Chimperator Presides Over Citizenship Ceremony Monticello

In yet another disingenuous act aimed more at a photo op than anything else, George W. Bush, a/k/a on this blog as the Chimperator, disruptted Charlottesville, Virginia, for a citizenship ceremony at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Somehow I suspect Thomas Jefferson would despise the Chimperator and Jefferson was probably turning over in his tomb on the Monticello grounds at the Chimperator's presence at his much loved home. Not only is the Chimperator a veritable cretin compared to Jefferson's intellectual brilliance, but I doubt Jefferson would have anything good to say about Bush's damaging citizens' constitutional rights and his pandering to wingnut Christianists who seek to overturn freedom of religion for all citizens. Speaking to my mother who lives very near to Monticello, the local residents had the pleasure of closed streets and swarms of secuity personnel. She said the main entrance to her own neighborhood was blocked for a couple hours with Secret Service cars and personnel. Charlottesville being the progressive, thinking city that it is, despite security efforts to revove all potential protesters, the Chimperator got called out by some folks in the crowd. It is also interesting that one new citizen is from Iraq. What would Bush's Christianist friends say about letting a non-evangelical Christian become a U.S. citizen? Here are highlights from the Daily Progress:

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Bush is the fourth sitting president to attend Monticello’s July 4 ceremony, after Gerald Ford (1976), Harry S. Truman (1947) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1936). The visit to Monticello was the first of his presidency. “The Fourth of July will be a part of your Independence Day, and I will be honored to call you a fellow American,” Bush said.

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Naturally, Bush’s presence and remarks did not come without some hostility. Within seconds of the president stepping in front of the podium, cries of “Impeach Bush” and “That man is a fascist” resonated among the crowd. But the president responded to his critics by citing a simple constitutional right. “To my fellow citizens to be, we believe in freedom of speech in the United States of America,” he said amid the crowd’s boos. One protester, Gael Murphy, held up a banner that read “Impeach: It’s Patriotic” and yelled, “Defend the Constitution. Impeach Bush.” “Bush should not go unchallenged wherever he goes,” she said.

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Hataw Saadi Taha, who fled the northern region of Iraq 11 years ago, said she wanted to become an American citizen because the United States was the first country that accepted her after leaving the rule of Saddam Hussein. “I am very proud of my new country,” Taha said. “Especially on the Fourth of July.” Taha told Bush that she wants to see an end to the violence in her homeland. “Mr. President, I need peace to my country.”

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Security was tight for the presidential visit. Every attending person had to go through metal detectors and military commandos patrolled on ATVs. Two police officers surveyed the crowd through binoculars from Monticello’s roof.