Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Hal Turner issues a fatwa on right wing assault radio

Hat tip to E.A. Prez at Details

It seems that conservative talk show host Hal Turner is advocating the assassination of members of Congress if they vote in favor of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Directly taken from his website (linked in the preceding paragraph) is the following:

They wanted to talk about my OPINION that we may have to assassinate members of the United States Congress if they BETRAY the nation by granting citizenship, AMnesty or even a "path to citizenship" to millions of [undocumented immigrants]. I will re-air the segment during my show tonight.

Which is the way some right-wingers think. If someone disagrees with you then any action, up to and including murder, is acceptable.

There is a reason why Mr. Turner and others who advocated his hard-line position on immigration lost. The reason is that the voters didn't agree with him. Most voters agree that we need to get a handle on who is coming over the border, but part of that is dealing with the people who are already here, and until we have a plan by which they can work towards citizenship you are likely to see them continue to not assimilate with our culture.

And the real irony is this: immigrants from Latin America are overwhelmingly Christian, very religious, hard workers who don't complain about what they earn or complain because someone else has more than them, and appreciate what the United States has to offer so much that they are willing to risk their lives in order to get here. They also have very strong family ties (one reason why bashing immigrants cost Republicans a 14% drop among Hispanic voters this year-- many voters are citizens whose family members may be here illegally, or who may have family members in Latin America waiting to come; I'm not even Hispanic but through my cousin I know I have Latin American relatives here (immigration status irrelevant-- they are still my family.) In other words, these are people who conservatives would be able to appeal to if they didn't keep bashing them.

But no, he'd rather (since he and his ilk have spent their wad and lost, rather than gained support among the public for their positions) advocate the people take up arms and shoot those who don't agree with them. And his show itself is an implied threat.

Which is why I am taking the time to post this to make it CLEAR that I support a path towards citizenship for immigrants with or without documents who are here in America and who have not been convicted of a crime. The best way to oppose a threat is to publically stand with those who are threatened (so, for example, the same reason I posted the Mohammed cartoons last year). However, unlike then, when I detested the cartoons but detested the fatwa more, in this case I actually do happen to agree with the concept of a path to citizenship for immigrants who are living in America peacefully.

3 comments:

shrimplate said...

Thank you, Eli, for prominently advocating a path to citizenship. Personally I do not relish the notion of creating an entire underclass of "guest workers" who have no vote.

If they're here working, going to school, creating wealth for the overclass, and paying taxes, then they get to vote.

Heck, Arnie wasn't born here and he's governor of a very large state; one with an economy that's probably bigger than that of Mexico.

But then again, he's white, isn't he?

Anonymous said...

Uh oh! You've done it now!
You're gonna be on THE HIT LIST!!!!!!!
Imagine the outrage if a liberal radio host said this. We'd hear the repubs clammoring for their head. The Dems should be making a lot of noise about this. Dan Rather was forced out for much less.

Anonymous said...

YOU overlooked one fact; you say allow citizenship for those who do not have a criminal record. Now, let me see, if the cross the border ILLEGALLY then they have broken the law and have a criminal record. Furthermore, many of the treaspassers have to STEAL sensitive data like Social Security numbers in order to create fake identities. I guess only crimes like murder and rape are bad enough for deportation, huh?