Angry New Yorker

Semi-Daily Rants from New York City's Angry Man

"As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly." - Dr. Samuel Johnson, Boswell, Life of Johnson, Sept. 1783

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Tuesday, January 06, 2004
 
I don't like knocking a fellow native New Yorker, but when one makes an outrageous statement, either from the left or right, I'm willing to take them to task. (Bloomberg's asinine commentary directed toward Congressman Shays gets a pass here only because Bloomberg's increasingly falling into the knee-jerk NYC v. The World brain-fog that eventually befalls all NYC mayors).
The background of this trip to the woodshed is the past week's firestorm regarding an entry to MoveOn.org's somewhat juvenile Bush in 30 Seconds contest, which MoveOn.org states is "a political TV ad contest to help us find the most creative, clear and memorable ideas for ads that tell the truth about George Bush's policies." Truth apparently is a fluid concept, and one entry equated President Bush to Hitler, echoing a favorite bumper sticker slogan of the radical left that Bush = Hitler (which could be readily seen plastered on placards during anti-war protests in the U.S. and in Europe).

The U.S. Constitution's first amendment protects, or should protect, a robust market place of ideas, and if someone wants to equate a duly, though narrowly, elected U.S. President to a man who dragged the world into a global conflagration that cost millions of lives, that's their perogative. By any objective measure, however, the analogy is misguided and would deserve a failing grade on any standardized test utilizing the common analogy mode of A is to B, as X is to ___.

Anyway, the hullabaloo, which I'll grant has been blown out of proportion by both the left and right, began when someone (I don't know who offhand) entered a submission that, you guessed it, equated Bush to Hitler giving the heil salute. Childish. Foolish. Offensive? I think so. While anyone has the right to compare Bush to Hitler, that doesn't impinge my corresponding right to find it offensive. Reasonable minds can differ, but for one side to dismiss the other's world view out of hand is to foreclose further discourse.

So when someone I respect and have kept in touch with over the years basically says "what's the big deal with saying Bush is Hitler? The Republicans are pillaging the country!" the New Yorker in me gets angry, and exercising my own first amendment rights is the result. As someone always willing to give the benefit of the doubt, at least at first, Dave Winer, perhaps spoke off-the-cuff, and freely admitted not having seen the ad, stating:

"People who support Bush apparently don't like the MoveOn.Org comparison of Bush to Hitler. I haven't seen the ad, but I don't find the idea offensive. It's about time people outside the blogging world started ringing the bells. Wake up. They're taking the Bill of Rights apart. Get your priorities straight. An ad with some imagery you find offensive is nothing compared to what the Republicans are doing. We live in amazing times. The professional press isn't covering the laws that are passing in Congress and being signed by the President."

Now Dave's a great guy; a liberal democrat, or it increasingly seems he is now that he's a fellow up at Harvard, but perhaps he just didn't know what the ad sponsored, and it was sponsored, by MoveOn.org actual said. So here's a transcript of it, as obtained by newsmax.com. You make your own decision.

GRAPHIC: Nazi Flags In A Parade
GRAPHIC: Hitler
HITLER: (Speaking In German)

CHYRON: A NATION WARPED BY LIES

GRAPHIC: German Troops Marching
GRAPHIC: Hitler In Car In Parade
GRAPHIC: German Troops Marching

CHYRON: LIES FUEL FEAR

GRAPHIC: German Tanks

CHYRON: FEAR FUELS AGGRESSION

GRAPHIC: German Artillery Firing
GRAPHIC: German Planes Dropping Bombs
GRAPHIC: German Tanks Firing

CHYRON: INVASION

GRAPHIC: German Tanks Rolling Down Street

CHYRON: OCCUPATION

GRAPHIC: Hitler With Hand Raised
BACKGROUND: Sig Heil! Sig Heil!

CHYRON: WHAT WERE WAR CRIMES IN 1945

GRAPHIC: President Bush With Hand Raised At Inauguration
BACKGROUND: Sig Heil! Sig Heil!

CHYRON: IS FOREIGN POLICY IN 2003

CHYRON: SPONSORED BY MOVEON.ORG

posted by anonymous at 8:07 PM

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