Huckabee vs. Nation of Laws

For the record, Mike has been one of my top two preferred candidates. He has been growing on me as he has been growing in the polls. (You can guess who my other favorite is.:))

Besides being drawn to a candidate who is conservative, demonstrably moral, a lucid speaker with good presence and a quick wit, I need someone who recognizes the stupidity of flaunting our immigration laws.

Two events occurred today that shook my confidence in Huck:

1) His terrible record on enforcing immigration laws while governor of Arkansas was revealed – see here, and
2) I listened to his interview on the Sean Hannity show this afternoon where he justified the actions of illegal aliens.

This is the way the interview went: Sean was debating Mike on the need to enforce our immigration laws. Mike played the “poor victim” card in defending the actions of aliens entering this country illegally when he said, "...if I needed to feed my family, I'd do the same thing..."

This was a dumb as s--- response on two levels:

1) He is assuming most illegals enter this country because their families back in Mexico are “starving”. More accurately, they sneak into this country to take advantage of our largess and pitiful law enforcement to enhance their standard of living. It is doubtful starvation has anything to do with their reason for being here in most cases.

2) He justifies breaking the law on flimsy grounds. There is nothing wrong with an individual working to enhance his standard of living. But is “enhancing your standard of living” justification for breaking the law? Is “feeding your family” even a basis for law breaking? Can you imagine the anarchy that would prevail if we all practiced what Mike preaches? Don’t we all want to enhance our standard of living. Let’s see, which law is easiest to break without folks doing anything about it? Oh, I forgot. They really won’t do anything about it because they feel sorry for me – they might even think I’m starving when I’m not.

If Huckabee was portrayed as a “conservative” up to this point, his sentiments here sure destroy that myth. His attitude amply demonstrates liberal values:

- Assume people are starving even when they aren’t
- Assume we need to help them, even if there are other ways for them to be self-sufficient
- Just about anything justifies flaunting our laws.

For a plain ‘ol US citizen to justify ignoring our laws is bad enough. But for a Presidential candidate to justify law-breaking at the same time he proposes to lead “a nation of laws” is insane. Anarchy, anyone?

I Am So Mistaken - Nation of Laws: NOT

Our US Congress' dumbfounding reaction to the FBI's legal search and seizure of evidence from William Jefferson's office reveals a fatal flaw in my previous posts: I'm understanding now that we are not really a nation of laws. I claimed we were. I thought we were. But there is just too much evidence piling up that proves the contrary. My beliefs are based on an out-dated and wishful notion of our country's ethical standards.

The congressional call to return this evidence in the name of "separation of powers", along with the Senate's stupifying amnesty legislation leads me to these conclusions:

• Congress does not give a damn about laws or the enforcement thereof
• They are concerned more about their own welfare
• As an institution, they are self-serving to the detriment of this nation

One of my pet peeves at any level of government is the establishment of laws for appearances sake, to satiate the complainers, with no resources or real intention to enforce the laws. To me, that is not just politics and "political correctness", but simple dishonesty and fraud.

This congressional call to defend their fellow criminal in the name of "separation of powers" reveals to me why these same self-serving SOBs (save our butts) don't care about enforcing our current immigration laws. There is too much in it for them. There's too many corporate contributions to be had. The laws be damned.

Immigration and the Catholic Church

This http://www.ptdiocese.org/Sites/Org1/Uploads/I000987.pdf links to a letter from a Bishop of a Catholic archdiocese in the Florida Panhandle. The Bishop urges his parishioners not to be concerned about immigration law. The Bishop is a great and well-respected man in his field. I believe his error is in being out of his field in this letter. I quote his letter below and provide my reaction to a number of his erroneous, patronizing, condescending, or otherwise outrageous remarks in [brackets] in blue:
________________

"My Dear Friends in Christ,

We celebrate today the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ who laid down his life out of love and compassion for the human family. As followers of Christ, who are called to build a world based on justice and love, [read on to see his convoluted use of the word "justice"] I call to your attention today the plight of the immigrants in our midst. [The immigrants don't have the plight; the illegal aliens do. The Bishop fails to recognize this essential difference. A thief has a "plight", the honest person does not. The Bishop needs to get histerminologyy correct before he can realize that he is proposing to reward bad behavior.]

Today in our country and our state [Florida], we are facing the reality of some 11-12 million people living in our country without proper legal status. ["without proper legal status" is a softball phrase for "illegal aliens disrespecting and ignoring the laws of this nation."] Many people of good will analyze this situation merely from a legalistic ethic [meaning "we are too law abiding for our own good"] if people do not have legal status they should not be here. [This is true, isn't it? Why is he having difficulty understanding this simple concept?]

The Church has always taught respect for the law [the Catholic Church in California obviously does not hold this basic Christian and American tenet - see this site: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/neumayr200604120719.asp ] , and honors the sovereign right of countries to protect their borders, but the Church has also taught that we have a moral obligation to work to change unjust laws [I've asked him to explain what is unjust about our immigration laws, aside from the fact that they are not being enforced] and to have the faith to protect ourselves without closing our doors to the needy in our world. [There is a big difference between opening our doors to a limited number of "huddled masses yearning to be free" and a "thronging hoard of protesters demanding rights they have not earned and to which they are not entitled!"] In keeping with the teaching of the last judgment (Matthew 25:1-46), we judge the morality of a nationÂ’s laws by how they treat the least among us, including by whether or not we welcome the strangers among us. [True - but don't we have a right to distinguish between those who disregard our laws athosehos who respect them? Where is the "justice?"]

The current immigration system is profoundly broken, separates families and facilitates exploitation. [What's broken about our immigration system is the lack of enforcement! The "separation familiesies and exploitation" is caused by those who choose to enter this country illegally. Don't blame enforcement, Bishop. You seem to have things a bit backwards.]

The Church knows this from our daily pastoral experience. We minister to people defrauded or cheated by people who know the workers cannot complain to authorities. [Wow. Isn't it a rather universal fear of lawbreakers to complain to authorities?] We work with families where spouses are separated for as much as ten years, while they await the legal process to get a green card. We work with honors students who have lived here most of their lives but who have no future after high school, because they do not have proper documents. [This is what I appreciate about the Gospel...it clearly teaches the need for personal responsibility, obedience to laws, and the concept of consequences for our actions. Doesn't it seem right and just that those who tap dance around, flaunt, and ourright ignore the laws of a nation they have no right to be in that there may be some unpleasant consequences?] In the worst cases, we see the human trafficking that occurs when smugglers can make great profit doing what the law does not allow poor people to do easily: to migrate in order to help feed their families. [Would it be more just and fair if only wealthy illegals were smuggled in?] We know the fear, violence, and victimization that occur in a system in which legal avenues are not available for matching willing workers to willing employers for many of Florida's key industries. [Sounds like drug trafficking - if there is a willing seller and willing buyer, who cares what the law allows or prohibits! Hello - it's illegal! And yes, there is a reason for limits: It is destructive to our nation to have unassimilatable numbers of people from any nation.]

I ask all Catholics in our diocese to become informed about the moral imperative for just and
comprehensive immigration reform. [I would suggest the Bishop is uninformed. He needs American history and government lessons.] I urge all people of good will to put aside the myths and misinformation that keep us from hearing our brother and sister immigrants cries for justice. [Here is that misused "justice" word again. "Cries for justice" would mean deportation with a fine."] Please refer to the diocesan website at www.ptdiocese.org and click on the reference to immigration reform which examines economic, social and political and references the texts of Scripture and Catholic social teaching that call each of us to action.

I pray that you and your families will enjoy the blessings of Easter and I am grateful to you for
the opportunity to bring this to your kind attention.

Sincerely in Christ,
Most Reverend John H. Ricard, SSJ
Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee
_____________

My reply to the Bishop is provided below:

Bishop Picard:

I am writing in response to your letter concerning immigration reform. You asked us to become informed about "the moral imperative for just and comprehensive immigration reform." You referred to the "11-12 million people living in our country without proper legal status..." and urged "all people of goodwill to put aside the myths and misinformation that keeps us from hearing our brother and sister immigrants' cries for justice."

There are some crucial aspects of the illegal alien issue that are being confused or misrepresented in your letter and on your web site.

First, your reference to the word "justice" is confusing. "Justice." Isn't that a term of law? I haven't heard cries for justice" from illegal aliens. Justice means paying the consequences for breaking a law. If the illegal aliens were crying for justice they would be asking for the penalty of the laws they are breaking to be imposed on them and that would be deportation. I trust that is not what you meant. Consequently, what you are suggesting by the term justice in this context is misleading and confusing.

The major theme of your letter and the website is "Justice for Immigrants." This infers that our current immigration laws are unjust. On what basis do you make that claim? How are they unjust? Are you advocating ignoring or violating the law because you feel it is unjust? There are millions of other American citizens who believe these laws are just and necessary. And we have a two-hundred year old process in place for amending our laws if they need to be changed. We don't simply ignore and violate them! I was appalled to hear the Cardinal in California urge his Priests and Bishops to rebel against (disobey) any law that sought to bring order to our "out of control" immigration policies. That should make any Christian cringe!

This nation did not impose an improper legal status on the illegal aliens. They imposed it on themselves as a result of the own actions. They chose to do what they did, and expended a great deal of energy doing it. It was no accident on their part. How does that make the citizens of this nation "unjust.?"

Second, as a grandson of four immigrants who came to this country legally and with an enthusiastic desire to obey the laws of the land and to assimilate into the culture of this nation, I take offense at lumping "illegal aliens" in the same category as "immigrants." The term "immigrant", by definition, presumes that they are legal and abide by all laws that establish their immigrant status. I sincerely caution you to not discount these distinctions. They are essential. Your web site and your letter disingenuously ignore the crucially important distinction between "illegal alien" (which the 11 to 12 million people are) and "immigrants", which the 11 to 12 million ARE NOT.

This distinction is no small matter. It is dangerous to trivialize the law, fostering disrespect for the law which ultimately brings anarchy and chaos. I take exception to being labeled "legalistic" just because I believe in respecting and obeying the law. And yes, I do expect others to obey the law. We are a nation of laws. Your article sounds as though you take the "rule of law", which is the basis of our successful self-governance in this nation, lightly. Please do not dismiss the importance of this aspect of our culture.

I reviewed your web site and could not find the scriptural references your letter mentioned. However, what I do remember from my own studies is that Jesus taught us to give to Caesar what is Caesar's and gave his life to fulfill the law. His disciples and Paul urged others to be obedient to their government and all its laws. I don't mean to emphasize one aspect of scripture over another - immigration policy is not a simple matter of law versus grace. But the law should not be dismissed as offhandedly as you appear to do.

And finally, there appears to be a world of difference between the attitudes of most of the illegal aliens and the immigrants of the previous 200 years. The facts appear to point out these differences, overall, and I know there are exceptions:

• Illegal aliens are lawbreakers; the immigrants were law abiders
  
• Illegal aliens are resisting assimilation; the immigrants desired assimilation
  
• Illegal aliens are demanding the rights of citizenship; the immigrants earned the rights of citizenship
  
• Illegal aliens are demanding that this nation adapt to their language; the immigrants learned English
  
• Illegal aliens are overwhelming our social services infrastructure; immigrants contributed toward it
• Illegal aliens are doing all the things that gain the disrespect of citizens (ignoring laws, demanding rights that they have not earned); immigrants worked hard to gain respect
  

Neither the church nor this nation should become the enabler and encourager of civil disobedience and presumptious demands that are widely being demonstrated by the illegal aliens and their sympathizers. Rewarding bad behavior is a bad idea. Our borders need to be respected through effective enforcement measures, both at the border and through appropriate disincentives for those employers who hire illegals. Only then will effective immigration reform have any impact. Perhaps the church could do more to provide resources and ethics training to the citizens of Mexico (the ethics part they sorely based on my understanding of the rampant corruption in Mexico), and English training in this country to facilitate assimilation.

We need immigration reform. But we cannot confuse "reform" with lack of enforcement, with "open borders" and with destabilizingly high immigration limits that make meaningful assimilation nearly impossible. As liberal as our nation has become with regard to tolerating just about anything, there remains a passion for equity and justice. If we are expected to abide by the laws of the land, we expect others to do the same. If our grandparents were expected to abide by the immigration laws of the land, we expect the illegal aliens to do the same. There is a visceral, righteous, and justified indignation when this does not happen.

Sincerely,

_________________

The State of Georgia has taken the initiative - see this link: http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2006/04/17/daily8.html

TO: President & Congress; RE: Illegal immigration

As a citizen of the United States, and as the grandson of LEGAL immigrants, I appeal to you to respect our nation’s borders, heritage, culture, and laws by doing the following with all due haste:

• Deport all illegal aliens (proactively enforce existing legislation or pass additional legislation, if necessary)
• Prosecute any individual, institution, or business that harbors illegal aliens
• Pass legislation that makes English the official language of this nation
• Secure our borders by whatever means that will be effective whether via fences, walls, technology, or personnel, military or otherwise
• Ignore the corporate greed that drives this nations lust for cheap labor over the rule of law and security of our borders.
• Devote the fiscal resources necessary to accomplish these things.

I consider the current, abhorant immigration policies of this nation a personal affront to the integrity, diligence, and patriotism of my ancestors. It makes a mockery of our laws and threatens our nation's survival.

I voted republican in the past two elections. I will not hesitate to vote for whichever individuals will aggressively pursue this agenda and I will join forces and expend resources to encourage others to do the same.

Wakeup Call - Cheap Labor Part III

Will images like this make you more or less likely to support the President’s proposed “Guest Worker” (amnesty) program?
Will images like this make Congress more or less likely to pass the President’s proposed “Guest Worker” (cheap labor at any price) program.

What if you also understood that a great number of these people, if not the majority, are in this country illegally? Further, what if you knew that a great number of them, if not the majority, have their allegience more with our "neighbor" (as corrupt as it may be) to the south more than to the country that allows them the privledge to demonstrate?
See also http://www.michellemalkin.com/ Scroll down to the heading there titled “WELCOME TO RECONQUISTA” The message is clear that many thousands of these people believe the southwestern United States still belongs to Mexico and they intend to make it so.

Call me “old fashion”, but I would consider this to be quite distastefully similar to a group of whatever nationality coming into my living room without invitation, in fact, after breaking in, and making demands of me and my family.

Why should this be tolerated? Why shouldn't every one of these lawbreakers be deported to where they came from?

We know the answer, don't we. There are a things held in higher esteem by our nation than our laws. Corporate greed for cheap labor, our collective aversion to performing our own labor, and our lust for cheap consumer goods all are held in higher esteem than our laws.

For the past two years I ranted and warned about the dangers of the growing influence of Islam and its facist tendencies. These demonstrations by these illegals and their sympathizers deserve as much attention because they pose an equal threat to our nation's stability.

What poses an even greater threat to the nation is the very idea that we are no longer a nation of laws and we no longer pride ourselves as a nation worthy of preserving and defending. Even the Catholic Church is in the act - they are a proponent of ignoring our laws. Cardinal Roger Mahoney is directing his Bishops and Priests to shelter all immigrants, both legal and illegal. He is urging that our immigration laws be ignored in the name of Christianity. The last I read the Bible, Jesus would do no such thing. In fact, Christians are urged to abide by the laws of the land. See this site http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/oreilly030606.asp for an excellent discussion of the ideocy of the Catholic leaders in promoting this insurrection.

Lou Dobbs of CNN has an enlightened understanding of the issue in the following article titled "U.S. policy on immigration is a tragic joke" at this site
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/0828dobbs0828.html

He concludes by affirming that "Reform begins with the truth. And our elected officials must begin to recognize the reality that a war on terror and war on drugs can be won only by securing our borders and that any reform of our immigration policies must begin first at the front line of the crisis: our border with Mexico."

I'll end this with an admonition spoken by a former president:

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...

There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

--Theodore Roosevelt, 1919

A nation that loses respect for its laws... a nation that loses respect for its culture and has no control over its borders, and allows its' infiltrators to run rampant in protest against their host nation is in fact a nation in deep trouble. We have lost control of ourselves. We are more and more a nation divided. How long will it stand?