FEATURED STORIES

Delving into the Election Numbers
Saving Room for Parks
Warming in the Rockies
America is Not Alone

COMMENTARY: by NPG President Donald Mann

As I predicted in the last issue of the NPG Journal, the truth about the impact of the immigration debate came out only after a thorough analysis of the election returns. In the story below (Delving Into the Numbers) the facts confirm that the losses suffered by GOP incumbents cannot be attributed to their support for strong immigration measures and tighter enforcement.

Interestingly however, in his desire to downplay the role of the immigration issue at the ballot box, Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International, cited a Newsweek pre-election poll that showed that immigration was "only fifth among voter concerns – behind the war in Iraq, terrorism, the economy and health care." Such an elitist statement dismissing immigration as an important issue was supposed to be a put down to "the noisy minority" (his words) fighting to rein-in illegal immigration. However, for an issue that wasn't even on the political radar screen five years ago, I find it commendable that those of us who have worked so hard to put the ever-escalating immigration crisis in the national spotlight have accomplished so much in such a short period of time.

Certainly, immigration is going to remain very much in the headlines in the coming months – especially with a Congress dominated by Democrats who went to extreme lengths during their campaigns not to lock-in strong positions on illegal immigration. It remains necessary for all of us on the front lines of this battle to be as aggressive as ever to ensure that President Bush does not team up with the new Congressional leadership to force through his destructive guestworker immigration legislation that will fuel massive population growth and be devastating to the future of our nation.

DELVING INTO THE ELECTION NUMBERS

The open border advocates got their wish in the post-election analysis where the vast majority of "know-it-all", "shoot-from-the-hip" TV and newspaper pundits automatically jumped to the instant conclusion that the immigration issue proved to be a big loser on November 7th. Such a reaction was easy to forecast based on the fact that the national media have yet to fully understand the American people's deep-seated feelings when it comes to illegal immigration.

Our thanks to NumbersUSA for crunching the election numbers and coming forth with the following statistics. Here at NPG we are pleased to do our part in spreading this news which negates the spin of the pro-immigration forces.

The truth on immigration-related election results based on NumbersUSA analysis:

• 11.5% of all Republican seats in Congress were lost as Democrats took back control of Congress. But only 6.7% of the members of Congressman Tom Tancredo's Immigration Reform Caucus lost their seats. (Put another way, FAIR reported this fact by stating: "Overall, the 104-member House Immigration Reform Caucus lost only 8 seats, two of which were due to retirements.")
  
  
• Exit polling failed to show any sign that voters disliked the immigration-reduction positions of the Republicans they were turning out of office. Rather, the polling found they were voting primarily on the basis of scandals and the war.
  
  
• Based on Republicans Immigration-Reduction Grade in the 109th Congress
  9.6% with an "A" grade lost
  9.2% with a "B" grade lost
  6.4% with a "C" grade lost
  9.5% with a "D" grade lost
  25% with an "F" grade lost
  
  

Finally, Arizona – one of the state's hardest hit by illegal immigration – turned out one Congressman who was a strong advocate of closing the borders (Rep. J.D. Hayworth) and one Republican candidate (Randy Graf) in an open House seat who strongly supported tight borders and stronger immigration policies. The national media had a grand time touting these two defeats. What they did not report very much was that incumbent Arizona Senator Jon Kyl who opposed his fellow Senator John McCain's amnesty/citizens legislation dealing with illegal immigration beat back his opponent who embraced the McCain solution. In addition, Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved a number of ballot referendums that further toughen state laws against illegal aliens, one of which declared English the state's official language.

SAVING ROOM FOR PARKS

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries most American cities grew at a steady pace permitting urban planners to stay quite a few steps ahead of population growth. In many cities, yesterday's visionaries are lauded for hitting population projections right on the mark and putting parks, airports, etc. in just the right place. Today, some cities – especially satellite cities surrounding large urban areas – are growing at a pace that was never expected a few decades ago and debate is ranging on just how far they should plan ahead – especially when it comes to locking in future parks and preserving natural recreational areas. The issue is political and confrontational – especially when greedy developers weigh-in. The accompanying story from The Columbus Dispatch tells the tale of what's happening in and around Columbus, Ohio. Click on the link above for the full article.

WARMING IN THE ROCKIES

Sometimes the strongest statements can be made in the shortest text. This concise article from The Salt Lake Tribune focuses directly on what possible scenarios we can expect from earth's warming atmosphere in the state of Utah. The bottom line is that any major climate change will reverberate throughout the economy. Unlike neighboring Las Vegas' slogan that "What happens here, stays here," such rules do not apply to nature. When it comes to environmental consequences of global warming in the future, what happens to Utah can be expected to happen all over the Western U.S. Click on the featured story above for the full article.

AMERICA IS NOT ALONE?

The following appeared in the OpinionJournal Political Diary (10/31/06) in a short piece by John Fund about Britain's welfare state:

Rory Clarke, a former official with Britain's Immigration Service, told the Sun newspaper: "Britain is seen as such a soft touch that poor people from countries such as America are even coming here now." He says he personally met two Americans, one from Ohio and the other from Kansas, who had applied for asylum on the basis that they faced racial discrimination back home. "But they freely admitted they were here for the free healthcare and accommodation. It is an absolute joke. They could have been here for up to five years before their application was processed." While asylum seekers are waiting, they're entitled to free healthcare, free housing and $70 a week in cash.

Mr. Clarke has left his job with the government, but he scoffs at its recent claim that only 300,000 bogus asylum seekers remain in Britain after their applications were rejected. "The government figures are just the tip of the iceberg. I reckon there are at least a million and that number is growing every day. What really scares me is that we have no idea who is coming into our country. Less than a third of those here illegally have official papers or any identification."

Britain's experience provides a cautionary example of how not to do things: Make the welfare state more generous and it will be the least industrious migrants who flock to the welcome mat.

QUOTABLE

"Our families are getting smaller – with one vital exception. Compared with those of Europe and Japan, the U.S. population is younger and more colorful because of the continued arrival of immigrants and their higher-than-average birthrates. Of the 100 million Americans who will join us in the next 37 years, half will be immigrants or their children."

Time Magazine's "America by the Numbers"
October 30, 2006

NPG NEWS

We continue to get very positive feedback from teachers throughout the nation who received our "It's Your Future" poster to aid in educating today's school-age generation on the disastrous consequences of exploding population growth. Feedback from teachers includes such glowing phrases as "great teaching tool" and "captured student interest."

As NPG gets ready to celebrate its 35th Anniversary in 2007 we are presently in the mail with a new letter and our NPG NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT SURVEY ON AMERICA'S POPULATION GROWTH designed to educate more people about how the ever-growing population crisis can and will wipe out so many of our environmental advances in recent years. By returning the Survey new supporters can link up with NPG to fight the battle to protect our environment for future generations.


AND YOU WONDER WHY AMERICANS DON'T FEEL SAFER?

Opening paragraphs from a Washington Post news story November 17, 2006

"Federal immigration agents arrested 33 Pakistanis this week who entered the United States by posing as religious workers, part of a crackdown on a visa program considered to be rife with fraud.

The immigrants were arrested Wednesday in the District, Virginia and seven other states. They had visas that permitted them to work as religious scholars or leaders. But federal authorities said that most had no theological training and that many were driving trucks, pumping gas or not working at all."

WHY THE NPG JOURNAL?

With our country just passing the milestone of 300,000,000 people, the coming months will find much of America's attention focused on our growing population. Here at NPG we are taking this historic opportunity – combined with the advent of our 35th Anniversary in 2007 -- to go beyond our traditional web postings and launch this new internet-based educational publication which will be delivered every two weeks via e-mail to you and an ever-growing list of NPG members, media contacts, educators, friends and supporters.

Our purpose in launching the NPG Journal (offered free to all recipients) is to give more widespread distribution to timely news stories and articles related to population, immigration, environmental and political issues that currently affect our daily life -- or have the potential to seriously impact our future. Combined with this information, NPG President Donald Mann will offer his personal insight and commentary on individual stories, especially those that challenge, confirm and/or complement our NPG Research and Forum Papers. In all, the NPG Journal will greatly expand NPG's educational mission, reinforce the vital need for Americans to speak up on population issues, and keep our nation -- especially our elected leaders on the national, state and local level – focused on taking action that can rein-in today's out-of-control population and immigration crises.

We welcome your feedback to articles posted on the NPG Journal and urge you to forward us the e-mail address of friends you think would like to receive a complimentary copy of the NPG Journal on a bi-weekly basis. Contact us at npg@npg.org. Also, please use that address to tell us if you do not wish to continue to receive this publication. Thank you.


ABOUT NPG:

Negative Population Growth, Inc. (NPG) is a national nonprofit membership organization with over 30,000 members nationwide. It was founded in 1972 to educate the American public and political leaders about the devastating effects of overpopulation on our environment, resources, and standard of living. We believe that our nation is already vastly overpopulated in terms of the long-range carrying capacity of its resources and environment.