Posted on 06/17/2007 5:15:55 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Call it by its right name.
It's not the "immigration bill" or the "attempted immigration bill" or the "failed immigration bill" or the "immigration bill in need of amendment."
The American government tried to pull a coup against its people. It failed.
It did, however, succeed in giving me a feeling I'd completely forgotten. I was 5 years old. My mother gave her younger sister Margie enough money to take me, Margie, and her friend Harvey to a special kids' show which was five cartoons end to end; no feature film which 5-year-olds find boring.
On the way to the movie, Margie and Harvey were walking quite a distance ahead of me. I didn't know the word "plotting" but I could see they were plotting. Their heads were close together and they were speaking softly to each other. Finally Margie turned around and waited for me to catch up. The odor of adult manipulation was high in my baby nostrils.
"Barry," she said, "Harvey knows all about those five cartoons and he says they're all bad. There's another movie not far away that just has one cartoon but Harvey says it's the best cartoon in the world. Why don't we go see that one instead of those five bad cartoons?
I simply wasn't old enough to stand my ground. Realizing I was being rolled by my own aunt, I mumbled a weak "OK." Margie and Harvey's coup succeeded. The single cartoon was undistinguished and the feature was a typical love story of the period after which I wished my boredom could have been surgically drained.
Both parties and all players are treating the American people in the sordid tradition of Margie and Harvey. "It's not amnesty." "We need these illegals." "They're the same as our immigrant grandparents." "They buy goods and pay taxes and enrich our national life." "Americans won't do that kind of work." "We simply can't deport 12 million." "Quit being a selfish, racist, mean-spirited xenophobic pig." "And, dammit, quit saying that. I told you, It's not amnesty."
All the battlecries of the attempted coup add up to a commodity not uncommon where bulls congregate.
What makes me pitchfolk-toting and musket-loading mad is the accusation that those of us who most bitterly oppose this legislation are somehow bigoted, nativist, or otherwise not quite there as Americans. Up to the 1960s, immigration worked.
It's not widely know, but President Eisenhower repelled an earlier invasion of illegals from Mexico by slashing the cosy political connections between the border authorities and the politicians serving the cheap-labor-hungry ranchers. He exiled the border authorities to other parts of the country and put one of his tough West Point buddies in charge of the southern border.
When I say "It worked," I mean we had a sense that there was a legal way to immigrate to America and obviously not everybody who wanted to come could be allowed but abuse and inundation were not an issue. Every January every alien had to go to a U.S. post office and register. Every single alien, legal; mind you, had to have a sponsor; someone with finances sufficient to guarantee the alien would never be a burden to American taxpayers.
Then we bigoted, mean-minded haters noticed something. Our immigration quotas favored white European Christians. Most Americans at that time were white Christians of European origin and seeking to maintain your nation's demographic make-up isn't exactly a war crime. Nonetheless we didn't want to be oerceived as a country that favored white Christian Europeans. So we junked those quotas and made new ones favoring those who'd previously been slighted.
Then the dam broke and the riptide of illegal immigration surged. Too much is enough! A wise man once said, "It's not whether you win or lose but where you place the blame." I neither know nor care who's responsible for that demographic dam-break.
I say, to hell with the cheese; let's get out of the trap.
Promise you won't tell France's new pro-American president you can't deport massive numbers of people who belong elsewhere on the planet. France is busy doing exactly that.
What we need is a wrenching national excruciation. Wrenching national excruciations are nothing new. Turkey is the world's role model for national wrenching excruciations. Turkey was on the losing side in World War I. After that war, a young officer took over named Mustafa Kemel. History prefers his nickname, Ataturk. Ataturk looked around and said, "Turkey is in the 15th century. We've got to get out of here!" And get out Turkey did.
Under Ataturk's rule, Turkey changed its alphabet! Can you imagine America changing over to the Arabic alphabet tomorrow? It's just as impossible to go the opposite way, but that's what Turkey did. They transitioned from the Arabic alphabet to the ABCs as the first move to join the modern world.
Then Ataturk said Turkey would be a modern secular state, the fundamental Islamists would have to go back to the mosque and stay there. And there they still remain. There's more, but you get the point.
Sweden needed a national excruciation and pulled it off beautifully. Sweden always drove on the left-hand side of the road. That may have been OK for an island like England, but Sweden bordered other countries. I remember the odd sensation of crossing from Norway with right-hand drive over to Sweden and changing sides of the road.
The Swedes knew the longer they waited the more excruciating the shift would be. In the 1960s they bit the bullet and did it. There were predictions of hundreds of terrible accidents. There wasn't a single one!
Finland, a democracy with a population of three and a half million, lost World War 11 to the Soviet Union. They were saddled with a war debt of 350 million dollars. They paid it. And they proceeded to zoom upward economically surpassing the standard of living of the victorious Soviet Union within a year or two after the war.
There's an intellectual and emotional weakness in America likely to equate deporting illegal aliens back to their homeland with jamming Jews into boxcars and sending them to Auschwitz. That's what the "Margies" and the "Harveys" of today want us to believe.
Sorry.
America is the country most people in the world would prefer to live in. It's a marvelous national compliment, but we can't accommodate them all.
What we can do is help the Mexicos of the world be more like America. The formula for Coca-Cola is a secret. The recipe for Heinz Ketchup is a secret.
The recipe for American prosperity is no secret; democracy, rule of law, the Bill of Rights, the market economy, and the eternal struggle to elect the worthy and reject the corrupt. All that's easy to translate into Spanish.
America built the Panama Canal. America made the atomic bomb. America landed on the moon. America can cut through the cant and con of the open-border pimps and deport as many people as deserve deportation. Excruciating? Yes. Appropriate? Also, yes.
If we could muster the will to pull off only half a national excruciation it would be enough. If we really landed hard on the employers of illegals there would be a massive self-deportation.
A country that cannot control its borders does not deserve the respect of those who cross those borders illegally.
In the past there were differences between Democrats and Republicans. There may someday be differences between them again. But for right now, on this immigration matter, our two parties are just "Margie" and "Harvey."
Actually, I’m starting to feel like some of the Iranian people who have no power to get past the mullahs(congressmen) and are living in a country where the wishes of a majority of citizens are being ignored.
“A country that cannot control its borders does not deserve the respect of those who cross those borders illegally.”
Not to worry. They have no repect for us, and they want US to flee!!!!
Just say NO to Illegal Alien Amnesty!! Keep calling!! It’s NOT OVER!!
U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121
U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121
White House comments: (202) 456-1111
Find your House Rep.: http://www.house.gov/writerep
Find your US Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
“Actually, I’m starting to feel like some of the Iranian people who have no power to get past the mullahs(congressmen) and are living in a country where the wishes of a majority of citizens are being ignored.”
Very similar......though it breaks my heart to admit it.
Follow the money.
I’m going to throw this out for discussion. I’ve heard a number of times that some of the illegals somehow get (or give) phony Social Security Numbers to their employers.
Not going into where they get these numbers, I’m interested in what goes on when fake or phony SSNs are used.
How does it work?
Does the employer, in good faith, withhold the payroll taxes and send the taxes on to the Government? That would mean that the illegals are paying into Social Security, but will never draw on it. But more seriously, that would mean that our Federal government has volumes of data on payroll taxes being collected — for which no person is filing returns. That must be a very large sum of money. And it would be a simple thing to determine where these people work and do the deportations required.
Another possibility. Perhaps the employers KNOW which persons ARE illegal and that they don’t have REAL SS numbers. So the employers can simply pocket the payroll taxes, rather than send it on to the Government. This would mean that many employers are keeping double books, the real books, and the phony books, showing they are collecting taxes.
My point is: there is a lot of money to be gained or to be lost by this so-called immigration reform. I’m beginning to think that this is as big a corruption issue as Prohibition.........
If we only had a Executive Branch which would enforce our Federal laws — even at the level of reconciling the withholding taxes — we could make some progress in cleaning up this “money laundering scheme” — but alas we don’t.
Farber pre-dates Rush Limbaugh. Is he still on the air?
If nothing else, it’s great to see him in print. Bring Back Barry?
I Like Ike.
Take the Pledge: "I pledge to never, ever vote for anyone, for any office, who votes in favor of the Mexican Invasion Surrender Bill."
The penalty for being politically tone-deaf is death of one's political career. Amnesty for illegal immigrants--which means any path to any sort of permanent legal residency of any kind (let alone citizenship,) regardless of cost--is worse than the "third rail of politics." It's the Guillotine.
Thanks for posting the entire article.
Not going into where they get these numbers, I’m interested in what goes on when fake or phony SSNs are used.
____________________________________________________
A person I know fudged his number by one digit to avoid paying federal back taxes, it has been 7 years and he has never received any sort of notice. It is my opinion that they (IRS) just want to collect the money.
Can you imagine trying to get away with out reporting capitol gains.....they’d be all over you.
Not only have I taken the pledge I have notified both my Republican Senators of my thoughts. Here is a copy of that letter:
Dear Senator:
I am writing in regards to the Bush, so called, Immigration Reform Bill. I have called your offices and I have filed out your on line contact forms. I want there to be exactly no doubt on where this American stands. I am totally against any form of “amnesty” or “path ways to citizenship” or “purchasing citizenship for $5K or whatever other name might be conjured up to soften the public impact. And before any “deals” on how to resolve the fact that we have 12 to 20 million illegal aliens living within our borders, said border must be secured and employers, knowing full well that they are employing criminal illegal aliens must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of existing law.
It is becoming more and more clear to this citizen, and many others, that the disconnect between our elected representatives and ourselves has reached or is getting close in reaching the breaking point.
In our Declaration of Independence it is enshrined:
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
The first step of this process, I believe, will be to see that no current Representative that enjoys serving at our pleasure ever hold public office again, should they support this bill. I, for one, will do my best to bring that about should you bend to Presidential arm-twisting.
This is not about Republican or Democrat Party politics. It is about the Republic and the Rule of Law.
Secure our borders, especially the southern border and then come to “We the People” with some viable solutions on how to deal with the millions of illegal aliens who violated U.S. codified law to get here in the first place. The survival of “our Republic” is what is at stake. Please don’t let Party politics get in the way of doing your oath-sworn duty.
Most Sincerely,
Greg Adams
And we will flee. The areas the illegal invaders have already taken over have seen most of the U.S. citizens who had lived there flee to other areas. With 20-40 million more, our Country will become balkanized with the invaders slowly but surely taking over one area after another. The ultimate slap in the face will be that as the invaded areas are, and will be, poor hellholes, the rest of the Country will be forced to support them.
Our Country, and our children and grandchildren, will be paying for the treachery of our "leaders" far into the future.
Damn them all!
Barry Farber is a SMART guy !!!
“”It’s not amnesty.” “We need these illegals.” “They’re the same as our immigrant grandparents.” “They buy goods and pay taxes and enrich our national life.” “Americans won’t do that kind of work.” “We simply can’t deport 12 million.” “Quit being a selfish, racist, mean-spirited xenophobic pig.” “And, dammit, quit saying that. I told you, It’s not amnesty”
Lies, all!
“With 20-40 million more, our Country will become balkanized with the invaders slowly but surely taking over one area after another. The ultimate slap in the face will be that as the invaded areas are, and will be, poor hellholes, the rest of the Country will be forced to support them.
Our Country, and our children and grandchildren, will be paying for the treachery of our “leaders” far into the future.
Damn them all!”
I agree!
At least one million Californians have left. I am one of them.
This is really sets the right target. Time to clean out the illegals and keep them out and save America once and for all.
Just say NO to Illegal Alien Amnesty!! Keep calling!! It’s NOT OVER!!
U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121
U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121
White House comments: (202) 456-1111
Find your House Rep.: http://www.house.gov/writerep
Find your US Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Yeah : )
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