Note To Bush: Scalito's dad was born in NJ. He WASN'T "an immigrant."

Tuesday :: December 06, 2005
Was Bush Wrong About Alito's Father?
When announcing Judge Sam Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, President Bush said:

I'm sure, as well, that Judge Alito is thinking of his mom, Rose, who will be 91 in December. And I know he's thinking about his late father. Samuel Alito Sr. came to this country as a immigrant from Italy in 1914. And his fine family has realized the great promise of our country.

London Yank at Daily Kos checked out the elder Alito's military records (available online) for WWII.

Samuel Alito of Mercer, New Jersey was born in 1914 in New Jersey. There are codes on the data set for "Nativity" as well as "Citizenship" so there is no possibility of error here - unless Sam Sr. lied when he enlisted in 1938 to serve his country.

Go here and type in serial number 32186682. It appears that Sam Alito enlisted on 3/14/41 as a private. He was born in New Jersey in 1914. At the time of his enlistment, he was single and a teacher.

The New York Times reports that many of the elder Alito's friends were surprised to hear Bush refer to him as an immigrant:

...some colleagues and friends of the elder Mr. Alito, who died in 1987, said they had never heard some of the stories his son has recounted, including the episode about his support for the black student and the fact that his father immigrated from Italy as a child. Some of the elder Mr. Alito's colleagues said they first learned that he was born in Italy when President Bush mentioned it in announcing the nomination.

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/013324.html

I hope Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart pick up on this!

This guy's going to fit Right in! :sarcasm:

Telling lies and embellished tales all along the way for self-promotion... A definite pattern is emerging with this guy: Everything that comes out of his mouth can not be trusted as TRUTH! This goes to character, and character counts!

The Republican Party never steals, they just adjust and move numbers.
The Republican Party never tortures - if you ask on the right day.

but on linked site, it has a comment from a poster who says that Alito, Sr., may have lied on his enlistment forms and that the Census says that Alito, Sr., was born in Italy.

Since it was WWII and we were fighting (or at least our allies were fighting) Mussolini at the beginning, I wouldn't be surprised if Alito, Sr., wanted to hide the fact that he was born in an enemy country and was a citizen of that country at least until he was sixteen.

They have lied similarly before, specifically with Elain Chao: she loves saying that she arrived in California with her immigrant family when she was a child who spoke only Chinese, when in fact her family was/is quite wealthy and very well-connected to the Chinese government.

In this case, it would be nice if they were lying, but it seems easily explainable, and even if the Bush people are lying, it'd be one of their most benign.

where I lived there were multitudes of Italians. Strangely enough, I never heard or witnessed them being ostracized about it. The Germans were another story. At least 2 families I knew personally were badly treated for their German origins. Probably because they were fewer in number; weren't 'gregarious' by nature, and so,weren't as well known in the community.

As the war progressed, it was not unusual to see Italian POW's out in the roadhouses on a Sunday afternoon with the locals. I find it hard to believe that Alito Sr. would feel it necessary to hide his true origins.

Benign or not - do these sob's have to lie about everything? It's like a nervous tic with them.

:shrug: