Anderson@Large

Happy New Year

For the first time, you can have your new year's wish included in the ton of confetti that will rain down on Times Square. You can post your message here.

Have a happy and healthy new year.

Season's Greetings

I wish you and yours a joyous, safe, gift-filled holiday season. Merry Christmas, everyone.

I'll see you next year.

African Americans and Illegal Immigration

The illegal immigration debate is becoming farcical. Illegals are arguing among themselves over which nationality should go to the front of their wished-for amnesty line.

Emerald Isle Immigration Center Chairman Brian O'Dwyer told the New York Sun:

It’s a pretty depressing period in terms of immigration reform. If something can be done it would be wonderful.

O’Dwyer should wake up and smell the Irish coffee: American taxpayers think it would be wonderful if they were not stuck with the bill for illegal immigration.

Earlier this week, the Congressional Budget Office released a study on the fiscal impact of illegal immigration. The CBO found:

State and local governments incur costs for providing services to unauthorized immigrants and have limited options for avoiding minimizing those costs…Rules governing many federal programs, as well as decisions handed down by various courts, limit the authority of state and local governments to avoid or constrain the costs of providing services to unauthorized individuals.

Sure, illegals pay taxes but the CBO concluded:

The tax revenues that unauthorized immigrants generate for state and local governments do not offset the total cost of services provided to those immigrants. Most of the estimates found that even though unauthorized immigrants pay taxes and other fees to state and local jurisdictions, the resulting revenues offset only a portion of the costs incurred by those jurisdictions for providing services related to education, health care, and law enforcement.

A national poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that less than one percent of blacks identified illegal immigration as the most important issue facing the country. Dr. David A. Bositis said:

The issues that are animating Republicans don’t appear on the radar screen of likely African American primary voters.

While Democrats tiptoe around illegal immigration, history may repeat itself in the 2008 presidential election.

I reminded David that when he polled black voters in 2004, Bush’s approval rating was 22 percent. A negligible percentage considered “morals/moral crisis” the most important issue facing the country. Still, Republicans were able to use opposition to same-sex marriage to increase President Bush’s support among black voters in Ohio from 9 percent in 2000 to 16 percent in 2004.

During a Brookings Institution post-election forum, Thomas E. Mann observed:

Pre-election, we probably underestimated the level of motivation, especially in this core Republican constituency, figuring that most of the anger was on the Democratic side and not really appreciating the extent to which other Americans felt the whole nature of their belief systems and faith and lifestyles were being threatened, and there was an opportunity to act on that. I think Rove understood that. He used issues to help magnify it, and he put together a ground operation that facilitated getting those people to the polls.

Today, African Americans are angry about illegal immigration. From LA to DC, tensions are rising as blacks and illegals compete for jobs, housing, teachers’ attention, and scarce resources for public schools and hospitals.

As Democrats worry about a future voting bloc, African Americans may use their right to vote to tell Democrats who support “comprehensive immigration reform” (read: amnesty): Hasta la vista, baby.

There’s Something About Rudy

Republican voters are finally souring on Rudy Giuliani, a serial adulterer who has been playing one note about 9/11.

New Yorkers are puzzled by Giuliani’s front-runner status and wonder why GOP voters trust him to deal with terrorism. The iconic image of Giuliani came about because he was not prepared to respond to a terrorist attack in New York City.

Giuliani was walking the streets because he had nowhere to go: his command center was located in the World Trade Center.

We also know that his “leadership” in the wake of 9/11 consisted of little more than holding press conferences with hangers-on. And his sidekick, Bernard Kerik, who took time out of his busy schedule of allegedly shaking down contractors and getting his freak on with his chicks on the side in an apartment overlooking Ground Zero.

Next month, 9/11 Firefighters and Families will launch a public awareness campaign to set the record straight about Giuliani’s “leadership.”  Jim Riches told the Los Angeles Times:

If we have to follow him around all 2008 we’ll do it.

Start spreading the news.

Making a Ruckus

Newsweek and the Media Bloggers Association have joined forces to create "The Ruckus," a group blog about politics for Newsweek.com. Deidre Depke, editor of Newsweek.com, said:

"The Ruckus" will be a key part of our 2008 campaign coverage. We want to expose Newsweek readers to all the exciting discourse and discussion that is taking place on political blogs today. We think "The Ruckus" will help introduce readers to a new array of voices and will encourage enlightened political discourse as the '08 race steps into high gear.

MBA President Robert Cox added:

"The Ruckus" places Newsweek on the cutting edge of this campaign season's online political dialogue. MBA bloggers offer Newsweek readers fresh, authentic content with real-time updates from some of the nation's leading political blogs.

In addition to yours truly, "The Ruckus" features:

• John Amato, Crooks and Liars
• Dean Barker, Blue Hampshire
• Adam Fogle, The Palmetto Scoop
• Joe Gandelman, The Moderate Voice
• James Joyner, Outside the Beltway
• Ed Morrissey, Captain’s Quarters
• Oliver Willis, OliverWillis.com
• Chris Woods, Bleeding Heartland

For us, it's not about the money though there's nothing wrong with getting paid. Instead, it's about telling the stories that don't fit the mainstream media narrative. It's also about empowering our readers with the information they need to get in the arena and make a difference.

Look for our posts here.

Massachusetts Miracle

With less than three weeks to go, it may take a miracle for Mitt Romney to catch Mike Huckabee in Iowa. Romney hopes Huckabee's support for tuition breaks for illegal aliens will slow his momentum among Republican caucus-goers for whom illegal immigration is a top concern.

Romney's claim that he "vetoed in-state tuition for illegal aliens" was disputed by Massachusetts state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson. At the National Black Caucus of State Legislators' recent political forum, Wilkerson said:

He never had a bill. The bill passed in the Senate but died in the House. The problem with Mitt Romney is not that he's a Mormon. He's a liar.

Well, this is the season of miracles. Mormons do believe in Jesus, don’t they?

The (Other) Man from Hope

I’m back from a week in “the Natural State.” But it doesn’t seem natural that a city with a population of 10,616 is the birthplace of the 42nd President of the United States and perhaps number 44.

With Mike Huckabee rising in the polls, I decided to ask a tablemate at the National Black Caucus of State Legislators’ Nation Builders Award Dinner whether black folks should do the huck-a-buck if Huck wins the Republican presidential nomination. My source didn’t want to be identified because he’s a Hillary Clinton supporter but with his anonymity assured, he sang Huckabee’s praise.

He said former Gov. Huckabee garnered significant support among black voters because “he said all the right things and did all the right things.” He pointed to Huckabee’s advocacy of the children’s health program, public school consolidation in rural districts, and the number of blacks who served in his administration, including  the heads of the departments of Environmental Quality and Workforce Education.

The bottom line: “If Huckabee weren’t a Republican, you’d think he was a Democrat.”

While Huckabee could count on black votes, his new national campaign chairman, Ed Rollins, was a top adviser to former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in her failed run for the United States Senate. And the whole world knows what she did with black votes in the 2000 presidential election.

As troubling, Rollins boasted that he paid black ministers $500,000 in “walking around money” to depress black voter turnout in the 1993 New Jersey gubernatorial election. As Jack E. White reported:

We went into black churches and we basically said to ministers who had endorsed Florio, “Do you have a special project?” And they said, “We’ve already endorsed Florio.” We said, “That’s fine – don’t get up on the Sunday pulpit and preach. We know you’ve endorsed him, but don’t get up there and say it’s your moral obligation that you go on Tuesday to vote for Jim Florio.”

Time will tell whether African American voters should put on their dancing shoes and rejoice that a “Christian leader,” who’s now hooked up with a bare-knuckles political strategist, is “a different kind of Republican.”