Newt’s point, as you all well know, is that not speaking english is a road to poverty in america.

Now if Ollie and his yellow journalists want to try to obscure that message..fine…but stop pretending liberals care about the downtrodden then, as you have put rank partisianship above the welfare of our newest citizens…

The issue of bilingual education is very complicated, and requires some knowledge of education as it is practiced in the United States — which most of you don’t have.

I minored in education, but that was over 10 years ago, and I’d have to go look it up.

For one thing, it’s taught in school.

Someone on another blog mentioned that if newt is going for historical accuracy in equating “ghettos” with european jewish ghettos, he is still wrong, in that the majority of people who lived in the ghettos were more likely to speak more than one language than natives.

Frank, you might want to note that with Jay, who I was responding to…

He was taking issue with bilingual education which has been proven time and time again to be a complete failure.

For as dumbfounding as it is to have any immigrants refusing to learn English (and I don’t really think it’s as widespread a problem as all that), it seems equally as silly to claim, as Newt has in the past, that bilingualism “hurts the fabric of our nation” and that allowing it to grow is “very dangerous.”

Really? If you can speak both Spanish and English, that hurts the fabric of our nation?

SpiderJ: This is not about bilingual education. This is about whether you can be successful in this country without speaking English well. To the best of my knowledge, bilingual education is about Spanish and English.
So, it does not explain why people from foreign countries speak passable English.
I live on the edge of “Little Mexico” and believe me, many people don’t speak passable English.

Gingrich isn’t espousing any sort of anti-Hispanic sentiment, he’s just espousing the worst traits of American nationalism–”I don’t have to learn a damn thing about you. Everybody must come to me, and fit within my own narrow perspectives.”

My god, it used to be a mark of pride when you knew more than one language.

It’s great to have the cultural resources and community for support and heritage pride, but for jobs and education, you need English.

There is an area in my home town called “little Mexico”, where more than two - thirds of all the Hispanics live (over 2,000). About 99% of the stores and businesses are owned and run by Spanish speaking people who were born in Latin America.

It is, for all intents and purposes, a language ghetto.

This is no difference. Gingrich did not call Spanish a ‘ghetto language’ so stop presenting it that way. He was taking issue with bilingual education which has been proven time and time again to be a complete failure.

Stop being such a dipshit with these kinds of things. You’re a smart guy, so stop stooping to the level of the left wing knuckle draggers.

…and apparently immigrants as well, if the liberals are going to continue to tell people that english isn’t necessary to “succeed” in america.

I can understand your, and the Chicago Tribune’s confusion — you both have in common a visceral hatred for Gingrich.

…that a man who used to be Speaker seems to have trouble speaking…

…or that a man who touts the use of the English language as a tool for success seems to not understand how to phrase something so as not to sound like a xenophobic buffoon.