A Little Xenophobic Nastiness from Sen. Conrad Burns

Posted on by

Conrad Burns, Republican Senator from Montana, recently said the following:

Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, whose recent comments have stirred controversy, says the United States is up against a faceless enemy of terrorists who “drive taxi cabs in the daytime and kill at night.”(link)

Looks like a garden variety anti-immigrant slur — they seem to be coming hot and heavy this year (the theme this campaign season seems to be brown-baiting: Latinos and Middle Easterners/South Asians). I suppose it would be possible to say, “well, he’s just talking about terrorism, he never said ‘immigrants’ or ‘South Asian immigrants.'” First, as far as I know no taxi driver is currently being accused of a connection to terrorism, so he’s not literally talking about taxi drivers, but the types of jobs working class immigrants usually start off with when they reach the U.S. Second, this is in fact a slur because it attempts to demonize those same immigrants by lumping them (us) in with genuine threats to American democracy. According to Conrad Burns’ thinking, immigration is terrorism. Wonkette says it with admirable succinctness: “Racist and Insane!”

By the way, it’s not the only WTF caliber comment Senator Burns has made recently:

He has drawn criticism in recent weeks for calling his house painter a “nice little Guatemalan man” during a June speech. Burns, whose re-election campaign is pressing for tighter immigration controls, also suggested that the man might be an illegal immigrant. The campaign later said the worker is legal.(link)

Hm, I think I might go give my $25 to Jon Tester for Senate. Apparently it’s a close race; I vote we Macacatinate** him.

**Macacatinate: (v.) to inflict a mutinous, internet-based critique than can cause poll numbers to shift once the mainstream media grabs hold of it.

114 thoughts on “A Little Xenophobic Nastiness from Sen. Conrad Burns”

  3. I first read it as “macacinate,” which is easier for my brain to say inside my head (if I said it outside my head I’d get in trouble). Sort of like “marinate in caca.”

  5. great post. gret verbage. dumb senators just don’t get it, do they?

    don’t mess with the brown. ups ought to change it’s slogan.

    what can brown do for you? macacanate you.

    kapish?

  6. There are too many ignorant people in politics in the US. The injustice in that comment is particularly tragic, people driving cabs working hard to earn a living and to provide a future for their children and support their families have nothing to do with terrorism. I do not know what he was thinking by saying something like that. People like Burns have completely lost it and instead of trying to make things better are making new enemies.

  9. I’m loving the political activism stories. In Britain we recently had a columnist, Julie Burchill, use the term ‘tea-towels on their heads’ for an article. God that was infuriating. She’s lucky she isn’t a politician.

  10. Sen. Burns was named “Worst Person of the World” for today by the lately maligned — just ;)’ing, Taz — Keith Olbermann (official transcript not yet available; unofficial transcript by me):

    [O]ur winner, Senator Conrad Burns of Montana — already joked about his house painter being an undocumented immigrant, already criticized Virginia firefighters who travelled 2000 miles to help out in Montana, now he’s claimed there are terrorists who live among us and, “drive taxi cabs in the daytime and kill at night.” The question, to Mr. Burns: do you still have the stamina to offend everybody in the 68 days until the elections? Senator Conrad Burns of Montana. Today’s Worst Person, IN THE WORLD!!!”

    But Amardeep, looks like your 8:16 ET post beat Keith’s 8:50 ET decision to the punch!

  11. Amardeep – Label me a pain in the behind, If you will.Or, just forgive me for the following query.

    • Did you or Sepia Mutiny devote the same amount of attention [ not that you are obliged to do so] to Biden’s [Lingua 7/11] and Hillary’s [Gandhi’s Gaseteria] racist/xenophobic remarks?

    Btw – I am a card carrying and dubya lovin Republican, who couldn’t be happier If Allen loses his senate seat and takes Burns with him.

  12. Yeti:

    I’d be interested in knowing the breakdown of Indian illegals by region of origin in India…do you (or does anyone reading this) have that info? Is it (as I suspect) mostly Punjabi and Gujarati?

  14. Is the senator trying to insinuate that taxi cabs don’t run at night? it must be causing a problem for his late-night hooker runs….

  17. In terms of the word, I definitely agree with Nina P. that macacinate rolls of the tongue much more easily than macacatinate. I think we can get rid of that “ati” in the middle. Or make is macacanate. Slight difference.

  21. Kritic — in addition to the links noted by amardeep, please also read this one by siddhartha.

    Tamasha — as between “macacinate” and “macacanate,” i’m willing to bet that it will be easier to get through security lines &c with the latter than with the former….. 😉

  22. I second the call to Macacinate him.

    – Did you or Sepia Mutiny devote the same amount of attention [ not that you are obliged to do so] to Biden’s [Lingua 7/11] and Hillary’s [Gandhi’s Gaseteria] racist/xenophobic remarks?

    See here.

  25. can we try and not turn this into a partisan flamewar?

    (speaking as a field republican)

    Oh please! You are hardly a republican yourself 😉 You have a long long way to go before you become a wingnut like me 🙂

  27. I always wonder about whether I would be a House Republican or a field Republican 😉

    Or maybe even a Log Cabin Republican…

  29. none of you dicks will ever see in the inside of a jail cell, not in your wildest dreams.

    Does this mean you are convinced enough of this to offer bail for anyone whose “dick” does land in jail, i.e., are you putting your mouth where other “dicks” might be?

  34. On a sort of related note….i hope you have seen that disgusting review of Sacred Games by the reviewer of the Scotsman on Sunday

  35. Amardeep – I have as of yet not been able to find a breakdown of ethnicity. I would assume it’s composed of Gujjus and Punjus too but I don’t know. I also wonder what the religious breakdown is of that, and the economic breakdown. I make a lot of assumptions about what kind of class dynamics exist in various desi communities but the truth is that I really don’t know. Maybe razib can look up some demographics for us.

  36. You know one can’t really walk into a 7-11 without speaking with a Macaca-ish accent and you can’t drive into a gas station without having the last name gandhi. These propa-macaca-gandhis drive seemingly normal taxi cabs by day, but transform into supervillans at night and shoot lasers out of their turbans.

  37. Desis who vote Republican? I am confused now. Are you guys in it for the tax cuts, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade or do you simply hate homosexuals?

  38. Desis who vote Republican? I am confused now. Are you guys in it for the tax cuts, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade or do you simply hate homosexuals?

    Don’t be silly m’dear Meena, we vote Republican because they’re the only ones who share our fear of black people.

    (Speaking as field Republican)

  39. You sure you GOP-voting desis ain’t workin’ for Exxon Mobil or the logging industry? “Trees? We ain’t needin’ no trees!”

  40. Desis who vote Republican? I am confused now. Are you guys in it for the tax cuts, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade or do you simply hate homosexuals?

    I think it’s because they want “smaller government” and “less governmental spending” cough cough (see middle of page; free reg. req’d).

    In 1964, the federal government spent 18.5 cents of the American economic dollar. In 2005, it spent 20.5 cents. This is not what small-government conservatives would call progress.

  41. Surely a ‘smaller government’ and ‘less governmental spending’ can’t weigh up to the consequences of an outright ban on abortion and gay marriage?

  42. Meena, while I agree with your sentiments, this,

    an outright ban on abortion and gay marriage?

    won’t happen- its not politically viable or feasible. Nevermind the legal hurdles.

  43. But that is what the neocons – pardon, the Republican party – has been pushing for hasn’t it?

  44. Desis who vote Republican? I am confused now. Are you guys in it for the tax cuts, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade or do you simply hate homosexuals?

    There’s the Allen-Burns-RalphReed-Lott, etc wing of the GOP and then there’s the GeorgeSchultz-GregMankiw-ElliotAbrams wing which desis are more keen too. It’s a different sort of nuttiness. It’s also perceptive because I’d bet the latter will be the dominant wing of the GOP and the GOP will be the dominant party for the next 10-15 years.

  45. osman: wearing the shirt again this wkend at macaca filled event, will see how many people recognize the shirt.. rather than being told last week, ‘oh i thought it was curious george on your shirt’..

    um. no.

    i’m going to be doing a non-scienfitic study for 3 days…gathering data in the field..age range, education, geographic location to political affiliation…to see who/what/where recognizes the word/comment..

    as i’m off to do my work on location in macacadom… just wanted to with everyone a great wkend, from the SF meetup to events going around the USA (yeah, lucky us with the 3 day wkend, but we don’t get bank holidays ;))..

    will be back with a full report. cheers.

  46. But that is what the neocons – pardon, the Republican party – has been pushing for hasn’t it?

    To rally the troops come election time I would argue. Although, the GOP has been quite efficient in recognizing that they can’t have the whole enchilada and have instead opted to chip away- partial-birth abortion ban comes to mind.

    I think they have come around to the fact that even chipping away at abortion and gay marriage provides only marginal returns. Immigration and anti-immigration rhetoric is the mobilizing issue of the future mixed with stop-gap “solutions” from the business wing to appease the raging xenophobes.

  47. I should say that my assertions could be totally wrong because the backwardness of middle and southern America always amazes me. To think xenophobes are sufficiently mobilized and organized to put political pressure on Washington to put more surveillance cameras and equip border police with night vision goggles is indicative that, while backwards, they have power. Further, the fact that right-wing radio has been advocating, nay, vehemently pounding their fists for the use of the term Islamo-facism, with success, is remarkable.

  48. Desis who vote Republican? I am confused now. Are you guys in it for the tax cuts, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade or do you simply hate homosexuals?

    You sound like you are really nuts…

    Desis who vote Democrat ? I am confused now. Are you guys in it for the welfare checks, the overturning of the 2nd amendment, or do you simply hate families.

    … see how dumb that sounds.

  49. do you simply hate families

    is there a such thing as a desi female who hates families? Not to get OT, but I’ve yet to ever meet one who doesn’t want a family aka kids.

  50. Let’s not forget about good ole desi racism either.

    And how many “desis” are senators”? I said racism from on high? A relatavizing something or the other in every crowd. Sheesh.