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Could Matt Yglesias be any more of a dude?
As in "dude ranch":
Caption:
Brooks Brothers suit jacket turns out not to go so well with hiking.
Leaving the Great Liberal Northeast for seemingly the first time, pundit Matt Yglesias recently traveled to Taos, New Mexico. I spent a fair amount of time typing out an unheeded comment suggesting that he travel further south and visit Las Cruces, El Paso, and Carlsbad and also that he take a hike at the White Sands National Monument. It's a good thing he didn't take my advice: he probably would have done it in a tuxedo.
In a show of solidarity with, you know, everyone else, he says "Middle America goes on vacation". And, he titles a picture of someone with a baby carrier "Ambitious" ("This woman was actually carrying her daughter on her back throughout a mile-long trail.") First, a mile is nothing, especially since it appears to have been a ranger-led nature trail for tourists and thus probably wasn't in the least bit difficult. On a serious note, one wonders how someone who's such a dude could comment on matters affecting the Southwest such as massive immigration.
Posted to Bloggage at 01:51 PM
Great American Boycott II: May Day illegal immigration marches
May 1 is the big day for supporters of illegal immigration, as once again foreign citizens will take to our streets, making a show of force and demanding that we change our laws to suit them.
In last year's marches, some of the organizers had links to the Mexican government and Mexican political parties, yet that was barely noted even when it appeared in mainstream articles from the Chicago Tribune and others. And, in some cases it wasn't mentioned. For instance, Tim Molloy of the AP failed to note that one of the organizers was a former Mexican consul general. Stay tuned for coverage.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:22 PM
NYT: mainstream immigration positions are "fringe"
The New York Times offers the editorial "The Amnesty Sideshow", which, as you might guess from the source, is wrong.
...on the volatile topic of immigration, Republicans are lurching, falling over themselves to convince voters that where they stand is not where they stood... While [the "fate" of a "bipartisan immigration bill"] is being decided in difficult closed-door negotiations in the Capitol, they and other G.O.P. hopefuls are on the stump, tying themselves in knots over "amnesty" and dancing farther out to the fringes of public opinion... Mr. McCain and his adversaries may believe that primary politics demands such behavior, but surveys of the larger populace tell a different story. Americans want the immigration issue solved, and they strongly favor "amnesty," whether you call it that or not. An array of recent polls show powerful support for an earned path to citizenship...
Obviously, the NYT thinks biased polls are more accurate than the realization being forced on McCain, Brownback, Giuliani, Romney, and the rest that "amnesty" - whether called a "banana" or not - is fundamentally unpopular out on the stump.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:13 PM
Time for a technique lesson
This short video shows you the proper technique to use when biking down wet slopes through bushes:
I was coming down a not-very-difficult rock and a I hit the soft, wet edge of the trail and, needless to say, just kept going. Just a few small cuts are the result. In my defense, I'm recovering from a strep throat and, more pertinently I was preoccupied with other thoughts. To make it even worse my chain gave me problems a couple times before then and later got stuck completely meaning I was only able to bike out of there on the downhill sections. I also did a very slow endo after the visit to the bushes. Things aren't usually this bad, but, like I said I was preoccupied with other things.
Posted to OutdoorSports at 09:51 PM
Chuck Hagel's point-based amnesty scheme
Someone didn't get the Brownback Memo, namely Sen. Chuck Hagel, who's offering a new point-based amnesty scheme. Illegal aliens would pay a $2000 fine and run the standard gamut: a background check, English proficiency, etc. Then:They would then be evaluated on factors including work history, education level, family, English proficiency, civic engagement and the amount of time they have been in the country.It would have been nice if a neon sign with "THIS IS AMNESTY" was flashing behind his head as he said that, but I doubt that happened.
Illegal immigrants who earn a certain number of points would qualify for a greencard, but would have to wait behind those who have already applied as a legal immigrant.
"This is not amnesty," Hagel said.
What exactly would happen to those who don't make the grade isn't clear. Bush and others (and perhaps Hagel) keep telling us that we can't deport millions of people, so either the points system is going to be mostly meaningless, or we're going to have millions of unadmitted illegal aliens still here. And, of course, the ACLU and racial power groups would be first in line to file suits claiming that the points system discriminated in some way against someone.
Hagel also says:
"At a time when America's standing in the world is as low as it's ever been, this is one of those issues that the world is watching," Hagel told participants at an immigration conference in Omaha. "This is going to tell a lot about who we are, how we handle this issue."
Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:19 PM
Anna Gorman/LAT: sob story to support illegal alien amnesty
Anna Gorman of the Los Angeles Times offers the Page 1 story "A family's painful split decision". Over four pages she tells the tale of two long-term illegal aliens (Abel Munoz and Zulma Miranda) who had three children in the U.S. They originally entered with a temporary visa, which they overstayed. They apparently took bad legal advice and tried to correct their status, but were eventually ordered deported. They say they didn't receive the notice. Then, one day ICE came to the door and they were forced to choose; they decided to move to Tijuana and leave the kids here. The case is similar to this other case that was whined about by another reporter.
The tale ends near this:
"Look at that sweater — it is half a sweater," [Munoz] said. "We can't even afford a whole sweater."
That follows the news that they own a $300,000 home. And, it follows Gorman glossing over various forms of illegal activity: overstaying a visa and "using a fake green card and Social Security number to get work when he first arrived in the country, and working as an electrician without a license."
Obviously, this is just a sob story designed to appeal to those who a susceptible to such techniques. And, just as obviously, if the "reform" that the Los Angeles Times supports passes, people like Gorman are still going to be out there, and there's almost no chance that they're going to take the pledge to stop featuring such sob stories. In fact, if "reform" passed, it probably would only be a few weeks before the various sob stories start designed to weaken the "reform". Those who support "reform" have shown their hands: what they're really after is a massive, continuing legalization program where anyone who makes it over the border and manages to stay here for a while gets to stay permanently.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 04:27 PM
Petition: We Need Real Political Debates
Unless we take action now, the upcoming presidential debates will just be an opportunity for politicians to recite their talking points, and moderators will continue to ask puffball, general questions rather than asking questions designed to reveal flaws in the candidates' arguments.
I urge everyone to sign this non-partisan petition demanding real political debates and send it to all your friends.
The petition demands that questions should be designed to make a candidate defend their positions, not just state what they are. If someone is running for President of the U.S., they should be able to defend their positions and respond to critics.
And, it suggests that panels of subject matter experts - from across the entire spectrum - be used to craft tough questions. Moderators - together with those experts - can ask a series of questions in order to hone in on a candidate's actual positions and in order to reveal flaws in their policies.
One of the greatest threats to the U.S. political system is that politicians are frequently allowed to make obviously wrong or misleading statements without being challenged. Please sign the petition in order to end this practice and craft real debates about vital issues.
Posted to Politics at 12:34 PM
Democrats debate features largely worthless immigration question
In case you were wondering just how corrupt the MSM is, the following appears to be the only question at tonight's Democratic presidential debate that involved immigration matters. While the "defy" part is certainly a bit piquant, and it's certainly good to get the news that Hillary Clinton supports amnesty out there and from her own lips, the information the question would obtain could more easily be obtained from her website. She's no doubt said the same thing countless times, and when she heard the question she probably just put her brain into replay mode.What should have been asked is something designed to reveal the flaws in what she supports, such as the question on this video. That would bring her support of illegal immigration to more widespread attention, while at the same time revealing that she has no non-corrupt argument for what she supports:
MODERATOR:...Senator Clinton, if you were currently the president, would you defy the majority of American citizens and offer a form of amnesty for illegal aliens?
CLINTON: Well, I'm in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, which includes tightening our border security, sanctioning employers to employ undocumented immigrants, helping our communities deal with the costs that come from illegal immigration, getting the 12 million or so immigrants out of the shadows. That's very important to me.
After 9/11, we've got to know who's in this country. And then giving them a chance to pay a fine, pay back taxes, learn English and stand in line to be eligible for a legal status in this country.
MODERATOR: Time's up. Thank you, ma'am.
And that question was from Chris in Myrtle Point, Oregon.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:03 PM
Bush spkswm: "the laws of this country, including immigration laws, need to be followed"
In today's "no, it's not a joke" news comes the reply that White House spokeswoman Dana Perino gave to this question from Les Kinsolving:
"How will the United States ever develop, adopt and enforce any sort of immigration policy when individual leaders such as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom have vowed to oppose federal enforcement of such laws and, in fact, are preparing to run a sanctuary city that would facilitate illegal activities, as just reported for the San Francisco Chronicle?"
The reply:
"President Bush believes that the laws of this country, including immigration laws, need to be followed."
For those who just flew in from Dubuque, for the past six plus years Bush has been running the U.S. as if it were a sanctuary country. The only thing he'd be concerned about concerning 'Frisco is that such defiance might have an impact on getting the amnesty he wants for the reasons previously discussed.
Perino was also asked about the recent no-confidence vote by Border Patrol agents in BP chief David Aguilar, and her response was that she hadn't seen the resolution, followed by empty blather.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 08:17 PM
"Mexican Officials Coached Witnesses In Border Patrol Murder Case"
From this:...When prosecutors in Arizona's Cochise County proudly announced the first-degree murder charges against Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett this week, the failed to mention some important details that could prove damaging to their case.
First is the fact that their key witnesses are the two brothers and a sister-in-law of the shot man, who incidentally joined him on his illegal border crossing journey. Secondly, is the fact that Mexican Consul officials were allowed to interview and coach the already biased witnesses before they gave statements to U.S. authorities.
Mexican officials were granted unrestricted access to the apprehended illegal immigrants by the Border Patrol agent in charge of the Naco station where they were detained immediately after the January shooting.
The senior agent, Darcy Olmos, has a long history of pandering to Mexico and Mexican aliens and refers to illegal immigrants as "my people." In fact, when ranchers near the border complained of vandalism by illegal aliens, Olmos said that ancestors of the ranchers had stolen the land from her people.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:09 PM
George W. Bush, Raul Grijalva support "comprehensive immigration reform" together
Yesterday, Bush met with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, including former MEChA member Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), who says:
"As much as I malign the president, I thought he was receptive... He was engaged in the conversation, asked questions and continued to make a commitment to comprehensive reform... ...We support [the Flake-Gutierrez STRIVE Act] very strongly, and we support the fact that this has to get done this year."
No word is given on Bush's support for STRIVE, but it appears they were all on the same page when it comes to amnesty in general. Grijalva didn't show for Bush's recent border trip, but apparently that's long forgot.
The article also points out that Grijalva would prefer an even worse form of amnesty, and that he's caught between his own "pragmatism" and the wishes of extremists such as his close friend Isabel Garcia. Her group, the Mexico-linked Derechos Humanos, supports Grijalva.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:56 PM
Lawsuit over ICE detained U.S. citizen (ACLU, Anna Werner, LCCR, Zoe Lofgren)
A small, perfect storm of illegal immigration supporters attempting to block enforcement of our immigration laws is forming [1]:
The ACLU and Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights will soon announce a suit in the case of Kevin Reyes, a U.S. citizen who was swept up with his father during an ICE raid early one morning in San Rafael, California. A San Francisco investigative reporter (Anna Werner) documented the boy's detention and located and interviewed the boy, his uncle and family friends, who described the boy as traumatized by his experience. Later, in a one-on-one interview about the case, Bay Area Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren described ICE's action in holding the boy in detention for a day as "illegal."
The main Werner report is here:
In a letter written just last week to Representative Lofgren, ICE assured her that before deporting a parent they give the parent an "opportunity to arrange appropriate care for the child" and that agents even could even release people arrested "on their own recognizance" if they "demonstrate childcare issues." ...CBS 5 Investigates asked Representative Lofgren if ICE's assurances in their letter were credible... "I have concerns," Lofgren said. "I have some concerns, and we plan to have a greater understanding of the situation than we do today."
While they indeed might have a point, this could be handled in other ways. As it is, this is yet another example of Lofgren (a former immigration lawyer), the ACLU, and the rest trying to tie ICE's hands in order to restrict immigration enforcement in general.
UPDATE: Tyche Hendricks offers "Child's civil rights were violated during immigration raid, lawsuit says". It appears his name is actually "Kebin". And:
"The father was arrested and there was no one to take care of the boy at home, so they had the boy come with his father," said ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley. "He went with his dad so he wouldn't be left home alone. We work with the families to find someone to take care of the child."
UPDATE 2: The same source offers the extremely biased "The human face of immigration raids in Bay Area/Arrests of parents can deeply traumatize children caught in the fray, experts argue":
[much deleted] ...Bay Area residents have said farewell to devoted parent volunteers, talented soccer coaches and close friends... [much deleted]
One of those mentioned is "Kevin Johnson, an immigration law specialist at the UC Davis School of Law", who's [1] below. Oddly enough, Hendricks completely fails to ask any of the parents what they were thinking to put their children in this situation. It's all our fault, for having those mean things called laws.
[1] lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2007/04/lawsuit_by_citi.html
Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:48 PM
Hidden gems from the Hagel-Martinez amnesty scam
Last year's Hagel-Martinez amnesty - the one that passed the Senate - had so many loopholes and hidden "features" it's hard to keep track of them. Here's a discussion from June 2006 by Rosemary Jenks of Numbers USA:...in fact there are three other – at least three other, maybe more – amnesties, including one for anyone who entered the United States illegally before the age of 16, one for members of persecuted religious minorities who have applied for amnesty by 2003, and believe it or not, there's one buried in here for sheep herders, goat herders, and dairy workers. So it's sort of a smorgasbord for everyone.
The first one that I want to talk about is one that I'm pretty sure was not included in the estimates that Senator Sessions' office did on the numerical impact of this bill, and I know that it wasn't included in Robert Rector's estimates, and it was actually in the committee markup by Senator Brownback. It's mislabeled "widows and orphans," but what it says is that – and I'm going to read you the actual language here because it's too good to pass up – it essentially invites any alien outside the United States who's determined by a consular or immigration official to be a minor under the age of 18, "for whom no parent or legal guardian is able to provide adequate care, who faces a credible fear of harm related to his or her age, who lacks adequate protection from such harm and for whom it has been determined to be in his or her best interest, to be admitted to the United States, or who is determined by such official to be a female who has a credible fear of harm related to her sex, and a lack of adequate protection from such harm to come to the United States as a non-immigrant," to get refugee cash benefits and then adjust to legal permanent residence pretty much immediately.
So we're talking about women at risk of harm in the world and children without someone to adequately support them in the world coming here. Well, if women are just over half the population of the world, we can exclude: the United States, Canada, Australia, most of Western Europe, and then I hit a blank. You know, you could argue that women in just about the rest of the world have a credible fear of harm. So, that is a provision that is mind boggling, the impact that that could have, and I have not heard word one about this...
Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:11 AM
Sam Brownback renounces the Hagel-Martinez amnesty he helped pass
The Hagel-Martinez amnesty scam has long since been thrown into the dustbin of history, but Sen. Sam Brownback has now - in a desperate attempt to rewrite history - renounced his support for the bill:Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Sam Brownback said yesterday he no longer supports the immigration overhaul bill that he helped pass in the Senate.Now he tells us.
"I would not vote for the same bill," Mr. Brownback told reporters yesterday morning, saying that after the bill passed the Senate he had a chance to study its effects and decided it led to too much immigration.
It's a major reversal for a man who is listed as one of seven original sponsors of the bill, along with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, who spearheaded the bill...
Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:09 AM
Fabian Nunez: Hillary Clinton's new national campaign co-chair
Hillary Clinton has just named California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez as a national co-chair of her campaign, saying:
"I'm going to be relying on him very heavily because he has a record of a achievement."
(Latter part of the quote via KFI, which also asked whether he had been offered a spot in the Hillary administration. He didn't answer, saying it was too early to comment.)
Nunez is a virulent Mexican partisan with (at the least) activist roots who denies using the word "rednecks" despite there being an audio tape. He traveled to Mexico in 2005, and spoke with Vicente Fox last year. He has at least one link to Aztlan extremist Armando Navarro.
Related:
Hillary Clinton picks National Council of La Raza's Raul Yzaguirre to co-chair
Posted to Immigration2007a at 03:51 PM
Andy Levy/Red Eye (Andrew)
On a recent Reason Magazine thread (reason.com/blog/show/119840.html), Andrew Levy (Andy) of FOX's Red Eye TV program and dailygut.com made an off-hand, ad hominem comment about my Libertarian Quiz. I posted a comment asking him whether he could provide an actual argument, to which he replied, "nope".
While it would be easy to consider him just a lightweight, I'll give him a second chance. He can leave comments here explaining his position, and I'll try to reply as time allows.
Posted to Miscellania at 01:26 PM
Lou Dobbs on media immigration bias; David Bosco/FP downplays
Lou Dobbs offers "Big media hide truth about immigration". This site has hundreds of examples of that bias in the archives, so that won't come as a surprise to regular readers:...the mainstream media are complicit in advancing this thinly veiled blanket amnesty. Instead of asking and answering important questions about why our immigration laws aren't being enforced and why we're permitting pervasive document fraud, the national media seem hell-bent on trying to obfuscate the issue, shamelessly playing with language, equating legal immigration with illegal immigration while obviously trying to preserve the illusion of objectivity...Obviously, Dobbs could have gone on for dozens of pages, offering examples from the WaPo, the NYT, LAT, CBS, NBC, ABC, and on down the line.
...The Arizona Republic, for example, used "undocumented immigrant" more than 80 times in 36 separate stories in the past month alone; the term appeared as many as 12 times in one article on "migration," according to our Lexis-Nexis search. At the same time, "illegal alien" appeared a total of only nine times during that span, with seven of the references coming from readers' opinions, one from a quotation and one from an editorial...
Like a hack from Reason Magazine desperately trying to find any possible sort of anti-Dobbs hook, David Bosco of the Foreign Policy blog (blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/4543) takes him to task for not going on at great length:
And what is the one publication he indicts by name? The Arizona Republic. The specter of Dobbs, a powerful and bullying CNN host, lambasting regional newspapers as the out-of-touch "big media" is really too much.One will note, of course, that he didn't answer Dobbs' main point, and I think we all know why.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:59 PM
Chicago: fake document raid leads to pro-illegal immigration protest
[IMPORTANT UPDATE BELOW]Rally 'round the document forgers! A federal raid against ID fraud yesterday in Chicago shows one of the dangers of failing to enforce the immigration laws: illegal activity becomes defined as a part of ethnic solidarity. In the past, Italian-American groups have complained about things like The Godfather. In this situation, ethno-centric reporters and groups are condemning enforcement of federal law and excusing illegal activity. And, needless to say, at least one Catholic Church is involved.
From Esther J. Cepeda of the Chicago Sun-Times comes "'Soldiers bombarded our neighborhood'" (link):
Heavily armed officers from several federal agencies locked down a strip mall in a fraudulent-document bust Tuesday, scaring residents and triggering an angry rally at one of Little Village's busiest intersections that lasted into the evening.One of the stores in the mall was "Foto Munoz", run by the father of Alderman Ricardo Munoz (22nd). He wasn't arrested but a camera was taken into custody.
"Soldiers bombarded our neighborhood," said Baltazar Enriquez, 30, a lifelong Little Village resident. "It looked like they were marching into Iraq."
The raid was part of a probe of identification fraud, according to the U.S. attorney's office. "It's an ICE-led investigation; we're assisting them," said FBI spokesman Ross Rice, speaking of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Agents were carrying out a search warrant, he said. The target was sellers of phony Social Security and green cards, authorities said. Although there were a few arrests, U.S. attorney's officials and ICE refused to provide a number.Rafael Romo of CBS 2 Chicago says:
As word of the raid spread, a crowd of about 250 gathered in the intersection at Albany and 26th as activists exhorted the crowd to take the day's events as reason to join a May 1 march. Trying to cool residents' heated tempers, the Rev. Brandon Curran of St. Pius the Fifth Catholic Church in Pilsen led a prayer in the middle of the street.
Anger, frustration and, ultimately, solidarity spilled into the streets of Little Village Tuesday afternoon. Chicago police only showed up after residents flooded 26th Stree and Albany Avenue. Participants held signs that said things like "no one is illegal."Note that a couple photos for that report were provided by Pueblo Sin Fronteras.
..."Selling illegal papers to immigrants so we can work, basically. That's all we buy them for, is to work," said Little Village resident Luz Nolasco. "But apparently that's against the law and God forbid we help America!"
..."It's a show of force. We believe it was done to intimidate this community. We can't see it any other way," said Ald. George Cardenas (12th). "The number of people involved in this operation is just overwhelming."
..."It was way overkill. They had machine guns, shotguns, bullet-proof vests. It was a huge, huge endeavor," [Ald. Ricardo Munoz] said. "They struck fear into the heart of the Little Village community.
And, John Garcia of ABC 7/WLS says:
The agents on hand Tuesday included FBI and immigrations officers who had search warrants for an alleged fake ID documentation organization. According to sources, a wide range of fraudulent documents were allegedly being made and distributed at the mall. But protesters say there was no reason to frighten the entire community over it.
"We are not here to stop anybody from enforcing the law. But there is common sense into this thing. Why do it in such a public way as to intimidate the people here in this community?" said Alderman George Cardenas, 12th Ward...
..."They just did a mass intimidation. They made us believe out here that they were arresting everybody that was here, but they came in with the intention to stop people from marching on May 1. They haven't done this like this from when I can remember. It's clear to us what their intentions are," said Roberto Lopez, Centro Sin Fronteras...
..."People are calling about their families and want to know what's happening," said Diego Bonesatti, a spokesman for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
He said the organization strongly opposes the timing and manner of the investigation, noting that a week of activities in support of immigration reform is planned nationwide, including citizenship workshops, community meetings and marches planned for May 1.
UPDATE: Now that you've seen what the ethno-centric reporters, aldermen, and groups have to say, take a gander at the shocking PDF from the U.S. Attorney describing the sort of criminals they were after. Would even the NCLR or LULAC stoop to defending people like that?
UPDATE 2: For the less gory MSM version, see this.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:40 PM
Media Matters for America plays word games re: their funding
Recently Bill O'Reilly "disclosed" the funding of the group Media Matters for America (link to video). The segment includes a chart showing money flowing from George Soros to the Open Society Institute, Democracy Alliance, MoveOn, and the Center for American Progress. The latter three are current or former donors to MMFA; the first is/was a donor to the Tides Foundation, which is/was a donor to MMFA.
Now, "A.I." (presumably Andrew Ironside) offers "O'Reilly purported to chart an intricate web leading to "vile propaganda outfit" Media Matters" [1]:
As previously indicated, Soros has never given money to Media Matters, either directly or through another organization. If he wanted to fund Media Matters, he or Open Society Institute (OSI), a grant-making foundation he established in 1993 to conduct his philanthropy, could simply write a check directly to Media Matters, as he and OSI do to numerous entities.
That's a truly Clintonian statement. Soros money has obviously flowed to MMFA through intermediaries such as MoveOn. Soros may not have explicitly told MoveOn to give part of the money he gave them to MMFA, but one wonders whether they would do something that he would disagree with.
The paragraph above links to this brief statement that doesn't even go as far [2]:
Media Matters has never received funding from progressive philanthropist George Soros.
Which, again, may be true if the money went through intermediaries.
And, of course, back in March 2005, MMFA stopped disavowing connections to Soros-affiliated groups.
What exactly are they afraid of?
[1] mediamatters.org/items/200704240003
[2] mediamatters.org/items/200704130012
Posted to Miscellania at 11:10 AM
Why did Mike Huckabee "refresh" his Youtube videos?
Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee has deleted his campaign videos from Youtube and then resubmitted what appear to be the same videos [*]. This procedure deletes comments which had been left on the videos and resets their view counts, ratings, links, etc. They also appear to have changed their commenting policy from comments being unmoderated to them now having to be approved before they're posted.
The exact reason why they did this isn't known; one possible innocent explanation is that the original versions of the videos could have been missing a required FEC message, or they were missing their campaign URL, or similar. A less innocent explanation is that they wanted to delete some negative comments which were left and start over with comment moderation. But, then again, they can delete comments and change moderation policy through Youtube's standard administration scheme. That's so easy anyone could do it, but that doesn't mean their staff could figure it out. The original videos were all high rated, so it probably doesn't involve trying to reset that.
Perhaps the litmus test will come when I find out whether a comment I left on his original "Immigration" video is approved or not:
"Huck" is sending a loud message to all future illegal aliens: live here for a while, and we'll give you amnesty. Needless to say, millions more illegal aliens would try to come here if he became president. Thankfully, there's almost zero chance of that happening.
The original version of that video was at youtube.com/watch?v=NFOTP98vLzo, but that now says the video was deleted by the user. The new version of the video is here; a cached version of the original page is here, showing 1377 views and 9, not specifically anti-Huck comments.
Other caches showing a few to a few hundred views each:
Health care (1)
National Security/Foreign Policy (1)
Arts and Education (1)
Taxes/Economy (1)
Faith and Politics (1)
Same Sex Marriage (1; two slightly negative comments)
Sanctity of Life (1; four positive comments)
Israel (1; one slightly negative comment)
* UPDATE: The cached pages don't play videos, but they do show times. The new videos appear to be 3 to 6 seconds longer than the original videos. Yet, the intro to the new videos is 1.5 seconds and the outro is about 8 to 9 seconds.
Posted to Politics at 08:57 PM
NBC Nightly News promotes left-wing environmental group "Step It Up"
Tonight's NBC Nightly News featured Brian Williams introducing a segment on a group called "Step It Up" which wants to end global warming and which held marchs across the U.S. on the 14th. The report was all bright and happy and wholesome.
Then, of course, I looked up the group itself to find what they weren't telling their millions of viewers. As it turns out at least their "Partners and Allies" include several left-wing groups, yet - oddly enough - Brian Williams didn't disclose any such inclinations Step It Up might have.
It's run by Bill McKibben, a well-known environmentalist, writer, academic, hiker, etc. There doesn't appear to be much "opposition research" on him, but in 1999 he was called a "left-wing ecologist" here.
A look at their "Partners and Allies" page (stepitup2007.org/links.php) shows - in addition to many usual suspects such as the Sierra Club - several left-wing but not extremely radical groups, such as:
* Center For Biological Diversity
* Codepink - Women for Peace (run by Susan "Medea" Benjamin)
* Global Exchange (ditto)
* MoveOn.org
* No War No Warming! (trying to bring together environmental and anti-war movements)
* Physicians For Social Responsibility
* SEIU (Service Employees International Union)
* United for Peace and Justice
Can the reader imagine NBC News featuring their opposite number without using the word "conservative" or similar?
Related:
Young Pioneers of the Global Climate Change and Environmental Justice Movement (comrade)
Posted to Miscellania at 07:54 PM
Alert: May 3 presidential debate questions needed
On May 3, the GOP presidential candidates will be debating live on MSNBC and it will be streamed live at Politico.com.
The latter site is looking for user-submitted questions for the candidates. You need to sign up, but that's free.
You can also vote up questions. Unfortunately, the current top-ranked immigration question is worthless:
What specifically would you do to secure our borders, especially with Mexico, and how would you deal with the millions of illegal Mexican immigrants already in our country?
That question can be answered by visiting the candidates' sites and asking it would just take up time. Effective questions should point out specific flaws in a candidate's positions and force them to defend those positions. And, it should anticipate the response: if a candidate can respond with their stock talking points, or evade the question, find something else.
Please submit your own tough questions, and also vote up the question I submitted. You can find it by selecting 'most recent'/'mitt romney'/'immigration' in the popups and look for this:
Do you support any form of path to citizenship/regularization/legalization/etc. for illegal aliens? Do you agree that *any* form of such legalization would be *perceived* as *amnesty* by *millions* of prospective illegal aliens around the world?
I was hampered a bit by the 255 characters rule, but that question would help reveal whether Romney support amnesty (by any name) or not, the second sentence would knock him off his stock talking points and it would also help get the importance of the perception of amnesty out onto the stage.
Posted to Politics at 05:12 PM
Fascist America, in 10 semi-fantastical steps (Naomi Wolf)
Naomi Wolf offers "Fascist America, in 10 easy steps". First, let's get the easy stuff out of the way. This is in al-Guardian, and she plays the "I'm one of the Smart Americans, I am!" game:
...Even as Americans were focused on Britney Spears's meltdown and the question of who fathered Anna Nicole's baby, the New York Times editorialised about this shift... ...As Americans turn away quite leisurely, keeping tuned to internet shopping and American Idol, the foundations of democracy are being fatally corroded... ...But Americans still assume this system and detainee abuses involve only scary brown people with whom they don't generally identify...
On the wider issue I've said similar things and linked to others. However, I feel that she's overplaying some things and ignoring the fascistic tendencies of those on her side.
For instance, the "thug caste" (#4) - if she wanted to be honest about this - would also include those on the far-left who keep trying to silence speech, whether Media Matters (Don Imus) or Columbia University (Jim Gilchrist) or all the countless other incidents. Instead, other than mercenaries (including those working in New Orleans post-Katrina), this is all she can come up with:
Thugs in America? Groups of angry young Republican men, dressed in identical shirts and trousers, menaced poll workers counting the votes in Florida in 2000.
As for #4, the "internal surveillance system", that predates Bush by a few decades.
As for #5 ("Harass citizens' groups") I don't think she's telling the whole truth:
...a church in Pasadena, whose minister preached that Jesus was in favour of peace, found itself being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, while churches that got Republicans out to vote, which is equally illegal under US tax law, have been left alone...
She might have a point about "peace" groups being infiltrated, but once again, that predates Our Leader.
In #6 ("Engage in arbitrary detention and release"), she mentions the case of Professor Walter F Murphy supposedly being on a TSA watchlist, including repeating the uncorroborated and possibly incorrect remarks of an airline employee.
And, at the end she promotes the ACLU.
Bottom line: she's simply preaching to the choir, and desperately seeking their acceptance. Someone better at this please try again. I prefer Alex Jones myself, plus he's got a bullhorn so he's entertaining too.
Posted to Politics at 03:15 PM
Generous: Mexico might pay part of UHC for Mexicans in California!
The San Francisco Chronicle's Tyche Hendricks offers "Mexico's health czar seeks better care for Mexicans in California". The new Felipe Calderon administration is developing a system of universal health care and they want to extend it to their citizens living in California. And, in a wonderful sign of generosity, they might pay part of the bill!How very, very kind of them. Of course, it might be just a tad kinder if they would encourage their citizens who are here illegally to return home, but baby steps and all.
Mexico's new secretary of health [Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos] visited San Francisco on Monday to learn about the health needs of the millions of Mexican immigrants living in California and to further collaborate with state officials to meet those needs.Later on, Gutierrez utters cheap labor pimp-style comments, with scare tactics provided by "Xochitl Castaneda, director of the Health Initiative of the Americas, a project of the California Policy Research Center in the office of the UC president".
...The former hospital chief and medical school director from the state of Guanajuato said he plans to meet every six months with U.S. health officials and Mexican immigrant communities to create a basic health care plan to cover Mexicans in the United States and eventually extend to them a system of universal health care that is being developed by the Calderon administration...
...Cordova's visit this early in the Calderon administration means Mexico may intend to share the health care burden, said [Mario Gutierrez, director of rural health programs at the California Endowment], whose foundation is trying to help craft a basic health insurance policy for Mexican immigrants whereby each worker would pay for insurance jointly with his or her employer and the Mexican government...
...Cordova countered [criticisms that Mexico is always trying to rip us off] that both countries are responsible and that U.S. employers who hire Mexican workers also should provide them health coverage.
"The responsibility is shared. They're here but they're ours. Right now, the care is insufficient," Cordova said.
Posted to California at 01:27 PM
Rep. John Boehner throws out citizen lobbyists (Hold Their Feet to the Fire)
As previously discussed, various talk show hosts and their listeners are visiting Washington DC to lobby Congress regarding immigration matters. And:The office of Congressman John Boehner, minority leader in the House, threw out the first of our citizen lobbyists that went on Capitol Hill this morning to discuss illegal immigration. [The lobbyist group] said the staff of Boehner's office were rude...The home page of the event is here, and their video page is here.
The same group talked to Duncan Hunter's office staff and were invited in and given coffee and allowed to talk... They had no trouble with other staff at other representatives offices. Congressman John Murtha also turned them away, but was not rude and Congressman Price set an appointment with them later on in the day.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:15 PM
Mexican consulate opening in Little Rock (Huckabee, Beebe)
A new Mexican Consulate is opening in Little Rock, Arkansas tomorrow. The consul is Andres Chao and the "event coordinator" for the opening is Liliana Olea.Gov. Mike Beebe will be out of town and is sending Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, but he's nonetheless ecstatic:
"Any time you have a foreign government that chooses your city for a location, it's potentially an economic boost, it's certainly a cultural boost and it certainly allows interaction between people that have a kinship to whatever country that might be."As you might expect, there's a "Huck" connection:
The idea of establishing a Mexican consulate in Arkansas was first discussed by former Gov. Mike Huckabee after his trip to Mexico City in 2003.More at the link; see the comments for the details on a couple protests. More on Mexican consuls working Arkansas here.
Last year, Huckabee struck a deal with Mexican officials to house the consular office in a state agency office for $1 a year while the consulate facilities were being refurbished. At the time, some lawmakers complained the governor made the deal without notifying the Legislature.
Posted to Immigration_consul at 12:18 PM
Vanessa Bauza/South Florida Sun-Sentinel promotes DREAM Act
The following PIIPP has been spotted; see the other posts in this category for other examples of "pro-illegal immigration propaganda".Reporter: Vanessa Bauza
Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Date: April 23 2007
Title: "For young undocumented immigrants, 'Dream Act' offers avenue to success"
link
Contact: vbauza *at* sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4514
Student last names: not used
Common threads: One student apparently to go to Palm Beach Community College, another going to Miami Dade College, quote from official of Broward Community College.
Quoted supporters: Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, "Barbara Cohen Pippin, an administrator at Broward Community College"
Quoted opponent: Jack Martin of FAIR
Excerpt:
With only a month to her high school graduation, May sees a daunting number of obstacles ahead.
More than anything, she wants to go to college. But as an illegal immigrant with a longstanding deportation order, May has little access to financial aid. If she scrapes the tuition together, there are no guarantees she will be allowed to stay in the country.
Even with a college degree, she wonders, what kind of job can an undocumented worker get?
..."They've worked hard, and they've studied. Many of these kids have lived nowhere else. They don't even remember where they came from," said U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, one of the [DREAM Act's] sponsors.
Posted to Immigration_piipps at 12:00 PM
Democrats think supporting border fence is a weakness? (Bill Richardson)
The usually better Stephen Dinan offers "United on immigration, Democrats divide voters":In New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina, the questions about immigration arise repeatedly -- and Democratic presidential candidates say they know they are alienating some of their strongest supporters by calling for legalization of illegal aliens.Unfortunately - as with Adam Nagourney - he fails to provide examples of those questions and their answers. And, I don't think any of the GOP candidates have changed their fundamental positions, although the NYT says that Giuliani has changed his tone. As for Mitt Romney, his exact position is unclear because no "reporter" is willing to do their job, and so far no citizen journalists have managed to fill the gap.
While some of the top Republican candidates have begun to change their positions to appeal to conservative voters, Democratic candidates remain firmly behind legalization of most illegal aliens. Still, they are almost apologetic as they make their pitches.
"You can be in front of a very, very rabid Democratic crowd, and there will be a lot of people in the room who do not agree with what I just said," former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina said earlier this month in a speech at the University of New Hampshire as he defended his support for legalization. "The very same people ... are strongly against the war and strongly for universal health care. So there is nowhere close to unanimity among Democrats about this issue."Then, we get this stupid-or-sly bit:
Advisers to several candidates said privately that [Bill Richardson] is in a good position to attack the other candidates on their support of building more fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.If they're serious, they're nuts. A fence on the border is always going to be much less controversial than deportations and the like. Of course, perhaps they're just trying to bait him.
As for Al Gore possibly being an immigration hawk, he was last in the Senate in 1993, around the same time that Barbara Boxer was suggesting sending the National Guard to the CA border, and Harry Reid was proposing an anti-illegal immigration bill that was on par with HR4427 (Sensenbrenner).
As for Bill Richardson, please go to his campaign appearances and ask him the questions here or here.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:07 PM
Rev. John Fife is dangerously wrong (sanctuary movement)
From this Amy Goodman/Democracy Now! show:[Reverend John Fife, the founder of the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s] was the minister of Tucson's Southside Presbyterian Church for 35 years. The church was the first to offer sanctuary to undocumented immigrants from El Salvador in 1981. That launched a movement that eventually provided safe haven to thousands of Central Americans in over 500 churches and synagogues nationwide. The government infiltrated his group to gather evidence on the movement. In 1986, Fife was among eight activists convicted on various alien-smuggling charges. He served five years' probation. In 2002, he helped to form the Samaritan Patrol, now part of No More Deaths.I would be somewhat surprised to learn that there's some sort of international law saying that countries don't have a right to have borders and to take advantage of natural protections. Should the EU be required to provide a ferry service from North Africa? Was the Great Wall of China a human rights violation against the Mongols?
...REV. JOHN FIFE: The movement continues in another human rights crisis on the border. This time the government has instituted a border enforcement policy -- walls and militarization and National Guard units -- that literally uses death and death in the desert of migrants as a deterrent, as a deterrent to other people trying to cross. That's a gross violation of human rights, this policy, this strategy of deterrence by death. And to resist that, we formed No More Deaths, that puts volunteers out in the desert to try to save as many lives as we can... ...We're seeing increased militarization, increased repression and, as a result, increased death and suffering on the border of some of the poorest and most desperate people who only come, want to come work and support their families, feed their children. This is criminal...
And, of course, the more "militarization", the fewer deaths: if illegal aliens knew there was no chance they could get in, none would bother trying to cross the desert. Fife should be working for more militarization and a 50' wall, if he really wants what he pretends to want. "No More Deaths" and others who constantly seek to subvert our immigration laws are partly responsible for the deaths that occur.
He goes on to promote "[c]omprehensive immigration reform legislation" and in general sounds like a cheap labor pimp, saying that "migration" is a "blessing and a privilege" and promoting remittances.
We're also informed that two volunteers with his organization (Daniel Strauss and Shanti Sellz) received the "Archbishop Romero Human Rights Prize" at the Rothko Chapel in Houston on Sunday.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 08:44 PM
Latest "compromise" amnesty bill scam from Dems, GOP (late Apr. 2007)
The latest attempt at coming up with a "comprehensive immigration reform" bill (aka amnesty) is sold to us by Julie Hirschfeld Davis of the AP.An intense round of closed-door talks among Cabinet officials and Senate Republicans and Democrats has reached a critical bargaining stage, congressional officials and lobbyists said. Senior lawmakers from opposite sides of the spectrum — led by liberal Sen. Edward Kennedy... and conservative Sen. Jon Kyl... — hope to draft a bipartisan measure as early as this week that could come to a Senate vote in May.In a move that shocks no one except (perhaps) Hirschfeld Davis, the White House says they'll lower the exorbitant fees from their plan. And:
...Democrats have backed off their opposition to requiring immigrants to return to their home countries before applying for citizenship, and are discussing so-called triggers that would have to be met before a new plan could take effect. Both are provisions they rejected last year...Note that under the Flake-Gutierrez scheme, former illegal aliens could start living here legally almost immediately; they'd only need to return home briefly (as little as one day) and they wouldn't have to do that right away. And, the triggers only involve spending and planning, not actual benchmarks.
...The White House declined to comment on details of the negotiations, saying Bush is working to strike a balance between the extremes of the immigration debate.
"Comprehensive reform should account for the immigrants that are already here, and do so in a way that is without amnesty and without animosity," said Scott Stanzel, a White House spokesman.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 07:52 PM
Pamela Constable grits teeth, covers "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" rally
Page B01 of today's Washington Post contains "'No Amnesty' Is Cry at D.C. Immigration Protest" by Pamela Constable (link). Now, maybe it's just me, but I get the feeling that she wanted to do a full-on hit piece, but she was told by her editors to try to tone it down just a tad. Of course, there might be another explanation for that grating sound I hear:The small but fervent crowd of protesters recited the Pledge of Allegiance and hummed along to "God Bless America." They hoisted neatly lettered placards that portrayed the United States as under siege. They cheered lustily as a parade of speakers, jabbing fingers toward the White House, demanded action to secure U.S. borders, enforce its laws and make English its official language.Was the reporter walking around asking people, "do you consider yourself prejudiced?" Certainly, one has to say "no" in that case, otherwise the hacks will say you had no reply. But, that should immediately be followed by asking them to rethink their assumptions, and to ask them why they never seem to ask that question of those who, for instance, carry banners suggesting that Americans go back to Europe. And, of course, it would be interesting to know which agents she's refering to and the circumstances of their cases, and whether she's verified what they're actually in prison for.
Many in the group of about 400 people had flown in from California and Arizona to join the rally in Lafayette Square yesterday against illegal immigration and to energize themselves for a week of lobbying on Capitol Hill as Congress begins to grapple once more with the volatile theme of immigration reform.
...The rally was sponsored by an organization in Georgia and coordinated with the national Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nonprofit advocacy group, and a number of radio talk show hosts who have championed the cause of stopping illegal immigration...
...A number of people in the crowd stressed that they were not against legal immigrants and did not consider themselves prejudiced. D.A. King, the rally coordinator, announced that "anyone with a different agenda against skin color or national origin, you are not welcome . . . and you will not be tolerated."...
...Much of yesterday's rhetoric was about improving border security, and several speakers drew cheers when they praised the U.S. Border Patrol, including several agents who are in prison on charges of killing illegal immigrants...
There's more on the week-long rally here, there are pictures from the event here, and one of the guys in the photo at the WaPo page says he was misidentified here.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:19 PM
Border Patrol agents: "no confidence" in Chief David Aguilar
From this:The leaders of the U.S. Border Patrol's rank-and-file agents have unanimously voted a no-confidence resolution against Chief David V. Aguilar, citing, among other things, his willingness to believe the "perjured allegations" of criminal aliens over his own agents.Even when defending his boss he might have made things worse, since it appears to be an open question whether they tried to cover it up or not.
The resolution won endorsement from all 100 top leaders of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), which represents all 11,000 of the U.S. Border Patrol's nonsupervisory field agents, and targeted Chief Aguilar's lack of support for field agents, several of whom have been prosecuted on civil rights grounds involving arrests of illegal aliens and drug-smuggling suspects.
[...they're upset Aguilar hasn't spoken out against the Ramos/Compean case... ...Aguilar defends himself through spokesman Xavier Rios...]
[Rios] said the two agents "shot a man and made an effort to cover it up."
...[The resolution] accused the chief of "shamelessly promoting amnesty and a greatly expanded guest-worker program as key elements of the solution to the illegal immigration crisis" despite intense opposition from front-line agents "who risk their lives enforcing our nation's immigration laws."
"Instead of maintaining their traditional neutral advisory role, these high-level managers have become advocates for the administration's ill-conceived political agenda that includes amnesty for millions of illegal aliens," Mr. Bonner said.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:09 PM
Tips for John Edwards re: $400 hair cut
John Edwards recently got two haircuts for the exorbitant price of $400 each, and tried to bill the campaign for them. Various "liberals" are now aghast at the coverage that this matter has received, particularly that from Maureen Dowd. For instance, this.
In an attempt to reach out, let me offer some of the talking points the Edwards campaign could use to defuse the situation. Expect to see Amanda Marcotte or similar offering these on CNN and FOX any moment now:
* "It's perfectly understandable why he'd want to have his makeup done by the Pink Sapphire Salon - they're the best Beverly Hills and Hollywood have to offer!"
* "It's also perfectly understandable why he'd want to pay hundreds extra to have his one-block-off Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills hair stylist come to him, rather than scheduling it as a stop along his route. John Edwards is a very busy man, and he has to look his best on a moment's notice."
* "John Edwards made so much money as a trial lawyer, that to him $400 is like $40 to you. You wouldn't think twice about spending $40 on a haircut, and likewise, John Edwards - Democrat for president - doesn't think twice about spending $400 on a haircut."
* "Furthermore, we've contacted the donor whose contribution was to have been spent on the haircut, one Chad Worthington of Quad Cities, Iowa. We're sure that Chad would have been proud to have had his hard-earned money spent making John Edwards look his best. And, we're even more sure that Chad would be proud of how the money was actually spent: on a desert tray for a Malibu conference where John Edwards - Democrat for president - spoke about the importance of stopping global warming."
* "Did you know that FEMA spent $6000 on a plasma TV? Next to that, a $400 haircut is nothing!"
* "Those in the public eye - such as John Edwards as well as actors and models - need to look their best. Otherwise, they won't be able to do their job as effectively as they could."
* "Within each of the Two Americas, there are many other Americas. Let me try to explain this as simply as possible so everyone can understand. Within the top-level topmost America, there are several other levels. John Edwards is not in the top of the top of the top-level America, he's only in the middle or even lower. There are plenty of people - such as Arab princes, the Sultan of Brunei, Larry Ellison, and the members of the Royal Family who could spend much, much more than $400 on a haircut."
Posted to Politics at 06:02 PM
NYT: "Giuliani Shifts His Tone on Immigration" (position stays the same)
Marc Santora and Sam Roberts of the New York Times offer the largely pointless "Candidate Giuliani Shifts His Tone on Immigration" (link). The most important word there is "tone"; his pro-illegal immigration stance hasn't changed and, of course, the NYT doesn't call him on it.
"First thing is, there should be no amnesty," Mr. Giuliani said in response to a reporter's question in Atlanta recently. Amnesty means varying things to various candidates. For Mr. Giuliani, it means no blanket forgiveness of illegal status... These days, when he says he opposes amnesty, Mr. Giuliani says he does not mean that the millions of people here illegally should be deported, but rather, that they should have to earn their citizenship and that nothing should be accorded automatically.
This is the fake non-amnesty amnesty: millions of prospective illegal aliens around the world will see it as an amnesty, meaning that that's exactly what it is. The NYT "reporters" could have done a public service by pointing that out; why didn't they?
We're also given a sales job and a misleading one at that:
Mr. Giuliani's approach is similar to the one proposed by President Bush, advocating an orderly flow of immigrants by providing a clear path to citizenship and thereby easing the pressure at the border.
Bush's latest proposal actually has a rather convoluted path. And, if the NYT is going to print things like that shouldn't they do it in some form of a quote? The way that's written makes it sound like the Bush/Giuliani approach is objectively valid, when it actually isn't.
Then, we're given the most-likely-false claim that Representative Tom Tancredo "railed against illegal immigrants."
Then, the back-handed praise designed to reduce support for the candidate:
It was a role he seemed to cherish, becoming a national leader for the cause of welcoming immigrants in the 1990s. To the surprise of many people in both parties, he also spoke passionately about helping those here illegally become citizens, advocating for $12 million to start a city agency that would assist those seeking citizenship. He vigorously defended the city's policy of forbidding city employees, including police and hospital workers, from asking a person's immigration status...
Then, they parrot Giuliani's strawman argument:
...As other anti-immigration movements spread across the country in 1990s, Mr. Giuliani consistently pushed back. "The anti-immigration issue that's now sweeping the country in my view is no different than the movements that swept the country in the past," he said in 1996. "You look back at the Chinese Exclusionary Act, or the Know-Nothing movement — these were movements that encouraged Americans to fear foreigners, to fear something that is different, and to stop immigration."
Posted to Immigration2007a at 08:49 PM
"Am I a libertarian?" Take the fun online quiz!
Many people are concerned that they, or someone they know, might be a libertarian. While the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) can be used to uncover libertarianism and other sociopathies, it takes a long time and requires expert interpretation.
Enter the World's Smallest Political Quiz!
This is an updated version of the classic that you may have taken already, and it can be used to determine whether you suffer from libertarianism, objectivism, dynamism, or other related afflictions.
Posted to WackyHumor at 05:56 PM
The Blogger's Code of Conduct revisited
The proposed "Blogger's Code of Conduct" [1] was once a simple affair, consisting of a few fairly broad provisions. Now, it's mushroomed into a multi-page, a al carte affair where you can "[c]reate your own code by selecting the modules you want". There are 10 modules, as well as a list of variants, discussions of the various variants and modules, and so on. Pretty soon Jimbo Wales might have to ask for more money to hire a Blogger's Code of Conduct administrator.I note also they have a "Criticisms" page [2], containing a highly questionable contribution called "Excessive quarreling in order to cause strife":
Many blogging discussions become heated because of excessive quarreling. Obviously, some people enjoy this, and enjoy "winding up" others. Many of the other issues could be rectified if blog commenters would stop this unwholesome activity.I have absolutely no idea who added that, and I have a bit of trouble figuring it out. Could they be serious? Could it be deep, extremely funny satire? If the latter, the author - someone who I have no idea they could be - is clearly a comedic genius. No, really: whoever wrote that is a true genius of satire. If only I knew who it was.
Since they will not, it's up to we bloggers to do it. I tried to add this to The Code, but it was stripped out after a few days. I'm afraid I cannot and will not support The Code until it is added back in. I will also be telling my thousands of daily visitors not to support the The Code.
We must have the ability to remove comments that are simply designed to get into an argument. If someone disagrees with something someone says, they can go say it on their own site. They have no right to expect me to print it for them, and I will refuse to do that and I will not only remove their comments I will ban them from commenting ever again.
[1] blogging.wikia.com/wiki/Blogger%27s_Code_of_Conduct
[2] blogging.wikia.com/wiki/Criticisms
Posted to Bloggage at 12:46 PM
Kathy Kiely/USA Today, hacks mislead about Gallup immigration poll
Various hacks (Oliver Willis [1], David Weigel [2], etc. [3]) were discussing the USA Today article "Public favors giving illegal immigrants a break" from Kathy Kiely a couple days ago. The Gallup poll wasn't available on their site at the time, a sure caution sign. While - somewhat to his credit - at least Weigel admitted that he hadn't seen the actual poll and there could be problems with it, all the hacks used the poll to support their pro-illegal immigration positions. They bought what USA Today was selling:While Congress and the White House remain divided over what to do with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the USA, a new poll shows the American public appears to have reached a consensus on the question.Now, Gallup has finally put the poll in question on their website here. It appears that they only asked three questions for this poll, the ones marked "2007 Apr 13-15". The first deals with skilled vs. chain legal immigration, and the other deals with whether the U.S. has made progress in dealing with illegal immigration. The relevant question was this:
A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken last weekend found that 78% of respondents feel people now in the country illegally should be given a chance at citizenship.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who is drafting legislation to grant illegal immigrants an opportunity to stay in the USA, said: "As with so many issues, the American people are ahead of Washington on immigration reform. They know that only a plan that offers a path to earned citizenship will fix our broken system."
Now thinking about immigrants who come to the United States illegally, which comes closest to your view about what the government policy should be toward illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States? Should the government --Adding 42 and 36 I come up with 78, so that's presumably the question they were refering to. I note that 62% (14+6+42) want illegal aliens to leave the U.S., at least temporarily. I guess that number was outweighed by the 78 number.
14%: "require illegal immigrants to leave the U.S. and not allow them to return"
6%: "require illegal immigrants to leave the U.S., but allow them to return temporarily to work"
42%: "require illegal immigrants to leave the U.S., but allow them to return and become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time"
36%: "allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States and become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time"
2%: No opinion
I note also that many's the slip twixt leaving the U.S. and meeting all the conditions to come back, but apparently that minor issue got ignored in USA Today's rush to support a massive amnesty. And, the fact that a majority of the 78% want illegal aliens to leave the U.S. first and only come back "if they meet certain requirements over a period of time" just seems to have been lost in the rush.
[1] oliverwillis.com/2007/04/conservatives_o.html
[2] reason.com/blog/show/119745.html
[3] thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/10565.html
thinkprogress.org/2007/04/19/thinkfast-april-19-2007
Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:27 AM
Bill Richardson not yet supporting Alberto Gonzalez ouster... because he's Hispanic
Bill Richardson has shown once again that he's completely unfit for any political office. From this:Presidential candidate and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) said Monday the reason he has not called for the removal of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is that the two both have Hispanic backgrounds.Needless to say, if Richardson were white - or even black or Asian - he couldn't get away with making such a comment. In Richardson's case, the usual suspects will downplay it or change the subject.
Richardson, in an interview with The Hill, said he is "pretty close" to making such a call, but added that he is reluctant to do so before Gonzales's Senate testimony despite the high-profile involvement of New Mexico in the U.S. attorneys scandal.
[Richardson says] "The only reason I'm not there is because he's Hispanic, and I know him and like him... It's because he's Hispanic. I'm honest... I want to give him the benefit of the doubt."
Recall that he said the following back in 1995:
"We have to band together and that means Latinos in Florida, Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, South Americans - we have to network better - we have to be more politically minded - we have to put aside party and think of ourselves as Latinos, as Hispanics, more than we have in the past."He also has/had an unpaid job with the Organization of American States as their Special Envoy to 'promote dialogue on issues... such as immigration and free trade'.
4/20/07 UPDATE: This morning, Richardson appeared on the Bill Press show and called for Gonzo to go (1.4 Meg MP3 link). Press referenced the Hill interview - without refering to the ethnic solidarity remarks - and Richardson now says:
"I believe he should resign... ...I like the guy, Bill. You know, he's a fellow Hispanic, he came up from very humble means... He's an able guy, but it's obvious that he wasn't engaged in his department and he couldn't answer the testimony in the Senate, and I waited until the Senate to make any view that he should or shouldn't resign... ...The Justice Department should be above politics..."
Posted to Politics at 10:53 PM
Dr. Richard Land plays Bush-style word games with "amnesty"
Dr. Richard Land - president of the Southern Baptist Convention - recently came out in support of some vague form of "comprehensive immigration reform". Now, he feels the need to clarify his remarks. Don't want anyone to get the wrongs ideas or anything:News reports in both the national print and electronic media have unfortunately sown some confusion over where Southern Baptists, and I, stand on the question of immigration reform...That's simply a restatement of the now-standard line from president Bush that only "automatic citizenship" is "amnesty". Both Bush and Land are simply playing cutesy little games. The bottom line is that what Land supports will be perceived as amnesty by millions of prospective illegal aliens around the world. They won't focus on the "difficult" provisions, they'll focus on the "come here illegally and wait for the next amnesty" side of things.
The term "comprehensive legislation" is not code for amnesty, no matter what my critics contend. Webster defines amnesty as the "act of an authority (as a government) by which pardon is granted to a large group of individuals." Amnesty is wiping a transgressor's record clean -- it is a free ride...
Land conducts a radio program on Saturdays (richardlandlive.com; 888-Faith 56/888-324-8456); please call in to the program and help his congregation understand how he's wrong.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:41 PM
Tami Abdollah, Howard Blume/LAT on McIntyre/KABC/charter school lawsuit
Tami Abdollah and Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times take a "slightly different" tack on the lawsuit filed by Academia Semillas del Pueblo against Doug McIntyre of KABC ("L.A. charter school sues radio station", link).
They imply that trying to expose this school is just shock-jockery:
...Talk radio hosts have long taken advantage of 1st Amendment free speech protections that give them broad latitude... ...The lawsuit follows the firing of radio host Don Imus last week over a racist and sexist remark, which set off a large-scale debate over whether some talk-show hosts go too far... "Shock jocks" are not new, said Marty Kaplan of USC's Annenberg School for Communication. "The more they could make your jaw drop... the more their ratings went up - it has since become a standard genre."
Kaplan is also the director of "the Norman Lear Center for the study of entertainment" and he contributes to the Huffington Post (martyk *at* rcf.usc.edu). And, the Los Angeles Times has a history of covering up for extremists (ANSWER, Antonio Villaraigosa), so it shouldn't be surprising that they'd try to imply that investigative reporting is just "shock".
Then, there's this:
The lawsuit also quotes McIntyre as allegedly saying: "Aztecs butchered and ate Spanish invaders. I wonder if they're teaching that at ASDP." ...KABC would neither confirm nor deny whether McIntyre made those statements.
From that, the reader is supposed to assume that that statement is somehow false. Actually, a search for the exact phrase "Aztecs butchered, ate Spanish invaders" brings up over a hundred results; that was the title of a Reuters story from August 2006 (link, link).
Oh, the horror: a "shock jock" reading a Reuters story on the air.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:46 AM
Doug McIntyre (KABC) sued by LAUSD "reconquista" charter school
The Los Angeles charter school Academia Semillas del Pueblo - funded by the National Council of La Raza and which allegedly teaches a "reconquista" curriculum - is suing KABC-AM radio host Doug McIntyre for slander.While I haven't seen it, the description makes the lawsuit seem incredibly weak:
"McIntyre implemented a premeditated scheme to bring down the school at all costs because the school educated predominately ... Latino-indigenous children in a non-Western European format," according to the lawsuit.About the only possible slanderous thing I can see is if there is another school that's even lower in the rankings, but see below.
According to the lawsuit, McIntyre began criticizing several aspects of the school last May, including its funding, curriculum, demographics, administrators and educational statistics, all in order to increase his show's ratings.
McIntyre exploited a combination of anti-immigration sentiment and the nation's fear of Islamic terrorists to "create a racist fury against Latino school children, teachers, administrators and staff at the school," according to the lawsuit.
McIntyre's remarks included, "Is this a reconquista school?," "This school is ranked the lowest of the low in the LAUSD and in the state of California" and "Aztecs butchered and ate Spanish invaders. I wonder if they're teaching that at ASDP," according to the lawsuit.
McIntyre also said Aguilar's job was to "keep his school, his madrasa school, open so they can train the next generation of Aztec revolutionaries," according to the lawsuit.What exactly is the figurative meaning of "madrasa", and doesn't it apply in this case? Likewise with "revolutionaries".
The radio host also used "code words" aimed at a target audience to rile up listeners and create a backlash against the school and Aguilar, the lawsuit stated.That might be something else, but it's not slander. Of course, there's nothing wrong with creating a "backlash", and I doubt whether McIntyre encouraged his listeners to commit violent acts.
As a result, the school received many threats of violence, including a bomb threat that caused an evacuation of the school and is currently under investigation by the FBI, the lawsuit stated.
On the other hand, the man who allegedly tried to run down KABC reporter Sandy Wells will have a pretrial hearing next month and could get six years in prison.
In related news, the school's charter was reapproved on March 29:
In a March 13 report on Academia Semillas del Pueblo, the staff cited low test scores, unconventional instruction and potentially conflicting school governance. About two weeks later, facing growing political pressure from former City Councilman Richard Alatorre, former Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg and others, the staff changed course.They reversed their decision supposedly because they discovered that the school's program requires seven or eight years to show results:
Under the five-year renewal conditions, Semillas must meet benchmarks that for three years would place it at least at the median of comparable schools in terms of state and national standards. Data show Semillas ranks lowest among similar schools.Related:
More on the NCLR-linked racial separatist charter school (LAUSD)
LAUSD: alleged separatist school abiding by charter
Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:59 PM
CA School Superintendent Jack O'Connell is a politically-correct fool
Speaking on the John Ziegler radio program some months ago, California School Superintendent Jack O'Connell sang the "diversity is our strength" song, but also mentioned that students from a certain ethnic background don't place a high premium on female education. Despite bring pressed a few times, he refused to give a hint as to which group he was refering to.He's still humming past failure:
O'Connell also waded into the immigration issue Tuesday [in a talke with the editorial board of the NC Times], saying public schools are required by law to educate any school-aged child in the state, regardless of immigration status.I'm no education expert, and I fully realize that many "studies" are simply stories fashioned around an agenda, and I realize that other factors may be involved, but it didn't take much work to find out that we've got a major problem.
"Twenty-five years ago there was a federal court decision that said, 'They're here,' " O'Connell said, emphasizing the federal mandates that require the state to provide a free, equal and appropriate public education for all.
Educating every student, regardless of origin, is not only required by law, but it's good for the state, O'Connell said.
"There's a reason we are the sixth- or seventh- largest economy in the world as a state, and that is our diversity," O'Connell said. "I think that's a strength."
In the "Smartest State" chart, CA is at #47, in the friendly company of Nevada, Arizona, Mississippi, Alabama, Alaska, and Louisiana.
Another study was more favorable: CA was only at #34. The 2003 "National Assessment of Educational Progress" apparently didn't rank other states, but doesn't give CA high marks.
Continuing his idiocy:
One of the best ways to meet the needs of minority students in cities such as Oakland and Los Angeles where "more than 100 languages are spoken" is to hire minority teachers from the same background, O'Connell said.Of course, that will also have the effect of retarding assimilation, as well as helping create race-, ethnicity-, and country or state of origin-based centers of political power, but don't expect O'Connell to either be able to figure that out or to oppose it.
"If you want to understand the culture, the traditions, the language, the buying characteristics of those countries, hire people from there --- and they're already here," O'Connell said.
Related:
20% of California high school seniors can't pass junior high test
"English-immersion foes hold children back"
Posted to California at 01:52 PM
Official: EU opposed to border fence
From this:European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Tuesday criticized U.S. plans to extend barriers along its border with Mexico, saying immigrants should not be treated like criminals.This is probably part pan-Hispanic, and part what you'd expect someone involved in a transnational organization to say. An official from a somewhat forced, sovereignty-sapping organization probably isn't inclined to support the sovereignty of the U.S. On the other hand, part of it might also be an attempt to weaken the U.S. by encouraging even more illegal immigration.
"A wall that separates one country from another is not something that I like or that the European Union members like," Solana said at a news conference in Mexico City. "We don't think walls are reasonable instruments to stop people from crossing into a country."
The EU believes immigrants should be treated "like people, not like criminals," he said...
In any case, it's great to know what he thinks, and on behalf of Americans everywhere I thank him for his treasured input.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 10:03 PM
Hillary Clinton's Very Bad DREAM
Some U.S. citizens won't be able to go to college if Hillary Clinton gets her way. She supports an anti-American bill called the "DREAM Act" which gives college discounts to illegal aliens. One of its major side-effects is taking college discounts away from U.S. citizens.
There are only so many college discounts available, and there will always be more applicants than discounts.
No matter how you look at it, every discount that goes to an illegal alien is one that won't go to a U.S. citizen.
Don't feel too bad for illegal aliens: they can always appeal to their home countries for college help. U.S. citizens should be able to appeal to their country for college help, but all Hillary Clinton wants to give them is the shaft.
To help her see the error of her ways, please go to her campaign appearances and ask her about this bill specifically.
Here's the video version:
Posted to Immigration2007a at 12:28 PM
Laugh: Cynthia Tucker wins Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
Cynthia Tucker isn't the worst commentator on immigration matters, and that's only partly because she mostly comments on other things. Even if she wrote about it more, she'd have to work hard to compete with Ruben Navarrette and others.
But, she does have one distinction the other hacks don't have: a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
Tucker won for her "courageous, clear-headed columns that evince a strong sense of morality." Tucker, the editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a syndicated columnist, has written often about race and immigration. Her newspaper's entry letter described her as "more realist than optimist."
Other winners include L.A. Weekly food critic Jonathan Gold; a few words he wrote - and which I saw pasted up on the wall of a restaurant in Koreatown several years ago - have been a constant source of bemusement for me. More about him at some future point.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 11:47 PM
What exactly is Harper's Magazine thinking?
Good ol' Andrew Sullivan links to the short article "Of Republicans and Banana-Republicans" [1] which is somewhat similar to what I was saying in September 2005's "Are we headed towards a Banana Republic?"
I might link directly to the article instead of using the plain text version below, except I saw this interesting collection of (direct, non-javascript) links at the bottom of the page. There's nothing wrong about that, but one wonders exactly why a magazine published since the 1850s is linking to sites like these:
[1] harpers.org/archive/2007/04/horton-republicans-banana-republicans
Posted to Bloggage at 10:50 PM
GoDaddy review: very, very bad
GoDaddy.com is a leading web host and domain registrar, and I strongly advise staying as far away from them as possible. There are dozens of reasons here, and here's my personal tale. Earlier today I was trying to diagnose why a script I wrote was only working intermittently for someone else.
Bottom line: it wasn't a problem with my script, it was a special feature with GoDaddy's hosting that their "support" completely failed to tell me about.
Details: I was pretty sure there wasn't anything wrong with the script itself, yet it only worked once every three or four times. The script was designed to pull XML files from Amazon webservices via REST, and even when I changed it to pull Sun's or IBM's homepage it didn't work well. I called GoDaddy "support" and asked them to take a look at it. No matter how many times I asked (very many), they flat out refused to look at it, or even tell me whether something could be wrong with their PEAR setup. I then tried with Curl, and that didn't work either. Their "advanced" team put a mailer script in the user's account and, after determining that that worked, informed me that the system was functioning properly and there was nothing else they could or would do.
Finally, I did a search for 'godaddy curl', and found this and this document:
help.godaddy.com/article.php?article_id=288
As it turns out, GoDaddy uses a proxy with Curl. Wouldn't you think their "support" - after I explained to them what my script was doing and especially after their "advanced" team had been informed of the problems - should have told me about this? What would almost any other host do?
My GoDaddy review: very, very bad.
Posted to Miscellania at 02:14 PM
Talk radio hosts, listeners head to DC to oppose amnesty
From this:More than 30 talk radio hosts and hundreds of their listeners are scheduled to converge on the nation's capital next week to lobby against comprehensive immigration reform measures that would offer what critics views as "amnesty" to illegal immigrants.The hosts include L.A.'s John and Ken (KFI 640 AM).
The conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and San Diego radio talk show host Roger Hedgecock are sponsoring a marathon of talk radio and Capitol Hill lobbying, dubbed "Hold Their Feet to the Fire 2007."
The four-day event will kick off on Sunday, April 22, with a rally near the White House. From Monday through Wednesday, 36 radio hosts will broadcast from the Phoenix Park Hotel near the U.S. Capitol while an estimated 700 volunteers will visit elected officials and urge them to oppose what they consider to be "amnesty."
Posted to Immigration2007a at 02:09 PM
Goal: tie U.S. Attorneys firings to immigration (Dems hoist on own petard)
I can't do everything, and I've completely failed to try to tie in the firings of several U.S. Attorneys to immigration matters. For instance, here's Phyllis Schlafly tying the firings into the Ramos/Compean case, suggesting the Bush should fire U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton as well.
And, just today:
This article [link] from the LATimes today suggests that immigration — and unfunded policy mandates over it — may be a real undercurrent in AG Gonzales's testimony tomorrow. Essentially, it suggests that some of the fired U.S. attorneys fell out of favor due to failures to be aggressive enough on immigration enforcement, but that perhaps the administration has good reason not to want to press that point too far (i.e., as a "performance-based" reason for the firings) because, the U.S. attorneys countered, the Justice Department (and, derivatively, the administration) did not provide adequate resources to carry out an aggressive enforcement policy. That is, the U.S. attorneys flap may be careening into the immigration debate in a way that will not be useful to advocates of "comprehensive immigration reform" whose burden is to convince the public that the government is serious about border enforcement.
Needless to say, discussing immigration matters makes Democratic leaders a bit uncomfortable as well. I suggest trying to increase their discomfort level, forcing them to choose between continuing to promote what seems to be a scandal and facing up to the fact that we have borders.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 01:56 PM
Casa de Maryland provides "safety plan", legal advice for illegal aliens
Casa de Maryland is an odious taxpayer-funded group that operates day laborer hangouts and takes other actions to support illegal immigration.
Now, in collaboration with the Detention Watch Network and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyer's Guild they offer a pamphlet entitled "WARNING! Protect yourself from Immigration raids!" (PDF file). One of the authors appears to be one Julie Dahlstrom.
To a certain extent, this might not be that objectionable. After all, even illegal aliens are protected by various laws, and some of the advice in there applies to legal immigrants. However, as could be expected from the sources, they crank it up a few notches and reveal that their goal is helping illegal aliens stay here. Along the way, they feature cute graphics of big-eyed poor defenseless Hispanics being oppressed by law officers, all of whom appear to be either white or black.
And, there's the section "Develop a safety plan":
Talk with your co-workers to see if they are willing to make a collective decision that everyone - regardless of their immigration status - will remain silent and ask to speak with an attorney in the event of a workplace raid...
And, the "Reforma Migratoria" and "Opportunities for all" banners on the final page are a bit of a giveaway that their concerns involve helping illegal immigrants stay here rather than, for instance, encouraging them to return home.
Previously:
Bergen County Community Action Program: coffee, donuts for illegal aliens
Casa de Maryland spokesman: an illegal alien?
Gustavo Torres/Case de Maryland refuses to say Pledge of Allegiance
Gramscians demand ouster of Maryland comptroller
Casa de Maryland: funding
DC Metro bilingual signs and illegal alien advocates
Illegal aliens, supporters to protest in Washington
Casa of Maryland helps illegal aliens get driver's licenses
Casa de Maryland might soon get big surprise
CASA of Maryland worried Sensenbrenner bill will shut their day laborer centers
"[Maryland] delegates seek cost of illegals"
Maryland to be sued over driver's licenses; AP not telling whole truth
Posted to Immigration2007a at 09:24 PM
Bank of America loses contract over credit card for illegal aliens (Gaston County, NC)
From this:A controversial credit card program has led Gaston County leaders to reject Bank of America as the county's bank.The runner-up in the bidding, Wachovia, doesn't have such a credit card, but they do accept Mexico's Matricula Consular card. Hopefully they'll be able to find a bank that doesn't do either.
Gaston commissioners on Thursday declined to award a four-year contract for banking services to the Charlotte bank -- a decision that could cost the county about $120,000...
...[The credit-cards-for-illegal-aliens] aspect alarmed Gaston commissioners, who didn't want to support a company that supports illegal immigrants, said Mickey Price, the board's chairman and a pharmacy supervisor for CVS.
"Nobody, to my knowledge, wants to go with them," he said.
Posted to Immigration2007a at 03:45 PM
Andrew Sullivan Syndrome (Don Imus)
Regarding the Don Imus matter, Andrew Sullivan says:
...Punishing someone for calling college women "whores" - especially those who have beaten the odds and are role models for other back girls and women - is not a new step in political correctness. It's applying a very old American standard of fairness and decency, which now applies to all Americans, regardless of race or gender. This was the voice of mainstream America speaking...
And, in this post he prints a letter from a reader implying that those concerned about double-standards do so because they want to use the "n-word".
Obviously, the letter writer has made an obvious error, which Sully - oddly enough - either didn't notice or didn't think his readers would. Namely, perhaps the issue is not so much that they want to use the "n-word", but that they wonder why the same punishment meted out to errant white people is not meted out to the endless string of blacks and Hispanics who've said far worse things than what Imus did.
Just as obviously, the Sully's "standard of fairness and decency" do not apply to errant People of Color. If they did, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would have been driven from public life years ago.
For another example, the chairman of the California Democratic Party (Art Torres) said this in the 90s:
"[Proposition] 187 was the last gasp of white America in California."
If he said that today, would he be Imus'ed? I highly doubt it. The media would cover it up and if that didn't work they'd try to downplay it.
Torres even has a bit of an Imus connection; currently at cadem.org we read the following:
Imus Off The Air... Thank you to the thousands of Americans who spoke out! Because so many people expressed their outrage by taking action, such as signing our boycott petition, CBS has fired Don Imus, sending the strongest possible message that demeaning any group in the name of entertainment will not be tolerated.Chairman Torres would like to share this letter of thanks he received from Elizabeth Badger-Bartels, CEO/Founder of the Minority Outreach Committee.
I'm sure Sully's "standard of fairness and decency" will apply the next time a Democrat, "liberal", or leftist says something far worse than anything Imus ever said.
Posted to MultiCultiCult at 08:28 PM
McCarthyWatch: Florida Hispanic Reps. outraged about inoffensive joke about illegal aliens
State Representative Don Brown sent an email to colleagues with the following joke:"Don't forget to pay your taxes -- 12-million illegal aliens are depending on you!"Now, his illegal immigration-supporting racial demagogue colleagues are outraged: