Kerry Appeals to Haitian Immigrants in French

ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites), condemned by some Republicans as "French looking," promised on Monday to help Haitian immigrants in Florida, saying: "Je vais aider les Haitiens."

The Massachusetts senator, who has French relatives and is fluent in the language, has rarely spoken it in public on the campaign trail.

His political adversaries have tried to capitalize on anti-French sentiment created by Paris' staunch opposition to the Iraq (news - web sites) war and to portray Kerry as aloof and opposed to U.S. interests.
......
His opponent, Republican President Bush (news - web sites), the former governor of Texas, often sprinkles Spanish phrases into his speeches to Hispanic audiences.

One of the last times Kerry spoke French publicly was at a rally in Louisiana in March when he proclaimed: "Laissez les bon temps rouler!" ("Let the good times roll!").

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&ncid=696&e=1&u=/nm/20041019/pl_nm/campaign_kerry_french_dc

Perhaps re-install Aristide, the democratically elected President.

Aristide is a thug

Indeed!

operative word "elected". Coups don't count.

He is the President of Haiti. The U.S. backed coup removed the popular leader, and let murderers and drug runners take over the country.

Anyone listening?

This story has really been covered up. Definitely a white house coup.

Not a thug!

Elected President of Haiti. Very popular.

he made Haiti a desperate place to live. He promised reforms and did nothing. He should never step foot in Haiti again IMO.

only our president wasn't elected.

He backed off on some promises made to Clinton/IMF to get reinstalled, policies that were hurting his people. When he carried out popular reforms (like building hospitals and schools) that IMF etc. didn't like, first US PUT FUCKING SANCTIONS AND EMBARGO ON HAITI and when that was not enough to destroy Haiti they kicked out the democratic popular leader that dared to show some independence.

Where do you get your newsfeed from? Wake up!

Sure, racism - the inherent racism of the mass media and our racist collective consciousness - has got nothing to do with how Haiti if treated and how even some lefties can stay ignorant of the truth. Them blackies sure can't rule themselves...

and I live in South Florida. Most Haitians down here wanted Aristide gone.

>He backed off on some promises

Yea, like fair elections. Do some reading.

>Them blackies sure can't rule themselves...

Get off your horse man, you are talking to the least racist persons on this board. You sound like a loonie.

Cubans and Haitians have their known political biases... which are very different from and often opposite to the majority views in Cuba and Haiti.

If you had read more carefully, you'd noticed there was nothing in my post about blaming you of racism, or anybody on personal level, the remarks were about structural racism on general level. Why get so defencive and take offence when none was meant, responding by ad hominems? Unless of course you really feel the need to defend something?

And for the elections, I've read what has been posted in this forum, and the democratic standards in Haiti have been at least way above Florida levels. Perhaps someone can repost what actually happened to remind us.

...to the good old days of Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier.

HAITI was already a desperate place to live. He is haiti's president and entitled to finish his term.

and his election was clean.

It's been that way for a long time, thanks to American imperialism. To suggest that it was all Aristide's fault is wrong imo.

And bushco certainly did yank Aristide out of power during a bloody coup that we conducted and things are much much worse in Haiti now as a result of it.

And how about some news reports on the hurricanes that just hit Haiti?

crickets crickets

I have come to loathe the American press with very few exceptions.

Drowning in shipping containers, or locked in prison cells exposed to the weather during the hurricane.

...anything to do with that do you?

Don't you even wonder who told the U. S. media?

And how is it that Aristide is a "thug" when the people that drove him out of office appear to be many times worse than that?

we can't put him back in power. We just need to give a little more support to Haiti so they are a stable country.

Aristide is the democratically elected president of Haiti. He is just a little too "socialist" for the taste of U.S. corporate interests. Haiti is a country that could particularly benefit from some socialistic enterprises. The U.S. should FUCK OFF.

he was creating a desperate situation in Haiti. We (Clinton) should have never gotten involved in putting Aristide back when Haitians threw his stupid ass out the first time. But since we did put his stupid ass back in power after the people ran the shit head out of town the first time, we are at least a little responsible for keeping things half-ass decent down there for the poor people who have to live in those horrid conditions.

flip their middle finger to American lethal neocolonialist policies, Reagan, Clintons and Bushes alike. But the progressives believe in democracy, respecting different views, not violently getting rid of those who don't bent to you will. In the light of your remarks which show little or no patience for dissent I have hard time believing you are democrat, with the little d.

...blame Clinton for anything and everything.

Don't you realize how ridiculous that sounds now that we've had four years of El Chimpo the Great?

By the way...the same thugs that ran Aristide out of Hait the first time were backed by U. S. troops on the second attempt. What does that tell you, or do you even worry about such minor details?

Oh, one more thing...Haitians have been living "in those horrid conditions" for quite some time. Aristide didn't do that to them. When American corporations first established a presence in Haiti quite some time ago, they had a vested interest in making sure that the cost of labor was kept very low.

That was one M16 for every 30 yards of border, if I recall correctly.

Yessiree, the US government is really, REALLY interested in stability. That's why it is so fond of supporting right-wing torture chiefs.

...Marines to help overthrow a lawfully elected government? Does that also include withholding aid to a country to precipitate a crisis?

Some people ARE idiots, but Aristide wasn't one of them.

standing of, and appreciation for, other cultures. I think this makes him far more likely to be effective in building the kind of diplomatic relations we need in order to bring back some sense of global community and to regain some respect in the world.

Kerry the French speaking Liberal..:toast:

Now * is gonna use the fact that he speaks French against him. Shit Bush can't even speak English.

Sad but will prolly be true.

...judgement that Iraq should not have been invaded.

Would you agree with that statement? And if you agree, isn't it possible that nobody except the most die-hard haters of the French would even think to attempt to make an issue of this?

some people near the podium went wild when he mentioned that we should be sending more aid to Haiti. He asked them if they were from Haiti in French, then said a couple of other sentences that I couldn't quite catch because the Haitians were just ecstatic!

Thanks for the details. This will sound corny, but it is *thrilling* to read some article and have then have it fleshed out by an actual person a continent away from me. I love it when that happens!

There; my ode to Al Gore's Senatorial career.

Nous vous aimons aussi, M. Kerry. :)

Bush addresses Hispanics in that babble he thinks passes for Spanish.

in that case.

October 21 2004

Bush pointed out in a speech that Kerry spoke French earlier in the week and Kerry responded saying "What a cheap and tawdry political trick!"

Bush camp said "What? It's known already, what's the problem?"

Kerry said "It doesn't matter! Our language skills are not "fair game"!"

Someone from the Bush side said "Geez I don't know, maybe he's ashamed of being able to speak French, or something?"

Kerry camp responded with "Oh! What a horrible thing to say! Of course not, we accept our French skills. We're not ashamed at all! But how DARE you bring it up!"

The controversy goes on....

It's a Mardi Gras slogan. If they want to play it up as Kerry "speaking French," then forget "bon voyage" and "bon appetit."