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Hillary Clinton frog punching allusion confuses excitable Andrew Sullivan

Most people agree that the three lowest forms of comedy are sarcasm, stand-up, and making fun of Andrew Sullivan. The latter is also rather difficult since he makes a lot of posts, and all of them are pretty stupid.

However, just to fulfill our quota, consider a recent one where Ever Excitable Andy highlights this interview:

ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: Facing an increasingly improbable candidacy for the White House, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., showed no signs of stopping on the trail in South Dakota and cited an old Arkansas, saying in an off-handed reference to her campaign: "you can't tell how far a frog will jump until you punch him."

Sully's post on the interview consists entirely of that quote, her name linked to the interview, and the title "Weirdest Campaign Quote Of The Day" (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/05/weirdest-campai.html).

As for what exactly he thinks of the quote we aren't informed, but it's probably not too good. He probably doesn't understand or have much interest in "down home" sayings such as that, nor do many other Obama supporters, partially explaining his results in certain states.

Nor does Sully probably understand where it probably came from: "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain. Consider this excerpt:

He ketched a frog one day, and took him home, and said he cal'lated to educate him; and so he never done nothing for three months but set in his back yard and learn that frog to jump. And you bet you he did learn him, too. He'd give him a little punch behind, and the next minute you'd see that frog whirling in the air like a doughnut--see him turn one summerset, or maybe a couple, if he got a good start, and come down flat-footed and all right, like a cat.

So much for Sully's book lernin'! Oh well, he's heading back to Europe anyway, let them deal with him.

Posted to Politics at 12:38 PM

Janet Napolitano meets with Vicente Fox, discusses immigration

Earlier this week, Arizona governor Janet Napolitano met with Vicente Fox to discuss immigration matters. Two Mexican newspaper reports are linked from here, and neither go into much detail on what was discussed, and, while the conversation was supposedly friendly but "firm", it's not difficult to imagine that the two leaders saw eye to eye on lots of things. There's certainly nothing wrong with a governor meeting with a former president of another country, but the question is whether Napolitano was representing the interests of the majority of Arizonans or simply the interests of those who profit from massive immigration such as businesses and the Democratic Party.

Fox also mentioned again a joint venture between his "Fox Center" and the Rand Corporation.

Posted to Politics at 11:02 AM

Illegal alien farmworker dies from heat; cheap labor liberals, conservatives partly responsible (UFW, Susan Ferriss/SacBee)

Susan Ferriss of the Sacramento Bee offers "Teen farmworker's death, probed as heat-related, stirs outcry" (link) about an illegal alien who died after working in a vineyard near Stockton:

California occupational safety authorities are investigating the girl's death in Lodi as a heat-related fatality. The United Farm Workers Union is calling her treatment an "egregious" violation of safety regulations put into effect three years ago after three farmworkers and a construction worker died of the heat.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was apparently a supporter of legislation related to working in the heat, and he attended the funeral and said in a statement that the incident "should have been prevented" and then said "we have to make sure this doesn't happen again".

Unfortunately, both the UFW's and Arnold's support for illegal immigration played a role; if they opposed illegal activity she wouldn't have been in the situation in the first place or she would have been here legally and thus would be much less susceptible to alleged abuses. Despite that, none of the usual suspects will take this opportunity to support only legal labor. Note also that some business groups have even highlighted non-American labor being able to work in the heat.

For more, in the comments on the SacBee article, mmike2885 says:

Glad the Governator showed up at her funeral. Great Press and Photo Ops for him. Kinda reminds me of how Dr. Phil shows up at hospitals and jails to capitalize on peoples misery.

And, from this:

The creation of a serf class in this country is an abomination and a return to the age of the Robber Barons. Democrats and Republicans are equally guilty of this for different and equally short sighted reasons. I oppose it. Maria is one of the reasons I oppose it. You enablers killed this girl, face it, this is what you advocate tolerance of. I keep trying to tell you that there are real serious problems with your tolerance of illegal labor and you keep pooh-poohing. I keep trying to tell you that you harm everyone involved in labor for the benefit of plutocracy and you call me names. That's fine, you go there and tell Maria's family all the benefits of a disenfranchised serf class.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 10:44 AM

Dave McKenna/Washington City Paper: the most ludicrous immigration article ever? (Cheap Seats)

Dave McKenna writes the Cheap Seats column for the Washington City Paper, and he offers what just might be the most ludicrous immigration article ever here: washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=35635

It's like the "crops rotting in the fields" articles which feature growers whining about not having as many illegal aliens as they did before. But, it's about apparently legal workers in a different job. As a bit of a mind-twister, try and guess which job it is (answer below).

Now, since there are probably dozens of articles vying for that title, and since McKenna is a nobody, and since he calls Lou Dobbs "the thinking man's white supremacist", I'm not going to give him the award. I'll just suggest that if you live in the DC area and you support our laws, you avoid patronizing local merchants whose advertisements appear in that paper and you inform them of what you're doing.

And, for those who want to know just how ludicrous Dave McKenna is, here's a snippet from his article:

As the swimming season opened over Memorial Day weekend, area pool managers were facing the most severe lifeguard-supply shortage in memory—perhaps the worst ever, says Amy Kroloff of Century Pools.

Yes, that's right, the vitally important lifeguard shortage.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 09:19 PM

"Mexico's Ghost Towns" (from leftwing In These Times)

The leftwing In These Times offers "Mexico's Ghost Towns", a discussion of how massive immigration to the U.S. has hollowed out the interior of Mexico and turned some small towns into virtual ghost towns:

Cerrito del Agua, population 3,000, has no paved roads — either leading to it or within it. No restaurants, no movie theaters, no shopping malls. In fact, the small town located in the central Mexican state of Zacatecas has no middle schools, high schools or colleges; no cell phone service, no hospital. Its surrounding fields are dry and untended. The streets are empty.

The explosion of emigration to the United States over the past 15 years has emptied much of central Mexico, even reaching into southernmost states like Chiapas and Yucatan. But it has simply devastated Zacatecas, a dry, rolling agricultural region located about 400 miles northwest of Mexico City...

Note also that the author (John Gibler) is a "Global Exchange Media fellow". I believe that refers to Susan Medea Benjamin's Global Exchange.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 01:24 PM

Chris Bowers/Open Left promotes John McCain "Googlebomb"

Chris Bowers of Open Left has started a project called "Searching for John McCain" in which he wants bloggers and others to create a "Googlebomb" designed to get MSM articles that have negative information on John McCain to the top of that search engine's results: openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6044

The approach is supposedly more sophisticated than his similar effort of a couple years ago, in that he's selected nine articles that people can link.

However, there are a few things he forgot to mention. Such as the fact that Google will probably take this into account since there are only nine articles involved and the results could be modified to keep those in their current location through some means. In any case, Google probably has filters in place that recognize blatant attempts to skew their results, as can be seen in the comments left at the Open Left link.

And, he wants people to link McCain's name in comments, but what he doesn't realize is that most sites put nofollow tags on links in comments or elsewhere, as I well know. So, in those cases that might be counter-productive, leading to the pages where those comments are left having a higher rank than the ones Bowers wants. Note that Open Left and (last I checked) MyDD.com are two sites that don't use nofollow tags, so if anyone has an account there they could take advantage of that.

And, while large numbers of people are no doubt searching for "John McCain" right now, many more are searching for his last name plus a certain topic, and the like. Those are less competitive, and someone searching for things like that want specific information that they might be using in a decision. Bowers offers nothing for those people.

Now, there's certainly the risk that someone from his side will read this and modify Bowers' grand scheme, but this site doesn't support McCain in the first place and in the second those who oppose Obama can play the same game, only better.

For instance, a search for obama immigration has that post in 34th place, and with a few links - with varied link text such as obama immigration position or barack obama on immigration - it could go higher and I'd respond by putting even more negative information in that post.

Sadly, a search for questions for obama only gets that page at almost 200th place, but with more links - and once again with varied link text - it could go higher.

So, let's all start to link, and if Obama opponents take my advice they should be much more effective that Bowers would like.

Posted to Politics at 12:47 PM

A challenge for Drew Carey/Reason Magazine (and other open borders hacks)

Washed-up TV comic Drew Carey is now working on a joint venture with the pseudo-libertarians at Reason Magazine [1]. In various video segments he presents the "libertarian" view of things, and the latest is called "The Cost of Securing Our Southern Border" (reason.tv/video/show/434.html). Like everyone else, I didn't bother to watch it, but I feel safe in asserting that there are many things he forgot to mention. This snippet is provided:

"One way out of this mess would be to simply allow peaceful workers to enter our country through legal ports of entry... If we did that we could stimulate our economy, bring a huge underground labor market out into the open and we could put unscrupulous smugglers out of business. More importantly, we'd free up border patrol resources that could be used to fight criminals and terrorism."

The last part is just the busboys canard, and there are other things wrong with his statement.

But, to make it easier, let's just concentrate on one unanswered question he might consider trying to answer:

While individual workers might be "peaceful", as a group they form a political power bloc for foreign governments. In other words, for very little gain (cheap labor is cheap for a reason), we'd be giving a foreign government even more political power inside the U.S. than they have now.

Does Carey deny that the Mexican government and others have been able to obtain political power inside the U.S.? If not, does he think giving a foreign government such power is acceptable? And, if the answer to that is also no, what exactly does he intend to do to prevent them from obtaining even more power under his scheme? Will Carey have any sort of answer, or, if he ever discussed that issue would he just answer with one of his cheap jokes?

Suggested Starting Points:

* Mexico's Undiplomatic Diplomats (by Heather MacDonald, link)

* Felipe Calderon of Mexico says they're going to be working with U.S. non-profits to push their agenda inside the U.S.

* Calderon encouraged Mexicans inside the U.S. to push his country's agenda to Congress

* Mexico is linked to the ACLU

* Those linked to the Mexican government were involved in organizing 2006's immigration marches

* Mexico is linked to one of the lawyers against the fence.

[1] Reason is a pseudo-libertarian magazine because their support for massive and/or illegal immigration has the ultimate impact of leading to more power for the far-left, leading to a greater welfare state, leading to more privacy restrictions, leading to more corporate subsidies, and so forth. When you actually look at the ultimate impact of what they support, they might as well name Nancy Pelosi as their editor.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 11:29 AM

Betsy Rubiner/Time offers pro-illegal immigration propaganda (Agriprocessors, Iowa)

Betsy Rubiner of Time Magazine [1] offers a slab of pro-illegal immigration propaganda called "After Immigrant Raid, Iowans Ask Why" (link). The raid in question occured at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville earlier this month, and her article could have been written by that company or anyone else who supports profiting from illegal immigration. The only mention of those who support our laws is in a highly negative light. The reader who thinks she's in any way a credible source of information should research the raid using the last link, then compare it to her article.

It starts with this:

In this small northeastern Iowan town surrounded by newly planted cornfields, a middle-aged white woman walks into the local Guatemalan restaurant with her arm around a Hispanic child who is sobbing because she can't find her mother. After conferring with a restaurant worker, the woman takes the child nearby to St. Bridget's, a small 1970's-era brick Catholic church on a quiet tree-lined street that has become command central for what people in this community of 2,273 describe as a "disaster relief response."

Then, it continues on like that, continuing to try to pull the readers' heartstrings in order to convince them to support illegal activity. Those who support our laws are smeared:

Anti-immigrant sentiment and ethnic tensions are not unknown in this unusually diverse Iowa small town, whose residents include descendants of German and Norwegian Lutherans and Irish Catholics as well as more recent arrivals — Latin Americans, Ukrainians and Hasidic Jews drawn here by the plant. A few angry people have called the church, complaining about its care of "criminals." But volunteers like Ardie Kuhse, 60, shrug this off. "Yes, they were illegal. But they were working. Is that a crime? They're a part of our community," says Kuhse, near tears as she recalls trying to calm children after the raid.

Obviously, it is a crime, but don't expect a hack like Rubiner to point that out to her. The last paragraph gives us their demands:

Braced for months of waiting and uncertainty, many Postville residents are certain about one thing: "We have to have comprehensive immigration reform so these people who desire to work can. We have to have a way to welcome them," says Sister McCauley. "When people are so hurt, we have to take a look at the law."

"Reform" is, of course, a code phrase for amnesty.

[1] From a bio for her book "Fun with the Family in Iowa: Hundreds of Ideas for Day Trips with the Kids":

Betsy Rubiner has written for "Parenting, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Better Homes & Gardens," "Time," and other publications. As a newspaper reporter, she launched children's beats, most recently in the" Des Moines Register. "She is a mother of two and has lived in Des Moines since 1990.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 11:12 AM

Lindsey Graham denies NAU, smears Buddy Witherspoon (Beth Brotherton/WYFF; Robert Morris/Myrtle Beach Online)

Buddy Witherspoon is a dentist from Columbia, South Carolina who's challenging Senator Lindsay Graham, and he's apparently basing his campaign around opposition to illegal immigration and also opposition to the North American Union.

Rather than asking for evidence of plans for a NAU and doing research, Beth Brotherton from WYFF News 4 turned to Graham:

"I think most Americans would find it hard to believe, it is hard to believe, a baseless Internet rumor... People on the Internet talk about a highway built from Mexico to Canada, the countries merging, a secret plan to create a new currency, I don't know where these things come from... But the U.S., Canada and Mexico merging into one country is nothing to worry about."

(It doesn't help that Witherspoon refers to the "trans-NAFTA highway" rather than the term everyone else uses, "NAFTA Superhighway".)

A slightly less disreputable article is from Robert Morris/Myrtle Beach Online, who offers "Graham foe against any merger with Mexico" (link):

"They could be carrying illegal aliens, they could be carrying smart bombs, they could be carrying munitions or they could be carrying drugs," Witherspoon said, although he never professed a firm belief in any such union. "We don't know. But if that happens, you might as well kiss your sovereignty goodbye."

Similar theories were promoted by Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul, leading to an article called "Wrong Paul" on the nonpartisan Factcheck.org. That article calls the highway a "myth" and states that there are no plans for such a union.

Graham campaign manager Scott Farmer said Thursday night he was unaware of any secret plan or government conspiracy to merge the three countries into one, or any new international currency intended to replace the dollar.

The referenced article (factcheck.org/elections-2008/wrong_paul.html) is from Joe Miller and it's a stock dose of mockery and intellectual dishonesty. Surely, if Robert Morris were interested in the truth he could have mentioned that other sites offer supporting evidence.

Posted to NAU at 04:30 PM

"North American Model Parliament" meets (Canada, students, North American Forum on Integration)

From this:

A simulation of a North American Parliament, designed to "develop the participants' sense of belonging to North America" and "and promote the creation of North American academia networks" is currently taking place in Montreal.

100 selected students from universities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico have been selected to take on the roles of Legislators, Journalists and Lobbyists, in the fourth annual Triumvirate of the North American Forum on Integration...

...The Triumvirate even has its own mock newspaper, operated by the students playing the roles of journalists. According to NAFI, the TrilatHerald, "covers the developments and evolution of the debates, the press conferences, and interviews with conference speakers, legislators and lobbyists."

This highlights the importance the architects of the North American union agenda place upon the role of the media. Public perception is key, reporting on the movement must be strictly framed to project a positive image and this is why the role of journalists is placed on a par with that of legislators and lobbyists by the organizers...

The board of directors of NAFI includes Stephen Blank, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Robert Pastor, vice chairman of the CFR Task Force on North America and professor and director of the Center for North American Studies at American University...

This year's event's homepage is fina-nafi.org/eng/triumvirat08/default.asp. For last year's event, see this.

Posted to NAU at 12:25 PM

Geraldo Rivera warns of immigration raids' devastating effects on nation's "orchids"

Geraldo Rivera continues the struggle to help "his" people, littering the pages of the HuffPost with "Secretary Chertoff, Call Off These Raids" (link). In addition to what was already covered here, let's look at this:

In view of the pending Puerto Rico Democratic primary and the island commonwealth's rare opportunity to explain itself and amplify the growing importance in the larger nation's future of the Latino vote; it is time to say to all three candidates that our votes will go to the presidential aspirant who has the courage to defy the mob and call for an immediate cessation of ICE's draconian workplace campaign.

Needless to say, not all Puerto Ricans would agree with Geraldo and, for instance, most Chicanos don't exactly have much in common with Puerto Ricans. So, until such time as he becomes some sort of pan-ethnic Hispanic leader I don't think Geraldo has much standing to refer to "our votes" in the context of the largely mythical "Latino vote". Maybe I'm wrong; perhaps he could give the fine folks at aztlan.net a call and see if they'd accept his help.

Then, let's look at this:

And what exactly did our heroes under the direction of Secretary Michael Chertoff accomplish? They shut down or severely crippled production at the food plants and fields and orchids, so the nation's food supply has been aversely affected. (The New Bedford plant was sewing knapsacks for our GI's). DHS/ICE has expended millions in executing these operations. They have denied the Social Security trust fund of the millions of dollars these workers were paying into accounts that they have no dream of ever redeeming, because they did not really exist. They have separated working parents from their children, many of whom are citizens. And they have denied the workers' commerce to their communities, many of which have been resurrected by the immigrant's presence in recent years.

1. Not just one but two no doubt spittle-induced typos: he meant "orchards", not "orchids". He also meant "adversely", not "aversely".

2. He's sneering at ICE agents not because they weren't doing their job according to our rules, but simply in order to support illegal activity.

3. He's supporting using illegal serf labor rather than, for instance, mechanizing or raising wages to employ legal workers.

4. He provides no evidence of our food supply being affected, almost certainly because - aside from whines from interested parties - there is none.

5. He forgot to mention that most people agree that the Michael Bianco factory in New Bedford was a sweatshop.

6. Having foreign citizens - especially illegal aliens - playing a role in production of military equipment is generally a bad idea; Geraldo wouldn't care.

7. He wants the Social Security system to profit from illegal activity, which would lead to political corruption. Further, some plans would result in those illegal aliens being able to obtain benefits, and those who enter the country to work illegally must surely realize after a bit that they're paying into a fund that they might not get to access in the future. Geraldo might consider concepts such as unjust enrichment.

8. The only way to deal with mixed status families is to discourage illegal immigration, yet Rivera supports it. And, he's not holding the parents responsible for their actions.

9. There are ways to "resurrect" communities other than through illegal activity, and if it can't be done through legal means then perhaps the town should just be disbanded. And, Rivera is supporting things such as landlords renting to illegal aliens knowing there's a very good chance they're here illegally, and so forth.

P.S. There are a few geraldo.* TLDs available if anyone wants to put up a parody or something.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 10:13 PM

John McCain commemorates Memorial Day by Hispandering

For Memorial Day, the John McCain campaign has released the following video to Youtube and on his site [1]. Rather than commemorating all veterans, McCain has focused on one group: Hispanics. From the script:

My friends, I want you, the next time you're down in Washington, D.C., to go to the Vietnam War Memorial and look at the names engraved in black granite. You'll find a whole lot of Hispanic names.

Obviously, you'll find a whole lot of names of different backgrounds, but I guess they aren't special.

When you go to Iraq or Afghanistan today, you're going to see a whole lot of people who are of Hispanic background.

You're even going to meet some of the few thousand that are still green card holders who are not even citizens of this country, who love this country so much that they're willing to risk their lives in its service in order to accelerate their path to citizenship and enjoy the bountiful, blessed nation.

So let's, from time to time, remember that these are God's children. They must come into country legally, but they have enriched our culture and our nation as every generation of immigrants before them...

McCain is smearing those who oppose his un-American schemes; I think we already knew they were "God's children". That doesn't mean that granting a huge amnesty is good public policy. And, it ignores the negative impact of massive immigration from mainly one country. In cases like this, McCain sounds like the worst sleazy, ethnocentric, race-baiting, multiculturalist Democrat.



[1] johnmccain.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/
Read.aspx?guid=6d9d37e4-ece7-4352-bc9a-f5bc3ce316d7

Posted to Politics at 11:52 AM

Bob Barr nominated as Libertarian Party presidential candidate

The results 0.2% of the country have been waiting for are finally in: Bob Barr has been nominated as the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate. It's unfortunate that the loons at the LP couldn't have nominated someone entertaining.

Now that it's apparently official, this means that Bob Barr can finally get a sane immigration position that would be different from John McCain's. Probably only around half of libertarians support loose borders, and there are so few of them that he could afford to turn his back on them knowing he'd get many more votes out of the deal. If he did that he could get a significant portion of the disaffected GOP vote and perhaps some independents as well. As it is, there's very little salient to differentiate himself from McCain or even Clinton/Obama. It's possible to make very good points regarding immigration and it would be possible for him to completely discredit his opponents on this issue. But, to do that he has to be unlike Tom Tancredo or Ron Paul: he has to directly attack his opponents on immigration and forcefully point out how they're wrong. That might even include sending campaign workers to his opponents' appearances to ask them difficult questions, but at the very least it would include press releases and the like pointing out their lies and misleading and incomplete statements.

However, based on observing his statements and how his campaign operates and the fact that he appears to be little more than an establishment hack, I don't think he has the ability to understand any of that.

UPDATE: Not so fast, as some state delegations might be considering nominating someone besides Barr (reason.com/blog/show/126680.html). And, for this hour's laugh about libertarians, Massachusetts party chair George Phillies says, in all seriousness and referring to Barr's support for the Defense of Marriage Act keeping Wiccans out of the military:

"My delegation is majority pagan."

Posted to Politics at 02:46 PM

Washington Monthly deletes yet another comment, again

Washington Monthly has a habit of deleting comments I (and apparently others) leave there. Kevin Drum is apparently on vacation so I don't know whether he popped in just to delete the comment I left earlier today on this thread:
washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_05/013790.php.

The author is "Hilzoy" of the blog "Obsidian Wings" who cross-posted it here:
obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/05/taking-tough-ac.html I left the comment there as a test.

The comment that Washington Monthly and/or Kevin Drum and/or Hilzoy don't want you to see is in the extended entry.

---COMMENT BEGINS---

Del Capslock writes: Sure looks to me like Obama's "weakness" is his strength. McCain's experience has allowed him to be corrupted by the Washington machine, whereas Obama brings a fresh and intelligent outlook.

What city is Obama from again? I seem to recall them having some kind of machine there or something, with BHO being linked right into it:

tinyurl.com/4rlhgj

BHO also served foreign interests, and there's a highly questionable McCain staff member that neither the MSM nor mainstream bloggers will discuss. I guess some questionable foreign links are more equally bad than others.

[Note: WM and/or KD have a habit of deleting or editing comments without notice, so this comment may disappear or be different from what I posted.]

Posted to Bloggage at 01:26 PM

Barack Obama lies, falsely accuses Dobbs, Limbaugh of inciting hate crimes

At a Florida fundraiser yesterday, Barack Obama said this:

"A certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia. There's a reason why hate crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year... If you have people like Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh ginning things up, it's not surprising that would happen."

Those statements are beyond reprehensible, and come close to accusing Dobbs and Limbaugh of breaking the law. And, the reason he did it is because he's completely corrupt, hoping to obtain political power by supporting illegal immigration. Rather than supporting our laws as a U.S. Senator should, he smears those who oppose law-breaking.

Moreover, Obama lied yet again. See how the SPLC's "The Year in Hate" misled about FBI hate crime statistics. See also the FactCheck discussion of one of the February debates:

However, Obama was being overly dramatic when he said, "we have seen hate crimes skyrocket in the wake of the immigration debate."

That's saying a bit much. When we asked his campaign for documentation, they pointed us to the most recent FBI statistics, which actually show that the number of incidents classified officially as "hate crimes" went up 7.8 percent in 2006. (Figures for 2007, which would show what occurred during and after the highly charged debate on the House and Senate immigration bills last year, won't be available until much later in 2008.)

We think a 7.8 percent increase hardly qualifies as a "skyrocket." Looking only at the incidents in which Hispanics were targeted, "hate crimes" rose a bit more, 10.3 percent, but that's hardly a rocket-propelled rise either. Furthermore, the number of anti-Hispanic incidents fluctuates widely from year to year. During the last 11 years, the number of incidents nationwide has bounced around between a low of 426 in 2003 and a high of 597 in 2001, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. It was 576 in 2006.

UPDATE: Here's a segment from the Lou Dobbs show on Obama's lie. Note the figures from the FBI that show that Obama lied, and note also that the Obama campaign couldn't tell them where Obama got his statistics:

Posted to Immigration2008a at 01:30 PM

Dana Milbank/WaPo misleads about Barack Obama links

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post - last seen here lying about Tom Tancredo - offers "Obama as You've Never Known Him!" (link), a sleazy slab of mockery attempting to portray those who have legitimate questions about the various links Barack Obama has as believers in UFOs.

He discusses a meeting yesterday conducted by Cliff Kincaid and attempts to claim that all the points raised were "implausible accusations", such as this:

The smoking gun? Obama's "mentor" during his teens, according to Kincaid, was "a key member of a Soviet-controlled network that was sponsored by Moscow and active in Hawaii."

These accusations fall somewhere between guilt by association and guilt by invention, but the accusers were just getting started.

Now, read the Kincaid article on that mentor:

through Frank Marshall Davis, Obama had an admitted relationship with someone who was publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). The record shows that Obama was in Hawaii from 1971-1979, where, at some point in time, he developed a close relationship, almost like a son, with Davis, listening to his "poetry" and getting advice on his career path. But Obama, in his book, Dreams From My Father, refers to him repeatedly as just "Frank."

The reason is apparent: Davis was a known communist who belonged to a party subservient to the Soviet Union. In fact, the 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii identified him as a CPUSA member. What's more, anti-communist congressional committees, including the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), accused Davis of involvement in several communist-front organizations.

Some of the claims made at the meeting might indeed be out there, but that one certainly isn't. Milbank is simply a hack who can't even use a search engine to verify claims and instead thinks mockery - rather than real journalism - will carry the day. At the WaPo he's right, but not elsewhere.

Posted to Politics at 01:00 PM

John McCain back to supporting "comprehensive immigration reform", "guest" workers, H-1B visas

Some people have tried to say that John McCain turned his back on "comprehensive immigration reform", i.e., a massive amnesty for illegal aliens. In a Silicon Valley speech today, McCain clarified the matter (link):

After several of the business leaders complained about the difficulty in obtaining temporary H1B visas for scientists and engineers, something the Senate immigration bill was supposed to address, Mr. McCain expressed regret the measure did not pass, calling it a personal "failure," as well as one by the federal government.

...Mr. McCain asked others on the panels for suggestions about how to “better mobilize American public opinion” behind the notion of comprehensive immigration reform.

It gets even worse, as - with Arnold Schwarzenegger by his side, cheering him on - McCain said:

"Senator Kennedy and I tried very hard to get immigration reform, a comprehensive plan, through the Congress of the United States... It is a federal responsibility and because of our failure as a federal obligation, we’re seeing all these various conflicts and problems throughout our nation as different towns, cities, counties, whatever they are, implement different policies and different programs which makes things even worse and even more confusing... ...I believe we have to secure our borders, and I think most Americans agree with that, because it’s a matter of national security. But we must enact comprehensive immigration reform. We must make it a top agenda item if we don’t do it before, and we probably won’t, a little straight talk, as of January 2009... ...[illegal aliens] are also God’s children, and we have to do it in a human and compassionate fashion...

The last is simply false compassion, and what McCain supports will lead to even more people wanting to come here and will give even more political power to corrupt business groups and far-left groups that currently oppose immigration enforcement.

IT WAS ALL JUST A DREAM UPDATE: From this:

Team McCain tells me the senator's comments were poorly worded. There's been no discussion within the campaign of altering their stance on illegal immigration, and as far as everyone on the campaign is concerned, the policy is still, 'secure the border first.'

I said, "so, this change away from border-security-first wouldn't happen, unless John McCain and his top advisers had gotten together, studied it in great detail, weighed all the advantages and disadvantages, and came to the carefully-considered conclusion that they're really not interested in winning the election?" The strategist laughed and agreed.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 08:27 PM

Mexico-linked ACLU: immigration raids are "terrorizing communities" (Joanne Lin)

Joanne Lin, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union - an organization collaborating with the Mexican government to possibly sue the U.S. government - on Monday appeared at a meeting of the Appleseed Foundation and said, in reference to local police playing a role in immigration enforcement under the 287g program:

"Local law enforcement has been given the green light to engage in racial profiling... Massive immigration sweeps are terrorizing communities across the country, including those who are U.S. citizens, permanent residents and other lawful workers... It's always been the ACLU's position that immigration is exclusively a federal law... Our view is that it's not the appropriate constitutional use of state and local power."

Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute is quoted as disagreeing with the latter claim. And, while it's not the best question I'd ask the ACLU, at least CNS asked something:

At Monday's briefing, Lin spoke about the federal lawsuit filed against the Department of Homeland Security and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department by the ACLU and the family on behalf of Pedro Guzman, the Associated Press reported. Guzman is a mentally disabled man who was arrested for trespassing, had no identification and was deported to Mexico.

Guzman, who is a U.S. citizen, was found by relatives near a border crossing almost three months later. When asked by Cybercast News Service if Guzman was an isolated case or if the ACLU had statistics showing how many U.S. citizens are mistakenly deported, Lin said she did not have any numbers but suspected there were other such cases.

Discrediting the ACLU would go a long way towards doing something about this issue, and since they frequently make public appearances with Q&A sessions it's not that difficult. See the last link for some questions you can ask them on videotape.

Related:
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) tries tying ICE's hands on immigration raids; Mexico-linked ACLU cheers

Posted to Immigration2008a at 01:18 PM

Three questions for the American Civil Liberties Union (Kevin Keenan)

On April 24, 2008 I sent an email to the American Civil Liberties Union's San Diego chapter, directed to their president Kevin Keenan. I listed a few questions I had for them concerning the fact that they're collaborating with the Mexican government to in effect block immigration enforcement. Needless to say, I haven't heard back.

However, if you'd like to do a good turn, please go to any event where someone from the ACLU is speaking - preferably about immigration but not necessarily so - and ask them one of these questions on videotape. Then, upload their response to video sharing sites. The goal is to discredit them and reduce their ability to block enforcement of our laws.

1. Isn't the only logical way to prevent border deaths to either declare completely open borders, or to strictly enforce our laws? With the former, no one would try to cross the desert, and with the latter only a very few would try it because they would know that they couldn't find jobs and access anything beyond emergency services. However, if illegal immigration is considered somewhat acceptable, doesn't that lead to people trying to cross the desert, with some dying along the way? And, haven't almost all the ACLU's efforts in this area in effect encouraged or enabled illegal immigration? How many cases has the ACLU supported that served to discourage illegal immigration? Is there even one such case?

2. Will the ACLU be registering as a Registered Foreign Agent under FARA (usdoj.gov/criminal/fara)? If not, could you provide details on why you think you aren't required to register?

3. The press release said you weren't getting any funds from Mexico. Why was that included? Does the ACLU somehow think that if they aren't getting a share of Mexico's profits that somehow makes this partnership OK?

Posted to Immigration2008a at 01:10 PM

Bob Barr for President Watch (Stephen Gordon, are you listening?)

On April 9, 2008 I sent an email to Stephen Gordon asking him to provide me with Bob Barr's full immigration position since that listed on his site is quite sparse and in interviews he hasn't been pinned down on specifics. Gordon said that Doug Bandow would be coming up with that position for Barr, but as of post time I have not heard back from either.

On May 17, 2008 I sent another email to Gordon asking whether I could interview Barr about this topic, and, once again, as of post time I have not heard back on that.

Well, off to watch some paint dry...

Posted to Politics at 12:52 PM

Media Matters for America on immigration "myths" ("Fear and Loathing in Prime Time")

Media Matters for America offers a "report" called "Fear and Loathing in Prime Time/Immigration Myths and Cable News" (mediamattersaction.org/reports/fearandloathing/online_version). It attempts to address some of the "myths" supposedly promulgated by Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck. Not only that, but members of Congress are involved in helping them push their support for illegal activity:

On Wednesday, May 21, Media Matters Action Network, along with several members of Congress and prominent immigration groups, held a press conference to discuss "Fear and Loathing in Prime Time: Immigration Myths and Cable News." Participants included: Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ); Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL); Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA); Janet Murguía of the National Council of La Raza; and Frank Sharry of America's Voice.

The first issue with their report is that it switches between discussing illegal immigration and all forms or the legal variety of immigration, a common trick.

The second is that their discussion of the NAFTA Superhighway - something they label simply an "urban myth" - includes them admitting that such a highway exists already as a set of current routes. Like others they take low-level Bush administration employees at their word rather than questioning whether they're telling the truth or not. They also take the word of NASCO that there are no plans to extend the TTC past Texas, something that's clearly false. Apparently the only thing that would confirm the NSH in MMFA's mind is if there were secret construction plans to build a TTC-style highway across the U.S. Their discussion of this issue puts MMFA on the side of the Bush administration and others who seek to confuse the public about this issue. They also might want to check with Barack Obama.

More later, but please leave other issues with the report in comments.

UPDATE: From this:

Three Democratic lawmakers who spoke at a briefing Wednesday about alleged anti-immigrant media coverage were not aware of a recent State Department travel alert warning Americans about military-like "combat" along the southern U.S. border in Mexico and that Americans are being kidnapped and murdered there.

Solis said:

"I've read different reports of the violence in Mexico, and I am a strong advocate for cracking down on the violence, and I'm very concerned about the murder of women... But I'm more concerned about people having their civil rights violated here."

And:

Gutierrez blamed drug use in the United States for some of the violence... "We are the consumers," he said. "We are the cause."

Posted to Immigration2008a at 12:55 PM

Obama Oregon rally was preceded by free concert from Portland band The Decemberists

Some forms of MSM deception are so gross you have to wonder why they'd put their reputations on the line. I guess they're playing a numbers game, assuming that they'll be able to fool many more people than learn the truth.

Today's egregious example involves the big Obama rally in Portland, Oregon on May 18 which supposedly somewhere around 75,000 people attended. What many or most news sources forgot to tell you was that his appearance was preceded by a free, 45-minute concert from the local indy band The Decemberists; for comparison purposes their most-viewed videos on Youtube have 407,110; 177,447; and 141,218 views. And, here's a video from the event itself: link.

Details on this here and here:
newsbusters.org/blogs/robert-knight/2008/05/20/
free-concert-popular-band-preceded-obama-s-big-rally

If you want to do something about this, search for news reports on the rally that didn't mention who was the opening act. Then, contact their public editors or just call up the reporter directly and ask them why they didn't reveal that material fact. The same can be done with bloggers, simply by leaving a comment.

UPDATE: To make it clearer, I'm not suggesting that everyone was there because of the band. I'm suggesting that their appearance - as well as the fact that it was a sunny day - played a role. And, the MSM as well as others who discussed the rally should have disclosed that their apperance did play a role.

IT'S GETTING CROWDED UNDER THE BUS UPDATE: The Decembrists join Obama's grandmother, Reverend Wright, and a host of others under the bus as "liberals" are now trying to claim that the band could only, in the words of one of those commenting, draw a crowd of 750. For an example, let's turn to paid hack Matt Yglesias (matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/jim_geraghtys_revenge_song.php):

By now you've heard all about Barack Obama's radical pastor and secret Allah-worship, but Jim Geraghty's got the scoop about Obama's secret association with Portland-based indie rock bands. Yes, that's right, the Decemberists played Obama's 75,000 person rally. Quoth Geraghty, "I'm sure Obama would draw a big crowd either way, but wasn't that worth mentioning in the coverage?" Now Jason Linkins argues that "as the Decemberists are a modestly successful indie outfit, more apt to perform at venues such as the 1,200-person capacity 9:30 Club, it would be more accurate to suggest that the promise of an Obama rally is a great inducement to come see the Decemberists, rather than the reverse." Linkins misses the point, of course, that the Decemberists are popular enough to often play the 9:30 Club on consecutive nights so you can see that Obamamania's all hype.

Now, let's roll back the clock to October 11, 2006 (matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2006/10/when_the_war_came.php):

Fans of the Decemberists will by no means be disappointed by their new offering The Crane Wife. Non-fans, on the other hand, probably won't find anything to turn their views around. For my part, I'm a fan. It's schtick, but it's good schtick.

That's followed by 18 comments from various kinds of fans. Now, obviously, MattY doesn't have much influence, but someone like Atrios does get a lot of traffic. And, in fact, almost 4800 views of their most popular video are due to him, who promoted them at these links:
eschatonblog.com/2006_09_17_archive.html#115898062495387860
eschatonblog.com/2005_04_10_archive.html#111333696741075951
eschatonblog.com/2006_10_01_archive.html#115997436613379659

So, once again, they only played a minor part in the turnout, but they did play a part and it should have been mentioned.

Posted to Politics at 06:45 PM

Mary Sanchez/KC Star tries downplaying attrition; questionable race comments?

Mary Sanchez of the Kansas City Star offers a rather interesting column called "Are immigration raids really doing what backers claim?" She attempts to claim that the recent ICE raids haven't had much of an impact vis-a-vis reducing the level of illegal immigration. But, she seems to go a bit further. Unfortunately, I'm out of my depth concerning that questionable part, and it's too bad that "liberals" like those from ThinkProgress would give her a pass because I get the feeling that if, say, Pat Buchanan wrote something like this they'd be all over it quicker than you could feign outrage:

People in Greeley say many of the illegal immigrants have simply returned or been replaced by newer, also illegal workers. Others report that the raid created an anti-Latino mood, causing some legally resident Latinos to leave town, lest they be targeted, too.

And there is a new influx to Greeley: hundreds of Somali refugees, who are legally allowed to live and work in the United States. The same situation is playing out in Grand Island, Neb., also the scene of a 2006 Swift raid. Hundreds of Somalis, many from Minnesota, are arriving to take the jobs once held by the Latino immigrants. But officials there also do not believe the illegal or legal Latino population has changed much.

Some argue that undocumented Latinos are taking jobs that could be filled by native-born workers. In the case of slaughterhouses — where wages start at $12 an hour — this seems not to be true. If it were, why are they now being filled by Somalis, who have crossed the world, and then the nation, to resettle in mid-sized American cities?

Somalis and other refugees are hardly the answer to this nation’s low-wage labor needs, however one may feel about their appearance in Greeley and Grand Island. Those needs can only be solved by Congress — which, by failing to alter immigration laws so that Latino immigrant workers could arrive and be hired legally, laid the path for these federal raids.

If she weren't a "liberal" and a supporter of illegal activity, I'm sure they'd be all over it.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 03:59 PM

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) tries tying ICE's hands on immigration raids; Mexico-linked ACLU cheers

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, Democrat from Petaluma, California and chairwoman of the Workforce Protection Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee (some background here), held a hearing this morning regarding ICE raids (link):

Congress should enact legislation giving more teeth to existing federal guidelines aimed at ensuring that children's needs are considered when their parents are arrested in raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enfocement agents [Woolsey said]. The agency's November 2007 guidelines outlining humanitarian concerns to be addressed during raids "are not being followed in a consistent fashion," [she said].

If you listen to her 30-second whine here, it's easy to tell what she's getting at: she doesn't have much interest in immigration laws being enforced.

That belief is buttressed by the fact that the American Civil Liberties Union - an organization collaborating with the Mexican government to possibly sue the U.S. government - has issued a press release commending her actions (aclu.org/immigrants/gen/35397prs20080520.html):

Since late 2006 the Department of Homeland Security Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) section has undertaken an unprecedented campaign of immigration raids in homes, and worksites. The ACLU has challenged the legality and constitutionality of many of these raids including worksite raids conducted in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Van Nuys, California... "ICE's immigration raids have been so sweeping that they have ensnared U.S. citizens, including innocent children, in their dragnet," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "There are no regulations controlling ICE's reckless raids, and ICE routinely violates due process while conducting raids."

Joanne Lin, ACLU Legislative Counsel, also weighs in with a quote.

Discrediting the ACLU is easier than discrediting Woolsey, but either would have a salubrious impact. See the last link for some questions you can ask them in public and preferably on video.

UPDATE: Nancy Pelosi's blog (?!) links to a PDF with Woolsey's opening whine (speaker.gov/blog/?p=1349, "...we are still hearing heartbreaking stories of the impact on children... ...They have been separated from their families in the cruelest of ways for long periods of time and many of their parents have been deported...", etc. etc.) as well as a video of the remarks of Simon Romo, Chief Counsel for New Mexico Child Protective Services (link). I left the following comment on the last:

We'll always have immigration laws and they'll always be enforced. So, if these two actually cared about children they'd discourage mixed-status families, and the only way to do that is to support our immigration laws and their enforcement.

Instead, they're opposing immigration enforcement, something that will make the situation worse and increase the number of mixed-status families.

Both are simply corrupt, just for slightly different reasons.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 03:42 PM

Karl Rove has video of Michelle Obama railing against "whitey" at Rev. Wright's church?

The Internets are abuzz with the rumor that there's a video tape of Barack Obama's wife Michelle Obama railing against "whitey" at Reverend Wright's church. At post time the video - if it even exists - has not been released. Our new buddy Larry Johnson says that Karl Rove has a copy and is using it to fund an independent group that might offer it as an October surprise. And, he says that an unnamed "right-wing Republican billionaire has put a $1 million bounty on the video" because he wants it released now, figuring like me that, unless someone better comes along, Hillary would better than McCain.

Johnson also says that this explains Obama's recent "leave Michelle alone!" cri de coeur (link). And, he says that four GOP insiders have all confirmed that the tape exists.

Now, obviously, this could all be a sham released by various people, or it could be real. So, at this time I suggest considering it just hopeful thinking.

Posted to Politics at 02:38 PM

Non-barking dog: John McCain doesn't mention immigration at National Restaurant Association show

The dog didn't bark during the daytime, as John McCain attended a National Restaurant Association show in Chicago earlier today and didn't mention immigration. Maybe he's learned his lesson! Just kidding.

The text of his remarks is at lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2008/05/where-does-sena.html for those who care.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 01:04 PM

Texas Border Coalition sues to stop border fence; lead attorney is Mexico-linked Peter Schey

The Texas Border Coalition - a group of cities, counties, businesses, chambers of commerce, and economic development committees listed at the link - has sued the Department of Homeland Security over the border fence. The lead attorney in the case is Peter Schey, someone with a series of links to the Mexican government. The chairman of the TBC is Chad Foster, mayor of Eagle Pass. Others involved include Richard Cortez (mayor of McAllen), Pat Ahumada (mayor of Brownsville), Raul Salinas (mayor of Laredo), and Eddie Aldrete and Dennis Nixon of International Bancshares Corp./International Bank of Commerce.

Their claims are listed here and they say that the DHS didn't pay enough for lands they acquired, showed preferential treatment regarding lands owned by the Hunt family, and that Michael Chertoff failed to more or less cross his t's by establishing guidelines beforehand. And, Schey is quoted as saying the following ironic bit:

"They hoodwinked property owners [into waiving their property rights]... This whole thing has been built on a foundation of lawlessness."

Posted to Immigration2008a at 12:57 PM

Bulgarian Folk Song Singing Hungarian Choir Babes of the Week

As most readers know, I prefer my Bulgarian folk music performed raw and real, and by Bulgarians themselves, even if it involves the bagpipe (link) or a drum solo (link). Yet, in one of his rare moments of insight, Team Lonewacko member Guillaume brought up the possibility of featuring *others* singing one of their songs, even if it's not in the more traditional fashion we've all come to expect (link). Bridging the Hungary/Bulgaria divide is one of his special interests, so eventually I was sold on the idea.

Accordingly, and without further ado, I hereby present our Bulgarian Folk Song Singing Hungarian Choir Babes of the Week... none other than the Serenus choir out of Kac, Pest Megye, Hungary (site). And, I think you'll agree.

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:58 AM

Another Mexico link for Peter Schey: hired by Mexican consulate

The New York Times story "Arizona County Uses New Law to Look for Illegal Immigrants" (link) about Sheriff Joe Arpaio's attempts to enforce immigration laws in Maricopa County, Arizona contains the following:

Peter Schey, a lawyer from Los Angeles hired by the Mexican consulate here to represent some of the detainees, said, "This sheriff is not the director of homeland security, but that is how he is acting."

This is at least the fourth link that Schey has to the Mexican government; MSM hacks frequently fail to point out his series of links when offering quotes from him.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 12:55 PM

John McCain vows: no foreign agents on campaign team (Juan Hernandez?)

The John McCain campaign is requiring all their staff members, volunteers, and vendors to disclose lobbying links and the like:

No person working for the Campaign may be a registered lobbyist or foreign agent, or receive compensation for any such activity.

I'm going to guess that "foreign agent" is meant in the legalistic sense, i.e., someone would have to be registered with the Department of Justice as a Registered Foreign Agent under FARA to qualify: usdoj.gov/criminal/fara. The three top campaigns already include registered foreign agents.

The new McCain edict brings us to Juan Hernandez, a McCain staff member who's his Hispanic outreach director. He's also a former cabinet-level official with the Mexican government who worked directly with Vicente Fox and he's appeared on several cable TV shows promoting a "free flow" of people between Mexico and the U.S.

McCain was asked about him a few months back but Hernandez was still doing outreach for McCain last I heard. He's also been a Senior Fellow at the McCain-linked think tank the Reform Institute for a couple years.

However, a search of the FARA database (which is flawed) shows no matches for his name, so I'm going to guess he's going to continue to be associated with the campaign. Until such time, of course, as people start asking McCain why someone who presumably took an oath to the Mexican government is now doing outreach for him to U.S. voters.

Posted to Politics at 12:05 PM

Sen. Dianne Feinstein pushing AgJobs amnesty, attached to Iraq bill

Via this we find this:

Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) obtained passage today of an amendment to the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill to provide partial amnesty for illegal immigrants working in agriculture. The amendment would provide legal status for 1.35 million agricultural workers and lessen current protections for Americans and new foreign workers taking agricultural jobs. The amendment was adopted 17-15 in the Appropriations Committee and will be part of the bill put to the full Senate for a vote. In a parallel move, apparently Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) is attempting to use a similar amendment to reopen temporary visas for unskilled workers outside the annual ceiling.

Feinstein dropped the push in November, then tried a mini version in April. Those amnesty backers who realize they won't be able to push full "comprehensive immigration reform" will continue to try piecemeal approaches like this. Please contact your senators and let them know what you think.

UPDATE: There's more here; this says that Senator David Vitter will try to get AgJobs out of the bill when it hits the floor.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 01:55 PM

Correction: "The Anchoress" is not Ken Mehlmann

Over thousands of posts, this site has had to make very few corrections, probably at most the same number as the NYT makes in a day. However, in the past some unnamed members of the team whose content appears here advanced the belief that "The Anchoress" (theanchoressonline.com, "TA") is actually former RNC hack Ken Mehlmann. It has recently come to our attention that that is false, and TA is actually one Elizabeth Scalia (theanchoressonline.com/about-the-anchoress-online). She is presumably not the UK professional biker by the same name and she presumably previously desired anonymity in order to shield herself from abhorrent reactions relating to rampant BushBotism. This site apologizes for any confusion.

Posted to Bloggage at 01:41 PM

Janet Napolitano blocks Sheriff Joe Arpaio's funding for immigration enforcement

From this:

Much of the money for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's immigration-enforcement efforts lately has poured out of a special pool of state money.

But New Times has learned that Governor Janet Napolitano's turning off the spigot.

In what appears to be a prelude to a major fight between Napolitano and Arpaio, the governor issued an executive order last week to develop a new task force--headed up by the state Department of Public Safety--to find and arrest tens of thousands of felons with outstanding warrants.

And, according to a letter from DPS Director Roger Vanderpool to Arpaio outlining the new effort, the task force will be funded with the money that Arpaio isn't getting anymore...

UPDATE: There are details here, and from this:

Arpaio said the governor, along with officials in Phoenix and Maricopa County, "conspired to take away ... money that the state Legislature and the (county) Board of Supervisors approved specifically to enforce human smuggling laws, money my office needs to fight illegal immigration."

He said Napolitano's decision to create the felony warrant task force is "a cover-up for taking away grant money to fight illegal immigration," calling the move "despicable.''

From this:

Napolitano spokeswoman Jeanine L'Ecuyer denied that the Democratic governor was trying to cut into efforts to stop illegal immigration.

"It couldn't be further from the truth," L'Ecuyer said.

In fact, I am shocked - shocked! - that anyone would accuse Napolitano of trying to block immigration enforcement.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 05:34 PM

Immigrant assimilation study: low scores for Mexicans; other results mixed (N.C. Aizenman/WaPo, Yglesias, Drezner, Atrios, Weigel)

N.C. Aizenman of the Washington Post offers "Study Says Foreigners In U.S. Adapt Quickly", an article about a new Manhattan Institute report called "Measuring Immigrant Assimilation", authored by economist Jacob Vigdor of Duke University. He constructed an "assimilation index" based on economic, cultural, and civic assimilation. One of the issues with the index is that it probably doesn't include a question on whether those immigrants subscribe to our laws or whether they think they don't apply to them, and it probably doesn't cover irredentism-related issues. It's also a mixed bag; while the headline of the WaPo article spins it in the way we've come to expect from the WaPo, even N.C. Aizenman offers the following as the third sentence of his article:

The gap between today's foreign-born and native populations remains far wider than it was in the early 1900s and is particularly large in the case of Mexican immigrants, the report said.

And, Howard Husock, vice president for Policy Research at the Manhattan Institute, says:

It turns out there is plenty of assimilation going on. Cubans and Vietnamese, for instance, are economically indistinguishable from natives. Germans are indistinguishable both culturally and economically. Some cities are doing better than others at assimilating newcomers. Houston, where Mexican and Central Americans predominate, has an assimilation index of just 19. New York, where no one group predominates, has a score of 31.

But the most striking finding is much less positive. The current overall assimilation level for all immigrant groups combined, measured on a scale of zero to 100, is, at 28, lower now than it was during the great immigration wave of the early 20th century, when it never went below 32. What’s more, the immigrant group that is by far the largest is also the least assimilated. On the zero-to-100 scale, Mexicans — 11 million emigrated to America between 1980 and 2006 — score only 13.

Although Mexican assimilation does occur, it’s extremely slow. Mexicans who arrived in 1995 started out with Index scores around five — and increased only to around 10 by 2005. In other words, our largest immigrant group arrived with little education and even less knowledge of English, and they have stayed that way for an extended period.

On the same theme, Eunice Moscoso offers "Immigrants less integrated than before, study finds" (link).

Oddly enough, those hacks who support massive and/or illegal immigration only seem to have read the headline of the WaPo piece.

They include David Weigel of Reason Magazine ("The Washington Post reports on a new study revealing the quicker and quicker adaptation of immigrants to American norms."; reason.com/blog/show/126477.html). He's taken to task here.

Someone else weighing in is Duncan Black (aka Atrios) under the title "Paging Lou Dobbs" (eschatonblog.com/2008_05_11_archive.html#7247266138416718020):

Haven't looked at the study myself, so put this in the category of "confirms what I already thought," but as someone who lives in a city which still has plenty of white ethnic enclaves I've long been puzzled by the widespread belief that today's immigrants are somehow "different," aside from the skin color of some of them.

That's not only sleazy race-baiting, but it contains two logical fallacies: he's drawing a false conclusion based on a small sample size (i.e., his limited experiences) and based on past behavior despite the underlying conditions having changed.

Next up is Matt Yglesias, who links approvingly to both the WaPo and Atrios in "Assimilation Then and Now" (matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/assimilation_then_and_now.php).

Last and least at least as far as traffic is concerned, Daniel Drezner takes a content-free swipe at both Lou Dobbs and Mickey Kaus (http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003815.html)

UPDATE: Looking at the study (manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_53.htm), here's what "cultural assimilation" means to the author the study:

* Ability to speak English
* Intermarriage (whether an individual’s spouse is native-born)
* Number of children
* Marital status

One will note a few things missing, such as whether they buy in to our laws (or think they don't apply to them) and whether they support our borders (or think they have a Blut und Boden-style right to move anywhere within the Americas).

An intellectually honest index would take those into account. The civic index has similar issues as well, one of which the author acknowledges (military service being a fast-track to citizenship).

Posted to Immigration2008a at 12:30 PM

Agriprocessors meat packing raid, Postville, Iowa (kosher, UFCW)

Somewhere from a few hundred to 700 or more persons were arrested in Postville, Iowa earlier today as part of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid of the Agriprocessors meat packing plant in the town. That plant produces kosher meat and is owned by the Rubashkin family, Hasidic Jews from New York; this page has more details on the culture clash after the bought the plant and seem to have gained a great deal of power in the town. Details on the raid itself here. "Immigration rights activists" tried to use scare tactics in expectation of the raid here.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union - a representative of which was recently convicted in a similar case - also didn't want the raid due to an attempt to unionize the workers. Per them, raiding the plant could interfere with "ultimately uncover[ing] unscrupulous employer acts". On the one hand ICE could actually be raiding the plant to interfere with others' investigations, but on the other if they uncover employer malfeasance and it's successfully prosecuted then the UFCW should be happy. Of course, they're being fundamentally dishonest: they want labor laws but not immigration laws to be enforced. The last link lists the contents of a rather interesting subpoena, but it's unclear exactly what was involved. There's no word on whether the plant's owners are involved or cooperated with the investigation, but if the former one would think the UFCW would want a raid. If the latter it would probably have been mentioned. There's a video report on the raid here.

UPDATE: This later report says only about 300 were arrested. And, there was a protest outside the facility where the arrestees were held. Now, turning to a summary of the search warrant, we find that, in a highly encouraging move, ICE paid someone to pose as an illegal alien and recorded his dealings with those at the plant. And, there are allegations of worker abuse, weapons being carried in the plant, and even a meth lab being operated inside the plant. Those protesting the raid would allow activities like that to continue.

UPDATE 2: A report on a 5/13 press conference held by "Matt Dummermuth, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, and Claude Arnold, special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement" is here. They didn't say whether the company was being investigated for criminal activity, and:

[They] also refused to comment on if there would be more arrests in relation to the more than 300 outstanding criminal complaints... A total of 390 first-shift workers were arrested as a result of the immigration raid. The event, which boasted 697 criminal complaints and arrest warrants for plant employees, is the largest single-location immigration raid in the nation. Nearly 60 people, most of them women, were released under ICE supervision to care for children or due to medical reasons. Those released are wearing electronic monitoring devices. Of those arrested, 290 are Guatemalan, 93 are Mexican, four are Ukrainian and three are Israeli.

UPDATE 3: Some on the left continue their support for illegal activity and worker abuse, with Frank Sharry offering the press release "The Republican Approach to Immigration Policy: Treat Immigrants Like Cattle" [1]. He says:

The GOP plan of terrorizing Latino immigrants in hopes they will self-deport amounts to a non-violent strategy of ethnic cleansing. Forcing them further into the shadows does nothing to regain control of our chaotic immigration system. And making workers afraid while coddling employers who take advantage of them ends up hurting immigrant and American workers alike.

If the first sentence is true, then we can't enforce our immigration laws, even after they were changed to Sharry's liking: he's simply opposed to immigration enforcement. And, it's certainly true that the Bush administration is in the pocket of cheap labor employers, but the way to end the worker abuse Sharry decries is to reduce illegal immigration, not to encourage it as Sharry would do.

UPDATE 4: The Peck Law Firm (Amy Peck) and Dornan & Lustgarten, both of Omaha, Nebraska have sued ICE in an attempted class action. Another attorney, Sonia Parras Konrad, represents other clients. Their request that their clients not be transferred out of the state was granted (link). From this:

The lawsuit alleges that government agencies and officials violated the immigrant workers' constitutional rights. Those rights include the right to due process, which includes protections from arbitrary prolonged and indefinite detention. The suit also states that their rights to consult with counsel have been violated, among other claims... It claimed that as victims of alleged crimes, the immigrant workers would be eligible for certain visas that would let them gain legal status... It also claimed that some of the detained workers have spouses and children that are U.S. citizens, and could be eligible for immigration relief because of their family ties.

Presumably they're referring to U Visas, something that Peter Schey helped push through.

There's also a Q&A with the author of a book about Postville, Stephen Bloom, here. His book - which appeared in the 90s - detailed several abuses which were mentioned by the government in their search warrant.

Things take a turn out of Iowa in the case of politically connected Rabbi Milton Balkany, who's married to the sister of the Agriprocessors CEO. He apparently recently lost a libel case against the Village Voice: link. Here's a 2003 VV article on him: link.

UPDATE 5: The Fair Immigration Reform Movement informs us (fairimmigration.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/how-to-send-support-to-iowa) that their "partners" the Mexico-linked Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights as well as the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition and the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition "have come together to provide support and technical assistance to Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and other allies on the ground". If you too would like to engage in false compassion and help support illegal activity, you can send money to St. Bridget’s Hispanic Ministry Fund in care of Sister Mary McCauley.

7/4/08 UPDATE: From this:

Two supervisors at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville on Thursday became the first known members of the company's management to be arrested after a federal immigration raid of the company in May... Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, and Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43, are accused of encouraging illegal immigrants to work at the plant, in some cases even helping them obtain false documents before the raid... De La Rosa-Loera oversees the plant's poultry kill facility, and Guerrero-Espinoza is in charge of the beef kill, according to court records. Guerrero-Espinoza is a U.S. citizen, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Pete Deegan Jr. He did not reveal De La Rosa-Loera's citizenship status... ICE officials are seeking the public's help in locating Hosam Amara, 43, last known to live in Postville...

7/9/08 UPDATE: The potential class action mentioned above has been voluntarily dismissed; the plaintiffs' demands to stay in-state were met (link).

7/11/08 UPDATE: Samuel Freedman of the New York Times offers "Iowa Church Is a Beacon After Immigration Raid" (link), a sympathetic (of course) discussion of how St. Bridget's Roman Catholic Church engages in false compassion by supporting illegal activity.

And, the Rubashkin's PR firm is accused of leaving sockpuppet and masquerade comments on blogs (link).

See also Federal, state investigations of Agriprocessors (maybe the left will stop playing games)

[1] http://www.americasvoiceonline.org/index.php?
option=com_content&view=article&id=27:
advisory-republican-policies-treat-immigrants-like-cattle&catid=1:
under-main-menu&Itemid=30

Posted to Immigration2008a at 03:53 PM

Unsigned 40+-targeting New Zealand-living former Russian Mezzo Soprano of The Week

Congratulations! Team Lonewacko has selected this week's Unsigned 40+-targeting New Zealand-living former Russian Mezzo Soprano of The Week, and it's none other than Yulia Townsend! While she could not be reached for comment she is most assuredly proud of her award:

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:01 PM

United Food and Commercial Workers union rep convicted in Swift meatpacking case (UFCW, harboring illegal aliens)

From this:

A former union representative who helped illegal workers get jobs at a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Marshalltown was found guilty of federal immigration charges today.

A jury found Braulio Pereyra-Gabino guilty of harboring illegal immigrants but acquitted him on other charges that included false use of a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft.

...Pereyra-Gabino was working as vice president of Local 1149 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union when he was arrested by federal immigration officials in July 2007.

Prosecutors contend that he told undocumented workers how to escape detection and protect their fake identities used to get jobs at the Marshalltown plant.

What he said during his "orientation speeches" at the link; note that a former Swift manager was sentenced to a year's probation, probably ruling out him dropping a dime on higher ups. And, perhaps that was by design.

More in UFCW, Mexico-linked Peter Schey sue DHS over immigration raids (4th Amendment, yeah sure).

Posted to Immigration2008a at 09:37 PM

Bill Richardson: the border is more secure; partnerships with Mexico

From this:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday that he has seen an improvement in security along the U.S.-Mexico border... Problems remain, but increased policing by state and federal authorities has significantly helped...

Part of John McCain's (previous?) tactic to get amnesty involved the border being declared to be secure, something that would probably be done by border state governors like Richardson. And, they'd probably do it in as casual fashion as Richardson did yesterday.

He also announced various partnerships with the neighboring Mexican state of Chihuahua, some of which might be in the U.S. interest, some of which might not be.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 09:56 AM

Washington Times sinks to supporting John McCain, amnesty

The Washington Times - last seen imposing new, euphemism-friendly guidelines - offers the editorial "McCain's quest for the Hispanic vote". After a preliminary, and partially incorrect, intro describing the "Hispanic vote", they sink lower than they have in the past:

In an effort to attract Latinos and stem the tide of Hispanic disenchantment with the GOP, McCain's camp unveiled a Spanish web site this week, as reported by the Washington Times. The task of attracting Hispanics, while difficult, is not impossible. The majority of Latinos have conservative values; those beliefs can be used to the GOP's advantage. Mr. McCain's current tougher stand, which puts security first and denies blanket amnesty, is a good first step. Building a solid Latino coalition that can effectively communicate his plan - a plan that will ensure safety, security and a fair path to legal citizenship - is the next and most crucial one. In addition, Mr. McCain must recognize that Latino values are American values; he must clearly articulate his positions as a reflection of mutually shared convictions.

Pandering to race-based concerns is not the way to do things, especially because it will make future panders even worse and because it will give even more power to, in the WashTimes' own words, "Hispanic immigration activists". I.e., the National Council of La Raza, MALDEF, and so forth. Why would a Republican want to give in to those groups and give them any more power? The other parts of their suggestion involve demagoguing social issues like gay marriage and abortion. And, of course, they're sounding like president Bush and on down the line with their "blanket amnesty" word games. It's amnesty and it will be perceived as amnesty no matter what games McCain and the WashTimes want to play. And, the belief that part of our country belongs to another country, a belief shared by a good percentage of Mexican-Americans, is not in the least an "American value". That belief is not being confronted and opposed, and McCain would give those in the general sphere of those who hold those beliefs - such as the NCLR - more political power.

Posted to Politics at 09:27 AM

John McCain "flip-flops", will support "comprehensive immigration reform"; DNC still concept-challenged

John McCain has "flip-flopped" on immigration. Except, it's not really a flip-flop because it's been his position all along, despite attempts by the Democratic Party and others (such as Media Matters) to pretend otherwise. On May 5, while announcing his new Spanish-language website, he said this:

"Unless we enact comprehensive immigration reform I don't think you can take it piecemeal... In other words... because as soon you and I start to talk about the highly skilled workers, our agricultural interest people are going to say, 'Look we need ag workers, too.' And then somebody’s going say, 'We need the DREAM Act,' and then somebody’s going to say, 'We’ve got to enforce our border.'"

His previous position was that the borders needed to be certified as secure first. But, even if he meant to do that, it would basically be a sham designed to making getting amnesty ("comprehensive immigration reform") easier. So, this isn't so much a flip-flop as simply a more explicit indication of what he really wants.

Needless to say, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) continues their charade and also reveals that they're still concept-challenged (link):

McCain said he would pursue comprehensive immigration reform as soon as he takes office. But in the same news conference, McCain also took the opposite position: saying that the borders have to be secured first. McCain touted a virtual fence today and said we could have secured the border if it wasn't for all the earmarks and pork spending in Washington. But as recently as March, McCain called the virtual fence a "failed effort" and a "disgrace." Asked whether state and local law enforcement agencies should be enforcing federal immigration laws, McCain said "I support the enforcement of every law that's on the books in the United States of America." But moments later McCain took the opposite position, blaming the federal government for having "failed to act" and asserting, "when I'm president, beginning in January 0f 2009 we will have a federal approach to what is a federal problem." ...Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda [says] "John McCain cannot have it both ways. He cannot pander to the right wing of his Party by promising an enforcement-only approach to immigration while telling Hispanics that he supports comprehensive reform.

Obviously, their "opposite positions" aren't opposite at all.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 11:15 AM

Jeff Bercovici, ThinkProgress spread anti-Rush Limbaugh smear (Antonio Villaraigosa)

Yesterday on his show, Rush Limbaugh said this about an event where he ran into Bill Clinton and someone else:

I shook his hand, he left, comes back, the mayor of Los Angeles, I thought it was a Secret Service agent, maybe a shoeshine guy. Turns out he gives me his card, I said, "Oh, my gosh, it's the mayor of Los Angeles." I stood up, I said, "Hello, Mr. Villaraigosa."

The evil airheads at ThinkProgress claim this is an "Ethnically-Charged Insult" (thinkprogress.org/2008/05/06/media-limbaugh-villaraigosa), when in fact it appears to have another explanation. I don't know whether Rush has clarified what he was thinking of, but a commenter on that TP thread points to this story from April in which a Missoula, Montana shoeshiner wanted to give Barack Obama a shoeshine and was told to back off by Secret Service agents. The meeting above occured months before the April incident, but both had already occured when Rush made the statement above.

For ThinkProgress, getting things wrong in this way is the normal course of affairs. One might think that someone working for Conde Nast Portfolio might not be just as bad, yet Jeff Bercovici of that site thinks different (portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2008/05/06/la-mayor-to-answer-limbaughs-race-swipe):

Hey, you know what's a riot? Comparing one of the country's foremost Latino politicians to "a shoeshine guy" because of his race.

Somehow I think the April incident is a much stronger explanation. Note also that neither TP nor CNP are discussing the endless line of Villar issues, from his past leadership of a racial separatist group to him congratulating former Mexican president Zedillo on helping block Prop. 187.

Sadly, Villar will apparently not be releasing a statement, but Alex Nogales of the National Hispanic Media Coalition has:

"What can I tell you? It's the same kind of nasty, bigoted, racist type of comment that has become so prevalent in today's society, as practiced by Lou Dobbs, as practiced by [Sean] Hannity, [Bill] O'Reilly, [Michael] Savage -- all these guys who are appealing to a particular bigoted audience, and fanning the fires of bigotry and racism by doing these kinds of things without real concern about the consequences of their words. And the consequences are that these kinds of comments have helped in raising the rate of crimes against Latinos 35 percent in last three years." (He attributes that figure to the FBI.) "These guys have no civility in their makeup, no compassion, and very little intelligence when it comes to opening their mouths."

Bercovici can't seem to get anything right. Whatever Nogales said, he wasn't referring to crimes in general but to hate crimes. And, as discussed at the link, the 35% was designed to deceive. A real reporter would have gotten the types of crimes right and would have looked into the statistics.

Posted to Politics at 10:58 AM

John McCain admits illegal immigration hurts low-wage Hispanic citizens; says Hispanics want border secured

From this:

Speaking to reporters in Phoenix, McCain said Hispanic citizens want America's borders secured and illegal immigrants to be treated humanely.

He added that low-income Hispanic citizens are vulnerable to losing their jobs to the lower wages accepted by illegal immigrants.

However, per this he acknowledged "that Latinos had been discouraged by the harsh anti-immigration tone during parts of the Republican primaries". There wasn't really a "harsh anti-immigration tone" coming from the previous GOP candidates, he's just playing the role of Howard Dean and making that up. And, it's possible to secure our borders, treat illegal aliens humanely, and avoid a harsh tone: we simply enforce the current laws. That will result in many or most illegal aliens returning home and reforming their own countries, which is the most humane solution of all. McCain is peddling false compassion, trying to pretend that allowing 14% of a country's workforce to move here is good policy.

Posted to Immigration2008a at 12:53 PM

John McCain launches Spanish-language website, will speak at National Council of La Raza convention

"Feliz Cinco de Mayo" from John McCain, as he launches a Spanish-language section of his website: johnmccain.com/espanol
There's a "hablando claro" ("straight talk") link at the top which should give background on his policies, and I was expecting it to say something in Spanish that he wouldn't say on his main site. Unfortunately it leads to the English side of things, so we'll have to wait and see. This is supposedly part of his outreach to Hispanics, but one wonders exactly why he would do that by celebrating a Mexican holiday (which is a minor one in Mexico). St. Patrick's Day isn't really a celebration of the country of Ireland and Columbus Day isn't a celebration of the country of Italy, yet Cinco de Mayo is definitely a celebration of the country of Mexico. The closest analog would be if McCain tried to reach out to the Franco-American vote by celebrating Bastille Day, but I'm going to guess that almost no one knows when that was. And, needless to say, why Puerto Ricans, Hondurans, or Cubans would feel any link with a Mexican battle isn't clear.

And, per this, he's agreed to speak to the National Council of La Raza convention in July. He'll fit right in: they're a far-left organization that supported giving a break to those who engage in identity theft, they gave an award to a vile racist, their leaders frequently mislead, and they have links to and fund extremists. And, Karl Rove spoke at their 2006 event.

UPDATE: Per this, McCain said:

"everything about our Hispanic voters is tailor-made to the Republican message... I am confident that I will do very well... I know their patriotism, I know the respect for the family, the advocacy for pro-life, I know the small business aspect of our Hispanic voters."

And, to show how much he knows, he's going to speak to a far-left identity politics organization closely linked to not only the Democratic Party but to those who promote irredentism. A Democrat could have said the same thing, although it must be admitted that they would have racialized it even more and stressed other topics. And, one wonders whether he'd engage in such boosterism about other races and ethnicities. And, one wonders whether he'd point out some of the downsides, such as the fact that millions of the Mexicans in the U.S. think the U.S. Southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico.

Posted to Politics at 12:36 PM

Frank Sharry leaves my questions unanswered, confirms MSM bias (FireDogLake forum)

Massive immigration supporter Frank Sharry - formerly of the National Immigration Forum and now with America's Voice - stopped by FireDogLake earlier today for a chat with their readers: firedoglake.com/2008/05/04/fdl-welcomes-frank-sharry-of-americas-voice

While he answered questions from others, he failed to answer a few I posed despite the fact that few others asked him anything and he had over 20 minutes to think up a good response; more below.

He also gave what will hopefully turn out to be spectacularly bad advice:

On the one hand, I do think it will matter hugely if progressive forces -- if labor, and immigrant advocates, and Latinos, and African Americans, -- if we close ranks, and Democrats get on offense [against "nativist sentiment"], that's going to matter hugely. ...the way to deal with the right-wing echo chamber is to marginalize them through a combination of political power and winning the argument over who has the better solution... We increasingly are and will take them on. There's an anti-hate approach that's part of the strategy. But from my point of view, the real key is to have the netroots take this on as an issue. I think we pretty much have the upper hand in the mainstream print press. And I think eventually we want to make cartoon figures out of TV talkers like who are cartoon characters.

There really isn't much of an argument in favor of massive and/or illegal immigration; the only way some make that argument is through being misleading in one way or another. And, many bloggers do post in support of illegal immigration, then get comments on those threads pointing out how they're wrong. While some new voices might join in, they'll soon leave as they see their credibility fall. And, it's good to see that Sharry at least partially agrees with me on the biases of the "print press".

Here's the comment I left, in case Sharry drops by and wants to leave a comment or something. Comments can be left 24/7, no waiting. Alternatively, those who attend his public appearances should try to ask him these or the many other questions he should answer (links added):

1. Approximately how much did your former group (the NIF) obtain from companies that profit from illegal immigration? I know they got at least $40,000 from Western Union, a company that illegal aliens use to send money to their home countries. Can you give us a ballpark figure on any other money received from other companies that profit from illegal immigration?

2. Would you agree that illegal immigration is an indicator of government corruption, and that anyone who supports illegal immigration through things like discouraging enforcement of our laws is supporting government corruption?

3. The ACLU is working directly with the Mexican government, and other non-profits have direct or indirect links as well. And, Calderon recently stated that they’re going to be using U.S. non-profits to push their agenda inside the U.S. Will you denounce such meddling in our internal politics?

Posted to Immigration2008a at 03:21 PM

San Francisco Chronicle Day in Pictures doesn't understand fundamental American concepts

The San Francisco Chronicle's Day in Pictures section highlights the incorrectly spelled sign from the anti-illegal immigration protester discussed in the post about Nico Pitney of the Huffington Post, saying:

Excellent point: In Houston, a Texan protesting amnesty for illegal immigrants argues that anyone who can't master English doesn't deserve to live in America.

How horribly smug. However, the upshot is that the SF Chronicle doesn't feel much of a bond with those in other areas of the country who aren't like them and who oppose massive illegal activity. Taken literally, they would strip her of her citizenship simply for supporting a change of the law that they oppose or simply for opposing massive illegal immigration.

None of the DIP pages are bylined, so please contact their ombudsman and let him know what you think: readerrep *at* sfchronicle.com

Posted to Immigration2008a at 01:35 PM

Nico Pitney helps Huffington Post descend to ThinkProgress level

Nico Pitney is the Huffington Post's "National Editor". Until around August of last year he was Deputy Research Director at the Center for American Progress and the Managing Editor of ThinkProgress. And, yes, those are very strong warning signs considering that CAP seems to screen its hires for childishness and stupidity. Nowadays he's helping drive the HuffPost even further down, and, yes, unbelievable as it might seem, it's possible for them to be even lower than they are now. He's made just 15 posts since December (huffingtonpost.com/the-news/reporting/nico-pitney), with the latest being called "Anti-Immigration Protester Needs A Spell-Check" (huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/04/whoops-anti-immigration-p_n_100043.html). A May Day 2008 anti-illegal immigration protester in Houston held up a sign saying "Make English America's offical Language", with "official" being spelled wrong. It was taken by Johnny Hanson of the Houston Chronicle and considering that it's available in that incorrect form on their site I'm going to assume that it wasn't photoshopped.

The sign is certainly ironic, but the point being made is extremely minor. And, Pitney incorrectly states that the protester is "Anti-Immigration", when in fact she's at a protest for illegal immigration and the sign's directive wouldn't impact those immigrants who learn English. I'll leave it up to someone else to figure out whether "spell-check" is the correct form in this context.

I left the comment in the extended entry, which hasn't been approved and probably won't be considering that comments left after it were approved. However, plenty of other ThinkProgress-style comments have been approved: "All graduates from the Dan Quayle School for Spelling!", "It was good of her to highlight the word with 2 underscores too. Love the busy shirt as well.", "makes one proud to bea an Amerikan ;-)", etc. The jokes just keep coming, but only a couple make - or are allowed to make by the moderator - the point I made.

Arianna has been embarrassed by comments left on her site's posts before, and she might want to reconsider whether having lightweights like Nico Pitney throw out red meat is the direction she wants to go in. It might be good for the traffic, but it's not so good for the reputation.

Here's the comment which wasn't approved:
---------
Here are some fun pictures from the other side:

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/05/03/my-immigrant-vagina-is-angry-and-other-militant-may-day-moments/

And, here's a fun question: whose interests do HuffPost posts like this serve? Certainly not the interests of the vast majority of Americans. In fact, those who get a boost from posts like this include the Mexican government, crooked businesses, crooked banks, crooked politicians, racial power groups, and on down the line. Whenever someone tells you something, asking "cui bono?" is a good idea.

Posted to Bloggage at 01:09 PM

Recall Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon: just 23,751 signatures needed

Via this comes the news that a group called "American Citizens United" is going to attempt to recall