Michelle Malkin, Ahead of the Learning Curve

Usually it takes a family of immigrants a few generations before they really adopt the slam-the-door-shut xenophobe-nationalist-conservative ideology of the Pat Buchanans and Lou Dobbses of the world. Michelle Malkin, Conservative columnist, TV commentator and blogger is there as just a first-generation daughter of Filipino parents who came here on student visas.

...and she blames the entire financial meltdown on Mexican immigrants, mostly the illegals. In a September 24 column, she opines,

It’s no coincidence that most of the areas hardest hit by the
foreclosure wave — Loudoun County, Va., California’s Inland Empire,
Stockton and San Joaquin Valley, and Las Vegas and Phoenix, for
starters — also happen to be some of the nation’s largest illegal-alien
sanctuaries. Half of the mortgages to Hispanics are subprime (the
accursed species of loan to borrowers with the shadiest credit
histories). A quarter of all those subprime loans are in default and
foreclosure.

Regional reports across the country have decried
the subprime meltdown’s impact on illegal-immigrant “victims.” A July
report showed that in seven of the ten metro areas with the highest
foreclosure rates, Hispanics represented at least one third of the
population; in two of those areas — Merced and Salinas-Monterey, Calif.
— Hispanics comprised half the population.

I don't even know where to go with this! Who'd like to point out the logical fallacies with me? Composition, post-hoc-ergo-proptor-hoc? This is completely off the deep end, and hypocritical toboot! Yes! It's illegal-alien mango pickers buying million-dollar McMansions! What? Someone get me off the deep end, and Ani, remind me to smack you next time I see you for elevating my blood pressure with this.

Immigrant quotas as a tax equivalent

This story on Morning Edition (NPR) got me thinking. Some folks are opposed to "selling" work visas (economists among them). Well, I'll tell you this: A quota (which is how we work it now) ain't much different. Just ask the illegal immigrants. Only difference is this: The people who get the hypothetical "tax revenues" aren't the US treasury - they're the people who are lucky enough to get visas (after about a 15 year wait for some source countries), and the coyotes who smuggle illegals over for a fee (which can run in the thousands of dollars per immigrant smuggled). That doesn't even touch on the laundry list of other externalities that quantity restrictions bring, and the fact that we spend billions of scarce treasury dollars enforcing the quota instead of collecting revenues from the auction/tax/fee.

Good News, Lou!

Louie Louie (Dobbs) must be thrilled about the recession: Check this out!