Posted on 05/19/2006 7:26:42 AM PDT by teddyballgame
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called a proposal to make English the official language "racist" on the Senate floor yesterday. "This amendment is racist. I think it's directed basically to people who speak Spanish," the Democrat said during the already tense debate over immigration reform. Moments later, the Senate approved the measure on a 63-34 vote. Virtually all Republicans were joined by 11 Democrats to approve the largely symbolic amendment. Immediately following that vote, the Senate approved a second amendment, declaring on a 58-39 vote that English is the "common and unifying language." Such proposals enjoy overwhelming support among American voters. A poll by Zogby International earlier this year found that 84 percent of Americans say English should be the official language of government operations. The same poll found that 77 percent of Hispanics agree. And it's a bipartisan issue, according to the poll, which found that 92 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats approve making English the country's official language. Mr. Reid's charge of racism caused a stir of whispers in the Senate chamber and gallery, and Sen. James M. Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who offered the amendment, was clearly offended.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
ol' Dingy showin' off his IQ again. The thought of him as leader of the Senate and Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House should do more to energize the base than anything.
Harry Reid reminds me of that inkblot test joke.
No matter what the ink blot is shped like, it looks racist to him.
Are most people in Nevada as screwy as he is?
Who is his constitutency? The bordellos and gambling Casinos?
I didn't think even THEY were screwy enough to elect this loon.
Searchlight Harry in search of a clue.
Harry needs to spend a weekend in Quebec.
So what have I learned about Harry Ried? Why, that he is an open and notorious LIAR.
In talking to people from Nevada, Harry baby is an embarrassment to the state. His lunacy in DC isn't going over so well at home. Too bad he doesn't know it yet.
So, English is racist?
English is the official language of the world's largest black country: Nigeria. Are those 100+ million blacks racist?
English is also the official language of the Asian powerhouse of Singapore. Are all those Asians racist?
I presume Reid must think "Hispanics" are a separate race. The OMB defines Hispanic or Latino as "a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race."
And the last time I looked, Vicente Fox was white (as are all the ruling class in Mexico).
If it is thw white oppressive majority in the US that would be foisting English as the official language on others, why would the numero uno Mexican, Vicente Fox, a white man, be offended?
Dingy should take a walk along Brighton Beach sometime. And a quick train ride will leave him in Chinatown. There are over 100 languages spoken in Brooklyn. Add dialects, and it climbs to nearly 200. Just about every nation in the UN is represented here, and I'm not talking about diplomats.
When you are holding zip, play the race card.
Just because the whole immigration (think latino) issue, which is a mess and getting worse, brought this to the table, then we ARE speaking of one group. That is simply a fact. If he chooses to use 'race' terms then he is showing his own stupidity, and his peers should come down on him.
Anyone or any group that is against having a country choose its official language should have his/their motives examined.
Actually, Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Teddy Kennedy, Howard Dean, Algore, and Diane Frankenfeinstein are secret Republican weapons.
With leaders like them, the Dems are sure to remain marginalized.
The Spanish language is not a race. Amazing a Senator would use an argument already thoroughly discredited on the street and in the communications media.
I don't favor doing anything because some other nation does it, but France has an official language - French. Is the French government racist for having this? Harry?
My people, like yours and everyone else who immigrated to this wonderful country came here to enjoy the liberties that are guaranteed under the Constitution and to be able to achieve whatever they could achieve as Americans. Never have I ever heard any foreign-born relative call himself or herself a Russian-American, for to do so meant to them that they were second-class citizens, not real Americans.
My wife and mother-in-law are naturalized Americans who had to go through years of waiting and strenuous testing to get both their green card and citizenship, but they too do not consider themselves German-Americans and they react unkindly to anyone who calls them that.
What I think is the real issue in this case of a national language is not immigration, it is assimilation. Regardless if the immigrants are Latino, Haitian, German, Swiss, Vietnamese, or Russian, they came here to become Americans, so American (English) should be the language we all speak when we are in a business or governmental environment.
They are definitely something, if not racist.
It is ironic that Spain has an official language and it is Spanish. As does Mexico. I think that I am going to go to Spain and demand that they have everything in English and Gaelic. I am a dual Irish and American citizen and can legally live in Spain with my Irish passport. How do you think they'll react to my demands that stop having an official language...
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