After two years of investigation and argument, the chief counsel of the House ethics panel has recommended the punishment for Charles Rangel's financial misdeeds: censure!
AIYEEEE!!! (Sounds of chainsaws and the "Psycho" soundtrack)
No, wait - hang on a minute. Censure? As in, "shame on you?" For crimes (ahem, "misdeeds") that would put the rest of the peasantry in jail?
Rangel's defense for hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes was that he is a poor record keeper, that our tax laws (which he helps write) are too confusing, and he forgot he owned property in the Dominican Republic.
Meanwhile, NPR is doing its best to make "censure" sound like a much more serious penalty than scolding a child, by breathlessly pointing out that it is even worse than a "reprimand" or a "rebuke."
Of course, waterboarding is also worse that a "reprimand" or a "rebuke," so we can therefore assume that censure is equivalent to waterboarding.
With the exception that in Charles Rangel's case, only the logic is tortured.-
A remarkable thing has started to happen in the wake of the recent elections and rebuke of liberalism: people are beginning to talk about American Exceptionalism again. And unlike Barack Obama, they're doing it favorably.
The concept of American Exceptionalism is as broad as it is simple: the belief that when our national character is combined with our freedoms, values, and ability to innovate, wonderful things can happen in a way that they can't anywhere else on Earth.
Our history, albeit short on a global scale, gives ample evidence that this is true. Even though in other, more recent history, Barack Obama has traveled the world apologizing for the alleged damage done by the United States...and specifically degrading the notion of American Exceptionalism.
For this country to succeed and remain a dominant power for good in the world, we must first and foremost believe in ourselves. Not arrogantly...but confidently. And it isn't hard to look around and sense that it's starting to happen.
After two years of this president and his political party telling Americans that they're incapable of accomplishing great things, new voices are being raised to say the words Barack Obama least wants to hear: "Yes we can!"-
Just when Americans are getting angry about the government's increasing efforts to see them naked, Vogue magazine has decided that Michelle Obama deserves a place in their annual list of "best dressed" women.
And why not? In the words of one Vogue editor: "whether she is frolicking on the White House lawn in Converse or at an awards dinner in Michael Kors scarlet chiffon, she always looks elegant and appropriate to the occasion and to our modern times!"
Ooh - we just had a tingle go up our leg! Or maybe it was a TSA agent's hand...
Of course, for many Americans what is "appropriate for the occasion and to our modern times" is something comfortable to wear while in the unemployment line. Or perhaps a revealing open-backed hospital gown while waiting for Obamacare's alleged efficiencies and savings to kick in.
Still, as a symbol of our nation, it's important that our First Lady always look spectacular - and you just can't put a price on that. And if you try, Robert Gibbs will issue an official denial.
"Always elegant and appropriate"
