Bush Makes Good on Promise

Way back when he was campaigning for President the 1st time around, back in 2000, then-Governor George W. Bush made a promise to the American people. He assured them that, once in office, he would be a "uniter, not a divider." Many people, particularly on the left, have been sarcastically/mockingly referring to this remark for the 6+ years of his Presidency. Sadly, their fun is now at an end. Now, finally, President Bush has made good on this promise to unite us all. With the coupling of his proposed immigration "reform" bill and the War in Iraq, both Republicans and Democrats have now, at long last, become united - united in their strong dislike for President Bush's policies.

I'm guessing that wasn't the kind of unity he was planning on - but hey, a politician coming through on a campaign promise happens so infrequently, we might as well try to focus on the positive, right?

Yes indeed, since he has become adamant about giving amnesty to Illegals and not bringing our border security up to par, the very grassroots Conservatives who campaigned for him, stuck up for him, and took heat for supporting him, have now been officially bitch-slapped by him.

Oh, and those grassroots Conservatives? They're hitting the President's Party where it hurts - the wallet, as RNC small-donor contributions are down by an estimated 40%!

I guess not contributing to the RNC is another thing on which Republicans and Democrats can now agree.

So congratulations Mr. President for making good on your promise; I just hope this wasn't what you really wanted.

Souvenez-vous la France?

Immigration has been the hot topic for some time now. Everyone from politicians on Capitol Hill to protesters in the streets has had something to say about, and a different angle from which to approach, immigration. However, in all this talk, one thing that I have heard no one mention is France; a country which, sadly, Americans could learn a serious lesson from.

Remember the Paris "youth" (read Muslim) riots? The ones that had French "teens" up in arms and torching buildings and cars? Well let me refresh your memory. In France they had the following problems:

- An excess of Immigrants (both legal and illegal)
- A lack of cultural assimilation on the part of those immigrants
- Most of the Immigrants had "low-paying" or "unskilled" jobs
- Massive protests
- A seeming lack of concern/response from the Politicians

Wait a minute, you must be saying, that doesn't sound like France - that sounds like HERE. And sadly it does; mainly because we here in the U.S.A forgot to look, listen and, most importantly, learn when France had its immigration problems forced onto the table; proving that History not only repeats itself, but can do so at an astonishingly fast rate.

The French situation will fully repeat itself in the United States if nothing is done. This is why the President and all others who call for anything less than Rep. Tancredo or the Minutemen don't get it. Their "I swear-it's-not-amnesty" 'Guest Worker' (wink, wink) program leads down the road, across the Atlantic, and into the not-so-distant past. If Mexican immigrants to this country do not learn English, fail to assimilate culturally, and continue to pollute the job market with their 'unskilled' labor, the United States will fall into the same situation France was in last year.

One of the problems France has is sky-high unemployment. While this is due, in part, to a Socialistic economy; it is due in large part to France's millions of Muslim immigrants. These Immigrants came to France, drove down the average wage and leeched off all of France's massive welfare programs. Immigrants coming in and working for less takes jobs away from locals; which, surprise, causes them to become unemployed. Furthermore, the willingness of immigrants to work for less money causes employers to offer less in salary figures; if locals don't want to work for less, immigrants will. Thus, the average hourly wage is driven down. Of course, in France, the problem is complicated by the fact that individuals can make more money simply accepting welfare checks than from actually getting a job: but that's not my concern here.

However, transpose the above scenario to the United States. Who gets harmed the most in the wage and unemployment department? The poor, that's who. Excessive numbers of Mexicans will harm poor Americans just like it did poor Frenchmen. Additionally, can you image what would happen if the millions of Mexicans already here were able to fully benefit from our welfare programs as they do in France. You think Social Security is in trouble now? Imagine if it had to make payouts to 10% of the Mexican population, on top of Americans! Yikes! Massive fiscal disaster here we come!

Looking back, it is truly frightening to think that the French riots could happen right here in America. Just think, 20 years from now, all these Mexican immigrants (now citizens under the "guest worker program") demanding their Welfare or Social Security checks, while a bankrupt Congress tries to find a way to please them. Throw in the fact that most of those immigrants still don't speak good English and really don't care much for America. Mexican "youth" riots anyone? Hell, I'd be scared of what the lower class in this country might do to protest. 20 years from now, after being spat on constantly by the government in favor of "migrant workers" from another country, you don't think they'll be ticked off?

The above horror scenario is why we need a Border Wall, now. It's why we need to crack down, with jail sentences, on employers who knowingly hire illegals. It's why we need to stop talking about 'guest worker,' 'Visa', or 'earned citizenship' programs. What's happening in America right now leads to disaster. France would know. What's happening in America right now is why we desperately need Real Immigration Reform, now; because 20 years from now I don't want a Mexican torching my house -- or, for that matter, taking my job.

Finally, A Politician Who Understands Immigration

I haven't posted on the recent immigration protests that have been sweeping the nation, mainly because the coverage elsewhere is so in-depth and intense. However, it's clearly a big problem and one that I'm finally going to address, albeit in a new way. I have discovered a speech given in 1915 by Teddy Roosevelt in which he discusses 'Americanism' and 'Americanization.' I have posted some of the more interesting parts below. Normally, I would add my own commentary, but the genius of TR speaks for itself.....

"... There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all..... Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.

....The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else. For an American citizen to vote as a German-American, an Irish-American, or an English-American, is to be a traitor to American institutions; and those hyphenated Americans who terrorize American politicians by threats of the foreign vote are engaged in treason to the American Republic.

[Immigrants] are expected to do justice as well as to receive justice, [they] are expected to be heartily and actively and single-mindedly loyal to the flag no less than to benefit by living under it.

We cannot afford to continue to use hundreds of thousands of immigrants merely as industrial assets while they remain social outcasts and menaces any more than fifty years ago we could afford to keep the black man merely as an industrial asset and not as a human being. We cannot afford to build a big industrial plant and herd men and women about it without care for their welfare. We cannot afford to permit squalid overcrowding or the kind of living system which makes impossible the decencies and necessities of life. We cannot afford the low wage rates and the merely seasonal industries which mean the sacrifice of both individual and family life and morals to the industrial machinery. We cannot afford to leave American mines, munitions plants, and general resources in the hands of alien workmen, alien to America and even likely to be made hostile to America by machinations such as have recently been provided in the case of the two foreign embassies in Washington. We cannot afford to run the risk of having in time of war men working on our railways or working in our munition plants who would in the name of duty to their own foreign countries bring destruction to us. Recent events have shown us that incitements to sabotage and strikes are in the view of at least two of the great foreign powers of Europe within their definition of neutral practices. What would be done to us in the name of war if these things are done to us in the name of neutrality?"

It is all eerily applicable today.

"History doesn't repeat itself - but it rhymes." ~ Mark Twain

Responsabilidad

Will Mexico ever stop complaining about US immigration policy? Seriously, it seems unless we were to declare an open border, the Mexican Foreign Ministry would take issue. Take this new proposition that is coming out of Georgia (and apparently Arizona too). The idea is to tax any money being wired back to Mexico, unless the migrants can produce proof of their legal status. But, noooo, the Mexican Government has to whine like babies about it. It's unfair to the Mexican economy.

Well maybe, just maybe, the Mexican government wouldn't have such a bad economy if they actually, you know, did something about it. There's a novel idea. Instead of spending all their time complaining about the U.S or making brochures to help their citizens illegally immigrate into the States, maybe they could actually, you know, work on comprehensive domestic policy reforms to improve their own economy. In fact, I think we should go ahead and say that any country with an economy as bad as Mexico's needs to scrap their 'Foreign Ministry' altogether. C'mon, if your economy is in such bad shape that you have to help your people leave your country illegally, diplomatic relations shouldn't be high on your priority list.

Furthermore, shouldn't it be some kind of a law that if 1/3 of your citizens live below the poverty line, you loose your right to criticize other Countries' domestic policies? I mean clearly the Mexicans can't exactly be considered experts on the subject, so why do they think the world's most successful economy will take advice from them on how to make things more 'just' and less 'discriminatory'?

As for the bill, I think it's a great idea, because it is a realistic way to slowly eat away at illegal immigration; and it does so by making it less desirable for Mexicans to come here in the first place. Additionally, the laws are hardly unfair or discriminatory because they're taking levying taxes on these folks in an attempt to make them pay for all the education, health care, and welfare services they receive, for free, from the American government. In short, if Mexicans are going to illegally take advantage of the system, we will legally take advantage of them.

The Not-So 'Gai Paris'

It seems that everyone's favorite Socialist Nation is again being put in the hot seat by its Muslim immigrants. For 10 days now, specific suburbs of Paris have been rocked by violent uprisings of young Muslim men. Cars have been blown apart, hundreds have been arrested, and buildings have been burned. On top of all this, the French government has demonstrated utter ineptitude in its attempts to halt the violence. Unfourtunately for France, it isn't just the current problem of curtailing the violence that the French Government faces. It is much deeper than that.

The root of the problem is, of course, France's abominable immigration policy. Muslims stream in daily, undocumented and unchecked. Many of the people involved in the Paris rioting aren't even French citizens, merely illegals who have no place being in France in the first place. And of course this problem is caused by another, much bigger, problem: socialism.

The immigrants come in the first place because they are assured of free health care, and the possibility of making large sums simply from welfare checks. However, the world is a rather imperfect place and so unlike the Frecnh citizens, these Muslims dont get the sums of cash. They get unemployment instead. Another side effect of the French governemnt's socialist policies and economy is an ever skyrocketing 12% unemployment rate. Furthurmore, as would be expected, this rate most affects poor men and women in France; such as Muslim immigrants.

Additionally, the current problem the French are having stems from their beloved 'multiculturalist' attitude. France is so afraid to come off as anti-muslim, racist, or, worse yet, oppressive. In doing so they have placed Muslims above the law. As is apparent in Paris these days, Muslims dont think they have to comply with the law. The reason for this is simply that Muslims have been given preferential treatment for so long in France, they think it will never end. France is afraid to say that certain radical Islamic ideals are unacceptable, because the French don't want to insult anyone, unless they live on the other side of the Atlantic.

The French need to grow up, or at least develop some guts. My only hope is that this rioting will expose certain glaring defficiencies in the French system, and spark change. Immigration is something that the French had better do something about fast, or they may quickly become Francistan. As for socialism, the Frecnh economy has been stagnant for months now, and if Chirac and all the other monsieurs in Paris don't make changes fast, the French may find themselves in a Great Depression-like state.

France is a wonderful country, and they make the best 'vin rouge' in the world; but the people in the suburbs of France's most famous city are in serious need of authoritarian aid right now. And I, for one, sure as hell hope they dont have to call 'Team America' to come save their asses again.

Illegal Immigration

Once again the the 'maverickness' of John McCain is upon us. McCain, along with Sen. Ted Kennedy, has proposed a bill that allows illegal immigrants to gain American citizenship. I find it quite amusing that Senator McCain wants to reward these Mexicans for breaking the law. We can't deport illegal immigrants because that wouldn't be "workable." Furthurmore, he says we cant expect "employers to be (immigration) officers."

As seems to be so often the case these days, Sen. McCain errs. There is a much better way to solve the problem of illegal immigration. What we need to do is crack down on buisnesses who hire illegals. Enforce stiff penalties for companies that hire aliens, so that they won't do so. You are probably thinking, I know, that 'we need someone to mow our grass since we don't want to do it,' but the honest answer is, we have thousands of Mexicans willing to legally immigrate to take the place of illegals. There is no shortage of wannabe grass mowers.

If buisnesses stop hiring illegals and hire legals, it does essentiallly nothing to change their bottom line, Mexican labor is cheap even if the Mexicans are legal citizens. And what the buisnesses do lose, the country gains. We get rid of undocumented people in this country, we can begin taxing all workers, and not have illegals free-loading on our school system.

And here's the great thing, if we can force companies to hire legals as opposed to illegals, we wont have to deport all of the aliens, many will simply leave. Now of course when we do find illegals we have to arrest them, and send them to jail or deport them, it's called the law, and not even illegals are exempt from it. However, the idea is that if you eliminate their job opportunities by penalizing the employers, and you arrest the ones who try to free-load on schools and other such things, they will have no reason to stay here and will simply go back home, and hopefully try to come back legally.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't allow immigration, or that Mexicans should be banned from coming to the U.S, I'm just asking that when they do come, they sign the guest book.