As if there wasn't enough to worry about, here's something else: rightwing bloggers and the tea parties might "oppose" amnesty in such a way that makes amnesty more likely. Those in that orbit in effect helped Obama get elected by not opposing him in the correct way (see Obama opponents mistakes, this, and this.) Now, they're applying the same ineffective, less-effective, or counter-productive - but web traffic-generating - techniques to the newly hot immigration issue.

A recent example is the newly-posted [1] old video youtube.com/watch?v=yGqPo5ofk0s that shows Chicano extremist Ron Gochez claiming that he's standing on "stolen, occupied Mexico" and making various other extremist claims. Various sources, in an attempt to get visitors rather than solve problems, posted the video without doing any research [2] and, because they don't follow this issue that closely, falsely claimed that he's a UCLA professor. That false claim makes them look bad and that helps the other side. And, after correcting their false claims, some are now encouraging people to contact his actual employer (LAUSD) and get him disciplined or fired. That's not anywhere near as productive as other things that they could be doing.

In the greater scheme of things, Gochez means little: he's just a high school teacher. The much more effective thing to do is to try to discredit those who have actual power who enable those like him: politicians, the media, and other leaders. Instead of going after a high school teacher, people should be encouraged to do things like help discredit the National Council of La Raza, Rick Sanchez, Jim Wallis, or all the very many others I cover here who have actual power.

While making the current mistake isn't that big of a deal, making other mistakes could be. As happened before the election, a false claim by rightwing bloggers will then be successfully used by the "fact checkers" and others to discredit the whole story, not just the parts that the bloggers got wrong. Those bloggers could thus render important stories useless. The solution isn't for those bloggers to be silent about this issue. Rather, they should put solving problems ahead of their ego-driven desire for visitors and they should do research first. If they don't know who someone is or don't know how to correctly discuss various topics, there are several search methods in the sidebar here; the topics page here is a good place to start. There are also other sites that are familiar with and that closely follow this issue: vDare, American Patrol, and others have extensive archives.

[1] ALIPAC posted it at youtube.com/watch?v=iybaDyMr1rs over two years ago. Gochez was mentioned here once, in this post from three years ago, which just linked his name to this October 2002 Res Ipsa Loquitur post about an appearance by him on the Bill OReilly show. I don't expect others to have his name at the top of their minds, but it might be good if they could do some basic research first.

[2] The video was re-posted by facebook.com/StandWithArizona which doesn't exactly seem that familiar with this issue or how to do things that are highly effective. The title they gave the video claimed he was a UCLA professor.

Then, apparently Drudge linked to it. When I saw it yesterday he'd put 'professor' in single quotes; whether it was like that when he first posted it isn't known.

And, as could be expected, Glenn Reynolds couldn't even check the faculty roster at UCLA (pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/98933/):

SO I’M NOT AN EXPERT LIKE JOE KLEIN, BUT DOES THIS COUNT AS “SEDITIOUS SPEECH?” UCLA Professor Calls For Mexican Revolution in the United States.

UPDATE: Allahpundit says the video is from 2007. That makes it okay. It’s impossible to commit sedition when a Republican is in the White House!

ANOTHER UPDATE: High school teacher? Still doesn’t change the sedition point.

Moving even further down the scale, Gateway Pundit has two clarifications appended, first to note that video was from 2007 and then to note that he's not a professor: gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/05/
ucla-professor-calls-for-mexican-revolution-in-the-united-states