COngressman Tom Tancredo (Left), U.S. Senate Candidate Howard Kaloogian (R) (Center), and KSFO AM 560 Talk Show Host Melanie Morgan (Right)
Posted on 02/22/2004 11:15:39 AM PST by Impeach98
WOW!
Yesterday's rally against giving drivers' licenses to illegal aliens (as proposed by Democrat Gil Cedillo's SB1160 which Repub. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he supports) was a H U G E success.
The rally planning had been going on for several weeks. It was set to take place Saturday, February 21st at the Burlingame Hyatt, where the California Republican Party Convention would be taking place.
Since Governor Schwarzenegger has said he thinks giving drivers' licenses to illegal aliens is a "fantastic" and "excellent idea" (after he made conservatives very happy by repealing an existing law by Gil Cedillo that Gray Davis had signed that did the same), the thinking was that Arnold would get the message when Republicans turned out to say "WE DON'T WANT IT - NEITHER DOES CALIFORNIA."
The location had to be changed a couple times because officials with the California Republican Party establishment were offended that Kaloogian has rallied Republicans to oppose Bush's amnesty/guest-worker plan and Schwarzenegger's "sell out" on the illegal alien drivers' license plan.
With Kaloogian's opponents for U.S. Senate uncomfortable with challenging either the Bush plan or the Schwarzenegger-backed plan (they will speak to vague policy but not these specific proposals for fear of alienating Bush or Schwarzengger and their establishment suppport), the rally united immigration reform advocates and Kaloogian campaign supporters.
A little after 10:00 AM people began gathering outside, right in front of the Hyatt Hotel. Kaloogian for Senate staffers and volunteers were handing out Kaloogian signs, bumper stickers and lapel stickers.
People were simultaneously streaming towards the Kaloogian for Senate table inside of the convention and were being directed to join the now-growing crowd outside.
At the same time, last minute preparations were taking place at a giant tented pavillion located next to the hotel's pool at the back of the hotel complex. A stage with blue-curtain backdrop and "Kaloogian for Senate" wall would serve as the dais. Approximately one-dozen Kaloogian volunteers were assisting in the set-up effort. People seeking out the rally location began arriving at this location too.
By 10:20 AM things were crazy!!! There was now a crowd of a few hundred people outside that was growing fast. More and more people were running up to the Kaloogian table inside the hotel to find out the rally location and at the poolside pavillion (site of the rally) supporters were being directed to join the crowd at the front of the hotel.
Melanie Morgan and Donald LaCombe of the Kaloogian campaign were now firing up the crowd with chants over a megaphone. There were a handful of reporters and cameras covering the mass of people out front who were shouting "Enough is Enough," "No License for Illegals," and "Stop Them at the Border."
Finally at 10:30 AM, with the crowd now a giant sea of people, completely fired up, we opened the front doors to the hotel and Melanie Morgan chanting "Enough is Enough" into a megaphone led the procession of people through the hotel, down one of the main corridors to the back of the hotel where the crowd would exit, walk the pathway towards the poolside pavillion and assemble for the rally.
A number of interesting things took place. First, the procession passed right by the press room and reporters were shocked to see this massive and boisterous gathering of people streaming through the hotel screaming and chanting. Also, liberal Republican Vice Chair of the CRP, Mario Rodriguez, was conducting a seminar teaching Repubs. how to reach out to Latino voters and was horrified to see the protest march... apparently he is unable to distinguish between the difference of "illegal" individuals and legal citizens of the United States.
The throng of people was so wide, two sets of double-doors had to be opened to allow the crowd to flow in. But then the final mass of people who had gathered in the lobby in front of the Kaloogian for Senate booth formed a third 'feeder' stream to the procession. There were so many people now marching towards the rally location in the back that people could not enter the rally tent fast enough... we had a human traffic jam and this 10 foot wide hallway that runs several hundred feet was now completely jam-packed with participants.
People contiued streaming into the giant tent and tried to squeeze in to allow as many people as possible in. But there were so many people that not everyone could fit... there were dozens of people flowing out the side entrance, straining to see over the heads of those inside, and an even larger group of people at the back end of the tent who could not get in because of the overflow crowd.
Melanie Morgan and Brian Sussman of KSFO AM 560 - San Francisco were the emcees and had the crowd fired up... it wasn't hard. The energy in the room was electrifying. They introduced Kaloogian who received a hero's welcome from the crowd.
Kaloogian was on fire and delivered one of the best speeches I've heard him give on the stump so far. And the crowd responded with passion and energy. The tent was rocking folks!!
Just as Kaloogian was finishing his remarks, we got word that Tancredo was arriving in the back entrance (having been picked up by one of our Kaloogian staffers at the SFO airport). So Kaloogian then transitioned into welcoming Congressman Tom Tancredo, a hero to our cause, just as the Congressman entered the facility.
Tancredo bounded up to the stage and grabbed Kaloogian's fist. They raised their hands into the air - pumping up and down. The crowd was hooting, hollering, screaming, chanting. Melanie Morgan and Brian Sussman were up there on stage still and were themselves cheering and beaming from ear to ear. It was a moment of magic and the energy was incredible.
Now during all of this time there was this steady stream of television camera crews arriving. While we had worked the media over pretty heavily to tell them about the rally, and who would be there, they had been dismissive. They weren't interested in covering a bunch of right-wing kooks complaining about immigration policies. So at the start of the rally we only had a handful of print reporters, 4 or 5 television cameras and 2 or 3 radio reporters. But by the end of the rally news organizations, learning of what was happening, had rushed over scores of additional reporters, camera crews, and microphone-carrying radio techs and reporters.
Tancredo gave a great speech. He explained that a series of events had led to him almost not making it. Delayed flights, cancelled flights, being held up on the tarmac, having to change connecting flights and airline carrier. Everything was a mess and a mass frustration (he was supposed to arrive at 9:30 AM so we could get him settled, instead he didn't make it until about 10:55 AM).
Tancredo told this story and explained that he would go through this kind of hassle every single day between now and Election Day if this would help to elect Howard Kaloogian to the U.S. Senate.
Again, the crowd exploded.
Tancredo went on to explain during his speech that he had NOT ONE immigration reform friendly member in the U.S. Senate... and that without an ally in the Senate to join him in leading the charge on the immigration issue that we could not bring about the change in our failed policies that we need.
Tancredo was funny, gracious, passionate and simple but eloquent. At the end of his speech he again urged those in attendance to go to work to get Kaloogian elected to the Senate and announced he'd be doing all he could till Election Day to propel Kaloogian to victory. Tancredo and Kaloogian raised arms again and the crowd cheered and the camera flashbulbs flashed.
Tancredo and Kaloogian webt out back for a press conference/media avail.
Over the course of the next 45 minutes, Mike Spence, Founder of "Save Our License" (the group that collected signatures to repeal the original drivers' license for illegal aliens bill, SB60), Rick Oltman of FAIR, Ron Prince - author of Prop 187 and Proponent of Save 187 all addressed the crowd.
Crowd estimates have varied. I heard one person say 600-800 but I think this was high. Maybe 500-550.
All the press reports have said several hundred people.
Realize that there were only 1400 delegates listed for the CRP convention, so maybe 1200 were actually at the Hyatt. But while Marin and Jones could generate rallies of 50-75 people, Kaloogian had a massive crowd of cheering and raucous supporters who would then linger throughout the convention for the rest of the day - wearing Kaloogian t-shirts, carrying Kaloogian signs and bumper stickers.
It was an awesome day!
Oberweis is STILL a liar on an issue far more important to me. This Catholic pro-lifer regards him as a liar for calling pro-lifers the Taliban two years ago or for calling himself "a lifelong Catholic pro-lifer." A candidate who lies about abortion will lie about anything. No sale.
We can well do without the likes of the opportunistic and dishonest Mr. Oberweis and, matter of fact, we will. It is Jack Ryan or Blair Hull (or possibly Dan Hynes). Hull has managed to get himself in a briar patch for assaulting his ex-wife and injuring her shins in a nasty 1998 divorce. This is bad news because he is easier road kill than the more competent but lesser funded Hynes. Ryan can win. Hynes (God forbid) can win. Blair Hull cannot win. Oberweis and McKenna are both stooge candidates of the Lyin' George clan of corruption which is NOT coming back. McKenna is credibly pro-life but tainted by the fact that he would do Lyin' George's bidding and challenge incumbent Peter Fitzgerald in a primary. Kathuria is apparently a good and principled guy who is going nowhere. Rauschenberger is probably harder line than Jack Ryan (note that he is NOT anti-Mexican) and a hero in the state senate but drastically underfunded. Borland is a pro-abort which is not overcome by his immigration position. He is a genuine Vietnam War hero and suffered in the Hanoi Hilton as a POW but is not ready for primetime as a candidate.
If "illegal" bothers you so much, do you call IRS to report neighbors for exaggerating their deductions, or set up your own radar units to ID speed violators? Would you agree that there are many silly laws that ought not to be enforced? Do I have to list some?
My earliest American ancestors came from Germany when James Polk was president and lived in southern Indiana. They had no "papers" and when America was still that free, no one had the effrontery to demand "papers."
Is your point that the GOP, having long alienated that 12% of Americans who are black must balance that by alienating the 13% who are Hispanic? They are coming in. They are here. They are staying. We are not going isolationist and pulling the military back from all over the world to machinegun the mamacitas crossing the border for a better life. We are not about to lay a cobalt strip on the border. We are not going to authorize a bunch of good ol' boys in pickup trucks near the border to go Mexican hunting.
If you are concerned over the loss of jobs via NAFTA and GATT and WTO, so am I. If you fear that there are not enough jobs for Americans because of wrong-headed policies that export American jobs, good for you. I can agree on those things but this anti-Mexican business is very ugly and unworthy of our country and even more unworthy of conservatism. If we become some sort of movement of race and bloodlines, we are finished as a movement and as a country. You and many people here want sincerely to give hope to those who agree with you on these border questions. There are no practical plans and you do yourselves a disservice in creating false hopes of what will not be. It will be Bush or Kerry with all that is implied and to be inferred from that choice.
If your motives are economic, you have to have more of a platform than Stop the Mexicans! We Illinoisans are closer by far to the Canadian border and it is much longer and much more likely to be the crossing place for terrorists. Bush CAN lose if he fails to address the job drain just as his father lost for being economically clueless.
If you think this border business is more important than pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, tax reduction, national defense, pre-emptive war as an option, regulation reduction and abrogation of NAFTA and GATT and destroying WTO, then God bless you but I respectfully and permanently disagree. Our sovereignty is far more threatened by the WTO and GATT than it ever will be by people from South of the Border coming here to find a far better life.
That is what I believe. I am not changing my mind. I am not interested in arguing this question at this time. If you disagree, then America is once more proven to be a great country where we think, say and believe what we will.
That is not the only trait you share with the Soviet nomenklatura who blissfully remained aware of the breakup of their beloved Soviet Union right up until it happened, then bemoaned their lost positions of privelidge and promised pensions.
Could be. Or they could hold it once a year, but it's onlt a halfhearted, semi-convention.
Or it might be that they hold it in the back of a semitrailer truck's trailer, to the tunes of C.W. McCall's Convoy, perhaps....
Other possibilities are also worth consideration....
If you vote to vote in the rigged elections at all, your choice may be between someone who supports North Vietnamese and muslum terrorists, or one allied with Mexican terrorists and their Chinese partners.
China will benefit the most from our failure to halt illegal immigration.
Source:
Wen: China, Mexico are partners, not competitors
( 2003-12-14 09:31) (Xinhua)
Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday that China and Mexico are partners instead of competitors and that more cooperation is in the interests of both sides.
Wen made the remark while addressing a breakfast with about 60 prominent business leaders. Mexican Secretary of Economy Fernando Canales attended the breakfast.
Yeah...right. Don't get your hopes up thinking I'm an "a$$wipe". But, if you're looking for someone of like mind with yourself you might want to check the bath houses over there in...oh, never mind.
BTW, if you're going to insult me, maggot, have the testicular fortitude to ping me to the post.
1) I was not insulting you on that particular post. I was pointing out a fact.
2) You really seem fixated on testiculars.
People like Impeach98 are as much involved in thought as you are with "testiculars"...and that's pretty engaged.
Sounds GREAT! I'll be gathering signatures for that one!
I stand corrected. A$$wipes serve a useful purpose. You just waste food, water, and oxygen.
You usually do.
A$$wipes serve a useful purpose. You just waste food, water, and oxygen.
Man, you cannot pull yourself away from your testicular and anal fascinations, can you?
But we're not really interested in hearing you wax philosophical about wiping your A$$.
Debate Sussman about what, pray tell?
I'm going by my never-humble opinion, which is based on my observations.
Kaloogian is great if you're a member of the conservative faithful, and the GOP will turn out to vote for him.
If the GOP were a majority in the state of California, then that would be sufficient.
But we aren't.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.