Posted on 07/09/2006 3:53:00 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
Former President Clinton told one of the nation's largest Latino civil rights groups Saturday that the conservative wing of the Republican Party is using the immigration issue to divide Congress and the nation.
"It is a way of creating a divided community and distracting people from the real challenges facing the country, whether it is in Iraq and Afghanistan, or homeland security, or how to build a clean energy future, or how to solve the healthcare crisis, or how to create new jobs for America," he said.
Clinton made the remarks, some of his most extensive since the issue of illegal immigration heated up in Washington this year, before several thousand people at the opening session of the four-day La Raza convention in Los Angeles.
He was welcomed to the event, key for those who hope to sway Latino voters, by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and later greeted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the parking area. Clinton's appearance comes as competing congressional proposals for immigration reform are being debated this summer in committee hearings around the country.
Clinton said hard-liners are "basically saying these undocumented broke the law, send them home — never mind that they are 5% of the workforce and a far bigger percentage in certain critical areas."
"It's crazy to think about sending 11 million people home" to their native countries, said the former president, who called the recent demonstrations for immigrant rights "incredibly moving."
He said he favors the Senate's approach to changing immigration laws, although there are some elements of the bill he dislikes. The Senate legislation would enhance border security, create a guest worker program and put most of the nation's illegal immigrants in line for citizenship.
"At least it says we ought to provide a path to citizenship for these hard-working, law-abiding people,"
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Trying to stop the United States from becoming Northern Mexico should be the aim of every citizen.
The Mexicans have a country and we are sending jobs there. They should stay home and help build their own counry instead of invading ours.
Bill Clinton and the demorats are just looking for that hispanic vote to get hteir sorry corrupt asses back in power.
The strategy must be working... they have to trot out the serial rapist to whine and complain.
Bubba had eight years to work these problems...
The presidency of William Jefferson Clinton will be remembered for many things, not the least of which is a string of White House firsts unequaled by any of his predecessors.
The first elected president in U.S. history to be impeached-Dec. 19, 1998.
The first president to found guilty of a crime while still in office. (Leaking the private correspondence of Kathleen Willey in violation of the Privacy Act).
The first U.S. president to be publicly accused of forcible rape-by Juanita Broaddrick. Feb. 24, 1999.
The first U.S. president to approve the sale of sophisticated weapons technology to a hostile power while its emissaries contributed to his campaign.
The first president to be accused by multiple witnesses, including one under oath before a federal grand jury, of using cocaine while he was the chief law enforcement officer of his state.
The first U.S. president to be accused of sexual assault on White House property-by Kathleen Willey, March 15, 1998.
The first U.S. president to order a paramilitary operation where a network television camera crew was punched, kicked, and forced to the ground at gunpoint to prevent them from broadcasting live video coverage. (Elian Gonzalez's abduction-April 22, 2000.
The first sitting president to be the subject of a sexual harassment suit-filed by Paula Jones. May 8, 1994.
The first U.S. president to order an armored assault on a church, resulting in the deaths of 55 members of the congregation along with 25 of their children. (Waco-April 19, 1993)
The first U.S. presidential candidate to accept financial support from a KGB spy. (Aldrich Ames-$7,000, 1991, 92)
The first sitting U.S. president to be named in a federal criminal referral as a possible witness to and beneficiary of fraudulent financial activity. (Whitewater)
The first president to consult with Congress about combat troop deployment while simultaneously receiving oral sex-according to Monica Lewinsky and Rep. Sonny Callahan. (Starr Report-Sept. 1998)
The first U.S. president to have two senior administration officials die violently under mysterious circumstances while they were being pressed for testimony on assorted White House scandals. (Vince Foster, Ron Brown)
The first U.S. president to have a major cooperating federal witness against him die in prison while waiting to give prosecutors the testimony they later admitted would have led to first family indictments. (James McDougal)
The first U.S. president to launch unprovoked missile attacks on two sovereign nations. (Sudan, Afghanistan-Aug. 20, 1998)
From further down in the LASlimes piece comes this:
"Bill Clinton thanked President Bush for siding with moderates in his own party regarding immigration. He suggested that Bush had a different understanding of the immigration issue because of his ties to Texas, where Latinos have been part of the history and culture for many generations. 'It's hard to demonize people if you know 'em.'"
I wrote -- and first posted this -- 3 months ago:
Now for the SPECIFICS of the matter:
My take on Bush's role in all of this is:
1. His long and apparently positive experience with the large hispanic population in Texas is largely responsible for his inaction on this alien invasion. And why wouldn't HIS experience with them be positive as he traveled in the highest, best-educated circles among them, not the M13 bangers and pine-straw spreaders...
2. His brother Jeb is married to a Central American (Bolivian, I THINK!) and his nieces and nephews are mixed blood. And before you scream "ethnocentric bigot" at me, there's nothing inherently wrong with that). But that fact -- and the first item -- DOES predispose him to a warm and fuzzy feeling for folks from south of the Rio Grande.
And if -- in some strange and metastasizing American desire for a new royal family dynasty -- Jeb should win the White House, I'd bet that HIS activities toward this alien invasion will make W's behavior look like a warm-up exercise.
Any vestige of white European culture will be a distant memory.
Didn't the *Crintons fix this when they were president?
*Bubba gets jazzed about protesting in foreign countries...
Whew where to start on these tancredo/buchanan talking points.
You do know as Texas has more residents with Spanish surnaes, it has become more conservative and Republican.
Also, I notice a bit of Joe Biden rhetoric in your use of "pine straw spreaders". Yep lump hardworking and good people with scum M-13.
Maybe someday you tancredo/buchanites will come to the realization that not all hispanics are evil, as most people don't think all Americans with ethnic roots from Europe are all jeffrey dahmer's or ted bundy's.
All these ILLEGALS taking jobs that Americans wont do, especially in New York, how come there is anyone on welfare?
Well, have you taken a look at recent developments in white European culture? (Example: the Episcopal church's '1st world vs. 3rd world split over gays in the ministry.) I can't say I find that prospect so terrible.
I think Bush has handled this issue about as well as it could be handled, considering the political climate of the last 6 years. Immigration is the "third rail" for Republicans. Clinton has been waiting to exploit the Hispanic identity issue and Bush has never given him his chance.
Thanks to W's moderation, many registered Hispanics will be voting Republican.
Aside from those minor matters, he also gave us the most repulsive First Lady in history, and the most arrogant, insipid, bloviating Vice President in history!! Quite a record.........
"It's crazy to think about sending 11 million people home" to their native countries, said the former president, who called the recent demonstrations for immigrant rights "incredibly moving."
Incredibly?
Doesn't this entire scenario sound like a monstrous plot against the sovereignty of the United States with traitors like this criminal, has wife and, unfortunately, most of those who supposedly serve us in our present government?
Evidence points to the communists being alive and flourishing and leading the Aztlan movement.
This is the subversive group that is using immigration to break away the Southwest from the United States to destroy America.
Their goal is to divide and conquer, in the name of international socialism/communism, our nation. When one considers that California, the sixth largest economy in the world, joining with Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas the missing puzzle pieces show that losing control of this vast area leads directly to the destruction of America.
Our government encourages the invasion of our country and the Aztlan treachery and this problem is so obvious it has to be by design. To attempt explanation of our government leaders' complicity defies all logic.
True, patriotic Americans need to be aware and to resist this insipid attack on our nation's sovereignty in every way possible.
And finally, we have this foolish oaf of a disgraced ex-president suggesting it's impossible to eject the 11 million (very low estimate) illegal invaders from our nation and finding the demonstrations of these criminals "moving."
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