Barack Obama's Reconquista 101: "they didn't cross the border, the border crossed them", Indians aren't immigrants

Speaking at a high school in New Mexico, Barack Obama was asked about immigration and, according to this liveblog of the event, said:
"We are a nation of immigrants," Obama answers.

"The only people can say that they aren't immigrants are the people sitting right here," the Presidential candidate says and points to the tribal leaders.

"There are some families who have been here for 4 or 500 years. They didn't cross the border, the border crossed them."
Certainly, he's somewhat factually correct: there are old Spanish origin families who are recipients of land grants from hundreds of years ago; they were there before New Mexico was part of the U.S.

However, he's coming at this from their side, which is in conflict with our - the U.S.'s - side. In fact, his quotes are straight out of Reconquista 101, and trying to find loopholes in and complaining about the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is a favorite pasttime of hundreds of minor extremists, with the TGH forming a major part of their lore. Sentiments like his are rarely expressed by those considered mainstream; the closest I'm aware of are Dolores Huerta and a LULAC official, and both of them aren't that mainstream at all.

As for the bit about Indians not being immigrants, one wonders at which point BHO would draw the line. Most of their ancestors came over thousands of years ago, but Mayflower descendents have ancestors who were here before 150 years before this was the U.S. and some European origin peoples' ancestors were here before then. Why is BHO differentiating between those who arrived from Europe and those who arrived from Asia? Why give so much weight to thousands versus hundreds of years? Assuming for the moment he wasn't just offering a dangerous pander, why not differentiate between those whose ancestors came here ten thousand years ago and those whose ancestors came here twenty thousand? Taken one step further, would Obama be like those who think that anyone with enough native blood - presumably more than one drop - can move anywhere within the Americas at will?

And, of course, the only people who are actually immigrants are those who are legal immigrants under our set of laws; those who were born here are not immigrants even if their ancestors were.

An open question is, other than pandering, what exactly BHO would have us do about all this? Should Mayflower descendents be considered among those who've had our borders cross over them? Is it good public policy to encourage U.S. citizens to think that our borders crossed over them? Would he give those who've been crossed over by our borders something? Would he support allowing anyone with the right amount of native blood to come here at will?

The rest of that section of his comments is his standard blather about this issue; the problems with that can be found here, here, and through a search. Discussing all the other reasons BHO's statements above are wrong is left as an exercise.

Note: I've confirmed BHO's statements with the author of the linked post.

Comments

Where did you go to school Joe? Whatever your answer is, I guarantee I have the laurels that you do not. The Obamas are beneficiaries of affirmative action, a point you have conceded. I did not say every black person is not qualified to be in an elite institution, you did. But if you deny that whites generally have higher IQs that blacks, then you are the one living in some fantasy world. Obama is no dummy, but he is not Harvard caliber either. Your attempts to tell people what they think and feel (hate and racism, which simply means you disagree but don't have a coherent argument) is also unfounded. Are you inside the head of every person who comments here? I think not. Your calling immigration reform patriots such as myself as full of "hate" and "racism" puts you squarely at odds with the majority of the American people. You are the fringe character using the language of the left to attack patriots, not me. I understand your willingness to punish employers. The only people who hire criminals are other criminals. But your insistence that this is a "difficult" problem is also unfounded. See Eisenhower and "Operation Wetback" for a historical perspective of just how simple and easy it is. You are either with us or against your countrymen. Calling patriots hateful and racist is not going to get you any points here, so make your leftist, baseless conjecture in a domain that will listen to your bullshit accusations against decent American people. I suggest Daily Kos since you appear to be one of the Kossacks sent here to disrupt intelligent discourse. We are on to you, Joe, and you will not control the discourse here.

Wow Petty, you just keep going huh? How embarrassing! First off, I never said that Obama got into Harvard on affirmative action. I certainly never said that every black person is not qualified to be in an elite institution. I simply stated that must be how you came to the conclusion that Obama got in via affinitive action without having any other information regarding his application. Do you even bother to read? I don't pretend, as you do, to know what decisions Harvard admissions made that year. Admissions is a complex assessment involving many aspects of a person's abilities (IQ not being one of the things looked at). I'm not calling people, like myself, who want immigration reform hateful and fearful, just idiots like you who have nothing to add to the conversation except for hate and fear. I want immigration reform, I just don't use the platform to claim that accomplished people suck and only got where they are because they are black. The fact that you don't even realize that this is a complex issue just reinforces how little you seem to understand what is going on. Why don't you just leave the discussion up to the smart people.

"I simply stated that must be how you came to the conclusion..." Uh-huh. Putting words into my mouth. Nice try dumbass. Both he and his wife are affirmative action beneficiaries, period. Did you read Michelle's paper? That is proof enough she should never have been at Princeton. She is a dumbass, like you, and like her husband. You race hustlers and racist screamers are dime a dozen. "Admissions is a complex assessment involving many aspects of a person's abilities (IQ not being one of the things looked at)." So under your logic I can get into Harvard with an IQ of 74? Do you realize the absurdity of your arguments or are you one of these people with an actual IQ of 74? Your advocacy of the intellectually bankrupt "holistic" approach speaks volumes of what type of disgusting filthy leftist you really are. It's not a complex issue you fucking Marxist scumbag. It is a simple issue, you are just too stupid to understand it and instead, you want to confuse the issue by making blanket attacks against my countrymen and make conclusory statements about how it is a complex issue that we are unable to understand. We understand the issue perfectly, comrade. I repeat: you will not control the discourse here, and every time you attack immigration reform patriots, I am going to be here to kick your pathetic, intellectually deficient ass. Where did you go to school, Joe? I'm guessing you are a product of an Arizona juinior college, which only further proves my point. I'm smarter than you. Not everyone is born with a brain. Just accept what god gave you (an inferior brain without reasoning skills or the ability to accept the truth) and move on, comrade.

Petty, you seem obsessed with where I went to school and where I live. I guess in your small minded world you need to have ways of pre-judging people, so you can create more reasons to hate them. You can call the Obamas "affirmative action beneficiaries" all you want, but you still haven't shown any evidence that this is true. See if you can follow this: just saying that anyone who doesn't believe it is stupid isn't proof. Also, saying that you personally think that a paper that someone wrote isn't good (not much of a criticism giving your mental capacity), is also not proof of affirmative action beneficiaries. Do you even understand IQ tests? There is a reason why they are not used by admission boards at colleges. It has been shown that they don't measure academic ability. I'm sure that you will agree when I tell you that my IQ (155) rates as a genius, and I'm sure that you don't agree with that. I'm sorry to the rest of you reform minded Americans that Petty believes that he can speak for you. I think it's hilarious that you think that I'm leftist, just because I'm not racist. I'm a conservative that doesn't want these ridiculous arguments muddying up the message. Just go back to your simple world where complex issues can be resolved by putting the word patriot at the end of a title and leave the thinking up to those that can handle it.

So you won't reveal where you went to school. What are you hiding Joe? A community college transcript? If you are a genius, let me double check your laurels and get back to you. Where you live is entirely relevant to the discussion, and it bears reference to whether you live in a "occupied" territory or not. Sure your IQ is 155. I also have a bridge for sale. SAT's strongly correlate with IQ, even before they were dumbed down by leftists like you. The Army still uses IQ tests. Why do you think that is Einstein? Obama said "I have no way of knowing whether I was a beneficiary of affirmative action either in my admission to Harvard or my initial election to the Review. ... If I was, then I certainly am not ashamed of the fact, for I would argue that affirmative action is important precisely because those who benefit typically rise to the challenge when given an opportunity." http://www.slate.com/id/2186324/ Barack Hussein Obama does not know if he benefitted, and even if he did, there is no shame in discrimination for its own sake. But with a name like that what do you think admissions officers would do with his surname? I am going to side with the presumption they both benefitted from the pentagonal racial classification scheme at every university in this country, but you are free to believe your own delusuional thoughts. Dude, you're not a conservative. You use the lexicon of the left because that is what you are. Be honest with yourself because we can see right through you. If all your argument consists of is calling other people racists, I highly doubt you possess a high IQ. Don't you have an argument besides racist screaming all the time? What kind of thinking is involved exactly in calling someone a racist? Um, we all know the answer to that one. Go over to Daily Kos dude. You are not welcome here.

“All my life I have confronted people who had a certain expectation of me. Every step of the way, there has been people telling me what I couldn’t do. When I applied to Princeton, they said: you can’t go there, your test scores aren’t high enough.” According to Newsweek, "The Real Michelle Obama" was quite pleased to be an affirmative action beneficiary, but perturbed by her perception of white classmates at those institutions. Her undergraduate thesis is posted online for anyone to read. I have. To say that it's a less than scholarly work is being kind. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080717223851AAHrrF7

Thank god, the little leftist finally went away.

He went to Denver where the air is pure and clean and everyone rode a bike to get there!!!

Good one, Mary. He is probably sitting with the California delegation. That's the stinky one since they conserve water by not taking showers.

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