All them illegal immigrant Muslim congressmen

mcc

So a story all over the news right now is this "CONTROVERSIAL" letter written by Virgil Goode, Republican representative from Virginia, to one of his constituents. Apparently the constituent sent Goode a letter about the environment; and got back a semi-nonsensical rant about Islam, Immigration and the Koran.

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=143838 wrote:

The letter was made public by John Cruickshank, the chairman of the Piedmont group of the Sierra Club in central Virginia, who had received it after writing to Goode about environmental issues. Duncan said Goode's office had sent the letter to Cruickshank by mistake.

Confused and offended, Cruickshank released the letter to the media, which went nuts. The letter follows, with the "CONTROVERSIAL" portion in bold.

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/virgil-goode/congressman-assures-constituent-i-will-deport-keith-ellison-223197.php wrote:

Dear Mr. Cruickshank:

Thank you for your recent communication. 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.

Sincerely yours,
Virgil H. Goode, Jr.

You got that? We need to stop illegal immigration, or the Mexicans will elect "many more" Muslims to the U.S. Congress. Or something.

Fencingsax

I'm guessing someone 'accidentley' put the wrong letter in the wrong envelope. So some wacko anti-Muslim got a letter about the environment.

mcc

Fencingsax wrote:

I'm guessing someone 'accidentley' put the wrong letter in the wrong envelope. So some wacko anti-Muslim got a letter about the environment.

I wonder how offended they were.

Ninja Bot

Stupid Mexican Muslim Alien agenda and their America hating ways.

werehippy

Jesus fucking wept. Thank God the dumbass is going to get the ever loving crap kicked out of him next election. He damn well better, anyway, unless Virginia wants to become the new Florida.

Kaputa

Wow. That's probably the worst quote from a politician that I've heard since the series of tubes thing.

gundam470

Aw holy hell.


That's it, I'm switching majors.

Senjutsu

Sounds like the letter was in response to a letter ranting about that whole "We can't have that sand-monkey congressman sworn in on a Koran instead of the traditional bible, even though no congressman has ever been sworn in on a bible or any other religious book" meme.

Corlis

I wonder if some pissed intern was licking stamps that day and got an evil, evil idea into his head :twisted:

mcc

Senjutsu wrote:

Sounds like the letter was in response to a letter ranting about that whole "We can't have that sand-monkey congressman sworn in on a Koran instead of the traditional bible, even though no congressman has ever been sworn in on a bible or any other religious book" meme.

The crazy thing is, the beginning is almost phrased as if the constituent had specifically asked whether Goode was going to be sworn in on a Koran.

JayKaos

I wish I thought this would hurt his chances of being re-elected.


I think it will help.

Raggaholic

Something is not right here. I'm all for hanging (but with no forks in the ass, of course) southern republicans out to dry, but this seems really fishy.

With as backwards and stupid as some politicians are, there is no way his office would have let this letter go out. He got a letter from a citizen and would have sent back a form letter. There is NO WAY that this is the form letter. The office would have been smarter than that, even if the Congressman wasn't.

I call shennanigans.

mcc

Raggaholic wrote:

Something is not right here. I'm all for hanging (but with no forks in the ass, of course) southern republicans out to dry, but this seems really fishy.

With as backwards and stupid as some politicians are, there is no way his office would have let this letter go out. He got a letter from a citizen and would have sent back a form letter. There is NO WAY that this is the form letter. The office would have been smarter than that, even if the Congressman wasn't.

I call shennanigans.

Whatever's happening here, Goode is standing by the letter. He's already been asked to apologize and specifically said he won't.

As a couple of people have already noted, "by mistake" probably means that they did mean to send this letter, they just meant to send it to somebody totally different.

Irond Will

mcc wrote:

Fencingsax wrote:

I'm guessing someone 'accidentley' put the wrong letter in the wrong envelope. So some wacko anti-Muslim got a letter about the environment.

I wonder how offended they were.

I like to think over in the bizarro-PA forums (maybe FreeRepublic) some reg in outrage just posted a letter from Virgil Goode saying that we have a responsibility to be stewards of the environment.

Senjutsu

Irond Will wrote:

mcc wrote:

Fencingsax wrote:

I'm guessing someone 'accidentley' put the wrong letter in the wrong envelope. So some wacko anti-Muslim got a letter about the environment.

I wonder how offended they were.

I like to think over in the bizarro-PA forums (maybe FreeRepublic) some reg in outrage just posted a letter from Virgil Goode saying that we have a responsibility to be stewards of the environment.

I can almost see the Stormfront thread now...

Irond Will

Raggaholic wrote:

Something is not right here. I'm all for hanging (but with no forks in the ass, of course) southern republicans out to dry, but this seems really fishy.

With as backwards and stupid as some politicians are, there is no way his office would have let this letter go out. He got a letter from a citizen and would have sent back a form letter. There is NO WAY that this is the form letter. The office would have been smarter than that, even if the Congressman wasn't.

I call shennanigans.

Eh I knew a lot of staffers in DC, and those offices are pretty well-run compared to their home offices back in the district. I'm not surprised in the least that some hick Rep from hick Virginia would have an office fuck up the mailing of correspondence.

werehippy

Senjutsu wrote:

Irond Will wrote:

mcc wrote:

Fencingsax wrote:

I'm guessing someone 'accidentley' put the wrong letter in the wrong envelope. So some wacko anti-Muslim got a letter about the environment.

I wonder how offended they were.

I like to think over in the bizarro-PA forums (maybe FreeRepublic) some reg in outrage just posted a letter from Virgil Goode saying that we have a responsibility to be stewards of the environment.

I can almost see the Stormfront thread now...

The only thing that could make that better would be if we could find the thread, and cross post the links. Then, and only then, would balance be achieved.

Mahnmut

Kaputa wrote:

Wow. That's probably the worst quote from a politician that I've heard since the series of tubes thing.

Didn't some random politician compare the Iraq war to the Lord of the Rings? I think that was more stupid than the series of tubes. This here is just batshit insane.

jothki

Irond Will wrote:

Raggaholic wrote:

Something is not right here. I'm all for hanging (but with no forks in the ass, of course) southern republicans out to dry, but this seems really fishy.

With as backwards and stupid as some politicians are, there is no way his office would have let this letter go out. He got a letter from a citizen and would have sent back a form letter. There is NO WAY that this is the form letter. The office would have been smarter than that, even if the Congressman wasn't.

I call shennanigans.

Eh I knew a lot of staffers in DC, and those offices are pretty well-run compared to their home offices back in the district. I'm not surprised in the least that some hick Rep from hick Virginia would have an office fuck up the mailing of correspondence.

I think Al Gore's office sent out two letters to the same person claiming contradictory positions at one point.

FunkyWaltDogg

mcc, you're the best!

I hope this guy goes down in flames, but his constituents probably have an idea of his positions already.

Whiniest Man On Earth

mcc wrote:

Whatever's happening here, Goode is standing by the letter. He's already been asked to apologize and specifically said he won't.

As a couple of people have already noted, "by mistake" probably means that they did mean to send this letter, they just meant to send it to somebody totally different.

Are you fucking serious? He won't apologize? Do you have a link to a news article I could read about that? Not that I don't believe you, quite the contrary, but god damn.

This beats out the series of tubes AND the LOTR quotes if you ask me.

Sarksus

Mahnmut wrote:

Kaputa wrote:

Wow. That's probably the worst quote from a politician that I've heard since the series of tubes thing.

Didn't some random politician compare the Iraq war to the Lord of the Rings? I think that was more stupid than the series of tubes. This here is just batshit insane.

Not just any politician. I do believe that was Ricky Santorum, the good old boy who formerly represented the state of Pennsylvania.

Thanatos

I'd say we need a "not retarded" requirement to being a Congressman, but the Republicans would never have it.

Yar

I never had a problem with the tubes quote. This is kind of nutso though.

Agem

defrag wrote:

mcc wrote:

Whatever's happening here, Goode is standing by the letter. He's already been asked to apologize and specifically said he won't.

As a couple of people have already noted, "by mistake" probably means that they did mean to send this letter, they just meant to send it to somebody totally different.

Are you fucking serious? He won't apologize? Do you have a link to a news article I could read about that? Not that I don't believe you, quite the contrary, but god damn.

This beats out the series of tubes AND the LOTR quotes if you ask me.

It's from the first link in his post:

Goode spokesman Linwood Duncan said no apology was forthcoming.

"The only statement the congressman has is that he stands by the letter," Duncan said.

Senjutsu

Yar wrote:

I never had a problem with the tubes quote.

Jesus christ, Yar.

Doc

Senjutsu wrote:

Yar wrote:

I never had a problem with the tubes quote.

Jesus christ, Yar.

It's actually not a bad analogy. I call my internet connection a "pipe" all the time. His point was bullshit, but that's not a new thing about congress.

Incenjucar

Doc wrote:

Senjutsu wrote:

Yar wrote:

I never had a problem with the tubes quote.

Jesus christ, Yar.

It's actually not a bad analogy. I call my internet connection a "pipe" all the time. His point was bullshit, but that's not a new thing about congress.

I've never read the quote, but it has always reminded me of the notion of bandwidth and bottlenecks.

Yar

Doc wrote:

It's actually not a bad analogy. I call my internet connection a "pipe" all the time. His point was bullshit, but that's not a new thing about congress.

Thank you, exactly. Not only was the tube metaphor quite acceptable and commonplace, the analogy tubes:Internet::dumptruck:notInternet was at least adequate for the point he was trying to make. The Internet is a series of lines of finite bandwidth, not a limitless data warehouse. That doesn't mean he was autmoatically right or wrong about 'net neutrality, but the metaphors accurately represented a valid point.

Senjutsu

Doc wrote:

Senjutsu wrote:

Yar wrote:

I never had a problem with the tubes quote.

Jesus christ, Yar.

It's actually not a bad analogy. I call my internet connection a "pipe" all the time. His point was bullshit, but that's not a new thing about congress.

Calling the internet a series of tubes, in and of itself, isn't a bad layman description. But that's just the most repeated part of what he said, it isn't the entirety of the quote by a long-shot. The entirety of it is a bizarre, horribly reasoned, completely unrelated to fact argument based entirely on mistaking said description with the underlying reality.

Thanatos

Senjutsu wrote:

Doc wrote:

Senjutsu wrote:

Yar wrote:

I never had a problem with the tubes quote.

Jesus christ, Yar.

It's actually not a bad analogy. I call my internet connection a "pipe" all the time. His point was bullshit, but that's not a new thing about congress.

Calling the internet a series of tubes, in and of itself, isn't a bad layman description. But that's just the most repeated part of what he said, it isn't the entirety of the quote by a long-shot. The entirety of it is a bizarre, horribly reasoned, completely unrelated to fact argument based entirely on mistaking said description with the underlying reality.

I don't know what you're talking about, Senj. I know the last time someone sent me an internet, it took far too long to arrive. And it was all YouTube's fault.

Yar

Thanatos wrote:

I know the last time someone sent me an internet, it took far too long to arrive. And it was all YouTube's fault.

That part of the quote was obviously not technically accurate. But I'm pretty sure virtually anything out of a politician's mouth is equally exaggerated and self-serving, we just aren't always experts enough in the respective field to know it.

[Tycho?]

Is there some disease that make republicans morons? I know this probably sounds like total flame bait, but really. I'm sure democrats say plenty of stupid stuff too, but stuff like this? Damn those illegal muslim mexicans forcing good christians to swear on the koran? I mean, fuck. Not only is it racist, its just idiotic, its never even been a requirement to swear on the bible for anything. This is just fear/hate mongering, or a man who is as ignorant as someone from the middle ages.

Amusingly, he'd be using the same arguments and have the same attitude as the Muslim extremists which I am sure he would hate so very much.

Thanatos

Yar wrote:

Thanatos wrote:

I know the last time someone sent me an internet, it took far too long to arrive. And it was all YouTube's fault.

That part of the quote was obviously not technically accurate. But I'm pretty sure virtually anything out of a politician's mouth is equally exaggerated and self-serving, we just aren't always experts enough in the respective field to know it.

However, the people saying it usually are.

Why the hell shouldn't the guy in charge of regulating the internet be expected to be able to speak about it in a more lucid manner than your average 8-year-old? I wasn't aware we were hiring the developmentally disabled to run Congressional Committees.

Yar

Thanatos wrote:

Why the hell shouldn't the guy in charge of regulating the internet be expected to be able to speak about it in a more lucid manner than your average 8-year-old? I wasn't aware we were hiring the developmentally disabled to run Congressional Committees.

I think you misunderstand. First of all, the series of tubes vs. dumptruck argument demonstrated to me that he does understand the Internet more than your average Joe. And secondly, I think he knew that it wasn't YouTube that caused his email to show up late. He knew he was mixing facts around to make his point sound better than it is in order to achieve whatever political angle he was bartering at the time. That's what politicians do all the time. They just don't always make for good memes.

Senjutsu

Yar wrote:

Thanatos wrote:

Why the hell shouldn't the guy in charge of regulating the internet be expected to be able to speak about it in a more lucid manner than your average 8-year-old? I wasn't aware we were hiring the developmentally disabled to run Congressional Committees.

I think you misunderstand. First of all, the series of tubes vs. dumptruck argument demonstrated to me that he does understand the Internet more than your average Joe.

No, it doesn't. The "series of tubes" part demonstrates that a staffer tried to explain the idea of different protocols, or bandwidth, or possibly just fibre-optic cables to him; the dump trucks part indicates it didn't take.

And secondly, I think he knew that it wasn't YouTube that caused his email to show up late. He knew he was mixing facts around to make his point sound better than it is in order to achieve whatever political angle he was bartering at the time. That's what politicians do all the time. They just don't always make for good memes.

Nothing about it made for a good meme. This:

Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got... an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday, I got it yesterday. Why? [...] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

is not the uttering of a canny political mastery subtly rearranging terminology he knows is wrong as part of a brilliant scheme to ensnare the minds of the common man. It's incoherent gibberish from an insane old coot who'd be hard put to tell you what day it was if you pressed him on it.

Thanatos

Yar wrote:

Thanatos wrote:

Why the hell shouldn't the guy in charge of regulating the internet be expected to be able to speak about it in a more lucid manner than your average 8-year-old? I wasn't aware we were hiring the developmentally disabled to run Congressional Committees.

I think you misunderstand. First of all, the series of tubes vs. dumptruck argument demonstrated to me that he does understand the Internet more than your average Joe. And secondly, I think he knew that it wasn't YouTube that caused his email to show up late. He knew he was mixing facts around to make his point sound better than it is in order to achieve whatever political angle he was bartering at the time. That's what politicians do all the time. They just don't always make for good memes.

So, what you're saying is he was just maliciously lying, not retarded?

Okay, that makes things ever-so-much better.

Senjutsu

Thanatos wrote:

Yar wrote:

Thanatos wrote:

Why the hell shouldn't the guy in charge of regulating the internet be expected to be able to speak about it in a more lucid manner than your average 8-year-old? I wasn't aware we were hiring the developmentally disabled to run Congressional Committees.

I think you misunderstand. First of all, the series of tubes vs. dumptruck argument demonstrated to me that he does understand the Internet more than your average Joe. And secondly, I think he knew that it wasn't YouTube that caused his email to show up late. He knew he was mixing facts around to make his point sound better than it is in order to achieve whatever political angle he was bartering at the time. That's what politicians do all the time. They just don't always make for good memes.

So, what you're saying is he was just maliciously lying, not retarded?

Okay, that makes things ever-so-much better.

I for one find it incredibly believable that an octogenarian is an expert on the vagaries of internet routing protocols.

Yar

Senjutsu wrote:

is not the uttering of a canny political mastery subtly rearranging terminology he knows is wrong as part of a brilliant scheme to ensnare the minds of the common man. It's incoherent gibberish from an insane old coot who'd be hard put to tell you what day it was if you pressed him on it.

Well, it's neither. But as someone very experienced in internetworking I can say that I follow that quote completely; it is all essentially correct, other than minor things like calling it an "internet" which I forgive any 80-yr-old for when discussing any topic. I think he knew he was against net neutrality and used essentially accurate analogies to paint an unlikely doomsday scenario to make his point. It's very common in politics. But nothing anywhere in what he said leads me to believe he is less than qualified for his role or that he is insane or rambling.

KungFu

This is beautiful.

This beats out the series of tubes AND the LOTR quotes if you ask me.

:?:

Agem

KungFu wrote:

This is beautiful.

This beats out the series of tubes AND the LOTR quotes if you ask me.

:?:

Here you go.