June 03, 2006

Saturday’s Letters: A California Professor Urges Using Environmental Impact Laws To Stop Senate Sellout; etc.

From: Nancy Harkey, Ph.D. and Professor Emeritus [e-mail her]

RICO laws are being used to sue employers for depressing American wages through deliberate pursuit of illegal alien workers—a very positive and hopeful development. 

And on another front a new organization—"Choose Black America"—is considering suit if amnesty legislation is passed on the grounds that job displacement has particularly negative effects on black Americans.

I suggest one more avenue for legal action—the use of Environmental Impact law. Any legislation involving amnesty and future large-scale guest worker programs like S.2611 should be analyzed thoroughly and completely in the Environmental Impact format before it is passed. 

The federal government usually requires impact reports in projects requiring physical construction.

The Senate bill, S. 2611Title IV Section 401, specifies that an environmental impact report must be generated.  It does not, unfortunately, require this before the bill is approved but within 90 days after the enactment. 

The information requested is in great depth—including everything from effects on U.S population for the next fifty years, to loss of habitat and productive farmland, impact on future class size in education, and "which small towns and rural counties are likely to lose their character as a result of such growth…"  

This is exactly the information that is needed before any such bill is enacted.  But no—the entire timeline is for post-enactment. 

Furthermore, there is nothing in this section that indicates that any policy or action should or would change as a result of these findings. 

Either the various drafters of this bill went off entirely on their own tangents, or the reference to an impact report is merely lip-service.

Clearly an impact report is supposed to guide the development of policy, not follow after it.

It is hard to imagine anything that would more greatly alter the American environment—both physical and social—than S. 2611 

On the physical side, the numbers of new immigrants being discussed will enormously affect water resources, air quality, population density, and the need for housing, schools and other public buildings.

On the social side, we will have worker displacement, wage depression, welfare costs and eroding national unity. 

That such a bill can be voted on with less formal consideration than the construction of a California mini-mall is unbelievable.

What we need before the House attempts a compromise bill is a very complete environmental impact analysis. 

In addition to what Section 401 suggests, it should include a thorough statement of the problem, then the complete description of all possible impacts, and a description of possible alternatives that would mitigate or eliminate these impacts.  (See the original legislation.)

Following such a report, there is typically a requirement for responses, and a period of public hearings, open to all affected parties. 

For S. 2611, this would include officials from states, cities, and counties.

The usefulness of a complete impact report would be its ability to get all the potentially destructive issues out in the open.

Robert Rector at Heritage Foundation has done a terrific job on estimating population growth and related costs to taxpayers.

But we need a forum that includes more than just academics. Every concerned American should have an opportunity to respond to S. 2611.

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Saturday’s Letters: Vietnam Veteran Calls McCain A "Disaster"

From:  [Name Withheld]

Re: Joe Guzzardi’s Column: McCain Musings On Memorial Day Weekend

McCain is a disaster.  As VDARE.COM has documented, he has no morals.

I am also sick of all the baloney of how McCain is a hero because he was a POW. 

I was a draftee grunt in that stupid conflict.  I remember the sage advice of my platoon leader, a Korean War vet, to save our last cartridge for ourselves as we did not want to be captured. 

Since our daddies were not honchos if we were captured, we would likely have been killed on the spot or shipped to Cuba or Czechoslovakia for chemical warfare experiments. 

If McCain were a hero, he would have gone down fighting. Instead, McCain chickened out. 

I fear that the misguided voters who equate militarism with patriotism could propel the amoral McCain into the White House.

It sure would be nice to get someone in the Oval Office who actually takes his oath of office seriously.  I think Calvin Coolidge was the last one to do so.

After being drafted, the writer served 14 months in Viet Nam with the First Air Cavalry Division from early December 1968 through the end of January, 1970 where he was assigned to heavy weapons infantry. He holds a Ph.D. and is an instructor at a Midwestern university.

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Saturday’s Letters: An American In Iraq Appreciates VDARE.COM

From:  Michael Grussing [e-mail him]

Re: Joe Guzzardi’s Column: McCain Musings On Memorial Day Weekend

Here in Iraq, VDARE.COM is one of the few sources of truth available to me. 

I supported Pat Buchanan years back when he ran for president. Now, having lost so much respect for President Bush, I wish there were someone like Buchanan to surface and save the day. 

I appreciate the information on McCain since I really didn’t know much about him and had actually thought he would end up a possible front-runner. 

Now I would campaign against him. 

Thanks and keep up the great work.

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Saturday’s Letters: A New Hampshire Reader Is Losing Her Little "Piece of Heaven" To Immigrants

From:  Jeannine Stergios [e-mail her]

From today’s headlines: Report Finds That Manchester Takes in Bulk of State’s Refugees (by Kathryn Marcocki, Manchester Union-Leader, June 2 2006)

According to the report,

"The state of New Hampshire took in refugees at a rate of 43.2 per 100,000 population in 2004, three times the national rate of 17.8 refugees per 100,000 population."

As a consequence, our schools are experiencing stabbings on a regular basis, refugees aren't taught proper hygiene, naked babies are carried in sacks in freezing weather, free lunch lines get longer, ESL classes grow larger and larger and health departments are broke.

Meanwhile, the rest of us get ripped off while our government continues to import more and more Third World people. 

I blame the State Department, the Lutheran Church and Catholic Charities—they bring refugees to the United States because it keeps them all employed.

The very least the refugee industry could do is have them dress like Americans. 

How does one become American when you are encouraged to act like a foreigner?

Stergios, who is in the real estate business, still can’t figure out how "these refugees who live in public housing are able to purchase $260K houses within two years of arriving here while my own employees are struggling to afford homes."

Joe Guzzardi adds: For an in depth look at how refugees can overwhelm a small city, read Roy Beck’s article "The Ordeal of Immigration in Wausau" here.

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