Mouthpiece

What in HELL is the Washington Post thinking? They are giving op-ed space to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas Prime Minister of the Palestinians? A terrorist front man gets top space in a top American newspaper?

Are you kidding me?

The current Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to destroy the results of fair and free elections held early this year. It is the explosive follow-up to a five-month campaign of economic and diplomatic warfare directed by the United States and Israel. The stated intention of that strategy was to force the average Palestinian to "reconsider" her vote when faced with deepening hardship; its failure was predictable, and the new overt military aggression and collective punishment are its logical fulfillment. The "kidnapped" Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit is only a pretext for a job scheduled months ago.

In addition to removing our democratically elected government, Israel wants to sow dissent among Palestinians by claiming that there is a serious leadership rivalry among us. I am compelled to dispel this notion definitively. The Palestinian leadership is firmly embedded in the concept of Islamic shura , or mutual consultation; suffice it to say that while we may have differing opinions, we are united in mutual respect and focused on the goal of serving our people. Furthermore, the invasion of Gaza and the kidnapping of our leaders and government officials are meant to undermine the recent accords reached between the government party and our brothers and sisters in Fatah and other factions, on achieving consensus for resolving the conflict. Yet Israeli collective punishment only strengthens our collective resolve to work together.

Notice the scare quotes around kidnapped? The Washington Post, which I have been fairly tough on, but regarded pretty much as a reliable news source on many - not all - subjects, has just taken a nose dive in my personal credibility index. This is the willful publishing of propaganda for terrorists. There is no mention of the continuing rocketing of civilians, there is no mention of the sending of bomb-wearing fools into restaurants. There are only more pronouncements.

We present this clear message: If Israel will not allow Palestinians to live in peace, dignity and national integrity, Israelis themselves will not be able to enjoy those same rights. Meanwhile, our right to defend ourselves from occupying soldiers and aggression is a matter of law, as settled in the Fourth Geneva Convention. If Israel is prepared to negotiate seriously and fairly, and resolve the core 1948 issues, rather than the secondary ones from 1967, a fair and permanent peace is possible. Based on a hudna (comprehensive cessation of hostilities for an agreed time), the Holy Land still has an opportunity to be a peaceful and stable economic powerhouse for all the Semitic people of the region. If Americans only knew the truth, possibility might become reality.

The reality is that the Palestinians, as represented by Haniyeh want Israel destroyed. Nothing else will do.

And the Washington Post has decided to be their mouthpiece.

UPDATE: A Blog For All notes additional WaPo agitprop. Postwatch also has a roundup. Don Surber isn't thrilled.

Immigration

It always bugs me when a news story leaves out the relevant part of a story. The Washington Post does just that in it's coverage of the hearing just held in Miami about immigration reform.

MIAMI, July 10 — A congressional hearing on immigration came to a dramatic pause Monday when Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, choked up as he talked about his Italian immigrant father and the opportunities that America had given to his family.

A hush fell over the auditorium at Miami Dade College as Pace, a Marine who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and grew up in Teaneck, N.J., was overcome with emotion and struggled to continue reading from his statement as the opening witness at the field hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Pace was explaining his family's origins to the committee and the opportunities he and his three siblings enjoyed in America when he lost his composure, much to the surprise of the 150 people gathered in the hearing room and to the five senators, who sat riveted as the general paused in his testimony.

After he composed himself, Pace described his older sister, who went to law school, and his older brother, who, like himself, attended the Naval Academy and was a Marine.

"There is no other country on the planet that affords that kind of opportunity to those who come here," Pace concluded. The audience burst into applause.

Pace's father was born in Italy in 1914, immigrated to the United States and became an electrician in New York City, raising four children there. The first Marine to be named chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Pace has been chairman since September 2005 after serving as vice chairman for four years.

What did they leave out? The information on whether Pace's father entered the country legally (almost a certainty given the year of his immigration - almost certainly through Ellis Island where my mother's parents arrived). The point is, I really haven't heard any illegal immigration opponents who are against legal immigration. I'm not. I welcome them.

I do not welcome a tidal wave of unskilled illegal immigrant labor that puts our own most at risk citizens at an additional disadvantage. (By the way, I think general Pace is quite right. There is no other place in the world, indeed in the history of the world, that gives the opportunities America does. I'd kind of like to see it stay that way, not sink into the third world.)

UPDATE: Don't miss The Real Ugly American's take on this same article.

Flash! Laws Of Physics Repealed!

The University of Wisconsin, Madison, has completed it's review of the , er, unusual theories of Kevin Barrett, an instructor who teaches that the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11 was done by controlled demolition. Because, you see, no jet fuel fire could melt steel. Mr. Barrett will be allowed to teach his courses.

"There is no question that Mr. Barrett holds personal opinions that many people find unconventional," Farrell says. "These views are expected to take a small, but significant, role in the class. To the extent that his views are discussed, Mr. Barrett has assured me that students will be free - and encouraged - to challenge his viewpoint."…

"I am satisfied that Mr. Barrett appreciates his responsibility as an instructor. I also believe that he will attempt to provide students with a classroom experience that respects and welcomes open dialogue on all topics," Farrell says. "And I fully expect that the vast majority of his teaching will involve aspects of Islamic culture and religion wholly unrelated to his controversial views of the events of 9/11, which we know had a profound impact on the world and many members of our campus community."

Now, all these years that the NFPA has required the fireproofing of structural steel can be seen to be a long-simmering Bushitlerian plot. Going back almost to the dawn of the NFPA, in fact! All the fines the government collected from various power plants for having insufficient fireproofing on their structural steel can now be refunded!

I, of course, will immediately apply to the UW-M to teach a course about the flat earth, since this spherical nonsense has gone on much to long.

(Please, do not try to tell an engineer jet fuel fires cannot "melt" steel. It is not, and never has been necessary to melt steel to cause a structural failure. One only needs to soften it and remove it's ability to bear load.)

How Very Sad

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe.

Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), Jabberwocky

I was talking with my eleven-year old son a few minutes ago and for some reason, I started reciting the poem Jabberwocky from Through the Looking Glass. And he looked at me like I was completely 'round the bend. He had never even heard of Lewis Carroll or his books. He had a vague knowledge of Alice in Wonderland via a Disney movie. I had to find the Jabberwocky poem on the web so he would believe his Dad hadn't gone completely nuts. Then I found the Walrus and the Carpenter for him as well.

What in the world are they teaching children these days, anyway?

Oopsie! Need To Find Another Hiding Spot!

A Federal Judge has rejected Capitol Hill lawmaker's attempt to shield themselves from the same laws that govern the rest of us poor schmucks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday upheld the FBI's unprecedented raid of a congressional office, saying that barring searches of lawmakers' offices would turn Capitol Hill into "a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime."

Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan rejected requests from lawmakers and Rep. William Jefferson to return material seized by the FBI in a May 20-21 search of Jefferson's office.

The overnight search was part of a 17-month bribery investigation of Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat.

In a 28-page opinion, Hogan dismissed arguments by Jefferson and a bipartisan group of House leaders that the raid violated the Constitution's protections against intimidation of elected officials.

Hogan acknowledged the "unprecedented" nature of the case. But he said the lawmakers' "sweeping" theory of legislative privilege "would have the effect of converting every congressional office into a taxpayer-subsidized sanctuary for crime."

There will be no joy in Mudville tonight.

UPDATE: Washington Post coverage here. In a move sure to endear her further to the Democratic Black Caucus members, Nancy Pelosi offered the following:

Yesterday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had been a vocal critic of the raid, offered a measured response to the ruling.

Pelosi said in a statement that "no one is above the law" and that congressional members should not be allowed to use their offices to conceal criminal activity. But she added that "this particular search could have been conducted in a manner that fully protected the ability of the prosecutors to obtain the evidence needed to do their job while preserving constitutional principles."

Even though I think the caucus members were foolish to try to protect Jefferson, this will only tick them off more at Pelosi.

Solve One Problem, Cause Another

The Witch of Pungo has been completely cleared of any wrongdoing by the Governor of Virginia. That's right, she's free and clear, completely exonerated. Grace Sherwood has been given back her good name by Governor Timothy M. Kaine. Ms. Sherwood was not available for comment on her exoneration, however, since she's been dead 300 years or so.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The Witch of Pungo is no longer a witch. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Monday exonerated Grace Sherwood, who 300 years ago became Virginia's only woman convicted as a witch tried by water.

"I am pleased to officially restore the good name of Grace Sherwood," Kaine wrote in a letter Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf read aloud before a re-enactment of Sherwood's being dropped into the river.

"With 300 years of hindsight, we all certainly can agree that trial by water is an injustice," Kaine wrote. "We also can celebrate the fact that a woman's equality is constitutionally protected today, and women have the freedom to pursue their hopes and dreams."

Sherwood, a midwife who at times wore men's clothes, lived in what today is the rural Pungo neighborhood, and later became known as "The Witch of Pungo." Her neighbors thought she was a witch who ruined crops, killed livestock and conjured storms, and she went to court a dozen times, either to fight witchcraft charges or to sue her accusers for slander.

She was 46 when she was accused in her final case of using her powers to cause a neighbor to miscarry.

On July 10, 1706, Sherwood was dropped into the Lynnhaven River and floated — proof she was guilty because the pure water cast out her evil spirit, according to the belief system of the time. The theory behind the test was that if she sank, she was innocent, although she would also drown.

Sherwood may have been jailed until 1714, when records show she paid back taxes and with the help of then-Gov. Alexander Spotswood she was able to reclaim her property. She then lived quietly until her death at 80.

Belinda Nash, 59, has been researching Sherwood for years and asked for the governor to exonerate the woman. A group annually remembers Sherwood with a re-enactment in the river.

Ok, so great, her name has been cleared and she is not guilty of the crime. Now we have another problem. What do we call her? The Former Witch of Pungo? The Witch of Pungo who wasn't? The Artist Formerly Known as the Witch of Pungo? We're so confused.

A Bit Like Lemmings

A police foot chase in Princeton, West Virginia ended in a rather exciting fashion. The police spotted a man they wanted to talk to, he fled, they chased. The suspect ran off a cliff. So did the officer right behind him. Then the second officer jumped off the cliff to help his partner, only to land in a tree.

PRINCETON, W.Va. - This police chase ended with a cliffhanger. A 30-year-old man fell 50 to 70 feet over a cliff near the West Virginia Turnpike while fleeing on foot from police Thursday. A police officer pursuing the man couldn't stop and tumbled after him, while a second officer jumped off the cliff to help his colleague and landed in a tree.

The suspect, who was not identified, rolled another 100 feet before stopping and suffered serious injuries, acting Princeton Police Chief W.L. Harman said. Sgt. W.E. Rose, whose fall was stopped by a tree, suffered some scratches and bruises while Sgt. C.T. Lowe, who jumped off the cliff, was not injured.

Are we absolutely sure this was Princeton and not Keystone?

China Stepping Up?

A formal vote on UN sanctions against North Korea sponsored by Japan has been delayed to give a Chinese delegation time to work at a diplomatic solution.

Ambassadors from the five veto-wielding nations on the Security Council — who are divided over sanctions — met with Japan, which sponsored the resolution, as a Chinese delegation arrived in North Korea pledging friendship and deeper ties.

Bolton told reporters after the meeting that the resolution's supporters — including the U.S., Britain, France and other European council members — decided not to press for a vote Monday "while the diplomacy in Pyongyang proceeds."

"We think it's important to keep the focus on Pyongyang, which after all is the source of this problem, and to provide maximum support for, and leverage on the Chinese mission to Pyongyang," he said.

On July 5, North Korea test-fired seven missiles, apparently including a long-range one that potentially could reach the United States.

The United States wants North Korea to return to the moratorium on ballistic missile launches from the Korean peninsula and to not only return to the six-party talks but implement the joint statement agreed to by the six parties in September, he said.

In that statement, North Korea made a commitment to abandon "all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning at an early date" to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The six parties — the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia — also reaffirmed that the goal of the talks "is the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner."

So, is China going to step up and pressure North Korea or is this a delaying tactic? One hopes the former, but fears the latter.

Counsel To The Free Falling?

Interesting article by Heilemann in the New York Times Magazine. It's about Markos "Kos" Zúniga and the netroots.

Let me say at the outset that, by and large, I regard the ascendancy of the liberal blogosphere—and its opposite number on the right—as a salutary development, both for politics and the media. That the Internet, which has transformed commerce and culture in ways too numerous to list, is in the early stages of transforming politics, too, strikes me as beyond debate. Yet it seems worth noting that, on the left, the rise of the blogosphere has as much to do with the weakness of the Democratic Party as with the intrinsic power of the Web; that Kos isn’t so much seizing power as stepping smartly into a vacuum.

Few liberal bloggers would dispute the notion that the national Democratic Party is a clueless, witless beast, profoundly disconnected from the views of its adherents. As Matt Stoller, an influential blogger at MyDD, wrote about Clinton’s taking on Daou and her decision to support Lamont if he defeats Lieberman, “Senators are completely bewildered by what’s going on ‘out there.’ . . . The move to upgrade their political machinery . . . means two things. One, it means that these politicians are now taking our concerns into account. Two, it means that when they make a political move that cuts against the progressive movement, they expressly know the political consequences.”

The sudden Democratic obeisance to the Netroots fills many in the party’s centrist cadres with despair bordering on panic—for they see the likes of Stoller and Moulitsas as “McGovernites with modems,” in the choice phrase of Marshall Wittman, a Republican apostate now ensconced at the Democratic Leadership Council. More than a few leading GOP lights agree, happily foreseeing the liberal bloggers’ leading the opposition down (okay, further down) the primrose path into lefty irrelevance. As Newt Gingrich put it bluntly in Newsweek, “I think the Republican Party has few allies more effective than the Daily Kos.”

In caricaturing Kos as a knee-jerk case, his enemies have some evidence to work with, provided helpfully by Kos himself. Consider, as Exhibit A, the New Republic dustup, in which Kos reacted with blind fury to the magazine’s touting of allegations that he plugged candidates with whom he or his friend and co-author Jerome Armstrong (now a consultant to former Virginia governor Mark Warner) had financial dealings. “If you still hold a subscription to that magazine, it really is time to call it quits,” he wrote. “The New Republic betrayed, once again, that it seeks to destroy the new people-powered movement for the sake of its Lieberman-worshipping neocon owners.”

By and large, the portrait is not all flattering nor is it all critical. The last paragraph though is very interesting.

And, hey, who knows, in 2006 or 2008, a grand vision might not be necessary to restore the Democrats to power. If so, Kos may find himself blanching in the media spotlight for many years to come. But if the Democrats are thwarted (again) in the coming two national elections—and especially if Kos’s chosen Netroots candidates fare poorly at the polls—he may wind up looking not so different from the class he so scorns: the narrow-bore professional tacticians who have counseled the Democrats during their free fall.

The campaign against Lieberman has always struck me as a terrible move, as any reader of this blog knows by now. If Lieberman wins the primary, the Koz Kidz may well have shot their bolt with the party. If Lamont wins, it may put a safe Democratic Senate seat into play (probably an unlikely scenario, but possible) or may drag the party so far to the left that they become unelectable as a national party. Which is pretty much what the DLC is afraid of, I suspect.

UPDATE: Marc Danziger from Winds of Change has a prtty blunt op-ed up over at the Examiner. Danziger also sees the Kos Kampaign as bad for the Democrats.

And when Lieberman is sitting in his Senate office next year, do you think the Democratic Party will be stronger or weaker for his departure?

I say it will be weaker.

It will be weaker because a losing Lamont candidacy will not have local and regional coattails as large as Lieberman’s — and I somehow don’t see Lieberman doing a lot of campaigning for downballot offices in the next few months.

It will be weaker because a senior sitting senator will owe very little allegiance to the national party.

Weaker because other senior officials will sit and weigh the cost of party allegiance against the benefit, and will have a concrete example of what party loyalty buys.

So when such bloggers as Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, Chris Bowers, Jerome Armstrong and Jane Hamsher preen that they have pushed “Rape Gurney Joe” (Hamsher’s sobriquet) off the island, there’s only one problem: They think they are winning in doing so.

Ouch. Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: See also Brainster who makes an excellent point: "Basically Kos sides with Dean, and doesn't want to target money only to races where the Democrats have a chance of winning. His "strategizing" amounts to wasting the one asset that he has, which is his ability to raise money."

Fighting Back

NZ Bear, the proprietor of The Truth Laid Bear is making a modest proposal. Given the continuing DDOS attacks on certain blogs, such as what is happening to Jeff Goldstein is it possible to design and implement a DGOS to combat the attacks? In other words, a blogger under attack would no longer be silenced. Sounds interesting.

Update: OK, we've got some good discussion rolling in the comments. So here's the deal: I've got ideas, and I can contribute support & a bit of thought bandwidth to this effort. But there's no way I can be the primary driver of this, what with everything else I've piled on my plate. So we need some volunteers who do have some bandwidth to form a working group to further flesh out this problem and potential solutions, and then go ahead and actually do it.

So: if you're interested in being part of such an effort, speak up in the comments, and/or e-mail me directly. If necessary, I can set up a Wiki or a mailing list to facilitate the discussion — but if someone else can do that, go ahead and do it! I won't be offended.

With that said, a few more ideas on the substance of the problem:

I believe our goal is not strictly "fault tolerance" for a given blog or set of blogs. I think accomplishing that is impractical, and would involve some kind of mirroring solution that would be overkill for what we're trying to accomplish. In my mind, our goal should be to ensure that when a blogger's site is down:

• a) They have a place to post new blog posts
• b) There is an established system so that their readers can find those new blog posts
• c) The new posts are hosted in a distibuted manner so that they are mirrored on many different sites and are therefore protected from a secondary DDOS attack.

Note that what this essentially means is that we wouldn't be constantly mirroring every participating blog's site — we'd simply be mirroring new posts by a downed blogger once the system is activated. This strikes me as a simpler, and more realistic approach, although I'm open to thoughts about some crude level of mirroring for recent, pre-DDOS attack posts. Terry proposed using RSS feeds below, which is a good first thought, but I can say from my experience with TTLB that the main problem there is many bloggers don't include full content in their RSS feeds. I suspect a better solution might be brute force: just have a way to copy the full HTML of each blog's front page to a distributed archive. The cleverest way would be to somehow have each blog copied to a small number of mirror-blogs (let's say 10) — if we have a solution spanning hundreds or thousands of blogs, it obviously doesn't make sense to have every blog mirrored at every other blog's site.

I have zero technical skill so would not be able to help on that front. But I'd sure be willing to have the Crabitat act as a mirror for those who are being targeted. (I still have not heard of one left-leaning site being targeted like this, though.)

It’s Not Just Nuts And Twigs Anymore

Organic beer is starting to gain in popularity jumping from $9 million in sales in 2003 to $19 million in 2005. And in a sure sign of the product's growth potential, Anheuser-Busch has entered the market, test marketing two different brands.

PORTLAND, Maine - Organic ales, lagers and pilsners are increasingly squeezing their way into retail coolers alongside non-organic beers. When Jon Cadoux launched his line of ales under the Peak Organic label this spring, he figured making them organic would distinguish them from the multitude of other beers on the market. At the same time, he wanted to put out a product he says is healthier for people and the planet.

Cadoux, founder of Peak Organic Brewing Co., says people are embracing organic foods as they become more educated about what they put into their bodies. He views his organic beer, which is brewed in Portland, as a step back to the past.

"Organic is not a new movement," said Cadoux, who is based in Burlington, Mass. "Our grandparents grew up eating organic foods, although it wasn't called that."

While organic beer sales are still minuscule in the overall beer industry, they are rising fast. North American sales of organic beers grew from $9 million in 2003 to $19 million in 2005, according to the Organic Trade Association.

Organic beer has even drawn the attention of the nation's largest beer company, Anheuser-Busch, which is now producing two organic beers of its own. Those beers, Wild Hop lager and Stone Mill pale ale, are being sold in several test markets nationwide.

To meet government standards, the products must contain at least 95% ingredients grown with no chemicals or pesticides.

Malaysian Zombie Sighted!

A Malaysian man certified dead by a hospital and buried more than four years ago has shown up at the local transport department office to renew his driver's license. You may commence screaming at any time.

According to official records, Minggu Mang anak Madang died from head injuries in the town of Bintulu in the eastern state of Sarawak on January 18, 2002, and was buried.

But Minggu Mang, 40, said he was alive and had been fighting for years to prove to authorities he was not dead.

"Please help me to convince the authorities concerned that I am not dead. I am very much alive," he was quoted by the state Bernama news agency as saying.

"The going has been very tough, very stressful since I was officially certified dead by the Nyalau Hospital in Bintulu four years ago."

Minggu Mang said he had found out about the mistake when he went to renew his driver's license on December 19, 2003.

The former building contractor, who is married with three children, said he was told all his records with the transport department had been erased as he had been certified dead.

Minggu Mang, who has since been struggling to prove he is alive, said he could not work since he no longer officially exists — a situation he labelled "ridiculous."

"Now I am the living dead as I cannot work," he said, adding he had complained to police over the matter.

Cue the theme to Night of the Living Dead! And why can't he work? They found uses for the zombies in Shaun of the Dead, didn't they? Rank discrimination, I tell you.

Isn’t The Fifteen Minutes Over Yet

Inside Higher Education has published an article about the Protein Wisdom - Deb Frisch uproar over the weekend. Frankly, the author, Scott Jaschik, minimizes the offensive nature of Frisch's remarks and gives her a soapbox to present her "defense" of her actions.

Frisch acknowledged that the tone of her comments — even if they had nothing to do with her teaching — make her a target. “I play a dangerous game by being a professor and also having a very rabid left-wing blog and also posting nasty inflammatory comments on other people’s blogs,” she said. “The issue is how these rabid, crazy, right-wing nutcases have stalked me, told on me, reacted totally out of proportion to a joke in bad taste I posted on a blog. They are treating me the way they treated Ward Churchill — a lunatic lefty in academia who deserves to be verbally attacked, abused and mocked.”

Wrong again, Frisch. The issue is that you crossed a line. It has nothing to do with your politics, just your behavior. By the way, the commenters on the article are having none of the minimization of Frisch's remarks.

UPDATE: Protein Wisdom is up right now, and Jeff Goldstein is now getting angry. Frisch's assertion that Jeff altered a comment can be shown to be false by IP log. And Jeff is mentioning the word libel now. Jeff has a point by point rebuttal of the Inside Higher Education story.

UPDATE: Confederate Yankee made an interesting phone call.

Fried Rice With Crap

Or what not to order in a restaurant in Thailand. Here's a humorous look by Rolf Potts at the wacky world of mis-translated English popping up all over the world.

One afternoon a few years ago, I went out for lunch at a restaurant not far from the south Thailand guesthouse where I'd been staying. My landlady ran the place, and on this day she seemed particularly pleased to see me. "We have new English menu!" she exclaimed, presenting me with a glossy list of entrees.

I took a seat and scanned the menu, which listed the kinds of dishes I'd always eaten there — red curry, pad thai, tom yam. Then, amidst the standard delicacies (and in cheery capital letters) I noticed a dish I'd never before sampled in this part of the world: FRIED RICE WITH CRAP.

Concerned, I took the menu over to my landlady. "I think this dish is a mistake," I told her.

"Oh, no!" she replied brightly. "We make seafood for you! Fresh from water!"

I gave my landlady a skeptical look. "But surely 'crap' is not what you meant to write."

"Yes, crap! Very delicious!"

I considered this. "Do you by chance mean 'carp'?"

"No!" she laughed. "Crap!" She splayed her hands and mimicked the scuttling movement of a crustacean.

"Oh, you mean crab. C-R-A-B. Not C-R-A-P."

"Yes!" she said, handing the menu back to me. "Crab. Both sound same to me."

Then, almost as an afterthought, she asked: "What means 'crap?'"

It's quite an entertaining article if you have a chance to look it over. It also gives a link to a really funny collection of mistranslations: http://www.engrish.com/ (Warning, do not have a mouthful of coffee when you open that link. Your monitor will thank you.)

States Step In

When the federal government is failing to do so. At least 30 states have begun cracking down on illegal immigration, many by going after the employers who knowingly hire illegals.

"The trends … have leaned toward the punitive side," says Ann Morse, an immigration expert at the National Conference of State Legislatures. "The No. 1 topic has been employment in terms of deterring employers and employees."

Examples:

• A Colorado law enacted in June prohibits awarding state contracts to businesses that knowingly employ illegal immigrants.

• A Louisiana law approved in June subjects businesses that have state contracts and more than 10 employees to fines if they don't fire workers known to be undocumented.

• A Georgia bill enacted in April has a phased-in requirement that public employers and government contractors and subcontractors verify information on newly hired workers through a federal program.

The U.S. Senate and House have passed widely divergent immigration bills. The Senate's legislation would put most undocumented immigrants on a path to citizenship. The House bill would make illegal immigrants felons and increase penalties for hiring them.

Some lawmakers and advocates of stricter immigration enforcement say the flurry of legislation reflects states' mounting frustration with federal officials.

"State and local politicians and the grass-roots in those states are up in arms over Washington's conspicuous lack of leadership," says John Keeley, spokesman for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tighter controls on immigration. "Immigration … is a driving factor for the three biggest budget items states face: education, health care and criminal justice."

Again, in light of reports that low-skilled jobs are lagging in compensation, why are we tolerating an unchecked influx of unskilled labor? The glut of unskilled workers is creating increasing downward pressure on wages for our most vulnerable citizen workers. Does this make any sense to you? This particular comment by an "advocate" also ticks me off:

States' focus on workers' documentation is unfair, says Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a civil rights group. "It feels like we're back to the days when it's OK to discriminate against minorities," he says.

This is not about minorities, Wilkes knows that but tries to "reframe" the issue. This is about illegal immigrants, not the race, creed, color or origin of the illegal immigrants. It is also most assuredly not unfair to insist we ensure workers are here legally. It's unfair to citizens and legal residents if we don't.