Merci Beaucoup, Obamallamas.

[AZhitman]

transmission of Senator Obama's ill-advised comments... and my hastily-scribbled personal thoughts on the matter.

Obama: "It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing when when, uh, yew, Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German, and then we go over to Europe (pause) and and, aw, ur, aw, all we's can say is Marci-boo-coup"

Let me tell you something, BO. I'm not EMBARRASSED of anything.

Here's the deal. I have a firm grasp of the English language. I've heard you butcher it a few times in your speeches. I don't hold that against you, it happens (see above - "all we's can say" - LOL). I can probably hold my own against you on any standardized English Composition test you bring my way. I don't HAVE the luxury of a fancyass school, but I can write my tail off. In English.

I've absorbed enough Spanish to help out the 50%+ Hispanic population of my beautiful city here, but I'm sure as hell not "embarrassed" that I'm not fluent.

Sorry you're so "embarrassed" of your country that you propose to LEAD, Senator.

Those Europeans speak English because it is a WORLD language. Sorry, but the world economy functions in English.

Perhaps you should go back to the history books and refresh your memory on the Great Immigration periods where everyone flocking to Ellis Island LEARNED ENGLISH OR STARVED. My Pops was one of them. They even CHANGED HIS DAMN NAME.

THAT is embarrassing. How would YOU like it, Senator, if I changed your Daddy's name to "Spencer Whitebread" when he set foot on US soil?

YOU don't speak a foreign language, fool. Hell, the guy you make fun of for being a doofus (GWB) speaks fluent Spanish. That's one more foreign language than you actually speak. Who's dumb now? ANSWER THE QUESTION SENATOR.

It gets better, folks:

Oh wait - You CLAIM you spoke fluent Indonesian as a child? LIAR. Your own teachers have confirmed this. Ohhh, boy. That's so sad.

On top of THAT, you SUPPORT (with some revisions) No Child Left Behind (thanks GWB). So, since you think we "retarded Americans" need to learn a foreign language, HAVE YOU EVEN READ NCLB? Where in the NCLB Act makes foreign language study more accessible for average Americans? Go ahead, I've read it - at length. I'll await your brilliant response.

Oh, you wouldn't know, or care - Your kids go to private schools, where they're immune to NCLB. Gee. Guess you should STFU then, since it doesn't apply to you OR your non-foreign language-speaking kids.

So you can roll your "embarrassment" up in a big ol' ball and shove it up your pompous a$$, because this is America, and we speak English here.

Quit lying to people. Quit asking my left-leaning friends to believe your hogwash. They're smarter than you give them credit for, Obama.

Your uncle didn't help liberate Auschwitz, you never spoke Indonesian, you didn't "sacrifice" to "make it", the Kennedys didn't bring your Daddy to the US, and your "embarassment" of this great country should tell everyone reading that you're just another hypocritical politician, saying anything you can to get into office.

Senator BO, when you refer to us as ignorant Americans who "...have antipathy for those that are unlike them", I'm proud to count myself in that group. I DO have antipathy for people who are unlike me - Namely, liars.

</rant>

God bless our candidates, our political process, and above all, our great flawed Country.

[96Qowner]

LOL Greg, I gotta take a cue from you and jus' let 'er rip, one of these days.

I'm a little worried. It appears all these people who love Obama don't know anything about him, and DON'T CARE that they don't.

Wow.

[rn79870]

I think his underlying point is that European education exceeds that found in America. How many Americans are fluent (or relatively fluent) in a second language. Perhaps it is his commentary on the current state of education here in the states. But that's another issue that the democrats a better grasp on than the republicans do.

Being a candidate requires that you think on your feet as you speak to countless audiences. It's pretty hard to not trip up once in a while so I think it's more important to concentrate on the message rather than a literal interpretation of the words.

[rn79870]

LOL Greg, I gotta take a cue from you and jus' let 'er rip, one of these days.

I'm a little worried. It appears all these people who love Obama don't know anything about him, and DON'T CARE that they don't.

Wow.

"There are none so blind as those who won't see." The willful refusal of knowledge is a sign of excessive conservatism and stubbornness, especially in American culture where to know is all.

[AZhitman]

The willful refusal of knowledge is a sign of excessive conservatism and stubbornness, especially in American culture where to know is all.

Good God.

"Willful refusal of knowledge"? I just pointed out FACTS. Take 'em with a spoonful of sugar if you have to, but you gotta take 'em.

Could it be that he's really a liar and a clown, and the left is unwilling to see it?

Don't go spinning this one.

Say what you mean, and mean what you say. REAL MEN DON'T BACKPEDAL.

QUIT MAKING EXCUSES for him. You guys brutalized GWB when he used a "made-up" word, and that was innocent. If this was a court of law, he'd be charged with PERJURY.

LIAR.

[AZhitman]

current state of education here in the states. But that's another issue that the democrats a better grasp on than the republicans do.

Really?

I'm ready to hear this one, as is my GF, who's an Administrator and long-time teacher.

Bob, you're exceeding your personal grasp of the issues here by getting all partisan.

Have YOU read NCLB? Do you know its strengths / weaknesses? Were you aware that BO supports it, while Hillarious wanted to chuck it completely?

[mcheddadi]

c'est intense tout ça, AZhitman, on dirait que t'écris tes histoires en te disant qu'obama il va venir lire tout ca. lol

Qui sait, p-e qu'il a un compte sur NICOclub lol.

je me demande ce qu'il conduirait...je le vois trop dans une g37 berline lol, je sais pas pourquoi

[wingFeather]

I would say that both sides would not turn down improvements in education.

But if that is what Obama is stating here, then why not say it with less ambiguity? Why not say "I feel that all Americans should be forced to learn every language on this planet."

This is the same anti-American nonsense I hear parroted from (the majority) liberals everywhere I've been. "Europe is so far advanced, and America sucks." If Europe is indeed better, then why not move there? Leave America for us Americans who are happy with it

[AZhitman]

On a side note, since BO thinks German and French are so damned attractive...

Mandarin Chinese is the most popular first language on the planet, beating out English by 500 million speakers.

And it's the second-most-common language on the Internet (English is first).

Guess what? China now requires most of its students to learn English.

Then again, what do they know.

Merci Beaucoup indeed, Senator.

[AZhitman]

c'est intense tout ça, AZhitman, on dirait que t'écris tes histoires en te disant qu'obama il va venir lire tout ca. lol

Qui sait, p-e qu'il a un compte sur NICOclub lol.

je me demande ce qu'il conduirait...je le vois trop dans une g37 berline lol, je sais pas pourquoi

Don't you talk to me like that, son. I'll slap the sh....

Wait.

I have no idea what you said.

[AZhitman]

I would say that both sides would not turn down improvements in education.

Agreed.

And NCLB is a step in the right direction. It's FAR from perfect. But WHAT program is, in its initial phase? It needs work. It'll be great.

I give kudos to the Senator for supporting it. But he'd claim he was an Eskimo before he gave credit to the administration that passed it.

[wingFeather]

c'est intense tout ça, AZhitman, on dirait que t'écris tes histoires en te disant qu'obama il va venir lire tout ca. lol

Qui sait, p-e qu'il a un compte sur NICOclub lol.

je me demande ce qu'il conduirait...je le vois trop dans une g37 berline lol, je sais pas pourquoi

Je parle Francais, assuie!

Je suis en ignorant Americaine que Obama a parle.

[rn79870]

Greg, you're spinning a non-issue. Obama thinks language skills are important. End of story.

[AZhitman]

Greg, you're spinning a non-issue. Obama thinks language skills are important. End of story.

How convenient to dismiss it so easily.

Hope my kids don't grow up to speak his language... I think it's called LIAR.

You said it quite well in another thread:

And do they apologize when they are wrong? Not.

[rn79870]

Hope my kids don't grow up to speak his language... I think it's called LIAR.

It's called politician. All of them learn it in their 1st. year and perfect it the longer they stay in office. Once a politician has been in office for 20 years he is so good at it, one can rarely tell when he speaks it.

[audtatious]

I think his underlying point is that European education exceeds that found in America. How many Americans are fluent (or relatively fluent) in a second language. Perhaps it is his commentary on the current state of education here in the states. But that's another issue that the democrats a better grasp on than the republicans do.

Wouldn't it be better to concentrate more on the huge dropout rates for High Schools instead of trying to set a direction to learn a foreign language? Hell, 40%+ of kids who graduate can't hold a tune, nonetheless hold an intelligent discussion on anything.

Being a candidate requires that you think on your feet as you speak to countless audiences. It's pretty hard to not trip up once in a while so I think it's more important to concentrate on the message rather than a literal interpretation of the words.

Obama gets a pat on the back with a "we all make mistakes" while Bush gets thrown under the bus......Business as usual.

[AZhitman]

It's called politician. All of them learn it in their 1st. year and perfect it the longer they stay in office. Once a politician has been in office for 20 years he is so good at it, one can rarely tell when he speaks it.

So, should we vote for the guy who lies the MOST or the BEST?

Or was that a backhanded jab, claiming J-Mac is so old, and therefore such a good liar that even the supposedly "intellectually superior" Lefties can't tell?

Either way, it's pathetic.

Sorry Bobby - Your guy's house of cards is coming down.

[skylndrftr]

I think your outta line here AZ.

Can't argue with the stats but can aruge with your conclusion. What those numbers say to me is that other countries are making an effort to allow their citizens to communicate on the world stage. English has become the wrld wide language of international discourse for the most part, but that doesn't mean we can flake out and say good enough. Just because they speak our tongue doesn't mean we shouldn't speak their tongue. The company I work for right now is opening a factory in China. Yes they can converse in english with the engineers we send there, but its limited, so what happens is we train our engineers to speak Chinese...with two people sharing two half languages we have a lot clearer communication and if nothign else it is a sign of respect for them and their culture that we are making the effort just as they did.

You should see the lab reports I get stuck grading, they show a complete lack of good english. Your GF may have her opinion but I have my own and I hae a personal grasp on this one both in a job and in academia

[audtatious]

Of the US population, what percentage needs to learn a secondary language? Very small. Our education system is failing and adding additional burden of mandatory spanish classes to kids who have trouble with even the english language is the wrong direction. What I hear by Obama saying we need to teach our kids Spanish is that is is too difficult of a task for us to expect those coming from Mexico to the US to adapt to speaking english, thus we must learn spanish. That's like me going to some small town in Mexico and expecting their citizens to speak english because I don't know spanish. It makes no sense. If I go to another country then I would wholly expect to learn their language and not the other way around.

[wingFeather]

Wouldn't it be better to concentrate more on the huge dropout rates for High Schools instead of trying to set a direction to learn a foreign language? Hell, 40%+ of kids who graduate can't hold a tune, nonetheless hold an intelligent discussion on anything.

Obama gets a pat on the back with a "we all make mistakes" while Bush gets thrown under the bus......Business as usual.

+1 Obamanians need to take this post to heart

And guess what liberals? Throwing money at schools isn't going to help. There needs to be a dramatic clean sweep of the system. Administrators need to take less of the pie, and teachers need to teach (instead of ranting all day long about how Jesus was a lunatic & how 9/11 was Bush's conspiracy to increase oil wealth).

Obama has proven that he takes money from hard working Americans like me & usees it to pad the pockets of the status quo.

[wingFeather]

I think your outta line here AZ.

Is he?

Press one for English...

I think liberal America has done a GREAT job making sure that Americans can speak other languages. As we all know, the world speaks Spanish (LOL). Pardon my outrage at the absurdity of all this, but English is a second language now. Liberals have been placing more importance on sex education, evolution, and SPANISH. We need to reform the entire school system before we throw "mo' chedda" at them

[Repo Man]

Great thread Greg. To coattail on the points that you have made, David Limbaugh has written a column that tees right off of what you have said:

Some say Obama's critics have taken their eye off the ball in focusing on his associations with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers, thus giving his far-left policies a pass. But that's a false choice.

Those criticisms would have more validity but for the fact that Obama's associations and his approach to policy are inextricably intertwined, flowing from a particular -- and consistent -- mindset.

It's no accident that Obama sat for 20 years and had his children baptized in a church whose pastor revved up his congregation by denouncing America with expletives, that he had a working relationship with a professor who expressed pride in his past anti-American terrorism, or even that his wife admitted a first-time pride in the United States with the advent of her husband's electoral success.

Repeated references to Obama's close connections with these people and others are not drive-by attacks designed to incriminate Obama merely by association. Their purpose is to shine a spotlight on Obama to help determine whether he embraces or is sympathetic to the same negative views about America as his soul mates.

When you couple Obama's associations with his many statements and policies, a disturbing picture emerges, suggesting Obama might lack a robust pride in America -- at least in what he considers to be its present state. This point was driven home again this week, as Obama expressed "embarrassment" that American children can't speak foreign languages while European children can speak English.

This is hardly surprising. As others have noted, both as an Illinois senator and United States senator, Obama has been unwavering in his opposition to making English the official language. He doubtlessly has no clue why his attitude on this would deeply bother those of us in "flyover country," who comprise a large part of the American population that Obama holds himself out as having the unique ability to unite. How do you think most of center-right America would react if they understood Obama is more likely to get goose bumps over multiculturalism and diversity than the unique American culture and the values undergirding it?

Speaking of flyover country, who can forget Obama's completely unscripted expression of contempt for small-town America? In that spontaneous moment, he betrayed his typically liberal attitude that ordinary Americans are dependent on the superior wisdom of Washington politicians to save them from their backwoodsmanship.

Obama can deny his lifetime liberal voting record, he can lurch to the center in this general election campaign, and he can claim to be all about bipartisanship and unity, but he can't erase the "Bittergate" tape, which demonstrated his real idea of harmony: leading small-town Neanderthals, bound and gagged, into utopia.And how about Obama's five-point plan to repair America's image in the world, including doubling our foreign aid to $50 billion and surrendering in Iraq to generate good will for America in the Middle East? Liberals such as Obama are preoccupied with America's image in the world -- always worried about which nations we've offended or how we've let down the United Nations, when they ought to be outraged at how those other nations have abused, scorned or underappreciated us and/or haven't stepped up to the plate to do the right thing.

Then again, this is the same Obama who said "the danger of using good versus evil in the context of war is it may lead us to be not as critical as we should be about our own actions."

Surely average Americans do not share Obama's ambivalence about America's moral standing in the war on terror. Surely they reject that there's a dangerous downside to Americans coming together in support of the war through a shared belief in the moral authority of our cause. Along these lines, is it any surprise that Obama, possessed of this moral conflict and confusion, thinks we are at fault for not trying hard enough to meet Iranian tyrant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad halfway?

And then there's Obama's statement in the New Orleans Superdome about a year ago: "After Katrina hit, we had to realize that we were no longer the America we had hoped to be. All the hurricane did was lay bare the fact that we had not dealt with the problems of racism and poverty. But here's the good news: America was ashamed and shocked."

I know many have bought into the disgraceful propaganda that problems with the governmental responses to Katrina were based on the race or poverty of the victims. Perhaps Obama, instead of wringing his hands over the illusory harm that could come to America by clearly articulating its moral standing in this war, should refrain from participating in the dissemination of such destructively divisive slander purely for political gain.

Obama's record and attitude are there for people to see. In all sincerity, I ask: How can we afford such an attitude in America's president -- especially during wartime?

[rn79870]

Repo...The last line of your post...Obama's record and attitude are there for people to see. In all sincerity, I ask: How can we afford such an attitude in America's president -- especially during wartime?says most of what I'm been saying. It's time we decided that it "isn't wartime" and returned to better days. Is Obama the only other one who sees this?

I know that there are many people here at Nico that are so conservative they make Limbaugh look like a Kennedy. But seriously, all of us need to look at the issues facing America and answer, one at a time, who will be better able to handle that issue, Obama or McCain? I think when you do, you'll vote for Mr. O.

[audtatious]

We are in a war. It began quite a while back and finally escalated to where we are now. Some call it the war on terror. It's not against a particular nation, but those who hold values of torture and death to force other parties to relent. Other countries have somewhat tried the "embrace" and "meet half way" approach and they are failing miserably and the enemy is now in their midst. How do you appease someone who is so single-minded that you either follow their rule or die?

[rn79870]

Matt, that sounds a lot like the rhetoric that the government presented to justify entering the conflict in Vietnam. "If we don't meet them on their ground, we'll be fighting them on ours." The domino effect I think they called it. Yep, if we didn't intervene, Vietnam would fall to the communist, then the rest of the world would follow and we'd all be celebrating Chairman Mao.

We intervened and what happened. Vietnam fell to the communist and communism collapsed (partially). My point is perhaps we shouldn't trust the people who profit from war in favor of trying a few years of peace.

[audtatious]

Vietnam has nothing in correlation to what we are facing today. We have had two attacks in the US (possibly more smaller ones) and have had our embassy's and warships attacked as well by this group of individuals. They have declared war on us already regardless of our response.

[Repo Man]

I think when you do, you'll vote for Mr. O.

Not a snowball's chance in hell Bob.

[wingFeather]

I think when you do, you'll vote for Mr. O.

You thought wrong. Perhaps, like Obama, you've "inhaled" one too many times? This is one of the few ways I can understand how someone could look at the facts & still vote for Obama. Mental imbalance would be the other.

Return to better days? Tell that to the Middle East. Tell them that we're not happy with what they're doing & to "stop it". I'm sure that will work

[AZhitman]

Your GF may have her opinion but I have my own and I hae a personal grasp on this one both in a job and in academia

In that case, I'll lay out our academia:

I'm a Policy Project away from my MA. She's 2 classes away from her Doctorate (in Education).

</nerdbattle>

There's no shortage of comprehension of the issue at hand here - The one part I think you nailed SPOT-ON is we're sorely lacking in mastery of English.

Regardless, my point was, we have nothing to be "ashamed" of.

Continuous improvement is great, self-loathing is for losers.

Side note: MY kids are learning Spanish. Not so they can "compete in the new economy", but so they can accurately describe how they want their landscaping to look.

[skylndrftr]

Ok Greg that made me laugh far enough.

I'm working on my MS and its about evenly split between foreign students and US students. I know some international students who struggle with english and then everyone in between all the way to knowing some US students who are fully bilingual (and not just spanish). [/nerd couner attack]

Encouragin people to learn spanish because there are Spanish people coming here IS dumb. People coming to live in this country SHOULD learn english. But, I went on a trip to China for a conference and watched several people I would consider colleagues, and probably would have considered friends, bereatting hotel staff and resteraunt staff for poor English skills. Your in there country make the effort just like you expect of them.