I think I'll head north...

…and start a business.

Ah, the first thought that someone wants to join the American Dream. The best and brightest leaving the Third World behind and starting afresh in the United States.

Case Study #1
Flavio Perez came here 15 years ago. He obtained a green card, rolled up his sleeves, and went to work hanging drywall. He started a business: Chateau Drywall. His goal was to retire by the time he was 35.

Great! He’s creating jobs and contributing to the economy.

Ooops! Flavio wasn’t so good with accounting. In 1996 he shorted the IRS $3,000 by understating his profit. By 2001 the shortage was $160,000. The total amount of taxes due by the time he stopped came to $392,070!

He’s 34 now. He’ll be spending his 35th birthday in prison, serving out his three year sentence. Then Immigration will VOID his green card and send him back to Mexico.

You don’t suppose he ever used illegal aliens as laborers, do you?

Case Study #2
Nuevo Foto Munoz. That’s the name of a little shop that specializes in passport photos, run by Mexican immigrant Elias Munoz, age 63. In 1992 Elias set up his studio in Little Village, a Latino neighborhood in Chicago.
It was a nice fit. Elias never learned English. He never sought citizenship. He just wanted to take pictures.

He made about $300 a day (cash) as part of a fake ID ring that was broken up in 2007. People knew that if they needed a fake green card or a drivers license they could hang out at the Little Village Discount Mall on 26th Street. Someone would find you, negotiate the deal, and send you to Elias for a photo. The indictment said that Munoz “provided members of the organization order forms, which he kept in a box on a desk in the entryway of [the shop].”

Elias entered a guilty plea in court yesterday. He confessed that he knew they were making fake documents with his photos. He could do five years and owe $250,000 in fines, but it’ll probably be much less than that.

His business partners (21 of them in all) are quite unsavory. Here’s a link to the family who ran the show: http://www.paperweapons.net/

Now, the day of the arrest caused quite a stir in Chicago. Some people accused the feds of intimidating Latinos just a week before the May Day demonstrations. Others felt the feds were heavy-handed, showing up in riot gear and forcing innocent bystanders to the ground.
One Chicago Alderman remarked, “It was way overkill. They had machine guns, shotguns, bullet-proof vests. It was a huge, huge endeavor. They struck fear into the heart of the Little Village community.”

That Alderman was 22nd Ward’s Ricardo Munoz, son of Elias Munoz. Ricardo had no comment after his father’s guilty plea yesterday.

More evidence of the protected class

The story is all too familiar. Hispanic male, no license, driving drunk. He slams into another car and takes a life.

And we wonder if he’s illegal or not.

This happened way back in March but the story is still unfolding.

His name was Alejandro Antonio Rivas, age 46.
He lived in Newton Grove, North Carolina.
He had “bottles” (plural) of open liquor in the car.
He crossed the center line and struck a minivan driven by a college professor, Dr. Lewis M. Fetterman Jr, age 57. Fetterman’s wife was in the car. Her life was spared because Dr. Fetterman swerved abruptly to the right just before impact and took the brunt of the collision himself.
Rivas had no license.
His insurance was not valid.
Toxicology reports on Rivas came in with a BAC of 0.29.
Rivas also died in the crash.

The highway patrol and county sheriff approached Immigration to determine if Rivas was in the United States legally.

Well, they got an answer (sort of) 3 ½ months later.

I quote from the story in The Sampson Independent newspaper:
Barbara Gonzalez, national spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said only that Rivas’ name was a common one. She could not speak to his status, and cited problems and privacy issues in dealing with individuals who are deceased.“That’s not something we confirm,” said Gonzalez.

Sorry folks, we’ll never know the answer to that one.

Gonzalez went through the motions of explaining that had Rivas survived he could have been deported after serving his time in the United States. But she knows better than that. A DUI raises little interest with Immigration.

Maybe if the feds actually picked up the identified illegals, local police would be more likely to call.

"A true conservative"

On February 10 George Bush called John McCain “a true conservative,” like Bush would know anything about that.

Bush is a true conservative on three or four points.
Taxation – He seems to understand the need to keep taxes low. (But he misses the other half of the equation. See Spending below.)
Defense – He understands the need for a strong military.
Personal morality – There is no talk that Bush drinks, takes drugs, or cheats on his wife.
Judges – On this point it may have been just a matter of luck. There was the Harriet Miers fiasco first of all. That leads me to believe that the Roberts nomination was more luck than anything else. But even an ugly win is a win after all.

But Bush fails the “true conservative” test in these important areas.
Spending – Bush fails miserably. He spends like the rich brat he is, as though the federal treasury were a no-limit American Express card. Reagan upset all sorts of people but he cut off spending and hiring. His message was simple; if your people want it fund it locally.
Globalization – Bush bargains around the world with his free trade agreements. Eliminating tariffs may make imports cheaper but at the expense of American jobs. Conservatives aren’t isolationists, but they aren’t dopes either.
Sovereignty – Conservatives yearn for a national identity. Border state politics differ from the rest of the country. We need a leader who will stand up to the world and defend our language and traditions, not patronize the flavor of the day, be it Cinco de Mayo or Muslims who consider themselves jilted in some way or gays who want the right to marry. Rove wanted to dance with everyone. Bush went along.
The global warming hoax – Bush is chasing Al Gore, trying to catch up to him. That can’t be good.
Energy – Had he vigorously pursued nuclear power and exploration we might have had some leverage with oil prices.
Regulation – Entrepreneurs now go to India, Australia and China to set up shop. We’ve become Europe with too much government interference in the business world.
Anti-entitlements – Bush has presided over the house of cards where loans were given to people who had no way to pay for them. Much of federal spending above went to people living off the government. He tries to act tough in the face of unemployment benefit extensions or mortgage bail-outs, but these are token gestures in the face of a history of spending.
Rule of law – A true conservative obeys the laws of the land. Bush is our #1 enforcer and he has failed to enforce immigration laws. Only since 2006 has he made an effort to catch up with Bill Clinton.

Time will tell how conservative McCain turns out to be, but an endorsement from Bush is not a good sign.

McCain may be the lesser of two evils in November, but that doesn't make him "a true conservative."

The amigo vote

The candidates are off to the races, competing for their fringe votes now. The solid, convention-bound party regulars are all tucked in to bed so let’s change the message and go after the undecided.

Using Monty Hall tactics, John McCain rushes over to the Latino voters. He holds a closed-door meeting with Hispanics in Chicago.

(Now, there is no such thing as “closed-door” for a presidential candidate. Was McCain thinking he could cut a deal with Latinos and keep it a secret from heartland voters? If so, he’s not fit for the office.)

McCain told the 150 invited Latino activists exactly what they wanted to hear: "I was proud to work for Comprehensive Immigration Reform and if I am elected President I assure you that in 2009 I will ask Congress to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform."

And he threw in the guest worker program to boot.

He also described Mexico as our “dearest friend”. By the way, he went to Mexico on July 1-3 and did a photo op with Jeb Bush and got a blessing from the Monsignor himself in the Catholic Church in Mexico City.

And he snuck in a visit with Columbia’s President Uribe.

And McCain has come out in support of NAFTA and a Columbian version. Heck, why not a NAFTA for ALL of the Western Hemisphere? McCain is all for it.

He is proving himself to be a true George Bush conservative.

But Obama has his eye on the same demographic.

From what I can see, the Hispanics have moved back to the Left. We have returned to the voting patterns of 1996. Cubans will vote Republican. The rest will side with the Democrats. The only question is whether or not Hispanics will vote this time. Lots of money is flowing into the campaign to get Latinos to vote in November.

Even State Farm Insurance kicked in $1 MILLION for a Spanish-language ad campaign to stimulate voting. (I don’t call that being a “good neighbor”.)

McCain is wasting his time. He’d do better going after the blue collar worker and the intellectual independent.

The dogs of politics

I suppose all modern presidents have had a First Dog.

I’m a bit cynical about all of this. I side with Dick Chaney regarding the use of animals as political props. Remember all the hoopla each Thanksgiving when the president spares a turkey?

Last year Bush decided he needed to pardon not one, but TWO turkeys. And Cheney suggested they be named Lunch and Dinner.

But some have used the old canine as a political tool even before they made it to the White House.

Of note is Checkers, the family pet of Senator Dick Nixon. After sharing the details of his meager family budget in the face of graft charges (entire speech here)
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/richardnixoncheckers.html Nixon goes on to explain that his dog Checkers was a gift from a man in Texas and he wasn’t about to give it back. Then there is Buddy, the Bill Clinton dog. Bill spent so much time in the dog house that he surely bonded with his dog.
And in my research about Barney, the Bush dog, I was amazed to discover the amount of time, attention and tax revenue expended on the White House dog. There is a photo album of DAILY pictures of the dog taken for a couple of years. That has been replaced with Barney-cam. Can you imagine a White House photographer assigned to capture and publish a daily photo of Barney?
I don’t deny a man the right to own a dog, but do I have to pay for a photographer to take daily pictures of him? Seems a bit much to me.

Speaking of excessive, there is a photo going around as part of a book promotion. It shows Obama holding a white dog with the Lincoln Memorial as a backdrop!
Did I mention that it is a three-legged dog?

Obama needs to join the Catholic Church. At least that way he’d have a shot at sainthood. He’s well on his way.


But Obama has some stiff competition. Boy, dog, altar, the Blessed Virgin. It doesn't get any better than that.

Thatcher

I just received the most recent issue of Imprimis. I always find the articles interesting.

This issue had to do with the dedication of a Margaret Thatcher statue at Hillsdale College. The speech was by John O’Sullivan.

I was impressed by his analysis of Thatcher’s impact on the economy of Great Britain. It would appear that we need a strong dose of the same medicine. I wish I could say that England has stayed the course set by Lady Thatcher but they have not; thus I have no evidence that her path would lead US where we need to go.

Her first lesson is that what we found when the wall fell was a Soviet system that didn’t work. Government was not only ineffective but also corrupt. As some of these new nation-states replaced Soviet rule, they often turned to the model of democracy.

O’Sullivan remarked in his speech, “Lady Thatcher became a hero to these new societies. But when she visited them, her message was political as much as economic: It was that they should treat the rule of law as being vital to both democracy and market freedom. Her message was one of ordered liberty.”

She sought to bring back the “vigorous virtues” of self-reliance, diligence, thrift, trustworthiness, and initiative.

In 1986, Alexander Natta of the Italian Communist Party commented on the welfare state and government meddling in the free market. Natta remarks, “Any bureaucratization encourages the apparatus to protect its own interests and to forget about the citizens’ interests. I suppose that is exactly why the Right’s demands of re-privatisation are falling on a fertile ground in Western public opinion.”

Today Thatcher sounds a warning regarding this mania over free trade agreements. Everywhere we look Bush is trying to strike a new deal (NAFTA, CAFTA, North Korea…) with some emerging nation. It is the “bait” of diplomatic negotiations for Bush.

But O’Sullivan remarks that Thatcher in her book “Statecraft” claims that vigorous virtues and ordered liberty and exactly what we need in the globalization process. “She believes in international cooperation between sovereign nation-states rather than global governance by transnational institutions. In particular, while urging a warm relationship with continental Europe, she proposes that Britain should regain and exercise its sovereign independence in a wider commonwealth of English-speaking peoples.”

I agree. I think we are seeing the effects of a NAFTA that is “too close” and an EU that often forgets the sovereignty of its member nations. Certainly the United Nations cannot guide us out of these malformed alliances. Being self-preserving, NAFTA will ignore or even disguise the failures in the agreement. Sales figures notwithstanding, NAFTA has NOT improved the quality of life on either side of the border.

If it was supposed to relieve the pressure of illegal immigration at the border it has failed. To the contrary, there has been a steady increase in unlawful presence from Mexico since NAFTA began.

I believe Thatcher helps us to understand WHY it has failed. It isn’t because border crossing is too cumbersome or trucking policies have not been fair for Mexican drivers. It is because of a lack of fundamental virtue and respect for sovereignty and the rule of law.

Congress and candidates alike miss this important point.

A new "F" word

The old stand-by vulgarity is getting some competition.

We now hear that Uncle Sam can’t find the tainted tomatoes. Maybe it wasn’t the tomatoes at all. And lots of people from grocers to restaurant owners are complaining to the government about the scare.

The new F word is Food, as in FDA.

That’s actually a second strike for them. People are already upset with them over the drug development and approval process.

Or, it could be the other F word – Federal, as in FAA.

And there are a few federal F words in the banking industry these days. And the stock market regulators.

If we are going to be a socialist country with half of us working for the government, you would think we could at least expect good service. (Has it ever really worked that way?)