From the Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
My response to the debate is below, but I wanted to have Olbermann's response up to share with everyone.
so here they are, in two parts because it was too long for youtube.
and part 2
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Who needs rules?
Who needs rules?
If you've been watching the news the last few weeks, you know that there has been a confirmation debate regarding Mukasey. The Dems, and some Republicans, want him to say unequivocally that water boarding is torture. As revealed recently, a former acting assistant attorney general wrote, in a memo, that he considered it torture. Keith Olbermann was upset with the Senators who refuse to do their jobs, and with the President and his administration who continue to defy, subvert and outright ignore the most sacred laws and rules that govern our country. While he and other pundits get upset with the people in power, who should use their power wisely, I am upset with the American people who continue to not care that this is going on and has been going on for the past 7 years.
It is our fault that this continues to happen. If we were to put pressure on the Congress they would hold the Bush administration accountable. But we don't, so they don't. We just don't seem to care. So I ask: who needs rules?
There is much debate over whether Barry Bonds deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and whether his home run record should have an asterisk by it.
Why?
He used (allegedly) illegal substances. Performance enhancing drugs.
So?
He broke league regulations. Almost anyone you ask has an opinion.
Really, officials in the Bush administration outed a covert CIA agent. An act of treason if committed by you or I. Half the country is outraged (either as a conservative or a liberal.) The other half doesn't care.
The Colts were accused of piping in crowd noise to distract the Patriots (the league found no evidence) during Sunday's game. "Cheaters!" some people cried. Considering they lost, maybe they should have cheated.
The Patriots were accused of illegally videotaping the defensive lines hand signals during a Jets game. For this act "Belichick was officially fined $500,000 USD--the biggest fine ever imposed on a coach in the league's 87-year history, and the maximum permitted under league rules. The Patriots were also fined $250,000. Additionally, the Patriots will forfeit their first round draft pick in the 2008 NFL Draft if they make the playoffs. If the Patriots do not make the playoffs, they will forfeit their second and third round selections in the 2008 draft. Goodell said that he fined the Patriots as a team because Belichick is effectively the team's general manager as well as head coach, and exercises so much control over the Patriots' on-field operations that "his actions and decisions are properly attributed to the club." (from wikipedia.org; my emphasis) However, this administration illegally and unconstitutionally wire-tapped innocent Americans and no one gets even a slap on the wrist.
I emphasized Goodell's comments because blamed is always assigned to:
• The head of Fema for the problems in Katrina or the fake news conference
• The troops for what happened at Abu Ghirab
• Scooter Libby for outing Valerie Plame (when they're not claiming she wasn't a covert agent to begin with)
• No one for the Justice Department firings
But what about the person in charge.
"His actions and decisions are properly attributed to the club." Cannot whatever occurs in the Bush Administration be properly attributed to the President? Does not he control his administration? If you hire someone to do a job and they don't do the job right, isn't that partly your fault for hiring them. If it happens once, then you can explain it away as it was just that person who f'ed up. However, if it occurs over and over again (like say fake news reports, fake news conference and fake reporters) then it has to be that the leader is approving of these actions. There's a saying in Texas, as President Bush once tried to share, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
And, is there really more accountability in major league sports than there is in the United States government. The self proclaimed Greatest Country in the World! Several Olympic athletes had to give back their medals when they were caught breaking the rules, but this President gets away with Torture? In direct violation of treaties we signed in good faith with other countries.
Football, baseball, and basketball, as great as they are, are still just games. Why the uproar over something that isn't that important. Our constitution is being violated by the very people who took an oath to "protect and defend" it.
"But, we're in a time of war," they say.
Well, I believe that, proportionally, if you can ignore the document our country considers most sacred because of war, then, if you are in a game in which you are battling to remain undefeated and be the 1 team in the country, you should be able to do whatever is necessary. Pipe in crowd noise. Send spies into the other team. See if you can get the opposing kicker to defect. After all it's just a game, no one dies if you break the rules.
Now, it's not that I think we shouldn't care about cheating in sports, or cheating in general. It's that I think we, as a country, should also care about dishonesty in government. Some have claimed that we must stop professional athletes from using performance enhancing drugs because it sends the wrong message to kids. Well, what message does it send kids when we say that it's okay to treat someone who we think (might possibly be, we don't actually have any evidence, in fact we got his name from torturing some other guy until he gave us a name, any name really) is a terrorist as if they weren't even human. What message does it send when we let the leader of our country get away with whatever he wants. I think sports and politics both send the same message: Do whatever you want to get to the top, and don't worry to much about the rules. They don't apply to you.
If you've been watching the news the last few weeks, you know that there has been a confirmation debate regarding Mukasey. The Dems, and some Republicans, want him to say unequivocally that water boarding is torture. As revealed recently, a former acting assistant attorney general wrote, in a memo, that he considered it torture. Keith Olbermann was upset with the Senators who refuse to do their jobs, and with the President and his administration who continue to defy, subvert and outright ignore the most sacred laws and rules that govern our country. While he and other pundits get upset with the people in power, who should use their power wisely, I am upset with the American people who continue to not care that this is going on and has been going on for the past 7 years.
It is our fault that this continues to happen. If we were to put pressure on the Congress they would hold the Bush administration accountable. But we don't, so they don't. We just don't seem to care. So I ask: who needs rules?
There is much debate over whether Barry Bonds deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and whether his home run record should have an asterisk by it.
Why?
He used (allegedly) illegal substances. Performance enhancing drugs.
So?
He broke league regulations. Almost anyone you ask has an opinion.
Really, officials in the Bush administration outed a covert CIA agent. An act of treason if committed by you or I. Half the country is outraged (either as a conservative or a liberal.) The other half doesn't care.
The Colts were accused of piping in crowd noise to distract the Patriots (the league found no evidence) during Sunday's game. "Cheaters!" some people cried. Considering they lost, maybe they should have cheated.
The Patriots were accused of illegally videotaping the defensive lines hand signals during a Jets game. For this act "Belichick was officially fined $500,000 USD--the biggest fine ever imposed on a coach in the league's 87-year history, and the maximum permitted under league rules. The Patriots were also fined $250,000. Additionally, the Patriots will forfeit their first round draft pick in the 2008 NFL Draft if they make the playoffs. If the Patriots do not make the playoffs, they will forfeit their second and third round selections in the 2008 draft. Goodell said that he fined the Patriots as a team because Belichick is effectively the team's general manager as well as head coach, and exercises so much control over the Patriots' on-field operations that "his actions and decisions are properly attributed to the club." (from wikipedia.org; my emphasis) However, this administration illegally and unconstitutionally wire-tapped innocent Americans and no one gets even a slap on the wrist.
I emphasized Goodell's comments because blamed is always assigned to:
• The head of Fema for the problems in Katrina or the fake news conference
• The troops for what happened at Abu Ghirab
• Scooter Libby for outing Valerie Plame (when they're not claiming she wasn't a covert agent to begin with)
• No one for the Justice Department firings
But what about the person in charge.
"His actions and decisions are properly attributed to the club." Cannot whatever occurs in the Bush Administration be properly attributed to the President? Does not he control his administration? If you hire someone to do a job and they don't do the job right, isn't that partly your fault for hiring them. If it happens once, then you can explain it away as it was just that person who f'ed up. However, if it occurs over and over again (like say fake news reports, fake news conference and fake reporters) then it has to be that the leader is approving of these actions. There's a saying in Texas, as President Bush once tried to share, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
And, is there really more accountability in major league sports than there is in the United States government. The self proclaimed Greatest Country in the World! Several Olympic athletes had to give back their medals when they were caught breaking the rules, but this President gets away with Torture? In direct violation of treaties we signed in good faith with other countries.
Football, baseball, and basketball, as great as they are, are still just games. Why the uproar over something that isn't that important. Our constitution is being violated by the very people who took an oath to "protect and defend" it.
"But, we're in a time of war," they say.
Well, I believe that, proportionally, if you can ignore the document our country considers most sacred because of war, then, if you are in a game in which you are battling to remain undefeated and be the 1 team in the country, you should be able to do whatever is necessary. Pipe in crowd noise. Send spies into the other team. See if you can get the opposing kicker to defect. After all it's just a game, no one dies if you break the rules.
Now, it's not that I think we shouldn't care about cheating in sports, or cheating in general. It's that I think we, as a country, should also care about dishonesty in government. Some have claimed that we must stop professional athletes from using performance enhancing drugs because it sends the wrong message to kids. Well, what message does it send kids when we say that it's okay to treat someone who we think (might possibly be, we don't actually have any evidence, in fact we got his name from torturing some other guy until he gave us a name, any name really) is a terrorist as if they weren't even human. What message does it send when we let the leader of our country get away with whatever he wants. I think sports and politics both send the same message: Do whatever you want to get to the top, and don't worry to much about the rules. They don't apply to you.
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