UPDATE: The Chieftain just updated their story with a video of an interview with the sign-holding man you see below, former Pueblo council member Al Gurule. It appears from this video that the signs around Tom Tancredo in the Chieftain's photo that say "RACIST," which we refer to below, were held by Tancredo supporters attempting to shame Gurule. If that was the intention it very much failed, as it looked to all observers (including us) that they were holding signs calling Tancredo a racist. Which is, you know, what you'd expect.
Too clever by half, folks–we've posted the video after the jump.
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As the Pueblo Chieftain reports:
Known for his long opposition to amnesty for illegal immigrants, Tancredo waves aside any softening of that view, even for the children of the undocumented — a group being championed these days by some conservatives, too.
“It’s all amnesty,” the 68-year-old Tancredo said Wednesday during the opening of his Pueblo campaign office. “I understand the emotional appeal (of making an exception for children). But until you show me a fair way to protect the rights of people who want to legally immigrate . . .”
Would he deport the 12 million undocumented workers in the U.S.? Tancredo shook his head. That’s not necessary if employers would shut the door to hiring them by verifying citizenship, he countered.
The Chieftain's photographer got a better photo than the one we were forwarded above, with GOP gubernatorial frontrunner Tom Tancredo himself standing in front of his new Pueblo campaign office surrounded by both his own campaign signs and hand made ones that said "RACIST." The larger sign you can see above is being held by former Pueblo city councilman Al Gurule:
“Pueblo’s Hispanics should just line up on the street and tell him to get lost,” Gurule said.
Just a few years ago, a fiercely nativist presidential candidate Tancredo vowed to never so much as even advertise in a language other than English–so his new "Viva Tancredo" outreach campaign to Latino Colorado voters represents at least a symbolic departure from his strident old ways. Even if, as Colorado Democratic Party chairman Rick Palacio responded:
“[Tancredo's] obviously smoking something if he thinks a Spanish language ad can somehow erase his years of fighting against the interests of Hispanics and our families.”
The fact is, Tancredo's attempts to organize Latino voters are more about making the traditional white Republican base comfortable than anything else, by giving them something affirmative to argue back when confronted with Tancredo's long and famously xenophobic history. Tancredo and his anti-immigrant record are much too well known in the Latino community to meaningfully rehabilitate his image with them. But if he can convince white Republican primary voters that he's not racist, they may not feel as much trepidation about backing him.
Lest you think this is about you, Pueblo.
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The Dem plant protestor is the same angel who ran a half-way house that got closed down shortly after one of its resident escaped and committed rape. Dem activits keepin' it classy.
Former Pueblo City Councilman Al Gurule has owned CCSI for 27 years. He's turning 70 in a few weeks and told us it was time to move on. He decided not to renew his contract with the state when it expires June 30. . . .
The timing of the move is curious. Back on April 1, offender Jamie Salazar walked away from the facility.
According to the arrest warrant, witnesses told the police the 32-year old Salazar got drunk and raped and beat his girlfriend three times that day.
Deonte Smith of CCSI reported Salazar's escape and a warrant was issued. Salazar was taken into custody by corrections officers more than three weeks later.
Salazar had been serving an 8 year sentence for a domestic violence conviction in El Paso County and a 3 year sentence for a drug possession conviction from Las Animas County.
http://www.koaa.com/news/sudden-closure-at-pueblo-halfway-house/
Nice ad hominem.
So you don't dispute that Tancredo is a Xenophobic, homophobic, racist bigot?
OF, Are you a Xenophobic, homophobic, racist bigot?
Ah, and now a tu quoque.
You can present no evidence or valid argument to the contrary, so we can conclude that you do not dispute that Tancredo is a xenophobpic, homophobic, racist bitgot.
Nor have you,OR, so it must be equally true.
Ooh, He's got ya there, OR… Since you can't provde evidence that you're not a xenophobic, homophobic, racist bigot like Tancredo, you'll have to fall back on two flimsy points that differentiate you from Tanc:
1: Tancredo is on record as a xenophobic, homophobic, racist bigot, and you're not; and
2: You don't have the luxury of a right-wing stooge defending you with slurs against any and all who point out that you're a xenophobic, homophobic, racist bigot.
It'd make sense for the GOTP to just openly and proudly embrace the racists, homophobes, xenophobes, bigots, misogynists and gundamentalists….that's all they've got left, now.
Which is why they just elected a Republican Mayor in San Diego, California (D+>10) this week to replace your progressive Dem letcher Filner.
Why, yes, that happened. In one mayoral election. Quite a landslide for you. Break out the hats and horns.
As goes the San Diego mayoral race so goes the world! Oh damn, BC's gonna be all over me. I'm going to hide now.
And the tu quoque again! Brilliant parry you clever dunce.
Do you, or don't you, dispute the claim made? By the way "the guy making the claim is X" and "No, you're X, neener neener" are not, and never are, valid argumentative points. So please try to use what little brain power you have for this one, please.
Remarkable how these crap-spewing right-wing fear- and hate-mongers continue thinking that somehow their dog whistle-laden on-the-record comments revealing their genuine contempt for the many groups they despise will somehow magically fail to come back to bite them in their cowardly, duplicitous asses…
GOP: The party of personal responsibility, except when that would prevent them from making some sort of slur against a Democrat.
said A Coward (aka TurdTroll)
A Cowardly troll is losing it. ^^^ Resorting now to grade school 'come backs' ("I know you are but what am I?")
Step it up turd-boy, that's some weak sauce even by CPP standards.
The CCSI thing is scandalous, and there was probably mismanagement. But it has absolutely nothing to do with Tancredo, and Gurule's criticisms of Tancredo. Tancredo is, in fact, a racist, homophobic, xenophobic bigot, and this has been proved out by his many on-the-record statements over the last decade or so he's been in the public sphere.
Nothing new there, Gurule's just telling it like it is.
Good luck with the Viva Tancredo thing. Yeah that's going to get every Latino to forget who Tancredo really is. Hick's job is secure. Better Republican lite than any actual, 21st century, if-I'm-not-certifiable-I'm-a-moderate Republican.
But, Tancredo has hired Hispanics previously. Remember?
You mean the undocumented workers who did his basement remodel? And when questioned about them he claimed it wasn't his responsibility to know whether his contractor's workers were here legally or not? Those Hispanics? But they can't vote unless they've become citizens since then.
I hope Tommy pushes hard on "deportation" because he is out sync with the people of Colorado.
http://fciruli.blogspot.com/2014/02/colorado-supports-immigration-reform.html
"A majority of Colorado voters (59%) and U.S. residents (57%) support allowing illegal immigrants “to stay in the U.S. and to eventually apply for U.S. citizenship” as opposed to allowing illegal residents to stay, but not become citizens (11%) or “be required to leave” (26%)."
May as well open the borders wide open … someone has to do the work around here! We've gone from "the land of the free" to "the land of free".
I gather it would be fruitless to ask you to support that. I'm confused though as I thought the winger talking point was the scary Mexicans were sneaking up here to steal 'Mer'can jobs. So which is it?
I love Open Borders.
All I ask is that immigrants follow the same rules as my ancestors did.
Depending on when they came your ancestors, like mine, may have few rules. My earliest came in the 1600s and only had to get on and off the boat. Those that came later, from Germany, just before and just after WW1 only had to provide some evidence that someone would "sponsor" them in a location. So, those ancestors (approx 50) all settled within 100 miles of each other in W MO and E KS. Becoming a citizen mostly amounted to following law and waiting
And didn't many of those early European immigrants get free 160 acre"homesteads" consisting of acreage stolen from Native tribes? I bet that many of our newest immigrants would love to get that perk. I
My mother and grandparents came over from Austria during WWII, only had to have sponsors in the US, pass a citizenship test. It took her about 6 years from the time she got stepped off the boat until she became a naturalized citizen.
Nowadays, the wait for citizenship is much longer – average wait is about a decade from the time citizenship papers are filed. So nobody is actually jumping ahead in line, and the United States has always encouraged immigrants with "free stuff".
Some of mine who got here in 1921 became citizens by an en masse act of congress. I forget the details of who was eligible at the time but I know my grandfather had to take the test but my grandmother and her siblings became citizens by act of congress. Wish I could say it was a tough struggle but they made it and new immigrants should have to go through what they did to become citizens but, once they bribed their way across Europe to get here, it was actually so easy they were all citizens pretty shortly after they arrived.
"My earliest came in the 1600s and only had to get on and off the boat."
Bingo!
1752 for mine.
Let's go back to those rules.
Tancredo is not good for Colorado, even if it's not for the resaons that guy cliams in the video or on his sign, which I cannot confirm.
Yeah, yeah,I know, later, when he figured out how insane that was, he asked to have his name removed. But I always felt that was because he wanted vouchers first, as an incremental step to the real goal of privatization.
Public education in the USA was one of the first and best public investments that made us great. Public education has problems, eliminating it is not a solution.
Yeah but he actually is all the things it says on that sign, too. Pretty funny since when his kind got here lots of people considered them inferior.