Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Imperial Backwash Begins.

Question: why are there millions of Pakistinaians in the UK and millions of Algerians in France. Answer: Imperial backwash (the same reason a substantial number of puerto ricans are in New York, and millions of Vietnamese in the US in general). And now imperial backwash from Iraq begins:

In February, the US agreed to accept 7,000 Iraqi refugees this year, a large jump over the fewer than 700 Iraqis accepted by the US in the first three years of the war but a drop in the ocean when measured against the estimated 2 million Iraqis who have fled the country since the war began. About 2,000 of those Iraqis coming this year, say refugee officials, will start their lives anew in Michigan.

This is just the start, and just a drop in the bucket the final number will be in the millions (thanks to chain immigration and other stupid policies). They will not be grateful anymore than the somalis 'refugees' who have caused chaos and violence in the small Maine towns that bureucrats shoved them in to 'increase diversity'.

Certainly many will be good. but undoubtedly they know their uprooting is result of US policies that were never intended to succeed. Is it ironic that as a direct result of Neocon policies more people in ever in the US will have anomosity towards Israel and our lopsided middle east policies?

Run Up to War With iran

Will Bush's last, treanous 'f*ck you' to the American people and constitution be an attack on Iran? Tom Lantos, Warmonger
The pious old hypocrite wants to gin up a war with Iran
by Justin Raimondo

While the American people pine for peace, our leaders are intent on war: that's the anomaly of American "democracy," one that speaks ill of the effort to export our system at gunpoint. Adopt "democracy," and you, too, can be ruled by a warmongering oligarchy.

Americans oppose an attack on Iran 2-to-1. By almost every measure, they want negotiations, rather than confrontation, with Tehran. Yet the House of Representatives recently passed legislation that, in effect, fires the first shot at the Iranians, imposing draconian sanctions similar to those enacted against Iraq in the run-up to the invasion and occupation of that country. Similarly, this new sanctions regime sets the stage for the coming war with Iran.

....read on if you have the stomach....

Americans are at an all-time level of disconent with goverment, and the 'solution' is to propose a fake 'alternative' candidate, Mike Bloomberg:
City Journal Home. City Journal
The Anti-Perot
Michael Bloomberg is no populist.
Fred Siegel
26 June 2007

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg flees New York for his weekend retreats in Bermuda, his neighbors are Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, and Ross Perot, the independent candidate for president who shook up the 1992 election. They are, aptly enough, the two men who have limned the political path that he hopes to follow. Berlusconi, one of the wealthiest men in Italy, used a media empire even grander than Bloomberg’s to win power as the head of a coalition whose only goal was to elect Berlusconi. But careless pundits more often compare Bloomberg to Perot, even though the differences between the two men are glaring. Perot’s 1992 campaign represented a populist reaction to the forces unleashed by globalization.

Bloomberg’s wealth and political worldview are an expression of globalization.........

All this would seem to suggest fertile ground for a Bloomberg candidacy. But there is no indication that Bloomberg’s call for post-partisan, technocratic government resonates with voters. The last candidate with this message was the hapless Michael Dukakis.

Many of the major issues roiling the public today are in one way or another tied to globalization. Iraq, immigration, inequality, the influence of big money in politics, out-of-control government spending, and outsourcing are what make middle-class swing voters anxious and angry. A Ross Perot/Lou Dobbs sort of candidate could appeal to those voters, as well as to large chunks of the Republican and Democratic electorate. By contrast, the Bush/Senate immigration reform bill garners approval from only 23 percent of the public.

But from the perspective of 2007’s angry voters, Bloomberg is on the wrong side of these issues. He hasn’t spoken much about Iraq, but what he has said has been largely supportive of President Bush. He not only supports the immigration bill, but he also doesn’t see massive illegal immigration as a problem. He is the personification of inequality, of a social hierarchy in which the super-rich seem to have seceded from the rest of the country. As for out-of-control government spending, Bloomberg’s budgets have grown at twice the rate of inflation. And when it comes to outsourcing, Bloomberg built his fortune on the growth of the global economy. Rather than representing an alternative, Bloomberg incarnates the very things people are angry about.



Yet the Washington Post touted him as the alternative people are looking for. Which people? for what? My guess is Bloomberg , if he runs, will soften some stances, or simply lie about them, and then proceed (in the remote chance he won) do far worse open the borders even more, attack even more middle Eastern countries.

At this point, I think, the system is broke. The democrats proved that by taking back the house on an anti-Iraq war stance and then caving into - no the wrong words- they never intended to keep their promises to anyone but the special interests they cater to.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Vertical farming in the big Apple?

and unlikely prospect? Maybe but its nice to see someone using their imagination for something that would benefit New York instead of...well. you know who....

By Jeremy Cooke
BBC News, New York

Graphics courtesy of Chris Jacobs, Rolf Mohr, and Dean Fowler of machinefilms.com and unitedfuture.com
Is this how farms will look in the future?

Downtown Manhattan is hardly a place you would associate with agriculture. Rather, with its countless restaurants, cafes, shops and supermarkets this is a place of consumption.

A Candid Look At Candidate Bloomberg.

In and article entitled Does Bloomberg spell doom for Hillary?

Pat Bucanahan analyses Bloomberg's campaign:

The presidential candidacy of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is already a smashing success.

.......

The mayor has replaced Fred Thompson as the most talked-about non-candidate since Mario Cuomo in 1992 and Colin Powell in 1996. Gov. Cuomo and Gen. Powell, after scouting the terrain, declined to engage.
......
While impossible to see how Mayor
Bloomberg can win, even if he spent $2 billion, it is easy to see how he sinks Hillary Rodham Clinton. .........

How so? First, the mayor is Jewish and is best-known and most loved among Jewish voters and denizens of the Big Apple, where he is more popular than Rudy. Both constituencies are Democratic.


.....I can't really see many Jewish voters going independent for Bloomberg- and from what I understand they don't vote so monolithically anymore, but in the same way Zuckerman Bloomberg ect have all flocked behind Bruce Ratner, I can see the New York elite (many of whom are Jewish) flocking behind Bloomberg. Are they so clueless to realize that a pro-war/open borders gun grabbing liberal like Bloomberg is the worst of both sides of the asile? Probably not they probably do think money and PR can trump reality. After all it created a war where none was needed.

Second, though the mayor is being painted as a "post-partisan" problem-solver, he is a textbook nanny-state liberal who has outlawed smoking in neighborhood bars, wages war on trans-fats, and is anti-gun, pro-gay rights and pro-abortion.
.....Indeed. He is not problem sovler - he has a slick pr campaign that makes him look like one. He has done nothing that will create long term good for New York. 


Had Bloomberg run in the Republicans primaries, his billions would not have bought him the nomination, which is why he left the party. Indeed, if he could buy the GOP nomination, the party would leave him.

.....yep.

.....
There is none. Lacking charisma and a capacity to move people with words, lacking an issue other than "post-partisanship," Bloomberg has one card to play – a fortune estimated at $5 billion or more.

If he runs, Mike Bloomberg will be testing the theory that, in the 21st century, you can buy the presidency of the United States.

Well, his friend Bruce Ratner has already tested the theory that, in the 21st century you can buy the ESDC., MTA and New York State Legislature....so can the rest of the country be far behind? While you can buy the ESDC and make them say that subways won't be over capacity, traffic won't be a problem, that doesn't change the reality that they will be. 
And that's the crux of Bloomberg's surreal run and poor stewardship -its created an illusion of success while letting the foundations of good government and the physical structure of the city to deteriorate

ESDC Math= Adding 16000 residents and an arena won't effect subway capacity

...of course, as with everything else in Bruce Ratner's corrupt fantasy world, the reality is another story (four of the over crowded lines mentioned stop at Atlantic Avenue:

From No Land Grab:

NYC Transit Authority releases sobering data, contradicting figures used to justify Atlantic Yards

The big news today is that subways are overcrowded — as if New Yorkers couldn't tell — and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

The articles in the daily papers didn't mention the possible implications of the massive new developments all around Brooklyn, including the Atlantic Yards, but Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report had something to say.

The NY Times, Some Subways Found Packed Past Capacity

In an unusually candid effort at self-examination for a habitually insular agency, New York City Transit yesterday presented what could be called an index of straphanger frustration. It made an analysis of each subway line that shows at a glance how often trains run late, how crowded they are and whether more trains could be added to ease the problems.

What is revealed is both predictable and eye-opening. Many subway lines are simply maxed out, meaning there is no room on the tracks they use to add trains that could carry the swelling numbers of riders. And that has implications that range from day-to-day decisions about how trains travel through the system to long-term planning on how to best move people around a growing city.

...

ATLANTIC YARDS???
Atlantic Yards Report, NYCT contradicts ESDC, saying subways are too crowded
Norman Oder ties in the latest news to the little we do know about Atlantic Yards, which, after yesterday's revelations, isn't much:

Contrast [the NY City Transit Authority's conclusions] with the sunny predictions of the Empire State Development Corporation in its Atlantic Yards environmental review, predictions that were criticized again and again by transportation analysts Brian Ketcham and Carolyn Konheim.

From the Atlantic Yards Final Environmental Impact Statement (Response 13-2):

The DEIS includes a detailed subway line haul analysis based on 2005 NYCT passenger counts that show that all subway routes serving the project site would continue to operate below capacity in the peak direction in the AM and PM peak hours at their maximum load points in both the 2010 and the 2016 future with the proposed project.

Apparently the statistics were a little bit out of date



So of course the MTA's going to ask for fare increase....knowing that they want to give away land to Ratner at less than a 25% of its value, I say  citizens put their foot down. If Ratner wants to build on MTA land let him pay full price. If Ratner wants to increase ridership let him subsidize it, not us. I am tired of shelling out my tax dollars to this fat, greedy corrupt incompetent crook. Hell even Boss Tweed (at least) put up a nice courthouse, with Ratner we get poorly designed junk that's outdated before it leaves the drawing board.

Loading the subways like this is not only an inconvenience -its dangerous - and that reminds me of another thing that the ESDC claimed wasn't an issue- terrorism and security (someone want to check the offices of the ESDC for a. intoxicating fumes b. excessively large personal bank accounts). How will we find out the ESDC was inadequate there? a report or 'the hard way'.


Monday, June 25, 2007

Daily News, Daily Distoritions, Daily Lies.

Newspaper publishers have come a long way since genuine reformers like Horace Greeley - they now, more often than not, are in the mold of Mort Zuckerman - who uses his media empire as a conduit for his personal, political and financial agendas. A few months ago he was reminding us just how awful it would be for New York if a skyscraper went up in his neigborhood. The reason we were to be concerned, he informed us, was because shadows would fall on Central Park, and by conincidence, his neigbohood. In his latest crusade he tells us homeowners  have no right to their homes, or even the right to complain,  when his rich developer friends want them....

City Council members Charles Barron, Letitia James and John Liu - none of
whom represents the neighborhood -

and unelected officials and developers do?


The persistence of the Underground Railroad claims, despite the lack of
historical support, leads to a suspicion that something else is at work - a
desire to stop development or to wring money out of taxpayers as the city
exercises eminent domain.

Now we're not good capitlists if we resist the government siezing private
property against our will? Of course, the city's own shill "consultant' firm's historians determined that the homes had historic value - so here, the DN (not surprisingly) is blatently lying. And just how is building more parking lots in urban areas which create more motivation to drive good for anyone except greedy short term thinking developers, like the people Mort Zuckerman keep company with


Billions of private dollars have been committed to projects ranging from
skyscrapers to affordable housing. To stand in the way by cynically playing
on the charged issue of the city's slave past is wrong.

well now we get to the root of it, no? Billions of private dollars...they
forgot to mention the billions in city and state money and benefits being
given over to these developers...Apparently cynically touting jobs and
economic growth is okay, but private homeowners defending their property
against Mort Zuckerman's influential friends is sacreligious....




All this, keep in mind in borough that started to boom in spite of the
goverment's heavy handed intervention. The only reason developers are
getting the goverment to step in now is to literally drive out the
competition and pesky middle class homewoners and shopkeepers.

Yes, Napoleon despised a nation of shopkeepers too. And that what this all boils down to -both locally and with foreign policy - the organic conservatism of Edmund Burke (who defended America's revolution in Parliment but warned that Frances was a disaster), vs. a nation of ideaology that harks back to the French revolution, through Marxism to its repulisive Neocon iteration today.

Zuckerman of course, is a warhawk, who advocates open borders for the US (but curiously, not for Israel) and bombing Iran. I used to think people like Zuckerman where hypocrites, but when one gives it careful thought, he is anything but a hypocrite - and if you think about the values that lead up to his line of reasoning, he's far worse than the 'next Hitler' he warns us is just around the corner of every (muslim) Middle eastern country. How many innocent lives have been lost thanks to Zuckerman's (and other neocon) lies (and how many Zuckerman's, Cheney's and such are serving in Iraq)? The sad thing is he really doesn't care.

421a Veto - the Spitzer Litmus Test.

My guess. He won't do it. Ratner, rather ingeniously stuck his pork into a pork reform bill so either way the governer looks bad - veto it and he lets wealthy developers continue to be subsidized by middle class homeowners, let it pass and Ratner gets his special break. Spitzer comes from real estate money and has never shown much enthusiasm for reform as he has with Wall Street, which in my opion makes him grossly hypocritical.

In addition this was a raw, naked display of just how much power Ratner has - no other developer was able to get a special provision. How and why remains the question - a massive kick back scheme? Is there a "black swan' in the offing?

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The New York Times Catches Up With the American Conservative:


Steve Sailer Jan 2007:
January 15, 2007 Issue
Copyright © 2007 The American Conservative

Fragmented Future

Multiculturalism doesn’t make vibrant communities but defensive ones.:
In the presence of [ethnic] diversity, we hunker down. We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it’s not just that we don’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don’t trust people who do look like us.

—Harvard professor Robert D. Putnam



The New York times chimes in six months later::

Home Alone
By ERICA GOODE

For decades, students of American society have offered dueling theories about how encountering racial and ethnic diversity affects the way we live. One says that simple contact — being tossed into a stew of different cultures, values, languages and styles of dress — is likely to nourish tolerance and trust. Familiarity, in this view, trumps insularity. Others argue that just throwing people together is rarely enough to breed solidarity: when diversity increases, they assert, people tend to stick to their own groups and distrust those who are different from them.

But what if diversity had an even more complex and pervasive effect? What if, at least in the short term, living in a highly diverse city or town led residents to distrust pretty much everybody, even people who looked like them? What if it made people withdraw into themselves, form fewer close friendships, feel unhappy and powerless and stay home watching television in the evening instead of attending a neighborhood barbecue or joining a community project?
So its finally dawning on the New York Times -and since it's 'news' to New York Times readers:: Multiculturalism is yet another liberal utopia scheme that is a massive, massive failure - a bigger failure than Neoconservative's 'democracy is a pancea' utopian scheme- the only lingering and disturbing question is can its effects and policies be stopped - or is the toothpaste out of the tube.

Europe is already considering massive repatriotation programs...we're considering amnesty.

Bloomberg not only deluded about Altantic Yards

But apparently he's severing GOP ties in an effort to position himself for an independent run for President. I have never seen a man so far out of touch with reality than the other fellow that I wish would sever GOP ties (actually he defacto has) George Bush.

Note to Bloomberg - the rest of the country does not see a gun grabbin', open borders, Pro War Hawk (otherwise known as 'invite the world, fight the world) as some sort of hip alternative to the beltway establishment - you're the worst of liberalism and conservatism in one repulsive (but smoke and transfatty acid free) package.

We Shall Go On Til The End...

as churchill said from NLG:

Goldstein-NYO.jpg

Photo: Joe Fornabaio

Do you feel a successful appeal of the recent federal ruling would stop the project?

Well, first off, a successful appeal on this would simply get us to a trial. And then we would be able to make a strong case. Yes, [Bruce] Ratner is creating facts on the ground through demolitions. At this point, the issue isn’t what’s going to come down, or what’s coming down, but what goes up. If we ultimately win our lawsuit, the project as we know it can’t go up. There’s a significant amount of property that Ratner does not own. Until the day comes where the developer has the deeds, including this unit in this building, which is situated where the arena would be, the project can’t go forward. We would hope to win this appeal on the motion to dismiss in the Second Circuit Court; if we don’t, we will be writing to the Supreme Court to hear our case. This will go on and on. This is not over by a long shot.



agreed, and as a side note, Churchill won. ...next predicted comment from Forest City we're holding back jobs housing and hoops for millions of Brooklynites by being selfish (or something like that).

Response: your fat greedy boss is the selfish one - taking homes and businesses away from people using Eminent domain is a hallmark of greed, lack of imagination and corruption. A sensible plan could start construction tomorrow - a sensible plan, that is.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Lying Til The End

from nolandgrab::

I jumped ship, sez Yards big

Departed Forest City honcho denies he got axed from building project

NY Daily News
By Jotham Sederstrom

Stuckey speaks, but has nothing to say?

Former Atlantic Yards Development Group President Jim Stuckey says that he wan't canned, only he's not saying why he's no longer working for Bruce Ratner:

Bruce Ratner's top lieutenant on the controversial Atlantic Yards project, James Stuckey, resigned this week from Forest City Ratner.

His sudden departure, and the fact that the company referred questions about his resignation to public relations guru Howard Rubenstein, fueled speculation by insiders that Stuckey's exit was a rocky one.

But Stuckey said yesterday his decision to leave his post as executive vice president of commercial development after 13 years with the company was not the result of a falling out between him and boss Bruce Ratner.

In keeping with the talking points from the press release, Stuckey adds:

"There are other interests I want to pursue and, quite honestly, when you're working 18-hour days on a project as complicated as this, with a company as great as Forest City, it's very difficult to pursue those other interests," Stuckey told the Daily News in his first public comments since his departure.

That's his story and he's stuck with it:

He declined to divulge his future job prospects. And when asked if he had signed a confidentiality agreement prohibiting him from discussing the Atlantic Yards project or his own resignation critically, Stuckey declined to comment.




Must of been one big severance check. Notice how everyone who does business with Forest City has to keep quiet about it? who else operates like this? Let's see...drug dealers, mobsters, and just about anyone else who doesn't want the public knowing about their business practices. Why don't they want them to know. Unless it is a true issue of national security (about as likely in this case as Stuckey actually becoming a priest) then its fair to assume because Forest City knows that the public would find their business practices repulsive and probably illegal.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Perhaps He's Contemplating the Existence of Hell Again.

Goodbye, Mr. Stuckey; Atlantic Yards head departs for "new challenges"

Jim Stuckey, president of the Atlantic Yards Development Group for Forest City Ratner and the developer's point man for more than three years on the project, has resigned from the company, "effective immediately, citing personal reasons and a desire to pursue new challenges."

(Photo from PBS Newshour.)

Atlantic Yards, the company stated in a press release (below) issued today via spokesperson Howard Rubenstein, "remains on target."
(source Atlantic Yards Report)

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

James Bovard Reminds Us::

A democratic government that respects no limits on its power is a ticking time bomb, waiting to destroy the rights it was created to protect."

His book

Attention Deficit Democracy is in paperback now.

Delusions about democracy are subverting peace and freedom. The American system of government is collapsing thanks to ignorant citizens, lying politicians, and a government leashed neither by law nor Constitution. While presidents and pundits harp on democracy’s inevitable spread around the world, it is perishing at home.

Victorious politicians routinely invoke the "will of the people" to sanctify their power. But voters cannot countenance what they do not understand. The "will of the people" is often simply a measure of how many people fell for which lies, how many people were frightened by which advertisements, and which red herrings worked on which target audiences. Rather than the "will of the people," election results are often only a one-day snapshot of transient mass delusions.

His Site :

"democracy" in the EU - A lesson for the US

again, from The Brussel's Journal (which the Belgian government is trying to shut down:

Commission Running Scared of the People: Good
From the desk of Elaib Harvey on Tue, 2007-06-12 23:07

Jose Manuel Barroso today called on Tony Blair to “stand up against public opinion” and have the “courage to ignore populism,” in relation to the forthcoming EU Council summit in Brussels. At the summit next week it is planned that the Heads of Government of the EU 27 to sign a ‘heads of agreement’ on the new Constitution.

This is one of their favourite terms. If it so happens that what they have to say has the support of the public, our elites will tell us that they have democratic legitimacy. However if public opinion is in opposition to their plans it is nothing more than ‘populism.’



In the same way Bush and the American elite are trying to ignore popular opinion and open our borders, the democrat's ignored their own party's mandate and support the Iraq war - this is 'democracy' in action - we have a elite that is doing what they want, when they want because they have manipulated the system enough where effectively voting does not matter -and paradoxically - they try to encourage such voter apathy which even further consolidates their power.
The serious question now is what to do about it.

Multicultarlism's Hypocrisy

From The Brussel's Journal:
Denouncing White Christians Is OK

In Sweden, saying that Muslim Albanians are behind much of the drug traffic in Europe (a fact) is considered racism and a crime. Making derogatory statements about the native Christian population, however, is just fine.

Dahn Pettersson, a local politician in Sweden, has been fined 18,000 kronor for writing that 95 percent of all heroin brought in comes via Kosovo. “It is never ethnic groups that commit crimes. It is individuals or groups of individuals,” prosecutor Mats Svensson told the court. The court found Pettersson guilty of ‘Agitation Against a Minority Group.’

When in 2004 Joanna Rytel, a Swedish feminist, wrote an article called “I Will Never Give Birth to a White Man,” the authorities refused to indict her. Prosecutor Göran Lambertz explained why: “The purpose behind the law against incitement of ethnic hatred was to ensure legal protection for minority groups of different compositions and followers of different religions. Cases where people express themselves in a critical or derogatory way about men of ethnic Swedish background were not intended to be included in this law.”



So pointing out truth- that nearly all drug traffic (and apparently not an issue for this 'feminist' author - 85% of rapes) are coming from particular groups is a crime - saying the truth, literally is a crime but not only are the rantings of some idiot protected, but publishable (as in people actually paid for its publication no doubt with government money).
How long can such a people where the women literally hate their own people - survive?

Tijuana's Upper Crust Crossing Border, Too

From NPR (NPR!):

Morning Edition, June 13, 2007 · The drug violence in Tijuana, Mexico, is spilling across the border into San Diego. Conditions in the border town have prompted many affluent Tijuana residents to move to San Diego to avoid kidnapping and death threats in Mexico.



Of course, Bush refuses to enforce our exisiting laws or protect our borders so the conditions in Mexico are fast becoming the conditions in the American SouthWest and America in general.

New Jersey Town Consents to Cease Eminent Domain.

Bloomfield consents to cease eminent domain
The long, contentious three-year litigation over Bloomfield’s redevelopment and its attempts to secure properties by eminent domain is over. The New Jersey Superior Court entered an order approved by Essex County Assignment Judge Patricia Costello dismissing Lardieri et al v. Township of Bloomfield (ESX-L-8929-06) on the express condition that Bloomfield would not use its power of eminent domain to acquire the five plaintiffs’ properties.

"“Eminent domain isn’t the key to economic development,” said Anaheim, California Mayor Curt Pringle in his report, Development Without Eminent Domain, published by the Institute for Justice."



Of course it isn't - smart, comptenent honest businessmen don't need eminent domain to succeed. Walt Disney was able to build both disneyland and disney world without it (in fact there are two small properties on the 'footprint' of Disney world. Nor did Rockefeller preserve Williamsburg using it. Eminent domain, as used by (greedy) developers is just a way to make a dishonest profit. It is no wonder Bruce Ratner uses it.

And, as a side note, Bloomfield, New Jersey seems to have more integrity than Bloomberg's New York.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

not online yet but great Ron Paul articles

in the American Conservative, above all , lambasting Republicans for "killing the messenger" rather than acknowledge Ron Paul's painful-but-true message.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Ideas Need Refinement.

photo:Jean de Brunhoff (1899–1937), Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant (The Story of Babar), preliminary design and layout, cover, ca. 1930

I was contemplating a trip to the Morgan Library and perusing upcoming exhibitions. I am always interested to see a 'creative process', especially on something I know well because often its surprising to how it came about.

I was amazed at this image of an early Barbour the Elephant book - an immensely popular series when I was a child (still is? I don't know) as I child I remember loving the illustrations - so I was surprised to see early concepts so crude. At this point would I as a publisher, see Barbor's potential? Or as a Writer/Illustrator would I just 'give up'.

Often I abandon concepts because when I look at them at this stage they don't seem as wonderfully amazing as when they were in my head. At this stage they aren't - its important to remember that dedication and refinement are just as important as the idea. Imagine if Brunhoff had given up at this point.

Friday, June 8, 2007

Elliot Spitzer Will Allow Illegal Aliens To Obtain NY Driver's Licenses

WE all know that a drivers license is a de fact id, so a terrorist can walk off a plane at JFK, get a New York license and be free to move about NY, thanks to 'everything changes' Gov. Spitzer:

High court says NY can deny licenses to illegal immigrants


By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:03 p.m., Thursday, June 7, 2007

ALBANY -- New York has the right to deny driver's licenses to immigrants who can't prove they are in the country legally, the state's highest court ruled Thursday.

.....
But in July 2006, the appellate division overturned that ruling and allowed the state to require that immigrants prove they are in the United States legally to get a driver's license. The Pataki administration defended the rules, saying they were put in place to combat fraud and terrorism.

"One of the most important things we can do to keep our country safe is to make sure that the people who do come here do so legally and abide by the laws," former Gov. George Pataki said Thursday.

The issue may not be over. As a candidate in 2006, Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer said he would change the rule because it doesn't improve security and instead keeps immigrants from rising from "the shadows" and creates a class of people with no public records.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Eliot Spitzer said the court decision doesn't change his plans to alter the DMV rule.

The governor feels strongly that the state's driver license policies should not unnecessarily keep people who should have licenses from getting them, and the administration's efforts continue in earnest to review the considerations involved in making any policy change," said Christine Anderson.



Really? So people who are ignoring the fundamental laws of this country are people who 'should' be getting licenses?
Elliot Spitzer has proven, in his short time in office that like other officials he's not concerned with our laws, our security, or our livelihood.

So "Working Man" Joe Strummer

was a public school kid (as in English public schools) Sailer writes:

Joe Strummer's Dad and the Third Man -- A new biography, Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer by Chris Salewicz about the lead singer and lyricist for my all time favorite rock band, the Clash, has lots of fun facts on the leftwing icon. Joe stopped brushing his teeth at around age 16, causing them to eventually fall out, which helped him sound more proletarian, more like Andy Capp's dad, and less like the "public school" (i.e., elite private school) old boy he actually was.

The Clash song "Bankrobber" explained:

My daddy was a bankrobber
But he never hurt nobody
He just loved to live that way
And he loved to steal your money

For Clash obsessives

Excerpts from Chris Knowles' book Clash City Showdown provides the analytic orientation missing from the new and extremely long and detailed Joe Strummer biography. Knowles makes sense of The Breakup (the punk equivalent of Lennon and McCartney breaking up): In the early 1980s, Mick Jones wanted to go forward into hip-hop, while Joe Strummer wanted to go back into roots rock and the like. The irony is that rap would have suited Joe well, with his lyrical and rhythmic strengths. He just preferred real music over what my nonagenarian father calls "yap music

On the Diminishing Power of Big Media, Bloomberg, Immigration.

On Monday the Washington Post tried to publish a propganada piece to help push the imigration bill through. Steve Sailer writes::

Thank God for the Internet and talk radio. Back on Monday, the Washington Post tried to sleaze the Kennedy-Bush bill through by running a wholly biased frontpage article in order to whip up a false sense of momentum:


Backers of Immigration Bill More Optimistic
Lawmakers Cite Sense of Urgency
By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, June 4, 2007; Page A01

After a week at home with their constituents, the Senate architects of a delicate immigration compromise are increasingly convinced that they will hold together this week to pass an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, with momentum building behind one unifying theme: Today's immigration system is too broken to go unaddressed.


Funny how they didn't cite any opponents of amnesty in the article agreeing with its contention ... That the public was telling the Senate that this bill would make the system worse was not for Washington to hear.

Tonight, the Washington Post is beside itself that the public shot down its plan to push through an enormous amnesty bill concocted in Senator Kennedy's Red Bull-filled room without even holding hearings. Dan Balz, a Washington Post "reporter," spins madly:


But to those far removed from the backrooms of Capitol Hill, what happened will fuel cynicism toward a political system that appears incapable of finding ways to resolve the nation's big challenges.

If Washington cannot produce a solution to the glaring problem of immigration, they will ask, what hope is there for progress on health care, energy independence, or the financial challenges facing Medicare and Social Security? Iraq is another matter entirely.

Voters wanted an immigration deal, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) acknowledged as he pulled the measure after 9 last night: "The problem was on the inside of this Senate chamber."

Isn't it about time that the Washington Post fire their pollsters and hire somebody (e.g., Scott Rasmussen) who won't rig the questions to provide the answers the Establishment wants to hear?

[Here's where it gets funny:]

The collective failure of the two parties already appears to have stimulated interest in a third-party candidate for president in 2008 whose main promise would be to make Washington work. It is far too early to assess the viability of such a candidate, but it is easy to imagine the immigration impasse finding its way into a television commercial if someone such as New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg decides to run.


Is there a better example of the reality distortion field that surrounds Washington than this? The public just punched through the bubble and told the crowned heads of Washington that they can't have their amnesty ... and this insider thinks that's a good omen for billionaire Bloomberg to run on a third party ticket on a pro-amnesty platform! Here's a way Bloomberg can simultaneously save a billion dollars in campaign spending and avoid humiliation: don't.




Note Mr. Sailer - he's already turned over a considerable portion of my neighborhood to another fat ass cat greedy developer in hopes of propping up his presidential run. God knows what he will do next.

Yeah, a rabidly pro-Iraq war, attack Iran, Hawk & and open the borders, gun grabbing, but soft on crime' liberal' like Bloomberg is just the 'alternative' that American voters are looking for! Do the editors of MSM media really think this? Do they think they can 'create' reality via Like the fake crain's poll and citing fake environmental studies? One thing is for certain our elite are not only out of touch with reality, but they have abused their roles as custodians and reneged on any 'trust' that we have given them as politicians, as editors, as arbitrators of power. People have to realize the Iraq War, Atlantic Yards, Open borders, the "patriot" act are all the result of complacency on our part and abuse of trust on theirs.

What's Wrong With this Picture?



As DDDB speculates:
We wonder if some of that massive amount of lobbying expenditures on Forest City Ratner's part had anything to do with squashing any momentum on the numerous reform bills in the Senate and Assembly.
...................................................
Isn't it funny that such a hot button issue for 85% of Americans (who strongly object to giving private developers land via eminent domain) that its' not even an issue for New York? Gee we're 'special' aren't we?

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Half of Ratner's Project will be Government Funded

RATNER'S $2B GOV'T SUBSIDY

By RICH CALDER

June 7, 2007 -- More than half of Bruce Ratner's $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn will be funded by government subsidies, a blockbuster court disclosure reveals.

The developer expects $1.4 billion in tax-exempt bonds to finance the project's 2,250 units of affordable housing, according to a state document obtained by project opponents through the courts and posted online yesterday.
The city is already kicking in $205 million and the state another $100 million.

The project's Frank Gehry-designed arena would be financed primarily with another $637 million in tax-exempt bonds. At least $2.34 billion of the estimated $3.97 billion - 58.9 percent - of the development costs would be financed by government-backed money.

"It is now starkly clear that Ratner's project . . . would hoard scarce housing subsidy resources from all over New York City," said Daniel Goldstein, spokesman for the opposition group Develop-Don't Destroy Brooklyn.


apparently luxury condos and a stadium for a professional basketball team (whose players earn 8 figure salaries, and corporations pay hundreds of thousands for luxury skyboxes) requires government subsidies to get built.

Public Benefit' = Private Profit

Public Benefit' = Private Profit

Jacob Sullum | June 7, 2007, 12:24pm

Yesterday a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the condemnation of a dozen or so homes and businesses in Brooklyn to make way for a $4 billion, 22-acre project that is expected to include a basketball arena, office space, and apartments.......the courts will uphold any condemnation that's part of a project expected to create jobs, generate new tax revenue, or provide some other "public benefit."

On a recent episode of the FX series The Riches, the sleazy developer who employs one of the main characters was able to fend off an eminent domain challenge by adding a skating rink to his project. Unfortunately, this is close enough to the current state of the law that I don't think it counts as satire.




Sounds like the some of the scriptwriters for FX live in Brooklyn. With this ruling, the patriot act, the democrats ignoring voter mandate on the Iraq war, 70% of International companies paying no income tax in the US, its safe to say the system is clearly broken. We have an elite that is doing what the want, when they want, no wonder they're so keen on revoking the right to bear arms.

Got A Complaint About NY State Government? Talk to Bruce Ratner.

Errol Cockfield's curious statement seems to indicate Boss Ratner is the go-to guy:

A spokesman for the Empire State Development Corporation, Errol Cockfield, said the state wants to avoid using eminent domain and hopes landowners will settle with Forest City Ratner.

(via NolandGrab)


The MTA's taking its cues from Forest City and as we have known along, the ESDC did under Gargano...now its seems Elliot "everything changes" Spitzer's "new" ESDC is as well.

But one wonders what, exactly is there to negoiate about. Homeowners an property owners want to keep their land, Bruce Ratner wants to force them to sell it them. Our government in allowing Ratner to engage in what is essentially legalized theft.

Sometimes, Its Better To Just Cut and Paste

No Land Grab states is more succinctly than this rambling blogger:

POV: Garaufis decision

It is our view that if Judge Garaufis’s ruling is allowed to stand, then there are effectively no protections for private property in the State of NY.

Any laws on the books will serve merely as a roadmap for developers and local governments to advance backroom deals, and will no longer act as guidelines meant to preserve constitutional rights.

Oblige to the Noblesse

No Land Grab Writes:

You’re Helping Bruce Ratner Pay His Mortgage

Norman Oder's scoop gets play on NY Magazine's Daily Intelligencer:

Combining the numbers strewn about in various court documents, Oder comes up with a simple and startling detail: More than half of the projected $4 billion funding for Atlantic Yards comes from public sources. The city is in for $205 million, twice the original figure, and the state for $100 million, and just over $2 billion in tax-free bonds will pay for the arena and the affordable housing. Tax-free bonds, as you might point out, are not direct grants. That's true. But they'll allow Ratner to borrow money at very, very low rates. So they're basically a government-issued discount mortgage. Boy, do we feel like chumps, paying all that interest to CitiMortgage.

link

Posted June 6, 2007 10:45 PM | Permalink



Lets see, if Atlantic Yards gets built, I will have to put up with Bruce Ratner's poor taste and incompetent planning...but wait...there's more! I will have to subsidize it with my tax dollars...but wait...there's more....and increased transportation and electric costs....so a fat, incompetent corrupt billionaire can get a low interest mortgage to finance a project which is 50% government funded, so Ratner can make a billion dollar profit. Not one elected official outside our local politicians sees anything wrong with this. The system is broke beyond repair.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Broken System?

From DDDB:

For Immediate Release: June 6, 2007

Federal Court Rules That Goldstein v. Pataki
Eminent Domain Case Belongs In Federal Court,
But Dismisses Case Anyway


Plaintiffs Optimistic That They Will Prevail


BROOKLYN, NY— The Federal District Court in Brooklyn today ruled in favor of plaintiffs and rejected a prior court recommendation that the eminent domain lawsuit, Goldstein v. Pataki, belonged in state rather than federal court

In that lawsuit, property owners and tenants in the footprint of the proposed "Atlantic Yards" project challenge the use of eminent domain to seize their homes and businesses to make way for the project, alleging that the takings violate the U.S. Constitution. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis disagreed with Magistrate Judge Robert Levy’s February report and recommendation by ruling that federal court is the proper legal forum for the case. Judge Garaufis also ruled, however, that the plaintiffs’ complaint is insufficient.

Clearly the 'system' is broken, rigged and corrupt if a crook like Ratner could get this far without a smidgeon of legal scrutiny. Now a judge decides the case isn't even worthy of consideration. How he decided, is of course open to $peculation, but I have theories. Perhaps like the MTA Judge Garaugfis is working around Forest City's schedule.

How Crazy Are MultiCutluralists, and Just How Much Do They Hate The West?

This idiot, writing in TimeOut London, provides a clue. Apparently, London would be a better place if it were Islamic:

An Islamic London would be a better place. [...] Alcohol is haram, or forbidden, to Muslims. As London is above the national average for alcohol-related deaths in males [...] turning all the city’s pubs into juice bars would have a massive positive effect on public health. [...]

‘The world is green and beautiful,’ said the prophet Muhammad, ‘and Allah has appointed you his guardian over it.’ The Islamic concept of halifa or trusteeship obliges Muslims to look after the natural world and Muhammad was one of the first ever environmentalists, advocating hima – areas where wildlife and forestry are protected. So we could expect more public parks under Islam [...]

If Islam became the dominant religion in London [...] this could have a revolutionary effect on educational achievement and, perhaps just as importantly, general levels of discipline and self-respect among London’s young people. [...]

Application of halal (Arabic for ‘permissable’) dietary laws across London would free us at a stroke from our addiction to junk food, [...]

Each Muslim is obliged to pay zakat, a welfare tax of 2.5 per cent of annual income, that is distributed to the poor and the needy. If the working population of London, 5.2 million, was predominantly Muslim this would produce approximately £3.2bn each year. More importantly, everyone would be obliged to consider those Londoners who haven’t shared their good fortune. London would become a little less cruel.

(thanks Brussels Journal)




Stupid? Deliberately obtuse, clueless? All three?

The clearest indicator of this guy's ignorance:

. Hindus and Sikhs manage to live alongside a large Muslim population in India, so why not here?


no, they don't teach history in schools these days do they?

SHOCKING! Bruce Ratner and Mike Bloomberg....

lied . from Atlantic Yards Report (do read in full, plenty of good stuff today - just when I thought things were getting quiet, Ratner lies surface, its kind of like a toxic site - some slime is always oozing to the surface):
Bloomy, Ratner both mislead

In other cases, however, the city and the developer clearly misled the public. Mayor Mike Bloomberg, in a 1/23/04 radio interview, claimed that the developer had to raise the entire project funding (then $2.5 billion) on his own:
Look, if you listen to every “but,” you would never do anything. “Well, this guy Ratner should do this, that, and the other thing.” He’s gotta raise $2.5 billion.

A 2004 flier (right) mailed by Forest City Ratner to Brooklynites promised that Atlantic Yards--the entire project--"will be funded primarily by private development dollars, and with a small portion of the very large new tax revenues generated by the project."

Subway May Go up to $3.00

Hey, you have to finance Billionaire Bruce Ratner's project some way. God knows he's not paying for the land himself....and what about the increased infrastructure costs that this project will create, will we pay for that, too, as with Coned's increased infrastructure costs?

Transit Authority May Hike Fare as Early as July

BY ANNIE KARNI - Special to the Sun
June 6, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/56009

A possible fare hike to be announced as early as July is angering straphangers and transit advocates, who say riders should not have to carry the burden of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's ballooning operating deficits.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Damn, Ann Coulter's funny (and poignant ) today

Ann Coulter was remarkably reticent about immigration, but seems to be making up for lost time: In a "Green Card In Every Pot" she writes:

Until the recipient culture is capable of doing an effective job of Americanizing immigrants, it's preposterous to talk about a massive influx of Hispanic immigrants accomplishing anything other than turning America into yet another Latin American-style banana republic. And it is simply a fact that no one is trying to turn immigrants into Americans.

To the contrary, Democrats are trying to turn new immigrants into wards of the state – and with some success! – so they will be permanent Democratic voters. Rich Republicans and their handmaidens in Washington are trying to turn immigrants into a permanent servant class.

--

To the contrary, immigrants are replacing American culture with Latin American culture. Their apparent constant need to demonstrate is just one example.

As Mac Johnson wrote in Human Events last year, these immigrant protests represent "the colonization of America by the Latin style of politics." He listed just some of the demonstrations drawing thousands – sometimes hundreds of thousands – of protesters over the last few years in Mexico alone. Among the targets of the protests were a new regional trade pact, plans to allow private investment in the state-owned electricity industry, energy and tax reforms, and support for the mayor of Mexico City.

In 1993 – long before 9-11, before the USS Cole bombing, before the bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania – the eminent Harvard political scientist Samuel P. Huntington predicted that the greatest threat to Western civilization would come from a clash of civilizations, noting with particular concern the "bloody borders" of the Muslim world.

So it ought to be of some interest that Huntington is now predicting, in his book "Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity," that America cannot survive the cultural onslaught from Latin America.

American Hispanics responded to Huntington's book with a flurry of scholarly papers and academic debates to counter his thesis that Mexicans were not assimilating.

Just kidding! They called for national protests against Huntington, his publisher and Harvard University.

Has Big Media Crossed The Line?

CNN has a story about the tragic stoning death of a young Iraqi woman here. Fair enough. However it also includes footage of the stoning. As mentioned earlier, I was both disgusted by seeing it, but strangely, curious to see it, and wondered, what compels human beings to see something that repulses them? What is our fascination with not only cruelty but tragedy as well?

In any event, I can see the a good reason for posting it - its one thing to hear about, another to see....and upon seeing it many people will be outraged enough to react to ensure that such behavior will not be tolerated. However, right before the video runs (warning/enticing the viewer they are about to see 'graphic' footage).....a commercial runs......I remember hearing sometime ago there was certain types of news that actually brought down ratings and thus, revenues, for media companies, and others (usually fluff) that increased it, and that this and feverish ratings competition has actually effected the content of the news. As we know from copy cat killers and other trends, what is reported as news often effects reality, whether the news is accurate or not.

But what if this barbarism becomes 'news' that actually enhances revenues? Are media companies unethical enough to encourage more of it?

Ooops, we lied again....

Guess you'll have to pay for it:

Con Ed cites AY as boosting electricity cost, but Final EIS passed

NY1 reported yesterday that Con Edison, in requesting the largest rate hike in its history, blamed, among other things, Atlantic Yards:
Con Ed came before a State Assembly committee to explain the rate hike. Officials argued Wednesday the system is strapped and that massive projects like the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn will burden the system even more.
They say the rate hike would cover improvements to handle energy needs, some of which have already been made, but have not been fully paid for by customers.



As with the other poorly planned aspects of this poorly planned project the inevitable flaw is this: Ratner/Forest City have NO liability for any failure. EVERYTHING must be absorbed by the government. This is what happens when irresponsible dishonest companies have easy access to the public coffers.

Did Forest City and the corrupt ESDC know that the project would cause insignificant rate hikes? If yes, then they were lying. If no, than they are remarkably incompetent. Either way, I don't want them building a major project in my neighborhood.

What's a Lie? What's the Truth?

Apparently FCR Lawyer Braun thinks it what you get away with. NoLandGrab reports:
Atlantic Yards Report

As if you're not already having trouble keeping all of the lawsuits straight, here's the news on the case Ratner's unsafe demolitions that shook residents from their beds as workers used a backhoe to knock the adjacent building down.

Readers will remember that the hearing for this bizarre episode featured Ratner's high-powered (read, "high-cost") attorney attempting to get Norman Oder barred from the hearing before trying to spilt hairs to get everyone off. [link]

For the demolition of 620 Pacific Street and 622 Pacific Street, the contractor had not applied for a mechanical demolition permit, which would not have been issued for 622 Pacific.

At a hard-fought hearing on 3/12/07, a lawyer representing Forest City Ratner acknowledged that the backhoe was used on 620 Pacific, which was adjacent to unoccupied buildings, but said there was no proof the backhoe was used to demolish 622 Pacific, adjacent to the occupied apartment building at 624 Pacific.

That lawyer, Jeffrey Braun, elicited testimony from a representative of Solomon Oliver Mechanical Contracting, who claimed that 622 Pacific was demolished only by hand. However, David Gochfeld, whose fiancee lives in 624 Pacific, took pictures that clearly showed the backhoe being used to demolish 620 Pacific and strongly indicated similar activity at 622 Pacific (photo right and above). A Department of Buildings inspector testified that the evidence backed up that claim, and Gochfeld offered eyewitness testimony.

Administrative Law Judge Helaine Balsam of the Environmental Control Board (ECB), the administrative tribunal that oversees violations issued by city agencies, apparently agreed with the latter arguments. According to notices posted on the ECB web site, she assessed $2000 fines for 620 Pacific, as expected, and also for 622 Pacific, the subject of the hearing.



Obviously Bruan knew this wasnt' true. Like the lies his boss Ratner throws out, they simply throw them out there, and if they stick, great, if not there is no consequence for them. We live in an age of lies, short term, greedy dishonest people like Ratner triumph, long term it means a steady erosion of society for all of us.

We ARE Different. ....The Stoning Death In Iraq.

I don't have cable or even a TV. But while doing my laundry I caught a CNN report on a stoning death in Iraq. Al-Jeezera reports:

Du'a Khalil Aswad, who was 17-years-old, was stoned to death on April 7, allegedly by members of her family during an "honour killing", according to local officials.

She was dragged half-naked into the street where a crowd gathered and a number of people filmed her death on mobile phones.

Footage of Aswad's death was later posted on the internet, where the videos showed what appeared to be uniformed members of a security force among the crowd.

I was shocked that CNN actually showed the video of the stoning. Shocked - and to my own disgust, I couldn't stop looking. Two thoughts came to my head. First, a deep sense of rage- and disgust. Who could do such a thing to a woman let alone a mere child of a woman?! What I have always known internally is true - the West, particularly Anglo-Saxon countries, have the greatest reverence for women, despite the ignorant spewing of radical feminists , Chivalry is ingrained in our culture to a degree like no other peoples.

We are different. Different as in better. Yes, our values are superior. (if you disagree with this and are here or any Anglo-Saxon country, please pack your things and get out, and then I will take your rants seriously) I didn't say perfect. I didn't say we have a right to go attacking/imposing our values...but on the other hand..... The people accusing us of various isms probably don't honestly believe what they accuse us of - (unless they are young people that are indoctrinated and woefully ignorant of history) but actually specifically criticize us because thy KNOW we are better and likely to be guilt tripped into doing whatever it is they want us to do (apologize for slavery - who ended it again! be ashamed of the founding of Jamestown, ect). The time has come to stop apologizing stop the guilt tripping, stop mass immigration or the scene shown around the internet will be around the corner. If you think this is an exaggeration - honor killings have already occurred in countries with mass middle-eastern/muslim immigration - notably the UK and Canada.

Point two: What kind of morons would start a war with such a people with the intent of bestowing on them the Anglo-Saxon practice of democracy? The stoning above was very democratic, enacted by the majority.

Who could be so blinded by theory? Neocons. As in the King-Neocon himself George Bush. As he has more than demonstrated this week not only does he not understand us, but he hates us.

Does ANYONE like George Bush anymore?

He lashed out at the last of his conservative base over immigration...even Ann Coulter is ripping into him:


A green card in every pot


Posted: May 30, 2007
5:49 p.m. Eastern

Americans – at least really stupid Americans like George Bush – believe the natural state of the world is to have individual self-determination, human rights, the rule of law and a robust democratic economy. On this view, most of the existing world and almost all of world history is a freakish aberration.

In fact, the natural state of the world is Darfur. The freakish aberration is America and the rest of the Anglo-Saxon world.

The British Empire once spread the culture of prosperity around the globe – Judeo-Christian values, tolerance, equality, private property and the rule of law. All recipients of the British Empire's largesse benefited, but the empire's most successful colony was the United States.

At the precise moment in history when the U.S. has abandoned any attempt to transmit Anglo-Saxon virtues to its own citizens, much less to immigrants, George Bush wants to grant citizenship to hordes of immigrants who are here precisely because they are fleeing cultures that are utterly dysfunctional and ruinous for the humans who live in them.



Which leads me to wonder WHY is Bush doing this? He knows it will trash what remains of the Republican party - immigrants overwhelmingly vote democrat - especially ones on the dole - so why? Lawrence Auster writes:

Prop. 187 as original sin: the founding myth of today's Republican party

As Heather MacDonald shows at National Review Online, Hispanics went from 25 percent of the California population in 1990 to 35 percent today, while whites went from 57 percent of the population to 43 percent today, and this massive demographic shift delivered that once solidly Republican state to the Democrats. But Jeb Bush and RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, writing in the Wall Street Journal, repeat the old saw that it was not the Hispanicization of California's population, but evil Proposition 187 (meaning those mean nativist Republicans who didn't want to give state services to illegal aliens), that drove hordes of otherwise Republican-leaning (!!!!) Hispanics away from the Republican party and thus delivered California to the Democrats. To be still blaming 187 for California's Democratic ascendancy while ignoring the massive fact of the state's racial transformation, these Republican bigwigs have to be living in an almost clinically pathological fantasy.

It is a fantasy born of liberalism. Liberalism says you can't make generalizations about people, or at least negative generalizations about nonwhite people. So the idea that Mestizos are a low-income, low-skill group and therefore are naturally prone to vote Democratic cannot be considered. The truth is right there, right in front of these Republicans' fat faces, but liberalism, enclosing their minds as in a layer of fat ("They are enclosed in their own fat," Ps. 17:10), tells them that the truth cannot be true. It is, as I said, almost a clinical divorce from reality.

Auster also points this out:

On another point, Coulter writes:

In an astonishing exchange on Fox News last weekend, Dan Henninger of the Wall Street Journal responded to Heather MacDonald’s point that Hispanics in this country have a 50 percent illegitimacy rate, the highest teen pregnancy rate of any group and the highest high school drop-out rate of any group, by asking: “Why don’t we feel we are under cultural assault in New York City? You have no sense of this at all here.”


The dishonesty of open borders fanatics never ceases to amaze me. And its a clear indicator they are clearly wrong about immigration. As with Atlantic Yards my rule of thumb applies - when one party has to lie and evade the truth and the other only wants the truth known its pretty easy to tell who is right and who is wrong. Unfortunately the main objective of the elite these days is to make sure the truth never gets known.

"Whites" are being displace (though increasingly Black Americans realize they are being displaced as well. Republicans are afraid of being identified as the 'white' party - but paradoxically the Democratic party has become the ethnic block party and if the mass immigration trend continues our country will look like the democratic convention - a group of minority blocks arguing and squabbling for their cut of the pie. Apparently its not racist for Linda Chavez to abandon republicans and side with her ethnic group and accuse Americans who oppose this very bad bill as 'racist', while on the other hand MSM implies that its 'racist' to object to being displaced by foreign immigrants in one's own country. This is where the madness of marxism has led us.