Posts filed under ‘Immigration’
Bananas — Walmart’s #1 Selling Item
Toilet paper? Baggies? Diapers?
Nope.
From Bloomberg/Business Week: Walmarts #1 selling item:
Mow the rain forests down to make way for banana farms; pay the natives (pre-terror babies) something like 20¢ a day. Hey. Want cheap stuff? You got it.
The Original Anchor Babies
The original “anchor babies” were the children of the immigrants on the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.
(If your eyes are glazing over at those names, do your homework. In this day and age, it’s as simple as knowing how to do the Google. I’m not here to give you a 1st grade education.)
Republican Anchor Babies
Yo, Americans — this whole “anchor baby” thing is ridiculous on its face. Come on. Seriously. I mean, when you peel away the surface just a teeny tiny bit, there are a lot of “anchor babies” out here. Do we want to go on a witch hunt investigating people’s parentage or grandparentage or great-grandparentage. Really? REALLY? You think Republicans are immune?
Republican Anchor Babies:
Alberto Gonzales Parents were anchor babies
Darrell Issa Parent was an anchor baby (!!! Lebanon)
(Via.)
Myth Buster
BillinPortlandMaine over at Daily Kos has taken the time — thank you very much — to compile a list of some of the “facts” the huge American media apparatus doesn’t seem to have time to debunk myths swirling around us. Like,
•• Bloody violence is out of control along the Mexican border, and illegal immigrants are streaming into America at record levels. Except, it’s not and they’re not.
•• Obamacare will send Medicare spiraling out of control. Except, it won’t.
•• Voters say cutting the deficit is more important than creating jobs. Except, they don’t.
•• Social Security is going broke, it adds to the deficit, and we have to raise the retirement age because people are living longer. Except, it’s not, it doesn’t, and we don’t.
Illegals Are Taking Our Jobs Away!
If you hate that “illegals” are taking jobs away that you and your friends and relatives could do, act up now! Apply here at TakeOurJobs.
“Mexican Coke” — Yikes, the “Aliens” Are Taking Over
Uh oh, the righties aren’t going to like this: There is a huge — huge – display of “Mexican coke” at my local grocery store. It’s billed as “Mexican coke” because it contains “pure cane sugar,” such is allegedly better for us than high-fructose corn syrup. Sounds good to me but — heads up here — wait until Fox hears about this. All hell will break loose.
Those Spanish-speaking brown people are T-A-K-I-N-G O-V-E-R O-U-R C-O-U-N-T-R-Y!
(Bottom line: Don’t forget. This is a product manufactured in Mexico by a conglomerate based in Atlanta, as in Georgia, USA.)
From the Department of Ah Yeah, Anything’s Possible
You’ve got to hand it to the wingers. They sure can get creative when coming up with ways to scare us: GOP Rep: Terrorists May Learn Spanish to Pose as Illegal Immigrants.
So, every single “illegal alien” (but only the Mexicans, of course), could be a potential Osama bin Laden!
Domestic Terrorism in Utah
This is awful. I’m sure the people whose names are on the list are terrified that some crazed “patriot” will appear at their door intending to mete out “justice:”
State agencies are investigating whether any of their employees leaked Social Security numbers and other personal information after a list of 1,300 people who an anonymous group claims are illegal immigrants was circulated around Utah.
The anonymous group mailed the list to several media outlets, law enforcement agencies and others this week, frightening the state’s Hispanic community. A letter accompanying the list demanded that those on it be deported immediately.
The list also contains highly detailed personal information such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, workplaces, addresses and phone numbers. Names of children are included, along with due dates of pregnant women on the list.
[...]
“My phone has been ringing nonstop since this morning with people finding out they’re on the list,” said Tony Yapias, former director of the Utah Office of Hispanic Affairs. “They’re feeling terrorized. They’re very scared.”
Oxymoron of the Year: Fox “Fact Checks” Obama
OMG, Fox “News” has begun ah, “fact checking” President Obama.
Actually, it’s more like nitpicking as in the teeny tiny, itty bitty things they twist into “errors” in the speech Obama gave this morning on immigration.
Here’s the first “error:”
He concluded his remarks at American University with the moving story of Emma Lazarus, the woman who wrote the sonnet, “The New Colossus,” for the Statue of Liberty, in 1883.
President Obama said Lazarus was “inspired by what she saw and heard, she wrote down her thoughts and donated a piece of work to help pay for the construction of a new statue – the Statue of Liberty which actually was funded in part by small donations from people across America.”
There’s just one problem — the story is incorrect. According to the National Park Service, the Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France. The NPS told FOX News Radio French donors gave money to the Franco-American Union, a non-profit organization that gave the statue to the United States.
The statue’s pedestal, however, was paid for by contributions through an American branch of the Franco-American Union.
According to the Park Service, Lazarus’ poem was sold at auction by the pedestal committee for $1,500.
OK. So Obama should have said Lazarus, “donated a piece of work to help pay for the construction of the pedestal of a new statue…” But maybe Obama was giving the audience more credit than Fox is. Most of us know the statue itself was a gift from the people of France, don’t we?
And, per Fox’s fact checker, Obama’s second “error” was this:
The sonnet was engraved on a bronze plaque and affixed to the inner walls of the pedestal in the early 1900’s.
The president also misquoted her sonnet. According to New York Magazine, he recited the line as “yearning to be free.” instead of “yearning to breathe free.”
Pretty bad, huh? Just think of all the material they would have had to work with if they’d “fact checked” George W.
But this really isn’t about fact checking. It’s about composing soundbite headlines and graphics that leave the impression that Obama is either a liar or incompetent, and when, as FoxNation does, you push that 27/4, it adds up.
Immigrants: America, Take Our Jobs!
In a tongue-in-cheek call for immigration reform, farm workers are teaming up with comedian Stephen Colbert to challenge unemployed Americans: Come on, take our jobs.
Farm workers are tired of being blamed by politicians and anti-immigrant activists for taking work that should go to Americans and dragging down the economy, said Arturo Rodriguez, the president of the United Farm Workers of America.
So the group is encouraging the unemployed — and any Washington pundits or anti-immigrant activists who want to join them — to apply for the some of thousands of agricultural jobs being posted with state agencies as harvest season begins.
All applicants need to do is fill out an online form under the banner “I want to be a farm worker” at TakeOurJobs.org, and experienced field hands will train them and connect them to farms.
[...]
During summer, when the harvest of fruits and vegetables is in full swing in California’s Central Valley, temperatures hover in the triple digits. Heat exhaustion is one of the reasons farm labor consistently makes the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ top ten list of the nation’s most dangerous jobs.
Second, expect long days. Growers have a small window to pick fruit before it is overripe.
And don’t count on a big paycheck. Farm workers are excluded from federal overtime provisions, and small farms don’t even have to pay the minimum wage. Fifteen states don’t require farm labor to be covered by workers compensation laws.
Any takers?
“The reality is farmworkers who are here today aren’t taking any American jobs away. They work in often unbearable situations,” Rodriguez said.
Can’t wait to hear how many applications they get and then how many people actually take to the fields.
What a great way to prove the point that immigrants aren’t, in fact, taking jobs away from Americans.
Illegal Immigrants Have Been Detained
More keep coming. They keep breeding.
They’ve come over here to take advantage of our natural resources.
We have a couple of illegal immigrants fleeing.
Maybe it’s the way you’re dressed.
I feel like a European.
We’re going to have to detain you guys as well. We’re going to have to send you back…
You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught — to Hate and Fear
You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear.
You’ve got to be taught from year to year.
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught, before it’s too late,
Before you are five, or six, or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
Arizona’s Unspeakable Racism
The racism is out of control in Arizona:
A group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school.
The project’s leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children’s ethnicity. But the school’s principal says the request was only to fix shading and had nothing to do with political pressure.
The “Go on Green” mural, which covers two walls outside Miller Valley Elementary School, was designed to advertise a campaign for environmentally friendly transportation. It features portraits of four children, with a Hispanic boy as the dominant figure.
[...]
Faces in the mural were drawn from photographs of children enrolled at Miller Valley, a K-5 school with 380 students and the highest ethnic mix of any school in Prescott.
When a government condones racism, as Arizona’s has, this is what you get. Governments should be leaders in helping people learn to live together, not in dividing them.
Rand Paul is the Child of an “Illegal Immigrant”
Video has surfaced of Rand Paul suggesting that the U.S. should stop granting citizenship to children of illegal immigrants.
So, from the perspective of an American Indian, Rand Paul is the child of an illegal immigrant, I am, my husband is and everyone I know is too.
Bottom line? We all better get outta here.
Seattle Boycotts Arizona
Woo hoo! Seattle votes to boycott Arizona:
In protest of Arizona’s new immigration law, the Seattle City Council voted unanimously this week to boycott Arizona. In a statement released prior to the vote, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said in part: “Seattle is home to the most diverse zip code in the nation. For communities to thrive, we need to uphold basic principles and values of fairness, family and opportunity for all.”
Uh oh. Say it ain’t so already: Is Seattle powered by AZ?
Immigration: Arizona Threatens to Turn Off the Lights in Los Angeles
Oh geez, here we go: Arizona Official Threatens to Cut Off Los Angeles’ Power as Payback for Boycott:
If Los Angeles wants to boycott Arizona, it had better get used to reading by candlelight.
That’s the message from a member of Arizona’s top government utilities agency, who threw down the gauntlet Tuesday in a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa by threatening to cut off the city’s power supply as retribution.
Gary Pierce, a commissioner on the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission, wrote the letter in response to the Los Angeles City Council’s decision last week to boycott the Grand Canyon State — in protest of its immigration law — by suspending official travel there and ending future contracts with state businesses.
Noting that a quarter of Los Angeles’ electricity comes from Arizona power plants, Pierce threatened to pull the plug if the City Council does not reconsider.
Obviously, we have got to get to work — inmediatamente — on a national immigration policy.
Sarah Palin the Quitter Tells Obama to Do His Job
From Sarah Palin’s Twitter page:
And another thing — Republicans have a lot of gall to yell at Democrats about securing the border when they didn’t do shit for the eight years they were in power under Bush.
Hah! Arizona Thinks Its Problem is Insufficient PR
Governor Out to Rebrand Arizona Over Immigration Law Criticism:
Acknowledging that Arizona has developed a serious image problem because of its tough new immigration law, Gov. Jan Brewer and tourism-industry leaders said Thursday that they will launch a new effort to stanch the flow of lost trade and convention business in the state.
The legislation and firestorm of negative publicity that followed brought calls for boycotts, moved groups to back out of local conventions and led several cities to cut business ties with Arizona companies.
The loss of business is critical in a recession-battered state vitally dependent on visitor spending.
// Good luck with that!
Tweet of the Day
So, the co-chair of the U.K’s conservative party — i.e, the Republican party — is a Muslim woman?
Why isn’t Glenn Beck all over that?
Datos de Nutricion — Yikes, the Mexicans Are Coming!
Aaah! I just bought a jar of “Ocean Spray” cranberry/pomegranate juice and the nutrition and ingredient info is in both English and SPANISH!!!!!!
Oh my God. My “Sun” laundry detergent has Spanish on it too!
Oh no. The Mexicans are coming!
I’m s-c-a-r-e-d!
“Near Economic Crisis” in Phoenix
The Arizona boycott is causing “near economic crisis” in Phoenix:
The City of Phoenix — a convention hot-spot — is facing a “near economic crisis” caused by lost revenue stemming from organizations canceling events in response to Arizona’s controversial immigration law, according to its mayor.
In the wake of the bill’s passage last month, immigration rights leaders, including Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), have called for a nationwide boycott of the state. This week, at the request of Mayor Phil Gordon, a study was presented to the city council on the potential economic impact of canceled trips.
The study assumed that each event brings 5000 people to the city as delegates, and that each delegate spends a total of around $1400, according to David Krietor, a city official who put it together. Assuming around 13 canceled events, the city calculated a loss of around $90 million, according to a Powerpoint presentation provided to TPMmuckraker.
But it’s worth taking that figure with a grain of salt. The study found that only four groups — the African-American Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the National Association of Black Accountants, the International Communications Association and the National Urban League — rather than 13, have already canceled events that had been scheduled. Another dozen events were listed as “vulnerable” to cancellation, but asked what constituted “vulnerable,” a spokeswoman for the city pointed only to “a combination of factors.” It’s also not clear that each event would have brought 5000 people to the city, or how much each person would have spent.
Arizona’s “Exploding” Crime Rate?
Teahadists say Arizona needs its new “immigration” law because of an “exploding” crime rate. Yeah? Where is it (PDF)?
After 28 Years, John McCain Thinks It’s Time to “Complete the Dang Fence”
John McCain, running in a tough primary race in Arizona, is out with a new ad. Yep, John McCain, who has been in Washington SINCE 1982, thinks it’s time to “complete the dang [border] fence.”
After 28 years, you’d think he could oh, I don’t know, maybe have gotten that done by now?
Fox Poll Backfires — on Fox
Playing off of this news, about five California students who were sent home from school on Cinco de Mayo because they wore American flag T-shirts in an attempt to draw Hispanic kids into a fight, Fox is running a poll that isn’t exactly turning out the way it hoped:
I’m willing to bet money that Fox thought the first choice (“teach the kids what the flag means)” would win hands down. Guess they just found a weakness in their propaganda. Undoubtedly they’re rushing to shore it up as we speak.
Oh, btw. If you click on the blue link — “school administrator” — on Fox’s site, you go to an ad for Intel. Tricky.
Boulder, Colorado Votes to Boycott Arizona
I am so proud to live in a city that has decided to boycott Arizona over its new “immigration” law:
Boulder Suspends Official Travel to Arizona Over Immigration Law:
The city of Boulder will immediately suspend sending any employees to Arizona on business, and may take additional action against the state, in a show of opposition to its wide-reaching new immigration law.
City Manager Jane Brautigam on Wednesday morning sent a memo to all department directors ordering them to cancel any plans to travel to Arizona for conferences or other city business, even if the tickets have been paid for.
“This action is being taken to demonstrate our opposition to Arizona’s new public policy, embodied in recent legislation, to require documentation for all persons who may be suspected of being in that state without official status or approval,” Brautigam wrote. “Such a policy is contrary to our organization’s commitment to diversity and is a violation of our core values.”
