Actually, this seems to be the basic need of the human heart in nearly every great crisis – a good hot cup of coffee. ~ Alexander King

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Immigration Deal In Senate — “Democrats had once thought to stall any immigration legislation in order to kneecap the GOP in the upcoming elections, but the demonstrations forced them into action instead. Once the bill comes out of conference, it cannot be further amended or sent to committees for review. Both chambers must vote on it, which will make clear who supports action on border security and the resolution of the illegal-immigrant question. What we need to watch is the crucial composition of the conference committee and the amendments the Republicans can pass before the Senate version gets there.”

Right Wing News (John Hawkins) We Need Politicians Who Are More Concerned About Americans Like Ron White Than Illegal Aliens — “What we need are more politicians who put Americans first when it comes to illegal immigration. Unfortunately, outside of Republicans in the House and a few Republicans in the Senate, that message doesn’t seem to be getting through. Instead, most of our elected leaders seem obsessed with catering to illegal aliens who are uninvited and unwanted in this country by the vast majority of the American people. What they need to do is stop worrying about the illegals and start worrying about Americans like Ron White and his family.”

Stop The ACLU (Gribbit) Pentagon Looks At Putting National Guard On The Border — “Lefties all seem to think that this authorization is akin to the end of life on this planet as we know it. What do you think the primary mission of the Army was in the beginning? To secure us from invasion that’s what. And what do you call an unauthorized influx of 11 million people crossing our southern border? An invasion is what I would call it..”

The powers of a man’s mind are directly proportioned to the quantity of coffee he drinks. ~ Sir James Mackintosh

From The President’s Weekly Radio Address:

On Monday, I’ll visit Irvine, California, to discuss immigration reform with the local community. Immigration is an emotional issue. And it’s sparked passionate debate. When we discuss immigration, we’re talking about the integrity of our borders, the enforcement of our laws, and the character of our Nation.

Here’s what I believe: America does not have to choose between being a welcoming society and being a lawful society. We can be both at the same time. In the coming weeks, I’ll press Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform that secures our border, enforces our laws, meets the needs of our economy, and upholds our highest ideals.

We must also ensure that all immigrants assimilate into our society and learn our customs, our values, and our language. America is a land of immigrants and a Nation of laws. And we must stay true to both parts of this great heritage.

Emphasis mine. Let’s hope it is Congress’s as well.

From the wonderfully skewed mind of Scott Ott:

In a grassroots counterprotest against yesterday’s nationwide rallies by illegal aliens, today millions of documented U.S. citizens took to their desks, factories, shops and other job sites to demonstrate their commitment to U.S. law and the American work ethic.

Read it all, or you can listen.

Thank you for your coffee, seignor. I shall miss that when we leave Casablanca. ~ Ingrid Bergman

In The Bullpen (Chad Evans) U.S. Soldier Returns from Iraq and Tells ABC We Aren’t Getting the Full Iraq Picture — “As posted the other day, a Reuters panel concluded the very same thing; that we aren’t getting the full picture of Iraq. In most areas of news, violence overrides other events.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Immigration Compromise Dies On Democratic Obstinacy — “We have a historic opportunity to do something right for border security and immigration policy for the first time in generations through the control of the House, Senate, and White House. Just as they did with judicial nominees, the Republican Senate caucus has shown a lack of will to fight for its agenda — and they will inspire a similar lack of enthusiasm among conservative voters in November if they continue to run up the white flag every time the Democrats challenge them on core issues.”

The American Thinker (Thomas Lifson) Laws are not optional — “Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, has taken into his pretty little head the notion that he gets to pick and choose which laws to enforce. He flouted state law when he performed bogus “marriages” of homosexual couples, and now he has announced that he will flout any federal legislation that criminalizes assisting illegal immigration.”

Michelle Malkin COX & FORKUM VS. NBC/DATELINE — Michelle performs a bit of a bump draft on the NBC news-making department.

bRight & Early (Jim Lynch) New NASCAR Entry — Yes, I know this is my own site. I just want to make sure that visitors to this entry see my contribution to the NASCAR/Dateline story.

It looks as if any action on an immigration reform bill will have to wait.

A carefully crafted compromise that supporters had claimed could win an overwhelming majority received only 38 of the 60 votes necessary to protect it from weakening amendments by opponents.

Republicans were united in the 38-60 parliamentary vote but Democrats, who have insisted on no amendments, lost six votes from their members.

An alternative bill by Majority Leader Bill Frist — with no provision to let illegal immigrants stay but imposing large fines on employers who hire them — received even less support in a 36-62 test vote.

On the up side, this will give me more time to complete my series on immigration.

As our representatives in Congress make their latest attempt at legislation regarding immigration let me lay out my thoughts. Originally this post was slated for posting on Tuesday, but it has grown in size and taken much more time than I had originally anticipated. I’m going to break it up into smaller pieces over the next several days.

The entire immigration debate is actually composed of several components: Cultural/Racial, Security, Economic, Amnesty, Practicality, Political, and perhaps others. Let’s examine them one by one.

Cultural/Racial

It is interesting to me that, except for the issue of assimilation, the cultural/racial component is not a motivation behind the call for reform. That’s not to say that there haven’t been attempts to portray it as a racial issue. There have been many. It is the main cudgel that those opposed to any toughening of the law use to try and intimidate the opposition.

Jay Tea had a very interesting post on Tuesday (04.04.06) that examines the difference between immigrants and colonists.

The recent mass protests in favor of illegal aliens showed their true colors — red, white, and green. Mexican flags were highly prominent, in some cases even being flown over United States flags (and in one stunning display of contempt, flying over an inverted American flag).

These are not the actions of immigrants. This is a declaration of intent by would-be colonists.

My great grandmother came to the United States from Warsaw. I can only recall meeting her once when I was three or four years old (she was the only one of my ‘greats’ alive when I was born). I remember that her English was very hard to understand and that she spoke to other members of the family in a language I didn’t know.

Her son, my grandfather, worked in a sugar factory (so I’ve been told) years before I was born. When he began working there his Foreman told him, “from now on you’re Smith,” and that was the family name for quite a few years. I have his WWI discharge papers with the name Stanley A. Smith on them.

In the very early Fourties Grandpop moved his family to a farm in Ewan, NJ. It was there that they once again began using the original family name — Szymanski. Mom was in third grade and had to re-learn to spell her own name.

The point of that story is this, from my great grandmother’s broken English, to my grandfather’s service in WWI, to the entire family history, there was always cultural pride, but there was an even greater pride in being Americans. They brought their heritage and made it a part of the melting pot, but their desire was to be Americans.

While I am sure that there are racists who favor strong immigration reform there is no QED that all who favor reform do so based on race. In fact, most of the arguments and discussion that I’ve read make it very clear that race plays no part in their opinions.

This issue is not about race, but it does include the idea of assimilation. I first remember learning about the concept of a ‘melting pot’ back in the days of the fondue craze, and I’ve always tied the two together. Irish, Polish, English, German, and French are my melting pot. The greater American melting pot includes all races, all nationalities, all backgrounds. Assimilation makes them a part of the bigger whole. But throw a rock into the fondue pot and it remains a rock. It may be covered with cheddar, but it is still a rock at it’s core.

Very few of those who are here illegally show any interest in adopting and adapting to being American. This must be part of any plan for reform if it is to have any success at all. To leave this out will actually foster racism by those who are more interested in their race then in being citizens.

In the next post I’ll take a look at the Security component. Can we all agree that secure borders are important? I think so too.

UPDATE: I am sure that many others are writing on this topic. If you have a post dealing with the Racial/Cultural aspect of illegal immigration, please create a trackback to this post, leave a comment, or drop an email to lakelandjim at gmail dot com.

Linked with TMH’s Bacon Bits Bacon Break — Palm Sunday Weekend and the picnic at basil’s blog.

I believe humans get a lot done, not because we’re smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee. ~ Flash Rosenberg

Here it is, better late than never.

Confederate Yankee Time to Leave — “Senate Republicans released a new immigration proposal Wednesday night that amounts to little more than a graduated amnesty program, rewarding the most those who have broken federal immigration laws the longest.”

Michelle Malkin NASCAR SMACKS DOWN NBC — “I spoke this afternoon with Ramsey Poston, managing director of corporate communications at NASCAR. He’s on his way down to Texas for the NASCAR race this weekend, and he responded to NBC Dateline’s undercover Muslim stings, which I first reported on yesterday morning.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Why The GOP Needs To Pursue School Vouchers — “The GOP still has a window of opportunity to create meaningful educational reform through competition. When the New York Times reports on how successful such a program has been for disadvantaged children, it indicates that the old politics of education no longer apply.”

Big Lizards (Dafydd) Heck, Big Lizards Can Break This Silly Logjam — “If we were brokering this debate, we’d have a workable compromise in about two minutes.”

Blue Star Chronicles Meet Brian Chontosh — ” received the following in one of those forwarded emails. I figured it was an Urban Legion – so I looked it up. It’s a true story. So I thought it was well worth sharing here as it won’t be in the MSM.” [If you only read one of these stories, make it this one. Jim]

The drink that comforteth the brain and heart and helpeth digestion. ~ Sir Francis Bacon

That quote’s for you TMH.

WILLisms (Ken McCracken) Saddam’s Reckoning For Genocide — “Saddam Hussein has been formally charged with genocide, in addition for the crime of killing 148 men and boys in the Shiite village of Dujail for which he is already standing trial. Saddam is now charged for the so-called ‘Anfal Campaign’ he waged in 1988 against the Kurdish people of Iraq, including chemical attacks. Ali Hassan al-Majid, or “Chemical Ali” is also charged.”

The Jawa Report (Bluto) Aztlan: What the Illegals Really Want — “Wormed into the very heart of the illegal immigrant “civil rights” movement is the concept of Aztlan, and people like Hector Carreon.”

Michelle Malkin ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO STAGE — “Mailbox is filling up with reaction to my blog post this morning about NBC’s Dateline show and its apparent Nascar fans-must-be-racist sting.” Read through the samples she provides. My Favorite — “Reader L. suggests the following NASCAR banners: Nascar welcomes NBC-Muslim Sting operation!”

Related to that story:

In The Bullpen (Chad Evans) NBC News Seeks ‘Muslim Sikhs’ (heh) for News Story — “Sikhs are not Muslim, they are Sikhs which is based on Hinduism. [...] For the most part, Sikhs aren’t Arab either. Never let specifics get in the way of a good manufactured story though.”

Be sure to read Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey’s) coverage of Able Providence here and here along with this Able Providence Background. — “The new program, Able Providence, wants to produce data as a shared resource for all intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, placed under the joint supervision of the DNI and the Joint Chiefs. For those of us who have followed the Able Danger effort and worried that a vital effort had been abandoned, this is exceptionally good news.”

Coffee is good for talent, but genius wants prayer. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Confederate Yankee And what was it before? — “The NY Times released an anonymous editorial Sunday titled, “The Endgame in Iraq.” To read it is to understand why the Times is failing both financially and intellectually.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Lighting A Fire Underneath Them — “Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw made an unannounced visit to Iraq today in order to send an unusually public message to the political factions that have stalemated the formation of a new government. Both bluntly told the press that they want to press for a unity government now, not two months from now, in order to end the political vacuum that has Iraqis losing patience with their national assembly:”

Blue Star Chronicles (Beth) Death Threats in Denmark — “Americans have very short attention spans. Of course, that’s what the mullah’s count on. Osama BenOver himself once said that all they had to do was be patient, because we would lose focus.”

SoCalPundit (Kevin K.) How Many Bureaucrats Does It Take To Manage A Guest Worker Program? — “I have a question. Has anyone given any thought to the bureaucracy that will be necessary to run a guest worker program for 11 million aliens and millions more employers of the course of the next however many years?”

The Strata-Sphere (AJ Strata) Fitzgerald Blinks, Tries To Keep Job — “It looks like Fitzgerald has started to take some heat and attempt a tactical retreat. He must have been assessing Libby’s defense claim that his mandate is unconstitutional and learned the cold hard truth: the defense is right:”

If you have any coffee quotes, please send them my way. I’m begining to run out. Just use the contact link at the top of the page. Thanks.

The first cup is for the guest, the second for enjoyment, the third for the sword. ~ An old Arabic saying

TMH’s Bacon Bits (The [jet-lagged] MaryHunter) Thomas Sowell on Education Bias — “Intriguing and refreshing were Prof. Sowell’s comments on the rampant bias we see in universities today.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Swann Leads Rendell — “NFL Hall-of-Famer Lynn Swann’s campaign for governor in Pennsylvania has generated more than its share of skepticism. Some questioned whether the former Pittsburgh Steeler could translate his home-state popularity into real political support, especially against an experienced and wily pol like Ed Rendell. The skeptics appear to have miscalculated in this case, however.”

Blogs for Bush (Mark Noonan) Victor Davis Hanson Nails it Again — “Thirty years of allowing race-baiting politicians to cynically play up to hispanic separatism, and this is what we’ve got – hundreds of thousands of Mexicans demonstrating in our streets, demanding that America give them what they want (and there’s no other way to describe them other than as Mexicans…they sure in heck waved enough Mexican flags to convince anyone paying attention).”

Ankle Biting Pundits (Bulldogpundit) The Colin Powell Speech — “Tonight I had the privilege of attending a speech by Colin Powell at Kutztown University. It was a great experience. Powell is an amazing, funny and highly engaging speaker. The only downside was that I didn’t get to meet him. A few highlights from his speech that may be of interest to you.”

Big Lizards (Dafydd) The Two Branches of Government — “The permanent (or “bureaucratic”) wing of government prevails from Congress to Congress and across all administrations. It never disappears; new members are simply assimilated, Borg-like, into the massmind. Old members are sloughed off like a snake shedding its skin to expose the bright, pink, new skin beneath… which in mere hours looks just like the old skin (and believe me, thisssss is sssomething I have sssssssstudied.)”

Nancy Astor: “If I were your wife, I would put poison in your coffee.”
Sir Winston Churchill: “And if I were your husband, I would drink it.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Gray Lady Misrepresents FISA Testimony — “The New York Times has panicked into a serious misrepresentation of the testimony given to the Senate Judiciary Committee by five former FISA judges. Power Line looks at the transcript of the committee hearing and discovers that reporter Eric Lichtblau, who predicated his new book on the supposed illegality of the secret NSA terrorist surveillance program, wrote dishonestly about their appearance in yesterday’s hearing.”

Sister Toldjah TIME magazine publishes hit piece on Rahman and the Christian right — “Since when did Rahman become a “poster boy” for the Christian right? Does the Christian left not support religious freedom or something? Is the Christian left not concerned with the fact that a man was nearly put to death over the “crime” of converting to Christianity in a country where our military (and that of our coaltion) has shed blood and lost lives fighting for things like religious freedom?”

The Jawa Report (Bluto) Cynthia McKinney: Why She Punched That Pesky Cop — “Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) allegedly assaulted an officer of the law earlier today, when he failed to recognize her as she rushed past a metal detector. While members of Congress are not required to go through the Capitol metal detectors, they are supposed to present their credentials. McKinney was in too big a hurry to be bothered complying with one of the people who help ensure her safety.”

Michelle Malkin DOCUMENTS OF THE “UNDOCUMENTED” — “Search Google News for the term “undocumented.” You’ll get thousands of hits like these:” [Great visuals. -- Jim]

Blogs for Bush (Mark Noonan) The Death of the Guest Worker Program? — “While the Senate bill on immigration reform has a provision for allowing illegals currently here to remain (in a sort of modified guest worker program), Senator Frist – testing the waters for a Presidential bid and also understanding of political reality – seems to be backing away from support for anything hinting of amnesty.”

Give a frontiersman coffee and tobacco, and he will endure any privation, suffer any hardship, but let him be without these two necessaries of the woods, and he becomes irresolute and murmuring ~ U.S. Army Lt. William Whiting, 1849

California Conservative (Gary Gross) And Then What? — “Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, AKA the Dim-witted Duo, along with Congressional Democrats, are promising to capture bin Laden, a neat trick if they could pull it off.”

Red State (Leon H. Wolf) McCain-Kennedy: A Good Bill Or, In Which I Don My Asbestos Shorts — “I have come to a very simple conclusion: despite the demonization of this bill as a “soft on immigration” “amnesty proposal,” this bill is neither of those things. It’s not a perfect bill (no bill is), but it’s a surprisingly good one, and the Republican Senators who voted it out of Committee absolutely do not deserve to treatment they have received in some quarters of the conservative blogosphere.”

Or for a different perspective.

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) A Virtual Wall Brings Virtual Amnesty — “[T]he bare minimum necessary for such a program to succeed is border security successful enough that it forces those who want to enter the US to do so through either legal immigration or the guest worker program. And that is precisely where the Senate bill fails, and fails miserably.”

SoCalPundit (Kevin K.) Oh, The World Owes Me A Living… — “Judging by the riots going on in France in the last few days over a new law, making it easier for employers to dismiss young workers during the first two years of employment, French kids apparently think that they not only deserve a good job with good pay and lots of vacation time, but plenty of job security as well.”

Dr. Sanity (Pat Santy) DOGMA , DENIAL, AND DIBS ON THE KOOL-AID — “Just a few days ago I predicted that the left would be unable to deal with the information coming out in the recently released Iraq documents:”