another crazy-ass

Alright, in my reading, this will be the third post tonight (but will be posted second due to chronology issues). It belongs in the "are you fucking kidding me" file or politics. This is why our country is fucked up...because people like this guy are elected to office.

You see, in Minnesota, a Muslim was elected to the House of Representatives. He took his oath of office on the Koran instead of the Bible. Not surprisingly, right wing nut-jobs flipped their lids. The representative was asked on CNN if he could "prove....you are not working with the enemies" (no, I'm not kidding).

Enter Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode. In a letter sent to supporters (and also, providentially, to the head of the VA Sierra Club), he wrote:

When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. 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. We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country. I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.

The Ten Commandments and “In God We Trust” are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Koran. My response was clear, “As long as I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, The Koran is not going to be on the wall of my office.” Thank you again for your email and thoughts.

I wont even begin to get into the full argument (well...it's not really an argument...but...string of illogically connected thoughts) put forward here. What I will say, however, is that if people who run our country are demonstrably lacking in basic understanding of American Politics (as taught at the 8th grade level), it seems things will only get worse before they get better. According to his website, he's co-sponsored two bills. One falls under the "compassionate conservative" ideal and allows people to earmark any money they voluntarily pay over their Taxes to help pay for people without insurance who need medical help. The second makes English the national language. I guess it's safe to assume I couldn't earmark my over-paid taxes to pay for immigrants to get medical care?

Here is Congressman Goode's email address if you care to write him:
http://www.house.gov/goode/contact.shtml