[Vision2020] Canyon County Commissioner Rule and His Racist Email

[Tom Hansen]

More racism from within Idaho less than a month after students 
chanted "Assassinate Obama" on a school bus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJDp0KZ_OeI
 
Courtesy of KIVI-TV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qlmZRTumG8

And today's (December 11, 2008) Idaho Statesman at:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/600445.html
 
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E-mail about Michelle Obama's dress puts Canyon official in the hot seat
Commissioner Steve Rule forwards a photograph comparing Michelle Obama to 
a black widow spider.

Canyon County Commissioner Steve Rule is coming under fire for circulating 
an e-mail that compares Michelle Obama's election-night dress to a black 
widow spider.

An online reporter posted an article about the e-mail Wednesday, calling 
it racist and outrageous. Rule says he didn't see it as racist but 
realizes now it was inappropriate to forward that message from his county 
computer.

Jill Kuraitis of New West.net obtained a printed copy of the e-mail, which 
Rule received from a family member then forwarded to 26 people from his 
county e-mail account on Dec. 2.

Kuraitis said the e-mail features a photo of a black widow spider next to 
a photo of Michelle Obama in a black and red dress holding her elder 
daughter's hand at the election-night event where Barack Obama accepted 
his election as the next president of the United States. Featuring 
boldface and underlines for emphasis, the e-mail reads, in part: "The 
female has a very wide backside, is Black, and has a red hour glass shaped 
marking on her belly You can find this spider in: Closets, Wood piles, 
Under Beds And soonTHE WHITE HOUSE!!!!"

Kuraitis decried the message as racist, noting that it emphasizes the 
word "black" and plays into racial stereotypes.

"I didn't see it that way," Rule told the Idaho Statesman. "I didn't study 
the e-mail I just thought the markings on her dress was very similar to 
that of the spider, and I thought it was kind of funny. For me, it was all 
about the dress."

"But apparently it offended some people, and I'm sorry," he said.

Rule, a Republican who was unopposed for re-election on November's ballot, 
said a relative sent the message to his private e-mail address but he 
forwarded it from his official e-mail to people who had sent him humorous 
e-mails in the past.

Canyon County has an e-mail policy that states county e-mail accounts "are 
to be used for job-related communications only," but that policy applies 
only to county employees, not to elected officials, county spokeswoman 
Angie Sillonis said. Commissioners and other elected officials must abide 
by state code, but Sillonis said she could find no state law that 
prohibited an action such as the e-mail forwarded by Rule.

She said the commissioners' office has not received any complaints about 
the e-mail.

Rule vowed not to send other e-mails from his county computer unless the 
message is related to county business.

"It's probably a good wake-up call for me and for all county and state 
employees," he said.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"For a lapse Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist Universalist 
Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason ever to go 
to work."

- Roy Zimmerman


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