September 4, 2013

NYT: Strange New Respect for Bush Dynasty

"47"
Almost a decade ago, I argued that the dynastic ambition of the Bush clan is the shameful secret behind the Bushes' obsession with electing a new people. Now, the New York Times reports that the dynastic ambition of the Bush clan is the admirable secret behind the Bushes' obsession with electing a new people:
Bushes Focus on Immigration Debate to Reclaim Their Influence 
By ASHLEY PARKER 
FORT WORTH — After years of enormous power and political influence, no member of the Bush family currently holds political office. 
But as the focus on military action in Syria drags former President George W. Bush’s Iraq war policy back into the spotlight, the Bush family is quietly but forcefully gearing up for another, still-developing debate: The fight on Capitol Hill over a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws — a discussion critical to protecting the Bushes’ legacy on what has, for decades, been a defining issue for them. 
In July, Mr. Bush, who has largely avoided the political spotlight since leaving office, attended a naturalization ceremony for newly sworn-in citizens at his presidential library in Dallas. 
Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, his brother, has been traveling the country delivering speeches and writing opinion pieces pegged to his recent book, “Immigration Wars,” written with Clint Bolick, which argues for change in the law. 
"48"?
And Jeb Bush’s two sons have been reaching out to Hispanics. George P. Bush, 37, is a founder of a political action committee — Hispanic Republicans of Texas — devoted to promoting Hispanics in Texas politics, and is running for office himself as a candidate for Texas land commissioner. Jeb Bush Jr., 29, is the founder of Sun PAC, a Florida group that recruits conservative Hispanic political candidates. 
For the Bushes, immigration is deeply personal. The family chose to root its political ambitions in Texas, and Jeb Bush’s wife, Columba, is from the central Mexican town of León. The elder George Bush famously, and lovingly, once referred to his three Mexican-American grandchildren as “the little brown ones.” 
What's wrong with his mouth?
Now, as the Republican Party struggles with how to attract Hispanic voters, members of the Bush dynasty seem more determined than ever to exert influence over the issue they have been helping to shape for years. 
“For generations, the Bush family has been connected to Hispanics by history, geography and family, and as a result, they have a deep understanding and acute sensitivity to important cultural nuances and political issues that affect the population,” said Mark McKinnon, a Republican strategist who worked on both of George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns. “When it comes to issues affecting Hispanics, the Bush family has a strong compass.” 
The family’s outreach to Hispanics is also smart politics, likely to bolster its political future in 2016 and beyond. George W. Bush won re-election to the White House in 2004 with 44 [sic] percent of the Hispanic vote, a number neither subsequent Republican presidential nominee came close to matching, and Jeb Bush is often mentioned as a likely 2016 contender in large part because of his strong relationship with Hispanic voters and support for an immigration overhaul.
Mr. McKinnon has already nicknamed George P. Bush “47.” (His uncle, of course, is “43,” and his grandfather is “41.”) ...
George P. Bush said in a recent interview after a campaign event here that courting Hispanics has always been both the politically smart and morally right thing to do. 
“My uncle obviously thought it was an important strategy for him, not only to win, but to expand the party, expand the base,” he said. “For my dad, it might be a little bit more personal, in the sense that he married ‘una Mexicana,’ and it certainly changes one’s perspective. But you know, being in Florida, it’s similar demographics to what you see in Texas, so it’s been important both from a political and a personal standpoint.” 
In the preface to his book, Jeb Bush writes that immigration to him “means my wife and family.” 
“It’s just smart marketing; it’s just smart business,” said Henry Bonilla, who is Hispanic and is a former Republican House member from Texas. “Whether it’s political business or corporate business, there are those who understand that it’s a diverse nation and it’s wise to be inclusive, and those who don’t, and it was just innately part of the Bush culture from the get-go.” ...
And before the Sept. 11 attacks, Robert Draper, the author of a book about the younger Bush’s presidency, reported that one of the priorities of Mr. Bush’s administration was to tackle immigration; the White House was so committed, he wrote, that “throughout 2001, the subject of amnesty for illegal immigrants popped up frequently in White House meetings.” 
The fact that the 43rd president’s immigration push — which failed in 2006 and 2007 — is being attempted again today, friends say, is evidence that he was simply ahead of his time. 

It's always seemed to me that importing a lot of ringers to eventually elect your doofus nephew President is a shocking violation of the public trust (just as Marco Rubio's transparent self-dealing is grotesque). But I forgot to factor in that the ringers the Bushes and Rubio are intent on importing to put themselves in the White House are nonwhite, so that makes it not only morally forgivable, but heroic.

In 21st Century America, ethics really aren't that complicated anymore:

Who-Whom.

48 comments:

  1. Brian D'Amato9/4/13, 1:27 AM

    "What's wrong with his mouth?"
    -- Well, he probably also talks out of the other side.

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  2. Peter the Shark9/4/13, 3:31 AM

    The Bushes are really reminiscent of the Habsburgs - another family of aristocrats whose primary loyalty was (is) to themselves and who were happy to take on the coloring of any group of people they could rule. Thus you had a Habsburg popping up in Mexico in the 19th century, Emperor Karl trying to make himself king of Hungary after WWI and another nephew who tried to enlist Ukrainian nationalism in support of his cause. Now of course Habsburgs are big supporters of the EU and continuously trying to find a role at the supranational level. In similar fashion a Bush can be an old New Englander (Prescott), a Texan (Dubya), or a Hispanic. Doesn't really matter to the Bush family. In some ways you have to admire the Bush clan for somehow managing to preserve an almost medieval sense of European aristocratic entitlement into the 21st century.

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  3. Who- Whom- Doom

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  4. George P. Bush looks like such a dope. He makes his uncle look like a thoughtful intellectual by comparison.

    Between him and Rubio, the GOP talent pool is far too shallow.

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  5. This fits with the theory I've had for a while: they're looking forward to when whites are a powerless minority and mestizos need a party of their own to combat blacks and other smaller minority groups that already have a stranglehold on the Democratic Party. They could form their own new Norte Mexico Party, but why do that when there's already a fully-formed, barely-used party they can commandeer?

    So when they say mestizos are natural Republicans, they're telling the truth, but it's not because they're conservative and will be drawn to the GOP's nominally conservative stances. It's because they'll take it over and make it the Brown/Liberal Party to oppose the Black/Gay/Liberal party.

    And if your family is intermarried with high-ranking mestizo families and chummy with governments south of the border which will support this new-and-improved GOP with money and members, this seems like a reasonable and positive development for which you're perfectly positioned to be a leader.

    The only stumbling block there is: are whites really going to become a powerless minority? What if whites react to the increasing tribalization by taking over the GOP themselves before mestizos do? Then the Bushes and Rubios could get kicked out in the cold. I suppose then they'd have to form a new party -- or perhaps try to take over the Democrats, once they outnumber the blacks and gays enough -- but that'd be a lot more trouble.

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  6. I think there's more too it to than that, Steve.

    Yes, Britain's odious 'New Labour' Party DID import a load of ringers, (as you so elegantly put it), to ensure an automatic, permanent in-built Labour government in Britain, (it is a patern common to the west, and it's almost always done by the leading left party of politics, in fact senior New Labour apparatchiks actually bragged about precisely the deed in print), but in the case of the Bush dynasty, I'm not convinced. Firstly, as we all know, the bedrock of the Repubs is firmly anti-immigration - it's the rival firm, the Democrats who are the 'New Labour' of America. So much should be obvious, but it's always amazing how many still don't get it.

    No, I feel it's more grounded in the way that the Bush dynasty are the modern day equivalent of paternalistic landed gentry in Texas. As landed gentry, for the most part all of the Mexicans they see are either servants or family ranch-hands, ever eager to tug the forelock and be gracious when El Padrone is stalking about. To the Bushes, Mexicans seem like 'great people' that only nasty bitter and twisted bigots can dislike - therefore they have set up the task upon themselves to champion and fight for Mexicans. In fact they love Mexican so much that Jeb married one - i can imagine that the uptight WASPy Bushes adore everything Mexican, the food, the culture, the family life, the women to the point of sentimentalizing them and patronizing them in the true sense of the word. Also you can imagine their WASPy religious creed execrating discrimination on the basis of 'race' or nationality.

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  7. All the Bushes appear to be genetic dumbasses. I am reminded of an old observation about the rich and powerful: the third generation blows it. Dubya proved that. And after him...I shudder to think about it.

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  8. rightsaidfred9/4/13, 7:26 AM

    “It’s just smart marketing; it’s just smart business”

    The Bushes are importing and empowering a natural ally of the Democrats. "Smart" should not be attached to that strategy.

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  9. I knew George P at Law School at University of Texas oh so many years ago. Even then, everyone presumed he would be president some day, because he was a Bush, and this was Texas after all. But many people saw that there was something of Prince Hal's "common touch" about him, just because he was obviously Hispanic, and thus a Man of the People. No other reason. To the libs at UT, obsessed with the myth of Cesar Chavez, that made him a folk hero. He still lived like a Prince.

    I suppose it's like Obama's "I don't look like the other presidents on dollar bills" schtick. The Bushes saw the racial angle early and have been playing it hard. You gotta hand it to them, they aren't amateurs.

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  10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvSdH0p2txw

    Foreign Accent Syndrome.

    We must have collective globalist mindset syndrome.

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  11. Keep out the Bushes!

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  12. Why did Jeb Bush marry Columba? She's a very average looking Mestizo woman and from a poor blue collar background. The guy's 6'3", his family is wealthy and prestigious. I'm sure he could have had his pick of any of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders or NY runway models with a little bit of effort if he had wanted to as a young man. Even if he had a thing for Mexicans, he could have probably married a very nice looking, college educated girl from one of Mexico's political or business dynasties with relative ease.

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  13. I'd be willing to bet that Mrs. Bush, Columba, is not much like Maria the maid. I'll bet she comes from a rich family, is well-educated and very good looking. Just like those illegals coming across the line.

    Any takers?

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  14. Steve, I don't doubt that George P(utz) Bush is a "doofus," but what's your basis for calling him one?

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  15. 43 began with 9/11 and ended with the collapse of the economy(giving us the Kenyan conman community organizer). Let's look elsewhere.

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  16. Both W and P are not smart enough to succeed on their own in business, so politics is it.

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  17. The NYT article says itself why this Bush strategery will be counter productive. Bush's best showing with Hispanics was "44%" (really, 40%) in 2004. The other guy, a lily white billionaire (if you count his wife's fortune, too), got 59%. Which means that among Hispanics, Bush lost, and losing is the opposite of winning.

    No Bush has ever gotten a majority of the Hispanic vote in any statewide or national election. No Republican running for President in my lifetime has gotten anywhere near a majority of the Hispanic vote. And in hypothetical polling between Marco Rubio and Hillary Clinton, she cleans his clock by about a 2-1 margin among Hispanics polled.

    Importing more Hispanics will only mean that half-Hispanic Bushes will never become President.

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  18. Harry Baldwin9/4/13, 11:02 AM

    Did you ever notice that the Kennedy generation of JFK--Joe, John, Robert, and Edward, were distinctly better looking than their offspring, most of whom have an unsavory, weasely look? The Bush family similarly has produced a generation of slightly off-looking menfolk.

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  19. Only four states, New York, California, Texas, and Florida, plus Washington, DC have inequality above the national average of .39, indicating both their very large populations, their very complex ethnicity, and large metropolitan economies rich in high income earners, entrenched concentrations of poverty, and high levels of immigration. Surprisingly, these states are even more unequal than the poorest states with the most difficult racial history and delayed development: Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisian

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  20. Huperetes says:
    Judging by the picture...
    "48", Jeb Bush, Jr., is a dead ringer
    for Marco Rubio.

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  21. I'm sitting here in a U.C. Berkeley library listening to an elderly woman tell the librarian that 150 Congolese refugee families are about to be resettled in Oakland.

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  22. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/how-fragile-is-the-new-democratic-coalition/?_r=2

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  23. Who exactly is going to vote for a Bush in the next, or any future election?

    Granted, most Republicans will hold their nose and vote for one if they win the party nomination, just like Romney.

    Without enthusiasm of course, and with the same results Romney got (I'm talking about Republican turnout).

    Besides Republicans where will one get votes outside the usual Republican voters? Whether any hispanics in Texas vote for a Bush in greater numbers, I'm pretty sure they won't pick up hispanic votes in other states (and as covered here a few times, hispanics don't turn out like other ethnicities, despite their numbers).

    I don't think they get any black, asian, jewish, white ethnics, you name it, it won't be an improvement.

    I'll give one way a Bush can win in say 2016: if Hilary or Biden is the candidate.

    A Jeb vs Hilary or Biden race would be a sure sign the country really needs to be vacated in a hurry.

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  24. George P Bush doesn't mention that Texas has low white poverty its the Hispanics that give it a lower income, it would rise by 10,000 without being 38 percent if it was down again to about 25 percent. Also, white poverty is only 8 percent in the state of Texas versus Hispanic poverty of 24 percent,so the state gets the horrible stats of 16 to 18 percent because of Hispanics, then some blacks around 12 percent. George P wants to turn the state into one big happy El Paso.

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  25. HE EMERGING GEOGRAPHY OF INEQUALITY

    by Richard Morrill 09/04/2013 on New Geography, Joel Konkin site and usual than his usual writings on his website, its done by a liberal democratic and interesting its more honest than Joel's work because some small red states without many minorities or immigrants do better like Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska Utah and so forth than Texas or Florida or the heavy immigrant blue states like California and New York.

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  26. "Harry Baldwin said...

    Did you ever notice that the Kennedy generation of JFK--Joe, John, Robert, and Edward, were distinctly better looking than their offspring, most of whom have an unsavory, weasely look? The Bush family similarly has produced a generation of slightly off-looking menfolk."

    That's what happens when you don't take firm control of marriage into the house. Real dynasties like the Habsburgs and the Romanovs were extremely strict about who could marry into the family, and if you violated their rules you were cast away forever never to be seen again.

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  27. While richer states tend to have lower levels of poverty, the weaker relation with mean rather than with median income reflects the fact that some richer states, especially New York and California, have moderately high poverty, which in turn is related to their high degree of inequality. The moderate positive correlation of poverty and inequality is most evident in the giant states of New York, California, Texas and. Florida (and Washington DC) as well as in the deep south states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. In contrast there is relatively low rates of both poverty and inequality in the same northern tier (Plains, Midwest, and Mountain) states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah, plus the northern New England states of Vermont and New Hampshire.

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  28. obsessed with the myth of Cesar Chavez,
    I only like Chavez because of immigration, he wanted higher wages for his union, so he opposed the illegals that the Ag biz types in Ca like so much, including Ronald Reagan that made fun of Chavez when he was governor over the grapes, Reagan like the Ag business types and that's probably why he gave Amensty to 3 million.

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  29. The Bush family has been a catastrophe for America.

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  30. The elder George Bush famously, and lovingly, once referred to his three Mexican-American grandchildren as “the little brown ones.”

    This from The New York Times?? Isn't that more like "infamously" and "condescendingly"? Haven't the media been using that quote to hang 41 with since- oh, forever? I mean, yeah, in a classy joint like the New York Times they'd let it just hang out there on its own like in a Jonathan Franzen novel, trusting in their upscale readerships' ability to draw all the right inferences.

    And then when Presidential candidate George P. Bush (Lord help us!) gets into his first major screw-up, he can recall how his grandfather calling him that felt like "a punch to the stomach"; but after all, Poppy was just a "typical WASP" of his era. So let's just pretend that whatever really stupid thing I just did never happened.

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  31. "Doofus".

    Every so often a writer finds the _perfect_ word. This is such a time.

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  32. when the media suddenly respects a republican, be wary.

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  33. The bush family is about to pull off a total political transformation for 3'rd time....from NE WASPY Prescott to Texas country clubby GHWB to all out bible thumping and brush clearing GWB, to now all hispandering Jeb and his Jr. Well it worked for them previous 2 times because country was moving and them moved with it, now it seems they are hell bent on forcing the country to move with them.

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  34. "I'd be willing to bet that Mrs. Bush, Columba, is not much like Maria the maid. I'll bet she comes from a rich family, is well-educated and very good looking."

    Actually, she's very much like Maria the Maid. That's the surprising part about it.

    "Bush was born as Columba Garnica Gallo in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, where she grew up and attended high school. Her parents were José María Garnica, a migrant worker, and Josefina Gallo. She met Jeb Bush in 1971 in León, where he was teaching English as part of a foreign exchange program. They were married on February 23, 1974, in Austin, Texas.[1] The couple have three children: George P. Bush, Noelle Bush and John Ellis Bush, Jr."

    Again, I just don't get why out of all the women likely available to him (including prospects for beauty queens from aristocratic Mexican families, if that was his thing) that Jeb Bush chose to go with Columba.

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  35. Mrs. Bush was likely an illegal alien in California for a few years as a child.

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  36. Mrs. Bush was likely an illegal alien in California for a few years as a child.
    Probably in East La, maybe should knew Tony V long before he was Mayor.

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  37. I think George W Bush won Loretta Sanchez's district in 2004 but there were probably a few whites and asians. Asians in Loretta's district are the more socially conservative and anti-communists Vietnamese and Koreans.

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  38. tommy shanks9/4/13, 6:54 PM

    >>Modern Abraham at 2:51 PM

    Holy cow. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this:

    >>The elder George Bush famously, and lovingly, once referred to his three Mexican-American grandchildren as “the little brown ones.”

    It's like looking at an airbrushed photo from Stalin-era Russia. Some of us remember the incident. Replace "famously" and "lovingly" with "notoriously" and "offensively" to reflect the media reaction at the time. This was a scandal on par with his reaction to the supermarket scanner.

    >>What's wrong with his mouth?

    Looks like Hapsburg jaw.

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  39. "Between him and Rubio, the GOP talent pool is far too shallow."

    Also the gene pool

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  40. Real dynasties like the Habsburgs and the Romanovs were extremely strict about who could marry into the family, and if you violated their rules you were cast away forever never to be seen again.

    That had to do with equality of dynastic status more than looks. The Habsburgs and Romanovs would have allowed marriage to a frumpy member of a sovereign house with which they sought an alliance but would never have accepted marriage to the equivalent of a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.

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  41. Is there anything a person can do to screw up PP Bush's run for Texas Land Commissioner.

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  42. Is there anything a person can do to screw up PP Bush's run for Texas Land Commissioner.
    Currently, the guest worker program Jerry Patterison has the Land Commissioner job, if you go to Jerry's site you find out how a typical Texas Republican promotes a legalization process and lots of guest worker programs. He is running for Lt Governor, Patterson against Dewhurst and both Patterson and Dewhurst were opposed to FAIR and Numbers USA as being racists, they are pretty hard right on economics and were against abortion.Patterson did not want the unions involved in the Gang of 8 bill.

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  43. CCSI Presente en el 2013 CALL CENTER WEEK. Orgullosamente representando a nuestro excelente equipo..... A presumir todos nuestros logros.
    This CCSI in 2013 CALL CENTER WEEK. Proudly representing our excellent computer... To show off all our achievements. (Translated by Bing)
    I read an article on Mexican Youth dreamers being deported and landing in the Mexican call centers at 4.00 per hr. In the past, India and the Philippines were number one for this work but the Mexicans have gotten a lot of deportees that speak English and some Mexicans in high school in at least the Baja area wanting to take English more, so Mexico along with the manufacturing since it seems that companies think its a little cheaper to now built cars and so forth in Mexico, so Mexico moves from Latin America country to just below South Korea, Mexican immigration falls to South Koran levels and Mexican kids in the states, the dreamers can at least now work in the Call Center in Mexico if they don't get legalized in the US. This company is located in San Diego and TJ Mexico.

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  44. I have to really disagree with this article. While Julio or whoever his name is makes only 400 USD a month, he should point out that he receive IMSS, a national medical insurance coverage for any medical problem he or his family may ever have, including cancer, diabetes or a transplant, without paying a dime for it. He also receives Infonavit, a soft credit with super low interest rates and conditions that allows him to buy a house and pay it with a minimum payment and according to his income, and a pension fund that will guarantee a steady income when he retires, there are also other benefits, like christmas bonuses called Aguinaldo, a complete month of wages given to the worker at the beginning of December each year, the Utilidades (profit sharing) that the worker by law receives each year from the company, and other bonuses such as tax exceptions and scholarships for his children.
    Reply by Jose Angel in Mexico, they get cheaper health care than Americans why do we put up with this.

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  45. Meanwhile, some crafty third worlders have found another way to sneak in 'legally':

    http://m.timesofindia.com/nri/us-canada-news/US-sees-mysterious-surge-of-asylum-seekers-from-India-Report/articleshow/22439792.cms

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