A few weeks ago, Rep. Patrick kennedy (D-RI) was at LAX airport, and was about to board a plane. His bag was too big to get through the x-ray machine, and he got into an argument with thne attendent (who was a black woman). Something happened, and the congressman wound up shoving the woman. he at first denied the assault-bat later his lawyesr/handlers learned that the incident was on videotape-so they now admit that there was an altercation.
My question: since he is white and the victim was black, shouldn’t this be classed as a “hate” crime?
Second: is Rep.Kennedy the dumbest memeber of Congress?
No, it’s only classified as a hate crime if the racial/sexual/religious/etc difference had something to do with the action. Case in point: Last weekend Penn State’s quarterback got into a fight with an off-duty police officer outside of a bar. Allegedly, he attacked the man (a white man) because he (the officer) was dating a black woman. If that is in fact what happened (and a number of witnesses claim it is) then THAT is a hate crime, because the officer was beaten for racial reasons. So unless Kennedy said something like “none of you [insert slur here] can do ANYTHING right, you should just go back to [insert homeland here] and leave us alone,” then the simple fact of there being a racial difference is NOT enough to constitute a hate crime.
As for your second question, I think that calls for a special FOX shlock-TV episode similar to “Battle of the Child Geniuses” from the other week. “Which Congressman is Dumbest!” – next on FOX! Congressmen who answer questions right get to leave the studio, until we’re left with just two congressmen who take a 10-question multiple choice common-knowledge test. The one who answers the least correctly wins the Dan Quayle Trophy for Dumbest Congressman Alive!!
Egkelley, you’re kidding, right? Here’s CNNs report of the story:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/05/17/pkennedy.cnn/index.html
Absolutely gripping drama! Undeniably sensational pictures! Out of control politician actually touches security guard while in hurry to get to plane! Fire and brimstone falling from the sky in large chunks!
As the video shows, Rep. Kennedy barely touches the guard while stupidly trying to get past her with a bag. The guard properly prevents him from so doing, he then takes his larger bag out of sight (likely to some flunky in order that it get checked on board), runs the smaller bag through the scanner, and continues on his merry way. The guard, sensing the possibility of big bucks from important person, files a complaint and tries to turn the whole thing into battery. The hearing officer sees the video, concludes rightly that it doesn’t show criminal activity, and refuses to allow the charge to be filed. End of story.
Amazing what a little factual evidence can do for stupid claims by those with an agenda…
egkelly said:
IMO, Dan Burton of Indiana is so dumb he would be the dumbest member of the Indiana state legislature. I assume the members of that august body are no brighter than their Georgia counterparts and therefore contain a much higher
proportion of mouth-breathing hacks, flacks and all-round dim bulbs than the general population, but I have no doubt that even in that aggregation of peerless poopery Burton would shine. Dimly, of course.
You can excuse the actions of some of the GOP leadership over the past 3-4 years on the grounds that Clinton has driven them crazy and therefore they are not fully responsible for their actions, but Burton’s elevator has never gone to the top floor. Newt Gingrich has the eyes of a guy getting a hand job in Sunday School, Dick Armey the eyes of a aged beagle on gin. Dan Burton has the eyes of a demented goat.
AFAIK Burton is still shooting watermelons in his back yard trying to prove Vincent Foster was murdered by Hillary in full ninja regalia.
It would be especially appropriate if Burton and Quayle were inducted into the Dumb, Dumb, Seriously Dumb HOF on the same day.
DSYOUNGESQ, for relying on a videotape-this is irrelevant!
What is relevant is what Rep. Kennedy SAID to the woman! How are you IN ANY POSITION to know this?
In any case, this case must go to court, to properly assess what type of crime was commited!
I am surprised that a lawyer would leap to unwarranted conclusions, based on such heresay evidence!
Maybe not kidding, but surely trying it on.
This is just a tad different from your OP:
The link suggests that there was an altercation, and the chap in question may be an impatient arsehole, but his lawyers backing away from denying there was an assault? Piffle, and you know it.
Presumably people hoping to beat up an incident are exempt from answering this question. Oh, and it’s not heresay, and it’s not even hearsay evidence.
picmr
10…
9…
8…
Yer pal,
Satan
I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
One month, one week, three days, 14 hours, 50 minutes and 18 seconds.
1624 cigarettes not smoked, saving $203.09.
Life saved: 5 days, 15 hours, 20 minutes.
jcgmoi wrote
This is nothing new. Back in 1897, it was the Indiana legislature that tried to legislate the “fact” that pi is exactly equal to 16 divided by the square root of three, or about 9.24. The bill actually passed the House (unanimously!) and in the Senate was referred to Committee on Temperance (!) which recommended its passage. A professor of mathematics from Purdue put an end to it before it could pass the senate.
Yep. The OP as it referred to hate crimes was answered adequately in the very first post. For the dumbest politician competition, I turn you all over to the tender mercies of David B and Gaudere in Great Debates.
Certainly not. That honor should go to Representative Bob Barr of Georgia’s seventh congressional district. Barr is the one who called for Clinton’s impeachment before the President ever met Lewinsky. He also says he is severely against abortion, while he drove his second wife (of three) to a clinic to have one performed.
Rep. Marty Martinez (D-California) was long regarded as California’s dimmest bulb in Congress. He had a safe district so he stayed around in Congress for many terms with little or no opposition, despite a total lack of legislative accomplishments.
Finally in the March primary, a term-limited California State Senator, Hilda Solis, ran against Martinez and wiped him out.
If you looked around the California Legislature, you could see one of the effects of term limits: it increases the opportunities for really dumb people to get elected to office.
[bold]Bibliophage:[/bold] Thanks for reminding me of the Indiana legislature’s foray into higher mathematics. You inspired me to find this link
which includes the original text of Indiana House Bill No. 246., setting forth the true value of pi and, as well, citing Dr. Edwin J. Goodwin’s solutions of the trisection of the angle, the duplication of the cube and the quadrature of the circle.
I stand by my nomination of Dan Burton for the dimmest of the dim, but there is no denying that he faces some stiff competition. My former rep Charlie Norwood became alarmed some years ago at the anti-environmental rap so many GOPers were getting. Actually, he was merely following Gingrich’s lead, but Newt restricted his green-friendly activities to escorting poor kids to the Atlanta zoo. Norwood was more ambitious. He wangled a grant to introduce rainbow trout into the Savannah River and on the day of their release into
their new home was photographed with waders and fly rod, a gaping grin on his face. Unfortunately no one had told him that rainbows require waters of a temperature and rate of flow not often achieved in the sultry sluggish streams of the coastal plain, and that even if these were especially hardy trout, capable of prodigies of adaptation, the fact that their release point was but a few miles downstream from a plant engaged in both the extraction of nuclear weapons materiel and the daily infusion into the Savannah of hundreds of thousands of gallons of heated water insured that Charlie’s dream, and 10,000 trout fingerlings, died a-borning.
Well, Charlie is still in office but he’s moved on to other matters. He’s currently butting heads with house GOP leadership over managed health care, and actually has transmuted himself into a pretty good rep. Seemingly honest, hard-working, conciliatory in speech and manner, attentive to his constituency’s needs without trying to bribe them and with a minimal amount of pandering. But for me, he’ll always be Charlie the fisherman.
FOX should make a show called “When Congressmen Attack”.
I would watch that.