Uppity Wisconsin

Securing the votes in Congress to pass real immigration solutions into law isn't going to be easy. The next President - no matter who wins - will need to lead his own party first to get it done.

Senator Obama would surely have an uphill climb, even with a Party Platform that favors comprehensive reform. But, given an enforcement-only Party Platform and the policy positions of most Republicans in Congress, Senator McCain may need to scale a brick wall to bring his party on board!

Nevertheless, both candidates continue to talk about reform (at least in Spanish).

Well, we've already heard enough rhetoric- we want a roadmap. We're asking the Senators how they will unite their own parties to pass real immigration solutions into law.

We're saying, Show America the Immigration Reform Roadmap during the next presidential debate on October 7th!

Resources

The Republican Platform

The Democratic Platform

I don't know how many people marched in Milwaukee on Thursday for fair treatment of immigrants.

No one has tried to put a number on it. Crowd estimates have gone out of fashion.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is content to say that "thousands" marched, and made a point of saying it wasn't as many as last year. (How do we know that?)

Meanwhile, the New York Times was pointing to Milwaukee as one of the places where crowds didn't decrease, and made it sound like the biggest march in the country took place here.

One thing is certain: TENS of thousands of people marched in Milwaukee. I can't say whether it was 20,000 or 30,000 or more, but it was undoubtedly the biggest march Milwaukee will see in 2008 -- and the biggest since last year's march organized by the same people.

Consider this: The march started at 5th and Washington about 11:45 and wound its way across the 6th Street viaduct and down Wisconsin Avenue to Veterans Park. That's a good two and one-half miles, maybe a little more.

When the first marchers got to the park, many marchers were still lined up and waiting to leave the starting point. Marchers were strung out all along the 2.5-mile route, and kept coming into Veterans Park until about 2 p.m., more than two hours after the march began.

What to wear to the May Day march?

The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice (WNPJ) has just the thing: "Immigrants Welcome" T-shirts in Spanish and Hmong. (There are yard signs with the same message.)

Justice for immigrants is a major focus of the events Thursday in Madison and Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee event is billed as a statewide action, organized by Voces de la Frontera and endorsed by Peace Action Wisconsin.

Organizers at Voces say:

From Whallah!

The Nutosphere continues its crusade to report every crime that involves an illegal immigrant.

They've been at it for a long time, starting with a Memorial Day shooting in 2006 that was commited by someone who turned out to be here legally.  It was truly an Emily Litella moment.  Jessica McBride blamed the police for providing the wrong info, but she had been claiming, long before any police announcement, that the shooter must have been an illegal.

McBride challenges the news media every time an illegal is found to have committed a crime or even been accused.

Her mentor, Charlie Sykes,does the same.

- via MAL Contends

  X-off has a nice piece noting that Republicans have a ways to go to reach Latinos.  

Here’s a piece of advice for Republicans: Don’t call them “roaches,” like the leading rightwing luminary Ann Coulter just did in Human Events.  

Milwaukeean Perfecto Rivera has a tough assignment: Rounding up Hispanics to vote Republican.

Judging from a report by WisPolitics, Rivera's job is a lot tougher than he realizes.

In its Milwaukee Notes, WisPolitics quotes Rivera as saying Republicans, including Mark Green, who insist on referring to illegal immigrants as "illegal aliens" have alienated (no pun intended) Latino voters.

It says:

Rivera chalked up part of Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green’s loss in Milwaukee to language he was using on the stump to describe illegal immigrants.

“Green lost the Hispanic vote here,” Rivera said. “Had he been able to get another 7 percent of the Latino vote in Milwaukee, we'd have a different governor.”

Something about that didn't quite ring true. Turns out that's because it's not true. Not even close.