Shouting "La raza unida nunca sera vencida (A people united will never be defeated)," an estimated 100,000 Latinos gathered in a March 10 show of force in Chicago.

According to an Associated Press story, the mostly Latino crowd waved Mexican and American flags.U.S. lawmaker Luis Guitierrez was one of the notables addressing the huge crowd of foreign nationals whose very presence is in violation of the laws. He promised the crowd victory.

Against whom? we wonder.

The Associated Press reports Governor Blagojevich "addressed the crowd in Spanish, telling them he is the son of immigrant parents and understands their issues.

"The Democrat's proclamation that "ustedes no son criminales. Ustedes son trabajadores" ("You are not criminals. You are workers") brought loud cheers."

hmmm..."Blagojevich"..."Blagojevich"... doesn't sound French.

[Fred Barnes writing in the Weekly Standard, the number one cheerleader for the Iraq war during the lead-up:] "How could this adversarial relationship [within the Republican Party] on immigration have been avoided? "If we had to do it again, we probably would lead with enforcement," a White House official said. In other words, soften up the immigrant-bashers with dramatically increased border security and then, and only then, seek a temporary worker program in a year or two.

[Fred Barnes, a local opinion-giver, is giving advice to Republicans again. But this time it's not to encourage them to go to war in Iraq and spread freedom and fix everybody and so on. This time Fred is advising Republicans that they risk heavy losses in the next elections unless they steer clear of that durned Pat Buchanan.]

Fred Barnes thinks he is offering keen political insight, but betrays his utter boobery by dismissing with a flip sneer 8 out of 10 voters.

No serious student of politics would ever be so brash as to treat as barely worth consideration the overwhelming majority of the people.

With the news full of reports of Europe's headlong plunge toward unknown horrors thanks to its boob-devised immigration policies, American boob Fred Barnes weighs in with some piddle on our pressing immigration problem: the "adverserial relationship" immigration has caused within a political party. And he doesn't even say anything interesting about that.

"A larger threat is the paleocon influence on one of the touchiest issues, immigration" Fred writes in the Weekly Standard, birthplace of the war in Iraq. "Here, their thinking is reflected in the anti-immigrant rhetoric of some congressional Republicans. And it is such thinking that imperils the gains made by Republicans among Hispanic voters."

[For one of many refutations, see: “Unfettered immigration is rapidly shifting the ethnic and political balance of the United States. Republicans beware.”VDARE]