The rule is usually "Close with your best argument" so methinks you may be being a bit harsh on Hawksley. He may not understand America or its lure, but he did close with a quote that was in his own words, 'disdainful' towards Europe.

As a Brit, who has to fund the BBC's propaganda whether I like it or not (and who would emigrate to the US if they'd have me), I think that you don't really have much to complain about as regards this particular piece.

Actually, I thought it was a good article. He went trolling for the obvious victims in the homeless shelter and they all gave him the stiff upper lip-kinda thing. So, in America, even the winos are more conservative than Europeans expect.

Kinda cool.

Of course, if he had gone to Berkeley, or inside one of those Starbucks, he would have had a completely different story to write.

He wanted the America is cold and heartless story, but had the intellectual honesty to report what he found.

I think it's a tad harsh to bag on Europe -- they get lots of immigrants as well (especially from North Africa). The problem is, our immigrants come here to work, to achieve, and to better themselves (even the illegals coming up from the south). In Europe, the immigrants are largely coming for the socialist benefits and first-world lifestyle. That translates to a vast disparity in the kinds of immigrants you get -- we get the entrepreneurs, they get the slackers and hangers-on.

We do need to get a handle on illegal immigration, though, because it dispirits people who come here legally and go through all the bureaucratic crap, only to see conga-lines of illegals streaming in from Mexico. It cheapens the very idea of citizenship.

I love how he 'got' the general mistrust of the government to solve people's problems.

And how if you screw things up, YOU screwed things up. If you piss on your birthday cake, nobody's going to bring you another one.

Nope, go fish.

I think the line is "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?" from Groucho Marx.

"What do they ever hope for in Europe?"

The smart ones hope that green card comes through...

...the rest become terrorist sympathizers.

I like this bit:

"In Europe, the government is entwined with a lot of what we do, yet in America, I felt a sentiment that the more say the government has over you, the more you carry a sense of failure."

Of course, he kinda says it like it's a bad thing..

I do like how whenever some dubious study-de-jour by the Excessively Grandiosely Named Leftist Economic Sewing Circle You've Never Heard Of comes out that says the US has economic opportunities/standard of living, the the story is "oh those crass Americans, always lusting after money, don't they know leisure time is the real measure of success?" But if they can massage the numbers to say the opposite, it's "oh, the vaunted American Dream, She is Dead".

"Oh, you're from Europe? Which part? The part whose ass we saved or the part whose ass we kicked?"

but this was America, where society is starkly divided into winners and losers.

As opposed to Europe where the winners are taxed until they become losers, too.

To add to Monty's comment:

I moved to Minnesota for a year, and was talking to a school district employee when the subject of North African immigrants came up. "Why are there so many immigrants from North Africa?" I asked. "How did they even hear about Minnesota, and what about this cold climate appealed to them? Why didn't they move to Arizona?"

She was reluctant to respond, but after a few moments she said, "Well, perhaps our social services..." Minnesota being Scandinavia Lite in many ways, the appeal to immigrants becomes more obvious.

I have to agree that you were a bit harsh here, Ace. I read it and didn't come away with a sense that the author was being negative at all. I also think that there must have been SOME negative responses to his questions, yet they're not included in the article. If he was questioning homeless people, there had to be - especially in Seattle, for crying out loud - nutters, moonbats, and cynical abusers among them.

Or has it gotten so bad in Seattle that conservatives are being made homeless? :-)

Sorry to post again: cripes, I didn't read that this was posted by Tanker, not Ace. My bad.

Well, remember this guy is writing for a European audience.

"What do they ever hope for in Europe? Here they have a law that you can dream to be happy."

This comes after his soup-kitchen junket.
The quote is meant to make her out as an unknowing fool.

Perception is everything.

It speaks volumes that she'd rather be homeless in the USA than living in europe.

My hubby bet me that since Cindy Sheehan was called home, some wingnut would blame her mother's stroke on the repubs.

I'm out $100.

Darth Rove, don't ya know.

Also:

"They came from everywhere: Britain, France, Iran, Iraq - the name of every country read out, to cheers, as if we were at the Oscars and, of course, the waving of American flags."

I'd rather say the people at the Oscars cheer like newly-minted Americans. After all, the immigrants get something much more valuable, and it seem like they told him as much.

Where I live, there are a lot of Vietnamese immigrants. During the lead-up to the Iraq war, they held a big pro-America support-our-troops rally. I showed up to watch. There were speeches in both English and Vietnamese. Some of the old guys were wearing their military uniforms from the South Vietnamese army.

I've never felt so surrounded by patriotism as I did in this crowd of immigrants. They were waving US flags. And I don't exactly know how to describe it better than to say that they were waving those flags like they meant it.

Heh, sorry, screwed up the trackback. Please feel free to delete that first one, as it would make me look like less of a f'n moron.

To me, as an Aussie, this reads as though the guy is trying to slip something subversive past his editor.

But given the target audience, I think it's more likely that he's a complete idiot.

I was listening the radio yesterday, and this guy with a pretty heavy accent was supporting conservative positions and mentioned that he was "an American" - I swear, I almost had tears in my eyes.

This is a funny article, the tone seems to be negative but all of the examples chosen support a more positive attitude. Maybe Pixa Misa is right.

I don't think it's overly critical at all - the guy goes looking for poor people who would of course back up his supposition, and when he gets it handed to them, he reports it with a sneer, cause of course they're idiots.

handed to him, I meant

See, we actually read what the bums were saying (and to his credit he reported it). When a lefty/Euro-douche looks at the same story, they never get past the part where the guy is broke and living in a shelter.

So they won't ever really read the same piece we did, and they certainly won't tkae away the same impression we might. For instance, your average Euro-douche thinks these bums are fools for blaming themselves and finding shame in reliance on government. We think they're pretty cool bums.

I dunno this guy, but the fact that different people can take away different things from this article says to me that it was pretty even-handed for a puff profile piece. There are no fact or figures, just personalities, and people can read into it what they choose to see.

Pretty good journalism, I think.

Whatever the author's intentions, he seems to have stumbled across a key cultural difference between the U.S and the E.U. One tied directly to the 4% gorwth rate here, and the 1% growth rate in Europe.

And not only that but the british goverment is protecting thugs and crinimals giving they the right to sue their victims who might injure them i mean they should bring back the headsman and chopping block and start wacking off a few thugs heads