Saturday, June 30, 2007

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME A MEXICAN CUT YOUR PENSION



SAM SMITH, PROGRESSIVE REVIEW 2006 - Whenever a new crisis develops in
an election year and it's not nature's or the stock market's fault, the
odds are pretty good that it's not a crisis.

Witness the sudden discovery of immigrants, a much more comfortable
topic for some than Iraq, global warming, globalization, or runaway
corporate greed.

The debate, however, has its bizarre aspects. For example, the Texas
Rangers, who should know, list their last serious concerns with Mexican
terrorists as occurring nearly 100 years ago when "when authorities in
McAllen, Texas, arrest Basilio Ramos, Jr. Ramos is carrying a copy of
the Plan of San Diego, a revolutionary manifesto supposedly written and
signed at the South Texas town of San Diego. It calls for the formation
of a 'Liberating Army of Races and Peoples,' of Mexican Americans,
African Americans, and Japanese, to 'free' the states of Texas, New
Mexico, Arizona, California, and Colorado from United States. Versions
of the plan call for the murder of all white citizens over 16 years of
age. The goal is an independent republic, which might later seek
annexation to Mexico.' Since then things have been pretty quiet,
although some guerillas from another continent did considerable damage
in 2001 by using the border crossing technique known as "buying airline
tickets."

But it's not really about terrorism. It's about finding a scapegoat for
America's increasing problems. What America's white elite is doing is
just what its southern branch did under segregation: teach non-elite
whites to blame their problems on a minority. It worked well then and it
seems to be working now.

But those wishing to test the extent of the immigrant problem might want
to conduct this quick test:

1. Has a Mexican ever fired or laid you off?

2. Was the plant you worked for until it was sent overseas been bought
by Mexicans or is it still owned by the same people you used to work
for?

3. Has a Mexican ever cut your pension or health benefits? Outsourced
your job to India?

4. How much does Latin America contribute to global warming and its
results - such as bigger hurricanes and more tornados - compared with
the United States?

5. Was Enron run by Mexicans?

6. Are Mexicans responsible for NSA's spying you?

7. Do you think Mexicans or the pharmaceutical corporations are more
responsible for high drug costs?

8. How much of the corruption in Washington has been instigated by the
Mexicans?

9. Did the Mexicans' make us invade Iraq?

10. Are the Mexicans responsible for George Bush being so dumb?

Chances are most your answers will be in the negative which is a clue to
stop spending so much time worrying about immigration and turn your
attention to something else.

http://prorev.com/2006/05/when-was-last-time-mexican-cut-your.htm

WHO'S AN AMERICAN?

1600s Most of various tribes scattered throughout the continent didn't
know whether they were Americans as there was no one to tell them

1774 Continental Congress leaves it to each state to decide who shall be
a voting citizen

1776 Full citizenship to white male property owners, with six states
granting it to all white males whether they had property or not. Some
states had higher property qualifications than others and some even
required membership in a specified religion.

1781-89 Articles of Confederation accept in principle that the central
government should regulate Indian affairs.

1789 Secretary of War is placed in charge of Indians

1790 Naturalization of foreign 'free white persons' permitted. Women
carried the legal status of their husbands.

1795 Naturalization denied free whites unwilling to give up foreign
titles of nobility

1812-21 Six western states join the union with full white male suffrage.
Four of the original states abolish property requirements

1830 Indian Removal Act passes Congress, calling for relocation of
eastern Indians to a territory west of the Mississippi River. Cherokees
contest it in court, and in 1832, the Supreme Court decides in their
favor, but Andrew Jackson ignores the decision. From 1831-39, the Five
Civilized tribes of the Southeast are relocated to the Indian Territory.
The Cherokee "Trail of Tears" takes place in 1838-39.

1853-56 United States acquires 174 million acres of Indian lands through
52 treaties, all of which it will subsequently break.

1856 North Carolina becomes the last state to abolish the property
requirement. Previous barred Catholics and non-Christians are
enfranchised and in a few states even immigrants not yet naturalized are
allowed to vote.

1857 Under Dred Scott decision, no black person can be a U.S. citizen.

1858 Stephen Douglas debates Abraham Lincoln, arguing that "I believe
the government was made on the white basis. I believe it was made by
white men for the benefit of white men and their posterity for ever, and
I am in favor of confining citizenship to white men. . . instead of
conferring it upon negroes, Indians, and other inferior races." Lincoln
disagrees.

1866 Civil Rights Act declares all persons born in the U.S. - except
Indians - to be natural citizens

1869 Territory of Wyoming grants women suffrage in state elections

1870 15th Amendment is passed: "The right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or
by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude." South deals with the amendment by instituting polls taxes,
literacy tests and grandfather clauses that limit the vote to the
offspring of the formerly enfranchised. Naturalization of black
immigrants (but not Asians) is permitted.

1871 Residents of the District of Columbia lose the right to vote for
mayor and city council as a territorial form of government with
appointed governor is installed

1871 - General Sheridan issues orders forbidding western Indians to
leave reservations without permission of civilian agents.

1874 Supreme Court rules that it is not unconstitutional to deny women
the right to vote.

1875 Page Law bars entry of Chinese, Japanese, and "Mongolian"
prostitutes, felons, and contract laborers

1878 Chinese are ruled not eligible for naturalized citizenship

1882 Chinese Exclusion Law suspends immigration of laborers for ten
years. Late 19th century exclusion from naturalization includes
prostitutes, convicted felons, lunatics, polygamists and persons likely
to be a 'public charge' Early 20th century exclusion from naturalization
includes anarchists, communists, and the illiterate.

1902 Chinese exclusion is extended for another ten years.

1904 Chinese exclusion is made indefinite

1915 Eleven states have given women the right to vote

1918 Servicemen of Asian ancestry who served in World War I receive
right of naturalization

1919 American Indian soldiers and sailors receive citizenship.

1920 The 20th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, is ratified

1923 Asian Indians ruled not eligible for naturalized citizenship.

1924 Congress gives the right to vote to original Americans, the
Indians.

1940 Congress passes Nationalities Act granting citizenship to all
Native Americans without diluting tribal authority.

1941 After declaring war on Japan, 10,000 Japanese-Americans along
Pacific Coast states and Hawaii are rounded up and interned in
Department of Justice camps.

1943 The Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed. The annual immigration quota
for Chinese is set at 105.

1945 The War Brides Act permits immigration of Asian spouses and
children of American servicemen in the war.

1946 Luce-Celler bill grants right of naturalization and small
immigration quotas to Asian Indians and Filipinos

1949 5000 highly educated Chinese in the U.S. granted refugee status
after China institutes a Communist government.

1952 One clause of the McCarran-Walter Act grants the right of
naturalization and a small immigration quota to Japanese.

1957 Utah becomes the last state to permit Indians to vote

1965 Immigration Law abolishes "national origins" as basis for
allocating immigration quotas to various countries - Asian countries now
on equal footing.

1974 Residents of the District of Columbia regain the right to vote for
mayor and city council lost over a century earlier but still lack voting
representation in Congress or real power over their budget and criminal
justice system.

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