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George W. Bush, 2004:
"Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere." (Laughter)
"No, no weapons over there” (Laughter)
"Maybe under here?" (Laughter)
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Barack H. Obama 2009:
“Nick at Nite has a new take on an old classic, “Leave it to Uigurs. I thought that was pretty good.”. (Laughter.)
“But I have to say, as I traveled to all these countries, I saw firsthand how much people truly have in common with one another. Because no matter where I went, there’s one thing I heard over and over again from every world leader:
“No thanks, but have you considered Palau?” (Laughter.)
When Bush offered his infamous attempt at humor, it did nothing but illustrate his lack of understanding, his callous disregard for the immense and needless loss of life his actions had caused, and his lack of humanity.
Obama’s comments are equally informative. That Obama himself found them humorous—that he finds the plight of Uigur captives in US hands as anything but a source of shame and embarrasment—speaks for itself.
Those who believe that Obama is somehow being forced to accept certain Bush policies and legacies regarding Gitmo detainees (and for that matter US civil liberties in general) need to carefully consider Mr. Obama’s curious choice of jokes on display Friday night. For, as was the case with Bush’s freakish attempt at humor regarding WMDs, Obama’s jokes about the Uigurs reveal an establishment that doesn’t get it. And of course the establishment media would dutifully laugh regardless of what came out of the executive’s mouth, no matter how very un-funny it might be.
Obama apologists need to ask themselves a simple question. Why does Mr. Obama find anything regarding the Uigur situation to be "funny"? Before answering, one might want to take a look at the history of Uigurs in American custody, including the links below.
Uighur detainees faced Chinese torture methods at Gitmo
Report: U.S. Soldiers Did ‘Dirty Work’ for Chinese Interrogators
26 Comments
I had a similar reaction when I heard those stabs at humor about a shameful situation. It seems more likely that the world leaders would say something along the lines of “Why do you expect us to take them when you can’t get you own people to accept them?” I guess he could have offered to send them to the Bikini Atoll but it is still too radioactive.
I doubt that Obama wrote the jokes, but he has veto power on them. It is the people who insist on calling them ‘terrorists’ without a speck of proof that he should be making fun of and showing some guts by admitting we made a big mistake by offering bounties to turn people in. If you offered $5000 here for people to turn in suspected terrorists and put them in prolonged dentention, it would look like a gold rush and there would be no place to put them all.
His lack of empathy for the Gazans says it all; plus, of course, his refusal to even talk with them. He didn’t even go there, did he?
I’m still wondering if this is who he really is, or if he’s just another puppet. Altho his comments about the Uigurs seem to be his own.
He’s glamorous, pretty and a totally empty suit. It’s as tho someone pulls a string in his back and out comes soaring rhetoric.
To me, he seems like a sports jock who would prefer to play basketball and learn golf than actually get serious about pulling this country out of the sewer.
I don’t want a *cool* young arrogant prez. I’d like a mature statesman who cares about the people. First we elect s/o who people want to have a beer with. Next we elect the pretty cool guy who is able to make people believe he cares and then promptly lead the country off the cliff of hope and change. Who’s next?
I doubt Obama wrote the jokes too, but as you point out, he has responsibility for them. Obama is now an administration, not a candidate. His comments regarding the Uigurs were no doubt vetted within his own White House several times–and not only were they deemed inoffensive, they were judged to be funny, and appropriate.
These “jokes” stand in contradiction to those who would defend Obama by saying–”it’s not Obama himself, but the system around him.”
If that is the case, then George W. Bush must also be excused from his jokes about WMD–for it seems equally unlikely that Bush wrote his own jokes. Bush accepted them, he read them, and he laughed at them–just as Obama has now done.
thanks CO — powerful diary. lack of empathy it is.
between this diary and wigwam’s i’m feeling pretty sick at heart today.
Thanks for this, CasualObserver. I’m not an American, so I was going to keep my shock to myself, but I couldn’t believe my ears when Obama twice made fun of the Uighurs and then threw in a snerk at Palau as a freebie.
Obama expects help from other countries in resettling those scores of innocents held in abusive (at least) detention for seven years at GTMO, and he needs that help because he is running into irrational paranoia and xenophobia at home, and then he insults any foreign power willing to help him? Do people in Washington have the faintest notion of how this is going to play everywhere else on earth?
I had pretty much the exact same reaction. I put up a comment on EW’s thread about the Journo joke part of his standup bit and Rosalind linked to your diary.
I was waiting for a follow up joke on the Sup Ct ruling that innocent men and women aren’t entitled to post-conviction DNA evidence that might help free them.
Over and over his civil liberties, torture, war crimes, govt/telcom run FISA felony unconstitutional programs etc. and his cavalier dismissal of accountablity make me believe you have it dead to rights with “stunning lack of empathy” You pretty feel we’ve gone from one self absorbed narcissist to another.
If you watch it, it is that much more clear. The audience was a little stunned at the joke, till he laughed at it himself and cajoled them with the “I thought it was funny”
wigwam’s diary
Thanks for commenting Selise. I have appreciated your own work for a long time. Re: the heartsickness, I still feel strongly that Obama represents a major upgrade from Bush. And when things get bad, I try to keep that in mind.
That said, I long ago lost any attachment to Obama. I view him simply as a place where pressure–very strong pressure–needs to be applied by the left wing. He has made it crystal clear that, left to his own devices, the damage done during the Bush years will not only be allowed to stand, but will be made systemic and structural.
The only question in my mind is whether the left has the strength to apply the pressure needed to move Obama.
I’m surprised to hear that. I guess broadcast journalists have more class than I give them credit for…
I seem to be in other peoples’ rivers today.
Appalling.
But I’m way past that.
Obama is as good as we’re gonna get,
Until and unless we take matters into our own hands.
Which — as if it needs stating now — means working outside the system.
I know, I know: mount primary challenges.
Or the best one: Make Obama do what he wants to do.
Cough.
I don’t know about you, but I (and a few I know) have abandoned the system that gave us Obama, the Bushes, Clinton, and all the rest.
I’m not going to foment, lead, or win any revolution.
But I’m not going to lend any support to the system that will fuck us over in favor of big corporations every time. Guaranteed.
These “jokes” weren’t on local news broadcasts, but some other jokes were. I can’t remember them now, but I was reminded of Bush’s “Where are the WMD” jokey skit.
I was extremely uncomfortable and also thought, “This guy really lacks empathy and awareness.” Or else he was just incredibly arrogant.
Then there was something a bit off, tasteless, about Brian Williams causing the toilet to clog or overflow. If it was an insiders’ joke, it didn’t need to be told in public. If it wasn’t, then WFT???
David Korten in “The Great Turning” calls this the imperial consciousness that most politicians seem never to move out of into the more evolved socialized, cultural and spiritual consciousnesses. They are power seekers who live in My World, play up to the powerful and exploit the oppressed. “Good behavior is motivated more by a desire to please others in order to improve one’s position, or to avoid being caught, than by a selfless concern for other’s needs or an internalized ethical code. They steal from people who trust them because it’s easier.
If you come from the lower socioeconomic classes you are called a sociopath and are confined to prisons. “If you come from the higher socioeconomic classes, the ruling establishment is prone to judge them especially suited for positions of leadership in political and corporate institutions of imperial power.”
His “humor” is his own. He’s always making bad jokes about special ed, Nancy Reagan’s seances, Hilary’s likability… Even if he tried out this joke before, I’m sure everybody around him guffawed. We saw that with Bush and his lame jokes at news conferences and at the Washington Press Parties. Everybody laughs with the boss.
He should just stay off TV and stay in his office trying to fix things.
I was also taken aback by the thoughtlessness of these jokes.
He acted as if he were at a private party, not a dinner of professionals. Even then, at a private party, I would be offended if the host were saying these things. I’d probably make some excuse to leave early…
I think there’s hope for the system, at least to the extent that netroots mobilization shows promise, in spite of the recent defeat on funding of the various and sundry military occupations of other countries…
You believe in the system…that it has integrity…that it can be played.
I don’t.
And I worry about useful energy wasted on trying to get the system to work.
Your third link does not work. Andy Worthington has the complete history of the Uighurs. Nothing about it is funny. Shame on Obama for joking about the innocent men who were tortured by the US for seven long years. Shame on him for paying $200m to Pauau to take these men and not paying compensation to these men. Shame on him for refusing to allow them to enter the US where the Uighur community was willing to support them. An open air prison is what these men have been sent to. They cannot leave.
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“George Clarke, a Washington lawyer who represents two Uighurs cleared for release, said his clients “are both very interested in getting out of Guantanamo and they are very open to the idea of going to Palau.” But other Uighurs aren’t interested in transfer to the islands, he said. “There’s a difference of opinion,” he said.
Palau has no Muslim community, and the majority of residents are Roman Catholic. Mr. Clarke said his clients are particularly concerned about the legal status they would hold on Palau, and whether they could obtain documentation such as a passport.
“You cannot be a Palauan citizen unless you have Palauan blood. That’s just the way their constitution is written,” he said. Palau hasn’t ratified the international refugee conventions that allow countries to issue travel documents to refugees.
Mr. Clarke said U.S. and Palau diplomats are looking into ways to address the concerns, and that the Palauns are expected to reply by early July. “
http://online.wsj.com/article/…..32855.html
http://www.andyworthington.co……uantanamo/
Thanks for that correction. The link should be:
http://www.boston.com/news/glo…..amos_game/
I have not seen his performance, but that joke is sickening… truly sickening. I’m wearing a black armband for a country not taking responsibility for its torture. More pressure than I thought, too, does need to be applied to Obama. How heart-sickening the pressure he put on the progressive Dems re the War Supplemental. Seems like selling out the people to bond with Beltway macho cronies. Sigh. So not cool, Obama. Gamesman not statesman.
I thought the Obama’s empathy joke was one of the more clever lines I’ve heard in a long time. But I guess it went right over your head?
After years in detention and over huge political resistance, the Obama administration secures the release of these horribly abused guys to a place they describe as paradise, and all you can do is get outraged that he made a ”Leave it to Beaver” joke? You have to be kidding.
The laughable ”Obama apologists” canard belongs better on a rightwing site. But once a PUMA, always a PUMA I guess.
Perhaps you should look into meditation, you’re going to kill yourself with high blood pressure getting outraged over ridiculous non-stories like this. Seriously, check the front page, there are plenty of meaningful issues to channel your misplaced anger towards.
That was Bermuda, not Palau (none of them are in Palau yet)- and now that you mention it, that joke was pretty dismissive of the former. Every world leader said “no thanks”? Really?
Recommended. Obama is responsible for what comes out of his mouth, as we all are. He not only should have refused to give that humorless, cruel speech; he should fire his highly paid joke writers.
I remember a time when humor was funny and not at the expense of the more unfortunate.
Exactly the kind of humor I’d expect from a morally calloused security guard at a federal penitentiary.
yeah, lack of habaes corpus, no transparency, invasion of privacy, torture, innocent civilians as collateral damage, trillions for military spending, imperialism, lousy or no health care … so we’re all just sweating the small stuff?
Being innocent but caged for 7 years … hmmmm …. i think would keep away from such persons as fodder for a joke, just my take.
That Obama himself found them humorous—that he finds the plight of Uighur captives in US hands as anything but a source of shame and embarrasment—speaks for itself.
Agree; thank you for this post.