Authorities are devoting more time and money to identify illegal immigrants in the Los Angeles County jail. The Sheriff's Department is using $500,000 to expand inmate screening and increase the number of staff who conduct interviews from eight to 13.

In recent years, more than 10,000 inmates at the jail have been referred to federal authorities for possible deportation.

I receive at least one chain email per week. Many seem pretty harmless, if you don’t buy into a caveat like Forward this to at least ten others, or you, your children & children’s children will be cursed with bad luck. Of course, I always break the chain, and I’m still alive (and doing very well). Other emails are not so harmless; like accusations that Obama is a Muslim and refused to place his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance (Yes, both of these are still alive and well, thank you). These types of provocative emails always receive a response from me.

This new poll by Arizona State University's Institute for Social Science Research was in an AP article today.  According to that article:

TEMPE, Ariz. — A new poll finds that illegal immigration registers as a serious problem for a strong majority of people living in four Southwestern states.

The poll by Arizona State University's Institute for Social Science Research found that 58 percent of the people polled in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Nevada believe illegal immigration is a very serious problem, while another 27 percent believe it's a somewhat serious problem.

Nine percent say it's not too serious of a problem. Five percent say it's not a problem at all.

The telephone poll of 1,013 adults was taken from Nov. 6 to Dec. 19 and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

I encourage you to review the full poll.  Comments?

one simple answer:  we wait.

Several states, Texas, Arkansas, Florida have been toying with "new and improved" rules to sanction employers and to make sure that no immigrant can ever start the  any process to integrate him/herself into our "legal" society.
Some state legislators, and some in the US congress are actually trying to change the constitution to the extent that it grants a child born here automatic citizenship.

There were a few efforts to deal rationally with immigration. New York proposed doing a check on each applicant, when they applied for driver's licenses. This would have killed three stones with one bird: it would have provided the authorities of the illegal immigrant's residence; it would have provided a mechanism to deal with accidents and someone's negligence (and would require uninsured immigrants to buy auto insurance); and lastly, it would give the state an opportunity to cull out the most violent criminals with background checks.

My catch phrase:  This will be a short diary.

I grew up in a great neighborhood.  A subdivision built between 1968 and 1971 - before developers realized how much money they could make if they filled the entire subdivision with houses.  My subdivision has a world class elementary school smack dab in the middle of it.  We have six different parks, with baseball diamonds, swingsets, slides, monkey bars, and other rides.  We have bike paths all throughout, connecting all six parks.  There are forests of trees to climb.  We even built a tree fort in the forest when I was a kid.  There were Fourth of July parties with firetrucks leading children in bike parades, dunking booths, moon walks, face painting, free food and drink etc.  There were enchanted forest hikes before Halloween, and lots of other good stuff throughout the year.

I recently moved back into my old subdivision, to give my son the same quality of life I had.

So far, its been great.  Nowadays, we even have a Google group for subdivision residents to email each other about missing car keys, the wild turkey people have been sighting at different times, etc.

Today, I got an interesting email from the Google group.  Follow me over the fold to see what's going on in Suburbia.

This could be the deciding issue in Iowa among Democratic voters. What is the government going to do about illegal immigration? It doesn't seem like any of the leading Democratic candidates have articulated a solid position on the issue.

Who can they blame next for the sad state of our infrastructure? How about the undefensible: Pigeons!

If you are to believe the latest news about the MN bridge collapse here... and here.... Let's blame pigeons and their crap. All that pigeon poop is, according to the burocrats, "highly acidic" after it dries. When it mixes with H20 in the air or rain, it creates a chemical reaction leaving a residue equivalent to salt and its corrosive properties. Though the explanation kinda of makes sense it still doesn't excuse the years of neglect. (Please read whole diary before voting...)

By now, the word's been around that Mitt Romney's 5 sons are all of age to serve nobly in combat serving in the American military but all seem to have other priorities than to fight in a War that their father backs 100%.

However, despite all of the criticism from the left and some quarters of the right for the apparent hypocrisy of Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben and Craig, it would seem they're only being consistent.  They simply don't seem to enjoy any kind of service unless it's hamming it up for dear old Dad on the campaign trail.

Here are the dots I'm connecting...

Really, there is hope in Oklahoma. Yeah, Yeah, we elected Inhofe and Coburn, but there are people down here who think for themselves. I saw it today on the "Letters to the Editor" page of our weekly rag. It was titled "Illegal a lot like Okie".

Illegal aliens are not, generally, depraved people who illegally cross borders because they have no respect for laws; they are ordinary people driven by the radical disruptions caused by global capitalism.

They come for work, so they can survive; their jobs or farms have disappeared, or been taken from them; for many there are no other alternatives to starving. If you think "free" trade is a good thing, well...

Crossposted from Town Called Dobson


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There is a house bill that is pending before the Texas State legislature, HB 28, relating to the eligibility of persons born in Texas whose parents are illegal aliens to receive State benefits.  The targets of this bill are children born to the illegal alien while in this country  

The bill is so offensive on so many levels that it is difficult to know where to begin. The HB28 denies benefits such as housing, food stamps, employment, unemployment and retirement benefits,and specifically prohibits health care and education in any public institution, from Pre-K through university.  These children are United States citizens.

Crossposted from Town Called Dobson


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I live in the Tampa Bay area in Florida where there is a very high Hispanic population.  I have always had a high regard for the Hispanics as they have been a very productive, hard working and law abiding group of citizens.

With the Republican scandals, ineptitudes and cover-ups thereof seemingly coming to light almost exponentially lately and the latest polls reflecting support declining to a point that is at best a few percentage points above the right-wingers' automatonic base, one can sense a level of giddiness setting in that perhaps our country at long last may be close to waking up from its tactical, political, constitutional and moral stupor.

Not so fast.

So, I get this email from a girl I went to college with a 20 yrs. ago...

And I shot back. I usually dismiss these things but I'm fed up with these small-minded assholes.

The email and my response below:

This may be just one a-hole redneck but it's already causing the town of Farmer's Branch (a suburb of Dallas) a lot of embarassment. From the Dallas Morning News:

Illegal immigrants are responsible for much of what's wrong with Farmers Branch, says City Council member Tim O'Hare.
So he proposes making it harder for illegal immigrants to live and work in the city.
Today, the City Council will discuss possible ways to do that, including prohibiting landlords from leasing to illegal immigrants, penalizing businesses that employ them, making English the city's official language and ceasing publication of any documents in Spanish, and eliminating subsidies for illegal immigrants in the city's youth programs.

That isn't enough; there's more.

The Bush administration has established a track record of non-support for working men and women in this country.  With the latest move by Bush's Labor Relations Board to redefine the word "supervisor," they continue a slash and burn policy toward unions and labor in general.

Coming from, supported by, and supporting of the "silver spoon" set, this administration has done nothing to stem the flood of illegal aliens that wash up from Mexico and who DO take jobs from unskilled American citizens.  Why didn't George W. Bush care about this issue until the electorate became literally up in arms over it?

Unskilled Americans aren't finding jobs because employers have filled local shops with illegals.  Illegals are exploited, willingly so, because the alternative for them is worse.  Everyone's a loser here except the Bush base.