Illegal Immigration in Small-town America

I see in the news that the little township of Riverside in Burlington County, New Jersey—where I lived briefly as a child in the early 60s—has voted to repeal a law that was voted in in July 2006.  The law would penalize employers or landlords $1,000 to $2,000 for hiring or renting to illegal aliens.  Riverside’s population of about 8,000 is estimated to be nearly half comprised of residents who are here illegally, many of whom come from Portugal and Brazil.

And why did this little township repeal this common-sense law?  Because they don’t believe they can afford to defend the legal challenges in federal courts!  What an outrage!  On the one hand the federal government demonstrates that it is absolutely willing to look the other way and not enforce its own immigration policy, and on the other they’re populating the courts with “justices” who will sometimes rule in favor of illegal immigrants—as happened earlier this year in Hazelton, Pennsylvania—thus stifling the efforts of small-town America in making and enforcing policy that is the federal government’s responsibility in the first place!

In the words of former Ohio congressman, Jim Traficant, “Beam me up!”

Gov. John Corzine's Hypocrisy

Did you see New Jersey Governor John Corzine’s emotional statement to the press as he exited Cooper University Hospital in Camden yesterday?  In part of that statement he said, “I understand I set a very poor example for a lot of young people, a lot of people in general. I hope the state will forgive me.  I will work very hard to set the right kind of example.”  I thought, Well, at least he’s big enough to take that responsility and to admit, in so many words, that what he did was pretty stupid.

In case you’ve been living in a cave for the past three weeks, Gov. Corzine was seriously injured on April 12, when the SUV in which he was traveling—in the passenger seat—at 91 MPH and without a seatbelt—lost control and struck a guardrail on the Garden State Parkway in Galloway Township.  The governor was on his way from Atlantic City to the governor’s mansion to be present at a meeting between fired radio personality, Don Imus, and the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

Anyway, as I was saying, I thought: Wow! I’m really glad to hear Mr. Corzine say that, about setting such a poor example and all.  I could learn to like this guy.  At the time it didn’t even dawn on me to consider whether he really meant it.  I just felt so sorry for him, his having been so traumatically injured and very nearly killed, I assumed he was quite serious when he said he will “work very hard to set the right kind of example,” and I thought that maybe something good can come out of this tragedy after all.

That was all before reading in the New York Times today that as the governor’s motorcade transported him to Drumthwacket it at times sustained speeds of up to 70 MPH, where the posted limits are 55 and 65.  This has to rank right up there among the most quickly broken promises made by any politician anywhere.  And if I may say so, it’s one of the stupidest, most assinine things I can recall anyone doing in a long, long time.  Working very hard, my eye!  Governor, if you had spent one tenth the effort at working to set the proper example in this instance as you do at building yourself up in the press, you might have really had a shot at making a bit of a difference.  As it is now, everyone sees you as the unabashed hypocrite that you are.