U.S. payrolls fell by 524,000 jobs in December, closing out the worst year for job losses since World War II, the Labor Department said Friday. [PDF]

That’s the good news.

The bad news: the Household survey revealed a stunning 806,000 decline in jobs - the largest drop since August 2001. As has been the case throughout most of the Bush years, non-Hispanics bore the brunt of December’s carnage:

• Total Job loss: -806,000 (-0.56 percent)
• Hispanic job loss: -92,000 (-0.46 percent)
• Non-Hispanic job loss: -714,000 (-0.58 percent)

VDARE.com’s American Worker Displacement Index (VDAWDI), calculated as the ratio of Hispanic to non-Hispanic employment indexes since the start of the Bush years (January 2001), rose to 123.1 in December from 122.9 the prior month.

But last year also saw a subtle but significant change in ethnic employment trends: Over the course of 2008 the percentage drop in Hispanic employment exceeded - admittedly, by the slightest of margins - that of non-Hispanics. Here are the job losses, December 2007 to December 2008:

• Total Job decline: -2,956,000 (-2.02 percent)
• Hispanic job loss: -408,000 (-1.99 percent)
• Non-Hispanic job loss: -2,548,000 (-2.03 percent)

Since the start of the Bush Administration (January 2001) through December 2008, Hispanic employment has increased 4.0 million, or 24.7 percent, while non-Hispanic employment is up a mere 1.6 million, or 1.3 percent. That means that Hispanics, who make up only 14% of the workforce, got three-quarters of American job growth during Dubya’s two terms.

So calendar year 2008 represents a comeuppance of sorts, as Hispanics saw their jobs disappear at about the same rate as non-Hispanics. (Misery loves company!)

The Hispanic unemployment rate, a seasonally adjusted 9.2 percent in December, was a full 3 percentage points above the comparable year-ago figure (6.2 percent.) Hispanic unemployment would have grown even faster were if not for the withdrawal of Hispanic immigrants from the U.S. labor force.

In the third quarter of 2008, 71.3% of Latino immigrant workers were either employed or actively seeking work, compared with 72.4% in the same quarter a year earlier, according to a study released in December by the Pew Hispanic Center.  The drop in labor market activity was about twice as high among immigrants from Mexico.

The 1.1-percentage-point drop “marks a substantial decrease in the labor-market participation of Latino immigrants”, according to Rakesh Kochhar, the Pew economist who prepared the report.

Since 2003 the labor force participation rate–the employed or job-seeking share of the population–among foreign-born Hispanics had been consistently on the rise, according to the Pew report.

Among Hispanic immigrants who entered the U.S. between 1990 and 1999, the survey found that 217,000 quit the labor force between the third quarter of 2007 and the third quarter of 2008. “These trends suggest that at least some foreign-born Latinos are not only leaving the labor force but, perhaps, also returning to their countries of origin,” the report said.

Although the Pew study studiously avoids mentions “illegal aliens”, it confirms what we have reported  before: self-deportation is not merely a possibility, but is actually happening.

Greg Cochran and Henry Harpending now have a website up for their new book The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution.

They’ve posted four outtakes from the book that didn’t make the final draft for reasons of length. Here’s part of a section intended to help readers understand what it must have been like for early humans to hunt big game with just spears:

Probably most of our readers don’t have personal experience with old-fashioned, Pleistocene-style big game hunting. The only place in which it is still possible - not for much longer, at that – is Africa, where the big game had a chance to adapt as mankind gradually became formidable hunters and thus managed to survive until today. Without that experience, it’s hard to realize how remarkable Neanderthals were, how difficult hunting bison and elk with thrusting spears must have been. It’s not easy to appreciate the risks stone-age hunters had to take when they went after mammoths, rhinos, or Cape buffalo: it’s not exactly safe today, even with modern weapons. One of us, however (Henry Harpending) does have that experience, and the following note gives a flavor of what it’s like – particularly when you don’t have the faintest idea what you’re doing.

(more…)

There are likely millions of guys just like this arrogant, well-fed fellow. Identity theft is the nation’s fastest growing crime, with a cost of $5 billion last year. That’s no big surprise given America’s open borders and permissive attitude toward immigration enforcement.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, a report released in 2007 revealed that 8.3 million American adults, or 3.7 percent of all American adults, were victims of identity theft in 2005. Some of that is credit card rip-offs, but illegal aliens are a “huge contributing factor” according to an ID protection company.

When he was busted last summer, he told police they should be arresting real criminals, not a good family man.

Now, illegal immigrant Adan Tanicio Guerrero has pleaded guilty to ID theft.

The county attorney says Guerrero was living in Mesa using a false Social Security number when he tried to buy a $33,000 truck.

Ironically, the credit union he applied for a loan at is the same one used by the victim of the stolen ID.

A credit report showed Guerrero had nearly $800,000 in loans under the victim’s Social Security number.

He’ll be sentenced next month.
[Illegal immigrant pleads guilty to ID theft, KTAR Radio, Phoenix, Jan 8, 1009]

Another article, Man pleads guilty after stealing identity to buy $30K truck, notes that good family man Guerrero “faces at least two-and-a-half years in jail.”

None of the reporting about Guerrero mentions that there are real victims of this crime, whose finances may be permanently ruined by identity theft. For example, Audra Schmierer of Dublin, California, had an IRS bill of over $1 million after more than 200 illegal aliens used her Social Security number. (See ID Theft Victims Get Overdue Attention.)

The dinosaur media still ho-hums about ID theft, despite the obvious financial carnage that individual citizens suffer. Hey, what’s a hard-working illegal alien felon supposed to do to feed his family?

True to his promise, Obama is going to change things. Like for instance, the Secretary of Labor will change from being a female born in Taiwan (Elaine Chao) to a radical Latina Congresswoman (D-CA) who was born in Los Angeles. [Calif. Congresswoman Solis Tapped to Head Labor]

Now let’s look at what won’t change. Both of them want to give amnesty to illegal aliens and both of them support increases in a broad range of guest worker visas like H-1B and green cards. Both of them are radical globalists.

I have spent a great deal of time searching to see if I could find a single instance when Hilda Solis said anything about H-1B. I haven’t been able to but her voting record speaks for itself.

Solis gets a grade of F- from betterimmigration.com on immigration issues.

Solis co-authored the STRIVE Act of 2007 (H.R. 1645). This bill was one of the worst H-B expansion bills ever; fortunately it failed to get congressional approval. If Solis really had something to do with the STRIVE act it was probably the part of it that tried to increase the number of green cards or to fiddle with H-2B. Most likely Hilda Solis doesn’t care about H-1B except that is of value as a quid pro quo to bargain for more immigration from Mexico.

One of Hilda’s most infamous quotes was in 1996 when she was a California State Senator. She said that “WE ARE ALL AMERICANS WHETHER YOU ARE LEGALIZED OR NOT.”

Some people are happy to have Hilda Solis on board. This statement by AFL-CIO president John Sweeney proves that unions are determined to commit self suicide:

“We’re thrilled at the prospect of having Rep. Hilda Solis as our nation’s next labor secretary.” “We’re confident that she will return to the labor department one of its core missions - - to defend workers’ basic rights in our nation’s workplaces.”

It’s very important to note that Sweeney thinks workers are all the same whether they are citizens or illegal aliens. He sees no distinction, especially if they pay union dues. In that regard, Sweeney and Solis are kindred souls.

There are others that are rejoicing that Solis will be running the labor department, such as the radical separatist group National Council of La Raza, which means “the race”. Watch this video to hear Solis’ outrage that illegal aliens don’t get enough free health care and to hear her rants about the irresponsible xenophobic journalism of Lou Dobbs.

Thanks to Barack Obama, things in the labor department are going to change from bad to worse. That’s a change to believe in.

I see the important anti-Muslim immigration item posted by The Kvetcher attracted quite a few interesting comments after I blogged on it early on Tuesday.

Of lasting value was work by “scottnyx”, which was stimulated by a remark by an earlier posting seeming to distinguish between the utility of Muslim and Hispanic Immigration.

Scottynx took the 2002 ADL Survey of Anti-Semitism in America, incisively analyzed the data, and concluded that the “Strongly anti-Semitic” rate amongst non-Jewish whites was 11%. This compared with

• 20% of Hispanic Americans born in U.S.
• 35% of African-Americans
• 44% of foreign-born Hispanics.
• 17% of Americans (as a whole)

As Scottynx remarks

It’s kind of weird how the ADL piece I linked to broke out hispanics and blacks but not non-hispanic white levels of strong anti-semitism… the non-hispanic white population has an incredibly low strong anti-semitism rate compared to hispanics and blacks, about half the rate of even native born hispanics. (VDARE.com emphasis.)

Those familiar with the ADL, of course, will not be surprised. Being complementary about Christian Americans is not what the ADL is about. Naturally they suppressed this fact.

Against the deplorable possibility that The Kvetcher might decide to shut down his blog, here are scottynx’s calculations:

…don’t dismiss the effect of massive hispanic immigration just because the 20% strongly anti-semitic rate for hispanics born in the US isn’t isn’t much higher than the national rate.

That is because the 17% national rate includes hispanics as well, thus driving up that number considerably.

Comparing native born hispanics to the non-hispanic population is the correct comparison.

This equation gives the non-hispanic strong anti-semitism rate if you use the 13.3% hispanic proportion of the population from 2002: .35*.133 +.867*X = .17, where x is the non-hispanic anti-semitism rate.

Solve for X and you get a 14% non-hispanic anti-semitism rate. This is *including* blacks. So even if you take the long view and just look at how things will be in the hispanic native born, they have a whopping 30% higher anti-semitism rate than the non-hispanic population… From the data they give I can mathematically figure out a “not black or hispanic” anti-semitism rate. I get an 11% anti-semitism rate. Since asians are only 4% of the US population, almost 95% of that “non-black and non-hispanic” population must be non-hispanic white…

Still think that Hispanic immigration is great for the Jews?

Another favorable comment about the Hispanic influx being “benign” produced a more direct response from “Agri”

Hispanic immigrants are benign unless you’re someone that, say, has little choice but to put your kid in a school in which 50% of the student body is Hispanic immigrant or the children thereof. From far off, they can appear quite benign. But from a closer vantage, things get more complicated.

Another contributor was “Jenny”:

I am a native person, of Wampanoag ancestry. I mention this because I noticed the person who inferred that all those except native peoples should leave… that sort of comment always amuses me, as they are never of indigenous ancestry, and are always liars, and excusers of genocide and exploitation.

There is no one perspective shared by the peoples who are native to this nation, but I guarantee you that for the most part, we do not share suitepotato’s opinion, and we recognize it for what it is.. one of disrespect and a desire to use our people’s history for a corrupt agenda.

Jenny posted two very long and articulate pieces, remarking along the way:

I am a lifelong liberal democrat, and care passionately about social justice and civil rights. I have been activist across the board on many issues, and have always been pro-Israel and passionately against anti-Semitism.

The heart of Jenny’s concern was:

the Jewish people in the US haven’t actually cared too much about the problems that mass immigration have brought about to the country at large. Sure, you are scared after watching a video where a Muslim woman espouses violent and unforgivable epithets, but you haven’t similarly cared when illegal aliens have displaced American citizens, who are black, brown and white from the workplace. Creating untold suffering and dire poverty.

Frankly, my father, and my maternal grandfather both fought in WWII. If the wider American people were as selfish and self centered as your lot, they wouldn’t have stepped forward, disrupted their lives, put them at risk to save the lives of Jews and many others in Europe.

On the whole, the responses this drew were polite and serious, trying hard to persuade Jenny otherwise.

An exception was a venomous post from “Temoc” which began

First off, you are probably lying about being a native.

then proceeded for 805 words claiming Jenny

rationalizes HATRED towards us persons of Mexican ethnicity.

and arguing that Hispanic immigration is wonderful, with any dissent being purely racist -illustrated by no less than 21 hyperlinks!

Here at VDARE.com, we receive many letters from Hispanics, illegal, legal, and US born. A surprising number are against America being swamped by further mass immigration from any source, for the excellent reason that they and their families are in the front line in bearing the social cost. Quite a few, of course are hostile. These are invariably open Reconquistas and brown chauvinists, usually degenerate into foul language, and never that I can recollect cite as many as three sources, let alone 21. Temoc’s piece must have taken hours, and he is right on top of the literature.

It is possible I suppose that he is employed by one of the Hispanic shake-down foundations, although they rarely deign to debate. And how came he to be reading this site? My guess is that we are looking at the work of one of the professional repression outfits, like the ADL or the $PLC (known for the false flag tactic) and that Temoc is no more Hispanic than The Kvetcher.

Who deserves thanks for sponsoring this discussion.

Karl Rove writes in the Wall Street Journal that the Mortgage Meltdown wasn’t Bush’s fault:

President Bush Tried to Rein In Fan and Fred:
Democrats and the media have the housing story wrong.

… Some critics blame Mr. Bush because he supported broadening homeownership. But Mr. Bush’s goal was for people to own homes they could afford, not ones made accessible by reckless lenders who off-loaded their risk to GSEs [Government-Sponsored Enterprises]….

As one of those critics, let me point out to Mr. Rove that Mr. Bush didn’t attempt to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when it came to minority lending. In fact, he egged them on. From Bush’s June 17, 2002 speech to St. Paul’s African Methodist Episcopalian church:

Now, we’ve got a problem here in America that we have to address. Too many American families, too many minorities do not own a home. There is a home ownership gap in America. The difference between Anglo America and African American and Hispanic home ownership is too big. (Applause.) And we’ve got to focus the attention on this nation to address this.

And it starts with setting a goal. And so by the year 2010, we must increase minority home owners by at least 5.5 million. In order to close the homeownership gap, we’ve got to set a big goal for America, and focus our attention and resources on that goal. (Applause.)…

I want to thank Franklin Raines, of Fannie Mae and Leland Brendsel of Freddie Mac. Thank you all for coming. (Applause.)…

Three-quarters of white America owns their homes. Less than 50 percent of African Americans are part of the homeownership in America. And less than 50 percent of the Hispanics who live here in this country own their home. And that has got to change for the good of the country. It just does. (Applause.) And so here are some of the ways to address the issue. First, the single greatest barrier to first time homeownership is a high downpayment. It is really hard for many, many, low income families to make the high downpayment. …

And let me talk about some of the progress which we have made to date, as an example for others to follow. First of all, government sponsored corporations that help create our mortgage system — I introduced two of the leaders here today — they call those people Fannie May and Freddie Mac, as well as the federal home loan banks, will increase their commitment to minority markets by more than $440 billion. (Applause.) I want to thank Leland and Franklin for that commitment. It’s a commitment that conforms to their charters, as well, and also conforms to their hearts.

This means they will purchase more loans made by banks after Americans, Hispanics and other minorities, which will encourage homeownership. Freddie Mac will launch 25 initiatives to eliminate homeownership barriers. Under one of these, consumers with poor credit will be able to get a mortgage with an interest rate that automatically goes down after a period of consistent payments. (Applause.)

Fannie Mae will establish 100 partnerships with faith-based organizations that will provide home buyer education and help increase homeownership for their congregations. I love the partnership. (Applause.)