The lady doth protest too much methinks . . .

Why go out of your way to tell us that your anti-immigration hysteria is not based upon exclusionary sentiments? Is it because whatever other justifications you can come up with are dubious at best?

Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo wrote: "Last week, my wife Jackie and I shared Thanksgiving with our family. It was a wonderful break from life in the public spotlight. I want you to know that at dinner that evening I gave special thanks for you and the many other wonderful Americans who work with me in the struggle to secure our nation's borders, and the struggle to preserve our national identity, against the tide of illegal immigrants flooding the United States."

What does he mean "preserve our national identity"? Does it mean keeping America white and Christian? And are you claiming this has nothing to do with your own position on the issue? If you claim it doesn't, then you are at odds with the vast majority of people who support you.

Shucks, I should have saved a link to a new article desceribing how California vegetable farmers can't get workers any more at $8.50-12.00 per hour. I think the take was they wanted more new immigrants.

Problem is, how do you keep 'em down on the farm? So this is some kind of permanent need. I suppose a seasonal guest-worker program might help, but what if they just didn't honor the guest part?

I don't think raising a red flag about nativism helps figuring out the best economics here.

Maybe migrating the robotics industry further into farming is inevitable.

TomJ, yes, I go out of my way to make it clear what we are about and what we are not about. We continually have to do that because of folks like you. And I owe that to Bill Hobbs, who is allowing me to post on his site.

My Web sites are no longer up, so people can't read the policy I set and posted for Tennesseans for Immigration Control in the beginning. People reading Hobbs's site may not know what we are about. We are part of a very diverse alliance, as I pointed out to you in response to your comment to another post.

As for your "national identity" remark, I can only assume you are in favor of erasing our nation's borders and and relegating the notion of the nation-state to history's trash bin. I believe you would find most Americans oppose that idea.

As for your "keeping America white and Christian" comment, I doubt you know my race, and I'm certain you don't know my spiritual beliefs. And, based on what you've written here, it's clear you know nothing about most of the people who support me. I have been heartened by the questions most people ask me after expressing an interest in joining our network. They don't want to be associated with hate groups or exclusionary policies based on race, ethnicity, etc. Neither do I.

But yes, we advocate exclusion based on law and order and service to the interests of our citizens and nation. That's what borders are for.

I started out in this movement with concerns about sustainable population and the environment. The catalyst to my intensive involvement in the immigration-control movement came in 1999, when one of my children was injured by an illegal-alien driver. I have learned a lot since then, and yeah, I'm gonna keep talking about it. And I won't be mincing words.

Why go out of your way to tell us that your anti-immigration hysteria is not based upon exclusionary sentiments? Is it because whatever other justifications you can come up with are dubious at best?

As the lady said, that's how those who support massive illegal immigration - including the GOP leadership and the MSM - play the game.

They print outright lies and make false accusations. Then, they get those they lie about to defend themselves against the lies.

It's a trick I've seen repeated over and over again. The MSM will print smears from an open border group. Then, they'll say something like, "Bob denies that he's a racist."

Here's a classic of the genre. Click my name and look through my archives for many more examples.

This is the second time I've typed 30 minutes on a comment and totally lost it because I forgot to type in a stupid e'mail address. When you hit the back button to correct the whole flipping thing disappears.

What a total waste of a half hour.

Last year The Tennessean published an op-ed column by my opposition in which the writer, Mario Ramos, called state Rep. Donna Rowland and me "anti-immigrant." Frankly, that is defamatory, and I know our opposition knows better but does stuff like that deliberately to scare people and discredit us.

But newspaper editorialists do the same thing. We called The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on it, and they made an effort to stop doing it, but it's like an uncontrollable tic for them.

But you know, if Donna and I get one more Donna, we'll have enough for a band.

Bill, I bet Rep. Donna Rowland would make a good guest-blogger.

Lonewacko, you summed it up nicely here.