(h/t Heather)
On Verdict with Dan Abrams, Newsweek reporter Jonathan Alter was fed up with the ridiculousness of the continued smear of Michelle Obama over her “proud of her country” statement and accuses conservative talk show host Lars Larson of promoting an agenda that tries to paint Michelle Obama as an angry, black woman, noting that there was no such outrage for John McCain’s repeated statement that he “didn’t love America until (he) was deprived of her company”.
ALTER: Yeah, you’re saying…you’re just talking trash and nonsense. And it’s a slur, and it’s really, it’s frankly kind of appalling that you and others would stoop to this level, because it’s not true. You don’t know Michelle Obama; you haven’t spoken to her as I have. To many of her friends: black, white, many different people…let me just quickly try to dispense with this. You’re taking her out of context intentionally. You’re trying to twist her words for your own political purposes. It’s low and it’s borderline racist.
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Tags: Dan Abrams, Jonathan Alter, Lars Larson, Michelle Obama, racism, right wing smears, Verdict
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first
this is not news
repubs hate
stay on the FISA debacle
“…you haven’t spoken to her as I have.”? ” To her many friends…” ?? “…out of context” ???
Weak. If someone used that rationale defending, say, Barbara Bush, you’d call that grade “A” B.S.
And so it surely is.
Lars is a sniveling idiot.
I’ve never seen Alter ever get this worked up over anything. It was kind of nice to see. It altered my perception of Alter.
Euro 2008:
Turkey beat Croatia
i don’t know how else to say this… lars larson …is a dick…i apologize if i offended anybody besides him
Character assasination is what the repub is best at.
If anything that they have learned from Kerry’s ’stand-on-high-ground’ defeat, is that Dems must be very aggressive on calling it, as it really is, character assasination.
Dems must develop a comprehensive approach to deal with this. Dems can no longer take a moral high ground, be silent, and hope the public will understand and observe it. No more. Dems must educate the public, that what the repub is doing is actually character assassination. And this must be repeated again and again.
For every lemming that Repub will deploy in the media to denounce and character assasinate a mule, Dem must produce another lemming to counter it, and counter it aggressively.
The public must educated as to what is right and wrong. Don’t give the repub any opportunity to educate that the right thing to do is wrong, and vice versa.
After today’s outrage I’m NOT proud of my country. And to any governments hacks monitoring these posts I say F**K YOU!
Only in Rethuglicanland is the truth a “rationale.”
Lars from Mars
The way to win this election is to promote what you’re for, not smearing the opponent (even in a cowardly manner, through surrogates). I have heard & read that Obama is a “radical”, a Marxist/Muslim (an oxymoron), a terrorist, “the most liberal Senator in America” (a title the cons whip out every election), and a “flip-flopper” (how McCain says that with a straight face is beyond me!)
What I have NOT heard is any criticism or debate on Obama’s policies, i.e., national health insurance, a staged withdrawal from Iraq, long-term solutions to energy dependence. Instead, we are inundated with flag pins, pledge of allegiance, and “terrorist fist-bumps”. If a candidate wants my vote, he (or she) has to explain how they will make my country better.
I guess Abrams doesn’t get it. To the republican strategists it’s not about the truth. It’s about rumor, innuendo and creating a false narrative for people who already hate to motivate them to go to the polls.
.
Brad Blakeman says: “It’s the little thigs you miss…”
~ Habeas Corpus
~ Privacy
~ Free speech
~ Fair trials
.
Very, very poor response in defense of M. Obama. What the heck is wrong with the Democrats? They are such utter iditiots; let me know help them with a response.
Slavery, forced extermination and relocation of Native Americans, lynchings, Sundown Towns, Jim Crow, poll taxes, denial of citizenship to Non-whites, The Tuskigee Syphllus experiments, etc., etc….aren’t these reasons enough for an African American to be disappointed in this country, to lose hope that it will change?
I think M. Obama was a little too glibe in her initial remark, but she shouldn’t back down. The heart of our democracy is self-critical analysis, and as an African American, I see nothing wrong with pointing out the FACT that people who look like me have eaten shit for years.
Lars was a better anchorman than he is a radio host. he isn’t original. he’s just like the 999,999 phony republican talk radio hosts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv7LUT1ezm0
“Our marriage started out on a tissue of lies.” Watch Cindy McCain tell Jay Leno what liars she and John are. It’s stunning! Yikes!
Jodi, are you kidding me? You are doing just what the Repubs are doing: twisting what she said. I actually find her candor about drug addiction refreshing. And the whole thing about their marriage, c’mon, it was said in jest.
Please people, learn to respond with meaty arguments, not rhetorical spin.
yeah i was watching that and my perception was pretty mush the same. republicans cannot play in the arena of reason, they have to use obfuscation and distortion of character.-whats weird is that they are so devout that they don’t even realize it.
they think when we criticize mcain, we are just distorting him, but in fact we are using REASON in our conclusions.
REASON has to win this time….it just has to…the nice thing about reason is that it is so CLEAR. the opposite of which is cloudy and mucky.
what they have on their side is tradition and the “good old boy” network (aka the dipstick zombies).
what i admire most about Obama is his ability to reason on the spot and not revert to talking points.
There is a reasonable world out there…….we just have to LET IT HAPPEN!!!!
Don’t deny it. Just say that she’s ashamed that this great country has let itself be ruled by conservatives the last 20+ years - her adult life. The conservative movement has loudly espoused values, while exhibiting only one, a crass lust for money and power. They’ve failed to protect this country from it’s enemies and have instead fostered a civil so-called ‘culture’ war against their fellow Americans. Their fiscal policies have been wildly irresponsible and have succeeded in only lackluster economies that benefit the few and for which they expect future generations to pay. They’ve turned this country from the greatest most respected country on earth into a corrupt nation of thugs, torturers and liars, despised by all. After all the struggle, progress and sacrifice of the 1950s and 60s they’ve repeatedly attempted to roll back civil rights in this country.The media did nothing to stop this and too many of our fellow Americans stood by and watched as their country fell into the hands of the dregs of our society. She was ashamed of this? How is that news? We should all be ashamed of this.
What’s wrong with angry black people? After all, if we lacked passion and adored things the way they are, then we wouldn’t be so angry. But because we are very sensitive to injustice, it compels us to call out what is wrong in order to make things right.
I’m so sick and tired of white people belittling and minimalizing our anger as if it is a weak and impotent force. It is quite the contrary. Because black folks got angry and mobilized, we changed the course of this country, if not the world. And the only reason why white people make a big deal out of it is because of fear and the realization that their privilege (and power) is in jeopardy.
Our anger is not attached to violence. It is more attached to social action and change.
That’s why Michelle Obama is being targeted. Nobody likes strong, black people. She refuses to be paternalized and subjugated.
Chris @ 15:
Absolutely. Unfortunately. it was almost to be expected that, probably due to political expediency, Michelle Obama would back down from her original statement. Was Mrs. Obama asleep in class when the issue of slavery was discussed? Is she not aware of the countless wars that the United States has wrought upon third world countries such as in Vietnam and Cambodia and other times that the U.S. has sent in troops to support authoritarian regimes in Central and South America? This is what the wife of the agent of hope and change is so proud of? Michelle Obama needs to read Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” to belatedly discover why there is so little that she should be proud of concerning that [alleged] beacon of democracy, the United States of America.
smack down those who trash reason…..for they would lead your children to war and murder!!!!!!
We here in Portland are so very proud of Lars Larson. Oy.
Why do vermin like this reside in such progressive cities. Kind of like Michael Savageweiner in the bay area.
The other thing I would add is the fact that people should watch any discussion about race. Two seconds won’t pass by before someone who is ill informed about race relations and politics ends up saying to a person of color, “Now don’t get so emotional. Don’t get so angry.”
I guarantee you.
The Very Bitter Ceci Hussein @ 21:
yes this is true… if channeled in the right way it can be a very positive force…but i’ve never been mugged by a white person…nor have i known anyone who has. on the other hand i have been mugged by two black men and my friend was mugged last week for the third time. a gun in the face for a whopping $3. there is a fear of young black men in the white community that is based on experience and exaggeration. i have to agree with bill cosby in some of his assessments.
Thank you John Alter…..I watched this and ol lars..lier was asking for it with his neocon lies. I am NOT proud for many things my country has done and many of my friend have stated Dem and Repub.
Who is this Lars Larson asshole anyway? Why is he even there?
Yeah, the Trent Lott thing was a weak argument. Lott essentially said, if the segregationist candidate was president, the country would be better off. How does that compare to Michelle Obama???
Lars is way off and cannot see past his disdain for anything outside his conservative beliefs.
“but ive never been mugged by a white personnor have i known anyone who has.”
This is remarkably stupid. *Maybe* it’s true for your limited experience, but to suggest that white people don’t do violent crimes is disturbing.
carefulwiththatAXEeugene @ 26:
And a couple of my relatives were lynched by a posse of white people in the deep south. Others had to pay poll taxes and still were denied the right to vote. I’ve been called racial slurs and denied service by white people. That’s why I agree with James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and Richard Wright.
lars larson is another right wing radio idiot…
i say bring these people on tv and expose them for the irrational boobs they are.
watch them cling to their silly ideas on national tv.
purely pathetic and masturbatory.
jt @ 30:
Thank you. If there was a dollar for all times I’ve been told this in race conversations, I’d be richer than Bush and Cheney put together.
jt @ 30:
Anyhow, when a white person attacks you its called ’self defense’.;)
And this is what America has been for a while ……… I can’t see a way out for these muppets either, close the boarders and fight it out I say.
The Very Bitter Ceci Hussein @ 31:
i understand….i as just telling you why i have developed a fear.
our fear of each other is based on real stories. yet it is not the rule.
yet fear has the effect of taking over and over riding our senses and our reason.
that’s why it’s so difficult. everyone has to calm down and choose a good course of action.
The Very Bitter Ceci Hussein @ 33:
MY EXPERIENCE AND THAT OF ALL MY FRIENDS IS NOT STUPID ..i have never lynched anyone nor do i know anyone who has…
your reason is self serving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv7LUT1ezm0
“Our marriage started out on a tissue of lies.” Watch Cindy McCain tell Jay Leno what liars she and John are. It’s not just a joke. It’s who these unfortunate people are. They don’t know how to be real and honest in their most intimate relationships.
As for Cindy’s drug addiction. Did you get the part where she said her husband never knew?? How could he not, if he was engaging at all with her? Addicts don’t just stop because someone tells them they have a problem, as Cindy McCain claims she did. It will come out that a former employee of the charity from which she was pilfering drugs brought this information forward and this is why she admitted to her addiction.
This is unfortunate, but she should not be going after Michelle Obama’s patriotism. The old people in glass houses thing.
http://www.salon.com/news/feat...../18/drugs/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv7LUT1ezm0
carefulwiththatAXEeugene @ 36:
i understand….i as just telling you why i have developed a fear.
our fear of each other is based on real stories. yet it is not the rule.
yet fear has the effect of taking over and over riding our senses and our reason.
that’s why it’s so difficult. everyone has to calm down and choose a good course of action.
Why did I think you’d say that eventually?
Are you that afraid of angry black people?
Marcinema @ 28:
I’ve never listened to Lars for more than 60 seconds because that’s all it takes to know the man is a hateful, bigoted blowhard. What’s amazing is that he is based here in Portland, OR, which most right wingers put it only slightly to the right of San Francisco.
The Very Bitter Ceci Hussein @ 21:
<blockquote
I’m so sick and tired of white people belittling and minimalizing our anger as if it is a weak and impotent force. It is quite the contrary. Because black folks got angry and mobilized, we changed the course of this country, if not the world. And the only reason why white people make a big deal out of it is because of fear and the realization that their privilege (and power) is in jeopardy.
Our anger is not attached to violence. It is more attached to social action and change.
You’re forgetting that white folks take ‘angry’ as a violent emotion (refer to history of Europe)- use the word ‘outrage’ instead. A simple change in label means everything to your average consumer.
I am proud of the MSM
White criminals can steal your money LEGALLY - see Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil, et al. They don’t need to mug anybody. And white stealing pays a heckuva lot better than street crime.
Why shouldn’t black people be angry? Are you fucking out-of-your mind? People who look like me, my ancestors, were treated like animals, huddled into ships, disregarded for generations, ghettoized into unseemly neighborhoods, denied all the benefits of citizenship, denied credit and loans and education, denied voting and meaningful participation in government…and we are still huddled into unseemingly neighborhoods with little or no hope of escape because education systems are a mess, because we have inherited next to nothing in wealth because of years and years of denial of such benefits.
If you don’t undeerstand that sort of anger, read Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth…maybe then you’ll understand.
Sorry to hear you were mugged, but that is the reckoning of all these systemic and institutional processes that hold people down; sorry to hear you actually tasted a bit of the bitterness that we do.
The Very Bitter Ceci Hussein @ 39:
i understand….i as just telling you why i have developed a fear.
our fear of each other is based on real stories. yet it is not the rule