Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Rahm was right: Left-leaning activists' plan to attack moderate Dems was "#*%@ing retarded"


This should be Rahm's reply to critics of his calling lefty activists "retarded'

This is ridiculous:

Advocates for people with disabilities went to the White House today to talk with chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to talk about his language -- and not the expletives for which he is famous.

Emanuel again apologized for using the word "retarded" to describe an ad campaign proposed by liberal allies, a comment reported by The Wall Street Journal.

In a statement, the group -- including the leaders of the Special Olympics and the American Association of People with Disabilities -- said they accepted Emanuel's apology, and hope that more Americans understand that "the R-word is polluting our language."

The statement added: "Every day our community hears this word -- in schools and workplaces, in print and in movies, on radio and television. And every day they suffer its dehumanizing effects -- mockery, stigma, ridicule. This is a word that is incredibly damaging -- not only to the seven million people with intellectual disabilities, but also their friends, family and to all of us."


In case you missed it, this is the second apology in two days that Rahm has been forced to make by the Word Police -- egged on by Sarah Palin and a phalanx of righties eager to score points against Team Obama:

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel apologized to the head of the Special Olympics today after the Wall Street Journal reported the fiery Chicagoan privately called a group of liberal activists "f---ing retarded."

Last August, Emanuel "showed up at a weekly strategy session featuring liberal groups and White House aides," the Journal's Peter Wallsten reported lastTuesday."Some attendees said they were planning to air ads attacking conservative Democrats who were balking at Mr. Obama's health-care overhaul. 'F—ing retarded,' Mr. Emanuel scolded the group, according to several participants. He warned them not to alienate lawmakers whose votes would be needed on health care and other top legislative items."

Rahm was right. The lefties who wanted to attack moderate Democrats in Congress about health care were fucking retarded. Oh, sorry, they were fucking idiots...imbeciles...morons. But those are all words that once upon a time were used to describe, er, those people with less developed cognitive abilities and were ruled out for such a use and replaced by, you guessed it, "retarded."

In fact, the "advocates for people with disabilities" views notwithstanding, "mental retardation" is still a diagnostic term used in American disability law. While those advocates, who regard the term as pejorative and prefer "intellectual disability" are gaining ground, the change is a very recent one. Only three years ago the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities was still called the American Association on Mental Retardation.

So Rahm may be a little behind the times, but really, is his use of so common a term so outrageous that his guilt could not be extirpated without a White House pow wow at which he groveled before people who still used that same term a few years ago? And anyway, isn't "retarded," which implies clearly that a person is slow or delayed in developing cognitive skills, better than "intellectually disabled," which implies a permanent lack of those skills?

Perhaps even more importantly, Rahm did not call any intellectually disabled people "retarded." In a private meeting at his place of work, he called some members of his own political party "retarded" for advancing a really stupid idea.

What's your opinion? Post a comment.

Why should Obama apologize for implying that a Las Vegas vacation is about gambling?



Las Vegas Mayor calls President Obama a "slow learner"

At a "townhall" meeting about the federal budget in Nashua, N.H., on Tuesday. President Obama said this:

"This isn't how responsible families do their budgets. When times are tough, you tighten your belts. You don't go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don't blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you're trying to save for college. You prioritize. You make tough choices. And it's time your government did the same."

Based on the offended outcries from Sen. Harry Reid and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, among other Nevada notables, you'd think he said that you'll catch a horrible disease by going to Las Vegas! The Mayor was especially nasty, saying that Obama "has a real psychological hangup about the entertainment capital of the world," that Obama doesn't understand what Vegas officials are trying to do with their "economy." And he called the President a "slow learner" (see video above). (By the way, isn't "slow learner" the same thing as "retarded"?)

I'm disappointed that the President has already issued an apology of sorts, saying in a letter to Reid that he didn't really mean anything "negative" and that "there is no better place to have fun than Vegas, one of our country's great destinations."

I understand that "the entertainment capital of the world" is having a tougher time than many other cities in the current recession -- but isn't that the price to be paid for building your "economy" on legalized gambling and whoring?

As Obama implied correctly, when times are hard and money is tight, you don't "blow a bunch of cash in Vegas." If you do, you're either a gambling addict or just plain stupid.

Really, what does anyone go to Vegas for? It has no ocean or lakes or beach of any kind. You can't boat or sail or fish or swim (except in casino-hotel pools) in the summer or ski in the winter. It's cultural attractions are, at best, kitsch. Embarrassingly, ccording to the city's own tourism website, you can take in "area" attractions a mere 300 miles away, take the kids to see the Pinball Hall of Fame, or visit such "free attractions" as this botanical splendor at the Bellagio (preferably on your way to the hotel's 116,000-square-foot casino).

Sure, Vegas has a lively night life, with name celebs performing in vast rooms at the big hotels. But take away the gambling, and could anything else in Vegas -- even the legal prostitution -- survive?

Of course not. The place is a gamblers' paradise, and it's no surprise that its gambling business was started by gangsters and built into a big business by more gangsters.

It's all very legal and legitimate, now, of course, but that doesn't make it a good thing. Obama should stick to his guns -- and tell Mayor Goodman to go fish.

What do you think? Post a comment.