Posted on 01/13/2004 5:54:13 AM PST by JustPiper
Conservative talk-radio star, author says amnesty is betrayal of country
In the latest indication President Bush is having problems with his conservative core political constituency, Michael Savage, one of talk radio's biggest stars, tonight called for the impeachment of President Bush over his plans to legalize millions of illegal aliens.
"This is the worst betrayal of our country in my lifetime," said Savage, whose program is heard on more than 350 stations with an audience reaching some 6 million. His book, "The Savage Nation," last year was No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller's list for five weeks. His follow-up, "The Enemy Within," out just one week, is already No. 8 on the list. Both were published by WND Books.
President Bush
Tonight Savage called Bush a liberal and described him as part of the "enemy within" that is destroying the nation.
Savage created the phrase "compassionate conservative" in 1994, a term picked up by Bush during his presidential campaign – a campaign supported by Savage.
"This is much more serious than dropping your pants for an intern," said Savage. "This is a policy that represents a danger to national security."
Savage is hardly alone in his strong feelings of opposition to Bush's proposal to offer legal status to illegal immigrants. A new ABC News poll finds 52 percent of the nation opposes an amnesty program for illegal immigrants from Mexico, while 57 percent oppose one for illegal immigrants from other countries. Both results are roughly the same as when the administration floated the idea two-and-a-half years ago.
But today in Monterrey, Mexico, Bush reaffirmed his support of the proposal, despite its unpopularity at home. He said it could help illegal immigrants "leave the shadows and have an identity."
At a joint press conference with Mexican President Vicente Fox, Bush warned that his government will not allow the existence in the United States of an underclass of illegal immigrants, but claimed again his proposal is not an amnesty. Amnesty, he said, would only promote the violation of the law and perpetuate illegal immigration.
Bush said his immigration proposal would benefit both the United States and Mexico as it recognizes the contribution of thousands of honest Mexicans who work in the United States.
For his part, Fox embraced Bush's proposal.
"What else can we wish?" Fox said at the news conference with the president.
In the U.S., the latest poll on the controversy shows at least twice as many Americans "strongly" oppose the proposal as strongly support it.
Opposition peaks in Bush's own party: Fifty-eight percent of Republicans oppose his immigration proposal for Mexicans, compared with 50 percent of Democrats. For illegal immigrants other than Mexicans, 63 percent of Republicans are opposed.
Bush reportedly will disclose more details of the plan in his State of the Union address Jan. 20.
Meanwhile, the National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 9,000 of the Border Patrol's non-supervisory agents, has told its members to challenge President Bush´s proposed guest-worker program, calling it a "slap in the face to anyone who has ever tried to enforce the immigration laws of the United States," the Washington Times reported today.
The agents were told in a letter from Vice President John Frecker that the proposal offered last week during a White House press conference "implies that the country really wasn't serious about" immigration enforcement in the first place.
"Hey, you know all those illegal aliens you risked 'life and limb' to apprehend? FAH-GED-ABOWD-IT," said Frecker, a veteran Border Patrol agent. "President Bush has solved the problem. Don't be confused and call this an 'amnesty,' even though those who are here illegally will suddenly become legal and will be allowed to stay here. The president assures us that it's not an amnesty," he said.
Last week Bush proposed the sweeping immigration changes that would allow the 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens thought to be in the United States to remain in the country if they have a job and apply for a guest-worker card. The immigrants could stay for renewable three-year periods, after which they could apply for permanent legal residence.
Savage cited a new report published in the City Journal by the Manhattan Institute suggesting there is a major crime wave in the U.S. caused by illegal immigration.
"Some of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens," the report charges. "Yet in cities where the crime these aliens commit is highest, the police cannot use the most obvious tool to apprehend them: their immigration status. In Los Angeles, for example, dozens of members of a ruthless Salvadoran prison gang have sneaked back into town after having been deported for such crimes as murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and drug trafficking. Police officers know who they are and know that their mere presence in the country is a felony. Yet should a cop arrest an illegal gang-banger for felonious reentry, it is he who will be treated as a criminal, for violating the LAPD’s rule against enforcing immigration law."
The situation is similar, the report says in New York, Chicago, San Diego, Austin and Houston. These "sanctuary policies" generally prohibit city employees, including the cops, from reporting immigration violations to federal authorities, says the report.
"These people are destroying America," said Savage. "That's all I have to say on the subject. But you can talk about it. Talk about it while you can – while America is still a free country, because it's not going to last."
I do have a conscience; just not for lazy Americans such as many union workers who demand great pay and benefits for simply showing up at work or welfare recipients who sit at home watching Jerry Springer because they feel they are too good to work a crap job.
Who would you be referring to?
One man one vote is a good idea for equality point of view, but if Demon-rats are going to bus thousands of stupid uninformed voters, we lose.
Oh, don't get me wrong. I definitely agree with you there. I'm certainly not a supporter of illegal immigrants living here in America.
You and I are on the same side, me with more intellect, you as a robot.
Don't be so sure of yourself. It will eat you from the inside out.
Turn on Hannity right now. He's getting ready to discuss the immigration issue.
My vote is equal to a stupid Joe-Six-Pack type, who flunked high school, and voted for a guy because he simply has a nice smile.. Replace Joe-six-pack with "idiot". since Jo-six-pack is masculiin and a guy with a nice nice smile is a masculin! I did not know that I have to explain that! But if you are too slow, here it is! Essentially lots of stupid voters including stupid women who vote for a guy because he looks sexy. Or an idiot male who votes for a guy because he promise to bring prayers in school!
I am with you on that. The unions going too far to the left rendered their good work intolerable for us Republicans.
So now the name-calling starts. Well, take a note here -- I just cited an unimpeachable Republican source, Milton Friedman, to the effect that the society is better off when the people who pull the load can negotiate a fair wage instead of getting individually skinned by smarter, better negotiators. What part of my reasoned and authoritative argument do you not want to understand?
Just don't demand that risk-taking entrepreneurs lower their wage class for the sake of benefiting grasshoppers.
Ah, "grasshoppers" -- another name being called, only this time it's the people you don't want to pay. Do I take it by "grasshopper" that you mean job-hoppers? Or do you mean people who don't seem to have the ability or inclination to plan ahead in 20-year increments the way the most successful people do?
But I take it that you do mean the people trying to retire with the firms that are busting them out after 15 or 20 years -- either documenting their files individually with thin beeves and firing them, or calling on "correlatable" corporate events to serve as pegs for running them off en masse, to avoid the catchup provisions of ERISA for over-50 employees?
Meanwhile, if my heart bleeds, it doesn't bleed as yours evidently does, for millionaires who have to settle on a fair wage with their employees rather than skinning them and beating them down as God (or was it Lucifer?) surely intended, so that they could be triple or quadruple millionaires instead. Labor unions were invented for hardnoses like you, to prevent your falling into the sin of avarice, and the social bad habit of engaging bond labor.
A business owner is a job description too.
Not really -- it's above job descriptions, since the proprietor is a principal not an agent. But I take your point; he has to get a living, too. (Hemorrhage check -- am I bleeding for him unnecessarily?)
Agricultural work is still not slavery.
I didn't say it is, but it has shown a historical tendency to become that, when there's too great a disparity between the organizational ability of employers and employees. We have a history of bond labor in this country which isn't confined to the 19th century. The FBI still makes the occasional arrest among agricultural-labor "contractors".
You can also tell a different tone between Bush's ideas and the idea from any liberal Democrat. He's got good reason for ripping on the Dems more than Bush. Believe me, if there were a Republican primary with 9 candidates like the Dems have going on, he would be ripping on Bush. Hannity is NOT a compassionate conservative. He's more like Newt Gingrich on the issues.
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