Posts Tagged ‘ethics’
June 8, 2011
As the Anthony Weiner affair descends from “inappropriate” (his word) messages to phone sex, X-rated photos, and likely criminal conspiracy, Republican leaders are not passing up their chance to show off their hypocrisy and double standard. House Majority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus are both calling for Weiner to resign his House seat.
Funny, both said they saw no reason for David Vitter (R-LA) to resign his Senate seat after he admitted to hiring a prostitute (a crime under Louisiana law) and repeatedly lying about it. Or for John Ensign (R-NV) to resign his Senate seat after he had an affair, with a subordinate, paid off her husband to keep it quiet, hired her son on his staff, and lied about everything. Or for Mark Sanford (R-SC) to resign the governorship after he flew off to visit his mistress in Argentina and lied repeatedly about it. All three had run for office under the family values banner.
Two cheers for former RNC chair Michael Steele, who told Rachel Maddow today, “I heard what the chairman said today and I thought it was a little bit not right. A pox on both their houses because they violated the public trust.”
Steele would have gotten a full three cheers had he not defended Vitter, Sanford, and Ensign when their crimes and sins emerged during his RNC chairmanship.
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Tags:Anthony Weiner . inappropriate messages, criminal conspiracy, David Vitter, double standards, Eric Cantor, ethics, hypocrisy, John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Michael Steele, phone sex, prostitute, Rachel Maddow, Reince Priebus
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Politics | Leave a Comment »
June 6, 2011
At a circus of a press conference, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) admitted tweeting a photo of his brief-covered crotch to a 21-year old college student, then panicking and lying to cover it up. What ethics rule did Weiner break?
The Golden Rule, for one. He hurt a lot of people, starting with his wife, his loyal Congressional staff, the people who believed in him, and apparently, even Andrew Breitbart, the scurrilous right wing defamer and doctorer of videos.
The nearly universal rule against lying, for another. If we lie to each other society crumbles.
The rule that says do what’s expected of you. The voters who sent Weiner to Congress expected –reasonably—different of him.
In addition to the ethics violations Weiner violated the First Law of Washington Scandal: the cover-up is worse than the crime. In this respect he is forcing his admirers (including me, as of last week) to question his sanity: What in the world was he thinking when he made up those pathetically lame, unbelievable lies. Nobody, no matter their politics, not even Chris Mathews, believed he was telling the truth.
To Weiner’s credit, and there’s not much in this to his credit, he set the standard for apologizing. No “I’m sorry if you thought…” or “I was under the influence of a new allergy prescription,” or (more…)
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Tags:Andrew Breitbart, Anthony Weiner, Apologies, Chris Matthews, cover-up, crotch photo, ethics, Golden Rule, House Ethics Committee, lying, Nancy Pelosi, tweeting
Posted in Apologies, Ethics-general, Government, Media, Politics | Leave a Comment »
June 4, 2011
Americans—especially older Americans—like Israel because it’s like America: democracy, constitutional principles, independent, industrious, and tough people. But the trend on American campuses is to not like Israel so much because of the way they treat the Palestinians (and Syrians) in the territories they conquered in 1967. As Thomas Friedman told Fareed Zakaria last Sunday,
“Netanyahu…can get standing ovations in the U.S. Congress anytime [he wants], seven days a week, 24/7. How many standing ovations do you think he could get at the student government at the University of Missouri? At Stanford? At Harvard? At the University of Virginia? At the University of Texas? If you went to those student governments, they’re the future. They’re the future of voters. They’re the future people who will maintain the strategic relationship with Israel. And there, I can tell you, as anyone who goes to college campuses knows, that people don’t get Israel, what Israel is doing right now. They — some are alienated.”
The students are seeing the right-wing religious parties gaining more of a stranglehold over Israeli government policies, and seeing treatment of the conquered peoples getting worse. Fans of Israel have long defended her by saying (more…)
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Tags:Al Jazeera, conquered territories, ethics, Fareed Zakaria, Israel, Israeli Arabs, Israeli rabbis, Lod Municipality, Netanyahu, racist state. Palestinians, religious parties, segregated schools, standing ovations, student governments, Syrians, Thomas Friedman, U.S. Congress
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, International, Politics, Religion, Tolerance | 2 Comments »
June 1, 2011
It’s sad when a person of the cloth—a religious leader—preaches hate instead of love. When Florida pastor Terry Jones publicly burned a Quran it was a hateful act, but we could minimize its significance as an act by a pastor to a “congregation” of 5o people (his claim).
But when Christian evangelist Pat Robertson equates Muslims with Nazis it’s a whole ‘nother story. Robertson said on his 700 Club broadcast today,
“Why is it bigoted to resist Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and to say we don’t want to live under Nazi Germany? But oh it’s bigoted if we speak out against a force [Islam] that slowly but surely is trying to exercise domination over the world.”
Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network claims a reach of 100 languages, 200 countries, a million viewers a day. His hatefulness is a blot on all Christian evangelists who tolerate his ugly message.
(Thanks to Islamophobiatoday.com for flagging this. It’s a steady source of news about anti-Muslim activities)
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Tags:700 Club, Adolf Hitler, anti-Muslim activities), Christian Broadcasting Network, ethics, IslamophobiaToday.com, Muslims, Nazis, Pat Robertson, Quran burning, Terry Jones
Posted in Ethics-general, Religion, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
May 30, 2011
Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel, arguably the top coach in college football with eight BCS bowl appearances in ten years and a national championship, resigned today. Tressel has been caught lying to the OSU administration and playing players he knew to be ineligible.
In the midst of an NCAA investigation into OSU athletics, and with several allegations of higher-ups condoning the rule-breaking, the university is trying to pin the entire rap on Tressel and avoid penalties against the Buckeyes’ top-rated football program. The school used the old trick of sugar-coating public relations pros by releasing the news on a holiday weekend, hoping that fewer people would notice.
A year ago the NCAA levied harsh penalties against USC for what appears to be a much lesser offense involving one assistant coach and one player, Reggie Bush. The OSU case involves the head coach, the director of compliance, and twenty-eight players over nine years. It may also involve the athletic director and the university President. Stay tuned for more transgressions and to compare penalties.
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Tags:Buckeyes, cheating, ethics, Jim Tressel, NCAA, NCAA penalties, Ohio State football, Reggie Bush, USC
Posted in Ethics-general, Sports | Leave a Comment »
May 23, 2011
Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) announced that he’d tell voters the “hard truths” as he campaigns for the Republican Presidential nomination. Ho-hum. We’ve heard that one before.
But listen up. Pawlenty opened his campaign today in Iowa by telling Iowans that he opposes federal subsidies for corn-based ethanol. In Iowa for gosh sakes! Next thing you know he’ll tell Floridians that he favors raising the retirement age for Social Security. Oh, but his campaign says that’s exactly what he’ll do next.
The great shame of democratic (and Democratic…and Republican) politics is politicians telling voters what they think the voters want to hear instead of what the politician really thinks. Pawlenty says he’ll be a different kind of candidate, and his first day is a sign that he means it.
Edmund Burke told his constituents 237 years ago that a representative owes them “his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving [them], if he sacrifices it to [their] opinion.” Following Burke’s example is one of the two highest ethical duties* of an elected official.
Pawlenty gets the mythical Edmund Burke Award for his ethanol position. Here’s hoping that politicians of both parties rush to follow his example.
*The other is the duty to heed Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who wrote, ‘The temper of and integrity with which the political fight is waged is more important for the health of our society than the outcome of any issue or campaign.”
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Tags:corn-based ethanol, Edmund Burke, Edmund Burle Award, ethanol subsidies, ethical duties, ethics, hard truths, Iowa politics, Pawlenty, Reinhold Niebuhr, Republican Presidential nomination, Social Security retirement age, third rail
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Politics | Leave a Comment »
May 20, 2011
Has the President “thrown Israel under the bus,” as Mitt Romney said yesterday? Has he “once again betrayed our friend and ally, Israel,” as Michele Bachmann raged? Made a “mistaken and very dangerous demand,” as Tim Pawlenty accused? Or has he “given the Palestinians a huge break,” per Newt Gingrich?
Here’s what the President said:
“I believe that any peace agreement between them will require mutually agreed adjustments to the armistice lines of 1949 to reflect current realities and to ensure that the Palestinian state is viable and contiguous.”
Oops. That wasn’t this President, it was President George W. Bush, speaking in Jerusalem on January 11, 2008.
Here’s what President Obama said yesterday:
“We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states. The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their full potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state.”
Get the difference? No? That’s because there isn’t any. The 1949 and 1967 lines are the same. The only difference is that Republican politicians will scream in opposition to anything that President Obama says, even if George W. Bush said the same thing without any complaint.
Politics doesn’t stop at the water’s edge any more.
_________
Thanks to Michael Smerconish and Hardball for the quotes used here.
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Tags:1949 lines, 1967 lines, ethics, George W Bush, Israel borders, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, mutually agreed swaps, Obama, Palestinian state, Palestinians . Newt Gingrich, peace agreement, Republican hypocrisy, secure borders, Tim Pawlenty, water's edge
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, International, Politics | Leave a Comment »
May 16, 2011
Basketball superstar LeBron James broke new ground last week with an original kind of non-apology. Let’s call it a phantom apology, apologizing for a non-offense instead of for the real offense.
James left the Cleveland Cavaliers after last season to join two other superstars on the Miami Heat. No problem with that: he was a free agent. But he did it in a particularly ugly way that was gratuitously hurtful to his fans in Cleveland. The hurt damaged his image with fans everywhere.
Last Wednesday James led his new team to a victory in the quarter-final series of the playoffs over the Boston Celtics, the team that had knocked out his old team (the Cavaliers) last year. In the flush of victory he tried to repair his image. But a real apology would have admitted he did wrong. So James came up with the phantom apology.
Instead of apologizing for the ugly hurt he had caused, he semi-apologized for jumping to Miami—an act that was entirely honorable and ethical. Semi-, because he went on to explain that his move was a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to get past the Celtics and compete for the championship, His entire statement is here.
So James gets credit for apologizing without accepting blame for what he did.
But no credit from EthicsBob: that’s not a real apology.
A real apology is (more…)
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Tags:apology, basketball, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, ethics, LeBron James, Miami Heat, n-word, non-apology, phantom apology, real apology
Posted in Apologies, Ethics-general, Sports | 2 Comments »
May 14, 2011
Most African-Americans are familiar with the charge of DWB. By now many even joke about being stopped by police for “driving while black.” The practice survives, even while police across the country have become sensitized to its wrongs.
It even reached the Presidency when a Cambridge, Massachusetts police officer arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates for attempting to enter his own house without a key. President Obama commented off-handedly that the Cambridge police had “acted stupidly,” then apologized and invited the arresting officer and the professor to the White House to talk things over at a “beer summit.”
Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul can add another to the list of offenses that can attract the unwelcome attention of the authorities: FWM, or “flying while Muslim. They were removed from an Atlantic Southeast Airlines (“The Delta Connection”) flight because their garb made the pilots nervous. Fortunately for them, the pilots of a later flight from Memphis to Charlotte weren’t as skitish, and the two Muslim travelers reached their destination safely, albeit, tardily.
George Jonas of Canada’s National Post describes the incident and its meaning here.
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Tags:acted stupidly, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, beer summit, Cambridge police, Delta Connection, driving while black, DWB, ethics, flying while Muslim, FWM, George Jonas, Henry Louis Gates, intolerance, Islamophobia, Masudur Rahman, Mohamed Zaghloul, National Post, Obama, tolerance
Posted in Ethics-general, Religion, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
As the Anthony Weiner affair descends from “inappropriate” (his word) messages to phone sex, X-rated photos, and likely criminal conspiracy, Republican leaders are not passing up their chance to show off their hypocrisy and double standard. House Majority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus are both calling for Weiner to resign his House seat.
Ethics Bob 