Missouri Illegal Immigration Problem....Really?

Soooo I guess Missouri has a pretty serious illegal immigration problem. I mean Republicans in State Government have made it a priority to get a bill passed to mirror the recent Arizona law that has everyone buzzing. I am not here to opine on that law. Arizona sits on an uncontrolled border and has a lot of very real issues with illegal immigration. I might not like their approach but I do not deal with their problems, nor do most Missourians. I understand that maintaining a border is an essential part of any country's fundamental duties. I understand that unchecked immigration is a social threat and a terrorist threat and all kinds of threats but we are of course a nation of immigrants and everyone I know who says they are here legally claims it by virtue of birth. Though they might protest that their forefathers came over here "the right way" I would put it to any "birther" to prove it to me. We are here. Many of us pay taxes (a lot of taxes and have for a long time) and we resent the idea of people flooding in here and taking what we got. Politically I get it. As a Christian as I find this paranoia and anger revolting. But this is not the place for that. The fact is that Missouri does NOT have an illegal immigration problem that deserves the limited resources or the even more limited attention span of our State Legislators.

But Mark Parkinson of St. Peters is sponsoring a bill to deal with this pressing issue. St. Peters Missouri as most of you know has thousands of undocumented workers flowing into it every day, using public services and taking jobs that real citizens could have...except that they don't. Parkinson appears to be playing to his crowd sponsoring other legislation including:


HB2449
Creates various crimes for trafficking, concealing, haboring, sheltering, or transporting illegal aliens
HB2449 -- (LR# 5481L.02I)

And these equally important uses of legislative time:


HCR76
Encourages every school district in Missouri to promote and include trap shooting as a high school sport
HCR76 -- (LR# 5225L.02I)

and...


HB2131
Requires a $2 deduction each pay period from the Governor's personal pay to be deposited into the Governor Nixon's Federal Scratch-Off, Match-Off Fund to purchase a Powerball lottery ticket each week
HB2131 -- (LR# 4979L.01I)

http://www.house.mo.gov/content.aspx?info=/bills101/spon/spn016.htm

So at least we know the people of St. peters are well represented regarding the illegal immigration menace.

According to Statemaster.com Missouri ranks 34th in illegal immigrants with almost 22,000 people flooding our public schools, and stealing jobs from our valid citizens. That is almost .037% of our population threatening and menacing us with their hispanic horde.

All I am saying Missouri is get a grip. We have serious problems in Missouri and illegal immigration is not one of them. If we are going to protect our borders we have more to worry about with people fleeing Arkansas then Mexico and when Illinois' budget crashes we could have a huge influx of "those people" moving into our State as well. I long for higher Mexican American population so that I do not have to travel so far for good Mexican food (not Taco Bell or Casa Gallardo or even, "gasp" Hacienda). I have never had a person count back change to me in Spanish. My children have never been forced to sit through bilingual education. It is nit an issue here, other then a political issue. Like abortion and gay marriage it is a litmus test issue for the "you are either with us or your against us" people who are controlling the political conversation.

I say lets not play the game. The fact is that hispanics currently make up 14% of our population. They are projected to make up 29% by 2050. A spanish lesson for all of our children might be a forward looking thing to do rather then pass a law for a problem here that simply does not exist.

MIZZOU-RAH!: KUBE KOMMENTS LATE SUNDAY EDITION

Marquette has pulled within 1... now 3 with 7:56 to play. Obviously we hate them like poison. Obviously Jesuits are never to be trusted but nothing good has happened at that school since Hank Raymonds left. Sorry Majeris. The Mizzou game is too hard to watch so lets talk a little about a topic we have not visited before... first families of the Kube.

We got a lot of great family traditions in the KUBE and not just your random poorly bred Kuklas and Beckers and their ilk. We have Mowens, Curtises, Shapiros, Kowerts, Flavins, Omearas, Winstroers, Pupillos, Hessels, Webers, Buemers, the list goes ion and on...but certainly these are some of the first families of KUBE and build the great, GREAT tradition that is this bracket. I thing we have KUBE Kompetitors from Spain (Gegel), Columbus Ohio (King), San Fransisco (Bellefeuille) So Cal (Reed) Louisville (Dolen) and probably even further afield then this humble scribe knows... but you can let me know at any time where YOU filed your brackets from a wantonbecker@mac.com.

KOMMENTS!

ANGRIEST BALD DWARF IN DIVISION I




Mizzou barely hung on AND covered the spread so while wnatonbecker picked Marquette in his brackets and lost his 15 minutes of KUBE fame, Missouri by winning by 4 instead of 3 shoved 110 dollars into my pocket. MIZ! Indeed. So we have Derek Winland in first place. Derek is always....always competitive in the KUBE.. and is proving once again...formidable but with the UCLA tragedy is destined for death in the KUBE. It is different this year... the final winners are spread out a lot. I am sure the Koordinator will do some review but six different teams listed as winners in the current top ten. How about Ryan Dierberg tied with himself at 110. It takes a Wharton Business School education to get that done. Shayo Mowen is well positioned with a Syracuse win and that whole pack of North Carolina people. Bob Heine (married to Kukla’s boss) is also well situated with the Memphis pick. Should be fun.

We are hoping to have some insight from the celebrated Miami of Ohio columnist Dan Kukla. Dan is not fairing so well in this years KUBE but I am sure he has good reasons why.

It does not appear we have a lot of pet traffic this year and I guess Don will be announcing a long shot winner soon so keep your eyes peeled.

Mizzou Over KU: Rock Chalk... they suck

We take a break in our coverage of the Becker family vacation to say a words regarding the Mizzou Tigers. First of all.... what kind of topsy turvy mixed up world has Missouri and Kansas playing for the nations number one ranking this late in November? I mean... what the hell? Is this one of the signs of the apocalypse. I am 45. I actually saw Missouri play in an Orange Bowl. They were not playing for the national championship or anything like that but it was still exciting. There were plenty years of Liberty Bowl appearances and Independence Bowl and the like. The were many dark and long suffering years between Al Onofrio and Gary Pinkel. Nebraska and Oklahoma dominated the Big 8 and there were of course some very dark years where K-State had a team (sick and unnatural). The Big Twelve did not change things much accept now we had Texas and Texas A.M. to kick us around.

Pinkel came as a savior but we have seen so many saviors... Warren Powers, Woody Woodenhoffer to name just two and they all led us no where. Pinkel came in quietly and began to install a system but we had heard these excuses before. There was Brad Smith who he attempted to turn into a West Coast Offense drop back quarterback and almost lost his job. I actually thought he should have lost his job. I am of course, as we have said before... an idiot.

Last year they finished strong but once again we had seen that before too and although expectations were that we should be good, no one was talking about this. Sitting in my family room in front of a fire with my wife (we have no friends) watching Mizzou score twice and then watching KU miss a field goal starts me salivating about Sunday’s rankings but I still want to sit back and savor it as it is being played. On the second touchdown Chase Daniel ran about 40 yards before throwing the touchdown pass. What a great showcase to finally put him in the Heisman spotlight where he belongs.

KU’s Coach Mangino is a grotesque caricature of a man. He looks like he is 5 foot nothing and about 400 pounds. Seriously, the guy just looks ludicrous. How could this guy inspire a team to 11-0? He looks like an oompa loompa at best. Frightening and the pictures of him during the game made me laugh. A joke my brother in law told me.

Kansas City has a highway 435 serving as an outer-belt. Coach mangino has to pull off and get out of the car at a gas station to get direction and he asks, “Can you tell me how I get to 435?” The gas station attendent looks him up and down and says “How about just eating a fucking salad for lunch.” Made me laugh.

We went to a bar for the second half to watch with some friends who were Mizzou grads. The bar was packed and it looked like it would be a Mizzou blow out but KU stayed in the game even as Missouri racked up penalty after penalty. The game appeared questionably officiated but the point was slammed home when I added it up at the end and saw that Mizzou was penalized for 141 yards to KU’s 26. That is... quite a gap. The other thing to worry about going forward other then penalties was that KU never punted in the second half. They scored or turned it over every series. Mizzou will have to do a little better then that against the Sooners.
KU had problems getting into the end-zone but their poor kicker Scott Webb missed tow field goals in the first half, both make-able that frankly ended up being the difference. Still, KU played a good second half and made some touchdowns of their own but they just could not stop Mizzou’s offense. Still the game was touch and go into the last 2 minutes but Mizzou got a final sack to ice the whole thing. It was a sad image at the end to see their much beleaguered quarterback with turf sticking out of his helmet at the end. Priceless, Final score 36-28.

BCS Standings
 1. Missouri 11-1
 2. West Virginia 10-1
 3. Ohio State 11-1
 4. Georgia 10-2
 5. Kansas 11-1
 6. Virginia Tech 10-2
 7. LSU 10-2
 8. USC 9-2
 9. Oklahoma 10-2
10. Florida 9-3
Life is good! On to the Big 12 Championship and the Oklahoma game and whatever happens happens but what a great year. A gift to the whole state.