Wednesday, June 20, 2007
2:06 pm
Daniel J. Summers
Up to this point, I have not commented on the current “immigration reform bill” that is being pushed in Congress. I am quite disappointed that our President is pushing this - I would much rather see him attacking Social Security with the vigor with which he has now seemed to find. One of the problems I've had with the Republican leadership, and this President in particular, is that they are not using the resources at their disposal to educate the electorate. They assume that the nation is “split down the middle,” and they respond to the chest-pounding from the left with chest-pounding on the right, without explaining facts or educating the American people.
There are big problems with the current bill, that legitimizes illegals and basically allows them to “jump the line” on immigrating to this country. There are a lot of side effects that come with this invasion that most people don't even know about. In Nashville, the police have discovered a Hispanic prostitution ring going on in residential areas. In cities across the country, illegal alien drunk drivers are killing Americans quite frequently. Some say that driving after drinking is part of the Mexican culture. They are also much more lax in their attitudes on the age of sexual consent.
I can't imagine any Americans wanting this to become a part of our culture. However, none of the current legislation does anything to discuss assimilation. Rather than encourage learning English, we are actually translating government documents into all kinds of languages! How much money are we wasting on that? Gov. Schwarzenegger (R-CA) took some heat for suggesting that Mexican immigrants turn off Spanish-language television stations and watch English-language stations instead. (Of course, he isn't an immigrant who decided to learn English… Oh wait - he is!)
But something I saw today just takes the cake. It's a report by the Center for New Community entitled “Indecent Proposals: Top 10 Most Offensive Quotes.” (I only link to it so you know I'm not making this up; also, it has footnotes where the source of each quote is found. I don't want to reproduce those here.) The entire mindset of this article is wrong - most of the people they quote do not hold “anti-immigrant” views, just “anti-illegal immigrant” views. It would be like saying that a British entertainer who talks about “lighting up a fag” is anti-gay. (In Britain, “fag” is a slang term for a cigarette.) But I digress… Suffice it to say, I'm not going to address the “anti-immigrant” label every time they apply it.
This is like shooting fish in a barrel…
“This nation desperately needs informed, reasoned debate on this issue,” said Rev. David Ostendorf, executive director of the Center for New Community. "The anti-immigrant groups and their supporters are clearly not interested in helping our nation move forward - all anyone has to do is turn on the radio to hear that these groups' values do not represent the values shared by the vast majority of Americans."
Turn on the radio? Isn't it talk radio that is completely responsible for the death of the first incarnation of the immigration reform bill? These folks are not the brightest bulbs in the pack, that's for certain.
WARNING: Graphic, offensive and otherwise inappropriate language follows:
Strangely enough, regular readers will know that I don't post graphic or inappropriate language, but I will be able to quote these in their entirety. It may be offensive to liberals, but in my exhaustive search through the Constitution, I haven't been able to find a right against being offended. On we go…
1. “We need the National Guard to clean out all our cities and round them up… They have no problem slitting your throat and taking your money or selling drugs to your kids or raping your daughters, and they are evil people.”
- Chris Simcox, co-founder of the Minuteman Project and president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. As quoted in the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report magazine, Summer 2005.
It may be difficult to hear, and even more difficult to accept, but the links above address these very issues. Not all illegal immigrants do these things - but, deporting all illegal aliens would eliminate these as well, and then, maybe the law-abiding would-be immigrants could, you know, obey the law and emigrate legally.
2. “Mexican men have a reputation for leering and worse at little girls, which shouldn't surprise us, since sex with children is socially acceptable in Mexico.”
- Brenda Walker, California anti-immigrant leader and publisher. From VDARE.com article titled “Top Ten Reasons Why the US Should Not Marry Mexico,” January 1, 2007.
Again, addressed above, by someone who grew up there.
3. “My message to them is, not in two weeks, not in two months, not in two years, never! We must be clear that we will not surrender America and we will not turn the United States over to the invaders from south of the border.”
- Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), at the March for America, Washington, DC, June 18, 2007.
I'm guessing the “offensive” part of this is the “invaders” term. What else would you call a large-scale illegal incursion into a foreign country? La Raza is an organization dedicated to reclaiming the land “stolen” from Mexico (land gained through the Spanish-American War). Nothing offensive here - just the facts.
4. “I don't care if Mexicans pile up against that fence… just run a couple of taco trucks up and down the line…”
- Neal Boortz, anti-immigrant talk radio host on WSB-AM in Atlanta on June 18, 2007.
How is this offensive? Is this any different from the people who set up water stations in the desert so the illegal aliens don't die on the journey? And, tacos! Food that Mexicans are used to! I'm so offended - not.
5. “Terrorists are also walking in unopposed; our southwestern border is littered with Arabic papers and Islamic prayer rugs.”
- Jim Gilchrist, founder of Minutemen Project. From a press release announcing the forthcoming publication of a new book co-authored with Jerome R. Corsi, February 2006.
I don't know why this is offensive to these folks - terrorist bombs don't discriminate between legal and illegal status. In fact, this is one of the facts that motivates those who want the border closed. In this day and age, having an open door into this country, with sympathetic liberals aiding those coming across the border, and the Mexican government publishing comic books detailing how to sneak into this country - terrorists see an easy way into the country. They can just be part of the invasion!
6. "The brown toxic cloud strangling Los Angeles never lifts and grows thicker with every immigrant added. One can't help appreciate the streets of Paris will soon become the streets of LA. However, Paris' streets erupted while LA's shall sink into a Third World quagmire much like Bombay or Calcutta, India. When you import that much crime, illiteracy, multiple languages and disease - Americans pick up stakes and move away."
- Frosty Wooldridge, anti-immigrant author and activist. Summarizing an address by a KABC-AM talk radio host to the Federation for American Immigration Reform director's meeting, Fall 2005.
How is this any different than what happened with the inner cities back in the 60's and 70's? Undesirable element in, everyone who can gets out. Rather than an offensive ant-immigrant statement, this looks to me like insightful analysis.
7. “What we'll do is randomly pick one night every week where we will kill whoever crosses the border...step over there and you die. You get to decide whether it's your lucky night or not. I think that would be more fun.”
- Brian James, anti-immigrant talk radio host with KFYI-AM in Phoenix. Suggesting a solution to the immigration problem in Arizona while filling in for the regular host, March 2006.
The death penalty is a little harsh - but this is an understandable reaction, borne of frustration over our governments lack of ability or desire to control the border itself.
8. “Shoot him.”
- Phil Valentine, anti-immigration talk radio host, WWTN in Nashville. Advising Border Patrol agents to shoot undocumented immigrants during an anti-immigrant rally in Franklin, Tennessee, April 27, 2006.
Brevity is the soul of wit. But, we know from history that if Border Patrol agents shoot someone, even if that person shot at them first, they get thrown in the slammer.
9. “;We've got to make it in this country so (immigrants) can't exist here...We've got to rattle their teeth and put their feet to the fire!”
- Terry Anderson, anti-immigrant talk radio host with KRLA in Los Angeles. Speaking at a “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” anti-immigrant rally organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, April 22, 2007.
This one is just poor. Notice the “(immigrants)” in the quote - that means they substituted that word for what was actually said (more than likely “they”). Again, we're not against immigrants - just do it right. Don't try to jump line. If you love this country, why would you make your first act here violating our laws? Or is it just appealing since we don't actually enforce our laws?
10. “Our enemies are bloodied and beaten. We cannot relent. Our boot is on their throat and we must have the willingness to crush their ‘throat’ so that we can put our enemy down for good. The sovereignty of our nation and the future of our culture and civilization is at stake. The United States is a beacon of salvation unto the rest of the world. Our freedoms, our culture is mans salvation. If we perish, man perishes.”
- Joseph Turner, Save Our State (S.O.S), now a staff member with the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Message sent to Save Our State supporters on October 7, 2006.
Well, they may have actually found one that's “out there.” However, the “sovereignty of our nation and the future of our culture and civilization is at stake” part is tough to argue. The illegal immigrants, as a whole, are interested in nothing here but our money, and how far it goes in their home country. They care nothing for our culture, our laws, our traditions, or our history.
Unless I've missed something, these “Indecent Proposals” would actually make pretty good legislation.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
11:20 pm
Daniel J. Summers
(Warning - I think this is the longest post to date on this blog. Hope you brought some snacks…)
Cindy Sheehan has decided that she is retiring as the face of the angry anti-war left. Below is the text from her blog post, with liberal plentiful interruptions from me.
I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed…
Really? Casey's heroic death caused people to turn on his mother?
...and especially since I became the so-called “Face” of the American anti-war movement.
Ah - now we're getting somewhere. That is precisely why you have endured a lot of smear and hatred - but, I'd venture to say, not nearly as much as the man currently in the White House, faithfully executing his duties as Commander in Chief. Just a guess…
Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such “liberal blogs” as the Democratic Underground.
Yes, these liberals are a fickle sort. There's a reason a certain leading conservative voice calls their publicity machine the “Drive-By Media”. They'll use whatever they can for as long as it's useful, and then dump them like yesterday's garbage.
Being called an “attention whore” and being told “good riddance” are some of the more milder rebukes.
It must hurt to have two sides that are bitterly against each other both think of you that way. Though, if you inspire this much animosity from such diametrically-opposed quarters, maybe you need to reevaluate your views.
I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.
Introspection is often painful - let's see what you came up with…
The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a “tool” of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our “two-party” system?
“Slander” and “libel” are not possible when one is telling the truth. And, whether you realized it or not, you were being used as a “tool” to further the aims of the Democrat party. It had nothing to do with marginalizing your message - it had to do with your message being flat-out wrong.
And how do you expect us to believe you were trying to work “outside” the two-party system, when you spoke out for the Democrats?
However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the “left” started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of “right or left”, but “right and wrong.”
Ooh, look - a catchphrase! You just don't understand peace. Peace is what comes after victory. When everyone lays down their guns, bad people (and yes, Cindy, there are bad people in this world) realize that, if they pick theirs back up, they have an instant advantage. This necessitates the good people pick up their guns to defend themselves. Violence does beget violence; but may I remind you who it was that started this? Did a bunch of Christians fly commercial airliners filled with innocent Afghanis into the political and business centers of Kabul? Or did Iraqi-trained Islamic extremists fly the planes into the United States' political and business centers?
The people are only dying “for no reason” if we listen to the rest of your drivel. War has solved a lot of issues in our world, and it will solve this one as well. The cowards and the enemy are the ones who want us to stop fighting - that's the only way they can “win.”
I am deemed a radical because I believe that partisan politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds of thousands of people are dying for a war based on lies that is supported by Democrats and Republican alike.
The Democrats don't support the war, and their claims of supporting the troops ring hollow. They're just too spineless to stand up to a President because they know, even if only subconsciously, that it is absolutely critical that we win this war. With our last two major armed conflicts, Vietnam and Gulf War I, we showed that we were willing to pull out before the job is done. We do that a third time, we're done.
It amazes me that people who are sharp on the issues and can zero in like a laser beam on lies, misrepresentations, and political expediency when it comes to one party refuse to recognize it in their own party. Blind party loyalty is dangerous whatever side it occurs on.
I actually agree with the last sentence. But you talk about political expediency, which party is it that believes you should take a poll before doing anything? And, there are people within the Democrat party that are absolutely seething over the way the war spending bill has gone. You know what? Those are the very people who are making it impossible to get a Democrat elected to the Presidency. The primary, fringe voters elect the person who believes in their view of things; come national election time, they are easily painted as pandering to their base. Sure, Republicans campaign to their base too, but their base's view is much more palatable to the American public than the other.
(Man, I hope the Democrats don't read this… I was hoping they'd keep it up…)
People of the world look on us Americans as jokes because we allow our political leaders so much murderous latitude and if we don't find alternatives to this corrupt “two” party system our Representative Republic will die and be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland.
“People of the world” do not look on us as jokes. Sure, there are some countries that do, but those are usually the snooty ones who need to pay more attention to their own business. Besides, when did we suborn our sovereignty to foreign opinion? If this country is so bad, why do we have 12 million illegal aliens clamoring to stay?
I am demonized because I don't see party affiliation or nationality when I look at a person, I see that person's heart. If someone looks, dresses, acts, talks and votes like a Republican, then why do they deserve support just because he/she calls him/herself a Democrat?
Hah! That's just the thing. The Democrats in Congress right now are what Democrats are! They're fickle, and they govern with polls. Polls tell them that if they cut off funding for the war, hanging our troops out to dry, that they will experience defeat on such a scale that we might morph into a one-party system. I don't see how that demonizes you - consider yourself enlightened. Now you know what frustrates us conservatives about the current Democrat party (and many within the Republican ranks as well).
I have also reached the conclusion that if I am doing what I am doing because I am an “attention whore” then I really need to be committed.
Welcome, ma'am - here's your white coat. I'll help you get the sleeves fastened in back.
I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither.
We want both. It's a shame this isn't actually a dialogue, because I'd love to hear how laying down our guns would bring us either of those results.
If an individual wants both, then normally he/she is not willing to do more than walk in a protest march or sit behind his/her computer criticizing others.
You knock computer users, but post your “See ya, bye” tome on your blog. Pot, meet kettle…
I have spent every available cent I got from the money a “grateful” country gave me when they killed my son and every penny that I have received in speaking or book fees since then. I have sacrificed a 29 year marriage and have traveled for extended periods of time away from Casey's brother and sisters and my health has suffered and my hospital bills from last summer (when I almost died) are in collection…
Your money is yours to do with it as you see fit. But don't come whining to us about the consequences of your bad choices. Choosing a cause over a 29-year marriage is foolish. Leaving your kids for “extended periods of time” is deplorable. And, if you have hospital bills in collection, maybe you should take some of that book money and pay them.
...because I have used all my energy trying to stop this country from slaughtering innocent human beings.
Collateral damage is a reality of any war. I don't have hard numbers here, but I'd venture to say that the “innocent to combatant” ratio is one of the best in any war fought in our world to date.
I have been called every despicable name that small minds can think of and have had my life threatened many times.
Not that you should have your life threatened for holding unpopular views, but when those views go from unpopular to treasonous, and the penalty for treason is death… Well, you might look inward to see where some of these threats are coming from.
The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful.
Casey did not die for nothing. And, while your intentions may be as you said in that last sentence, the reality is that you have been trying ever since he died to make his sacrifice meaningless. You are the one who keep saying that Casey died for nothing, while the rest of this country is grateful for his heroism and his ultimate sacrifice. His was one name that came to my mind yesterday when I thought of the names (that I know) of people who have died in this current conflict, Pat Tillman being the other.
Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most.
Why should the American people care about the war, when all they hear from you, the Democrats, and the media is how evil we are for being there in the first place?!?! Can you not see your role in this self-fulfilling prophecy?
I have also tried to work within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life. This group won't work with that group; he won't attend an event if she is going to be there; and why does Cindy Sheehan get all the attention anyway? It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions.
Welcome to modern-day activism - angst for sale to the highest bidder. The bigger the name recognition, the higher the bid.
Our brave young men and women in Iraq have been abandoned there indefinitely by their cowardly leaders who move them around like pawns on a chessboard of destruction and the people of Iraq have been doomed to death and fates worse than death by people worried more about elections than people.
Then why not turn them loose to end this thing in 6 months, so they can come home? Oh wait - we're too busy trying to get funding for the existing troops. If we turned them loose, why, we'd need more money for munitions - and the company that makes it might make a little bit of a profit! Oh no! We can't do that!
If we fought this war the way we fought World War II, we'd already be talking about it in the past tense.
However, in five, ten, or fifteen years, our troops will come limping home in another abject defeat and ten or twenty years from then, our children's children will be seeing their loved ones die for no reason, because their grandparents also bought into this corrupt system.
The system isn't corrupt. I'll grant you that there may be some corrupt people in the system, but the system itself (our nation) is the greatest system ever conceived.
George Bush will never be impeached because if the Democrats dig too deeply, they may unearth a few skeletons in their own graves and the system will perpetuate itself in perpetuity.
I would certainly hope that a sitting President wouldn't be impeached for daring to defend his country. But, isn't it your side's turn? (I guess that, maybe, if our current President were getting sexual favors in the Oval Office, he wouldn't have time to order the surge?)
I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost. I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble.
I know you will never see this, but this is exactly what you're advocating we do in Iraq. You gave everything you had, yet you came up short. Rather than redouble your efforts, you're quitting. Do you feel victorious? It certainly doesn't sound like it.
I'm glad that some of us believe in defending our country more than you believe in your pacifism.
Camp Casey has served its purpose. It's for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford, Texas ? I will consider any reasonable offer. I hear George Bush will be moving out soon, too...which makes the property even more valuable.
Take the money you get from it and pay those medical bills - don't donate it to moveon.org…
This is my resignation letter as the “face” of the American anti-war movement. This is not my “Checkers” moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources.
Let me translate those first few sentences. “I'm quitting. Well, I'm not really quitting - I'll try to bring as much aid and comfort to our enemies as possible, since we're so bad and evil.” And you wonder why people are upset with you? And again, you reveal that your belief in your cause does not go nearly as deep as those who willingly give their lives to preserve our freedom.
Good-bye America ...you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can't make you be that country unless you want it.
Honesty is good for the soul. You don't love this country - that's fine (freedom and all that). Will you be putting feet to this belief, or will you continue to live here, reaping the benefits of those (including your son) who died to preserve your freedom to hate it? And yes, as a whole, we don't want to realize your vision of our country.
It's up to you now.
And thank you for getting out of the way, so we can get about the work that needs to be done.