A thread for racist-ass politicians baring their racist asses in public again

So, umm, yeah -- a great number of the political frothing on this basically amounts to scare tactics, and throws up a vision of some kind of Balkanized, unrecognizably transformed America that I think we all know is NOT going to happen anytime soon; and yeah, in most cases it subtly plays to racism, or at least is bound to resonate with folks who have racially motivated reasons to be uncomfortable with immigration. But the fact that everyday people worry over the issue doesn't make them bad people or racists; it's a legitimate question to be thinking about.

I mean, hell, i think the fear of being in the minority comes from a fear of "oh shit now they have the power and they gunna fuck with US!" And so you get constant, increasingly panicked calls from jerks like Pat Buchanan(w/ an entire book about it) and other really strident conservatives(usually) that white folks gotta start breeding or else we're fucked forever and the Republic will fall and Azatlan will be reality and a Chicano will be a starship captain etc.

Not that this thread is primarily about immigration, but it seems that that's the kind of issue where those who would make such statements feel less reticent to do so.

And yeah, I'd say that people who are getting frothy-mouthed over this issue probably have one of two problems: either they've got a flat-out discomfort with non-white people, or else they've just got an appalling lack of faith in America. I mean, a large part of their fear seems to be that if enough Mexicans come to America, then America will become Mexico. They want to bitch about people not assimilating, but there seems to be something in them that believes people can't assimilate, or that the presence of Latinos somehow automatically turns the U.S. -- socially, economically -- into a Latin American country, or whatever: there's something strange about blaming people for allegedly not assimilating when so much of your worldview is based around arguing that they can't assimilate, or spouting the kind of rhetoric that actively works against their assimilation.

this sounds pretty fun

Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran.

He should not be allowed to do so -- not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization.

why do all slippery slope arguments have to be so ridiculous?

"this guy wants to take his oath on the Koran...next thing, ppl be taking oaths on MEIN KAMPF."

then again, if some dude got elected and felt that he needed to take his oath on Mein Kampf, then wtf who cares because we will have elected an actual Nazi.

terrorism. QED

Can (religious) Jews really swear on the Bible? I mean, half of it is still non-gospel.

HI DERE

In court proceedings and swearing-ins there is hella peer pressure to just swear on a fuckin' Bible because to do any differently would be making waves or causing a scene or is often seen by douchebags as a refusal to conform for its own sake. As oif any of us could have divergent beliefs.

tho it happens a lot on here re 'the British'.

We'd all like to hope that, but I'm afraid it's not going to happen.

It is interesting, though, how uniformly western in religion our politicians have been. Bobby Jindal, the first Indian (in the Piara Khabra sense) in Congress, is a Christian convert. Eni Faleomavega of American Samoa is a Mormon. Interesting, though, that Ben Nighthorse Campbell, raised as a Catholic, apparently didn't identify any religion during his service.

Well, the word "kosher" does technically mean "fit", as in "acceptable according to Jewish law" but excepting our goyish colloquialisms I believe it's only used for food.

Absolutely wrong.

Within jewish law, it does take on the meaning of "fit to eat" but also applies to other practices, such as the ban on poly-fiber blends. A wool/cotton coat would be treyf, for example.

http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Literacy-Important-Religion-History/dp/0688085067/sr=8-1/qid=1164824308/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-5085780-0558423?ie=UTF8&s=books

It was a gift when my mom remarried a guy from an orthodox family, although he's not really orthodox himself.

I thought it was only wool/linen that was the big no-no.

Swearing on the Constitution should be the rule, and anyone who insists on a bible should be dropped through the trapdoor into the piranha pool.

(Hint: _Mein Kampf_ was mentioned, apparently as a now-possible/probable tome to swear in a congressman with)

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/hastertoath.jpg

-12 Americans are murdered daily by illegal aliens,

and!

-13 are killed by drunk illegal alien drivers

Really! No actual numbers to back that up, of course, but the congressman is just so passionate about it!

(oh yeah, and he also voted last year against sending emergency funds to katrina victims.)

also, y'all know he can't be bigoted against Muslims, right? it's 'coz he's jewish!

I cannot name any Western European country that does not have a document similar to the American Constitution and something akin to our Bill of Rights. It is, therefore, not the Constitution that has made America unique and a moral beacon to the world's downtrodden. What has made America unique is the combination of Enlightenment ideas with our underlying Judeo-Christian values.

Seriously, it's like he's either retarded or had a profoundly awful high-school education.

Grbchv remains totally on-point there about the slippery slope argument. Nobody has to swear on anything, so anyone doing it at this point is just doing it for show and for his own amusement. If someone's idea of a good time is to swear on Mein Kampf, either that's the idiot you elected on purpose, or it's time to start looking into your state's recall and impeachment laws.

Judging by a quick check with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the answer to this question is "two": Kenneth Jamal and Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Incidentally that's an exact tie with the number of death row inmates named Ann (1) or Coulter (1).

Keith Ellison will be sworn into office with a Qu'ran once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

found this while trolling TownHall for ellison freakouts:

Does Ben Harper Want a Race War?

--
the only Ellison bits so far are bits of petulance:

Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Ellison to Take Oath on Jefferson's Koran
Posted by: Allen Estrin at 11:57 AM

Don't think he would have bothered if Dennis hadn't made an issue of his oath-taking. Still, doesn't deal with the key issue -- the Bible as the source of our values.

this bit of Prager's radio show

and this guy:

Mr. Ellison, like every American, is entitled to the presumption of innocence. He has not broken the law or acted seditiously. But if his behavior has been correct and legal, it has left many questions unanswered. Sometimes, it is what is left unsaid that is important, and not just what is said.

wherein the guy goes on to basically ask several times if Ellison's religion is still beating its wife, like

How will you decide when the values of the Koran disagree with those of the Bible and our Judeo-Christian heritage? Whose vision of the law and governance do you support, that of the Founding Fathers, or of Muhammad?

and so on and so on and so on.