A Blog For All - Comments - Keep it civil
In fairness to McKinney, she did release a statement on the day of the incident that was actually fairly conciliatory...
Statement of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney on Capitol Hill Incident
March 29, 2006
(Washington, DC) - To the Members of the Capitol Hill Police:
Earlier today I had an unfortunate confrontation with a Capitol Hill Police Officer. It is traditional protocol that Capitol Hill Police Officers secure 535 Members of Congress, including 100 Senators. It is the expectation of most Members of Congress that Capitol Hill Police officers know who they are. I was urgently trying to get to an important meeting on time to fulfill my obligations to my constituents. Unfortunately, the Police Officer did not recognize me as a Member of Congress and a confrontation ensued. I did not have on my Congressional pin but showed the Police Officer my Congressional ID.
I know that Capitol Hill Police are securing our safety, that of thousands of others, and I appreciate the work that they do. I deeply regret that the incident occurred. I have demonstrated my support for them in the past and I continue to support them now.
--
That is as far as I will defend this embarrassment of a Representative. She handled this whole affair horribly ever since that statement. She was wrong at the time of the incident, and compounded everything since.
Any sincerity in that initial statement is erased once you start staging press conferences with Danny Glover and Harry Belefonte and running around like the Capital Police are a branch of the Klan.
Re: How Conservatives Argue: A Case Study
by ellinton
Liberal: The USA has fifty states.
Conservative: No, it doesn’t.
Liberal: Yes, it does. The USA has fifty states.
Conservative: What about Guam? What about that Guam, huh? Or the Virgin Islands?
Liberal: Those are territories, not states. The USA has fifty states.
Conservative: Oh, so you’re saying those don’t count?
Liberal: Yes.
Conservative: Oh, so the people there don’t count? They’re not good enough, huh? I thought you liberals wanted everybody to be counted.
Liberal: No, I said the territories don’t count as states. The USA has fifty states.
Conservative: You’re really something, you know that? You liberals are always going on about how all of us conservatives are racists, how we don’t care about anybody but people who look like us. But you don’t even want to count the blacks who live in Guam as Americans.
Liberal: First of all, I never said all conservatives are racists.
Conservative: Yes, you did.
Liberal: No, I didn’t.
Conservative: Michael Moore says it.
Liberal: I’ve never heard him say that.
Conservative: Yes, he does! He most definitely does!
Liberal: Look, I don’t know what he says. That’s beside the point. And the people in Guam “count,” whatever that means. I don’t even know who lives in Guam; I don’t know the first thing about Guam. I’m just saying Guam isn’t a state – it’s a territory. The USA has fifty states.
Conservative: What about Puerto Rico?
Liberal: What?
Conservative: What about Puerto Rico, huh? You love all those Mexicans coming across the border stealing our jobs – you must LOVE Puerto Rico, right?
Liberal: I’ve never been to Puerto Rico.
Conservative: Well, I have, and those kind of people would be pretty offended to hear liberals like you saying they aren’t real Americans!
Liberal: I didn’t say that!
Conservative: You said they didn’t count!
Liberal: I didn’t say that either! No, wait, just wait… (takes deep breath). I only said the USA has fifty states. Puerto Rico isn’t a state – it’s a commonwealth.
Conservative: And they don’t speak English!
Liberal: Well, many Puerto Ricans do.
Conservative: How do you know that? I’ve been there – you haven’t!
Liberal: All right, OK, fine, whatever. But the USA has fifty states.
Conservative: Well, I say Puerto Rico counts.
Liberal: Fine, but not as a state.
Conservative: Well, that’s YOUR opinion.
Liberal: It’s not my opinion – it’s a fact.
Conservative: Says you!
Liberal: No, not just “says me.” It’s a fact. Look it up.
Conservative: I don’t have time.
Liberal: You don’t have time to find out if the USA has fifty states?
Conservative: Listen, you may have time to sit around all day surfing on your liberal websites, downloading Michael Moore, but I’ve got things to do.
Liberal: Like reading about blacks in Guam and Mexicans in Puerto Rico?
Conservative: See, that’
So, when is DeLay apologizing for trashing this country? What about Brian Doyle, the DHS -- Republican --pedophile?
You, rightnutters, have a case of the vapors over McKinney's altercation with security, but you cannot muster any outrage over pedophilia?
Sleazy, depraved, hypocrites!
oh yes! good show!
thank you for shining your badly needed light of justice and truth on such an important issue! mckinney MUST BE STOPPED!
she has lied about WMD's in iraq, completely blundered the occupation of same, failed millions of americans during and after hurricanes katrina and rita, fostered a culture of corruption and cronyism (harriet meyers anyone?) and through these and countless other ill-considered actions has severely damaged america's credibility on the world stage.
oh wait - that was PRESIDENT G W BUSH!
let's not forget that deficit and our national debt, or the massive growth in govt spending (not even counting the war in iraq)or my favorite, the immigrant amnesty proposal.
why do you continue to support an administration so obviously opposed to conservative principles?
What exactly in my postings about McKinney makes you think I support the Administration? That I think that the Democrats want to turn the page quickly to get back to attacking the Administration? That's common sense. That the GOP thinks they should milk this issue for all its worth? Again, that's common sense. Those are the political realities.
From the outset of this incident, I remarked that the incident reminded me of a situation in NYC where a NYC councilman was killed by an assassin - where both the councilman and his assassin were able to avoid the metal detectors put in place to safeguard City Hall. Before the assassination, councilmembers, and people they escorted into City Hall, were able to avoid going through the metal detectors as a courtesy. That policy was eliminated after the assassination (the assassin was killed by a police officer).
First and foremost, this was, and is, a security concern for all members of Congress, and eliminating the courtesy of avoiding the checkpoints would improve all of the members security. It would also eliminate potential problems such as the one facing McKinney.
As for supporting or opposing various Administration policies, actually read through the site - I find there is much to oppose with the Administration, though I do support his general war on terror. I disagree with the fact that he isn't doing enough on going after the bad actors.
His immigration policy/border control has been atrocious, the DHS has been a mess (and said so from when it was first created), and on and on.
That I chose not to spend time blogging about a pedophile who worked at DHS was a function of how much time I wanted to devote to that subject - and frankly found the issue of Capitol security more interesting.
You just confirmed the fact that rightwingers are morally rotten and have sewer values.
You find the "Capitol security" issue more interesting because it gives you an opportunity to bash a black, female, Democratic, lawmaker involved in an altercation with a security guard. You talk about the "Capitol security" as if McKinney was Osama Bin Laden in drags, carrying WMDs under her jacket.
Ridiculous.
Of course, you are no interested in the fact that a Republican pedophile in a fairly high (read patronage) position at DHS was just arrested.
Your moral outrage does not extend to pedophiles if they are Republicans. It does not bother you that this guy and his ilk are dangerous creeps who target children to satisfy their perversions. Not if they are Republicans.
Had this guy been a registered Democrat, you and the rest of the demented rightnut crowd would have been screaming bloody murder!
Had a Republican lawmaker gotten into this kind of altercation with a security guard, the security guard would have been made to apologize on his knees, would have lost his job, been slapped with a lawsuit, and generally hounded mercilessly.
"What exactly in my postings about McKinney makes you think I support the Administration?"
that you are making an issue out of this fairly insignificant lawmaker's stupid little incident...that's why.
your post scans as part and parcel of the current chaffstorm thrown up by the right-wing blogosphere. you sound like rush limbaugh.
it's reminiscent of your recent post on the levees in california. nobody's asking questions about the california levee breaks BECAUSE NOBODY DIED. and i never saw a video of the president telling the local disaster officials that "we are prepared".
do you not see the huge disparity between the examples you use? katrina/california?
libbygate/mckinneygate?
your timing is also suspect.
all i can see is a tail wagging a dog. or did you just need a break from all the republican-related scandals?
i would respectfully suggest that you focus your obviously substantial intellect on actual problems facing this nation. an unwinnable war in iraq with no exit strategy, for example. a culture of greed and corruption that goes right up to the top. a poisonous partisan atmosphere in the capitol and across the country... do you see where i'm going here? cynthia mckinney scuffling with a capitol police officer is really stretching it. let's elevate the discourse if possible.
jake:
Elevate the discussion? Sure, let's do that. Let's go with your comments about my levee story. The problem with the levees is that there are several thousand miles worth of levees through the country, not just in New Orleans. Do you know what standards they're built to? Didn't think so. Many of them were built with the same kinds of assumptions that the NOLA levees were. And we see how that worked out with a 1,000+ deaths and billions in damages. The Californians were lucky that no one was killed when those levees failed, but there was property damage nonetheless. That's significant. There are other levees in the Sacramento area that are suspect and I don't want to see another city face the same problems that NOLA does. So, I blogged the story - hoping to raise awareness of a pretty serious problem that doesn't get nearly the kind of attention that it should. I've done the same thing talking about security and infrastructure problems in the NYC metro area. It's called getting ahead of potential problems so they don't become the next Katrina.
As for my timing - that's entirely up to the news - if the news breaks, and I'm around and able to blog, I blog. If I'm not around, and other more pressing matters are there (like work) - then I don't blog. It really is as simple as that.
And I think it's a pretty serious incident when a member of Congress slugs a police officer. It is a criminal act, and a federal crime to boot. I stand by the fact that the security of the Capitol is of paramount concern and that McKinney's incident shows that security can and should be better. That's got nothing to do with race, and everything to do with making sure that all members of Congress and the visiting public remains safe. Gee - that isn't difficult.
But I appreciate that you've stopped by.
As for Libbygate, I'd suggest you check out AJ Strata and MacRanger, both of whom are on my blogrolls who have more in depth coverage - or even Tom McGuire who come to the conclusion that the President declassified the information that was released - and had the authority to do so under an executive order. Still, no crime, and Fitzgerald's case against Libby is anything but a sure thing.
Lawhawk - thanks for the considered response. I have no idea what standards the levees in california are built to, but i fear that they are in the same ballpark as the ones in nawlins. i'm from norcal originally, so i'm well aware of the extensive levee systems in the sacramento delta area. ultimately the responsibility for these systems is currently in the hands of the Bush and (ugh) Schwarzenegger administrations...
timing? you have many choices as to what stories you blog on. this one has shown up in an opportunistic "gotcha" way on rightist blogs, yours included. i stand by my point that you are all exaggerating this issue to get some high ground back under your feet.
white entitlement is great, i get it - but god forbid a black woman congressperson gets upset at being treated like an interloper.
i truly appreciate your concerns about security in congress. i share your concerns. but the fact remains - the single greatest breach of security happened on 9/11/2001 under the noses of the current regime. not one person has been fired, disciplined or accepted responsibility in any real way. i can't see that DHS is anything other than an unneccesary, bloated bureaucracy, apparently without any hiring oversight. but look out, that wacky mckinney "slugged" a police officer. your priorities betray a blind spot vis a vis the real security risks here. and your blogging instincts are (forgive me)a little lemming-like. many other stories to blog on - tom delay RESIGNED...libby is telling tales. ditto abramoff. this incompetence and corruption in the white house and BOTH sides of the aisle in congress has exposed this country to more peril than anything mckinney gets up to. why are our nat'l guard and reserves over in Iraq fighting the wrong war? why aren't they here helping in the gulf and california?
because they're fighting the "war on terror" against the wrong enemy in the wrong country. and this administration is so obviously incompetent and inflexible that even if they had a real strategy (it's pretty clear they don't)that they wouldn't be capable of executing it.
so why act as their proxy hatchet man?
but by all means, keep on blogging - it's still a semi-free country.
one more thing - the argument about whether bush declassifying the documents meant that no law was broken - you are right in fact, but that's not the same thing as saying that bush/cheney/rove/libby etc, acted honorably, or have been honest with the american people. whether or not this was legally defensible (by presidential fiat)the whole thing stinks and you know it. please don't get all "that depends what the meaning of 'is' is" on us.
thanks for letting me hang out!
Jake,
You don't seriously believe that the owner of this blog will actually highlight anything negative about Bush or the GOP?
The McKinney episode is nothing but a smokescreen. Unfortunately, pesky negative stories about the Administration and the "moral values" crowd keep appearing every day.
You don't really expect him to comment on DeLay's abrupt resignation, do you? Or on DeLay's ludicrous threat to lodge an ethics complaint against McKinney?
Note that he has not said a word about the DHS pedophile.
That is a really embarrassing one for the radical right-wing supporters. One of their own was caught engaging in deviant, perverted, behavior. So, they ignore it, and by remaining silent, they in effect condone it.
Just as they condone the corruption, the criminal incompetence at home and abroad, the ruinous fiscal policies, the religious fanaticism, the ignorantism, and the illegal spying on Americans, that are wrecking this country.
The radical right Republicans have remade this country in their image, and it is hideous.
evil progressive:
How wrong you are. Just do searches for DeLay. There is my reporting, and my opionions, some of which are wrong (I thought he'd manage to stick around and win reelection). And if you think I'm radical right, your right-wing radar needs a serious realignment.
And I specifically commented on DeLay's seeking to file an ethics complaint against McKinney:
To top that off, he's considering filing an ethics complaint against McKinney. Pot meet kettle.So much for actually reading what I write instead of coming in here and spouting off.
And if you bothered to read what I wrote here, I comment on Doyle, and call for further investigations into his supervisors and the entire process that didn't catch this guy until he was caught in a sting.
"So much for actually reading what I write instead of coming in here and spouting off."
Why read when you can spout off!
Spouting off is so much more fun!
Personally, I find your fascist, sexist, and racist ways deeply troubling, but I've never actually read anything that you've written.*
*that was a joke, by the ways.
Good thing you're worrying about this ... BTW, found and WMDs lately?
Homegirl didn't wear her pin because it didn't have any bling bling goin' on. I see enough of this shit in schools every day from little homiez who tell teachers to shut the hell up, its no surprise to see this happen as soon as we put one of them in office. Well, I didn't anyway. I guess those people need representation too, look to thirty years from now when we're old and the hired help is running the shop. We'll get by five ten years at best before we owe money to everybody in the world and political candidates freestyle instead of debate. Serves us right.
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