The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    jollyroger's picture

    The gentleman will remove his hood or suspend. There may be no hoods worn on the floor of Congress (There's a dress code??)

    By jollyroger on Wed, 03/28/2012 - 8:49pm |

    Bobby Rush, Minister of Defense,

    brings it to the House floor.

    Huey, Eldridge, George, Mark, Fred....look down and be proud.

    Somehow, when Bobby Rush quotes it, the Bible doesn't irritate me nearly so much

    In passing, reflecting on the fact that on his way to the White House Prez thought it would be a good idea to primary Bobby Rush, it makes it easier to understand why he has turned out such a disappointment.

    But I digress.

    Bobby Rush knows something about martyrs.  He brought the talented Mark Clark and Fred Hampton into The Panthers, before the Chicago police murdered them in front of his very eyes.

    We may have collectively taken too much pride in electing a president of partially African ancestry, but surely we cannot be doing all that badly when the Chicago Panthers' Minister of Defense is able to stand astride the House Floor like a Collusus.

    Long live Bobby Rush!  Long live the Black Panthers!  All power to the people!

    Comments

    The young folks of today...

    They wouldn't know how to react if they saw this on their iPods or Blackberries..

    Ah 1968 ... The days of Ronnie Raygun as governor of the Great State of California...

     

     

    Yes! That is the steps of the state capitol building.

    This really got everyone's attention real quick.

     

    ~OGD~


    by oldenGoldenDecoy on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 2:03pm

    There were giants in the Earth in those days...

    by jollyroger on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 4:13pm

    There are other ways to handle bad situations:

     

    •  

    File:Photograph of White House Meeting with Civil Rights Leaders. June 22, 1963 - NARA - 194190.tif

     


    by Richard Day on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 4:18pm

    There's a dress code??

    Made me curious so I looked it up. Clause 5, Rule 17 prohibits the wearing of hats and headwear in the House chamber while in session. So he could wear his hoody with the hood down.

    Also I presume: no crowns or miters or birettas, nor hijabs nor flying nun headpieces, though I suspect powdered wigs were/are permissible?

    (Ran across today's log while doing the search, where Chair reminded members to refrain from trafficking in the well during debate-gotta love some of that 19th-century language.)


    by artappraiser on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 4:23pm

    I gotta tell ya, I kind of liked that.

    That was fun!

    Especially with the Temp breaking his hammer on the desk.

    What a sight! hahahahah

    SHUT UP, SHUT UP! HAHAHAHAHA

    I have nothing but Kudos for that guy Rush.

    At last I found a Rush to admire. hahahaha


    by Richard Day on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 4:55pm

    no yarmulkas? I doubt that,

    by jollyroger on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 5:33pm

    hahahahahahahhahahahahahaha

    I am speechless. hhahahaahah

    That is the single funniest line I have read in a month. ahahahahah


    by Richard Day on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 5:51pm

    it is ironic that "towelhead" should be so popular an epithet fom some who themslves are "hankeyheads". why should amount of coverage control?

    by jollyroger on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 9:01pm

    More than you ever wanted to know about this rule (back to 1837 and before,) here's a good article from late 2010, Miami Herald's "Truth-o-meter" column that went into depth, In pursuit of an answer regarding newly elected Rep Frederica Wilson, a true "hat lady," including detailed history of the rule and trying to get a straight answer from contemporary House rule sticklers:

    http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2010/nov/19/frederica-wilso...

    They ended up rating this statement:

    Congresswoman-elect Frederica Wilson says hat ban started in 1800s but can be waived

    as "half true," based on many things, including this which surprised me:

    Even the late Rep. Bella Abzug (D-N.Y.) couldn't sport her trademark broad-brimmed hats when she served during the 1970s."

    The answer  to your question , btw, is at the end:

    An aside: we wondered if the current hat ban rule would prohibit religious Jews from wearing yarmulke or Muslim women from wearing the hijab or headscarf. Steel, Boehner's spokesman, said in an e-mail: "The rule regarding hats has never been interpreted to apply to religious headcoverings."

    I sort of enjoyed reading the whole thing, obsessive cultural history buff that I am.

    Before I found it, the topic had me checking out whether Rep. David Crockett of Tennessee, 1833-1835, wore his coonskin cap or similar in office. Apparently, judging from this 1834 portrait,

    the King of the Wild Frontier could do gentleman townie too.

    Edit to add from the article: Unlike the House, the Senate doesn't have a formal written rule banning members from wearing hats. "People don't wear hats in the Senate," said Senate historian Donald Ritchie. "The Senate sort of adheres to an unofficial dress code but it's not specifically in the rules." Sort of the reverse of what most would think at first, but then if one remembers that the Senate was a sort of gentlemen's club from the start while the House was for the rabble, where some might becoming to town from some godforsaken place where denizens were not acquainted with urban manners.... cheeky


    by artappraiser on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 9:18pm

    Davey Crockett, Wonder Boy...

    Since I received my wide brimmed leather hat as part of a religious ritual (albeit involving the Wizard of Oz, so what?) can I safely wear it on the floor of the House?


    by jollyroger on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 11:02pm