Immigration

I am sure he will be very animated over this tonight:

A federal appeals court has refused to throw out lengthy prison sentences for two U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting an unarmed illegal immigrant and lying about it.

You can bet the right will also be in an uproar over it.

There is a saying about people in glass houses not throwing stones. The Republican Party has put themselves on such a high platform over the years, it's no wonder the entire thing is crumbling down around them. The latest from their conservative icon:

A former California Republican Party official who resigned last year in a controversy over his immigration status had no valid visa or work permit during his high-profile career as a Washington lobbyist for conservative icon Grover Norquist, newly filed court records show.

Michael Kamburowski, an Australian citizen who served briefly as chief operating officer of the state GOP, worked from 1995 to 2000 as a vice president of Americans for Tax Reform in Washington, D.C., an organization headed by Norquist - an architect of modern conservatism who has advised President Bush and top GOP political leaders.

For Norquist, Kamburowski lobbied Congress on dozens of issues, including immigration reform, according to his resume. He also directed the Norquist organization's Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, an effort to rename public buildings to honor the former president.

So he advised Bush, was a head of the state GOP in California and lobbied for immigration reform. I expect the wingnuts to circle the wagons around Grover on this, which will raise the question about the immigration reform. Exactly which immigration did he want to reform? This could have some serious racial implications.

Stopping the "flow of illegal immigrants" across the border is so damn important that they are building this wall. I guess seeing that wall will prevent them from going around holes like this:

While the border wall will go through her backyard and effectively destroy her home, it will stop at the edge of the River Bend Resort and golf course, a popular Winter Texan retreat two miles down the road. The wall starts up again on the other side of the resort.

"It has a golf course and all of the amenities," Tamez says. "There are no plans to build a wall there. If the wall is so important for security, then why are we skipping parts?"

Oh but wait - it gets even better. Look what happens if you have friends with the initials George W. Bush:

Just 69 miles north, Daniel Garza, 76, faces a similar situation with a neighbor who has political connections that reach the White House. In the small town of Granjeno, population 313, Garza points to a field across the street where a segment of the proposed 18-foot high border wall would abruptly end after passing through his brick home and a small, yellow house he gave his son. "All that land over there is owned by the Hunts," he says, waving a hand toward the horizon. "The wall doesn't go there."

In this area everyone knows the Hunts. Dallas billionaire Ray L. Hunt and his relatives are one of the wealthiest oil and gas dynasties in the world. Hunt, a close friend of President George W. Bush, recently donated $35 million to Southern Methodist University to help build Bush's presidential library. In 2001, Bush made him a member of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, where Hunt received a security clearance and access to classified intelligence.

Now here's the question. If stopping illegal immigrants is such a vital part of our national security, should Bush's friendships trump that security? I would love to see the Bush apologists defend this. Will Malkin take this on?

For someone who talks about law and ethics as much as Rudy, he sure is one crooked bastard.

I wonder if Lou will go after the wingnuts for supporting Romney's sanctuary mansion? Maybe people should write in and suggest he do just that (write in from this handy little link).

So one of the big stories today is that Mitt Romney still uses illegal immigrants to do his lawn work. I guess the wingnuts will disown Romney now - won't they?

Let's ask Erick at Redstate:

The Boston Globe has decided to stake out the Romney house and harass contract workers on their citizenship status. I find it highly ironic that a media company opposed to restrictive immigration policies and racial profiling would stand outside someone's house and harass hispanic looking workers to find out if they are illegal aliens.

I actually give Governor Romney credit for giving the company involved a second chance. To be sure, I would not have publicly released the address and name of the company today as it just sets Romney up for a vendetta by the guy.

WHOA - what's that? It isn't bad that illegal immigrants did the work, but it is bad that it was reported? Now certainly Malkin is opposed to Romney doing this - isn't she?:

And while it’s bad for police to ask suspected criminal aliens their citizenship status, it’s fine and dandy for journalists to ask lawn workers whether they’re here illegally…if it will embarrass a Republican presidential candidate.

For the record, Romney should have cut ties with the company a long time ago. Dumb decision. He should be embarrassed.

Oh so she is also upset that this got reported, but at least she is a little mad at Romney. Of course that doesn't stop her from thinking this will turn into a partisan issue:

But not as embarrassed as open-borders zealots and Dems should be. Watch as they exploit this report and then turn around and attack everyone other than liberal MSM journalists who advocates the repeal of sanctuary gag orders or uses the same basic investigative techniques to report a story. (Here’s a thought experiment: Imagine a Fox reporter hanging out at the Virginia DMV where the 9/11 hijackers bought fraudulent ID for two months, asking the day laborers if they’re here legally, snapping photos and shooting video of the parking lot transactions, and then reporting the results to DHS for comment on air. The spit would fly, I guarantee it.)

Now my head is really spinning. Did Malkin miss the YouTube debate she made such a big fuss about? I thought Rudy was the one going on about this.

There is an underlying point in all this - hypocrisy. Now if it was John Edwards caught using illegal immigrants, the right would be attacking him nonstop (including Mitt Romney). So you and me can't have illegal immigrants do our lawn work, but Romney can? As usually the talking points and outrage by Republicans smells of hypocrisy (see Larry Craig, Mark Foley, etc., etc. etc.) and their little puppets follow right behind them.

Malkin's final reasoning there also has me baffled. Has anyone ever been sent to prison for refusing to answer questions from a reporter? Does her dense little mind distinguish the difference between police and reporters? She has developed a pure straw man out of this just to protect Romney.

So to these wingnuts Romney's reputation trumps border security. How's that for a credibility issue?

UPDATE:

Add Hugh Hewitt to the list of Romney apologists (as well as Captain Ed)!

So goes it goes for Bush. He was planning on the immigration bill being his legacy. Well his own party just did him in.

The ironic part is how Bush is saying that Senate needs to work together to tackle tough issues. How many filibusters have the Republicans had this year? The same tactic they said should be done away with. Interesting.

Condoms!

A congressman is pushing a not-so-quick fix in the debate over illegal immigrants from Mexico: free contraceptives.

"A slower rate of growth of Mexico's population would improve the economy of Mexico. It would also reduce the environmental pressure on Mexico's ecosystem. But a slower rate of growth would also reduce the long-term illegal immigration pressure on America's borders," reasoned Rep. Mark Kirk, who also supports stronger border security in the short-term.

In reality, fertility rates have plunged in Mexico since 1980, when an average couple would have five or more children. Now, the country's fertility rate has dropped to 2.5 children, compared to 2.1 for the United States, according to United Nations data.

Kirk, an Illinois Republican, made the argument on Thursday during a heated debate in the House of Representatives over whether the U.S. government should be allowed to donate condoms and other contraceptives to family planning agencies abroad that also engage in abortion.

Now come on congressman. That goes against the GOP principal of "abstinence only".

Where in the hell does the GOP get these people?

This one will get you:

While the U.S. military searches for a soldier missing in Iraq, kidnapped by insurgents possibly allied with al Qaeda, his wife back home in Massachusetts may be deported by the U.S. government.

Army Spec. Alex Jimenez, who has been missing since his unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12, had petitioned for a green card for his wife, Yaderlin Hiraldo, whom he married in 2004.

Their attorney, Matthew Kolken, said 23-year-old Hiraldo illegally entered the United States in 2001 to reunite with her husband, whom she had met in her native Dominican Republic and later married at his New York State Army base in 2004.

Her husband's request for a green card and legal residence status for his wife alerted authorities to her status, Kolken said.

I really wonder what all the wingnut war bloggers, who have been crying about "amnesty", say about this. Will they want the government to let her stay (which would be amnesty), or will they want her kicked out? My guess is that they stay silent on it - simply because this is a smack of reality they can never face.

I guess this explains why O'Reilly has the top ratings. No matter how disturbing, everyone has to look at that bloody car wreck:

I usually don't defend Geraldo, but he deserves it this time. The issue was about a drunk driver that happened to be an illegal immigrant. O'Reilly wouldn't have become so billegerant if this person was an American citizen.

O'Reilly isn't the only one that acts like this on crimes where illegal immigrants are involved. This entire immigration debate has sparked this kind of hatred all over the country. Right here in southern Ohio, we had a major incident of it two years ago, which gained national attention. A 9 year old girl was sexually assaulted by an illegal immigrant. This crime resulted in the KKK marching and the assailants house being burned by angry citizens. But at the same time about 20 miles away, another crime similar had happened, and you didn't see public outrage like this.

In Cincinnati a 31 year old man was arrested for raping his 3 year old daughter. To make this horrible crime even worse, the man was doing the assaults on a webcam in Yahoo chat rooms. The KKK didn't march in protest to him and his house was not burned.

This is what our nation is devolving to - a nation of discrimination. We don't worry about the actual crime and how to prevent them, we worry about where they are from. That is really bad for a nation that was proudly created by immigrants.

Oliver Willis has much more.

Lying to get us into war is no problem. Executing a war in such a poor fashion is no problem. Violating the civil rights of millions of Americans - ehh it's ok. Violating the Constitution by vigorous use of "signing statements" - well they will give him a pass. All that doesn't matter, but immigration does:

Several Republican lawmakers have sharply criticized the imprisonment of two border agents who were convicted of shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in the back and attempting to cover it up.

Appeals to President Bush to pardon the two men, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, have increased since one was assaulted by fellow inmates in a federal prison last weekend.

Yesterday, two Republican Congressmen had strong words to say about Bush, with one even threatening impeachment.

"Reps. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., blasted President Bush for not intervening in the case, with Rohrabacher hinting that he would consider pressing for impeachment if either of the two agents was killed in prison," Dave Montgomery reports for McClatchy Newspapers.

"Now, I tell you, Mr. President, if these men -- especially after this assault -- are murdered in prison, or if one of them lose their lives, there's going to be some kind of impeachment talk in Capitol Hill," Rohrabacher said.

(Raw Story has the audio of this statement)

This case is definitely weird, but if the Republicans would have paid attention to other actions of the administration then it might have been avoidable. When we got an Attorney General who believes Habeas Corpus does not apply to all citizens, we got a problem. When we can imprison an American Citizen like Jose Padilla for years without facing a judge then we got a problem.

Dana Rohrabacher needs to talk to his own party about their lack of oversight and their threats against Democrats when it comes to "impeachment" talk about Bush. If all the details of this case are true then it is really bad. True a lot worse has happened during this Presidency and those merit just the same amount of attention, if not more.

This is how loony the right is becoming, as they fear our newly elected Democratic congress:

A radio talk-show entertainer whose earlier statements that he "may" have to assassinate members of Congress if the wrong people were elected Nov. 7 now has set a timetable for those killings.

In a statement on his website, Hal Turner noted that a newspaper has reported that a bill granting amnesty to illegal aliens is expected to be enacted in January, when the Democratic Party takes control of the U.S. Senate and House.

"ANY MEMBER OF CONGRESS WHO INTRODUCES, CO-SPONSORS OR VOTES IN FAVOR OF ANY SUCH AMNESTY WILL BE DECLARED A DOMESTIC ENEMY AND WILL BE CONSIDERED A LEGITIMATE TARGET FOR ASSASSINATION," Turner posted on his website.

Reading further down the article, the Secret Service and FBI are apparently blowing this off also. Funny how when school kids make posters that the Secret Service feels are a threat to the President, they come to their school and pull them out, yet someone who uses our public airwaves to make his fame and advertise his website, which contains text calling for the assassination of our elected officials, it is nothing.

Look what happened a little over a month ago. They caught the guy sending fake anthrax letters to Democrats and left-wing media personalities. Turns out that guy was a product of the right wing blogo-sphere and frequented the sites of Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter.

Make a serious note of this. The right is the ones that constantly engage in this sort of activity, yet they blame the left for engaging in it. Pretty funny, being the technical administrator for two of the largest left-wing blogs out there, I don't see this activity happening on our side. This is typical of them in politics and writing.

So what does Mr. Turner think about the majority of this country that overwhelmingly put the Democrats in power? Does he feel the same way about them?

Here is something for Mr. Turner to chew on. The people that come into this country that he apparently so despises, have a better knowledge of how our democracy works then him. His statement is very much a terroristic threat and should be handled as such. He is calling for the assassination of members of Congress. Ironically, the Democrats mostly support the same thing Bush does, so the President should be included in that (remember his Oval Office speech about immigration? HINT: Guest workers!).

So here is what should happen. 1) He be questioned and charged for his actions. 2) The hosting company for his site needs to suspend his account indefinitely. All hosting companies in the U.S. have some sort of policy against engaging in illegal activities. 3) The FCC must suspend his license indefinitely and he can never return to the airwaves in this country.

Even if all these punishments happened, it would be far less then what happened to people falsely accused of being terrorists. True Mr. Turner is more of a terrorist then any of those. Osama didn't take down the towers on 9/11. He was just the ring leader behind it. Sounds like the same position that Mr. Turner is shooting for.

(h/t AmericaBLOG)

Call it signs of desperation or just down right hatred, but what the California Republicans have done now are new lows:

State investigators have linked a Republican campaign to letters sent to thousands of Southern California Hispanics warning them they could go to jail or be deported if they vote next month, a spokesman for the attorney general said.

"We have identified where we believe the mailing list was obtained," said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

He declined to identify the specific Republican campaign Wednesday, citing the ongoing investigation. The Los Angeles Times and The Orange County Register both reported Thursday that the investigation appeared to be focused on the campaign of Tan D. Nguyen, a Republican challenger to Democratic U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez.

The letter, written in Spanish, tells recipients: "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."

In fact, immigrants who are naturalized U.S. citizens can vote.

So people who are immigrants can't vote? That is news. Perhaps we should make this "new rule" proactive. Anyone who is of immigrant origins to the United States can not vote this election year. I wonder how all those American Indians will vote? I wonder if they still have hard feelings for the millions that Abramoff stole from them. I am sure they do.

This type of stunt is sadly not uncommon around the country. We really need new laws regarding these type of campaign tactics. I believe if someone is found guilty of doing something like this, or making false claims in their ads against their opponent, then they must pay their opponent the cost of the ad plus an additional amount to undo the wrong doings of these people. If campaigns start facing hefty fines like that, instead of the little slap on the wrists, then perhaps they will grow up and play by the rules. After all - what they are doing is a crime against our country.

While the Republicans continue to stall on the Voting Rights Act, we are starting to see a new era of demand for equality. This time it is coming from the Latinos:

Two Latino radio hosts credited for mobilizing hundreds of thousands this year in pro-immigrant protests said on Friday they would join the drive to increase the Hispanic and immigrant vote in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

Los Angeles disc jockeys Piolin (Tweetybird) and El Cucuy (the Bogeyman) said they will work with the National Council of La Raza and other organizations to push Latino immigrants living in the United States to become U.S. citizens and register to vote in time to cast ballots in 2008.

Immigration promises to be one of the big issues in the 2006 mid-term congressional elections and the 2008 presidential election as the future of some 12 million undocumented immigrants divides Congress and President George W. Bush's Republican Party.

An estimated 8 million Latinos are legal residents in the United States who qualify for naturalization as U.S. citizens, including 3 million in California alone, activists said.

Pushing for Latinos to be able to vote in 2008 - that is a sure way to get Republicans to take up immigration and prevent that. I wish them all the success in the world on this drive. We need more people like this who are willing to make America better and not turn it into some white supremacist theocracy.

When Bush took to the airwaves a couple of months ago to address the nation from the Oval Office regarding immigration, I had my typical thought of Bushit, and his plan to send 6,000 National Guard troops to the border especially reeked of it. Now the very conservative Washington Times is realizing Bush's plan has failed:

Sleep well. Your National Guard is awake. But not too well, if you live on the border. Your Guardsman is not asleep, but through no fault of his own he's missing in action.

    The Bush administration promised to put 2,500 Guardsmen on the Mexican border by the end of June, and 6,000 by the end of July, and June is gone and fewer than a thousand Guardsmen are in place. The president asked the 50 states to send troops but so far only 10 have agreed.

    "It's not a combat priority," says Kristine Munn, a spokeswoman at the National Guard Bureau in Washington. "It's a volunteer mission, so it's a question of balancing the needs of the Border Patrol with the needs of 54 states and territories, and all the balls roll in different directions."

    The states that have signed agreements with the four border states will send tired troops, and several governors, who command the Guard when it is not on federal service, have found excuses to keep their troops at home. Governors in the Atlantic states plead flood duty, in the West forest fires, and in the South hurricane relief.

It is good to see the Washington Times report this, but will the bigger media names? The problem is that the President commanded a national audience and he got it. Every network carried his speech, but will every network carry his failure?

This just goes to show that Bush never makes plans. Instead he makes political speeches to help his party. The hell with getting the job done. Playing politics is more fun. This truly shows the enormous level of incompetence Bush suffers from.