KS state rep says she can tell who's 'illegal' because they have "the olive complexion"

[proud2BlibKansan]

On Tuesday, Feb 8th, during testimony in front of the Kansas House Federal and State Committee, Rep. Connie O'Brien told a story about an experience she had with a someone who was supposedly an undocumented immigrant.

Here is the condensed transcript (full transcript) (audio file):

REP CONNIE O’BRIEN (R-Tonganoxie)
...My son who’s a Kansas resident, born here, raised here, didn’t qualify for any financial aid. Yet this girl was going to get financial aid. My son was kinda upset about it because he works and pays for his own schooling and his books and everything and he didn’t think that was fair. We didn’t ask the girl what nationality she was, we didn’t think that was proper. But we could tell by looking at her that she was not originally from this country.

30 seconds later...

REP SEAN GATEWOOD (D-Topeka)
Can you expand on how you could tell that they were illegal?

REP CONNIE O’BRIEN (R-Tonganoxie)
Well she wasn’t black, she wasn’t Asian, and she had the olive complexion.

http://www.kansasdems.org/obrien

[wtmusic]

1. Greek? Italian?

From eatin' all them olives.

[w8liftinglady]

27. LOL...I was thinking... my aunts and uncles..?

Paisanos...

[DRoseDARs]

32. Wouldn't be the first time in US history those two countries have enjoyed our anti-imigrationists.

I'm sure the irony is lost on her.

[GoCubsGo]

40. Native American? European-American with a sun tan?

Better stay out of those tanning beds, folks. This clown might try to have you deported.

[Solly Mack]

2. Damn.

[Suich]

3. If it didn't hurt so much,

I would bang my head really hard and repeatedly on my desk.

:banghead:

[fishwax]

38. such a pastime could easily consume all your free time

these idiots never stop giving us reasons ...

[Fuzz]

4. That's a big box full of stupid.

[AsahinaKimi]

5. Wow, Remind me not to visit there

My Eyes just might give me away!!!
:sarcasm:

[LiberalLoner]

6. Oh really? I'm 5th and 6th generation American now and I have the "olive

complexion." Does that mean I no longer am considered American? Am I gonna get kicked out of the country?

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. My heritage is European and I've been told all my life I have an olive complexion

Damn. Maybe I was also born in Kenya and my family has been lying to me all these years. :wow:

[bluestate10]

16. Jump into a tub of bleaching cream, before the color nazis come after you.

Or, stay out of Kansas. The latter sound more sane and plausible.

[shanti]

7. teh stupid

it BURNS!

[KatyaR]

8. My cousin has a dark olive complexion, dark hair and eyes,

and she was born and raised here. Take that!

Stupid does as stupid is....

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. I hope she doesn't catch me in my garden clothes.

[HockeyMom]

10. Mom's ancestors came from Sicily in 1896

She had olive skin, dark hair, and eyes. How much farther do they want us to go back? Or maybe only blue eyed, blondes are "real" Americans, as in real Germans? BTW, as a genealogist, I have all the legal documents to PROVE THIS, and going back in the old country to the 1700s. How many of these morons can prove THEIR ancestry?

[golddigger]

11. OMFG! I'm speechless.

[FarLeftRage]

12. Looks like I won't be going there anytime soon...

Because of my dark eyes, black hair and very "olive complexion"...

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. This rep better stay out of SW Kansas

There is at least one county there (maybe more) that has a majority Hispanic population.

[FarLeftRage]

25. Well... Then I'd fit right in...

I'm an Italian-American that has been mistaken for being Hispanic, Arabic, Jewish and Greek.

[bluestate10]

13. She just described as much as 80% of whites in the country during summertime.

The lady is an idiot. Move on.

[Gormy Cuss]

14. I'll bet she thinks the Olive Garden is a Mexican restaurant too. n/t

[csziggy]

17. Rep O'Brien - my father is of completely North European ancestry

And he has a darker complexion than most Latin Americans or Arab Americans I have ever seen, in person or on the TV. He's got "the olive complexion" and the last immigrant in his bloodline came from Wales in 1872.

[EFerrari]

18. If she's a fiscal conservative, why is her son looking for financial aid?

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. That's the humorous part of her remarks. She's wrong.

The young lady with the olive complexion isn't getting financial aid; she's getting instate tuition. So is this rep's son - if he lives in Kansas. So this girl isn't getting anything the rep's son isn't getting.

This remark was made during a hearing on a bill that would throw out the law that allows undocumented kids in Kansas to attend state regent schools at instate tuition rates. The need to be graduates of a Kansas high school, their parents need to be filing state income tax returns - and paying state taxes and the kids need to have applied for citizenship.

There are only 200 kids in the program. And of course that's 200 too many for the KKK crowd in Topeka.

[EFerrari]

20. That stupid nazi cow, @RepConnieOBrien. n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. Exactly

:thumbsup:

[Blue_Tires]

36. If she's a fiscal conservative, why doesn't her son get a fuckin' JOB

to pay for that king's ransom of a tuition ($66 per credit hour)??

[Ramulux]

23. Racist piece of shit

[sammytko]

24. She said her son had been out of school for 6 years, but she went with him to enroll?

Isn't he old enough to do things like this for himself. That would put him at what - 24 yrs old.

And the girl she overheard said she was there to get her scholarship money - not financial aid in the literal sense. And of course if her son is working etc., he might make too much to qualify for a grant, but he can still apply for scholarships - i presume....

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. She's there to protect him

from the evil Mexicans.

[hobbit709]

26. The Know-Nothing Party has been resurrected from the mid 1800's

Of course back then they were after people named O'Brien.

[pampango]

29. The Know-Nothing Party actually began as the American Republican Party. Some links never change.

The Know Nothing movement was a nativist American political movement of the 1840s and 1850s. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic ("O'Brien" would have been the "Hernandez" or "Muhammed" of 2011) immigrants..." Of course, now we look back at German and Irish immigrants very positively. It's Hispanic and Muslim immigrants who are the new least-favored immigrants.

The movement originated in New York in 1843 as the American Republican Party. It spread to other states as the Native American Party and became a national party in 1845. In 1855 it renamed itself the American Party..." (Now there's another irony for you - a white, Protestant, anti-immigrant party naming itself the Native American Party.)

The collapse of the Whig Party in 1854 "also contributed to the disintegration of the party system. The collapsing second party system gave the Know Nothings a much larger pool of potential converts than was available to previous nativist organizations, allowing the Order to succeed where older nativist groups had failed."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing

I've seen no evidence of it, but I believe that many Know Nothings professed "We want our country back". :)

[annabanana]

30. +1 . . . .n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. +1

[tpsbmam]

28. Here's the part they left out of the transcript

So we get up to the line and the lady calls us up and a young lady next to us says, we couldn’t
help but overhear because she was standing right next to us, she goes, “I’m hear to get my
scholarship money.” And the clerk said, “I need to see a photo ID.” And the girl responded, “I
don’t have a photo ID.” So the clerk says, “I need to see a state ID .” And the girl says, “I don’t
have a state ID.” “You don’t have a federal or a state id,” she says, “No I don’t have those.” So
the clerk asks, “Do you drive? Do you have a driver’s license?” And the girl says, “No I don’t
have a driver’s license.” “But you drove here?” “Yeah I drove here.” So she said, “I don't’ have
a driver’s license.” And the lady repeated, “I need to have a federal or state ID with your photo
to give you your scholarship and the girl reiterated i do not have a photo ID.” Then the young
woman asked if she could talk to someone else to see about getting her scholarship money.

Frankly, I think her whole story stinks to high heaven. sounds like a load of made up Rethug bullshit and she's just your garden variety Rethug bigot.

What freaks me out is the comfort so many people seem to have these days with spouting their racist bullshit. It's like an announcement -- I'm with you, you white tea baggers, and against them.

[Puzzler]

31. Actually I'm not sure that she really is stupid...

... what she did was let slip the REAL agenda of these anti-immigration groups. It's just racism pure and simple.

[Blue_Tires]

35. Evidently the mysterious illegal spoke perfect accent-free english as well...

And I don't care who says what -- You're a STATE rep and you need financial aid to put your son through KCK Community College?!? At $66 per credit hour for in-state students??:banghead:

[sammytko]

42. He's a grown up man - 6 years out of school - 24yrs old?

I want to know why the heck she has to go with him and meddle in his business. What kind of adult person is he?

I filled out all my school forms and just had my parents sign on the line - I was 17 and a GIRL! My parents didn't even finish middle school.

[fishwax]

37. yeesh

:puke:

[hatrack]

39. And she's from "Tonganoxie" - hmm, that doesn't sound like English to me . . . .

I wonder why.

:silly:

[proud2BlibKansan]

43. I've honestly not spent much time there

Who is this woman? A tea partier who rode the wave into office in November?

[Sienna86]

41. Very familiar with Tonganoxie

It's actually a nice area, but I enjoy the Plains. Tonganoxie was named after a Delaware Indian Chief.

The story concerning Rep. O'Brien's ignorant remarks is in the local news.
http://www.tonganoxiemirror.com/news/2011/feb/14/democrats-criticize-rep-obrien-over-complexion-rem/

The Kansas Democratic Party has insisted she apologize and let's hope her constituents think better when they go to the polling place in the future.

[proud2BlibKansan]

44. Was she just elected for the first time?

Or has she been serving a while?

[lonestarnot]

45. WTF!

I D I O T!