Immigration and Taxes

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The complaint that illegal immigrants are not paying taxes is a straw man.

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The remedy to that problem is to allow them to join the ranks of taxpayers.

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Helllllooooo...

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Years ago I was talking about borrowing money and being in debt. I was speaking with a man trying to borrow a lot of capital for the purpose of starting a young company. In my heart I felt that building a successful business from it's own cash flow and profitability was a better model than doing it on borrowed money. That was before I learned that business is not put together that way.

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In the same way that we borrow money to buy a house (mortgage) with the expectation that we will one day own the house and no longer owe the money, business upstarts borrow money to do today what they cannot afford to wait to do tomorrow, because tomorrow the same demand may not exist. Timing is as important as finance to the success of any venture.

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He said, "I would be honored to sign my name to a note for half a million dollars."

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Bingo! Paradigm shift.

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Here's another one: A lot of people would be honored to pay the taxes about which you complain.

Immigration and War

For several weeks I have been trying to make some meaningful connection between the immigration issue and the war in Iraq. Today I found it.

The main argument in favor of staying in Iraq is because we (the U.S.A.) cannot abandon the Iraqis now that have begun such an enterprise. We owe it to them to stabilize their country until they can get back on their feet and rebuild the Bagdad that we bombed to pieces.

Yet, the major argument against immigration is the amount of taxpayer money that spent on these illegal immigrants, the money spent especially in public services like education and health care.

Ironically we have zero responsibility to those who provide us with services from the "maquiladoras" (factories) in their countries and the labor done here domestically.

I could bring out all the complex implications of this comparison, but lately I hear that complex thought is overwhelming, so instead I will quote what I said in a previous post and leave you with some numbers and links to their sources.

"If we have any duty to stabilize Iraq, we must acknowlege the need to give stability to those who pick our cabbage."

This is from a smart young man who left a comment on another post. I am very impressed with the clarity of his thinking. And I agree with his point. The cabbage line is original. And it is more than just cute. It is spot on.

This discussion is about priorities. Not budget priorities necessarily, but more compelling questions about "doing the right thing." We may be rich enough to piss away a lot of money, but we will never be rich enough to risk not being on the side of the angels.

More and bigger jails...

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Yeah, that's just what we need.

Especially if we are about to create a new class of felons.

Immigration -- Another view

African Bullets and Honey is the name of a blog from Kenya of which I have been aware for some time. Excellent writer. Hard content. This is from a candid post about immigration. No need to read between the lines. The frustration is plain.

THE IMMIGRATION INTERVIEW:

‘Where are you from?’ (peering intently at old stamps and visas. You are one of them: the illegal immigrant, the African with a behind crammed with ecstasy…or at least cocaine or heroin.)

‘What do you do here?’

‘I am a student’

‘Of what?’

‘War studies.’

‘What? Did you say war, like fighting?’

‘Yes, I study how to yank out immigration eyeballs with the peace sign…I bet you always thought the sign (as in ‘peace dude’) was ... like, um, peaceful. Right? Well let me tell you something you poor, 5.30AM African harassing, passport caressing, squinty eyed, nose picking-with finger-that-then-touches-my-passport-photo-bureaucrat, the peace sign is kung fu for the eye-stab move. Bet you didn’t know that. And yes, I have no intention of remaining in your country forever when there is a three-car convoy filled with beery people waiting to pick me up at JKA.’

I wish that is what I had said because the European IMMIGRATION INTERVIEW is an absurd, hypocrisy by a west that speaks the talk of open boundaries to goods and capital when it cannot stand the same for people. The 21st century meeting point between African Livingstones and Lugards and Europe’s petty gate-keeping chiefs.

Just beyond the immigration officer's shoulder are little offices which if you ever have the misfortune of visiting always have a scared looking African seated patiently awaiting some grim fate. You don't make conversation since it is clear to both of you that the other is a criminal and must be consorted with. But I digress.

‘How long were you away?’

‘Too briefly, I wish it had been forever.’

‘When does your doctoral course end?’

‘When the sun burns itself out; when the hens come home to roost; when the Fat Woman sings; just a moment before the grim reaper strikes me down; (sobbing) why must you ask such hurtful questions?’

‘Welcome.’

Like it or not, a good many people are obliged to leave their homelands for the purpose of doing business or studying elsewhere. It is unrealistic to imagine that they will all like doing so.

That is an inciteful line: ...hypocrisy by a west that speaks the talk of open boundaries to goods and capital when it cannot stand the same for people.

In a recent post he offers words of advice to any fellow-African who expects to be studying at an American university. The anger is transparent. My first reaction was to dismiss the whole piece as an example of an attitude with no remedy, but when I saw the chorus of support in the comment thread I decided to treat it more seriously.

I don't know exactly how to respond constructively. I do know that the African-born people I have known personally do not fit the image of this writer. But they are the ones who decided for whatever reason to make a home in the U.S.A.

Good Friday Post

Doctor Bob has a Good Friday post worth your time.

We, the Easter People, tend to take too much for granted. Comfortable as we are in our smug beliefs we have an impulse flee from the mysteries that lie at the core of our Christian heritage. Confronted with the unknown, the unprovable, we would rather curl up with reason and slam he door in the face of irrational expectations, even when they can be found in scripture.

We proclaim the mystery of faith: Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.

But as we proclaim it, how many want to embrace it? Too few, I suspect. Because if we really believe that mystery we are also bound to pay attention to His commands and examples. It's one thing to go through the motions in a weekly ritual.

But to return to the world with the message of that ritual manifest in daily living is a serious challenge. In order to do so we must be willing to confront evil with good. That is a very difficult assignment. It requires that we somehow become super-human, supernaturally forcing ourselves to love the unlovable, cherish and appreciate the lowest among us and forgive, through clenched teeth if necessary, the unforgivable.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even "sinners" love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even "sinners" do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even "sinners" lend to "sinners," expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Luke 6: 32-38

His words, not mine.
I report, you decide.

Billmon on nuclear strike at Iran

Seemingly ordinary adults are seriously discussing the notion of using unclear weapons. Forty years ago such thinking would have been unthinkable. This is progress? Billmon's powerful writing talent takes aim at those whose careless, irresponsible thinking has brought us to this moment. Excellent. I can't think of anything to add.

I mean, what exactly does it take to get a rise out of the media industrial complex these days? A nuclear first strike against a major Middle Eastern oil producer doesn't ring the bell? Must every story have a missing white woman in it before the cable news guys will start taking it seriously?

This is a roller-coaster of a read, covering all the possible scenarios as they might unfold. The sad part is that what he says is plausible. It is entirely within the range of reality that a nuclear stike at Iran is not only a possibility, but that most Americans would react with no more alarm than if their favorite TV series had been cancelled.

I think it's possible that even something as monstrously insane as nuclear war could still be squeezed into the tiny rituals that pass for public debate in this country – the game of dueling TV sound bites that trivializes and then disposes of every issue.

We’ve already seen a lengthy list of war crimes and dictatorial power grabs sink into that electronic compost heap: the WMD disinformation campaign, Abu Ghraib, the torture memos, the de facto repeal of the 4th amendment. Again, why should a nuclear strike be any different? I can easily imagine the same rabid talk show hosts spouting the same jingoistic hate speech, the same bow-tied conservative pundits offering the same recycled talking points, and the same timid Beltway liberals complaining that while nuking Iran was the right thing to do, the White House went about it the wrong way. And I can already hear the same media critics chiding those of us in left Blogostan for blowing the whole thing out of proportion. It’s just a little bunker buster, after all.

Extremism Left and Right -- and Monday's Direct Action

Over the next days and weeks we can expect to hear every kind of argument for and against the events of April 10. I'm still not sure what to call it, so I think I'll say Direct Action. In the vocabulary of non-violent civil disobedience as practiced by Ghandi and King, whenever a coordinated effort was used to bring attention to injustice by intentionally breaking the law, that effort was always called "direct action." Many times during I heard that phrase during the civil rights movement when what-to-do discussions were in progress..."Sounds like what we need is a little direct action!" Meaning: If we stage a sit-in or if we all simply go there together for the purpose of getting arrested, then people will be able to see the injustice we face.

Now, as then, there is a populist groundswell of frustration, rising like a boil on the body politic. It's still in the early stages. Like a boil it can be relieved by a gentle poultice or the application of warm, moist heat. But left unattended it will swell and become red and painful, eventually requiring that it be lanced to relieve the pressure.

Once I had an infected place on my thumb as the result of a particle of steel wool that became infected. The inflammation at the end of my thumb swelled, slowing the capillary blood flow and accellerating the infection. After a few days it was so painful that a doctor had to slice open the end of my thumb, pack the opening with gauze, and send me away for a week with instructions to soak it in a saltwater solution three or four times a day to "draw" the infection. He also wrote a prescription for an antibiotic and warned me that if I ever had such a problem again, especially in the fingertips where the blood flow was at its most easily slowed by swelling, I should act at once to reduce the infection before it had a chance to spread. Otherwise I would risk the loss of a finger.

That is what we are now seeing following Monday's Direct Action by immigrants, both "legal" and "illegal" pointing out a vast injustice that has been allowed to fester in America. The disease that we are fighting is as corrosive as diabetes or alcoholism or obesity. We love the sugar or alcohol or excess servings so much that we are reluctant to submit to the hard discipline needed to wean from the perceived "rewards" of the habit. We want lower-priced goods and services but we don't want wages to fall. We complain that "They are not paying taxes" but we don't want to recognize them as taxpayers so that they can begin paying taxes like everyone else. We complain about their use of another language while opposing the bi-lingual education that will teach the next generation to speak a new mother tongue with a bi-lingual capability we now lack.

As we wallow in a sea of contradictions, political struggles on the Left and Right are hard at work building what they hope will be a power base strong enough to prevail. It is a tough contest with strong, smart, dedicated advocates lining up on both sides. There are echoes of McCarthy days as extremists seek to silence opponents. In the aftermath of 9/11 extremists on the Right have been having a field day. Anyone who dares question the wisdom of America's actions or intentions in the world risks being labeled as unpatriotic, stupid, racist or worse.

David Neiwert address the Left-Right divide once more, doing the heavy lifting for us on the Left. (Yes, I stand with the Left and have for years. I have no intention of pretending otherwise. End of disclosure.) Those with minds still open are invited to read his most recent post and draw their own conclusions. Be sure to drill into the links to get the full dose.

It will be tempting for anyone to read his post with pre-concieved ideas. That is what is called pre-judice -- judging in advance. It is hard to do otherwise. I am guilty of the same offence myself. But this time, read with the memory of Monday's Direct Action. Ask yourself how all those unaligned people, most of whom still open to recruitment to any cause giving them sympathy, will be apt to turn. You can be sure that experienced people from the Left are plowing that field, even as we speak. They are not all speaking a language that you want to know about. And I'm not talking about English or Spanish. But they are being heard and listened to. I know. I've been there and done that.

I was a successful manager in the world of business for thirty years because of what I learned in my youth. What I learned was that labor unions do not emerge without the cooperation of management. I'm not talking about what management is obliged to permit legally. I am talking about what management is NOT obliged to do, but CHOOSES to do for the purpose of capturing and retaining the loyalty of their employees. Why do you think Google is such a great place to work? Why does a company in today's competetive environment choose to take a bunch of their employees out for the day to escape the cubefarm, to spend the day having lunch catered, playing video games and going home with cute little gifts?

Okay, then. Do I need to connect the dots? It is no accident that posters of Che can be seen among the pictures of Monday's Direct Action. That tens of thousands of identical "We Are America" blue and white card were there to be displayed. As the Power Line video collection likes to point out, those are the tracks of extremists. Believe it. And ask what is the most effective way that those extremists can become less attractive to their target audience. This is the North American Front for "hearts and minds" to defeat extremism. Our threat is not from abroad. It is already here. It is up to our representatives to decide if a powerful economic and political force is to become part of America or part of America's swelling ranks of opponents.

Best. Comment. Thread. Ever.

And possibly one of the longest.

Here.

Transparent foolishness run amok.

Day of Action Observations

April 10 is over. And the incoherence of the national response stands in sharp contrast to the simple unified gesture of a vast subset of the population. Taking a few hours from their millions of lives, they appeared in the streets of America in white shirts to show the world and themselves how many and how united they are. I have seen a lot of demonstrations in my life, both in person and via the media. And yesterday's demonstration is by far the largest, most impressive and most moving in my experience.

There seemed to be no one voice. I heard very little music. The mood of excitement seemed tempered by a serious undercurrent preventing that excitement from getting out of control. What struck me most forcefully was the simple reality that all over the country, at the same time, a multitude of people appeared in white shirts to walk together in their many locations with the same organic sense of group behavior that governs nature, whether it be flights of birds, schools of fish or colonies of insects. Such a phenomenon I have never before witnessed. There were large groups and small. All ages. Men, women and children. And I have to say this: impressively well-groomed and overwhelmingly well-behaved. When I recall the rage of the Sixties...the embarrasement of student groups on spring break with their drunken, dangerous antics...in-your-face offensiveness of political extremists stripping off their clothes to bring attention to their otherwise un-noticed causes...or anti-social envelope-pushing of those who would break down old-fashioned norms, family values regarding sexual identity...

When I contrast all those other "domonstrtions" with what happened yesterday I see a sense of purpose that is almost supernatural. Indeed, there seems to be some confusion about what words to use to describe it. I have seen rally, demonstration, walk, march, invasion and action. Descriptive adjectives are even more varied: immigrant, pro-illegal-alien, criminal, undocumented workers, pro-immigrant, and so on. Depending on what agenda is being advanced the language used to describe yesterday's events is a means of "framing the debate," whatever that means. I listened to a couple of talk shows for a while. Mostly they were sticking to their knitting, keeping well into whatever niche they had carved out for themselves, for after all, when you have a crowd that big it's like the circus coming to town. There is sure to be something for everyone.

Why would that be so? Simple. Unity such as we saw yesterday can only derive from a sense of purpose that overcomes all other reasons to be split apart. America seems not to have had such a sense of purpose since the Second World War. Not even the attack on the World Trade Center succeeded in unifying the country. Oh, it brought out flags and ribbons. People started to pay more attention to the national anthem before sports events. Stories about our military exploits compete pretty well with Michael Jackson, tsunami and hurricane stories or who's gonna be the next American Idol... But nothing comes close to uniting Americans even close to what we saw yesterday among a population with every reason to be split into a thousand fragments.

I have just started to think about it. It's too soon to come to any conclusions. But this much is clear. A movement has started as unstoppable as the birth of a baby. It will happen. The bell will not be unrung. Those who would exploit the situation for their own agendas have already moved. Union organizers. Political extremists, both Hispanic and otherwise. Yes, the Socialists. Also the Communits. These are the ones we know from just reading their own literature. There is no way to know about others with more sinister agendas. And yes, there are those as well. I have looked at their literature also.

Low-hanging fruit is about to start falling. If we don't pick it, someone else will.

It is time for some serious thinking. This issue is not about to disappear. Ranting, name-calling, hand-wringing and righteous indignation are counter-productive, folks. Results have come back from the lab and they are easy to read: something has metastasized. If we don't find a remedy, and a good one, we might be in danger of losing part of our anatomy. Soon.

Doc Searls congratulates Riverbend

Doc Searls looked into Riverbend's writing and subsequent awards. Unlike others who would malign the messenger because they don't approve of the message, he is more circumspect. He checked into her background, ordered her book and posts his congratulations to her on her awards.

I feel vindicated for linking to her blog several times since I started blogging. If Doc Searls says she is okay, that's good enough for me.

Civil War in Iraq

It's official...almost.
Somebody in THEIR government says so, but OURS remains unwilling to speak the words aloud.

NY Times story concludes: Shibley Telhami of the Brookings Institution shows how the linguistic battle lines are drawn: " 'Iraq is now at civil war' means 'we have already lost the battle and we should get out now'; 'Iraq is now experiencing sectarian violence' means 'Iraq's natural propensity is toward civil war, but thank God for the presence of American forces that are preventing it.' " But Charles Krauthammer, the most powerful conservative-internationalist columnist, had noted in 2004: "There already is a civil war. It is raging before our eyes. Problem is, only one side is fighting it." Recalling this recently in The Washington Post, Krauthammer updated his point: "Does not everyone who wishes us well support the strategy of standing up the Iraqis so we can stand down? And does that not mean getting the Iraqis to fight the civil war themselves?"
War-namers, stand down: what was euphemized after the U.S. Civil War as "the late unpleasantness" will not get a name until it's over.

Got that?

Quoting myself from last October...

That country is having a civil war and we are in the midst of it. We claim to be "fighting for freedom and democracy," but if the truth be known -- if anything like "democracy" were to be had today, with the will of a majority dictating what should happen next -- I very seriously doubt that anything like a majority would be in favor of the United States' remaining in Iraq and continuing this war. The US is no longer seen as a liberator but an occupation force. We may have the hearts and minds of a lot of Iraqis, but mathematically I do not believe that we have anything resembling a majority. And the last time I checked, majority rule is what is meant by the word "democracy."

Immigrant Demonstrations Comment (& an Essay on Cow)

Here's a little diversion for today (See below) as we wait for the Immigrant Day of Action to unfold. I'm looking forward to watching the cable and TV news today because the pictures will be breathtaking. It is only a little past lunch at this writing and I am already in awe over the magnitude of what is happening. A Fox News reporter said that in Phoenix Spanish-language radio stations had been instructing people all week not to bring Mexican flags to the rally, lest they give the wrong impression. Consequently there are as many American flags as they could find. Events there are not scheduled to begin for another few hours.

The pictures are showing white shirts as a sign of peace. There is an air of excitement but with an orderliness that is surreal. All ages are represented. There is something magnificent about a sea of people walking along in a massive crowd that stretches as far as the eye can see. It has been years since I have witnessed this much outpouring of emotion.

In Atlanta Neal Boortz frames the issue in terms of "criminals, breaking the law and wanting sivil rights," which as criminals they do not have. Rule of law, rule of law he keeps saying as though repeating the mantra will somehow make it more powerful. What he fails to admit is that it is the law itself which is at issue. As my previous post explains, it is the law itself that has triggered today's demonstrations. Had the "rule of law" prevailed in the past, we might very well still be buying bootleg whiskey, or still waiting for women to vote, or schools to be desegregated. I'm sorry, but my respect for the rule of law ends where the need to bring about adjustments to the law begins. I can't think of any examples of universal compliance with any law being altered or revoked up until the moment the change came into effect. Otherwise, why should any changes come about?

Today I am not looking at criminals. I am looking at individual people in clean-cut, well-behaved, excited but polite crowds that stretch from one ocean to the other across America. They may or may not be undocumented. But whether they are an asset to the country is not up for discussion. They are, in my opinion, one of the country's most important and dignified strengths.

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Via 3 Quarks we get a link leading to this charming description of the cow. When English is not one's mother tongue the language takes on a quality that cannot be matched by someone reared speaking English.

He is the cow. The cow is a successful animal. Also he is 4 footed. And because he is female, he gives milks, but will do so when he is got child. He is same like-God, sacred to Hindus and useful to man. But he has got four legs together. Two are forward and two are afterwards. His whole body can be utilized for use. More so the milk. Milk comes from 4 taps attached to his basement. What can it do? Various ghee, butter, cream, curd, why and the condensed milk and so forth. Also he is useful to cobbler, water mans and mankind generally. His motion is slow only because he is of lazy species.

Also his other motion. Gober is much useful to trees, plants as well as for making flat cakes, in hand, and drying in the sun. Cow is the only animal that extricates his feeding after eating. Then afterwards he chew with his teeth whom are situated in the inside of the mouth. He is incessantly in the meadows in the grass. His only attacking and defending organ is the horns, specially so when he is got child. This is done by knowing his head whereby he causes the weapons to be paralleled to the ground of the earth and instantly proceed with great velocity forwards. He has got tails also, situated in the backyard, but not like similar animals. It has hairs on the other end of the other side. This is done to frighten away the flies which alight on his cohesive body hereupon he gives hit with it. The palms of his feet are soft unto the touch. So the grasses head is not crushed. At night time have poses by looking down on the ground and he shouts. His eyes and nose are like his other relatives. This is the cow.

HR4437 IS DEEPLY FLAWED

Why are they complaining?

This is why...

Dangerous Immigration Legislation

Pending in Congress!

Something akin to a panic has descended upon the immigrants’ rights community with the introduction in December 2005 of Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman Sensenbrenner’s HR 4437, The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. Passed last week in the House and poised to move quickly through the Senate, if passed, HR 4437 could signal some of the most sweepingly dramatic changes in immigration law since the now infamous Illegal Immigration Reform and Individual Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996 and could actually surpass that law in gutting judicial review and eroding due process.

Nothing in the bill provides a comprehensive and realistic plan for our immigration system to enhance border security, support economic growth and provide a legal means to lawful permanent residency for the millions of hardworking undocumented immigrants and their families in the United States. Nearly 500 organizations, including a wide variety of civic, religious and business groups are opposing this legislation. Below is a summary of just a sampling of the areas of greatest concern to the ILRC. See also www.ilrc.org/criminal.php for more information about drastic possible changes regarding immigration consequences of criminal convictions that would result if HR 4437 were passed.

* HR 4437 criminalizes organizations and individuals assisting undocumented immigrants
HR 4437 greatly expands the definition of “alien smuggling” to include assisting a person to remain or attempt to remain in the United States when the “offender” knows the person is in the United States unlawfully – thereby treating social services organizations, refugee agencies, churches, legal services and others the same as smuggling organizations and imposing criminal penalties for providing such assistance. Even family members and charitable workers could face federal prison time for assisting undocumented immigrants.

* HR 4437 criminalizes undocumented immigration status
Under current law, presence in the United States without valid status is a civil violation, not a criminal act. HR 4437 would create a new federal crime of “unlawful presence” and would define immigration violations so broadly as to effectively include every violation, however minor, technical or unintentional, as a federal crime. In addition to permanently barring the entire undocumented population – including 1.6 million children – from the United States, this would also lead to the tragic separation of families as undocumented members of mixed-status families would never be able to secure lawful immigration status in the United States.

* HR 4437 grants state and local law enforcement agencies “inherent authority” to enforce immigration laws
HR 4437 would grant law enforcement agencies the authority to investigate, identify, apprehend, arrest, detain and transfer to Federal custody immigrants they find in the United States. When police act as immigration enforcement agents, it undermines their ability to keep communities safe because immigrants and their family members will be scared to report crimes, fires, and suspicious activity out of fear of exposing themselves, families or neighbors to police. Inevitably, crimes will be left unsolved and the safety of entire communities will be compromised.

* HR 4437 furthers the erosion of due process
Our immigration laws provide that some individuals in removal proceedings can be granted voluntary departure – essentially leaving the United States on their own, with their own money – at the conclusion of the immigration hearing process. This is an important alternative to receiving a removal order because it allows an immigrant to reenter the United States lawfully in the future, despite having been in removal proceedings in the past. It is only granted to individuals with good moral character at the discretion of an immigration judge. Under HR 4377, noncitizens would be required to waive all rights to any further motion, appeals or petition for review related to removal or protection from removal in order to be granted voluntary departure, essentially barring them from a list with their family in the United States
Currently, various circuit courts have ruled that immigration officials may be prohibited from simply removing an individual from the United States without a hearing, based on the reinstatement of a prior removal order. HR 4437 purges this appellate court precedent. As a result, if passed, HR 4437 would strip the rights of immigrants with prior removal orders to any sort of hearing before being removed again.

HR 4437 would also eliminate the ability of any person who wishes to enter the United States on a nonimmigrant visa (such as a tourist visa, a student visa, etc.) to have a hearing before an immigration judge in the event that he or she is later charged with an immigration violation. This is because HR 4437 would prohibit the issuance of a nonimmigrant visa unless the applicant first waives his or her right to any review or appeal of an immigration officer’s decision.

* HR 4437 expands the costly detention of immigrants
HR 4437 would require the Department of Homeland Security to detain all noncitizens apprehended along the border until they are removed from the United Statues – thus filling up already overcrowded and tremendously costly facilities as detainees wait for final decisions on their cases. To address the overcrowding issue, HR 4437 authorizes an increase in DHS detention capacity by contracting with state and local jails – thus further criminalizing immigrants by placing them in criminal facilities.

* HR 4437 guts the federal courts’ authority to review immigration matters
HR 4437 would prevent courts from reviewing any application for naturalization denied because of a discretionary determination of ineligibility based upon “any relevant information or evidence.” This gives the immigration agency practically unfettered authority to deny naturalization applications with no judicial review.
HR 4437 also completely eliminates judicial review where noncitizens visas are revoked and is a specific attempt to remove courts’ ability to review consular decisions.
For the few remaining immigration cases that could be reviewed by an appellate court, HR 4437 implements an unprecedented system whereby no appellate court review is available unless a single judge certifies that the petitioner has “made a substantial showing that the petition for review is likely to be granted.” The decision of the single judge to deny certification for review would be not be open to appeal or review of any kind.

* HR 4437 turns many minor crimes into aggravated felonies, which carry the worst possible immigration consequences
Because aggravated felonies are supposed to be reserved for the worst and most violent of crimes such as murder and rape, they carry the most serious immigration consequences. HR 4437 would make makes minor offenses aggravated felonies, with same concomitant consequences. As a result, misdemeanor drunk driving offenses, mere presence in the United States without documentation, assisting an undocumented immigrant to reside in the United States, and minor accessory roles in the criminal conduct of others would all qualify as aggravated felonies. Most of these changes would be retroactive, meaning that someone who committed an offense 20 years ago that was not a deportable offense then could be charged with an aggravated felony now. By making these offenses aggravated felonies, HR 4437 seeks to treat those who commit nonviolent, negligent acts or omissions the same as those who have acted with criminal intent to injure. Regardless of whether it is a major or minor crime, the mere characterization as an aggravated felony will trigger the same immigration consequences – mandatory deportation, mandatory detention, disqualification for almost all immigration benefits, permanent banishment from the United States without hope of lawful return, and the inability to present any equities to immigration judges regardless of how long the immigrant has been in the United States and how many ties he or she has here. Those at risk include permanent residents who have lived here lawfully for decades. In addition, because the noncitizen population in the United States is so large and many American families include both immigrants and citizens, these deportations will break up U.S. citizen families without any possibility of reunification.

* HR 4437 expands the consequences of an aggravated felony and other offenses
Despite the current drastic consequences of an aggravated felony, HR 4437 seeks to add more. It would bar an immigrant from establishing good moral character required to become a U.S. citizen if they have an aggravated felony conviction in the past – even if they could prove that at the time the offense occurred it was not characterized as an aggravated felony, and they presently have excellent moral character. Under HR 4437, aggravated felonies would also bar admission to the United States and bar the ability to re-immigrate to the United States via an immediate relative as defense to removal. There would be no waiver available. It would further bar an asylum seeker who has an aggravated felony conviction from ever becoming a permanent resident. These provisions will eliminate the little available relief and benefits for immigrants with aggravated felony convictions who demonstrate rehabilitation and strong family, social and economic ties.

* HR 4437 eliminates key safeguards concerning evidence used to prove that an immigrant is deportable for an aggravated felony
Since 1990, the United States Supreme Court has established guidelines, called the “modified categorical analysis,” for how a court can characterize a prior conviction. While this may sound technical, the categorical analysis is a vital safeguard that protects immigrants from wrongful deportation. It ensures that immigration judges consider only the most reliable information and documents from a prior conviction – and not from facts that were not established at the original criminal trial – to identify the offense for which the person was actually convicted. HR 4437 seeks to eliminate these guidelines for those accused of being aggravated felons in immigration proceedings. This means that immigrants could be deported for a conviction of an offense that is not actually an aggravated felony, simply because the offense is listed in the same state criminal statute that also includes an aggravated felony. Eliminating the categorical analysis is a radical violation of basic fairness that seeks to overturn years of established judicial precedent.

* HR 4437 reverses the burden of proof
Historically, the burden has been on the government to prove deportation, because the hardship of deportation is so great. Analogous to the criminal “innocent until proven guilty” standard, the longstanding rule has provided that the government may not simply arrest a long-time permanent resident, allege that she is deportable, and force her to prove that she is not. HR 4437 reverses this burden of proof for those charged with aggravated felonies. This would be an extreme blow to deeply-rooted and longstanding notions of fairness. The result in practice is that once the government decides to charge the person, the low-income, unrepresented, detained immigrant will be required to obtain the public records and to produce the extremely complex legal arguments required to disprove the government’s assertion. If the person cannot meet this nearly impossible burden, he or she will face mandatory detention, deportation, and permanent exclusion and separation from family and friends in the United States.

* HR 4437 makes an immigrant associated with any street gang deportable and ineligible for any immigration benefits
Under HR 4437, immigrants who have never committed any crimes whatsoever and who have obeyed all of our laws can be deported, denied admission and the ability to obtain lawful status, subjected to mandatory detention, and denied all forms of protection such as asylum and temporary protected status, simply because the Attorney General has determined that they are associated with a designated street gang. The Attorney General, through a secret process that provides no notice or opportunity to be heard to the immigrant, can designate any formal or informal group of three or more persons who have committed two or more enumerated gang crimes a “criminal street gang.” As a result of this designation, many immigrants who never committed or supported a single criminal act may be punished severely for exercising their right to association – they may be deported to a country where they face interrogation, torture, detention and even death.

* HR 4437 undermines state court decisions regarding the reversal or vacation of convictions in immigration proceedings
HR 4437 would allow immigration authorities to ignore certain reversals and vacations of criminal convictions by state courts, such as the failure to advise the immigrant of the immigration consequences of the guilty plea. This provision will seriously undermine the concept of “full faith and credit” due to state courts. This is particularly so, in states like California, where the state Supreme Court and other lowers courts have ruled that the failure to advise and defend of the immigration consequences and giving affirmative misadvice as to the immigration consequences constitute ineffective assistance of counsel, meriting vacation of the conviction.

* HR 4437 imposes mandatory minimum sentences for many offenses
HR 4437 adds dozens of new mandatory minimum penalties to current law. It imposes the same sentences upon persons who aid or assist certain immigrants to enter the United States as the immigrants themselves would receive. The bill would also impose one to 10 year mandatory minimum penalties for those who reenter the United States after deportation. These mandatory minimum sentences punish arbitrarily and strip judges from the discretion to make the punishment fit the crime, while also increasing the cost of incarceration to American taxpayers.

April 10 -- "Day of Action" -- Tomorrow

Sleep well, America.
Tomorrow you will be shaken from your nap.
Unless I miss my guess, tomorrow's crowds of immigrants in the streets will be the subject of every news report.

It is still possible that some unforseen event will dominate the news. As people in the business know well, news isn't planned; it is reported. But all that I have read since March 26 indicates that April 10 will be historic. It will be so big that weather will not affect the impact, because no inclement weather can cover North America all at once. Storms may dampen parts of the event locally. But at the end of the day a historic mark will have been made.

Looking at the usual suspects, I can't find any indication tonight that anyone in a position to know has any idea that the next twenty-four hours will be different from the last twenty-four. If anyone in a position of leadership has any suspicions they are keeping quiet, lest they be accused afterward of being part of the cause.

It is likely that security people are making preparations, police forces and the like. Whenever large crowds of demonstrators might be in the streets safety and security are always a high priority, and professionals in that line of work make it their business to prepare, like firemen or weather forecasters, to what can be expected to happen. (At least I hope that is true, although the federal response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was, can we say, less than impressive. It was state and local responses that spelled success or failure in the wake of those events.)

The media will be in hog heaven. There will be a veritable banquet of stories to pick from, good, bad and ugly. Human interest to Homeland Security. Cats to coyotes and everything inbetween. As I said in the previous post, pundits will be publishing reams of commentary aimed at spinning one agenda or another. Those of us sympathetic with the people in the streets will watch and hope that the sheer magnitude of the event will inspire prompt and realistic responses to temper the extremism and fundamentalism now forming a xenophobic subtext to American politics, both domestic and foreign.

People will be gather in breakrooms, backrooms and boardrooms trying to figure out what the hell is going on. By sundown I expect a kind of numb, dumb quiet to settle as those in positions of leadership try to evaluate what has happened and what should be their next best move. A great social tectonic plate is about to shift and everyone in America, like it or not, will be affected.

Beyond what I have written, I have no clue what might happen after tomorrow. Like everyone else I have opinions, inclinations and expectations. But nothing has happened simply because I wanted it to come to pass. More often than not, what has happened has occurred without my blessing and despite my good intentions. There is no reason to believe that the next months will unfold any differently.

Good night, all.
Sleep well.

*** ***

***

Nathan Newman is ready.
So is Cole Crawitz.
Oh, and the spinning has already begun at Powerline. Already the event is being painted Communist. (I recall as though it were last week Southerners' insisting that Negroes would not be causing all that desegregation mess were it not for outside agitators!) Memeorandum will be the flower where all those bees assemble.

Palm Sunday reflections

It could be coincidental, but I think not. That tomorrow's nationwide demonstration on behalf of immigrants comes the next day after Palm Sunday. I don't think the timing was intentional on the part of those responsible for planning this event, but I have no way to know. However it came to pass, the timing strikes me as more than an accident of the calendar.

The Christian significance of Palm Sunday has in recent years been underscored in many congregations by a paritcipatory liturgy which involves having members of the congregation respond to questions posed from the pulpit as though they were not modern Christians but ordinary people in the street at the time just before the crucifixion.

As the Passion account is being read from one of the synoptic Gospels, there is a moment when Pilate asks the crowd what to do with Jesus. After his own personal examination he has found nothing for which he should be killed, so he turns the matter over to the crowd, whereupon they yell out "Crucify him! Crucify him!" It is a powerful moment when you find yourself reading those words aloud as part of the congregation. You realize at that moment that by doing so you become one of those participating in an execution, the execution of Jesus! No matter how often it is read, it is always a shocking reminder that we do that very thing almost every day we live.

Here are a couple of items to reflect on today with tomorrow's events in mind.

The first is a reflection by Frederick Buechner I came across via a comment left at a blog that I have been following. It is a story within a story within a story. Take time to read it carefully so that you don't get the stories mixed up. It is worth the short time it takes to slow down to pay attention. Here is a tickler:

A few years later, she returned to the Bay Area and remembering this friendship, she called up the man and said, "It is Maya Angelou. I'm back again. I would love to pick up our friendship where we left it off. I enjoyed you so much before."

He said, "Terrific. Let me tell you a little bit about what I have been doing during the interval."

He had been in Europe working with the problems of the American troops stationed over there.

She said, "How did it go?"

He said, "The black troops have a particularly hard time because they are black and there aren't many blacks around. But our boys, also..."

She said, "What did you say?"

He said, "The black troops have a particularly difficult time for various reasons but our boys, also..."

She said, "What did you say?"

A third time she went through it. All of a sudden, as she described it, he, himself, heard what he said and said in effect, "This is the most awful thing I have ever done. I can't continue the conversation. I have got to hang up, to have said such a thing to you, Maya Angelou, 'the black boys, our boys.'"

She said, "No. This is just why we must talk because that is what racial prejudice is. Beneath the superficial liberal utterance, there is the deep, ingrained sense of 'black boys, our boys.'"

Nonetheless, they continued the conversation and agreed to meet.

What happened then was she tried a number of times to get hold of them, to meet him and see him and his wife. Again and again, the calls didn't go through. She left messages which weren't answered and finally the whole thing just fizzled out. So that was, in a way, her answer to the question, "How about racism?"

It moved her and upset her and that was the last question she took that day.

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The second reading is this poem, also by Maya Angelou. (You will catch the reference above from the second comment.)

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling
I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Something about poetry enlarges the experience of an individual to exemplify the collective experience of a people. And by the same dynamic, the experiences of one people can come to exemplify the experience of all mankind.

As the news reports play across tomorrow's screens, as the predictable vitriolic words of condemnation come spilling out of well-meaning pundits writing from the comfort and safety of their respective habitats, reflect on these words. And recall the image of the mob as it cries out to Pilate, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"

Multiculturalism running amok

Lest I be accused of cultural hubris, I have to point to one of our own toxic offshoots.

And yes, ebonics, like it or not, is a specifically American cultural product, as native to North America as tobacco. Sorry. You can get a divorce but you can't fire your kids. And if you want to maintain peace in the family, you can't fire your in-laws, either. (As you get older, you will also see how the most hybrid of seeds can go wild a couple of generations out.)

Robert at The Marmot's Hole points to a March post at Becky's T*Blog, Conversational Ebonics, a dictionary of African-American street slang for Japanese readers. It's not clear if some cross-cultural enterprise is in the works calling for this book, but who knows? I can envision smiling groups of Japanese young people trooping down the sidewalks of the 'hood, trying to walk properly so as not to be noticed too much. Better yet, a clutch of young black kids in Yokohama, squinting without their shades and scratching discretely as fitted clothing feels too snug in the groin.

Meantime, Becky is caught a bit off guard today finding that her March post has taken on a life of it's own. I think this is what they call a meme. Becky may have started something. This a great flight of fluff for weekend reading. Drill away.

(Don't neglect the comment threads or you might miss this.)

It's the Latinos, stupid!

His title, not mine.

But the point is well-made.
Sometime in the next forty-eight hours go read this article by Leon Hadar. Otherwise whatever you say in response to Monday's Day of Action might sound even more ignorant than it should.

...no one seriously argues that the illegal immigrants are responsible for any of the structural problems facing the US economy, in particular the decline in manufacturing jobs. Similarly, most analysts agree that the majority of the immigrants, certainly those who arrive from Mexico and Latin America, don't pose any security risks.
[...]
In the 19th century and early 20th century, even Catholic and Jewish immigrants from Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe were regarded by Americans as too alien and 'exotic' to be able to assimilate into the Anglo-Saxon Protestant majority in the United States. But the difference between then and now was that those immigrants wanted to assimilate into the American society and were provided with incentives to do so.

The current immigrants from Latin America - illegal and legal - are in a society that celebrates 'multiculturalism'. And that provides them with inducements to maintain their Hispanic identity, as well as to preserve their ties to the 'old country', which is just across the border and not thousands of miles away in Europe or Asia.

The result is the growing expectations (or fears) among middle-class white Americans that their country would soon be overwhelmed by an Hispanic majority - with some parts of the country becoming the way Miami and Los Angeles are today - that is, bilingual communities of 'Anglos' and 'Latinos', where the Spanish-language media now reaches a larger audience than English-language newspapers and television stations.

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*** ***

***

Hoots' take: They're here. Deal with it.

CFR Iraq Update

Spin, spin, spin...

If I have seen the numbers once I have seen them cited a dozen times: Casualties are trending down, therefore we must be doing something right! Woo-hoo! Get 'em, boys!

Sorry, folks. That dog won't hunt.

Good news from Iraq seems hard to come by these days. Growing militia violence (TIME) and the lack of progress in forming a government paint a bleak picture. Thus, it might be easy to overlook the fact that fewer U.S. troops have been dying (NPR) in recent months. This is partly because insurgents have begun to concentrate on non-U.S. targets, and partly because U.S. forces have become less exposed. Writing in the Sacramento Bee, conservative columnist William F. Buckley says reduced exposure "can be seen as the military voting with their feet to begin withdrawal."

In fact, the slowing U.S. casualty rate may well be the result of shifting strategies among both U.S. and insurgent forces. For its part, the insurgency appears to be attacking Iraqi targets with more frequency (NYT). With more than 2,300 U.S. soldiers already dead, inflicting more casualties on the increasingly secure American forces is not likely to chase out the "occupiers." On the other hand, as AEI's Reuel Marc Gerecht writes in the Wall Street Journal, the fault lines among Iraq's leadership appear to be growing. If the insurgency can continue to fuel the recent rise in sectarian violence, which was highlighted by an April 7 mosque bombing in Baghdad (BBC), it may well succeed in driving Iraq into chaos. Speaking to cfr.org's Bernard Gwertzman, New York Times chief military correspondent Michael Gordon says the prospect of civil war can't be ruled out. In the midst of all of this are reports that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, may have been demoted (CSMonitor).

Lots more links at the site, if the reader has time for drilling.

Donald Sensing on the "Judas Gospel"

I haven't paid much attention, but there is a resurgence of interest in what are being presented as "early Christian" writings (as though there were not already enough confusion about the Faith). Mostly they strike me as yet another attempt to push an oversized foot into a too-small glass slipper, but thanks to a pop revival stoked by the likes of the Left Behind series, The DaVinci Code and, yes, Gibson's snuff film, such efforts are getting a lot of serious play. Too bad, since the Gospels we have are fragile enough without a lot of careless handling by latter-day Philistines. Don't get me started. I have a hard time even allowing for good intentions.

Anyway, Dondald Sensing, an authority who stands high on my list, has produced an excellent essay looking at one of these fadish texts, putting it into a historical context that every thinking Christian should read. He also links to another authority underscoring many of the same points. If you think today's revisionist thinking and writing offers any new enlightenment, this reading is not optional.

Oral tradition had begun to deteriorate in post-apostolic times, partly because many or most of the eyewitnesses to the earliest events of Jesus’ life and death and the beginning of the church had died. Because the early church perceived its risen Lord as a living Lord, even his words could be adjusted or adapted to fit specific church needs. By the end of the first century, local gospel production was a booming business. Some gospels purported to be words of the risen Lord that did not reflect apostolic traditions and even claimed superiority over them. Such claims helped to push the early church toward canonization. Faced with such confusion and claims to late revelations, the church came to acknowledge it had to retain the historical dimension of its faith, the “once for all” revelation of God in Jesus Christ.

In addition, there were “para-Christian” movements flourishing that combined elements of pagan religion, Greek philosophy and Christian tradition. Gnosticism sounded Christian on its face, but it denied that Jesus and God were the same and also denied that Jesus was truly physical. Hence, Jesus did not actually die on the cross, but only appeared to. Gnosticism’s root was Greek philosophy, which made a sharp distinction between the physical world and the spiritual one.

Later:
David Kopel at Volokh Conspiracy agrees. I really like the clarity of this paragraph.

This Friday's coverage of the so-called "Gospel of Judas" in much of the U.S. media was appallingly stupid. The Judas gospel is interesting in its own right, but the notion that it disproves, or casts into doubt, the traditional orthodox understanding of the betrayal of Jesus is preposterous.

Amazing Juggler Video

This one I gotta link.
If you haven't seen it yet, you soon will.
Turn on the sound and get to it.

Advertisements running amok

Drilling back into an old post I hit upon New Kerala dot com, online edition from India. Interesting, I thought. Let's see how the news reported from another vantage point. Click on a story, and voila! Here is the text with a string of hypertexed words. Gee, pretty impressive, no? Hyperlinks bringing more details that couldn't fit into the lede.

Wrong.

The hyperlinks are for ads, some of which have nothing more than a vocabulary word in common with the story. And in the case of disaster stories, a jarring and inappropriate advertisement coming across as tacky as a phone solicitation at a wake.

Two die, 46 sickened at retirement home

VANCOUVER, Wash. : Health officials are trying to determine what caused the death of two people and the illness of 46 others at a retirement home in Vancouver, Wash., this week.The outbreak on an assisted living wing of the Cascade Inn retirement center began Monday when eight people were transported to the hospital, a report in the Columbian said Friday. One 91-year-old victim died Wednesday and another, age unknown, died Thursday. Of those sickened, 31 were residents and 15 staff.There is no indication as yet that the vomiting, nausea and diarrhea were triggered by a food-borne illness but the dining area in the affected wing of the center has been closed and the center quarantined. Family and friends of the residents were told to stay away. The manager of the county's infectious disease program, Marni Storey, said the residents' symptoms are similar to those in norovirus outbreaks that hit two local schools last fall."An illness cluster is not unusual at a retirement facility," Storey added.She said it can take up to a week before the state laboratory can determine the cause of the outbreak. In the meantime, staff members are observing several measures to prevent spread of the illness.

The links are apt to change, so I will copy them here for future reference...

Illness -- The Cause and Cure of Human Illness can be purchased on line from Ehret Literature Publishing Company for only $14.95 (US) Selling a book.

retirement home -- US News and World Report link. Magazine advertisement selling a host of books and articles about retirement.

assisted living -- Link to Visiplex, selling a wireless call system for use in nursing homes and retirement living settings.

Just the word retirement -- link to financial advisor...When you work with an Ameriprise financial advisor, you will work together to define your dreams then develop and monitor a tailoredfinancial plan that will help you achieve your dreams and adjust to life's changes.

This may be the best one. the word diarrhea is a link selling medicine. Do YOU feel disabled by unpleasant constipation or troublesome diarrhea and no one seems to know why? Chances are you too have Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
If you have tried everything else and nothing has worked for you, now it is time to ask your doctor if all-natural Digestrol™ is right for you.

And the word dining links to an ad for JC Penney!

Now THAT is what I call getting a lot of bang for your buck, even if you weren't looking for it.

"...in El Salvador abortion is punishable by up to 30 years in prison."

Lindsay Berenstein's post looks at the truly mad state of affairs in El Salvador since abortion was criminalized there eight years ago.

Salvadoran law admits no health exemptions, not even when abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother. Hospitals even force women with ectopic pregnancies to wait until the embryos burst inside them, lest the precious-but-doomed embryonic material end up in purgatory sooner than God intended. The government literally employs "forensic vagina inspectors" who are tasked with examining women who have lost pregnancies under "suspicious" circumstances.

Unbelievable.

Is this the dream of those who imagine that immoral choices should be subject to legal penalties?

Medical billing, Part II

Reminder: Dr. Bob's second lesson is now up.
This is a non-credit course, but with penalties for those who fail to audit.
Not for the feint of heart, dull-witted, or sleepy.
This man's patience is only exceeded by his perspicuity.

"For cockroaches, it seems, cooperation comes naturally."

Cockroaches govern themselves in a very simple democracy where each insect has equal standing and group consultations precede decisions that affect the entire group, indicates a new study.

The research determined that cockroach decision-making follows a predictable pattern that could explain group dynamics of other insects and animals, such as ants, spiders, fish and even cows.
[...]

Halloy tested cockroach group behavior by placing the insects in a dish that contained three shelters. The test was to see how the cockroaches would divide themselves into the shelters.

After much "consultation," through antenna probing, touching and more, the cockroaches divided themselves up perfectly within the shelters. For example, if 50 insects were placed in a dish with three shelters, each with a capacity for 40 bugs, 25 roaches huddled together in the first shelter, 25 gathered in the second shelter, and the third was left vacant.

No comment.

Discovery Channel on line.
H/T Joe Katzman, Winds of Change

Michael J. Totten is home

And he is in great form. This Open Letter to Hezbollah is an absolute gem. He addresses an individual, but he speaks for the world to see and hear. If this were ancient Rome, he would be wearing an olive wreath. Check the comments.

What do you people expect? It’s one thing when you trot out your impotent Death to America slogans. It’s another thing altogether when you threaten and bully us personally. I’m not a wire agency reporter. When you talk to me you’re on the record. When you say “We know who you are, we read everything you write, and we know where you live,” you’re on the record. Of course I’m going to quote you. If you don’t want to look like an asshole in print, don’t act like an asshole in life.

Lazy Mexicans

David Niewert is doing the heavy lifting these days for progressives, but there was a time when heavy lifting was not his best quality.

The first time I encountered Mexican workers was in 1975, when I came home to Idaho Falls from college in Moscow, Idaho, looking for work for the summer. The first place I could find that would hire me was a potato warehouse out on Lindsey Boulevard, next to the rail tracks.

Most of my co-workers were from Mexico, were likely illegal immigrants, and most of them spoke only Spanish. But they were friendly and tried to help me and my friend Scott, who had also gotten a job there. We both towered over them, and we were both in pretty good shape; I was 18 at the time, and had spent the previous summers hauling pipe in potato fields, so I knew what hard work was about. But we weren't quite prepared for this work.

Basically, the job entailed loading 100- and 50-pound gunny sacks of potatoes into rail cars: stacking them onto a dolly, rolling them into the car, and stacking them up. This is a reasonable job when the stack is less than chest high, but loading them over our heads was a real test.After two weeks, I failed it. I was completely exhausted and broken down by the end of that time. I called in, said thanks for the opportunity, and quit. (So did Scott.) I wound up setting up my own house-painting business that summer and making my tuition that way.

But I'm sure that most of those Latino co-workers not only stayed on, they probably worked at the warehouse year-round. Because they were simply unfazed by it all. They could load, stack, and load some more, all of it far more efficiently than I ever could. And at the end of every day, as I collapsed in a heap, they were still in good spirits.

Not only were they the hardest-working people I ever met, they also had the best work ethic I ever saw. That is, not only did they work hard, they worked smart. I muscled those 100-pound sacks of spuds up to the top row, while they simply tossed them up with a little leverage and technique.

Oh, and my old boss back at the potato farm where I hauled pipe? Within a couple of years after I left that farm, he went to an all-Latino crew, and he admitted to me that they were mostly illegals. But, he said, they worked harder and better and far more reliably than any crew of teenagers ever had for him. Having been one of those teenagers, I knew exactly what he meant.

I can testify that my own experience with immigrants in general, Mexicans in particular, has been much the same. I hired the first Mexicans at one of the busiest cafeterias in the market in 1982. All I can say is it was an answer to prayer. Six years later, at another location, I went through the same thing. After stumbling along with high-school kids and other hard-to-manage individuals, I let Mexicans take over my dishroom. I felt as though I had died and gone to heaven. It was the end of broken dishes, quarreling, absenteeism, complaining, and instability. When someone wanted to go to another job, or stay home with a new baby, or return to Mexico for family matters -- they would let me know in advance and often bring in a successor to the job being vacated. You think I didn't take advantage of that kind of loyalty and reliability? You think I'm stupid?

LULAC -- League of United Latin American Citizens

On 18 May 1929, at the Allende Hall in Corpus Christi, Texas, the first LULAC General Convention was called to order by Ben Garza. The first order of business was a constitution. The assembly promptly adopted one proposed by J.T. Canales and based upon the one used by The Knights of America. The next order of business was the election of officers. Ben Garza was elected President General, M.C. Gonzalez was elected Vice President General, A. DeLuna was elected Secretary General, and Louis C. Wilmot of Corpus Christi, Texas, was elected Treasurer General. These officers undertook the thankless job of guiding a new and young organization besieged by many enemies and skeptical friends and facing a future beset by pitfalls yet to be encountered.

Mexican Americans were not allowed to vote because in many instances they could not understand the English language, because they were not allowed to learn it. Finally, when Mexican American were able to vote, they had to pay for this right. Many were not able to pay, instead their anglo bosses paid this charge and told them who to vote for.

Many Mexican Americans were denied jobs because they were perceived as lazy, poorly dressed, dirty, ill educated, and thieves. In the end, many Mexican men and their entire families worked in the fields, farms, and ranches and their children never went to school.

American children had to attend segregated schools known as "Mexican Schools. "In those days "Mexican Schools" were legal in the southwest. These schools were staffed with the worse of teachers and the buildings were in deplorable conditions.

Hmm. Where have we heard this before???

Press release dated April 4

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the National Capitol Immigration Coalition in partnership with organizations from across the country will hold rallies across the country on Monday, April 10, 2006 in support of a fair and comprehensive immigration reform bill. Over 29 cities will participate in this unprecedented day of action that has energized immigrant communities nationwide.

“Comprehensive immigration reform must include an earned adjustment for immigrants currently working in the United States; create legal channels for future flows of immigrant workers; and reduce the vast backlogs in family-sponsored immigration,” said LULAC National President Hector M. Flores, “There is a bipartisan comprehensive immigration bill that offers effective enforcement, strengthens borders, and encourages people to come out of the shadows by offering a path to permanent residency.”

This earned legalization legislation is not amnesty because under the provisions of this legislation, an undocumented worker will have to pay a $2,000 fine, undergo a background check, pay any back taxes, learn English, enroll in civic education, remain employed for six years, and then, at the end of those six years, go to the back of the line to apply for legal permanent resident (LPR) status.

Sounds to me they are supporting, not protesting, constructive legislation addressing the elephant in the room. HR 4437 does not meet that need. It is seen by advocacy groups as counteer-productive for a number of reasons. If it has done nothing else, this proposal, called the "Sensenbrenner Bill," has glavanized immigrant advocacy groups like nothing else has done.

***********ILRC************

**************

*******

***

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center was founded in 1979 by Bill Hing, a well-known immigrant rights advocate who recognized the developing need for expert technical assistance in immigration law and policy. In the mid-1970's, at a time when legal service agencies weren’t focusing on immigration law, Bill responded by organizing the Golden Gate Immigration Clinic, an agency originally staffed by law students. This early experience revealed that Bay Area community-based organizations serving immigrants and refugees lacked adequate training and staffing to grapple with the increasingly complex legal and social challenges faced by their clients. As a result, the agency became the ILRC in 1979 and Bill served as the organization's first Executive Director on a volunteer basis from 1979 to 2000.

Objections to HR 4437 are listed at the ILRC website.

• criminalizes organizations and individuals assisting undocumented immigrants
• criminalizes undocumented immigration status
• grants state and local law enforcement agencies “inherent authority” to enforce immigration laws
• furthers the erosion of due process
• expands the costly detention of immigrants
• guts the federal courts’ authority to review immigration matters
• turns many minor crimes into aggravated felonies, which carry the worst possible immigration consequences
• expands the consequences of an aggravated felony and other offenses
• eliminates key safeguards concerning evidence used to prove that an immigrant is deportable for an aggravated felony
• reverses the burden of proof
• makes an immigrant associated with any street gang deportable and ineligible for any immigration benefits
• undermines state court decisions regarding the reversal or vacation of convictions in immigration proceedings
• imposes mandatory minimum sentences for many offenses

That list is neither frivolous nor vague. Each of these items is addressed individually. For example under the "street gangs" section...

...The Attorney General, through a secret process that provides no notice or opportunity to be heard to the immigrant, can designate any formal or informal group of three or more persons who have committed two or more enumerated gang crimes a “criminal street gang.” As a result of this designation, many immigrants who never committed or supported a single criminal act may be punished severely for exercising their right to association – they may be deported to a country where they face interrogation, torture, detention and even death.

You don't have to be a weatherman, they say...

Undocumented workers are rebuilding New Orleans

Somebody has to do it.
Doesn't look as though our favorite sons and daughters are stepping up.
Who's left?

As the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina receded in September, roads filled with residents leaving the city, their cars, SUVs and moving vans jammed with what they had salvaged of their lives.But another mass movement was taking place on the other sides of the highways.

Thousands of men from Mexico and Central America were driving into the city. Word had spread throughout the Latino immigrant diaspora in America that the city had plenty of work, construction wages had doubled to $16 an hour and no one was asking for papers."It was like a Gold Rush," said Oscar Calanche, a Guatemalan immigrant who lived in New Orleans before the storm and returned as soon as the waters receded. "In one car there'd be three up front and three or four in the back, with suitcases and tools on top. It looked like a river of people from our countries."

Latino workers have gutted, roofed and painted houses and hauled away garbage, debris and downed trees. Undocumented workers have installed trailers to house returning evacuees at New Orleans City Park, their pay coming from FEMA subcontractors."

It's all illegals doing this work," said Rey Mendez, a FEMA trailer subcontractor from Honduras.

No one knows how many Latino immigrants are here, but John Logan, a Brown University demographer who has studied the city since Katrina, says "there must be 10,000 to 20,000 immigrant workers in the region by now, and the number is going to grow."

As the Senate debates new immigration laws and marchers demonstrate across the country, these immigrants offer another reminder of the country's reliance on undocumented labor from Latin America.

More at the LA Times LINK.

Iran's military capability.........NOT!

Sabre-rattling out of Iran is making our own warriors tremble with anticipation.

Cernig says, "It's a hoax, folks."

I'm no expert on such things, so all I have to go on is past history. We know, for example, that Iraq's military capabilities were a lot less impressive than Saddam had bragged about. Scud missles were primitive, but they had the advantage of portability. Kind of a modern trebuchet. We know EID's are deadly, but here again, primitive. Likewise suicide bombers. I recall seeing long lines of unarmed former Iraqi troops walking...WALKING, for goodness sakes, back home. As far as the eye could see. Unarmed, smiling and going home. Not fighting. Walking.

Wasn't it in Iran that we saw those curious pictures of nun-like women in black garb rapelling down a building? Toting guns? Women in ankle-length black garb, already! Now we see pictures of odd-looking planes and torpedoes.

I dunno, folks. Something tells me Cernig is right. Again.
Drill into the links, read and decide for yourself.

But it really makes no difference what you and I think. It looks like a confrontation is in the works. Apparently they want it. Our guys want it, too. I learned in the Army that the urge to make war is as natural for some people as taking a leak or clearing your throat. Seems like it's gonna happen again.

The New McCarthyism

Moorish Girl (and others, I'm sure) point to an in-depth look at how PC Gone Wild is seizing U.S. classrooms and campuses. Political correctness is usually the term applied to the Lunatic Left, but in this case the Radical Right is every bit as involved with the same dynamic. Gary Younge, writing in the Guardian, paints the picture.

University professors denounced for anti-Americanism; schoolteachers suspended for their politics; students encouraged to report on their tutors. Are US campuses in the grip of a witch-hunt of progressives, or is academic life just too liberal?

...it has primarily been universities that have been on the frontline. And on the other side of the trenches has been the rightwing firebrand David Horowitz. Horowitz...was raised by communist parents and was himself a marxist as a teenager. He is involved with Campus Watch, Jihad Watch, Professors Watch and Media Watch; he was also connected to discoverthenetworks.org, which targeted Gilroy. A few years ago he founded a group, Students for Academic Freedom, which boasts chapters promoting his agenda on more than 150 campuses. The movement monitors slights or insults that students say they have suffered and provides an online complaint form. Students are advised to write down "the date, class and name of the professor", get witnesses, "accumulate a list of incidents or quotes", and lodge a complaint. Over the past three years Horowitz has led the call for an academic bill of rights in several states. The bills would allow students to opt out of any part of a course they felt was "personally offensive" and force American universities to adopt quotas for conservative professors as well as monitor the political inclinations of their staff.

The bill has been debated in 23 states, including six this year. In July, Pennsylvania approved legislation calling on 14 state-affiliated colleges to free their campuses from the "imposition of ideological orthodoxy". Meanwhile, House Republicans have included a provision in the Higher Education Act which calls on publicly funded colleges to ensure a diversity of ideas in class - code for countering the alleged liberal bias in classrooms.

"The aim of the movement isn't really to achieve legislation," says Horowitz. "It's supposed to act as a cattle prod, to make legislators and universities aware. The ratio of leftwing professors in Berkeley and Stanford is seven to one and nine to one. You can't get hired if you're a conservative in American universities."

I became aware of Discover the Networks last June. Scary bunch, if you ask me.

I expect these folks will be trembling with rage and fear next Monday with all these immigration rights advocacy groups taking to the streets. It's just the kind of activity they love to document for the purpose of maligning someone's sincerity or patriotism. Serious objections to proposed legislation have animated and united a broad array of otherwise fragmented groups. HR 4437 has really struck a common nerve.

ILRC lists objections in a clear and understandable manner.

Jib-Jab does Passover

It would be remiss of me not to link.
H/T allisonks