bulls**t. Tim Shriver needs to sit his ass down. If he and the others don't grasp it, it's not about them. And if they don't grasp that, they don't need to be in charge of the Special Olympics. The offense was not to the able-bodied and well off Shriver-Kennedys. Every damn thing that happens in the US is not about that family. The issue is that a large segment of Americans were insulted, were made fun of by a president of this country. He used them to get a cheap laugh. It's not appropriate, it's not funny. It never should have happened and THEY are the ones owed an apology. Is Tim Shriver in a wheel chair? Is he blind? Does he suffer hearing loss? No, no, and no. It's not about him. Using 2006 data, Matthew Brault, (PDF format warning) writing for the US Census' Disability office last year, noted there were 41.3 million people in "the civilian noninstitutionalized population". Those 41.3 million people were insulted. (As were those who are institutionalized.) Their families and caregivers were insulted. They are the ones who are regularly ignored in our society. The strongest and longest college student protest this decade was by hearing imparied and deaf students. Most of us never were informed about the students of Galladuet and their amazing strength and courage. They were silenced, they were rendered invisible. They were treated like aliens and not real Americans, not people whose stories were worth telling. Considering how few bothered to ever note those brave students, before anyone gives a pass to Barack they might want to ask what they've done for the disabled/challenged/handicapped community? I'm not seeing a whole lot. But they can start by grasping it's not about them. Just like it's not about Tim Shriver. Over forty million Americans were used as the butt of a cheap joke by the president of the United States last night. That is unacceptable. He has not apologized for that. It is unacceptable. This isn't about the Shrivers. This is about the over forty-million Americans who were laughed at last night -- treated like they weren't in the room and/or were too stupid to know they'd been made fun of. It's offensive and this community won't go along with it. Day after day, the people directly insulted by Barack Obama are ignored by the media and by the blogosphere. So those making excuses need to remember that and need to remember that it's not their role to make excuses unless they want to stand with Barack in his insults. They might also try remembering that they supposedly are about the "people." Bush mocks a death row inmate and they're offended. Barack mocks an entire community and they're not? People need to grow the hell up. We are not The Love Slaves of the Cult of Saint Barack. We are not worshipping our 21st century Christ-child. What Barack did was offensive. He has not apologized until he apologizes to the ones insulted. That apology should be public, from him (and a signer), and not relayed by one of his friends or a White House flack. The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. |
Friday, March 20, 2009
Barack has not apologized and people need to quit making excuses
