Think Progress

500,000.

By Nico Pitney on Mar 26th, 2006 at 4:09 am

The number of immigration rights advocates who marched in downtown Los Angeles yesterday in favor of comprehensive, practical reform. “Wearing white shirts to symbolize peace, marchers chanted ‘Mexico!’ ‘USA!’ and ‘Si se puede,’ an old Mexican-American civil rights shout that means ‘Yes, we can.’”

Comments
74

74 Responses to “500,000.”

thot's says:

We need to do this against the bush war in Iraq and Iran ,We need to do this for heath CAre for All americans.We need to do this against Out Sourcing Of Jobs .We need to do this against Big Oil Companies.We Need to Do This against High Insurance Cost . We need to do For Pensions . We need to this to Secure Our Social Security Insurance that we are Tax For Every week that bush and the republicans are working over time to destroy.We need to this To the Medicaid and Medicare Non prescription Plans of gwbush’s. We need to this against those Countries that refuse to sign the N.P.T. you listening Israel and India? We need to this to bring about No Taxes On Food or Meds .We need to this Roll Back The Biggest Tax Cut For the very Top Of the Mountain its killing the Middle Class and The poor! We need to bring this so called Free interprise to a Halt! We Need to do this and Force big Corps Like Dell and Others to pay Taxes when tehy have move off Shore ! When long Time Americans finally get their Fill of being owned like Slaves then maybe We will March and Bring this Rich Mans Waring Government to its knees and get America Back On her Path Again!
March 26th, 2006 at 6:36 am
beep52 says:

Perhaps the reporting I saw was selective, but most of the marchers intervewed on TV seemed to be calling for an open border, as if the only requirement for being in the U.S. should be getting to the U.S.
March 26th, 2006 at 6:51 am
the fly-man says:

Laws are laws. It’s disgisting to have the GOP do what they want with the laws at their convenience and then turn around and ignore FEDERAL Immigration laws. So the first thing illegal immigrants and their families recogonise is that it’s ok to break Federal laws and usually starting with their entry into this country. What if the Tax Laws were enforced like the immigration laws? Sure immigrants come here to do the jobs Americans dont want, but the reality is this; say 50 immigrants come here for the jobs Americans don’t want and on any particular day there is only30 of those jobs available, what are the other 20 going to do. Plain and simple CRIME. Every local municipality that has a large immigrant population , especially in the South just ignores the issue for 2 reasons, they don’t have to pay Americans sufficently to do the job and Immigrants may not pay, Federal income taxes, but they will pay 8.25% sales tax at Walmart. We chose to move from Texas to Maryland because of the county property taxes, and everything that goes with it and the crime. What would happen if Al-Qualude came through Mexico to pull of an operation here? That’s when things would get ugly.
March 26th, 2006 at 6:58 am
Hardy Haberman says:

Half a million can pull together to rally in LA for immigraton reform, yet none can march to dethrone the despot that rules ths country. Until progressives will get off their butts and make their voices heard in the public forum, our liberties and country will be sold piecemeal to the highest bidder.

It’s time for a MILLION PERSON MARCH on Washington!
March 26th, 2006 at 7:07 am
the fly-man says:

If any one has time, read this over at the Huff Po. I know it’s not the Daily Kos but the comments aren’t all exactly immigrant friendly. I kept seeing the reference to the rule of law being mentioned. BTW does any one know what Federal crime is NOT a Felony? Just curious. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/sensenbrenner-awakens-a-s_b_17894.html
March 26th, 2006 at 7:08 am
thot's says:

What would happen if Al-Qualude came through Mexico to pull of an operation here? Thatâ€™s when things would get ugly.

Comment by the fly-man â€” March 26, 2006 @ 6:58 am
———————————————————————————

fly-man America’s Al-Qualude is setting in the White House “)
America’s Al-Qualude is Republican puppets in The Senate and Congress

America’s Al-Qualude is republicans puppets on the State and Local level.

America’s al-Qualude is the Reichwingers like Dobson.Robertson,Falwell,Tony Perkins and the Anti Gay movenment,The Anti Woman movement,The Anti Education Movement,The Anti Free Speech Movement,The Anti American Movement..

Gee give these Brown Shirts an overdose of Al-Qualudes……”)
March 26th, 2006 at 7:34 am
west virginia hillbilly says:

A glimps at the furture suggests a world where corporations are the government and most people aren’t citizens but workers. The shareholders will be the citizens of the corporate state and morph the constitution into a business plan. Workers will be willing to give up their rights in order to have a job. So long nation states, hello corporate states.
It seems to me you can’t be a libertarian in a crowded world and a democrat in a have and have not world.
A taoist might say, “behold the swing”
in peace,
March 26th, 2006 at 7:44 am
dano347 says:

This is going to be a fun Sunday (sorry for jacking the thread, but this is good):

Former DeLay Aide Enriched By Nonprofit
Bulk of Group’s Funds Tied to Abramoff

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 26, 2006; A01

A top adviser to former House Whip Tom DeLay received more than a third of all the money collected by the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization the adviser created to promote a pro-family political agenda in Congress, according to the group’s accounting records.

DeLay’s former chief of staff, Edwin A. Buckham, who helped create the group while still in DeLay’s employ, and his wife, Wendy, were the principal beneficiaries of the group’s $3.02 million in revenue, collecting payments totaling $1,022,729 during a five-year period ending in 2001, public and private records show.

The group’s revenue was drawn mostly from clients of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to its records. From an FBI subpoena for the records, it can be inferred that the bureau is exploring whether there were links between the payments and favorable legislative treatment of Abramoff’s clients by DeLay’s office.

In recent months, Abramoff pleaded guilty to charges of tax fraud and conspiracy to defraud clients and bribe a public official; DeLay (R-Tex.) stepped down from his post as House majority leader; and Buckham folded his lobbying firm, the Alexander Strategy Group.

In the late 1990s, when DeLay’s influence was growing, the lawmaker depicted the USFN in a promotional letter as a nationwide, grass-roots organization. In fact, it had a tiny staff that barely registered an impact on Capitol Hill. The group appears to have served mostly as a vehicle for funneling corporate funds to DeLay’s advisers and financing ads that attacked Democrats.

The group’s payments to the Buckhams — in the form of a monthly retainer as well as commissions on donations by Abramoff’s clients — overlapped briefly with Edwin Buckham’s service as chief of staff to DeLay and continued during his subsequent role as DeLay’s chief political adviser.

During this latter period, Buckham and his wife, Wendy, acting through their consulting firm, made monthly payments averaging $3,200-$3,400 apiece to DeLay’s wife, Christine, for three of the years in which he collected money from the USFN and some other clients.

Even though Buckham left DeLay’s staff at the end of 1997, he still coordinated much of the congressional office’s work and ran DeLay’s principal fundraising committee from a building bought with USFN money, according to three former DeLay staff members who said they had firsthand knowledge of his role then.

“If an individual called DeLay’s appointments secretary saying they wanted to talk to DeLay about overregulation, the appointment secretary would say go speak to Buckham,” one former aide said. Buckham, an evangelical minister, also continued to serve as DeLay’s spiritual adviser and prayed frequently with him, the former aides said.

DeLay’s lawyer, Richard Cullen, disputed the accounts of Buckham’s influence. He said Buckham made appointment requests but was not involved in final decisions on scheduling after he left the office. He also said Buckham did not coordinate the office’s activities, saying that was done by successors.

Abramoff, for his part, once boasted that he had invested a million dollars in Buckham, according to a former Abramoff colleague who said he witnessed the conversation. Abramoff expressed confidence that the funds would bring a good return for his clients, the colleague said. Abramoff, through a spokesman, declined comment on this claim or other details of this article.

Wendy Buckham was not the only spouse of a DeLay staffer to benefit from the USFN revenue stream sustained by Abramoff’s clients. A consulting firm owned by the wife of Tony C. Rudy, DeLay’s deputy chief of staff, was paid $15,600 by the group in 1999 and another $10,400 in 2000. Rudy resigned to work with Abramoff in 2001. It could not be determined what the payments were for.

DeLay supported the interests of many USFN donors on Capitol Hill, including an Indian tribe seeking to keep a tax exemption for gambling revenue and wealthy Russians seeking a favorable vote on Russian aid legislation. DeLay’s spokesman has said his opinions and votes were based solely on “good policy” and national interests.

Edwin and Wendy Buckham and their lawyer, Laura A. Miller, did not respond to multiple requests for comment on USFN spending or the money they received. The Rudys did not return calls to their home and Tony Rudy’s cellphone.

The accounting records reviewed by The Washington Post included a list of every transaction by the USFN from 1996 to 2000 and the group’s tax returns for 2001, the last year it existed. They demonstrate that the consulting fees, bonuses and fundraising commissions for the Buckhams — plus the purchase of a townhouse that served as the locus of DeLay’s own fundraising efforts — consumed far more of the group’s budget than its spending for lobbying on “moral fitness” issues.

A previous article in The Post detailed how USFN had drawn its largest checks from Abramoff’s clients, including $1 million from what several former Buckham associates described as Russian oil and gas executives and hundreds of thousands of dollars from an Indian tribe.

Records obtained by federal investigators after that article appeared and reviewed by The Post make clear just how unusual USFN’s spending was. Its revenue was lavished not only on DeLay’s advisers but on a variety of expenses that experts say are atypical for such a small nonprofit: $62,375 for wall art, a vase listed at $20,100, airfare and meals for Abramoff that cost $11,548, and $267,202 in travel and entertainment expenses that appear to have benefited mostly Buckham, the group’s board members, and its tiny staff.

“They were using donor funds for interior decorating,” said Chris Geeslin, a pastor in Frederick, Md., who between 1998 and 2001 served as one of the group’s directors and then its president. He blamed what he described as the group’s misspending on Buckham, who he said “would tell us where you should put things. He orchestrated all this. . . . He used us.”

A Handpicked Board

When the USFN was incorporated at Buckham’s instigation in 1996, it described its purpose as promoting policies favorable for “families, the economic prosperity, social improvement, moral fitness, and general well being of the United States.”

From the outset, it was organized differently from other public advocacy groups located in the capital that hoped to influence the nation’s leaders. For example, Buckham selected as its board members three evangelical Christians from the tiny town of Republic, Wash. (pop. 954), who associates say he had met at a religious retreat.

According to the minutes from its March 1997 board meeting, the group considered appointing “J. Abramoff” to the board, but never did. The group’s first donation, a $15,000 check, came from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, one of Abramoff’s highest-paying clients, and the next two donor checks came from other groups linked with Abramoff.

Formally, Buckham was a consultant to the board, but he said in an October 2003 deposition taken by Federal Election Commission lawyers and obtained by The Post that he had a verbal understanding allowing him to take whatever actions he deemed “in the best interest of the USFN pertaining to issues that they cared about.” This included authorizing payments to others.

But some routine procedures were not followed: USFN officials did not register as lobbyists until 2000, when the group became the target of a complaint at the FEC, and they sent in retroactive registrations for the three previous years.

The Buckhams closely controlled the group’s finances. Wendy Buckham formally served as the group’s treasurer and secretary for only five months in 1996 and 1997, but kept the books and signed its checks until it folded in 2001, according to its tax forms and former officers. Edwin Buckham said in the 2003 deposition it was he who suggested she take this role.

USFN nevertheless paid both an accounting firm and Wendy Buckham for accounting in 1997. She also collected $43,000 in “commissions” that year on the first $524,975 in contributions to the group from business entities that worked with Abramoff, according to its ledger. Congressional ethics rules do not bar such payments to spouses unless they are meant to purchase favors from lawmakers or staff.

The Alexander Strategy Group began collecting its monthly stipend of $10,000-$12,000 from USFN in October 1997 to perform fundraising and other services, even while Buckham was still receiving a salary from the whip’s office, according to House payroll records. House rules allow such overlap only if the outside income is limited and not a reward for official acts.

Within four weeks after Buckham resigned from DeLay’s staff in December 1997, the Alexander Strategy Group began also collecting commissions on donations to USFN from firms that worked with Abramoff. The largest were two $75,000 payments in 1998 and one for $104,500 in 1999. The total reached $364,500 before they stopped at the end of 1999. USFN’s ledger also lists an unexplained “bonus” payment of $60,000 in December 1998.

The Internal Revenue Service generally requires that board members of nonprofits approve all payments to related entities. But several documents labeled as contracts with Buckham’s firm in the group’s papers are not signed, and Geeslin said in an interview that some of the minutes for board meetings in 1998 and 1999 were formally written after the FEC began its investigation.

Besides spending lavishly during its meetings at various resorts, the group also spent $149,000 in July 1998 to lease a skybox at MCI Center “at the request of one of the donors to USFN,” the group’s internal audit states. Geeslin said that person was actually Abramoff, who expressed his gratitude while sitting near him at a sporting event.

In the version of the group’s official, typewritten ledgers, supplied to the FBI last month under subpoena, several of its most unusual expenditures are partially crossed out and relabeled in ink. The $20,100 purchase of a vase in October 1999 from a Royal Doulton dealer in Miami was relabeled “office equipment,” and the $62,375 purchase in January 1999 of a collection of Salvador Dali and Peter Max prints was relabeled “office fixtures.”

Asked about the handwritten changes, the group’s former lawyer, J. Thomas Smith, said he did not recall seeing them and declined further comment.

Art Taylor, head of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, a watchdog group, noted after reviewing the nonprofit group’s tax returns for 1998 and 1999 that a tax inspector might wonder if “they have enough activity going on” of public benefit to justify their tax exemption. “If they were a charity,” he said, “they don’t meet our standards.”

Labor in the Marianas

One of the first policy issues to be discussed by the group’s board, according to its March 1997 minutes, was a “free-market research project” in the Northern Marianas Islands, a U.S. protectorate in the Pacific Ocean.

At the time, Abramoff was under contract with the Marianas government to lobby against congressional legislation to impede the free flow of immigrant labor to the islands from China and elsewhere in Asia, and impose a minimum hourly wage exceeding the island’s standard rate of $3.05.

To U.S. immigration officials and other critics, maintaining the Marianas’ exemptions from these rules amounted to providing legal protection for sweatshops. But textile manufacturers, who dominated the islands’ politics and profited heavily from paying immigrant workers less than required on the mainland, ardently opposed the legislation. The Marianas government paid Abramoff a total of $7.17 million in lobbying fees from 1996 to 2001, according to an audit there.

Abramoff focused on DeLay’s office in his lobbying effort, billing the Marianas for 187 contacts in 1996 and 1997, including 104 conversations with Buckham and 16 direct meetings with DeLay, according to Abramoff’s billing records. Buckham affirmed in a 1995 interview withNational Journal that Abramoff “is someone on our side. . . . He has access to DeLay.”

So it was perhaps understandable that in the spring of 1997, USFN’s board was eager to demonstrate that the economic policies that were good for the Marianas (pop. 53,552) could be good for America. To do so, it dispatched its first director, a former manager of DeLay’s 1996 Texas reelection campaign named Robert G. Mills.

During the trip, Mills — accompanied by Buckham, who was still on DeLay’s staff — met with Willie Tan, the islands’ largest private employer. Tan’s textile companies had settled a lawsuit filed five years earlier by the U.S. Labor Department charging workplace abuses, and he had long cultivated contacts in Washington to stop the immigration and wage legislation.

In April 1997, for example, a longtime Tan aide and island politician named Benigno Fitial went to Washington, where he sang “Happy Birthday” to DeLay in the whip’s office. He sent Buckham an e-mail after the trip expressing appreciation for his support and recalling Buckham’s explanation that one of his roles was to “stop legislation from getting on the floor of the House.” Fitial signed the e-mail, “YOUR ‘ADOPTED’ BROTHER BEN.”

Three months earlier, Tan’s network of companies had written five checks of $10,000 each to USFN, and Buckham’s wife had claimed $10,000 in “commissions” on these checks, according to the group’s ledger.

These were just the first of 23 payments by Tan’s companies to the group, which eventually totaled $650,000.

Later in 1997, Wendy Buckham claimed another $10,000 in commissions on Tan’s checks, and in 1998, the couple’s jointly owned consulting firm took another $20,000 in commissions explicitly attributed to the Tan donations, according to the ledger. Many other “commissions” collected by the couple were not linked in the ledgers to a specific donor.

DeLay saw Tan when he took his wife and daughter to the Marianas in a December 1997 trip arranged with the help of Abramoff and his lobby firm. After brunching with Tan on his first full day, followed by a round of golf with Tan and others, DeLay attended a dinner in his honor sponsored by Tan’s holding company at the local Pacific Islands Club.

It was at this dinner that DeLay gave the speech in which he called Abramoff “one of my closest and dearest friends,” according to a copy. DeLay also reminded Tan and his colleagues of his earlier promise that no wage and immigration legislation would be passed.

“Stand firm,” DeLay said in his closing. “Resist evil. Remember that all truth and blessings emanate from our Creator.” He then departed with Tan to see a cockfight, according to a written account by one of the trip participants.

In response to a reporter’s question, Tan said in an e-mail Friday that “we hired [a] reputable firm, and we never ask[ed] the firm to do anything wrong.” He said he was unaware of the commissions collected personally by the Buckhams.

No Marianas immigration or wage reform legislation passed Congress. Aides to Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), a key sponsor, say that Senate-passed legislation was never taken up by any House committee.

Attack Ads

Before the U.S. Family Network folded in 2001 under pressure from an FEC probe, it became involved in other controversial political matters.

In 1998, the group lobbied Congress against new regulations on cigarettes and collected a $100,000 donation from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. It also spent $75,863 that year on radio ads that called for President Clinton’s resignation and attacked Democrats, according to the group’s ledger and transcripts of the ads.

The following year, the National Republican Congressional Committee gave the USFN a $500,000 check to finance additional radio ads in the districts of vulnerable Democrats. Buckham told the FEC he solicited the check, and others told FEC investigators it was paid over the objections of the NRCC’s director and chief counsel.

Of the $500,000, USFN gave just $300,000 to another nonprofit group for the ads. In his deposition, Buckham explained that he retained a portion of the Republican Party’s check as a commission. “If I raise money, I get a portion,” Buckham said. “It is in my contract.”

The NRCC in 2004 paid the eighth-highest fine in FEC history to settle allegations that some of its officials colluded with USFN on the ads in violation of campaign finance laws.

As the group started to wind down, it made five payments totaling nearly $200,000 to entities affiliated with its staff or board members or located at USFN’s address, according to the ledger. It sold the townhouse at a $19,000 loss.

The board also agreed at its final meeting in January 2001 to pay $150,000 to the Dorothy Joan Morris Foundation.

The minutes state this was done at the request of “the gentleman who donated the largest amount of money to USFN” — a term that Geeslin said is a euphemism for Buckham’s fundraising.

Incorporation papers on file with the Maryland Secretary of State list the foundation’s location as an insurance company office in a strip mall in Frederick.

The papers state that the foundation is in turn owned by another group, Foundation Ministries Inc., which has its legal address at the Frederick home of the Buckhams.

Dorothy Joan Morris is the name of the 79-year-old mother of a former Buckham assistant named Roger Albanese, who is described in USFN documents as collecting roughly $20,000 from the group for “program services related to prayer.” She says she never authorized the use of her name for the foundation, was never told about the $150,000 donation and never saw any of the proceeds.

“What rights does he [Buckham] have to put that in my name?” asked Morris, who said she lives with her husband in a trailer home parked in Las Vegas. “It’s fishy.”

The graphs for the story are at WAPO.
March 26th, 2006 at 7:54 am
Independent Voter says:

Latinos DO NOT need to be crossing illegaly. Period. That’s what they’re doing. This is a national security issue on many fronts. If that 2-bit loser Fox will allow us to set up shop in his government and we start collecting taxes directly from Mexican citizens then I’ll start feeling sorry for latinos.
I had to put my child’s birth and my wife’s health bills on a credit card tothe tune of $20,000. Illegal Mexicans are birthing babies on my back and I hate them for it. Something has to give.
March 26th, 2006 at 8:26 am
Latino Pundit says:

Now if only we can only get passionate about other issues and do the same.
March 26th, 2006 at 8:28 am
Independent Voter says:

If all these latinos had internets they would not have been in the streets…
March 26th, 2006 at 8:34 am
troll says:

People on this blog say stuff like “We need to bring this so called Free interprise to a Halt! ” Comment by thot’s â€” March 26, 2006 @ 6:36 am

Then you claim their are no Socialist here and that you are moderates. If you are moderates you might let tholt know. He is a lounatic commi supporter of totalitarianism.
March 26th, 2006 at 8:47 am
ElectricBassPlayer says:

The ironic thing is that the US is being run more like Mexico.

Maybe that’s the neocon’s plan all along, si?
March 26th, 2006 at 8:51 am
Abby says:

#11: How very very sad and how very very true. If we had a real opposition Party, they would have had us on the streets and stopped this â€œwarâ€ and the rape of America two years ago.
As it is, we are confined to bang away at our keyboards in frustration until things get so bad that the people have no alternative but to take to the streets. I seriously doubt if we will have anything left to save by then.
March 26th, 2006 at 8:54 am
troll says:

Hey Stalin aka tholt,

Hopefully even most left wing moonbats here are smart enough to know this is BS but you hate President Bush so they wont bother calling you on your ignorance so I will.

Your rhetoric about the republicans being Americas “Al-Qualude ” is the most retarded hyperbole ever to come out of the mouth of a lefty moonbat and its not original.

I have never read one work of Dobson or watched him on TV. I think Robertson and Falwell are as extreme as you and who the hell is Tony Perkins?

Nice try on the anti-everthing rant. I have plenty of Gay friends and relatives whom I love and while I don’t want them discriminated against I don’t want them forcing their beliefs or lifestyle on society any more than you want Robertson forcing his religion on you.

Nice try on the anti-everthing rant but you really are a retard if you believe Republicans are Anti Woman, Anti Education, Anti Free Speech and Anti American.

Your comments were so irrational you must be Ryan.

The present bunch of Republicans in office are neo-cons or new conservatives they are converts from liberalism and are much more liberal in contrast to paleo or classic conservatives. Classic conservatives are strong opponents of big government and are much more fiscally responsible than neo-cons or liberals (Democrats) they also tend to be isolationist.
March 26th, 2006 at 8:57 am
Abby says:

#15: troll, thanks for being so rational enough to blow my mind. From what my inferior mind could gather from your genius, BushCo are the liberal Neo-Cons, a breed apart from classic conservatives and what differentiates a liberal from a conservative is just the size of the government, right? Big government = Liberal and small government = Conservative. I got that.

Bush = Big government = liberal conservative (sic) and liberals who like big government hate Bush because he gives them big government? I’m sorry, that did not compute.

And you, a conservative, do not hate Bush because he is a liberal and gave you a big government………….I’m sorry, you just blew my mind.

Could you simplify it just a tad?
March 26th, 2006 at 9:15 am
Joe Sixpack says:

IT’S TIME FOR WAR!!! Yeah, war. I say we declare war on Mexico and why not? First, the Mexican army won’t fight unless a drug payoff is involved so they will surrender immediately. We take over the 37 states of Mexico and make the US into the 87 States of America. And besides, we all know we are not going to round up 11 million already here and send them back.

What Mexico gains:

1. A better system of corruption for politicos. Legalized bribes and kickbacks in the form of campaign contributions, gifts. and power entrenchment. No more sneaking around the back alleys of Guadalajara accepting payoffs, they will be able to get their payoffs right on the floor of congress.

2. A truly open borders where the citizens can come up here instead of trying to improve their own country.

3. The American dream (whatever that used to be).

4. Takeover of the last of American middleclass jobs. Forget being a janitor at Walmart, you can become a real cashier.

5. Instant credit so they can be hooked for lifetime payoffs by corporate banks.

6. They get the corporations to clean up their air and water pollution for a few years until the EPA under Bush finishes gutting the organization.

7. No more rat tunnels for drug smugglers. They will be able to openly distribute their coke and meth since the US has all but abondoned the “War on Drugs.”

8. Exchanging the exploiting of cheap labor by theMexican corporations for the exploiting of cheap labor by the American corporations.

9. They can all own a car instead of always riding the bus.

10. Cinco De Mayo will become a truly National holiday in America.

What the US gains:

1. Millions more for cheap labor, eventually replacing everyone making $100,000 a year with Bush’s “Willing Worker for Less Program.”

2. A new huge oil field for Exxon-Mobil to exploint us with.

3. A whole new underclass of working poor to replace the ones we spent trillions lifting out of poverty over the past 40 years.

4. A youth corps that will not only work at McDonalds but is patriotic enough to join our dwindling military recuits.

5. As all the new Mexican-Americans join the exodus north, we can all head south to retire in the tropical paradises of Cancun, Puerta Vallarta, and Mazatlan.

6. The huge country of the US will be a bigger threat to tired, old Fidel Castro and his Cuba, which we all know has been such a huge threat to our National Security over the past 20-40 years.

7. Real mexican tacos and all the taquila we can drink.

8. More workers who instead of getting paid under the table, can start helping pay the bills here and help pay off the National Debt.

9. We get doctors who don’t feel the need to become instant millionaires for making it thru medical schools.

And the biggest reason to declare war on Mexico:

10. We can get rid of a jackass in the Whitehouse and perhaps get Vicente Fox to run for president, in the hopes he will then encourage the wave of immigrants keep heading north into Canada.
March 26th, 2006 at 9:17 am
Bush Bites says:

I have mixed feelings on the whole immigration issue.

I used to be for tough immigration laws, ’til Bush and his cronies started outsourcing our jobs, weakening our trade agreements and even started selling off our vital infrastructure to foreign countries to help their campaign donors.

Now I figure we have no borders and we can’t count on our government to stick up for us anyway, and the Republicans are just using the Latinos as scapegoats for their failed economic policies.

BUT I HOPE LIKE HELL THAT THE DEMS ARE USING THESE RALLIES AS VOTER REGISTRATION OPPORTUNITIES.
March 26th, 2006 at 9:31 am
thot's says:

Troll Just some FYI : Correct spelling of my name,Thot :)

Ok, Not Ryan not a Male .

What I wrote stands strong. Now if you’ll stop being so emotionally reichwing and think and reread what you just wrote about Gay and your lifestyle is 100% knee jerk!

How the hell does a gay/lesbian tax paying American going to hurt your marriage? Having gay friends careful now lol you might catch the Gay Germ and hit on a man heee hee that’s how stupid you sound.

Tony Perkins try Google see who he is a big ass Gay Hater and pushing the Ban On Tax Paying Americans. Now if you reich wingers ban this grouo of Americans …There is a group that is going to push for Tax expemt for the GLBT Community and that is something these rabid republicans really need to think about.

I don’t have a real strong problem with Mexicans I love their food.I don’t like crossing the border but hell there’s a Taliban Student at an Ivy League School that your Republican Party won’t discuss.

When repubublicans Censure ,Impeach,imprison gw bush for lying to Americans and for Wiretaping,invading Iraq and a half a dozen other I’m above the law king boy and your my subjects ,then maybe this country will come together.

No more Tax breaks for the rich! Tax breaks for the Poor,for Education.No Tax On Meds and Food. National Health For Every American!

If What my beliefs are make me a Socialist then I’m in the same League as Our Forefathers! I love and respect The Consitution,The Bill of rights and The last time I read about bush respecting the Consitution and Bill of Rights he was putting them thru his Shredder in the Oval Office.

BTW Troll buy Citgo.
March 26th, 2006 at 10:13 am
Lily says:

This isn’t a rhetorical question, I’m wondering of anyone knows the answer: How difficult is it for Mexicans to become legal immigrants?
And this one is rhetorical: How much more would it cost to incarcerate illegal aliens, as compared to lost tax revenues?
Depending on the answer to my first question, I would guess that making it easy for illegal Mexican immigrants (or any other) to become legal immigrants would not only help shore up the tax revenues, but save taxpayers a lot of money.
March 26th, 2006 at 10:20 am
WiscoDuk says:

Mixed feelings on the illegal immigration issue. I somehow feel that being against these folks demanding what can be construed a â€œrightsâ€ interferes with my otherwise â€œliberalâ€ ideals. But does it? (I understand that this particular issue involves making them felons- that isnâ€™t right either.)

The argument that they â€œdo jobs that Americans wonâ€™tâ€ isnâ€™t at all true. I cannot be convinced that Americans donâ€™t want to be carpenters, bricklayers, drywallers, and other types of construction tradesmen. These were formally good paying jobs that have in many places been replaced with â€œday laborâ€ wages. I have seen this first hand! This is also true in many small factories where illegals are paid a pittance and the owners pay no taxes on them. Please donâ€™t tell me that Americans donâ€™t want factory jobs over â€œserviceâ€ jobs such as McDâ€™s.

A quick story about the recent construction of a local â€œSuper Wal-Martâ€. My company won the bid to install the heating system- I witnessed this first hand. The dry-wall for the job arrived in two semi trailers. One only half full with dry-wall and the other half with mattresses and Mexicans. At the end of the day the mattresses were unloaded into the building and the workers literally slept in their work area. Before most people arrived for work the matresses were re-loaded into the trailer leaving little evidence that the workers were â€œsleeping on the jobâ€. Itâ€™s important to note that any sub-contractor caught conversing with these workers would be barred from the job and their contracts voided. It was more than apparent that many if not all of these workers were illegal. Nobody said anything out of fear for their own livelihoods. Is this fair to American tradesmen? How can a contractor that plays by the rules compete? (From what I understand- a bid placed by a union dry-wall contractor was actually lower than this scum bag contractor that won the bid.) It’s all about profit.
March 26th, 2006 at 10:27 am
thot's says:

Lily they can apply at any INS office in any city .I believe its 5 yrs at least it was for my cousin husband from Canada. He got a Green card went to work for her in her law office and is now a US citizen.

I believe the Border needs to be closed but I also strongly believe that employers of the Mexicans who cross should pay legal wages and not the 5.00 per hour that is being paid to these guys to build houses and mow lawns. At least that’s what’s happening in here.Low wages Very low wages and Employers aren’t paying their Payroll Taxes and those employers have got to be held responsible for their breaking American Laws.Its a two way street that is going on.
March 26th, 2006 at 10:30 am
WiscoDuk says:

BUT I HOPE LIKE HELL THAT THE DEMS ARE USING THESE RALLIES AS VOTER REGISTRATION OPPORTUNITIES.

I don’t think illegal aliens have the right to vote.
March 26th, 2006 at 10:38 am
Sharon Cox says:

Bush Bites, some good points, however, a person has to be a citizen to register as a voter and vote. 11 million are not legal.

Next, sadly most of our Dem. representatives are now hiding, no coment no show, out to constant lunch as it were and the balance of them are Rep. lite. It appears our bunch are so spinless they are waiting and watching for the Reps. to self distruct, sadly again they are allowing our country to be distroyed and this never ending war to continue.

Representatives and citizens who allow, with not even a wimper this administration to continue with it’s greed, distruction and corprate take overs are as guilty as Bush and company for creating the problem. Untill our country and citizens get truly upset and stand up to this bunch of facists we are on the loosing end….Blessings
March 26th, 2006 at 10:40 am
Abby says:

#22: The only reason we maintain a porous border is that illegal immigrants don’t have to be paid a minimum wage. If they had to be paid a minimum wage, the border would be sealed tighter than……… especially at a time of “war” and when we are supposed to be under the threat of imminent terrorist attack.

If that were to happen, if employers had to pay their workers a minimum wage and maintain safety standards, you would suddenly find that Americans actually want to do the â€œjobs that Americans will not do”.
March 26th, 2006 at 11:01 am
banana says:

we could all learn from the Mexican immigrants how to march in solidarity and with civil disobedience…….how to rock the streets the right way.

if 11 million Mexicans are forced out of the country because of this new law, thnk of what that will do to these states’ tax bases…… at least the ones that have a high sale tax like Tennessee.

Mexican immigrant workers bring in about 7 billion in sales taxes!

And one more thing. Most of these Mexicans have indigenous blood in them. That makes them more right to be wherever in the heck in teh New World that they want to be. If we can put up with “white” immigrants like Russians, irish, German, English, etc. then we need to stop being hyprocrites.

the Mexicans have more of a right to be in this country than most of us whiteys do. It’s racism and it’s disgusting.

And the whole anti-Mexian immigrant worker thing going on is another reason why I’m ashamed to call myself American
March 26th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Al says:

In a nutshell this is the plan.
1. Outsource jobs overseas to already existing cheap labor. No health insurance costs, no matching social security costs, etc, etc., thus decreasing the number of jobs available.
2. Bring in as many immigrants as possible to compete for these fewer jobs at a lower wage.
If you want to work and put food on the table, you will do it for less money just to have the privelege of having one of these fewer existing jobs.
3.Do not adjust prices to this new lower wage endemic, leave them right where they are.
Soon you will want to give up unnecessary costs because of the drain to your disposable
income. You know, things like health insurance. More money saved by the employer by not having to bear the cost of provision.
4.Shift the bulk of the country’s massive wealth into the hands of the few with tax cuts for the wealthy while raising taxes on the poor and middle class(if you think this is not happening think again. Where I usually get a refund from IRS, I must pay in almost $1000 this year) Hey, those funds for exorbitant tax cuts have to came from somewhere.
5.Soon the standard of living comes down to a point where it rivals that of, say, Mexico, and South and Central America.
6.Now, NAFTA, CAFTA, and whatever other AFTA’s will be (to use the terms of BushCo) a SLAM DUNK.
7. Now we have low wages and LOTS and LOTS of trade. But to get to this point we
HAFTA SHAFTA the American people.
8.Now when things become unbearable, and the people turn and the rich and poerful fear for their lives, they just take the money and run. Say, to the French Riviera, Monaco, or wherever it is the rich go, and leave the fantastic mess they have created to everyone left behind. (which is what is behind the selling of America. They are liquidating their assets)

IS EVERYBODY HAPPY???
March 26th, 2006 at 11:48 am
banana says:

Al! OF COURSE WE’RE NOT HAPPY, but for some reason Bush got a “mandate” on november 2004.

I find it interesting that most of the Americans out there that are dissatisfied with the “mexicans are lowering the wages for average Americans” voted for the dimwit that’s accelerated the happening of the inevitable.

to blame the mexicans for the problem is absurd. guess what? if big business wants the low-wage workers here, they will bring them and there is nothing you can do about it.

instead of blaming the Mexicans and getting angry at them (which many of us on the left predicted several years ago that aVerage Joe would be doing)

MARCH WITH THEM UNTIL WE GET SOME ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES GOING ON AT THE TOP!

The only way to make a change in this country is to resist the DIVIDE AND CONQUER that Lou Dobbs and the Republicans have gotten us all mixed up in.

Joine with the Mexicans. You’ll actually find that they are really nice, religious people with some serious family values.

BUT whatever you do, don’t fall for the Divide and Conquer scheme that leaders have been able to get the masses to succumb to throughout World History.
March 26th, 2006 at 11:54 am
WiscoDuk says:

Good point in #28 banana.

In my #21 post- I’m not at all saying that I completely blame the illegals. They’re just looking for a job. It’s the scum bag contractor thatâ€™s cheating them more than he’s cheating the government out of taxes.

BTW- I have several well-paid Mexican- Americans on the payroll and many Mexican decent friends. Most view â€œillegalsâ€ the same as most peoples here do.
March 26th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Paul in Mexico says:

I have no dog in this hunt, no horse in this race, and dont know what I would like to see done regarding this issue.

I live in Guadalajara, Mx, lived down here for 6 years. Sensenbrenners bill that passed the house is the worst piece of legislation ever to be approved by the pukes.

Make all 11 million a felon? Come on, folks, think about this. We would need hundreds more federal prisons!

Now, another provision of the Sensenlessbrenner bill would also punish the people who hire these illegal aliens. Wanna bet on this one.

I was over at the local social secrity office about a month ago. It is located at the US Embassy. It is only open 3 hours per day, and cant get to everyone. You take a number and sit and wait, and wait, and wait.

People, seeing that I was an American, would pull out there paper work and ask me questions. One guy in particular had worked in the states for 17 years, all for the same employer. He had copies of his W-2 form and W-4 forms (taxes deducted) but had a letter from social security saying that they had no record of his ever paying into the system.

See what happened here is that the employer had the guy sign a W-2 form, but did not submit it. He also deducted taxes and deductions from the salary of the guy, but did not pay them to the government. In other words, he stole from the man.

This is happening all over the United States. ADM is one of the biggest in the country who practice this sort of deception. Archer-Daniels-Middleton are very, very big contributors to the republican party. Think that they would ever be prosecuted for the actions of their thousands of sub-contractors?

No way Jose.
March 26th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
WiscoDuk says:

#30,

Nice post Paul.
March 26th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
Laszlo Panaflex says:

Another 50,000 marched in downtown Denver, shocking authorities who believed only a few thousand would turn out.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3640147
March 26th, 2006 at 1:52 pm
Bush Bites says:

I still think this is a good registration opportunity for the Dems, and assuming the protesters are all, or even mostly, illegals is probably not correct.

But, another solution: Why don’t we just give them Texas and call it even?
March 26th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
David B says:

Che Cuevera would know what to do to ralley the masses and get these fascists out of power. That is the kind of progressive leader we need right now, a revolutionary radical.
March 26th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
WiscoDuk says:

I still think this is a good registration opportunity for the Dems

Not too sure it would work out all that well for the dems though. Remember that it’s Bush that supports the guest worker program. The biggest influx of illegals happened after Bush was elected. In 00′ he all but told the Mexican community he would make illegals legal. (For votes- of course). Remember his high profile meetings with Fox? Him attempting to speak “mexikin”? I don’t have the stats here- but I think the overwhelming majority of Latinos voted for Bush.

This is more rethug “infighting” than anything else. The dems would be smart to take a position here.
March 26th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
banana says:

lots of legal hispanics are Republicans. because they’re catholic anti-abortionists.

that’s not the point though. Paul’s is a good point. #30
March 26th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
Jack says:

“Sure immigrants come here to do the jobs Americans dont want”, this is not true, but a myth that has been repeated over and over again. Look deeper, for the root problem/cause, and remember we live in a time where politicians and people who have or want power say things to divide us, and aren’t true. Their philosophy is, if you say it enough times (even if it isn’t true), and loud enough, more people will begin to believe it. We have a severe truth deficit in our country.

If anything, the statement should be finished, “…to do jobs Americans don’t want… for slave labor wages” and “increased danger to their lives”.

If you work 12 hours+ a day, at some of these wages, with no benefits, where do you live, eat, and raise a family. Sometimes, you spend more in working than if you don’t work. Don’t include workman comp, unemployment, or social programs, but cost of laundry, medical care if you get hurt, occupational needs, travel costs, daycare, etc.

Slave labor wages/laborers cover-up all kinds of personal and business bad habits and prevent progress from occuring. Why change, if you can keep doing the same old thing and make loads of profit. Why invest in research, process improvements today for a better future, if you can do it on the cheap today, and someone else can deal with the problem tomorrow.

“See what happened here is that the employer had the guy sign a W-2 form, but did not submit it.” This is why this is as much an illegal employer problem. This problem needs to be addressed first. It sounds like that illegal employer also cheated unemployment and workmen comp, which hurts other businesses.
March 26th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
Paul in LA says:

The numbers are understated. This protest was 1-2 million people, not a half-million.

It stretched, packed, from South Central to Boyle Heights (from south to north), and from downtown all the way through East LA (from west to east).

NO REPORTED CRIMES IN THAT ENTIRE CROWD.

That has to be a record on two counts: 1) largest protest in California history; 2) most peaceful gathering of 1-2 million people in memory.
March 26th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Jack says:

“ADM is one of the biggest in the country who practice this sort of deception. Archer-Daniels-Middleton are very, very big contributors to the republican party. “

How many of us have investments, pensions, retirement funds that invest in ADM? 60-Minutes did a story once about pensions, Halliburton, and Iran. We actually fund these companies by our very own retirement monies. You don’t have to buy ADM stock, just buy that mutual fund or that index, and now you are a full-fledged supporter of ADM business practices.

Doing Business with the Enemy
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/22/60minutes/main595214.shtml?CMP=ILC-SearchStories
March 26th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Thad says:

From what I heard on NPR this morning, the streets of downtown Phoenix were choked with 20000 protesters.

They expected 3000.
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