Balanced journalism, like beauty, must be in the eye of the beholder.

So says Timothy J. McNulty, the Tribune’s new ombudsman.(Covering immigration fairly,April 16, 2006)

“The newspaper’s lead immigration writer, Oscar Avila, and a half-dozen other reporters have been diligent in keeping readers abreast of Chicago’s immigrant communities. Their tales are compelling.”

Oscar Avila? Diligent? Has McNulty (e-mail him) been reading his own paper?

If McNulty’s definition of “fair” coverage isn’t enough to make you grind your teeth, read on:

“People open their hearts to those who strive for a better life and endure separation and exploitation in order to build a better life for themselves and their families.”

Did you notice? “Better life” used twice in the same sentence. I think there’s subliminal message here, but I’m not sure what it is. (I also wonder if McNulty also would include among “those” seeking a better life our own working poor who increasingly are forced to compete with foreigners, many of them here illegally, for the low-paying jobs they used to do for higher wages.)

The question I often ask the MSM is when can we expect to see Page 1 stories and photos of the real “victims” of mass immigration, people who McNulty appears to be implying exist mostly in our collective imagination:

“Those who want stricter enforcement are rarely able to provide concrete and direct examples or to personalize the plight of citizens who suffer because of illegal immigrants.

“They rarely produce the citizen who is out of work–or making only $6 an hour–because illegal immigrants take the jobs and drive down the pay scales. They talk about higher costs for health care and education consumed by illegal immigrants–but can’t show it as a line on your tax bill.”

Memo to McNulty: Your reporters are lazy - and biased. They go for the “easy” story because the subjects are right at their feet. Any damn fool can cover 100,000 anarchists running around Chicago’s streets waving foreign flags, showing their contempt for the rule of law and disrespecting the sovereignty of the American people.

Have you ever heard the phrase in your industry, “Digging out the story”? How about sending your diligent immigration reporters to New Orleans where on April 1 the Rev. Jesse Jackson was supposed to hold a large protest against the hiring of illegal aliens to help with the city’s cleanup and rebuilding? What we got from Jesse, Al Sharpton and comedian Bill Cosby that day was a demand that displaced blacks be allowed to vote in upcoming elections. What? (Well, OK, there are just so many hours in a day, right, Jesse?)

If you really are serious about providing fair coverage of our immigration fiasco why not suggest to your editorial board that they publish an editorial demanding the Illinois General Assembly tell the state’s taxpayers how much they’re having to shell out to provide services to illegals? The only data available is 12 years old, and it appeared in a 1996 report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) in Washington D.C. According to CIS, Gov. Jim Edgar’s office in 1994 reported that the state each year was spending $154.3 million on services to illegal aliens.

I also think you should recommend that the diligent Oscar Avila start the ball rolling by picking up the phone and calling state Senator Chris Lauzen (R-Aurora) , who twice in the past few years has introduced legislation requiring the state to tell Illinoisans who, along with opening their hearts to those who want to better themselves, how much wider they’re having to open their wallets these days to pay for “free” services like education and medical care.

Both of Lauzen’s bills, incidentally, attracted no cosponsors and (Surprise!) ended up rotting in a rules committee. Don’t you think the people of Illinois deserve to know why?

So there is supposed to be this cataclysmic event on May 1…the “Day Without an Immigrant” protest.

Now don’t get your hopes up as I did–the title is misleading. It sadly does not mean that all of them are leaving the U.S.

Several Mexican activist groups are urging folks to stay home from work and to not spend money for one day. Apparently, this will show all the Gringos that illegal immigrants are vital to our workforce and a powerhouse niche of our market economy.

In short, that Americans just can’t make it without them.

Abandoning all pretense of logic, the Mexican government has joined the fray. Mexican nationals have been asked to boycott American businesses in Mexico as a show of solidarity for their compatriots north of the border.

They are calling it “Nothing Gringo”

Groups ask Mexicans to boycott U.S. firms by Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer April 14, 2006

When I read the article, my first reaction was… so what? Then they started listing the various businesses that Mexicans should aviod both in Mexico and the U.S.

Wal-mart was one of the biggies.

Hee hee…Wal-mart! The Mexican Mecca…the Holy Land…it’s like cutting off their nose to spite their face.

It’s actually quite funny: Mexico wants to take on the United States and the best they can do is not go to work and not buy 800 rolls of toilet paper for $3.26 at Wal-mart.

Let’s switch this around…if we wanted to cripple Mexicans all we would have to do is shut down Wal-mart!

There is an upshot to all this. I haven’t been able to shop at Wal-mart here in California in years due to the language barrier…I don’t speak Spanish so I’ve never been able to communicate with the store clerks well enough to find the 800 rolls of toilet paper for $3.26.

Maybe this is my shot! If illegal aliens skip work on May 1, Wal-mart will undoubtedly have to hire temporary workers from the normal pool of American workers–the Gringos!!

Wal-mart employees who speak English…ah, it was but a dream…now a very real possiblity.

This I gotta see…I’m going to Wal-mart May 1st and buying all the industrial sized, bulk bin household products I can fit in my gas-guzzling SUV…even if I don’t need them or even know what the product is for…which I likely will not.

In closing let me say this:

The use of racial slurs by these Mexican activists in America and indeed, the Mexican government did not go unnoticed by me…I simply have become all too aware of the double-standard that serves as the foundation of our racial conscience.

That being said…thanks Wetbacks! Ouch…hurts, don’t it?

You will not succeed in making even the slightest dent to our economy but you are succeeding well in the area of offending everybody and alienating the handful of Americans who still support your cause.

So keep up the good work and if you can manage it, wave a few more Mexican flags–that’s a real crowd pleaser!

Mexicans squatting here and residing in their home country are calling for a boycott of American goods [In Mexico, 'nothing gringo on May 1', CNN 4/16/06]. As usual, they are not bright enough to plan a political event that doesn’t screw themselves worse than it hurts us.

First of all, they are doing it on MAY DAY, the international holiday of Communist solidarity. Ri-i-i-i-ght, emphasizing the radical left connections will win Americans hearts and minds. And threats of closing down the ports and other commerce will illustrate that our neighbor to the south is not a friend, nor has it ever been.

Furthermore, Mexican illegals joining up with their brethren in the home country against the United States will remind Americans of all those Mexican flags we have seen lately, that Mexicans are invaders

Finally, the boycott would mostly hurt U.S. corporations that are the biggest boosters of the neo-slave economy.

“Remember, nothing gringo on May 1,” advises one of the many e-mails being circulated among Internet users in Mexico. [...]

And ironically, the protest targets the U.S. business community, which is one of the strongest supporters of legalization or guest-worker programs.

“At the end of the day, boycotting would only hurt corporations that are backing what people want done in the immigration bill,” said Larry Rubin, CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico.

Perfect! Great going, Mexicans!

An article this morning in The Boston Globe: Immigration hits home in Lynn -By Yvonne Abraham April 16 2006 (Access may require free registration) indicates that some of the more thoughtful American Blacks are indeed starting to see what a threat the Bush Administration/Senate’s proposed Amnesty/Immigration acceleration measures are to their own community. A 36 year-old store manager is quoted saying that he

knows how the controversy over immigration in this country is going to end: Millions of undocumented immigrants will get to stay in the United States, many more will follow them here, and young African-American men will have an even tougher time finding jobs.”The whole United States is going to change,” the African-American store manager said as he got his hair cut at a Union Street barbershop on a recent morning. ”They’ll let you go, and get one of these happy immigrants in your spot….They will work every unhappy American citizen out of their grass-cutting, trash-hauling, floor-sweeping jobs.”…”Immigration is going to set the black community back 25 years,”

Other Blacks quoted in the article are still locked in the traditional attitudes of blaming whites for everything, but this is progress. As I remarked when praising Clarence Page’s wise column in February,

VDARE.com has always maintained that immigration reform requires a coalition… flooding the country with low skilled Hispanics is a violent attack on [American Blacks'] standard of living. American Blacks don’t have to like those who prefer pre 1965 America to see that defending the old ethnic balance works to their advantage.