from: Gary Bauer

May Day Protests

By one estimate, 25,000 people poured into the streets of the capital today to hear speeches by union leaders and to demand better working conditions and pay raises. The capital city was in Moscow, Russia, where old-style Soviets and their communist sympathizers, longing for the "good old days," turned out en masse to celebrate May Day, a "Labor Day" equivalent in many socialist nations. More than one million people wearing red t-shirts turned out in Havana, Cuba, to listen to Fidel Castro blast the United States. Meanwhile, here at home, tens of thousands poured into the streets of America's major cities, once again demanding amnesty and other "rights" for illegal aliens, while boycotting American businesses. Any coincidence?

I've written about the radical, anti-capitalist agenda of the groups promoting these massive protests of illegal aliens before, so I won't go into all the details again. But don't miss the connection here, my friends. If you wanted to rally the Hispanic population in America in support of something, what day would immediately come to mind? Cinco de Mayo, perhaps? Maybe it's "racial profiling," but the 5th of May would have been a logical time to "celebrate" the contributions of Hispanic immigrants. But, no, the supporters of mass amnesty chose May Day - a communist holiday - and then they instructed many immigrants who are here seeking jobs and a better life for themselves and their families to boycott the very businesses that have provided them with their "shot at the American dream."

South of the border, anti-American activists, with the support of Mexican labor unions and some Mexican politicians, organized "A Day Without Gringos," where Mexicans were urged to boycott McDonald's, Wal-Mart and hundreds of other U.S. companies. Talk about "biting the hand that feeds you." If these American businesses lose money, who is going to suffer? Their Mexican employees! These leftwing groups have co-opted the immigration issue on both sides of the border, and they are desperately trying to turn it into a broader "workers' movement" so they can remake America into the "workers' paradise" that has failed to materialize in Russia, Cuba, China, and everywhere else that has tried to make Karl Marx's misguided theories work. If they succeed here, America's days as the "land of opportunity" will be numbered.

By the way, big media is, once again, going out of its way to make news, rather than report it. The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have labeled their coverage as "The Immigration Debate." What they are intentionally leaving out is that nobody is debating legal immigration. Americans have always welcomed legal immigrants who have obeyed our laws. This debate is about illegal immigration. And the American people -- Democrats, Republicans, Independents - are fed up with the broken system that has allowed not one million, not two million, not even five million, but 12 million illegal aliens to enter our country. Nearly five years after September 11th we are still waiting for the politicians to get serious about securing our borders and putting an end to illegal immigration.

But big media just doesn't "get it." One headline banner that got my attention was "Immigrant Anger." Who was the subject of this story? Illegal aliens. But when it comes to legal immigrants, the evidence suggests that they are angry at the radicals who are claiming to speak for all immigrants. While legal immigrants certainly sympathize with the desire to "make it" in America, many believe that everyone should "play by the rules," and that illegality should not be rewarded.

Israel Says Iran Close

Last week the head of the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad, came to Washington with alarming news for his CIA counterparts. Meir Dagan told agency officials that Iran was even closer to a military nuclear capability than it is generally thought to be. This is the last thing the Bush Administration wants to hear as its diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis continue to be thwarted by China and Russia in the U.N. Security Council. With each day that passes, the United States draws nearer to a nightmare scenario - a nuclear armed Iran, sitting astride the main oil route to the free world, funding dozens of terrorist organizations and led by "president" Ahmadinejad, who believes Armageddon is only months away.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had this to say about Ahmadinejad: "Ahmadinejad talks today like Hitler spoke before seizing power. We are dealing with a psychopath of the worst kind, with an anti-Semite. God forbid this man from ever getting his hands on nuclear weapons."