Or not. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) and Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) have re-introduced their English Language Unity Act. The bill declares English the official language of the United States and requires the government to continue operating in it -- with a few exceptions, including:
"using terms of art or phrases from languages other than English."
While this bill would appear to have very little actual relationship to the Republicans' single-minded focus on jobs, it would at least allow for presidents to address their Italian counterparts with "Amigo, amigo!" The bill also makes the folks at ProEnglish very happy, since they've been pushing "Official English" bills in several states, and getting somewhere.
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(Heavy sigh) I'm not sure how much more of this crap I can take. It's been a long week and I can't relax because I live in Florida.
Skippy...Florida here too. What part for you ?
For two years, the Party of No blamed Obama for not creating jobs.
After the midterms, the only legislation from the Republicants and Baggers is job-killing, xenophobic, misogynistic, racist legislation.
Welcome folks, to the world of the Republicans. They got voted in to office, now the country is going to get what it deserves. To bad.
Mr. Boehner----where are the jobs?
Neither party can bring jobs back; only one way, pass a parity tax on imported goods, to equal what is lost in FICA payments; that would cause the outsourcing to take notice; however Dem and Rep are both bought and paid for by the International lobbyist's in Washington; they have only one thing on their mind, raising money for the next election everything else is secondary !
Advocating making English the official language is a "dog whistle" for loyalists who want to overthrow the Constitution and reinstate the aristocratic system.
English should be the official language of this country if you want to move here you should learn the language just like people that move to other country's should learn the language of the country that they move to
Since Bill Bissette is such a fan of English he should move there and kiss the Queen's ass while he is at it since he hates America so much. Or maybe Canada and meet up with his relatives who fled there during the revolution.
Covah, I think the vast majority of Canadians would kick his tuchis back down here.
move where we speak english in this country
I guess that leaves out most of the South.
These bastards make me sick. Inhofe...no scratch that, ALL of the representives from the state of Oklahoma are an embarassment to anything other than a third world nation.
Me too! Don
My family left Oklahoma when I was very young because of this kind of nonsense.
I hope nobody is offended by this question, but I wonder if there may be a way to link xenophobia with religion in the constitutional sense?
Hi Don Q!
I will say that I do not think we do near enough to encourage people to learn English when they get here but this law is totally ridiculous. Maybe it doesn't bother me because I live in NYC where you can go to places where there are signs that are only in Chinese, Korean, etc.
It is also particularly vexing because my experience of Americans overseas (I mean as tourists) is painful and embarrassing to recount. Americans think the whole world speaks English.
Have a nice weekend!
These are the same jerks that go nuts (unnecessarily) over Sharia law. The same ideas they have are just as bad, if not worse. We have far more to fear from them.
they are totally different things do you even know what Sharia law is about if you did you would see the difference
WHO is pushing Sharia law on the American public? WHO!?
Don...: I'm sure Becky Wecky could tell you. :-/
Keep up the great work: Any where to get a list of the things Governors are planning on doing, that you had on the March 10 show? You could put a poster up on your web sight. Is there a sight to sign up to repeal the republic senators?
Gee...Does this mean using proper context and things like complete sentences and punctuation? If so about half of this country doesn't qualify!
If they mean "American English" they should say so.."Wadda,bro, you proppin this gig?"
If they mean "American English" they should say Noah Webster, the only one ever to successfully rationalize English spelling, although many have tried.
Yes, this is yet another worthless wedge issue meant to toss red meat to the far right base.
What I would like to see is some way to encourage immigrants to learn English, though, as I believe the inability to communicate with each other only deepens the divide that allows us vs. them arguments to break out in the first place. Why is it so easy to demonize illegal immigrants from Mexico, for example? Because of a language barrier that allows the ignorant folks pushing these bills to think of them as somehow less than human, rather than seeing them as no different from anyone else. It would also make it harder for employers and businesses to exploit those workers. I would think that immigrants would want to learn English over time, as it could only enhance their job prospects and their ability to operate in our society. However, bills that seek to make English our official language seem to be like a baseball bat aimed at immigrants.
I read there was a program to help immigrants learn English, however the republicans are defunding it. The northeastern cities?
I don't know that such programs were ever well-known or well-funded. I do think that there needs to be much more done to encourage immigrants to learn English. If I moved to another country to find a better life, I'd certainly want to learn the language if I wanted to prosper in the future.
Hispanics tend to vote Democratic (as do most first generation citizens).
The efforts by states to pass English-only laws is an attempt to prevent Hispanics and other immigrants from becoming literate enough to vote by blocking federal laws that require bilingual education and foreign language voting material.
This maximize the Teapublican advantage by disenfranchising voters.
Same issue as in Wisconsin.
Uffdaguy, once again you took the words right out of my mouth! :)
What part of "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union...do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America" do Republicans NOT understand? The endless hyping of wedge issues is totally opposed to the Constitution. The central government was founded first and foremost- WE the People- to forge national unity and common identity among the American people. Now let's make English the national language? What a slap in the face of those who fought and died to create this nation!
And there you have it, folks: Crackhead nails it FTW. It's another voter-rights issue. Not long ago, I answered the phone and wasted 10 minutes of the nice lady's time on the other end of the line, as she walked me through some proposed measure or other to see if I supported showing ID for voting here in NC. I played dumb and asked about what kinds of ID would qualify and what was the exact language of the proposed bill (which she couldn't give me, btw) before I allowed as how I thought keeping anyone from voting was pretty unAmerican. She hung up fast.
Hi Uffdaguy!
I almost totally agree with you on that. I don't share the opinion of others that it is a voting scheme because Hispanics do not vote as a block and most people who are citizens already have some basic English skills and are not stupid idiots who can be easily duped. I think it is an insult to Hispanic people to treat them as if they can be herded like cattle into voting or not voting.
I have said that I am very harsh when it comes to illegal immigration but I have always been for going after it the right way - take those who hire them and hit them with ruinous fines and seizures of property and assets. It wouldn't be a problem for long if only we did that and fewer people would be exploited.
Have a nice weekend!
Covah wrote: "What part of "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union...do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America" do Republicans NOT understand?"
My guess would be... all of it? Possibly because it was written in... English? (as opposed to 'Murrikan).
Anybody else as shocked as I am that Texas has not declared English its official language?
If they did, most of its residents would be unable to function.
This is probably why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GGA1a4nyVs&playnext=1&list=PL87126AAECEA17B68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFGYsCkQ7JA&feature=related
People often forget that Texas used to be a Mexican state.
The Hispanic population in Texas is too high to pass xenophobic laws.
As a Mexican American who was born and raised here in Texas, I can actually say that trying to pass any sort of English Only law here would probably just make everybody angry. I think more than 60% of our cities have Spanish names as it is. We even have a Selena Day, created by then Governor Bush when she died. No politician could really homogenize Texas if they tried, lol.
I actually can understand Boomhauer really well. Not sure if that's funny or sad.
Did anyone else see Machete? Damn that was a good movie. It would have been more appropriate if it was in Arizona than Texas.
Hopefully Texas will catch up with the rest of the states. Most children here (legally and illegally) are learning English in school.
People who are serious about learning spanish, can go to Mexico, live with a Mexican family, and they will only speak and be spoken to in spanish. It is just easier to learn the language when you have to.
Most mexicans will not be able to prosper here without learning English. There is nothing wrong with requiring it and by doing so, people WILL learn and benefit in the long run.
You can be sure that the Germans thought much the same way in Nazi Germany. Just can't have enough cultural purity can we?
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/01/26/why-it-pays-to-be-bilingual/
http://news.ufl.edu/2000/01/31/lingual/
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/45/13/24.2.full
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_west/8452843.stm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1358234/People-speak-languages-better-multi-tasking-likely-develop-Alzheimers.html
www.uwyo.edu/fled/documents/FLAnnotatedBibliography.pdf
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bilingual-brains
http://www.educationatlas.com/being-bilingual-beefs-up-your-brain.html
"C'est la guerre..."
le guerre
How in the hell did we allow criminals to even run for office? This Republican hostile take-over is well, it's over.
Do not despair America.
We, the American Working People, plan on being instrumental in spearheading a historical reformation, a NEW REVOLUTION, unlike any in history.
It's time America, to take back all that has been callously ripped from our hearts and hands by greedy republican billionaires and their heartless governor minions.
We will put an end to the greedy tyrannical republican elitist liars grossly destroying our way of life. No longer will we stand by and allow you to rob us of our money, our jobs, our homes, our businesses, our schools, our government, our futures, our freedoms and our rights. We will not sit by idly and allow billionaire thugs like the Koch Brothers destroy our lives and futures. THIS IS OUR COUNTRY!! THIS IS OUR FUTURE!! THIS IS OUR TIME, AMERICA...WAKE UP, STAND UP...DON'T GIVE UP.
It's time to RECALL ALL REPUBLICANS IN PUBLIC OFFICE. And I mean ALL of them. They have no right to our voices and our votes.
Republicans, you will not trick us again and your lies will forever be silenced. You may be trying to restrict our voting rights but we will prevail and WE WILL STOMP ALL OF YOU AT THE POLLS. Just try and stop us.
We are coming for you Republicans. Make no mistake...your days in lofty places are numbered. We will be heard and we will WIN.
Pendejos.
English Only laws. Really focusing on those jobs.
Bendy hoes?
Si.
Not sure what the big deal is here. Most countries have an official language. I think there are far more pressing matters in this country to lose sleep over this. Some people seem a little too distraught over this. Is it really that bad? There will still be plenty of "unofficial" language spoken and written here. It is just a formality in my opinion.
Sure.
Germany has a "German only" law.
Why don't we all just vote to be more like Germany and lock up all the foreigners that don't speak English?
The U.S. is supposed to be the one country on the earth that will never be like that.
Our economy improves as immigrants enter the country. Not the other way around.
Skip forgets that English is the language of England against whom we fought for our independence. America-hating Republicans want to deny the revolutionary war that overthrew the aristocratic class and put liberals in charge of the colonies. That is what "English as official language" is all about.
The U.S.A is not most countries...it is the "melting pot" of the world. Only one "official" language here would be like.. like...like...only having Cherry flavored Tootsie Pops. I like Grape damnit!
What's next, the closing of ethnic restaurants?
The big deal is the idea of them wasting time on this silly issue when the budget for the damn government has not been approved or passed and is still in the sausage making stage for last year, let alone a twinkle in the eye for this year. There are so many pressing issues that need attention and time is being wasted on this meaningless crap and all the other meaningless crap that has been brought to the table by the republicans. It is simply killing time because they have no ideas other than screwing up this country futher, it wasn't good enough the last time around.
Wow - everybody is pretty angry at this site. And I thought that was a trait on the right wing site. I was only stating an obvious fact that the large majority of countries have an official language. I didn't say I was for it or against it. I also mentioned that it would probably be on paper only - that most of us would skirt this "law" just like speed limits or something. Come on folks, I know the Republicans got your blood boiling but it is Friday.
I have never swore on this site or called people names but I have been pretty much jumped on a lot of times because I may not be cheering 100% for the opinion of a certain piece on this site or if I point out an obvious fact or event that may not be in line with the direction of these...well tirades. I am sorry if just stating something or having a slightly (or not so slighty) different opinion gets everyone worked up. I thought the liberal side of our country is the one that is suppose to be tolerant of other thoughts/ideas. Isn't this supposed to be the big tent? Seriously, I am seeing less and less difference between this site and other sites that tend to lean right - just a lot of one sided anger.
They are going ahead with an Az 1070 clone in Oklahoma. You can be sure that speaking Spanish will be enough to get your papers checked by the cops.
Skip, I was simply pointing out what I think the big deal was. Of course that is my opinon and fustration over the lack of meaningful legislation in congress. Actually I thought crap and screwing were much better than the alternatives. If you've you have been called bad names, that is unfortunate.
Sorry Skip, I missed the "everybody is pretty angry at this site".
Hi Skip!
There are a lot of nice people here but as with any site where people have a certain common viewpoint that happens and people often see me as attacking them (sometimes they are right).
On the official language issue, I would have no real problem with it except that we couldn't really have only one language. We have people who everyday speak Spanish as a first language (Puerto Rico) and then there are the Inuit. I leave off Native Americans because most of those languages are not first languages but maybe some are in some areas and then you have the Dutch in PA.
Most of the countries that do have official languages also consider themselves an ethnic or cultural group whereas we are just a bunch of mutts. I mean that in a good way. Like Maggie wrote, we are a melting pot and that is what we are supposed to love about us. When someone tries to limit it to English it sounds to many people like saying "English speakers are the real Americans". Personally, having lived in the UK for much of my childhood it sounds to me like the lazy American syndrome - Americans are infamous thoughout the world for their refusal (some say inability) to learn a second language. I was being taught French every day as a young child in the UK and I came here and kids hadn't even learned any foreign languages at all.
I don't know what Covah is talking about.
Have a nice night.
Thanks Peter. I always enjoy your posts. I may not respond to them but trust me, I read them.
The Pennsylvania Dutch aren't Dutch, but of German and Swiss origin.
Pennsylvania "Dutch" is a corruption of "Deutsch".
FWIW, skip, your views appear to be generally respected because at the very least (a) you stay true to the topic, and (b) you keep the tone of your topics pretty reasoned, i.e., they "sound calm" or as if they've arrived from some rational viewpoint on the red-state side. At least they do to me.
As a true liberal, I embrace the open marketplace of ideas (or at least, I try to, most of the time). In these comment strings everyone is essentially selling their opinion. It would appear that a lot of the others who have responded agree. Frankly, a lot more conservative readers who visit this website would do well to share your approach. I'm saying this while admitting that there are a few people on my side of the fence who I wish would resist the shouting in caps, name-calling, and so on. Base insult exchange rarely moves a dialogue toward any reasonable conclusion.
I had to embrace this concept as a teenager, when I realized my viewpoints were much farther left than I thought, somewhere around Reagan's re-election. This led to a lot of disagreements with my father, who's voted Republican since Nixon. In 1960.
Anyhow, I respect your viewpoint even if/when I don't necessarily agree with it. Peace to you, amigo.
Wie funktioniert diese Gesetz zur Schaffung von Arbeitsplätzen?
言語を一つは消して足りない
http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/onelanguage.htm
Hi Dutchie! I read the stuff from the links you posted last evening. Thanks again.
My German is a little weak but I can get that it is something like "How does the law function for jobs?" I don't know "Schafflung". What does that mean?
Schalfflung is creation. It could also be Schöpfung or Erstellung. I am a little rusty on my Deutsch.
Nevertheless, one language is never enough.
"Schaffung von Arbeitsplätzen" (no l in Schaffung) is correct, but it's "dieses" because "Gesetz" is neuter and singular.
Oh, in this context it should probably be:
"Wie hilft dieses Gesetz bei der Schaffung von Arbeitsplätzen?"
This was done in California with proposition 227.
Teachers are prohibited from speaking foreign language in classes like math, English, and history.
Result?
California prison population has grown larger than most countries and the economy collapsed. First generation Americans are born into homes that don't speak English so they need native instruction, and there are many migrants. Oops! Can't have educated immigrants in California!
Uneducated people can't hold a job so they commit crimes.
Proposition 227 is actually creating criminals.
Immigrants have been quietly moving back to Mexico to isolate their children from the criminal influence of the U.S. This is reducing real estate demand and contributing to economic decline.
Big surprise.
Repeating the same failed experiment over and over again and expecting different results is living proof that there is no shortage of brain donors among those registered to vote Teapublican.
Which is why an alternative approach must be taken to achieve the desired result. Punishing people for not learning English is obviously the wrong way to go. Better to find ways to encourage them.
It was. It wasn't. Now it is.
The end of the collective bargaining for all the unions that didn't support Scott Walker in the past election was fiscally related to the Governor's Budget Repair Bill. Mr.Walker said so. Many times. In many places he said so.
Unless his Union busting Bill was approved in total, 1500 workers will get the heave-ho by April, cuz that was the only way to balance the budget. Then he'd 'ratchet it up a bit' to 13 thousand workers shown the sidewalk by June if saner heads didn't prevail. Take it or leave it. And if you leave it, goodbye.
Then...as the Fab 14 Democratic Senators continued their vacation in luxurious Chicago denying a quorum, and those pesky voters continued to rally by the thousands in the cold outside his office ruining his view, the Governor said the collective bargaining wasn't a fiscal issue after-all.
So he forced through the denial of collective bargaining bill saying the AWOL Dems were not needed to vote on a non-fiscal issue like union busting.
Except now collective bargaining is back as a fiscal issue.
Signing the anti-union bill into disputed law, with the money-part still unresolved, the Governor is back to square-one saying lay-offs are off cuz the unions are broken, and everybody can go home and watch the Flintstones. Just send in your letters of protest and put them beside the shredder. Everything is okay.
Keep in mind, the budget is still unaffected, but well, the union issue that was, that wasn't ,is again until Walker changes the rules that is. Again.
What is affected is Governor Walker, having a brown stain down his pants because everybody knows what he is up to, and won't fall for this chicanery.
Still die-hard supporters just know Mr. Walker is a man of his word and everything he says is gospel. Oh...that deadline...you know the one on Feb. 25th, when the bad bad bad Democrats had to be back or the state would lose $165 million 'savings' through refinancing. Yeah that one. Well...apparently, the deadline is April something.
Another case of what is isn't.
The bottom line for my on this topic is that it go against the spirit of America.
I understand why some people are for it, even if those reasons are weird and illogical. I understand why some people are against it. For me, declaring an "official language" is antithetical to the very ideas of the justice, liberty, and equality.
The older I get, the more I return again and again to these same 3 ideas, along with integrity. Any proposal, politic, law, philosophy, or religion that I can not square within my understanding of these 4 things is, I think, a bad idea. I count "official language" among that list.
My main problem (with all of this) is why now? Why not when RayGun emancipated all the illegals or when Bush doubled the debt?
This seems to be their focus. Cleaning up the debt and the disenfranchised. So why now and not the last 30 years?
I'm going to put my tin foil hat on. Part of me believes they let Obama win so they can blame the last 30 years on him instead of RayGun and Bush.
I can't swear to it, but I don't think this is the first time this proposal has come up.
As to the rest of it, I don't know the answer. Except that perhaps, the power-elite feel they have become powerful enough that they no longer have to be responsible to the electorate.
As a raging liberal in Oklahoma I often despair. We do all we can, but the ignorant and the indifferent folks in their big pick-up trucks just can't see what's what.
You are in excellent company expletive. It was an accident of birth that brought me here and I've been too poor to leave. Our elected officals disgust me beyond words as do the the people who voted for them.
Lets all chip in and get Don a bus ticket! There is really no point in you living so unhappily in the great state of Oklahoma.
If defining English as the official language means also requiring it to be used for business, I think it's long over-due. While the rest of the world has long recognized English as the official language of commerce and business, only in the US could we still be flagging this dead horse.
The map is bit misleading in that some of the states declared English as their official language in the 19th century at the dawn of the public school system up through WWI. In fact, the major impetus to create the Department of Education was to federally fund English-only education. My state, Nebraska, did so as a direct reaction, not to Hispanic immigrants, but to German-language school instruction. It was challenged in the Supreme Court in the case Meyer v. Nebraska (1919), which held that English-only instruction was a violation of due process.
amigo is spanish
amico is italian
Exactly. And, if I'm not mistaken, Laura was referring to an incident involving our former Presidunce, George Duhbyuh Shrub, who was addressing, as noted, the Prime Minister of... Italy.
www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/science/earth/10notebook.html?fta=y
;^)
Ah, geez.... Dubya.
I need a drink.
yeah, pour me one , too.
same here! make mine a double
domestic not foreign! :)
Funny thing is, plenty of born here Americans can't speak correct English. Come down here to Texas and YA'LL will hear what I'm talking about. When I go to Kentucky I always need an interpreter. I don't know what the heck they speak in Louisiana.
Cajun
Here's another thing though. All those truck drivers that drive up from Mexico carrying cheaply made goods don't speak English. Yet, they are under government control...ie NAFTA. So why is it alright for them to drive up and not speak English? Especially if the government claims that doing government work in America requires that you speak English.
I'm pretty sure those border patrol guys (GuvMent Workers) will continue to speak Spanish and Canadian in order to get those cheap goods brought into America.
Or when they ship jobs overseas to people who don't speak English under tax breaks and shelters RayGun gave them, then that's fine also.
Ugggghh. Rachel, I love you. You are the sharpest, most insightful and trustworthy journalist in the media but you're killing me. I simply can't endure the truth. I watch you expose the underhanded schemes of the rich stealing from me and my neighbors nightly. I get sooo depressed. Please devote one segment a week to puppies being playful and happy so I won't feel so down.
I am sure that most immigrants would like to learn English. But when you work hard all day, the spirit may be willing, but the flesh may be too weak to be able to go to night school and concentrate on learning another language - It's my understanding that English is one of the most difficult languages to learn anyway.
I know there are loads of immigrants who do manage to go to night school to learn English, and they are to be commended for their efforts. Also, there are some people who seem to pick up other languages easily and others who find it quite daunting.
I just don't get what they are doing. 85% of Americans attend public schools. Yet, they want to cut education spending? Not only cut it but give it to the rich in the form of tax breaks. Actually, it makes sense now.
They want a workforce of underpaid slaves. So cut education then give tax breaks to businesses so they can created millions of minimum wage jobs. All those kids who can't move on to college or receive a decent high school education will go to work for the corporate masters.
These guys are evil. Create an entire generation of working poor. Keep the coffers filled with cheap labor and high profits. Can't even collective bargain for higher wages now. Plus you have to speak English.
Evil...
I'm actually all about this. When I moved to New York, it was like moving to a foreign country. Literally, there are stores that operate and no one in them speaks English. Kind of eliminates the customer aspect of things when you can't complain or compliment them...and they can't help you with the products they sell.
I love the diversity, I just wish we could communicate!
Most folks in the world learn English as a second language. Unlike the US where most don't learn any second language. I would be quite surprised if no one understood any English in those stores.
I can't help but think of that great Dubya quote, "Is our children learning?"
I realize of course, it was because he could not say, "Are our"...difficult but....*shakes head*....
yes i agree mightbealiberal