They’re resented by both underachieving Mexican athletes, and patriotic Americans–athletes who live in the US, and have US birthright citizenship, but compete for Mexico in the Olympic Games:

Giovanni Lanaro was born in Los Angeles, grew up in La Puente, attended Cal State Fullerton, and coaches and trains at Mt. San Antonio College. Yet, when the torch is lighted during opening ceremonies this summer at the Beijing Olympics, the world’s sixth-ranked pole vaulter will be with Mexico, not the United States.[They're American, except in the Olympics By Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times, June 29, 2008]

One case is Robison Pratt, who was “born in Saudi Arabia to a family with ties to Mexico dating to before the Mexican Revolution.” That is to say, polygamous Mormons who settled in Mexico to avoid American law. The LA Times writes:

Although Pratt’s first language is English, he has a degree from Brigham Young University, he lives in Chino Hills and distant cousin Mitt Romney campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination, Pratt wore a Mexican uniform at the 2000 Sydney Games.

“I could have gone either direction,” said Pratt, who will miss the Beijing Games because of a knee injury. “I’m comfortable with both cultures. I’m comfortable with both languages. I’m comfortable with a Mexican uniform on.”

Robison Pratt’s father, Elbert Pratt, is a coach in Monterrey, at Monterrey Tech.

The real Mexican athletes, living  and training in the relatively poor conditions in Mexico, resent the foreign athletes:

Lanaro also got a cold shoulder when Pratt invited him to compete for Mexico. But since shattering the national record and representing Mexico in four world championships, two Pan-Am Games and the Athens Olympics, that resistance has faded.

“They all know we live [in the United States] and we have better resources than what they do,” Lanaro said. “But the bottom line is, I compete for that country. Whether I’m here, there, it doesn’t matter. I represent the country.”

Lanaro says most of the criticism he gets now comes from people in the U.S.

“It’s all stupid. It’s ridiculous,” said Lanaro, who contacted the Mexican team with help from his girlfriend, a high jumper from Culiacan. “I’m not sitting here in the United States of America waving around a Mexican flag. If I am proud competing for my country, people need to respect that.”

Well, since Lanaro was born in Los Angeles, he’s an American citizen, and he’s training at an American university, so it’s not surprising that people resent him competing for Mexico.

I wrote about this doctor in May: Brilliant Neurosurgeon Discovered in Tomato Fields! Dr. Quinones was an illegal alien who managed to work America’s diversity-obsessed education system to become a surgeon.

Now he is a major character in a network reality tv series Hopkins; you can watch the opening episode start by following him around the hospital making his rounds as he discusses his lawbreaking background and immigration views ad nauseum; e.g. “The media portrays Mexican Americans in many cases as not being hard workers and if I don’t make an effort to change that, who will?”

The film clip included in the June 26 ABC News report, The American Dream: Dr. Quinones Incredible Story, shows Dr. Q driving by a group of day laborers and remarking, “Just down the street is a group of people doing what I was doing just about 20 years ago,” with heart-tuggy music playing in the background. The not-so-subliminal message is America shouldn’t close its borders because we might miss out on some Einstein. (The brilliant physicist came legally, in fact.)

Here’s more from the ABC story…

“By the time I was 19, I decided I wanted to go to the U.S. and explore,” Quiñones-Hinojosa said. “I was tired of the political oppression and the bifurcation of classes, the oppression of the poor that happens in my country.”

Desperate for money, and with his sights set on a brighter future, he scaled a barbed border fence across from Calexico, Calif.

“It was a pretty scary experience,” Quiñones-Hinojosa remembered. “It was filled with a real adrenaline rush excitement, but also fear, and, you know, fear gives you extra strength and courage. I got caught and sent back, but I did it again the same night.”

To media elites, it’s okay for foreigners to break a slew of immigration laws as long as there is a warm and wonderful story at the end, suitable for network programming.

The defeat of amnesty enthusiast Chris Cannon by Jason Chaffetz in the Republican primary in Utah’s 3rd District  has been a blow to the pro-immigration right.

David Wasserman, the U.S. House editor for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, dismissed labels calling this a bellwether race. He said there are unique circumstances with this race and that anti-incumbent, anti-Washington sentiment didn’t spell Cannon’s defeat.
“Cannon’s performance in primaries has always been a good thermometer of just how heated the immigration issue is for the Republicans - just how hot it is for the Republican base,” Wasserman said. “This year it was hotter than ever.”
Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican who is arguably the staunchest anti-illegal immigration member, said it was clear the immigration issue helped knock Cannon out of office. While voting for immigration law enforcement and border fence protections, Cannon had backed more comprehensive approaches that critics had labeled amnesty.
“My first impression is that . . . any Republican who’s running for office and believes the immigration issue is dead should take another look and see what happened to Mr. Cannon,” Tancredo says. “For the Republican base, this race sends a very clear message that to them it still very much matters.”
Cannon said that part of the problem Republicans face is that they have begun eating their own. [Sic][Incumbent fear: Cannon loss sets off wave of worry, By Thomas Burr and Robert Gehrke, The Salt Lake Tribune , June 26, 2008]

Now, various people are trying to spin this as not about immigration at all. The Salt Lake Tribune has a story by the same two reporters titled GOP faithful fire Rep. Cannon? | Immigration not the reason, BYU poll says, in effect,  that exit polls show that there are a lot of other reasons to dislike a Bush Republican, (Chaffetz wants to repeal No Child Left Behind) and that even mildly pro-immigrant voters voted against Cannon.

This is just spin–expect it to show up in the Wall Street Journal shortly.  Question–in today’s politally correct society, is it even safe for poll respondents to say that they voted against a politicians because he was in favor of letting in too many Mexicans? I don’t think so. But in the privacy of  voting booth, they can still vote amnesty enthusiasts out.

Here’s an editorial from the Dallas Morning News that I swear I’m not making up:

Editorial: So much vibrancy to build on

The trick is getting diverse groups to building [sic] a community together

The beauty of the neighborhoods that run from Jefferson Boulevard toward Wynnewood Village is how they mirror Texas’ future – and capture the state’s biggest challenge. Plurality will become the new reality, creating an ethnic vibrancy but making it hard to build a community out of so many different kinds of people.

You see this reality writ large in this stretch of Oak Cliff, where middle- to upper-middle-income, mostly Anglo folks live alongside poor, working, mostly Latino families. You find tree-lined, prosperous neighborhoods like Elmwood and Wynnewood, along with blocks of proud working-class neighborhoods. The hodgepodge of backgrounds and incomes coalesces into a vibrancy that North Texas neighborhoods often miss.

Vibrancy is what happens when longtime Cliff dwellers bump up against the surge of gay couples fixing up their Wynnewood homes not so far from Latino families imbuing Jefferson Boulevard with a gritty mercado atmosphere.

Vibrancy is what happens when white-collar professionals and blue-collar laborers sit shoulder-to-shoulder at restaurants like the Charco Broiler, Tops Cafe and El Ranchito.

Bridging Dallas’ North-South Gap: A campaign by The Dallas Morning News editorial board to lift the southern part of Dallas.

And vibrancy is what happens when agencies like Casa Guanajuato serve immigrant families a few blocks from historic, big-steeple churches like Cliff Temple Baptist.

The trick is building a community so everyone wins – rather than turning it over only to the poor or the affluent. Striking a balance will require smart economic strategies, improved schools and an attentive City Hall.

Consider Jefferson Boulevard, which many consider the spine of Oak Cliff. There are about 160 shops along its 11 blocks between Zang Boulevard and Edgefield Avenue. But 18 of those shops pawn merchandise, offer ready cash or loan money. Another 20 sell outfits for brides, quinceañeras or parties. And 15 stores provide styling for hair or nails – or, if you’re in the mood, a tattoo.

Undoubtedly, a market exists for dresses for that big occasion, ready cash or looking nice. But a thriving boulevard needs a broad range of stores to attract a broader range of shoppers. Retail feeds off other retail. And Jefferson lacks that element. Along this stretch, for example, there’s only one diversified department store.

In other words, the gays actually find Jefferson Blvd. to be not vibrant, but tacky.

Over a year ago, I did a post about an Indo-American couple, immigrants to the United States, who were keeping their two Indonesian maids in horrible conditions of slavery and torturing them. One of the more memorable details, via Fox News:

Samirah, an immigrant from Indonesia, said she was forced to walk naked from the servants’ room to the kitchen and to eat 100 chili peppers, followed by six spoons of chili powder mixed with salt water. She said she vomited after eating the peppers and was told to eat the vomit.

I wrote at the time

The story of Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51 and Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 45, who are accused of having kept two Indonesian women as slaves, torturing them on regular basis, is being covered in the mainstream media without the use of the word “immigrant“ to describe either the alleged perpetrators or even the victims. [Slavery, Immigration, And The Press]

Well, recently there was a conviction, and let me show you some headlines from the American press:

• Three years for slave-case husband
  Newsday, NY - Jun 28, 2008
  BY ROBERT E. KESSLER | robert.kessler@newsday.com A Muttontown millionaire, convicted with his wife of enslaving two Indonesian domestic workers…

“Muttontown millionaire” is one way of describing him.

Man in Slave Case Sentenced to 3 Years
New York Times, United States - Jun 27, 2008
By AP CENTRAL ISLIP, NY (AP) — A Long Island man convicted of helping his wife keep two Indonesian housekeepers as virtual slaves was sentenced on Friday to

“Long Island man” is another way of describing him. Well, at least the Indonesian victims are allowed a country of origin. Of course, since they lived in the same house, we could just as easily say “An Indian millionaire was convicted of enslaving two Long Island women,” couldn’t we? Here are several more examples of blaming this crime on Americans, New Yorkers, or millionaires.

• Woman gets 11 years in US jail for enslaving Indonesian maids
  AFP - Jun 27, 2008
  NEW YORK (AFP) — A millionaire has been sentenced to 11 years in prison in the United States for enslaving and torturing her two Indonesian housekeepers. .
• New York Woman Sentenced to 132 Months in Prison for Her …

FOXBusiness - Jun 27, 2008
Varsha Sabhnani was sentenced today to 132 months in prison based on her conviction after trial of forced labor, peonage, harboring aliens, …

• US ’slavery’ woman given 11 years

BBC News, UK - Jun 27, 2008
A wealthy New York woman has been sentenced to 11 years in jail for keeping two Indonesian women as slaves. Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 46, and her husband …

• Wealthy New Yorker jailed for keeping slaves

Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - Jun 26, 2008
Pictures: AP A wealthy New York woman was sentenced to 11 years in prison today for keeping two Indonesian women as slaves, forcing them to work up to 20 …

• US woman jailed for slavery

Radio Australia, Australia - Jun 26, 2008
A wealthy New York woman has been jailed for 11 years for keeping two Indonesian women as slaves. The two Indonesians were forced to work up to 20 hours a …

• NY Husband, Wife Get Jail For Holding Maids As Slaves

ChattahBox, MA - Jun 28, 2008
New York (ChattahBox) - A millionaire couple from Long Island, New York have both been given jail time for holding two Indonesian house maids as slaves. …

• New York Wife Gets 11 Years In ‘Slavery’ Case

CBS2 Chicago, IL - Jun 26, 2008
NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who was convicted with her husband in a notorious modern-day slavery has been sentenced to 11-years in prison on Thursday. …

Now compare this with the headlines in the Indian Press:

• Indian-American jailed for 3 years for torturing housekeepers
  Press Trust of India, India - Jun 27, 2008
  New York, Jun 28 (PTI) A multi-millionaire Indian American businessman, found guilty along with his wife of virtually enslaving two Indonesian housemaids…

Aha!

11 Years in Prison for Wife of American Indian Millionaire for Ill-treating Indonesian Maids
MedIndia, India - Jun 28, 2008
In December last Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani (51), and his Indonesian wife Varsha (40) were held guilty of subjecting two Indonesian housemaids to repeated…

Aha! again. And finally, this headline from the Times Of India:

Indians’ ‘model minority’ reputation hit

By Chidanand Rajghatta

28 Jun 2008

In this article Chidanand Rajghatta points to the slavery story and another story that I personally had missed, for which the Times of India headline is  Indian-American gets life term for murder of son’s black wife [June 29, 2008] as examples of two stories that have damaged the reputation of Indians abroad.

He worries about it more that he needs to, as he’s  reckoned without the ability of American headline writers to obscure issues of race.

You never see a headline like Indian-American gets life term for murder of son’s black wife in an American paper, and as for the behavior of the Sabhnanis, that has affected the reputation of “Long Island” men,  “Wealthy New Yorkers” “Muttontown millionaires” and Americans in general. (See the headline about “US Woman” above.)

But only a careful reading will connect this offence with immigration from the Indian subcontinent, where such behavior is traditional.

Where do you read coverage like that? Only on VDARE.com, which is why we are once again asking you to send money.

It’s always interesting to learn what powerful people promise each other when the microphones are turned off. Here’s a piece about the California governor in today’s San Francisco Chronicle (Schwarzenegger now supports on McCain, environment), and a little item about changing the Constitution comes out in passing like it’s no big deal…

Schwarzenegger said Tim Russert, the recently deceased host of “Meet the Press” whom Shriver had called her best friend, told him if he ever chose to run for president he would help. “When I ran for governor, he called me and said, ‘If you make that, if you win, then I will take care of the rest,’” Schwarzenegger recalled. “I said what are you talking about? And he said, ‘I will get you to run for president. I will make sure that we change the Constitution.’ It never happened. But anyway, I miss him very much.”

Meet the Press honcho Tim Russert thought that he was big enough to engineer a change in the United States Constitution in order to help out a pal. (Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Austria and is therefore not eligible to become President because he is an immigrant.)

When you are a Washington player, like Russert was, issues like American foundational law are just bumps along the road to be flattened by the mighty power of the MSM. It’s an example of the everyday, accepted arrogance of the press.

Lou Dobbs had three excellent reports about Nielsen replacing American workers at the Oldsmar location. The three videos on Youtube and the transcripts are below,

So far mainstream media has ignored this story. Is there anyone in Florida who could get more media coverage of this travesty? Perhaps WKMB (the station that did the Mike Emmons/Siemens stories) would take this on if prodded by Florida residents. In case you don’t know about the Siemens story, go to this web page and search for “WKMG”.

If anyone in Florida sees local TV news coverage of the Nielsen story, please record it and then contact me.

Nielsen replaces workers with H-1Bs from Tata Part 1

(more…)

The estimable Norm Matloff’s comprehensive refutation of George Will’s latest fatuous column below is the latest of a substantial body of valuable work we have noted on VDARE.com, both on the main page, Today’s Letter and the blog (scroll down).

But he is quite wrong to

given him (Will) credit for careful, tightly-reasoned analysis.

In fact, as a VDARE.com blogger pointed out three years, ago specimens like George Will are in their prominent MSM slots precisely not to provide anything of the sort:

When , in the 1960s, the networks began to feel heat for their systematic exclusion of conservative viewpoints, they responded by inventing a new species: the ostensibly well-credentialed individual who, representing the conservative case, would make sometimes elaborate but ultimately ineffectual arguments, and, in the end, always cave in on matters of substance.

Nowadays this species is almost extinct, its habitat having been largely grabbed by neoconservatives, who are of course neither conservative nor ineffectual. Odd examples persist, like George Will.

The MSM objective, of course, is to avoid featuring people of real ability.

My theory: Professor Matloff is a polite man, but too sensible to waste time reading Will regularly.

Can anyone remember George Will saying anything either valuable or conservative?

VDARE.com evaluations of George Will are here and here and here.

From Norm Matloff’s H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter

Norm Matloff writes:

George Will and I don’t share the same political views at all, but I’ve usually given him credit for careful, tightly-reasoned analysis. Yet unfortunately, no well-reasoned argument has much chance of being correct when it is based on false premises, as is Will’s column enclosed below. And some of the reasoning itself is strikingly poor.

Here is his key passage:

Two-thirds of doctoral candidates in science and engineering in U.S. universities are foreign-born. But only 140,000 employment-based green cards are available annually, and 1 million educated professionals are waiting–often five or more years–for cards. Congress could quickly add a zero to the number available, thereby boosting the U.S. economy and complicating matters for America’s competitors.[Building a Wall Against Talent, By George F. Will, Washington Post. June 26, 2008]

Will may not be an expert on the education system or the tech industry, but even he should have realized that we aren’t producing 140,000 new foreign PhDs in science and engineering per year. The actual number in 2000, for example, was 29,951, for instance. (See Changing Demographics of U.S. Science-Engineering PhDs, NBER.org) Moreover, PhDs get priority in the immigration queue. So why does Will think 140,000 per year isn’t enough?

(more…)

The Nielsen Company in Oldsmar, Florida is replacing some of its workers with H-1Bs that contract with the bodyshop Tata (TCS). Nielsen employees who lose their jobs are required to train their Indian replacements in order to retain their severance and pension payments.

All of this got the attention of city council members, but not in the way we would hope. Mayor Jim Ronecker  [Email him] makes no distinction between the citizens who are losing their jobs and the foreigners who are replacing them — he only cares that more workers are coming to Oldsmar to increase the tax base.

His [Ronecker] hope is that as Nielsen consolidates its global workload, it will bring more jobs to Oldsmar–whether they are filled by contractors or not. “At the end of the day, in a couple of short years, we’re going to have a lot more workers than we could ever have envisioned in Oldsmar,” he said.[Nielsen gives up incentives from Oldsmar, By
Theresa Blackwell, St. Petersburg Times, June 20, 2008]

Ronecker showed his true colors here, and it’s not red, white, and blue!

“It’s a global company. It’s not all about America anymore, and we’re right in the middle of it.” [VDARE.com note: In fact,what Mayor Ronecker is right in the middle of is America.]

Eric Seidel’s main concern is that Oldsmar doesn’t appear racist, so he wants to roll out the welcome mat to the Indians who work for Tata.

“We probably should be very mindful of giving the perception that here in Oldsmar, if you don’t look like us, we don’t welcome you,” he said.[ A softer tone on Nielsen, By
Theresa Blackwell, St. Petersburg Times,June 18, 2008]

The only city council member to speak against Nielsen was Janice Miller who said: “That is just unacceptable!”[Nielsen layoffs raise concern April 14, 2008]

One of the perplexing things about this story is that Nielsen has been given $3.1-million in incentives to create new jobs in Pinellas County. Because of the uproar this controversy has caused, Nielsen has agreed to forgo receiving an additional $463,372. Apparently Nielsen thinks the company is coming out ahead by hiring the H-1Bs even without the cash handout by the city.

The St. Petersburg Times seems to be the only newspaper that is covering the story. Perhaps it’s my imagination, but the first story was very hard hitting while each one after that got a little softer.

Some “Fast Facts” on Nielsen’s reductions from the St. Petersburg Times [ Nielsen begins more layoffs, By
Theresa Blackwell, June 24, 2008]

• 117: Jobs lost in 2007 to company restructuring
• 115: Jobs outsourced to India’s TCS in late 2007 and in 2008
• 170: Additional jobs going to TCS in 2008/early 2009
• 15 : Percentage of Nielsen’s Oldsmar work to be outsourced by 2009