November 12, 2007 7:09 PM
Tancredo's 'scary' stuff
View image www.teamtancredo.org
Rep. Tom Tancredo is taking the fear factor to an explosive new level in the Republican presidential contest.
On Monday he unveiled a new television ad that shows a hooded man slip into a peaceful shopping mall, set down a black backpack — not far from where children are playing — and then, boom!
Interspersed with images of a bloody body and the destruction from recent terrorist attacks in London, Spain and Russia, it argues that this could be “the price we pay for spineless politicians who refuse to defend our border against those who come to kill.”
But one Iowa political analyst called it such a “brute” appeal for fear, that it’s not likely to help Tancredo’s long-shot campaign here in the nation’s first presidential caucus state, nor prompt any of the other candidates to respond, as Tancredo told reporters Monday was his real goal.
“This is just blatant, raw fear images, and they’ve never worked in the United States, period,” said Bruce Gronbeck, a communications professor from the University of Iowa who teaches a course on politics in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The ad, available at www.teamtancredo.org, opens with Tancredo giving a new twist to the disclaimer required by federal elections laws:
“I’m Tom Tancredo and I approve this message because someone needs to say it.”
At a press conference in Des Moines, Tancredo told local reporters that he wanted to expand the immigration debate beyond the anti-amnesty appeal that other presidential candidates have adopted with their rhetoric, if not “with their hearts.”
He cited law enforcement reports and unclassified portions of the National Intelligence Estimate suggesting that there was a rising possibility that radical, Islamic terrorists might launch a series of smaller-scale attacks within the United States.
At the press conference (which you can hear HERE via Radio Iowa) Tancredo said:
“People are here today who are planning and plotting to kill us... Are we willing to do something about it — to go after the people who are here?”
Asked if he was “fear-mongering,” Tancredo referred back to the reports, saying: “Is that fear-mongering on the part of the FBI?”
He added:
“Yeah, this is a scary commercial. I understand that. But it’s a scary world in which we live.”
The professor, Gronbeck, compared the ad to a 1964 commercial for former President Lyndon Johnson that showed a little girl carelessly plucking the petals off a daisy just before a countdown to a nuclear blast.
Gronbeck's immediate reaction to seeing the ad was to compare it to a 1996 ad for another presidential long-shot, Sen. Dick Lugar, who raised the prospect of terrorists launching an atomic nightmare. But that appeal proved to be little more than a sign of desperation, Gronbeck said, and Lugar soon dropped out of the presidential contest.
With Tancredo’s new ad, Gronbeck said:
“I take that on the political thermometer they know they're in deep, deep trouble and that they hope they’ll get a rise out of the American people. He has made it, but he has made the appeal so extreme that no one has to even answer it.”
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UPDATE: The Hot Air blog weighs in, calling the congressman "Sir Tancelot," and bringing up that reference to the 1964 race between President Johnson and Republican Barry Goldwater:
"A 'Daisy' for our age, with a twist: this time Goldwater's running it himself to promote his security credentials."
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NOTE: For those keeping score, this is the 250th "Back Roads to the White House" entry since April 12, 2007. Anybody care to count up all the words?
November 27, 2007
3:58 PM
Frosty Wooldridge writes:
PAUL CAMPOS: COLORADO’S WORST JUNK JOURNALIST
By Frosty Wooldridge
Paul Campos, after a scathing attack on presidential candidate Tom Tancredo, “America’s Worst Congressman” 11/26/07, RMN, proves Teddy Roosevelt’s famous quote, “It’s not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled and fell, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”
Paul Campos never made cheerleader or water boy on his high school football team let alone the tinker-toy or tidily-winks squad!
Today, as a journalist on the Rocky Mountain News, he aims his wilting quill on all who work, who lead, who produce, who obey our laws and who sustain Colorado. Campos supports illegal aliens and open borders—thus that kind of support gives Colorado 500,000 illegal aliens—and growing. It makes us the people smuggling, drug smuggling and gang capitol of the West. Along with Campos’ support of said lawlessness, Colorado citizens like Officer Don Young lay in a grave along with Justin Goodman, Dale Englerth and thousands of law abiding citizens killed by illegal aliens. Campos, as a liberal, shuns anything patriotic to America. Thus Coloradans that pay taxes, work hard and maintain integrity—get screwed by employers of illegals as we fund schooling, medical and incarceration expenses.
Did Campos serve in the U.S. military? Doubtful because of obvious disdain for our nation as a civilization of the rule of law! His charges of racism extend beyond the absurd!
When anyone stands up against the illegal alien invasion, Campos turns his quill on that patriot with his insidious ability to undermine the U.S. Constitution, which, ironically enough, allows him to write his diatribe of trailer park gutter graffiti.
Shakespeare talked through Hamlet about men like Campos, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”
Campos contributes nothing to this society other than words while he teachers lawyers how to fleece the common man. Nothing has changed since the Bard wrote those poetic words in 1599.
Campos attacked Tancredo’s TV ad, but failed to mention it illustrated our open borders that gave us 9/11. Campos failed to mention that he has not been down to the border to see the invasion first hand. Campos failed to say he lives in his protected ivory tower of educational elites at the University of Colorado where his family will never be involved in muggings, rapes, killings, drunk drivers, diseases and other aspects of illegal aliens in Colorado.
He neglected to tell his readers that Muslim terrorists crossing our borders targeted Fort Huachuca, Arizona. According to a piece in the Washington Times, “Fort Huachuca, the nation’s largest intelligence training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists were planning an attack on the facility. Officials were warned that 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were smuggled into the US through tunnels with high powered weapons to attack the post.”
Campos reminds me of Mr. Scrooge in the Charles Dickens classic. Scrooge, played by the late George C. Scott, didn’t get what he was doing until the ghost of Christmas past showed up at the window. The ghost whisked Scrooge down to the gutters where the ugly realities manifested.
I’ve traveled throughout the USA and have seen the ugly realities of this illegal alien migration. As Tancredo said, “Western civilization is at stake.”
Pat Buchanan said it in latest book “Day of Reckoning”: "America is coming apart, decomposing, and the likelihood of her survival as one nation...is improbable -- and impossible if America continues on her current course," declares Pat Buchanan. "For we are on a path to national suicide."
While Campos remains aloof, he proves dangerous because his own ignorance supersedes rational thought. Not only do we face a security crisis from open borders, we’re facing a cultural breakdown as a cohesive nation. On top of that, immigration explodes us into adding 100 million people in three decades. No one will survive our population overload when that many people manifest within our delicate as well as limited carrying capacity in the United States.
Campos fails on those points, too. That’s why he merits the title: “COLORADO’S WORST JUNK JOURNALIST.”
Take action: www.thesocialcontract.com ; www.numbersusa.com ; www.fairus.org ; www.firecoalition.com ; www.alipac.us ; www.capsweb.org ; www.vdare.com
Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world population balance at his website www.frostywooldridge.com He authored: “Immigration’s Unarmed Invasion: Deadly Consequences.”
November 17, 2007
9:57 PM
J.D. Moyers (submitted via e-mail) writes:
What is real fear mongering? Is it Tom Tancredo telling us that we need to secure our borders because we have already lost 3,000 citizens to terrorists and there have been similar deaths in England and Spain? In London the Muslims protested carrying signs that read: "Slay those who insult Islam" and "Butcher those who mock Islam" and "Europe will pay, demolition is on its way."
Or is it global warming addicts who cry "chick-little" for what they hypothesize will happen in 10 years? John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel and a television meteorologist for more than 54 years, has called global-warming alarmism “the greatest scam in history.” Coleman said he read scientific papers, interviewed numerous scientists and carefully studied the issue and found that the data supporting catastrophic, human-induced global warming have been “manipulated.” He said he believes scientists with a political agenda have manufactured a crisis. “Scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long-term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming," Coleman wrote on his blog.
Sincerely,
J.D. Moyers
November 14, 2007
7:11 PM
Caree4Tanc writes:
Who do you think are crossing our open borders, our friends? America needs to wake up! Tom Tancredo has the GUTs to stand up for our country and to the problem of open borders. Americans are being very ignorant of this huge problem and unless it affects you personally it is not an issue. Maybe it will be an issue when your friends or family are blown up when the terrorists strike America again.
Way to go Tom! It takes a TANC to secure our borders.
Tom Tancredo has GUTS.
November 14, 2007
3:00 PM
mike weber writes:
I've voted for Tancrado from the first time he ran for the House. And I'll tell you this, his message today, is the same message I heard then. And he's 100% right. Before you critisize him go to the border and see for yourself. You can littery march an army 10,000 solders wide by 10,000 deep, and nobody would even know. Hell throw all the tanks, airplanes, battleships, whatever in, and do it it for a week, year it doesn't mater. Nobody will ever know. Do a Carl Seagan like analysys. There are somewhere between 20,000,000 and 40,000,000 illegal aliens in the US. Reagan thought there where 1 million and ended up with 3.5 million, and he didn't get them all. Any how 20,000,000 times 1/1000 of one percent is 20,000 and of course if its 40,000,000 its 40,000. Oh, did I mention those are an estimate of potential terrorist. Even if Tom is 100% wrong, there is nodownside for doing the right thing. There is a downside for doing nothing. Personally, I hope Tom is wrong, but ho one dies if he is. You can't say the samething about doing nothing.
November 13, 2007
4:58 PM
Snaggle-Tooth Jones writes:
Dear Miss Martinez:
What does any of that have t' do with anythin'?
P.S.: Anyone remember what a'happened to the conservative muvmint as a result of that thar Goldwater candidacy?
http://coloradoconfederatarian.squarespace.com/journal/2007/11/13/libruls-ahavin-a-hissy-fit-over-the-new-tancrader-ad.html
November 13, 2007
1:42 PM
Miss Martinez writes:
I would like to remind Mr. Tancredo that today is the Feast Day of Mother Cabrini, the first Saint of the U.S. of A. who came from Italy,an immigrant, came to Colorado, to help the poor, the orphans, the uneducated and the unwanted, the refugee and the sick and the multiple needs of the IMMIGRANTS..Mother Cabrini went on to other states that needed this same type of care..She followed the Scripture Reading Deuteronomy 10: 17-19, and would be so sad to see how some people would turn their backs to the very same people she came to help, especially with a name such as TANCREDO..Let us remember this is not our country but God's country and place our trust in GOD not in man. We ALL came from parents that have a past history of aother country, let us be proud of that, and be open to EVERYPERSON in need and be caring, loving and peaceful as Mother Cabrini was and would hope for us to be..May God bless all people and you too Tom, for GOD has no favorites, please take time to read Deuteronomy 10, see for yourself, GOD loves US all, TODAY, TOMORROW and ALWAYS........Miss Martinez
November 13, 2007
1:24 PM
jflansburgh writes:
Uh.... didn't Goldwater lose?
The message could be effective, but this presentation is clumsier than a drunk frat boy after homecoming. This spot won't generate any buzz. If he really wanted people talking, he needed to show the bomber's face and play on the racial fears (probably a bridge too far, even for a nut like him), or do some more shots of "innocents" like, say, a little girl pointing to the backpack or something... just like the original DAISY spot. This ad firm should be fired.
November 13, 2007
10:34 AM
Frosty Wooldridge writes:
Unfortunately, Tancredo speaks up to point out that we stand at risk with open borders. What don't we understand about Muslims in Spain bombings, London bombings, French riots and fire bombings, Tanzania bombings, 1993 WTC bombings and 2001 WTC 9/11?
Muslims lay in wait, remain infinitely patient and will bomb us again when we least expect it. Tancredo exposes the obvious. What is so extreme about what has already happened here and abroad?
My brother Howard speaks five languages and lived in the Middle East to learn Arabic. He said most Muslims go about their daily life with the
boredom of their regular lives like most folks. But the radical Muslims hold an eternal grudge against the Great Satan that we represent. As long
as we remain in their lands, they will hurt us whenever they can. They do not have a time limit. Howard thinks we're in for backpacker bombers,
mall bombers, private planes loaded with C-4 into buildings or an NFL football game, more sniper hit men and the like.
Of course, they will not stop the flow of humanity as it goes about its daily business.
Personally, the ad won't impact much politically because most Americans continue their daily lives unaffected. 9/11 only affected 3,000 people.
Heck, 40,000 people die on the highways annually and half from drunk drivers. Few stand up to stop drunk driving so it continues killing us
at a greater rate than the War in Iraq.
I interviewed Tancredo recently. One way or the other immigration will prove our undoing as to culture, language, overpopulation and
Balkanization of our country.
As you know, my passion continues on the immigration/overpopulation front. In the final analysis, overpopulation will prove our greatest
dilemma in the 21st century. I wish to hell our presidential candidates would address it and move toward a "National Carrying Capacity Policy" ;
"National Environmental Impact Policy" ; "National Water Policy" ; "National Sustainable Population Policy".
Frosty Wooldridge
Louisville, CO
November 12, 2007
7:38 PM
j pastrani writes:
Ask Mr. Tancredo where is wife is from!!!!!