Warm congratulations to Rodney Hunt, President of the Mississippi Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement, for getting published in the Jackson MS The Clarion Ledger this morning as succinct and powerful a statement on the immigration reform as I have seen in quite some time. [Real ‘reform’ must end illegal immigration – February18 2006]

We have a shrinking middle class and a widening gap between rich and poor Americans due to loss of our manufacturing base and the influx of cheap illegal foreign labor. Democracy cannot survive without a strong middle class.

Illegal workers are depressing wages and taking jobs that Americans always did before the illegal alien invasion of our country…Meantime, $70 billion is spent each year for education, health care, welfare and incarceration of illegal aliens. Adding to this cost are the 363,000 children born to illegal aliens this past year, as estimated by the Center for Immigration Studies. This represents 10 percent of all births and 40 percent of all indigent births in the U.S.

President Bush’s idea of immigration reform includes a thinly disguised guest worker amnesty which will be introduced in the Senate in February. The president’s tough talk on border security is a public relations ploy intended to pacify unhappy Americans, but his guest worker amnesty would guarantee an unlimited supply of cheap labor for big business

American taxpayers will continue to pay the costs of illegal immigration while big business reaps profits. The median family income has decreased each year for the past five years when adjusted for inflation, with illegal immigration being a major factor. This decrease is seen more in African-American families than in any other ethnic group.

Extra Credit for noting the Birthright Citizenship issue:

…anchor babies” are granted citizenship at birth and immediately become eligible for publicly funded education, health care and other social programs. At age 21, they are entitled to sponsor other family members to migrate to the United States.

No discussion of allowing the parking of large quantities of alien workers in this country must be allowed to pass without raising this sophisticated issue. This is what could separate Corporate cheap labor hogs from those whose real agenda is to transform America.

Applaud the (presumably responsible) Editorial Director of the Star-Ledger, David Hampton, for allowing this piece to be carried.

The Cartoon Jihad appears to have legs (the violence started 2/4), and shows signs that it might surpass the historic France carbecue in length. The French jihad against automobiles (around 10,000 achieved meltdown) and other private property lasted about three weeks, though without loss of life other than the two unlucky teenagers whose electrocution deaths started the whole thing.

Bodies are accumulating over the Danish drawings, however. Ten were killed as a result of a five-hour riot against the Italian embassy in Libya. (Yes, Italian — the sons of Allah aren’t containing their anger to just Danes.) Five became deceased in Afghanistan during anti-cartoon action.

While visiting Pakistan, the ever-diplomatic ex-President Bill Clinton declared publishing the cartoons a “mistake” because it was disrespectful to famously sensitive Muslims. “I can tell you most people in the United States deeply respect Islam … and most people in Europe do,” he said.

Not exactly, Bill. A recent USA Today/CNN poll found that Americans were critical of Muslim excitement around the cartoon ["Poll: Americans fear Iran will develop, use nukes"].

By a 3-to-1 ratio, however, they blame the resulting furor on Muslims’ intolerance of different points of views, not Westerners’ lack of respect for Islam.

In Britain, the public is losing patience with jihadist Muslims as well as how the government is handling them, with 86 percent characterizing the violent nature of the protests to be “a gross overreaction.”

The demands of rioters that their religion be seen as a “religion of peace” are falling on increasingly deaf ears, it would seem.