Phil_Shuman's Blog

Center For Immigration Studies

WASHINGTON (March 31, 2007) –A new poll using neutral language finds that primary and caucus voters have little knowledge of candidates’ immigration positions. The results also show that voters often do not share their candidate’s position.

Among the findings:

* Only 34 percent of McCain voters, 42 percent of Clinton voters, and 52 percent of Obama voters correctly identified their candidate as favoring eventual citizenship for illegal immigrants who meet certain requirements.

* Of McCain voters, 35 percent mistakenly thought he favored enforcement that would cause illegals to return home, another 10 percent thought he wanted mass deportations, and 21 percent didn’t know his position.

* Voters often held different positions from the candidate they supported. Only 31 percent of McCain voters had the same immigration position as he does. For Clinton voters, 45 percent shared her position; 61 percent of Obama voters shared his position.

* This lack of knowledge, coupled with disagreements with their candidates’ positions, makes it very difficult to draw any conclusions about the fact that all three remaining candidates favor legalization for illegal immigrants.

DWP Rate Increases Approved

Last Edited: Wednesday, 02 Apr 2008, 1:49 PM PDT
Created: Wednesday, 02 Apr 2008, 1:44 PM PDT

A DWP rate hike would go towards fixing old pipes that could have prevented this explosion that killed one firefighter.

Los Angeles --
After months of debate, the Los Angeles City Council gave preliminary approval today to water and electricity rate increases proposed by the Department of Water and Power.

If the rate increases receive final council approval next week, residents can expect to pay on average an additional $7.25 a month for water and electricity in the city of Los Angeles by the summer of 2009. DWP bills its customers every other month.

"My first reaction is one of relief because it means that we'll be able to make the investments that we need," said DWP General Manager David Nahai. "Today's a good day for Los Angeles."

The council approved the power increase 11-0 and the water increase 9-2, with council members Dennis Zine and Janice Hahn dissenting.

"We know the power side is outdated," Zine said.

"I'm sure the water side has problems but to give a double-whammy to the people that are struggling to make ends meet, the people who are losing their homes, people who can't afford the rents, people who are now paying more to put food on the table -- to hit them with another increase, that troubles me."

The decision to increase rates came one week after a Los Angeles firefighter died in an explosion caused in part by a deteriorated DWP cable.

Underground explosions in the Westchester area ble

Environmental lobbies abhor all by-products of human existence, unless generated by illegal aliens. In that case, the vast latrine and landfill created along the border with Mexico, as millions of illegals defecate and despoil their way to their destinations in the U.S., are just dandy.

To interfere with the natural formation of this outsized outhouse is to "jeopardize the quality of life and beauty of South Texas." Or so implied the president of the National Audubon Society. He was protesting the decision, late in the day, of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to "expeditiously install additional physical barriers and roads at the border to deter illegal activity."

Chertoff, a Bush boy – and therefore a Johnny-come-lately to the idea of a border – has been under pressure from a few of the barrier's congressional backers. They worry that environmental restrictions would postpone construction indefinitely. Quick on the trigger, the Sierra Club bleated that the Bush administration was threatening "endangered species and fragile ecosystems along the Rio Grande."

That the human inhabitants along the border are the worse for wear has never mattered much. Drug-trade related turf wars between gangs, brazen assaults on border patrolmen by invaders (often aided by American officials) and kidnappings – these are considered eco-friendly.