Thread: TX: Senate Dem hopeful: Don't write off ET

Senate Dem hopeful: Don't write off ET

By BY WES FERGUSON

Monday, August 18, 2008

TYLER — Some Democratic strategists have written off the parts of East Texas that bleed Republican red, U.S. Senate candidate Rick Noriega admits.

But Noriega believes his "common-sense" approach to immigration, health care and energy will appeal to people of good conscience, no matter their party affiliation, he said at a Sunday afternoon rally in Tyler.

"We've got to stand up," he said. "We have got to have someone in Washington, D.C., who will fight for the well-being of Texans."

That person is not Republican incumbent John Cornyn, Noriega said. The challenger railed against Cornyn as a "back-bencher and bomb-thrower" who is "out of touch with working families and middle-class Texans across the state."

Standing on a tree stump in dark slacks and cowboy boots, Noriega addressed about 80 supporters at Bergfield Park before heading to a fundraiser in Lindale.

A state representative from Houston, Noriega commanded his hometown's Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. He is an active member of the Texas Army National Guard who served a year in Afghanistan and a summer on the Texas-Mexico border in Laredo.

He called plans to build fencing along the border a "political hoax." Instead, he supports increased troops on the border and a process to document and legalize immigrants who are here illegally.

"We have got to find a way to bring them out of the shadows," he said.

He also wants to punish the businesses who hire illegal immigrants.

"They'll go round up a bunch of poor folks trying to feed their families, but their employers don't get dinged," he said of current policies.

He said Cornyn's opposition to a 2007 immigration bill that would have created a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and toughened border security "invokes intolerance and fear to divide us as Texans and as Americans."

Noriega wants to expand insurance coverage for children of working families and lower health care costs for senior citizens.

He also wants Texas to become a leader in renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, and he wants to take advantage of the state's vast natural gas resources, which could be used to fuel vehicles, he said.

www.news-journal.com

Hi Jean,

Originally Posted by WES FERGUSON

He said Cornyn's opposition to a 2007 immigration ...

Bull S--- Cornyn voted against it when he knew it wouldn't pass.
The Trilateral Commissioners are laughing their asses off at us voters;

They win
We lose

just like the presidential election, they have 2 identical globalist liberal candidates.

Coto wrote:

Bull S--- Cornyn voted against it when he knew it wouldn't pass.

I don't believe Sen. Cornyn has ever supported amnesty. Cornyn's not perfect on the issues of border security and illegal immigration but he's obviously better than Noriega would be. Cornyn has a NumbersUSA career grade of B and recent grade of B+. Yep, we would be better served with Cornyn than Noriega. The grass isn't always greener on the other side.

Actually, I don't care much for Sen. Cornyn but I'd hate to trade marginal for bad.

Noriega wants to expand insurance coverage for children of working families and lower health care costs for senior citizens.

Partial translation: Every child, including illegal immigrant children, should have government subsidized health care insurance.

"We've got to stand up," he said. "We have got to have someone in Washington, D.C., who will fight for the well-being of Texans."

We already have more than enough illegal alien advocates in Washington, D.C. Thank you, but no thank you!


Cornyn's NumbersUSA report card:

http://www.numbersusa.com/content/congress.html


Cornyn on the last amnesty attempt:

[quote]Cornyn on current immigration bill
by Matt Bramanti · 06/04/2007 6:48 am

[Editorial Note: With permission from the office of Texas Senator John Cornyn, LST is re-publishing the following op-ed, which originally appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram last Saturday.]

HEADLINE: As is, immigration bill a recipe for failure
By John Cornyn, United State Senator, R-TX

As Congress debates overhauling our broken immigration system, the bottom line should be this: Will the new system be enforceable and restore respect for our laws? Or will it be unenforceable and lead to even more illegality in the future?

This is not a minor matter. America is successful because it is a nation of laws. We now have a situation in which some laws are routinely ignored. If we approve yet another law that promises reform yet again fails to deliver on its promises, our precious heritage as a nation of law will be in serious jeopardy.

Our recent experience is not reassuring. In 1986, we approved an amnesty for an estimated 3 million people here illegally but promised that we would enforce the law in the future. That promise was never honored. Unsurprisingly, we now have at least 12 million here illegally, and more watching how we handle this situation.

Even after 9-11, our record of enforcement is sadly lacking. For example, in 2004, demanding better control of our border, Congress approved a Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that requires a U.S. passport starting this spring for anyone visiting Canada, the Caribbean, Bermuda, Mexico and other parts of Latin America.

The State and Homeland Security departments had three full years to prepare for an easily foreseeable flood of new passport applications. However, we are seeing the results. Planning and staffing for the new law has been woefully inadequate.

Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens who applied for passports in January and February of this year, anticipating travel this summer, have not yet received their documents. The passport office is in near-chaos. All over the United States, people are turning to congressional offices seeking help.

Some critics are justifiably asking: If the federal government cannot even handle routine passport applications for U.S. citizens, how can it possibly do thorough background checks and issue visas for millions of foreign-born applicants?

An oversight report last year declared that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services already is overworked and stretched to its breaking point. Under the immigration reform bill being debated, that USCIS work-load would be tripled — without any significant increase in resources.

For example, the new bill gives the USCIS all of 24 hours to grant a probationary “Zâ€