I knew this moron had to be a Republican when I saw the headline, "Va congressman fears more Muslims elected"

It appears somebody in the Republican Party doesn't trust any Muslim, not even a Muslim who is a United States citizens fairly elected to United States Congress by United States citizens:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16311648/from/RS.5/

This guy didn't learn anything from the "macaca" incident?!!? You think George Allen would have contacted Representative Goode and told him that sending out a letter condemning an entire group of people based on their religion is completely ignorant and un-American, not to mention strategically unsavvy as well (unless his constituency is as stupid as he is . . . ok, so maybe it's not that unsavvy after all). Nonetheless, some of the contents of this letter are shocking in their ignorance and paranoia:

"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."

"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."

Wow! Is this guy serious? And what exactly does he mean when he says that these congressional Muslims will be "demanding the use of the Koran"? Does he mean just the swearing-in ceremony or does he mean an overhaul of all United States law based upon the laws of the Koran? Not that it matters: the former possiblility is a ceremonial situation and the latter is, given the circumstances, highly unlikely to be relevant in our Christian dominated society. The other thing this bozo implies in his letter is that Muslim immigrants -- not financially secure, SUV-driving Anglo-Saxon yuppie consumers -- are "swamping" this nation's resources. Huh? How does he come to this conclusion? Not only are our financially secure, SUV-driving Anglo-Saxon yuppie consumers swamping much of the U.S.'s resources, they're swamping Muslim-dominated countries's resources as well. I mean, does this fool know how many gallons of Middle East-imported fuel it takes to fill an American-made tank like the Cadillac Escalade? Wake up, Mr. Goode: we are swamping their resources, not vice versa as you see it.

So how does somebody so obviously prejudiced and ignorant get elected to such an important public position? We'll have to interview his constituency for the answer to that question. Based on the stupidity of Mr. Goode's letter, I would be afraid -- very, very afraid -- to meet the people whose views Mr. Goode reflects.

Technical Corrections

Robert Gates was sworn in as George W. Bush's new Secretary of Defense, finally replacing blunderhead nonpareil Donald Rumsfeld. At this point anybody is an improvement over Rumsfeld, who oversaw a string of failures as grand as any in the annals of New Orleans Saints history. That said, one of his very first statements as Secretary of Defense exposed a true lack of understanding of the Iraq situation, which is sad since Gates entered the scene with the promise that he has a completely different and uncompromising perspective on the Iraq War. If this truly were the case, how does one explain this ignorant quote:

"As the president has made clear," Gates said, "we simply cannot afford to fail in the Middle East. Failure in Iraq at this juncture would be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility and endanger Americans for decades to come."

"Failure at this juncture would be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility endanger Americans for decades to come" -- has this guy been asleep the past four years? "At this juncture?!!?" No, Mr. Gates, the juncture that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility and endanger Americans for years to come arrived four years ago when President Cheney, uh, I mean President Bush -- under the command of Vice President Cheney and his minions -- decided to go forward with the hair-brained plan to make an example out of Iraq by "bringing democracy" to it. That juncture ended with Colin Powell's absurd spectacle at the United Nations, where he showed a bunch of muddled satellite images of the Baghdad McDonald's claiming it was a state-of-the-art nuclear arsenal. That time period -- when Bush & Co. could have taken the side of common sense and decided not to invade a country that had been neither harboring terrorists nor building a nuclear weapons arsenal -- was the juncture that will haunt our nation and endanger Americans for years to come; it already has impaired our credibility in international politics. Acknowledging these facts upon taking his oath of office would have lent the new Secretary of Defense a line of credibility as well, but his comments already have proven that his apple does not fall far from the Bush.

Christmas is coming . . .

pass me the NyQuil, please.

Rumsfeld Town Hall Meeting (What The World Needs Now)

I just saw on cnn.com that taking place as I write this very sentence is a Donald Rumsfeld "Town Hall Meeting." What's gonna happen there -- an hour and a half of Rummy using his unique ability to avoid answering questions?!!? Perhaps we'll get more gems like these:

"We do know of certain knowledge that he [Osama Bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead."

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."

"Well, um, you know, something's neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so, I suppose, as Shakespeare said."

"Learn to say 'I don't know.' If used when appropriate, it will be often."

"If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't, I'll just respond cleverly."

Or perhaps we'll get an hour and a half of Rummy telling us that it's just too complicated for us peons to understand what it is he's discussing. Or -- probably most accurately -- it will be an hour and a half of Rummy giving pat answers to scripted question from his Republican supporters. After all, the only kind of "town hall meetings" in which the GOP can particpate are the ones that offer nothing but complete, unwavering endorsement of the policies already implemented by the GOP. I can't wait for the highlights of this enlightening town hall meeting.