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Stephen Colbert took on the Heritage Foundation and Jason Richwine, the author of their racist so-called "immigration study" -- which made the claim that "the average IQ of immigrants in the United States is substantially lower than that of the white native population, and the difference is likely to persist over several generations" -- as only he can on his show this Tuesday evening.

As Stephen noted, Heritage is attempting to put some distance between themselves and Richwine now that he's resigned. Case in point being their VP of communications, Mike Gonzales, who put up a blog post stating:

Dr. Richwine did not shape the methodology or the policy recommendations in the Heritage paper... The dissertation was written while Dr. Richwine was a student at Harvard, supervised and approved by a committee of respected scholars... Its findings do not reflect the positions of The Heritage Foundation or the conclusions of our study...

Colbert wrapped things up by explaining how they're attempting to have it both ways with that ridiculous statement:

COLBERT: Now, Heritage is saying they find no credence in Richwine's dissertation, which they are careful to point out was "supervised and approved by respected scholars" at Harvard. In other words, Richwine's paper, which says that today's Hispanic immigrants have low IQs and will for several generations, dooming them to failure is reprehensible.

And had no influence on this paper, co-written by the same guy, which says Hispanic immigrants are a burdensome underclass and will be for several generations, because they're doomed to failure.

Because this one is based on hard numbers, unlike this one, which is an offensive screed with no credibility, approved by Harvard, so it must be pretty good.

These two papers are totally different. It's like apple pickers and orange pickers... which by the way, we desperately need.

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Jon Stewart called out the bipartisan "gang of eight" in the Senate and their recent efforts to "reform" our immigration laws.

Jon Stewart: Path to citizenship ‘a barrier that immigrants will not be able to get past’:

Stewart noted the bill provides a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. But he mocked the lengthy and arduous process that undocumented immigrants would be required to endure to be allowed to apply for citizenship. Visa holders who can demonstrate regular employment could apply for permanent legal residency after ten years, but would have to wait another 3 years to apply for citizenship.

Stewart pointed out the bill also requires all employers to use the “E-verify” system before the path to citizenship is even implemented, something that would be completely out of the control of those seeking citizenship.

“Congratulations, Congress,” he remarked. “It sure as hell ain’t amnesty. But by creating this path to citizenship, you’ve finally built a barrier that immigrants will not be able to get past.”

Stewart and his "Senior Immigration Correspondent" Al Madrigal followed up with some additional examples of why the GOP's efforts at minority outreach aren't going so well these days.

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I don't know about anyone else, but I think one of the last people I want to hear from when it comes to Don Young's remark about his dad's "50-60 wetbacks" and how this is going to harm the Republicans and their joke of a "minority outreach program" is former Santorum communications director, Hogan Gidley.

Rather than being run out of town on a rail for inflicting the likes of Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum on the rest of the country, MSNBC has chosen to make this guy a regular on many of their daytime shows, and Thomas Roberts' in particular. So here we are with a man who helped bring us Mr. Man-on-dog, I don't want to make "blah people's lives better," Obama's going to bow to more Muslims, being asked for his sage advice now on how Republicans can now connect with minority voters.

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A long-time Alaska congressman uses some 'colorful' language in a radio interview. And Republicans wonder why minorities don't like them.

via Shannyn Moore

In an interview with Ketchikan’s KRBD, Alaska’s one and only Congressman, a Republican, Don Young in comments regarding the economy and employment, was able to include a racial slur. Congressman Young said, “My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” he said. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”

Congressman Young is again under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. The fresh charges are that he failed to report gifts, misused campaign contributions and lied to investigators.

Young's office later released the following statement:

During a sit down interview with Ketchikan Public Radio this week, I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in Central California. I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect.

Migrant workers play an important role in America’s workforce, and earlier in the said interview, I discussed the compassion and understanding I have for these workers and the hurdles they face in obtaining citizenship. America must once and for all tackle the issue of immigration reform.

Diane Sweet adds:
Roll Call:

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus announced a $10 million outreach initiative Sunday to better convey the party’s message to voters, particularly minorities.

Continue reading »

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After the attacks we saw from the right on Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and the way that their treatment of Latinos really damaged Republicans in the last election, Rachel Maddow wondered if Reince Priebus and the RNC's new minority outreach program was going to work to convince Latinos to vote for them.

As she noted, if what we saw in reaction to the nomination of Thomas Perez for Labor Secretary from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin or Rand Paul and his incorrect assumptions about Latino voters are any indication, it's probably not going to go very well for them.

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From this Thursday's opening day of the Conservative Political Action Conference 2013, Texas Gov. Goodhair apparently decided that the "stupid party" could use a little more help with that Hispanic outreach program of theirs: Rick Perry: Immigrant Release Is A ‘Federally Sponsored Jailbreak’:

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington on Thursday, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry decried immigration authorities for releasing several hundred detainees in response to sequester cuts.

President Obama's handling of the sequster "would be laughable if he hadn't taken it one step too far, dangerously releasing criminals onto our streets to make a political point," he said. "When you have a federally sponsored jailbreak, --and dont get confused that's exactly what this is, a federally sponsored jailbreak -- you cross the line from politics as spin to polics as craven form of cynicism where everything goes."

White House officials say the decision was made by ICE independently. Many detainees are not held on criminal grounds and Immigration officials say they only released low risk individuals, not anyone who was required to be held for serious charges.

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In his first televised interview since the election, Mitt Romney said his bid for the White House was doomed by his ability to effectively and honestly convey his opinions to minority voters.

via who else?

One Texas congressman invites gun nut Ted Nugent to the SOTU, another invites an undocumented immigrant with a master's in nursing who cannot work in this country. This about as much as anything sums up the obvious differences in the two parties right now and voters notice.

via The Dallas Morning News

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey has invited an undocumented immigrant from Texas to attend President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

The undocumented immigrant to attend Obama’s speech with Veasey, D-Fort Worth, is Julieta Garibay. The 32-year-old woman moved from Mexico to Austin with her parents when she was 12-years-old.

Garibay is a graduate of the University of Texas, where she received nursing degrees. As a student there she co-founded the University Leadership Initiative, an undocumented youth organization that promotes higher education and civic engagement for immigrants.

Garibay could be the first known undocumented immigrant to attend a State of the Union speech.

“This is a big step for Dreamers and indicative of how far this movement has come,” Garibay said. “Congressman Veasey recognizes that and has always supported the cause.”

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Stephen Colbert told his audience Monday that like most conservatives, he's "long had respect for the Hispanic community, ever since they voted Barack Obama in for a second term" and said that was a "sobering moment" -- at least, it would be if he could stop drinking.

Colbert then opined that he thought Hispanics came to the United States to do the jobs that other Americans did not want to do, like voting for Mitt Romney, whose name he couldn't remember as usual, and he played footage of some of the political pundits out there, claiming that Hispanics should naturally be a part of their coalition. Colbert agreed.

COLBERT: Yes, Hispanic and Republicans go together like beans and very, very white rice... that is very suspicious of the beans. Now granted, we conservatives may have said a few things about immigrants in the past, but now that is just agua the Spanish word for bridge. Because Republicans have now reached out to a group they trust even less than Mexicans -- Democrats.

After showing the Republicans out there talking about their newfound embrace of immigration reform and the right wing pundits explaining how this is just going to make all of the racist statements in the past go away, Colbert made note of why they still might have some problems with those voters.

COLBERT: Yes, Republicans will take racism off the table, or have their bus boy do it. Either way it's gone.

After showing the yappers over at Fox attacking President Obama for coming out with his own plan and basically telling the President to sit down and shut up, Colbert got to the root of their problem and this recent pandering we've seen by Republicans.

COLBERT: Hispanic voters know that immigration reform is moving forward only because Republicans decided to quit blocking it. They're not going to give Obama credit for supporting it all along. That would be like passing a kidney stone and then thanking your doctor, instead of thanking the kidney stone for taking you on such a character building adventure of agony.

Colbert wound things up explaining that there is still another hitch for the GOP, which is actually following through and voting for any of this, which is the President's plan wanting to give visas for same-sex partners. As I already noted here, Harry Reid might have expressed some optimism (heaven forbid, as Colbert noted) for "treating gay people as people," but I don't share it. I don't see Republicans doing anything else but continuing to treat just about everyone other than old white men as second-class citizens if they think there's any political benefit in demonizing them.

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After pointing out that Republicans are no longer having success running on issues like inner city crime and opining over New York's Time Square becoming "a Disney-fied, bubble gum, wimp company" where "the worst that could happen is one of those giant M&M's tries to flash you his peanuts," Colbert opined over the fact that
this disturbing lack of violence isn't just a problem for our cities" but for the Republican party as well.

As Colbert noted, in this last election Republicans lost the blacks, the women, young voters, Latinos by 44 percent and "even more surprising, they failed to get 100 percent of the white male vote." Colbert had a suggestion for a new wedge issues if Republicans want to turn the voter tide back in their favor -- white male patriarchy.