Conservative columnist and editor-at-large of the National Review Online, Jonah Goldberg, touted his terrible Los Angeles Times column about the voluntary national service plan offered by Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois).
One small point in response (I know, I know: Why bother?). The 13th amendment lists involuntary servitude and slavery as different things. If they were the same, the founders wouldn’t have wasted the ink repeating themselves.
One small point in response (I know, I know: Why bother?). The Founding Fathers were dead by the time the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865. Illinois was the first state to do so on February 1. Ratified was “completed by December 6, 1865.”
Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg, who voiced his support to disenfranchise voters nearly a year ago, wrote the most absurd column in the Los Angeles Times in which he compares the national service plan offered by Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) to slavery.
There’s a weird irony at work when Sen. Barack Obama, the black presidential candidate who will allegedly scrub the stain of racism from the nation, vows to run afoul of the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery.
For those who don’t remember, the 13th Amendment says: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime … shall exist within the United States.”
Goldberg, who voiced his support for disenfranchising voters in another Los Angeles Times column last year, is obviously clueless about the Thirteenth Amendment and the Obama plan.
First, the Thirteenth Amendment describes the difference between “free labor and unfree labor.” The Obama plan is not free labor. It includes expanding existing programs like AmeriCorps by three-fold, and the Peace Corps, among others.
Furthermore, it offers college students a $4,000 tax credit for 100 hours of community service. Obama would set a goal of 50 hours for high school and middle school students. The plan does not make that a requirement. The service is entirely voluntary but the Obama plan is to emphasize community service to the young people of America and urge them to become active, engaged citizens. Ostensibly, this is something Goldberg supported in the same column he argued to disenfranchise voters.
Also, it is quite clear that Goldberg did not even examine the plan itself, which is descriptively titled “Universal Voluntary Citizen Service.” The second word in the title of the plan makes the entire Goldberg column moot.
NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert, a fixture of political news at the network for twenty years, suffered a heart attack and died this afternoon, reports the network.
Russert moderated the long running Sunday morning political talk show, Meet the Press, since 1991.
In memory of Russert, listen to the theme from the show he led for seventeen years:
Tim Russert discusses the electoral
college on Election Night in 2000.
Meet the Press, under the stewardship of Russert, as one commentator said this afternoon, if you wanted to be in national politics, you had to go up against Tim Russert on Meet the Press. Ezra Klein, commenting on Russert and his trademark style of interrogation, wrote:
[H]e was there, week after week, night after night, playing the bulldog against politicians in the way he thought best. [...] But for now, it’s going to be strange indeed to turn on the TV on Sundays and not hear his voice. Presumably, he’s up somewhere beyond the cloudline, hectoring God about His inconsistencies. “But Lord, in Exodus 6:12, you clearly said…”
Those Sunday mornings will never be the same again. Broadcast journalism lost a giant.
In the widely-panned speech in front of the “Green Monster” last Tuesday, Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) commented on the media coverage with regards to Senator Hillary Clinton (D-New York). McCain was asked about those comments by reporters on Friday and the senior senator from Arizona cut them off to claim he did not, in fact, say those words but that they were in prepared remarks.
I commend both Senators Obama and Clinton for the long, hard race they have run. Senator Obama has impressed many Americans with his eloquence and his spirited campaign. Senator Clinton has earned great respect for her tenacity and courage. The media often overlooked how compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes received.
Holly Bailey and Jon Meacham: Want to back up a little bit and talk about press coverage. One of the things that you mentioned in your speech in New Orleans was that you felt that the media hadn’t recognized or had overlooked some of the attributes that Hillary Clinton had brought to the race. And I wondered—
John McCain: I did not [say that]—that was in prepared remarks, and I did not [say it]—I’m not in the business of commenting on the press and their coverage or not coverage … My supporters and friends can comment all they want about the press coverage, and that’s their right. They’re American citizens. I will not because I believe it’s not a profitable enterprise for me to do so. I can’t change any of the coverage that I know of except to just campaign as hard as I can and try to seek the approval of the majority of my fellow citizens.
What actually happened on Tuesday (listen in at about 45 seconds):
Bill Kristol, still dumb as a sack of hammers. I am noticing a trend here. Kristol claims government is inefficient, ineffective, and bad, gets a bunch of his buddies elected, and proves it. He also rails against the MSM, claims they can’t get their facts straight, gets a job at the NY Times, and proves it.
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