[Vision2020] Canyon County Commissioner Rule and His Racist Email

[deb]

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.

Ya Think?

Stoopid and racist. Just regular Idaho folk. Training needed, wash, rinse, 
repeat.
Debi R-S
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 7:18 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] Canyon County Commissioner Rule and His Racist Email


> 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
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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