Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Obama Tweet During 2009 Revolts in Iran: Hey, Let's all Watch Stephen Colbert Get his head Shaved

Update:  Apparently, the Twitter messages underneath have been removed from President Obama's feed, apparently in an attempt to hid his shame.  Too bad for him there are screen shots.

In 2009, the Iranian government rigged their nation-wide election, making it impossible for reform candidates to win and impossible for their choice to lose.  After the election and for months following, hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched in the street, demanding justice and freedom.  In response, their government killed hundreds, incarcerated thousands, and squelched as much resistance as possible.

At the time, President Obama stayed silent.  Less than a half a year in office, the 44th President was clearly flustered by the crisis, not knowing what to do.  Should he support the freedom of the repressed and right?  Or should he support the regime that he promised to have talks with under preconditions?

In the end, Obama stayed silent, voting "absent" in a way.  Unfortunately, as the President of the United States, failing to act does not mean that everything stops.  His inaction starved much of the revolt of air and encouraged the Iranian regime that the United States would not act.

One thing that the President did do:  he touted comedian Stephen Colbert getting his head shaved.  In the middle of the chaos in Iran, amongst the dead in the street of Tehran, the leader of the free world wrote a light-hearted tweet about the liberal comedian:
He then linked to a video in which he rehearsed over and over again lines that were written for him in a comedy bit.  While much of Iran literally burned.

While this is foolish and oblivious in the first place, an even worse fact remains.  President Obama has written once, once about Iran on his Twitter page in four years.  And it was not to take a stance.  It was not even specifically about Iran, but a simple mention in passing:
To be oblivious to realities on the ground is one thing.  To make light-hearted jokes while people die in the streets is another.  To combine the two and still be oblivious is utterly disgusting.

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