Bust of MLK Joins President Obama in Oval Office

Helluva lot better than the Churchill one. You'd think with all their "America Firstiness" the wingnuts would be happy he replaced a British hero with an American one...

Well, here's another way President Obama has put his historic stamp on the presidency. With no fanfare or media attention, President Obama last month added a new decoration to the Oval Office: a 12 5/8" bronze bust of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

(snip)

When the Smithsonian lent the bust to the President Bill Clinton's White House in 2000 to be displayed in the White House Library, that marked, believe it or not, the very first time that the image of an African-American was displayed in a public space in the White House.

Pretty astounding, when you think about it, given the bust's current place of honor.

The King bust sits near the fireplace and adjacent a bust of President Abraham Lincoln, with the two legendary Americans facing President Obama when he sits at the HMS Resolute Desk. The Lincoln bust sits where a bust of Sir Winston Churchill -- on loan from the British Embassy after the 9/11 attacks, and returned before Mr. Obama's inauguration -- once sat.

Conservative columnist makes up a quote from President Obama

By GottaLaff

Want to know what's pathetic? Here's what's pathetic: That the title of this post doesn't represent anything new or unique.

Columnist James Humes concocted a quote from President Obama, but that's okay. Why? Because if talk radio repeats a lie often enough, it becomes a "valid" talking point, regardless of its veracity:

We detailed how James Humes, in his March 12 Newsmax column, purported to quote President Obama saying of a bust of Winston Churchill, "Get that goddamn thing out of here."

Remember that Churchill bust story? I covered it here. [Sidebar: One comment on a wingnut site that linked to my post said of me, "How old is that guy, 12?" Flattery will get you nowhere, you big tease.]

To make matters worse, Humes didn't delete the quote (which was not properly sourced). Nosireebob, he added to it:

While the story was never fully substantiated, despite frequent repetition on radio talk shows, the sentiment seems to have been confirmed by Obama's subsequent actions.

Translation: I can't prove Obama said this -- in fact, I can't even name anyone who said he did, despite "frequent repetition on radio talk shows" -- but I'll pretend he did anyway because it meshes so well with my smear of Obama.

You ain't seen nothin' yet:

Of course, nowhere in Humes' column is it indicated that it has been altered from its original publication, let alone an apology issued for publishing falsehoods and unsubstantiated claims.

That would have been, you know, the right thing to do. Too bad someone didn't think to document the lies (as in, Obama was plotting tribal revenge in Kenya). Oh, really? Someone did?

Fortunately, we saved a copy of Humes' original falsehoods to document Humes' careless, malicious writing.

Go here for elaboration on other documented lies about Obama's family and childhood.

Isn't this special, boys and girls? Your whole childhood, you were taught to tell the truth. Fibs were bad. Tell a lie, you're grounded. See how well Humes paid attention? And now he writes for Newsmax.

If Humes keeps making such basic, blatant errors and ugly smears, why does Newsmax continue to publish him?

Newsmax should be grounded, too.

H/t: Oliver Willis

Ugly Churchill Bust + President Obama = WingNut Frenzy

By GottaLaff

Would you want a bust in your home that looks like this...

...which kind of reminds you of this:

Let's go one step further and two steps deeper. It's also reminiscent of this...

Being a strong proponent of Britain as an international power, Churchill would often meet such moments with direct action. One example was his dispatch of British troops to Kenya to deal with the Mau Mau rebellion.

...which hits home because of this:

Barack Obama’s grandfather was imprisoned and brutally tortured by the British during the violent struggle for Kenyan independence, according to the Kenyan family of the US President-elect.

Hussein Onyango Obama, Mr Obama’s paternal grandfather, became involved in the Kenyan independence movement while working as a cook for a British army officer after the war. He was arrested in 1949 and jailed for two years in a high-security prison where, according to his family, he was subjected to horrific violence to extract information about the growing insurgency.

“The African warders were instructed by the white soldiers to whip him every morning and evening till he confessed,” said Sarah Onyango, Hussein Onyango’s third wife, the woman Mr Obama refers to as “Granny Sarah”.

In other words, President Obama may be remembering this:

Churchill has less happy connotations for Mr Obama than those American politicians who celebrate his wartime leadership. It was during Churchill’s second premiership that Britain suppressed Kenya’s Mau Mau rebellion. Among Kenyans allegedly tortured by the colonial regime included one Hussein Onyango Obama, the President’s grandfather.

...which could have been a factor in President Obama's returning the bust (other than the fact that it is ugly as sin, and after all, it is his house)...

... which leads us to a 9/11-infused reaction from The Land of Wingnuttia that sounds a little something like this:

Barack Obama loves Lincoln. [...] But it looks like we are finding one great leader that Barack Obama doesn't like so much: Winston Churchill.

It appears that President Obama is dissing the Brit's most famous and stalwart leader by quickly returning the most famous bust of the man loaned to this country by the United Kingdom in the aftermath of 9/11. The return of the bust of Churchill flustered the British government because they didn't ask for it to be returned. Our best ally was nonplussed and even quickly told Obama he could keep it in the Oval Office where Bush had displayed the piece of art. Obama told them no thanks which made the Brits even more amazed.

So, Barack Obama, the man that would "fix" our "bad image" with the rest of the world, we were told by the media, has just dissed Churchill after only a month in office? [...]

I mean, this abrupt return of the Churchill statue is sort of odd. Would it have hurt anything to keep the thing?

...which resulted in Comments like these:

Obviously, he had to make space for a bust of Ayatollah Khomeini.

Naw, he is probably shopping for busts of Fredrick Engles or Karl Marx.

Obama has a room in the White House with nothing but Che statues. He has coffee with them in the morning...

It is Barak [sic] Obama, not GWB, that is proving to be the real dunce in the White House, go figure.

Obama wasn't dissin' the Brits. He was just making room for the bust of the First Lady.

If the president hopes to bring us together as "one America", he sure has his work cut out for him.