He Hardly Sounds Like a Fan

I wanted to make one final point regarding the criticism Columbia University and its President, Lee Bollinger, have received for extending an invitation to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at the institution's World Leaders Forum. To do so, I decided to provide a short list of excerpts from Bollinger's introduction of Ahmadinejad:

• "It is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices."
• "Mr. President. you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator."
• "Why are you so afraid of Iranian citizens expressing their opinions for change?"
• "In a December 2005 state television broadcast, you described the Holocaust as a 'fabricated legend'. One year later, you held a two-day conference of Holocaust deniers. For the illiterate and ignorant, this is dangerous propaganda. When you come to a place like this, this makes you, quite simply, ridiculous. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated."
• "Why do you support well documented terrorist organizations that continue to strike at peace and democracy in the Middle East, destroying lives and civil society in the region?"
• "Why have you chosen to make the people of your country vulnerable to the effects of international economic sanctions and threaten to engulf the world with nuclear annihilation?"
• "Frankly, and in all candor, Mr. President, I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions. But your avoiding them will in itself be meaningful to us. I do expect you to exhibit the fanatical mindset that characterizes so much of what you say and do."
• "I am only a professor, who is also a university president, and today I feel all the weight of the modern civilized world yearning to express the revulsion at what you stand for."

Baseless Argument of the Day

On yesterday's "The Oprah Winfrey Show", Michael Moore and others debated the topic of health care. One of those individuals was Karen Ignagni, the President of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). AHIP is a political lobbyist representing the approximately 1,300 member companies which provide private health insurance coverage to millions of Americans.

As he did in his movie "SiCKO", Moore emphasized the various issues with this country's health care system, including the fact that the United States is the only industrialized nation which does not provide universal health care to its citizens. Ignagni, who earned $1.24 million last year, has asserted that AHIP endorses the ultimate goal of universal health care coverage. However, you will have to excuse me when I say that I don't believe Ignagni. Why? Here are just a couple of reasons:

• 71% of AHIP's donations to candidates for federal positions were to Republicans.
• Ignagni currently serves as a board member for The Bryce Harlow Foundation, an organization which presents an annual award to the individual who has supposedly "worked to advance business-government relations". With that being said, the list of recipients of this award reads like a Who's Who of the Republican Party: Dick Cheney, Dennis Hastert, Trent Lott, Richard Lugar, Robert Dole and John Boehner. In fact, of the 28 recipients, 18 are Republican politicians and administrators.
• Prior to her employment at AHIP, Ignagni served as a professional staff member of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee and worked Department of Health & Human Services.
• The consumer group within the health care industry for senior citizens, the Coalition for Medicare Choices, was founded by AHIP in 1999. The address for the coalition is the same address for Democracy & Data Communications, a public relations counseling firm with clients such as AHIP, United HealthCare and Humana.
• Julie Goon, Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy in the National Economic Council, previously served as the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at AHIP. Oh, by the way, before her employment at AHIP, Goon served as the Director of Federal Relations at Humana, the fourth largest health insurance providers in the U.S.

Isn't It Time to Look in a Mirror for Once?

After Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently expressed interest in visiting Ground Zero in New York City during his current trip to the United States, many of the leading Republican presidential candidates immediately started to thump their chests. First and foremost, I do not support the thoughts and opinions of Ahmadinejad. With that being said:

• "Ahmadinejad's shockingly audacious request should be met with a vehement 'no'. It's inconceivable that any consideration would be given to the idea of entertaining the leader of a state sponsor of terror at Ground Zero. This would deeply offend the sensibilities of Americans from all corners of our nation. Instead of entertaining Ahmadinejad, we should be indicting him." -- Mitt Romney

Really, Mitt? You want to know what is shockingly audacious? The fact that more than six years have elapsed since the September 11th tragedy and the very first beam of the new Freedom Tower was not installed until December 19th of last year. The planning and construction of the Freedom Tower was previously described as then New York Attorney General (now Governor) Eliot Spitzer as an "Enron style debacle" due to various issues with the design, security, cronyism and fund mismanagement.

• "I think that the President of Iran should be physically restrained if necessary. I hope it doesn't come to that but we're not going to have that kind of desecration of what is sacred ground. Obviously, it is a propaganda ploy on his part and, if we allowed him to do it, it would just embolden some of his followers and give him the publicity that he seeks." -- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

How "sacred" can this area be if the Bush administration and numerous other Republicans constantly reference the phrase "9/11" on a daily basis to scare Americans and sell the Iraq War? If that isn't propaganda, then I don't know what is.

• "This is a man who has made threats against America and Israel, is harboring Bin Laden’s son and other al-Qaeda leaders, is shipping arms to Iraqi insurgents and is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons. Assisting Ahmadinejad in touring Ground Zero – hallowed ground for all Americans – is outrageous." -- Rudy Giuliani

Finally! Giuliani, our Ground Zero expert. Wait a minute! Haven't White House officials admitted that, in the days immediately after September 11th, dozens of influential Saudis (including relatives of Osama bin Laden) were evacuated from the United States even though most commercial flights were still grounded? Didn't President Ronald Reagan and his administration illegally sell arms to Iran approximately twenty years ago and then use those profits to continue funding anti-Communist rebels in Nicaragua? Can't the United States be categorized as the first country in the world to successfully develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use those weapons against another nation and a country which still maintains thousands of nuclear warheads?

It Takes One to Know One

Earlier this week on "The O'Reilly Factor" on FOX News, Bill O'Reilly criticized Columbia University's decision to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at the institution's World Leaders Forum. In fact, O’Reilly described the event as "revolting" and categorized the university and its President, Lee Bollinger, as being "hypocritical beyond belief" for inviting Ahmadinejad.

However, later in the same episode, O’Reilly admitted he had also extended an invitation for Ahmadinejad to appear on the "The O'Reilly Factor". (How does the saying go, "What is good for the smug, idiotic and ignorant blowhard is not good for the gander"? Obviously the "blowhard" is O'Reilly and the "gander" is Columbia University.) Responding to a viewer e-mail, O’Reilly claimed: "We actually did invite him, sir, but he knows a no spin zone when he sees one. Ahmadinejad doesn’t answer questions; he bloviates." (By the way, Merriam-Webster defines the term "bloviate" as "to speak or write verbosely and windily". How ironic it is that O'Reilly would be familiar with this particular term.) Not surprisingly, O'Reilly is comfortable with the idea of Ahmadinejad being on his show because the appearance would benefit O'Reilly both in ratings and financially.

Announcement

For anyone who actually reads this blog, I would like to apologize for the lack of activity during the last month. My wife and I have been busy preparing for the arrival of our second child. However, I will start adding more postings in the next couple of days. I appreciate your patience and support.