Welcome to the real world of Congress, welcome to the real. . . Los Angeles???

Trent Lott, crazy Senator from Mississippi, who lost his leadership position for praising Strom Thurmond (infamous racist who ran for President on the States' Rights line), just won back a position in the Republican Senate leadership. Why did Lott lose his seat in the first place? Because at Strom Thurmond's birthday party, Lott said,

"I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

Lott meant, if slavery were still in place, the country wouldn't have the problems of civil rights or equality. As Jon Stewart says, "He's now Minority Whip - the jokes just write themselves." Or as Colbert says, "That is a great step for him - of course Minority Whip is one step away from being Grand Wizard."

On a happier note, one of the reasons why I love Minnesota's new Congressman Keith Ellison, the first Muslim American in Congress, is because he blew off President Bush's reception for newsly elected Congresscritters to attend a meeting with the AFL-CIO.

Unfortunately, Ellison got asked the stupidest question by a CNN reporter who accused him in a non-accusation accusation of working for and with our enemies.

Ellison is an African American Muslim. What if Beck had picked on him for being African American instead of Muslim and said instead, "Prove to me that you're not a thief because you're black. I'm not accusing you of being a thief, but that's the way a lot of Americans feel." There would be a crazy amount of press and outrage over Beck's idiocy if he made the statement that way.

Lastly, via Americablog, I saw this youtube footage of UCLA campus police repeatedly tasering a student who might be Muslim. Horrifying but real. He says, "Here's your Patriot Act, here's your fucking abuse of power. . . I got tased for no reason, I was leaving this godforsaken place, and you detained me." Other students are protesting their abuse of the student, and a student who asks for an officer's badge number gets threatened with their own tasering. This is really creepy and Orwellian, and I can't believe university "cops" are doing this.

TAKE ACTION by voicing your outrage to UCLA Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams:
Telephone: 310-825-2151
Fax: 310-206-6030
Email: chancellor@conet.ucla.edu
Let UCLA know that this is not acceptable at all.