Posts Tagged ‘Nancy Pelosi’

"You just think you're SOOOO smart...dontcha Mo'Kelly?!"

Priceless.

Arguably the least intelligent person to ever hold public office commenting that the former Speaker of the House is a “dingbat.”  Never mind the fact that “dingbat” is not emblematic of an extensive vocabulary, never mind that…

And OF COURSE it is with Sean Hannity on Fox News.

Roll tape…

The Mo’Kelly Report is a syndicated politics and entertainment journal. Visit http://mrmokelly.com for the latest from Mr. Mo’Kelly. Tune into The Mo’Kelly Show Saturdays from 6-8pm PDT on KFI AM640 and Sirius XM 166 Saturdays and Sundays from 8-9pm PDT. Contact Mo’Kelly at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

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Slow down America. Slow down.

Congresswoman Giffords (D-AZ)

There is no finish line awaiting the fastest to pass judgment. There is no prize for the swiftest rebuke of political figures supposedly not earnest or sincere enough in their apologies for violent rhetoric in the months and years preceding the tragedy in Tucson.

There is no office of any elected official hanging in the balance. Nobody is set to go to the polls this Tuesday, the next, or anytime soon.

Slow down America. Slow down.

Those on the Left have been working overtime to find the proverbial missing link between the actions of Jared Loughner and the rhetoric of the Right. The smoking…well, um, you know.

It doesn’t exist.

Those on the Right are at DEFCON 2, the political equivalent of football’s prevent defense; trying to thwart blame being laid at the feet of those such as Michael Savage, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

It’s a poorly-conceived strategy.

Jared Lee Loughner

One can indisputably link Loughner’s premeditated acts of violence to the Tea Party no more than one could link Mo’Kelly’s premeditated acts of good conscience to the Democratic party. It just doesn’t work that way. You can search my computer, my house, my sock drawer…there won’t be any odes to Keith Olbermann or sonnets in honor of Nancy Pelosi to be found anywhere. My community and volunteer work are no way overtly connected to my political ideals.

It just doesn’t work that way.  Related?  Probably on some level, but there is no direct path of connection.

Nevertheless, words matter.

In September of 1963, the Sixteenth St. Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed, killing four children. A week before the bombing, Alabama governor George Wallace told the New York Times that stopping integration in Alabama only required a “few first-class funerals.”

Coincidence? Violent rhetoric? There is no dotted line leading directly from one to the other…but words matter. Know your own history America.

Or think of it this way…

Corporations will spend more than 3 million dollars for a 30-second commercial spot during next month’s Super Bowl, because they know intimately and fiscally that words matter. Along those same lines, nobody will be able to definitively trace whether Mo’Kelly subsequently bought a particular beer, a particular chocolate bar, a specific soda or some tortilla chips because of a given commercial during that moment in time. Yet and still, marketing gurus around the world can cite innumerable studies chapter and verse which have conclusively determined that words (and their messages) matter.

(And they would be right.)

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose holiday we celebrate this week, had no Facebook page, no Twitter feed, television or radio program in which to convince the masses of African-Americans to turn the other cheek in the face of fire hoses and firearms. With only powerful oratory at his side, hundreds of thousands lined the Washington Mall on his journey to forever changing America.

Those same words ultimately led to a bullet through his neck. Words matter.

One could argue that Harvey Milk and former San Francisco Mayor George Moscone weren’t assassinated in 1978 purely on the strength of their political affiliations but the power of their words wielded while in office.

Adolf Hitler began not with a gas chamber, but with a poster on a public wall.

Words matter and often lead to both intended and unintended consequences.

Readers do not point their browsers to The Huffington Post, Foxnews.com, The National Review Online or DailyKos.com simply to look at the ingenious html coding and pretty color paneling.

Words matter and invariably inspire action, often leading to unintended consequences.

When you “share” this post on your Facebook page, you’ve tacitly agreed. When you email it to your favorite political associate or adversary, you’ve also tacitly agreed. When you’ve cut and pasted portions to post on your blog and rebut for your own posterity…you’ve most certainly agreed. For some, that is as far as it goes.

For some…

Although commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin only inspire Mo’Kelly to write well-crafted and reasoned rebuttals to their monologues…it would be foolish to allege that their collective “inspiration” begins and ends at words. They know better and hopefully so do you too.

Limbaugh’s radio program boasts more than 15 million listeners weekly. Anyone wish to wager that all 15 million are mentally sane and balanced?

Didn’t think so.

Words matter.

The converse is also true with Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert.

Words matter. Slow down America, slow down.

If you take Conservatives at their word, President Obama mobilized a majority of voters, including a nation of young people to choose him simply on the strength of his words alone.

Maybe…maybe not. But even Conservatives understood and recognized the power of words.

Slow down America. Slow down.

The issue is not whether Jared Loughner is mentally unstable, we know this to be true. The question is NOT whether he specifically subscribed to Tea Party ideology or is some closeted, extremist right-winger. Being mentally unstable is separate and distinct from whether someone is “uninfluenced.” They are not mutually exclusive concepts, and arguably instability opens the door for greater influence.

Words matter and have unintended consequences.

The question ultimately is whether we as Americans are willing to accept responsibility for the toxic political climate we’ve produced.

Our public discourse is broken and the fault is collectively our own. There are those who’ve added fuel to the fire and there are those who were complicit, sitting idly by and watching it burn. You know who you are respectively.

Automobiles are routinely recalled for the unintended consequences of faulty manufacturing and the lives they negatively impact. The same should be true for our political discourse. It’s time to recall it in full. It does not matter “why” Jared Loughner found it reasonable to kill 6 people while injuring 14 more or whose vitriolic rhetoric was more impactful along the way. It should only matter whether we as Americans are willing to accept collective responsibility for creating a political environment in which could be called into question as to contributing or influencing this tragedy.

If we have reason to debate whether our discourse contributed to the tragedy, then it probably has. Any debate over whether we’ve crossed the line means at best we’ve pressed too close to it. At worst, we’ve gone too far.

Either/or…it’s time to recall this brand of political discourse. Not because it’s politically expedient, popular or safe but because our conscience tells us it’s right.

Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.”

- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Slow down America, words still matter. Happy Birthday Dr. King.

The Mo’Kelly Report is an entertainment journal with a political slant; published at The Huffington Post and www.eurweb.com. It is meant to inform, infuse and incite meaningful discourse…as well as entertain. For more Mo’Kelly, http://mrmokelly.com. Mr. Mo’Kelly can be reached at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

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(No word on whether he was a member of the Tea Party…wink, wink)

STORY HERE

(From Yahoo/AP) WASHINGTON – The FBI arrested a northern California man Wednesday for allegedly making threatening phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over health care reform, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

Charges against the man have yet to be disclosed, but they are expected to be filed in federal court in California.

Several federal officials said the man made dozens of calls to Pelosi’s homes in California and Washington, as well as to her husband’s business office. They said he recited her home address and said if she wanted to see it again, she would not support the health care overhaul bill that since has been enacted.

One official said the man is believed to have spoken directly with Pelosi at least once.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

A call to the FBI office in San Francisco was not immediately returned, nor was a call to a spokesman for Pelosi.

On Tuesday, authorities announced charges against a Washington state man who allegedly made threatening calls to Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat. Charges also have been filed against a Philadelphia man who allegedly made a YouTube video threatening Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.

______________________

Remember what Mo’Kelly had to say…

“What (Pat) Sajak fails to acknowledge or understand is that debate and disagreement are always acceptable in American discourse.  This is about the intimidation and fear tactics employed during the Civil Rights movement to discourage legitimate discussion and debate…which ring rather familiar today.”

- The Mo’Kelly Report 3.29.10

[Stay tuned...the new mrmokelly.com website is coming to you in 2010.  Set your browsers now.]

http://twitter.com/mrmokelly

By now you should have all seen the political cartoon which ran in the New York Post on Page Six bemoaning the economic stimulus plan championed by President Obama.

It’s safe to say it has its supporters and its detractors.  But this particular cartoon has come under fire for allegedly characterizing President Obama as a chimpanzee as its chief supporter.

For those unaware of eastern seaboard news, a pet chimpanzee recently mauled a woman in New York.  So on the surface, the mixture of unrelated news events into a singular political cartoon is not an unusual occurrence.  Such is the nature of the political cartoon, the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated issues to stimulate both laughter and meaningful dialogue.

But…

But…

The troublesome part in this that when the principal individual in relation to the stimulus bill is the first African-American president…the assumption of the chimpanzee somehow “representing” President Obama is not an unrealistic or illogical one.  Yes, one can argue that the “author” of the stimulus bill is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but the chief name associated with the stimulus plan is President Obama.

And let’s probe that “alternative” explanation further…

Since when is it “more acceptable” to associate putting two slugs in the Speaker of the House, instead of the President?  To those who may argue that the cartoon isn’t racist and is directed at congress as a whole…since when is a political cartoon depicting the murder of Congress member(s) “more acceptable” than comparing President Obama to a monkey (and putting two slugs in his chest)?

They’re both completely unacceptable.  This isn’t an issue of political correctness, this is common sense…or should be.

That’s for those who insist the cartoon is NOT racist.  Remember, political cartoons are meant for interpretation and juxtaposition of multiple stories and images.  Otherwise, they wouldn’t be political cartoons.  To African-Americans, we also see the stories of Oscar Grant and BART police officers in this cartoon.

Pick your poison here…but no matter what, the cartoon and its depiction is in exceedingly poor taste.  Sniggle, chuckle, chortle, guffaw.

Not funny.

It’s either racist or treasonous.  Your choice.

The Mo’Kelly Report is an entertainment journal with a political slant; published weekly at www.eurweb.com. It is meant to inform, infuse and incite meaningful discourse…as well as entertain. The Mo’Kelly Report is syndicated by Blogburst. For more Mo’Kelly, http://www.MrMoKelly.com.  Mo’Kelly can be reached at Mo@MrMoKelly.com and he welcomes all commentary.

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