From the Christian Science Monitor editorial section:

The backlash has been swift and powerful. No sooner did the Bush administration announce new measures to enforce the nation’s immigration laws last week than opponents jumped to their feet to object . But Washington must resist and give enforcement a chance to work.

Standing up to the critics won’t be easy. Businesses that depend on illegal immigrants for low-wage labor are warning of disaster under the new regulations, especially those that affect the workplace.

The most criticized rule requires employers to follow up on “no-match” letters from the Social Security Administration. These notices alert them when the nine-digit sequence provided by their workers fails to match the Social Security database.

Businesses routinely ignore the letters for lack of consequence. Now, if their identified workers are unable to clear up the mismatch and prove legal status, they must be fired – or employers will face significantly higher fines of up to $10,000 per employee (not to mention criminal charges).

Business are sounding dooms-day warnings: At least two-thirds of the workers in construction and agriculture are illegal migrants, so if the law is enforced, crops may very well rot in the fields and the rebuilding effort in New Orleans screech to a halt (employers could alleviate this by paying higher wages). Consumer prices would probably rise. [A worthy check on illegal workers August 14, 2007]

Now, the thing is, that just as there are businesses that will pay dearly due to these regulations, there are others that will find their businesses are suddenly viable again.

I think we need more than simple enforcement here. The past tightening of enforcement meant that folks were much less likely to cross the border routinely. That means we now have in the US a big block of folks that are having trouble finding jobs. We should help them find jobs back home in Mexico and Central America. If we don’t do so, we will have a large, disgruntled population inside our borders.

New York Yankee Hall of Fame shortstop Phil Rizzuto died earlier today.

Rizzuto was a childhood hero for many reasons, most obviously because of his Italian heritage. The “Scooter,” as Rizzuto was universally known, was also Joe Di Maggio’s roommate. DiMaggio was another hero of mine…at least until the darker side of his character was revealed.

During the course of the day, you’ll read many comments about what a great, down to earth guy Rizzuto was. Here’s my own experience.

Years ago, I was traveling to Boston. Coincidentally, the Yankees were playing the Red Sox. As I checked into the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Rizzuto was walking through the lobby. I approached him, told him that I had spent countless summer nights listening to him broadcast Yankee games and that his accounts of the games gave me more pleasure than I could express.

Rizzuto could have brushed me off after I had spoken my piece. Instead he engaged me in a long conversation about baseball in general and the Yankees specifically. And Rizzuto asked me questions about my family, my occupation and whether I was going to the game that night.

Although I had other plans, Rizzuto pulled out two tickets and gave them to me. And somehow it didn’t seem right not to use them so I went, compliments of “Scooter.”

I’ll confess that I wanted to ask him for his autograph but, you know, I was in my mid-30s. And after my visit with Rizzuto, I felt more like a friend than a fan.

Phil himself told my favorite Rizzuto story at his Hall of Fame induction. Talking about his early career in the Southern League, Rizzuto said he was served grits at his hotel breakfast. Rizzuto, who grew up in Brooklyn, had never seen grits. Not wanting to eat them but also not wanting to leave them on his plate, Rizzuto said: ” I put them in my pocket and walked out.” Phil’s story got a huge laugh.

For more of the same Rizzuto humor, read O Holy Cow!: The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto.

African-American sports history (e.g., Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe winning the U.S. tennis title in 1968, etc.) is so heavily publicized that it’s striking to notice how little attention is paid to Mexican-American sports history.

For example, when Tiger Woods won the Masters golf tournament to become the first (part) black to win a major championship, it was widely announced that this was a historic breakthrough for minorities in the previous lily white game of golf that would get minorities interested in the sport for the first time, etc etc. This struck me as a bit odd considering that Lee Trevino, a Mexican-American driving range pro from a dirt poor background in El Paso, had won the U.S. Open 29 years before and had gone on to win six major championships in all, in four of which the great Jack Nicklaus, who intimidated everybody except Trevino, was the runner-up. Trevino was also the likely the funniest golfer of his era — he told the reporters after his Open win in 1968, “When I get enough money I’m going to become a Spaniard instead of a Mexican” – and one of the biggest draws.

Similarly, Nancy Lopez, a Mexican-American from New Mexico who debuted in 1979, was likely the most popular woman golfer of all time.

A reader wrote in recently to mention a name I hadn’t heard in years, even though I live in his hometown: Pancho Gonzales, who was probably the most famous tennis player in America when I was a little kid. The son of Mexican immigrants, Gonzales was born in Los Angeles in 1928, and grew up on the streets, spending a year in juvenile hall. His mom gave him a tennis racket for his 12th birthday, but he never had a lesson. He grew to be well over 6 feet tall and was considered the best athlete in tennis.

The tennis powers-that-be in LA didn’t want him around but after he got out of the Navy in 1946, he got so good that they started to help him. In 1948 and 1949 he won the American leg of the Grand Slam at Forest Hills. He went pro in 1950, and was #1 from 1954-1960,Back then, the Grand Slam tournaments were reserved for amateurs (unlike golf, which had Open championships for pros and amateurs alike since the 19th century), so when he went pro in 1950, and was #1 from 1954-1960, but he was locked out of the Grand Slams until they went open in 1968. At age 41 in 1969, he won the longest Wimbledon match ever, over Charlie Pasarell 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9. That year, he was the leading American money winner, and remained highly competitive and a major draw for several more years. I would imagine he was the best over-40 player ever.

Gonzales was a mean son of a gun with a Ty Cobb-size competitive streak. He was a chain smoker, even on the court, dying of cancer in 1995. He had five wives (marrying one of them twice). His last wife, whom he married when he was 55 in 1984, was Andre Agassi’s sister Rita. Pancho’s new father-in-law, Andre’s dad, an ex-boxer from Iran, was so mad, he thought about having him rubbed out. Pancho died broke and Andre paid for his funeral.

It’s a helluva story, but that kind of thing just isn’t very interesting to the modern sporting press. Gonzales (who looks in pictures like a mestizo weighted more toward the European than Indian side) had to deal with discrimination, but compared to what blacks had to put up with, it was kind of vague. Also, perhaps because Jackie Robinson came up with the Dodgers of Brooklyn, the black cause in sports got imprinted emotionally on a lot of young Jewish boys in Brooklyn, who went on to have a huge influence on the media. Mexicans never interested Jewish sportswriters very much. Finally, this history never really went anywhere. Today, there are 30 million Mexican-Americans, but there don’t seem to be many more Mexican-American sports stars (outside of the fading sport of boxing, which Oscar de la Hoya is sacrificing his body to keep alive) than in the days of Pancho Gonzales and Lee Trevino.

Mike Huckabee is having something of a boom–call it an Internet boom–since coming in second at Ames.

Mickey Kaus points out that Huckabee received “More votes than he bought,” which is pretty good in Iowa.

So let’s remind VDARE.com readers, who might have heard Huckabee say something about protecting the borders in the Youtube debate, what Huckabee is like when he’s talking to Hispanics. In “Huckabee’s ‘Second Chance’ Doctrine“Allan Wall pointed out a grovelling 2003 radio address in which Huckabee said:

“We respect those who want to provide a better life for their children and grandchildren. For decades, we treated our state’s African-American population poorly. The Hispanic influx gives us a second chance to prove what kind of people we really are.”

There’s more of this “second chance” nonsense in Allan’s blog post.

That was also quoted by Bryanna Bevens in OK, Rush Limbaugh: How About Talking To Gov. Huckabee—Before GOP Is DOA? [February 05, 2005]

Huckabee isn’t very interested in preventing Republicans from being “swept away” in Arkansas–not only was he trying to send the illegal population to college, he denounced immigration control efforts, including attempts to keep illegal aliens from voting as “inflammatory . . . race-baiting and demagoguery.”

And finally, in Huckstering Huckabee, Patrick Cleburne pointed out what Huckabee said in a speech to the National Council Of La Raza:

“Pretty soon, Southern white guys like me may be in the minority,” Huckabee said jokingly as the crowd roared in laughter…He said Arkansas needs to make the transition from a traditional Southern state to one that recognizes and cherishes diversity “in culture, in language and in population.”

That should be “Pretty soon, thanks to people like me, Southern white guys will be in the minority.” There are links to more stories like than in Patrick Cleburne’s blog.

When Huckabee said “I think frankly the Lord is giving us a second chance to do better than we did before,” comparing illegal immigration to slavery, with apparently no idea of abolition, the blogger Lonewacko said

If he actually believes that, he’s nuts. If he has an extreme case of white guilt, he should deal with it personally and not impose it on the rest of us.

If he’s just faking it, he’s trying to smear those who oppose illegal immigration as racists and trying to hide support for illegal immigration behind religion. Either way, he’s not only not qualified to be president, he’s not qualified for any elected office.

Think about that as you read coverage of the upcoming primaries.

Here are links, provided by VDARE.com’s crack team of internet researchers, (me) to archived copies of some of the underlying documents quoted. They may not be available elsewhere, since I had to dig them out of Archive.org.

Arkansas News Bureau - Huckabee promotes ‘open door’ policy at LULAC conventionJun 30, 2005 By Wesley Brown

Governor Huckabee’s Radio Address November 8, 2003 Subj: Mexico

The Gov. Mike Huckabee’s State of the State addressTimes Record - Fort Smith, Arkansas