U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Tex (El Paso), candidate for U.S. Senate, explained how his name came to be Beto, to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show.
From his appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Beto explains how he got the name Beto more than 30 years ago in El Paso, and why Texas does not need a wall against Mexico:
1 Comment | 
2018 Elections, Campaigns, Immigration, Politics | Tagged: 2018 Campaign, Beto O'Rourke, Immigration, Politics | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Marker to the 28 Mexico citizens who died in the Los Gatos Canyon crash in 1948. University of Arizona image via Smithsonian Magazine
Deportations plague much of recent U.S. history. It never works out well for the U.S., on the whole, especially mass deportations.
Hoyt Axton and Arlo Guthrie joined to sing Woody Guthrie’s account of one catastrophic deportation incident.
A more urgent version of the song, by Lance Canales and the Flood, featuring the names of the 28 who died.
More:
2 Comments | Disasters, History, Immigration, Music, Woody Guthrie | Tagged: 1948, Arlo Guthrie, Deportee, disaster, History, Hoyt Axton, Immigration, Los Gatos Canyon, Music, Woody Guthrie | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
The great Lalo Alcatraz put truth in his cartooning pen. Damn, that hurts.
Lalo Alcaraz cartoon, what he saw at the child detention centers, June 19, 2018. Or something like that. Please share, he asks, for our #MAGA friends.
Sadly, Lalo Alcaraz got it right. How many steps down the road must a man take before we call him lost?
Shake of the old scrub brush to The Mexican Judge, Lalo Alcaraz hisownself.
1 Comment | Cartoons, History, Human Rights, Immigration, Political cartoons | Tagged: Concentration Camps, Human Rights, Immigration, Lalo Alcaraz, Political cartoons | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Turns out the more immigrants the U.S. gets, the lower the crime rate.
What else are anti-immigrant advocates fibbing about?
Tip of the old scrub brush to Tyler Fisher (@tylrfishr).
7 Comments | Crime, Economics, History, Hoaxes, Illegal Immigrants, Immigration, Politics | Tagged: Economics, History, Hoaxes, Immigration, Politics, Undocumented Workers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Liberty gazing out at about 265 feet above the water of New York Harbor. Image by Statue of Liberty Tickets
Liberty was dedicated to the people of the United States on October 28, 1886. She’s 131 years old today.
Liberty stands gazing out at about 265 feet* above the water of New York Harbor, a fixture there since construction in the 1880s.
The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States and is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886, designated as a National Monument in 1924 and restored for her centennial on July 4, 1986.
The Statue of Liberty has been a fixture in the U.S. and American psyche, too. Excuse me, or join me, in wondering whether we have not lost something of our former dedication to the Statue of Liberty, and the reasons France and Americans joined to build it.
Poem-a-Day sent Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus” out this morning (Poem-a-Day is a wonderful service of the American Academy of Poets — you may subscribe and I recommend it). There it was, waiting for me in e-mail. My students generally have not heard nor read the poem, I discover year after year — some sort of Texas-wide failure in enculturation prompted by too-specific requirements of federal law and state law, combining to make a slatwork of culture taught in our classrooms with too many cracks into which culture actually falls, out of sight, out of mind; out of memory. I fear it may be a nationwide failure as well.
Have you read the poem lately? It once encouraged American school children to send pennies to build a home for the statue. Today it wouldn’t get a majority of U.S. Congressmen to sign on to consponsor a reading of it. Glenn Beck would contest its history, Rush Limbaugh would discount the politics of the “giveaways” in the poem, John Boehner would scoriate the victims in the poem for having missed his meeting of lobbyists (‘they just missed the right boat’), and Sarah Palin would complain about “an air-bridge to nowhere,” or complain that masses who huddle are probably up to no good (they might touch, you know).
Have you read it lately?
The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus
Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde – Wikimedia Commons image
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
AAP makes poems available for iPhones, too, and you can see how it appears, phrase by phrase. “The New Colossus” takes on more of its power and majesty delivered that way.
Is the Academy of American Poets playing politics here? In much of America, there is an active movement to nail shut the “golden door,” to turn out a sign that would say “No tired, no poor nor huddled masses yearning to breathe free; especially no wretched refuse, no homeless, and let the tempest-tost stay in Guatemala and Pakistan.”
Would Americans bother to contribute to build a Statue of Liberty today? Or would they protest against it?
Does that lamp still shine beside the golden door?
Stereoscopic image of the arm and torch of Liberty, at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia; Robert N. Dennis Collection, New York Public Library. The arm was displayed to encourage contributions to the fund to build a pedestal for the statue, from private donations.
_____________
* I’m calculating Liberty’s gaze at about 40 feet below the tip of the torch, which is just over 305 feet above the base of the statue on the ground. The base is probably 20 feet higher than the water, but this isn’t exact science we’re talking about here.
Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.
2 Comments | History, Homelessness, Icons of history, Immigration, Patriotism, Poetry, Poverty | Tagged: Emma Lazarus, Golden Door, History, Homelessness, Icons of History, Immigration, New Colossus, Patriotism, Poetry, Poverty, Statue of Liberty | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Wisdom in signs.
Churches say, ‘Don’t build a wall, make the table larger.’
This company puts it in terms more people will comprehend.
A sign of better things to come? Image found on Facebook, tracing back to a Willamette Week Instagram account; where is this company and this sign?
“Forget the Wall! Build a deck, invite everyone over.” A battle cry for our times.
I wonder where this photo was taken? It says “Milwaukee Lumber,” but I traced it back to an Oregon newspaper, Willamette Week.
Better question: Where are the decks?
Tip of the old scrub brush to Kathryn Knowles.
Leave a Comment » | Humor, Immigration, Signs, Signs of Life | Tagged: Humor, Immigration, Politics, Signs of Life | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Not your usual bon mot from a church sign; probably from College Avenue Presbyterian Church in Oakland, California
Found this on Twitter, from an @DocBobLA. I believe the sign is from College Avenue Presbyterian Church in Oakland, California. An enlightened bunch of Christians — they even have a Twitter account, @CAPCOakland.
Some Christians take the Gospels seriously, even in those scriptures not exactly found in the New Testament, it would appear. Would that others follow.
Update: I see @CAPCOakland tweeted this sign earlier.
4 Comments | Immigration, Refugees, Religion, Signs | Tagged: CAPCOakland, churches, Immigration, Refugees, Religion, Signs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Today is the anniversary* of our nation’s first** law generally governing immigration.
It’s a history we should work to change, to put behind us, to move away from.
Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese immigrants from the United States for 10 years.
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, page 1 – National Archives
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, page 2 – National Archives
We cannot paint over this part of history. The Chinese Exclusion Act was racist in intent, and racist in content.
What should we learn from it? Among justifications for the law were claims that immigrants from China were taking jobs from citizens, especially in California. Chinese workers imported to build the Transcontinental Railroads sought new employment once the routes were built.
Reality probably differed a lot. Chinese entrepreneurs, with money they had earned working on the railroads, established news businesses. Yes, a lot of Chinese were getting jobs. They were mostly new jobs, in new businesses, boosting the economy and creating more jobs. That came to an almost-screeching halt.
Did America learn? This law was renewed, then made permanent — not really fixed until World War II, when China was an ally in the War in the Pacific, against Japan. Even then, it wasn’t a good fix.
The law was repealed by the Magnuson Act in 1943 during World War II, when China was an ally in the war against imperial Japan. Nevertheless, the 1943 act still allowed only 105 Chinese immigrants per year, reflecting persisting prejudice against the Chinese in American immigration policy. It was not until the Immigration Act of 1965, which eliminated previous national-origins policy, that large-scale Chinese immigration to the United States was allowed to begin again after a hiatus of over 80 years.
Can we learn from this history, for immigration reform now? Santayana’s Ghost wonders.
How much is resistance to immigration reform based on racism, the sort of racism that kills the U.S. economy?
The Chinese Exclusion Act proved to be an embarrassment for Uncle Sam: “A Skeleton in His Closet,” by L.M. Glackens, published in Puck magazine on Jan. 3, 1912. Uncle Sam holding paper “Protest against Russian exclusion of Jewish Americans” and looking in shock at Chinese skeleton labeled “American exclusion of Chinese” in closet. Image from NorthwestAsianWeekly.com
____________
* I note the image says it was approved by President Chester Alan Arthur (who had succeeded to office after President James Garfield was assassinated a year earlier). The New York Times calls May 6 the anniversary of Congress’s passing the law; if Arthur signed in on May 6, it was probably passed a few days earlier. May 6 would be the anniversary of its signing into law.
** The Chinese Exclusion Act was preceded by the Page Act of 1875, which prohibited immigration of “undesirable” people. Who was undesirable? “The law classified as undesirable any individual from China who was coming to America to be a contract laborer, any Asian woman who would engage in prostitution, and all people considered to be convicts in their own country.” It was not applicable to many immigrants. The Page Act was named after its sponsor, Rep. Horace F. Page of California.
This is based on, and borrows from, an earlier post at MFB.
More:
1 Comment | Economics, History, Immigration, Legislation, Racism, U.S. House of Representatives | Tagged: 1882, Chinese Exclusion Act, History, Horace F. Page, House of Representatives, Immigration, Law, Legislation, Racism, U.S. Congress | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Did you know?
Interesting fact sheet from the Dallas Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank system.
All material below this point is directly quoted from the .pdf fact sheet; it is here in text format to aid in indexing, and quoting.
1. Immigrants are more likely to be entrepreneurial and to start new businesses, which, in turn, create jobs for U.S.-born workers.
2. Both high-skilled and low-skilled immigrant labor creates additional jobs across the U.S. economy. 
3. Immigrants boost tax revenue, enlarge the taxpayer base and help to keep down the price of goods. 
4. As baby boomers retire, immigrants will increasingly be critical for continued economic growth and for ensuring a steady flow of new workers. 
5. The majority of immigrants in the U.S. today are from Latin America, representing a huge potential economic opportunity due to the region’s burgeoning economic standing.
This fact sheet is a product of the AS/COA Hispanic Integration and Immigration Initiative, which advances the integration of immigrants and promotes positive dialogue around the economic contributions of immigrants and Latinos overall across the United States. It was produced by Jason Marczak, AS/COA Director of Policy, in collaboration with Leani García. For more information, visit AS/COA Online at: http://www.as-coa.org. For media inquiries or to speak with an expert on this topic, please contact Adriana LaRotta in our communications office at: alarotta@as-coa.org
Population: The 40 million immigrants in the U.S. today—of which 29 percent are from Mexico— represent 13 percent of the U.S. population.
In addition, the 53 million Latinos in the U.S. account for about 17 percent of the population and 10 percent of voters in the 2012 election.
However, the demographics of new immigrants have changed in recent years, with Asians having overtaken Latinos as the largest group of new immigrants.
Did you know?
Google, Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Colgate Palmolive, Pfizer, and eBay are among companies with immigrant founders.
Did you know?
Hispanic immigrants help revitalize communities across the U.S., including Ottumwa, Iowa, a 30,000-person city southeast of Des Moines, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, saw its taxable property value double in the last 10 years after making a concerted push to bring in new immigrants who opened up shops to replace shuttered storefronts.
1. Robert H. Fairlie, “Open for Business: How Immigrants are Driving Small Business Creation in the United States,” Partnership for a New American Economy, August 2011. http://www.renewoureconomy.org/sites/all/themes/pnae/openforbusiness.pdf
2. Fiscal Policy Institute, “Immigrant Small Business Owners: A Significant and Growing Part of the Economy,” June 2012. http://fiscalpolicy.org/immigrant-small-business-owners-FPI-20120614.pdf
3. Ibid.
4. Partnership for a New American Economy, “The ‘New American’ Fortune 500,” June 2011. http://www.renewoureconomy.org/sites/all/themes/pnae/img/new-american-fortune-500-june-2011.pdf
5. Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, “Raising the Floor for American Workers: The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” Center for American Progress, January 2010.
6. Madeline Zavodny, “Immigration and American Jobs,” American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and the Partnership for a New American Economy, December 2011. http://www.renewoureconomy.org/sites/all/themes/pnae/img/NAE_Im-AmerJobs.pdf
7. Juan Carlos Guzmán and Raúl C. Jara, “The Economic Benefits of Passing the Dream Act,” Center for American Progress and Partnership for a New American Economy, October 2012. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/report/2012/09/30/39567/the-economic-benefits-of-passing-the-dream-act/
8. James P. Smith & Barry Edmonston, eds., The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration (Washington, DC: National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences Press, 1997), 220, 353.
9. Immigration Policy Center, “Unauthorized Immigrants Pay Taxes, Too,” April 2011. http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/unauthorized-immigrants-pay-taxes-too
10. Patricia Cortes, “The Effect of Low-Skilled Immigration on US Prices: Evidence from CPI Data,” 381-422.
11. Immigration Policy Center, “The Future of a Generation: How New Americans Will Help Suppport Retiring Baby Boomers,” February 2012. http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/future-generation-how-new-americans-will-help-support-retiring-baby-boomers
12. Ibid.
13. Dowell Myers, Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social Contract for America (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007).
14. Robert H. Fairlie, “Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners, and their Access to Financial Capital,” Small Business Administration, May 2012.
15. The World Bank, “Mexico Overview,” 2013. http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/mexico/overview
16. Pew Hispanic Center, “A Nation of Immigrants: A Portrait of the 40 Million, Including 11 Million Unauthorized,” January 2013. http://www.pewhispanic.org/files/2013/01/statistical_portrait_final_jan_29.pdf
More:
5 Comments | Economics, Immigration, Politics | Tagged: Dallas Branch Federal Reserve, Economics, Federal Reserve Bank System, Immigration, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Way back in 2012 I wrote this:
A group calling itself “Patriotic Moms” claims to quote Thomas Jefferson:
Thomas Jefferson said a lot, and kept careful records of about 15,000 letters — but did he ever say a country without a border is not a country? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“A country with no Border is not a country.”
I can’t find that in Jefferson’s writings. Anybody know if Jefferson said or wrote anything like that? Got a citation?
Is this another fake Jefferson quote?
More, reference:
- Quote of the moment: Jefferson, on reason in a republic (timpanogos. wordpress.com)
- ‘Historian’ David Barton’s book on Thomas Jefferson pulled from stores (rawstory.com)
- Recalling Revisionist History (kennysideshow.blogspot.com)
- Kansas congressional candidate changes name to Thomas Jefferson (kansascity.com)
- “Misquoting Jefferson,” at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
- “Fake quotes in prize-winning essays,” at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
Here we are, over a year later, and this does not appear in any form that I think we can say Jefferson said it, or wrote it. It’s not in any Jefferson collection I can find.
Perhaps even more telling, our old friend Higginbotham finds a solid attribution to former Congressman Mike Pence (now Governor of Indiana), introducing a bill in Congress in 2005.
The judges rule Jefferson did not say “A country with no border is not a country.” Neither did he say “A nation with no border is not a nation.” In his bogus quote, neither did he add “secure” before the last “country” or “nation.”
It’s a misattributed quote, a bogus quote, a distortion of history, whatever epithet you wish to impale it on. But it’s not from the canon of Thomas Jefferson wisdom. It’s been flying around the internet this past week, and my earlier post has increased activity. Perhaps immigration is about to heat up as an issue? Time to put this canard down.
Here’s one thing that should make you very wary of any quote in any similar circumstance: No one seems to know what the occasion was that Jefferson made the remark, nor the date, nor the format. Jefferson’s writings are extensively indexed, and he kept copies himself of about 15,000 letters, for the sake of history. If you can’ t find it quickly, he probably didn’t say it.
More, in 2013:
12 Comments | Bogus history, Bogus Quotes, Fake Quotes, History, Immigration, Quotes, Thomas Nast | Tagged: Fake Quotes, geography, Immigration, National Borders, Query, Quotes, Thomas Jefferson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Did you miss this interview last spring?
Pia Orrenius knows more about the economic effects of immigration on the modern U.S. than almost any other person alive — her job is to study immigration economics for the Dallas Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. As a dull economics researcher, she can be quite lively — in a bank of economics presentations, Orrenius will deliver the goods and keep you wide awake. To deserved astonishment, Orrenius’s work is occasionally published by the right-wing generally isolationist American Enterprise Institute.
Caption from the Dallas Morning News: Dallas Federal Reserve economist Pia Orrenius co-wrote a book on immigration reform with economist Madeline Zavodny. (Photo by David Woo/DMN)
Last spring the Dallas Morning News interviewed Dr. Orrenius, with a short version published in the Sunday “Viewpoints” section. You could learn a lot from her. In its entirety, for study purposes, the interview from June 21, 2013 (links added):
Prepare to have your preconceived notions about immigration challenged. Pia Orrenius, 45, was born in Sweden and raised and educated in the U.S. She is a labor economist with the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank who has been studying the impact of immigration for two decades. Orrenius sees immigration through the prism of research, resulting in views that buck much of today’s accepted political dogma. She supports relaxing immigration restrictions for high-skilled workers and extending portable work visas to low-skilled workers, and warns of the unintended consequences of increased border enforcement.
It seems when we talk about immigration from a political perspective, much of the focus is on border enforcement. How important is border enforcement?
In terms of the immigration debate, border enforcement — while it’s very necessary and an important component of immigration policy and national security policy and defense policy — has unintended consequences. I know some people like to argue that border enforcement is not effective. It is, actually, effective. It’s just that you need a lot of it for it to be effective. And it’s very expensive. So you put all this costly border enforcement in place, and what happens? Fewer people get in. When fewer people get in, the wages of illegal immigrants go up. So if you’re lucky enough to get in, the reward is higher. That’s one unintended consequence.
I’ve heard you speak before about cyclical migration patterns and how, by making it so difficult to get in, people who once came alone now bring families. And families are what create the negative economic impact, because they use up education and health care dollars.
It reduces the circularity [of migration patterns] so people stay here longer. And they are also more likely to try to reunify with their families by bringing them here. So you actually have this unintended consequence of initially increasing the permanent population of illegal immigrants when you implement tough border enforcement. Whereas people before were more likely to leave their families in, say, Mexico and just migrate for work and then migrate home.
Last week, the Senate killed John Cornyn’s amendment to the immigration reform bill, which would have required raising the current 45 percent apprehension rate to 90 percent. What do you think a 90 percent rate would do?
If you put a border patrol agent every other meter on the border with Mexico, yes, you will not have any illegal immigration because they will be standing there in the way. But the question that’s not being asked is: At what price? At what cost to the taxpayers? And what else could you do with that money?
Then what do we do about illegal immigration?
Interior enforcement. Interior enforcement policies are, in so many ways, superior. They’re not nearly as expensive and are more efficient. If you have sensible interior enforcement policy, like universal E-Verify, then you’re really going to reduce the pressure on the border and save resources.
What’s the impact of illegal immigration on U.S. workers?
For native workers who compete closely with low-skilled immigrants, there is an adverse wage effect. But it’s quite small, smaller than you would think. And you don’t really find any adverse effects with high-skilled immigrants. Other forces drive wages to a much greater extent. Labor economists generally agree the most detrimental force on low-skilled wages, especially blue-collar men, is technology. And globalization — the offshoring of jobs that were traditionally high-paying. There are other things like the decline of unionization and in the real value of the minimum wage.
There have also been changes in the U.S.-born workforce — the aging that people talk a lot about and the increased education levels. The supply of U.S.-born workers who have less than a high school degree has been falling over time and is continuing to fall. These workers coming from Mexico and other countries are filling a niche.
Demographer Steve Murdoch has often said that, because of the graying of the U.S. workforce, we need a significant in-flow of immigration.
Does the economy need immigration? Do we need faster economic growth, do we need a more efficient, productive economy? Do we need it, or do we want it? That’s the distinction. If we want the economy to grow at potential, if we want to continue to rely on the services we’re accustomed to at a cost we’re accustomed to, if we want to continue living the way we have been living, yes, we need these workers. It’s just that the word need is tricky in this context.
A lot of the back story to what’s happening in Washington today has to do with what happened with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. There’s a feeling that we gave illegal immigrants a path to citizenship and now we have three or four times as many.
What happened with IRCA is that we legalized 2.7 million undocumented immigrants and then, 25 years later, we have 11 million more. But there are several reasons why what happened under IRCA is not going to happen again. First, look at the supply. Look at where people were coming from. They were overwhelmingly coming from Mexico. Well, that supply push has gone away. Mexican fertility has fallen from six to eight children per woman down to two to 21/2 per woman. (Don’t ask me how you can have half a child.)
Yeah, the poor mother. Actually, the figure you cited in your report is 2.2.
OK, 2.2. So you don’t have that demographic pressure coming from Mexico.
Another reason is technology. In the ’80s and ’90s, it was so hard to enforce the border because we didn’t have the technology to process these people. We couldn’t take their fingerprints and keep them in a database. It was a revolving door. Nowadays, we know exactly who they are, who’s getting caught two, three, four times. And we can implement interior enforcement as well. And pretty cheaply, like an E-Verify program. That was not possible 20 years ago. With technology, we will never go back to where we were before, where a half a million or a million undocumented immigrants were coming in, on net, in a given year. We’ll never go back to that.
This Q&A was conducted and condensed by editorial writer Ralph De La Cruz. His email address is rdelacruz@dallasnews.com. Pia Orrenius’ email address is pia.orrenius@dal.frb.org.
More:
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Pearl Street (Uptown), Dallas, Texas; Wikipedia image. The Dallas FRB has a wonderful collection of regional art — all unfortunately out of public view.
20 Comments | Economics, Federal Reserve Bank, History, Immigration, Research | Tagged: Dallas Federal Reserve, Dallas Morning News, Economics, History, Immigration, Pia Orrenius | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Obama’s got good answers and is willing to discuss policy with American citizens; critics keep making stuff up to complain about. Caption from the White House: President Barack Obama participates in a “Fireside Hangout” on Google+ with Americans from around the country to discuss his State of the Union Address, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. February 14, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Can’t make this stuff up as fast as the unthinking anti-Obama folks can dish it out.
Their criticisms often vaporize at the slightest investigation, though. Why not talk serious policy? They won’t do it.
Wednesday night, President Obama participated in a Google+ ” Fireside Hangout.” These sessions take their cue in part from FDR’s Fireside Chats. In the modern, Google+ version, it’s not just the president talking. He takes questions from a panel of interrogators, and from people who send in questions by Tweet or e-mail. Obama took questions from citizens.
One woman, Jackie Guerrero (sp?) complained that the Obama administration enforces our immigration laws with much more toughness than any previous administration, ever. She said too many people who shouldn’t be deported, are being deported. She asked President Obama to explain why his administration has done that.
Obama said he’s the executive, and he’s required to carry out the laws. He urged the woman to support changes in the laws, but he pointed out that must come from Congress. His answer took two-and-a-half minutes, and he outlined the need for immigration reform. In a few seconds, he started his answer with this:
“This is something I’ve struggled with throughout my presidency,” said Obama. “The problem is that I’m the president of the United States, I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed.”
You as a reasonably intelligent and perceptive Dear Reader recognize that Obama is asking for citizen pressure on Congress to pass reform of our immigration laws.
You as a reasonably intelligent and perceptive Dear Reader are also well aware there is a group of people loose in America who say that, whatever Obama says, Obama is wrong.
So, what do those Obama H8rs say? Do they complain about immigration reform, saying we don’t need it?
No, they don’t even give their listeners and viewers the dignity of talking about the issues. Here’s how Michael Savage butchered the video of the Google session:
Savage posted this wan explanation:
Published on Feb 15, 2013
In a Google hangout last evening February 14, 2013, President Barack Obama explained that his problem is that he’s “not the emperor of the United States”: “This is something I’ve struggled with throughout my presidency,” said Obama. “The problem is that I’m the president of the United States, I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed.”
In a very technical sense, that’s accurate reporting of part of Obama’s statement.
But it’s not the whole truth, as you can see. There is no mention whatsoever of the issue at hand, immigration reform, for example. How can they report it correctly, if they don’t even report what happened?
How have others reacted? Our old friend Joe Leavell leapt at the opening Michael Savage provided, with a Facebook post linking to the video:
“The problem is, I’m the President of the United States. I’m not the emperor of the United States.” – President Obama.
This is a problem? Yikes!
Can you tell Joe’s views on immigration reform? On enforcing laws? On not enforcing laws? Just try to pin him down.
On Facebook, a complaint leaving the impression that Obama said he wants to be emperor, though of course, that’s not at all what Obama said.
One more demonstration we don’t need that people who truly hate Obama with no good reason will make up crap to claim against him, regardless what he says.
Some wag said, “I hope President Obama comes out tomorrow with a warning against eating yellow snow, just so I can see these guys explain the benefits of eating yellow snow.”
I wish they’d just wake up, read the old Boy Scout Citizenship Merit Badge booklet, and be good citizens without all the hoax complaints.
No, Obama did not say he wants to be emperor. No, he did not.
No, he didn’t.
Alas, Joe Leavell on Facebook is not the only one who had what should be embarrassing conniptions over the mined quote.
Wall of shame, commenters who fuzzed up the news and ran with the political smear; count ’em:
Some of you may remember Spike Jones’s send-up of that classic show tune, “I’m in the Mood for Love.” One verse of the lyric is, “Funny, but when I’m near you, I’m in the mood for love.” In Spike’s version, an indignant voice interrupts with, “Funny butt! Who’se got a funny butt?”
That’s rather what Savage and others have done with Obama’s answer here.
How many of those sites do you think would like it if Obama had said, “Okay, we’ll stop deportations of all but criminal and dangerous undocumented aliens tomorrow?” How many of those sites will favor action on immigration reform? How many of them will want their children to know they wrote these things, in ten years?
This cheap and misleading criticism ignored the two-and-a-half-minute response Obama gave to the immigration and deportation question, in which he concisely explained the problems and the urgent need for immigration reform to benefit the U.S. economy. See the complete answer in the video of the entire session, at the bottom of this post.
Obama’s critics don’t dare allow him a fair chance to state his position. They have no answers for his clearly thought-out plans.
More:
See for yourself how Obama’s views were covered up and his meanings distorted. Here’s the entire Google Fireside Hangout, all 47 minutes of it (in HD and stereo); the question on immigration comes about 19 minutes in, and Obama’s answer took about two and a half minutes, all ignored completely by Obama’s H8rs:
Update, post script: CBS’s guy who keeps all the records, Mark Knoller, accurately reported Obama’s words in a Tweet, with just 140 characters; why can’t conservative wackoes get it right with 1,000 words and video? They probably don’t intend to get it right, like Knoller works to get it right every day, day in, and day out.
109 Comments | Accuracy, Blogs, History, Immigration, Journalism, Political Smear, Politics, Rampant stupidity, State of the Union | Tagged: Accuracy, Bloggers, History, Immigration, Journalism, Michael Savage, Political Smear, Politics, President Obama, Rampant stupidity | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 1869, in the first year of the Grant administration — and Nast put aside his own prejudices enough to invite the Irish guy to dinner, along with many others.
(Click for a larger image — it’s well worth it.)
Thomas Nast’s “Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving,” 1869 – Ohio State University’s cartoon collection, and HarpWeek
As described at the Ohio State site:
“Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving Dinner” marks the highpoint of Nast’s Reconstruction-era idealism. By November 1869 the Fourteenth Amendment, which secures equal rights and citizenship to all Americans, was ratified. Congress had sent the Fifteenth Amendment, which forbade racial discrimination in voting rights, to the states and its ratification appeared certain. Although the Republican Party had absorbed a strong nativist element in the 1850s, its commitment to equality seemed to overshadow lingering nativism, a policy of protecting the interests of indigenous residents against immigrants. Two national symbols, Uncle Sam and Columbia, host all the peoples of the world who have been attracted to the United States by its promise of self-government and democracy. Germans, African Americans, Chinese, Native Americans, Germans, French, Spaniards: “Come one, come all,” Nast cheers at the lower left corner.
One of my Chinese students identified the Oriental woman as Japanese, saying it was “obvious.” The figure at the farthest right is a slightly cleaned-up version of the near-ape portrayal Nast typically gave Irishmen.
If Nast could put aside his biases to celebrate the potential of unbiased immigration to the U.S. and the society that emerges, maybe we can, too.
Hope your day is good; hope you have good company and good cheer, turkey or not. Happy Thanksgiving.
More: Earlier posts from Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
6 Comments | Cartoons, History, Holidays, Immigration, Political cartoons, Reconstruction, Thanksgiving, Thomas Nast, Uncle Sam | Tagged: 1869, History, Immigration, Political cartoons, Thanksgiving, Thomas Nast, Uncle Sam | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Woody Guthrie wrote of freedom . . . when was this written? 1930-something? [1941, it turns out.]
Ronnie Gilbert and Holly Near combine on one of my favorite arrangements of the song.
[That one disappeared? Try this one; click through if you have to:]
[Maybe this one will work:]
This film must be at least ten years old, maybe more. The song is more than 60 years old [71 years — from 1941].
It’s still a powerful indictment of corporate greed, heartless and oppressive immigration policies, and it’s a case for a strong labor movement.
Be sure you vote in the November 6 elections. Sing this song on the way to the polls.
More:
Leave a Comment » | Agriculture, Farming, Folk Music, History, Immigration, Justice, Labor and unions, Politics, Woody Guthrie | Tagged: 2012 Campaign, 2012 Elections, Agriculture, Arlo Guthrie, Business Ethics, Folk Music, History, Holly Near, Immigration, labor, Music, Politics, Ronnie Gilbert, unions, Woody Guthrie | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Apples are an all-American success story-each of us eats more than 19 pounds of them annually. Photo credit: Wikipedia
Noticed any increase in food prices yet?
Here in Texas, all meat prices are up, but especially beef. Beef ranchers in Texas sold off their herds because they couldn’t feed them during the drought, except with very expensive imported hay. That held prices down for a while, but now there is a lot less beef to be bought. Prices rise.
Drought also hammered corn crops this year, and last year. To keep corn markets growing, corn state legislators had gone whole hog into using corn for alcohol to be added to gasoline. That demand didn’t drop with the crop decreases, however, and we’ve been hearing for months how corn-into-alcohol pressures food markets.
Lucio Machado picks Golden Delicious apples in a Washington orchard. Goodfruit.com
Drought hammers our fruit crops, too. Comes now news from Washington state about the added wrinkle: Washington’s apple crops bend the tree boughs — who will pick them?
Two key problems: First, the crackdowns on immigrant workers reduced supply dramatically. Second, citizens or documented workers find higher pay in the turnaround in construction.
Result: Apples may stay in the trees, boosting apple prices to consumers.
Wholly apart from the foolish denial that we need to do something about global warming, the added policy flaws of shutting off immigration flow on the chuckle-headed and wrong assumption that immigration hurts the economy, and the continued denial of our too-modest economic recovery, will now cost you money directly at the supermarket.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
PASCO, Wash.—Washington state is enjoying the second-biggest apple crop in its history, but farmers warn they may have to leave up to one-quarter of their bounty to rot, because there aren’t enough pickers.
“I’m down 40% from the labor I need,” said Steve Nunley, manager of a 3,000-acre apple orchard for Pride Packing Co. in Wapato, Wash. Mr. Nunley said he has 200 pickers right now, but needs close to 400. He has increased pay to $24 for every 1,000-pound bin of Gala apples they pick, compared with $18 last year. Even so, he expects to have to let tons of fruit fall unpicked this season.
Washington’s bumper crop, forecast at 109 million boxes of Red Delicious, Gala, Granny Smith and other varieties, comes as drought and poor growing conditions have led to dismal harvests in parts of the U.S. Michigan lost much of its apple crop this year, and poor conditions have depressed the yields in New York state and North Carolina.
And:
But Washington’s farmers can’t fully cash in on their good fortune. The national crackdown on illegal immigration has shrunk the pool of potential farm workers in the state, while at the same time, the modest economic rebound has given immigrants more opportunities than before in construction, landscaping and restaurants.
* * * * *
Not far away, outside a church in Pasco, a migrant from Mexico’s Michoacán state, 47-year-old José Carranza, said he planned to skip the fruit harvest this year. Mr. Carranza believes he can do better in construction work, which is picking up.
How bad is it, really? Take a look at several other pieces on this issue, recently:
“There will definitely be an economic impact on all of our community,” Pawlak said about the smaller farm labor force this harvest. “It’s definitely being felt here.”
How much additional will you be paying for goods this year because of GOP “we-can’t-afford-to-be-great-anymore” policies, or racist immigration policies? Will your modest tax cuts offset that expense?
Perhaps we should pay a bit more in federal money to help fix the real problems, and stop pretending that the price of everything is the same as the cost.
You know the aphorisms: A conservative economist is a person who can tell you price of any item or service, but doesn’t know the value of education, parenting, or good social structure, and ignores the costs of doing nothing.
And the Tom Magliozzi Law (of the Car Guys): The cheapskate always pays more.
Studies from the Federal Reserve indicates immigrants boost our economy greatly; making life tough for immigrants, or hoping they’ll “self-deport,” damages our economy.
How’s that applesauce?
More:
7 Comments | Agriculture, Climate change, climate_change, Economics, Farming, Global warming, History, Immigration, Politics | Tagged: Apples, Climate change, drought, Economics, Farming, History, Immigration, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
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Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 