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Conservatives: Michelle Obama is responsible for pedestrians getting hit by cars
By Ben ReiningaJanuary 20th, 2011, 6:16 pmComments (8)
The current political climate is polarized, to put it lightly. To put it heavily, sometimes reading the news feels like watching two infants standing at opposite sides of a room flinging shit at each other for no reason at all. This story feels like the latter:
Michelle Obama, in the grand spirit of non-controversial First Lady initiatives, started something called "Let's Move" — a program to get kids to exercise as part of her anti-obesity campaign. Now, it just so happened that this year there was also a slight increase in pedestrian death — four tenths of one percent. So, obviously, someone went and blamed Michelle. You know, because if kids weren't running, they wouldn't get hit by cars.
This from conservative blog The Daily Caller:
Pedestrian deaths increased sharply during the first half of 2010, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). The reason may be First Lady Michelle Obama and her "Let's Move" campaign.
The statement echoes this piece in The Washington Examiner. And it's totally fucking stupid. How can anyone's irrational hatred for anything the current administration does be so vehement that it can criticize kids getting exercise?
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Michelle Obama
Commentarium (8 Comments)
Jesus Christ, but "those people" are so stunned.
That's right, let's get back to the America we lost, when kids spent all their days sitting in front of a video game console.
I've got a problem with the way you introduce this. This story doesn't feel like 2 infants flinging shit at each other, it's not a question of the right and left attacking one another. This is yet another instance of a highly coordinated right wing effort to gain power by making ridiculous assertions that attack the good work the Obama administration is trying to do by connecting with peoples' basest emotions and fears. Let's be clear what's a "polarized climate" and what's a strategy to undermine progressive public policy and return power to the right-wing corporate oligarchy.
Maybe the real reason there are more people being hit by cars: there are more distracted drivers.Whose fault is that?
This is BS... but exactly what "good work" is he doing exactly? Obama is one of the most irresponsible presidents we've ever had, from any party. At this point I'd prefer Calvin Coolidge...
MRAGH you are kidding right? Most irresponsible so the whole "Mission Accomplished" debacle, starting an illegal war, a ridiculously high deficit, the imploded housing market and financial bubble that launched us into one of the worst economic recessions in the last 50 years, uhm those wouldn't qualify as irresponsible? Obama did all of that in his two years. He didn't come into that mess?
A. I'm not a Republican, and B. I never said Bush wasn't irresponsible. Most politicians are, but the current crop of Democrats are setting the Irresponsibility Bar *very* high. I couldn't be more dissapointed with them, or with Obama specifically; they have pushed me further away from the left than I have ever been in my lifenof generally independent thinking and voting.
MRAGH. You are either out of your mind or you have only been paying attention to Fox News, etc.. The Obama administration's many achievements in a mere 2 years include: Major Health Care Reform to cut costs and ensure coverage to all Americans while eliminating many of the major abuses of the insurance companies, expansion of the state children's health insurance program to cover an additional 4 million kids, new emissions and fuel efficiency standards for American cars, saving GM's ass, beginning serious investment in renewable energy and green jobs, adopting credit card reform to curb some of the most egregious abuses of the credit card industry, repealing don't ask don't tell, providing major increases in the student loan and pell grant programs to help folks pay for college, and pertinent to this article passing the healthy, hunger-free kids act and working on additional avenues to encourage healthy eating and active living. These are only a few of the many major areas of public policy that the Obama administration has made headway on...policies that have been fought tooth and nail by the Republicans and their real constituency: multinational corporations and the top 1%.