Update: It is satire … whew ! And I was taken in to some extent, as were many of the commenters on the Atrios blog … many comments along the lines of “it’s obvious satire, but then again, with this bunch, it’s also almost believable” …
I found this on the Atrios blog … as anyone who has read this (my) blog from time to time will know, I am no fan of the current US administration, and believe that many many stupid and mean policies and initiatives have formed and been implemented since it’s installment …. but this really does seem over-the-top.
I mean … “Vermont be visually expelled form the heterosexual union” … and this from a cabinet official ?
Washington, January 31– Following on her protest last week against a PBS cartoon character’s visit to Vermont, where he encounters a lesbian couple, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced at a press conference today that her department was not engaged in a “trivial” or “merely symbolic” campaign against a children’s television program.
“Buster Bunny is not the problem,” said Spellings. “Though I note with some dismay that Buster travels the country accompanied only by his father because his parents are divorced, and I do not see why our children should be subjected to yet another glamorization of the divorce lifestyle. No, the problem is Vermont itself. It is Vermont to which I object. Christians everywhere should be outraged that it was represented in this children’s program.”
Spellings proceeded to unveil the Department of Education’s proposed map of the “forty-nine God-fearing United States,” with the “territory of Vermont” represented by a lightly shaded area. “Until such time as Vermont sees fit to rejoin the rest of the nation in condemning gay ‘civil unions,’” Spellings said, reading from a prepared statement, “we propose that Vermont be visually expelled from the heterosexual Union.
We further propose that the nation’s students be instructed that Vermont is no longer a real state, and that they will not be responsible for remembering its capital, which is not only obscure but French-sounding as well.”
No … it can’t be real.
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February 1, 2005 at 1:46 am
Anonymous
I am at the point where I believe the Bush administration capable of saying and trying to do almost anything outrageous, bigoted, and Neanderthal- especially anything that smacks of a they know best for everyone or everyone who doesn’t agree should get in line or get out, attitude. Fortunately this doesn’t appear to be true, though I had to do a search to find out- something I am now laughing at myself about for doing in the first place. (It wasn’t wasted time, I got to read the blogs of a few clever folks along the way).
It will be a long four years.
February 1, 2005 at 11:17 pm
Anonymous
These are the people who brought us freedom fries, Jon, and decorative turkeys for combat soldiers’ Thanksgiving dinner. It’s no surprise you thought it was for real. I still think there’s a chance it’s for real.