The open war on brown people in America is about to kick into high gear. Unsurprisingly, Mr. self styled “Big Thinker,” Newt Gingrich, breaks the news:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Tuesday he is “sickened” that President Bush and Congress went on vacation “while young Americans in our cities are massacred” by illegal immigrants.
Gingrich, who is considering a run for the White House, was referring to a recent crime in Newark, N.J., where three college students were murdered execution style in a school playground.
One of the suspects — Jose Lachira Carranza — is an illegal immigrant from Peru who was on bail on charges of raping a child when the murders occurred.
Gingrich said another suspect is an illegal immigrant from Nicaragua with a long record of arrests who was ordered deported in 1993 but never left.
However, The (Newark) Star Ledger reported Tuesday that the man — Rodolfo Godinez — obtained permanent legal residency in 2001.
The Newark Police Department did not return requests for comment.
Gingrich said that the “war here at home” against illegal immigrants is “even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Let the pogroms begin good times roll! Maybe this will be part of Newt’s grand strategy to campaign on withdrawal from Iraq: bring the troops home to fight the insurgent immigrant menace at home. The rationalizations will no doubt be entertaining from the wingnut base, MalKKKin’s place and LGF as they attempt justify such Dhimmitude when anihilation at the hands of the Islamofascist horde has been their raison d’etre for six years now. Perhaps we’ll see a fracture in that fragile alliance between the hawkish Israel faction and those whose commitment to fighting global jihad is slightly less keen than their desire to keep from soiling their beautiful minds with the sound of espanol at the local Circuit City.
This is the well-focus grouped kickoff to Newt’s presidential bid, it seems. He has an email signup to go along with this, building out his lists no doubt with an eye to launching a fundraising warchest.
But Newt’s not alone. In the wake of the White House’s announcement last Friday that they will cooperate with larger efforts to rally the bigoted GOP base and ramp up the regulatory assault on immigrants, Mitt Romney is obviously reading the same tea leaves and trying to hang the brown menace around Giuliani’s neck:
Mitt Romney accuses former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani of making his city a haven for illegal immigrants. Giuliani denies it, insisting he cracked down on lawlessness of every kind.
It’s the first real clash between two leading Republican candidates who are vulnerable on immigration, a volatile issue that infuriates Republican conservatives who hold sway over primary elections.
[]
Romney, inspecting border fencing and checkpoints Monday in San Diego, reiterated his plan to hire more Border Patrol agents, sanction employers who hire illegal immigrants and cut federal dollars for sanctuary cities.
Romney blames “don’t tell” policies, and Giuliani’s support for them, for luring millions of illegal immigrants to the United States.
Meanwhile Rudy is fighting his own race war, arguing for a tamperproof ID card that includes fingerprinting for everyone entering the country, in addition to a central database to track their exits.
Maybe something like this, I guess. (Though La Neta suggests a replica tortilla so we can know who the Mexicans are.)
To the surprise of no one with a functional attention span (which of course excludes any of our Very Serious Political Pundits), the decades-old pancake makeup covering the hateful racist core of the GOP has flaked so hard it’s falling right off, and we’re about to witness quite the Klan rally for the soul of the Republican Party heading into 2008.
Jackboots de rigeur.
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That was quick,
Afternoon Pach.
…or ship ‘em off to iraq…
Race War – as American as Apple Pie.
Wow, that was a quick EPU, so at the cost of repeating myself
OT The death toll from the Qahtaniya and Jazeera bombings is up to 250 with 300 to 350 wounded. Petraeus and Odierno will no doubt blow it off as a “bad” day.
BTW the next time someone tells you maybe there has been some progress in Iraq, please feel free to use any and all of the following:
Iraq surge critique
1. Failure to meet the two goals of the surge: 1) Security in Baghdad and 2) A political settlement
2. The move away from benchmarks because little or no progress has been made on them
3. Failure to recognize Iraq is in civil war and create a strategy which addresses it
4. Continued conflation of al Qaeda with the Sunni insurgency
5. Exaggeration of Iran’s role in Shia militias and minimization of Saudi Arabia’s role in the much more deadly Sunni insurgency
6. Failure to resolve tensions between the Kurds and Turkey in the North
7. Corruption, disorganization, sectarian nature, and ineffectualness of the Iraqi government
8. High levels of violence and deaths of Iraqis which have not declined
9. Iraqi security forces remain largely fronts for militias and death squads
10. The Iraqi army has almost no reliable troops and remains strongly dependent on our forces
11. Deterioration of basic services, such as water, electricity, and healthcare
12. Large scale malnutrition among Iraqi children
13. Continued high levels of unemployment
14. Declining oil production, Iraq’s principal source of income
15. High numbers of refugees: 2 million in neighboring countries, 2 million internally displaced
16. Tenuousness and temporary nature of Sunni truce in Anbar
17. Increased Shia on Shia violence in the South
18. Exhaustion of American troops and equipment
19. Inability to sustain the number of troops needed for the surge
20. Post-withdrawal violence will occur if we leave now or later
Wow, I just finished typing my first response downstairs and now this.
Sadly, I’m afraid hate-mongering might be an effective tactic for them. (even though somehow, WE’RE the one’s cavorting on these ‘hate sites.)
You’re definitely about to see the GOP contest turn into “who can spew the most hate about illegal immigrants”.
I’m surprised Malkin’s head hasn’t exploded with outrage.
Hugh!
Leave it to Newt to get the bigots and racists all fired up. I wish the American people would stop and think about what we would do without the workers who do the things that we don’t want to. When the crops aren’t picked and lettuce is $5 a head, and they can’t find anyone to mow their lawn or clean their hotel room, etc. what will they do then? Besides that, this is just wrong and it needs to be stopped.
I thought NAFTA had worked out so well that everyone was staying home and there were no more illegal aliens.
Nothin’ rallys a bunch of people than hatred of another group….
Anything to take the focus off of Iraq….
Giuliani was for immigrants in the 1990s when he was NYC mayor.
Now he’s against them.
The racists are becoming more and more
exposedovert.Hugh @4:
Here’s a good article about the blaming of Iran for “shaped charges” and attacks, generally.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/M…..6Ak04.html
Demonstrating that the scum rises to the top in Bush’s army, here is Odierno on Iran’s purported aims: “I think they want to influence the decision potentially coming up in September.”
Of course. Iran is sending a message to the Democratic Congress. One can only marvel at the transparent cynicism of it all.
Biodun @ 11
You mean he flip-flopped on something? Gasp
Twain @ 8
The problem is that Newt can dominate news cycles. Democratic spokespeople come across so mild that they get ignored.
Is there a link for the FISA hearing? CSPAN is going to tape it and show it later, but I was wondering if there was another link to watch or listen to live.
As disgusting as it is, it is another nail in the coffin of the Republican party.
The best polisci text I ever read was my high school AP text, circa 1990, that included the comment that the Latin Vote is the “sleeping giant” of US politics. And the Giant is awake. . .
Hugh @ 9
Actually, unless you open up the JOBS (read: open up free movement between the countries for the workers), then free trade means very little, because the differential in labor costs can therefore be exploited.
*grumble grumble don’t get me started on that, could go on all day*
Pachacutec:
Is that a line from “Schindler’s List”?
Pragmatically, we will eventually have to extend citizenship to illegal immigrants who have established community ties – they hold jobs, have clean records, kids in school, etc.
OTOH, illegal immigrants committing felonies are self-selecting themselves for deportation.
This post is a bunch of swill. And I’m trying to be respectful.
Say what you want of Gingrich (I don’t care for him all that much, and not because of my brown skin), for you to call the GOP base a bunch of “bigots” is cheap, ill-considered, and libelous.
Had you focused on the real issues here – a horrendous murder in a depressed minority community, allegedly committed by a suspected gang member with reported ties to MS-13 – this post might have had some relevance.
But hey, real policy analysis isn’t the purpose of the Fire Dog project, right? I’m sure if I skim through the archives I might find a few more references to GOP jackboots.
Now that’s de riguer!
brendan @ 19
DING DING DING!
We have a winnah.
diogenes @ 20
In California we don’t deport them – have to keep that old prison industry going, doncha know.
If anyone thinks the Dems are a shoe in, for ‘08, they might want to rethink that.
Newt, etc., in the war against brown people. Whew! That lets us out. We’re ‘red peple’. “Red sticks” if you will. Native Indian types.
Well, it sure didn’t take long, did it?
Please don’t feed!
They come out every time.
Front page at CNN.com right now:
Silly me, I thought the attacks were designed to kill members of a minority religion. This “they kill to influence US politics” is pure, utter, crap.
Twain @ 8
I do have to quibble with the statement, “who do the things that we don’t want to.” I think it would be more accurate to say “who will work FOR WAGES we aren’t willing to.”
Watch any reality TV show and you’ll quickly learn that U.S. Citizens will do just about anything, no matter how painful, degrading or disgusting if the money’s right.
And here I thought the Repugs were trying to attract Hispanic and African-American voters! I really had my hopes up. How disappointing…/
Donald at 21 — If you don’t think there is a specific GOP bigoted base segment, then you haven’t been reading at Malkin and LGF’s websites. Do dip into the comments there and you’ll see exactly what Pach is saying about that particular base faction.
Whether you like it or not, it is certainly there. And it has been played to more and more the last few years. David Niewert has been doing documentation and study on this for quite some time, as have other groups which work for civil rights enforcement. They are a fundraising bonanza for candidates who are willing to tread that narrow-minded path. And Gingrich rang one of their bells with that statement of his.
Ooops, sorry Pach. Broke my own damn rule…
SufiLizard @ 27
You are absolutely right – I should have included that. Living in California means knowing how much people from other countries contribute to us. I am glad to have them here and wish them to be safe and to have a good life.
JF @ 25
Everything is always about us.
Actually, the more I think about it, I think it’s obvious that the previous thread about the new Republican tactic of calling US hate sites, is just a cover for them catering even more blatantly to hate.
It’s been their tactic for years now to accuse the left of something that the right is actually doing , or is planning to do.
They’ll get the media churning over and over on the topic of whether Daily Koz is actually a hate site, and they won’t bother to cover the REAL hate being spewed by Republican candidates.
Of course the MSM will play into this completely just like they always do.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 30
Heh, the smackdown goodness continues.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 30
nah, Christy
That’s engaging in the discussion, not feeding. If we were to all pile on now, that would be feeding…
And as strongly as I disagree with DD, it struck me as an act of good faith to provide the link to (presumably) his blog.
I think you meant “…then you haven’t” instead of “they you haven’t” /editor hat
funnydiva
Pachacutec @ 25
And always attracted to the immigration issue. I wonder why.
What really kills us is when the Republicans refer to themselves as “the party of Lincoln”. The GOP, and particularly the neo-con branch, are some of the most racist motherfuckers (and fatherfuckers) to have ever roamed the earth. Recall Poppy Bush refering to “little brown ones”.
WOOT!
OKK comes out of his shell.
JF @ 25
I just posted @13 a response to Hugh @4 that includes a similar example of telepathy from Odierno a propos Iran’s intentions. You know you’ve lost a war when the military declares every act and response “message”, rather than a tactical or strategic aim. Those Sunni insurgents sure are sending messages by blowing up bridges.
Donald Douglas @ 21
Trying for a bingo on troll-phrases? Because coming in and badmouthing something without apparently reading the whole thing is really rude.
The real issue here is that the Republican Party wants minorities to vote for its candidates, even as they talk about how bad all those ‘illegals’ are and imply that all the immigrants are illegal. (You think people don’t get arrested just because they’re brown? It happens.)
brendan @ 13
Thanks for the link. I pointed out at the time of the Michael Gordon piece that increased attacks by Shi’ites were largely a result of increased attacks by our troops in Shia areas. And as EFPs are used more by the Shia this led to increased casualties from them.
OT: Yesterday, TeddySanFran wrote
Well, sorry, Teddy. Read this by Robert Parry and weep (along with me).
Emphasis mine.
Well, I hope Romney had time to visit this beautiful tabernacle while he was in San Diego.
Biodun @ 36
It’s their great white hope for winning elections! ;)
It used to be that the “brown people” we killed were always outside our own borders. This does not bode well for anyone. This madness will unfortunately end only after the deaths of many innocent people. You can’t reason with emotion and hate is a particularly strong one, at that. My mother lived through Nazi Germany and this has ominous similarities to me. My father escaped Soviet Russia and this has ominous similarities to me.
CHS,
I’ll take the racist meme a bit further.
How many black Republican senators and congressmen are there?
Why would that be?
Q.E.D.
P.J. Evans: I read the whole post, twice. Condemn me as a troll? That’s easy – why don’t you address the issues?
I’m game for some debate, if you’ve got the cojones.
Save the “BushHitler” rhetoric for someone else, though.
diogenes @ 46
There’s always J. D. Watts – he gone all teevee though. I think their tent is getting smaller and smaller.
I am probably more opposed to illegal immigration and more hardnosed about what action should be taken as a result than many on this board, but I am very concerned than latinos are going to be this century’s version of 1930’s Jews in Germany.
wigwam @ 42
Why have members of Congress not had their staffers comb through this piece or crap to find any other “little-noticed” provisions? I don’t care how hard it is. Marcy or LHP have noted how (intentionally?) difficult it is to read, but come on. Not reading it before they voted for it was bad enough. Knowing the kinds of things that are in it and not reading it? Inexcusable.
This is nothing new for the GOP. Remember after 9/11? If you did not line up and agree and cheer on Bush &Co., you were labeled a traitor. Congress Critters who do not line up and vote to give the Administration what they want in terms of taking away our Constitutional Rights will be labeled “Soft on Terror.” Any blog which does not purport to cheer on the Bush Administration and its minions is a “hate site” etc. etc.
Lies, lies, and more lies. More hate talk playing to people who hate or who are afraid (of people who don’t look like xxx, or who worship a different brand of religion or who were born in a different country, or whose gender identity or sexual prefererences does not go along with dogma). This has been the standard tools for years and years with them. And the more frightening things become in the world…the easier it gets for them to use those tools.
J.C. Watts no longer holds office, though he still carries Republican water on tv.
SufiLizard @ 32
I think you’re wrong about this. I think declared a swath of media on the left “hate sites” is trying to establish an environment for censorship. The other night I happened to catch a MEMRI-sponsored piece on my local FOX affiliate on terrist websites and how they’re being tracked. Juan Cole would probably fit their definition, not to say FDL. My ears pricked up at the word “hate” a few years ago when I heard Tom Friedman and tv’s fictional Jeb Bartlett mention “hate on the web” within a week of each other. “Hate site” and “anti-Semitic” are code; it’s not a coincidence they show up in the comments of Ford and Collins’s flack in the same week.
Twain @ 48
J C Watts
Looks like brown people with foreign accents are the new gays for 2008 election cycle.
The ever prescient Digby wrote about this yesterday in her post ‘ On the Road to Azatlan and Mecca’. So instead of getting gobsmocked 24/7 with images of Steve and Trevor smooching at the end of their wedding vows, we will be awash with Code Red warnings of the approaching brown horde who will kill our men, rape our women and kidnap our children.
2009 can’t come soon enough for me.
diogenes @ 52
Yep. That’s what I meant. He makes as much sense on TV as he did while in Congress.
brendan @ 52
And let’s not forget Ford’s comment. I agree, and it also is framed around casting those who speak out AGAINST the surge and Iran attacks as being in some way anti-Semitic.
Newt’s strategy seems very risky. Bashing illegals (lizard code for hispanics) will certainly get the lizard brains to the polls, but Newt is bashing (ergo – writing off) millions of legal hispanic voters.
Will Miami Cubans vote Republican again b/c their own needs are served (by 47 year old US policy that grants them asylum-seeker status)? Newt and Mitt are being very condescending to all Latinos.
Newt’s demographic research apparently demonstrates that it will work. Of course, voter intimidation, road blocks, diebold machines and all the voter purging tricks will need to be deployed.
Dubya has courted the Latino vote with empty rhetoric and empty immigation policies. Now he’s big on the Rio Grande fence.
OTOH, the Democrat’s Labor Union support is anti-illegal alien, too.
I think that Democrats would do well to court the latino vote. That would require some restraint on Labor Union style hyperbole.
JF @ 49
Agreed, the fact that there even are “little noticed” provisions means that our elected representatives aren’t doing their jobs. They should “notice” all the provisions in a bill before they vote for it.
dakine01 @ 54
Thanks. Fingers not work today.
JF @ 50
Teddy concluded yesterday as follows:
Well said, Teddy.
Twain @ 48
Maybe you’re referring to J.C. Watts (I now live in his old district) – one of the few rethugs to actually honor his pledge to seek only three terms (about all I have to say about him that’s good).
Biodun @ 36
Massive, massive fear of “other” … you see this rear its ugly head pretty consistently after the Civil War. There’s theories about that, but it affects any non white, non English speaking population. Including, by the way, deaf people (check out the history surrounding the debates over teaching by oral vs signing methods in the 1880’s — the rhetoric applied by the oral proponents sounds exactly like anti-immigration policy). It’s really quite something if you look at the entire scope of history on this fear mongering. I’d say misapplication of Darwin’s theories (that led to master race, etc, stuff) is to blame in large part in this timing.
Donald Douglas @ 47
This reminds me of a Monty Python skit:
I think Brendan is on to something.
The success of the “net-roots” in the 2006 election has got the powers-that-be petrified. This is the last bastion of free speech. The MSM is a tool. The last thing that the ruling class wants is open, honest discussion of politics. They want to dictate the terms and what gets to be debated. Why refute the message when you can make it illegal? New hate crimes legislation, anyone? Google developed the technology for censorship already for China.
brendan @ 52
I don’t disagree with you, but you have to admit that pointing the finger at someone else for crimes they, themselves are guilty of is a tried-and-true Republican tactic.
The fact that they can also censor and persecute us is just gravy for them.
MayDaze @ 62
he was a decent QB. always a big plus at FDL!
JC and Clarence Thomas have some major denial going on – I cannot imagine the daily lot of black Americans. The invisibility (until a scapegoat is required), the lack of respect, not being allowed to compete on a level playing field.
For JC and CT to deny that existence is despicable.
Do understand what Newt is doing here. He saw how Sarkozy managed to run against his own party’s leader. Newt is trying to identify himself as the most effective change agent. Not a wuss like those democrats, and not an incompetent like this president.
It might work for someone who was moderately competent. But Gingrich is not. His tenure as speaker was just like Bush’s. He took control of the House with bumper sticker slogans, and then couldn’t govern.
I say give Newt and Guiliani each a butter knife and put them in an arena and let them battle it out. Whomever survives gets to run on the ‘I was X on 9/11 therefore I am a better candidate than any Democrat’ platform.
Let them attack each other. It’s just another sign that the Republican machine is coming apart at the seams.
raven at 67 — Stop teasing me…football season is still several days away…
hackworth @ 58
I always wondered why they brought up the issue when it plays their racist base against their corporate contributors (who want the cheap and exploitable labor) – maybe they thought they could compartmentalize their message. Just never seemed thought through.
Inspired from downstairs…
Diane @ 19
There may be a way for them to cement their plans for world domination using another tactic…
Suppose Bush actually follows Rove in a literal sense and “resigns”. (Too many reasons why to get distracted over particulars). Just parsing Bush suggests their plan would entail a bait and switch, advancing Cheney to Pres and opening the VP slot to… I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count:
Thompson; McCain; Lieberman.
So then (as soon as October, btw) it’s the Big Time – Holy Joe Crusade to save the world from the bad guys (non-republican guards) and go berserk in a medieval paroxysm of military and uncivil deconstitutionalization.
I know that the conventional wisdom is that Joe wouldn’t give up his vaunted Senatorship for something as short-lived as a caretaker VP slot, but therin lies the gambit — He’d have the great personal pleasure of cancelling the elections (take that you DFH’s) and clinging to power as the Fourth Branch Executive for the remainder of the four years that he would have otherwise been a pariah. Sound good? It gets better.
Long about summer of 2010 as the sun ejects gigatons of relatavistic protons and the infrastructure, frought with corrosion and decay collapses into another recession, further political changes take place and the VP becomes president. What? More unelected presidents?
No, just an Emperor. Just like in the movies.
Well, GSD asked and I had to think about it for awhile.
Anti-imigration rhetoric resonates very strongly in the red areas of southern california. The local hate radio stations have been feeding this for some time now. (They have long ago ignored Iraq.) The progressive community needs to get out in front on this issue and not let folks like Newt do all the framing.
The Minutemean and wannabe Minutemen enjoy considerable support even after doing nasty things like ripping down a migrant camp and screaming into migrants faces with a bullhorn at a local church.The ex-girlfriend posted a video clip of the foray into the Migrant camp and it is now on some websites. In other news, 3 were arrested in San Diego for robbing migrants during a summer long crime spree. They would pick up migrants, then drive them to secluded locations and rob them at gunpoint.
Many people I know think that this is kindof OK because migrants are “illegal.” When I point out that they have illegally hired them to do their yardwork, they respond that that was OK because they were doing the migrants a favor. Being “illegal” makes a migrant some kind of sub human being- and not someone who has a right to feed, clothe and provide for their families- you know, all those kids who had a “right to life” but not a “right to live.”
Donald Douglas @ 47
Why would anyone want to debate you, when you post this on your own blog:
“I’m endlessly fascinated by the funky argumentative logics of the radical left. As some of my readers have noticed, I’ve initiated a number of debates with lefty bloggers in recent weeks (see here and here).
Some have asked: Why do I do it? Sure, a lot of it is fascination and a hint of orneriness. But more seriously, my response is that engaging the enemy at home is the best way to learn about the nature and capabilities of the adversary. And I do think we have an enemy at home in the hardline left, which I see as a modern fifth column movement seeking the destruction of the country.”
;>
We recently had a murder here in the Portland, Ore., area for which an illegal immigrant was arrested. The murder victim was a young white gal.
You can just imagine the ensuing outrage over Those People.
Funny though: During all the high time of the priest sex abuse cases, I never read one letter to the editor that suggested all priests be banned from contact with children.
NCBluebeck @ 64
Yes and you know how quickly they shut down Air America radio and other progrssive shows in many cities around the U.S. right after the election. Interesting no?
I, for one, am glad that DHS has announced round-ups of illegals and arrests/fines of employers who hire illegals. I encourage this. Most folks here disagree with me on this particular issue. I understand.
As to Newt, I just kind of roll my eyes at his latest thoughts. If a black is arrested for robbing a 7-11, does that mean all blacks are armed robbers? Of course not. I don’t think Newt’s latest stuff will gain any traction with the masses.
Ghostman
Christy Hardin Smith @ 70
Yeah, I’m anxious to see how my team does this year. They won the Superbowl last year ;-) My second-favorite team was who they beat.
I don’t know if any future seasons can live up to that (for me at least).
Anyway, back to those hate-mongering Republicans.
Pach:
Its disturbing to wonder whether or not Newt really cared about the black people killed in those photos on his site. He so demonized them when pushing for welfare reform in the 90s. But I guess its okay when they are killed, and killed by immigrants.
chrisc @ 74
Several years ago a newspaper did a story (for some unknown reason) on a group of McMansions on a hill. Wanted to get a visual from down below and found a group of “illegals” living in a cave. They said they were saving money that way to send it back to their families.
Hey Gengrich, start by reading this to get your arguments focused – This will help broaden your audience as well.
The story ends with you blowing your head off in shame and failure.
Mod Note: Please do not wish violence onto others. We are not the people we decry
1,568 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen Pachacutec and the Firepup Patriots:
Great post, as is expected from you…I hope that we can coordinate a response to this naked fascism by framin’ it as a call to the last battle of our 141 year old Civil War.
All the elements are here to mobilize one final confrontation with the monster that has been terrorizin’ our politics and hijackin’ our treasury for so long. Growing Latino voting populations, poor whites coalescing with black voters in the South, changin’ demographics in border states like Virginia and solid South states like North Carolina and Florida that mobilize middle-class white voters, and solid Democratic majorities in middle America provide the troops for our 2008 Battle of Gettysburg.
The overt racism of the fascist rhetoric must be confronted swiftly and directly and the threat of a new terrorist attack must be countered by the simple phrase “9/11 happened on the Republicans’ watch”. And finally, the Democrats in Congress MUST stand up and confront the fascist attempts to set up a quasi-legal framework for a unitary executive attack on Iran.
All this requires an understanding that the first attack in this last battle for democracy has been launched and the good guys have gotta mobilize their troops. The endgame for the fascists is the establishment of conditions to justify a state of national emergency.
Finally, I would like all progressive activists to ponder whether or not there are some candidates for the Democratic nomination for president that might be worse than any of the Republican candidates. I really wonder if we can afford to elect a DLC-fascist fellow traveler…shouldn’t Mrs. Clinton stay in the Senate?
KEEP THE FAITH AND TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER!!
Lisa at 76,
That was so sad, makes me want to hug my little girl.
Pachacutec @ 25
P J Evans @ 40
I don’t know Mr. Douglas, but there were a lot of Conservatives who did support some version of the Immigration bill and we got shot at by both sides mercilessly. I don’t think it is an unreasonable position by Americans to take to say that illegal immigrants to this country should not collect public benefits. I would sooner legalize all illegals that haven’t committed crimes so long as there is some security checking for terrorists at all borders. But until there is such a position, neither side wants to give on this and so the status quo will hold. Which is, I guess, what everyone really wants. Too bad, because there was a chance to fix it.
NorskeFlamethrower @ 82
You haven’t been around for awhile and I missed your capitals :)
SufiLizard @ 59
They need to go back and fix these provisions.
Fe @ 80
Yeah, it’s like this photo.
norske,
Hell, I might as well stay home – you said it right, and better!
OT:
Whitehouse already spinning on the increased violence in Iraq. MSNBC had a splash screen stating: Al Qaeda increasing attacks to influence Gen. Petraus report due in September.
Wow, where to begin.
Ghostman @ 78
It is one thing to do this as a matter of a clearly stated and coherent policy and another to throw a bone to the nativist wing of the bigotted Right.
Also I would prefer to see the employers arrested and the corporations convicted on felony counts, not given joke fines.
For the rest, the demographic pressure for immigration comes from the lack of opportunities in Mexico and Central America. It will not be until there is economic improvement and development there that this pressure will ease.
Don’t underestimate the power of hate. It’s sad, but I think this is the best hope for Republicans in ‘08.
There are some very legitimate concerns about illegal immigration in this country and it’s not too hard to push that legitimate concern into hatred for a lot of people.
We’ve seen it happen time and time again throughout history.
Maybe we should take a page out of the Republican playbook and appeal to Christian values to counter.
We’ve seen the environmental movement have some success in embracing Christianity, I think our best offense is to court the Christian vote as the side that isn’t spewing hatred and racism. We’re also the side that is in favor of good stewardship of God’s green Earth.
We’ve got a couple of good wedge issues of our own that might win back the Mid West and Great Plains states (I’m not sure we can get the south just yet).
Let’s stop playing defense (or at least stop playing defense, exclusively) and go on the offense for a change.
The support of the Christian base for Republicans has shown some cracks recently with the Iraq Occupation, Environmentalism and now racism. Let’s win back Christian support for the side that does more than just TALK about moral values.
chrisc @ 74
John and Ken on KFI?? It is really bad.
OT re: Collins site it appears some meanies have overloaded the servers at the linked web site, guess no one noticed the mild post after it got out in the wild.
IrishJim @ 88
This is a riff on the “We have been so successful that our enemies have become desperate so they will likely lash out and violence will increase.” They have been using that line for years and the violence never goes down which is what you would predict if the statement were true.
Pach — check out this Boston Globe story — to get even with Romney, the Giuliani campaign now claims Romney did nothing to force the cities of Cambridge and Somerville to stop providing sactuary for undocumented immigrants.
The two of them are in a race to the bottom, to determine which of them supported sanctuary/amnesty the most, before they opposed it.
Don’t forget the mythical NAFTA Superhighway that Lou “I’m Not A Racist ‘Cuz I Married A Latina! Honest!” Dobbs loves to pimp.
Newt is really scary. If you just pop in and out of what he is saying with a partial ear to another channel, he makes some pretty sound sense. That is, until you sit and listen. The longer he speaks the more he self-reveals and the scarier he gets. Another very strange warped mind.
I see him as a mad man wringing his hands saying, “I want to rule the world”. I really don’t want to live in his perfect world. I’m already in one mad man’s perfect world.
That Nazi Handbook on how to control the people through fear must be worn thin by now. Has it become the Holy Bible? Apparently so. It has replaced the Constitution.
scarecrow @ 96
A new sports event? The bigger bigot sprint.
Mexicans love Mexico. They just can’t afford to live there.
Today’s Froomkin is now up. More Rove.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..00879.html
My new campeign. Write in Cindy Sheehan for President. Not Congress.
Let the Demoncrats know that we will not support anyone who doesn’t declare in public that they will immediately withdraw from Iraq and Iran if we’ve been dumb enough to go in there.
There is absolutly no reason not to write in Sheehan. She sacrificed a son and a marriage, and she went down and tried to make King George listen to the people of America.
So far, it seems to me, that she’s the only one who is listening to America. Pelosi is a lost cause, Reid, Ditto, and the rest of em….well, they shut up pretty quick for some reason. We might as well have had the Rethugs in there. We live in a police state (Dems had the power, they did nothing), the so-called PATRIOT act, which needs to be repealed is still in place (Dems had the power, they did nothing) The first and fourth amendments are dead……and the mechanism is in place to supress dissent. This is not a time of war, (no declaration), and we are being held hostage (the whole damned country) by the King in Washington. I thought we did something about King George in 1776. Guess I was wrong.
LLee at 85
When has anyone said that illegals should be collecting benefits? Everything I’ve ever heard, except the GOP anti-welfare anti-immigrant propaganda, indicates that they avoid all kinds of government programs, as well as most formal medical care. (The only immigrants I ever heard of that might have been getting benefits without being entitled to them were legal.)
Almost as bad as D Douglas using that BushHitler line, which is his own reference. Rude as well as uncalled-for.
Scarecrow @ 96:
Does this mean McCain is all by his lonesome self to race to the top?
The apocalypse brought to you by the GOP, and the committed neocons for Christ.
Phoenix Woman @ 95
Wrong. it may not be called the “NAFTA highway”, but there is a movement afoot by our state gov’t to build some sort of superhighway. It is very much opposed by many here in Texas. It has to do with land issues….nothing to do with mexicans.
Ghostman
Biodun @ 104
But “the bottom” means the top of the Republican ticket. Therefore, yes, McCain is well on his way to the top.
BTW, Newt really sees himself as an intellectual: the history professor with the doctorate, the articulate one with all the well-reasoned expository arguments, ya know.
IrishJim @ 88
I haven’t heard it yet but this is the expected. Guess Al Qaeda just doesn’t play fair. They seem to always do these things and mess things up for the next military report. The spin is so trite. Here we go again, Charlie Brown.
Biodun @ 104
And McCain’s poll numbers have tanked, apparently because of his “amnesty” stand on immigration. It tells you a lot about what’s left of the Repubican Party. Nasty, mean, brutish and short” . . . on fairness.
Biodun @ 104
Are there any Republican tops?
Loo Hoo. @ 98
Just wait till that’s true for us, too, what with the direction the economy is headed and all. Something that will make the Depression look like a sunday picnic…
In which case, what will all that border fencing be put to use for..?
Ghostman @ 106
Rick Noriega acknowledged the highway as an opportunity to take advantage of new ports in Mexico and widening of the Panama Canal. The highway is real, and plans have called for it to be 10 lanes wide.
Ghostman @ 78
well, i might have more sympathy for the argument if you were also advocating round ups of people who are illegal drivers – people who knowingly and willfully refuse to follow the speed limits posted on the our roads.
and if not round ups – maybe confiscation of their driver’s license and their cars. i mean, if someone is going to violate our laws – then it really is their own fault if they are left stranded on the side of the road.
even if they were only driving over the speed limit in order to get their child to the hospital. there’s just no excuse for breaking our laws.
/sarcasm
p.s. love ya gostman, but if we’re going to disagree – i’m gonna be vocal about it.
especially when, as far as i can see, the problem is primarily one of our own creation (for example, see nafta). i wouldn’t mind solutions that included changes in our trade policy, foreign policy and labor policy. i’m against making immigrants the scapegoats for our failures.
Soon the republics will have pissed off every person in this country for one reason or another. If it weren’t so serious a situation watching them meltdown would be comical.
Via Huffpo:
White House, not general Petraeus will write the Sept. report.
Hugh @ 95
Bingo. Nevermind the simple argument of: you have had 30,000 extra troops for 9 months now and you still cannot achieve the stated goals. I remember the Whitehouse asking in January for 6 months to give the surge a chance
P J Evans @ 101
Actually, if anything, “illegal” immigrants tend to pay social security (via faked papers, etc, the withholding still happens) plus property and other taxes (rent includes taxes or else the landlord’s an idiot; food and other consumables, etc) and yet rarely if ever collect on any kind of benefits.
I don’t think I’ve ever been more pessimistic than I have this week than I have in more a half century, September 1950 when the Rosenbergs were arrested. There is a stench in the air, one all too familiar. I had thought that those who had taken us down this terrible road these past six and a half years would at least be embarrassed, humiliated and (this may be asking too much) repentant. It’s as if there’s been a psychotic amnesia about the Bush regime. That the immigration issue should initiate such bile and violent racism foreshadows a permanent steam of hatred in this country not seen more then two hundreds years (and still the law of the land) — The Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
This administration has proved it has no respect for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It has contempt for Gideon and Miranda, and habeas corpus. It regards torture the way
Torquemada did — as a useful tool to getting at the answer one seeks. I used to believe those who said the things I just said were�immature and hysterical.
Study after study (such as the famous “Florida effect” study in 2002) has shown that — as Karl Marx predicted back in the 19th century — the main reason for the non-growth of social services in America when compared Europe and elsewhere is because a non-trivial number of whites don’t want to see their tax dollars go to nonwhites.
Shorter version: Scratch an anti-tax activist, find a racist. (And a member of the Republican base.)
This is really gonna be some election season. I can feel it, smell it, sense it, touch it, taste it. Hmm… The Repugs–and also the Dems, I might add–are already breaking out the spectacle. Things are gonna heat up into high gear by January 2008. I love it! (Now I sound like Tweety.)
Here is a Republican belief – If you are going down, take anyone around with you.
Hugh @ 95
Hugh: That is just way toooooo logical for most to grasp, except for the foul-mouthed fem-bloggers and their following.
Good job covering this Pach,
Michelle Malkin is joining him in this war. We’ve gotta fight this back and I’m glad you’ve covered it.
LS @ 113
Of course it’s real, and it’s finished. I read it here.
In my opinion the Progressive position on immigration reform can’t merely be to paint Gingrich and the Republicans as racists, even though they most assuredly are racists.
The Progressive position must include an acknowledgment that a substantial number (maybe 9 million) of people are in the US illegally and that this presents a real burden on the budgets of local communities. This is not wanting to round up all the immigrants or build a fence accross the border. However, substantial federal money must be made available for cities and towns to use for education, police, fire, and all other local services that are being stretched due to illegal immigration.
My point of view on this issue has been attacked by some at this site. Fair enough. However, it is not fair, nor good politics, to simply dismiss this point of view as being racist. ALL people deserve the chance to improve their lives, but this comes at a cost. If we Progressives fail to appreciate and remember the bedrock Democratic philosophy that all politics is local I fear the Republicans will be able to exploit this issue to their advantage.
Castro need only utter this phrase, “Anybody who wants to leave can go”.
Many thousand Cubans will leave and come to the US, legally. Castro has done it before. Sure, they can be intercepted and sent back en route. But any that make it to shore can stay legally. Wet foot, dry foot.
Chavez could send a few million poor Venezuelans to Cuba. Cuba could send them here. Its not a difficult project for Castro or Chavez. They have the resources.
Lizard Brains and all of us need to get accustomed to a quasi-hispanic United States. It cannot be stopped.
Rick Noriega acknowledged the highway as an opportunity to take advantage of new ports in Mexico and widening of the Panama Canal. The highway is real, and plans have called for it to be 10 lanes wide.
And more use of the Texas ports. The Panama Canal issue is separate. The Panamanians voted last year to more than double the width and depth of the canal since many ships (particularly cruise ships) are so much larger than when the canal was built.
At Kennebunkport perhaps? In Maine, dear old Lance’s state. And Susan Collins’s.
Ghostman @ 106
Sorry. It’s not.
What is real is the Trans-Texas Corridor:
No shit. It’s a real upside down clusterfuck world where someone like me is a representative of the “far left.”
I’m using words like “imperialism” and all that sort of thing, a far cry from the vocabulary of the Long Island suburbia of my youth.
Loo Hoo. @ 128
Again, this is the Trans-Texas Corridor you’re thinking of. It’s real — the “NAFTA Superhighway” isn’t.
I guess the habits of 500 or so years die hard the first few hundred years in the Americas those brown folks who had something we wanted and would not give it to us the Europeans killed, those that would not be good slaves, we killed. in north America those we could not kill or when the press started to notice we put in concentration camps called reservations. Now we have found news ways to both exploit and demonize them, just another tool in the power hungry s tool box of oppression.
hackworth @
127:
The Mariel business in 1980 was Castro’s big joke on the US.
Lew Koch @ 117
Hello Lew – I remember the Rosenbergs especially when they were executed. Just like people remember where they on 9/11. I can smell the beach air, hear the voices around me, feel the terribleness of life edging away. My Dad said the things you just said. I heard it all my life. He said it up to the last days of his life. I thank him every day.
jim oconnor @ 126
I acknowledge it. Let’s give them anmesty, flat out. Reagan did it.
Then, when we give them the right to organize and workplace protections, we might actually see a thriving middle class in America again.
Amnesty is good.
A lot of speculation on the Nova M radio last evening with the Rove departure and one hits this square on the head….
Rove is leaving to lead the “hate the brown people/immigrate campaign” outside the WH to win 08 for the Repugs.
Newt the salamander throws out the concept, Rove builds on it…. and it even splits the Dems in Arizona who bought into the “Brown Fear” generated by such wackos as JD Hayworth (they will demand social security for all the years they worked in the US and bankrupt the system) and Russell Pierce -state rep. who puts wacky AZ ballot measures which pass to deny legal citizens state college scholarships IF their parent cannot prove they are a legal citizen. YEP penalize the children, deny them the right to collect damages in legal actions IF they cannot prove they are citizens.
“especially when, as far as i can see, the problem is primarily one of our own creation (for example, see nafta). i wouldn’t mind solutions that included changes in our trade policy, foreign policy and labor policy. i’m against making immigrants the scapegoats for our failures.”
Actually selise, as to changes in policy which alleviate the influx of illegals, I am in agreement. I don’t know what the problem is down in Mexico, and I don’t know what to do to fix the problem. Seems like the WH could try and do something….well, not this WH anyways.
Ghostman
OT — Countrywide mortgage stock in free-fall…
The GOP presidential candidates should collectively be refered to as the MUMS. Mum on Bush’s failed foriegn policies, mum on the occupation of Iraq, and mum on healthcare. At least Hillary Clinton is out there pinning these issues on them as seen in her new campaign video.
Actually, if anything, “illegal” immigrants tend to pay social security (via faked papers, etc, the withholding still happens) plus property and other taxes (rent includes taxes or else the landlord’s an idiot; food and other consumables, etc) and yet rarely if ever collect on any kind of benefits.
There appears to be no data from the government on this. Millions of illegals are paying into our Social Security system. Their social security/medicare contributions are payroll deducted (and matched by the employer) and remitted to the federal government. With fraudulently acquired numbers, they are able to pay into the system. Probably have a difficult time collecting it, though.
This is stupid, stupid, stupid.
I am brown-skinned. But the brown half of my family is not immigrants. The white half came here 100 yrs ago from Europe. The brown half are Texicans, living in Texas since before the white people came.
Criminals do crimes no matter what color they are or where they were born. Don’t look at their skin. Look at what they do.
Pachacutec @ 136
And some form of amnesty wouldn’t be unpopular, if I’m recalling polls correctly. You’d just have to call it something different now that that word has become tainted.
brendan @ 140
Call it assimilation…*wicked grin*
Ghostman @ 138
Want to end “the illegal immigration problem”?
Make it less desirable for US employers to hire people for slave wages — people they know they can treat like toilet paper because they can always get more and because the people (being “illegals” and therefore subhuman to folks like Lou Dobbs) have no legal rights to force their employers to treat them decently.
Once “illegals” — like the missing miners in Utah — can sue their employers for better treatment and wages, then suddenly the employers can’t use them as wage-depression and union-busting tools. And wages for ALL workers in the US start to go up again. It’s very simple.
I-69 Phoenix Woman @ 132
Around here, the TTC is considered the NAFTA superhighway; because most of the trucking is bringing in and out goods across the borders.
PB (peanut butter) @ 143
Actually, my agenda is to take back the word, say it proud, link it to Reagan, and rehabilitate the whole national discussion accordingly.
Phoenix Woman @ 145
Ah PW! A good idea but too logical. And being too logical, it therefore has NO chance whatsoever of happening.
Phoenix Woman @ 142
I agree. Promise citizenship to any “illegal” who turns their employer in for illegal hiring practices…
neokneme @ 139
Yeah, I was just reading that an Australian hedge fund lost 80% of its value overnight. It’s spilling over into the rest of the mortgage market because of the tightening policies. Looking pretty bad…
Phoenix Woman @ 143
Interesting idea. But I’d just rather round them up and ship them back. Let Americans fill the job slots. The illegals need to petition their own gov’t for economic reform.
Ghostman
Immigration Myths v Facts
Warning – PDF
http://lawprofessors.typepad.c…..cts_o.html
My daughter works for a major department store at an outlet mall, they have Mexican citizens buy thousands of dollars of goods (pay sales tax) to take over the border to sell in Mexico.
My son worked for a home builder who did a check on valid citizenship of the crews, he lost 1/2 of the crew. These workers were paying income, social security & medicare taxes, they had health insurance.
The number one employer of undocumented workers is the everyday homeowner. I pay extra for my lawn care to make sure that they employ labor with green cards.
Hillary Nutcracker
Ghostman @ 151
I’m sure they’d be just as successful at that as we are…
sorry i’m late to this, but…
Notice the framing of Donald “Duck” Douglas… “if you got the cojones…”
all macho, all the time. Typical fighting keyboardist.
hey donald – name the place. I’m in san diego. i’ll debate you, and I’ve “got the cojones…” amigo
foul-mouthed lib fem bloggers, indeed
On my 119
Could the monitors please change my 1998 to 1798.
The humidity has swollen my fingers and my brain.
Thank you.
Mod note: fixed
Yep. Things are upside down. It’s clearly Clinton’s fault. He started this whole thing. He became Tony Blair’s friend. And then I mean, things he did in the Oval Office…distracted him, made him lose the chance to take down Bin Laden. And then, before we knew it, we found ourselves in the Green Zone in a hostile foreign country thousands of miles away. And now all the brown people over there want to come into this country. But we’ve got this entity called Homeland Security. And they’re gonna do something about that. See how it’s Clinton’s fault?
Hugh @ 95
And as the violence continues, it will morph (again) into Iraqi insurgent (”terra-ists”) attempts to influence the November elections…just like last time. Same old shit, different day. Lather, rinse, repeat. (Insert your favorite old saw here).
randiego @ 152
For anyone who has to even say “if you got the cojones…” then it’s a given that every regular firepup, male or female, has more cojones than that person.
katymine @ 152
katy – stop making sense. they don’t want to hear it.
SnarKassandra @ 139
This continues to interest me. Are some criminals good criminals and some bad criminals? If you mutilate people and hang them from a tree does that mean you are a good criminal ensuring people stay in their place? If you develop napalm to be used on village people in a far away land, does that just make you a concerned citizen? Maybe I just think weird but I really don’t think so. This doesn’t just apply to the color of a person’s skin. It has also been used against the poor. In Christian England, county and church records are proof of the numbers of people hanged for stealing food. An eight year old child for stealing bread and cheese. An eighty-two year old woman for stealing food. Being hungry meant you were not among the chosen by God. The poor were the damned; the sentence was death.
Phoenix Woman @ 120
That is so racist. Why are people so STUPID? Why does it matter what color your skin is?
QuakerGirl @ 160
Are there any countries where all people have a right to have enough food and medicine? Even if they are poor or brown or don’t speak the language well.
All this shit almost makes me wish I owned land near the Mexico border (in AZ or NM…I’d die before I lived in Tex-ass). All this nasty anti-brown people crap makes me want to do MORE to help the poor bastards. I’d ban any Minutemen (and the like) from my land and put in place numerous watering holes to prevent deaths. I’d also be more prone to “not see” anyone meekly traversing my land in search of work or a better life.
The more these nuts get all supernutty, the more I want to directly act contrary and at cross-purposes to their desires and actions.
“I acknowledge it. Let’s give them anmesty, flat out. Reagan did it.
Then, when we give them the right to organize and workplace protections, we might actually see a thriving middle class in America again.
Amnesty is good.
And some form of amnesty wouldn’t be unpopular, if I’m recalling polls correctly. You’d just have to call it something different now that that word has become tainted.”
Amen on the right to organize and workplace protections. I’d add consumer protections as well.
Michael Moore wants to use the term “christianized” medicine. We could say we want to “baptize” immigrants with citizenship.
I wonder if Bill has it in him to balance this budget or if it is just impossible to do.
Praedor Atrebates @ 163
Don’t hate Texas. We’re good people here. A lot of us anyway.
It’s really as simple as that, ain’t it?…*g*
ccmask @ 153
I hope these are’nt made in China?
The U. S. was like that before the Republicans destroyed the New Deal governing policies that stayed mostly intact through until the early 1970’s. Jimmy Carter actually gutted progressive taxation under pressure, and it’s been downhill on several fronts ever since.
Back then, we actually had progressive taxation, shorter work weeks, stronger unions, home ownership, low unemployment, affordable health coverage (based through employment, it’s true) and a thriving middle class.
Now, we have none of that, and it’s explicitly because of the policies hatched during the Goldwater era and inflicted on an unwary population ever since, abetted by Democrats too frightened and too bought off to do a damn thing about it.
It’s not a waste of time. It’s a rejection of the Fox-Republican method of politics for future generations. That the Fox-Republicans officials and politicians (fops) even tried this happened because we didn’t show them that the worst case scenario is jail. As demonstrated by the recent pardon, the fops clearly think jail is not an option for their top dogs. They will continue to believe it and try again if we don’t show them they are wrong. If Rove broke the law, he must, for the good of America, be held accountable. Rove is not above the law. He is not better than ordinary citizens. He should not get a free get out of jail free pass handed out by the most recent Republican top crook.
America haven’t you had enough already? Isn’t it time to make a statement. To draw a line in the sand for now and ever against this type of rotten fop behavior? The fops have shown they do whatever they can get away with. Show them they can’t get away with this type of behavior or I promise they will keep doing it. Rove and many of his ilk are relatively young. Just like Rumsfeld and Cheney were young when they were part of the Nixon Administration.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/jour…..n_c_1.html
People are starting to hate Texas for the same reason the rest of the world hates America. It is amazing the damage the BushCos have done. Their destruction touches every place they tread. What a legacy!
Does anyone else get really MAD when people talk about racism and people wanting to hurt other people?
I am going to go do something else and come back tonight.
1,568 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen Pachacutec and the Firepup Patriots:
“I’m using words like ‘imperialism’ and all that sort of thing, a far cry from the vocabulary of the Long Island suburbia of my youth.”
Welcome Pachacutec…I’m sure that you have long been aware of the affinity between many of your values and the historical analysis of Mr. Marx. Certainly now we can begin to grow a vocabulary that infuses the reality of peoples’ experience today with the truths of the “old” radical vocabulary. People with intellect like yours can help us develop the words to connect our experiences with the necessary action to advance the cause of humanity against the power of money and property.
Keep up the great work, Pach, I look forward to all your contributions here.
KEEP THE FAITH AND REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE MORE OF US THAN THERE ARE OF THEM!!!
MayDaze @ 72
You’re assuming that he actually wants to do anything to solve the problem he’s waving the bloody shirt about. If you just demonize the immigrants and drive them more underground, making it even easier to exploit them, then both the corporate contributors and the right-wing politicians benefit, and the “Reagan Democrats” get played for suckers again.
New post up.
Pach:
Do you really believe that we had those halycon times in the US? What decade specifically are you speaking of? Everyone was well-off? Including minorities?
marshen @ 169
I hope the Republicans are starting to feel the pain and if she is elected, I hope she will do just that.
Well, if you want to lift up your spirits, COME UPSTAIRS!!!
Pachacutec @ 168
And the smaller the middleclass piece of the pie becomes, the easier to turn our frustration and anger on those who need the same things. Why should people who are here without documentation receive the same reduced in state college costs as the kids of people who are “legally” losing ground in health care costs, wages, bad mortgages, etc.
It’s a brilliant way to make ordinary people into racists without them even knowing it.
Head on upstairs…
Ghostman @ 137
sadly, our last WH was a big contributor to the problem (see nafta again). makes it hard for dems to address the issue honestly.
with better trade and foreign policies there would be more opportunities (to do things like feed their kids) outside the usa. with better labor regulation here (see pw’s most excellent example @ 144) immigrants who want to be here wouldn’t encourage a race to the bottom of labor exploitation here.
good for everyone, except those who want cheap exploitable labor.
I agree, the left has to be careful how we tread on the immigration issue. I’m concerned about immigration, not out of any racist sentiments, but because illegals drive down wages for everyone.
But I blame the illegal employers, more than the poor immigrants just trying to better support themselves and their families.
I think any “crackdown” should begin with illegal employers.
As far as the immigrants themselves, I kind of like the increasing Latino influence in my rural, Indiana community.
My youngest son started kindergarten today and my wife commented that she was relieved to see a little “color” in his classroom and was even happier to hear my son’s teacher speak to one student in fluent Spanish.
If we can address the serious issue of illegal employers without pandering to racism and the most ignoble human impulses, we can hopefully come out on top of this issue.
Biodun @ 177
No, not minorities, but income disparity was not nearly as bad as it is today. I speak not of civil rights but of access to an affordable way of life, though of course, access was limited by other racist policies, championed most especially by. . . Republicans.
There were, of course, Democratic Dixiecrats, and LBJ knew he was writing them off when he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But now, our rising majority excludes the South, and for the first time in the modern era, we have a chance to promote a majority coalition whose policies will not be held hostage to the cultural remnants of the confederacy.
Thanks for bringing that up so I could clarify. A lot of the economic analysis I’ve referred to comes from this recent book salon featured book.
PB (peanut butter) @ 118
Ever notice how the folks who complain that the brown skinned people making a measly couple bucks are sucking up government services NEVER complain about the mega-corporations that 1) hire illegals and pretend they don’t, 2) buy politicians to look the other way or corrupt the DoJ to look the other way, or 3) don’t pay a dime in taxes in spite of using common resources like water, polluting our air and the rest of the environment, and chronically corrupting our airwaves with propaganda against us?
Those brown skinned people wouldn’t be here if they could afford to stay home and feed their families — but those same mega-corporations really wanted NAFTA and CAFTA, eventually pricing brown skinned people out of their own country. And the same brown skinned people (oh, and the light-skinned folks from Europe, too) would be only too happy to pay into our tax system if it meant they have freedom to traverse back home unimpeded and to have bank accounts for sending money home to family without hassle. I’ll bet they’d even pay into Social Security for years without recompense if it meant they could have legal status and freedom to move. With the incredible bottlenecks in the processing of requests for legal status, it takes as much as seven years to become a legal alien. Imagine if we found a way to speed that up and asked the soon-to-be legal aliens to pay for it while they waited.
Amazing how it’s always the fault of the people who are least able to fix the system — and how the real criminals slip away without being noticed.
Which company will get the contract for production of Brown Shirts?
Rumor has it that if one wants to get one free, all they have to do is produce proof of citizenship!!!!!!
Rayne @ 185
They have made too much money off of exploited labor both here and abroad, and are now trying to further distance themselves from the unintended consequences.
These racist fearmongers are still in bed with corporatists who would dearly love to keep the spotlight off of themselves. Its a mutually supportive agenda.
Well, they haven’t been doing so well against evolution and global warming lately, so I guess it’s on to Scary Brown People.
Newt’s taxonomy of boogeymen.
.
Well whaddya know, MSNBC.com has just posted a headline article on the rise of ‘homegrown terrorists’. And by homegrown terrorist, we are not talking the Timothy McVeigh kind,but the ‘naturalized young muslim’ kind, or more commonly known as a ‘brown skin foreigner’.
I wish progressives could coordinate their overall themes as well (well, actually, just coordinate them period would be nice). Really, this is beyond text book.
And one more thing, a report noted in the article suggested that one way to handle this ‘growing problem’ is with increased surveillance. And kudos to you if you guessed another coordinated theme of the right wing – increased secret surveillance of Americans is good and necessary to keep brown foreigners from taking over.
Phoenix Woman @ 97
What! Someone knows Winnipeg exists!! I’m amazed and astonished.
Fern in Winnipeg
Damn. EPUed again.
One thing Gingrich doesn’t comment on is that some of the Newark killers apparently belong to a gang, MS-13, whose founding members received training as violence as part of the Reagan-funded Contras. Blowback indeed.
See
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08…..ewark.html
http://www.newschannel9.com/en…..eformat=%M %e,%Y
I called this about a week ago. Teh brown is the new teh gay.
Mr. Romney: What can brown do for you?
Biodun @ 11
Republicans will admire him for ‘coming to his senses’ and having learned to hate just like the rest of them do.
Manipulating, coercing, forcing and other Republican practices are not governing. None of them is fit to govern, much less lead.
SufiLizard @ 33
Do you think it correlates with the recent transfer of Rove from D.C. out to the ‘heartland’?
chrisc @ 74
I suggested that when the Bush immigration bill failed there should be a Dem version which would actually fix the ‘problem’. But, DLCer Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill) said ‘No’, we won’t see any legislation on that for about six years.
How he got the authority to decide such a thing I don’t know.
Apparently Progressive solutions just don’t cut it with Rahm.
hackworth @ 58
Newt might “run for president”, but he isn’t going to be president. His primary job, apparently, is to stir up and divide the southwest electorate — to bring out the racist feelings in people.
Divide and conquer is a familiar tactic to Roverites.
When all else fails, go after the SBP (Scary Brown People) By this logic, then, the native born citizens who murder indicate that ALL native born citizens are murderers who must be dealt with, eh? To call this stupid and racist is to be way too kind to these opportunistic pieces of crap.
Steve-AR @ 178
What pain? Hillary and Barack are triangulators not dividers.
randiego @ 155
Randiego’s talkin’ tough! Fight with the keyboard, if you’ve got any fight in you!
As for some of the others, at 29 and elsewhere: Redneck bigots are not exclusive to the GOP base. Reagan Democrats just took a long time switching parties, and a few have yet to do so. (Be consistent in your attacks.)
In any case, the Republicans are the party of Lincoln, and that’s the winning legacy for contemporary race relations
P.J. Evans: I agree on immigration, and I supported the Bush bill, which was not an amnesty.
Donald Douglas @ 201
This from the gentle writer who on his own site excoriates liberal jesters at length for their ‘chicken hawk’ gag? You DO have a sense of humor!
brendan @ 13
Which makes me wonder why, if the Iranians are supplying the SHIITE MILITIAS with these shaped charges….why it is that the vast number of deaths of US forces that appear to be the result of these charges are occurring in the SUNNI TRIANGLE and other Sunni areas where it would be suicidal for a Shiite Bomb Squad to wander into and wait until the convenient US patrol is passing by?
These attacks are NOT predominantly occurring in Sadr City or in the areas around the Shiite Shrines…they are occuring in places like Baquba and Fallujah and al Anbar and south of Tikrit. These simply are NOT Shiite controlled or influenced zones.
Scapegoating has always worked to give more power to the rich and further divide us from our cause(should I write this?) which is to LOVE each other. The reason illegal immigration continues is not because they are “Willing” to work for less and we are not, instead, it allows for the exploitation of persons who are forced to take those jobs because they have nothing else. If they crack down by fining businesses who hire undocumented workers, it only results in hurting small businesses, not the large companies. They are a permanent underclass that is created, on purpose, to be exploited without objection and blamed. While we might benefit from their cheap labor also, we are actually being jipped, it’s kinda crazy, but true “comprehensive” reform would actually empower us too except now these large multi national corporations are leaving the US, Halliburton, to name one. Layoffs are all over the place, the housing market is dropping, the economy could take a shit at any minute, but hate the illegals. Real smart, because they decide the rate of interest and inflation and because they decide the policies our “Representatives” approve. Soon we will all be leaving to Mexico, cause right now, thats the only place our dollars still have some value. I’ve always wanted to visit Mexico City and I read recently that they found the grave site of this Aztec ruler, Ahuizotl.