On 'The Sopranos,' Mob Boss's Daughter Denounces Bush for Abusing Civil Rights

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[Text and video include a vulgarity] Another fresh episode of The Sopranos, HBO's series about a New Jersey Mob boss and his family, will air tonight (Sunday), and that reminded me of a left-wing shot at President Bush's anti-terrorism policies, which aired on last Sunday's edition. Daughter “Meadow Soprano,” played by Jamie-Lynn Sigler, is a volunteer at a legal aid clinic where she meets an Afghan family whose son was arrested. "The government is just completely fucking this family over," she later complains while sitting next to her boyfriend “Finn” at the kitchen counter of her parent's home, adding: "The FBI snatched their son off the street like we're some Third World dictatorship." When her younger brother suggests that maybe the guy is a terrorist, she angrily retorts: "9/11, 9/11. Bush is using it as an excuse to erode our constitutional protections and you're falling for it!" (A little more dialogue follows.)

Video clip (1:45): Real (3 MB) or Windows Media (3.4 MB), plus MP3 audio (600 KB)

On the episode first aired on April 16 (#71, “Live Free or Die”), Meadow Soprano volunteers at the “South Bronx Law Center” where she takes down information from a Muslim family upset that their son was arrested without explanation.

The bitter mother declares that “it's not easy to be a Muslim now,” complaining her daughter wasn't allowed to skate at a rink until she removed her head scarf: “If she had been wearing a yamalka, it would have been a different story, you can bet.”

In the next scene, Meadow is at her parent's house in the morning sitting at the kitchen counter with her boyfriend and brother with her mother nearby and her father, “Tony Soprano,” walking into the room.

Meadow rues: “The government is just completely fucking this family over.”

Tony Soprano: “Let me guess, was it a crack whore trying to get her kids back for the welfare money?”

Meadow: “Actually, it was a family from Afghanistan who fled the Taliban and sweated out visa lotteries and a refugee camp and hold down three jobs....The FBI snatched their son off the street like we're some Third World dictatorship.”

Her mother, “Carmela Soprano” says there must have been a reason for the arrest and her brother “AJ” suggests he might be “a terrorist,” leading Meadow to retort: “9/11, 9/11. Bush is using it as an excuse to erode our constitutional protections and you're falling for it!”

Carmela: “I voted for him.”

Meadow: “Right, you don't relate to black people clinging to logs.”