Wasted in Austin...and elsewhere.

I've been ignoring the J-S series bashing Wisconsin for not inculcating a (hypocritical) teetotaling Southern Baptist culture like the South (someone should have stopped the Germans from settling here 150 years ago...), but after reading this very good article from American Thinker I'm pretty pissed off they haven't mentioned a single Wisconsinite killed killed by an illegal alien drunk driver (OK, the illegal alien who offed himself in Wausau didn't take anyone with him, but you can't count on that, can you?).

You want to bash cultures that "encourage" drunk-driving (maybe I'm not drinking in the right places, but I've never seen it encouraged here...)? That's your right, but have the guts to also condemn cultures that encourage not only drunk driving but racial bigotry and refusal to cooperate with authorities.

Why would anyone want the government in charge of their medical decisions?!?!

Testimony about unsafe/illegal working conditions at the Agriprocessor plant in Postville may be lost because the prosecution didn't get depositions scheduled before the deportations of illegal aliens they employed.

I'm not really surprised that different federal bureaucracies don't communicate. But imagine the assorted inevitable disasters when the various federal bureaucracies need 20 days to process requests from your doctor, or don't submit the proper forms to the right clinic before your scheduled operation...

I've long been arguing that immigration enforcement is more humanitarian than our current setup--trafficked "sex workers" (including children) and other illegal workers can't freely contact the local authorities to report their abusers--so this just fries my hash anyway.

More Postville...

Congressmen from California and New Jersey visit Iowa to listen to people whine about how mean and unfair it is to arrest people for breaking the law. Note that neither they nor the "reporter" bothered to talk to anyone who might have disagreed...

''This is wrong,'' he said. ''We've taken men and women who want to work and made felons out of them.''

Oh, come ON. They chose to commit felonies when they stole Social Security numbers and used them to fraudulently apply for jobs they were not legally eligible to take. The only culpability "we" have is not stopping them at the border when they entered illegally.

I'm so tired of these clowns.

Postville update

The Amnesty Press would like us to feel sorry for illegal aliens still living in their own homes despite being arrested in the May raid in Postville. The piece is basically a plea for donations to help these poor, persecuted people out.

I do feel a little sorry for them; they should be allowed to go back from whence they came. Seems sort of silly to me to force them to remain in Iowa when we know they're not supposed to be there. Otherwise...begging for toothpaste? You brought it on yourselves.

You know what I'm not looking forward to? In 10-15 years when all these "citizens by place of birth" (i.e., anchor babies whose deported parents didn't leave them here) who grew up in other countries turn 18 and come legally streaming back over the border, presumably harboring some level of resentment, and obviously entitled to vote. I don't think anyone on the "legal immigration only" side of things has thought that through very well (the "reward people for law-breaking!" side no doubt feels a tingling up their leg).

(Identity theft is a five-month sentence? That seems really light; you get a lot more time for crimes that don't completely fuck someone else over for the rest of their life.)

Blah blah blah.

The next time some lefty with a brain as soft as their heart tells you "no person is illegal!" show them this picture from the Chicago Tribune, showing a teenage father wearing a T-shirt that says "I am illegal." Multicultural correctness demands that we call people by the label they call themselves (N and Q words excepted)...

(I've been working on adapting that bit in Rules for Radicals about using people's own rules against them; an exception to the label rule follows:)


Here's the photo gallery. Do not look if you get upset by people using American flags as blankets.

Interesting how all the reportage is calling these "immigrant rights' rallies" and the participants are all about giving amnesty to people breaking the law. My animal companion prefers to be addressed as "FUZZ the Magnificent, Omnipotent Ruler of All" but he's still just a cat.

I was trying to figure out what rights legally resident foreign nationals with a permanent visa (i.e., immigrants) don't have, and I couldn't come up with many. They can't vote, welfare eligibility is determined by type of visa (whoa, I can't believe I just called welfare a right, bad Heather), some communities restrict gun ownership...when they choose to become citizens, the major right they're denied is being POTUS (I'm not sure that's a right; a whole lot of people born here don't get to be POTUS either). But their kid can be, if s/he's smart enough not to insult the electorate trying to get a laugh from Billionaire's Row.

Illegal aliens don't have as many rights as immigrants; if the want the rights, maybe they should go home and become immigrants (Language...you control society through language...). Immigrants are great; I've worked with people from all over (especially in my current job), meine Deutschelehrerin is a really neat woman, best doctor I ever had was from Ghana, etc.

They all had to have their MMR vaccination before they got to live here, and they all had better things to on a weekday than litter the streets flaunting criminal activity and telling me I'm a jerk because I expect everyone to follow the same rules.

(I'm probably a jerk, but that's not why.)

I'm not sure what the right noun to use is

"Hypocrites" doesn't seem quite right, but there does seem to be a bit of double standard in fretting over "well educated and financially stable" hippie types choosing to intentionally expose their children to preventable diseases while blithely ignoring a multitude of people who haven't had their shots streaming into the country. Yeah, some of the vaccines aren't perfect, but they seem to be better than nothing, which might be why they're required for a visa.

I'd file "measles party" under "child abuse" but I just press buttons for a living.

OTOH, if their sons contract mumps as adults, these women--there are no fathers in the article--may have removed themselves from the gene pool. (One of my friends in Iowa caught the mumps in that epidemic--not a college student, just had the misfortune to sit in a waiting room with an infected individual while his immune system was compromised by leukemia. He's fine now, but apparently orchitis is unpleasant, and I'm waiting for the phone call where he and his wife are devestated by sperm count...)

Numbers. There's so many of them.

I was previously unaware of Frontpage Milwaukee, a website by UW-Milwaukee journalism students, but I am now impressed by their willingness to ferret out and publish actual numbers--as far as can be determined, because record-keeping is (intentionally?) lousy--about felonies and recidivism among previously-deported (for their first crime...) illegal aliens in Milwaukee.

I've yet to see this topic, much less with numbers, in the J-S Online.

Kind of too bad they couldn't find any non-Mexican examples. I know they exist; in my younger days I had an acquaintance from Britain who overstayed his visa and lived off welfare in Iowa City until he was convicted of domestic assault. But last I heard he hadn't snuck back in because it's kind of hard to sneak in via airplane, and sneaking in over a remote part of the Canadian border is more work than he's willing to do.

Now, we gotta pay this guy's room and board...

How long is a "mandatory life sentence" in Wisconsin, really?

Racine - Amy Fabiano was overcome with emotion Friday as Circuit Judge Wilbur Warren read that the jury had found Ezequiel Lopez-Quintero guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and use of a dangerous weapon in the shooting death of her husband, Kenosha County sheriff's deputy Frank Fabiano Jr.

"Thank God," Amy Fabiano cried from the front row of the courtroom, "Oh, thank God."

Lopez-Quintero, 45, an illegal immigrant living in Kenosha, faces a mandatory life sentence for first-degree intentional homicide and up to an additional five years for use of a dangerous weapon. Warren said a sentencing date will be set soon.

The defense lawyer will appeal, of course; it's "unfair" that the victim's wife was in the courtroom. Unfair? It was unfair that her husband was killed by a someone who should have been sent home numerous times. But she can't appeal that decision, now, can she?

Good grief.

Defense says illegal alien who killed Kenosha County Sheriff's Deputy Frank Fabiano Jr. should be found not guilty because "he was so damn drunk he doesn't remember what happened."

So--that makes everything all right then? If he was "so damn drunk" and killed with his vehicle, would that be OK, too? If I was "so damn drunk" and shot someone to death, could I walk away (I already know the answer to that--"yes, but only if I was married to my male victim, and I'd get his estate, too!")? C'mon, sanctuary liberals...you're not on the side of anything good or just here.

I'm not a big fan of bereaved relatives filing big-money lawsuits against people/corporations who weren't involved in their loved one's death, but seeing how the perp had been arrested and released in several states before finally murdering this deputy, I hope Fabiano's family sues every entity they're legally allowed to sue. Not sure citizens can sue the government agencies who let the perp roam free illegally, but they should start with every business who ever employed the guy in violation of the law...

And Happy F-ing Valentine's Day

Migrants hold mass wedding near border:

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Nearly 600 Mexican couples tied the knot in a mass Valentine's Day wedding by the U.S. border on Thursday, many of them undocumented migrants who met while working illegally in the United States.

Maybe I'd be more attractive to men if I broke more laws. *srednop*

"Isn't she gorgeous? I love her!" said Inocencio Felix of his new wife Angelica Perez, 36, dressed in a flouncy white wedding gown. Perez was deported by U.S. immigration officials two weeks ago from the state of Oregon, where the couple met.

Felix, also living in the United States illegally, said he came back to the Mexican border city of Tijuana, across from San Diego, voluntarily for the mass open-air wedding.

"We're going to go back to the United States soon, our life is there," he said, holding a heart-shaped pink balloon.

We'll be awaiting your application at the embassy, Inocencio...make sure you've had a TB shot, OK?


I've had a bit of a discussion this week with a college friend in California about McCain's immigration plans, which he thinks are "ahead of the curve." He thinks the amnesty is a good thing, and we really don't have enough American workers with less than a high school education. I told him to come walk by the liquor store parking lot near my office. He doesn't believe illegals are committing crimes, either--and maybe they aren't killing law enforcement officers in cold blood or committing hit-and-run vehicular homicide (DUI, of course) in his fashionable suburb of Sacramento. Wisconsin seems to be quite different.

We do agree that we need to make it easier for educated people--people who will be making enough money to pay income taxes--to get here legally without waiting several years. The best doctor I've ever had was from Ghana, educated in London, waited five years--anyone like her who wants to come here should be much more welcome than they are.

[Our main disagreement is over whether or not I should fall in line and vote for McCain next Tuesday. Huckabee can't get enough delegates, so screw it! I'll write in whoever I want! And we'll talk about November when I see who his running mate is.]