On Immigration, The Right Loses Compassion

By ThinkProgress on Aug 8, 2005 at 5:43 pm

The fallout from a controversial raid on undocumented workers has shown again that immigration issues rile up the right-wing in America like no other.

Late last month, federal agents arrested 119 undocumented workers employed at a poultry plant in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. One hundred and fifteen were from Mexico. About 30 of their children — some as young as 3 months old — were abandoned after all but twelve of the workers were deported from the United States.

The raid drew harsh criticism from the town’s sheriff and mayor, and even conservative Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), a Baptist preacher, who objected to the families being unnecessarily divided:

Huckabee said it appears the arrests of 119 workers at the plant were terribly planned and that federal agents gave little thought to the consequences for children of those arrested. … Huckabee has joined Hispanic civil rights leaders to ensure the well-being of the children.

What did Huckabee get for his trouble? Apparently a bunch of angry phone calls. Days after the raid, an Arkansas TV station suggested that the governor was possibly “risking his political future by speaking out against a recent immigration raid,” and that Huckabee said “calls to his office have been ‘about 1,000 to one’ against his position”:

The governor says many of the callers are angry and use profanity. He says immigration is a very emotional issue and people become irrational over it.

Apparently some right-wingers aren’t so concerned with family values when the families are Mexican.

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Politics

Bush Misleads on Impact of Energy Bill

By Judd Legum on Aug 8, 2005 at 4:11 pm

Today, President Bush signed the energy bill and claimed that it was an answer to rising gas prices:

For more than a decade, America has gone without a national energy policy. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? We haven’t had a strategy in place. We’ve had some ideas, but we have not had a national energy policy. And as a result, our consumers are paying more for the price of their gasoline…

That’s not true and the President has admitted it. Here is what he said April 20:

An energy bill wouldn’t change the price at the pump today. I know that and you know that.

If this is such a great bill, why can’t President Bush be honest about it?

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Politics

The Guy Who Makes DeLay Look Good

By ThinkProgress on Aug 8, 2005 at 3:10 pm

When asked why he selected ethically challenged House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to speak at Justice Sunday Part 2, event organizer James Dobson responded that DeLay was “a natural fit.” Another invited speaker is Charles Colson — better known for his history as one of President Nixon’s “hatchet men” who went to jail for his involvement in the Watergate scandal. Is Colson a good judge of character? You be the judge:

Colson on Karl Rove: “I happen to know Karl Rove quite well and I find him to be a very decent man; no touch of arrogance. So, I think he’s being badly abused in this process and those of us who were inside the bunkers of the White House during the Nixon years, know exactly what it’s like to go through that kind of fire.” [CNN, 7/14/05]

Colson on Sen. Edward Kennedy: “[In] the hours after the May 15, 1972, assassination attempt against Alabama Gov. George Wallace, then a Democratic presidential candidate, Nixon counsel Charles Colson is heard on tape urging Felt to aggressively pursue theories that the gunman may have been tied to Nixon nemesis Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) or the anti-war movement.” [Chicago Tribune, 6/2/05]

Colson on “Deep Throat” Mark Felt: “I don’t think it was a noble act at all I’ve worked for the last 30 years preaching the gospel of Christ in prisons all across America. Today there are 2.1 million people in prison, and the one single characteristic I’ve discovered is, every one of them has not had moral training. They’re like feral children. They come up off the streets. And if they get the message that somebody can break the law in a noble purpose, and can justify it, that’s a terrible thing. [CNN, 6/5/05]

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Media

Carville Was Right: WSJ Was Watching

By Faiz Shakir on Aug 8, 2005 at 11:16 am

Today, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, as James Carville predicted, came to Bob Novak’s defense. But what a ridiculous defense it is.

Here’s their main argument:

“But far from ‘watching’ Mr. Novak, we’ve defended him while the rest of the press corps has assailed him for doing his job and breaking the news about Valerie Plame’s role in getting her husband Joe Wilson a job as a CIA consultant.”

That’s exactly the point! Despite specifically being asked by the CIA not to divulge Plame’s identity, Novak did so anyways. The WSJ has led the right-wing establishment’s defense of Novak’s reprehensible behavior. And that is why Novak has to return the favor by, as Carville suggested, showing “he’s got a backbone.”

WSJ: “Mr. Novak has since appropriately apologized for losing his cool, but Mr. Carville is lucky he didn’t get punched in the nose.”

So Carville says Novak has to look tough. Novak responds by walking off the set. The henchmen at the WSJ, in their disappointment, suggest Carville should have been “punched in the nose” for telling the truth. It appears Novak wasn’t tough enough for the WSJ.

WSJ: “Mr. Carville is the professional political wrestler, but CNN has asked only Mr. Novak to take a vacation.”

The WSJ’s logically incomprehensible suggestion that Carville should be asked by CNN to go on indefinite leave makes no sense for two reasons. First, Novak is just as much the “professional political wrestler” as is Carville, having appeared for 15 years as a host of CNN’s crossfire — the place where “political wrestlers” went to wrestle. Second, Novak wasn’t asked to leave because he’s a political hack. He was asked to leave because he cursed on live TV and walked off the set. Carville didn’t do either.

The WSJ’s closing line is comical:

“The members of the liberal press pack owe Mr. Novak an apology, not vice versa.”

Novak curses live on television and walks off the set because someone dares to tell the truth about him. And he deserves an apology?

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Security

Weak on Defense: Bush Dumps Arms Control Offices

By ThinkProgress on Aug 8, 2005 at 10:06 am

Hiroshima after the bombing Harvard specialist Graham Allison has noted that the “consensus in the national security community” is that “if policy makers in Washington keep doing what they are currently doing about the threat, a nuclear terrorist attack on America is likely to occur in the next decade.” Moreover, “if one lengthens the time frame, a nuclear strike is inevitable.”

But such warnings don’t seem to bother the White House. In a bit of grim irony, the Bush administration chose the 60th anniversary of the U.S. nuclear attack on Hiroshima to begin dismantling some of our bedrock nonproliferation efforts. This from the Global Security Newswire last week:

While Congress is on vacation, the Bush administration is planning to quietly eliminate most State Department arms control offices, phasing out senior positions and merging personnel and functions with nonproliferation and other units, according to a notification document sent to Congress.

What’s more, this phase-out isn’t an issue of funding. It’s actually the Bush administration’s strategy:

The changes, many of which could begin in less than two weeks, appear to reflect a determined shift by the administration away from decades of U.S. focus on promoting international arms control agreements toward ad hoc, less universal efforts to prevent the spread of restricted weapons to terrorists and certain regimes.

The ghost of John Bolton — champion of the ad hoc, “coalition of the willing” approach to nonproliferation — lives on.

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Security

Rice’s Rhetoric “Losing Steam”

By Faiz Shakir on Aug 8, 2005 at 9:26 am

The Bush administration’s rosy rhetoric on Iraq continues to do a disservice to Americans who want to be told the truth.

Headline: “Report: Iraq Insurgency Getting Stronger”

The report noted the growing sophistication of the insurgency:

U.S. commanders say the number of attacks against American and Iraqi forces has held steady over the last year, averaging about 65 a day. But they concede the growing sophistication of guerrilla attacks and the insurgents’ ability to replenish their ranks as fast as they are killed.

“We are capturing or killing a lot of insurgents,” a senior Army intelligence officer said. “But they’re being replaced quicker than we can interdict their operations. There is always another insurgent ready to step up and take charge.”

Condi’s Reponse?:

Rice told TIME she believes the insurgents are “losing steam” as a political force, even though their ability to kill and maim at will appears undiminished. When Rice points to “rather quiet political progress” while the country remains embroiled in chaos, even some of her backers cringe. Says a Republican elder statesman: “I don’t have any sense of where she thinks she’s going on Iraq.”