By MARC MCDONALD
It's unclear exactly what transpired in the Eliot Spitzer call-girl scandal. Details are still sketchy at this point. But no matter how this pans out, a lot of us are annoyed with Spitzer for essentially gift-wrapping an issue for Fox News and HateWing radio to peddle for the next few months.
But let's be clear about what we're talking about here:
Sex between consenting adults.
You can call it whatever you want. Prostitution. Hookers. Call girls. Infidelity. Sleaze. A bone-headed mistake. Poor ethics and morals. Plain stupidity.
But at the end of the day, no matter what you call it, we're still talking about nothing more than sex between consenting adults.
And now, the media is howling for Spitzer to resign.
Yes, the same mainstream media that has routinely ignored, or underplayed, the sleaze and sexual perversion of dozens of GOP officials and politicians.
Yes, the same mainstream media that has never once called upon George W. Bush to resign.
Yes, the same mainstream media that has snoozed through one Bush criminal act after another over the past 7 years.
Bush has outrageously violated the Constitution. He has violated his oath of office. He lied America into a disastrous $3 trillion war of aggression that killed 1 million Iraqi men, women and children. He engaged in illegal wiretaps and embraced torture as official state policy. He made the United States the most feared and hated nation on the planet.
Meanwhile, the same media that is braying for Spitzer to resign, looked the other way while Bush virtually destroyed just about everything that once was good about America. Indeed, the MSM even collaborated with Bush and helped him sell his war to the American people.
Sex between consenting adults versus lying the nation into a war that slaughtered a million civilians.
Yes, America definitely has its priorities in order these days.
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10 comments:
"Sex between consenting adults."
No - this was an illegal financial transaction by a man who had put other people in prison for similar crimes. If prostitution was legal, then this would be nothing - but it looks like THE GOVERNOR broke a series of laws. You can't attack Republican law breakers when you pick and choose which laws you abide...
"Sex between consenting adults." - Not quite. Bill and Monica were consenting adults. Spitzer was paying for sex, which is a crime.
Yes, maybe this shouldn't be illegal (I happen to think it shouldn't), but it's breaking the law, a law Spitzer swore to uphold, and a law for which Spitzer has prosecuted violations.
Yes, there are far greater instances of law-breaking all around us, especially in the current administration of GW Bush, but that doesn't mean we should excuse Spitzer.
"Sex between consenting adults." - Not quite. Bill and Monica were consenting adults. Spitzer was paying for sex, which is a crime.
Yes, maybe this shouldn't be illegal (I happen to think it shouldn't), but it's breaking the law, a law Spitzer swore to uphold, and a law for which Spitzer has prosecuted violations.
Yes, there are far greater instances of law-breaking all around us, especially in the current administration of GW Bush, but that doesn't mean we should excuse Spitzer.
In response to the first poster.
I'm not sure I understand your points. Where are you from, if you don't mind me asking?
re:
>>>USA media so control and make
>>>lie for usa people.
Yes, you are definitely right on this point.
Hi, in response to the previous posters: My point is that although it's a crime, prostitution still involves sex between consenting adults.
For Spitzer to lose his job over this, while George W. Bush happily dances on the White House steps, knowing that he won't ever face charges for a lifetime of serious crimes, makes some of us want to vomit.
Indeed, this twisted sense of priorities was the point of my piece.
If a Dem politician visits a prostitute, he's going to be held accountable and be forced to resign.
But if Bush lies the nation into a war that slaughtered a million people, he will face no charges of any kind. That is truly sick and twisted.
spitzer broke the law and should go -- so should Vitter and Craig
but also should Bush -- who has pissed and dumped on the constitution, spied on Americans and continues to fight an illegal and immoral war
i agree our priorities are a mess -- but spitzer had to go, and bush HAS to go
You couldn't be "righter," Marc.
As I write this, Spitzer has taken the bullet. Too bad; a good man brought down by his personal indiscretions while we put The War Criminal up in a big fancy mansion.
No matter what the topic you leftards manage to insert your crazed hatred of George W. Bush into the mix.
Listen, I don't agree with some things Bush has done just like I didn't agree with some things that previous presidents did. But I chose to criticize their policies and save my virulent hatred for my nation's enemies, you know, the people who want to KILL us.
You accuse Bush of lying us into a war. Why don't you accuse all the other world leaders who believed Saddam had WMDs of lying, too?
YOU brazenly lied when you claimed that 1,000,000 Iraqis have died in this war. The figure just keeps going up and up. First you lefties claimed that 600,000 Iraqis had died, then 650,000 and now you ratchet it up to 1 million. In your next post you'll claim that 2 million Iraqis have died. And you'll use that number not because it's true but because it makes America look the worst it can.
You claim that Bush has turned America into the most hated and feared nation in the world. Another brazen lie. Yes, anti-Americanism is alive and well on planet earth but Bush didn't create it. It's been around for decades. The attacks on the USS Cole, our embassies in East Africa, the Khobar Towers, and the first bombing of the WTC, to name a few, all happened BEFORE Bush took office. But I'm sure that doesn't register in your Bush-is-the-root-of-all-evil brain.
And if anti-Americanism is on the rise we have the shrill denouciations of America by American liberals to thank for it. Liberals' pro-jihadi movies like "Redacted" and "Rendition", vile conspiracy theories, hysterical attacks on Bush, and inflating the number of Iraqi dead do nothing but fan the flames of international anti-Americanism, as intended.
The next time you sit down at your computer, filled with Bush hatred, stop and take a deep breath, count to ten and remind yourself that you have an obligation to tell the truth, even if it reflects favorably on Bush and America.
MMcD - I agree 100% with your assessment! There truly is little or no sense of 'ethical proportionality' to the way our MSM (and hence, to a large degree, society at large) handles these issues. Looking at it 'dis-passionately' (you know, forgetting about the 1 million Iraqis killed, 3-4 million displaced, 4,000 US soldiers killed, 40 or 50,000 US soldiers injured/impaired, the $3 trillion spent on death/destruction rather than positive things here & abroad, etc.), one quickly realizes that the MSM is NOT interested in a relatively objective depiction of events & facts (WITH some proportional ranking of ethical/moral importance -- war/death/destruction being HUGELY more important than the sex-scandal du jour) so that citizens can make informed voting decisions. The MSM is primarily interested in selling advertising space to advertisers -- THAT is truly their #1 customer. In newspapers, somewhere around 75% of the revenue comes from advertisers, and TV is closer to 95%. It's more appropriate to think of the reader/watcher as the PRODUCT that the MSM is selling to the advertisers (why do you think they're always concerned about the demographics of their readers/audience?) This inevitably leads to a strong underlying commercial/profit-driven bias in the MSM, where they become status-quo oriented and don't want to distract or offend potential advertisers or the more gullible reader/viewer (after all, if you believe that the current Iraq War is being fought to 'spread democracy', you'll probably believe that you need a 300HP Hummer in your driveway to 'be a real man').
So the MSM soft-pedals/mutes any REAL underlying/structural problems (like runaway militarism in this country, for instance) that would involve controversy, and opts for the minor salacious events -- so the US public knows more about Paris Hilton's sexploits than it does about the death/destruction that US actions are causing in Afghanistan & Iraq.
My only minor disagreement with your piece would be the implication that "W" & the Neo-cons were the MAJOR cause of this and that it's entirely 'new'. Sadly, this has been going on since the 'discovery' of America, though -- proportionally speaking again -- W & the Neo-cons have ratcheted up the hypocrisy/militarism/belligerence to levels not seen since the late 1800's. They -- like some of the earlier US presidents -- should properly be seen as war criminals for concocting aggressive wars.
I like blog that you wrote, people always get wrapped up in the little thing of the moment instead of the bigger picture. Thanks for sharing this article with us all.
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