Yesterday, on CBS’s “Sunday Morning” reporter Martha Teichner narrated a piece sympathetic to Hispanic immigrants, and in particular, illegal immigrants. She profiled three Hispanic people, two of whom initially came to the country illegally. One illegal immigrant she profiled was defiant of his status, and sounded almost threatening when he said:

Alex Vega, Illegal Immigrant. (Pictured): “In 20 years, we are going to run the country. Right now we’re running the cities. So little by little, we’re running the show. Little by little. So this sleeping giant is already awakened.”

And, as noted by Ms. Teichner, the strategy for illegal immigrants is:

Martha Teichner: “Lesson one in the how to manual goes like this: ‘Today we march, tomorrow we vote.’”

The piece omitted some crucial elements, first there was no mention of societal costs of illegal immigration, such as health care and education costs, crime, particularly gang crime like MS-13, and second, Teichner ignored the overall question of the appropriateness of people illegally crossing into America to influence the democratic process. How many nations would allow non citizens, much less people with no legal authority to be in the country, to influence the outcomes of elections and policy debates? The answer is not many, so why, then, should the United States allow this? In fact the only anti illegal immigration voice in the piece was a sound bite from Congressman Virgil Goode:

Virgil Goode, Virginia Representative: “The position of the Senate needs to be there will be no amnesty period. If we took that position, many of those here illegally now would march on back to Mexico.”

The highpoint of Teichner’s piece was the fact that she mentioned an actual poll that finds that almost 90% of Americans feel that illegal immigration is a problem:

Martha Teichner: “Today, an estimated 12 million are here illegally. A CBS/News New York Times poll found that nearly nine out of 10 Americans consider illegal immigration either a serious or very serious problem…”

Illegal immigration is a serious issue, and reporters ought to be reporting all the facts, benefits and costs on the subject, not just choosing to highlight illegal immigrants, who invoke our sympathy while failing to report the societal consequences of illegal immigration.

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BY ALLISON HOFFMAN, Associated Press

LA MESA, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign bus tour hit a pothole on its very first stop: a town hall meeting Tuesday at which the governor was heckled by people upset with his position on illegal immigration.

The hot-button issue was a theme of a day on which Schwarzenegger emphatically distanced himself from a 1994 ballot proposition, saying “I was wrong” to support a measure that sought to deny illegal immigrants many government services.

His day began in the San Diego County community of La Mesa, where about 150 people attended a campaign event.

Among them was Sally Plata, a 66-year-old retiree from El Cajon and a Minuteman civilian patrol member who expressed frustration about the porous U.S.-Mexico border.

“I voted for you. And right now I don’t see much difference between you and Phil Angelides,” said Plata, referring to Schwarzenegger’s Democratic opponent in the November election.

Schwarzenegger smiled throughout the sometimes heated questioning.

“Never get mad at anyone who is trying to come to this country. Get mad at the federal government which is not securing our borders,” Schwarzenegger told the crowd.

Afterward, Schwarzenegger told reporters he was troubled by some of the comments and surprised by their tone.

“It was pretty much the first time I saw the intensity of prejudice,” said Schwarzenegger, an immigrant himself. “This one woman came up to me and said, `Stop the invasion.’ It was that kind of dialogue, and not, `Hey, is there something

we can do about immigration?’ And I think that’s going into a dangerous area.”

Immigration is shaping up as a major campaign issue this fall, just as it was in the 1994 gubernatorial race.

Republican Pete Wilson won that race after embracing Proposition 187, which called for denying illegal immigrants many government services. The initiative passed handily but later was tossed out by the courts.

Schwarzenegger has acknowledged supporting Proposition 187 and suggested he came to regret that vote after working with the children of illegal immigrants in after-school programs before being elected governor.

The governor addressed the issue a day after he told La Opinion, a Los Angeles-based Spanish language newspaper, that “looking back, it was the wrong decision” to support the ballot measure.

Angelides, the state treasurer, seized on the governor’s comments, accusing Schwarzenegger of pandering to Hispanics.

“He will do anything and say anything to get re-elected,” Angelides charged.

The bus tour continues today with stops in and around Los Angeles.

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July 27, 2006 – A controversial measure designed to crack down on illegal immigrants won unanimous approval late Wednesday night from the Township Council in Riverside, New Jersey.
Just a decade ago maybe 30 Brazilians lived here. Now officials claim that population has surged to 20 or 30 percent of the towns population, many they claim are illegal.

Wednesday night at an emotional meeting, Riverside passed an ordinance making it unlawful for locals to rent or hire an illegal.

Why this measure at this time in Riverside? Supporters of the law say there are a number of issues in play. Issues of legal fairness, taxes, and the sense of being overwhelmed by a foreign culture.

Proponents say the prime issue is simple.

Long time residents complain illegals don’t pay taxes but use social services. Others say they feel like strangers in their own hometown when it comes to language.

But opponents of the law counter, that Riverside should embrace immigrants, even illegals, because they have brought economic vitality to town.

Legal immigrants worry the new law will be used to harass newcomers.

Riverside says the law with its one thousand dollar fine will focus only on the unlawful. Opponents say there is talk of a court challenge.

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Senator Joseph Liberman, pictured at left at a gay rights rally shaking his hands violently, came out of the closet yesterday as a transvestite. Liberman was out “stumping” with Bill Clinton (not pictured) after getting Clinton’s endorsment for re-election. Liberman was quoted as saying “I only feel normal when I’m playing maracas and whistling show tunes while dressed as a large, flat chested ugly woman with fat cankles and bad hair.” Lieberman’s handlers say that Senator Lieberman thinks that by doing this he can win the gay hispanic vote. AP

Centrist Democrats, led by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, yesterday unveiled a policy manifesto to win back Congress and the White House and distance the party from its clamorous left wing.

The prescription, aimed at middle-class voters and focused on economic issues, capped a three-day meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council in Denver.

Highlights included proposals to make college tuition and home buying more accessible, expand the availability of health care, and provide greater retirement security, all leavened with a smidgen of Bush-bashing.

Clinton wielded a red-white-and-blue bound copy of the group’s initiative and used a measured tone to paint a grim portrait of the past five years under President Bush.

“Americans are earning less while the costs of a middle-class life have soared,” she said. “College costs, up 50 percent in the five years. Health care, 73 percent. Gasoline, more than 100 percent.”

The idea of the policy statement, Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff said at a news conference, is to “give folks something not to shoot at, but to shoot for.”

The DLC, which helped lay the intellectual groundwork for President Clinton’s two terms, has a reputation for being more substantive than slashing. During three days of workshops and panel discussions, there was sober talk of pension portability, regional skill alliances, performance-based governing and the like.

The war in Iraq, the fulcrum for angry splits between liberals and centrists in several races nationwide, was scarcely mentioned.

But politics was never far removed, at both presidential and broader philosophical levels.

Four likely Democratic White House contenders made the trek to the Rocky Mountains to speak and network among roughly 400 elected leaders, mainly from state and local levels.

Clinton, who was charged last year with drafting the agenda unveiled yesterday, enjoyed a featured speaking slot, along with the group’s chairman, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, and his predecessor, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson joined in a panel discussion; former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner telephoned his regrets from a long-planned family vacation in Europe.

The DLC has produced both energy and agitation within the Democratic Party since its creation in the aftermath of Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election landslide.

With a stated mission of moving the party toward the center, the organization has been derided as “Democrats for the leisure class”by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the “Republican wing of the Democratic Party” by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, now chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The DLC said Dean was invited to Denver; a party spokeswoman said it was never received, but there were no hard feelings.

Lately, the attacks have come from the left side of the blogosphere, where the DLC has been branded an enemy of true Democrats, and its acolytes – chiefly Clinton – excoriated as political sellouts.

Vilsack alluded to those sentiments in his opening speech Monday. He called the DLC “a problem-solving organization, a creative-thinking organization,” not a grass-roots or Net-roots organization, the latter referring to the Web-based political community. While all are elemental to the party’s success, he said, what the DLC produces is “practical Democrats.”

But there were underlying tensions, even among those who traveled to Denver. At more than one session, participants suggested the party had gone too far in wooing centrist and swing voters.

But yesterday’s general session proved relatively subdued as speakers focused on the roll-out of the DLC’s policy plan. Proposals included directing more federal money to states to lower the costs of college, expanding the home-mortgage deduction, providing universal health coverage for children and for low- and middle-income families, establishing a “baby bond” program that would provide each child with a $500 savings bond at birth and another 10 years later.

Notably, the plan did not call for any broad-based or across-the-board tax hikes. Rather, the DLC suggested those programs and others could be financed by closing tax loopholes, ending corporate subsidies and squeezing inefficiencies out of the federal government.

Apart from economics, repeated calls surfaced yesterday for a tough-minded foreign policy. Bayh said national security was a threshold issue for voters: “If they don’t trust us with their lives, they’re unlikely to trust us with anything else.”

Clinton said a Democratic-run Congress would investigate no-bid contracts, “the role oil companies are playing in Iraq” and supply problems that have plagued U.S. combat troops.

—— End of article

By MARK Z. BARABAK

Los Angeles Times

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Save Our State Update

Hello All:

We have seen a tremendous amount of positive momentum in the illegal immigration debate over the last several weeks. I wanted to take a moment to update you.

As you all know, I was circulating an anti-illegal immigration initiative in the city of San Bernardino called the “Illegal Immigration Relief Act.” It was the first ever attempt to use the initiative process to combat the harmful effects of illegal immigration in United States history.

I, and other activists, spent months gathering signatures to put this on the ballot. Personally, I walked door to door every Saturday and Sunday for two and half months. I also spent many weekday evenings standing out in front of grocery stores.

It was a very time consuming process.

Before I began, I researched the rules and guidelines. The City Clerk instructed me on the required number of signatures and other rules regarding the qualification of the initiative. I followed those letters exactly as prescribed.

After generating national headlines, a lawsuit was threatened by a lawyer representing a San Bernardino resident. They contended that because the signature requirement was based on the total votes cast for mayor and that there was an election for mayor during the middle of our signature gathering process, that our signature requirement changed and thus, we did not collect enough signatures to qualify.

Despite the fact that we presented a court case stipulating the fact that the signature requirement should be based on the election preceding the gathering of signatures and that petitioners have the right to know how many signatures they are required to gather in advance, the judge ruled against us.

It is imperative to understand that although we followed the rules asdictated by the City Clerk, the elections professional, we were still thwarted by the courts. To be blunt, it was a demoralizing blow.

However, there is a bright side to this story.

Since our efforts became national news, local governments all across thecountry have either voted to implement ordinances similar to ourinitiative, or are in the process of approving or discussing. One particular example is Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Mayor Lou Barletta has been very aggressive in replicating our initiative and he has gained national recognition for his efforts. He testified before the United States Senate panel during the July hearings on immigration. It has also been the subject of discussion in the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race and also drawn heavy criticism by the Governor of Pennsylvania.

Our little idea has reached the halls of Congress and no doubt, the White House.

Now similar ordinances have been discussed in local communities around Hazleton. It has also been brought up in Sandwich, Massachusetts, Asheville, North Carolina and Springfield, Oregon. In Florida, Palm Bay and Avon Park have also received significant attention to their efforts mirroring ours.

Most notably, Councilwoman Marie Waldron of Escondido, California has announced her desire to replicate a portion of our initiative by cracking down on landlords who rent to illegal aliens. This is the largest city to announce an interest in replicating our initiative.

I believe we have completely reshaped the illegal immigration debate and created a paradigm shift by empowering local governments to take action on the illegal alien invasion. I believe this is going to cause and enormousamount of pressure to be exerted on our federal electeds to act and to act decisively.
———-

In Southern California, we have seen tremendous progress. Activist Eileen Garcia exposed the fact that the City of Laguna Beach was squatting on state land with their taxpayer funded day labor center. Unfortunately, Caltrans announced that they would lease the land to the city. However, Rancho Cucamonga announced that their day labor center would close. Jeff Schwilk and the San Diego Minutemen have not only aggressively targeted day laborer centers and gathering areas in the North County area, they have pressured the City of Vista to enact an ordinance that would severely lessen the number of day laborers who would be picked up in their community.
———–

I encourage each and every one of you to check out our forums where youcan discuss ideas and strategy, read news articles and view pictures andvideos of various rallies and protests.

You can find the forums here:

http://www.saveourstate.org/forums

Thank you again for all of your support. Keep your spirits high. The tide has turned in our favor and history will show that May 1, 2006 was the day that our enemies lost the fight.
Sincerely,
Joseph Turner
Executive Director
Save Our State
PO Box 91000
San Bernardino, CA 92427

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Thank you, everyone who kept believing in me,’ Floyd Landis said after conquering pain and a huge deficit to give America its third Tour winner.

BY BONNIE DESIMONE
Special to The Miami Herald

Paris- His life has been a series of breakaways, so it’s not surprising that Floyd Landis won the 2006 Tour de France with the most audacious move the peloton had seen in decades.

When you have told your family you are abandoning their teachings and moving thousands of miles away, picking your way through a minefield of love and hurt and rebellion and fulfillment, how hard could it be to pedal alone up a few mountains? When you have ve survived a very public spat with your former mentor, who happens to be the most successful and popular cyclist in history, how hard could it be to rebound from one bad day on the bike?

Landis mounted the podium on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday without apparent distress, although his wife, Amber, said his degenerative hip condition makes the everyday act of climbing stairs more painful for him than ascending a steep mountain road. The 30-year-old Landis pulled his stepdaughter, Ryan, up with him during the victory ceremony under a hot, late-afternoon sky and lifted his arms in triumph.

His speech was short and direct, contrasting with the zany and circuitous path he took on 2,000-plus miles of French roadways to become the third American to win the Tour. U.S. riders have won eight consecutive editions — and 11 of the past 21 — of the world’s toughest and most famous bicycle race.

”Thank you, everyone who kept believing in me, most of all my team, when things weren’t going so well,” Landis said.

The brief trophy presentation capped a much more arduous journey that began when Landis, already an accomplished mountain biker, left his Mennonite community in southeastern Pennsylvania at age 19 to move to southern California. He later rode for three of Lance Armstrong’s Tour-winning teams, but sparred with the Texan after defecting to the Phonak team in 2005.

TEAM LEADER

Landis was promoted to team leader after Tyler Hamilton’s suspension for a doping offense and finished ninth in the Tour last year. During the winter, he worked to refine his time-trial skills and built up a reservoir of confidence — motivated even more by the prospect of potentially career-ending surgery on his bad hip.

Technically, Landis clinched the Tour title Saturday in the last individual time trial, but he really won it when he took off by himself in the Alps a few days ago.

He was eight minutes behind the race leader, Oscar Pereiro of Spain, courtesy of a mortifying collapse the day before. In a sport bound by tradition and etiquette, that time gap was the cue to write a concession speech and wait ’til next year. His initiative was viewed as desperate, foolhardy and doomed.

It was a grand slam, a long bomb followed by the onside kick, a midcourt shot at the buzzer. Landis knew most of his rivals were so conditioned by cycling convention that they would assume what he was trying to do was impossible, rather than trying to prevent it from happening.

”It’s always harder to follow somebody,” Landis said last week. “It’s always better if you just do it yourself.”

He was talking about the solo attack that put him back in the favorite’s saddle, but he could have been talking about his entire life.

”There are so many people he seeks counsel and advice from, but he makes all his own choices,” said physiologist Allen Lim, a key person in Landis’ brain trust. “Nobody tells Floyd what to do.”

The three American Tour champions are very different people, but there is an unmistakable similarity about their instinct for the jugular. Landis’ Stage 17 victory at Morzine had the faint echo of Greg LeMond’s last-day time-trial coup in 1989, in which he aimed his bike at Paris and made up 50 seconds when no one thought it could be done. It also harkened back to Armstrong’s anger-fueled ride to Luz-Ardiden in 2003 after he accidentally tangled with a spectator’s bag and crashed.

OVERCAME HARDSHIPS

Physical travails link them as well. LeMond returned from a near-fatal hunting accident, Armstrong survived life-threatening cancer and Landis only recently revealed he will have hip-replacement surgery within the next few months to alleviate his chronic pain from avascular necrosis.

The condition, triggered by a training crash three years ago, results when the bone is deprived of blood supply and begins to dry out and collapse.

Landis has had two surgeries since the original operation to try to reduce the inevitable friction in the joint.

He disguised his limp by adopting a rolling swagger and altered the angle of his time-trial position to try to minimize his discomfort. Adrenaline keeps him from dwelling on the pain during a race, but sleeping, walking and any other weight-bearing activities are difficult.

”If I had my way, we would have had this fixed yesterday,” Amber Landis said.

After seven consecutive years of Armstrong’s iron grip on the race, the 93rd Tour seemed to have a screw loose from the beginning. Seven men wore the overall leader’s yellow jersey, and the race lead changed 11 times.

But in the end, Landis came out ahead.

Landis plans to compete in a few minor races in Europe and the United States — the Tour champion’s victory lap — but he has finished his last major event for a while. There is no precedent for a cyclist at his level making a full recovery from hip-replacement surgery, but he bats away the prospect of retirement.

”I think if I’m given a little time with the hip, it’ll be OK,” he said.

Landis also said he hopes the mantle of Tour winner doesn’t weigh him down.

”I hope my life doesn’t change too much, because I’m a pretty happy guy,” he said.

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The mistake made here by the honorable Judge Bruce Fink is that he didn’t deport this bitch in the first place. In Mexico, men beat their wives routinely. But here in America, a man will go to jail for such behavior. Judge Fink should have had her put into custody, went to her place of residence and arrested her illegal alien husband and family and sent their sorry asses packing back to Mexico. Instead, a pollitically correct Los Angeles County judicial system will reprimand the judge for doing the right thing. Welcome to Upper Tiajuana, California. JD

LOS ANGELES A judge who threatened to deport an illegal immigrant seeking a restraining order against her husband has been dropped from the roster of part-time judges used by the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Judge Pro Tem Bruce Fink is a family law attorney from Orange. He was removed from the list of about 12-hundred attorneys who are used as substitute judges for L-A County.

Aurora Gonzalez came to a July 14th hearing in Pomona, accusing her husband of verbal abuse and threatening to report her to immigration authorities. Fink asked if she was an illegal immigrant. Gonzalez admitted she was in the country illegally from Mexico.

Fink then warned Gonzalez that he was going to count to 20 and expected her to disappear by the time he was finished, or she’d be arrested. Gonzalez left the courtroom and Fink dismissed the case.

Gonzalez moved into a domestic violence shelter last month. She has since resubmitted her request for a restraining order and had it granted.

Experts say that Fink as a state judge had no authority to order an arrest for violation of a federal immigration law.

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