[BretLudwig]

((Guzzardi is being kind. I think she's a ****. Bret.))


Dianne Feinstein: You May Not Agree€”But I Say Shes Senile!

By Joe Guzzardi

"Dianne Feinstein is a power-mad, crazy old coot afflicted with a God
complex that makes her continued presence in the U.S. Senate a
threat€”not only to immigration reform patriots but also to all
Americans.

If that sounds exaggerated, spend five minutes reading my column and
Ill prove it to you.

Feinstein was infamously back in the California news last week when she
intervened to prevent 17-year-old Fresno high school valedictorian Arthur
Mkoyans deportation. The student and his family€”whose tourist visas
expired thirteen years ago€”had been ordered deported before Feinstein
interceded by introducing a private Senate bill to delay the process.

Feinstein explained herself in her usual, idiotic way€”Mkoyan is a fine
young man from an excellent family, just the kind we need more of in the
U.S., to send him back to Armenia where he knows no one would be cruel,
blah, blah, blah€¦[Senator Tries to Keep Valedictorian from Deportation,
By Chuck Afflerbach, CNN, June 10, 2008]

Two big problems:
bullet Since they must pass both Houses of Congress and be signed by the
president, private bills have almost no chance of being enacted. Of the
235 introduced during the last three years, only four passed.

Feinsteins action then is a meaningless gesture€” an insulting slap in
the face to the normal, legally-established ICE procedures to deport
immigration law violators. Mkoyans case has been in litigation for more
than ten years. Every decision has come down against Mkoyan, including one
by the usually sympathetic-to-illegals Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals.
bullet Private immigration bills are one of Feinsteins favorite
tricks.

In 2006, Feinstein introduced three such bills on behalf of fourteen
people: the families Arreola, Placencia and Yamada.

Here are a few of the phrases Feinstein used to plead their cases:
€œbright and engaging,€� €œalcoholic father,€� €œphysically
abusive,€� €œ taking nursing classes,€� €œhonor student,€� €œ
mother was killed in a car crash€¦orphaned,€� €œpopular and
trustworthy,€� €œjunior varsity baseball€¦varsity football€¦girls
softball€¦€� €œenormous hardship€� and of course, €œout of the
shadows€�.

And, curiously, for the handful of Senators listening but not already
persuaded, Feinstein threw in this one to seal her case: €œThey own their
own car.€�

Feinstein, therefore, creates her own version of immigration law that
indefinitely delays deportation for anyone she, and she alone, deems
worthy€”thus, €œThe Law According To Dianne Feinstein.€�

Sadly for those of us who think that immigration laws should be enforced,
Feinstein can introduce private bills until the cows come home.

And the possibilities are truly limitless.

As a veteran teacher in one of Californias largest school districts, I
can say without fear of contradiction that any Open Borders advocate could
pick out dozens of students illegally in the U.S. from among Californias
6 million K-12 enrollment, highlight their outstanding qualities (while
ignoring their less attractive ones) and do the Feinstein song and dance.

In addition to her crusade this week on behalf of visa violators,
Feinstein stubbornly stuck to her (empty) guns about Californias
need€”from her narrow viewpoint€” for more agricultural workers.

Less than a month ago, Feinstein had her ears pinned back on the Senate
floor, when Majority Leader Harry Reid stripped out of a supplemental
spending bill her language that would have amnestied millions of farm
workers and created thousands more visas.

After suffering such a public humiliation among her peers, Feinstein€”if
she had her wits about her€”would conclude that the Ag Workers issue is
dead and that she should lay low, at least for the time being.

Unsurprisingly, Feinstein took a different course.

When many readers, irate over Feinsteins ag worker duplicity, e-mailed
her they received in reply a long list of unsubstantiated statistics about
Californias alleged farm crisis.

Feinsteins mail included this sentence, without quoting a source:
€œBetween 2006 and 2007, 13,280 farms shut down in the United States,
1,000 of which were in California.€�

If 1,000 California farms shut down, you cant prove it by me, a native
Californian. Every week, I attend at least one of five local farmers
markets€”in Lodi, Davis, Sacramento and two in Stockton. Theyre
booming. Patrons have to stand in line to pay the vendors.

Furthermore, in the twenty years Ive lived in Lodi, the number of
wineries has increased three-fold. For the uninitiated, and perhaps
Feinstein is one, grapes have to be grown and picked before a winery is
established.

Attached to Feinsteins response is this crazy 2006 picture of Toni
Scully, a Lake County, CA pear grower, which, according to Feinstein,
€œproves€� that fruit is €œrotting€� and that the guest worker need is
€œurgent€�.

The photograph originally appeared in the New York Times. [Pickers Are
Few, and Growers Blame Congress, By Julia Preston September 22, 2006]

What I see, however, is a staged photograph with ripe pears, obviously
hauled in from the orchard (since no trees are in sight) for the photo-op.
(Read Steve Sailers pear €œcrisis€� expose here.)

Heres what I know about pears: when I need them, whether they are in
season or not, I can buy all I want of several varieties at the local
supermarket for about $1.00 a pound. What more is there to say?

Omitted from Feinsteins deceitful 2008 mail, two years after the
picture was taken, is the important fact that last year (2007), in
response to a possible worker shortage California State Senator Pat
Wiggins introduced SB 319 that increased the maximum number of hours
California minors can work during the peak harvest.

Wiggins bill, which Schwarzenegger signed last October, allows
teenagers to work up to 10 hours a day and forty-eight hours weekly during
the summer months.

SB 319 is the correct way to approach potential labor shortages: look for
solutions in our own backyard before issuing hundreds of thousands of
visas for foreign-born workers.

My explanation of Feinsteins bizarre behavior: shes crazy€”senile.

I first advanced my theory of creeping senility in the U.S. Senate a few
months ago when I suggested that Teddy Kennedy might be afflicted. That
was well before his recent brain cancer surgery and also before New Mexico
Senator Pete Domenici announced his retirement because of dementia.

Reader Molly Powell took me to task for my comments about Kennedy. She
reminded me that Kennedy has been sticking it to America on immigration
for more than four decades.

But thats not Feinsteins case.

Not that long ago, immigration reform analysts considered Feinstein a
moderate. In fact Better Immigration.Com, a website that grades Congress
on its immigration voting patterns, rates Feinstein a €œC€� over her
career but a €œD-€œ from 2005-2008.

And Feinstein got €œF€� and €œF-€œ on ending chain migration,
unnecessary visas while endorsing amnesty and promoting more foreign
workers.

Some observers say that Feinsteins immigration cave-in is a logical
extension of Californias increasingly volatile political environment.

But why should Feinstein be swayed by outside forces, whoever they may be?
Feinsteins not up for re-election until 2012. Maybe she wont run.

Whether Feinstein runs or not and whether she wins or not, so what?
Shes a multimillionaire married to a billionaire.

On June 22, Feinstein turns 75. According to a study by Richard Posner,
more than 16 percent of Americans her age show signs of senile dementia.

I say Feinstein is one of them.

She nuts€¦and that explains better than anything else Feinsteins
continuingly irrational immigration positions. "

http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/080620_feinstein.htm

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