Last week, I described Gail Collins' condescension to what she sees as the bumpkins of Middle America. The New York Times columnist is back at it again this morning, suggesting that illegal immigration is not so much a problem as an issue exploited by Republican candidates to stir the passions of gullible Republican rubes. And yes, to Collins' ear, "sanctuary city" has a nice ring.
The jumping-off point for Collins' [p.p.v.] Of Mitt, Monks, and Mowers is the criticism Mitt Romney has levelled at Rudy Giuliani for the latter's embrace of New York's status as a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants when he was Big Apple mayor. Note that Rudy has since toughened his stance, vowing to end illegal immigration.
In Collins' eyes, telling police and others to ignore the fact that people they encounter in the course of their duties are in the country illegally is "a perfectly rational position."
According to Collins:
If you’ve got hundreds of thousands of undocumented people living in your town, you want them to be willing to report crimes, to go to a doctor if they have a communicable disease, to keep their kids in school and off the street.
Guess what? If police and others were told to report illegals, maybe you wouldn't have "hundreds of thousands" of illegals in your city, with more coming every day knowing there'll be no questions asked.
But for Collins:
“Sanctuary city” is the new “amnesty” — a right-wing buzzword aimed at freaking out the red state voters. There is, of course, the small side effect of making it utterly impossible to have a rational policy-making discussion about a critical national issue. But what the heck. We’re talking Iowa.
What is it with Collins and Iowa? Last week Hawkeye Staters were a bunch of hicks gorging themselves on anything within deep-frying reach. Today they're [to quote Rush] mind-numbed robots, prey to manipulation by cynical politicians. Yeah, why can't Iowans be discerning voters, say like the ones in New York State who elected Eliot Spitzer to clean up government -- by using the state police to spy on political rivals?
Then, in what she admits to being a "cheap shot," Collins, ever the environmentalist, recycles the story of Mitt Romney's contract with a landscaping company that employed illegals. Except that Collins utterly misrepresented the situation, claiming that Romney "hire[d] illegal immigrants." So if the dishwasher in the next fancy restaurant where Collins dines is illegal, she's hired him, too?
Then there's this:
There’s nothing wrong with being worried about the nation’s porous borders, violent criminals who manage to avoid deportation and the massive number of undocumented people living here without any ties to the community. We should have this discussion. Like it or not, we’ve got 14 months of presidential campaign to go. Nobody on the voter side wants to spend it listening to politicians shriek meaningless catchphrases.
Translation: Like all good liberals, I don't really care about this issue. But I suppose you redneck nativists have my permission to care -- just not too much. We can have a "discussion." Say, maybe someone can organize a teach-in on campus. I have a friend at La Raza who can speak!
Concludes Collins:
By the way, doesn’t the term “sanctuary city” sound sort of nice, actually? Remember all those sci-fi movies where the heroes were stuck in a terrible world where everybody but them was a mutant or a pod person or a hologram and their only hope was to reach a legendary and possibly mythical refuge? Next time you hear a politician ranting about a “sanctuary city,” say: “Wasn’t that where Keanu Reeves was trying to get in “The Matrix?”
Note that by her analogy, Collins casts the legal citizens of the United States as the mutants and pod persons, while the illegals are the "heroes." Sums up the liberal position nicely.
—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.
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I wonder if some how she
August 18, 2007 - 07:04 ET by USA4freedomI wonder if some how she would change her view “just a
little” if it were “her” children that were killed in Newark, or having your
daughter raped and murdered after the illegal was turned loose. Maybe killed in
a drunk driving accident after the killer was turned loose multiple times
“because” he as an illegal..
It is so amazing how dripping with condescendence her
articles are..
Then there is this gem:
By the way, doesn’t the term “sanctuary city” sound sort
of nice, actually? Remember all those
sci-fi movies where the heroes were stuck in a terrible world where everybody
but them was a mutant or a pod person or a hologram and their only hope was to
reach a legendary and possibly mythical refuge? Next time you hear a politician
ranting about a “sanctuary city,” say: “Wasn’t that where Keanu Reeves was
trying to get in “The Matrix?”
Mutant, pod people, hologram, the matrix?
Are you on crack? These are real people being hurt and
killed by real people, not a matrix or a hologram.
The Next time I read any of this tripe I will say: Wasn’t
this in Mad magazine?
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc.
Ronald Reagan- 40th Anniversary of D-Day
By the way, doesn’t the
August 18, 2007 - 08:07 ET by motherbeltBy the way, doesn’t the term “sanctuary city” sound sort of nice, actually?
Remember all those sci-fi movies where the heroes were stuck in a
terrible world where everybody but them was a mutant or a pod person or
a hologram and their only hope was to reach a legendary and possibly
mythical refuge? -Collins
That's right, Gail, those "sanctuary cities" will be the "only hope" of immigrants to escape those evil, right-wing, xenophobic bigots.
This is NIMBY theorizing in spades. Liberals are in favor of "sanctuary cities" as long as it's Hazleton or Newark. Just not where they live. When the sanctuary city gets full of immigrants, libs like Collins and her friends move out to the suburbs.
Much of Collins' bio references Connecticut. I would bet dollars to dimes that's where she lives, not in NY's "sanctuary."
I was wondering too...
August 18, 2007 - 09:15 ET by Seabeach4348<I wonder if some how she would change her view “just a
little” if it were “her” children that were killed in Newark, or having your daughter raped and murdered after the illegal was turned loose. Maybe killed in a drunk driving accident after the killer was turned loose multiple times “because” he as an illegal.. >
Not that I'd wish any of those horrors on anyone, but if it happened to her, you would see a very different reaction from Gail Collins!
She would blame local law enforcement for "not doing enough" to have prevented this crime!
What's that you say, Gail? You expected the police to actually do their jobs this time and arrest these guys because they were illegal and were bad eggs and repeat offenders?
She would blame local elected officials for "turning a blind eye and a deaf ear..." on THE problem.
In other words, Gail and her husband would have expected these people to do their jobs as well; why were the illegals not identified and deported since they had previous violent crime history?
And, of course, she would have blamed the hate-filled, xenophobic, bigoted attitude of the neighborhood itself for driving the illegals to commit such heinous crimes out of "desperation"!
I'm becoming nauseaous typing these hypothetic liberal responses....because I've actually heard them say crap like this.
Obviously, Gail Collins doesn't live anywhere near Newark NJ, and, fortunately, nothing even remotely as horrific as what happened to those kids ever happened to her or to her cloistered liberal life.
And I think that she may already be a mutant, a pod, or possibly a dysfunctional android like Ashe from the movie "Alien". No need for Crack here; her brain's already fried.
What really needs to be done (in additional to an effort in earnest to deport illegals) is to build a Sanctuary City for liberals like Gail. Just drop them all there, we know where they are, and they can pool their resources to produce a "Green" community away from reality and the rest of us.
There’s nothing wrong
August 18, 2007 - 07:06 ET by motherbeltThere’s nothing wrong with being worried about the nation’s porous borders,
violent criminals who manage to avoid deportation and the massive
number of undocumented people living here without any ties to the
community. We should have this discussion. -Gail Collins
Right. We should have this discussion, so that Gail and her friends can demonize anyone opposed to their "sanctuary city" policy as right-wing rubes who are against "immigrants."
I notice that Gail never mentions what should be done about those violent criminals, or how they would be found and deported, since in a "sanctuary city" no one would be asking anything.
"But what the heck." We're talking tolerance.
I’m so angry still after
August 18, 2007 - 07:11 ET by USA4freedomI’m so angry still after my first post.
The very idea of a sanctuary city is just plain nuts but hey
we have it. Come to our city where you get kicked out of a restaurant for
smoking but can come to our city where you are not a citizen and its ok with
what ever you do!!! UGH!!!!!!
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc.
Ronald Reagan- 40th Anniversary of D-Day
Think how _I_ feel...
August 18, 2007 - 07:21 ET by sarcasmoAs a condition of the last amnesty in the late '80s, we were promised by the Democrats AND the Republicans (and back then, yes, I was still a partisan Libertarian) that one condition of the amnesty would be secure borders, which I stupidly assumed would mean "a fence" rather than "we will not do 5#!T but we plan on spending a lot of tax money not-doing it!" Even though I'm now officially a Republican instead, don't I still get to be angry about this crapola as a taxpayer???
JMR
Rally online with fans of Dr. Ron Paul.
"Secure borders"???? What
August 18, 2007 - 07:29 ET by motherbelt"Secure borders"???? What are you, anti-immigrant????
}}---> It occurs to me
August 18, 2007 - 07:09 ET by Cool ArrowMs Collins has a point.
If we legalize heroin, we might have addicts more readily report crimes and come forward as witnesses.
There is infinitely more logic in this suggestion than Collins has in hers.
I notice Newt is making the rounds demanding an emergency session of Congress be called to deal with all the rapists and murderers both parties have invited into my country to prey on my grandchildren.
God will, but I won't. God does but I don't. And that's the difference between God and me. ~ Lyle Lovett
~LYDSEXICS UNTIE!~
Gail Collins and her
August 18, 2007 - 07:32 ET by buddycGail Collins and her husband are a classic example of what is wrong with the media and what is wrong with this country.
I think this woman miss her
August 18, 2007 - 07:34 ET by USA4freedomI think this woman miss her calling. Just look at her, she
looks like a first or second grade teacher.
Cutting paper flowers for the kids and telling them just how
wonderful the world is.
“There’s
nothing wrong with being worried about the nation’s porous borders, violent criminals who manage
to avoid deportation and the massive number of undocumented people living here
without any ties to the community. We should have this discussion.
Wow Mrs. Collins do I get a gold star next to my name AND A
PAT ON THE HEAD, because we had a discussion.
And you make fun of the people in Iowa??????????????
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc.
Ronald Reagan- 40th Anniversary of D-Day
geeeze sorry for the double
August 18, 2007 - 08:56 ET by terriggeeeze sorry for the double post
Would be interested in
August 18, 2007 - 08:54 ET by terrigWould be interested in seeing their reaction if the illegals from New Haven were to reak havoc on her, her husband and any children that they may have. I'm sure she'd be singing a different tune & I doubt she would feel it has such a nice ring to it.
}}---> Collins' sincerity
August 18, 2007 - 09:06 ET by Cool ArrowYou don't think she'd accept it as growing pains for the movement?
There's an old saying. Well, two really.
A Conservative is a Liberal who has been mugged.
A Liberal is a Conservative who has been downsized.
~LYDSEXICS UNTIE!~
If I were evil I would
August 18, 2007 - 07:54 ET by Right2thePointIf I were evil I would suggest itching powder applied in liberal doses to the dainty underthings this lady wears.
But rather hopefully she would wake up and get a clue instead of wandering off to her own particular wilderness trudging through her own personal swamp.
Liberals are always saying
August 18, 2007 - 08:16 ET by motherbeltLiberals are always saying you can't oppose abortion unless you are willing to adopt babies; you can't be in favor of military action unless you are willing to "send" your kid to fight; etc.
So how about it, Ms. Collins: are you going to fight to make the city (or suburb) where you live, (not work) a "sanctuary city"?
Motherbelt, I've heard the
August 18, 2007 - 08:51 ET by terrigMotherbelt, I've heard the same things from libs. I tell them, I have adopted a baby and he was from social services (a place most don't want to go through), we would like for him to attend Annapolis or West Point one day, I have served and my husband continues to do so and has been to Iraq and back 3 X. That usually shuts them up for a few seconds and you can almost see the wheels turning in their heads. Then they come back with some other lame argument.
I have a cousin who went to Duke, got a job in NYC and was told by one of his profs before he graduated to take speech to lose his drawl. He did and went to the big apple. He was a lunch with some of his collegues about 3 years later and these people were making fun of a family from somewhere from the South. He finally said he was from AL and they all looked at him like he was from the moon. He worked for Merrill Lynch and went into see his boss when he got back and transferred to Mobile (his hometown). He makes a lot less money but he feels he's 1000 times happier than he ever was in NYC.
Co-existance
August 18, 2007 - 10:41 ET by Ole_SargeI live in a rapidly changing rural to suburban/urban area. There are many different construction sites. there should be MORE THAN enough work... The majority of the work crews are NOT trained craftsmen. Folks that have received occupational education, training and have their first few jobs supervised by an experienced worker... No, these are mostly guys, freshout of the van from the border.
They have NO education, NO skills and little experienced supervision, well the guy that's been here a year doing the same job. Incorrectly, ship-shoddy but that's what is "experience" now.
I am NOT in a border state with Mexico, so these are not the "daily workers" or family members that the arbitrary border separated generations ago.
Most of these folks DO NOT even speak "Spanish" rather it is the local dialect of their home villages So printing up all those “warnings” in Spanish is useless, they can’t even read and write Spanish, let alone speak it, never mind about English.
So you want to replace your basement stairs and you and your husband have neither the time, nor the skills to do-it-yourself. So hire a contractor. Okay the guy that comes to do the estimate is okay, "seems" to know what he is doing. The work crew comes, you want to ask a question, but no one understands you. But they are busy, and they get it done AND painted the same day.
A year later, your teenaged child is taking a heavy load of laundry down, and the stairs collapse! Your child is injured and an investigation shows that the stairs were improperly built and installed...
What about the road you commute on, that was paved over an unprepared roadbed. Or the electrical work done by non-union labor on your new house, or your new office? The water line that was installed with the sewer lines - crossed. There are THOUSANDS of examples all over the country.
It is not just you cannot get into a hospital emergency room because the Triage Nurse is busy doing "primary care" on all the people that were told "FREE MEDICAL CARE." So your mother's heart attack, or your father's stroke is sidelined and they die before recieving a physicians review of why they are there. Your daughter's troubled pregnancy turns into a miscarriage while waiting 12 hours to be seen. And your son's appendix ruptures, all while waiting.
It IS past the point of inconvience, and you liberals in your little "perfect" worlds have NO conception of it.
I'm a Cornhusker. The
August 18, 2007 - 08:39 ET by rimskyI'm a Cornhusker. The midwest is bread basket heaven to me. Don't get me wrong, I love all parts of this country and I've lived all over too. Grew up in Nebraska, and I've lived and worked in Montana, IOWA, Tennessee and I now live in NYC. I even love NYC. But I gotta tell ya, I'm fed up with this flyover attitude that New Yorkers have about much of the rest of the country, especially the REAL midwest states like Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, the Dakotas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, even Minnesota! Ms. Collins, you and your NYC elitist ilk can kiss my royal Cornhusked A**!!!
I've been blessed
August 18, 2007 - 08:53 ET by sarcasmoTo have both a "city" and a "country" upbringing here in Florida, as my family farmed citrus and a few other things until "The Freeze of the Century" started happening every 3 years (thank you, "global warming"!). I have the ultimate respect for independent family farmers all over America. Even though I've only really ever lived in Florida, I've visited and I deeply respect "flyover country." It's beautiful.
I continue, however, to have 0 respect for the federal government's agricultural welfare subsidies, and that sort of welfare DOES influence the votes of farmer welfare-queens just as traditional socialist inner-city welfare influences votes of traditional welfare-queens. But with all her faults, and they are legion, at least the traditional welfare queen is honest about being a welfare queen. I'm glad people like us are exposing ethanol as the welfare-scam that it is, and I'm not accusing you of anything by saying this (far from it!).
JMR
Rally online with fans of Dr. Ron Paul.
Sarc, good points, and
August 18, 2007 - 09:45 ET by rimskySarc, good points, and thanks for the supportive comments. I don't like what has happened to agriculture in this country. Family farms are pretty much history and these farm subsidies are corruptive. BTW, there are untold numbers of snobby elitist city dwellers, and probably a few well off beach dwellers, that enjoy the largess of the the US Government in the form of farm subsidies. I don't exactly know how that works, whether it is through direct stock ownership of big corporate farms, or whether some of these passive owners actually have purchased farms or what? But while these uppities look down on all the bumkins of the bread basket, it's easy to miss the fact that they are raking in cash by way of these subsidies.
}}---> Lend you an ear
August 18, 2007 - 08:54 ET by Cool ArrowThey never pack the silk and chute down? You'd just have to go around removing the suckers.
I wouldn't stalk them if I were you. Not a kernel of truth to their ramblings.
~LYDSEXICS UNTIE!~
"...doesn’t the term
August 18, 2007 - 09:08 ET by Senior Chief"...doesn’t the term “sanctuary city” sound sort of nice, actually?"
Gail, will you welcome those illegal alien thugs/gangsters in your neighborhood. I would assume you live in Newark, and not bothered to Carranza's behavior- raped a 5YO girl repeatedly and executed 4 college students...or those illegals drunk drivers who killed teens in Va Beach, etc.
Or maybe, you like some cheap dentists' labor to clean up your yellowish teeth and house them in your basement. Do you really mean what you stated?
}}---> Sure Chief
August 18, 2007 - 09:11 ET by Cool ArrowKinda' makes me feeeel all cozy and sh!t.
~LYDSEXICS UNTIE!~
Hurry up Susan the NYT
August 18, 2007 - 09:51 ET by BlazerHurry up Susan the NYT will have massive layoffs soon, so you better take advantage of their dental plan, and fast.
By the way even though they took the firewall off of their website, so you can now view for free, they would have to pay me, and handsomely at that, to read their mindnumbing defeatist, leftist drivel.
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious. "
- Ben Kenobi on Liberals, and the MSM.
Well-said, Blazer. I don't
August 18, 2007 - 22:58 ET by motherbeltWell-said, Blazer. I don't know WHAT they were smoking when someone said "Hey, let's charge people to read most of the paper online" and they thought that was a great idea! LOL
liberals
August 18, 2007 - 10:53 ET by iveseenitallThere are so many things to despise about liberal hypocrties like Collins. Near the top of the list is that behind that unctuous smile lies a vicious personality who would see you and your family suffer and die rather than give up her ignorant point of view. Anyone who has had an epiphany about the "liberals" knows of what I speak. These hypocrites are sickening, syruppy, spineless s.o.b.'s who hide behind a phony "I'm such a good person" facade. "Liberal", my ass! She, and millions like her, make me want to puke.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
What's with the "baked bean"
August 18, 2007 - 12:07 ET by msh1973What's with the "baked bean" teeth, (remember on Seinfeld)? Someone with her salary can surely afford cosmetic dentistry!
}}---> It's her culture
August 18, 2007 - 12:35 ET by Cool ArrowShe chews whale hide to make diapers for her papoose.
Laughs with Salesmen, her tribal name, also wrote the popular children's book "Little Melting Igloo On the American National Wildlife Reserve"
~LYDSEXICS UNTIE!~
What a non-sensical and illogical position
August 18, 2007 - 12:37 ET by c5thenadvocating ignoring of laws in order to allow the better enforcement of laws??!!! How do people actually function on a day to day basis while having such cognative dissonance inside? I believe that this must be the way that bi-polar disorder begins.
What if Newark, NJ decided to become a sanctuary city for all NY criminals? Their police wouldn't act on NY warrants and they would refuse to notify any NY authorites of any wanted criminals that they knew about or to extradite them should they become known. That sounds kind of nice too, doesn't it? If you are a criminal in NYC, that is.
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic
Sanctuary
August 18, 2007 - 19:48 ET by Felicity RandI like the way "sanctuary" sounds too. Sanctuary HOUSE. YOUR house, Gail. I bet you have room.
Good ol' Collins is part of
August 18, 2007 - 20:24 ET by bigtimerGood ol' Collins is part of the reason the NYT's is going down-hill.
At least she is contributing to my happiness that way...
La Raza and our money
August 18, 2007 - 22:19 ET by StokeyBobSince the marches in May of 2006 it seemed clear just who
was backing those that support the lawlessness. The American taxpayer! We’re
the only ones with that kind of money. (Sort of)
The Federal Government is allowing groups like La Raza
access to our money before we are even able to pick up our paychecks and cash
them. We are left little to support what we really want it to go for.
It is totally against the principals of the United States of
America when you turn a machine like the criminals in the government have
against the will of the people.
Here is a partial list of some of the money that has been
looted from the American taxpayer. Look down at the end of the article.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=25447
A new La Raza funding bill. Another 5 to 10 million for one
of their groups! And you've gotta just know other tax money is going to other
race groups.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1999
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/thomas
Can we please put up a
August 19, 2007 - 14:03 ET by drillanwrCan we please put up a "sanctuary city" and several "wind mills" (a la Kennedy) in this woman's yard? BTW, in the NJ students murders was the illegal alien, in addition to the obvious crimes, also charged with breaking our immigration laws too? I mean, if we're not going to enforce or charge the lettuce pickers with breaking immigration laws, can we at least charge the ones that are killing and raping and robbing?? They're giving the rest of the "hard-working" illegal aliens a bad name, eh?
More Hypocrisy...
August 20, 2007 - 07:40 ET by Sergeant ROCKI was curious what this Collins person had to say about the Elian Gonzales fiasco, but the I could only find a link to the NYT article (A Case for Janet Reno. By GAIL COLLINS) that requires a subscription.
I did see this though, A FEW DAYS after the Los Angeles Times reported on the revolt at the Department of Justice against Attorney General Janet Reno for covering up the vice president's apparently criminal behavior, New York Times columnist Gail Collins wrote: "Thank G-d for Janet Reno."
Humorous.