If you have any travel plans for May 1, you may want to rethink them.
You gotta love the Left’s unparalleled ability to make itself look bad. First of all, planning a major protest on the date of a well-known socialist/communist holiday? Yeah, that’ll win you a lot of public sympathy from the average American. Secondly, shutting down airports and whole cities on a Monday, when people are trying to get around, get to work, earn their paychecks, etc.? Brilliant! People love to be massively inconvenienced! That’ll win their hearts, minds and votes for sure! And third, they’re making the classic mistake of combining multiple irrelevant causes into one undifferentiated, incoherent mass of anger:
Support the Fight for Immigrant Workers’ Rights
Justice for Hurricane Katrina Survivors
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
Huh?!? What does “Justice for Hurricane Katrina Survivors” have to do with “Immigrant Workers’ Rights”? Why on earth should they be part of the same protest? (Indeed, as Andrew has pointed out, the two things are arguably in opposition to one another, in some instances at least.) Let me guess, there will also be “NO BLOOD FOR OIL” and “FREE MUMIA” signs at the protests. It’s all just about as relevant to the central cause (immigrants’ rights) as that “FIRE TY” sign was to the 2005 Notre Dame-USC game.
Memo to the Left: if you want people to pay attention, stick to one issue at a time. Otherwise, you invite satire along the lines of the Hartford Courant editorial cartoon that I remember from the late 1990s, which showed protesters marching on Washington with a series of increasingly non-specific signs, ultimately ending with “WE’RE AGAINST STUFF.” Looking on, a pair of aging ex-hippies lamented, “Protests aren’t what they used to be.”
(Hat tip: Michelle Malkin. A.N.S.W.E.R. has more. News articles here.)
P.S. Let me guess: When Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh & co. point out that these protests are taking place on a major communist/socialist holiday — and that some of the protest organizers are in fact unreconstructed Stalinists — liberals will complain that conservatives are “questioning their patriotism” again.
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Categories: Immigration, News
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April 18th, 2006 at 12:12:17 pm
Funny. Last time I looked it was Bush and McCain trying to placate the illegal immigrants.
April 18th, 2006 at 12:19:09 pm
I’m sure that won’t stop the A.N.S.W.E.R. types from having “IMPEACH BUSH” signs at their pro-immigrant rally.
April 18th, 2006 at 12:20:36 pm
I agree doing this on May Day is pretty stupid, as is shutting down cities in the process. As for the Impeach Bush signs, don’t be surprised if some conservatives aren’t carrying those around these days as well.
April 18th, 2006 at 12:42:52 pm
Angrier -
Consider his recent actions on immigration reform, that’s not altogether inaccurate.
This is only going to get the public more pissed off about illegal immigration and, if they’re not careful, highlight for the Feds and advocates for employing low-income citizens exactly which companies and industries need to be examined for hiring illegal immigrants.
April 18th, 2006 at 1:21:01 pm
Lojo-
I’m fine with that. When Bill Marriott was standing in front of the Hotel Conference decrying the fact that he wasn’t a felon for hiring illegals, I think Federal Marshalls should have walked in right there and arrested his ass for admitting guilt.
April 18th, 2006 at 1:35:41 pm
Isnt it ironic, that they decided on May 1st as their day for demanding socialism themed reforms? May 1st is one of socialisms greatest days.
April 18th, 2006 at 1:41:27 pm
Ever hear of Revolution Theocracy? It used to be big in Latin America until Pope John Paul II stamped it out. Looks like it is making a comeback with all the socialist regimes sprouting up in South America these days.
April 18th, 2006 at 2:00:40 pm
Hah. A&A, I think you mean LIBERATION THEOLOGY :-)
April 18th, 2006 at 2:07:01 pm
And while liberation theology may have been “stamped out” among Catholics pursuant to rejection by the Vatican, it remains an important school of thought within Protestant circles (which are admittedly a smaller denomination than Catholics in Latin and South America).
April 18th, 2006 at 2:26:45 pm
Joe Mama - HUSH !
We are all on tenterhooks wanting to hear more about “Revolution Theocracy” !
A&A - pray tell us more !
April 18th, 2006 at 2:43:12 pm
Sorry. Liberation Theology. Unlike some folks, I believe it is a strength to admit mistakes.
April 18th, 2006 at 3:15:50 pm
it’s this type of bullshit that always sends my opinions rocketing out the other direction. i know i shouldn’t let it affect me, but it does. this is exactly how i learned to love the IMF…
April 18th, 2006 at 4:24:55 pm
Hurricane Katrina was in New Orleans which where the Cincinatti Kid was filmed, which starred Steve McQueen, who was in Towering Inferno with Paul Newman, who was in Empire Falls with Ed Harris, who was in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon, who was in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, all of which are used by immigrant workers to come to the United States and work jobs for below minimum wage.
Brendan, of all people, I’m surprised that you missed that obvious linkage.
April 18th, 2006 at 4:27:25 pm
LOL
April 18th, 2006 at 4:56:06 pm
Before, I thought it was just going to be illegal immigrants skipping class and work to show the large impact illegal immigrants have in the American economy. As long as they also skipped freeways and hospitals, I was quite okay with that and figured the move would probably backfire because people would realize, “Holy shit, I can get to work on time when all the illegals stay home! And look, the line out the door of the local ER is gone!” But now that they’re trying to get more people to strike, you’re right, the protest will fair because of pure incoherence.
April 18th, 2006 at 4:56:32 pm
*fail
April 18th, 2006 at 6:40:40 pm
Andrew - I just found a succinct explanation for the semi-ratiocinations of the D-list …
“Little known (and only recently discovered) research by the inimitable de Selby, which was preserved in a singular manuscript hidden in barrel of Irish whiskey, shows conclusively that encephalo-rectality is not a yogic practice, as you maintain, but a quite common physical spasm brought on by intense mental contortions in those who have been educated beyond the level of their intelligence.
“
It explains a lot, doesn’t it ?
(innocent smile)
April 18th, 2006 at 7:04:06 pm
Andrew-
You forgot to mention that you would also be able to get a Big Gulp at 7-11 without waiting half-an-hour or fearing for your car.
April 19th, 2006 at 10:27:57 am
This blog is just a WEALTH of complete misinformation, the latest being what May Day is about or how it got started:
“May Day” from Wikipedia:
“May Day is a name for various holidays celebrated on May 1 (or in the beginning of May). The most famous of these is International Workers’ Day, which is the commemoration of the social and economic achievements of the labor movement. The 1 May date is used because in 1884 the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, inspired by Labor’s 1872 success in Canada, demanded an eight-hour workday in the United States, to come in effect as of May 1, 1886. This resulted in the general strike and the U.S. Haymarket Riot of 1886, but eventually also in the official sanction of the eight-hour workday.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_day
April 19th, 2006 at 11:25:00 am
A “wealth of complete misinformation”? Yeah… exception that your Wikipedia link DOES NOT CONTRADICT ANYTHING IN THIS POST. The fact that May Day started as a “commemoration of the social and economic achievements of the labor movement” does not change the fact that it is, in fact, currently, “a well-known socialist/communist holiday.” Is that ALL it is? No. May Day is also a pagan holiday, a labor holiday, and the first day of the fifth month of the Gregorian calendar, but I never said it is “ONLY known as a socialist/communist holiday,” I merely said it is “a well-known socialist/communist holiday,” which is absolutely true. It is widely associated with socialism/communism — period. The same Wikipedia entry that you quoted ALSO says: “May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist, and anarchist groups. In the 20th century, the holiday received the official endorsement of the Soviet Union; celebrations in communist countries during the Cold War era often consisted of large military parades and shows of common people in support of the government.”
The only “complete misinformation” here is your attack on the accuracy of my post.
April 19th, 2006 at 12:33:38 pm
Complete misinformation…Similar to the unproven claims that the guy who got shot in the airport terminal yelled “I have a bomb” and “deserved” to die.
In most places in the world– in other words almost everywhere except America– May Day is mainly a pro-worker, pro-labor day.
Only an idiot…only a complete idiot, in my opinion, would equate being “pro-worker” with Socialism and Communism.
April 19th, 2006 at 1:17:59 pm
Mendacious Mouse @ 12:33 - “In most places in the world– in other words almost everywhere except America– May Day is mainly a pro-worker, pro-labor day.”
In fact, in most places in the world, where “May Day” has any meaning, it will be understood as a distress call !!
In the UK, May Day has the multiple mix - Socialist International Day as well as ‘Let’s Dance Around This Maypole For The Tourists Day’ as well as the distress call …
In a significant percentage of the non-western rural communities around the planet, May 1st may or may not even have a significance, and the “pro-worker, pro-labor” part just don’t fly …
It is an interesting cultural-centric yet ‘America-is-bad’ arrogance that assumes that “most places” have even heard of May 1st as a “pro-labor” day …
April 19th, 2006 at 2:05:18 pm
May Day was the biggest holiday in the Soviet Union. WTF is Nun Mouse talking about?
April 19th, 2006 at 3:06:27 pm
“Only an idiot…only a complete idiot, in my opinion, would equate being ‘pro-worker’ with Socialism and Communism.”
You’re a riot, Mouse. Of course “pro-worker” doesn’t equate to socialism or communism in a LITERAL sense. But only a “complete idiot” would stop there. You might want to read up a little bit on the roots of socialism and communism, who the advocates of these schools of thought were and are, what they wanted (and continue to want), and how they have gone about trying to obtain it. To not see how the term “pro-woker” is linked with ideologies like socialism and communism, proponents of which routinely couch an anti-capitalist agenda in terms like “workers’ rights,” is to be so open minded that your brains might very well fall right out of your head.
The term “pro-worker” is no more descriptive of how one feels about workers than the term “pro-life” is descriptive about how one feels about life. Both terms are accurate in a sense, but woefully incomplete.