Last Words on Immigration

Recently, I was upset by a Tom Tobin post in the Democrat & Chronicle Editorial Blog about immigration. Tobin basically reiterated the oft heard claim that opposition to the immigration bill resulted from racism. My response, along with others, argued that his claim was baseless ranting, unsupported by fact. You can read the exchange here.

The following is an excerpt from Victor Davis Hanson's Works and Days column. Hanson is a scholarly writer who manages to argue passionately without abandoning reason in his arguments:

Immigration Implosion
The President never understood why so many Americans were furious about the bill—witness the administration’s condescension toward, and abuse of, its critics.
There is an elemental anger over the issue, even if poorly articulated and sometimes contradictory. But the furor arises from a weariness with 5-pound bilingual phone books or having to select English over the phone as the preferred language.
People were tired of being told by courts that we are a racist society unless we supply interpreters at great cost to those who do not enroll in English classes. There is rampant fraud in areas that Americans were warned since infancy were the third-wires of our legal system such as authentic Social Security numbers and legitimate names. And the most grating was the complete neglect of immigration laws by city- and local officials due to the sanctimoniousness of the race industry on the left and the profit-above-all of the corporate right.
The average, maligned as a racist, middle-class voter (note the bipartisan rejection of the bill) was tired of having to buy insurance, get a driver’s license, ensure his car registration—and then get on highways where thousands simply chose not to. That they did so, because many or perhaps even most were ill-paid and without apparent resources was ironically an argument against more illegal immigration.
In short—the days of ethnic pressures (remember a trembling Gray Davis in California) to issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, or the Orwellian effort itself to ban the use of “illegal alien” for “undocumented worker” are for now over. They may return under a President Hillary, but for now the open borders movement has overplayed its hand.
Someone should interview the public relations genius who thought up the May-Day Mexican-flag waving demonstrations the past two years by illegals that came across as more Hugo Chavez than Martin Luther King. He was probably the same one who made the old Cruz Bustamante commercials here in California, replete with the red flags waving among a shouting audience as the candidate whipped them up in Spanish. (I knew that was a disaster when a liberal friend in the Bay Area, who saw one during the recall campaign, called me and asked, “What the Hell are those red flags and screams about?”)
Where do we go from here? First, close the border and all good things arise—more assimilation and integration, less identity politics, higher wages for low-paid American citizens, renewed respect for the law, and a warning to Mexico we will not subsidize its own failure to reform. When the number of illegals is static, the forces of the maligned melting pot will resume. And we will have time to sort out “earned citizenship”, guest workers, and all the other contentious issues that were to be snuck into law under the current legislation—but only when the forces of apartheid are stopped through border security.

I wish Mr. Tobin would take the time to consider whether his views are reasoned or just emotional.

Win Some, Lose Some

Hugh Hewitt points out that after suffering a number of setbacks in England and Pakistan, al-Qaeda got a victory yesterday when GOP Senator Pete Domenici decided to defect from the President's war effort. These guys can't wait till September for the Petreaus' report? Of course, that may signal a wholesale GOP retreat.

Like Hugh, I don't intend to support overall GOP campaign efforts. I will send funds directly to candidates and causes that I support. The RNC and NRSC do not represent me anymore. Unlike Hugh, I never thought Domenici was a stalwart.

The really sad part is that evidence is dribbling out of Iraq that our current strategy may well be working. This does, of course, beg the question of why the President did not fight the war effectively in the first place, but it also makes you marvel at how craven these apostate Republicans can be. Their decision to cut and run now, after all this time supporting the policy, can be based only on one thing, fear of losing their seats. Is there anyone left in Washington who does something because its the right thing to do?

Partisanship and Hypocrisy

The President's commutation of Lewis Libby's sentence has led to a great clamor, mostly from the left. Most notable about the comments I have read and heard is the clear illustration of the partisanship and hypocrisy that is rampant in politics and the media today.

The Democrats are apoplectic at Bush's "violation" of Constitutional Law. I guess they haven't read the Constitution; the power of the President to pardon and commute sentences is spelled out directly. Mrs. Clinton, speaking at a campaign rally with Bill on the podium with her, spoke about the President's misuse of his powers. Give her credit, only someone with brass balls could make such a statement given her husband's having handed out pardon's like candy (remember, Marc Rich and Roger Clinton, among many others) not to mention perjuring himself and sending out staffers with misinformation.

Hypocrites on both sides have used the commutation as an opportunity to, once again, tell the Iraq War, Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, story, and to characterize the story in the light most favorable to their views. Depending upon who is telling the story, either Bush, Cheney and Libby outed Plame to get Wilson for exposing their Iraq War build-up lies or Plame and Wilson were part of a conspiracy to discredit the Bush administration and help John Kerry win the 2004 election. Today's Rochester Democrat & Chronicle editorial on the topic is a clear example of such partisan "reporting" of "fact".

The best example is Chris Matthews of Hardball. He was interviewed on the Today show about the Libby story. The beginning of the interview is on point but he quickly launches into a diatribe apparently claiming that Bush commuted Libby's sentence to keep him quiet about everything he knows about the Iraq War build-up. Watch it, but it will probably make you wonder where Chris keeps his tinfoil hat.

The only thing that we know for sure is that the truth is irrelevant to the vast majority of partisans in politics and the media. The only goal is to make sure "our side" wins. "Heart-felt" positions taken by politicians and pundits in the past, evaporate under new sets of circumstances, like changes in which party runs Congress, or the latest opinion poll.

The big problem with this ongoing battle is that the goal of always winning is inconsistent with the great compromises that are needed to get big things done. The problems of Social Security and health care coverage and costs are looming as great disasters. Such problems can only be dealt with by cooperation. The type of partisan competition we have today will never allow for those problems to be addressed.

FLASH: Repo survives the woods!

I made it through another week at Christie Lake.

We had a great time, which included some very excellent fishing. I caught a very large bass ( I will post a picture confirming this story when its developed), but my son and daughter caught bigger ones. Evelyn was the "bassmaster" landing a 17 1/2" monster. It tasted great, by the way. Joe suggested that he really didn't want to eat a fish that he had seen alive.

There was one new twist to the Christie Lake experience, though. My daughter, who just turned 13, seemed to draw a lot of attention from the large group of teen-age Canadian boys whose families share our week at the lake. According to Evvy, the boys believed that I looked "annoyed", "worried" and/or "mad", that they were hanging around with her. I may have been scrutinizing her actions more than usual, I don't know.

Bob Ayotte was everyone's idol as the true outdoorsman. He caught and cooked fish, killed snakes bare-handed, chased away skunks, and had all the necessary tools to rescue us less skilled campers, such as spare anchors, battery chargers and jumper cables. He also introduced us to the joys of horseshoes. He's good at that, too; we have to practice for the rematch.

Overall, however, this year the vacation was more restful than usual; I actually "got away from it all" in my mind. I lost track of the days and did not really worry about the office. I was sorry to come home, especially when I got to the border.

The trip back was one of the worst ever. We had a two hour wait at the border. I understand the need for security and the fact that high, holiday-weekend traffic volumes make for longer waits. what annoyed me was the incompetent direction of traffic by Thousand Island Bridge Authority (TIBA) personnel. There were several of these guys just basically standing around, rather than effectively managing the merging of traffic across the bridge and to the toll booths. As a result drivers moving along shoulders were able to cut the line (and save at least an hour) with impunity. Also rather than having one smooth merge point, there were several unmanaged ones which added to delays.

Anyway, I'm glad to be home and I'm ready to blog again!

Communing With Nature

I'm about to go off to Canada to commune with nature.

Once a year, I join my family at Christie Lake, near Perth, Ontario. While it is a lovely and peaceful place, and although my family loves it, I cannot honestly say that I look forward to the trip.

I am, after all, an urban outdoorsman. My idea of roughing it is no room service. Thank God we have a cabin with an indoor toilet (my absolute minimum requirement). I will spend the next week swatting bugs, listening for animals, and worrying about what I'm missing at work.

The saving grace is that my kids love the place and we will all remember our times at the lake quite fondly. I'm sure I'll never forget the look on my son's face when I took the hook out of a fish's mouth for the first time. I guess that's why I keep going back.

Smile When You Say That

The Democrat and Chronicle reported a story today about a shooting on Kernwood Drive in Gates.The story quoted Gates Police Chief, David DiCaro, to the effect that the shooting may have been drug-related. It is difficult to accept the hard reality that such crimes are pervasive, even in Gates.



I was troubled by a quirky sidelight to the report. The article was accompanied by a small photo of DiCaro. It is the file photo the paper uses every time it quotes him. DiCaro is smiling and was obviously happy at the time that photo was taken. Unfortunately, the last two stories with which the picture appeared were tragic in nature and his demeanor in the picture is not appropriate to the stories.



The Chief should ask the D & C use a picture with a serious expression when the story calls for it.

Times They Are A-Changin!

I guess we should shed a tear for formerly Great Britain. And, perhaps, think about what the future holds for societies that will not stand up to radical Islam.

Britain knighted Salman Rushdie of "The Satanic Verses" fame. (Why, I can't imagine.) The predictable result: outrage among Moslems world-wide as well as in Britain. What was far less predictable was a protest in England which included burning Queen Elizabeth in effigy! I would think that such an act would have been unthinkable in England in the not-so-distant past. Today, apparently, as with the abduction of British seaman, such acts are met with a meow rather than a roar from the British lion.

Sadly, formerly Great Britain was our only significant ally in the war aginst radical Islamic terror. I guess we will have to go it alone.