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Status of Social Security totalization with Mexico?
President Bush supports a Social Security "totalization agreement" with Mexico.
In January, Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) introduced H. Res. 20, entitled "Expressing the disapproval of the House of Representatives of the Social Security totalization agreement between the United States and Mexico." It has 40 co-sponsors, but no action seems to have been taken since then.
This undated page implies that the totalization agreement is stalled and awaiting action from Bush. After he pushes it forward, Congress will have 60 days to block it. I don't know if that's accurate; for all I know we're currently within that 60 day window. In any case, you can send free FAXes about this at the last link.
For the reasons you should oppose this, the coverage starts here, and see who else supports this agreement here.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 01:10 PM | Comments (2)
Marcela Sanchez: historical facts, analysis are extremist
Marcela Sanchez apparently writes a weekly column for the Washington Post about Latin America. Unfortunately, she seems to be going for that small number of WaPo readers who aren't able to use search engines and who think that trying to learn a lesson from history is extremist. (Is it any surprise that she's employed by the WaPo?)In her latest column ("The Right Immigration Reform") she discusses the Cornyn-Kyl mass amnesty, saying:
The bill and especially its "report to deport" strategy is meant to satisfy those who desire a punitive solution to the dysfunctional U.S. immigration system. The problem is that those groups in favor of harsh measures may never be satisfied. They see immigrants as a threat and don't feel safe even among the immigrants' newborn.Childish commentary from a WaPo columnist? How surprising. Of course, she also means "illegal immigrants" when she says "immigrants", and, last time I looked, children tend to grow up and millions of people do tend to occasionally have an impact on other people through their actions.
The Center for Immigration Studies, one such group, suggests that there is some kind of imminent danger posed by children born to immigrants. In the conclusion to a report issued this month, the center indicates that it was the children of European immigrants that caused "the labor unrest of the Great Depression." And it was the children of black migrants from the South "who rioted in northern cities during the 1960s." The White House and Republican Party leaders know that such extreme views -- held by some Republicans in Congress -- are politically untenable.Let's take a look at the report:
Historical Comparison. The findings of this report show that America is headed into uncharted territory when it comes to births to immigrants... With over 900,000 children now born to immigrant mothers each year, the stakes for the country are clearly enormous. Political scientist Peter Skerry has pointed out that, "A virtual truism of the immigration literature is that the real challenges to the receiving society arise not with the relatively content first generation, who compare their situation with what was left behind, but with the second and third generations, whose much higher expectations reflect their upbringing in their parents' adopted home." In his 1979 book Birds of Passage, Michael Piore traces the labor unrest of the great depression to the children of European immigrants. He also points out that it was the children of blacks migrants from the south who rioted in northern cities during the 1960s, not the immigrants themselves. This study does not directly answer the question of whether the children of immigrants are assimilating at a satisfactory pace. What we can say is that America has never attempted to assimilate so many second-generation children.There's absolutely nothing in there that's "extreme", unless one thinks ignoring historical fact and failing to perform an analysis based on that is desirable. Apparently Sanchez is going for those readers who don't use search engines and are unable to understand what they read.
Then, she turns to what to her is apparently a favorable development:
To distance themselves, ["White House and Republican Party leaders"] are creating a coalition of business leaders and immigrant advocates that, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times this week, would attempt to "marginalize those voices" that could scare away Latino voters and perhaps jeopardize the Republican majority in Congress.Let me be very frank: I don't know whether she's just an idiot, or whether she thinks everyone else is. In any case, she's supporting Bush's plan to join with large corrupt corporations to spread what will most likely propaganda in favor of the massive immigration that the vast majority of Americans don't want. Further, she goes on to support the McCain-Kennedy mass amnesty scheme.
As for that threat that she says doesn't exist, in her piece she twice says that millions of illegal aliens are here to stay:
Any proposal that would require these immigrants to give up their homes and sever their roots in this country will not likely achieve compliance...So, in other words, if we tried to deport them we wouldn't have much luck. In fact, they might even put up a fight. Which, in the historical context, is often referred to as an invasion, correct? I guess we do need to worry about this issue.
...Today, families like this are buying homes and settling down. These immigrant families are managing to make a life in this country, just as I did, and I know they appreciate it to such a degree that they won't give it up easily.
Please take a few minutes and send an email to letters *at* washpost.com. If you want it to be printed, include your name, address, and phone number. They also have forums but you can only reply to threads they start, and I didn't see a thread on their less-than-steller opinion columnists.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 07:30 PM | Comments (11)
Caption this Chelsea Clinton pic
Please, don't do blue.
UPDATE:
Posted to Celebrities at 01:51 PM | Comments (6)
DHS' Chertoff opposes Minuteman Project
From an appearance in Silicon Valley:Following his speech, Chertoff responded to a number of written questions from the audience. One asked him about his position on the Minutemen Project, the civilian effort to patrol the U.S.-Mexican border on a voluntary basis. He is not in favor of civilians patrolling the border.Of course, Our Leader himself called the MMP volunteers "vigilantes", which has not only further discredited him in the eyes of many Americans, it's also emboldened the critics of that project.
"The border is a very dangerous place," Chertoff said. "We are dealing with violent organized criminals who are not going to hesitate to use violence to protect their criminal business models."
And, here's Condi expressing opposition to the MMP.
Meanwhile: "42% would conditionally support Bush's impeachment".
Posted to Immigration2005b at 12:18 PM | Comments (1)
Putting a human face on the anti-American DREAM Act
Seattle Times editorial columnist Kate Riley offers us "Putting a human face on the immigration debate". Like many other PIIPPs ("pro-illegal immigration puff pieces") it supports Orrin Hatch (R-UT)'s anti-American DREAM Act. That Act would take discounted college educations away from U.S. citizens and give them to illegal aliens.
What sets this apart from other similar articles is that she's an editorial columnist and she's not pretending it's a news story. But, don't fear, because it's objectionable on other grounds.
The article is a sales job for that Act, and we're informed that the "immigration debate too often forgets people like [the current poster child for the DREAM Act]." Sorry, no it doesn't. In fact, newspapers prefer to generalize from the case of one or two outstanding, upstanding, sympathetic illegal aliens. They frequently ignore all the issues surrounding this one-sided "debate."
As I read this article (and the previous one she references: "Fouled-up system victimizes worthy immigrant students"), I couldn't quite figure out whether Riley is just a ditzy, less than well-informed, gushing heart "liberal", or something else. I began to hear a bit more of the Tokyo Rose in the voice of her articles, so I'm favoring the "something else" part.
Posted to Immigration_piipps at 12:01 PM | Comments (5)
Phil Hendrie has a blog
And, Phil Hendrie might be about to learn his first major web lesson: don't announce your future URL until you've registered that URL and possible variations.
I believe his blog is going to be at georgewbushisgod.com. At post time that has a NetSol Coming Soon page.
However, over at georgebushisgod.com it has the similar page... from GoDaddy.
Either he's using different registrars, or someone's trying to get the type-in typo traffic.
I'd suggest changing the name before it's too late. I'd also suggest changing the name to something that reflects reality, like possiblythemostcorruptadministrationever.com or similar.
UPDATE: Regarding "Sir Bob"'s comment, I rarely listen to the show since I disagree with almost all of his guests. I can stand Ted Bell to a certain extent, but the rest are complete idiots.
Also, as of 8/03 Hendrie does indeed have a blog at that site.
Posted to Bloggage at 05:58 PM | Comments (3)
Howard Dean to embarass self August 5 2005
Yesterday, the militant Chicano group the Brown Berets attended an anti-Minuteman Project press conference featuring leaders of the Democratic Party in Texas' Hidalgo County and held at that party's headquarters. According to the report from KRGV-TV (video at the link; copy of the report here), they were "welcomed... with open arms".In fact, if you watch the video, you can hear the chairman of that county's Democratic Party, Juan Maldonado, say this:
"They have communicated with me their sincere interest in organizing a confrontation... a physical confrontation against the minutemen."Apparently after the meeting he "clarified" his position on this militant group (copy here and here):
Hidalgo County Democratic Party chairman Juan Maldonado said the party does not condone the actions of the [BBs]; however, because the group asked him for a platform, he agreed to let them speak at the press conference.If you haven't already, watch the video to see whether you buy his "clarification". According to the second report, Maldonado also said this:
"We do not need the [BBs] armed against the Minutemen," Maldonado reiterated after Delgado spoke. He said the people of South Texas are more "evolved" and "civil" than that.
The Minutemen "are nothing more than a group of zealous over-enthusiastic racists that want to promote these types of immigrants as being terroristic," Maldonado said.So, how does Dr. Gov. Howard Dean M.D. fit into all this? He's going to be in Hidalgo County on August 5, 2005. Will he condemn Maldonado's apparent support for the BBs? Are you kidding? The only question is just how bad he'll make the Democrats look, and just how much the press will do to cover it up. If you want to do something about this, start contacting the media and the big-time bloggers now.
Even before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, he said, there was an unfounded fear held by some in the United States that Mexicans were taking over the country.
"The Minutemen project that fear," he said. "For all the strides that we have made toward equality, the Minutemen are the epitome of hate, fear and ignorance. We are unified to stop this racist movement from entering our region."
Posted to Politics at 05:30 PM | Comments (2)
Idaho county sues illegal alien employers under RICO
From this:A southwest Idaho county filed a racketeering lawsuit against agricultural companies accused of hiring illegal immigrants - an attempt to recoup money the county says it has spent on the workers.
The lawsuit by Canyon County commissioners alleges four agricultural companies and a nonprofit have taken part in an "illegal immigrant hiring scheme," and that the county has paid the cost of medical care, jails and schools.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday claims the companies violated the federal Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act, which allows winning plaintiffs to receive triple damages...
Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:58 PM | Comments (1)
Houston reaffirms illegal aliens sanctuary policy
Like Los Angeles, New York, (reportedly) Denver, and several other major cities (and terrorist targets) Houston has a sanctuary policy that prevents their cops from asking about someone's immigration status.
HPD Captain Bruce Williams explains how this works:
"If the citizen can come to us and know that we're going to take the information that they give us without looking into their status as an immigrant, then they're more free to come to us and talk about crime issues."
Councilman Mark Ellis is trying to change the policy:
"I am in favor of supporting what the Bush administration has asked local government entities to do, and that is to assist in enforcing the criminal illegal immigration laws."
However, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt says:
"That is our policy. At this time we do not have any intention of changing it."
Now, see "'Sanctuary' practice in Houston draws fire". Last year 9/11 Commission member John Lehman said:
"The terrorists know" which cities have such policies
Posted to Immigration_terror at 12:46 PM | Comments (1)
Gel, paste, liquid, powder, rat, pigeon, millipedes, offal, or beef?
Contrary to what you might have heard or personally considered, Snopes informs us that in the case of Arby's it's beef.
Posted to WackyHumor at 05:55 AM | Comments (1)
Tell your representatives: no on CAFTA
Apparently Bush is holding a secret meeting this morning at 9am Eastern time to promote CAFTA. A vote on that could come today or this week. Details in "President calls secret meeting to pitch CAFTA". Expect the BushBots to pull out all the stops for their leader.Please send a free FAX to your representatives and urge them to vote no. Less effectively, you can send an email here.
More information: Good Reasons To Reject CAFTA CAFTA undermines immigration laws FAIR's Statement Regarding Proposed CAFTA Treaty "CAFTA: Ideology vs. national interests" (even if you aren't a fan of the author he's got valid points) "Corporate Socialism, Not Free Trade" (ditto) CAFTA's Threats to U.S. Independence CAFTA: More Bureaucracy, Less Free Trade USDA plants its own news CAFTA Should Be Rejected Just Like The EU Constitution UPDATE: See this too. Also see "N.C. GOP not buying trade deal". The picture of Our Leader with one of the lead is priceless. UPDATE 2: See CAFTA Guts All "Buy American" Laws: A New Green Light for Outsourcing and "Hidden in the 2,400 pages of CAFTA". UPDATE 3: Welcome to North America, citizen. "In Bush Win, House Narrowly Approves CAFTA". About the only silver lining is that some of those who voted for this in exchange for pork might go hungry: "The Doubtful Deals Driving CAFTA". The final roll call is here.
Posted to Politics at 04:18 AM | Comments (3)
Throw another PIIPP on the pile
[A "PIIPP" is a "pro-illegal immigration puff piece". Considering all of the almost identical "news" pieces supporting the Dream Act and similar in various newspapers, I should replace "puff piece" with "puff propaganda".]Source: Chicago Tribune
Title: "A graduation day with hazy prospects"
"Reporter": Lolly Bowean
Date: July 24, 2005
Newspaper section: Business (?)
Contact: Use this form
Rather than just providing the first paragraph, let's compare it to the May 8 N.Y. Daily News puff piece discussed here. Tell me if you spot any differences aside from the names of those we're supposed to feel sympathetic towards:
| Chicago Tribune | N.Y. Daily News |
|---|---|
| Maria Herrera has a 4.0 grade-point average at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, serves her community and lobbies for better legislation. | Carlos will graduate with honors from Brooklyn College next month with a mathematics degree. It's a subject he loves and hopes to teach one day to elementary school students. |
| But because she's an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, she won't be able to use her degree to start a career in the United States. | But the former high school valedictorian, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, will have to settle for working off the books selling ice cream. |
| "I'll have a degree, but no job," she said. "It's such a waste of talent." | Like Carlos - who was featured four years ago in a Daily News article about the difficulties of financing college with no immigration status - undocumented grads have no hope of a job in their learned profession. |
| ... It also drew attention to the Dream Act, federal legislation that would give undocumented students a chance to finish school and become American citizens. | ...CUNY administrators are hopeful that U.S. lawmakers will resurrect the Development, Relief and Education for Minors (DREAM) Act. Introduced in 2004 by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the bill would allow undocumented students who entered this country as minors to apply for a conditional green card, provided they go to college or enter the military. |
Posted to Immigration_piipps at 09:18 PM | Comments (1)
NYC subway bomb plot foiled?
From this:FBI and law enforcement officials told ABC News the five men — four illegal immigrants and one law enforcement fugitive — were arrested Sunday night following a tip to the Newark Police Department. In addition to the subway maps and video, the men had train schedules and $8,000 in $20 and $50 bills...No word on whether they snuck over the border or overstayed their visas.
FBI officials said the men have no known link to a terror network but noted that none of them could adequately explain the items they had in their possession, the large amount of money or their reasons for being in the United States. Mohamed Ibrahim Gaber has been a fugitive since he jumped ship from an Egyptian flagged freighter in September 2000.
The men, all of whom claimed to be unemployed civil or chemical engineers, are set to be deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Posted to Immigration_terror at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)
"Liberal" study illustrates failed "liberal" immigration policies
The Center for American Progress has released a study (press release) that claims it would cost at least $41 billion a year to deport all illegal aliens. It (probably falsely) assumes that there are just 10 million illegals here, and it assumes that 2 million of those would deport themselves.From the WaPo's "$41 Billion Cost Projected To Remove Illegal Entrants":
"We do need to know what enforcement would cost," [Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies] said, "but [the study] is a cartoon version of how enforcement would work."The study is not just a cartoon, it's even funnier than KOTH or the Simpson's: it shows the opposite of what they intended to show.
...Will Adams, a spokesman for Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), an outspoken advocate of stronger immigration laws, called the study an "an interesting intellectual exercise" by liberals that is "useless . . . because no one's talking about" employing mass deportation as a tactic.
"No one's talking about buying planes, trains and automobiles to get them out of the country," Adams said. "The vast number of illegal immigrants are coming for jobs. Congressman Tancredo wants to go after the employers."
The people who've got us into this situation were past and present administrations, including presidents Bush and Clinton.
And, the CAP is closely affiliated with the Clintons.
So, the same people who helped get us into this mess are now providing us with a strawman figurine of how much correcting their failed policies would cost us. And, they're proposing a solution in the Kennedy-McCain mass amnesty. The mind reels thinking up a proper analogy, perhaps involving building contractors and ending up in small claims court.
Also, isn't Hillary Clinton now supposed to support border security and control over illegal immigration?
Posted to Immigration2005b at 12:58 PM | Comments (3)
John Fonte: An Open Letter to Tamar Jacoby
It's quite worth a read.
(Via this)
Posted to Immigration2005b at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
Allan Hoffenblum: Arnold should emulate George Bush on immigration
The OC Register offers us "Governor losing Hispanic support", referring to California's own Arnold Schwarzenegger.
It features Orange County GOP Hispanic outreach chief Manny Padilla and KCAL political commentator Allan Hoffenblum discussing where they think Arnold went wrong.
As noted here in the past (link, link), Hoffenblum can be counted on to provide advice that's not just wrong, it's un-American as well:
Hoffenblum points to President George W. Bush as something of a model for reaching out to Hispanics: high-level Hispanic appointments, a good relationship with Mexican President Vicente Fox, a proposal to let more legal immigrants into the country and condemnation of a citizen border patrol, the Minuteman Project. Schwarzenegger praised the Minutemen, who try to slow illegal immigration.
Obviously, this blog has an entirely different view of Our Leader and his open border policies, so I won't bother repeating myself. Some of these canards have already been answered in the recent post "Bush, Big Business to join forces, oppose wishes of American public" anyway.
And:
The complaints [from Padilla and other "Hispanics"] include comments against illegal immigrants Schwarzenegger has made in recent months, the lack of high- level appointments of Hispanics, the lack of diplomacy with Mexico and his veto of a measure that would allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses.
On the one hand we're told by apologists that all those millions of illegal aliens will assimilate, and on the other we're told that the only way to win their support is to reach out to the country that they've supposedly left behind?
Would we win Arnold's support if we reached out to Austria? Or, does Arnold consider himself an American, and isn't that the point of view that we should be encouraging rather than encouraging anti- and un-American ideas like corporate pluralism and ethnic nationalism?
The other issues have been dealt with here in depth, including a whole category just about driver's licenses for illegal aliens.
I also almost live-blogged the KFI interview with Arnold, and I don't recall him making any "comments against illegal immigrants".
If Arnold wants to gain "Hispanic" support, perhaps he should appeal to them as Americans and not as Mexicans as the two above seem to want.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 09:44 AM | Comments (3)
Apparently they don't get google in Tyler Texas
Lindsay Randall of the Tyler Morning Telegraph covers Henderson and Van Zandt counties. She also has apparently never heard of Google, Yahoo, or even Altavista.
The article "Mexican Consulate Brings Outreach Program to Tyler" describes a story similar to many covered here in the past: the Mexican government comes to town to pass out Matricula Consular cards to their citizens who are in our country, most of them illegally. The cards - dubbed "IDs for illegals" - facilitate illegal immigration and the sending of money back to Mexico.
Apparently Randall has never heard of these cards or this scheme before, or perhaps there's something else involved. But, if you want to read someone who apparently has no clue or doesn't think her readers have any clues, click the link. At least there are two comments from people who understand what this is about.
Posted to Immigration_consul at 08:26 AM | Comments (1)
Bill Frist needs your input on immigration matters
Apparently he's started a web site called www.secureamericasborders.com and he wants everyone to fill out a survey on immigration-related matters. Most of the 16 or so questions are fairly straightforward, except for this:
Do you believe increasing American support for economic development and trade with Central America and Mexico will stem northward migration for jobs?
I take that to be equivalent to, "have you bought the lies about CAFTA, NAFTA, FTAA, and all the other globalist plans, or not?" It's also followed by questions on whether you support the first two of those plans.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 06:19 AM | Comments (3)
Does the AP publish in-flight, pro-cheap labor magazines?
I'm wondering because of the article "Migrant workers' children savor summer school" (also here) from David Crary of the Associated Press.
The article contains this rather curious sentence:
For all the debate over immigration policy, the nationwide migrant education program represents a notable, bipartisan commitment to assisting these nomadic, low-income families whose labor is vital to U.S. farming.
If the AP wasn't (more or less) a respectable news outlet, I might think this was an in-flight magazine advertorial supporting massive illegal immigration and cheap, exploitable labor.
By the way, AP, who exactly is picking up the tab for this "cheap" labor? It's certainly not their employers. The article describes the Dickensian lifestyle of these migrant workers, but, oddly enough, it doesn't go into whether the farmers who employ them are basically ripping the rest of us off.
Please send your thoughts to feedback -at- ap.org.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 05:11 AM | Comments (1)
"Report: Bush using immigration for votes"
A four paragraph UPI blurb - apparently only available from two sources - summarizes Bush's latest open borders plan under the title "Report: Bush using immigration for votes":A Bush administration plan to court Hispanic voters for the 2006 elections will attempt to relax immigration policies, a published report said...See my link for the complete details on this plan by Bush to join with corrupt corporations and oppose what three-quarters of Americans want.
And, it's not like something like this hasn't been tried before:
...investigation by the General Accounting Office (GAO) and congressional committees had already indicated that the White House used the INS to further its political agenda. A blatant politicization of the agency took place during the 1996 presidential campaign when the White House pressured the INS into expediting its "Citizenship USA" (CUSA) program to grant citizenship to thousands of aliens that the White House counted as likely Democratic voters. To ensure maximum impact, the INS concentrated on aliens in key states -- California, Florida, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Texas -- that hold a combined 181 electoral votes, just 89 short of the total needed to win the election.
The program was placed under the direction of Vice President Al Gore. We received from the GAO a few e-mails indicating Vice President Gore's role in the plan. He was responsible for keeping the pressure on, to make sure the aliens were pushed through by September 1, the last day to register for the presidential election...
Posted to Politics at 04:46 AM | Comments (3)
Tom Tancredo didn't say we should nuke Mecca
While it's become fact within the BushBot Blogosphere, he did not say we should nuke Mecca, only "bomb" it. Here's the transcript, here's an AP report, and here's America's cuddliest BushBot.
(This entry is here because Professor Bainbridge is making the mistake this post is designed to correct and there are no comments there so thus the trackback. PB is actually siding with TT rather than HH in this matter.)
Posted to Politics at 07:44 PM | Comments (5)
Atwater Village to Home Depot: stop the invasion!
Ah, the fine "liberals" of Atwater Village are fed up and they aren't going to take Home Depot pushing them around anymore. As previously discussed, HD wants to build a store at the old KMart building at San Fernando and Fletcher. Since they already have another HD two miles down S.F. and yet another two miles up S.F., if you were at any point on that street from downtown to northwest Glendale, you'd never be more than a mile from buying some lumber.Now, the burghers have had enough:
...The Home Depot Representatives heard loud and clear from those in attendance that this community does not want their project no matter how they dress it up. Local residents and small business owners clearly stated that Northeast Los Angeles doesn't need another Home Depot and that they'll do whatever they can to derail their invasion of this community.There are several email addresses at the link, including HD reps and L.A.'s own Eric Garcetti. Even if you have absolutely no idea what this is about or where Atwater is, you might want to send an email to at least HD.
Communities in Northeast Los Angeles (like Atwater Village and Glassell Park) deserve something better, such as a development that is compatible with the future satellite campus of the Los Angeles City College. We don't need another BIG BOX that will only exacerbate the already overburdened intersection with more traffic, add to the already existing day labor problem on Fletcher Drive, and force closures of small family businesses...
(And, for those of you who are "newbies", their site is a good example of how us oldtimers did things before blogs and such. Although, I would never ever even consider using text that follows your mouse around. These people should look into getting a blog.)
Posted to Los_Angeles at 07:36 AM | Comments (0)
SEIU leaves AFL-CIO; to form global union
The Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union have left the AFL-CIO, sources say.
As discussed at the first link, Andy Stern wants to form a "global union." It's been tried, comrade.
See the earlier "SEIU's Hostile Leftist Takeover" for bolshe na SEIU, gospodin.
Posted to Politics at 05:24 AM | Comments (0)
Illegal aliens get discounted college; 82,000 Americans denied state grants
The Houston Chronicle discusses the discounted college educations that illegal aliens get in Texas schools: "More illegal immigrants in colleges".
More indeed. Texas changed its laws to allow those here illegally to get in-state college educations in 2001. Since that time, there's been a ninefold increase in the number of illegal aliens in Texas getting that discount:
State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, who co-sponsored the Texas legislation, said she's pleased to see the strong enrollment patterns.
Meanwhile:
Late last year, the state comptroller reported that more than 82,000 freshmen were denied state grants because there was not enough money for all eligible students.
Nothing else needs to be said.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 10:29 PM | Comments (3)
GOP candidate promises to impeach Bush
Unfortunately, he's an unknown former Democrat from Vermont who has no organization supporting him. He also doesn't appear to have a web site and he's going the Howard Dean, grassroots route for funding.
But, it's a start. Dennis Morrisseau is a retired restaurant owner from West Pawlet, Vermont. Bernie Sanders is vacating his seat, and Morrisseau is running as a Republican. If he's elected, he promises to bring articles of impeachment against Our Leader.
"GOP candidate calls for impeachment" quotes him as saying:
"This leadership isn't very Republican and I don't think it's very popular with Vermont Republicans... Republicans in this state tend to be mind-your-own-business people, keep taxes low and government small... [Former VT Gov. Deane Davis] was the best environmentalist we had in this state... That's Republicanism in Vermont. We like small businesses. We're afraid of outsiders and large businesses. That's what I'm about.... I think I've got a great shot... There's been movement since the election, if you track the polls. That's not just Democrats, that's Republicans, too. Down in southern Vermont, [Bush] is reviled among Republicans."
If his message gets any further attention, expect the BushBots to use the fact that he was one of the founders of VT's liberal, anti-Vietnam War Liberty Union Party as well as the fact that he's a former Democrat against him.
Posted to Politics at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)
Bush, Big Business to join forces, oppose wishes of American public
The L.A. Times has a two-pager on Bush's latest attempt to open the borders: "Immigration Rising on Bush's To-Do List". He's created a coalition called "Americans for Border and Economic Security" headed up by U.S. Reps. Cal Dooley (D-Hanford) and Dick Armey (R-Texas):The effort is designed to help Bush take control of an increasingly contentious debate that has threatened to split the Republican Party and undermine its outreach to Latino voters...The article is so full of canards both from the BushBots and the LAT that I don't know where to start. Here are just a few:
A guest-worker program is favored by many Latinos and by businesses, many of them major GOP donors that depend on a steady flow of workers from Mexico and other countries. The White House effort is aimed at satisfying these groups while promoting tougher border security enforcement. The latter focus is an attempt to mollify a vocal bloc of cultural conservatives in the GOP - some in the House leadership - who argue that undocumented workers present a security threat and take some jobs that could be filled by Americans.
Some Republican strategists worry that the more extreme voices in this camp are alienating Latino voters with anti-immigrant language, and one goal of the new coalition is to marginalize those voices...
- "Republican congressional members' constituents care more about immigration and border security than any other issue, according to a new congressional insiders poll." ("Immigration worries Republicans")
- Just about every poll shows that around 75% of Americans - Democrats, Independents, and Republicans - oppose illegal immigration and massive immigration.
- 47% of Arizona Hispanics supported Prop. 200. In votes, the biggest opposition came from the left. In monetary terms, the biggest opposition was from big business.
- The article doesn't give a figure, but just so it's clear: Bush Didn't Win 44% of Hispanic Vote.
- Tamar Jacoby spoke at CPAC and was almost booed off the stage when she announced that she was there to defend Bush's amnesty plan.
- The far-left, Ford Foundation-sponsored race groups are the ones that want open borders, and they aren't going to support Republicans. Bush spoke at LULAC's meeting last year. But, since he spoke via television he didn't see the cool reception he got. Even if he got support from MALDEF, would that be a good thing considering their goals?
- Massive illegal immigration has the greatest negative impact on low-wage legal workers, most of whom are black and Hispanic.
- California's Prop. 187 passed 59-41 and up until 2 months before the vote was supported by Hispanics 52-42.
Further, Bush could "reach out" to the "white vote" by inviting millions of Europeans to come to the U.S. Now, wouldn't most people view that as not just racist, but un-American as well? There is no difference between that and Bush's supposed outreach.
Obviously, one of the major reasons for this new scheme is quite basic: money and the desires of those "large GOP donors." What they want is uppermost in Bush's mind. Next to them, you're just an impediment.
The propaganda from this coalition will almost certainly involve smears, strawman arguments, and false choices such as the following from Dick Armey:
"There's two voices right now, and the noisy one is what I call the slam-the-borders crowd... The voice we want to speak with - and the one that will be in unison with President Bush - is the voice that echoes those marvelous words on the Statue of Liberty."Obviously, there are more than two voices, and very few people want to completely stop immigration. Emma Lazarus didn't have the current situation in mind: multiculturalism, the welfare state, and all the rest didn't exist at the time.
Bush has shown himself fairly adept at propaganda, but as each day passes more and more people are becoming aware of what's really going on, so perhaps this might be too much of a sales job for even him and Rove.
As for the LAT, send them a short, polite email with your thoughts: readers.rep *at* latimes.com.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:41 PM | Comments (4)
Howard Berman's massive amnesty for Central American illegal aliens
The L.A. Daily News reports in "Bill would give some Central Americans green cards" that Rep. Howard Berman (D-Van Nuys) has introduced a bill to give said cards to 200,000 people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. "Many" are illegal aliens, "others" are here under a temporary visa of some kind. I'd imagine that a very good percentage of those live in Los Angeles.
Supporters include Reps. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte (a quote: "We are all Americans, whether you are legalized or not"), and Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood (supports Mexico's Matricula Consular cards, and more).
Posted to Immigration2005b at 02:34 PM | Comments (3)
Sierra Vista Herald: Why not a Border Patrol Auxiliary?
The Sierra Vista Herald - located very near Arizona's border with our "friends" to the south - supports the idea that Washington shot down last week. See "DHS squashes Border Patrol auxiliary idea" for the backstory.From "Editorial: Why not enlist civilians?":
...We think a Border Patrol civilian auxiliary, similar to the Arizona Rangers or the Coast Guard Auxiliary, would be a good outlet for many civilians looking for a way to participate in the ongoing battle against illegal immigration. The Coast Guard Auxiliary, for example, helps with non-law enforcement programs such as public education, vessel safety checks and safety patrols.The way this comes across may not be the way it's intended. I'm not surprised that the cheap labor lovin' Bush administration put the kibosh on the idea, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they came up with a make work plan of some kind just to keep their pro-borders, pro-America opposition busy. I'm sure the SVH isn't just proposing busy work, even if it might sound like that to we cynics.
The civilians in a Border Patrol auxiliary would need to be trained to help the everyday agents, and they need to go through background checks. They couldn't carry weapons, but they could help do some jobs, on a volunteer basis, that may free up more agents to tackle the border situation.
Duties could be helping with education campaigns or paperwork. Maybe they could help be eyes and ears in neighborhoods that request extra assistance due to problems with illegal immigrants.
We don't think auxiliary members should be actively pursuing illegal immigrants. That needs to be left to the Border Patrol agents who are trained to deal with illegal immigrants...
Posted to Immigration2005b at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
L.A. Sheriff Lee Baca calls for border fence
L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca supported the idea of building a border fence similar to the one in Israel. His remarks were made at the Los Angeles County Lincoln Club in Lancaster on July 22. The original report is "Baca: Israel-style wall terror deterrent":"They have a big fence, and it works," Baca said. "The fences we have down on the border don't work."The AP's report is derived from the one above: "LA County sheriff calls for bigger fence on Mexican border" or this. It's not only shorter, it also has made at least one interesting change.
...Baca added that he would support such a fence as a significant deterrent to terrorists attempting to cross the border through Mexico.
"Heck, yeah," he said. "What's wrong with that?"
The federal government, with the blame spread between Congress and President George W. Bush, lacks the political will to stop a tide of illegal immigration that clogs jails, ties up public resources and endangers the national security of the United States, Baca said.
"What we need is a national movement for a constitutional amendment on the security of the American border," the sheriff said. "We're not being prejudiced... we just want people to come here legally."
...Now, he said, "the immigration problem is just totally out of control. The Congress and President Bush are not doing a good job on this, and I am a very big Bush supporter."
In the original report we have:
Baca spoke Friday at a gathering of the Los Angeles County Lincoln Club, a group of politically active Republicans who underwrite activities that support limited government and free enterprise.In the AP version that becomes:
Baca told a gathering of the Los Angeles County Lincoln Club, a group of politically conservative Republicans.I guess they just needed to save space. Or something.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 06:24 AM | Comments (2)
The logical approach to anti-American MSM smear jobs
There has to be a (literally) logical, mathematical way to look at smear jobs by the MSM. Noam Chomsky probably has a way, but, would he help? Probably not. Thus, it falls to we amateurs to find a way.Let's look at this article:
name: "Hundreds Protest N.M. Border Patrol Group"There has to be a better way, but let's take a look at what we have above. Once again, the AP repeats smears, then point out that the volunteers deny the smears. Why don't they just start printing something like, "The Minuteman volunteers denied beating their wives in the first place"? Of course, that would be just too obvious, thus the repeating of similar smears pointed out above.
source: AP
author: ALICIA A. CALDWELL
URL: full, full, full, modified1 (NYT), modified2 (KLTV)
Subjects: Minuteman Civil Defense Corps ("MCDC"), League of United Latin American Citizens ("LULAC")
Claim, para 1: AP says MCDC is "controversial"
Repeated Claim, para 1: marchers/LULAC call MCDC "racist and un-American"
Claim, para 2: AP says LULAC is "one of the oldest Latino civil rights organizations in the country"
Quote, para 3: LULAC national treasurer Jaime Martinez says, "It's a racist organization, there is no question... They say they will monitor the border, but now they are coming into our cities. Something has to be done".
Claim, para 4: AP says, "Minuteman volunteers... have repeatedly denied claims of racism."
Modified1: The NYT version doesn't include the bit highlighted below concerning Mary Jane Garcia.
Modified2: The KLTV version doesn't include that same bit. It does includes this interesting and important change. However, the "officials" aren't identified and it's not known whether they're lying or not:Elected officials from New Mexico and Texas decried the volunteer-based border patrol group as racist and un-American.
In the second paragraph the AP tries to give LULAC some credibility. Then, in the third paragraph they repeat a smear from the organization they've just set up as believable. Click on their name above to find out about this group that the AP is trying to present to you as credible.
And, the report also includes the following in which a legislator elected by citizens of the U.S. admits she's a Mexican:
Mary Jane Garcia, the majority whip of the New Mexico State Senate, called on the federal government to take action against the Minuteman volunteers and work on real reform of immigration laws.If Garcia is a Mexican, perhaps she should renounce her (presumed) American citizenship and run for office in Mexico.
Forcing Hispanic immigrants out of the country is not the answer, she said.
"What would happen if all the Mexicans were to leave this country tomorrow? They need us," she said.
Posted to at 05:33 AM | Comments (3)
Los Angeles Impeach Bush protest falls flat
Earlier today I made the mistake of attending the impeach Bush Downing Street Memo day in Hollywood. I've been to several "peace" protests, and this one earned a "2", with a "10" involving the Pope pledging to work with Bono and the Rockefellers to build World Communism, and a "1" being one guy on a street corner with a crudely-lettered sign.
At its peak, there were approximately a dozen people at the corner of Van Ness and Sunset in front of the Tribune Company's KTLA building. I had expected many more. Reinforcements were supposed to arrive from an earlier confab at Maxine Waters' office in Inglewood. That event ended at 3:30, but, after standing around in the sauna for over an hour, I finally left at 4:45. If a large contingent arrived after that I'd be very surprised.
There were no papier mache figurines, no handing out of the leaflets, very few passersby, and, aside from (more or less) your blogger, no reporters. While there were a large number of supportive honks, at least two newsvans drove by without stopping. A police cruiser parked across the street and turned its watchful eyes to the protest, but it wasn't necessary either for the safety of the protesters or the local shopkeeps. It is highly doubtful if they decided to storm KTLA after I left.
While it's not visible in either photo, one of the protesters was wearing an Iraqi flag as a skirt, and, of course, there's the hippieized upside-down American flag. But, in comparison to some of the things I've seen at past protests, this was nothing.
UPDATE: The MSM weighs in with an AP blurb that has no details on the numbers who turned out for the Inglewood protest. It doesn't mention the rally I went to across town. Those who want to look with a teary eye on what might have been can see the press release that failed: "300 Communities Throughout the U.S. to Hold "Downing Street Memo" Events". Even being mentioned in the People's Weekly World didn't help. No word yet on whether "Special to the World" is rehabilitatable or whether he/she will be sent to Siberia.
Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 05:56 PM | Comments (2)
Are most day laborers illegal immigrants?
Patrick Osio, editor of HispanicVista .com, offers a smearfest editorial entitled "Why assume day laborers illegal?" (It's available at his site under the title "Brown day workers, White street corner beggars and Racists". However, for some reason, the title tag is "The US, Canada and Mexico must form a North American Security Force". Hmmmm...)The smearathon starts out with this:
There is an assumption that day-job seekers outside a Home Depot or any other home improvement stores are illegal immigrants. Well, no, that's not quite right to assume they are illegal immigrants [because] their skin is brown.Nothing like getting right to the unfounded charges of racism. Those who assume that most day laborers are illegal aliens do so because that's what the evidence indicates. Calling that racism just illustrates Osio's lack of argument.
The editorial goes on to complain about lazy white beggars. Given that some of those might be U.S. vets, that's generally a losing strategy. Why aren't they working at day laborer sites instead of begging? Well, perhaps it's because they're mentally ill or disabled or they wouldn't be welcomed at the local Spanish-speaking day labor center.
You'll note that an editor appears to have added the "[because]" part; perhaps Osio was frothing too much to write a correct sentence.
Let's look at a study of Southern California laborers. Bear in mind this is from 1999, and the percentage of illegal aliens has probably only increased:
...UCLA researchers over the past two years interviewed 481 jornaleros at 87 sites, including eight hiring centers built and operated by cities and nonprofit organizations. Although the majority of workers were recently arrived illegal immigrants who had few options for earning money, one-fourth were longtime U.S. residents who had been plying their trade at the same site for more than six years...Now, let's turn to Virginia:
The study clarifies the demographics of day laborers, but those findings will come as little surprise to anyone who has observed the sites. Typically, workers are young, male immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Educational attainment varies widely, but more than half have less than six years of schooling.
Nearly all--about 95%--entered the United States illegally. And although some have since gained legal residency, the overwhelming majority remain undocumented...
In 2003, Fairfax County conducted a survey of its four labor sites, including Herndon, which involved interviews of laborers on two occasions. The laborers were not asked whether they entered the country legally, but one of the questions was "about barriers they may have encountered while trying to find full-time work," according to the county report on the study results.I believe there's also a nationwide GAO study showing that 90% of them are illegal aliens, but I can't find a link to it.
County-wide, 85 percent of the laborers in the survey cited "lack of documents" as a barrier to finding employment.
If people assume that the vast majority of day laborers are illegal aliens, it's because they are. I wasn't able to find any advertising at Osio's site, nor did I find a link between him and Home Depot. However, I'll note that HD has formed a partnership with four "Hispanic" groups.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 11:01 AM | Comments (2)
Proposition 77: both versions side-by-side
As previously discussed, a Superior Court judge has ordered that Prop. 77 be removed from the ballot, based on a suit brought by Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
Based on the comparison provided by the LAT, here are the two versions side-by-side. Note that this is just from one section; what differences there are between other sections is not known:
| Version Lockyer got | Version that got 950,000 petition signatures |
|---|---|
| Our Legislature should be responsive to the demands of the voters, but existing law places the power to draw the very districts, in which legislators are elected, in the hands of incumbent state legislators, who then choose their voters, which is a conflict of interest. | Our Legislature should be responsive to the demands of the citizens of the State of California, and not the self-interests of individual legislators or the partisan interests of political parties. |
| The Legislature's self-interest in drawing its members' districts has resulted in partisan gerrymandering, uncompetitive districts, ideological polarization, and a growing division between the interests of the People of California and their elected representatives. | Self-interest and partisan gerrymandering have resulted in uncompetitive districts, ideological polarizations in our institutions of representative democracy, and a disconnect between the interests of the People of California and their elected representatives. |
| The redistricting plans adopted by the California Legislature in 2001 produced an unprecedented number of uncompetitive districts, serve incumbents and not the People, and are repugnant to the People. The gerrymandered districts of 2001 resulted in not a single change in the partisan composition of the California Legislature or the California congressional delegation in the 2004 elections. These districts should be replaced as soon as possible and never used again. | The redistricting plans adopted by the California Legislature in 2001 serve incumbents, not the People, are repugnant to the People and are in direct opposition to the People's interest in fair and competitive elections. They should not be used again. |
| The experience of the 1970's and 1990's demonstrates that impartial special masters, who are retired judges independent of partisan politics and the Legislature, can draw fair and competitive districts by virtue of their judicial training and judicial temperament. | [removed] |
| We demand that our representative system of government assure that the voters choose their representatives, rather than their representatives choose their voters, that it be open to public scrutiny and free of conflicts of interest, and that the system embody the principle that government derives its power from the consent of the governed. Therefore, the People of the State of California hereby adopt the "Redistricting Reform: The Voter Empowerment Act." | We demand that our representative system of government be fair to all, open to public scrutiny, free of conflicts of interest, and dedicated to the principle that government derives its power from the consent of the governed. Therefore, the People of the State of California hereby adopt the "Redistricting Reform: The Voter Empowerment Act." |
UPDATE: I made it clear that this is just from one section.
Posted to California at 03:12 PM | Comments (2)
Anti-American DREAM Act to be reintroduced?
Is Orrin Hatch (R-UT)'s explicitly anti-American Dream Act going to be reintroduced in coming months? This article mentions that in passing.
That Act gives illegal aliens discounted college educations. Meanwhile, U.S. citizens who haven't established residency in the state where they attend college would continue to pay the full price.
That's right: a citizen of another country who's here illegally would pay less than a citizen of this country.
Here's a handy chart:
illegal alien: discount
U.S. citizen: full price
Over two years ago I posted this entry, which has attracted an endless stream of comments from supporters. If you find any logical reasoning in their "arguments", please let me know.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 12:10 PM | Comments (11)
Amateurish terrorist plot in Los Angeles?
Earlier this month Torrance police arrested two South L.A. residents for a series of armed robberies. However, after searching their apartment the cops found a list of possible terrorism targets, including three National Guard facilities.
Over to the NBC4 Investigative Unit and July 15th's "Possible Terror Evidence In Robbery Probe":
According to a senior official familiar with the case, when police searched Washington's apartment on West 27th Street, looking for evidence of the robberies, they instead found a list of targets and notes of an operation which detailed a need for cash, explosives, weapons, even remote control devices. Our informant tells us it was all part of a plot to blow up targets in the Los Angeles area... A local police source says Gregory Patterson may have worked at LAX; the airport was on the list of targets. LAX officials say they the FBI has asked them not to comment....
Both suspects are reportedly converts to Islam, and one is reportedly a current or former gang member:
A source close to the investigation says Washington and Patterson may be linked to a wider plot involving a prison-based gang called "Jimiyat Islam Sahid" or JIS. According to gang experts, JIS recruits former gang members such as the Crips in prisons such as Folsom, where Washington served time.
The L.A. Times offered the earlier "Suspect Possessed a Military Sites List", but, the NBC4 report covers more possibilities. NPR weighed in with yesterday's "FBI Investigates Suspected L.A. Homeland Threat".
Posted to Terrorism at 05:35 AM | Comments (0)
Codepink / Downing Street memo Los Angeles DSM Day protest July 23
[UPDATE: I wasted an hour at this event. See "Los Angeles Impeach Bush protest falls flat" for my report.]
On Saturday, July 23 protests will be held in cities across the U.S. to try to bring attention to the Downing Street memo.
This is called "DSM Day" and it's been organized by Rep. John Conyers and several other people and organizations. Air America's Randi Rhodes is involved as well.
In Los Angeles, festivities will kick off at Maxine Waters' office in Inglewood from noon to 3pm at the Covenant Worship Center Legacy Hall (425 South La Brea Ave., two blocks south of Manchester Blvd.)
Then, the protest will move to Hollywood. From 3:30pm to 6pm, protesters will march from KTLA (5800 Sunset) to KCBS (6121 Sunset). Codepink (Susan Medea Benjamin's group) and something called Impeach Central are involved.
I will not be going to these events. I repeat: I will NOT be going. No, really, I have no intention of going.
Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)
Schwarzenegger redistricting measure proposition 77: off the ballot
A Superior Court judge has ordered Arnold Schwarzenegger's redistricting measure (Proposition 77) to be removed from the ballot. Arnold may appeal.The given reason is that there were differences between two versions of the measure used in the run up to it being placed on the ballot, and the judge says that this is a substantial issue and not just a technicality:
Attorney General Bill Lockyer asked the judge to order the measure off the ballot because its supporters used two versions - one to gather voter signatures and another that they gave to him to prepare a title and summary of the proposal to use on petitions.To show you just how far out to space Lockyer - and perhaps the judge - are, the Los Angeles Times thinks Prop. 77 should be on the ballot.
Daniel Kolkey, an attorney representing the measure's author - Ted Costa - argued that the differences between the two versions were minor and mostly stylistic and due to a clerical error.
Yes, that's right, the Los Angeles Times. As they pointed out in "Prop. 77: No harm, no foul":
...the initiative required 598,105 valid petition signatures of registered voters to get on the ballot. In fact, the Costa campaign submitted 950,000 signatures. The problem is that the version submitted to Lockyer and the one circulated by petition-gatherers had different wording. A clerk gave the wrong copy to Lockyer, sponsors said. They called the differences stylistic and not of real substance.UPDATE: The differences are highlighted here. There are a large number of differences, but I don't consider them overly substantial. Obviously, there should never have been two versions in the first place. I've created a table with the two versions here.
Not so, argued Lockyer in suing Secretary of State Bruce McPherson to keep the measure off the ballot. The use of different petitions "cannot be condoned or tolerated," Lockyer argued, saying it could lead to bait-and-switch tactics someday. He's right, and officials need to guard against that possibility in the future. But there was no attempt to mislead signers in this case. The version of Proposition 77 on the petition signed by registered voters is the same as the one on the ballot...
Posted to California at 07:00 PM | Comments (1)
HR 2092: Sheila Jackson Lee's Open Borders bill
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) has introduced HR 2092, the "Save America Comprehensive Immigration Act". It's little more than an attempt to remove the border as we know it.It would legalize illegal aliens who've lived here for more than five years. They'd need to have good moral character, so (I guess) many gang members would be excluded. An illegal alien who's over 18 would need to perform 40 hours of community service to become legal. I guess paying a nominal fee unlike as proposed with other massive amnesties was considered too mean-spirited, or perhaps Lee thought that might not have the full magnetic effect to bring as many millions of illegal aliens here as possible.
Employers couldn't discriminate against someone who's here illegally: that would be an unfair labor practice.
And, she'd double the number of "family reunion" visas, also known as "bring in the old folks so they can collect welfare and vote for others of our race" visas.
I'm sure there are many other wacky ideas in the bill, but that should be enough.
She has 20 co-sponsors. From California come:
Rep Bob Filner [CA-51]
Rep Michael M. Honda [CA-15]
Rep Barbara Lee [CA-9]
Rep Juanita Millender-McDonald [CA-37]
Rep Diane E. Watson [CA-33]
The People's Weekly World has more in "Immigrant rights are civil rights, meeting says".
Others joing Sheila Jackson Lee and that Communist rag at the meeting included:
* Odilia Romero of the Frente Indigena Oaxaqueno BinacionalWhile it's easy to laugh about things like this, it should make anyone angry that people like Rep. Lee have any political power whatsoever.
* Marta Campos of the San Jose-based Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network
* Rev. Phil Lawson, retired pastor of the Easter Hill United Methodist Church
* Lillian Galedo of Filipinos for Affirmative Action
* Lamoin Werlein-Jaen of UNITE HERE Local 2
* Diane Tellefson of the United Farm Workers (also pimped AgJobs)
* labor journalist David Bacon
Posted to Immigration2005b at 06:24 PM | Comments (0)
Why is the DHS ignoring illegal alien hiring halls?
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) wants to know, and he sent a strongly-worded letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff. Details here, a copy of the letter here, including this question:
...Second, I would like you to reassure me that no federal funds from the Department of Homeland Security are being used to establish any day labor center or "hiring hall," not just in Herndon [VA] but throughout the United States. According to a July 18, 2005 article in The Wall Street Journal ("Immigration workers attract attention from activists"), the City of Houston "agreed to disburse $90,000 in federal grant money for a day labor center east of downtown." Federal taxpayers should not be footing the bill for illegal aliens to find work on U.S. soil...
Obviously, the Bush administration thinks differently.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 01:35 PM | Comments (2)
Even I've heard of this guy
The Argentinian coach of Mexico's Cruz Azul soccer team has been kidnapped in Nuevo Beirut Mexico City.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)
DHS squashes Border Patrol auxiliary idea
Earlier today the NYT picked up the story of the CBP considering forming some kind of BP auxiliary: Border Patrol Considering Use of Volunteers, Official Says:...Robert C. Bonner, commissioner of United States Customs and Border Protection, said his agency had focused on involving citizens after noting the willingness of volunteers to help federal agents catch illegal immigrants.You pesky citizens can put down your lawn chairs, as Washington has shot down the idea.
"It is actually as a result of seeing that there is the possibility in local border communities, and maybe even beyond, of having citizens that would be willing to volunteer to help the Border Patrol," Mr. Bonner said.
"We value having eyes and ears of citizens, and I think that would be one of the things we are looking at is how you better organize, let's say, a citizen effort," he said.
Mr. Bonner characterized the idea as an area his agency was considering...
"Homeland Security backs off idea of civilian border patrol":
In a refutation of that controversial idea, a Homeland Security spokesman issued a statement Thursday backing off Bonner's suggestion.Really, were you expecting anything else from the cheap labor mad Bush administration?
"There are currently no plans by the Department of Homeland Security to use civilian volunteers to patrol the border," spokesman Brian J. Roehrkasse said. "That job should continue to be done by the highly trained, professional law enforcement officials."
Roehrkasse added that Bonner, whose agency is part of Homeland Security, had not told department officials "any specific details of the idea."
Posted to Immigration2005b at 01:25 PM | Comments (1)
Memo to Dan Walters: there's more to it than just the illegal aliens
Dan Walters has a rather unremarkable column entitled "Debate over immigration never ends" that roundsup the attempts by Americans to end illegal immigration, and the attempts by those on the other side to encourage more of it.It includes the following:
To many, illegal immigrants are simply human beings seeking to better themselves by filling difficult, low-paying jobs in agriculture, construction, restaurants and hotels that are vital to the economy. But to others, they are law-breaking invaders who drain the public treasury and whose ability to gain entry into California should not be rewarded.It's not just about the illegal aliens themselves. It's also about employers making money off illegal immigration, political corruption, ethnic nationalism, legislators with obviously divided loyalties, and so on. Oddly enough, he doesn't acknowledge any of those issues.
And:
Last weekend, the immigration fires were rekindled when a handful of self-named California Minutemen began patrolling the border with Mexico, supposedly to help the Border Patrol spot illegal immigrants, but in reality to draw media attention and stir up opposition to illegal immigration.Now, read this. If the reports of the activities of the other side at Campo are any indication, the only surprise is that they weren't wearing white sheets. Strangely, that's not mentioned either.
The Minutemen likened themselves to a Neighborhood Watch but some apparently were armed and they attracted, as expected, denunciations from Latino rights groups, which branded them as vigilantes.
Posted to California at 01:20 PM | Comments (2)
Yet another Bishop for Open Borders
The chairman of the episcopal Committee on Migration, Bishop Gerald Barnes, has come out in favor of the Kennedy-McCain amnesty scheme. From a report on his press release come these quotes:
"The legislation seeks to repair the current U.S. immigration system, a system which is broken and needs reform... This legislative proposal best reflects principles for immigration reform set forth by the United States bishops... The Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005 represents a comprehensive and bipartisan approach to reforming our broken immigration system..."
See "America's immigration system is broken, and needs to be fixed" for a discussion of that favorite meaningless talking point of the Open Borders crowd. These people really need to come up with a new line.
Despite the empty blather quoted above, the Bishop did have something interesting to add:
Bishop Barnes expressed a desire to work with the sponsors of the legislation and others to include additional important provisions to the measure... These would include additional labor protections in the essential worker program for both U.S. and foreign workers; mechanisms to ensure that migrants are treated humanely by enforcement personnel; and provisions which allow for the involvement of community organizations in the implementation of the new program.
In other words, the Bishop wants what amounts to a cut. We'll help you bring in cheap laborers, and we'll get the concession on their souls.
Previously, see this post on Bishop Thomas Wenski.
Posted to at 07:36 PM | Comments (0)
"Unassimilated immigrants put nation at risk"
From GA State Rep. Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta):...Immigration is not a bad thing. This country was founded as a melting pot of English, Irish, Scotch and later German, Italian, Asian and other legal immigrants. Those immigrants took pride in becoming Americans.
The problem with immigration today is that few who settle here are eager to earn citizenship. At the same time, illegal aliens drain our social programs, including Medicaid, Georgia's greatest fiscal challenge.
Too many of our new immigrants don't know a thing about American history, values or culture. In some cases they are only here to earn money to send back to their countries. Others are here to plot evil against us for embracing free markets, free speech, free assembly and freedom of religion.
In a speech to Congress in the early days of our nation, James Madison said that Americans should welcome immigrants who truly desire to join our society and assimilate. But, he said, it should reject those who want to operate as independent subcultures...
Posted to Immigration2005b at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)
Is America's CEO leading us towards a merger with Mexico?
Joseph Farah:...The shadow government – the elitists – do indeed have a plan. And it is a plan that does not include any vestige of U.S. sovereignty or constitutional government. It is a plan for merger – a European Union-style government for North America and eventually the rest of the Americas and the world.Previously: "CFR's Plan to Integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada"
It's all spelled out in the latest reports by the Council on Foreign Relations. There's a five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter."...
Posted to NAU at 05:24 PM | Comments (0)
Jose Raul Pena's long rap sheet
The previous post "Jose Pena should have just been deported" discussed the Watts man who was recently shot and killed by police during a standoff. His toddler daughter was shot and killed as well. Pena was using her as a human shield during the standoff.
The Los Angeles-based Mexican media, Commies, and various other groups have apparently been trying to portray Pena as a troubled saint.
For the truth, a list of all the crimes he was arrested and/or convicted for is currently here. Archive that page if you want, since that might not be a permalink.
UPDATE: As predicted, that last page has changed. The Pena information appears to be here, here, and here. If there are other pages with this info please leave a link.
Posted to Los_Angeles at 03:47 PM | Comments (1)
The Houston Chronicle has a blog about itself
This should come in handy, especially since they allow comments.
Posted to Bloggage at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)
Fire Dreier! And, Fire Jerry Lewis! too
No, not one of my favorite (no, really) comics, but Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands). He voted against a bill that would have tied foreign aid to Mexico to them extraditing cop killers who've fled to that country.Details of yesterday's protest in "Group wants Lewis ousted":
Holding posters and waving large and small American flags, a small group lined the sidewalk Tuesday near Rep. Jerry Lewis' district office, exhorting the public to vote him out.Apparently they've "opened a dialogue" with Lewis' Deputy Chief of Staff. Note that Rep. David Dreier also voted against the bill.
What prompted the 25 to gather in the muggy 101-degree heat at Brookside Avenue and San Mateo Street is legislation to cut off financial aid to countries refusing to extradite suspected U.S. cop killers who fled to their shores...
The article references, but doesn't give the URL for, an anti-Lewis site. It's the aptly titled FireJerryLewis.com.
Posted to California at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)
AP, BS, and "U.S. Anti-Immigration Movement Spreads"
Duncan Mansfield of the AP offers us a roundup about the spread of offshoots of the Minuteman Project to several states around the nation.
The original AP title of the piece appears to be "U.S. Anti-Immigration Movement Spreads", which is contradicted by its very first paragraph:
A volunteer movement that vows to guard America from a wave of illegal immigration has spread from the dusty U.S.-Mexican border to the verdant hollows of Appalachia...
So, the headline was basically a lie: they aren't "anti-immigrant", they're "anti-illegal immigration". Despite that, the phrase "anti-immigration" is used in the second paragraph.
By just the fourth paragraph, the smears have begun:
Critics call the movement vigilantism, and some hear in the words of the Minutemen a vitriol similar to what hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan used against Southern blacks in the 1960s.
Later in the piece, a volunteer goes on the defensive, just like the AP wants:
The Tennessee Minutemen, which plans rallies in Memphis and Nashville and reputedly has heard from at least 120 potential members statewide, insist they are not vigilantes or racists.
Whether they insisted that they stopped beating their wives is left unanswered.
And, it includes this quote from a Morristown TN supporter of illegal immigration:
"The same sort of dogmatism that racists used against blacks in lower Alabama and across the South, I am seeing the same patterns here... They are using it as a racially divisive thing."
Is that quote from a racial group, or perhaps a far-left group? No, actually it's from Thom Robinson of the area Chamber of Commerce. Think they might have a profit motive in all this?
There would seem to be a whole other story here, and the AP doesn't seem to want to report it for some reason...
Note that this story appeared in the following under the original headline: WaPo, ABCNews, Frisco Chronical, al-Guardian, and Wired. Others that might have include the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and the Merc News.
It's also available here:
"Anti-immigration drive spreading"
"Anti-immigration group"
On a brighter note, these sources at least changed the headline:
"U.S. volunteer group fighting illegal immigration spreads far from Mexican border"
"US volunteer groups fight illegal immigration"
Posted to Immigration2005b at 11:50 AM | Comments (1)
Today in Luke Ford news
Los Angeles blogger, institution, gadabout, journalist, former pr0n producer, etc. Luke Ford is being sued, apparently for posting phone calls he received from a Hollywood producer. Details here. You can also see a copy of Ford's business card here.
UPDATE: According to another site, LukeFord.net might be under a DDOS attack. There's also some backstory here.
Posted to Los_Angeles at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)
nofollow breaks trackbacks, and what Firefox users can do
Let's say you create an entry on your blog that comments on this post. You give a link to this post and send a trackback*. That's the way trackbacks are supposed to work: they create a reciprocal link between two posts, each referring to the other.
But, let's say I was sneaky and I didn't really want a reciprocal link, I just wanted a one-way link from your site to mine.
What I could do is use a "nofollow" tag on the trackback link pointed back to you. While people might click on that link, search engines will ignore it. So, you've given me a nice link that search engines will follow, but I'm not returning the favor.
And, this appears to be MovableType's out of the box behavior with their latest versions. Most bloggers probably have this setup because they don't know better, but I'm sure there are more than a few who know what's going on.
If you use Firefox, you can install the one-liner described here in order to easily detect sites that use nofollow: those links show up as red text on a black background.
* Note: I've disabled trackbacks at least for now, but I don't use nofollow on other links left here.
Posted to Bloggage at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
How the Georgia Department of Transportation saves money
Yesterday a highway worker was killed and another was injured while working for a GA DOT subcontractor. As it turns out, they were both illegal aliens:
...DOT spokesman David Spear said the agency will investigate the Hahira-based company that hired the workers. The company has done "intermittent" work for the department in the past, Spear said.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)
Bush on John Roberts: "He has a good heart."
Who writes this stuff? However, I think that might be a secret message to Bush's evangelical base, along the lines of, "he's one of us."
Posted to Politics at 06:08 PM | Comments (0)
Democrats, Republicans grovel before National Council of The Race
Like two Stooges trying to get through a door at the same time, Ken Mehlman of the RNC and Howard Dean of the DNC spoke before the meeting of the National Council of La Raza ("The Race").Now, if you follow that link you'll see that the NCLR is hardly a mainstream group, nor do their positions reflect those of all "Hispanics." In fact, one wonders how a group whose very name refers to Mexican mestizos could represent, say, Cubans or Argentinians.
It includes yet another priceless Dean quote:
In 2004, Dean charged, gays were "scapegoated" because the GOP put the issue of gay marriage on the ballots of 11 states to bring out the vote of conservatives. "In 2006, it's going to be immigrants. You wait and see," he said.Obviously, this idiot thinks that controling our borders and restricting illegal immigration qualifies as "scapegoating."
And, the AP gets this in at the end:
But if Gabriela Arismendi, 23, of Chicago reflects the beliefs of the audience, the GOP has more work to do. A Democrat, she doesn't agree with the Republican Party's stand on issue such as immigration.So, apparently all "Hispanics" want to open the border, something that the vast majority of Americans oppose and something, as we see, is disastrous for the U.S. Either she's not representative, or perhaps our political leaders should put the interests of the rest of us above the interests of people who aren't even in the country.
"I think they are very opposed to opening the border," said Arismendi, whose family is from Mexico.
Any Democrats out there might want to take a look at the letter printed in "Tamar Jacoby dissed, discredited". Because of pandering to far-left, pro-illegal immigration groups as well as the cheap labor lobby, salaries for meatpacking jobs in Iowa are reportedly the same as they were in 1980. Now, ask yourself: whose side is Howard Dean on? Is he on the side of American workers, or is he willing to sell them out for a few votes?
Posted to Politics at 05:23 PM | Comments (3)
"Mayor Bloomberg has betrayed all the legal residents of New York City"
The post "Mayor Mike fully supports illegal immigration" explained how Bloomberg had overturned a law - on the books since the 30s - requiring applicants for a street vendor's license to be here legally.Now, the letters page of the NY Post has a few choice comments from his constituents:
-- Mayor Bloomberg has betrayed all the legal residents of New York City... Bloomberg, who signed this law with great fanfare, should be working on ways to provide fewer incentives to break our immigration laws, not more.
-- Illegal immigration should be prosecuted on more levels than just as a federal crime...
-- I am amazed at how uninformed Americans are of the negative effects that undocumented and illegal aliens have...
-- Descendants of those legal immigrants, who sacrificed to achieve the American dream, must cringe at the rights that are thrown at illegal aliens today...
Posted to Immigration2005b at 12:01 PM | Comments (1)
It's not called "al-Guardian" for nothing
An al-Guardian "trainee journalist", Dilpazier Aslam, appears to be involved or have been involved with the Islamist extremist group Hizb Ut Tahrir. Details here, via this.
Posted to Terrorism at 04:29 PM | Comments (1)
Los Angeles-Los Feliz Prius Owner's Club
I was chatting with a young lady driving her Prius earlier today at the gas station at Los Feliz Blvd. and Hillhurst. She told me her car gets 50 miles per gallon! If that's you, of if you're a Prius owner in Los Feliz or the greater Los Angeles area, leave a comment or send an email. Let's make Arianna Huffington proud!
Posted to Los_Angeles at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)
"Good Reasons To Reject CAFTA"
From Bill Graves, Oklahoma City lawyer and former state representative:Congress is debating the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), also known as son of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). America presumably benefits from "free" trade, and CAFTA allegedly will open up billions in trade between the United States and Central America. However, here's the other side of the story.Previously: "Why does President George Bush support CAFTA?" and see also StopCAFTA.
With CAFTA, as with its membership in NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, America will surrender more of its sovereignty as a nation and its states' rights to outside tribunals. For example, California's legislature passed a bill in 2004 to dispose of millions of scrap tires by recycling them into asphalt for road construction. When Mexican rubber producers claimed the bill violated NAFTA, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, citing NAFTA supremacy, vetoed the bill.
U.S. courts were overruled by a NAFTA tribunal in a dispute between Canadian and American firms. Afterward, a NAFTA tribunal judge said, "If Congress had known that there was anything like this in NAFTA, they never would have voted for it." He shouldn't be so sure. Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Warr Acres, who voted for NAFTA, believes that "U.S. sovereignty is less important than fostering interdependence and cooperation among nations with international bodies and tribunals..."
Posted to NAU at 03:14 PM | Comments (2)
Illegal immigration-supporting governors complain about minor costs
The AP reports on the National Governors Association's summer conference in "Driver's license costs will skyrocket, governors warn". The three governors complaining are:
Mike Huckabee of Arkansas
Tom Vilsack of Iowa
Bill Richardson of New Mexico
Also see "Who is the Cheap Labor Lobby?" for the first two.
Those three were reportedly "fuming" and ready to complain to the DHS today.
Huckabee: "It's outrageous to pass this off on the states... You're essentially asking the front-line clerks at the DMV to become an INS agent and a law enforcement agent."
Vilsack: "This is going to drive the cost of driver’s licenses for ordinary folks through the roof... I think it’s going to drive people crazy."
Richardson says that giving illegal aliens driver's licenses has made roads safer, since licensed immigrants can get insured... adding that it also helps the state keep track of immigrants and integrate them into the community.
Follow the money, and, in the case of the last, follow the ethnic solidarity as well. Perhaps the wise folks of at least AR and IA could start a recall if their governors aren't going to do their part in trying to enforce our laws against illegal immigration.
Posted to Immigration_dls at 12:47 PM | Comments (1)
Why does President George Bush support CAFTA?
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) doesn't mention Our Leader in the editorial "CAFTA undermines immigration laws", but what he points out that's buried in the 1000-page agreement gives a clue to why Bush strongly supports it:...One article of CAFTA reads, "Cross-border trade in services or cross-border supply of services means the supply of a service ... by a national of a party in the territory of another party." CAFTA goes on to stipulate that member nations take care to ensure that local and national "measures relating to qualification requirements and procedures, technical standards and licensing requirements do not constitute unnecessary barriers to trade in services," and to guarantee that our domestic laws are "not in themselves a restriction on the supply of the service."
What those provisions mean is that a foreign company would be empowered under CAFTA to challenge the validity of our immigration laws. If an international tribunal rules against us, Congress would then be forced to change our immigration laws or face international trade sanctions. These tribunals have the authority to rule that U.S. immigration limits, visa requirements, or even licensing requirements and zoning rules are "unnecessary burdens to trade" that act as "restrictions on the supply of a service."
This hidden legislation to open the U.S. border is only the beginning...
Posted to Immigration2005b at 11:58 AM | Comments (1)
More fun with our search engine overlords
The search engine that rules our world is testing out new Artificial Intelligence technology that not only does things like spell checking, it checks to make sure that your search is accurate, and tries to correct it if possible. For an example, try this search: ed asner isnt an idiot.
On the other hand, try this for the pedantic, leftie version: ed asner isnt an idiot
Posted to WackyHumor at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)
Live chat with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) Weds. 7/20/05
On that date, Cornyn will be having a live chat between 2:45 and 3:15pm (Dallas time) at this site. You can submit questions in advance.
I suggest that everyone asks him why he hasn't renounced Cato's proposal to create an EU-style North American Community. Read up on that proposal in "Sens. Cornyn, Kyl Prepare Massive Guestworker Plan", then see "Charlie Norwood on CATO's latest anti-American proposal" and "CFR's Plan to Integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada". Since he invited Cato to his immigration "reform" panel, and he stacked that panel in favor of his viewpoint, and since he hasn't renounced what Cato said, I believe we can conclude that he agrees with them.
Posted to NAU at 08:54 AM | Comments (1)
The Bishop is a cheap labor pimp
A Hispanic reporter offers a (surprise!) sympathetic article about his fellow Hispanics (of the illegal variety) in the Orlando Sentinel's "Debate rages about amnesty, border controls". It includes this rather fantastic quote:
"If today you rounded up all the people without documents and sent them home, you would have a collapse of our agriculture business, and probably our restaurant business, not to mention our construction business," said Bishop Thomas Wenski, who leads the Roman Catholic diocese of Orlando. "You would see an economic impact that would make the 9-11 aftermath pale in comparison."
In addition to the last, offensive bit, don't you think it's fair to call the Bishop a cheap labor pimp?
This quote from a college student is interesting too:
"[My illegal alien parents] did break the law, but they weren't trying to be criminals," said Hernandez, 21, a sophomore at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas. "The borders [that] people make are man-made. God didn't put the borders there."
"The fence around St. Edwards University is man-made. God didn't put that fence there! Therefore, I shall set up camp on their lawn! It's my right!" Seriously, some people will think she's making sense.
Posted to Immigration2005b at 07:44 AM | Comments (1)
Does Tampa Bay's Baynews9 support illegal immigration?
Or, are they just incompetent and gullible? I'll let you decide: "Loan programs allow undocumented residents to buy homes".
First, of course, there's the use of "undocumented." Then:
A company called Affordable Residential Communities (ARC) has implemented a new program that allows the use of a consular card and other immigration documents as proper ID for the purchase of pre-fabricated homes.
The first part of that paragraph - when put in the context of the rest of the article - reads like it's an advertisement. Could this report in fact be an advertorial of some kind? And, of course, the "consular card" is Mexico's own Matricula Consular card, which is basically and ID card for illegal aliens. It's only an "immigration document" in the sense of being a document designed to subvert our laws.
And, then, of course, there's the fact that the only downside of this program is presented in one final paragraph. Apparently there are some people who don't think illegal aliens should be given home loans. Go figure!
Posted to Immigration2005b at 06:35 AM | Comments (0)
New York Times lies for Hillary Clinton
A few years ago, Hillary made the following statement that - were she not a "liberal" - would have resulted in her being banished from polite society:
I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants.
Oh my tender sensibilities!
Thankfully, as NewsMax points out in "N.Y. Times Alters Hillary Clinton's Immigration Quote", the NYT has come to her rescue, altering her quote to be:
I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigration.
What do you expect from the employer of Walter Duranty?
Posted to Politics at 05:19 AM | Comments (0)
Cornyn, Lugar offer hot air on illegal immigration
Knight-Ridder outlines a somewhat fantastic plot involving Los Zetas and a Mexico-based Arab people smuggler joining forces: "FBI bulletin outlines possible terrorist plot at Texas border". The Arab will get to smuggle explosives in trucks into the U.S.; the Zetas will get help freeing a cartel leader.
However, this information came from an informant, who may or may not be credible. KRT says this information is in a confidential but unclassified FBI intelligence bulletin, and apparently the FBI is opposed to its rele