Former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo is asking Colorado House Speaker Terrance Carroll to retract his statements to the Denver Post he made on February 6 and to “speak honestly about the genuine problem of civic illiteracy” in the United States. Carroll made the statements after Tancredo’s speech at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville this past week where the former representative stated there was a need for a civics literacy test for voters. Tancredo told the convention goers, “"Because we don't have a civics literacy test to vote, people who couldn't even spell vote, or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House named Barack Hussein Obama."
The Denver Post quoted Carroll responding to this speech as hateful and implied that the tests are racially biased because it was stated in relation to Obama. "To suggest that a civics literacy test will necessarily be discriminatory is absurd," said Tancredo. "I have long advocated a civics literacy test for voters, and have often suggested we could use the same test as used for immigrants seeking to become naturalized citizens.”
Tancredo sent the request to Carroll in a letter with a copy of the federal government's official civics quiz for naturalization. The test has 100 questions and asks participants to name the vice president and their state's senators. He asked Carroll to "tell me which of these questions you think are racial in character and how such a test is discriminatory."
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Comments
I am sick and tired of Terrence Carroll and people like him. The guy needs
to get out of politics and join Maxine Waters as her Campaign Manager. He can take Lynn Bartles with him of the Denver Post who is a joke of a journalist. Tancredo's got it right and it makes the libs angry.
Carroll and his crowd don't even get it. We are about to lose out country and he cannot even give a decent comment. What's hateful about being able to read before you vote? Get a life. Time to replace the whole state house.
Opps, get out your hoods and sheets!
Isn't Tancredo a convicted felon?
Hey Tancredo! If you think this is constitutional ... oops! someone just flunked civics literacy 101.
I have a better idea: let's publicly grill our politicians on civics and constitutional law. Irresponsible scoundrel.
I'm alright with literacy tests, as long as I get to pick the questions.
What's sad is that Tancredo is right - most citizens would flunk the test. Ever watch the Jay Leno Show when he interviewed the people on the street? Remember the gal who said she was voting for Senator Obama because he would pay her mortgage and fill her gas tank? Guess he's got it right.
Hey "Who Dat" it's what be the Ohio Demoncrat by the name of James Traficant, who by the way was bringing up the issue of criminal aliens on the house floor about 14 years ago with the comment of "beam me up Scottie" to the no brainer issue of get the illegal criminal aliens deported NOW!!!
Who Dat says:
"Isn't Tancredo a convicted felon?"
No. You probably have Tancredo confused with some Democratic politician.
Am I the only one that needs to remind everyone that literacy tests in regard to voting was integral to the "Jim Crow Laws" of the South (pre-civil rights movement). For those who like to write crib notes on your hands I will give you a summary:
Jim Crow laws legalized racial discrimination.
Racial discrimination in South was bad for colored people.
Perhaps it is best in the case of literacy tests (and other "Jim Crow" relics) that we should leave them in the waste bin of history. Also by banning literacy tests in voting we can continue to make Jesse Helms's corpse angry and discontent, which is always fun.
Here is one possible scenario with new literacy tests: suppose a party decides to keep federal educational funds away from certain congressional districts, thus increasing illiteracy. If you have the kind of literacy tests as envisioned by Tancredo on law books the end result could be a lot of disenfranchised voters in areas where education is intentionally undermined.
TOM TRANCREDO IS MARKED AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION? AND LARAZA M.E.C.H.A. L.U.L.A.C. IS GOING TO PICK AND FIND FAULT WITH EVERYTHING HE SUGGESTS TO BENEFIT AMERICA.ITS NOT FUNNY THESE MEXICO ORGANIZATIONS ARE FUNDED BY AMERICAN TAXPAYERS. SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY WILL BUILD AMERICA WILL BE PUT DOWN.
Senator Trancado . . . HELP! --I am a 61-year-old 4th generation Arizonan. No one will listen to me . . .BUT YOU HAVE NATIONAL EXPOSURE AND INFLUENCE. The border MUST be secured as a national scecurity issue . . . and the FLOOD of millions of people we know NOTHING about must STOP. ALL STATES should incorporate SB 1070. Do people really think criminals "hang around the border?" These people are now saturated throughout the United States coast to coast. Do the Feds really think once these people cross, they are no longer law breakers?? The opposition is so emotional because these people don't want to lose the "free ride" at the expense of American tradition, education and economomy. . ..Lorraine Merkel - Tucson, Arizona
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