Tancredo for President -- Official Blog

AARP Interview

AARP asked that we respond to statements regarding a wide variety of issues.  The following will be published in the AARP Bulletin:

AARP Statement:

We believe wellness and prevention efforts, including changes in personal behavior such as diet and exercise, should be top national priorities.

Tancredo Response:

"The key to good health is individual choice and people need to take personal responsibility for these choices.  As President I would encourage the health community to continue their efforts to inform Americans of the benefits of diet and exercise.  Living healthy increases an individual’s quality of life and reduces their health care costs." 

AARP Statement:

We believe Americans should have choices when it comes to long-term care – allowing them to maintain their independence at home or in their communities with expanded and affordable financing options.

Tancredo Response:

"All Americans should be able to decide on how best to care for themselves, and it should be affordable and pragmatic."

AARP Statement:

We believe Americans of all ages should have access to tools to help manage their finances, and save for the future and better, easy to understand information to help them increase their financial literacy and manage their money wisely.

Tancredo Response:

"Americans of all ages should have such tools available to them and the last I looked, you could find it on every other corner of most towns, in cities, in the local banks and other financial institutions.  Additionally, considering the job the federal government has done in managing the finances of our nation, I would suggest it is in best interest of Americans to get this information from the private sector."

Vicente Fox Comments

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox made the following statements the other day during a stop in Iowa.

During the student panels with Fox Friday, Tara Runghee asked the former Mexican President for his reaction to a quote by Republican President candidate Tom Tancredo on his campaign web site. "Illegal aliens threaten our economy and undermine our culture... as President, I will secure our borders so illegal aliens do not come, and I will eliminate benefits and job prospects so they do not stay."

"He should not have a Spanish name," Fox said of Tancredo.

"We need to work on a guest worker program similar to what Mexico has with Canada. The people go up for 6 or 9 months, are sheltered then flown back home. No one wants to leave their country. Trust me, they would much rather be closer to family and friends enjoying tortillas."

Read the whole article here

Clinton on Illegal Aliens Driver's Licenses in NY

In case you missed it, Hillary Clinton tried to shy away from her support for illegal aliens getting driver's licenses last night in the MSNBC debate. 

You can see her try to take a tough national security stance to prepare for the general election.  It's a pretty smart strategy, take her lumps from her Democratic colleagues now in order to appear strong in a general election against a credible Republican. 

She is also trying to shy away from her weak stance on immigration because, once again, she would get hammered by a Republican counterpart such as Tom Tancredo who has worked his entire career to protect this countrywith immigration reform.

There will be two ways to defeat her if she is the nominee: through national security and immigration.

Take a look at the transcript and corresponding video:

Sen. Clinton: I just want to add, I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Gov. Spitzer is trying to do it. And we have failed....

Sen. Dodd: “Wait a minute, no, no, no. You said yes, you thought it made sense to do it.

Sen. Clinton: “No, I didn't, Chris, but the point is, what are we going to do with all these illegal immigrants who are (driving )?''

Cavuto today

Congressman Tancredo will appear on Cavuto on the Fox Business Channel today at 6:00 PM EST.  To clarify this is NOT FOX News, it is on their new business channel.  Check your local cable channel about programming.

The channel just launched within the past few weeks.

Frosty Wooldridge Article about Tom

Excerpt:

In all great social change, a leader emerges ahead of his time to right a specific wrong.  That leader knows more than indolent citizens, understands more than media and steps to the front to create a “tipping point” for the common good.

As Mark Twain said in 1860, “The patriot is a scorned and hated man, but when his cause succeeds, however, even the timid join him, for then it doesn’t cost anything to be a patriot.”

Gandhi suffered scurrilous attacks on his character. Gorbachev elevated himself above media attacks.  Mandela endured horrific media onslaught.  Even our own Eleanor Roosevelt tolerated the press attacking her noble purposes.

Thus, the Denver Post scorned Susan B. Anthony at the turn of the last century as she injected the issue of women’s voter rights right up their nostrils.  To the Denver Post, Dr. Martin Luther King proved a radical that should be silenced.  Perhaps, because Thomas Jefferson wrote such drastic works as the Declaration of Independence, if the Denver Post existed, its editors would have attacked him, too, for daring to speak against Great Britain.

This week, the Denver Post lambasted Tom Tancredo in an editorial announcing his retirement from Congress.  The Post wrote, “…from those who have grown tired of Tancredo’s overheated rhetoric against illegal immigration.”

Check out the full article here

Buchanan on Steve Deace Show this afternoon!

Our national chair, Bay Buchanan, will be on Deace in the afternoon today around 6:00 PM CST.  Make sure to listen! 

Listen here: http://www.whoradio.com/main.html

BP will begin punishing illegal crossers

By JULIAN AGUILAR , LAREDO MORNING TIMES

Saying the U.S. Border Patrol is ready to send a message to people who use the Laredo area as a gateway for illegal activity, Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Carlos X. Carrillo officially announced the agency's zero-tolerance policy against undocumented immigrants."On October 30, the U.S. Border Patrol Laredo Sector will launch an initiative we call Streamline-Laredo," Carrillo said Friday morning. "Under this program, any alien who illegally enters the United States in the Laredo Sector at locations designated for zero-tolerance will be prosecuted in federal court." The penalty for illegal entry, according to a fact sheet from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, is a misdemeanor for the first offense, which carries a maximum sentence of 180 days. Any subsequent offense is a felony, the statement reads. The program is patterned after initiatives in Del Rio and Yuma, Ariz., which have been credited with decreasing illegal entries while increasing illegal drug seizures along the border. "It's not a Republican issue, it's not a Democrat issue," said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo. "We're talking about implementing the law. … It pretty much eliminates the catch-and-release policy." Cuellar added that he acknowledges that at first there will be a spike in the number of apprehensions, but said the judicial process will be accelerated and that the U.S. Marshals will be given all the resources they need to assist in the initiative. After word spreads, he added, the illegal traffic will decrease. U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, said securing the border was vital to national security, and added that the law has been in the books since 1952. Culberson also referred to Muslim extremists groups that may look to the southern border as a possible path to enter the United States. He said the result of a terrorist attack by a person who sneaked in through Mexico would be disastrous. "The affect would be catastrophic," Culberson said. "The reaction would be so strong that the border would become militarized." Carrillo and Cuellar said, however, that there has been no evidence of terrorist activity along the Laredo border, though Cuellar said the possibility exists. The officials added the issue of bed space in jails has been addressed, and that U.S. Marshals have contacted regional detention facilities regarding that matter. Cuellar however, did not divulge which regional facilities had been contacted. "We're not going to give you the names of what specific ones," Cuellar said. The congressman added that local or regional facilities with overcrowding issues would obviously not be considered. "We're going to use the facilities that are already in place," Deputy U.S. Marshal Mark McPherson said. "We've (identified) other resources outside of (the) direct Laredo area. … Some are county facilities, some are private. If a facility is full, we're not going to force the facilities to take extra (detainees.)" Cuellar added that by the beginning of 2009, when the federal government may again consider building a border wall in Laredo, the results of the streamline operation may be successful enough that a wall will no longer be considered.

Washington Times-Inside Politics 10/25/07

Bombs away

Mike Huckabee has been gaining momentum in the Republican race for the presidency, but a senior editor at the American Spectator says his time as governor of Arkansas was filled with scandal.

"National media folks like David Brooks, dealing in surface appearances only, rave about what a nice guy Huckabee is, and a moral exemplar to boot. If they only did a little homework, they would discover a guy with a thin skin, a nasty vindictive streak, and a long history of imbroglios about questionable ethics," Quin Hillyer wrote yesterday at Spectator.org.

"Fourteen times, the ethics commission — a respected body, not a partisan witch hunt group — investigated claims against Huckabee. Five of those times, it officially reprimanded him. And, as only MSNBC among the big national media has reported at any real length, there were lots of other mini scandals and embarrassments along the way.

"He used public money for family restaurant meals, boat expenses, and other personal uses. He tried to claim as his own some $70,000 of furniture donated to the governor's mansion. He repeatedly, and obstinately, against the pleadings even from conservative columnists and editorials, refused to divulge the names of donors to a 'charitable' organization he set up while lieutenant governor — an outfit whose main charitable purpose seemed to be to pay Huckabee to make speeches. Then, as a kicker, he misreported the income itself from the suspicious 'charity.' "

Lou Dobbs Quote

The Following is a transcript from CNN's Lou Dobbs, aired over the weekend.  He is talking with Diana West from the Washington Times and Errol Louis from New York Daily News:

WEST: I think it's a very good issue for him, and I think that it focuses people on this issue in a very clear way. Down in my neck of the woods, we just had a recent poll in Virginia, which going to be a very hotly-contested state, said that three-quarters of the likely voters in Virginia consider immigration to be one of the most important issues in the upcoming elections, up from seventh out of 10 the last time they looked at this issue so people are coming into focus here and he's helping that.

LOUIS: He's banking on people not going for the real thing in Tancredo, you know? But there are far more aggressive voices that have a real history on this so he's ...

WEST: Tancredo should get that.

DOBBS: I'm thrilled that you have said that he is the real thing.

WEST: I think he's the real thing.

Tom's Retirement from Congress

As many of you have learned, Tom is retiring from Congress and will not seek another term.  Just to be clear, this does not effect his campaign for President.  He will continue to campaign hard, GO TOM!