home

Tom Tancredo Plans "Trip Abroad" to Miami

Last month Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo said Miami is like a third world country. Even Jeb Bush took him to task.

But Tancredo will visit Key Biscayne Thursday to give a talk. His topic: the need for immigrants to assimilate.

Why is he going? How about attention:

Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa...said Tancredo wasn't worried about whatever reception he will get in the Miami area.....ny protests or controversy will only draw more attention to the event, he said.

"It's always entertaining. It'll add to the flair of Miami," Espinosa said. "I really do hope we get some protesters. Otherwise, what else are we going for?"

< The Wire | Al Gore Hasn't Ruled Out 2008 Run >
  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


  • Display: Sort:
    Go Tom! (none / 0) (#1)
    by jimakaPPJ on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 07:04:04 AM EST
    My Congressman when I lived in Colorado strikes aagain. Go Tom!

    The shame is that "the need to assimilate" is considered wrong by some.

    In need of assimiliation..... (none / 0) (#2)
    by kdog on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 08:24:35 AM EST
    Tancredo is the one in need of assimilation....assimiliation into our American way of life. The guy is stuck in Stepford.

    Somebody who thinks Miami is a third world country obviously has no clue about our multi-cultural culture.  There is more to America than Wonder Bread smart guy.

    Kdog (none / 0) (#3)
    by jimakaPPJ on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 09:06:25 AM EST
    All he is saying that the whole wheat should try to become part of the whole loaf.

    Isn't that what it's all anout? An American culture?

    Parent

    My American Culture.... (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by kdog on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 10:52:39 AM EST
    includes Chicken Chow Mein, Falafel, and the Cubano sandwich.  

    American culture is, first and foremost, about change.  Incorporating the new with the old.  It's always evolving...and it won't stop just because people Tancredo fear the evolution.

    There is a balamce to be found.

    "Preserving the old ways from being abused, protecting the new ways for me and for you, what more can we do?"

    - Kinks

    Parent

    interesting - Tom Terrible just filed an amicus (none / 0) (#5)
    by scribe on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 03:02:26 PM EST
    brief in the S.Ct., re a case involving MEK and the "material support" provision of the AEDPA.    Tancredo's arguing in favor of the MEK and supporting its First Amendment challenge to its designation as a "furrin terrist organization".  Tancredo says (in short) that the Executive promised the FTO designation would be applied impartially, but that in this case it appears political expediencies were the reason for designating MEK as an FTO.

    Of course, a few months back there were articles (can't find them now, but they seemed reputable then) indicating Rummy was using MEK to conduct pre-war recon and insurgency inside Iran. The juxtaposition of MEK's designation as an FTO on the one hand, and being the recipient of US$ for insurgency in Iran on the other was quite interesting.  One is compelled to wonder just where Tancredo's interests lie in this case....

    Iran Policy Commission (none / 0) (#6)
    by squeaky on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 04:24:16 PM EST
    or just change the name...
    ...According to still another intelligence source, the policy infighting ended last year when Donald Rumsfeld, under pressure from Vice President Cheney, came up with a plan to "convert" the MEK by having them simply quit their organization.

    "These guys are nuts," this intelligence source said. "Cambone and those guys made MEK members swear an oath to Democracy and resign from the MEK and then our guys incorporated them into their unit and trained them."

    link

    The IPC:

    The Iran Policy Committee (IPC) has a website up and running at http://iranpolicycommittee.org. The IPC made the news in February of 2005 when it released a report titled "US Options for Iran." In that report, the IPC recommended that a terrorist group known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) be removed from the US government's hit list.

     The authors of the IPC report equate the terrorist MEK with the African National Congress that fought long and hard against the despicable all-white South African regime and its US supporters so many years ago. Of course, the implication here is that the MEK will somehow produce a Nelson Mandela, or at least is on the same playing field as Mandela's group was. (...)

     The IPC is supported by the neocon all-stars that we've come to know and love such as Doug Feith, Frank Gaffney, Mike Ledeen, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Don Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, et al. (...)

     ....Tancredo stated that the MEK was designated not because it was involved in terrorist activities, but because the Clinton administration sought to curry favor with the Iranian regime."

    link

    Tancredo, a social conservative and Christian Right activist from a district with a mainly white middle-class and affluent population in Colorado, situates the immigration issue in the broader context of a global culture war.

     A cultural warrior on the international front, Tancredo is an enthusiastic supporter of the Bush administration's war on terror, including the war in Iraq. Tancredo, who is a consistent supporter of the Pentagon and U.S. defense industries, has become a leading spokesperson in the House for an Iran regime change strategy in which the People's Freedom Fighters (MEK) would be the vanguard organization supported by the United States.

    link

    Quid Pro Quo?


    The Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO) has a front organization, the "National Council of Resistance" or NCR.  The NCR has been a significant source of charges about the Iranian nuclear program, and probably spies on Iran for both the Pentagon and Israel. (I am reasoning back from AIPAC's WINEP-associated "scholars" supporting the MEK, which is very odd unless there is a big quid pro quo). They probably exaggerate, playing a game similar to that of Ahmad Chalabi in Iraq.

    Juan Cole

    Parent

    NCR (none / 0) (#7)
    by squeaky on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 04:50:37 PM EST
    Ah... the nostalgic reverie that washes over me just from reading the NCR report on Iran's nukes.

     

    Parent

    More wedge b.s (none / 0) (#8)
    by jondee on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 06:14:49 PM EST
    Some cant assimilate the possibility that the tribe might be part of something larger than the  tribe.