OPINION & EDITORIAL
Bill O’Reilly hits new lows in Geraldo beef
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Also by Charles Lim:
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- Compassionate care measure heartless (September 19, 2007)
- Breast feeding an unnatural target (September 5, 2007)
- Despite failings, Bush right on water bill veto (November 14, 2007)
- Fake press raises disturbing questions (October 31, 2007)
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by Charles Lim
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Here's the situation: An Illegal immigrant in the United States drinks, gets a DUI and stays in the country. Illegal immigrant drinks again and, this time, plows his vehicle into the back of another car, killing two teenage girls. If he had been deported after his first DUI, would he have ever killed them? The answer itself seems pretty simple, and taken to the letter, it is: No, he would not have. So how can we gum this seemingly straightforward tragedy up by politicizing the unholy hell out of it? Give it to a cable news network. Want to really butcher it? Hand it to Bill O'Reilly and invite Geraldo Rivera to sit in. But you want to know something? Amid all of the finger pointing, flying spittle, and the first use of the phrase "Cool your jets!" since the mid 1950s, Geraldo actually made a valid point. I know! Geraldo! Watch it on YouTube yourself if you don't believe me. He drove straight to the heart of the debate and rightfully called Bill out on abusing the tragedy to make a "cheap political point."
From watching the video, it's hard to argue with him. Bill keeps a trend throughout, constantly stressing that if the mayor of the Virginia town had deported the offender, Alfredo Ramos, the tragedy would have never occurred, and he comes close to outright blaming the mayor for the death of the two teens. Both Geraldo and I concede that, yeah, of course if Mr. Ramos had been deported, the accident would have not occurred. And yes, if he was here illegally, he should have been. The point we also share, however, is that Bill takes that fact as a weapon to instill fear and xenophobia.
By turning this into an issue of illegal immigration, Bill is implying that if illegal immigrants are in the country, one of them is going to kill your babies. If A (illegal immigration) precedes B (car crash), does A cause B? Apparently to Bill, it does. Do you want to know what caused the accident, Mr. O'Reilly? Drunken driving. That's it, and a member of any race can do it. Being an illegal immigrant doesn't mean you commit violent crimes; the two do not correlate, and you should stop telling your viewers they do.
By taking this story and injecting it with phrases such as "You want open-border anarchy; that's what you want," you are transparently using the girls' death as a springboard for immigration reform and take the focus away from drunken driving, even one of the victims' fathers asserts this. Yes, we have to secure our borders, and yes, illegal immigration is a problem, but trying to achieve these ends through implying that having a resident alien population makes the country a more dangerous place? That doesn't even make sense. If anything, they have more to lose, such as being deported. It's called keeping a low profile.
You can act outraged about the deaths all you like, Bill, but unless you tackle the core issue of drunken driving, it shows you really don't care. Address the cause, not the extraneous details, Bill. I lost two of my best friends to a recent car crash myself, but I still keep things in perspective, and what that perspective is now is I know you have reached a new low when Geraldo makes more sense than you do.
Charles Lim (celim@wisc.edu) is a sophomore with no declared major.
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 6:13am):
"...implying that having a resident alien population makes the country a more dangerous place?"
You forgot the ILLEGAL before "alien". And yes, having people who BREAK THE LAW living here DOES make it more dangerous. Having more to lose means more likely to flee the scene of an accident if nothing else.
Besides, at least regarding Mexicans, it's not just immigration - it's an INVASION.
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 7:56am):
Everyone knows that O'Reilly provides much needed, hilarious commentary for the uneducated white man. It's like the Daily Show for Cletus. Anyone willing to sell their soul can do his job: Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter.
It's like stealing candy from fat, middle aged, ignorant, hateful white male babies.
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 10:34am):
I agree with a lot of what you say, but to quote you ", they have more to lose, such as being deported." Obviously this case shows that they don't always have to fear deportation. If perhaps there was an actual threat of being deported then he would not have driven drunk.
I agree that Bill O's argument is mostly BS and that it could have been a US citizen that was driving drunk and killed those two teenage girls, but it wasn't it was someone that should not have been here. Not just because he was an illegal immigrant, but because he was an illegal immigrant that broke the law the first time he got a DUI and then should have been deported then.
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 10:42am):
Why stop at illegal immigrants? We should deport everybody who breaks the law. Jaywalking? Deported! Rolling stop through a stop sign? Deported! Drunk driving? Deported!
And with that last one, we could be rid of the worst president in US history!
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 10:43am):
6:13am
An invasion? sounds like youve been watching too many movies. fight ignorance, not immigration. lets start with you.
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 11:28am):
Hey 10:13, YOUR ignoance is shaowing, at as regards the objectives plainly stated by numerous Mexican politicians (amoung others) to effect "La Reconquista" of the southwestern USA.
"Demographically, socially and culturally, the reconquista of the Southwest United States by Mexico is well under way," Harvard University professor Samuel P. Huntington said in 2004.
"No other immigrant group in U.S. history has asserted or could assert a historical claim to U.S. territory. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans can and do make that claim," he said.
"We are millions. We just have to survive. We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. It's a matter of time. The explosion is in our population," Jose Angel Gutierrez, political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 12:13pm):
11:28, you seem scared. I bet you bought all the duct tape you could get your hands on after Tom Ridge told you to fear chemical and biological attacks. Sucker, you let blow hards ruin your life.
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 12:19pm):
Fact is if he had been deported the girls would not be dead. But because the far left in this country find it necessary to protect criminals like this it will happen again and again.
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 12:22pm):
comment at 10:42. You are a liberal idiot. Go smoke some weed and not shower.
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 12:28pm):
6:13/11:28--
Well they do kinda have a claim to the land, since much of it was stolen. It's like calling Native Americans immigrants. As the saying goes, many Mexicans didn't even cross the border, the border crossed them.
I'm just waiting for the movie Brown Dawn to come out.
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 2:04pm):
"It's like stealing candy from fat, middle aged, ignorant, hateful white male babies".
What a cop-out for an actual valid argument. O'Reilly would have taken the same stance for any ILLEGAL immigrant regardless of nationality. All he was trying to say was that he should have been deported when officials were made aware of his illegal status, a fact that is compounded by the fact that the mayor and police official were made aware via his DRUNK DRIVING. O'Reilly is just calling for the law to be upheld! I really can't see why you're all so offended by that.
As an educated, 20 year-old female who agrees with what O'Reilly is trying to say, if not his way of going about it, I believe that if you take issue with something O'Reilly has to say, fine. Just don't get lazy and draw on tired conservative stereotypes because you have a problem with pragmatism.
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 3:08pm):
Haha! 20-year-old agrees with O'Reilly AND thinks she's educated. Sorry, you can't have both.
mike robertson (April 11, 2007 @ 5:03pm):
Deporting an illegal law-breaker is not a smart approach.
I think both, illegal and legal immigrants who commit serious crimes such as DUI or illegal drag possession should be prosecuted in accordance with law of this country .
Deportation of illegal law-breakers will not do any good because some of them deliberately seek opportunities to commit such crimes just to get a free-ride ticket back to where they came from in the first place and besides, it won't stop them from entering this country again in the future.
DUI and drag possession laws in this country must be strengthen ,so that way, all the bad legal and illegal immigrants will deport themselves from this country just in a fear of been prosecuted .
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 5:31pm):
to 12:19
I think you missed the point of my article. Yea they should be deported when found, but you cant say that the more illegal immigrants that are here, the more dangerous the country will be. That is a connection that is too farfetched
and to 12:22, can we keep labels and stereotypes out of this. I want to keep this a clean discourse without "baby eating neocons" or "hippy moonbat liberal" becoming the defacto point of debate
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 6:26pm):
"comment at 10:42. You are a liberal idiot. Go smoke some weed and not shower."
Yeah, sure. Why don't you go torture some more people?
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 6:40pm):
"Well they do kinda have a claim to the land, since much of it was stolen."
Almost all land titles are "By Right of Conquest" at the bottom. Maybe they should ask the Spanish for their gold back too?
"many Mexicans didn't even cross the border, the border crossed them."
BS - by definition all illegal immigrants were born outside the USA. If you are born in the USA you are a citizen (look it up, idiot). Why do you think all the pregnant Mexican women try like hell to make it into a US hospital emergency room? It's not just to get good medical care and skip on the bill. They want to give birth to a US citizen, otherwise called an anchor baby!
Anonymous (April 11, 2007 @ 6:42pm):
Isn't it obvious that the real problem is the lack of punishment for drunk driving? It took Tommy years to get his hands out of the Tavern League cookie jar so we could lower the drinking limit. Last time I was back home someone was ticketed for their 8TH DUI! Everybody makes mistakes, but if you don't learn after one or two you're a menace to society.
Tom Marten (April 11, 2007 @ 8:39pm):
This is about drunk driving but it is also about criminal illegal aliens and local communities unwillingness to arrest and deport illegal aliens who have committed crimes in this country. It's about sanctuary polices that negate the rule of law in favor of people in this country illegally. Who intentionally look the other way for political and economic reasons. Reasons that don't hold a plug nickel to the rule of law. And yes if this scumbag was deported due to his previous arrests, those two teens would be alive. Fact!!
Check out this story:
http://wkrn.com/nashville/news/illegal-immigrant-pleads-guilty-in-deadly-crash-sentenced/87995.htm
It came out two days ago about another illegal alien who was arrested at least 14 times but still was able to get behind the wheel, drive drunk, and kill a Tennessee couple. In this case and I quote:
"Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall has said the Reyes case was partly responsible for his decision to participate in a federal program that allows local law enforcement to check the immigration status of people in Metro jails."
Damn straight!!!
Counter this. I dare anyone.
Anonymous (April 12, 2007 @ 3:19pm):
The reason O'Reilly went after the Mayor was for her cities sanctuary policy, that policy is in place to help business in the city. By hiring illegals at a lower wage to work in restaurants and hotels, big business gets a few more dollars in its pockets, we the American and Legal immigrant tax payers get to pick-up the bill for educating, medical care, and social services for illegals.
Anonymous (April 13, 2007 @ 2:48am):
Charles Lim, you don't know what you are talking about. Ramos has been arrested at least 5 times prior to the incident. The city knew he was an illegal immigrant but their sanctuary laws prohibited the police dept from reporting Ramos to the feds. Had he been deported, the girls would not have been killed. That's the bottom line.
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