CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Senate Vote To Raise Fines for Hiring Illegal Aliens

The Senate voted 58-40 to increase penalties for hiring undocumented workers. Fines would be doubled to $20,000 and repeat offenders could be sentenced to prison for up to three years.

Increasing penalties means nothing when there is no enforcement.

Employer sanctions were part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 that legalized 4 million illegals, but the sanctions were never fully enforced. The result is today there are 12 million illegals looking for legalization.

According to the Associated Press:

The Senate bill requires employers to check Social Security numbers and the immigration status of all new hires within 18 months after money is provided to the Homeland Security Department to expand the electronic system for screening workers.

Workers' information would have to be submitted to the electronic system within three days after the worker is hired. The Homeland Security Department would have to confirm the worker is legal or tell the employer the worker can't be immediately confirmed as a legal worker within 10 days.

The measure provides workers opportunities to contest the system's determination and to correct information that may be incorrectly flagging them as illegal workers. It also protects employers from liability if the screening system makes a mistake.

The Senate's proposal is a joke compared to a similar provision in the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act approved by the House last December.

The House bill would impose fines on employers of undocumented workers ranging from $5,000 to $40,000. But, unlike the Senate bill, the House measure would require employers to screen all employees instead of only new hires.

The Senate's proposal would take years to implement and workers deemed illegal could still hold onto jobs until their appeals are exhausted.

Hillary Runs Toward President Bush's Energy Policy

After voting against nationwide use of ethanol in gasoline last year, Senator Clinton today echoed President Bush's advanced energy initiative, calling for tax credits, private investment and new research in order to cut the consumption of foreign oil.

According to the Associated Press, Clinton called for a massive expansion of corn-based ethanol, a corn-based fuel additive and substitute, a position sure to be more popular in Iowa, which holds the first caucus of the presidential campaign, than Hilary's vote against ethanol last year.

President Bush has strongly supported ethanol. Under President Bush we have extended the 51-cent-per-gallon tax credit for ethanol suppliers; created a new 10-cent-per-gallon tax credit to provide extra help to small ethanol producers and farmers; provided about $85 million in loans or grants for ethanol business ventures; and signed into law a Renewable Fuels Standard that will nearly double the amount of ethanol in our fuel supply over the next six years.

As result, the ethanol Industry is booming. Last year, America used a record 4 billion gallons of ethanol - more than double the level when the President took office. There are now 97 ethanol refineries in our country. Nine of those are expanding, and 35 more are under construction.

Seeds Of ACivil Society

The New York Times reports the outlines of a nascent civil society are taking shape in Iraq.

Since 2003 the Iraqi government has registered 5,000 private organizations, including charities, human rights groups, medical assistance agencies and literacy projects. It is estimated that another 7,000 groups are working unofficially. Many of these 12,000 organizations are picking up a historic charitable tradition and are trying to bring Iraqis together.

An example is Ms. Saiedi, a pragmatic 35-year-old who has neither a husband nor a job. Together with a group of her close friends and two of her sisters, Ms. Saiedi formed a charity group, Bilad al Rafidain (Mesopotamian) Orphan Relief:

Once a month she picks her way around mounds of trash in Shoala in dainty sandals, taking blankets, slippers and towels to children there. The members take donations from friends and co-workers, and even people who visit the government offices where several of them work, and regularly give assistance to 520 children.

Not all groups are a force for good. Some of the registered groups were involved in guerrilla activities and other crime:

One was funneling aid to fighters in the volatile town of Falluja, she said, and the government shut it down. Another was running a ring that sold Iraqi children into slavery abroad.

As the Iraqis do more to help each other I become more optimistic that the effort to grow democracy and freedom in Iraq will succeed.

Dodd Weighs White House Run

Connecticut's Senior U.S. Senator Chris Dodd tells the Hartford Courant's David Lightman he plans to travel the country, raise money and hire staff in an effort to garner support for a presidential campaign.

Dodd won't formally decide whether to run until early next year.

Dodd, who is known as an outspoken advocate for partisan causes, came within one vote of being chosen Senate leader in 1994, and weeks later he became the Democratic National Committee's general chairman.

Dodd's chances, among a field of 10 wannabee Democratic candidates, are seen as a long shot. Dodd doesn't even register in presidential preference polls. He lacks name recognition and his $2 campaign fund is dwarfed by Hillary Clinton's $20 million and Kerry's $17 million.

According to Lightman Dodd will have to escape his tag as a liberal and overcome his New England roots. Americans for Democratic Action, which rates lawmakers on their liberalism, gave Dodd a perfect score last year:

Dodd said he was unworried how others define him. "I don't run away from who I am and what I stand for," he said. "Campaigns are always about the future."

After Dodd's 2004 re-election to a historic fifth term he declined to again seek the Senate minority leader's post and considered running for governor of Connecticut.

An American Diaspora

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The current migration of Mexicans and Central Americans to the United States is one of the largest diasporas in modern history, experts say.

Roughly 10% of Mexico's population of about 107 million is now living in the United States, estimates show.

About 15% of Mexico's labor force is working in the United States.

One in every seven Mexican workers migrates to the United States.

Cultural ties: Mass migration from Mexico began more than a century ago. It is deeply embedded in the history, culture and economies of both nations.

The current wave began with Mexico's economic crisis in 1982, accelerated sharply in the 1990s with the U.S. economic boom, and today has reached record dimensions.

[. . .]

Three-quarters of the estimated 12 million illegal migrants in the United States come from Mexico and Central America. Mexicans make up 56 percent of the unauthorized U.S. migrant population, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Another 22 percent come from elsewhere in Latin America, mainly Central America and the Andean countries. These same countries send many of the half-million new illegal immigrants who arrive each year.

Migration is profoundly altering Mexico and Central America. Entire rural communities are nearly bereft of working-age men. The town of Tendeparacua, in the Mexican state of Michoacan, had 6,000 residents in 1985, and now has 600, according to news reports. In five Mexican states, the money migrants send home exceeds locally generated income, one study found.

Last year, Mexico received a record $20 billion in remittances from migrant workers. That is equal to Mexico's 2004 income from oil exports and dwarfing tourism revenue.

Arriving in small monthly transfers of $100 and $200, remittances have formed a vast river of "migra-dollars" that now exceeds lending by multilateral development agencies and foreign direct investment combined, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.

It sounds as if the U.S., Mexico and Central America are in fact one inseparable economic unit. If Mexico is as dependent upon the U.S. as the Chronicle suggests, it is even more important that we regain control of the border.

Giuliani

In today's edition of the Boston Herald's "Monday Morning Briefing" reports Rudy Giuliani may finally be focusing on the presidency:

Maybe former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Hub visit yesterday to deliver a commencement address to Suffolk University Law grads is what Mitt Romney had in mind when he talked about looters. Coming on the heels of a fund-raising visit to North Carolina, it looks like Giuliani is warming up to a presidential race.

In the latest FOX News poll, Giuliani would beat Hillary Clinton 49 percent to 40 percent.

The poll found almost two-thirds (64 percent) of respondents have a favorable opinion of Giuliani and 15 percent unfavorable, giving him a 49-point net positive rating:

That puts him ahead of first lady Laura Bush, who has a 40-point positive (64 percent favorable, 24 percent unfavorable); and well ahead of the others, including McCain, who has a 24-point positive rating (49 percent favorable, 25 percent unfavorable); former President Bill Clinton, who has a 23-point positive (58 percent favorable, 35 percent unfavorable); and Hillary Clinton, who has an 8-point positive (50 percent favorable, 42 percent unfavorable).

So is Giuliani running? According to this Boston Herald article he is still thinking about it:

“First we have to get through ’06, and it’s going to be very tight,” he said of the congressional elections. Oh, he’s been out and about making appearances for candidates and fundraising in North Carolina, Georgia, California. Sure it’s the right thing to do, but it also doesn’t hurt to collect those chits if a year from now - and that is his time frame - America’s mayor turns presidential contender. “I’ll approach it from this point of view,” he said, “whether I can make a significant contribution. “It will also depend on what the issues are a year from now,” he added, noting that voters look for different qualities in their leaders, depending on those issues. And it is also - as it is for every potential contender - about the money. “It’s easier to campaign for other people and to raise money for other people than to do it for yourself,” he said. And any presidential run is a matter of “can you put together an organization to run and to raise the totally absurd amounts of money you need to give yourself a real chance.”

Principal Censors 'In God We Trust'

Fort Worth's Star-Telegram reports more political correctness run amok.

An elementary school principal chose to censor the motto "In God We Trust" from an oversize nickel depicted on the yearbook cover.

A spokesman for the school district said the principal of Liberty Elementary School in Colleyville, wanted to avoid offending students of different religions. Students were given stickers with the words "In God We Trust" that could be affixed to the book if they so chose.

School officials chose an image of an enlarged nickel for the yearbook cover because this is Liberty Elementary's first year and because the nickel has a new design this year.

If school officials were so concerned about the motto on U.S. coins, perhaps something else could have been chosen for the yearbook cover.

President Bush Losing Hispanic Support

The Washington Post reports a new survey finds Hispanic voters are turning away from the administration on immigration and a other issues:

A survey of 800 registered Hispanic voters conducted May 11-15 by the nonpartisan Latino Coalition showed that Democrats were viewed as better able to handle immigration issues than Republicans, by nearly 3 to 1: 50 percent to 17 percent. Pitting the Democrats against Bush on immigration issues produced a 2 to 1 Democratic advantage, 45 percent to 22 percent.

The poll has plenty of bad news for Republicans:

Even if the GOP does maintain Bush's margins among Latinos in 2008, another study found that Democrats are likely to achieve a net gain in future elections, simply because Hispanics are growing as a share of the electorate.

Ken Strasma, a Democratic strategist who specializes in using demographic data to target potential voters, and the Hispanic Voter Project at Johns Hopkins University conducted a study concluding that, if past voting patterns hold, the growing Hispanic population means that Democrats will increase their 2004 vote totals by nearly half a million votes in 2008.

"The impact is even stronger farther out in the future, as Hispanic vote growth would move two Southwestern battleground states -- Nevada and New Mexico -- into the Democratic column by 2016, and add Iowa and Ohio by 2020," the study said.

According to the Post, many Latinos now see "Bush as a friend who has let them down," and who has caved in to anti-Hispanic pressures by proposing to put 6,000 National Guard troops on the Mexican border.

Is this a case of no good deed going unpunished or is President Bush paying the price for trying to have it two ways on immigration?

Conservatives 'Downright Fed Up'

In a devastating essay published in the Washington Post, Richard A. Viguerie, who played an important role in putting together the winning coalitions behind Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George W. Bush in 2000, declares that conservatives are "downright fed up:"

I've never seen conservatives so downright fed up as they are today. The current relationship between Washington Republicans and the nation's conservatives makes me think of a cheating husband whose wife catches him, and forgives him, time and time again. Then one day he comes home to discover that she has packed her bags and called a cab -- and a divorce lawyer.

Viguerie doesn't stop with the declaration. He goes on, and more effectively than has any leader of the Democrats, rips President Bush and the Republican Congressional leadership to shreds.

If you want the gory details you will have to read the essay in the post. Viguerie's thesis is that President Bush talks like a conservative but hasn't governed like a conservative.

Viguerie claims the Republican Party should take unhappy conservatives seriously:

When conservatives are unhappy, bad things happen to the Republican Party.

In 1948, conservatives were unhappy with Thomas E. Dewey's liberal Republican "me too" campaign, and enough of them stayed home to give the election to Harry S. Truman. In 1960, conservatives were unhappy with Richard M. Nixon's negotiations with Nelson A. Rockefeller to divide the spoils of victory before victory was even achieved, and John F. Kennedy won.

In 1974, conservatives were unhappy with the corruption and Big Government policies of Nixon's White House and with President Gerald R. Ford's selection of Rockefeller as his vice president, and this led to major Republican losses in the congressional races that year. By 1976, conservatives were fed up with Ford's adoption of Rockefeller's agenda, and Jimmy Carter was elected with the backing of Christian conservatives.

In 1992, conservatives were so unhappy with President George H.W. Bush's open disdain for them that they staged an open rebellion, first with the candidacy of Patrick J. Buchanan and then with Ross Perot. The result was an incumbent president receiving a paltry 37 percent of the vote. In 1998, conservatives were demoralized by congressional Republicans' wild spending and their backing away from conservative ideas. The result was an unexpected loss of seats in the House and the resignation of Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).

Viguerie also urged conservatives to halt financial support of the Republican Party and start an independent movement:

At the very least, conservatives must stop funding the Republican National Committee and other party groups. (Let Big Business take care of that!) Instead, conservatives should dedicate their money and volunteer efforts toward conservative groups and conservative candidates. They should redirect their anger into building a third force -- not a third party, but a movement independent of any party. They should lay the groundwork for a rebirth of the conservative movement and for the 2008 campaign, when, perhaps, a new generation of conservative leaders will step forward.

Conservatives have previously grumbled about some of President Bush's decisions, especially the failed nomination of Miers to the Supreme Court, but the President's immigration reform address last Monday was a breaking point. Calling for the legalization of many of the 12 million illegal aliens is an anathema to many conservatives who see it as tantamount to a presidential pardon for lawbreakers.

Numerous pundits take Viguerie's outburst and his suggestion that conservatives could sit out the next election as another ominous sign that the Democrats will regain control of Congress. I think Viguerie overstates the case when he argues millions of conservatives will again stay home this November. It is still a truism that all politics are local. Just because conservatives are disenchanted with the president or the Congress doesn't mean they won't vote for their legislator.

Gore Has No Plans To Run Again

The Guardian reports Al Gore has denied rumors that he plans to run for president again:

Asked yesterday evening at the Cannes Film Festival whether there was any truth in speculation that he had his sights set on the White House again, Gore said: 'I don't plan to be a candidate again for national office... I don't see any circumstances that would cause me to change my mind. I was in elective politics for 24 years. I've made four national races, two for president, two for vice president. I have found there are other ways to serve, and I'm enjoying them.'

Sounds firm, but according to the Atlanta Progressive News, in Atlanta last week Gore gave his supporters hope that he might be persuaded to run:

After the crowd cheered Gore in encouragement, he told the audience, “I’m a recovering politician, on Step Nine. Thank you for your sentiment.” Things seemed a bit gloomy for a while.

But then later, after the larger crowd left the theater, APN Staff Writer Susan Keith brought the issue up again in a more private, yet informal gathering in the theater after the show. “It’s not a sentiment!” she said, while others in attendance offered their campaign support and said, stop listening to those consultants.

Then, Gore said: “Like I said, I’m a recovering politician. But you always have to worry about a relapse.”