Saturday Forum
08/04/2007
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An Alaska Reader Says the Wall Street Journal Doesn't Get It About Summer Jobs; etc.

From: Ryan Kennedy: [e-mail him]

Here's another unintentionally funny Wall Street Journal piece.

A contributor bemoans the decline of young people working summer jobs. But, ironically, the WSJ is the biggest cheerleader for the main cause—probably the only cause—of the decline: mass immigration. [Service Learning: Teens Skip Menial Summer Jobs But Miss Some Valuable Lessons, By Kay S. Hymowitz, Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2007]

To be fair to Hymowitz, she mentions immigration but it's only one small paragraph when it should be the centerpiece of her analysis. [VDARE.COM note: Hymowitz is open borders fanatic Tamar Jacoby's Manhattan Institute colleague].

Cheap immigrant labor is why the part-time job market has fallen apart for Americans.

Digging through old family photos I found a picture from the late 1950s of my mom as a young lady picking apples.

When I asked her about it, she said she worked in the orchard during her summer college break. The photo proves there was a time when it was completely normal for young Americans to do jobs that Sen. John McCain thinks are physically impossible for them to do:

The ever-dense McCain is on record as claiming, incorrectly, that Americans would not pick lettuce for $50 a hour.

Hymowitz mentions other possible factors to low teen-employment but I think they are all nonsense.

Internships? They are the culprit? Gimme a break.

Next Hymowitz claims that many kids spend their summers on polishing their resumes. When I went to school I only knew a handful of these types. They were from well-to-do families that didn't need extra walking around money.

As the WSJ and Hymowitz know, the true culprit is the dramatic increase in non-skilled immigration that has pushed American kids and low-income adults out of jobs.

The WSJ published a severely pruned version of Kennedy's letter omitting, among other things, his anecdotal story about his mother. Read it here.

Previous letters from Kennedy to VDARE.COM are here.

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A California Reader Urges A Boycott of Cartoon Character "Dilbert"

From: [Name Withheld]

Dilbert used to be my favorite cartoon character. But not any more since his creator, Scott Adams, wrote in his blog about immigration that:

"I think Mexicans are superior to me. By 'me,' I am referring to people who are part English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Dutch, German, and Native American. There are three of us that I know of. I think my brother and sister would agree that we kind of suck compared to Mexicans."

The entire revolting blog can be read here.

Here is the e-mail I fired back to Adams:

"I am Irish, Scottish, German and English and you have personally insulted the vast majority of people who buy your products. I am putting this on the Internet and I expect an apology."

Please encourage your readers to e-mail Adams here

The writer says that she is "sick of the double standard. Liberals love to tell us how racist we are but then prove all the time that they are. Bashing any race is wrong—including European-Americans."

Send mail to the writer c/o [email protected]

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A Virginia Reader Warns That Romney May Not Be Not As Strong on Immigration As Hoped

From: W. James Antle III: [e-mail him]

Re: Romney Should Stop Hispandering, Run On Illegal Immigration Record, By Joe Guzzardi

While I agree that Mitt Romney has the best immigration record of the top-tier Republican candidates, some aspects of his record are window dressing. 

Romney concluded his agreement with the federal government to have state police training to assist immigration enforcement in the waning days of his administration. He did not run for reelection and the victorious Democratic candidate, Deval Patrick, had campaigned on a pledge to rescind the agreement. In all, it wasn't in effect for even two weeks.

And while Romney does deserve credit for taking the right stand on in-state tuition for illegals while it looked likely to pass, talk radio—conservative even in Boston—played a much bigger role in the bill's defeat.

Finally, Romney was supportive of McCain-Kennedy-style immigration "reform" while governor. He has since abandoned that position and even said some favorable things about attrition through enforcement, but it is not entirely clear what his actual immigration stance is right now.

As Guzzardi wrote, Romney could be a strong pro-enforcement candidate. But he is so inconsistent on so many issues, and seems to do just enough on hot-button issues to add them to his resumé, it's awfully hard to be sure what we're getting at this point.

Antle is formerly a Massachusetts resident and Romney constituent. Read his VDARE.COM articles here, here and here.

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A California Soccer Mom Asks Why Guzzardi Bashed Romney

From: A Soccer Mom

It's silly to bash Romney when he's the only one in the top tier candidate who has an actual record of being tough on illegal immigration.

Guzzardi points that out listing several things Romney did in Massachusetts before the sleeping immigration awareness giant awoke after the illegals marched in our streets.

All the main GOP candidates are bad on immigration—Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Fred Thompson who got a "C" at betterimmigration.com. Thompson failed to enforce immigration laws and was particularly weak against the employers who hired illegals

We must judge candidates on their past records; that's the only indicator we have of what their future actions may be.

Romney is the best of the bunch. Sure, he's not Tom Tancredo or Duncan Hunter. But neither of those will be elected.

Why drag down the only realistic candidate we have?

Joe Guzzardi comments: I would call my column constructive criticism rather than "bashing'. My advice to Romney is to avoid "Hispandering". Nothing is hidden in the Internet era and we are all paying close attention.

"A Soccer Mom" lives in the San Diego area. Send her mail c/o [email protected]

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A New York Reader And Massachusetts Native Calls Romney A Phony

From: Matthew Richer [e-mail him]

Romney is a phony. Even the shamelessly open borders Boston Globe has reported on Romney's immigration flip-flopping.

Listen to the interview in November 2005 in the online Boston Globe story on Romney when he endorses Bush and McCain-Kennedy. He even parrots the "amnesty isn't really amnesty" line. [Romney's Words Grow Hard on Immigration, By Scott Helman, Boston Globe, March 16, 2007)

Later, after Romney decided to talk tough on immigration, the Globe discovered that he had illegals from Guatemala working on the property of his suburban estate.

It's almost comical. My guess is that Romney is following former President Nixon's advice to Bob Dole "to run as fast as you can to the middle".

If Romney gets to the White House, who is he going to reward, Wall Street or Main Street?

I think the answer is obvious.

Matthew Richer is the author of Busing's Boston Massacre. His previous letters to VDARE.COM are here.

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A California Reader Asks What "Family Values" Means

From: Randy

When Romney talks about "family values," what does he mean? "Family values" is the most idiotic term I have ever heard…totally meaningless

It represents an empty copout for those who can't say Judeo-Christian (i.e. WASP) values.

So what are the "values" that now define America?

Are they the values of Islam, of Asian or Latino cultures, Hillary's cultural Marxism or the cult of multiculturalism?

The answer is none of the above. I define "family values" as the traditional values that America was founded on and thrived under for close to 200 years before mass immigration set off the decline in our moral and ethical standards.

Randy lives in southern California. Send him mail c/o [email protected]

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A Florida Reader Is "Pleasantly Surprised" By Romney

From: Eddie Brock

I went to see Mitt Romney in Miami and was pleasantly surprised. Even though the crowd was mostly Hispanic, Romney thankfully did not engage in Hispandering.

The only thing that reminded me that I live in a majority Hispanic city was when they played Spanish music after Romney concluded his speech.

I got my picture taken with him, but didn't really have an opportunity to bring up any key issues.

If Romney actually enacts measures on immigration similar to what he did in Massachusetts or follows through on what he says his positions are on his website and during the debates, then I see him as the best we have.

I briefly considered Fred Thompson but his voting record is poor. The final straw for me was Thompson's appointment of open borders advocate Spencer Abraham.

My first two choices are Duncan Hunter or Tom Tancredo. But since its highly unlikely either will win the nomination, the only other alternative is Romney.

Romney will work to end massive illegal and legal immigration and beat back the amnesty-obsessed Democrats.

Brock was born and raised in Miami. He is an immigration reform activist because, he says: "he doesn't want the rest of the country to end up like the worst parts of Miami."

Send Brock mail c/o [email protected]

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