You already know I’m “one of those desert loving English”. I like Arabs and don’t see anything especially sinister in the Quran as I’ve known it to develop over the past millenium. But I have no quiver in my finger at shooting dead, dead, dead any son of perdition who would use it to justify the killing of innocent people trying to force its strictures on non-believers. I work to hasten the day some cleric will hang his 95 theses on the door of the Great Mosque at Mecca, thus beginning the demise of Wahhabism in particular and the reformation of Islam in general…as has happened with all religions throughout history, simply by people having more choices.
I hate kings and many Arabs have a penchant for kings.
So do the Democrats, it seems.
Moses Sands once said that America needs immigrants, to which we all agree, but he went on to say “The poorer the better.” On reflection, I agree. You see, I’m one of those beaner-loving gringoski’s, too. I’m simpatico.
In the spring of ’65, I put five dollars and some change in my pocket, another $200 in a sandwich bag in my sock, and began hitchhiking from the Ohio River to Juarez, Mexico to partake of their fine cervezas and black-eyed senoras del placere. You could do that in those days. You can’t anymore….safely. Actually you can’t do either things safely. I made that pilgrimage three times (my folks thought I was fishing Bull Shoals in Arkansas), and the only trouble I ever ran into was, no matter where I turned, some Texas kid was always trying to pick a fight. Of the two ways to get to El Paso, one is across 700 miles of Texas, “The sun has riz, the sun has set, and here I am in Texas yet” and filled with far more horses’ behinds than there are horses. Who knew football players from Rice could fight?
But the Juaristas? I loved them. I learned all the cat-house talk for the cabbies who drove you to Boy’s Town, and the proper pleasantries for the senoritas. And along the way, from Route 66 on, I found a Mexican flair to everything. To a boy raised on mountain oysters, this was heaven. To this day the best Mexican meal I have ever eaten was at a truck stop near Socorro and it cost me $4.87 plus tip.
When I left Japan in ’75 I got my last army assignment at Ft Huachuca, near the Arizona-Mexican border, passed the Arizona bar, then practiced law there for a few years in the Yavapai Apache region, before moving into industry. I still have clients there, and many contacts. Moses lived near Sedona, though I never knew him at the time.
In those days there was no immigration issue. Just culture and class. Arizona subculture was divided up by hippies who hated the pigs, so loved everything they thought the pigs hated, rednecks who hated greasers and hippies, bikers who hated everyone, and old time cowboys who didn’t hate anyone…unless he took a swing at them first. I was a tribal lawyer, so liked the Apaches a lot, but they were a sorrowful lot…lost between two worlds. I’d have been a drunk too, I guess. But the Mexicans?…most congenial manners and easy going way you can imagine, best food on the planet, cock-fights, dog-fights, and real class among their elders. While some of their children were criminals, the old donnas with shawls and rosaries carried a nobility about them that made me feel lucky to be invited into their homes…to counsel their bandit sons, who for three years I got to represent in court. You see, I was simpatico. I was the free lawyer of choice.
That was then, this is now.
The laws of economics apply no matter where you are. If you can find hard workers for low wages, you will hire them. Here in Virginia, there is usually a middle man named Manual who finds them and a straw-boss named Jose who brings them to the job. In some places in California you just go a particular street corner and you sing out your needs, and they pile into the back of your truck. You may think they are just solo job seekers, men just seeking the same thing, a day’s work for a day’s pay. Think again. That corner belongs to someone.
The fellow hiring doesn’t really care that there is a whole lot more organization in that process than meets the eye. I recall once standing in a subway station in Russia in the last winter of the USSR, and watched a crippled beggar with a tin cup begging for stotinkis (a tenth of a penny). I even sneaked over and dropped a ruble paper note in his cup, then returned to my post to watch. Eventually a tall man in fur ushanka and a fine overcoat with fur lined collar walked up (with bodyguards) to speak to this cripple, took all his folding money and tipped him with the remaining coins.
Even beggars must have a patrone in all points on the globe other than America, so these are rules most Americans are not aware even exist. Only in much of America they do, especially now. In free America you do not have to pay for the ability to seek work. But I said “free” America, not the Democrat’s “other America” where everything comes with a middle man bribe-price. But you see, illegals don’t know such freedom exists. They think paying a middle man is normal…and today give up that one freedom just in being able to come here. For once here, they are handed over to the Democrats who hold them in thrall forever.
Hold that thought, for the process will interest you, and the solution will come over you like a wave.
Moses had a simple philosophy about illegals. He said it was important that they always have to sneak…always looking over their shoulder, always afraid the long arm of the law would reach out and grab them, and cut off that Western Union wire to family back in Coahuila. He said it made them grateful. In central Arizona I don’t think Moses saw illegals as much of a problem, thinking more in terms of the labor troubles in California, and Chavez, and Chavez was as anti-illegal immigrant as Jan Brewer is. Moses passed on to the High Pastures in 2006, and probably paid no attention to the influx and impact of illegal immigrants in un-Latino places as Chicago (which I saw first hand in the late ’90s, all the way up to Highland Park), and Virginia. We never talked about it very much. He was more interested in tricking communists, never wondering how that might seque into his own back yard.
The Rigid Jaw of Entitlement
But Moses “sneak-rule” was borne out by the sudden turn of the local community here the past few years at places Latinos (mostly Mexican) congregate. And it was all in the way they carried themselves. Our flea markets have been a home for Latinos since I’ve lived here, a little over 10 years. At first it was only the red-throat vendors who didn’t like them. They blamed every bad thing on the Mexicans; a slow down in business, every little theft, even the smell of the place as Mexicans began selling farm produce. Most of those people had lived in the informal economy all their lives, never paid a nickle in taxes, and lived by buying and selling and all the artful dodges they could scare up on any given Saturday and Sunday. But they were still red-throats, always looking for a fall-guy.
The flea market is the Latinos weekly trip to the mall, a place they can promenade in their Sunday finest…their one day off. Reminds me of the Irish in NYC at the turn of the last century. They came in shifts, the sunrise crowd looking for tools, anything to turn a buck, followed by the after-church crowd, still in their Sunday finery, chiffon dresses and heels, the baby in the stroller (try finding one of those in Chiapas…or being able to afford it…in Chiapas.) The last set were younger men, in three’s and fours, mostly newly arrived, and over half illegal, their payday cash burning a hole in their pockets, just like any 19-year old, with all this cool stuff to buy, right here, when, what 6-8 weeks earlier, they were grubbing for worms in Sinaloa.
But somewhere along the line they picked up a cocky swagger and that rigid jaw of entitlement that almost screams out, “I dare you to say one word about my status.”
People noticed, and people started saying that one word. Illegal. Regular people. Simpatico people. No longer just the red-throats. So, county police started showing up and then just as suddenly only Latinos who were confident their papers would pass muster continued coming. For the illegals in was a dice roll again, and strutting their stuff on Sunday was a crap shoot. They had to sneak once more. (All this two years before Jan put her Brewer in 1079 in Arizona. I’m proud to speak of the small advisory roll our little group had in this sea change.)
There’s no question about the fact that it was this new face of illegal immigration that has changed public opinion so rapidly, and so harshly, from millions of Americans who were once simpatico to simple folk seeking work and a new beginning. People admire the man who quietly goes about his work, never sure he can make eye contact, always fearful, and ever grateful for the polite smile or simplest of Spanish greetings, as a way to say “I am not your enemy.” But when that return look is haughty and disdainful, and a stride with swagger, then it is not so hard to connect the dots when in Washington or LA they are seen to take to streets in protest, with Mexican flags, and American flags upside down. Everyone makes that connection.
People have quickly gotten fed up as they see illegals take to those streets in organized, underscore organized parades and protests about their rights, clearly with this same sense of entitlement they already see on the streets of Virginia.
Remember those middle men I spoke of, above? Back to the Democrats and the other criminals on the Mexican side of the border.
Virtually no Mexican comes here without a “passport”, only they are written now on the other side of the border. As countless hundreds, if not thousands, of Mexican have found out the past decade, one does not simply get up from his hovel in Durango and decide he will go to America. He will be shot dead for sure…for not paying the gate fee. The fence or border crossing is the least of his problems, getting to it is the trick. Unfortunately the Ellis Island we once had (where “illegals” got their papers) now exists well inside the Mexican border, all because we decided not to set one up along that border. This photo is from 1916 when Mexicans fled the civil war these that lasted several years. The violence, the poverty and that civil war goes on to this day.
So all this activity is organized, very little spontaneous, and involves all the parties who stand to benefit from those poor souls moving from a poor existence in Chiapas to a construction site in Toledo, where someone will deliver their vote to Jennifer Brunner to be counted.
Only a fool would say that the four prongs of this enterprise are not in cahoots: 1a) The Mexican “passport agencies” are simple facilitators. Peons hire them to escort them safely across the border. They gather them in collection points well south of the border, then spirit them across, where they are met by various people on the Americano side, who may take them as far away as New Hampshire before than can establish new digs. 1b) The Greeters on the other side are also facilitators, and get a piece of the toll collected, but also get a fee for safe delivery. At this point the facilitators are out of the picture, go back to Phoenix to make another haul, and the illegals are handed over to the “administrative” control of 2) Protectors, who gte them settled and oriented with the people who will find them jobs. These are the varied Latino-based NGOs, community organizers, many receiving federal money, the old ACORN among them (I know people in rural Arizona who have been with ACORN for twenty plus years), all who have a political and financial reason for wanting these immigrants in the US under their supervisory-control, and 3) Democrat Party, who simply needs the new voter base and has the current ability to fund this process (launder) through those NGO’s, top to bottom. Finally there is the 4) Mexican government who needs that pressure valve of disenchanted poor released and all that Western Union money being put back into the economy, where they get an especially nice cut, since, like most socialist-fascist countries, almost all the privates sector vendors in Mexico are exclusive “licensees” of the state.
While the Mexican facilitators, (crooks, they fight over turf and transport just like drug gangs do, and often may be the same) can do all right by themselves, imagine the windfall profits once it’s known the leaseholders of the world’s largest money pit, the Democrat Party, are willing to fund their clients arrival under various circumstances? Jackpot! At the same time drug cartels need to secure mule paths and hide them with armies of collaterals and they pull out cash, and Muslim-terrorists who have their own stash need to get across to meet brotherhood friends in Phoenix, so all of a sudden these guys are rolling in dough. You can see why Chihuahua and Durango, especially, barren wastelands to the Mexican government for years, have now become jewels in the criminal crown, and fought over by rival drug cartels, federalis and provincial police, like the Silk Road once was in Asia. Your highway taxes at work.
Last week, ColdWarrior scooped the nation with a film report stating that Obama is intentionally holding off securing the border until he can get immigration reform. No matter how much I don’t like a fellow I won’t hang him for something he hasn’t done, and I’m not yet convinced Obama’s been read into the four levels and players of this criminal conspiracy. In fact, considering how the Democrat Party turned a little three-four billion heist in Fanny Mac into the near collapse of the American economy, without ever really intending to, I’m not sure they ever intended that this quest for a million new voters would entail crime, murder and death of such magnitude. But, like it or not, they are in it up to their necks now, for they are funding the entire process.
Two simple rules
I didn’t start writing this with the intention of laying out a better immigration plan, but Moses suggested one a long time ago. Build an Ellis Island at the border, and just like the old one, run them through the mill, doctors, background checks, then pass them through with papers of passage. Three-four days. But also build, a few miles away, a St Helena’s Island, set up like Sheriff Joe’s facilities in Maricopa County, for sending them back, where it is guaranteed it will take at least a month to process them back into Mexico. Set up in this way, this will guarantee those coming through the legal portal will likely be good workers, and behave like good citizens, while all the others, with mischief in their eyes, will find border crossing more difficult and much easier for states to interdict. They will not have any collateral cover.
Back to something Moses said, and something a fellow, Leo Rosten, wrote about in the 1930s, about the joy of “comink to America” and being a citizen (The Education of H *Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N…I can recommend no book higher for capturing that joy)…there is that idea of gratitude.
These are Moses rules, but also mine: The kind of immigrant we want is one 1) who blesses the ground he walks on because it is free ground, and 2) blesses the Document and the men and women who made and kept that ground free.
If instead, they must kiss the ring of the Democrat Party, or any constituent branch thereof, we not only don’t want them, but should spend every penny possible to insure they are rounded up and send packing.
And, inasmuch as 10%-20% only of the illegals who come here now are not already under some “contractual obligation” to those third parties, that system should be destroyed, top to bottom.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
The existing system must be destroyed...
acat (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 10:19AM EST (link)and I would argue salting the ground so that it cannot grow again.
(and I’m one of those yanquis who doesn’t like the heat… or guacamole for that matter… but I do enjoy a good burrito)
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Outstanding Vassar, but these words are some of the most....
penguin2 (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 10:39AM EST (link)beautiful you’ve written:
They describe the heart of the American that can hold this ground, hold this country together.
On another tact, as you talk about the middleman in procuring passage and jobs for illegal aliens, it reminded me of the unions in a similar fashion. In blue states and unionized industries, one can only get a job, apprenticeship, journeyman, etc. by being in a union, or becoming a member. I think union jobs are passed on through the family in some cases. But there is a similarity of power and control over the one who wants and needs the job. Unions are the middlemen in this country and if the Dems one Party rule continues, the unions will find a way to control all jobs in this country……
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. – Benjamin Franklin
When Good stands up to Evil, Evil blinks. – Vassar Bushmills
Conservative Education: Suggested Reading List
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Vassar, your writing is SUPERB! nt.
LaborUnionReport (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 10:58AM EST (link)“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine December 23, 1776
In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.-Ayn Rand
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Only halfway through your piece...
Diogenes314 (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 3:22AM EST (link)And I feel I should go back and hit Reco again.
I knew....
qixlqatl (Diary) Sunday, June 27th at 12:00PM EST (link)that i could save myself the trouble of scrolling back up by hitting reco before I read. Vassar never disappoints.
“Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying,
Streams like the thunderstorm against the wind.”
George Gordon Noel Byron
I feel...Educated.
Repair_Man_Jack (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 11:10AM EST (link)Amazing what you read on the Internet these days. Recco!!
” I side impenitently with the human race against the modern reformer.” – C.S. Lewis
feeling and being are two different things - read the archives and come back (smile), now Vasser, back to the substance
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 5:29PM EST (link)Love the use of shame in the law. I like to have some laws just for moral effect that I would rarely enforce, like when adultery and sodomy were illegal, but I digress.
Great points about the “new” arrogant face of shameless illegal immigration, but I think that arrogance is but a symptom of what really caused the public to raise cain, and that is that so many came so quickly and with less rapid assimilation into our culture. The outrage is especially acute in small towns that get overwhelmed due to a chicken factory etc.
We really should have made a bigger issue of the Obama/Hillary debate on NY law that tied motor votor to illegals.
more later
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
GC, have you heard of Ron Unz?
aesthete (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 7:08PM EST (link)I kind of like his ideas for what states can do to facilitate integration. In an interesting twist, he now owns the American Conservative, Pat Buchanan’s mag, and promotes lotsa immigration and (partly because he’s Jewish) a pro-Israel foreign policy. Smart guy; I think you’d like reading him.
In urban areas, the complaint tends to be more about the drug runners who sequester themselves in major cities and run their ops from there. It’s pretty bad in Tucson, particularly.
The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton
I'll look him up - nt
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 7:18PM EST (link)Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
You're right GC, I should have noted that...
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 7:09AM EST (link)…anti-assimilation is indeed part of the plan. Apartness has always borne the Dem’s fingerprints, although we know that once the Left victory is complete, we all suddenlt are wearing the same orange jump suit of captivity.
Cheers
Anti-assimilation isn't often mentioned
Flagstaff (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 4:57PM EST (link)as a problem, but it is a bad one. It is the perfect tool for the Deomcrats who want to keep us separated, each with our own goals and values and customs, so we can be turned against one another when convenient.
“They will not have any collateral cover.”
Another seldom noted benefit of systematic and legal immigration. The bad guys stand out, no longer hidden among all those “good people who just want to support their families.”
I agree about “The Education of H*K.” I read it so long ago I’d forgotten.
“The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”– Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
Yep, Lady P, that's the general idea.
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 11:27AM EST (link)…every illegal has to come under the control of some constituent arm of the Party. These terms simply are not acceptable.
Amazing.
LisaDe (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 11:27AM EST (link)And I hate that word but its the only one worthy of this post.
Wonder why Obama won't secure the border?
Erick Brockway (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 11:38AM EST (link)There it is…
Note to lefties;
“Don’t be afraid to see what you see.” -Ronald Reagan
Activists taking Action
Join the RedState Strike Force
Bottom line: you can't have the two islands until you have the fence
ColdWarrior (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 11:42AM EST (link)When we had Ellis Island, the Atlantic was the natural barrier that served as our “fence.” We don’t have a natural barrier between us and Mexico. Without a barrier between us and Mexico (which could be a combination of a real fence, a virtual fence, sentries, patrols, etc. — whatever is cost-effective and environmentally sound but which actually works), some sort of onerous internal “may I see your papers, please” system will have to be foisted onto all of us, including the non-illegals.
I don’t want that.
So, we’ve got to get serious about securing the border, and Dear Leader has told us in no uncertain terms, “No!”
So, what to do?
For Liberty,
ColdWarrior, PC (that’s “precinct committeeman,” not “political child!”)
Conservatives, UNITE! CHANGE the Republican Party and save the world by UNITING INSIDE the Party as precinct committeemen. NOW! (131 days until Nov. 2 — what are YOU DOING to help get out the vote in your precinct?)
In 2012, will YOU become a “voting member” of the Republican Party in your precinct?
Where it all started. Twitter @kaltkrieger
Unified Patriots.
Learn how to GOTV at The Concord Project and at Procinct and
It's just a guess, CW, but I think if we have a Remuda Norte
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 12:52PM EST (link)and a Remuda Sur, we won’t need a fence. Three days in, and never having to sneak? Nah, they’ll file through peaceably, only those with mischief on their minds will continue to sneak.
That’s the way I see it at least. In the end, it will be a political choice, and I think my way is cheaper, too.
The beauty of Vassar's idea is that it creates a situation that any law needs to succeed
AKSteveB (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 4:40PM EST (link)A law is only enforceable when the majority of law abiding people believe those breaking the law are doing something wrong.
Hell is other people – Sartre
ok, now I must read the rest of simpatico now - more
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 4:42PM EST (link)later…I’m kind of giddy about the Cocks v Clemson in CWS tonight.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Go Cocks!
sccrenny (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 5:37PM EST (link)Gonna be a late night tonight!
When I look at Barack Obama I don’t see black. I don’t see white. I do, however see RED! It’s the same color I see when I look at Pelosi, Reid, ACORN, SEIU…
Precinct Delegate since 2010
but of course, and these next two games (like my optimism) are the closest USC men
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 5:52PM EST (link)have been to a national championship in any sport since 2003 when we lost to Texas in the championship series and the 10-0 start of Joe Morrison’s black magic year in football. The only national championship of which Carolina can boast in their long history was the Women in track and field a few years ago. We need to focus and do this thing.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Just today...
sccrenny (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 10:11PM EST (link)I was talking about being at the Outer Banks fishing that year when we played Navy in that 11th game. Couldn’t find the game on TV out there and had to find out on ESPN that night that we had overlooked Navy looking ahead to Clemson. DOHH!!!!!
When I look at Barack Obama I don’t see black. I don’t see white. I do, however see RED! It’s the same color I see when I look at Pelosi, Reid, ACORN, SEIU…
Precinct Delegate since 2010
One down, three to go for a USC baseball national championship: Gamecocks 5, Clemson 1 - nt
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 11:54PM EST (link)Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
We still need a fence.
Flagstaff (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 5:15PM EST (link)Even when Utopia arrives, we want to make it easier to catch the bad guys. Fences facilitate that, at a lot less expense than equivalent manpower would cost.
Also, without a fence there will always be greater temptation for otherwise good people to try to bypass the legal entry line, because we can never let in all that want to come, at least not until the Democrats destroy the country to make it less than the most desirable destination in the world. We don’t want to give the bad guys more “collateral cover.”
Finally, only Russell Pearce in Arizona is addressing the second-biggest magnet for illegal gate-crashers–automatic citizenship by birth for illegals’ children, but not for the children of legal non-citizen residents. The 14th Amendment needs to be clarified.
“The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”– Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
The easiest way to make illegals not welcome ...
southeasttexas (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 6:37PM EST (link)… is to make darned sure they aren’t provided free housing, free food, free medical care and everything else that is being handed to them on a silver platter. These benefits were designed to help AMERICANS, and so it should be. But to grant everyone in this country illegally amnesty and instant citizenship without first securing our borders will do nothing but increase the flow a hundred-fold.
We need leadership in this country; not elected officials more concerned with their political future than what’s best for the nation. And we need a federal leadership willing to get off its dead behind to secure our borders and quit jumping on states that undertake an initiative because their federal counterparts won’t!
http://nationalchat.wordpress.com
Leadership is a must. nt
Flagstaff (Diary) Sunday, June 27th at 1:25AM EST (link)“The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”– Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
I would go further
liandro (Diary) Tuesday, June 29th at 4:09AM EST (link)and argue that many Americans shouldn’t have these things, either. It subsidizes illegal immigration, but it also promotes government dependency and plays down personal responsibility among everyone else, too.
At the very least, I advocate for pushing back against the growth of all these “freebies”. Start with the new health care debacle, as that is recent enough, and therefore no one has gotten overly comfortable and dependent on it yet.
These entitlements are anything but free in the long run.
They aren't free, as you say.
Flagstaff (Diary) Tuesday, June 29th at 11:25AM EST (link)Even to the recipients, usually. All of the government’s welfare programs started out smaller, with the idea that really needy people would get help for a short time or for life-threatening situations. They’ve grown over time to trying to provide a middle-class level of life for people who don’t een atemp to work. The welfare reforms of the 90′s helped, but current expansions are going the wrong way.
Courts interfere and make things worse, especially regarding extension of benefits to illegal residents of the US.
“The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”– Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
amen CW, fences work and another thing a fence lessens that guard troops cause
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 5:32PM EST (link)is across border confrontations.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Obama has not lifted a finger to secure the border.
Loren Heal (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 11:45AM EST (link)His party’s message is that amnesty comes before securing the border.
They would rather cede territory to the drug and migrant smugglers than enforce the law, because to enforce the law harms their power base.
Obama is the face of illegal immigration.
–
Join the Concord Project, and follow @lheal, if you dare.
securing the border is akin to cutting off a dem voter registration line - nt
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 4:45PM EST (link)Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Oh, and: Tall Fence, Wide Gate.
Loren Heal (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 11:52AM EST (link)If we can’t rescind the anchor baby policy, put up a hospital on the border and declare it outside the anchor-baby rules.
And multiculturalism must be put down like a two-legged donkey.
–
Join the Concord Project, and follow @lheal, if you dare.
5 nt
aesthete (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 6:10PM EST (link)The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton
can't rescind constitution, anchor babes included, but we can..
tngal (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 10:52AM EST (link)make it less attractive to those who would abuse the priviledge. Consider, while the constitution allows that children born here are citiznes, that doesn’t apply to the parents. If a woman has a baby here and she has a work permit or came illegally, then she’s got to go once that permit expires or she’s caught as an illegal.
The mother can leave the child here in America with legal citizens until the age of 18. Going to our schools, learning our language, and abiding by our laws. The mother has no say so in how the child is raised. In effect she has given the child up for adoption. As there are more children waiting to be adopted than there are adoptaptive parents, expect many of these children to be set up in facilities which care for parentless children. In short the baby can stay, by our constitution, but the illegal parent leaves. If both parents are illegal they both leave. Its easier and less expensive to raise one child than giving entitlements to the whole family.
A little harsh perhaps and some would argue it’s punishing the child. Far from it. We’re upholding the constitution while making the parents responsible for choosing: a) a better life for my child away from me; or b) keeping the family intact and all leave together; or c) The parent could opt to choose one of the many ways we already have on the books and become a citizen themselves. Some ways take longer than others but, hey, its citizenship, not picking out a new hat.
We’ve given the parents choices (libs are all about choice so they should love this). Being a responsible parent means making the tough choices.
conferring citizenship on the children of illegals is NOT mandated by the 14th A nor any court
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 11:30AM EST (link)decision on point. Yes, a late 1800s case (Wong? I have several scholarly legal articles I will retrieve) declared that interpretation, but the plaintiffs in Wong were not similarly situated and so is not even in stare decisis category.
But, the anchor baby policy is arguably merely the ongoing policy of the Executive branch and partly congressional law that can be repealed.
The Congress is allowed to EXPAND rights under the Constitution, just not contract those conferred thereby. Congress could exercise its 14th Amendment power and define citizenship back to the 14th, and allow only the babies of persons that are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States via the consent of the United States.
Individuals do not possess the power to determine who shall be a citizen of the US and subject to our jurisdiction.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
But it will take an argument at the SC to clarify
Jeff Weimer (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 11:54AM EST (link)Until then, the “born here, you’re a citizen” part of Wong Kim Ark is the operative interpretation.
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.
-Voltaire
That's right but I hear that the Supreme Court has ruled that Liberty
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 12:37PM EST (link)is the opposite of tyranny; white doesn’t mean black and apple pie is good, so we are safe on those till them…smile
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
with this Scotus, which way do you think
tngal (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 12:40PM EST (link)the hammer will fall? (trick quesiton, I know)
I doubt any case will ever be brought because no Congress
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 12:57PM EST (link)will ever change the statutory law to end birthright citizenship. A baby born after such a law would have standing to sue.
No one has the standing to sue now to demand that Congress deny birthright citizenship. Clearly Congress has the explicit power to make anyone a citizen it wants to.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
And the ACLU will have a suit filed before his footprint is dry
Jeff Weimer (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 3:13PM EST (link)On that non-citizen birth certificate.
There has to be a way to bring a suit before the court now that would make the point.. Who would have standing?
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.
-Voltaire
No one has standing to sue to challenge the citizenship of another as Congress has the power under the 14th
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 4:51PM EST (link)to EXPAND who can be a citizen with the only restriction that they can’t deny citizenship to those upon whom the Constitution itself confers citizenship.
Congress and before that and now, Executive regulations may have been inspired to codify the Wong ruling, but that they were wrong in what Wong says the Constitution requires, in no way invalidates their expansion of naturalization.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
From the moment I read your 'thank you' note..
speciallist (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 12:20PM EST (link)after I saved your life on the summit of Mt. Everest…..I knew you would be a great writer
well done!
I thought we agreed not to talk about that, Sir Edmund
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 12:48PM EST (link)Tenzing
OK, last (so far) on the 'llist of those that would have the miller of bush's head explode, let's drink deeply the Pierian...
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 3:48PM EST (link)Spelling may be the hobgoblin of puny minds, but I refuse to butcher Alexander Pop. I digress.
Yes, you are a beautiful writer, blah, blah, blah…smile, but you know Gamecock is a substance guy, not so worried about procedure, i.e. art. Sad isn’t it.
But seriously, lets examine you first paragraph (that’s as far as I got, as I’m sick and there was just so much to say at that point. We will read it all later.), which does quite efficiently, convey a cornucopia of profound ideas.
I really think you have to say that in many ways that the Koran’s actual words make a Protestant-type reformation quite difficult, as compared to the Bible that Martin Luther read.
more later
tired
wrote a column on this months ago and will find it
more later
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Actually, no, Mike they actually already had one
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 7:21AM EST (link)…in the 10th-12th Century, but among the Ommayads who controlled North Africa and Spain…and in the end, it was non-Arab or mixed Arab.
The haditha (s) there are several renderings, are the real guiding laws of Islam (or were) and they were less strident in many of the Qu’rans strictures. The Wahhabis were (are) no different that snake handlers in Tennessee and would have squished like bugs years ago, but for oil. (One of God’s little jokes.)
Literal Christians (I knew of some snake handlers) who would pull out Deuteronomy if they decided they wanted to take in their wife’s better looking sister for succor and comfort…etc etc. OT is full of such stuff.
Sorry you’re still under the weather. And yes, GC is right again, sometimes you have to find my “substance” with a divining rod. There’s a purpose in that.
Cheers
But what the OT and NT are bereft of, are any admonitions for present day Jews or Christians
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 7:56AM EST (link)to convert by force, kill infidels, etc. Islam was born as a religion instituted by violence. It has many inherent qualities that have resulted in its peoples underacheivement for centuries as it evolved.
Most of the seemingly harsh and actually harsh laws in the OT were actually liberal for its day and many were for military type discipline for a vulnerable people having war waged against it.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
The Barbary Pirates were un-reformed when Jefferson
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 11:34AM EST (link)and Adams met them in Europe re tribute and were told they were infidels that deserved death, much less relief from tribute. Jefferson became a federalist and built a navy!
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
And what happens when Obama decrees: Blanket amnesty for all!?
Vegas_Rick (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 1:02PM EST (link)It’s coming. Mark my words.
“God is great, beer is good and people are crazy.”- Billy Currington
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Calvin Coolidge.
Interesting Times, Vegas. Interesting Times.
acat (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 1:43PM EST (link)Lawsuits challenging Obama’s standing come to mind.
ICE (INS) struggling to issue paperwork to thirty million people.
Thirty million new welfare recipients… because changing them from illegal to legal means jack about their bosses filing proper tax docs.
The argument about how “they support social security but get nothing out of it” goes away – as well as all the so-called “support” … most of which was never paid in.
To put it in perspective, this is akin to the West German absorption of the failed East German state… only we’re going to do it in the middle of an economic “recession” and with no planning.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
I regret that I think he can do it under the pardon power, but
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 4:47PM EST (link)I really think that such an act would cause a revolution in this country.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
I think he can do it as well ...
acat (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 5:29PM EST (link)And I think you’re right about where it ends .. especially as Mexico falls further into chaos, pushing more people north.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
a caveat re Obama's amnesty authority and a question for Bushmills and non-Bushmills
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 5:40PM EST (link)Obama cannot confer citizenship on the pardoned, so by granting amnesty he would be craving out a special category of resident, and my question is, especially considering VB’s discourse on the shame issue and its limits.
Some desire an amnesty after a fence that would allow most to stay that are here, but that they never be allowed to vote unless they get in line and emigrate legally.
What do you think of the idea of so many non-voters for life running around? Does that smack of second-class citizenship that is anathema to American equal protection ideals?
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
I can't speak for everyone
aesthete (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 7:02PM EST (link)but for me, if there is to be amnesty, it should be complete, assuming that the only crimes committed by immigrants were of a non-violent and non-theft nature (i.e., driving w/out a license, coming to the US illegally, etc.) Hearkening back to Socrates’ diary, I think that there is something quite compelling in the notion of the fresh start, and many of our country’s institutions were designed from the vantage points of those who had left the oppressive and dysfunctional patchwork of kleptocracies and kingdoms in Europe, to establish a new life in America. Immigrants who come to the US illegally have done no person any harm, and as far as I’m concerned, any crimes of that nature should be pardoned fully. On a more practical note, keeping a populace trapped in limbo as second-class citizens is a recipe for disaster, and all but encourages different treatment for such individuals. I imagine that it would be even worse if the anchor baby fix was made, ensuring that future generations would have the same fate as their fathers and mothers. I favor amnesty when the flow of illegals is curbed (i.e., BuildTheFence™ and change the laws to be more enforceable, etc.), but it should ideally be a one-time fix, not a recurrent problem which encourages lawlessness, and has the concomitant problems of moral hazard.
The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton
totally agree - nt
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 7:16PM EST (link)Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Dems lose power for a generation? - nt
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 3:50PM EST (link)Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
That's what all these new Fed bureaucracies are *for*, Gamecock!
acat (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 3:55PM EST (link)Think of them as Dem fallout shelters – when they can’t win elections anymore, they all go hide out in the vast paper farms of the Fed, or in the intellectual wastelands of academia.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
I understand, but no matter what you say
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 4:12PM EST (link)the Clemson Tigers must lose. Notice that those tigers are thecat!
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
I can agree with you, Gamecock.
acat (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 4:14PM EST (link)Roll Tide.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Whoever said "revolution" is right,...
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 5:20PM EST (link)..only I think we’re maybe being goaded into one. This would be one cause….then to see who would rise up thru AG;s of the states, and who would rise up by shooting Mex’s on sight. (Remember that horrible murder in Detroit when a gang killed a coupla Chinese during the Japan car surge, in the 80s, (Mistaken identity) . They all got off.
I would try and steer the revolution into a non-violent equivalence
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 5:43PM EST (link)Obama ignores the rule of law on the border. We ignore tax laws.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
You know what GC- You seem to want to
Scope (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 10:57PM EST (link)make everyone into lawful peace abiding citizens, and, worse yet see to believe that this administration isn’t out with their AK47′s against our water squirt guns. You are really that softy little fuzzy bear that wants to say, Hey, we love everyone, give us a chance, as in, the olive branch believers. That softness lost us many many elections, when we voted the same crap happy R leadership back into power, that either has bought into the “I can make money off this green thing”, or, “it’s bigger then us” mentality, and we simply can’t fight it. You really believe that we can bring a knife to a gun fight, and, at least win the moral high ground. The D’s have no morals, period. Also, I saw not the first thing that Bushmills said that would indicate a “bloody revolution” should be had, on the contrary. Bushmills is trying to win this “war” through ballot box activism, and, by going door to door with our message. Why are you even bringing up that you “want to steer the revolution into a non-violent equivalence”? I don’t get where you see that Bushmills is asking for violence.
Ok Scope, what about wanting to answer an exectutive order granting amnesty with
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 12:04AM EST (link)mass civil disobedience refusal to pay taxes rather than with blood in the streets, ” makes [me] seem want to make everyone into lawful peace abiding citizens”?
What does that even mean? Isn’t civilization made possible by such citizens? Got no clue what that concept has to do with a tax protest I propose, nor do I see how you discern the extrapolations that follow about AK47s etc.
Behave minty breath gal
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
I don't think more than a tiny minority would care, GC.
Achance (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 7:48AM EST (link)Just don’t see any mass outcry if HE grant’s amnesty. I don’t think he has the authority beyond pardon for any criminal proceeding, by who cares about silly details like laws.
Yeah, individual Americans would care if they didn’t have a job because an illegal granted amnesty did, but that is an individual thing. Sorry, but I simply think the Country has become to ignorant to particiapate in a republican democracy, so Opra or Katie Couric will tell them that the EO was a good thing and they’ll go rustle up their Idol reruns on TIVO. Land of the Enslaved and Home of the Stupid.
In Vino Veritas
you may be right for another reason - most Americans have no problem with INDIVIDUALS
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 8:10AM EST (link)who are here illegally. The problem is a government that won’t stop the flow.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
The comments about avoiding violence relates to an issue not addressed in VBs diary
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 12:21AM EST (link)that was touched upon upthread and in other columns we have written that see a revolution in general coming but more specifically to what would happen if Obama were to grant amnesty by executive order.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
My short answer, GC is John Wayne Rule #1
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 7:31AM EST (link)…never throw the first punch. But finish it. (If you can.)
That’s why, like you, I think it’s important we are the one’s wearing the badges.
I also favor mass demonstrations and strikes (vs bomb throwing), but it’s also a crap shoot inasmuch as both Gandhi and King knew the limits of force that would be used against them. We won’t. Once they feel they have enough control…they can go anywhere from Ahmadinijab to Attila in quietening the crowd.
Interesting that you think the limits of Obama's force is greater than Bull Connor - nt
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 8:00AM EST (link)Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
The list of recommenders is interesting
AKSteveB (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 4:42PM EST (link)My thoughts on immigration have been quite similar to Vassar’s, but I imagined I was in such a small minority here, that it wasn’t even worth mentioning. Glad to be wrong (again!).
Hell is other people – Sartre
Then speak up more often. I'd have gladly relinquished the floor to you Steve,
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 5:13PM EST (link)There’s a lot of that going around, by the way and we really need to disabuse ourselves of the luxury of anonymity.
Vassar...
sccrenny (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 5:47PM EST (link)(a la Carl)… ” I like the way you talk.” I really must get back to your site and read more of your work.
You hooked me in one blog where you declared (paraphrased) “Fifty years ago you sneaked behind the barn with your friend for a smoke, now you have to sneak behind the barn to share Jesus.”
When I look at Barack Obama I don’t see black. I don’t see white. I do, however see RED! It’s the same color I see when I look at Pelosi, Reid, ACORN, SEIU…
Precinct Delegate since 2010
Yes, Vassar, they will know who we are soon enough if they don't already.
janis (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 5:53PM EST (link)But what we stand for is freedom, the law, justice and equality. If we will not or cannot stand up for those things in public, then we are finished already.
You are bang on the money again with this diary. Yes, we all knew that illegal immigration was an ongoing thing in years past, and while we may not have liked that fact, it was only when their hopes and needs turned into demands and entitlements that they became truly the enemy. Here in Tennessee, universities are now moving toward making sure that illegals can not only get a college education, but that they can also qualify for scholarships. Even Trevecca Nazarene College is proudly supporting this and helping to lead the way. This is insanity of the first order.
True diversity will be when we finally elect the first Illegal Immigrant POTUS. If they are transgendered and have fins, it wouldn’t hurt.
Vassar valid point on the anonymity.
AKSteveB (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 9:30PM EST (link)In terms of the diary writing, there are two things that stop me from doing much.
1. I’m way way out of practice in terms of writing tight, well argued, well researched prose. At this point, there are so many here that are better at it ..including yourself, that most of what I could do would be amateurish. A Diary requires, however informally, outlining, editing, revising, proofreading. A response requires none of these.
2. Though I am ..I think ..reasonably well (albeit mostly self) educated, I’m fairly new to political activism and commentary. I’ve always been more or less conservative, but didn’t take it that seriously, and mostly sat on the moderate fence. That changed at about week #2 of the Obama administration. I remember Ayn Rand said, that if you find something that contradicts itself (in this case political moderation) check your premises, you will find one is wrong. I’m somewhat active locally now, and I will write a diary once in awhile if it is about something Alaskan, since I actually do know something about that, but otherwise I’m more at a “listen a lot, say little” point. I learn a lot from RedState and a lot more from going back to the sources (Burke, Goldwater et al). All part of the whole getting the premises right thing. I’ll contribute more as I solidify the premises and gain more confidence that I can make well reasoned factually based arguments.
Hell is other people – Sartre
About #1) AKSteve
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 6:52AM EST (link)…I’m regarded as the least-tight writer anywhere, been known to put people to sleep. Worse than a Baptist. “Garrulous old fool” someone said.
Write something that matters to you and let people here decide. My email is vbushmills@thesandsinstitute.org, so make sure I see it.
VB
"Cartago delanda est"
aesthete (Diary) Friday, June 25th at 6:45PM EST (link)The INS, ICE, and all the rest of the three-letter acronyms have got to go. The system, as it currently stands, is the most broken thing in government today. It is a stonghold of the Department of Labor (and, by extension, the unions), and is tailored around their needs, and the needs of select businesses with lobbying power (which is why no cheap labor can come through; for fear of their utility as “scabs”, and why the laws on white-collar labor are so labyrinthine). It’s in the vested interest of the Democrat party to keep illegals poor, scared with their heads hung low, and in the shadows: in this, they function as both a convenient bogeyman for various causes, and allows the Democrats to manipulate and bribe them with promises of panem et circenses.
Telling the illegal to “get in line” in these circumstances is to tell him to do what no free American should do: to bow low before and submit to a system largely designed with the goal of creating and maintaining malleable serfs. And lest we ignore the intent of immigration for the US, it should be to foster future Americans, and to benefit from the labor of fellow travelers who would return to their country in the spirit of Alexis de Tocqueville. To that end, I’m not even sure if we need a new St Helena Island: the American people will, as they had for centuries (our country didn’t have an immigration law until much after the Civil War), determine the calibre of the immigrants who come to this land, and their summary judgement and justice is one that I implicitly trust in the aggregate over that of even the most well-intentioned cop (though of course, we would retain the right to eject immigrants at our pleasure, though in accordance with private property norms and such). Citizenship is a different story (the vote should always be held at high and exacting, punishing even, standards), but one that is more easily
Indeed, restricting federal entitlement programs, and having immigrants pay into the system if they are in our country would go a long way towards preparing them for citizenship. Well, that and killing publicly administered, multi-culti education. Having immigrants pay into the system but get nothing in return is a good way to weed out and reform the undesirable elements of an immigrant population. BTW Vassar, I highly encourage that you go and see a naturalization ceremony: they are incredibly moving and powerful. One of the best things about America is that it doesn’t reproduce through the birthing of those with the proper pedigree; rather, it finds its long-lost brothers and sister throughout the globe, re-awakens their hunger for freedom, and absorbs them through osmosis.
The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton
Most Americans don't realize the extent of slavery in this Country.
Achance (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 6:50AM EST (link)I’ve written about it some here but it was really in passing; I guess I am guilty of just taking some things for granted about how the world works.
To me, the ONE great thing about America, the true source of American exceptionalism, is the fact that America formally, in writing, and enforceably did away with the patron-client system of Rome and feudal Europe. Leaving aside the unpleasantness with Blacks, in America no man owed liege to another. With the strokes of pens in 1776 and 1789 the old World was done away with in at least the Northern part of the New World.
Mexico is still in the Old World; nobody in Mexico is free except the one guy, and it IS a guy, at the top of the client-patron stack. Everybody below him is paying somebody for their right to exist. I spend a good bit of time in Mexico but I spend it as an affluent tourist largely insulated from things that are the reality of Mexico. But because of what I do, I see things that others might not. Nobody gets paid a real wage in Mexico; the whole country runs like an American strip joint. You pay the house to work there and your money is your tips and what you can steal, but the stealing isn’t officially tolerated so if you’re not good at stealing and get caught, you get fired or worse. If you’re really good at stealing, the patron calls you in and offers you greater opportunities.
The Mexicans and their business associates on the Democrat side of things run the same game here. Whether it is a union job or the permits to build your mine or refinery, you will pay the patron for the opportunity to work. What if find both fascinating and disheartening is the extent to which business has simply succumbed to the game. Only the biggest businesses could afford to take on the US Government, but states and cities can run the protection number on even very big businesses with seeming impunity. I think that is mostly because almost none of the big public corporations are run by anyone even related to the guy, yeah, I said guy, whose name is on the building; they’re run by some scheming eunuch from Wharton or Hahvud who the guy whose name is on the building wouldn’t have hired as the mailboy.
Anyway, the Mexicans don’t have a monopoly on it; the Asians and the Russians here are good at it too. The stupid family reunification laws allow a patron to bring some purported cousin over and his/her passport goes in the safe and comes out when the patron can’t extract any more from them. Some huge percentage of the Asian and Eastern European and Russian women in America are here purely as sex slaves. Most of the “undocumented workers” in America are slaves; they willl turn over their earnings to the patron or he will turn them over to ICE, and ICE knows this game and is complicit in it.
We fought an awful four year war to abolish this system for Blacks but now they’re complicit in it for others. The Black “leaders” are fine with a system that is the primary cause of their people living in ghettos and on welfare because the Democrats give a few prominent poverty pimps power and position; that just makes them the patron for Black communities no matter what more respectable face they want to put on it. They can call themselves minister if they want; I just call them pimps.
Can’t say I’ve never hired an illegal, yeah we have them here too, but at least I had the dignity to look over my shoulder when I did it. Too much of this Country has just come to accept the Old World way of life and not even to notice what an abomination it is.
In Vino Veritas
That's the bottom line of it all, Art. Thanks
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 7:37AM EST (link)When the immigrants came here en masse, most of them were stuck in the cities where that patronage system lasted usually a generation , then the kids just sort of moved out. The permanent underclass is now in its third, including the old latino barrios of So Calif and NYC.
The Dems are trying to bottle it. All i know, as do you, once a person gets his papers without any need for thanking the Document, it’s over.
Two more bottom lines while GC finally has the time to engage VB
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 8:06AM EST (link)You are for full voting rights with amnesty and unlimited immigration with or without a fence? Right? I was sick yesterday and now, so talk to me like five-year old/cinco anos
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Hope that isn't the message I sent, GC
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 8:41AM EST (link)If it were practical, I’m for rounding then all (illegals) up. A dragnet. (And send all the Russian and Illegals back too,)
If we were to build a Remuda del Norte and Remuda del Sur, all illegals would be required to return to Mexico than come stand in line at the del Norte portal. As with Ellis, there are a series of stations to pass before being given papers, health, background, etc. Being allowed in will be based on economic needs at the time or letters of sponsorship/jobs. (I know these are easy to corrupt.).I’ve long been on the anchor-baby prohibition team.
To me, as mentioned by Art above, and the real point of my article, is to sever the patronage ties to the immigrants, so that immigrants who come here are grateful to the right things, insuring good citizenship.
Besides the anchort baby change there will be no state-paid anything, anymore, and no hint of voting until they acquire citizenship in however many years are required. (Actually I’d require an extra 2-3 years over anyone coming in by lottery.)
My view is that most illegals in the US now will gladly make the round trip in order to cut away from having to sneak, but also to severe the ties of their patrones.
But yes, I think every illegal should go home and re-apply then make the prospects of being caught then sent home as unpleasant as possible.
Just wanted clarification as it appears you are to the right of me
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 8:46AM EST (link)and I kind of like it when that happens here.
My main cause is for a fence and then deal with those that are here. I think we have been complicit in their presence and so would like to find a way to avoid injustice to legals and a mass exodus and too many second class citizens. Because I do think voting rights must not be conferred on illegals granted amnesty unless they go back and enter legally thru the process.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
We just have a little difference as to the best cure
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 9:05AM EST (link)Happy birfday, old man.
And as long as we don't permit the Left to keep us talking in curlicues ...
acat (Diary) Sunday, June 27th at 12:41AM EST (link)In short – build the damn fence first – we’ll be fine.
I seem to recall, and I was a much more spry kitten at the time, the Reagan Amnesty was to be followed by all sorts of teeth and claws. The border would not have to be sealed because nobody would be able to rent to or hire an illegal – but it’s all become just more durm and strang or, perhaps, words – just words.
No mas, amigos. A majority want to stop the flood of migrants and refugees – so let’s do the part we agree on. If we get caught up debating whether we should open refugee camps in Arizona – and what style of camps we should have – Maricopa County Jail or Club Fed – or whether we should create an under-class or not, etc. we’ll *never* get the wall built.
It’s a deflection play, eh? “Let’s you, who want a wall and a blanket amnesty with no requirement to return home fight with him, who wants a wall and an amnesty-with-return-home” scenario.
Cat would like for all of us who want the wall built to, well, first build the wall.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
a chance this is all true? I think so! - 55555 - nt
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 8:02AM EST (link)Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Eyes wide open
pompadour (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 10:34AM EST (link)I had always known that the Democrats, in particular, were encouraging illegal immigration because of the voter-base issue. But I had not stopped to think through the other players in the chain… Some of it should have been obvious to me, but I just hadn’t broken it down in my head. Thanks for taking the time to do that for me. My understanding of this whole illegal immigration enterprise–and enterprise it most certainly is–is vastly expanded after reading this.
Vassar has a way
remnant60 (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 11:15AM EST (link)of educating folks in a form that is refreshing to me…ya has ta think a little, and get past miss-spellings that Ben Franklin would have scoffed at.
I, too hadn’t thought about what the chain is, and to fix a problem, you have to identify it first.
Now we have this to look at…
I hope my misspellings are intentional Remnant60
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 2:05PM EST (link)I’ll have those drafts to you by Monday, I think.
The economy
davenj1 (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 11:08AM EST (link)To steal a line from the Clinton campaign in 1992, “Its the economy, stupid.” Plain and simple- most illegal immigrants come here for work. even at substandard wages, its more than they can make a year in Mexico. Efforts to attack the root cause- Mexico’s economy- are useless given the corruption of that government and inability to enforce their own laws. Attack the employers by stiffening fines, requiring and expanding e-verify, taking assets of repeat employer offenders- in other words, making it difficult on those who would hire illegal immigrants would dry up the market. Replace them with the unemployed or the high school drop-outs. The only demographic they compete with in the labor market are the unskilled, drop outs. How about putting high school kids to work in the summer at the wages you would pay an illegal immigrant? Allow state and local agencies to enforce employment laws. As for securing the border, before we look for ways to do that, perhaps Calderon and his corrupt govenment should consider securing their northern border. Why is that never mentioned?
Root cause is proximity and lack of a fence
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 11:40AM EST (link)Ending the open border might also lead unhappy Mexicans to man-up like our Founders and start a revolution in Mexico that works.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Our border is the safety valve that has prevented Mexico's explosion.
Achance (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 2:17PM EST (link)Problem is, they wouldn’t re-invent the US, they’d re-invent Cuba or Venezuela but worse because poorer and more lawless. Everybody with any money would move themselves and their money out of Mexico leaving a bunch of very poor and very angry peasants. We’ve seen what that breeds.
A long southern border with a country allied with Iran and NorKor isn’t an attractive option so we have to do things to keep the Mexican kleptocracy propped up. There aren’t a lot of good options in this for the US any more.
In Vino Veritas
Your "prevented" looks more like "delayed" to me ...
acat (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 2:49PM EST (link)Mexico has been sliding into chaos for decades now – the kleptocrats aren’t giving up or giving ground reform would need and – short of some sort of massive re-education, on the order we put forth to win the peace in Europe, Think Radio Free Europe, but also being the shining city on a hill that Reagan saw (and Obama denies we ever were) and all kinds of investment with the intention of building something, not just exploiting cheap labor.
Won’t happen anytime soon – America seems to be out of the “improving our corner of the world” business these days.
About the only way I can see Mexico getting out of this as a country is if the kleptocrats realize the golden goose is dying… unfortunately, their kind isn’t noted for thinking such thoughts.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
As much as I enjoy a break from Alaska's winter,
Achance (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 3:17PM EST (link)if I’d been born with a Mexican Passport rather than an American one, I’d be up in the hills with an AK-47 and I would really be hating rich people. The arrogance of upper class Mexicans is simply astounding. I grew up in the Jim Crow South and old family White Southerners couldn’t hold a candle to the distain the Blue-eyed Mexicans show for the Brown-eyed Mexicans; there isn’t even the condescending noblesse oblige that upper-class Southern Whites liked to make such a show of.
The Zona Tourista in Puerto Vallarta is very scenic, very luxurious, and very expensive. I don’t know how much law there is, but there is very obviously a lot of order and a lot of cops and soldiers with machine guns, so it is very safe for gringo tourists. Turn left on Mexican Route 200 to go around the Zona and you find the real Mexico and it ain’t pretty. This in one of the more affluent cities in Mexico.
In Vino Veritas
Heh. I hear ya.
acat (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 3:31PM EST (link)I was on one of those packaged, manicured, totally-controlled trips to Mexico decades ago .. and I was the one from our group who “escaped”.
I didn’t think much of the manufactured “market” (that looked pretty much like an outdoor mall in any southern city…) so I took a cab into the nearby “european” resort town. That was a bit more realistic, no southern-fried-mall, but it was still obvious that everyone there were “working the touristas”… so I escaped again.
The tour guide had mentioned a place in the hills, “where the locals go for a good burger”, so I took a cab there. Cabbie looked at me funny, waitresses looked at me funny, and I was the only gringo in the place. Burger was good, though, and it was nice to be somewhere that the atmosphere wasn’t planned.
Not sure I’d be bold enough to do that again today – Mexico has slipped further toward chaos in the meantime and what were stares and “what’s he doing here” gestures could translate to worse today… Maybe…
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
I'm like you, Catman. Love to break off from the herd,
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 3:37PM EST (link)…but south of the border you gotta do your homework.
Bingo, again, Art
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 3:36PM EST (link)To be Mexican, by definition, is to be half-Indian, los indios. When I was in college, anthropology texts still had a special classification for them, “peons” (serfs tired to the land by old grandees). Not that long ago. The state class and wealthy class look on them as less than human…you’re right, even slaves were thought of more highly by Anglo owners.
We used to caravan from Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point) in the 70s, at leats 8 cars at a time. Armed. No one ran that highway alone, and not even caravans traveled at night.
They are just about as distainful towards us Norteamericanos,
Achance (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 3:53PM EST (link)but they work hard at being nice enough to get our money and only calling us names in Spanish. They automatically assume none of us can understand Spanish, or more rightly the Mexican dialect that is sorta Spanish, so they’re pretty unguarded with what they say about us. Makes for good fun to call them on it sometimes.
One of the funnier things I ever saw down there was in a nice little watering hole and restaurant south of PV near where they filmed “Predator.” A table or two over was a still pretty attractive forty – ish American woman with one of the young Mexican studlies that like to chase women like that. She’s violating the first rule of Mexican ettiquete because she’s trying to order drinks and lunch for both of them – in good restaurants the lady’s menu doesn’t even have prices. She must be a high school or college Spanish teacher because she’s speaking this perfect, formal Castilian Spanish and neither the young stud nor the waiter can understand half of it. Young guy finally takes over and orders – in English.
In Vino Veritas
Happens everywhere, Art.
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 4:37PM EST (link)Chinese go them all one-better, “White Devil”, etc. “Yellow-Hair woman with Black Tunnel” my favorite, all spoken in the most obeisant, kowtowing language. Gotta love ‘em. And you’re right, if you have an ear for the local lingo, you can pick out the pose-ette from Bryn Mawr pretty quickly. What, Graham Greene, 1950′s, Ugly American? What’s to be American if not to made fun of?
Cheers
I've got enough Spanish to order fast food ...
acat (Diary) Sunday, June 27th at 12:26AM EST (link)And the double- and triple-takes I get when a gringo orders en espanol are priceless…
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
The threat of a President that people knew meant business would prevent Mexico
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 5:14PM EST (link)from aligning with Iran. The way things are going, we have no southern border and a US President that essentially saved the Mullahs by not encouraging Iran’s freedom fighters.
And it is likely that Mexico would not have a successful revolution, but if the whole world can move here lest we offend them and they align with Iran, then we won’t be America anymore either.
What is no border breeding in California? A third world country within the US?
more later
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
"un-Latino places as Chicago"
Joshua Persons (Diary) Saturday, June 26th at 9:44PM EST (link)I just wanna say, I was born and raised in Chicago, and it’s had a significant Latino presence for decades.
Formerly jpers36
NARF
Of course, you're right, and I apologize
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Sunday, June 27th at 6:16AM EST (link)I was speaking of the new (mid 90s) enclaves up the Lake toward Highland Park.
Vasser, the problem is geography
tngal (Diary) Sunday, June 27th at 8:30AM EST (link)Peggy West, a Democratic County Supervisor in Milwaukee explains to us why she is pushing for her city to boycott Arizona over SB 1070..
“If this was Texas, which is a state that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this saying that they had a major issue with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would have to look twice at this. But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border”
I think we can all see by Ms. West’s remarks that she is the one actually who is “a ways removed” from the subject matter. But as she is a dem what else can we expect. We can’t have a debate on the issue of immigration till the dems learn some basic principles.At first I thought it legal v illegal, Now however I’m forced to believe its simple geography.
(I have a relative in Wisconsin, who passed the info on. He’s a dem and has apologized for the entire dem community.)
There’s a delightful clip at “innocent bystanders’ showing Ms West making her comments.
http://michaelscomments.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/spirited-debate-in-wisconsin-about-illegal-immigration/
Why do the Dem's get all the pinheads, tngal?
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Monday, June 28th at 7:12AM EST (link)We have our share of stupid, but not stoooooppppid.
McCain Disputes Brewer's Claim That Most Illegal Immigrants Smuggling Drugs
izoneguy (Diary) Sunday, June 27th at 3:38PM EST (link)McCain Disputes Brewer’s Claim That Most Illegal Immigrants Smuggling Drugs
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/27/mccain-disputes-brewers-claim-illegal-immigrants-smuggling-drugs/
John, John, John…..
Please take a look at the proof:
http://www.borderinvasionpics.com/
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Actually, McCain is right.
mbecker908 (Diary) Sunday, June 27th at 4:00PM EST (link)The issue is the word “most”. And by any stretch of the imagination “most” aren’t, or at the very least it’s a claim that is impossible to verify. You link is not verification by any means.
The correct line would have been on the order of “many” and would have focused on the substantial problem caused by those “many”, instead Brewer shoots off her mouth and gets wound up in a battle of semantics that diverts from the reality of the situation. And McCain wasn’t the first to pick apart her statement.
Disneyland ?
SteveLA (Diary) Sunday, June 27th at 4:26PM EST (link)mbecker
I think you have it wrong, well maybe. It’s a well known real-fact that most illegal immigrant are here only to go to Disneyland. How they can afford the $90 a ticket, I don’t know… but I have been assured by local members of the Minutemen that illegals are not coming to this country to work at crud jobs that greedy business owners hire them for at under the table slave wages.
Nope, illegals come here to go to Disneyland and pie.
______________________________________
Competency over ideological purity and litmus tests
I guess it depends on your definition of most
izoneguy (Diary) Sunday, June 27th at 7:23PM EST (link)McLame is a tool and part of the reason this has gotten out of control.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Great read here Bushmills
snowshooze (Diary) Sunday, June 27th at 6:46PM EST (link)I like your work and the idea of a new Ellis Island, coupled with a deportation holding facility.
I am certain Mexico would take great exception of our skimming their best, honest hard workers and leaving them with their problem citizens.
And your very informative dissertation on the organization of the border guide industry…wow.
As a small businessman and employer, everyone I hire I have to file an I9 and a W4, the I9 calls for 3 pieces of identification, else I am not in compliance.
It is against the law for me to hire an illegal alien.
I don’t know how it is done.
I can’t pay cash, not without supporting it somehow because if I don’t, it will have to be declared as personal income and my company cannot write it off as a cost of doing business.
Is this just an enforcement problem?
Back when I was 20, I was in Klamath Falls Oregon, and there were NO jobs. I couldn’t even land a dishwashing position.
They had Spud sheds…potato packing plants, just over the border in Tule Lake, CA…so I carpooled with others and found some work there. One plant I went to apply, my friends warned me, was 100% illegal hire.
I was informed that if I were not an illegal, and willing to pay my dues to the foreman, I didn’t stand a chance and was wasting my effort. If I wasn’t illegal, even if I did play the game, it wouldn’t have been safe to hire me for fear that I would upset the applecart.
Well, I was declined, and that proves nothing…
But I didn’t have any trouble getting hired elsewhere.
Anyhow, your article is a delightful and enlightening read, as so are all the responses.
Now, enlighten me if you don’t mind… as it is clearly against the law to do so, how can anyone hire an illegal alien?
And if they do so in business, do they pay so little that the personal income tax is more than allowed for?
I can hardly state that casual labor expenditures were a meaningful percentage of my overhead and get away with it.
I do not understand this at all. ( and am very opposed to illegal hire..just a position statement..)
Thanks,
Mark
several ways, mark
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Monday, June 28th at 7:08AM EST (link)and thanks for the kind words.
In NYC for instance they’ve been running sweat shops for years. Most big cities have them, all in Democrat wards/districts with some police protection/corruption. It’s almost like the gin business during prohibition.
Part of the chain in those “Protectors” is to steer illegals to paper mills where they can get papers. Not really hard. Brighton Beach was doing it in the late 80′s on for illegal Russians, and I’m sure they’ve moved forward.
I’m not in on the technology, these were just some thoughts and an overview. I think ICE and DOJ are trying to catch and interdict like HSA was trying to build a fence under Bush…a little half-heartedly.
Most illegals still work in the cash economy, and work as gang labor…at least around here. Almost all would prefer farm work of they could get it…they have green thumbs that won’t quit. In construction most hire out to subs, and while I know of some GC’s who say they insist on clean papers, that could just be cocktail talk at Rotary. How employers handle that with their tax accountants I can’t say. The vast majority of illegals work for employers who know they’re illegal. The papers are for the police, should they be asked.
Vassar, in following the threads here and in Texasgalt's post,
penguin2 (Diary) Monday, June 28th at 9:59AM EST (link)RICO.
It certainly seems like racketeering and corruption is part of this extensive enterprise involving the illegal aliens and these machines (mobs) that move them along, and insert them into the industries. combine that with the “legalized” moves via the unions controlling the job market, and in effect, competition…..
I know, simplistic of me to take the words literally; “Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations” but isn’t that what these guys are involved in? Only it is on such a huge scale and so magnified, no one can actually see it, because we are in it–a huge cytoplasm is over us–and the control and is outside of it.
Comes back again to the Democrats and Unions in bed with each other.
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. – Benjamin Franklin
When Good stands up to Evil, Evil blinks. – Vassar Bushmills
Conservative Education: Suggested Reading List
Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots
Unlimited immigration?
jackbenimble (Diary) Monday, June 28th at 7:06PM EST (link)Maybe I am missing something but I don’t see any limits on the numbers in your approach.
Not too long ago there was a poll that showed that something like 45% of the Mexican population would immigrate to the USA if given the opportunity. That would be 45 million Mexicans and that is before you start to count the stampede that would be coming from Central and South America.
That does not seem like a formula for assimilation and turning these new comers into loyal Americans who share our values and dreams. I think it is a formula for balkinizing America into a bilingual society.
I think your blog was nicely written and being half hispanic, I certainly have no problem with Mexicans or any others from that part of the world. But a decent immigration policy must have realistic limits on numbers or the melting pot is going to boil over and leave a sticky mess on the stove. That is happening now. Just look at the schools where the English learner kids are concentrated. How are the American kids who are stuck in those schools with overwhelming numbers of non-English speakers supposed to get a decent start in life? I think your two simple rules are far from an adequate basis for an immigration policy.
“I repudiate the idea of voting for a Democrat