http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24244278/

Quote :

"A Colorado legislator known for kicking a photographer was ordered to leave the podium of the state House of Representatives on Monday because he called Mexican workers "illiterate peasants.""

4/21/2008 6:52:50 PM

Quote :

"“I looked up ’illiterate’ in the dictionary and it means somebody who is lacking in formal education or is unable to read and write,” he said. “I don’t think these people who are planning to come over here and pick potatoes or peaches are likely to have much of a formal education. I looked up the word ’peasant.’ The word ’peasant’ means a person who works in agricultural fields."

It's funny how politicians that put their foot in their mouthes always turn to the dictionary defense.

But yeah, saying "illiterate peasants" conveys his idea more clearly that saying "illegal immigrants" would have.

4/21/2008 8:14:23 PM

my guess is that he was hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society

4/21/2008 8:53:55 PM

Where we all know that supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses.

4/21/2008 8:58:41 PM

I mean, can you not see the violence inherent in the system?

4/21/2008 9:22:08 PM

Help! Help! I'm being repressed!!

4/22/2008 2:37:45 AM

Quote :

"my guess is that he was hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society"

Perhaps, but what makes this bizarre is that the loaded term of "peasant" has never really been a part of the American political lexicon. Yeomen, sharecroppers, and even slaves, but not peasant.

4/22/2008 3:41:07 AM

haha holy hell

it almost seems real

4/22/2008 8:55:36 AM

"illiterate peasants"... meh... sounds like a fair statement to me. I don't think anyone would get kicked off stage for saying "crooked politician". So, I don't see why he got booted. Our unquenchable thirst for PC has gotten the best of us.

4/22/2008 9:25:29 AM

^

4/22/2008 10:17:15 AM

Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government.

[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 10:40 AM. Reason : safd]

4/22/2008 10:40:15 AM

ZOMG mexicans are taking my jobs picking berries, washing dishes, and mowing yards. Where am i to work now

4/22/2008 11:01:47 AM

it'd be pretty funny if HUR lost his job to a mexican since he's always so quick to dismiss any lost jobs to illegal immigrants as complete bullshit

4/22/2008 11:37:19 AM

no i lose my jobs to the asians, indians, and middle easterners. all of who get an "ok" from uncle sam to move here and work.

4/22/2008 11:42:52 AM

yeah, there are lots of undocumented indians and asians just streaming over our shared southern border every day

4/22/2008 12:05:06 PM

wtf are u talking about don't be dense

4/22/2008 12:34:38 PM

so all the asians and indians are coming over here illegally? is that what you're saying?

4/22/2008 12:38:24 PM

Are you purposefully this obtuse? He isn't even insinuating that. He is saying the type of work he is in gets taken by those types of folks who are coming here on H1bv's, not Mexicans here illegally or otherwise.

4/22/2008 12:43:04 PM

you must of missed the part where he posted about the "ok from uncle sam."

My brother lives in this guys district. He is probably the largest slum lord in Colorado Springs and when he kept getting busted for violations he tried to run for city council so he could remove the requirements.

He also didn't get elected by the people. He was elected by a Republican committee, which went against the will of the republicans in the district, to finish a term. There was a call for his head even before he was sworn in. The Republican caucus there also threatened to vote to not accept his nomination to fill out the term.

4/22/2008 12:44:24 PM

^^and i'm saying it would be funny if a mexican took his job since he is forever saying DEY TURK UR JOBS as if no mexican immigrants have ever taken anybody's job in the US

4/22/2008 12:46:59 PM

i think treetwista is saying that he doesn't give a shit about people taking jobs, but he cares about whether or not they comply with the laws of the country that they are in when they are doing the taking.

4/22/2008 12:47:59 PM

no im saying i think it would be funny if a mexican took HUR's job since he is forever dismissing the possibility that mexicans take any american jobs by parroting the south park episode for the past few years

4/22/2008 12:56:40 PM

Well if an illegal immigrant came to the US; was able to get into a university somehow, finance it on his own since he most likely wouldn't get financial aid, and completed his engineering degree. Perhaps then i would be like

'Jose tuk me job'!!

Although i would imagine since most respectable employers require a background check as well as proof that you can work in the US they would not be hiring illegals.

[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 1:04 PM. Reason : a]

4/22/2008 1:02:46 PM

im not worried about an illegal immigrant taking my job

course if i was still in high school and looking to get an after school job it might be different

or maybe if i was one of the millions of americans who didnt have a college education

4/22/2008 1:05:08 PM

Not my problem

4/22/2008 1:07:54 PM

lots of things arent my problem, but they're still problems

4/22/2008 1:11:40 PM

and there you have the problem with the libertarian philosophy.

4/22/2008 1:15:03 PM

In all seriousness, have you ever even met someone who "had his job taken by an illegal"? I haven't. In fact, I've never even seen a situation in which work was totally unavailable.

4/22/2008 3:29:51 PM

the major problem with illegals is that they drive the wage down to such a level that an individual attempting to raise a family is incapable of doing such as such a wage.

4/22/2008 3:39:50 PM

^^ when's the last time you saw average white or black Americans hanging drywall?

have you ever wondered what happened to all those dudes who used to tape and mud? I have. And I know. I'll tell you they ain't hanging drywall anymore, unless they don't mind a heavy wage cut and eating burritos off the back of a truck.

same things happening to other construction trades. i saw it starting to happen in electrical and plumbing (the top of the skilled trades) at the end of my career as an industrial electrician in early 2000's.

Quote :

"the major problem with illegals is that they drive the wage down to such a level that an individual attempting to raise a family is incapable of doing such at the current standard of living that is acceptable to the non-illegal society."

[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 3:50 PM. Reason : ]

4/22/2008 3:42:29 PM

yep...also masonry and block work, rebar and concrete, framing, you name it

4/22/2008 3:49:27 PM

What's ironic is the Bush administration did more to hasten the influx of illegals then the democratic administration before it.

When it gets down to it the higher ups in the GOP will favor the profit seeking corporations if what is good for them is in conflict with their good old boy blue collar git-er-done constituents.

4/22/2008 5:02:35 PM

all Bush Admin has to do is spin the media to focus on favorite talking points such as "Faggots are gettin' married." and "Witches are teachin' Evolution in the schools!"

and their "get-r-dun constituents" will flock to the polls. never mind that Bush and Pals shit on on them all the way to the bank

4/22/2008 5:37:44 PM

whoops dbl post

[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 5:46 PM. Reason : .]

4/22/2008 5:46:02 PM

yeah they should stick to better media spin like "Your evil car is destroyin tha planet" or "Lets ban guns, don't worry tha po-lice will protect ya"

and their "green constituents" will flock to the polls. never mind that Dems and pals shit on on them all the way to the bank

4/22/2008 5:46:39 PM

one car isnt evil. but the millions of cars in this country are a major source of greenhouse gases. thats just a scientific fact that all the bibles in the world cant erase.

gun ownership is protected by the constitution, and won't be banned. the question is how to reduce gun violence, especially in dense urban areas.




thanks for trying, though. maybe you'll do better next year.



[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 5:53 PM. Reason : ]

4/22/2008 5:52:01 PM

funny you concede that guns are protected by the constitution, yet one of your examples about "witches teachin" screams of religious persecution against christians...1st amendment...tsk tsk...just be glad it wasnt a shot at muslims or people would actually get offended

and re: millions of cars....yeah they're emitting greenhouse gases...and? i guess we'll all be dead in 2 weeks if we dont stop driving, thats a fact! maybe some people shouldnt steal scenes from hollywood blockbusters about doomsday when putting together their "documentaries" and scare tactics of their own...oh the homos are a-gettin murried! oh your car is gonna flood tha earth!

that gets me thinking...why dont the GW scare tacticians adopt something about the great flood in the bible and doomsday...you know, tie in global warming and the apocalypse...that way morons that faithfully believe in either of those hypotheses can act like idiots together

in fact maybe global warming and sea level changes are atheist democrats' ways of believing in the apocolypse? hmm

[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 6:30 PM. Reason : .]

4/22/2008 6:25:52 PM

ive just realized something.







you're fucking nuts.

4/22/2008 7:54:20 PM

coming from you i'll take that as a compliment

4/22/2008 8:30:32 PM

Quote :

"But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see."

4/23/2008 1:40:40 AM

free speech these days....




BAI FIRST AMENDMENT. WE HAD A NICE RUN TOGETHER

4/23/2008 1:48:37 AM

A lot of this thread seems way off course, and I won't both with it.

But if you don't see how calling a politician referring to a segment of the American population as "illiterate peasants" is a problem, I weep for you. Even if the topic he was discussion expressly and solely involved illegal immigrants -- which he didn't -- that would be offensive.

I shudder to think how many of you would be supporting him if the discussion had regarded the construction of housing projects and he had said, "Let me tell you why we don't need any more big-lipped ghetto hood rats in this state."

4/23/2008 3:36:27 AM

^thats a pretty shitty analogy

the colorado legislator wasnt blatantly racist like you were

4/23/2008 10:17:20 AM

The fuck he wasn't. Besides, I can go to the dictionary and play gay little semantics games just like this colorado guy. "Well, some of the people moving in are probably going to have larger-than-average lips. They will by definition be living in the ghetto. Etc etc."

4/23/2008 12:41:48 PM

illiterate peasants means somebody is poor and uneducated and works in the fields

it has NOTHING AT ALL to do with insulting someones race like you did with your analogy

its not like he said "we don't need another 5,000 illiterate wetbacks coming into our country"

overall though

Quote :

"Our unquenchable thirst for PC has gotten the best of us."

the fact that this is even a news story is kind of weak

4/23/2008 1:12:58 PM

I can't think of one group of people who wouldn't be offended by being called a peasant. Which is ok with half of the people in TSB because they won't ever be in that group of people being called a peasant.

4/23/2008 2:56:20 PM

I must say that all of you Macacas are giving quite niggardly responses in this thread.

4/23/2008 4:10:36 PM

Quote :

"I can't think of one group of people who wouldn't be offended by being called a peasant"

i dunno...maybe...peasants?

4/23/2008 4:11:17 PM

I'm against the serfs myself.

4/23/2008 4:27:18 PM

illegal hired labor?


isn't peasants a step up from being called outright "aliens"?

4/23/2008 4:39:14 PM