Culture of Illegal Aliens

After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has seen a huge influx of illegals. They’ve come for the “great” rebuilding opportunities. They are relatively cheap and fast. I can assure you there are thousands that have poured into my city. They congregate on the corners of major intersections waiting to be picked up for some work and now we have Taquerias on many of the corners as well. I did not have any damage to my home from the storm so I’ve not been afforded the chance to have illegals working for me. I go into my local Walmart and it’s like The Ghetto meets Tijuana! We’ve had a murder here last year committed by an illegal alien from Mexico. He took a woman from the park and raped her and proceeded to run her over with his van all while drunk. We need to get them out of here soon and very soon! Why should I have to press “1″ for English?????????

Here in Tampa we had a tragedy caused by another illegal alien. Of course, I’m sure that Teddy “Chivas and Wet Oldsmobiles” Kennedy, the major pusher of illegal alien amnesty, finds nothing wrong with any of this.

Sheriff’s deputies were looking for a second person who fled from Espinoza’s car after the crash. Callaway described him as a hitchhiker and said authorities haven’t been able to identify him.

Cejdan has some good examples of the inefficiency (at best) that results, and the chaos that comprises our nation’s Hispanocentric focus. I have several experiences in common with Cejdan’s experience.

As someone who has volunteered as an Election Judge for many years, I called the Cook County Board of Elections to see if they needed me for last November’s election. The woman I spoke to on the phone spoke heavilly-accented English, and I told her where my usual polling place assignment was (Near North Side of Chicago), and that, if I was needed in a different location it was important that it be near my residence as I do not own a car. She transferred me to the woman assigned to my Ward, and I got her voicemail (once again, in heavilly-accented English). I left the same details as I had with the 1st woman, but I never received a call back. Lo & behold, come the special election earlier this year I receive an letter assigning me to work: in Skokie. Hello – how am I supposed to get to the North Shore at 5:00 AM when I don’t own a car?????

We’ve also discussed the effect of illegals using Hospital E.R.’s as substitutes for a visit to a Doctor’s Office, but it’s far more extensive than that.

Has anyone here ever received a bill from a hospital for a treatment or test, in spite of your understanding that the procedure was covered by your insurance? There’s a very real possibility that the procedure was coded incorrectly by the person who registered you, a person who was hired by the hospital solely for their Spanish fluency. Many of these hires don’t have the experience necessary to understand the increasingly complex insurance elligibility rules. They are hired because they can speak the language of “The Community” and not because they can determine whether or not your insurance covers the procedure your M.D. has ordered and alert you to the fact that you might have to pay out of your own pocket for the procedure. This is the norm in hospitals, medical facilities and clinics in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and accross the country. Expect it to get worse if Amnesty passes.

Good luck getting considereed for a hospital’s ‘charity care’ if you or someone you care about is indigent: in Chicago, the Cook County Board has *unofficially* earmarked those funds for Hispanics/Latinos and, if you fight that directive, you will see your hospital’s reputation smeared in the Chicago media. I know: I spent five years in administration at a prominent Chicago hospital, and it’s one of the reasons I left, never to return to healthcare.

“Loves America. Became a born again Christian.”

Ummm, breaking the laws of a nation and being Born-Again and continuing in illegal status are an oxymoron… Romans 13 and Philemon are good places to start

I’m sure she does a great job for rich old lady but saving money for the day she gets caught (to pay back taxes) doesn’t sound like being convicted as a born again by her illegal act…

#9 Renee – Believe me, I’m not defending her and I do see your point. She does have guilt about her status, but that hasn’t stopped her. I just thought I’d post on a specific situation I knew about that involved overstaying visas as opposed to sneaking across the border and also showed that many of these people are making some serious money and paying no taxes. Believe me, I’m so angry about this illegal alien amnesty proposal, I’m ready to march on the Capitol.

La Shawn,

Born and raised in Southern California, I’ve been waiting for this the past 20 years. I’ve watched this state, especially Southern California, go through so many changes due to illegal immigration. I figured one day, the rest of the nation will wake up and find the same thing at their front doors, and then maybe something will be done about it. Any of the stories you hear states, not normally dealing with illegal immigration, will have happened here in Southern California a million times over. Nothing new here…been there…done that!

Here in Colorado, signage in both English and Spanish is becoming the norm. Target and Walmart especially. And my kids recently pointed out the dual language on food packaging as well. My daughter just finished her 3rd year of French and my son his 2nd year of Spanish, and they like to practice on each other so they’re especially aware of “their” language in the community. My daughter did find a food package with dual English/French labels but most were English/Spanish.

My eldest son goes to junk yards for car parts and is now greeted in Spanish first, before they know that he speaks English.

Colorado has always been heavily Hispanic, but those Hispanics have been here for generations and speak English. We did have an English-only vote a few years back but it was defeated. Ironically, as I remember, pro-amnesty bill Linda Chavez was one of the leaders of that initiative.

Documentation on our school district website is in English, Spanish and Russian. We have a large population of Russian immigrants. According to my kids, their Russian classmates all speak English, their native Hispanic classmates do not, including one of my daughter’s lab partners (he didn’t contribute much to the assignment).

I always wonder about those legal immigrants who are just learning English but are not Hispanic. How do they manage when everything isn’t documented in their native language? Why, they must have to learn English or something!

I’m a California native and have worked in different areas of real estate (sales, lending, property management) and have had some experiences with illegal immigrants.

On a cultural level, it’s interesting to have “underground” workers in the community. The ladies who sell their homemade tamales during Christmas seem harmless. In college, I rented a house in a slightly seedy suburban neighborhood. My Hispanic neighbors (some legal, some illegal, and it was impossible to count all the people living there) kept chickens (including a rooster) on their front yard. I’m pretty sure the neighborhood wasn’t zoned for that.

As a property manager, I got to see the less quaint aspects of illegal Hispanics who do not assimilate into American society. I would have people come in to rent apartments who couldn’t speak English. That’s not a problem to me, business is business. One woman, however, gave me a social security number that was for a deceased person. I noticed that number did not match the number printed on her W-2s, so I tried the number on the W-2s. That also belonged to a deceased person. We couldn’t rent to her because she gave us fraudulent information. I was sorely tempted to report her (and her employer) but we agree to keep confidential any information they provide on their applications.

A South American family abruptly moved out of the apartments I managed when the husband was deported for molesting their downstairs neighbor. The family’s pastor (also South American) spoke with us and asked if we would allow the church to take over the lease so that other families from South America could have a place to stay when they came to “visit the church”. (The answer was no.)

I’ve seen illegal immigrants who are able to purchase homes (back in the days when stated income loans were easier to get) using their tax-free income. Meanwhile, in addition to affording nice homes, their children who are born here are eligible for free education (and free breakfasts and lunches at school) as well as disability income.

The biggest problem I saw in California is when illegals commit crimes in the US (such as a police officer who was killed in Los Angeles a few years back) and the illegals decide Mexico isn’t so bad after all. Once they’re back on Mexican soil, the US must bargain for extradition. Prosecutors must agree not to seek the death penalty or life imprisonment in order for the Mexican government to send the criminals back. So illegals come here, get the benefits of a US citizen without any of the responsibilities of citizenship AND they can use their government to bargain for less strict penalties when they commit crimes on US soil.

The tamales are good, but I don’t think they’re worth all the attendant social problems.

As an American of Cuban descent born in NYC living in Palm Beach, Florida, whose family has assimilated (boy that was a mouth full!) you will not find a stronger opponent of this amnesty. So with that said, whenever I see a car/van full of what I know are illegals next to me, or more so behind me I get out of their way, because there is no way of holding them accountable for anything that may occur.

My daughter did find a food package with dual English/French labels

Food products sold in Canada have to have labels in English and French; some companies just use one set of packaging instead of one for the U.S. and one for Canada.

This bothers me a lot less than walking into a rest area in the U.S. and trying to remember if I’m an “hombre” or a “mujer.”

I have a friend who lives in North Carolina. The powers that be down there claim that the state is not a magnet for illegals because they have to take the driving test in English. My friend was taking the test and witnessed a DMV employee coaching a Hispanic through the test, translating for him and telling him what buttons to push. My friend turned them both in.

We need more people turning in lawbreakers. Tell your friend I said “great job!” – Admin

LaShawn, you sure opened up a can of worms! Memories are flooding back!

Eighteen months ago, my brother’s best friend was driving on I-270 in the DC area. He was hit by a guy in a pickup truck, who refused to stop. Our friend stuck with him and called the cops on his cell phone. A police cruiser finally pulled the fellow over. Of course, he could barely speak English and the cop did not ask about his immigration status. He had an expired license, and gave what turned out to be a fake address. He was uninsured. My friend had to pony up several thousand dollars to have his car repaired, and was completely embittered by the experience because the cop treated HIM like HE was the law breaker.

One problem with these illegal, unassmiliated enclaves it that they somehow manage to get behind the wheel of a vehicle, yet they do not understand English, and certainly do not understand the rules of the road. A certain four-way stop near my house has been the site of several near accidents for me when I have encountered vans full of what I presume are illegals. My neighbor was actually hit at the four-way stop by a carload of illegals who hit her and then sped off.

During my college years, I worked at a department store and had to deal with the public quite regularly. It was always frustrating when you would see the same non-English speaking customers, month-after-month, who never bothered to at least learn a few simple English phrases. There was also a custodian at the store who never spoke one word of English, and worked there for years! The manager would have to find a bilingual employee to translate. I found the outright defiance and nonassimilation to be arrogant and disrespectful. It seems like most illegals and perhaps even those with resident alien status, have no desire to become citizens, let alone put forth any effort to learn beneficial language skills. I would never dream of migrating to a foreign country and stubbornly refusing to learn the language and carrying on with an entitlement attitude, as though others were supposed to cater to me. I just don’t understand that mentality.

I agree with Elizabeth S. @2:10…non-assimilation is arrogant and disrespectful. And the “global community” has the timerity to speak of the “ugly American”. Indeed.

I work in DC and live in Northern Virginia.
I went to the cafeteria across the street for lunch. I asked the woman behind the counter what type of meat was in a certain dish. I am allergic to turkey and could not eat turkey. I asked if the meat was lamb, beef or turkey. She said beef.

I took one bite and realized I was having an allergic reaction. It was turkey. I managed to call over the manager who told me that it was turkey meat in the dish. The women working in the serving line do not have a sufficient understanding of English beyond the name of the dish. She should not understand my question.

The women who work the cash registers speak English. They are immigrants from Africa.

When we moved to Israel a couple of years ago, I suffered such intense homesickness. I love America and I miss her; but reading about the illegal alien problem and hearing about it from my family and friends is making me feel a lot better about living here now! I don’t envy you what you are experiencing.

I don’t really have an illegal alien story to tell, but when I worked in the hospital day surgery unit, we had a LARGE percentage of “language impaired” immigrants, mostly Mexican, but some Russian and Asian. It really made our work very difficult because we could not streamline the patient admission process like we normally would, since a translator had to be called in for every single patient. Someone has to pay the translators’ salaries; guess who? It really made the job very stressful. I felt like I wasn’t even living in my own country anymore!

Since moving to Israel and struggling with the language myself, I don’t feel I can condemn new American immigrants who don’t know English. Then again, no one is paying translators to come to our bedside in the hospitals here!! Either the staff already speaks English (because that’s considered a very desireable skill) or else you are on your own and tough tooties if you don’t understand something. The other distinction I want to make is that while we should cut some slack to new immigrants, it’s fair to expect oldtimers to learn the language. Many of the folks I met had been in the country for 10 to 20 years and still couldn’t answer simple questions! That’s not okay.

Again, I live in Northern Virginia. I moved to a beautiful new development over five years ago. During the last five years the illegal population in my county soared. So has the crime rate. When I first moved into the area I needed my car serviced. I dropped it off at the dealer in the morning and did my morning exercise by walking the 3 miles back to my house. After 5 years of reading the crime report in the local newspaper and noticing the reported incidents on the highway outside my neighborhood, I would never walk those 3 miles back to my house. It isn’t safe.

Previously, I stopped at the 7/11 2 miles from my home for morning coffee. Not any more. Slowly over 5 years time the 7/11 parking lots and surrounding businesses have become the pick up spot for day laborers. As the numbers of men increased, the discomfort level grew. All the leering and comments made me very uncomfortable. It also appears that many are drinking.

While waiting for the traffic light one day I counted the number just hanging around — I stopped at over 150. Turned the corner and 1/2 mile later at the next 7/11 there were another 100 or so just hanging around. The picture you posted is what one can see everyday at this location.

We the people are living some real life serious examples here. Three weeks ago at the airport I asked an airport employee where the AirTran ticket check in was, I barely finished my sentence before hearing curtly “Sorri no speecka Ingles!” I then began to explain to her (in Spanish) that she needs to at least try to listen and understand before dismissing me it is the only way she will learn. Lights on no one home came to mind at that point.

No problem on my way I went when I reached TSA the woman who checked my ID spoke English well, although with an accent. Upon seeing my name she began to speak to me in Spanish where I in turn would respond to her in English. This is where she turned her head to the side and looked at me in very condescending tone and said “Oh you’re one of those.” Trying to get me to feel as if I’m some type of sellout. Regardless of her ignorance, while I was sitting at the gate waiting for my flight I remembered while I was growing up how the older generations would smile with pride how the next generations were speaking English.

It’s fine to pass on customs and traditions to ones children, however this is what we the people are dealing with after many many years of having so much pride in where one came from that at this point there is no allegiance to the USA. In my opinion it’s gone way overboard.

If I hear the euphemism, “undocumented worker”, one more time I think I’ll have to duct tape my head to keep it from exploding.

All of these illegal aliens have documents – they are “Documented Workers”. It is just that their documents are frauds and forgeries.

Even when the government knows that a worker has a fraudulent social security number, they won’t act – not even to inform the employer! This really gives me confidence that all we need is this bill to pass and our borders will, at last, become secure.

Okay, here is another story. Again, I move to a new development five years ago. Since that time what I now call “Little Mexico, Virginia” has sprouted up in the neighborhoods bordering mine. What previously could be described as a typical blue collar, working class neighborhood is now heavily hispanic. What was once a nice pretty neighborhood now looks two steps away from a slum.

Earlier this year I have the flu and go to the local CVS. It has been several months since I’ve been in the drug store. I need to buy some cold medicine. I start walking across the front of the store looking down the aisles to find the right aisle. I don’t feel well. Actually, I feel terrible and should be in bed but I need cough drops and Nyquil and tissue. I look down the aisle, don’t see the sign I am looking for and walk to the next aisle. I start to feel confused. Maybe it is the fever, maybe it is the sore muscles, or maybe it is the fact that ALL THIS SIGNS ARE IN SPANISH…. NO ENGLISH. NOT ON THE SIGNS HANGING FROM THE CEILING, NOT ON THE SIGNS CONNECTED TO THE SHELVES POINTING THE WAY.

I have to walk up and down each aisle, looking up and down each shelf until I find the items I need. Ooops — the packages are in spanish too. I have to find what I want my recognizing by the unique packaging and not the words on the labels or box.

I am sick, I am running a fever, and I start to wonder where am I. Am I still home asleep in bed and just having a nightmare that I have gone to the drug store? Have I been abducted by Martians and they returned me to the wrong place? Nope, I am in the drug store 1 mile from my home in Northern Virginia. Instead aliens, ILLEGAL aliens, have abducted my neighborhood.

I complain to the woman at the counter — she tells me that the store is trying to make it easy for their Spanish speaking customers. I tell her this is still the United States of America and English is the language spoken here. That I will not be back to this CVS.

During the 5 years I have lived in this area the local grocery store has changed. You can’t go into the store without manuevering around at least a dozen pregnant hispanic women. I dare say that half of the hispanic woman I see in my area are pregnant or have a small baby with them. None are speaking English. They are rude. They do not wait in line.

It never fails, whenever I am standing in a customer service line, some hispanic person with little or no English skills will cut to the front and start asking questions or expect to be waited immediately.

These are the numbers

Population of Mexico — 110,000,000

Estimated number of ILLEGALS in the U.S. — 12 million, 20 million, 30 million –depends on who you ask.

Estimated number of ILLEGALS from Mexico – 50% to 75% — again, depends on who you ask

Result — 6% to 20% of the population of MEXICO is ILLEGALLY residing in the US.

The shameful “shamesty” bill Congress wants to force on U.S. citizens would allow these millions and millions to chain migrate their families here. If 1986 numbers end up being the norm we could have anywhere between 18 million to 90 million Mexicans moving into the US. — 25% to 82% of the population of another country INVADING the United States. These are not educated, skilled workers. The high school drop out rate for hispanic immigrants is approximately 60%. This isn’t the drop out rate for recent immigrants, this is the drop out rate seen in the long established hispanic communities.

I’m wondering why everyone keeps buying the stories about hispanic “family values,” etc. First, let me say that my father was a hispanic immigrant (legal) from south america. He was highly educated, and spoke 5 languages. He raised us bilingually; in fact, my first language was Spanish as a child. We spoke Spanish with him his entire life, a rule he insisted upon so that my sibling and I would be fluent. I lived in South America as a child for several years, and traveled there extensively.

Bottom line: I know whereof I speak.

Latin American cultures, as well as many middle easter and african cultures, cotain elements that are anathema to ours. They do not believe in the rights that we take for granted, such as equality for women, and non-discrimination based on invidious reasons, such as race, religion, etc.

One wonders, for example, if hispanics have such great family values (compared to us, of course) why the illegitimate birth rate for these Catholic countries is so high. And sex with girls is commonplace, wherease it would be viewed as pedophilia, here. An old friend of mine (in this country legally, and now a proud US citizen) was born of a 14 year old girl and a 25 year old man. His older sister was conceived by the same couple. When the girl was 12. His father never married their mother.

My point is this: look and listen past the hype that both parties are feeding us. Look at the facts, and discuss them. Facts are not “racist.”

As I stated in my post earlier, welcome to the world of California. We have lived with this situation, that most of you describe, for the last 20-25 years. While most of the country was oblivious to this, we were living it day in and day out. I’m glad you all are experiencing it now. Wait until tax time and you’ll really be hot. California tax payers know what it’s like to foot the bill. If this current immigration bill passes…take out a loan, you’ll need it to pay your federal tax bill….Viva Jorge Bush…and in the words of our great homeland security chief…Mr. Chertnoff…”Ted Kennedy is simply AWESOME”

So if you were an employer and had to choice between an unskilled black worker who wanted $10.00 an hour and a unskilled legal Hispanic worker who would gladly except $5.15 and hour , who do you think the employer would choose?

As an employer (I run a very small cafe in downtown Baltimore), I know who I would have chosen (and did choose) — I chose someone who lives in our neighborhood, has a terrific personality, works hard, and I’m quickly becoming good friends with. Oh — and I pay her $10 an hour, not $5.15. Some employers may see their employees as expenses, I see my employee as an asset.

It’s a sad day when a business owner chooses the less-expensive illegal alien just to save a few bucks. Personally, I wouldn’t want the hassle with the INS or the fines…it’s not worth it, and it’s just bad business all around.

I spent the earlier 80’s working in Dallas. I worked on a project that required I travel to Mexico several times a year. I had no problem with the people of Mexico. However, at that time I was told to never take a local taxi. A car and driver were provided to take me where I need to go. The people I dealt with all spoke English except for one banker. At the time I was sufficiently fluent with spoken and written Spanish, so it was okay with me that he conducted our meetings in Spanish. Otherwise, most of the people I dealt with wanted to conduct business in English so they could practice their English. I always had difficulty speaking Spanish because I cannot roll my Rs. My spoken Spanish was actually so terrible that they could understand my English so much better than my mangled, accented Spanish. I made every attempt to operate my business in the region’s language. I tried my best to speak Spanish in the hotels, restaurants, shops and airport.

My brother, God Bless his soul, loved to travel through rural Mexico. His Spanish was better and he loved to travel by train or bus across northern Mexico. He loved just spending time talking with the people in the local villages. On spring in the early 80’s, I went hiking with my brother in Big Bend National Park. We also entered Mexico ILLEGALLY. There was a guy with a little boat who would take people across the Rio Grande. We then walked about a mile to a little village that was nothing but dirt trails and buildings one step up from shack. The little cantina where we had lunch was cute, but the local bar, with the Playboy centerfold decorations, was a little seedy and I did not feel comfortable being the only woman in the place. The local children sold us the only tourist souveniers they had — rocks. I still have those rocks. I keep them in a box on my home office desk. It keeps a wonderful memory of my now deceased brother alive for me.

When I lived in Atlanta I shared an apartment with a Cuban woman. My strongest memory from high school is that of my Spanish teacher. Her family escaped Cuba just as Castro took over. They hid their diplomas in their clothing. This was all they managed to get out of Cuba. Her advise to the entire class was “Education is the only thing that can’t be taken from you.” I always thought it funny that this woman with a PHD was teaching spanish to a bunch of north Georgia “rednecks”.

Now days my Spanish is so much weaker, but I understand enough of Spanish to know what rude things are being said by the men hanging out at the 7/11. Each culture has positive and negative elements. I use to have a very positive perception of hispanic cultures. However, now days all of the negative experiences with the ILLEGALs drowns out most of these thoughts.

I know that what will be lost is that people such as Jose who posted here will be clumped in with all of the ILLEGALS who do not want to assimilate and demonstrate no sense of being thankful to be in this country. No one forced them to come here. The least they could do is be polite. The least they could do is honor our laws by obeying them.

Trish, you are so right. And I actually support LEGAL immigration. What I don’t like is why are 6 million to 18 million Mexicans more entitled to be in the US because they only have to STEAL across a river or a border that travel across an ocean? I would love to see more LEGAL immigrants in this country. To be sure a woman escaping Darfur could clean that house just as well as the accidentially hired hispanic girl who did not understand to not drag the turned over vacumn cleaner across the wood floor. And the woman from Darfur actually has a life and death reason for leaving.

I would be more than happy to see 300 African woman standing around the 7/11 than those 300 hispanic men. — Okay, I might not be racist, but I am very biased for my gender.

Or more women from Ethiopia. The women from Ethiopia are just so beautiful.

Interesting to read all the comments from around the country. I live in Orange County, Ca. and like an above poster have known this was going to be the defining issue of our country 20 years ago. If you lived here you could see it coming.

I can’t help to think that this is all part of us as a culture reaping the whirlwind and like Buchanann said in his commentary a few days ago, “God is not mocked.” We’re so feckless in our attempts to secure the border and deport law breakers that in 30 years this country will be no better than Brazil.

Last week, my youngest was involved in a hit and run accident by our home. According to her and the folks at the public housing project across the street, the driver appeared to be drunk and simply plowed into her for no explicable reason. As is drearily common in my area, he peeled off.

This marks the tenth incident that my family has experienced in sixteen months in our largely illegal immigrant enclave.

My oldest was parked aroung the corner and a driver slammed into her. He tried to flee but was hemmed in. He had no license, no insurance, no nothing, and did not speak a word of English. He was let go. Meanwhile, my daughter, eight months pregnant, went into premature labor and gave birth to her baby in her vehicle a month early.

Two weeks ago, a car slammed into another daughters’ friend’s car parked out front, bounced off of that one, and slammed into the tree in her front yard, missing her bedroom by a few feet. Drunk, he had no license, no insurance, no nothing, and did not speak a word of English. He, too, tried to flee, but was so disoriented/inebriated that he was not able to join the hit-and-run brigade that is so common in this area.

When I first came back to the US, I was astounded that anyone would indulge themselves in a hit-and-run. Now, I would be astounded if they stopped and took responsibility.

I had just been robbed the week before while shopping in the HEB grocery store on the corner. The guy who took my purse was Hispanic, though I would not be able to tell if he was illegal or not.

Having been around the truly elegant folks from South America and Cuba that three of my children married, I have been unprepared for the illegals in America. To me, the biggest problem is that they come from a very low class of individuals.

While many of them are hard-working, the truth of the matter is that our area is flooded with women who have four or more children and do not work.

Further, it is a complete misconception that they do not access welfare because they do in large numbers by virtue of their large numbers of kids. Parkland Memorial hospital now admits that 80% of the births there are among the illegal population and it is worth noting that Parkland delivers more babies than any hospital in the developed world, I believe. The mothers are sent home with bottles, car seats, and all essential equipment paid for by the taxpayers.

The population is unbelievably obese, even the very young children. While we are constantly told that they are poor, the truth of the matter is that they buy huge quantities of junk food, alcohol, and cigarettes while using lonestarcards (welfare). I know what poverty looks like as I worked with the poor for decades. It looks nothing like what I see here. Most of the children wear jewelry and have electronic gizmos. I can no more imagine my parents forking over for jewelry or toys for their children when they were strapped for cash.

What I see here is folks relying on handouts so that they can buy fripperies witht heir underground cash.

It is the children and grandchildren of the illegals that concern me the most. The kids that I see are sullen, rebellious, and dress like tramps. It’s amazing, really. I see pregnant teenagers everywhere. They are not adapting well. All of the policeman I interviewed talked about the rampant vandalism and hostility among this group.

Their drop-out rate is staggering and the education of those who truly want to learn is sacrificed. We are now focusing all of the grant money in the US on those who are failing in the system and yet, we have been unable to stem the tide.

I am shocked by the propensity for littering and the lack of respect for the property of others. My office is across the street from the Mexican embassy and rather than seeming grateful for the opportunities here, the ones that I see express anger, use foul language, and flaunt the word “gringo.”

Sorry for the rant. after the tenth crime, I am feeling a tad sullen myself!

Los Angeles, Mexico:

Just basic communication. You know, you take 3 years of high-school Spanish (plus another 2 years of College)…and you consider yourself fluent.

Forget English, they can’t even speak their own native tongue. Apparently my European Spanish is quite different from the “street” Mestizo Spanish that they all speak. And they aren’t interested in learning.

Did you know that the Mexican Mayor of Los Angeles doesn’t even know a word of Spanish ?… He has to read it off of cue cards when he gives speeches to his people.

>>…they are planning to increase the H1-B visa for skilled workers to around 160,000.>>

You hit it on the head. Limit the skilled(higher paid) workers who don’t join unions, but might also become Republicans, and bring in all those poor unskilled laborers who join unions and become Democrats(and also keep the yards nice, by the way)

Kindergarten’s over now, but it was hard when I couldn’t speak with most of the mothers at the bus stop. Luckily there was one who was fluent in English.

On Halloween, on the parade through the classrooms, I saw a sign that said “English or Spanish, your choice” in both English and Spanish.

At pre-kindergarten testing, the woman in front of me was asked if she needed a bilingual assistant. She said, “We are Romanian. We speak English!” There probably wouldn’t have been a Romanian aide anyway. We have a lot of Eastern Europeans, Indians, and Russians in the area. Pretty much all of them speak English.

The owners of the house next door moved out and into a newer, bigger house a couple miles away. They rented their house to some people who were living across the street. A whole family moved out of a three bedroom single family home into another three bedroom single family home and there’s still at least one whole family in the original one across the street.

Midway between Chicago and Milwaukee.

Suek and Uncle Ruckus;

You are right that few have paid attention to the encroachment of high tech workers. While we hear that there are simply not enough workers to fill the high-tech jobs, all of us know of untold numbers of high tech workers that are underemployed. My daughter works at Dell which announced today that they are laying off 10% of their workforce — but meanwhile are importing H1B visas. why? They work for far lower wages. While I do not support protectionism, there has to be a balance between the wages of those who are willing to work for ten kilos of rice a month and thos ewho want to support a family in the US in even a moderate life style.

For whatever it is worth, I have added my voice to the growing rumbling of discontent.

My liberal Dem senator (lost cause) has heard from me twice in the last week. My laughing-with-Ted-Kennedy RINO Republican senator (idiot) has heard from me twice also. The RNC fundraisers have heard from me in no uncertain terms, stating that I am to be removed from their mailing list immediately. The National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman just got an e-mail from me, explaining that I am to be removed from their mailing list until the Republican Party starts honoring the rule of law and defending our sovereign borders.

I urge anyone similarly inclined to write, call, e-mail, or visit their elected representatives and personally express the anger so many of us are feeling right now. No elected official enjoys being smacked around, and if millions of us do it, something might possibly change for the better.

It’s been referenced before, but here is a website working to defeat the abominable illegal alien amnesty: http://www.grassfire.org

Sign the petition.

I find this so frustrating – dippy-dappy ideas like the new legislation will be copied over here in the UK before too long.

What upsets me so much about it is that we have wanted to emigrate to the US for a good long while now, but we’re law-abiding English people who would like to come and become Americans, and that means it’s pretty much impossible.

right now, i’m neutral about the proposed immigration bill. on the postive side: we need to know who these people are and to me this is the only way to find out. on the negative side: there will be a huge impact to legalizing 12 million people at one time, whether those people are hispanic, african, russian, etc. (’cause this bill applies to everyone, not just mexicans even though that’s all anyone talks about).

i lived in a heavily hispanic area for 10 years (i just moved this week). i have no illegal stories because i lived around puerto ricans and dominicans predominately and they HATE mexicans. so, my experiences are primarily with legal hispanics, but the arrogance does not change whether legal or illegal when it comes to speaking english. i refuse to learn spanish in order to communicate with people performing a service. i have been downright rude with people who act like they don’t understand me.

the real problem (and why i have no sympathy for repubs over this betrayal by bush) is that the loyalty of the republican party is to corporations. when that worked to the advantage of “white, Christian men” (to quote bill o’reilly, ***hole), there were no complaints. it was good for the economy etc. this bill is designed to preserve cheap labor. because in the end it is going to INCREASE illegal immigration by allowing the people already here the ability to operate aboveboard and be able to bring in relatives, etc.

if you really want to affect this, don’t bother with politicians, they are not driving this. start boycotting the companies who benefit. if michelle malkin can organize a boycott of abc advertisers because of rosie o’donnell’s free speech, then this should easy for you guys to do. if i sound a little sarcastic, i am. you were toold who this man was, you didn’t want to hear it. i guess a blowjob isn’t that important after all, is it?

>>…we need to know who these people are and to me this is the only way to find out.>>

What makes you think we’re going to find out? Z cards must be given within 24 hours of application. Background checks for _legal_ immigrants presently takes 9 months. Once they have a z card, they don’t have to do anything more.

Besides, there really isn’t any point in passing a law you aren’t going to enforce. There were enforcement provisions to the ‘85 amnesty bill that have never been upheld. They passed the ok for 700 miles of fence on the border and built 2. What’s the point? Passing this thing just says “ok – whatever” to anybody who wants to come in. How are you going to establish a cut-off date of Jan 1 2007 and prove that Jose _wasn’t_ here before that date?

Personally, I want the border secured. After that, we can talk.

Suek, I definitely do NOT think Gore or Kerry would have been a better alternative! I don’t regret voting for Bush at all, under the circumstances — I only regret that there wasn’t a third, and better, option.

I’m surprised your husband had a good experience with Arabs in Saudi Arabia. Wow. Most people who go to work over there come back with their eyes wide open. There is a British journalist who converted to Islam, became very devout, and went to work in Saudi Arabia for a year. He was horrified by what he saw — the rampant rape and sexual exploitation of women and children, kidnappings and murders that were not prosecuted, abuse and murder of foreign workers, and blatant racism against black people. He is now writing a book, soon to be published. I’m sorry I can’t remember his name (I’m not good with things like that) but maybe someone here knows who I’m talking about. That might be a good book to get your husband . . .

Cricket, periodically I am called upon to address the “goyim” thing. Please understand that “goyim” is a legitimate Hebrew word which literally means “the nations.” A more common translation is “gentile.” We use it regularly and it appears in the Torah, as there is no other word for non-Jew in Hebrew. It is not a perjorative term, though there are certainly some Jews who use it in that way, just as some people may say “blacks” with a sneering tone of voice, but that doesn’t mean that “black” is a perjorative term either. Be aware that “goyim” is not in the same class as “spic” “nigger” “kike” or any other word that has NO OTHER MEANING except the derogatory.

I wrote to Bush the first summer he was in office, expressing my opposition to what he was trying to get done with his first boss, Vicente Fox. Much to my surprise, I got a letter back from the White House assuring me that Bush was NOT in favor of illegal immigration.

At first, I thought this was just, as they say in Texas, “pissing in their face and telling them it’s raining.” Now I realize that they were being perfectly serious, except that they would deal with the illegality aspect by just declaring that there is no longer any such thing as an illegal alien.

I have more than a few experiences, and ALL of them are negative. Perhaps the most telling regarding the cultural values of illegals happened about a year ago.

In Texas, almost every person employed in residential contsruction is non-english speaking. And I would estimate that over 90% of them are illegal.

A new house was going up on the empty lot next door to us. We have a fenced yard which our dogs enjoyed. Our 10 year old English Mastiff was fond of laying by the wrought iron fench and watching the activity.

One day Lucy comes to the door soaking wet. Someone had urinated on her. Looking out the window, we noticed a group of “laborers” enjoying a hearty laugh.

Complaining to the builder did no good. The same crew was back the next day. Although I do not speak Spanish, I walked over and delivered a verbal message I am certain they understood.

This unfortunately is not unusual. The only case of rape we have had in our neighborhood occurred last year and the criminal was here illegally.

We are a nation of laws, and one of the reasons we are where we are today as a country is that most people are law abiding citizens. This immigration bill invites those to become citizens who have no respect for our laws or our values. Bush has it dead wrong – it is the people who care about the US that OPPOSE the shamnesty plan.

Jim M.

This bill is the biggest piece of garbage ever created.It is so full of loop holes and exceptions it’s pathetic.It seems the only people that were not consulted in this backroom deal were the American people.The various social ethnic groups such as LARAZA ,LULAC and Corporate America were consulted just not the American people.

I am really getiing tired of the media making it out like all Democrats support this garbage.I am a registered Democrat all be it a conservative one and I have yet to meet a Democrat or Republican in my community who supports this legislation.

Thankfully our Congressman Brad Ellsworth(D) 8th district Indiana has already wrote a piece in the Evansville Courier and sent out a E news letter saying he will vote against this if it gets to the House unfortunately even though being hammered by phone calls and emails against this bill we in Indiana have two amnesty Senators in Bayh and Lugar and Lugar is the worst of the two on this issue and he’s the Republican!!

Southern Ohio here… I commented here LAST YEAR about the rape of a 9 year old girl who was stolen off her bicycle by an illegal. He disappeared and has never been found — and no one seems to know his true identity since he gave neighbors a false name. How they know that much is still a mystery to me. But they’ve never been able to track him down. No records — nothing. And a little girl was victimized with no justice.

Sick.

To give you an idea how committed I am and what I have done so far regarding this bill here is an email I sent to the GOP on 5/22.

Sent: Tue, 22 May 2007 3:03 pm
Subject: Re: Sen. Martinez on the Future of the GOP

To Mr. Duncan:

You are surely misguided if you believe this will help the GOP. I have a spinal cord injury as a result of a car accident, which was my fault; nonetheless I am disabled. The ADA was signed into law by Bush Sr. (a Republican) and all I hear amongst my peers who are disabled (who overwhelmingly vote Democrat) is how the Republicans want to take everything away from them, banning stem cell research, and the list goes on and on. Never a single acknowledgement, ever, we as the disabled community have the same rights as everyone else enacted because of a Republican president.

Furthermore, Mr. Martinez was placed as head of the GOP for a reason to give the hispanics someone to relate to and vote Republican. However the fact that is alluding our elected officials is how Mexicans, have a different culture than hispanics from the Carribean, which is where Mr. Martinez is from, therefore they will not and do not relate to him. This will all be for nothing and will single-handedly destroy this nation.

Keep ignoring your base and not listening to the people, I am one of the grassroots who has been calling, emailing, and faxing Mel Martinez, Bill Nelson, Mitch McConnell, Trent Lott’s office as well as the RNC, National Republican Senatorial Committee, even the Repulican Party of Palm Beach County essentially anyone and everyone who will listen that this bill is a bad idea for everyone. I assure you Mr. Duncan as I have stated in all of my calls and emails I will not be supporting anyone who supports this bill.

Sincerely,

Jose (last name withheld for this forum)

The Hispanic illegal immigrants (as I am not discussing illegal immigrants from other countries) come from countries with entitlement/socialist attitudes. This will hit us hard when they “come out of the shadows.”

I used to work for a large company that sold products to the Hispanic market, so 90%+ of the employees in this white collar company were Spanish speaking. Employees could be considered hard working when they first arrived and were worried that their newly-purchased fraudulent documents would be found out. They were just thankful for a job. (Managers used to find Spanish speakers to work, and then march them down to MacArthur park to buy documents for $50.) The longer people had been here and the more sure they were that they wouldn’t be caught, the more entitled (and lazy) they were — they wanted to be paid for showing up to work, not for working. Because they worked for a large corporation, it was like working for the government back home, and they expected a lifetime welfare system. (Seems similar to our own DMV workers….)

And fraud was rampant, as their entire employment history was based on fake documents. Fake contracts, forged signatures, fake loan documents, fake letters of reference – name a document for themselves or their customers, and you could never be sure if it was legit. And a very large share went after “free” money – every welfare program available for anchor children, lunch programs, renter assitance programs, homeowner assistance programs, etc. (And many workers had more than one ID). And, of course, there were fraudulent workers comp claims, fraudulent disability claims from those who went through the 1986 amnesty, fraudulent insurance claims. If they were lucky enough to get into an auto accident with an insured driver, the local Hispanic medical clinics helped them doctor their medical claims to submit to the insurance company and then split the profits with them.

So, as these workers come “out of the shadows,” be prepared for a massive hit on goverment services – much greater than the think tanks are telling us, as they are not factoring in the entitlement mentality and the desire to get something for nothing!

What saddens me is that many legal hardworking hispanics are going to get tagged as illegals, something they don’t want nor deserve.

My lawn guy and mechanic do it the right way. Heck my lawn guy came out and replaced a leaky valve and then didn’t even charge us. His statment was that he should have spotted it the first time he came out and replaced it then. Talk about customer service. My mechanic is the same way, he wants to make sure that I am happy with the work, if the repair is not as expensive as he thought it would be he charges less. Both of them are fair with their pricing and the work is high quality.

And yet the illegals bring them down as well…

LaShawn

Let us try this on for size: Non-citizens are not permitted to participate in United States of Americas political affairs. They may not participate in demonstrations or express political opinions in public. The mere act of being in The United States of America illegally is a felony punishable by up to 2 years in prison or deportation. In a case where a criminal is caught while committing an offense, any US citizen may arrest the criminal and his accomplices and turn them over to the authorities without delay. We would grant US citizens the right to arrest an illegal alien and promptly deliver them to law enforcement officials.

Non-citizens would not have basic property rights in United States of America. Only American Citizens by birth or naturalization and American companies have the right to a quire ownership of lands. We will guarantee that even naturalized immigrants remain second class citizens. The citizens of the United States will have Federal protection against “undesirable aliens resident in this country.” We could ensure any non-citizen may be expelled for any reason and with no due process.

Sounds tough does it not? Would there be a huge outcry on how unfair the policy is? Would our political elite scream about it? Well, the above laws were passed in 1917. Yup, 1917. The only problem is that they are incorporated not in US Law but in the Constitution of the United Mexican States. Here are some facts taken from the United Mexican States Constitution of 1917. Read the articles. I’ll catch up with you below.

Article 9. The right to assemble or associate peaceably for any lawful purpose cannot be restricted; but only citizens of the Republic may do so to take part in the political affairs of the country.

Article 11. Everyone has the right to enter and leave the Republic, to travel through its territory and to change his residence without necessity of a letter of security, passport, safe-conduct or any other similar requirement. The exercise of this right shall be subordinated to the powers of the judiciary, in cases of civil or criminal liability, and to those of the administrative authorities insofar as concerns the limitations imposed by the laws regarding emigration, immigration and public health of the country, or in regard to undesirable aliens resident in the country.

Article 16. No one shall be molested in his person, family, domicile, papers, or possessions except by virtue of a written order of the competent authority stating the legal grounds and justification for the action taken. No order of arrest or detention shall be issued against any person other than by the competent judicial authority, and unless same is preceded by a charge, accusation, or complaint for a credible party or by other evidence indicating the probable guilt of the accused; in cases of flagrante delicto, any person may arrest the offender and his accomplices, turning them over without delay to the nearest authorities. Only in urgent cases instituted by the public attorney without previous complaint or indictment and when there is no judicial authority available, may the administrative authorities, on their strictest accountability, order the detention of an accused person, turning him over immediately to the judicial authorities.

Every search warrant, which can be issued only by judicial authority and which must be in writing, shall specify the place to be searched, the person or persons to be arrested, and the objects sought, the proceedings to be limited thereto; at the conclusion of which a detailed statement shall be drawn up in the presence of two witnesses proposed by the occupant of the place searched, or by the official making the search in his absence or should he refuse to do so.

Administrative officials may enter private homes for the sole purpose of ascertaining whether the sanitary and police regulations have been complied with; and may demand to be shown the books and documents required to prove compliance with fiscal rulings, in which latter cases they must abide by the provisions of the respective laws and be subject to the formalities prescribed for cases of search.

Article 27. Legal capacity to acquire ownership of lands and waters of the Nation shall be governed by the following provisions: Only Mexicans by birth or naturalization and Mexican companies have the right to acquire ownership of lands, waters, and their appurtenances, or to obtain concessions for the exploitation of mines or of waters. The State may grant the same right to foreigners, provided they agree before the Ministry of Foreign Relations to consider themselves as nationals in respect to such property, and bind themselves not to invoke the protection of their governments in matters relating thereto; under penalty, in case of noncompliance with this agreement, of forfeiture of the property acquired to the Nation. Under no circumstances may foreigners acquire direct ownership of lands or waters within a zone of one hundred kilometers along the frontiers and of fifty kilometers along the shores of the country.

Article 32. Mexicans shall have priority over foreigners under equality of circumstances for all classes of concessions and for all employment, positions, or commissions of the Government in which the status of citizenship is not indispensable. In time of peace, no foreigner may serve in the Army, or in police or public security forces. To belong actively to the Army in time of peace, or to the National Navy or the Air Force at any moment, and discharge any duty or commission in them, one is required to be Mexican by birth. The same quality is indispensable for captains, pilots, owners, machinists, mechanics, and in general for all personnel who staff any ship or aircraft that carries the Mexican flag or merchant insignia. Also, Mexican citizenship by birth is necessary to exercise the responsibilities of port captain, and all the services of director of an airport.

Articles 33 – Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualities determined in Article 30. They have the right to the guarantees of Chapter I of the first title of this Constitution, but the Executive of the Union has the exclusive right to expel from the national territory, immediately and without necessity of judicial proceedings, all foreigners whose stay it judges inconvenient. Foreigners may not, in any manner, involve themselves in the political affairs of the country.

LaShawn

Mexico has it covered. Encouraging millions of it’s poorest citizens to illegally enter the US, demanding that we liberalize our immigration laws. They have a just a wee bit of hypocrisy going on. What if the cowards in Washington have the guts to incorporate these points into our immigration laws? I think Mexico should amend its constitution to guarantee immigrants to Mexico the same rights it demands the United States give to immigrants from Mexico; or the United States should impose the same restrictions on Mexican immigrants that Mexico imposes on American immigrants.

I am very pro Legal Immigration, but I have a huge malfunction with the fact that we (the citizens of the US) are being played by the government of Mexico and the political elite’s in Washington on this illegal issue. I voted for GW twice and I feel that at this stage of the game I can no longer see a difference between a Repub-locrat and Dem-ublican. Neither party is serving the interest of the citizens.

We need to treat the folks who immigrate from Korea, the Philippines, Latvia, India, Congo, Ghana, Russia, Senegal, etc., and those from the Latin American Countries the same. No special free pass just because you could illegally sneak in. You have to go thru the process. If the process is slow, then we need the Fed’s to spend the time and resources on fixing it.
We need to put up immigration centers, such as we had at Ellis Island, in each border state including the ones on the Canadian border. We can enforce Federal immigration laws, spend the money we spend on foreign aid to countries that hate us on our own security. This is not freaking rocket science. The hacks in Washington better get it together. This is the one issue on which my Democrat and Republican friends agree whole heartily, WE ARE SICK OF IT!

One pissed off Citizen
Herkeng (USAF-Ret)
(Your b-day brother)

La Shawn-

It’s true, Rush did read part of your article on the air. I had read it last night and was listening to him this morning when he read part of it. It was the one about how libs are feeling the pain of illegals living near them.

You go La Shawn!

Did he mention my name? – Admin

My job sends me out on construction projects weekly through out the country. Over the past 20 years, the illegals in the industry have exploded. There have always been a lot in my home state of Texas, but now their everywhere – Oregon, NC, MI, IL, etc.

While I believe they have a decent work ethic, they take the construction jobs that legal laborers would ordinarily take and drive the pay scales down. I know the construction industry does NOT want them to leave as it would increase their costs, and they claim costs to other American citizens. However, if our unemployed could find construction jobs with decent pay, we could probably eliminate unemployment for all but those that don’t want to work.

Space Puppy

Ann made a very insightful comment in #93:

“So, as these workers come “out of the shadows,” be prepared for a massive hit on goverment services – much greater than the think tanks are telling us, as they are not factoring in the entitlement mentality and the desire to get something for nothing!”

I can tell you from experience that not only will the first-generation newly-amnestied workers feel entitled but ensuing generations of “american citizens” will feel entitled as well. This entitlement mentality passes on to each generation.

My husband has his own small medical practice. He hired two legal and qualified second generation Hispanic-American women who at the time seemed nice and pleasant to work with. One of these women was hired at a very good rate of pay for the Bay Area: $18/hour as a medical assistant who had plenty of experience but just a high-school degree. The other received the standard pay for a receptionist with a high-school education.

Within a year, the woman who was making $18/hour was given a raise to $18.50/hour by my husband, but she felt this wasn’t enough, and that she was worth $25/hour based on some information she found but had completely misunderstood. (Apparently her California public high school education hadn’t taught her to read English very well.) The salary survey she cited was based on all jobs in the area (including doctors, lawyers and engineers) and the median rate was thus $25/hour. The median pay for her job was actually $16/hour and she was paid well above that.

My husband pointed this out to her but she refused to believe the facts in the survey. Because her demand for an even bigger raise wasn’t met, she suddenly wasn’t nice and pleasant anymore. She thankfully gave my husband her notice to quit but, before she left, ganged up with the other Hispanic woman to make the work environment miserable. One of them called CAL-OSHA who made an obligatory visit to my husband’s worksite and came up with about $1000 in fees for him to pay.

Then both women claimed my husband had discriminated against them by (are you ready for this?) hiring them BECAUSE they were hispanic so that he could pay them lower wages. (In their minds their wages weren’t good enough but in reality my husband paid at or above the going rate). They also tried to intimidate him by saying they would sue him for hostile work environment. My husband hired an attorney and spent about $5000 dealing with these women. In the end, they had no grounds to file a suit but all the tension caused much financial and psychological stress to my husband, me and our family.

After the first woman left, the second woman suddenly developed a mysterious wrist injury and sought workers compensation. My husband could not legally fire her since the state claims that that is considered retaliation (for filing the CAL-OSHA complaint and for filing the workers comp claim.) If he fired her before a certain period of time, he could be sued for retaliation and the State of California would impose some kind of punishment. All he could do was wait for her to quit which she thankfully did months later.

After all this had passed I joked to my husband that there seems to be an underground school that immigrants and their families attend for bilking the system. These two women seemed very well-versed in methods to obtain money or vengeance, from calling CAL-OSHA to claiming a workplace injury via workers compensation.

Both these second-generation Hispanic-American women retained their ties to Mexico by the way. They traveled back there once or twice a year to visit relatives. They spoke Spanish during office lunch breaks as well which seemed pretty rude to me.

One other observation about them: They were pretty ignorant but arrogant about not knowing much, and they didn’t bother to check the facts. One of the women told my husband that certain federal holidays are mandated as holidays by law. She was trying to force my husband to give at least 12 paid holidays off per year including Cesar Chavez day here in california. He checked and found that paid holidays are up to the employer and not mandated by any federal or state laws.

My husband has since hired other second-generation hispanic-americans who have given him no trouble, but he first had to screen them extensively via a human resources firm. He has no choice but to hire spanish-speakers since many of his patients only speak Spanish.

So the point of what I’ve written here is this: If this Comprehensive aka Amnesty bill passes, get ready for a never-ending stream of new immigrants and their descendants demanding a never-ending series of entitlements. And if businesses don’t give them the entitlements “they deserve,” get ready for mucho lawsuits by these new “americans.”
And by the way, taxpayers will be paying for many of those lawsuits as noted in the Amnesty bill (S. 1348).

So the Dis-United States will face two options: go bankrupt or raise taxes. And since Democrats will be the new political class in charge (thanks to the demise of the GOP due to Bush’s incompetence), it looks like taxes will be raised.

At that point, perhaps we can opt to ignore tax laws and stop paying our taxes. Hey, can we then get an amnesty for being lawbreakers too?

I need to clarify one point in my comment at #103:

Taxpayers will be paying legal fees for newly-amnestied Agriculture workers as noted in the Comprehensive bill (S. 1348). I believe the legal fees will be for Immigration lawyers but I’ll need to check that.

>>Do yourselves a favor – fight this issue with facts, not stereotypes.>>

You mean like you do?

Suek-

Yeah I just picked construction as an example as a good living can eventually be made from it. But I could have mentioned every fast food joint, at least in So. Cal. I had a family member recently tell me he was in shock because a Mcdonald’s he patronized in Oregon had white kids working in it.

Wha a major disappointment. I hate to say it, but I regret ever supportting Bush. And to think that I didn’t vote for anyone in 2000 because Gore was wacko & I thot W was a chip off the old “read-my-lips” block, that could talk the talk.

Enough happened since that made me think he also walked it so I voted for him in 04. Suffice to say, Bush has proved to be less than stellar.

In fact, Bush is representative of the case where the whole is less, far less, than the sum of the parts. To wit, the prescription drug plan, NCLB, keeling over on SS reform, and now this amnesty rammed thru with ‘bi-partisan’ support from Ted (hic) Kennedy.

All those pathetic failures blot out what partial success he’s had in naming two to SCOTUS, taking down the Taliban & Saddam and um, what else?

Don’t forget he sold out Toomey in order to preserve Arlen Specter, among other up & coming conservatives. Talk about maintaining the status quo.

You’d be forgiven for thinking Ted was Bush’s Daddy. The shame is that Bush managed to do more for the dem platform than Gored or sKerry could ever have hoped to do.

More than ever, the GOP needs to clean house if they want to be the party of conservative, limited government. However, it seems the Rockefeller RINO wing has taken over. Meanwhile, the DNC is run by nutjobs.

What was it that old Ben said about revolting every 200 years? If this nonsense keeps up, there won’t be just a backlash, it’ll be a bloody revolt. Sigh!

I’ve been on the illegal immigrant issue from the other side. I used to live in Brazil and, due to a bureaucratic snafu, I overstayed my work visa by a couple of weeks. As a result, I was fingerprinted, photographed and deported (I reentered a few days later with the permanent visa I got in Miami). You know what? The Brazilian authorities were right and I was wrong. I screwed up and got on the wrong side of their laws.

You know what else? I learned to speak Portuguese (and Spanish), didn’t curse my adopted nation (which I loved), followed their laws (some of which were goofy), paid my taxes and generally enjoyed my 3-1/2 years there. I have a deep, abiding affection for Latinos.

As for the illegals that are here, well, okay, I realize it’d be hard to deport them all even if were were of that mind. But, to me, the issue is control – we MUST regain control of our immigration before we can even think about granting amnesty to anyone. Without that, any policy we can come up with is no more than ink on paper…it will be overwhelmed by events.

I voted for Bush twice. I believe he is trying to find a way to resolve a problem,and the method suffers for his desire to actually do something. The problem is that neither he nor other Republicans have the power to ram through exactly what needs to be done.

That’s why you have to COMPROMISE. I have major problems with the legislation, but I don’t know that doing nothing will work any better than making an ass backwards attempt at doing something.

In the least, the half measure will expose the lie of… half measures. If you put up half a wall, and the troubles continue, voila.. obviously then, next time, full wall.

As for those who suddenly regret voting for Bush, I am actually relatively satisfied, and for some reasons previously pointed out.

The Good:

1) He appointed two good names to the Supreme Court. A major a reason why I vote for who I vote for is for who gets appointed. Bush did well.

2) He quickly invaded Afghanistan without any fear, and handled a country that Russia could not.

3) During two wars and the greatest natural and man-made distasters to hit this country (Katrina and Twin Towers), our economoy has maintained a low unemployment rate. One of my best friends, and ubber liberal, is unable to respond when I occassionally reminded her that George’s economy made her about $50K richer (over only a 3 year period) when she sold her house. She usually responds with articles about Guantanemo.

4) NCLB has a component that people completely overlook, and that’s the heightened restrictions on who is qualified to teach. I noticed this first hand when applying for certain positions, where in the past emergency waivers would have been more readily given. This actually directly affects the quality of kids’education.

The only fault with Bush, given the variable factors that he had no control of (terrorism, natural disaster), is that he could not make hard choices on tax reform, immigration or reforming social security.

But all those things cannot be resolved by one man, or one party. It takes two.

As for Iraq, the jury is still out. I tend to think in retrospect that the invasion might represent such a massive shift in how the future world will appear that we cannot even conceive or judge its impact now. Five, ten years down the road we will be able to sufficiently say, “Oh, bad move” or “Well done”.

George Bush, idiot? I have to disagree with Lashawn here. It’s not the brightest light when Christians are calling each other idiots.

Respect those who are set above you to rule indeed, although I understand the disappointment of LaShawn and many other conservatives. But Bush has had to work through a long string of hate and ridicule from non-liberals that quite proceeds him. He was hated coming in, and all along the way. (As was his father).

I think part of Bush’s problem, and a large Republican problem, is that they don’t really know how to market, to talk to the average person.

It’s like in church when you ask people, “How are you?” (really asking it) and they feed you, “I love you with the love of the lord” or some nonsense that makes you want to slap them. Christianity has so many people that speack in cliche, that is masks the fundamental beneficial qualities of being a Christian (to the casual observer). Same with Republican spokespeople.

Republicans have never been able to spread the message very well and put up vibrant, intelligent sounding voices. Hopefully Fred Thompson will be part of changing some of that.

Now let me go back to listening to “The One Thing”, by Paul Colman.

Here we go with chastising Christians for calling other Christians idiots. So tiresome. I could just as easily drone on about the “brightest light” when other Christians come on to my blog to publicly criticize me for something I’ve written that they don’t agree with. But I don’t because it’s stupid. I can’t speak for anyone else, but there is nothing “sudden” about my regret for having voted for Bush. I’ve felt this way for a long time. I don’t blog about it often, which probably gave you the false impression that it’s sudden. I tried to make a case for his impeachment last year:

… to the conserntation of other conservative bloggers. I didn’t care what they thought of the post then, and I don’t care what they think of the “Bush is an idiot” post now. Whatever good Bush has done is canceled out because of how he’s destroying this great country. And don’t get me started on the totally unworkable NCLB… – Admin