Shitting on the First Amendment

How appropriate that on Constitution Day one of Kentucky's most embarassingly stupid public officials (and that's saying plenty) gives me the opportunity to slap him upside the head with the First Amendment.

Kentuckians wanting to display the nation's motto on their license plates will soon have their chance if legislation pre-filed by state Rep. Jim Gooch becomes law.

The bill calls for a new license plate containing the words "In God We Trust" and any other design the Transportation Cabinet decides is appropriate. It would be offered as an alternative to the standard-issue license plate featuring the "Unbridled Spirit" logo, and would not carry any additional fees.

"It's time we take this step and recognize what has long been our country's and our commonwealth's guiding principle," Rep. Gooch said. "Kentuckians should not have to wait any longer."

If Rep. Gooch's bill becomes law, the "In God We Trust" license plates would be available in January 2010.

As I wrote back in July when Governor Steve "Huge Disappointment" Beshear floated this particular abomination:

Is it too much to ask that elected officials know a smidgeon of American history? "In God We Trust" did not become the national motto until 1956, when McCarthyist witch hunts intimidated Congress into replacing the 174-year-old motto adopted by the actual Founders in 1782: "E pluribus unum," or for those of you who flunked Latin, "Out of many, one," a reference to the federalism that unites diverse states.

It was during the commie scares of the 1950s that "Under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance (which, by the way, was written in the 1892 by a Socialist who wanted a secular substitute for the prayers recited by children in Catholic schools), and that "so help me God" was added to the oath to tell the truth in court.

The Founders, who deliberately and decisively kept all mention of god out of the Constitution, would have been horrified.

"In God We Trust" was added to coinage during the Civil War, in a blatant and futile attempt to pacify Southerners who were, at the time, claiming divine christian justification for slavery.

The proper interpretation of the "In God We Trust" phrase on our money is: "God says n*****s aren't human, so we can enslave, starve, beat, rape and murder them all we want."

How about that one, Stevie? How about a license plate that reads: "God says n*****s aren't human, so we can enslave, starve, beat, rape and murder them all we want."

In Indiana the 2006 General Assembly authorized an "In God We Trust" plate, prompting a lawsuit by the state's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

SNIP

Carl Wedekind, treasurer of the ACLU of Kentucky, said yesterday that he did not know whether the organization would challenge the license plate in court if it becomes available.

And if you don't, Carl, you can cancel my membership and refund all my donations for the past seven years. The ACLU's stated mission, Carl, is to defend the Bill of Rights. This license plate violates my First Amendment rights, Carl. Get off your ass and do your fucking JOB, Carl.

Kentucky currently offers 99 - count 'em, that's one fewer than a solid hundred - different license plates in 11 different categories. They range from the special military plate for recipients of the Medal of Honor, of which there are currently a grand total of two in the entire state, and the "Choose Life" plate, which is an inexcusable discriminatory slap in the face to those of us who Choose Suicide.

Jim Gooch is infamous in Kentucky as the most shameless hod-carrier for the coal industry in the General Assembly. He constantly puts himself in danger of being forcibly committed for terminal stupidity by insisting, during public sessions of the legislature, that there is no such thing as global warming and burning ten times more coal than we do will solve all our problems.

If all Jim Gooch's jeebus-humping hasn't raised his IQ out of single digits by now, advertising his belief in an invisible sky wizard on a license plate isn't going to help.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.