QOTD -- No Immigration? No Retirement For Grandma!

 

"Don’t want more immigrants in this country? Then tell grandma she can never retire.

"As I’ve noted before, immigrants are driving the U.S. economic boom. That is: The United States has escaped recession, hiring growth has exceeded expectation, and inflation has cooled faster than predicted — all largely because immigration has boosted the size of the U.S. labor force. Don’t just take my word for it; ask the Federal Reserve chair or Wall Street economists.  [snip]

"Yet, somehow, the Trumpy right argues that greedy, freeloading immigrants are simultaneously stealing both our jobs and our precious tax dollars. In reality, they’re beefing up both." -- WaPo's Catherine Rampell's opening and closing words on what immigration means to our booming economy (thanks, Biden!).  Sadly, too many Americans respond to Christofascist/ White Nationalist fear mongering, led by the Malignant Loser, and abetted by a "mainstream media" more concerned with shallow, short attention span sensationalism than drilling facts about immigration into the heads of the American public. The op/ ed contains a lot of those facts about immigration and the workforce that rarely seem to find a place in the discussion.  Good read, and information to pass along.

Monday Reading

 

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

We shared a tweet by Will Bunch yesterday that linked to his article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "President Biden’s ‘mistake’ at U.S. southern border isn’t what clueless pundits, GOP think it is." Here's an excerpt in case you didn't have a chance to read the article:

The border situation is neither the first crisis facing the new administration nor close to the biggest — not with a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans and the related economic crisis leaving 10 million out of work — but it is the nation’s most visible problem that can be so easily demagogued by Republicans looking to score cheap political points against a popular president, or get lapped up by Beltway journalists eager to go back to the brunch of lazy punditry. Indeed, the Sunday morning talk shows — ABC even flew its panelists to an outdoor location at the border — seemed to openly salivate at a return to the days of swinging at Democrats with a club furnished by the RNC.

With America’s former demagogue-in-chief retired to a golf pasture and banned from Twitter, House GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has gamely stepped up to the plate — claiming that “this crisis is created by the presidential policies of this new administration” and tweeting nonsensically about “open borders” when the reality is instead that thousands are detained. But attacks like McCarthy’s are now driving off-kilter coverage like Sunday’s breathless, four-byline lead story in the Washington Post that centers the notion that Biden’s policies are to blame — with amnesia about the Post’s own reporting last fall while Trump was president that awful conditions in Central America were already driving an uptick in refugees, let alone the role that the inhumane policies of POTUS 45 have played in making things worse. What’s more, overall border crossings right now are similar to 2019 — when Trump was in the White House.

Critics of the Washington Post article like the attorney Luppe B. Luppen (@nycsouthpaw) noted that part of the “blame” for the crisis attributed to Biden is ending the Trump administration’s program called “Remain in Mexico” which, in blocking asylum seekers, created — and this is how the Post described it in its own article — “families crowded into squalid camps” on this other side of the border. Let that sink in: The Post article amplifies the idea that a policy that created a human rights nightmare of unsanitary refugee camps was a policy success that a Democratic president foolishly overturned.

And never mind that a federal judge ruled in November, or two months before Biden took office, that America had to stop Trump’s policy of turning away unaccompanied minors — one of the many nuances lost in our newest pseudo-debate.

They never learn, they never change.  Less than 3 months after the Republican Party and its militia wing attempted a coup to cancel the results of the election, the media is in its default business- as- usual, he said/she said mode -- ahistorical and, yes, amoral.

Of course the insurrection at the Capitol was sedition, and let the charges reflect that:

Michael Sherwin, the federal prosecutor who had led the criminal investigation into the Capitol riot, said that evidence in the probe is “trending” toward sedition charges. 

The former acting U.S. attorney in Washington told CBS News’s “60 Minutes” that thus far, none of the more than 400 defendants have been charged with sedition, which is conspiracy to overthrow the government.

During the interview that aired Wednesday, “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley questioned Sherwin about the sedition statute saying it “seems like a very low bar.”

“I don't think it's a low bar, Scott, but I will tell you this: I personally believe the evidence is trending towards that, and probably meets those elements,” Sherwin said.

In the same interview, Sherwin also said he thought Donald "Mango Mussolini" Trump could be criminally culpable for the insurrection and that prosecutors are exploring "everything."

Soon to join his glorious pantheon of failed Trump- brands, Trump's hawt new Twitter- like social media vehicle ("Shitter"? "Bitter"?):

Former President Donald Trump is coming back to social media -- but this time with his own network, a Trump spokesperson told Fox News on Sunday.

Jason Miller, a long-time adviser and spokesperson for Trump's 2020 campaign told Howard Kurtz on Fox's "MediaBuzz" that Trump will be "returning to social media in probably about two or three months." He added Trump's return will be with "his own platform" that will attract "tens of millions" of new users and "completely redefine the game." 

 

"This is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media," Miller told Kurtz. "It's going to completely redefine the game, and everybody is going to be waiting and watching to see what President Trump does, but it will be his own platform."

... Maybe "Slammer," for where he'll hopefully be in the future?

The days of an American President kissing Putin's ass are over:

The Biden administration is preparing a series of aggressive cyber attacks on Russia in a major shift in tactics designed as a warning shot to rival powers.

The attack, which is expected in the next fortnight, is in retaliation for the SolarWinds hack, the large-scale infiltration of American government agencies and corporations discovered late last year that was traced back to the Kremlin. [snip]

The US will not target civilian structures or networks, but the hack is instead designed as a direct challenge to Mr Putin, Russia’s President, and his cyber army, The Telegraph understands.

The White House confirmed it will take “a mix of actions” - both “seen and unseen” - although it did not provide specifics on when and how it would do so.

At long last, make that thug pay for his attacks on our country.

Infidel 753's link round-up to posts from around the Internet is awaiting you.  If you haven't already visited it by the time you finish reading this sentence, no soup for you!

QOTD -- "Their Plight Has Become Wallpaper"

Leonard Pitts, Jr., one of the great tribunes of moral clarity in American journalism, reminds us of a continuing evil being done in our name and how we can push back:

We are, in the best of circumstances, a nation of restless, fleeting attentions. And that is all the more true in this era where news bombards us and crises — constitutional, existential — have become routine. So who can be surprised if the images that dominated hearts and headlines just a few months ago — people jammed in pens, families torn apart, a little girl and her father face down in the Rio Grande — have largely receded from the forefront of our thoughts?

We have moved on. But the fact that refugees and immigrants are no longer in the news doesn’t mean they have gone away. It just means we no longer see them. Their plight has become wallpaper.

If you find that unconscionable, especially in this country and especially in this season, there may be consolation in knowing that there are dozens of organizations fighting for them and that many could use your help. Here’s a random sampling:

Border Angels provides immigrants with legal assistance and English lessons. Its volunteers drive and hike into the rugged desert along the southern border to leave life-saving water for immigrants. Donate at borderangels.org. You can also volunteer through the website, or by emailing volunteer@borderangels.org.

The Justice Department (!) has compiled a directory (www.justice.gov/eoir/probono/states.htm) of lawyers willing to do pro bono work for immigrants. If you are an attorney who’d like to be in it, call 703-756-8020 or sent an email to: ProBono.List.Admin@usdoj.gov;

The Immigrant Rights Project of the ACLU educates immigrants on their legal protections and fights for those rights in court. You can donate by phone at 888-567-ACLU or online at aclu.org.

There's more at the link.

In a normal time in a normal society, this one issue alone would be enough to bring down a government.  But it gets lost in the unprecedented morass of evil, treachery, corruption and lawlessness that we see every day from the Trump regime, enabled by a media whose attention span can be counted in minutes or hours.  We have to fight back however we can against this crime against humanity, and helping the organizations Pitts mentions is at least a start.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article237883994.html#storylink=cpy

(Photo: A young migrant girl waits on the floor as her father, released from federal detention with other Central American asylum seekers, gets a bus ticket in McAllen, Texas. Loren Elliott Getty Images)

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article237883994.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article237883994.html#storylink=cpy

"They Told Us To Behave Or We'd Be There Forever"

Sickening accounts are emerging from some of the children who've been held apart from their parents for weeks as part of the Trump regime's late, unlamented "zero tolerance" immigration policy (shorter: we don't want your kind changing our culture).  While a federal court has ordered that the more than 2,500 children separated from their parents must be returned to them by July 26, the trauma already experienced by these children could be long- lasting.

Here are just a few accounts from some of the children who were held in "shelters" around the country.  Imagine if these were your children or grandchildren:

“I felt like a prisoner,” said Diogo De Olivera Filho, a 9-year-old from Brazil who spent five weeks at a shelter in Chicago, including three weeks in isolation after getting chickenpox. When he got lonely and left his quarantined room to see other kids, he said the shelter put up a gate to keep him in. “I felt like a dog,” he said.  [snip]

Most of the children were reluctant to talk about what they went through while they were detained. 

“I don’t want to remember,” said one 10-year-old, who recounted watching an out-of-control kindergartner get injected with something after he misbehaved in class.  [snip]

Sandy was reunited with her mother on July 5 after 55 days at Southwest Key Combes, a shelter in Harlingen, Tex., that was caring for about 60 kids. Some had been separated from their parents; some had crossed the border on their own. 

For Sandy, it was a place of sorrow, fear and scoldings. 

“They told us to behave,” she said, “or we’d be there forever.”  [snip]

Diogo De Olivera Filho, the 9-year-old from Brazil, said he was used to sleeping late but that habit quickly got him in trouble at Casa Guadalupe. 

“They told me, ‘If you keep doing that, you’re going to have to stay here until you’re 18,’ ” he said. 

If it looks like child abuse and talks like child abuse, then it is child abuse.

These abusive acts have been, and are continuing to be, committed in the name of the American government, in your name and my name.  Just as with the deadly negligence that's been the hallmark of the Trump regime's non- response to the Hurricane Maria disaster in Puerto Rico, for these criminals and villains empathy and humanity are reserved for children and families of a certain color and ethnicity.  That there will likely never be a reckoning for those responsible for these horrors makes this all the more hard to swallow.

The moral stain of this era in America will never be washed away or absolved.  But we can strike a  heavy blow against these monsters in November.

Cold As I.C.E. (UPDATED)

We've watched for some time the Trump regime's viciously inhumane practice of separating children from their parents when they cross the border seeking asylum.  Amid all the other outrages happening every day in this country, this is perhaps the most heart- breaking, but one to which we seem to have become numb, even as it violates every moral and ethical precept we're supposed to believe in as a country.  It's somewhat quaint at this point to imagine that we'll ever have the authority as a nation to speak in those terms again after this ugly nativist id -- manifested in the demagogue- in- chief -- is finally over.

The stark reality is that children as young as 18 months old are being separated from their parents by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) agents. Of course, the intent by this "pro- life" regime is to discourage immigrants from attempting to seek asylum in the U.S. with the threat of breaking up their families.  The perversity of this policy, as well as its many unintended consequences, is demonstrated by Vice's Meredith Hoffman:

“Why do I have to leave? Mami I want to stay with you!” one four-year-old El Salvadorian boy balled to his mother, known as JIL, as CBP officers took him and his ten-year-old brother away from her in South Texas, according to an affidavit filed by the mother. They were separated in March—before Sessions’s policy even officially launched—but the incident is an example of what is now common practice at the border. The brothers slept in the same room as their mother back in El Salvador and were too anxious to go to the bathroom without her after witnessing MS-13 gang members beat and threaten her. But once they arrived in the US, the boys were placed in two separate foster homes and held in government custody for over a month without being able to speak with their mother, who remains in Laredo Detention Center, JIL’s attorney Denise Gilman told me. 

The boys are now staying with other family in Virginia, but JIL will likely be detained for many more months: A San Antonio judge Wednesday issued her a bond too high for her to pay—$12,500—deeming her a flight risk for being connected to a gang, when her sole connection was the harm they did her.  (our emphasis)

Please read her entire piece to get a better picture of what a shitshow this regime and its over-eager I.C.E. thugs have made of immigration policy and our image as a nation.

An further Orwellian touch was added this week, demonstrating that the Trump regime's inhumanity is perhaps exceeded only by its incompetence:

A top official with the Department of Health and Human Services told members of Congress on Thursday that the agency had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children it placed with sponsors in the United States, raising concerns they could end up in the hands of human traffickers or be used as laborers by people posing as relatives. [snip] 

The children were taken into government care after they showed up alone at the Southwest border. Most of the children are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and were fleeing drug cartels, gang violence and domestic abuse, government data shows.  (our emphasis)

This is what happens when you consider these people to be "animals," as the black hole at the center of our government has called them (and don't give us any shit about who he was referring to; it's a feature for him, not a bug).  Imagine the terror these children are experiencing, having fled their country's violence, only to be treated like "animals" upon arriving at the border, being separated from their parents for no other reason than to deter others from coming north.

These reactions pretty well sum things up:

I am reading these first-hand accounts of mothers who had their children taken from them, with no word of where they were going or how to contact them, and I'm thinking about someone doing that to me and my kids and I feel a rage so powerful I think I'm gonna pass out.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) May 25, 2018

It isn’t easy for a man to rip a screaming child away from his mother. Most of us couldn’t do it. This is where “animals” comes in. Declare he isn’t really a child, she isn’t a woman. Now it’s like pulling a piglet from a sow. This has always been how states enable savagery.

— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) May 26, 2018

Every time I read one of these stories about the thousands of families ICE has ripped apart, sometimes forever, I think about all the rich white people who will come out of the Trump administration saying & believing it honestly wasn’t that bad https://t.co/PKbfKTXzpy

— Jia Tolentino (@jiatolentino) May 25, 2018

(h/t LGM)

UPDATE:  The Border Patrol also has ways of treating "animals"--

SHE HAS A NAME: unarmed 20 year old, Claudia Patricia Gómez González, from Guatemala, was shot and killed by an ICE agent on Wednesday near Laredo, Texas. pic.twitter.com/mNTgaomOvD

— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) May 25, 2018

UPDATE II:  Of course, the pathological sociopath is trying to blame ... Democrats.

(Photo:  no sign of heartbeats there)

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the full article at the link.

The Washington Post has a good read about the fate of Roberto Beristain. Remember him? Seems a lot of people in the small town of Granger, IN, where he lived for decades, are having a problem remembering him, too:

The goofy red sign off State Road 23 still says “Eddie’s Steak Shed,” just as it always has. The thank-you plaques for sponsoring the county Little League are still in the front entrance, alongside 15 years’ worth of stickers honoring the steaks as the area’s best. 

But farther inside, most everything has changed in the year since the old owner was detained, then deported, as part of a crackdown on undocumented immigrants by a tough-talking new president. 

Roberto Beristain, a former dishwasher who worked until he could afford to buy the place, was gone. In his place were refurbished wood-paneled walls, a bar with a granite counter and a new pork chop entree. Even the name had been changed with something snappier, sleeker — Eddie’s was now simply, “The Shed.” 

“I love what you did to the place!” Heather Pepper, 47, exclaimed to the bartender on a recent night. “It looks so updated, and it still feels local.”

The town's original outrage that was felt at the cruelty of Beristain's deportation was superficial and fleeting; the ugliness underlying Americans' acceptance of the white supremacist Republican regime's treatment of innocent people remains strong.

Anne Applebaum discusses the corruption of the regime of kleptocrat Donald "Rump" Trump in the context of other so- called "populists," and why its effects are so pernicious:

Corruption and nepotism have both reached new levels in this White House, as everyone who knew Trump predicted, and as many who voted for him will ignore. Every time one of these stories breaks, there is a routine response: Is this what working-class Americans really wanted when they voted for an “anti-elitist”? Is this what the Midwest meant when it cheered calls to “drain the swamp”? But if history and precedent are any guide, then these abuses of power won’t matter to them at all. 

But the spectacular corruption of so-called anti-elitist elites has another effect in the longer term: It makes people cynical about politics altogether. I recently asked one of Orban’s opponents why the endless revelations of crooked contracts don’t create an overwhelming majority for the opposition. “Because voters now think everyone is corrupt,” he told me. “They’ve got used to it.” As the nepotism and the cronyism of this White House begin to sink in, Americans may not turn against Trump. They may turn against politics, or even democracy, altogether.

The Rump regime is rolling out its NRA- approved plans for school safety (more on that in a separate post), including that age- old method for deflecting and delaying -- a "commission to study the problem." This is the dangerous ninny who'll be in charge:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday night and stumbled in answering questions that journalist Lesley Stahl asked during a pointed interview. 

These are just some of the things that DeVos said — or couldn’t answer — during the interview: 

    - She couldn’t say whether the number of false accusations of sexual assault on school campuses is lower than the number of actual rapes or assaults. 

    - Arming teachers “should be an option” for states and communities, she said, even though she couldn’t “ever imagine” her first-grade teacher, Mrs. Zorhoff, having had a gun. 

    -“We have invested billions and billions and billions of dollars from the federal level, and we have seen zero results,” DeVos said — a statement Stahl challenged. 

    -“I hesitate to talk about all schools in general because schools are made up of individual students attending them.”

DeVos' main mission is to wreck public education in this country just as she did in Michigan. She's a soulless monster who is exposed every time she opens her lie- hole.*

Last but never least, Infidel has another strong link round- up that will introduce you to topics from anime to the composition of sand to speculation about Rump after 2018 (and much more). Always worth time to discover.

*BONUS: Speaking of DeVos, Andy Borowitz has the perfect headline:

Betsy DeVos Calls “60 Minutes” a Waste of a Half Hour

Sunday Reflection

A reminder that we're supposed to be better than the dystopia of neo- fascist white nationalist Donald "Rump" Trump:

“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respected Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges…” -- George Washington, the anti- Trump.

Immigration: Obama "Should Be Working With Congress To Do Nothing Together!"

Steven Colbert and "Esteban Colberto" on the Republican's transparent threats, and their paying for having "been such huge dicks" about Hispanics:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,The Colbert Report on Facebook,Video Archive

Sunday Cartoon - Republican Hispanic Outreach

(click to enlarge)

(Ben Sargent, Austin (TX) American-Statesman)

Time To Do The Right Thing On Immigration, And Damn The Right-Wingers

The New York Times:

If Mr. Obama acts, as he should, and the right wing explodes, it will be worth taking time to consider what Senator Jeff Sessions, Representative Steve King and their hard-core colleagues and allies would have Mr. Obama do. For them, the right number of unauthorized immigrants to welcome is zero; the right time is never. They would let the system rot in place, to maintain the fiction that the country can deport its way to lawfulness. Their dishonesty is repellent, as is their blindness to the lawless status quo, and to the cruelty of denying the hopes of millions whose labor is welcomed but whose humanity is not. 

Mr. Obama’s critics in Congress belong to a branch of government that has chosen to do nothing constructive about immigration — not even to resolve this summer’s crisis of migrant children at the border, which they looked at and punted on, before going on vacation. This is, after all, an election year. They have abandoned a difficult job to the care of Mr. Obama. They are in no position to complain when he does it.

The obstructionist Republican/ New Confederate right-wingers will complain if the President does nothing and they'll complain if he does something.  The President has broad authority on immigration policy, and he should not be afraid to do the right thing.

It's not really about the policy.  It's about a Democrat being in the White House. Oh, and did we mention he's African-American, too?  That's what really chaffs them.  It would drive them nuts if they weren't nuts already.

Today's Cartoon Twofer: Deportation Republicans

(click to enlarge)

(Tom Toles, once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle)

(Signe Wilkinson, via gocomics.com)

The Wall Street wing of the Republican Party has a name for them: "Deportation Republicans."

Bill Maher: "American Makeover" for Illegal Immigrants

You gotta laugh - check out "Joaquin/Jack" at about 2:15, and "Marta/Sarah" following that (via Idiot Patch)!

Frank Rich: "If Only Arizona Were the Real Problem"

To get a comprehensive perspective on the subtext for the rage roiling the right these days, read Frank Rich's column today. When it comes to the right-wingers today, it all comes down to race and ethnicity, whether it's the Arizona immigration bill, the tea baggers, birthers, or Confederate History Month. That's the real problem with the Rethuglicans and their angry, ill-informed, extremist base, and it's only driving them farther and farther away from the American mainstream.

Why Democrats Should Push Immigration Reform Now

Ezra Klein has an interesting post today on the Kaplan Daily's webkins site on the political advantages of, not to mention the moral arguments for, pushing an immigration reform bill through this summer/fall. Harry Reid says he has enough votes in the Senate (with a few Republicans) and the House would be much easier to navigate. Not only would this fulfill a campaign promise by President Obama, but it would divide the Rethugs between (to be somewhat simplistic) the "get out of MY country" yahoos and the country clubbers who want continued cheap labor. That sounds like a win-win to us.

Them Meskins Kids Is. . . Um. . . .Anti-Semitic!

That's the ticket! The Washington Monthly captures the anti-immigrant wingnuttery here. Don't let Latinos in to the U.S. because they might be more anti-Semitic than other Catholic immigrants. Does everyone need to pledge their allegiance to the right-wing Likud faction in Israel to be considered worthy of U.S. citizenship?

Also, Charles "Dr. Strangelove" Krauthammer thinks that the U.S. needs to provide a "nuclear umbrella" for Israel vs. Iran, despite the fact that Israel has some 200 nuclear warheads at its disposal, and seems to be a hell of a lot better at using their military resources than we are. And it's soooo likely that the Iranians would use nuclear weapons to annihilate, oh say, Jerusalem - - the third most holy site in Islam. Joe Klein, writing in Time's Swampland blog, has a sharp rebuttal. Israel is respected and feared in the region because they don't broadcast what they would do in every situation, unlike blowhards like Kraphammer.

UPDATE: Kraphammer's statement that Israel has to rely only on a land-based deterrent falls apart when one realizes that Israel has submarine launched cruise missiles that carry nuclear warheads.

Friday Night Smackdown?

Could this lead to an eventual death-cage match between, say, "Father" Bill Donohue (in the red corner for the Catholic League) and Tony "Psycho" Perkins (in the white corner for the Family Research Council)? Ah, those illegal alien Meskins seem to be gettin' aid 'n' comfort from them Catholics! An' them white conservative evangelistic Republicans don't like it one bit! This calls for reasonable minds among the Republican... huh, what? Oh, right. Silly us.

Photo: Maximo is available as a rasslin' trainer for Donohue and/or Perkins (or more if they'd like).

Quote of the Week

"I wonder whether conservative Christians such as presidential candidate Mike Huckabee have considered that Jesus and his parents were undocumented immigrants in the land of Egypt. They were just lucky that there were no Minutemen or politicians looking to evoke useful hatreds and demand that they be sent back where they came from, where the soldiers of King Herod were looking for them." Denise Barker, letter to the editor, WaPo, 12/15/07. Nicely said.

A Laugh Riot At Immigration

At a Halloween costume party at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), some staff members dressed up in what was later termed "inappropriate" costumes. One clever guy, likely a Rethug political appointee, dressed up in a prison uniform with dreadlocks and heavy dark makeup. ICE head (heh heh) Julie Myers, who initially praised the "originality" of the costume, later backed off and apologized. Myers, the niece of former Joint Chiefs Bush Butt Kisser Gen. Richard Myers, was criticized by Senators in 2006, including Rethug Senator Voinovich, for her lack of experience, and is still awaiting comfirmation. She had previously worked as a "special assistant" to Dumbya for personnel matters ("Hey, I can do that, Mr. Preznit!!"), and for Presidential semen sleuth Kenneth Starr.

When Wingnuts Murder

A chilling post yesterday on Orcinus features an account of some cowardly Minuteman vigilantes shooting an illegal border crosser sniper-style at night, and later exulting over his grave. This is simply murder. It's far beyond arguments about "border enforcement" or anger about "illegal aliens." The recorded conversation of the vigilantes is vicious; they acted like they were shooting a prairie dog and not a human being.

If the authorities catch the cowards that did this, they should be marched over the border to let a few dozen Mexicans take shots at them. This is what happens when wingnuts feel empowered to take the law into their own hands, whipped up by the wingnut media machine.

Immigration Conflagration

The wingnuts are in full hysteria mode after the compromise deal on immigration reform. Malkin, Hewitt, and the usual suspects are fuming, and predicting the decline of the Rebumblecan Party (we wish). Some have even uttered the "I" word regarding the Presidunce: impeachment (again, we wish). The long knives (or in the case of the wingers, butter knives) are out for McCain and other Rethugs who have signed on to reform. The bottom line for the wingers seems not to be concerns about terrorism or multiculturalism, but that the immigrants will eventually cast ballots as Democrats. Some Dems are not pleased with the lack of support for unskilled workers, so stay tuned.