The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on RI, Fox and ‘holiday trees’
December 7th, 2011 at 6:00 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
‘Nuff said. State Rep. Doreen Costa and WPRO’s Jon DePetro both get cameos:
“He insists people call it ‘the devil’s pine’!”
Tags: christmas trees, doreen costa, holiday trees, holidays, jon depetro, jon stewart, lincoln chafee, the daily show, war on christmas
Nesi's Notes covers politics and the economy in and around Rhode Island for WPRI.com. (Twitter: 
[...] by now everyone is thoroughly familiar with the Rhode Island Holiday Tree Debacle. There have been phone-calls. There have been articles. There have been people shouting down the [...]
Representative Doreen Costa’s very first act as a state Representative had nothing to do with the very real problems facing the State of Rhode Island such as the state budget, the high rate of unemployment, or our under funded public education system. Doreen Costa’s priorities instead had to do with how state employees refer to the decor during the holiday season.
Doreen Costa’s first act was an attempt to force all state employees, regardless of their religious beliefs, to describe trees that are “customarily erected or displayed” between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day as Christmas Trees. According to her resolution, all state employees must refer to decorated evergreens by the religiously inspired term Representative Costa prefers.
This is a small step towards government-endorsed religion.
When Representative Costa ran as a Tea party candidate she stood on one of the Tea Party’s main plank that no bill or resolution should be considered until all those voting on it have read it. Representative Costa violated her beliefs with her first action in office. The House approved her resolution within moments of introduction, without any of the lawmakers getting copies of the measure on which they were being asked to vote.
Representative Costa also claimed to be committed to citing the portion of the United States Constitution that justifies a proposal up for consideration in the legislature. Which portion of the state or federal constitution inspired Representative Costa to submit a resolution that dictates how free Americans are required to refer to holiday decorations? Is it a reasonable use of Rhode Island citizens house, time and money to put forth resolutions that have no basis in the Constitution?
According to Gordon Fox’s legal counsel John Flynn, Doreen Costa’s resolution “was not properly before the body.” You would think that before Representative Costa submitted anything, especially her first effort as a freshman lawmaker, she would take steps to ensure that she did so correctly, and according to procedure. Her failure to do so speaks to her level of incompetence.
We are not here to protest Christmas. This is not about Christmas Trees, Holiday Trees, Yule Trees or whatever other terms free Americans might want to use.
We are objecting to the attention seeking behavior of Representative Doreen Costa, who was elected to work for all Rhode Islanders, not just those who share her beliefs. Her tree lighting ceremony is not a protest or a counter action, rather it is a transparent attempt at lobbying on behalf of a small plurality of religious believers who want the secular freedoms enshrined in our Constitution to be weakened or even eliminated.
Costa is using this manufactured controversy to promote herself and her narrow religious agenda.
“underfunded education” ?? Are you serious? I moved to another state where my property taxes are 1/3 what they are in RI and the schools are BETTER. When you pay some of the highest property taxes in the country, the problem with education is NOT underfunding!
[...] (typeof(addthis_share) == "undefined"){ addthis_share = [];}First “The Daily Show” and now “Saturday Night Live” are poking fun at Rhode Island’s heated debate over [...]
[...] from the Projo’s PolitiFact operation, “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart acknowledged his error (“Of course, it’s my fault for trusting something called ‘The History [...]