Sunday, May 23, 2010

Shame of the week: US Congress

Last week, Mexican President Felipe Calderon addressed the US Congress.

He could have used the time to speak to needs and higher goals. Instead he attacked Arizona. So a foreign president showed bad manners? If it had ended there, that would have been that. Instead, many members of the US Congress elected to not only applaud him but to stand and applaud him.

Calderone

That photo is after the attack on Arizona, not at the end of the speech. They stood up in the middle of the speech to applaud a foreign leader attacking one of the fifty states. That's disgusting.

Meanwhile Sid Salter (Clarion-Ledger) reports:

What a hypocrite. Mexico's immigration laws, just like Arizona's recently adopted new law, requires that law enforcement officers must "demand foreigners prove their legal presence in the country before attending to any (other) issues."

Of course, what Calderon didn't want to talk about is why the Mexican government and the Mexican economy wants so desperately for unfettered access to the U.S. by illegal Mexican immigrants to continue - remittances.

Remittances - money sent home by Mexicans working abroad - are Mexico's No. 2 source of foreign income after oil exports. Remittances totaled $21.2 billion in 2009, compared with $25.1 billion in 2008, according to the Bank of Mexico, the central bank.