Loading ...Abdul takes the AFAIN
You know I have come under attack from a lot of people in my life, most of them were misinformed and this time is no exception. Apparently the American Family Association of Indiana has an issue with yours truly. They were in attendance at this week’s news conference where the Statehouse press corps witnessed Congressman Dan Burton (Danny) go after me and accuse me of being a devil’s advocate and remind me that he had been in office “longer than I had been alive.” He’s been in public office since 1966, when the Flinstones went off the air. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that while it’s quite remarkable he’s been in office for 40 years, most people on public aid only get two. While folks like Brian Howey offered the straight facts of the exchange. The AFAIN offered this account in an e-mail to their members…
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Yesterday, US Representatives Mike Sodrel and Dan Burton joined State Senator Mike Delph in a statehouse press conference on the issue of judicial restraint. Rep. Sodrel has authored a bill (H.R. 4776) that limits the jurisdiction of federal judges in order to prevent their intervening in the day-to-day operations of a state legislature. This is a reaction to Judge David Hamilton’s siding with the Indiana Civil Liberties Union in its desire to censor religious speech in opening prayers.
One of the things you probably won’t hear in the media about this press conference is the banter back and forth between a fairly new Indianapolis talk show host and these three legislators. The liberal talk show host, who thinks quite a bit of himself, had his ears pinned back when Congressman Burton decided he had enough of his sniping at the bill.
Burton stepped in front of Rep. Sodrel to get to the microphone and said something like, “look, I don’t know who you are, but I’ve been in the state and Federal legislative branch for nearly forty years and I have never seen the type of scenarios you are trumping up. They just don’t exist and to put them up as a devil’s advocate argument is a disservice to the many members in both political parties who oppose this awful ruling. There is a real attack on religious freedom here and this bill addresses it.”
It was classic Dan Burton at his best. Experienced reporters and political veterans know that Rep. Burton can stand up to opposition, quickly dig in and defend his principles in a heated moment as well as anyone in the US Congress.
Congressman Sodrel’s bill already has 33 co-sponsors from eighteen different states. He expects the bill to see some action in Congress.
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Although these guys at AFAIN think they know me (because I do think highly of myself), they obviously don’t know me if they think I’m a liberal. I am consistent when it comes to my belief that less government is better whether that applies to my Dad’s business or girlfriend’s uterus. I figure anything going in or out of either of those two things has something to do with me. I was surprised when they claimed I had my “ears pinned back” by the Danny. That reference seemed a little “Brokeback Mountain” if you ask me, which would seem odd coming from this particular group.
I thought I asked Danny some pointed but honest questions. And from my 16 years of media and politics when a politician starts an answer with how long has been in office, that usually means he has no clue about what he is talking about. I cannot say if that is the case with Danny because I don’t know him that well.
What I do know is that his rant has become the standing joke at the Capitol. I’ve had a number of lawmakers approach me asking me “who was I” and telling me how long they had been in office.
I don’t what Danny’s issue was that day or why the AFAIN decided to go after me. In all fairness, they did not identify me by name. But I doubt if there are many people named Abdul-Hakim Shabazz over at the AFAIN , so they probably did not want to misspell my name. I appreciate that.
What I will say though if this was “classic Burton” as they described in their mass e-mail, after 40 years of that model, maybe the voters in the 5th District and the people of Indiana might want to upgrade.
February 24th, 2006 at 8:24 am
Do you honestly expect anything less from the AFA? Their type of activism breeds hatred, intolerance, and bigotry.
One look at AFAIN’s website
http://www.afain.net/ and you see them for what they really are…
Alert #2 says “Freshman Congressman Mike Sodrel from Southeast Indiana is authoring a bill to keep Federal Judges out of the day-to-day operations of the elected bodies of the Indiana (or any other) Statehouse.
In other words, his bill re-establishes the separation of powers that I believe was violated by Judge Hamilton?s ruling against Christian prayers in the legislature by limiting a federal judges? jurisdiction.”
PURE Bologna. The ruling states
“There is ‘a crucial difference between government speech endorsing religion, which the Establishment Clause forbids, and private speech endorsing religion, which the Free Speech and Free
Exercise Clauses protect.’”
an then this….
“Polygamy: Red Herring or Real Threat?
Last week, a small storm erupted in Canada when the media discovered a government study recommending that Canada legalize polygamy. The study was authored by three law professors at Queen?s University in Kingston, Ontario. The government commissioned the $150,000 study into the legal and social ramifications of polygamy just weeks before it introduced divisive same-sex marriage legislation. Same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada last June.”
What they don’t say is that the old testament is full of polygamists… hell, Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived and he had over 300 wives….
And I also noticed that there are two African Americans on the main page. One is for a link that talks about welfare reform and the other is one that talks about prison reform. Hell, even the header image shows a single black mother with her child… and the families in the header are white….
And by all means… don’t forget this
http://www.cagle.com/news/SpongebobGay/images/fairrington.jpg
Kinda puts it all into perspective….
February 24th, 2006 at 9:22 am
Aww, c’mon, you know you’re just another bleeding heart liberal. AFAIN said it, I believe it, that settles it. (I’m not sure why, but this whole episode amuses me somehow. Maybe because I suspect that libertarians and social conservatives are very uneasy being together under the Republican tent. Generally speaking anyway — I have no idea whether or how you vote.)
February 24th, 2006 at 10:26 am
very hilarious. i suppose you would lokk a little “brokeback” with your ears pinned back….
i wonder how many sponsors of this proposal are jewish, hindu, muslim, buddist, atheist, agnostic, etc.?
February 24th, 2006 at 10:36 am
You better watch yourself with those AFA guys. They’ve earned quite a reputation for boycotting folks they don’t like. They may try to boycott you off the air.
February 24th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
I could use the free publicity.