McCain Behind Closed Doors: I'm Still For Comprehensive Immigration Reform!

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Allahpundit over at Hot Air reports (with some info coming from Michelle Malkin) this depressing but not surprising information on John McCain's carefully screened meeting last night with Chicago area Latinos:

Exercise caution. There’s only one source, she’s a member of the Minutemen and thus perhaps inclined to look too skeptically at what Maverick says on this subject, and this wouldn’t be the first time in the past few days where the media’s exaggerated something he said at a town hall. Even so, we got a bunch of e-mails this morning about the AP wire report on last night’s “private meeting” in Chicago showcasing this quote from attendee Rosanna Pulido:

“He’s one John McCain in front of white Republicans. And he’s a different John McCain in front of Hispanics,” complained Rosanna Pulido, a Hispanic and conservative Republican who attended the meeting.

Pulido, who heads the Illinois Minuteman Project, which advocates for restrictive immigration laws, said she thought McCain was “pandering to the crowd” by emphasizing immigration reform in his 15-minute speech.

Jake Tapper must have gotten some e-mails too because he called her this morning to follow-up. Quote:

[S]he went to the meeting, a room full of 150-200 people. “Sure enough,” Pulido says, “his mantra at the meeting was comprehensive immigration reform.’ And there were cheers and applause whenever he mentioned comprehensive immigration reform.”

“Then he said, ‘I bet some of you don’t know this — did you know Spanish was spoken in Arizona before English?’ And the crowd roared. I was appalled,” Pulido said. “He was pandering to these people — that’s what they wanted to hear.”…

“He was telling one group of people one thing and the Hispanics another,” says Pulido. “I’m a conservative and I think he’s throwing conservatives under the bus.”…

As Allahpundit correctly notes, this isn't the best sourced story out there and its veracity should be regarded somewhat skeptically. Heightening one's skepticism is this quote:

"This was not a secret meeting," said Rafael Rivadeneira, a vice chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Illinois, who was among more than 150 Chicago-area Hispanic leaders who attended. "There was nothing he said that they wouldn't want people to hear."

What makes this story so troubling is how easy it is to believe. McCain had been building some degree of goodwill among conservatives over the past few days with his evolving-in-the-right-right-direction energy policies but it is very much like him to bristle at conservative support and turn around and bite us in the ass as his version of "You're welcome." We can only hope that the story is mis-characterizing the meeting and that McCain is smart enough to realize that roundly kicking your core constituents every now and then is not the smartest road to the White House. The lack of trust conservatives have over his position on illegal immigration is something he needs to overcome not to reinforce.

Illegal Immigration Benign? Uh, Not really

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A hat tip to John Derbyshire at NRO for the astonishing video, above. Derb's source, Tuscon schoolteacher John A. Ward concludes a formal complaint to the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board with the following:

Although the video highlights one teacher at one school in TUSD, my experiences as a former teacher in the ethnic studies program in TUSD allow me to recognize the situation for the much wider problem that it is. TUSD should be forthcoming about its ethnic studies program. It has an obligation to the citizens of Tucson and the taxpayers of Arizona to do so. Ultimately, it is We the People who get to decide the nature of our public schools, not one powerful lobby within the District.

I wish I could carry the video around in my pocket and whip it out to every person who tells me illegals have no other motivation in coming here than to earn a buck and become Americanized.

Demography Is Destiny?

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According to Monsignor Vittorio Formenti of the Vatican,

"For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us."

Formenti, who compiled the Vatican's 2008 statistical yearbook put the current world percentage of Catholics at 17.4% and Muslims at 19.2%. If, however you add all Christian religions together you find that Christians still account for 33% of the world population. Then again if current trends hold, according to this projection Muslims will outnumber Christians of all denominations by the year 2200.



The question here really isn't so much which religion is growing fastest; in and of itself this wouldn't be all that significant. What makes it significant is that,

1. much of this growth is occurring in the immigrant Muslim populations in European nations, nations which are ostensibly our allies and


2. these Muslims are not being assimilated into these nations.

Even beyond their not being assimilated many of them are actually being radicalized, the worst in their culture being promoted. For a detailed explanation of the degree of this problem I'd refer you to Londonistan by Melanie Phillips.

In the previous paradigm of the melting pot, in which immigrants came to a host nation and "melted" into its culture, contributing some things to their new home but adapting themselves into the majority culture, the growing problem would not be as acute as it is under multiculturalism which is the new model for dealing with immigration. If Muslims were under societal pressure to moderate their more radical elements it might even help create a greater pressure to bring about a much needed Muslim reformation. According to the rules of multiculturalism it is something akin to a hate-crime to question Muslims about what is being done in the name of their religion. The mainstream media is complicit in assisting Islam in not addressing its own deficits. For example, TV frequently portrays Americans as committing hate crimes against them, making them victims. In reality these selfsame Hollywood productions are almost the only place you will see such things happening. Considering the level of worldwide radical Muslim violence, Western restraint, not its giving in to hate is what is really remarkable and admirable.

The growth of Islam as a percentage of the entire human population will be a growing problem as long the West is so uncertain of its own worth that it can't make a case for its own values. What is truly remarkable is that the West is so unsure of itself in comparison to a culture that refuses to grant women the same rights as men, views anybody who isn't Muslim as second class (at best) etc. By not confronting Islam's faults, allowing millions of Muslims to immigrate while retaining their own culture and not assimilating, the citizens of the West will eventually find themselves minorities in their own countries. And if this should happen the likely demography of the future is destined to bring about the end of freedom as we now know it.

Horray For...France?

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It would seem the days of Jacques Chirac really are dead as current French President Nicolas Sarkozy apparently has plans to send 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan, boosting the French troop presence there to close to 3,000. Even more remarkable is the fact that he is doing this while Germany, Italy and Spain are continuing to show their usual spinelessness in the face of Islamofascism.

Since coming to power in May of last year Sarkozy has continued to act in a way that has made it almost difficult to loathe the usually wretched French Republic. On a score of different fronts he's advocated policies and made statements that would make it seem that he doesn't realize that both Europe and France are in a death spiral. Last month, instead of attempting to grovel before the growing ranks of world anti-semitism he said,

"I won't shake hands with people who refuse to recognise Israel."

He's also shown solidarity with the US in opposition to Iran saying,

“Proliferation is a grave threat to international security. We
cannot sit by and do nothing while Iran develops technologies which are in violation of international law.”

And he's even taking a whack at China on environmental issues, threatening to penalize Chinese imports due to the free-ride it gets on carbon-emissions while the EU must meet strict standards, despite China being expected to soon become the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide.

The fact that the US sees Europe as an ally (no matter how unreliable) is threatened by the demographic trend-line in which Muslim immigrants are now on their way to becoming the majority while showing little allegiance to Western culture. Sarkozy, with his personal experience with the Muslim riots that spread across the country in 2005 has shown a desire to try to get a handle on the problem by proposing quotas on immigrants. The fact that he's on the right track can be seen by the comments of a Leftist member of the French commission on social and economic reform who said,

“If we will have quotas for specific nationalities and specific
professions it will lead to a racist policy."

Will Sarkozy be able to stop the boulder of French decline as it careens down the mountain to its ultimate crash landing? Well, he is far from perfect and the cracks are already starting to show. His private life reads like something out of National Enquirer. In fact, it frequently is something that you can read about in the Enquirer. He has a famously short temper that is considerably less than endearing. And he is fighting the entrenched forces of the status quo which are deeply committed to France's current death spiral. His poll numbers have dipped to around 40% approval and his party fared badly in recent municipal elections. But Sarkozy is smart and resourceful so he could well pull himself out of these doldrums.

The question then becomes whether Sarkozy will become the leading edge of a European revival or just the last man who tried? I wouldn't exactly put my money on his chances but it is encouraging to see that there's a least still a little fight left in Europe.

Cross-linked at Liberty Pundit

Why The UN's Latest Report Is A "Bust"

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The United Nations, that inspiring institution that has among its member, Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe and Sudan has issued a report criticizing the US for its treatment of illegal aliens. Jorge Bustamante, who authored the report expressed his concerns about the, "rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States" and took testimony about worker abuse, government raids, family separations and other issues. In his report, he wrote that xenophobia and racism toward migrants had worsened since the Sept. 11 attacks, with a particularly devastating effect on children, Afro-Caribbean migrants, and those perceived to be Muslim or ethnic South Asians and Middle Easterners."

Mr. Bustamante, whose official title is U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants is an interesting choice to write such a report. A Mexican national, he is a professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame and founder of El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a left of center Mexican institute for the study of border issues. His ideological tilt is unsurprising. In a story in the Mexico City Reforma he recently wrote of the Republican candidates for President that they “lack even the most minimum recognition of the demand for the Mexican migrant labor.” He then advocated that Mexicans who employ “the real power we have as consumers” boycot companies that support Republican candidates.

In May of last year, while conducting research for his report, a reception was held for him by the American Civil Liberties Union, CASA of Maryland, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Rights Working Group, and the US Human Rights Network, left-wing organizations, all. The ACLU has now issued a press release applauding Mr. Bustamante’s report.

He also has close ties to the Mexican government, in 1988 having received the Premio Nacional de Ciencias from the President of Mexico, the highest award granted to scientists by the Mexican government.

The United Nations, living down to the expectations of those who suspect its fairness, competence and its very usefulness in promoting democracy and peace stacked the deck from the start in mandating this report, the results of which were a given before any “research” was conducted. In securing the services of a leftist ideologue with a history of connections to the corrupt Mexican government and a history of advocating against US interests on behalf of illegals, the UN is responsible for yet another sham that is, as always largely sponsored by US tax dollars.

The question remains, as it always does when the actions of the UN are raised; Why does the US government continue to fund an organization whose interests are not the same as our own?

Actual Junk: Bush's Virtual Fence is a Real Fraud

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There is a famous scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first Indiana Jones film in which Indy is confronted by a giant, black-clad swordsman, holding an enormous scimitar that he twirls and and spins, with which he obviously means to fillet Indy in short order. The audience sits in anticipation, wondering what sort of cleverness Indiana will use to extricate himself from this particular problem. Will he use his whip to snap the sword out of mid air? What kind of trickery will he employ? Instead of doing anything fancy, Indiana, looking bored merely pulls out his gun and shoots the giant, then goes about his business. The lesson here: sometimes the easiest and most obvious answer is the best one. Which brings me to the Department of Homeland Security's virtual fence.


According to Congressional testimony last week the so-far only 28 miles of virtual fencing constructed by Homeland Security on the Mexican border meant to keep illegal aliens form slipping into the US is a bust. Despite Secretary Michael Chertoff's effusive huckstering, the $20 million fence, built by Boeing flopped because necessary software was inadequate to process data, the resolution of the needed cameras was inadequate to the task and the radar was glitchy among other problems. But instead of mothballing this modern Edsel the Administration is postponing it for another three years at a currently unknown cost. So much for fancy.


You don't have to be keenly cynical to wonder if Homeland Security (with the President's approval) just isn't very serious about border security. If they were they just might have spared us all the fancy whiz-bang stuff which many familiar with it said from the start would not work and just gone ahead and employed much simpler methods with proven track records of effectiveness. Congressman Duncan Hunter, who has been one of the realists on this issue today reports in Human Events on the very real functionality of an actual physical fence. He points out that the 14 mile San Diego Border Fence has done just what you would want it to do: "Since its construction more than 10 years ago, the smuggling of people and narcotics has dropped drastically; crime rates -- according to FBI statistics -- have been reduced by half, vehicle drug drive-throughs have been eliminated; and apprehensions have decreased due to fewer crossing attempts." In the light of such a proven track record, the Administration's dabbling in this virtual fence dead-end looks far more like playing for time, maybe time for the public to move on to other issues, than it looks like a serious effort to secure our borders.


Those, like the President, Democrats and (sadly) Senator John McCain who are (to be kind) somewhat less than concerned about illegal immigration try to block the efforts of those who think illegal immigration is a real problem for the nation, always try to complicate solutions. Therefore you see "virtual" fences and hear how deportation is "impossible" and you see all other forms of obfuscation.


The truth is that deportation is far from impossible and far from ineffective. When faced with a growing problem of illegal immigration in the '50s, President Dwight Eisenhower instituted a policy of rounding up and deporting illegals, taking them back to Mexico (and deep into Mexico, not just dumping them across the border) in buses and ships. Tens of thousands were apprehended and sent back and hundreds of thousands followed voluntarily.


There are other serious, straightforward ways to deal with the problem, too. Vigorously going after and fining companies who hire illegals is an obvious way. Eliminating the law that allows "anchor babies", babies born in the US of illegals who are automatically US citizens if they are born within our borders. Oh yeah, and get real about building the real physical fence that had been mandated by the Secure Fence Act, that law that the people forced their legislature to pass against their will. The Act called for 700 miles of double-layered fence to be built, separating the US from Mexico. Well over a year has passed since the Act passed and only 80 miles of fence has been built. This is the speed of a government dragging its feet.


While it is amusing to see what new excuses those who are opposed to enforcing the immigration laws come up with next for those of us who actually respect the rule of law, we know that Indiana Jones had it right: do it fast, do it simple and for God's sake just get it done.

Why I Am A Nazi - A Surprising Confession

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I have dreaded this moment for a long time, knowing that someday it would certainly come. But I am worn down, tired of the denials, tired of being defensive, trying to hide. The evidence has been mounting for a long time and I must face the facts and state the truth boldly and admit it to the world: I am a Nazi!

How do I know? Well many powerful and influential sources have been saying it for a long time. I've heard it from virtually any movie that even touched on a political topic or deals with social issues in any way. The liberal blogs tell me daily. I hear it from magazines, college professors and Democrats. I hear it from TV. For a long time I'd see people like me, who believe that the government's role should be far more limited than it is today but who believe that national defense is one of the those things government should be doing and that that defense should be muscular and effective, portrayed as goose-stepping Jew, Black, Gay killers. I've seen those of us who believe that the US has a right to defend its sovereignty, make and enforce laws respecting who gets to come and go, live and work in the US shown as being swastika-tattooed, zeig-heiling murderers. I resisted what the media has been saying about me for so long now but I've grown weary and after watching an episode of CBS's series, Cold Case last night I finally broke down and have accepted the fact that yes, I am a Nazi.

The episode in question, Spiders, revolves around Tamyra Border, an abused seventeen year old girl who we see in flashback because we find out that ten years ago she was murdered and the case has gone cold. She had run away from her abusive father who burned her with cigarettes and beat her. Desperate she falls into the arms of "Spider" Leland who befriends her and takes her home to stay with him, his mother and loner, Elliot Leopold, another apparently lost and sympathetic soul. Once having settled in and starting to feel comfortable with Spider he reveals the reason for his extending Tamyra his and his mother's sympathies: Spider wants to her to join his group which believes that laws should be enforced, the government should be smaller and illegal immigration is bad...just like I do. Oh yeah, he also doesn't believe the Holocaust ever happened and all manner of bad things should happen to Blacks, Gays, Jews, etc. none of which I agree with for even a nano-second but I've learned from years of being told by the media, if you believe in the first group of things, you also believe in the second. By the time Spider took off his top shirt revealing the swastika on the T-shirt underneath I knew what CBS was telling me: I'm a Nazi!

Well as it happens Spider was lucky enough to find an Hispanic woman whose car had broken down. She was, of course a lovely, sweet (we're made to assume) illegal immigrant whose son was hiding in the car, watching as Spider got out of his car and beat her unconscious. He gave Tamyra a gun and told her to shoot the Hispanic woman but Tamyra refused so Spider did it instead. Tamyra was brought back to Spider and Spider's Mom's where she tried to escape and go to the police. As it happens Mom, who is some sort of combination of Nurse Ratchett and the Wicked Witch of the West tells Tamyra that "You're either with us or against us" in killing those danged Hispanics. Well those are the exact same words that Republican President George W. Bush has so famously used. So it is obvious that George W. Bush and the Nazi mom think exactly alike!! And I voted for him! So, I'm a Nazi, too!

Well, I have to admit that I was a little confused here as no president has been more welcoming to illegal aliens than GWB has been. I mean I think that he's been far too lax in enforcing immigration laws, which I guess means I'm an even bigger Nazi than George W. Bush. Also, GWB has done more to prevent AIDS in Africa than any other president and is actually very popular in much of Africa, but still CBS said it so it must be so: he just wants to kill all those Hispanics and Blacks etc.

Nazi-mom also quoted Republican President Teddy Roosevelt, who said, "We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all." Well, there you have it: Nazis just love Republicans and that's because Republicans are just like them. See? I'm a Nazi.

Well, ok it may be true that, as Jonah Goldberg points out in minute detail, in Liberal Fascism, Nazism is really a Left-Wing phenomenon, which was much admired by many people in FDR's administration and that anti-semitism is spreading like wildfire in all the strongholds of socialism in Europe and that it was Democrat, Jimmy Carter who, according to his own Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, was going to "sell Israel down the river" if he'd been reelected, but still: I'm a Nazi.

Oh yeah, as it turned out it was Elliot who turned out to have been Tamyra's murderer; had to kill her to shut her up. It turns out he wasn't so nice after all. In the present it seems he is one of those right-wing college economics professors. They're everywhere, you know.

So there you have it. It is irrefutable and I'm through protesting. I'm a Nazi. I must be. CBS told me so. But you want to know the only solace I have? I think you might just be a Nazi, too.