Your much-anticipated La Raza Convention update

Barack Obama spoke to the La Raza convention here in San Diego yesterday and the text of his speech can be found here. The text of John McCain’s speech who finished his up just a few hours ago can be found here.

Its apparent that McCain was playing it close to the vest. In hi-lite excerpt below, he acknowledges the “I got the message” theme he has been repeating since the primaries with respect to he and the rest of Congress getting whacked upside the head by the American public over the Rube Goldberg Amnesty Bill of last summer but he is vague on the “After 'enforce the borders' then what…?” part.

"As you know, I and many other colleagues twice attempted to pass comprehensive immigration legislation to fix our broken borders; ensure respect for the laws of this country; recognize the important economic contribution of immigrant laborers; apprehend those who came here illegally to commit crimes; and deal practically and humanely with those who came here, as my distant ancestors did, to build a better, safer life for their families, without excusing the fact they came here illegally or granting them privileges before those who have been waiting their turn outside the country. Many Americans did not believe us when we said we would secure our borders, and so we failed in our efforts. I don't want to fail again to achieve comprehensive immigration reform. We must prove we have the resources to secure our borders and use them, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States. When we have achieved our border security goal, we must enact and implement the other parts of practical, fair and necessary immigration policy. We have economic and humanitarian responsibilities as well, and they require no less dedication from us in meeting them."

Here are some highlites from the Obama speech where the pander quotient was getting quite high…

"The system isn't working when 12 million people live in hiding, and hundreds of thousands cross our borders illegally each year; when companies hire undocumented immigrants instead of legal citizens to avoid paying overtime or to avoid a union; when communities are terrorized by ICE immigration raids - when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing, when people are detained without access to legal counsel."

Nice to know that Obama thinks immigration authorities enforcing the law of the land are "terrorizing" illegal immigrants.

"The 12 million people in the shadows, the communities taking immigration enforcement into their own hands, the neighborhoods seeing rising tensions as citizens are pitted against new immigrants...they're counting on us to stop the hateful rhetoric filling our airwaves - rhetoric that poisons our political discourse, degrades our democracy, and has no place in this great nation. They're counting on us to rise above the fear and demagoguery, the pettiness and partisanship, and finally enact comprehensive immigration reform."

And we’re counting on them to respect this country and this county’s laws.

"Yes, they broke the law. And we should not excuse that. We should require them to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for citizenship - behind those who came here legally. But we cannot - and should not - deport 12 million people. That would turn American into something we're not; something we don't want to be."

Translation: “Yes, they broke the law…. Blah, blah, blah…. Amesty!!!”

Post is running long but we wanted you to get the gist of what both candidates were telling a pro-illegal immigrant group. We sense in McCain that perhaps because of the audience he is treading on this issue very lightly and using his words carefully. Obama, however, sees no need to mince words… well, he does but its very thinly veiled code-speak for more of the same Amnesty nonsense we saw last summer.

What's in a Phrase?

He’s not revealing too many details but McCain is back in the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” rodeo again. And because he’s not in a revealing mood, we are left only to divine his intent when he says this must be a priority of the next President. He mentions his previous efforts with Ted Kennedy (bad) but follows up with “I got the message” on border enforcement (good). So at this point, consider us taking up residence in Missouri: Show Us!

We would suggest scrapping this term altogether as many of us see only “amnesty” as it related to last summer’s Rube Goldberg Amnesty Bill goat-rope. Of course, the simple-minded nativist in us would suggest wordy, though focus group-tested phrases like, “Enforcing the laws that are on the books” or “Its called the ‘Temporary Worker Visa Program’: Use It”.

That does not have, however, the sex-appeal of using the words “reform” and “comprehensive” which connotes not screwing up merely one or two things but rather a willingness to cluster-bomb a variety of concepts like “sovereignty”, “rule of law”, “justice”, “right and wrong”, etc… minor affairs all, we can be assured.

Senator McCain needs to strive for a bit more clarity in this matter. Stay tuned.