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Mexico to fight the Minuteman Project

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will pursue legal action against plans by a U.S. citizens' group to patrol the U.S.-Mexican border in search of illegal immigrants, the country's foreign minister said on Monday.

Luis Ernesto Derbez said he asked lawyers in Los Angeles to draw up a legal strategy to fight the Arizona-based initiative called "the MinuteMan Project" that has signed up hundreds of volunteers for border patrols.

"We are going to attack by all legal means," Derbez told a news conference. "We are presenting the reasons why we consider this action to be incorrect and illegal from the point of view not only of our government but also under U.S. law..."

It should be interesting to find out who the lawyers are...

See also "Mexico plans to step up immigration-policy pressure in 2005": Mexico plans to hire lobbyists and to work closely with leading U.S. think tanks and universities to promote its national interests, the Mexican official said...

What would you call a U.S. citizen who helps a foreign country that doesn't have the U.S.'s best interests at heart? At what point do we start using the "T" word?

Posted to Immigration2005a at 08:34 PM | Comments (2)

"Do Asian Americans Count in L.A.?"

Raphael J. Sonenshein, "a political scientist at Cal State Fullerton", suggests ways that Asians can achieve the wonders of corporate pluralism in L.A. in "Do Asian Americans Count in L.A.?":

..One way to jump-start Asian American electoral success in L.A. would be to create smaller City Council districts or separate boroughs, with their own elected councils, but such ideas may never materialize. More immediately, the city's new neighborhood councils provide leadership opportunities with a real electoral future, and these positions could supplement current Asian American civic participation as public employees, community activists and members of city boards and commissions...

Perhaps Sonenshein should take a field trip up north to find out how they're doing it: "Oakland's Bilingualism - No Americans Need Apply".

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)

Providence Journal: "Costs of immigration"

The RI Providence Journal has a very clear-headed editorial on illegal immigration: "Costs of immigration":

...Illegal immigration is no free lunch, and it's time we had an honest discussion of the matter...

...Four of America's 10 poorest metropolitan regions lie along the Texas-Mexico border...

...Brownsville, for example, is a stroll across a bridge from Matamoros, Mexico. The population of the once sleepy Texas town grew 41 percent in the 1990s and continues to explode. An amazing 40 percent of the total is under age 19. Imagine a city of only 140,000 trying to support a school system with 40,000 students!

Some 400,000 people live in what are called colonias along the border in Texas. These unincorporated shantytowns often lack water, sewer systems, electricity and paved roads. The colonias residents pay little if any taxes but use the schools and other public services.

Brownsville is the poorest medium-sized American city; a third of its families live in poverty, according to federal guidelines. It's important to recognize that the illegal residents don't just add to the numbers of poor; they also bring down the wages and economic opportunities of the legal residents.

While America's problems caused by illegal immigration are most evident at the Mexican border, the solution lies elsewhere. No number of U.S. Border Patrol jeeps can stop the flow of poor people seeking jobs in the United States. Only penalties for the U.S. employers can do this...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 04:42 PM | Comments (0)

I stopped at "Gestapo tactics"

The Naples Daily News' Dianna Smith violates Godwin's Law and just about every acceptable journalistic practice in the article "Haitians targeted unfairly in immigration sweeps, advocates say". It reads like a parody of biased, weepy "reporting":

The sky was still dark the morning the women heard knocks on their doors. The noises came from husky men dressed in black, pointing flashlights into the windows like burglars, holding them like guns...

...The wives and children were left helpless with hurting hearts, pleading so desperately it was like they thought the drivers would somehow hear them and turn around...

...Collier County is one of several Florida counties where officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, quietly appear during odd hours of the night, sometimes at places of employment, to capture people they call fugitives...

...But not all are crimes like most would think.

Some of those picked up by the task force are people with families, full-time jobs and homes. But, for one reason or another, they were found ineligible by an immigration judge to live in America and they later ignored deportation notices, which is a felony, Pruneda said.

[Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami] said there are 400,000 undocumented immigrants living in the United States...

"The strategy is - simply throw them out, ask questions later," [Casey Wolff, an immigration attorney in Collier County] said. "Most people caught in the web of immigration rules ignore them until something happens or are not aware of them. Congress has not fixed a broken system and they continue to use Gestapo tactics..."

Not only is Casey Wolff a member of the AILA, he's written at least one article for this same paper.

And, of course, the 400,000 number is off by 20 to 40 times. The source was probably referring to those who have received final deportation orders.

It probably won't do any good, but the Naples News' Editor is pplewis *at* naplesnews.com and their Managing Editor is whblanton *at* naplesnews.com

Posted to Immigration2005a at 04:15 PM | Comments (1)

Debbie Schlussel and Deep Throat

It's not so much a dream I had, as her latest column describing the new movie "Inside 'Deep Throat'". The column is, frankly, a bit on the bitter side.

For something sweeter, here are some pictures of Debbie Schlussel. Before clicking that link, hold up a piece of cardboard so you can block out Sean Hannity who's unfortunately in both of them.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

"Collar-bomb victim's family seeking help through Web site"

ERIE, Pa. - Frustrated by a lack of progress in the FBI and state police investigation into the death of their brother, the siblings of a pizza delivery man killed by a bomb locked around his neck have taken to the Internet to ask the public to help.

The Web site, www.brianwells.net, is named for Brian Wells, 46, of Erie, who died as he sat handcuffed in a parking lot on Aug. 28, 2003 - when the bomb he was wearing exploded as state police waited for a bomb squad to arrive...

The website is poorly written and, in an undiplomatic move, calls the investigating officers incompetent. However, it does have scans of the many letters involved as well as pictures of the cane gun that was used. That alone should be rare enough to be a very valuable clue.

This case might have spawned a copycat case involving a Memphis medical examiner. See "The Microbiologist Mystery gets weirder and weirder".

Posted to Miscellania at 01:32 PM | Comments (1)

Purported John Kerry mistress Alexandra Polier gets married

See the previous Alexandra Polier coverage. On a wacky note, see "Women interns are our future!"

Posted to Politics at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

"Outgoing envoy to U.S. cites problems getting Americans to notice Canada"

That's the actual headline of this article. I'd read it, except, like you, I don't really care.

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)

"Ward Churchill may not be one of you but he's definitely one of me."

There are so many entertaining Democratic Underground threads I posted all of them over in today's DU entry at BigMediaBlog. The titular comment about Ward Churchill, the DUmmies trying to portray the BTK killer as a Republican, a fun poll, and even a call to remove "hate speech" (such as that from Ann Coulter) from First Amendment protection. Have fun!

In other BigMediaBlog news, Rob wonders whether Condi is indeed a lesbian.

By the way, BigMediaBlog is for your comments. Most of the big blogs don't have comments, and when they make a mistake it's a bit difficult to get the word out. BigMediaBlog attempts to keep those big bloggers honest, but it needs your help.

If you see a post at Insty, DailyKos, DU, TalkLeft, BlogsForBush, Kausfiles, Sully, or Josh, and the post is wrong or misleading, head on over to BigMediaBlog and leave a comment about it. Each day there's a new set of threads for those big blogs and even the MSM.

Posted to Bloggage at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)

Has the Springfield Republican been radicalized?

You've probably never heard of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican newspaper, but the article "Hispanics get call to political action" from Natalia Munoz seems of interest:

...A far-reaching campaign to stir political action by [Western Mass.] immigrants with and without legal papers was ignited yesterday with a talk by representatives from the Cambridge-based Centro Presente, which works with the Central American community in the state.

"There is an anti-immigrant environment here," said executive director María Elena Letona. "The hypocrisy of this country is that it denies immigrants rights and at the same time exploits their labor in below-minimum wage jobs."

More than a dozen people from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and El Salvador attended the talk, given in Spanish. It also addressed concerns over La migra, as Latinos call the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service...

Thanks for the translation. Perhaps when they start getting bigger crowds you could give us some background information on Centro Presente. From Mark Krikorian's "Strange Bedfellows: Left and right on immigration":

And then there's the National Immigration Forum, the umbrella organization for high-immigration political advocacy, which works closely with sympathetic Republicans. But NIF is not like the conventional lobbying coalitions that exist on numerous issues. It was cofounded by the National Lawyers Guild in the 1980s, back when the Guild was a Soviet front group. The group's first head was Rick Swartz, a leftist attorney who cut his teeth advocating for Haitian illegal aliens and who, during a 1981 Senate hearing, likened the United States to Nazi Germany.

Like many lobbying coalitions, the NIF board includes representatives of Republican stalwarts like the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the National Restaurant Association, and used to include Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, now head of the Club for Growth. Whatever his libertarian views on immigration, I imagine Steve hightailed it out of there after he realized what he'd gotten into, because the people sitting around the conference table at NIF board meetings include some decidedly unsavory characters. In addition to the usual leftist suspects — the ACLU, the Service Employees Union, Jim Zogby of the Arab American Institute — the NIF board includes the head of the immigration lawyers' association, one Jeanne Butterfield, who used to be executive director of the Palestine Solidarity Committee, identified by the Anti-Defamation League as an alliance between members of the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine and the Workers World party (the Trotskyites behind the Iraq War protests). As David Horowitz observed in National Review in 1991, Butterfield's organization was "one of the few groups in the world supporting Saddam's rape of Kuwait." Butterfield was later litigation director for Centro Presente, a Cambridge, Mass., outfit which provided aid to Central American illegals and was headed at the time by Frank Sharry, who is now, not coincidentally, head of NIF.

Also on the NIF board is the head of the L.A. branch of CARECEN, which backed the Communists in El Salvador's civil war and which helped pioneer the "sanctuary" movement to subvert U.S. immigration law. And, like the rest of the high-immigration Left that Chris Cannon has embraced, NIF's biggest funders include the Ford Foundation and George Soros's Open Society Institute...

The Springfield Republican's Executive Editor is Wayne E. Phaneuf. Please send him an email suggesting that his paper lays off the anti-Americanism and provides background information on the groups they discuss: wphaneuf *at* repub.com

Posted to Immigration2005a at 09:42 PM | Comments (0)

Does Walter Moore stand a chance?

Despite an all-out attempt by the Los Angeles media to deny that he exists, does Republican candidate for mayor of L.A. Walter Moore stand a chance of getting into the run-off? See "Will Los Angeles Choose Moore... or Opt for More of the Same?" for the wishful thinking. If someone has independent indication that Walter Moore is about to stage an upset, please post it in the comments. Otherwise, I will continue lending my very influential vote to Jim Hahn, the only one in the race who stands a chance and who isn't a member of the board of MALDEF or a former member of a racial separatist organization.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 02:46 PM | Comments (1)

Who do they think they are, USA Today?

The Columbian Missourian has a splashy article entitled "Pursuing the American Dream" complete with three custom, USA Today-style graphics. Exactly how many readers can there be in Columbia, MO? Are they trying to sell this to other papers? Trying for a Pulitzer? Keep trying.

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)

"Forced to a country she never knew"

Nothing like a New Jersey PIIPP:

Source: Trenton Times
URL: this
Date: Saturday, February 26, 2005
"Reporter": Eva Loayza

TRENTON - Mayra Ovalle's words are heavy with resignation and defeat.

Her husband was arrested in the couple's home almost two weeks ago by federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on a deportation order, and she is being shipped back to Guatemala, too.

But it's not her plight or her husband's that saddens her the most. It is that of their 11-year-old daughter, who will be forced to leave the country where she was born and holds citizenship.

[She and her husband entered illegally...] he applied for political asylum and was able to get a work permit. Ovalle said Jovany, who worked as a cook, received seven extensions on his work permit.

[...applied for and denied political asylum, they applied for yet another amnesty program, that was denied too...] She said the judge told them they could either leave voluntarily or have him sign deportation orders for them.

The Ovalles chose voluntary departure, but never left.

Attorney Joseph Asir, who is currently representing Ovalle...

Lesson: don't have kids here while your immigration status is up in the air expecting them or soft-brained liberals to be able to bail you out. And, when you say you're going to leave, do so.

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 02:31 PM | Comments (1)

Keeping comment spam under control with MovableType

Other than resource issues related to DOS-style spam attacks, comment spam isn't that big of a problem around here because:

1. I've installed MT-Blacklist.

2. I use MySQL to quickly delete large numbers of spam comments.

Regarding #2, here are some common commands. You'll need to connect to your server using SSH, login to your account, and then login to MySQL by typing something like:

mysql -u [your MySQL user name] -p [the name of your MT database]

So, if your MySQL username is 'fred', and you keep your MT information in the database 'mydatabase', you'd enter:

mysql -u fred -p mydatabase

Then, at the prompt you'd enter your MySQL password.

To see a list of all the distinct URLs used in trackback pings you've been sent, type:

select distinct tbping_source_url from mt_tbping;

To delete all trackback pings that link to a specific URL, replace http://spammername.com in the following with the bad URL; be very careful:

delete from mt_tbping where tbping_source_url = 'http://spammername.com';

The following is similar to the last, except it uses a substring instead of a complete URL. Be very careful since this uses just part of the URL, not the whole URL. So, if you replaced 'spammername' with 'a' you'd delete all trackbacks that contain the letter 'a' in their URL, which is probably something you don't want to do:

delete from mt_tbping where LOCATE('spammername', tbping_source_url) > 0;

The following is untested, but might turn off trackbacks on all posts. Change the 1 to 0 to turn them back on:

update mt_trackback set trackback_is_disabled = 1;

The commands dealing with comments are similar:

select distinct comment_url from mt_comment;

delete from mt_comment where comment_url='http://spammername.com/';

delete from mt_comment where LOCATE('spammername', comment_url) > 0;

Use these commands at your own risk. Backup your database before using them.

Posted to Bloggage at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

We knew this day would come

L.A. City Councilman Eric Garcetti has a blog.

Previous coverage of Garcetti in "To protect, serve, and constantly monitor", "Los Angeles is the Ellis Island of the West Coast", and "An excerpt from Eric Garcetti's diary".

Posted to Los_Angeles at 12:31 PM | Comments (1)

Hats off to the New York Immigration Coalition

The New York DMV is trying to prevent illegal aliens from getting New York driver's licenses. If you've been reading the New York Times or the New York Daily News or press releases from various organizations, you might have been confused into thinking that they're trying to prevent all immigrants from getting licenses, but that's not true.

For instance, the far-left New York Immigration Coalition has a page discussing this issue. Only one sentence on that page makes an oblique reference to this being an issue of legal vs. illegal: The law does NOT say that immigration status is a requirement for drivers' licenses. Everywhere else on that page it just uses some variant of "immigrant" to describe those affected by the DMV's new rule.

One of the contact persons listed at that page is Amy Sugimori of the National Employment Law Project. Another group attempting to keep driver's licenses in the hands of illegal aliens is the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, or PRLDEF. (Puerto Ricans, as U.S. citizens, shouldn't have any problem getting a New York driver's license.) Both the NELP and the PRLDEF are funded in part by the Ford Foundation; PRLDEF has received $2 million from Ford over the years. That foundation is also the major funder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, or MALDEF: $25 million over the years. While MALDEF has not taken part in the New York case, it opposed anti-illegal-immigration laws in California and Arizona.

All of the foregoing is to be expected from far-left, Ford Foundation-funded organizations. However, their attempts to blur the line between legal and illegal immigration seems to have infected other sources that should know better.

The NYIC co-sponsored a November 2, 2004 exit poll, the results of which were released just last week (PDF file). Bearing in mind that all of the respondents should have been either native-born or naturalized citizens, one of the poll questions asked:

Support Driver's Licenses for Non-citizen Residents of New York State (Yes, No, Don't Know)

At the best that question is meaningless and at the worst it's intentionally misleading. To repeat, no one is trying to prevent all non-citizen residents from getting driver's licenses, just illegal aliens.

The principal investigator of the poll was Lorraine C. Minnite, an Assistant Professor at Barnard College:

"Funding and support provided by the New York Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, Barnard College, the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and The New York Immigration Coalition"

Please send an email to her and the dean of Barnard College suggesting that they avoid such sloppy advocacy scholarship in the future: lcm25 *at* columbia.edu, eboylan *at* barnard.edu

The poll was the subject of a 2/20/05 article in the NY Daily News by Albor Ruiz: "Pol: Immigrants elect to vote". He repeats the poll's misleading question without attempting to put it into its proper context. Emails: editor *at* nydailynews.com, aruiz *at* edit.nydailynews.com

The New York Times' coverage of this issue has been similar, although there may or may not be such a direct link between the NYIC or other organizations and the NYT's reporters. Most of the NYT's coverage comes from Nina Bernstein. For the most part her coverage reads like an NYIC press release, slightly edited for accuracy. While Bernstein does occasionally use the word "illegal", she more frequently uses misleading euphemisms: "immigrants who cannot prove that they are here legally", "newcomers", or just plain "immigrants." She also used as a quote source someone who's an immigration lawyer and a member of the AILA without revealing that affiliation. Her 02/18/05 piece "License Denials for Immigrants Are Blocked" took nine paragraphs to disclose that she was talking about illegal immigrants. Her latest piece on this issue is "Albany Tries to Restore Limits on Licenses for Immigrants", which is only slightly less misleading than her previous advocacy journalism pieces.

Please contact public *at* nytimes.com and suggest they stop trying to mislead their readers.

Posted to Immigration_dls at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)

Have you seen Kevin Shelley's PDA?

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's state-issued PDA was recently stolen from his house in 'Frisco. He had left the window partly open, but he says it was opened even further. He also wiped a smudge off the window before filing the police report. Nothing else of note appears to have been stolen.

If you spot his missing PDA, please contact your local bloggers, newspaper, or the AP.

Details here: "Secretary of state says state-issued PDA stolen from home"

Posted to California at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)

All blogs are now at a new host

If you're reading this, you're at the right location. Those who are accessing this blog as tolstoy.com/lonewacko will be forever stuck in time. The correct address is just lonewacko.com. The tolstoy.com/lonewacko pages will stay as a backup, but they won't be updated.

Likewise, BigMediaBlog is just BigMediaBlog.com and BoreAmerica.com is just BoreAmerica.com.

Strangely enough, when I type 'lonewacko.com' into Firefox, it leads me to the tolstoy.com/lonewacko page, but it doesn't do that with individual entries. Both IE and lynx on the tolstoy.com server do the right thing. Perhaps Firefox is caching the old address because of a redirect I used to redirect tolstoy.com/lonewacko/index.html to tolstoy.com/lonewacko/blog/index.html.

Please report any problems in the comments. Since I always linked using the short form, this shouldn't be a problem for most people.

Posted to Bloggage at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)

A DU-friendly reporter is seeking Gannon info. Help needed to identify the reporter

My research network is plugging away, but they need your help. Which reporter from a well-known media outfit supposedly has a working relationship with a DU poster concerning Gannongate? Now, the DU poster could be lying, or a brief exchange of emails in the night could have been misconstrued as a "working relationship," or the reporter might actually be using DU as a research tool. Nothing wrong with that, but just for my own curiosity I'd like to know.

Possible names bandied about include:

* Howard Kurtz

* Jennifer Brooks of the Delaware News Journal (2/10/05's "White House reporter quits under scrutiny")

* Charlie Savage or Alan Wirzbicki of the Boston Globe (2/2/05's "White House-friendly reporter under scrutiny")

* Mike Hudson from the Niagara Falls Reporter (Reply from the Niagra Falls Reporter!!!!!!!)

Other possibilities might be found in this article.

Posted to Politics at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)

"Federal Training Set for [L.A.] Sheriff's Employees"

From this:

Federal officials announced Thursday that they had reached final agreement on a six-month program to train Los Angeles County sheriff's employees to identify jail inmates who are in the country illegally.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security program, the first of its kind in the nation, was narrowly approved by county supervisors last month...

Previous coverage in "Zev Yaroslavsky goes semi-sane".

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:00 PM | Comments (1)

"Undocumented Immigrants Buying Homes With Fake IDs"

From this:

...How is it that an undocumented immigrant can use a phony Social Security number to get a government-backed loan to buy property in Colorado? 7NEWS Investigator John Ferrugia has been tracking cases involving Federal Housing Administration loans and said the homeland security implications are dramatic...

"To have a false number -- a Social Security number -- and have the realtor be able to take them all the way through the application process, there has to be something that that realtor or the mortgage company is doing to doctor those documents to show this is a legitimate Social Security number," [Jeff Copp, the regional special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE] said...

7NEWS wanted to talk to the people who issue the FHA loans at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD officials were clearly concerned about our findings and refused an on-camera interview. Officials wouldn't answer our questions but in a written statement, they said in part, "FHA loans are originated and processed by FHA-approved lenders who certify that the mortgage is eligible for FHA mortgage insurance ... If irregularities are revealed, appropriate action is taken..."

That illegal aliens are able to sail through the process shouldn't come as much of a surprise. See, for instance, "Who is the FDIC? And, why are they working with a foreign government to subvert our laws?", "Tax-number loans help immigrants buy homes", "Their money or your safety", or "Mexican Consulate helps locals with their papers".

Posted to Immigration2005a at 11:52 AM | Comments (1)

Like Michael Myers, AgJobs is back

"Bill to support farmworkers reintroduced":

This year it could be different as support has grown for the Agricultural Job, Opportunity, Benefits and Security (AgJobs) Act.

The legislation has been reintroduced in Washington, by Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Reps. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, and How ard Berman, D-Calif. The bill would overhaul the H-2A guest worker program and give experienced undocumented farmworkers the chance to become legal residents in the United States... [...BS from Ted Kennedy and growers...]

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson [says] "We can't find people who will do (hand-picking) anymore in the United States..."

Bronson should take a look at "In Florida Groves, Cheap Labor Means Machines". Some Florida orange growers are getting smart and using machinery instead of serf labor. That article also describes how political forces have prevented some farm mechanization.

Regarding guest worker programs in general, see "The Mirage of Mexican Guest Workers"

Regarding AgJobs, see this. Rep. Cannon received thousands of dollars from AILA lawyers, and that organization also helped Cannon draft AgJobs.

The other Naples News article Farm union, religious leaders laud federal farmworker bill has the details on the bill. As you read it, you will probably get the feeling that its requirements sound an awful lot like indentured servitude. You aren't alone: see Miami Herald "endorses indentured servitude". That post also contains a list of the organizations that support AgJobs.

And, to those who complain that lettuce would go to $10 a head without serf labor, see "How Much Is that Tomato in the Window?"

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:14 AM | Comments (1)

How liberal of you!

Some of the DUmmies are voluntarily shipping themselves off to the gulags: "I'm kind of sick of this homophobia on DU" and "How I know Ann Coulter is not a man"

Posted to Bloggage at 12:05 AM | Comments (1)

"Unlikely activist a lifeline for immigrants"

Now here's a bit of strange article. It describes a driver's licenses for illegal aliens advocate and it also describes two separate occasions where that advocate was driving like a nut. Drive from L.A. to San Jose on two hours of sleep? Anyone who's familiar with the 5 knows that's a crazy idea.

In addition, it also describes as "recent" a protest that took place almost a year ago: Gil Cedillo: using a horrible crime for political purposes.

Was the SJMerc just digging around in their rummage bin and found a space-filler?

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:02 AM | Comments (1)

"Arizona wants feds to deport criminals"

From this:

Arizona prison officials say taxpayers are paying more than $28,000 a day to incarcerate hundreds of undocumented immigrants because the federal government hasn't filed the paperwork necessary to deport them to Mexico.

Arizona Department of Corrections Director Dora Schriro said deporting such criminals should be a "no-brainer" given the money that could be saved and the beds that could be freed in the state's overcrowded prison system.

Formal deportation orders for 46 of the 526 eligible inmates have been on file for several months, but state prison officials can't get Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pick them up, Schriro said.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

Su piel es su vota

The LAT wonders why more Latinos are vibed up about the L.A. Mayor's race. After all, aren't not one but two of their own in the race?

Mayor's Race Registers a Big Nada ends with this:

"Villaraigosa is a man of the community, he's one of us," said the 33-year-old laborer. "When he lost, I felt that we as Latinos let him down, because we should have elected him. This time, he is going to win."

Translating that quote into white, black or asian, and dealing with the shitstorm that would follow, is left as an exercise.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 11:34 PM | Comments (1)

Johnnie! is back to save Los Angeles

Johnnie! Cochran's firm is suing the City of L.A. over case of 13-year-old Devin Brown who was recently shot by the LAPD. AP report: "Johnnie Cochran's firm files claim over LAPD shooting of teen".

See also this commentary on the case: "Commentary: Slain Teen Didn’t Just Die at Cop’s Hands, but by Those of L.A.’s Black Community".

And, from 2002 but quite apt, see "Murder in L.A." by Larry Elder.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 11:34 PM | Comments (0)

Tom Ridge and... home improvement?

Ridge to join Home Depot board:

..."We are honored to have [Ridge] join our board, where we expect that his unique global experience and perspective will make a profound contribution to our company and our shareholders," said Home Depot Chief Executive Bob Nardelli...

As covered here in the past (1 2 3 4 5...), Ridge was not exactly a good friend to those who believe that the U.S. has borders.

For its part, Home Depot has helped create several day laborer centers near its locations and, of course, many or most of those day laborers are illegal aliens.

Here's just one example:

The Home Depot contacted Catholic Charities and other social service nonprofits, the local police department, and city leaders, asking them to work together to create a solution that each part of the community felt good about and that included getting services to people who needed work. As a result, the group worked together to plan a new day laborer center, to be operated by Catholic Charities in conjunction with several social service and employment agencies. The store donated land across the street for the center and helped provide start-up funding. The city helped put up fencing and spread leaflets to day laborers throughout the area. The company, nonprofit, and city worked together to create a win-win solution for everyone...

Now, maybe this is not a payoff for his support of wide-open borders. Perhaps, as the first article discusses, it has something to do with the run on duct tape that Ridge caused...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 05:58 PM | Comments (0)

"I was a Paris tart, says Labour candidate"

Cor! Blimey! Phwoar!

Labour has dropped a prospective MP after she confessed to having worked as a prostitute in Paris in the Seventies.

Christine Wheatley, who was on the shortlist of prospective parliamentary candidates for Copeland, in Cumbria, said: "Yes, I worked as a tart. I'm not ashamed.

"It was before I found proper work. I hit Paris with £300, I didn't have much to spend, I had to find money."

The 53-year-old, a former Oxford student, is now training to become a lawyer at the Inner Temple in London...

Tart, lawyer, what's the difference?

And, why, you might ask, is there not a picture? Well, you might not want to see the picture. But, if you're prepared, there's a picture of the "tart" here and here.

Posted to WackyHumor at 11:54 AM | Comments (1)

BigMediaBlog, BoreAmerica currently unavailable

I'm moving both sites to another host, and it will take 24 to 48 hours for the new DNS information to propagate. If you can reach them and they don't look normal, that's because they haven't been setup yet. They both should be back online Friday or Saturday.

This blog will be moved over the weekend. Further instructions will be provided in a future post pertaining to what you can do during the period that this blog is not available.

Posted to Bloggage at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)

Guest Commentary: RedAmerika responds to the Koufax Awards

[The following is a guest commentary from guest blogger "RedAmerika"]

First, I'd like to thank Lonewacko for allowing me here, reactionary running dog that he is. Now, to the subject of my post.

I see that the corporate lackey bourgeoisie at "Wampum" have selected the winners of the Koufax Awards for best "left" blog. Koufax - left, get it?

The awards are about as original as their humor.

Of particular note, only one or two out of a dozen or more blogs are from Bloggers of Color.

And, even though as Chairman Mao said "Women hold up half the sky", only a few of the awarded bloggers are women.

The Patriarchy wins again, and the Struggle continues.

Posted to Bloggage at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)

Today in low hanging fruit news: "liberal" hate edition

"Sabra", a 1000+ poster over at DU, asks "Has Gannon found a date yet for this years WHCA Dinner?" To their slight credit, the "liberals" don't join in on a jolly good round of Gannon jokes: the thread only got one reply.

That reply suggests Ann Coulter as a potential date. She's also mentioned in the longer thread "Today I perused Man Coulter's book..." That include a comment from a 1000+ poster: "Ann Coulter is not a Man! She was born with "ambiguous genitalia", a birth defect, and was surgically assigned to be female at age nine months. Calling her a man is unfair. It is sufficient to call her a Nazi." Those wacky, non-hate-filled "liberals!"

In slightly more important news, "liberal" paranoia is on display in the thread Why should I trust John Aravosis and "America Blog?" Trusted comrades vouch for him.

In the Gramscian category, we have "In honor of Black History Month - I apologize as a white American". The poster has 1000+ posts, so I'm almost certain he's not a VRWC member in disguise:

Well, I have been sorry 3 times for something my race did.

As a white American I am sorry for slavery and our 100 years of White shame where lynching, segregation and other mistreatment of people of color suffered, and still continue to suffer in many cases.

As a German American I am deeply ashamed of my German ancestry due to Hitler. Luckily, my people had been in the US since the 1700's, so my shame is more for my ethnic group than my direct ancestors.

Because I am a white American with some Native American blood, I am extremely sick over what our country did to Native People.

But it is Black History Month. I would like Black DUers to know I am sorry, and please share your heroes from black history. I know there are a lot of people who have been overlooked in "white history books"...

And, in the perhaps-even-important news category:

We have a "friendly" MSM reporter who is seeking Guckert news.

I've established a working relationship with a reporter for a major newspaper that all would recognize. He wrote two of the first Guckert articles well before anyone else in MSM. If you're familiar with my posts, you can figure out who it is.

He is willing to receive more information (nothing basic, he has already covered this aspect). Here is how you can help:

Apend to this thread "bite-sized" pieces of information. In the subject line, classify what the "bit" is. In the body write a brief description with supporting links.

I in turn will spoon feed the information to the reporter.

The poster's screenname is "paineinthearse", so if anyone wants to look through his past messages and figure out whether he's blowing smoke and, if not, who he's referring to, please drop a dime in the comments. We can discuss the irony of a "friendly-to-DU" reporter uncovering dirt on Gannon later.

Posted to Bloggage at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)

Dutch to deport three imams

AMSTERDAM — Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk is moving to deport three Muslim clerics because of accusations they represent a threat to public order and national security.

The three imams will be declared undesirable aliens and two of them will have their residence permits cancelled, the first such action has been taken against clerics.

In the third imam's case, an application for an extension of a residence permit will be refused.

The Dutch security service AIVD said one of the imams originates from Bosnia and a second comes from Kenya. The origin of the third imam was not released, newspaper De Volkskrant reported...

Posted to Immigration_euro at 09:05 PM | Comments (1)

Storm Watch 2005: Cleaning the L.A. River with a wash-backwash cycle type of scheme

The majestic L.A. River was running fast earlier today. The water was a few feet above normal, with some whitecaps caused by the wind and various obstructions. However, the water level was falling since the latest storm appears to have abated.

Whilst a-biking riverside, I thought of at least two things:

1. Wouldn't it be nice if no one else has thought of the slogan "Musty TV" as a play on "must-see TV"? It appears I was wrong.

2. Continuously confronted by various large clumps of garbage on the river side and stuck in the branches of the trees in the middle of the river, I pondered ways to clean up the mess. A large wire net could be suspended between two trucks on opposite sides of the river. The trucks would slowly drive up-river, and the net would shake the garbage loose and leave it to flow downstream. Alternatively, arrows with attached wires could be shot at the trees. The wire would be pulled back and forth to shake out the garbage, and then the arrow could be pulled free.

However, the best idea would be to install large cement locks at various spots on the river. During a storm, the locks would be closed, forcing the river water to flow back upstream. Then, the locks would be opened to let the water flow back to sea. Repeated enough times, this might create a wash-backwash type of cycle somewhat similar to that in agitator-driven washing machines.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 06:13 PM | Comments (0)

First time caller, long time dummy

In today's wacky news:

CHICAGO (AP) - Federal officials say they have finally solved a bank robbery because a suspect bragged about the crime on a radio talk show.

A caller boasted on WKSC-FM that he and five others tied up employees at a TCF Bank branch in South Chicago Heights in April, took $81,000 and spent some of the money at expensive stores...

...The FBI says Washington denies any involvement in the robbery, claiming he called the radio station to win a prize.

WKSC's format came in a big cardboard box stamped only with the block-printed word "TOP40". Compare their picture page with that from the L.A. station that also calls itself KISS. "Free Gas, Full Service Friday at Citgo in Bensenville" vs. "Free Gas Friday with JoJo".

(Similar report here.)

Posted to WackyHumor at 01:48 PM | Comments (1)

"US anti-war movement looking for second wind"

AFP:

The US anti-war movement is looking for ways to revive itself, following President George W. Bush's reelection and in the face of divided public opinion, to see US troops out of Iraq.

Some 500 representatives of pacifist organizations, former combatants, soldiers' families, as well as actor and activist Danny Glover, met last weekend in Saint Louis, Missouri, for the first time since the start of Bush's second term, seeking a united strategy for their efforts.

"United For Peace and Justice" the name of the coalition seeking to set its strategy in the coming months, organized the big February 2003 and August 2004 marches in New York, and said demos will be held on March 19 -- the second anniversary of the launch of the US war in Iraq...

Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 01:18 PM | Comments (5)

"No whites need apply"

From the "liberals" in the frozen north:

CRITICS ARE calling it "craziness" that the Correctional Service of Canada is disqualifying candidates for parole officer jobs because they're white. An Ontario job-seeker received a rejection letter recently, advising that only aboriginals and visible minorities need apply.

"Please be advised that effective immediately the Ontario region of the Correctional Service of Canada is no longer maintaining an inventory for parole officer applications from the general public," the Feb. 19 letter reads.

"Due to staffing resources we will continue to accept applications from aboriginal and visible-minority candidates only."

CSC is committed to having a "skilled, diversified workforce reflective of Canadian society," the letter continues, adding that future vacancies may be posted that are open to the "general public..."

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 01:13 PM | Comments (0)

"Conservatives, GOP Split on Illegal Workers"

Fox has a roundup of immigration-related opinion at CPAC. Summary: almost everyone on the ground level was opposed to Bush's guest worker plan except... the Libertarians. They're just .0005% of the electorate, but they're an influential .0005%.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 01:13 PM | Comments (1)

More straw, Tamar?

Cheap labor cheerleader Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute - last discussed in "Tamar Jacoby, CPAC, immigration, and not yet clued-in bloggers" - now offers us "Law and Borders":

[BP Agent Lee Morgan] criticizes the apprehensions as a waste of time and resources. "They're just poor people trying to feed their families," he shrugs... "What if the bastards come across here in Arizona and I don't catch them because I'm so busy chasing a busboy or a gardener that I don't have time to do my job--my real job--catching terrorists?..."

Morgan's personal nightmare is one urgent reason why all Americans, no matter what their politics, should support President Bush's plan to retake control of our southern border. The White House proposal, introduced in early 2004 and allowed to drop from sight during the election year, is back on the table. The president laid out his ideas again in the State of the Union and is reportedly planning a major initiative to take the issue to the public later this spring...

Let's pause here and examine Morgan's choice of words. Don't they sound a bit familiar? What he says sounds an awful lot like what Bush has said on several occasions, and consider this bit from a Wall Street Journal editorial:

"Somehow draining the terror swamp in the Middle East seems a lot more vital to U.S. security than stopping busboys from crossing the Rio Grande."

And, this bit from Bush ("Bush now self-parody"):

I want to remind people that family values do not stop at the Rio Grande river. People are coming to our country to do jobs that Americans won't do, to be able to feed their families.

Is it just a coincidence that Morgan spouts the administration's lines and uses the same examples as the WSJ? He's a frequent quote source for reporters, but, not to impugn his credibility, I suspect there's something we're not being told. Note also that this bit about Morgan was repurposed from an earlier Jacoby speech.

Continuing on:

...But the question is what to do about this other, illegal America--and the fact is that the president has the best idea, arguably the only idea that can possibly work. Many of his critics believe that the answer is to turn off the immigrant influx. We should, they say, make the necessary economic adjustments and do without the imported labor. It's an option; with enough resources, we probably could stop the flow. But are the American people prepared for the changes that would come with that decision? The likely economic sacrifice is incalculable: not just a few extra pennies on the cost of lettuce, but forfeited growth all across the economy, on a vast scale. In many industries today, growth depends on foreign laborers, who filled one in every two new jobs created in recent years. Then there would be the cost of enforcement--a cost in dollars but also in the way we live. Just ask experienced agents like Lee Morgan: Cutting off illegal immigration would require thousands more men on the border, routine sweeps in every city, roadblocks, roundups, massive deportations, a national ID card, and more...

Whoa! That's a lot of straw you've got there. Most of those wouldn't be needed if we'd just enforce the laws against hiring illegal aliens. As pointed out many times, if there were no jobs (and perhaps no public services) for them, most illegal aliens would simply self-deport. Those in the same class as Tamar can hire citizen or legal immigrant nannies, busboys, and gardeners.

Fisking the rest of Jacoby's piece is left as an exercise. Dan Stein of FAIR offers this:

(FAIR comment: The difference between rum smuggling and alien smuggling is that the latter involves people rather than a commodity. These are people whose effects on our society may last for the rest of their lives and represent a major cost to the nation's taxpayers, distorted labor market conditions that harm the poorest Americans, a drain on the economy because of money sent home as remittances, deterioration of services and unsustainable population increase. It is also important to recognize that, unlike with prohibition, there has been no real effort to enforce our immigration law since it was made unlawful to hire illegal aliens in 1986.)

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:34 PM | Comments (1)

Scott Ritter says...

Mark Jensen of United for Peace of Pierce County reports:

Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday [Friday 2/18/05] in Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia’s Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.

Olympians like to call the Capitol Theater "historic," but it's doubtful whether the eighty-year-old edifice has ever been the scene of more portentous revelations... [truly portentous verbage there, Mark --LW]

...On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and signed off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005. Its purported goal is the destruction of Iran’s alleged program to develop nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration also expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events leading to regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a possibility Ritter regards with the greatest skepticism.

The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W. Bush has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that U.S. authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to 48%.

Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. Hersh...

Posted to Iraq at 12:44 AM | Comments (0)

"Who in the World is George Washington?"

(CBN News) - As the nation observes the 273rd anniversary of George Washington's birth, our first president's accomplishments are fading from the nation's consciousness. Many public school children no longer learn about President Washington in the classroom.

Some states have even removed required teaching about Washington from their standards of learning (SOLs), saying specific instruction about Washington is not needed...

A recent survey conducted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni shows that four out of five seniors from the top 55 colleges and universities received a grade of "D" or "F" on their knowledge of American history. They could not identify Valley Forge, famous words from the Gettysburg Address, or even the basic principles of the Constitution.

Why don't they know the basics of American history? Part of the reason may be because students can now graduate from 100 percent of the top colleges in the United States without taking a single course in American history.

And 78 percent of colleges and universities do not require students to take any history at all...

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 12:42 AM | Comments (2)

"English-immersion foes hold children back"

Jill Stewart:

... Under Proposition 227, immigrant children were only supposed to stay in special immersion for a year or so, then go to mainstream class. But [California Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell] has refused to credit English immersion for soaring English literacy rates. His silence emboldens the anti-English ideologues who still strive to keep Latino kids in a separate world.

Again this month, O'Connell refused to credit English immersion, telling The San Francisco Chronicle he won't guess why kids are learning English so well...

...The State Board of Education finally ordered O'Connell to produce a study with that in mind. While we wait, I did my own study. I found that school districts like Los Angeles Unified -- where moderate Democrats stamped out failing "bilingual" education amidst fierce lefty resistance -- are producing big, lasting gains in English literacy.

By contrast, districts controlled by left-wing Democrats with an attitude of "they won't be able to talk to grandma!" are producing smaller gains...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:24 AM | Comments (2)

"Tulsa Senator Proposes Immigration Reform Legislation"

TULSA, Okla. -- A Tulsa senator is sponsoring what proponents are calling a groundbreaking approach to a dire economic problem by penalizing employers who hire illegal immigrants.

The Oklahoma Fair Employment Act, by Sen. Tom Adelson, would penalize employers who hire illegal aliens and give employees who are displaced because of those hirings legal status to sue.

Since appearing on Lou Dobbs "Moneyline" on CNN, Adelson has been drawing praise from national immigration reform groups, who contend the influx of illegal immigrants is suppressing wages and threatening the American middle class.

"This is first-of-its kind legislation in the country. It is a bellwether and I am sure we will see similar bills like this," said Dan Stein, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, known as FAIR...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 08:53 PM | Comments (2)

Give it up for Koko

...Their lawsuit said: "Through sign language, as interpreted by Patterson, Koko 'demanded' plaintiffs remove their clothing and show Koko their breasts."

It went on: "On one such occasion, Patterson said, 'Koko, you see my nipples all the time. You are probably bored with my nipples. You need to see new nipples. I will turn my back so Kendra can show you her nipples'."

The women, sacked in August last year, say they never followed the requests to undress for Koko...

(The picture - which might be fake - has nothing to do with the suit described at the link.)

Posted to WackyHumor at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)

Well, Mike Farrell maybe

From the leftie wall of shame at DiscoverTheNetwork:

(Note that the top and bottom halves are from different sections of the wall, and that Horowitz responds to critics of the wall here. Berresford is the head of the Ford Foundation, so maybe in her case as well.)

Posted to Bloggage at 03:37 PM | Comments (2)

"[Maryland] delegates seek cost of illegals"

ANNAPOLIS -- Maryland taxpayers deserve to know how much the state is paying to subsidize education, housing and health care for illegal aliens before it breaks the budget, two Republican delegates from Baltimore County say...

What's more, Mr. McDonough and Delegate Richard K. Impallaria said, they agree with immigrant-advocacy group CASA of Maryland's claim that Illegal aliens are being exploited by local employers, but said the problem goes deeper...

Earlier this month, CASA asked the Montgomery County Council to crack down on people who neglect the immigrants they hire by establishing a living wage of at least $10.50 an hour. The group also is requesting paid holidays, sick leave, vacation time and family and medical leave.

The delegates, who are co-sponsoring legislation for a study on illegal immigration for the second year, said last year CASA fought their bill, which would have provided basic numbers and exposed the economic impact and the exploitation of illegal immigrants.

"It seems like they wanted to cover up the problem that many of these people are illegals," Mr. McDonough said.

CASA officials did not return repeated calls to comment...

CASA was last discussed in this post, and there's more on them here.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 01:37 PM | Comments (1)

KoolAid Clear?

FYI: KoolAidCentral is no longer blueberry flavor, it now comes in the KoolAid Clear variety.

Posted to Bloggage at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

"Job data should give pause to immigration advocates"

From Steven A. Camarota of CIS:

The recovery from the recession of 2001 is often described as "jobless." But this is not entirely correct. My analysis of Census Bureau data shows that between March 2000 and 2004, the number of adults working in United States actually increased.

What's interesting, however, is that all the net growth in jobs went to immigrant workers. In fact, while the number of unemployed adult native-born workers increased by 2.3 million over this time, the number of employed immigrants rose by 2.3 million.

Significantly, about half the growth in immigrant employment was from illegal immigration.

It would be a mistake to assume that each job taken by an immigrant is a job lost by a native. Still, such statistics should give pause to those who want to legalize illegal aliens and increase immigration still further...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 11:23 AM | Comments (1)

Today in low hanging fruit news

10 out of 17 DUmmies expressing an opinion want a Spanish-language section of their website. One wonders why they would want such a section.

In other DU poll news, 126 DUmmies voted on the question "Is the b**sh administration fascist?" The results were quite surprising: ten of those voted "no." Of course, they've since been purged.

And, finally, the DUmmies help us understand why Utah is the reddest state in the union in the thread "How can I tactfully say no to a Mormon". Does Karl Rove have an account there?

Posted to Bloggage at 12:43 AM | Comments (0)

Jennings Explores ABCs of UFOs

From this:

Flying saucers and strange beings who have visited Earth aren't the typical topics reported by Peter Jennings, anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight." Jennings, whose new two-hour special tackles the subject of UFOs, admits he and his production team began the project with doubts and a dose of curiosity...

Segments include visits to the Center for UFO Studies outside Chicago, where files bulge with reports of sightings, and to a radio talk show on "UFOlogy." That show's host, Art Bell, cites among his 18 million weekly listeners "the most informed UFOlogists, the best scientists and some of the craziest people you'll ever meet."

The show will be broadcast this Thursday, on both sides of the Rockies at the same time.

Posted to Miscellania at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)

'Minutemen' to Patrol Arizona Border; DUmmies to support corrupt big corporations

The DUmmies have a thread on the ABC report "'Minutemen' to Patrol Arizona Border". Quite suprisingly, there are a few posters who agree with the idea that illegal immigration is a bad thing. However, as can be expected, there are also a few explicitly anti-American posters, and there's even someone named "Redstone" whose arguments sound very similar to those from FreeRepublic's own bayourod.

For your entertainment, here's the most explicitly anti-American comment:

37. What you call "Arizona" should rightfully be called Mexican soil Edited on Mon Feb-21-05 09:51 PM by wuushew So one could argue that a certain poetic justice exists when our southern brothers reclaim their birthright.

1840's Amerika could easily be compared to the to the tendencies of our modern hegemonic empire. Oil and Israel replaced gold and slavery with the meaningless label of Manifest Destiny serving as that century's terrorism buzzword.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)

But... they're just here to do the jobs illegal aliens won't do

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- Importing workers from Asia to help harvest state fruit is a new trend based on a decades-old federal program -- and it's growing.

Last season, 170 Thai workers were imported to harvest Yakima Valley apples and cherries. This year, there could be at least 1,000...

Global said 95 percent of the local workers it hired in Washington last year didn't show up for a second day.

Several of them, represented by Columbia Legal Services, are seeking to intervene against Global to stop further use of H-2A workers in the Yakima Valley...

One man, a farm laborer for 20 years who was employed briefly by Global, said the company imposed unrealistic standards to get rid of local workers.

"The company wanted us to prune 100 to 150 trees a day and do a good job," he said, asking that his name not be used. "A worker could do that many trees, but not do them well."

Erik Nicholson, United Farm Workers' Pacific Northwest regional director, believes the Asian workers are the latest part of a historic cycle in farm labor.

"There's a subtle race card being played here, which is the legacy of agriculture. One hundred years ago, we were bringing Chinese workers onto our farms. They were replaced by the Japanese, who were considered harder workers. Then it was the Filipinos and then the Mexicans," Nicholson said.

"We have a similar trajectory here. As Mexican workers become more organized, one of the responses is to replace them with workers from Thailand."

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

I think she's got "issues"

SAN FRANCISCO -- Could Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have another "woman problem" on his hands?

He has made headlines in recent months by deriding political opponents as "girlie men" and publicly ridiculing a group of nurses at a state women's conference.

His latest effort to paint the state's teachers as little more than a balky special interest group has angered many critics, who have begun to question why constituencies dominated by women have been singled out for such tough talk.

"He behaves like an arrogant patriarch with respect to women's occupations," said Rose Ann De Moro, executive director of the California Nurses Association. "Nurses, teachers, home health workers -- it's vulgar how he's run roughshod over them. He's arrogant, and he's a bully."

Read on for the other kindergarten-level "actions" the CNA and CTA are engaged in against Arnold.

Posted to California at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)

"Fat police lock up Chris"

From this:

SOBBING 31-stone [~420 lbs.] Chris Leppard was dragged off to a mental hospital against his will by meddling social workers and police.

Chris, 23, has been forcibly detained for a month because he cannot stop eating [due to a physical, not mental disorder --LW]...

She said: “Four people turned up and after some questions, said they were taking him away. Chris was really upset, crying, saying he didn’t want to go and that he wasn’t mental.

“We didn’t know they were coming to take him. He is being punished for being ill. He has a physical problem. He was working well towards losing weight...

...the authorities shipped him off to a specialist eating disorder unit at the Eastbourne Clinic where he will be assessed for up to 28 days...

...East Sussex County Council said “all proper procedures have been followed” — and such orders were “in the interests of that person’s health or safety or to protect other people”.

At this point you're perhaps thinking of an amalgamation between Orwell and the Simpson's:

Burns: But, where are you taking me? What's happening?

Wiggum: Relax. You've gone off your nut, so we're stuffing you
into an old folks' home. Those, uh, store guys signed the
commitment papers.

UPDATE: He's was released yesterday, and he's going to sue.

Posted to Privacy at 01:38 PM | Comments (1)

"Gingrich urges action against illegals"

WashTimes:

Newt Gingrich is demanding that the Bush administration get serious about stopping illegal immigration.

The former House speaker wants the United States to completely seal off its border along Mexico and Canada, deport illegal aliens within 72 hours of their arrest and exclude U.S. courts from reviewing such deportations.

"Let's be serious about sealing off our borders or [else] have open borders," Mr. Gingrich told more than 1,000 cheering conservatives on Saturday...

...Some skeptical conservative leaders interviewed after his speech noted that Mr. Gingrich did not explain how the "open green-card" program would work, or what more the administration should do to seal thousands of miles of border to the south and north.

Nor did Mr. Gingrich say whether he backed some form of President Bush's guest-worker program to allow illegal aliens holding jobs in the United States to remain � or whether such aliens eventually could apply for citizenship.

Many in the audience booed and hissed Manhattan Institute analyst Tamar Jacoby's defense of the guest-worker proposal. In a panel titled "Immigration Reform: Recognizing Reality or Surrendering Principles?" she clashed with Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)

"[NE Gov.] Heineman Says No To Illegal Immigrant Bill"

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Gov. Dave Heineman rejected a call Saturday to publicly support a bill that would offer in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants.

Heineman's decision came during his first meeting with the Mexican American Commission... Commission director Cecilia Olivarez Huerta [supports the bill]... [...bill was sponsored by Lincoln Sen. DiAnna Schimek...]

The backstory about Nebraska seems to focus on meat packers and other large employers of illegal aliens. See Ag Sec'y nominee "Fought to Protect Giant Meatpackers from Immigration Law Enforcement" and Bush's Open-Borders nominees, which are about former NE Gov. and current U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns' efforts on behalf of those employers:

...The president's choice for Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, while Governor of Nebraska, used the power of his office to protect large meatpacking and agricultural interests in his state who employ thousands of illegal aliens and violate countless other labor and occupational safety regulations.

During 1998 and 1999, the Immigration and Naturalization Service launched a campaign known as Operation Vanguard in which they conducted audits of Nebraska meatpacking plant personnel files. The operation successfully drove-off many illegal aliens who were employed in these processing plants. Gov. Johanns, who has accepted large campaign contributions from large agri-businesses (2002 Campaign Finance Statement), stepped in on behalf of these contributors and pressured the U.S. Department of Justice to end these enforcement efforts...

There's more about Huerta, Johanns, and Operation Vanguard in February 1, 2000's Immigration Overload, this October, 1999 report, and, from the far-left side of things comes late last year's hysterically titled The Nightmare Continues and a 1999 report from the same author with a slightly less hysterical title: INS Declares War on Labor.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)

"Hertzberg vs. Villaraigosa"

In a Sunday editorial, the L.A. Times says, "...the people of Los Angeles would be well served by a runoff election between Bob Hertzberg and Antonio Villaraigosa...",

Yes, indeed.

The former president of the UCLA chapter of the racial separatist organization MEChA facing off against a current board member of MALDEF. In the wacky world of the L.A. Times, that would indeed be a good thing.

On a humorous note, the LAT also mentions that Bob Hertzberg wants to build a tunnel under the San Gabriels, and that appears to be one of his less loony ideas.

No matter his faults, Jim Hahn is the only real choice in this election. Walter Moore can't win, and Bob Hertzberg or Antonio Villaraigosa would be devastating for the city and the state.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)

I'm embarrased for both UPI and the Middle East North Africa Financial Network

Date: Saturday, February 19, 2005 12:21:44 PM EST

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Film star, movie director and businessman Jackie Chan has put his Beverly Hills, Calif., home on the market for $6.7 million...

The actor's 7,600-square-foot Los Angeles home has five bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms and three fireplaces, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday...

Sources say UPI and Middle East North Africa Financial Network should be embarrased for paying any attention to the LAT's Hot Properties column.

In other worthless news, "Scarlett Johansson complains about LA". You can read an older satire about a commercial she did here.

Posted to Celebrities at 09:27 PM | Comments (0)

"Anti-illegal immigrant column stirs up college"

*Sigh* If you've visited this blog before, you probably know the drill. If you're a newbie, keep reading.

So, anyway, here's a scan of the "controversial" essay, which was printed in a San Diego-area college newspaper. (Another scan is here.)

The SDUT's story on this is "Anti-illegal immigrant column stirs up college", also discussed here.

While there are a few problems with the essay, especially the part about the leeches, almost every American citizen would consider it well within the bounds of polite discourse. Despite that, one can imagine how this all played out. The race pimps didn't just whine:

[...someone saw] MEChA members crying and angrily denouncing the piece as they read it. MEChA called for a meeting with both the Sun staff and the college administration.

"We made it clear at that meeting that it was an individual opinion," said Sun faculty adviser Max Branscomb. "It was on the Viewpoints page, and it did not come close to reflecting the point of view of the staff as a whole..."

Robin McCubbin, a faculty adviser for Students For Community Action, attended the meeting. He later wrote in a statement to the college's faculty that the piece was "a racist attack and call for violence (How else should the recommendation of the application of fire to the body of a living organism be characterized?)."

In an interview, McCubbin said, "Even if it's legal, is there any justification for it appearing in a newspaper for our campus?"

But MEChA faculty adviser Margarita Andrade-Robledo was won over by Branscomb's defense of freedom of the press.

"I don't like the article, but the First Amendment gives them that right" to publish it, she concluded.

Because Andrade-Robledo would not support the club in continuing to call for a retraction and an apology, the MEChA board ousted her as adviser...

(Please note the link to discoverthenetwork.com. If you're a blogger or similar, I suggest you link to such organizations using a similar construct so that they can be easily found by those searching with google. Here's an alternate link for that organization. Or, use this.)

Posted to Immigration2005a at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)

Tamar Jacoby, CPAC, immigration, and not yet clued-in bloggers

There was an immigration panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference over the weekend, and a few bloggers have reports. Unfortunately, none of those bloggers have yet seen the light, but that might change.

First up we have "Anti-Immigration = Anti-Capitalist" from Ryan Sager. His bio:

...a member of the editorial board of The New York Post... worked and written for the Cato Institute, Reason magazine, The Wall Street Journal [,...less objectionable outfits...]

At his post I left the following comment:

There's so much in this post that's incorrect, so it's difficult to know where to begin.

Let's start with those quotes and them not being taken out of context. They were indeed taken out of context: the context being these are the same AILA slogans that Bush keeps repeating over and over.

Your concept of what constitutes a "labor market" is skewed as well. Illegal labor is also massively subsidized labor. If you support illegal labor, you also support subsidies to those who employ that labor. How much would companies have to pay their workers if those workers didn't have access to free schooling, free (emergency room) healthcare, discounted college educations, etc. etc.

The final comment is "liberal"-level race-baiting. We already admit 800,000 legal immigrants per year, many or most of whom are like "them."

For more on Tamar Jacoby and Bush's bracero program, see this.

You can hear an interview with her here. Let's just say she didn't win the argument. ;)

Moving on, we come to "CPAC Shadow Blogging*, Part I: Immigration". It quotes from Sager's post and offers a few misconceptions of its own. PrestoPundit leaves a comment, and this is the one I left:

...[Sager's] quotes were indeed taken out of context: the larger context of those being the same AILA slogans Bush repeats on the rare occasions when immigration is discussed...

In addition to PrestoPundit's argument, let's consider your quote about "entice Americans to do the back-breaking work involved in strawberry picking".

Let's think about what that means for a moment. What you're suggesting is that we can either give up strawberry production, or we can invite in a foreign serf class to do our nasty jobs. Isn't that the way they do things in Saudi Arabia and Japan? And, hasn't America already been down this road before a few times? Slavery, indentured servitude, coolies, etc. etc. Is that really the model we should follow in the future?

How about we either mechanize strawberry production, or we let it die. I'm sure it could be mechanized if necessary. Plenty of other crops are, and in some cases mechanization has been hindered for political reasons. Isn't that the better way to do things?

Other less worthy and virtually content-free posts about the immigration panel are here, here, and here.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)

Tamar Jacoby gets her arguments shredded into tiny bits of straw

A couple weeks ago, John & Ken of KFI 640am interviewed cheap labor cheerleader Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute. I just noticed that audio of that interview is available here. Let's just say she didn't come off too well.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 02:46 PM | Comments (0)

I can't believe it's not a free weekly

Andrew McCarthy in NRO brings our attention to the latest open borders screed in the Wall Street Journal. In the WSJ editorial, they complain about the Real ID Act and say the following: "The last thing a terrorist would want to do is apply for asylum."

McCarthy provides his own examples of past terrorists doing just that. For other examples, see "Reading the 9/11 Commission Staff Reports: Chapter 3".

Posted to Immigration2005a at 08:00 PM | Comments (2)

Because... she's special

She's a special dog, and you love her. That's why her jewelry is important. Sure, you could buy cheap costume jewelry, but what if it causes all her hair to fall off or something?

No, what you want is the "Small Crystal Dog Collar, 15" by Paris Hilton". This is part of the Paris Hilton collection of dog collars inspired by the very ones worn by Paris Hilton's special little Tinkerbell.

Because the bitch is worth it.

Posted to Bloggage at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)

Arizona legislators move to cut off funding to day laborer centers

From this:

Eleven Republican state lawmakers want to ban Arizona cities and counties from spending tax money on undocumented immigrants who line the streets waiting for jobs.

The legislators say day-labor centers are a failure and encourage illegal immigration. Rep. Colette Rosati, a Scottsdale Republican and main sponsor of House Bill 2592, said Arizonans are clamoring to curb illegal immigration, not to encourage it...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)

Citizens United for Bush and... for American sovereignty?

The Citizens United billboards showing Our Leader President Bush vanquishing his enemies high above the Sunset Strip in Hollywood have been vandalized. But, that's not why we're here.

Instead, I invite you to visit Citizen United's website and find out more about their "American Sovereignty Project". All I found was this blurb:

American Sovereignty Project ("ASP") is the grass-roots lobbying arm of Citizens United that works to protect American sovereignty and security. ASP's major objectives include complete U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations, defeat of the treaty to establish a permanent U.N.-controlled International Criminal Court, and rejection of one-world government.

If they really mean that, why do they support Our Leader? President Bush and the Bush family are definitely part of the global elite, or they're at least very high-level employees of that global elite. Now, perhaps Bush doesn't want a One World Government, maybe the hemisphere will do. Bush is certainly working on bringing North and South America very close together, perhaps to include an America-wide government. See the various trade pacts Bush supports (FTAA, CAFTA), Bush's friendship with open borders advocate Vicente Fox, and, of course, Bush's guest worker plan.

For more, try Which candidate is less "American"?, An NWO flashback, the comments at the end of this post, and "Stealth Invasion".

If Citizens United really cared about U.S. sovereignty, they'd oppose Bush instead of putting up creepy billboards supporting him.

Posted to Politics at 10:25 AM | Comments (2)

Three suspects in the Geetha Angara (NJ chemist) murder?

February 18, 2005 -- Investigators yesterday identified three suspects in the drowning murder of a New Jersey water-treatment chemist, with roughly 40 of the woman's co-workers left to be interviewed...

The Prosecutor's Office has also accused Totowa cops of compromising the evidence. They say evidence such as a smashed beaker apparently held by Angara shortly before her death was swept up off the floor.

Investigators are also furious cops allowed the victim's brother-in-law to drive her car home from the plant before they searched it for evidence. "The crime scene was destroyed," one investigator raged...

The source for the news of there being three suspects? A "law-enforcement source". The three suspects are not named either. So, if we can trust the NY Post (definitely an arguable point), we need to trust the unnamed source. Even with that chain of trust satisfied, we then need to imagine this not being more than a blatant attempt to get the perpetrator(s) to do something stupid.

UPDATE: In addition to the titular topic, "TV crime show shot scene similar to chemist's death" has this:

...Avigliano would neither confirm nor deny a published report that investigators had identified three plant employees who "could have had the opportunity to commit the crime."

"The people in my office deny telling anyone that there were three suspects, and I certainly didn't say it," Avigliano said. "If somebody gave out that information, they would certainly be subject to disciplinary proceedings."

Totowa Police Chief Robert Coyle said he knew nothing about such a suspect list. Avigliano said he saw no need for further questioning of his own detectives...

(Via this. "Enlighten New Jersey"???)

Posted to Miscellania at 12:43 AM | Comments (0)

"[Mexican Interior Secretary] Creel lashes out after CIA report"

I don't know whether to put this in the Immigration or WackyHumor category. Here's what their Interior Secretary had to say:

"The CIA analysis is wrong, it's erroneous and it's false... It's also reprehensible for an agency of a foreign government to be expressing opinions about Mexican affairs... I reject interference in affairs of an internal character ... in which the CIA has no reason to be making opinions... We know that (the CIA) frequently is mistaken and makes erroneous decisions..."

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:28 AM | Comments (1)

"U.S. Aides Cite Worry on Qaeda Infiltration From Mexico"

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 - ...Intelligence that "strongly suggests" that Al Qaeda operatives have considered using the Mexican border as an entry point was cited in written testimony [before Congress on Wednesday] by Adm. James M. Loy, the deputy secretary of homeland security. But he wrote that there was "currently no conclusive evidence" that this had succeeded.

In the past, law enforcement officials have said Al Qaeda might try to use the Mexican border, but the testimony on Wednesday seemed to suggest increasing concern. In response to questions from the senators, Admiral Loy described it as a "very serious situation,"...

In his written testimony, Admiral Loy cited recent information from investigations and detentions as the basis for his concern about the Mexican border. He added, "Several Al Qaeda leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons."

Posted to Immigration_terror at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)

[audio] The latest L.A. Mayoral debate

You can listen to the latest Los Angeles mayoral debate here. That debate was held on the Doug McIntyre show on KABC radio.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)

"Liberals" get "liberalism" fed back to them by the shovelful

The previous post "PBS's Hypocrisy Revealed: PBS station opposes day-laborer center" discussed WETA's reaction to a day-laborer center that was located near their headquarters in Shirlington in Arlington County, Virginia.

There have been several reports on this center and on WETA's reaction to it. See also "Heights of hypocrisy" and this bit of socialist indoctrination as part of a class from George Mason University.

The center is partially paid for by taxpayers, and partially by unnamed foundations. Whether the Rockefeller Foundation is one of those benefactors is unknown. From August 2003:

WETA chief executive officer Sharon Percy Rockefeller attended Tuesday night�s board meeting, and was deeply critical of the final decision.

�It would absolutely complicate our lives,� said Rockefeller, who noted that the new facility is to be located adjacent to WETA�s broadcast center.

Rockefeller predicted that a �pretty hostile environment� would quickly develop between her employees, who now walk between the various facilities, and the day laborers. �I don�t want the incidents to happen,� she said.

Rockefeller also complained that the location of a day-laborer camp would complicate security around the studios of the �NewsHour,� public broadcasting�s signature daily news program. High-profile guests begin arriving at the studios shortly after noon each day, Rockefeller said, and would likely be met by the day laborers who did not find work that day.

�She�s part of the liberal establishment that created the mess, now she wants to protect elite liberals from it,� [Republican-leaning activist Robert Molleur] said. "Liberal hipocrisy at its best..."

The latest report about the center contains more about what happens when "liberals" get "liberalism" fed back to them:

..."I almost hit somebody again yesterday," [Jeff Rathner, a cameraman for WETA but who was only speaking for himself] said. "You have to slow down to turn onto that street, and they'll sprint after any car that comes by."

..."The very first day it was opened, some guy who was obviously drunk ran out in front of my car,� Rathner said. �When I stopped, he blurted something at me in Spanish."

..."Trash is left all over the place,� he said. �It has become a haven for scavenger birds and the most ungodly amount of bird poop that you'll see all over your car if you happen to park near there. It also brings rats."

..."People from our building will be walking by the job site, and they'll verbally harassed in Spanish,� he said. �Of course, some of us can understand it. We know what's being said."

..."Whenever anybody cries foul, they're told this they have some 'not in my backyard' attitude, but that's just not the case,� Rathner said.

..."We're working hard here with SEEC to find a solution that is good for the community,� said Pat Williamson, director of the station's administration, who declined further comment.

Build a few of those centers in the Capitol area of DC and see how fast the laws and the enforcement of them start changing.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 08:28 PM | Comments (2)

Save Our License failed to get enough signatures

The Save Our License initiative - which would have permanently prevented illegal aliens from getting California driver's licenses - fell 150,000 signatures short of getting on the ballot.

They made a few mistakes, but they also apparently didn't get the help they were promised from Rep. Darrell Issa and others.

As far as I know, only this blog and three others discussed this initiative. While other blogs have been more than willing to complain about illegal immigration in the past, they didn't want to help promote this initiative for one reason or another.

The blogs that covered the initiative are:

DiggersRealm

Res Ipsa Loquitur

XRLQ

UPDATE: I found one more blogger that covered this. That makes five!

Posted to Immigration2005a at 05:53 PM | Comments (2)

Guide for the Yucatecan Migrant

First there was news about the Guide for the Mexican Migrant. Then, there was news of Colorado's guide for illegal aliens.

The latest guide comes from the Mexican state of Yucatan:

The Guide for the Yucatecan Migrant, published by the southeastern state of Yucat�n, comes with an accompanying DVD in Spanish and Mayan. It tells migrants how to apply for U.S. work visas but also gives detailed safety advice for crossing illegally, including where to find water in the desert and how to avoid the most dangerous areas. The guide includes a section specifically about Arizona...

The Yucat�n government plans to show the DVD and distribute the books at community centers across the state...

The guide warns repeatedly that undocumented migration is a crime and that migrants routinely die crossing the border...

The state sends few migrants to the United States. Most of them, about 50,000, live in the Los Angeles area.

But the number has been rising, and the amount of money migrants sent back to Yucat�n doubled in 2001-04 to about $9 million. On Dec. 28, the government held its first Day of the Yucatecan Migrant ceremony to honor expatriates...

The Guide for the Yucatecan Migrant is filled with photographs and maps, and the cover shows a man in traditional Yucatecan dress standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco...

It devotes 11 pages to U.S. visas and how to apply for them. The guide published by the Foreign Ministry in December contained none of that information and was widely criticized for it.

An additional 21 pages are about crossing the border illegally, including descriptions meant to help migrants avoid the most dangerous routes through Arizona, California and Texas.

Eight pages deal with crossing the Arizona desert...

"After passing through Lukeville, you will cross through a national park where you will find tanks of water," one section says. "If the smuggler decides to walk beyond the park, you will travel on paths where there is no Border Patrol but in places where military exercises are conducted."

...The rest of the book is devoted to life in the United States: how to send money home, where to find health care, differences in U.S. and Mexican laws and driving tips...

"There is an agreement between the governments of Mexico and the United States so that, no matter your migration status, you can study in elementary, secondary and preparatory schools," it says. "Don't stop studying; there is always an option..."

UPDATE: The 7Meg PDF of the guide is available here.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)

"License Denials for Immigrants Are Blocked"

The NYT's Nina Bernstein is back with another misleading advocacy piece masquerading as a "news" report.

From "License Denials for Immigrants Are Blocked":

A judge ordered yesterday that the state stop taking away the driver's licenses of immigrants in New York who do not have Social Security cards, saying that the Department of Motor Vehicles is not authorized to enforce immigration law or to make new rules without public notice...

[seven paragraphs deleted]

...Most are in the country without legal authorization, the court papers say, but two who are in the United States legally also were denied licenses by clerks without notice or chance for redress, the lawsuit said...

It took nine whole paragraphs until the NYT gave you a hint that they weren't talking about "immigrants" so much as "illegal aliens".

Nina Bernstein and her editors think it's OK to try to bury the fact that these "immigrants" are in fact "illegal aliens".

Please contact Daniel Okrent and ask that the NYT stops trying to mislead you: public *at* nytimes.com

[similar comment also posted here]

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:31 AM | Comments (0)

Today's Low-Hanging-Fruit Watch

The two best DU threads of the day are highlighted over at BigMediaBlog.com in today's DU thread.

Each day, BigMediaBlog.com has over a dozen threads where you can comment on what Insty, DailyKos, DU, BlogsForBush, the NYT, the LAT, and many more are writing about. If one of those sources says something you disagree with or think is just plain false, head over to BigMediaBlog.com and let us know about it.

Posted to Bloggage at 11:53 PM | Comments (0)

It's like the 80s all over again

Newsweek:

...Through it all only one shadow of suspicion has passed over Negroponte�s behavior in public life: the question of what he knew, and when he knew it, about America�s secret association with so-called death squads in the Reagan-era fight against Soviet-allied insurgencies in El Salvador, Honduras and other Central American nations.

No proof ever emerged that Negroponte was aware of the notorious Battalion 316 in Honduras when he was ambassador there in the early 1980s. But Negroponte is still so sensitive about such allegations that, when NEWSWEEK mentioned him last month in a web story about a �Salvador option� being considered for Iraq, he phoned this reporter from Baghdad, defending his integrity and fuming over what he called the �utterly gratuitous� inclusion of his name.

Yet ironically enough, this long-denied reputation for ruthlessness may now help Negroponte more than any other quality in his new post as America�s first director of national intelligence...

See also the AP's "Negroponte draws criticism south of border":

...a 1993 Honduran government human rights report said 184 suspected leftists had disappeared in government custody, many of them at the hands of a U.S. trained Honduran army battalion.

"It was obvious that he knew what was happening," said Leo Valladeres, a law professor in Honduras who wrote the report. "They used outlaw methods to kill ... and it is absolutely impossible to believe that a diplomatic mission such as that of the United States was unaware of the situation faced by Honduras and Central America."

In neighboring Guatemala, a U.S.-supported government that was engaged in battle with left-wing rebels trained paramilitary squads that were found later to have committed large-scale civilian massacres.

In El Salvador, U.S.-trained army squads hunted down leftist rebels in offensives fraught with human rights abuses...

And, back in 1995, the Baltimore Sun printed "When a wave of torture and murder staggered a small U.S. ally, truth was a casualty. Was the CIA involved? Did Washington know? Was the public deceived? Now we know: Yes, Yes and yes."

There's more here and here. NZ's leftie scoop has a longer piece here.

Don't be surprised if you feel like you've stepped back into the 80s if you read through these reports.

From a Frontline show:

... President George W. Bush recruited many Reagan/Bush-era veterans of the Central American wars to serve on his foreign policy team. Despite objections from Democrats in Congress, Bush's d�j� vu appointments have included Eliot Abrams (who pled guilty to two counts of lying to Congress during the Iran Contra hearings), Richard Armitage, John Poindexter, Roger Noriega and Otto Reich. Most recently, John Negroponte was appointed ambassador to Iraq. Negroponte was ambassador to Honduras under George H.W. Bush and was criticized by human rights organizations for not doing enough to stem death squad activity there...

The same names are repeated using other different words in "Glenn Reynolds Defends Death Squads". And, via at least Abrams, there's a PNAC connection.

Posted to Politics at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)

Get out your hankies: Nina Bernstein has another article

Nina Bernstein - the NYT's answer to Sally Struthers - offers us "Caught Between Parents and the Law". Apparently the barrage of letters to Daniel Okrent have had an effect, because none of the usual euphemisms or outright lies jumped out at me. Nevertheless, I keep getting the feeling that, like other immigration-related sob stories - this story somehow found its way into the NYT with the assistance of the AILA or some similar group. Here's the bottom line: don't have children here while you're an illegal alien or your status is not clear expecting "liberals" to save you. It's not fair to the children, to you, or to us.

Posted to Immigration_piipps at 09:19 PM | Comments (0)

"True and patriotic immigrants"

LOWER EAST SIDE, NEW YORK CITY -- This area dominated largely by immigrants for two centuries is a good place to think about America's growing immigration debate. This month, dominated by two welcoming but challenging presidents -- George Washington and Abraham Lincoln -- is a good time to do so...

But two differences stand out [between then and now]. One is that, in the past, leading institutions strove mightily to Americanize students...

Those who come to America to tear it down or live off of others should not be welcomed. Those who are "true and patriotic" should be. This means that we must toughen our tests for citizenship and not allow dual citizenship. It particularly means that our schools and libraries should do their part to communicate patriotism, rather than politically correct anti-Americanism, and that all children should learn to speak English, so that we do not end up with a bifurcated culture.

I mentioned that there are two differences from the semi-good old days, and here's the second: Then, almost all immigrants came by boat through fixed entry points, and now we have porous borders with immigrants coming by land illegally, some potentially threatening national security. Now, we are also stuck with a coalition of liberals who think immigrants can be their political salvation and corporate conservatives who see their economic usefulness...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 09:05 PM | Comments (0)

BigMediaBlog.com is back online

I've moved BigMediaBlog.com to a new host, but that might just be a temporary move because I'm not too happy with that host. More on that later.

In the meantime, visit BigMediaBlog.com and comment on today's posts by over a dozen big media outlets and bloggers: Insty, DailyKos, DemocraticUnderground, etc. etc. All of those sites have no comments or restrictive comments policies. BigMediaBlog.com is your chance to keep them honest.

Posted to Bloggage at 05:48 PM | Comments (0)

Is it a "Rim of the Valley Corridor Study Act" or just a vast NPS land-grab?

You decide: look at the map here. The National Park Service wants to convert huge swaths of land surrounding various Los Angeles-area valleys into wildlife corridors to be administered by the NPS.

The "Rim of the Valley Corridor Study Act" - sponsored by Rep. Adam Schiff [D-CA] - would commission a study on this issue. Would the study be biased towards what the NPS wants?

More information on these plans here, here, and here.

See also 2/9/05's "Senate OKs study of Rim of the Valley":

A key U.S. Senate committee gave the go-ahead Wednesday to legislation that would allow the federal parks system to embrace a half-million new acres of mountains surrounding the San Fernando, La Crescenta, Santa Clarita, Simi and Conejo valleys.

Local officials hailed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passage of the Rim of the Valley bill, even as land rights organizations warned that local residents have been misled about the wide-ranging impact of the legislation.

The bill directs the Interior Department to study whether the so-called Rim of the Valley Corridor should be included as part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area...

Also see 2/12/05's "Valley Rim plan opposed".

I note also the artificial-looking corridor running from Griffith Park to near downtown and then back up towards the San Gabriels. I'm sure there are many wolves, bears, and other furry critters who would make the mostly concrete-encased L.A. River part of their migration paths.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)

Alanis Morissette? I call her "Janus" Morissette.

Singer Alanis Morissette becomes U.S. citizen; keeps Canadian citizenship:

...The singer was among some 4,500 people who took the citizenship oath during a ceremony last week at the Los Angeles Convention Center. But Morissette isn't turning her back on Canada - she's maintaining dual citizenship. "I will never renounce my Canadian citizenship. I consider myself a Canadian-American..."

When it came time for the national anthem [at her "citizenship" ceremony], Morissette said, "I wanted to walk up to one of the officials to ask if I could sing the anthem."

Instead, concertgoers at her Los Angeles show that evening were treated to an impromptu version of the Star Spangled Banner during her set...

Now, contrast that with the article "Morissette to headline Canadians at Expo '05" from just ten days ago:

Crowds will be singing ``O Canada" with Alanis Morissette and getting swept up in the drama of Anne Marie MacDonald's epic stories about the country in an elaborate national pavilion at Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan.

Morissette will headline Canada's gala concert, revealing her new patriotic fervour. She wrapped herself in the Canadian flag hosting last year's Junos and it seems she does not want to leave the Maple Leaf love-in...

Nothing like playing both sides of the imaginary fence. I note also that the Yahoo report on this that was linked to by Drudge said she was 30 years old. I know better.

See also the similar remarks from another celeb in "James Bond turned, now double agent".

Posted to Celebrities at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)

"Borderline Insanity - Part IV: Globalized Insanity"

Diane Alden in NewsMax:

...In fact, Rice and former Ridge were only following the Department of Homeland Security Mandate and Bush Administration policy, when they have made such statements. The establishment and the Bush White House refuse to view the invasion through Mexico as an issue more important then trade or commerce. In fact, ultimately it IS all about trade, commerce and the globalization process. Those are the reasons nothing will get done to change a chaotic immigration or visa policy, nor will anything worthwhile be done about borders out-of-control...

It is beyond comprehension that Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush and Tom Ridge don't understand that most LEGAL trade and goods entering the U.S. come in through distinct approved entry points. The flow of legal goods, trade and commerce and legitimate human traffic do not creep or skulk into the United States via unfriendly deserts, across the Rio Grande, through Pipe Organ National Monument or trespassing on Indian Reservations. Legal goods and people don't climb security fences or race through small border towns and back roads chased by Border Patrol. Neither does legal traffic in people or products arrive in small, unregistered aircraft crammed with illegal Chinese flown by a Mexican trafficker in human beings...

There's much more at the link, including the first three parts of the series.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

"Adding migrants could help Social Security, report says"

AZ Republic's article, AZ Republic's title:

...Decreasing the number of foreigners admitted to the country - the current annual limit is 800,000 - would cost the program $207 billion to $611 billion over the same period, according to the report by the Virginia-based National Foundation for American Policy.

"The bottom line is that legal immigration benefits the Social Security system," said Stuart Anderson, the report's author and executive director of the foundation...

..."The idea that we can solve the long-term problems of our Social Security system on the backs of millions of low-wage immigrants simply doesn't add up," said Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates restricting immigration.

"Anderson's plan also begs the question of what happens when all these new immigrants paying into the system reach retirement age themselves," Stein said. "Who will pay for their benefits?"

He also said the foundation that paid for the report "promotes mass immigration."

The report was funded by the California-based Merage Foundation for the American Dream, which was created last year by Paul Merage, a California businessman who came to the United States at age 16 as an immigrant from Iran.

See also FAIR's statement "Long-Term Social Security Deficits Cannot Be Solved on the Backs of Low-Wage Immigrant Labor".

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:26 PM | Comments (1)

California: Still ahead of Mississippi and Arkansas!

CalInsider:

The Manhattan Institute has published a national study of high school graduation rates that ranks California 38th among the states, at 67 percent. For white students, the state is ranked 22nd, at 76 percent. You can find the full report in pdf form here.

Posted to California at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)

[Sen. John] Cornyn [R-TX] supports work visa

WashTimes:

Senate Republicans' new point man on immigration said that it is unrealistic to assume that the 10 million illegal aliens in the United States can be deported and that the only alternative is to create a temporary worker program that has them come forward on their own...

At this point in time, you're probably thinking "same strawman, different suit." See the similar strawman argument made by the last suit, Asa Hutchinson, in the WashTimes interview Rounding up all illegals 'not realistic'.

..."The question is what about people who are here, have been here for 20 years, who have American children born in this country, who maybe have American spouses, and of course, we're going to need to work our way through that based on current law," he said...

*cough* amnesty *cough*

"In some respects, the closest analogy I can think of is Prohibition " Prohibition was passed, it was a law that did not enjoy the support of the masses, so people found a way to get around it by making gin in a bathtub or whatever, and so then we repealed that law and said 'OK, the best way to handle this is not to prohibit it but to regulate it,' " he said. "That seems to have worked reasonably well when it comes to alcohol consumption."

The same goes for heroin and PCP. John? Where'd he go? Anyway, employing illegals isn't like making bathtub gin. Those who employ illegal aliens have their speakeasys out in the public view, and they (most of the time) abide by other regulations like safety codes. If they don't, they know what happens. If there were enforcement against the large employers of illegal aliens, there wouldn't be such a problem. Sure, there would still be people making their own gin in their own bathtubs, for instance by hiring day laborers off the street. However, most of the prospective illegal aliens would take a hint and not try to sneak over our border.

But Mr. Cornyn said he thinks there are jobs out there that no American would fill because much of it is "hard, backbreaking manual labor that a lot of Americans are not interested in performing."

First, that's wrong as anyone who's been outside of their gated community can attest. And, it's un-American to assert that Americans are afraid of a little hard work. And, it's also un-American to depend on cheap stoop labor when we should be mechanizing and automating those labor-intensive industries. Remember: progress is ahead, and manoralism is away back there.

Previous Cornyn coverage here. He did, however, sign the letter to Bush complaining about his cutting of the SCAAP program.

UPDATE: I mistakenly identified him as a Representative in the title, now corrected.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)

Low hanging fruit watch

Since BigMediaBlog is still down during its move to a new host, we're conducting today's DU thread here.

When you see a post at DU with the title My son was called a "cracker" at school today you might expect a few people to be shocked at the racism. However, out of around 300 or so comments, you might expect most of them to put the word "cracker" in the "proper perspective." And, you might expect a few people to joke about it, as if being called "cracker" is no big deal. And, you might expect a few people welcoming being called a "cracker" because of white people's collective sins against the Oppressed. And, of course, you'd be right. Noxious "liberal" racism distilled into 300 fairly easy-to-read comments.

Continuing on, we come to "In theory, what is wrong with Communism?" And, a bit of psychodrama in "What effect are Democratic Underground and Free Republic having?"

And, on the semi-useful front, comes "Concentration Camps in U.S."....how real is this??? One of those supposed camps is above Brand Park in Glendale. Having been there a few times I've seen the catchment basin, but I don't recall having seen any prison-style buildings. That doesn't mean that there might not be other facilities elsewhere, and FEMA definitely has various "contingency" plans.

Posted to Bloggage at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)

Jeff Gannon is a "hireling, a fraud and a prostitute"

Irony Alert!

Irony Alert!

Irony Alert!

From al Guardian:

Thus a phony journalist, planted by a Republican organisation, used by the White House press secretary to interrupt questions from the press corps, protected from FBI vetting by the press office, disseminating smears about its critics and opponents, some of them gay-baiting, was unmasked not only as a hireling and fraud but as a gay prostitute, with enormous potential for blackmail...

Oh, did I mention the author of this piece is none other than Sid Blumenthal?

See the previous coverage of Jeff Gannon.

Posted to Politics at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)

"Proposal would house prisoners in Mexico"

Drudge is linking to the AP article "Proposal would house prisoners in Mexico" about Arizona trying to pass a law under which illegal alien or other Mexican citizens who are in our prisons would be imprisoned in Mexico. The U.S. would, of course, continue to pay for those prisoner's upkeep:

The idea was promoted as a way to reduce the state's heavy costs in imprisoning the 3,600 to 4,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona prisons who have been convicted of crimes. Opponents questioned whether the state has the legal authority to move the foreign prisoners to Mexico.

In any event, a proposal (HB2709) to have the state seek proposals for such prison cleared its first hurdle Wednesday at the Arizona Legislature in a 4-2 vote by a House committee...

(The story is also here.)

Sounds... interesting.

But, perhaps we should look at the backstory a bit here. From Jill Stewart:

...But the Mexicans do nothing but double talk on illegal immigration. On the prisoner issue, Mexico strictly limits the number of prisoners it takes back -- yet comically insists it has no limits. Pathetic. According to the California Board of Prison Terms, "all other nations accept all of their prisoners for transfer." Except Mexico.

In 2003, Mexico took back only 109 prisoners from the U.S., even though in California alone, 17,500 prisoners are Mexican nationals -- including more than 14,000 illegal aliens. And get this: Mexico won't take back those who've been here longer than five years. Just because...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 09:27 PM | Comments (2)

"'Save Our License' may face state probe"

Emphasis on the "may." From the DailyNews:

The Secretary of State's Political Reform Division has ordered Save Our License, a group opposed to driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, to refile all its committee documents and submit all its campaign finance data.

Meanwhile, a group representing Latino and church groups across the nation this week filed a formal complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission, saying Save Our License willfully violated campaign finance laws...

...Since Save Our License opposes a specific subject, its original filing as a general purpose committee is not valid, said Harvey Tsuboi, a senior analyst with the Secretary of State's Political Reform Division.

"I asked them to amend their committee designation from general purpose to primarily formed (ballot measure) committee," Tsuboi said. "They need to turn in their campaign finance reports and refile their original statement of organization."

...On Monday, the Greenlining Institute, a Democratic activist organization based in Berkeley, filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission, demanding that Save Our License receive the maximum fine from the state -- more than $10,000. The coalition of minority churches and business associations also urged the state to throw out all signatures collected by the group --about 400,000 to date, according to Save Our License -- because financial documents have not been filed...

As per custom, when hearing for the first time about an "activist group" or a "human rights" group, google their name plus "ford foundation". That results in 70 hits. There might be direct links in that list, or they might all be directories. But, they're in the same sphere.

In their words:

The Greenlining Institute works to improve the quality of life for low-income and minority communities. The institute emerged form the Greenlining Coalition, perhaps the oldest coalition of African American, Asian American/Pacific Islander, and Latino community leaders organized around a common purpose. With the formal founding of the Institute in 1993, Greenlining set out to create an antidote to redlining, the illegal yet common practice of denying, limiting, or overcharging for financial services and products to low-income and minority communities.

At least they've covered all - or, well, OK, most all - bases. As their pages and reports make clear, it's all about the "minorities."

From Paul Craig Roberts:

... Recently California Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard Riordan, seeking immigrant votes, addressed the Greenlining Institute, a "nonprofit" organization of Asians, Latinos and blacks that lobbies (illegally?) for minority benefits.

The Jan. 14 San Francisco Chronicle described Mr. Riordan's audience as minority businessmen, but the newspaper reported that the audience's concerns were whether Mr. Riordan would support their goals for more income taxes on the rich and the repeal of Proposition 13, the landmark measure that limited California property taxes.

Few Americans know it, but many immigrant businesses originate in preferential financing or loan set-asides from the Small Business Administration. What many see as immigrant success is really the fruits of taxpayers' money...

Bob Gnaizda, their general counsel, praises Vicente Fox and his plans in 3/18/01's "Davis to Meet Mexican Leader Twice a Year
Fox arrives to inaugurate new cross-border Net link". This thread and this details their attempts to derail Ward Connerly's Prop. 54. One of their cohorts in that effort was MALDEF. They joined with MALDEF, LULAC, Cruz Bustamante, Marco Firebaugh, and other worthy groups in opposition to a similar measure.

Their first and latest 990's at guidestar.org don't show anything remarkable, but the names of their board might be of interest for further googling.

They're involved in some way with a $1.3 million grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

They tried to pass a law relating to campaign finance.

And, last but not least, consider their banking-related activities.

In 2002 they joined with the Mexican American Political Association to protest in front WestAmerica bank in Fresno. That might have been before Nativo Lopez became the president of MAPA. That bank wanted to merge with a smaller bank. Read their sleazy press release here.

The merger was approved:

...In an otherwise routine-looking 16-page letter approving Westamerica Bank's purchase of Kerman State Bank near Fresno, the Fed dedicated three sentences and a footnote to a nasty spat between community activists and David Payne, CEO of the San Rafael bank, which has eight East Bay branches and six in Solano County. Westamerica threatened a libel suit after the group complained publicly about Payne receiving compensation valued at $69 million in 2000, the bank's limited contributions to low-income areas and individuals, and the bank's relatively low Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rating. The purchase moves Westamerica from the No. 6 spot in the Fresno market to being the fourth largest bank in the area. Footnote: In January, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan spoke at The Greenlining Institute's Economic Development Summit in Oakland and encouraged attendees to send the Fed ideas on how to promote development in underserved communities.

And, from 1998's "Minority groups oppose `Godzilla' bank merger":

NationsBank Corp. Chief Executive Hugh McColl and BankAmerica Corp. Chief Executive Officer David Coulter defended their planned $60 billion merger to opponents led by The Greenlining Institute, a San Francisco group that promotes economic development in low-income and minority communities...

Perhaps in anticipation of this sort of criticism, NationsBank and BankAmerica in May unveiled a $350 billion, 10-year community development lending program designed to comply with the Community Reinvestment Act, a 1977 federal law that directs banks to lend in all the communities where they collect deposits...

And, from 1996's "Bank watchdog pushes bounds of fair play":

... The Greenlining Institute, a San Francisco-based public advocacy group, has detected villainous behavior on the part of Sumitomo Bank. This week, Greenlining filed a complaint with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in San Francisco accusing Sumitomo's California subsidiary of discriminatory lending and hiring practices. The big losers, the complaint said, are African Americans and Latinos. The big winners, Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans...

Greenlining presented its allegations in its characteristic fashion, ambush-style. The nonprofit fired off copies of its complaint to the media, but neglected to deliver a copy to the bank. Thus, Sumitomo officials were in no position to issue a rebuttal and could only express lame surprise.

And Greenlining highlighted certain statistics that, while incriminating, were also misleading. It noted, for example, that of the 153 housing loans made by Sumitomo California in 1995, only one went to a black applicant. It neglected to point out that only five blacks applied for housing loans, and two of those applications were withdrawn.

Greenlining also blasted Sumitomo for failing to live up to a commitment it made three years ago -- to make $500 million in low-income and community-development loans to poor communities in the state. While those funds have not been dispersed, it's worth mentioning that the bank has another seven years to make good on its pledge.

In banking circles, the Greenlining Institute is sometimes referred to as the Greenmailing Institute -- based on the way it influences banks to use their money. Greenlining is able to leverage the bad publicity it creates for banks to further its goal; namely, increasing lending to minorities and low-income families, as outlined by the Community Reinvestment Act...

Posted to Immigration_dls at 09:02 PM | Comments (0)

It's like a BlogFight, but at a much higher level

Live! Tonight's fights are being broadcast live from the Rand Center in beautiful Manorland, New Hampshire!

Tonight's feature fight is doughty libertarian Cathy Young vs. sprightly liberal Eric Alterman!

In the undercard, Michael Young faces off against Justin Raimondo.

Let's get ready to rumble..... zzzzzzzzzzz......

Posted to Bloggage at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)

Mexican government makes startling discovery: jobs

Mexico has job plan for deportees:

The Mexican government hopes it has found a way to tackle its economic and immigration crises with a program to link its deported citizens with jobs in cities on the Mexican side of the border.
ADVERTISEMENT

The pilot project, dubbed Repatriados Desalentados, or Despondent Deportees, will seek to match migrants who fail in an attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border with employers willing to give them jobs or paid training in Mexico...

If a two-year experimental period is deemed successful, the program will be expanded along the entire border, he said.

The objective is to find a new way to curb the increase in dangerous illegal border crossings while pumping local economies with reliable workers.

"A lot of people bring with them the American dream in their heads," said Julian Anzaldua, who heads the labor department for Coahuila, which includes Piedras Negras. "But we want to show them that they still have a reason to dream about staying in Mexico..."

Posted to Immigration2005a at 10:56 AM | Comments (1)

End Times Watch: "Pair of Paintings of Dogs Playing Poker Fetches $________ in Auction"

The AP report "Pair of Paintings of Dogs Playing Poker Fetches $________ in Auction" informs us that this and a similar painting were recently sold at auction:

Now, guess how much they fetched. Answer in the extended entry.

-- SPOILER SPACE --






-- SPOILER SPACE --






-- SPOILER SPACE --






-- SPOILER SPACE --






-- SPOILER SPACE --






-- SPOILER SPACE --






-- SPOILER SPACE --






-- SPOILER SPACE --

"Pair of Paintings of Dogs Playing Poker Fetches $590,000 in Auction"

NEW YORK (AP) - A pair of paintings from the famed series depicting dogs playing poker fetched nearly $600,000 at auction Tuesday.

The two works - "A Bold Bluff" and "Waterloo" - were among 16 paintings that artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge was commissioned to create for a Minnesota-based advertising company in 1903. Of the 16, nine are of dogs playing poker...

Posted to WackyHumor at 08:32 PM | Comments (0)

BigMediaBlog.com is currently unavailable... back online

UPDATE: BigMediaBlog.com is back.

Posted to Bloggage at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

"Left-Wing Activist Poses as Reporter At White House Press Briefings"

Where, indeed, is the outrage?

WASHINGTON -- Accuracy in Media charged today that a liberal activist and associate of Ralph Nader has been obtaining access to White House press briefings while claiming to be a legitimate news reporter.

Russell Mokhiber, who sells a $795 a year newsletter that bashes corporations, attends the briefings to make obscure anti-Bush political points. Recently, for example, he asked spokesman Scott McClellan whether President Bush violated one of the Ten Commandments by invading Iraq. Mokhiber, who told AIM that he has never taken a journalism class in his life and was denied a permanent White House press pass, posts his ludicrous questions and answers on a far-left web site under the title "Scottie & Me."

Other Mokhiber topics have included industrial hemp, Israel's 1967 attack on the USS Liberty, possible war crimes charges against Bush, and Halliburton...

Now, logically, those same bloggers who scalped Jeff Gannon should be opposed to Mokhiber as well, no?

Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny too.

For instance, from 12/07/04, here's our own ODub's "Reporter Asks Actual Question":

A decent one from the crowd of lemmings in the WH press gaggle... [...quotes from Mokhiber's question at the link...]

Now, let's flashforward a few months to "Jeff Gannon is Gone..."

Details here. Where's Scotty McClellan gonna go for his softballs now?

[leaves a comment:]

To compare Helen Thomas to Gannon is laughable. She may be a kook, but she's no shill. As far as outing goes, when someone supports an anti-gay administration, I think that if they happen to be gay themselves it has some bearing on the issue at hand. In other words, if the GOP quit gaybashing, sexuality wouldn't be an issue.

Oh the hypocrisy.

Maybe we should ask MediaMatters if they're going to protest Mokhiber's appearances at press conferences. See "What is Talon News, and why does it have press credentials?"

And, see E&P's "'Gannon' Fodder: Real White House Reporters Weigh In":

...Several White House reporters told E&P they are concerned that Gannon�s ability to get into briefings, and even ask President Bush a question two weeks ago, suggests that it may be too easy for reporters to gain admission to the James S. Brady Briefing Room despite being from a purely partisan or bogus news organization...

But Herman, who has covered the White House on and off since 2001, said there are a number of reporters who show up from news organizations he's never heard of or offer questions as partisan as Gannon's, although in their cases, mostly likely, they are working under their real names. "There are times in that briefing room where I am hard-pressed to tell you who they are working for or who sees their reporting," Herman said...

...Several reporters pointed to Russell Mokhiber, editor of Corporate Crime Reporter, who has been attending press events through a daily press pass for several years. Some say he is as partisan as Gannon in his questions, but often with a left-leaning approach. One reporter called him "the ideological flip-side of Gannon..."

Posted to Politics at 01:45 PM | Comments (7)

Beam me up, Ward

Posted to Celebrities at 12:12 PM | Comments (1)

DiscoverTheNetwork.org

David Horowitz has a new website that offers a database of the connections between various "liberal" groups: DiscoverTheNetwork.org.

I haven't looked inside it yet because, in a bone-headed move, it requires you to signup to access just about anything. Of course, that will also affect search engines and direct linking, so perhaps they'll see the light at some future point in time. I'll check it out later on.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

"States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile"

Br'er Drudge is linking to the CBS News report "States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile", which apparently was on or will be on CBS's national broadcast. The report is pretty vapid.

For a more detailed story, see this blog's "Pop the top and blue sky with me". That's from three months ago.

Posted to Privacy at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

NYT editorial: "On Guard, America"

[also posted here]

The editorial "On Guard, America" says: "Eleven states grant [driver's licenses to illegal immigrants] as a way to encourage highway safety and accident insurance coverage."

That statement is disingenuous at best.

Consider, for instance, California. State Sen. Gil Cedillo has sponsored numerous bills to give DLs to illegal aliens. His supposed reason, repeated over and over, is for "public safety."

However, when you look at his other remarks you begin to get any idea what his real agenda is: "Actors, writers and musicians want you to pay all the costs for their cheap labor".

That link describes the recent Variety ad from Mike Farrell and others supporting DLs for illegal nannies.

Whether it's so their domestic help can drive across town to their jobs, or so illegal aliens can have ready access to Motor Voter forms, or because they've simply been paid off, much of the support for DLs for illegal aliens has nothing whatsoever to do with "public safety." Anyone who says that it's about "public safety" loses whatever credibility they might have once had.

Posted to Immigration_dls at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

The best DU post of all time?

OK, well maybe that's over selling it. But, judge for yourself over in today's DU category at BigMediaBlog.

Each day, BigMediaBlog has over a dozen threads where you can comment on posts at sites that don't have comments or that have restrictive comments policies: Insty, DailyKos, DU, TPM, Kausfiles, Sully, the MSM, and many more.

Posted to Bloggage at 12:43 AM | Comments (1)

US fights back against 'rule by clerics'

Put me in the "very skeptical but then again I wouldn't be surprised" category:

...there is a strong movement in southern Iraq for the establishment of autonomous Shi'ite provinces as a precursor to introducing vilayet-e-faqih (rule by the clergy) in the whole country...

To head off this threat of a Shi'ite clergy-driven religious movement, the US has, according to Asia Times Online investigations, resolved to arm small militias backed by US troops and entrenched in the population to "nip the evil in the bud".

Asia Times Online has learned that in a highly clandestine operation, the US has procured Pakistan-manufactured weapons, including rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, ammunition, rockets and other light weaponry. Consignments have been loaded in bulk onto US military cargo aircraft at Chaklala airbase in the past few weeks. The aircraft arrived from and departed for Iraq.

The US-armed and supported militias in the south will comprise former members of the Ba'ath Party, which has already split into three factions, only one of which is pro-Saddam Hussein. They would be expected to receive assistance from pro-US interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord...

Posted to Iraq at 12:40 AM | Comments (0)

"Death of [chemist] at treatment plant [in NJ] ruled a homicide"

PATERSON, N.J. - A woman whose body was found in a tank at a water treatment plant drowned and her death has been ruled a homicide, the Passaic County prosecutor said Monday.

Geetha Angara had been doing water quality tests Wednesday when she disappeared. A search found her body about 100 feet from where she was working, but her two-way radio and clipboard were found directly below the work area, which had a protective grate to prevent falls, Prosecutor James F. Avigliano said.

"That was where we think the woman was either pushed or shoved into this opening," Avigliano said...

An earlier report is here. She was a senior chemist and had a PhD from NYU, and her job was to calibrate the sensors dealing with water clarity. The grate in question was 3.5' x 4.5' and weighed fifty pounds. Investigators had previously considered the possibility that she could have accidently stepped onto a corner of the grate, and there were conflicting reports on the position of the grate when they decided to search the tank.

And, from this we learn, Angara was working on a 7-foot-wide corridor that runs between a cement wall lined with instruments and the water tank...

From Body of a Missing Chemist Is Found in a Water Tank we learn:

Around 10 a.m., she was last seen leaving her lab to calibrate some water testing equipment at one of the storage tanks, the Passaic County prosecutor, James Avigliano, said Wednesday. Her purse, cellphone and coat were discovered at the treatment plant, and a broken beaker was also found, he said...

There doesn't appear to be much information on her in google, just a couple references to conferences and such. Was this just a garden-variety homicide, or something else? Could she have spotted someone trying to put something into the water? Apparently there are no surveillance cameras in the area where she was.

Note from the wilderness: Steve Quayle adds her as #54 in his list of dead scientists. Previous spooky coverage starts here.

UPDATE: The DUmmies weigh in.

UPDATE 2: Of course, there might be a more prosaic explanation:

... Inspectors with the State Department of Labor have cited the plant for 55 violations since 2000, department spokesman Robert Corrales said.

The violations include improper handrails on sludge tanks and stairways, stored materials blocking an aisle, improper covers over an electrical box and broken grates over a drain. Those grates were in a separate part of the complex from where Angara was found, records show.

All the violations have been fixed and none is outstanding, Corrales said.

Ernest Landante, a spokesman for the water commission, said the area in which Angara was found has been rebuilt since the violations were issued. He said the plant has an ongoing safety program that enlists a dozen consultants...

UPDATE 3: The NYT article wasn't clear on this point, but from an earlier WABC report:

Angara had gone into the rarely visited area of the plant yesterday morning to calibrate an instrument and to take a water sample. Our camera aren't allowed inside the plant but investigators tell us that shards of a broke beaker were found near the metal grate that is supposed to keep people from falling into 35 feet of icy water in the tank.

Posted to Miscellania at 10:51 PM | Comments (1)

A Jeff Gannon sandwich

Dr. Marshall explains.

Posted to Politics at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)

More on Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. [R-VA]'s attempt to prevent social security for illegal aliens

Most "liberals" won't touch this issue, but at least a few conservatives will. From "A new immigration dispute":

WASHINGTON -- A Virginia Republican and some other foes of President Bush's immigration policy are seizing on a hot issue -- Social Security solvency -- to wield on the immigration front.

5th District Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. of Franklin County last week introduced a resolution telling President Bush not to submit for congressional approval an agreement with Mexico.

The pact "negatively impacts the Social Security system . . . and puts America's seniors at risk," the resolution stated. Goode was backed by 27 co-sponsors...

See the previous coverage of social security for illegal aliens.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 08:22 PM | Comments (1)

Former MX Prez Zedillo accused of crimes against humanity

From this:

Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo GRD '81, the director of Yale's Center for the Study of Globalization, denied on Sunday accusations that surfaced late last week that he committed crimes against humanity by supporting murderous paramilitary gangs during his six-year term as president.

Yale officials are standing behind Zedillo, supporting the economist who served as president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000 before taking over the directorship of the Globalization Center in 2002. A human rights organization in Mexico has accused Zedillo of secretly sponsoring the creation and training of paramilitary groups to mitigate the threat to his government posed by the anti-government Zapatista National Liberation Army...

...Yale officials called the claims groundless and said they will not take any action against Zedillo...

...early in his presidency, Zedillo reneged on an Indian rights agreement he had reached with the Zapatistas -- a move likely prompted by "tremendous pressure" from conservative elements in the country -- and thus set the stage for a prolonged conflict with the Zapatista revolutionaries, said Harvard professor John Womack, a leading authority on Mexican history...

Although Womack said he does not believe Zedillo is personally responsible for the actions of paramilitary groups in Chiapas, he said Zedillo, in ordering the military to occupy the region, facilitated paramilitary operations...

An AP report is here, here, or here.

The Hartford Courant's "Yale Not Planning Action Over Zedillo Accusations" informs us that Amnesty International is not investigating these claims but does not outright dismiss them either.

MexiData has backstory here.

Meanwhile the Financial Times is recommending Zedillo for director-general of the WTO: "The cause of world trade demands a powerful patron". (Remember: the accent is on the last syllable.)

Californians might remember Zedillo's negative impact on our state, with the help of local lider Antonio Villaraigosa. From this:

On August 4, 1999, the page 1 headline in the LA Times read "Zedillo Key to End of Prop 187." It should have read - �Heads of State Impose Their Will on Citizens of California.� But no, instead Mexican President Zedillo gets headline kudos for playing a key role in ending Prop. 187. A foreign leader working to thwart the will of California voters?

And, if you go here, you can see Zedillo at a National Council of the Race conference saying the following:

"I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders..."

"We will not tolerate foreign forces dictating and enacting laws on Mexicans."

Moving on to the humorous bit from the first article:

The Mexican Student Organization at Yale declined to take an official stance on the allegations on Sunday. Irma Mejia '06, president of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan, a Chicano student group at Yale, was unavailable for comment.

She was probably out building Aztlan.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 08:17 PM | Comments (1)

Peace

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, dear liberals.

Peace.

Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya

You too! Singalong!

Someone's singing Lord, kumbaya
Someone's singing Lord, kumbaya
Someone's singing Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbayah

Let everyone hear you! Sing it loud enough for the world to hear!

Someone's laughing, Lord, kumbaya
Someone's laughing, Lord, kumbaya
Someone's laughing, Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya

You too! Yes, you in the back!

Someone's crying, Lord, kumbaya
Someone's crying, Lord, kumbaya
Someone's crying, Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya

Peace.

Posted to Politics at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)

L.A. Mayoral debate, Tues. 2/15 7am on KABC radio

...McIntyre in the Morning will present the candidates in a live forum to discuss the issues you care about most. Mayor James Hahn will be joined by rivals Bob Hertzberg, Richard Alarcon, Bernard Parks, Walter Moore and Antonio Villaraigosa. McIntyre in the Morning is heard weekdays from 5-9AM, the Conversation with the Candidates will begin at 7AM...

You can submit questions for the candidates using the address here.

Please suggest that the candidates get asked about their respective information at mayorno.com

Posted to Los_Angeles at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)

Top three DU threads of the day

They're highlighted in today's DU post at BigMediaBlog.

Leave your own comments about the day's posts from Insty, DailyKos, and a dozen more.

Posted to Bloggage at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)

Big Gannon story due tomorrow

Make sure you religiously refresh americablog.org tomorrow, as there will be a big Gannon scoop issuing forth on the morn.
Some kindly blogger offered these words of advice on their 'Hint 2' thread:

Whatever happens tomorrow, we must never forget that this story isn't just about gay military porn, no matter how tittilating that might be. This is about a GOP shill who was somehow involved with gay military porn, not just about gay military porn.

Sure, the gay porn bit is important. But, it's about much more than gay porn. It's about gay military porn too.

UPDATE: At least one person on that thread thought I was serious. Note: must dumb down satire.

I note also that the big expose is, er, up.

And, it's not about gay military porn. No, sirree. It's about gay military prostitution!

There is probably little chance the White House knew Gannon was possibly a former male prostitute. And, if Gannon had been a good "liberal", other "liberals" would support a former male prozzie in the WH press corps. As it is, they're going to allow the WH to issue a full (and truthful) denial of having known he was a prozzie. Karl Rove triumphs again!

Posted to Politics at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)

"NY Man Who Fell Down a Hill Inside a Portable Toilet Wins Day in Court"

Mark Fass reports:

A man who fell down a hill in a portable toilet may have a cause of action against the contractor that leased it, a state court has ruled.

Looking to either buy or sell dirt, plaintiff Joseph A. Fascenelli stopped by a construction site in Katonah...

Let's pause here while you finish your limerick.

...Mr. Fascenelli spoke with a laborer then asked to use the portable toilet. After entering, he felt the toilet tip outward. It fell down a hill, causing unspecified injuries. In addition, "[e]verything was exhausted from the pot on top of me," Mr. Fascenelli testified...

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)

Irony on the Border, Part 4

Tucked at the very end of Copley News' "House OKs bill aimed at paring illegal immigration" comes this bit:

Far from the raging debate over the Sensenbrenner bill, an article in the Mexican newspaper Milenio yesterday offered a different perspective. The paper noted that while the driver-license provision "has been seen by some Mexican political parties as an affront against Mexicans, in reality Mexico applies a similar requirement to foreigners who want to obtain driver's licenses."

See also the previous Irony on the Border pieces starting here.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 02:06 PM | Comments (3)

"In Black L.A., Reaction Is Strong but Complex" gets letters

The L.A. Times recently published an article about the shooting of a 13-year-old car theft suspect in South Central L.A. Here's the mailbox:

I live in South-Central Los Angeles and just spent the last two evenings at a combination of streetside memorials for Devin Brown and community meetings to plan how to respond to the latest killing by the Los Angeles Police Department...

If one city official had bothered to show up at the widely advertised protest meetings, he would have heard people's suggestions for what to do about the abysmal state of police-community relations. He would have heard unanimous approval of an economic boycott of Los Angeles until the police department, whose policy promotes the beating and killing of poor people of color, is held accountable... [etc. etc. etc.]

Marian Sunde

Los Angeles

Intrigued, I googled her name and came up with this. If that's the same person, she was a candidate for the Peace & Freedom party a few years ago:

The Peace and Freedom Party, founded in 1967, is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism and racial equality. We represent working class people: the employed, the unemployed, people on welfare, the undocumented, the homeless, the incarcerated, retired workers, students and youth, and armed forces enlisted people, of all ethnicities, religions, languages, cultures and sexual orientations -- those without capital in a capitalist society.

Nothing wrong with that, I'm just providing that little bit of extra info.

Another letter about this isn't so bad, but the third is embarrasingly bleeding-hearted.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 02:04 PM | Comments (1)

The key to the Gannon scandal

[Cross-posted to today's DU thread at BigMediaBlog]

Consider the June 16, 2003 article "Public Citizen Condemns Appointment of Corporate Lobbyist as Republican Party Chief":

WASHINGTON, D.C. � By appointing Ed Gillespie, a leading corporate lobbyist, to head the Republican National Committee, President Bush has opened a conduit for Corporate America to strengthen its already formidable influence in the White House and Congress, Public Citizen said today.

The lobbying firm Gillespie co-founded in 2000, Quinn, Gillespie & Associates, has grown into one of the capital�s most lucrative, in part because of Gillespie�s strong ties to the Bush administration...

"The party chief is in a unique position to help friends and punish enemies," Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook said. "This is just one more step in the merger of the Republican Party and Corporate America. Ed Gillespie is a richly rewarded lobbyist who greased the wheels in Congress and the White House for Enron, one of the most crooked companies in U.S. history. And now he�s at the head of the GOP. That should tell citizens where President Bush�s interests lie..."

Now, consider the DU - yes, DU - thread "I think I found the Key to the Gannon scandal!"

Jeff Gannon worked for Talon News. Talon News and GOPUSA both belong to Bobby Eberle. The members of the board of directors are mostly active GOP Operatives from Texas.

Board member, Richard M. Powell is the Managing Director for Quinn Gillespie & Assoc. LLC...

Gillespie is none other than Ed Gillespie who was on a 'leave of absence' running the RNC for the 2004 Election.

But hang on folks, this doesn't involve just the GOP, it involves the DEMS too!

So who is Quinn, in this Quinn, Gillespie? Surprise, surprise he is a fellowed name Jack Quinn, a top DEM DC lobbyist.

Check out the News Page on their Website. This goes all the way to the Bush Campaign and the Kerry Campaign! They are all in bed together.

With much heaviness of heart, I must admit the DUmmies might have a point.

Posted to Politics at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)

JimHahn.org wins national "award"

Believe it or don't:

Mayor Jim Hahn today announced that his campaign Web site -- www.jimhahn.org - received the Pollie Award for best Web site by a city, municipal, or regional candidate. The annual Pollie Awards are sponsored by the American Association of Political Consultants...

...The Hahn campaign Web site was designed in collaboration with Constituents Direct, a locally-based Internet firm that specializes in political Web sites and e-communication.

I alread pointed out in "I want to be %OFFICE_NAME% of %CITY_NAME% in %YEAR%!" that his site not only look generic, it appears to be based on a generic template. Methinks these awards are closer to "awards."

Despite that, this blog supports Hahn for Mayor. The alternatives would be far, far worse.

See also the post "Bob Hertzberg Cyber-stalks Opponents on Google". If anyone deserves a web award it's Bob Hertzberg. Your blogger volunteered to set up a blog for Hahn but after a couple phone calls no request was forthcoming. Maybe next cycle we'll see the end of candidates who just don't get this 'Net thing.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)

Not-so-FreeRepublic.com

Apparently there's been a purge over at FreeRepublic.com and several posters have been banned. Those posters were also opposed to Bush's guest worker program. Did the bannings result from things like posting links to "fringe" sites like VDare.com and TeamAmericaPAC.org, or has FR become just an echo chamber for BushBots? While some of the opinions at VDare are fringe, many are not. And, TeamAmericaPAC is associated with Rep. Tom Tancredo and Bay Buchanan. For point of discussion, what other group of people wants to silence Rep. Tancredo?

Perhaps as a result of these bannings, there are now very few posts concerning immigration at FR. That might be due to other factors, or it might be due to the banning. One of the main posters of immigration articles was gubamyster. He might be busy, or he might have been banned.

One of the organizations that was banned is ALIPAC, and you can read their response here. There are a large number of comments about this here.

FreeRepublic posted ALIPAC's complaint here, generating over a thousand replies.

There are other posts about ALIPAC's banning here and here. And, this isn't the first time people have complained about purges at FR.

As for myself, I believe I still have posting privileges, although that might change at any moment.

In the past, one of my posts was decorated with the tag "buchanantroll". That was for a cross-post of Bush admits: "I was wrong about amnesty."

One of the leading open borders cheerleaders over at FreeRepublic is 'bayourod' who, I believe, has admitted to hiring illegal workers. He - along with others such as Dane or PRND21 - frequently step in to threads about immigration and serve as the unofficial administration spokesperson. Here's a typical bayourod comment, which I noted in this post:

Obviously factually incorrect. Faris sounds like a textbook case of a xenophobe. Since he hates "rich" people who live in gated communities and enjoy golf, he probably is in a lower income class and fears competition from immigrant laborers willing to work longer and harder than him.

As far as I know, bayourod and the other open borders cheerleaders still have posting privileges at FR.

I was temporarily banned in the past, supposedly for posting swear words. They weren't my swear words, they were in a quote from someone else. The moderators didn't respond to my request for clarification in that case, so I don't know exactly what the issue was.

I posted "The Feds threatened L.A. radio station KFI?" at FR in June of last year. Now, one would think this is an important story. After all, if the federal government is threatening media outlets, shouldn't conservatives be concerned? Despite that, it was moved to their "Bloggers & Personal" section, aka the cheap seats. Despite that it got dozens of replies. The first comment to my post explains why it was moved:

The reason your posting on freerepublic was moved is because you posting something that is negative against the Bush Admin. Remember, it doesn't matter if they are conservative, all that matters is they have a R by there name.

And, another thread I posted had its title decorated by a friendly moderator:

Hint: my original post didn't have the "[Barf! MARXIST PROPAGANDA]" bit. And, this story later turned out to be completely true: "Immigration issue yanked off GOP agenda".

To summarize: FR has not yet reached the level of KoolAidCentral, but they're getting closer every day. Take what you read there with a very large grain of salt.

Posted to Politics at 12:04 PM | Comments (3)

Mike Malloy + Ward Churchill = magic

Live coverage of Ward Churchill on Air America's Mike Malloy show commences at 10pm Pacific here.

Posted to Bloggage at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)

OPRAH'S COMING TO TOWN...CAN YOU HOOK ME UP?

Spotted on Craigslist:

That's right...Oprah is coming to Hollywood next week. I've been trying to connect with her...it's been very difficult as you can imagine.

I have something which can help a large percentage of the women in the world, but it's alternative, and people aren't listening, yet.

You don't have to actually hook me up with Oprah, I know that's a tall order! But how about one of her people?...certainly she has a gang of producers, directors, publicists, etc. in her caravan. I only need 5 minutes with someone who has direct contact with oprah.

How would you like to help humanity and make a few bucks at the same time?
Get me an appointment, I'll pay you $100.00 for your effort. If I actually appear on the show, and it's televised, there's another $1000.00 in it for you.

Really, you'll be doing more for humanity than you'll ever know (beyond the scope of the benefits you'll see on the surface).

If you can't hook me up, maybe you'd be nice enough to share any information you might have with me...such as, rehearsal times, where she's staying? anything.

Thank you and many blessings to all who read this.

Posted to WackyHumor at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)

Hertzberg gets Riordan endorsement in race for L.A. mayor

From this:

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan endorsed the mayoral campaign of Bob Hertzberg on Thursday, saying he favored the former state Assembly speaker's plan to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Riordan, who now serves as the state secretary of education, appeared on KFI-AM's "The John and Ken Show" and praised Hertzberg's plans for education and traffic, including a platform to allow more residents to work from home...

Riordan's announcement was not entirely unexpected, since he is close to Hertzberg and his wife, Nancy Daly Riordan, already serves as a co-chairwoman of the Hertzberg campaign. Still, the move was a switch from the 2001 election, when Riordan backed then-candidate Antonio Villaraigosa in the runoff against Hahn...

Hahn campaign adviser Kam Kuwata [said] Hahn has been "opposed by Riordan through much of his public life."

"I hope (Riordan) spends two days touring Los Angeles saying Hertzberg's the guy, since that did such a great service to Antonio in 2001," he added...

Of course, what the article doesn't mention is that Bob Hertzberg is a board member of MALDEF, an organization that I consider explicitly anti-American.

More on MALDEF here, here, and here.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)

"Sometimes when you are on the cutting edge, you get caught"

SUTTER, Calif. (AP) - The only grade school in this rural town is requiring students to wear radio frequency identification badges that can track their every move. Some parents are outraged, fearing it will take away their children's privacy.

The badges introduced at Brittan Elementary School on Jan. 18 rely on the same radio frequency and scanner technology that companies use to track livestock and product inventory. Similar devices have recently been used to monitor youngsters in some parts of Japan...

"Sometimes when you are on the cutting edge, you get caught," [principal and superintendent of the single-school district Earnie Graham] said, recounting the angry phone calls and notes he has received from parents...

"This is not Mayberry. This is Sutter, California. Bad things can happen here," said Tim Crabtree, an area parent.

Wired has a better article on this issue here. There appears to be an incestuous financial relationship involved. The SJ Merc editorializes on this in "Big Brother herds sheep".

(Via this)

Posted to Privacy at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)

DHS to build fences anywhere at any time, even committing mass murder to do so?

Don't laugh at the title because, in the "liberal" coordinate system, it's true.

However, in the real world, it isn't. The blog of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, after linking to Duncan B. Black, quotes the following from a "Judiciary Committee source" about the REAL ID Act, which was today passed by the House:

Section 102 of the Immigration Bill that passed today provides that "notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws" he determines necessary to construct barriers and fences.

Consider what this means. Not only can the Secretary waive environmental, labor and laws concerning Native American rights in connection with the construction of the 17 mile fence near San Diego, but this allows him to waive all laws concerning the construction of any fence at any time!! This means the Administration can take property without compensation, engage in direct cash payoffs to themselves and their friends, hire child labor, violate the civil rights laws, and even murder people if they think it would help them construct a barrier fence somewhere, anywhere in America...

I left the following comment:

Wow. I had no idea that the DHS can now build fences anywhere at any time that they wish.

I'm sure we'll now see a whole plethora of fences being built, including mass murders being committed.

Wait, that can't be right, because this only applies to this section. See "Improvement of Barriers at Border".

Could the opposition to this bill have anything to do with "liberals" supporting illegal immigration, some of them going as far as trying to get Mexico to meddle in our internal politics?

Gil Cedillo (sponsor of innumerable bills in California to give DLs to illegal aliens) said we should give DLs to illegal aliens because "they were here first." Do "liberals" agree with those sentiments? If so, perhaps they should reconsider their citizenship options.

In other words, this new law only applies to the San Diego fence. And, of
course, any cases of mass murder would probably get a little media attention, so I don't expect we'll be seeing mass murders to build fences in the near future.

Is the DCCC willing to stake their reputation on the word of Duncan B. Black or this unnamed source? Let's wait and see.

Posted to Politics at 06:43 PM | Comments (6)

SaveOurLicense didn't file their financial paperwork

** LONEWACKO WORLD EXCLUSIVE. MUST CREDIT LONEWACKO.COM **

From the article "State has no campaign finance documents for 'Save our License'":

A committee trying to bar undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses has failed to report how much money its campaign has raised, according to the California Secretary of State.

The Secretary of State's Political Reform Division is investigating the Save Our License committee, an organization that has collected money and signatures since October 2003 to place various anti-illegal immigration measures on the ballot.

The group, which claims it has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars since it organized in October 2003, has not filed a single campaign finance report with the state - a violation of state campaign finance rules, according to the Secretary of State's office...

I just called Save Our License, and, according to Mike Spence, no filing was done, due to a miscommunication between their treasurer and the company doing the filing. They've sent a letter saying they'll file the necessary paperwork. He said that they aren't under investigation.

I said, "so this isn't a Shelley shenanigan." He said no, but that might change depending on how the Secretary of State handles this matter.

NOTE: The AP has a similar report under the title "Anti-illegal immigrant group may have broken state finance rules". As one would expect, it uses "anti-illegal immigrant" instead of "anti-illegal immigration" and, naturally, "undocumented" instead of "illegal."

Posted to Immigration2005a at 04:05 PM | Comments (0)

Over 650 suspected terrorists arrested trying to come in from Mexico in 2004

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Christopher Cox (R-CA) delivered the following remarks during today's news conference on the REAL ID Act:

...

"Border agents have reported an increased number of individuals from countries of national security interest -- countries known to harbor terrorists -- who have been smuggled recently across our borders.

"In 2004, border patrol agents arrested over 650 suspected terrorists from countries of national security interest trying to cross the southern border, and they expect the number will rise this year...

Posted to Immigration_terror at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

The Microbiologist Mystery gets weirder and weirder

Consider, if you will, the case of former Shelby County Tennessee medical examiner O.C. Smith. On June 2, 2002, in a case similar in style to the pizza bomb case, he was found wrapped in barbed wire, with a motion-sensitive bomb attached to his chest, and sprayed with a lye solution.

He had received death threats in the past, but federal agents say he did it himself. His trial began Tuesday:

...Psychiatrist Park Dietz, who has worked on the cases of Jeffrey Dahmer, the D.C.-area snipers and "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, is expected to testify that Smith's behavior characterized "factitious victimization disorder," a term Dietz coined for the case.

Sufferers of factitious disorder fake illness to gain attention and sympathy...

[...previous threats against Smith were sent and a previous bomb were found...]

Not only has Dietz never examined Smith, but the psychiatrist's false testimony caused the Texas Supreme Court to overturn the conviction of child killer Andrea Yates in January.

During Yates' 2002 trial, Dietz said that Yates drowned her five children after seeing a similar crime on the television show "Law and Order." However, no such episode existed...

Now, here's where it gets even weirder:

Dr. Smith had been working on two high-profile cases: the death of Harvard University microbiologist Don Wiley, who supposedly fell from a Memphis bridge in December, 2001, and helped identify the body of Katherine SMITH, a state driver's license examiner who was found burned beyond recognition in February 2002, a day before a hearing on federal charges of helping five Middle Eastern men obtain fake driver's licenses. Dr. Smith reportedly received a series of death threat letters early in 2001.

There's more on the series of events that would have had to have happened for Smith's explanation of Wiley's death to have taken place here, and there are references to news reports about these cases here. Previous coverage of the mysterious deaths of microbiologists and other scientists starts here.

Posted to Miscellania at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)

Who exactly does Gloria Molina work for?

I'm left wondering after reading the article "Supervisors tangle over ID card fraud":

In a rare dramatic exchange between Los Angeles County supervisors, board Chairwoman Gloria Molina said Tuesday she was insulted by a colleague's contention that matricula consular cards can be misused for fraudulent or even terrorist purposes...

[...Supervisor Mike Antonovich wants to rescind acceptance of the cards...]

"I find it personally insulting that Supervisor Antonovich wants to load this issue up with every ill and problem in our society," Molina said. "There is no doubt, I know, that you find this as an opportunity to pounce on certain individuals."

Molina also accused Antonovich of violating the law by possessing a fraudulent ID issued by the Mexican consulate...

...The board defeated Antonovich's motion, voting instead to continue accepting the cards at libraries, health clinics and other county facilities. The motion also calls on the county to train its employees to recognize fraudulent cards...

As detailed in "Their money or your safety" whether someone is here legally or illegally is of no interest when they apply for a Matricula Consular card.

That post also contains the following:

Last June, before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Steve McCraw, assistant director of the FBI's Office of Intelligence, said that the bureau and the Justice Department have concluded that the card is not a reliable means of identification. McCraw warned that the "ability of foreign nationals to use the matricula consular to create a well-documented, but fictitious, identity in the United States provides an opportunity for terrorists to move freely in the United States without triggering name-based watch lists that are disseminated to local police officers. It also allows them to board planes without revealing their true identity."

Note that that excerpt is from the same paper that published the current article.

And, for a blast from Molina's past, here's part of a speech from 1996:

...Because tonight we are organizing across this country in a single mission, in a plan. We're going to organize like we've never organized before... we are politicizing every single one of those new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country.

And what we are saying is by November we will have one million additional Latino voters in this country, and we are going to march... And our vote is going to be important. But I gotta tell you that a lot of people are saying, 'I'm going to go out there and vote because I want to PAY THEM BACK!'...

There's much more information about her at the last link.

It's extraordinarily rich - to say the least - that Molina would seek to make something about Antonovich possessing a card someone else sent him when her rules will allow thousands of illegal aliens to live and work in L.A. County just as if they were here legally.

Is Molina confused over which country she's working for?

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:40 AM | Comments (1)

New Border Agents: 10,000 promised, 210 proposed

Budget scraps 98% of new border agents: Less than two months ago, President Bush signed a law to add 10,000 new Border Patrol agents... Bush's proposal to fund just 210 agents will result in an actual loss of agents...

See also the longer article "Belt-tightening cuts border plans":

...The law signed by Bush had a loophole that went virtually unreported at the time. A summary, published by the Senate Government Affairs Committee, required the government to increase the number of Border Patrol agents by at least 2,000 per year "subject to available appropriations."

Democrats were unhappy that the proposed budget used the escape clause so soon after the president approved the huge boost in border agents.

"We know we must do more to shore up security along our borders, " said Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, top Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. "The president's budget does not even attempt to meet this challenge."

Some Republicans also were displeased.

"This is an area of homeland security that needs to be ramped up in order to increase surveillance and patrols of our nation's vast and often remote borders," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee...

They apparently think we have short memories, but at least they're singing a new tune, albeit probably temporarily.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)

Mexican official: Mexico violates migrants' rights

From this:

[Mexico's] human rights ombudsman said Tuesday that Mexico is guilty of abuses toward undocumented migrants bound for the United States, contradicting the recent positive appraisal by a U.N. official.

"Examinations of immigration facilities reveal that some of those installations display anomalies that are so serious they constitute an open assault on the dignity and fundamental human rights of the people held there," said a statement from the Human Rights Commission, or CNDH.

That agency, headed by Jos� Luis Soberanes, said its view differs from a recent upbeat assessment of the treatment of migrants in Mexico offered by the U.N. special rapporteur for immigrants' rights, Gabriela Rodr�guez Pizarro...

That rapporteur was last featured here in the post "Mexico files human rights complaint against U.S. to the United Nations".

Based on the small amount of research I did in that post, I'm not surprised to find that there's a "discrepancy."

See also the two "Irony on the Border" posts. Mexico already has a law similar to Arizona's Prop. 200, and residents of a Mexican state aren't happy with migration by Indians from other parts of Mexico to... do the jobs Mexicans won't do.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)

Tucson Citizen: Bush budget shirks border responsibility

"Our Opinion: Bush budget shirks border responsibility":

Yes, drastic steps must be taken if the burgeoning federal budget is to be brought under control.

But the $2.6 trillion budget proposed this week by President Bush shirks a major responsibility of the federal government - the responsibility to control the border.

Instead of cutting costs, Bush has proposed that the costs be shifted - to the states, counties and cities along the U.S.-Mexico border. That is blatantly unfair to Arizona, to Pima County and to Tucson...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)

"[CA] should not pay to clean up immigration"

OCRegister:

It seems only fair that if the federal government can't or won't stop illegal immigration, it should at least help states pay for the costs that its failure imposes on them. And yet, every year the feds seem to do less about controlling illegal immigration while at the same time trying to fork over less money for the problems it causes.

Consider the Bush administration's proposed budget that would eliminate funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program.

The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, or SCAAP, was designed to help reimburse state and local governments for the cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants who are convicted of state crimes after entering this country...

...Last year, Congress and the administration cut the funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program by almost half, to $301 million nationally, with $120 million going to California. Last year, the California Department of Corrections received just $77 million from SCAAP - which was only a little more than a tenth of what criminal aliens cost our state prison system.

Now in his proposed budget, President Bush wants to eliminate the SCAAP money...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:34 AM | Comments (0)

How Much Is that Tomato in the Window?

The next time someone suggests that we need illegal aliens to pick our produce or lettuce would go to five dollars a head, please refer them to this 1996 study by a Professor of Economics and Agricultural Economics at Iowa State University:

How Much Is that Tomato in the Window?
Retail Produce Prices Without Illegal Farmworkers

The removal of illegal workers from the seasonal agricultural workforce would increase the summer-fall supermarket prices of fresh fruits and vegetables by about 6 percent in the short run and 3 percent in the intermediate term. During the winter-spring seasons, prices would rise more than 3 percent in the short term and less then 2 percent in the intermediate term. Imports would increase about 1 percent...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:09 AM | Comments (1)

Prop. 200 for Colorado

From this:

Twenty-one House Republicans signed on to a bill introduced Monday that would bar illegal immigrants from state benefits such as lower college tuition and health care.

House Bill 1271 would allow state or county services only to people who are legal U.S. residents...

See also the similar effort in Arkansas.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 10:35 PM | Comments (1)

Heimdall, Loki. Loki, Heimdall

The mythologizing of Our Leader continues as he faces his adversaries high above the Sunset Strip.

In a way, this is even worse than this pre-election billboard:

Posted to Politics at 09:17 PM | Comments (0)

BulgeGate 24/7

I don't know whether to put this in the Politics, WackyHumor, or FreudianAdmission category, but Editor & Publisher is giving some more time to freelance writer David Lindorff's quixotic quest:

NEW YORK "It's just as important a story after the election, and they've dropped it," says freelance writer David Lindorff, referring to the alleged bulge under President Bush�s suit jacket during the first presidential debate late fall. Lindorff�s take on how, and why, The New York Times killed a story on the controversy just before the November election gained wide attention this week after it was published in Extra!, a magazine produced by the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting...

According to Lindorff's timetable, the Times postponed the Bulgegate story from the day it was initially slotted, the Tuesday before the election, until Thursday, five days before the election, when it was more likely to be deemed too late. "Five days before an election is enough time for a seasoned political machine to respond,� he said...

I suppose there's a difference between something that might affect an election, and deliberately seeking to affect an election. Lindorff, and perhaps E&P, seem to favor the latter.

Posted to Politics at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)

"DeLay Sees Chance of Immigration Deal"

Time to phone, FAX, and email:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 - Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader, said Tuesday that conservatives might be able to compromise with President Bush on his proposal allowing illegal immigrants to work in the United States legally.

Such a compromise could entail, for example, requiring illegal immigrants to return to their native countries to apply for the program, Mr. DeLay said...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)

Dueling over a scar

The TransTexas Corridor appears to be closer to reality:

AUSTIN - Farmers oppose it, metro area officials are upset about it and now state lawmakers have their own concerns about the Trans Texas Corridor, Gov. Rick Perry's $184 billion plan to build megahighways around the state.

While the Legislature would seem unlikely to put the brakes on Perry's ambitious transportation plan, lawmakers appear willing to start tinkering with policies regarding tolls, eminent domain and just how wide the corridor will be.

"Change brings about cause for concern," said Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security.

"We know there's a mobility crisis in Texas today," Staples said Wednesday. "The status quo won't do. Change must occur. We want change to occur in the most user-friendly manner as possible..."

The CSM states their opposition to this plan in "Supersized Highways". NPR has an interview with a Dallas Morning News reporter about it here.

Previous coverage is here. Especially see the links in the first comment, such as to CorridorWatch.

Posted to Miscellania at 06:08 PM | Comments (0)

Social security for illegal aliens meeting resistance

WashTimes:

...Two members of Congress will try to block an agreement that the Bush administration signed with Mexico that would allow Mexicans who have worked in the United States, including some illegal immigrants, to receive Social Security payments.

Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., Virginia Republican, will introduce a resolution today calling on the president not to submit the agreement to Congress.

And Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, has prepared another resolution to block the deal, called a totalization agreement, if and when the administration submits it to Congress...

...C. McClain Haddow, chairman of the policy council for the Seniors Coalition, said his organization has collected 387,000 petitions from its members opposing the deal with Mexico...

See the previous coverage of social security for illegal aliens.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 06:02 PM | Comments (0)

"Spain starts illegal immigration amnesty"

EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS - Madrid's decision to grant an amnesty to illegal immigrants living and working in the country is set to have consequences well beyond Spain.

The amnesty, which is likely to affect up to one million immigrants, began on Monday (7 February).

Over the coming three months, Madrid will accept applications from immigrants who can prove that they have been in Spain for at least six months and who have a job.

The government's aim is to get some control over the country's illegal immigration problem.

But Madrid's move could have consequences for the rest of Europe as granting Spanish residency to the immigrants means that they would have the right to live and work anywhere in the European Union...

So, they want to get a handle on illegal immigration by... showing that they're an easy touch for illegal immigrants? Won't that just encourage more illegal immigrants to come? Won't that lead to the "need" for yet another amnesty? Rinse, repeat.

And, as the rest of the article describes, the other EU countries are less than pleased about yet another capitulation by Spain.

Please read up on al Andalus to get an idea of where this is all eventually heading. See also "Immigration [to Europe] as a Trojan horse to expand jihad".

Posted to Immigration_euro at 06:01 PM | Comments (3)

Multicultural Madness!

The February edition of WND's magazine Whistleblower is all about multiculturalism. I guess it's only available by subscription, although it might be at newsstands or at libraries.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 05:55 PM | Comments (0)

Feds try to stiff Arizona; Arizona sends Feds bill

From 2/8's "Budget sticks county with migrant costs: President Bush proposes cutting all federal reimbursement for detaining illegal immigrants":

Pima County taxpayers would have to shoulder all the local costs to detain illegal immigrants under President Bush's proposed budget.

The budget, released yesterday, kills the $305 million program that helps states and counties offset the costs of keeping illegal immigrants behind bars.

Last year, Pima County received just under $750,000 from the program.

The cut adds "insult to injury, the injury being we don't get reimbursed nearly at cost," said Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry...

From that same day's "Arizona governor demands reimbursement for immigrant criminals":

PHOENIX � Gov. Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday that she has billed the federal government for nearly $118 million in unreimbursed costs for imprisoning illegal immigrants who committed crimes in Arizona.

If the federal government doesn't pay, it should take custody of some 3,600 immigrant criminals now in state prisons, Napolitano said in a letter sent last week to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Napolitano released the letter � and copies of two invoices sent with it � one day after President Bush proposed eliminating funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. The program is supposed to reimburse state and local jurisdictions for costs involved in incarcerating immigrants convicted of a crime.

Justice Department spokesman Eric Holland had no immediate comment on Napolitano's demand...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 05:48 PM | Comments (1)

"Andean Storm Troopers"

What? First I've heard of this:

While President Bush�s sweeping vision of worldwide democracy was never more vividly conveyed than in his recent inaugural speech, he has thus far failed to acknowledge an alarming anti-democratic movement festering within America�s own hemisphere: the increased radicalization of Indians in South America�s Andean region and their assumption of anti-democratic, reactionary and strikingly fascistic attitudes. This trend is increasingly powerful in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru and, if not dealt with quickly, will lead to the region�s collapse into a political, economic and social Stone Age, posing a danger to the entire world.

In addition to their vocal opposition to capitalism, the United States and democracy�all characteristics that explain their close ties to the Left in their countries as well as to the Chavez regime in Venezuela and to Castro�s Cuba�these movements are also openly racist. Indeed, they advocate a return to the pre�Columbian Inca state, with the European cultural and ethnic (i.e. �white�) additions removed�by force. In any other circumstance, the combination of racism and historic nostalgia would instantly produce cries of fascism from the politically correct Left. But, not surprisingly, it views the situation in South America far differently�after all, to the Left, the �oppressed� races cannot be racist, only the white �oppressors� can and are...

Posted to MultiCultiCult at 05:38 PM | Comments (0)

"North Korea wants Czech ban of 'Team America'"

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - North Korea's embassy in Prague has demanded that the film "Team America: World Police" be banned in the Czech Republic, saying the movie harms their country's reputation, a report said Saturday...

Posted to Celebrities at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

Tying up the loose ends on Colorado's guide for the illegal alien

Colorado recently removed from its website a guide that gives tips for illegal aliens living in Colorado. Those involved in producing the guide included, to varying degrees: the Mexican government, the Colorado Department of Education, Colorado Gov. Owens, various "immigrant's rights" groups, and First Data/Western Union.

Rep. Tom Tancredo complained about the guide and caused it to be removed from Colorado's site. This, of course, caused the other side to fire up their race-baiting and strike back. From a group called ProgressNow:

Colorado Department of Education Vice-Chairman asks:
Does Gov. Owens Support Rep. Tancredo's anti-immigration/anti-Bush policy?

The same week that Rep. Tom Tancredo took his anti-immigration pledge on the road to New Hampshire, Governor Owens played lackey to Rep. Tom Tancredo, jumping to action when Rep. Tancredo demanded that a guide for immigrants be taken off the Colorado Department of Education's website. The Congressman demanded, and Gov. Owens did as he was told...

Coloradans, including Jared Polis, Vice-Chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education found the Governor's action unwarranted. "Governor Owens' action furthering Congressman Tancredo's far right agenda was completely inappropriate," stated Polis. "Tancredo's hateful venom is now affecting his Republican colleagues," Polis added.

Michael Huttner, Executive Director of ProgressNow.Org , said because of the Governor's actions concerning the website, Owens needs to clarify his stand: "Does Governor Bill Owens join Rep. Tancredo in his extremist views on closing American borders and using the military to enforce that closure? Does Gov. Owens support Rep. Tancredo's racist, anti-immigrant agenda? Does Gov. Owens really believe that Latino and other immigrants are 'coming across our borders to kill you and your children.'" [Footnote 2]...

...ProgressNow.Org Executive Director Michael Huttner calls for the Governor and the rest of Colorado Republicans to make their positions clear: Either they disavow Tancredo and what the Wall Street Journal Editorial board called his "exploit[ation of] the terror attacks to advance [his] anti-immigration agenda...." [Footnote 3] or their silence stands as tacit approval of Tancredo's extremist views...

Footnotes:
2: Tancredo quoted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution 2/03/04
3: Wall Street Journal Editorial 3/18/02

First, let's put Tancredo's statement from Footnote 2 into its proper context:

Paper: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA)
Title: Panelists denounce illegal immigrants
Author: RICK BADIEStaff
Date: February 3, 2004
Section: Gwinnett
Page: JJ2

..."If Republicans don't do something about the border, Republicans can't say we're doing all we can to protect you," U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo told a standing-room-only audience at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Atlanta.

"They are looking for jobs, yes, but there are people coming into this country to kill you and your children. Maintaining the borders are essential to our survival."

Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, joined U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal of Gainesville and Rick Oltman, a field representative for the Federation for American Immigration Reform to talk about illegal immigration before about 300 people...

Obviously, his full quote shouldn't be shocking to anyone with any sense. Given ProgressNow's baseless smears and selective quoting, is there any reason to believe anything this organization says?

And, why would a supposedly "progressive" organization be on the same side of as issue as the Wall Street Journal, a paper that wants open borders in order to keep the price of labor as low as possible? The Wall Street Journal's goals certainly seem closer to feudalism than "progress." However, they and ProgressNow do share something in common: yellow journalism.

To tie all of this together, Colorado's guide for illegal aliens was produced by the Colorado State Board of Education, of which Jared Polis is the Vice-Chairman. Jared Polis is an internet m/billionaire who founded ProFlowers.com and BlueMountain.com, two sites that you might want to avoid. (Assuming pending further information that he's still involved with them). Polis apparently spent a great deal of money to gain his seat, and is trying to bring others with him.

For more information on him, see Polis's Eminem Fan Letter Embarrasses Democrats and Millionaires' Initiatives Fall With A Thud

There's apparently some connection between Polis, Huttner ("Executive Director of ProgressNow.Org"), and the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network. Polis appears to be a contributor to ProgressNow.org.

So, it all kind of ties together nicely, doesn't it?

This isn't the first time that Tancredo has come under attack from these people or their associates. See Tancredo now in cross hairs of attack ads

Thankfully, as can be seen above, showing the readers of ProgressNow that they're being misled should be particularly easy, akin to excercising with half-pound weights. They don't seem to have many facts on their side and are forced to simply call names.

As of now ProgressNow.org's blog accepts comments, so please visit their site and reacquaint their readers with the truth.

UPDATE:
From this blurb:

Lawyer-about- town and political pundit Mike Huttner has a new gig.

He's left Foster, Graham, Huttner and Calisher, the law firm he helped form. Now he's running ProgressNow.org (formerly the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network), whose mission statement "is to be a strong, credible voice in advancing progressive solutions to critical community problems."

Huttner, who's been a bachelor forever (just ask his mom, Diane Huttner) also is getting married to Debbie Herz, a New York City attorney, and moving to Boulder.

From the longer article "It's Not Easy Being Green":

...To gain a larger national presence, its name has been changed [from the RMPN] to Progressnow.org; it's hired the technophile behind Howard Dean's much-lauded Internet campaign to launch the new electronic crusade; and executive director (and former Westword intern) Michael Huttner ditched his law firm to run the organization full-time. But the biggest change was moving into the network's new digs on the second floor of the Alliance Center, a hugely ambitious project in LoDo that will soon house 23 progressive-leaning nonprofits.

The $5.25 million center is operated under the umbrella of the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, a nonprofit founded last year by John Powers. As a longtime boardmember of the Colorado Environmental Coalition...

...he took the first step by purchasing the historic Otero building, at 1536 Wynkoop Street, from the Tattered Cover Book Store and the Wynkoop Brewing Co.; half a dozen nonprofits had already set up shop there. That's not surprising, because the building was part of a project developed by Mayor John Hickenlooper and Tattered Cover owner Joyce Meskis...

[tenants include] Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, Colorado Common Cause, Historic Denver, the Center for Native Ecosystems and the Latina Initiative...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)

"The Everymigrant's Guide to Crossing the Border Illegally"

NYT Star Reporter Charlie LeDuff offers us an article named "The Everymigrant's Guide to Crossing the Border Illegally".

About 80% of the article consists of real-world tips for border crossers, culled from illegal aliens Charlie interviewed in front of the Home Depot on Sunset in East Hollywood. Those illegals call Mexico's Guide for the Mexican Migrant useless, and offer up tips like renting an innertube to cross the Rio Grande instead of crossing by swimming.

What exactly Charlie is getting at is unclear. Is he mocking the Mexican government for producing a worthless booklet? Is he mocking pro-American U.S. citizens for complaining about the booklet? Is he mocking the left/right alliance that refuses to enforce our laws?

What exactly does Charlie mean with this:

To help prevent death and deportation, the Mexican government has published a guide that advises its citizens on the intricacies of sneaking into the United States. It also gives tips on how migrants should conduct themselves after reaching the streets of the promised land.

The 31-page pamphlet, "Guide for the Mexican Migrant," has infuriated some American politicians and citizens who say the Mexican government is effectively encouraging a criminal activity that is fraying the American cultural fabric and draining state and local municipalities...

...Apparently there are people waiting at the riverbanks to rent flotation devices to the traveler...

It's certainly a step up from a PIIPP, but one wonders exactly what Charlie intends with this report. Or, maybe he doesn't really intend something specifically and he is just providing a slice of (wacky and corrupt) life.

(Comment about this article posted here.)

Posted to Immigration2005a at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)

More Jackie Johnson pictures!

Here are even more pictures of KCAL's weathergal Jackie Johnson.

Posted to Bloggage at 02:47 PM | Comments (16)

The three jobs Americans won't do

Saving this Drudge flash for posterity:

[...Bush was discussing his social security plan with "regular" citizen Mary Mornin in Omaha...]

...without prompting Mornin began to elaborate on her life circumstances.

Begin transcript:

MS. MORNIN: That's good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.

THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?

MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)

Posted to Politics at 02:35 PM | Comments (1)

"Rove Gets Bigger Role at White House"

It's official:

DETROIT (Reuters) - President Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove, will take on a wider role in developing and coordinating policy in the president's second term, the White House announced on Tuesday.

Rove, who was Bush's top political strategist during his 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, will become a deputy White House chief of staff in charge of coordinating policy between the White House Domestic Policy Council, National Economic Council, National Security Council and Homeland Security Council...

Bush's former chief speech writer, Michael Gerson, will become assistant to the president for policy and strategic planning and will have a lead role in advancing Bush's "compassionate agenda," such as his faith-based initiative...

To summarize, Rove will be coordinating the efforts involving:

• Domestic Policy
• National Economic Policy
• National Security Policy
• Homeland Security Policy

My cynical prediction: more terror alerts, but timed with the release of economic data.

UPDATE: Whatever could the BushBots think about this news? Here, let's find out:

Cue the Imperial Theme Music

This [link to Rove article -- LW] won�t make the lunatic left happy.

Is there some way to get these people to stop calling themselves "conservatives?"

Posted to Politics at 12:00 PM | Comments (1)

"Border Patrol Releases Immigrants at [Harlingen, TX] Bus Station"

From a TV report:

Action 4 News undercover cameras catch Border Patrol agents dropping off illegal immigrants at a local bus station by the van load...

[...some of those dropped off are from] special interest countries - countries like Brazil and Argentina...

[...those dropped off at the station get money wired to them via Western Union so they can get on their way...]

...Several U.S. Border Patrol agents who don't want to be identified tell Action 4 News they want people to know they're being told to drop off the immigrants at the bus station...

..."The immigration police gave me the information fast so I could quickly get my permission to stay in the U.S.," said [illegal alien Fernando] Tello-Huila.

Fernando's talking about his walking papers. Border agents say federal jails are so overcrowded, illegal immigrants without a criminal background may be released.

They're given a future court date to appear before an immigration judge and if they promise to appear, they're set free.

Fernando's court date is March 30 in Houston.

"I'm thankful for the services and information the agents provide to help me travel freely through out the United States..."

[...Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-TX) is going to show the videotape to Congress...]

Posted to Immigration2005a at 11:08 AM | Comments (6)

"Cuts to hit L.A. hard"

Apparently it's NYT Old Skool day (*) over at the Daily News: "Cuts to hit L.A. hard: Cops, women's programs slashed". Despite the title it's of interest:

President George W. Bush's lean $2.57 trillion budget plan to beef up the U.S. military comes at the expense of Southern California's ability to hire more cops, help battered women and clean its drinking water.

The proposed 2006 budget slashes programs considered vital by local officials, including Los Angeles' Community Oriented Policing program, used to hire more police, and community block grants that fund low-income housing and other social services...

Bush also slashed the COPS program, which provides grants for state and local agencies to hire police officers, from $499 million to $22 million...

And, as expected, the budget offers no money for a federal program that reimburses state and local governments for the cost of jailing criminal illegal aliens. That burden costs Los Angeles County $80 million to $100 million annually, officials say.

While wildfire protection funding through Bush's Healthy Forest initiative increased $56 million, a tree assistance program that has provided help to Southern California was zeroed out, and no funding was requested for Southern California earthquake assistance...

Posted to Los_Angeles at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

Keep it real with these fine Lonewacko properties

While other bloggers are cashing in with fluff spin-offs, The Lonewacko Blog concentrates on doing good and keepin' it real.

In addition to this blog, visit BoreAmerica to keep up with the latest news about Air America.

And, every day BigMediaBlog posts threads where you can comment on mistakes made by Big Media bloggers like Instapundit and DailyKos.

Recent comments posted by TLB at BigMediaBlog include:

- Wacky DemocraticUnderground posts here and here (later thread was deleted it was so wacky)

- Insty discussing the Saudis but not providing enough background

- Insty informing us that a BushBot is back blogging. TLB provides us with a flashback.

Go over to BigMediaBlog and leave your own comments!

Posted to Bloggage at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)

Where the magic is born

A peek inside Lonewacko HQ:

But seriously, it appears to be an art project of some kind.

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)

Despite Proposed Cuts, Bush Budget Is Bigger

WASHINGTON � Even as President Bush proposes deep cuts in healthcare, farm subsidies and other domestic programs, his new budget makes one thing clear about the legacy of his first term in the White House: The era of big government is back.

Bush's $2.6-trillion budget for 2006, if approved by Congress, would be more than one-third bigger than the budget he inherited four years ago. It is a monument to how much Republicans' guiding fiscal philosophy has changed over the 10 years since the GOP "Contract With America" called for a balanced budget and abolition of entire Cabinet agencies.

No longer are Republicans arguing with Democrats about whether government should be big or small. They are at odds over what kind of big government the United States should have...

...Bush has moved to placate those critics in this budget by restating his pledge to cut the deficit in half by 2009; by pledging to abolish or cut back spending for 150 programs, and by taking on fast-growing entitlements like farm programs and Medicaid.

Many analysts view those promises with skepticism because Bush in his first term had a disappointing record of confronting Congress on popular spending programs. He is the first president since Martin Van Buren to spend an entire term in the White House without vetoing a single bill.

"This is a promise in which his position so far is not credible," said William A. Niskanen, a former economic advisor to President Reagan and chairman of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "President Bush also promised to reduce the deficit in half last year, but it went up $15 billion..."

Posted to Politics at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)

Gosh, you think Jeb will care?

"Feared Latin gang touches region".

The region in question is Miami, and the gang in question is the one featured in "Eastie [Boston] gang linked to al-Qaeda" and mentioned in "Unholy Border Alliance", "Al-Qaida recruiting Central American gang members?", "And all the ships in drydock" (gang members working on Navy ships), and "[Navy] Base security scrutinized over illegal-immigrant workers".

What's that buzzing sound? It's getting louder... I can almost make it out... "willing workers"... "kind-hearted"... "compassionate compassionly compassion"... "jobs Americans won't take"...

Posted to Immigration_terror at 10:33 PM | Comments (1)

L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich wants to stop use of Matricula Consular cards

LOS ANGELES - County supervisor Mike Antonovich said Monday he received a fraudulent Mexican identification card with his own photo on it and wants the county to stop recognizing the consular cards as valid identification.

Antonovich, who was the lone vote among the county's five supervisors against first recognizing the cards in 2002, said he was concerned that the card could be misused for criminal and even terrorist purposes.

Antonovich said in a statement the card is "designed to give Mexican nationals, primarily those here illegally, a valid form of identification," and said he will bring a motion Tuesday requesting his colleagues rescind their acceptance of the cards.

Mexican Consul General Ruben Beltran said the cards are secure and listed in an easily searchable, computerized database. He added that Mexico has used them since 1871, and other countries including Argentina, Guatemala and Spain have also used them as a way to document the number of citizens living abroad...

Yes, well let us know when Spain has a deliberate policy to send us millions of people and gives them the cards in an attempt to skirt U.S. laws.

Mexico's Beltran was last featured here trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the L.A. Times' own Steve Lopez. The price of lettuce was involved. There's more on him in this search.

For the scoop on Matricula Consular cards, see "Their money or your safety".

(The same or similar AP reports are here, here, and here.)

Posted to Immigration_consul at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)

More bad news for Phil Hendrie?

The Cortislim Curse?

Phil Hendrie is being shuffled from Los Angeles' KFI to another L.A. Clear Channel station, Xtra Sports 570AM starting February 21. This follows him getting separated from his wife. His wife occasionally had no name, but rest assured she's the wife of a famous radio personality. Both Phil and his unnamed wife lost weight taking Cortislim.

KFI's schedule will be John & Ken, followed by John Ziegler moving from 10pm to 7pm, followed by Coast To Coast AM moving from 1am to 10pm. The last is actually good news.

On Xtra, Hendrie will follow the Jim Rome Show, which will be followed by Gen. Johnson Jameson, who's getting his own show. Hendrie will be followed by the Combover Boy show.

If I subscribed to this site (why?) I'd probably know what's really going on.

This apparently is part of a general reshuffling being performed by Clear Channel and including their new "progressive" station 1150AM KTLK featuring Air America.

UPDATE: Billboard has a blurb. Apparently Hendrie is on other sports stations, so maybe this isn't as bad news as it might appear.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 08:26 PM | Comments (3)

Swash helps me feel fresh

I've been using a Swash for about a month now, and I have to tell you it works! I've installed several of them at TLB headquarters and at the assembly plant, and all our staff - men, women, and children - agree it's much better than the alternatives, especially the Toto model.

Note especially the ease of installation and how it can be removed for cleaning. And, the Swash is also effective for yeast infections.

Sometimes I use the softer washing mode, but many times I feel the need to kick it up a notch and increase the pressure to get a total cleaning. I simply press a button and I'm met with a warm, aerated water spray. Don't let the labels fool you though! The anterior feminine wash feels good for men too!

I could go on all day about my Swash - and I have! But, best of all, why don't you buy one?!

Posted to WackyHumor at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)

Is this a fake blog?!?!

I don't know how long this trackback will be allowed to stay here, but if you're reading this please let me know whether this blog is real or not. I went to lincolnfry.com, and at the bottom it says it was produced by the McDonald's Corporation, which I'm pretty sure is the same as the restaurant! What's the deal? Are those your "friends"???? How'd you get on TV, and during the SuperBowl? All blogdom wants to know.

Posted to Bloggage at 11:20 AM | Comments (7)

L.A. Daily News, Drudge follow Lonewacko's lead

Three days ago, this blogger posted "To protect, serve, and constantly monitor" about the City of L.A.'s new surveillance cameras in Hollywood and their new system that can scan 1000 license plates an hour. It was also posted here.

Now, three days later, comes Andrea Cavanaugh of the L.A. Daily News with her Drudge-linked article "Who's got an eye on you?"

... Police say surveillance cameras, whether installed by businesses, homeowners or local governments, act as a powerful law-enforcement tool and crime deterrent. Law-abiding people have nothing to worry about, said Lt. Paul Vernon of the Los Angeles Police Department.

"When people start talking about Big Brother, I say, 'I've got nothing to hide.' Those cameras aren't looking into my home, and if they were, it would be pretty boring..."

...In Los Angeles, surveillance devices increasingly are used by government to patrol public places. Several recently installed cameras along Hollywood Boulevard scan stretches popular with tourists and criminals alike.

And, buoyed by the success of a surveillance program at crime-plagued MacArthur Park west of downtown, the LAPD recently unveiled a camera system capable of scanning thousands of license plates per hour and employing controversial facial-recognition software to pinpoint known criminals...

Posted to Privacy at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

Saudi government foments religious hatred in U.S.

From this:

What is happening in some American mosques, including a few in the Chicago area, is deeply disturbing. In certain Islamic schools, textbooks spit vitriol against Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims: "Be disassociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion." In mosque publications, America is the "Abode of the Infidel." The idea of human and civil rights is heresy. Working women are immoral.

These views are extreme, they promote violence and they are being espoused right under our noses. We knew this was happening in France, Germany and England but we didn't know the extent of the problem here. It is not happening in all mosques or Islamic schools, by any means, but in those select ones funded by the Saudi government to disseminate the fanatic Wahhabi-style Islam that has its demagogic roots in Saudi Arabia.

The Center for Religious Freedom just issued a discomfiting report looking at the spread of hate propaganda in America by Saudi Arabia. The center collected 200 books and other publications from mosques across the country and spent the past two years analyzing them...

Their press release is here. The PDF of the report is here. Note that former CIA chief James Woolsey is the head of this organization, so take it for what it's worth.

Posted to TheSaudis at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)

'Rattled' Blair to set tough tests for migrants

From this:

Tony Blair will try today to recapture ground lost to the Tories on immigration by announcing plans to turn away people who do not bring economic benefits or professional skills to the country.

The Prime Minister and Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, will announce the tough new tests for would-be immigrants from outside the EU as part of a five-year-plan to bring immigration under control...

Labour's response reflects Mr Blair's worry that the party could lose millions of votes to the Tories unless it addresses public concern about spiralling immigration and the pressure on public services.

Opinion polls confirmed yesterday that the issue will be uppermost in voters' minds at the election, which is expected on May 5.

A YouGov poll for The Mail on Sunday found that 75 per cent of people thought Labour's policies on asylum were not tough enough. A poll for the Migrationwatch think-tank found that 45 per cent of voters would be influenced at the election by the parties' immigration policies...

Posted to Immigration_euro at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

Air America is back in Los Angeles

It's only been back for a few days, and I've already learned so much. Details about their new station in BoreAmerica's "Air America back in Los Angeles".

Posted to Los_Angeles at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)

BigMediaBlog.com needs your input

Everything Instapundit and DailyKos post is 100% correct.

If you disagree, go find something they're wrong about and post about it on BigMediaBlog.com.

Every day there are open threads for over a dozen big bloggers and big media outlets, including Instapundit, DailyKos, the NYT, the LAT, the WaPo, and many more.

Posted to Bloggage at 12:25 AM | Comments (0)

Hunger for Dictatorship

The American Conservative's Scott McConnell, who like your blogger endorsed John Kerry for president, now offers us "Hunger for Dictatorship":

...there are foreshadowings well worth noting. The last weeks of 2004 saw several explicit warnings from the antiwar Right about the coming of an American fascism. Paul Craig Roberts in these pages wrote of the 'brownshirting' of American conservatism - a word that might not have surprised had it come from Michael Moore or Michael Lerner. But from a Hoover Institution senior fellow, former assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, and one-time Wall Street Journal editor, it was striking.

Several weeks later, Justin Raimondo, editor of the popular Antiwar.com website, wrote a column headlined, 'Today's Conservatives are Fascists.' Pointing to the justification of torture by conservative legal theorists, widespread support for a militaristic foreign policy, and a retrospective backing of Japanese internment during World War II, Raimondo raised the prospect of 'fascism with a democratic face.' His fellow libertarian, Mises Institute president Lew Rockwell, wrote a year-end piece called 'The Reality of Red State Fascism,' which claimed that "the most significant socio-political shift in our time has gone almost completely unremarked, and even unnoticed. It is the dramatic shift of the red-state bourgeoisie from leave-us-alone libertarianism, manifested in the Congressional elections of 1994, to almost totalitarian statist nationalism. Whereas the conservative middle class once cheered the circumscribing of the federal government, it now celebrates power and adores the central state, particularly its military wing..."

...Secondly, it is necessary to distinguish between a sudden proliferation of fascist tendencies and an imminent danger. There may be, among some neocons and some more populist right-wingers, unmistakable antidemocratic tendencies. But America hasn't yet experienced organized street violence against dissenters or a state that is willing - in an unambiguous fashion - to jail its critics. The administration certainly has its far Right ideologues - the Washington Post's recent profile of Alberto Gonzales, whose memos are literally written for him by Cheney aide David Addington, provides striking evidence. But the Bush administration still seems more embarrassed than proud of its most authoritarian aspects. Gonzales takes some pains to present himself as an opponent of torture; hypocrisy in this realm is perhaps preferable to open contempt for international law and the Bill of Rights.

And yet the very fact that the f-word can be seriously raised in an American context is evidence enough that we have moved into a new period...

Two days before the election, your blogger waded into the fray with "Trick or Treat", listing five curious incidents relating to Bush and civil liberties. The next day - the day before the election - your blogger posted "Should conservatives support Kerry?" (More comments on the cross-posts here and here: the-lonewacko-blog.redstate.org/story/2004/11/1/173936/781.)

Posted to Politics at 12:20 AM | Comments (1)

15 N. Koreans Nabbed Crossing U.S.-Mexico Border

From this:

Fifteen presumed North Korean defectors who had settled in South Korea were arrested for trying to sneak into the U.S.

The Los Angeles-based Association of People From Five Northern Provinces said on Sunday it learned that 15 North Koreans were arrested by U.S. Border Patrol as they tried to smuggle themselves into the U.S. from Tijuana, Mexico. But the association�s president Kim Ho-jeong added it remained to be confirmed whether the 15 really were defectors.

The 15, who are being held at an immigration detention center in San Diego, California, said they intended to seek political asylum in the U.S. after previously settling in South Korea. Kim Yong, the head of another defectors� association in Los Angeles, said that under U.S. law such individuals were usually deported.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 12:17 AM | Comments (3)

The White House needs a new chef

Washington -- Unlike members of the White House staff who maintain the fiction that resigning was their decision, the executive chef, Walter Scheib III, minced no words Friday in saying he had been fired.

"We've been trying to find a way to satisfy the first lady's stylistic requirements," Scheib said in a telephone interview, "and it has been difficult. Basically, I was not successful in my attempt..."

The DUmmies have their fun, abounding with references to white trash/southern food. Someone with an IQ above room temperature chimes in with this:

It's obvious he has some fooled into believing he's a good ol boy, but DUers too? Just look at his background---prep school, Yale, Harvard---bankrolled by others into more than one failed business. From what I see of him he's been taught his arrogance and sense of entitlement--that good ol boy stuff is an act. He is the type who eats 'rich people food', not grits of fried pork rinds as has been stated here. And I bet has used the term 'the help', a demeaning phrase referring to people who work in his home, many times. That is what the chef was---the help---and for some reason Laura didn't like him. Perhaps he made eye contact.

Posted to Politics at 12:14 AM | Comments (0)

Fun facts about Fort Huachuca

Here are some fun facts about the base outside Sierra Vista in far southern Arizona:

• It's home to the U.S. Army Intelligence Center
• It's home to the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command
• It's the nation's critical testing ground for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
• In the past nine months, 2000 illegal aliens were detained on the base
• Over three thousand illegal aliens were detained on the base in 2004

See also this report about OTMs.

Posted to Immigration_terror at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)

9/11 hijacker used bypass code to obtain California [driver's] license

[Cross-posted to the Command-Post and the-lonewacko-blog.redstate.org/story/2005/2/7/15523/85908]

SACRAMENTO -- The terrorist believed to have flown a hijacked airliner into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, obtained a California driver's license without providing the required Social Security number for identification, officials are acknowledging for the first time.

Nawaf Alhazmi then used that license when he registered for the flight training that enabled him to pilot the doomed airliner.

Alhazmi used a loophole, since closed, in California law that allowed hundreds of thousands of foreign drivers without Social Security numbers to use a generic number in its place. Even some foreign citizens with Social Security numbers skirted the identity check required of U.S. citizens.

Although the process changed a year ago, some of the drivers still have their original licenses... ...a 1994 court decision required the state to also give driver's licenses to qualified applicants, such as foreign students, who had no Social Security number...

184,000 such licenses were issued between 12/2000 and 2/2002.

There are various bills being proposed in other states to tighten or loosen the rules regarding driver's licenses. Rep. Sensenbrenner [R-WI] has authored a bill that would set nationwide standards.

In California, state Sen. Gil Cedillo [D] recently continued his multi-year attempt to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens: "Actors, writers and musicians push for [illegal] immigrant drivers licenses" (commentary here, picture of the ad here.) Security checks would supposedly be performed. Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the last such Cedillo bill that was passed, saying the security safeguards weren't stringent enough.

The 9/11 hijackers reportedly had a combined total of 63 driver's licenses from various states, although the exact number is disputed, albeit without providing direct contradictory evidence. Various DMVs across the country have had scandals where employees issued licenses to those without the proper ID; the AP offers a roundup here. Other 9/11 terrorists had driver's licenses from Virginia or Florida. The procedure they used to obtain some licenses is detailed here.

(Same AP report here and here.)

Posted to Immigration_terror at 10:55 PM | Comments (0)

Which came first?

Do you know what The Onion looks like? If you don't, there's an example here.

Now, take a look at Madison, Wisconsin's Capital Times: "Wisconsin's Progressive Newspaper."

Just a coincidence? A VRWC member trying to bring the Capital Times down from the inside? Or, is the Capital Times just a joke? I choose the later.

Posted to WackyHumor at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)

A partial translation of Colorado's guide for illegal aliens

An unverified partial translation is in post #10.

Just a few of them:

"There are various ways to send money to Mexico: electronic transfers, money orders, check or automatic deposit. There are various companies that transfer money electronically, such as Western Union.� [p. 20. Included in the guide was a "sample budget" for Jose and Ana Maria which shows $200 per month allocated to "family in Mexico." )

"There are some clinics who serve people without insurance and without enough money to pay. It is important to bear in mind that you can apply for Medicaid or Child Health Plan Plus for your children if they were born here or are residents even if you are not a permanent resident." [p. 22-23]

[I guess they could be here on a guest visa... -- LW]

"Regardless of your economic or immigration status, you have the right to receive medical attention if you go to the ER." [p. 23]

"You can receive medical services at the community clinic closest to you. Doctors do not deport." [p. 22]

"Here, they feed [your children in school]...If your child�s school does not have a program for students who are learning English, the district must provide transit services to a school that does. The fact that your children do not speak English should not be a reason for them to stay behind in their abilities or knowledge. Ask that your children be evaluated in Spanish..." pp 38-40

"Regardless of your immigration status, it is possible to go to the university. There are scholarships for Hispanics, legal or illegal aliens. The financial aid offices for colleges and universities can help students find the best options to pay, as well as to find and apply for these scholarships." [p. 41]

Previous coverage starts here.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 05:42 PM | Comments (0)

Driver's licenses for illegal aliens flops in Redding

From Lawmaker wants to ease driver's license rules:

Hollywood stars� powers of persuasion are apparently negligible in the north state when it comes to the issue of providing driver�s licenses to undocumented immigrants...

[...Gil Cedillo and his Let Our Nannies Drive bill...]

But the glitz and glamour has had little effect on shoppers interviewed Friday in front of two Redding stores...

Cedillo�s bill, meanwhile, faces opposition from Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, and Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, their aides said Friday.

Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka, whose north coast district includes Trinity County, voted for the driver�s license bill last year. Her spokesman could not be reached Friday...

Out of 92 people who were asked about Gil's bill, 83 opposed it. Responses included:

"It�s not their (celebrities�) jobs that are being taken..."

"How could somebody who�s not even supposed to be here get all these things?"

"We�ve got to tighten the screws on all immigration and evaluate people�s backgrounds... I don�t think we should give them carte blanche."

"We might have not had 9/11" if some of the terrorists hadn�t obtained driver�s licenses...

Posted to Immigration_dls at 05:41 PM | Comments (0)

Now that's a Big Game!

This is certainly one of the best Big Games I've seen in a while. And, what about our team!? We're really taking it to the other team.

But, we can't afford to be over-confident. There's still more game to go. We need to go out there and perform on both offense and defense and remember there's lots of ways to lose this game.

What about that entertainment during the break, eh? That's really something too.

UPDATE: And, where's that other guy who was in the band with the guy? Why didn't they invite him. That would have been special.

The game kinda sucked. It wasn't as close as the score, it was sloppy, and there just weren't too many exciting moments where you wondered who would win.

Posted to WackyHumor at 05:32 PM | Comments (0)

"Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting" indeed

"Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting", otherwise known as FAIR, has an article by Salon's/Counterpunch's Dave Lindorff about HumpGate, otherwise known as BulgeGate: The Emperor's New Hump: The New York Times killed a story that could have changed the election�because it could have changed the election. See also the same author's earlier piece "Technical expert: Bush was wired".

The content of the latest article should be faily clear from the title, but rather than wade through that let's look at the screengrab of the page. What are they trying to communicate with those side-by-side photos? Why, one might tend to think that what's pictured on the right is what's under the suit on the left, correct? Isn't that the subconscious reaction to seeing two such photos next to each other?

Let's look at the fine-printed caption and see if this reminds anyone of, for instance, how the National Enquirer and other scandal sheets do things:

It's clear even from unenhanced photos that George W. Bush has been wearing some kind of object under his clothing, both during the debates and at other public appearances. The enhancements done by NASA scientist Robert Nelson show a rectangular object with a long "tail"; in some shots a wire leading over Bush's shoulder is visible. This configuration closely resembles a PTT (Push To Talk) receiver with an induction earpiece, a device used by some actors, newscasters and politicians to allow for inaudible voice communication in a public setting. The particular model pictured here (which does not appear to be the exact type Bush wore) was manufactured by Resistance Technology, Inc. of Arden Hills, Minn.

"Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting" indeed.

Posted to Politics at 02:33 PM | Comments (2)

Mourners flee huge flying ice block: Frozen urine drops out of sky

Drudge has not yet linked this, but have little doubt he will:

MOURNERS at a funeral were left terrified when a massive block of frozen urine fell from the sky.

People ducked for cover when iced toilet waste the size of a portable television hurtled down as they were leaving the church.

The lump of ice smashed into the building as around 50 mourners were standing outside and narrowly missed them as it scattered across the ground.

It is believed to have come from an aeroplane that was passing overhead...

As usual, expect the normal progression: Lonewacko, followed by Drudge a few hours later, followed by Snopes a few days later to say it's all true.

Posted to WackyHumor at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

BigMediaBlog is for your comments

John S. Bolton comments on NYT's drive for diversity in the NYT category over at BigMediaBlog.

Each day, BigMediaBlog tries to keep the Big Media honest. But, we need your help. If you spot a post at Instapundit or DailyKos or one of a dozen other sites and it's just plain wrong or you disagree with it, leave your comments over at BigMediaBlog.

Most of the sites featured at BigMediaBlog don't have comments or have restrictive comment policies. For instance, BlogsForBush has deleted a few of my comments, so, better late than never, a new category just for that site has been added.

In addition to BlogsForBush, Instapundit, and DailyKos, there are daily threads for these sites:

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Posted to Bloggage at 12:26 AM | Comments (0)

Mexico Declares 'War' On Arizona

From this:

...During a January 28 radio interview, Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez has threatened the State of Arizona with legal action through the international courts in order to overturn Proposition 200, a ballot initiative lawfully passed last fall to curb state expenditures on illegal aliens.

Derbez plans to initially use the "legal capacities" of the United States to achieve his goal. But if that doesn't work, he will resort to the intervention of "international tribunals."

Momentarily sidestepping the absurdity of granting any legal capacity to an international organization regarding strictly internal issues, consider the larger picture of what is actually being attempted, as a foreign power now makes threats against an individual American State.

The Constitution, in its original form, was never designed to put the federal government in charge of regulating minute details in the lives of Americans. Basically, it had two purposes, which were to act as an arbiter between the individual states, and to collectively represent those states in the face of foreign challenges, whether diplomatic or military.

Yet the federal leviathan, which grew monstrously beyond its original boundaries, has become an overwhelming burden of bureaucratic entanglements to the citizenry. Meanwhile the Mexican government, a foreign entity, seeks to intimidate and ultimately dictate the policies of an individual American State...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)

Dutch flag banned in some schools

From this:

Cals College in IJsselstein has prohibited two of it's students to have Dutch flags on their bags.

The 16 year old boy and his friend where told by the director of their school that they "urgently should consider" to remove the Dutch flags from their bags, it could provoke other students, mainly Moroccan students. The two considered the urgent request of the school as a prohibition...

Update (2005 feb 1):
Daily news paper Telegraaf now says that their are more schools who ban the Dutch flag. They write that Groene Hart Lyceum in Alphen aan den Rijn already ban the Dutch flag for nearly a year. They deny access to students who have flags on their bags or cloth. The school says they need to do this because of the new social climate. But they say prohibition is a big word, they do it in consent with the pupils...

The Dutch article on that update is here.

The Telegraaf article "Vlagverbod is wijdverspreid" remains untranslated, but I imagine the headline means "Flag prohibition is widespread".

It would be nice to see a trustworthy verbatim translation of these articles into English or at least French or German.

Posted to Immigration_euro at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)

SoCal's report card not golden

From this:

With soaring housing costs, bad schools, horrendous traffic jams and a dearth of well-paying jobs, Southern California's once-golden lifestyle continues to dim, a scorecard released Thursday by the regional planning agency shows.

The seventh annual State of the Region report by the Southern California Association of Governments [a government agency -- LW] ranks the quality of life in the region as a D-plus potentially failing.

Housing and air quality worsened in 2003, while the grades for traffic, education, household income and public safety remained static. And while the number of jobs in the six-county region rose by 14,000, personal income for its 17.7 million residents stayed flat.

The report details a slate of interconnected problems plaguing Southern California...

As can be expected, illegal immigration is not one of those problems mentioned in the newspaper report. And, it doesn't appear to be mentioned in any of the other news reports on the study.

It makes a brief appearance or two in the report itself, but no conclusions are drawn between massive immigration and a lower quality of life:

Hence approximately 41 percent of the total growth in the region in 2003 was estimated to be from foreign immigration and 11 percent from domestic in-migration...

Posted to California at 09:31 PM | Comments (1)

"Suicide" comes in threes

TBILISI, Feb 4 (AFP) - An aide to Georgian prime minister Zurab Zhvania, who died apparently after breathing toxic fumes leaked by a faulty heater, committed suicide late Friday, an interior ministry spokesman said.

The aide, 32-year-old Georgi Khelashvili, shot himself with a gun in his Tbilisi apartment, the spokesman said...

It was not yet clear whether Khelashvili`s suicide was linked to Zhvania`s death...

The body of another local Georgian official, Raul Yusupov, was found dead on the floor in another room in the apartment [where the PM had his accident]. There were no signs of foul play, and officials quickly quashed suspicions that the deaths could have been anything but accidental...

And, from TASS:

...According to preliminary data provided by police Khelashvili committed suicide at home. Motives behind the suicide have not been mentioned. However there is a high probability that they were personal and not associated with his work...

Posted to Miscellania at 09:03 PM | Comments (0)

CA's stem cell bill is starting to pay off

"5 with Prop. 71 campaign land jobs at new institute":

...Five people who worked on the stem cell initiative that voters approved in November are among the first eleven employees of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, which will dole out $3 billion in stem cell research grants...

"There still is a disturbing amount of blurring of lines between the Yes on 71 campaign, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the nonprofit coalition supporting stem cell research and Klein Financial Services [headed by Robert Klein, "chairman of the citizens oversight committee that will govern the institute"]," said Jesse Reynolds of the Center for Genetics and Society...

Posted to California at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)

Why is Mr. Ranger shooting Bambi?

Exotic deer have worn out their welcome at Point Reyes National Seashore, and the National Park Service has decided it's time to wipe them out...

The alternatives range from doing nothing to shooting the deer. The park service's preferred option involves killing most of them and treating the remainder with a special vaccine that would sterilize does for up to three years...

Pt. Reyes is located in... Marin County, the same place that spawned these beasts.

Posted to California at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)

" No tolerance, please, we're Dutch"

Spectator UK:

...Holland is the country where everything is allowed, where everything is tolerated, from dope in the coffee houses, to fat-thighed whores baying for your money in frowzy shop windows, to imams suggesting that it's OK to beat up women every now and then. The Dutch model seemed to be this: we'll have our whores and our homosexuals and our cannabis over here and you can smack your women around over there in your Maghrebian ghetto. Live and let live. Mutual tolerance.

But all that is changing. What's happened in Holland is a warning: one commentator calls it "Education By Death" - the process which made the silent majority in America become militant after 9/11, which galvanised the Australians after the Bali bomb, which led to the fall of the Aznar government after the Madrid train bombing. The transformation of achingly liberal and endlessly tolerant Western people into resolute neocons. And in the case of Holland, the death which has been doing the educating was that of an iconoclastic film-maker and broadcaster, Theo van Gogh, a distant relative of that one-eared painter...

...Shortly after the murder of van Gogh, the Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, clambered aboard a bandwagon which had been set rolling by a bunch of "concerned" media moppets. This was for everyone in the country to wear an orange wristband signifying unity and tolerance. You can also buy badges bedecked with a picture of a little bumblebee in support of the government slogan "Bee Tolerant" (geddit?). But it has not done much to pacify the country. Right now, Dutch tolerance is in short supply.

There are broader fears at large. One recent study suggested that within six years at least three large Dutch cities will have an effective Muslim majority. There's also the nightmare scenario of the Low Countries' caliphate. There are enormous and growing Muslim populations in towns and cities dotted along the coast from Lille to Rotterdam - populations which will one day be in the majority...

The new citizenship exam is described here. I could probably pass it even without the video.

Posted to Immigration_euro at 02:53 PM | Comments (1)

"Colorado again offering tips to illegal border crossers"

AZ Republic:

State officials plan to repost an edited version of a controversial guide for immigrants on its Web site, a document that was yanked after critics said it provided tips for illegal immigrants.

State Education Commissioner William Moloney said Thursday that staffers were reviewing the guide and would remove parts deemed objectionable. He didn't have any details on what would be removed but said most people agree that "99 percent" of the guide contains good information and should be available to immigrants.

"Whether you do it or you don't do it, people are going to be upset. There's no sure path to making everyone happy," Moloney said...

Obviously you aren't going to make the pro-illegal immigration forces happy unless you pass out free topo maps to desert crossings. Nevertheless, I believe we can say it's possible to make everyone else happy, and that they're the only ones who count. However, based on the previous report, I doubt whether it's just 1% that's objectionable.

Note also that this is an AP report, but the AZ Republic provided their own headline. It's not news that the Arizona Republic goes too far. However, it's truly man-biting-dog time when they err on the other side. If Colorado makes the proper edits, this won't be a guide for illegal aliens, and the headline would be wrong.

Most of the other versions of this AP report are available under some variant on "Colorado education department plans to repost". Also "Immigrant Guide" and "Immigrant info revived".

UPDATE: Google's cache of the HTML version of the guide is here.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)

"If you've got nothing to hide, still be worried"

In line with the last post, here's a guest column in the Daily News that bears some similarity to an experience I had a couple years ago:

I opened my front door, and there before me were four -- count 'em -- four representatives of law enforcement, two LAPD detectives and two special agents from the State Department. Yes, that State Department. My hands shot up instinctively.

After being instructed to lower my hands, one of the detectives got down to business. "Were you on Wilshire Blvd. near La Cienega last week?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Were you taking photographs of a building?"

"Yes."

"Why were you photographing the building?"

I explained that I'm a business consultant, that I had just met with a client, and that I was photographing the building where his office was to use in his marketing materials...

Posted to Los_Angeles at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)

To protect, serve, and constantly monitor

Last October, the L.A. City Council, lead by Councilman Eric Garcetti, proposed installing five surveillance cameras on Hollywood Blvd., with 59 more to follow on Hollywood, Sunset, Santa Monica, and Western. According to an LAPD spokesman at the time: "people are ready to feel more secure in their communities. I think they are willing to give up a little bit ... for more security."

On January 24 2005, the cameras arrived [PDF version]:

Mayor Jim Hahn was joined today by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, and City Councilmembers Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge to unveil the first of five surveillance cameras that will supplement and enhance Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) efforts to reduce crime and increase the quality of life for residents and visitors to the Hollywood Area...

..."Our two cities are committed to sharing strategies and techniques to deter criminals and improve the quality of life of all our residents," said Mayor Daley. "Cameras are the equivalent of thousands of sets of eyes..."

..."Cameras have already met with great success in Los Angeles," said Councilmember Eric Garcetti. "This neighborhood has fought its way back to become L.A�s number one place to live, work and visit. These cameras will give Hollywood added security and make residents and visitors feel safer..."

But, that's not the only new camera system the LAPD is working on:

The Los Angeles Police Department is testing a camera system that could improve its chances of arresting car thieves.

The system uses mobile digital cameras to scan up to two thousand license plates per hour and compare them to a database of stolen vehicles. The scans offer virtually instantaneous results, meaning an officer is alerted the moment the system focuses on the plate of a vehicle that has been reported stolen.

Police first tested the device in the San Fernando Valley during the busy Christmas shopping season...

A longer story about this, including ACLU quotes and some backstory of surveillance cameras, is in "Cameras after gangsters". It includes these quotes from LAPD Chief Bill Bratton:

"I'm not worried about [privacy arguments] at all," he said. "It's public spaces -- just as you and I are able to see with our eyes.

"If you're not wanted for something, you have nothing to fear."

The press release from the British company that's supplying the Platescan technology is here.

Inventive readers are invited to speculate on how we could be even safer. See also the Surveillance Camera Players.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

BigMediaBlog now has a comments feed

Here it is.

BigMediaBlog is the site for your comments. Did a major blogger make a mistake? Do you disagree with one of their posts? Leave your comments about it in one of the posts over at BigMediaBlog. If you blogged about it, leave a link there.

Here are the sites covered by BigMediaBlog:

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Note that most of these sites don't have comments or have restrictive comments policies.

(Code for the comments feed from this)

Posted to Bloggage at 11:34 PM | Comments (1)

Enron's fine employees back in the news

"Tapes: Enron plotted to shut down power plant":

"We want you guys to get a little creative ... and come up with a reason to go down," the Enron worker tells the plant employee on one of the tapes.

"Anything you want to do over there? ... Cleaning, anything like that?" the Enron employee says.

"Yeah, yeah," the other replies. "There's some stuff we could be doing."

As a result, a Las Vegas power plant went off-line on January 17, 2001.

The tapes containing this an other conversations were released as part of a lawsuit by a PacNW power company. More:

...Earlier tapes obtained during the Enron-Snohomish lawsuit indicated Enron had manipulated the Western power grid for a year and a half.

Those tapes include traders gloating profanely about overcharging "Grandma Millie" in California.

The utility has asked federal regulators to throw out the $122 million contract with Enron to provide electricity -- a contract it says was inflated by Enron's manipulation of Western energy prices in 2000 and 2001...

And, from "Enron Schemes Caught On Tape":

During the West Coast Power crisis homes went dark and streetlights were out in California � causing injuries and accidents. But the danger didn't stop Enron's energy traders from having a good laugh.

CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports on the Enron scheme, as caught on new audio tape. The traders and plant operator laugh and plot in a display that seems to prove the theory that years before the energy crisis, Enron manipulated markets.

"They had to do a rolling blackout through the town and there was a red light there he didn't see," one Enron trader says on tape.

"That's beautiful," a second voice responds.

"I'm like, this is causing animosity throughout the state now," the first says. "Cars are blowing up..."

Audio is available at that page.

Note also that Ken "Kenny Boy" Lay has/had ties to both Our Leader as well as Our Prospective Leader.

UPDATE: And, Our Horndog Leader.

Posted to Politics at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)

"Focus on Freedom of Information"

From this:

By law, illegal aliens convicted of heinous crimes � rape, murder, child molestation � are to be deported once they've served their jail terms. But lately, thousands of them have simply been let go. And Justice Department officials have refused to release a government database that could help journalists and private citizens find these aliens...

The Justice Department refused to provide any of the data sought by [Cox Newspapers Washington Bureau journalists Eliot Jaspin and Julia Malone]. Why? For three reasons, according to Rachal Madan, Office of Justice Programs' general counsel: (1) the grants data are exempt from disclosure under the FOIA because it concerns matters "of internal significance in which the public has no substantial interest," (2) processing the data "would place an unjustifiable administrative burden" on the Office of Justice Programs, and (3) releasing the data would "constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of (the convicted illegal aliens') personal privacy."

In other words, the government refused to make the data available because the public � that's you and me, our families and neighbors � wouldn't benefit, the agency can't be bothered and it would be wrong to violate the criminals' privacy!

Such "reasoning" defies understanding. It is the most outrageous violation of the concept underlying the FOIA � taxpayers have a right to know what their government is doing with their tax dollars � I've seen in my two-decades-plus as a journalist in our nation's capitol...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 09:42 PM | Comments (0)

Gallup immigration poll

From this:

Fewer than 3 in 10 Americans say immigration is an "extremely important" issue for Congress and the president to deal with over the next year, while an additional 38% say it is "very important." At the same time, immigration has become a more important issue to Americans over the past several years, increasing from a 17% "extremely important" rating in 2001 to the current reading of 27%, in a poll conducted this past December.

[so, over 50% say it's extremely important or very important -- LW]

Although the perceived importance of immigration has increased, it remains near the bottom of a list of issues in terms of the priority the president and Congress should give it... The importance that Americans say should be given to dealing with immigration is roughly equivalent to the importance of dealing with poverty and homelessness (29%), energy policies (27%), taxes (26%), and the environment (24%) in the next year...

According to a Jan. 3-5 Gallup Poll, a slight majority of Americans, 52%, say the level of immigration in this country should be decreased. Nearly 4 in 10 adults nationwide (39%) say it should remain the same, and just 7% say it should be increased...

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Jan. 7-9 found that only about a third of Americans, 34%, approve of the way President George W. Bush is handling immigration, while a majority of Americans, 54%, disapprove...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 09:39 PM | Comments (0)

"President pushes changes in 'outdated' alien policy"

WashTimes:

President Bush last night called for reforming U.S. immigration laws, saying that the current system is "outdated" and that lawmakers need to create a new policy that accepts "hard-working people" while protecting America's borders...

But the president has a tough sell with many members of his own party, who said that what he is proposing is an amnesty.
"He is the only person around that I know of that does not think what he is talking about is amnesty. He is creating a new Webster's dictionary definition," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus...

Americans support some sort of vehicle to accept illegal aliens now in the country, a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found. More than 60 percent of those surveyed think undocumented, noncitizens already living and working in the United States should be allowed to keep their jobs and encouraged to apply for legal status. Thirty-six percent favored automatic deportation for those people found working illegally in the United States...

I doubt whether the ABC poll asked whether they would support such a plan given that it would almost certainly increase the number of illegal aliens coming here to take part in that and future plans.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 09:36 PM | Comments (1)

"Guest-worker plan a mockery of U.S. principles"

Rep. J.D. Hayworth:

Regarding "Realistic reform" (Editorial, Jan. 23):

The Arizona Republic thinks the mess on the Arizona-Mexico border was produced by, "a dearth of good sense, coupled with an abundance of sheer nonsense." It then exhibits both by promoting a guest-worker plan that will make the situation worse.

The Republic says the guest-worker proposal "recognizes the necessity of extending legal status to those currently working illegally in this country." It says opponents, like me, "mischaracterize" that as an amnesty...

The Republic argues that the guest-worker approach can't be amnesty because it requires "a hefty fee for undocumented immigrants who want to legitimize their status." The "hefty fee"? Just $1,500...

In a stranger-than-fiction twist of irony, The Republic reported in February 2004 that, "smugglers typically charge $1,500 or more to guide migrants across the border." If $1,500 isn't too hefty a price to come here, it's certainly not too hefty a price to stay...

Finally, The Republic says the "success of a guest-worker program also depends on enforcing laws against those who hire" illegals. But we've heard it all before...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 09:31 PM | Comments (0)

"Iraqi villagers kill 5 insurgents"

Interesting news brief from Australia's ABC:

The residents of a small Iraqi village have killed five insurgents who had attacked them for voting in last weekend's national elections.

Several other insurgents were also wounded...

The insurgents' cars were then set alight.

Al-Mudhiryah's tribal sheikh says his people are sick of being threatened by Islamic extremists.

There's the possibility that this is a fake report or some other form of propaganda. If not, it's pretty good news.

Meanwhile, some on the other side are not so happy. However:

Anyone who thinks this is bad news has one thing in mind and it isn't the welfare of the Iraqi people. Only a sick mind would hope for bad news and belittle good because it doesn't go well with their political agenda.

Posted to Iraq at 09:27 PM | Comments (0)

Tancredo on the SOTU

"The Presidents comments tonight regarding immigration raise several questions in my mind. Why is it so difficult for the President to integrate the concept of border security into homeland security? Is there anyone on the planet who does not realize that terrorists take advantage of porous borders? Is it possible that any President would put the economic interests of corporations addicted to cheap labor ahead of the safety of American men, women and children?," said Rep. Tom Tancredo (CO-06), Chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus.

"Until President Bush tells us he is willing to do everything possible to stop illegal immigrants from crossing our borders - including the commitment of military assets to the task - I can only assume the worst with regard to his motives. When the President tries to make us believe that open borders equals national security he loses all credibility..."

Posted to Immigration2005a at 10:31 AM | Comments (1)

"Snipers target border agents"

WashTimes:

Snipers working as "lookouts" for drug traffickers and illegal-alien smugglers are targeting U.S. Border Patrol agents from vantage points across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Within the past week, agents assigned to the Douglas station in Arizona's southeastern corner � one of the nation's busiest illegal-entry points � have been fired at on at least six occasions, according to federal authorities, and although none of the officers was injured, several reported near-misses...

The rise in assaults comes as the Bush administration reportedly has decided not to hire the 2,000 new Border Patrol agents that were authorized for each of the next five years in the recently passed intelligence-overhaul bill. Most of them would have been assigned to the Tucson sector.

Instead, President Bush is expected to seek an increase of only about 200 agents for the new fiscal year, according to law-enforcement authorities and others...

In a letter, Mr. Sensenbrenner asked Mr. Bush to fully fund the authorized increases. The letter was signed by all five House Republican leaders on the intelligence bill: Mr. Sensenbrenner and Reps. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, chairman of the House International Relations Committee; Duncan Hunter of California, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee; Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, chairman of the House intelligence committee; and David Dreier of California, chairman of the House Rules Committee...

Posted to Immigration2005a at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)

SOTU Open Thread

"COMPASSION" COUNT SO FAR: 2

The "spending appetite of the federal government???" Apparently nothing is his fault.

"willing workers" "jobs Americans will not take" "rejects amnesty" what a load of BS

He keeps regurgitating these same AILA slogans again and again and they were lies each time.

For more on Bush's guest worker plan, see The Big Show on the Border.

"unprecedented actions to protect Americans... improve border security..." Meanwhile, back in the real world, 3 million illegal aliens will sneak across the border this year. How many could be terrorists?

"the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in the world" Holy Moses! The DHS can't even get their bureaucracy running smoothly and he wants the whole world to join hands and sing? Let the backpeddling begin with he.

I hate to be cheap, but: he pronounces Arabic about as well as he does Spanish. And, English.

Well, that's over.

GahpBlawgers: There's Condi and Rummy!

Harry Reid is from Searchlight? I think I've bought gas there! Or, at least I've seen the signs.

Nanci's showing some leg. Oh yeah.

Unlike Harry, Nanci is one of those scary liberals. Harry is a nice liberal, like that pharmacist in It's a Wonderful Life.

Now, Nanci is telling us something that flies in the face of the results of the recent election. Now, Nanci is making some sense about rebuilding and diplomacy. There should have been a WPA in Iraq right from the start, which would have greatly reduced the numbers available for the insurgency.

What exactly are the Dems doing about the gaps in our security? Oh yeah, trying to help illegal aliens - perhaps including terrorists - get driver's licenses.

I'm looking around for other bloggers commenting about this, but all I have is this Instapundit post. The only list-of-live-bloggers link provided is to KoolAidCentral. I'm trying to think up a Soviet reference...

This one is not from Lorie Byrd, just close:

Stunned

As all my readers know, I am a great admirer of President Bush. However in the last year, he has grown immensely as a President. Like other great Presidents, especially those who have governed the nation during times of war, President Bush has learned and become an even more effective leader.

Tonight was simply stunning. It was the latest peak in a climb that began at the President�s acceptance speech at the Republican Convention. Essentially the President has found a message as well as a mission. That message is freedom.

The President was simply superb in his presentation of social security. He framed the issue in simple terms that every American can understand. I have little doubt that public opinion polling will show a huge spike in support for the President�s already popular plan...

Meanwhile, over in reverse KooKoo land:

"First he kills that woman's son for oil, then exploits her pain on live TV":

Is that woman stupid or what?

Posted to Politics at 03:44 PM | Comments (3)

Colorado unplugs online guide for illegal immigrants

DENVER � Colorado Gov. Bill Owens has removed an online pamphlet from the state Web site that offered advice in Spanish to illegal immigrants on living and working in Colorado.

Titled "�Ent�rese!" which means "Inform Yourself," the 50-page pamphlet was posted on the Colorado Department of Education Web site until Monday, when the governor's office had it removed after criticism from advocates for tighter borders.

The 2003 guide, which included a welcome message from Mr. Owens and the Mexican consul general, was intended to offer advice to legal immigrants, said Mr. Owens' spokesman, Sean Duffy...

The guide was copyrighted by two Colorado organizations, Salud Family Health Centers and Focus Points Family Resources Center. Neither organization could be reached for comment. The credits page also lists the Mexican consulate-general of Denver.

The guide, which was "made possible" by the First Data Western Union Foundation, also offers advice on how to send money back to Mexico by electronic transfer by using companies "such as Western Union." A sample budget for "Jose and Ana Maria" budgets $200 per month to "family in Mexico."

[...seven examples of the guide trying to help illegal aliens get services like health care, education, etc...]

Let me briefly compose myself here.

The VDare article on this is here.

For more on First Data/Western Union, see "The Fastest Way To [profit from illegal immigration]".

UPDATE: Thinking about this some more, one wonders if some laws have been broken. And, one wonders if they've been broken in such a way that charges could be made to stick and an enterprising DA would be willing to bring them.

For instance, should non-profit organizations be working with a foreign government? Should those non-profits and foundations be providing information that can be used to break our laws? Would they need to explicitly harbor or assist a specific illegal alien, or is providing information enough?

And, what of the Western Union Foundation's non-profit foundation status? Have they crossed the line by inserting what seems to be an ad for the corporation which presumably founded them?

Would, for instance, the Ford Foundation underwrite a driving pamphlet for the Third World in which all the cars were Fords? Wouldn't other car makers try to get the Ford Foundation stripped of their non-profit status or force them to pay a fine?

If anyone knows a lawyer who's familiar with foundation or non-profit laws, please ask them.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

King/Drew Stripped of Accredited Standing

LAT article here or here.

Posted to Los_Angeles at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

Welcome open borders apologists!

Dear open borders apologists:

Could you please go read "What is it about Mexicans?" by Salvador Reza of the "Tonatierra human rights group" and then come back here so I can ask you some questions?

....

Welcome back!

I'm not going to concentrate on the race-baiting, the lies, or the false attributions of hatred to those who simply seek to reduce illegal immigration.

No, I'd just like to ask if you think the ideas expressed in that article fly in the face of your continual statements that today's massive wave of immigration is just like prior waves.

Can you imagine an Italian or other prior immigrant writing this?

Maybe being Mexican is the realization that we have been part of this land way before Hernan Cortes trampled "Americas" sacred lands. The realization that we have traversed the imaginary border thousands of years before some lunatic thought of borders.

Being Mexican is to know consciously or unconsciously that we will never be "Anglos," yet, we will be willing to share our lands with the Euro-American, learn his language, and communicate with him. It is knowing there are certain cultural traits that we will never change to please the newly arrived European pilgrims...

With laws some will continue to try to carve us into their own image or eject us beyond the dividing imaginary line...

Can you imagine an Italian or prior immigrant assuming that the U.S. border is just an "imaginary line"?

Posted to Immigration2005a at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

Live blogging the SOTU

Watch this blog tomorrow, where our team will be live blogging not just the SOTU but the reaction to it, such as that provided by the newest loony blog thinkprogress.org, which by the looks of it, is a real piece of work. We will be offering coverage of other blog's coverage of the speech and leaving comments at those places.

Our team also predicts that the SOTU will contain the following words and phrases:

"compassion" (sprinkled 20 times throughout the speech)

"kind-hearted"

"the jobs Americans won't do"

"regularization"

Posted to Politics at 12:26 AM | Comments (0)

"Infighting Cited at Homeland Security"

WaPo offers this three-screen article:

As its leadership changes for the first time, the Department of Homeland Security remains hampered by personality conflicts, bureaucratic bottlenecks and an atmosphere of demoralization, undermining its ability to protect the nation against terrorist attack, according to current and former administration officials and independent experts...

[...list of problems...]

...The department's investigative arm, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has operated under severe financial crisis for more than a year -- to the point that use of agency vehicles and photocopying were at times banned. The problem stems from funding disputes with other DHS agencies...

[...getting the bureaucracy humming smoothly...]

"It's very thinly staffed at the top of DHS, and there's no policy vision . . . thinking through the main threats," Stodder said. In the absence of such strategic thinking, he added, "DHS practices management by inbox, getting distracted by daily emergencies" such as a congressman's complaint about a late-arriving passport...

[...bureaucratic infighting... ...Asa Hutchinson was a "consensus-builder who had difficulty demanding an end to the turf fights"...]

Maybe there's more in the print version. If not, Drudge really oversold this article.

See also "Red Alert", which covered the same ground a few months back.

Posted to Immigration2005a at 12:23 AM | Comments (1)

NC: "We Must Stop Issuing Driver's Licenses to Illegal Aliens"

From Rep. Virginia Foxx [R-NC]:

We have a serious problem here in North Carolina � a problem that can have serious ramifications on our national security.

According to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, we live in one of 10 states that permits anyone to receive state issued driver�s licenses or identification cards without providing proof of their legal status...

...This is precisely one of the reasons why I joined House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) last week as an original co-sponsor of H.R. 418, also known as the �Real I.D. Act.� This legislation would require that federal agencies only accept driver�s licenses and state issued identification cards from states that prove the legal status of applicants. The bill will also require states to review the legality of existing license holders upon renewal or replacement.

Don�t get me wrong. I am one of the strongest advocates of state rights that you will find. However, if a state acts irresponsibly and places the national security of the rest of the country at risk, then Congress must get involved...

Posted to Immigration_dls at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)

"Akron gives fingerprint meal system high grade"

From this:

A controversial cafeteria system that identifies Akron Public School students from their fingerprints has proved beneficial for the district, school leaders say.

More middle-school students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches now are taking advantage of them. That helps both the students and the district.

``What we've accomplished is taking that stigma away,'' Debra Foulk, coordinator of the Akron schools' Child Nutrition Services, said last week.

The high-tech system, dubbed iMeal, is being used in every Akron middle school [and three high schools...]

Further on, we learn they spent $700,000 on this system. Students can use a PIN instead, but only 4% have chosen that option. To add a capper, the more free lunches the school gives away, the greater their chance of receiving federal money.

And, we're told that the original prints are discarded, and only a "template" of "binary numbers" is kept. Even middle schoolers could see through that, but neither that reporter or the AP reporter of the next report did. If that "template" is detailed enough to distinguish between students, it's basically an electronic fingerprint. It might not be as detailed as a very high resolution scan of a fingerprint, but it's still an electronic fingerprint. Ergo, a print found at a crime scene at the school could be "templatized" just like the original prints of the students in order to find the perpetrator or at least narrow the search. And, a rough fingerprint could no doubt be recreated from the "template." Sell it to someone else.

The AP report on this is here. They go the extra inch and get this quote:

"Fingerprinting is for felons, not for 5-year-olds," said Christine Link, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. "We're setting up for children that surrendering your fingerprints or other parts of your identity for school lunches is a good idea."

Suspiciously, many of these privacy related stories involve children: retinal scans or fingerprints to get lunches or ride the bus and so on and so forth. Could this be part of a broad plan to get our citizens of tomorrow used to reduced personal liberty?

Posted to Privacy at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)

'N.Y. Times' Offers Correction on Maggie Gallagher Editorial

NEW YORK In a prominent move, The New York Times offered a correction on its editorial page today regarding a previous editorial concerning columnist Maggie Gallagher. She had sent the newspaper an e-mail, E&P has learned, charging "reckless disregard of the truth."

The correction is the last item here:

An editorial last Thursday incompletely described the contract between the Health and Human Services Department and the conservative columnist Maggie Gallagher. The department paid Ms. Gallagher $21,500 as a consultant on marriage policies, including for help in drafting an essay that was published under the name of an assistant secretary. Ms. Gallagher said the contract did not include promoting the administration's policies in her columns. (Go to Article)

She's really taking it to 'em.

See also the transcript of her appearance on the NewsHour.

On the downside, see 'Wash Post' Disputes Gallagher Claim of Retraction.

Posted to Politics at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)

14 `enduring bases' set in Iraq

Chicago Tribune, March 23, 2004:

From the ashes of abandoned Iraqi army bases, U.S. military engineers are overseeing the building of an enhanced system of American bases designed to last for years... Now U.S. engineers are focusing on constructing 14 "enduring bases," long-term encampments for the thousands of American troops expected to serve in Iraq for at least two years. The bases also would be key outposts for Bush administration policy advisers...

Posted to Iraq at 07:54 PM | Comments (0)

I keep these in my wallet just in case something happens

The ACLU to handle constitutional matters, Gloria Allred to lead the defense and interface with the media, Luke Ford to get the truth out, and the Evolving Consciousness Newsletter to provide solace.

Posted to WackyHumor at 05:44 PM | Comments (0)

Lonewacko issues clarification; admits mistakes might have been made

"On January 13, 2005, The Lonewacko Blog posted the entry "Hey, yahoo!" about a Romanian child named "Yahoo" because his parents met over the Internet.

It has now come to our attention that this might have been a hoax.

We regret not applying the usual standards of journalistic excellence that our readers expect.

Mistakes might have been made, and we deeply regret any confusion this might have caused."

Posted to WackyHumor at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)

Most disturbing search terms ever

And that's saying something. Here it is:

hal fishman, ktla news, divorced?

I'm sure even Hal has "fans" who'd like to get a "ride" in his plane. I just don't want to know about it.

Posted to Bloggage at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

"Los Angeles Police to Check Immigration Status of Convicts"

As previously blogged, L.A. County sheriff's deputies will be trained to ask about the immigration status of inmates and contact the feds when necessary.

This report discusses it and has some interesting quotes:

Over protests from immigrant rights groups, Los Angeles County sheriff's personnel will be trained by federal authorities to conduct jailhouse interviews to report on convicted inmates' immigration status.

The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 last week to approve the proposal, which Sheriff Leroy Baca had been attempting for several weeks to put on the Supervisor�s agenda...

[Dissenting L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke] said she heard the impetus behind the agreement was a desire by federal officials to collect data on every foreign-born inmate � guilty or innocent � before a court could release them.

Sheriff Baca�s representative, Chuck Jackson, did not confirm what Burke heard, nor did he have an answer when Burke asked him, �What if (foreign-born inmates) don't want to answer questions?"

...�We believe this is a first step in the wrong direction because we think it will lead to a further blurring of the line between local law enforcement and the federal immigration authority,� said CHIRLA's Alvaro Huerta...

Earlier this week, Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) said that his group would urge Latinos not to cooperate with sheriffs or to support any tax increase to pay for the hiring of more police officers if the proposal was approved.

�We will launch a broad intensive campaign in the Latino community to not cooperate with the local police under any circumstances � to report crime, come forward as witnesses, provide information, attend police-community events � if this proposed MOU is approved by the L.A. County Supervisors,� said Lopez...

For the scoop on CHIRLA, see "Los Angeles is the Ellis Island of the West Co