Mine were here to greet them...

I'll be the first to admit that I am not PC, and, while this does portray a stereotypical Native American, this clip from "Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm" (1951) makes a very good point:

Immigration Ad

Herman Cain Wants an Elecrified Fence to Kill Would-be Illegal Immigrants

President Obama has been tougher on immigration, as reflected in the expenditure of resources to patrol our borders and in deportations of criminal illegal immigrants.  But as is always the case, one should be careful what you wish for.  Illegal immigrants are one of the biggest ways that the right terrifies its base into support.  Unfortunately, they don't seem fully to realize what happens when they are gone.

From al.com, I'm posting this here because what the right believes about illegal immigrants is too often inacurate myth:

Crackdown on illegal immigrants left crops rotting in Georgia fields, ag chief tells US lawmakers

Published: Tuesday, October 04, 2011, 6:00 PM     Updated: Tuesday, October 04, 2011, 6:00 PM

By The Associated Press
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View full sizeJeremy Gonzalez picks tomatoes on a farm in Steele, Ala., Monday, Oct. 3, 2011. Much of the crop is rotting as many of the migrant workers who normally work these fields have moved to other states to find work after Alabama's immigration law took affect last week. The same problems are occurring in Georgia, its agriculture commissioner reported to US lawmakers on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 201. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

ATLANTA — A farm labor shortage that left crops rotting in the fields after Georgia passed a law cracking down on illegal immigration shows the need for a retooled or expanded guest worker program for migrant laborers, Georgia's agriculture commissioner told a panel of Washington lawmakers Tuesday.
Commissioner Gary Black testified at a Senate subcommittee hearing on immigration enforcement and farm labor that an informal survey showed farmers of onions, watermelons and other handpicked crops lacked more than 11,000 workers during their spring and summer harvest. Farmers say that's because the Georgia immigration law scared off many migrant workers. Similar complaints are being heard in Alabama with its tough new law.
Financial incentives aimed at getting unemployed Georgians and even criminals on probation to take their place picking crops were marginally successful, Black said, because the new workers were too slow and often quit because of the strenuous labor involved.
"A robust agricultural guest worker program, properly designed, will not displace American workers," Black said in remarks prepared for the hearing. "As my testimony shows, in Georgia, even with current high unemployment rates, it is difficult for farmers to fill their labor needs."
Black said it's still unclear how much the labor shortage will ultimately cost farmers. But one group says growers have already lost tens of millions of dollars.
Charles Hall, director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, released figures from an upcoming industry-funded study Tuesday that says farmers lost at least $74.9 million in unpicked crops harvested by hand last spring and summer because they didn't have enough labor. The farmers said they lacked 40 percent of the total work force they needed.
The numbers come from self-reported surveys completed by 189 farmers of onions, watermelons, bell peppers, cucumbers, squash, blueberries and blackberries, said John McKissick, director of the University of Georgia Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development, which is compiling the report.
It's a snapshot of just a small fraction of Georgia's farmers overall. The surveyed farmers hold just short of half the state's overall acreage for those seven crops.
And the seven crops examined in the study accounted for just 5 percent of Georgia's $11.3 billion in farm products from 2009, according to the agribusiness center's last annual report.
The growers association reported other figures estimating even broader economic losses, based on the $74.9 million figure, but McKissick said those numbers were not scientifically derived.

Bill O'Reilly Lies and Distorts the Shawna Forde Case

David Niewert of Crooks and Liars writes:

Of all the media entities that have ignored the case of Shawna Forde and her killer Minutemen, the silence at Fox News has been the most egregious and noteworthy -- particularly because Bill O'Reilly is fond of criticizing other news organizations for supposedly "ignoring" stories that he has deemed eminently newsworthy (even if, in fact, they haven't really ignored them at all, or it's in fact a story of dubious veracity).

What's your opinion? Isn't it funny that the gun crowd hates Billy O. because he once made some remarks against guns that they didn't like, even though everything else he stands for is in alignment with their beliefs? Or, am I generalizing too much? What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

Arizona Going Right Down the Drain

Arizona - Beyond Lunacy

Via Gaius Publius over at AMERICAblog, who had some good things to say about this filth.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Muslims Taking Over

Beforeitsnews.com published an open letter to Mayor Bloomberg and others about the proposed mosque in lower Manhattan.

Dear Mayor Bloomberg, Lower Manhattan Community Board, citizens of downtown NYC, and all politically correct thinkers of America. The great investigative journalism of Andy Solits together with the NYPost has begun to expose the truth about Iman Feisal Abdul Rauf. Just to recap the background information, Iman Feisal is the person behind the “Cordoba Initiative’s” purchase of the Burlington Building that is being proposed as a 13-story mosque and center, The Cordoba House, footsteps from Ground Zero. Iman Feisal plans on raising $100-150 million to construct this mosque for over 2,000 Muslims who will come to pray and play. Sounds innocent enough to some, but is really cloaked to hide their true agenda, the foothold in America for 'Sharia Law'.

Talk about conspiracy theories, this one takes the cake. Don't these people realize it's the Mexicans who are taking over America not the Muslims? I'll bet the same people who support this hysteria are also upset about the illegal Mexican immigrants.

Another thing they're forgetting is how big and strong the United States is, how vast it is in cultural diversity. It's not called the Melting Pot for nothing. The idea that Muslims could take over and achieve "Sharia Law" is so ridiculous that it leaves me speechless.

Besides, wouldn't the 80 million gun owners rise up and protect us if need be?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

New Immigration Policy

A New York Times opinion piece came out on the new focus of the Obama administration concerning undocumented workers.

Last week, immigration enforcement policy shifted a little. The administration issued guidelines for Immigration and Customs Enforcement that place a new emphasis on prosecuting employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

That is a good idea, and a break from the Bush administration method — mass raids to net immigrant workers while leaving their bosses alone. The raids were tuned to the theatrics of the poisoned immigration debate, using heavy weapons, dogs and helicopters to spread the illusion that something was getting fixed.

That Bush was something else, wasn't he? I thought hindsight was supposed to be 20/20? How can there still be people who claim Bush was a good president? This one single example, which is such a typical description of the Bush policies, says it all.


The New York Times goes on to say that however improved the Obama approach might be, it too will fail to bring about the desired result. By targeting employers, the undocumented workers suffer almost as badly, at least as far as losing their jobs goes. Other employers would probably get rid of their immigrant workers in fear.

The decision to adjust the policy on raids seems sensibly motivated. But we agree with immigration and labor experts like Professor Jennifer Gordon of Fordham Law School, who sees the new guidelines as a smarter version of a bad idea. Far better, she says, for the government to redouble enforcement of laws like the minimum wage, the right to organize, and health and safety protections. This would reduce the incentive to hire the undocumented, and raise standards for all workers. It would not end up devastating immigrant families, as raids do. In times like these, that would be a step toward immigration reform that all workers could support.

What's your opinion? I like what Prof. Gordon has to say. I'd go further, though. I'd first grant a complete amnesty on all aspects of illegal immigration. If people are in the United States, I say it no longer should matter how they arrived. Then, I would push for all those nice reforms around the workplace.

What do you think? Should being an illegal immigrant be a crime? Should being an undocumented person be a crime? Aren't many of them making huge sacrifices and taking huge risks for their families? Doesn't that make them very much like the "family values" folks who persecute them and call for their arrests?

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Illegal Immigration

The Miami Herald is running a three-part story on illegal immigration. The series is entitled Illegal Immigration: Changing Course, the initial focus being on the economic downswing in the United States and how that has effected the illegals. One of the articles in today's Part I, Funds at risk for families back home, contains the following information which I found amazing.

INTIPUCA, El Salvador -- For almost two generations, residents of this rural community who emigrated to the United States have sent back tens of millions of dollars to support their families and bring prosperity to their once impoverished town.

Officials of Intipucá, 120 miles east of San Salvador, were so grateful for those remittances that they built a park to honor migrants, with a statue representing the first resident to leave for the United States back in 1967.

In a report on the outlook of remittance flows from 2008 to 2010, the World Bank said that remittances to Latin America will remain flat next year in the best-case scenario, but that in the worst-case scenario, they will decline to $58 billion from $61 billion.

Is it really possible that the cleaning lady who sends $50 a week home and the day laborer who sends $100 can add up to $60 billion?

You guys who like statistics can put a calculator to that one, but I just call it amazing. This is another example of the tremendous impact America has on the rest of the world. I would say with that much power to influence comes a great responsibility. These illegal immigrants aren't animals of a lower species. They're people like you and me who deserve opportunity as well as respect. In my personal order of things I place them one step above the rest of us who have had it easy by comparison.

What's your opinion? Should we close up the borders and keep these people out? Does our own economic survival depend on that? Is there any truth to the claim that illegals take jobs away from American citizens? I never understood it really. Don't they do a lot of low level jobs that more affluent Americans shun? And for middle and upper level jobs wouldn't their numbers only increase the competition? What's wrong with that?

Please leave a comment with your opinion.