Republicans

I stayed up until 2 am last night watching the Republicans debate in New Hampshire, and overall it was very interesting. Going into the debate Romney was my favorite, and after this debate, that is even more true. I was disgusted by some of the comments by John McCain and Mike Huckabee. They sounded like 3rd graders on a playground with some of their comments taking swipes at Romney. McCain and Huckabee both gave insults and then smiled like little brats. Neither of them will get my votes, and you should watch last night’s debate before you decide to support them.

As for Romney, despite the barrage of insults, he was extremely intelligent on all issues. His understanding of the health care issue was great. I still like Fred Thompson on the issues, but it doesn’t look like he wants it. Romney is now solidly my #1, Thompson #2, and Giuliani #3.

Democrats

I even sat through the 2 hours of the Democrats debate. Obviously I don’t support any of the Democrats, but eventually one of them will be battling a Republican. It’s interesting to compare the Republican debate with the Democrat debate. The Republican debate was full of substance and discussion about the issues. They were in-depth discussions on the economy, defense, health care, and illegal immigration. As I watch the Democrats, it’s almost void of details. They spent 15 minutes arguing about who is the biggest proponent of “change.” It was basically “I’m the best person for change, and I think we should have discussions about change, and who will be changing the most, because we need change!” It was idiotic, especially in comparison to the Republican discussion that actually focused on issues.

There is another GOP debate tonight on FOX News at 5 pm, but I’ll have to catch that on youtube.

John and Ken are at the forefront of rational voices in a sea of crazy amnesty here in Southern California. Yesterday they had special illegal alien boycott coverage (which I unfortunately couldn’t listen to), but they were also asked on Fox 11 News to give "their side" of the debate, which they did very well. As noted by Angelo, crazy Tony Valdez is at the end.

While they point out many of the problems caused by our current illegal immigration fiasco, I think the following clip does an even better job of contrasting the differences between the mainstream media and intelligent talk radio. Notice how all the newscasters sound like drones without brains, but John and Ken have sharp minds that make Fox 11 look like a bunch of idiots. Great stuff!

John and Ken on Fox 11

I decided that lumping my thoughts into the last post would be far too confusing, so I will start a new one. Look for new updates as I get the energy and facts to back up my points. If you make any comments while this post is in progress, you may want to indicate the "section" of this that you are replying to.

1) Understanding Terminology Used in the Illegal Immigration Debate

Before I start babbling about crime and the economy, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the terms used in the debate (especially when the media loves to spin them to death).

An illegal immigrant is someone who either entered this country without permission, or has overstayed a temporary permit (a visa)¹. Any person who is in this country, in violation of the laws of this country, is an illegal immigrant. There are different terms used to refer to people here illegally. Illegal aliens is my favorite. Liberals enjoy using "undocumented workers."

Whatever your term for people who are in the country illegally, the word "immigrant" is not sufficient. The rally over the weekend was not about "immigrants" rights, it was about "illegal immigrants" rights. The laws being debated in congress in no way affect legal immigrants. This is the primary error that so many of the protestors and students walking out of class fail to realize.

It’s not about Mexicans, Chinese people, and it’s not about legal immigrants. This debate is about illegal immigrants.

Citations: ¹Wikipedia – Illegal Immigration

2) A Foreword on Immigration

Before I get into the nitty gritty, here are some of my personal views on immigration, just so you know what my "biases" are. I believe that the United States is a great country, and something that makes it great is that we are governed by laws. As a nation we have rules and the right to enforce those rules. The United States allows immigration into our country, and people have been coming to live here for hundreds of years. I have no beef with immigrants, as my great-great-grandfather was an immigrant (I think). Many immigrants come here because they want a better life and an opportunity to have the American dream.

The debate before us now is that there are certain individuals who do not believe in the rule of law. It is within the power of the United States to create and enforce the laws. It is illegal to overstay a visa or cross the border without permission. I don’t care who the person is and no matter their circumstance, no one has a right to be in this country besides the citizens of this country. That’s correct, the USA is an exclusive club, and if you want in, you need permission. If you decide to break the laws of our country, you are a criminal.

I’m sure this will sound "mean" to people that think with their emotions. It is not racist nor predjudiced for a country to control it’s own destiny, and who we let in plays a major part in that. A quick look at France and the recent Muslim protests is an example². Just as we have decided to not let terrorists into our country, we reserve the right to say no to extremists, the uneducated, and illegal immigrants. If a person has the desire to come and enjoy the freedom of this country and the economic opportunities, I believe they should also be willing to adopt the values and language of this country. If a person is unwilling to do that, then they should not be here.

Citations: ²France – The Cost of Multicultralism

3) It’s Friday and I’m Tired.

I’m tired and don’t feel like devoting several hours of my life creating a pseudo scholarly post, so I will now be succinct.

4) The Economy and Illegals: We Don’t Need Them

All the nonsense about illegals working jobs that no one else will is total horse doo-doo. Americans will clean bathrooms, pick lettuce, and build houses, but when employers have cheap labor to exploit of course they’ll pay the lower wages. We have thousands if not millions of uneducated people that would be great at scrubbing toilets. Just go to myspace and look up all the people that graduated with you and still have no life. Illegal immigrants also love to send money back to Mexico instead of investing it back into our economy.

5) Welfare: If You Hand It Out, They Will Take It

When an illegal comes over the border they get so much handed to them. Public education, emergency medicine, roads and highways, medicare, social security, and welfare. An illegal immigrant does not deserve any of that, because they’ve done basically nothing to pay for any of it. Illegal immigrants are having babies by the thousands at our hospitals and not contributing a dime to pay for it. ONE BILLION DOLLARS. I think I’m turning into a Libertarian when it comes to economics. The solution to all of this is to make people pay for everything. Charge people $4000 to send their kid to public school, pay per miles used on the highways. In turn the goverment could get rid of property taxes or income taxes. Ultimately there should not be anything handed to illegal immigrants by the goverment reaching into the pockets of law-abiding and tax-paying citizens.

6) Illegal Immigrants Commit a lot of Crime

Crime 1: 29% of criminals filling jails are illegals, costing 1.6 billion dollars a year (they only make up around 3% of the entire population).

Crime 2: 60% of the 20,000 strong 18th street gang are illegals.

Crime 3: 95% of outstanding homicide warrants in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.

Crime 4: A whole lot of document forgery going on!

There are tons of illegal immigrants and crime links, just search google.

7) Conclusion

That’s all the energy I have. Doesn’t seem like the politicians in Washington D.C. have the guts to really do anything, so I don’t see this problem being solved anytime soon.

Updated: 3/28, 7:15 am PST

Relying on the evening news to learn about the protest march in downtown over the weekend is a bad idea. I think the best way to learn about the protest is to see it for yourself.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Looks more like people that would rather live in Mexico than here in America. Over the next couple days I’ll add to this post about different aspects of illegal and legal immigration from economics, to crime, to assimilation, to what should be done.

Update 1: Michelle Malkin posted this picture among several others at her site. To put it in context, it was outside a High School in Whittier by a bunch of protesting students. Every voter should see this.

Today I’m having a flashback of my own days back in Junior High. I think it was my 8th grade year that proposition 187 was being voted on. I remember students being upset and wanting to walk out. Today is very similar to that day 12 years ago. Some students want to walk out just because it would be fun. Others are upset and their heads are filled with erroneous beliefs about what is going on. I’ve heard everything from "They said that they don’t want Mexicans here" to "They said we can’t go to school." Sadly these Junior Highers are about as informed as the people protesting in the streets.

The L.A. Times is wrong, and you heard it here first. A headline at their site reads Students Walk Out for Immigrants. Wrong. It has NOTHING to do with immigrants. From the L.A. Times article:

 "’If this law passes, what will happen? There would be no more Los Angeles High School. Nearly all of us are immigrants,’ said Yadira Pech, a 16-year-old junior from Los Angeles High."

Dimwit, the law doesn’t say anything about immigrants, it’s about illegal immigrants. I’ll post later about the issue of illegal/legal immigration, but I just had to get off my chest that there is actually a difference between following the law (however difficult or long that process is) versus thinking you can just show up and demand the same things every true US Citizen enjoys.

Good article by Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.