Outrage Can Take You A Long Way

"I believe that a little outrage can take you a long way. I remember the exact moment when I discovered outrage as a kind of fuel".
Cecilia Muñoz to NPR’s Morning Edition, September 26, 2005

For anyone who believes that Obama has put Comprehensive Immigration Reform on the back burner you may need to look a little closer at one who still has a seat at the table. As if Americans didn't have enough to worry about with Hilda Solis~~enter another dangerous appointee by the Obama administration.

Cecilia Muñoz, White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs made this statement in a audio essay on the National Public Radio on September 26, 2005. At this point in her career she was serving as the Vice President of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR).

Deeply enraged, at the age of 17, by what she considered to be a racist remark by a close family friend she said in the aforementioned NPR essay,

“My outrage that day became a propellant of my life, driving me straight to the civil rights movement, where I’ve worked ever since, I guess outrage got me pretty far. I found jobs in the immigrant rights movement. I moved to Washington to work as an advocate. I found plenty to be angry about along the way and built something of a reputation for being strident".

She went on to say,“

I’m deeply familiar with that hollow place that outrage carves in your soul, I’ve fed off it to sustain my work for many years.”

Muñoz worked with NCLR or La Raza for approximately 20 years and has lobbied tirelessly for amnesty for illegal aliens.

(NCLR has been denounced in some circles as a "pro-amnesty racist group". I'm not making that distinction here. Visit their website, survey their agenda now and in the past and decide for yourself.)

The Change.gov's description of her is as follows;

Cecilia Muñoz, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs

"Cecilia Muñoz currently serves as Senior Vice President for the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), where she supervises all legislative and advocacy activities conducted by NCLR policy staff. Muñoz is the Chair of the Board of Center for Community Change, and serves on the U.S. Programs Board of the Open Society Institute and the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Philanthropies. She is the daughter of immigrants from Bolivia and was born in Detroit, Michigan. In June 2000, she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in recognition of her work on immigration and civil rights".

Now that outrage and hard work has landed her a seat right beside Valerie Jarrett in the White House.

Something the two have in common is that their appointment by Obama came by way of a waiver of the Ethics Pledge. The Ethics Pledge requires a waiver in the event that an appointee has "lobbied the agency to which they were appointed within the two years prior to appointment". It would appear that the waiver loophole of Executive Order 13490 fits nicely with the Obama administration and their "transparency" agenda.

Waiver Pursuant to Section 3 of Executive Order 13490;

"After consultation with the Counsel to the President, I hereby waive the requirements of paragraph 2 and 3 of the Ethics Pledge of Ms. Cecilia Munoz. I have determined that it is in the public interest to grant the waiver because Ms. Munoz’s knowledge and expertise are vital to the functioning of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. I understand that Ms. Munoz will otherwise comply with the remainder of the pledge and with all preexisting government ethics rules".
/s/Norman L. Eisen
Dated: February 20, 2009 Special Counsel to the President and Designated Agency Ethics Official"

In a teleconference with the Mexican news agency Notimex in March 2010, Munoz made this comment regarding immigration reform;

"The exclusion of some 11 million undocumented aliens from the new medical insurance provisions will be resolved with immigration reform, assured the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House, Cecilia Munoz. In a teleconference, Munoz indicated that Congress lacks sufficient votes to include the undocumented in the benefits of the health care reform passed by President Barack Obama. Under the new law, to lower costs, the undocumented will not be able to buy private health insurance inside the program administered by the government. ”The vision of the president is that we need an immigration reform,” said Munoz, who pointed out that Obama will continue efforts to assure changes in the “broken” immigration system.

Prior to her appointment as White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and while still at the National Council of La Raza, Munoz made this statement on April 4, 2001, before the Senate Immigration Subcommittee hearing on "Immigration Policy;

"there are anti-immigrant organizations and movements working today to raise concerns about current waves of immigration. At their best, these organized movements provoke discussion and debate; at their worst, they promote hatred and bigotry."

She then detailed four areas she would like to see the subcommittee address:

1. Reform of the INS: The Latino community has an enormous interest and stake in the reform of the INS, however it must be done in ways that promote equity and accountability. The Latino community fears the INS. Immigration enforcement often runs afoul of the civil rights of Hispanic American, including U.S. citizens and legal residents who are mistaken for immigrants because of their ethnic appearance.
2. Farmworkers and Guestworkers: NCLR strongly opposes legislation that has been introduced in the last several Congresses to expand the existing H-2A temporary worker program and reduce its labor protections. NCLR believes that any reforms that simply expand the guestworker structure without significant improvements in labor standards and access to adjustment of status are incomplete.
3. Revisit the 1996 law:
Remove the barriers to the reunification of families by permanently restoring section 245(i) and the creation of arbitrary financial restrictions.
Remove "court stripping" which has prevented judges from offering leniency in immigration hearings.
Remove automatic deportation of immigrants who commit prior crimes.
Extend NACARA to all of Central America.
Reinstitute welfare to legal immigrant children.
4. Enforcement issues and practices: Hispanic Americans, immigrants and natives, continue to suffer abuse in the name of immigration enforcement.

After hearing the following comment decide for yourself whether the current Director of Intergovernmental Affairs had any input to the proposed "blanket amnesty" by way of an Executive Order.

Muñoz stated that she supports,

"comprehensive immigration reform that required people who are in the United States illegally to come forward, prove they have no criminal record and are paying taxes, pay a fine, start to learn English, and then be put on a path to citizenship that would take about 10 years to complete. “We’re not rewarding illegality,” Muñoz said. “We are asking (illegal immigrants) to earn something and we’re asking them to pay a fine. And then we need to MOVE ON.”

Yes Virginia, it does appear that "a little outrage can take you a long way". All the way to an intimate seat in the White House.

The Obama ritual of appointing radicals continues. At this point it appears that he is batting 1000.

Read the transcript and listen to the NPR essay by Cecilia Munoz