March 02, 2006
Yesterday Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney spoke out in favor of "immigration". Of course, what he meant was illegal immigration, and he wants his priests to violate HR 4437 if it passes.
How exactly does one discredit someone like Mahoney? Reporters and politicans can get fired or driven from office, but the same cannot be said about Cardinals. And, some are even willing to claim that criticism of the Catholic leadership is anti-Catholic. And, there are always a large number of sheep in the flock (siconservative.redstate.com/story/2006/3/2/03439/51673). While he's been damaged by the recent scandals, even that doesn't seem to faze his large number of fans.
I believe the best way to discredit Mahoney and all the other religious leaders who support illegal immigration is pointing out what I discussed in this post about Archbishop Michael Sheehan. If the word gets around that those leaders can't think things through and are doing more harm than good, they might change their minds.
Another possible way is to point out his smear campaign:
[Mahoney] denounced what he called "hysterical" anti-immigrant sentiment sweeping the country... The [sermon] drew several "nasty and emotion-filled" calls to the archdiocese Wednesday from callers demanding harsh measures against undocumented immigrants, according to archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg.
The first is a lie, and I'd imagine that the second is at most a half-truth, and more likely an outright lie as well.
So, if you're a member of a religious congregation and your leaders support illegal immigration, make those same points and publicly shame them. Of course, you might get kicked out, as FAIR was when they tried to ask Mahoney some questions.
(On a side note, your blogger was surrounded by 8 LAPD cops and briefly detained while taking photos at the 9/11/02 memorial at Mahoney's palace. I visited three other memorials that same day and had no similar experiences. I should post the details of that incident here, since that was one of the reasons I started this blog.)
Previously: "Cardinal Mahoney initiates immigrant rights campaign"
Posted to Immigration at March 2, 2006 11:03 AM
Comments
Lone:
I couldnt find an email link on your site, so here is an article you might find interesting
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060302-124525-9041r.htm
It is about violence on the border.
Posted by: LomaAlta at March 2, 2006 12:15 PM
I hope and wish and will pray that people do not judge the Catholic Church and us Catholics on Cardinal Mahoney and his various examples.
Mahoney and the L.A. Diocese, along with the U.S. Catholic Bishops, are known to follow liberal ideology very often and at worst, protest or, at worst, even defy the Vatican.
Please try to keep the context of these Mahoney statements where they belong and that's with Mahoney and not necessarily with the Catholic Church and Catholics elsewhere.
Los Angeles, after all, is one of the "sanctuary" counties in the country, and Mahoney is the source of much consternation and concern for many Catholics otherwise and elsewhere.
Posted by: -S- at March 2, 2006 06:42 PM
QUOTE: "One other thought: Mexico is going to vote in a leftist President in May, and then we will watch the border crossings increase significantly. We here in Arizona just saw illegals being detained by a rancher. The illegals filed a civil complaint which the ranchers didn't answer and the judge awarded the Mexicans the ranch."
Posted by: tk | Thursday, March 02, 2006 at 10:57 AM From Riehl's World View:
http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2006/03/geraldo_and_ore.html#comment-14557674
You know, if the Mexican Government would spend half the amount of resources they spend on Consulates here in the US advising their
"illegal" compatriots on how to circumvent US Laws and not to get caught by Immigration, providing them with Mexican IDs to be able to better sneak themselves more readily into our society; passing comics and pamphlets out, back in Mexico, instructing prospective illegals on how to cross over the border, and where the water stations are in the desert; advertising on Univision how it is the Mexican dream to come to the US, a land of "Freedom" and "opportunity," in their own words, and what a great contribution they are to our "trim lawns"; defending illegals in our Courts, and suing Ranchers who will not let illegals trespass across their property along the border, as you mentioned; and financially supporting every pro-immigration, "La Raza" group that wants open borders and unchecked Mexican immigration into this Country, perhaps they would have enough money left over to better take care of their own people!!!
Of course, the obvious reason they do that, is that Mexico's greatest Gross National Product, far surpassing their sizeable oil revenues, is the exporting of Mexicans! (as I pointed out above, they now even come with instructions. Next the Mexican government will be shipping them in nice gift-wrapped boxes with a bow!)
So much for the state of the modern slave trade! And of course, our businesses here need the "slaves" to flip their burgers, cut their lawns, pick their crops, and clean their toilets, at "below poverty level" wages, which naturally to the Mexicans is probably more than what Vicente Fox is paid as "Presidente de la Republica" (tongue in cheek) when you convert the worthless Mexican toilet paper Pesos, in which they get paid, into American dollars!
Talk about "La Cucaracha"! They are verily running us over like roaches!!! And the worse part of it is that they are bringing along with them all that has made of Mexico, culturally (an oxymoron when applied to Mexico with their monumental illiteracy, and lack of basic education,which makes it even more ironic that they would come here to learn "English," when the majority of the population doesn't even know how read, write, or even talk proper "Spanish"!!!), politically, and economically a failure as a country, a society, and as an "Independent Nation"!!!
And what is most sad, is that because in our "Politically Correct" society, since we must treat every "immigrant" the same "under the Law," and treat them "equally," these Mexican swarms are screwing it up for every other person in other countries that wishes to emigrate to the US, since to stem the Mexican hordes, Immigration Laws, prerequisites, and enforcement must need get more stringent, and more severely enforced!
Perhaps if we provided Mexican illegals crossing the Rio Grande with boats, and sent in the Coast Guard, we could apply to them the "wet foot-dry foot policy" Immigration authorities used to promptly send those poor, hapless, Cubans back who had the misfortunem to land on the out of service old "Seven mile Bridge" in Florida, back to Castro's hell-hole in Cuba! (I have always wondered why Mexicans, who so vehemently support Castro and his Revolution for the most part, do not emigrate 'en masse' to Castro's "Communist Paradise," instead of coming here to the
"Imperialist's lair" in the first place!)
At any rate, if you drive in the vicinity of San Diego, watch out for those new diamond shaped, yellow signs the D.O.T. has had the kindness to put up along the expressways for the protection of our beleaguered neighbors "South of the Border," akin to the "Deer Crossing," and "Watch out for Cattle" ones we are so familiar with. They show the silhouttes of a man with a woman holding the hand of a child, all of them running. Of course it stands for: "Watch out for Wet-backs Crossing"! LOL! (and no, it is not a joke, the signs are REAL!)
As that prominent little rodent, Speedy Gonzalez, would say: "Arriba! Arriba! Andele! Andele!"
What will the D.O.T. think of next?!?!
Althor :)
Posted by: Althor at March 2, 2006 07:30 PM
althor, while i share your sentiments that illegal immigration is one of the most disturbing issues facing our country, your patent racism and knuckle-dragging mentality is one of the main reasons why opponents of illegal immigration have such a hard time garnering mainstream support. with people like you on the "same side" as people like me, it is easy to label anti-illegal sentiment as reactionary and racist. i base my ideals on empirical evidence in the economic, political, legal and social realms while you make jokes and call people wetbacks. your intolerance disgusts me. as one of partial mexican descent, i find your comments as deleterious to the cause against illegal immigration as anything mecha or maldef could ever conjure up. think twice before you write, for you may just alienate yourself from the same cause you claim to be so in favor of. there is a big difference between being anti-immigrant and anti-illegal immigrant. figure it out.
Posted by: calypso catteraugus at March 3, 2006 10:14 AM
Dear Calypso,
I am really sorry that you took my "tongue in cheek" satire so to heart, and that it
“alienated” you, since such was not my intent! Sometimes the truth does offend people.
Wether we are being swamped by Muslims and North Africans, as has happened in Europe (which should serve as a warning, with all the resulting riots, mayhem, and Muslin turmoil, even threatening their long cherished Western traditions of
“Freedom of Speech and Expression” as with the recent Mohammed cartoon fiasco ), Canadians, Chinese, Mexicans, who constitute 90% of all illegal immigrants in America at this point, or any other ethnic group or nationality, the problem is not one of "selective racism," or of singling out any particular "nationality" or
"culture," and though ,yes, there is a bit of a reactionary element involved, as it’s only natural
to expect from those of us who loose our jobs to the illegal aliens that will do them for much less than we would, or are helping to inflate rent prices, because 20 adult illegals share a two bedroom apartment, while I am expected to pay the same rent with only my wife and I supporting ourselves and our two children, that is not it, but the real problem is one of "demographics."
It probably would amaze you to know that I am the son of immigrants, and contrary to what you may believe, I wholeheartedly do support Legal Immigartion, a process, by the way, which ought to be much streamlined, and not force those aspiring to emigrate to the US to wait years upon endless years before their turn comes up.
It may even further surprise you to know that I am also Hispanic origin, and though not having the “honor” of being of Mexican descent, as you are, yet I do have family ties of Mexican lineage.
However, as I was saying above, the problem is mainly one of "demographics," and to quote the words of a song by the late Cuban Salsa Queen Celia Cruz (which by the way has nothing to do with immigration): "...no hay cama pa' tanta gente!!!" which, if you have retained the knowledge of the Spanish language of your heritage, means:
"...there's no room for so many people!!!"
I would like to remind you that even in nature, any given environment can only support a given number of individuals. It seems that societally that also happens to be the case, since, as you most likely know, due to your stated participation in addressing the problem of illegal immigration, one of the crisis facing the public institutions of those States with the largest populations of "illegal," and I'm sorry to say but yes mostly "Mexican" immigrants, such as California, Arizona, and New Mexico, is that their resources are being overwhelmed, that there are not sufficient schools, medical care, social services, police and fire services, or even enough prisons to deal with the swarms of mainly Mexican people crossing the border ilegally!
Any community will benefit from, and will absorb a controlled number of immigrants that it will integrate to the benefit of all, but the virtual invasion that we are currently experiencing from South of the Border, again, basically from Mexico, but also from Central America, is simply "unsustainable," no matter with what "rose-clored glasses" you may which to look at it, or how sympathetic to the plight of these poor people, and humanitarian, you may be.
Also, and since I have had the privilege of experiencing, and dealing with Mexican culture on a one to one basis, and know it intimately enough, I am aware of the "cultural baggage" and the idiosyncrasies that most people from Mexico and Central America bring with them, including the illiteracy and lack of basic education that is unfortunately so common amongst many of those coming over, and such backwardness, tragically, as the case of the young Mexican couple, here in the States, who after receiving a prescription for an antibiotic for their sick newborn child, who had an infection, at the local Health Department clinic, were found, by the astounded prescribing physician, outside the clinic rubbing the prescription on the forehead of the child, thinking that it worked like one of the "spells" of their local witchdoctor "curandero" back home in the Rancho in Mexico!
And talk about racism! What about the “reverse-racism,” and resentment, many of "them" harbor not only against "gringos," but Europeans in general?!?!
How do you think I felt, when standing at a fast food restaurant where I live, having asked for extra mayonnaise on my burger, the Mexican lady taking my order turns around and tells her all-Mexican crew in Spanish: "Este pinche gringo gordo quiere extra mayonesa" ("This fricking fat gringo wants extra mayonnaise"), and all were snickering, assuming that just because I am white and blonde I was a despised "gringo," and not someone with possibly more Spanish heritage than they, and that I understood perfectly their mockery, and what they were saying in their badly spoken Spanish. Needless to say, they were flattened when I took my leave of them in perfect Spanish, not alluding to their offensive remarks.
Or the overwrought "class" difference mentality that tinges their culture, and the sense of
"inferiority," and "resentment" in which many wallow, since their traditions have always taught them that they are nothing but the poor victims of the "hated" "Spanish Conquistadores," and of the "French" back when Benito Juarez, and then, of course, of the "American gringos," to the point that they carry demonstrations on Columbus Day in Mexico City, to protest the Spanish domination; of what??? Two hundred years ago?!?! I am sure that anyone who has had the misfortune to watch any significant amount of Mexican
"telenovelas" (soap operas) on Univision, can sadly attest to the above.
Older folks may remember the virulent Marxist demonstrations we saw on our television screens, taking place in Mexico and all throughout Latin America back in the 60s, with the people chanting: “Yankees go home! Yankees go home!” How cynical and ironic, that apparently, ulteriorly in their secret heart of hearts, all these “Comrades” and their descendants wanted was “To go home with the Yankees!”
Then, it also should be taken into consideration,
that unlike such places like Cuba, where people, are not only economically bereft, but are also under the joke of a brutal, oppressive dictatorship, Mexico, in spite of corrupt, oligarchical governments, is an independent Republic, and Mexican people have always enjoyed a freedom of movement in their country, that in Cuba’s case is unthinkable, and for the last decades at least, sufficient self-determination at the “ballot box” to have effected the necessary changes to improve their lot. Which begs the question: “If these people have been a failure at self-governance, and have gotten to the point where the only solution to so many is to flee their country, what makes you think that upon coming to America, and gaining the vote, they will not ruin America in turn, in like manner?!?!
As to your taking offense at my using of the term “Wetback” in my satire, I am sorry to disappoint you, but none other than "Chicano" comedian Mencia, was the one who was ridiculing the new, quote: “Wetback Crossing” signs on his HBO show, that I cited, which unfortunately is not a joke but a sad reality on the San Diego Freeways that skirt the border, due to the inordinate amount of illegal “Mexican” aliens, men, women, and children, jumping in front of 65MPH cars in order to get across to the other side into the US, endangering not only themselves, but the unsuspecting drivers that have the misfortune to encounter them!
Sincerely,
Al Rodriguez (Althor)
Posted by: Althor at March 3, 2006 05:29 PM
althor,
i agree with everything you say in your second post; the clarification is much appreciated. my point was that it is easy for the ultra-liberal and pro-illegal immigration crowd to demonize arguments that are based on reactionary and visceral premises, rather than on the cold, hard facts. your second post was incredibly refreshing and right on point. i can tell your first post was driven by utter frustration, which i can wholly empathize with. every day in highland park i see a 17 year old mother with 3 kids and i wonder what kind of future they have in front of them. i get depressed to think our schools are dysfunctional and our hospitals bankrupt. it causes me just as must anger and frustration as i can tell you experience as well. but until more people like you and i fight the cause with facts instead of emotions, it is easy to label us as racist xenophobes, and no better than some ignorant redneck in tennessee (where i have family, mind you!).
i feel your pain, anger and frustration and worry about where our country will be in 25, 50, 100 years. will it all look like oxnard? or will people like you and me be able to convince the populace that this is an economic issue, not a race issue, and that we need to approach this dilemma from a rational standpoint with real solutions, rather than hatred and fear.
Posted by: calypso catteraugus at March 6, 2006 12:32 PM
I think Cardinal
roger Mahoney has stepped outside of catholilc teachings here in the United
states . There is a little thing called seperation of church and state . bye bye birdie.
Posted by: william anderson at May 16, 2006 05:51 PM
