PUBLIC MARKS from jasontromm with tag immigration

The controversial movement to merge the U.S., Mexico and Canada into what critics call a "North American Union" – in the face of what is already a massive, national illegal immigration and border security crisis – tops the list of the 10 most "spiked" or underreported stories of the last year, according to an annual WND survey. At the end of each year, news organizations typically present their retrospective replays of what they consider to have been the top news stories in the previous 12 months. WND's editors, however, have long considered it far more newsworthy to publicize the most important unreported or underreported news events of the year – to highlight perhaps for one last time major news stories that were undeservedly "spiked" by the establishment press.

In a special televised address last night, President Bush addressed the nation on the immigration crisis. Unless a total indifference to the wishes of the American people can be counted as a kind of political boldness, anyone hoping for a bold new approach from the White House last night on immigration was likely disappointed. The president is in bad shape. His approval rating with voters is approaching Saddam Hussein territory—his handling of the immigration issue a major reason for the plummet.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is warning that the immigration bill favored by Senate Republicans will permit up to 36 million illegal aliens, as opposed to the 11 million being cited by proponents, to remain in the U.S. – a number that will make the average American "furious" when learned and will hurt the GOP.

A website run by opponents of illegal immigration highlights the tactics of Hispanic activists who defend unlawful aliens, including the use of hate speech, profanity and calls for whites to be deported.

President Bush accuses those of us who want to secure America's borders and fully enforce our immigration laws of lacking "compassion." Huh. Well, I have yet to hear an ounce of compassion from President Bush for America's countless casualties of lax immigration enforcement. Where's the sympathy for innocent, law-abiding citizens who have lost their lives at the hands of illegal aliens and their open-borders enablers?

President George W. Bush, seeking to refocus the immigration debate in Congress, said the U.S. must attack the "underground industry" that thrive on illegal immigrants while treating undocumented workers "with respect." ()() Why? Illegal aliens (not undocumented workers) have no respect for US or our laws. It won't take massive deportations, just deport 1% and the rest will get the message that they have to obey our laws.

As he steered his Straight Talk Express across the United States in recent weeks, Republican Sen. John McCain has tried to stay a-head of the immigration issue. But Friday the immigration issue delivered 36 or so heads to his Phoenix office -- heads of lettuce, that is. McCain has been getting skewered in the media for comments earlier this month to a union group in Washington, D.C., that immigrants are taking jobs no one else wants, and offered them $50 an hour to pick lettuce in the Arizona sun for a summer, suggesting they couldn't do it.

The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that it would be implementing a new, revolutionary, cutting-edge, state-of-the-art approach to the illegal immigration problem. What is this “new” approach? Believe it or not, the department declared that the U.S. would now be cracking down on employers who “knowingly and recklessly” hire illegal aliens. In other words, they are going to try a “new” program called “enforcing existing laws.” Guess what? It works!

This is the only country on Earth that thinks it's not sporting to consider our own interests in choosing immigrants. Try showing up in any other country on the planet, illiterate and penniless, and announcing: "I've seen pictures of your country and it looks great. I think I'd like to live here! Oh, and by the way, would you mind changing all your government and business phone messages, street signs and ballots into my native language? Thanks!" They would laugh you out of the country.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a leading critic in Congress of open borders, blasted the decision today by Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to compromise on immigration reform and offer the possibility of citizenship to an estimated 10 million people who entered the country illegally through 2004.

The four Republican senators from the Carolinas are split on an immigration bill approved last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee. In addition to beefing up border security, it would create a guest worker program and put 12 million illegal immigrants on the path to U.S. citizenship. Here's how the Carolinas quartet stands:

This weekend, militant racism from a protected minority group was on full display. But you wouldn't know it from press accounts that whitewashed or buried the protesters' virulent anti-American hatred. An estimated 500,000 to 2 million people, untold numbers of them here illegally, took to the streets of Los Angeles to protest strict immigration enforcement and demand blanket amnesty for border violators, visa overstayers, deportation fugitives, immigration document fraud artists and other lawbreakers. Mexican flags and signs advocating ethnic separatism and supremacy filled the landscape.

A week after unified anti-war rallies garnered perhaps 25,000 protesters nation wide, protesters turning out for illegal immigrant "rights" numbered over 500,000. It almost brings a tear to your eye, until you realize the protests over the weekend were no different than if all the bank robbers and tax cheats in the nation got together and rallied for less regulation on theft and fraud. ()()Here's a college kid that's got his head screwed on straight. He understands the illegal immigration issue perfectly and writes about it much better than I ever could.

Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton invoked Jesus to argue against a House immigration bill that would make illegal presence in the United States a felony. "It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scriptures," Clinton said, according to the Associated Press, "because this bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself." ()() Hillary, if you're going to invoke the name of Jesus then you need to change some of your other opinions too. You can't invoke His name only when it's convenient.