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Oh, for crying out loud

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* I am all for toning down the national political rhetoric. Count me in. I’ve written about it quite often. But a line was crossed into PC surrealism yesterday.

Last night, Andy Shaw of the Better Government Association appeared on CNN to talk about the Chicago mayor’s race. Shaw said this about Rahm Emanuel’s opponents…

Rahm is in both of their crosshairs.

19 minutes later, CNN’s John King, who had been conducting the interview, issued this apology…

Before we go to break, I want to make a quick point. We were just having a discussion about the Chicago mayoral race. Just a moment ago, my friend Andy Shaw, who now works for a good government group out there, used the term ‘in the crosshairs,’ in talking about the candidates out there. We’re trying- we’re trying to get away from that language. Andy is a good friend. He’s covered politics for a long time, but we’re trying to get away from using that kind of language. We won’t always be perfect. So, hold us accountable when we don’t meet your standards.

Political and military terms have been interchangeable throughout history. I, for one, don’t use “crosshairs,” but I do use the word “target” on a regular basis. Would that get me called out on CNN? Not that I’d ever go on a cable news net. I can’t stand any of them, and yesterday’s nonsense just reinforces my beliefs.

So… [deep breath]… let us all do our best to respect each other (except when dealing with Packer fans) and treat each other with common decency. But, most of all, let’s not insult each other’s intelligence with the sort of goofiness that CNN exhibited yesterday. In other words, let’s start acting like adults for a change.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 2:59 pm

Comments

I think Target Corp should change their name to Hugs Corp.

Comment by Davey Boy Smithe Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:03 pm
In the logic of CNN, I guess the phrase “in their sights” is also out-of-bounds.

Comment by ChicagoGirl Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:05 pm
Oh give me a friggin break!

Comment by Chicago Cynic Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:09 pm
I think we need to give scaling back the heated rhetoric a shot.

I mean, er…oops.

Comment by Anonymous ZZZ Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:11 pm
This might be novel, but maybe politics should target policies and not politicians?

But then we would have to stop caring about the Great Governors Hand-Egg Bet of 2011.

Comment by JN Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:12 pm
If you want people to see people act like adults, I wouldn’t start by watching cable news.

Just sayin’

Comment by John Bambenek Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:17 pm
And what are we supposed to call “target districts” or “target races” in this new spirit of verbal purity?

Comment by Draznnl Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:21 pm
That’s a bit over dramatic, isn’t it?

Comment by Seriously??? Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:23 pm
Just sayin’.

CNN is televised nationally. Andy is representing ‘good government’. In IL. In Chi. Seems to like press.

We ALL should know to tone it down a bit these days; there HAS been some coverage of this recently.

Sorry…apparently there are still lessons to be learned.

Toning it down too much is sure better than not.

Comment by sal-says Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:28 pm
Go read Andy Shaw’s blog. He’s better than a lot of the Right Wing Nuts out there, but just barely, and owing mostly to his superior wit, spelling and grammar.

Left Wing Nuts aren’t a protected class.

The problem is NOT the use of military terminology.

The problem is:

1) The assertion by some that the government is The Enemy.

2) The assertion of others that we sometimes need to have “Second Amendment remedies” to our problems.

3) The linking of 1 & 2 by others.

Shaw has never promoted violence directly, but he has made a career out of portraying government as The Enemy, and telling people who to hate.

In a recent post on his blog, he referred to an elected official I venture to say he’s never met as a “Billion Dollar Baby”, strung together a conspiracy theory that would have made Glenn Beck proud, and cast aspersions on Rep. Ann Williams before she was even sworn into office.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:30 pm
Go Packers!

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:31 pm
In the interests of civil political rhetoric and out of respect for those who might be offended, I will henceforth refrain from using bullet points.

– MrJM

Comment by MrJM Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:35 pm
CNN is clueless. They still can’t figure out how Fox pushed them out of the top spot in cable.

Hint: Fox gives its audience what it wants. They’re not coming back, but you don’t have to go 180 and get goofy NPR on everyone to try and build market share. Just go Jack Webb and give the facts.

BTW, last night flipping I caught a bit of Hannity saying this whole discussion of Sarah and the Crosshairs (surevyor’s marks?), was bad for America. Thanks for looking out for us, buddy.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:40 pm
YDD,

Andy does not assert government as the enemy. He does assert that bad, corrupt, insider-focused government is the enemy of taxpayers. There’s nothing there remotely promoting violence.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:41 pm
…from the network that brought you “Crossfire.”

Comment by Formerly Fast & Freaky Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:41 pm
At the BGA, Andy is free from all the stringent quality controls of TV journalism. He’s now the only source he needs. And he’s an expert source. Just ask him.

Comment by piling on Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:46 pm
Well put Rich, just a couple posts ago I tried to EXPLAIN that to BLUE DOG DEM….but he just didn’t get it. Symbols are used when people relate to them; Rich=target, Palin=crosshairs, and I remember when the peace symbol mean you were hitting the weed. LOL Thank you we all needed it.

Comment by Ain't No Justice Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:51 pm
The fundamental question is whether it’s a metaphor or not. If you talk about targeting the opposition, and you don’t make a big show of actually having a real gun, then it’s pretty clear you’re being metaphorical. If you talk about targeting the opposition and hold political rallies at gun shows and shooting ranges, your claim to speaking metaphorically is weak or nonexistent.

Context is everything. If I run my mouth about foreign policy, or call a foreign leader a doo-doo head, it’s just one idiot talking. If Obama or Boehner does it, it takes on a new meaning.

Comment by Thomas Westgard Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:52 pm
I agree with you Rich. This is getting absurd.

By the way the Packers have the Bears in their cross hairs, are on target and will destroy them on Sunday.

Comment by downstate hack Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:58 pm
— Thomas Westgard—-

What???

Comment by Just Asking? Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 3:59 pm
Don’t worry, everyone will be back to full attack mode soon. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy this pretense at civility.

And please, nobody should ‘focus on’ the Packers for the low-life, scum of the earth football team that they are. See, not one mention of violence!

Comment by Wensicia Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 4:01 pm
If CNN still did sports:

A spirited contest of football squads took place in Chicago on Sunday with the Bears prevailing over the visiting Packers 24-17.
QB Jay Cutler was looking for his receivers all day and completed many passes through the air to them. At the same time, Chicago runningbacks enjoyed numerous opportunities to advance the ball down the enumerated grid laid out on the grass at Soldier Field.
Whoops, can we still say “Soldier” Field?

Comment by piling on Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 4:09 pm
Formerly Fast and Freaky…kudos on the hilarious post. CNN looks foolish here.

Comment by Worth It Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 4:39 pm
Glad to see Andy was out hustling notice for his interview and rebuke….or whatever…next the hand will be out to mooch more cash.

Meanwhile Cullerton totally smoked Gretta on Fox on GovCheesehead and WI taxes.

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 4:52 pm
Just imagine if Bill Buckley’s Firing Line was on TV today…

Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 4:54 pm
I propose banning “the.”

Comment by Cincinnatus Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 4:54 pm
piling on @4:09,

1) Squad (small group of troops)
2) Advance (no need for explanation).

Nice try, tho.

Comment by dupage dan Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 4:56 pm
CNN, are they still on?????????

Comment by Greg in Monticello Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 5:11 pm
Target is in the “crosshairs” for their clueless donations to rightwing anti-gay candidates!

Comment by D.P. Gumby Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 5:17 pm
I once sat in on a meeting of a very lefty group. One of the participants said she would need bullet points before she discussed something publicly. One of the other participants broke in, oh so gently, and said, “I think you mean *talking* points.”

Hilarious.

Comment by soccermom Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 5:30 pm
Your comment hit it “right square in the bulls-eye”, Rich. Errrhhhh, I mean you made your point well and it finally arrived at that little spot lying in the center of those three concentric circles. I don’t know what came over me? Please don’t turn me in to the political correctness police? I didn’t mean it, honest.

Comment by Pilgrim Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 6:45 pm
Maybe we can just …

achieve the objective

describe where we want to end up at

opine an ending position

aspire to a predefined goal

define the specific destination

transect a parabolic trajectory to the desired result

… or just hit the blankety blank target

Comment by Retired Non-Union Guy Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 7:34 pm
A dissenting view.
Target and terms like that seem different from “cross-hairs.” The latter seems clearly related to guns. I respect Shaw, be really should have been more aware of the term.

Comment by Skeeter Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 8:06 pm
Once again YDD is right on the “mark”. Shaw has done a terrible job of making government and government leaders the enemy since he took over BGA. He is barely better than the other rhetoric offenders. Kudos to YDD.

Comment by Siriusly Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 8:20 pm
Its simply an attempt to muzzle speech by expanding the range of what is politically correct. Did the debate today in Washington show civility by comparing the opposition to Nazis? But its OK based on who said it.

I hate to tell you those cross-hairs you are concerned about are common in many professions, starting with the aiming point of a digitizing puck, not to mention the menu of Photoshop. Hundreds of examples can be compiled outside the weapons industry

Comment by Plutocrat03 Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 8:56 pm
Just to add my two cents.

CNN, FOX, MSNBC, they all have to have something to scream about. It wasn’t enough to cover the fact that the congress woman was shot. There HAD to be a discussion about “rhetoric” in order to make the story more of a wedge issue. What good is a story for the cable news networks if they can’t gin up the base with some portion of it.

Comment by Living In Oklahoma Wednesday, Jan 19, 11 @ 9:48 pm
Well said. Rich. You’re right on target (oops-censor that). I don’t mean you are targeting CNN employees for violence. I mean…

Comment by Jon Zahm Thursday, Jan 20, 11 @ 3:10 am
@Chicago Cynic:

“Andy does not assert government as the enemy. He does assert that bad, corrupt, insider-focused government is the enemy of taxpayers.”

Yep. But according to Andy, all Illinois Government is bad, corrupt, and insider-focused.

Just check out these quotes:

“As for Ann Williams, the newly elected House member, she assumed her duties as the new representative of the 11th district at noon on Wednesday. And my spies at her Springfield welcoming parties report there was no evidence of any dust, dirt or snow from the rock she’s been hiding under.”

“Meanwhile, back at the raunch—yes, I said raunch and not ranch—Williams’s decision not to be seated early meant the political bosses in the district…”

“she [Rep. Kathy Moore] was pressured into voting for a multi-billion dollar hike in the state income tax in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. By her Democratic Party allies in Springfield.”

“Williams claims that local Democratic leaders, including Fritchey and Senate President John Cullerton, wanted her commitment to support the tax hike before arranging for her to be sworn in.”

Never mind that Shaw has since admitted that Fritchey never even talked to Williams about the tax hike, let alone pressured her.

Never mind that Moore was chosen to replace Rep. Fritchey, and voted as he would have most likely voted on the tax hike had he remained in office.

Never mind that while there are lots of folks in the 11th District who don’t welcome higher taxes, there are also lots of folks who don’t want to see the deep cuts in education funding, health care for seniors and the disabled, and human services that would have resulted without a tax hike.

Never mind that every single Republican in the Illinois General Assembly was “pressured” by their party leaders to vote against the tax hike, regardless of whether they personally believed it was the right thing to do or what their constituents thought.

There are three fundamental problems with Shaw and the Better Government Association.

1) With Democrats in power, Shaw and the BGA have become a strictly partisan, quasi-Republican organization. There was not a PEEP from Shaw when newly-elected Republican State Rep. Sue Rezin was appointed to the Senate and an unknown, unelected Republican was appointed to fill her vacancy in a seat she had not even taken yet.

2) As my grandfather always says, “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” If Shaw and the BGA were to ever admit that Democrats weren’t doing such a bad job, that ethics in Illinois was on the mend, the BGA would cease to have a purpose and Shaw would cease to earn a paycheck.

3) As I’ve continually asked, and others have as well, “Who watches The Watchmen”? In casting themselves as the final arbiters of Truth and Justice, Shaw and the BGA consider themselves beyond reproach or investigation, beyond fault. Much like Sarah Palin, who accuses anyone who questions her of being enemies of the Republic, the BGA feels they answer to no higher authority.

To wit: the BGA has refused to meet the same standards of public disclosure of their financing that they demand of elected officials. We don’t know who is funding the BGA and therefore driving their purely anti-Democratic bent. We don’t know who was paying Andy Shaw’s salary when he wrote his non-endorsement endorsement of Forest Claypool for the Chicago Tribune. We don’t know who is paying them to sit on the sidelines while Rahm Emanuel rakes in record fundraising, makes a mockery of Chicago’s residency requirements, and questions about how both he and Chico cashed in on their government jobs remain unanswered.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Jan 20, 11 @ 7:21 am
Oh, and then there’s this quote from Shaw in the aforementioned CNN interview:

“she [Braun] basically had a disastrous single term in the U.S. Senate and was defeated by a virtually unknown Republican. I think Bill Clinton’s visit today probably burnishes Emanuel’s front-runner status and probably- basically- I think it basically guarantees that Emanuel makes it into a runoff after February 22. The battle now is between Carol and Gery Chico, the former Chicago school board president, for number two, because once you get into a runoff, then anything can happen.”

I’m sorry, but when did it become the role of the Better Government Association — a tax-exempt group — to handicap political elections or predict their outcome? Shaw’s statement that Rahm will finish first in the Primary amounts to an endorsement…how can anyone expect the BGA to be objective about Rahm’s questionable past or in the future should he win?

Or how about the way Shaw completely craps over Miguel DelValle?

Moreover, whatever happened to the simple notion that elections should be decided by the voters based on the merits of the candidates? I guess that’s a principle the BGA no longer believes in. Now, elections are decided by Andy Shaw 30 days out.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Jan 20, 11 @ 7:33 am
Kudos Yellow Dog.
I too was wondering why the head of the BGA is using his allegedly corruption busting outfit to spew political punditry.
I suppose its a lot cheaper and easier than actually doing the real work to ferret out possible waste in govt programs, etc.

Comment by piling on Thursday, Jan 20, 11 @ 8:08 am
This “politically correct” non-controversy reminds of when a none too swift Chicago alderman (Miguel Santiago) reported an assault when a citizen activist used the expression that he planned “to hold his feet to the fire.” The alderman, whose wife is now a judge, reported the incident to the police because he actually thought that his feet were going to be set aflame by the citizen arsonist.

Comment by Vito Thursday, Jan 20, 11 @ 8:49 am
Amen to that Rich, uh oh is that ok to say?

Comment by Obamas Puppy Thursday, Jan 20, 11 @ 9:01 am