Italy is experiencing a socio-disagreement between its own folks and invading illegal aliens by the thousands who want to remake the place in their own image. For once, it’s not Muslims.

But the Chinese newbies, a third of whom are believed to be illegal, are similarly demanding. They have brought sweatshop conditions to the Italian clothing industry and want business done their way. There is even a new category of clothing: “Made in Italy by Chinese.”

Chinese migrants have been pouring into Prato to work in the city’s thousands of factories, warehouses and sweatshops that supply the cloth and yarns to the Italian fashion industry.

Today Prato has the largest Chinese community in the country - about 25,000 people, nearly 15% of the city’s population.

And the authorities are worried.

“Many of the Chinese here are ‘clandestini‘ - illegal. We have big difficulties catching them. And since they arrived, crime in the city has risen,” says Francesco Nannucci, the head of investigations at the Prato police.
[Italy struggles with Chinese migrants, BBC 8/2/07]

In Milan’s Chinatown, the Chinese staged a violent protest in the streets against the government last April in which 10 police officers were injured.

The trouble began when a Chinese woman was fined for illegally transporting goods in a private vehicle.

More than 100 Chinese shopkeepers and members of their families, many waving the national flag, massed in the street claiming racial discrimination.
[Milan police in Chinatown clash BBC 4/13/07]

Does this sound familiar? Foreigners enter illegally in droves, break the law in additional ways and then squawk “racism” when they are called to task. And the “national flag” being waved was that of Red China, in case there was any doubt.

In the Youtube Debate I mentioned below, Senator Edwards had this quick segue–after saying he’s not for reparations, he blamed mortgage rates on racism.

COOPER: Senator Edwards, no dipping and dodging. Should African-Americans get reparations?

EDWARDS: I’m not for reparations. I can answer that question. But I think there are other things we can do to create some equality that doesn’t exist in this country today. Today there was a report that, right here in Charleston, African-Americans are paying more than their white counterparts for mortgages than any other place in America, any other place in the United States of America. (APPLAUSE) And here’s an example. What is the conceivable explanation for this, that black people are paying more for their mortgage? And, by the way, it’s not just low-income African Americans; it’s high-income African-Americans. There’s absolutely no explanation for this. Transcript of the CNN/YouTube Democratic Debate - New York Times

You can read some Charleston politicians talking about it here:ABC News 4 Charleston - Meeting On Mortgage Disparities, July 24, 2007, and the study itself comes from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. It’s called Income is no Shield Against Racial Disparities in Lending (July 2007)[PDF]

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition is trying to protect what they call “vulnerable and unsophisticated” borrowers from the banks that lend to them, not realizing that they may be protected right out of being able to borrow at all.

I haven’t read the whole study, but it seems to imply that if income is equal, the costs of borrowing should be equal, in spite of all the other factors associated with race. There’s no reason to believe that–take Michael Vick, for example. Very high income, but I wouldn’t call him a good credit risk. Fourteen years ago the Boston Fed published a study that claiming to prove “racial bias in mortgage lending,” by showing that African-Americans with what the study said was equal creditworthiness were being turned down for loans that white people were able to get. Peter Brimelow and Leslie Spencer were able to refute this claim by examining the default rates. If African-Americnas were being held to higher standard, they’d have lower default rates. They didn’t. [The Hidden Clue By Peter Brimelow and Leslie Spencer, first published in Forbes, Jan 4, 1993]

Edwards may say that there’s “absolutely no explanation for this, “ and threaten to pass lending laws if people elect him President, but that’s because he simply doesn’t have a clue.

The Atlanta Falcons quarterback who is facing trial on charges of horrific abuse of dogs while holding dog fights at his mansion, has one of the world’s greatest bodies, but not, by most accounts, one of the world’s greatest brains.

A reader sent me a link to a Randall Parker Future Pundit item from 2006 that was prescient:

High Testosterone Men More Abusive To Dogs

Another reader noted Peter King’s obituary in Sports Illustrated for the brilliant football innovator Bill Walsh, who, more than anybody else, invented the modern pass-crazy NFL offensive style. King quotes Walsh from 1991, which might have some relevance to Vick:

“As a coach, I know I have to start with smart players. It might not have been so important in past years, but today we’re asking players to do so much and to know so many schemes. Without basic intelligence, they simply can’t play. And if they’re not just plain smart, they’re not going to be able to do the things a sophisticated coach is going to ask. With the speed on the field today, their technique and knowledge of what they have to do has to be keen or they’ll get buried. A player like Bill Ring of the 49ers, who wasn’t physically gifted, was a great contributor, despite his lack of speed and size and quickness, because he was a tremendous student of the game.

“As you’ll see in this book, intelligent players have an infinitely better chance to succeed. On offense, they have to cope more and more with things like the no-huddle and quick snaps. In a few years, who knows? Maybe there won’t be huddles. On defense, they have to cope with different schemes and all the substitution. When I look for players now, even at Stanford, I can rule out a lot of people fast. They have to have above-average intelligence combined with the ability to function under stress …

…the kind of over the top rhetorical flourish that gets Ann Coulter in trouble with neoconservatives. Covering the Democratic Youtube debate, she writes

B. Hussein Obama said he was for slavery reparations in many forms, but the only one that got applause was for more “investment” in schools. In Obama’s defense, the precise question was: “But is African-Americans ever going to get reparations for slavery?” So a switch to the subject of education was only natural.[WorldNetDaily: Did I miss the 'hip' part?August 1, 2007]

Can Ann Coulter go around saying that African-Americans talk like that? Won’t she get fired, picketed, condemned, et cetera?

Well, according to the Good Gray Paper Of Record, that was the precise question:

QUESTION: Hello, America. Hello, presidential candidates. This is Will from Boston, Massachusetts. And I hope, you know, they put this question on. It’s a question in the back of everybody’s head. You know, in some people, it’s further back than others, collecting cobwebs. But is African-Americans ever going to get reparations for slavery? I know you all are going to run around this question, dipping and dodging, so let’s see how far you all can get.

Transcript of the CNN/YouTube Democratic Debate - New York Times

Ann throws in a question for Obama:

Moreover, a question on reparations has got to be confusing when you’re half white and half black. What do you do? Demand an apology for slavery and money from yourself? I guess biracial reparations would involve sending yourself money, then sending back a portion of that money to yourself, minus 50 percent in processing fees – which is the same way federal aid works.

Of course, Obama isn’t descended from American slaves, he’s descended from Kenyans, on his father’s side, and Kenyans were victimized by Arab slave traders, not English or American ones. Furthermore, Kenya is a place where they still have slavery, even though the English and Arabs are all gone.

Mickey Kaus writes:

___________________________

It would indeed be an “earthquake”–a GOP-friendly earthquake–if Californians passed an initiative awarding its electoral votes by Congressional district rather than “winner take all.” But they won’t pass it. At least I don’t see how it would have a prayer of passing in such a Democratic state. … [via Influence Peddler] 4:52 P.M.

___________________________

Wait–how did California get to be such a Democratic state? Didn’t it elect Ronald Reagan Governor? Twice? Oh, right, that’s when it was All-American.

Has there been any national coverage on TV of the case of Nuradin Abdi? If so, I haven’t seen it.

Abdi is the Somali immigrant who was arrested in 2003 for plotting to blow up a mall in the Columbus, Ohio, area. Actual cases of Muslim immigrant terrorists get little notice in the MSM for some reason.

Nuradin Abdi smiled and laughed with his attorney before admitting in a federal court yesterday that he had worked with terrorists to help plot against the United States.

Abdi, who wanted to blow up a mall in the Columbus area, is expected to serve 10 years in prison and be deported to his native Somalia. His conviction, though, could be a sign that there are others still to be named as members of the same terrorist cell. Details brought to light yesterday show that the terror cell was bigger than a trio of local men possibly involved in it — Abdi, convicted terrorist Iyman Faris and Worthington native Christopher Paul — previously reported. [Somali man pleads guilty to plot, August 21, 2007]

From two years ago on VDARE.COM, a list of Muslim terrorists charged in this country, America Infiltrated By Jihadi Terrorists: Box Score, which includes some disturbing stats from a Washington Times article (Terrorists will fail, official says, May 4, 2005):

Criminal Division prosecutors and investigators, working with state and local authorities, have disrupted more than 150 terrorist cells and threats from Portland, Ore., to Lackawanna, N.Y., incapacitating more than 3,000 known operatives. They also have charged 375 persons in terrorism-related cases, 195 of whom already have pleaded guilty or been convicted, and removed from the country more than 500 people linked to September 11.

They can raid homes to prevent video game piracy but businesses for hiring illegal aliens?[US Raids 30 Sites For Chips That Allow Pirated Video-Game Play CNNMoney, August 1, 2007]