In his August 23 column “Where Bush Missed, Obama has a Shot,” Los Angeles Times columnist Doyle McManus [email him] says Americans who oppose taxpayer-funded health care for illegal aliens are spreading “misinformation,” telling “whoppers,” etc.

When I noted to him that the present House version of Obama-care provides no mechanism to verify citizenship of applicants and that the Democratic leadership has thus far defeated all attempts to add “strong enforcement measures”, McManus responded with the same language one routinely hears from those in Washington who call themselves representatives and senators:

Dear Mr. Gorak,

Thanks for writing.

The opponents’ charge has been: “Obamacare covers illegal aliens.”

Your argument is: “Obamacare doesn’t officially cover illegal aliens, but some of them will succeed in sneaking onto the rolls unless strong enforcement provisions are added.”

Those are significantly different arguments.

I agree with the editorial the LA Times ran a week ago saying, basically, if your problem is illegal immigrants, then let’s fix the immigration laws; don’t hold up healthcare reform because the immigration system is broken.

Memo to McManus: My father didn’t raise any fools or idiots but if he did, they never sat around our dinner table.

I recently received an unusual birthday card from a family member, a devout Catholic, that caught me off guard.

For years she and her husband, who is a Catholic deacon, have known of my involvement in the immigration restriction movement, and they have never commented on the many news stories I’ve sent them dealing with an immigration policy that is destroying this republic. During family gatherings, they’ve never once raised the issue.

So, about a year ago, I decided they were just too committed to doing God’s work that the Church says includes “welcoming the stranger,” i.e., illegal aliens, and I stopped sending them any immigration-related material. And I wondered recently whether they were wondering why I suddenly had fallen silent on our issue.

But back to the birthday card: It was like most greeting cards that say we’re “special” and that the senders are somehow “richer” for knowing us, etc.,etc., but this one was different because above the printed Hallmark message were these hand-written words:

“And thank you for your hard work for our country.”

Our country. Our country? Don’t get met wrong. I like this person, I like her a whole bunch. She’s a spirited individual who is highly educated and for years has worked with Alzheimer’s patients and their families. She cares, no question about it.

But does she care enough to join the rest of us in working hard for her country?

And why did she choose this particular year to thank me for my work on our issue? Could her living in North Carolina have something to do with what appears to be a sudden change of heart brought on by the realization that this country is incapable of ending world poverty and political persecution by taking in the millions of people who want to come here?

Each year the American Society of Newspaper Editors declares the week of March 15-21 as “Sunshine Week”, during which many editorial boards, including the Wisconsin State Journal’s, champion the public’s rights to access government information, Shine more light on government, March 16, 2009.

“But the battle to keep the public informed never ends. Governments big and small continue to put up needless if not illegal roadblocks to public documents,” etc.,etc.

Have you heard the great news? President Obama, who says we need more American kids to lay it on the line in Afghanistan, is telling our MSM that he’s also “thinking about” sending National Guard troops to Texas because Gov. Rick Perry is getting a little nervous about the level of drug cartel violence taking place in his own backyard.

Should we expect anything less from our stout-hearted leader who is again in lockstep with those Beltway hypocrites who parade around the country sporting one of those American flag lapel pins?

“I think if one U.S. citizen is killed because of foreign nationals who are engaging in violent crime, that’s enough of a concern to do something about it,” Obama said.[U.S. won't rule out troops at Mexican border| Step would be last resort to address drug violence By Ben Meyerson | Tribune Newspapers March 13, 2009 ]

Memo to our fearless Commander in Chief: Are you “concerned” enough to deal with all forms of violent crime committed by foreign nationals against our own citizens, or just the kind that results in finding the severed heads of Mexicans neatly stored in ice chests along a darkened road? I’m talking about the kind of stupid - and avoidable - criminal violence far from the border that Brenda Walker regularly writes about here. Well, Mr. President, here is one more

American’s death we think merits at least some of your concern. And the solution to this growing problem, I argue, cannot be found in any of the claptrap about comprehensive immigration reform. Legalizing illegals will only spawn more illegal aliens who in turn will end up killing more of our citizens. And that’s something you can believe in.

A few years ago two associates of mine, who are long-time activists in the immigration reduction movement, met with then Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris, now sitting in President Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat thanks to the disgraced former governor of that state, Rod Blagojevich.

During this meeting, Burris agreed wholeheartedly that our present immigration policy is hurting black Americans who increasingly are losing jobs to foreigners, many of them here illegally.

The message the increasingly unpopular Burris sent during the firestorm of protest following his appointment went something like this:

“It’s important that I get this job because I will be the only black Senate voice for African-Americans in the country.” (more…)

Congressional candidate Rosanna Pulido isn’t exactly a dead ringer for Jefferson Smith, Jimmy Stewart’s character in Frank Capra’s 1939 classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Like Smith, Chicagoan Pulido has plenty of fire in her belly, but that’s where any similarity ends.  There is none of the naïveté shown by Smith early in the film as Pulido strives to sell her message of “common sense” to the residents of Illinois’ 5th Congressional District who, until recently, had been represented by Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff.  She is among 26  candidates vying for Emanuel’s seat in a March 3 primary.  A special election will be held April 7.

Born and raised in the district she hopes to represent, Pulido, who is of Mexican descent, is no stranger to the political maneuvering one encounters when it comes to major issues that have been dividing Americans for decades:  abortion (she’s pro-life) and the 2nd Amendment (she favors gun ownership).  She ’s also been active in the areas of veterans care and seniors issues, and she opposes same sex marriage.

“I’m not beholden to either party,” says Pulido, who is running on the GOP ticket. She said she preferred to run as an independent, but the Chicago Democratic Machine has made it difficult to stray from the two-party system.  Pulido says in Chicago  independent candidates must gather 1,700 signatures on their petitions compared with the 319 signatures she needed.

“I’ve done all my own leg work and used my own money,” Pulido says. ”I’m not afraid to knock on doors. My job is to give the voters what they want - the truth.”

The one issue that has put Pulido in the public eye is her tireless effort to educate Illinoisans about the illegal immigration crisis in her state.  She was among the first of the Minutemen to visit this country’s border with Mexico in April 2005 and is founder of the Illinois Minuteman Project.  She’s also the Chicago representative for “You Don’t Speak for Me,” a national organization of Hispanic-Americans opposed to illegal immigration.

“Don’t get me started,” she says on her web site. “Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. It hurts American workers and legal immigrants. It hurts the taxpayers of Illinois to the tune of 3.5 BILLION dollars a year. We must give American workers a break and demand that every business uses E-Verify which allows businesses to check if their potential employee is legal to work in the United States.”

Political campaigns, especially those carried out in freezing temperatures and on shoestring budgets, require great stamina and a sense of humor to deal with the unexpected.  In Pulido’s case, the unexpected came from Joshua Hoyt, Illinois’ leading anarchist and apologist for illegal aliens, who late last month challenged most of the signatures Pulido had submitted and calling her
a “bitter personal failure” and a “cynical bully.” Hoyt also talked out of the other side of his mouth when he noted in his challenge  that “we are a nation of laws.”

However, the Cook County Clerk’s Office Feb. 5 ruled in favor of Pulido.

“We are just glad that the democratic process prevailed, providing more choice for voters,” Pulido says.  “We look forward to running a strong, common sense campaign for the people of the 5th District.”

It is beyond comprehension that in the wake of 1.5 million Americans losing their jobs last year, there still is talk in Congress about bringing in even more foreign workers to compete in a rapidly shrinking job market.

Calling it a major offensive aimed at educating the media and members of Congress, NumbersUSA founder and CEO Roy Beck Jan. 7 sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama urging him to remember his campaign commitment to protecting American workers. Among Beck’s proposals to help the new president deal with the problem is the suspension of most legal immigration and nationwide mandatory use of the E-Verify workplace verification program.

In his letter to Obama, Beck asks where is the logic during our economic free-fall of issuing around 138,000 new work permits and green cards to foreign workers each month:

The Honorable Barack Obama
President-elect of the United States
1800 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20405

7 JAN 09

Dear President-Elect Obama,

Congratulations on your historic victory. NumbersUSA – a non-profit, non-partisan group with more than 850,000 active members – is focused on America’s economic troubles that continue to grow. I am writing to urge you to make American workers and already-resident legal immigrant workers your first priority when you take office on January 20th.

With the federal government reporting continuing giant losses of jobs, it is time to slow the massive importation of workers.

Non-farm employers in the U.S. eliminated 533,000 jobs in November alone. At the same time, in a typical month the Department of Homeland Security issues 138,000 new work permits and green cards (not including replacement or renewal documents) to foreign workers.

How can it make any sense for the American people’s own government to be approving more competitors for a dwindling number of jobs? Month after month as hundreds of thousands of Americans lose their jobs, the feds keep pumping another 138,000 new foreign workers into the labor force.

(more…)

By now many of you have heard that the geniuses at the Environmental Protection Agency, in their ongoing battle to control greenhouse gas emissions, are proposing a tax on “stationary” sources like cattle and hogs that spend much of their time standing around and, well, you know.

I propose applying this tax to the many members of Congress who do pretty much the same thing while the country is allowed to go to hell.

Today’s FBI bust of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges is for me bittersweet news.

On the one hand, I am ecstatic over the fact that Illinois’ favorite “son of immigrants” is going to have to answer for attempting to “auction” Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat and other sorted shenanigans that include trying to line up an ambassadorship for himself as well as a better-paying job for his wife.

But on the other, none of the 76 complaints against Blago include his 2003 approval of a bill giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens or his hearty support for giving the foreign-born job thieves drivers licenses, both of which easily fall under the heading of “aiding and abetting.”

Whatever amount of time Blago spends in the slammer for what the feds are calling a “corruption crime spree,” it will be–in my view–at least 20 years shorter than what he also deserves for his public mockery of the rule of law.

But, hey, is today still a red letter day for this Chicago-born and raised semi-retired journalist who three years ago (legally) crossed Wisconsin’s southern border and settled in the bustling metropolis of LaValle, where the majority of its 326 residents voted for Obama and who currently are grinding their teeth because of this year’s sorry performance of the (5-8) Green Bay Packers?

Life is good!

It is rare, indeed, when I turn down an opportunity to speak on behalf of those who support strict enforcement of our immigration laws and who favor sharply reduced levels of legal immigration.

Unfortunately, this was the case when the Rotary Club in Wayzata, Minn., a town of about 4,000 people just west of Minneapolis (and a four-hour drive from my Wisconsin home), said I would have 25 minutes at its Oct. 22 luncheon to discuss illegal immigration plus a 5-minute Q&A.

But what I found even more unsettling than the Rotary’s unwillingness to devote more time to such a critical public policy issue was the naïveté of Chuck Schoen , the Rotarian who extended the invitation to me:

“We have not had a speaker on the illegal subject, so I would like to enlighten the locals to what is heading our way from S. Cal(ifornia).”

Memo to Mr. Schoen: Illegal immigration isn’t “headed your way.” It’s already there.