Decency In Congress... Indecency In Public
Congress Increases Indecency Fines Tenfold
Will Rogers once said there are two things you don't want to wtch being made... sausage and laws in congress. Here we have a case where the people making the law that would increase fines for indecency in the broadcast media are more indecent than anything I have ever seen in terms of pornography, obscenity or profanity in the media.
What the hell does congress know about indecency? After all, they confirmed Clarence Thomas amd Samuel Alito as justices of SCOTUS. These folks authorized an invasion of a socereign nation that posed no threat to the United States based on lies, misrepresentation, deception and violation of the Constitution... and they did it without double checking the facts. These folks have witnessed falsification and deception involving the invasion of privacy and violation of civil rights through an indiscriminate set of spying programs, denials and misdirections from the executive branch, and violation after violation of the Constitution by the executive leadership of our nation... and still lack the integrity, fortitude and courage to call for impeachment, make back room and back door deals to avoid defending the rights of US citizens, and attempt to pass legislation that would make it illegal to offer food, water and shelter to people that might be in grave danger crossing a desert. What the hell do these folks know about decency, never mind indecency?
These folks impeached a sitting president because he lied about having a naive intern provide him oral copulation in an adulterous indiscretion that should have been left a matter between him, his wife and the intern. Instead, his integrity, the status of a woman as his wife and the reputation of a young, inexperienced woman--who made one of the stupidest blunders possible--were all ruined... But our current president has somehow coated himself with teflon so that serious violations of law, principle and morality are completely ignored.
These are the same folks that have hosted the indecent/immoral/illegal sexual, drunken and/or possibly criminal acts of John Jenrette (he and his wife had sex on the Capitol steps), Ted Kennedy (Chappaquiddick and defense of family member William Smith), Barney Frank and Garry Studds(sexual escapades with congressional page(s)), Jospeph Biden (for being on the panel that heard Anita Hill's testimony and not knowing Thomas's conduct was immoral and indecent), Joseph Lieberman (pretending to be a Democrat while acting like a ultra-conservative member of the religious right and staunch defense of Israel no matter how many people they incarcerate, torture or kill), Orrin Hatch (blaming the suicide of a teenager on the fact that he played Dungeons & Dragons rather than a severe sense of despair, disconnect and lack of family supervision), and all the lawyers in congress that have not called for impeachment because thay haven't had the decency to read the Constitution that they have taken an oath to defend, support and enforce.
What the hell does anyone in congress know about decency that would provide them with the ability to determine what is indecent?
These folks actually think a breast, penis or vagina are indecent! They think a sexual act is indecent! Thay cannot fathom that killing thousands in an injust war is indecent. They cannot fathom that ignoring genocide in Africa is indecent. They cannot perceive that not providing basic health care and public health services in a comprehensive, cohesive and affordable manner is indecent. They cannot understand that pinching families and individuals filing bankruptcy due to personal catastrophe is indecent while authorizing bailout programs for big business, flexible bankruptcy terms for large corporations and tax breaks, benefits and grants for the oil companies. These folks think that swear words over the airways are forms of indecency but screwing the public through one scandal after another is perfectly acceptable, including defending congress critters that have taken bribes and acted in ways to manipulate laws in favor of big corporations like Enron. They think they are immune from the laws they impose upon us, but that they should get paid more, be allowed to take corporate-sponsored trips, and work one-third the time that the rest of us work.
Will Rogers once said there are two things you don't want to wtch being made... sausage and laws in congress. Here we have a case where the people making the law that would increase fines for indecency in the broadcast media are more indecent than anything I have ever seen in terms of pornography, obscenity or profanity in the media.
What the hell does congress know about indecency? After all, they confirmed Clarence Thomas amd Samuel Alito as justices of SCOTUS. These folks authorized an invasion of a socereign nation that posed no threat to the United States based on lies, misrepresentation, deception and violation of the Constitution... and they did it without double checking the facts. These folks have witnessed falsification and deception involving the invasion of privacy and violation of civil rights through an indiscriminate set of spying programs, denials and misdirections from the executive branch, and violation after violation of the Constitution by the executive leadership of our nation... and still lack the integrity, fortitude and courage to call for impeachment, make back room and back door deals to avoid defending the rights of US citizens, and attempt to pass legislation that would make it illegal to offer food, water and shelter to people that might be in grave danger crossing a desert. What the hell do these folks know about decency, never mind indecency?
These folks impeached a sitting president because he lied about having a naive intern provide him oral copulation in an adulterous indiscretion that should have been left a matter between him, his wife and the intern. Instead, his integrity, the status of a woman as his wife and the reputation of a young, inexperienced woman--who made one of the stupidest blunders possible--were all ruined... But our current president has somehow coated himself with teflon so that serious violations of law, principle and morality are completely ignored.
These are the same folks that have hosted the indecent/immoral/illegal sexual, drunken and/or possibly criminal acts of John Jenrette (he and his wife had sex on the Capitol steps), Ted Kennedy (Chappaquiddick and defense of family member William Smith), Barney Frank and Garry Studds(sexual escapades with congressional page(s)), Jospeph Biden (for being on the panel that heard Anita Hill's testimony and not knowing Thomas's conduct was immoral and indecent), Joseph Lieberman (pretending to be a Democrat while acting like a ultra-conservative member of the religious right and staunch defense of Israel no matter how many people they incarcerate, torture or kill), Orrin Hatch (blaming the suicide of a teenager on the fact that he played Dungeons & Dragons rather than a severe sense of despair, disconnect and lack of family supervision), and all the lawyers in congress that have not called for impeachment because thay haven't had the decency to read the Constitution that they have taken an oath to defend, support and enforce.
What the hell does anyone in congress know about decency that would provide them with the ability to determine what is indecent?
These folks actually think a breast, penis or vagina are indecent! They think a sexual act is indecent! Thay cannot fathom that killing thousands in an injust war is indecent. They cannot fathom that ignoring genocide in Africa is indecent. They cannot perceive that not providing basic health care and public health services in a comprehensive, cohesive and affordable manner is indecent. They cannot understand that pinching families and individuals filing bankruptcy due to personal catastrophe is indecent while authorizing bailout programs for big business, flexible bankruptcy terms for large corporations and tax breaks, benefits and grants for the oil companies. These folks think that swear words over the airways are forms of indecency but screwing the public through one scandal after another is perfectly acceptable, including defending congress critters that have taken bribes and acted in ways to manipulate laws in favor of big corporations like Enron. They think they are immune from the laws they impose upon us, but that they should get paid more, be allowed to take corporate-sponsored trips, and work one-third the time that the rest of us work.
Vowing to clear the public airwaves of prurient and vulgar material, Congress has overwhelmingly approved legislation to increase by tenfold the fines that broadcasters could face for indecent programming.
President Bush welcomed passage of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act and promised to sign it into law. "I believe that government has a responsibility to help strengthen families," he said in a statement. "This legislation will make television and radio more family friendly by allowing the FCC to impose stiffer fines on broadcasters who air obscene or indecent programming."
The bill would increase the maximum fines the Federal Communications Commission may levy for indecent content from the current $32,500 to $325,000 per incident. The legislation passed the House 379-35 on Wednesday after moving through the Senate last month on a voice vote.
Approval of the bill culminates a two-year effort to get tough on sexually explicit material and offensive language on radio and television following Janet Jackson's 2004 Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction."
The FCC recently denied a petition of reconsideration from CBS Corp.-owned stations facing $550,000 in fines over the Jackson incident, in which she briefly revealed a breast during a halftime concert.
The bill was important to conservative groups and its passage came on the same day that another conservative priority - a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage - failed in the Senate.
"The FCC will now have the authority to impose meaningful, punitive fines when the indecency law is broken," said L. Brent Bozell, president of the Parents Television Council, a group that has actively pursued cases of indecent material on the public airways. "We hope that the hefty fines will cause the multibillion-dollar broadcast networks finally to take the law seriously."
posted by Jim Downey at 1:42 AM
1 Comments:
very well stated--thank you for this (i'm quoting you w/link if you don't mind).
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