Uh-oh!  The Santa Barbara News-Press wrote an article where they dared to call illegal immigrants “illegal immigrants,” and that's got people mad, and even worse,  they hurt some peoples' feelings!

The News-Press ran the headline "Illegals Line Up for Driver's Licenses" on Jan. 3, prompting protests and a message painted in red on the wall of the newspaper's offices. The paper used the term again last Friday in another front page story: "Driving Legal Opens Door to Illegals' Past."

News-Press officials have stuck by their choice of language, saying that describing someone living in the country illegally as an "illegal" is accurate, and compared the vandalism on their offices to the deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.

But community groups have denounced the newspaper, calling for an advertising boycott.

"They have a racist perspective and they don't seem very apologetic about it," said Savanah Maya, a Santa Barbara City College student and member of People Organizing for the Defense and Equal Rights of Santa Barbara Youth.

How is the word "illegal" racist?  The article does not explain.  By the way, how can a group like the People Organizing for the Defense and Equal Rights of Santa Barbara Youth (POFTDAEROSBY) articulately defend their position when they can't even think of a concise name for their own organization?

"I respect their right to free speech," said City Councilwoman Cathy Murillo, who attended the pro-immigrant rally, "but they don't have to be hateful. It's like the 'N-word' for blacks."

Calling illegal immigrants illegal immigrants is like the N-word for blacks?

"When I saw that word in the Santa Barbara newspaper, it had so much painful baggage for me," said Abigail Salazar, 20, a student at UC Santa Barbara who said her mother was deported to Mexico nearly five years ago after being in the United States without legal permission.

"We're tired of immigrants being portrayed as criminals," Maya said. "People are not illegal."

That's very true.  People are not illegal.  People, however, can be criminals, like Abigail's mom.  By the way, I liked the very circumspect way they described Abigail's mom as being in the country "without legal permission" – as opposed to sneaking in, and staying illegally.  That's almost like saying someone went into your home and merely took your possessions "without legal permission."

He who controls the language controls the argument, and liberals are trying, mostly successfully, to delegitimize the terms "illegal alien" and even "illegal immigrant."  (Actually, the term illegal immigrant doesn't make sense – one enters the country either as a legal immigrant or illegally, as an alien.)  Liberals have been controlling the terms of the debate for years.

Abortions are called "family planning."  I call it "family unplanning."

Homosexual couples are called "gays."  I think heterosexual couples should be called "Super Happies."

Children of illegal aliens who get taxpayer-funded educations are called "DREAMers."  I call them "nightmares."

Radial Islamic terrorists are merely called generic "extremists," or even "activists."

American Indians are called Native Americans.  What does that make the rest of us, chopped liver?

Tell me in the comments section your favorite liberal buzzword and your favorite response to it.

Pedro Gonzales is editor of Newsmachete.com, the conservative news site.