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Time Magazine poll: Large Majority Favors "Guest Workers"

If a new Time Magazine poll is to believed, around 72 percent of Americans favor a "guest" worker scheme of some kind.

Of course, the "is to believed" part is our taking-off-point to mention that the poll question only gave two choices:

1. Allow Illegal Immigrants To Get Temporary Work Visas

2. Make Illegal Immigration a Crime And Not Allow Anyone Who Entered The Country Illegaly to Work or Stay In the U.S.

Obviously, there are other choices, aren't there?

And, in a similar fashion to a previous Field Poll that also - miraculously! - came to the same false conclusion as the Time poll, the question about "temporary" workers is basically a lie.

First, under all of the current amnesty/"guest" worker plans, they'd be here for from between 3 (or is it 2?) and 6 years.

Since when is six years "temporary"? It's not permanent, but it's sure a long time.

And, as pointed out many times before, those "guests" would have U.S. citizen children. In other words, they aren't going home.

So, anyone - and that includes Time Magazine and their polling firm Schulman, Ronca, & Bucuvalas - who claims that our "guest" workers would be here temporarily is simply lying to you.

Posted to Immigration at 09:58 PM | Comments (5)

Yet more pro-illegal immigration propaganda from the Washington Post

The WaPo has a profile of Rep. Tom Tancredo in "Tuning In to Anger on Immigration".

Reading between the lines, one might think that the WaPo is trying to portray those who oppose illegal immigration as emotionally-driven and fact-challenged:

For many frustrated, scared and angry suburbanites and small-town residents, Tancredo is a hero, one of the very few Washington politicians who take their fears seriously. They believe undocumented, mostly Hispanic workers are taking jobs that ought to go to citizens, flooding schools and boosting the crime rate, and that the country's open borders pose a security threat.

Apparently, the WaPo believes differently, as their long line of propaganda supporting illegal immigration shows. See also "The immigration debate, Washington Post-style".

Posted to Immigration at 09:36 AM | Comments (4)

Please call Dennis Hastert

From this:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Wednesday suggested the House would be open to a temporary worker program when the House and the Senate later work out their differences. Specter said it was a hopeful sign that lawmakers would accept a comprehensive approach.

Could you please call his office and let him know what you think? And, please encourage everyone you know to do the same.

His D.C. office is:
Phone: 202-225-2976
Fax: 202-225-0697

Local offices are listed here.

Posted to Immigration at 05:34 AM | Comments (3)

Bush assures Fox they'll get "guest" worker scheme despite what voters want

As if we needed more reminding, "Bush reassures Fox on immigration bill" reminds us that Bush doesn't work for or represent the vast majority of American citizens:

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush reassured Mexican President Vicente Fox on Thursday he was committed to getting the U.S. Congress to approve broad immigration reforms, including a guest worker program.

Speaking after talks with Fox in the Mexican resort of Cancun, Bush told reporters: "I'm confident we can get a bill done." He made no prediction on the timing of such legislation, which the U.S. Senate started debating on Wednesday.

Bush also praised Fox for pledging to do more to police the U.S.-Mexican border, the crossing point for most illegal immigrants entering the United States.

"I'm committed to having a comprehensive immigration bill on my desk, and by comprehensive I mean not only border security, a bill that has border security, a bill that has security enforcement in it, but a bill that has a worker permit program in it," Bush said...

Another charming image courtesy of Lou Dobbs:

President Bush, President Fox and Prime Minister Harper will discuss border security in terms of the perimeter of our three nations -- regional security perimeter, if you will. Such a concept, in my opinion, has no merit whatsoever while the United States cannot defend its own borders...

...For that matter, in the United States, this president and Congress seem hell bent on defying the popular will. The American people, in poll after poll and survey after survey, are revealed to be opposed to the direction of the war in Iraq, illegal immigration, amnesty, a guest-worker program, the outsourcing of jobs and certainly the outsourcing of our security. It has become increasingly clear over the last several years that the least represented constituency in either Congress or the White House is the middle class, working men and women who are the foundation of our country.

And while these three leaders are meeting in Cancun, the Senate is debating whether there should be a guest-worker program and whether there should be amnesty for those already here. Guest worker programs never work anywhere in the world. I firmly believe that we cannot significantly reform our immigration policies unless we can control immigration. And the control if immigration is impossible if our borders remain porous and vulnerable.

One of the things that frustrates many of us who care about our country and the truth is the rampant barrage of misinformation, disseminated by such vociferous special interests, whether they are ethnocentric social activists, labor unions, the Catholic Church or Corporate America. The truth is advocates of amnesty, guest-worker programs and open borders are unconcerned about the 280 million American citizens, the men and women of this country who work for a living and their families...

Posted to Immigration at 10:28 PM | Comments (5)

The 'Immigration Backlash'

From this:

...The Los Angeles Times duly reported, "Some Republicans fear that pushing too hard against illegal immigrants could backfire nationally, as with Proposition 187 (the 1994 ballot measure that sought to deny benefits for illegal immigrants that) helped spur record numbers of California Latinos to become U.S. citizens and register to vote. Those voters subsequently helped Democrats regain political control in the state."

Call that the Backlash Myth. In fact, Prop. 187 passed with 59 percent of the vote, and GOP Gov. Pete Wilson, who championed the measure, was re-elected in 1994. In 2003, when Democratic Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill that would allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses, he so enraged voters that he sealed his political demise. After Davis was recalled from office, the heavily Democratic California Legislature repealed the bill.

That's your backlash...

Posted to Immigration at 06:27 AM | Comments (5)

Who organized the illegal immigration marches?

There's a long article here listing some of the groups involved: unions, Catholic clergy, far-left groups, and even teachers unions.

He notes also that the Georgia immigration march was organized by former Mexican General Consul Teodoro Maus. However, he fails to mention that it was apparently your blogger who brought that to wider attention; I just linked to Allan Wall's earlier article about that consul.

In any case, if you want to know who else is on the other side it's got lots of names.

Posted to Immigration at 03:22 AM | Comments (9)

Rob Reiner leaves California preschool commission

Blaming "personal attacks", money-losing movie director Rob "Meathead" Reiner has stepped down from California's preschool commission:

Just two weeks ago, Reiner dismissed suggestions that he should step down from the California First 5 Commission, which has collected nearly $4 billion in tobacco taxes to fund early childhood programs. "Everything I've done is completely legal," he said at the time.

Previously:
First 5 California: bring back integrity!
Rob Reiner denies wrongdoing
Rob Reiner-supporting commercials paid for by tax money
"[Rob] Reiner initiative bad for preschoolers"
UC study: by Third Grade, Preschool benefits disappear
"Preschool for All Act", Rob Reiner, and the government targeting 4-year-olds
"First 5 California": Yet another illegal immigration magnet

Posted to California at 11:02 PM | Comments (1)

"Mexican illegals vs. American voters"

Not to get your hopes up, but Tony Blankley offers this:

...according to a National Journal survey of Congress, 73 percent of Republican and 77 percent of Democratic congressmen and senators say they would support guest-worker legislation.

I commend to all those presumptuous senators and congressmen the sardonic and wise words of Edmund Burke in his 1792 letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe: "No man will assert seriously, that when people are of a turbulent spirit, the best way to keep them in order is to furnish them with something substantial to complain of." The senators should remember that they are American senators, not Roman proconsuls. Nor is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee some latter-day Praetor Maximus.

But if they would be dictators, it would be nice if they could at least be wise (until such time as the people can electorally forcefully project with a violent pedal thrust their regrettable backsides out of town)...

...The public demand to protect our borders will triumph sooner or later. And, the more brazen the opposing politicians, the sooner will come the triumph.

So legislate on, you proud and foolish senators — and hasten your political demise.

Posted to Immigration at 11:34 AM | Comments (10)

"Is it time for a constitutional convention called by the people re: illegal immigration?"

Interesting idea here. If our leaders won't do their jobs and listen to the American people, perhaps it would be possible to get some of the states to take the lead on the issue.

Posted to Immigration at 10:55 AM | Comments (1)

Breast implants might explode on space tourist flights

Breaking news:

LONDON, March 29 (UPI) -- Of the 157 people who have paid Virgin Galactic $200,000 for a brief space flight in 2008, those with breast implants may find themselves flat out of luck.

Company spokesman Will Whitehorn told The Sun safety concerns have come to light for those who want to be launched in groups of eight to an altitude of more than 60 miles for 7 minutes of weightlessness.

"We've discovered there may well be issues with breast augmentation," he said. "We're not sure whether they could stand the trip -- they could well explode."

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:53 AM | Comments (2)

Whatever will we do without child labor?

In October, Mark Krikorian of CIS testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary about "Comprehensive Immigration Reform II". As their recent actions show, they weren't paying attention:

Lobbyists for business will disagree of course, but their claims of doom and gloom are nothing new. Forty years ago, for instance, California tomato farmers said that their industry would cease to exist if the foreign-labor program of the time – the Bracero Program – were ended. Instead, farmers invested in harvest machinery, causing output to quadruple and the real price of tomato products to fall.

Fifty years before that, the textile industry predicted disaster if child labor were ended: in fact, at a Senate hearing in 1916, one mill owner said that limiting child labor would "stop my machines"; another said "investors would never receive another dividend"; while a third said that ending child labor would "paralyze the country."

America's economy has done just fine without child labor, and it'll do just fine without more foreign labor...

...It's time to try something new: Attrition through enforcement.

There's a whole series of propaganda articles that bring yesterday's child labor into a modern context starting in "The Guardian: American crops rotting in the fields".

Posted to Immigration at 06:45 AM | Comments (3)

John Whitesides, Reuters, pro-illegal immigration propaganda

John Whitesides of Reuters offers a heaping load of pro-illegal immigration propaganda in "Republicans risk Hispanic support in border debate".

It's basically an attempt to corrupt the Republican Party: support massive illegal immigration or you won't get votes. That concept is completely false, as poll after poll shows.

The piece relies on quotes from, among others, the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and Daniel Griswold.

The latter is from the Cato Institute, which is falsely identified as "conservative":

The risk of alienating Hispanics is much greater than the risk of turning off conservatives, Griswold said. He noted Republicans who supported guest worker programs like Reps. Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe in Arizona and Chris Cannon in Utah have survived primary challenges from anti-immigration opponents.

Obviously, that's not telling the whole story. Cannon's brother is the head of the Utah GOP and he had much more money than his opponent. And, he was forced to spend almost all of it in order to win. And, is an aide suggesting ways that illegal aliens could donate to your campaign really that "conservative"?

The article also puts a false spin on California's Proposition 187.

Posted to Immigration at 03:29 AM | Comments (2)

Mexican flag raised over American high school

Whittier area students from Pioneer, California and Whittier high schools walked out of classes to protest the proposed federal immigration bill March 27, 2006. The protestors put up the Mexican flag over the American flag flying upsidedown at Montebello High.

More pictures here. The pictures are from this paper, but none of their links worked in my browsers.

Posted to Immigration at 10:19 PM | Comments (13)

Dear Chris Nolan

She writes:

I am no immigration policy expert. I read Marc Cooper and think he's right.

Marc Cooper is right when he writes simple declarative sentences about ice being cold, the desert being hot in the summer, and the like. However, he's usually wrong when he discusses immigration. See my various comments at his site(s).

It's the faith in the document, not the paper, that binds us as a society and when people peacefully exercise their right to free assembly, they've clearly gotten the memo.

And, when foreign citizens who have no right to be in your country march in your streets demanding rights to which they aren't entitled, serious people who are concerned about this country realize they have a major problem on their hands.

I'm going to pass on characterizing the rest of her comments, because she and her comments are a waste of time.

Posted to Immigration at 07:57 PM | Comments (3)

Who's responsible for illegal immigration?

By sending us millions of their citizens, Mexico has managed to obtain political power inside our country.

As shown by the recent marches, that political power can be mobilized - whether in fact by Mexico or just by partisans - into a show of physical force.

The U.S. is faced with a difficult choice: do we give in, or do we decide to enforce our laws and face the consequences.

If we choose the former, we will only embolden the government of Mexico and others who've supported massive illegal immigration, giving them more power inside our country.

If we choose the latter, will those who marched last week decide to riot instead?

With those thoughts in mind, it's going to be helpful going forward to take a look at the groups responsible for getting us into this situation. Some of them include:

* Businesses. Includes manufacturers, growers, banks, and their advocacy groups.

* The Democratic Party. The Democratic leadership apparently sees illegal immigrants as a massive future voting bloc, and in addition that party is built on playing racial politics. Individual Democratic supporters may base their support on psychological factors, such as a fear of being called names or guilt. Democratic leaders and others play on those fears. Others may do so out of petty corrupt grounds, such as those who employ illegal domestic labor.

* The Republican Party. While the GOP leadership will say that they support "immigration" in order to get the "Hispanic vote", the bottom line appears to be... the bottom line. Companies that profit off illegal labor donate to Republican politicians, and those politicians tend to do what is in the best interests of those companies.

* The media. Almost all newspapers and their reporters support illegal immigration. They do that through editorials and frequently by publishing false or biased news reports. The reasons appear to be based in part on leftwing ideology and in part due to business reasons. For instance, in some small towns the local newspaper may support illegal immigration because the town bosses profit off the practice. Larger newspapers may do something similar. Many bloggers also support illegal immigration.

* Racial and leftwing groups. Includes groups such as the National Council of La Raza ("The Race"), MALDEF, the National Immigration Forum, and countless others. Many of those are funded by leftwing foundations and are not grassroots groups. For instance, the Ford Foundation has given MALDEF over $25 million since the latter's founding.

* Ideologues. Very few people support massive immigration out of mostly ideological reasons. However, some libertarians fall into this camp. This group could be ignored except for the fact that they are much more influential than just their numbers would indicate.

* Extremists. There are various people and groups who support and oppose massive immigration largely on racial grounds. All white supremacist groups oppose immigration or illegal immigration because of the race of those immigrating. On the other hand, various Hispanic or Chicano groups support massive illegal for the same reason.

* Churches. They want new parishioners, and they also seem unable to figure out that illegal immigration leads directly to worker abuse.

* The not-yet-informed. Unfortunately, a large number of Americans aren't as familiar with this subject as they could be. They're easily swayed by false arguments, such as those who claim that "guest" workers would in fact be "guests".

-----
On a general note, please contact all your representatives and urge them to oppose any sort of amnesty or "guest" worker scheme. The main Senate Switchboard is (202) 224-3121 or (888) 355-3588. You can also send free FAXes here.

Posted to Immigration at 11:26 AM | Comments (3)

Pictures from Los Angeles illegal immigration march

There are several photos from the March 25 rally here. Especially note this one.

Posted to Immigration at 10:41 AM | Comments (4)

Paul Krugman on illegal immigration

Paul Krugman writes:

In other words, I'm instinctively, emotionally pro-immigration. But a review of serious, nonpartisan research reveals some uncomfortable facts about the economics of modern immigration, and immigration from Mexico in particular. If people like me are going to respond effectively to anti-immigrant demagogues, we have to acknowledge those facts...

Aside from the name-calling and his misreading of HR4437, he's... mostly correct.

Posted to Immigration at 03:21 AM | Comments (3)

Oliver Willis to blog from Siberia

ODub comes out against illegal immigration, although he can't help but get his digs in at those evil conservatives.

Posted to Bloggage at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)

Instapundit ends up supporting Bush on illegal immigration

This was highly predictable. Yesterday, Insty posted the following:

I'VE GENERALLY FAVORED OPEN IMMIGRATION, but I find myself feeling less and less that way in the face of mass rallies by illegal immigrants like this one...

Now, he's got an update with an email putting the bestest spin possible on illegal aliens marching in our streets, claiming that "these people are positive about our country, and are interested in being Americans." Insty calls that a "good point".

Didn't you just know that Insty would come around to Bush's position within a very short period of time?

(On a completely OT note, the emailer appears to have some connection to the Sheldon Drobny case.)

Posted to Bloggage at 01:04 PM | Comments (1)

"Borderline Insanity: The Democrats Commit Suicide Over Immigration"

For a change, here's a Democrat who isn't wrong about illegal immigration.

Posted to Immigration at 01:02 PM | Comments (1)

Modern Propaganda Techniques

There's a pretty good list of some techniques the MSM uses here. See also my new site about immigration reform. It provides additional canards the MSM uses to lie about the topic.

Posted to Miscellania at 05:23 AM | Comments (0)

Georgia illegal aliens protest organized by former Mexican consul

[See the first update for more]

Tim Molloy of the AP offers a roundup of the recent protest by illegal aliens who are demanding rights to which they aren't entitled in the falsely-titled "Immigration Rallies Draw Thousands Nationwide". It contains the following:

Teodoro Maus, an organizer of the Georgia protest, estimated as many as 80,000 Hispanics did not show up for work.

Molloy or his editors are apparently too shy to tell us that Maus isn't just a member of the "Coordinating Committee of Community Leaders". He's also a former Mexican consul. As with other professions, whether anyone is truly ever a "former" consul is unclear.

Here's an earlier AP article that doesn't disclose his former job. And, here's more on some recent statements he made here.

However, for much more on Maus, see this:

In 1996, Maus joined with local Hispanic activists and turned his guns on Norman Bingham, Cobb County Board of Education Chairman. Bingham, you see, had the temerity to exercise his First Amendment free speech rights in Maus' fiefdom, by stating that Latino construction workers were "uneducated" and "probably illegal aliens". After demanding Bingham's ouster, Maus allowed the chairman to retain his position, after of course recanting and issuing a two-page apology. That same year Maus attacked a Smyrna, Georgia law requiring all commercial signs be in English.

In 1999, Maus agitated for the issuance of drivers' licenses to illegal aliens, but in this case the Georgia legislature failed to carry out the consul's edict. That same year, on a Spanish-language radio station, Consul Maus ordered local Hispanics to punish Georgia companies which, in Maus' view, "mistreat or ignore Hispanic customers".

After stepping down as Consul General, Maus stayed in the U.S. as a private consultant and then president of the Mexican-American Business Chamber. Now [2002] Maus is slated to move to Washington as the Mexican government's liaison on environmental affairs...

Will anyone in the Bush administration object to a foreign government possibly agitating their citizens who are in our country illegally? Or, will Bush congratulate Fox when they meet next week?

UPDATE: Here's much more on Teodoro Maus. And, here are additional links between the organizers of other immigration marches and foreign forces, including the Mexican government, Mexico's PRD Party (the one to which AMLO belongs), and the Irish government. In fact, all three major Mexican political parties were involved in various of the Chicago illegal immigration marches. The ACLU, MALDEF, SPLC, and AFSC have indirect links to the Mexican government. And, here are more links between the Democratic Party and the Mexican government.

OLDER UPDATE: [This update was topical, but feel free to continue calling those below.]

Here's the contact information for those on the Senate Judiciary Committee:

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) - 202-224-4254
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT) - 202-224-5251
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) - 202-224-3744
Sen. Jon L. Kyl (R-AZ) - 202-224-4521
Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) - 202-224-2315
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) - 202-224-4124
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC) - 202-224-5972
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) - 202-224-2934
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) - 202-224-6521
Sen. Thomas A. Coburn (R-OK) - 202-224-5754
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) - 202-224-4242
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) - 202-224-4543
Sen. Joseph R. Biden (D-DE) - 202-224-5042
Sen. Herbert H. Kohl (D-WI) - 202-224-5653
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) - 202-224-3841
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) - 202-224-5323
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) - 202-224-6542
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) - 202-224-2152

The main Senate Switchboard is (202) 224-3121 or (888) 355-3588. You can also send free FAXes here.

Please note that the current line from Feinstein and others is that they oppose a "blanket amnesty". Please tell them that you oppose any kind of amnesty or "guest" worker scheme, no matter what it's called or no matter how they try to hide it behind semantics.

Posted to Immigration at 09:50 PM | Comments (7)

Bush plans to enforce borders after gets "guest" worker program

Here's a recent comment from president Bush:

"Our government must enforce our borders; we've got plans in place to do so... But part of enforcing our borders is to have a guest worker program that encourages people to register their presence and says to them, 'If you're doing a job an American won't do, you're welcome here for a period of time to do that job.'"

He's had over five years to "enforce our borders", and he's clearly failed to do so. Now, we're informed that there are "plans" to finally do it, five years later.

And, the implicit threat is that the only way he'll "enforce our borders" is if he gets his "guest worker program".

Hasn't Bush admitted that he's not doing the job he swore he would do and that he won't do it unless he gets legislation he wants?

As pointed out many times before, the "period of time" Bush refers to is more commonly called "forever". Those that Bush refers to as "guests" will have U.S. citizen children and those same groups that now tell us that we have to legalize our current illegal aliens will tell us we need to legalize those "guests" who refuse to leave.

Posted to Immigration at 02:24 PM | Comments (7)

Costa Mesa businesses hurt when city enforces law

Costa Mesa in Orange County CA will be checking the immigration status of those arrested for violent felonies.

Now, at first glance you might think most residents of that city would support that idea, rather than, for instance, telling lies about the proposal or complaining that it hurts their businesses (more here).

Previously:
Los Angeles Times supports illegal immigration, again and again
Costa Mesa passes local immigration enforcement law; "liberals" protest

Posted to California at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

Rich Lowry on Cardinal Roger Mahoney

From this:

When it comes to illegal immigration, suddenly liberal Democrats have only one guide to public policy: "What Would Jesus Do?" The target of their Bible-based ire is a border-enforcement bill that recently passed the House and is allegedly the greatest challenge Christianity has faced since the lions in the Colosseum...

...Stoking all the Bible-thumping is Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles, who alleges that the legislation would outlaw acts of charity for illegal immigrants. In making this charge, Cardinal Mahony apparently has no compunction about deceiving his flock...

...In the debate over the House bill, these employers are in a de facto alliance with Cardinal Mahony to try to preserve their access to cheap, low-skill labor without the full rights of U.S. citizens. Selfish capitalists surely have never been so grateful for the political activism of a socially conscious (and ill-informed) Catholic bishop.

Posted to Immigration at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

Hidden surprises in Senator Frist's "enforcement-only" bill

Unfortunately, it looks like Senator Frist's "enforcement-only" immigration bill has a few hidden surprises that would make it almost as bad as the other bills the Senate will consider. Here's the number of legal immigrants allowed under each bill over the next ten years:

20 million under Sen. Frist's bill (S. 2454)
25 million under the McCain/Kennedy bill (S. 1033)
30 million under the Specter proposal (no number)

A little more on this here.

Posted to Immigration at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

Knight Ridder gets serious about effects of illegal immigration

This is a bit of a shocker. From "Migration of working-age people has devastated many Mexican villages" by Jay Root:

Decades ago, before massive waves of young men fled north, Pedro Avila Salamanca helped his father harvest corn and fatten pigs. He learned to write his name in a one-room schoolhouse. Sometimes he rode to town on a donkey.

It's all a distant memory now. Everywhere abandoned houses are crumbling. The towns are shrinking. And Avila, 89, who wears donated clothes and lives on the meager checks his daughters send from the United States, can't remember the last time he ate meat. "What would I buy it with?" he asked.

Avila is a part of the immigration debate that neither Mexican political leaders nor cheap-labor advocates in the United States like to talk about: Heavy migration has all but emptied much of the Mexican countryside.

Money sent back to Mexico from those working in the United States reached a record high last year, $20 billion, making remittances from migrants Mexico's second largest source of income, surpassed only by oil exports.

But the export of human labor has been devastating here. It's left the land dotted with near-ghost towns inhabited by the very old and the very young, their lives dependent on whatever money their relatives send home...

See also:

Irony on the Border, Part 2

Irony on the Border

Posted to Immigration at 07:45 AM | Comments (0)

Harry Reid's border visit, annotated

From this:

[Harry] Reid called [HR4437] "punitive, unfair and un-American," and said he believed a bill introduced last year by Senators John McCain, R.-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., provided a better place to start...

Reid traveled to San Diego yesterday after meeting with labor and hotel industry representatives in Las Vegas, where the service industry relies heavily on immigrant workers...

After a tour of the San Ysidro port of entry and a visit to a recently discovered cross-border drug tunnel, they planned to meet with local labor, church and agricultural industry representatives last night.

Posted to Immigration at 04:42 AM | Comments (1)

Charlie Sheen demands 9/11 investigation

Actor Charlie Sheen has joined a growing army of other highly credible public figures in questioning the official story of 9/11 and calling for a new independent investigation of the attack and the circumstances surrounding it... Speaking to The Alex Jones Show on the GCN Radio Network, the star of current hit comedy show Two and a Half Men and dozens of movies including Platoon and Young Guns, Sheen elaborated on why he had problems believing the government's version of events...

(I'm just trying to help prevent things like this)

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 01:17 AM | Comments (2)

Americans: Bush is going to try to sell you on amnesty, but call it something else

Will president Bush be able to sell Americans on his or someone else's "guest" worker scheme? That appears to be the one-two punch they plan: the Senate will come up with something, then Bush will try to sell it to the American public.

Of course, there are a few minor details still to be worked out. For instance, even diehard BushBots are starting to abandon ship. And, almost everyone else doesn't find Bush too very credible. And, there's the little matter that most Americans don't want massive immigration.

And, there's also the matter that anytime someone refers to something as a "guest" worker program they're lying: under any of the current "guest" worker programs our "guests" will end up staying here. They'll buy property, start businesses, and have U.S. citizen children, and they'll never go home.

Likewise with the non-amnesty amnesties: they're all amnesties, even if through semantic gymnastics some claim they won't do what they will do.

Yesterday, Bush held a meeting featuring 15 "business, religious and community leaders who advocate a guest worker program", including our old friend Tamar Jacoby:

...The Senate, which launches a two-week immigration debate on Tuesday, appears far friendlier to the idea of a temporary worker program for foreigners hoping to come here in the future. While the Senate Judiciary Committee is considering a separate plan that would put illegal immigrants already here on a path to citizenship, it's far from certain whether the Senate will endorse it.

An initial burst of GOP support in committee last week for an "earned" legalization plan championed by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., may be dwindling as congressional aides race this week to hammer out details, some say.

"It turns out some of those devilish details are giving people trouble now. And what looked like such a promising thing last week ... is turning out to be tough work," said Tamar Jacoby, an immigration expert at the conservative Manhattan Institute who has closely watched the talks...

...The 15 officials invited to the White House to meet with Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, deputy chief of staff Karl Rove and others said they were told the strategy is a deliberate one.

"They are watching very carefully what's going on in Congress and I think they are prepared to encourage the right kind of program ... as it comes out of Congress," Jacoby said as she left the meeting. "He understands he's going to have a big role to play in persuading the public that whatever the answer is, it isn't an amnesty."

Since all the "guest" worker schemes are basically amnesties, won't he just be lying?

Posted to Immigration at 12:01 AM | Comments (1)

Today is "Be Civil When Debating President Bush's Immigration Plans Day"

Earlier today, President Bush called for civility regarding debating the immigration issue: "When we conduct this debate, it must be done in a civil way".

For the rest of the day, this site will honor his wish.

Posted to Immigration at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)

"Cardinal Errors" (National Review on Roger Mahoney)

From this:

The American Catholic bishops are waging an intense, sophisticated campaign to promote their version of immigration reform, which happens also to be big business's version of immigration reform. The campaign comes complete with brochures, a well-designed website, prayer cards, bracelets, and phony arguments...

Much more at the link.

Posted to Immigration at 02:53 PM | Comments (0)

Illegal aliens march: Los Angeles, Sat. March 25

On Saturday, illegal aliens will be marching in Los Angeles for rights to which they aren't entitled.

IOW, foreign citizens who've entered the U.S. illegally or who've remained here illegally are now agitating - and being agitated - inside the U.S.

Have we indeed reached a critical mass of foreign citizens here?

Do we have no choice but to give them what they want?

If we give them what they want, won't millions more come and make the same or even greater demands?

Will our elected representatives capitulate to these foreign citizens' demands?

Please contact all your representatives and urge them not to give in.

Posted to Immigration at 10:45 AM | Comments (4)

Is Harry Reid qualified to be an American Senator?

If an American Senator continually supports citizens of other countries over what Americans want and deserve, has that Senator disqualified himself from his office?

Harry Reid is threatening to filibuster Bill Frist's "enforcement-only" immigration bill. He wants a "guest" worker scheme, and he refers to Kennedy-McCain as a "good place to start."

Not only that, but back in September, he turned his back on American hurricane victims: Harry Reid wants amnesty for illegal aliens who are taking jobs that could go to Katrina victims.

Is Harry Reid completely corrupt and willing to sell out this country and its citizens for the possibility of new votes for him and his party? Is he really qualified to be a United States Senator?

Posted to Politics at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)

Let's discredit Cardinal Roger Mahoney! (Part 2)

If Cardinal Roger Mahoney turns out to be intentionally misreading the provisions of HR4437 relating to providing aid to illegal aliens, doesn't a major part of his argument collapse together with whatever credibility he might still have?

Ramesh Ponnuru discussed Mahoney's claims here, and provides one sample provision from HR4437:

"Whoever assists, encourages, directs, or induces a person to reside in or remain in the United States, or to attempt to reside in or remain in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien who lacks lawful authority to reside in or remain in the United States, shall be punished as provided [elsewhere in the bill]."

He also provides this snippet from current law:

Any person who, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation, shall be punished as provided...

Clearly, there's little difference between current and proposed law, and Mahoney is reading more into the bill than it says.

If we do as Ponnuru suggests and add a provision exempting social services, have no doubt that Mahoney and other supporters of illegal immigration will stretch it to the limit. But, perhaps some sort of a compromise can be developed that will take the wind out of the Cardinal's sails while at the same time not opening up the new law to abuses by so-called "humanitarian" groups.

Posted to Immigration at 06:54 AM | Comments (0)

Border Patrol: recent incursion wasn't Mexican military

From this:

Border Patrol agents now know who was really involved in a confrontation between Texas Law Enforcement and alleged drug smugglers in Sierra Blanca.

"All the evidence they have gathered from the investigation points to the individuals and the equipment that was involved was in fact not government of Mexico or military equipment," said National Chief Patrol Agent David Aguilar.

On January 22nd, Hudspeth County deputies say they were pursuing drug smugglers who crossed back into Mexico and were allegedly helped by men dressed as Mexican soldiers who deputies say crossed illegally into the U.S...

Is Aguilar correct? Is he telling the truth? Will we ever really know?

UPDATE: From this:

Two border sheriffs told KFOX they still believe the Mexican military is involved in a Hudspeth County incursion.

The sheriffs in El Paso and Hudspeth counties said they disagree with a recent finding by the Border Patrol.

Instead, they believe Mexican soldiers were indeed involved in the Jan. 22 Hudspeth County incursion...

Previously:
Another border incursion; Hudspeth County Sheriff's deputies receive threats

Border incursion details; Mexico claims they were U.S. soldiers

Border incursions: CBP wants investigation; Mexico issues border ban

Armed standoff near El Paso. Mexican Army?

Mexican military incursions: Chertoff downplays, excuses

Posted to Immigration at 03:46 AM | Comments (3)

Illegal aliens protest, Phoenix, 3/21/06

Since there's so many protests by foreign citizens who have entered our country illegally and are now demanding rights to which they aren't entitled, let's try this compact format:

report: "Hispanic groups showing support for McCain bill"

reporter: Yvonne Wingett

where: Phoenix, Arizona

# in group: around 60

signs: They waved signs in Spanish that translate to, "We want legalization for everyone."

interesting features: they caravaned to the office of John McCain (RINO-AZ,MX). Before the caravan, they gathered in front of the Mexican consulate.

Posted to Immigration at 03:14 PM | Comments (1)

Rob Allyn behind Mexico's ads in LAT, NYT, WaPo

The ads that the government of Mexico placed in the NYT, LAT, and WaPo were created by Rob Allyn, whose PR firm is being paid $720,000 to spread Mexican propaganda in the U.S.

AFAIK, no reporter has yet asked Allyn whether he is or will register as a Registered Foreign Agent.

Earlier: New York Times' Simon Romero does Rob Allyn's work for him

Posted to Immigration at 11:20 AM | Comments (1)

AFP is misleading you, Bush hasn't "ruled out amnesty for undocumented workers"

Drudge is linking to the Agence-France Press article "Bush rules out amnesty for undocumented workers":

President George W. Bush said he was opposed to amnesty or automatic citizenship for the some 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Amid an intense debate over the issue among US lawmakers, Bush on Tuesday ruled out amnesty for illegal immigrants but said he favored a "guest worker" program that would provide legal status for workers for a limited time period...

The AFP doesn't point out that they're basically the same thing. Those "guests" will stay, and Bush is lying to the American public when he calls them guests. And, those who offer similar "guest" worker plans are lying as well. By failing to point out what's really involved, the AFP is also lying.

Oddly enough, this is not the first time something like this has happened.

Back in October, Drudge linked to an AFP article also located at breitbart.com that falsely implied that DHS head Michael Chertoff wanted to expel all illegal aliens.

Posted to Immigration at 09:40 AM | Comments (3)

More pro-illegal immigration propaganda from the Washington Post

Darryl Fears of the WaPo offers "Immigration Debate Heats Up":

Pro-immigrant activists are planning an April 10 protest in 10 cities that could pull tens of thousands of immigrant workers from their jobs. A coalition of groups including the AFL-CIO, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Catholic bishops, the Day Without an Immigrant coalition in Philadelphia and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce will meet today on Capitol Hill to announce their plans.

Given the news that millions of citizens of other countries have entered our country illegally and are now marching to be given rights to which they aren't entitled, some might hope that some reporter somewhere would look into that side of things.

Of course, since this is from the Washington Post, they don't do that. Instead, the article is mostly pro-illegal immigration propaganda. It draws a contrast between the "unsympathetic" Minuteman and a large number of sympathetic, poor, frightened illegal aliens.

The side of things the WaPo won't discuss was offered in "Mexicans demand rights in U.S. What happens if we refuse?"

Please contact your representatives and urge them not to capitulate to those demands.

Posted to Immigration at 09:30 AM | Comments (0)

President Bush's latest immigration remarks

Our Leader has discussed immigration twice recently: here and here.

Maybe it's just me, but whenever I hear Bush talking about immigration I'm reminded of that scene from the Woody Allen movie Bananas that goes like this:

San Marcos realizes it's in need of a new leader, since their current leader has gone crazy and has used a recent public speaking event to announce that from now on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish, and that every one will have to change their underwear every half an hour. Of course, they will also be forced to wear their underwear on the outside of their clothes, so the government will be able to check.

Posted to Immigration at 06:50 AM | Comments (0)

"Illegal Aliens Captured Working at Naval Undersea Warfare Center"

From this:

Federal agents arrested three Guatemalan nationals and one Colombian national who were all working illegally for AID Maintenance, a Rhode Island-based company that provides contract cleaning services to both the the Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the Naval Station in Newport R.I.

In Monday's operation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents apprehended the individuals as they reported for work at the base. The workers, who had access badges authorizing them to enter the Naval Station, were identified after agents audited the hiring records of more than 250 AID Maintenance workers. The audit found deficiencies in more than 50% of the records of the employees on the company's payroll...

Posted to Immigration_terror at 03:41 AM | Comments (2)

Should the feds take over Maywood California?

Maywood is a tiny (1.14 square miles) city in southeast L.A. County with at least 30,000 residents, many of them illegal aliens. I've refered to it as "Aztlan City" because they recently came out against HR4437, they've declared themselves a sanctuary for illegal aliens, and the other actions they've taken that support illegal immigration.

Now, the L.A. Times has yet another article on their efforts: "Welcome to Maywood, Where Roads Open Up for Immigrants".

Oddly enough, they give some time to the dissenters:

Even within the city, the stance is controversial. Longtime residents believe the City Council has gone too far and is embracing lawlessness. They also question whether Maywood can handle more illegal immigrants.

"I'm afraid we're testing the limits of the law, and that's dangerous," said longtime resident J. Luis Ceballos, 52. "I think there is a danger of people thinking that they can do whatever they want."

Now, there's talk of Maywood's stance spreading to other cities with - naturally - Hispanic leaders and large illegal aliens populations.

If this is allowed to spread, won't it set a very dangerous precedent? Wouldn't we be allowing mini-Quebecs to sprout inside Los Angeles County? What if neighboring cities with similar viewpoints banded together? Where would it stop?

It's long past time for the feds or the state to begin investigating whether these cities' officials have violated one law or another.

While they might be afraid to step in because of the feared political backlash from Mexican-"Americans" like those in the California legislature, isn't that indicative of an even greater problem? Isn't it better to step in now before it's too late to do anything?

Posted to California at 10:28 PM | Comments (9)

Mexicans: Americans are lazy, racist exploiters

You're probably not likely to read about the latest Zogby poll in the usual sources since it tends to cast a great deal of doubt on those who support massive illegal immigration from Mexico. Namely, is it wise to import millions of people who have a low opinion of Americans? Why not import people who have a high opinion of America and support our people and our system? Why ask for trouble when it's not really necessary?

Twin polls were conducted of both Americans in the U.S. and Mexicans in Mexico:

Seventy percent of Americans said the U.S. is wealthier because there is plenty of opportunity and work available in the United States, but 62 percent of Mexicans said the U.S. is wealthier because it exploits others, the Zogby poll said.

...a majority of Americans want U.S. lawmakers to crack down on illegal immigration. Sixty-two percent of Americans said they favor "more restrictive" immigration policies, the Zogby poll said.

...84 percent of Americans said they held a positive view of the Mexican people, but only 36 percent of Mexicans had a positive view of Americans.

-- 78 percent of Americans consider Mexicans hard-working, but only 26 percent of Mexicans consider Americans hard-working.

-- 18 percent of Americans consider Mexicans racist, while 73 percent of Mexicans see American as racist.

-- 42 percent of Americans see Mexicans as honest, while only 16 percent of Mexicans see Americans as honest.

Similar percentages blame either corruption or government policies for their countries' problems. Only half of Mexicans want to have a "strong relationship" with the U.S.; Americans favor that by 62 percent.

Related: 58% of Mexicans AGREED with this question: "the territory of the United States' Southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico."

I know that "liberals" are real daredevils, but aren't we playing with fire here? Shouldn't we only allow people to settle here who respect our laws and our society? Shouldn't we have even the barest of standards other than just having a low-wage job?

If you support illegal immigration or massive immigration from Mexico, do you really think you're doing what's in the best interests of this country? UPDATE: In the intro to this post I forgot that those on the other side are quite adept. Reuters spins the poll in the bestest way they can find: "Americans, Mexicans oppose border fence: poll". Oddly enough, they don't mention the "more restrictive immigration policies" that most Americans support. Nor do they mention almost all of the other data points that point to the absolute foolishness of unrestricted immigration from Mexico. I should have known, I really should have known.

Posted to Immigration at 08:02 PM | Comments (4)

Have Oklahoma banks admitted to aiding and abetting illegal immigration?

Judy Gibbs Robinson of The Oklahoman offers a mostly standard article on banks giving home loans to illegal aliens: "Illegal immigrants use their taxpayer IDs to apply for mortgages".

I'm going to let someone else weigh in on this, but it looks to me like it's possible that two sources might have admitted to giving home loans to known illegal aliens. Would that be a crime? Would it be possible to find a non-corrupt, pro-American prosecutor to pursue that?

The sidebar contains this:

Qualifying for a loan using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers is not easy, said Platinum Direct Funding of Milwaukee President Bob Ross. Those who qualify typically have been in the United States 10 to 20 years.

Applicants must have filed taxes for two years and must have bank accounts, adequate income and a credit history -- although the latter can be a year's worth of utility bills.

"They have to be perfect -- 12 months and no late," said Alma Hancock, a loan officer with Oklahoma City's Gateway Mortgage who is processing her first ITIN loan application.

Those who qualify face higher interest rates: The 9.25 percent Hector and Yolanda received is about 3 points above the rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan. Lenders said the risk justifies the rates.

"They know that perhaps these people could be deported," Hancock said.

So, they know these are illegal aliens.

And, this:

The process reached Oklahoma City in November, when Jesse Hernandez returned from an out-of-state meeting of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.

"I'd always heard (undocumented) people could buy houses, but I couldn't figure out how," said Hernandez, a south Oklahoma City real estate agent. Within a week of the meeting, willing lenders were calling him, Hernandez said. He has sold five homes with taxpayer number loans. The one for Yolanda and Hector will be his sixth.

"The way I see it, everybody has the right to have a house," said Hernandez, a U.S. citizen born in Mexico.

If you live in Oklahoma, could you please contact your representatives and encourage them to look into whether these companies are committing crimes?

Posted to Immigration at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)

Mexicans demand rights in U.S. What happens if we refuse?

Could you please send the article "Saturday's Immigrant Rights March: Who kicked the sleeping giant?" to all of your representatives and urge them to read it?

It concerns the recent illegal alien rally in Chicago and it's written by Joshua Hoyt of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, a group closely linked to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

The bottom line of the article is that millions of Mexicans have come here illegally and settled. And, if we follow our laws and do what's in the best interests of this country, they'll protest. Foreign citizens have settled here and are now demanding that we do what they want.

While many Democrats are corrupt and anti-American enough to allow that to happen, many Republicans and some Democrats will realize that no country can allow anything like that. If we give them what they want now, we'll just have to keep doing it.

Posted to Immigration at 10:34 AM | Comments (5)

Brian Feagans of AJC reports on re-eduction of American worker

Brian Feagans of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution offers "Illegals change the homebuilding industry". It covers the story of a house framing contractor who was driven out of work by low bids from his competitors who use illegal labor, something he refuses to do.

It can most charitibly be described as a Soviet-style report covering his re-education and possible future rehabilitation.

The contractor loses work, has to sell his house, takes anti-depressants, stops taking the anti-depressants, until he eventually loses his business and has to find a job with someone else.

He also sends emails to elected representatives and other officials, all of whom pass the buck and refuse to enforce our immigration laws.

Twenty or thirty years ago, this would be a story of a great scandal: cheap, illegal labor flooding a market and driving Americans out of business. And, papers would look into the corrupt elected officials who support that. Shouldn't newspapers uncover corruption rather than end up supporting it? Why, they've even made movies - with a 2004 sequel - about those who fight against corruption.

Should the AJC decide to become a real newspaper rather than a propaganda rag, they could start with something that's contained in the article:

Dennis McConnell, who sits on the board of the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, said immigrant workers, both legal and illegal, are instrumental to construction in the region. "There's only so many Bubbas coming off the farm," said McConnell, who also sits on the board of the National Association of Home Builders. "The traditional sources for cheap labor just aren't there." ...McConnell, who builds in intown neighborhoods such as Virginia-Highland, said he has no doubt that there are illegal immigrants on his work sites. "That's why we hire subcontractors," he said. "It's their liability, not ours."

Shouldn't that have been not just a red flag but a red cape to a real reporter working for a real newspaper? Instead of treating it like the corrupt, anti-American scandal that it is, the AJC treats it like something you'd read in Soviet propaganda where the Uzbek peasant finally sees the light and decides to become a true kommunisticheskii worker.

I suggest the contractor keeps doing what he's doing now. But, as for the rest of us, I suggest helping him out by fighting against those who support massive illegal immigration. See also the commentary on this article here (nofollowpolicy).

Please send a note to their ombudsman with your thoughts: insideajc *at* ajc.com

Posted to Immigration at 06:37 AM | Comments (0)

Illinois voters: please choose Jim Oberweis

If you live in Illinois, please vote for Jim Oberweis in today's gubanatorial primary. The reason is simple: look at who his opponents are and what they represent and and what they support and what they're willing to do.

A vote for Oberweis is a vote against the corrupt, illegal immigration supporting political infrastructure in Illinois.

And, if you have friends there, please contact them and encourage them to vote for him as well.

Posted to Politics at 03:05 AM | Comments (0)

The immigration debate, Washington Post-style

The Washington Post featured a chat about immigration with one of their reporters earlier today, and it shows the only type of "debate" that paper is willing to have about immigration.

The chat featured Michael Leahy, author of a recent article about the Minuteman Project in Virginia ("Crossing the Line", 3/19/06). And, it was quite a "show chat": almost all of the questions were complimentary and from opponents of the MMP, in some cases including smears.

Only three of the questions that Leahy or the WaPo screener chose to print were from those who oppose illegal immigration, and only one of those had any actual meat. Even that was from someone who's not a fan of the MMP:

The Minutemen sound like unpleasant, confrontational zealots. However, I tend to think they're on the right side of this issue. Illegal immigration unambiguously hurts the United States by driving down wages and workplace protections for low-income workers. It hurts Latin America by siphoning away able, intelligent workers. Illegal immigration to the US also saps political energy for reform in Latin America, allowing corrupt or ineffective regimes to stay in power longer, prolonging and deepening poverty. Most Americans don't care about these bad consequences because they want cheap laborers to keep their azaleas looking good, but this hardly constitutes the moral high ground.

Notably, the three questions I wasted my time typing in were not answered by Leahy (see the link above). Two of those directly contradicted statements he made in the chat, and all three presented a side of the story not to be found from Leahy or the Washington Post.

Specifically, Leahy gave the impression that most "Latinos" support illegal immigration, when the truth is that not all do. And, some of those who do have links to the Mexican government.

He also stated the "Border Patrol has made it clear that it does not believe the Minutemen's presence at their April rally last year was of any real help to its operations." He should have made it clear that many front-line BP agents support or do not oppose the MMP. And, if he were serious about getting to the truth of this issue, he would have asked why the Washington BP officials think differently. And, no one else in the chat discussed one of the most pernicious affects of illegal immigration: political corruption. Needless to say, Leahy did not bring that up.

What could Leahy or the WaPo be afraid of? Why are they unable to discuss this issue other than in the most simplistic, emotionalistic terms? Since the Washington Post wholeheartedly supports illegal immigration, shouldn't they at least give a passing nod to the downsides of what they support?

Note also the introduction to the chat by Emily Messner, which I responded to here.

Does the Washington Post think it enhances its reputation by featuring such ignorant commentary or those who refuse to discuss subjects in anything other than the "show chat" format?

Posted to Immigration at 08:30 PM | Comments (1)

LAT, NYT, WaPo print Mexican propaganda ad

A full page ad from the government of Mexico appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and the Washington Post on Monday. While they do have a right to take ads even from foreign governments, the choice was particularly apt considering that all three papers support illegal immigration. And, it's a bit ironic considering an ad that the Los Angeles Times refused to run.

There are probably even readers who thought they were reading an article and not an ad. From the advertisement's text:

Acknowledging the sovereign right of each country to regulate the entrance of foreigners, it is indispensable to find a solution for the undocumented population that lives in the United States and contributes to the development of the country, so that people can be fully incorporated into their actual communities, with the same rights and duties.

It would be better if you could see it performed live. In that case, someone would be in the background making quote marks with his hands while Joe Isuzu read the text.

Mexican demands include not just "a far-reaching guest workers scheme" but they claim that "in order for a guest workers program to be viable, Mexico should participate in its design, management, supervision and evaluation."

In case you aren't laughing/crying hard enough, the ad goes on:

Mexico does not promote undocumented migration... [Mexico] is committed to fighting all forms of human smuggling and related criminal activities.

Thank you, Joe Isuzu and quote-marks guy.

Posted to Immigration at 01:53 PM | Comments (1)

Michael Leahy of Washington Post answers tough immigration questions!

Michael Leahy of the Washington Post is currently engaged in a chat about illegal immigration here. So far, he's answered three puffball/smear questions but hasn't yet answered mine:

--
Regarding "Latino activists", isn't it true that Hispanics from different countries of origin have different political viewpoints, and that even from the same country of origin not all think the same way?

Isn't it true that a good percentage of Hispanics actually support our immigration laws?

And, isn't it true that some "Latino activists" who support illegal immigration have links to the Mexican government?
--

And:

--
What role does political corruption play in illegal immigration?

As you no doubt know, remittances is a multi-billion dollar industry, and many U.S. corporations profit off sending money from illegal aliens in the U.S. to Mexico.

They then donate a portion of that money to politicians.

Likewise with manufacturing companies, growers, etc. who profit off illegal activity.

All of those companies that profit off illegal activity donate a lot of money, and politicians tend to do what they want: look the other way on our immigration laws.

Hasn't our political system been corrupted by illegal immigration?

Should papers like the WaPo really support illegal immigration, or should they fight against it?
--

And:

--
Isn't your claim about the BP vs. the MMP not entirely accurate? Isn't it true that Washington officials of the BP oppose the MMP, but the front-line agents of the BP generally support them?

Perhaps you should look a bit deeper into that side of things, eh?
--

Please submit your own questions that might be a little tougher than those he's already received. I guess it ends around 2pm EST.

Posted to Immigration at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

The Catholic Church's anti-HR4437 smokescreen (no soup kitchens here)

The article "Whether to aid migrants may be question of faith", although generally portraying the San Antonio diocese of the Catholic Church in the best light, does have a little contrary information, like this:

Opponents' "criticism of [HR 4437] is a smokescreen for their attitude that they don't really want to reduce illegal immigration," [Rep. Lamar Smith] said "Nobody is going to jail if they're innocently trying to provide food and water."

Cardinal Roger Mahoney and others have complained about the possibility that HR 4437 would interfere with soup kitchens and other emergency or necessary services for illegal aliens.

But, is that all that the Catholic Church provides to illegal aliens, or does it go a bit further than that? What if members of that church in San Antonio are providing non-emergency services to known illegal aliens?

In a tiny house on the West Side, two nuns provide a daily break for Mexican immigrant mothers struggling to raise families in a foreign culture.

The nuns teach English, computer skills and arts and crafts. They celebrate birthdays and invite residents to the local Catholic church for Masses. If requested, they give advice on applying for citizenship....

It's free. No questions asked. Not about religion. Not about legal status.

But the work of the 7-month-old Presentation Ministry Center and similar organizations could be in jeopardy, according to opponents of a bill approved by the U.S. House in December...

For nearly three hours a day weekdays, [Sister Quijano] and Sister Dina Potter give sewing lessons at a fold-up table in a former living room. On the walls are hand-made Christmas wreaths and a wooden cross engraved with racially diverse images.

One room serves as a computer lab with four stations. Another room has a marker board and chairs around a table used for English classes.

The house is rented from a family whose grandmother was gunned down by mistake during a drive-by shooting two years ago. Community renewal is the ministry's ultimate goal, Quijano said. The sisters work in a zip code where only 3 percent of its residents have college degrees and more than one-third live below the poverty line.

On a recent morning, Alicia swung open the screen door entrance along with her youngest child, Jasmine, who is 19 months old. Alicia is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, who declined to give her last name, and stays at home to care for four children...

Computer classes? Sewing lessons? What happened to the emergency food and water that we've been told this was all about?

I was unable to find out exactly who runs that House, but they're definitely part of the Catholic Church. Considering what they're doing, isn't it clear that they're actively encouraging known illegal immigrants to stay here?

Would that House - just as an example - try to encourage an illegal alien to return to Mexico and seek help at their church counterparts in that country? Wouldn't that be best for all concerned? Rather than bringing poor people into a rich economy and an unknown country, why not encourage them to stay home and build up their own country, or at least emigrate legally rather than illegally?

Is the Catholic Church simply trying to set immigration policy and hiding behind a "compassionate" smokescreen to do so?

Posted to Immigration at 03:09 AM | Comments (3)

Harry Reid's patriot act

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has developed a plan to conduct events across the U.S. next week, and a copy was given to the Washington Times. His "Real Security" events will be conducted at various public facilities associated with homeland and national security such as military bases. The document contains this tip:

"Ensure that you have the proper U.S. and state flags at the event, and consider finding someone to sing the national anthem and lead the group in the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the event".

It certainly sounds like it would look very patriotic. But, in the case of Reid, he'd probably be faking it.

Two weeks after Katrina drove hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work, Senator Harry Reid threw his support behind the illegal aliens who were doing the rebuilding jobs that Americans should have been doing.

Rather than supporting those American hurricane victims and making sure that they got jobs doing rebuilding, Harry Reid supported the illegal aliens who were taking those jobs.

Harry Reid can wrap himself in the flag, but his actions show that he needs a refresher on this whole America thing.

Posted to Politics at 06:08 PM | Comments (1)

Arizona Republic almost does expose on Western Union

Chris Hawley of the AZ Republic offers the somewhat surprising article "Wire firm a force in debate over immigration".

It's surprising because in a rare move for the AZ Republic it comes close to reporting the actual truth. They come close to implying that Western Union and their parent company First Data are profiting off illegal immigration, are encouraging illegal immigration, and are corrupting our political system.

...In recent years, Denver-based First Data has openly campaigned for immigration reform, which could legalize millions of undocumented workers, and has created a $10 million "Empowerment Fund" for the same purpose.

It has held seminars on migration law, published how-to guides for migrants, sponsored English classes, given money to a charity that helps Mexican women whose husbands are in the United States, and showered immigrant-sending communities with aid.

First Data has stepped up its political donations in recent years. It also "directly, actively" fought against Arizona's Proposition 200, a First Data official told the Mexican Senate in 2004.

...Those migrants send a torrent of money to their families. Mexicans in the United States alone sent home some $20 billion in 2005, up from $6.6 billion just five years ago.

The increase has been a windfall for wire-transfer companies. Western Union, which also owns the Vigo and Orlandi Valuta chains, saw its revenue nearly double from $2.3 billion in 2000 to $4.2 billion in 2005. It made $1.3 billion in profit last year.

"Their real key to success is the immigration from Third World to Second World and First World countries. That is the ultimate secret sauce," said Kartik Mehta, an analyst with FTN Midwest Securities.

...The company also sponsored the printing of 300,000 guides telling Salvadorans how to apply for the U.S. Temporary Protected Status program. The program gave legal residency to 248,000 migrants following two earthquakes in El Salvador in 2001.

In 2000 the company formed the First Data Western Union Foundation, which is funded by First Data, its employees and its agents in other countries.

The foundation has given out more than $16 million, funding everything from seminars on home buying for migrants in Broward County, Fla. to English classes at the Chicago and San Antonio campuses of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

It gives money to a legal aid groups and organizations like the Massachusetts-based Immigrant Learning Center, which along with running English classes, produces studies "promoting immigrants as assets to America," according to one of its reports.

...Furthermore, some of the foundation's programs almost seem to reward migration, say some border-control advocates.

In the Mexican state of Oaxaca, the foundation gave $250,000 "to provide assistance to women living alone because their husbands are working in the United States," according to a foundation news release...

It also has pledged $1.25 million to the Mexican government's 4x1 Program in Zacatecas state. The program provides matching funds for each peso that migrants invest in small businesses in their hometowns...

Another foundation-funded program helps Mexican migrants go to U.S. universities "because they don't have the documents necessary to go to a college and pay tuition as international students," First Data's public relations director Mario Hernandez said during a forum in the Mexican Senate on Nov. 10, 2004.

The foundation made headlines by funding a 56-page booklet for migrants called "A Survival Guide for Newcomers to Colorado."

..."They're promoting whatever is going to enhance their bottom line, and if that means encouraging mass immigration, that's what they're going to do," said Mike McGarry, acting director of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform, which has opposed First Data's advocacy efforts in its home state.

...During a panel discussion organized by the company at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., First Data's then-chief executive, Charlie Fote, announced the creation of a $10 million "Empowerment Fund" to push for an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws, though he gave few details of how the money would be used.

...Since then, First Data has held panel discussions around the country to campaign for immigration reform. The company also said it used its money to fight Arizona's Proposition 200, a measure passed in 2004 that bars illegal immigrants from receiving some state services.

"Our company directly, actively and with financial support, supported the business, political and community groups that opposed this proposition," Hernandez, the public relations director, told lawmakers during the 2004 forum at the Mexican Senate.

First Data also has stepped up its campaign donations. The company has spent $247,000 on federal elections since 2001, compared to $145,000 in the five years before that, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

A political action committee, First Data Employees for Responsible Government, has donated $128,000 since it was formed in 2000. And that's not counting hefty donations by individual executives. Fote and his wife, for example, gave $46,800 to 32 federal candidates between the beginning of 2000 and Fote's retirement in November.

Most of First Data's beneficiaries are members of the Senate and House committees on banking and financial services. Much of the money also has gone directly to the Republican and Democratic parties in the form of "soft money" donations.

Left out of the largesse: Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, one of the most vocal immigration-control activists, who also happens to be First Data's hometown congressman. First Data, its PAC and many of its executives gave money to Joanna Conti, his Democratic opponent, in the 2004 election.

It is unclear if the $10 million Empowerment Fund has gone into campaign donations. First Data would not give The Republic details on how that money is being spent...

In brief: First Data not only profits off illegal immigration, they encourage massive immigration. I'll leave it to the reader to determine whether what they do qualifies as encouraging illegal immigration. However, note that Proposition 200 was designed to fight illegal immigration, and First Data opposed it.

And, they then donate part of the money they've obtained from those engaging in illegal activity to politicians, including Democrats like Conti.

Posted to Immigration at 12:27 PM | Comments (3)

Robert Kuttner lies about immigration

The editor of The American Prospect offers "Bad times for immigrants". It's so chock full of lies and misleading statements that it's difficult to know where to start.

First, of course, the title. Those he's discussing are illegal aliens, not "immigrants". Then, this:

[HR 4437's] sponsors have the fantastical hope of literally rounding up all 12 million and sending them back.

Obviously, that's a lie.

He also describes Kennedy-McCain as "sensible" and offering a "grand bargain".

The article contains the seeds of its downfall. He reports that our immigration laws aren't being enforced, but then he somehow thinks that changing our laws would result in those being enforced.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way: the underlying reason why our immigration laws aren't being enforced has to be addressed. One of those reasons is because supporters of illegal immigration - such as Kuttner, Kennedy, and McCain - still have some remaining credibility.

Hopefully we can work on that.

Posted to Immigration at 07:57 PM | Comments (4)

Is Ramesh Ponnuru wrong about illegal immigration?

I don't know because the full text of his latest article is not online: "Illegal Detour: Thinking reasonably about immigration".

It starts with this:

Illegal immigration is not a big problem in America. Okay, let me amend that before pots and pans and worse things come flying at me. America has some serious immigration problems, but they are not distinctively problems of illegal immigration. If we focus narrowly on illegal immigration, we are likely to come up with counterproductive solutions.

I believe his point is that both legal and illegal immigration have similar effects and both need to be discussed. Fair enough, however illegal immigration is per se devastating to this country in its own unique ways.

For instance, as pointed out many times in the past, illegal immigration leads to political corruption: companies that profit off illegal immigration donate to politicians who look the other way. And, that leads to undermining our political system.

Posted to Immigration at 02:51 PM | Comments (4)

Lake Havasu City, the American city

After reading hundreds of newspaper articles about illegal immigration in small towns, I don't think I've read about a town that hasn't yet experienced the "wonders" of "liberalism". In almost all of those stories there are some "liberals"/corrupt local officials/profiteers around who support illegal immigration and the agenda of a hostile foreign government.

Not so in this case:

Lake Havasu City recently denied a request by the Mexican government to set up an office in the Aquatic Center to process Mexican Consulate identity cards.

City Manager Richard Kaffenberger stated in his report before the Lake Havasu City Council Tuesday that the country of Mexico had contacted the city about opening an office here to process matricula consular ID cards. That request was turned down.

..."If you are a resident alien you have a green card," said Kaffenberger. "You obviously have ID."

Kaffenberger received support for denying the request from council members Margaret Nyberg, Bruce Hinman and Bob Crabtree.

Kaffenberger said he did not believe the city was the proper place for this sort of office.

"If there was a need for that kind of thing, I would have thought they would have gone to the church or some place like that," he said. "I just don't think a municipal government facility, paid for by the taxpayers or Lake Havasu City, is the appropriate venue for this kind of thing."

State Sen. Ron Gould (R-District 3) said he was also in support of the city's denial of the office.

"If we start doing this kind of stuff, all we're doing is encouraging people to aid and abet illegal aliens," he said.

"If President Fox wants to help his folks out, maybe he should get rid of corruption in his own government so they quit coming across the border, rather than providing resources for them in the United States," Gould added.

This article is so shocking I have trouble believing it, yet there it is.

Posted to Immigration at 12:39 PM | Comments (2)

More foreign propaganda supporting illegal immigration

As pointed out before, the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform is funded by the government of Ireland and they're lobbying for a massive amnesty for illegal aliens.

And, they've not only got quite a propaganda push going, but they've found media sources willing to carry their water.

Yesterday we discussed this: Tyche Hendricks, S.F. Chronicle, offers timely pro-illegal immigration propaganda. That reporter didn't mention that the Lobby is funded by the Irish government, making that article quite clearly pro-illegal immigration propaganda.

Also providing coverage is Allen Martin of CBS 5 in 'Frisco: "'Illegal Irish' Campaign For Immigration Reform".

In his text, he doesn't mention the connection. There's a video report, the picture of which at the site features t-shirts with 'legalize the irish.org'. That's the site for the Lobby. I didn't watch the video, but if the connection wasn't mentioned in the text it's probably not there in the video.

Since Martin's email isn't provide, let's try Akilah Monifa, their Director of Communications: amonifa@kpix.cbs.com Ask him or her whether Martin informed their viewers that they were watching foreign propaganda.

And, WNYC's Brian Lehrer show featured a segment on the Lobby. Let's ask him whether they disclosed the connection: brianlehrershow@wnyc.org

Posted to Immigration at 08:27 AM | Comments (1)

Luis Gutierrez, racist and racial demagogue

Luis Gutierrez is a Democratic representative from Illinois. He's also a racist and a racial demagogue. Despite being Puerto Rican - and thus born a U.S. citizen - he's a strong supporter of illegal immigration from Mexico, as his appearance at the recent march in support of illegal immigration shows. This is what he told a group of illegal aliens:

"This is our country, and this is where we will stay."

Clearly, Gutierrez is willing to put his race before his country and he has no rights to represent the U.S. if he isn't willing to either support our laws or work to change them.

And, on Wednesday, he and Rep. Tom Tancredo got into a spat, only part of which is recounted by the RMN here.

At one point, Gutierrez reportedly asked Tancredo if he had ever eaten in a restaurant.

"How could you eat from the plates touched by those nasty illegal immigrants?" Gutierrez said.

He then asked Tancredo, "Have you ever eaten an orange? A grape?" - an apparent reference to illegal farm workers.

He then repeated the phrase several times as Tancredo tried to answer: "An orange, a grape, an orange, a grape, an orange, a grape."

Gutierrez, who has a cast on a foot, reportedly walked toward an elevator, but Tancredo tried to stop him by putting his hand on his shoulder. Gutierrez reportedly demanded: "Get your hand off me!"

Adams said Tancredo had done little more than tap him on the shoulder.

Gutierrez said to Tancredo: "You racist! You bigot!"

Tancredo told Gutierrez: "You look in the mirror if you want to see a racist."

But, there's more. What the RMN fails to report is something else this fine "American" said:

After the lunchtime show in the Cannon Rotunda ended, Gutierrez made a joke about how the "immigrant" (him, though he was born in Chicago) showed up on time while the "Gringo" (Tancredo) was late. Gutierrez told Tancredo that he had a "really ugly policy."

I know some people say otherwise (or pretend otherwise), but I consider "gringo" a racial slur.

In addition to having little qualifications besides his race, Gutierrez is a racist and a racial demagogue. And, I question his loyalty to this country.

I'd imagine there's little chance of having him recalled, but at least he'll help show everyone else what the Democratic Party truly stands for. Please do your part to help the Democratic Party take pride in true Democrats such as Gutierrez and the fine members of the California legislature.

Posted to Immigration at 04:10 AM | Comments (4)

Tyche Hendricks, S.F. Chronicle, offers timely pro-illegal immigration propaganda

Tyche Hendricks of the S.F. Chronicle offers "Irish join battle over illegal immigration. St. Patrick's Day vehicle for activists seeking reform."

The article describes the group Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, but doesn't mention that that group is funded by the Irish government.

Is there any way to describe this "news" article as anything more than simply pure pro-illegal immigration propaganda? Should you trust anything you read from that reporter or that paper?

Posted to Immigration at 12:09 PM | Comments (1)

Important: Tell the Senate no "guest" worker schemes

The possibility of a new "guest" worker/amnesty scheme got much closer yesterday as the Senate Judiciary Committee reached a compromise with the help of Arlen Specter. Specter, Cornyn, Kyl, Kennedy, McCain and others are apparently having their staffs iron out the details, and apparently 12 of the 18 members of the Committee would vote for it. Details here, here, and here.

Could you please take a few minutes and contact these Senators and stress your adamant opposition to any kind of a "guest" worker plan or anything similar, no matter what it's called? Please inform the kind person who answers the phone that you oppose any kind of amnesty, and that you know that these plans are amnesties no matter how strongly the Senators say they aren't?

If this passes, it will be just like the 1986 amnesty, only perhaps even worse: untold millions more illegal aliens will come here to take advantage of that and future amnesties.

The one shining ray of hope in all this is the opposition offered by Rep. Tom Tancredo and 70 other pro-American House members. They say they will work to block any kind of "guest" worker schemes.

So, please also take a few minutes and contact your other representatives and encourage them to join that group.

Here's the contact information for those on the Senate Judiciary Committee:

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) - 202-224-4254
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT) - 202-224-5251
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) - 202-224-3744
Sen. Jon L. Kyl (R-AZ) - 202-224-4521
Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) - 202-224-2315
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) - 202-224-4124
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC) - 202-224-5972
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) - 202-224-2934
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) - 202-224-6521
Sen. Thomas A. Coburn (R-OK) - 202-224-5754
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) - 202-224-4242
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) - 202-224-4543
Sen. Joseph R. Biden (D-DE) - 202-224-5042
Sen. Herbert H. Kohl (D-WI) - 202-224-5653
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) - 202-224-3841
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) - 202-224-5323
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) - 202-224-6542
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) - 202-224-2152

The main Senate Switchboard is (202) 224-3121 or (888) 355-3588. You can also send free FAXes here.

If you call and the person who answers tells you something of interest, please leave a comment.

And, please contact everyone you know and ask them to call too.

UPDATE: Apparently Frist has introduced his own plan: "Frist Pushes For Quick Vote On Immigration" that doesn't include a "temporary" worker scheme. Whether that makes the compromise mentioned above moot or not is unknown. However, note this:

According to Congress Daily, Sen. Frist told reporters he wouldn't rule out attaching a guest worker proposal to his bill. "Frist told reporters he was committed to clearing a bill with guestworker and other immigration changes through the Senate. 'Just addressing tightening the borders doesn't address the problem,' he said."

So, please keep calling or FAXing as many reps as you can.

Posted to Immigration at 05:39 AM | Comments (1)

GAO report shows how "guest" worker schemes would fail miserably

Last week the WashTimes got ahold of a draft of a GAO report that says that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is barely able to deal with fraud and won't have a fraud-management system in place for four years: "Immigration agency falters in handling fraud cases".

The USCIS would be the agency in charge of administering any of the "guest" worker schemes. They have a tremendous backlog and they're unable to deal with fraud, and the Bush administration, the Senate, and House Democrats would let them determine whether millions of people can stay or go.

In other words, the supposed new legal way to bring millions of low-wage serf laborers here would be rife with fraud and would result in untold numbers of people getting amnesty who weren't entitled to it. And, some of those might even be terrorists (See Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report for a past case).

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican and one of those who requested the report, wouldn't talk about specifics until it is released, but he told a Judiciary Committee meeting last week that senators would "be shocked if you learned about the internal fraud and abuse at the Citizenship and Immigration Service."

Mr. Grassley said from what he's seen, it's "unrealistic" to expect USCIS to administer a guest-worker program properly.

"Officials are being bribed. Visas are being given away. Green cards are being sold," he said.

Angelica Alfonso, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the report "does not fully portray how the Department of Homeland Security has been addressing anti-fraud since its inception."

...The report also says neither USCIS nor Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one of the law-enforcement arms of the immigration services, regularly penalize those who file fraudulent applications. Thus, there is no risk to filing fraudulently and aliens or businesses seeking to employ them can keep trying until they succeed...

Related: "Immigration fraud exposed", "Guestworker Plan Discredited By New GAO Report", "Case Closed: Immigration Agency Would Be Incapable of Managing a New Guest Worker/Amnesty Program, Finds GAO", and "View on guest workers changes". In the last the head of USCIS disputes the GAO report and says that everything would work out OK. Just five months ago he said everything wouldn't work out OK, but apparently something magical - perhaps involving elves or fairy sprites - has happened in the meantime to change his mind.

The GAO said USCIS doesn't have a handle on the size and scope of fraud, and [USCIS director Emilio Gonzalez] said he doesn't know how extensive the problem is nor could he say how many times the USCIS has pursued administrative or criminal penalties for fraud. But he said fraud is not overwhelming the agency.

"That there's fraud out there -- I assume there is. Is this something that's rampant and we don't have a handle on? I think that's probably going a bit too far," he said.

I tend to believe the GAO and I tend to strongly disbelieve those working for the Bush administration.

Posted to Immigration at 02:03 AM | Comments (0)

Let's discredit Marc Cooper!

Marc Cooper is a writer for the L.A. Weekly and The Nation who's also "Senior Fellow for Border Justice at USC Annenberg's Institute for Justice and Journalism." He's written about immigration several times in the past, including a Minuteman Project hit piece.

He's stepped up the production of pro-illegal immigration articles lately and... he needs your help!

He gets everything wrong, and he needs people to go to sites where he contributes and point out his various errors.

Could you the reader please help both him and his readers? When he posts something about immigration, please go there and leave a comment pointing out exactly how he's wrong.

He's got his own his site, but more popular fora where he posts include the The Nation, the HuffPost, and at some site co-founded by Robert Sheer called 'truthdig'.

He's like a one-man pro-illegal immigration propaganda machine!

And, note that the blogosphere's most beloved Bushbot, Instapundit, is a big fan of Cooper's work. In fact, three times recently that I've read Cooper's articls on this subject, I was directed there by Insty. He linked twice to Cooper's blog, and just recently to the truthdig site.

Insty doesn't even link three times in quick succession to Lileks, Steyn, or other Insty faves, so he must really agree with Cooper. While unfortunately Insty doesn't allow comments, perhaps he'll catch some of the splashback.

So, please take a few minutes every now and again and see if Cooper has posted a new article at one of those sites. Then, leave comments and links in order to help his readers understand what's really going on.

Posted to Immigration at 09:09 PM | Comments (1)

Rats flee Joe Baca's political machine

Rep. Joe Baca Sr. runs the Building Our Leadership Diversity PAC, part of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Now, several members of the latter group are disassociating themselves with the former group because of what they consider questionable contributions to Baca's sons and others connected to him.

This was probably a difficult choice for them, since Joe Baca is closely associated with fine Americans such as Armando Navarro.

Posted to Immigration at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)

Will Bill Frist monkeywrench Arlen Specter's disastrous amnesty scheme?

Bill Frist might introduce an "enforcement-only" bill in the Senate, which might then overshadow Arlen Specter's - dare I say it - un-American massive amnesty scheme:

Judiciary members on both sides, however, cautioned Mr. Frist not to bypass them.

"The majority leader is wrong," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat. "It's impossible to build a political consensus in that time. We need time. We need time to talk."

In a letter to Mr. Frist yesterday, Mrs. Feinstein and two other Judiciary Democrats pleaded for the majority leader to remain on the sidelines.

"The Judiciary Committee has unique expertise on immigration law and, under the leadership of Chairman Specter, is working diligently to mark up a comprehensive immigration reform bill," wrote Mrs. Feinstein and Sens. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. "The Senate would be well-served by the benefit of a complete committee markup, even if a brief extension of time is required to produce one."

"Unique expertise" indeed. While I personally doubt Frist's understanding and commitment to this issue, if he can come up with a plan that doesn't have too many downsides and doesn't include "guest" workers he will have done a great service.

Posted to Immigration at 09:53 AM | Comments (1)

Arianna Huffington has nothing to apologize for about George Clooney incident

Arianna Huffington stands accused of posting a post that claimed to be from George Clooney but was actually cobbled together from bits and pieces of overheard conversations, blogospheric duck tape, random statements from Clooney's publicist, and swear words allegedly provided to the HuffPost by Gov. Dr. Howard Dean M.D. RCVS.

What's lost here is that the HuffPost has dozens upon dozens of airhead celebrity bloggers, none of whom have hitherto claimed that Arianna wrote one of their "blogs". In other words, Clooney's complaint is statistically meaningless and can be safely ignored.

Arianna: we in the blogosphere have got your back on this one!

Posted to Bloggage at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)

Stewart Simonson of HHS resigns

The lawyer who played a key role in our pandemic response, Stewart Simonson, has resigned:

One of the Bush administration's principal advisers on bioterrorism and other public health emergencies has resigned.

Stewart Simonson, assistant secretary for public health emergency preparedness, told the president in a resignation letter Monday that he had accomplished what he had set out to do, and it was time to move on.

Some Democrats, and a key Republican, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, had been critical of Simonson's work, saying it would be better to have a medical expert serve in his position rather than a lawyer. Davis is chairman of the House Government Reform Committee...

Posted to Politics at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

The hidden surprise inside "guest" worker schemes

It involves social security: Free Inside Every 'Guest Worker' Plan: A Ticking Social Security Time Bomb:

...SSA is an Executive branch agency whose director is appointed by the President. Director Joann Barnhardt is so eager to give U.S. Social Security benefits to Mexicans that she signed the U.S.-Mexico Totalization Agreement in July 2004 and built an SSA building in Mexico: sort of a branch office, paid for by American taxpayers. Barnhardt is among our many civil servants who can't keep accurate records. She told the Senate that her agency isn't able to prevent fraudulent wage transfers for years prior to 2004. Her solution: give away benefits paid for by citizens of this country to people who don’t deserve them.

We are not entirely in the dark as to how this amnesty would affect Social Security. In 1986 we were sold the same elixir. We don't hear the leading salesmen, Ted Kennedy, Orrin Hatch or John McCain, who are touting the 2006 rerun of amnesty, bragging about their 1986 votes. In 1986 we were promised that amnesty would be given to 300,000 illegal aliens, and that would be the final, final amnesty. The reality was that the final count was nearly 3 million. Well, we know how things just grow in the atmosphere of Washington, D.C. when you take your eyes off them. The "one-time" amnesty showed INS and SSA knowingly accepted massive numbers of fraudulent rent receipts, earning records and birth records. The country is now awash with fake I.D. and other documents produced by entrepreneurs who seized on the lax requirements of businesses and government for these documents.

When an illegal alien attains legal status, whether by marrying an American or by "guest worker" program, that person is issued a genuine SSN. It is used to earn future wages and Social Security credits, obtain public funded benefits, financial aid for education, and the list goes on. That new SSN enables the illegal alien to retroactively access wage credit for money in the Earnings Suspense File, even if they were using a bogus SSN or "borrowing" a valid SSN assigned to someone else! It's the little bomb in each and every "guest worker" program...

Posted to Immigration at 11:26 AM | Comments (8)

The religious argument against Cardinal Roger Mahoney

A couple of the comments at this religious blog are of interest:

Clearly, the Scriptural message calls for some degree of humane provision for foreigners. And so many of the people you encounter are hard working people trying to get money back to their struggling families in their homelands.

But, I don't see a "carte blanche" mandated in Scripture, either. Having lived in SoCal almost all my life, I have watched the exacerbation of crime (especially gang violence) thru Mexican and Central American gangs. Also, communities all over the region are losing their medical trauma centers because immigrants see these as free primary care centers and simply break them financially...

(His link). And:

If you find a person who you know or reasonably suspect to be a criminal, should you help them if they are in need of food or medical attention? They Christian answer is yes. There is much in Holy Scripture which supports this position.

Having filled emergency needs of a criminal should you help them in their criminal activity or help them evade law enforcement? I find no scripture which supports a yes to this question. I find scripture which says we should answer no...

The spin here is the claim that it would make it a crime to help an illegal entrant by providing food, water, or medical attention. That is not the case, what is the case is that after giving such aid law enforcement should be contacted. This is not different than the requirement in many communities that hospitals report all gun shot wound. The desire is to defeat legislation which would make it clearly a crime to help illegal entrants to continue in their illegal entry.

What would be really interesting would be for pro-American religious leaders to publicly oppose Cardinal Roger Mahoney's corrupt, immoral stance.

(I put a nofollowtag on that link not just for the normal reasons but because I left a comment there and it never showed up. Despite that, I think the comments are too helpful not to note.)

Posted to Immigration at 06:16 AM | Comments (1)

The economics of illegal immigration

There's a roundup of some studies here. There have been other studies that showed somewhat different results than the ones discussed, but not being an economist I have no way of definitively saying which side is accurate. However, basing an opposition to illegal immigration on the economic factors alone is not necessary because the other factors involved - such as corruption and U.S. sovereignty - are much more important.

A recent study by Harvard economist George J. Borjas, probably the nation's leading authority on the economics of immigration, concluded that from 1980 to 2000 immigration reduced the average annual earnings of native-born men by $1,700, or nearly 4 percent. For the poorest tenth of the work force the reduction was much larger, 7.4 percent, traceable to Mexican immigration. Native-born African-Americans and Hispanics were also hard-hit, being in direct competition with immigrant workers. Mr. Borjas found even college graduates had their earnings lowered by an estimated 3.6 percent...

...President Bush favors a guest worker program that would legalize and hence encourage the continued flow of low-wage immigration. Yet his own Council of Economic Advisers, in its 2005 annual report, conceded immigration negatively affects the wages of those already here, particularly less skilled workers. The depressing effect that the illegal labor supply has on the wages of legal workers won't be mitigated by turning illegals into legal residents...

Posted to Immigration at 03:11 AM | Comments (2)

Protest against illegal immigration: Crawford Texas, May 6, 2006

Several groups are going to be "lawfully and peacefully" protesting against George W Bush's unwillingness to prevent illegal immigration on May 6 in Crawford TX. The website's a little hard on the eyes, so hopefully they'll bring it into this century soon.

In any case, it will probably get a lot of attention from the White House, but hardly any from the media. And, the entire event will probably get less press coverage than a day's worth o' Cindy.

If you intend to go, remember to stop in Waco and take a tour of the Dr. Pepper museum. Unfortunately, I didn't visit that when I was there a few years ago: Part 1, Part 2.

Posted to Immigration at 10:48 PM | Comments (3)

More on the mythical "Hispanic Vote"

Among other things, this article contains this:

While attitudes about immigration differ between Central and South Americans, this distinction is not often made in policy discussions.

Immigration specialist Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank, says the idea of a monolithic Hispanic culture is more political construct than reality.

"We have created a thing called the Latino or Hispanic. ... It's an artifice," Mr. Papademetriou says. "I do not believe there is solidarity across ethnic groups within the Latino community."

Lenny Campello, 44, emigrated from Cuba in 1971 with his parents as political refugees. The retired U.S. naval officer, who owns two art galleries in the Washington area, says, "It's always interesting how Mexicans become Hispanics when it's convenient to them."

Posted to Immigration at 08:59 AM | Comments (8)

How to make BlogAds work for you

In a desperate attempt to increase the readership to this blog, I recently placed a blogad on the Liberty News Forum highlighting this site's immigration coverage. Here are the stats:

page views: 112132
clicks: 5
CTR: 0.004%
CPC: $2.40

Now, obviously, that CPC would be acceptable if I was selling credit cards or something. But, for my purposes it's just a "tad" too high, and the CTR is just a "tad" too low.

The ad wasn't as good as it could be, but it wasn't that bad either. And, it would seem to have been targeted towards potential readers of this site.

I had a similar experience promoting my restaurant directories, placing an ad in the "Celebrity Baby Blog Third Tier". Obviously, it was not a targeted selection, but all their regional sites' CPM was stratospheric, and that site had a relatively low CPM. That got 454405 impressions and the same CTR. At 20 clicks, that resulted in a still-massive CPC of $1.50.

Since people keep buying BlogAds, they must get some kind of results, but as of now I think I'll stick with what works better and is much cheaper: AdBrite and AdWords.

I believe the secret to BlogAds is an eye-grabbing picture. The restaurant ad had a nice picture of pasta, but the LNF ad did not. OTOH, if I'd had a picture of a girl in a t-shirt or a guy humping the carpet, I'm sure the CTR would have been much higher.

Posted to Bloggage at 03:28 AM | Comments (1)

Which Bush will be America's next Bush?

Please, take the poll:

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)

Gov. Ted Kulongoski suddenly realizes he's an American

Oregon's governor, Ted Kulongoski, used to support allowing state agencies to attend events sponsored by the local Mexican consulate where they gave out ID cards to illegal aliens (see "Dave Frohnmayer, U of Oregon collaborate with Mexican government" and "Mexican residents gain ID benefits").

Now, he's changed his mind and won't allow state agencies to attend the events.

This is a good victory for the American side. However, one of those agencies isn't under his direct supervision: the Bureau of Labor and Industries. And, Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner says he'll continue to be involved and thus will end up supporting the agenda of a hostile foreign government.

Details and contact information for those involved here.

Posted to Immigration at 05:54 PM | Comments (0)

Drudge flash: Bush supports globalism!

Seriously, that can't be news. Whether Bush is himself a member of the globalist elite or just one of their employees can be debated, but one thing is clear: he's a globalist through and through.

It's also a false choice to pretend that the only alternative to globalism is "isolationism". One other alternative is to generally support foreign trade, but to be very wary of foreign entanglements.

Bush strongly supports the former, but at the same time doesn't seem to have found a foreign entanglement that he didn't rush to support.

Posted to Politics at 03:03 PM | Comments (3)

Are Rev. Michael DeGerolami and Robert Seltzer lying?

The latter is a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, and he offers "If churches targeted in immigrant fight, a higher law will prevail", in which he discusses the thoughts of one Rev. Michael DeGerolami:

...Congress has done a lot of stupid things, but it is criminal to criminalize decency and compassion.

Yet that is what officials appear to be doing with a bill that would make it a felony to aid undocumented immigrants - legislation that, immigrant advocates fear, could affect soup kitchens and day shelters.

...The sponsors contend the bill targets "alien smuggling rings," but the wording is vague, and critics fear it will lump social service workers into the same category as coyotes...

Now, over to the United States attorney for the district of New Mexico:

...Contrary to recent press reports, these important provisions target alien smugglers, not individuals who happen to provide humanitarian assistance to aliens. Like current law, the provisions of the bill only apply to those who act knowingly or recklessly, and do not require anyone to check a person's immigration status before helping them. As prosecutors, our focus is on criminals who profit from the deadly smuggling trade, not those who simply provide basic necessities to immigrants and do not engage in profit-making criminal endeavors or thwarting law-enforcement efforts. Members of human smuggling networks -- from the "coyotes" or guides to document forgers to financiers -- must be put on notice that they will be caught, prosecuted and serve hard time...

They can't both be right, so who should you believe? I'm going to believe the attorney, and I'm going to suspect that either Rev. Michael DeGerolami or Robert Seltzer or both are mistaken or lying. See also "Will HR 4437 cause humanitarian groups to be prosecuted for giving emergency aid to illegal aliens?" and "Churchmen, coyotes, and HR 4437".

Back to the reverend's thoughts:

"In my studies of the Scriptures, it's very clear that migration is the story of the Old Testament... Abraham was a wanderer, looking for a better place, a better life... I'd rather not comment on [Sensenbrenner and King]. But I think there is a lot of posturing going on. They forget they are the children and grandchildren of immigrants."

I'm sure everyone else except for Robert Seltzer has noted that the reverend's comments are illogical. We can't allow every wanderer to come here. And, I'm pretty sure the Bible says something about not just allowing people to invade and settle your land. And, since everyone on Earth is a descendant of immigrants, does that mean I can just settle in any country I want?

Back to Seltzer:

And as the tide swells, a corresponding tide swells on this side of the border - the number of people who resent the immigrants.

Ah, the inevitable attempt to smear those who support our laws and oppose things like massively subsidized labor, political corruption, and foreign countries meddling in our internal politics.

It is one thing to legislate against compassion; it is another to enforce that legislation.

Does anyone seriously think the smuggling provisions are going to be applied to those who are not willful smugglers? Obviously, this article is just a propaganda piece. Unfortunately, some soft-minded members of his readership will be taken in.

Write him at rseltzer@express-news.net and contact his paper here.

Posted to Immigration at 02:14 PM | Comments (2)

Soup Kitchen Watch

When was the last time you heard the phrase "soup kitchen"? Frankly, I hadn't heard that term until recently, and before then I think I might have heard it while watching an Our Gang movie.

Yet, the term has made a comeback recently. Several articles opposing HR 4437 have featured claims similar to this:

Yet that is what officials appear to be doing with a bill that would make it a felony to aid undocumented immigrants - legislation that, immigrant advocates fear, could affect soup kitchens and day shelters.

So many recently articles have used this that there can be only one explanation: they're all reading from the same script.

If you spot articles using this phrase, please leave a link in the comments.

Posted to Immigration at 02:13 PM | Comments (1)

Henry Vega, president of the Farm Bureau of Ventura County, gets earful

The titular person penned "It's time to support a guest-worker program". Normally, I might spend a few minutes pointing out the folly in his editorial. Except, that paper accepts comments and at post time there are 12 good comments and all of them point out just how wrong he is.

Posted to Immigration at 02:03 PM | Comments (1)

Hasso Hering discovers the anti-Hasso Hering conspiracy

A while back, the Albany (Oregon) Democrat-Herald ran an editorial supporting North America, i.e., turning the U.S., Canada, and Mexico into an EU-style superstate.

At the time, I wondered whether the editorial had been planted by one of the various global elite forces as a bit of a trial balloon. While some might consider that a tad tinfoilish, it's not like things like that haven't happened before.

Now, via dchamil in comments, we learn that the editorialist - one Hasso Hering, that paper's editor - has replied to his many critics, and has come up with his own conspiracy theorizing of his own:

In last Sunday's paper, I was wondering about the possibility of changing our relationship with Mexico and Canada in a way similar to what the European Union has done, with the main result being no restrictions on moving across borders.

Around the mid-valley the suggestion went over with a soft thud. Nothing happened.

But across the country, some people were ready to take umbrage, and by Monday morning I had a bunch of responses in the Democrat-Herald's e-mail inbox (news@dhonline.com)...

...While it would be nice if people read our Sunday paper from coast to coast, I kind of doubt that that’s the case.

Instead, I'm guessing my correspondents belong to some kind of an interest group with an e-mail setup that lets them know when anything affecting immigration issues or Mexico appears anywhere on the Web...

Yes, there's a conspiracy, and that "interest group" is known as "patriotic Americans". While it would be nice to take the credit for filling up his email box, I believe I found the article at either AmericanPatrol.com or freerepublic.com. Whichever it was, it's good to know that people are in fact replying to anti-American forces.

Posted to Immigration at 08:49 AM | Comments (0)

California's educational system in even worse shape than previously thought

California's schools used to be at the top of the nation, now, according to one ranking, we're between Alabama and Mississippi. This is largely, if not exclusively, due to "liberalism" (think Jackie Goldberg) as well as ethnically-compromised politicians who support illegal immigration (think Antonio Villaraigosa).

Via a comment from 'eh', Dan Walters offers "Dry statistical report portends immense tragedy in the making":

...Extrapolating from the two sets of data, the exit exam could push graduation rates for African American and Latino youngsters down to a third of those who begin the ninth grade - even lower in Los Angeles and other urban school districts.

As if that weren't disturbing enough, the CRB report also surveys data on college preparation and finds a skewed effect on non-white and non-Asian students as well. Of African American and Latino kids who get through high school now (before the exit exam), just 25 and 22 percent, respectively, have completed the coursework for admission to the University of California or California State University systems.

All in all, therefore, fewer than 15 percent of African American and Latino youngsters who begin the ninth grade will be prepared for four-year college admission...

Posted to California at 03:54 AM | Comments (1)

Illegal aliens march in Chicago, get support from Blago, Gutierrez, local media

Up to a few hundred thousand illegal aliens and their supporters marched for immigration "reform" in Chicago earlier today. Among those supporters are the local news media and politicians. The news media took the opportunity to send out their ethnically-biased reporters who offer some rather non-journalistic propaganda.

First up, Rafael Romo of CBS 2 Chicago offers highly biased coverage in "Protesters Rally Against Illegal Immigration Bill". They've even got a slideshow of pictures from the party Rafael went to. (Contact info).

Unfortunately, Rafael Romo is not telling his viewers the truth: HR 4437 wouldn't "make[] it a criminal act to help illegal immigrants." Nor would it "mandate criminal action against anybody who helps an illegal immigrant".

Since Rafael Romo isn't telling the truth, you can't trust his description of those he interviewed as "immigrants"; they might be and probably are illegal immigrants. While he does have a quote from the local Minuteman Project group, he doesn't look into who was marching and, just as an example, their links to foreign governments.

Then, in "Latino businesses send workers to pro-immigrant march", at least one of those businesses admits to hiring illegal aliens.

ABC's affliate offers "100,000 people rally over controversial immigration bill" from yet another reporter with a possible ethnic conflict, Theresa Gutierrez.

Like Romo, Theresa Gutierrez isn't telling the truth: HR4437 would not "make it illegal to assist any undocumented immigrant". It's a bit odd that she's not telling the truth in the same was that Romo isn't telling the truth, isn't it? Her report also has a MMP project quote and also doesn't look into the truth about the marchers.

Meanwhile, from the American side, comes blog reports like "Vignettes From The Reconquista":

I noticed this lady was crying so I asked permission to snap a photo and then asked why she was crying. She informed me that she had been working with "these folks" for a number of years and she wanted them to feel at home here.

Let me start by saying this was a very nice lady, she truly was. I'm sure those who know her would say she has an enormous heart.

But she's an idiot and indicative of a phenomena I noticed along the marches path. Upper crust white women lined the path and had a look on their faces I can only describe as a mother watching her child. It was a species of pride that galled my soul.

It was almost unbelievably arrogant, but arrogance cloaked in compassion. And this type of empty headed compassion is killing this country. We can't allow every person on the planet to enter so where do we draw the line?

It comes complete with a presumed picture of the useful idiot.

Returning to the other side, two more possibly ethnically-conflicted reporters, Oscar Avila and Antonio Olivo, offer "Ethnic groups rally for immigrant rights":

"As the saying goes, 'I have a dream.' Well, we have dreams, too," [a marcher] said. "African-Americans were looking for social acceptance. That is what we want, too."

Obvious to most, there's a difference between someone who's ancestors were brought here hundreds of years ago and someone who snuck over the border three months ago. Obvious to everyone, of course, except for "liberals". Despite the source, the report is slightly less unbalanced than the others.

Yet another (!) ethnically-oriented reporter from CBS 2, Sylvia Gomez, offers "One Immigrant Family Talks About Their Concerns". It completely supports illegal immigration, and includes:

"Sometimes, people say people from here are better than Mexicans," said Gabriela Montelongo, a 3rd grader. "I tell them no, they aren't. They're the same people."

OK. Now, perhaps her parents should consider abiding by our laws just like we would abide by theirs. Few Americans would try to flout the laws of Mexico, and even fewer would illegally enter Mexico then hold marches demanding rights to which they weren't entitled. Almost all Americans would consider that unthinkable.

Finally, one of the latest tactics of supporters of illegal immigration is quite inventive: they're trying to push Irish illegal aliens to the fore. Apparently the intention is to make it look like illegal aliens aren't just Mexicans, when in fact almost all of them are. And, apparently they're trying to appeal to ethnic solidarity on the part of Irish-Americans.

It probably won't work, since unlike, say, ethnically-oriented reporters, most Irish-Americans will end up putting their country ahead of their ethnicity. Now, finally, we come to the quotes from "American" politicians, taken from various of the above reports:

"Whether their names are Gutierrez or Lozano, Lipinski or Blagojevich; it doesn't matter," said Gov. Rod Blagojevich. "This is a country build by immigrants."

Mayor Richard M. Daley said: "Those who are here undocumented, we're not going to make criminals out of them. That is not what America has ever stood for and will not stand for."

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez told the crowd that immigrants are here to stay, and pledged to work to block the bill.

"It is clearly a time in which we proudly here in Chicago have said enough of unfairness and bigotry and hatred against the immigrant community," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, (D)-Chicago.

"The city of Chicago has been built by immigrants. Our past, our present and future deals with immigrants. No one in the history of America can ever turn their backs upon immigrants this day and age," said Mayor Daley.

Noting Chicago was built by new arrivals to this country who simply wanted a share of the American Dream, Daley said, "We are not going to make criminals out of (immigrants). That is not what America has ever stood for."

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), a Hispanic, drew cheers as he recognized Irish, Polish, Chinese and African-American rally participants.

"I have never been prouder to march, to show my commitment to a cause, than I have been today," Gutierrez said. "We have brought together the true fabric of what Chicago is, of what our country is."

"Raise those American flags!" shouted Gutierrez. "This is our country, and this is where we will stay."

Posted to Immigration at 08:36 PM | Comments (12)

Illegal immigration even Victorians can discuss

A lot of people in the chattering classes are afraid to discuss illegal immigration because of the racial component. However, even the most Victorian "liberal" should feel free to discuss illegal immigration by the Irish, right?

On Wednesday, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Teddy Kennedy, and Charles Schumer welcomed a delegation of Irish illegal aliens to Washington. They were from the "Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform" group.

Now comes the word that their group is funded by the Irish government: "McCain and Hillary Rally Illegals".

"It is so heartening to see you here," said Clinton. "You are really here on behalf of what America means, America's values, America's hopes."

"You are doing what democracy is supposed to be all about, petitioning the government to right a wrong," said McCain.

Obviously, neither of them have a clue and are not qualified to be U.S. Senators.

UPDATE: I missed this at the end:

"This kind of reception is enough to make a guy want to run for President of the United States," said McCain, after the illegal aliens gave him a standing ovation.

Clinton and McCain may think their pandering will appeal to Irish-American voters. But when they run in the United States of America in 2008, they just might find that their fawning words for a foreign-government-funded lobby that flouts U.S. immigration law sounded more like fighting words to many plain, old-fashioned, red-blooded voters—even if they happen to be proud, law-abiding Irish-Americans.

Posted to Immigration at 09:43 AM | Comments (2)

I was banned by RedState

I've been posting entries and comments at RedState since July 2004. [1] A few days ago my last entry there was deleted and my posting privileges were revoked. [2] And, despite sending two emails to RS co-founder Mike Krempasky and one to another moderator there, no one has seen fit to tell me exactly who banned me and why they did it. [3]

The entry that initiated the banning was Bush "Gold Card" would open borders to cheap labor. That entry made it into Google News before it was deleted.

Perhaps the reason is because I refered to Bush's "guest" worker program as "un-American". While it's easy to overuse that phrase, and it does have very negative historical connotations, if Bush's plan isn't un-American I don't know what is.

Does the reader find anything in that entry worthy of me being banned?

Obviously, I was one of the few people there who dared criticize George Bush, so perhaps that did it. Perhaps they're trying to be more like Blogs for Bush. Perhaps I should have posted things like the ludicrous "Why I Like George W. Bush (redstate.org/story/2004/7/25/155049/493), which was promoted to their front page. Instead, I concentrated on breaking news or being one of the few people who corrected widespread misconceptions about breaking news.

And, from the irony file, note that DailyKos and Mike Krempasky want you to support free speech online.

I've been banned from both their sites, so I must be doing something right.

1/24/07 UPDATE: I never did receive a good explanation for my banning, but Robert A. Hahn ("Nick Danger") or anyone else from RedState is welcome to leave a comment. And, I've since sent a few requests to RedState - and to EaglePub, their new owners and also the owners of Human Events - asking them to remove my copyrighted content from their sites. They've so far stonewalled me, despite (AFAICT) there being nothing in the RedState.org user agreement giving them the legal right to continue to display my content, to transfer my content to RedState.com and now EaglePub, or to display ads alongside my content. I may end up having to file a DMCA complaint; if anyone else wants to get involved in that leave a comment.

---
[1] the-lonewacko-blog.redstate.com

[2] I sent an email using their contact form. A day later I sent one to MK's email address. I can sign in, but there's no link allowing me to post new comments. And, I get the message "Sorry, but you don't have permission to post stories to section 'Diary'" when I try to post a new entry.

[3] What does the reader think it says about a group that won't even respond after banning someone who's contributed dozens of posts? Does the reader think it's ethical to ban me and then keep my copyrighted content? What I'd like is for them to delete the content and set up a redirect from my URL there to this site. Unfortunately, if they won't respond to emails I might have to send a letter.

Posted to Bloggage at 08:23 PM | Comments (6)

Do Californians really support "guest" worker schemes?

According to the recent Field Poll, as crowed-about by the S.F. Chronical: "Two-thirds of Californians support guest-worker plan". (Related propaganda from the Contra Costa Times: "Illegal immigration gains allies").

Unfortunately, you can get the results you want or at least inaccurate results if you ask the right people the right question, and if you rely on their lack of knowledge of the issue. From their PDF, here's the question that was asked:

Do you favor or oppose reforming immigration laws to create temporary worker programs for illegal immigrants that would legalize their status and allow future immigrants to work in the U.S.?

Here's the follow-up question I would have asked:

(If 'YES') You do realize that there's no such thing as a "temporary" or "guest" worker, right? You do realize that our "guests" would be here to stay: they'd have U.S. citizen children, they'd buy property, they'd start businesses, and they'd become part of their community. Nothing is going to make them go home, especially since those same forces that oppose immigration enforcement now will still be out there and will be even more powerful than before. Now, do you still support "temporary" worker schemes?

I think that would get about a 10% 'YES' vote.

Posted to California at 11:40 AM | Comments (4)

Long Beach Press-Telegram wants your thoughts

They want feedback on immigration matters before 5pm today.

Posted to Immigration at 09:37 AM | Comments (5)

Kos/Krempasky: support free speech online!

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (DailyKos) and Michael Krempasky (RedState) have sent a letter to Congress urging them to support H.R. 1606, the Online Freedom of Speech Act.

Just as a small bit of irony, back in 2003 I was banned from leaving comments at DailyKos, after I pointed out that Kos' source wasn't what he implied it was.

And, a couple days ago I appear to have been banned from RedState. I had posted almost 75 posts there since mid-2004, and a few of them broke news or corrected widespread misconceptions about breaking news.

To be banned from both I must be doing something right, and you can rest assured that I'll keep on doing it.

Posted to Bloggage at 09:11 AM | Comments (1)

LAT: "In Border Battle, Land and Wildlife Suffer"

From this:

Mountains of trash, recurring fires, despoiled natural springs, vandalized historic sites and disappearing wildlife are part of the devastating toll that the government's running battle with smugglers and migrants is taking on national parks and wildlife refuges along the U.S. border with Mexico.

In southern Arizona, the damage extends to American Indian and private land, jeopardizing a broad expanse of the Sonoran Desert, which boasts a greater diversity of plant and animal life than any other North American desert.

At Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, 2 1/2 million pounds of garbage is scattered through broad valleys and desert arroyos every year, according to Roger DiRosa, the refuge manager. Officials with the U.S. Border Patrol say the refuge's seven mountain ranges -- home to bighorn sheep and a prized destination for wilderness hikers -- now serve as posts for lookouts who use night-vision equipment to track Border Patrol movements. Mountain peaks conceal clandestine radio repeating stations. Illegal ``ghost roads'' carved by smugglers and pursuing federal agents crisscross Cabeza Prieta and nearby Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument...

Can you guess what comes next? (Besides more damage reports, that is). Yes, you're right: the Los Angeles Times blames the Border Patrol for the damage. As if all that trash just fell from the sky and wasn't left there by the illegal crossers that the Los Angeles Times supports.

Perhaps the L.A. Times should consider dropping their support for illegal immigration if they want to help fix the problem. Write: readers.rep *at* latimes.com with your thoughts.

Posted to Immigration at 06:19 AM | Comments (0)

Hillary Clinton supports illegal immigration, amnesty

The idea of Hillary Clinton running as the more pro-American candidate seems to have been dashed as she's come out in favor of immigration "reform", i.e., a massive amnesty scheme.

She sent a four-page letter to her constituents (which includes illegal aliens) that "steered away from specifics" according to the AP. How a four-page letter would fail to name specific policy proposals is unclear:

...Such reform should include "a path to earned citizenship for those who are here, working hard, paying taxes, respecting the law, and willing to meet a high bar for becoming a citizen," Clinton wrote.

"I do support providing undocumented workers with the opportunity to earn legal status in this country," she said.

Clinton's missive was sent to those who have contacted her office about the immigration debate, similar to one she sent in 2004 seeking to clarify her position on the Iraq war.

In her letter, she avoids supporting or opposing any specific proposals save one -- a bill offered by the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis, which she said would "target and criminalize the undocumented and punish those who would provide them with humanitarian assistance."

I have no real need to see the letter since the above tells me all I need to know.

She followed up her letter with some more lies:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, told a rally of immigrants on Capitol Hill that a Republican bill that passed the House in December will lead to a massive hunt for illegal aliens.

She said it would be "an unworkable scheme to try to deport 11 million people, which you have to have a police state to try to do," she told the crowd of Irish immigrants...

The rest of the last link has Dick Durbin (co-sponsor of the anti-American DREAM Act) and Dianne Feinstein tugging at heart strings:

[California's taller Senator] worried that the penalties against those using falsified documents to get into the U.S. could harm refugees, making an analogy with European Jews fleeing Nazi persecution in the 1930s.

Oddly enough, Sen. Jon Kyl provides the unusual Voice of Sanity for the article.

Posted to Immigration at 03:00 AM | Comments (2)

Illegal immigration bankrupting border counties

From this:

The United States' inability to slow illegal immigration from Mexico is fueling a financial crisis in the 24 counties along the 1,951-mile Southwest border, according to a new study. It says the counties are struggling to fund law enforcement, health programs and other necessities because they are spending millions of dollars a year to care for illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigrants continue to flow across the border even as increased security since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — there now are about 10,000 federal agents there, up from 7,000 — has boosted arrests dramatically. In 2004, there were 1.14 million arrests along the border that stretches from California to Texas, the Department of Homeland Security says. That was up 26% from the year before.

The jump in arrests has come to symbolize how localities have been left with much of the bill for border security, according to a study by the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) to be released today by the U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition. A funding increase by Congress last year will boost the number of federal detention cells from 18,000 to 20,000. However, that's not nearly enough to handle the waves of immigrants who are being arrested, so such people often end up in local jails.

The federal government reimburses localities and states for services they provide to illegal immigrants, but the payments don't come close to matching the localities' costs, the report says. For example, Department of Justice records show Arizona's four border counties asked the federal government for $23.2 million last year to cover the cost of jailing thousands of illegal immigrants. The counties were reimbursed $731,000.

In California, San Diego County spends $50 million a year to arrest, jail, prosecute and defend illegal immigrants, and is reimbursed about $2 million, says county Supervisor Greg Cox, president of the border counties coalition. The $48 million shortfall cuts into the $600 million a year the county has for discretionary spending, he says. "That's money that would support libraries, parks and public safety."

Wait, there's more:

If the 24 counties along the nation's Southwest border were a 51st state, it would rank first in federal crimes, second in tuberculosis and near the bottom in education, per capita income and access to health care...

The study found the region ranks last in access to health care compared with the rest of the states and 50th in number of residents with insurance. Yet the prevalence of people with tuberculosis is twice that of United States as a whole. Residents also have high rates of AIDS, hepatitis and adult diabetes...

Posted to Immigration at 12:17 PM | Comments (2)

Blagojevich-linked group agitating illegal aliens, calls for general strike

A group of illegal aliens and supporters of illegal immigration are planning a large march in Chicago on Friday, March 10: somosunpueblo.com/March%2030/English.htm

That page explains that they want to legalize "undocumented immigrants". They also want Illinois to be a "SANCTUARY" for "all immigrants". And, they're calling for a "National GENERAL STRIKE".

So, citizens of other countries who are here illegally are marching for rights to which they aren't entitled, and making demands. If those demands are met, isn't that the equivalent of surrender?

The page above lists the "Sponsoring Organizations":

Alivio Medical Center, Calor, Casa Aztlan, Casa Michoacan (FEDECMI), Centro Sin Fronteras, Centro Romero, Congreso Político De Mexicanos en el Exterior, ConfeMex, Durango Unido en Chicago, Enlaces América, Familia Latina Unida, Fed. Chihuahua, Fed. Guerrerense, Fed. Hidalguenses, ICIRR, I.M.E,, I.P.L.,Latinos Progresando, L.O.S., M.C,N, NALACC, Nahui Ollin Danza Azteca , Organización del Distrito Federal, Pilsen Neighbors, R.P.D. de Guatemala, Resurrection Project, UNIRR, UIC-ISO, Unión Latina, Universidad Popular.

"UIC-ISO" appears to be the International Socialist Organization of the University of Illinois Chicago. Some of the others are Mexican "hometown clubs", and some of those might have links to the Mexican government.

But, it gets worse. One of those groups is the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (icirr.org). Currently their front page contains the following:

Come join immigrants from all over the nation in a historic march this Friday, March 10th at 12 noon! We need to send a message to the nation that:
- we need to pass the DREAM Act for undocumented students and lay down a path to citizenship for their parents
- we must reunite families that have been separated by our broken immigration laws
- we have to unite as a nation and say no to anti-immigrant racism and backwards legislation like H.R. 4437, the Hastert/Sensenbrenner bill
- those of us who are eligibile to be citizens will apply for citizenship, those of us who are eligible to vote will vote to be heard
Today we March, Tomorrow we Vote!
We salute the Mexican Homeland Federation for their leadership in organizing this march and encourage immigrants of all nationalities to join us with one voice.
It's now or never! We need compassion not racism! Diplomas not death!

Unfortunately, ICIRR is a powerful group, and they were even named to an immigration issues board by IL gov Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat.

So, Illinois' gov is linked to a group that's agitating citizens of other countries who are here illegally, and they're linked to a socialist organization and various Mexican clubs, all of whom are calling for a general strike.

Until such time as Blago renounces ICIRR and this march or the Democratic Party renounces Blago, I don't think it's unfair to portray the Democratic Party as supporting the march.

Posted to Immigration at 05:04 AM | Comments (8)

Banned by RedState!

It might just be a technical problem, or I might have finally been banned by RedState.org.

Yesterday around this time I re-posted the entry Bush "Gold Card" would open borders to cheap labor at RedState, and it still shows up in news.google.com:

The URL in that picture goes to a moderation page:

the-lonewacko-blog.redstate.com/story/2006/3/6/232229/3836

And, while my diary is still there (the-lonewacko-blog.redstate.com), there are no links allowing me to comment on stories.

It might just be a technical glitch, or I might have been banned. I have been warned, so it's not like I wasn't expecting something like this to happen eventually.

Note also that someone else has posted on the very same story about "gold cards" for illegal aliens, and he doesn't appear to have been banned:

wubbies-world.redstate.com/story/2006/3/7/154912/2175

I've sent an email, and let's see what happens.

Posted to Bloggage at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)

Mexican citizens demand rights in the U.S.

Yet another march by illegal aliens and their supporters, this time in Portland. Joseph B. Frazier of the AP provides coverage biased towards the illegal aliens and those who profit off them here. There were reportedly 4000 participants and they were opposed to not just HR 4437, but to gubanatorial candidate Ron Saxton.

Just to make that clear: citizens of Mexico and other countries who are here illegally are trying to have an influence over our laws and our elected representatives.

The march was supposedly "peaceful" but it was also "boisterous", featuring threats like:

"No amnesty, no peace," they chanted. "No justice, no peace."

Previously in this series: "Corvallis illegal aliens to protest HR 4437" and "Illegal aliens, supporters to protest in Washington"

Posted to Immigration at 11:13 AM | Comments (2)

Clueless Democrats unable to capitalize on Bush's endless blunders

The WaPo offers "Democrats Struggle To Seize Opportunity". Obviously, the problem is related to their lack of intelligent, principled, pro-American leaders.

If they could somehow correct that problem, they could do a great service for this country and they'd win elections.

Posted to Politics at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

Help stop Arlen Specter's massive amnesty scheme

Please take a moment and contact your Senators to tell them what you think of any kind of an amnesty or "guest" worker scheme. And, please tell your friends to do the same and spread the word to blogs and other message forums.

Background information in "Illegal immigrants could stay indefinitely under Senate plan", "Stop Arlen Specter's Amnesty", and Senator Arlen Specter introduces "temporary" "guest" worker scheme.

Posted to Immigration at 06:21 AM | Comments (1)

"When illegal means illegal"

The Chicago Tribune prints a guest column that stands in striking contrast to their usual support for illegal immigration:

...In 1986, we conducted this same debate and the "solution" then was to grant amnesty to about 2.7 million illegal immigrants. Then, amnesty advocates said we need grant it "just this once," and that better enforcement--mostly going after employers who hire illegal immigrants--would solve the problem. That amnesty didn't stop the illegal flow across our border, and enforcement--especially by the Bush administration--has been a joke...

...we can solve this problem, humanely and effectively. Strengthen our border. Enforce the laws on the books. Restore respect for the rule of law. Agree that the fight isn't over immigration, but illegal immigration. And, most important, agree that Americans have a right to define and defend what it means to be an American.

Posted to Immigration at 03:11 AM | Comments (1)

Morton Kondracke on illegal immigration

Morton Kondracke appeared on Hugh Hewitt's show on Sunday, and it was a true Bushgasm of Bush-o-mania. They briefly discussed illegal immigration, and as could be expected Kondracke was his clueless best:

...I mean, he's got to come back here and do one of the biggest education jobs that any president's ever done. I mean, to turn around, this is all...this is a nexus of nativism, is what this is. This is...you know, you take a guy like Duncan Hunter from your territory out there. He's a dyed in the wool nativist, and he's been against Mexican immigration forever and ever and ever. And a bunch of Arabs, a bunch of Mexicans, he doesn't know the difference. And he...it's just no, no, no. And it's all this kind of stuff, and the radio talk show hosts have been bellowing about our borders are insecure, and Lou Dobbs, and Sean Hannity, and these people have been bellowing like crazy for so long, and it all fits into the same thing. And Bush has got to come back and deal with that. And I don't know if he can.

Hugh goes on to slightly stand up for our immigration laws, something that puts him perilously close to slightly disagreeing with Our Leader.

The link is there in the transcript. Note that John & Ken get around a magnitude more listeners than Hugh does. Perhaps that should be a clue.

Posted to Immigration at 12:56 AM | Comments (2)

New York Times discovers there's no workplace enforcement

The New York Times has finally discovered what's been evident for about twenty years: there is almost no workplace enforcement of our immigration laws.

Despite the snarky introduction I've provided, the article is strangely non-NYT-like: "The Search for Illegal Immigrants Stops at the Workplace" by Eduardo Porter.

In fact, it's just one small step from that article to the NYT finally following the money and finding out exactly why politicians support illegal immigration.

Posted to Immigration at 11:48 PM | Comments (0)

Matt Welch's very first Los Angeles Times essay?

Former contributor to the lunatic libertarian magazine Reason Matt Welch was recently hired by the L.A. Times to write the occasional editorial. Could "A silly sting" be his very first effort? If so, bravo! (If not, bravo to whoever wrote it!)

It's truly a wonderful piece in the classic Tokyo Rose style, mocking those who want to take the revolutionary step of enforcing our immigration laws and ultimately benefiting those corrupt employers in Orange County who employ illegal aliens.

The editorial points out that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. Of course, the editorialist also knows that the federal government refuses to do its job. Unfortunately, some people might not know the latter, and in that case they would have been misled.

Posted to Immigration at 09:37 PM | Comments (1)

Bush "Gold Card" would open borders to cheap labor

From Dan Stein of FAIR comes this:

The Stein Report has learned of an secret briefing for Senate staffers by the Bush administration today. In a move to build support for Bush's guest worker amnesty plan, administration officials talked about how they would actually implement the program. Jaws dropped as the administration reps explained the centerpiece of the program, a "Gold Card" that would enable illegal aliens to enter the U.S. at will, and work at any job with no labor market or other tests needed but would deny them citizenship. "Gold Card" would be valid forever, similar to current "Green Cards" but illegal aliens holding a "Gold Card" would not be able to adjust their status through naturalization.

Note that as described the card doesn't entitle them to stay here indefinitely. While there's no independent confirmation of this report, FAIR is in close contact with Congress about this issue.

For the odious, un-American details of the first version of Bush's "guest" worker scheme, see this.

Please contact your Senators and stress your opposition to any form of amnesty or "guest" worker scheme.

UPDATE: The "gold card" may be a Bush invention, or it might be from Arlen Specter. From this:

...Senate Judiciary Committee staff members who explained key provisions of Specter’s bill on Monday said that the measure would create a "gold card" program for illegal immigrants who entered the United States before Jan. 4, 2004. It also would create a guest-worker program to bring in more foreign laborers.

Applicants for the gold card would undergo a background check by the Homeland Security Department, then be eligible for two-year work visas that could be renewed indefinitely, committee aides said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid upstaging their boss. The workers wouldn’t participate in the Social Security system but would contribute to future savings through worker investment accounts.

One top committee staffer described the gold-card proposal as "a reasonable compromise" in dealing with illegal immigrants, many of whom have lived in the country for decades. The undesirable alternative, he said, would be an unworkable massive roundup, which administration officials have said would cost billions of dollars...

If the reporter were doing his job he would have called that staffer on his strawman argument.

Posted to Immigration at 08:28 PM | Comments (1)

Security, Prosperity, North America, and media bias

At the end of the month, George W Bush (U.S.) will be meeting with Vicente Fox (Mexico) and Stephen Harper (Canada) in Cancun. Among other topics, they'll be discussing what amounts to turning the United States into part of an EU-style superstate:

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the [Bush and Fox] also discussed the Security and Prosperity Partnership among the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Under that initiative outlined last year at the Texas summit, the three countries, which are joined in the North American Free Trade Agreement, pledged to develop a common security strategy and promote "economic growth and competitiveness and quality of life."

The leaders are expected to review progress on the initiative at Cancun, fine-tune it and make new recommendations on how best to proceed.

"How best to succeed" translates into "how to get what we want before the people catch on." Unfortunately, that won't require much work, since the press reports before and after the conference will no doubt be highly similar to the current one. Let's watch this and see if any reporters or sources cover exactly what this means.

Previously:
Should you trust anything Sen. John Cornyn says?
CFR: Ship seniors to Mexico
Is America's CEO leading us towards a merger with Mexico?
"CFR's Plan to Integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada"
The "New Partnership in North America": double-plus NAFTA

Posted to NAU at 05:42 AM | Comments (2)

"US computer infrastructure compromised by terrorist-owned company"

From this:

While Congress and the media focus on the potential dangers of a UAE-owned company running American port operations, any possible threat is dwarfed by the current insecurity of the US government's computer infrastructure, which has been compromised by a company with multiple connections to terrorist financing.

The company, once known as Ptech (now GoAgile), has been contracted to provide sophisticated computer software to several government agencies, including the Army, the Air Force, Naval Air Command, Congress, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, Customs, the FAA, the IRS, NATO, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the White House.

Shortly after 9/11, the company's primary investor, Yassin al-Qadi (al-Kadi), was identified by the US government as a specially designated global terrorist. Officials describe al-Qadi as one of Osama bin Laden's "chief money launderers," and say he transferred as much as $3 billion to al-Qaeda during the 1990s.

Al-Qadi is a wealthy Saudi with connections to banking, diamonds, chemicals, construction, transportation, and real estate. He once headed Muwafaq, an Islamic charity the US Treasury Department described as an "al Qaeda front that receives funding from wealthy Saudi businessmen."

He claims to be friends or friendly with Dick Cheney, but the article doesn't present any evidence that Cheney thinks the same way.

Posted to Terrorism at 02:23 AM | Comments (0)

A million dollar Ferrari, Homeland Security, and the San Gabriel Valley

The San Gabriel Valley is a nice place, and much better than the more famous San Fernando Valley. However, it's a bit sleepy and there is no critical infrastructure there that I know of. Which makes this story quite a bit odd:

As sheriff's detectives investigate last week's crash that destroyed a $1-million Ferrari, they are now looking into an obscure nonprofit organization that provides disabled people with transit in the San Gabriel Valley.

The car's owner, a former video game executive from Sweden, told Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies at the scene of the Feb. 21 accident in Malibu that he was deputy commissioner of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority's police anti-terrorism unit, detectives said Thursday.

A few minutes after the crash, two unidentified men arrived at the scene, flashing badges and saying they were from "homeland security", according to Sheriff's Department officials.

Deputies allowed the men into the accident scene, where they spoke to Stefan Eriksson before leaving, Sgt. Phil Brooks said.

The DUmmies do some investigating and find some interesting things.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 12:15 AM | Comments (1)

Indianapolis Airport is run by BAA, a British company

Unfortunately, Drudge is threatening to "break" the news that Indianapolis Airport is run by the British company BAA, which also runs Heathrow, Gatwick, and other airports:

Since October 1, 1995, BAA Indianapolis LLC has had full operating responsibility for the six airports owned by the Indianapolis Airport Authority under a unique, performance-based, management contract. Indianapolis International is now the largest privately managed airport in the United States.

The apparent implication is that that makes the Dubai ports deal A-OK. Obviously, that's wrong for two reasons. First, there's quite a difference between a British company and a company owned by an Arab state with some questionable ties. And, any foreign control of our critical infrastructure should be looked at quite closely and avoided if possible.

UPDATE: Here's Drudge's report.

Posted to Terrorism at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)

Tyson Foods and tuberculosis

One employee at a Tyson Foods plant in Shelbyville Arkansas has tested positive for tuberculosis. Another 64 workers are being tested. Tyson denies there's a problem.

The incident is "not an outbreak, but there has been one person to test positive," said Sheets. He said there is no risk whatsoever of contamination as it relates the plant's products.

Perhaps in a slight nod to the local conditions, the newspaper adds:

TB is most easily transmitted in situations where people are forced to live in close proximity, such as due to poverty.

There's no word on whether the workers are - ahem - "undocumented".

Previously:

Skagit County: ripped off by Mexico, growers, racial demagogues, "liberals"

JAMA: Immigrants bringing drug-resistant TB to U.S.

"Mmmm... Tyson Chicken and TB"

"Illegal Aliens and American Medicine"

Posted to Immigration at 08:27 PM | Comments (2)

Thomas Kinkade heckled Siegfried and Roy, marks territory

Thomas Kinkade is the artist who makes megabucks selling heartwarming scenes of lighthouses and cottages.

According to a new lawsuit, he also has a dark side:

...In sworn testimony and interviews, they recount incidents in which an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas, cursed a former employee's wife who came to his aid when he fell off a barstool, and palmed a startled woman's breasts at a signing party in South Bend, Ind.

And then there is Kinkade's proclivity for "ritual territory marking," as he called it, which allegedly manifested itself in the late 1990s outside the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

"This one's for you, Walt," the artist quipped late one night as he urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure, said Terry Sheppard, a former vice president for Kinkade's company, in an interview...

Who among us hasn't done the same things?

Posted to Miscellania at 02:38 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Chertoff the new sacrificial lamb, despite pimping "guest" worker scheme?

Will Michael Chertoff soon be "spending more time with his family"? That's what Human Events says. Neither of the "administration sources" who made or refuted the claim are named.

In other Skull News:

March 4, 2006 — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Friday stressed the importance of a guest worker program for the security of the nation during a visit to Brownsville.

"We are in the midst of a serious discussion about a guest worker program," Chertoff said Friday at Alice Walker Hope Park, which is on the bank of the Rio Grande with a view of Gateway International Bridge. "Not as amnesty, not a reward, but a constructive mechanism to allow migrants in the U.S. to assume a strong labor demand."

...A guest worker program would allow U.S. law enforcement agencies to spend more time focusing on "dangerous" elements "we really worry about," rather than on the many thousands of people who come to the country seeking work, Chertoff said.

Chertoff was accompanied by Mexican diplomats to announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two countries.

Secretary of the Interior Carlos Abascal and Secretary of Public Safety Eduardo Medina Mora joined Chertoff to speak about the plan that aims to reduce border violence...

Posted to Immigration at 12:08 PM | Comments (1)

Dick Morris: "[Bill] Clinton is a paid agent of the crown prince of Dubai"

From this:

Former President Bill Clinton is up to his eyeballs in dealings with Dubai, his former top political adviser has revealed. According to Dick Morris, author of the best-selling book, "Condi vs, Hillary," Clinton is a paid agent of the crown prince of Dubai, now involved in a firestorm over its deal to take over some of the operations at six major U.S. ports. "Bill Clinton is a senior adviser - a paid adviser - to a company called Yucaipa which recently set up a relationship with a group called the Yucaipa Investment group to set up a new company called DIGL," Morris said on "The O'Reilly Factor." "DIGL Inc. is in charge of managing the investments of the crown prince of Dubai throughout the world. Bill Clinton is paid by Yucaipa a percentage of the profits it makes, and Yucaipa said its profits have exceeded 40 percent in recent years. "He is a paid agent of the crown prince of Dubai. That in addition to the roughly million dollars they gave his library, in addition to the probably $600,000 in speaking fees he got, and in addition to the scholarships for Dubai children they endowed through his library.

In other news, Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins have this to say (nofollowpolicy):

A careful review of the "assurances letter" [from DPW to the Coast Guard regarding the latter's concerns] reveals that DP World is not, in fact, bound to provide the U.S. government with the information it would need to close the intelligence gaps the Coast Guard identified. … The language is weak. … Indeed, the assurances appear to amount to little more than a restatement of what the FBI or other law enforcement agency could gather anyway in the course of an investigation.

Posted to Terrorism at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)

Cardinal Roger Mahoney's false "charity"

The Cardinal gets taken to task by Ira Mehlman of FAIR:

The House legislation that Cardinal Mahony finds so odious, HR4437, will not prevent clergy from administering Communion or feeding people who show up at a soup kitchen. Rather, when religious workers cross the line and actively assist people in violating the law, they will be held accountable -- just as any other American would.

...The problem is that what Cardinal Mahony and others are promoting is not charity. Charity can only be given of one's own resources. In advocating amnesty for an estimated 10 million to 12 million immigration-law violators, as well as for a massive expansion of legal immigration to the United States, Cardinal Mahony is being charitable with other people's jobs, educational opportunities, health care and other resources.

The reason why nations limit immigration is because immigration has an impact not only on immigrants, but on the lives of people in the receiving society. In the geographic region of Cardinal Mahony's archdiocese, blue-collar workers have seen a steady decline in real income since 1989, which coincides with the onset of mass illegal immigration into the Los Angeles area. The majority of kids now entering the Los Angeles public-school system are classified as non-English proficient and, not coincidentally, the high school dropout rate is more than 50 percent. Millions of medically uninsured illegal immigrants have contributed in a very significant way to a public health-care system that is overwhelmed that the county has closed more than half of its emergency rooms in the past few years, creating the certainty that people have paid for mass illegal immigration with their lives...

Previously: AVWatch: Villaraigosa supports illegal immigration, Cardinal Mahoney

Posted to Immigration at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)

Blagojevich stand behind NOI member on Illinois hate crimes commission

From this (nofollowpolicy):

"On Wednesday, [Governor Rod] Blagojevich expressed support for Claudette Marie Muhammad, director of community outreach for the Nation of Islam, a black Muslim group led by the Rev. Louis Farrakhan... Muhammad recently invited commission members to attend a Farrakhan speech in which he accused 'Hollywood Jews' of 'promoting lesbianism, homosexuality' and other 'filth.'"

It's all in a day's work for one of the U.S.'s least American governors. Blago is also deeply involved with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, a powerful group that supports illegal immigration and appears to have conducted a smear campaign against gubanatorial candidate Jim Oberweis.

Posted to Immigration at 08:07 PM | Comments (1)

AVWatch: Villaraigosa supports illegal immigration, Cardinal Mahoney

"Mayor Reconquista", aka Antonio Villaraigosa, supports Cardinal Roger Mahoney's call to disobey HR 4437 if it passes. Of course, both of them are lying or misinformed regarding the effects of that bill, but I guess the fact that it might affect his power base has clouded his judgement. Kinda like the time he signed up to lead a chapter of the racial separatist group MEChA:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised Mahony's comments and called the federal plan "incredulous."

"I can tell you that the cardinal, I think, is right is saying that the church should not be in the business of enforcing our immigration laws," Villaraigosa said Wednesday. "That's a federal responsibility.

"The idea that the church would deny services to the homeless, that the Catholic church would deny services to families who are hungry because of their immigration status is absolutely incredulous," he said. "I certainly understand his sentiments."

Villaraigosa said he has not researched what ramifications such a law would have on city workers.

"In our situation, if the federal government required us to do something because the law of the land dictates that ... you got to enforce the law," Villaraigosa said. "But I can tell you that my understanding is that this legislation will not pass in the Senate."

Councilman Dennis Zine, a Catholic, released a statement today saying he supported Mahony's comments.

"I agree with Cardinal Mahoney that the patchwork of legislation of the past is unrealistic in moving forward with meaningful reform of the immigration policies of this country," said Zine, who chairs the National League of Cities' Immigration Task Force. "We need to come up with a program that works."

Posted to Los_Angeles at 11:46 PM | Comments (5)

The Court rests

Posted to WackyHumor at 08:28 PM | Comments (2)

Let's discredit Cardinal Roger Mahoney!

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 11:03 AM | Comments (7)

Dubai: The man from Hope, UAE

At the same time as Hillary was complaining about the UAE ports deal, Bill "Bubba" Clinton was working behind the scenes to push it through and to get his friend and former press secretary, Joe Lockhart, to represent Dubai Ports World. link, link.

Anyone hear crickets?

Unlike others, this blog will continue to discuss this story, should it receive any more coverage in the press that is.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Bob and Elizabeth Dole are involved in a similar familial conflict of interest.

Posted to Terrorism at 09:10 AM | Comments (3)

remesamex.gob.mx features Bank of "America", Wells Fargo, and Western Union

Continuing their slow marcha into the 19th century, Mexican officials have announced a new website that will go online in May. It's located at remesamex.gob.mx, and it's intended for Mexican citizens who are living in the U.S.

Can you guess what it's about?

If you've been following along, you're right! It's designed to help mostly illegal aliens send money back to Mexico in order to help prop up that corrupt government:

...The website will feature a "calculator" in which users can enter in the amount of money they plan to send and it will give them estimated costs from different wire service companies. It also will tell users the amount of money their relatives will receive in Mexico after costs.

The website also will give migrants in the United States directions to the closest wire service, as well as the closest office in Mexico where their relatives can collect the money...

Those "American" companies that will be featured on the site are: Bank of "America", Wells Fargo, and First Data's Western Union.

It's too bad the Bush administration is just as "American" as those companies, otherwise their executives and directors would be in federal prison.

Posted to Immigration at 06:05 AM | Comments (1)

Dubai: DHS, Treasury didn't check DPW's links to al Qaeda

From this:

A review of a United Arab Emirates-owned company's plan to take over a portion of operations at key U.S. ports never looked into whether the company had ties to al Qaeda or other terrorists, a key Republican lawmaker told CNN on Wednesday.

Rep. Peter King of New York, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said officials from the Homeland Security and Treasury departments told him weeks ago that their 30-day review of the deal did not look into the question of links between DP World and al Qaeda...

I'm sure Rush, Insty, and Kevin Drum will be along any moment now to explain how this doesn't matter.

Posted to Terrorism at 04:01 AM | Comments (0)

Corvallis illegal aliens to protest HR 4437

Yet another pro-illegal immigration protest is planned in Corvallis Oregon. This is sponsored by the Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United (pcun.org).

Previously in this long list of illegal aliens agitating inside our country: "Illegal aliens, supporters to protest in Washington".

Posted to Immigration at 12:48 AM | Comments (0)

Nora Boustany: reporter or transcriptionist?

Nora Boustany writes "Diplomatic Dispatches" for the Washington Post. Readering her latest column, I have trouble refering to her as a a reporter, prefering instead "transcriptionist" or perhaps "propagandist."

Half of the column transcribes the remarks of Mexican ambassador Carlos de Icaza. If you've been following along, you could probably write his remarks yourself: he wants to build bridges and not walls (similar spew from Jon Vessey), workers are living in the shadows, etc. etc. All his remarks are simply transcribed, and no questions are asked of him.

And:

Tamar Jacoby , a specialist with the Manhattan Institute, a New York-based think tank, commended Specter for introducing his bill, a first draft of a major overhaul of U.S. immigration law. But "the good news is that it is only a first draft," she added. Jacoby has been active in organizing the center-right of the political spectrum behind proposals taking shape in Washington.

Now, take a look at "I stumped Tamar Jacoby". That's the kind of reporting that "reporters" like Nora Boustany are apparently incapable of.

Posted to Immigration at 09:31 PM | Comments (1)

Casa de Maryland: funding

Casa de Maryland is a government-funded organization that strongly supports illegal immigration. And, they recently threatened to follow around not just members of the Minuteman Project but their children as well.

Where do they get their money, and what can you do to help shut them down?

This thread (see posts #17-#19) has a purported list of their public funding sources, as well as contact information for many of them.

Could the reader take a few moments and contact one or more of those parties and express your opposition? And, find out what they intend to do about it and report back.

Of course, contacting the Senate and expressing your opposition to "guest" worker schemes is a bit more important, but if you've got the time...

Here's the list from the thread:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Latino Health Initiative of Montgomery County
Maryland AIDS Administration
Maryland Cigarette Restitution Fund
Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission
Montgomery County Community Development Block Grants
Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services
Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs
Montgomery County Office of County Executive
Prince George's County Community Development Block Grants
Prince George's County Council – Special Appropriations Funds
(Councilmembers Will Campos and Thomas Dernoga)
City of Takoma Park

Posted to Immigration at 01:20 PM | Comments (4)

Illegal aliens, supporters to protest in Washington

Illegal aliens and their supporters are agitating for more rights inside our country, and thousands will be visiting Washington DC in March.

Thousands of pro-immigration advocates will protest next week at the U.S. Capitol against a bill that they fear would result in fines or jail time for operators of businesses, churches, day-laborer centers and other facilities that help illegal aliens.

The National Capital Immigrant Coalition (NCIC), an umbrella for about 40 immigrant-advocacy groups, says the bill -- HR 4437 -- is "anti-immigrant."

The measure is expected to come before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month.

"HR 4437 permanently criminalizes undocumented immigrants and everyone who knows, cares about or assists undocumented immigrants," said Kim Propeack, a spokeswoman for CASA of Maryland, an NCIC group...

Obviously, it's trivially easy to discredit Casa and all those who associate with them. See "Casa of Maryland helps illegal aliens get driver's licenses" and "Casa de Maryland might soon get big surprise".

Would the reader please send more information on Casa to any news organization that mentions them or has a quote from one of their members? Let's rain on their parade.

Previously: Illegal aliens, supporters to march on Washington

Posted to Immigration at 06:14 AM | Comments (2)

Feinstein: opposes "guest" worker scheme; supports agriculture industry; wants to finess immigration "reform"

Now that there's a title! California's taller, slightly not-as-dumb Senator Dianne Feinstein appears to have a bit of a nuanced position on immigration matters.

She opposes the "guest" worker schemes she's seen so far:

"I haven't seen a guest-worker program that I would vote for yet," she said. Feinstein believes it's unrealistic to expect someone to come from another country with a family and after three or six years of working here be willing to go back to their home country.

OK, on that she's doing great. However, she also wants the illegal aliens who are here now to stay. Her reason? To help the agriculture industry. Never mind all the downsides of supporting amnesty, just as long as we can (literally) save just pennies on the cost of lettuce.

And, she also wants to "finess" immigration "reform":

"I'm very concerned that a bill that is too big is going to move and that it's going to become a real lightning rod for enormous dissent... My view is to go at this cautiously."

In other words, they want to rip you off, but they don't want to tip you off.

On a side note, in the article Arnold Schwarzenegger utters a nebulous quote that generally seems to support Bush's "guest" worker scheme.

Previously: Dianne Feinstein supports taking tuition discounts from Americans

Posted to Immigration at 03:06 AM | Comments (2)

Bush administration flees to Afghanistan

Stressing the need to "make a clean break" and "start over", the entire Bush administration has left the United States and reestablished themselves in Afghanistan, Reuters reports. Presidential brother Jeb has been appointed the new Potentate of Waziristan, and various other members of Team Bush have been appointed to various government sinecures.

Later today, Bush is expected to announce his first round of proclamations, and will comment on the "good-hearted" immigrants from Indonesia who are currently entering his new country illegally.

Posted to WackyHumor at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)

Non-"liberal" coverage of immigration, Iraq, terrorism, multiculturalism, Los Angeles, California, privacy, and occasionally celebrities and wacky humor...

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All Posts(links to each post by title)

• Time Magazine poll: Large Majority Favors "Guest Workers"
• Yet more pro-illegal immigration propaganda from the Washington Post
• Please call Dennis Hastert
• Bush assures Fox they'll get "guest" worker scheme despite what voters want
• The 'Immigration Backlash'
• Who organized the illegal immigration marches?
• Rob Reiner leaves California preschool commission
• "Mexican illegals vs. American voters"
• "Is it time for a constitutional convention called by the people re: illegal immigration?"
• Breast implants might explode on space tourist flights
• Whatever will we do without child labor?
• John Whitesides, Reuters, pro-illegal immigration propaganda
• Mexican flag raised over American high school
• Dear Chris Nolan
• Who's responsible for illegal immigration?
• Pictures from Los Angeles illegal immigration march
• Paul Krugman on illegal immigration
• Oliver Willis to blog from Siberia
• Instapundit ends up supporting Bush on illegal immigration
• "Borderline Insanity: The Democrats Commit Suicide Over Immigration"

My trip to Alpine County What not to do, again (September 1-2, 2002)

Boston Market Cornbread Temperatures Please help contribute to this important study (August 28, 2002)

Did The Gap Put Celebrities at Risk? An Open Web Letter to The Gap (May 20, 2002)

Humphreys Peak Arizona's highest point (May 19, 2001)

Go Heavy, Go Slow, Get Lost Bay Area highpoints (December 14, 2000)

Hubris in New England The highpoints of RI, CT, and MA (October 8, 2000)

Let's go to Utah Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon (August 14, 2000)

Your host, climbing Monkey Face (5.14d)

Your host's arm (circled)

Your host's hopelessly outdated conditioning progress

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