Showing posts with label FLOTUS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FLOTUS. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

#BringBackOurGirls and the Hashtag Police

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Ann Coulter was the most obvious critic of Michelle Obama after she held up a sign with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls in her weekly address ~ see my Previous Post:

Twitter Punks Ann Coulter After She Mocks Michelle Obama



Unfortunately, there are others on Twitter who fancy themselves the "Hashtag Police" - forever dissing any hashtag that they don't find important or worthwhile. Or they say because everyone isn't an "expert" in what the hashtag is about, then they are just "armchair activists." Thank you, Captain Obvious, but we can't all go to Nigeria and help the FBI and Special Forces hunt down Boko Haram.

Some people freaked out that President Obama dared to send help to Nigeria, alternating between despair that America hasn't helped much before, and anger that there might be 'boots on the ground" - the same argument we hear about Ukraine and Syria and lots of other places.

Others implied that the hashtag was useless because the members of Boko Haram wouldn't read our tweets anyway, while others pointed out that Boko Haram has killed other children in the past, so why worry about a mere 200 young girls? Just GIVE UP People!!!

So I guess because GOP members like Ted Cruz or Paul Ryan don't read our tweets, we should stop tweeting about them, too? And if there's an atrocity in the world, such as fracking or pollution or pushing animals to extinction, we should ignore it because the world is just evil and it's ARMCHAIR ACTIVISM!

And it's all Obama's fault anyway because he keeps doing things that Presidents do and all of that is evil so JUST GIVE UP, PEOPLE!!!

It's rather baffling that no one complained about the #BundyRanch hashtag for a month, but suddenly 200 girls go missing and they don't think #BringBackOurGirls is a helpful hashtag? It's a strange phenomena for sure.

I think this is an important debate, so I'm going to post both sides here, via Twitter.


















































































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Twitter Punks Ann Coulter After She Mocks Michelle Obama

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Tweeted by Atchka!

On Mother's Day, Michelle Obama gave her weekly address in which she spoke about the 200 Nigerian girls who were kidnapped by the cruel terrorist group Boko Haram. Mashable tweeted a picture from the video of the First Lady holding up a piece of white paper with the twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls and it immediately drew fire from the right. Among the many critics of our FLOTUS was the ever-nasty Ann Coulter, right wing polemicist and caustic conservative. She took a photo of herself appearing to pout and holding up a piece of paper which read "#BringBackOurCountry," an echo of the conservative "I want my country back" nonsense started by the Tea Party and Sarah Palin in 2008.

As usual, Coulter's goal was to prove that somehow Conservatives are suffering much more than anyone else, certainly more than some frightened children forced by armed gunmen into child-marriages or God-knows-what in the jungles of Nigeria.

The insensitive Narcissism and Self-Pity in Coulter's tweet rubbed Twitter the wrong way, and her prank boomeranged right back at her through a hilarious twitter meme as people erased her original message and added their own. It couldn't happen to a nastier person. I hope it never ends.




White House Transcript
Like millions of people across the globe, my husband and I are outraged and heartbroken over the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls from their school dormitory in the middle of the night.
This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education – grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls.
And I want you to know that Barack has directed our government to do everything possible to support the Nigerian government’s efforts to find these girls and bring them home.
In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters. We see their hopes, their dreams – and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now.

. . . These girls embody the best hope for the future of our world…and we are committed to standing up for them not just in times of tragedy or crisis, but for the long haul.
We are committed to giving them the opportunities they deserve to fulfill every last bit of their God-given potential.
So today, let us all pray for their safe return... let us hold their families in our hearts during this very difficult time…and let us show just a fraction of their courage in fighting to give every girl on this planet the education that is her birthright. Thank you.






















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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Michelle Obama Heckled by Gay Activist

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From Washington Post
Obama was addressing a Democratic Party fundraiser in a private Kalorama home in Northwest Washington when Ellen Sturtz, 56, a lesbian activist, interrupted her remarks to demand that President Obama sign an anti-discrimination executive order.

. . . “One of the things that I don’t do well is this,” she said to applause from most of the guests, according to a White House transcript. “Do you understand?”

A pool report from a reporter in the room said Obama “left the lectern and moved over to the protester.” The pool report quoted Obama as saying: “Listen to me or you can take the mic, but I’m leaving. You all decide. You have one choice.”

. . . The audience responded by asking Obama to remain, according to the pool report, which quoted a woman nearby telling Sturtz, “You need to go.”

Sturtz was escorted out of the room. She said in an interview later she was stunned by Obama’s response.
“She came right down in my face,” Sturtz said. “I was taken aback.”









The interruption came less than two weeks after President Obama faced a Code Pink protester who loudly advocated for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison during the president's national security speech.
The president, who was making his remarks before cameras and a large audience, handled the situation differently than his wife's confrontation Tuesday night.
"This is part of free speech, is you being able to speak but also you listening and me being able to speak, alright?" Obama said upon the interruption. The president has used the tactic before when interrupted.
~ CNN Political Ticker

Attendees escorted the protester out as she yelled further, at one point identifying herself as a “lesbian looking for federal equality before I die.”
Heather Cronk, a co-director of GetEqual, a group that advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals, later identified the heckler as one of its activists, Ellen Sturtz. Three other GetEqual activists were also at the event, Ms. Cronk said.
Tickets for the event ranged in price from $500 to $10,000, Democratic Party officials said.
~ New York Times

Sturtz, who was planted at the fundraiser by gay rights group GetEqual, stated that she was "taken aback" by Obama's response, because apparently the idea that she would do anything besides hand Sturtz the microphone and get her husband on the phone is surprising.
~ The Root

Notice the language Sturtz uses to describe the encounter. Rutgers Anthropology Ph.D student Donna Auston emphasizes that Sturtz’s word choice of “taken aback” is one of distinct privilege; Sturtz sees herself as above reproach in this situation. As Auston inquires, why was Sturtz surprised at Obama’s response? “Is it because you did not expect her to exercise agency? Did you not expect her to assert that she is your equal?” Auston asks. Either black women are supposed to tacitly accept maltreatment and disrespect, or when they do exercise their agency, they are branded as the “Angry Black Woman.”
The choice of words Sturtz employed indicate that she has cast the First Lady as the aggressor who over-zealously responded to reason with anger. And once you label a black woman as “angry,” you have, in essence, invalidated any response, no matter how justified or rational it may be. You can silence any challenge or dissenting thought from a black woman by even remotely alluding to this offensive stereotype.
~ Lauren Rankin on PolicyMic

. . . the moment we play the “I just couldn’t help myself ” card we shut down meaningful conversation. Yelling at someone is not “interaction.” Sure, we get noticed, but it’s easy to get noticed. A no-nonsense mom like Michelle Obama could tell you that any 2-year-old in a WalMart can get noticed just by throwing herself on the floor of the sporting goods aisle. That doesn’t mean anybody is going to take her seriously.
~ Mary Elizabeth Williams on Salon

Via Towleroad
The GetEQUAL organizers involved in the demonstration have issued the following statement.

"LGBT people in North Carolina, New Mexico, Ohio and all over the country are dehumanized in our jobs, and we are forced into the closet in order to participate in the American dream. We value the First Lady's leadership and invite her to lead the charge within the Democratic Party to end employment discrimination. President Obama has an executive order sitting on his desk that can protect a quarter of the labor force in the U.S. from workplace discrimination, we will continue engaging leaders in the Administration and the Democratic Party until President Obama fulfills a promise to our community made five years ago."


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Monday, February 25, 2013

Republican Poutrage when FLOTUS appears on Oscar Night

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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Best Quotes of Inauguration Day

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Obama's Quiet Moment

Here is the moment. It was not on the program. It was not on anybody's schedule. We did not know it was coming. And it was not spoken into any microphone. . . .
"I want to take a look one more time. I'm not going to see this again."
The President looking in one direction, while everyone else looking toward him was moving past him.
That is the moment when you see the man inside the trappings of the office. When you see the way that any of us might feel a little overwhelmed in human terms by the importance of your office. The singular scale of the importance of that particular office. That was a cool moment.
Days like this are special because of what is scripted and preordained about them. The least suspenseful things on days like this are the most important things on days like this. Things that display the ritual of how we peacefully and agreeably move between Presidencies in America. Days of ritual are days of foregone conclusion. They are scripted. Which makes it all the more amazing when there is not a script. Like that moment after his Inaugural Address when we saw the President turn to be as amazed to see that crowd as that crowd was to see their President.
~ Rachel Maddow on MSNBC






As if a cold Monday in January wasn’t dreary enough, today has been dubbed ‘Blue Monday’, the most depressing day of the year.`
~ Steve Doocey on Fox and Friends

Fox on Obama's Speech:
Chris Wallace: This was an unyielding, uncompromising espousal of a liberal agenda.
Brit Hume: This is utterly bereft of an outreach to the opposition.
Mark Levin: I think there’s a lot of perverse thinking that goes on in Obama’s mind, radical left-wing thinking. He was indoctrinated with Marx and Alinksy propaganda.

I thought it was an amazing speech, and historically very important. This was really Obama unbound. And I think what's most interesting is that Obama basically is declaring the end of Reaganism
~ Charles Krauthammer on Fox News






Ladies and gentlemen, the late Alex Haley, the author of Roots, lived his life by these six words: "find the good and praise it.” Today we praise the American tradition of transforming, or reaffirming, immense power in the inauguration of the President of the United States. We do this in a peaceful, orderly way. There is no mob. No coup. No insurrection. This is a moment when millions stop and watch. A moment most of us always will remember. It is a moment that is our most conspicuous and enduring symbol of the American democracy. How remarkable that this has survived for so long in such a complex country when so much power is at stake. This freedom to vote for our leaders and the restraint to respect the results.
~ Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, Co-Chair of the Inaugural Committee

"I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, a Mugwump or whatever. This is a day when you have to say 'What A Country!'
~ Dan Rather

He went big. He went lofty. He went ambitious. And he went unmistakably liberal.
~ Jonathan Karl on ABC News

I feel like I should pinch myself right now, Wolf. I can't believe I have this vantage point of history in the making.
~ Jim Acosta of CNN while covering the President and First Lady walking down Pennsylvania Avenue parade route


That was really historic. To hear the President of the United States mention the word Stonewall in the same sentence as Selma, in the same sentence as Seneca Falls, certainly for gay and lesbian Americans, that is a stunning statement and a real leap forward for gay and lesbian Americans.
~ Anderson Cooper on CNN

I just want to say, there were moments in this speech, but there was a theme, we the people go back to the Founders, think of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. There was an uplifting, beyond rhetoric, there was a theme of our job is not finished until our gay brothers and sisters have equal rights under the law. This was a bigger moment, I think, than a lot of people initially gave it credit for. I just think, with re-election, he is thinking much more broadly and much more inclusively, and I was very moved, just being up there in that frozen crowd, looking out over the masses.
~ Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC

Gigantic. And he connected it all to the patriots of 1776 that we keep widening in our democracy. And he made those places almost like battlefield spots in American history, like Oxford, Mississippi, or Normandy or Iwo Jima. And it's an iconic speech.
. . . I thought it was a marvelous speech and it's brave and it's bold and I think it's going to play well in history.
~ Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley on CNN

Reminds you of another second inaugural: Lincoln’s. So much of Lincoln in that speech, from the Gettysburg address to the second inaugural itself. I thought what was interesting was an attempt to draw a balance – of course, he’s a man of the progressive side – but he tried to draw a balance there between a government ruled by an elite and then a government ruled by a mob both being a problem.
~ Chris Matthews on Obama's Second Inaugural Address

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GOP dinner tonight should begin with crow.
~ Ed Schultz on MSNBC

So folks, I raise my glass to a man who never, never, never operates out of fear. [He] only operates out of confidence. I’m toasting you Chuck. A guy who I plan on working on working with. You can’t get rid of me, man. Remember, I’m still part of the Senate! God bless you, Chuck.
~ Vice President Joe Biden offering Senator Chuck Schumer a surprise toast at the Inaugural Luncheon

Chuck Schumer Photo Bomb During Ceremony
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First Lady's Epic Eye Roll
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