Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 17, 2009
He may have soared a gazillion miles in outer space, but back here on Earth, U.S. astronaut Jose Hernandez has stepped knee-deep in controversy.
Hernandez, the California-born son of Mexican immigrants, is a full-fledged media star in Mexico. Fans here followed his every floating, gravity-free move during his two-week journey in space as he Twittered from the shuttle Discovery and gave live interviews to local TV programs.
After the shuttle returned Friday, Hernandez told Mexican television that he thought the U.S. should legalize the millions of undocumented immigrants living there so that they can work openly because they are important to the American economy.
Officials at NASA flipped. They hastened to announce that Hernandez was speaking for himself and only for himself.
“It all became a big scandal,” Hernandez later told television viewers. “Even the lawyers were speaking to me.”
Hernandez was back this week on Mexican network Televisa’s popular morning chat show, where he has seemingly been a fixture, to update host Carlos Loret de Mola on how he was adapting to life back on Earth.
Loret de Mola asked Hernandez, 47, about the controversy, and the astronaut said he stood by what he had said earlier on the same program, advocating comprehensive immigration reform—a keenly divisive issue in the United States.
“I work for the U.S. government, but as an individual I have a right to my personal opinions,” he said in a video hookup from a Mexican restaurant owned by his wife, Adela, near NASA headquarters in Houston. “Having 12 million undocumented people here means there’s something wrong with the system, and the system needs to be fixed.”
He added that it seemed impractical to try to deport 12 million people. In the earlier conversation, he spoke of circling the globe in 90 minutes and marveling at a world without borders.
Hernandez, whose first language was Spanish, grew up picking cucumbers and tomatoes in the fields of California’s San Joaquin Valley. His parents, Salvador and Julia, had migrated from Mexico to Northern California in the 1950s in search of work. They eventually became U.S. citizens and raised four children, including Jose, the youngest.
{snip}
After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering, Hernandez applied every year for 12 years to enter the space program, finally being chosen in 2004.
Mexicans were over the moon when they learned that someone with such close ties to their country would be reaching such heights. Normally, space travel is not a popular topic here, perhaps because it is such an other-world experience.
Hernandez has tweeted in English and Spanish, with the moniker Astro_Jose. His orbit-trotting on the Discovery mission included a salsa demo and mini-science lessons for viewers. He made taquitos for his fellow fliers and fielded questions from YouTube users.
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Original article
(Posted on September 24, 2009)
Comments
“Having 12 million undocumented people here means there’s something wrong with the system, and the system needs to be fixed.”
Indeed. We need to enforce our laws.
I don’t know if he isn’t really speaking for NASA. NASA is big into the H-1B visa circus.
If Mexico is so great, why don’t they have an expansive space program? Seems like Mr. Amnesty-on-the-Brain had to use gringo’s expertise and engineering.
Why is it impractical to deport 12 million (Make that 36 million) foreigners when it’s not impractical to dispossess 200 million Americans? It’s not impractical to bankrupt state and local governments? It’s not impractical to destroy our school systems? Well, it might have been impractical to expel 12 to 17 million Germans from the Baltic states, Poland, and Czechoslovakia in 1945, but it was quickly done. Surely with modern technology we can do better than the Red Army. To survive as a nation, anything is practical.
I have a Colombian friend (U.S. naturalized and assimilated citizen, engineering degrees, never the first day in his life unlawfully in the U.S) One of his sons is in medical school at East Carolina Univ. and the other in a post graduate aerospace engineering program at NC State Univ.
He was quite disgusted when I sent him the link to this LA Times story.
So when did NASA adopt an affirmative action program? Sounds like minority tokenism, and a public relations call to choose this guy, but you see how it paid off for NASA:
“He added that it seemed impractical to try to deport 12 million people. In the earlier conversation, he spoke of circling the globe in 90 minutes and marveling at a world without borders.
Yeah, and it wasn’t practical to go the the moon either, but it was done.
““Having 12 million undocumented people here means there’s something wrong with the system, and the system needs to be fixed.”
Get that? THIS system needs to be fixed, because there are 12 million illegals here. Not mexico’s system BUT THIS SYSTEM. The fact that their own country is so corrupt the people have to come here to work doesn’t even enter their mini-minds. Obviously, they feel it doesn’t need to be fixed.
Even their best and brightest are dimwits who can’t think.
Sorry, we don’t need anymore overpopulation so that our resources are depleted. Keep your peons at home.
“He may have soared a gazillion miles in outer space…”
Thank you Comrade Wilkinson, for letting us all know that Comrade Cosmonaut Hernandez has been to several galaxies in his space travels. Given his opinions on earthly matters, I never would have guessed that.
Silly me!
In the earlier conversation, he spoke of circling the globe in 90 minutes and marveling at a world without borders.
Right. You can’t see borders, and you can’t see cities or libraries or schools or hospitals, or indeed, NASA itself. In short, you can’t see what is called civilization. What of it?
By the way, just how many poor immigrants from Guatemala does Mexico let in?
“So when did NASA adopt an affirmative action program?”
Probably about the time our spacecraft started blowing up.
“Normally space travel is not a popular topic here [in Mexico]..”
Neither is science in general. Amazing how hispanics and blacks brag when they see a token, affirmative action astronaut sailing through space due to the technology of those hated whites.
The reason the disgusting concept of white privilege is so wrong is we (white people) have been incredibly generous sharing are science, technology and inventions with the rest of the world. Jose should be very appreciative that he was allowed the privilege of riding the space shuttle that we engineered. There are only three countries (Russia, United States and China) and two races that managed to engineer the equipment necessary to go to space. And only one race did all the inventing and original engineering It was 45 years after the Russians and the U.S. sent men into space before the Chinese accomplished the same thing. And they had the benefit of all our testing and science, in fact there capsules are essentially Russian Soyuz knock offs. Other then the Chinese every other race and nationality has had to hitch a ride on either the virtually 100% white engineered U.S. Space Shuttle or the equally white Russian Soyuz. Was there any thanking for opportunity he was provided. Nope just legalize 12 million people who broke the law.
Typical attitude of so many Mexicans, rich, poor, educated, uneducated,living in the U.S., living in Mexico,etc. They always have to voice their opinion on what the policy of the U.S. should be towards the nation they love so much—Mexico. There have been quite a few astronauts from different nations flying on international missions, sponsored by the U.S., yet none of them, unlike Jose, feel it neccessary to spout off their political views.
I think Astro_Jose is using NASA as a “launching pad” to deliver his ideology. *wink*
Just a few related links of interest, the first one being very, very, humorous if you read the title:
http://tinyurl.com/yeyqphc
http://tinyurl.com/y8aquwl
The head Afro in Charge at NASA, I’m sure he was the most qualified for the position:http://tinyurl.com/yc5tcs9
Just think of what would happen if an astronaut turned out to be a White Nationalist. Think they would tolerate it? Accept his distinction of private vs employee or citizen? I think not. In fact, they would probably make sure that a White Nationalist ever got into Space to begin with. All of which makes their “concern” a little suspect.
Hope this AA fool enjoyed the ride on the White man’s creation. As Jared Taylor once said:
“…Well for some reason we didn’t go looking for rocket scientists in Mexico did we? I think if we went looking there today we still wouldn’t find any. I think you could look all through Latin America and not find a single rocket scientist, whereas in Germany you had rocket scientists sixty years ago….”
And this from a recent AmRen article:
“…And NASA again came in dead last by exceeding its black hiring quota by a mere 49%…”
How dare NASA practice blatant racism and hate against blacks and openly discriminate against all those black rocket scientists! This calls for congressional hearings and government intervention to mandate quotas. A black czar must be appointed to head NASA to look into this outrage!
In the future, as the US becomes increasingly non-White, NASA will be defunded and go extinct—especially if 30 million or more illegal colonists are legalized and socialized health care is passed. Who does jose the astronaut think will pay for all the free expenses ‘his people’ demand? I’m sure this brilliant scientist will suggest the US print money.
Dead in Denver writes:
“…The reason the disgusting concept of white privilege is so wrong is we (white people) have been incredibly generous sharing are science, technology and inventions with the rest of the world. ..”
Interesting, isn’t it, that ungrateful non-Whites will continue to openly bash Whites and demand their elimination all the while making use of White-created technology and medicine and continue to demand the right to live in White-created civilizations with economies that actually work.
They don’t deserve White-created computers, TVs, music systems, iPods, cell phones (or the electrical grids required to power these things) vaccinations, clean water, anti-biotics. None of it. And if I could, I would make it impossible for anyone except Whites to possess or make use of these things.
Let the ungrateful non-Whites create their own innovations—after all we’re told constantly that ‘we all have the same potential!’ Let them live in the hell-holes their own people create for themselves and close off White societies to them.
Non-Whites do not deserve anything we have created—but not to worry, as we are being squelched and driven to extinction, US space travel and exploration will cease.
The Chinese and Indians are 50 years behind us and only where they are because of White-created technology. It is highly unlikely they will be able to carry on in the same manner as creative White engineers and scientists and carry space exploration to the next level. And it looks like they may use the White-created technology we blessed them with (or that they stole) to attack each another.
And yes, I am aware that a black was appointed to head NASA.
Bon
In the end, he’s merely voicing support for “his people”, something which whites are castigated for doing. However, whites need to ramp it up, start hammering away and constantly, openly begin to support each other, see their race for what it is, a distinct race. We can worry about different ethnicities once things are fixed. That said, what this “astronaut” shows is that the races for the most part need to separate. He can’t separate himself from Mexico and Mexicans even though he owes all of his success to the US and whites. Once everything falls apart and whites “reconstitute”, meaning they set up a “new” America or whatever (this will happen in Europe too, mark my word) it will be interesting to see what happens to a lot of the non-white world, non-white areas when no more white money and white technology is handed over. Most NE Asian countries will be fine of course. The rest of the non-white world will see its populations drop to what should be their natural levels. And they will revert technologically. No doubt about it.
…..”because they are important to the American economy.”
No, because they are important to a few wealthy and increasingly non-white capitalists.
S&GS:
The Indian space program is funded almost entirely by the British government. Therefore, I credit that discovery to the Brits.
Where do his real loyalties lie?
To ask the question is to answer it; his real loyalties lie with his ethnicity, as there is no alternative. Old America no longer demands loyalty, and it’s impossible to serve a master who won’t accept service.
Not that ethnics would change, this late in the game, if Old America started demanding loyalty, but I think this point is worth making.
Can anyone imagine “conservatives” in the public sphere demanding loyalty from mestizos? No, because to be in the public sphere is to be pre-vetted, to be liberal enough to know better than to demand such loyalty.
“Having 12 million undocumented people here means there’s something wrong with the system, and the system needs to be fixed.”
“There have been quite a few astronauts from different nations sponsored by the U.S. —- yet none of them, unlike Jose, felt it neccessary to spout off their political views.”
There ought to be a clause in their contract prohibiting them from taking advantage of their position to advance any personal views or causes or any other private purpose or gain. Perhaps there already is?
Admittedly, the story did make clear that he is only speaking for himself and not for NASA. However, the ONLY reason he known is because of NASA, not on his own. Therefore he’s exploiting his position with NASA, and should be dismissed.
I looked up his biographies on Wiki and NASA. They are remarkably uninformative about certain details. Wiki tells us that he was living as a child half the year in Michoacan (Mexico) and half in California, where his parents were picking tomatoes and cubumbers. He did not even learn English until he was 12 years old.
But next thing we know, he has a Master’s degree in Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara! How did this miracle happen? Undoubedly, he was a recipient of a generous scholarship and Affirmative Action, all provided by generous American benefactors and taxpayers. And at the expense of white Americans who did NOT receive such benefits! But that’s never mentioned.
Every dollar or benefit that was GIVEN to him was a dollar or benefit taken away from someone else. Where is the gratitude?
It is not practical to deport 12 million illegals? They self deport if you remove all incentives for them to stay - no free medical care, no jobs, no schooling, no birth rite citizenship.
That’s like saying it’s impractical to keep 1 out of 100 Americans behind bars in this country, to build the institutions, fund them and staff them - but we do it. In fact we have nearly twice the prison population of China despite having only 1/4th of the population. If they had the same incarceration rate as us, they’d have over 12 million people in prison - but we cannot even enforce the laws in our own country?
They will leave on their own if you remove any incentive for them to be here, liberals and pro-immigration advocates always try to paint it as a gestapo type situation with black vans abducting people in the middle of the night - it’s scare tactics, nothing more.
Guess this worthy “astronaut” has blinders on. That he can’t see the crime, squalor, social problems and endless parasitism of his people in our country.
Illegal Mexicans important to our economy? Maybe in that victims of that endless thievery by Mexicans have to spend money to replace stolen property. Maybe by the fact 30 million illegal immigrants mean those extra employees needed in state and local welfare offices get to retain their jobs.
As I have stated here many times, hispancs are waging a vicious race war against Native Born White Americans. It doesn’t make a difference if they are illegal,LEGAL or born in the USA.
In a few weeks, hispanic “American” Soledade O’Brien-married to an investment banker- will be hosting a one hour special on CNN where she will declare Native Born White America history.
Roy Beck and numbersusa.com still will not state the obvious that:1)Native Born White Americans exist and 2)they are harmed signifiantly by post-1965 non-white immigration. Native Born White Americans have the most too lose.
He’s partially right about illegals “contributing” to our economy. I’m aware of several law firms, raking in big bucks thanks to the high number of criminal in the Hispanic community… that need to be defended (taxpayer expense, of course) in court. Also I can mention several law firms also making big bucks, defending insurance companies against fraudulent claims by Mexicans. To whom fraudulent claimed accidents. . to themselves, or their cars, are tantamount to a second income.
