Attention Mr. Greg Anderson, Salem Radio Network President: I know you're probably real busy, and I hate to bother you and all, but would you please take a couple of moments and shut down this racist jackass you have working for you?
Thanks so much.
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I don't know if you read Steve Gilliard's blog, but his response was worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteNote that Bush calling Bennett's remarks "not appropriate" is soft language. Can it get much softer? Shouldn't Bush have said, "That's racist garbage, plain and simple"?
But that might undermine his base.
Hey, Bill Bennett's no racist. How could he be? Didn't he write TWO Books of Virtue? Wasn't he drug czar? He's a hypocritical piece of shit is what he is, one more sleazebag soldier in the bush army that means never to practice what it preaches. Compassionate conservatives? You bet. Well...here's a piece from the Kos blog that sorta disputes that. Hard to be cmpassionate when you'r an American Taliban.
ReplyDeleteA true story about Bill Bennett
By Reed Hundt | bio
When I was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (1993-97), I asked Bill Bennett to visit my office so that I could ask him for help in seeking legislation that would pay for internet access in all classrooms and libraries in the country. Eventually Senators Olympia Snowe and Jay Rockefeller, with the White House leadership of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, put that provision in the Telecommunications Law of 1996, and today nearly 90% of all classrooms and libraries do have such access. The schools covered were public and private. So far the federal funding (actually collected from everyone as part of the phone bill) has been matched more or less equally with school district funding to total about $20 billion over the last seven years. More than 90% of all teachers praise the impact of such technology on their work. At any rate, since Mr. Bennett had been Secretary of Education I asked him to support the bill in the crucial stage when we needed Republican allies. He told me he would not help, because he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capability, new tools for success. He wanted them, he said, to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers,charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education. Well, I thought, at least he's candid about his true views. The key Senate committee voted almost on party lines on the bill, all D's for and all R's against, except one -- Olympia Snowe. Her support provided the margin of victory. On the House side, Speaker Gingrich made sure the provision was not in the companion bill, but in conference again Senators Snowe and Rockefeller, with White House support, made the difference. The Internet has been the first technology made available to students in poorly funded schools at about the same time and in about the same way as to students in well funded schools.
Oct 01, 2005 -- 10:53:29 AM EST
I don't want to even think about how to respond to this bastard.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the word ass even begins to cover what he is.
A person's ethnic background doesn't determine who or what they will be in life.
I haven't read the piece in question. (Mostly because I try not to read things that I'm pretty sure are going to piss me off.) But. BUT. A thought hit me as I was reading this post. No disrepesct intended, but ... why should we try to shut down posts and people posting that we find offensive or that we disagree with? I've never understood this ... what's a good analogy? Activist shift from fighting causes to fighting people.
ReplyDeleteI've generally found that I can disagree with someone without insisting that they shut up.
I am guessing that wasn't the point you were trying to make with this one but some bloggers are deadly serious and on the verge of embolyzing (probably not a word but I'm going to use it anyway unresearched) over blogs, websites, radio shows and assholes in general that piss them off.
It baffles me.
It has always existed. Is it just that they can reach further into our world now that we feel the need to take action?
ferfelabat wrote: No disrepesct intended, but ... why should we try to shut down posts and people posting that we find offensive or that we disagree with?
ReplyDeleteNo disrespect taken. The racist jackass I'm referring to is a radio talk show host, not a blogger, so there is no post involved. I want him removed from the airwaves.
I always do try to show tolerance for other people's opinions, no matter how much I disagree with or dislike them. However, I have zero respect for bigots and racists, and I can't allow hateful suggestions like the one Mr. Bennett made to stand unchallenged. My conscience and my knowledge of history won't let me.
I am fairly conservative but I thought shutting down Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect show because of his comments on 9-11 was a travesty. I didn't agree with what he said and thought it was in poor taste. I often wondered if he would have reworded it to make his point if he could have, and Bill Bennett (now that he is a private individual) has the same freedoms to exhibit poor judgement in public forums.
ReplyDeleteRacism, hate, discrimination in arenas where policy is made, workplaces and public property should be policed.
On the radio, TV, the Internet and other free gathering places where we are free to come and go and no public dollars are directly spent to support that venue shouldn't be policed beyond the criminal laws currently in place.
We don't have to tolerate abhorent opinions. I think an ass should be called an ass. But, I think they have a right to be an ass, regardless. God only knows I've said some incredibly stupid things in my lifetime. Everyone gets their turn with the dunce cap and corner stool.
If nothing else, the "Bill's" of the world exist as a warning to our children ... something we point to and say, "That was a racist, jackass thing to say and that radio station supporting him is one of the worst examples of commercial interests and free speech gone horribly wrong in the history of broadcast news. Don't ever do that or I will ground you for life."
People are flawed. I am inclined to let them be flawed, hope that they live a long life, long enough to learn a better way.
I understand your response. Men as erudite and influential with words as Bill Bennett and Bill Maher wield a power most people do not comprehend. As writers, we have a clearer understanding of what influence like that can do.
Still, people need to think for themselves and learn to recognize the jackasses of the world.
FerfeLaBat, that's a terriby... sad.. yet enlightening way of looking at things.
ReplyDeleteI don't know~I can't say I think somebody like that deserves to remain in a position of power. It's like a poison, in my mind.
However, I've done similiar things with my kids. I've seen kids, older ones, acting totally loud, rude and obnoxious. MEAN. And I'll tell my kids, if you EVER act like that, so help me...
Live by example. It's sad to think that we also need bad examples to tell them how to NOT live.