Last week Time Magazine was happily deploying the “Immigration restriction = Racism” argument, confident this would help the Bush Amnesty/Immigration Acceleration Bill. This week, a much more considered article indicates Time is getting worried. Why Immigration Reform May Die in the House –By Perry Bacon Jr./Washington Tuesday May 30 2006 moans:

House members may be wrong that the American public agrees with their get-tough-only approach on immigration. But the right kind of Republican voters do, and that’s what counts.

Determinedly seeking comfort in another crop of deviously-worded opinion polls (a stratagem already denounced by Steve Sailer: an updated discussion by Steve is scheduled on VDARE.com for Sunday) Time complains

Yet most Republican members of the House of Representatives, even the most vulnerable in this election year, are adamantly opposed to the Senate bill. Which raises the question, why …

It may come down to one word: intensity. Whatever the national numbers, moderate House Republicans like New York’s Peter King, who has been a strong supporter of the House border-security-only approach, say the people who call their offices and show up at town halls want tighter restrictions on immigration

Supporting Bush’s proposal for guest workers and citizenship for illegal immigrants, if you’re a House Republican, may be a way to lose votes among Republicans (who could sit out the election rather than vote for a member who supports a guest worker program) without gaining any from independents or Democrats, who aren’t as fired up…

Time glumly compares the issue to abortion, where of course the liberal establishment has to fight a constant war to impose its will.

Others will take the view that without massive repression and propaganda, turning the country into a Third World Spanish- speaking slum will never command majority American opinion.

But Immigration reformers can be encouraged that the other side is clearly getting alarmed.

Elizabeth Butler was just a few days away from high school graduation last year when she was raped, strangled and stabbed to death in her family’s car by an ex-boyfriend, illegal alien Ariel Menendez. When the 17-year-old didn’t show up for work at a local deli in Croton Falls, her parents went looking and were devastated to find her body.

Ariel Menendez was convicted of first-degree murder and rape on May 30 and will be sentenced in July. The Westchester County DA is seeking a prison term of life without parole as the “only appropriate sentence” for such a brutal crime.

Apparently Menendez had told Elizabeth and her parents that he was a 21-year-old construction worker, not a 27-year-old illegal alien with a prior arrest for felony drunk driving plus additional minor offenses. Elizabeth had broken up with him and was dating someone else.

Grief did not blind Elizabeth’s mother to the devastating results to her family from open borders [Menendez found guilty, 5/31/06, Journal News].

Patricia Butler denounced the fact that Menendez, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, was allowed to remain in the United States after past convictions for felony driving while intoxicated and other offenses.

If he had been deported, my daughter would be alive today,” she said.

Jim Russell (a candidate for Congress this fall, for Nita Lowey’s seat in New York State’s 18th District) attended the trial. His astute observations about the blame-the-victim defense strategy as well as the inadequate media coverage, particularly regarding the killer’s immigration status, can be read at a local forum.

Republican Brian Bilbray is in a close race with Democrat Francine Busby to fill the California Congressional seat vacated by Randy “Duke” Cunningham.

Senator John Mc Cain of Arizona was scheduled to speak this morning at a breakfast fund-raiser for Bilbray…but Mc Cain was a no-show.

Hmm…why would a Republican Senator fail to support the only Republican in a hotly contested race? Because Brian Bilbray had the audacity to criticize his liberal opponent for supporting the Mc Cain/Kennedy Amnesty bill…oh, the nerve.

Mc Cain did not pull his endorsement of Bilbray and supposedly plans to contribute the maximum $5000 donation to the Bilbray campaign, but I am not sure that will help much at this point.

Story here.

A lack of public support for Bilbray will resonate as de facto support for his opponent in the minds of the electorate.

Senator Mc Cain is not a moderate or an independent or (gag) a maverick Republican–he is the perennial presidential candidate for the Petulant Crybaby Party (PCP).

Then again, I suppose he can afford to alienate his future Republican colleagues because he doesn’t need their help…he has Kennedy and the Gang.

For quite some time it has been apparent that Robert J. Samuelson has been outstanding amongst those privileged to have Big Foot Columnist credentials because of his astuteness and candor on the Immigration issue. (The Gate Keepers mustn’t have checked on that.)

His latest column What You Don’t Know About the Immigration Bil,The Washington Post May 31 2006 is imperative reading (and dissemination) material for all those in the patriotic camp.

Samuelson’s central thesis–that the Senate bill represents a substantial acceleration of immigration–is not news to regular VDARE.com readers, but doubtless is to most of his.

But what is especially valuable is his critique of the dishonesty of the MSM coverage of the Senate debate:

“The Senate passed legislation last week that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) hailed as “the most far-reaching immigration reform in our history.” You might think that the first question anyone would ask is how much it would actually increase or decrease legal immigration. But no. After the Senate approved the bill by 62 to 36, you could not find the answer in the news columns of The Post, the New York Timesor the Wall Street Journal. Yet the estimates do exist…”

Samuelson is particularly irritated by the suppression of the Sessions/Rector news conference on the scale of the immigration increase:

On May 15 Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama held a news conference with Heritage’s Rector to announce their immigration projections and the estimated impact on the federal budget. Most national media didn’t report the news conference…

He has an explanation:

Whether or not the bias is “liberal,” groupthink is a powerful force in journalism. Immigration is considered noble. People who critically examine its value or worry about its social effects are subtly considered small-minded, stupid or bigoted. The result is selective journalism that reflects poorly on our craft…

Perhaps this is plausible as far as the line journalists are concerned. But why do the editors permit it?

This is not the last word on the Bush 2006 Opening-the-Borders drive. But it is a fair start.

If you don’t read Dilbert on a regular basis, then you may not know who Asok the Intern is:

Asok, pronounced ah-shook, was introduced to satisfy the hordes of interns who wrote to request their own character. Asok is brilliant, but as an intern he is immensely naive about the cruelties and politics of the business world. His name is a common one in India (but usually spelled Ashok).

The last two Dilbert cartoons deal with outsourcing and immigration, here’s today’s

Asok:Wally, My job has been outsourced to India.

Wally: [who always says the wrong thing]That’s interesting because you originally came here from India

Wally: Did you already think of that?

ASOK:[loudly]YES!

and check out yesterday’s, (even better) here.

UPDATE: This is from 2004, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution