A number of political class verbal missteps recently have reminded me of a favorite saying that goes something like the following:
“Sometimes it is better to remain silent and thought ignorant than to speak up and remove all doubt.”
Politicians say the darndest things and continue to amaze me with their lack of knowledge of how the world and how reality work:
– With regard to the recent Arizona immigration law, Attorney General Holder testified before the Senate recently, “Sure there is a potential for challenging a law on its face and then challenging a law as it is applied.” No problem here, as Attorney General of the entire United States, it is his job to make sure that laws are proper in light of the Constitution and other state and Federal laws. But, he did not close his mouth fast enough. When queried by a Senator on whether he had actually read the ten page Arizona law, he replied: “I have not had a chance to. I’ve glanced at it. I have not read it.”
So, here is the top law enforcement officer in the country talking about filing suit against a sovereign state of the United States and he has not even read the law that he has a problem with! And, unlike Obama Care’s 2,000+ pages, the Arizona law is only ten pages long. As a lawyer, I would think he could have read and understood the bill in less than a half hour. Thus, he looks extremely ignorant on two counts. First, you would have thought he would have taken the short amount of time to read the bill before testifying about the bill, under oath, before Congress. Second, he does not look unbiased in this matter since he has prejudged law that he has not even read.
– Consider the following quote from Joanna Doven, a spokesperson for the current Pittsburgh mayor, as reported in the June, 2010 issue of Reason magazine, pertaining to urban farming: “Anytime you see something growing and expanding and there are no rules, you need to regulate it.” She acts as if government regulation is a good thing. The U.S. housing and banking industries are regulated by the Federal Housing Authority, Housing and Urban Development, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Senate banking and housing committees, House banking and housing committees, state level government regulatory agencies for banking and housing, the Federal Reserve Board, the Treasury Department, etc., and all this government regulation did was cause the housing market bubble, and then watch helplessly, as the housing and banking industries collapsed. Just as a side note, according to Fortune magazine’s May 3, 2010 issue, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lost a combined $94 billion in 2009. Guess regulation did not work in this case.
This is the same government and the same government employees that are regulating the overall economy and we see how poorly they are doing there. Unemployment continues to hover around an obscene 10%. This is the same government that regulates Social Security and Medicare, both of which are hurtling towards insolvency.
Also, in the June, 2010 issue of Reason magazine was an article on the plight of Cleveland. One of the big problems, according to the article, is how hard it is to get a business permit and how hard it is to conduct business in the red tape laden regulatory envirnment of Cleveland. As a result, companies, jobs, and eventually people have fled the city because of how difficult regulation made life.
Ms. Doven, like most in the political class, does not get it. We do not want incompetent bureaucrats running our lives and getting in our way. Let the market and the buyer/seller relationship regulate itself, regulating something because it is successful is just plain ignorant.
– Nancy Pelosi continues to prove the wisdom of the above quote with quotes of her own like the following: “A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes.” Huh? This was reported in the June, 2010 issue of Reason magazine and referred to the health care reform bill that was passed without a single Republican vote in either the House or the Senate. How ignorant is this statement? Consider the example where I absolutely detest a specific painting even though it has my favorite color, green, within the picture. Bipartisan means that elements of both parties like the final product, not just specific components, e.g., the color green. Does she think we are that ignorant?
– Late last year a Nigerian terrorist almost blew up an airliner as it was coming in for a landing at Detroit airport. The only reason he was not successful is because his underwear bomb failed to detonate. In reaction to the incident, the head of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, boldly stated the the security apparatus and procedure for preventing terror attacks had worked. Let’s see, the terrorist is one good detonation away from downing a plane he is riding in and the system worked? The only way that is not an ignorant statement is if the system is built to assume a faulty detonation.
– In introducing President Obama at the high profile official signing of the health care reform legislation, Vice President Biden did not realize that the microphone was still live when he mumbled an obscene word under his breath as he shook the President’s hand. How immature, un-Presidential, how un-leaderlike is it to drop obscenities in a public gathering, very ignorant.
– A constant international source of ignorance quotes is just about anyone in the ruling political hierarchy of the Iranian government. Several months ago a ruling cleric declared that the earthquake in Haiti was caused by women’s promiscuity and skin exposure via revealing clothing. Iranian leric Kazem Sedighi has preached about “the slime of homosexuality, the slime of promiscuity” and how these behaviors cause natural disasters. He hedged his bets a little but not much, “We don’t say committing sin is the entire reason [for the natural disasters] but it’s one of the reasons.”
It is very, very sad that we allow these types of people to have powerful positions in government. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to remove them from office due to faulty campaign finance laws, excessive Congressional earmarks, and the gerrymandering of Congressional districts. Thus, it is critical that we begin the long term process to implement term limits for all members of Congress. Hopefully, by removing incumbents form office November, a first step in that direction would be accomplished. Only then can we get some more effective and intelligent problem solvers involved with the nation’s major issues. At the very least, could we at least get people into office that are smart enough to not speak and remove all doubt?