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February 16, 2006 09:00 AM UTC

Thursday Open Thread

  • 39 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

SNOW!!!

Comments

39 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread

  1. Obviously there is a “Nation of Aztlan” movement.  But why WORRY about it, THAT is the point.  White Supremacists often get whipped up over rediculous things like this.  And why Tancredo would associate with people who waste their time thinking that immigration=invasion is extremely telling.

    The “Nation of Aztlan” movement is so irrelivant.  But folks like CCIR use it’s existance as an exuse to foment harted against ALL “brown” immigrants.

    I find it VERY interesting that you both wish to focus on Nation of Aztlan and once again ignore the FACTS.

    Tom Tancredo has taken MONEY from them.  If you have other information that disputes this fine.

    Put up or shut up.

  2. 18 million illegals (that’s just the government’s ESTIMATE – there may be more) is indeed an ‘invasion’.

    Billions in untaxed revenue go south each year, while hospitals are bleeding red ink from legislation that forces them to treat uninsured illegals.

    That is indeed an invasion.

  3. “Tom Tancredo has taken MONEY from them. If you have other information that disputes this fine.”

    …………….

    Gosh, let’s see… didn’t YOU just state that Tancredo gave back the donated campaign funds?  By the way, it isn’t illegal to take campaign contributions, nor is it illegal to take honorariums for speaking fees.  You seem to think it is.

  4. Not wanting ILLEGAL immigrants from literally taking over this country is not being prejudiced. It is common sense. I for one am exstatic that someone is finally addressing this crippling economic problem. Besides the loss of American jobs, the impact they have on our hospitals and welfare system is disgusting.
    If ANY immigrant wants in whether they are from Canada, South america, or Mexico, do it #%$@&* LEGALLY……….

  5. It’s OT – but if you go to the Rocky Mountain News homepage, there is a picture of snowboarder Seth Wescott in the upper right hand corner – and he is identified as Aarone Thompson.

    I’ve saved a screencap of it for amusement.

  6. No I did not.  He gave back SOME.  Which leads me to beleive that he basically gave them a discount for his services to help out “the cause”.

    Initial amount: $5,521
    Refunded amount:  $3,521

    That still leaves $2000 in Tom’s pocket.  Yuck.  I am seriously disturbed by the kind of company Tom is keeping these days.  So I decided to speak out and show the facts.

  7. No I did not.  He gave back SOME.  Which leads me to beleive that he basically gave them a discount for his services to help out “the cause”.

    Initial amount: $5,521
    Refunded amount:  $3,521

    That still leaves $2000 in Tom’s pocket.  Yuck.  I am seriously disturbed by the kind of company Tom is keeping these days.  So I decided to speak out and show the facts.

    I don’t think it is illegal at all.  I just think it is sick, when it comes from this kind of “White Pride” organization.  Want to really know a congressman?  Follow the money, follow the company kept.

  8. Now why is it that anytime someone states that they are against illegal immigration, the first response of the local idiot is:

    “You don’t seem to mind benefiting from all the cheap labor as they clean our houses, buildings, dishes, and cook our food.”

    Is it because the person is truly an idiot, or is it actually printed as a talking point in a liberal handbook somewhere?

    It is a typical dodge used by those who choose not to blame the criminals for their actions, but choose to blame society.  Utterly pathetic…

    My contempt for pacified grows…

  9. Immigrants should be given a 10-year “green card” that legitimizes their status so we can put them in a tax bracket that takes extra money out of their salaries to recover the costs from immigration on government programs and services. That way, we can make sure they have the means to take driving exams, buy insurance, learn English, etc, etc, that lead to a productive membership of our society.

    And what makes politicians and vigilantes think that they can suddenly stop immigration, an American tradition since 1492? They must then erase the words on the Statue of Liberty “Give me your tired, your poor…”

    The 1930’s Prohibition or War on Drugs didn’t prevent people from drinking and drugging, but it did expand and enrich criminal activity.

    Additionally, laws, fences, and police are nothing compared to forces of 10 million years of human nature: to move where the grass is greener.

    The main people we need to blame for taking jobs away from our workforce are the corporate executives who are sending everything overseas. Do you want the 30,000 jobs that Latinos have cleaning motel rooms or the 30,000 jobs that Ford just eliminated?

    Whew! I feel better now.

  10. WestSloper,

    Very well said.

    “And what makes politicians and vigilantes think that they can suddenly stop immigration, an American tradition since 1492?”

    This is exactly the point.  This is what makes Tancredo’s stance on immigration so ridiculous, and his company with groups like CCIR so shadowy.

  11. Go Raiders ‘ol buddy, I think you will need to explain the actual meaning of the words “good and bad”.. before you are called a “White Supremist”.

  12. President Bush, to his immense credit, is trying to establish some sane and practical rules on the immigration front.  The key would be not amnesty but legal and regulated guest worker status for those people who are an indispensable part of our economy but who are now vulnerable to exploitation and abuse because of their precarious status.  So far, his ideas have been caught in a crossfire between Tancredoite demagoguery and leftists who hate anything that Bush tries to do.  But he is a much-needed voice of reason on the immigration issue.

  13. It’s shameful the way the “Republicans” on this site want to just throw money at this issue.

    “The poor hospitals are losing money!” As Ronald Reagan said about a similar failing industry, “They need a business model that works.”

    Republicans-Republicans!-on this site begging for government help because we’re having trouble competing.

    The government is not your mommy. Throwing money at this issue (whether it’s through increased enforcement or otherwise) is just another form of welfare for those Americans who aren’t willing to work for their own benefit.

    I’m tired of Republicans crying to the government to interfere because they can’t be successful on their own.

  14. PR
    How about high school kids working summer jobs, young people starting out, like that.
    Kinda like kids like me when I was young with money or want to go to college.

  15. “How about high school kids working summer jobs, young people starting out, like that.
    Kinda like kids like me when I was young with money or want to go to college.”

    Imaginary Cliche sez:
    “Why, mummy and daddy take care of that!  You just want to take away our maid and gardener, the most diverse people in our gated community!”

  16. I was being interupted when I wrote my last line so it didn’t make any sense. My point was that when I was young without much money or the desire to go to college, I did many of the jobs PR is saying only immigrants can or want to do.
    I call bullshit.

  17. Hey, DorkVader:  My grandparents came here legally, became naturalized citizens, learned to speak English, paid taxes, sent little or no money (after taxes) home to their families.

    What they DIDN’T do was arrive here illegally, demand free medical care, dual-language schools, and demand automatic citizenship because one of their children happened to be born in this country.

    Got any other senseless commentary, DorkVader?

  18. My sentiments exactly.

    Darth Vader, don’t try to engage in a battle of wits in this issue with comments like that.

    You are showing us that you are woefully unarmed.

    Looks like that Dark Side of the Force thing isn’t working out so well for you.

  19. Gecko, I’m sure you and I worked some of the same jobs…  According to the Administration, our employment rate is getting up towards “fully employed” – i.e. we don’t have the workers to fill those jobs.  We both know that’s not true, but you can’t have your cake and eat it, too, so let’s fix one or the other: unemployment rate or “jobs that could be given to kids”.

    Also, last I checked the Agriculture industry didn’t peak in the Summer when kids are off of school.  Nor was the Construction industry limited to June, July, and August.

    It isn’t simple; there’s no one-line witticism to solve the problem.

    Voyageur, I’d agree with you except that Bush’s proposal still leaves employers in the driver’s seat; immigrants agree – it’s too much like the old bracero system.  If the President would listen (hear me, Mike?), I’d propose a longer term after becoming unemployed where a worker could search for another job.

  20. My sentiments exactly.

    Darth Vader, don’t try to engage in a battle of wits in this issue with comments like that.

    You are showing us that you are woefully unarmed.

    Looks like that Dark Side of the Force thing isn’t working out so well for you.

  21. Darth Vader,

    They are like the Three Musketeers of hypocrisy no?

    Very common quotes:
    “you show yourself to intellectually bankrupt”
    “woefully unarmed”
    “dork vader” (suddenly I am having flashbacks of kindergarden)

    They love to spew.  Hate to talk specifics.

  22. Druid, very true!  They got really heated over the call out.  Maybe their mommies and daddies are anchor babies.  Maybe we should build a wall around right-wing fanaticals so they don’t drain our economy by going to Iraq, giving the top 1% wealthiest tax-cuts, and worshipping supply-side economics more then the God they purport to do all this in the name of. 
      Oh yeah, not to mention their racist, hate-mongering, un-philosophically justified rhetoric.  These are the people that should be deported, they are un-American. 
      I ask again, show your documents six generations back, in Colorado no less.  I can show mine, and I am browner then anyone else you want to deport.

  23. Feb. 16, 2006

    (AP) LAFAYETTE, Colo. Hours after laughing about Vice President Dick Cheney’s hunting mishap, Josh Kayser was himself shot by a friend during a hunting expedition.

    The 21-year-old Lafayette man was taken to the hospital Monday night after his girlfriend accidentally shot him while they were trailing a raccoon that had been preying on chickens on his family’s property.

    “I read that thing about the vice president and said to myself ‘how can you shoot your friend with your gun?’ And look what happened,” he said Tuesday.

    Kayser was crouched down to look under a shed where he thought a wounded raccoon was hiding, and his 17-year-old girlfriend accidentally shot him with a .22-caliber rifle. Police have not identified the girlfriend.

  24. Give it up, Ivo Nitwit. If a stale rehash from “Ghostbusters” is the best you can do for Armaggedeon, then I’m going to tell the Pillsbury Doughboy to kick your butt.  So haul your 16 year-old body away from the computer and go back to trying to pick your zits.

  25. Actually Darth, the ones that I have with papers only go back to the 1920s. But all of them got off the boat from Ireland and/or Scotland and walked up to the immigration offices. Then they went to the bar and registered as Democrats, but they raised their kids smart so my cousins and I all vote GOP.

    Oddly enough the ancestor who goes back the farthest was probably a teenage refugee from the Irish Potato Famine. The first papers on him came when he bought a house in Manhattan, the next 5 years later when he accepted a Commission with the 44th New York during the Civil War. No papers, no Ellis Island, no Passage Ticket, no record back in Ireland in the years when the population was falling by 75%. I guess he was an illegal, but so what, he lead a Battalion during the Civil War. He earned his rights so that my Mom, sisters and kids could be born with theirs.

    That is all that Tancredo and the rest are trying to legislate… If you want to be an American earn it.

  26. One of my friends in the Army, Iron Mike, was a French citizen.  Obviously, he couldn’t be drafted, but he enlisted during the V.N. war anyway precisely because he was interested in becoming a citizen and knew that would put him on the fast track.  And just last week, my nephew’s wife, who is from Brazil, was sworn in as a citizen. I doubt very much your Mick ancestor was illegal — they were pretty casual about that stuff in the 1850s.  We had gained so much land in the Mexican War that we were very eager for immigrants to help settle it.

  27. touche iron mike, very good…that is all I am saying, let these people earn it.  if ALL of our leaders had addressed the issue 40 years ago, we wouldn’t have this dilemma, and yes, it is a dilemma.  I just hate how it wasn’t an issue when they were here until the far right machine made it an issue to drive a wedge between FELLOW AMERICANS…we ALL have reaped the benefit of cheap labor, farm production without worker representation, and taxation of “ghost” workers and pay.  Now, where do we go?  Down a path that sounds bigoted like closing the Mexican border while the Canadian stays open?  No, we must blow the current system up and come up with real change that addresses all sides.

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