CNN gets called out for hypocrisy and Lou Dobbs

In just a week, CNN will launch its “Latino in America” series, which tells the stories of Latinos from across the country.

Apparently, Lou Dobbs will be absent from the coverage. This has many surprised. Four hours about the Latino experience in America, and not a word about the man who spends every weeknight telling lies about immigrants, and spreading hatred and fear about Latinos.

Presente.org has joined forces with award-winning filmmaker Arturo Perez to call out CNN's hypocrisy with a powerful new video: “CNN: Lou Dobbs or Latinos in America?”



The coalition of individuals and over 40 community organizations are trying to gather as many signatures as they can before “Latino in America” airs on Oct. 21-22. For more information about the campaign, visit http://bastadobbs.com/ .

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South Carolina Congressman brings disgrace on Republicans during President’s Healthcare Speech

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 2009

Contact:
Francisco Lopez, Executive Director: (503) 269-5694
Erik Sorensen, Communications Director: (503) 488-0263

South Carolina Congressman brings disgrace on Republicans during President’s Healthcare Speech

In a shameful scene reminiscent of the summer Town Halls where right-wingers scream out insults and regurgitate misinformation at elected officials, a Congressman from South Carolina showed his true colors while disgracing his fellow Republicans.

Last night, while President Obama gave his speech on Health Care Reform in the United States House chamber, he addressed the fallacy being promoted by right-wing extremists that undocumented immigrants would receive benefits under his current healthcare reform proposal. In the course of the President’s statement, Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) screamed out “You lie!” In those two words, the out-of-control South Carolina Congressman committed an unprecedented “breach of protocol” in the House chamber, spread a lie himself and did serious damage to the reputation of the Republican Party.

Like most anti-healthcare and anti-immigration reform extremists, Representative Wilson attempted in vain to derail the President’s healthcare reform speech with a falsehood and an insult. All he accomplished was to demonstrate that he, like many other Republicans, has nothing valid to offer to the Health Care Reform discussion.

“Congressman Wilson did a serious disservice to his constituents and has brought disgrace to House Republicans,” said Francisco Lopez, Executive Director of CAUSA. “The attempt by right-wing extremists to derail the healthcare reform bill by using misinformation and immigration as a wedge issue is just more of the same obstructionism--heavy on rhetoric and weak on facts.”

According to the Senate Finance Committee’s framework for a health plan, it explicitly says "No illegal immigrants will benefit from the health care tax credits." Like many non-partisan fact checks have revealed over the summer, a CNN fact check responded to Wilson saying that “although the bill would require undocumented immigrants to purchase their own healthcare, they would not be eligible for public subsidies”. Section 242 of the House bill limits benefits to family members who are citizens or legal residents

After the President’s speech, Representative Wilson tried to save face by apologizing, but the damage was already done to his reputation and that of his fellow Republicans.

CAUSA, Oregon's Immigrant Rights Coalition, is the largest Hispanic civil and human rights and advocacy organization in the Pacific Northwest. For more information, visit www.causaoregon.org

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Immigration Restrictionists Attempt to Spread Swine Flu Hysteria

According to a recent article from Imagine 2050, anti-immigration groups are using the Swine Flu scare to promote their own hateful messages about immigrants.

Over the weekend, William Gheen, President of ALIPAC blamed President Obama for Americans getting sick because he "failed to secure the border". Author Jill Garvey said in Immigrant Haters Promote Flu Hysteria that,

"Gheen seems to have forgotten what century it is! While ALI-PAC is busy berating the government for not erecting a barbed-wire fence against those pesky desert crossers, wealthy tourists are carrying the flu into the US fresh off their Cancun vacations." [via airplane]

Like all of the rhetoric coming from folks like Gheen, there is always an attempt to use unsupported claims against immigrants and/or immigration to sway the public to their way of thinking. The fact is, news reports all week have been highlighting that those in the U.S. who have contracted the Swine flu have either recently traveled to Mexico or have been in contact with someone who traveled there.

An article appearing in the New York Times reported on 12 teenagers from St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens that visited Mexico for Spring Break. Of the 45 cases reported yesterday in the United States, 28 of those are students from St. Francis. (Teenagers From Queens in Swine Flu Spotlight, New York Times, April 27, 2009)

Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security and the World Health Organization said that shutting down the U.S. border to Mexico would do nothing to stop the the spread of Swine Flu into the United States. Napalitano had this to say,"You would close the border if you thought you could contain disease - the spread of the disease, but the disease already is in a number of states within the United States so the containment issue doesn't really play out.

With over a 1/2 million people traveling between the two countries each day, the only thing "sealing" the border would do at this point is stop commerce, further damaging the economy of the United States.

The article points out that the real tragedy in the situation is in Mexico, saying that,

"The U.S. could have strengthened the Mexican economy and in turn promoted development of a sustainable food and health system. Instead the U.S. decimated the infrastructure of Mexico with economy-destroying trade agreements, a nation of willing drug customers, and a free flow of firearms.

It finishes by refuting those that seek to spread Swine Flu hysteria as an anti-immigration tool that, "This is a global health crisis, not an immigration issue and not a U.S. security issue. If we want to protect ourselves, we should start protecting our neighbors."

Read the full article by linking here or visiting http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2009/04/28/immigrant-haters-promote-flu-hysteria

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