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Thank you Mr. Chairman. I testify today not as a wise Latina woman, but as an American who believes that skin color and national origin should not determine who gets a job, promotion, or public contract, or who gets into college or receives a scholarship. My message today is straightforward, Mr. Chairman: Do not vote to confirm this nominee. I say this with some regret, because I believe Judge Sotomayor’s personal story is an inspiring one, which proves that this is truly a land of opportunity where circumstances of birth and class do not determine whether you can succeed. Unfortunately,...

When will the failing U.S. economy become President Obama's problem? To date, the president seems immune to criticism of his handling of the economy, except from conservatives. Job losses continue to mount, despite his promises that his "stimulus" plan would create jobs and stop rising unemployment. The housing market shows no sign of imminent recovery, with prices continuing to decline and more homeowners falling behind on their payments. Retail sales fell again in June, with even value stores like Costco experiencing drops in sales. And the federal debt has risen under President Obama to its highest level as a percentage...

One of the great dangers in dealing with a crisis is making major, long-term decisions based on the immediate circumstances unique to the problem you're trying to fix. In the case of the current financial crisis the conventional wisdom is that it is the result of poor oversight and loose regulation, so the Obama administration's answer is to layer on more regulations and greatly expand the role of the Federal Reserve. But the cure may be worse than the disease. It's not often I agree with Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, but he hit the nail on the head when he...

THE diversity crowd doesn't really believe in diversity. In fact, what it's really aiming for is conformity of opinion. This crowd expects that members of racial and ethnic groups will adhere to liberal orthodoxy, and woe to those who don't fall into line. If Judge Sonia Sotomayor were a conservative or the nominee of a Republican president, we'd be hearing that she wasn't an "authentic" Latina at all. I recall similar arguments used by my critics when I was the first Latina nominated to a US Cabinet back in 2001. You're only celebrated as the "first" by the diversity crowd...

President Obama reminds me of the fellow who's off to save the world while he ignores the disaster in his own backyard. Instead of focusing on the urgent problems facing the country -- the credit crisis and the collapse of the housing market -- he's diverting scarce resources and attention to solving health care, reforming education, and stopping global climate change. Worse, his efforts to tackle these intractable issues involve fiscal policies that exacerbate the current financial crisis. He is not only driving the deficit up to unsustainable heights, his policies will amount to a huge tax on all Americans....

Hubris is the word that comes to mind as I listen to President Obama lay out his plan to rescue the economy, create 4 million jobs, halve the deficit in four years, and give quality health care to every American. The man has big ambitions and an even bigger ego. It has been one of the most troubling aspects of his character as it has emerged on the national scene in the last two years. He seems, almost literally, to believe he walks on water. No one — no matter how talented — could accomplish a fraction of what Obama...

We're a nation of cowards -- or at least the attorney general of the United States thinks we are. In a speech at the Justice Department celebrating Black History Month, Attorney General Eric Holder said: "Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards." It seems a rather peculiar statement coming from the first black attorney general, moreover, one appointed by the first black man elected president. Holder's complaint is that, "We, as average Americans, simply...

By all means we need a little moral courage when it comes to discussing race — and Eric Holder was in a perfect position to begin that discussion. But instead, he simply trotted out the well-worn shibboleths about intolerance and racial division. He might have taken another course. The elephant in the room in discussions of race isn’t white prejudice; it’s the breakdown of the black family and all the attendant social pathologies that emanate from it. When 7-out-of-10 black babies are born to single women and more than half of black children spend most of their childhood without a...

President Obama is learning it is a lot easier to reverse unpopular positions of his predecessor than it is to come up with better ones of his own. On Thursday, he signed executive orders aimed at shutting down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, which houses some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world. His orders also restricted interrogation methods that can be used by the CIA to elicit information from suspects and eliminated secret overseas detention facilities run by the CIA. Earlier, he suspended military commission hearings that were established to hear cases against those held at Guantanamo, including...

When word broke that Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner had failed to pay employment taxes he owed for several years, the reaction in Washington was gentle. Politicians on both sides of the aisle defended Geithner as an excellent choice to head the Treasury in these troubled financial times and predicted that the incident would be little more than a hiccup in his confirmation process. The news media covered the breaking story, but without the hype and round-the-clock stories they've run when nominees hit a snag in the past. Does this mean that Barack Obama's ascendance to the presidency is ushering...

No one wants to talk about who is most to blame for the financial crisis that now threatens the U.S. economy, though there is plenty of blame to go around. It is far easier to blame other people -- greedy Wall Street executives, predatory lenders, President Bush, federal regulators, members of Congress --than it is to look at ourselves. For too long, Americans have been living on borrowed money they could never pay back. We've bought houses we couldn't afford and taken out loans on home equity that didn't materialize, assuming housing values would continually move upward. We've paid for...

A majority minority nation: that's what the U.S. Census Bureau is projecting by the year 2042, according to new figures released this week. By mid-century, according to the government's projections, Hispanics, Asians and blacks will outnumber non-Hispanic whites by about 32 million. The statistics make for interesting headlines -- and, no doubt, cause heartburn in certain circles -- but the fact is: they are more or less meaningless. The problem in all such predictions is that they don't take sufficient account of intermarriage and assimilation. From our founding as a nation, there have been those who worried that "foreigners" would...

The professional odds-makers favor Barack Obama two-to-one to win the election. It's no wonder. Americans overwhelmingly believe the country is on the wrong track. They can't stand the current Republican occupant of the White House. The economy is weak and shows little sign of getting significantly stronger before the election. The country is fighting an unpopular war. And Obama, as he reminds us every time he opens his mouth, is all about "change." So why hasn't Obama closed the deal? Most national polls show Obama ahead -- but by margins so thin it can hardly give comfort to the putative...

It is common to hear folks betrayed by the Republican Party say things like: "The GOP is out of touch with its base..." Saying this is akin to a beaten house wife looking for something good in her abuser husband. "He'll change, I just need to pay attention to his needs..." My thoughts are that anyone who is still a member of the GOP is either suffering from Stockholm syndrome, or they support open borders. It is really that simple. Some people look to the GOP as an antithetical solution to B. Hussein Obama, but this is highly unfortunate manner...

There is only one way to drive down the rising cost of gasoline for the long term: significantly increase the domestic supply of oil. We are the only nation in the world with access to known oil deposits on our own land or off our shores that essentially refuses to tap those resources. ... Instead of coming up with real solutions to our growing energy crisis, the Democrats in Congress would rather rail against the oil companies. But oil company executives don't set the price of oil - and taxing their companies more won't do anything to lower the cost...

It wasn't exactly the news the Obama campaign hoped to make this week: "Obama Aide Quits Under Fire for His Business Ties." But that was the headline in The New York Times, with variations in other major papers. The aide in question was the head of Barack Obama's vice presidential search committee, Jim Johnson, described by the Washington Post as "a consummate Washington insider." But the insider is now out, and the flap raises new questions about Obama's judgment. Why is it that Obama surrounds himself with people who carry so much baggage? You would think that a candidate who...

[snip] And that brings us at last to the real question raised by this transfixing episode in our national life, which is not whether Jeremiah Wright is pernicious and hateful in his views. Anyone who is not in thrall to an ideological loathing of America can see that plainly enough. It is whether Obama is right when he asserts that Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ embody “the black community in its entirety.” If he is right, then there is a central flaw in the declared premise underlying his campaign for President—the premise that his election offers a...

As if a housing crisis, rising energy costs and a soft labor market weren't enough to cause economic anxiety for the average American, now consumers are feeling the pinch of rapidly escalating food costs. The United States has long prided itself in being the breadbasket of the world, and Americans have traditionally paid a smaller share of their income on food than citizens of other developed countries. But the days of cheap milk, bread, beef and poultry may well be over — and Uncle Sam is partly to blame. In 2007, the cost of a gallon of milk increased 26...

Michelle Obama struck a raw nerve earlier this week when she suggested she had never been proud of her country until now. "For the first time in my adult lifetime," the 44-year-old wife of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama told a Milwaukee crowd, "I'm really proud of my country." Conservative pundits and bloggers were quick to criticize Mrs. Obama. And even Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy, let it be known that she has never had any problem being proud of her country. Most liberals, on the other hand, were willing to give Michelle Obama the benefit of the doubt....

Linda Chavez argues that, of the Republican candidates seeking the presidency, only John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are qualified. "Many of the Republicans, whatever else their appeal, simply don’t have the experience to lead America during wartime. Mitt Romney doesn’t have the gravitas needed; he’s too eager to please, willing to shape his positions according to the polls. Much the same can be said of Mike Huckabee. Ron Paul is a bona fide crank. Last week we learned, for example, that he not only opposes the war in Iraq, but that he regards the Civil War as a mistake as...

The world became a more dangerous place this week with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The country, a linchpin in the war on terrorism, is wracked with violence, endangering not just Pakistanis but all of us. If Islamic fundamentalists are able to exploit the current chaos and gain control of the government -- an unspeakable but not inconceivable possibility -- we will be faced with a nuclear-armed enemy rather than one that relies on suicide belts and roadside bombs. All of this should focus voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, who are about to make their choice...

 Destroying CIA Tapes Deserves a Thank You By Linda Chavez Friday, December 21, 2007 His name isn't yet familiar to most Americans, but I expect it will be by the end of 2008: Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. He is the man, according to recent press reports, who ordered the destruction of interrogation tapes made by the CIA, which allegedly show the effects of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" used against terrorists Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. In the next few months, his name will likely be dragged through the mud, and he will be vilified as a rogue official...

The chairman of a federal civil rights panel clashed yesterday with Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart over the recent crackdown on illegal immigrants approved by the board. Linda Chavez, a conservative commentator who heads a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights panel examining whether the crackdown violates federal antidiscrimination laws, said she believed the supervisors based their action largely on anecdotal evidence of problems.... "Watching this, it seemed like there was little fact-finding prior to the board's consideration of this resolution. You seemed to have made up your minds [in advance]," Chavez said.... Stewart (R-At Large),...

For the past year, Hillary Clinton's Democratic presidential nomination has seemed inevitable. She raised more money than any presidential candidate in history. She performed well in an endless series of debates. She carved out careful positions on difficult issues, protecting her left flank while not alienating moderates. She used her husband to woo crowds and raise money, while never letting him overshadow her on the hustings. But now, just weeks before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, the Clinton campaign has suddenly lost its air of invincibility. With Barack Obama now surging in the polls, Hillary has begun to...

U.S. Civil Rights Panel Faults Pr. William Immigration Plan Friday, December 14, 2007; 4:06 p.m. By Kristen Mack Washington Post Staff Writer Members of a federal civil rights panel said today that the crackdown on illegal immigrants approved by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors was based largely on anecdotal evidence of problems caused by illegal immigrants. The immigration subcommittee of the state advisory committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights came to Prince William today to hear from lawyers, demographers, local public officials and immigration rights advocates. The panel is examining whether the county's crackdown amounts to...

Republicans need all the votes they can get next November if they are to have any hope of retaining the White House and winning back control of Congress. But one group of voters – among whom the GOP has gained considerable ground over the last few elections – now seems about to slip away, perhaps permanently. Hispanic voters are poised to turn several red states blue come 2008, virtually guaranteeing a Democratic presidential victory and a pickup in congressional seats as well, according to a new analysis of Hispanic voting behavior. "Border Wars: The Impact of Immigration on the Latino...

An upcoming state review of Prince William County’s illegal-immigrant crackdown is generating heat well before it begins, with County Chairman Corey Stewart’s charge that its leader should be disqualified over accusations she once hired an illegal immigrant. Linda Chavez, whose nomination to serve in President Bush’s Cabinet in 2001 failed when reports surfaced she had employed an illegal immigrant, now chairs the Virginia State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The panel will meet at the county headquarters in Woodbridge Dec. 14 to review claims that the county’s policy amounts to discrimination against minority residents. While Stewart...

For the second time in as many years, immigration has fizzled as a wedge issue at the polls. In 2006, Republicans hoped to use anger over illegal immigration to maintain control of Congress, but failed miserably, losing races even in states like Arizona and Colorado that have experienced large influxes of illegal aliens. This year, Virginia Republicans tried the same maneuver in state races, with the same results. The Virginia GOP lost control of the state Senate in Tuesday's election, with Democrats winning four additional seats in the Senate and netting an additional three in the House of Delegates, despite...

The Immigration Debate   By Jamie GlazovFrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, October 05, 2007 In this special edition of Frontpafe Symposium, we have invited a distinguished panel to debate the immigration issue. Our guests are: John Fonte, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. Mark Krikorian, an executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies and a visiting fellow at the Nixon Center. He is a NRO contributor. Joe Hicks, the former executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (founded by Martin Luther King) and director of the LA City Human Relations Commission. Currently he is the vice president of...

...In the years since she was forced to pull her nomination as Bush's labor secretary after admitting payments to an illegal immigrant, Chavez and her immediate family members have used phone banks and direct-mail solicitations to raise tens of millions of dollars, founding several political action committees with bankable names: the Republican Issues Committee, the Latino Alliance, Stop Union Political Abuse and the Pro-Life Campaign Committee. Their solicitations promise direct action in the "fight to save unborn lives," a vigorous struggle against "big labor bosses" and a crippling of "liberal politics in the country." That's not where the bulk of...

Ever wonder why women, on average, make less money than men? For years, feminists have argued that discrimination is to blame. But most careful studies show that once you take into account differences in the hours worked, years of experience, and the actual occupational or professional category in which women work, the gap narrows considerably. If you add marital status to the mix (married men earn the highest salaries, married women the lowest), the differences virtually disappear among the youngest groups of working men and women. Now, a group of economists has come up with a different explanation of the...

Immigration reform is dead. But before conservatives who killed this bill start popping champagne corks, they ought to consider the following. Our borders will be less secure, not more. Employers who want to do the right thing and only hire legal workers won't have the tools to do so. The 12 million illegal aliens who are here now will continue to live in the shadows, making them less likely to cooperate with law enforcement to report crimes and less likely to pay their full share of taxes. In other words, the mess we created by an outdated and ill-conceived immigration...

Re: The Company You Keep Responses to Linda Chavez. An NRO Symposium After two shorter syndicated columns, Linda Chavez wrote a lengthy piece on conservatives, Hispanics, and immigration for National Review Online, published Monday. Today those named in Chavez’s “The Company You Keep” and other immigration-policy experts respond to Chavez. Ward Connerly I have known Linda for years. She is a good friend. Good friends are not immune from the tendency to misspeak occasionally, however. In her initial column that has caused so much anger, Linda was “intemperate,” to say the least. Although there is a certain degree of “anti-Mexican”...

On May 25, I wrote a column entitled “Latino Fear and Loathing” that has provoked considerable anger and recriminations among my fellow conservatives. In the column I asserted that, “Some people just don’t like Mexicans — or anyone else from south of the border,” and described some of the fears shaping these sentiments: “They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb down our schools. They think Latinos are dirty, diseased, indolent, and more prone to criminal behavior. They think Latinos...

  Racsim & "doing jobs Americans won't do" I wrote to Ms. Chavez last week after reading her article and listening to her interview on the Laura Ingraham Show. I e-mailed herto let you know how disappointed I was in her comments, and after spending a little time thinking about it, I would like to submit a couple of additional retorts to her main points in both her column and her interview with Ms. Ingraham. First, she plays the racist card in her article by saying "some people just don't like Mexicans...". Yes, there are those who hold their...

I am an opinionated conservative. Because I have strong opinions and I am not afraid to voice my opinion, I have developed a thick skin for name calling and personal attacks. I am not unique in that respect. Many of my friends on the opposite end of the political spectrum have become accustomed to the vitriolic attacks on their beliefs. Most of us that enjoy the political process realize that this is all part of the game, but normally the attacks come from the other party. This latest feeble attempt at immigration reform has brought out some of the worst...

The International Relations Center describes Linda Chavez as “George W. Bush's first choice for labor secretary, Linda Chavez is a right-wing pundit, anti-union demagogue, and foreign policy hawk. She has supported or worked for a string of rightist outfits, including the Manhattan Institute, the Independent Women's Forum, and the Center for Equal Opportunity.” Well, we can add traitor to that description. On May 25, Linda Chavez wrote a piece called, “Latino Fear and Loathing.” Chavez also wrote a book called, “An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal." From the words in her latest column, she may be reverting back,...

I have always held Linda Chavez in high regard. But this kind, rational, and (until now) honest commentator, has fallen in my estimation by resorting to scurrilous argument in favor of the deeply flawed immigration "compromise." Of course, she has plenty of company among the GOP elites, but somehow I expected better of Linda. Consider this sample form her latest column: Some people just don't like Mexicans - or anyone else from south of the border. They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that...

http://levin.nationalreview.com/post/?q%3dZjg1MmQ4MzllOGFhMjJlY2E1MTQyZDkzZjNmNmY5OGQ');

Some people just don't like Mexicans -- or anyone else from south of the border. They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb down our schools. They think Latinos are dirty, diseased, indolent and more prone to criminal behavior. They think Latinos are just too different from us ever to become real Americans. No amount of hard, empirical evidence to the contrary, and no amount of reasoned argument or appeals to decency and fairness, will convince this small group of...

Imagine you've just given a year and a half of your life to serving your country in Iraq and come home to find that your pregnant wife and your toddler daughter have been forced to leave the United States and now the government won't let them back in. You sit at home waiting, but no one can give you answers when or if they will be allowed to return. You wait five months, long enough for your new baby to be born in a foreign country. But still, no one can give you answers. That is what Aaron Thorsted of...

I've given up on making resolutions or predictions for the New Year. The resolutions rarely last past the Super Bowl, and the only predictions that come true are the most depressing ones. So this year, I'm creating a Wish List for 2007. This is what I hope will happen. And given enough good will and a little luck, who knows, they just might. Snip (3) The Angel Gabriel appears to 1 million faithful Muslims during the Haj in Mecca, instructing them to renounce violence and instead devote themselves to jihad against their own sinfulness. Snip (8) Twelve million illegal aliens...

Iraq was clearly the election issue that turned the tide against the GOP, but one issue many Republican activists thought might save the day ended up a bust: immigration. In several high-profile races where illegal immigration was a key issue, the anti-immigrant candidate lost big. In Arizona, the front line in the immigration wars, Republicans J.D. Hayworth and Randy Graf lost handily to more moderate voices. Mr. Hayworth, a six-term congressman, once favored a guest worker program but flip-flopped when he sensed bashing immigrants was a surer ticket to re-election. In his book "Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security...

Blog | Talk Radio Online | Columnists | Your Opinion | The News | Photos | Funnies | Books & Movies | Issues | Action Center Holding my nose and voting Republican By Linda Chavez Wednesday, October 25, 2006 I am not happy with the Republican Party, but on Nov. 7 I will cast my vote for my incumbent Republican congressman and senator nonetheless. I don't feel I have any choice -- and it's not just that the Democrats running in my state are particularly unappealing candidates. I'm angry at Republicans for abandoning their principles. This Republican president, aided and...

1. New Report Refutes Haditha ‘Massacre’ Claim A report has surfaced casting doubt on published claims that U.S. Marines massacred 24 Iraqi civilians in the city of Haditha last November. But that report merely echoes what was reported by NewsMax back in June. The new report came from Reuters, which disclosed on Sept. 22 that it had obtained a transcript of an interview with Maj. Sam Carrasco, who was overseeing troop movements in the area when the massacre allegedly took place. He said he believed at the time the civilians died in crossfire between Marines and insurgents. And he told...

Forum opens debate on immigration Saturday, September 16, 2006 By Nardy Baeza Bickel The Grand Rapids Press Immigrants help the economy, and the U.S. should welcome more of them, Linda Chavez believes. "I'm very pro-immigrant. They're great for our country, for our economy. I want more people coming here -- legally," said Chavez, a syndicated national columnist and FOX Network news political analyst. "We're still the beacon of hope and freedom. At the same time, the country needs good immigration rules to keep the borders secure and preserve our values, she added. Chavez's position will be one of many voices...

As all of you know from previous articles here, I want illegal immigration stopped. I want a fence built, I want a ten-fold increase in the Border Patrol, I want employers deliberately hiring illegals put in jail – and then I want put in place a fair program of earned citizenship – fair to the illegals here and fair to those who entered by playing by the rules. However, to be completely fair about this issue, and in response to Pat Buchanan’s recent book, “State of Emergency” (I think Pat Buchanan gives conservatism a bad name), I present the following

Banishing factoids By Linda Chavez Wednesday, August 23, 2006 Facts are stubborn things, unfortunately not nearly as stubborn as factoids. And nowhere do factoids trump facts more frequently than in the immigration debate. The latest example comes from Pat Buchanan in his new book, "State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America," where Buchanan regurgitates factoids ad nauseam, all with the purpose of blaming Mexicans for just about everything wrong with America. The problem is, some of Buchanan's "facts" are mere factoids. Let's take one of the most stubborn factoids to emerge in the immigration debate, one...

Actor and director Mel Gibson is in trouble with the Jewish community again. In 2004, Gibson produced a movie based on the death of Jesus, The Passion of the Christ, which was both highly successful and controversial. Many people felt the movie depicted Jews in hateful stereotypes and would stir up anti-Semitism among Christians, who were the film's target audience. But even for those who rejected claims that The Passion was anti-Semitic (as I did when the film came out), Gibson's vicious tirade against Jews a few days ago when he was arrested for drunken driving leaves little doubt about...

Mel Gibson is in trouble with the Jewish community again. In 2004, Gibson produced a movie based on the death of Jesus, "The Passion of the Christ," which was both highly successful and controversial. Many people felt the movie depicted Jews in hateful stereotypes and would stir up anti-Semitism among Christians, who were the film's target audience. But even for those who rejected claims that "The Passion" was anti-Semitic (as I did when the film came out), Gibson's vicious tirade against Jews a few days ago when he was arrested for drunk-driving leaves little doubt about his personal views. Gibson's...