Posted on 04/27/2006 6:34:19 AM PDT by IrishMike
IRVINE - Laurie Lisonbee worried about illegal immigration, but figured it was somebody else's issue -- until she saw hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters marching across her TV screen.
Soon, Lisonbee recruited several friends to attend a demonstration by the Minuteman Project, a volunteer group that patrols the border to keep out illegal immigrants. Now, the 51-year-old art professor checks the group's Web site daily and plans a summer trip to the Mexican border to help build a fence.
Minuteman organizers say this spring's marches have proved to be an unexpected recruitment tool for Americans who feel uneasy about the burgeoning immigration movement but may have considered the organization a pack of gun-toting vigilantes.
''We're not trying to be more mainstream -- mainstream has found us,'' said Stephen Eichler, the group's executive director. ''They're saying, 'These guys actually have teeth, they don't all chew tobacco, they don't all have a gun rack in the back of their truck.' They're saying, 'They believe what I believe,' and they're joining us.''
Lisonbee, a registered Republican, said only one issue matters to her now.
(Excerpt) Read more at montereyherald.com ...
The Minuteman Project gained attention last year when Orange County resident and former tax accountant Jim Gilchrist helped lead its first 30-day patrol of the border in Arizona. The group has added mainstream political tools, including a network of local chapters and e-mail lobbying campaigns.
In December, Gilchrist, a former Republican, ran as a third-party candidate in a special House election in Orange County, finished a respectable third with 25 percent of the vote.
Since this spring's huge pro-immigrant rallies, 300 people nationwide have applied to start local chapters, according to Eichler. The group's goal is 500 chapters by December and a membership of 1 million within 1½ years, Eichler said....>
<....''The debate has kind of come to them, and they're clever enough politically to realize that,'' Meyer said. ''People in mainstream politics who are not associated with the Minuteman Project are essentially voicing their position, which is a victory itself.''...>
''My vote will go to the candidate who's the toughest on immigration, whether they're Democrat or Republican,'' she said..."
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While the emotion is understood, it would be just like a ThugoRat to make all kinds of wild claims about closing the border, etc. then, after being elected, DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about it. IMHO, the holder of the White House will drive the issue and make something tangible happen BEFORE the 2008 election.
No bias here...
May Day to Celebrate the Cancer of Illegal Immigration?
http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_27265341.shtml
By E. Ralph Hostetter
Apr 26, 2006
The United States in a sense of the word has a "cancer." The word sounds shocking. It is shocking.
AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY defines the noun “cancer” as "a tumor that tends to invade healthy tissue and spread to new sites." WEBSTER extends the definition generically to "anything bad or harmful that spreads and destroys."
Up to now, the tumor has been benign.
It's time for straight talk. Pablum phrases - such as "Immigration is good for America; America was built by immigrants; It is un-American to think of building walls, only Communists build walls" - must be analyzed.
Taking the last phrase, "Only Communists build walls," reveals nothing more than the ignorance of the speaker. The Berlin Wall was built to restrain, almost imprison, East Berliners, forcing them to live under a brutal dictatorship as intellectual slaves. By contrast, an effective wall along the Mexican Border would keep out unlawful immigrants.
Growing at a rapid rate, the flood of illegal immigrants across our Southern Border is reaching the proportions of an invasion. Too much immigration, too quickly and without proper procedure, is not good for our country.
America's “tumor” is already the size of a “nation” within our nation. At a reported figure of 12 million illegals since the amnesty of 1986, the total, including offspring, by some estimates is now approximating 20 million. This "nation" of perhaps some 20 million undocumented residents within the United States has a population larger than many United Nations member nations.
Associated Press MSM article..... Bias there.
I think MM folks should start looking at House seats in their states. I would think that a state House seat in NM would be fairly cheap to win. Yes, it would have been great to get Gilchrist in US House and that was a valiant effort. But the way to do that is to build lower. I hope some of you activists in MM will seriously consider doing the longterm work of running for a state office and building from the ground up.
I have no doubt that actual "vigilante" groups have swelled in members dur to the hysteria being whipped up - I do not consider the Minuteman Project a "vigilante" group (yet). I cannot say the same about Glenn Spencer and American Border Patrol.
Guess I'm a vigilante, too. I've reported a few of crimes in progress, & suspicious activity in the neighborhood, to cops in my time.
Called in a grass/brush fire or three, too, even while taking a hose or shovel into my own hands.
Yep, I'm vigilant as well.
That's not even within the definition of "vigilante" - this would be, however:
September 12, 2004 apartment arson fire that killed 10 illegal aliens, including 3 infants, in Columbus, Ohio - around 2:30 am, the killer(s) doused with gasoline the stairwells which were the only fire escape routes. The fire hydrant nearest the apartment building had been disabled by an impact from a vehicle - there were tire skid marks of the impact.
See post #11 - would that be a "vigilante" in your opinion?
That would be arson and murder. nothing more, nothing less.
See post #11 - would that be a "vigilante" in your opinion?
You say that like being a vigilante is a bad thing.
You are correct.
NOTHING will be done by whomever is in the white house.
Just out of curiousity. Where all 10 victims in one apartment?
killer(s) or Murderer(s) .... take your pick
Sounds more like what one would expect from a drug deal gone bad. Insurance arson is also a possibility.
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