•   •   •  

Shi'ites gather for bloody Ashura ritual   [1/08/09]
It's the time of year for Islam's do-it-yourself slasher-fest, namely Ashura, a ritual to observe the death of Imam Hussein. Children are encouraged to cut themselves, and even little babies get sliced by the loving parents.

The link above is a pretty mild collection of Ashura pix. Atlas has the goriest -- whacked out, these Religion of Peace types.

•   •   •  

Shortage of Scientists?   [1/08/09]
Universities and corporations are constantly complaining that there are not enough American scientists and tech workers, and therefore they need lots of immigrants. Bill Gates has demanded unlimited foreign workers. However, the need for such cheap skilled workers is non-existent, since there are enough Americans for the jobs.

Here's the transcript from Jan 7 that matches up with the video above, edited down a little.

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This fact from the National Science Foundation highlights a serious problem. "The number of foreign post-docs has increased by 52 percent since 1996, whereas the number of U.S. citizen and permanent resident post-docs has grown by nine percent."
    The conventional wisdom is that that data shows a shortage of scientists and a dire need to bring in as many foreign scientists on H-1B visas as we can. Science professionals see it very differently. Beryl Benderly writes a monthly column for science careers on science labor force issues.
    BERYL LIEFF BENDERLY, SCIENCE CAREERS COLUMNIST: There is no shortage of people. There are thousands of people who cannot find careers as scientists after they've been through years of training. [See her recent article Taken for Granted: Brother, Can You Spare a Temporary Worker Visa?]
    TUCKER: Studies from the Urban Institute, the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation all agree, the United States produces more scientists annually than science jobs. There is no shortage reflected in the pay they receive either. Ellis Research Services (ph), which has been doing wage studies in the science and engineering fields for 20 years, has consistently found pay for scientists to be in line with or lower than the average for all fields.
    RON HIRA, ROCHESTER INST. OF TECHNOLOGY: There's no premium to these careers, and at the same time, what's happened is that there's been an increase in the risk to those workers, right, as employers cut, for example, benefits, as employers start to look to move work overseas, and a lot of science positions are vulnerable to being moved overseas.
    TUCKER: In other words, there's a disincentive for choosing a career in science.
    PROF. NORM MATLOFF, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: The first thing the Obama people should do is take a hard look. Ignore the PR and take a hard look at what's really going on in terms of wages and job opportunities and science today.
    TUCKER: There are winners. Just not the scientists.
    (END VIDEOTAPE)
    TUCKER: A typical post-doc in their early 30s, after years of school, earning a PhD will earn about 35,000, maybe $40,000 a year in a research position. Helping keep those wages low, the fact that research institutions have unlimited access to H-1B visas. And according to Ron Hira, some 60 percent of post-docs are foreign students, Lou, here on guest worker visas.
    DOBBS: I'm not sure I quite understand this. You're telling us that a person with a doctorate in this country, roughly 30 years of age, late 30s...
    TUCKER: Right.
    DOBBS: ... early 30s -- I mean late 20s, early 30s is making just about the same as the median household income in this country?
    TUCKER: They're making about 35 or $40,000 a year, after all of those years of schooling... [...]
    DOBBS: Why would it not occur to geniuses like Bill Gates, who's had the temerityi to stand in front of Congress and demand an infinite number of H-1B visas, why would it not occur to such a genius as Bill Gates and others in corporate America and in academia to perhaps offer greater pay for higher education in corporate America? TUCKER: Well I can't speak for them, but they're the ones who benefit from the lower wages, Lou, so I would imagine they're acting as they would say in their own self-interest.
    DOBBS: Well a horrible -- a horrible construction of self-interest, denying an incentive for people to move into those jobs and give them a living wage, outrageous. (CROSSTALK)
    DOBBS: And I really would love to hear from the Chamber of Commerce -- the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable. We invite you to come here and demonstrate to us the error of our ways because you've been among those, Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, and Bill Gates, I want to invite you too, Bill, because you and I have known each other a long time and you know I'm a straight shooter and I know that you can be when you're wrestled to the ground.
    So why don't you come here and we'll talk about what's really going on, and how the American interest and American middle class workers can best be served. Because it looks like, frankly, folks, you're doing the nation a great disservice by distorting what is happening in this country for higher education, graduates, particular post-docs in corporate America.
    Well there are right now 23 guest worker programs. By the way, I know you're one of those people, I'll bet you, who like me has listened to the president say we've got to have a guest worker program. Well, let me repeat that number. We keep trying to keep -- to figure out how many there are. And the number right now is just 23 guest worker programs.
    So, Mr. President, I know you only got a couple of weeks left, a little less than that, but I want you to hear me loud and clear. As you've been going around the country saying this nonsense, there are 23 guest worker programs, folks. Foreign workers enter here under an alphabet soup of different visas in those guest worker programs.
    In addition to the H visas there are also the E, the G, the I, the O, the P and there's an R-visa as well. There's also a visa for workers covered under NAFTA. In total, almost 810,000 foreign worker visas were issued in 2007. H-visas accounting for more than 400,000 of those workers and eight of the top 20 companies requesting H-1B visas last year -- are you ready -- those American companies looking for that skilled talent that Bill Gates talked about and the Chamber of Commerce wants, well, eight of the top 20 -- that's right, they were based in India. They were outsourcing jobs. Just thought we'd bring that to your attention as well, Mr. Gates.

•   •   •  

It's a boy! Asian immigrants use medical technology to satisfy age-old desire: a son   [1/07/09]
Do immigrants retain their cultural misogyny when they relocate to egalitarian America? You betcha.
    Throughout Asia and the Middle East, sons are valued, while daughters are often unwanted. Baby girls may be killed, thrown in the trash (as commonly occurs in China) or aborted as a result of prenatal scanning -- a medical technology that was developed to improve the health of mother and child.
    India made sex-selection abortion illegal a decade ago, to little effect. The estimates of missing females range from 10 million over 20 years to a total of 50 million. China's 2000 census found 19 million more boys than girls in the under-15 cohort. Social pathology had followed this imbalance: some desperate bachelors have turned to kidnapping to procure a wife. Chinese police freed more than 42,000 kidnapped women and children from 2001 to 2003. Increased immigration is another strategy of men anxious to get married.

Researchers are finding the first evidence that some Asian immigrant families are using U.S. medical technology to have sons instead of daughters, apparently acting on an age-old cultural prejudice that has led to high ratios of boys to girls in parts of China and India.
    The new research, produced by independent teams of economists who arrived at similar conclusions, focused on Indian, Chinese and Korean families who first had girls and then used modern technology to have a son. With birth records in Santa Clara County showing that Asian mothers are more likely to give birth to sons than white or Latino mothers are, the new data could reawaken a local controversy. Some local South Asian women have pressured local Indo-American newspapers and magazines in recent years to stop running ads for medical procedures that offer prospective parents the promise of a son.
    For some South Asian couples, having a boy is a "status symbol," said Deepka Lalwani of Milpitas, the founder and president of Indian Business & Professional Women, a nonprofit business support network. "If a woman has male children, she feels in her family, certainly with her in-laws, that her status will go up because now she is the mother of a male child."
    Such cultural pressures may explain the recent findings. A Columbia University study suggests that Chinese, Indian and Korean immigrants have been using medical technology, most likely including abortion, to assure their later children were boys. And a soon-to-be published analysis of birth records by a University of Texas economist estimates there were 2,000 "missing girls" between 1991 and 2004 among immigrant families from China and India living in the U.S. Ñ children never born because their parents chose to have sons instead.

In Britain, the symptoms are the same: UK Indian women 'aborting girls'.
    After a century of progress in the area of women's equality in the West, welcoming immigrants from misogynist cultures may well reverse that trend.

See also
•  Sex Selection Alive and Well in South Asian Immigrant Communities in the U.S.
•  Clinics' Pitch to Indian ƒmigrŽs: It's a Boy
•  In China's Countryside, 'It's a Boy!' Too Often

See the VDARE.com version: Chinese and Indian Immigrants Import Anti-Daughter Diversity.

•   •   •  

Reid And McCain Working On Amnesty   [1/06/09]
The open-borders amnesty lovers of the Senate aren't interested that the American people want immigration to be legal, controlled and reduced -- and particularly in this economy. The Senators' arrogance is limitless.

NumbersUSA thinks that Sen Reid is deadly serious and moving forward with his open-border agenda: Reid Signals Intention to Push INCREASE in Foreign Workers.

On the first day of Congress, Senate Majority Leader Reid introduced the "Stronger Economy, Stronger Borders Act" (S. 9), suggesting his intention in the first months of the new Congress to push through some version of amnesty and immigration increases.
    Exactly what the bill will do is left open. Sen. Reid (D-Nev.) introduced the bill as a shell to serve as a place holder until he decides what the legislation will be. But this does not bode well for American workers who must compete against imported authorized foreign workers and against uninvited illegal workers. For weeks, Reid has told the news media that he intends to push for an amnesty for 11-19 million illegal aliens in the country and to greatly increase the number of foreign workers legally brought into the country.
    The filling of S. 9 on Tuesday shows that Sen. Reid is serious.

•   •   •  

1.8m foreigners move to capital as Britons leave   [1/06/09]
When millions of foreigners rush in with no intention of assimilating, the traditional people flee in an attempt to find a place where their home culture remains alive. It's happening in California and it's happening in London.

Almost 1.8 million people have moved to London from abroad in the last decade, figures revealed today show.
    However, the capital proved less popular with British residents, and lost the largest number of people through internal migration of any area in the UK.
    The Bank of Scotland research, published today, shows that between 1998 and 2007 nearly 2 million people moved out of the capital to other parts of Britian, while 1.6 million went the other way.

While much of the British press has been pushing diversity as the highest good, not all have signed up for national cultural suicide. Columnist Kevin Myers had some honest remarks about unwelcome changes: Huge areas of Britain have become foreign colonies. That could be tomorrow's Ireland, too.

Actually, I didn't need to see those TV pictures of the London Boxing Day sales to be aware that London has undergone a demographic transplant unlike that experienced by any European capital since the Fall of Constantinople in 1483. A couple of years ago, while on a trip to London, I bought a rover-ticket, which gave me unlimited travel on the public transport system. I wandered for miles upon miles through the east end, which bore the blitz in 1940-41, which is the heart of Cockney culture, with the Pearly Kings and Queens and which is, of course, the setting for the television soap.
    But in Whitechapel or Stepney, to judge from the shops and the faces and the clothes and the people around me, I could have been in a Middle Eastern city. What does "England" mean to these people? Do they know about the months that an earlier generation spent in the air-raid shelters? Do they know about the 40,000 Londoners who perished in the winter of 1940-41? Do they know anything about the history of the streets they now occupy, and could they ever be prevailed upon to care about it?

•   •   •  

In Weak U.S. Economy, Mexican-American Dual Citizenship Increases   [1/05/09]
It's not news that Mexicans hate America, often quite openly, and only come for the money (while conveniently believing the Southwest belongs to them). One expression of that belief is their growing fondness for dual citizenship, again showing no loyalty or even gratitude to the American community.
    So some rats are preparing to leave what they see as a sinking ship. They have a spare country to which they can escape, unlike many traditional Americans who have been here for centuries.

LOS ANGELESÑThe number of parents applying for Mexican citizenship for their U.S.-born children at consulates in southern California has nearly doubled, and the reason could be the economic crisis facing this country.
    In the first quarter of 2007, the Mexican consulate in San Bernardino received 93 requests from parents who were seeking dual citizenship for their children. In the first quarter of 2008, that number more than doubled to 209.
    "We are definitely at the peak of this process. WeÕve never had so many requests. We are basically nationalizing two to three children a day," said Federico Bass, Mexican vice consul in San Bernardino.
    The Mexican consulate in Los Angeles has also seen an increase of dual citizenship registration. As of last week, the office had received more than 300 applications, up from 200 in 2007.

If you have never read John Fonte's excellent paper, Dual Allegiance: A Challenge to Immigration Reform and Patriotic Assimilation, be sure to do so.

•   •   •  

California Supreme Court to take on state law granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants   [1/05/09]
Good news, bad news here. The up side is that the in-state tuition case is moving along through the courts at the usual glacial speed. The downer is that even with a tanking budget (the state controller forecasts IOUs by Feb 1), the useless creatures who run the state government have not even mentioned cutting this ridiculous benefit for illegal alien foreigners. Sacramento is not a serious place.

Martinez vs. Regents of the University of California began with a lawsuit filed in Yolo County in 2005 by out-of-state students and their parents. The lawsuit alleges that education officials are violating federal law by granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants while not offering the same lower fees to students from outside California.
    "U.S. citizens should have at least the same rights as undocumented immigrants," said one of the plaintiffs, Aaron Dallek, an Illinois native who graduated from UC Berkeley in 2006.
    Another plaintiff, 2006 UC Davis graduate Onson Luong, said he didn't think it was fair that he, as a native of Nevada, had to pay higher tuition than illegal immigrants. Luong, who majored in biotechnology, worked two jobs during college and owes $15,000 in student loans.
    "If they are allowing illegals to pay in-state tuition when they aren't even citizens, what kind of message is that sending?" Luong asked.
    For the 2008-09 school year, out-of-state undergraduates pay about $28,600 to attend a UC school, compared with about $8,000 for students who qualify for in-state tuition. Out-of-state undergraduate students at Cal State campuses pay on average $10,000 more than in-state students. At community colleges, California residents pay $26 per unit, while out-of-state students pay between $140 and $170. [...]
    The California Supreme Court case revolves around a 2001 state law, known as AB 540, that permits the tuition breaks. Under the law, illegal immigrant students qualify for in-state rates if they attended a California high school for three years, graduated here and signed an affidavit saying they will apply for permanent residency as soon as they are eligible. The law has remained in effect during the legal challenge. [...]
    In the 2006-07 school year, 1,639 UC undergraduate and graduate students received in-state tuition under AB 540 provisions. Of those, about 70% were here legally, while the others were potentially undocumented, in the process of obtaining residency or their status could not be determined, according to university officials.

LA Times reporter Anna Gorman has included important, informative statistics. However, she failed to mention that there are now illegal alien college graduates from this expensive program who cannot work legally in the United States. If there is a more extreme example of poorly planned public policy, I don't know what it is. For more on that topic, see Well-educated and undocumented [Orange County Register, Dec 6, 2008].
    California Assembly Member Chuck Devore has estimated the subsidy costs the state taxpayer around $117 million annually.

•   •   •  

It's the law: California patients can have an interpreter at their side   [1/04/09]
Californians' healthcare premiums will go up as a result of Sacramexico's meddling on the side of foreigners.

Millions of Californians with limited English proficiency now have the right to an interpreter from their commercial health and dental plans - made possible by a first-in-the-nation law aimed at dismantling the language barriers that get in the way of good medicine.
    The new regulation - implemented New Year's Day after five years of hearings, delays and wrangling among insurance companies, regulators and consumer advocates - is widely hailed as a milestone in reducing mistakes because of miscommunication.
    "This is really huge, especially in California where we're getting more and more diverse," said Martin Martinez, policy director for the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network. "Even if you speak English well, it's really hard to understand what your doctor is saying."

Does that mean that we native English speakers can get a translator for an unintelligible foreign doctor?

As many as 7 million Californians - about half of them enrolled in health maintenance organizations, or HMOs - lack English fluency and could benefit from the new language service. [...]
    Doctors' orders will now have to be translated, at least orally, into Spanish, Mandarin, Hmong, Russian - any spoken language.
    The scope and cost of the task - estimated by insurers to be about $25 million - make it the biggest regulation effort undertaken by the California Department of Managed Health Care, which oversees HMOs.
    The law, Senate Bill 853, was signed in 2003 but shelved as part of a moratorium imposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when he took office. It was finally dusted off, but insurers balked at the cost.

In none of the stories about the need for translators does anyone in the press or in the affected agencies ever suggest that "immigrants" should learn to speak English for their own health, success and well being.
    Finally, the California Constitution states that English is the official language, but it hasn't done a damn bit of good.

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 3 STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SEC. 6. (a) Purpose.
English is the common language of the people of the United States of America and the State of California. This section is intended to preserve, protect and strengthen the English language, and not to supersede any of the rights guaranteed to the people by this Constitution.
(b) English as the Official Language of California. [...]

•   •   •  

Boy Scouts launch campaign to boost their Latino ranks and staff   [1/04/09]
The great American institution of scouting is going down the diversity trail to perdition, including Spanish-language materials and an adjustment of tradition to suit Mexicans and others from the south.

Aiming to boost their sagging numbers, the Boy Scouts are launching a million-dollar campaign to draw more Latinos, a group that has long resisted Scouting's appeal.
    But the Scouts' national officials acknowledge that it may be a tough sell. Only three of every 100 Scouts are Latino, and some immigrant families see such groups as an indulgence of the well-to-do in their home countries. Some also bristle at the uniforms.
    "We go in in a uniform that looks like the Border Patrol," said Paul Moore, head of the Scouts' Los Angeles Area Council. "Then we ask [adult volunteers] to fill out complex applications that ask for their Social Security numbers. I think we've found some good ways in L.A. to deal with some of these things, but we have to do a better job of getting parents to see Scouting as something that aligns with their hopes and dreams for their kids."

One reason for getting Social Security numbers of adult leaders is to determine their true identities to screen out perverts trolling for children. Will the Scouts accept useless Matricula cards for identification from hispanics? Unclear from the article.
    Furthermore, what will happen to the Scouting tradition of teaching patriotism and loyalty to America with the new emphasis on globalist diversity? (Check out a selection of Norman Rockwell Scout paintings to refresh your memory about the connection.)
    Also, the Boy Scout Oath emphasizes duty to country -- not a popular value among hispanic immigrants for the most part, unless the country is Mexico.

On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

In addition, the traditional uniform style ("that looks like the Border Patrol") has apparently been chucked in favor of yellow t-shirts and forest green jackets, judging by the photo in this item: Boy Scouts aim to recruit Latinos.
    Another appalling cultural downgrade was Girl Scouts in Hijabs from 2007.

•   •   •  

Kids can be easy prey for identity thieves   [1/04/09]
Theft of your kids' identity is another new problem created by open borders and permissive immigration enforcement.

NEW YORK Ñ Among the people Linda Foley is currently working to help are a 3-year-old whose Social Security number is being used by someone for work purposes. And thereÕs a 5-year-old whose identity is linked to driver's licenses, arrest warrants for drunken driving, and a warrant for unpaid child support.
    These stories may sound unusual, but Foley has heard of many such situations since she started the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center in 1999, and sheÕs convinced that the poaching of children's identities is more common than anyone knows.
    Because identity theft is typically associated with financial matters like the misuse of credit cards, most people donÕt consider the possibility that their childÕs personal information could be stolen and misused. But more than 34,000 reports of identity theft reported to the Federal Trade Commission from 2005 to 2007 concerned children under age 18.
    "I think we just see the tip of the iceberg, we donÕt know how deep this problem goes," says Foley.

•   •   •  

Judge rejects faith claim in NY monkey meat case   [1/03/09]
The direction this case is taking has been a small but welcome victory for American laws protecting public health and endangered species. (For more background, see my 2007 blog item Monkey-Eating Diversity on Trial.)
    A Liberian immigrant and mother of nine children, Mamie Manneh, smuggled a substantial quantity of bushmeat to America, and then played the diversity card as her legal defense. The judge wasn't buying it.

Manneh was charged with smuggling the meat of two endangered species. As her case moved toward a trial, her lawyers argued that she and other immigrants in Staten Island's thriving community of Liberian Christians ate monkey meat for spiritual reasons, particularly during holiday celebrations, and were thereby protected by the First Amendment and federal religious freedom law.
    U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie rejected that defense on Wednesday and refused to throw out the charges.
    In a 31-page decision, Dearie acknowledged that it was plausible for the consumption of monkey and other types of "bushmeat" to have religious significance, but said Manneh's claim lacked sincerity.
    He also noted that it didn't address the main point of the criminal charge: That she hadn't applied for the permits needed to import such exotic foodstuffs and had misled border officials about what she was shipping into the country. [...]
    Manneh is already serving jail time in an unrelated a case in which she was convicted of trying to run down a woman she suspected of sleeping with her husband.

So now the case can go to trial? Apparently. Normal news reporting is becoming less informative by the day.

•   •   •  

Fugitives make off with Medicare millions   [1/03/09]
Cubans residing in south Florida have the rep as being the educated, middle-class hispanics. Certainly some are, but the lowlife characters are busy bees ripping off America using fraud.
    Naturally the perps are welcome in their homeland.

Alcides Garcia, former president of a Hialeah medical equipment company, escaped to Cuba in September just before he was to face trial in a $10.7 million Medicare fraud case, according to the FBI.
    Jorge Ramirez, the one-time owner of a Miami clinic that treated blood disorders, was arrested in December and charged with defrauding $42.2 million from Medicare. Ramirez and two codefendants -- Eugenio and Maricel Hernandez, accused of $73 million in Medicare fraud -- had been indicted a year ago. The FBI said they all fled to Cuba.
    Garcia, Ramirez and the Hernandezes are among dozens of Cuban immigrants who continue to evade prosecution by fleeing to their native country. Prosecutors say they bilked the taxpayer-funded health insurance program out of millions through complex Medicare fraud schemes that have been operating with lax oversight in South Florida for over the past a decade.
    "There are a number of healthcare fraud defendants from Cuba, and after they commit their crimes many of them return home," FBI spokesman Judy Orihuela said. "Once they're in Cuba, it's very difficult for us to get them back -- unless they return."

•   •   •  

Civilians Caught Up in Drug War   [1/03/09]
Year's end always brings some interesting statistics. Mexico's continuing spiral into anarchy is suggested by the narco-death toll, estimated at 5630 by a major newspaper, up sharply from previous years.

In 2008, the war between the drug trafficking cartels left a record-breaking 5,630 people executed in the country.Ê According to El Universal's count, in the past four years 12,061 people have died from organized crime; 46.5% of these murders occurred within the past year.
    The daily average of victims in 2008 was 15, and the most violent day was November 3, when 58 homicides with the narcos' mark were reported.Ê Of the fifteen, 19 were in Sinaloa and 12 in Durango.
    In 2005 1,537 murders were recorded, 2,221 the following year, and 2,673 in 2007.
    The federal government's operations have not inhibited the criminals, who shot up public security buildings and ambushed police with high-powered firearms and fragmentation grenades.Ê Moreover, on multiple occasions they hung banners with with stories of intimidation and denunciations against government agents with links to drug trafficking.
    That said, of 2008's victims, at least 429 were government officials or agents. [...]
    2008 was also characterized by mass executions.Ê One of the most significant cases occurred on September 12, when the bodies of 24 executed men were found in the vicinity of La Marquesa, State of Mexico.Ê All of them had been shot in the head with .38 caliber, 9 mm, and .45 caliber weapons.
    On August 28, a dozen decapitated bodies with signs of torture were recovered from two Yucatan municipalities.

The border city of Juarez, population around 1.5 million, experienced over 1600 murders in 2008. By way of comparison, San Francisco, California, a moderately violent city of around half Juarez's population (SF was home to 744,041 residents in 2006), had an official total of 97 homicides in 2008. (A local crime blog counted 105.) Imagine if San Francisco had 800 murders in a year -- that would be roughly comparable.
    There are more details about Juarez in this item: Juarez Named Mexico's Most Violent City

The year ended with a total of 1,605 people murdered in the border city, including 71 federal, state and municipal police officers, as well as 85 bank robberies, an average of 10 cars stolen per day and more than 20 businesses burned, the press tallies published on New Year's Eve said.
    The last few months of 2008 also saw citizens living in fear of telephone extortion rackets that spread rapidly and prompted anti-crime marches by grassroots groups in the city, which became infamous for the murders and disappearances of more than 400 women since 1993.
    The government, however, could not contain the wave of violence in Juarez, where army and federal police forces were bolstered in late March in an unsuccessful effort to battle criminal groups.
    December was the second-bloodiest month of the year, with 195 murders reported, surpassed only by August, when 228 people died.

•   •   •  

Government aid could save U.S. newspapers, spark debate   [1/02/09]
Here's an idea for the Brave New world of the ObamaNation -- a generous taxpayer bailout for failing newspapers.
    It's true that newspapers are in terrible shape. Stocks are tanking: Newspaper share value fell $64B in Õ08, with an average loss of 83.3 percent in the past year. The big brains in the lofty offices didn't think the internet was going to be any big deal for people getting information. See the December Pew poll, Internet Overtakes Newspapers As News Source.

How bad is it? The New York Times announced it would borrow a couple hundred million against its fancy new building. The Tribune Company's filing for bankruptcy affects major papers around the country, including the Rocky Mountain News which could close entirely within weeks if it is not rescued. One in eight news jobs have been lost, totaling 15,000. Newspapers have outsourced editing jobs and other work to India, thanks to the helpful internet. (The blog Reflections of a Newsosaur has been documenting the ugly scene.)
    Anyway, a Connecticut lawmaker, Democrat Frank Nicastro, thinks that the government should help out the newspaper industry by throwing some taxpayer money at it.

Connecticut lawmaker Frank Nicastro sees saving the local newspaper as his duty. But others think he and his colleagues are setting a worrisome precedent for government involvement in the U.S. press.
    Nicastro represents Connecticut's 79th assembly district, which includes Bristol, a city of about 61,000 people outside Hartford, the state capital. Its paper, The Bristol Press, may fold within days, along with The Herald in nearby New Britain.
    That is because publisher Journal Register, in danger of being crushed under hundreds of millions of dollars of debt, says it cannot afford to keep them open anymore.
    Nicastro and fellow legislators want the papers to survive, and petitioned the state government to do something about it. "The media is a vitally important part of America," he said, particularly local papers that cover news ignored by big papers and television and radio stations.

It's particularly obnoxious to have a suggestion like this put forth after arguably the most biased media performance ever, namely the recent Presidential campaign. The media was so over the top that even even some MSM professionals ruefully admit it. See columnist Michael Malone's embarrassment for his profession, Media's Presidential Bias and Decline.
    Bernie Goldberg (author of Bias and other media criticism) has a new book coming out soon with a zinger of a title, A Slobbering Love Affair, referring to the MSM swoon over BHO.

•   •   •  

Many illegal immigrants live in public housing   [1/01/09]
Another instance of illegals getting benefits that are supposed to go to citizens only is subsidized housing. That subject was highlighted when Obama's illegal alien aunt, an absconder from a deportation order, was found to be ripping off the taxpayers in Massachusetts for an apartment. She had so much extra money as a result that she donated a couple hundred dollars to her nephew's Presidential campaign. If BHO has reimbursed the taxpayers of Massachusetts, I haven't heard of it. See Obama Campaign Knew About Aunt Zeituni In Boston.

Untold thousands of illegal immigrants live in public housing at a time when hundreds of thousands of citizens and legal residents are stuck waiting years for a spot.
    Illegal immigrants make up a tiny portion of the 7.1 million people in federal housing, according to government statistics. But authorities may be unaware of thousands more, and critics say no illegal immigrant should get housing benefits.
    The issue made headlines in November with news that Zeituni Onyango, an aunt of President-elect Barack Obama, was living in Boston public housing while in the country illegally. [...]
    Some prospective tenants and advocates of immigration restrictions are angry about U.S. citizens waiting for housing aid that some number of illegal immigrants are enjoying.
    New York City has about 260,000 people in line for housing aid. Chicago recently opened its waiting list for the first time in about 10 years and collected 259,000 names in four weeks for 40,000 slots.
    "As long as that waiting list includes American citizens or legal immigrants, there's no reason an illegal alien should occupy any of that housing," said Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations for NumbersUSA, a group that supports curbs on immigration.
    In San Diego, applicants are told they can expect to wait five to seven years.

•   •   •  

Fred Astaire - Puttin' On the Ritz   [1/01/09]
To welcome the New Year of 2009, here is Fred Astaire, looking remarkably good in a monkey suit and spats.

For brilliant satire, the Mel Brooks take on Puttin on the ritz in Young Frankenstein is classic.

 

© 2009 Brenda Walker All rights reserved.