But not in an oppressed female who doesn’t have her man to tell her what to say sort of way. It will take me a while to stop laughing at this sexist, self-loathing, piece of swill, taken apart beautifully by Shakespeare’s Sister, so for now head over and read the article and her take on it for yourself.
Meanwhile, I’ll call Dear Husband and ask him what I should think about it.
It seems Rep. Goode (R-VA) isn’t interested in a procedure that would connect his brain to his mouth, perhaps because said mouth is so full of foot at the moment. He’s refusing to back down from his fear-mongering over the election of Keith Ellison, a Muslim, to the House of Representatives. And he’s tied the whole thing to immigration. Legal immigration.
ROCKY MOUNT, Va. - A congressman said Thursday that he will not retract a letter warning that unless immigration is tightened, “many more Muslims will be elected” and use the Quran to take the oath of office.
…”I will not be putting my hand on the Quran,” Goode said at a news conference Thursday at the Franklin County Courthouse. [Duh, asshole. Nobody asked you to.]
…Goode also told Fox News he wants to limit legal immigration and do away with “diversity visas,” which he said let in people “not from European countries” and “some terrorist states.”
“Not from European countries”, huh? Sounds like code for “not white” to me.
In his letter, Goode wrote that strict immigration polices are necessary “to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America.”
“The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran,” he wrote.
Um, sir, you do know that Keith Ellison was born in Detroit? Of course, he is black, so I guess that translates to immigrant in the depths of what passes for your mind.
Del, who pointed me to yesterday’s story, asked a very good question in a follow-up email. Where is the Republican leadership on this? Trent Lott was booted from the top job in the Senate for saying we’d all be better off if Strom Thurmond had been elected back in the day. George Allen lost a close race for re-election at least in part because he referred to an American citizen of Indian descent as “macaca”. Do we, as citizens, permit a sitting Representative to state in no uncertain terms that those of a particular faith shouldn’t be allowed to serve in Congress?
Sen. John Warner (R-VA) has issued a statement saying that he respects the right of congressional members to freely “exercise the religion of their choice, including those of the Islamic faith utilizing the Quran”, and I’m glad he has, but is that response sufficient for the entire party? Rep. Goode is not some random kook shouting on a street corner. His statements, wacky though I may find them, carry weight. According to him, he’s getting lots of support for his constituents. So is it okay for an elected representative to pander to the ignorance and prejudice of the lowest common denominator, or should we hold our government officials to higher standards?
I’m horrified by Rep. Goode’s remarks, but I also support his right to make them. I draw a bright line in the sand when he tries to translate his bigotry into public policy that runs counter to the explicit protection for religious freedom guaranteed by our constitution, but I’m not sure where the gray area between words and actions ends.
UPDATE: Wheeler weighs in.
What do you think?
My brother and I finally talked my mother into buying a new computer. Her old one had all manner of problems, likely caused by viruses that we couldn’t detect because we couldn’t install antivirus software — because of a virus. And to make it even better, she got DSL!
So no more blogging from dialup here. We’ve finally made it into the 21st century. Woohoo!
Blues reader Del sent me this story about a congressman who’s all bent out of shape because the people of Minnesota elected a *gasp* Muslim to represent them and that it could happen again. Oh, the horror!
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 — In a letter sent to hundreds of voters this month, Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., Republican of Virginia, warned that the recent election of the first Muslim to Congress posed a serious threat to the nation’s traditional values.
Mr. Goode was referring to Keith Ellison, the Minnesota Democrat and criminal defense lawyer who converted to Islam as a college student and was elected to the House in November. Mr. Ellison’s plan to use the Koran during his private swearing-in ceremony in January had outraged some Virginia voters, prompting Mr. Goode to issue a written response to them, a spokesman for Mr. Goode said.
In his letter, which was dated Dec. 5, Mr. Goode said that Americans needed to “wake up” or else there would “likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.”
Hmm. Can you say pandering? I knew you could.
I’ve heard numerous right-wing talk show hosts hyperventilating about the idea that Keith Ellison might take his oath of office with his hand on the Qur’an rather than the Bible. Other, more reasonable, people have pointed out that if we want someone to take an oath seriously, we might prefer that he swear it on a book that is holy above all others in his faith tradition. And it’s also been noted, but apparently not understood by people like Congressman Goode and some of his constituents, that new Representatives aren’t required to place their hands on any book when they take the oath of office.
And there is this little tidbit, which makes Rep. Goode’s little crusade (and I don’t use that word lightly) completely anti-American:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States [emphasis added]. (United States Constitution, Article VI)
I think that’s pretty clear, Rep. Goode. Maybe you need to take a constitutional refresher course over the holiday break.
I’ve added Loretta Nall’s Blog to my blogroll. Should have done it months ago, but best laid plans, etc. Go over, say hi, and check out her sweet new dog Saul. He’s a cutie!
Okay, Tom has tagged me with the book meme.
The Rules -
* Find the nearest book
* Name the book
* The author
* Turn to page 123
* Go to the fifth sentence on the page
* Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.
* Tag three more folks.
The book is The Worst Person In the World by Keith Olbermann. Here’s the quote:
He replied, “Use your cell phone.” The manager says the clerks are instructed not to call the cops because the criminals will get mad at them.
Runner-up: Motorists, maybe police, anybody with a car who spent a weekend driving past the lump at the side of the road near Franklin, Pennsylvania.
It’s not highbrow reading, but it’s fun. And I’m going to tag Songbird, Zach, and Wheeler.
UPDATE: Here’s Zach’s. I expect Wheeler is busy with babies (or still salivating over new bikes) and Songbird is preparing her Christmas Eve sermon.
Scooter Libby’s attorneys are planning to call Dick Cheney as a defense witness next month. That’s assuming they can find the undisclosed location and serve the subpoena.
Libby is accused of lying to investigators about what he told reporters regarding former CIA operative Valerie Plame. Plame’s identity was leaked to the news media around the time that her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly criticized the Bush administration’s handling of prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Libby says he was focused on more important issues — including terrorism, Iraq and nuclear proliferation — and didn’t remember his conversations regarding Plame.
Putting Cheney on the witness stand sends a message to the jury, said Robert J. Bittman, a former deputy independent counsel who investigated President Clinton.
…”Was I concerned? Yes,” Bittman expected Cheney to say. “Was it my primary issue? No. My primary issue was making sure a nuclear weapon was not detonated in the United States.”
The strategy is not without risk and, until Tuesday, it seemed Cheney might be called as a prosecution witness.
I’d think forcing Cheney to do anything could be risky, but that’s just me. It will be fun to watch the lawyers attempt to pry testimony from his clenched jaw.
Bush is holding a press conference later this morning to discuss “expanding the military”. I wonder how he’s planning to do that…
The Department of Homeland Security has developed a new standardized test to assess immigrants’ knowledge of “the fundamental concepts of American democracy” to determine if they qualify to become US citizens. Unfortunately, it appears that many native-born Americans would fail the test, and columnist Rosa Brooks has an interesting solution to that problem.
Requiring those who want the privileges of U.S. citizenship to have some minimal knowledge of American civics is a great idea. Why should this country mint new so-called citizens who don’t know the first thing about American history or law?
But there’s no reason to restrict this test to immigrants. We should make native-born Americans take the test too — and deport them to their last known countries of ancestry if they flunk.
Fair’s fair. Research suggests that most native-born Americans would probably fail the new exam — even though most of us are second-, third- or 10th-generation immigrants and have had generations to get this civics thing down. Why should we ask first-generation immigrants to know more about the United States than the rest of us?
I’m happy to say that I would pass the exam, based on the survey she cites, although I’d probably have trouble naming characters from “The Simpsons”.
Last spring, one survey found that although 52% of Americans could name two or more of the characters from “The Simpsons,” only 28% could identify two of the freedoms protected under the 1st Amendment. Another recent poll found that 77% of Americans could name at least two of the Seven Dwarfs from “Snow White,” but only 24% could name two or more Supreme Court justices.
In September, the Annenberg Public Policy Center released a poll showing that only two-thirds of Americans could identify all three branches of government; only 55% of Americans were aware that the Supreme Court can declare an act of Congress unconstitutional; and 35% thought that it was the intention of the founding fathers to give the president “the final say” over Congress and the judiciary.
Should these people really be voting? Deport them, I say!
And if we used this test on all US citizens, we could have a mass housecleaning of the White House as well.
Donald H. Rumsfeld, the outgoing secretary of Defense, would be sent back to Germany, where his ancestors came from. He might end up indicted by a German court for authorizing the torture of U.S. detainees, but that’s the breaks. For President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, deportation wouldn’t be nearly so bad. Bush would be sent back to Fantasyland, where he spends most of his time anyway, and Cheney would feel right at home back in his native Transylvania.
Now, that’s a plan.
Okay so i posted this over at my blog Sweet Homo Alabama so I figured i would post it here for you fine folks to hear as well. If you missed the Wednesday Night Riot show last Wednesday, you can catch our next show on Jan 17th at the 22nd St Jazz cafe… if you live in Birmingham.
Wednesday Night News mp3
-Zach