Update [2006-8-17 15:7:0 by Man Eegee]: They moved the video away from the link provided. Not sure if they trashed it or just moved it away to keep it away from drawing more negative attention. Still hearing crickets instead of an explanation or apology, however.
Dear Senators Schumer, Boxer and Reid:
I am writing today in response to the new advertisement by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), entitled Secure, which the DSCC unveiled earlier this week as part of the fall election campaign. According to the DSCC’s blog, From the Roots, you are promoting this commercial as a way to “make the nation safer and challenging GOP opponents on their national security stance.”
Your Communications Director’s decision to include the segment regarding illegal immigrants alongside imagery depicting the 2005 London train bombings, Osama bin Laden, and leaders of Iran and North Korea is nothing short of despicable. At a time when thousands of local activists are working to engage and register new voters, many of them Latinos, to support you in the fall elections, this type of fear-mongering does nothing to instill confidence in Democrats’ ability to advocate for the forgotten communities of this nation.
continued…
If you recall, earlier this year the streets of the United States were filled with hundreds of thousands of people to rally and protest the moves by the Republican-led Congress to demonize the undocumented immigrant community and its supporters with House Resolution 4437. Many of your colleagues, including Senators Kennedy and Obama, attended and addressed the rallies that rose up from true grassroots leadership. Have you forgotten us already?
The Bush Administration has used potent fear as a weapon against the American people since the 9/11 attacks. Your decision to follow their lead and attempt to scare the voters into voting for you this fall is yet another negative frame, one that does not empower the electorate to stand with you for the values the party claims to uphold, such as equality under the law, fiscal responsibility and a foreign policy based on coalition-building and diplomacy.
If “securing our borders” is truly a national security issue, then why is there only attention given to the southern border? I have yet to receive an answer from any elected official to that valid question. The Minutemen and other racist vigilante groups would be proud of the message your advertisment sends to the American people – that illegal immigrants are terrorists.
I call upon you and rest of the DSCC’s leadership to request the removal or amendment of the ad immediately from your website and from all media outlets. I also request a direct apology to the grassroots activists of this country, whose wind you’re ripping out of our sails, for this affront to the communities we live within and call family.
The DSCC has a decision this fall to either promote electoral successes through positive messages of hope and a commitment to human rights, or through the ongoing campaign of fear that has dominated this country’s political narrative. I hope you will choose a more empowering and uplifting path, as it not only withers the GOPs divisive propaganda but also energies your base which you will need to show up on November 7, 2006 to end the Republican Rubberstamp Congress’ reign.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
[Man Eegee]
Tucson, Arizona
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NH), DSCC Chair
Online Contact Form
(202) 224-6542
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), DSCC Co-Chair
Online Contact Form
(202) 224-3553
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Minority Leader
Online Contact Form
(202) 224-3542
Copies Sent to:
DSCC General Information: info@dscc.org
DSCC Media Inquiries: press@dscc.org
In case you missed it, here’s the link to the online version. I’m so angry I could spit nails.
because I’m feeling feisty today.
I’m pissed too. They need to just cut that fence jumping shot out of the ad.
FWIW, I’ve noticed that the Dem congress candidate in my district in PA is harping on the “more illegal immigrants under Repub rule” message in her mailers too, with the promise to be tougher on immigration than her opponent. Even though we have no international borders in our state. WTF?
are failing to uphold their promise to support comprehensive reform. They are buying into the hardliners frame more and more everyday. I’m losing faith in the political process, unfortunately. The work at the grassroots level is more empowering. sigh…
aaactually, the very NW tip of PA, about 40mi or so, touches Lake Erie which is right across the way from eeeevil Canada!!!!
i had originally thought that PA was just about landlocked aside from the rivers in the SE, but a friend of mine who is a reporter was saying that he was researching a story on a minuteman about an hour or so outside philly. we both thought PA didn’t have any kind of crossable international border from whence the minuteman would have to defend his precious border, but we were both wrong.
a google map of erie, PA
I can safely say that PA-06 has no international boundary…
Why are they doing this? Not only is it wrong-headed from a human point of view, it’s wrong-headed from a policy point of view. Immigration has done nothing but enrich our nation morally, economically, and culturally since before the founding of the Republic.
this is not necessarily about the immigration “debate”, but rather about equating border-crossers with terrorists. There’s no excuse for their pandering. And I question who they fell they’re pandering to with those particular images.
I am going to start calling congress and ask them what is the problem with having a photo of Hilary right next to Osama. Once they give me their answer, I will let them have it. Thanks Manee!
Already did. Missing Shumer and Reid, who think that they can get away with leaving an answerein machine on.
Shumer’s office fell for it. I told them that I had a question, and and did not understand why it was a big deal to have photos of democrats right by Osama’s. Was I missing somethimg, and what was the big deal about it. The aide started to explain me about weak national security and the conexion to terrorism.
Poor kid, when I let him have it he could not say a word. He was totally silent when I asked him if they were calling me a terrorist!
That is the way to do it.
advising them on their advertising should be dumped immediately. This is disgraceful!
Here in Idaho, perhaps to some surprise to many of you, we have a very large Latino population. Probably many of them are not here legally. BUT there is no hue and cry for legislation to be tougher on immigration here. The farmers bring them in from Mexico by the truck load and with a wink and a nod agreement with the INS, it continues and expands.
The decidedly racist portion of this ad by Dems is disasterous and without value for our goals. Who is asleep at the switch here?
I don’t know, but this wasn’t going to go without a written complaint. I have little confidence that they will pull the ad, but at least I can try to show them how offensive and stupid their framing is with the narrative of fear.
Hope you’re doin’ good!
I am doing well, and I hear such lovely things about you from our Iraqi friend… You were such a wonderful host and friend to her. So glad to have you in my family!
Right you are about complaining. I have sent my feelings on as well.
Keep it going, all that you do.
Love and Hugs
Shirl
I wrote Boxer and Reid on this. Schumer’s link didn’t work.
is the link broken or is there a problem with on their end?
I, too wrote to Barbara and Diane. This is disgusting.
I sent a copy of my letter to Congressman Grijalva (my Dem rep), because hopefully he will make sure this mistake is not made by the DCCC. We have to hold our side accountable or else they are going to turn into the same thing which we loathe – the Bush Propaganda Machine. Paz and thanks again!
they changed the ad showing on the link, waiting for confirmation to see if they actually pulled it.
I think they got the message! I guess they did not want us to go with a hilary photo next ot osama and saying: Please vote for Hilary. (or any other dem for that matter)
GOOD JOB MANNEE!!!
other places. This is getting frustrating and very sad.
Great job ‘mano!
it is frustrating. Over at DKos, some people are willing to sell us down the river for electoral gain. It’s utter bullshit.
W/O looking they are probably using these arguments.. African Americans, Unions, and long hospital lines. So a little rebuttal evidence:
http://www.ufcw.org/espanol/
http://www.seiu.org/issues/issue_immigration.cfm
http://www.teamster.org/resources/espanol/espanol.asp
Isn’t someone over in orange have familia that is from El Salvador and Armando he’s Cuban, no.
I guess you discovered the agent orange 🙂
Hey Manee it is official
I’ve put a couple of emails in to the DSCC’s staff but they’re either 1) overwhelmed with correspondence and won’t get back to me until I’m 98 years old or 2) refuse to engage on their stupid move. I hope it is deleted and they issue an apology to those offended and outraged.
Don’t count on an appology. The video never existed. The good thing for Dems is that it ndver reched the news. go to the link above and you will see that it has a “non-liberal” view of illegal immigration. The question is why would they be so interested in copying this video?
So what you are saying is that we can take credit, right?
Hell yeah!
When I had only read about the ad, I gave the benefit of the doubt…that they were emphasizing how ridiculous it was that the GOP equates illegal immigrants with terrorism. Then I saw it. Unbelievable from a human and political point of view. Is the DSCC pandering to the GOP base now? Cripes.
I know, some type of marketing team sat down and discussed the storyboard including who their targetting audience would be for this spot – who was it? They need to start energizing their base, not scaring the electorate ala Rovitt.
Have considered posting over there?? Could have interesting conversation for the DSCC to see…Who took the last homemade tortilla 🙂 answer is over there..
were a few tortilla thieves in my DKos thread 😉
I mean is this prick Singer a Republican..this is all like some Dood Abides spoof…but not.
Democratic reponse
DSCC spokesman Phil Singer dismissed the group’s criticism as a Republican group “trying to gloss over the White House’s abysmal record on security.”
“This group’s time would be better spent pressuring reluctant Republicans to support comprehensive immigration reform,” Singer said in an emailed statement.
Inclan said the group was among supporters of the bipartisan Senate immigration bill, which passed the Senate but has been criticized in the House.
The ad drew rebuke from other Hispanics.
“This is the same kind of fear mongering we condemn in the extreme media and now we are seeing it at the DSCC,” said Lisa Navarrete, spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza. “It’s appalling.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14374098/ (Cite..so you know it is true..and not something made up by Dood.
the link, I hadn’t seen the AP’s take on it yet. Glad to see NCLR and Houston Dem Party leaders addressing it too.
Manny, I am planning to head to Manhattan tomorrow…can I borrow your limousine?
afraid it won’t get you very far.
maybe if he flaps his ears…
Why did you give the ad the benefit of the doubt?
The reason I am asking, so the next time I send up warning flags, people can take me seriously. I honestly would like your input, what was it that made you feel that somebody somebody like me or Manny were being overly sensitve about the ad?
I would like here from anybody else who thought I or Manny were being overly sensitive about our claims?
perhaps it’ll shed some light to why:
The poster refuses to see how the ad promotes a bordercrosser=terrorist meme by placing it within the litany of imagery including bin laden, Iran and North Korea.
I am gald you pointed that out on how imagery is a powerful weapon. It can be easy to make the assumption that all serial killers are young, whacked out white males. Because there is a rash of Hollywood slasher, horror, and maniacal thrill kill films, serial killers are routinely depicted as deranged white males.
The MSM’s attention on serial killers such as Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and the Unabomber, also reinforce the notion that serial killers are loopy white males. The horde of police, profiling experts, and psychologists that paraded endlessly across the TV screen during the serial sniper ordeal speculating about who the killer was and why he killed bought into this stereotype.
Yet, we know that is not true. It is ok assume a minority is a criminal, but when someone is called out all hell breaks loose.
They* just don’t get it. I mean even if you put it political terms, rather than the hate mongering shit that the ad was, they don’t give a crap about the Latino vote. It’s so blind!!
* I mean the Democratic party and “some” democrats.
Sad but true. Political amnesia, they totally forgot about the protest rallies around the US.
I didn’t consciously think, “the diarist is being overly sensitive.” I don’t know if you recall my post, but I think I made it more in the form of a question on what they might have been trying to imply (and I said my computer speakers were broken, so I couldn’t watch it at that time). The text itself seemed okay and I thought it was possible that it was being misinterpreted…but then I saw it and my confusion was cleared up right away. I hoped the message was that the GOP were the ones trying to make the nexus between illegal immigration and terrorism…obviously I was way off base.
Anyway, no offense meant, I just wanted to see it for myself since we can often see the same thing and take away a different message. Sadly, the message in that ad was quite clear.
…contribution to the diary, if you’d care to review.
I was not offended, I was just taking the opportunity since you did mention you gave it the benefit of the doubt. Not many people are open and admit that. The only way we can build a bridge and have unity is to understand our different vocabularies, or as some people call it frames.
When people talk about frames, it is a general one size fits all, but I think there is more to that. Different messages appeal to different groups and to be a good leader is to understand and realize those differences.
That is the reason I was asking.
You know, in most cases I’m someone who concentrates on the written word, but in the case of an ad, I wanted to see the visuals and sound together…to see how they framed (so to speak) the visuals.
I remember a professor in a film class saying that he could take any script, no matter what the words were, and if he was in total control of the visuals he could make the words irrelevant. He had a piece he put together with two versions of a man who defending himself against (fictitious) criminal charges. And he was right…in the first version, the reaction was along the lines of, “Okay, that could have happened,” while the second had you ready to string him up. It was really quite amazing.
The bottom line here is that the DSCC really screwed the pooch.
And look what’s new in my neighborhood..
http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/9687999/detail.html
Now I have the possible of someday writing about my three days in Agua Prieta.
it’s going to take the Minutemen to be patrolling the neighborhoods of the heartland and other regions far away from the U.S./Mexico border to make Democratic activists there see and understand the terrible, divisive message the vigilantes are bringing to this country. There are far too many shallow-minded U.S. Americans who equate undocumented immigrants with documented immigrants, and yet others who equate that with Latinos. This is dangerous territory we’re entering.
I’m grateful for the BooTrib community’s support of the diaries offered by me, duke1676, xicanopwr, and others but I fear the incumbent and candidates of the Dem party are buying into the enforcement-only meme. I’m already seeing it in Tucson.
I am dumbfounded that people do not see these words and images about immigrants as racist.
When we moved to Detroit, people who were white (like us), and found out we were buying a house in the city, rather than the burbs, they would sometimes lean forward, lower their voices, and ask, “how much, uh. . . crime, . . is in your neighborhood? Are you worried about drive-by shootings?” I’d have had to be truly stupid to mistake the intent of the question.
This also brought back old memories: I had been asked almost exactly the same questions when we moved to the west side of San Antonio many years ago, into a neighborhood that was a hotbed of political action against the Anglo-dominated city government. The only difference was that “drive-by’s
were replaced with “being knifed by all those wet-backs” we obviously had living next door. Again, the intent was clear, and all parties knew exactly who was being talked about.
Coded words. Coded images: crossing the borders. Climbing over walls that are being built. The word immigrant being continually paired with the word illegal.
I know what you mean, and I’m seeing the code being sidelined for more direct affronts nowadays. Just look at any of the immigration-related articles at the Arizona Daily Star or the Tucson Citizen, you’ll see nasty stuff in every comment thread. I posted an example below to Indianadem.
It’s truly disgusting to see this kind of fearmongering by those we thought were our allies. You are right, Manee, this kind of pandering will only drive away our supporters. Minuteman types would never vote for progressives anyway, no matter how much of this garbage is spewed out.
Here are a couple of examples of why the ad provoked the outrage it deserved. Gives you a window into what we in the Latino community are dealing with:
and from my hometown paper this morning in the comments thread of their website
Congressman Grijalva and Isabel Garcia of Derechos Humanos were born here in the U.S.
While Warden is an extreme case (he’s the guy that made headlines for burning the Mexican flag at the Tucson rally in April), his anti-immigrant mindset is gaining more support from people everyday and that scares the shit out of me. We are fighting against some real nasty figures, which is why there is such a strong reaction to something like that ad from the DSCC that reinforces the hate espoused by groups like National Alliance and the Minutemen.
Makes me wonder what that asshole’s ancestry is. Most of us are not really from here at all, but they shove that aside in favor of their racist crap!
Thanks Manee and keep it up!
Thanks, Manny. I can’t imagine what they were thinking. Or maybe they weren’t.
them the benefit of the doubt that they weren’t thinking. They probably have been hearing from enough focus groups that “SECURE THE BORDERS NOW!!!” is politically expedient so they decided to throw that into the mix. Unfortunately they decided to take the low road by pandering to the worst emotions in people.
Taking a page from the Repug playbook.