Hey Mexico! You first! other then that, STFU!
Posted on 10/16/2007 10:05:13 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
The former Mexican president is touting his new memoirs in a cross-country trip
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox doesn't get many breaks these days.
He was slapped around on The O'Reilly Factor, had a new statue of his likeness yanked down by an angry mob in Veracruz, and along the way promoted his memoirs, which were published in English.
Fox, whose U.S. tour is taking him from New York to California and points in between, stopped off in Houston on Monday, where he signed autographs, posed for photographs and spoke of his plans to follow the leads of former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush by staying active and visible.
Top of the order for Fox is continuing his fight to get the U.S. Congress to approve temporary work permits for millions of Mexicans and a path to permanent residency for those who want to remain in the United States. Seeing such an agreement through was the chief foreign policy goal of his administration, which ended last December.
The challenge now, he said, is that racism and fear are shaping the debate.
"You get the xenophobes trying to influence the debate and take it to their side," he said in English during a meeting with the Houston Chronicle's editorial board. "Fear, very unfortunately, is guiding the debate and the decision-making process on immigration.
"Immigrants are not terrorists, but still many people are dealing with the issue through fear."
The immigration issue has come up repeatedly during his 15-day tour of the U.S. as he appeared on Fox Network's The O'Reilly Factor, CNN's Larry King Live, Comedy Central's The Daily Show and other programs.
With Bill O'Reilly, he said, he felt bushwhacked.
"O'Reilly doesn't give you the opportunity to express yourself, and Lou Dobbs, mucho menos (much less,)" he said.
Fox invited the conservative commentator to visit Mexico, where he offered to serve as Dobbs' personal tour guide.
Fox issued this challenge to Dobbs: "Come to Mexico and I'll take you around so that you will see what is going on in Mexico, so your debate will become more balanced and moderate."
Fox explained that Mexico "is an impressive, dynamic country with dynamic regions. People are working hard, and there are good people everywhere."
CNN, which airs Lou Dobbs Tonight, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rob Allyn, the political consultant who co-wrote Fox's memoirs, Revolution of Hope, and is traveling with him, said Dobbs turned down an offer for the former president to appear on his show to debate immigration.
During an address to about 400 people gathered for a World Affairs Council of Houston luncheon at The Westin Oaks hotel, Fox repeatedly pounded the drum for the United States to overhaul its immigration laws and to stop building a so-called border wall.
"The real threat to this nation is isolating yourselves," he said, adding that from China to Germany, history shows walls have never worked.
Still, not everyone agrees with Fox these days.
In Veracruz on Saturday, about 100 people toppled a bronze statue of the former president. The crowd included several members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which Fox defeated in 2000 to end more than 70 years of the party's rule.
In Houston Monday night, six demonstrators from U.S. Border Watch, a Spring-based group calling for the immediate removal of undocumented immigrants from the United States, stood in the rain outside the Wortham Theater Center, where Fox was to speak.
"Texas is Not A Mexican Colony," read a poster held up by the group's president, Curtis Collier. "No Border, No America."
Fox is also the object of criticism in Mexico.
"Of course he has a right to speak, that's not the issue," said Alfonso Zarate, a Mexico City political analyst. "The issue is that he should act with the responsibility of a former president. Mexicans expect their former presidents to act with more discretion."
During the PRI's reign, former presidents were expected to be seen rarely and heard from even less. Those who broke the rule were spanked, sometimes harshly.
Fox, though, seemed to handle the heat with ease.
"It's like Don Quixote to Sancho," he said in Houston. "The dogs are barking. We're moving ahead."
As is often the case when Fox travels, he was sought by Mexican immigrants who waved him down, posed for photos with the ex-president and asked him for autographs.
"A photo? Let's do it," Fox told five Mexican workers who wanted to pose with him.
Ana Sepulveda, a 51-year-old waitress who said she moved to Houston from Mexico 30 years ago, beamed as the workers snapped photos of Fox with their cellular phones. "He is the greatest," she said of Fox.
Chronicle reporters James Pinkerton in Houston and Dudley Althaus in Mexico City contributed to this report.
dane.schiller@chron.com
So,Pedro,what do you call Mexican police/soldiers who assault and murder those caught illegally crossing ***your*** southern border?
And his MSM sycophants know this, but chuckle about it anyway.
Xenophobe Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Hey Foxy, your recent condescending smiles on our TVs lately, have given some of us reason to believe that you are either mentally ill or severely constipated.
Or both.
Not my usual style FReepers, but one can only take just so much of this “in your face” stuff!
Fox is one of the biggest ethnic-cleansers in history....pushing his non-white Mexicans to leave for the US....the gall of this racist calling Americans “xenophobes”
Funny he would go on O’Reilly Factor but not on Lou Dobbs. I guess Fox knows O’Vilely is pro illegal and Dobbs is not
The only difference between Fox and Hugo Chavez is that unfortunately there are too many GOPers who like Fox
“You get the xenophobes...”
Stopped right there, laughed my ass off and began to wonder what Vicente’s DU screen name is.
Vicente Fox is degenerate liar but a fairly competent conman. He was top salesman for Pepsi or Coke in primitive Mexico
Hey Mexico! You first! other then that, STFU!
We allow 1,000,000 immigrants every year, legally, with all the rights of a citizen except the vote. Thats every year, year in and year out.
And of that million, Mexico has pride of place as having the largest quota of any single nation by far.
“Xenophobic” is a dishonest way to describe a country that is the most open to immigration of any country on this earth.
When Mexico opens her borders to unlimited Honduran immigration, and starts encouraging Guatemalans to come to work in Mexican factories, I’ll believe they believe in the advantages of open borders. Until then I’ll know its purely political and purely dishonest.
If I recall my Cliff Notes correctly, isn't Don Quixote border-line insane.
Open the border with Guatemala or shut up Vincente!
Lol, he’s scheduled to speak at my college sometime soon, and ticket sales were so low that tix are now buy-one-get-one-free. But tickets were $8-$15 originally - I don’t think people would pay that much to see him of all people. Heck, we had the president of Ireland speaking last year, in a much smaller venue, it was free, and it wasn’t even filled up.
I found this today in a comment to a curfrent article...
Can you imagine what Mexico would look like today if it enacted the same reforms that Commie China and India did 15 years ago? Why doesn’t some one ask Fox why he was unable to open his economy to foreign investment (see China and India) and provide a higher standard of living to the people that elected him. He has so much promise but ended up a complete failure. Too bad for Mexico and America, not to mention central America.
This is the current story in The Tennesean....
Warning BARF ALERT
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071016/NEWS08/710160360
In Spanish, Fox is Zorro. Make of that what you will.
If Fox supports law-breaking so strongly, why doesn’t he support illegals from south of his border living in Mexico?
ping
Bite Me, Vicente!!
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