As the truth digger on this blog, Ole' Pecoz decided to find out how this here "Dial #1 for English" came to haunt all our lives and ruin our days. Took a while, but it all goes back to Executive Order 13166, signed by His Bubbaness, Pres Clinton, flying on Air Force One way back in August of 2000. Remember 2000? Slick Willie's last year at the helm and the year that he was forced to quit rompin' on the floor with Monica and go to work -- so unfortunately he started signing slews of Executive Orders that his lame duck liberal lackeys created. This was just one. Y'all ought to take a minute and read the order, but here is a part of a pretty good summary written way back in 2001:Clinton's Tower of Babble
Lawyers will litigate; taxpayers will tremble.
By Jim Boulet, Jr. Executive Director English First
Most of us are no longer surprised when we telephone a government agency and get a recording which begins, "To proceed in English, press 1." Get ready for a lot more of this sort of thing and hold onto your wallet. The Clinton-Gore administration has just declared the United States government officially multilingual.
While Bill Clinton was flying to Los Angeles for the Democratic convention on Friday, August 11, he took a moment to sign Executive Order 13166.
It is now this nation's legal duty to make sure you still get your welfare checks, food stamps and all other government benefits should you choose not to trouble yourself to learn the American tongue.
While there is plenty of this sort of thing going on already, Executive Order 13166 breaks considerable new legal ground. The theory underlying this sweeping new policy is that to provide services solely in English could "discriminate on the basis of national origin."
The Clinton Executive Order 13166, as interpreted by the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Justice, requires every recipient of federal funds, including "a federally assisted zoo or theater…to take reasonable steps to provide meaningful opportunities for access" by Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals.
What might these reasonable steps consist of? Walter Olson's book on employment-discrimination law, The Excuse Factory, reported that one activist from Yale has actually suggested that America must accommodate "difference of speech" by "forcing employers to hire supervisors familiar with the languages their workers wish to speak in and banning the practice of preferring workers with readily understood accents."
The track record of the civil-rights industry and its allies in government suggests more good reason for concern. The Americans with Disabilities Act has provoked litigation over alcoholic airline pilots and half-blind truck drivers. A Rand Corporation study found that an employer can expect to spend $12,000 or more defending against these frivolous lawsuits.
Concerns about the potential costs of compliance with Executive Order 13166 have already proven themselves to be amply justified. Those incorrigible optimists who think translating a few documents into Spanish or Chinese will make the government happy should take note. According to the new Justice Department guidelines, if English speakers can talk to a clerk in the office, persons who speak any other language must have the same opportunity:
By Jim Boulet, Jr. Executive Director English First
Most of us are no longer surprised when we telephone a government agency and get a recording which begins, "To proceed in English, press 1." Get ready for a lot more of this sort of thing and hold onto your wallet. The Clinton-Gore administration has just declared the United States government officially multilingual.
While Bill Clinton was flying to Los Angeles for the Democratic convention on Friday, August 11, he took a moment to sign Executive Order 13166.
It is now this nation's legal duty to make sure you still get your welfare checks, food stamps and all other government benefits should you choose not to trouble yourself to learn the American tongue.
While there is plenty of this sort of thing going on already, Executive Order 13166 breaks considerable new legal ground. The theory underlying this sweeping new policy is that to provide services solely in English could "discriminate on the basis of national origin."
The Clinton Executive Order 13166, as interpreted by the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Justice, requires every recipient of federal funds, including "a federally assisted zoo or theater…to take reasonable steps to provide meaningful opportunities for access" by Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals.
What might these reasonable steps consist of? Walter Olson's book on employment-discrimination law, The Excuse Factory, reported that one activist from Yale has actually suggested that America must accommodate "difference of speech" by "forcing employers to hire supervisors familiar with the languages their workers wish to speak in and banning the practice of preferring workers with readily understood accents."
The track record of the civil-rights industry and its allies in government suggests more good reason for concern. The Americans with Disabilities Act has provoked litigation over alcoholic airline pilots and half-blind truck drivers. A Rand Corporation study found that an employer can expect to spend $12,000 or more defending against these frivolous lawsuits.
Concerns about the potential costs of compliance with Executive Order 13166 have already proven themselves to be amply justified. Those incorrigible optimists who think translating a few documents into Spanish or Chinese will make the government happy should take note. According to the new Justice Department guidelines, if English speakers can talk to a clerk in the office, persons who speak any other language must have the same opportunity:
Look at it this way, if an MD receives Medicare money for providing care giver services to a patient that speaks only Farsi or Chinese or Spanish, at his own expense he/she must provide an interpreter at his own expense (usually higher than his MD costs) for communicating with the patient.
Now, jest in case you ain't already fired up, here is an other interesting little article that will knock your hat in the creek fer shure!!
Research by ProEnglish has found that 52 countries around the world have English as an official language. Most of those countries are located in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.
The research shows that the U.S. is out of step with most English-speaking nations, and is one of the few countries that operate without an official language. Ten Latin American countries have Spanish as their official language.
Of the 52 countries that have made English their official language, 27 countries, just over half, have made English their sole official language. Those countries are: Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Micronesia, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kiribati, Liberia, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenadines, St. Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago, United Kingdom, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
Perhaps the United States should also make English its official language.
Well Buckaroo's - there is the story, Bubba's little Exec Order during his last few months in office have changed the way we do business and the cost of doing it in this country. Be ridiculous if it weren't so sick!!
To read the Original Order: http://www.law.mercer.edu/elaw/temp1.html
For the whole National Review article: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment082300b.shtml
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