Deep thoughts by Newt Gingrich.
By on Jan 15th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Deep thoughts by Newt Gingrich.
Today on Fox News, former House speaker Newt Gingrich attempted to argue that the United States doesn’t have an “image problem” abroad. His evidence? Undocumented immigration:
I’ll give you one simple test. Tomorrow morning, will more people try to sneak into the U.S., or sneak out of the U.S.? What strikes me, if millions of people are trying to sneak into the U.S., we don’t exactly have an image problem overseas.
Watch it:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2008/01/gingrichsneakim.320.240.flv]
Note to Newt: Most undocumented immigrants come from Mexico, which is not “overseas.”
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What a f*+king moron! Why is the press giving this guy any air time?
January 15th, 2008 at 5:01 pmWhy is the press giving this guy any air time?
Comment by rf7777 — January 15, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
I guess respectable right-wingers who haven’t disgraced themselves are pretty tough to come by these days.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:03 pmNow, now, don’t all pile on Newt. It probably took him several weeks of careful ‘thought’ to come up with this one, and he’s probably already used it to liven up a dozen dinner parties, or to hit on women in bars.
Hell, in no time at all, our trolls will be spouting this one and chortling away.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:05 pmWhat strikes me is that this asshat thinks his crap will be taken seriously. He’s equating people in poverty and reckless invasions of other countries with the guise of preemptive strikes are equal.
I have no way to feed my family = That country may want to harm us some day some way.
Newt, the name fits.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:06 pm“respectable right wingers”? Since W took office? They left their respect at the line they formed to begin lock-stepping.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:06 pm*sigh*
I’m gonna play…
That’s because people risk their lives in order to have a decent wage (although is laughable by US middle class standards) in order to feed their families. It has nothing to do with crossing the border just to shop in Houston Malls or making friends.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:07 pmdeep thoughts by newt gingrich?
January 15th, 2008 at 5:07 pmthat’s a contradiction.
Tomorrow morning, will more people try to sneak into the U.S., or sneak out of the U.S.?
– - Another Republican administration and the only way to get out of the US will be to sneak.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:08 pmWell this IS Fox news. I think he’s got some sort of consulting deal with them that entails making one totally boneheaded assertion per week.
This is this week’s offering.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:10 pmlol
January 15th, 2008 at 5:10 pmAmerica’s finest.
Such great minds!
Such great speakers and intellectuals! Men who create nations I tells ya!
FOX is State Sponsored TV~
January 15th, 2008 at 5:11 pmI talk to people all over the world everyday. Fortunately they are able to differentiate the difference between bushco and the average schmoo. But even with that, America, it’s government, and it’s people have some serious fence mending to do. Our government is viewed as violent and irresponsible. We as a people are viewed as fat self-absorbed materialists for the most part.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:11 pmSad to say the world perception while a bit over-reaching has more truth than four years worth of press releases from the White house.
Have you seen the Rep vs. Dem general election numbers lately? If you think Hill’reh and Obama are taking the high road by calling a truce, you need only look at those polls, and the correlating cries by CNN for Bloomberg to get into the race.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:13 pmOK, Newt is exhibiting all the intelligence of a cheese danish when he says stuff like this — that’s obvious.
World-wide opinion of America’s government and opinion of America itself are two different things. While Bush and Cheney aren’t very popular, and our government isn’t very popular, there are still a lot of people who have nothing against ordinary Americans — in fact, they sympathize with us that we have to put up with our idiots in charge.
We still have a lot of foreign tourists visiting our country, too — and that’s not just because our dollar is currently laughable.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:13 pmWhat strikes me, if millions of people are trying to sneak into the U.S., we don’t exactly have an image problem overseas.
- – - – -
Its inconceivable that Fox “News” and the American people have such low standards as to consider Gingrich respectable in any way. Whats next? Gingrich telling us the value of the dollar isn’t dropping because people still want to hold them?
January 15th, 2008 at 5:13 pmDeep>?
Where’s the NO DIVING sign?
January 15th, 2008 at 5:14 pmPoor Newt…not relevant anymore…..whaaaa…
No one would have to sneak him out.. I’ll gladly provide the transportation to Gitmo…
January 15th, 2008 at 5:14 pmNewt is an outstanding historian and political theorist, and his latest strategies for rejuvinating the nation are right on the money. I suspect many candidates will adopt many parts of his platform after the Republican convention.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:15 pmHow very…….out of touch.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:17 pmWe still have a lot of foreign tourists visiting our country, too — and that’s not just because our dollar is currently laughable.
Comment by missmolly
As a foreigner, I like your museums, your universities, your libraries, your women (too bad, obesity is a great issue in your country) and people. The people over there are amazing, they have a working ethics unsurpassed in the world, I think.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:17 pmLogan’s Law: the dumber the right-winger, the smarter he thinks he is.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:18 pmThat must be some swim from ‘overseas’……what a bafoon! How’s that ’send all unwanted babys to Boys Town’ coming along Newt?
January 15th, 2008 at 5:19 pmInquiring republicans want to know:
Why isn’t the clock in the picture winding down??
January 15th, 2008 at 5:19 pmOur government is viewed as violent and irresponsible. We as a people are viewed as fat self-absorbed materialists for the most part.
I am a US citizen, but this is pretty much sums up my current feelings about my country. Don’t get me wrong, I still love what we should stand for, I just wish we were doing the right thing, instead of the selfish thing.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:20 pmThe people over there are amazing, they have a working ethics unsurpassed in the world, I think.
Comment by Juan C. — January 15, 2008 @ 5:17 pm
Juan, you have us confused with the Mexicans who cross the border to work here.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:20 pmNewt, you disingenuous fu%k!
You know damn well this in not “The Age Of Terrorism.”
The False Flag attacks that have occurred on and since 9/11 are designed to frighten citizens into precisely the mind set you are selling (like a product), restrictions on FREEDOM. They are also designed to compel others to attack US – so that your sales pitch to convert America into a Fascist Dictatorship (with an “apparent” electoral process) gains traction.
Your actions are criminal.
You know for a fact that 9/11 was NOT committed by “19 Arab Hijackers” and that Osama Bin Laden is NOT WANTED by the FBI and that the purported “Confession Video” related thereto is a FAKE according the our own FBI.
Why are you lying to us?
Who do you work for?
What is your agenda?
The only “COUNTRY” that has benefited in the aftermath of 9/11 is Israel. The only “Movement” that has benefited greatly by the 9/11 attack is the very same criminal enterprise that called for a “New Pearle Harbor” as a pretext for the taking of territory and resources and the depopulation of Arab peoples. That criminal Enterprise is Zionism.
When you met with AIPAC at this years annual meeting, why was your conversation “off the record?” Apparently you don’t work for US.
Why, when Dick Cheney’s approval rating is so low, did he receive a FIVE MINUTE STANDING OVATION from the members of AIPAC?
Why when the VAST MAJORITY of Americans want lobbying reform to take the money and foreign influence out of American Politics, is virtually EVERY JEWISH ORGANIZATION OPPOSED?
You are a Traitor to the United States.
You, and others like you, who put Israel and the Zionist cause to create “Eretz Israel” above the citizens of the United States must be stopped. You are destroying America.
There is no “Bin Laden.”
There is no “Al Qaeda.”
There is only a blackmailed and bribed Congress at the beckon call of its masters in Israel – lying through their teeth to strip Americans of what made America great.
TRAITOR.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:21 pmNewt Meets with AIPAC behind closed doors. He’s a member of Rockefeller’s Council On Foreign Relations.
Amid AIPAC’s Big Show, Straight Talk With a Noticeable Silence
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, March 7, 2006; Page A02
The undiplomatic diplomat went on to describe a war on radical Islam: “While it may be true — and probably is — that not all Muslims are terrorists, it also happens to be true that nearly all terrorists are Muslim.”
But ask people at this week’s gathering about Steve Rosen, the father of modern AIPAC, who goes on trial next month for disseminating classified information, and you get the sort of look you’d expect if you inquired about an embarrassing medical condition.
Luncheon speeches by former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and former Virginia governor Mark Warner (D) were declared off the record. At another speech yesterday by Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, reporters were turned away at the door; an AIPAC spokeswoman went through the room making sure no journalists had infiltrated.
At the public sessions, the message was uniform: AIPAC is strong, and getting stronger. “Thank God for AIPAC,” Gillerman told the participants. “This is for us the greatest guarantee and insurance policy for the survival of Israel,” he added. “Please don’t ever change.”
As Rosen and Weissman have learned, it already has.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601466_2.html
January 15th, 2008 at 5:23 pmhttp://www.whatreallyhappened.com/AIPACClinton.html
Hedrick Smith noted in his book Power Game that AIPAC had become a “superlobby … [It] gained so much political muscle that by 1985 AIPAC and its allies could force President Reagan to renege on an arms deal he had promised to [Jordan's] King Hussein. By 1986, the pro-Israel lobby could stop Reagan from making another jet fighter deal with Saudi Arabia; and Secretary of State George Shultz had to sit down with AIPAC’s executive director — not Congressional leaders — to find out what level of arms sales to the Saudis AIPAC would tolerate.”
“You are the most effective general interest group…across the entire planet.” Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
“Aipac has a lot of influence on foreign policy,” says JJ Goldberg, editor of the Jewish newspaper The Forward. “They work hard to ensure that America endorses pretty much Israel’s view of the world and the Middle East.”
“A great asset to our country”. Condoleezza Rice describing AIPAC in March, 2003.
“Fully three-fourths of America’s foreign aid budget is devoted to Israeli security interests is a tribute in considerable measure to the lobbying prowess of AIPAC and the importance of the Jewish community in American politics.” — Prominent conservative lawyer and political commentator, Benjamin Ginsberg.
“I asked Rosen if aipac suffered a loss of influence after the Steiner affair. A half smile appeared on his face, and he pushed a napkin across the table. “You see this napkin?†he said. “In twenty-four hours, we could have the signatures of seventy senators on this napkin.†Jeffrey Goldberg (The New Yorker).
“AIPAC’s Israel lobby has the power to pump up to a million dollars into the campaign coffers of any friendly member of Congress, or into the campaign of the opponents of an unfriendly member.” — Richard Curtiss, executive editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
“A lobby is a night flower, it thrives in the dark and dies in the sun.” — AIPAC research director Steve Rosen, 2001.
“The friendship between Israel and the United States is a great asset to our country. And AIPAC is a great advocate for this vital relationship.” White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.
“Congress is ‘terrorized’ by AIPAC… In practice, the lobby groups function as an informal extension of the Israeli government.” — “They Dare to Speak Out,” — Congressman (1961-1982) Paul Findley.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Israel_Public_Affairs_Committee
January 15th, 2008 at 5:25 pmBREAKING:
January 15th, 2008 at 5:26 pmnevada supreme court says KUCINICH IS IN!
Juan, you have us confused with the Mexicans who cross the border to work here.
Comment by dim wit
Ouch! Good one.
But, sadly, no. Mexicans, and I will venture to say that Latinamericans, have an awful working ethics and an awful disposition to serve others. Of course, the wages here are enough to hate your job and people who cross you on the streets. Now, illegal workers would eat shit, if that means they can feed their families.
From what I’ve seen, US people help you in any way they can. I’m sure there are exceptions.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:28 pmIf the U.S. does have an image problem, it is not stopping people from immigrating here.
Comment by CaptainMantastic — January 15, 2008 @ 5:25 pm
It does, and no, it is not.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:30 pmI thought he was Phd.. He has no concept of what he’s talking about.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:32 pmAs bad as this land is,it is better than many. Thus many want to enter.- What kind of stupid does it indicate, as bad as wwe are we’re still the
‘greatest Nation of the world’. It means, among other things, that we’re not the worst in the world.
The problem is that we are becoming a minor power. Our only claim to power are our Airforce; the Army, the Marines are stretched beyond ability to effectively respond.
So because they want to get outof an unstable country does not mean that here is the Garden of Eden; it merely means it may be here better.
Hah, wait until theya run against the realities of an immigrant recently living in NYC, or any where in the USA.
able as
I have family overseas, in three different countries, all allied with the USA and both agree with you moondancer, they do indeed view the Government with disdain and as something they should fear, and they do indeed view the average American as more interested in Jessica Simpson, Brittney Spears, and Tom Cruise than in our own government.
Krazny, like you I feel the same. I am very proud to be a citizen of this country, but for the life of me cannot figure out what happened to it’s people. Perhaps the Baby-boomers will be viewed as the “Looser Generation”.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:35 pmI hate it when people make the distinction between a people and their government. We are a government of the people, by the people, for the people. We are responsible for everything the government has done. We are responsible for the renditions, the torture, every foreign policy decision, the Iraq war, deregulation, ignoring global warming, etc.
Bush was fond of saying that he supports the people of Iraq, but not their government. He’s started saying the same thing about Iran. This is nonsense. It gives his saber-rattling an air of respectability, but it doesn’t mean anything in the real world. When we bombed Iraq, we killed the people, not the government. It is impossible to kill a concept. The government dissolved as chaos took over.
Contrast this with how the military action against Serbia played out. There it was clear that we were bombing the people of Serbia. We bombed them and they overthrew their government and turned their leaders over to the international war crimes commission. See the difference? We didn’t take out the government of Serbia, we compelled the Serbians to take out their own government.
The world will never win by making a false distinction between America and its leaders. Foreigners who say they hate Bush, but know Americans are fundamentally good are sadly deluded. We the people allow him to run our country.
As Americans if we hate what Bush is doing then we must act to bring about change. Participate in the election. Support the organizations who oppose odious policies like rendition, jail without trial, eavesdropping, torture. March in the streets. The point is not to make a statement, but to change the policies which Bush and his ilk have put in place.
And CaptainMantastic, you stupid so, you are comparing legal to illegal immigration. Take your head out of your bottom.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:37 pmi may have announced that too soon… (i hope the actual report is positive) … but i do know that dennis and elizabeth kucinich are in court right now… NBC lawyers also…
i can’t believe that network would waste the supreme court’s time
to plead the right to subvert democracy…
can you?
January 15th, 2008 at 5:40 pmso if we kick out all the illegal immigrants, won’t that hurt our image?
i didn’t think that was the republican position on immigration, but then again i never did understand it.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:40 pmYeah, and all those people around the world raising a single middle digit when asked what they think of the U.S. must mean we’re number one, huh Newtman???
Let’s forget about approval ratings in Europe all in the single digit range with Germany the lowest at 5%. Even in Saudi Arabia where Bush is now, his approval rating is something like 13%. And all of these countries are our friends and allies. 50% or more Europeans site the U.S. as the greatest danger to world peace and the number skyrockets in the Middle East.
Welcome to the brain-dead world of Bushbot foreign policy. But, oh yeah, all those poor and desperate people hungry for crumbs from the table of U.S. prosperity must mean we’re number one. And some people actually think the Newster would make a good president?? Shows how truley ignorant these knuckle-draggers are.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:41 pmCaptain Mantastic: I see you exhibit your usual brand of subpar thinking. Yes, I guess that it is good that those who live in Mexico choose to illegally immigrate to the United States. We all know that there is only one other country in the world. We all know that the opinion of the Canadians, French, Germans, Russians, Turkey, Italians, Spanish, Saudia Arabia, Egypt, the UK and most other countries of the world have all shown a serious decline in respect and admiration of the United States.
Now, show me hard statistical evidence that we have seen an increase in immigration from all these countries. Show me that we see more rather than less students coming from other countries.
And we can go on and on concerning the areas in which US leadership has slipped.
Captain Mantastic, I have some respect for you. Are you actually contending the US image is better than it was prior to 9/11? Let’s see the evidence supporting that opinion. Indeed, would one not believe that US image should at least be the same (if not better) than pre 9/11 because of the attack we suffered? Do you really believe that illegal immigration by those desperate to escape third world conditions actually constitutes image?
January 15th, 2008 at 5:45 pmResponse to comment #44: Kind of a low hurdle for what we want for our country. That may be what you intend to convey, but it certainly was not the implication by Gingrich.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:51 pmThe Mexican-American Border is probably the one with the greatest disparity in the Standard of Living on Earth.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:52 pm“The morning they see that we are that serious and we are that determined, they will negotiate with us in a very different way.†In other words, once there are two sources of cheap oil, it isn’t likely the Saudis will thumb their noses at a U.S. president’s offer to buy reserve oil at two dollars a barrel. It’s either two dollars a barrel or it’s nothing. (Since this speech, Gingrich has become an adviser to Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense.)”
…and of course oil is selling at over $90 per barrel.
Mission Accomplished…eh Newt?
What’s your cut?
January 15th, 2008 at 5:55 pmThat sounds like the sort of drivel I hear from the drunks at the local bar… oh right, I forgot, Newt is their main source of info.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:59 pmNEWT HELPED CREATE THE “SPECIAL LIES” TO LIE US INTO WAR:
The people at the Office of Special Plans are so successful at bypassing conventional procedures, in part, because their neoconservative colleagues hold key positions in several other agencies and offices.
Their contacts in other agencies include: John Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International; Bolton’s advisor, David Wurmser, a former research fellow on the Middle East at the American Enterprise Institute, who was just recently working in a secret Pentagon planning unit at Douglas Feith’s office (see Shortly after September 11, 2001); Elizabeth Cheney, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs; Stephen Hadley, the deputy national security adviser; Elliott Abrams, The National Security Council’s top Middle East aide; and Richard Perle, Newt Gingrich, James Woolsey and Kenneth Adelman of the Defense Policy Board. The office provides very little information about its work to other US intelligence offices.
[Salon, 7/16/03; Inter Press Service, 8/7/03; Guardian, 7/17/03
Sources: Karen Kwiatkowski, Unnamed An unnamed senior officer who left the Pentagon during the planning of the Iraq war, Greg Thielmann, David Obey]
January 15th, 2008 at 6:02 pmhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,999737,00.html
Mr Gingrich visited Langley three times before the war, and according to accounts, the political veteran sought to browbeat analysts into toughening up their assessments of Saddam’s menace.
Mr Gingrich gained access to the CIA headquarters and was listened to because he was seen as a personal emissary of the Pentagon and, in particular, of the OSP.
“They surveyed data and picked out what they liked,” said Gregory Thielmann, a senior official in the state department’s intelligence bureau until his retirement in September. “The whole thing was bizarre. The secretary of defense had this huge defense intelligence agency, and he went around it.”
The OSP was an open and largely unfiltered conduit to the White House not only for the Iraqi opposition. It also forged close ties to a parallel, ad hoc intelligence operation inside Ariel Sharon’s office in Israel specifically to bypass Mossad and provide the Bush administration with more alarmist reports on Saddam’s Iraq than Mossad was prepared to authorise.
“None of the Israelis who came were cleared into the Pentagon through normal channels,” said one source familiar with the visits. Instead, they were waved in on Mr Feith’s authority without having to fill in the usual forms.
The exchange of information continued a long-standing relationship Mr Feith and other Washington neo-conservatives had with Israel’s Likud party.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:05 pmBecause oppressed Mexicans want to come across our boarders means that we’re loved and respected in the middle east? Well, some voters will buy anything I suppose.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:11 pm“But, sadly, no. Mexicans, and I will venture to say that Latinamericans, have an awful working ethics and an awful disposition to serve others.”
Juan
I’d have to differ in this opinion. I work with Mexicans who must cross the border, and then return home at night, and I can attest they have a good work ethic; they show up at 6:00 am every morning- – and that’s after spending 2-3 hours coming up from Tijuana. The machiadoras (sp) on the other side of the border also employ hard-workers, who often sleep in the cardboard boxes of the products they make, in make-shift barrios around the plants.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:20 pmAmerica doesn’t have an image problem.
Bush is the one with the image problem.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:44 pm“But, sadly, no. Mexicans, and I will venture to say that Latinamericans, have an awful working ethics and an awful disposition to serve others.â€
Juan
I have to disagree as well. You don’t risk life and limb to cross a few hundred miles of desert, in order to be lazy. I used to work with a lot of guys from Mexico, San Salvador, and Guatemala. They usually worked 2 or 3 jobs, and lived in crowded homes with lots of others from Latin America. Most of the money they made was sent to families back in their home countries. And yes the ones I worked with were legal. Some of the stories they told of oppression, and poverty in their home countries was enough to curl your toes.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:51 pmThere isn’t any correlation between what immigrants wish and our soiled reputation as a powerful, benevolent, friendly nation. Some immigrants like our culture, some don’t, but most are surprised. Most arrive under a number of misconceptions. And, most, after receiving an education, achieving a financial/business milestone, or whatever; return home.
This was true even during the romantic era of gazing at the Statue of Liberty from the deck of a ship. Even then, the notion of seeking America “for Freedom” was somewhat overblown and it’s been perpetuated by our self-important belief that all the world envies our way off life. Then, and now, those who choose to stay are usually kept here by dire problems in their homelands. Most with stable homelands maintain close ties and tend to return as finances allow.
NEWS FLASH: Most of the world’s population is quite happy living where they are and how they choose.
January 15th, 2008 at 7:22 pmResponse to 54: I already conceded that that may be your view. It was not how Gingrich intended the comment to be perceived by others. He intended the comment to prove that US image is still strong. It is not. It is lower than it was before Bush over reacted to 9/11. It is lower than when Bush and his administration overlooked if not abetted torture and inhumane conditions.
I disagree with you that our over reaction was justified by 9/11. It was not. I have been in the military. I have been a prosecutor at the state and federal level. I am sorry that Bush was a stupid, brutish idiot who has not only jepoardized the image of the United States but also provided terrorists with vastly increased recruits, financing and training. I am sorry that Bush fell for Bin Ladens primary gambit: Put the US in a position where it would over react and destroy itself economically.
DO NOT DARE ACCUSE ME OF BEING COMPLACENT. THE TERRORISTS HAVE DONE EXACTLY WHAT THEY SET OUT TO DO. THEY HAVE DIMINSHED OUR IMAGE. THEY HAVE TIED US DOWN FOR MORE THAN SIX YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ. THEY HAVE BLED US ECONOMICALLY AND MILITARILY.
REDRESSING OURSELVES AGAINST BIN LADEN WAS JUSTIFIED. WHAT WAS DONE IN IRAQ WAS JUST STUPID. DO NOT DARE ACCUSE ME OF HINDSIGHT. I WAS TRAINED IN THE MILITARY PROFESSIONAL COURSES, I DID STUDY ASSYMETRICAL WARFARE DOCTRINE. IT DID NOT TAKE A ROCKET SCIENTIST TO SEE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN. IT DID NOT TAKE PRESCIENCE TO SEE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN WITHOUT CAREFUL AND COMPLETE PLANNING FOR THE REBUILDING OF AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ. INDEED, WE COULD SEE THE INCOMPETENT BUSH ADMINSTRATION MISHANDLE AFGHANISTAN’S REBUILDING LONG BEFORE WE INVADED IRAQ. WE DID NOT NEED TO BE A FORTUNETELLLER TO SEE WHAT THE AFTERMATH OF THE INVASION OF IRAQ WOULD BE. IT HAD BEEN STUDIED TO DEATH BY DOD AND STATE ON NUMEROUS OCCASSIONS SINCE GULF WAR ONE.
I take cold comfort in the fact that those living in desparate conditions from third world countries to be citizens of the United States.
January 15th, 2008 at 7:24 pmYeah, no image problem overseas… there are so many people swimming the Atlantic to get here.
January 15th, 2008 at 7:25 pm… while our image has suffered, the state of our reputation has not diminished to the point were people don’t want to come to America and I dare say, become Americans.
Comment by CaptainMantastic
A fallacy of relevance, red herring, straw man….
Considering that there are, relative to the world’s population, an extremely small number of people coming to America. (The media has been inflating immigration number for years now, but that is a different issue.)
The fact that some people are coming to America is irrelevant and does not refute or disprove the diminution of America’s repuation throughout the world.
Who said that our “image problem” meant that every person on the planet now has the view that America is a terrible place to live?
There are also, perhaps, right-wing nuts in other countries, who now like America’s neo-aggressive ways.
Besides, the folks who people like Gingrich are propagandizing — Mexican immigrants — are of no real consequence in that they are mostly working class. What matters regarding America’s “Image” are other governments, businesses, etc., those people and organizations whose actions may have negative impacts on OUR economy — arms sales and tourism for example.
Gingrich is a dirty liar, simply spreading yet more fear among the bewildered herd that makes up most of the American public.
January 15th, 2008 at 7:47 pmWhat is this Republican re-run doing on TV? Fox acts like this re-run loser should have some credibility. Yuk. Fox News for the brain dead.
January 15th, 2008 at 7:57 pmKrazny & barfly.
Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. I believe you. The guy that picks up the garbage every morning in the building is as hard-working as any other POOR person I have known. They work in extremely bad conditions (subhuman) and have to endure horrible unjustices.
For example: Mayans and Guatemalans illegal workers work for Cancun’s Spanish Hotels. 3 of 4 hotels in Cancun and the whole Mayan Riviera belong to Spanish corporations. These guys live caged (really, caged and locked) earning hunger wages and the owners force them to work 12 hours a day because they might not hire them the next day. So, you might wanna consider your staying options next time, btw.
I was speaking of the middle class. Mexican middle class is lazy, ignorant and tries to get the best by doing the worst, professionally speaking.
January 15th, 2008 at 8:26 pmJuan. you’re either being namejacked or you’re just plain jacked. I’m guessing (hoping) namejacked.
Comment by CaptainMantastic
I live in Mexico, do you too?
January 15th, 2008 at 8:34 pmwhatever…
January 15th, 2008 at 8:47 pmA few years ago, I was quite struck by a series of interviews with Mexicans who had come to the US. Basically, they said the US is devoid of spiritual values and they didn’t like it. But their family needed the money.
The punch line in the article was that America is a nice place to earn money but they don’t want to live here.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:23 pmSo, TP, Bush was right when he said most of our imports come from overseas then? Technically, right?
January 15th, 2008 at 10:47 pmSo I guess Kia Motors doesn’t have an image problem because a relative handful of low-budget people walk into dealers and buy their cars.
The rest of the public, as well as the automobile industry as a whole, looks at Kias and laughs.
Because many Mexicans cross our border in search of higher wages, Newt doesn’t care that your average European or Asian thinks Dubya and his “Brownie, doin’ a heck of a job” cohorts are an embarrassing joke? Or is he oblivious to all this?
January 16th, 2008 at 2:46 amAnd for a further punchline: Why does the US appear to be devoid of spiritual values?
Why, because of liberalism, of course!
Comment by O. Bigfoot — January 16, 2008 @ 2:01 am
More in the line of lack of morals when money enters the game. “Full capitalism” = Republicanism, you know.
January 16th, 2008 at 6:10 amYes it is…, why else, because they love their fingerprints taken? Because they have to see the country they see whenever they put on a tv with their own eyes? You’re not that interesting, believe you me. We all live in America and it sucks monkeyballs.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:46 pm