My MOTWM class is pretty interesting these days. This quarter we’re spending much of our time focusing on fifteenth-century Italian politics and art. It seems that at the end of the fifteenth century, the Italian city-states were caught unawares by the rising power of the new political order. Florence, Venice, Milan, Naples… all thought they were just as important and powerful as the newly consolidated nation-states of England, France, and Spain. Then came 1494, King Charles VIII, and the beginning of the Italian Wars. Fascinating stuff.
Of course, I’m sure that studying ancient moldy history like this has no relevance to modern politics whatsoever.
So there I was this morning, minding my own business, when Nancy sent me an email about Howard Coble and his idiotic statements about why interning Japanese-Americans during World War II was a dandy idea after all.1 Coble’s pathetic non-apology apology is just the icing on the cake:
“I regret that many Japanese and Arab-Americans found my choice of words
offensive because that was certainly not my intent,” Coble, R-N.C., said.
Gosh, silly us for being so sensitive.
I remember years ago, my Mom telling me that when she was a high school student in Florida, one poor brave teacher tried to teach the class that the internment camps had actually happened at all, and an outraged coalition of parents rose up to prevent their dear children from being scarred by this information. So maybe we’re making progress? At least it’s being discussed in the open, even by the troglodytes. Feh.
The really scary part is that Coble is… drumroll… chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.2 I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I am not a big one for petitions. I occasionally get well-meaning letters asking me to sign an online petition for X, or copy-and-paste a Statement on Y and email it to my Representative, the President, whoever. My usual response is skim-and-delete. But this one is different. Tomorrow morning, I’ll be sending out three letters in the mail. One to Anna Eshoo (my representative), one to F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (chairman of the Judiciary Committee) and one to Dennis Hastert (the Big Cheese — in theory, anyway). Their addresses, by the way, are:
| Anna Eshoo | Dennis Hastert | James Sensenbrenner |
|---|---|---|
| 205 Cannon Building Washington, D.C. 20515, (202) 225-8104 annagram@mail.house.gov |
235 Cannon HOB Washington, D.C. 20515 (202) 225-2976 dhastert@mail.house.gov |
2449 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515-4905 (202) 225-5101 sensenbrenner@mail.house.gov |
Who knows, if enough people write in, maybe that asshole Coble will get thrown
off the subcommittee. It’s worth a shot.
1. I’m something of a news junkie these days, and so I’m really not sure how this one slipped under my radar for over a week. (Smacks forehead)
2. While poking around, I learned that Coble had until recently been on the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. Good thing they gave him something more important to do. And yes, that is a Frontpage-manufactured website that our former Grand Poobah of the Internet has got there. I like the kewl waving flag GIFs, myself.
3. Speaking of Coble’s website: should you visit it expecting any statements on this particular issue, as of February 13, 2003 you will come away sorely disappointed.