Double standards?

Oh my! It seems that W had a wondering eye down in South Africa as well, and Laura Bush certainly doesn't look pleased.

According to the New York Daily News it was a long ride home. Poor W, if he thinks that dealing with Osama bin Laden was tough, just wait until Laura cuts off his *&%#@ supply.

But still, there is something deeper going on here. Remember the brouhaha over the looks Michelle Obama gave the president? Well you will get none of that with this former First Lady. You see, in America, black women are viewed differently than white women when it comes to how they comport themselves.   

Michelle was seen as angry. Laura is just being solemn and respecting the occasion. (This is actually what the current First Lady was doing)

I will write here what Roxanne Gray had to say about the subject.

"More than anything, the response to these latest images of Michelle Obama speaks volumes about the expectations placed on black women in the public eye and how a black women’s default emotional state is perceived as angry. The black woman is ever at the ready to aggressively defend her territory. She is making her disapproval known. She never gets to simply be.

Maybe the first lady is irritated with her husband or someone else, maybe she’s indifferent, maybe she’s thinking about the long plane ride home, maybe, just maybe, she’s recalling Nelson Mandela’s life and legacy. We will never know.
Meanwhile, the Internet is speculating about Michelle Obama’s mind-set, her motivations and the state of her marriage because if a married black man, always on the prowl even if he is the commander in chief, is seen smiling next to an attractive white woman, well, that’s curtains for the marriage. The white she-devil strikes again! The first lady can’t win. Last month, Michelle Obama was a “feminist nightmare.” Today she is angry and on the verge of losing her marriage. We can only imagine what tomorrow will bring.

And of course, there is another image that simply isn’t being shared with the same frequency or enthusiasm—one of Michelle Obama sitting with her husband and the Danish prime minister laughing and smiling openly. We are selective in what we choose to see. This image is being ignored because it doesn’t fit the narrative we want. There is also animage, shared by Goldie Taylor, of Laura Bush looking unamused while her husband speaks to a beautiful woman in the row behind them. Is she disapproving? Is she worried about her marriage? Is she “having none of it”? Or is she just sitting?" [Source]

She was just sitting. But then she isn't a black female. She can get away with "just sitting".

Seriously, how many people saw the second picture I have with this post? Michelle Obama looks very comfortable with her man to me.

Finally, it's really a shame that the memorial service of one of the world's great icons is being reduced to talks of a handshake, husbands behaving badly, and a fraudulent sign language interpreter.

Reporters and cable news outlets in this country have done their part to diminish and cheapen the event. But that's alright. We have come to expect this type of behavior from the modern day version of the fourth estate. They just have no clue.  

One day (maybe after this president is gone) they may get back to being real journalists again.

I, for one, will not be holding my breath.    

Pics from The New York Daily News.

No Jedi mind tricks?

Well the speech has been given. And so far there has been no 911 calls from middle A-merry-ca that little Johnny is trying to work on his basketball moves. And that little Heather, all of a sudden, has a crush on Bow Wow. Kids weren't walking around the school yards like Zombies chanting "yes we can." In fact, the parents who held their children back from school today for fear of the black man in the White House brain washing their kids, look downright foolish. (Not that it took much to accomplish that feat.)

There were no hidden messages. (Unless it was hidden to black folks, because I didn't see it) No "Jedi mind tricks". No Socialist propaganda. Just a president talking to the nation's children and telling them how to do the right things. There was nothing controversial about it. In fact, you really have to ask yourself why it was so controversial in the first place. Hell even Laura Bush was on board with his O ness on this one. And she was actually a school teacher.

"Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer," ... "And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is."

That seemed to be the theme throughout the entire speech. No politics, no secret indoctrination, just an honest to goodness talk that every parents should be having with their own kids. So protesters like the one who greeted his O ness with a sign that said "Mr. President, stay away from our kids" really needs to get a clue. In fact, I have some news for the wingnut who was holding that sign: I want you to stay the hell away from our kids. And if you have kids of your own, DHS (or whatever they call youth services in your state) should step in right now and take the little "rug rats" right from under you.

So the republic survives. At the end of the day even the wingnuts didn't have much to chirp about. Well, most of them.

This blogger sums up what this might be all about best: (Besides the other obvious reasons, of course.)

" ...the speech comes just as Americans are debating Obama's health-care proposals. Malkin and other conservatives find the timing suspicious.

Presidential speeches to students are nothing new, of course. Ronald Reagan addressed the nation's schoolchildren in 1988. That was an election year. Reagan talked of maintaining traditional moral values, a cornerstone of George Bush Sr.'s presidential campaign.

Try to find a moment in history -- especially recent history -- when Americans aren't involved in some manner of divisive political debate.

Granted, maybe some teachers, being human beings, get carried away with their political views. That happens throughout the political spectrum. It's an indictment of blind partisanship, not liberalism.

Whatever danger it presents pales before the danger of people losing faith in public education because teachers have been reduced to simple-minded stereotypes."

Sadly, that's just the way they want it.

Maybe they just don't like her arms.

This post is going to be like a homework assignment. It's a little research I am doing and I am really serious about this one.

So here is the question and the challenge:

Does anyone reading this have a link to an article from a left wing blogger, news outlet, or pundit, trashing Laura Bush in ways like this ,(The guy's name is Pretlusky, and have you seen him? No wonder he is bitter)and this? Or, even this?

I have to confess, before I did this post, I "googled" field Negro and Laura Bush, just to make sure I wasn't being a hypocrite. And nope, I didn't see anything remotely trashing the former first lady. I guess, like most civilized A-merry-cans, no matter how much I despised her husband and his policies, I tried to be respectful to the wife.

No such luck with these petty vindictive people on the right. I guess when you can't win a policy debate you try to get your rocks off in other ways.

It's sad, because I don't remember the frat boy ever having to beg the press to lay off his wife. Not during his presidency, or when he was campaigning for it.

So help me here folks. If you find any of these links, please put it in the comments section. Because I really am curious to know if the left was as disrespectful and cruel to Laura Bush, as the right is to Michelle Obama.

Thanks.