By Carlos Miller
The Miami Herald’s new columnist, Jackie Bueno Sousa, didn’t waste any time in letting readers know exactly where she stood politically. Let’s just say she is no Ana Menendez.
The following two sentences in her introduction column Monday proved she is further to the right than a Halliburton majority stockholder.
“I believe … that history will redeem George W. Bush”
and
“I believe we’re entering a dangerous era of populism.”
But it was another sentence in her column that prompted a local blogger to question whether she is guilty of plagiarism.
I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
Andy Diaz, one of two contributors who make up the new political blog Generation Miami, pointed out that this was the same sentence made during a memorable monologue in the movie Bull Durham.
The Lee Harvey Oswald line is identical to the line from Bull Durham. A lot of people believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, so the line by itself doesn’t prove a lot. But when you put the lines in context, you see a different picture. The cadence of the two paragraphs is practically the same, and so is their general subjects—the mixture of politics and sports, the complaint about the erosion of certain values in sport. Sousa switches baseball for football–yeah, that’s clever. There is no doubt that Sousa’s beliefs, or at least in the style in which she sought to convey them, were “inspired” by Crash Davis. And we know one belief in particular is either stolen from Bull Durham or the result of a major coincidence.
Here is the paragraph from Sousa’s column:
I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone; that NFL play rules are beginning to coddle quarterbacks; and that all elected officials should be subject to term limits. I believe that man really did land on the moon; that history will redeem George W. Bush; that life begins after conception but before birth; and that nature will destroy us before we destroy it.
And here is the segment from the Bull Durham monologue:
I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe that there oughtta be a constitutional amendment outlawing astro-turf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft core pornography, opening your presents on Christmas morning rather than Christmas eve, and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.
Regardless of whether she purposely lifted the line from the movie, subconsciously lifted it after watching the movie the previous evening or came up with the line as she was trying to assure her readers that she is no conspiracy theorist, the fact that she believes that history will redeem one of the most unpopular presidents in the history of the United States makes her as credible as a young Cuban lawyer who once told a courtoom that “history will absolve me.”
That’s what I believe anyway.
Popularity: 1% [?]
5 responses so far ↓
1 John // Feb 24, 2009 at 10:06 AM
As someone who values their conservative principles more than their affiliation with the Republican party I can say that anyone who says “history will redeem George W. Bush” has their political blinders on and is as clueless as their fearless leader.
When is it alright for a president to take one facet of his job and use it as an excuse for his miserable failures in every other part?
When did spending money like a drunken sailor become a conservative value? Is it that this ‘compassionate conservative’ never really had any consistent conservative values or that he was a ball less coward who hardly used his veto power.
I wince at the intellectual dishonesty of people who try to pin the current crisis on the Democrats. Who exactly was in office for EIGHT YEARS before this happened?!?! If he didn’t have direct control over Fannie/Freddie/the Fed he could have used the power of the bully pulpit to force the issue. It is his job and his responsibility.
He is our party’s Jimmy Carter.
Anyone who says differently is immediately suspect in my mind as being a idealogue who values being ‘right’ over knowing realilty. This chick is no different.
2 Scott Chamness // Feb 24, 2009 at 2:57 PM
“I believe that history will redeem George W. Bush”
Yeah right. As a student of history, I am at least pretty certain that in 10 years, 20 years, or even 100, George W. Bush will still be looked upon as a bad president.
Although I will give him that he wasn’t as bad as Grant. Or Nixon. Well actually Nixon had a better foreign policy. So he’s pretty much just better than Grant.
Hey he may have sucked, but he accomplished his purpose. At least he definatly will be remembered.
And Carlos, there’s this old saying. 90% of scholarship is plagiarism. lol
3 genewitch // Feb 28, 2009 at 7:14 PM
Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, shot John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
It’s a sentence like “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”
A short english sentence that uses (almost) every letter in the alphabet. meant to teach “touch typing” skill.
Weird – and yes, i knew this from typing lessons that my mom gave me on an old clickity clack typewriter in the 1980s.
4 crotusia // Jun 23, 2010 at 6:25 PM
I cannot frikkin believe what this broad thinks about the BP situation… if the Miami Herald does not fire her, I will no longer read their paper.
5 crotusia // Jun 24, 2010 at 6:52 PM
I propose that you circulate a petition to the Miami Herald stating that if they don’t fire this deluded, hatemongering woman, we will initiate a large-scale boycott of the newspaper!
For what it’s worth, I am beginning to think she really was planted there by Jeb Bush and his cronies.
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