In an obvious reference to the Minuteman Project volunteers, this is what a leftist reporter asked George Bush yesterday: “President Bush, I wanted to ask you about your opinion about those people who are hunting migrant people along the border.”
If the reporter had at least pretended to be a journalist and gathered facts instead of relying on what other leftists were saying, he would have found this on the Minuteman Project web site:
We will seal the border by our presence, but will not violate anyone’s civil rights, and will not abuse anyone from any country. By legal means we will observe ILLEGAL immigrants on trails heading north. We will alert border patrol to the location of illegals, and wait for USBP to come and pick them up. We will follow illegal aliens from a distance and continue spotting them until authorities answer our cell phone and/or back-pack radio calls. All spotting, calls for assistance, and the response from the appropriate authorities will be chronicled and provided to any media representative.
I say illegal aliens have no civil rights in the sense that we do, but I won’t quibble.
This is how our conservative Christian president answered: “I’m against vigilantes in the United States of America. I’m for enforcing law in a rational way. That’s why you got a Border Patrol, and they ought to be in charge of enforcing the border.” (Source)
Such an answer would be reasonable if the volunteers were vigilantes. Shame on you, Mr. Bush. Mexico’s president Vicente Fox probably stood there smiling, pleased that his American pal is trained so well.
Facts are inconvenient sometimes, especially when you want to grandstand. But the journalist gets a pass, sort of. The problem is George Bush, not leftist reporters or Fox. If Bush had been armed with facts, he wouldn’t have sounded like such a clueless, fawning oaf in front of these people. For him to even insinuate that his fellow countrymen — Americans taking time out of their busy lives to do the job he refuses to do —- are “hunting down” border jumpers and breaking the law makes me sick. I’m sure Bush or his people have seen the volunteers’ web site and read the statement I just posted. Why not tell the reporter what they’re really about? Educate them. Why feed into leftist lies?
Anytime you have a group of white men wanting to gather for any reason, charges of “Racists!” start flying everywhere. Folks are real paranoid. Implicit in any discussion of the Minuteman Project by liberals is that they’re racists who want to kill Mexicans. Like many Americans, including those afraid to speak up, they’re simply fed up with the scourge of illegal immigration and are alarmed by its detrimental effects. If you’re an unbeliever, I recommend you read FOX News’s five-part series on immigration. It makes me sick.
I’m not the only one who’s sick. Polipundit, whoever he is, says this in reference to Bush’s response to the reporter:
This from a president whose administration refuses to fund the Border Patrol. This from a president whose Department of “Homeland Security†actively refuses to enforce immigration laws. This from a president who has proposed a massive amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens who’ve broken our immigration laws. This from a president who has allowed illegal immigration to increase after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
I hate all politicians. Malkin’s upset, too.
Update: Understatement of the day: Bush Immigration Reform Faces Uphill Fight.
Update II: I’ve slowly come to the shocking realization that George Bush wants open borders with Mexico. It took me this long to admit it.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…”
And your criminals, too.
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Actually probably the only way to sustain our economy is by a massive relaxation of the immigration regulations.
In fact, ultimately this may be the better way to go, as at least there is somewhat of a chance that immigrants will spend a substantial portion of their income right here where they work rather than exporting billions upon countless billions of dollars overseas where the money will either never come back at all or come back to us in the form of increasingly unsustainable government debt.
The fact of the matter remains, though, that whatever illegal immigrants are here currently are just that – illegal. We can relax the immigration requirements, but there will still be requirements, and a legal way to go about entering a country. How many European countries would tolerate rampant, virtually unpoliced immigration? France and Germany would have a fit – in fact, the EU is contemplating building a security wall along Poland’s eastern border to keep out illegals. This is the same EU that screamed its head off when the US contemplated building a wall on the border with Mexico, and that screamed again when Israel had the audacity to build a wall (entirely inside the Green Line, mind you) to keep out Palestinian terrorists.
Relaxing the immigration laws is one thing, but we still have to enforce whatever laws we do have, or there might as well not be laws, right?
I saw that clip of Bush and Fox standing there, bonding over the profits they’ve reaped and smiling about the suckers that they rule over in their countries. Bush didn’t even stop to think about how the reporter phrased the question. He’s so pro-illegal immigration that he’ll believe the propaganda to make himself and his buddies more comfortable.
Remember what Bush said a while ago: “Hell, if they’ll walk across Big Bend, we want ‘em.”
All human beings have an Achilles Heel, that point of blind hubris, that weak spot that can undermine our best actions, even those that could be considered good and holy. What the Greeks called hubris, we call pride and it is man’s fatal flaw.
I have a great deal of admiration for our President except for his dangerous and stubborn blindness when it comes to the crisis of illegal immigration. It is his fatal flaw and one that portends only evil ahead should his failure to act with strong leadership in securing our borders result in a tragedy of human death and suffering. There is a only a growing menace of another horrendous attack that frightens me. Should it come as a result of the President’s irresponsibility and pride, it will undo all his many good and decent accomplishments.
Here’s the quote in context from Lou DuBose’ book,
Boy Genius
First, I support closing the border to illegals, the Minute Men, and any reasonable efforts to reduce the threat of terrorists in the U.S. I also support a guest worker program. If Fox wants to be helpful, he would support it too.
That said, unless you have seen the Big Bend you can’t appreciate the statement and why (supposedly) saying it in private while governor is distinguishable from public statements while President.
Well there was html link in there somewhere, I guess we’re not supposed to link. Try the URL in the signature, maybe that will work. If not try going to amazon.com, and enter “Boy Genius” and “walk across big bend” in the Amazon search engine and it will pull up the actual text from the book.
I’ve been Christian and Conservative (not completely Republican) for too long to quit now. The Illegal Immigration Issue is one which is eroding my support for G.W. Bush.
When I was in college, a Political Science Prof told me that, “Campaign promises are like steps on a bus, they get you on the bus but have nothing to do with the ride.”
I’m beginning to see that once again, we’ve (Conservatives) have been played for suckers.
Bush is a wuss on immigration control.President Fox a so called “christian” encourages his own people to break the law. Maybe if he would spend more time developing his own economy in Mexico things would be better.
Axinar, in the above comment, says that illegal’s money earned flows back into the domestic economy.
That’s incorrect. The money flows into the corrupt Labor Union coffers.
The only people getting richer off illegals….are the fat cat Labor Unions.
“Guest Worker” is simply an open invitation for the illegals to unionize.
The hell with relaxing borders…you come here and speak English…The USA is not Mexico and these people can assimilate or p*** off…Freeze all legal Mexican immigration until Mexico is an able and willing partner…otherwise more drastic measures should be taken…I’m so sick of liberals and there desire to take these border hoppers in…
Axinar wrote, “Actually probably the only way to sustain our economy is by a massive relaxation of the immigration regulations.”
Factually incorrect.
Study after study shows the following:
1) That this country allows more legal immigrants than all other countries combined.
2) That the influx of illegal immigrants COSTS this country more in almost every sense whether it comes to health care costs (closing hospitals and hospitals in red ink near Mexico) or costs of incarceration (25% of criminals in jail are illegal immigrants) costs of education (low income do not provide the same share of property taxes towards education as the rest of america) or the cost of housing (the demand for sheltor increases with more people in this country and nowhere else can you see this effect greater than CA where the supply of shelter is less than the deman).
Those are a few just for starters.
The only way that Axinar can possibly make the claim is by only looking at the lower costs of goods and services and discounting all of the federal benefits like WIC (Women Infants and Children) and other programs that give benefits and never require citizenship for the benefit to be delivered.
Dan wrote, “I’m beginning to see that once again, we’ve (Conservatives) have been played for suckers.”
I don’t know about suckers but the Republicans in general are to the left of conservatives. Conservatives are generally centrists or a little to the right of center and Republicans are to the left of center.
Unfortunately for us that is the closest representation for us because Liberatarians who are really really to the right (want an 80% cut in government) have 1% of the vote.
Mike,
I’m so sick of conservative business owners who take these illegals in and “conservative’ presidents (Reagan was the first) who provide them with amnesty. Its not a liberal<>conservative issue. The #1 villains by far are American employers and the lazy whites and blacks who won’t do these wonderful jobs.
Glamchild,
This has nothing to do with labor unions.
Dan,
Conservatives have been played by Republican presidents since Nixon. You’re just figuring it out now?
Stan wrote, “I’m so sick of conservative business owners who take these illegals in and ‘conservative’ presidents (Reagan was the first) who provide them with amnesty. Its not a liberalconservative issue. The #1 villains by far are American employers and the lazy whites and blacks who won’t do these wonderful jobs. “
Yes. We know you are sick. Business owners can not be classified as conservative except by someone with contempt for entrepreneurs or business owners. During the Bill Clinton years political contributions by business owners went to Democrats more than Republicans. I explain the phenomenon as businesses being somewhat apolitical just contributing to those in power to either A) hope that government will leave them alone or B) trying to gain favor with a government that has gotten to big and will write special legislation inside of legislation that helps certain businesses.
This countries government has GOTTEN too LARGE and the above paragraph shows that CLEARLY.
Conservatives who own businesses obviously will operate with the principle that they hold dear to their hearts that illegal immigrants should not be employed in this country and should walk right back to where they came from because this country is MORE than generous and ALLOWS more legal immigrants than all other countries combined.
Yes. Reagan provided amnesty and it was the single biggest mistake ever taken in the last 3 decades with respect to immigration. However, on all other issues he was right and I’m sure you Stan hold Reagan with contempt on most other issues.
And this is a liberal conservative issue. There are no Democrats/liberals like Tom Tancredo. The Democrats and liberals rail on people like Tom daily on C-SPAN as being racist, small minded, mean spirited, etc.
In the middle there are weak kneed Republicans (who are to the left of center) who can’t stand criticism and allow their principles or lack of to be dictated by the fact that they might be tarred and feathered by the media or Democrats. They don’t want to be perceived in any bad way so they think they have to pander to hispanics.
Hispanics who are citizens though when polled show that they are for stopping illegal immigration as the illegal immigration hurts hispanic citizens.
Baklava,
Don’t get personal and attack me for what you think I believe. Read some of my other posts on illegal immigration. If you think that conservative business owners don’t hire illegals…I just don’t know what to say. To call me “sick” is slander. I try to only discuss facts. I’ve had strong discussions with Chris Roberts on this issue but we have never called each other names.
OK. Besides the illegal alien nannies (whom not many people have checked thier citizenship status), name a business owner who is conservative and hiring illegal aliens.
My point about businesses being apolitical generally stands. They contribute about 50/50 to Democrats vs. Republicans unfortunately you fail to recognized anything other than what the dominant press has intimated for years.
Slander? You kept saying the words you are sick. I affirmed yes. We recognize what you are saying. Sorry that was supposed to actually be humorous.
You try to discuss only facts? OK. Then stop stating your opinion about what you are sick of and get to the facts that I was pointing out.
Honestly, I didn’t think you’d react this way to the sick joke. I’ll stand down on it. I’ll welcome the redirection into the facts and the answer to the question I posed. Thanks.
Baklava,
Wal-Mart…So, you’re saying that only liberal business owners hire illegals?
Baklava,
I wrote the “I am sick” post to counter Mike’s argument that it was only liberals “who agree to take these border hoppers in…”. I did this to point out that the fault lies with business owners, all of them, and with Americans who won’t do the jobs that they do. It is the same with drugs. As Americans, we like to blame the Columbians or Mexicans or whatever but it is we ourselves who are creating the insatiable demand for drugs as we are for cheap labor. And it is conservative Presidents who have created and are calling for amnesty. I’ve said nothing more or less.
If you read deeper into the Walmart story, you’d see that it was a company that Walmart had contracted with and not Walmart itself. Thanks for playing.
From Yahoo News
—————-
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, said it had settled a criminal investigation into its use of illegal immigrant labour with an 11-million-dollar payment to the US authorities.
The Justice Department agreed to drop its four-year investigation into Wal-Mart and not pursue charges against any of the giant store chain’s executives as part of the settlement.
Wal-Mart general counsel Tom Mars reaffirmed the company’s position that it was unaware that subcontractors were using illegal immigrants as floor cleaners.
“Today we are acknowledging that our compliance program did not include all the procedures necessary to identify independent floor cleaning contractors who did not comply with federal immigration laws,” he said in a statement.
“We will use this as an opportunity to improve and be a better, more tightly run business as a result,” Mars said.
Stan wrote, “So, you’re saying that only liberal business owners hire illegals?”
This shows how liberals can’t undestand logic and the English Language.
I was stating more than once that business owners who have the conservative principles would probably not be hiring illegal immigrants. And I stated also that businesses are generally apolitical which means that businesses who are hiring illegal immigrants don’t have to be liberal as you Stan are trying to say I was saying which I wasn’t.
There is more than conservative and liberal. There is apolitical, libertarian, etc. In math the following applies. True or False – If A is not equal to B then A = C. The answer is FALSE Stan.
No longer does Wal-Mart employ outside contractors to clean its floors. Companies that do contract work for other chores will have stricter rules to follow to win those contracts, and upper management will have to approve contracts of more than $10,000,
——-
Above from Fox News story.
It was Wal-Mart that paid the $11 million fine, not the subcontractor. And you really think that Wal-Mart didn’t know?
Stan,
You are factually incorrect again. The contractors paid $4 million dollars of fines.
Stan, Walmart employs 1.2 million people. If 300 in subcontractor organizations were illegal the 11 million dollar fine represents the 300 people getting paid minimum wage for over 3 years.
To what benefit was it to Walmart to knowingly hire illegal immigrants? None.
To what extent did it lower Walmart’s prices? None.
And to what extent is Walmart going through to make sure it doesn’t happen again? It is no longer using contractors for floor cleaning services.
Thanks for playing as I said.
RE: Wal-Mart
Point well taken.
There are at least (I say that because I’m sure I’m leaving something out) three faces to this issue. One, our political leaders pay lip service to controlling the border. Their interest is in satisfying those who fill their campaign coffers for re-election. Only when a bomb goes off will they show any regard for taking care of a major security issue.
Two, sufficient attention must be applied to Mexico and Latin America to find solutios to keep their workers where they are at. Until we do that, sealing the border will only solve 1/2 the problem.
Three, those who aid, abet, posess knowledge of, and enable those to illegally enter our country must be confronted and forced to stop. It’s like where I teach. In order for the rules to be effective, every teacher must abide and enforce the rules. Unless our countrymen do the same, our immigration laws are worthless.
There must be a multifaceted solution, one that can attack the problem at its source as well as eliminate the problem on the home front.
Chris,
Agree on #1 and #3…disagree mildly on #2. I think that sealing the border WOULD solve our problem…and maybe motivate them to work on their problem…but their problem is that they’re not industrialized to our extent. So far the answer is to ship our factory jobs to them but then we’re in the area of losing U.S. jobs…tough, tough issue but sealing the border is easy…get some more folks into the Army to go to Iraq and bring the National Guard home to the borders. The President could start the process tomorrow. But how can we apply more pressure to him? Is our passivity and acquiescence a big part of the problem? I do humanitarian/rural development work in Cambodia so I understand the problems of Third World countries as well as most. But I’m not nearly concerned about THEIR development problems as I am about OUR national security problem.
Chris,
You’re teaching on the Enlightenment? I bow to you, sir…I always wanted to teach but I’m a college dropout who somehow ended up in relief and humanitarian work in Cambodia. Good for you!
Ratso you nailed the head with the hammer. If Senor Fox and his government spent some effort on improving the conditions in his own country, we might not have this trickle up effect so to speak.
My solution, just enforce the laws we have on the books already. If an employer is using illegals, prosecute them to fullest extent of the law. Maybe, just maybe if the lower paying jobs weren’t being snapped up by illegals, we could, dare say, offer a real Workfare system instead of a Welfare system to the chronically unemployed.
I know this is just a dream, but hey everyone has to have one.
I’m concerned about their development problem as long as it means that our social services are being overrun by illegal immigrants and much of their income earned here is being sent back to Mexico.
George Bush should be ashamed of himself but he has no shame. After he retires he will still draw his 400,000 dollar a year salary and the other millions he has and he will never even have to worry about his shameless border policy. He will live high atop his throne in Crawford, Tx.
If I hear one more talking-head, kool-aid drinking Bush supporter say ‘but he’s such a man of moral clarity’ I will puke…..
Would a man of moral clarity give the country away like he is without even batting an eye?
He has lost all credibilty with me and I will never believe another word he says.
Here’s a novel idea, Enforce the law!! Then you won’t need volunteers to do the job WE PAY YOU TO DO, Mr. President.
Dean,
Not nearly enough chronically unemployed to fill those millions of jobs…that is the harsh reality. And beside, welfare these days has workfare in it by law. Do you want all those jobs in the agricultural and service industries to be filled by the chronically unemployed? Are you prepared to pay all the taxes necessary to provide day-care for their children? The President is right on this one…the illegals are doing jobs that we won’t do. As a manager of a big dry-cleaning plant about 15 years ago, I knew and the owner knew that most of the Mexicans were illegal. They had wonderfully counterfeited documents (the counterfeit documents are much, much better today) and we needed to keep the business alive so…My first response was to hire as many legal Cambodian refugees as I could, getting them off the slavery of welfare and onto their own. Some did exceptionally well while others were below average but they all tried real hard. I hired at least 3 “real Ameracuns..”and had to put up with theft, laziness and just really poor work. Fired them all…truth be told, if I had really wanted to run a profitable plant run by hard-working, extremely competent workers I would have made sure everyone of them was an illegal. We knew that the Feds could come in at any time (they used to at least try) but to save the plant we had to hire folks who were most likely illegals. Those are the facts of life in thousands of companies and towns across the country. Somehow, we have put ourselves in to this bind and amnesty or proposed amnesty only makes it worse. You can bet that hundreds of thousands south of the border are listening to the President very carefully and they are taking his words to mean that they need to get here ASAP so they can participate in his “guest worker” program.
Chris,
If we seal the border then they can’t come. End of our illegal problem. Then export the illegal criminals back and reimburse the states for their costs. If the border is sealed, they can’t come back. I think it should be sealed permanently with traffic at the border crossings being monitored as strictly as our flights on airplanes. Once on my way back from Cambodia, in Taiwan I believe, I had to give up my Gillette razor and cartridges. Come on! A 60 year old, semi-ugly, totally overweight white guy is going to attack the crew with a Gillette razor cartridge?!!! What total nonsense when crossing the borders is as free and easy as ever.
Capitano: I get what you’re saying–Bush meant that if they have the motivation to cross that huge area, then they must be very willing to work. But if he cared about illegal immigration, he wouldn’t even think that way–ie, cheap illegal labor is great, especially when the people have a great work ethic.
I was just in a ghetto-type (inner city) neighborhood today, and as I looked at the blight, I thought about how sad it is that people aren’t actively recruiting those Americans to work.
Stan–I know what you’re talking about. It can be easy to hire illegal workers when one of them is great, and he brings his relatives, and friends, and they’re all doing a good job, all at a cheap price.
Your situation is what I’ve been talking about: people who don’t mind illegal immigration either hire illegal workers or have a profession that is supported by them (like court interpreters or teachers).
But this is what people don’t see: the neighborhoods (including gangs), overcrowded schools, bankrupted hospitals, the lack of police because illegals don’t want to call them. People will hire them, but do they live near them and send their kids to school with them?
Every country needs standards for its populace, even for health. A long time ago people were tested for diseases and weren’t let in if they had certain ones. Our gov’t isn’t testing millions of people, and third world health care is much worse than ours.
La Shawn — Thank you for this blog. We may not see eye-to-eye but each time I visit your blog, I learn something. This morning, I would like to comment.
Now that Bush has shown his true colors, what are you going to do about it?
I believe it is time for the American public to stand up and say we want to take back our country and our Constitution, before it is too late.
If you chose to come to the country, you must learn English, become a productive part of the community, pay taxes, obey our laws, etc. or you will be escorted out. You are an American first, no hyphen. (These hyphens just serve to keep us separated IMHO.)
You do not receive entitlement benefits until you become an American citizen.
We have lost manufacturing jobs by the ton. Noone is doing anything to stop it. When are we going to take back our country before it is too late?
Thanks for letting me comment –
Elizabeth
Amen Elizabeth, from a fellow independent. Being forced into it BTW.
Wouldn’t John McCain or Joe Libermann make good independent candidates for the ticket?
I live in Southern Missouri. The minority population in this county is less than 1%. There are few, if any, illegal aliens here. American citizens do all the fast food jobs, lawn care jobs, dish washing jobs, roofing jobs, construction jobs, factory jobs, cattle ranch jobs, and janitorial jobs. However, if our borders remain as porous as they are, eventually the illegal aliens will arrive here; then, because they are willing to work for much lower wages, the illegal aliens will steal all those jobs from American citizens. Once that occurs, then Americans will no longer be willing to do those jobs for the wages offered. From that point onward these jobs can be filled only by illegal aliens.
I’m sure that a similar scenario has been played out in those areas of the country where employers are saying that they need illegal aliens to do jobs that Americans won’t do.
The point is: Ilegal aliens are needed to do some jobs because illegal aliens are altready doing those jobs.
simply because illegal aliens are already doing the jobs does not make it right, and it is not sufficient justification for continuing this malfeasance of an immigration policy. the long term cost is entirely too high to continue in this manner. education, health care are taxed beyond crisis point. we cannot continue in this manner. if the illegals don’t do the work, someone will do the work and the free marked will correct itself to these things. it may mean a few pennies extra or a dollar or two extra for some products, but i would gladly pay a little extra for secure borders and rule of law.
Heck–I’m glad you see the writing on the wall. I didn’t care about this issue until I started to live around it.
Chris,
The market won’t correct itself. You will never see Americans taking all those jobs, especially in agriculture. The trend is set and won’t be reversed. I used to work with Somali refugees. They were very willing to search the country for work and many of them ended up in Midwest meat-packing plants. …places like Marshall, MN…Garden City, KS…etc. After a time they began quitting those jobs because they were always cutting themselves and the conditions were disgusting. Want to guess who replaced them? Small and medium sized towns in the Midwest are being deluged with illegals. The kids are overwhelming the schools and causing problems because of poor or zero English skills and the parents are often migratory. I asked the Somalis why they couldn’t get jobs in the CA meat-packing or poultry plants. You already know the answer. I asked why they couldn’t get jobs in the landscaping or hotel or restaurant industry. You already know the answer. The history of the world is the migration from the countryside to the city….the peasantry to industry…This is a historical, demographical trend that exists everywhere. It is following its natural course here because a permanent peasantry lies just across the border. I’m absolutely sure that the meat-packing plants tried to hire Americans. After all, those plants used to be exclusively American jobs. Again, the market will NEVER correct itself to the extent that the trend is reversed. The horse is far too many miles down the road from the barn. Capitalism is working, whether we like it or not.
mj– Yes, I think that almost every job now being filled by an illegal alien in the U.S., at some point in the past, was stolen from an American citizen.
mj,
That sounds just a little racist although I know you didn’t mean it that way. I would have considered it an honor to live in the same neighborhood with the illegals that worked for us. In fact, for 2-3 years I did. They were the salt of the earth as are most of them. They paid their own way and didn’t use social services because they didn’t want to get caught. That threat no longer exists. They are no more prone to disease than any of us. It is in our interest to let them use social services so that they get medical attention when they’re sick. I actually don’t fault them. I fault us. We provide the jobs and they come. A certain percentage of them are criminals and we let them come. We try to export them and they come back over and over again. The threat of terrorists coming is astronomical. We still let them come. The onus is completely on us and the sooner we stop focusing on them and Fox, etc. the sooner we’ll act to seal the border and allow crossing only at the legitimate border crossings. It is all on Pres. Bush, all of it. Blame him, not the folks coming here to work to do jobs that we won’t do.
heck,
The jobs weren’t stolen. Americans didn’t and don’t want them. The jobs have been given to them by American employers, who would hire qualified Americans if they could find them.
Stan
Americans don’t want to do those jobs for the wages offered. If there were no illegal aliens, willing to work for low wages, employers would offer fair wages to Americans who would, then, be happy to do those jobs.
heck,
Sorry….that’s just not true and here is my proof. Republicans and especially conservatives argue against a minimum wage increase or even a minimum wage at all. How can we expect employers to increase their pay and risk their profits if Republicans won’t even increase the minimum wage? You could offer Americans $10-15 per hour and they still wouldn’t take those agricultural jobs and even if they did, their work would be so unsatisfactory that it would put the nation’s food supply at risk. Why do you think that whites brought in Africans to be slaves? It was because there were too few whites willing to do the work and they were not fit for agricultural work in the hot sun. Simply, they would not and could not do the work well enough for the slave owners to make a profit. Many of the Africans were experienced and very knowledgeable farmers from their days in Africa and they literally saved the whites’ hind ends. I know that these are harsh realities but we have to face them clearly so that we are not wasting time dreaming of a time that will never come but also a time that never was.
Stan
Not true. Read Steinbeck’s, The Grapes of Wrath. The Joad’s were American citizen’s, and they were white. I grew up in the bootheel area of Missouri — that’s cotton country. Everyone I knew picked cotton. And, with a few exceptions, everyone I knew was white. We had two summer vacations from school. The first so everyone could chop cotton, the second so everyone could pick cotton. Even the school teachers picked cotton. In the late 1970’s and all of 1980, I worked as a migrant farmworker in Michigan, Virginia, and Florida. The crews I worked on were primarily white. As for as quality and quantity of work done, I’d put those crews up against any crew of whatever race, creed, or nationality.
Stan–I didn’t mean to be racist at all, and I agree that the illegal workers are not to blame–who would want to live in a hut with no plumbing, no job, and barely any food, especially when American images of wealth are being blasted throughout the world? If a country obliterates its immigration standards, then people will respond.
The disease idea was just an example of standards. I’m not saying that all illegal immmigrants have diseases, but no one has any idea of what their health status is. People who came through Ellis island and other ports of entry were checked–ask older immigrants.
Having standards means evaluating who you let in and why. I know a variety of legal immigrants who can’t even visit their home countries to see their families, and others who can’t get visas for their families to visit them. I’ve met people who show incredible self-control, including the number of kids they have (or don’t have), yet they can’t get a basic visa. But our gov’t accepts anyone who comes at a cheap price, despite their character.
I have a good solution for finding workers: before the crop comes in, the agricultural community should go to Americans and announce the opportunities to work, and see if people respond. In non-agricultural areas, chambers of commerce should get together and announce when businesses are hiring–go to Americans first, especially those in economically depressed areas.
Then, if Americans do not respond or are lazy or dishonest, then the use of illegal immigration is justified. But our government doesn’t care about even looking into that.
Folks: may I humbly suggest that there is more to Bush’s remarks than that, and that a bit of reading between the lines is required? First of all, I heard that part of that press conference, and Bush was responding to a very loaded question from a liberal reporter about “vigilantes”. Of course, he said he is opposed to vigilantes. What else could he say, that he is in favor of them? However, note that while the reporter tried to tie the Minutemen to a vigilante group, the President refrained from answering in kind. He did not name the Minutemen in that context. If what we say is true, and we claim that the Minutemen are not engaged in being vigilantes, then we should not be surprised or dismayed at the President’s statement. He’s opposed to vigilantes. The Minutemen aren’t vigilantes. So there’s no problem. And the lib reporter’s plan to hang the President on a gotcha question was foiled.
Second, notice the quote: “That’s why you’ve got a Border Patrol, and they ought to be in charge of enforcing the law.” Pay attention to the words: “ought to be”. Stupid chimp President careless with his words, or a very clever and subtle backhanded slap at the INS? I vote for the latter. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it was a shot across the bow.
As for Bush’s relations with Fox, well, note this: As a leader of a nation, Vincente Fox is a vain, bubble-headed poseur. The Administration has been pampering and stroking him all week, and Fox is feeling so pleased with himself that he hasn’t gotten a darn thing out of this visit and isn’t going to. I’ll admit that Bush’s proposed amnesty may have been a mistake, but on the other hand, it may have been a clever political ploy, in the time-honored practice of Presidents promising things that they know good and darn well Congress isn’t going to pass.
What do you think? Does it make sense, or am I off base?
mj,
Ha! Great idea!…that would be the proof everyone would need wouldn’t it? I would love to see it happen. But I would still want everyone coming legally and paid a fair wage. And I agree with restrictions at the border. I want it sealed except for legal crossings and I want folk checked as thoroughly as we are when we fly to wherever. Our national security is at stake.
Cousin Dave,
I wish the President was as clever as you’re hoping but its sadly not the case. I offer this info as proof…He had said he would add 2000 new Border Patrol agents per year but has funded only 200 this year. He could seal the border any time he wants to prevent the possibility of terrorists coming over. But he hasn’t, he isn’t and he won’t unless there is a near revolt. His action comes closer to dereliction of duty for not providing for the common defence than it does to cleverness. He’s not clever, he’s dishonest, on this issue anyway.
Mad Mikey,
Great stuff! It’d be a good idea to send the same thing to the Republican senators in AZ and Texas, also. They’re doing nothing for their home states except covering for the president. If he can’t be called out on this issue by Republicans, then we’re doomed…this is a national emergency…who knows how many terrorists have crossed already and who knows what has come into the country in the 95% of the containers that go through unchecked at the ports.
With a wink and nod President Judas Bush betrays those who put him in office.
President Judas Bush always says he will do ‘everything in his power’ to protect the USA and then turns around and gives the contry to Mexico.
For a few million pieces of silver from his Corporate buddies, President Judas Bush cares not what he is doing to the country and the future of the country.
President Judas Bush promises 2000 new border agents a year for 5 years starting in 2006 and then kisses us on the cheek and budgets for 200.
President Judas Bush wines and dines Vincete Fox his modern day Pontious Pilate.They eat and drink and dine at his Crawford ranch while President Judas Bush whines about ordinary citizens volunteering to do the job he will not do.
President Judas Bush has made me realize the Republican party is no better than the democrat party.
They all lie, cheat and sell the country down the tubes for silver and gold.
What’s great about our country is that we can criticize our leaders. A Chinese person told me that if they criticize or even make caricatures of politicians, they’d be in big trouble (even go to jail?).
Heck,
My statements re: treatment of Okies by Californians is true and is shown in “The Grapes of Wrath.” It doesn’t matter if they were white or not. They were considered to be an undesirable underclass that threatened Californians’ jobs. I don’t disagree with your experience at all but then was then and now is now, especially in the West. If slavery was still in place, believe me, there would be very few white folks picking cotton in Missouri or anywhere else. If you visit the massive cotton fields in CA or AZ, you won’t see many if any white folk out there. The Africans were just better at it than white folk or plantation owners would have enslaved whites or hired them in the first place. If the trend stays the same, most cotton picking that is done manually will be done by illegals within the next 10 years. How many white migrant workers want to keep at it and have their kids follow them in that line of work? Their numbers are decreasing but the number of illegals is increasing. The trend is nearly irreversible if the border isn’t sealed.
MJ, don’t get to comfortable. Remember, McCain-FarceGold has already restricted your free speech 60 days before a general election and 30 days before a primary.
Trust them not as they want to extend their octopus tentacles to the Internet and bloggers.
Give politicians an inch and they will restrict freedoms a thousand miles.
This is another bill that President Judas Bush betrayed us on and signed into law when he stated in 2000 he would not.
To the politicians these days the Constitution is a piece of paper that just gets in the way.
Phil,
Exactamundo..
I voted for Bush, also. And, I was hoping Condoleeza Rice would run for president in ‘08. However, because of this illegal immigration thing, I’ve become disgusted with both of them.
I have learned about this at school today!
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