Fox News reports that Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the same person who was browbeating fellow New Yorkers about their "intolerant" opposition to a mosque near Ground Zero, has insulted the Seneca Nation tribes while complaining about not being fully taxed on sales of cigarettes. On a radio broadcast, the Mayor urged that New York Governor Patterson should grab "a cowboy hat and a shotgun" and get the money from the Seneca Nation.The Seneca have replied by stating:
‘If it were any other race of people, he would really have been ridiculed over the words that he said," said J.C. Seneca, a Tribal Council member with the Seneca Nation of Indians.
The Seneca Nation passed a resolution Saturday condemning the comments. They said the mayor was taking "contradictory positions" by targeting the tribes while at the same time expressing support for constitutional protections of those looking to build a controversial Islamic center near Ground Zero.
"Mayor Bloomberg's cavalier attitude and inflammatory remarks, by which he encourages armed conflict as a means for resolution, evidences tremendous disrespect," the resolution said. "Mr. Bloomberg's hypocritical support of constitutional protections, only when they don't impact the New York City budget, coupled with his uneducated and uninformed statements on the issue, serve to fan the flames of aggression, and undermine the potential for peaceful resolution of these matters, while perpetuating a long dormant policy of Indian termination which dates back to the days of General Custer's failed battle of Little Bighorn."
The nation said that the mayor should resign "effective immediately" over his "inflammatory and racially insensitive" remarks -- or at least apologize.
The Seneca Nation also stated that they are considering filing a hate crime complaint with the US Justice Department.
Incredibly, Mayor Bloomberg is proving to have an elitist tin ear worthy of a Washington politician and is refusing to apologize for what I also would call racist remarks. And he is refusing to resign for these remarks, remarks far worse than anything Jimmy the Greek - or Dr. Laura - ever said, leading to the end of both their careers. One would think that if Mayor Bloomberg were an Oklahoma politician - particularly a conservative Republican - his political career would be over by now.
But there may be a silver lining here for New Yorkers, as the Mayor's ability to lecture his constituents on the virtue of tolerance has apparently just gone up in smoke.
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