Grade This! - August 8, 2006
The latest news wrap-up: Florida shoots first, Congress governs later (maybe).
Tuesday August 8, 2006
Buckeye Bozos’ Ninth Inning Game Plam
What’s the most important issue facing the United States Congress according to Congressional Ohioans Mike Dewine and Steven LaTourette? Is it one of the various conflicts in the Middle East? Nope. Is it the 45 million Americans that don’t have health insurance (including 1.3 million Ohioans)? Nope. How about climate change, stem cell research, or trying to end the genocide in Sudan? No, no, and no. So what is it? According the Roll Call, Congressman LaTourette spent a day shepherding a resolution commemorating the 60th anniversary of the 1946 baseball season through the House of Representatives. Senator Dewine introduced a similar resolution in the Senate judiciary committee. These last-minute resolutions are being hurried through the Congress before the House goes on August recess on July 28 and the Senate recesses on August 4. Oh I get it; these conservative members are trying to ensure that Congress gets nothing done so that they can rail against Washington incompetence when they get home. I guess that’s one way to prove your point!
Major league baseball: B+
Silly baseball commemorating congressional resolutions: D
Baseball analogies in politics (like, you know, "ninth inning"): D
Submitted by Julie Brinn Siegel, University of Pennsylvania
Also, Land Mines Keep the Neighbor’s Dog Off Your Lawn
The New York Times reports that 15 states have rolled back their gun laws in the last year to make it easier for gun owners to claim self-defense as a justification for a shooting. The states have relaxed the "duty to retreat"—the legal requirement that demands that those confronted try and avoid violence. One authority described a Florida law as allowing "citizens to kill other citizens in defense of property." While the National Rifle Association (NRA), a principal supporter of this type of legislation, imagines brave Americans gunning down robbers, drug dealers and other assorted nefarious types (illegal immigrants? liberals?) who might set foot on their property, the actual result is that people like Jason Rosenbloom get shot twice for arguing with his neighbor about trash can placement. Now the United States can be proud to be among those countries whose private gun-owners take the law into their own hand like, uh, Iraq.
License to Kill: F
License to Ill: A
Submitted by Tim Fernholz, Georgetown University
Will You Run? Ney!
Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio, has recently announced that he will not be seeking re-election to his post in Congress. The lawmaker, whose ties to corruption king Jack Abramoff are under investigation, made his decision in order to protect his family from the stress of further publicity related to the federal inquiries. (What is it with the families of the allegedly corrupt, anyways? They must be great—everybody wants to spend so much more time with them!). Ney is the fourth politician to fall under Abramoff’s shadow, the others being Representative Tom Delay, David Safavian, a Bush Administration official, and Ralph Reed, whose campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia was derailed after his connections with the ethically loose lobbyist came to light. One corrupt congressman down, and probably more to come—seems like there is finally some disruption coming to the culture of corruption.
Exchanging legislation for lavish trips to Scotland: F
Exchanging corrupt legislators for (hopefully) honest ones: A-
"Spending more time with my family": Priceless
Submitted by Tim Fernholz, Georgetown University
Paper Shocked to Discover Pampered Elites in Los Angeles
Move over Britney, there’s a new diva in town. A two-page memo, titled “Staffing the Mayor” that describes in detail how to take care of every need of onetime labor organizer and current Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, was leaked to the Los Angeles Times. Some of the highlights: the mayor likes his green tea with 4 packets of splenda, only eats fish or chicken for meals, and takes his bottled water at room temperature. He also is a constant user of Listerine breath strips and hand sanitizer. I really can’t blame the mayor, he’s just trying to be live up to his colleague, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Gov. Schwarzenegger travels with a hair and makeup artist. Sounds a little “girly-mannish” to me!
Listerine breath strips: A
4 packets of splenda: C (ew)
Diva politicians who spend taxpayer money keeping aides around to be at their beckon call: D-
Submitted by Julie Brinn Siegel, University of Pennsylvania
Democrats Also Oppose the "Universal Health Care Plus Imprisonment of All Democrats" Act of 2006
The minimum wage is a great issue for progressives—in terms of both policy and politics. Policy-wise, it is a needed boost for 9 million American workers and would be their first raise in almost a decade. Politically, it is overwhelmingly popular among the American people. Democrats have been on the offensive with this issue, putting minimum wage raises on state ballot initiatives and attempting to tie it to Congressional pay raises. But Republicans pushed back last week. The GOP brought a bill to the Senate floor raising the minimum wage along with eliminating the estate tax. This put Democrats in a tough spot; Republicans called it a "poison pill" meaning that it would force the Democrats to swallow an unpalatable proposal, or refuse to take it altogether. In the end, Democrats voted it down, figuring the Paris Hiltons of the world don’t need any more tax breaks. But now, thanks to political maneuvering in Washington, poor working Americans are going to have to wait longer for a pay raise.
Estate Tax elimination for Paris Hilton: D
Minimum wage raise for Hilton’s housekeeper: A
Do-nothing Congress: F
Submitted by Ben Weyl, Grinnell College
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Comments
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— Pat and John Beam - Aug 11, 07:48 AM - #Your story about the gun law uses selective quoting to make the law sound worse than it really is.
Lets take a look at the actual wording of one of the bills:
Section 1. Section 776.013, Florida Statutes, is created to read:
776.013 Home protection; use of deadly force; presumption of fear of death or great bodily harm.—(1) A person is presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another when using defensive force that is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm to another if:
(a) The person against whom the defensive force was used was in the process of unlawfully and forcefully entering, or had unlawfully and forcibly entered, a dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle, or if that person had removed or was attempting to remove another against that person’s will from the dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle; and
(b) The person who uses defensive force knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry or unlawful and forcible act was occurring or had occurred.
In other words, a person may use deadly force against someone who unlawfully and forcefully enters a person’s home or vehicle. A victim may also use deadly force against a criminal who attempts to force a person out of her vehicle or home. Thus, if someone kicks down your front door in the middle of the night, or attempts to carjack you, you can use firearm or other deadly weapon to protect yourself.
The quote (unattributed) you used in the story (“allows citizens to kill other citizens in defense of property”) doesn’t apply here, so it’s use is misleading. In fact, the statute only allows for the use of deadly force in the event of “imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another”.
Nor does this law allow one to “take the law into one’s own hands”.
— Conservative Educator - Aug 17, 01:36 PM - #I would like to defend one of the propositions that you, “Conservative Educator,” have just refuted.
To quote the same piece of Florida legislature, “(b) The person who uses defensive force knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry or unlawful and forcible act was occurring or had occurred. “
This states pretty explicitly that force, (great bodily harm or killing) are justified in cases of burglary – in essence, a citizen killing a citizen in defense of property. Not only that, but it has a certain subjectiveness about it. “The person…had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry…was occurring…” This gives the citizen the right to judge if a suspicious trespasser is on the verge of a break-in; the intruder doesn’t even have to have had broken down the door before the citizen can to open fire.
I believe this to be a very clear example of “taking the law into one’s own hands.”
— MikeVonRoy - May 6, 07:14 PM - #