June 18, 2007

America empty boxed: Kennedy immigration press conference

An old scam is to sell someone something and then to send them a box full of bricks or even an empty box. Along those lines, Ron Brynaert of RawStory finally has a story with which I don't disagree:

Lawmakers were pointing to "empty boxes" at a press conference last Thursday, a Capitol Hill newspaper reports.

"At a pro-immigration rally Thursday, a group of politicians including Sens. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) addressed reporters while picturesquely standing in front of an impressive tower of boxes they said contained letters from a million supporters of comprehensive immigration reform," Emily Heil reports for Roll Call's 'Heard on the Hill.'

According to a press release, the letters were part of the "Por la Reforma Migratoria con Piolín" campaign launched by Univision radio personality Eddie 'Piolín' Sotelo, and was touted as marking "the first time that a letter writing campaign has generated such a large number of letters in support of immigration reform."

"As the Members repeatedly referred to the letters and gestured toward the boxes allegedly containing them as evidence of the support for the immigration bill that is struggling in the Senate, a crack Roll Call photographer on hand at the event began to grow suspicious," Heil continues. "He could see light shining through the handles of the boxes, indicating that they weren't full."

On a sidenote, I tried to post this to FreeRepublic, but I got the message "RawStory not welcome" when I put the URL above in the URL field. So, I removed that URL and put it in the body of the entry. It posted OK, but the thread was pulled immediately with the same message. Hopefully others will not be so dunderheaded; while this is a very minor story if promoted it could help further demonstrate what "reform" is all about. Hearts, minds, and symbolism, you know.

Posted to at June 18, 2007 03:12 PM