I’ve been told it might have just been a few bad apples. You be the judge. Ask yourselves if these millions of people heard the call Barack Obama has been giving for 4+ years now: a call to unity, an end to partisan bickering, a new era of working togeher and respecting the views of others?
…and after hearing his call for national service, do you see ANY of the 2 million people who were on America’s front lawn, The National Mall, picking up their own trash?
Author of “Reparations and America’s 2nd Civil War
Reparations and America’s 2nd Civil War: Malensek, Scott: 9798864028674: Amazon.com: Books
No class from the Obama crowd.
Is this their standard?
You’ll get no argument here, but if you dared post that at the Obamaton fan sites….you’d be mocked in a spirit of unity and partisanship
You know what would be a refreshing change? If President Obama were made aware of this and he publicly makes a statement on it, rebuking the crass, disrespectful behavior. Those Americans should feel ashamed of themselves. Yet they don’t and won’t. The president of the hour who they came to show honor to, though, could change that; or at least make them reflect upon it.
We, as a society, seem to have lost our sense of propriety and decorum on how to behave with civility in the public square.
I remember standing in a store where two people were saying “eff” in every single sentence and I saw that a child wasn’t too far away. I mentioned something to them, and they looked at me like I was the nutty one.
It’s disgusting. The whole world was watching how great our country is….it is a great country, but this puts a bit of cloud over it.
In parts of the world, btw, there were non-citizens who were also showing disrespect (Kenyans holding up shoes and Jordanians doing the same- I saved pictures). That, I could care less about.
Trash begets trash.
They have been showing clips of an event that took place on the eve of the Inauguration of a rapper JZ, guess he is Byonce’s husband. He was saying some pretty nasty stuff about President Bush including racist remarks and the F word. He got to sit in the VIP section Inauguration day. Then flashback to Michael Moore similary honored by the Kerry camp. Guess old habits die hard with the dems, business as usual. Unless Obama steps forward and speaks against this type of behavior it’s only more of his “just words.”
Found the clip and info at Gateway. Discusting:
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/01/jay-z-and-young-jeezy-rap-bush-one-last.html
Well, really what would you expect? Obama himself all but actually booed President Bush in his speech by taking no less than 3 different pot shots at the ex-President and his time in office.
http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres68.html
“Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”
“On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics”
“But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions—that time has surely passed.”
Compare the transcripts of the three previous inauguration speeches given by Presidents who’s party is different from the out going Presidents.
President Reagan ~ http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres61.html
President Clinton ~ http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres64.html
President Bush ~ http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres66.html
As far as the littering… well you know we have entered the ‘do as I say not as i do’ era. These sheeple were just following along with their grand eco-puhba’s example. http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp
and if you need more examples of the double talk of this new era, go back to Obama’s speech… I personlly love the two claims of a “failure to make hard choices” and “putting off unpleasant decisions”. I guess it’s only a failure to chose or putting off of a decision as long as the decision is not above the decision makers pay grade.
Get serious. If Dubya & Co. can’t take boos, hisses, and jeers, after the havoc they’ve caused, then they never should’ve been in the game to begin with. But then, the rest of the political spectrum already knows this.
@Tim:
He did handle it, for eight years with decensy and class. What’s the matter, irritated with the truth of many of your party’s bad actors on bold display? Where’s their decency and class?
@Tim: Tim, I think you miss the real point: Bush can take it; he’s taken the “boos, hisses, and jeers” for 8 years. It’s about the lack of decorum, respect, propriety; of “knowing any better” on how to behave at an event like a presidential inaugural. This isn’t “sitting at home watching the event on tv with a few beers and your buddies”. It’s like being at a wedding; being at church. There’s just an unspoken standard of conduct that is lost upon Obama supporters who failed to get the memo from their Messiah-in-chief about bringing in a new ear where the divisive politics of the old Washington establishment and the petty partisanship can be let go.
Aw….Missy, you’re just too fast! Beat me to the click of the mouse key.
Yeah but you did a better job understanding that sometimes you have to go back to square one with the little folk that have not been the recipients of good parenting. Good job, I would trust you with my beloved great-grandson anytime.
Bush was one of the most revered Presidents and one of the highest rated following 9/11… no one was booing him then. No doubt his Iraq policy began to unravel his popularity followed by the poor economic conditions. Now he leaves office with one of the lowest ratings in history… what a huge fall.
@blast:
blast,
As I’ve said somewhere (I think yesterday, lost in one of these countless threads), after an attack against our country, I think any decent, patriotic American would have rallied around any sitting American president. Democratic politicians went along; but almost right away, even in regards to Afghanistan, the support was only weathervane support and began eroding even in regards to Afghanistan. Democrats voted authorization on the war resolution for Iraq, even as they began opposition and thinking ahead to mid-term elections.
Opinion polls are fickle and I’d hardly call Bush “revered”. All throughout his presidency, I’ve mostly heard the chorus of criticism and not the 9/11 pie-crust support he received, easily made and easily broken once we actually began engaging in war, which by nature, has setbacks and good people do die. It is shameful that the criticism leveled once “the going got tough” in Iraq, rather than being constructive criticism to “win” the war, was mostly about political partisanship to tear a president down. “Bush lied”, etc.
If anyone looks at the picture of trash the Liberals left behind on the National Mall, we again, should not be surprised. Facts about Liberals:
1. They scream about the torture of Guantanamo Bay detainees and then support the barbaric practice of abortion.
2. They push for laws to shield children from pornography and then applaud homosexual parades.
3. They “worship” Mother Earth, declare Global Warming, advertise “Going Green” and turn the National Mall into a landfill.
4. They criticize the cost of Sarah Palin’s wardrobe and then attend the most expensive inauguration in American history.
5. They demonstrate against the war, work to “save the whales” and okay partial-birth abortion.
6. They cry for tolerance and won’t tolerate anyone who disagrees with them.
7. They wave American Flags and then drop them on the ground. (For you to pick up)
8. They shout racism and then “BOO” a white American President as he walks onto the stage. (Just imagine if the Conservatives would have “BOOED” Obama, all hell would have broken loose in the liberal news media.)
9. They support PETA and wear fur to the inauguration.
10. They claim to pray, quote the Bible and then rebel against the Word of God.
These people never cease to amaze me. They are truly hypocritical. I think Michael Savage had it right – “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder”!
Wordsmith, I think the President was revered at that time, I certainly did. I don’t think it was right for people to boo the man at the inauguration.
As far as the “It is shameful that the criticism leveled once “the going got tough” in Iraq”…
This will be the debate for the ages no doubt. But I tend to think people abandoned the president because they feel he misled them, or at least f-ed it up (or both). Right or wrong, that is the impression, followed by the atta-boy Brownie, his reputation went down the tubes.
On the youtube of his first inaugural, that was a hotly contested race (closest in over 100 years) that Gore received the majority of the popular vote and it took over a month of rancor and a closely divided Supreme Court Ruling 5-4 to determine the outcome in a 271, 266 electoral college victory.
So I don’t know if the video is to contrast the civility on how people were treating Pres Bush vs. Pres Obama’s first inaugurals, but they probably should not be compared given the disparity in the elections.
Really? Maybe I’m wrong then. The critics always seemed to be there; but I didn’t follow politics as closely as I do now. So my memory might be misleading me, or whatever I was reading and hearing was leaving me with a flawed impression. I’ve lived in the same LA area for the last 8 years, and it’s always felt anti-Bush. Media and tv programs always seemed that way to me as well.
Katrina was an obvious PR disaster for him; but was the criticism fair? In terms of leadership based upon appearances, he failed in presenting an image of strong leadership there. But I think the media hysteria coverage, the distortions and misplaced/unreasonable expectations, and failure to hold Blanco and Nagin to greater accountability and responsibility is shameful. Why is the narrative a “Bush failure” rather than characterized as a state and local level failure?
As for being “misled”, I think the public has come to accept distorted perceptions of what the Iraq War was based upon. It was certainly more than about wmd possessions and more about prevention; about finally enforcing a 12 year violation of cease-fire agreements in a post-9/11 world where Saddam, an open sponsor of exported terrorism and enemy of the U.S., who made no secret about his love affair for wmds, might use terrorists as proxies to carry out wmd attacks against a mutual enemy: the U.S. The notion that Saddam would never work with Islamic religious nuts to achieve shared goals of bringing harm to a mutual enemy, is a CIA myth. Another CIA one is the idea that al-Qaeda would never work with Iran due to religious differences.
I think much of the public can’t distinguish the difference between “Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11” and “al-Qaeda connections to Iraq” as separate arguments.
You’ve got a point; the rancor might have been due to the fiasco surrounding a questioned election-win.
I lived in SoCal as well, but was in the military and the mood was both supportive and patriotic – especially post 9/11. I though Pres Bush was the best leader possible at that time and was grateful Gore had lost for sure.
That might be possible, but we have issues besides necessity, such as timing and planning. No doubt the truth is somewhere between being misled or a f- up. To my mind, and this is just an opinion (since planning wars was way above my pay grade), we went into Iraq not fully prepared, both politically and militarily.
You are right, it might not be fair, but the buck stops with the President, especially with some of the obvious failures in his administration at the time. Blanco and Nagin, well, they were huge failures as well. The only winners were those Coasties and Army helo teams that plucked people off roof tops.
Heh, I was just about to say “And this is coming from people who are supposed to care about the environment?”
In the Democrats’ sense of the word, “unity” only applies to those who agree with them. They would never work alongside a Republican or accept the views or policies of one, even if the views/policies are as close as they can be to the center. I’m sure none of us have forgotten Nancy Pelosi’s (ew!) remarks following the Wall Street crash?
“…and after hearing his call for national service, do you see ANY of the 2 million people who were on America’s front lawn, The National Mall, picking up their own trash?”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? What a silly statement yes, I’m sure ALL 2 million ppl left their trash lying about (sense sarcasm)…saying stuff like that just makes you look petty and like thats all you can come up with to criticize the liberals, when there’s plenty more material of substance you could say. This is simply the nature of a large public gathering, I don’t approve, but it is what it is, and I’m sure the right to life protest, for example, left plenty of trash in its wake too (proportionately of course).
As far as the booing, I agree it may not have been the time or the place, but millions of Americans are dissatisfied with the job Bush has done (including myself, a former supporter) and simply felt the need to demonstrate their discomfiture in a setting where they knew, for once, Bush would be forced to hear it.
This article and many others on this blog make me ashamed to call myself a proud American and Republican, if you are who I am likened to.
I would like to respond to accusation made that the people left their trash out on the National Mall. I attended the event, and I consider myself an eco nut, and commented at the time about the level of trash lying around. I actually picked some of it up to try and throw out myself, only to find many of the garbage cans filled to capacity. I personally blame the Inauguration committee for this problem; there were simply not enough trash cans. I mean, there were 2 million tourists there, which is an astonishing number, I think it sets a record for the number of people at an inauguration. Also, the wind was a factor. I remember setting down a sandwich bag for a couple of seconds on the towel we brought, only to have it blow away. The wind wasn’t that strong, but it only takes a light breeze to blow away paper trash. As amber points out, this is the nature of public gatherings, a certain amount of trash gets left (though people could have picked some up and taken it with them, that’s what I did with the trash I had when I realized the trash cans were full).
Another thing that probably resulted in the large trash piles was another act of poor planning by the inauguration committee. After the ceremony, millions of tourists were now trying to leave via the subway, except the majority of the metro stations were closed. Those few that remained open had vast, unmoving crowds around them for blocks. My family actually ended up walking across the key bridge in order to get to a metro station where the wait didn’t last for hours. People ended up wandering back and forth across the mall until weary, looking for a way home, which is probably why everyone didn’t have the energy to clean up.
Oh, and about Bush being booed. He’s not the first president to be booed out of office. There are records indicating that Herbert Hoover, Warren Harding, and James Buchannon were all booed on their last day as president. It’s rare, but it has happened. I think everyone is so shocked because this is the first TELEVISED inauguration where the former president was booed. Personally, I think all 4 of those presidents deserved it, but that’s obviously a matter of opinion. I suppose only history will tell.
Oh, and Dixie Dawg? I have a few bones to pick with your little list. I don’t normally pick through people’s posts like this, but your ignorance is astounding. I’m probably wasting my time here, you’ve probably long since innoculated your emotionally-based values from logical argument, but I have to try.
1. They scream about the torture of Guantanamo Bay detainees and then support the barbaric practice of abortion.
Liberals don’t think fetuses are complete human beings with souls. Also, even if abortion is murder, how does that make torture right? And not every liberal is pro-choice. I would like to point one thing out though. You describe abortion as barbaric, which brings up an interesting point: abortion is as old as humanity itself. It’s not some newfangled thing thought up by liberals. Pre-birth abortion is a modern phenomenon, but back in Jesus’ day, if a Roman family was about to have one more child than they could feed, after giving birth, they took it up to a mountain, nailed its foot to the ground, and left it there to be eaten by animals. It was a very common practice in Jesus’ time, and the middle ages. Look it up.
2. They push for laws to shield children from pornography and then applaud homosexual parades.
How does allowing homosexuals the right to openly admit to their sexual orientation and the right to do what they want in the privacy of their homes expose children to sexual content? By that same logic, doesn’t a wedding amount to pornography, since it explicitly implies that sex is going to occur between two people? Oh and by the way, homosexuality was very common in Jesus’ time among the Romans, to the point that Julius Caesar was considered “The husband of every wife and the wife of every husband”, meaning he mated copiously with a number of males and females. In fact it was a major point of contention between the occupying Romans and the local Jewish community, whose traditions banned such practices. And yet, in the gospels, nothing was said about this subject. You’d think that if Jesus was so against it, since it was such a socially relevant topic, he would have mentioned something, but nope, not a word in there. (Plenty in the old testament, a little in the new testament about it, but if you look through the gospels you’ll find Jesus himself was mum on the subject)
3. They “worship” Mother Earth, declare Global Warming, advertise “Going Green” and turn the National Mall into a landfill.
See above about turning the mall into a “landfill” (it was clean by the next day, I know, I live in the area). And they don’t worship the Earth, they see it as the greatest gift God gave man, something to be cherished and loved. And it was not liberals, but the scientific community that “declared” global warming, if by declared you mean announced that they had discovered that this process was occurring based on collected temperature data over time, CO2 levels in the atmosphere, and ice cap size.
4. They criticize the cost of Sarah Palin’s wardrobe and then attend the most expensive inauguration in American history.
The inauguration was largely paid for by supporters, who donated specifically to make the inauguration happen, while Palin’s clothes were paid for by supporters who expected her to use it in order to try and build an effective campaign, which she, McCain, and the Republican party obviously failed to do.
5. They demonstrate against the war, work to “save the whales” and okay partial-birth abortion.
Liberals don’t think fetuses are humans. You can disagree with that, but it makes logical sense from that perspective. Oh, and not every liberal is pro-chioce. What I don’t understand is being pro-life, and yet being pro-war. What, does life cease to matter once it leaves the womb? Or do you simply not care about Muslim babies? Since you’re for bombing families in the Middle East, would you be for forced abortions and sterilization for the wives of terrorists to prevent them from spreading their ideas? If not, why is it acceptable to kill people with bombs but not with scalpels? Because when you bomb that terrorist’s home, you’re killing the unborn child in his wife just the same. And the children (born and unborn) of his neighbors as well.
6. They cry for tolerance and won’t tolerate anyone who disagrees with them.
Liberals cry for tolerance of things you can’t control, like skin color, gender, or sexual orientation. Nobody is arguing for universal toleration of behavior or belief, otherwise we’d have to tolerate neo-nazism and rapists. Oh, and in case you haven’t noticed, the Democrats are listening to the minority Republicans far more than the Republicans listened to the minority Democrats when the situation was reversed.
7. They wave American Flags and then drop them on the ground. (For you to pick up)
Actually, most people took them home as souvenirs
8. They shout racism and then “BOO” a white American President as he walks onto the stage. (Just imagine if the Conservatives would have “BOOED” Obama, all hell would have broken loose in the liberal news media.)
He wasn’t booed because he’s white, he was booed because he wasted the wealth and power of the greatest superpower the world has ever seen. Judged by the content of his character, not the color of his skin.
9. They support PETA and wear fur to the inauguration.
Not every liberal supports PETA. I sure don’t, they’re raving idiots. I guarantee those out there in fur don’t either.
10. They claim to pray, quote the Bible and then rebel against the Word of God.
No, we just don’t agree with your interpretation of the word of God. For instance, no doubt you and your preacher would insist that homosexuality is unchristian, and based that on the fact it’s forbidden in Leviticus. Someone like me would respond by saying, “But in Leviticus, it also says that you can’t eat pork, why is that not unchristian?” To which I assume your preacher would respond with the usual justification that has been used for thousands of years: “With Jesus’ death and resurrection, God voided the old covenant between man and God, outlined in the Old Testament, and replaced it with the new covenant, which his son, Jesus, delivered to us.” To which I would respond: “Well, doesn’t that also void the part of the Old Testament that prohibited homosexuality, and since Jesus doesn’t say anything against homosexuality in the gospels, doesn’t that mean that God is okay with it?” At which point I assume that your preacher, would fly into a towering rage at the mere suggestion that God approves homosexuality, despite the fact that scientists have proven that homosexual animals exist, so God clearly made it a part of the natural world. The main point is: same holy book, different interpretations. We’re still both Christians, even though you’d no doubt spit on me if you met me in public.
If you don’t learn to be flexible and tolerate the viewpoints of those who are a little more liberal than you are, the next 8-12 years are going to be very unpleasant for you. I wish you luck.
Well Joe, that’s a well written, well-presented post. I appreciate that-disagree a good deal of it, but I can respect it because of the way you presented it. Hope you stay.
We’re all missing the point regarding the trash. Remember Michelle Obama’s comment that even the elderly are capable of tasks like picking up garbage;
It’s Obama’s new Make Work Pay program! The STB (Senior Trash Brigade) is on the way, but it takes them a little longer to respond (especially the ones with walkers.)
Actually, our new POTUS missed a perfect opportunity. He should have asked people to pick up their own trash, and then exclaim “See? I told you I’d put millions of people back to work!”
JV
@amber:
You make excuses for boorish behavior yet you are ashamed of fellow Republicans that hold a higher respect for the meaning of that day.
http://www.zombietime.com/folsom_sf_2007_part_1/
Joe @21
Who knows why one would include that barbaric example to support their confusion about when life begins. Attempting to use the OT to excuse abortion doesn’t fly, using Levticus ignores the whole reason God sent his Son. In the NT you will find references to the unborn as Jesus stated He knew us before we were born, infants in the womb do have souls.
Partial birth abortion occurs when there should be no doubt to anyone when a baby’s life begins, it’s an entirely, unnecessary, ugly procedure that causes horrific pain to the baby. Gitmo detainees are not tortured, now if they are having their skulls pierced by scissors you might have a comparison, as it stands, it’s just more propaganda perpetrated by the left.
Pro-life vs pro-war, might want to get back to the New Testament on that one during your next Bible study.
As far as Gay Pride parades I believe Dixie was referring to examples like what occurs annually in San Fransisco, this is what happened in 2007:
http://www.zombietime.com/folsom_sf_2007_part_1/
Your defense is nonsense.
Booing President Bush:
He was booed because those attending are not able to conduct themselves respectfully, it was purely, behavior that should not be excused. Here we have the man you just elected wanting to end the divisions of the past yet, people in your crowd are setting the tone. He has yet to speak out against the various examples of crude behavior, examples posted above, that occured during his Inauguration and in events leading up to it. But, his followers aren’t listening to him anyway, perhaps he feels it’s hopeless, some leader.
President Bush bent over backwards for months making sure Obama had a smooth transition. President and Laura Bush have been nothing but gracious and kind to the Obama family. Too bad Obama doesn’t have it in him to denounce the rude and devisive behavior from his own party.
@Joe: Good comment #20, Joe.