Just so that you understand what Fox News considers to be important business on the GOP’s first day running the House of Representatives, Fox Nation has posted seven (count ’em seven) stories on the Republican project to read the Constitution aloud.
Never mind that this is an empty ritual that has no bearing on any legislation, it is a costly (estimated $1 million) waste of time when the nation is in desperate need of solutions to some serious problems. This charade does not create a single job, or make the nation more secure, or provide health care to anyone, or reduce the national debt, or protect the environment, or bring an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But rather than focus on those issues, the Fox Nationalists (and the Republicans in congress) are fixated on a phony exercise designed to pander to Tea Party extremists who don’t understand the Constitution anyway. And the GOP version of the document that will be read is one from which they have excised passages that they find embarrassing, like the references to slaves who were to be counted as three-fifths of a person.
This is a childish endeavor that has been sanitized for an infantile audience. That makes it perfect for Fox News viewers who are the target audience for it anyway. It has no other purpose. It is strictly a PR stunt designed to create a false image. Knowledgeable people won’t watch thirty seconds of this. And the ignorant crowd it’s aimed at won’t a learn a thing.
Nevertheless, the abundance of stories about this nonsense populating Fox Nation demonstrate that they cannot be taken seriously as a news enterprise. Americans want their government to be working on matters that are important to their lives. And they want the media to report on those matters and provide useful information. So on this first legislative day of the new year, neither of those objectives were met. In fact, they were treated with disrespect and condescension. Welcome to the Republican’s House.
Bread and circuses.
Glenn Beck misunderstood Article I, Section 9, paragraph A. He thought the founders advocated charging immigrants a minimum of 10 USD per person for admission into the country.
What the paragraph states, however, is a taxation of 10 USD on slave traders and owners per slave after 1808.
It is just as Mark said. If a self-proclaimed idiot and soothsayer, the best of Fox, delivered a dubious interpretation of the US Constitution, then it is inevitable this puerile social studies lesson will cause greater mental pestilence for those watching.
Tell me if I am wrong.
I don’t know Mark, this could be a good start. Maybe next they’ll decide to read another document their base is obsessed,say the Bible. I imagine that would keep them busy for a while…
Which parts will they read? I am sure they will do plenty of cherry picking. Perhaps, they will skip over the parts describing “godly” men giving their daughters over to angry mobs to be raped; Or, the “godly” women who slept with their father to produce an heir.
“…disrespect and condescension…”
That describes the New York Slimes and MSNBC to a T with their recation to this reading. Here, let me explain it to you: When these representatives were sworn in, they took an oath to defend the Constitution. Reading the document that they actually took an oath to uphold and defend is a good idea. Apparently some Democrats (just some minor players, like, oh, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, John Lewis, etc.) thought it was a good exercise, too, because they joined in. Too bad they didn’t pay closer attention to that document when they passed a health care monstrosity that will not stand a Supreme Court challenge.
“…cannot be taken seriously as a news enterprise…”
Yep. That’s MSNBC for you.
If you think that embarrassing recitation of an abridged version of the Constitution taught anyone anything about that complex document that has been debated for over two hundred years, you couldn’t have any understanding of it yourself.
By the way, there have been four court rulings (so far) on the constitutionality of the health care bill. Three in favor, one against. Looks like it is standing up.
“…three in favor, one against…”
A whole lot more rulings to come, courtesy of all the states that hvae filed suit. The provision that mandates everybody buying health insurance won’t make it. It is easy to understand that much about the Constitution. Nothing embarassing about that.
Again, what is embarassing is the reaction from the loony left about this reading.