Jane Hamsher: Hillary Clinton Joins Joe Lieberman To Resurrect the Culture Wars

[marmar]

from HuffPost:




Jane Hamsher
Hillary Clinton Joins Joe Lieberman To Resurrect the Culture Wars
Posted December 10, 2007 | 03:28 PM (EST)



I guess this must be one for those of us who spent the 90s wanting to throw large objects through the television set as we watched that sanctimonious, finger wagging, judgmental scold Joe Lieberman on the floor of the Senate joining with the Republicans to derail the constitution over Bill Clinton's zipper:

Senators Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Evan Bayh (D-IN), and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) called for a thorough review of the video game ratings process in the wake of "Manhunt 2" receiving a "Mature" rating. In a letter to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), the Senators detailed how the change in rating opened the door to widespread release of the game, which depicts acts of horrific violence.

Well that is just peachy. Do we suppose Hillary sat down and actually played Manhunt 2 on the campaign trail in order to arrive at this conclusion, or did she just take Joe's word for it, much like she did when she voted for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment that others have quite rightly pilloried her for? Because Joe, you'll recall, was a useful idiot for the Bushies when they discovered Iran had no nuclear weapons program and they had to find another reason to bomb them into the stone age -- something they neglected to tell the public about. And despite the fact that Clinton's excuse for voting for the AUMF was that she had "bad information" from the Bush Administration on the Iraq weapons program, she decided to trust them -- and Lieberman -- and amp up the Iran war rhetoric.

One wonders at what point she will stop following Lieberman over the cliff.

Wired magazine:

I agree that the current ratings system and all its consequences needs to be seriously re-evaluated, but not in the sense that Clinton et al apparently do, which is that Manhunt 2 never should have been released.

The uncharitable amongst us might conclude that this is simply a cynical ploy on Clinton's part to pander to old people, upon whom her Iowa chances depend. I'm sure that's not the case. Which is why I'd like to resurrect a suggestion from last year that Clinton find her voice and condemn the violent religious intolerance expressed in the Left Behind video game. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/hillary-clinton-joins-joe_b_76133.html

[babylonsister]

1. I'm suddenly hungry...

:popcorn: :spray: Hillary pandering, to 'old people'? That could be me! :wow:

[marmar]

2. LOL.....

:spray:


I think Jane Hamsher had something other than the tres chic 21st century woman known as babylonsister when she says "old people."

[babylonsister]

3. Tres chic? Hahaha! If you only knew!

:rofl: But thanks, I think! :D

[Cha]

4. WTF? Too sanctimonious for her own good?

Too bad hillary wasn't sanctimonious when she could have saved lives.

"Well that is just peachy. Do we suppose Hillary sat down and actually played Manhunt 2 on the campaign trail in order to arrive at this conclusion, or did she just take Joe's word for it, much like she did when she voted for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment that others have quite rightly pilloried her for? Because Joe, you'll recall, was a useful idiot for the Bushies when they discovered Iran had no nuclear weapons program and they had to find another reason to bomb them into the stone age -- something they neglected to tell the public about. And despite the fact that Clinton's excuse for voting for the AUMF was that she had "bad information" from the Bush Administration on the Iraq weapons program, she decided to trust them -- and Lieberman -- and amp up the Iran war rhetoric."

"One wonders at what point she will stop following Lieberman over the cliff."

"..bad information"?..hillary said Iran had shaped up since her kyl-lieman bill.

Why would you follow dead meat over a cliff? It boggles the mind.

[Prophet 451]

5. Oh gods

This kind of thing really annoys me. I'm a gamer, I've played the original Manhunt (it's crap, don't bother) and last time I checked, I haven't killed anyone. Someone once described it as a "manual for murder" which it true. If you're well over six feet tall, heavily muscled, trained in martial arts and psychotic.

There is a video game classification system for a reason. Are the acts depicted any worse than those found in, say, Hostel? I doubt it. If people would stop thinking all video games are for kids and accept that adults play too, there really shouldn't be this problem. It got a "Mature" rating, it's going to be played mostly by adults, what's the problem?

[The River]

6. The Use of Labels

such as mature and adult on video games is an oxymoron.
By their very nature, these games are neither.

[Prophet 451]

7. Bullshit n/t

[tomreedtoon]

10. "Hostel" is also bad. And "Saw." And "Nightmare on Elm Street."

And most "mature" videogames encourage people into approval of violence. Why do you think nobody really minds waterboarding or pouring molten solder into a prisoner's crotch?

But censoring these awful forms of entertainment is not the solution. Government control of free speech is not the solution. In fact, what is needed is free speech ABOUT videogames and violence-porn movies. Instead of having government boards ban the crap people watch, there should be people unafraid to call the crap what it is - crap.

But because progressive people are worried about censorship, they are afraid to raise their voices about the deliberately violent and despair-filled entertainment Americans watch. It's the same problem they face when they face porn - which is created and produced by exploiting women, no matter what the paid-off (or coerced-through-violence) porn advocates say. Thus the problem of feminists, who want to protect women, being on the same side as the Mafia thugs who make porn and brutalize the women who they film.

By the way, you know why the religious right hasn't come out against movies like Hostel and Saw? Because they deal in fear and death, just like evangelical Christianity does. When you see Freddy Kruger slicing up some teenager's vagina, and laugh out loud at the sight, you're firmly on the side of Pat Robertson.

[Prophet 451]

12. Double bullshit

For all your comments about exploitation of women, you assume that no woman could willingly choose to make porn. In effect, substituting your opinion for hers which is teh most misogynist thing possible.

Feel free to have the last word, I don't bother discussing with self-righteous moralists.

[Drunken Irishman]

17. haha, yeah, that's exactly right.

Nightmare on Elm Street is the reason people endorse waterboarding. I hate to break it to you, but I'm a horror movie fan, I enjoy violent video games and I hate the idea of torture. Why? Because I have the ability to discern reality from fiction. Granted there are people out there that have this problem, but who are we kidding, they're not going to be any less violent, or any more supportive of torture without horror movies and violent video games.

Here's a clue, many social conservatives, the same people trying to ban these movies and games because of their violence, are also in support of some form of torture. Most Americans, however, are not (http://www.pollingreport.com/terror.htm) -- if you believe polls. Go figure.

[provis99]

8. video games bad, Ultimate Fighting good?

funny how these social conservatives think pretend violence like Dungeons and Dragons and video games turn people into psychopaths, but Ultimate Fighting championships, boxing (where people actually get killed) and NASCAR crashes (where drivers get killed) seems to be alright by them. I guess the equation is, make-believe is bad, real-life violence is healthy.

[rAVES]

9. Bunch of Idiots...

[JTFrog]

11. The team that wants to save my kids from video violence

is the same team that wants to save my kids from terrorist by sending them to Iraq and Iran.

Fuck the DLC.

[L0oniX]

13. They have nothing more important to be doing? Asscarrots!

[DCKit]

14. Anyone else think that maybe Congress if filled with people no smarter than the average,

totally dumbed-down Amurikan? Seriously, anyone can get a degree, but how many are critical and logical thinkers?

Just wondering. I'm as lost as you are why they do what they do and rank stupidity seems to be the best explanation for so much of what goes on in this town.

[yurbud]

15. no shit--go after LEFT BEHIND game. It advocates killing US! Dems always forget to protect base

If the far right went Hutu on us, our elected Democratic representatives would probably come after us with machetes too, but mutter to themselves, ''This is SO distasteful...''

[yurbud]

16. can you imagine what would happen if progressives put out a game like the LEFT BEHIND ONE?