News you Missed!!

Mexican bank chief talks immigration

By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News (Common Sense in Mexico!)

Guillermo Ortiz, Mexico's central bank governor, admits he takes a contrarian view on immigration policy.

Unlike the current Mexican administration, Mr. Ortiz thinks tougher enforcement policies in the U.S. might help Mexico.

"I think Mexico needs its people," said the 58-year-old Stanford-educated economist, on Tuesday in Dallas. "It would be best to keep its people in Mexico, and it would give incentives for Mexico to create the jobs that are needed."

In remarks to the editorial board of The Dallas Morning News, Mr. Ortiz characterized his views as a "little contrarian" to those of President Vicente Fox, who has pushed for a guest worker plan with the U.S.

Instead, he says tougher enforcement measures, such as those being discussed in Congress, "would not be altogether bad. It would certainly be better over the long run.

U.S. Loses Ranking as Most Competitive Economy to Switzerland

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. lost its position as the world's most competitive economy to Switzerland as budget and trade deficits prompted a slide to sixth in the World Economic Forum's annual rankings.

Switzerland jumped from fourth place last year and Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Singapore all overtook the U.S. with Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. rounding out the top ten in the study of 125 nations by the Geneva-based forum.

The decline in U.S. competitiveness adds to questions about the outlook for the world's largest economy as economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. suggest its potential for growing without inflation is fading and as the expansion shows signs of slowing.[snip]

Retired Officers to Senate: Rumsfeld Must Go; Fund the War In Iraq to Win

Note: listen to this from Cspan, it was a good hearing! NOT good news. They all agreed that there were not enough troops and without initially SECURING IRAQ's borders the insurgents roll over the borders every day.

By John E. CareySeptember 26, 2006

Three retired U.S. Army Officers address a congressional committee on the war in Iraq in starkly harsh words Monday.

“I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq,” retired Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste told a forum conducted by Senate Democrats.

A second military leader, also a retired two-star general, Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, assessed Rumsfeld as “incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically.”

Mr. Eaton also said Mr. Rumsfeld “continues to fight this war on the cheap.” And he didn’t spare the Congress; criticizing them for not holding a hearing like the one yesterday sooner and allowing the pentagon to fund the war largely due to a series of “supplemental” funding bills.

A third officer, retired Colonel Paul X. Hammes, joined Batiste and Eaton in testimony before the Democratic Policy Committee of the U.S. Senate. The unusual location was chosen, Democrats said, because the Republican leadership in the Senate has not permitted thorough oversight of the war in Iraq from the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Retired Marine Col. Hammes compared the shifting of insufficient U.S. troops from one Iraq hot spot to the next to a game of “Whac-A-Mole.”

Hammes, an acknowledged expert in counter insurgency, said we should be prepared for this effort to last “another 10 years.”

Hammes also discussed “Unity of Effort,” a key to victory all U.S. War Colleges teach. He said we don’t have it in Iraq. He served in Iraq in 2004 and is now Marine Senior Military Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, National Defense University.[snip]

``The U.S. has now been running twin deficits for many years and there is an increasing concern that they are creating a vulnerability in the economy,'' Augusto Lopez-Claros, the forum's chief economist, said in an interview.

"'Border baby' boom strains S. Texas"

James Pinkerton of the Houston Chronicle offers a suprisingly even-handed article:

First it was a trickle, now it's a flood.

Rising numbers of undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America are streaming into Texas to give birth, straining hospitals and costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, health officials say.

Doctors and health officials say they are overwhelmed by both the new arrivals and those immigrant mothers who already are in the state. Even Houston's feeling the pinch. An estimated 70 percent to 80 percent of the 10,587 births at Ben Taub General Hospital and Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital last year were to undocumented immigrants, administrators say...

They also quote a Starr County obstetrician: "The word is out: Come to Starr County and get delivered for free. Why pay $1,000 in Mexico when you can get it for free?" However, it also has this:

Birthright citizenship, as it is known, has been in force since the approval of the Constitution's 14th Amendment in 1868. But several bills under consideration in Congress would abolish the longstanding federal policy. Sponsors include U.S. Reps. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, and Nathan Deal, R-Ga.

Not exactly true. The 14th amendment has only been interpreted (for many decades) as granting birthright citizenship, but that was not the original intent of that clause.
(from our friend Lonewacko blog! Thanks!)

On Native Americans and Immigration

"Today, people see the policies of the past with 21st century eyes. One might wonder how the nation's indigenous population became "inferior" cultures in their own land, or how a nation could have committed such atrocities in the name of "progress". One might question whether it is acceptable to make national decisions without involving in the decision making process those who will be most drastically affected"