So Cardinal Roger Mahoney today called a special Mass to kick off a period of fasting and protest against the current immigration reforms being debated on Capitol Hill. The special Mass follows his earlier precedent of having a special Mass for the victims of the sex abuse scandal… oh wait, no, that never happened because Cardinal Mahoney completely refused to cooperate with any of the victims whatsoever and did everything he could to cover up for the priests under his purview who were responsible.

So, apparently Cardinal Mahoney’s stance is consistent: In each case, he stands for lawbreakers and seeks to shirk the rule of law; in each case, he does what is in his and his diocese’s best financial interest (fighting the victims instead of making settlements; fighting for the hoardes of illegal immigrants that are the only thing standing in the way from his diocese’s total demographic collapse) instead of what is moral and just.

In case you’re wondering, I have a special disaffinity for Cardinal Mahoney, who was given an honorary degree at my USC commencement ceremony in 2002 for being a “champion of dialogue and understanding”. Unfortunately I will be forever linked to that scumbag.

Are the conditions ripe for another Ross Perot? InstaPundit thinks so.

This all relates to the immigration issue, about which Mickey Kaus’s take is worth reading.

David Gonzalez, one of the estimated 500,000 protesters in Los Angeles, responding to the argument that immigration laws should be tightened for national-security reasons: “When did you ever see a Mexican blow up the World Trade Center? Who do you think built the World Trade Center?” Heh.

“We are not at war with Mexico,” declared Arizona governor Janet Napolitano last week after ordering more National Guard troops sent to the border to crack down on illegal immigration.

Now comes this news, which Fark summarizes as: “Huge oil field discovered off the shore of Mexico. The bombing will begin in five minutes.” Heh. So perhaps Napolitano’s troops will come in handy after all. :)

Guestblogger: Josh Rubin

This has got to be one of the most asinine things I’ve seen in a while. A student in Kansas City, Kan. was suspended from school because he dared to speak Spanish in the hallway of his high school. The principal simply said that this was not the first time the student had been asked “not to speak Spanish at school.” This is “reasonable” because Kansas has an English-only law.

Um, hello? Regardless of the fact that this student is the son of a Hispanic immigrant, last time I checked, many high schools in the country still offered foreign language courses. Are we going to take this “English-only” instruction to the point where even having a conversation in another language is reason enough for suspending a student? Maybe we should prohibit the teaching of foreign languages altogether.

True, it is important for immigrants to be able to understand and converse in the nation’s dominant language, but we should not require it of them … And we certainly should not hold it against an American-born student speaking what is a second first-language to him.

As the Minuteman Project in Arizona winds down, the “vigilantes” gained a new ally this past week in CA Governor Ahnold Schwarzenegger.

The day before, the Governator called into KFI640’s John and Ken Show to denounce some outrageous billboards that have been put up by local Spanish language Channel 62. You can listen to Ahnold on The John and Ken Show here.

Here’s a picture of the offensive billboard that is causing a ton of outrage here in Southern California:

Of course, KFI640 has a great counter:

Heh.

UPDATE: Close observers may note an amusing irony: The rented billboard in this picture is owned by ClearChannel, the same company that owns KFI640 and broadcasts The John and Ken Show. That just goes to show that no matter where you stand politically, the color of money is still green.

For those of use who are moderately interested in this sort of thing, it turns out that Vincente Fox and his cronies are putting the screws to the one guy who could win the next presidential election in Mexico.

Suspiciously, as soon as Lopez Obrador started doing extremely well in the polls, the courts decided that it was necessary to charge him with a lame crime, thus dashing his chances of being president.

If I may rant, this is one of the things that really angers me about a lot of countries south of the border. These corrupt governments enrich themselves at the expense of the people and instead of investing in the future, they build these ridiculous mansions and such. If these jerks would invest more in the future of their countries, the average Jose wouldn’t be so poor that he has to live under a tin roof.

I’m no policy maker, but it seems to be that the US would do itself a favor to pressure the Mexican government to improve its schools and infrastructure because if people had opportunity there, they wouldn’t risk their lives crossing the border to the US. If the US and Mexico were more equivalent in terms of wealth and such, there’s no way people would flock to San Diego when they could just as easily work in Puerto Villarta or Cabo San Lucas or any number of Mexican cities.

Anyway. Corruption is bad.

And yes, I realize that all illegal immigrants are not from Mexico, but since I started the post talking about Mexico, I wanted to try to keep a sense of parallel structure. Besides, I like Mexico.

And the title is a reference to a South Park episode where Cartman’s hand believes that it’s Jennifer Lopez and starts singing to Ben Affleck about how their love almost makes her forget about tacos. :) Seriously, one of the best SP episodes ever!

This is just a little too ‘1984′ for me…

A 23-year-old Phoenix resident was arrested in Hartford, Michigan, a town roughly 50 miles north of South Bend, for smuggling 13 undocumented Mexican immigrants, apparently traveling from Nogales to New York via Michiana.

The FBI announced today that there never was a Boston dirty-bomb threat; the alleged plot was concocted by a vengeful immigrant smuggler to get back at people who didn’t pay him.

Is Arizona, which was an al-Qaeda hotbed in the run-up to 9/11, in the terrorists’ sights once again? Could be, according to the right-wing Tombstone Tumbleweed of Tombstone, AZ:

TWO GROUPS OF MIDDLE-EASTERN INVADERS CAUGHT IN COCHISE COUNTY IN PAST SIX WEEKS…

A flood of middle-eastern males have been caught entering the country illegally east of Douglas, Arizona. The increased patrols in the Huachuca Mountains area of Cochise County, seems to have diverted the flow of OTM’s, “other than Mexicans,” east to the Chiricahua Mountains. …

On or about the early morning hours of June 13, 2004, Border Patrol agents from the Willcox station encountered a large group of suspected illegal border crossers, estimated to be around 158, just east of the Sanders Ranch near the foothills of the Chiricauha Mountains. 71 suspected illegal aliens were apprehended; among them were 53 males of middle-eastern descent.

According to a Border Patrol field agent, the men were suspected to be Iranian or possibly Syrian nationals. “One thing’s for sure: these guys didn’t speak Spanish and after we questioned them harder we discovered they spoke poor English with a middle-eastern accent; then we caught them speaking to each other in Arabic…this is ridiculous that we don’t take this more seriously, and we’re told not to say a thing to the media, but I have to,” said the agent, who spoke to the Tumbleweed with the promise of anonymity.

[Information officer Andy] Adame confirms the groups of illegals were apprehended on those dates in the same area but stated, “There were no middle easterners in the group. Every single one of them was Mexican.” …

[But] the information was corroborated by a local rancher in the area who reports that sightings of groups similar to these are on the rise. …

On or about the evening of June 21, 2004, agents from the Willcox Border Patrol station apprehended 24 members of a larger group of Arabic speaking males located just east of the Pierce/Sunsites area of Cochise County. At least half of the males escaped capture and disappeared into the United States.

A couple of important notes. First, I don’t know how much stock to put in this story. I’m unfamiliar with the source, but it’s clearly a rather right-wing, harshly anti-illegal-immigration site just from the word choice (”invaders,” etc.), and it’s entirely possible that somebody is just griding an axe here.

Second, not all Middle Easterners or Arabic-speaking men are terrorists, obviously. Maybe these are just run-of-the-mill immigrants who want to make money and pursue the American dream, but fear they will not be allowed into the country legally because of post-9/11 immigration restrictions and ethnic suspicions.

On the other hand, maybe they’re terrorists.

Lending credence — perhaps — to the latter explanation is this AP report:

The FBI warned police in California and New Mexico that it received information about possible terrorist activity in their states. However, the warning wasn’t specific about particular targets or a method of attack, a federal law enforcement official said Thursday. …

The vague warning was distributed to authorities in California, New Mexico and some other Western states the official did not identify.

Well, I figured this was at least worth mentioning. If it is true that large numbers of Middle Eastern men are crossing the border illegally, it’s only prudent to wonder whether something is up (just as it’s prudent to wonder about that whole “Terror in the Skies” thing).

We report, you decide.

UPDATE: More suspicious activity in the Southwest:

U.S. officials are investigating a South African woman whom they say tried to board a flight near the United States-Mexico border with an altered passport, amid reports that South African passports have ended up in the hands of terrorists. Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed, 48, was arrested on July 19 at the McAllen airport and charged four days later with illegal entry into the United States, falsifying information and falsifying a passport. She was denied bail on Tuesday by a federal magistrate. This comes as U.S. officials confirm a threat of al Qaeda recruiting non-Arabs to plan an attack inside the United States.

More here.

Andrew wanted a post on Bush’s new proposed immigration policy. Here it is. I haven’t read enough about it yet to have an informed opinion, though I agree it is very important. But nevermind me — comment away! :)