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White House compares illegal immigration to speeding
The Examiner ^ | May 26, 2006 | Bill Sammon

Posted on 05/26/2006 2:31:43 PM PDT by VU4G10

WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday said a Senate bill that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants is analogous to a traffic law that allows a speeder to pay a fine and continue driving.

"If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you're not forever a speeder, are you?" White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in response to questions from The Examiner.

"So the fact is, you have paid your debt to society," he added. "And we have come up with a way to make sure that the debt to society gets paid. Then you move forward."

The "traffic ticket" analogy raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill, where many House Republicans regard illegal immigration as a grave crime.

"I don't know if Tony meant to trivialize it or not," said Will Adams, spokesman for Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. "But it's certainly misleading."

"The penalty for a speeding ticket is a fine," he added. "The penalty for being here illegally is being removed from this country. But the president doesn't want illegal aliens to go home."

Snow emphasized that illegals would have to pay fines, learn English and wait years for a chance at full citizenship. But Adams called that "a slap on the hand" compared to deportation.

"Here's a more apt analogy," he said. "You get stopped for speeding, and you say to the cop: "Hey listen, you're about to give me a $300 ticket. How about we make it 20 bucks and just call it even?"

Snow predicted that House Republicans would eventually drop their opposition to the Senate bill, which passed Thursday. The bill, which includes a guest worker program that would grant legal status to aliens, is headed to a conference committee for possible reconciliation with a House bill aimed at beefing up border security.

Snow suggested the guest worker program could be sold to even ardent opponents like Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

"Chairman Sensenbrenner, who's got some real problems with various aspects, has said publicly that the temporary worker program has merit," Snow said.

"There are areas in which members of the House are going to agree with the president," he added. "I certainly don't want to be speaking for Chairman Sensenbrenner, but the fact is, you know politics."

But Sensenbrenner appeared unmoved.

"What's going on now, in calling it a pathway to citizenship or earned legalization, is not honest because it is amnesty," he said at a news conference.


TOPICS: Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2005signups; 2pathetic4words; aliens; alottanoobshere; amnesty; anmesty; antigop; borders; bushbash; coco; illegalaliens; illegalimmigration; immigration; notreallygop; rinocrats; sammon; snow; tonysnow; unappeaseables
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To: Mrs Zip

ping


281 posted on 05/27/2006 1:30:32 AM PDT by zip (((Remember: DimocRat lies told often enough become truth to 48% of all Americans (NRA)))))
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To: clawrence3
"Many illegal aliens have committed NO crime (let alone felonies) after entering or staying in the country illegally.

Bullbleep. The only ones this might be true for are the children. Any adults perpetrate many different kinds of document fraud just in daily business (and yes--most of those ARE felonies). And the billions of dollars they suck up in social services are theft, pure and simple.

But you're a FROBL, so you'll just ignore all that.

282 posted on 05/27/2006 4:14:07 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel-NRA)
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To: supercat
I don't see how Bush could be impeached

1. Act passes
2. House GOP members lose in November (along, perhaps with GOP Senators)
3. Dem House issues articles
4. Dem Senate convicts

283 posted on 05/27/2006 4:21:48 AM PDT by lemura
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To: Let's Roll

Tony Snow welcomes Speedy at the border.

284 posted on 05/27/2006 4:48:18 AM PDT by Major_Risktaker ("If a fence doesn't work then why does Bush have one around the White House?")
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To: clawrence3
If the House refuses to compromise, I hope Bush signs a Presidential pardon for every illegal alien.

Would you still feel the same way if it was YOUR identity that was stolen?

285 posted on 05/27/2006 5:10:58 AM PDT by Trteamer ( (Eat Meat, Wear Fur, Own Guns, FReep Leftists, Drive an SUV, Drill A.N.W.R., Drill the Gulf, Vote)
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To: Dat Mon
Hey pols.......you want to run for reelection and have your opponent tar you with the line ..."his buddies got away with murder with the IRS...big business buddies...while working men and women lose their jobs to illegals." Go ahead...run with that record....

Good point---unfortunately, will help Democrats win.

286 posted on 05/27/2006 5:18:48 AM PDT by Liz (The US Constitution is intended to protect the people from the government.)
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To: clawrence3
I hope you've calmed down enough to realize that voting out Republicans will only give you Democrats who are worse on everything.

I'm not worried. Any sonofabitch who continues to vote against the will of the people will most definitely have a rival running against him/her. It will be fun voting against incumbent traitors.

287 posted on 05/27/2006 6:29:11 AM PDT by demkicker (democrats and terrorists are intimate bedfellows)
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To: VU4G10

I compare the Senate to a rotten cancer that needs to be cut out and disposed of.


288 posted on 05/27/2006 6:34:11 AM PDT by jetson
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To: AmeriBrit
I believe that ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHO HAVE ROOTS IN OUR COUNTRY and want to stay SHOULD HAVE TO PAY A MEANINGFUL PENALTY FOR BREAKING THE LAW, TO PAY TAXES, TO LEARN ENGLISH AND TO WORK IN A JOB FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS.

IOW Amnesty. You seem to have allowing them to stay confused with citizenship. These people do NOT want citizesnship.

The idea that it is "too hard" to deport all the illegals is for defeatists.

Letting them stay here legally afterhaving broken our laws is AMNESTY.

289 posted on 05/27/2006 7:11:52 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (I LIKE you! When I am Ruler of Earth, yours will be a quick and painless death </Stewie>)
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To: VU4G10

290 posted on 05/27/2006 7:13:03 AM PDT by Samwise (All that is needed for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.)
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To: Let's Roll

He's sold his soul for the potential for a vastly increased income later on....


291 posted on 05/27/2006 7:14:32 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: clawrence3

What is it about America that you can't stand that makes you want to change it so much?


292 posted on 05/27/2006 7:43:09 AM PDT by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote!!!)
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To: DoughtyOne

Since we have an estimated 11 million illegals here now, most of whom (I'll say 8 million) are from Mexico/Central America/South America (M/CA/SA) and we assume the rest are from other parts of the world, we need to balance that out? Right? That leaves a differential of 8 million.

So. First, we secure our southern border and northern border. Then, taking up to 3 million legal immigrants, who meet our qualifications, per year from these other ethnic regions around the world. (Note: we are not taking 3 million each, but a total of three million each year till they reach that 8 million goal per ethinc region):

1. The European Union/Great Britain

2. Eastern Europe

3. Russia/The Balkan States

4. China

5. Western Asia

6. Southern Asia

7. The Middle East

8. The African Tribal Nations

9. South Africa

10. New Zealand/Australia/South Pacific

11. The Eskimo/Aleut/Northern Peoples

12. The Carribean

That's the best I can come up with. Any more?

In the meantime (you knew there was one of those, didn't you?) we put a moratorium on immigration from the M/CA/SA region until that quota of 8 million from each of those other regions is met bringing in a limit of 3 million per year regardless of the makeup.

That means we have to bring in 96 million from those other 12 regions. Dividing that by 3 million means that the moratorium on the M/CA/SA region would last 32 years.


293 posted on 05/27/2006 7:46:58 AM PDT by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote!!!)
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To: clawrence3
Because the momentum and more recent, reasonable thinking are on the Senate's side.

So, now you're on record siding with the Democrats and the Republican liberals in the Senate against the conservative Republicans in the Senate and House. You do know that the Senate bill was passed primarily by Democrats with a handful of Republican sell-outs thrown in to pass it. Funny how it turns out that you always seem to be siding with the Democrats and liberals on this conservative forum. Why is that?

294 posted on 05/27/2006 7:58:03 AM PDT by Spiff ("They start yelling, 'Murderer!' 'Traitor!' They call me by name." - Gael Murphy, Code Pink leader)
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To: raybbr

Well, I give you points for a unique idea. As long as those folks were spread out across the nation and not consolidated in one region, I might be convinced over time.


295 posted on 05/27/2006 8:17:57 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (A sorrow shared spits the sorrow in half. A joy shared doubles the joy.)
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To: Samwise
All Tony Snow is doing is making the analogies amecians refuse to make. I like false anaologies, because they allow a lot of clear-thinking individuals such as those on this forum, to make more appropriate analogies.

I remember crashing a required, State of California "sexual harrassment" class for all CA state employees. The feminist instructor made the analogy that you can't complain if you are cited for a "harrassing" comment, and be able to defend it by saying many others do it. Just like speeding, she said, not everyone gets caught and the fact that others are not cited isn't a defense against being cited.

I raised my hand and pointed out that there are no speed laws in most of Europe. The lady went ballistic and she had State Police escort me from the building. Glad I don't work for the State and have to tow the line.

296 posted on 05/27/2006 10:40:48 AM PDT by at bay ("We actually did an evil....." Eric Scmidt, CEO Google)
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To: VU4G10

No Tony, the analogy is more like not filing or paying your income tax. And when you get caught, the IRS doesn't give you amnesty. They freeze your bank accounts, garnish your wages, seize your property, and throw you in jail. Sometimes till you die, right Al Capone?

Tony also said that the enforcement issue is now behind us since the President is sending 6000 National Guard troops to the border to wash Border Patrol trucks and patch up the fences the aliens cut the night before. Yeah, right.

I often wonder what it is in the Beltway water that makes heretofore sane and logical people become babbling buffoons. Tony Snow used to be a straight shooter; now within two weeks he has become a caricature more fitting for a Simpson's episode. Maybe we should start calling him Smithers.

What is even sadder is that in his own mind Tony considers himself in touch with us average slobs. This is a guy who for the last 25 years wines and dines with Presidents and senators and elitist insiders, who picks up the phone and gets big shots to answer. There are no day labor dorm houses next door that he worries about, and the clientle at the White House mess is rather different from what we run into on our slurppie run to the 7-11 or the english-free zone at the local Wal-Mart.

What is even sadder is the lecturing and talking-down we now get from him. He and these amnesty morons will find out how stupid we are come November when we stay home or just vote for the brave Congressmen who will stop this nonsense (unless Karl I-almost-blew-a-sure-election-to-a-Massachusetts-moron Rove further opens up the pork barrel with earmark bribes).

Thanks Tony. Good to know how stupid you think we are.


297 posted on 05/27/2006 10:46:50 AM PDT by oldbill
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To: DoughtyOne
My first inclination was to agree with you to a point.

Well now, a glimmer of light breaks through.

Then I said to myself, you know what, if you wanted to press the issue, you've got plenty of ammo.

Uh oh...hear we go.

Click the link wise a--.

Click this.

If you could make your point you wouldn't NEED to hand out reading assignments.

298 posted on 05/27/2006 3:43:48 PM PDT by Jorge
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To: DoughtyOne
So now it's only the far right who object to criminal activity? Jorge, get a grip.

I never made such an absurd claim and you know it.

299 posted on 05/27/2006 3:45:19 PM PDT by Jorge
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To: VeniVidiVici
If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you're not forever a speeder? Well, sort of. In my state, you are still a speeder for three years. And if you get caught speeding several more times you continue to accumulate points.

That doesn't mean you're "forever a speeder".
It just means you repeatedly committed the same offense.

This is not the same a person who sneaks across the border once, and then simply lives here.

300 posted on 05/27/2006 3:49:04 PM PDT by Jorge
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