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AlterNet / By Joshua Holland
comments_imageCOMMENTS: 296

Michelle Malkin and Michael Savage Use Swine Flu Crisis to Peddle Their Xenophobia

The right-wing pundits who seized on the swine flu to push their anti-immigrant rhetoric are employing an ancient racist tactic.
April 29, 2009  |  
 
 
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In the middle of the 14th century, the plague swept across Europe, leaving death and despair in its wake. A terrified and confused population blamed the Jews -- aliens in their midst -- for bringing the "black death" upon them.

Lacking knowledge of viruses or other microscopic organisms, they accused the Jews, a handy target, of poisoning the wells of Christian villages. The charge contributed to a series of pogroms in which thousands were burned alive.  

During the more than 600 years since, our understanding of disease transmission has advanced by leaps and bounds, but the same primitive tribalism that inspired the lethal xenophobia that raged across Europe then remains on display today.   

With hundreds of cases of swine flu reported in Mexico, and dozens more appearing in the U.S., anti-immigrant hard-liners wasted no time blaming their one-size-fits-all bogeyman for the disease.

They took to the airwaves and scribbled hastily on their blogs about how America's supposed "open-door policy" towards migrants from Mexico was the cause of the outbreak's appearance on this side of the Rio Grande. 

According to transcripts provided by the watchdog group Media Matters, blogger and former Fox News personality Michelle Malkin took a triumphal attitude over the handful of cases that have popped up in the U.S., writing: "I've blogged for years about the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the U.S. as a result of uncontrolled immigration."  

Hate-radio host Michael Savage also advanced the argument, saying, "Make no mistake about it: Illegal aliens are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico."

Savage then took it a step further, weaving the swine flu outbreak into a larger conspiracy that included another of his favorite monsters. "[C]ould this be a terrorist attack through Mexico?" he asked. "Could our dear friends in the radical Islamic countries have concocted this virus and planted it in Mexico knowing that you, [Homeland Security chief] Janet Napolitano, would do nothing to stop the flow of human traffic from Mexico?" If only he could have sewn together a plot by gay radical Islamic illegal immigrants from Mexico, he would have hit the far-right trifecta. 

Neal Boortz, Bill O'Reilly and others on the right agreed. Boortz asked, "[W]hat better way to sneak a virus into this country than give it to Mexicans? Right? I mean, 1 out of every 10 people born in Mexico is already living up here, and the rest are trying to get here. So you give -- you give -- you let this virus just spread in Mexico, where they don't have a CDC." 

These arguments -- if this kind of demagoguery can even be classified as such -- are easily dispatched. The flu virus is transmitted between humans, and the tiny organisms don‘t care whether those humans are Mexican immigrants or American tourists or truck drivers or corporate honchos traveling for business.

Every day, hundreds of thousands of humans and other animals cross the U.S.-Mexican border, and most are not picking up and moving, they're just visiting for work or pleasure. It's a product of a shrinking world with affordable means of travel -- suspected cases of the flu have popped up as far away from our southern border as New Zealand and Israel, places you don't associate with a lot of immigration from Latin America.  

Media Mattters noted, "several media reports on U.S. swine flu patients indicated that they had recently traveled to Mexico." A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control told reporters, "I know that we have confirmation of disease in people who have traveled to Mexico … that is definitely the case in some of our cases, and that's an important factor to consider."  

The "open door" mantra is itself a right-wing myth -- a bit of pseudopopulism designed to piggy-back on the frustration most Americans feel over the abject failure of the same enforcement-heavy approach to immigration control that restrictionists prefer to make a major dent in the undocumented population.


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Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.
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Illegal aliens would be a non issue if we used E verify and targeted the employers of illegals.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Honky The Antichrist on Apr 29, 2009 1:10 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If the illegal aliens could no longer find work in the US, they would have no choice to return to their countries and demand change or starve to death - probably starve to death. The health and welfare of Mexicans is the responsibility of Mexico.

As for the Swine Flu:
If this is as malicious as the Spanish Flu of 1918, we could be standing on the brink of a Brave New World. The Spanish Flu killed an estimated 10-15 percent of the world’s population. With our more globalized, more urban world, we could expect a much higher fatality rate.

The US and other western nations have made amazing strides in the areas of antiviral drugs and inoculations. The theistic, ignorant, non productive, over populated stagnate nations have not. Much of this planets problems, from Over population to resource conflicts to green house gases, would be greatly reduced if ½ or even 2/3 of the world’s population simply went away.

Keep in mind, The Black Death was the catalyst for the Renascence. If you want to “Imagine there are no countries, just people sharing all the world”, A mega pandemic is your best bet.

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» You’re missing my point. Posted by: Honky The Antichrist
» no Posted by: Cory.Goodman
» Stop the petty nonsense. Posted by: countingdaisies

Comments are closed-

My main concern with this swine flu is not the potential for death,
[Report this comment]
Posted by: and_abottleofrum on Apr 29, 2009 1:28 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
great or small, nor the fact conservative pundits are predictably using it for Mexican bashing, but the prospect that fears of infectious disease could put a crimp in civil unrest that may emerge this summer.

I'm not in the camp that says this flu was engineered to cull the young and discontent who are more likely to protest, or at least keep them indoors when they could be out protesting, however this flu could have that effect anyway, which is very disappointing.

Now the task becomes making sure flu worries don't overwhelm populist anger. I've thought maybe this could be done by spreading conspiracy theories about this flu being unleashed by an elite cabal intent on keeping the rape of our pocketbooks going and discouraging mass demonstrations.

Granted many people don't go for conspiracy theories, so for them it would be important to keep reminding, in provocative ways, that the financial oligarchs are committed to bleeding every last bit of wealth from ordinary folks.

Whatever mix of tactics needs to be used, it's important that this flu doesn't result in muting populist anger, which has emerged for the first time in decades and presents an important opportunity for everyone who disagrees with our society's domination by wealthy, connected, corporate crime syndicates.

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» you are so full of it.. Posted by: Drclaw

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THEY DIDN'T GET US WITH THE SMALLPOX BLANKETS BUT THEY HAVE DNA NOW
[Report this comment]
Posted by: joeocho88 on Apr 29, 2009 1:34 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
IF THE WHITE EUROPEANS HAD HAD DNA AND MICROBIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE LIKE WHAT WENT INTO CREATING THIS VIRUS--- (YES,IT WAS CREATED IN A LAB JUST LIIKE AIDS WAS) THEY WOULD HAVE ERADICATED ALL OF US NATIVE AMERICANS AND ALL NON WHITES AND JEWS AND SOUTHERN AND EASTERN EUROPEANS AND ROMA PEOPLE FROM THE EARTH!

THE PROBLEM IS A LOT OF THE ELITES ALSO HAVE SOME NATIVE AMERICAN ANCESTRY SO WHEN THEY BREW UP THESE VIRUS CONCOCTIONS FOR THEIR FINAL CONCOCTIONS TO THE ULTIMATE "INDIAN SOLUTION." THIS IS A RACE-SPECIFIC VIRUS SPECIALLY CREATED TO TAKE OUT PERSONS OF ASIAN ORIGINS...

THE POISON IN THE ALCOHOL AND THE SMALLPOX-INFECTED BLANKETS THEY TRIED TO KILL US WITH ONLY GOT A FEW. THIS WAY, THEY CAN GET RID OF ALL OF THE PEOPLE THEY DON'T WANT. MAYBE SOME OF THEM WILL GET CAUGHT (IN THEIR OWN TRAP BECAUSE THERE IS NO PURE RACE!

WITH THE DNA CODE BROKEN, THEY CAN CREATE A VIRUS TO GET RID OF ANYONE THEY HATE!

AND I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY TURNED IT LOOSE IN MEXICO FIRST! THIS IS GENETIC SPECIFIC TO KILL PEOPLE LIKE MY MOTHER"S PEOPLE WHO ARE NATIVE AMERICAN AND MY FATHER'S MOTHER WAS MEXICAN.

I HOPE WHOEVER THE PEOPLE WERE WHO DID THIS ROT IN HELL.

I STUDIED MICROBIOLOGY AND I KNOW THAT THIS IS POSSIBLE.

THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRAT OR A REPUBLICAN PROBLEM. IT IS A FEW ELITES WHO WANT TO GET RID OF ALL INFERIOR RACES--PEOPLE LIKE THE INTERNATIONAL BANKER CARTEL BASED IN ENGLAND AND SWITZERLAND -- THE SAME INSTITUTIONS WHO PUT HITLER IN POWER.

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» You have proof he is lying? Posted by: Prophit
» RE: You have proof he is lying? Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» Did you also study.... Posted by: Fencerider
» RE: HUH???? Posted by: mythmorph
» I greatly appreciate these two posts. Posted by: and_abottleofrum
» RE: Right on! Posted by: Jasonix
» Both of you.... Posted by: Fencerider
» Proof please.... Posted by: Fencerider
» Dude, you're a little bit crazy Posted by: leafsong1
» you also are full of it Posted by: Drclaw
» RE: you also are full of it Posted by: Reader in Japan

Comments are closed-

steveced121
[Report this comment]
Posted by: steveced121 on Apr 29, 2009 1:37 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Joshua Holland's article was right on the money about xenophopes blaming Mexicans for the
spread of swine flu virus.

Now that Mexicans and Hispanics in general have become the whipping boys of the right wing,
they can be blamed for everything that goes wrong. Of course, a convenient target for all
of the frustrated, unhappy bigots who can't wait to turn their wrath and low self esteem on a particular ethnic
group that they feel they can pick on.

Mexico or Mexicans are not to blame for swine flu, it's been around for a long time and this could have happened anywhere.

It saddens me to see how some Americans would
vilify an entire ethnic group any time they can
for any reason they can.

Stop the bullying and racism!

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» RE: steveced121 Posted by: mythmorph

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villager
[Report this comment]
Posted by: villager1 on Apr 29, 2009 2:02 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Instead of referring to this pandemic as a " crisis" maybe we should consider it a Godsend - i.e if it eliminates enough of us screwballs anyway!

Something has to stop our stupidity!

We just keep on going but we have'nt any idea where!

Crazy like the lemmings we are!

We are all blind, but we are led by the blind so how can we know any better!

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Why do I find Malkin funny?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: bonapartist on Apr 29, 2009 2:05 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Probably because she is a Filipino immigrant herself. There is nothing more bigoted than the theory of racial superiority but even following that line of reasoning one might point out that Malkin is of east Asian descent. At the same time most of Mexicans are mestizos, that is to say of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry.

Back in the days of Spanish empire the racial component was very important to define casts in the colonies. Malkin would be decidely placed under the average Mexican on the account of lacking european blood. Best of all both Philippines and Mexico were the part of the Spanish empire.

In my opinion that is rather amusing. Selfhating maybe? The desire to fit in with dominant WASP right wingers? Who know, however it is a good example of what kind of personalities pass for thinkers on US political right. I would say crackpots but what do I know. Being of Slavic origins I probably just dislike my potential overlords.

PS

Yes, I was sarcastic, I probably need to work on it but it amuses me :)

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» Filipino or Filipino-American? Posted by: chejohnson82
» RE: Filipino or Filipino-American? Posted by: chejohnson82

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Hysteria
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Ashoka911 on Apr 29, 2009 2:26 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
People need to take a chill pill. I am an emergency physician. There were almost 40,000 deaths in the US from influenza per year in the last years. Influenza does exactly that: It mutates itself and there are some years more severe than others. A normal fatality rate may be 1 in a thousand. Maybe this one is twice as bad. How many of these "mild" cases are there untested / undiagnosed in a city of 22,000,000 ? I dont know.....I am not exactly seeing Ebola here !

In any case, politicizing this (as described in the article) or commercializing it (CNN and FOX advertizing dollars)Is there no limit to our depravity! Lets let the ultra right wing continue to slander themselves. They are on the wrong side of history. They are desperate, they are shrill and the upcomming generations see through them and so does almost every one else !

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» RE: Hysteria Posted by: Old Skeptic
» And you have proof... Posted by: EncinoM
» deal with this Posted by: Drclaw
» oops Posted by: Drclaw
» RE: Hysteria Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» RE: Hysteria Posted by: Reader in Japan
» RE: Hysteria Posted by: Ian MacLeod

Comments are closed-

Traitoritis
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Perry Logan on Apr 29, 2009 3:11 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think the anti-immigration people have the meanest mouths in the world.

Since right-wingers are famous throughout the galaxy for their incontinent rhetoric, this is really saying something.

Wingers are angry all the time--but the anti-immigration guys are madder than anybody. There's no one as mad as an anti-immigration guy realizing most people are not as mouth-foamingly, teeth-gnashingly, eye-rollingly xenophobic as he.

They get so mad, they start calling everyone traitors. This is the dread right-wing disease of traitoritis, also known as treasonosis, in which wingers just start calling everybody a traitor. Among the lunar right, this malady is more pandemic than any swine flu.

But in a world of mean right-wing mouths, the anti-immigration dudes stand out, because they have traitoritis all the time.

These guys will call you, your family, and everyone you know or love a traitor before they've gotten up in the morning.

They will call whole organizations traitors--nay, whole groups, entire segments of humanity. By the time they die, they will have called the entire world traitors.

This can't be good for your karma. :(

The anti-immigration people are so xenophobic their eyelids twitch when they talk. You can verify this by watching a video of Lou Dobbs. They are terminally xenophobic. They have lots of guns. They have a tantrum every day.

And they think their fellow Americans are traitors. Howdy, neighbor!

Needless to say, the anti-immigration people are complete hypocrites. If they had to sneak into Mexico to feed their families, they'd do it instantly.


Busload of Faith: soon to be a major motion picture.

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» aye Posted by: Cory.Goodman
» RE: Can we call it Big Brother? Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» RE: Considering... Posted by: Cybershaman
» RE: Considering... Posted by: Quannah
» RE: Traitoritis....not quite the case Posted by: Sister_Lauren

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You Can Learn a Lot From Listening to the Wing Nuts:
[Report this comment]
Posted by: garyfee on Apr 29, 2009 3:41 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
For instance, Savage claims, "Make no mistake about it: Illegal aliens are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico." I didn't know that this virus had evolved to the point that it could read your immigration papers before deciding to attack you. If only the demogogues could evolve to this point, as well. Perhaps when they start believing in evolution, they'll start practicing it.

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Agree With Josh Holland But.....
[Report this comment]
Posted by: drricklippin on Apr 29, 2009 4:08 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...We all need to recognize that poverty - no matter what culture it is in -generally lowers host resistance to almost any organism -including the flu.

We need to root out poverty, crowding, poor nutrition,living very near and with farm animals.(and,yes, US industrial animal "farms" and mega agri-business practices)

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton, Pa

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» I agree, Doc, but Posted by: Ellie1

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remember lafayette
[Report this comment]
Posted by: remember Lafayette on Apr 29, 2009 4:36 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
we are all illegal immigrants. We never asked the real americans if it was okay to invade them, "genocide" them, "disease" them, steal the land from the few survivors and then put those in concentration camps.
We certainly have the right now of being the keepers of morality for the world as prescribed by Fox News, the new bible, preached by the "pures", the "perfects" (although sometimes a bit overweight) like Hannity, Malkin, Boortz, O'Reilly, Savage.
Karma, Karma where are you? Or maybe: Karma, you are giving us back what we deserve.

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» RE: remember lafayette Posted by: Old Skeptic

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People don't see the benefits of huge immigration
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Jasonix on Apr 29, 2009 4:40 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Our open-door immigration policies bring the world's best and brightest here to perform work that we Americans are just too stupid to do.

For example, an Indian "Master's" degree is equivalent to an American "bachelors" degree, and their medical degrees are granted with fewer years of study than American medical degrees. But since it costs too much to hire Americans, we bring Indians here to perform those tasks. Nearly 40% of our doctors are now Indians, according to what I've read. The lower pay they receive makes hospitals more profitable - and the fantastic quality of medical care that's available to us in the United States shows how we can get more with less. We're just ahead of Cuba - a country we've blockaded for decades - in quality of medical care. Soon, we'll be gaining on Uzbekistan!

Sending good jobs overseas and importing foreigners to do the work we can't outsource (dentistry, nursing) liberates us from our materialistic middle-class obsessions and frees us to explore our sexuality. When we have no hope of getting a good job, there's no reason for us to waste time studying science text books when we could be watching internet porn. Judeo-Christian inhibitions don't stand a chance against the laziness and apathy of the chronically unemployed with broadband access.

That's what Indian immigration does for us. Mexican immigration allows us to maintain environmentally destructive farming practices that would otherwise be unsustainable if virtual slave labor wasn't available. Imagine how terrible it would be if local family farms could compete with corporate mega-farms, and if we grew more of our food locally rather than importing it all from Rhode Island-sized corporate farms in the West.

Immigration allows us to do all these things - without a chance of getting good employment in medicine, technology, or science thanks to Indian outsourcing and immigration, we're free to pursue porn addiction and obesity. Our pursuit of obesity is enabled by corporate farming that uses illegal labor that prevents sustainable, local farming from becoming the norm.

Hope you enjoy this comment soon, because comments critical of open immigration policies have a tendency of disappearing quickly.

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I use it to point out how 50 million uninsured
[Report this comment]
Posted by: bthespoon on Apr 29, 2009 4:41 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
might not go right away to see a doctor if they become ill, and the ramifications for all o fus of living in a country where over 50 million people have no access to health care during an epidemic.

Good luck in the ER if you need one.

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» And Posted by: Karina

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USA should belong to the world
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Anthhh on Apr 29, 2009 5:19 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
-
USA should belong to the world...the WHOLE world. and NOT vice Versa.

That is the VERY principle upon which the USA was able to be securely "founded" 200 years ago..! "Our New Nation Belongs to the World".


Exactly the way it MUST BE, since it was founded upon invasion, genocide, military occupation/colonization..

It was only LOGICAL that USA should be free for immigrants. Free for the world this eradicated the guilt of the founders.

Indeed , it would have been quite difficult if the 'founders' were to invade, commit genocide, Ethnic clensing, militarily occupy, colonize .. then close off to immigrants?? Invaders keeping ALL the LOOT and fighting off all who would stop and say "This isnt rightfully yours" and start a never ending barrage of wars and invasions.

Instead "ALL can come share it"

Now that 200 years have gone by and all those people are gone, maybe now no one will notice or care how the USA gradually has gone from being owned by all to being the owners OF all other nations and soverignties.


___

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» RE: Name one country Posted by: Cybershaman

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ILLEGAL ALIENS-ARE NOT IMMIGRANTS
[Report this comment]
Posted by: HBoyer on Apr 29, 2009 5:24 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
THEY ARE ILLEGAL, THEY CAN BE DEPORTED. THEY SHOULD BE DEPORTED.

CLOSE THE BORDER WITH MEXICO, OR KILL MORE AMERICANS WITH THE PIG FLU.

THIS IS NOT RACISM, THIS IS SURVIVAL, THIS IS COMMON SENSE.

BUT YOU PRO ILLEGAL ALIENS SUPPORTERS ARE BLIND, AND IGNORANT. YOUR ARE SO NARROW MINDED YOU CAN'T SEE THE FORREST FOR THE TREE.

MOST OF YOU ARE BEING PAID BY CORPORATIONS TO PROMOTE THIS GARBAGE TO CONVINCE AMERICANS ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE VICTIMS. WHAT ABOUT THE DRUG GANGS MOVING FROM MEXICO TO THE USA, ARE THEY VICTIMS?

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» RE: See? Posted by: Cybershaman
» Maybe he meant Forrest Gump Posted by: rob-bot
» What a doofus Posted by: chief of okeefe
» HBoyer, where are you? Posted by: leafsong1

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slaughtering plants are to blame..
[Report this comment]
Posted by: luzmejor on Apr 29, 2009 6:07 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Everything connected to mass meat production is a dangerous situation ready to happen.

Especially since Reaganism has practically made the word "regulations" into a bomb. Businessmen do not want any inspectors around to see what filthy conditions our food is coming from.

Pigs are the closest to humans in their DNA, so they should be raised in the cleanest conditions, just to prevent this kind of disease transfer.

On top of this, human workers are abused and injured in the processing plants, especially if they are American-owned and operated. All of that is done to squeeze out more money for the owners from fewer regulations and lower taxes.

If you care at all about life on earth, learn something about what a virus is and how it works. Ignorance is a ticket to the grave, so stop listening to TV's right-winged schlock jocks


"What ye sow, ye shall reap."

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Do immigrants and illegal aliens bring diseases into the country or not?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Paul1939 on Apr 29, 2009 6:11 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Another ranting name calling piece from Joshua Holland; there must be another example of a negative impact of massive immigration, legal and illegal, on American citizens.

Joshua, we maybe liberal Democrats but we are not fools! If you want us to join with you and embrace the massive influx of immigrants, legal and illegal, that we have experienced over the past 30 years, you will have to show us demonstrable evidence that it has been good for US citizens. Calling us names simple does not substitute for evidence. Should we believe you or our lying eyes?

Joshua, there are millions of liberal Democrats, who like me, want you to know that when politicians or the media talk about “free trade” or “we are in a global economy,” all we hear them saying is they want cheap labor and a poor standard of living for our families. When anyone tells us we are “a nation of immigrants” so we have to accept 12-20+ million illegal aliens and tens of millions of legal immigrants,” what we hear them telling us is they want cheap labor, a poor standard of living for our families, and 439 million people in the country by 2050. When anyone, particularly Democratic politicians, tells us we are bigots, xenophobes, nativists, or haters of brown people if we oppose amnesty for illegal aliens and want our laws enforced, all we hear them telling us is they want cheap labor and a poor standard of living for our families, and 439 million people in the country by 2050. When we hear anyone say illegal aliens only do jobs American citizens won’t do, all we hear them saying is they want cheap labor and a poor standard of living for our families, and 439 million people in the country by 2050. We have had nearly 30 years of this free trade/global economy and massive immigration experiment, and by any measure it has been and absolute failure for American workers and US citizens.

Joshua, a middle class, that our party purports to represent, requires a tight labor market and strong legal protections for the bargaining rights of workers. Without these two essential elements, workers will never be able to achieve and maintain equivalent traditional post WWII middle class incomes. No matter what politicians or anyone else says, if jobs can be and are outsourced (Free Trade/Global Economy) or in-sourced (massive immigration, legal and illegal), then there can be no tight labor market and the middle class will continue to wither away and workers’ standard of living and working conditions will continue to get worse and worse. The veracity of what we say can be clearly seen in the consequences suffered by the middle class from these cheap labor policies; policies we would note large majorities of the American people opposed when they were implemented. All middle class American families have gotten from the cheap labor policies of the past 30 years are massive increases in public and private debt, reduced incomes, high bankruptcy levels, failing schools, deteriorating infrastructure and a drastically reduced quality of life. And this is what our party not only wants to continue but exacerbate? This is the change we need? I don’t think so.

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» I am completely baffled.... Posted by: Fencerider

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The grain of truth in this . . .
[Report this comment]
Posted by: chorton on Apr 29, 2009 6:13 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
is that the shantytowns and slums of Latin America - untold and even uncounted scores of millions living in the most wretched poverty, in dirt-floor shacks made from tar paper and tin cans, without sewage, sanitation, clean water, medical care, schools, police or fire protection - represent a huge pool of uncontrolled and largely uncontrollable disease vectors. You don't really know what I'm talking about - You can't really "get" their reality - unless you've been there and smelled them. Millions of people living in communities that smell like dead rats. How can you have a real "public health" system with people living like this?

Come to think of it, how can we on this side of the border have a real public health system with tent cities of the homeless springing up around every city?

The fantasy is that this disease threat - which owes its existence in large part to the plunder of nearly all of Latin America by multi-national corporations and bankers, with the aid of the IMF, NAFTA and relentless CIA interference, and backed by scores of US-made coups and military interventions over the past 120 years - could ever have been stopped at the border, or even at the walls of the gated communities behind which the super-rich cower!

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A Continent Of Mutts
[Report this comment]
Posted by: melpol on Apr 29, 2009 6:14 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Racial fears are popping up again with the Swine Flu epidemic. Conspirator theorists are becoming active---they claim it is a white mans plan to destroy Mexican Indians. Right wingers are attempting to have the borders permanently closed. Racism is alive and It must be stopped. The only solution is to mongrelize the population of the America’s. An affirmative action program should be instituted to give South American Indians an edge in hiring practices. All people on the American continent should be accepted as citizens. Racial exclusiveness will finally come to an end with a continent of mutts.

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Amazing Left Position on Illegals
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Posted by: Lloydmillerus on Apr 29, 2009 6:20 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Left position on illegal immigration is really weird. I'm old enought to remember when Labor Unions realized their existence is incompatible with unrestricted immigration!

But, their "left leaders" in the Party need those votes.

Actually, a welfare state is incompatible with unrestricted immigration. How did the Corporate Elite ever con the Left into accepting unrestricted immigration?

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» You forgot the MAFIA Posted by: leafsong1
» RE: You forgot the MAFIA Posted by: chorton

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Too bad...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: fotoman1133406 on Apr 29, 2009 6:23 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
HATE, enjoys, loves and uses any means possible to spread. Instead of "trying to get along" and be a better MANKIND. SWINE FLU, is just another "tool" used to spread- HATE.

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A tour de force of ad hominem, bare assertion, and false analogy . . .
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Walks-in-Storms on Apr 29, 2009 6:28 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
A blizzard of illogical name-calling changes no fact. The epithet "racist," xenophobe, or the vapid like does not in any way disprove the logical validity of a proposition. Neither does the repetition of the bare assertion (it's true because the speaker says so) fallacy prove anything.

The fact is that were the border closed completely, there would be no disease of any kind imported into the U.S. - or vice versa. On the other hand, if no one is prevented from entering the country, the incidence of transported disease will increase. These are the reasons for what is called quarantine (not "racism.")

This essay demonstrates eminently the cancerous effect of political ideology on everything it touches. Were our educational system to begin stressing the study of logic in our schools, the nation would experience a sea change - a sea change from moronic to cogent.

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European Immigrants: 1500s and 1600s
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Posted by: LeaderofMen on Apr 29, 2009 6:28 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If I remember correctly, it was the New World that had few communicable diseases until Europeans invaded the Western Hemisphere and decimated the native populations.

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» GOOD POINT!! Posted by: mythmorph

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Funny Joke about immigration from an original American
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Posted by: Axiom69 on Apr 29, 2009 6:58 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
An old Indian Chief sat in his Hogan on the reservation, smoking a ceremonial pipe and eyeing two U.S. government officials sent to interview him. "Chief Two Eagles" asked one official, "You have observed the white man for 90 years. You've seen his wars and his technological advances.You've seen his progress, and the damage he's done." The Chief nodded in agreement. The official continued, "Considering all these events, in your opinion, where did the white man go wrong? "The Chief stared at the government officials for over a minute and then calmly replied: "When white man found the land, Indians were running it. No taxes, No debt, Plenty buffalo, Plenty beaver. Women did all the work, Medicine man free, Indian man spent all day hunting and fishing, all night having sex."
Then the chief leaned back and smiled ... "Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that."

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...or, it came from intensive pig farming?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Trixietheduck on Apr 29, 2009 7:00 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I tried to post links, but they were too long(?) - but google "swine flu" and "smithfield farms" - lots of intriguing stuff comes up.

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Those rightwingers are one of the same weasels fighting against single payer healthcare.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: JenniferBedingfield on Apr 29, 2009 7:01 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Without single payer healthcare, they can keep making a fortune off their current sleaze. Obama and Congress had better be paying full attention and shift their priorities to getting HR 676 passed and prepare to fund and enforce it. Now there's a real homeland security policy that will keep America safe.

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Xenophobic
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Posted by: lclark on Apr 29, 2009 7:17 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yesterday, in responce to an article by this author, I posted that opponents to illegal migration are presented as insular and xenophobic, while adherhents to illegal migration are presented as compassionate and progressive. Today he uses xenophobic in the heading of his article.

We got the elements of the propaganda down, no need to concern ourselves with facts or intelligent debate when nuanced images constantly repeated will do. This is a political hack.

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» RE: Xenophobic Posted by: Joshua Holland

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Careful Michelle Your Phenotype is showing
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Posted by: Purple Girl on Apr 29, 2009 7:57 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Okay I'll say it- Malkin should look in the mirror before she starts her racist rants.
Is she so psychotically deluded she is unaware of her Asian appearance. Is she in such denial of her heritage she can't comprehend what she sees in the mirror?
Doesn't she realize how ironically hyterical her Racist attitude is to those watching her on TV.
Is she unaware of the Racist attitudes towards anyone appearing of Asian Descent after WW2?
Where were her concerns over infestation during the Avain Flu outbreak? should we have barred any one from that region from entering the States- should we have blamed their genetics for the potential pandemic it presented?
As for Savage- knowing that most surname orginated from an ancestors occupation or status- he may want to find out where a name like his began. Was he of a 'barbarian' tribe who were considered 'Savages' by the more civilized culture.These groups were also often blamed for the scourages that plagued those times.
We are a nation, a melting Pot of immigrants-yes even the American Indian is a migrant- Thus to have such prejudices is not only a disgrace, but innately UNAmerican. Our Strength, our perserverence and our Moral authority comes from being the nation of Mutts.Our an cestors not onl yleft that kind of thinking behind- they built a country in spite of it.

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» You are so wrong. Posted by: Fencerider
» RE: You are so wrong. Posted by: 876

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'Hate-radio host Michael Savage...'
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Posted by: CanuckKid on Apr 29, 2009 8:00 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
'...also advanced the argument, saying, "Make no mistake about it: Illegal aliens are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico."'

So the flu virus purposefully avoids infecting US citizens who returning from a Mexican vacation...?

You'd be laughable if you weren't so damn dangerous, Michael.

Never underestimate the damage that a stupid person with authority can do.

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This comment has been removed from the site due to non-compliance with AlterNet's community policies.
» Pay attention. Posted by: GuitarBill
» He can't scroll up -- I deleted it (NT) Posted by: Joshua Holland
» Thanks. Posted by: GuitarBill
» No, Thank you Posted by: Joshua Holland

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Michelle Malkin is just a plain bimbo trying to be relevant.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: xvictor on Apr 29, 2009 8:18 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
She had vocally supported losers like Rudy Giuliani and John McCain on FauxNews and had to eat so much crow because she had been demonstrably wrong on so many issues in the past. What the Reichwingers see in her is a perplexing mystery.

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876
[Report this comment]
Posted by: 876 on Apr 29, 2009 8:35 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
OMG this from the descendants of European squatters who arrived on wooden boats with snot matted hair, rats and pests and enough filth and disease to practically annihilate the natives of North America?

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» Really.... Posted by: Fencerider

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Remember the Poison Spinach xenophobia?
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Posted by: mythmorph on Apr 29, 2009 8:39 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Several years ago there was a scare about toxic spinach on the market. The source of this tainted spinach was found to be in California.

I was shocked and outraged when a surprise-xenophobe Californian friend of mine wrote me a uber-hysterical rant about the filthy Mexican workers causing this problem because they peed on their hands and didn't clean up afterwords.

Our friendship withered on the vine (well, I know spinach doesn't grow on a vine -- but still, it's a plant reference...) after I sent him my retort.

And then of course, of COURSE -- it turned out that the problem was all the bacteria-laden effluvia that had seeped into groundwater from a nearby cattle farm.

The farm wasn't owned or operated by Mexicans. Duh.

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What, you want to repeat the same thing today?
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Posted by: Paul1939 on Apr 29, 2009 8:56 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is it your position that the US today should follow the same policy the Native Americans followed when Europeans invaded these shores? If it is we shall inherit the same results they did.

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savage malkin yap
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Posted by: jareilly on Apr 29, 2009 8:59 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Ms. Malkin is a poisonous swamp creature. She's also Phillipino. Maybe she has forgotten about that. If she is right about immigrants, then she, herself should be captured, quarantined and shipped back to the Phillipines and not allowed to spread infection here...

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» Malkin is not here legally either Posted by: chief of okeefe

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Typical American reaction- resort to racist hysterics
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Posted by: 876 on Apr 29, 2009 9:11 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You Americans babble on about immigration as if the developing world was inventing disease and exporting it to you poor souls. It was after all a European Canadian who spread aids all over the globe through utter depravity. What about that? Do Europeans feel they should be afforded the freedom to travel freely, do as they please, but that no one else should have such rights? It is after all the Europeans that feast on swine to the point of dying from overconsumption, the overfed masses of the west whose demands for absolutely everything has ravaged the entire planet. Do any of you anti immigrant tough talkers have any thoughts on that? Today it is the filth of America military and otherwise that are spreading their diseases of depravity throughout Iraq. What reparations do you people intend to pay the Iraqi people for infecting them with your filth? It is a mystery how the most barbaric savage society on earth can so consistently and readily point fingers in every instance while failing every time to see their own transgressions.

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» Misplaced rage alert!! Posted by: Fencerider
» What? Posted by: Fencerider

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Here in Iowa, where there are more pigs than people
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Posted by: sausage on Apr 29, 2009 9:13 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The lead sentence in a swine flu story from the top ranted local news broadcast in central Iowa reads: Public health officials said Tuesday that they are closely tracking illnesses in Marshall County because of the large Hispanic population living there following an outbreak of the swine flu in Mexico.

And, yes, there is a large Hispanic population in Marshall County because a large Swift & Co meat packing plant localed in the county seat Marshalltown.

But no mention in the news story is that Mexican public health officials believe the outbreak originated at a Smithfield Foods hog-confinement operation in the state of Vera Cruz.

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» Wrong. Posted by: EncinoM

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One can just as easily make an argument
[Report this comment]
Posted by: bettyn on Apr 29, 2009 9:24 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
that East European Jewish and Filipino immigrants have brought this "plague" to our country. How do you like "them apples", Mike and Michelle? In fact, you can argue ANYONE could bring something like that to our country, can't you?

Stupid...just dumber than rocks.

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Some sanity Please!!!!!!
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Posted by: jeffrey7 on Apr 29, 2009 11:12 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The threat of swine flu is being blown way out of reality. This version,which is viral and NOT bacterial,like the 1970's version,is easier to get pir of and prevent than the health folks want us to know. So here's how to fight it and not spend alot of needless money at doctors who can't help.

Use echinicia, 500mg. 3 times a day for the next three months. You can get it at Wal-mart for less than $10.

Wash your hands often, this fights most all viruses.

Drink lots of water if you feel sick,even if you're not sick you need to drink more than a gallon and a half per day during cold and flu season.

This new swine flu is a virus. As such anti-biotics won't work on it. but water will. Viruses can be washed out of the body within a day or two.

Don't panic!!! There are a good many allergies that act like the flu,so if you or your child are showing symptoms,don't freak out. Drink lots of water and if your symptoms last longer than 3 days,then go see the doctor.
Even then it probably won't be swine flu. It could ust be regular flu.

The important thing is to remember you can prevent this flu by doing simple things like washing you hands,drinking lots of water,eating oranges, and taking echinicia.

Don't let the media freak you out. That's their job and they are damn good at it.

What you need to be asking is 'What's the lead story they are burying with this flu bullshit?'

When stories are all over the news,like this one is, you can bet your ass there's something way more important we need to be told about that they aren't

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U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says...
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Posted by: sausage on Apr 29, 2009 11:16 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Should Swine Flu Have A Different Name?
WASHINGTON---American agriculture officials want to want to change the name for the virus that's broken out in Mexico and the U.S. from "swine flu" to something else.

The problem, they say, is that the name "swine flu" suggests a problem with pork products.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack points out that the virus is not food-borne and has nothing to do with consuming pork products.

Vilsack says he's concerned that misunderstandings could have a negative impact on farmers who provide pork products to consumers around the world.

Speaking Tuesday at a daily news briefing on the government's response to the outbreak, Vilsack said the American hog industry is sound and that consumers everywhere should know that U.S. pork products are safe.

It's the ticket, Tom, change the name and every thing's solved!

The local Des Moines television station which posted the above story, KCCI, is central Iowa's top rated local news broadcast. And, falling right in line with Vilsack's dictum for a less swinish euphemism the Des Moines TV station has headlined two follow-up news stories thusly:
Minnesota Reports Possible H1N1 Case

and

Iowa Testing Possible H1N1 Flu Case

Who says government and commerce can't work together to solve all problems. Haw.

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PNAC criminals quoted re. biological warfare
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Posted by: rme518 on Apr 29, 2009 11:29 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"And advanced forms of biological warfare that can trigger specific 'genotypes' can transform
biological warfare from the realm of terror into
a politically useful tool." PNAC, Sept. 2000
... a coincidence that 'Air Force 2025' "projected" in 1996 a influenza pandemic
for 2009? ... a coincidence that the CDC in
2004 announced the launching of experiments designed to combine the H5N1 virus and human
viruses. (CIDFP, 1/14/04) ... a coincidence
that Baxter International "accidentally"
mixes H5N1 virus with H3N2 seasonal flu viruses
in conventional flu vaccines that were sent/slated for 18 countries and was only caught thanks to an alert tester in the Czech Republic?...A coincidence that the same Baxter International has been given the contract by the World "Health" Organization for the 2009 flying pig vaccine? ... A coincidence that homeless people in Poland who died from an experimental vaccine being tested were told it was a conventional flu strain when it turned out to be a vaccine with H5N1 bird flu viruses...(Telegraph 7/2/08) A coincidence that Rumsfeld who was also a player in the 1976 swine flu debacle when people died and got paralyzed FROM the vaccine, still has connection$ to Tamiflu which stands to make countless millions in the latest "natural", coincidental crisis? Google: Tamiflu linked to 54 Japanese deaths...Google the eye opening records of E. McBean PhD 'I was an on the Spot Observer of the 1918 epidemic' also google from E. McBean 'Swine Flu Exposed' written in 1977. Also google Archie Kalokeronos MD 'The Swine Flu
Fiasco' (Hope I spelled his last name right?)

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What is wrong with the anti-migration fanatics?
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Posted by: lclark on Apr 29, 2009 12:48 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you object to illegal migrations because of:
-cost to the country:
You are xenophobic, racist, paranoid, a right-wing wing-nut, likely white, and most certainly wrong in your facts, and have no compassion…oh, and you have nothing to say because your ancestors were nasty pieces of humanity ( acting like most people’s ancestors)
-Degradation to the social infrastructure:
You are xenophobic, racist, paranoid, a right-wing wing-nut, likely white, and most certainly wrong in your facts, and have no compassion…oh, and you have nothing to say because your ancestors were nasty pieces of humanity ( acting like most people’s ancestors)
-it ignores the rule of law and the Constitution:
You are xenophobic, racist, paranoid, a right-wing wing-nut, likely white, and most certainly wrong in your facts, and have no compassion…oh, and you have nothing to say because your ancestors were nasty pieces of humanity ( acting like most people’s ancestors)
-it undermines the pay structure in this country, takes jobs from citizens, and multiplies the underground economy that does not pay taxes while you do:
You are xenophobic, racist, paranoid, a right-wing wing-nut, likely white, and most certainly wrong in your facts, and have no compassion…oh, and you have nothing to say because your ancestors were nasty pieces of humanity ( acting like most people’s ancestors)
Etc, etc, etc:
You are xenophobic, racist, paranoid, a right-wing wing-nut, likely white, and most certainly wrong in your facts, and have no compassion…oh, and you have nothing to say because your ancestors were nasty pieces of humanity ( acting like most people’s ancestors)

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» You forgot ... Posted by: Joshua Holland
» lclark--PERFECTLY SAID!!! Posted by: frantic1971
» RE: lclark-- NOT PERFECTLY SAID!!! Posted by: munchkinpup
» RE: lclark-- NOT PERFECTLY SAID!!! Posted by: Joshua Holland
» Pretty accurate Posted by: chief of okeefe

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Universal Single payer health care...
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Posted by: kogwonton on Apr 29, 2009 2:41 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
would seem to be a 'National Security' issue. No?

We spend billions to fight 'terror' which, if you count every death attributed to terrorists in history (globally) combined, represents less than 1% of those killed just in the last year due to tobacco in the U.S. *ALONE*. Then add deaths due to drunk driving, or pharmaceuticals, or even everyday violent crime, not even to mention those killed by overt military actions, and we see that 'terrorism' throughout history kills less than 1/10 of 1% of those that die annually in the U.S. ALONE.

In our socialist expenditures against terrorism (national security) we spend thousands of times more than we do on every other cause of death. Nonpolitical crime (if you could honestly call organized crime nonpolitical), disaster preparedness, and public health - all cause thousands of times more deaths than 'terror'. We cannot justify or afford this massive imbalance of spending or our incredibly narrow definition of 'National Security'.

Universal health care is THE single most important national security issue of our time.

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» Thank you Posted by: sausage

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Racism is ageless
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Posted by: bluebama II on Apr 29, 2009 4:22 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The only difference with today's racist is they have their own radio and cable stations and you can read their terrified comments on the internet. Born and raised in the south you used to get most of this in small groups of men trying to nurture their lack of self esteem. Racism is in every state, every where, the victims are just different. Wherever you see it lurking, you'll find stupid lurking nearby. America is steeeeeeeeeeeeped in white folks like me killing folk for their betterment while proclaiming law and order. Dick Gregory had some great rants in the seventies about America's negroes. The Ohio Guv changed the National Guard rounds responding at Kent State from rubber to live the night before the advertised ralley on May 4, 1970 against the ROTC chapter they wanted off campus. The Guard was ordered to kneel and fire point blank and four were murdered in cold blood. American negroes of the week!

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» RE: acism is ageless Posted by: YogiBear
» RE: acism is ageless Posted by: Walks-in-Storms

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Poor Mexico !! Poor Mexico !! So far away from God, and so close to the United States !!
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Posted by: skepticgod on Apr 29, 2009 5:11 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Poor Mexico !! Poor Mexico !! So far away from God, and so close to the United States !!" -Porfirio Diaz. Ex-President of Mexico

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antfaber
[Report this comment]
Posted by: antfaber on Apr 29, 2009 5:15 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Swine flu is Allah's way of punishing humanity for not accepting Islam.

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Chomsky said the 90's in the US was similar to the 30's in Germany
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Posted by: acousmas on Apr 29, 2009 5:18 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1239881886.html Xenophobia as a result of disease from a relatively powerless people group economically isn't likely to mobilize a large majority of Americans to support war crime behavior like that of the Nazi's. What we do have an opportunity to see here though is propaganda from the right. The day when the right and a majority of the left is poor in America and more disenfranchised than some other people group, that is when we have something to worry about. I do not think Chomsky was making a prediction about America, and I don't believe that history will align itself in a way that the subjugation of a race will seem like an advantageous and reasonable prospect for the US, as it seemed to the Nazis and some necessary portion of the German people who were influenced by propaganda in the 30s. This right wing propaganda lends itself to citizens believing the Mexican people are unclean, but no where does it seem to bother our sensibilities about their superiority. The Jews were viewed as unclean, but more importantly, they were considered a threat in the areas of business and finance by the Germans. I fear the day when a minority group is perceived by propaganda or otherwise as messing with the rice bowl of Americans.

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universal health payer
[Report this comment]
Posted by: wint on Apr 29, 2009 5:40 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
kogwonton got it right. The ticking time bomb is the fact that 50 million Americans have no health insurance and that means that Mr. Bush told them to go to the emergency rooms to get help. Isn't that where all the sick people are to begin with? Now you have really sick people spreading stuff around where other really sick people are and you don't expect a disaster? Let's see if the Republicans can come up with a good gimick to get us out of this one they of the oh so great intellect. Millions lost jobs and no health insurance and now the swine flu. Speaking of swine how is old Rush anyhow?

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The epicenter is right next door to an American corporate pig farm
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Posted by: RR#1 on Apr 29, 2009 6:55 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So, here is corporate american again in mexico no doubt trying to take advantage of slack or non existent health regulations, looking for cheap labour, avoiding taxes in the USA and now blaming the poor indigenous population for the outbreak. This is another Jon Stweart Moment!
Cheers,
RR

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If I had my way, everyone who voted McCain would be driven out
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Posted by: chief of okeefe on Apr 29, 2009 7:25 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That would leave plenty of room for immigrants from latin, muslim, and black countries (all the boogey-people of the right-wing hate-racists).

Of course, we would have to beef up the border patrol to keep the Repubs from trying to slither back into this country....

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BulldogRedemer
[Report this comment]
Posted by: BulldogRedeemer on Apr 29, 2009 8:12 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Joshua Holland is xenophobic in that he calls any objections to uncontrolled and illegal immigration racism. Controlled legal immigration has procedures to screen for illnesses, etc. Duh!

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» Re. Screening for viruses: Posted by: CanuckKid

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Blame Poor Immigrants, Ha! How About We Blame Upper Middle Class Travelling the World???
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Posted by: margwa on Apr 30, 2009 3:23 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I live in Canada, but we have reported cases here. It certainly wasn't a Mexican immigrant that brought it to my country. I wonder how many of these Conservatives with disposable income to travel all over the world would blame themselves for spreading diseases and facilitating a global pandemic?

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Clonakilty32
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Posted by: Clonakilty32 on Apr 30, 2009 8:55 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Economic woes in the US has slowed illegal immigration. Proving that if there are no jobs the illegal immigration problem will be minimal. In addition to deporting illegals much more attention needs to be placed on jailing the people who hire illegals. The illegals want to work and work for less money with no benefits. The employer of illegals is knowingly breaking the law, getting cheap labor and paying no benefits. This is the person that belongs in jail.

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Discourse and Debate in the U.S., a Study."
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Posted by: Walks-in-Storms on Apr 30, 2009 9:50 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That will be the title of the thesis I am writing, and it is the result of a five year study or discourse and debate both here on the Internet and on the electronic media, radio and television.

I not only have participated as I do here on a wide range of "talk" forums, I have repeatedly been thrown off one after the other - some as many as three times. What is most significant about that fact is the further fact that in no instance have I resorted to any of the ad hominem attack, vituperation, scurrility, insult or any of the like so characteristic of today's "debate."

Neither have I, ever, lowered the conversation by hurling the vapid and ubiquitous charges of "racist," "sexist," or the "politically-correct" like.

In every instance, in point of demonstrable fact, I have insisted upon logical process, sought to lower the level of heated nastiness, and endeavored to cast the proverbial "oil upon the waters." I have, moreover, demonstrated again and again that illogical assertion and personal attack prove utterly nothing - except the character of the user.

In each instance, I not only supported both sides of political, religious, and ideological arguments, I carefully esculated my objections to the personal attack, vituperation, insult, and the like to the degree of offering exemplary, while far subdued in comparison, rebuttal in kind.

It was I, nevertheless, who was in each instance being mentioned here thrown off the site.

My study suggests a number of things, not the least of which is that none of the providers of "opinion" space is interested in real debate. Their purpose is the same as that of today's "news" media, that of popularity among certain groups. It is entertainment in the form of "venting," and few participants have any interest in anything but what they, themselves, say. Others participate solely to hear the point of view they support repeated again, and again, and again (some sort of psychological re-inforcement, I suppose).

It is also clear that participants in "debate" like that of AlterNet detest logical, scientific, or mathematical proof. One such person - here on AlterNet, matter of fact - protested angrily that "Logic has no place in debate"(well, now - pray tell, what does?)

It has also become clear that certain ideological topics are sancrosanct where any logically, scientifically, or statistically contradictory evidence is concerned. All matters of feminist interest, for instance may not be contradicted, and expulsion is dependent exactly upon degree of logical and rational effectiveness. Prove a point, you are history where the site is concerned.

It is further interesting where feminist and certain other liberal viewpoints are concerned that reply in kind results with absolute certainty in deletion or expulsion. Feminists, for instance, may attack their antagonist by means of derogatory allusion to sexual prowess - but no retaliation of that sort is tolerated.

An interesting instance of that was a woman who called herself "Eyes wide Open." When “Eyes” loosed on me one of the most scurrilous personal attacks of the many to which I have been subjected, I suggested that were I to refer to her as "thighs wide open" I wondered what would happen. In needn't have "wondered" - I was expelled forthwith from Truthout (where I continue under another sobriquet and guise - this one liberal rather than my customary moderate).

I believe scholarly periodicals, even history, will find my study interesting, and I will publish it soon, and I hope the same is true of readers here. I have, incidentally, forwarded to each of more than two dozen sites of the kind to which I refer here a copy of this letter. No one has responded.

Also interesting - what?

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» RE: Interesting... Posted by: Cybershaman
» RE: Interesting... Posted by: Walks-in-Storms
» Not exactly earth-shattering news ... Posted by: Joshua Holland

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The main point of the story is...
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Posted by: Quannah on Apr 30, 2009 5:13 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
here are the Right-Wing Blowhard Darlings taking a public health situation and twisting and contorting it into a hateful argument against immigrants from Central America. They are using this story of "Swine Flu" to further demonize people with brown skin and strike another blow to further separate and divide the people of this country.

That it also conveniently takes the spotlight off the Torture question surrounding the Bush Junta -- previously the biggest story in the media -- is running a close second.

They are so transparent with their lies and their tactics. Just another propaganda maneuver being dropped onto the American people.

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Question
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Posted by: Jeanne on Apr 30, 2009 6:56 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
At the risk of sounding racist, what ethnic background is Michelle Malkin? I am Asian. I don't understand her hatred of all things not White. When she looks in the mirror, does she see a White person? Because, I see someone who is genetically Asian. Is there a self-hatred, or is she overcompensating for her non-whiteness by attacking everything she perceives to be not-white? Doesn't she understand that everyone in this country, save Native Americans, immigrated, willingly or unwillingly? We, or our ancestors, all came from somewhere else and were assimilated, often after varying periods of prejudice and discrimination. She should grow a heart. A brain would be nice, too.

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British used smallpox against Revolutionaries in Williamsburg
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Posted by: plantland on Apr 30, 2009 9:07 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I, too, had always heard about the smallpox infected blankets having been given to natives, but this sorry chapter came later.

It seems that the first intentional bio terrorism in America was performed by the British, who made use of a corpse in order to sicken Revolutionaries in Williamsburg, VA, during the Revolutionary War.

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Unlawful Aliens Cause Swine Flu
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Posted by: mminno on Apr 30, 2009 9:34 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Unlawful aliens in Mexico, in the form of
a notorious factory farm that produces pork,
run by the US corporation, Smithfield's,
is probably the origin of the swine flu.
Neighbors of the disgusting place have
long complained about dangerous unsanitary
conditions in the massive congested feedlots.
Mexicans are justified in their objection to
North American aliens who come to their
country bringing disease and death to their
people.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/
apr/27/swine-flu-mexico-health

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So so so so stupid
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Posted by: l_m_n on May 1, 2009 6:24 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Most of the suspected cases are from white middle-class tourists returning home. There are 17 suspected cases in Nova Scotia because a school went on a field trip. Poor immigrants don't have the money for the plane flights that is spreading this virus! It's sick to be using the scare (hyped up mostly by the media themselves, mind you) to further an intolerant agenda.

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» RE: So so so so stupid Posted by: EJLima

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It is indeed, no doubt, encouraging . . .
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Posted by: Walks-in-Storms on May 1, 2009 7:19 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It is indeed encouraging to know that the same government that gave us the wonderful examples of FEMA in the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina, the debacles that were flood relief after flooding of the Mississippi in the north, the illegal immigration flood and still open borders, and one federal pratfall after another in law enforcement (Waco and 40,000 "erroneous" - if you believe that, you're not paying attention - SWAT raids killing 400 innocent people, for instance), is managing and protecting us from a potential pandemic of disease.

Can anyone, accordingly, be surprise at the "recession" and "bailout" solution?

Yes, sir, things are just great in the Land of the Fee (spelling intended).

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Interesting, isn't it . . .?
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Posted by: Walks-in-Storms on May 1, 2009 3:56 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Interesting, isn't it, that no one here is calling for the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Neopolitano after her inane assertion that there is no need to close the border because the Swine Flu is already here.

How stupid - or ideologically warped - can you be? And this nitwit is in responsible in large measure of the nation's internal security?

What's next (or ongoing)? - "No need to worry about terrorists - there's one here already!"

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More Malkin Hypocricy
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Posted by: chejohnson82 on May 4, 2009 7:20 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I checked the Wikipedia entry on Malkin, and, while she was born in America, her parents were both immigrants and non-citizens with visas.

Also, a read an interview/bio about her a while back (sorry, can't remember the source and I'm too tired to search for it). The one thing I remember is either her favorite song or favorite movie. Both are High School Musical related. Now I know a few things about High School Musical because I was working the concessions at the theater when the live on stage version came through town. The High School Musical movie and soundtrack are all about overcoming prejudice, which she even mentioned I believe, and it features an interracial relationship between a gringo and a latina!

So, it sounds like she does not even believe her own words at the subconscious level. Meaning, there is a good chance that she's either psychologically damaged or just acting out a role that conflicts with her values, all for the money and fame.

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Nativism
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Posted by: frank69 on May 5, 2009 11:41 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Nativism is alive and well here in the USA. Two wacko nutcases peddling hate. "The hobgloblins of little minds" - Savage and Malkin. Perhaps, Savage Malkin is more appropriate!

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The first sentence of the article.
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Posted by: EJLima on May 6, 2009 1:12 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It appears to me the right wing extremists realize they are God forsaken and screwed!

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That Nasty Little Michelle Milken
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Posted by: jaglover on May 7, 2009 8:34 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
She's is one of the most racist people on TV PERIOD!!! She's always screaming about locking someone out, keeping someone out or sending someone home and all I have to say is....why don't YOU take your evil ass somewhere other than the US. What makes you think you have any more of a right to be here than anyone else? Not talking about illegal aliens of course. Everyone should abide by the letter of the law but there's a HUMANE way to deal with people. She's too ugly to try to smirk and turn her nose up at anyone.

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Mr.Dan
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Posted by: danmaeso on May 8, 2009 7:58 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Michelle, Michael, Billo, and all right wing assholes, go to hell!!!!

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Megamerge Dissolution Solution to Mexican Flu
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Posted by: tlwinslow on May 26, 2009 1:55 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If Mexico were megamerged withthe U.S., and U.S. health laws were extended down there, the problem in question would be solved.

Google "Megamerge Disssolution Solution" to read the full details of the real permanent solution to the U.S.-Mexico border problem, with justice and without racism.

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Alternet Comments:

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Illegal aliens would be a non issue if we used E verify and targeted the employers of illegals.
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Posted by: Honky The Antichrist on Apr 29, 2009 1:10 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If the illegal aliens could no longer find work in the US, they would have no choice to return to their countries and demand change or starve to death - probably starve to death. The health and welfare of Mexicans is the responsibility of Mexico.

As for the Swine Flu:
If this is as malicious as the Spanish Flu of 1918, we could be standing on the brink of a Brave New World. The Spanish Flu killed an estimated 10-15 percent of the world’s population. With our more globalized, more urban world, we could expect a much higher fatality rate.

The US and other western nations have made amazing strides in the areas of antiviral drugs and inoculations. The theistic, ignorant, non productive, over populated stagnate nations have not. Much of this planets problems, from Over population to resource conflicts to green house gases, would be greatly reduced if ½ or even 2/3 of the world’s population simply went away.

Keep in mind, The Black Death was the catalyst for the Renascence. If you want to “Imagine there are no countries, just people sharing all the world”, A mega pandemic is your best bet.

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» You’re missing my point. Posted by: Honky The Antichrist
» no Posted by: Cory.Goodman
» Stop the petty nonsense. Posted by: countingdaisies

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My main concern with this swine flu is not the potential for death,
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Posted by: and_abottleofrum on Apr 29, 2009 1:28 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
great or small, nor the fact conservative pundits are predictably using it for Mexican bashing, but the prospect that fears of infectious disease could put a crimp in civil unrest that may emerge this summer.

I'm not in the camp that says this flu was engineered to cull the young and discontent who are more likely to protest, or at least keep them indoors when they could be out protesting, however this flu could have that effect anyway, which is very disappointing.

Now the task becomes making sure flu worries don't overwhelm populist anger. I've thought maybe this could be done by spreading conspiracy theories about this flu being unleashed by an elite cabal intent on keeping the rape of our pocketbooks going and discouraging mass demonstrations.

Granted many people don't go for conspiracy theories, so for them it would be important to keep reminding, in provocative ways, that the financial oligarchs are committed to bleeding every last bit of wealth from ordinary folks.

Whatever mix of tactics needs to be used, it's important that this flu doesn't result in muting populist anger, which has emerged for the first time in decades and presents an important opportunity for everyone who disagrees with our society's domination by wealthy, connected, corporate crime syndicates.

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» you are so full of it.. Posted by: Drclaw

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THEY DIDN'T GET US WITH THE SMALLPOX BLANKETS BUT THEY HAVE DNA NOW
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Posted by: joeocho88 on Apr 29, 2009 1:34 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
IF THE WHITE EUROPEANS HAD HAD DNA AND MICROBIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE LIKE WHAT WENT INTO CREATING THIS VIRUS--- (YES,IT WAS CREATED IN A LAB JUST LIIKE AIDS WAS) THEY WOULD HAVE ERADICATED ALL OF US NATIVE AMERICANS AND ALL NON WHITES AND JEWS AND SOUTHERN AND EASTERN EUROPEANS AND ROMA PEOPLE FROM THE EARTH!

THE PROBLEM IS A LOT OF THE ELITES ALSO HAVE SOME NATIVE AMERICAN ANCESTRY SO WHEN THEY BREW UP THESE VIRUS CONCOCTIONS FOR THEIR FINAL CONCOCTIONS TO THE ULTIMATE "INDIAN SOLUTION." THIS IS A RACE-SPECIFIC VIRUS SPECIALLY CREATED TO TAKE OUT PERSONS OF ASIAN ORIGINS...

THE POISON IN THE ALCOHOL AND THE SMALLPOX-INFECTED BLANKETS THEY TRIED TO KILL US WITH ONLY GOT A FEW. THIS WAY, THEY CAN GET RID OF ALL OF THE PEOPLE THEY DON'T WANT. MAYBE SOME OF THEM WILL GET CAUGHT (IN THEIR OWN TRAP BECAUSE THERE IS NO PURE RACE!

WITH THE DNA CODE BROKEN, THEY CAN CREATE A VIRUS TO GET RID OF ANYONE THEY HATE!

AND I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY TURNED IT LOOSE IN MEXICO FIRST! THIS IS GENETIC SPECIFIC TO KILL PEOPLE LIKE MY MOTHER"S PEOPLE WHO ARE NATIVE AMERICAN AND MY FATHER'S MOTHER WAS MEXICAN.

I HOPE WHOEVER THE PEOPLE WERE WHO DID THIS ROT IN HELL.

I STUDIED MICROBIOLOGY AND I KNOW THAT THIS IS POSSIBLE.

THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRAT OR A REPUBLICAN PROBLEM. IT IS A FEW ELITES WHO WANT TO GET RID OF ALL INFERIOR RACES--PEOPLE LIKE THE INTERNATIONAL BANKER CARTEL BASED IN ENGLAND AND SWITZERLAND -- THE SAME INSTITUTIONS WHO PUT HITLER IN POWER.

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» You have proof he is lying? Posted by: Prophit
» RE: You have proof he is lying? Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» Did you also study.... Posted by: Fencerider
» RE: HUH???? Posted by: mythmorph
» I greatly appreciate these two posts. Posted by: and_abottleofrum
» RE: Right on! Posted by: Jasonix
» Both of you.... Posted by: Fencerider
» Proof please.... Posted by: Fencerider
» Dude, you're a little bit crazy Posted by: leafsong1
» you also are full of it Posted by: Drclaw
» RE: you also are full of it Posted by: Reader in Japan

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steveced121
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Posted by: steveced121 on Apr 29, 2009 1:37 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Joshua Holland's article was right on the money about xenophopes blaming Mexicans for the
spread of swine flu virus.

Now that Mexicans and Hispanics in general have become the whipping boys of the right wing,
they can be blamed for everything that goes wrong. Of course, a convenient target for all
of the frustrated, unhappy bigots who can't wait to turn their wrath and low self esteem on a particular ethnic
group that they feel they can pick on.

Mexico or Mexicans are not to blame for swine flu, it's been around for a long time and this could have happened anywhere.

It saddens me to see how some Americans would
vilify an entire ethnic group any time they can
for any reason they can.

Stop the bullying and racism!

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» RE: steveced121 Posted by: mythmorph

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villager
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Posted by: villager1 on Apr 29, 2009 2:02 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Instead of referring to this pandemic as a " crisis" maybe we should consider it a Godsend - i.e if it eliminates enough of us screwballs anyway!

Something has to stop our stupidity!

We just keep on going but we have'nt any idea where!

Crazy like the lemmings we are!

We are all blind, but we are led by the blind so how can we know any better!

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Why do I find Malkin funny?
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Posted by: bonapartist on Apr 29, 2009 2:05 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Probably because she is a Filipino immigrant herself. There is nothing more bigoted than the theory of racial superiority but even following that line of reasoning one might point out that Malkin is of east Asian descent. At the same time most of Mexicans are mestizos, that is to say of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry.

Back in the days of Spanish empire the racial component was very important to define casts in the colonies. Malkin would be decidely placed under the average Mexican on the account of lacking european blood. Best of all both Philippines and Mexico were the part of the Spanish empire.

In my opinion that is rather amusing. Selfhating maybe? The desire to fit in with dominant WASP right wingers? Who know, however it is a good example of what kind of personalities pass for thinkers on US political right. I would say crackpots but what do I know. Being of Slavic origins I probably just dislike my potential overlords.

PS

Yes, I was sarcastic, I probably need to work on it but it amuses me :)

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» Filipino or Filipino-American? Posted by: chejohnson82
» RE: Filipino or Filipino-American? Posted by: chejohnson82

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Hysteria
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Posted by: Ashoka911 on Apr 29, 2009 2:26 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
People need to take a chill pill. I am an emergency physician. There were almost 40,000 deaths in the US from influenza per year in the last years. Influenza does exactly that: It mutates itself and there are some years more severe than others. A normal fatality rate may be 1 in a thousand. Maybe this one is twice as bad. How many of these "mild" cases are there untested / undiagnosed in a city of 22,000,000 ? I dont know.....I am not exactly seeing Ebola here !

In any case, politicizing this (as described in the article) or commercializing it (CNN and FOX advertizing dollars)Is there no limit to our depravity! Lets let the ultra right wing continue to slander themselves. They are on the wrong side of history. They are desperate, they are shrill and the upcomming generations see through them and so does almost every one else !

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» RE: Hysteria Posted by: Old Skeptic
» And you have proof... Posted by: EncinoM
» deal with this Posted by: Drclaw
» oops Posted by: Drclaw
» RE: Hysteria Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» RE: Hysteria Posted by: Reader in Japan
» RE: Hysteria Posted by: Ian MacLeod

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Traitoritis
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Posted by: Perry Logan on Apr 29, 2009 3:11 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think the anti-immigration people have the meanest mouths in the world.

Since right-wingers are famous throughout the galaxy for their incontinent rhetoric, this is really saying something.

Wingers are angry all the time--but the anti-immigration guys are madder than anybody. There's no one as mad as an anti-immigration guy realizing most people are not as mouth-foamingly, teeth-gnashingly, eye-rollingly xenophobic as he.

They get so mad, they start calling everyone traitors. This is the dread right-wing disease of traitoritis, also known as treasonosis, in which wingers just start calling everybody a traitor. Among the lunar right, this malady is more pandemic than any swine flu.

But in a world of mean right-wing mouths, the anti-immigration dudes stand out, because they have traitoritis all the time.

These guys will call you, your family, and everyone you know or love a traitor before they've gotten up in the morning.

They will call whole organizations traitors--nay, whole groups, entire segments of humanity. By the time they die, they will have called the entire world traitors.

This can't be good for your karma. :(

The anti-immigration people are so xenophobic their eyelids twitch when they talk. You can verify this by watching a video of Lou Dobbs. They are terminally xenophobic. They have lots of guns. They have a tantrum every day.

And they think their fellow Americans are traitors. Howdy, neighbor!

Needless to say, the anti-immigration people are complete hypocrites. If they had to sneak into Mexico to feed their families, they'd do it instantly.


Busload of Faith: soon to be a major motion picture.

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» aye Posted by: Cory.Goodman
» RE: Can we call it Big Brother? Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» RE: Considering... Posted by: Cybershaman
» RE: Considering... Posted by: Quannah
» RE: Traitoritis....not quite the case Posted by: Sister_Lauren

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You Can Learn a Lot From Listening to the Wing Nuts:
[Report this comment]
Posted by: garyfee on Apr 29, 2009 3:41 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
For instance, Savage claims, "Make no mistake about it: Illegal aliens are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico." I didn't know that this virus had evolved to the point that it could read your immigration papers before deciding to attack you. If only the demogogues could evolve to this point, as well. Perhaps when they start believing in evolution, they'll start practicing it.

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Agree With Josh Holland But.....
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Posted by: drricklippin on Apr 29, 2009 4:08 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...We all need to recognize that poverty - no matter what culture it is in -generally lowers host resistance to almost any organism -including the flu.

We need to root out poverty, crowding, poor nutrition,living very near and with farm animals.(and,yes, US industrial animal "farms" and mega agri-business practices)

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton, Pa

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» I agree, Doc, but Posted by: Ellie1

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remember lafayette
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Posted by: remember Lafayette on Apr 29, 2009 4:36 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
we are all illegal immigrants. We never asked the real americans if it was okay to invade them, "genocide" them, "disease" them, steal the land from the few survivors and then put those in concentration camps.
We certainly have the right now of being the keepers of morality for the world as prescribed by Fox News, the new bible, preached by the "pures", the "perfects" (although sometimes a bit overweight) like Hannity, Malkin, Boortz, O'Reilly, Savage.
Karma, Karma where are you? Or maybe: Karma, you are giving us back what we deserve.

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» RE: remember lafayette Posted by: Old Skeptic

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People don't see the benefits of huge immigration
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Posted by: Jasonix on Apr 29, 2009 4:40 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Our open-door immigration policies bring the world's best and brightest here to perform work that we Americans are just too stupid to do.

For example, an Indian "Master's" degree is equivalent to an American "bachelors" degree, and their medical degrees are granted with fewer years of study than American medical degrees. But since it costs too much to hire Americans, we bring Indians here to perform those tasks. Nearly 40% of our doctors are now Indians, according to what I've read. The lower pay they receive makes hospitals more profitable - and the fantastic quality of medical care that's available to us in the United States shows how we can get more with less. We're just ahead of Cuba - a country we've blockaded for decades - in quality of medical care. Soon, we'll be gaining on Uzbekistan!

Sending good jobs overseas and importing foreigners to do the work we can't outsource (dentistry, nursing) liberates us from our materialistic middle-class obsessions and frees us to explore our sexuality. When we have no hope of getting a good job, there's no reason for us to waste time studying science text books when we could be watching internet porn. Judeo-Christian inhibitions don't stand a chance against the laziness and apathy of the chronically unemployed with broadband access.

That's what Indian immigration does for us. Mexican immigration allows us to maintain environmentally destructive farming practices that would otherwise be unsustainable if virtual slave labor wasn't available. Imagine how terrible it would be if local family farms could compete with corporate mega-farms, and if we grew more of our food locally rather than importing it all from Rhode Island-sized corporate farms in the West.

Immigration allows us to do all these things - without a chance of getting good employment in medicine, technology, or science thanks to Indian outsourcing and immigration, we're free to pursue porn addiction and obesity. Our pursuit of obesity is enabled by corporate farming that uses illegal labor that prevents sustainable, local farming from becoming the norm.

Hope you enjoy this comment soon, because comments critical of open immigration policies have a tendency of disappearing quickly.

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I use it to point out how 50 million uninsured
[Report this comment]
Posted by: bthespoon on Apr 29, 2009 4:41 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
might not go right away to see a doctor if they become ill, and the ramifications for all o fus of living in a country where over 50 million people have no access to health care during an epidemic.

Good luck in the ER if you need one.

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» And Posted by: Karina

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USA should belong to the world
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Anthhh on Apr 29, 2009 5:19 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
-
USA should belong to the world...the WHOLE world. and NOT vice Versa.

That is the VERY principle upon which the USA was able to be securely "founded" 200 years ago..! "Our New Nation Belongs to the World".


Exactly the way it MUST BE, since it was founded upon invasion, genocide, military occupation/colonization..

It was only LOGICAL that USA should be free for immigrants. Free for the world this eradicated the guilt of the founders.

Indeed , it would have been quite difficult if the 'founders' were to invade, commit genocide, Ethnic clensing, militarily occupy, colonize .. then close off to immigrants?? Invaders keeping ALL the LOOT and fighting off all who would stop and say "This isnt rightfully yours" and start a never ending barrage of wars and invasions.

Instead "ALL can come share it"

Now that 200 years have gone by and all those people are gone, maybe now no one will notice or care how the USA gradually has gone from being owned by all to being the owners OF all other nations and soverignties.


___

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» RE: Name one country Posted by: Cybershaman

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ILLEGAL ALIENS-ARE NOT IMMIGRANTS
[Report this comment]
Posted by: HBoyer on Apr 29, 2009 5:24 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
THEY ARE ILLEGAL, THEY CAN BE DEPORTED. THEY SHOULD BE DEPORTED.

CLOSE THE BORDER WITH MEXICO, OR KILL MORE AMERICANS WITH THE PIG FLU.

THIS IS NOT RACISM, THIS IS SURVIVAL, THIS IS COMMON SENSE.

BUT YOU PRO ILLEGAL ALIENS SUPPORTERS ARE BLIND, AND IGNORANT. YOUR ARE SO NARROW MINDED YOU CAN'T SEE THE FORREST FOR THE TREE.

MOST OF YOU ARE BEING PAID BY CORPORATIONS TO PROMOTE THIS GARBAGE TO CONVINCE AMERICANS ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE VICTIMS. WHAT ABOUT THE DRUG GANGS MOVING FROM MEXICO TO THE USA, ARE THEY VICTIMS?

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» RE: See? Posted by: Cybershaman
» Maybe he meant Forrest Gump Posted by: rob-bot
» What a doofus Posted by: chief of okeefe
» HBoyer, where are you? Posted by: leafsong1

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slaughtering plants are to blame..
[Report this comment]
Posted by: luzmejor on Apr 29, 2009 6:07 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Everything connected to mass meat production is a dangerous situation ready to happen.

Especially since Reaganism has practically made the word "regulations" into a bomb. Businessmen do not want any inspectors around to see what filthy conditions our food is coming from.

Pigs are the closest to humans in their DNA, so they should be raised in the cleanest conditions, just to prevent this kind of disease transfer.

On top of this, human workers are abused and injured in the processing plants, especially if they are American-owned and operated. All of that is done to squeeze out more money for the owners from fewer regulations and lower taxes.

If you care at all about life on earth, learn something about what a virus is and how it works. Ignorance is a ticket to the grave, so stop listening to TV's right-winged schlock jocks


"What ye sow, ye shall reap."

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Do immigrants and illegal aliens bring diseases into the country or not?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Paul1939 on Apr 29, 2009 6:11 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Another ranting name calling piece from Joshua Holland; there must be another example of a negative impact of massive immigration, legal and illegal, on American citizens.

Joshua, we maybe liberal Democrats but we are not fools! If you want us to join with you and embrace the massive influx of immigrants, legal and illegal, that we have experienced over the past 30 years, you will have to show us demonstrable evidence that it has been good for US citizens. Calling us names simple does not substitute for evidence. Should we believe you or our lying eyes?

Joshua, there are millions of liberal Democrats, who like me, want you to know that when politicians or the media talk about “free trade” or “we are in a global economy,” all we hear them saying is they want cheap labor and a poor standard of living for our families. When anyone tells us we are “a nation of immigrants” so we have to accept 12-20+ million illegal aliens and tens of millions of legal immigrants,” what we hear them telling us is they want cheap labor, a poor standard of living for our families, and 439 million people in the country by 2050. When anyone, particularly Democratic politicians, tells us we are bigots, xenophobes, nativists, or haters of brown people if we oppose amnesty for illegal aliens and want our laws enforced, all we hear them telling us is they want cheap labor and a poor standard of living for our families, and 439 million people in the country by 2050. When we hear anyone say illegal aliens only do jobs American citizens won’t do, all we hear them saying is they want cheap labor and a poor standard of living for our families, and 439 million people in the country by 2050. We have had nearly 30 years of this free trade/global economy and massive immigration experiment, and by any measure it has been and absolute failure for American workers and US citizens.

Joshua, a middle class, that our party purports to represent, requires a tight labor market and strong legal protections for the bargaining rights of workers. Without these two essential elements, workers will never be able to achieve and maintain equivalent traditional post WWII middle class incomes. No matter what politicians or anyone else says, if jobs can be and are outsourced (Free Trade/Global Economy) or in-sourced (massive immigration, legal and illegal), then there can be no tight labor market and the middle class will continue to wither away and workers’ standard of living and working conditions will continue to get worse and worse. The veracity of what we say can be clearly seen in the consequences suffered by the middle class from these cheap labor policies; policies we would note large majorities of the American people opposed when they were implemented. All middle class American families have gotten from the cheap labor policies of the past 30 years are massive increases in public and private debt, reduced incomes, high bankruptcy levels, failing schools, deteriorating infrastructure and a drastically reduced quality of life. And this is what our party not only wants to continue but exacerbate? This is the change we need? I don’t think so.

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» I am completely baffled.... Posted by: Fencerider

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The grain of truth in this . . .
[Report this comment]
Posted by: chorton on Apr 29, 2009 6:13 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
is that the shantytowns and slums of Latin America - untold and even uncounted scores of millions living in the most wretched poverty, in dirt-floor shacks made from tar paper and tin cans, without sewage, sanitation, clean water, medical care, schools, police or fire protection - represent a huge pool of uncontrolled and largely uncontrollable disease vectors. You don't really know what I'm talking about - You can't really "get" their reality - unless you've been there and smelled them. Millions of people living in communities that smell like dead rats. How can you have a real "public health" system with people living like this?

Come to think of it, how can we on this side of the border have a real public health system with tent cities of the homeless springing up around every city?

The fantasy is that this disease threat - which owes its existence in large part to the plunder of nearly all of Latin America by multi-national corporations and bankers, with the aid of the IMF, NAFTA and relentless CIA interference, and backed by scores of US-made coups and military interventions over the past 120 years - could ever have been stopped at the border, or even at the walls of the gated communities behind which the super-rich cower!

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A Continent Of Mutts
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Posted by: melpol on Apr 29, 2009 6:14 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Racial fears are popping up again with the Swine Flu epidemic. Conspirator theorists are becoming active---they claim it is a white mans plan to destroy Mexican Indians. Right wingers are attempting to have the borders permanently closed. Racism is alive and It must be stopped. The only solution is to mongrelize the population of the America’s. An affirmative action program should be instituted to give South American Indians an edge in hiring practices. All people on the American continent should be accepted as citizens. Racial exclusiveness will finally come to an end with a continent of mutts.

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Amazing Left Position on Illegals
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Posted by: Lloydmillerus on Apr 29, 2009 6:20 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Left position on illegal immigration is really weird. I'm old enought to remember when Labor Unions realized their existence is incompatible with unrestricted immigration!

But, their "left leaders" in the Party need those votes.

Actually, a welfare state is incompatible with unrestricted immigration. How did the Corporate Elite ever con the Left into accepting unrestricted immigration?

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» You forgot the MAFIA Posted by: leafsong1
» RE: You forgot the MAFIA Posted by: chorton

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Too bad...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: fotoman1133406 on Apr 29, 2009 6:23 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
HATE, enjoys, loves and uses any means possible to spread. Instead of "trying to get along" and be a better MANKIND. SWINE FLU, is just another "tool" used to spread- HATE.

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A tour de force of ad hominem, bare assertion, and false analogy . . .
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Walks-in-Storms on Apr 29, 2009 6:28 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
A blizzard of illogical name-calling changes no fact. The epithet "racist," xenophobe, or the vapid like does not in any way disprove the logical validity of a proposition. Neither does the repetition of the bare assertion (it's true because the speaker says so) fallacy prove anything.

The fact is that were the border closed completely, there would be no disease of any kind imported into the U.S. - or vice versa. On the other hand, if no one is prevented from entering the country, the incidence of transported disease will increase. These are the reasons for what is called quarantine (not "racism.")

This essay demonstrates eminently the cancerous effect of political ideology on everything it touches. Were our educational system to begin stressing the study of logic in our schools, the nation would experience a sea change - a sea change from moronic to cogent.

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European Immigrants: 1500s and 1600s
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Posted by: LeaderofMen on Apr 29, 2009 6:28 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If I remember correctly, it was the New World that had few communicable diseases until Europeans invaded the Western Hemisphere and decimated the native populations.

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» GOOD POINT!! Posted by: mythmorph

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Funny Joke about immigration from an original American
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Posted by: Axiom69 on Apr 29, 2009 6:58 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
An old Indian Chief sat in his Hogan on the reservation, smoking a ceremonial pipe and eyeing two U.S. government officials sent to interview him. "Chief Two Eagles" asked one official, "You have observed the white man for 90 years. You've seen his wars and his technological advances.You've seen his progress, and the damage he's done." The Chief nodded in agreement. The official continued, "Considering all these events, in your opinion, where did the white man go wrong? "The Chief stared at the government officials for over a minute and then calmly replied: "When white man found the land, Indians were running it. No taxes, No debt, Plenty buffalo, Plenty beaver. Women did all the work, Medicine man free, Indian man spent all day hunting and fishing, all night having sex."
Then the chief leaned back and smiled ... "Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that."

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...or, it came from intensive pig farming?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Trixietheduck on Apr 29, 2009 7:00 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I tried to post links, but they were too long(?) - but google "swine flu" and "smithfield farms" - lots of intriguing stuff comes up.

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Those rightwingers are one of the same weasels fighting against single payer healthcare.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: JenniferBedingfield on Apr 29, 2009 7:01 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Without single payer healthcare, they can keep making a fortune off their current sleaze. Obama and Congress had better be paying full attention and shift their priorities to getting HR 676 passed and prepare to fund and enforce it. Now there's a real homeland security policy that will keep America safe.

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Xenophobic
[Report this comment]
Posted by: lclark on Apr 29, 2009 7:17 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yesterday, in responce to an article by this author, I posted that opponents to illegal migration are presented as insular and xenophobic, while adherhents to illegal migration are presented as compassionate and progressive. Today he uses xenophobic in the heading of his article.

We got the elements of the propaganda down, no need to concern ourselves with facts or intelligent debate when nuanced images constantly repeated will do. This is a political hack.

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» RE: Xenophobic Posted by: Joshua Holland

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Careful Michelle Your Phenotype is showing
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Posted by: Purple Girl on Apr 29, 2009 7:57 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Okay I'll say it- Malkin should look in the mirror before she starts her racist rants.
Is she so psychotically deluded she is unaware of her Asian appearance. Is she in such denial of her heritage she can't comprehend what she sees in the mirror?
Doesn't she realize how ironically hyterical her Racist attitude is to those watching her on TV.
Is she unaware of the Racist attitudes towards anyone appearing of Asian Descent after WW2?
Where were her concerns over infestation during the Avain Flu outbreak? should we have barred any one from that region from entering the States- should we have blamed their genetics for the potential pandemic it presented?
As for Savage- knowing that most surname orginated from an ancestors occupation or status- he may want to find out where a name like his began. Was he of a 'barbarian' tribe who were considered 'Savages' by the more civilized culture.These groups were also often blamed for the scourages that plagued those times.
We are a nation, a melting Pot of immigrants-yes even the American Indian is a migrant- Thus to have such prejudices is not only a disgrace, but innately UNAmerican. Our Strength, our perserverence and our Moral authority comes from being the nation of Mutts.Our an cestors not onl yleft that kind of thinking behind- they built a country in spite of it.

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» You are so wrong. Posted by: Fencerider
» RE: You are so wrong. Posted by: 876

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'Hate-radio host Michael Savage...'
[Report this comment]
Posted by: CanuckKid on Apr 29, 2009 8:00 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
'...also advanced the argument, saying, "Make no mistake about it: Illegal aliens are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico."'

So the flu virus purposefully avoids infecting US citizens who returning from a Mexican vacation...?

You'd be laughable if you weren't so damn dangerous, Michael.

Never underestimate the damage that a stupid person with authority can do.

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This comment has been removed from the site due to non-compliance with AlterNet's community policies.
» Pay attention. Posted by: GuitarBill
» He can't scroll up -- I deleted it (NT) Posted by: Joshua Holland
» Thanks. Posted by: GuitarBill
» No, Thank you Posted by: Joshua Holland

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Michelle Malkin is just a plain bimbo trying to be relevant.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: xvictor on Apr 29, 2009 8:18 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
She had vocally supported losers like Rudy Giuliani and John McCain on FauxNews and had to eat so much crow because she had been demonstrably wrong on so many issues in the past. What the Reichwingers see in her is a perplexing mystery.

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876
[Report this comment]
Posted by: 876 on Apr 29, 2009 8:35 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
OMG this from the descendants of European squatters who arrived on wooden boats with snot matted hair, rats and pests and enough filth and disease to practically annihilate the natives of North America?

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» Really.... Posted by: Fencerider

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Remember the Poison Spinach xenophobia?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: mythmorph on Apr 29, 2009 8:39 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Several years ago there was a scare about toxic spinach on the market. The source of this tainted spinach was found to be in California.

I was shocked and outraged when a surprise-xenophobe Californian friend of mine wrote me a uber-hysterical rant about the filthy Mexican workers causing this problem because they peed on their hands and didn't clean up afterwords.

Our friendship withered on the vine (well, I know spinach doesn't grow on a vine -- but still, it's a plant reference...) after I sent him my retort.

And then of course, of COURSE -- it turned out that the problem was all the bacteria-laden effluvia that had seeped into groundwater from a nearby cattle farm.

The farm wasn't owned or operated by Mexicans. Duh.

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What, you want to repeat the same thing today?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Paul1939 on Apr 29, 2009 8:56 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is it your position that the US today should follow the same policy the Native Americans followed when Europeans invaded these shores? If it is we shall inherit the same results they did.

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savage malkin yap
[Report this comment]
Posted by: jareilly on Apr 29, 2009 8:59 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Ms. Malkin is a poisonous swamp creature. She's also Phillipino. Maybe she has forgotten about that. If she is right about immigrants, then she, herself should be captured, quarantined and shipped back to the Phillipines and not allowed to spread infection here...

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» Malkin is not here legally either Posted by: chief of okeefe

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Typical American reaction- resort to racist hysterics
[Report this comment]
Posted by: 876 on Apr 29, 2009 9:11 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You Americans babble on about immigration as if the developing world was inventing disease and exporting it to you poor souls. It was after all a European Canadian who spread aids all over the globe through utter depravity. What about that? Do Europeans feel they should be afforded the freedom to travel freely, do as they please, but that no one else should have such rights? It is after all the Europeans that feast on swine to the point of dying from overconsumption, the overfed masses of the west whose demands for absolutely everything has ravaged the entire planet. Do any of you anti immigrant tough talkers have any thoughts on that? Today it is the filth of America military and otherwise that are spreading their diseases of depravity throughout Iraq. What reparations do you people intend to pay the Iraqi people for infecting them with your filth? It is a mystery how the most barbaric savage society on earth can so consistently and readily point fingers in every instance while failing every time to see their own transgressions.

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» Misplaced rage alert!! Posted by: Fencerider
» What? Posted by: Fencerider

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Here in Iowa, where there are more pigs than people
[Report this comment]
Posted by: sausage on Apr 29, 2009 9:13 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The lead sentence in a swine flu story from the top ranted local news broadcast in central Iowa reads: Public health officials said Tuesday that they are closely tracking illnesses in Marshall County because of the large Hispanic population living there following an outbreak of the swine flu in Mexico.

And, yes, there is a large Hispanic population in Marshall County because a large Swift & Co meat packing plant localed in the county seat Marshalltown.

But no mention in the news story is that Mexican public health officials believe the outbreak originated at a Smithfield Foods hog-confinement operation in the state of Vera Cruz.

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» Wrong. Posted by: EncinoM

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One can just as easily make an argument
[Report this comment]
Posted by: bettyn on Apr 29, 2009 9:24 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
that East European Jewish and Filipino immigrants have brought this "plague" to our country. How do you like "them apples", Mike and Michelle? In fact, you can argue ANYONE could bring something like that to our country, can't you?

Stupid...just dumber than rocks.

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Some sanity Please!!!!!!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: jeffrey7 on Apr 29, 2009 11:12 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The threat of swine flu is being blown way out of reality. This version,which is viral and NOT bacterial,like the 1970's version,is easier to get pir of and prevent than the health folks want us to know. So here's how to fight it and not spend alot of needless money at doctors who can't help.

Use echinicia, 500mg. 3 times a day for the next three months. You can get it at Wal-mart for less than $10.

Wash your hands often, this fights most all viruses.

Drink lots of water if you feel sick,even if you're not sick you need to drink more than a gallon and a half per day during cold and flu season.

This new swine flu is a virus. As such anti-biotics won't work on it. but water will. Viruses can be washed out of the body within a day or two.

Don't panic!!! There are a good many allergies that act like the flu,so if you or your child are showing symptoms,don't freak out. Drink lots of water and if your symptoms last longer than 3 days,then go see the doctor.
Even then it probably won't be swine flu. It could ust be regular flu.

The important thing is to remember you can prevent this flu by doing simple things like washing you hands,drinking lots of water,eating oranges, and taking echinicia.

Don't let the media freak you out. That's their job and they are damn good at it.

What you need to be asking is 'What's the lead story they are burying with this flu bullshit?'

When stories are all over the news,like this one is, you can bet your ass there's something way more important we need to be told about that they aren't

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U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says...
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Posted by: sausage on Apr 29, 2009 11:16 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Should Swine Flu Have A Different Name?
WASHINGTON---American agriculture officials want to want to change the name for the virus that's broken out in Mexico and the U.S. from "swine flu" to something else.

The problem, they say, is that the name "swine flu" suggests a problem with pork products.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack points out that the virus is not food-borne and has nothing to do with consuming pork products.

Vilsack says he's concerned that misunderstandings could have a negative impact on farmers who provide pork products to consumers around the world.

Speaking Tuesday at a daily news briefing on the government's response to the outbreak, Vilsack said the American hog industry is sound and that consumers everywhere should know that U.S. pork products are safe.

It's the ticket, Tom, change the name and every thing's solved!

The local Des Moines television station which posted the above story, KCCI, is central Iowa's top rated local news broadcast. And, falling right in line with Vilsack's dictum for a less swinish euphemism the Des Moines TV station has headlined two follow-up news stories thusly:
Minnesota Reports Possible H1N1 Case

and

Iowa Testing Possible H1N1 Flu Case

Who says government and commerce can't work together to solve all problems. Haw.

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PNAC criminals quoted re. biological warfare
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Posted by: rme518 on Apr 29, 2009 11:29 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"And advanced forms of biological warfare that can trigger specific 'genotypes' can transform
biological warfare from the realm of terror into
a politically useful tool." PNAC, Sept. 2000
... a coincidence that 'Air Force 2025' "projected" in 1996 a influenza pandemic
for 2009? ... a coincidence that the CDC in
2004 announced the launching of experiments designed to combine the H5N1 virus and human
viruses. (CIDFP, 1/14/04) ... a coincidence
that Baxter International "accidentally"
mixes H5N1 virus with H3N2 seasonal flu viruses
in conventional flu vaccines that were sent/slated for 18 countries and was only caught thanks to an alert tester in the Czech Republic?...A coincidence that the same Baxter International has been given the contract by the World "Health" Organization for the 2009 flying pig vaccine? ... A coincidence that homeless people in Poland who died from an experimental vaccine being tested were told it was a conventional flu strain when it turned out to be a vaccine with H5N1 bird flu viruses...(Telegraph 7/2/08) A coincidence that Rumsfeld who was also a player in the 1976 swine flu debacle when people died and got paralyzed FROM the vaccine, still has connection$ to Tamiflu which stands to make countless millions in the latest "natural", coincidental crisis? Google: Tamiflu linked to 54 Japanese deaths...Google the eye opening records of E. McBean PhD 'I was an on the Spot Observer of the 1918 epidemic' also google from E. McBean 'Swine Flu Exposed' written in 1977. Also google Archie Kalokeronos MD 'The Swine Flu
Fiasco' (Hope I spelled his last name right?)

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