Press conferences and ribbon cuttings are designed to trick us into thinking that something monumental has happened. When a corporation opens a new hotel, we are made to believe that it is something really special, which it is not. We are made to believe that such an "event" is an event in the purest form of the word: a spontaneous intersection of events that results in the manifestation of real action.
Late Thursday afternoon, however, the House of Representatives witnessed something of a true event.
According to the Huffington Post article, House Republicans managed to summon enough votes to halt a $7.4 billion dollar bill that would've provided free medical care to those sickened by the events of 9/11. What Republicans took argument with was a procedural maneuver by Democrats that prevented the addition of amendments to the bill. This was appropriate, considering that Democrats were concerned that Republicans would tack on overly partisan amendments to a widely popular bill in order to sneak the measure in.
When the measure finally fell, Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) did what I believe Democrats should have been doing for quite some time. Video follows:
The remarks of observing procedural order were directed at Republican Representatives attempting to interject in the middle of Rep. Weiner's time (which is a violation of parliamentary procedure).
My 2 cents: while the GOP consistently touts "political correctness run amok" when discussing Democratic opposition to discriminatory legislation, I believe that the true meaning of the term has already reared its ugly head. The continued politeness and kowtowing to blatant, petulant, destructive, and Machiavellian obstructionism has done a great deal of damage to financial reform, health insurance reform, and public progress in general.
For my money, Anthony Weiner's speech was the first motivating thing the Democratic party has done in the past several months. Thank goodness C-SPAN's cameras were running when a true political event arose.
Showing posts with label political correctness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label political correctness. Show all posts
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Constructive Profiling, A Rogue Strategy
Well done Ms. Palin, my head is spinning.
Now I hate picking on people and with my recent coverage of Sarah Palin, it feels like I am. But when someone consistently provides comments like this with blatant disregard for human decency (or perhaps her own political career), she deserves several posts.
In the video, Ms. Palin speaks of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, claiming that it was "a fear of being politically incorrect that we did not...profile this guy." She also claims that there were "massive warning flags" including evidence of his contact with Al-Qaeda. This despite evidence that Hasan was self-radicalized, not an operative of Al-Qaeda, which would, through a conservative lens, make Fort Hood a terrorist attack.
"Profiling in the context of doing whatever we can to save American lives, I'm all for it then," she states with proud defiance, seemingly enticed by the idea of making "liberal heads...spin".
Now where do you start? How about here: 93% of Fox News viewers believe that Hasan was a trained terrorist and that Fort Hood was a terrorist attack, which he and it were not. Palin's remarks perfectly walk the line provided by the evidently defunct political machine posing as a journalism bureau Fox News.
The warrant-less tap on his email would have been a gross invasion of civil liberties and while it might have saved the victims of Fort Hood, we cannot lose our humanity in order to save human lives. It has been clear since the attack on September 11th that Fox-Republicans are willing to sacrifice civil liberties and rights provided under the clearest articles of the constitution for the sake of catching this unknown and unseen enemy, "the terrorist." The finger pointing and disregard for the law coupled with rampant paranoia is borderline McCarthyist.
Radical is apparently a word for "not my" when juxtaposed with beliefs in the Fox-right camp. Though Hasan was a muslim, his rampage was fueled more by psychological unrest than with belief in someone other than Jesus. Of course, the ultimate irony is that while Ms. Palin condemns the mentally ill for having "radical" (read: non-Christian) beliefs, she herself just released "Going Rogue" which proclaims how much different she is from the typical Republican. Different? Rogue? Radical perhaps?
And finally, yes my head is spinning since you used the term profiling Sarah, but only because the treatment of Muslims in this country has been blatantly racist under the guise of constructive profiling the whole time. The idea that we should allow and accept undue profiling of Muslims in defense of Americans is, again, losing our humanity to save human lives.
I apologize for the rant since I know that all of us understand just how absurd her remarks are. Heck, all of us understand how absurd her presidential bid is. But when millions of Americans listen to her errant statements and accept them as fact, her comments need to be responded to.
Anyone else as mad as I am? Feel free to leave your comments at the front desk.
Now I hate picking on people and with my recent coverage of Sarah Palin, it feels like I am. But when someone consistently provides comments like this with blatant disregard for human decency (or perhaps her own political career), she deserves several posts.
In the video, Ms. Palin speaks of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, claiming that it was "a fear of being politically incorrect that we did not...profile this guy." She also claims that there were "massive warning flags" including evidence of his contact with Al-Qaeda. This despite evidence that Hasan was self-radicalized, not an operative of Al-Qaeda, which would, through a conservative lens, make Fort Hood a terrorist attack.
"Profiling in the context of doing whatever we can to save American lives, I'm all for it then," she states with proud defiance, seemingly enticed by the idea of making "liberal heads...spin".
Now where do you start? How about here: 93% of Fox News viewers believe that Hasan was a trained terrorist and that Fort Hood was a terrorist attack, which he and it were not. Palin's remarks perfectly walk the line provided by the evidently defunct political machine posing as a journalism bureau Fox News.
The warrant-less tap on his email would have been a gross invasion of civil liberties and while it might have saved the victims of Fort Hood, we cannot lose our humanity in order to save human lives. It has been clear since the attack on September 11th that Fox-Republicans are willing to sacrifice civil liberties and rights provided under the clearest articles of the constitution for the sake of catching this unknown and unseen enemy, "the terrorist." The finger pointing and disregard for the law coupled with rampant paranoia is borderline McCarthyist.
Radical is apparently a word for "not my" when juxtaposed with beliefs in the Fox-right camp. Though Hasan was a muslim, his rampage was fueled more by psychological unrest than with belief in someone other than Jesus. Of course, the ultimate irony is that while Ms. Palin condemns the mentally ill for having "radical" (read: non-Christian) beliefs, she herself just released "Going Rogue" which proclaims how much different she is from the typical Republican. Different? Rogue? Radical perhaps?
And finally, yes my head is spinning since you used the term profiling Sarah, but only because the treatment of Muslims in this country has been blatantly racist under the guise of constructive profiling the whole time. The idea that we should allow and accept undue profiling of Muslims in defense of Americans is, again, losing our humanity to save human lives.
I apologize for the rant since I know that all of us understand just how absurd her remarks are. Heck, all of us understand how absurd her presidential bid is. But when millions of Americans listen to her errant statements and accept them as fact, her comments need to be responded to.
Anyone else as mad as I am? Feel free to leave your comments at the front desk.