Hey kids, long time first time and all that.
Hey, do you hate Fox News? Of course you do! Did you think Juan Williams was kind of a pantload even before getting fired from NPR? Probably. Did you see his unplanned outrageous antic as planned and not outrageous? I sure did.
But Juangate, to me, speaks to a larger point, one about the hypocrisy of Republicans, their selective amnesia when similar events effect one of their own, that they could not have cared less about when it was only a woman who had been raped.
Please, do read on. There may be recipes for organic cookies inside...
Hey kids, long time first time and all that.
...aaaaand here’s my reason du jour (October 21, 2010, as I write this anyway) for why Republican politicians and pundits are hypocritical douchebags. And it all ties together with the shocking! Breaking! News! That Juan Williams was fired from his gig at NPR. For those who don’t know (and at dailykos, I'm guessing that would be the comatose and feebleminded), Juan has a part-time gig as a contributor to Fox "News," and said the following (from The New York Times, via Media Matters, http://mediamatters.org/... )
***The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the "The O'Reilly Factor" on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O'Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a "Muslim dilemma." Mr. O'Reilly said, "The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet."
Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O'Reilly.
He continued: "I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."
Mr. Williams also made reference to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square. "He said the war with Muslims, America's war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don't think there's any way to get away from these facts," Mr. Williams said.
NPR said in its statement that the remarks "were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR."***
Now, before we discuss Juan Williams and his douchiness, for a moment, please join me in the Not-THAT-Far-Wayback Machine.
Just a little over a year ago, an Amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 was approved in a nowadays-shocking display of bipartisanship. That amendment, offered by that socialist bastard Al Franken, specified that government contractors can’t make their employees sign contracts for employment that prohibit them from seeking legal recourse if one of their coworkers assaults them.
The issue came to light because a "barely legal" employee of Halliburton subsidiary KBR, by the name of Jamie Leigh Jones, was working in Baghdad when she was drugged and then brutally gang raped by some of her coworkers. Gang raped. She was then isolated for 24 hours, without food water of a bed. She was told that she’d be fired if she sought medical treatment. +
And then, because her ordeal wasn’t quite shitty enough, when she got home, she found out that her employment contract forbid her from going to the courts. The best she could hope for was KBR’s very own dispute resolution program. I’m sure when Jamie Leigh Jones heard "dispute resolution programme, her first thought were "ah, so justice WILL be served." Eh, maybe not.
So Al Franken, being the godless commie thug that he is, decided maybe corporations who’d do that to their employees, maybe don’t deserve cushy lucrative government contracts. The amendment passed 68-30.
Guess how many of the 30 Senators who voted against the bill were Republicans? Go on, guess.
You’ll be surprised. If you’re dumber than a bag of wet hammers. All of them. All 30.
What was their rationale for voting against rape victims being allowed to have their day in court. SHE SIGNED A CONTRACT. Contracts are sacrosanct in our great nation. No one and nothing should render the great and almighty Contract illegitimate.
And yet, a little over a year later, NPR "journalist" Juan Williams is fired for going on his part time gig at Fox News and admitting he pees his delicate li’l lace panties like a poorly-trained 3 year old with weak kidneys when he sees a Muslim on an airplane.
Here’s a funny thing. Not funny ha ha. More funny "well, HE was looking to get fired for a more lucrative gig at Fox News, wasn’t he?" When you work for NPR, you agree to a series of rules and regs. Including, but not limited to (via dailykos' own midday open thread):
***9. NPR journalists must get permission from the Vice President for their Division or their designee to appear on TV or other media. It is not necessary to get permission in each instance when the employee is a regular participant on an approved show. Permission for such appearances may be revoked if NPR determines such appearances are harmful to the reputation of NPR or the NPR participant.
10. In appearing on TV or other media including electronic Web-based forums, NPR journalists should not express views they would not air in their role as an NPR journalist. They should not participate in shows electronic forums, or blogs that encourage punditry and speculation rather than rather than fact-based analysis.***
And while many of you might not work in the media, you possibly have some similar rules at your job. You don’t discuss sensitive work-related business, even though that technically is a violation of your freedom of speech. You don’t say or do anything that will embarrass your employer, even though THAT technically is a violation of your freedom of speech.
Nonetheless, Sarah Palin and many other right wing politicos and pundits are now saying Williams’ firing is a violation of HIS First Amendment rights. Because as you all know, the right to spout inanities on Fox News is a God-Given right to all Americans. I get to do it July 27th, 2054. When’s YOUR turn?
So to just clarify, in 2009, when a young woman is brutally raped, Republicans think contracts are sacred and unbreakable.
In 2010, when a jackass like Juan Williams, who wanted to get fired, tries to out O’Reilly O’Reilly by justifying racial profiling, Republicans think he’s a poster boy for all that’s wrong with America. It’s like he was bent over and his right to free speech was repeatedly torn out of him.
(He also gets a brand new $2million, 3 year contract. With Fox News. Of course. )
Coincidentally, for 8 years, Republicans thought criticizing the President was tantamount to treason. Once Inauguration Day 2009 rolled around, pictures of Obama with a Hitler mustache was suddenly de rigeur.
This is what happens when "What a Difference A Year Makes" and "It’s OK If You’re A Republican" meet in a seedy motel and the condom breaks.
And it’s also proof that when it comes to far too many Republicans, obstructionism, and making every attempt to make Democrats look bad, trumps EVERYTHING. They’ll stand in the way of good policy and good politics. They’ll screw Justice, and screw the rest of us. They’ll never side with you unless you’re incorporated. There’s no hypocritical stand they won’t take if it means preventing Democrats from scoring a win.
And they really hope, if we don’t vote for them, that we won’t vote at all.
Do NOT give them that victory.
Don't know if I'll ever write another diary entry. Don't know if anyone wants to read one. But after writing that out, I didn't want to merely add it to my manifesto and enemies' list, which will probably only be published after I'm dead (hopefully by the manner of my own choosing, drowning in a vat of fudge cooked by a platoon of home ec teachers dressed like the recently dearly departed Barbara Billingsley, pearls and all). If you read this, thank you. If you liked it, thank you very much. If you hated it, I'm sorry, we no longer validate parking.
+ EDIT: Thought it important to add that Jones did eventually get medical treatment. She was told she'd be fired if she sought OUTSIDE medical treatment, but she did get treatment from an Army physician. Per The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
In legal papers Jones, who was 20 at the time, says she was fed a knockout drug while drinking with KBR firefighters.
"When she awoke the next morning still affected by the drug, she found her body naked and severely bruised, with lacerations to her vagina and anus, blood running down her leg, her breast implants ruptured and her pectoral muscles torn‚ which would later require reconstructive surgery. Upon walking to the rest room, she passed out again," the papers say.
Jones was treated by a US army doctor who gave forensic evidence to company officials. She says the firm placed her under guard in a shipping container and she was released only after her father asked the US embassy to intervene. When the forensic evidence was handed to investigators two years later, crucial photographs and notes were missing.