Here’s another mug shot from San Francisco of one of its “juvenile” crack dealers — oh wait, he’s actually 25. What a surprise.

When San Francisco made clear its intention to coddle underage illegal aliens, the local dealers got their fake IDs made up for minors. This guy is an example.

When he was caught selling crack in San Francisco’s Tenderloin in April, the Honduran immigrant who called himself Javier Martinez first told police he was 18. Then he said he was 16.

Because he insisted he was underage, police were duty-bound to take him to Juvenile Hall, where he would be shielded from deportation under the city’s long-standing policy of not reporting juvenile offenders to federal immigration authorities. He was soon put up in a $7,000-a-month group home in Southern California at city taxpayer expense.

In short order, he became one of the eight offenders who walked away from unlocked homes in San Bernardino County, escapes that contributed to a national outcry over San Francisco’s policies and prompted Mayor Gavin Newsom to announce that the city would no longer afford juveniles a refuge from deportation. Four of the offenders are now back in custody - and Martinez is one of them, arrested in San Francisco for allegedly dealing drugs.

Martinez now says he was 25 all along, and that his true name is Jose Mendoza Cerrato. On Thursday, he pleaded guilty in adult court to drug dealing and is expected to be transferred to immigration authorities for possible deportation as soon as next month.
[Honduran drug suspect gamed juvenile system, by Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle, August 31, 2008]

San Francisco — always the leader in immigration anarchy!

Our Alaskan friend Ryan Kennedy writes to note that GOP VP-designate Sarah Palin was a member of the “Buchanan Brigades” that carried the state’s straw poll for Pat Buchanan in 1996.

Of course, this is very interesting. (Did McCain know? Is the GOP Establishment now prepared to admit that Buchanan was not the Devil Incarnate? - because the MSM will want to know.)

But it doesn’t obviate Patrick Cleburne’s points that (a) we don’t know Palin’s views on immigration and (b) Palin is, undeniably, an affirmative action hire. (Heather Mac Donald makes the same point here, so it must be respectable).

Unfortunately, picking Palin is going to make it difficult for McCain to campaign against affirmative action/ quotas although this devastating wedge issue has actually presented itself to him in 2008, by getting itself on several state ballots.

But even the quota issue is nothing compared to the potential power of the immigration issue, as witness yet another account of American workers spontaneously applauding as illegal aliens were rounded up and led away in the Howard Industries raid this week:

Immigrant raid divides a Mississippi town
Many black and white residents of Laurel applaud the crackdown; it sends fear through the Latino community. Political change may end such raids, by Miguel Bustillo and Richard Fausett, Los Angeles Times, August 31, 2008)

“They need to go and do this in every little town,” Tonya Jackson said.

Jackson, who is black, said that over the years she had applied numerous times for a job at the locally owned manufacturer, which employs about 4,000 workers. Jackson, 30, said she never received a callback. The raid, she said, was a welcome purge of illegal Latino laborers who had taken jobs they didn’t deserve.

“We’ve been here all our lives,” she said. “And it seems like they have just arrived and are getting the nice cars and the good homes.”

Her stance puts her at odds with Obama. The Democratic presidential nominee’s website describes such raids as “ineffective” measures that have “placed all the burdens of a broken system onto immigrant families.”

McCain staffers are justifying the Palin pick in terms of staggeringly conventional stupidity:

As one McCain aide put it: “We either get Hillary’s voters and we win, or we don’t. It’s not a mystery.” Said another: “This campaign is all about the middle.”

McCain’s New Palin
McCain’s decision prompts one important question: Huh?, by John Dickerson, Slate, August 29, 2008.

Too bad McCain’s campaign is not about America. Then it might even win.

Joe Biden’s famous plagiarism scandal, in which he paraphrased a speech by British leftist politician Neil Kinnock, is described, and somewhat minimized here, in a chapter of    The Appearance of Impropriety. [By Glenn Reynolds and Peter Morgan] (A good book, the point of which is that many people spend so much time looking for the appearance of impropriety that they ignore the real thing.)

But Biden didn’t just plagiarize Kinnocks’s speech, he plagiarized his life. Kinnock may have been the first person in his family in “a thousand generations” to attend college–Biden, who used exactly the same phrase, wasn’t. The same with Kinnock’s coal-mining Welsh ancestors. Biden switched that to  coal-mining Northeast Pennsylvania ancestors, for the sake of plausibility, but he didn’t have any coal mining ancestors in Pennsylvania either.

Biden also plagiarized Bobby Kennedy’s speeches, although at no time did he claim that his martyred brother had been President of Pennsylvania.

All this is by way of mentioning that when I was discussing the Biden pick with a more or less liberal friend the other day, I brought this up, and he said “I’m sure he’s learned by his experience,” and I said “Really? Are you sure he didn’t learn by someone else’s experience?”

[Disclaimer: this whole post, except for the last paragraph, is based on ideas and facts developed by Ann Coulter, Jeffrey Lord, David Greenberg of Slate, and (believe it or not) Maureen Dowd, all linked above. But not Mickey Kaus, who has a separate complaint about Biden. ]

California legislators, like those in Washington, enjoy passing bills that cost the taxpayers money for useless projects but make the lawmakers feel virtuous in a liberal sort of way. One such is Assembly Bill 2064 which requires schools to teach material about the Vietnam War including the “role of Southeast Asians in that war, and the refugee/immigrant/new American experience.”

Keep in mind that California was the home of the self-esteem movement, promoted by Assemblyman John Vasconcellos as the answer to social problems.

The college student writing the article linked here recounts her angst-riddled search for identity (a normal part of growing up as I recall) and believes that cultural studies of her tribe foisted upon American classrooms will make Hmong students happier. When the debunked idea of self-esteemism was married up with tribal multiculturalism, an increased desire for cultural propaganda has resulted. [Textbook Update Could Give Hmong Youth Cultural Pride, by Connie Vang, New America Media, August 28, 2008]

But, if Governor Schwarzenegger signs Assembly Bill 2064 into law this month, it could change that and increase the cultural knowledge of many high school students in California. A.B. 2064 would require that the war and refugee history of Southeast Asians be included in the next textbook curriculum update. [...]

In school, I did not learn anything about my Hmong culture, so it made me think that being Hmong was not important. I tried my best to separate myself from Hmong people.

I didn’t go to cultural events. I refused to speak Hmong. I even said I would never date or marry a Hmong person. I succeeded in separating myself from Hmong culture, but from sixth through ninth grade, my self-esteem lowered drastically.

It grew worse each year, along with my grades. I started fighting with my parents, about my grades and social life.

But then the author reconnected with the culture of her ancestors and life became wonderful and fulfilled: “When we know our cultural history, we can feel proud about who we are.”

Redemption! Ain’t multiculturalism grand?

The McCain Campaign’s moronic Affirmative Actioning in selecting Alaska’s first-term Governor Sarah Palin for their VP candidate is of course foolish. Republicans can only win by ensuring a high turn out by their key constituency, white men of Christian heritage. Yet another sign that they are to be discriminated against by a McCain Administration may well keep a critical number at home on Election Day.

Congratulations to our old friend and sometime contributor Kevin Michael Grace, for the best comment so far on this, part of a brilliant satirical essay on his blog The Ambler:

Dan Quayle, however, struck a discordant note. Reached at his home in Paradise Valley, AZ, the former Vice President declared, “You remember the s–t I went through when Bush picked me in ‘88? I was ‘too young’ and ‘too inexperienced.’ Well, compared to this broad, I was Daniel F—–g Webster.” Quayle refused further comment, mumbling enigmatically, “It’s Miller time.”

(Hat Tip, Steve Sailer)

Others in the Immigration Control movement besides ourselves are wondering about Sarah Palin’s stance on immigration. The Diggers Realm blog has been hard at work, coming up with a photograph of Palin as Miss Wasilla in 1984 and adding some incisive comment:

she’s unknown and unexpected and after looking around, severely inexperienced to run this country should John McCain die in office.
Once again, as with illegal immigration, John McCain is playing Russian Roulette with this country.
Nobody in this election has been thinking about America. This choice proves that McCain cares more about being elected than the future of our country.

(McCain Picks Beauty Pageant Journalist Sarah Palin As Running Mate)

Digger’s Realm does point out one positive:

On the positive side of it, she does have more experience actually running something than Obama, who so far in his career has only pushed a button voting yeah or nay on something.

Unfortunately, as VDARE.com has noted, Alaska is far from insulated from the impact of mass immigration. The crucial Fish Canning business has been substantially de-Americanized and those relying on the work impoverished. Palin must know this–especially as her husband works as a Bristol Bay salmon fisherman in season. Her silence on the issue is ominous: business owners in this tiny community have probably got to her.

And, of course as Digger’s Realm says

All I can assume is that she is in lockstep with McCain’s amnesty since amnesty for illegal aliens is an issue he has such a passion for that he has gotten angry at anyone who questions him on it - including voters

Subsequently, Digger’s Realm has posted a Bleg:

There is absolutely no stance or action on illegal immigration recorded on Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin anywhere in statements or press releases. We have absolutely no idea where she stands on the border fence, birthright citizenship, workplace enforcement, sanctuary cities and in general, amnesty. This is disturbing for a running mate that could potentially end up as the commander in chief should McCain die in office. I have looked far and wide for information and come up blank…

If anyone can find information on Sarah Palin’s stance on illegal immigration please send it on by posting a comment below or through the contact link at the top and bottom of this site. Thank you

Sarah Palin On Illegal Immigration - Who Knows?

VDARE.com strongly endorses this project.

A happy thought: perhaps by picking Palin, from a state with a narrow undiversified industrial base, where a key cash employer has pigged out on imported labor, McCain may have inadvertently brought his hated issue back on stage.

VDARE.com hopes we all hear more about the Fish Cannery business in Alaska in the coming months.

In a 2004 article originally published in the New York Post, the Manhattan Institute’s estimable Heather Mac Donald (also see here) tossed off a couple of paragraphs about illegal immigration that amounted to one of those the-emperor-has-no-clothes statements:

President Bush’s proposal to legalize the country’s 10 or so million illegal aliens rests on a fallacy: that immigration enforcement has failed to stem the tide of illegal aliens. Therefore, the argument goes, amnesty is the only solution to the illegal-alien crisis.

But immigration enforcement has not failed — it has never been tried. Amnesty, however, has been tried, and it was a clear failure that should not be repeated again. [emphasis added]

Mac Donald’s simple observation — obvious to those who have long been toiling for immigration-sanity, but not widely recognized by the inattentive general public — is clearly a component of the attrition-through-enforcement strategy that is currently proving itself in real life.

Now, in the aftermath of the giant raid on Howard Industries, the Jackson, MS Clarion-Ledger has published a sober editorial (Immigration: Raid of this size raises questions, August 28, 2008) whose penultimate paragraph should be music to all VDARE readers’ ears:

A raid of this size points to the complex issues involved in immigration reform efforts. The most effective reforms would be to enforce existing laws. [emphasis added]

We could lay the illegal-immigration fight to rest and start on legal immigration if the Clarion-Ledger editors’ insight would — please! — just go viral among their mainstream-media colleagues. (I’m an atheist, but everyone who’s not should pray for this.) Meanwhile, VDARE’s Mississippi readers can submit letters-to-the-editor lauding the Clarion-Ledger crew for recognizing reality.

So here we are with the Affirmative Action Presidential election. Both tickets feature someone in their 40s, each in their first terms of office in positions of any national significance. Neither would be where they are except for Affirmative Action.

No doubt the reflexive me-too McCainites are feeling smart. If they actually were smart, they would be aware that their core constituency – white men of Christian heritage – resents Affirmative Action. And yes, they do have an alternative: not voting.

But for the apparently small minority of us who think politics should be about policy rather than posturing, the elevation of Alaska’s Governor Palin provides an opportunity to raise an important question.

As Ryan Kennedy pointed out here last May (The Salmon Symptom: Hillary And The Democratic Party Abandon American Workers May 07 2008) Alaska has long provided seasonal work involving long hours and very tough conditions: the fish cannery industry’s slime- line

The slime-line is some of the most unpleasant work you could imagine. Basically, the job is to rip the guts out of a salmon as fast as you can in order to do another, and another, and another for 12+ hours, everyday, 7 days a week, all summer

Forty years ago, the pay in this activity was so high – almost $20 an hour in today’s money – that it attracted Wellesley student Hillary Clinton.

Now the Cannery Industry has forced down real wages more than 60% of that by importing immigrants, many probably illegal. As Rob Sanchez reported here, it goes to almost comic lengths to avoid recruiting Americans.

So now we have an Immigration question for VP nominee Palin: does she approve of the elimination of Americans in this part of one of Alaska’s crucial industries, by the wholesale import of low wage immigrants?

The nicely complements our question for McCain: does he approve his maximum contributor Mrs. Billy Howard’s displacement of Mississippi workers in her plants by immigrants, many apparently illegal?

Any patriotic MSM Press Conference attendees out there?

Palin’s record in turning out the corrupt, nepotistic old guard in Alaska will allow her to legitimately go after Obama’s role as a facilitator of the Rezko-Blagojevich corruption in Illinois. With the whole world to choose from, Obama chose to become a Chicago politician, and not one of those Quixotic reformers who pop up there intermittently, such as the former junior senator from Illinois in 1999-2005, Republican Peter Fitzgerald. Obama’s predecessor was dumped by the local GOP after one term because he insisted on bringing federal pitbull prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald (no relation) to town, who has since sent to prison Republican governor George Ryan, bipartisan fixer Tony Rezko, and, maybe someday, current Democratic governor Rod Blagojevich.

Obama sure hasn’t made that mistake of using his federal power to help clean up Illinois.

When you understand Illinois politics, Obama’s emphasis on “bipartisanship” takes on a sinister air, since in Illinois the central faultline undermining the commonweal is not Republican vs. Democrat but Politician vs. Public. As ex-Sen. Fitzgerald told John Kass of the Chicago Tribune:

“In the final analysis, The Combine’s allegiance is not to a party, but to their pocketbooks. They’re about making money off the taxpayers. And all these guys being mentioned, [in the Rezko trial] they’re part of it.”

Obama’s ostensible cause was not “fixing the broken politics” of Illinois, but getting a bigger cut of the boodle for his race. Obama’s indoctrination in Saul Alinsky’s cynical “Rules for Radicals” left no room for Fitzgeraldian idealism. Alinsky taught that you question people until you discover their self-interest, then you go from there. In reality, of course, Obama mostly just succeeded in promoting himself. The abstemious Obama appears to have been less interested in money than in the power he could garner as the clean face of the Combine, while allies like legislature godfather Emil Jones and Richie Daley (whom Michelle went to work for in the early 1990s). His most obvious slip-up was bringing Tony Rezko in on his mansion purchase, which I would guess was done for Michelle, who is far more materialistic.

Chicago politics is a combination of the boring (the scams are mostly nickel and dime stuff, just done over and over) and the seemingly bizarre (e.g., the brother of Richie Daley, the brother of Tony Rezko, and the son of Elijah Muhammad teaming up to fraudulently get a $10 million minority set-aside contract from Southwestern Bell for pay phones in Cook County jails). Illinois represents the triumph of post-everything politics: at the highest levels, race, religion, ideology, character, being a terrorist, endorsing the Manson murders, none of that means anything as long as you are an insider with clout and are willing to play ball.

Obama played ball. The media have paid little attention to it, but Chicago politics are a huge part of the Obama story.

McCain’s choice for Veep of the young lady governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, seems, initially, like a good way out of the box of Romney (who would make a decent President but a poor VP candidate) vs. Lieberman. As I always say, there are 300,000,000 million people in this country, more than a few of whom would do better than the usual suspects. Of course, I’m just trying to wave my hands around here without looking too idiotic, because I have only the dimmest idea who Sara Palin is.

Having now read her Wikipedia article, she certainly sounds energetic. Although, with five kids, she may have a little too much on her plate, even for somebody who appears to be a force of nature. She’s definitely the anti-Cheney, the complete opposite of the Washington insider. Symbolically, she seems like an excellent choice–a sterling representative of a young, healthy, energetic, honest grassroots conservative America, the living embodiment of the fact that Affordable Family Formation is the bulwark of the GOP.

The McCain strategy here appears to be to play to Us vs. Them feelings, with Republicans portrayed as the core of America–the married couples, people with a life–while portraying the Democrats as the marginals–singles, elites, gays, underclass, etc — with the Democrats as the Party of Dying Alone.

Whether Palin will actually turn out to be a good campaigner, much less a good President, is totally beyond me. But it sounds like her record in turning out the corrupt, nepotistic old guard in Alaska will allow her to legitimately go after Obama’s role as a facilitator of the Rezko-Blagojevich corruption in Illinois.

One thing I am competent to comment on is that I hear her husband, who works for the oil industry in the winter and is a fisherman in the summer (Alaska fishermen are staples on all those “America’s Toughest Jobs” reality shows, so that will make killer visuals), is 1/8th Yu’pik , which offers you the chance to one-up the Stuff White People Like crowd in terms of minority sensitivity. They will want to correct your gaffe of calling him part-Eskimo and explain that nobody is allowed to say “Eskimo” anymore. Everybody who is anybody must say “Inuit.”

Sorry, but that’s just the majority pushing the minority around.

As I wrote in 2002, you can tell those Canadian-symps:

The official handbook of the 3-year-old Canadian Territory of Nunavut says, “A word of advice, please don’t call Inuit here “Eskimos.” They’ve always called themselves Inuit, or ‘the people’ in Inuktitut, their native tongue.”

The confusion over “Eskimo” vs. “Inuit” illustrates the paradoxes that accompany the many attempts these days to change the names of ethnic groups.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, “Many Americans today either avoid this term (Eskimo) or feel uneasy using it.” For example, a Web site of the University of Wisconsin School of Education advises teachers, “There are no ‘Eskimo’ people.”

That would come as a surprise, however, to thousands of Yup’ik-speaking Eskimos in Western Alaska who much prefer to be called “Eskimo” instead of “Inuit.”

Why? They aren’t Inuit.

Steven A. Jacobson, a professor at the Alaska Native Language Center (of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks), told United Press International, “Yup’ik speakers say, ‘We’re Yup’ik Eskimos; our relatives in northern Alaska, Canada and Greenland are Inuit Eskimos; they aren’t Yup’ik, and we aren’t Inuit, but we’re all Eskimos.’ Yup’ik speakers prefer to be called ‘Yup’iks’ … and — in contrast to Inuit in Canada — don’t mind the word ‘Eskimo,’ but they do not like to be called ‘Inuit.’”

“Eskimo” remains the only word that describes all the physically and culturally quite homogenous groups that extend from the Siberian side of the Bering Strait to Greenland. The American Heritage Dictionary sums up, “While use of these terms (’Inuit’ and ‘Yup’ik’) is often preferable when speaking of the appropriate linguistic group, none of them can be used of the Eskimoan peoples as a whole; the only inclusive term remains Eskimo.”