What I thought was interesting about Mort Kondracke’s article was its conclusion:

Meanwhile, the big winners in this fight are demagogues with microphones and their political allies. What they will demand next, presumably, is a campaign to drive illegal immigrants out of the country. You can expect to see some ugly scenes of families being torn apart and U.S. citizens of Hispanic origin being victimized. That’s the price of cowardice.

Mort Kondracke is the Executive Editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955

Roll Call is Corporate Media–and like most Corporate Media depends on Corporate Advertising. In their case they deliver the Capitol Hill market to advertisers. Kondracke is so identified with his money source he can’t think of anything not in their interest. Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad called this an example the “slave mind” in how it manifested itself in the black community.

I think Kondracke was thinking was thinking of Lou Dobbs when he wrote this. I don’t think that corporate Media wanted to give someone like Lou Dobbs coverage–and they put it off as long as they could without losing credibility. However, what they want even less, is a growth of left populism that would really address concentration of media and economic power in the US.

In fact, guys like Kondracke are part of the problem. They’ll give lots of attention to the folks most likely to realize the scare scenario above-and will just plain ignore guys that really are trying to produce justice on both sides of the border.

Anyhow, a buyout of illegal aliens would avoid much of the issue here. Employer sanctions, poorly enacted, could have some of the side effects that Kondracke alludes to. However, just having a secure ID as an option for folks would go a long way toward solving that problem. Employers would demand secure ID from anyone with an accent or who looked “foreign”–but they’d know that if that ID was provided they were safe from prosecution.

I think what Kondracke is really afraid of what a more realistic immigration solution might mean. I think that just collecting existing fines-and using the funds to help illegal aliens return home with dignity and security, would frighten this guy. An immigration policy that made it easier in a practical sense for Americans to leave the US and choose citizenship in a different country would frighten this guy. From reading Kondracke’s bio, I think he got all pumped up by opposing Nixon and supporting the anti-war left of the late 60’s/ early 70’s.

I think he really hated the old WASP elite-and fears something might grow out of the rubble of that group’s demise. I agree with Fulford, this man also fears democracy. I think what he really fears being on a side put in the same position as Nixon and seeing his entire legacy crumble around him.

From the Boston Globe:

That line drew a loud cheer from the audience, clearly appreciative that Tancredo had bothered to show up. He used his opening remarks to talk about his signature issue, illegal immigration, and how it was hurting American workers, and especially African-American workers. Tancredo said he gets “insulted” every time he hears that illegal immigrants are working jobs American citizens won’t take.

“I’ve done those jobs, you’ve done those jobs, our kids have done those jobs,” he said.

I have to give kudos to Tom Tancredo on this one. It is too bad that Duncan Hunter and Ron Paul didn’t show up too–that would have made a very profound statement. These 3 minor candidates are the only Republicans that might have something serious to say to the folks at the NAACP. What would folks like Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, or John McCain have to say to the NAACP? Now that would have been a scene if Tancredo got cheered by the NAACP and the others got heckled or ignored. It would kind of make the claims of Tancredo’s ‘racism’ seem silly now wouldn’t it?

I also understand Tancredo’s point on ‘jobs American citizens won’t take’. I also find it very difficult hearing that from someone that hasn’t done any of the jobs that I have(which include construction and farm work).

I expect black folks and Computer Programmers understand aspects of immigration issues in ways few other Americans do. A lot of African Americans dislike immigration-but their major issue is jobs above anything else. These folks are also deeply afraid of immigration enforcement getting out of hand and turning into something no one wants. Those of us proposing immigration sanity need to learn to understand their concerns and as Tancredo showed, bother to show up when asked.

The Golden State’s bleak future as a grossly overcrowded Mexifornia is now official. According to the state’s Department of Finance, by 2050 the former paradise will have 60 million inhabitants, with the majority being Hispanic.

Lou Dobbs commented on some of the details on July 10 [Transcript]:

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): Higher Hispanic birth rates, as well as legal and illegal immigration, will add more than 25 million people to California by the middle of this century. The state’s Department of Finance projects California’s population will grow to nearly 60 million by 2050, an increase of about 75 percent.

The report foreshadows a looming crisis. California already faces water and power shortages, decaying infrastructure, education funding gaps and a $92 billion debt. Urban planners say state officials need to wake up.

As I’ve noted before, the state’s water supply is already threatened by one year of below-average rainfall because of skyrocketing population growth. The school system has devolved from one of the nation’s best to the bottom of the heap after a few decades of being inundated by millions of Mexican and other non-English-speaking students, most of whom come from education-averse cultures.

Despite Los Angeles’ daily agony of transportation gridlock and other overpopulation symptoms today, the LA Times was predictably upbeat in its reportage of immigration-engendered catastrophe in the future:

“It’s opportunity with baggage,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., in “a country masquerading as a state.”
[60 million Californians by mid-century LA Times 7/10/07]

Further north, the Democrats of Sacramexico talk up huge tax increases for infrastructure to accomodate the population growth that people don’t want. One figure is $140 billion just to upgrade transportation for six southern counties over 30 years.

To accomplish this stressful transition, we are told by the perpetrators in the capital that we little citizens must put aside our patriotism in the interest of getting along.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said the report demonstrated the state’s need to improve school performance by Hispanics, build housing close to jobs, increase efforts to protect the environment and end the “politics of division.”

“If we don’t work now to end immigrant bashing and the politics of division, we will allow wedges to form that can pull apart a society whose sheer size along will require enosmous tolerance and cooperation to function,” he said in a written statement.

However, the likelihood of a tranquil transformation to total Mexifornia is slim to none. As we have learned from painful experience (and politically suppressed scholarship), diversity causes distrust, and that’s putting it mildly. Californians won’t be cooperating with the invasion.