Nature mag weighs in on Le Pen

[Peter K.]

>Le Pen says that 80% of the immigrants in France are illegal where
>reputable statisticians put the number at 5-10%.  He says he wants to
>round up that 80% and deport them immediately and then pass a law that any
>child born in the country to a non-French person would not get French
>citizenship.  And of course he would also ban all legal immigration, which
>is currently running at a flood tide of 0.2% annually.  And cease all
>naturalization.
>
>Loathesome as they may be in many ways, I think this still represents a
>view that's off the chart for right-wingers in Congress.  No?
>
>Michael

That's a good question. Also, I believe Le Pen has said that the French
have nothing to apologize for concerning the Holocaust. I was sort of
surprised to see Naomi Klein write of her concern about rising anti-Semitism.
(the New Republic discussed anti-Semitism in a piece on the recent protests in DC)
People should remember that Gore-Lieberman actually got more votes than
Bush-Cheney and no one made anything of the fact the Lieberman is Jewish
from what I can remember - a good sign. On the other hand, the Holocaust
was only 60 years ago.

The irony is that Le Pen and right-wing Israelis see eye to eye concering
the Arabs. And many right-wingers in Congress would agree with them. As disappointing as it was to
see how the AFL-CIO reacted to the coup in Venezuela,
they did move in good direction on immigration recently and so are well
to the left of Le Pen.

Peter