Anyone remember all the civility talk emanating from Washington after the Tucson shooting?
In addition to all beltway Republicans demanding a "tone down" in an attempt to prove their "compassion," and the loonies which formed the "No Labels" group, the president himself admonished both sides of the aisle to keep the rhetoric down.
Well, it sure seems like it depends who's saying what, rather than what is actually being said. Today, Hoffa introduced Obama at a Labor Day Rally and boy was he civil!
Here's the news from Matthew Boyle at the Daily Caller.
While warming up a Detroit crowd for President Barack Obama’s Labor Day speech, Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. said unions need to fight a “war” against tea partiers and congressional Republicans. “President Obama, this is your army,” Hoffa said. “We are ready to march. Let’s take these sons of bitches out and take America back to where America we belong.”
“We gotta keep an eye on the battle that we face, a war on workers, and you see it everywhere in the tea party,” he told an enthusiastic crowd of union supporters. “And, there’s only one way to win that war, the one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know, what, they got a war, they got a war with us and there’s only going to be one winner, it’s going to be the workers up in Michigan and America. We’re going to win that war.”
Hoffa, Jr. (...) was opening up for Obama’s speech in Detroit, which is expected to preview “jobs plan” that he will present in a joint session of Congress on Thursday evening.
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, SEIU president Mary Kay Henry and UAW president Bob King also joined Obama in Detroit.
For the rest of the article and to watch the video you can click here.
Although Obama wasn't physically in the audience, he addressed the crowd a short while later. Not a hint of criticism or condemnation of Hoffa's speech was heard of Obama.
Although to be fair, even if Obama would've wanted to condemn Hoffa it would've been impossible since it hadn't showed up on the teleprompter. And an actor may never deviate from his script.
When writing about civility it would be amiss not to mention the civility from the crowds in Washington right after the Tucson shooting when the entire liberal media from The Daily Kos to Politico attacked the Tea Parties, conservatives, talk show hosts, and Palin as responsible for the horrific shooting.
The media didn’t stand alone in their cries for civility. The entire Democratic political machine starting from Obama at his talk in Tucson demanded civility and a toning down from the Republicans.
As if the above wasn’t enough, some Republicans joined the nonsense noise demanding a tone down and one Republican senator went so far as to blame the town halls, cable TV and talk radio.
All this resulted in the joke of increased civility through the mixed seating during the “state of the union address” as though that really caused a civil tone between the two parties.
It seems that the seating arrangement can now be credited for causing many Senators and Congressmen and women in having become good friends and examples of civility.
Yes, the Democrats teamed up with the beltway Republicans and civilly denounced the tea partiers and hard core conservatives, who are the true friends of the people, as people wanting to take away social security from the elderly and destroy America’s credit rating.
Anyone seeking the definition of a circus merely has to glance back at the actions and reactions the last couple of weeks not only of the media and the liberals but of the entire group of Mr. Civilities comprised mainly of Democrats and Beltway Republicans.
The Tea Party members dared speak the truth with their demands of Washington to curb the spending and to stop selling phony deals with the simple explanation that even without an increase to our budget our debt is unsustainable and the coming generations won’t be able to pay it off.
This was reason enough to snap the members of the civility club from congress and across America into action.
The civility crowd in Washington has actually pulled off a stunning feat, the likes of which has never been seen or done before.
They named the Tea Party Republicans “hostage takers” and “terrorists” without any remorse or apology while simultaneously slamming the usage of the term “terrorist” in situations truly applicable.
When one nutcase in Norway set off a bomb and shot innocent people fingers immediately pointed to right wingers and Christianity as guilty. It didn’t matter that the Facebook page the media pumped all over in which the killer identified himself as a conservative and Christian as proof of his beliefs turned out to be a fake and was removed from Facebook.
On the flip side of the issue, although hundreds of Muslims have committed violence in the name of Allah in the past, when several Muslims committed violence right here in the USA, the civility crowd worked overtime to ensure no one dare suggest that even a minority of the Muslim religion supports terror and violence.
From the very top of the civility callers, Obama has repeatedly called the Republicans “hostage takers” and Vice President Joe Biden lashed out against the tea party Republicans Monday accusing them of having “acted like terrorists.”
Biden also encouraged Democrats to vote for the deal saying it would take “the weapons of mass destruction” out of the hands of the tea party and that the Republicans had “guns to their heads” making it difficult to seek a compromise.
These were not isolated attacks that slipped out of their mouths and were followed with profuse apologies, although that too would’ve been bad enough. Rather, this is part of a calculated strategy from those that hate the tea party to brand them as terrorists who seek to destroy the country.
Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) has proclaimed that “We have negotiated with terrorists,” that “This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money,” and told Politico that “They have no compunction about blowing up the economy to get what they want.”
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) called the deal a “Satan sandwich.”
Here’s a transcript from a mantage Rush Limbaugh played h/t the Free Republic.
STENY HOYER: The Republicans are holding hostage the credit of the United States of America.
DEBBIE "BLABBERMOUTH" SCHULTZ: ...our Republican colleagues to hold our economy hostage.
DINGY HARRY: The Republican Party is holding our economy hostage.
CHUCK-U SCHUMER: It didn't say, "Hold America hostage."
LOUISE SLAUGHTER: ...hold the debt ceiling hostage.
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE: One party is holding the country hostage.
JOHN OLVER: The debt limit has never before been held hostage.
BARBARA LEE: Republicans are holding our economy hostage.
EARL BLUMENAUER: ...willing to take hostage the debt ceiling.
JASON ALTMIRE: Stop holding America's credit rating hostage.
ROSA DeLAURO: The Republican majority continues to hold the American economy hostage.
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Let's not hold the entire American economy hostage.
JOHN LARSON: ...ideological HOSTAGE situation...
LLOYD DOGGETT: The only belt they're really tightening is right around the neck of those hostages.
JAMES CLYBURN: Holding the American economy hostage.
JESSE JACKSON, JR.: This President is being treated differently!
SPEAKER PRO-TEM: (gavel banging)
JACKSON: No other President has been stuck up, shook down, or held hostage!
This list is by far not a complete list of the Democratic politicians who have referred to Tea Party Conservatives as terrorists and hostage takers without seeing anything wrong with the terminology and without receiving a scolding from the moderates and peace lovers.
And of course the media didn’t find it necessary to condemn the dangerous rhetoric, since it delighted in the opportunity to join the game and continue to build on it.
The New York Times called the GOP “hostage takers” for the bipartisan deal that has been reached last week.
The Wall Street Journal called the Tea Party “hobbits” and John McCain found it necessary to read it aloud on the Senate floor.
Chris Matthews found it necessary to remind everyone on the day of Giffords return that she was injured because of the “violent level of the right-wing” and the tea party groups, and compared the Tea Party Republicans to baby-kidnappers and terrorists because of their opposition to the debt deal.
To top it all off, Newsbusters made a shocking discovery which went entirely unnoticed by the media; a political cartoonist from a Tucson Newspaper, from all the places, fantasized about Obama Sending SEALs to Assassinate Tea Party Republicans!
Civility from Tucson
So I ask this of those of you carrying the flag of civility.
Have you ever seen on Palin’s Facebook page similar language? Do you have a single audio of Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Dennis Prager or other conservatives calling the left terrorists and kidnappers?
Where have all the moderates and civility supporters both from the right and the left disappeared to? Is it uncivil to denounce this hateful and dangerous rhetoric against honest civil people trying to get this country out of debt?
They are usually the first ones grabbing the microphones and letting their opinion be heard whether by the Times Square bomber, the Fort Hood Shooting, and everywhere in between. Why don’t they take over the floor in the House and the Senate denouncing and demanding an apology of those spewing this hate-filled talk for inciting violence? How can they in good conscience join these hate-filled people in meetings and compromises disregarding their destructive choice of words?
The last several weeks have been the ultimate symbol of civility, unity, and compromise in their attacks against the tea party.
The civility crowd’s silence announced loud and clear their belief that civility is a one-way street.
On September 13, 2010 a group of moderates, progressives, and independents have shed their old labels for an enticing new one: No Labels. Founded by Nancy Jacobson and, Mark McKinnon, they launched their group in NYC together with Joe Scarborough, Charlie Christ, David Brooks, Mike Bloomberg, Michael Smerconish, Dylan Ratigan and a whole lot of other spineless elitists.
The No Label’s group professes to put political partisanship aside to accomplish for the good of the nation without specifying how and what they consider good. They completely disregard the fact that this country is comprised of different groups that have different goals. While conservatives fight for free enterprise, individual choice, and shrinking of the government, to name a few, liberals push for reducing carbon emissions, redistributing wealth and regulating just about everything. On the same issue, both will have two opposing solutions, and each will feel the others is detrimental to the country’s future.
Two years ago, Bloomberg had said the same as the No Label’s group professes about the bailouts; “Nobody knows exactly what they should do, but anything is better than nothing.” Oh really? Is pouring gasoline on fire the same as pouring water? Or is doing nothing better perhaps better than adding fuel to the fire?
No Labels presents itself as a righteous group who opposes labels at all costs. Let’s look at the history of the previously mentioned individuals.
Mike Bloomberg had three different letters preceding his name in the span of under seven years! He jumped first from a lifelong Democrat to a Republican in ’01 before running for mayor and then to Independent in’07 before the third elections. I find it hard to believe that along with his party swaps, he changed his beliefs and positions on major issues with each label change. No, he remained the same arrogant elitist yet deemed it extremely vital to be branded with a new label at each election.
Oh, and wasn’t it Bloomberg who labeled anyone who dared voice their opinion against the Ground Zero Mosque as Un-American? And who remembers the Time Square bomber being labeled by the mayor as a probable political terrorist who plainly opposes Obamacare? In a sense, that statement labeled thousands of common citizens and many of our military as a danger to our safety because of their opposition to a bill which forces you to buy healthcare and may very well be overturned as unconstitutional!
Ironically, Bloomberg is obsessed with the lack of labels on items produced by private manufacturers’ such as your favorite sandwich at your local drive-thru, not trusting the pitiful people to possibly be able to control their own eating habits.
And he is now preaching us against the use of labels!
Let’s take a look at another prominent member at the No Label’s launching: failed radio host Joe Scarborough.
Joe deemed it important to label himself as a conservative talk show host hoping that listeners hearing someone brand himself as conservative will remain loyal to his program. Alas, the stupid and uninformed mass did not fall for it, for after all- it was a label and only a label.
This is the same reason why his heavily advertised book, “The Last Best Hope; Restoring Conservatism and America’s Promise” sold less than five thousand copies. His obvious misuse of the term conservatives didn’t fool those who look deeper than the title. Oh, and since most of you are probably not to familiar with what he considered as the only path to regain control and score some major victories in the ’10 elections, here’s his brainy idea to bring conservatives back to power: Appeal to the independents by bashing radical and rigid conservatives. Don’t proclaim your pro-life beliefs even if you are so, because you’ll alienate the middle path. As we are all well aware, it was mostly the moderates who lost and the conservatives who scored victory in 2010. What a failed book-both in sales and in content.
Mr. Scarborough, I’ve got a last best hope for you, and it’s a label too: a retired Liberal! Mark McKinnon, a co-founder of the group must be above the pettiness of labels… or is he? He wrote an article after the midterm elections where he explained how Rubio can solve the Palin Problem. I got dizzy trying to keep track of the many labels he attached to Rubio! He started off with Rubio’s age- label #1, his appeal to Hispanics- label #2, and so on. In order to put down Palin, he suddenly became a Rubio fan. You’re a little too late, Mark. Where were you before the midterms?
In a different article, he told Palin not to run and immediately labeled her as having expired, saying “she reached her sell-by date.” This is coming from a man who spent a total of three hours with Sarah Palin and claims to know her and her thoughts. McKinnon had left the McCain campaign in June’08 because he felt John McCain was going negative against Obama. Can someone tell McKinnon that the Obama’s 20 years they spent in Jeremiah Wright’s church and their hanging out with Bill Ayers are hard facts and not some abstract labels!
It’s interesting to note that the left has always been the party of labels. Any and every opponent was immediately labeled as a racist, sexist, homophobic, islamaphobic and so forth. Who doesn’t remembers our president on the campaign trail naming people of small towns as bitter religious folks clinging to their guns or religion, and more recently calling the senate Republicans as hostage takers? The left labeled virtually the entire state of Arizona as Nazis for trying to enforce what is simply an unenforced federal law. Instead of being open about their beliefs and laying it out before the people, the left sticks to slogans and bumper stickers such as hope and change. Today, when the constituents have awoken and these old tactics are no longer working, they came about with a new bumper sticker-No More Labels!
Indeed, these phony elitist that have always focused on labels are once again hyped up about labels.
