posted July 09, 2006 03:11 AM            

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LOS ANGELES (July 8) - Former President Bill Clinton praised President Bush on Saturday for supporting reforms that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to seek citizenship but said the debate in Congress is being fomented by Republicans who want to divide America.

"I'm proud of him for doing it and I thanked him for doing it," he said of Bush during a "Cafe con Clinton" breakfast speech to the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights advocacy group.

Clinton said Bush's roots in Texas - which has one of the nation's largest Hispanic populations - have helped him view immigrants as people rather than statistics.

"It's hard to demonize people if you know them," he said.

But Clinton also argued that the nation's government is controlled by Republican ideological hard-liners who want to use immigration to divide Americans and distract them from issues such as the war in Iraq and the health care crisis.

Instead of equal opportunity, they support a "financial elite" because they favor "concentrated wealth and power," Clinton said.

"They believe in a government that is secret, unaccountable and that maximizes its own power," he said. "They really believe the world works better if they run it and we keep our mouths shut."

Clinton supported an immigration reform measure passed by the Senate that would provide a way for many of the estimated 12 million foreigners living in the country illegally to become citizens. A House-approved bill would make illegal immigrants felons and build 700 miles of border walls. House and Senate negotiators so far have not been able to work out a compromise.

Bush has said he wants to enforce the borders so fewer people sneak across but also provide a way for those already in the United States to become legal. He has praised Hispanic immigrants as hardworking and family oriented. Clinton used similar language in his own speech.

The message played well with La Raza, which opposes the House bill and whose current president, Janet Murguia, was an assistant in the Clinton White House.

Before Clinton's speech, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa noted a string of rallies over the immigration issue, including one in March that sent 500,000 people into the streets of Los Angeles and garnered international attention.

"You literally reshaped the political landscape of our nation ... we can still see a movement blooming before our very eyes," he said.

Both Democrats and Republicans have been looking for ways to court Hispanics, whose fast-growing population gives them the potential to become an enormous voting force. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was scheduled to address the convention on Tuesday.

posted July 09, 2006 03:56 AM            

quote:

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"They believe in a government that is secret, unaccountable and that maximizes its own power," he said. "They really believe the world works better if they run it and we keep our mouths shut."

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posted July 10, 2006 12:28 AM              

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"WHATEVER the soul longs for, WILL be attained by the spirit"

"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation"

posted July 10, 2006 12:31 PM            

This is the ahole who betrayed the United States...in other words, a traitor who sold United States military secrets...nuclear weapons and missile technology secrets to the communist Chinese for campaign contributions.

Commander Corruption is the ahole commander who forced a communist Chinese spy on the Commerce Department and made him the number 2 man in the department. This is the ahole commander who took away export control from the State Department and gave it to the Commerce Department in order to facilitate the transfer of nuclear weapons and missile technology to communist China via Loral and Hughes....for campaign contributions from the communist Chinese government.

So Commander Corruption, whenever you moan and wet yourself over the policies of the Bush administration, there are plenty of people who know you committed treason against the United States and further, believe you should sit the hell down and shut the F up....preferably in a maximum security prison cell.