The REAL Problems with Obama’s Speech Today
Posted by Texas Betsy in Current Events, Relaxed Politics, Right Wing Idiots
I was tempted to go the snarky route and tell you that Shannyn Moore thinks Obama should have told the students how important health care is and save the “you have a big responsibility” speech for congress on Tuesday.
Then I thought I might just link to funny graphics.
But, in the end, I decided that the real way to handle this speech is to tell you why my class didn’t see it:
1) LACK OF INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
The LA Times predicted this problem as relates to Southern California when the speech was first announced, but I teach for a district that broadcast the speech on our in-district “announcement channel” which is supposed to be broadcast in every single classroom in the district.
Except mine, or so it seems.
Also, no effort to have those classes without television match up with classes that do have TV, but that’s another problem. (Also no classroom computers, still no reasonable access to a printer or copier, no maps, etc.)
Here’s the other problem that I am having in teaching my students about the speech.
2) INACCESSIBILITY
My students are all new immigrants, and none understand speech that is too fast in English. In fact, they understand very little English.
And so, I searched over the weekend for a Spanish written translation of the speech. I still haven’t found one, though it’s comforting to note that Univision and El Pais devote 2/3 or more of their web speech coverage to the conservadopes that have kept the speech itself out of so many classrooms.
Next step, captioning. Some of my students read better than they listen, and most will gain more meaning if they can see and hear the same thing simultaneously. Once again, I can find no English or Spanish captioning of the speech anywhere. Not even on the whitehouse.gov website. Are they anti-deaf-community as well as anti-immigrant?
Bumz, please feel free to help me locate Spanish transcripts or a captioned video.
Thanks!
Tex
Tags: disability, immigration, President Obama
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All very distressing. But even more so was the website I found that *said* it had translations available – the language list was long. HOWEVER, though the speech itself was there in English, what came up after clicking on a language was NOT THE SPEECH that Obama gave. Instead it was a rightwingnuttia diatribe that said the speech was focused on starting an Obama Youth (think Hitler Youth, that particular talking point) movement. Indoctrination. Etc.
The last line was something on the order of “probably a good day to keep the kids home.”
And if you have non English reading people come to the site for a translation, they would end up reading something entirely different. They might, probably would, wonder where the speech went, but they would read the article first most likely.
It was wrong at the least.
And no Betsy, I didn’t find a translated or captioned edition of the speech. Nor did I notice a sign language person on or near the stage at the high school. I did find that the White House.gov group is in the process of making a spanish language version of their website, they have advertised for employees, but it’s not up and running.
Even if we had been allowed to show it, the internet went down around 8:30 and didn’t come back up until about 2:30. It was down all day on Friday. So annoying.
Dear Gordon:
I’m back.
See #68 in your thread, “An Open Letter to Progressive Bloggers”.
Hiya Bumz!!
Lea wrote:
Coincidence?
TB, just barely scanning your two posts or more on today’s speech which I’ve not seen or heard.
From what I’ve read here and elsewhere, it’s psycholand.
And worse, I’ve read that healthcare reform is NOT coming out hot and fresh post vacay.
I think we the masses got some fixin to do, ya know?
And the more I read of your work with immigrants, I think fondly of my father and his friends, and all they did for the Viet’s, Lao, Thai and Cambodian’s from the mid 50’s thru the 90’s and more.
Bless ya for your help to those in need.
We CERTAINLY can’t look to our elected offals or corporate america to honor the less fortunate, can we, I think that dog don’t hunt much anymore. And bless LBJ for SO much of what he did in HIS time.
Oh goodie! Kindergarten is back in session here at the beach house.
Welcome home larue.
And if you think he tore you apart, shoulda seen what he did to my INVITED guest last week.
Whoops.
“From what I’ve read here and elsewhere, it’s psycholand.”
The repub feedback, not his speech . . . . sigh, perhaps I need a nap.
That was a LONG and lovely 6 daze!!
Texas Betsy wrote:
I never said he tore me apart, my take on Gordon is based sorely on MY personal preferences in life and likes and dislikes.
If he tore up a guest of YOURS, well . . . I wouldn’t do that.
Shit, I’d at least ASK FIRST if it was kewl . . . but then, I was just raised that way.
And I’ll have you know my parents, wife, and even brother and sister and former employers credit me with at LEAST a 6th grade level of existence.
Harumph!
Larue you two regularly tear each other apart.
By the way, no one corrected my typos above! And there were 2! and a confusing passage! and it matters cause other people are linking to us!
@ larue:
I have no problem whatsoever with fighting for real change (and you don’t know what I do, so don’t make assumptions).
I do have a very big problem with ensuring the continuation of the status quo by insisting that nothing less than the politically impossible is unacceptable. There’s one word for that: STUPID.
Tortoise and the Hare.
Gordon & larue, i think it boils down to whether the change is significant enough to affect a LOT of Americans for the better, AND whether or not we trust Obama and the dems to EVER come back to this issue.
@ Texas Betsy:
Well, the CBO says under the House’s version of the public option, 10 million Americans might be covered by it by 2019. 10 years from now, when there will be over 60 million uninsured if we do nothing.
I’ve issued this challenge before: find any piece of significant social legislation that has not been significantly amended within 5 years. That’s what makes the raw text of a bill so difficult to read – most of it consists of amendments to earlier laws.
@ gordon:
I just don’t like any of the math I saw today. Seems like they want those of us with good insurance, bad insurance, or no insurance now to pay lots of our money to the health insurance companies, and I don’t particularly see what benefit most of us will get from any of the current bills.
Hey y’all.
Been a rough day today. My Aunt is dying up in Memphis. She’s been unhealthy for a while, and last week she had a stroke. Today the doctors told her daughter that she can’t swallow, and fluid is building up and she’s probably not going to last long. I’ve been talking to mom, who is in touch with my cousin. She (the cousin) is my Aunt’s oldest daughter. She’s holding vigil in the room, and mom said when she spoke with her not long ago that you could hear Aunt Jackie’s laborous breathing in the background. My cousin is quite upset, obviously, and her sister is supposed to come back to the hospital later after she gets her kids in bed. There is 16 years between the sisters, so the oldest is a grandmother while the youngest has a kindergartener. Luckily, my Aunt has made her wishes known, and wants no heroic measures taken. The doctors are trying to keep her comfortable, but basically she’s drowning slowly.
@ madmommy:
Sorry to hear all this madmom.
The report from our elementary school is that neither kid saw the speech live today
However, the little guy’s K teacher put on the weekly memo that they will be watching it tomorrow afternoon. I asked the big kid if his teacher said when they might see it, and he doesn’t recall. If she isn’t talking about Harry Potter books or recess, most of it is in one ear and out the other. 
Could be a Y chromosome thing, maybe…
@ Texas Betsy:
Those at 133% of poverty line will get Medicare.
Those below 300% to 400% (depending on bill) of poverty line get sliding scale subsidies.
The pain starts well into the middle class, with people who have a lot more political power than the actual poor.
Which means that cost control becomes much more politically possible. Because people that are not politically ignorable will be screaming for it.
Besides, the CBO is refusing to take undemonstrated cost savings measures into account, and these plans were all based on ideas that are undemonstrated (unless you take into account the experiences of all those other industrialized nations that have done health care stuff…). Here’s a pretty cool idea that changes that.
gordon wrote:
See, it’s that phookin business as usual isolationist ‘less than the politically possible’ bit, Gordie.
Cuz that’s where the reality and the comfort of yer barcalounger meet the road.
I’m not comfortable with any walls.
We get what we want (I’m for the massses, you’ve NOT come out and said you don’t mind immigrants or people of color or poor people deserve and should EXPEXCT social services, an education and a leg up on getting a piece of the pie), or we fight like hell for it.
You?
Yer a proven, with your words, as not being a fighter.
I’m home, I’m happy.
And I’d fight and die for what I believe in.
I actually expect, I might have to. Never thought I would.
You, I don’t think, so much. Yer set.
Enjoy the good life, hoss.
BTW, LOVE yer farm stories.
It’s gotta be tough out there in the wilderness.
@ madmommy:
nonsense. i bet he’d pay attention if she were talking about spiderman
@ madmommy:
Older is 3rd grade? 4th?
For boys, a completely sensory age. If they demonstrate any capacity for the abstract, it’s by asking “why” until you’re ready to throttle them. It’s about the age when girls pull away from boys, who catch up (with a vengance) in another 5 or 7 years.
@ larue:
Moron – I don’t have a barcalounger. I don’t even have a LazyBoy.
I cook and drive for my 94 year old dad, He has a comfortable retirement, and he pays for the food that I cook for him. I raise cows on his property because I don’t have to pick him up off the floor, like I did with my mother, so I actually have some time on my hands. Not enough time to actually look for a real job, which would undoubtedly mean moving away and, quite simply, killing my dad.
Before that, I actually cut all my own wood to heat my house and hauled it out of the woods on a wheelbarrow or a sled. And back before 2001, I was actually a very prosperous computer programmer. But that career is over (all my clients went broke with the dot com bust or took other jobs) and my now ex-wife spent every last penny I had saved for hard times. I spent 6 years with a $1,000 mortgage, $50,000 in credit card debts and no income. Don’t ever fucking try to tell me how hard it is for real people.
Stop jumping to the easy conclusion. You just expose yourself as a moron.
new post upstairs
gordon wrote:
Yer a hoss, yer a hard worker.
Yer out there. On a farm, livin YOUR good life.
Stop denyin it.
You are NOT involved in the fight for the common man, because you are NOT the common man.
So stop trying to portray yourself as, or for, the common man.
You, my bloggie buster, are NOT common.
You are isolationist and elitist by choice, and by lot in life.
I RESPECT you raising a son, and caring/losing a father.
I’ve lost parent’s but I’ve not raised kids.
Those are NOT the things I’m talkin about.
Good to rant with ya again, I kinda miss that shit.
But, I’m home now.
I doubt I’ll do it much again.
Best to ya hoss. We REALLY, really, disagree about a lot of shit.
We always have, and we always will.
If you didn’t live in Maine, you’d be good in Alabama.
What did I miss? LaZ-Boy? Huh?
Mention the post on occasion, y’all. Don’t just snipe at each other. And don’t diss Alabama or madmom will have yer heads!
@ gordon:
The big kid is in 3rd grade, the little guy is in kindergarten. And oh, yes, is he ever into the “why”. There were times when I have actually offered him a dollar to stop talking for one minute. He could. not. do. it. But he has a very analytical mind, and he’s a very sensible boy. He’s very smart, and that’s not just a proud momma talking
The little guy is a whole other story. Also very smart, and with a wicked imagination. For the last couple of weeks I have been Daphne, and he is Fred. From Scooby Doo. This weekend he became Diego and I am his sister Alicia. And yesterday he started talking to me with an Australian accent, ending every statement with “mate”. It is driving his brother bonkers.
Texas Betsy wrote:
Dang But Your Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.
My Alabam was a generic Southern diss . . . . and YOU know what I mean.
There’s good folks, and there’s bad folks.
Most of the bad one’s live south of us.
If Texas secedes, I’m gonna vote to claim Austin for the North.
Jus’ cuz of you, ma’am.
MM, Gnome, and any south of Mason/Dixon in here, ya know I loves ya progressive ways.
Thanks for indulging a bit of my political ranting . . .
I’m gonna ramble now . . .
But I love ya all . . . even those in Maine . .
And I want ya to KNOW that.
But progressive ness is non-negotiable.
Neither are our rights or our lives.
And both AND the constitution is at stake.
So let’s do what we can local, and elsewhere, to make some change to befit us all.
Namaste, Bumz.
Thanks larue.
I’ll be gone before it comes to that, but the MPS scissorheads are arranging for a rescue mission of some kind before secession happens.
larue wrote:
You go to a gym to lose weight. You know how to cook. You go to fests.
You are not the common man either, and quit your pretending.
Can you play Brother Can You Spare a Dime from memory?
Not that it makes me the Common Man, (probably the opposite), but I can.
So, same goes for you. These assumptions you make are why I once compared you to Glenn Beck. You said “But I’m not a hater”. Guess what? Glenn Beck doesn’t think he’s a “hater”, either. He thinks he’s found the real villains. Just like you.
Just. Like. You.
Texas Betsy wrote:
¥ou can’t go, you can’t be gone.
It’s not over till you SAY it’s over.
And for cryin out loud, you and the kid are welcome here, for what ever, if that comes up.
As are any other Bumz.
Thanks TB, for the blog, thanks for lettin me learn.
I DO enjoy a good rant . .
gordon wrote:
I can play Brother, I know Common Fanfare . . you were right once outta two.
I never said I hated you, Gordie.
I just disagree virally with what you post about politics and taking care of the planet.
And YOU just can’t let it go.
I love people like you.
Robert Earl Keen penned ‘And The Road Goes On Forever’ for ya!!!
G’nite, Bumz, tip the waitress, try the veal, we’ll be here all yer life ., .
Exactly who is the “common man” anyway? Anyone making less than $75,000/yr? Anyone who didn’t go to college? Someone working to support their family? A farmer? A factory worker? A teacher? Someone who doesn’t read? Someone who listens to Limbaugh and Beck or someone who just listens to the MSM?
You’re going to need a pretty broad definition of “common man” because most people meet a few of the above requirements. You could narrow it down to those not served by corporate interests, but that’s most of the country. That’s one definition of common, I suppose.
Gordon is smart, he reads, and he thinks about what he reads. No reason to exclude him from this fabulous Common man club.
Or any of us.
@ larue:
You missed your calling Larue. You’re really a Republican. Never introspect. And never, ever admit that you are (or even ever were) wrong. Even when it’s unavoidable. You’ve got a great future as a “Republican consultant” on TV.
Don’t try it as a “Democratic consultant”, though. They’ve got higher standards for those.
Alright. Larue and Gordon, y’all might just have to agree to disagree. This here blog is a bit, shall we say, estrogen-oriented. And the two main guys who come here regularly are always a’fightin’.
I’m going to tell you what I tell my kids. Settle down or I’m going to take you out in the back yard and turn the hose on you
@ madmommy:
To quote the Bug (from MIB): “this offer is acceptable”.
new post upstairs! really! been there half an hour or more.
@ Texas Betsy:
Sorry, it seems the poleme-cyst has run away. And it’s actually late here in the real world.
Sleep well, TB. I’m out.
@ gordon:
Elastigirl is not to be trifled with
@ gordon:
Good night Gordon. Sleep well.
Texas Betsy, don’t be silly! All you need is a Bible! Thump it on a kid if s/he dozes! And if the Almighty wanted you to have internet access, he wouldn’t have given you school administrators.