How evil is Washington?

Evil enough to destroy the border fence in the dark of night right before Christmas, when people are busy shopping and not watching Congress carefully. Legislators know full welll that Americans want their border enforced, as required by the Constitution (Article 4, Section 4).

According to Rep Brian Bilbray (interviewed on the John and Ken radio show on Tuesday 12/18), the omnibus spending bill is even worse than how it’s been described in many reports.

It’s bad enough that the legislation reduces the fence from a substantial double structure with a road in the middle to an easily scalable single wall. But in addition, the Congressional leadership cut out the provision that required federal contractors to use the e-verify system to make sure workers were legal; Congress doesn’t even want to prevent hiring illegals with federal funds. (Listen here to what Rep Bilbray has to say.)

And the malevolence doesn’t stop there. Any fencing is now discretionary and subject to the desires of local Indian tribes, community groups and property owners. Since when did imaginary property rights trump the ability of the government to enforce the nation’s borders and sovereignty?

On Wednesday, John and Ken featured an “absolutely infuriated” Rep Ed Royce, who said, “The fence is not going to be built.” He was further incensed that at the same time as the fence was gutted, Bush still plans to send Mexico a $1.4 billion aid package to help Mexico’s police against drug cartels.

“The American public should be infuriated about this,” he said. “We had one thing that we knew worked well because we had listened to the Border Patrol down there… Instead we’re going to spend $1.4 billion in taxpayer assistance, giving that money and technology across the border and I can tell how this will work. I was down there on the border, on the fence when we saw [Mexican] customs agents on the other side … helping the cartels tunnel underneath the US border.”

For $1.2 billion we could have built the border fence and kept many of the drug smugglers out of this country altogether. But no, not with a Mexiphilic Congress as well as a Mexichurian President.

Royce continued, “And this isn’t all of it. It provides $10 million to pay lawyers to defend illegal immigrants that are in this country.”

Our tax dollars at work!

(There’s more — listen to the whole interview here from the John and Ken podcast page.)

No doubt el Presidente Calderon is happy with his big Christmas present from Washington. The American people, however, will not be pleased when they find out how thoroughly we have been shafted by our elected representatives, as US sovereignty is dismantled by those who swore to protect and defend it.

However, his issue–immigration–can be said to have won, now that open-borders fanatics like Huckabee and Giuliani are trying to fake enthusiasm for the immigration control desired by most Americans. We’ll be running a column discussing this tomorrow.

Tancredo to Abandon Presidential Bid–TIME
Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007
By AP/GEORGE MERRITT

(DENVER) — Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, whose forceful opposition to illegal immigration vaulted him to national prominence, plans to announce he is abandoning his long-shot bid for the presidency, a person close to Tancredo said Wednesday.

The five-term Colorado congressman planned to make the announcement at a news conference in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for Tancredo or his campaign.

Tancredo’s campaign would only say he planned a “major announcement” Thursday.

Tancredo has consistently polled at the back of the nine-person GOP field. He has based his campaign on opposition to illegal immigration, a top issue in many areas of the country. He has run television ads that link lax border security to terrorist attacks, rape and other crimes.

Tancredo announced in October that he would not seek a sixth term in Congress, but hinted he would consider running for the Senate after his presidential bid.

Colorado will have an open Senate seat next year when Republican Wayne Allard retires.[More]

The weather forecast for December 25, 2007 in LA is typical for this time of year: sunny and 67 degrees (19 degrees Centigrade). (The mild winter temperatures are not purchased at the expense of cruel summers, either: the average high on the Fourth of July in downtown LA, 18 miles from the beach, is only 83 degrees.)

But fewer and fewer Americans are enjoying Los Angeles’s routinely amazing weather. The LA Times reports:

More flee state than move in

Population is up thanks to births and foreign immigrants, but rest of U.S. isn’t California dreamin’ like it was.

… In Los Angeles County alone [in fiscal 2007], nearly 115,000 fewer residents came from other states and California counties than moved to other states and counties. The county ended up with a total increase in population thanks to 91,000 births and an influx of 70,000 residents from foreign countries. (The county now has roughly 10,294,000 residents).

Since 2000, about 500,000 more people have left Los Angeles County than have moved here from other parts of the U.S. and California, the figures show.

Of course, a huge fraction of the births are to immigrants.

Why exactly is America following a policy of driving American citizens out of mainland America’s most pleasant climatic zone?

By the way, have the strategic business geniuses at the LA Times ever noticed that their plummeting sales figures are linked to the replacement of English-literate Angelenos by foreigners who can’t read English, and often can read at all? (According to a recent United Way study, 53% of adults in LA are functionally illiterate.)

Jackie Mason is a comedian who makes his living by stereotyping, and has gotten in political trouble about it in the past, which is why it was surprising to see him join in the chorus of James Watson-bashers here, with the usual claims of pseudo-science, and a comparison between psychometrics and the Loch Ness Monster.

Nicholas Stix explains what’s wrong with Jackie Mason, and his writing partner Raoul Felder, at great length here.

He also has a piece called “The Immigration Encyclopedia” Needs Your Support about a website that deserves your money. I won’t tell you what this website is–read it for yourself.

In the recent hysteria surrounding Mike Huckabee’s recent surge, folks have forgotten there is another hard-core moral conservative running for the GOP nomination: Alan Keyes.

In this video, Keyes speaks on the issue of illegal immigration with great charisma. Now, I disagree with Keye’s contention that US legal immigration is well thought out–and illegal immigration is the entire problem with immigration. Legal immigration via chain migration and H-1b expansion are both major issues facing America today–and this will become even more apparent if illegal immigration is controlled.

Still, Keyes’ position on immigration is much better than Huckabee’s-or any GOP hopeful with a “real” chance of getting the nomination except possibly Ron Paul. Keyes’ oratory is nothing short of superb–and his presence helps diffuse a lot of the “racism” rhetoric directed at people who want immigration restriction.