An anonymous commenter offers a terminological suggestion that gets to the competitive white-versus-white heart of the people described in StuffWhitePeopleLike.com:

I vote for calling them whiterpeople instead of whitepeople. Then we could say “That’s mighty whiter of you,” etc.

Plus it would google better.

Speaking of the perils of family formation among whiterpeople, see “Parent Shock: Children Are Not Decor.”

The Federalist Society, the conservative legal group that manages to attract some of the biggest names in mainstream conservatism for its presentations, is pretty good about making sure that liberals–strong, thoughtful ones–share the dais with the home team. It makes for open, honest, invigorating debate.

But at a recent presentation on the Akaka Bill at the National Press Club, [Audio and Video here]it came up short. Despite repeated attempts to get a defender of the bill to, well, defend the bill, the best they could do was Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, an opponent, and a staffer for Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who also… opposes the bill.

Where were the Akaka people? Not concerned about the bill, in any event, which has passed the House and is expected to pass the Senate.

But as Joe Matal, the Kyl staffer, said, the implications of the bill–outright racial separatism–are amazing to behold. Sponsored by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the bill would create what amounts to a sovereign nation of up to 400,000 “Native Hawaiians,” in much the same way Native Americans have sovereignty inside the United States. It would set up governing bodies that would oversee money and land and go so far to allow Native Hawaiians to create their own criminal and civil law.

The true motivation of the bills’ supporters, Matal said, is to get the non-Native Hawaiians, presumably whites, out of Hawaii. “This is secession,” he said.

Prompting the Akaka bill is the series of equal protection challenges to set-asides and special privileges for Native Hawaiians, most of which, like Rice v. Cayetano, have come up losers for the haole-hating set. The Akaka bill would create “Constitutional kryptonite” to ward off those challenges, Matal said.

For Rep. King, the Akaka bill is sailing through without objection because of runaway multiculturalism. And the implications for the illegal invasion of America were not lost on him, as he reminded the attendees of Aztlan in the southwestern United States.

“It’s dangerous to the unity of America,” King said.

And indeed, it may well be. Though to a person who, say, might be in attendance at the upcoming “American Renaissance” conference, the Akaka bill is a double-edged sword. Yes, its passage would essentially be a slap in the face to American whites and a rejection of the settling power of their having conquered American land (and later, Hawaii). On the other, is paving the way for recognition of racial rights such a bad thing, especially for whites, who are projected to be minorities by 2050?

If we are to concede that true nations are based more on “blood and soil” than arbitrary lines on maps, should we be more accepting of the idea of racial sovereignty? No doubt Akaka bill supporters would be highly unlikely to approve of such a thing for whites, but they will be robbed of their objections if the bill passes. If an exploding immigrant population and shrinking white population do mean the end of a meaningful America, why not consider it? What if it actually led to greater peace and prosperity for the groups involved, instead of the laborious fiction that anyone standing on American soil is as “American” as any other?

These questions seem big, but they are not so far off. For both believers in and deniers of racial and ethnic difference, a nation created by the Akaka bill will be something to watch.

Readers have pointed out to me that there’s this … thing on McCain’s left cheek, and have wondered whether his skin cancer has come back.

I’m hoping it’s just scar tissue left over from one of his two earlier struggles with melanoma. When my six cycles of chemotherapy for lymphatic cancer were over in 1997, the CAT scan showed that where once had been the tumor, which had been the size of a Polish sausage, there was something still there a little smaller than one of those cocktail weiners you eat from toothpicks at receptions.

“Give me a couple more blasts of chemo, Doc! I’m tough, I can take it,” I whimpered.

“No, don’t worry about it, it could be just scar tissue,” he said.

“How can I not worry about it?”

But, it was just scar tissue. (Knock on wood.)

Still, it would be nice if the media occasionally explained what that thing on the Presidential candidate’s face was. They write so many zillion words about the Presidential election, but so few of them seem to have much bearing on obvious questions we should be asking candidates.

I suppose I could call up from Google Images, say, fifty pictures of McCain’s face over the last seven years to do a statistically valid study of whether or not the thing is changing in size (or if it occasionally shifts to the right side of his face, like Marty Feldman’s hump in “Young Frankenstein”), but that would require me to look at 50 pictures of McCain’s face, so, to hell with it.

Speaking of McCain’s face, a reader writes:

And what is the deal with his cheeks? His face seems to have settled, like semi-melted jell-o, and he’s got two little face love-handles bulging grossly, possibly anomalistically, to 3 and 9 o’clock. I write as an expert on jowls as mine form a perfect O-ring about my ever-diminishing head, as if I’m wearing a NASCAR tire

Here.

Stuff white people like … #62 Knowing What’s Best for Poor People

White people spend a lot of time of worrying about poor people. It takes up a pretty significant portion of their day.

They feel guilty and sad that poor people shop at Wal*Mart instead of Whole Foods, that they vote Republican instead of Democratic, that they go to Community College/get a job instead of studying art at a University.

It is a poorly guarded secret that, deep down, white people believe if given money and education that all poor people would be EXACTLY like them. In fact, the only reason that poor people make the choices they do is because they have not been given the means to make the right choices and care about the right things.

A great way to make white people feel good is to tell them about situations where poor people changed how they were doing things because they were given the ‘whiter’ option. “Back in my old town, people used to shop at Wal*Mart and then this non-profit organization came in and set up a special farmers co-op so that we could buy more local produce, and within two weeks the Wal*Mart shut down and we elected our first Democratic representative in 40 years.” White people will first ask which non-profit and are they hiring? After that, they will be filled with euphoria and will invite you to more parties to tell this story to their friends, so that they can feel great.

But it is ESSENTIAL that you reassert that poor people do not make decisions based on free will. That news could crush white people and their hope for the future.

The term “white people” is implicitly defined on stuffwhitepeoplelike.com as whites who are obsessed with winning status struggles over other whites. I like the idea of having a term that refers precisely to the group so deftly skewered on stuffwhitepeoplelike.com. Perhaps whitepeople, with no space, as in the middle part of the URL, would be a useful term.

Vicente Fox, former President of Mexico, is now represented by the Harry Walker agency, which represents Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Freakonomics author Steven Levitt, and a cast of thousands. Here’s his bio.

Vicente Fox

President of Mexico, 2000-2006

A visionary leader with a deep understanding of the economic and social challenges facing Latin America, President Vicente Fox is one of the world’s most important voices on the contemporary geo-political landscape and the role of business in the developing world.

I could go on about how they give him too much credit for success in turning Mexico’s economy around, but what really want to know is this–what’s his immigration status? How come Fox, a failed ex-President of Mexico, is allowed to take jobs from native-born failed ex-presidents like Bill Clinton, or failed vice-presidents like Al Gore, who couldn’t steal enough votes to become a failed President.

Soon George Bush will be a failed ex-President, represented by a speakers agency–how’s he going to feel if he’s looking for a speaking engagement and finds that a Mexican took his job?

But they say it helps to laugh, so if that happens to President Bush, I’ll laugh really, really, hard.

Jennifer Sanchez and Pamela Manson write in the Salt Lake Tribune:

‘Utah’s simmering immigration debate shifted from the state Capitol to ground level in Utah County on Thursday.’

‘More than 50 undocumented workers were arrested here during a morning raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on a metal factory. ‘

‘The U.S. Department of Justice then unsealed indictments, charging the company, Universal Industrial Sales, Inc., with 10 counts of harboring illegal aliens, and its human resource manager, Alejandro “Alex” Urrutia-Garcia, with two counts of encouraging or inducing undocumented workers to remain in the U.S. illegally.’

‘In doing so, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Utah and ICE appeared to signal a new strategy - one in which federal authorities are now targeting employers suspected of violating immigrations laws.’

More details on what is going on in Utah from Rocky Mountain Construction:

‘U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has brought criminal charges against an Orem, Utah-based construction contractor for an alleged scheme to bring illegal aliens into the country and require them to work for his business to pay off their smuggling debts.’

‘Jose Merman Moreno, a Peruvian national who owns MJH Construction, has been charged with one count of alien smuggling and one count of harboring illegal aliens. Moreno’s brother-in-law, Alejandro M. Meza, was also charged with harboring illegal aliens.’

‘According to court documents, the two men allegedly housed the aliens in various residences they own in Utah County, where ICE agents arrested 22 Peruvian and Mexican nationals who were found to be in the country illegally.’

Now, in my opinion, all of the assets of these employers should be liquidated to set things right with their employees who need to sent home. I also think serious consideration should be taken to legislation that would enable the assets of their customers and the wealthy who have indirectly benefited from illegal immigration to be used in creating a solution that is just both to American workers and Mexicans (particularly those who have not violated US law but will have extraordinary problems to deal with during a major shift in US immigration policy).

Simple enforcement of existing laws will do little in a situation where the potential profits are huge. US citizenship is quite valuable–with a current market value of $100,000 and a theoretical value much greater than that. In that situation, the existing fine of $25,000 per violation for each employer will simply be a cost of doing business.

On February 14th, Mexican president Felipe Calderon concluded his coast-to-coast American Tour, and flew back to Mexico.

For a summary of the visit from Feb. 10th to Feb. 13th, see my article here.

On the night of Feb. 13th, meeting with LA Mexican leaders, Calderon discussed the formation of a “league of anti-defamation and anti-discrimination,” modeled on the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, to protect Mexicans in the U.S.

Quoth Calderon, “If anyone is mercilessly defaming,ridiculing, and exacerbating hatred against Mexicans, all of us need to neutralize that force.”

What they’re talking about here is yet another organization to try to shut down debate over immigration in the United States.

Calderon also said that anti-illegal alien raids were discriminatory and that the raids don’t correspond to reality.

(Of course they are discriminatory, against illegal aliens, that’s the whole idea!)

On the 14th, Calderon met with the editorial board of LA’s Spanish newspaper La Opinion and had a working meeting with LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, whom he had also seen the night before. (Villaraigosa, by the way, has never renounced the MEChA activism of his college days.)

And before returning to Mexico, Calderon held a press conference in LA.

To summarize Calderon’s tour, it lasted from February 10th-14th, he visited 5 cities (New York, Boston, Chicago, Sacramento and Los Angeles) and he took part in 22 separate encounters (meetings, speeches, events).

Calderon told audiences that immigration is an inevitable phenomenon and is mutually beneficial to both the U.S. and Mexico, which have compatible economies. On the other hand, the Mexican president said he didn’t encourage emigration from Mexico, that Mexico is losing people, and that he wants a Mexican economy that will provide jobs in Mexico. To Mexicans in the U.S., Calderon promised support, and promoted the “mobile consulates” to reach more Mexicans. Calderon said he wasn’t meddling in U.S. politics but that he was glad that some candidates were out of the primaries. And he hobnobbed with local American officials who have been supportive of illegal aliens in their communities.

Regarding these issues, Calderon shares the same goals as his predecessor Vicente Fox, but is much more diplomatic and prudent about how he expresses himself .

The bottom line is that Presidente Calderon is very much engaged on the issues of borders and continental integration, and we can expect to hear more from his administration on the subject. And don’t forget, the Mexican president has many allies in the U.S.

This all means that Americans who want us to get control of our immigration policy have our work cut out for us.

Once upon a time yesterday in America, we put up with those annoying “Press one for English, press two for Spanish” telephone time-wasters (and if an economist were useful, he’d tally up the money lost for all those wasted millions of seconds added up).

Not to fear–things are streamlining.  One East Coast law firm specializing in personal injury now just answers the phone in Spanish.

http://www.chandlerlawgroup.com/

Try for yourself and see.  Incredulous after hearing this (I dialed 1-800-488-4LAW), I asked the person if there were an English line.  Si, he said, try 1-888-439-4539.  Dial that for yourself, as well, and see what happens.  Spanish again.

It says something about what’s become of America–and the law–when an enterprise switches from a Spanish/English combo to Spanish alone.  My personal reaction is the same in both languages:  “No.” 

Adrienne Shelly was an independent film director whose first big film “Waitress” successfully opened last year after her death at the hands of illegal alien Diego Pillco. (See my blog from November 2006, Actress and Mother Murdered to Hide Illegal Alien’s Status.)

The killer’s story has changed in the time since Shelly’s death, which Pillco made to look like a suicide. At least one article stated then that he killed her so he wouldn’t be deported.

To add to the tragedy, her family had to convince the police that the happily married mother whose career was on the upswing absolutely did not kill herself. But once police thoroughly examined the crime scene, the discovery of Pillco’s shoeprint led the investigation in the right direction.

A construction worker admitted in chilling detail today that he strangled indie-actress Adrienne Shelly in the Greenwich Village apartment where she worked because she caught him trying to rob her.

In his courtroom confession, Diego Pillco, an illegal immigrant from Ecuador, recounted how he choked the wife and mother with a sheet, strung her body up from a shower rod and fled — hoping to make the murder look like a suicide.

Pillco, 20, will get 25 years in prison — almost certainly followed by deportation — as a result of today’s Manhattan Supreme Court guilty plea to first degree manslaughter.

The confession differed radically from what Pillco had long told cops — that he sparred verbally with Shelly after she came downstairs to complain of construction noise.
[Adrienne Shelly's Killer Pleads Guilty, Gets 25 Years, By Laura Italliano, New York Post, Feb 14, 2008]

I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t see how the crime is manslaughter and not murder. Pillco knocked Adrienne Shelly out and then hanged her from a shower rod. The sentence is another weak plea deal from the court system and a real disappointment. The killer should never see the light of day again.