Columbia seems awfully comfortable snuggling up to the nazi left.

Who would have thought that a vigilante militia dedicated to fighting off Mexicans crossing the border would dislike and fight members of the Chicano Caucus?

"what is wrong with being called what you really are? "

What's wrong with it is that it isn't what the Minutemen really are. The protesters that stormed on stage to thuggishly disrupt an expression of free speech are the only ones that have anything in common with the fascists the Minutemen are accused of being. If you support immigration that's great. Most of us in this city wouldn't be here without America's relatively friendly immigration policies. But that gives you no right to act like petulant thugs in the face of other Americans expressing their desire to see the laws of the land enforced. Don't cheer for people like the Chicano Caucus who disrespect the first amendment. Mobilize and vote for immigration reform.

colbert didn't run over to him for because he wasn't the main interviewee for that night...

huh, Sozekirai? are actually suggesting that the minutemen are not racists and murderers?

it's not even worth it to go further and elaborate on a counter claim to such nonsense!

Hey Roy... can you fit the word "racist" into your post a few more times? Please? Come on. I'm sure you can manage it.

I hate to bust up the genius party but the 1st Amendment protects against the government's limiting speech. The Chicano Caucus can't, by definition, violate the first amendment.

NO way hoesay, of course, they won't stop a Caucasion.
how dare you ask such a question.
The racists did speak and that is all you need to know. 14 words.

Why not ask such questions? If they are not racists then they should stop everyone trying to illegally cross the borders.

Because of the disruption no one was able to confront them with rational arguments against their beliefs and actions. Now they seem like the "victims" in the whole episode, and probably caused more undecided people to sympathize with their cause.

No one has answered my question on them being "murderers" yet.

Now we are back to the classic battle-

Liberals: Let's kick some ass
Repblicans: We'll sue.

Surely you're joking

I can't figure out whether Republicans are robots or broken records...they constantly say the same moot point over and over and over...I guess even a broken record will one day stop. OK, Robots it is!

Again, you have to be joking.

whooops left out part of a sentence.. how jen chung of me!

should have read:
"if the chicaco caucus and the rest of the protestors that night had chosen to protest by simply not going, then the minutemen speech would have been extremely underattended and would have been forgotten about by the end of the week."

So I'll probably be run out of town for not hewing to the dogma of either the extreme left or right, but here goes.

Are some of the Minutemen racists? Almost definitely. However, a lot of them are probably just guys who are worried about the safety of their jobs and the jobs they hope their children will one day have. I certainly haven't heard that they've killed anyone. Please let me know if I'm wrong.

On the other side of the coin, immigration should definitely be reformed. Isolationist policies have never helped anyone. There are obviously jobs available in this country, otherwise people wouldn't come here. We should allow people who want those jobs to have them, legally. That's the point, -you come here to work hard and make a better life for yourself. This country is about facilitating that dream, not crushing it.

Regardless, inciting violence at a public event just makes you look bad. So does filing frivolous lawsuits.

they are not murderers...but that comment is because of their connection to the National Alliance...a huge multinational neo-nazi group

and they call the liberals nazis? -- HA!

Jason, you need to study some Hannah Arendt. The statist totalitarian far right and the statist totalitarian far left merge at the same point of the political circle. Fascists were historically Christian corporatist ultranationalist far rightists, while the Nazis were actually occultist Socialist ultranationalist centrists of a sort, and the Communists were secularist Socialist transnationalists. There is plenty of resemblence to go around for anti-liberals on the radical "right", "left", or "center" to embrace.

Some of the Minutemen may indeed harbor racist sentiments towards people from Latin America. Others plainly don't. Their official mission however is one of securing America's border and enforcing the immigration laws already on the books. There is nothing fascistic about that in the least. On the other hand the anti-liberal leftist protestors that stormed the stage and shut down an expression of free speech were the ones who most resembled wannabe brownshirts that night. They were not in the least bit "liberal" other than in the ways that word has been bastardized beyond recognition in current American political discourse.

The chicanos that participated in this event need to be held accountable. They need to be held to the same standard that caucasians are. You would never see a caucasian caucus on campus, let alone one that would act out.

Let them sue, I want to volunteer for Jury Duty.
I'm your worst nightmare.

I love how people are blaming the university for being "biased". A university is a big group of individuals, who could either be left, right, moderate, apathetic, etc. There's no question on the admissions app about political orientation. It just so happens that left leaning groups are more popular (HUGE surprise, really, among college students) and the College Republicans has a dismal, yet loud, membership. roy here must be really lonely uptown. If the university was so biased, why did they allow Gilchrist anyway? The security guards didn't do enough? I'm sure the "powers that be" made sure to tell them to stand still.

Ok, so in my opinion it comes to this: A number of groups on campus (including the Chicano Caucus) felt offended by the College Republicans' choice of speakers. The Minutemen are a highly controversial group so this wasn't terribly surprising. The groups opposing decided to demonstrate that this group did not reflect the beliefs of the university. "Thuggish," doubtful. There is video. It shows College Republicans entering a tug of war with the banner, and a man from Gilchrist's entourage kicking a man in the head. The Chicano Caucus and the woman that appeared on Democracy Now cannot be blamed for the fact 80% of the audience that night was comprised of those protesting the event and did not want to hear Gilchrist speak.

It should be obvious, but apparently it isn't, that calling a specific, identified person a "murderer" is only not defamation if that person is indeed a murderer. If Gilchrist had even been charged with such a crime, it's also obvious that we would have heard about it over and over. Since we have not, it's pretty clear what that claim is.

Also, here's an interesting link for those who want to learn what's really happening on the border: tinyurl.com/y9msjh (PDF file from house.gov)

"...During 2005, Border Patrol apprehended approximately 1.2 million illegal aliens; of those 165,000 were from countries other than Mexico. Of the non-Mexican aliens, approximately 650 were from special interest countries... Since September 11, 2001 to the present hundreds of illegal aliens from special interest countries (such as Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Cuba, Brazil, Ecuador, China, Russia, Yemen, Albania, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan) were apprehended within the South Texas region alone."

In addition to reading that report, the reader might want to consider who exactly profits (as in makes money) from a wide open border.

one last thing (as #35 was not up when i started my previous comment): i don't think the term "murderer" is being applied to gilchrist alone. it is a claim being applied to the minutemen organziation in general.

"You would never see a caucasian caucus on campus"

Actually, it's called the Student Body.

Outside of that, I don't know who brought murder into the argument, but in true Republican form, it is overshadowing the fact that these ignorant hillbillys are racist, and they get off on picking on the disadvantaged.

I say we survey them to find out what percentage of them were beaten up in high school and why they didn't become cops.

Some hopefully helpful background information for those comfortably ensconced on the East Coast:

* There's an interesting graphic painted on the side of a housing project in East L.A. In big letters it says, "Who's the minority now?" I don't know if there's a picture online, but you can google for "who's the pilgrim now" or similar phrases for another poster with a similar theme.

* Los Angeles' mayor is a former leader of the racial separatist group MEChA, as is a Congman from AZ and at least two CA legislators.

* Those individuals crossing the border are indeed the victims that many portray them as. However, many of those who promulgate that portrayal are not vulnerable at all and support illegal immigration because it earns them money and power. Illegal immigration is a multi-billion dollar industry, with Mexico alone getting $20+ billion in money sent home from Mexicans in the U.S., most of those illegal aliens. Big banks have their fingers in that stream too. And, those banks and those who employ illegal aliens then donate to the GOP and the Democratic Party.

Immigration is a tough topic, but suing all undocumented people to "take their money and plunder their funds" doesn't seem very fair (or smart) now does it? Now listen, the United States is causing immigration. Yes, CAUSING it. You cannot talk about "illegals" or immigration or sling your ethnic slurs without knowing what NAFTA is and what it caused (as well as understanding neoliberal economic and social policies).

"The consolidation of Mexican markets under NAFTA, in short, unleashed precisely the sort of social, political, and economic transformations that have served as engines of international migration elsewhere in the world. The political economy established in North America under NAFTA has created pressing needs not simply for employment, but for risk management, capital, and credit—needs that Mexico is poorly equipped to meet domestically. At the same time, NAFTA has forged new pathways of transportation and communication to make transnational movement easier, faster, and cheaper, and the resulting exchanges of managers, government officials, students, tourists, and, inevitably, workers have created new interpersonal ties across the border to lower social and psychological distances. Is it any wonder that migration has proceeded apace?"

Massey (1998) http://www.prospect.org/print/V9/37/massey-d.html

Charlie Rodriguez-

"As an American citizen who happens to be a Hispanic, I am deeply respectful of the immigration issue and the abdication of duty that our elected officials have undertaken in order to furnish employers with cheap labor."

Sorry, I had to vomit after reading this. Clearly, you wear your Hispanic heritage like a sweater you can take off when white people enter the room. Shame. Disgust. Grief. This may have changed my stance on affirmative action.

Dude, I think we all know that conservatives have cornered the market on self-righteousness.

"so why are the current illegals any different that they can't go through the same processes to be citizens?"

Well they are different.

Legal immigrants that we hand pick are the rich ones who want to assimilate as quickly as possible so they can make tons more cash at whatever expense...even their own personal history and family heritage.

Poor immigrants who risk their lives to get here,
and are subsequently terrorized by groups like the Minutemen, are just trying to fill the mutually beneficial role of taking menial jobs in order to put food on their tables back home.

I'm assuming you've never been poor and had to choose between your life/your freedom and watching your family starve to death. I'm sure compassion is foreign to you, but conservatives DID try to hijack that one too. Anyway, that's what makes them different.

As for Charlie Rodriguez, he can believe anything he wants. But anyone who hates his own racial identity like that is filled with self-hate, false pride, and will always be destructive rather than constructive. I can only hope he is never put in a position of authority that allows him to impart his hate-based values on others.

Yes and NYC is the richest city in the world. That doesn't stop me from seeing families in the South Bronx barely making it day to day.

You can take your biased data and stick it up the ass of the agency that was paid to produce it.

OK, a fact is not a form of data? Whatever. Are you like 16 or something?

I never disputed your 'fact'. I'm sure you are correct. It doesn't change the 'fact' that people are still starving in NYC despite it's opulent wealth, and that people are starving in Mexico despite its status as 3rd wealthiest country.

I am also not a member of MEChA. I don't support many things 100%, but perhaps a separatist group that fights for minority rights, even at the cost of being inherently ethnocentic, can balance out the hatespeech generated by KKK, Minutemen, and gothamist commentors.

Robot.