Roger Simon writes for Politico: It was a new Newt. Gone was the haughtiness and disdain that had marked his previous performances. In the two-hour CNN broadcast, he complained about the debate format only once. Once! And he delivered his lines with steely confidence and a bulldog set to his jaw.

It was as if he truly believed — for the first time — he might actually win the Republican presidential nomination.

It was the most amazing of all the debates so far: A Republican candidate for president said, “Let’s be humane about enforcing the law,” and he was not booed.

“I’m prepared to take the heat,” Gingrich said Tuesday night, explaining that he would not deport illegal immigrants who had been in the United States for 25 years or so and had put down roots. He said he did not want to break up families. [ READ MORE ]

Newt Gingrich Sticks Neck Out On Immigration, Risking Conservative Backlash

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I am no fan of Newton Leroy Gingrich as evidenced in my postings over the years, but last night, I warmed up to him(a little bit).

Newt took the bull(immigration) by the horns and wrestled it to the ground — expertly and without the clumsiness of Rick Perry(on the same issue) a few weeks ago.

The newly minted “soft” Newt’s delivery was profound and grandiose(as always), and seemingly showed himself to be willing to fight for a principle — making the other GOP contenders look exactly what they are — petty, stupid, uninformed and hopelessly mean-spirited.

But hey, it’s political sociopath Newt, scam-artist extraordinaire.

Tomorrow he might make a 180 degree turn — and ask immigrants to take a bath first before coming to the United States — and/or his new found decency about undocumented immigrants could kill his chances with the hopelessly racist Republican/Tea-Party base.

But, if Newt survives a backlash and maintains the same composure he showed last night during the debate, for the rest of the GOP primary — he just might snatch the nomination from the lying, serial flip-flopping Mitt Romney, thus setting up a titanic trilogy of debates with Obama in 2012.

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P/S — Ex Clinton aide Paul Begala thinks Gingrich pulled a fast one on everyone in last night’s debate:

“……So Gingrich showed real guts in refusing to pander to the most mean-spirited xenophobic tendencies of the far right. I suspect that on careful examination we will learn that what Gingrich actually supports is a netherworld for immigrant workers–neither full citizenship nor subject to deportation. That is far from the DREAM Act–more like a dream come true for any employer seeking cheap labor. [ READ MORE ]

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Newt Gingrich Has Taken The Front-Runner Status Across The Board

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Really, Newt?
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Newt Gingrich wants to fire union workers and hire kids to clean schools. Here’s what he said last week:
“Saying to people you shouldn’t go to work before you’re 14, 16. You’re totally poor, you’re in a school that’s failing with a teacher that’s failing.

I tried for years to have a very simple model. These schools should get rid of unionized janitors, have one master janitor, pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work; they’d have cash; they’d have pride in the schools. They’d begin the process of rising.”

Great idea, right? That Gingrich is a real big thinker — let’s fire janitors and hire their children instead. Let’s assign children as young as nine years old to do hard manual labor cleaning up after their more fortunate classmates. Let’s all pretend this isn’t vicious, backwards and wrong.

Please let Newt Gingrich know that his “idea” is outrageous — and then let your friends, family and others know exactly what kind of hogwash Gingrich is proposing.

Sign the letter here

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Bonus Right-Wing Smear News
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Limbaugh’s “Rhetorical Question”: “When Will The Media Do An Anal Exam Of Obama?”

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Conservatives jumped and screamed with Joy yesterday when a right-wing federal judge Sharon Blackburn — upheld most of the provisions of the racist, racial profiling immigration law in Alabama. The law, which, among other things, makes it illegal to knowingly give an undocumented immigrant a ride, also requires schools to check students’ immigration status.

Alabama’s H.B. 56, is draconian, worse than those already passed by Apartheid Arizona, Georgia and Indiana. There are also provisions making it a crime for an undocumented immigrant to apply for or perform work, making it a crime to conceal or harbor an undocumented immigrant, and barring employers from failing to hire a U.S. citizen while employing an undocumented worker.

As explained in the video below, the law “drips with racism.”

Apartheid: Alabama Joins The League of Immigrant ‘Racial Profiling’ Republican States

PLAYLIST: Apartheid Republican States in The U.S.

Fox Nation Screamed: “Holder Loses: Court Upholds Alabama Immigration Law,” while the hoodlums at WorldNet Daily exulted — STUPIDLY comparing opponents of the law to Civil War-era slave owners who opposed emancipation. [ READ MORE ] | WND’s Vox Day likened “Mass Invasion” Of U.S. By “Mexicans And Others” To Nazi Invasion Of Europe.

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Fox’s Megyn Kelly: Judge’s Ruling On Alabama Immigration Law “Is A Victory” For AL

No, Eric Bolling: “Apprehensions Dropping Dramatically” Doesn’t Mean Immigrants Are “Getting Here” And “Staying Here“

GOP Debate Puts National Spotlight On Fox’s Use Of “Illegals” Slur [ READ MORE ]

Reference: HB 56 & Anti-Immigrant Hate: ‘Apartheid’ Republicans Slide Alabama Back into ‘Jim Crow’ Terrorism

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Sam Seder calls out New Mexico Gov. Martinez for immigrant bashing: “Countdown” guest host Sam Seder reviews the latest immigration rights issues in New Mexico, where Gov. Susana Martinez is using claims of terror threats to justify her immigrant bashing calls for proof of citizenship for the issuance of licenses in her state. Just last week she slammed supporters of the Dream Act, which would allow for the children of undocumented immigrants — here by no choice of their own — to become citizens if they go to college or serve our country in the armed forces. Gov. Martinez herself has admitted that her father’s father entered the U.S. “without documents,” which allowed her to be born as a U.S. citizen.

In Other Right-Wing Nonsense……

The Racism & Bigotry At Washington Times — The Washington Times published an illustration of President Obama’s face on late singer Amy Winehouse‘s body to illustrate a column by Jeffrey Kuhner that claimed Obama is “injecting the heroin of class warfare and socialism into our national bloodstream,” which will lead to “insanity and death.” This is just the latest outrageous Photoshopped image or illustration published by the Times to attack Obama. [ READ MORE ]

Lies, Damn Lies, And Statistics: Social Security Edition [ READ MORE ]

“Poll Fixer” Frank Luntz Says 9-11 Anniversary “Allows Us To Appreciate [ CRIMINALS ] George Bush And Dick Cheney For Keeping Us Safe”

Memo To [ DINGBAT ] Gretchen Carlson: Economists Say Cutting Payroll Tax Would Boost Employment, Economy [ READ MORE ]

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The fallout from Sen. John McCain’s(R-AZ) patently false statement that undocumented immigrants were responsible for the destructive wildfires in Arizona continued last Friday, as his fellow Arizona senator Jon Kyl(R) and Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio entered the fray. “Sheriff Joe,” as he’s called, may be the most notoriously ruthless law enforcement official in the country.

Arpaio is known for cramming detained immigrants into inhumane outdoor “tent cities” he proudly likens to concentration camps, and for parading prisoners around in pink underwear, in addition to his numerous legal violations. [ READ MORE ] [ MORE ON ARPAIO ]

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Meanwhile, with the renewed national focus on immigration reform, Fox, the Republican propaganda machine and right-wing HATE-RADIO — are busy revving up their anti-immigrant lying campaign.

MMFA: Fox News has spent the past several weeks misleading on the issue and slanting its news coverage to paint immigrants in a negative light. [ READ MORE ]

Hate-Talker Michael Savage: “Most” Latinos In America Are “Illegal”

Savage Previously:

•   Reviving bogus reconquista claims, Savage attacks NCLR: “the most violent elements of the Hispanic supremacist movement”

•   Savage called Latino advocacy group “the Ku Klux Klan of the Hispanic people”

•   Savage called alleged Duke rape victim a “dirty, verminous black stripper“; described illegal immigrants as “brown supremacists”

•   Savage worries “moles for the CIA” will steal the DNA he sends to genealogy company to trace his ancestory.

Playlist: American Anti-Immigrant Xenophobia

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   By: Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
John McCain said there was ‘substantial evidence‘ linking wildfires in Arizona to illegal immigrants. The Arizona senator accuses Mexican immigrants of starting wildfires, but he is fanning the flames himself – of prejudice.

Does it surprise anyone that Arizona Senator John McCain has blamed undocumented immigrants for the wildfires in his state?

Hard economic times drives desperate people to do desperate things. Throw in the subject of immigration and a little bit of xenophobia … and shazzam! You have the recipe for a political ideology: blame the Mexicans! Send that recipe into Arizona and you have the perfect storm:

•   Uneducated and unable to find a [high-paying] job? Blame the Mexicans.

•   Social security and Medicare going broke? Yup, it’s the Mexicans.

•   Terrorism in the Middle East has you up at night? Blame the Mexicans for your insomnia, send troops and wall the US-Mexico border.

•   Crime, drug usage and communicable diseases on the rise? You know the answer.

Blaming Mexicans, or “illegal aliens”, is a tradition here; and in Georgia and Alabama, too … the whole country, really. Last year, McCain claimed that “illegal aliens” were intentionally causing accidents on freeways.

McCain’s charges read like comedy but here in Arizona, immigration is serious business – and so is scapegoating. It is [Sheriff Joe] Arpaio country, where racial profiling is American as apple pie. It is this state that gave us SB 1070 – based in large part on the unproven allegation that Arizona rancher Robert Krentz was killed by “illegal aliens”. Amazingly, another whopper was conjured up one week after SB 1070 was signed – that a Pinal County sheriff’s deputy had been shot by Mexican drug smugglers (the incident was self-inflicted). And two weeks before SB 1070 was set to go into effect, Governor Jan Brewer began to warn people about finding headless bodies in the Arizona desert. But the fantastical tales don’t end there: in this state, it’s not even that Mexican migrants are falsely blamed for real problems; they are also blamed for invented problems. Dana Milbank from the Washington Post writes about this:

“Border violence on the rise? Phoenix becoming the world’s No 2 kidnapping capital? Illegal immigrants responsible for most police killings? The majority of those crossing the border are drug mules? All wrong.”

Per the FBI, we know that the border region is safer than it was a decade ago, and that many of the safest US cities are along the US-Mexico border. But when it comes to fueling xenophobia in this country, facts never get in the way.

For example, Tucson’s highly successful Mexican American Studies programme is on the verge of being eliminated because our current attorney general, Tom Horne, has long maintained that the classes foment revolution (“Viva Che!”). A recent independent audit found all the charges against the programme to be false.

“Illegal aliens” causing Arizona wildfires? While the US Forest Service has made no such claim, McCain and his ideological supporters would have us accept his speculation as fact. What’s next? Blaming Mexicans for increased sun spot activity?

Reckless ‘Psycho Talk‘: 2008 Loser John McCain Blames Immigrants For Arizona Wildfires

Playlist: ‘Apartheid’ States in The U.S.

Playlist: American Anti-Immigrant Xenophobia

Playlist: American Anti-Immigrant Xenophobia — Immigrants For Sale

Aliens vs. Senator: Puppet John McCain blames illegal immigrants for starting the wildfires in Arizona, hiding his remote and taking his reading glasses.