Stephanie Miller's New Middle Name Is "Hussein"

[eleny]

This morning, on her radio program, Stephanie said that next time she's on tv and she gets announced she's going to correct the host. She's going to tell them her full name is Stephanie Hussein Miller.

She's going to use her humor in the hopes of making the whole deal sound stupid. Anyhow, it was a good show this morning, as ever.

[stellanoir]

1. And we are all supposed to name our babies Hussein to neutralize this smear.

Then this lady astutely phoned in.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2935767

[eleny]

7. Yes, she was good!

[barack the house]

72. Yeah that'd work. One way to decalre party affiliation.

[TexasObserver]

2. No, I'm Spartacus Hussein Obama!!!

[eleny]

8. Good one!!!

[bklyncowgirl]

47. I like it! Great idea. nt

[bklyncowgirl]

48. I am Brooklyn Hussein Cowgirl.

Alright, maybe it kind of lack a certain ring but you get the picture.

Edited to correct spelling. It is probably not a good idea to attempt to post on a public forum after drinking two manhattans on an empty stomach.

[Leopolds Ghost]

62. Brooklyn Hussein Cowgirl = Great name for an emo band nt

[eleny]

75. Well, that's one way to get an extra cherry

:rofl:

[Adelante]

3. I love it

:D

[TexasObserver]

4. Actually, this is a great idea. We should all start using HUSSEIN as our middle name on name tags.

At political functions, etc.

[eleny]

9. Eleny Hussein has a nice ring to it, dontcha think?

[TexasObserver]

13. EX-cell-ent!! Texas Hussein Observer! I like it a lot!!

Ridicule is the best antidote to the rightwing nut machine's hysteria.

[roguevalley]

41. Rogue Hussein Valley. Hussein Rogue Valley. No matter how you slice it, its

prime. :)

[KittyWampus]

15. Crying Hussein Shame.... nah. But it'll be my new middle name in real life

[eleny]

77. I love it!

Oh for crying hussein shame! See, saying it great emphasis it makes perfect sense.

[barack the house]

73. Yeah wear flag pins with Hussain rock on it.

[VolcanoJen]

5. I Am Volcano Hussein Jen

Ya gotta love Stephanie Miller & Crew!!

:rofl:

[Binka]

24. Binka Hussein

:thumbsup:

[eleny]

74. That name ought to win a prize!

Oh jeez, I laughed right out loud!!!

[calimary]

37. caliHusseinmary

has a nice ring to it.

Dang, I love Steph and Co.

[SeattleGirl]

6. I am Hitler Hussein Osama.

:evilgrin:

[VenusRising]

31. You're taking all the good terra-ist names!!

:P

[SoxFan]

51. Nice post, um, uh...

:yoiks:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. ...

[eleny]

12. \Hussein/

Does that sorta work?

[TexasObserver]

14. The face looks familiar, but I can't put a name on it!!

[Occam Bandage]

28. Somewhat ironically, Fawkes was actually a terrorist.

[BuyingThyme]

11. I hope she does.

[scheming daemons]

16. I am now "scheming Hussein daemons"

...

:rofl:

[Leopolds Ghost]

64. Leopold's Hussein Ghost.

[eleny]

78. Oh that's too perfect

Gonna start a rock band immediately I hope.

[JaneQPublic]

17. I, JaneQPublic, shall change my name to Jane Hussein Public

Now, how do I go about that?

[NoBorders]

18. It would be great to see all of Obama's surrogates on TV do that

It would be a funny way to counter the whole stupid thing.

[AtomicKitten]

19. I like it!!! My screen name is now officially AtomicHusseinKitten.

[mmonk]

20. Gotta get momma on TV fast

[nutsnberries]

36. tomorrow night on Larry King

according to the blog page of her site.

[mmonk]

60. Good. Can't wait.

[Drunken Irishman]

21. I'm Drunken Hussein Irishman!

[Cha]

22. Gotta own it...boomerang it..

right back in their no nothing faces.

[Yael]

23. Thing of beauty

I'm in! :evilgrin:

[zanne]

25. Me too! Me too!

From now on, I wish to be addressed as "zanne Hussein".

[Occam Bandage]

26. I am now Hussein Bandage. Thank you.

[scheming daemons]

27. Occam already sounds muslim-ish.... I'm suspicious of you.....

Have you denounced Farrakhan?

;-)

[Occam Bandage]

30. Denounced--but not rejected.

[eridani]

67. You mean Occam Hussein Bandage, right ? n/t

[bicentennial_baby]

29. bicentennial_hussein_baby!!!

:woohoo:

[billyoc]

32. I am Billy Hussein O'C!

:woohoo:

[yellerpup]

33. My Aunt Tooty's middle name was Hussein.

And she was from Oklahoma.

[Voice for Peace]

44. Hurrah. Aunt Tooty Hussein, from Oklahama

[eleny]

79. SHUT UP!!!!!

[yellerpup]

84. I made that up.

The truffle oil on my kale last night was wonderful, BTW.

[WonderGrunion]

34. Me too

Wonder Hussein Grunion reporting for duty.

[Jawja]

35. I am

Jaw Hussein ja!

[Voice for Peace]

38. Voice Hussein Peace

lol

k&r

[Sparkly]

39. Sparkly Hussein Fairy Princess....

Has a ring to it...

I love Stephanie Miller!

[blogslut]

40. Blog-Hussein

s l u t ;)

[Stephanie]

42. I'm Stephanie Hussein II

:hi:

[Pirate Smile]

43. Pirate Hussein Smile

:patriot:

[Voice for Peace]

45. HRH Queen Elizabeth Hussein of England

From Juan Cole, Informed Comment:
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

I was surprised that the writers of comments over at Salon.com did not know the below. It is common knowledge to anyone interested in genealogy.

I know that it is hard for people invested in a hard East/ West dichotomy to imagine that the icon of Western civilization, the British royal family, has Arab Muslim antecedents (along with a host of other nationalities of course.) But it does. The Greater Mediterranean got all mixed up over millennia. Most Sicilians (i.e. most Italian-Americans) also have Arab Muslim ancestors. It works the other way around, too. It is obvious that a lot of Egyptians, Lebanese and Jordanians have descent from the Christian European Crusaders.

'United Press International
October 10, 1986
MOSLEMS IN BUCKINGHAM PALACE

Mixed in with Queen Elizabeth's blue blood is the blood of the Moslem prophet Mohammed, according to Burke's Peerage, the geneological guide to royalty. The relation came out when Harold B. Brooks-Baker, publishing director of Burke's, wrote Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to ask for better security for the royal family. ''The royal family's direct descent from the prophet Mohammed cannot be relied upon to protect the royal family forever from Moslem terrorists,'' he said. Probably realizing the connection would be a surprise to many, he added, ''It is little known by the British people that the blood of Mohammed flows in the veins of the queen. However, all Moslem religious leaders are proud of this fact.''

Brooks-Baker said the British royal family is descended from Mohammed through the Arab kings of Seville, who once ruled Spain. By marriage, their blood passed to the European kings of Portugal and Castille, and through them to England's 15th century King Edward IV. '

--
Posted By Juan Cole to Informed Comment at 2/29/2008 12:54:00 AM __._,_.___

[creeksneakers2]

46. Steph cracks me up!

Maybe she's started something.

[yellerpup]

49. My registered name is Ch. Hussein's yellerpup

[jlake]

50. Sounds very cultish to me.

[maddiejoan]

53. Just call me

Maddie Rodham Joan ;)

[jillan]

54. Good one :)

pirhana rodham?

[scheming daemons]

55. And again.... Clinton supporters unable to be original.....

;-p

[maddiejoan]

70. and Obama supporters

always thinking it's about only them

:P

[eleny]

81. Don't make me come back there, you kids!!!

[SoxFan]

52. Idi Josef Pol Pot Milosevic

I'll change my name to that, and Husseing will look good in comparison.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

56. Hussein is the new black!

:D

[DearAbby]

57. I am DearAbby Hussein

[Colobo]

58. Roberto Hussein Jimenez here.

[C_U_L8R]

59. I am CU Hussein L8R

smirk

[nookiemonster]

61. Nookie Hussein Monster, or

Hussein Nookiemonster, or Nookie Monster Hussein, or the Monster that comes from the Hussein lineage that likes Nookie. Or something.

:silly:

[angie_love]

63. I'm Angie Hussein Love. woooooooot

[OwnedByFerrets]

65. Owned by Hussein Ferrets...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Sultana]

66. Ahem! Silly Hussein Flower

:D

Hussein is a nice anyone who understands some Arabic would know that, my future kids will have Arabic names (I think :silly:) & my fundie parents will freak.:evilgrin:

[eleny]

82. We'll name a rose after you!

[eridani]

68. Single word handle people are disadvantaged here

It really has to be a middle name, IMO.

eridani hussein vindamiatrix?

[Withywindle]

69. WithyHusseinWindle

Prettiest creepy river in the Shire....

[barack the house]

71. WTG Stephanie own it work it girl. =)

[rufus dog]

76. rufus hussein dog

I'm in.

[eShirl]

80. eHusseinShirl checking in

:hi:

[kdpeters]

83. K Hussein-Peters

[VotesForWomen]

85. like it or not, an arabic first/middle name and muslim, non-american father are going to considered

serious issues by more than a few people.

[VotesForWomen]

86. like it or not, an arabic first/middle name and muslim, non-american father are going to considered

serious issues by more than a few people.

[IDemo]

87. Please read:

Obama should be proud to be named Hussein

The attacks on Barack Obama's middle name have begun, but the likely Democratic nominee joins a long line of famous Americans with Semitic names, from Benjamin Franklin to Omar Bradley.

By Juan Cole

In Cincinnati, Bill Cunningham, according to the Los Angeles Times, introducing presidential candidate John McCain at a rally Tuesday, "ridiculed Democratic contender Barack Obama for his intention to meet with 'world leaders who want to kill us' and pointedly referred to the Illinois senator as 'Barack Hussein Obama.'" John McCain repudiated Cunningham's low tactics and said that using the middle name like that three times was "inappropriate" and would never happen again at one of his rallies.

I want to say something about Barack Hussein Obama's name. It is a name to be proud of. It is an American name. It is a blessed name. It is a heroic name, as heroic and American in its own way as the name of Gen. Omar Nelson Bradley or the name of Benjamin Franklin. And denigrating that name is a form of racial and religious bigotry of the most vile and debased sort. It is a prejudice against names deriving from Semitic languages!

Christian, Western heroes have often been bequeathed Middle Eastern names. Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, the medieval Spanish hero, carried the name El Cid, from the Arabic al-Sayyid, "the Lord."

Barack and Hussein are Semitic words. Americans have been named with Semitic names since the founding of the republic. Fourteen of our 43 presidents have had Semitic names (see below). And American English contains many Arabic-derived words that we use every day and without which we would be much impoverished. America is a world civilization with a world heritage, something Cunningham will never understand.

Barack is a Semitic word meaning "to bless" as a verb or "blessing" as a noun. In its Hebrew form, barak, it is found all through the Bible. It first occurs in Genesis 1:22 -- "And God blessed (ḇāreḵə) them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."

Here is a list of how many times barak appears in each book of the Bible.

Now let us take the name "Hussein." It is from the Semitic word hasan, meaning "good" or "handsome." Husayn is the diminutive, affectionate form.

Barack Obama's middle name is in honor of his grandfather, Hussein, a secular resident of Nairobi, Kenya. Americans may think of Saddam Hussein when they hear the name, but that is like thinking of Stalin when you hear the name Joseph. There have been lots of Husseins in history, from the grandson of the prophet Mohammed, a hero who touched the historian Gibbon, to King Hussein of Jordan, one of America's most steadfast allies in the 20th century. The author of the beloved American novel "The Kite Runner" is Khaled Hosseini.

But in Obama's case, it is just a reference to his grandfather.

It is worth pointing out that John McCain's adopted daughter, Bridget, is originally from Bangladesh. Since Hussein is a very common name in Bangladesh, it is entirely possible that her birth father or grandfather was named Hussein. McCain certainly has Muslim relatives via adoption in his family. If Muslim relatives are a disqualification from high office in the United States, then McCain himself is in trouble. In fact, since Bridget is upset that George W. Bush doesn't like her "because she is black," and used her to stop the McCain campaign in South Carolina in 2000, you understand why McCain would be especially sensitive to race baiting of Cunningham's sort. The question is how vigorously he will combat it; he hasn't been above Muslim taunting in the campaign so far. (And the McCains really should let Bridget know that she is Asian, not "black." The poor girl; Bush and Rove have done a number on her, and Cindy's confusion can't help.)

The other thing to say about grandfathers named Hussein is that very large numbers of African-Americans probably have an ancestor 10 or 11 generations ago with that name, in what is now Mali or Senegal or Nigeria. And since so many thousands of Arab Muslims were made to convert to Catholicism in Spain after 1501, many Latinos have distant ancestors named Hussein, too. In fact, since there was a lot of Arab-Spanish intermarriage, and since there was subsequent Spanish intermarriage with other European Catholics, more European Americans are descended from a Hussein than they realize. The British royal family is quite forthright about the Arab line in its ancestry going back to Andalusia.

Obama, being a cousin of Dick Cheney on one side and having relatives in Kenya on the other, is just more and more typical of the 21st century United States.

So, anyway, Obama's first two names mean "blessing, the good." If we are lucky enough to get him for president, we can only hope that his names are prophetic for us.

Which brings me to Omar Bradley. Omar is an alternative spelling of Umar, i.e., Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph of Sunni Islam. Presumably Gen. Bradley was named for the poet Omar Khayyam, who bore the caliph's name. Omar Khayyam's "Rubaiyat," in the "translation" of Edward FitzGerald, became enormously popular in Victorian America.

Gen. Omar Bradley, who bore a Semitic, Muslim first name, and shared it with the second caliph of Sunni Islam, was the hero of D-day and Normandy, of the Battle of the Bulge and the Ruhr.

Would Cunningham see Omar Bradley as un-American, as an enemy because of his name?

What about other American heroes, such as Gen. George Joulwan, former NATO supreme allied commander of Europe? "Joulwan" is an Arabic name. Or there is Gen. John Abizaid, former CENTCOM commander. Abizaid is an Arabic name. Abi means Abu or "father of," and Zaid is a common Arab first name. Is Cunningham good enough to wipe their shoes? Is he going to call them traitors because they have Arabic names?

What about Rep. Darrell Issa of California? ("'Isa" means Jesus in Arabic). Former Cabinet secretary Donna Shalala? (Shalala means "waterfall" in Arabic.)

I won't go into all the great Americans with Arabic names in sports, entertainment and business, against whom Cunningham would apparently discriminate on that basis. Does he want to take citizenship away from Kareem Abdul Jabbar (meaning "noble the servant of the Mighty") and Ahmad Jamal (meaning "the most praised, beauty")? What about Rihanna ("sweet basil," "aromatic")? And Tony Shalhoub (i.e., Mr. Monk)?

Let us take Benjamin Franklin. His first name is from the Hebrew Bin Yamin, the son of the Right (hand), or the son of strength, or the son of the South (yamin or right has lots of connotations). The "Bin" means "son of," just as in modern colloquial Arabic. Bin Yamin Franklin is not a dishonorable name because of its Semitic root. By the way, there are lots of Muslims named Bin Yamin.

As for an American president bearing a name derived from a Semitic language, that is hardly unprecedented.

John Adams really only had Semitic names. His first name is from the Hebrew Yochanan, or gift of God, which became Johan and then John. (In German and in medieval English, "y" is represented by "j" but was originally pronounced "y.") Adams is from the biblical Adam, which also just means "human being." In Arabic, one way of saying "human being" is "Bani Adam," the children of men.

Thomas Jefferson's first name is from the Aramaic Tuma, meaning "twin." Aramaic is a Semitic language spoken by Jesus, which is related to Hebrew and Arabic. In Arabic, twin is tau'am, so you can see the similarity.

James Madison, James Monroe and James Polk all had a Semitic first name, derived from the Hebrew Ya'aqov or Jacob, which is Ya'qub in Arabic. It became Iacobus in Latin, then was corrupted to Iacomus, and from there became James in English.

Zachary Taylor's first name is from the Hebrew Zachariah, which means "the Lord has remembered."

Abraham Lincoln, of course, is named for the patriarch Abraham, from the Semitic word for father, Ab, and the word for "multitude," raham. Abu, "father of," is a common element in Arab names today.

So, Mr. Cunningham, Barack Hussein Obama fits right in this list of presidents with Semitic names. In fact, we haven't had one for a while. We are due for another one.

A blessed and good one.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/02/28/hussein/index_np.html

[yellerpup]

88. Gorgeous, priceless essay.

Thanks for sharing.

[eleny]

89. She just did it on Larry King...

Go Stephanie Hussein Miller!

[Giant Robot]

90. I don't mean to bring threads back from the dead but....

Fear the Giant Hussein Robot!