Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
January 25, 2011
After Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) likened Republicans to Nazis for their opposition to Obamacare, then gave an in-your-face pseudo-apology, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly sanctimoniously slammed Cohen and tut-tutted that nobody on the right would ever compare their opponents to Nazis.
Jon Stewart skewered Kelly and Fox with this segment, titled “24 Hour Nazi Party People,” showing Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Karl Rove, and others calling liberals Nazis, including Bernie Goldberg who did it on her own show last March.
If “they did it first” excused such ugliness we’d have to let Cohen off the hook for his spectacular incivility. But it’s no excuse. Spewing “Nazi” is way beyond the limits, whether done once by a Democrat or over and over by the Fair and Balanced folks at Fox News.
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Tags:Bill O’Reilly, ethics, Fair and balanced, Fox News, Glenn Beck, Jon Stewart, Karl Rove, Megyn Kelly, Nazis, Obamacare, Steve Cohen
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Media, Politics | 2 Comments »
January 21, 2011
There are lots of reports that Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) apologized for likening the Republican opponents of Obamacare to Nazis, but don’t you believe them. His regret was not for his ugly accusation, but was “that anyone in the Jewish community, my Republican colleagues or anyone else was offended by the portrayal of my comments.”
His complete statement can be found here.
Kudos to Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz, the only people on the left who’ve been willing to say anything against Cohen’s House remarks. Maddow said, “Nothing is like the Nazis,” Schultz said “This can’t be tolerated.”
Tragically, no peep of criticism has come from Cohen’s Democratic colleagues. They remain silent; therefore they approve.
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Tags:apology, Ed Schultz, ethics, Jewish community, Nazis, Obamacare, Rachel Maddow, Steve Cohen’s
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Politics, Tolerance | 5 Comments »
January 19, 2011
A week ago Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) made an urgent plea for civility in public discourse. He warned,
“Reckless and hateful speech often has a terrible human cost. If the horrific events in Arizona are not enough to modulate our public discourse, it is likely there will be more violence, more deaths.”
Yesterday Mr. Cohen gave his own version of civil discourse on the House floor. Speaking of the opposition of the Republican majority in the House to Obamacare, he likened the other party to Nazis:
“They say it’s a government takeover of health care, a big lie. Just like Goebbels; you say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, and eventually people believe it.
“Like blood libel. That’s the same kind of thing. The Germans said enough about the Jews and the people believed it and you had the Holocaust. You tell a lie over and over again. And we’ve heard it on this floor; government takeover of health care.”
Anderson Cooper interviewed an unapologetic Mr. Cohen tonight. Cohen said that the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels had perfected the big lie, the Republicans were lying about Obamacare, “Just like Goebbels,” so his statement stands. Cooper’s guest, Democratic strategist and former Obama campaign pollster Cornell Belcher, defended Cohen’s remarks as (more…)
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Tags:Anderson Cooper, big lie, blood libel, civility, Cornell Belcher, Dana Bash, ethics, Goebbels, government takeover of health care, Holocaust, Joseph Goebbels, Nazis, Obamacare, Republican majority, Steve Cohen
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Politics | Leave a Comment »
January 15, 2011
The Constitution, Article II, Section 3, requires that the President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient…”
By tradition the “Information” is in the form of a speech, and “from time to time” has become once a year, during the last week of January. This years SOTU, as it’s called in the White House, will be on Tuesday, January 25.
One of the majestic icons of America is the picture of the House chamber packed with every member of both houses of Congress, together with the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and all the President’s Cabinet—all but one member who is kept out to be assume the Presidency in case some unspeakable catastrophe strikes the capitol during the SOTU.
This picture of the grandeur of our Republic stirs our blood and our hopes, from the cheers and protocol of the President’s arrival to the first applause line in his speech. Then any idea of comity is shattered, as every Democrat in the hall leaps to his or her feet and cheers and applauds wildly, while every Republican sits stony-faced. (more…)
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Tags:Constitution, Harry Reid, John Boehner, Mark Udall, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, political rhetoric, President Obama, Republicans and Democrats, sitting together, SOTU, State of the Union, TheHill.com
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Politics | 2 Comments »
January 12, 2011
President Obama gave a healing speech at the memorial service in Tucson, and near the end set the bar high for all of us to aspire to and work toward. Speaking of the nine-year old victim, Christina Taylor Green, he appealed to the better angels of our nature:
“Imagine — imagine for a moment, here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that some day she, too, might play a part in shaping her nation’s future. She had been elected to her student council. She saw public service as something exciting and hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.
“I want to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it. All of us -– we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.”
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Tags:Christina Taylor Green, democracy; obligations of citizenship, ethics, memorial service, nine-year old victim, Obama, public service, Tucson
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Politics | 2 Comments »
January 11, 2011
At times of national tragedy there is sadness, mourning, and a search for someone to blame. In the case of Saturday’s shootings in Tucson that should be easy: 22-year-old Jared Loughner did it, with some help from whoever sold him a semi-automatic Glock 19 hand gun with extra large magazines.
But that’s not satisfying, to blame a crazy person for something so terrible. We want to pinpoint the cause of the evil, because if we have the cause we can prevent such things from happening in the future. Many on the left want to tag Sarah Palin and Fox News with at least contributory blame.
After all, didn’t Palin post a map showing Congresswoman Gifford as a target, complete with crosshairs? (see accompanying picture from her website and try to imagine whether seeing this might lead someone to murder.) And doesn’t Fox News regularly feature right wing rants by Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck?
Palin and Fox News head Roger Ailes seemed to grant some plausibility to the connection because Palin’s PAC took down the offending map on Saturday, and on Monday Ailes announced that his network would try to cool the heated rhetoric. But their moves toward civility are reasons to honor them, not to take the actions an admission of guilt.
Our greatest political commentator, Jon Stewart, put it best in his eloquent cry from the heart on his January 10 Daily Show: (more…)
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Tags:civility, Congresswoman Gifford, crosshairs, Daily Show, Fox News, Glenn Beck, Glock 19, hand gun, Jared Loughner, Jon Stewart, Kenya-born Muslim, national tragedy, Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Second Amendment remedy, toxic political environment, Tucson, You lie
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Media, Politics, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
January 9, 2011
The new Republican leadership of the House of Representatives opened the new 112th Congress with a reading of the Constitution that they are sworn to support and defend. Some Members on both sides tried to make political hay out of the action, but for the most part it was a bipartisan effort that served to remind all of what they were there for.
But purposely the document they read wasn’t the Constitution of the United States, but an edited, modernized version. The original, housed in the Archives of the United States, spells out the method for apportioning congressional seats in Article I, Section 2:
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
“Three fifths of all other Persons.” Those “other Persons” meant slaves. The formula was changed by the fourteenth amendment, which ended slavery and, eliminated the three-fifths language.
Why would anybody bowdlerize the Constitution? Simple—it’s to maintain the fiction that the founders had perfect foresight, and that their language—or their omissions—must be followed slavishly for all time. And so, for example, since they didn’t allow the federal government to require Americans to buy health insurance, then the health care law must be unconstitutional. And so, for another example (more…)
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Tags:112th Congress, Archives, Article I, ethics, founders, fourteenth amendment, health care law, health insurance, House of Representatives, Obamacare, original intent, political ads, reading of the Constitution, Republican leadership, Section 2, slavery, three fifths, unconstitutional
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Health care, Politics | Leave a Comment »
December 29, 2010
Leadership isn’t saying what’s popular, it’s following one’s conviction. Barack Obama believes that our society needs to do a lot more to help felons reenter society productively after serving their prison time. He took this position as a Presidential candidate in 2008, and this week commended Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie for giving Michael Vick a second chance.
Vick was college football’s player of the year in 2000, and was the first player chosen in the NFL’s 2001 draft. He got out of federal prison fifteen months ago after serving 23 months for felony dogfighting and cruelty, then was hired by the Eagles as a backup quarterback.
His hiring was controversial. His crimes were especially vile, and many dog-lovers will never be able to accept that he should ever have a second chance.
Into this stepped President Obama to openly praise Lurie, who recalled their conversation:
“He said, ‘So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance. It’s never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail.’ And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.”
Illustrative of the opposition to Vick’s hiring was this opinion expressed today by Fox News’s Tucker Carlson:
“I’m a Christian, I’ve made mistakes myself, I believe fervently in second chances. But Michael Vick killed dogs, and he did in a cruel, heartless way. Personally, I think he should’ve been executed (more…)
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Tags:dog-lovers, dogfighting, ethics, Fox News, Jeffrey Lurie, level playing field, Michael Vick, Obama, Philadelphia Eagles, Presidential leadership, second chance, Tucker Carlson
Posted in Media, Politics, Sports, Tolerance | 2 Comments »
December 18, 2010
Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show is very funny, but not Thursday night. He had four guests, 9/11 first responders from New York’s police and firefighters, explaining their cancers and other diseases caused by continuous breathing of toxic fumes for months as they labored heroically first to rescue survivors, then to recover remains of the 2750 who died at the World Trade Center.
Senate Republicans are filibustering the Zadroga bill, which would provide for the health coverage that most of the men have lost. These Senators, after having wrapped themselves in the flag and praised the unimaginable courage and dedication of these heroes, are now refusing to help them alleviate the suffering that’s the direct result of their heroism. And now the Senators are raging at the possibility that some of their weeks of Christmas vacation will be interrupted by such trivia as first responders health benefits or the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
Watch the seven minutes of the show here. You won’t get many laughs, but you’ll see some of America’s greatness and smallness, and you’ll change your opinions of all involved—Stewart, the responders, the Republican Senators, and the news media who have abandoned this issue to The Daily Show
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Tags:9/11 first responders, cancers, Daily Show, ethics, FDNY, filibuster, Jon Stewart, news media, NYPD, possibility that some of their Christmas vacation, Senate Republicans, START, Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, toxic fumes, World Trade Center, Zadroga bill
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Health care, Media, Politics | 2 Comments »
December 11, 2010
When Elizabeth Edwards died I thought of a phrase I learned long ago in Latin class, “De mortuis nil nisi bonum,”—Of the dead, nothing unless good. And I read and watched on TV all the paeans to her courage and heroism. And gritted my teeth.
Until I read the piece on EthicsAlarms.com with the above title. Jack Marshall writes about how her fierce ambition led her to cover up her husband’s lying and cheating at the risk of “catastrophe to her country.” If you admire her, read the piece. It’ll remind you, as it reminded me, how easy it is to misjudge a person’s character from her (or his) public appearance.
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Tags:De mortuis nil nisi bonum, Elizabeth Edwards, ethics, EthicsAlarms, Jack Marshall
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Politics | Leave a Comment »
After Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) likened Republicans to Nazis for their opposition to Obamacare, then gave an in-your-face pseudo-apology, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly sanctimoniously slammed Cohen and tut-tutted that nobody on the right would ever compare their opponents to Nazis.
Ethics Bob 