Thursday, May 25, 2006

Immigration Victor Davis Hanson: "Zealots may chant ÁSi, se puede! all they want. And the libertarian right may dress up the need for cheap labor as a desire to remain globally competitive. But neither can disguise a cynicism about illegal immigration, one that serves to prop up a venal Mexican government, undercut the wages of our own poor and create a new apartheid of millions of aliens in our shadows. "We have the entered a new world of immigration without precedent. This current crisis is unlike the great waves of 19th-century immigration that brought thousands of Irish, Eastern Europeans and Asians to the United States. Most immigrants in the past came legally. Few could return easily across an ocean to home. Arrivals from, say, Ireland or China could not embrace the myth that our borders had crossed them rather than vice versa. "Today, almost a third of all foreign-born persons in the United States are here illegally, making up 3 to 4 percent of the American population. It is estimated that the U.S. is home to 11 or 12 million illegal aliens, whose constantly refreshed numbers ensure there is always a perpetual class of unassimilated recent illegal arrivals. Indeed almost one-tenth of Mexico's population currently lives here illegally! "But the real problem is that we, the hosts, are also different from our predecessors. Today we ask too little of too many of our immigrants. We apparently don't care whether they come legally or learn English - or how they fare when they're not at work. Nor do we ask all of them to accept the brutal bargain of an American melting pot that rapidly absorbs the culture of an immigrant in exchange for the benefits of citizenship." Thanks to Blogs for Bush for the link. "2008 pres" 7:00:21 AM

Stem cell research? SoapBlox Colorado: "As you probably already know by now, today marks the one year anniversary of the US House passing Diana DeGette co-authored legislation to allow more federal money to be spent on stem cell research. Her bill passed with bipartisan support: 238 Yeas, 184 Nays. But since the right-wing base loves to Focus on the Fetus, Bill Frist has let the bill lie dormant in the Senate to protect Bush." "2008 pres" 6:51:14 AM

Holtzman for governor? State Republican chair, Bob Martinez, defends his stand on Marc Holtzman's candidacy by pulling out the old, "I'm a team player," defense. From today's Denver Post, "State Republican Party chairman Bob Martinez took the unusual step of asking Marc Holtzman to drop out of the gubernatorial race because of major political issues affecting Colorado's future, Martinez said Wednesday. First, a Republican governor in a critical Western state would be able to help get a GOP presidential candidate elected in 2008, he said. Second, that governor would be in office during the 2010 census, which is used during the state's congressional redistricting two years later. If Colorado political history is an indication, that governor would have a good chance of getting re-elected and would be involved in drawing district maps. 'It's a partisan perspective, I know. But I'm the Republican chairman,' Martinez said in a phone interview. 'It's an extremely important seat.' Martinez has expressed concern that a primary between Holtzman and Bob Beauprez, a two-term congressman, would be expensive and bloody. That, he said, could irreparably hurt the GOP nominee in the general election against Democrat Bill Ritter." The article also has a primer of the petition process: "Colorado candidates must hand in signatures to the secretary of state's office today in order to petition onto the Aug. 8 primary ballot. Each signature will be verified by the secretary of state's office, and the voting ballot will be certified by June 9. After the office determines whether a candidate has made the ballot, a five-day protest period goes into effect. During that time, the public and the candidates may review the petitions and fight the decision. At the end of the five-day period, protesters are permitted to submit their evidence at a hearing administered by Secretary of State Gigi Dennis or her deputy. A ruling must be entered in 48 hours. Because of the number of signatures requiring review, the secretary of state's office has hired 35 temporary employees who will work through the Memorial Day weekend." "denver 2006" 6:32:46 AM

Immigration Here's an article about immigration and increased border security from the New York Times via the Denver Post. From the article, "To build, or not to build, a border of walls? The debate in the United States has started some Mexicans thinking that it is not such a bad idea. Nationalist outrage and accusations of hypocrisy over the prospect have filled airwaves and front pages in Mexico, as expected, fueled by presidential campaigns in which appeals to national pride are in no short supply. But, surprisingly, another view is gaining traction: that good fences can make good neighbors. The clamorous debate over a border wall has confronted Mexican President Vicente Fox at every stop during a visit to the United States that began Tuesday. While he did not publicly endorse the idea, he made clear his government was prepared to live with increased border security as long as it comes with measures that open legal channels for the migration of Mexican workers. Outside his government, several immigration experts have even begun floating the idea that real walls, not the porous ones that stand today, could be more of an opportunity than an attack. A wall could dissuade undocumented immigrants from their perilous journeys across the Sonora Desert and force societies on both sides to confront their dependence on an industry characterized by exploitation, they say... "Rodriguez, who has served as an adviser to the Mexican government and an organizer in the United States for the American Friends Service Committee, said the porous border had for years been an important safety valve of stability for Mexico's economy, allowing elected officials to avoid creating jobs and even taking legal measures to stop the migration of an estimated 500,000 or more Mexican a year. Government reports indicate that the Mexican economy has created about one-tenth of the 1 million jobs it needs to accommodate that country's growing labor force. Meanwhile, remittances from immigrants - estimated last year at about $20 billion - have grown larger than some state and municipal budgets. If Mexicans were really shut inside their country, [Primitivo Rodriguez, an immigrant activist in Mexico] said, Mexico might be forced to get its own house in order." The U.S. Senate is set to vote on their immigration bill today, according to the Denver Post. From the article, "A sweeping bill on immigration is on track for final approval today in the Senate, setting up contentious election-year negotiations with conservative House leaders who are demanding a harsher crackdown on illegal immigrants. The Senate bill, which incorporates ingredients of President Bush's proposal, combines enhanced border-security measures, a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for most of the 12 million illegal immigrants now in the United States. The bill's supporters said they expect an overwhelming vote in favor of the bill today, with a margin similar to Wednesday's 73-25 vote to close off debate. The leaders said they hoped the size of the majority in the Senate will convince House opponents that any immigration bill must include ways for illegal immigrants to achieve legal status. This is a key difference between the two chambers." Mike Littwin weighs in on the current immigration debate in today's Rocky Mountain News. He writes, "Well, I finally figured out what the crisis is. It's not, of course, an illegal immigration crisis. We could handle that. What we have is a national crisis of confidence. We don't need half-baked legislation. We need a full-baked collective shrink. This is no little crisis. It's as big as the wall they're talking about building along the Mexican border. Ask yourself, and I'm offering this advice for only 50 cents: How did America - arguably the most powerful country in the history of the world - become so fearful? Apparently, although I still have trouble believing it, we really are afraid of the busboys and the roofers and the housekeepers and the nannies who risk their lives sneaking across the border... "But Lou Dobbs and Tom Tancredo tell us there's a border crisis. And so, the House passed a bill turning illegal immigrants, and anyone who would feed or clothe them, into felons. And the president makes a prime-time speech from the Oval Office to alert the nation that the border problem, five-plus years into his presidency, is suddenly "urgent." I guess all those illegal immigrants arrived last week. And now, the Senate is set to finish its bill. Whereas the House bill was at least straightforward - I'm just surprised it didn't call for mining the harbors - the Senate has put together a bill that is, to put it nicely, a disaster of badly formed compromises. The worst of these is the so-called amnesty section, which New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg eloquently termed 'ridiculous.' It's a three-tiered amnesty that depends on an illegal immigrant's ability to prove how long he has been in the country. Yes, all that stands between the immigrant and deportation is the guy who conveniently forges 5-year-old electric bills. If you've been here more than five years, you're eligible to begin an 11-year amnesty process. If you've been here under five years, you have to report to a border first. If you've been here less than two years, you have to report to the border and you don't get to come back. Does anyone believe this could possibly work?" "2008 pres" 6:28:15 AM

Dem convention in Denver? Diane Carman, writing in today's Denver Post, thinks that Denver as the host city for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, is an idea whose time has come. From the opinion piece, "Despite global warming, Colorado is still strictly BYOO (Bring Your Own Ocean). But we do make up for the water shortage in other ways. 'Denver brews more beer than any other city,' says the Convention & Visitors Bureau website, and now with a Democratic brewpub owner as mayor, delegates needn't stress about contributing to the coffers of the Heritage Foundation and the Independence Institute through the Coors family of brewers. We also have more tamale kitchens, taquerias and big-burrito joints than the other three convention contenders combined, providing unlimited photo ops for candidates who want to get ethnic with the hot, sought-after Latino vote." "2008 pres" 6:11:09 AM

Polar ice melting Blogger News Network: "NASA scientists, working with 10 years of satellite data, find a dramatic thinning of ice around the edges of Greenland, and Antarctica too. Using satellite technology and various measurements, NASA scientists confirm the earth is melting at both poles. In the north, at the Arctic, the melting of Greenland's three-kilometer thick ice sheet had been expected, though not as dramatically as it is now happening. But in the south, many believed the far more massive ice sheets covering Antarctica would increase in the 21st century. That's not so, according to the NASA observations and data. Despite increasing snowfall, Antarctica's ice sheets are shrinking." The article has links to a satellite photo animation showing the loss of ice at both poles (Real Media). "colorado water" 6:05:18 AM

Peter Binney: Just not enough water to go around The city of Aurora is looking for a water lease for 2007, according to the Pueblo Chieftain. From the article, "Aurora most likely will attempt to put together a water lease in the Arkansas Valley for 2007, as its supplies are dwindling under prolonged drought. 'Over the next three or four weeks, we'll be looking at the options we have available,' said Aurora Utilities Director Peter Binney. Aurora owns nearly all of the Rocky Ford Ditch, part of the Colorado Canal and some shares in Twin Lakes, but has had to rely on leases or agricultural water in dry years to meet its quota from the Arkansas Valley. It also has long-term lease and trade agreements with the Pueblo Board of Water Works, and temporary storage and exchange contracts with the Bureau of Reclamation. In 2004 and 2005, Aurora leased water from the High Line Canal, which irrigates about 24,000 acres in Pueblo and Otero Counties. Aurora paid more than $8 million, while Colorado Springs paid $2.2 million in a program that yielded more than 15,000 acre-feet of water... "Under a 2003 intergovernmental agreement with the Southeastern Colorado and Upper Arkansas water conservancy districts, Aurora is limited to leasing water three years out of 10, if certain conditions are met. Binney maintains that the previous High Line lease does not count against the limit because it was finalized prior to the IGA. One condition is that Aurora's reservoir levels drop below 60 percent. Aurora now has 61 percent of its storage filled, but Binney expects that to drop to 40 percent by early next year. Aurora gets most of its water supply from storage... "Binney, who was appointed this week to the state Interbasin Compact Committee, said he was appointed to the group because of his experience with ag-to-urban leases. He said communities have to develop more cooperative arrangements to deal with water shortages. 'A lot of practices were put into place over the last 20 years,' Binney said. 'What we're seeing now is there's just not enough water to go around.'" A water official that tells the truth - rare. "colorado water" 5:56:28 AM

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