The fact that Howard Dean is not only still around but is Chairman of the Democratic Party National Committee means that the professionals in the party respect something about him. Consequently he needs to be taken seriously.

AP’s story
Democratic Party chief says 2008 victory could depend on race, immigration The Associated Press September 30, 2006

does not, at this writing, seem to be very popular in the MSM – according to Google News, no major U.S. based newspaper has picked it up.

Race and immigration could determine the 2008 presidential race, Democratic Party chief Howard Dean told a group of Hispanic leaders Saturday… Dean said he is trying to encourage the turnout of minority voters who support Democrats…”If that works, we’re going to do that in 2008 all over the place, but in the meantime this is a great opportunity for us in 2006,” Dean told 225 people attending a luncheon at the party’s annual Hispanic leadership summit.

More Dean:

Ultimately, Dean said, Democrats must look beyond race, gender and other qualities. He said he began thinking about a new strategy while visiting American Indians on a trip to South Dakota about a month ago.

“It’s time to have a ticket that looks like the rest of America,” he said. “That’s what I want to do next.”

“Looks like the rest of America”. Of course, Clinton used this as an excuse for his elimination of white men from his cabinet. I suppose this means Dean is foreswearing the last successful Democratic Presidential formula: Clinton/Gore: two white men from the South.

Imagine a Republican Party Chairman saying that race and immigration are the issues for 2008 and that the party needs to mobilize the turn-out of ethnic groups which tend to favor it: white men of Christian heritage. Furthermore, the ticket has to look like its supporters (two white Southern men would be a good starting point.)
That would be totally rational, and amply precedented in American history.

And it would probably get more MSM coverage.

But not as tolerant.

In Arizona, a Republican State Senator is under attack for referring to a Government program by its official name. The program, of course, is the Eisenhower deportation effort Operation Wetback.

Rep. Pearce calls for mass deportations Associated Press Sept. 29, 2006

This weird attempt to ban discussion of an historical event has been noticed here before. But it is significant and worth thinking about.

The Anglo-Saxon tradition of political discourse needs free speech. The concept that some issue can be declared taboo and excluded from public consciousness by anathematization, not uncommon in other cultures, is an alien import. It must be rejected with scorn.
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Pretty much everyone who might be blogging is travelling today.

I suggested a while back that instead of comparing a border wall to the Berlin Wall, as as Linda Chavez had done, we refer to it as

the Great Wall Of America. Could be something of a tourist attraction.

Well, guess who agrees with me? The Wall Street Journal! Only they don’t like it, for some reason.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the University of Connecticut’s department of public policy recently released a study that tracks the decline of “civic literacy” in college seniors. The survey was conducted for the institute (which advocates traditional curriculum and supports conservative student publications on college campuses) by the University of Connecticut’s department of public policy. It contained 60 multiple-choice questions on American history, political science, and economics, and was completed by 14,000 seniors and freshmen at 50 different higher-education institutions.

Apparently, my classmates were required to learn the details of the Stonewall Riots, but only 55.4% can name the final battle of the Revolutionary War. While the Marx-Engels reader is required in many introductory philosophy classes, 47.6% of students couldn’t properly define “federalism.” And, while college students commonly stage anti-war protests, fewer than 25% can identify the purpose of the Monroe Doctrine.

And we’re not talking little-known schools, either:

According to the report, “The Coming Crisis in Citizenship: Higher Education’s Failure to Teach America’s History and Institutions,” scores for college seniors on average were only 1.5 percent higher than those for freshmen. At some institutions — including such prestigious universities as Brown, Georgetown, and Yale — seniors actually scored lower than freshmen. The overall average score for seniors was 53.2 percent, the equivalent of a failing grade. Colleges Fail to Teach Civic Literacy, Report Says, by John Gravois, The Chronicle For Higher Education, 09/27/06

I have contended for years that mass immigration is harmful to Mexico, and for several reasons.

See my recent memo entitled “How to Help Mexico–Close the Border”! and previous articles here and here.

Mass emigration from Mexico eliminates the incentives to carry out economic reforms in Mexico.

Today I discovered there is another person who agrees with me.

It’s none other than Guillermo Ortiz, the highly-respected chairman of the Banco de Mexico(Mexican equivalent of the U.S. Federal Reserve).

On a visit to Dallas, Chairman Ortiz made some quite interesting comments, reported in the Dallas Morning News. [Mexican Bank Chief Talks Immigration by Dianne Solis ,Sept. 27th, 2006]

It’s very informative , and touches on some of the same themes I have written about, so I quote the article at length :

Guillermo Ortiz, Mexico’s central bank governor, admits he takes a contrarian view on immigration policy.

Unlike the current Mexican administration, Mr. Ortiz thinks tougher enforcement policies in the U.S. might help Mexico.

“I think Mexico needs its people,” said the 58-year-old Stanford-educated economist, on Tuesday in Dallas. “It would be best to keep its people in Mexico, and it would give incentives for Mexico to create the jobs that are needed.”

In remarks to the editorial board of The Dallas Morning News, Mr. Ortiz characterized his views as a “little contrarian” to those of President Vicente Fox, who has pushed for a guest worker plan with the U.S.

Instead, he says tougher enforcement measures, such as those being discussed in Congress, “would not be altogether bad. It would certainly be better over the long run.”

…

Mr. Ortiz said the Mexican economy must become more flexible and more competitive in energy and telecommunications to facilitate growth and businesses. Higher economic growth rates would help absorb a growing number of workers who leave Mexico for work in the U.S.

But closing the gap between Mexican and U.S. wages–a key driver of migration–will take decades, Mr. Ortiz acknowledged. A recent Pew Hispanic Center survey in seven cities, including Dallas, found that most Mexican immigrants held jobs in Mexico before migrating to the U.S.

Remittances sent back to Mexico from immigrants, legal and illegal, have steadily increased. At the current pace, remittances may reach $25 billion this year.

Mr. Ortiz said their steady growth over the last few years reflected better tracking methods, not increased migration. Remittances are more important as a safety net for Mexico’s poorer families than as a key lubricant to the economy, he added.

Mexico has the highest per-capita income rate in Latin America, according to the World Bank. Yet 48 percent of the population was living in poverty in 2004, according to the World Bank.

This year, the central banker expects the Mexican economy to grow at 4.6 percent to 4.7 percent. It grew about 3 percent in 2005.

Actually, what John Lennon wrote was

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…

My imagination isn’t that good; countries are important, as Aleksandr Solzhenitzn said, ” Nations are the wealth of mankind.”

Via Kathy Shaidle, I see that Mark Shea has done a full analysis of what’s wrong with this song,

That is why I have always thought of it as a sort of anthem to Original Sin — fallen man’s infinite capacity to believe he can create Heaven on earth if he’s just permitted one more chance to get it right. Everything the song advocates and hopes for as a supreme good was the fountainhead of all the horrors of the 20th century. Imagine there’s no countries? Hitler dreamt of a world without borders. Imagine there’s no heaven? No religion too? Stalin and Mao sought to free us from religion and the burden of hoping for something more than this life. Imagine no possessions? Communism was all about freeing us from possessions (though multi-zillionaire Lennon seems to have honored this dream more in the breach than the observance). [I Can't Imagine a Dumber Song,catholicexchange.com, September 27, 2006]

You’re probably familiar with this joke:

The first mate was found to be drunk one day and that day it happened to be the captain’s turn to write in the ship’s log so he wrote :

The first mate was drunk today.

He begged and pleaded to the captain to remove that entry but the captain argued that once an entry was made in the company’s log it couldn’t be deleted. The first mate decided to get even.

The next time it when it was the first mate’s turn to write in the log, he wrote:

The captain was sober today.

Well, crime in Australia is committed by a variety of people, but especially Lebanese, and Australian newspapers don’t like to report this, and regularly redact the descriptions of wanted criminals that appear in the newspapers. Aussie Blogger Tim Blair calls this the “men of no appearance” phenomenon.

Now, he reports, the indescribable criminals are suddenly describable:

The Sydney Morning Herald’s notorious men of no appearance now acquire obvious racial characteristics:Police are searching for a man described as being of white/European appearance, aged 25 to 30, with a large build and wearing a dark tracksuit and blue baseball cap.

What the First Mate was implying when he logged that the Captain was sober, was that every other time, the Captain was drunk. Does this mean the Sydney Morning Herald’s previous crime reports have all been men of Middle Eastern Experience?

The “free hugs” video is sweeping the nation (see below)…….but it’s not me (says it’s a story of Juan Mann…one man). But the VDARE/Deportaliens sites come back for ALL the top Google references to “Juan Mann.” Lots of unintended traffic to come soon…. [Watch YouTube video]

ABC news already e-mailed me to ask if it’s me…..

From PeaceOnEarth123

Sometimes, a hug is all what we need. Fr Sometimes, a hug is all what we need. Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whos sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives.

In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.

As this symbol of human hope spread accross the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED. What we then witness is the true spirit of humanity come together in what can only be described as awe inspiring.

In the Spirit of the free hugs campaign, PASS THIS TO A FRIEND and HUG A STRANGER! After all, If you can reach just one person…

A week after J. Page Straley’s VDARE.com essay on Mecklenburg County N.C.’s anti-illegal alien initiative, the Washington Post has published what amounts to a follow-up.

States, Counties Begin to Enforce Immigration Law By Peter Whoriskey September 27, 2006

skips the technicalities of how Sheriff Jim Pendergraph is going about defending his county. But it places the story in the context of increasing independent action by local jurisdictions, and has a good ear for a phrase:

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph says there should be little sympathy for illegal immigrants caught by his program…”I’ve heard sad stories about folks wanting to come up here and have a better life and earn money for their family. I’ve arrested bank robbers who’ve had the same excuse.”
Philip Turtletaub, a Charlotte immigration lawyer…ventured no opinion on the program’s fairness, (but) said he thinks it could make life as an illegal immigrant in the region so uncomfortable that fewer illegal immigrants would choose to live there.

“They’re putting the pressure on these people. They’re scaring them. People say we can’t deport 10 million. But you don’t have to. If you deport enough of them, others will go back voluntarily because they don’t want to live in these conditions.”

Some striking statistics are supplied:

In Mecklenburg County, about 1,200 foreign-born people have been arrested since April, on charges ranging from traffic violations and trespassing to sex crimes, and nearly 600 have been found to be here illegally.

And the tragic catalyst is not overlooked:

Local support for broad enforcement coalesced in July 2005 after a truck driven by an illegal immigrant whose blood-alcohol level was nearly triple the legal limit, hit a car, killing a local teacher and leaving the teacher’s wife in a vegetative state.

Mecklenburg County claims to have issued the first Declaration of Independence. Reagan’s North Carolina Primary victory in ’76 was unquestionably a decisive event. Hopefully trend setting is a local habit.