By now, you've heard all about the Kansas legislator who said it was a fine idea to hire gunmen to fly around in helicopters and shoot undocumented immigrants. Republican Virgil Peck made what he calls a "joke" during a public hearing on how to control the feral-pig population (like you, I was unaware that this was a huge problem in Kansas).
In any case, Peck has apologized for comparing immigrants to hogs, and while he was at it, for advocating that the state just start executing people it doesn't like.
Of course, Peck's comments are not in the smallest way indicative of the GOP's hatred for Hispanics. As conservatives are quick to point out, that is all a liberal-media myth, and the Republican Party truly loves Hispanics. After all, you only joke about slaughtering people like vermin if you really respect them.
To be fair, it can't be easy for Representative Peck. You see, he knows, on some subconscious level, that this is probably the high-water mark for anti-Latino sentiment in this country. His homey brand of racism just isn't going to fly much longer.
There are many reasons for this. Foremost is that Latinos are the fastest-growing demographic in America. As such, badmouthing Latinos for all the wrongs of this country won't resonate in the future, when so much of the audience will be brown-skinned. Along those lines, now that Hispanics are putting up such serious population numbers, our influence on American culture will only grow. And keep in mind that it's difficult to hate the exotic "other" when they've probably married into your family.
Still, perhaps Peck is in denial about the scary U.S. Census numbers. Even in that case, however, he must have noticed the fate of SB 1070. Conservatives originally regarded Arizona's law as the forefront of a wave of anti-immigrant legislation. Instead, it is looking more and more like an absurd overreach.
Witness that no other states have passed laws similar to Arizona's (with the exception of Utah's less-onerous version). And this failure has come despite the Republican push to strike while the iron was hot. If they cannot get forty-nine other little SB 1070s passed now, what are the odds that that they will get it done in the future?
Even Arizona itself is rethinking its lunatic stance on Latinos. The state's creators of SB 1070, who for some bizarre reason thought that people were clamoring for a sequel to their divisive legislation, recently introduced several new attacks on Hispanics (and upon the Constitution, while they were at it). But those bills all went down in flames.
In essence, individuals like Peck are breaking into icy sweats at the thought that they might not be the unquestioned masters of America for much longer. Why, it's getting to the point that they can't make an innocent joke about gunning down ethnic minorities without getting called on it (what's this country coming to?).
Peck's feeble attempt at humor lines up with the more overt shrieking of those conservatives who are terrified of Latinos, immigrants, undocumented people, or all three. They know that their mindset, once the default setting for the nation, is fading away.
It's the same reason why gay-marriage opponents are screaming more loudly than ever about banning Adam and Steve's wedding. They know that the younger generation doesn't share their biases. And that undeniable fact means that the old vision of America will soon be relegated to ignominy.
So perhaps we should encourage Peck to laugh it up while he can. After all, soon no one will care what he thinks.
BTW, Ronald Reagan give amnesty to illegals in 1986, for votes?
NOT WHAT HE SAID.
Now read the quote I copied from the paper here and the actual quote. Not saying what he said was excusable but it is not what is being reported. The words in parentheses are Implied...but not said.
"Looks like to me, if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works, maybe we have found a (solution) to our illegal immigration problem," Peck said.
Now where does it say, "fine Idea to hire gunmen"
I'm an immigrant, so conservatives must be terrified of me...who knew? I certainly didn't.
The undocumented? Who are the undocumented? I thought they all had fake or stolen IDs.
What never ceases to amaze me is how Republicans, who can't ever seem to attract ANY significant minority voters of ANY group, try so hard to convince minorities that many of their policies aren't targeted at racial minorities to cater to their bigoted majority white base. I mean it would be laughable at this point if it wasn't so pathetic how many try to act like race has nothing to do with anything in this country, let alone politics.
The Republican Party is not going to last at the rate it's going. It might be another 6 years, or 10 years, or 20 years but being the party of aggrieved racists will not be able to make steady gains in a country where pretty much every ethnic minority population is rising while the majority's is steadily falling.
Low skilled Americans are losing jobs to employers who advertise that the unemployed need not apply. Low skilled Americans are losing jobs to Republicans who admittedly care more about catering to their base than protecting jobs and raising our GDP. Low skilled Americans are losing jobs to conservatives who want to bust Unions nationwide.
Maybe you should stop and think about it for a minute. I'm not saying illegal immigration doesn't come with it's fair share of problems. But maybe you conservatives need to look to your own with many of the job problems in this country instead of the scary brown people from south of the border.
Senator Robert Byrd (D)
Just because I want something done about all the illegal immigrants in this country does not mean I am at all racist. About once a week I read stories about a crime being commited by an illegal immigrant and that they have fled back to their home country to avoid being charged. Wanting a stop of that makes me racist how? Why does wanting our government to actually enforce existing laws make me racist?
So many people to bully, so little time.
Why don't I ever hear the same vitriol aimed at the "ILLEGAL" bussniess owners enticing Hispanics here, with jobs?
What do you call this from the USA Law and USA Law Dictionary?
Law Dictionary
"illegal"
"2) status of a person residing in a country of which he is not a citizen and who has no official permission to be there."
http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=892
"alien"
"1) n. a person who is not a citizen of the country. 2) There are resident aliens officially permitted to live in the country and illegal aliens who have sneaked into the country or stayed beyond the time allowed on a visa."
http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=2382
"illegal immigrant"
"n. an alien (non-citizen) who has entered the United States without government permission or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa."
http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=893
Library of Congress in the year 1790
"alien" CHAP III Section 1.
located at lower portion of page.
Where it begins ""Chap. III. -- An act to establish an Uniform Rule of Naturalization"
http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=001/llsl001.db&recNum=226
That person also actually took issue with an accurate and honest description of the people - wow! When someone clearly has a problem with honesty, it's easy to see how they could continue to make excuses for lawbreaking foreign nationals. Good grief.
The only thing I can glean from that sentence is that he thinks that because Hispanics may (or may not depending on whether immigration continues at our historic record levels and whether or not he can get an EIGHTH amnesty through) be larger in percentages then they are now we MUST capulate to their every need, whim and desire as a group.
Never mind if it is in THIS countries best interests or the best interests of the majority of citizens if they will have the numbers in the future we should just cave - is that right?
I guess we should ignore the shrinking natural resources, pollution, the fact that immigrants (once here) have a 4-7 times impact on the world or that we are already slated to hit 600 million THIS century.
We must have more people. More resource using bodies. More mouths to feed and water. More pand paved over for strip malls. MORE MORE MORE!
Let's challenge the convenient notion that "over-consumers" in rich countries can blame "over-breeders" in distant lands.
The United States always gets singled out. But for good reason: It is the world's largest consumer. Americans take the greatest share of most of the world's major commodities: corn, coffee, copper, lead, zinc, aluminum, rubber, oil seeds, oil, and natural gas. For many others, Americans are the largest per-capita consumers. In "super-size-me" land, Americans gobble up more than 120 kilograms of meat a year per person, compared to just 6 kilos in India, for instance.
Even if we could today achieve zero population growth, that would barely touch the climate problem -- where we need to cut emissions by 50 to 80 percent by mid-century. Given existing income inequalities, it is inescapable that overconsumption by the rich few is the key problem, rather than overpopulation of the poor many.
http://www.alternet.org/environment/136449/consumption%2C_not_population_is_our_main_environmental_threat/?page=entire
But to cut back on our consumption there is a steep price in quality of life. We can all do little things to cut back but even if we all make a 10% per year cut back on many things there are others that we can't cut back on.
Let me ask you a few questions about India for example - since YOU brought them up.
1. Would YOU be willing to go without a bath for a week or more as they commonly do in India?
2. Would YOU be willing to only eat about 12 pounds of meat a week as you say they do in India?
3. Would YOU be willing to live with open canals for human waste as they do in India?
4. Would YOU be willing to live with the high levels of humanity all around you at all times with no open spaces and no hunting, fishing, birdwatching, fresh air, etc like they have in India?
5. Would YOU be willing to go without heating your home (since India is much warmer then most of the US we will have to use our imagination how life will be like with very limited supplies of energy) like India?
6. Would YOU want to live like that?
If you have no problems with those things then by all means move to India. I prefer our quality of life we have here.