Michael Barone almost gets it in this item, and then sort of  walks away from the question. (But at least he gave Steve Sailer credit!)

The Wall Street Journal had a fascinating story on the regions with the most underwater mortgages, together with an invaluable map. When you look at the map, you’ll see that the areas facing the greatest impact are also the areas most affected by immigration. The Inland Empire of California, metro Phoenix and Las Vegas, south Florida—all have had heavy influxes of Latino immigrants or of Anglos leaving immigrant-dominated places like Los Angeles and Miami-Dade counties. Homeowning here was in effect subsidized by the toxic-waste mortgages pumped through the system by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and other improvident financial institutions. Now evidence is accumulating that Latino migrants are returning to their home countries because of the housing bust construction jobs have disappeared, tougher immigration law enforcement, and a longer-term demographic trend that may be having an effect: a sharp decline in birthrates in Mexico and other Latin countries about 18 years ago. For speculation, some of which goes farther than I would, on how immigration has interacted with cheap mortgages, you can see any number of items in Steve Sailer’s interesting blog. I hope to look further into this when I have the time—but campaign 2008 is calling.[Immigration and the Mortgage Meltdown - Michael Barone usnews.com]

Actually, figuring out what immigration is doing to the country and the economy is probably more important than the winner of the 2008 election, especially for Michael Barone, whose understanding of the immigration issue has been sadly lacking.

David Samuels New Republic article on Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father says, very well, what I’ve been saying for two years now:

… it seems right to mention that the Barack Obama who appears in Dreams, and, one presumes, in his own continuing interior life, is not a comforting multiracial or post-racial figure like Tiger Woods or Derek Jeter who prefers to be looked at through a kaleidoscope. Though there are many structural parallels between Dreams and Invisible Man, Obama believes in the old-fashioned, unabashedly romantic, and, in the end, quite weird idea of racial authenticity that Ellison rejected. He embraces his racial identity despite his mixed parentage through a kind of Kierkegaardian leap into blackness, through which he hopes to become a whole, untroubled person.

It’s an excellent article. (Besides making the same overall argument, lots of supporting details in Samuels’ article appeared earlier in this blog.)

Good news from the dark heart of multicultural socialism — San Francisco’s official policy of harboring illegal aliens is being investigated by a federal grand jury! Who would have believed it?

It seems like forever since the scandalous revelations about the city sheltering Honduran crack dealers began appearing, followed by the murders of Tony Bologna and his two sons by a previously arrested illegal alien gangster. But it’s actually been only a few months, which is not long for the legal system to begin action. We can only hope that at the end of the trail, justice will eventually reach the criminal protectors Mayor Gavin Newsom and District Attorney Kamala Harris: Federal probe into S.F. sanctuary city policy, (San Francisco Chronicle, Oct 4, 2008).

A federal grand jury is investigating whether San Francisco’s policy of offering sanctuary to undocumented immigrants violates U.S. laws against harboring people who are in the country illegally, city officials say.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera said his office has hired a criminal defense lawyer to represent employees who might be questioned or asked for documents. He and Mayor Gavin Newsom said they would cooperate with the investigation.

San Francisco, like about 80 other U.S. cities and five states, has a law prohibiting the use of its funds to help enforce federal immigration law or to question individuals about their immigration status. The San Francisco ordinance, originally prompted by arrivals of refugees from Central American wars of the 1980s, specifies that police can report jailed felons to federal immigration authorities.

The Chronicle reported earlier this year that San Francisco juvenile justice authorities, interpreting the sanctuary policy, had flown some illegal immigrant youths to their home countries after Juvenile Court judges found they had committed felonies. Other youths were sent to unlocked group homes in this country and escaped.

Below, Mayor Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong, both strong supporters of sanctuary for illegal aliens (and gun confiscation).