The first Monday in December Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Crossposted

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts included in the next Carnival, please email me, faustaw2 "at" gmail "dot" com.

This week's focus: China's growing influence in our Hemisphere. I'll be podcasting on China's Latin American influence today at 10AM Eastern. Chat's open by 9:45AM and the call-in number is 646 652-2639.



LATIN AMERICA
China's Latin American Tango
A partnership with benefits for both sides.

Latin American diplomacy: Friends of opportunity
China, rather than Russia, is the new partner that matters

Pay attention to next-door neighbors

Latin America tops murder tables

Challenges in Latin America: Russians in Caracas, Misrule in Managua

Chávez, Correa propose new currency area

ARGENTINA
Harvesting pensions
A pre-election boost for Cristina

Kafka era argentino

Radiografía del kirchnerismo

In today's WSJ, Are Argentina's Cows Happy Eating Grain? This matters because grass-fed beef is Argentina's most famous export.

BOLIVIA
Bush Suspends Trade Accord With Bolivia in Anti-Drug Dispute

President George W. Bush suspended a trade agreement with Bolivia, saying the country provided insufficient cooperation in U.S. efforts against drug trafficking.

The president signed a declaration ending trade benefits under the Andean Trade Preference Act and the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement yesterday.

Cutting of trade benefits is the result of Bolivia’s “failure to cooperate with the U.S. counternarcotics efforts,” a condition of maintaining trade preferences, such as reduced tariffs, Perino said.

BRAZIL
Brazil floods are early sign of global warming, expert warns; meanwhile, Brazil mob attacks environmental police in Amazon

La crisis mundial del crédito frena el auge agrícola brasileño

COLOMBIA
DMG, which went under, has its own YouTube channel. The founder of DMG was arrested in Panama two weeks ago. This article (in Spanish) refers to DMG as a Ponzi scheme.

Colombia: Belle Of APEC's Ball

Betancourt makes Colombia return

CUBA
Faltan las marchas

Cuban landmark for Catholic friar

Via IBD blog, "Happy Thanksgiving!" from Fidel

ECUADOR
Ecuador: hopeless

Can pay, might not. Another debt default?

Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa is heading to Iran this week

Hopeless, Clueless and Hapless Correa & ALBA Come to Bury Capitalism: Not to Praise It

MEXICO
Mexico Has Made Big Strides on Economic Policy Calderón was smart enough to hedge against falling oil prices

Houston a weapons depot for Mexico criminal insurgency

WAR ON THE BORDER

Success in Mexico

Via Lucianne, House of shattered dreams: US deports more and more Mexicans

PERU
Garcia blames Mexican drug cartels for Peru violence

APEC summit divides bloggers, according to France24 news:


PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Governor Promises Changes

The recession now emerging in places like Florida and Ohio has been a fact of life in Puerto Rico for three years. Unemployment has climbed to nearly 12 percent. Taxes have gone up, purchasing power has declined, and the island’s roughly four million residents are unlikely to be patient with their new leader.
…
The structural challenges are immense. Government here plays an outsize role, employing 20 percent to 30 percent of workers on the island, and it is on the verge of bankruptcy. The current administration said this week that it would end the year with a $2 billion budget deficit. One official suggested it was struggling to make payroll, and some institutions — like the Center for Puerto Rican Studies — already report that they have not received government money they are owed.

VENEZUELA
Chávez Again Seeks to End Term Limits; Chavez renews reelection ambition
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced a plan to seek a constitutional amendment to allow him to stand for reelection

Brief thoughts on Venezuela

The 2008 Venezuelan results: 3 - Yaracuy as the epitome of all that is wrong with the Venezuelan Political System

Hugo Chavez reverts to his usual self a day after the election, blaming everyone but his perfect self

Russia's Challenge On The High Seas

Russia Proposes Nuclear Reactor Plan to Chavez

The Real Hugo Chavez

Alvaro Vargas Llosa writes about Chavez’s Stumble

Venezuela’s regional elections: Checked, but not halted
Some satisfaction for Hugo Chávez but more for his opponents

ENTERTAINMENT
Che Movie Debuts Miami this Week (Dec. 4)

OTHER ROUNDUPS and news in Spanish
WSJ Americas
HACER
Noticias24

The week’s posts and podcasts
The Russia-Venezuela maneuvers in the Caribbean: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Chávez Lets Colombia Rebels Wield Power Inside Venezuela
Nuclear Latin America: Today’s 15 Minutes on Latin America



Special thanks to Ada, Maggie, Eneas, GoV, and Sam.


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Oh look, Obama changed his mind... on Spanish

Via Babalu:
First Obama said immigrants should learn English:

Transcript:

"We'll have to finally bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadoes. It is time we did that. Now, let's acknowledge, yes, they broke the law. They should have to pay a fine, they should have to learn English, they should go to the back of the line, they should not get citizenship ahead of those who have been waiting patiently, but we also have to put them on a pathway to citizenship."

Then he changed his mind:

Transcript:

You know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, "We need to have English - only." They want to pass a law, "We want English-only."

Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], "Merci beaucoup." Right?

Via Memeorandum, American Voters Reject Obama's call for Bilingualism:

A national telephone survey conducted last month by Rasmussen Reports found that U.S. voters overwhelmingly disagree with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. (see video)

Eighty-three percent (83%) place a higher priority on encouraging immigrants to speak English as their primary language. Just 13% take the opposite view and say it is more important for Americans to learn other languages.

In his comments, Obama emphasized the economic benefits of learning a second language: "If you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get a job." Data suggests that most voters see the issue in a broader context.

A separate survey found that one factor fueling the anger over immigration is the belief that most government officials encourage immigrants to retain the culture of their home country. This helps explain why voters who are angry about immigration are primarily angry at the government, not immigrants. Among those angry about immigration, 59% believe most government officials encourage immigrants to retain their home country culture.

Last fall, a Rasmussen Reports survey found that 77% of Americans believed that employers should be allowed to require employees to speak English while on the job. With the Supreme Court recently upholding tougher standards for voter identification at the polls, 65% of voters now believe election ballots should only be printed in English. Thirty-two percent (32%) say they should be printed in both English and Spanish.

The importance of assimilation into the culture is highlighted in another recent survey: 54% of voters say it is more important to encourage all immigrants to embrace American culture than it is to reduce the number of immigrants. Just 36% take the opposite view and say reducing immigration is a higher priority. That survey, as with many others, also found a strong preference for ballots and other government documents to be printed in English only.

Even when bilingualism is not assimilation, the fact is that you can not assimilate into a culture without a good working knowledge of its language. All immigrants should learn English, and to learn English, you have to be taught.

In a lighter vein, A different look at the race

Prior post: Bilingualism and Obama.



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Bilingualism and Obama

Obama was saying,

You know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, "We need to have English - only." They want to pass a law, "We want English-only."

Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], "Merci beaucoup." Right?

You know, no, I'm serious about this. We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get ajob. You are so much more employable. You can be part of international business. So we should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they're 5, or 6, or 7 than when they're 46, like me.

Obama does pronounce Spanish very clearly when he does his political ads. He also does it for a political purpose. His thought that Americans should make their children bilingual in Spanish panders to "Hispanics" who are not interested in assimilating, but makes no sense vis-a-vis the argument that doing so would keep Americans from embarrassment when traveling in Europe: only a small number of Europeans speak Castillian (including, increasingly, non-Castillians born and raised in Spain). May I remind Obama that what we call Spanish in the USA is Castillian in Spain?

Andrew Leonard thinks that

There's nothing particularly exceptional about Obama's position, unless you are an English-only partisan cowering in fear of your cultural identity being swamped by funny-looking people from strange lands. Or one of the similarly insecure patriots who believe any criticism of the U.S. is a sign of "blame-America-first" treachery. And I suppose the whole comment about "going to Europe" opens Obama up to more charges of elitism, and disconnection from the lives of those who, right now, can't afford to even think about going to Europe.

Leonard clearly ignored people like myself, who are fully bilingual in Spanish, and who also can read French and a little Portuguese. Some of us are "Hispanic" (which, as I've said before is a term I use for expediency), many of us are not. I have met thousands of Americans born and raised in the USA who are multilingual.

People like myself are not "cowering in fear of your cultural identity being swamped by funny-looking people from strange lands." For starters, even when we come from "strange lands", we are not "funny-looking people". Indeed, people like me are fully integrated Americans and look like everyone else, i.e., unfunny.

What we fear is not that our "cultural identity" may or may not be "swamped", because we are secure in our cultural identity; What we worry about is that new immigrants (documented or not) who hadn't had a quality education in their countries of origin would deny themselves the opportunities our great country offers by not wanting to learn English and limit themselves to regions of the country where only their native tongue is spoken. The best paid professions in the world rely on English as their common language. India has become a dynamic economy because English-speaking jobs get outsourced to India. People how aren't willing to learn English (and I mean standard, proper, grammatically correct English) are sentencing themselves to a lifetime of poorly-paid jobs and missed opportunities.

Additionally, every country with an official second language is permanently divided. While the teaching of foreign languages (in plural - considering China's ascendancy in the global scene, Mandarin comes in handy) should be compulsory in every school in our country, English is and should remain America's language. All the original documents that created this nation should be read in the original English to be fully understood.

Which brings me to Victor Davis Hanson: his experience mirrors mine when it comes to multi-lingual America,

I was watching Obama complain that we don't speak European languages while Europeans speak English fluently. Fair enough—though the vast size of the US, the presence of two oceans on our borders, the ubiquity of Spanish here, the knowledge of other languages by millions of Americans, both explain a lot, and belie the notion that we are all English-only speakers, while the multitude of nations in close proximity has historically made Europeans by necessity multi-lingual.

Hanson, a university professor, adds the educational angle:

But that said, Obama's previous idealization of minority-theme charter schools and the need for more "oppression studies" are precisely the sorts of therapeutic curricula that ensure Americans are not getting classical instruction in languages and literatures. We still await his visit to an inner-city school where he might lecture the student body and faculty that more Latin, French, math, and Shakespeare would do more to make students competitive in an increasingly tough, global job market than thousands of hours of oppression studies and victimization classes.

Obama is wrong in believing that "Immigrants will learn English" on their own well enough to meet the challenges of any well-paid profession. Immigrants need to learn the structure, grammar, syntax and pronunciation of proper English. I know this from my own personal experience. Additionally, when it comes to the instruction of foreign languages in schools, the more classroom hours you dedicate to "self-esteem" oriented or victimization studies, the fewer hours you'll have for rigorous academic curricula of any kind, foreign languages included.

And that's not the way to favorably impress the Europeans, or anyone. TigerHawk has more on that.



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Illegal immigration and identity theft

A couple of years ago I watched a report on Univision or Telemundo (I forget which at this point) where the reporter interviewed a woman, an illegal alien from a Central American country.

The woman, who apparently was not employed, lived in a grand style. She was youngish (late twenties - early thirties?) and good looking, nicely dressed.

Her apartment looked like something out of the Pottery Barn catalogue. When asked about how did she earn the money for living in such style, she actually stated that she had done it by charging it to stolen credit cards. She felt that she was owned that lifestyle and had every right to take was she felt was her due.

By the time the report was over I was furious. There had to be hundreds like her. Unfortunately I didn't have the time or resources to investigate.

Steven Malanga, however, has been looking into the issue and has an excellent article at City Journal, Illegal in More Ways than One
Identity theft in America goes hand and hand with illegal immigration (emphasis added):

As everyone knows, America is experiencing an epidemic of identity theft. In the last five years alone, complaints to the Federal Trade Commission from U.S. residents who have had their identity stolen have skyrocketed 60 percent, to 258,427 in 2007- one-third of all consumer fraud complaints that the commission receives. What's less well understood, however, is how illegal immigration is helping to fuel this rash of crime. Seeking access to jobs, credit, and driver's licenses, many undocumented aliens are using the personal data of real Americans on forged documents. The immigrants' identity theft has become so pervasive that the need to combat it is "a disturbing front in the war against illegal immigration," according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The FTC's latest statistics help show why. The top five states in terms of reported identity theft in 2007 all have large immigrant populations - the border states of Arizona, California, and Texas, as well as Florida and Nevada. People who pilfer legitimate identities in these states are much more likely than in other parts of the country to use them to gain employment unlawfully - the most common reason that illegal aliens steal personal information. In Arizona, for instance, 36 percent of all identity theft is for employment purposes, compared with only 5 percent in Maine, a state with far fewer illegal aliens. "To many law enforcement leaders in Arizona, this suggests that Arizona's identity-theft epidemic is directly linked to the problem of illegal immigration," says a recent report by Identity Theft 911, an Arizona company that helps businesses and individuals protect themselves.

Government investigations have only begun to uncover the extent of the crime wave. When ICE agents raided six Swift meat-processing plants in December 2006, they found widespread evidence of fraud involving the use of real people's identities; the feds eventually charged 148 illegal aliens in the case with crimes related to identity theft. In the first year and a half after Arizona created a special unit to deal with identity theft, investigators said that they were able to purchase more than 1,000 phony documents that made use of real people's identities. A so-called three-pack - a Social Security card, a driver's license, and a permanent-resident card - costs on average just $160 in the state.

How is it done?

One disturbing theory: health-care employees with access to children's files are working for organized gangs that trade in illegal documents and are willing to pay richly for the data. "We have a major problem with workers in medical offices stealing patients' identities, selling them and making a direct profit," Sergeant James Bracke of the Phoenix Police Department told authors of the Arizona report. The gangs can afford these bribes because identity theft has become such a big business. In Phoenix, "coyotes," the smugglers who lead illegal immigrants over our borders, have created a network of phony-document producers and safe houses where undocumented workers can wait until they get their fraudulent papers.

Where to start? Through local law enforcement.

Until local police departments are trained and willing to fight this crime, it will continue to expand. And illegal aliens involved should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.



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The assimilation factor

Via RCP, The Assimilation Factor

Public concern about the impact of new immigration on America has reached a pitch not seen since the early 20th century. Americans have experienced an immigration surge unprecedented in their lifetimes. This is an unsurprising coincidence in light of the fact that our immigrant population of 37 million is, in absolute numbers, greater than it has been at any time in our history. It’s nearly as large a percentage, 12.5%, of the population as it was at its historic peak at 14.5% in 1890. Today, there are more immigrants from Mexico than there were foreign-born residents from all countries in 1970.
...
But the most striking finding is much less positive. The current overall assimilation level for all immigrant groups combined, measured on a scale of zero to 100, is, at 28, lower now than it was during the great immigration wave of the early 20th century, when it never went below 32. What's more, the immigrant group that is by far the largest is also the least assimilated. On the zero-to-100 scale, Mexicans — 11 million emigrated to America between 1980 and 2006 — score only 13.

Although Mexican assimilation does occur, it's extremely slow. Mexicans who arrived in 1995 started out with Index scores around five - and increased only to around 10 by 2005. In other words, our largest immigrant group arrived with little education and even less knowledge of English, and they have stayed that way for an extended period.

By contrast, Vietnamese started at similar low levels and in 10 years rose to an Index level of more than 40. Notable, too, is that Generation 1.5 - Mexicans who came to this country as children aged five or younger - are also remaining distinct, and in some worrisome ways: they are less likely than other immigrant groups to become citizens, and more likely to be in prison or be a teen mother.

This is sad but not surprising: one can easily expect a large group of young people who are alienated from both their country of origin and from the society in which they now belong to end up in such circumstances:

A hundred years ago, there was a pro-assimilation movement led by the nation’s cultural elite. Across the country, more than 400 settlement houses - from New York's Henry Street to Chicago's Hull House - were established. Their mission, taken up by the privileged of that era, included Americanization of newcomers. Indeed, the Pledge of Allegiance, first published in 1892, was written as a primer of America's values just when immigration was hitting its peak.

Today, the pledge is regarded as chauvinistic, particularly by those who should be leading the assimilation effort. We can't bemoan low levels of immigrant assimilation if 21st century America's most fortunate lack the cultural self-confidence to promote it.

As I have said before, acculturation is not simply being bilingual. There has to be a complete immersion in American language, history - and most important - values.

Unless those three factors come together, integration won't take place.

And the immigration problem is an integration problem.



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Immigrants chase the Brazilian Dream

The BBC Brazilian edition reports (link in Portuguese) Number of immigrants in search of the ' Brazilian dream ' grows: An increasing number of immigrants are arriving in Brazil in search of opportunity. Foreigners are arriving as individual investors, employees of multinational corporations, or illegally, encouraged by the growth and stability of the Brazilian economy.

The depreciation of the Argentinian currency, Spain's tougher immigration laws, and Brazil's new agreements with Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay is attracting South American immigrants.

The US is the leading country requesting investment visas, with Great Britain and the Philippines in second and third places. Investment from the Phillipines is mostly in oil. Italy, France, Germany, India, Japan, China and Canada round up the top ten.

The BBC reports that Brazil has an estimated 600,000 illegal aliens, 75,000 of which are Bolivians.

As you can see from the report, people will opt for economic opportunity whenever they can. As the Bolivian government clamps down on economic investment, the people go where they can prosper.

UPDATE
Meanwhile, in Europe, Is the Polish diaspora returning home?, via Siggy



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Saving Santa's home, Basil Faulty, and not crossing the Delaware

Change your lifestyle because Santa's watching. And enjoy your lump of coal while you're at it, too!


UPDATE: Give Up Energy or the Fat Man Gets It
The fact is that the global temperature of 2007 is statistically the same as 2006 as well as every year since 2001. Global warming has, temporarily or permanently, ceased. (h/t Small Dead Animals)
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Maria tells me that Washington couldn't cross the Delaware this year, again.

The real George Washington crossed the Delaware, a perilous endeavor at this time of year, and made history by winning the Battle of Trenton 231 years ago today.
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Political Correctness- The Fawlty Logic of the Left and Basil Faulty,

Basil Faulty, you ask?
Well, go read about it.
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Via Instapundit, Illegal immigrants "self deport" as woes mount

The toughening environment has been coupled with a turndown in the U.S. economy, which has tipped the balance toward self deportation for many illegal immigrants left struggling to find work.
...
Mexican consular sources in Phoenix say they are seeing a spike in the number of immigrants applying for Mexican citizenship for their U.S.-born children, which will allow them to enroll in schools in Mexico.

They are also seeing a rise in requests for papers enabling families to carry household belongings back to Mexico, free of import duties.

Members of the Brazilian community in the U.S. northeast, meanwhile, say they are starting to see an increase in the number of illegal immigrants heading back to their homes in Brazil in recent months.

"They are beginning to put in the balance the constant fear of being detained and deported, and many are deciding to leave," said Fausto Mendes da Rocha, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Boston.

Enforcing the current laws is having an effect.
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More blog fun,
A beautiful post from Laurie Kendrick, I Know How This Day Ends

Doug Ross has the Motivational posters for Christmas

SheBlogs Carnival's up!

More blogging later.



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Hillary, the media and today's roster

Betsy's asking, Has the victim card been played out?
It'll never be played out. There's too much riding on the victimology industry.

It takes a village to tip a single mom
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Jihad on panties
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Siggy writes about Media Dances And Other Forms Of Distraction and this week's Useful Media Idiot of the Week
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Bernard Kerik has been indicted. I agree with Macsmind that "But this is good news in a way for Guilliani the story will be three days old by Monday."

Jammie Wearing Fool has the whole roster of Hillary cronies.

Green Mountain Politics has a good Giuliani impersonation.
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Via Larwyn, Roy Spencer on Global Warming
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As N.Y. Economy Sours, Aliens Plan To Leave for Home, or at least for Newark.
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The Van Gogh didn't sell
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Via Sex and the South,

Nilofar, Lars, Mahmoud, and immigration, all in the podcast

Siggy, Dymphna, Baron Bodissey and I discussed four different topics last Wednesday night:

I opened by mentioning Nilofar Bakhtiar, whose France2 interview aired right before the podcast started. Ms Bakhtiar went skydiving in France last April and has a fatwa on her head because she hugged her male skydiving instructor. Following the scandal, she offered to resign but the Pakistani Prime Minister refused her resignation.

During the France2 interview, Ms Bakhtiar calmly discussed that

In February a female provincial minister was shot dead by a man who, police said, did not think women should be in politics.

Mrs. Bakhtiar is unveiled, her daughter is unveiled, her two sons are proud of their mom, and her husband in firmly on her side.

They all live under 24-hr armed custody.

Mrs. Bakhtiar's situation illustrates "the two Pakistans", the way Ahmadinejad illustrates "the two Irans", so we went on to talk about Ahmadinejad's upcoming visit to New York next week. I'm sure you won't be surprised that we all agree with Mitt Romney's position that the UN indict Ahmadinejad under the Genocide Convention.

The latest on 'Jad is that he won't be visiting Ground Zero but Columbia University said it does not plan to call off his upcoming speech. As Roger (who was not in the podcast) asks,

I have a question for the Columbia crowd, since Holocaust deniers are welcome, would you allow a speaker in favor of a return to black slavery?

Certainly Columbia can't be hosting 'Jad for his scholarship or for his legitimacy as a world leader.

'Jad update: The New York Times editorial board will host Ahmadinejad for lunch at the Four Seasons hotel on Monday.

Back to the podcast: From there we talked about how Lars Vilks's artwork earned him a fatwa, and a $100,000 bounty on his head, with an additional $50,000 if he's decapitated. Gates of Vienna has been following the story from the start, and the latest is that the chairman the Muslim Association of Sweden wants "a clear law to protect the Muslim minority in this country."

Siggy refers to Wednesday's as Podcast As Slugfest, because we got into the subject of the DREAM act. I am totally against providing in-state tuition breaks to illegal aliens if the dependents of the taxpayers of that state can not get the same in-state (lower) fees, but Siggy is equally adamant that we should educate them at tax payer expense - even when the taxpayers don't get the same break.

Yesterday I heard from the friend that I mentioned in my post. She was hoppin' mad, because, aside from being the taxpayer I mentioned in the podcast, the DREAM act
1. denies in-state tuition to legal aliens with student visas
and
2. repeals a 1966 Federal law that requires that states offer all US citizens in-state tuition if it's to provide it to illegals.

She was ready for a slugfest, but turned down my offer to come on the podcast to discuss it.

If this podcast was a slugest, I'd say it's a couth, gentle, slugfest, but you must listen and tell me, was it a slugfest?



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DREAM: Amnesty through the back door

Larwyn sent a link to an article at the Heritage Foundation: A Sleeper Amnesty: Time to Wake Up from the DREAM Act

Just three months after the Senate immigration bill met its well-deserved end, amnesty advocates in the U.S. Congress resumed their efforts. Recently, Senator Richard Durbin (D–IL) announced on the Senate floor his intention to offer the Development, Relief, and Edu­cation for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act as an amend­ment to the defense authorization bill.

The DREAM Act (S. 774) is a nightmare. It is a mas­sive amnesty that extends to the millions of illegal aliens who entered the United States before the age of 16. The illegal alien who applies for this amnesty is immediately rewarded with "conditional" lawful per­manent resident (green card) status, which can be converted to a non-conditional green card in short order. The alien can then use his newly acquired status to seek green cards for the parents who brought him in illegally in the first place. In this way, it is also a back­door amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens who brought their children with them to the United States.

This means that you wouldn't even have to be born in the USA in order to become an "anchor baby."

Then there's the matter of in-state tuition rates at public universities:

What is less well known about the DREAM Act is that it also allows illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition rates at public universities, discriminating against U.S. citizens from out of state and law-abiding foreign students. It repeals a 1996 federal law that pro­hibits any state from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens unless the state also offers in-state tuition rates to all U.S. citizens.

But it doesn't end there,

The DREAM Act also makes the illegal aliens eli­gible for federal student loans and federal work-study programs—another benefit that law-abiding foreign students cannot receive—all at taxpayer expense. A consistent theme emerges: Illegal aliens are treated much more favorably than aliens who fol­low the law. There is no penalty for illegal behavior.

My friend, a naturalized American citizen originally from South America (who was driven out of New Jersey because of high taxes which pay for NJ colleges) who lives in Pennsylvania but works in New Jersey and whose daughter (also a naturalized citizen) goes to college in NJ, is incensed about this:
Here she is, having gone (along with her family) through the lengthy citizenship process,
having paid NJ real estate taxes for decades,
still paying NJ income taxes,
and paying out-of-state tuition at a NJ university,
and now illegal aliens would be getting in-state tuition.

As a law-abiding American citizen, I'm angry, too.

Pandering report: "Democrats Reach Out to Hispanic Voters"

I watched the Univision debate last evening. It was a rather baffling spectacle. For starters, it wasn't a debate; it was a round-robin press conference where the candidates addressed the two moderators, Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas, and not each other.

Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson took part in the program. Biden couldn't make it.

Richardson and Dodd weren't allowed to reply in Spanish because it would give them an unfair advantage over Hillary the other candidates. Richardson was twice stopped by Ramos when Richardson tried to reply in Spanish. At one point Richardson protested,

"In other words, Univision is promoting English-only in this debate."

Even when I find this bilingual pandering absurd, I actually would have preferred to hear Richardson and Dodd reply in Spanish since the speakers weren't muted and you heard a garbled mess of low-volume English and higher-volume Spanish. There was also a fair amount of overlapping between the answers, the translations, and the next questions. It wasn't so much a tower of Babel as it was a Tower of Garbled.

The debate was focused exclusively on saying what the Democrats think the audience wanted to hear:

• Open borders; Obama, Clinton and Dodd were asked why wouldn't they want a barrier on the Canadian border because after all, "none of the September 11 terrorists came in through Mexico."

Give it time, Jorge, give it time. Continuing,

• Reuniting families (Hillary); the courage of those "doing the jobs Americans don't want to do" (Edwards)
• Spanish as the official second language of the US (Kucinich)
• And government intervention in everything from education to mortgages to healthcare

Kucinich wants to abolish NAFTA; Edwards will raise your taxes to pay for medical insurance; Hillary wants more and more government regulation and intervention in the banking system because "40% of Hispanic homeowners have second mortgages."

No surprises there.

Much to their credit, neither Richardson nor Dodd would support Spanish as a second official language.

Gravel wants an "open-arms policy with Latin America" and would embrace Hugo Chavez; he also made a huge gaffe by saying he wants to recognize the Castro regime, asking, "What's the big deal?'' to a South Florida audience. Oooh boy.

NY Times: Democrats Reach Out to Hispanic Voters

Mr. Obama, who is seeking strong support from both black and Hispanic voters, recalled a telegram the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sent to Cesar Chavez when the two men were each involved in protest strikes. The telegram read, "Our separate struggles are one."

Did Dr. King send the telegram in Spanish?

Washington Post: In a First, a Candidate Forum in Translation
Democratic Event on Latino Issues Is Exceptional More for Format

Several questions focused on immigration, and the seven participants exhibited little difference on the issue, with all supporting changes that would allow illegal immigrants now in the country to stay and eventually receive U.S. citizenship, and all criticizing anti-immigrant sentiments. Nearly all the candidates committed to overhauling immigration laws in their first year in office, days after Republican candidates accused each other in a debate of supporting "amnesty."

But it is amnesty, and the American public doesn't want it.

Miami Herald: Democrats try to speak to Hispanics
In a debate at the University of Miami broadcast by Spanish-language television giant Univisión, Democratic presidential candidates hoped to speak voters' language.

No major gaffes occurred, but the on-air translation of the candidates' answers into Spanish was spotty at times.

"It detracted tremendously from the quality of the debate," said Eduardo Gamarra, director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean studies at Florida International University. Gamarra, who led a focus group of 19 young Hispanic Democrats who watched the debate, also criticized the candidates for giving vague responses.

The Herald noticed that the Democrats are throwing Florida off the primary train:

But the new law bumping up the primary to Jan. 29 -- upending the calendars set by the national parties -- has come at a price. The Republican National Committee plans to take away half of Florida's delegates to the 2008 convention, while the Democratic National Committee won't count the state at all at its convention.

Nearly all the Democrats have pledged to skip states that break party rules, throwing the Florida campaign into disarray.

El Herald has anAP video of the debate that actually allows you to listen to the ungarbled replies in English.

Did all this pandering pay off? Apparently not:

And some in the mostly college-age crowd, whether Hispanic or not, said they walked away disappointed that the questions in the debate centered too much on immigration and Latin America and not enough on issues they said would help them narrow down their choice of candidate.

Ziva at Babalu asks,

Did Senator Dodd say anything about freeing Dr. Biscet and Cuba's political prisoners, or about the lack of Human Rights on the island? Chris Dodd's Cuba policy does not require any concessions from the regime.

The Washington Post article I linked to above states,

Latinos make up the nation's largest minority group, about 14 percent of Americans, but they represent only about 9 percent of the electorate because of lower citizenship and participation rates. Still, their votes are coveted, in part because Latinos are regarded as a group still up for grabs between Democrats and Republicans, and because their numbers are particularly strong in several states Democrats regard as must-wins, such as Florida, California and New York.

The Democrats are assuming that there is such a thing as a Latino block of voters that will be swayed by this sort of gimmick. They are wrong. The Mexican voters in California are not the Cuban voters in Miami and neither are the Puerto Rican and Caribbean voters in New York.

Also at Babalu, Henry points out,

At the end of the day, in South Florida, there are almost as many independents as there are Democrats and the Democrats have "achieved" an increase of 2 basis points in the last 16 years (well within the margin of error of the poll).

You see while Cuban-American voters don't generally do demonstrations, we do elections.

And that's what matters.

Update:
As it turns out, us bloggers at home were better off than the credentialed journalists in the Media Room.

Update 2:
Univision's so-called debate

Cross-posted at Heading Right



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Pandering tonight: Dems "debate" on Univision

The Democrat party is now deep into full-pandering mode: they can't be bothered to hold a real debate on Fox News but they're willing to have someone do the translating for them on Univision tonight for their round-robin press conference, which they continue to call a "debate".

By doing so, they continue to foment the delusional Hispanic mirage, which perpetuates the exploitation of poor Spanish speakers by denying them the means to participate in all of our country's opportunities - of which learning English is only the first step.

Make no mistake: not learning English is the surest way to keep the underprivileged dependent on big government and the welfare state.

The Courant: A Big Night For Latinos
In Debate Sunday, Connection Is Key

"A lot of people are free today because they believe in the American dream," he said.

And that dream means debates like Sunday's, where the nation's Hispanic voters can not only watch eight White House hopefuls respond to issues of special concern to their communities but also have their answers translated into Spanish.

"We'll have a unique opportunity to hear a discussion in a format we've really never heard before," said Janet Murguia, the president and chief executive officer of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic activist group.

The debate at the University of Miami will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. on the Univision television network, Radio Cadena Univision and online at Univision.com. Univision, a Spanish-language network, claims it reaches 99 percent of all U.S. Hispanic television households.

The forum will be conducted in English - since only New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Connecticut Sen. Christopher J. Dodd speak fluent Spanish - and will be simultaneously translated into Spanish.

But the meaning is clear.

Think of all the Hispanics who fled their native countries for political reasons, said Jorge Mursuli, national executive director of Democracia U.S.A., a nonpartisan group that encourages political involvement.

"We tell people in this country it's easy to become civically engaged," he said, "and these debates are an incredible example of how to bring democracy right into the living rooms of Hispanic Americans."

Spare me the pandering, please. If the La Raza people were really interested in effective political involment by Spanish-speakers, they would be sponsoring English as a Second Language classes.

The Miami Herald: Democrats to participate in first Spanish-language debate

Democratic presidential candidates were meeting Sunday night for the first debate broadcast entirely in Spanish, the clearest sign yet of the growing influence of Hispanic voters.

How influential do those voters really want to become that they can't bother to learn the language used in Congressional bills, the tax code, and the Senate record?

Or are the Dems proposing to translate those, too?

At least the Republicans aren't heading in that direction,

Univision invited the Republican candidates for a similar forum, but only Arizona Sen. John McCain has accepted.

Sen. McCain sponsored the disastrous Kennedy-Bush amnesty bill which mercifully didn't pass.

Coming up next? America con Hillary.

Update: A colombo-americana's perspective

Come to the US, retain your language, learn a new one, have more opportunities open up for you. Not a difficult concept; many have done the same before, and have done well for themselves. Stop playing the race/ethnicity/minority card, and get over yourselves.

Read her entire post.



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Calderon says Australia is Mexico

State of Mexico Addressed, by Invitation Only: Calderon Delivers Speech At Ceremonial Palace (emphasis added),

The Mexican government, he said, would continue to "energetically protest unilateral actions" of the U.S. Congress on the immigration front that he said "exacerbate the persecution of undocumented Mexicans in the U.S." He boasted that Mexican consulates in the United States have been buttressed to protect the rights of millions of Mexicans living there illegally.

"Wherever there is a Mexican," he said, "that is Mexico."

Going by that logic, Australia is Mexico.

Can't wait for the Mexican government to start handing out how-to manuals on how to sneak illegally into the Land Down Under.

But then, who can blame the guy. It's a heck of a lot easier to claim the whole world is yours to do as you please than it is to clean up the centuries-long endemic problems affecting a country you lead, isn't it?

Flopping Aces, Hot Air, Blue Crab Boulevard, Irish Spy, and Cop the Truth also posted on this (h/t Larwyn).



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Today's podcast. the Dissident Frogman explains it all, and today's items

UPDATE
You can listen to today's podcast here

In today's Blog Talk Radio podcast, it's time for Fausta's Blog Talk Radio monthly roundtable with Dymphna and and Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna and Siggy. Today we'll be discussing the SIOE's proposed demonstration on September 11 in Brussels.

Please join us at noon Eastern. The call-in number is (646) 652-2639.
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Liars outdoing liars: Huffington Post ups Iraqi deaths past 1 million
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Via Linda, The Dissident Frogman has an educational video.
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Via Larwyn,
Ten Worst Branding Decisions of All-Time
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Obama's not welcome among this crowd.

I don't expect he'd be welcome with open arms in Pakistan, either.
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Elvira's still at it, as expected.
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King/Drew Medical Center: Reparations Paid Back In Blood
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As I mentioned yesterday, The Official Berkeley Breathed Website announced,

Note to Opus readers: The Opus strips for August 26 and September 2 have been withheld from publication by a large number of client newspapers across the country, including Opus's host paper The Washington Post."

Salon has the strip in question.
Atlas Shrugs, Linda, Q&O, SCSU and Captain Ed have commentary.

How do you spell dhimmitude?

Elvira, go home

Elvira Arellano was arrested in Los Angeles and was deported to Tijuana, Mexico. Arellano's been illegally in the USA on and off since 1997, and in 2002 was convicted of working under a false Social Security number - a felony. Whether she made up a Social Security number out of thin air, or she committed identity theft is unclear; Arellano committed a felony all the same. She then defied a court order by hiding at the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago rather than surrender to authorities.

Nowhere in the thousands of words written about this case show any effort from Arellano in the past ten years to
1. learn the language
2. legalize her immigration status under the existing laws
3. accept the US as "her country", even when she's lived nearly one third of her life here, gave birth to her son here, and is adamant about staying

"I only have two choices. I either go to my country, Mexico, or stay and keep fighting. I decided to stay and fight."

4. most importantly, accept that the rule of law applies to everyone including herself.

Her 8yr old son Saul is in the middle of all this. He was born here while his mother purposely violated the laws of this country. This boy has been exploited in innumerable photo-ops. Last November, Saul went to Mexico's Congress to make a personal appeal for help to stop his mother's deportation. Now

Arellano said she didn't want to be separated from the boy

Apparently Elvira and all of those people who are outraged that "the bad USA is ripping a family apart" have never stopped to consider that it is Elvira herself who chooses to leave her own son behind, rather than remain together as a family and bring him with her to "her country" (her words, not mine), as a responsible parent would do.

Via Blue Crab Boulevard, many immigrants to the USA resent Arrellano's actions:

Chicago Spanish-language radio host Javier Salas said he felt badly for what happened to Arellano. But in leaving the sanctuary of Adalberto United Methodist Church and heading to Los Angeles, it was only a matter of time before she was arrested.

I know two people who were brought to the US illegally by their parents while they were young children. Both of them are now US citizens, and their families are also here legally.

While it took them years of effort and a lot of paperwork, they did it, and they're the ones that tell you that the US is their country. Illegal aliens struggling to get away with crimes by insisting that the rules be changed to accommodate them at their whim are not what legal immigration is about. It is, however, what amnesty and comprehensive immigration reform are about (h/t Hot Air).

But fret not. I'm sure we're going to hear from Elvira soon, again.

Update
More from Captain's Quarters and Michelle Malkin.

Update, Tuesday 21 August
Illegal immigrant = Runaway slave? Buuulsh**


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Ruben Navarrete writes about the question he didn't get to ask

Navarrete writes about The Immigration Question I Didn't Get To Ask (emphasis added)

As for the questions that were asked and the way they were answered by the candidates, the forum seemed to inadvertently reinforce the notion of minorities as victims -- besieged by everything from poverty to outsourcing to higher rates of HIV infection. A lot of the candidates then took the cue and played the role Democrats have carved out for themselves -- savior of the downtrodden and dispossessed.

To be fair, I think that most African-Americans would probably dismiss out of hand this "illegal-immigration-is-the-greatest-threat-since-slavery'' nonsense.

African-American writer Earl Ofari Hutchinson, who is doing a book about the relationship between blacks and Latinos, blasted the remark as an "eye-catching, over-the-top, outrageous bit of hyperbole." Although conceding that high unemployment rates disproportionately harm "young, marginal-skilled and educated black males," Hutchinson noted that illegal immigrants are but the latest targets of those looking for scapegoats - a strategy he called "wrongheaded, misguided and fraught with peril."

So true. So well said. And I suspect so unlike anything you'll hear from any of the Democratic presidential candidates.

Navarrete is too kind. I believe that the Democrat party is completely married to the idea that minorities are victims.

As I pointed out in my PJM article,

low skilled workers now legally employed in the US would be most directly affected by the annual influx of 200,000 temporary workers.

That is, all workers of all races that are now legally employed. Additionally,

The influx of cheap labor would have had a depressing effect on wages across the board, not just on unskilled labor. The costs and barriers entrepreneurs face in sponsoring labor from other countries would not have decreased since the bill would have imposed even more regulations. Many Hispanics entrepreneurs, like myself, were worried that such a large influx of unskilled labor might mean that domestic training in some skilled trades, such as construction, might decrease substantially. It would affect America's competitiveness.

I am sure that the question I submitted was not answered.


technorati: Immigration
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A few reasons why many Hispanics didn't want the immigration bill

Immigration Report: The Hispanic View:
A few reasons why many Hispanics didn't want the immigration bill

My latest article is up at Pajamas Media, along with Rick Moran's Immigration Report: The Gringo View:
The fallout from the immigration fiasco spells trouble for the GOP

I'll be on the road today.

The Republicans who voted for cloture

The list:
Bob Bennett of Utah
Kit Bond of Missouri
Sam Brownback of Kansas
Richard Burr of North Carolina
Norm Coleman of Minnesota
Susan Collins of Maine
Larry Craig of Idaho
Pete Domenici of New Mexico
John Ensign of Nevada
Lindsey Grahamn of South Carolina
Judd Gregg of New Hampshire
Chuck Hagel of Nebraska
Jon Kyl of Arizona
Trent Lott of Mississippi
Richard Lugar of Indiana
Mel Martinez of Florida
John McCain of Arizona
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
Lisa Murkowski from Alaska
Olympia Snowe from Maine
Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania
Ted Stevens of Alaska
George Voinovich of Ohio
John Warner of Virginia

If you have donated to the Republican National Committee, you can call 202-863-8743 and ask for a refund.

In the house, Caucus vows fight if immigration pact reaches the House

IMMIGRATION REFORM CAUCUS SUPPORTS RESOLUTION OPPOSING KENNEDY-BUSH AMNESTY BILL

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Members of the Immigration Reform Caucus (IRC) issued the following statements regarding the adoption of a resolution opposing the Kennedy-Bush amnesty bill by the House Republican Conference:

Chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus Brian Bilbray: “The Kennedy-Bush amnesty bill is doing more to unify the Republicans in the House who believe that we are a country of laws. This resolution sends a clear message that we stand together in united opposition to any bill that rewards illegal behavior with amnesty.”

Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL): “This vote is an affirmation of what my constituents and I have been saying for nearly two years now. The Senate amnesty plan is misguided and takes America in the wrong direction. With this vote House Republicans are sending a clear message to our constituents; amnesty will not fly in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Rep. Phil Gingrey, M.D. (R-GA): “As the Senate continues debating their misguided immigration bill, House Republicans have made it clear that we will not waiver from our principles of reform. Any legislation we enact must uphold the rule of law, secure our borders and benefit the American people and economy. The Senate bill simply does not pass the test. In 1986, Congress passed a terrible amnesty bill that was hailed as the solution to our illegal immigration problem. It only takes a quick glance around Georgia to realize the ’86 bill was a complete failure. The Senate should heed the lessons of that mistake; sadly, their current bill replicates it instead.”

Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC): “It’s time the Senate stops listening to their own voices and starts listening to the American people. The American people want secure borders and they want our laws enforced. I hear them loud and clear, and that is why I don’t support the Senate immigration/amnesty bill.”

Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL 13): “I disagree with the president and my colleagues in the Senate who support this bill. This bill rewards illegal behavior by granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants and is a slap in the face to those who played by the rules and complied with our laws. I stand with my constituents who feel our focus should be on securing the border, enforcing our laws, and creating a tamper-proof id card for non-citizens.”

Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX): “Why on earth would we grant special status to those who knowingly violated our laws? We must secure our borders first and that must be priority number one for illegal immigration reform – not rewarding law-breakers with blanket amnesty.”

Rep. John Boozman (R-AR): “The plan offered by Senate is, ultimately, a reward for illegal behavior. We should not be granting a pass to millions of illegal immigrants, while others go out of their way to be in the United State legally. You can’t solve the problems of illegal immigration by making everyone legal. Leaders from both parties in the House have publicly stated their opposition to at least one major part of this plan, and I am glad to stand with my colleagues in announcing our disapproval of the Senate plan. If it comes to the House in its present form, I will vote against it.”

This afternoon at 4:30PM Eastern: Rob Bluey and Brian Darling of the Heritage Foundation

In today's Blog Talk Radio podcast at 4:30PM Eastern time, I'll be talking to my friend Rob Bluey, Director of the Center for Media and Public Policy, and Brian Darling, Director, U.S. Senate Relations, at The Heritage Foundation.

We will talk about Venezuela, immigration, and the 20th anniversary of Pres. Reagan's speech at the Brandenburg gate.

Rob made his debut on Blogginheads last Friday, when he discussed the immigration bill. He also blogs at Red State


Join us for a most interesting podcast live at 4:30PM today. The call-in number (646) 652-2639.

Don't miss yesterday's podcast with Mamacita of Scheiss Weekly and Siggy. Brian and Rob will be Captain Ed's guests tomorrow.



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No-go on the immigration bill

Immigration Overhaul Bill Stalls in Senate
Bipartisan Compromise Collapses; Reid Says Measure May Return

A tenuous compromise to overhaul the nation's immigration laws collapsed last night when senators from both parties refused to cut off debate and move to a final vote, handing the unlikely alliance of Democratic leaders and President Bush a setback on a major domestic priority.

LEt me go on the record and say, I'm very glad. It was bad law.

And it was going to be expensive: Amnesty Will Cost U.S. Taxpayers at Least $2.6 Trillion

But apparently the bill isn't dead, it's just resting. Let's hope it Rests In Peace.

Update
The Inside Story Of How The Senate Immigration Bill Died



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