Fearless on my breath...

Well after the whole Schaivo debacle you'd think they'd know better, but alas Congress enters the fray on the "War on Christmas":

H. RES. 579 Expressing the sense of the House that the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected.

She represents Virginia's first district

Mrs. JO ANN DAVIS of Virginia submitted the following

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas;
(2) strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas; and
(3) expresses support for the use of these symbols and traditions.

Mr. ISRAEL. Madam Speaker, My difficulty with this resolution is that
it excludes some symbols and includes only certain symbols. So I would ask the gentlewoman, in the spirit of diversity, and of the many faiths that we celebrate in this body and throughout America, I would ask her not to withdraw the resolution, but allow this resolution to attract a very significant number of votes, maybe a unanimous vote, simply by adding the words "Kwanzaa,'' "Ramadan,'' and "Chanukah'' to her resolution. . . include holidays of all faiths so that this resolution can reflect the best of America, which is a place of justice for all.

Mrs. JO ANN DAVIS of Virginia. Madam Speaker, The reason for this resolution is that the attack has not been on the menorah or any of the other symbols of the other religions. But the attack has been and is being made on red and green colors, on candy canes, on Santa Claus, which are not even religious symbols. That is the point of the resolution.

Jo Ann Davis, stalwart defender of candy canes. Click here to see some of the Democratic responses,, though I think this one takes the cake:

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI): "Madam Speaker, I have a little poem.

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the House,
no bills were passed `bout which Fox News could grouse.
Tax cuts for the wealthy were passed with great cheer,
so vacations in St. Barts soon should be near.

Katrina kids were all nestled snug in motel beds,
while visions of school and home danced in their heads.
In Iraq, our soldiers need supplies and a plan,
and nuclear weapons are being built in Iran.

Gas prices shot up, consumer confidence fell.
Americans feared we were in a fast track to ..... well.
Wait, we need a distraction, something divisive and wily,
a fabrication straight from the mouth of O'Reilly.

We will pretend Christmas is under attack,
hold a vote to save it, then pat ourselves on the back.
Silent Night, First Noel, Away in the Manger,
Wake up Congress, they're in no danger.

This time of year, we see Christmas everywhere we go,
From churches to homes to schools and, yes, even Costco.
What we have is an attempt to divide and destroy
when this is the season to unite us with joy.

At Christmastime, we're taught to unite.
We don't need a made-up reason to fight.
So on O'Reilly, on Hannity, on Coulter and those right-wing blogs.
You should sit back and relax, have a few egg nogs.

'Tis the holiday season; enjoy it a pinch.
With all our real problems, do we really need another Grinch?
So to my friends and my colleagues, I say with delight,
a Merry Christmas to all, and to Bill O'Reilly, happy holidays.
Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas."

My new hero for the day :)

No More Mister Nice Blog tackles the question, why is immigration such a big deal right now?

Why is this such a hot-button issue right now? To some extent, after 9/11, we worry about who's coming across the borders (even though the 9/11 hijackers didn't cross the border on the run in the dead of night). Also, there's a lot of economic anxiety in America, and, obviously, people direct it at "the other" even when "the other" is doing a job the anxious people wouldn't take. (We've been carefully trained not to direct our anxiety and anger toward employers who'd rather hire non-American workers -- overseas or here -- than hire us.)

But I think a big reason for the recent rise in anti-immigrant feeling is conservatives' burning need to be self-righteously, all-consumingly angry at someone -- anyone. Now that overt bigotry is less socially acceptable, conservatives have a harder time blaming everything that's wrong in the country on an entire group of people. Oh, they can bypass bigotry and turn liberals into the new niggers/spics/kikes, but a lot of conservatives know some liberals -- we aren't other enough. But if they blame everything on immigrants, it's almost as satisfying as racism (they're bashing mysterious dark-skinned others who don't really even speak their language), but they get to say they're criticizing behavior, not race. It's as close as they can get to the good old days.

I can't really argue with that, though I suspect part of my cynicism today is a certain melancholy over the fact that this is the twenty fifth anniversary of John Lennon's death.

So to lighten the mood a little, I point you towards Media Matters for the latest on General Falafel's War for Christmas Against Secularist Commie Bastards:

On the December 2 broadcast of Fox News' The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, host Bill O'Reilly stated that he would "use all the power that I have on radio and television to bring horror into the world of people" who "diminish and denigrate the [Christmas] holiday."
[...]
He later added: "There is no reason on this earth that all of us can not celebrate a public holiday devoted to generosity, peace, and love together," cautioning that "anyone who tries to stop us from doing it is gonna face me."

"Yeah, me and my baseball bat, Ol' Painless." Part of me is kind of looking forward to an O'Reilly unleashing of horror, I mean what exactly would that entail? What's he going to do? Start another boycott? Call for another Inquisition? All I can say is, bring it, loofah boy.

via World o' Crap