From: Ray Rogers (e-mail him)
In my letter of November 3, 2007, I asserted that the Los Angeles MTA and the Sheriff's Dept was enforcing fare-checks on the Red Line Subway only during the hours when virtually all riders are white-collar Anglos and never during the hours when the train is nearly 100 percent Hispanic workers.
My conclusion was that the MTA would rather lose revenue from free riders than cite and offend Hispanics.
Lo and behold, last month the MTA announced that the "honor system"—the method whereby Hispanics rode free—would no longer be in effect.
At a cost of $30 million, turnstiles and other physical barriers requiring ticket purchase will be installed. The justification for this, according to the MTA, is to offset the huge losses (estimated at $5.5 million annually) of revenue incurred by people riding illegally for free. [Seeing the Light on the Subway, Matthew de Bord, Los Angeles Times, December 11, 2007]
Gee, I wonder who they might be?
Funny that the MTA would rather spend all that money to put up turnstiles when it could simply enforce the fare checks against Mexican immigrants—I'm assuming these are non-natives as one hears only Spanish spoken on those trains during those hours—as energetically as they do against passengers who hold professional positions with corner offices in downtown skyscrapers.
Well, far be it from me to say, "I told you so!" but…I told you so!
Rogers, who lives in Hollywood, sent an e-mail to MTA administrators pointing out the discrepancy in enforcement as it was applied to Anglos and Hispanic riders but he says he has yet to receive a reply
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From: Michael Scott (e-mail him)
Re: Joe Guzzardi's Column: The Other Side: Gripped By Panic Over Immigration Patriots' 2007 Triumphs
Shortly after the December 13th Washington Post editorial that was the subject of Guzzardi's column, [The Immigration Swamp, Editorial, Washington Post, December 13, 2007], the Post followed up with an equally idiotic one two weeks later about how badly America needs illegal alien workers.
Naturally, the second editorial used much the same hysterical language as the first while it preached about "jobs native-born people don't want". [Immigration Ground Zero, Editorial, Washington Post, December 26, 2007]
But the Post published my reply! I include it here for your readers in the hope that some of the U.S. Census Bureau statistics I cited might help them in their future arguments about who is the most adversely effected (American citizens, of course) by cheap illegal alien labor.
"The Post hyperbolized when it faulted Arizona law for its failure to recognize 'the plain reality of America 's need for (illegal) immigrant labor'
"According to a July Census report, there are 54,277,000 Americans ages 16 to 64 who aren't in the labor force. This includes 23 million 'less-educated' adults who, for a variety of reasons, don't have a job.
"Narrowing this down further, there are 14 million people actively seeking employment who can't find a full-time job in today's economy, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If the supply of illegal workers were to dry up through Arizona's new enforcement programs, employers in the state would be forced to respond by offering higher wages, increased benefits and improved working conditions. Employers would have more incentives to modernize and eliminate unnecessary workers. The result would be a new deal for unskilled American and legal workers because they would be better paid and have more enlightened work environments.
"Can you imagine it: Shifting the costs of illegal immigrant employment from the taxpayers to the marketplace?"[If Arizona's Law Succeeds, December 28, 2007]
Scott is a long time activist against illegal immigration
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From: Betty Baldwin (e-mail her)
Re: Michael Martin's Letter: A Teacher Says English Language Development Should Be On Students Time, Not Part Of The Regular School Day
I agree totally with Martin's letter.
I am seventy years old. My husband of 54 years and I raised a son and a daughter and have two grandsons and a great-granddaughter. All either attended or are attending California schools.
For years, I have been watching the ruination of California's educational system at the expense of legal citizens.
The costs of additional classrooms for the expanding alien student enrollment, bilingual teachers and free meals is all money detoured from our children's education.
Too many non-English speaking students plus too few schools equals catastrophe for native learners. And now, according to James Fulford, aliens from Mexico are commuting to our schools.
Years ago, children that did not speak English were not given any special classes. They learned English because their parents realized that to achieve anything in America, knowledge of our language was essential.
Now, the reverse is true. We Americans have to be bilingual to get a job in our own country.
Let Mexico and other countries take responsibility for its own. The US is not one great big welfare department for the entire world.
Baldwin retired seven years ago from her position as a waitress. During her employment at various restaurants over the decades, she writes that she saw many Americans lose their jobs to illegal aliens.
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From: Mara Alexander (e-mail her)
Re: An Economist's Blog: Victor Davis Hanson On Deportation In NRO
If illegal aliens have been here for 20-40 years and haven't managed to legalize themselves through the amnesty provided by the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, 245i, marriage to a U.S. citizen or because of their US citizen children, they really aren't owed another opportunity to "legalize" themselves.
Alexander, originally from Michigan, did research in the New York area for her graduate degree on Muslim immigrants. Her previous letters about baseless charges of racism and the November 2007 Michigan State University riots are here and here.
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From: Vanessa Reynolds (e-mail her)
Re: Joe Guzzardi's Columns: Mirrors Of Privilege—Whites Are Guilty, Case Closed and "Mirrors Of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible": A Dishonest DVD About Race In America
What?
You mean my white friends and classmates have been duping me for years when all along I thought they liked me? But now some DVD producer wants me to think that they're really racist?
And my teachers are racist too? Hmm, as I recall, they bent over backwards to make sure I was treated equally. But deep down, according to California's State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, they're full of "white privilege."
This is more of the same ridiculous ideology from Sacramento bureaucrats to cover up for their own failures.
What a waste of time and money all these videos and training sessions are.
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